;)
The Commentariat -- Sept. 15, 2016
Presidential Race
Giovanni Russonello of the New York Times: "With less than eight weeks before Election Day, Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton are locked in a tight contest, with both candidates still struggling to win the confidence of their respective bases, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll finds." -- CW
Nahal Toosi of Politico: "Hillary Clinton says she's planning to meet with several foreign leaders during the U.N. General Assembly next week. Your move, Donald Trump.... Trump's campaign did not immediately say whether he is scheduling any meetings during the General Assembly. But [Trump] ... is widely disliked overseas and has little foreign policy experience...." CW: How about a two-shot of Trump & Putin kissing?
Nick Gass of Politico: "Hillary Clinton is keeping quiet about the contents of newly leaked messages from the personal email account of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had harsh criticisms of the Democratic nominee, the former Bush administration, and Donald Trump. 'I'm not going to comment on anything that is said in a private email,' Clinton told the The Tom Joyner Radio Show in an interview taped Wednesday and aired Thursday morning. Clinton ... said she has 'a great deal of respect for Colin Powell, and I have a lot of sympathy for anyone whose emails become public.'" More on the, um, highlights of Powell's hacked e-mail under News & Views below. -- CW
Greg Sargent: "Hillary Clinton's campaign just admitted she has a real problem.... A statement released late last night by Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri [read in part,] 'Our campaign readily admits that running against a candidate as controversial as Donald Trump means it is harder to be heard on what you aspire for the country's future and it is incumbent on us to work harder to make sure voters hear that vision.'" -- CW
Amy Chozick & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that he was overweight and taking a cholesterol-fighting drug, and Hillary Clinton elaborated on the circumstances that led to her contracting pneumonia and the medicine she was taking to recover. Mrs. Clinton's doctor said she 'continues to improve' after contracting a 'mild, noncontagious' form of pneumonia diagnosed on Friday.... In a letter released by the Clinton campaign..., Dr. Lisa R. Bardack, said she had evaluated Mrs. Clinton several times since Sunday, including on Wednesday.... 'She continues to remain healthy and fit to serve as president of the United States.'... Despite fanning conspiracy theories about Mrs. Clinton's health, Mr. Trump provided scant information about his own.... At about 6-foot-2, Mr. Trump would have a body mass index of 30.3. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute defines obesity as a B.M.I. of 30 or more.... Mr. Trump has yet to make public as much personal medical information as Mrs. Clinton has." -- CW ...
... Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump on Wednesday expressed doubt about Hillary Clinton's ability to campaign for an extended period of time in a hot, crowded room, making his remark at a time when the health of both presidential candidates is under intense scrutiny.... During a rally at a civic center [in Canton, Ohio,] Wednesday evening..., Trump said..., 'In this beautiful room that's 122 degrees. It is hot, and it's always hot when I perform because the crowds are so big.... I don't know folks -- you think Hillary would be able to stand up here for an hour and do this? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think so.' The temperature inside the venue was cool...." -- CW ...
By Driftglass.... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "After a whiplash-inducing morning of mixed messages, Donald J. Trump on Wednesday gave a small window into some of the results from his most recent physical examination in a taped appearance with the television celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz. The quick run-through of results, which Mr. Trump is said to have given to the doctor to read from a piece of paper, came after the Republican presidential nominee's aides had said he would, and then that he wouldn't, broach the topic with the doctor on the 'Dr. Oz Show.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... This is a version of a story that has been updated -- and ruined. In the original version, Haberman gave a brief account of Oz's brilliant career. She couched the nutty stuff in the familiar "critics say" copout, but among the "critics" was the FDA. If you didn't read the original story, Akhilleus, in yesterday's Comments section provides some background, though narrower in scope -- and of course more opinionated -- than Haberman's rundown. ...
... Update. Nancy Cook of Politico has a rundown of Oz's greatest hits: "Mehmet Oz -- Ivy League-trained surgeon and daytime TV star -- has been called a charlatan by fellow physicians for promoting 'quack' medical cures. He's been investigated by Congress for fraudulently promoting 'magic' weight loss pills. And more than half of his medical advice is unsubstantiated -- or flat out wrong -- according to the top British medical journal. But for Donald Trump, Oz's show is a safe space, a haven shielded from tough questions that offers a platform to say, in effect, whatever he wants.... Oz is hardly an impartial figure to evaluate the health and fitness of the next potential resident of the White House. He's been pilloried for years for making dubious medical claims on-air and for placing greater importance on the financial or business opportunities of his TV show than on solid, scientific medical research." -- CW ...
... Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post has a somewhat more detailed report on the Trumpy & Oz Magical Medical Mystery Show, on Oz's quackery & on the hijinks leading up to the show, the content of which has been teased but not released. It seems obvious that one way Trump controls the media is by changing his story hourly, forcing reporters to report on his latest flip-flop multiple times a day. ...
... CW P.S.: The expert medico who wrote the extensive two-page report Trump showed to the Wizard of Oz is Dr. Harold Bornstein, who has previously declared, in an ever-so-professional "report," that Donald Trump "will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency." And, as a gastroenterologist, he can attest that "His [Trump's] mental health is excellent. He thinks he's the best."
Sean Sullivan & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump encountered resistance Wednesday during his first campaign trip to [Flint, Michigan, a] majority African American city that suffered a water-contamination crisis, as a pastor who invited him to appear at her church asked him to stop politicking.... Some of the [church] attendees were unhappy with the political tone of parts of his speech and called out their displeasure as he spoke.... Flint Mayor Karen Weaver (D) was not happy about the GOP nominee's trip. She issued a statement on her Facebook page saying that neither Trump nor his staff have reached out since the crisis was declared an emergency." -- CW
Jenna Johnson & Mary Jordan of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump made what his campaign billed as two major disclosures on Wednesday. First, an attorney provided a timeline of [Trump's] Slovenia-born wife's immigration status [without documentation]. Then, amid questions about his health during a television interview, Trump pulled some medical test results out of his blazer pocket. Yet despite these high-profile gestures, Trump remains the least transparent major presidential nominee in modern history.... At the same time, Trump and his aides are criticizing rival Hillary Clinton as secretive and demanding more information from her about her emails and health." CW: I recommend reading the full article to appreciate the extent of Trump's secretiveness, fakery & hypocrisy.
Eric Levitz of New York: "On Monday, Trump named former CIA director James Woolsey as his campaign's senior national-security adviser. Woolsey is a hawk, even among neoconservatives.... Trump may have a neo-isolationist streak. But evidence strongly suggests that, before anything else, the GOP nominee is a narcissist with little interest in the workaday requirements of executing policy. As a Republican president, Trump's path of least resistance will be to outsource foreign affairs to his party's neoconservative Establishment. Woolsey's hiring strongly suggests he'll take that path." --safari
Kevin Sack & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "... documents obtained this week by The New York Times, including a copy of Mr. Trump's check [to Florida AG Pam Bondi's campaign, show that ] it was actually dated and signed by Mr. Trump four days before [an Orlando Sentinel] article [about Bondi's potential investigation of Trump University] appeared.... His $25,000 gift to ... the committee supporting Ms. Bondi, is among his largest.... Ms. Bondi, meanwhile, has failed to explain why she accepted Mr. Trump's check even after learning that her office was examining the New York case against Trump University." -- CW ...
Tax Cheat, Ctd. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "In 2007, Donald Trump spent $20,000 that belonged to his charity -- the Donald J. Trump Foundation -- to buy a six-foot-tall portrait of himself during a fundraiser auction at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.... the portrait has been the center of a mystery: What did Trump do with the painting after he bought it?... On Wednesday, a new clue emerged. A former production manager for the portrait's painter told The Post that he had shipped the painting -- at the request of Trump's wife, Melania -- to Trump National Golf Club Westchester in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. tax experts say that [such] an arrangement ... could violate Internal Revenue Service rules.... The Post ... tried to view the portrait at Trump National but was turned away at the club's entrance." -- CW ...
... Washington Post Editors: "THE TRUMP campaign believes this editorial is not journalism. It is 'badgering.' That is how campaign manager Kellyanne Conway described on Tuesday some simple questions The Post and others have asked Mr. Trump and his circle over the past several months about his supposed philanthropic activities. If anyone has an authenticity problem, it is Mr. Trump. The facts on the table suggest he is not a great philanthropist -- he is a scam artist.... The [Trump Foundation's] potential violations of the law seem to be less significant than what Mr. Trump appears to have done legally: duped people into believing in another one of his self-aggrandizing shams." ...
... CW: Yeah, and nearly half of U.S. voters appear to be ready to vote for that scam artist because thanks to the "neutral" mainstream media, including the Post, Hillary Clinton has "clouds" and "shadows" hanging over her. ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic: "The breadth of Trump's controversies is truly yuge, ranging from allegations of mafia ties to unscrupulous business dealings, and from racial discrimination to alleged marital rape.... To catalogue the full sweep of allegations would require thousands of words and lump together the trivial with the truly scandalous. Including business deals that have simply failed, without any hint of impropriety, would require thousands more.... [Graham provides] a snapshot of some of the most interesting and largest of those scandals." -- CW
Jamelle Bouie of Slate: "Trump, simply put, doesn't know anything, and we don't know anything about him. He is a political cipher who exists outside traditional performance standards for presidential candidates, and as a result he has dictated the terms on which the political press judges him. Think of this as Trump's first public works project: He has built the curve on which he is being graded.... Given the tenor of coverage in this election, it is fair to say that there is a double standard at work. Clinton is covered like a presidential nominee, while Trump is still treated like a sideshow, as if he'll never be president." --safari
Conservative Reihan Salam of Slate: "Donald Trump has just unveiled a new set of proposals designed to help working parents meet their child care needs.... [W]hether he's sincere or not, Trump's championing of these proposals is a significant moment in the history of the modern Republican Party.... Over the course of his presidential campaign, Trump has repudiated many aspects of Republican economic orthodoxy.... The difference between the pre-Trump GOP and today's Republican Party, however, is that small-government conservatives have lost their intellectual monopoly.... Trump's child care speech may well be remembered as the first shot in an ideological civil war that will define GOP politics for years to come." --safari
Ed Kilgore: "It is possible ... that Trump is opening up multiple paths to victory.... Those who have laughed off Donald Trump's chances while believing his election would represent a turn for the worse in their own lives should be nervous right now." --safari
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: On Tuesday, "Newsweek published a much-discussed story by [Kurt Eichenwald] about the Trump Organization.... Eichenwald teased the story by tweeting on Tuesday afternoon, 'My big cover story in @Newsweek that could change the dialogue about this election season will be published online tomorrow.'... "A few minutes later," Eichenwald tweeted, 'I believe Trump was institutionalized in a mental hospital for a nervous breakdown in 1990, which is why he won't release medical records.'... He later ... deleted the tweet about Trump's mental health 'because people were confusing it' with his forthcoming Newsweek story. But Eichenwald never said he did so because it was wrong." Eichenwald provided no evidence of Trump's hospitalization, and Farhi calls the tweet "bizarre and apparently erroneous." ...
... CW: There are several things wrong with the mental health tweet. First, of course, is Eichenwald's failure to cite any evidence, beyond his "belief," which of course is good enough for Republicans when it's their beliefs. Second, it's ridiculous to assume that a person is unqualified to be president because decades ago s/he had received treatment for a psychological problem. Third, assuming Trump hasn't been treated continuously for psychological problems (and it would be way better if he had!), a 1990 diagnosis & treatment would not factor into his refusal to release his medical records, as Eichenwald theorizes. If Trump released, say, ten years of medical history that demonstrated more-or-less normal health, he would be more transparent than most candidates (except for John McCain, who in 2008 released almost 1,200 pages of his records). Absent evidence, Eichenwald's tweet is an irresponsible conspiracy theory.
John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "For perhaps the first time in the campaign, the full spotlight is on Pence, a man who likes to portray himself as an aw-shucks Midwesterner, and who among some Republicans is regarded as the acceptable face of the Trump campaign.... It is easy to imagine that the Trump campaign wants to keep the 'basket of deplorables' story going, even if reporters and the Clinton campaign want to keep bringing up [David] Duke. On Tuesday, Pence tried to turn Clinton's tweet on its sender, saying the original 'deplorables' remark should disqualify her from the Presidency. [I]t would surely have been easier for Pence to say that Duke and the K.K.K. were deplorable, despicable anything stronger than 'bad' -- and move on. But, for whatever reason, that is a step he is still refusing to take -- which is itself deplorable." --safari
David Corn of Mother Jones: "Immediately after the news broke that Hillary Clinton had said that half of Donald Trump's supporters were racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, or Islamophobic and belonged in a "basket of deplorables," [Trump campaign manager] Kellyanne Conway ... tweeted: 'One day after promising to be aspirational & uplifting, Hillary insults millions of Americans.' And then she went on the warpath" against Clinton. CW: That's way surprising, because in 2008, Corn reports, Conway likened Americans who rely on credit cards & took out huge mortgages to "a bunch of pigs," and another time said Americans "live like a pig off my credit cards (which most people won't admit in this country)...." Corn concludes, "Using her own standards of this week, you might even call these statements deplorable." -- CW
Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "Cosmo rips the halo off Ivanka Trump." Her interview with Prachi Gupta for the magazine did not go well. First, she evaded answering several questions. When asked about a comment Donald Trump made in 2004 about pregnancy being "inconvenient" for business, Ivanka Trump complained, "So I think that you have a lot of negativity in these questions.... So I don't know how useful it is to spend too much time with you on this if you're going to make a comment like that." Then she cut & ran.
Other News & Views
Timothy Cama of the Hill: "President Obama will create a new national monument Thursday off the coast of Massachusetts, protecting a nearly 5,000-square-mile area. The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, in the Atlantic Ocean 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod, will conserve deep-sea canyons and undersea mountains that host unique ecosystems that the Obama administration says are significantly impacted by climate change." CW: Based on Cama's report of the national monument location, I'd guess (and it's only a guess) that this would not nix locating windfarms off the Cape.
Matt Egan of CNN: "Get ready for fireworks next week when Elizabeth Warren grills Wells Fargo's CEO over the bank's mind-boggling creation of millions of fake accounts. The powerful Senate banking committee plans to hold a Wells Fargo ... hearing on September 20 at 10 a.m. ET, according to the office of Senator Richard Shelby, the committee's Republican chairman. Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf has accepted an invitation to testify, a spokesperson for the bank told CNNMoney.... After meeting Tuesday with Wells Fargo President Tim Sloan, Rep. Elijah Cummings [D-Md.], the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, requested a batch of documents on the bank's sales practices and the salaries and positions of those fired for improper sales tactics. Cummings also asked Wells Fargo to justify the huge $124 million in stocks and options that community banking head Carrie Tolstedt is set to walk away with when she retires at the end of the year. Tolstedt led the division that created millions of fake accounts...." -- CW
Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg: "We're about to see ... if the small group of [House] radicals can bully mainstream conservatives into casting irresponsible and counterproductive votes on two measures. First, the House Freedom Caucus zealots are intent on forcing a vote this week on impeaching the Internal Revenue Service commissioner, John Koskinen. Even if they had a case against him -- and they don't -- it's an abuse of their power to go through with an impeachment procedure with no chance for a conviction in the Senate.... Then sometime before the end of the month, the House will need to bring up a bill to keep the government running after the current fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.... Though there is nothing substantive to be gained by voting with the radicals, it requires standing up to them and risking being called a 'moderate' or 'RINO.'" --CW ...
Governing by "Moral Outrage." Paul Waldman on how Planned Parenthood has replaced ObummerCare as the reason to shut down the government. "... earlier this year, Congress passed a bill that would have both repealed the ACA and defunded Planned Parenthood, in a kind of passing of the baton from the former to the latter. The final vote, to override President Obama's veto, came in February; it was the 63rd time Republicans had voted to repeal the ACA, and it fittingly occurred on Groundhog Day.... If Hillary Clinton gets elected, we could well see a rotating menu of legislative outrage.... It's Planned Parenthood now, but if they decide that it's lost its punch as a way to show their constituents how strong and noble they are, something else will take its place. But it will always be something." -- CW
CW: Hey, Kids! Now's your chance to weigh in on women's rights. If you sound sensible -- and in favor of insurance coverage of contraception care -- you have a chance to get cited in a government brief that John Roberts might feel compelled to read. Also, if you went to Catholic school & want a chance to whack Sister Mary Elephant, et al., with a virtual ruler, this is it. Linda Greenhouse has the contest details. The government is inviting public comment on the case of Zubik v. Burwell, a/k/a "the Little Sisters case," even tho Zubik is not a nun. Enter here. But hurry. The contest -- I mean "comment period" -- "closes at 11:59 p.m. next Tuesday, Sept. 20." And so far the comments, which have been encouraged by Misogynists, Inc., run to "expert advice" -- which really is what the government is seeking -- on health care for women like, providing coverage is "the most egregious violation of religious liberty in the history of our nation."
**Scott Walker and Democracy's Cancer. Ed Pilkington of th Guardian: "The pervasive influence of corporate cash in the democratic process, and the extraordinary lengths to which politicians, lobbyists and evenjudges go to solicit money, are laid bare in sealed court documents leaked to the Guardian.... Last year the Wisconsin supreme court ordered that all the documents should be destroyed, though a set survived that has now been obtained by the news organisation. The files open a window on a world that is very rarely glimpsed by the public, in which millions of dollars are secretly donated by major corporations and super-wealthy individuals to third-party groups in an attempt to sway elections." --safari
Dirty Laundry. Christopher Massie & Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Condoleezza Rice privately criticized Bush administration Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to Colin Powell last year in an exchange about the handling of the Iraq War, according to Powell's personal emails seen by BuzzFeed News...The website DCLeaks.com -- which has reported, but not confirmed, ties to Russian intelligence services -- obtained Powell's emails." --safari ...
... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... a hack of Mr. Powell's email this week has ripped away the diplomatic jargon and political niceties to reveal his unvarnished disdain of Donald J. Trump as a 'national disgrace,' his personal peeves with Hillary Clinton and his lingering, but still very raw, anger with the Republican colleagues with whom he so often clashed a decade ago." -- CW ...
... Also, Powell wrote he believed that Bill Clinton, post-presidency, was still "dicking bimbos" and that Hillary Clinton was "greedy" and possessed by "unbridled ambition." CW: Powell himself of course did not lack for ambition: you don't get to be a general & chairman of the joint chiefs on effectiveness alone; rising in the ranks requires a lot of toadying.
... Powell also had an exchange with Democratic donor Jeffrey Leeds, in which Powell wrote that "On HD tv she [Hillary Clinton] doesn't look good. She is working herself to death,' Powell said, adding: 'She will turn 70 her first year in office.' Leeds then recounted something Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) told him about a joint event at which, according to Leeds's recounting of Whitehouse's comments, Clinton 'could barely climb the podium steps.'" CW: I read about this exchange yesterday, first reported on insane conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Website, so I didn't know if there was any veracity to it. However, the e-mail quotes here, along with quite a few other juicy ones, are now being reported by Aaron Blake of the Washington Post, so I'm presuming, not necessarily correctly, that they're accurate. ...
... Kathrine Gregg of the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal: "Asked about this account on Wednesday, Whitehouse's spokeswoman Meaghan McCabe said: "Mr. Leeds is a friend of the Senator's, but he doesn't recall that specific conversation." CW: That's a standard-form non-denial denial.
Nick Gass of Politico: "The Atlantic Coast Conference is following the NCAA's lead in announcing Wednesday that it has decided to relocate its neutral-site championship events from North Carolina because of the state's recently enacted legislation regarding gender and bathrooms." -- CW
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Rupert Neate of the Guardian: "German chemical giant Bayer has agreed to a $66bn (£50bn) deal to buy controversial US agrochemical giant Monsanto and create the world's largest seeds and pesticides company. The proposed deal, the biggest corporate takeover deal so far this year, follows a wave of consolidation in the seeds and agriculture industry and has raised concerns among scientists, regulators, farmers and activists who called the deal a 'marriage made in hell.'... The proposed takeover is likely to face intense regulatory scrutiny in the US and Europe, particularly as it quickly follows two other mega-deals in the agriculture industry and would leave control of almost two-thirds of the world's seeds and pesticides in the hands of three firms." --safari
Beyond the Beltway
AP: "A 77-year-old man shot three people at a [Cheyenne, Wyoming,] senior citizens' apartment complex where he lived, killing one before taking his own life as officers closed in, police said. Larry Rosenberg fled after the shootings on Wednesday armed with a handgun and rifle. He killed himself as officers approached him in a neighborhood about a mile away...." -- CW
Way Beyond
Emily Rauhala of the Washington Post: "In an extraordinary hearing in the Philippine Senate, a witness claimed Thursday that President Rodrigo Duterte paid him to carry out executions that involved feeding a body to a crocodile, chopping up corpses and dumping slashed bodies into the sea. The witness, Edgar Matobato, 57, spoke to Filipino lawmakers at Senate hearings investigating a recent wave of extra-judicial killings that has claimed more than 3,000 lives as part of the president's anti-drug campaign." -- CW
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Reader Comments (18)
Unfortunately I wasn't surprised that the candidates health took up much more space in the media than the frightening Newsweek article. Unpacking that article should dominate several news cycles.
On a real upbeat note...it took 2 women in Flint to stand up to Trump's bullying. They did it with grace and resolve. I found myself emailing Dr Weaver to give her a shout out. Dr Weaver and Pastor Timmons were able to push back on the bully, something President Pena Nieto and Bishop Jackson were unable to do. Trump was nearly speechless and went all wobbly when Pastor Timmons redirected him.
Others should take note. Trump is a coward. He might have messed himself.
..." . a hack of Mr. Powell’s email this week has ripped away the diplomatic jargon and political niceties to reveal his unvarnished disdain of Donald J. Trump as a 'national disgrace,' his personal peeves with Hillary Clinton..."
We would nevah have seen Colin Powell's emails were they not hacked. However, I was surprised and pleased at the disgust he showed for Dickhead Cheney, daughter Liz and Donny Rumsfeld. Not at all surprised at his summation of The Donald.
I am concerned that he appears to dislike the Clintons so much, although I certainly have noticed that he has not endorsed Hillary yet, as he did Obama in 2008. And his references to Big Dog as now home but still "dicking bimbos" was disconcerting, although possibly true. I have wondered from the get-go whether Billy Boy's sexual addiction would get Hillary in trouble with her pursuit of the presidency. Not sure if it has, or will. But I have grown to dislike and distrust this misogynistic, ambitious sociopath. He and Trump make good case studies for this abhorrent diagnosis
Another bothersome thing I have noticed is in my little hometown on the edge of the world in Oregon. I have nowhere seen any Hillary signs or bumperstickers--not one. Contrast this with 2008 and 2012, when Obama signs, stickers and buttons were on every street corner.
I think Colin Powell is not the only one who cannot warm up to Hillary. I am another. I most certainly will vote for her, but I have not donated, or canvassed or anything else. I just have no energy to give to this candidate--even though I thoroughly understand the importance of her winning the election.
My thoughts follow those expressed by Bill Moyers. He said (I am paraphrasing) that this could have been Elizabeth Warren's year. Bernie is great, but not a good candidate. Liz Warren would have been cleaning up in the polls and among voters. Many people are ready for her message and her incredibly positive energy--not to mention the way she has so handily shredded Trumpster.
C'est mauvais!
Kate,
It could be that Warren is smart enough to realize that she might need a little more experience before tackling a job like president of the United States. She has been very effective in the senate, especially in her area of expertise but perhaps she feels she could use a little more time to gain a better understanding of the many other aspects of that job. Previous candidates had little experience , it's true. Obama was not a seasoned pro but he has achieved some amazing results especially given the horde of haters and racist pigs arrayed against him and his family. The Decider was about as ready for the job as a first term city councillor from Smallville, USA, and it showed. Also, he was a sociopathic asshole.
Trump, on the other hand , is not only inexperienced, he's an ignorant clown. He pretty much gave the game away in a speech (linked above ) in which he claims a room he was in was 122 degrees, which was clearly a lie, but then went on to brag that "It's always hot when I perform." And there it is. His whole campaign is an act. This "tough guy looking more presidential than Hillary" act is nothing but shtick. He's Punch AND Judy.
A teaser this morning on NPR says it all about the current health obsession: "Hillary Clinton releases more medical reports; Donald Trump appears on a TV show."
That about says it. Clinton releases actual information. Donaldo visits a quack doctor show and bullshits about whatever a couple of con men bullshit about.
Oh, but these candidates are pretty much the same.
Oh, and about that "interview" with Dr. Oz. Reading comments from audience members it's all going along pretty well (for a Trump interview, that is), and actually sounds reasonably normal; needs to lose some weight, would like to get more exercise, likes to play golf (of course the bit about him being good enough to play in the PGA is classic Trump. The guy can't just say something that most golfers would love to be able to say "Well, I'm not bad. I'm a scratch golfer" meaning he can shoot for par on pretty much any course...a damned fine achievement. No. Trump has to claim he's on a par with Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy), and his cholesterol is under control thanks to medication he's taking. All of this (sans the ridiculous PGA brag) sounds perfectly normal. Then there it is. The Trump Moment:
He loves fast food but tells whoever is going to pick up his Quarter Pounder with cheese not to mention that the order is for Trump lest someone try to poison his food.
Fuck me.
What must go on in this guy's head? Whatever it is, it's leagues from normal, so I don't care if his bill of health makes him look like Usain Bolt, he's still a fucking loony.
I can't wait to see the results of Trump's health presented by the Wizard of Oz. I wonder if the documents will be made public. Also note that apparently obesity and high cholesterol are no big deals.
Also note that there is serious issues being studied about the efficacy of statins and even under the best numbers the reduction of risk of a heart attack or stroke is about 50%. Do you think for one second any of this will be discussed today by Oz or the media?
Senator McCaskill (it was she who castigated Oz during a senate hearing) calls Trump and Oz a "marriage made in heaven,"
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/claire-mccaskill-donald-trump-dr-oz-228202
The Annals of Trump Lies are deep and wide. They range from minor fabrications to pants on fire, send you to hell lies. His lies are sometimes bizarre (Rafael Cruz having breakfast with Lee Harvey Oswald to plot the JFK assassination), sometimes stupid (President Obama founded ISIS), sometimes dangerously propagandistic (thousands of Muslims dancing at the fall of the towers), but always they are self-serving.
Perhaps the most despicable of these self-serving, easily disproved lies, is his claim that he was instrumental in the clean-up after 9/11 and donated hundreds of millions to the victims of that attack in which hundreds of his close friends died. The claim was made in one of the Confederate Dog and Pony "debates", little better than anti-intellectual bumping car contests where contestants drive into each other and try to dislodge the bar connecting the car to the power grid up above. You know, what passes for serious discussions among Republicans.
Michael Daly of Daily Beast has disinterred these lies in the wake of the recent 15th year anniversary of 9/11 as first responders are still suffering from the ill effects of the toxic air breathed in for months after The Decider and Mayor Noun-Verb-and-9/11 told them it was safe to work without respirators.
Trump claims to have sent several hundred of "his people" down to lower Manhattan to work on the clean up. He also claimed that "hundreds" of those killed in the attacks were his close personal friends.
"By his math, Trump is trying to tell us that at least one in 10 of the 2,983 who died on 9/11 were his friends. 'If he has hundreds of friends, he should be able to tell us about them,' said a Port Authority police officer who never talks about how many comrades he lost. 'If he can tell us about the hundreds of friends he lost, who they were, what kind of person they were, I might have some respect for him.' The PA cop—who has sought to learn all he could about every single person who died in addition to the many he personally knew—wonders why nobody has seen Trump at the September 11 Memorial and Museum. The cop also wonders why nobody seems to recall seeing Trump at the seemingly endless funerals that followed the attack. The FDNY, which had lost 343 members, had so many funerals and memorials in those dark days that the city asked citizens to attend them to fill the churches. 'I don’t remember Trump at any of them,” the cop noted. “Not even the ones that were held at St. Patrick’s, which were right down the block.'"
Trump, the guy with the best memory in the world, can't recall the name of a single one of the good friends he lost on 9/11. Neither can he recall the name of those 200 or so close friends he sent down to help in the aftermath. Not a one. And let's wonder, for a second, who he might have been sending down to help. Is he talking about janitors who worked at Trump Tower? Real estate agents? Secretaries? Lawyers? Bag men? His limo driver? The sous chef at his restaurant? Are these the "hundreds of people" he had at his disposal to send to Ground Zero?
As for the money, the only actual money that can be proven to have changed hands between Trump and the City of New York in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy was money Trump applied for--and received--for "damages" to his buildings in lower Manhattan, buildings by the way that he stated clearly to German Television reporters two days after the attacks, had not been touched at all, and were not damaged in any way.
Of all the lies Trump has told, this may be the most depraved. Self aggrandizement AND self-enrichment over the bodies of dead Americans.
And to understand how truly vile this is, just THINK of what Confederates--and Trump--and the media--would be doing had the Clintons been guilty of such despicable actions. Her candidacy would be dead. And rightfully so. But Trump? Still going strong.
Had he been politicking in 1945 we would have heard that it was he personally who had shot Hitler and that hundreds of his best and closest friends were the ones responsible for storming the beaches of Normandy and eventually freed the Nazi concentration camp victims (along with Ronald Reagan). Stout fellows, all.
Nothing is too low for this fucking scumbag. He doesn't have the integrity to be president of a pickpockets collective, never mind the United States of America. But you know who still supports this lying piece of shit who made money and burnished his personal reputation by manipulating sympathy for the terrible deaths of other Americans?
Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. Among many others.
Basket of deplorables? These fucking people come from Dante's ninth ring. The one reserved for traitors.
The Powell tweets, not just the ones about Clinton, confirm my assessment of Powell. He went before the UN with a pack of lies. That stink is deep and permanent. His status at the time and the widespread belief he was infallible merely gave him cover. What I didn't know was that he is a bitchy gossip. I admit there are pieces of satisfying quips in the emails, but private citizen or not, he ought curb that bitchiness a bit, especially with the current hackers-gone-wild climate.
Just saw a reference on the Yahoo news page that Trump characterized Pastor Timmons as a "nervous mess." Now I know he messed himself.
Appears that Kellyanne is losing a bit of that perky girl schtick and Ivana is letting her inner Trump fly.
@Diane: This isn't Monday morning quarterbacking on my part (at least, I hope it isn't selective thinking), but I remember watching Powell deliver that speech at the UN. If I had to characterize it, even then, I felt he was being the 'good soldier' and that the words he spoke were words of others! Most of the time my focus were drawn to the man sitting behind him whose body language and darting eyes added to my sense that this was a performance. Not necessarily Powell's personal convictions.
Oh, and the man behind? the one with the darting eyes? George Tenet. If you ever come across a video of that event, I think you'll see what I mean.
The Coward Trump
In Flint, MI, yesterday, Trump, invited by a local pastor to talk about the water problem and her church's response to it, did what he always does, tells the locals to fuck off and starts in on his own agenda, in this case, ripping Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But before he could get very far, the pastor calmly walked onstage and gently chastised him, as one would a five year old who had taken one too many cookies, telling him to stick to the business at hand because no one wanted to hear a political speech. He immediately backed down, "Oh..okay, okay, okay..." sounding surprised and a bit flustered at being corrected.
But this morning, along with Confederate pond scum Steve Doocy, on Fox, Trump was all manly braggadocio and face saving lies. As relayed by the Coward Trump to puppy dog Doocy, the Rev. Faith Green Timmons was a nervous mess. But that wasn't enough of a slur to cover the shame of his cowardice. He then had to besmirch this pastor who invited him into her church by suggesting some underhanded motives "'She was so nervous,' Trump said this morning on 'Fox and Friends.' 'She was a nervous mess, and so I figured something -- I figured something was up, really,'"
Something was up. But of course it was.
The ever helpful racist pig Steve Doocy knew exactly what Trump was getting at, suggesting that they (the pastor and her congregation, or "The Blacks" to use Trump's usual blanket term) were out to sabotage him. Trump then said the interruption didn't bother him (video of the incident proves this a lie...he almost pissed his pants) but then, to further insult Rev. Timmons, he accused her of something else, some unspoken conspiracy: "Everyone plays their games."
So, Trump could never be corrected, even as gently and as courteously as he was by Rev. Timmons, by anyone, especially not a black woman. First, he was right. She was either 1. nervous, 2. or something was up, 3. or those uppity blacks were trying to sabotage him, 4. or she was running some kind of game on him, or all of the above.
As with most congenital liars, there can't just be one reason. First, because what he's selling is untrue, he has to have not one, but three or four reasons for demeaning this pastor. The scattergun approach is a technique much in use by five year olds who actually DO get their hands caught in the cookie jar "Mom said I could", "Well, the jar was open", "I only had one cookie all day yesterday", "I didn't know" or the ever popular "It was an accident".
You can check for yourself by watching the short video and reading the first hand account of a reporter who was there:
"As Trump began to criticize his opponent, Hillary Clinton, Timmons slowly walked back onto the stage. 'Mr. Trump, I invited you here to thank us for what we've done for Flint, not to give a political speech,' she said. 'Oh, oh, OK, OK, OK. That's good,' Trump said. 'Then I'm going to go back onto Flint, OK.'"
The NPR reporter continues "The audience was saying, 'Let him speak, let him speak,' Trump told Fox and Friends. That isn't true. In fact, several audience members began to heckle Trump, asking pointed questions about whether he racially discriminated against black tenants as a landlord. And that's when Timmons — who Trump said Thursday had planned to ambush him — stepped in to defend Trump, saying the Republican nominee was 'a guest of my church, and you will respect him.'"
So Trump goes on national TV to lie about the actions of a woman who stepped up to save him then casts her as some kind of crazy person, nervous, conspiring against him, and claiming that her congregation wanted him to speak but she would not allow it.
Will this get any play?
Certainly not.
And here's the rub. The ABC report of this event comes across as a He Said, She Said report. Trump claims this, Timmons claims something else. No attempt to correct Trump's obvious and easily disproved lies. You'd have to do your own research to discover that Trump was not only a liar, but a coward, as Diane correctly pointed out in an earlier comment. ABC doesn't help you out at all. Reading this, you'd have no idea which story was accurate.
And this is just one little story. This sort of thing happens over and over again, every day.
And will right up til election day.
Apples and Trees, pt. 38
Usually, it's Eric who is the stupid, insulting dweeb of an offspring. Today, it's junior's turn.
The burning question of the day is this: Donald Trump, Jr.: Dunderhead or Nincompoop?
In the last 24 hours, junior has explained that releasing dad's tax returns would be damaging for him politically, so he ain't a-gonna do it. Thanks for that, junior. Nice to have confirmation from an inside member of the Trump Tower Mafia.
Also, a Holocaust joke, because they're always such a riot. "The Holocaust! Ho-ho-ho!"
Finally, new word, straight from the George W. Bush Memorial Lexicon thingy: "Indiscrepancy". Whatever the hell that is.
Enjoy.
@Mag. I watched Powell at the time and yes, Tenet was, as you say, the shifty eyed CIA Director. I don't doubt Powell was channeling Tenet, if not word for word. However, I believe, as Secretary of State, Colin Powell had the absolute obligation to act in the best interests of the US, not on some speculative intel (made up). At his level of responsibility, he owed it to the country to exit stage left if he couldn't convince Bush (Cheney) to back down. In fact, his refusal to go along would have, at a minimum, brought some scrutiny to bear. He has always carefully crafted his optics and I believe he had visions of the oval office in his head at that time. He screwed up.
Having said that, very few folks have entirely altruistic or entirely self serving interests. I will always admire his comments about Obama, when he questioned why it would make a difference if Obama were Muslim.
I have to laugh at the people who are shocked I tell you shocked that Trump's 3 biz kids are turning out to be not so honest and refreshing and different. What ever made people think they weren't just as skeevy as dear old Dad? Grifters, Inc.
Here is the answer to everything!
According to the NYT 44 % of voters support Trump.
According to Gallup 42% of Americans believe in creationism.
End of story.
The Wall Street Journal reported a few minutes ago what the Trumpster said this AM about the cost of his economic plans, such as they are:
"Mr. Trump made a series of changes to his tax plan that would reduce the overall cost from the original plan, which had been pegged at $10 trillion over a decade. He said it would cost $4.4 trillion over a decade or $2.6 trillion after accounting for economic growth—larger than the cost of tax cuts enacted by President George W. Bush last decade."
Guess the hasn't seen the deficit numbers from the Reagan years or noticed what's happened to Brownbackistan. Doesn't seem to remember the Bush II years either and how they ended...
Gifts to the wealthy don't create jobs. They just make rich people richer. Funny how Trump (he's very smart, I've heard) has missed all that.
At 70 Donald Trump knows very well that tax cuts to the rich only make the rich richer. He's been a big hog at the slops trough for years now and enjoyed it all. He has no intention of changing a good (for him) thing.
Ken,
For a good look at how the very rich help all the rest of us little people, let's take a look at Donald Trump. He claims to be a multi billionaire, and much of that money, no doubt, came from Confederate tax cuts, meaning the rest of us pick up his slack. So what has he done to pay us back for that largesse? Almost nothing.
He has created some jobs, but many of them were given to illegal immigrants. Most of the other jobs he's created have been killed when his projects entered Chapter 11 and he fired everyone. Anyone who actually got paid at all was lucky.
As for the vaunted Trump Foundation which he trots out as proof of his philanthropic streak, there is proof that Trump, who claims to be worth over $10 billion, doesn't give away any of it. His foundation gives away money, some, that is, but not any of his, at least since 2008. According to David Farenthold's well researched piece in the WaPo, he has given away less than $10 million in his entire life, not the hundreds of millions he claims.
AND, what money his foundation does give out, goes to people who have already given him money. Except they get back a whole lot less than they gave. The Trump Way. You give me 10, I give you back 2 and I use your money to make myself look good.
So much for trickle down. The "trick" part is working fine though, just as it was meant to since St. Ronald of Reagan's economic Gurus for the Rich came up with this plan to gull the rubes.
It's still working. Rubes still gulled.