President Obama met with King Felipe of Spain, but Elton John may or may not have talked to Vladimir Putin. The Vatican endorsed the Iran nuclear agreement, a development suggesting support for the deal has reached critical mass. And Club for Growth has started attacking Donald Trump in TV ads, the first real indication that America's secret society of rich people has tired of the candidate. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Tuesday, September 15, 2015:
HILLARY AND BERNIE ARE BEEFING - Samantha Lachman reports that Bernie Sanders is using an email from the super PAC Correct the Record, which supports Hillary Clinton, to fundraise: "'Yesterday, one of Hillary Clinton’s most prominent Super PACs attacked our campaign pretty viciously,' Sanders' fundraising email reads. 'It was the kind of onslaught I expected to see from the Koch Brothers or Sheldon Adelson, and it’s the second time a billionaire Super PAC has tried to stop the momentum of the political revolution we’re building together.'" [HuffPost]
BUT DUDES WITH GUNS AND STUFF ARE WAY MORE EXCITING - Laura Barron-Lopez reports on an innovative program to improve life on the border, which doesn't include a massive fence: "[I]n the aftermath of Sept. 11, the United States undertook a major effort to fortify the border here, building up infrastructure as quickly as possible to protect the U.S. from the new world of unknown dangers. ...But 14 years after the attacks, the nexus of these two cities is the site of a new pilot program meant to speed up wait times at border crossings and get commerce flowing more easily over the border once again. Customs and Border Protection selected five border towns for the program, known as 560, which, in El Paso, has increased fees along the three toll bridges connecting the city to Juarez." [HuffPost]
What's that you say? You want to read Chapter One of a 58,000-word Steve Brill feature on pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, "America's most admired law-breaker"? We've got that in Highline.
HUDDLED MASSES A PARTISAN TOPIC - Yearning to breathe free for me, wretched refuse for thee. Ariel Edwards-Levy and Janie Valencia: "President Barack Obama's proposal to admit more Syrian refugees into the U.S. has limited support among the American public, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds, with many considering the refugee crisis a problem for other countries to handle. Thirty-nine percent of Americans favor allowing more Syrian refugees to move to the U.S., while 46 percent oppose it. (A CNN/ORC survey released Monday found greater support for the idea, with Americans saying, 55 percent to 44 percent, that the U.S. should take in some refugees.) A proposal to send government financial support to charities or the European Union is more popular, with 50 percent in support and just 36 percent opposed. Public opinion in the HuffPost/YouGov poll is divided sharply along party lines: While a 57 percent majority of Democrats want to take in more refugees, 69 percent of Republicans oppose the idea. Independents are slightly more likely than not to oppose the idea." [HuffPost]
The Congressional Budget Office says eliminating Obamacare's individual mandate would reduce the insured population by 14 million.
PROFESSOR OBAMA LASHES OUT AT FACULTY LOUNGE COMRADES - Libby Nelson reports from Des Moines: "People concerned about liberal political correctness on college campuses have a powerful ally: President Obama. At a town hall here on college affordability on Monday afternoon, one student asked Obama to respond to Republican presidential contender Ben Carson's proposal to cut off funding to colleges that demonstrate political bias. Unsurprisingly, Obama didn't like it much…. [Then] he went on to give his opinion about what's been called the 'new political correctness' on college campuses: 'I've heard some college campuses where they don't want to have a guest speaker who is too conservative or they don’t want to read a book if it has language that is offensive to African-Americans or somehow sends a demeaning signal towards women. I gotta tell you, I don’t agree with that either. I don't agree that you, when you become students at colleges, have to be coddled and protected from different points of view.'" [Vox]
'Vladimir Putin has not phoned Elton John, says Kremlin' [Guardian]
INTERIOR SECRETARY NOT PLEASED ABOUT CONGRESS THREATENING TO RUIN YOUR VACATIONS, AGAIN - Kate Sheppard: "The Department of Interior is already working on its shutdown plans in case Congress isn't able to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government after Sept. 30. 'We profoundly hope there is no government shutdown. That is the basis on which we're operating,' said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell at a breakfast event Tuesday hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. But even if there isn't, she continued, 'We have to do shutdown planning. Unfortunately, we're getting pretty good at that.'" [HuffPost]
The Wall Street Journal says Bernie Sanders' budget would cost a gazillion dollars.
DELANEY DOWNER - The Census Bureau will put out new poverty numbers tomorrow. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a preview HERE.
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VATICAN LIKES IRAN DEAL - Julian Hattem: "The Vatican is highlighting its support for the nuclear deal with Iran, days before Pope Francis’s historic visit to Washington and as opponents in Congress dig in their heels on ways to scuttle the accord. In a statement presented before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday, the Catholic Church’s effective foreign minister offered his strongest support yet behind the agreement.
'In a region where there are already too many conflicts, to reach an agreement on a sensitive issue is an important step that will promote dialogue and cooperation on other issues,' Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s secretary for relations with states, told the IAEA in Vienna." [The Hill]
Marco Rubio stars in playful football-related campaign video, says football is scarier than debates because nobody hits you at a debate.
CLUB FOR GROWTH TIRED OF DONALD TRUMP NOW - Igor Bobic: "Real estate mogul Donald Trump is facing his first negative ad campaign from an outside group, rather than one of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. On Tuesday, the hardline economic conservative group Club for Growth announced it was placing more than $1 million behind two 30-second television ads that attack Trump's record. The ads are slated to go on air later this week in the early caucus state of Iowa. 'Donald Trump is the worst Republican candidate on economic issues,' Club for Growth President David McIntosh said in a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. 'It’s astonishing that he’s even running as a Republican. Trump is the most liberal candidate on fiscal policy in the whole field, with the possible exception of Bernie Sanders.'" [HuffPost]
Would you believe Donald Trump once said it was wrong to disparage Mexicans?
ROBERT GRIFFIN III PALS AROUND WITH LARRY HOGAN - Maryland's Republican governor wrote on Facebook: "RGIII went out of his way to come over to me yesterday and say, 'How are you feeling governor, how are your cancer treatments going?' He said, 'I wasn't sure how to reach you but I have really been thinking of you and praying for you. I know you are going to beat this thing.' I don't care who you think the quarterback should be, or if you don't even like the Redskins, I'll tell you this, Robert is a very nice, decent and positive young man. I told him I knew he was going through a tough time too, that I was thinking of him and wishing the best for him and better times are ahead for him too!" [Facebook]
CARLY FIORINA: LOOK AT MY FACE - Amanda Terkel: "The super PAC backing Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is out with a new ad responding to Donald Trump's pejorative comments about her appearance. The ad, paid for by the Carly for America Committee, features a series of faces of women and girls. In the background, Fiorina is heard saying, 'Ladies, look at this face, and look at all of your faces -- the face of leadership.'" [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Don't miss Ta-Nehisi Coates' long story about mass incarceration.
IRAN DEAL RUINED ROSH HASHANAH FOR MISSISSIPPI'S ROGER WICKER - He's the chairman of the NRSC, you see. Sam Stein: "There are countless reasons that Republicans oppose the nuclear deal negotiated between world powers and Iran. The inspections aren’t strict enough; the sanctions relief is too generous; the deal phases out too quickly; it doesn’t address regional terrorism; and so on. To this list, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is adding one more. The deal has spoiled Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. From the committee’s Monday release: 'Last night marked the start of Rosh Hashanah -- a holiday during which the Jewish people gather across the country and around the world to celebrate the new year.'" [HuffPost]
COMFORT FOOD
- Amazing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYdl7z77dO4 between Xu Xin and Zhu Linfeng.
- These kayakers were pretty lucky.
- Enjoy the Donald Trump "China" remix.
- Someday we will all look back and laugh at man buns.
TWITTERAMA
@lizzieohreally: a nice thing about jalapenos is HEY I DIDN'T KNOW I HAD THAT PAPER CUT.
@BobbyBigWheel: How can we build a wall on the Mexican border if we can't even build an offensive line in Minnesota
@elisefoley: It’ll be annoying when we have robot coworkers and they push off assignments to us by saying “I don’t have the bandwidth to do this.”
@AaronBlakeWP Rubio: "I don't have anything against Florida State. I think there has to be a school where people who can't get into Florida can go..."
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