The Commentariat -- June 11, 2016

Presidential Race

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "With his presidential campaign probably nearing its end, Sen. Bernie Sanders plans to get together Sunday night in his hometown of Burlington, Vt., with a couple of dozen of his closest supporters, an aide said Friday. 'He’s bringing in some of his key supporters from around the country to get their input and advice and talk about how to move forward,' said Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs.... Sanders returned to Burlington on Thursday night after his rally in the District. It remains unclear whether he will hold any more campaign events before the polls open Tuesday in the nation’s capital." -- CW 

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton assailed Donald J. Trump on Friday ... at a Planned Parenthood Action Fund event in Washington[, D.C.] ... as untrustworthy on women’s issues, sharpening her tone against him in her first major speech since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee." -- CW

Digby, in Salon: While Hillary Clinton has a "deep bench" of popular, well-known surrogates -- President Obama, Vice President Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, (probably) Sen. Bernie Sanders, and of course her husband Bill -- to campaign for her, Donald Trump has bupkis.

... CW: As if to make her point, shortly after Digby's column appeared, Trump told a crowd in Richmond, Virginia, that he would get sports stars like Bobby Knight & Tom Brady to speak at the GOP convention instead of boring politicians. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "He said he wanted to have them all address the convention ... as examples of 'winners,' rather than 'these people, these politicians who are going to get up and speak and speak and speak.'” CW: So it's going to be less of a political convention & more of a sporting event or festival. Or maybe a Festivus, with Trump dropping in between "feats of strength" by wrestlers & ex-football stars to "air his grievances" about all "the blacks," "Mexicans,"  "Indians," Muslims & of course "Crooked Hillary" who have done him wrong. But, as Trump would say, believe me, the Trumptivus Maximus pole will be a huuuge 24K-gold-plated, jewel-encrusted "miracle."

Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump tried out several lines of attack against Hillary Clinton, at one point calling her 'unfit to be president,' as he delivered an otherwise noticeably restrained speech to an audience of evangelical activists [in Washington, D.C.,] Friday.... Mr. Trump again stuck mainly to a script, reading from teleprompter screens. But he still ad-libbed in his characteristically clipped syntax." CW: Wonder if his speechwriter included any more quotes from Two Corinthians.

Well, I am not a racist, in fact, I am the least racist person that you’ve ever encountered. -- Donald Trump

... When WashPo reporter Marc Fisher told Trump that his cabbie was concerned that Trump was a racist, Trump asked, right after he said he was the least racist you've ever encountered, "I’m not concerned because I don’t think people believe it. And it’s just something that — who was this taxicab, was he African American?” He goes on to make up a story that Bill Clinton "was called a racist by Obama, and very loudly and very strongly," and "to this day, Clinton, he is haunted by that." CW: Yup. Trump is the least racist person ever.

Matea Gold, et al., of the Washington Post: "The furor over Trump’s assaults on the impartiality of a Latino judge had just begun to subside when he lobbed two tweets Friday morning responding to [Elizabeth] Warren, who had lambasted him as a 'thin-skinned, racist bully' in a speech the previous evening. 'Pocahontas is at it again!' Trump wrote in one.... Trump began going after Warren’s claimed ancestry earlier this year, responding to the senator’s repeated slams of him as a 'loser' and a bully. 'Who’s that, the Indian?' he said at a March news conference when asked about Warren. 'You mean the Indian?'... 'He needs to quit using language like that,' said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a member of the Chickasaw tribe.... 'It’s pejorative, and ... this is not something that should, in my opinion, ever enter the conversation. . . . It’s neither appropriate personally toward her, and frankly, it offends a much larger group of people.'” -- CW

Betsy Martin, et al., of Bloomberg: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that Donald Trump needs to pick an experienced running mate because 'he doesn't know a lot about the issues' and strongly urged him to change course on his rhetoric.... 'I object to a whole series of things that he's said — vehemently object to them. I think all of that needs to stop. Both the shots at people he defeated in the primary and these attacks on various ethnic groups in the country.' McConnell, perhaps the most careful and strategic politician in Washington, rarely goes off script himself, and has been sending Trump the same message for weeks in hopes he'll pivot to the general election.... He wouldn't rule out rescinding his support of Trump." -- CW 

Philip Rucker & Dan Balz of the Washington Post: At a summit in Park City, Utah, hosted by Mitt Romney, "House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) faced tough questioning ... Friday for his decision to endorse Donald Trump, and he tried to explain to an audience [of GOP poobahs] hostile to the New York mogul the factors that led him to back" Trump. -- CW  ...

I don't want to see a president of the United States saying things which change the character of the generations of Americans that are following. Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nation, and trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry, trickle-down misogyny, all these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America. -- Mitt Romney, Friday ...

... Theodore Schleifer of CNN: "Mitt Romney suggested Friday that Donald Trump's election could legitimize racism and misogyny, ushering in a change in the moral fabric of American society." -- CW ...

... AND Steve Benen: Marco Rubio still stands by his campaign-era charge that "Donald Trump shouldn’t be given access to nuclear codes because he lacked the necessary judgment and temperament." But Marco is supporting Trump anyway. "Here’s a sitting U.S. senator, who claims an expertise on matters of foreign policy and national security, who has insisted, repeatedly and publicly, that his party’s presidential candidate simply cannot be trusted to be responsible with the planet’s most dangerous weapons.... Marco Rubio doesn’t believe Donald Trump should be president. Marco Rubio also believes Donald Trump should be president." -- CW 

Jonathan Chait: "... since Donald Trump became his party’s presumptive nominee..., [it has become] clear that Trump has absolutely no idea how to run a presidential campaign and lacks the most rudimentary grasp of its basic elements, like having a reasonably sized staff, adequate funds, and knowledge of which states to campaign in.... A Trump victory is plausible only in the case of a gigantic external shock that overwhelms his incompetence: the onset of a recession, perhaps, or an indictment of Hillary Clinton. On the other hand — and it is a big other hand, with long fingers — we have learned that if those or other nightmares do transpire and Trump prevails, his presidency would be far more dangerous than seemed imaginable not long ago." -- CW 

Other News & Views

Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "Gawker Media, under pressure from a $140 million legal judgment and facing a determined foe in the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is putting itself up for sale." -- CW 

Krissah Thompson of the Washington Post: President Obama "did not speak at Malia Obama’s commencement ceremony [at Sidwell Friends School], which he and the first lady attended, along with family and friends of other graduates of the private school in Northwest Washington." -- CW 

Ezra Klein: "Want to know how Republicans ended up with Donald Trump?... Sen. David Perdue [R-Ga.] ... encouraged [his] audience to [pray] for Obama.... 'Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places....'... Comments like Perdue’s are the context in which Trump ran." CW: The Senate should censure Perdue. But it won't. ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: Perdue led the prayer at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority meeting in Washington, D.C. "... this verse — sometimes labeled 'the Obama Prayer' — has been circulating for years among conservatives.... In a statement, Perdue’s office clarified, 'He in no way wishes harm to our president and everyone in the room understood that,' and accused the media of 'pushing a narrative to create controversy.'” CW: Yup, Goober, it's the media's fault you led a prayer for the assassination of the President of the United States in front of a group of politically-active fundamentalist Christians. As to "everyone" "understanding" your meaning -- really? How the hell do you know what a bunch of people you've never met "understand"?

Beyond the Beltway

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Michael G. Hubbard, the speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives ... was convicted Friday on 12 felony ethics charges, leaving him stripped of power and facing the possibility of decades in prison.... Although jurors acquitted Mr. Hubbard on 11 counts, his conviction on the remaining dozen charges prompted his removal as the leader of the House. Mr. Hubbard, who was convicted of improperly soliciting benefits from lobbyists and voting in favor of a measure that helped a company for which he consulted, faces up to 20 years in prison on each count.... His conviction and automatic ouster immediately increased the political turmoil that had shadowed Alabama for months.... The chief justice of the State Supreme Court, Roy S. Moore, could be removed from office this year because of his efforts to resist same-sex marriage, and [Gov. Robert] Bentley is a subject of impeachment proceedings over an improper relationship with an aide, as well as federal and state inquiries." -- CW  ...

... The al.com story, by Mike Cason, is here. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for suggesting the musical accompaniment:

The Commentariat -- June 10, 2016

Presidential Race

Paul Krugman: "... the G.O.P. was able to serve the interests of the 1 percent by posing as the defender of the 80 percent -- for that was the white share of the electorate when Ronald Reagan was elected. But demographic change ... has brought the non-Hispanic white share of the electorate down to 62 percent and falling. Republicans need to broaden their base; but the base wants candidates who will defend the old racial order. Hence Trumpism.... [Donald Trump] represents little more than the rage of white men over a changing nation. And he'll be facing a woman -- yes, gender is another important dimension in this story -- who owes her nomination to the very groups his base hates and fears." -- CW

Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg: "In a few weeks, at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, [President Obama] will symbolically hand over leadership of the party [to Hillary Clinton].... This transition is structured, anticipated, consistent, orderly and boring. Which is one way of saying that the Democratic Party is a coherent, well-functioning political institution that bears little resemblance to the cascading disasters that define the Republican Party and yielded Donald Trump as its likely presidential nominee." CW: Wait, wait. You're wrecking the "Democratic party in disarray" conventional storyline.

The Party Steps on Bernie's Last Hurrah. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Making a last stand as a Democratic presidential candidate, the senator from Vermont was set to meet with President Obama and other leading Democrats and stage a show of his continuing ability to draw throngs of supporters at an outdoor rally near RFK Stadium. Only all that was eclipsed -- much like his upstart presidential campaign itself -- by Hillary Clinton and the muscle of the Democratic establishment. Shortly after Sanders emerged from his meeting with Obama, word got out that the president was going to trumpet an endorsement of his former secretary of state in a video. And then it became clear that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a darling of the political left and Sanders's ideological soulmate, had also chosen Thursday to throw her support behind Clinton." CW: Stupid move, people. Whoever orchestrated this (Hillary Clinton/Debbie Wasserman Schultz) is one nasty piece of work. ...

... Annie Karni of Politico: "Hillary Clinton on Thursday said she has no doubt that Sen. Elizabeth Warren would be qualified to serve as her vice president -- but she refused to say the same of Bernie Sanders." CW: Hmmm, I guess Clinton didn't listen to her good friend Ed Rendell, who said the other day that Clinton would never choose Warren because Warren is "not in any way, shape, or form ready to be commander-in-chief."

... Carrie Dann of NBC News: "Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren ..., a hero to liberal progressives ideologically aligned with Bernie Sanders' anti-Wall Street rhetoric, endorsed ... Hillary Clinton Thursday night on MSNBC's the Rachel Maddow Show." Includes video. -- CW ...

... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama on Thursday formally endorsed Hillary Clinton and called her the most qualified candidate to seek the White House, imploring Democrats to come together to elect her after a bruising party primary." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)

Everett Rosenfeld of CNBC: "President Barack Obama officially endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president on Thursday, saying he is 'fired up' for the presumptive Democratic candidate. In a prerecorded video released Thursday, Obama latched onto the Clinton campaign's slogan, letting his supporters know that 'I'm with her,' and pledging to campaign for the presumptive nominee. The president's endorsement comes eight years and two days after Clinton did the same for him." -- Akhilleus (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

I didn't hear a single word about him trying to change the fact that she's the nominee. I think he's accepted that. -- Harry Reid, on Bernie Sanders, after a meeting yesterday

Bernie is not worn down. He's not bitter. He's not angry. He wants to make sure that issues he's pushed for have vitality. -- Chuck Schumer, after meeting with Sanders yesterday

I remember when he first left. It was kind of everybody with a real smile and put their arm around him and said, "Good luck, Bernie." And then we watched as he put together an incredible campaign, not just in the fundraising but in the way that he lit up so many Democrats and even independents who came to his side. He became a force, a political force, and a positive one as far as I'm concerned. I think our party can learn from his candidacy and I think we're going to count on him to bring us across the finish line with a victory in November. -- Dick Durbin, yesterday

Compare these Senators' remarks with Hillary Clinton's performance yesterday. Clinton walked all over Sanders. The Senators made positive remarks. At the very least, Clinton is tone-deaf. But I think it's more that she's a mean girl. She enjoys kicking people when they're down, & she can't helping doing so, even when it's an impolitic thing to do. There's a difference between being forceful and being a bully. -- Constant Weader

The Bern Cools Down? Clare Foran in The Atlantic: "Bernie Sanders isn't ready to back down yet -- but the end of his campaign is in sight. Speaking outside of the White House on Thursday after meeting with President Obama, Sanders confirmed he would compete in Washington, D.C.'s Democratic primary next week. But he signaled a willingness to work with Hillary Clinton to ensure that Democrats win the White House. 'I look forward to meeting with her in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and create a government, which represents all of us and not just the one percent,' Sanders said." -- Akhilleus (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Dave Weigel & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Vice President Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) delivered a one-two punch Thursday to Donald Trump in speeches that signaled the increasingly coordinated effort by Democrats to push the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and his restive GOP allies on Capitol Hill." -- CW ...

... CW: One reason Clinton might want to choose Warren as her running mate: Warren pulls no punches in attacking Trump, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, et al. She's damned good at it, too:

Joshua Green & Tim Higgins of Bloomberg: "According to Kantar Media, Clinton and Sanders aired 206,528 spots between them this year — and not one was deemed 'negative' by the analysts in Kantar's Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG). 'In an open presidential primary, this is probably unprecedented,' says Elizabeth Wilner, senior vice president for political advertising at Kantar.... Donald Trump ... faced roughly $62 million in attack ads during the primaries. Most of the spots were aired by fellow Republicans." CW: Which is unfaaair.

From the Facebook page of an old friend:

Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said "that she has not ruled out supporting Clinton. 'I worked very well with Hillary when she was my colleague in the Senate and when she was Secretary of State,' Collins said. 'But I do not anticipate voting for her this fall. I'm not going to say never, because this has been such an unpredictable situation, to say the least.'" -- CW

** Donald the Deadbeat. Steve Reilly of USA Today: "Donald Trump often portrays himself as a savior of the working class who will 'protect your job.' But a USA Today Network analysis found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades -- and a large number of those involve ordinary Americans ... who say Trump or his companies have refused to pay them. At least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings ... document people who have accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their work. Among them: a dishwasher in Florida. A glass company in New Jersey. A carpet company. A plumber. Painters. Forty-eight waiters. Dozens of bartenders and other hourly workers at his resorts and clubs.... Real estate brokers who sold his properties. And, ironically, several law firms that once represented him in these suits and others. Trump's companies have also been cited for 24 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act since 2005 for failing to pay overtime or minimum wage.... In addition to the lawsuits, the review found more than 200 mechanic's liens -- filed by contractors and employees against Trump, his companies or his properties...." -- CW

CW: The Washington Post editors demand Donald Trump release his tax returns, which he has refused to do, relying on "nothing but flimsy excuses." Expect a steady drumbeat of such demands. As the Post editors, suggest Trump has something to hide. So I'm wondering if Trump will eventually fill the need to answer his critics by releasing fake tax returns -- showing him to have a huuuge income, to have made huuuge tax payments & to have given huuuge amounts to charity -- just as he wrote a fake doctor's report. And if his reports are fake, who would out him? Not the IRS.

With friends like these. Nick Gass of Politico: "Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke defended Donald Trump on his radio show earlier this week from criticism of his comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel, blaming 'the Jews' in the media for propagating a long-running negative agenda against the presumptive Republican nominee. The white supremacist radio host dropped the names of Fox News' Chris Wallace, along with Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer on CNN, who Duke said he had 'exposed ... as a Jewish agent.' Jeff Zucker, the current president of CNN Worldwide, is 'another Jewish extremist,' he remarked. 'And more recently, Fox News, the shabbat goy shiksa Megyn Kelly, 'cause they love to have some gentiles doing it.'" --safari ...

...Sasha Abramsky of The Nation: "For days now, prominent Republican Party figures have been trying to work out how to respond to Trump's racially toxic denunciations of federal judge Gonzalo Curiel.... Trump,Gingrich told CNN yesterday in response to the uproar, was a 'gifted amateur' who was learning the ropes as a candidate for the most powerful job on earth incredibly quickly...Let's call that out for the cretinous gibberish it so obviously is.... How much more of this 'amateur' verbal knife play will it take before Newt Gingrich and Trump's other GOP apologists realize that they are supporting not a well-meaning amateur but a very professional, and very dangerous, shit-smearer?" --safari

Jim Newell of Slate: "Plenty of people have vaguely surmised that Donald Trump's nomination marks the end of the Republican Party as we knew it. But what is even the mechanism for that? Is there some sort of vehicle through which the death of one of America's two major parties is processed? Of course there is: bankruptcy.... Profound financial mistakes are going to be made with the money Trump is able to siphon from wealthy GOP donors. And that's most likely how the GOP goes out of business." --safari...

...safari note: Trump has perfected the art of ripping off the little man, but it hadn't occurred to me that now he's positioned himself to sucker in the GOP big rollers to blow their own ill-gotten gains on his ego trips, too. World's greatest conman?

Tim Egan: "Trump lies about big things (there is no drought in California) and small things (his hair spray could not affect the ozone layer because it's sealed within Trump Tower). He lies about himself, and the fake self he invented to talk about himself. He's been shown to lie more than 70 times in a single event. Given the scale of Trump's mendacity and the stakes for the free world, it's time that we go into the fall debates with a new rule -- an instant fact-check on statements made by the candidates onstage.... It's up to the debate commission, as they set the rules for the fall, to ensure that truth has a place on the stage." ...

     ... CW: This is a good idea. When the candidates haggle about the terms of the debate, Clinton should insist upon it. I would, however, definitely recommend the use of a buzzer each time the factcheckers catch a candidate in a lie.

Greg Grandin of The Nation: "Is Donald Trump a fascist? It's an interesting question that has generated insightful commentary over the past few months, with the best answers situating Trumpian illiberalism within America's long history of racial oppression, slavery, Jim Crow apartheid, and the ongoing backlash to the loss of white privilege. But a key concept is missing from this discussion: empire." --safari note: I'm not entirely convinced, but it's a thought I haven't seen brought up yet...

...Jonathan Chait: "Donald Trump has attained his wild popularity among Republicans by tapping into their pervasive feeling of racial victimization. The right-wing view of Obama as a crafty manipulator of racial tension comes through in Ben Shapiro's column in National Review. While rejecting Donald Trump's argument that only white men are fit to judge his fraud trial, Shapiro insists that Trump is merely recapitulating Obama's sin of 'tribalism.'... That the first black president could proclaim over and over that his country can (and has, and will continue to) progress toward racial harmony, and yet be portrayed in the elite conservative media as a hectoring prophet of racial doom, tells you everything you need to know about why Trumpism has prevailed." --safari

Blast to the Trump Past. Max Rosenthal of Mother Jones: "Believe Donald Trump, folks: There is an anti-asbestos conspiracy. In his 1997 book, The Art of the Comeback, Trump warned America not to buy the crusade against 'the greatest fire-proofing material ever used.' He claimed the movement to remove asbestos -- a known carcinogen -- was actually the handiwork of the mafia.... Polish construction workers who worked on the construction of Trump Tower sued Trump, with some telling the New York Times that 'they often worked in choking clouds of asbestos dust without protective equipment.' The contracting company used by Trump hired the Poles -- undocumented immigrants were working off the books -- at only $4- to $5-an-hour..." --safari

What about the kids? Rory Carroll of the Guardian: "Tracey Iglehart, a teacher at Rosa Parks elementary school in Berkeley, California, did not expect Donald Trump to show up on the playground.... That has not stopped some children from channeling and adopting ... [Trump]'s xenophobic rhetoric in playground spats and classroom exchanges. 'They said things like "you'll get deported", "you weren't born here" and "you were born in a Taco Bell",' said Iglehart, 49. 'They may not know exactly what it means, but they know it's powerful language.'" --safari

Other News & Views

Derek Thompson of The Atlantic: "A new report from the Congressional Budget Office on household income since 1979 reaches two stark and significant conclusions. Inequality is growing. But so are government efforts to combat it -- and they're working. First, the bad news. The distribution of income in the United States has been more unequal under Obama's presidency than any time since the 1930s, according to the Gini Index, a conventional measure of the inequality.... The upshot is that the federal government is doing more to correct inequality right now than at any time in the last 35 years. The five years when tax and transfer policies took the biggest bite out of inequality were the first five years of Obama's presidency." --safari ...

... safari note: Great news for just about everybody, except for old, xenophobic white males that want to "take their America back(wards)".

Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "In a plea deal with prosecutors, Rear Adm. Robert Gilbeau ... pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony charge of lying to federal investigators in the wide-ranging 'Fat Leonard' corruption scandal, marking an exceptionally rare instance of a flag officer being criminally prosecuted for actions while in uniform." -- CW

Sanity at Last. Tal Kopan of CNN: "A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that there is no Second Amendment protection for concealed weapons -- allowing states to prohibit or restrict the public from carrying concealed firearms. The en banc opinion by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could set up a new showdown on gun rights at the Supreme Court. At issue was California's law on concealed weapons, which requires citizens to prove they have 'good cause' to carry concealed firearms to get a license. Plaintiffs challenged guidelines in San Diego and Yolo counties that did not consider general self-defense to be enough to obtain a license." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Akhilleus: Finally a court of law decides that Second Amendment rights are not absolute and unconditional. The loons will be out in force after this ruling. Foxbots are oiling their vocal cords for days and nights of incessant caterwauling. Don't overlook the fact that this ruling was delivered en banc. Had Scalia still been around that probably wouldn't have mattered much, since everyone needs a gun on their hip, but the current court makeup could make it less likely that this ruling would be overturned. NRA sociopaths must be swinging from the chandeliers. The ones made out of Colt .45s.

New York Times Editors: "The Republicans' blockade of Judge [Merrick] Garland is shameful, but it is only the most glaring example of what has been a historic slowdown in filling federal court vacancies across the country. This has been enormously damaging to the district courts, which deal with hundreds of thousands of cases annually, and where backlogs drag out lawsuits and delay justice. It also harms the appeals courts, whose rulings are the final word in nearly all litigation, since the Supreme Court hears only about 75 cases a year.... This disgraceful and destructive behavior extends well beyond the judiciary. The current Senate has approved the fewest civilian nominees by a president in 30 years, according to an analysis by the Congressional Research Service. One nominee [-- Cassandra Butts --] for an ambassadorship died recently after waiting more than two years for a confirmation vote that never came." -- CW

Sarah Burris of RawStory: "The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires all persons flying a small unmanned aircraft register their craft before flying it. But now one student is challenging that requirement after the FAA came after him for two drones he created -- one that shoots a gun as it flies and one that has a flamethrower attached to it." --safari

Shell-Shocked. Robert Worth of the New York Times: Pilot studies suggest that PTSD may be more physiological than psychological. "Much of what has passed for emotional trauma may be reinterpreted, and many veterans may step forward to demand recognition of an injury that cannot be definitively diagnosed until after death." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Sarah Burris: "A small bomb detonated in a women's bathroom at a Target store in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, Wednesday afternoon. Officials are not yet sure if the bomb was related to the right-wing wrath the company has endured as a result of their bathroom policy, but investigators are looking into it." --safari

Alejandro Davila Fragoso of Think Progress: "The Bay Area has long been a bastion of environmental action, but this week locals outdid themselves when they approved an unprecedented, first-of-its kind tax to remove pollution from their bay and create habitats to fight sea level rise." --safari

Joanna Walters, et al., of the Guardian: "The judge in the Stanford sexual assault case allowed defendants accused of gang-raping a 17-year-old high school student to show the jury photographs of her wearing a revealing outfit when he presided over another controversial case involving college athletes. Judge Aaron Persky, who is under fire for his lenient sentencing of Brock Turner, a former Stanford swimmer convicted of sexual assault, made several controversial rulings in a 2011 civil trial stemming from the alleged gang rape by members of the baseball team at De Anza Community College in Cupertino, California." -- CW ...

... Tom Namako of BuzzFeed: "Vice President Joe Biden penned an open letter to the Stanford sexual assault survivor who read a powerful message to her assailant in court detailing the effects of his actions on her." The article includes the full text of the Vice President's letter. ...

... Nicole Auerbach of USA Today: "Former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner ... is not and will not be eligible to compete at any USA Swimming-sanctioned events (which includes Olympic Trials), USA Swimming confirmed Monday afternoon." -- CW

... Elizabeth Dwoskin & Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "... in Palo Alto, the impact is visceral. Inboxes and social media are full of links to petitions: People demanding better support from the university for sexual assault victims, calling on Stanford officials to apologize and pay for the victim's therapy, and asking the judge in the case to step down. A protest is planned for Sunday at an annual commencement event. 'Everyone on campus is talking about it,' said Dulcie Davies, a graduating sorority member who plays field hockey. 'Everyone is sharing everything on Facebook.'" -- CW

Way Beyond

Patrick Wintour & Chris Stephen of the Guardian: "Libyan forces claim to have reached the centre of the coastal city of Sirte, Islamic State's key stronghold, meaning the jihadi group may have lost all territorial control in the country. The speed of the apparent rout of Isis after three weeks of heavy fighting is extraordinary given US intelligence was suggesting only two months ago that the group had 6,000 fighters in the city and was starting to pose a threat to neighbouring Tunisia." --safari

News Lede

New York Times: "Gordie Howe, one of the greatest and most durable players in the history of hockey, who powered his Detroit Red Wings teams to four Stanley Cup championships and was 52 years old when he officially retired from playing the sport, died on Friday, the Red Wings announced. Howe -- Mr. Hockey to the sports world -- was 88."

The Commentariat -- June 9, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama on Thursday formally endorsed Hillary Clinton and called her the most qualified candidate to seek the White House, imploring Democrats to come together to elect her after a bruising party primary." -- CW 

Everett Rosenfeld of CNBC reports that "President Barack Obama officially endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president on Thursday, saying he is 'fired up' for the presumptive Democratic candidate. In a prerecorded video released Thursday, Obama latched onto the Clinton campaign's slogan, letting his supporters know that 'I'm with her,' and pledging to campaign for the presumptive nominee. The president's endorsement comes eight years and two days after Clinton did the same for him." -- Akhilleus ...

The Bern cools down? Clare Foran in The Atlantic writes that  "Bernie Sanders isn’t ready to back down yet—but the end of his campaign is in sight. Speaking outside of the White House on Thursday after meeting with President Obama, Sanders confirmed he would compete in Washington, D.C.’s Democratic primary next week. But he signaled a willingness to work with Hillary Clinton to ensure that Democrats win the White House. 'I look forward to meeting with her in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and create a government, which represents all of us and not just the one percent,' Sanders said." -- Akhilleus...

Sanity at Last. Tal Kopan of CNN: "A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that there is no Second Amendment protection for concealed weapons -- allowing states to prohibit or restrict the public from carrying concealed firearms. The en banc opinion by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could set up a new showdown on gun rights at the Supreme Court. At issue was California's law on concealed weapons, which requires citizens to prove they have 'good cause' to carry concealed firearms to get a license. Plaintiffs challenged guidelines in San Diego and Yolo counties that did not consider general self-defense to be enough to obtain a license"

...Akhilleus: Finally a court of law decides that Second Amendment rights are not absolute and unconditional. The loons will be out in force after this ruling. Foxbots are oiling their vocal cords for days and nights of incessant caterwauling. Don't overlook the fact that this ruling was delivered en banc. Had Scalia still been around that probably wouldn't have mattered much, since everyone needs a gun on their hip, but the current court makeup could make it less likely that this ruling would be overturned. NRA sociopaths must be swinging from the chandeliers. The ones made out of Colt .45s.

*************

Presidential Race

Alexander Burns, et al., of the New York Times: "Democratic and Republican leaders on Wednesday renewed their fitful efforts to impose greater order on a freewheeling presidential race and to bring to heel a pair of political renegades, Senator Bernie Sanders and Donald J. Trump, whose upstart campaigns have roiled the political establishment.... Mr. Obama is expected to meet with Mr. Sanders in Washington on Thursday and increase the pressure on the irascible Vermonter to defer to Mrs. Clinton.... Republicans face a thornier challenge in grappling with Mr. Trump, whose inflammatory comments and slapdash campaign style have alarmed party leaders throughout the race." -- CW 

CW: Gail Collins writes a very good column on how Hillary & Bernie might get together, reminding readers what diehards Hillary & some of her supporters were in 2008, even though she & Obama had few policy differences (he ended up supporting her healthcare plan instead of his own), which she & Bernie have different philosophies of government. I know many Reality Chex readers who have supported Hillary all along are furious that Bernie hasn't bowed out (and I too think he should). Collins' column may help you understand why he seems to be fighting till the last dog dies, or, as Andy Borowitz put it yesterday, till after Hillary is elected president. ...

... Brian Beutler: "... the longer [the Democratic party] remains divided between Clinton and Sanders supporters, the more marginalized and alienated Sanders’s supporters will grow, and the more attenuated Sanders’ influence — and the left’s — within Democratic politics will become. It would thus behoove him, for the sake of his own movement’s viability, to suspend his campaign quickly, with a smile, and begin the work of drawing his supporters into the Democratic fold well before the party’s convention next month." -- CW 

President Obama appeared on the "Tonight Show" last night. The full interview has not come up on the "Tonight Show"'s site yet (8:00 am ET), but it should be up within a few hours. Here's a portion of the interview:

Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "In her first Post interview since launching her campaign 14 months ago, Clinton expressed cautious hope that rival Bernie Sanders, whose candidacy produced an unexpectedly hard-fought nominating contest, would soon rally behind her. And she left open the possibility that one of his chief demands — a change in the Democratic Party’s system of superdelegates — might be met.... She begins general-election campaigning in earnest next week, with visits to the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania." The full transcript of the interview is here. CW: It's quite a good interview & a fairly quick read. If, like me, you're not a Hillary fan, you might like her better after reading the interview. ...

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "She may not be the orator President Obama is, or the retail politician her husband was. But Mrs. Clinton’s steely fortitude in this campaign has plainly inspired older women, black voters and many others who see in her perseverance a kind of mirror to their own struggles. And Mrs. Clinton’s very durability — her tenacity, grit and capacity for enduring and overcoming adversity — could be exactly what is required to defeat Donald J. Trump." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Paul Waldman: "... it's only fitting that the last impediment to reaching the pinnacle of her ambition is Donald Trump, [Clinton's] opposite in so many ways. She's the target of so much sexism; he's a spectacular misogynist. She stayed with the world's most famous cheating husband; he discards one wife after another when they hit their 40s. She assiduously studies policy to be prepared for the job; he revels in his ignorance and inexperience. She's careful and calculated to a fault; he says whatever damn fool thing pops into his head. Five months from now, we'll know whether, at long last, Hillary Clinton has reached her ultimate destination. Few people ever worked as hard, for as long, and fought through as much, in order to get there." -- CW 

Michelle Conlin & Caren Bohan of Reuters: "U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has considered the idea of serving as Hillary Clinton's running mate but sees obstacles to that choice as she prepares to endorse ... [Clinton], several people familiar with Warren's thinking told Reuters. While her thinking could evolve, Warren has concerns about joining a Clinton ticket, including the question of whether running two women would give the Democrats the best shot at defeating Republican Donald Trump, one source said." -- CW

I know Secretary Clinton pretty well.... I think she will not pick somebody that she feels in her heart isn’t ready to be president or commander-in-chief and I think Elizabeth Warren is a wonderful, bright, passionate person, but with no experience in foreign affairs and not in any way, shape, or form ready to be commander-in-chief. -- Ed Rendell, Wednesday, reminding you he's still a hunka, hunka flaming asshole

Worth noting: in 2004, John Kerry considered Rendell, who has no "foreign affairs" experience, as a running mate. But then, Rendell is a man, so he's inherently talented & doesn't need experience. After Rendell said earlier this year that Trump would lose because "there are probably more ugly women in America than attractive women," Ian Millhiser asked, "Can we all agree that Ed Rendell should never open his mouth again ever please?" Yes, we all do agree. Except Rendell. -- Constant Weader

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who this spring has delivered some of the most effective and eviscerating criticism of Donald Trump, plans in a speech Thursday to uncork a new attack.... Warren will call Trump 'a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud' who used 'racism' to attack the federal judge overseeing a Trump University lawsuit, according to excerpts of her prepared remarks. The liberal senator also will seek to saddle Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) with Trump’s racially divisive rhetoric." -- CW 

Charles Pierce has thoughts on why Bernie must get on board the Hillary train sooner (or later). Read the post, which includes this somewhat unrelated graf:

As to primary night, well, I went to bed immediately after Brian Williams on MSNBC made the following statement: 'First, we'll go to Nicolle Wallace, and then we'll go to Steve Schmidt, and then to Ben Ginsberg, and finally to Chuck Todd.' In response to a historic speech by the first woman nominated by a major party for president, the liberal network on my electric teevee set gave me the two puppet-masters behind Sarah Palin's attempt to become vice president, one of the head ratfckers of the Florida heist in 2000 who also made a cameo appearance during the Swift Boat ratfck four years later, and a newsman who has made Both Siderism into a kind of fundamentalist creed.

Ha Ha. Maggie Severns & Josh Gerstein of Politico: Donald Trump "went on Sean Hannity to rant against the plaintiffs’ law firm [in the Trump U case ] for paying Hillary Clinton large sums of money for speeches.... But Trump’s lead lawyer ... Daniel Petrocelli has donated to Clinton over the years, and even contributed $2,700 to her campaign after Trump brought him on to the politically fraught case. The fact that Trump’s own lawyer ... has been an avid Clinton backer undermines his accusations of bias in the case, not only against the plaintiffs’ lawyers but also against U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel...." -- CW 

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: “'Politicians are so politically correct anymore, they can’t breathe,' Mr. Trump said in an interview Tuesday afternoon as fellow Republicans forcefully protested his ethnically charged criticism of a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit against the defunct Trump University. 'The people are tired of this political correctness when things are said that are totally fine,' he said during an interlude in a day of exceptional stress in the Trump campaign. 'It is out of control. It is gridlock with their mouths.'” CW: Yes, it's disgusting when people are so politically-correct that they won't routinely use racial slurs or vilify others on the basis of ethnicity or religion.

Jeff Shesol of the New Yorker on Donald Trump's election-night speech: "Authorship aside, the mere existence of a script, along with Trump’s success in speaking for more than fifteen minutes without uttering a single overtly racist statement, was enough for an NBC News reporter to describe the speech as  'Presidential.'... Both rhetorically and substantively, Trump flatlined [Tuesday] night. It is hard to see how this speech, or more speeches like it, will help Trump broaden his appeal.... Having turned down the volume and the heat — the elements that energize his core constituency — he revealed himself incapable, at least for the moment, of giving a credible political speech.... Trump ... has never looked less like he knows what he is doing, or where he is going, than he did [Tuesday] night." -- CW ...

... CW: If you think Shesol is wrong, consider this. Michael Bender & Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump distanced himself from his own fundraising estimate of $1 billion, refusing to commit to collecting even half that amount, and saying his campaign didn't need much money to win the White House. Trump, who has held just two major fundraising events since agreeing three weeks ago to help the party raise cash, said he would rely instead more on his own star power as a former reality-TV personality to earn free media, and has no specific goals for how much money his campaign needs." ...

     ... CW, Ctd. The main way Trump can keep getting that free media attention is by doing what he's been doing: saying outrageous things. So he either does endless, boring fundraisers with endlessly boring wealthy Republicans or he blurts out bullshit. I wonder which he'll choose. AND of course there's a reason Drumpf is claiming he doesn't need the money:

... Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "In interviews, over a dozen major Republican Party donors and fundraisers who’ve signed on to help Trump raise money said they expected Trump to net only a fraction of his original $1 billion goal, perhaps netting less than a third of that." -- CW 

The Wayback Machine Takes Us to 2009, Part 1. Jesse Singal of New York: "A truly vintage example [of Donald Trump's lying] popped up in Tuesday’s BuzzFeed article detailing Trump’s attempts to raise money from, and forge potential business relationships with, Muammar ­Qaddafi.... In [2009, in] exchange for some cash — and, evidence strongly suggests, in an attempt to bring himself closer to Qaddafi, who had access to funds and business connections Trump openly coveted — Trump allowed his estate to be partially taken over by a throng of 20 members of Qaddafi’s entourage[, and they erected a tent on the premises].... Unfortunately for this rental agreement..., 'the town of Bedford issued a stop-work order, based on a local ordinance against building temporary structures without a permit.... Later, Trump took credit for shutting the site down, saying he had asked the Libyans to leave.'” CW: Everything he says is fake. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Wayback Machine Takes Us to 2009, Part 2. Ben Adler & Rebecca Leber of Grist: "As negotiators headed to Copenhagen in December 2009 to forge a global climate pact, concerned U.S. business leaders and liberal luminaries took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for aggressive climate action.... One of the signatories of that letter: Donald Trump. Also signed by Trump’s three adult children, the letter called for passage of U.S. climate legislation, investment in the clean energy economy, and leadership to inspire the rest of the world to join the fight against climate change." -- CW 

State of Denial, Part 1. Donald Who? Josh Marshall of TPM: "There does not seem to be any mention of Donald Trump on the official Republican Party website, gop.com. Hillary is there. Bernie is there. George H.W.Bush is there. Reagan is there. Reagan/Bush. Lincoln is there. No Trump anywhere." CW: As the TPM reader who discovered the teensy omission writes, "The fact that the Republican leadership, or rather 'leadership,' is supporting Trump has gotten a lot of attention; the funny part is that they think they can also pretend it isn’t happening." ...

... State of Denial, Part 2. Alex Griswold of Mediaite: "Conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt argued Wednesday morning that the Republican Party should make an unprecedented effort to change the Republican National Convention rules to allow them to dump Donald Trump as their nominee." ...

... State of Denial, Part 3. Winger Leon Wolf of Red State: "Rumors are starting to float around that Scott Walker is open to accepting the nomination at the convention, if the wheels continue to come off the Trump train and the rules are changed to unbind the delegate." ...

... A Dose of Realism. Steve M.: "... meanwhile, Ted Cruz has the second-highest number of delegates, as well as an overgrown debate nerd's fondness for parliamentary infighting. Oh, and I suppose the threat of convention unrest from Roger Stone and others if Trump is denied the nomination is still on the table. So Trump's not going to dethroned. The GOP can't possibly get its act together." -- CW 

Senate Races

Mark Kirk is the only GOP senator who has retracted his endorsement of Trump, but his opponent, Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D) won't let Kirk get away with his newfound "principled stand" (via Paul Waldman):

Since Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is running for re-election & has a viable Democratic opponent, I guess we should spend a little more effort to remind ourselves what a dick Chuck is ...

Jason Noble of the Des Moines Register: "U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley on Wednesday likened ... Donald Trump’s controversial remarks on a federal judge to a statement frequently made by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor before she was appointed to the high court. Trump’s insistence that the judge in a case concerning Trump University could not be unbiased because of his Mexican heritage is no more troubling than Sotomayor’s statement that a 'wise Latina' could render a better legal conclusion than a white male..., Grassley said during a conference call with Iowa reporters. Grassley is ... chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees court appointments." CW: As Grassley knows, Sotomayor conceded during her 2009 Senate confirmation process that she had made "a poor choice of words" in trying to make her point that the life experience of a judge matters. ...

... Sarah Jerde of TPM: "... Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Wednesday told NBC News that he didn't mean to 'equate' Donald Trump's attacks on a federal judge's 'Mexican heritage' with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's comment about a 'wise Latina.' 'You just can't equate the two. And I wasn't meaning to equate the two,' Grassley said. 'And I think I've said several times that I wouldn't say what, uh, Trump said. I disagree with what he said.'" CW: So, Chuck, I guess you just made "a poor choice of words" when you said Trump's attacks on Judge Curiel "is no more troubling" than Sotomayor's "wise Latina" remarks. ...

... Des Moines Register Editors: "Sen. Charles Grassley says Donald Trump's assertion that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel is incapable of being impartial due to his ethnic heritage is of little concern, even though a President Trump would nominate judges to the federal bench.... Just a few weeks ago, Grassley expressed confidence that Trump would nominate the 'right type of people' to the U.S. Supreme Court. And this week, Grassley didn’t seem at all perturbed by Trump’s remarks about Judge Curiel.... When it comes to Donald Trump, there are invertebrates that have shown more spine than Sen. Charles Grassley." (You'll have to scroll down to find this editorial, which appears beneath the one I've linked below.)

Des Moines Register Editors: "... it is surprising to see the office of Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dismiss ... the alarming number of judicial ... vacancies as a 'manufactured crisis' undeserving of public attention.... Since the Republicans took control of the Senate in 2015, confirmations have slowed to a crawl, with only 18 judges confirmed. At the same time, the president’s ability to fill vacancies on the federal courts of appeal have hit a brick wall, with GOP leaders openly acknowledging their intent to block any Obama nominees to the appeals courts."

Other News & Views

Adam Goldman & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration believes that about 12 detainees released from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have launched attacks against U.S. or allied forces in Afghanistan, killing about a half-dozen Americans...." -- CW 

David Herszenhorn & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Thursday will roll out a national security agenda as part of his effort to shape the Republican Party platform.... The document is long on themes and short on specifics, serving as a potential template to counter some of the more contentious proposals made by Mr. Trump and as a rebuke to the Obama administration.... House Republicans, in a document to be unveiled Thursday morning at the Council on Foreign Relations, charge that the United States is far less safe than when President Obama took office in 2008, and that the nation’s stature has diminished.... At the same time, the to-do list put forward by the Republicans in many ways tracks policies and strategies that the Obama administration has had in place for most of the last eight years...." CW: So, whiny, finger-pointing plagiarism. Very impressive. ...

... Steve Benen does a number on Paul Ryan's "Better Way"/"More Poverty, Please" plan, which Ryan rolled out Tuesday. CW: Benen thinks Ryan was lucky that the rollout came at the height of Donald Trump's racist meltdown, but I have a feeling Ryan wanted to keep it a secret: obviously, the headlines in Wednesday's papers would be about the results of the Democratic primary races, long-envisioned to be the day Clinton would secure the number of pledged delegates to win the nomination. Ryan's "More Poverty, Please" nonsense would never be the top story.

Matthew Pennington of the AP: "Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Congress Wednesday that his nation and the U.S. have overcome 'the hesitations of history' and called for ever-stronger economic and defense ties between the two countries.... Modi's address followed years of being shunned in the U.S. because of religious violence in his home state. Underscoring the turnabout, it came a day after a White House meeting with President Barack Obama and preceded a lunch Modi will have in the Capitol with congressional leaders and a reception hosted by the House and Senate foreign affairs committees." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wherein the excellent representatives of Utah, Sen. Orrin Hatch & Rep. Jason Chaffetz shrug at armed insurrection. Charles Pierce: "We had the Bundys, and we had the Bird Sanctuary Dudes, and now, as The Washington Post reports, in Utah, we have people who are openly threatening the civil authorities with open revolt. It's over a place called Bears Ears, out of which the president wants to create a national monument under the Antiquities Act, which he has a perfect legal right to do.... But the real news is that the congressional delegation from Utah seems to be blithely unconcerned with the possibility of armed insurrection over the issue. Because, as you know, tyranny! [CW Translation: "Because ... Obama!"]

Charles Pierce: "Tom Cotton weaponized a dying woman's final days in order to 'inflict special pain' on the president. Tom Cotton is a petty, sadistic swine who has the basic conscience of a cholera outbreak. He should be shamed from office, and he should be shunned by decent people. God, I hope there's a hell, and that it's as advertised by Dante." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Justice Thomas Is Blind. Linda Greenhouse: Justice Clarence Thomas's dissent in Foster v. Chatman, in which the Court ruled 7-1 to overturn a murder conviction of a black man by an all-white Georgia jury "was one of the most bizarre performances I have witnessed in decades spent observing the Supreme Court." Here's one mind-boggling argument: "“New evidence should not justify the relitigation of Batson claims.” (That is, claims that lawyers made peremptory challenges in jury selection on the basis of race.) CW: Right. Because who cares about evidence?

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: Mohamad Khweis, an American who "joined and then quickly fled the Islamic State terrorist organization, after which Kurdish peshmerga forces captured him..., will be charged in federal district court in Alexandria with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, according to U.S. officials familiar with the case.... While U.S. prosecutors have charged at least 85 people across the country with Islamic State-related crimes, Khweis — the first American to have been captured on the battlefield — presents an atypical case." Khweis was in the news a while ago for telling Kurdish TV that life as an ISIS fighter was "very, very hard." -- CW 

Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "A former CIA officer who was accused of taking part in an illegal counter-terrorism programme said she is facing imminent extradition to Italy from Portugal after a high court in Lisbon rejected a last-minute legal appeal. Sabrina de Sousa, a 60-year-old former CIA officer who was convicted in absentia in Italy in 2009, faces a four-year prison term for her alleged role in the kidnapping of a radical Egyptian cleric named Abu Omar, who was grabbed off the street in Milan by CIA officials in 2003 and sent to Egypt, where he was imprisoned, interrogated and allegedly tortured." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Keith Alexander of the Washington Post: Roy L. Pearson Jr, "an administrative judge who in 2005 filed a $54 million lawsuit against a [Washington, D.C.,] dry-cleaning business over a pair of missing pants, becoming a national symbol for frivolous litigation, could face disciplinary action by the D.C. Court of Appeals for alleged misconduct in the case.... On June 3, a three-person hearing committee for the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility found Pearson committed two ethics violations of interfering with the administration of justice and presenting arguments not supported by facts or law.... A final decision could take months." -- CW 

Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post: "Washington National Cathedral, one of the country’s most visible houses of worship, announced Wednesday that it would remove Confederate battle flags that are part of two large stained-glass windows honoring Confederate generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. Cathedral leaders said they would leave up the rest of the windows — for now — and use them as a centerpiece for a national conversation about racism in the white church. The announcement comes a year after the cathedral’s then-dean, the Rev. Gary Hall, said the 8-by-4-foot windows have no place in the soaring church as the country faces intense racial tensions and violence, even though they were intended as a healing gesture when they were installed." -- CW 

Beyond the Beltway

William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "The powerful leader of the union that represents New York City correction officers, whose alliances with mayors and governors have afforded him broad influence, was arrested on federal fraud charges on Wednesday, according to court papers. The charges against the union leader, Norman Seabrook, and a second defendant, Murray Huberfeld, a hedge-fund financier, stem from the first major criminal case linked to one of several corruption investigations focused on the campaign fund-raising of Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sam Levin & Julia Wong of the Guardian: Brock Turner, the former Stanford U. swimmer convicted of sexual assault & given a lenient sentence, in a statement to the judge, "placed blame on ‘alcohol’ and ‘party culture.’... The Guardian has published a portion of Turner’s statement that illustrates, as the victim described in her original statement, the ways in which Turner 'failed to exhibit sincere remorse or responsibility for his conduct'.” -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

William Booth of the Washington Post: "A top Israeli minister said he wants the government to take complete control of more than half of the West Bank and remove the Palestinian residents of the territory. While traveling with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a state visit to Russia on Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel told the Times of Israel that the world should forget about a Palestinian state." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Simon Denyer of the Washington Post: "A U.S. spy plane has been buzzed by Chinese jets as it flew over the East China Sea, with one of the fighter planes approaching in an 'unsafe' manner, the U.S. military said, after the second similar incident in three weeks. China responded by accusing the United States of 'hyping' the incident but said the real problem was U.S. surveillance planes flying too close to its territory." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)