;)
The Commentariat -- Sept. 9, 2016
Afternoon Update:
NYT, Republicans Can't Control Themselves. Adam Goldman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A computer specialist who deleted Hillary Clinton's emails despite orders from Congress to preserve them was given immunity by the Justice Department during its investigation into her personal email account.... Republicans have called for the department to investigate the deletions, but the immunity deal with the specialist, Paul Combetta, makes it unlikely that the request will go far.... 'As the F.B.I.'s report notes, [Clinton campaign spokesman Brian] Fallon said, 'neither Hillary Clinton nor her attorneys had knowledge of the Platte River Network employee's actions. It appears he acted on his own and against guidance given by both Clinton's and Platte River's attorneys to retain all data in compliance with a congressional preservation request.'" -- CW
Upside-Down World. In case you were viewing Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway as "the sane one," Greg Sargent details how this morning Conway turned a remark by Trump -- "I guess so." -- when asked in 2002 if he favored the Iraq War -- into meaning he was against it. She went on to complain that, "Senator Obama said he would have done that [-- voted against authorization of the war --] in 2008, and everybody just took him at his word. As Sargent points out, & as Conway certainly knew, "Obama did give a big speech in 2002 against the war just before the Senate vote giving George W. Bush authority to invade.... It has been widely discussed for years as one of the reasons he went on to defeat Clinton in the 2008 primaries (which Conway referenced).... So we aren't taking Obama's opposition to the war at the time 'at his word.' There is a record of it." -- CW ...
... Conway: "We on the Trump Campaign Have No Fucking Idea What We're Doing." (paraphrase) Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Donald Trump's campaign manager on Friday denied that [Trump] ... willingly appeared on a Russian government-sponsored television network. 'As you know, former CNN superstar Larry King has a podcast and Mr. Trump went on his podcast. Nobody said it was going to be on Russian TV,' Kellyanne Conway said on CNN's 'New Day.'" -- CW
Tim Hains of Real Clear Politics (Sept. 7): "Former President Bill Clinton ... says that Donald Trump's promise to 'Make America Great Again' is a racist codeword. "If you're a white southerner, you know exactly what it means,' Clinton said." -- CW
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Friday refused to allow Michigan to ban voters from casting straight-ticket ballots in the coming election after lower courts found the prohibition was likely to discriminate against African Americans and result in long lines at the polls.... Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they would have granted the state's request." -- CW
Rachel Stassen-Berger of the Pioneer Press: "Minnesota Democrats have sued to get ... Donald Trump's name removed from the state's general election ballots. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's Thursday lawsuit claims the Minnesota Republican Party failed to nominate its presidential electors ... in accordance with state law. Keith Downey, the chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, said last month that the party called a special meeting to approve alternative electors because it had previously neglected to do so. -- CW
AP: "A judge is ordering the state of Utah not to stop funding its Planned Parenthood branch over advocacy for legal abortion or unproven allegations against the national organization. The move comes after an appeals court decided a defunding order from Utah Gov. Gary Herbert was likely an unconstitutional political move designed to punish the group because it provides abortions. The prohibition signed Sunday by U.S. District Judge Dee Benson in Salt Lake City will be in effect as a court battle over the governor's order plays out." -- CW: Benson, who now has senior status, was a Bush I appointee.
*****
Presidential Race
Jose DelReal, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Thursday, the full force of the Democratic Party, including President Obama, rallied around Hillary Clinton, saying that rival Donald Trump is unfit for office. On the Republican side, there was no such unity as lawmakers struggled with how to respond to the GOP nominee's claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a stronger leader than Obama." -- CW
Paul Krugman: Donald Trump employs a "big liar" technique. "The lies are constant, coming in a steady torrent, and are never acknowledged, simply repeated. He evidently believes that this strategy will keep the news media flummoxed, unable to believe, or at least say openly, that the candidate of a major party lies that much.... Over all, [Hillary Clinton's] record on truthfulness, as compiled by PolitiFact, looks pretty good for a politician -- much better than that of any of the contenders for the Republican nomination, and for that matter much better than that of Mitt Romney in the last presidential election.... Oh, and it barely got covered in the media, but her claim that Colin Powell advised her to set up a private email account was ... completely true, validated by an email that Mr. Powell sent three days after she took office, which contradicts some of his own claims." ...
... CW: Not to beat a dead horse, but in light of the actual truth, Powell's petulant response to Hillary Clinton's claim he had advised her on e-mail practices is classic bull and hugely defamatory, especially given the media's propensity to assume Clinton lies and Powell is a gentleman above reproach, except maybe in his infamous performance before the U.N:
Her people have been trying to pin it on me. The truth is, she was using [the private email server] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did.... Why do you think [she said I advised her]? It doesn't bother me. But it's okay; I'm free. -- Colin Powell, to People magazine, August 2016
...NEW. BTW, if you think Powell apologized to Clinton for that comment once he'd been caught in a misstatement that impugned her character and implied she lied to DOJ investigators, think again. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Colin Powell is defending his use of a personal email account during his time as secretary of state, as Democrats stepped up complaints that the intense focus on Hillary Clinton's email practices reflects a double standard.... 'I have tremendous respect for Secretary Powell and his decades of service to our nation, despite the poor judgment shown in this email,' said [Rep. Elijah] Cummings [D-Md.], who secured the Clinton-Powell exchange from State this week and released it Wednesday night. 'I think everyone in this room knows what is really going on here: this hearing is not about an effort to improve FOIA [the Freeom of Information Act] or federal recordkeeping. This is an attack -- an attack on Hillary Clinton's candidacy ... and just the latest in a series of attacks,' Cummings said. 'Secretary Clinton has produced some 55,000 pages of emails while Secretary Powell has produced none.'" -- CW
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Brian Stelter of CNN: "NBC News knows the 'Commander-in-Chief Forum' was not Matt Lauer's finest hour. One executive, speaking anonymously, was blunt about it: 'Disaster.'... By mid-morning on Thursday, the hashtag 'Lauering the Bar' ... was trending on Twitter." -- CW ...
... ** James Poniewozik of the New York Times: "Seemingly unprepared on military and foreign policy specifics, [host Matt Lauer] performed like a soldier sent on a mission without ammunition.... Roughly a third of his questioning [of Hillary Clinton] dealt with the emails.... It suggested, as the rest of the forum confirmed, that Mr. Lauer was steadiest handling issues familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of the morning politics headlines.... [Lauer's] interview [of Donald Trump] was the apotheosis of this presidential campaign's forced marriage of entertainment and news. The host of NBC's morning show interviewed the former star of its reality show 'The Apprentice,' and the whole thing played out as farce." CW: Do read the whole critique. It's a hoot, and it's true. ...
... Charles Pierce: "I was exhausted by the sheer magnitude of the mendacity and ignorance, by Lauer's somewhat understandable inability to check the deluge of lies and inanity, and by the postgame commentary that tried to explain why the event had been something more than a clinical manifestation of sociopathic megalomania. Then Brian Williams threw it over to his colleague Hugh Hewitt, who thought Donald Trump had had a great night.... We're all so fcking doomed." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Frank Rich: "... the problem here wasn't just that Clinton was grilled and Trump was not. There was a rudeness to Clinton on [Matt] Lauer's part reminiscent of Rick Lazio's paper-waving performance in his debate with Clinton during the 2000 Senate race in New York. Repeatedly, Lauer nagged Clinton to speed up and keep her answers short -- a demand he never made of Trump.... [Lauer's] incompetence and double standard have handed Trump a big post Labor Day gift just as the polls are tightening." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... New York Times Editors: "If the moderators of the coming debates do not figure out a better way to get the candidates to speak accurately about their records and policies -- especially Mr. Trump, who seems to feel he can skate by unchallenged with his own version of reality while Mrs. Clinton is grilled and entangled in the fine points of domestic and foreign policy -- then they will have done the country a grave disservice." ...
... CW: One possible positive outcome of Lauer's predictably idiotic performance is that the presidential debate moderators -- even Fox "News"'s Chris Wallace -- may decide they should do their jobs lest they be subjected to the trouncing Lauer has gotten. Then again, the teevee journos may be incapable of asking probing questions, following up & calling out bull. ...
Gabrielle Levy of US News: "Hillary Clinton held her first formal press conference in months Thursday morning, taking questions on the tarmac of the White Plains, New York, airport.... Clinton announced she would be meeting to discuss her plan to defeat the Islamic State group on Friday with a bipartisan group of former generals and national security officials.... Clinton ... said Trump's answers proved once again he was 'temperamentally unfit' and 'totally unqualified' to be commander-in-chief, and slammed him for insulting the military by saying U.S. generals had been 'reduced to rubble.'... And while Clinton has faced relentless questions about her handling of sensitive information, it was Trump, she said, who crossed a line in commenting Wednesday night on the nature of the classified briefings he is receiving.... Trump said he could tell from his briefers' 'body language' that they were unhappy with Obama's leadership..., a statement Clinton said was 'totally inappropriate and undisciplined.' 'I would never comment on any aspect of an intelligence briefing that I received,' she said." -- CW ...
... Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "But as a candidate for president in 2008, Clinton herself commented on a secret briefing, citing it twice in her criticism of the George W. Bush administration. In a Feb. 25 speech..., she said she had pushed the administration to provide information about their Iraq withdrawal plans.... 'We finally were able to secure a briefing which although classified, I can tell you was cursory. It did not inspire confidence in our readiness to do this important task of withdrawing our troops and equipment.'" She made a similar comment on "Meet the Press." "'There's a difference between a security briefing done by intel community, and an Iraq policy briefing by Bush's DoD,' [Clinton] press secretary Brian Fallon tweeted. 'Members of Congress routinely exit policy briefings held by admin officials & express general dissatisfaction w/policy choices being made.'" -- CW
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton suggested in a television interview in Israel, broadcast on Thursday, that the Islamic State is 'rooting for Donald Trump's victory' and that terrorists are praying, 'Please, Allah, make Trump president of America.' Speaking with Israel's Channel 2, Mrs. Clinton said that by singling out Muslims during his campaign, Mr. Trump had played into the hands of extremists and helped their recruitment efforts, in effect 'giving aid and comfort to their evil ambitions.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Washington Post Editors: "The Hillary Clinton email story is out of control. Judging by BY the amount of time NBC's Matt Lauer spent pressing Hillary Clinton on her emails during Wednesday's national security presidential forum, one would think that her homebrew server was one of the most important issues facing the country this election. It is not.... Imagine how history would judge today's Americans if, looking back at this election, the record showed that voters empowered a dangerous man because of ... a minor email scandal. There is no equivalence between Ms. Clinton's wrongs and Mr. Trump's manifest unfitness for office." -- CW
** Jonathan Chait: "The harrowing reality is that the only thing standing between handing control of the Executive branch to a wildly ignorant, racist demagogue with a fondness for the authoritarian world is the second-most-unpopular presidential nominee in the history of modern polling. (The most-unpopular candidate is Donald Trump, though the gap between the two is narrowing.) That Clinton is viewed as the near-equivalent of Trump, a grotesque buffoon who has committed what would normally be considered a campaign-defining gaffe at a rate of approximately once a day for 15 months, required the convergence of several factors." Read on. -- CW
... Ed Pilkington of the Guardian & Andrea Bernstein of WNYC in the Guardian: "Of all the varied chapters of Clinton's tumultuous 30 years in public life, the story of her response to the attacks on the twin towers is one of the richest in terms of the clues it provides as to what to expect from a Clinton presidency. It reveals elements of her character, of her domestic policy strengths, as well as her tendency to lean towards the hawkish side in international affairs." -- CW
... This is all way too serious. Let's hear what the crazy people are saying today. ...
Alex Griswold of Mediaite: "The latest anti-Hillary Clinton conspiracy is that the Democratic presidential candidate was wearing a hidden earpiece to feed her answers during an NBC forum Thursday night. The conspiracy was apparently started by a tweet from actor James Wood that purported to show a device in Clinton's ear.... That apparently was enough for The Drudge Report to run with, linking to a story from notorious conspiracy site InfoWars.com. The Alex Jones-run site cited as evidence the Woods tweet and an unsourced story on a blog called TruePundit claiming Clinton's earpiece was 'invisible.'... Conveniently, if the earpiece was 'invisible,' the allegation cannot be rebutted by sharing images showing that Clinton was very obviously not wearing an earpiece." CW: I didn't watch the show, but I thought Clinton was getting radio signals through her teeth.
Sorry, but the invisible earpiece is no longer the latest conspiracy theory: Andrew Stiles of Heat Street: "Hillary Clinton, 68, finally held a press conference on Thursday.... Notice anything? Clinton wore a pantsuit and a necklace that, upon further analytical examination, appears to resemble a 'Life Alert' style device for the elderly." ...
... CW: For anyone of any age who lives alone, a Life Alert or similar device is a good idea. I'm planning to get one myself soon. But Clinton does not live alone. Ever. She has 24-hour security personnel wherever she goes, and she is surrounded by other people during most of the day. If she's "fallen and can't get up," those people will help her. Besides, she can afford an "invisible" Life Alert like the earpiece. But thanks for the "analytical examination," Andrew.
This Is Astounding. Jose DelReal: "Donald Trump criticized U.S. foreign policy and the American political press corps Thursday during an interview on RT America, a state-owned Russian television network.... Asked during the RT America interview [by Larry King] what has surprised him most about the political process, Trump unloaded on the American press. 'Well, I think the dishonesty of the media. The media has been unbelievably dishonest,' Trump responded. 'I mean they'll take a statement that you make which is perfect and they'll cut it up and chop it up and shorten it or lengthen it or do something with it.' When King asked Trump if he believed reports that Russian hackers may have targeted Democratic Party databases..., Trump said..., 'I think it's probably unlikely. I think maybe the Democrats are putting that out....'... King also asked Trump about Russian President Vladimir Putin's assertion that the hack was a 'public service,' even as he claimed the Russian government was not involved. 'I don't have any opinion on it. I don't know anything about it.'" -- CW ...
... Jonathan Martin & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's campaign on Thursday reaffirmed its extraordinary embrace of Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, signaling a preference for the leadership of an authoritarian adversary over that of America's own president, despite a cascade of criticism from Democrats and expressions of discomfort among Republicans.... Democrats and even some Republicans said the fury would have been unceasing on the right had a Democratic presidential candidate held up the leader of a hostile power to deride a Republican president.... Hillary Clinton excoriated Mr. Trump for asserting that Mr. Putin is a better leader than President Obama, saying it was 'not just unpatriotic and insulting to the people of our country, as well as to our commander in chief, it is scary.'... It is all rather confounding -- unless Mr. Trump is simply eyeing postelection business interests...." -- CW ...
... The Onion Media Matters: Appearing on Russian-backed teevee, Donald Trump applauds Chris Wallace's promise not to fact-check him. -- CW
By Driftglass.Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star: "Over the course of 13 minutes of a Thursday speech at a Cleveland school, Trump offered nine explanations and justifications for his position on the war in 2002 and 2003. Most of them were false, contradictory or both. Even by the standards of presidential-campaign spin, this was a highly abnormal level of dishonesty, especially for a scripted speech." -- CW
** William Saletan of Slate: "Wednesday night's 'Commander-in-Chief Forum' ... was a debacle.... But Trump still managed, through boastful indifference, to reveal the most important thing about his presidency: He would make the United States an authoritarian country." CW: Read on, because Saletan compiles quite a case against Trump, based only on this one brief interview.
Jennifer Steinhauer & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Speaking at a candidates' forum, Mr. Trump defended one of his Twitter posts from 2013..., and said that he had been 'absolutely correct' in posting a message that said, 'What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?'... Lawmakers and military experts ... said Mr. Trump had displayed ignorance of the Pentagon's decades-long struggle to curb such assaults and the military justice system that is in place to prosecute them. 'That's more than victim blaming, and it misunderstands the historical role of women in the military,' said retired Col. Don Christensen, a former chief prosecutor of the Air Force.... Mr. Trump's proposed solution of creating a military justice system to deal with sexual assault also puzzled national security experts. A military justice system has been in place in some form since the 1774 British Articles of War." -- CW
Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "As U.S. officials cast doubt on Donald Trump's claim he read the 'body language' of intelligence officials at a recent briefing, NBC News has learned exclusive details of ... reported tension between one of Trump's advisers ... retired Gen. Michael Flynn ... and the briefers.... Current and former U.S. intelligence officials ... told NBC News that many members of the current intelligence community -- leadership rank and file -- were angered by Trump's comments Wednesday night, and the possibility that he may have disclosed details of his intelligence briefing or attempted to politicize it.... 'A political candidate has used professional intelligence officers briefing him in a totally non-political setting as props to buttress an argument for his political campaign,' said [former CIA & NSA Director Gen. Michael] Hayden.... 'The"I can read body language" line was quite remarkable.... I am confident Director Clapper sent senior professionals to this meeting and so I am equally confident that no such body language ever existed.'... Michael Morell, a former acting CIA director who was President George W. Bush's briefer and is now a Hillary Clinton supporter, said..., 'This is the first time that I can remember a candidate for president doing a readout from an intelligence briefing, and it's the first time a candidate has politicized their intelligence briefing. Both of those are highly inappropriate and crossed a long standing red line respected by both parties.'..." -- CW ...
... Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "Did U.S. intelligence analysts betray disdain for President Obama and Hillary Clinton during recent classified briefings with Donald Trump, as the GOP candidate claimed Wednesday? Doing so would represent an almost inconceivable violation of training and tradition, former U.S. intelligence officials said.... Among U.S. intelligence officials, Trump's claim amounts to an accusation of a serious breach of professional ethics.... Their roles require spy services to steer clear of seeking to influence policy. Analysts trained to remain impartial are particularly allergic to domestic politics.... 'This is unprecedented,' said David Priess, a former CIA officer who delivered daily briefings to senior members of the George W. Bush administration." ...
... CW: It's worth noting that Trump made the body-language remark in answer to a question by Matt Lauer: "Did you learn anything in that briefing -- again, not going into specifics -- that makes you reconsider some of the things you say you can accomplish, like defeating ISIS quickly?" So all it takes is a question from a fake journalist to get Trump to breach national security protocols. Trump's remark shows, on several levels, what an unfit blowhard he is. (1) It's a lie perpetrated for political gain; (2) it's a violation of the ground rules for the briefings; (3) he's such a blabbermouth obviously he's a yuuuge national security risk; (4) it's an insult to career officials; (5) he thinks he discerns "body language" that is a figment of his imagination; (6) thus, he would base policy decisions of "feelings" or imaginary "senses" he had of what was really going on; and (7) he doesn't have the "judgment" he claims is his main qualification to be POTUS. But at least the comment answered a question I asked a short while ago: "How long will it take Trump to spill the beans on his intel briefings?" (paraphrase) Answer: about a week.
Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Despite what you may learn watching 'The Apprentice,' you can't just fire your way to success. Still, Trump seems to think there is no problem that can't be solved through layoffs." On Wednesday, Trump said he would fire the generals who served under President Obama. "Just a few weeks earlier, Trump suggested he might soon be cleaning house in the country's intelligence agencies, too.... As president, he would also cleanse the entire executive branch of career civil servants appointed during President Obama's tenure. 'As you know from his other career, Donald likes to fire people,' Trump adviser and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said..., which would require changing federal civil service law.... At least Trump practices what he preaches. Within his own campaign, he fired and replaced two campaign managers over two months.... As proof of Trump's claim that he hires only 'the best people,' the latest all-star lineup includes an accused sexual predator and the man who presided over the leading forum of the racist alt-right." -- CW
So Ronald Reagan is going to go into negotiations with Putin from a position of strength. -- Rudy Giuliani, Thursday, confusing Reagan with Trump, in a Chris Matthews interview in which Giuliani ticked off a bunch of evidence that Hillary Clinton had health issues, including mental health issues
Where's Melania? Mary Jordan & Stephanie McCrummen of the Washington Post: "Melania Trump ... has not spoken publicly [since the Republican convention] and has largely vanished from view, leaving a trail of questions and voids in her personal biography. Her long silence followed the fiasco over her convention speech, parts of which turned out to have been plagiarized.... Then she took her website down after revelations that there was no record she had obtained a college degree, as her site had claimed.... [Despite evidence to the contrary,] Donald Trump has said his wife is 'so documented.'... Even as the campaign declines to fill in details of her life story, Melania Trump has deployed an attorney to beat back news reports probing her past. Last week, the former fashion model filed a libel suit against a blogger and a British newspaper for reports, since retracted, suggesting that she once worked as an escort.... Recently, Melania Trump's absence has become conspicuous enough to spawn such Twitter hashtags as #WhereisMelania and #FreeMelania...." -- CW
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor and Libertarian Party presidential nominee, revealed a surprising lack of foreign policy knowledge on Thursday that could rock his insurgent candidacy when he could not answer a basic question about the crisis in Aleppo, Syria. 'What is Aleppo?' Mr. Johnson said when asked on MSNBC how, as president, he would address the refugee crisis in the war-torn Syrian city. When pressed as to whether he was serious, Mr. Johnson indicated that he really was not aware of the city, which has been widely covered during the years that Syria has been engulfed in civil war." Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Philip Bump: "A writer for Fusion points out that [Johnson] has done this before, at one point asking an interviewer, 'Who's Harriet Tubman?'" CW: The date of the gaffe was a couple of months after "Who's Jack Lew?" named Tubman to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Tim Egan on the stupidity & danger of voting for a stoner or a woman who plans to put Ed Snowden in her cabinet. -- CW
Other News & Views
Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: Daniel Jones, "the man at the center of the US Senate's landmark investigation of the CIA torture program, has gone public for the first time about an experience that led to the CIA spying on him as part of what he calls a 'failed coverup'. For six years..., Jones was the chief investigator for the Senate intelligence committee's inquiry into CIA detentions and interrogations carried out in the post-9/11 Bush era. Jones and his team turned 6.3m pages of internal CIA documents into a scathing study which concluded that torture was ineffective and that the CIA had lied about it to two presidents, Congress and the US public." -- CW ...
... Here's the first part of Ackerman's three-part series on "the Senate investigation into torture, the crisis with the CIA it spurred and" Jones.
Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Matt Egan of CNN: "On Thursday, federal regulators said Wells Fargo (WFC) employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts -- without their customers knowing it -- since 2011. The phony accounts earned the bank unwarranted fees and allowed Wells Fargo employees to boost their sales figures and make more money. 'Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses,' Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a statement. Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that it had fired 5,300 employees over the last few years related to the shady behavior. Employees went so far as to create phony PIN numbers and fake email addresses to enroll customers in online banking services, the CFPB said.... The CFPB said Wells Fargo will pay 'full restitutions to all victims.'... Wells Fargo is being slapped with the largest penalty since the CFPB was founded in 2011. The bank agreed to pay $185 million in fines, along with $5 million to refund customers." -- CW ...
... Here's the New York Times story, by Michael Corkery. -- CW
Rachel Weiner & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "U.S. authorities have arrested two North Carolina men accused of hacking into the private email accounts of high-ranking U.S. intelligence officials. Andrew Otto Boggs, aka 'INCURSIO,' 22, of North Wilkesboro, N.C. and Justin Gray Liverman, aka 'D3F4ULT,' 24, of Morehead City, N.C. were both arrested Thursday morning and will be extradited next week to the Eastern District of Virginia, where federal prosecutors have spent months building a case against a group that calls itself Crackas With Attitude. The hacking collective has claimed to have gained access to the private email accounts of CIA Director John O. Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors will not attempt to retry former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, on corruption charges, ending a years-long saga.... The conclusion came unceremoniously, as prosecutors filed one-paragraph documents telling a federal appeals court they would move to dismiss the indictments. It means that the McDonnells -- who have always maintained they did nothing illegal -- will avoid criminal convictions and prison time. But the images produced at their trial -- the troubled marriage, the lavish vacations, a Ferrari ride, the Rolex watch -- can hardly be undone." -- CW
Way Beyond
Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "South Korean officials said that they had detected an 'artificial' tremor emanating from North Korea on Friday morning, indicating that the country has conducted its fifth nuclear test despite threats of more sanctions from Washington and the United Nations. The Korea Meteorological Administration detected the tremor and was analyzing data to see if it was caused by an earthquake or by an underground nuclear detonation, a spokeswoman said." -- CW ...
... The story has been updated, with Jane Perlez added to the byline. New Lede: "North Korea conducted its fifth underground nuclear test on Friday, its government said, despite threats of more sanctions from the United States and the United Nations. The latest test, according to South Korean officials, produced a more powerful explosive yield than the North's previous detonations, indicating that the country was making progress in its efforts to build a functional nuclear warhead."
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Reader Comments (12)
Marie and PD Pepe, thank you for your kind words and encouragement. Your remarks about your experiences with good carpentry and stone walls reminded me of the folk wisdom "genius is painstaking attention to detail."
For highly relevant detail, from the viewpoint of a participating veteran, here is a very enlightening op-ed on the reality behind NBC's CIC spectacle: ttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/opinion/veterans-as-props-on-nbcs-commander-in-chief-forum.html?ref=opinion.
Gail Collins, who shares your eye for detail, also notes that it would have been appropriate for the master of ceremonies of this misleading entertainment program to have paid more attention to, ahm, veterans. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/opinion/trump-and-clinton-take-up-arms.
BRILLIANT he ain't, but SHINY he is. The Russian word that Putin used to describe Trump means shiny, a show-off or flamboyant, and does not mean, as Trump thinks, one of high intelligence. The Russians have a whole different word for that. Has anyone told the Donald that Putin probably thinks Trump is a putz?
Re: The plethora of conspiracy theories started many times by the granddaddy of nuttiness, Alex Jones,( he of the"actors playing the dead at Sandy Hook and an element in the container of juice boxes made people gay and so much more) is in full swing. Yesterday I received an email depicting a disgusting drawing of Hillary and below that a (fake) statement she made that made no sense with bold letters above saying ""Best Quote of the day––no, the year–-no, maybe ever! And this is who you want for President?"
Pretty tame stuff, but it's just beginning.
incoherent, wacky (from Obama)- today's Trump comments. The one that shows the real problem is Krugman's assessment of Trumps' 'lies'.
Sorry Paul, Trump does not lie. He believes whatever he says is the truth. End of story. The total irrationality of his performance is given in the Star Ledger editorial
(http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/09/trump_and_isis_he_needs_to_phone_a_friend_editoria.html)
Notice that what Trump wants are Generals who agree with him. So of course their is no one who has it right except Trump. The worlds leading expert on military matters and everything.
How about Putin. Forget that he doesn't actually know that the word 'brilliant' includes the intensity of light. Under Trump America's allies are those that kiss his ass.
My greatest frustration is that no one seems willing to go to the next step. Trump is really mentally ill!!
And let us not forget something that everyone except Trump knows. Half of America is less intelligent than the other half.
P.S. The news that Colin Powell did indeed do what he said he didn't gives me great satisfaction. Marie's mention of the U.N. fabrication sullied any respect I had of the man. Imagine Hillary's disappointment and frustration that he wasn't forthcoming with the correct information relating to the emails. What a pal!
Schmuck! as Akhilleus would say and does.
It didn't do anything to MY respect for Powell-- I had none, since he descended into oblivion with his appearance supporting the war for made-up reasons. I can't even remember his name...Adam Clayton Powell? Ha-- Schmuck indeed!
Also am heartened by the general dislike for Matt Lauer. I would have been foaming at the mouth if I hadn't muted most of the "forum" during the half-time festivities. He treated Clinton shamefully. And I was quite sad about the MSNBC after-show-- they are really on the take, even Rachel apparently taking marching orders.
Don't have the time right now for a longer response to the latest Brooks' column, but may get to it later.
He's right about the re-alignment of the two parties that is occurring, but as usual gets wrong much of what it all means. His plague on both your houses, above-it-all stance reflects the cowardly he said-she-said approach to journalism, methinks, and is equally flawed.
Nonetheless, I believe the realignment issue is worth some thought. We are on the cusp of something new.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/opinion/time-for-a-realignment.html?
Further adventures of the IOKIYAR crowd.
So, stupidity and hypocrisy are two very okay things.
Here we have Rudy Giuliani, who has sucked up more personal aggrandizement off the deaths of thousands of New Yorkers, a major supporter of the most ignorant farce of a presidential candidate in history, referring to that moron as "Reagan" and not even realizing it. Then, when he's told of his mistake, he tries to say that he was just thinking about how Trump will return the military to Ronald Reagan era strength because then Putin couldn't push us around anymore. (Is he pushing us around now? I hadn't noticed. And neither has anyone else. But if he was, Giuliani's choice for dictator would be applauding.)
This is stupid on so many levels. First, as bad as Reagan was (and he was BAD in ways we're still dealing with--don't get me started...), he did have a grasp of government. Sure, he often decided that rules didn't apply to him, but at least he knew what they were. And he had had experience in government and working with a legislature from his time as governor of California. Trump has no idea what the rules are and he has zero experience in governing anything, including his own childish whims.
Then there is the puerile claim that if only we had more tanks and machine guns, Putin wouldn't dare screw with us. *sigh* Where to begin with this iniquitous nonsense? First, the idea of a land war between Russia and the United States is ridiculous. Even Putin knows that ain't gonna happen. No one wants or needs that to happen. But Putin is just the sort of despot who would love the chance to play chicken with an idiot like Donald Trump. And does anyone believe Trump has the temperament not to take the bait, or to behave in a controlled and even keeled manner should we find ourselves in such a situation? But over and above that, boots on the ground are not necessary to push your enemies around. The best new form of attack is cyberwarfare and it's become one of Putin's favorite games.
Putin has already demonstrated that he can cause analysts and national security types to set their own hair on fire, not to mention large swaths of the media, when presented with proof that Russia has been hacking into American databases to cause trouble. And, as a sidebar, I believe the recent hacks into voting databases in Arizona and Illinois were warmups for a hack during the presidential election. More to come on that score. Does Trumpskyev have a secret plan for that or will he call his comrade and give him the passwords to Pentagon servers, if only Putie will call him "brilliant" again?
Rudy Giuliani, another winger who loves to rant about Hillary Clinton's health needs his own mental health checked. He is clearly hearing voices from under the bed at night.
And speaking of winger assholes, here's nomadic amoral slug Newt Gingrich last week going off on another tangent about Clinton's health, claiming that a recent coughing fit was proof positive that she's on the verge of death. But Newtie had to put a halt to his lies midway through; he found himself unable to talk--because of a coughing fit. He tried to cover up his latest hack-halted drivel by saying that his coughing was much different than Clinton's because he's been frequently traveling on planes and speaking to a lot of people.
Stuff Clinton never does.
Stupid AND hypocritical, but it's A-fucking-OK if you're a winger.
And I swear to Sonny Jesus, if I ever heard a single member of the MSM call these assholes on any of this execrable claptrap, I'd fall over in a stupor.
Ken,
I won't bother with Brooks' latest sophistical twaddle, but "above it all" and "cowardly", not to mention unwilling to do anything about any of the problems he discusses, are qualities absolutely essential to the Brooks core. But he still gets paid to finger wag and whine.
I've given up asking why.
Any word from Trumpty Dumpty on the nuclear warhead test by North Korea? I expect we'll hear him whining about why can't our weak president grow some hair on his chest and shoot off a few nukes now and then, like that strong leader Kim Jong Un, just to show everyone what's what. Bet he can't wait to fire off a few nukes when he's president. Hell, he'll push the button himself.
The Fox Guide to Fine Whines.
"I stand with my good buddy Roger Ailes. No, wait....wait...ah, er....he's a jerk. Okay? A wicked big jerk. The biggest. Okay? Now will you please, pretty pleeeease, publish my book?"
The line up of craven assholes that has populated Faux "News" for the last 20 years or so, gives two-bit gutless grifters a bad name.
Sensationalist and tireless self-promoter Geraldo Rivera, who was standing firm by his pal Roger Ailes against the lies of conniving. pain in the ass females, has now changed his tune.
Why? Money, natch. It certainly would never have anything to with a morally defensible stance, would it?
Soitanly not.
Harper Collins has declined the honor of publishing Rivera's latest lump of lexical loogies, the weirdly titled "Geraldo of Arabia, From Tora Bora to Trump".
Boo-hoo. He really didn't mean to give Gretchen Carlson and all those women who had been sexually abused by his good buddy, his middle finger. And, wait--also--he really IS a feminist and warns other misogynist pricks not to do like he did and dismiss out of hand complaints of sexual harassment.
This is the same Geraldo Rivera, mind you, who not long ago lectured women that they'd better not wait to get married 'cause once they get too old, they got nothin' to offer. "...what a woman brings to a marriage more than anything else– to a relationship– is her youth. Her youth is a fragile and diminishing resource so if a woman were to invest two years in one of these marriages, and then to be rejected by the man, I think she has given up a valuable asset."
Of course he tried later to recast this statement as proof of his feminist bona fides. He's just concerned for the poor dears and doesn't want them to wait until they're old bags to do their gold digging.
Douchebags never sleep. But what's even more pathetic is to watch one crawl and beg and whine that he didn't mean what he said in hopes of getting a publisher who told him to take a hike, to reverse course and publish more of his self-serving dreck.
A pitiful and pathetic putz. These Fox tough guys are all made of the lowest quality balsa wood. A good sneeze brings them to their knees.
Hey Geraldo, look. Al Capone's safe! Someone get a camera.
Just a thought.
Gary Johnson steps in it up to his knees by admitting he has no idea who, what, or where the city of Aleppo is. He is roasted by the press and is now a laughing stock. Whatever semblance of a serious campaign he had is gone like a dime bag at a Grateful Dead concert.
Understand, Johnson was not promoting rounding up millions of people and sticking them in concentration camps until they can be dumped over a 35 foot wall that, by the way, we'll be building for the low, low price of $75 billion. Neither was he suggesting that we should steal natural resources from a foreign country, because, fuck them, nor was he intimating that Soviet style despotism is the way to go. And he hasn't, at least to my knowledge, indicated that women raped in the military have to suck it up because that's the way it is. Nor has he spent an inordinate amount of his campaign vilifying an American war hero simply because he and his parents are Muslim and have the temerity to speak their minds. And to the best of my recollection, he hasn't declared that nuking Europe is a possibility he'd be unwilling to part with, if, you know, shit happened. And if he's been bribing attorneys general to save one of his more loathesome confidence scams from being exposed, I haven't read about it. Nor has he spent years groping unwilling women or shoving them into rooms for the purpose of forcing himself on them. And I'm guessing that he has not evaded paying income tax over the last thirty years or so.
But Donald Trump has done all of these things and a whole lot more.
Has the press exposed him as the embarrassment he is?
Ask Matt Lauer.
My husband had a BAD morning. At the town dump (we deposit our own garbage) he saw a middle aged fella with a Trump cap. He went up to the guy, shook his head and said, "You got to be kidding!" This conversation ensued:
Guy: Wha-daya mean?
Joe: You are going to vote for Trump?
G: Yeah, he's gonna make this country great again.
J: Let me see your hands (guy spreads out his palms) Your hands are the hands of a working man, blistered and rough. You think there is one tiny blister or roughness on Donald Trump's hands? You really think he's going to help people like you or me or anybody but himself? Vote for him, my man, and we may just have a nuclear war.
Guy just stands there dumbstruck. Then Joe notices a woman sitting in the guy's car and says, "Is that your lovely wife sitting over there?" Yes, indeed it was and Joe says, "
You want to take good care of her, you won't vote for this madman." They shake hands, Joe wishes him a good day and walks away.
As Joe drives away he notices a truck with a large sticker on its rear bumper. A group picture of Stalin, Mao, and Putin with this message below: GUN CONTROL LEADS TO THEM.
Joe then heads to Lowes where he encounters another guy with a Trump cap, but this time he just gives the guy a dirty look and continues on his way. His last stop is Stop and Shop where he spots a magazine on his way to the checkout that tells of Hillary's many, many ailments and possible suicide tenancies in big, bold, black lettering. By the time he arrives back home he looks as if he had had close encounters with strange kinds. Here is a gentle man, a teacher of literature, a compassionate, loving human being that this political season has turned into a raging bull who confronts strangers at local dumps and is fit to be tied.
I give him lunch and tell him to take a nap.