The Commentariat -- Sept. 12, 2016

Presidential Race

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Eli Stokols & Hadas Gold of Politico: "... news organizations are still struggling to square their approach to covering two candidates who couldn't be more different.... The result, Hillary Clinton's advisers lament and news executives admit, is a wide gap in what the public expects --- and accepts as credible -- from the country's top two presidential candidates. Trump's bar is undeniably far lower than Clinton's." CW: This is a straight news report and, especially for Politico, is surprisingly candid about the media's coverage of the race, even if the subhead misrepresents the thrust of the content.

E.J. Dionne makes the case (which isn't all that difficult) that Hillary Clinton is the "faith-based" candidate in this race. CW: This kind of argument makes me uncomfortable, but Dionne does somewhat explain a major difference between liberal theology (love) & fundamentalist theology (fear & trembling). Another element of fundamentalism that Dionne doesn't touch is the exclusionary nature of fundamentalist belief: people (including children) who don't embrace their specific form of Christianity are all going to hell & these "other" people are scary heathens. ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... like a long-suffering spouse, the Christian Right is sticking with Donald Trump ... because he is convincingly the enemy of its enemies and is willing to make a few key gestures in the direction of the righteous, albeit in a clumsy and offhand way. None of the Christian conservative leaders who have made opposition to Trump (e.g., Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention) a matter of conscience were allowed near the podium of the [Values Voter Summit this weekend in Washington, D.C]." -- CW: And let's be fair -- a pile (no percentage specified) of so-called Christian conservatives are racists, though probably not so often of the overt, supremacist ilk. ...

... Greg Sargent: "Clinton did err to some degree, particularly in making the precise claim that 'half' of Trump's supporters are driven by Islamophobia, sexism, or racism..., which is also the part that she subsequently walked back, while allowing the rest of her comments to stand. But Clinton's underlying case -- that Trump is running a campaign fueled in part by bigoted appeals, and in the process, he is mainstreaming fringe sentiments -- is simply inarguable. And forcing a public discussion of that aspect of her argument in particular isn't necessarily a political loser for her." -- CW

Jonathan Martin & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton on Sunday abruptly left a ceremony in New York marking the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks before it concluded because she became 'overheated,' according to a campaign spokesman.... Mrs. Clinton had arrived at the commemoration event around 8 a.m. and left at about 9:30. But for over an hour after that, her campaign would not offer any information about why she left early or where she was.... At about 11:40 a.m., Mrs. Clinton, wearing sunglasses, emerged from [her daughter's] apartment in New York's Flatiron district. She waved to onlookers and posed for pictures with a little girl on the sidewalk. 'I'm feeling great,' Mrs. Clinton said. 'It's a beautiful day in New York.'... Video from the event taken by an attendee captured Mrs. Clinton struggling to steady herself and then stumbling as she stepped off a curb. She required assistance from two Secret Service agents to get into her van. The video, which was posted on Twitter, immediately ricocheted across the internet." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... New Lede: "Hillary Clinton on Sunday abruptly left a ceremony in New York marking the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and a video appeared to show her struggling to maintain her balance as a pair of Secret Service agents lifted her into a van. The incident, according to a statement from her physician, was related to pneumonia and dehydration." -- CW ...

Abby Phillip & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Clinton's campaign issued a statement from her doctor later Sunday revealing that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia two days earlier. 'Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies,' Dr. Lisa R. Bardack said in the statement. 'On Friday, during follow up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this morning's event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely.'A planned trip to California and Nevada wearly this week is now under review." -- CW ...

     ... Update. Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "At 10:16 p.m., the campaign said that 'Clinton will not be traveling to California tomorrow or Tuesday.' Clinton was scheduled to raise cash in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, and her campaign had previewed that she would also deliver a speech on the economy Tuesday. Clinton's Wednesday trip to Las Vegas is, for now, still on her schedule. Around midnight, however, fundraisers who were planning to attend Clinton's San Francisco event on Monday received an email saying the event is still on, but that Clinton would now appear via teleconference. Frustration with the Clinton campaign's handling of the incident boiled over among political journalists on Twitter." CW: Yo, "journalists": Boo-fucking-hoo.

... Ezra Klein: "Will [Bardack's statement] quiet speculation about Clinton's health, particularly amongst those who were certain the candidate was hiding a serious illness even before she exhibited symptoms? I doubt it.... It's very, very hard for me to believe that anyone keeping [the] kind of schedule [Clinton has kept], for this long, is secretly ill.... Bardack's note fits the evidence we have a lot better than the wild conspiracy theories we've heard." -- CW ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. The Mainstream Media? Not So Much. Laurel Raymond of Think Progress: "Pivoting off of conspiracy theories that have been playing out in the media for weeks now..., news networks immediately seized upon Clinton's departure and began speculating about larger questions about her health." CW: Raymond cites some right-wing media like Fox "News" & the New York Pest, as well as CNN & NBC, but the Washington Post (that jerk Chris Cillizza) & Politico (Annie Karni) are just as bad. This is how the nut jobs drive the news. As Raymond points out, "President George W. Bush ... once fainted after choking on a pretzel, while his father fainted at state dinner in Japan (he had the flu). At the time, Bush (I)'s doctor said 'The President is human; he gets sick.'" ...

... CW: So far (Sunday afternoon) Trump is behaving himself on this. We'll see what happens. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update. Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "... Donald Trump early Monday weighed in on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's pneumonia diagnosis, saying 'something's going on.' 'I hope she gets well soon. I don't know what's going on,' Trump said on 'Fox & Friends.' 'Like you, I see what I see...Something's going on but I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail and we'll be seeing her at the debate.'... Trump said Monday he thinks health is an issue now and he plans to release some medical records soon." -- CW ...

     ... CW: Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. If you think New York Times coverage is "fair and balanced," read Savransky's report in the Hill, then look at how the Times covered that same Trump call-in interview on Fox "News": Alan Rappeport: "Donald J. Trump tried to strike a magnanimous tone about the illness that overtook Hillary Clinton this weekend, saying on Monday that he hopes his rival for the presidency recovers soon from a bout of pneumonia and promising to release his own detailed health report this week. 'I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail and we'll be seeing her at the debate,' Mr. Trump said on Fox News." That's it for the Fox "News" report. Several grafs down, Rappeport does note a refrain from the "Something's Going On" theme song when Trump spoke to CNBC later this morning. See also the discussion in today's Comments. Those by Akhilleus, Marvin S. & me were all written before the Times published Rappeport's "report" about Trump's "try[ing] to strike a magnanimous tone." ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Surprise! Donald Trump suggests he still has doubts about Clinton's health explanation.... Appearing on CNBC, Trump ... suggested quite strongly that a pneumonia diagnosis, which the Clinton campaign announced Sunday, two days after it was diagnosed, might not be the whole story. 'You know, it was interesting because they say pneumonia on Friday, but she was coughing very, very badly a week ago, and even before that, if you remember. This wasn't the first time,' Trump said. 'So it's very interesting to see what is going on.'... And he seemed to hint, while saying that campaigning is 'grueling work,' that Clinton's campaigning wasn't nearly as demanding as his. 'If you look at my scheduling and compare to anybody else's scheduling, there's not a contest.' These comments were tossed into a bunch of boilerplate about Trump wanting Clinton to feel better and return to the campaign trail. But it's classic Trump: He's suggesting something is amiss without saying it directly." -- CW ...

... Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "A day after Hillary Clinton fell ill at a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York, Donald Trump announced on Monday that he underwent a physical last week and will release 'very, very specific' results this week. 'Hopefully they're going to be good. I think they're going to be good,' Trump said on Fox News on Monday morning." CW: Wait! Wait! Why didn't we hear about this sooner? Trump had a physical way last week and we didn't hear about it till Monday??? Something's going on. ...

... CW: Republicans should have nominated Marco Rubio. He has a real case against Clinton: he knows how to hydrate in all situations:

... AND There's This. Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "Embattled ex-pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli showed up outside of Chelsea Clinton's New York City apartment Sunday to taunt Hillary Clinton.... After resting at her daughter's apartment, she emerged, telling reporters she felt great. Shkreli stood outside yelling and telling her to drop out of the presidential race. 'Do you need pharma bro's help?' Shkreli yelled at Clinton, according to a video he posted on YouTube." -- CW

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "At 58 percent, [President] Obama's approval is 15 points higher than it was on the eve of the 2014 elections, where his party got blown out. Hillary Clinton's hope is that the reversal of opinions on Obama two years later will also lead to a reversal of fortunes for other Democrats -- and there's reason to think that it will." -- CW

There is no failed policy more in need of urgent change than our government-run education monopoly. -- Donald Trump in an "education" speech, Thursday ...

... Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "With that line..., Donald Trump placed himself firmly in the camp of school 'reformers' who want to break up the public education system in America. Trump declared his intent to use public funds for students to attend private schools and to promote the growth of charter schools, employing the language of Republicans who refuse to call public schools public schools and instead refer to them as 'government-run education monopolies.' (Former Florida governor Jeb Bush is a leader in this, often calling public schools 'government-run monopolies run by unions.'" What's more, Trump made his speech at a scandal-plagued Cleveland, Ohio, charter school that also has done a worse job at educating students than the local public schools. -- CW

Former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell & former Undersecretary of Defense Mike Vickers, in a Washington Post "open letter," try to explain Vladimir Putin to Donald Trump. Somehow, I don't think Donaldovich will heed the message. ...

... ** Paul Krugman does quite a nice job of explaining what a lousy leader Vladimir Putin is: "When Mr. Trump and others praise Mr. Putin as a 'strong leader,' they don't mean that he has made Russia great again, because he hasn't. He has accomplished little on the economic front, and his conquests, such as they are, are fairly pitiful. What he has done, however, is crush his domestic rivals: Oppose the Putin regime, and you're likely to end up imprisoned or dead. Strong!" -- CW

Theodoric Meyer of Politico: "CIA Director John Brennan pushed back against Donald Trump's claim that he could read disapproval of President Barack Obama's policies in the body language of the intelligence officers who gave him a confidential national security briefing.... Brennan said..., '"I know the briefers that have been briefing the candidates.'... Brennan said he was "fully confident" they [had not telegraphed a negative view of the President's policies]...." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Philip Bump checks on how Donald Trump's "outreach" to minority voters went: "The new Washington Post-ABC News poll allows us to see. And it went about as well as expected. The margin between Trump and Hillary Clinton in polling that included the four major candidates shows that white voters did indeed shift a bit back toward Trump -- but nonwhite voters moved further away.... Trump spent a month putting a focus on black voters and dallying briefly with softening his position on immigration in an apparent attempt to build a strong relationship with Hispanics. It didn't work." -- CW

Proud to Be Standing with White Supremacists & Nut Jobs. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump Jr., an adviser and surrogate for his father's presidential campaign, told followers on Instagram this weekend that he'd 'made the cut' as one of the 'deplorables' denounced by Hillary Clinton -- and shared an image that portrayed Donald Trump and his running mate alongside fringe radio host Alex Jones and a cartoon icon associated with the white nationalist alt-right.... The image included Jones, a conspiracy theorist, in mid-scream, alongside Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos and the cartoon frog Pepe. The latter, as the Daily Beast's Olivia Nuzzi reported in May, had been adopted by anonymous alt-right followers as a sort of mascot, sometimes portrayed in a Nazi get-up, other times with skinhead tattoos." The image was a re-tweet of a tweet by conspiracy theorist and goon Roger Stone, whom Junior didn't identify by name but called "a friend." -- CW

Other News & Views

Brian Beutler: "Hillary Clinton's ballyhooed comments at a fundraiser in Manhattan on Friday night, when she said that 'you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables,' were a Rorschach test for the political class. And perhaps the most disappointing reactions came from anti-Trump conservatives who nevertheless believe it was rude of Clinton to call his racist followers racist.... Those who wish to dislodge Trump and Trumpism from the party face an enormous challenge because for all his flaws as a candidate, he is proof of concept that performative bigotry is a ticket to a loyal following.... The entire GOP, from House Speaker Paul Ryan on down, is in a holding pattern, waiting for the results of the election to determine what their best future course will be." -- CW

Cristina Marcos & Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Congress is eyeing a short-term spending bill this week to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1 and potentially make an early getaway from Washington. The Senate will likely make the first move on a short-term appropriations bill, also known as a continuing resolution.... Over in the House, conservatives in the meantime are expected to force a vote this week on impeaching Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen in defiance of GOP leaders." CW: When you got nothin', impeach the IRS!

The Commentariat -- Sept. 11, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Jonathan Martin & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton on Sunday abruptly left a ceremony in New York marking the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks before it concluded because she became 'overheated,' according to a campaign spokesman.... Mrs. Clinton had arrived at the commemoration event around 8 a.m. and left at about 9:30. But for over an hour after that, her campaign would not offer any information about why she left early or where she was.... At about 11:40 a.m., Mrs. Clinton, wearing sunglasses, emerged from [her daughter's] apartment in New York's Flatiron district. She waved to onlookers and posed for pictures with a little girl on the sidewalk. 'I'm feeling great,' Mrs. Clinton said. 'It's a beautiful day in New York.'... Video from the event taken by an attendee captured Mrs. Clinton struggling to steady herself and then stumbling as she stepped off a curb. She required assistance from two Secret Service agents to get into her van. The video, which was posted on Twitter, immediately ricocheted across the internet." -- CW ...

... CW: So far Trump is behaving himself on this. We'll see what happens.

Theodoric Meyer of Politico: "CIA Director John Brennan pushed back against Donald Trump's claim that he could read disapproval of President Barack Obama's policies in the body language of the intelligence officers who gave him a confidential national security briefing.... Brennan said..., '"I know the briefers that have been briefing the candidates.'... Brennan said he was "fully confident" they [had not telegraphed a negative view of the President's policies]...." -- CW

*****

Kayla Epstein of the Washington Post: "The yearly ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial commemorating the victims at Ground Zero began at 8:40 a.m. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was in attendance, as were ... Hillary Clinton, who was a U.S. senator for New York when the attack occurred, and Donald Trump." -- CW

AP: "President Barack Obama is joining the nation in remembering the nearly 3,000 people who died in the Sept. 11 attacks 15 years ago. Obama is observing the somber anniversary with a moment of silence in the White House residence at 8:46 a.m. EDT. That's when the first of four hijacked airplanes slammed into the north tower of New York City's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Afterward, Obama will address a Pentagon memorial service." -- CW

Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "Christine Todd Whitman [R], who as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under George W Bush at the time of the 9/11 attacks told the public the air around Ground Zero in New York was safe to breathe, has admitted for the first time she was wrong.... Whitman made an unprecedented apology to those affected but denied she had ever lied about the air quality or known at the time it was dangerous.... A week after two hijacked passenger jets were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center..., Whitman issued a statement. It said: 'I am glad to reassure the people of New York ... that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink.'... In 2003, the EPA inspector general criticized the agency's handling of the crisis, finding that the EPA had no basis for its swift pronouncements about air quality. Politicians, including the then New York senator Hillary Clinton, laid into the Bush administration, accusing it of deceiving the public." BTW, Whitman also gets in a dig at Rudy A-Noun-a-Verb-and-9/11 Giuliani, whom she blames for allowing workers to work on Ground Zero without respirators, as the EPA recommended. CW

Renae Merle of the Washington Post: "U.S. officials tout [Medtronics] as one of America's finest [companies]. It's actually based in Ireland.... The move ... has saved Medtronic more than $3 billion in taxes and helped the company fund an acquisition spree as it emerged as the world's largest medical device maker.... What Medtronic hasn't done is give up many perks of being a U.S. company. In addition to attending U.S. trade missions, which can help it find customers, Medtronic still holds dozens of government contracts. Since its inversion, it has been awarded more than $40 million in contracts, according to federal procurement data." ...

     ... CW: Congress could fix this. Thanks to little factors like, "The firm spent a record $5.3 million on its lobbying efforts in 2014, according to Opensecrets.org, including hiring former Sens. Trent Lott and John Breaux to help defend it against anti-inversion legislation introduced in Congress." You can also see the huge advantage this practice gives to big U.S. corporations that can afford to move operations (or shell operations) to low-taxing countries.

Samantha Sunne in a Washington Post op-ed, says she was arrested, cuffed & thrown in a New York City holding cell for four hours because she had put her feet up on the seat in front of her in an A-train subway car. (She was arrested around 2:30 am, so I presume the car was nearly empty.) "I was lucky I was white.... Criminalizing small acts can have major consequences for nonwhite and low-income people, who are disproportionately arrested and convicted for these infractions.... 'The kinds of things that [people of color] get arrested for, these innocuous acts, have been virtually decriminalized among white communities,' said Robert Gangi, director of the Police Reform Organizing Project." -- CW

Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "In a windowless room in a swanky hotel half a block from the White House on Friday afternoon, three of the most visible leaders of the alt-right movement held a two-hour press conference to discuss their affection for Donald Trump and their hopes for a white homeland.... The three alt-right leaders ... made two things very clear: They think white people are genetically predisposed to be more moral and intelligent than black people, and they do not want to share their envisioned utopian ethno-state with folks of the Jewish persuasion." Um, something about whitey-white people having better "microbes in their mouths." CW: More later. I have to go get my magnifying mirror, open wide & admire my super-microbes. I bet they're swell. Meanwhile, see more below on these "hard-working, amazing" anti-Semitic, racist Trump supporters.

Presidential Race

The Clinton & Trump campaigns are on hiatus today, so we could just have a day where Trump doesn't say some crazy shit. But don't count on it.

Michael Kruse of Politico: On September 11, 2001, Donald Trump boasted that with the fall of the Twin Towers, he once again owned the tallest building in Manhattan. Also ,"A decade and a half before pledging to 'bomb the shit out of' ISIS and proposing a deportation force and a Muslim ban, Trump didn't talk about retribution or leap to conclusions about who was responsible. In fact, he avoided identifying potential enemies -- any terrorist organization or Muslims in general. He spoke cogently and even poignantly about New York's changed skyline and the need to never forget.... As nightfall approached, Hillary Clinton joined congressional colleagues on the steps of the Capitol, standing next to some of her fiercest political opponents, singing 'God Bless America' with tears in her eyes. But maybe the most surprising difference between Clinton and Trump on September 11 and in the nerve-racking days and weeks that followed: She, not he, sounded like the tougher talker." -- CW ...

Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "For decades, news organizations have refrained from releasing early results in presidential battleground states on Election Day, adhering to a strict, time-honored embargo until a majority of polls there have closed. Now, a group of data scientists, journalists and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs is seeking to upend that reporting tradition, providing detailed projections of who is winning at any given time on Election Day in key swing states.... The company spearheading the effort, VoteCastr, plans real-time projections of presidential and Senate races in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It plans to publish a map and tables of its projected results on Slate...." -- CW

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "For the anchors chosen to preside over this fall's presidential debates, the excoriation of [Matt] Lauer was a wake-up call signaling what modern viewers now expect from a moderator -- and a stark example of how media figures can become partisan flash points in a hyper-polarized election.... [Chris] Wallace raised eyebrows after saying that he did not consider fact-checking -- or 'truth-squading,' in his words -- to be a central component of his moderating role. His comments circulated again in the days after what was arguably Mr. Lauer's most memorable misstep, when he failed to challenge Mr. Trump's false claim that he had opposed the Iraq war.... There is also the presence of Mr. Trump, a candidate who freely dissembles in a manner rarely seen in a presidential campaign." ...

     ... CW Fact-Check: "Wallace raised eyebrows": No, Grynbaum, eyebrows weren't raised; ire was. "... dissembles in a manner rarely seen in a presidential campaign." How rarely? Absolutely never.

Theodoric Meyer of Politico: "Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both paused their campaign ads on Sunday, the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, a day when politics is traditionally set aside. But Clinton didn't hold back from criticizing her GOP opponent in a pre-taped interview with Chris Cuomo on CNN's 'State of the Union,' saying that Trump's rhetoric has made it harder to protect the country from future attacks. 'What unfortunately Donald Trump has done is made our job harder, and given a lot of aid and comfort to ISIS operative, even ISIS officials, who want to create this as some kind of clash of civilizations, a religious war,' Clinton said. 'It's not, and we can't let it become that.'... CNN's Jake Tapper said the network reached out to Trump about also making a Sept. 11 appearance, but that he declined." -- CW

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Republicans ... pounced Saturday on Hillary Clinton's remarks that half of Donald J. Trump's supporters fit into a 'basket of deplorables,' saying it showed she was out of touch with an economically hard-hit electorate.... By Saturday morning, #BasketofDeplorables was trending on Twitter as Mr. Trump's campaign demanded an apology.... By Saturday afternoon, Mrs. Clinton had acknowledged her stumble. 'Last night I was "grossly generalistic," and that's never a good idea,' she said in a statement. 'I regret saying "half" -- that was wrong.' She then used the opportunity to double down on her criticism of her opponent. 'It's deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia,' she said, 'and given a national platform to hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people.'" ...

... Hillary Clinton, at a fundraiser, Friday:

... CW: I think the percentage of Trump supporters who fit into that basket is greater than 50. It is impossible for a non-racist, non-sexist, etc. person to support Trump. ...

     ... Update. As I Was Saying... Judd Legum of Think Progress: "... whether Clinton is correct is a factual matter. Let's look at the polling data.... About two-thirds of Trump supporters believe Obama is a Muslim.... 59 percent of Trump supporters believe Obama was not born in the United States.... [A Reuters poll conducted in June] found that 40% of Trump supporters believed that blacks were more 'lazy' than whites and nearly 50% believed blacks were more 'violent' than whites.... A PPP poll of South Carolina voters in February found that 31 percent of Trump backers] supported banning LGBT people from the United States [& another 16% were 'not sure'].... Clinton appears to be more likely to be downplaying the issue than overstating it." -- CW ...

     ... Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic: "... nearly 60 percent of Trump's supporters hold 'unfavorable views' of Islam, and 76 percent support a ban on Muslims entering the United States." But don't expect mainstream reporters to fact-check Clinton on this: "... a reporter or an outlet pointing out the evidenced racism of Trump's supporters in response to a statement made by his rival risks being seen as having taken a side not just against Trump, not just against racism, but against his supporters too." So, report the controversy as a "both sides" story. ...

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton's assertion that half of Donald Trump's supporters fit into a 'basket of deplorables' is not something for which she needs to apologize, her Democratic running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.), said Saturday in an interview. 'She said, "Look, I'm generalizing here, but a lot of his support is coming from this odd place, that he's given a platform to the alt-right and white nationalists,"' Kaine said in an interview with The Washington Post. 'But then she went on to say, "Look, there's also a number of his supporters that have economic anxieties, and we've got to speak to those."'" -- CW ...

Americans beset by 'economic anxieties' voting for any Republican is like going to Bernie Madoff for investment advice. -- Akhilleus, in today's Comments

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "Donald Trump has not only brought haters into the mainstream, he has normalized hate for a much broader swathe of the population who were perhaps already disaffected but had their grievances and latent prejudices held in check by social norms.... Trump is in the midst of a making one of the country's two major parties into a white nationalist hate group.... This election has become a battle to combat the moral and civic cancer Trump has injecting into the body politic.... Backing down would make Clinton appear weak, accomplish nothing of value and confuse what is actually at stake in the election." -- CW ...

... Issac Bailey, in a CNN opinion piece, lists some of Trump's "deplorables." "But what's most deplorable is the knee-jerk pushback against anyone who dares point out this reality, as though exposing the deplorable is worse than the deplorable things themselves.... (Trump) has lifted [the alt-right] up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people -- now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks -- they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America,' Clinton said. Trump has lifted them up. He has given them voice.... The only debate seems to be what percentage of Trump's followers are animated by his bigotry." -- CW ...

Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of amazing, hard working people. I think it will cost her at the Polls! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet

An "amazing" (whatever that means) and "hard-working" person can be a bigot, too. -- Constant Weader

... Dave Weigel: "... in the first real test of how the quote could be weaponized, [Mike] Pence came up with a fistful of nothing." First, he lost his notes & took a while to find them. Then he couldn't read them in a way that makes sense, so his audience had no idea what he was talking about. -- CW

David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "The Donald J. Trump Foundation is not like other charities.... For one thing, nearly all of its money comes from people other than Trump. In tax records, the last gift from Trump was in 2008. Since then, all of the donations have been other people's money -- an arrangement that experts say is almost unheard of for a family foundation.... In many cases, [Trump] passes it on to other charities, which often are under the impression that it is Trump's own money. In two cases, he has used money from his charity to buy himself a gift.... Money from the Trump Foundation has also been used for political purposes, which is against the law.... Trump's foundation appears to have repeatedly broken IRS rules.... In five cases, the Trump Foundation told the IRS that it had given a gift to a charity whose leaders told The Post that they had never received it.... The Trump Foundation still gives out small, scattered gifts -- which seem driven by the demands of Trump's businesses and social life, rather than a desire to support charitable causes.... [Trump] transform[ed] the foundation from a standard-issue rich person's philanthropy into a charity that allowed a rich man to be philanthropic for free." Read the examples Fahrenthold includes. -- CW ...

... Scammer-in-Chief, Ctd. Cameron Joseph of the New York Daily News: "Donald Trump's tale about why he took $150,000 in 9/11 money is as tall as the Downtown skyscraper he says he used in recovery efforts, according to government records. Though [Trump] ... has repeatedly suggested he got that money for helping others out after the attacks, documents obtained by the Daily News show that Trump's account was just a huge lie. Records from the Empire State Development Corp., which administered the recovery program, show that Trump's company asked for those funds for 'rent loss,' 'cleanup' and 'repair' -- not to recuperate money lost in helping people.... Trump's organization was one of a number of well-heeled companies that received funds from a state program aimed at helping local businesses whose bottom lines were hurt by the terror attacks.... It's unclear what, if any, help Trump provided to those affected by 9/11." -- CW

CW: I guess this is not politicking. Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: Donald "Trump visited Ground Zero early Sunday morning, where he spoke to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and New York Rep. Peter King (R). 'Fifteen years ago, America suffered the worst terrorist attack in its history. Thousands of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and innocent American children were murdered by radical Islamic terrorists,' Trump ... said in a statement."

Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Larry King on Friday rebutted the Donald Trump campaign's assertion that the Republican candidate didn't know he had agreed to speak on Russian state television when King interviewed him." King said he was not in on the negotiations to do the interview, but Trump had appeared on his show before, so he should have known it would be broadcast on the RT network. -- CW

By Driftglass.Chas Danner of New York: "Speaking at a campaign rally in Pensacola, Florida on Friday night Donald Trump indicated that, as president, he would attack Iran if their sailors made improper gestures towards the U.S. Navy.... 'When [the Iranians] circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats, and they make gestures at our people that they shouldn't be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water.'... But while it's indeed worrisome, if not exactly news, that the apparent body-language expert is unable to follow plans, or scripts, or basic political norms -- in this case Trump, a major-party's presidential candidate, indicated that he would be willing to start an armed conflict with another country, not to defend America's citizens, interests, or allies -- but over injured pride.... Trump also questioned Hillary Clinton's mental health again on Friday, saying that he thinks she is 'an unstable person' and 'trigger-happy.' Earlier in the day, Trump had addressed the Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C. and criticized Clinton for being 'just too quick to intervene, invade, or to push for regime change with people we don't even know who they are, they take over, and they're far worse.'" -- CW

Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: "That, within a six-month span, Trump's estimates [of the 'real' unemployment rate] ranged from twenty, or 'close to twenty,' per cent all the way up to forty-two per cent suggest he's not using an overly rigorous model.... While a few of Trump's claims about the labor force might generously be considered merely hyperbole or gross exaggeration, the unemployment numbers he cites appear to be wholesale inventions." -- CW

More Notes from the Stupid File. A recent photo shows Donald Trump standing very close to a black man so he can't be a racist because "No racist would ever do that." CW: So there's a Trump supporter I guess you could label "amazing" (although not as "amazing" as Dom from Florida who won't vote for Clinton because he just knows she doesn't shave her arms & legs. See yesterday's Commentariat.).

The Commentariat -- Sept. 10, 2016

David Sanger of the New York Times: "Russia and the United States reached agreement early Saturday on a new plan to reduce violence in the Syria conflict that, if successful, could lead for the first time to joint military targeting by the two big powers against Islamic jihadists in Syria. The agreement was reached after 10 months of failed cease-fires and suspended efforts for a political settlement in the Syria war, which began more than five years ago, has left nearly a half-million people dead and created the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, announced the agreement in Geneva after weeks of negotiations that were marred, in President Obama's words, by deep 'mistrust' between the Russians and Americans." CW: Please, Nobel committee, give Kerry the peace prize.

David Sanger, et al.: "North Korea's latest test of an atomic weapon leaves the United States with an uncomfortable choice: Stick with a policy of incremental sanctions that has clearly failed to stop the country's nuclear advances, or pick among alternatives that range from the highly risky to the repugnant. A hard embargo, in which Washington and its allies block all shipping into and out of North Korea and seek to paralyze its finances, risks confrontations that allies in Asia fear could quickly escalate into war. But restarting talks on the North's terms would reward the defiance of its young leader, Kim Jong-un, with no guarantee that he will dismantle the nuclear program irrevocably." -- CW

Good News for Democracy. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A U.S. elections agency must remove a proof-of-citizenship requirement from a federal form used by people in Kansas, Alabama and Georgia to register to vote for November's election, a federal appeals court panel in Washington ordered late Friday, reversing a lower court. The 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit came one day after civil rights groups in oral arguments said that the requirement could disenfranchise tens of thousands of U.S. citizens applying to vote in Kansas without required papers. Kansas is the only state enforcing the requirement to show documentation such as a birth certificate, passport or naturalization papers instead of accepting signed and sworn affirmation of citizenship." CW: The two judges who decided the case: Judith W. Rogers, is a Clinton appointee, and Stephen F. Williams, a Reagan appointee. Judge Raymond Randolph, the dissenter, is a Bush I appointee. ...

... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Friday refused to allow Michigan to ban voters from casting straight-ticket ballots in the coming election after lower courts found the prohibition was likely to discriminate against African Americans and result in long lines at the polls.... Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they would have granted the state's request." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rachel Stassen-Berger of the Pioneer Press: "Minnesota Democrats have sued to get ... Donald Trump's name removed from the state's general election ballots. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's Thursday lawsuit claims the Minnesota Republican Party failed to nominate its presidential electors ... in accordance with state law. Keith Downey, the chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, said last month that the party called a special meeting to approve alternative electors because it had previously neglected to do so. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

AP: "A judge is ordering the state of Utah not to stop funding its Planned Parenthood branch over advocacy for legal abortion or unproven allegations against the national organization. The move comes after an appeals court decided a defunding order from Utah Gov. Gary Herbert was likely an unconstitutional political move designed to punish the group because it provides abortions. The prohibition signed Sunday by U.S. District Judge Dee Benson in Salt Lake City will be in effect as a court battle over the governor's order plays out." -- CW: Benson, who now has senior status, was a Bush I appointee. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Joe Heim & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "A federal judge ruled Friday against the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's request for a preliminary injunction to halt construction on the Dakota Access crude oil pipeline that the tribe says endangers sacred burial grounds and could threaten its water supply from Lake Oahe, a dammed section of the Missouri river. But in a development that stunned even the tribe's lawyers, the decision by District Judge James E. Boasberg was effectively put on hold by a federal order to stop construction near the tribe's reservation until the Army Corps of Engineers can revisit its previous decisions in the disputed portion." CW: Boasberg is an Obama appointee.

Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Charles Pierce on the massive Wells Fargo fleece-the-customers scam which the CFPB outted. "... this says something truly awful about the company's upper management and the culture that has developed at all levels of the institution. A den of thieves, with elevators and Christmas bonuses. The truest thing that Bernie Sanders said in his stump speech always was that the basic business plan of this industry is fraud. It also was one of the few examples of understatement he allowed himself.... The Republican Party considers the CFPB to be an example of 'onerous regulation' and has vowed to kill it dead so that Americans can be free to get swindled by these sharpers.... Hey, I've got an idea. Let's let folks take the money that Social Security takes out of their paychecks and invest it in the big ol' casino in lower Manhattan [which is the GOP's excellent plan]. -- CW

How Ignorant of History Are Facebook's Censors? Abby Ohlheiser of the Washington Post: "If you were to pick a handful of images that changed how people think about war, Nick Ut's most famous photograph would surely be among them. The image of 9-year-old Kim Phuc running from napalm -- her skin burning, her clothes burned away -- defined the horrors of the Vietnam War. Norwegian author Tom Egeland ... shared the photo to Facebook weeks ago. But Facebook's moderators saw the Pulitzer Prize-winning image [as] a violation of the site's nudity policy.... [They] removed the photograph from Egeland's page, along with its accompanying text. His account was suspended for 24 hours after he shared an interview with Phuc criticizing Facebook's decision to censor this image.... Incredible outrage ... swept across Norway..., becoming the subject of an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg from Norway's largest newspaper, and rising all the way up to the country's prime minister." When PM Erna Solberg reposted the photo on her own Facebook page, Facebook deleted that, too. Facebook also threatened to remove the photo from the newspaper's Facebook page. "After initially defending its decision to remove the photograph, Facebook decided to 'reinstate' the image [on Egeland's page] on Friday afternoon." --CW

Presidential Race

... you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic -- you name it. And, unfortunately, there are people like that. -- Hillary Clinton, at a Manhattan fundraiser, Friday

Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Democrats are increasingly worried that Hillary Clinton has not built a formidable lead against Donald Trump despite his historic weaknesses as a national party candidate. Even [Clinton]'s advisers acknowledge that she must make changes, and quickly. Clinton leads Trump by a mere three percentage points, having fallen from her high of nine points in August, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average.... Among Democrats' concerns is the fact that Clinton spent a great deal of time over the summer raising millions of dollars in private fundraisers while Trump was devoting much of his schedule to rallies, speeches and TV appearances...." -- CW

John Wagner of the Washington Post: In Birmingham, Alabama, Tim "Kaine said he found it 'shocking,' 'horrible' and highly disrespectful that ... Mike Pence had on Thursday characterized [Vladimir] Putin as a stronger leader than President Obama, an assessment that echoed that of ... Donald Trump, a day before. 'When Mike Pence said that, I just had to reflect that if you don't know the difference between leadership and dictatorship, then where do I start with you?' said Kaine.... Kaine said ... Pence's comments showed a 'shocking level of disrespect for the president.'... At a rally later Friday in Norfolk, [Virginia,] Kaine took his argument one step further. 'That irrational hostility toward President Obama ... is unpatriotic, and we got to call it out,' Kaine told a crowd at Old Dominion University." CW: We've all had enough of that shit. See also conservative Philip Klein's analysis, linked below.

Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "... after more than a year of uncharacteristic restraint — a notable shift from eight years ago, when his simmering instincts often burdened Hillary Clinton's first presidential run — [former President Bill] Clinton seems to have had enough. 'Did I solve every problem? No,' he told a crowd on Wednesday in Orlando, Fla. 'Did I get caught trying? You bet.'... 'I got tickled the other day when Mr. Trump called my foundation a criminal enterprise,' he said on Tuesday in Durham, N.C., noting that Mr. Trump had paid a fine for making a political donation using funds from his own foundation.... 'So when someone who doesn't know the first thing about philanthropy tries to bring the Clinton Foundation into his political sideshow, [Clinton spokesman Angel] Urena said of Mr. Trump, 'President Clinton is going to stand up for it.'" -- CW ...

... Tim Hains of Real Clear Politics (Sept. 7): "Former President Bill Clinton ... says that Donald Trump's promise to 'Make America Great Again' is a racist codeword. 'If you're a white southerner, you know exactly what it means,' Clinton said." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Clinton Presidential Library has released nearly two dozen photos of Donald Trump socializing with President Bill Clinton -- including one that shows the two men with their arms around Trump's then-girlfriend, Melania, and Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kylie Bax -- images from a collection that underscores just how chummy Trump once was with the president and his wife Hillary." CW: According to Bax, "Bill was in another box [at the U.S. Open tennis park at Flushing Meadows] and he came by to say hello to Donald."

NYT, Republicans Can't Control Themselves. Adam Goldman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A computer specialist who deleted Hillary Clinton's emails despite orders from Congress to preserve them was given immunity by the Justice Department during its investigation into her personal email account.... Republicans have called for the department to investigate the deletions, but the immunity deal with the specialist, Paul Combetta, makes it unlikely that the request will go far.... 'As the F.B.I.'s report notes, [Clinton campaign spokesman Brian] Fallon said, 'neither Hillary Clinton nor her attorneys had knowledge of the Platte River Network employee's actions. It appears he acted on his own and against guidance given by both Clinton's and Platte River's attorneys to retain all data in compliance with a congressional preservation request.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matthew Teague of the Guardian: "Donald Trump made a half-hearted attempt to distance himself from ... Vladimir Putin, on Friday night at a rally in [Pensacola,] Florida, but aimed inflammatory comments at Iran and his political opponent Hillary Clinton.... It appears to make little political sense for Trump to campaign in his most devoted quarter, at this point in the race.... But Trump's methods continue to defy political gravity. His poll numbers have steadily risen, and they now show him nearly even with Clinton. One group of supporters did not make a return to Friday's rally: the singing, dancing girl group called Freedom Kids.... The group's manager and one girl's father, Jeff Popick, allege Trump 'played' the girls and didn't pay them." -- CW ...

By Driftglass.She is being so protected, she could walk into this arena right now and shoot somebody with 20,000 people watching, right smack in the middle of the heart, and she wouldn't be prosecuted. O.K.? That's what's happening. -- Donald Trump, speaking of Hillary Clinton, at the Pensacola rally, Friday ...

... Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump's comments followed an extended, and at times vicious and unscripted, criticism of Mrs. Clinton..., whom he called 'an unstable person.' He repeatedly criticized the decision not to prosecute her over her email scandal, and also her record as secretary of state." ...

... CW: Here again, we see Trump projecting his own faults onto an opponent. It's uncanny. If there's anyone who is not unstable, it's Hillary Clinton, yet Trump, who is crazy, who demonstrated that lunacy even in his criticism of Clinton, turns his own condition on Clinton. I'm only half-kidding when I say that if Trump is elected, members of the public should band together to bring suit to have him committed to a mental institution for the duration of his term. If unhappy people everywhere can be committed because they "pose a danger to themselves or others," committing Trump is a no-brainer. mike pence is horrible, but he's capable of carrying out the duties of the presidency, no matter how abysmally. I wouldn't be surprised if he agreed to be Trump's running mate on the assumption Trump would have a breakdown "on Day One." ...

... Here's some evidence: pence is running an anti-Trump campaign. Why, just yesterday ...

... Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: "Mike Pence on Friday said he couldn't spill the beans on his first confidential national security briefing of the campaign, citing 'great respect' for the classified nature of the information shared. The comments from Donald Trump's running mate came after the Republican nominee got heat from the intelligence community for offering a politicized readout of his own briefings." -- CW ...

... AND Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, on Friday released 10 years' worth of tax returns to the media -- revealing a modest family income, relative to the top of the Republican ticket, and reliable contributions to charity. The document release draws an uncomfortable contrast for the campaign: Trump himself has not released his tax returns...." -- CW

Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "Donald Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, and Rudy Giuliani, one of his main campaign surrogates, have both claimed that Trump believes President Obama was born in the U.S. Giuliani, bizarrely, has even claimed that Trump came out and said he believes that Obama was born in the U.S. 'two years ago, three years ago.' That would be remarkable since as recently as earlier this year Trump vowed to write a 'very successful' book outlining his birther conspiracy theory. Indeed, Trump calls himself a 'proud' birther and has regularly promoted the birther conspiracy theory on his Twitter feed, even implying that Obama had a government official killed as part of a cover-up of his supposedly fake birth certificate." Tashman provides the TrumpTweets to make his case. -- CW ...

... Upside-Down World. In case you were viewing Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway as "the sane one," Greg Sargent details how this morning Conway turned a remark by Trump -- "I guess so." -- when asked in 2002 if he favored the Iraq War -- into meaning he was against it. She went on to complain that, "Senator Obama said he would have done that [-- voted against authorization of the war --] in 2008, and everybody just took him at his word. As Sargent points out, & Conway certainly knew, "Obama did give a big speech in 2002 against the war just before the Senate vote giving George W. Bush authority to invade.... It has been widely discussed for years as one of the reasons he went on to defeat Clinton in the 2008 primaries (which Conway referenced).... So we aren't taking Obama's opposition to the war at the time 'at his word.' There is a record of it." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Conway: "We on the Trump Campaign Have No Fucking Idea What We're Doing." (paraphrase) Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Donald Trump's campaign manager on Friday denied that [Trump] ... willingly appeared on a Russian government-sponsored television network. 'As you know, former CNN superstar Larry King has a podcast and Mr. Trump went on his podcast. Nobody said it was going to be on Russian TV,' Kellyanne Conway said on CNN's 'New Day.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Philip Klein of the (right-wing) Washington Examiner excerpts the exchange between Matt Lauer & Donald Trump in which Trump compares Vladimir Putin to President Obama: "Donald Trump's decision to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin's leadership skills relative to President Obama's is getting a lot of attention, but what Trump actually said is much worse.... Trump not only said Obama was a weaker leader, but he implied that Obama was just as morally bad as Putin, if not worse.... Trump is dismissing actions Putin took threatening neighbors and working against U.S. interests by essentially saying, well, Obama has done a lot of things that were just as bad.... Trump is ... saying that none of the evil actions [Putin is] taking have been any worse than Obama. And that is reprehensible and indefensible." Via Greg Sargent. -- CW

Gail Collins was wondering if Donald Trump & his surrogates were sexists who used gender-specific attacks against Hillary Clinton. So she studied up on it. You won't be surprised to learn what she found. But then again, she's a girl, so her finding is so unfaaair. ...

She doesn't shave her arms and legs, and she's sick. She's going to die. She's having seizures on TV. -- Dom Howard, at Trump's rally in Pensacola, Florida, on Hillary Clinton's health & grooming

First I wondering how Dom there happened to catch a glimpse of Hillary's hairy armpits and legs. Then I was wondering if Donald Trump shaves his (under)arms & legs. This could be the first time in history an imagined failure to shave one's pits was cited as a disqualifier for the presidency. Did George Washington shave his legs? What about Ronald Reagan? Why, Abe Lincoln quit shaving his face when an 11-year-old girl suggested he would look more presidential with a beard. -- Constant Weader