The Commentariat -- Sept. 14, 2016
Afternoon Update:
By Driftglass.Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "After a whiplash-inducing morning of mixed messages, Donald J. Trump on Wednesday gave a small window into some of the results from his most recent physical examination in a taped appearance with the television celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz. The quick run-through of results, which Mr. Trump is said to have given to the doctor to read from a piece of paper, came after ... [Trump's] aides had said he would, and then that he wouldn't, broach the topic with the doctor on the 'Dr. Oz Show.'" ...
... This is a version of a story that has been updated -- and ruined. In the original version, Haberman gave a brief account of Oz's brilliant career. She couched the nutty stuff in the familiar "critics say" copout, but among the "critics" was the FDA. If you didn't read the original story, Akhilleus, in today's Comments section provides some background, though narrower in scope -- and of course more opinionated -- than Haberman's rundown.
*****
** Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "Americans last year reaped the largest economic gains in nearly a generation as poverty fell, health insurance coverage spread and incomes rose sharply for households on every rung of the economic ladder, ending years of stagnation.The median household's income in 2015 was $56,500, up 5.2 percent from the previous year -- the largest single-year increase since record-keeping began in 1967, the Census Bureau said on Tuesday. The share of Americans living in poverty also posted the sharpest decline in decades." -- CW ...
... Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: "Middle-class Americans and the poor enjoyed their best year of economic improvement in decades in 2015, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, a spike that broke a years-long streak of disappointment for American workers but did not fully repair the damage inflicted by the Great Recession." -- CW ...
... Washington Post Editors: "Candidates' dour talk about the economy is undermined by the economy." -- CW
Carol Morello & Ruth Eglash of the Washington Post: "Israel and the United States have reached an agreement that will provide Israel an unprecedented amount of military aid over a decade. The State Department said the agreement, known as a memo of understanding, will be signed Wednesday afternoon. Jacob Nagel, Israel's acting national security adviser, arrived in Washington on Tuesday morning to sign on behalf of his country. The agreement is expected to give Israel as much as $3.8 billion a year over 10 years, more aid than the United States has ever provided to any country." Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu wanted more. CW: Let's see if he says thank you to us U.S. taxpayers.
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down a plea from Ohio Democrats to stay a lower court decision and add more early voting days in the presidential battleground state. Without noted dissent, the justices left intact a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit that said the state already provided more early voting than the majority of states. As a result, Ohio will not have a period in which residents may register and vote at the same time.... It is not the end of litigation in the battleground state. Still to be resolved are purges of inactive voters and what to do about eligible voters who cast their ballots at the wrong precinct." -- CW
Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Bank Execs Handsomely Rewarded for Bad Behavior. Renae Merle of the Washington Post: The $185MM fine federal regulators levied against Wells Fargo for a massive scheme to bilk customers is "less than the more than $200 million that the stock in the company held by company's chief executive, John G. Stumpf is worth. The fines also are not that much more than the $125 million one of its top executives, Carrie Tolstedt, will walk away with when she retires this year.... Tolstedt ran the community banking division where regulators said aggressive sales goals fueled illegal behavior by bank employees...." See also related comments under the previous post, IOKIYAR. -- CW
Rebecca Ruiz of the New York Times: Russian "hackers penetrated the World Anti-Doping Agency's athlete database and publicly revealed private medical information about three of the United States' most famous athletes: Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Simone Biles. The hackers published documents this week showing that the Williams sisters and Ms. Biles, who won four gold medals in gymnastics at the Rio Olympics last month, received medical exemptions to use banned drugs.... [The hacking group] is believed to be associated with GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency suspected of involvement in the recent theft of emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee.... Revenge, apparently, motivated the WADA hacks. In May, The New York Times reported the account of Russia's longtime antidoping lab chief, who said the country had run a doping program and staged an elaborate cheating scheme at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. A subsequent report commissioned by WADA confirmed that account." -- CW
Presidential Race
Andrew Kaczynski, et al., of BuzzFeed: "Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a retired four-star general who served under three Republican presidents, slammed GOP nominee Donald Trump as a 'a national disgrace' and an 'international pariah,' according to his personal emails seen by BuzzFeed News. The remarks came in a June 17, 2016, email to Emily Miller, a journalist who was once Powell's aide. In that same email Powell also said Trump 'is in the process of destroying himself, no need for Dems to attack him. [Speaker of the House] Paul Ryan is calibrating his position again.' The website DCLeaks.com -- which has reported, but not confirmed, ties to Russian intelligence services -- obtained Powell's emails.... In an Aug. 21 email from Powell to Miller, he blasted Trump for embarking on a 'racist' movement that believes President Obama was not born in the US. 'Yup, the whole birther movement was racist,' Powell wrote." ...
... Andrew Kaczynski & Talal Ansari of the Daily Beast: "'Benghazi is a stupid witch hunt. Basic fault falls on a courageous ambassador who thoughts Libyans now love me and I am ok in this very vulnerable place,' Powell wrote in a December 2015 email exchange with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, who died in the 2012 incident.... 'But blame also rests on his leaders and supports back here. Pat Kennedy, Intel community, DS and yes HRC,' Powell wrote." -- CW ...
... Lee Fang & Naomi LaChance of the Intercept: "Former Secretary of State Colin Powell attempted to discourage Hillary Clinton and her team from using him as a scapegoat for her private email server problems, according to newly leaked emails from Powell's Gmail account. Sad thing,' Powell wrote to one confidant, 'HRC could have killed this two years ago by merely telling everyone honestly what she had done and not tie me to it.... I told her staff three times not to try that gambit. I had to throw a mini tantrum at a Hampton's party to get their attention. She keeps tripping into these "character" minefields,' Powell lamented. He noted that he had tried to settle the matter by meeting with Clinton aide Cheryl Mills in August.... The emails show Powell regularly corresponding with reporters and friends about the Clinton email server scandal, explaining that his situation was different." -- CW ...
... CW: I doubt it is a coincidence that these hacks were publicized after news broke that Powell, while serving as Secretary of State, ignored advice from cybersecurity experts who warned him his private e-mail devices could be hacked.
... Conservative WashPo columnist Kathleen Parker: Hillary Clinton's "silence about the pneumonia wasn't so much a lack of transparency, as news-gazers have extrapolated, as it was a valiant attempt to stay the course and preclude exactly what happened. People began to wonder about her health. Critics found it easy to conclude: She's weak; she's frail; she's a woman, after all." -- CW
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. The Whiney Press. Brian Beutler has a theory about the media's coverage of the candidates: "The press is not a pro-democracy trade, it is a pro-media trade. By and large, it doesn't act as a guardian of civic norms and liberal institutions -- except when press freedoms and access itself are at stake.... Reporters and media organizations are far more concerned with things like transparency, the treatment of reporters, and first-in-line access to information..., than they are with other forms of democratic accountability.... The result is the evident skewing of editorial judgment we see in favor of stories where media interests are most at stake: where Clinton gets ceaseless scrutiny for conducting public business on a private email server; Trump gets sustained negative coverage for several weeks when his campaign manager allegedly batters a reporter; where Clinton appears to faint, but the story becomes about when it was appropriate for her to disclose her pneumonia diagnosis.... But where bombshell stories about the ways Trump used other people's charity dollars for personal enrichment have a hard time breaking through." -- CW
This Is Alarming. John McCormick & Mark Niquette of Bloomberg: "Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton by 5 percentage points in a Bloomberg Politics poll of Ohio, a gap that underscores the Democrat's challenges in critical Rust Belt states after one of the roughest stretches of her campaign.... The poll was taken Friday through Monday, as Clinton faced backlash for saying half of Trump supporters were a 'basket of deplorables' and amid renewed concerns about her health after a video showed her stumbling as she left a Sept. 11 ceremony with what her campaign later said was a bout of pneumonia." CW: Thanks to the Supreme Court ruling against Democrats (story linked above) Ohio's early voting has been pushed back a week till October 12 from October 5. Ironically, if Clinton can recover her lead there, the Supremes could help her.
Jeff Zeleny of CNN: "Hillary Clinton will return to public view in North Carolina on Thursday, aides said, appearing in Greensboro after an unexpected three-day interruption from the campaign trail." -- CW
[Trump] took money other people gave to his charity and then bought a 6-foot-tall painting of himself. He had the taste not to go for the 10-foot version. -- President Obama, in Philadelphia Tuesday ...
... Anne Gearan & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Obama implored Americans on Tuesday to consider the gravity of the presidential election eight weeks away, calling Republican Donald Trump a dangerous fraud who has no real idea of what it means to be president. Turning serious at the close of a rollicking campaign rally for Democrat Hillary Clinton, Obama allowed himself to 'vent' about a Republican nominee who he said 'isn't fit in any way, shape or form to represent this country'": -- CW ...
... CW: I recommend listening to the whole speech, but here are a couple of clips:
Obama on Trump's shortcomings:
Obama on the media's coverage of Trump:
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Teresa Welsh of McClatchy News: "'Good evening,' said WABC weekend anchor Joe Torres. 'We begin with Hillary Clinton's death.' Torres didn't correct himself, but the broadcast continued on to report Clinton's health troubles at Sunday's 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York.... The station told TVSpy that the mistake was accidental." -- CW
Eric Beech & Mark Hosenball of Reuters: "The head of the Democratic National Committee said on Tuesday the organization had been hacked by Russian state-sponsored agents who were trying to influence the U.S. presidential election, after a similar leak in July roiled the party. A link to the documents was posted on WikiLeaks' Twitter account and attributed to alleged hacker Guccifer 2.0. The release came during a presentation on Tuesday from a person speaking on behalf of Guccifer 2.0 at a London cyber security conference, Politico reported. Reuters could not immediately access the documents. 'There's one person who stands to benefit from these criminal acts, and that's (Republican presidential nominee) Donald Trump,' DNC interim Chair Donna Brazile said in a statement. 'Not only has Trump embraced (Russian President Vladimir)Putin, he publicly encouraged further Russian espionage to help his campaign,' she said." -- CW ...
... Charley Lanyon of New York: "WikiLeaks tweeted out a link to a cache of leaked documents just after the announcement. The documents contain detailed Democratic donor lists, as well as donors' personal information, documents discussing the party's fundraising strategies, and allegedly even the personal cell-phone numbers of high ranking White House staff, including vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine." -- CW
Steve Eder of the New York Times: "Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee called on Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch on Tuesday to investigate Donald J. Trump's $25,000 contribution in support of Florida's attorney general, saying it 'may have influenced' her decision not to pursue a complaint against Trump University.... 'We also note that this allegation '' that Mr. Trump bribed a Florida state official to protect his business interests -- is consistent with Mr. Trump's own statements about using money to influence politics,' Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, wrote to Ms. Lynch in a letter also signed by the 15 other Democrats on the committee." -- CW ...
... New Lede (which significantly adds to the story): "New York's attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman [D], announced Tuesday that his office was looking into Donald J. Trump's nonprofit foundation, which is facing intense criticism in light of a political donation it made in support of the Florida attorney general. Mr. Schneiderman said his office was seeking to determine whether the charity had been in compliance with state laws. Mr. Trump's campaign disclosed this month that he had paid a $2,500 penalty to the Internal Revenue Service because the 2013 contribution in Florida was sent from his nonprofit foundation, in violation of tax regulations.... Jason Miller, a senior aide in the Trump campaign, dismissed the inquiry. 'Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is a partisan hack who has turned a blind eye to the Clinton Foundation for years and has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president,' he said.... Mr. Schneiderman ... regulates nonprofit groups.... For Mr. Trump, he is a familiar opponent. Three years ago, Mr. Schneiderman sued Mr. Trump and Trump University..., saying that students had been defrauded.... That case is pending.... Mr. Trump, who contributed $12,500 to Mr. Schneiderman's campaign in 2010, filed an ethics complaint against him after the Trump University suit was filed, calling the fraud case a 'shakedown.' The state ethics panel declined to pursue the case." -- CW ...
... Other People's Money. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, was asked on CNN this morning to provide evidence to prove Trump's claim that he has given generously to charity. She didn't. In the process, Conway also seemed to be unaware ... [that] the Trump Foundation's money doesn't actually come from Trump's own pocket.... Conway did not offer any evidence of new donations. Instead, when [CNN host Alisyn] Camerota challenged her -- "No, the foundation's money is 'other people giving to the foundation' -- Conway seemed to concede. 'Other people, but he -- okay," she said. 'But he's been incredibly generous.'" -- CW
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump on Wednesday scrapped his previously announced plan to go over results from his most recent physical examination in a taped appearance with the television celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz, aides to the Republican presidential nominee said." CW: What a surprise. It's worth reading Haberman's whole story.
Nick Corasaniti & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump unveiled a menu of proposals on Tuesday to help working parents, calling for six weeks of mandatory paid maternity leave and expanded tax credits for child care. The proposals, which Mr. Trump outlined in the politically critical Philadelphia suburbs along with his daughter Ivanka, represent a new attempt to court female voters who polls show have been alienated by his bombast and history of provocative remarks about women.... But in selling his case, Mr. Trump stretched the truth, saying that ... Hillary Clinton has no such plan of her own and 'never will.' Mrs. Clinton issued her plan more than a year ago, and it guarantees up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for a newborn or a sick relative, financed by an increase in taxes on the wealthiest Americans.... Vivien Labaton, a director of the nonpartisan group Make It Work Action, called Mr. Trump's plan 'woefully inadequate.'... Mr. Trump's embrace of paid leave would apply only to mothers, as opposed to Mrs. Clinton's plan, which would cover both parents. Some economists say that when leave is offered only to women, it can backfire by lowering women's chances of being hired and promoted and getting raises." ...
... CW: Well, the new fake plan is better than the old fake plan, in which he suggested the best way to manage childcare was through corporations: "You know, it's not expensive for a company to do it. You need one person or two people, and you need some blocks, and you need some swings and some toys. (Emphasis added.) It's not an expensive thing, and I do it all over. And I get great people because of it. Because it's a problem with a lot of other companies." As ridiculously inadequate as this "plan" is, it's also a lie. Jill Colvin & Catherine Lucey of the AP (August 2016): "But the two programs Trump cited -- "Trump Kids" and "Trumpeteers" -- are programs catering to patrons of Trump's hotels and golf club. They are not for Trump's employees, according to staff at Trump's hotels and clubs across the country." Speaking of lies, Corasaniti & Haberman write that Trump "stretched the truth" when he said Clinton didn't have a plan. "Stretched the truth"? There's no stretching involved; it's a flat-out lie.
** Kurt Eichenwald of Newsweek: "A close examination by Newsweek of the Trump Organization ... reveals an enterprise with deep ties to global financiers, foreign politicians and even criminals, although there is no evidence the Trump Organization has engaged in any illegal activities. It also reveals a web of contractual entanglements that could not be just canceled. If Trump moves into the White House and his family continues to receive any benefit from the company, during or even after his presidency, almost every foreign policy decision he makes will raise serious conflicts of interest and ethical quagmires. The Trump Organization is not like the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.... No member of the Clinton family received any cash from the foundation, nor did it finance any political campaigns.... The Trump family rakes in untold millions of dollars from the Trump Organization every year. Much of that comes from deals with international financiers and developers.... None of Trump's overseas contractual business relationships examined by Newsweek were revealed in his campaign's financial filings...." Read on. -- CW ...
... John Harwood of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump has departed from Republican orthodoxy in multiple ways, but his consistently kind words for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia stand as the most striking.... So when Mr. Trump praises Mr. Putin, as he did last week, for his 'very strong control over a country,' Republican political and policy experts explain it in purely personal terms: Mr. Trump admires the Russian leader's ruthless use of power, even if it conflicts with American democratic principles." -- CW
Charley Lanyon: "There were multiple reports of violence between protestors and Trump supporters on Tuesday [CW: actually Monday] night at a Trump rally in Asheville, North Carolina. Outside the rally, a 69-year-old protestor, Shirley Teter, was punched in the face and knocked to the ground, falling over her oxygen tank before being taken to the hospital.... When she told one Trump supporter that he had better learn Russian, he punched her in the face: 'He stopped in his tracks, and he turned around and just cold-cocked me.'... In a video taken at the rally, a man can be seen getting physical with protestors in a balcony while Trump is giving his speech. He slaps a man in the face and a woman in the chest, and lashes out at other protestors before a security guard gets between them. While the guard does not confront the violent man, he does escort the protestors out." ...
... CW: Nothing "deplorable" about the Trump supporter who cold-cocked an old lady attached to an oxygen tank; just another "amazing" "hardworking American patriot" to cite Donaldo's assessment of his followers. Also, yesterday I linked to a WashPo story that included info on the Ashville protesters, but it didn't include the detail Lanyon provides.
Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Gov. Mike Pence came to Capitol Hill on Tuesday on a mission to promote Republican unity, attacking Hillary Clinton for describing many supporters of the G.O.P. ticket as bigoted 'deplorables' and urging Republicans to rally behind their nominee.... But Mr. Pence struggled to press the attack: In separate news conferences, House and Senate Republican leaders declined to join Mr. Pence ... in rebuking Mrs. Clinton over her remark. Mr. Pence wound up raising the subject only when pressed by a reporter -- and then gave a halting answer in which he would not call David Duke, a white supremacist and onetime Ku Klux Klan leader, 'deplorable.'" -- CW ...
... Dana Milbank: "I've always thought [mike pence] an honorable and amiable man, and I accept his friends' assessment that he took the job in hopes of changing Trump. Instead, it seems that Trump has changed him. There was Pence, once a hawkish conservative, joining Trump last week in praise of Vladimir Putin.... There was Pence last month joining Trump in spreading conspiracy theories, declaring on talk radio that 'we've got to get to the bottom' of whether an Iranian scientist was killed because of 'the revelations in Hillary Clinton's email.'... There was Pence in July, retreating from his support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal ... and saying Mexico will 'absolutely' pay for [Trump's border wall]. That same month, Pence, who once called Trump's proposed ban on Muslims entering the country 'offensive and unconstitutional,' declared himself 'very supportive' of suspending immigration from countries with terrorist influences." -- CW
He's Ba-a-a-ack! Ben Schreckinger & Ken Vogel of Politico: Ousted Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is back in the Trump inner circle, thanks to the goon-friendly new management. -- CW ...
And, Yeah, Lewandowski Is Still a Paid CNN Contributor. Nick Gass of Politico: "Corey Lewandowski on Wednesday slammed a Newsweek article [linked above] detailing how the Trump Organization's ties to foreign entities could harm the United States' national security if he is president. Lewandowski, who still regularly speaks with Trump and has returned to the Republican nominee's inner orbit in recent weeks, laced into the article and its author, Kurt Eichenwald, during a panel on CNN's 'New Day,' referring to Eichenwald as previously reporting that 'George W. Bush was directly related to 9/11.' (Eichenwald, in fact, reported that Bush had been warned about an Al Qaeda determination to strike the U.S., not that he was 'directly involved.')... CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota ask[ed] Lewandowski ... whether Trump and his family would step away from the company if he becomes president 'because of those entanglements.' 'Absolutely not,' Lewandowski replied." -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "The Kappa Alpha ... fraternity at the University of Richmond has been suspended after an email with what university officials termed 'grossly offensive language' was sent to about 100 students on campus.... The email reminds recipients of the theme for the night -- 'ameriKA' -- suggests dressing in red, white and blue '(or be naked for all I care.... This is gonna be one for the books,' the Collegian [-- the campus newspaper] quotes the email as saying. '... we're looking forward to watching that lodge virginity be gobbled up for all ya'll. See you boys tonight. If you haven't started drinking already, catch up. Tonight's the type of night that makes fathers afraid to send their daughters away to school. Let's get it.'" -- CW
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Reader Comments (14)
From what I understand, Camerota also asked Conway if her candidate could produce evidence that he is indeed being audited. "Sorry?" Kelly anne said, looking startled, pretending she had not heard the question so it would give her time to come up with some bogus answer and the clip I saw of this did not include that answer. First of all it wouldn't make any difference if Trump was being audited–-we could still have access to his tax returns; second, isn't this beyond protocol? Shouldn't he be obligated to do this?
Newsweek has promised a major cover story today about Trump by Kurt Eichenwald that could change the election. We await with baited breath.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/newsweek-trump-cover-story_us_57d8c587e4b09d7a68808c7d?19byb123gsb7c766r
TRUMP'S COURT JESTERS: this is a terrific read––-the nitty gritty on all those that are serving the King plus delightful illustrations. Thanks to the TNR.
https://newrepublic.com/article/136326/donald-trumps-court-jesters-worst-political-team-ever
Pardon me for showing signs of paranoia.
So Hillary gets sick and it becomes the biggest news!!
Everybody wants her to come clean on her medical records.
And of course if she does, everyone expects Trump to do the same.
Suddenly the Trumps get totally quiet about Hillary's health.
You think that might be because they want to hide something?
Let me be clear. It is absolutely impossible for Trump to have his 'perfect' health report. as I said before, he is at serious risk for heart disease and stroke.
And I am also quite sure that his doctor did not write the letter with all that 'positive' results. Trump did, the limo driver just brought it over for the signature.
The next thing you know the Confederates will demand a certified lab report after HRC's BMs a la The Last Emporer.
Here's the Newsweek story: hold on to your hats!
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/09/23/donald-trump-foreign-business-deals-national-security-498081.html
PD Pepe, The Newsweek piece is great. Finally someone showing the international Trump connections. Proof that Trump is running for the position of President for the United States of the Trump Organization.
The problem of course is that not one of Trumps supporters gives a damn and most couldn't read that piece even if they wanted too.
I guess I was wrong. Trump is going to 'discuss' his health with ............
Dr. Oz, who Frank Bruni calls 'Trump with a stethoscope'.
Oh, looks like I got it right! From the NYT-
Trump Scraps Plan to Discuss Medical Exam With Dr. Oz
Now they only going to discuss, you know, health stuff.
Yes, the Newsweek piece is a bombshell anyway you cut it. It does seem strange that of the many, many business deals mentioned, designed to use the Trump name to make millions (but not to, you know, actually do or create anything), almost all are stained by corruption, fraud, criminality, and dirty dealings. Is it that Trump doesn't care with whom he does business or is it that shady characters realize that he won't care as long as he gets his money? Or do these underhanded partners sense a fellow grifter in the Trumpster and his greedy family?
But as financially salacious as most of these "deals" seem, will the rest of the MSM be interested in following up on the possibilities that Trump's financial ties to criminals, terrorists, oligarchs, thugs, con men, grifters, and disreputable operators might impact a Trump presidency and seriously affect American interests, and not to the better, or are they more interested in why Hillary didn't personally phone each of them to let them know she had pneumonia?
My guess is number two.
I'm thinking trump will eventually be marketing gimme' caps with
sayings like, "Make Russia great again" or "Make India great again",
or Argentina, or China, or wherever his crap merchandise is made or
wherever he has money hidden. Probably doesn't include Mexico if
he wants to wall them off, unless he has a ladder factory so he can
sell ladders for getting over the wall.
Well, well. And I'm not referring the health of a certain Orange Headed Liar.
Trumpado, in the last few days, has been promising (Trump's "promises" deserve inclusion in the Hall of Fame of Lies, along with such gems as "the check is in the mail", "why, of course I love you" and the ever popular "would I steer you wrong?") to release a real report on the state of his health from a real doctor, not one written in crayon with smiley face emojis at the end of every sentence, signed by a guy who looks for all the world as if he goes into executive session with a bong every morning at wake-up.
But guess what? He lied.
Surprised? If so, you must be one of those people who are astounded that the sun comes up every morning.
Trump will do nothing of the sort. As with his tax returns, he clearly has something to hide. Marvin's assessment of the fast food inhaling, frequently addled, zero exercise big mouth (imminent stroke or heart attack) might not be far off the mark. And don't forget, that he's been claiming to be in stellar health ("Perfect, the best!") but has been seeing a GI specialist for 35 years. Sometimes it seems that Donaldo is a koan come to life and inexplicably walking and talking. If you're gonna be a living koan, might as well be an inexplicable one, right?
So, how will he get his health information out there, unlike that dirty, lying, Hillary who has released all her information from a real doctor? Where could a crooked, bunco artist like Trump go where he wouldn't be asked any embarrassing questions like "How's your blood pressure?"
Why, to another bunco artist: Dr. Oz! Yeah, that's the ticket.
So, apparently (and this may be a lie too, who knows?) Trumpty Dumpty will be appearing on Oz where they will "...have a general discussion about health and wellness" whatever in the holy hell that means. This is the same Dr. Oz, by the way, who has been hawking miracle cures to beat the band. According to the site sciencebasedmedicine.org, "If you’re trying to sell a supplement, yet you don’t have actual scientific evidence to back up your claims, The Dr. Oz Show is your ticket to recognition and sales. No other show on television can top The Dr. Oz Show for the sheer magnitude of bad health advice it consistently offers, all while giving everything a veneer of credibility. Yet, this is a symbiotic relationship. Oz needs products that excite his audience. After all, everything is a 'miracle' to Oz (He’s found 16 so far)." Even the current congress, full of guys who believe the world is flat and has only existed for three and a half months find Oz's bullshit tough to swallow. But that doesn't bother Trump.
So, a guy who, if he were doing this 120 years ago back in the Old West, would already have been hung a dozen times or more for selling cheap, barking snake oil, is the one chosen by another sleazy con man to "sell" the idea of his Amazing Health.
I can just hear Chuck Todd now oohing and ahhhing over how transparent Trumpy was by revealing all to the great and powerful Oz.
Is there a law as to how much bullshit a candidate can sling in any one week? I suppose Republicans would never approve it. They'd be legally prevented from speaking at all.
An article from "Psychology Today," which is a good fit with Eichenwald's Newsweek article on Trump... Sorry I still have not figured out this embedding process. Maybe in the next life!
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201407/anti-intellectualism-and-the-dumbing-down-america
Brian Beutler's piece in TNR on how the media is botching coverage of the presidential campaign is a good starting point for considering how bad that coverage really is, and why.
He suggests that the media is largely uninterested in problems that don't directly affect them. That sounds plausible, but there is also the concern that nearly all media outlets, including and especially, the four major networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, are owned by giant corporations whose first duty is to shareholders not the public. This isn't necessarily a new thing but it's become much more of a problem.
CBS, for years, has traded on its connection with Edward R. Murrow. But even as Murrow was in the process of helping to take down the Donald Trump of his day, Joe McCarthy, Bill Paley, his boss, was looking for ways to keep Murrow on a short leash. He famously complained that he got a stomach ache every time Murrow went after big game. Sponsors might not like it.
That situation has gotten much worse. Back then, Paley only had to be concerned with the Columbia Broadcasting System. Today CBS Corporation is a huge conglomerate, as are the parent corporations of NBC and ABC. It's not a surprise that none of the major news outlets employs an Edward R. Murrow these days. It's not as if one could not be found, but it's a lead pipe cinch that the Comcast Corporation is not going to risk its total assets of $166 billion on an Ed Murrow when it can install an obsequious little weasel like Chuck Todd on its flagship Sunday "news" show.
I'm not suggesting that corporate bosses send out memos saying "Go easy on Trump" or "Get that Hillary". They don't have to. Corporate osmosis takes care of that. And if it doesn't, lessons are taught. Certain types of reporters are advanced and others are not. Of course that sort of thing is much more obvious at Fox where it's pretty clear that memos instructing talent what to say and who to go after are a regular thing. That, and hiring thugs and wingnut propeller heads as on-air representatives of the Murdoch/Ailes worldview.
But the more important, and present danger we have right now starts with the fact that this is not a regular campaign. We have one normal candidate and one dangerous lunatic. But the media is doing all they can to make it seem like business as usual. So Trump is accorded the benefit of the doubt; his dirty laundry is footnoted and they move on. Hillary Clinton's dirty laundry is hung out for weeks on end, even after it's been dried and bleached white by the sun. Thus is balance maintained.
The press needs to respond to what's happening. This is not your father's presidential campaign. Shit, it's no one's campaign. We've never seen such a startlingly ignorant pig fucker so close to the Oval Office. And the press is pretending this is not the case. So Matt Lauer nods his little head when Trump lies to his face. Most of the rest are no better.
They don't want to "take sides"? Fine. But at least side with truth and facts. Is that so hard?
I can see back during Weimar Germany, reporters thinking that the underdog, Hitler, should probably be given the benefit of the doubt despite the riots, attempted overthrows, beatings in the streets by his thugs, threats to burn down the Reichstag*, virulent anti-Semitism, and calls for re-militarization. Instead of running with those stories, the Weimar public would read about what an asshole that Hindenburg dude was. He had to go, that guy.
Here again, I'm not suggesting that Trump is Hitler. He's not. For one thing Hitler was committed to something besides himself. He was possessed with a vision. Trump's vision starts with his wallet and ends with his dick. But Trump is dangerous in his own way. He is an ignorant fool. I wouldn't even go so far as to label him a dilettante because at least a dilettante has an interest in whatever he or she is pretending to do. Trump's only interest is in himself. What he doesn't know (and that is a mountain of stuff), he makes up.
For the press to pretend otherwise is despicable.
The paradigm has changed, boys and girls, but the media have not caught on.
If their indolence and self-consciousness allow Trump to be elected, they'll fall all over themselves with articles declaring that it was impossible for them to predict such a catastrophe. However could this have happened?! they'll squeal.
But unlike the pigs who built their houses of straw and sticks, they'll have no brick house in which to hide when the wolf comes calling.
*Oh and by the way. Hitler eventually did burn down the Reichstag. Just remember all the horrible things Trump is promising to do. Even if he gets around to only a few of them, the damage will be disastrous.