Saturday Open Thread [7.16.16]

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Josh Marshall has four questions after the failure of the Turkey Coup.
One: Erdogan's government has been trending in an increasingly autocratic direction for years. There are many good things about the failure of this coup. But heads of state who find their fears or paranoias about conspiracies against their rule validated in bloody attempted coups do not tend to loosen their grip. Quite the opposite. The most predictable outcome of this coup is a deepening and tightening of Erdogan's hold on power. That's a big problem. Two: I'm curious what role the US and the EU and its member states played, if any, in how this crisis unfolded. All the key turning points could have happened entirely internal to Turkey. But maybe not. And if not, just how is important in understanding the current world picture - the relative balance of forces of cohesion and disintegration. Three: What's the fate of the fairly substantial number of members of the military who participated in this coup? This obviously goes to question one. Soldiers who conspire against a civilian government need to be punished. But Erdogan tends to overdue rather than underdo these things, to put it mildly. So I am curious to see whether some restraining forces can make their influence felt, which obviously goes to point two. Four: The obvious one. Why did this happen? What was the precipitating event, if there was one, or what were the goals? We don't seem to have a clear or good idea of either. Those will matter a great deal.

The Weekly Addresses

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President Obama acknowledged that the aftermath of tragedies like we've seen in Dallas, Baton Rouge, and Minnesota, can leave us struggling to make sense of these events. Vice President Biden delivered last week's address and commemorated the lives of the five police officers who were killed and the seven people who were wounded in Dallas. Governor Markell honors the life of Tim McClanahan.
BREAKING: Turkish Military Attempts Coup

BREAKING: Turkish Military Attempts Coup

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More details from the statement read out on the state broadcaster TRT at the behest of the military faction that seems to be behind the coup: It says that the freedom of Turkish citizens is guaranteed by what is referred to as a “peace council”, regardless of religion, race or language. It says the Peace Council will not allow public order to be damaged. It is worth remembering at this point that the Turkish government still claims to be in charge. An EU source monitoring events has told Reuters that military forces have control of airports and strategic points in Istanbul.

Tom Carper is still the most conservative Blue State Senator

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When it comes to making sure the Democrats have some kind of coherent brand statement, Tom Carper isn't a team player. And why is that? I happen to think that he believes he represents West Virginia in the Senate. It's a theory. I didn't say it was a great theory, but just check out the party break down (as expressed by the Cook Partisan Voting Index (PVI)) for the other conservative Dem Senators quoted in the Hill article.
  • Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) R+3
  • Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) R+5
  • Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) Even
  • Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) R+2
  • Tom Carper (D-DE) D+8
Look how Carper sticks out like a sore thumb. ...an infected, pus-filled, throbbing sore thumb. Now look how it makes sense if he is under some delusion that he is representing the Mountain State.

Friday Open Thread [7.15.16]

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According to CNN, Donald Trump asked Mike Pence to be his running mate early Thursday evening and Pence accepted, but (as the Indiana governor is surely learning) even the clearest decision is always up for negotiation to Trump. Just hours later, the candidate told Fox News he has yet to make up his mind about who he’s taking to the election, saying, “I’ve got three people that are fantastic” and “I haven’t made my final, final decision.” My God. He is going to pick General Flynn or Gingrich now and look even more the fool. If I were Pence I would tell Donald to go fuck himself.

Thursday Open Thread [7.14.16]

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Josh Marshall:
This isn't getting a lot of attention. But it should. Everybody took note when Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that American Muslims across the river in New Jersey celebrated and cheered as the Twin Towers fell on 9/11 - an entirely fabricated claim. Last night on Bill O'Reilly's show and then separately at a rally in Westfield, Indiana he did something very similar and in so doing cemented his status an impulsive propagator of race-hatred and violence. The details of the rapid-fire fulmination are important. So let's look at them closely. Trump claimed that people - "some people" - called for a moment of silence for mass killer Micah Johnson, the now deceased mass shooter who killed five police officers in Dallas on Thursday night. There is no evidence this ever happened. Searches of the web and social media showed no evidence. Even Trump's campaign co-chair said today that he can't come up with any evidence that it happened. As in the case of the celebrations over the fall of the twin towers, even to say there's 'no evidence' understates the matter. This didn't happen. Trump made it up. [...] A would-be strong man, an authoritarian personality, isn't just against disorder and violence. They need disorder and violence. That is their raison d'etre, it is the problem that they are purportedly there to solve. The point bears repeating: authoritarian figures require violence and disorder. Look at the language. "11 cities potentially in a blow up stage" .. "Anger. Hatred. Hatred! Started by a maniac!" ... "And some people ask for a moment of silence for him. For the killer." At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law, if you translate the German, the febrile and agitated language of 'hatred', 'anger', 'maniac' ... this is the kind of florid and incendiary language Adolf Hitler used in many of his speeches. Note too the actual progression of what Trump said: "Marches all over the United States - and tough marches. Anger. Hatred. Hatred! Started by a maniac!"