;)
The Commentariat -- August 13, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Maureen Dowd argues that Hillary Clinton is the perfect Republican presidential nominee. Dowd bases her case on Clinton's foreign policy & her ties to Wall Street. -- CW
Gray Lady Outlines Why Donald Trump Must Never Be President. Alexander Burns & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: On June 20, Donald Trump's top advisors, including his children, staged an intervention to urge him to "end his freestyle digressions and insults," and & agreed to rein it in. "Nearly two months later, the effort to save Mr. Trump from himself has plainly failed. He has repeatedly signaled to his advisers and allies his willingness to change and adapt, but has grown only more volatile and prone to provocation since then.... In private, Mr. Trump's mood is often sullen and erratic, his associates say.... He is routinely preoccupied with perceived slights.... On Tuesday ... his brain trust ... again urged Mr. Trump to adjust his tone and comportment.... Mr. Trump ... responded receptively." Then he went out & suggested "Second Amendment people" off Hillary Clinton & a few liberal judges. ...
... CW: I've been watching a British series about an autistic child with a well-meaning but dysfunctional family. The little boy responds to coaching by acting out the way Donald Trump does. ...
... Kurt Eichenwald of Newsweek reviews some of the whoppers Donald Trump has told in sworn depositions. "He never tries to make his lies or delusions or fantasies make sense. He just spews to explain away the inexplicable.... Trump ... [now blames] the media for applying the rules of grammar and sentence structure to him...." CW: Oddly, Eichenwald frames his column in the form of a letter to Paul Ryan, urging Ryan to dump Trump, as if Ryan himself had the personal integrity & love of country to do the right thing. (If he does, he's been hiding it for a long time.) Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.
... Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "The unraveling of Donald Trump's candidacy continues apace, a long and steady decline since the high point three months ago. If he were deliberately trying to avoid winning the election, he could hardly be doing a better job. The hole he has dug for himself is wide and deep.... Rather than looking at weaknesses in his support and trying to find ways to win a few percentage points among particular groups of voters, his words and behavior do the opposite." -- CW
Michael Weissenstein of the AP: "Fidel Castro thanked Cubans for their well-wishes on his 90th birthday on Saturday and criticized President Barack Obama in a lengthy letter published in state media." -- CW
*****
Presidential Race
Steve Eder of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine, released a new batch of their own income tax returns on Friday, ratcheting up the pressure on her opponent, Donald J. Trump, to begin making public his own forms. The income taxes of Mrs. Clinton, along with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, showed an adjusted gross income of $10.6 million for 2015, revealing how during the campaign the Clintons have reined in their moneymaking efforts after many years of lucrative speeches, book deals and business endeavors. Mr. Kaine, the Virginia senator, and his wife, Anne Holton, reported income of $313,441 for 2015." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... CW: It's unlikely (tho not impossible) that the IRS is auditing Trump's 2015 returns, so he'll have to come up with another phony excuse for not releasing them. Plus, since he was running for president during 2015, he had time to make his returns "look good" in terms of actually paying some taxes, making real charitable contributions instead of pretending to, etc. If he won't even let the public see his taxes for a year he could have cooked them, then he should just drop out & go on to overseeing Trump TeeVee.
Michael Stratford of Politico: "Bill Clinton was paid more than $1 million in 2015 by Laureate Education, a global operator of for-profit colleges, according to tax returns released today by Hillary Clinton's campaign.... The new figure brings the former president's total compensation from Laureate to more than $17.5 million for his five-year role as an 'honorary chancellor.'... Clinton ended his position at Laureate in April 2015 after Hillary Clinton launched her bid for the White House.... In the United States, the company owns Walden University, a Minneapolis-based online school that the Education Department has placed on a list of colleges that officials are more closely monitoring because of concerns over its 'financial responsibility.'" CW: Bill is the Mike Huckabee of the Democratic party. It probably is not a coincidence that these two snakeoil salesmen were both governors of Arkansas.
Michelle Goldberg of Slate: "If you spend much time on right-wing media, you might have heard that Hillary Clinton suffers from seizures, dementia, Parkinson's disease, and possibly even tongue cancer. As David Weigel writes in the Washington Post, Sean Hannity has spent all week dredging up debunked rumors about Clinton's health.... Some of the same right-wing characters painting Clinton as a frail invalid are also accusing her of masterminding the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, who is said, without evidence, to be involved in last month's leak of DNC documents. (This is only the latest of the dozens of murders some attribute to the Clintons.)... The [Clinton-is-deathly-ill meme is] the speculation of desperate men hoping for a deus ex machina to save them from a Clinton presidency." -- CW
Tyler Pager of Politico: "Donald Trump sought to project a united front with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Friday night. Hours after the Trump campaign met with Republican Party officials, their nominee profusely praised Priebus at a rally in Altoona, Pennsylvania.... Priebus also tried to reassure voters of party unity at Trump's earlier rally in Erie, Pennsylvania." -- CW
Word Salad for the Second-Amendment People's Diet. The only way we can lose, in my opinion -- I really mean this, Pennsylvania is if cheating goes on and we have to call up law enforcement and we have to have the sheriffs and the police chiefs and everyone watching because if we get cheated out of this election, if we get cheated out of a win in Pennsylvania, which is such a vital state especially when I know what is happening here. She can't beat what's happening here. The only way they can beat it in my opinion, and I mean this 100 percent, if in certain sections of the state they cheat. -- Donald Trump, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, yesterday
Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Trump had eased off the claim [that President Obama founded the Islamic State] Friday morning.... 'Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) "the founder" of ISIS, & MVP,' Trump tweeted. 'THEY DON'T GET SARCASM?' He seemed to revel in the uncertainty his tweet created, boasting ... later of pundits' inability to figure him out. 'I love watching these poor, pathetic people (pundits) on television working so hard and so seriously to try and figure me out. They can't!'.... But during an afternoon rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump said his initial remark wasn't 'that sarcastic, to be honest with you.'" CW: As he whirls into the vortex, perhaps the most astonishing thing is that Trump thinks this "Gaslight" stunt is clever gamesmanship. ...
... Philip Bump of the Washington Post on Trump's repeatedly claims that President Obama "founded" ISIS & Trump's insistence that he really meant it, only to follow up with a tweet mocking the media -- CNN in this case -- for being too dumb to know sarcasm when they heard it: "But it wasn't [sarcasm], as you know. Sarcasm is being ironic for the purposes of mockery. A guy trips and breaks his nose, and you say, 'Nicely done.' That's sarcasm. It is saying the opposite of what is expected, making it not a particularly sophisticated form of humor but a popular one." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... OR, as Master of Sarcasm Andy Borowitz reports, "'People who are worried about me having the nuclear-launch codes should stop worrying, O.K.?' Trump told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. 'If I ever used nuclear weapons, it would be really obvious that I was just being sarcastic.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Latest Trump Threat. Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Donald Trump on Thursday issued a threat to stop fundraising for the Republican Party after a report emerged that party officials could focus resources on down-ballot candidates." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The $63-Million-Dollar Question. Bob Burnett in the Huffington Post: "Open Secrets uses FEC data to report that, at the end of June, the Trump campaign had $20m on hand. According to the latest Trump reports, they raised an additional $80 million in July and, early in August, had $37m on hand. If you do the math, that means Trump spent $63m in July. He didn't spend it on TV advertising." He didn't spend much on field operations. "How did Trump spend the money?... The end-of-June FEC report indicates that Trump had lent his campaign $50m. Although Trump promised to forgive this loan, NBC news reported that he never filed the papers to actually do this." -- CW
... Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Years before he ran for the White House, Trump built his political brand by accusing President Obama of concealing his past.... But Trump has ensured that Americans know relatively little about him. He has refused to release many of the same documents that he demanded from Obama, including college transcripts and passport records. He has shirked the decades-old tradition of major nominees releasing their tax returns and other documentation to prove their readiness and fitness for office. And he has yet to release records showing why he received a medical deferment during the Vietnam War and whether he has actually donated the millions of dollars he claims to have given to charity.... Trump, in building a wall around his records, is setting a new standard for secrecy for modern-day candidates." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Washington Post Editors: Unlike Hillary Clinton & most recent presidential candidates, Donald Trump has refused to release the names of his bundlers. "These are the people who solicit large numbers of often medium-size checks and hand them over to campaigns.... Mr. Trump might not want to draw attention to the special interests now backing him, and some of his bundlers might (understandably) be embarrassed to be outed.... Mr. Trump's refusal to meet essential standards of transparency expresses contempt for the democratic process and erodes crucial norms." -- CW
Keith Alexander & Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post: "... during a deposition he gave in a lawsuit stemming from a dispute over his soon-to-open Washington luxury hotel..., [Donald Trump] seemed to brag about the impact his campaign has had on his brand. 'You know people have said there's never been anything like this,' he said. 'I've tapped into something. And I've tapped into illegal immigration.... But, you know, when you get more votes than anybody in the history of the party, history of the party by far, more than Ronald Reagan, more than Richard Nixon, more than Dwight D. Eisenhower who won the Second World War, you know, that's pretty mainstream, when you think about it." -- CW
We've got an un-indicted felon as his opponent [i.e., Hillary Clinton] and you're talking about [Khizr] Khan, about him [i.e., Donald Trumpus] making a remark about this man. All right, I don't care if he's a Gold Star parent. He certainly doesn't deserve that title, OK, if he's as anti-American as he's illustrated in his speeches and in his discussion. I mean, if he's a member of the Muslim Brotherhood or supporting, you know, the ISIS-type of attitude against America, there's no reason for Donald Trump to have to honor this man. -- Carl Paladino, co-chair for Donald Trump's campaign in New York, & professional hatemonger, on Don Imus's radio show
Patrick Healy of the New York Times: ".. in the last two weeks, instead of attracting a surge of new admirers [as he predicted], Mr. Trump has been hemorrhaging support among loyal Republicans, anti-establishment independents, Clinton-loathing Democrats and others, according to polls and 30 interviews with a cross-section of voters." -- CW
Max Ehrenfreund & Jeff Guo of the Washington Post: "According to [a] new analysis [by Gallup], those who view Trump favorably have not been disproportionately affected by foreign trade or immigration.... The results suggest that his supporters, on average, do not have lower incomes than other Americans, nor are they more likely to be unemployed." But they come from areas with depressed economies & "abnormally high death rates.... The places where Trump is popular are places where people have been unhealthy for a long time.... Those who view Trump favorably are more likely to be found in white enclaves -- racially isolated Zip codes...." CW: So according to this study, Trump's supporters are selfish, narrow-minded white people. What a surprise (that's sarcasm).
Senate Races
Boo-Fucking-Hoo. Nolan McCaskill: "Mitch McConnell may not be leading the Senate majority next Congress, the Kentucky Republican acknowledged Thursday, hinting of the down-ballot effect Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could have on Senate races." -- CW
Other News & Views
They spend a lot of time, these Republicans, spending a lot of energy trying to separate themselves from Donald Trump. But as long as they're holding a Supreme Court seat open for him, they're his minions. They're his enablers. We're going to ensure that every American knows that as long as Senate Republicans are fighting to let Trump shape the Supreme Court for a generation or more, there's no daylight between them and Trump. -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid ...
... Charles Pierce: "Garland is preposterously qualified. The Republicans look like obstructionist idiots. Worse for them, Garland is probably the best candidate they're likely to get out of either the current Democratic administration, or out of what is looking increasingly like the next one.... Reid ... [is] dangling that nomination out there as a way for his Republican colleagues to distance themselves from the vulgar talking yam that their party nominated for president." -- CW ...
... CW: Nobody is more responsible for stonewalling Garland than Chuck Grassley, the notorious chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who refuses to hold hearings on Garland's nomination & is holding up lower-court nominations. So ...
... Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) says the Senate's efficiency is flourishing under GOP leadership. 'Republicans and Democrats can work together. Bipartisanship has allowed us to make progress on good ideas from senators on both sides of the aisle,' he said Saturday in the GOP's weekly address." CW: They really have no shame.
Smoking Gun: "After disappearing for a couple of weeks, the hacker 'Guccifer 2.0' returned late [Friday] afternoon to provide a new headache for Democrats. In a post to his WordPress blog, the vandal -- who previously provided nearly 20,000 Democratic National Committee e-mails to Wikileaks -- uploaded an Excel file that includes the cell phone numbers and private e-mail addresses of nearly every Democratic member of the House of Representatives. The Excel file also includes similar contact information for hundreds of congressional staff members (chiefs of staff, press secretaries, legislative directors, schedulers) and campaign personnel." -- CW
Josh Rogin of the Washington Post: "Trump campaign surrogates are fueling a conspiracy theory that a murdered Democratic National Committee staffer was connected to the hacking of the DNC, a theory being pushed by WikiLeaks and the Russian state-controlled press. There's a big problem, however, with the theory: it doesn't make any sense when compared to all the available evidence.... On Thursday, Trump ally Newt Gingrich also endorsed the [Julian] Assange conspiracy theory that [Seth] Rich's death was somehow connected to the DNC hack.... The original conspiracy theory can be traced back to a notoriously unreliable conspiracy website that based its theory on an alleged Russian intelligence agency report about a Clinton 'hit team' that somehow lured Rich into a trap...." -- CW
Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "A federal judge is halting a Ohio law that would have defunded Planned Parenthood starting this year, a major decision that will be closely watched by other states with similar measures. Judge Michael Barrett ruled Friday that Ohio's health department could not defund Planned Parenthood because the group's patients could face 'irreparable injury.'...." CW: Barrett is a Bush II appointee.
** Devin Hughes & Evan DeFilippis, in Think Progress: John Lott, "the NRA's favorite 'academic' is a fraud.... A little over a decade ago, he was disgraced and his career was in tatters. Not only was Lott's assertion that more guns leads to more safety formally repudiated by a National Research Council panel, but he had also been caught pushing studies with severe statistical errors on numerous occasions. An investigation uncovered that he had almost certainly fabricated an entire survey on defensive gun use. And a blogger revealed that Mary Rosh, an online commentator claiming to be a former student of Lott's who would frequently post about how amazing he was, was in fact John Lott himself.... [Yet] In the past few years, Lott and his organization have been cited by dozens of media outlets as an authority on gun violence statistics, including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Politifact, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and many others." CW: Read on. The stunts Lott has pulled are astounding.
Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the Washington Post: "The head of the Islamic State's branch in Afghanistan, a former Pakistani Taliban member named Hafiz Saeed Khan, was killed in a U.S. airstrike last month, the Pentagon announced Friday. The July 26 strike took place in the Achin district of Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, said Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Gordon Trowbridge in a statement." -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Tina Sfondeles of the Chicago Sun-Times: Illinois "Gov. Bruce Rauner [R] on Friday vetoed a bill that would have automatically registered drivers to become voters when they get a driver's license, saying there were some 'corrections' to be made to the bill before he could approve it." CW: Rauner says he's worried about voter fraud. What a surprise. ...
... Alice Ollstein of Think Progress: "The non-partisan watchdog group Common Cause Illinois estimates the policy could help add two million new voters to the states rolls. In a statement Thursday, the group's lead organizer Trevor Gervais accused the governor of 'playing politics with something as important as voting rights.' 'He wants to delay implementation until 2019, after the next gubernatorial election,' Gervais said. Because the Illinois state legislature passed the measure with an overwhelming majority in early June, they can now vote to override the veto. If they do, the state will launch a program in 2018...." -- CW
Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday overturned the murder and sexual assault convictions of Brendan Dassey, one of the defendants whose case was the subject of the wildly popular Netflix documentary series, 'Making a Murderer.'" -- CW
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Reader Comments (12)
Yesterday Achilleus linked a piece by Kurt Eichenwald that I found most interesting. It's important information from someone who had direct contact with Trump more than a decade ago and describes his behavior as disturbing.He remembers the weird phone conversations that smack of the kind of narcissistic sickness that Trump is displaying now. The fact that this sickness has been so clearly demonstrated yet this man continues to carry on, that the Republican Party would not have stopped him way before this is mind blowing. We had a potential vice president, in 1972, Thomas Eagleton, having to bow out because he had had electric shock therapy.
What is ironic is that the Trump campers beginning with Alex Jones, the radio rant rat, started this bit about Hillary being brain damaged. Imagine my surprise (this, too, is sarcasm) to watch a segment on Hannity's show in which he had the Fox New's medical A team including none other than our old friend, Ben Carson who regaled us with their expertise on head traumas showing the viewers over and over the video of Hillary falling down upon entering a plane plus a video of her shaking her head (they sped up the tape to make it look as if she was having some kind of seizure). The desperation here is so pathetic while at the same time such a crazy "you call Trump off his chump, we'll call Clinton off hers"–-tit for tat. These rats will not desert the sinking ship, they will, by gum, go down with it!
The episode––can we call Trump's insane rants episodes? ––on the Founder business reminded me of the story of Gavrilo Princip, that little punk who shot Archduke Ferdinand in 1914. Rumor had it that Gavrilo had a thing for Walt Whitman's poetry, would carry around a book of Whitman's in his back pocket. One of his favorite poems was one where Walt was ordering his readers to "bring down Kings." So, given this, some would conclude, that an American poet was responsible for WW1.
And speaking of those that would, Carl Paladino is one crazy somabitch. He has graced these pages before when I wrote about his run for Governor of N.Y. Although his followers knew all about this guy's indiscretions–-and he had a long sleazy list of them––never the less he was able to hoodwink a decent number––called his campaign Carl's Country.
Things are heating up and so has the weather.
From the Atlantic: The end of Brawn: the future of work.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/the-end-of-brawn/495488/
Today in Both Siderism
It never rests. The next "they both do it", the not very subtle subtext of which is that they're both the same, is the startling and obviously very troubling news that, as The Hill is saying, Hillary is going negative with Trump.
Horrors! Is it possible to go positive with Trump? I suppose she could say "I'm positive Trump is a dangerous mental case".
But seriously folks...
So on the Confederate side and in the pro-Armageddon press, Clinton is a walking wreck, a human health bomb, racked with more diseases than you'll find in the Merck Manual, a brain eating zombie. But at the same time she's a criminal mastermind intent on murdering her way to power, a human crime spree as well. Trump blames her for every terrible thing since The Fall (I soon expect to hear that eating the apple was Hillary's idea which she blamed on the snake who's gotten a bum rap all these years; Hillary's hacked emails from the Garden to follow), famine, war, pestilence, and probably menopause as well (remember how much Donaldo fears and abhors that!). But Hillary asks about his tax returns and she's no better than Trump with the negative.
I agree that she should offer reasons for voters to choose her but her qualifications are clear. At this point, with 90 some odd days to go, the best reason is that she's not Trump, a fact that plenty in the media will now be disputing because, well, they both do it, which is like saying that there was no difference between Hitler and FDR because they both brushed their teeth. And I'm not even gonna feel bad about a Hitler analogy. As that great old Martell's record from the 60's reminds us, time is tight.
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/291001-clinton-goes-negative-with-trump
Oops. "Time is Tight" was an instrumental (remember when you could still chart with an instrumental?) by the legendary Booker T.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=50xx1_CbJTI
Hillary must be secretly eating my brain at night.
Clinton by Republicans: Benghazi, dementia, crooked, emails, murder. But absolutely nothing about her policy proposals. Hmmmm.
Trump by everyone: Crazy, insane, NPD, weird, nuts, stupid.
But nothing about policy proposals because other than a tax cut for himself, there are no real proposals. Hmmmmm.
Hillary Clinton's policy proposals are well concealed in the internets,
but here's one:
https://www.americanactionforum.org/wp-content/upload/2016/07/
Proposals-Table.png
It's mind blowing that most of the time I see someone supporting Trump they are praising him for other people's words and ideas coming out of his mouth (telepromter speeches), but get worried when he starts talking for himself.
I have a dilemma. I just received a "chain mail" letter from my new next door neighbor about how Obama has made the USA a Muslim country and Christians are no longer allowed to pray--anywhere! This is a summary. It is a long, dissembled rant!
And my dilemma: I share a garden space with this idiot Ass Hat (who is a former VP of Chevron), and he has agreed only to minimal upkeep from my excellent, thrifty garden helper, since "gardens do not matter," and he is only doing this to appease me. Guess he has spotted my disdain.
I have hesitated to answer this disgusting wing nut piece--which ends "VOTE FOR HILLARY IF YOU HATE YOUR COUNTRY,"
because in my present state of mind, I cannot be trusted to be polite and lucid. The only thing I can think to say is: "How will you feel when you have to call Hillary Clinton Madame President?"
Any suggestions from my brilliant co-commenters would be highly appreciated. Just remember, I have to live next door to this poor excuse for a human bean.
Oh, Kate...just a former VP? Does he use that title to impress? Betcha at Chevron Waaaaaay above that level are the multitudes of Sr. VPs, then Exec. VPs, and the upper level Senior Exec. VPs. Guess VP looks good on the business card, the reality...he was small potatoes! He does sound like someone to avoid! Wish I could be more helpful.
Just spotted a lead story over on HuffPost, Katrina Pierson has to be one of the dimmest bulbs around. She appears to spend more time in front of a vanity mirror than checking her facts. Guess what, according to her: Obama started the war in Afghanistan How do these people get to be spokespersons? Answer: No one with any intelligence wants to be embarrassed speaking for Trump, but for...the Katrina Piersons (Carl Paladinos, et al) the wannabees of the world.
@Kate:
Dear Neighbor, it looks as if your email account was hacked. I just received a bizarre message from your address filled with wild conspiracy theories. Perhaps you should have used a secure private email server. I hear they have outperformed larger institutional systems.
Ok. That's probably poking a bit too hard, but I hope it brings a brief grin. If I come up with a more practical reply I'll post it.
Kate, how about making an altar in your shared garden, with Merry Christmas and Happy Easter all over it. When he asks, explain that you are waiting inside with your .22 for the Sharia Police to arrive. With their yuuge appreciation for sarcasm, your trumpoid neighbour will think that's hilarious. You and he can bond in shared astonishment when they don't turn up.
@Kate: NiskyGuy's solution is perfect.
I'd make doubly sure the guy knew the conspiracy theories in the "hacker"'s e-mail were INSANE and it worried you that someone so unbalanced might have such a grudge against your neighbor that he would hack his system. As a mental health care professional, you understand how dangerous are some of the sickos who harbor these twisted ideas.
He should remember, of course, that he's in Oregon, where people care about the environment & oil industry people are understandably going to be targets of some overzealous loon. But as far as you're concerned, people shouldn't do anything so malicious, no matter what a person's past is.
The next time I saw the neighbor, I'd put on my "concerned" face & ask him if he'd been able to secure his computer. If he admits he sent the e-mail, I'd practically shriek, "OMG, I had no idea you were so ill," & I'd urge him to get psychological help. Tell him a sudden penchant for believing nutty conspiracy theories is one of the first signs of senile dementia.
I'm not kidding. Nobody has every sent me an e-mail like the one you got, but people have expressed similar wacko ideas, & depending upon the severity of the evidence for winger indoctrination, I let them know either that their ideas are nuts or they are. I'm really polite when I urge them to get help.
Marie