Monday Open Thread, June 13, 2016

Filed in National by on June 13, 2016

E.J. Dionne Jr. at The Washington Post wonders if Orlando drive us from our corners? Uh, EJ, we are already in corners. When you have one party wanting to ban a religion and all immigrants, we don’t need to be driven anywhere:

Trump did not disappoint. At 12:43, he turned to his communications medium of choice and tweeted: “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!”

It is no day for partisanship, but how could Trump even think of using a moment of national trauma and mourning as an occasion to tout his own genius — or to reach sweeping conclusions on the fly?

But it’s entirely true that those of us who have long believed that our scandalously lax national gun laws make sickening slaughters inevitable had predictable reactions of our own.

I freely admit that I identified entirely with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) when he declared: “This phenomenon of near constant mass shootings happens only in America — nowhere else. Congress has become complicit in these murders by its total, unconscionable deafening silence.”

Congress is complicit. The NRA is complicit. Anyone who opposes background checks and restrictions on those on the TERROR WATCH LIST from buying MILITARY ASSAULT WEAPONRY are complicit. Any one who thinks the AR 15 should be a legal gun purchased freely in the United States is complicit. It is as if you yourself killed 50 people yesterday morning.

Gary Younge at The Guardian says Orlando shooting exposes so many of America’s faultlines:

The array of initial reactions illustrates just how confused the political response might become. Whatever else this is, it’s not about immigration. Omar Mateen, the suspected killer, was born in America. Whatever compelled him to commit such a terrible act cannot be laid at the border of a foreign nation. His hatred was home-grown. […]

The truth is it is, most likely, about lots of things. And the bolder the claim that it is about any one thing, the more vulnerable it will be to contradiction and qualification. While the act of killing so many so quickly is crude, the underlying factors are complex.

But in moments of crisis such as this, complexity is all too easily mistaken for and derided as weakness. Trump’s poll lead in the Republican nomination rose after the terror attacks in France and San Bernardino, California, late last year.

Fear favours the demagogue. History sides with the cautious.

Jeet Heer at The New Republic says Orlando is an Act of Terror, no matter the various mutually inclusive causes:

In the face of such mind-numbing violence, it’s natural that we search for an all-encompassing explanation, whether it take the form of lax gun control (or conversely, no “good guy with a gun” to stop the shooter), poor mental health care, or jihadi ideology. But events never have a single cause; rather, they emerge from the weave of various causes. Moreover, in terms of judging the horror in Orlando, it little matters which cause is dominant. This was unquestionably an act of terror, whether or not it fits the FBI’s precise definition: The shooter targeted gay people for being gay in a gay public space. Is is undeniably an act of political violence.

The explanations being proffered for the atrocity shouldn’t be seen as mutually exclusive, but rather as mutually reinforcing.

If the terrorist who killed 50 people at a gay nightclub was white and Christian, this would still be an act of terror.

Hours after approximately 50 people were killed at a Florida LGBT nightclub, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) “is receiving backlash for tweeting a verse from the Bible,” the Houston Chronicle reports.

At precisely 7 a.m. Sunday, Patrick tweeted a photo with the words of Galatians 6:7: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”

Indeed. And when he dies, I hope Lt. Governor Patrick burns forever in hellfire.


Josh Marshall on the political fallout from the Orlando Massacre. Don’t be so sure it helps Trump.

There appears to be a general consensus – met with glee by Trumpites and frustration by Democrats – that the atrocity in Orlando will be a boon to the campaign of Donald Trump. It will ‘change the narrative’ and play to Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim immigration and general claim to be the only one tough enough to protect Americans. Put me down as skeptical about that assumption. […]

Trump’s tweets [yesterday] morning were slashing but they were also preening, self-congratulatory and manic. There are ways to effectively politicize a tragedy. Trump appears psychologically incapable of doing so. He does sound ‘tough’ at some level. But far more he seems unsteady, erratic and self-obsessed.

[Trump’s speech today] will hurt him rather than help him. Because Trump is Trump. Most people have little appetite for a self-congratulatory and wildly politicized screed the day after a horrific attack.

Some of you might be saying, You’re being naive: fear sells. You’re missing my point. Of course it does. But Trump’s emotional instability, his temperament largely prevents him from effectively selling it. More than benefiting from a climate of fear, I suspect he is driving home what already worries voters, what is already his singular vulnerability: he lacks the temperament and emotional stability to be president.

The other part of equation is Clinton. […] When pollsters ask whether she has the temperament to be president and whether she is ‘tough’ and a leader she consistently and even today gets very high marks. That means she’s well positioned to withstand hard attacks on this front. The same polls show that voters overwhelmingly believe Trump lacks the temperament to be president. If he acts now like he always acts he will confirm doubts and fears that are already at the forefront of the public mind.

Bernie Sanders said that he plans to meet Hillary Clinton late Tuesday, The Hill reports. Sanders said he wants to get a sense of what kind of platform Clinton will be supporting and “whether she will be vigorous in standing up for working families and the middle class, moving aggressively in climate change, healthcare for all, making public colleges and universities tuition-free.”

He added: “After we have that kind of discussion and after we can determine whether or not we are going to have a strong and progressive platform, I will be able to make other decisions.”

Clinton and Obama’s planned rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday will be rescheduled later due to the Orlando Massacre.

Louis C.K.: “It’s like if you were on a plane and you wanted to choose a pilot. You have one person, Hillary, who says, ‘Here’s my license. Here’s all the thousands of flights that I’ve flown. Here’s planes I’ve flown in really difficult situations. I’ve had some good flights and some bad flights, but I’ve been flying for a very long time, and I know exactly how this plane works.’” […]

“And then Trump says, ‘I’m going to fly so well. You’re not going to believe how good I’m going to fly this plane, and by the way, Hillary never flew a plane in her life.’ ‘She did, and we have pictures.’ ‘No, she never did it.’ It’s insane.”

A new Salt Lake Tribune/Hinckley Institute poll in Utah finds Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump tied in the presidential race at 35% each, followed by Libertarian Gary Johnson at 13%. Said pollster Jason Perry: “For a state where the majority of voters have supported Republican presidential candidates since 1964, the fact that Trump is in a dead heat with Hillary Clinton suggests Utah voters are still very reluctant about a Trump presidency.” This is the second poll showing a tie in Utah. I take it that Mormons are following Mitt Romney’s lead on Trump.

A new poll out of Kansas also shows Hillary leading Trump 43-36.

Kansas and Utah, your new swing states.

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  1. Jason330 says:
    June 13, 2016 at 8:38 am

    Wow. “Ken Burns with the beat down!” is not a sentence I ever thought I would write.

  2. Paul Gallagher says:
    June 13, 2016 at 5:44 pm

    Some of you may think that Mr. Navarro is the answer for Insurance Commissioner,
    Consider this, Mr. Navarro has no relevant insurance knowledge or experience in how insurance rates are determined and he has no idea on how to go about solving the problems beyond his own homeowner insurance policy. As of last week he did not realize that the Insurance Department was self funded and operates on fees collected from insurance companies and insurance agents. Mr. Navarro only knows that there are problems but he has no solutions. He wants you to elect him and then he will try to find out the solutions later. This will lead to 4 more years of unresolved insurance problems for all Delawareans.
    The Insurance Department needs someone who can navigate the waters of these complex issues.
    I have 40 years of insurance experience which is more experience than both of my opponents combined. I have solutions to the insurance problems that our state is currently facing today. I am running on my own time, my own dime and not on state or county time, which is your time.
    Paul Gallagher

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