;)
The Commentariat -- Sept. 29, 2016
Mid-afternoon Update:
Donald Trump. Supporter of Communist Dictators for President! Kurt Eichenwald of Newsweek reports that Donald Trump knowingly violated the US embargo against Cuba. "A company controlled by Donald Trump ... secretly conducted business in Communist Cuba during Fidel Castro's presidency despite strict American trade bans that made such undertakings illegal, according to interviews with former Trump executives, internal company records and court filings.... Documents show that the Trump company spent a minimum of $68,000 for its 1998 foray into Cuba at a time when the corporate expenditure of even a penny in the Caribbean country was prohibited without U.S. government approval.... Once the [Trump] consultants traveled to the island and incurred the expenses for the venture, Seven Arrows instructed senior officers with Trump's company --then called Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts --how to make it appear legal by linking it after the fact to a charitable effort."...Akhilleus: Love to see Kellyanne spin this one tomorrow morning. "Oh the Donald needed a few cigars. No biggie. And anyway, when he got there, Hillary was skinny dipping with Fidel." ...
... Marc Caputo of Politico: "'Trump's business with Cuba appears to have broken the law, flouted U.S. foreign policy, and is in complete contradiction to Trump's own repeated, public statements that he had been offered opportunities to invest in Cuba but passed them up,' Clinton campaign senior adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.... Trump recently began making a big push to curry the support of Cuban-Americans who live in Miami-Dade, Florida's most populous county with the most Republicans, 366,000. About 72 percent of them are Hispanic, nearly all Cuban-American. They're one of the only blocs of voters in the United States who still favor keeping the embargo...." The Newsweek report won't go down well with those voters. -- CW
By Driftglass.Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump isn't afraid of being labeled as the guy who avoids paying taxes. At all. [In an appearance on Bill O'Reilly's show,] Trump didn't say Wednesday night whether he has paid income taxes over the past several decades, but he did say that someone who avoids paying them is what the country needs.... 'I never said I didn't pay taxes,' Trump maintained. '[Hillary Clinton] said, "Maybe you didn't pay taxes." And I said, "Well, that would make me smart," because tax is a big payment.... One big problem with Trump's comments Wednesday is that there is a record of him paying no or very little income taxes. Of the five years for which we have a record of Trump's taxes, he didn't pay any or nearly any.... A second problem is that he did appear to say Monday night that his past avoidance of income taxes was 'smart.'" -- CW
Quite a Few Tokes Over the Line. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: In an-hour long interview on Chris Matthews' MSNBC show, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson had a self-described "brain freeze" -- he could not name one single "favorite world leader," even as Matthews & Johnson's running mate William Weld tried to help him out. It really was stunning. Weigel provides a transcript of the entire exchange. CW: MAG already highlighted this incident early in today's comments, but it is remarkable enough to flag again. Maybe Johnson was going to pick Putin, but he realized that name was already taken.
Dara Lind of Vox: "Trump appears to be shutting out not only people who want him to change direction but even people who are just telling him, descriptively, that the debate didn't work out well for him. Presidents need to be able to hear bad news." -- CW
Gloria Borger, et al., of CNN: "Donald Trump is angry that his aides and advisers have conceded to reporters -- largely without attribution -- that the Republican nominee struggled in his first presidential debate. In a conference call with surrogates Wednesday afternoon, Trump aides made clear the Republican nominee is upset that his allies publicly acknowledged they pushed him to change his preparation and tactics before his next bout with Hillary Clinton. And he wants them to stop it immediately. The message was 'not subtle,' a source familiar with the call said. Trump wants his supporters to make an energetic defense of his performance and refuse to concede that he didn't nail it." -- CW
Trump Conspiracy Theory No. 137. And He Knows It Must Be True Because He Read It in the Sputnik News. Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "Donald Trump on Wednesday touted a long-debunked conspiracy theory that [Google,] the most popular internet search engine, suppresses negative headlines about his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Trump didn't cite a source to back up his claim, but the most recent report alleging this came from Sputnik News, a Russian state-owned news agency. 'Google search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton,' Trump said, apparently referring to Google searches during the first presidential debate on Monday night.... The remark was not an off-the-cuff ad lib -- it was included in the prepared remarks Trump read from during his rally speech Wednesday night." -- CW
*****
Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "Military personnel and veterans challenged President Obama, often aggressively, on his refusal to use the phrase 'Islamic terrorism,' his decision to open combat jobs up to women and the performance of the Department of Veterans Affairs at a town hall meeting [in Fort Lee, Va.,] Wednesday.... Obama's appearance came on the same day he announced that he was sending 600 more troops to Iraq, a war that the president thought he had ended when he withdrew U.S. forces from the country in late 2011. The additional forces will boost the number of U.S. troops in Iraq to just more than 5,000, ahead of an Iraqi-led offensive on Mosul planned for the coming weeks." -- CW
Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "The federal agency that controls more than $1 trillion in Medicare and Medicaid funding has moved to prevent nursing homes from forcing claims of elder abuse, sexual harassment and even wrongful death into the private system of justice known as arbitration. An agency within the Health and Human Services Department on Wednesday issued a rule that bars any nursing home that receives federal funding from requiring that its residents resolve any disputes in arbitration, instead of court. The rule, which would affect nursing homes with 1.5 million residents, promises to deliver major new protections." -- CW
Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Congress staved off an Oct. 1 government shutdown Wednesday, passing a stopgap spending measure after House Republicans agreed to address the drinking-water crisis in Flint, Mich., removing a major obstacle in negotiations. The bill extends current government funding levels until early December, giving appropriators time to negotiate 2017 spending measures. It also provides year-long funding for veterans programs, $1.1 billion to address the Zika virus and $500 million in emergency flood relief for Louisiana and other states. The House approved the bill in a 342-85 late-night vote, hours after senators voted 77-21 to pass the measure. Lawmakers have now recessed until after the Nov. 8 election." -- CW ...
... Congress Overrides 9/11 Bill: Karoun Demirjian & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post. "Congress on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to override President Obama's veto of legislation that would allow 9/11 victims' families to sue the Saudi Arabian government over its alleged support for the terrorists who carried out the attacks. The votes in the House and Senate amounted to a sweeping, bipartisan rejection of the White House's argument that the legislation poses a national security threat because it could expose U.S. officials to similar lawsuits abroad. It is the first time during the Obama administration that Congress has voted to override a veto." ...
... Akhilleus: Pursuit of justice sounds nice but lawmakers left open the very real likelihood that they will walk this back after the election. Drive for show, putt for dough, as they say in golf. Most sane legislators understand the dangerous precedent such an override presents, but right now, they're driving for show. The chance that any 9/11 families will actually be pulling a member of the Saudi royal family into court is close to that of Donald Trump releasing his tax returns. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "The White House lashed out at the Senate Wednesday for overriding President Obama's veto of legislation that would allow U.S. citizens to sue Saudi Arabia over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 'I would venture to say that this is the single most embarrassing thing that the United States Senate has done, possibly, since 1983,' Obama spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One.... Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was the sole vote to sustain Obama's veto. Not a single Democrat came to the Senate floor before the vote to argue in favor of Obama's position. Obama expressed grave concerns about the measure in his veto message last Friday, warning JASTA would improperly involve U.S. courts in national security matters, including whether foreign governments should be considered state sponsors of terror." CW: Reid, of course, is retiring from the Senate.
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "FBI Director James Comey is passionately defending the integrity of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email setup, arguing that critics are unfair to suggest that agents were biased or succumbed to political pressure. 'You can call us wrong, but don't call us weasels. We are not weasels,' Comey declared Wednesday at a House Judiciary Committee hearing. 'We are honest people and ... whether or not you agree with the result, this was done the way you want it to be done.' The normally stoic FBI chief grew emotional and emphatic as he rejected claims from Republican lawmakers that the FBI was essentially in the tank for Clinton...." Comey also explained to Republicans who whined about the immunity deals that he gave limited immunity to "Clinton lawyers Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson to obtain computers containing emails related to the case" because 'Anytime you know you're subpoenaing a laptop from a lawyer that involved a lawyer's practice of law, you know you're getting into a big megillah." -- CW
Linda Greenhouse: "Would it be unseemly to suggest that only Justice Scalia's death has preserved democracy in North Carolina? There, I just did. Justice Scalia's absence is already having an impact on the new term in intriguing ways." -- CW
California Pony Express Delivers Message to Wells Fargo: Drop Dead. Romy Varghese of Bloomberg: "California, the nation's largest issuer of municipal bonds, is barring Wells Fargo & Co. from underwriting state debt and handling its banking transactions after the company admitted to opening potentially millions of bogus customer accounts. The suspension, in effect immediately, will remain in place for 12 months, State Treasurer John Chiang said Wednesday. 'Complete and permanent severance' between his office and the bank will occur if it doesn't change its practices, he said. The treasurer is also suspending his office's investment in Wells Fargo securities. 'Wells Fargo's fleecing of its customers by opening fraudulent accounts for the purpose of extracting millions in illegal fees demonstrates, at best, a reckless lack of institutional control and, at worst, a culture which actively promotes wanton greed,' the treasurer said in a statement."...Akhilleus (Also linked yesterday afternoon.
Presidential Race
Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: Both Hillary Clinton & Donald Trump left unsaid in the first debate many of the attacks they have made against each other. These issues or fake issues are bound to come up in the next two debates. -- CW
She doesn't have the stamina. I said she doesn't have the stamina. And I don't believe she does have the stamina. To be president of this country, you need tremendous stamina. -- Donald Trump, during the presidential debate, on what he meant by saying, repeatedly, that Clinton doesn't have that "presidential look," revealing his sexism, his inability to answer a question, and his stunted command of English ...
... Gail Collins: "Hillary Clinton is 68, and that's old for a first-term presidential candidate in this country. The one thing we can say with absolute certainty is that we'd hear about it every day were it not for the fact that Donald Trump is 70. Still, Trump seems to be finding ways to get at it." ...
... CW: The "stamina, stamina, stamina" thing is worse than the "presidential look" thing. Where the "look" means that women can't be president, the supposed lack of "stamina" means that women, especially older women, are too fragile, or something, to handle the pressures of the presidency. Trump acolyte Rudy Giuliani may have gotten to the "or something" when he said, "... after being married to Bill Clinton for 20 years, if you didn't know the moment Monica Lewinsky said that Bill Clinton violated her that she was telling the truth, then you're too stupid to be president."
Jim Acosta & Theodore Schleifer of CNN: "Donald Trump's campaign is instructing its supporters to use figures like Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers to beat back concerns about how Trump described a former winner of 'Miss Universe,' according to a copy of Wednesday campaign talking points obtained by CNN. Even though Trump and his children celebrated him for not bringing up the women associated with Bill Clinton's marital scandals during Monday's presidential debate, Trump is encouraging his supporters to do just that. 'Mr. Trump has never treated women the way Hillary Clinton and her husband did when they actively worked to destroy Bill Clinton's accusers,' one talking point reads. 'Hillary Clinton bullied and smeared women like Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky,' reads another." -- CW ...
... OR, as Margaret Hartmann of New York puts it, "Trump Campaign Has Sexist Plan to Fight Allegations of Sexism." Hartmann has a good synopsis of how the Trump campaign is out there playing Clinton's responses to her husband's affairs. ...
... Shawn Boburg of the Washington Post: Hillary Clinton's "detractors ... say that [she] has unfairly lashed out over the years at the women involved in her husband's indiscretions. Her responses have forced her to walk a fine line during the campaign on sexual assault issues, even as she builds strong political support among female voters.... The Trump campaign has argued that the issue facing Hillary Clinton as a candidate is not the behavior of her husband but the role she played in shaping responses to accusers. She discredited claims later revealed to be true and worked behind the scenes to help manage the allegations, according to former aides." Boburg cites instances of Hillary's trashing the women with whom her husband had had affairs. -- CW
The Big Guns Come Out. Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post: "[Michelle] Obama was campaigning in Philadelphia -- when she absolutely let loose on Republican nominee Donald Trump and his long-running birther insinuations about her husband.... 'Hurtful, deceitful questions deliberately designed to undermine his presidency, questions that cannot be blamed on others or swept under the rug by an insincere sentence uttered at a press conference.... If a candidate is erratic and threatening, if a candidate traffics in prejudice, fears and lies on the campaign trail, if a candidate thinks that not paying taxes makes you smart, or that it's good business when people lose their homes. If a candidate regularly and flippantly makes cruel and insulting comments about women, about how we look and how we act, well, sadly, that's who that candidate really is.'" Akhilleus: Whoa. What I wouldn't pay to watch Sniffles try to take on Michelle Obama. They'd have to have a meat wagon ready to cart off whatever's left. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Dana Milbank: Former Republican Sen. John Warner, whose long career made him an expert on the military, endorsed Hillary Clinton yesterday. "Warner -- endorsing the Democratic ticket while standing in Alexandria, Va., with fellow Virginian Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's running mate -- spoke bitterly of Trump's description of the military as a 'disaster' and a 'shambles' with the generals reduced to 'rubble.'... 'Candidate Clinton maintained [her] composure throughout the debate; the other candidate, in my judgment, did not,' Warner said. 'She was firm but fair and, underline, respectful. That's one word that's totally lacking on the other side of this ticket.' Warner hailed Kaine, a longtime friend, as a 'beautiful man' of 'unquestioned integrity.'" ...
... CW: I suspect the main reason Trump says the military is a "disaster" & in "shambles" is that a larger percentage of black Americans serve in the military than there are in the general population.
As far as the lawsuit, yes, when I was very young, I went into my father's company, had a real estate company in Brooklyn and Queens, and we, along with many, many other companies throughout the country -- it was a federal lawsuit -- were sued. We settled the suit with zero -- with no admission of guilt. It was very easy to do.... That was a lawsuit brought against many real estate firms, and it's just one of those things. -- Donald Trump, during the debate, on racial discrimination lawsuits the DOJ brought against Trump companies
On several levels, Trump's debate answer was misleading. This was not a case brought against many real estate firms; it was brought against Trump and his father. Trump did not get a better deal; he got essentially the same deal, or possibly worse, than the deal he would have gotten if he had settled before spending legal fees for two years. He also failed to live up to the deal and found himself back in court. While Trump touts there was no admission of guilt, that's rather typical in these sorts of settlements. The Justice Department simply wanted to get the Trumps to agree to rent to African American tenants -- which they failed to do even after agreeing to settle the case. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post
Down in the Drumpfs. Jennifer Wang of Forbes: "Forbes' new investigation into Trump's wealth pegs his fortune at $3.7 billion, down $800 million from a year ago. A softening of New York City's real estate market, particularly in retail and office, where valuations are trending down, has diminished his estimated net worth. New information was also a factor. Of the 28 assets or asset classes scrutinized by Forbes, 18 declined in value, including his trademark Trump Tower on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, his downtown jewel 40 Wall Street and Mar-a-Lago, his private beachfront club in Palm Beach." --CW
Katie Zezima & Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump has a serious weight problem: He can't seem to stop criticizing the girth of others. For decades, Trump has commented on other people's bodies, particularly women who he believes had gained too much weight or were, in his word, 'fat.'... Trump's obsession with weight carries some irony for a candidate who boasts about his unhealthy eating habits, dining regularly on McDonald's hamburgers and buckets of KFC fried chicken on his private jet. By his own public accounting of his medical health, Trump is just five pounds shy of being considered obese under the body mass index. 'I work out on occasion ... as little as possible,' Trump said at a 1997 news conference during which he mocked the weight of reporters." CW: This is a straight news story. The reporters cite, among others, GOP strategist Tim Miller: "He's a middle schooler who is filled with insecurities and insults people to try to deal with his insecurities." ...
... Nicholas Kristof: "Something about Trump is paradigmatic of the most atrocious kind of seventh-grade boy: The boasts about not doing homework, the habit of blaming others when things go wrong, the penchant for exaggerating everything into the best ever, the braggadocio to mask insecurity about size of hands or genitals, the biting put-downs of others, the laziness, the self-absorption, the narcissism, the lack of empathy -- and the immaturity that reduces a woman to her breasts.... Middle school is the wrenching, jungle stage of life that we all must struggle through. Why would we subject ourselves to a 'leader' who is permanently in the seventh grade?" -- CW ...
... The Ages of Trump." Jonathan Chait: During the debate, "Trump displayed the factual command of a small child, the emotional stability of a hormonal teen, and the stamina of an old man, staggering and losing the thread as the 90 minutes wore on.... Trump, according to the people trying to help him win, is unable to pick good staff, manage his time, follow advice, or even accept the connection between preparing for an event and succeeding at it.... Republicans ... have treated their candidate's glaring unsuitability for high office as, at worst, a handful of discrete errors that in no way reflect on his character, and at best, the dastardly unfairness of the liberal media...." -- CW
Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly noticed the tack planned by Trump's debate staff (who spoke to the New York Times -- story by Patrick Healy & others linked in yesterday's Commentariat) to prep the candidate for the next debate. "... there is no discussion about how to work Mr. Trump's policies or priorities.... It is all about a 'disciplined, strategic attack' to damage Clinton....
... CW: I think the Trump staff has a pretty good strategy. They know by now there's no way Trump -- who speaks mostly to himself -- is going to learn anything about policy or current facts on the ground. There is a slight possibility, however, that, as a person most interested in his own performance, he can kinda learn how to seamlessly attacks on Clinton into the debate: Martha Raddatz: "Mr. Trump, I'm unclear on your nuclear strategy...." Trump (interrupting the girl reporter): "Hillary Clinton trashed Gennifer Flowers." ...
... Louis Nelson of Politico: Donald Trump's "campaign emailed out a 30-question 'debate preparation survey' to supporters on Wednesday, asking them which issues they thought were Trump's strongest on Monday night and on which issues he should focus on in the next debate. It also asks supporters if Trump should raise an array of issues, nearly all of them relating to one Clinton scandal or another." -- CW ...
... Ed Kilgore: "... the survey appears to represent an indirect apology for Trump's failure to cover the anti-Clinton landscape the first time around, along with a permission slip for him to go medieval on his opponent at the next opportunity. Another possible motive could be to set up expectations for what future moderators ought to be asking the candidates about, so that anything other than an inquisition of Hillary Clinton can be described as biased." -- CW
The Best People. Pema Levy of Mother Jones: "While campaigning for president, Donald Trump often boasts that he hires the 'best people.' But in 2007, he bragged that he hired a woman with no experience because she was hot. His comments came in a speech for the Learning Annex, an adult education firm that reportedly paid Trump $1.5 million per appearance. During the question-and-answer portion of the event, held in San Francisco, a woman in the audience asked Trump, 'How many jets do you have and how might I apply to be a flight attendant?' Trump immediately had the woman brought onstage, where he checked her out, wrapped his arm around her, and and then declared, 'You're hired.' Then Trump launched into an anecdote about a time he hired a woman based solely on her looks." Levy transcribes Trump's remarks. Also includes video. -- CW ...
... Trump Likes 'Em Hot, Ctd. Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times: When Donald Trump visited "the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes..., the club's managers ... scheduled the young, thin, pretty women on staff to work the clubhouse restaurant -- because when Trump saw less-attractive women working at his club, according to court records, he wanted them fired. 'I had witnessed Donald Trump tell managers many times while he was visiting the club that restaurant hostesses were "not pretty enough" and that they should be fired and replaced with more attractive women,' Hayley Strozier, who was director of catering at the club until 2008, said in a sworn declaration.... A similar story is told by former Trump employees in court documents filed in 2012 in a broad labor relations lawsuit brought against one of Trump's development companies in Los Angeles County Superior Court." -- CW ...
... Then there was the time Trump criticized celebrity Kim Kardashian for being too "large" when she was pregnant. -- CW
Michael Diehl in a Washington Post op-ed: "I was thrilled to get a $100,000 contract from Trump [in 1989]. It was one of the biggest sales I’d ever made. I was supposed to deliver and tune the pianos; the Trump corporation would pay me within 90 days.... But when I requested payment, the Trump corporation hemmed and hawed.... After a couple of months, I got a letter telling me that the casino was short on funds. They would pay 70 percent of what they owed me. There was no negotiating.... Today, when I hear Trump brag about paying small business owners less than he agreed, I get angry. He's always suggesting that the people who worked for him didn't do the right job, didn't complete their work on time, that something was wrong. But I delivered quality pianos, tuned and ready to go. I did everything right. And then Trump cheated me." -- CW ...
... Daniel Denvir of Salon: "Trump appears, however, to have won a huge amount of support from small business owners and is likely confident that Clinton's attacks won't stick. Seeing is believing, and what many Americans see is a man who both literally and figuratively turns what he touches to gold.... Small business owners might also identify with Trump's braggadocio. After all, they are constantly lauded by every last politician as the moral and economic apex of American capitalism.... The Great Recession put a major squeeze on demand and financing and may have made small business owners receptive to the very economic nationalism that has frightened corporate titans.... At times of economic crisis, small business owners have a reputation for moving far right." -- CW
Hey, Trump supporters say whites & men have "too little influence" in this country, according to a new ABC News-Washington Post poll.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Now He's an "Independent Journalist," Ha Ha Ha. Hadas Gold of Politico: "Former Donald Trump campaign manager and now CNN contributor Corey Lewandowski is no longer receiving monthly severance payments from the campaign. Instead, the campaign paid off the remainder of his contract in one lump sum, said a CNN executive with knowledge of the situation. CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota made the announcement on Thursday morning." -- CW
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "As if local newspapers did not have enough problems, with plummeting circulation and shrinking staffs, some recent endorsements of Hillary Clinton by [conservative] editorial boards look like more self-inflicted wounds.... Although research shows that most voters say a newspaper editorial had no influence on their vote, two recent studies suggest that there's one exception to that rule: when the endorsements are unexpected. Surprise editorials are the ones that count, as long as they make sense, given the paper's usual tone." -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Trial of Alabama Chief Justice, Bible Bigot Roy Moore, off to a Roaring Start. Kent Faulk of Al.com. "The trial of suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore began [Wednesday] morning before the Court of the Judiciary in Montgomery. The trial pits Moore and his anti-gay marriage stance versus the rule of law. Did a Jan. 6 administrative order by Moore encourage Alabama probate judges to ignore or defy federal and U.S. Supreme Court orders declaring same-sex marriage legal? Or was Moore simply giving a status update or advice to those judges regarding orders by the Alabama Supreme Court banning same-sex marriage licensing prior to U.S. Supreme Court's ruling making it legal nationwide...?" Akhilleus: Al.com is doing live updates all day on the trial. Supporters for both sides in attendance but Moore supporters seem particularly exercised. Bigotry never rests. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Here They Go Again. Eliott McLaughlin, et al., of CNN. "Activists dismayed by the police killing of an unarmed, possibly mentally ill black man in El Cajon, California, demanded Wednesday that authorities release video of the shooting and that federal authorities probe into the man's death. As of mid-day Wednesday, police had released little information about the incident, aside from a still photograph showing the African-American man, in what authorities describe as a 'shooting stance,' facing off with two officers in a parking lot. Police have not released the man's name. No gun was found. The Rev. Shane Harris, president of the San Diego chapter of the National Action Network, called releasing the photo 'cowardly.' Harris ... said he had spoken to the dead man's family." Akhilleus: I suppose this is the sort of person Trump is demanding we take the guns away from. A black man who actually has no guns. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
James McAuley & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "So far, Donald Trump's plan to build a wall along the Mexican border is all talk. Last week, France and Britain actually began building one along theirs. Construction started [in Calais, France,] on a roughly mile-long concrete barrier intended to separate a sprawling migrant camp from the tunnels that offer passage to Britain, the latest attempt in what has become a global effort to throw physical barriers in the way of historic streams of human migration.... Britain has contributed most of the money for the project...." -- CW ...
... Liz Sly & Louisa Loveluck of the Washington Post: Life -- and death -- in war-torn Aleppo is hell. -- CW
News Lede
New York Times: "A commuter train crashed into one of the busiest train stations in the New York area during the morning rush on Thursday, killing at least one person, injuring more than 100 others and creating a scene of chaos and destruction, the authorities and witnesses said. The crash occurred around 8:45 a.m., when a commuter train traveling at a high rate of speed barreled through the barriers meant to stop it and finally stopped against a wall of the Hoboken Terminal building,officials said." -- CW
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Reader Comments (11)
How hard is it to name a world leader.
Name 5.
Oh, OK, then can you name 3?
Uhhhhh?
Maybe one?
Nope!
On becoming POTUS, obviously we need to set up higher standards. Perhaps a three-day testing period to qualify. Comprehensive reading skills, 800-word essay, and a five-minute oral dissertation. Libertarian Gary Johnson is no more qualified than Trump! “I guess I’m having an: "Aleppo moment" ... in the former president of Mexico,” Johnson said.:.
Donaldo wanted "only the pretty ones."
Trump...pressured subordinates at one of his businesses to create and enforce a culture of beauty, where female employees’ appearances were prized over their skills.
When Trump did visit, the club’s managers went on alert. They scheduled the young, thin, pretty women on staff to work the clubhouse restaurant — because when Trump saw less-attractive women working at his club, according to court records, he wanted them fired.
"I had witnessed Donald Trump tell managers many times while he was visiting the club that restaurant hostesses were 'not pretty enough' and that they should be fired and replaced with more attractive women,” Hayley Strozier, who was director of catering at the club until 2008, said in a sworn declaration.
Initially, Trump gave this command “almost every time” he visited, Strozier said. Managers eventually changed employee schedules “so that the most attractive women were scheduled to work when Mr. Trump was scheduled to be at the club," she said.
The bulk of the lawsuit was settled in 2013, when golf course management, without admitting any wrongdoing, agreed to pay $475,000 to employees who had complained about break policies. An employee’s claim that she was fired after complaining about the company’s treatment of women was settled separately; its terms remain confidential.
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-pol-trump-women/#nt=oft12aH-1la1
Trump, Language, and Violence
Monmouth University has published a poll cataloguing the stunning rise in not just harsh but violent language in this year's presidential election. The results point to two observations. First, Trump supporters overwhelmingly believe the harshest language is absolutely necessary in describing those who refuse to goosestep along with them. Second, according to them, they are not the ones using such harsh language. As Phillip Bump in the Washington Post puts it:
"Trump backers think that harsh language is justified, given the state of the country. But they, who are more angry about the government (and 89 percent of whom disapprove of the job President Obama is doing), don't see themselves as using that harsh language more often. Nearly a quarter of them, in fact, think that Clinton backers use harsh language more than they do. Presumably because those Clinton supporters are angry -- justifiably -- at the state of politics in America?
A less charitable interpretation might be that Trump supporters first tried to rationalize the use of harsh language they see from their candidate, but when then pressed to put blame for it on one side or the other, were more likely to put that blame on their opponents."
And as a case in point, I give you the experience of the Arizona Republic, a redstate newspaper that has supported Republican candidates since it came into existence, with no exception. Until this year. This year they have decided to endorse Hillary Clinton because, well, because Trump.
The result? Harassing phone calls and at least one death threat.
But it's Democrats and Clinton supporters who are the really bad actors out there.
Donald Trump has repeatedly used hate fueled and violent language, threats to physically harm anyone protesting his message of ignorance and riling up already unstable supporters to inflict bodily harm on anyone they felt deserved it, in his name, of course, so violence and hate speech have been essential to the Trump candidacy. And now death threats because a newspaper endorsed someone else.
Donaldo must be beaming "See? They love me. They're ready to kill for me. It's tremendous!"
Several outlets (Politico, Washington Post, CBS news are reporting Trump's new catch phrase to discredit Clinton, "Follow the money". Good idea, lets start with Trump's $ schemes in Cuba, Russia, China and move into how how he uses his foundation to pay his bills and buy pictures of himself. Trump's projection of his monumental deficits continue to be front and center.
MAG,
"The former president of Mexico...yeah, that's the guy. I know him. I think."
Gee whiz Gary, thanks for clearing that up. The only foreign leader you can come up with is old whatsisname. "I never remember a face, but I always forget a name", is that it? And this is after being caught flat-footed on the Aleppo question (has he found out yet what Aleppo is, do you think?). You'd think the guy might bone up a little. But that's the point. Like Trump, if at this point in the game you don't know the basics, like being able to name a couple of foreign leaders you admire, it's way past your bedtime.
In fact, even a dithering blockhead like The Decider did better than that in a pop quiz, although not much better, when confronted by a Boston TV reporter during the 2000 election and asked to name the leaders in four hot spots around the world. Deserter Boy got partial credit by knowing only one out of the four when he answered "Lee" referring perhaps to Taiwanese president, Lee Teng-hui.
So-called millennials and other "undecideds" (how can you be undecided between qualified, smart, and experienced, and self-absorbed, ignorant, and incompetent? I really don't get it) should take a closer look at Gary (Don't Bogart that Joint) Johnson.
Eric Zorn, in the Chicago Tribune, lists exactly what Johnson stands for and issues which leave him cold.
For: Citizens United, turning K-12 education, across the country, into a profit center for corporations, a 28% federal consumption tax which would hurt low and middle income Americans far more than the rich, a balanced budget the very first year, meaning draconian cuts in a multitude of programs, raising Social Security age to 72 and making it means tested.
Against: gun control, health care for all Americans, all corporate regulations (the market will take care of everything), doing anything about climate change which may or may not exist, abolishing the minimum wage, net neutrality, and finally, questions about Aleppo or world leaders.
As Harold Meyerson warns, you vote for Gary Johnson, you're helping to elect Trump.
And according to some polls, 20% of younger voters are set to do exactly that.
Ahh...youth. The flower of our future.
Trump is obviously adopted Stone's swiftboating technique. I know nothing about campaign strategy, but I think it would be a good move for Clinton to be preemptive.
She might identify Trump's current pathway as swiftboating by name, explain it briefly; constant repetition of salacious or outrageous allegations with no evidence, until it seems real. Connect Roger Stone, a close ally of Trump, as the originator and point to its use to attempt to discredit a decorated Vietnam vet (Kerry 2004).
Secondly, I think she could also preempt the Bill affairs, buy speaking about her difficulty and pain getting through it. Of course she was mad initially, who wouldn't be. But they chose the higher path of working to maintain their marriage. Hard work, strength, trust building and faith got them through. Its could be an easy nexus for her to draw for people about love and forgiveness. The contrast with Trump would be obvious and powerful. I think many people would be open to her. It would be an instance of complete honesty about a very painful part of her life without being attacked in a debate.
Clearly Trump supporters don't care and nothing should be aimed at them at this point. Solidify and/or grow the numbers of women and maybe some of those who have realized Johnson is basically a stoner whose memory is shot.
@Ak: Just got off the phone with my brother in Pennsylvania, his blood pressure rose so quickly we had to stop talking about Trump. He's totally frustrated with the people in his area sporting huge Trump signs on their lawns...and especially some of his retired buddies (union guys) who plan to vote for Trump. He said, they aren't listening. Mentioned Penn State announced a one-credit course on Trump! Had to look it up.
Recently announced: Penn State University is currently offering a "one-credit Trump" ...course on the Republican candidate.
“Why is this man able to run a campaign that is so completely different and so unorthodox and yet resonate so strongly with tens of millions of people?” asked Dr. Christopher Beem, the managing director of the McCourtney Institute.
Yeh! Why?
Back on August 24th, Penn State College Republicans discuss club's decision not to endorse Donald Trump : "won't back Trump"
but, wait for it....
We Are for Trump holds first meeting of semester The meeting opened with Trump-themed songs, the Pledge of Allegiance and a video entitled “Unstoppable Donald Trump.”: "or as Bush might say"
"...what is our students learning?"
The Corps of Ignorance
Last night I watched, again, the wonderful Ken Burns-Dayton Duncan film on the Lewis and Clark expedition. I caught it at around the point where the Corps of Discovery reaches the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River. It's November, winter is closing in and the captains, trying to decide what to do next, throw open the question of where they will winter to the entire corps. It was not an inconsequential question, it concerned them all and Lewis and Clark believed that all should have a say. In a moving, emotional description of that day, Dayton Duncan relates that everyone was given a vote, including York, a black man, and Sacagawea, a Shoshone woman. It was, he said, the best of what America could be, true democracy.
Today we are faced with an entire political party which puts forward a bigot and lying demagogue for president, a party that actively strives to curtail the franchise, to limit democracy as much as possible, to restrict voting to only those who will vote their way. It is the polar opposite of what happened at the mouth of the Columbia River 211 years ago, in a place that wasn't yet, but would become America.
Confederates and their would be strongman wish to continue dragging us all toward the worst of America. The Corps of Discovery in reverse, the Corps of Ignorance.
I've thought for years that this country could benefit from a third political party, but looking at what has surfaced in the past decade or so I'm starting to wonder. The two minor party candidates this cycle make Ron Paul seem almost presidential.
The bar keep getting lower and lower.
The lies never stop. Donaldo, talking to BFF Loofah Boy O'Reilly, no stranger to whoppers himself (notice that Trump never ventures past Hannity or O'Reilly when he wants to sling the shit), describes the part of the debate during which he virtually admits to paying no taxes.
But here's how he describes it to LB. He says that Clinton suggested that maybe he didn't pay taxes to which Trump claims to have replied "Well, that would make me smart" as if it's pure conjecture, and that were it the case that he hadn't paid taxes, one might consider him smart.
But that's not what he said. What he said, in front of a 100 million Americans, most of whom DO pay taxes, is "That makes me smart". There is no "would" in sight. "That makes me smart" is a declarative sentence, not conditional.
He must really think we're all so stupid that he can reverse something he clearly said live on national TV.
And, of course, Loofah Boy is never going to challenge an assertion by the Small Fingered Liar.
"He must really think we're all so stupid that he can reverse something he clearly said live on national TV." (AK)
Sorta looks like it! His "all so stupid"s have proven that to be the case. Normally, he would have been left in the wings long ago, but we are not experiencing "normal" times and after this show of shows this country better go through a tough lookie-see and reevaluate what the Democratic party's real messages are and how they have failed a large swath of the populace. As far as the Republican Party, they will need even more of an analysis––and good luck with that!