The Commentariat -- August 21, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Isaac Arnsdorf of Politico: "The Donald Trump campaign's boasts of a formidable fundraising month in July spooked Democrats.... But a closer inspection of the campaign finance report filed just before Saturday's midnight deadline indicates the haul came at a steep price.... Though the campaign touted an $80 million figure for its July fundraising, just $36.7 million of that total went directly to the campaign. The rest came in through joint fundraising vehicles with the Republican National Committee and state parties. At least $9.5 million of that money is off limits for spending on the election because it's designated for the RNC's convention, headquarters and legal accounts. Plus, the RNC is considering spending its money down-ballot instead of supporting Trump as tensions boil over between the party's apparatus and its defiant nominee. The money the Trump campaign raised also didn't come cheap. The campaign more than doubled its spending from the previous month to $18.5 million in July.... Most of that money went toward expanding the campaign's online fundraising operation."...

... CW: Those of you who thought the Trump campaign was lying about its big haul were on the right track; not a lie, but deceptive.

Ashley Killough & Karl de Vries of CNN: "Donald Trump acknowledged Saturday that the Republican Party 'must do better' in appealing to African-Americans. But in the same speech [in Fredericksburg, Va.], he again slammed an order by the state's Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, to restore voting rights to some convicted felons who have completed their sentences, a move McAuliffe says could help African-Americans who were disproportionally affected by laws that put lifetime bans on felons." -- CW

TBD. Jenna Johnson & Ed O'Keefe  of the Washington Post: "On Sunday morning, [Donald Trump's] newly installed campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, was asked during an interview on CNN's 'State of the Union' whether Trump still wants 'a deportation force removing the 11 million or so undocumented immigrants.' 'To be determined,' said Conway, who in the past has supported creating a pathway to citizenship for the millions of immigrants illegally living in the United States." -- CW

Jenna Johnson: "Donald Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said Sunday morning that she does not want the Republican presidential nominee to release his tax returns until an audit by the Internal Revenue Service is completed, abandoning a position that she took five months ago, when she didn't work for the campaign and urged Trump to "be transparent" and release the filings.... Trump is the first major presidential nominee from either party since 1976 to not release tax returns." -- CW

Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Gov. Terry McAuliffe will announce Monday that he has restored voting rights to 13,000 felons on a case-by-case basis after Republicans and state Supreme Court justices last month stopped his more sweeping clemency effort.... McAuliffe's planned action ... comes about a month after the Supreme Court of Virginia invalidated an executive order the Democratic governor issued in April. With that order, McAuliffe restored voting rights to more than 200,000 felons who had completed their sentences.... McAuliffe also will lay out his plans for restoring rights to the remainder of the 200,000." -- CW

*****

Pete Willliams of NBC News: "Holding defendants in jail because they can't afford to make bail is unconstitutional, the Justice Department said in a court filing late Thursday -- the first time the government has taken such a position before a federal appeals court." CW: This is such a no-brainer that one wonders why an advocacy group hadn't brought it up years ago. I suspect it's because even organizations like the ACLU work on behalf of poor people only when there's something in it for elites -- e.g., voting rights.

John Eligon & Robert Gebeloff of the New York Times: "Affluent black families, freed from the restrictions of low income, often end up living in poor and segregated communities anyway. It is a national phenomenon challenging the popular assumption that segregation is more about class than about race, that when black families earn more money, some ideal of post-racial integration will inevitably be reached." The writers, using anecdotal evidence, examine the reasons more affluent blacks often don't move out of their poor, segregated neighborhoods. CW: See also stories linked below on Donald Trump's "outreach" to African-Americans.

Presidential Race

Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton's increasingly confident campaign has begun crafting a detailed agenda for her possible presidency, with plans to focus on measures aimed at creating jobs, boosting infrastructure spending and enacting immigration reform if current polling holds and she is easily elected to the White House in November." -- CW

Amy Chozick & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "For years the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation thrived largely on the generosity of foreign donors and individuals who gave hundreds of millions of dollars to the global charity. But now, as Mrs. Clinton seeks the White House, the funding of the sprawling philanthropy has become an Achilles' heel for her campaign and, if she is victorious, potentially her administration as well.... The Clinton Foundation has accepted tens of millions of dollars from countries that the State Department -- before, during and after Mrs. Clinton's time as secretary -- criticized for their records on sex discrimination and other human-rights issues. The countries include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Brunei and Algeria." CW: See Also Jonathan Chait's commentary, linked yesterday.

Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will be returning to the campaign trail next month to stump for ... Hillary Clinton.... 'I feel very strongly that Donald Trump would be a disaster for the country. I want to do everything I can to see that Secretary Clinton wins.'" CW: One way to do that, Bernie, is to stop calling her "Secretary Clinton." You have to pretend you and "Hillary" are BFFs.

Nikita Vladimirov of the Hill: "Hillary Clinton's campaign is questioning the sincerity of Donald Trump's new tone, highlighting in a video ad the times he has refused to apologize for his inflammatory rhetoric. The video released Saturday, titled 'No Regrets,' intersperses Trump's Thursday speech expressing 'regret' for not choosing 'the right words' at times with clips of his insults of various people an groups":

Judd Legum of Think Progress: "Trump continued his multi-day effort to court the African-American vote with an appearance Saturday night on Fox News. [CW: Which is hilarious, right there, but it's Trump, so it gets worse:]... Trump told Fox News' Jeanine Pirro that blacks in America have 'no health care, no education, no anything.' He described the lives of African-Americans as 'a total catastrophe.' Pressed on what he would actually do for African-Americans, Trump said that he would 'get jobs,' without elaborating. Trump also promised to bring 'spirit' to African-Americans by being a 'cheerleader.' Trump's argument ignores that the vast majority of African-Americans have jobs, health insurance and do not live in poverty." -- CW

Adrian Carrasquillo of BuzzFeed: In a Saturday meeting with his newly announced Hispanic advisory council, Donald Trump suggested he is interested in figuring out a 'humane and efficient' manner to deal with immigrants in the country illegally, according to three sources. Trump, however, stressed that any new announcements will still be in line with the border security-focused approach that has invited intense opposition from Latinos and immigrants since he launched his campaign.... In a statement, Steven Cheung [CW: another Steve!] with the Trump campaign dismissed the BuzzFeed News account of the meeting as 'clickbait journalism' and disputed attendee' claim that he opened the door to legalization behind closed doors." CW: So apparently what Trump meant by "humane and efficient" was that his Enforcement Patrol would not kick in your door and throw you to the floor if "self-deport" first. It's the Romney approach, but with thugs.

Susanne Craig of the New York Times: "... an investigation by The New York Times into the financial maze of Mr. Trump's real estate holdings in the United States reveals that companies he owns have at least $650 million in debt -- twice the amount that can be gleaned from public filings he has made as part of his bid for the White House. The Times's inquiry also found that Mr. Trump's fortunes depend deeply on a wide array of financial backers, including ... the Bank of China .... and Goldman Sachs.... A substantial portion of his wealth is tied up in three passive partnerships that owe an additional $2 billion to a string of lenders.... He is ... quick to stress that these days his companies have very little debt." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... CW: This puts Hillary Clinton's conflict of interest re: the Clinton Foundation in perspective. A President Trump would be unable to sign anything other than Mothers' Day proclamations without affecting his own financial interests.

You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose? -- Donald Trump, addressing black voters, Friday, speaking to a nearly all-white crowd in a town that is 93 percent white (and 90 minutes from Detroit, which is not)

... He Doesn't Know Any Better. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Most black Americans don't live in poverty, just as most white Americans don't." Black unemployment is higher than white, as it has been for decades, but the disparity is not nearly as great as Trump would have it. "There are any number of reasons that black Americans might view Trump unfavorably, starting with his 2011 effort to cast suspicion on Obama's place of birth. Or, probably, starting with his full-page ad calling for the death penalty against five black teenagers in New York City who were accused of rape -- wrongly, as it turned out. Or perhaps thanks to the support his current candidacy is getting from people like former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.... One adviser said on CNN that Trump making his appeal in a mostly white town wasn't a big deal and that 'maybe it would have been nice if he went and had a backdrop with a burning car.'" -- CW ...

... Jim Fallows: "Trump ostensibly made his argument to black voters, asking 'what do you have to lose?' But if you watch the clip you'll see that in context he is talking about black people, to an audience that was mainly white. (Audience composition is something you can control, or at least foresee and influence, if you're running a national campaign. Where you hold the event, where you drum up attendance, whom you seat in the prominent on-camera places behind the candidate and in the front of the crowd -- these all have an effect and can be tuned.)" -- CW

Patrick Condon of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Donald Trump ... made his first visit to [Minnesota] as the Republican presidential candidate for a private nighttime fundraiser at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Dozens of protesters gathered out front ahead of the event and marched around the large building. Later in the evening, a smaller contingent grew unruly. Some fundraiser attendees were pushed and jostled, spit on and verbally harassed as they left the convention center. Trump never appeared in public, and did not grant media interviews or hold a news conference. The fundraiser was closed to the media, but a person in attendance broadcast Trumps remarks on the live-streaming app Periscope. 'If I could win a state like Minnesota, the path is a whole different thing,' Trump told the cheering crowd. 'It becomes a much, much different race. We're going to give it our ­greatest shot.'... Minnesota last went for the Republican in the presidential race in 1972 when President Richard Nixon defeated George McGovern [CW: in a race in which McGovern won only one state: Massachusetts]."

Maureen Dowd thinks up a bunch of things Donald Trump is sorry for. Droll. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

In Hillary Clinton's America, 'illegal immigrants .. [are] collecting Social Security benefits, skipping the line. -- Voice-over in a Donald Trump campaign ad, released Aug. 19

[Donald Trump] makes a bizarre claim that undocumented immigrants will collect Social Security under a Clinton presidency.... [Even] people who obtain lawful status under DACA need to work for at least 10 years, pay taxes and reach retirement age before they are eligible to receive Social Security benefits.... We would have liked to see the nominee finally stick closer to the facts in his first general-election ad. Unfortunately, this ad is -- to borrow a line from its script -- 'more of the same.' -- Michelle Lee of the Washington Post

Jonathan Swan of the Hill: "Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) on Friday ripped Donald Trump's character.... 'There is not one character trait in Donald Trump I would want my son to emulate,' Rigell told Time Magazine on Friday. 'I'm so embarrassed to be identified with him and in fact, I couldn't be.' Rigell, who came to office in the 2010 Tea Party wave, represents Virginia's 2nd Congressional District, which has a large military constituency." -- CW

Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "When Trump made Breitbart News CEO Steve Bannon his campaign's chief executive last week, [white nationalist Jared] Taylor found reasons to celebrate. It was the latest sign for white nationalists, once dismissed as fringe, that their worldview was gaining popularity and that the old Republican Party was coming to an end.... [Trump's] strategy now resembles the alt-right dream of maximizing the white vote -- even as polling shows his standing with white voters falls short of Mitt Romney's in 2012." -- CW ...

... Kurt Bardella, formerly of Breitbart "News," in a Hill op-ed: "What eventually caused me to terminate my relationship with Breitbart was Steve [Bannon]'s guidance of Breitbart to become the de facto propaganda machine for Donald Trump.... Whatever reprehensible thing Trump did or said would be defended and supported by the daily content of Breitbart.... This is one of those times where the best interests of the whole outweigh any partisan allegiances or any specific issue. It's why I've made the personal choice to vote for Hillary Clinton> in November." -- CW

Congressional Races

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Republicans, worried about preserving their House and Senate majorities in the face of fierce headwinds, are accelerating their plans to distance themselves from Donald Trump -- and may soon concede, if only implicitly, his defeat. Party strategists are mapping out blueprints for down-ballot candidates, in TV ads and on the campaign trail, to present themselves as checks on a Hillary Clinton presidency. It's an approach that would essentially admit a Trump loss." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Isabelle Khurshudyan & Dave Sheinin of the New York Times: "In an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer that aired in part Saturday evening, swimmer Ryan Lochte attempted to explain his role in falsely portraying a late-night incident involving him and three teammates at a Rio de Janeiro gas station last weekend.... 'I over-exaggerated that story,' Lochte told Lauer on Saturday. 'If I had never done that, we would never be in this mess.... It was my immature behavior.'" CW: For the record, "over-exaggerated" is not a word; it's a joke.

Frank Wilkenmeyer of Winning Democrats: "Christians" invent another Malia Obama "scandal" and use it as an excuse for spewing more racial slurs. Where he can, Wilkenmeyer names the names of the Jesus- and Trump-loving "authors." CW: Wilkenmeyer is on the right track: shaming the low-lifes who write this crap. Let's hope some of their neighbors give these scum what-for. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

Way Beyond

** Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "Used extensively in the Soviet era, political murders are again playing a prominent role in the Kremlin's foreign policy, the most brutal instrument in an expanding repertoire of intimidation tactics intended to silence or otherwise intimidate critics at home and abroad.... Muckraking journalists, rights advocates, opposition politicians, government whistle-blowers and other Russians who threaten [the] image [of Russia that Vladimir Putin wants to project] are treated harshly -- imprisoned on trumped-up charges, smeared in the news media and, with increasing frequency, killed.... No other major power employs murder as systematically and ruthlessly as Russia does against those seen as betraying its interests abroad." ...

... CW: Bear in mind that Donald Trump admires Putin for his "leadership." Notice, too, as is pretty clear in the linked conversation, Trump doesn't know how to distinguish between killing (a) foreign operatives who are allegedly backing violent actions against a particular nation, and (b) citizen-protesters, whistleblowers & other dissidents: 'He's running his country and at least he's a leader, unlike what we have in this country,' Trump said when asked by ... Joe Scarborough about Putin's alleged killing of journalists and political opponents. 'I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe, so you know. There's a lot of stupidity going on in the world right now, a lot of killing, a lot of stupidity,' he said. Finally, when asked whether he would condemn Putin's alleged brutal tactics, Trump responded: 'Sure, absolutely.'" Trump's inability to see the difference between clearly distinguishable acts & motives is part of what I mean when I say he's stupid. So, yeah, Donaldo, there is "a lot of stupidity going on," starting with you.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Donald 'D.A.' Henderson, an American epidemiologist who led the international war on smallpox that resulted in its eradication in 1980, the only such vanquishment in history of a human disease and an achievement that was credited with saving tens of millions of lives, died Aug. 19 at a hospice facility in Towson, Md. He was 87." -- CW

New York Times: "... a suspected suicide bombing tore through the site of [a wedding] ceremony in southeastern Turkey late Saturday, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 90, in the latest in a string of attacks to strike the restive region in the past week. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said in a statement that the Islamic State militant group was probably behind what appeared to be a suicide attack on Saturday in the city of Gaziantep, and that its aim was to sow divisions among ethnic groups in the country and 'spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines.'" -- CW

The Commentariat -- August 20, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Susanne Craig of the New York Times: "... an investigation by The New York Times into the financial maze of Mr. Trump's real estate holdings in the United States reveals that companies he owns have at least $650 million in debt -- twice the amount that can be gleaned from public filings he has made as part of his bid for the White House. The Times's inquiry also found that Mr. Trump's fortunes depend deeply on a wide array of financial backers, including ... the Bank of China .... and Goldman Sachs.... A substantial portion of his wealth is tied up in three passive partnerships that owe an additional $2 billion to a string of lenders.... He is ... quick to stress that these days his companies have very little debt." ...

     ... CW: This puts Hillary Clinton's conflict of interest re: the Clinton Foundation in perspective. A President Trump could not sign anything other than Mothers' Day proclamations without affecting his financial interests.

Maureen Dowd thinks up a bunch of things Donald Trump is sorry for. Droll. -- CW

*****

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Emboldened by their electoral prospects in November, Democrats are planning to redouble their efforts to make the fate of the Supreme Court a signature election issue, with the Democratic leader in the Senate threatening to stall Republican legislative priorities if no action is taken on the confirmation of Judge Merrick B. Garland. The Senate has been stuck in a stalemate since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February.... Republicans have refused to hold confirmation hearings on President Obama's nominee, insisting that the next president should make the choice. But with Donald J. Trump's poll numbers sliding, the Democratic leadership sees an opening to derail Republicans who are facing re-election by blaming them for the delay." -- CW

Emma Brown & Sarah Netter of the Washington Post: "The first attempt to assess the scope of damage from the past week's historic flooding in Louisiana has produced staggering numbers. Approximately 280,000 people live in the areas that flooded, according to an analysis released Friday by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber. In those flood-affected areas are 110,000 homes worth a combined $20.7 billion and more than 7,000 businesses -- about one in every five businesses in the region -- that together employ more than 73,000 people...." -- CW

Lizette Alvarez & Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "Federal health authorities suggested Friday that pregnant women and their partners consider postponing travel to all of Miami-Dade County after Florida identified a second zone of local Zika transmission, a swath of Miami Beach that includes the popular tourist magnet of South Beach." -- CW

Ouch. Christopher Drew of the New York Times: "Matt Bissonnette, a former member of Navy SEAL Team 6 who wrote an account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, agreed on Friday to forfeit $6.8 million in book royalties and speaking fees and apologized for failing to clear his disclosures with the Pentagon, according to federal court documents.... If approved by a federal judge in Alexandria, Va., the royalty settlement would bring an end to more than two years of civil and criminal investigations into Mr. Bissonnette, who won several awards for valor in Iraq and Afghanistan...." -- CW

Presidential Race

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge has rejected a request to force Hillary Clinton to submit to a sworn deposition in a suit related to her private email server, ruling instead that she must respond in writing to questions about the issue. U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan said the conservative group Judicial Watch had not demonstrated that an in-person deposition of Clinton was necessary to attempt to clarify whether the former secretary of state set up the system in order to avoid complying with the Freedom of Information Act." -- CW ...

... Steven Myers of the New York Times: Judge Sullivan's ruling ensures "that the issue will continue to dog her presidential campaign until the eve of the election.... In addition to requiring her testimony in writing, the judge allowed the group to depose a senior State Department aide [John Bentel] who had warned two subordinates not to question her email practices.... [Clinton] could delay her answers until after the election. The deposition of the senior aide, however, will take place by Oct. 31." -- CW

Nick Gass of Politico: "Former Secretary of State Colin Powell 'has no recollection of the dinner conversation' recounted by Hillary Clinton to FBI agents, as documented by journalist Joe Conason in a forthcoming book. Conason's anecdote, reported Thursday night by The New York Times, recounts a small dinner party at Clinton's Georgetown home toward the beginning of her time as secretary of state, with former secretaries Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice also in attendance.... 'Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer,' Conason wrote...." CW: Could be something like that Bosnian sniper fire thing.

** Jonathan Chait: Hillary Clinton's "inadequate response to the conflicts of interest inherent in the Clinton Foundation show that she ... has not fully grasped the severity of her reputational problem. The purpose of the Clinton Foundation is to leverage Clinton fame into charitable donations.... The Clinton Foundation is a stand-in for the Clintons' sloppy ethics in general.... [The Clintons'] venality is rather ordinary. There's a reason the term politician is synonymous with lying, calculation, and ambition -- these are common qualities for politicians. The Clintons are common politicians, motivated in general by a desire to implement policy changes they think will make the world a better place, but not immune to trimming and getting rich in the process.... The risk that Clinton's tainted image will defeat her is small but real enough to merit concern. The much larger risk is that her lax approach to rule-following and ethical conflicts will sink her presidency." ...

... CW: What Chait points out is something Clinton's fan-base doesn't get. Trump is 100 percent phony (and malevolent & stupid to boot). But Hillary Clinton is half-phony, and to pretend otherwise is to exhibit the kind of thoughtless tribalism we see in Trumpbots.

We have a divided country. It's totally divided. The era of division will be replaced with a future of unity, total unity. We will love each other. We will have one country. Everybody will work together. In my administration, every American will be treated equally, protected equally and honored equally. We will reject bigotry and hatred and oppression in all of its forms and seek a new future built on our common culture and values as one American people. -- Donald Trump, Friday, in Michigan

And you'll never have to poop again. Tiny Trumpbots will come in the night and carry away your shit. (Also, they might check your citizenship, so keep your papers on the night table.) ...

... Louis Nelson of Politico: "Donald Trump promised Friday night that if elected president, he will win 95 percent of the African-American vote in his reelection bid. Renewing his effort to reach out to black voters at a rally Friday evening, Trump suggested that Democratic politicians that overwhelmingly govern in America's inner cities have failed African-Americans. Trump told the Dimondale, Michigan, crowd that 'we can never fix our problems by relying on the same politicians who created our problems in the first place. A new future requires brand-new leadership.'... The former reality TV star's 95 percent pledge was an ad-libbed moment in a speech that was scripted and delivered with the help of teleprompters.... Trump has struggled thus far with black voters in the election, polling as low as 0 percent and 1 percent at times...." -- CW

... "'My goal is to get every single vote of every single African American' Trump says to an almost entirely white crowd in Lansing." -- Katy Tur of NBC News, in a tweet -- CW

Matthew Teague of the Guardian: "The post-disaster politicking got under way in earnest on Friday, as Donald Trump appeared in flood-stricken Louisiana to give his image a presidential burnish, and as the White House announced Barack Obama would tour the area next Tuesday. A day earlier Louisiana's governor, John Bel Edwards, had warned Trump not to show up in Louisiana 'for a photo op'. Instead, he said, Trump should volunteer and make donations.... Trump put his own spin on [the photo-op], traveling with an 18-wheel transfer truck full of supplies to hand out to crowds. Wherever he went, he created his own television-ready crowds. In St Amant, one of the hardest-hit areas between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Trump's convoy set up in a parking lot, and droves of people turned out to watch him hand out water bottles and diapers.... Joyce Humphries said that Trump's visit was good enough to win her vote. 'We will take any help we can get,' she said." ...

     ... CW: Really, Joyce? Trump hands you a water bottle (metaphorically -- I don't think Joyce got even that, and I'm not sure about the bottles of water, either -- see link to Tommy Christopher's story below) and that gets your vote? Teague reports that "60,000 local people [already] have applied for relief from" FEMA. The federal government will help most of those applicants, & they'll all get a lot more than a bottle of water. (And let's not even get into the climate change thing, which your hero there says is a hoax, but probably caused the rains & flooding in the first place.) If you're going to say something this stupid again, Joyce, you might not want to put your name on it. ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "During a stop at a church,Trump made clear that this was partially a political trip for him. 'The president says he doesn't want to come; he is trying to get out of a golf game,' Trump told volunteers in the area.... Then, late Friday afternoon, the Trump campaign issued a blistering statement ... highlighting Obama's absence.... 'Today, Donald Trump acted more presidential than the president himself, by immediately going to Louisiana while President Obama chose to continue playing golf and Hillary Clinton phoned in her views," said Rudy Giuliani...." -- CW ...

... CW: Blake applauds Trump's visit to Louisiana as a positive campaign moment when Trump acted "presidential." I prefer Tommy Christopher's take:

... The Play-Doh Presidency. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "On Friday morning, freshly-minted Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told ABC News that Trump and running mate Mike Pence would be traveling to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to 'help people on the ground' in a 'decidedly nonpolitical event' with 'no press allowed.' As it turns out, though, there actually were members of the press allowed, and the candidate did use the occasion to attack his political opponent, and there were opportunities for photographs, but true to his word, Trump did 'help out.' Pool cameras trailed Trump for his entire visit, and over the course of those several hours, Trump 'helped out' by unloading a truckload of toys for 49 seconds....":

... CW: Notice how Trump, who says he's "just here to help," doesn't actually unload the boxes of Play-Doh or hand it to real people; instead he passes the toys from the the guy unloading them to pence, who gives the boxes to flood victims whose main need right now is Play-Doh. ...

... Mark Berman & Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Trump ... knocked the president during a campaign event Friday evening in Dimondale, Mich. 'Honestly, Obama ought to get off the golf course and get down there,' Trump said.... Obama administration officials have stressed that the federal government is deeply invested in helping Louisiana through the response and recovery. Both W. Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson visited the region this week and emphasized that point." -- CW ...

... CW: If Trump & his surrogates (and Joyce there) actually gave a flying fuck about what President Obama and his administration were doing to aid flood victims, instead of just making stupid ad hominem attacks, they could find out easily enough by going to Whitehouse.gov, where splashed across the main page is a link to a detailed report. It's a massive response. But no Play-Doh, as far as I could tell.

Declan Walsh of the New York Times: "For [West Virginia coal miners], this season's presidential campaign boils down to a single choice. 'I'm for Trump,' said Dwayne Riston, 27, his face smeared in dust. 'Way I see it, if he wins, we might at least stand a chance of surviving.' Few places in America offer such a simple electoral calculus as the rolling, tree-studded hills of West Virginia." ...

     ... CW: Of course, this too is stupid. Coal mining is one of the most dangerous jobs out there, and what Democrats, and Hillary Clinton specifically, propose is to convert dirty energy jobs to clean energy jobs, most of which presumably will be safer for individual workers. Those laid off from the mines will receive benefits, access to other jobs & retraining. Clinton offers them a better, more satisfying way of life. They choose poverty, hard labor and a short life. Voting for Trump is like saying, "I keep banging my head against the wall because I know how to do it. It might be too hard to do something useful & less painful." Read this from Walsh's story: "'I kind of feel that people are looking down on us,' said Neil Hanshew, a miner, voicing a common sentiment. 'They're looking at us like we're a bunch of dumb hillbillies who can't do anything else.'" But, dude, you are saying you can't do anything else if you vote for Trump. That's the dumb part.

CW: Yesterday I wrote that Paul Manafort resigned in a way that threw mud in the face of the campaign, which two days earlier had claimed that Trump was just adding top staff, not "shaking up" his campaign. Why, here's Pam Key of Breitbart "News": "Wednesday on Fox News..., new campaign manager to ... Donald Trump Kellyanne Conway said the changes in Trump's staff are not a shake-up, just an attempt to expand the senior team that allows us to meet the needs." Surely Steve Bannon -- who owns Breitbart -- & Conway would not report some kind of embarrassing fiction about the campaign. ...

     ... Well, ha ha ha, yes they would. ...

... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Donald Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said former campaign chair Paul Manafort was asked to resign on Friday. She noted that the decision was mutual, but said the last couple weeks on the Trump campaign had been tumultuous." ...

     ... So it wasn't Manafort who undercut the Trump campaign's story du jour; it was Trump. These people have no idea what they're doing from day-to-day. No idea.

Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don't choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that, and I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues. But one thing I can promise you is this: I will always tell you the truth. -- Donald Trump, full non-apology apology, Thursday ...

... James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "After more than a year of refusing to budge as he moved from one firestorm to the next..., [Donald Trump] surprised everyone Thursday night by declaring that he lives with some 'regret.' But while he expressed remorse for the first time since getting into the presidential race 14 months ago, he steered clear of the S-word: 'sorry.' Parsing the speech, which was read from a teleprompter, veteran campaign strategists and historians noted that Trump [was] following a path of rhetorical evasion that has been well trod by candidates in both parties. Linguists and relationship experts, meanwhile, said Trump's comments were ineffective and that his words cannot accurately be described as an 'apology.' In fact, the GOP nominee did not specify exactly who or what he was talking about." ...

... CW: As contributor Gloria wrote yesterday, "I thought he was apologising for the clap trap he spews causing 'personal pain' to himself." ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post wonders what-all it is Trump is non-apologizing for: "Most of the statements Trump has made that got him into trouble didn't come from the heat of debate.... It's odd because on so many occasions Trump has said he didn't regret making his statements." A typical Trump response to questions about his outrageous remarks: "There's no apology because what I said is right. I mean, what I said is a 100 percent right." Bump runs down a laundry list of similar refusals to apologize & "I was 100 percent right" assertions. ...

     ... CW: I sure wish Trump would sink deeper in the polls (I think he'll tick upward, at least for a while), because absent my real fear & loathing of a Trump presidency, laughing at a bloviating buffoon who would despise me if he knew me is a real pleasure. There's a certain symmetry to Trump's hiring a campaign Manager-of-the-Month who made a bundle on "Seinfeld" rerun rights when Trump himself is a character even more over-the-top than the George & Kramer characters. Bump's list, if viewed in the context of Trump as sitcom, is amusing.

** Matt Yglesias of Vox: "... Trump is opting for the self-flattering theory that what's needed is to let Trump be Trump.... As Trump aims to become the Trumpiest Trump that he can be, he's increasingly surrounding himself with media figures [like Steve Bannon & Roger Ailes, not with businessmen].... Trump really was a businessman for a while, a real estate developer and then a casino mogul, but he was bad at it.... Instead of a business all-star team [advising his campaign], Trump is giving us retreats from far-right media. It all comes as a reminder of a fundamental truth of this campaign: Trump isn't really a businessman in the conventional sense anymore, and hasn't been for some time. He's a television star.... " -- CW

Hackable Trump. Brian Feldman of New York: "While Donald Trump pleads with Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's email accounts, the GOP candidate narrowly avoided his own cybersecurity fiasco. As engineer Shu Uesugi pointed out, Trump's donation page was susceptible to an injection attack (until yesterday; Uesugi's post brought about a quick fix).... In fact, after the exploit was publicized, someone submitted an 'URGENT FIX' which would have changed the background of the page to an image of Trump and Putin making out. In the grand scheme of possible hacks, that's not so bad." ...

... CW: In other words, Trump's site was so easily hackable that someone hacked it within minutes of learning of its vulnerability. And notice that what was vulnerable was donor information. It might or might not have hurt Trump, but a greedy hacker likely could have accessed the credit accounts of the unsuspecting dimwits who contributed to his campaign. MEANWHILE, one of Trump's major raisons de running is that he will "make America safe again." Yet his staff of "the best people" can't even keep his fans safe from Trump himself.

Beyond the Beltway

Megan Cassidy of the Arizona Republic: "A federal judge on Friday referred Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and three of his aides to the U.S. Attorney's Office, requesting that they be prosecuted for criminal contempt of court.​ The landmark decision comes after U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow found that Arpaio intentionally violated various orders rooted in an 8-year-old racial-profiling case. The judge's order also refers Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, Arpaio's former defense attorney Michele Iafrate, and Capt. Steve Bailey for prosecutors to consider criminal contempt charges against them as well.... Criminal contempt could result in incarceration." -- CW

Reuters: "The Texas court of criminal appeals on Friday halted an execution planned for next week of a man convicted as an accomplice to a murder he did not commit in a case that raised questions about how the state applies the death penalty. Jeffery Wood, 43, was scheduled to be executed on 24August by lethal injection. He was convicted of taking part in a 1996 convenience store robbery during which clerk Kriss Keeran was fatally shot. In its decision, the appeals court asked a lower court to review his sentence and claims from Wood's lawyer that it was obtained in violation of due process because it was based on false testimony and false scientific evidence." -- CW

Jeremy Stahl of Slate: "Ryan Lochte apologized on Friday 'for not being more careful and candid' in describing what he called a robbery and police have called a drunken confrontation with gas station security guards.... We accept and appreciate his apology,' said Mario Andrada, spokesman for the local organizers of the Rio Games.... Lochte ... does not address how much and what elements of his story ... he wasn't fully 'candid' about.... Lochte does not confess to having misstated anything, which it's now clear that he did." -- CW ...

... The Ugly Americans, Ctd. ... Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post: "The worst part of this is that Lochte's tone comes straight from the American top. Oh, USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun issued his own well-meaning apology, and so did USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus. But they, like Lochte, seem to think his ultimate offense was stealing attention from other Olympians.... None of them gets it.... Here is what is missing from Lochte's apology. Any sign of manners. Any sign of humility. Any sign of real regret." CW: If you want to know why I try to dress like a local when I travel abroad, and why I'm super-polite & apologetic for my piss-poor language skills, one big reason is because too many Americans act like Lochte, et al. when they're away from home.

The Commentariat -- August 19, 2016

Presidential Race

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are scheduled to appear on the same stage early next month at a 'commander-in-chief forum' devoted to national security, military affairs and veterans issues. The Democratic and Republican presidential nominees will appear back-to-back Sept. 7 in New York at an event sponsored by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and broadcast live in prime time on NBC and MSNBC, the sponsors announced Thursday.... Forum organizers said Clinton and Trump will field questions from NBC News personnel as well as an audience consisting mainly of military veterans and active service members. CW: Should provide sort of preview of how Clinton & Trump will negotiate the presidential debates.

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Facing criticism for some of the donations given to his family's philanthropy, Bill Clinton said on Thursday that the Clinton Foundation would no longer accept foreign or corporate funds should Hillary Clinton win the presidency in November. Mr. Clinton's decision, which the former president relayed to foundation employees in a meeting on Thursday, followed the recent release of State Department emails mentioning several donors to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation who had contacts with aides to Mrs. Clinton while she was secretary of state.... During the meeting with staff members in New York, Mr. Clinton explained that should Mrs. Clinton win in November, the charity will be reorganized and rely only on contributions from United States citizens and independent charities...." -- CW

Amy Chozick: "Pressed by the F.B.I. about her email practices at the State Department, Hillary Clinton told investigators that former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had advised her to use a personal email account. The account is included in the notes the Federal Bureau of Investigation handed over to Congress on Tuesday, relaying in detail the three-and-a-half-hour interview with Mrs. Clinton in early July that led to the decision by James B. Comey, the bureau's director, not to pursue criminal charges against her." CW: Huh, sounds like this leak comes from Democrats. ...

... Julian Hattem of the Hill: "House Republicans are doubling down in their effort to bring perjury charges against Hillary Clinton over her testimony last year to the House Select Committee on Benghazi. GOP lawmakers have claimed that the Democratic presidential nominee broke the law by lying under oath about her private email setup during her marathon appearance in October. Next month, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee plan to make the issue a central part of a hearing with senior officials from the FBI, a committee aide said on Thursday. Legally, the GOP faces a tough case. Politically, however, raising the perjury allegations would be a way to keep the issue of Clinton's truthfulness in the public eye throughout the fall as she battles Republican nominee Donald Trump for the White House." -- CW

** NEW. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Paul Manafort, installed as the chief strategist for Donald J. Trump's campaign after the firing of his original campaign manager, handed in his resignation on Friday morning. Mr. Manafort left nearly a week after a New York Times report about tumult within the Republican presidential nominee's campaign helped precipitate a leadership shake-up.... Mr. Manafort was also dogged by reports about secretive efforts he made to help the former pro-Russian government in Ukraine.... Mr. Manafort's deputy, Rick Gates, is expected to remain on the campaign, for now...." -- CW ...

     ... CW: Manafort appears to have purposely stomped all over the Trump campaign's assertion from two whole days ago that hiring Bannon & Conway was not a "campaign shake-up." Since Trump reportedly wasn't paying Manafort, Manafort could have maintained the steady-ship fiction by just not showing up for work, or popping in only occasionally to check his messages.

Nick Gass of Politico: "The office of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards [D] signaled that Donald Trump is welcome to visit Louisiana in the wake of destructive flooding, but ... 'not for a photo-op.'... Edwards ... also said Thursday night that he would prefer that Obama wait at least a week to visit. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway on Friday called the visit of the Republican nominee and running mate Gov. Mike Pence 'presidential' and 'a decidedly nonpolitical event, no press allowed, going to help people on the ground who are in need.'" -- CW

He's Sorry for ... Something. Jose DelReal, et al., of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump on Thursday expressed regret over causing 'personal pain' through ill-chosen words he has used 'in the heat of debate,' an unexpected and uncharacteristic declaration of remorse for a candidate whose public persona is defined by his combative and bombastic style.... Speaking Thursday [during a campaign rally in Charlotte, N.C.], Trump did not specify what he regretted during his speech Thursday and did not directly apologize to anyone. Trump tore into [Hillary] Clinton during his speech, which he read from prepared remarks on a teleprompter, and called on her to apologize for 'one lie after another.'" -- CW ...

... "Trump's Teleprompter Regret." Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "'Donald Trump literally started his campaign by insulting people,' Clinton deputy communications director Christina Reynolds said in a statement. 'He has continued to do so through each of the 428 days from then until now, without shame or regret,' she continued. 'We learned tonight that his speechwriter and teleprompter knows he has much for which he should apologize.... But that apology tonight is simply a well-written phrase until he tells us which of his many offensive, bullying and divisive comments he regrets — and changes his tune altogether.'" -- CW ...

... The Long-Awaited "Pivot"? Nope. Greg Sargent: "This morning, Trump released his first general election ad, an ugly and dishonest production which shows he isn't changing a thing. In fact, the new ad is filled with precisely the same sort of dark, dystopian themes and content -- and even some of the same sort of grainy, dark footage depicting illegal immigrants as invaders -- that marked one of the first ads he ran during the GOP primaries." CW: Read on. The ad itself, is embedded below, via Sargent. ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "Donald Trump's campaign rolled out its first general election ad Friday, part of a buy totaling approximately $4 million in battleground states where he is currently trailing Hillary Clinton." -- CW ...

... CW: The Trump campaign has not posted its ad on YouTube. I embedded a copy of the ad, which an individual had put up on YouTube only three minutes before I copied the code. Minutes later, the Trump campaign took down the YouTube video with a notice that "This video is private." This is the first time in my experience that a campaign has removed an unaltered ad from YouTube, For some reason, most candidates want as many people as possible to see their ads. The Trump campaign seems to be living in a dark, conspiratorial world where even positive coverage is sinister. Yeah, they're nuts. ...

     ... Update: The Washington Post made its own copy:

... ** Brian Beutler: "Donald Trump is bad at politics.... Case in point: On Wednesday night, Trump returned in characteristically Freudian fashion to Sean Hannity's show on Fox News and announced he would forcibly remove not just immigrants, but citizens from the U.S. if they're found to have extremist views.... Kicking citizens out of the United States for having extreme ideological views is unconstitutional.... This was, in essence, the point Khizr Khan was making at the Democratic convention three weeks ago when he asked Trump, 'Have you even read the United States Constitution?'... Based on a number of things Trump has said -- including that the Constitution has (at least) twelve articles (it has seven) -- Khan was on solid ground." Also, Mark Halperin is an idiot. -- CW

To defeat crime and radical Islamic terrorism in our country, to win trade in our country, you need tremendous physical and mental strength and stamina. Hillary Clinton doesn't have that strength and stamina. -- Donald Trump, speech in West Bend, Wis., Aug. 16

Importantly, she also lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS. -- Trump, speech in Youngstown, Ohio, Aug. 15

Given Trump's poor track record with the facts, it should be little surprise that, through innuendo, he is trying to surface debunked Internet rumors from the fringes of the right. But these are also half-baked, ridiculous and easily disproved, making it especially shocking that he would try to highlight them in prepared speeches.... Trump has claimed twice, without proof, that Clinton lacks the physical and mental stamina to be president. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

To give you an idea how generous Kessler is to Trump, he gives credence to that phony "letter from my doctor" Trump released last December. -- Constant Weader

The Phake Philanthropist. David Fahrenthold & Alice Crites of the Washington Post: Numerous times, during taping of his TV show "Celebrity Apprentice," Donald Trump promised to write personal checks to the charities for which the "celebrities" were appearing. "He didn't.... On-air, Trump seemed to be explicit that this wasn't TV fakery: The money he was giving was his own. 'Out of my wallet,' Trump said in one case. 'Out of my own account,' he said in another. But, when the cameras were off, the payments came from other people's money. In some cases..., Trump's 'personal' promise was paid off by a production company. Other times, it was paid off by a nonprofit that Trump controls, whose coffers are largely filled with other donors' money." -- CW

Trump of the Alt-Right. Ultra-conservative Ben Shapiro, in the Washington Post: "Conservatives joked openly for months about 'Trumpbart' and the transformation of Breitbart.com into, essentially, Bannon.com, but it was still something of a surprise that Trump would so publicly embrace [Steve] Bannon, a man who helped transform a mainstream conservative website into a cesspool of the alt-right.... The takeover [of the Republican party], now a virtual fait accompli, represents the dangerous seizure of the conservative movement by the alt-right.... Trump himself has flirted with the alt-right for months.... Like Breitbart[.com], Trump will continue to tacitly embrace the alt-right, hoping, presumably, that adherents of its worldview will propel his campaign in the same way it has boosted Breitbart's traffic by millions of monthly page views." -- CW ...

... Gene Robinson: "Shaken by the fact that he's losing, Donald Trump has fled into the parallel universe of the extreme right [[ and apparently plans to stay there for the remainder of the campaign.... [New campaign guru Steve] Bannon runs Breitbart News, a website that creates its own ultranationalist far-right reality -- one that often bears little resemblance to the world as it really is. As I write, the site is claiming that Hillary Clinton has some serious undisclosed health problem (her doctor says she is just fine), that one of Clinton's aides has 'very clear ties' to radical Islam (which is totally untrue) and that Clinton herself has 'clear ties' to Russian President Vladimir Putin (when in fact it is Trump who often reveals his man-crush on the Russian leader).... So if anyone was wondering whether this election cycle could get any worse for the GOP, it just did." -- CW

Sez Who? Margaret Hartmann synthesizes the state-of-mind of the Trump camp. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jeff Horwitz & Chad Day of the AP: "A firm run by Donald Trump's campaign chairman [Paul Manafort] directly orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine's then-ruling political party, attempting to sway American public opinion in favor of the country's pro-Russian government, emails obtained by The Associated Press show. Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, never disclosed their work as foreign agents as required under federal law.... Another goal: undercutting American public sympathy for [Yulia Tymoshenko,] the imprisoned rival of Ukraine's then-president. At the time, European and American leaders were pressuring Ukraine to free her.... None of the firms [DMP International LLC., Mercury, or the Podesta Group], nor Manafort or Gates, disclosed their work to the Justice Department counterespionage division responsible for tracking the lobbying of foreign governments." -- CW

Jen Kirby of New York: "Life-size statues of a completely naked Donald Trump rose in New York's Union Square, along with public spaces in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Seattle. And yes, the artist buys into the whole 'little hands' theory....The project is called 'The Emperor Has No Balls,' and indeed Naked Donalds lacks those reproductive organs.... Naked Donald Trump lasted about two hours in Union Square, according to DNAinfo, before being felled by Parks Department employees.... The Parks Department ... told us: 'NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small.'" Thanks to Jeanne B. for the lead. -- CW ...

... Peter Holley of the Washington Post: "... members of the anarchist collective INDECLINE decided they would showcase the aspirant president in the most humiliating way they could imagine: without his clothes.... The job of conceptualizing and creating the statues fell to a man who goes by the name 'Ginger,' a Las Vegas-based artist. Ginger told The Post that he has a long history of designing monsters for haunted houses and horror movies." -- CW

... You're welcome. -- CW

She's Not a Doctor, But She Plays One on TV. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The Trump campaign's concerted effort to pump up questions about Hillary Clinton's health using innuendo and unfounded speculation now includes an official diagnosis: dysphasia. [Trump] spokeswoman [Katrina Pierson] alleged Thursday that Clinton suffers from the language disorder, with which she has never been diagnosed.... Pierson in this case appears to be passing along the kind of conspiracy theory website content that has colored so much of the Trump campaign.... Pierson's dysphasia diagnosis is clearly part of a cynical effort to raise questions about Clinton's health -- an effort that is taking place outside the bounds of what's generally been acceptable in a presidential campaign." -- CW

"I Fired the Jews." Marisa Taylor & William Douglas of McClatchy News: "Allegations of anti-Semitism have surfaced against one of Donald Trump’s foreign policy advisers, raising further questions about the guidance the Republican presidential nominee is receiving. Joseph Schmitz, named as one of five advisers by the Trump campaign in March, is accused of bragging when he was Defense Department inspector general a decade ago that he pushed out Jewish employees.... All three people who have cited the remarks, including one who testified under oath about them, have pending employment grievances with the federal government.... The revelations feed two themes that his opponent Hillary Clinton has used to erode Trump's credibility: That he is a foreign policy neophyte, and that his campaign, at times, has offended Jews and other minorities." -- CW ...

... digby: "I'm beginning to think we needn't worry about his 'extreme, extreme, vetting' because this man couldn't vet his way out of a paper bag. Of course it's just as likely that he did vet this fellow and found his anti-Semitic qualifications to be sterling." -- CW ...

... Steve M. has more on Schmidt's family tree. -- CW ...

... CW: Akhilleus writes in today's Comments that Trump played Not-Hitler for a day. Turns out Trump outsourced that job to an advisor. (Here, I was going to write something Schmidt said. But what he said was too sickening to type.)

CW: So many GOP operatives have announced they won't vote for Trump or will vote for Clinton that I have quit linking to the stories. But here's a funny one. Paulina Firozi of the Hill: "Ivanka Trump's brother-in-law will not be voting for the Republican nominee. In a profile in Esquire magazine of Ivanka's husband Jared Kushner, a spokesman said that his younger brother Josh Kushner was a 'lifelong Democrat' and 'would not be voting for Donald Trump in November.' The magazine did not specify whether Josh Kushner planned to vote for Hillary Clinton ."

Other News & Views

David Sanger of the New York Times: "The State Department conceded for the first time on Thursday that it delayed making a $400 million payment to Iran for several hours in January 'to retain maximum leverage' and assure that three American prisoners were released the same day. For months the Obama administration had maintained that the payment was part of a settlement over an old dispute and did not amount to a 'ransom' for the release of the Americans.... But at a briefing on Thursday, John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, said the United States 'took advantage of the leverage' it felt it had that weekend in mid-January to obtain the release of the hostages and 'to make sure they got out safely and efficiently.'... The acknowledgment by Mr. Kirby on Thursday touched off a torrent of criticism from Republicans." CW: That would be because the entire Republican party is a playpen for whiney babies who can't stand it when the Obama administration effects good outcomes.

Lizette Alvarez & Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "A cluster of Zika cases most likely transmitted by local mosquitoes has been identified in Miami Beach, and federal and state officials are considering whether to advise pregnant women to avoid traveling to the city and possibly even all of Miami-Dade County, a health official said Thursday." -- CW ...

... Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "... in a study in mice, researchers have found evidence that suggests adult brain cells critical to learning and memory also might be susceptible to the Zika virus." -- CW

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the government. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced the decision on Thursday in a memo that instructs officials to either decline to renew the contracts for private prison operators when they expire or 'substantially reduce' the contracts' scope." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Pema Levy of Mother Jones: "The announcement comes on the heels of a Mother Jones investigation of a private prison in Louisiana that found serious deficiencies in staffing and security. It also documented a higher rate of violence than the prison reported. Last week's DOJ report found that private prisons are more violent than federal prisons. As of December 2015, private prisons incarcerated about 22,600 federal inmates. The news of the DOJ's decision prompted a quick downturn in stock prices for the two largest private prison companies." -- CW ...

... Maurice Chammah of the Marshall Project details some facts & implications of the administration's decision. BTW, "Donald Trump has said, 'I do think we can do a lot of privatizations and private prisons. It seems to work a lot better.'" As president, he could reverse the DOJ's decision, announced today. -- CW

The Trouble with ObamaCare -- Republicans. Paul Krugman: "...there's nothing wrong with Obamacare that couldn't be fairly easily fixed with a bit of bipartisan cooperation. The only thing that makes this hard is the blocking power of politicians who want reform to fail." CW: Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) is a world-class jerk, but he was right about the "Republican health care plan: die quickly." Every Democrat should (and should have) run against the God's Option Party; i.e., if the Lord wants you to get sick and die, sucker, amen, amen, amen.

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. J.K. Trotter of Gawker: "After nearly fourteen years of operation, Gawker.com will be shutting down next week. The decision to close Gawker comes days after Univision successfully bid $135 million for Gawker Media's six other websites, and four months after the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel revealed his clandestine legal campaign against the company. Nick Denton, the company's outgoing CEO, informed current staffers of the site's fate on Thursday afternoon, just hours before a bankruptcy court in Manhattan will decide whether to approve Univision's bid for Gawker Media's other assets. Staffers will soon be assigned to other editorial roles, either at one of the other six sites or elsewhere within Univision." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Gawker and its writers, despite some steps backward, made the web better. It made the web what it is." -- CW ...

... Will Oremus of Slate: "Who would dare [to call out Silicon Valley excesses], now that [tech billionaire Peter] Thiel has set a precedent for Silicon Valley's ruling class to wield their fortunes to exact revenge on publications that offend them? Who would want to, now that he has successfully made the Gawker mothership so toxic that a new owner would rather shutter it than keep the lights on?" -- CW

** Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker: "To some researchers who've studied sexual harassment..., the Fox News scenario doesn't look like that much of an outlier. For one thing, some studies have found that women in positions of authority, especially in workplaces that are dominated by men, may be more likely to experience sexual harassment than women in lower-status positions.... [One researcher, Heather McLaughlin,] says that these findings make sense because she believes workplace sexual harassment isn't really about sex; it's about power.... The allegations of sexual harassment at Fox News ... are a reminder of what a serious disruption harassment can be to a career." -- CW ...

... CW: As anyone who has been the victim of unfair treatment -- that is, probably everybody -- knows, the effects of the victimizating act most often don't end with the incident but can be life-altering.

Beyond the Beltway

Frank Main & Fran Spielman of the Chicago Sun-Times: "Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson is seeking to fire seven officers -- including the partner of Officer Jason Van Dyke -- for allegedly lying in their accounts of what happened in Van Dyke's fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald. Johnson originally planned to announce Thursday that he would move to fire eight of the 10 officers that city inspector general had recommended for termination, but one of them then retired. Another one, Deputy Chief David McNaughton, had retired on Monday." -- CW

Way Beyond

Simon Romero of the New York Times: "In his original account [to NBC News], [U.S. swimmer Ryan] Lochte said the [taxi in which he & three other U.S. swimmers were riding] had been pulled over by armed men, one of whom put a gun against his head before taking the cash from his wallet. But police investigators said Thursday that Mr. Lochte and the others had acted more like small-minded vandals than the victims they claimed to be. Making a stop around 6 a.m. Sunday at a Shell gas station, the men were obviously drunk, the station's owner said. The[y] broke a soap dispenser in the bathroom, damaged a door, tore down a sign and urinated around the premises, the owner told reporters.... [Swimmers Gunnar] Bentz and [Jack] Conger, who were pulled off their plane by the police on Wednesday in Rio, offered testimony on Thursday that contradicted Mr. Lochte's accounts, police investigators said." -- CW ...

... Dave Sheinin & Dom Phillips of the Washington Post: "While decorated American swimmer Ryan Lochte remained safely in the United States, his three American teammates, blocked from leaving Rio de Janeiro by Brazilian authorities, faced additional questioning Thursday as Lochte's harrowing story of an armed robbery at gunpoint Sunday morning began to unravel.... Several media outlets Thursday reported the existence of a surveillance video from a Rio de Janeiro gas station early Sunday showing Lochte and his teammates damaging property. The Daily Mail, a British news outlet, reported -- citing Brazilian police -- that Lochte and the other swimmers refused to pay for the damage until a security guard waved a gun at them and demanded payment. Brazilian news outlet O Globo reported, also citing police sources, that Lochte and his teammates urinated on the gas station's building and vandalized the property." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Julia Jacobo & Emily Shapiro of ABC News: "The U.S. Olympic Committee Thursday night apologized to Brazil for the 'distracting ordeal' stemming from what Brazilian authorities call a fabricated claim of a gunpoint robbery by a group of swimmers in Rio de Janeiro. 'The behavior of these athletes is not acceptable, nor does it represent the values of Team USA or the conduct of the vast majority of its members,' the statement said. 'We will further review the matter, and any potential consequences for the athletes, when we return to the United States.' Their behavior was also blasted by the head of USA Swimming, Chuck Wielgus Thursday night.... On Thursday, police in Rio de Janeiro recommended that U.S. Olympic swimmers Ryan Lochte and James Feigen face charges of false reporting of a crime, a civil police spokesperson said." -- CW ...

... Matt Bonesteel of the Washington Post: "Jimmy Feigen, who has been accused by Brazilian authorities of fabricating a robbery claim along with Ryan Lochte and two other U.S. swimming teammates, will pay about $10,800 to an unnamed Brazilian charity and then leave the country, his attorney told the Associated Press early Friday. According to attorney Breno Melaragno, Brazilian law allows people charged with minor offenses to make a donation to charity to avoid criminal prosecution." -- CW

... Mark Giannatto of the Washington Post: "Sérgio Riera, the lawyer who succeeded in getting American swimmers Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger permission from a judge to leave Brazil on Wednesday night, told The Post's Dom Phillips that his clients had not lied to police about an alleged robbery involving American swimming star Ryan Lochte on Sunday night.... 'They did not lie. They did not talk to the press.... They did not go to the police station and they were not told to appear at the police station,' Riera said in an interview once both men had gone through check-in at Rio's international airport.... They knew it was a lie. But they did not have to go public,' Riera said. 'They thought this would be forgotten. They did not think it would have a more serious consequence.'" -- CW ...

... Scott Allen of the Washington Post: "How Ryan Lochte's robbery story went from unbelievable to simply not believable." -- CW ...

... Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post: "Ryan Lochte is the dumbest bell that ever rang. The 32-year-old swimmer is so landlocked in juvenility that he pulled an all-nighter with guys young enough to call him uncle. His story to NBC's Billy 'what-are-you-wearing' Bush had the quality of a kid exaggerating the size of a fish, and notice how he was the hero of every detail.... There is a special category of obnoxious American 'bro' that Lochte represents, in his T-shirt and jeans and expensive suede footwear, which he showed off on social media that night at the party along with the price tag. 'We're 6k deep here,' he captioned it. Is there anything Is there anything worse, in any country, than a bunch of entitled young drunks who break the furniture and pee on a wall?" -- CW ...

... CW: As much as I hate to make comments about people's personal appearances (unless about someone like Donald Trump who has made a career of demeaning other people's looks), let me just say that if Lochte is not as dumb as Jenkins lets on and thus can memorize lines & find his marks, he looks like the perfect guy to play the cruel Nazi lieutenant in low-budget movies about WWII. My apologies to any readers who look something like Lochte, but do think about dying your hair a darker color & committing your life to good works.

News Lede

New York Times: "Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., a soldier's soldier who lied about his age to enlist in the service, won his commission on a battlefield in World War II and became a four-star general and then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Reagan administration, died Thursday night at his home in North Oaks, Minn. He was 94." -- CW