;)
The Commentariat -- June 29, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Robin Wright of the New Yorker interviews Dr. Anne Stevens, the sister of Ambassador Chris Stevens. The family does not blame Hillary Clinton (or Leon Panetta) for the attack on the Benghazi stations. In addition, they say the aftermath has been entirely politicized. -- CW
Drip, Drip, Drip, Ctd., Ctd., Ctd. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... disclosures over the past several weeks have revealed dozens of emails related to [Hillary] Clinton's official duties that crossed her private server and were not included in the 55,000 pages of correspondence she turned over to the State Department when the agency sought her emails in 2014. At least 69 such emails have come to light so far, many of them through public-records lawsuits brought by the conservative group Judicial Watch.... The newly disclosed gaps in Clinton's correspondence raise questions about the process used by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and her lawyers to determine which emails she turned over to the department." -- CW
Donovan Slack of USA Today: "The National Rifle Association's political arm is launching its first ad campaign of the 2016 presidential race, with a survivor of the terror attack in Benghazi urging viewers to vote for Donald Trump. The ad, which the NRA Political Victory Fund is backing with more than $2 million, is one of the larger expenditures by an outside group on behalf of the presumptive Republican nominee." -- CW
... Plagiarist-in-Chief. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "In 2005..., Mr. Trump ... lent his name, and his credibility, to a seminar business he did not own, which was branded the Trump Institute.... As with Trump University, the Trump Institute promised falsely that its teachers would be handpicked by Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump did little ... besides appear in an infomercial -- one that promised customers access to his vast accumulated knowledge.... In fact, the institute was run by a couple who had run afoul of regulators in dozens of states and been dogged by accusations of deceptive business practices and fraud for decades. Similar complaints soon emerged about the Trump Institute. Yet there was an even more fundamental deceit to the business, unreported until now: Extensive portions of the materials that students received after forking over their seminar fees, supposedly containing Mr. Trump's special wisdom, had been plagiarized from an obscure real estate manual published a decade earlier.
Together, the exaggerated claims about his own role, the checkered pasts of the people with whom he went into business and the theft of intellectual property at the venture's heart all illustrate the fiction underpinning so many of Mr. Trump's licensing businesses: Putting his name on products and services -- and collecting fees -- was often where his actual involvement began and ended.-- CW
digby: "Once more [Donald Trump is] implying that he would behead people. That's on top of the waterboarding and the hostage taking and the torturing and killing of their families. The crowd responded with shouts of 'USA! USA!' I just saw a succession of Republicans on CNN agree that Trump is right about terrorism and that we need a 'strong[man]' leader. I feel sick." -- CW
Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "With less than three weeks to go, Donald Trump's Republican National Convention in Cleveland is poised to be the most chaotic GOP gathering of the modern era.... Dozens of well-known Republicans aren't showing up. There's no word yet on who will speak. A growing number of corporate sponsors are taking a pass. Groups of white supremacists and other agitators are on the way, while the official protest routes are frantically being redrawn after being thrown out in court. And then there's the fight to dethrone the big star." -- CW
Friend to Rapists-in-Chief. Emily Heil of the Washington Post: "Was former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson going to appear at the Republican National Convention and not speak, or was he not coming at all? Despite a Bloomberg Politics report late Tuesday that the pugilist was among the big names invited to the big political event by aides to presumptive nominee Donald Trump, it seems Tyson is not -- repeat not -- convention-bound. Soon after the Bloomberg report, Trump tweeted what seemed to be a denial of the report. 'Iron Mike Tyson was not asked to speak at the Convention though I'm sure he would do a good job if he was.'"
... Akhilleus. Got that? Convicted rapist and Trump buddy (just think of the sexual assault stories they could share), Mike Tyson (oh, sorry, "Iron Mike Tyson"), won't be speaking at Donaldo's coronation, but if he did, he'd be great. Amazing, even. And that "denial" doesn't sound iron-clad either. Sounds like Tyson could show up after all. Maybe he can assault an empty chair.
North Carolina Finds a New Way to Screw Trans Citizens. Samantha Allen of the Daily Beast: "Facing backlash over the notorious anti-LGBT law they passed this March, which requires transgender people to use the restroom matches their birth certificate, legislators in the Republican-controlled House are working on a new draft of House Bill 2 (HB 2) in an effort to keep the 2017 NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte." Trans individuals wanting to use a rest room would need to show "...Special 'certificates of sex reassignment,' [which] would only help about seven percent of transgender people.... Even then, the certificates would only be useful for the subset of that seven percent who have the money or the need for SRS." Pay to pee?
... Akhilleus: So this idea is so much better than out and out denying everyone. Now you have to show a Special Certificate in order to pee in the right restroom. What's next, the Genital Police?
Good thing they're not running in North Carolina. Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "For the first time in U.S. political history, an openly transgender candidate won a major-party congressional primary. In fact, on Tuesday, two did.... Misty K. Snow is a 30-year-old grocery store cashier. (If you're wondering, the Constitution says you have to be 30 to be a U.S. senator.) According to the Salt Lake Tribune, she jumped into the primary race at the last minute to give voters a progressive alternative to the conservative Democrat expected to win. She won by nearly 20 points. Misty Plowright is a 33-year-old IT worker who similarly beat out her primary opponent -- a single dad and an Iraq combat veteran -- to challenge Rep. Doug Lamborn (R) in one of the most conservative districts in Colorado.'I'm the anti-politician,' she told the Colorado Gazette shortly after getting in the race."
... Akhilleus: Ms. Snow will be facing off against 'bagger troglodyte and Ted Cruz BFF, Mike Lee. Think he'll follow her around to see which bathroom she uses?
*****
David Herzenhorn of the New York Times: "Ending one of the longest, costliest and most bitterly partisan congressional investigations in history, the House Select Committee on Benghazi issued its final report on Tuesday, finding no new evidence of culpability or wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton in the 2012 attacks in Libya that left four Americans dead." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Akhilleus: No kidding. But nonetheless ...
... Trey Gowdy Was Just Doing His Job ... No, Really. Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Rep. Trey Gowdy on Tuesday defended his committee's lengthy and expansive Benghazi probe, saying that it was intended to reveal the facts and not to torpedo Hillary Clinton's presidential chances. The South Carolina Republican, a former federal prosecutor, insisted that former House speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and current speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) never 'asked me to do anything about presidential politics.... My job is to report facts,' Gowdy told reporters. 'You can draw whatever conclusions you want to draw.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Akhilleus: Sure. Just the fact, ma'am. So we should pay no attention to all the ripe canards and out and out lies and smears perpetrated by committee Republicans for the last two years, like the time former committee chair "...[Darrell] Issa famously claimed that Clinton had personally issued a 'stand-down' order in which a CIA operative allegedly told his troops not to rush to the rescue of those in danger. That narrative repeatedly has been proven to lack any evidence -- including by the Washington Post's Fact Checker, which awarded the claim 'Four Pinnochios.'" ...
... Dana Milbank: "The House Select Committee on Benghazi released its long-awaited findings Tuesday and concluded that ... well, it looks as though they're going to have to empanel another select committee to iron out the dueling conclusions reached by various members of the committee.... [Trey] Gowdy, after promising his report was 'not going to come out in the middle of 2016,' released his report just before the political conventions." ...
... CW: The middle of the year isn't till way this Saturday. See? Gowdy kept his promise. ...
... CW BTW: I think that $7MM figure attributed to the "investigation" is a gross underestimation in that it does not appear to include the extensive costs to other federal departments & agencies, like State. For the money, it looks like the only new thing the "investigation" revealed was Clinton's misuse of a private e-mail account. But even there, there isn't much there there. So far as the public knows, there's no evidence her private account was hacked, and if you think it's a "revelation" that Clinton is secretive & arrogant, then you haven't been following her career. ...
... Mark Landler & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "With the release on Tuesday of the committee's final report -- a compendious document that offers a handful of new details but nothing that will alter the conventional narrative about the events of Sept. 11, 2012 -- the emails now loom as the last chapter of the Benghazi saga that could still harm Mrs. Clinton's presidential ambitions. The F.B.I. has yet to conclude its investigation of Mrs. Clinton's use of a home server, a delay that is frustrating her aides because the uncertainty may extend beyond next month's Democratic convention. While some legal experts doubt that the F.B.I. will recommend indictments of Mrs. Clinton or her aides, it remains a potentially campaign-changing event." -- CW ...
... Was Benghazi the Biggest Scandal in History as Many Republicans Claim? Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog: "The Republicans have won on Benghazi. To much [sic] America, the incident in which four people died was the worst foreign policy failure imaginable. The investigations may be over now that we have today's two Republican reports -- one report, ostensibly objective, that's offered as the voice of the committee as a whole, plus one extra-tendentious report from two hard-right committee members -- but the stench will linger ... even if Americans are told that other administrations have suffered deaths of diplomatic personnel -- ..., I don't think the public can even process that notion. How could anything be worse than Benghazi? (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Akhilleus: Far more Americans stationed abroad died during the Bush II and Reagan administrations: 87 under Bush and over 300 under Saint Ronnie of Reagan. In fact, in Reagan's case, even after a congressional committee (which lasted weeks, not years) issued recommendations for improving security and safety of Americans abroad nothing was done. Three months after 254 Marines were killed by a truck bomb, a CIA station chief was kidnapped, tortured, and killed, and shortly thereafter, another US outpost in Beirut was bombed. Reagan's excuse? Well, it's like having your kitchen redone. Things never get finished on time. Seriously. That's what he said.... Just imagine the outrage if Obama had issued a flip response like that. They'd want him flayed alive on national television.
Erin Kelly of USA Today: "The Senate on Tuesday blocked a $1.1 billion bill to combat the Zika virus, giving Congress just two weeks to try to reach a new deal before lawmakers leave for a seven-week recess in the midst of mosquito season and a growing public health crisis.... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., immediately made a motion to reconsider the vote, raising the possibility of another vote on the same bill next week.... Democrats opposed the bill, which they complained was negotiated between Senate and House Republicans with little input from them and was loaded with 'poison pill' riders that cut health programs, restricted funding for birth control services from Planned Parenthood, weakened clean water laws and blocked a ban on displaying the Confederate flag at U.S. military cemeteries." -- CW
Sam Stein & Jessica Schulberg of the Huffington Post: "In explosive testimony Tuesday, a witness before a Senate panel about Islamic terrorism accused the two Muslim members of Congress of having attended an event organized by the Muslim Brotherhood.... Allegations that [Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and André Carson (D-Ind.)] are secret Muslim agents with extremist leanings are usually found among fringe groups online, often discussed in dire tones on poorly designed websites. Rarely, if ever, do such sentiments get read into congressional testimony, with the imprimatur that offers.Responsibility for this rare instance lies with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who oversaw the hearing ... and whose staff likely saw the testimonies of the witnesses." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. Also, see her commentary below. -- CW
Eric Segall: "Justice Scalia was of course best known for his frequent rants about how important text and history (read original meaning) are to judges who have to decide constitutional law cases.... In the areas of affirmative action, freedom of speech generally and campaign finance reform specifically, federalism, gun rights, takings, standing, and voting rights, among many others, Justice Scalia voted to strike down laws where neither the text nor the original meaning behind the text supported his votes.... The truth is that he was a snake-oil originalist who sold a product he did not use himself.... In most of the areas of law listed above, he simply either ignored or mischaracterized historical evidence while often stridently accusing other Justices of playing fast and loose with the rules...." Via Paul Waldman. -- CW
Chisun Lee & Douglas Keith of The Atlantic: "As dark money in elections -- spending by groups that conceal their funders from the public -- has boomed in recent years, advocates of transparency have had one area of grudging relief. Super PACs, empowered by 2010's Supreme Court rulings in Citizens United and SpeechNow to spend unlimited sums, typically are required to disclose their donors.... [But] gray money is spending by super PACs that disclose other PACs as donors, making it impossible for the public to identify the actual funders without sifting through multiple layers of PAC disclosures.... Though the obfuscation caused by multilayered funding was previously known, our study for the first time reveals the remarkable growth of the problem among spenders who can technically claim to be transparent because they disclose donors." --safari
Jonathan Soble of the New York Times: "Toyota Motor said Wednesday it was recalling 1.43 million vehicles worldwide over a possible airbag fault. But it said the components in question had not been manufactured by Takata, the airbag supplier at the heart of the largest safety recall in the history of the car industry. Toyota, based in Japan, did not name the supplier of the airbags that were subject to the recall announcement.... Toyota also said it was recalling 2.87 million vehicles worldwide over fuel tank issues." -- CW
Sabrina Tavernise & Ceylan Yeginsu of the New York Times: "Suicide attackers armed with bombs and guns struck Turkey's largest airport Tuesday night, blowing themselves up in a confrontation with the police. At least 31 people were killed in the attack and 147 more were injured, in addition to the attackers, according to the Turkish justice minister, Bekir Bozdag. The governor of Istanbul, Vasip Sahin, told Turkish news outlets that three suicide bombers took part in the attack." -- CW ...
... The story has been updated. New Lede: "Three suicide attackers killed at least 36 people and wounded dozens more at Istanbul's main airport on Tuesday night, in the latest in a string of terrorist attacks in Turkey, a NATO ally once seen as a bastion of stability but now increasingly consumed by the chaos of the Middle East." ...
Can you imagine them sitting around the table or wherever they're eating their dinner, talking about the Americans don't do waterboarding and yet we chop off heads? They probably think we're weak, we're stupid, we don't know what we're doing, we have no leadership. You know, you have to fight fire with fire. -- Donald Trump, responding to the Istanbul attacks
It was unclear if Trump was advocating for the United States to allow the same kind of behaviors that ISIS and other terror groups employ. -- Cassandra Vinograd of NBC News, in a report
Michael Birnbaum & Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "Amid rising fears the European Union could splinter apart after the British decision to leave, leaders of Europe's 27 remaining nations met in Brussels amid divided visions for the continent's future. The breakfast was the first pan-European gathering in decades at which Britain was not represented.... But if E.U. leaders were united a day earlier in taking a tough line against British desires to pick and choose the best parts of membership, they are less agreed on how to salvage the rest of the union." -- CW ...
... ** Man who Blew up EU Tells Off EU. Heather Stewart & Jennifer Rankin of the Guardian: "David Cameron warned Europe's leaders that they will have to offer the UK more control over immigration at the end of a fractious day where politicians across Europe clashed over the meaning and consequences of last week's Brexit vote. The British prime minster used his last Brussels summit to tell Angela Merkel, François Hollande and other European heads of government that anxieties about unrestricted freedom of movement were at the heart of the decision by Britons to reject the EU.... Merkel and other European leaders ... ruled out any special favours for Britain, insisting there would be no 'cherry-picking exercise' in the exit negotiations." -- CW ...
Who's the Iron Lady Now? Whoever wants to leave this family cannot expect to have no more obligations but to keep the privileges. There must be and will be a noticeable difference between whether a country wants to be a member of the European Union family or not. -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to the Bundestag ...
James Traub of Foreign Policy: "The Brexit forces won because cynical leaders were prepared to cater to voters' paranoia, lying to them about the dangers of immigration and the costs of membership in the EU. Some of those leaders have already begun to admit that they were lying. Donald Trump has, of course, set a new standard for disingenuousness and catering to voters' fears.... The Republican Party, already rife with science-deniers and economic reality-deniers, has thrown itself into the embrace of a man who fabricates realities that ignorant people like to inhabit.... It is necessary to say that people are deluded and that the task of leadership is to un-delude them.... Maybe we have become so inclined to celebrate the authenticity of all personal conviction that it is now elitist to believe in reason, expertise, and the lessons of history. If so, the party of accepting reality must be prepared to take on the party of denying reality, and its enablers among those who know better. If that is the coming realignment, we should embrace it. ...
... CW: The willingness of right-wing American & European politicians to exploit the ignorance of the masses is disgusting. Real leaders are teachers, not demagogues. What we have been seeing in Republicans is "leadership" the way the Pied Piper was a leader. At least the Pied Piper of legend had a real grievance -- the mayor of Hamelin refused to pay him the agreed fee for removing rats from the town. Today's Pied Pipers seek only more profit and/or power for themselves. There is no evidence whatever they perform any service of benefit to the public. See also Jeet Heer's essay, linked below.
Presidential Race
Deadlock. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "A Quinnipiac University survey released on Wednesday found that 42 percent of voters supported Mrs. Clinton while 40 percent backed Mr. Trump. The poll represents a slight improvement for Mr. Trump, who trailed by four points at the beginning of the month, and has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points." CW: I'm linking this report only because I linked a report of a rosier poll earlier this week. Remember it's the Electoral College vote that counts, not the national poll. Also, the election is months away, & polls taken now aren't particularly predictive. But they do mean that a Trump presidency isn't out of the realm of possibilities.
Hillary Clinton responds to the release of the Benghaaazi! committee report:
Rebecca Traister of New York: "For months now, we've been hearing the moaning, so much moaning, from disaffected Democrats. This election marks a depressing return to lesser evilism; it's the year of the hated, in which two candidates, both disliked by a majority of voters, are pitted against each other.... Okay, electoral Eeyores, it is time to cheer up.... The fact is, we are in the midst of an election that should be extremely thrilling for progressives, because the possibility for change -- for progress -- is actually thrumming around us." --safari
Bernie Sanders, in a New York Times op-ed: "Could [the English] rejection of the current form of the global economy happen in the United States?... You bet it could.... Let's be clear. The global economy is not working for the majority of people in our country and the world.... But we do not need change based on the demagogy, bigotry and anti-immigrant sentiment that punctuated so much of the Leave campaign's rhetoric -- and is central to Donald J. Trump's message.... In this pivotal moment, the Democratic Party and a new Democratic president need to make clear that we stand with those who are struggling and who have been left behind. We must create national and global economies that work for all, not just a handful of billionaires." -- CW
Nick Corasaniti, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump vowed on Tuesday to rip up international trade deals and start an unrelenting offensive against Chinese economic practices, framing his contest with Hillary Clinton as a choice between hard-edge nationalism and the policies of 'a leadership class that worships globalism.'... Noting that Mrs. Clinton had backed free-trade agreements like Nafta in the past, Mr. Trump warned, 'She will betray you again.' As a policy manifesto, Mr. Trump's speech was an attack on the economic orthodoxy that has dominated the Republican Party since World War II.... Mr. Trump, as president, would have significant authority to raise trade barriers, and his speech Tuesday included his most detailed account to date of his plans to do so...." -- CW ...
... Jose DelReal & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump on Tuesday channeled more than a year's worth of fiery and freewheeling protectionist rhetoric into an uncharacteristically disciplined address, putting him out of step with decades of conservative economic orthodoxy and even some of his own prior positions.... In the past, Trump has adopted a notably less protectionist posture on trade and outsourcing.... During his speech, Trump repeatedly singled out [Hillary] Clinton for criticism.... At a rally in Ohio hours later, Trump said the trade pact was being 'pushed by special interests who want to rape our country.'" -- CW ...
...Ed Kilgore: "In a speech delivered in the Rust Belt state of Pennsylvania,Trump has gone High Protectionist, rejecting not just this or that trade deal but the whole idea of globalization, which he regards as a politicians' trick on The Folks.... More generally, Trump is ignoring a free-trade tradition in the Republican Party that dates back to the very post-World War II era that he identifies as an American golden age.... But in Trump's case, he's reaching far back to a lost Republican tradition that is now the starkest heresy among most economic conservatives ... where the pure gospel of free trade has been preached for eons. Trump has now declared that gospel pure evil, and the blowback may make the embarrassment bordering on irritated hostility that his immigration demagoguery produced in the same circles look very mild by comparison." --safari ...
... Neil Irwin of the New York Times on "Donald Trump's economic nostalgia.... Trump went to a suburb of Pittsburgh ... to talk about the steel industry and ... trade.... [But what he doesn't get is that] Pittsburgh has often been viewed as the very model of a city moving beyond its heavy industrial history to find new prosperity in areas like health care, banking and professional services.... Some of [the loss in manufacturing jobs] is surely because of more open trade with places where wages are lower. But it is also because of remarkable advances in technology that mean [fewer workers are needed to produce more goods].... America's economy has kept growing because factory output has risen even as manufacturing employment has fallen.... The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers rapidly took to Twitter to blast Mr. Trump's plans as likely to lead to 'higher prices, fewer jobs and a weaker economy,' as the Chamber's official account put it." -- CW ...
... ** Greg Sargent contrasts Trump's promise with the likelihood he could (or would even try to) keep it. On the other hand, "Clinton is offering up detailed plans for spending and tax credits and economic regulations that would help workers amid large economic trends she believes can't be reversed. There is no reason to presume that Trump's simplistic tale will carry the day politically." -- CW
** Deadbeat "Donor" Donald. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: Over the years, Donald Trump has promised to give millions to charity. "We found [he had given] less than $10,000 [to charity] over [the past] 7 years.... Records show Trump has given nothing to his foundation since 2008.... In recent years, Trump's follow-through on his promises has been seemingly nonexistent.... What has set Trump apart from other wealthy philanthropists is not how much he gives -- it is how often he promises that he is going to give." -- CW
The "Scampaign." Jeet Heer of the New Republic: Donald Trump "is pretty much guaranteed to come out richer [as a result of his presidential campaign]. That was the plan all along. And conservative voters, conditioned by decades of right-wing politicians and media exploiting and enhancing their gullibility, make the perfect victims for his ruse.... The real objective, win or lose, is relaunching his lucrative brand.... As the historian Rick Perlstein wrote in The Baffler and The Nation in 2012, the American conservative movement has become more and more amenable to get-rich-quick schemes, snake-oil salesmen, and confidence men.... The anti-intellectualism that has been a mainstay of the conservative movement for decades also makes its members easy marks.... The Republican 'war on science' is also a war on the intellectual habits needed to detect lies.... Conservative publications like National Review have spent a generation cultivating an audience of gulls. Now they're shocked that a far more talented hustler has stolen them away." -- CW
Nicolle Wallace in a New York Times op-eddy thing: "The [Republican] party establishment ... is waiting for Donald Trump to stop acting like Donald Trump. It's abundantly clear, however, that a move toward statesmanship will never materialize.... The problem with Mr. Trump's campaign lies in the solutions he proposes -- a lurch toward the isolationism, protectionism and nativism.... And the problem with the party's waiting game is that it replaces the sorts of activities that a fully functioning campaign should be doing." -- CW
Another Episode in The Life of Donald. Max Rosenthal of Mother Jones: "Marie Brenner ... profiled Trump for [Vanity Fair] in 1990, and the mogul hated the piece. 'The story was, in fact, one of the worst ever written about me,' he complained in ... The Art of the Comeback. He also noted that Brenner was an 'unattractive reporter.'... Another Trump profile, this one in New York magazine, reported in 1992 that he 'boasts about having poured a whole bottle of wine down Marie Brenner's back after she wrote a story on him that hated.' Trump was still boasting five years later: The New Yorker's Mark Singer, who profiled the mogul in 1997, relates in his new book, Trump and Me, that Trump told him he'd gotten even 'by pouring red wine down Marie's dress at a charity dinner.'" Brenner said it was a glass of wine, not a bottle, & a jacket, not a dress. -- CW
Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: Michael Cohen, "Donald Trump's longtime lawyer, published a tweet on Tuesday that accused Hillary Clinton of selling uranium to Russia through a fake charity, illegally deleting public records and murdering a U.S. ambassador.... 'I presided over $6 billion lost at the State Department, sold uranium to the Russians through my faux charity, illegally deleted public records, and murdered an ambassador,' the text above Clinton's image read. 'Elect Me!"... In an email to the Washington Post, [Cohen] sought to distance himself from the campaign. Cohen has repeatedly appeared on CNN as a Trump surrogate." -- CW
Ken Vogel & Hadas Gold of Politico: "Corey Lewandowski had a $1.2-million offer from HarperCollins to write a book chronicling his time running Donald Trump's presidential campaign, but the publishing giant backed away from the deal amid concerns about Lewandowski's non-disclosure agreement.... On Tuesday, Lewandowski said, 'I'm not shopping a book deal,' and that he doesn't have an agent doing so on his behalf. 'I would negotiate my own deal if I was looking for one.'... But the Republican operative familiar with the talks said Lewandowski personally engaged in discussions with HarperCollins, and assured the publisher that he had received clearance from the campaign to write such a book." -- CW
Donald Trump's Bizarre Fundraising Efforts, Part 1. Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "Numerous members of the British parliament have complained that they have received multiple emails from the Trump campaign asking for a donation.... The Scotsman newspaper reported that one fundraising email that appears to be from Donald Trump himself was 'received by many MPs last week.' A staff member with the Scottish National Party, Christopher Mullins-Silverstein, told Fusion that ... he has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission.... Campaign finance law bars campaigns from accepting donations from foreign nationals and from soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals." -- CW ...
... Part 2. David Corn of Mother Jones: "The subject heading on the email is eye-popping: 'Have you heard about the Hillary indictment?' But when you click on the email, which on Tuesday afternoon hit the inboxes of people on conservative lists (hours after House Republicans released their Benghazi report)..., it's Donald Trump, the apparent GOP nominee, begging for campaign cash. In this email, he calls on voters to indict Clinton.... Trump goes on to ask the recipient to donate five bucks -- or 10, or 20, or 50, or more -- to 'indict.'... In the email, Trump ... also claims that Clinton is lying when she says she is 'crushing' Trump in fundraising. He adds, 'This claim is laughable. i can write my campaign a check at any time.'" -- CW
Jennifer Jacobs & Kevin Cirilli of Bloomberg: "Donald Trump's campaign aides are lining up a slate of iconic sports figures to appear at the national convention in Cleveland next month -- including ... Mike Tyson, legendary Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka, former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight and NASCAR chief Brian France, people familiar with the planning told Bloomberg Politics. Talks are in the works with a broad slate of other celebrities and top athletes, so the list of those appearing at the convention will grow, organizers said. But much of Trump's current list of sports champs seems to be more targeted at male voters age 45 and older, rather than minority and female voters." -- CW ...
... AND This Is Reassuring. Sean Cockerham of McClatchy News: "A group of white nationalists and skinheads who held a rally in Sacramento over the weekend where at least five people were stabbed plans to show up at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next month to 'make sure that the Donald Trump supporters are defended ... from the leftist things.'" -- CW ...
... PLUS! CW: You may want to switch your vote to Trump when you get an eyeful of this bee-yoo-tee-fool convention stage, a picture of which the RNC revealed today:
... Meanwhile, I was more impressed by Trump's big announcement today that the U.S.-Mexican border wall would be built of recycled tin cans. (At least I think that's what he was talking about. I didn't feel like reading the story):
... Trump of course says Mexicans would pay for the wall. But I think it more likely they'll steal the wall to recycle into lovely tinware. But, hey, maybe if they get busy making luminarias & stuff they won't have time to come up here & take all the good jobs from would-be U.S. workers.
Beyond the Beltway
Kate Zernicke of the New York Times: "Michigan leapt at the promise of charter schools 23 years ago, betting big that choice and competition would improve public schools. It got competition, and chaos. Detroit schools have long been in decline academically and financially. But over the past five years, divisive politics and educational ideology and a scramble for money have combined to produced a public education fiasco that is perhaps unparalleled in the United States." -- CW
Ker Than of Stanford U. News: "California's drought-stricken Central Valley harbors three times more groundwater than previously estimated, Stanford scientists have found. Accessing this water in an economically feasible way and safeguarding it from possible contamination from oil and gas activities, however, will be challenging." -- CW
Way Beyond
Ben Doherty of the Guardian: "A car was set on fire outside a Perth mosque on Tuesday night as hundreds of worshippers attended a prayer service inside. No one inside the Thornlie mosque was injured when the white four-wheel drive exploded shortly after 8pm near the Australian Islamic College in Perth's southern suburbs. Anti-Islamic graffiti was also sprayed on a fence. Worshippers reported hearing a loud bang and emerged from the mosque to find the vehicle ablaze." --safari
AP in the Guardian: "Just weeks ahead of the Olympic Games, police helicopters are grounded, patrol cars are parked and Rio de Janeiro's security forces are so pressed for funds that some have to beg for donations of pens, cleaning supplies and even toilet paper, fueling worries about safety at the world's premier sporting event...Rio state has slashed budgets across the board, including that of the police...Angry civil police officers staged a strike on Monday, with one contingent greeting visitors at Rio's international airport with a sign reading, in English: 'Welcome to Hell. Police and firefighters don't get paid; Whoever comes to Rio de Janeiro will not be safe.'" --safari
News Lede
New York Times: "Alvin Toffler, the celebrated author of 'Future Shock,' the first in a trilogy of best-selling books that presciently forecast how people and institutions of the late 20th century would contend with the immense strains and soaring opportunities of accelerating change, died on Monday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 87." -- CW
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Reader Comments (9)
Remember that whenever their is an evaluation of Clinton she starts by losing 25% percent of opinion because of her greatest fault,
she is a women.
@Marvin Schwalb: Yup, and that's exactly what Donald means when he says Hillary doesn't "look presidential." In case his dimwitted fans are too dimwitted to know he means a woman can't be president, Trump drives home the point: "And I’m not going to say it, because I’m not allowed to say it, because I want to be politically correct."
Marie
After reading Jeet Heer's piece I thought most of us here will say, "told ya so"–– as some of us called out the "scam" not only with Trump, but the three "walk on bye" guys––Cain, Gingrich & Huckabee––the risible robbers in festive disguise. But the person I found to be one of those Republican horror shows was Ted Cruz who now is running hearings on Islamic terrorism where one of the witnesses is accusing the two Muslim members of Congress of Muslim brotherhood ties. It's uncanny that Cruz has been compared to McCarthy ––no more Commie infiltration, now it's them "Mooslems."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/congress-muslim-brotherhood_us_5772b615e4b0352fed3e0372?section=
Let's recall that Ted appointed known Islamophobic Frank Gaffney (he of the pacing back and forth on a stage screaming that God hates Homosexuals and we must KILL every one of them...") to his team of National Security advisors.
The Republican Party needs to stop playing their silly game of pining the tail on the donkey and concentrate on training their own animal–-the one who is supposed to have such a good memory––to get out of the circus and enter a saner world––if not, there might be a lot of dead bodies floating in waters that THEY say are not rising.
I listened to a part of an ongoing series of interviews conducted by NPR's Steve Inskeep with the president. After listening to this guy speak, both from a text as well as extemporaneously, in casual as well as formal situations, my admiration for his ability to speak in clear, well constructed, complete sentences has never diminished.
Eight years of listening to a lumbering, lexical imbecile who couldn't chart a course through a sensible sentence if he were handed a map, and then trying figure out what the hell he was talking about were painful in the extreme, especially when you realized, after navigating the jumbled syntax, startling solecisms, and groan inducing malaprops, that he was talking shit.
Comparing the two candidates now on offer to Barack Obama is unfair, but in one case especially, that of Herr Drumpf's, is instructive. Clear speaking, especially in off the cuff moments, often represents clear thinking, or at least someone who knows what they want to say and how to say it. In Obama's case it also reflects a sharp mind. I have never heard him stutter or stammer when asked questions of policy. He knows the ground, he is thoroughly conversant in the background and pros and cons of the issues before him, and it shows.
In contrast, listen to just a few minutes of Trump stopping and starting, yelling and stammering, repeating the same words and phrases over again as if they were mangled magic spells. He seems never to know what the issues are, never mind the pros and cons. His speech often sounds like that of a rude drunk, who can barely meet the basic requirements of second grade English. I'm sure he knows what he wants to say (Trump is GREAT!), but it often comes out in such a jumble.
He has been compared to a stand up comedian and even given props for being funny. Well, sure, the drunk at the end of the bar ogling the barmaid and letting fly with ribald jokes can, at times, be funny, in a vulgar sort of way, but is this what we want in a president? We've already got plenty of these jamokes in congress.
President Obama's clear thinking and precise speech will be sorely missed.
*sigh*
Favorite Headline of the Day
"Trump And Gingrich: Two Men. Six Wives. Family Values."
Despite his juvenile howls to the contrary ("Everyone wants to be my VP!"), Donaldo may have slim pickings when it comes to a vice, someone whose integrity and moral standing are even lower than his (they'd almost have to be in order to get on board that stinking boat). But, speaking of vice, did I hear someone say "Gingrich"?
Sure, why not?
"We all know about Trump’s misogynist attitudes toward women, his obsession about the size of his penis, his boasts about his sexual conquests, and his three marriages...[Former wife] Ivana accused Trump of having raped her...Gingrich cheated on his first wife, Jackie, while she was recovering from treatment for cancer in 1980 and asked her for a divorce. Then he cheated on his second wife, Marianne, while having a six-year affair with a staffer, Callista Bisek (23 years his junior), who is now his third wife."
And don't think Gingrich's many other examples of a moral compass that spins like a pinwheel will hurt his chances of being welcomed aboard the plague ship, SS Trump:
"Gingrich violated campaign finance laws while in Congress. His House colleagues fined him $300,000 for his breach of ethics standards. The entire House passed the ethics report by 395 to 28 vote, including by a 196-26 margin among Republicans. He was the first Speaker in American history to be sanctioned in this way."
So, Two Men, Six Wives, Family Values. "...Or, as UCLA law professor Jonathan Zasloff suggested, they could call themselves the 'Henry VIII ticket' in honor of their multiple marriages during their (combined) 143 years."
Sounds like a plan. Now, who will be their Thomas Cromwell? Cruz? He's doing a bang-up job in the character assassination line "Git them dirty mooslims, Teddy!". If we still had public executions decreed by a king, Cruz would have a line a mile long ready for the block.
Such gallant fellows, these Republicans. Sailing to oblivion. Anchors aweigh!
The stage set for the Trump coronation (pictured above) reminds me (and not so vaguely either) of the set in the new Star Wars movie upon which the totalitarian First Order forces announce their plans to destroy their enemies and take over the galaxy.
Maybe there's some kind of totalitarian gene in operation here.
In contrast, the stage for the Democratic convention in Denver in 2008 was roundly ripped by Foxbots for its Doric columns, but at least the imagery hearkened back to the roots of democracy, not rabid intergalactic fascism.
Nice going, RNC. All you need now are the Trump/Hitler salutes and your dreams of a fully authoritarian national(ist) convention can come true.
PD Pepe mentioned circus in the post above. I've had this picture in
my mind of trump riding into the convention hall atop a gaudily
decorated elephant, and to the strains of "Send in the Clowns".
It would be the first time an ass rode atop an elephant!
And am also thinking trump is looking for a VP who is not as smart
as he himself claims to be. It's taking a really long time and the bar
has been set so low that the other reptiles are having a difficult time
trying to slither under it.
Many stories have assigned the Benghazi Nothing Burger Fishing Expedition "Investigation" a cost of $7 million. As with so much cut and paste reportage bereft any real thought, or even worse, influenced by a certain ideological bent, that is a laughable figure. It covers the cost of the actual committee: personnel, supplies, lunches, donuts, the 750,000 reams of paper they've used up to spread their bullshit, and the other many and varied expenses that come along with any long term, phony baloney make-work project.
What it doesn't account for, as Marie suggests above, are the costs to other departments and agencies. Trey Gowdy asks for an annotated list of state department staff bathroom breaks for the last 7 years, including who went, when, how long they stayed, what they did (one or two), and whether or not they washed their hands for the recommended two minutes, and that will require hours, or days, or weeks of someone's time. Time that could have been spent more usefully, say, if that person were to count the number of times a Republican congressional staff did something besides find ways for their bosses to do nothing. Now that could take months, maybe years.
Anyway, yesterday, I offered up a link to the Benghazi Research Center, a group, admittedly, in the business of correcting the record on baseless attacks against Hillary Clinton.
Here's the numbers they present:
Total cost for the Benghazi Nothing Burger Special, over $23 million.
This includes the $7.1 million for Gowdy's committee. It also includes the cost to State in responding to that and the other partisan controlled committees, $14 million, and the cost to the Pentagon, more than $2 million.
Like Condederates who scoff at the price tag for the Dubya/Cheney Iraq debacle being in the multiple trillions of dollars, costs of such adventures spiral outward. The costs of the Iraq war of choice must include more than just materiel and Big Macs sold in the Green Zone. They must take into account the trillion dollars in long term medical care for the thousands of military personnel wounded both physically and spiritually by Dubya's Big Adventure. Also the effect on lost productivity and wages, and the amount of taxpayer money gouged from the military by Dick Cheney's company, Halliburton. Other costs are incalculable. Yesterday I read a mention of the attack at Istanbul airport being an outcropping of the general chaos that has engulfed the region. Chaos increased by orders of magnitude by Bush and Cheney. So the costs of their war must include all the ISIS attacks everywhere around the world because without Iraq, there would be no ISIS. Thanks, guys!
For a party that prides itself on raucous, but entirely phony, concern for a balanced budget, Republicans cost the country a shitload of money to keep around. A shitload. We need to rethink that idea.
And that's what elections are for.
Oh, and one last point, as they BRC people make clear, "...preventing another tragedy has never been the focus of Gowdy’s committee".
This has been a hyper-partisan fishing expedition from the first gavel to the last. Disgraceful.
Forrest,
In fact, I'm guessing that Trump is probably looking for someone not as smart as he actually is. This drops the bar considerably farther which means we're in Palin territory. (shudder)
Gingrich will probably still be in the running though. He might technically be smarter or as smart as Trump but his sketchy connection to facts and the real world will put him in solid with the boss.