The Commentariat -- Sept. 4, 2016

Mark Landler & Jane Perlez of the New York Times: "President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China formally committed the world's two largest economies to the Paris climate agreement [in Hangzhou, China] on Saturday, cementing their partnership on climate change and offering a rare display of harmony in a relationship that has become increasingly discordant.... On multiple fronts, like computer hacking and maritime security, ties between China and the United States have frayed during the seven and a half years of Mr. Obama's presidency.... Yet the fact that [they]... could set aside those tensions to work together yet again on a joint plan to reduce greenhouse gases attests to the pragmatic personal rapport they have built, as well as to the complexity of the broader United States-China relationship...." -- CW ...

... Mark Landler: "... the reception that President Obama and his staff got when they arrived [in China] Saturday afternoon was bruising, even by Chinese standards." CW: The Chinese must have been practicing for Trumpelthinskin. Their rude "greeting" to Obama certainly would rile Trumpus. ...

... Tom Phillips of the Guardian: "China's leaders have been accused of delivering a calculated diplomatic snub to Barack Obama after the US president was not provided with a staircase to leave his plane during his chaotic arrival in Hangzhou before the start of the G20.... When Obama did find his way on to a red carpet on the tarmac below there were heated altercations between US and Chinese officials, with one Chinese official caught on video shouting: 'This is our country! This is our airport!'" CW: Very Trumpy.

... President Obama speaks to Julie Davis of the New York Times:

... Justin Gillis of the New York Times: "For decades, as the global warming created by human emissions caused land ice to melt and ocean water to expand, scientists warned that the accelerating rise of the sea would eventually imperil the United States' coastline. Now, those warnings are no longer theoretical: The inundation of the coast has begun. The sea has crept up to the point that a high tide and a brisk wind are all it takes to send water pouring into streets and homes. Federal scientists have documented a sharp jump in this nuisance flooding -- often called 'sunny-day flooding' -- along both the East Coast and the Gulf Coast in recent years." -- CW ...

... Ian Livingston of the Washington Post: "... [Tropical Storm] Hermine's assault on the East Coast is just beginning. By the time it finishes during the week ahead, significant impact is anticipated up-and-down the coastline." The story includes updates. -- CW

Reuters: "U.S. President Barack Obama told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan Sunday that his administration would work with Turkey to help ensure that those responsible for an attempted coup are brought to justice.... Obama and Erdogan met on the sidelines of the G-20 summit under way in eastern China's Hangzhou city." -- CW

Elisabetta Polvoledo of the New York Times: Pope Francis made Mother Teresa a saint at a "canonization ceremony in St. Peter's Square. The canonization marked a highlight of the Jubilee year that Francis had proclaimed to celebrate the theme of mercy. On Saturday, he told thousands of cheering volunteers gathered in St. Peter's Square that Mother Teresa was a 'witness to mercy in our time.'" -- CW

Presidential Race

Jordan Weissmann of Slate: "Hillary Clinton already had a plan to lower prescription drug costs. In fact, it was one of the first pieces of her agenda that she rolled out. But following the furor over Mylan's decision to increase EpiPen prices by some 500 percent, her campaign has released a new proposal specifically aimed at stopping 'unjustified' price spikes on pharmaceuticals. And it's surprisingly bold.... Clinton would create a task force of regulators with the power to ... mete out punishments to companies that were trying to profiteer, potentially with fines." -- CW

Campaigning with the Rich & Famous. Amy Chozick & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump has pointed to Mrs. Clinton's noticeably scant schedule of campaign events this summer to suggest she has been hiding from the public. But Mrs. Clinton has been more than accessible to those who reside in some of the country's most moneyed enclaves and are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to see her. In the last two weeks of August, Mrs. Clinton raked in roughly $50 million at 22 fund-raising events, averaging around $150,000 an hour, according to a New York Times tally." -- CW ...

... CW BTW: Hillary Clinton's clever strategy of running out the clock, is, unsurprisingly, not going well. Hillary should recall the Michael Dukakis campaign. I remember one poll, taken right after the Democratic convention, that had Dukakis up by 25 points over Bush Pere. Then Dukakis went home to Massachusetts to do his governor thing & did little campaigning for the month of August.

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Under attack from Republicans over pay-for-play allegations, Hillary Clinton's campaign on Friday took the opportunity to punch back, ripping Donald Trump over his own foundation's run-in with the Internal Revenue Service. Trump's foundation -- which the Clinton campaign refers to as the one 'that has been caught in an actual pay-to-play scandal' -- was forced to pay the IRS a $2,500 penalty this year following the revelation that the Trump Foundation improperly donated $25,000 to a political committee supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2013. The foundation failed to document the payment in its IRS filings. The fine was first revealed Thursday by the Washington Post." -- CW

Sam Frizell of Time: "Colorado Democrats are setting up a taco truck outside of Donald Trump's campaign office in Denver to register voters after a Trump surrogate said that more Mexicans moving to the United States would lead to 'taco trucks on every corner.'... The Arizona Democratic Party has changed its sign to say 'Taco Trucks On Every Corner.'" -- CW

Yamiche Alcindor & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump ... visited a black church for the first time.... Flanked by a few black supporters, including Ben Carson ... and Omarosa Manigault, a former contestant on 'The Apprentice,' Mr. Trump cut a subdued figure here at Great Faith Ministries International.... In Detroit, Mr. Trump did not express regret for, or even acknowledge, the actions and remarks that had opened a gulf between him and black voters. Instead, reading from prepared remarks, he hailed the Christian values and political contributions of black Americans and told his audience he cared about making their lives better.... Mr. Trump's appearance on Saturday ... was swathed in uncertainty up to the last minute.... Plans for stops in nearby neighborhoods were announced, then retracted; Mr. Trump ultimately paid a short visit to Mr. Carson's childhood home before flying out of Detroit. And a scheduled interview with [Bishop Wayne T.] Jackson, Mr. Trump's host on Saturday, became a source of embarrassment when it was revealed that both the questions and Mr. Trump's answers had been scripted in advance." -- CW ...

... Ryan Felton & Amber Jamieson of the Guardian: "After [Bishop Wayne T] Jackson spoke about the need for love and called on parishioners to hug and love each other, Trump could be seen hugging and greeting churchgoers himself. He posed for selfies and held up a baby.... Reading from a script and adopting a milder tone than that familiar from campaign rallies and debates, [Trump]... said: 'We're all brothers and sisters and we're all created by the same God.'" -- CW ...

... Chas Danner of New York gives the best account of Trump's brief visit to Detroit. It's titled, "Trump Successfully Reads Prepared Remarks at Black Church in Detroit," and includes tidbits like this: "Ben Carson, for his part during the brief stop, gave a live interview to CNN during which he walked away for a time because he was worried about his luggage." ...

... The full speech, which Trump claimed he wrote himself, is here. Near the end, Trump read a verse from 1 John. The audience clapped & cheered when he said "First John" instead of "One John." Trump seemed not to understand (or at least pretended not to understand) the reason for the applause. -- CW ...

... Lindsay Gibbs of Think Progress: "Protesters, including pastors from the community, greeted Trump as he arrived at the church. 'What do you have to lose?' the crowd asked. 'Everything,' they answered." -- CW

Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: Donald Trump has not committed to participating in the presidential debates. "One reason for the holdout: 'I'll have to see who the moderators are,' the Republican nominee told Time magazine last month. 'Yeah, I would say that certain moderators would be unacceptable, absolutely.'" Now that the debate committee has announced the moderator line-up, will Trump commit? His campaign would not respond to the Post. Borchers reprises some of Trump's interactions with the moderators named.

Harper Neidig of the Hill: "Donald Trump this week railed against allowing Syrian refugees to settle in Detroit as a way of rebuilding the city, calling it 'unfair to the people that are living there.'. 'I think it's crazy,' Trump told Breitbart of the idea, floated by former President Bill Clinton in February. 'I mean, these people are getting started -- I think it's a very, very hard place to get your start. We shouldn't have them in the country,' Trump added, referring to Syrian refugees. 'We don't know who these people are. We have no idea. This could be the all time great Trojan horse. We have no idea who they are.'" ...

     ... CW: This is part & parcel of Trump's lack of knowledge of macroeconomics. Population increases fuel economic growth. Detroit has been depopulating for decades, so one way to repopulate it is with immigrants.

All the Best People. Sophie Tatum of CNN: "A top Donald Trump surrogate admitted to falsifying some of his professional accomplishments after a contentious confrontation with CNN anchor Victor Blackwell. South Carolina preacher Mark Burns, who regularly introduces Trump at his campaign events, had listed on his church's website that he had a Bachelor of Science degree and served six years in the Army Reserve.Burns, however, was never in the Army Reserve. He was in the South Carolina National Guard, from which he was discharged in 2008, CNN found. As far as a Bachelor's degree, North Greenville University told CNN he only attended the school for one semester. Burns admitted that he did not finish his degree when CNN asked him about it." -- CW ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post has a few highlights: "Confronted with an apparently bogus claim that he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, Burns initially says he 'started the process' of joining the fraternity. Then he argues that such facts were added to his bio by a hacker.... When confronted with his claim to have graduated with a bachelor of science degree from North Greenville University, Burns tries to argue that the interview was and had been off the record.... Asked about his claim to be pursing a master's degree from Andersonville Theological Seminary, where he enrolled in 2008 but hasn't advanced, Burns's explanation shifts. Now standing and swaying, he explains: "Do you know how old this [bio] is?... Then, perhaps predictably, Burns walks away, mid-interview." -- CW

Kevin Baker in Politico Magazine: How Rudy Giuliani, boy liberal Democrat, became a raving, lying maniac. "What lies at the heart of Trumpism, and Rudyism, is the same, nostalgic impulse that has driven reactionary Republican populism for a half-century now -- 'The shining city on the hill!' as Giuliani managed to splutter at the convention, just before, 'Greatness!' It's no coincidence that Trump and Giuliani both came of age in the New York of the 1960s and -70s, the time when the dream seemed to die, during the nihilistic, wholesale destruction of our cities." -- CW

Sorry to be so late with this. Tim Egan: "In the hate speech that Donald Trump gave on immigration in Phoenix on Wednesday night, he all but deported the Statue of Liberty, laying out one of the darkest visions of the American experience that any major-party nominee has ever given. Despite the media misread by some who presented the speech as a pivot, it got rave reviews from neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan supporters, and prompted some of Trump's few Latino advisers to resign in protest. 'Excellent speech,' said David Duke, the former Klan leader.... [Trump]laid out a test for political correctness, in the most authoritarian sense of the term. 'I call it extreme vetting,' said Trump. 'Right? Extreme vetting. I want extreme.'... He said 'an ideological certification' would be required." -- CW ...

... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker on Trump's "new immigration commission," whose charter would be "to select immigrants based on their likelihood of success in U.S. society, and their ability to be financially self-sufficient. . . . To choose immigrants based on merit, skill, and proficiency." Davidson thought that sounded good till she learned a bit about Great Britain's experiment with a similar program: experts who had served on the commission said the effect was that "a hugely disproportionate number of these 'entrepreneurs' [who were admitted] were wealthy people from Russia -- 'I believe the polite term is "oligarchs,"' and China. 'There were a lot of Subway franchises,' another said." ...

     ... CW: The U.S. already has a similar program, and frankly, the effect is the same. There's a good reason gas stations & motels are run or owned by foreign-born individuals & Florida is crawling with mini-oligarchs. If you think the petite bourgeoisie & dirty, rotten crooks form the best possible models for future generations, you might like this part of Trump's plan. ...

... Steven Rosenfeld of AlterNet, republished in Salon: "Donald Trump's pledge this week to speedily deport 'anyone who has entered the United States illegally' would require the creation of a vast police state that harkens back to the early 20th century, with Nazi Germany's roundups and deportations of millions of Jews and others deemed undesirable." Rosenfeld supplies stats to support his assertions. He also addresses the "economic devastation" the Trump "plan" would cause. -- CW ...

... ** Matthew Sheffield in the Washington Post: "According to [Hillary] Clinton -- and many conservative intellectuals who oppose Trump -- the conspiratorial, winking-at-racists campaign he has been running represents a novel departure from Republican politics. That's not quite true, though. Trump's style and positions -- endorsing and consorting with 9/11 truthers, promoting online racists, using fake statistics -- draw on a now-obscure political strategy called 'paleolibertarianism,' which was once quite popular among some Republicans, especially former presidential candidate Ron Paul.... There's no question that the paranoid and semi-racialist mien frequently favored by Trump originates in the fevered swamps that ... Paul dwelled in for decades." Read on. -- CW ...

... Richmond Times-Dispatch Editors: "Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton meets the fundamental moral and professional standards we have every right to expect of an American president. Fortunately, there is a reasonable -- and formidable -- alternative. Gary Johnson is a former, two-term governor of New Mexico and a man who built from scratch a construction company that eventually employed more than 1,000 people before he sold it in 1999. He possesses substantial executive experience in both the private and the public sectors." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Corey Jones of the Tulsa World: "Oklahoma's second magnitude-5.0 earthquake in 2016 and third in five years has renewed concerns a 6.0 may strike after Saturday's temblor revealed another undiscovered fault line. The magnitude-5.6 -- which fired off at 7:02 a.m. Saturday about nine miles northwest of Pawnee -- is tied with one near Prague in 2011 for the state's strongest quake. That seismicity triggered state regulators, in an unprecedented move, to mandate that 37 disposal wells [from fracking] in a 725-square-mile area shut down operations for an indefinite period of time." -- CW

The Commentariat -- Sept. 3, 2016

Presidential Race

Holt, Raddatz, Cooper & Wallace. Photos via the New York Times.John Koblin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper and Chris Wallace have been selected to moderate this year's presidential debates, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Friday. Mr. Holt, the anchor of the 'NBC Nightly News,' will moderate the first debate on Sept. 26; Ms. Raddatz of ABC and Mr. Cooper of CNN will moderate the town hall debate on Oct. 9; and Mr. Wallace of Fox News will handle the final debate on Oct. 19." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Paul Waldman: "Whenever some new piece of information emerges about Hillary Clinton or people close to her, we're told that it 'raises questions' of some kind, which means it's being shoehorned into a larger narrative that ... she's tainted by scandal, or corrupt, or just sinister.... Yet somehow, stories about Donald Trump that don't have to do with the latest appalling thing that came out of his mouth don't 'raise questions' in the same way." Waldman compares two reports: one a non-story by the New York Times about Clinton's e-mails, and the other a Washington Post story about Donald Trump's contributing to Florida AG Pam Bondi's campaign while she was supposedly investigating Trump University, an investigation she dropped after Trump paid her tribute money. "Some stories 'raise questions,' and others don't." -- CW

Standing Rule: If it's Friday before a holiday weekend, you know there has to be a major docudump. ...

... Eric Lichtblau & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "F.B.I. officials questioned Hillary Clinton extensively about her judgment in using her private email system to discuss classified drone strikes and in allowing aides to destroy large numbers of emails, before ultimately deciding she should not face criminal charges, according to investigative documents released Friday. The documents provided a number of new details about Mrs. Clinton's private server, including what appeared to be a frantic effort by a computer specialist to delete an archive of her emails even after a congressional committee had requested that they be preserved." The page includes the FBI's summary of its investigation. -- CW ...

... Matt Zapotosky & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her staffers employed an informal and sometimes haphazard system for exchanging and storing sensitive information and were at times either unaware or unconcerned with State Department policy, documents from an FBI investigation into her private email server system show. The documents reveal a myriad of new details about the email set-up and show that investigators found multiple attempts by hackers to access Clinton's system -- a series of personal devices and servers that the Democratic presidential candidate told investigators she used as a matter of convenience while she was secretary of state. The materials, which include a summary of the FBI's entire investigation as well as Clinton's hours-long interview with agents in July, contain no major revelations." -- CW ...

... Adam Goldman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times report on "highlights" from the documents. -- CW ...

... Adam Blake of the Washington Post: "In the three hours-plus that Hillary Clinton spoke with FBI investigators about her private email server on July 2, she cited more than three-dozen things that she could not recall. Among them were things such as specific emails that perhaps nobody could be expected to remember years later, but Clinton also said she had no recollection of several key moments when it came to her email server, including briefings on how to handle classified information and key conversations about her server." Blake lists some of the things Clinton said she couldn't remember. -- CW ...

Nick Gass of Politico:"Former Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Hillary Clinton about using a BlackBerry to conduct official business in her first days as President Barack Obama's secretary of state, according to the FBI investigation's report.... According to the report, Clinton emailed Powell on Jan. 23, 2009, to ask about his use of a BlackBerry during his time in office.... In his response, according to the FBI, Powell told Clinton that if it became 'public' that she was using a BlackBerry to 'do business,' the emails could become 'official records[s] and subject to the law.' 'Be very careful. I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data,' Powell said in the same email." -- CW ...

     ... Paul Waldman: "Don't forget that when the State Department told Powell, along with other secretaries of state, to produce all their work-related emails, Powell said he couldn't because they were all deleted." -- CW

Nick Gass: "Hillary Clinton opened up in a recent interview about the personal crisis she faced as first lady to Bill Clinton as scandal over his affair with Monica Lewinsky enveloped the political world and impeachment proceedings unfolded. 'It was really hard. It was painful. And I was so supported by my friends...," the Democratic nominee told CNN's Pamela Brown in a clip from a forthcoming documentary set to air Monday night.... CNN will also air a documentary about Donald Trump on Monday night following the Clinton special." CW: Yeah, Trump will probably open up about how painful it was to have to tell is potential dates to get HIV & other STD testing. "It’s one of the worst times in the history of the world to be dating," he said in 1991." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: Hillary Clinton created the "vast right wing conspiracy" because she wanted to hide something about the Whitewater deal. And she did it when she wasn't even in the room. CW: See, Republicans would have been normal people instead of turning into a pack of radical, hateful loons if not for Hillary Clinton. With Tumulty's story, we have officially turned down the volume on the "Everything is Obama's fault" meme and activated the well-tested "Everything is Hillary's fault" back-up. ...

... CW: Here's Scott Lemieux, in LG&$, "raising questions" about Clinton coverage just as I did in a remark below. Here's he's referring to a NYT non-story story that ran a couple of days ago: "Hmm, it strikes me that the 'questions' that were 'raised' have an 'answer.'... 1)a Hillary Clinton aide asked for a special favor, 2)didn't get it, and 3)this 'raises questions' because the Clintons once lost money in a minor Arkansas land deal or something. I have no idea what explains it, but this form of hackery has been endemic at the Times for decades. The clouds over the Clinton campaign can never be dissipated." Let's commend Karen Tumulty for her NYT-style "journalism."

** Michelle Conlin & Grant Smith of Reuters: "... Donald Trump has run an unusually cheap campaign in part by not paying at least 10 top staffers, consultants and advisers, some of whom are no longer with the campaign, according to a review of federal campaign finance filings. Those who have so far not been paid ... include recently departed campaign manager Paul Manafort, California state director Tim Clark, communications director Michael Caputo and a pair of senior aides who left the campaign in June to immediately go to work for a Trump Super PAC[, which appears to violate federal campaign law].... Caputo told a Buffalo radio station in June after he resigned from the campaign, that he was not volunteering. Rather, he said he just had not gotten paid. Caputo confirmed to Reuters on Thursday that the Trump campaign has still not paid his invoices.... The Trump campaign said the Reuters' reporting was 'sloppy at best' but declined to elaborate." -- Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. -- CW

** Michelle Goldberg of Slate: "In a new New York magazine story, the invaluable Gabriel Sherman gives us fresh details of the depravity of ex-Fox News head Roger Ailes. [Linked yesterday in the Commentariat.]... There is abundant evidence, then, that Ailes is a vicious misogynist and a workplace predator. So why isn't it a bigger deal that he's advising the Republican presidential nominee?... If the Clinton Foundation were accused of doing anything this outrageous, it would be front-page news. The difference in how the two candidates are covered stems, in part, from a long-standing mainstream media tendency to view everything about Bill and Hillary Clinton in the most invidious possible light. But it's also a result of the fact that Trump is consistently able to bury his old misdeeds with new misdeeds, until all the outrages start to blur together." -- CW ...

... Molly Ball of the Atlantic: "Polls show majorities of Americans worried about being victims of terrorism and crime, numbers that have surged over the past year to highs not seen for more than a decade." In a longish piece, she shows how effectively Trump has tapped into, heightened and used that fear to his advantage. ...

... CW: BTW, I suspect the fear factor is largely a reflection of an aging U.S. population. People who are older are more fearful, not because we're all nuts but because we understand the stupidity of youthful bravado & we recognize not only our waning physical power but also our power to shape the world to more closely conform to our own ideal. Clinton began her campaign portraying herself as the protective grandmother figure, someone who would both bring you milk & cookies AND keep you safe from the bogeyman. But the press portrays her as a shady, elusive character (see this piece about the NYT's use of "shadow" and "cloud" in its Clinton stories, plus Paul Waldman's post linked above) and Trump of course calls her a crook (which is true of him but not of her). Together, the press & Trump have turned beloved "Nana" into a mashup of Lady MacBeth & the female villains in "Throw Mama from the Train."

... Dana Milbank: "... in recent episodes, something has gone wrong with the Trump Show. Trump still dominates the airwaves, but ... it turns out the Trump Show, late in the season, has lost its plot progression. And voters, belatedly but finally, are less inclined to view Trump the same way they view reality TV: with a suspension of disbelief.... Trump [has] benefit[ed] from the expectation of phoniness.... Reality TV may favor scoundrels, but reality can be more judgmental.... The Trump Show has lost its coherent story lines, its narrative arc.... This is no longer reality TV; it's reality. And reality is not as kind to Trump." -- CW

Alexander Burns & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... the collaboration between Mr. Trump's campaign and [The Republican National Committee] has grown strained over the last month.... There is no prospect of a full public breach between the Trump campaign and the R.N.C. because both sides rely on a joint fund-raising arrangement crucial to their election efforts. But tensions have grown to such a point that they threaten to diminish the party's ability to work smoothly with Mr. Trump.... Mr. Trump, who has struggled to raise money, is dependent on his party's national committee to perform many of the basic functions of a presidential campaign." The reporters characterize Trump's Phoenix speech as perhaps a last straw. Prince Rebus & a Trump spokesman deny it.

AND Gideon Resnick of the Daily Beast on Trump's other teevee show. (And what a shame he didn't get to produce that show which aimed to pit black & white contestants against each other. Yeah, that was really a plan.)

Hey, there's one campaign that's more screwed-up than Trump's. Jill Stein's Green party staff sent her to the wrong city. Randy Ludlow of the Columbus Dispatch: Stein was scheduled to give a speech in Columbus, Ohio; her campaign sent her to Cincinnati. CW: We'll have to assume that Stein is as clueless as her staff: after all, she got on the plane bound for Cincinnati. Her excuse: "'A little scheduling error,' Stein said. 'I wish we had the resources of the other candidates. We're the only candidate who operates like the American people.'" Really? Do the "American people" routinely take flights to places they never intended to go? Ah, well, fly-over country. One place is about the same as the next, isn't it, Jill?

Beyond the Beltway

Matt Zapotosky: "Less than three months after the Supreme Court vacated the convictions of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell, the U.S. attorney’s office that prosecuted the Republican has recommended to Justice Department higher-ups that they endeavor to try him again, according to people familiar with the case.... The decision ultimately rests with senior officials at the Justice Department, including the deputy attorney general and possibly the attorney general. But it is a significant step that demonstrates ... the prosecutors who convinced jurors that he was guilty the first time believe they could do it once more." -- CW

Robert Salonga & Mark Gomez of the San Jose Mercury News: "As he regained his freedom, Brock Turner faced protesters and heavy media scrutiny as an enduring public face of the issue of sexual assault on American college campuses. That was just with his first few steps out of jail. Turner's early release just after 6 a.m. Friday after three months in jail was met by a throng of television and press cameras from far-reaching parts of the country, as well as critics who continue to lament the light sentence given to the former Stanford swimmer for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman last year outside a campus party." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "Islam Karimov, a ruthless autocrat who ruled Uzbekistan for almost three decades, died on Friday in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent. He was 78. A joint statement by the cabinet of ministers and the Parliament announced the death, saying he had a stroke that led to multiple organ failure. The announcement came after a long, strange interlude during which Uzbek officials refrained from confirming the death even while the leaders of Turkey and Georgia expressed condolences, mosque leaders were barred from offering prayers for the president's health, and funeral arrangements were being made very publicly." -- CW

The Commentariat -- Sept. 2, 2016

Afternoonish Update:

Holt, Raddatz, Cooper & Wallace. Photos via the New York Times.John Koblin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper and Chris Wallace have been selected to moderate this year's presidential debates, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Friday. Mr. Holt, the anchor of the 'NBC Nightly News,' will moderate the first debate on Sept. 26; Ms. Raddatz of ABC and Mr. Cooper of CNN will moderate the town hall debate on Oct. 9; and Mr. Wallace of Fox News will handle the final debate on Oct. 19." -- CW ... See also Akhilleus's comment in today's thread on the moderators.

Nick Gass of Politico: "Hillary Clinton opened up in a recent interview about the personal crisis she faced as first lady to Bill Clinton as scandal over his affair with Monica Lewinsky enveloped the political world and impeachment proceedings unfolded. 'It was really hard. It was painful. And I was so supported by my friends...," the Democratic nominee told CNN's Pamela Brown in a clip from a forthcoming documentary set to air Monday night.... CNN will also air a documentary about Donald Trump on Monday night following the Clinton special." CW: Yeah, Trump will probably open up about how painful it was to have to tell is potential dates to get HIV & other STD testing. "It's one of the worst times in the history of the world to be dating," he said in 1991."

Robert Salonga & Mark Gomez of the San Jose Mercury News: "As he regained his freedom, Brock Turner faced protesters and heavy media scrutiny as an enduring public face of the issue of sexual assault on American college campuses. That was just with his first few steps out of jail. Turner's early release just after 6 a.m. Friday after three months in jail was met by a throng of television and press cameras from far-reaching parts of the country, as well as critics who continue to lament the light sentence given to the former Stanford swimmer for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman last year outside a campus party." -- CW

Presidential Race

Paul Krugman: Why Clinton, why not Trump? Because lead. CW: This is what I mean when I write "elections matter" on some news items that may seem tangential to candidates & elections.

Nate Silver of 538: "The race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has tightened." And the Electoral College won't save Clinton because her position in important swing states is about the same as it is in the national polls." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton's nonstop schedule of high-dollar fundraisers in August paid off, helping raise $143 million for her campaign and the Democratic Party -- her biggest monthly haul yet. Campaign officials announced Thursday that donors contributed about $62 million to her campaign committee and another $81 million to the Democratic National Committee and state parties in August. That's a huge growth from the $90 million that Clinton and the party jointly raised in July. However, her campaign fundraising stayed flat -- in both months, she raised about $62 million -- indicating that the increase was driven by large contributions to the party." -- CW

Nick Gass of Politico: "Bernie Sanders will hit the trail for Hillary Clinton on Monday in New Hampshire, in the former Democratic presidential rival's first event campaigning solo since he announced his endorsement of the former secretary of state in July." -- CW

Ken Vogel of Politico: "Bill Clinton's staff used a decades-old federal government program, originally created to keep former presidents out of the poorhouse, to subsidize his family's foundation and an associated business, and to support his wife's private email server, a Politico investigation has found. Taxpayer cash was used to buy IT equipment -- including servers -- housed at the Clinton Foundation, and also to supplement the pay and benefits of several aides now at the center of the email and cash-for-access scandals dogging Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.... This investigation ... does not reveal anything illegal." -- CW: Sorry, Ken; there are no "cash-for-access scandals." What a bummer; there is Donald Trump, cheating on his taxes, which is illegal -- and there is Bill Clinton, husband of Hillary, but not actually Hillary doing something legal. So Crooked Hillary, amIrite?

Jessica Hopper of ABC News: "Sen. Tim Kaine ... today called Donald Trump a 'diplomatic embarrassment' when asked on 'Good Morning America' about the real estate mogul's trip to Mexico Wednesday. 'I think it was kind of a diplomatic embarrassment,' Kaine said of Trump's unexpected meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. 'He's been talking for a year about we're going to build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it and then he goes and he sits down and goes eyeball to eyeball with the president of Mexico and, what, he forgets suddenly to bring it up or he's too afraid to bring it up or he chokes in the meeting. It's just kind of an indication that the guy talks out of both sides of his mouth.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Cowardly Liar

The New York Times Has a Mole! Yamiche Alcindor: "Instead of speaking to the congregation at Great Faith Ministries International, [a predominantly black church in Detroit,] Mr. Trump had planned to be interviewed by its pastor in a session that would be closed to the public and the news media, with questions submitted in advance. And instead of letting Mr. Trump be his freewheeling self, his campaign prepared lengthy answers for the submitted questions, consulting black Republicans to make sure he says the right things. An eight-page draft script obtained by The New York Times shows 12 questions that Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, the pastor, intends to ask Mr. Trump in the taped question-and-answer session, as well as the responses Mr. Trump is being advised to give. The proposed answers were devised by aides working for the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee....

"After this article was published online Thursday night, Jason Miller, the senior communications adviser for the Trump campaign, said that Mr. Trump's plans had changed and that he would address the congregation for five to 10 minutes after the interview. Mr. Trump will then visit neighborhoods with Ben Carson...."

CW: I'd guess the mole was at the RNC, not the Trump campaign. Too bad. But think about the implications of this story. First we learned Trump was afraid to speak to black churchgoers. Now we learn that he is afraid to take actual questions from a black minister. Then, he is afraid to offer his own answers to prepared questions, so every single answer "he" gives will be something that a team of advisors wrote. Not only that, the team of advisors knows that Trump is an ignorant, loose cannon who cannot be trusted to keep his foot out of his mouth. This doesn't mean that other candidates, politicians & officials don't prepare for interviews. Of course they do. But reading off crib notes is not the same thing. And we thought Donald just wanted to be Donald. So vote for Hillary because she isn't afraid of black church ladies.

Nick Gass: "Just hours after reviving his harsh rhetoric on immigration, Donald Trump on Thursday morning insisted that there is actually 'quite a bit of softening' in how he's approaching his signature campaign issue. The Republican nominee's latest comment -- to conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham, no less -- makes it even harder to pin down just where Trump is landing on the hot-button issue, and amplifies the pick-what-you-want-to-hear nature of his talk on immigration." CW: Trump is not only insane; he's trying to drive the rest of us crazy, too. ...

... Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "The Wall Street Journal reports that Donald Trump changed his speech on immigration at the last minute to include references to Mexico paying for his proposed border wall. The reason that Trump decided to make this change? Because he was apparently furious that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto just posted a tweet insisting that his country would never, under any circumstances, pay for the wall.... Leaders of other countries are likely taking notes right now about just how easy it is to manipulate Trump by challenging his manhood...." -- CW ...

... How Trump Got from Point A to Point A on Immigration. Jenna Johnson, et al., of the Washington Post: "For nearly two weeks, Donald Trump has publicly and privately debated how best to describe his position, especially when it comes to the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. On Wednesday, he decided to stick with the far-right positions that were key to his success in the GOP primaries." -- CW ...

Fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. Fool me... You can't get fooled again! -- George W. Bush ...

... Lauren Fox & Annie Rees of TPM: Trump's ballyhooed "pivot" "was all a ruse.... What we were left with was the Trump we have always known. He wants a border wall, he is certain Mexico will pay for it and he gave no indication that he wouldn't deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country." Fox & Rees reprise the Trump camp's feints delivered over the past two weeks. -- CW ...

... New York Times Editors: Donald Trump's "speech -- in 10 points, embellished with statistics, ad-libbed asides and audience hollering and chanting -- was as clear a statement of hard-core restrictionism as any he has given. It was a mass-deportation speech, even if he avoided that phrase. Its intent was hard to miss.... The entire speech, in fact, imagines that government at all levels will be used to hunt down and remove immigrants from their homes, families and jobs. Mr. Trump was describing a world of lockups and surveillance and fugitive-hunting squads, a vast system of indiscriminate catch-and-punish that works as hard to catch hotel maids and landscapers as it does gang members and terrorists." -- CW ...

... Charles Pierce on how Trump played the media for suckers Wednesday. "Quite simply, for almost 98 minutes, the presidential candidate of one of our two major political parties did a very convincing imitation of someone who should not be allowed out in public without a keeper, and whose keeper should not be allowed anywhere near him without a net, sufficient backup, and a tranquilizer gun capable of inducing coma in a herd of drunken elephants.... [The speech] obliterated the earlier dog-and-pony show in Mexico. It made a jackass out of every member of the media who ever has used the word 'presidential' in any connection with El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago, and particularly those members of the media who got played for suckers on Wednesday afternoon." -- CW ...

... Aaron Rupar of Think Progress: "Making another one of his paid appearances as a CNN contributor late Wednesday night, former Trump campaign manager [Corey Lewandowski] made no bones about the fact that Trump's big immigration speech was aimed at white men. 'Look, I think Donald Trump's message tonight was the message that he started with back on June of 2015, which was "America First,"' Lewandkowski said. '... and if you look at the polling data, he's got about an 18 point lead in the demographic of white males who are voting in this election.... 'This speech is clearly geared at those individuals right now, to make sure they are there, he has locked them in for the election.'" -- CW

Zach Montellaro of Politico: "A founder of the Latinos for Trump group on Thursday warned that without Donald Trump in the White House, there would be 'taco trucks on every corner' in America. 'My culture is a very dominant culture,' the Mexican-born Marco Gutierrez said on MSNBC's 'All In With Chris Hayes.' 'It is imposing and it's causing problems. If you don't do something about it, you're going to have taco trucks on every corner.'" CW: I think the implication is that these "taco trucks" dispense as many drugs as they do tacos, but I'm guess. As Joy Reid, who was hosting the show, said, "I don't even know what that means, and I'm afraid to ask."

Robert Costa of the Washington Post : "David N. Bossie, the veteran conservative operative who has investigated the Clintons for more than two decades, has been named Donald Trump's deputy campaign manager. The Republican presidential nominee revealed his hire in a phone call with The Washington Post.... Until this week, Bossie was president of Citizens United, the hard-line advocacy outfit that has mounted digital, film and advertising campaigns against President Obama's agenda and against moderate Republicans. Bossie will take a leave of absence from Citizens United for the duration of the campaign. And he has left the 'Defeat Crooked Hillary' super PAC, which he had been running since June." -- CW ...

... BBC: "Melania Trump is suing a British newspaper and a US blogger for $150m (£114m) over allegations she was a sex worker in the 1990s, her lawyer says. The Daily Mail suggested Mrs Trump may have worked as a part-time escort in New York, and met husband Donald Trump, who is now running for the White House, earlier than previously reported. Blogger Webster Tarpley wrote that Mrs Trump feared her past becoming public." CW: Thanks to Gloria for the link. So Mrs. Trump sues a sleazy newspaper for making a false statement at about the same time Mr. Trump hires notorious Clinton scandalmonger (and audiotape doctorer) David Bossie. ...

... Here's the Daily Mail's retraction announcement. "The Daily Mail newspaper article stated that there was no support for the allegations...." -- CW

Crooked Donaldo. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump paid the IRS a $2,500 penalty this year, an official at Trump's company said, after it was revealed that Trump's charitable foundation had violated tax laws by giving a political contribution to a campaign group connected to Florida's attorney general. The improper donation, a $25,000 gift from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, was made in 2013. At the time, Attorney General Pam Bondi was considering whether to investigate fraud allegations against Trump University. She decided not to pursue the case." CW: A coincidence, I'm sure. But read on. Besides being a (legal) political bribe, the Trump Foundation went to some trouble to hide the donation to Bondi from the IRS. An official at the foundation called it "an honest mistake." You be the judge. ...

     ... There's a big difference between (a) being arrogant and/or lazy about your e-mail, and (b) cheating on your taxes. Trump had to have been tiny-hands-on on the Bondi bribe. The bribe & the false tax return were his doings, not an underling's. ...

     ... Paul Waldman: "The really good part is that Bondi solicited the donation while she was investigating Trump. Now substitute the words 'Clinton Foundation' for 'Trump Foundation' with the same facts, and ask what the response of both the media and Republicans would be."

Nicholas Riccardi of the AP: "Donald Trump's aggressive rhetoric on illegal immigration has obscured a potentially historic policy shift -- [Trump] ... is the first major party candidate in modern memory to propose limiting legal immigration.... Trump talked about limiting immigration to its historic norms. The share of foreign-born people in the United States -- 13 percent of the population -- is at its highest level since 1920. By making the case in a nationally televised address that immigration overall has to be limited, Trump has embraced the ideals of a small group of activists who, for decades, have sought to sharply reduce all forms of migration to the United States." CW: Besides the supremacist-nationalist-isolationist aspects of this, limiting immigration would be an national economic disaster. Immigrants don't just fill jobs; they buy stuff with the money they make. They're an engine of U.S. economic growth. ...

Katie Glueck & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Several major Latino surrogates for Donald Trump are reconsidering their support for him following the Republican nominee's hardline speech on immigration Wednesday night. Jacob Monty, a member of Trump's National Hispanic Advisory Council, quickly resigned after the speech. Another member, Ramiro Pena, a Texas pastor, said Trump's speech likely cost him the election and said he'd have to reconsider being part of a 'scam.' And Alfonso Aguilar, the president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, said in an interview that he is 'inclined' to pull his support." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Latinos Baggle Boy Genius. Nick Gass: "Eric Trump expressed incredulity Friday in reaction to the disavowal of two of the campaign's Hispanic surrogates in the wake of Donald Trump's immigration speech this week, suggesting that the campaign would try to reach back out to them and clarify his father's position on the issue.... 'Which is actually pretty amazing, considering the speech. It was actually very consistent and has been very consistent with his plan,' Eric Trump remarked during an interview on 'Fox & Friends,' calling it 'really interesting.'" -- CW

Jeremy Fugleberg of Cincinnati.com: "Online volunteers seeking to help Donald Trump by making phone calls might be signing up for more than they bargained for. To sign up on Trump's website, potential volunteers must agree to a 2,271-word non-disclosure agreement in which they also promise they won't compete against or say anything bad about Trump, his company, his family members or products -- now and forever.... Earlier this year, volunteers for Trump in New York had to sign non-disclosure agreements in person before making phone calls at Trump Tower." Via Paul Waldman. ...

     ... CW: I'm not sure an agreement of this sort is Constitutional. I just don't see how courts would uphold a lifetime limit on the free speech rights of people who have received nothing in return for their promise. In any event, it's pathetic that Trumpbots who are screaming for their freeedoms will voluntarily agree to give up their most fundamental Constitutional freedom for the remainder of their lives.

Senate Race

Erica Hellerstein & Josh Israel of Think Progress: "The Koch Brothers Are Spending Big To Buy Harry Reid's Senate Seat. Their groups have already spent about $6 million on the Nevada race." -- CW

Other News & Views

Jo Becker, et al., of the New York Times: "... a New York Times examination of WikiLeaks' activities during Mr. Assange's years in exile found ... [that] whether by conviction, convenience or coincidence, WikiLeaks' document releases, along with many of Mr. Assange's statements, have often benefited Russia, at the expense of the West." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Stepan Kravchenko, et al., of Bloomberg: "Vladimir Putin said the hacking of thousands of Democratic National Committee emails and documents was a service to the public, but denied U.S. accusations that Russia's government had anything to do with it. 'Listen, does it even matter who hacked this data?' Putin said in an interview at the Pacific port city of Vladivostok on Thursday. 'The important thing is the content that was given to the public.'" -- CW

Rachel Swarns of the New York Times: "Nearly two centuries after Georgetown University profited from the sale of 272 slaves, it will embark on a series of steps to atone for the past, including awarding preferential status in the admissions process to descendants of the enslaved, officials said on Wednesday. Georgetown's president, John J. DeGioia, who will discuss the measures in a speech on Thursday afternoon, also plans to offer a formal apology, create an institute for the study of slavery and erect a public memorial to the slaves whose labor benefited the institution, including those who were sold in 1838 to help keep the university afloat." CW: Just you wait; some aggrieved white kid who doesn't get accepted to Georgetown will start screaming "discrimination." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Here is Gabriel Sherman's promised piece on Roger Ailes: "How Fox News women took down the most powerful, and predatory, man in media." -- CW

Vivian Yee of the New York Times: "Anthony D. Weiner confirmed on Thursday that the New York City Administration for Children's Services has opened an investigation into his treatment of his 4-year-old son, Jordan." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Concerned about the spread of the Zika virus across the South, local officials [in Dorchester County, South Carolina,] on Sunday targeted a 15-square mile area of the county, which is near Charleston, with naled [delivered by aerial spraying].... [Millions of bees died. A county official] acknowledged that a county worker had not followed the local government's standard procedure of notifying registered beekeepers about the deployment of pesticides." -- CW

Dan Sullivan & Anastasia Dawson of the Tampa Bay Times: "Hillsborough County sheriff's officials conferred with NAACP officials and church pastors Thursday night in an effort to tamp down rising tensions over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man earlier this week.... Two days of small protests followed the incident, which occurred as investigators searched a home in Clair-Mel, a hardscrapple cluster of neighborhoods southeast of Tampa. Publicly, the Sheriff's Office has released little about the circumstances of [Levonia] Riggins' death, and Sheriff David Gee has said nothing. The Hillsborough State Attorney's Office is expected to investigate." -- CW

News Ledes

New York Times: "Capping two consecutive months of hearty jobs gains, hiring eased in August, with the government reporting on Friday that employers expanded their payrolls by 151,000 workers. The temperate performance is expected to bolster those within the Federal Reserve who favor a wait-and-see approach toward raising the benchmark interest rate when the central bank meets later this month. The official unemployment rate, based on a separate survey of households, remained at 4.9 percent. Average hourly earnings grew only 0.1 percent, bringing the 12-month increase in wages to 2.4 percent, modest though still ahead of inflation." -- CW

Tampa Bay Times: "Hurricane Hermine made landfall south of Tallahassee early today as a Category 1 storm, slamming the state's Big Bend region with 80 mph winds and ending a hurricane-free streak of nearly 11 years." -- CW ...

... A Weather Channel report is here, with links to related ongoing coverage. ...

... Washington Post Update: "Hundreds of thousands of people lost power, while at least one death was blamed on Hermine, which was downgraded to a tropical storm shortly before 5 a.m., just a few hours after making landfall in Florida. Authorities warned Friday of powerful winds as the storm was expected to move through Georgia and into South Carolina and North Carolina on Friday. A tropical storm warning was issued from North Carolina to Delaware, while tropical storm watches were issued as far north as New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. " -- CW