;)
The Commentariat -- Sept. 20, 2016
Edgar Sandoval & Jason Silverstein of the New York Daily News: "Authorities nabbed the man wanted in connection with the weekend bombings in New York City and New Jersey after he shot a police officer Monday morning, according to reports. Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, was the first person identified in connection with the bombings. NBC New York and CNN reported that Rahami was in custody after shooting an officer in Linden, N.J. around 11 a.m. Details about the shooting were not immediately released." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Marc Santora, et al., of the New York Times: "The man believed to be responsible for the explosion in Manhattan on Saturday night and an earlier bombing in New Jersey, Ahmad Khan Rahami, was taken into custody on Monday after he was wounded by gunfire in an encounter with the police, according to law enforcement officials. The dramatic episode on a rain-soaked street in Linden, N.J., came after the police issued a cellphone alert to millions of residents in the area telling them to be on the lookout for the suspect, who was described as 'armed and dangerous.'... Mr. Rahami, 28, was identified on surveillance video planting the bombs in Chelsea, both the device that exploded and another that did not detonate a few blocks away. He was described as a naturalized citizen of Afghan descent who had been living with his family in Elizabeth, N.J.... Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who said on Sunday that the attack did not appear to have a link to international terrorism, said new evidence might change that thinking." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The story has been updated several times. "The showdown [in Linden, N.J.,] started around 10:30 a.m. when a resident spotted a man sleeping in the doorway of a bar, officials said.... The officer ordered Mr. Rahami to show hands, [Capt. James Sarnicki of the Linden Police Department] said, but instead, he pulled out a handgun. He shot the officer in the abdomen..., but the bullet struck his vest.... 'The officer returned fire,' he said. Mr. Rahami fled, 'indiscriminantly firing his weapon at passing vehicles.' By sundown, Mr. Rahami had been charged with seven counts, including five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, with bail set at $5.2 million." ...
President Obama spoke Monday morning about the attacks in New York, New Jersey & Minnesota:
... Tom Haydon of NJ.com: "Two homeless men found the backpack with the five pipe bombs in the city Sunday and saved lives by reporting it to police, Mayor Christian Bollwage said." -- CW
Presidential Race
Alexander Burns & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton accused Donald J. Trump on Monday of imperiling American national security with his campaign messages as Mr. Trump called for a crackdown on immigration and for unrestrained police profiling of people from the Muslim world after bombings in New York and New Jersey.... Both candidates reached for the mantle of toughness, in starkly different ways. Mrs. Clinton stressed her national security credentials, measuring her words carefully and charging Mr. Trump with recklessness.... At a morning news conference inside an airport hangar in rainy Westchester County, [Clinton] urged Americans to show 'courage and vigilance,' and not to demonize Muslims or Americans of foreign origin. And describing herself as the only candidate in the race with experience fighting terrorism, Mrs. Clinton charged that Mr. Trump had helped the Islamic State and other terror groups with his campaign oratory broadly denouncing Muslims." -- CW ...
... CW: This is a unique New York Times story in that it focuses on Clinton's accurate &/or reasonable accusations against Trump, but relegates Trump's bluster to the latter part of a story (Para. 13, in the story's current [8:30 pm ET Monday] configuration). Most of the Times' stories focus on Trump's saying something nutty, then way down the page mention whatever normal thing Clinton said about the matter. Here's a good part of the reason for the reversal of coverage: Clinton got out on front on this one. Clinton's remarks about the bombings were measured, forceful, and, you know, "presidential." And, no, Reince, you misogynist prick, she wasn't smiling while discussing terrorism. ...
By Driftglass.... MEANWHILE, at the Washington Post, the front-page headline puts Trump before Clinton, but the headline on the story page puts Clinton before Trump. The WashPo story, by Anne Gearan & others, gives more prominence than does the Times to Trump, who says the usual alpha-boy, unconstitutional stuff: "... the United States is too tentative in its efforts against terrorism overseas. The better approach would be to 'knock the hell out of them' and possibly introduce profiling as a counterterrorism tactic, he added. 'Our local police, they know who a lot of these people are,' Trump said in the Fox interview. 'They are afraid to do anything about it, because they don't want to be accused of profiling. And they don't want to be accused of all sorts of things.' He concluded: 'Do we have a choice? Look what's going on. Do we really have a choice? We're trying to be so politically correct in our country.'" -- CW ...
... Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: At a rally in Estero, Florida, "Trump also bemoaned what he said was the plush treatment that would be accorded to Rahami. 'The bad part,' he said, 'now we will give him amazing hospitalization. He will be taken care of by some of the best doctors in the world. He will be given a fully modern and updated hospital room. And he'll probably even have room service, knowing the way our country is. And, on top of that, he will be represented by an outstanding lawyer. Trump concluded by noting 'and his punishment will not be what it once would have been. What a sad situation.'" -- CW
Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the eldest child of Robert F. Kennedy, said in a Facebook post on Monday that the elder President George Bush told her that he planned to vote for Hillary Clinton. The former president, however, is not talking." CW: Hillary's husband, of course, made Bush I a one-term president. But the old man has some integrity: he's one of the few GOP leaders to put principle before party.
CW: So somebody found a two-year-old Reddit post that might imply that somebody who might be connected to Hillary Clinton might have been asking how to scrub Clinton's e-mail account, so naturally the House of Representatives is INVESTIGATING! They just can't stop.
Donald Trump: Newscaster. Also, Something New -- Media Unfair to Trump. Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Donald Trump on Monday morning claimed credit for accurately calling the weekend's explosion in Manhattan a bombing, even before full details were in, as the Republican presidential nominee attempts to exploit the latest terror threats to boost his campaign. Trump slammed the media for attacking him over his early use of the bomb term and accused them of editing out clips of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton using a similar term.... The real estate mogul suggested the media were attacking him not because he cited the explosion as a bombing before it was confirmed but because polls are tightening." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Akhilleus: Trump seems to think that the term newscaster is the same as earliest guesser. Another example of how little factual information penetrates, or matters inside the cramped quarters of the orange dome. ...
... Washington Post Editors: "In commending law enforcement and counterterrorism officials, President Obama on Monday stressed the importance of letting them do their jobs so as to prevent false reports or incomplete information. The obvious need for such prudence sadly -- but not surprisingly -- did not seem to matter to ... Donald Trump. Before there was any determination of the Chelsea explosion's source, Mr. Trump nonetheless proclaimed at a campaign stop in Colorado that a bomb had gone off. He may have guessed right, but that would be a reckless way to do business in the Oval Office. Equally disturbing was Mr. Trump's bombast about how he would approach terrorism -- 'knock the hell out of 'em' -- and maybe use racial profiling. By contrast, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton wanted to know the facts, and called for the support of first responders and prayers for the injured. It was the kind of calm and caution one naturally expects from a leader." -- CW
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Despite the news that the Bridgegate trial will produce evidence, possibly from both the prosecutor & the defense, that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie knew about the unlawful closing of George Washington Bridge traffic lanes during the period the lanes were closed (see links under Beyond the Beltway), Donald "Trump, in a statement made to The New York Times through an adviser, said he was sticking with Mr. Christie.... When ... Trump campaigned in South Carolina in December..., he [told supporters]..., He totally knew about it....They're with him all the time, the people that did it.'" ...
... CW: How surprising is Trump's "loyalty"? As long as Christie remains a useful idiot -- he's running Trump's transition team & lying on the teevee for the Trumpster -- Trump will fake-BFF him. Haberman points out that Trump did the same for serial sexual abuser Roger Ailes, who continues to work on the Trump campaign. Besides, Trump seems far more comfortable with crooks, liars & other shady characters than with uppity elites. But don't, worry, just as he whacked his friend of 15 years during the primary campaign, he won't give it a second thought to throwing Christie under the bridge against if it benefits Trump.
Peter Eavis of the New York Times: When Donald Trump boycotted a primary debate in January, he held a competing charity event for veterans in Iowa, soliciting donations from across the U.S. But the Trump Foundation, the organization through which many of the donations were made, did not bother to register itself as a charity in most of the 40 states that require such registration. Hope Hicks, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign but not for the foundation, claimed the foundation was in compliance with the law because "'a one-time online donation option for the event ... does not require advance registration.' Charity law specialists said they were not aware of any such sweeping exemption.... The Clinton Foundation ... appears to be registered in nearly all the states, according to a search of state charity records. And the failure of ... the Trump Foundation to register could raise questions about the efficiency of its operations." CW: Thanks, Hope, for making up some crazy shit. As for questions about "the efficiency of the foundation," we all know it's pretty efficient at making illegal political contributions, then hiding them by pretending the money went to charities.
Gene Robinson: "Anyone who takes climate change seriously had better do everything possible to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.... Trump ... is a bald-faced denier. 'Obama's talking about all of this with the global warming and ... a lot of it's a hoax,' he said at a December rally in South Carolina. 'It's a hoax. I mean, it's a moneymaking industry, okay? It's a hoax, a lot of it.' He tweeted in 2012 that 'the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.' He later said this was a joke, but during the campaign he has again said he does not believe in climate change and claimed that action to limit carbon emissions 'is done for the benefit of China.'" ...
... CW: That's fine as far as Robinson goes, but commentators need to bring home the point that when it comes to climate policy, Gary Johnson is nearly as bad. He's not a climate-change denier, but he believes that U.S. efforts to try to abate climate change do not justify the cost. So, in effect, there's a difference without a distinction. A vote for Johnson instead of Clinton is a vote for environmental catastrophe.
Brian Beutler: "Trump used birtherism and other forms of racist agitation to build a political base for himself, and now that these defining crusades are impeding his pursuit of political power, he is trying to discard them in the most contemptuous and brazen possible way. Rather than disavow and apologize for his birtherism, he fabricated a new history in which Clinton had given life to the birther movement and he had merely settled the issue by forcing Obama to produce his birth certificate.... Even if the effort fails as it should, it has shown us just how widespread this abusive and contemptuous form of misinformation and racism apologetics has become in Republican politics." -- CW
Dana Milbank: "There was a time when fantasizing aloud about the murder of your opponent would have been beyond the pale -- but not anymore.... If Trump's 'let's see what happens to her' [if her Secret Service detail were disarmed] suggestion were a one-off, there might be an argument for giving Trump the benefit of the doubt. The tendency to regard each Trump outrage in isolation is what allows him to become normalized. But look at the comprehensive output of Trump -- who freely admitted to the Post that 'I bring rage out' in people -- there's no escaping the conclusion that he winks, and sometimes smiles, at political violence.... What's more troubling than what his backers do is how Trump backs them when they do it. He said of protesters: 'maybe he should have been roughed up' and 'I'd like to punch him in the face.'" -- CW
Academics David Dagan, Harold Pollack & Steven Teles in a Washington Post op-ed: "In the past decade, two major movements for criminal justice reform have arisen: the push against mass incarceration and Black Lives Matter's mobilization against police brutality.... Donald Trump has attacked both, arguing that the movements would touch off a new crime epidemic. He's wrong. The research we have shows that we know how to fight crime without using more handcuffs and prison cells.... Trump wants us to ignore all we have learned since the 1990s and to turn our backs on the political progress that both liberals and conservatives have made in the past few years." -- CW ...
... CW: I think we should stipulate that at least since Richard Nixon exploited crime as a campaign issue, many GOP politicians have actually favored high crime, especially as it could be presented as a race-specific problem. Donald Trump likes it so much that he repeatedly lies about the crime rate -- in general, it's been falling for decades, not rising, as Trump claims -- and he loves to drag victims of heinous crimes up on stage as anecdotal "proof" that there's an "illegal" Mexican lurking at every corner with murder in mind.
Junior StormTrumper, still entirely informed by the Racist Daily News:
... CW: Junior retweeted the punctuation-challenged graphic on the right. Winger-racist Joe Walsh retweeted it next to a tweet he sent last month. Meanwhile, the Mars Corp., which makes Skittles, tweeted, "Skittles are candy; refugees are people. It's an inappropriate analogy. We respectfully refrain from further comment, as that could be misinterpreted as marketing" Thanks to MAG for the link. Junior, BTW, who loves to shoot animals for the fun of it, would not apply the same analogy to gun owners. I don't know what percentage of gun owners use their firearms in perpetration of crimes, but Junior sure isn't urging the government to confiscate all guns so as to quash the "bad ones."
Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party presidential candidate, who has struggled in recent weeks to recover from a gaffe in which he was unable to identify Aleppo, in war-torn Syria, appeared to fumble once more on Sunday when he said no one had been injured in two violent events in New York City and Minnesota over the weekend. 'Well, first of all, just grateful that nobody got hurt,' Mr. Johnson told CNN's Brian Stelter in an appearance on the network's 'Reliable Sources.' In fact, 29 people were injured in an explosion in New York's Chelsea neighborhood on Saturday, and nine people were stabbed in St. Cloud, Minn." -- CW
Other News & Views
Cecilia Kang of the New York Times: "In long-awaited guidelines for the booming industry of automated vehicles, the Obama administration promised strong safety oversight, but sent a clear signal to automakers that the door was wide open for driverless cars. 'We envision in the future, you can take your hands off the wheel, and your commute becomes restful or productive instead of frustrating and exhausting,' said Jeffrey Zients, director of the National Economic Council, adding that highly automated vehicles 'will save time, money and lives.' The statements were the most aggressive signal yet by federal regulators that they see automated car technology as a win for auto safety." -- CW
Meetings in Jesus Land, D.C. Francine Kiefer of the Christian Science Monitor on the growing influence of congressional prayer meetings: "The Senate breakfast and its companion in the House are invisible to the public. Yet that is exactly what makes them so beneficial, say attendees. The confidentiality of the breakfasts allows lawmakers to get to know each other as human beings. They hear about each other's personal struggles and joys, about concern for family members, friends, and staff. That builds trust and friendship. It can even lead to bipartisan legislation. One participant says that it's the only time when a senator is speaking and others are really listening.... The meetings have their share of critics, who see them as too clubby, too secretive, and too much religious talk under the rotunda." Akhilleus: Because religion and religious nutjobs in congress, not to mention secret meetings, have been so helpful in solving the problems of the republic. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Stumpf Very, Very Sorry He Got Caught Running Massive Criminal Enterprise. Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "The chief executive of Wells Fargo, John G. Stumpf, will say in testimony Tuesday morning that he is 'deeply sorry' for selling customers unauthorized bank accounts and credit cards and that he takes 'full responsibility' for the unethical activity, according to a copy of the remarks prepared for a Senate Banking Committee hearing." -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Christie and the Bridge of Damocles: David Porter of the Washington Post. "A federal prosecutor told jurors Monday that a witness will testify that Republican Gov. Chris Christie was told about a plan to close traffic lanes near the George Washington Bridge as the shutdown was happening, a claim he has contested for years.... Prosecutors said Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly, two former Christie allies, had sought political revenge against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich. Baroni was a top Christie appointee to Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Kelly was Christie's former chief of staff. Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna told jurors that David Wildstein, another Port Authority official, will testify he and Baroni made Christie aware of the plan during a 9/11 memorial in New York City in 2013, three days after the gridlock started. 'The evidence will show that ... they bragged about the fact that there were traffic problems in Fort Lee and that Mayor Sokolich was not getting his calls returned,' Khanna said." -- Akhilleus (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "It was the first time Mr. Christie, a Republican, has been accused of knowing about the scheme as it unfolded.... Mr. Christie has insisted that he had no knowledge of the plot to close the lanes, and said that he did not recall being told about the closings while they were happening. Defense lawyers have also said that Mr. Christie knew. But the statement on Monday was striking in that it was prosecutors confirming that assertion." -- CW ...
... Ted Sherman & Matt Arco of NJ.com provide many details of Monday's opening statements.
Peter Holley, et al., of the Washington Post: "Tulsa, Okla., police released video footage Monday that shows a white police officer fatally shooting an unarmed black man -- footage that the city's police chief [Chuck Jordan] called 'very disturbing.'... Video shows [Terence Crutcher] walking toward his vehicle with his hands above his head while several officers follow closely behind him with weapons raised. He lingers at his vehicle's driver's side window, his body facing the SUV, before slumping to the ground a second later. 'Shots fired!' a female voice can be heard yelling.... Jordan said investigators never found a weapon on Terence Crutcher or in his vehicle after the 40-year-old was shot and killed Friday as he stood beside his stalled SUV.... U.S. Attorney Danny Williams has announced that the Justice Department has opened an independent investigation into the shooting." Includes video. -- CW ...
... The Tulsa World story is here.
Way Beyond
Meanwhile, in Putin Land. Sarah Rainsford of the BBC Considers the Russian "Elections": "The party founded by Vladimir Putin now controls over three quarters of the seats in parliament, giving it the power to change any law or the constitution.... As [Vladimir Putin's] 'party of power', United Russia is a constant presence on state television - and not just in the run up to elections. That has a huge influence on voters. But a change to the electoral system has also been key. Single-mandate constituencies were reintroduced for half of the seats in parliament and United Russia had a major 'systemic' advantage there." Nonetheless "... significant figures [were] barred from the democratic process. They include Alexei Navalny, seen by many as Mr Putin's most formidable opponent, who is denied access to the main TV channels." Akhilleus: Wouldn't Trump love being able to bar people he hated and feared from the electoral process? One more reason he loves Putin. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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Reader Comments (18)
Item 1.
Some thoughtful material here, I thought.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/9/19/1571753/-Daily-Kos-Elections-2016
What, indeed, is the matter with Ohio?
The short answer: the number of relatively uneducated white folks in Ohio, and more generally in the country, who vote Republican is growing.
Item 2.
The bad news: we discovered a large tumor in our dog's mouth today and could not leave on our planned trip.
The good news: an enforced stay-at-home day gave me time to get back to "One Nation Under God" by Kevin Kruse, and had the time to read about half. The "Monitor" link above prompts me to recommend it before I turn the last page. Among the other tidbits it offers, the book details where all that prayer breakfast and Nation Days of Prayer stuff started.
Much later in our history than I had thought.
The bad news:
I left my childhood thinking President Eisenhower was relatively harmless. I was wrong. The rise in church attendance during the 50's was not all his fault, but as an enthusiastic supporter of the post WWII religiosity epidemic he was far from blameless.
Wonder what that son of a Jehovah's Witness would think today of all those Christians he encouraged to mix their religion with their politics who don't care a lick how much their Presidential candidate lies and steals?
Also learned (in an and that's the rest of the story manner) how close the state governor I remember from the early 50's came to being the national VP choice in 1952. In the early 40's he got on his knees and publicly dedicated himself to God somewhere in downtown Seattle and was soon thereafter the city's mayor...then the multiple-term governor of Washington State...then on the short list but not quite the Veep in '52.
Guess his prayers weren't answered. or maybe he or the state's electoral votes were not prominent or important enough to save us all from Richard M. Nixon, the Quaker who was not a crook.
If past behavior is the best predictor of future actions and thoughts, a Trump presidency would set records for ignorance, hatefulness, and sociopathy.
While dad uses every possible excuse to demand that the Constitution be shredded so he can get tough with "those people" (and that could mean whichever group is out of favor in the Orange Dome of Diminished Thought), Junior demonstrates his essential ahumanistic belief system, comparing human beings to poisoned candy. His tweet, in which he suggests that taking in Syrian refugees would be no different than grabbing a handful of Skittles, any three of which will kill you, is repulsive even for Little Adolf. Let's leave aside the thought that a handful might be about 30 pieces of human, er, candy, meaning a good 10% of Syrians are, according to this pathetic putz, murdering terrorists. Which would probably be low for these pricks. Trump family math would place the percentage at a much more scary level, say, one in three. All the better as an excuse to deny even the tiniest sliver of humanitarian aid. Well, naturally; you'd have to be human first.
The Trump family's penchant for toxic demegoguery seems boundless. Not to mention sick and creepy. So, if Syrians are Skittles, are black people Hershey's Kisses? And those other popular punching bags? Mexican jumping beans?
These people, in power, surrounded with amoral slugs like themselves to spread such ideas, would be a plague on this country, and the world.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/19/politics/donald-trump-jr-twitter-refugees/
Sorry, "demagoguery". The ignorance is already spreading.
Copycats must run in the family! First there was stepmum, Melania and now it's Junior. "Skittle! Skittle!" ... Joe Walsh, a single-term Republican congressman from Illinois and a right-wing radio-show host who was once kicked off the air for racial slurs, noted that the meme bore a striking resemblance to a nearly identically worded one Walsh had sent a month earlier.
There's a side-by-side (screen shot) view on CNBC with Walsh's original Tweet and Drumpf, Jr.'s.
P.S. Forgot to mention what a dick Joe Walsh (still) is.
An interesting evaluation of Trump's 'success' in business.
http://occupydemocrats.com/2016/09/19/robert-reich-met-trump-supporter-blew-mind-fact/
The man of many names, David Wildstein, will finally throw Christi (who by the way is one skillful liar) under that bridge. I have waited for this for years. Once Christi's go-to guy–-his "Mr. Wolf" was really "Wally Edge" hedging his bets. No more Christi's Rottweiller, he has been reduced to, in his own words, a "Shih Tzu. But oh, what a bite that breed has!
This Star Ledger editorial says it all about what has become of American politics. And it's kind of funny.
http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/09/was_donald_trump_born_male_editorial.html#incart_river_index
MAG,
Thanks for pointing out that Junior's "Syrians are poison candy" derision was stolen from another winger mired in the muck. So not only is Junior a dissipated misanthrope, he's unoriginal as well. At least he didn't make use of dad's cowardly technique of ascribing the worst lies to others as in "people are saying..."
That doesn't actually make him less objectionable. In fact, it makes him worse. He doesn't even bother to try to hide his bigotry and ignorance behind what "other people are saying".
Ignorant, bigoted, misanthropic, AND unoriginal.
Trump Family virtues.
WaPo's Phillip Bump does the odds on poison skittles:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/19/donald-trump-jr-inadvertantly-encourages-america-to-scoop-up-refugees-by-the-handful/?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_factchecker-610a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Note to Akhilleus:
Some time ago you and I were discussing the Sy Hersh– bin Laden theory re: the capture and killing of. We said we both admired him, had followed him over the years, but that this particular conspiracy seemed way over the top. Now in the latest issue of TNYRB Ahmed Rashid reviews Hersh's book and re: the aforementioned issue said this:
"I’ve long admired the skill and independence with which Hersh has brought important and concealed information to light, and we can be sure there is no shortage of conspiracies to be revealed in a Muslim world torn apart by competing jihadist groups and by civil wars. But neither of the theories of secret conspiracy that Hersh presents in his book is backed up by strong evidence."
It's the stark disjuncture that bothers me.
The Christian revival of the 50's allied American anti New Deal business interests with a specifically Christian counter-revolution promulgated by the likes of Billy Graham and Pat Robertson, himself the son of an anti New Deal Senator, whose purported purpose was a return to the roots of America's founding as a Christian nation.
Because from the beginning that alliance fused Christianity with the interests of the big business that supported it, Christianity took on a new flavor, touting personal responsibility and independence and shunning the tenets of the social Gospel. It was all about Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, as long as those freedoms served the interests of business. Capitalism was God's plan. The alternative was atheistic Communism, the Devil incarnate. In the new 50's model, complete with flaring tail fins, in the public eye money and virtue were melded in a largely Republican coalition.
My sense of those days is that many of those monied folks who lavished big bucks on the revivalists may truly have thought of themselves as virtuous. The small businessmen I knew, my father among them, certainly did.
But now we have Trump, someone who by no stretch of any imagination could be called virtuous but who still has the support of many of the heirs to the 50's Christian revival. What has happened to the Christian Right? How did it divorce itself from any claim to virtue?
Two things I think.
First a new generation of wealthy businessmen, still staunchly Republican, severed the real or presumed connection between money and virtue. Since the 1960's earthly reward, that is money, has been the only goal. Business led the way in lying. About the health risks posed by tobacco, by sugar, by the cornucopia of pharmaceuticals they've loosed on the public, and in the last twenty years by fossil fuels. And that's only a partial list. Madison Avenue has never been known for its virtue.
Unsurprisingly, the party of business has adopted the same techniques in pursuit of the same goals, money and power. Republicans lie consistently and repeatedly. Welfare queens. Voter fraud. They're going to take away your guns. Again only a partial list.
The upshot: Over the last fifty years, lying has become de rigueur in Republican circles, It's what they do, and it's effective in part because the lies become part of the narrative, unquestioned by the same credulous people who have been trained by religious leaders and politicians to swallow whoppers from birth.
The other factor, of course, is fear. Mentioned here many times, fear is the Right's weapon of choice. The civil rights movement scared the bejeezus out of the South, flipping it into the R's column. By the early 2000's fear of Hispanics took its place. Now we have Muslims and terror. And since fear operates on the pre-brain, when the R's scare people enough, they succeed in short-circuiting all thought.
That's how we got to 2016, when both sense and thought are out the door, judgment fled.
Trump is a serial liar? So what?
The evidence that HRC is untrustworthy? In comparison to her opponent, scant.
So now we have millions who think of themselves as virtuous supporting a lying political party, whose lies have been exposed time and again, who have finally found (or did he find them?) a proud and public liar in chief to lead them.
And his opponent whom the facts would say is far more virtuous, both in word and deed, vilified by that same group, some even publicly hankering to crucify her.
For Christians, it would seem an odd turn.
We are a long way from the 50's.
(This is what happens when one's dog is in surgery.)
PD,
I was paging through the latest copy of the NYRB this morning at breakfast and ran across that piece. Haven't read it yet, but intend to. I was reading the article on Miles Davis (genius is pain). I mostly skipped the piece on how the Orange Headed Clown debases everything he touches but is nonetheless knocking on the door of the White House. November 8th can't come soon enough for me. I can't even say that I'm looking forward to the debates because I fully expect them to go to Trvmpvs. List all the horrible things he's said. Not a one has created a dent. I'm tempted to run down the litany of horribles, but why bother? He's called for the assassination of his rival and begged Russia to hack into American databases to help him win. It doesn't matter. No one will want to hear or pay attention to policy ideas. Trump doesn't have any. Clinton does, but no one is bothering to listen.
The lines are drawn. Even those ready to vote for Wrongway Jill Stein and Gary (Spliff Man) Johnson won't be swayed at this point. What will matter is the GOTV operations. Trump doesn't have to work very hard at that; the knuckledraggers can't wait to vote for an honest-to-god dictator with the KKK seal of approval who claims he'll piss on all their enemies and make American the 50's again. And they won't have to worry about long lines at the polls. That will only happen in Democratic precincts.
The press is doing all they can to turn people off against Hillary Clinton. It's all a fucking mess.
But....where were we? Oh yeah. Sy Hersh. I think he bit off quite a bit on this one. I'll read it tonight.
Thanks.
@Ken: Sorry to hear about your dog and sorry your trip to places unknown has been put on hold. I, myself, feel as if I'm tripping to places unknown in this atmosphere of unbelievable verbal hurricanes and homemade bombs. You thought you could get away––don't we all wish we could––if only for a few days.
Latest WAPO Fahrenthold story on Trump Foundation. $258,000 paid from Foundation to charities to settle disputes. Not Trump's cash.
Favorite quote in article referencing a flag pole in front of Mir-A-Lago which was 80ft tall instead of a max 42ft by regulation.
"Trump’s club sued in federal court, saying that a smaller flag 'would fail to appropriately express the magnitude of Donald J. Trump’s . . . patriotism.'
Holy bejoly, now that's just rich with potential responses.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-used-258000-from-his-charity-to-settle-legal-problems/2016/09/20/adc88f9c-7d11-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html
Its pretty clear that there is nothing Trump has done, has said or will do that will dissuade his voters. The awful truth is that so many of our fellow citizens are ignorant, mean spirited and petty. I'm convinced that a physical lashing at the hands of Trump would only bring a plaintive "may I have another Mr. Trump." American exceptionalism has become the glorious entitlement of ignorance and greed.
Oh and another thing...surely there aren't enough cojonnes on the entire presidential debate commission, (no caps on purpose) but wouldn't it be great if they told Trump- O.K. don't like Cooper (probably because he's skeered of gay cooties) you can have Jose Ramos instead.
I believe it was RC who introduced me to Jim Wright, blogger at Stonekettle Station in January 2015 with his post on 'How Heros Die' i.e. 'Don't Thank me for my Service'. Jim's most recent post is about George Wallace and how the Republican Party arrived at its present state: http://www.stonekettle.com/2016/09/greatness-again.html
A commenter to the post above said "You make me want to gag!" to which Jim responded on FaceBook with the following post: https://www.facebook.com/Stonekettle/posts/1104009106301158 (You made me choose.)
I think that all of you can relate to and appreciate Jim Wright's writing in both of these posts. Sorry that I'm not proficient enough in HTML to provide hot links.
BTW, I think that I am suffering from 'Election Anxiety'! I don't know whether the extensive amount of time that I spend following this campaign is helping or hurting my condition. But I'm doing everything I can to elect help Hillary and defeat DJT.
Another Jim Wright FaceBook post that I meant to include above. On 9/11/2016 he posted this entry which had so many troll complaints that FB took it down. FB has now returned it to his page and apologized. Another post that I recommend.
http://www.stonekettle.com/2016/09/renegade-911.html