Late getting into this, and beset by more problems than I can cope with these days, so no introduction. Nothing fundamentally different. Just lots more of the same old shit.
Some scattered links this week:
Spencer Ackerman:
Trump says US troops have quit Syria. It's not true. Published Oct. 11, before the above (and other things) happened.
Jared Bernstein: Medicare-for-all won't happen anytime soon, but Democrats should keep talking about it. I've been wondering why we don't see more practical half-measures advanced about health-care, as the debate between Medicare for All and its opponents has basically devolved into a debate over whether we can or cannot solve the most basic problem in the world's most expensive (and relative to cost most inefficient and in many ways dysfunctional) health care system. There were several such proposals early on, such as adding a "public option" to ACA and/or allowing various constituencies to buy into Medicare. But now that the race has boiled down to Sanders and Warren vs. Biden and Buttigieg, the debate is between those who understand the problem and are willing to present bold solutions vs. those who deny that significant change is possible, who don't even seem to understand the problem, and in any case won't put any serious effort into changing anything. Which is say, health care has become a proxy for the deeper division among Democrats: the rift between the "radicals," who believe that government should serve the people, and the "moderates," who believe that government should serve the donors, preferably without most other people getting hurt too bad (at least compared to Republican standards).
Christopher Bertram: Contempt for human life: Starts with case in UK where the bodies of 39 Chinese nationals were found dead in a parked lorry container.
Charles Bethea: After ICE came to Morton, Mississippi: "About one in ten of the city's residents was jailed or fired after raids at local chicken plants."
Alexia Fernández Campbell:
The 11-day teachers strike in Chicago paid off: "It got more than $30 million extra spending for public schools."
Jonathan Chait:
GOP leader has one chart showing why Republicans hate democracy. Kevin McCarthy's tweet shows a county map of 2016 voting results, so it heavily favors more rural, less populated counties. Head is: 63 million Americans put President Trump in office/ 231 Democrats are trying to reverse the results." Top line ignores the fact that Hillary Clinton got almost 3 million more votes than Trump, plus third party candidates got another 2 million votes, so Trump's total share was only 46.09% of the total. Second part ignores that impeachment would not make Clinton or any other Democrat president (isn't that what "reverse" means?). It would merely remove one spectacularly corrupt and vile office holder, in accordance with the US Constitution.
Trump: The Soviet witch coup has found me innocent: Steve Scalise's poster decrying "37 days of Soviet-style impeachment proceedings" shows how little he knows about the Soviet Union -- also the US Constitution. Also how little grasp he has of irony.
If Trump is impeached or defeated, conservatives will call it a 'coup'.
The White House's Godfather fantasy.
Stone's case underlines a principle that's long been clear: It is impossible to understand the Trump administration's cast of characters, their lingo, and their governing ethos without a working knowledge of La Cosa Nostra and its Hollywood lore. If the Kennedy administration created Camelot, the Trump presidency has built a kind of cultural gangster state.
Chas Danner: Trump has been booed at another major sporting event: Well, only if you call "an Ultimate Fighting Championship event at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night" a "major sporting event."
Lisa Friedman: EPA to roll back rules to control toxic ash from coal plants.
Dan Gearino: Coal giant Murray Energy files for bankruptcy despite Trump's support.
Masha Gessen: How Trump's supporters distort Alexander Vindman's very American origin story.
Shirin Ghaffary:
Tara Golshan:
In Iowa, only 5 percent of Biden supporters are younger than 45. That compares to Warren (62%), Sanders (55%), and Buttigieg (30%); Biden also trails: Yang (12%), Harris (8%), and Don't Know/Refused (6%). Under "no big surprise," Yang has the highest M-F ratio (7%-1%), followed by Gabbard (3%-1%) and Klobuchar (7%-3%), skipping those with 0% F (Delaney 2% M, O'Rourke and Messam 1% M). Harris is the only candidate with a major F-M skew: 5%-1%. More surprising, Yang also has the highest ratio of High School or Less to Bach/Postgrad Degree, 10%-2% -- again, skipping 0% denominators for Delaney (4%) and Messam (2%); Biden is 35%-26%, and Sanders is 25%-24%. Most candidates do better with college graduates, like Booker 0%-5%, Harris 2%-7%, Klobuchar 4%-13%, and Buttigieg 9%-40%, but by far the most extreme is Warren 3%-59%. Those with electability concerns should be especially concerned about Biden's age skew. Most polls show young people breaking strongly for Democrats, but they're also the age group least likely to vote, and it stands to reason that many fewer will vote if the Democrats nominate Biden, especially compared to Sanders or Warren.
Kentucky's Republican governor is facing a tough race -- and he wants Trump to save him.
Jeff Hauser/Eleanor Eagan: The impeachable offense that Democrats should stop ignoring: "A constitutional violation worthy of an impeachment probe has been sitting under Democrats' noses since Trump took office -- his efforts to undermine Obamacare."
Fred Kaplan: The defeat of General Mattis: Review of Guy M Snodgrass: Holding the Line: Inside Trump's Pentagon with Secretary Mattis, and Mattis' own memoir (with Bing West): Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead.
Ed Kilgore:
Catherine Kim: Trump stumps for himself during a Mississippi rally for a tight governor's race.
Jen Kirby: The future of Brexit will be decided in December 12 elections.
Ezra Klein: Elizabeth Warren's plan to pay for Medicare-for-all, explained. Let's group some more pieces on Warren's Medicare-for-all plan:
Josh Barro: Three takeaways from Elizabeth Warren's plan to pay for single payer.
John Cassidy: Elizabeth Warren doubles down on Medicare for All.
Paul Krugman: Did Warren pass the Medicare test? I think so.
Eric Levitz: Elizabeth Warren's Medicare for All plan is a smart storytelling device.
Michael Kruse: The 5 people who could have stopped Trump: "Gambling regulators once contemplated yanking Trump's casino licenses. Why they didn't holds a lesson for lawmakers today."
Eric Levitz:
Marie Lodi: Tasteless 'Build the Wall' decor seen at White House kids' Halloween party.
Mike Lofgren: 'Republicans have become a cult run by crooks': "Former GOP congressional staffer explains why the party 'has become a creepy mashup of grade B totalitarianism' and 'Freudian manias.'"
Martin Longman: Hope for humanity as Trump's base begins to leave him.
Denise Lu/Christopher Flavelle: Rising seas will erase more cities by 2050, new research shows.
Ian Millhiser: The most important part of the Democrats' impeachment resolution.
The most significant provision in the resolution exempts the Intelligence Committee's impeachment hearings from a rule that ordinarily limits questioning of witnesses to five minutes per committee member. Though the resolution leaves the five-minute rule in place for most members, it allows Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff to extend his own question time to as much as 45 minutes, so long as he gives equal time to Republican ranking committee member Devin Nunes.
These are important changes because they will allow Schiff and the team of lawyers working for him to focus their time on the impeachment hearings and to spend significant amounts of time asking probing questions during those hearings. The new rules help ensure that the hearing will not be a disjointed process, constantly jumping from one questioner to the next, without giving anyone time to build a coherent narrative.
Nicole Narea:
Olivia Nuzzi: Inside MAGA Country's hottest club: The Trump-Pence 2020 Halloween Eve witch-hunt party.
Peter Osnos: Editing Donald Trump: "What I saw as the editor of The Art of the Deal, the book that made the future President millions of dollars and turned him into a national figure."
Thomas Pepinsky: Why the impeachment fight is even scarier than you think: "Political scientists have studied what our democracy is going through. It usually doesn't end well."
Andrew Prokop:
John Quiggin: Arrogance destroyed the World Trade Organisation. What replaces it will be even worse.
David Roberts: The radical reform necessary to prepare California's power system for the 21st century.
Nathan Robinson: Goodbye, Beto O'Rourke. What a sad end to a pointless campaign. Also:
David Siders: Inside Beto O'Rourke's collapse.
Geoffrey Skelley: Why Beto O'Rourke's campaign failed.
Aaron Rupar:
Trump claims the impeachment inquiry will "backfire." Polling indicates he's wrong.
The latest Fox News impeachment poll contains remarkably grim news for President Trump.
Trump allies are now accusing an impeachment witness -- and Purple Heart recipient -- of disloyalty: Of course they are. But I am getting tired of constantly hearing about his Purple Heart, as if that signifies anything about his character.
Emmanuel Saez/Gabriel Zucman: Make no mistake: Medicare for All would cut taxes for most Americans.
Michael D Shear, et al.: How Trump reshaped the presidency in over 11,000 tweets.
Jack Shenker: This wave of global protest is being led by the children of the financial crash.
Katie Shepherd: An ad smeared a Kansas Democrat for sexual harassment. The main charge actually described a Republican. Wichita's nominally non-partisan mayoral race makes the national news.
Alan Singer: Historian explains what binds Trump's extremely rich and economically struggling supporters together:
What I struggle with understanding is how Trump, who is so self-evidently incompetent, morally repulsive, and biased in favor of the rich, holds onto his support among the white working-class and religious voters who attend his rallies and cheer hysterically for their hero. . . . What binds Trump's extremely rich and economically struggling supporters together are their cynical beliefs about the motives of others. They think everyone else is out to steal what is rightfully theirs.
Matt Stieb:
Trump reportedly obsessed with impeachment coverage: 'We're getting killed'.
Trump announces he will move permanent residence to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency. Not unprecedented, given that Nixon moved his home base from California to New York after he resigned. Also, something of a major concession: yes, there will be an America after Trump. For more, see:
David Cay Johnston: Trump flees to his bankruptcy-proof home in Florida as New York prosecutors close in.
Matt Taibbi: Baghdadi story reveals divided -- and broken -- news media.
Alex Ward: The White House's top Ukraine official confirms there was a quid pro quo: "Tim Morrison tried not to make the president look bad. He failed."
Matthew Yglesias: Health care is on the ballot in state elections starting next week.
Li Zhou: The double standard at play in Katie Hill's resignation: Compared to, e.g., Duncan Hunter (R-CA). Also on Hill: