The Commentariat -- October 27, 2016

CW: I have wondered throughout the campaign why we haven't heard more war stories about Donald Trump's college career. We know a lot about Hillary's; we learned (to our surprise!) that Ted Cruz was a major pain in the ass even then; we heard Marco Rubio had a checkered college career; we learned Jeb! met his wife on a college excursion, and so forth. So how is it possible we missed Donald's brilliant career -- he's like a really smart person -- as an undergrad at the Wharton School? Well, I just found some archived material that explains it all:

*****

Presidential Race

Nate Silver: "Trump's share of the vote has increased, as he's picked up undecided and third-party voters, probably as the result of Republicans' returning home after a disastrous series of weeks for Trump this month. Clinton, however, is at least holding steady and probably also improving her own numbers somewhat." -- CW

     ... Via Greg Sargent.

Mitch Perry of Florida Politics: "Hillary Clinton celebrated her 69th birthday by giving a speech in downtown Tampa on Wednesday afternoon, just as the polls are getting tighter between herself and Donald Trump.... Job one of her address was to remind voters that early voting has begun and that they need to get to the polls." -- CW

Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times: "... Tim Kaine courted Utah Mormons by describing his experiences as a missionary, further evidence that the longtime Republican stronghold state is in play this election.... Utah last voted for a Democratic presidential candidate more than a half-century ago. But in recent polls, GOP nominee Donald Trump has been running neck and neck with independent candidate Evan McMullin, with both of them edging Hillary Clinton." -- CW

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "With the polish of a seasoned politician, Khizr Khan strode through the door of a seafood restaurant to the serenade of clicking cameras, clasped hands with cheering Democratic lawmakers and, as he has become famous for doing, unflinchingly argued that Donald J. Trump must not be president. To the naked eye, Mr. Khan, whose son was an American soldier killed in Iraq and who skewered Mr. Trump at the Democratic National Convention, could have been mistaken for someone running for office. But as he made his first appearance on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, he said his mission was greater than politics." CW: I would say Humayun Khan learned heroism at home.

Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton has spoken for years of the 'glass ceiling.'... Dispensing with subtlety, Mrs. Clinton's campaign said on Wednesday that it would ring in election night at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the unglamorous glass fortress on Manhattan's West Side." -- CW

Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "Accepting that his presidential bid will fail, Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld on Tuesday obliquely urged voters to vote for Hillary Clinton. In a Tuesday statement addressed to 'those in the electorate who remain torn between two so-called major party candidates,' the former Massachusetts governor told Republicans not to vote for the GOP nominee out of 'fear for our country.' 'After careful observation and reflection, I have come to believe that Donald Trump, if elected President of the United States, would not be able to stand up to this pressure and this criticism without becoming unhinged and unable to perform competently the duties of his office,' he said at a Boston press conference.... 'This is not the time to cast a jocular or feel-good vote for a man whom you may have briefly found entertaining.' Though Weld goes on to mention Trump by name, his comments could also describe [Weld's running mate Gary] Johnson, who captured headlines with his bumbling responses to foreign policy questions and odd interview antics." -- CW

Sean Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump on Wednesday pledged what he called a 'new deal for black America' as he attempted to make late inroads with a voting bloc that polling shows favors Democrat Hillary Clinton by a vast margin. 'I will be your greatest champion,' Trump said during an campaign rally [in Charlotte, N.C]. 'I will never ever take the African American community for granted. Never, ever.' In a scripted speech heavy on policy specifics, the Republican presidential nominee laid out a plan that he said is built on setting up better schools, lowering crime in inner cities and creating more high-paying jobs." --CW

Donald Knows Best. Nicki Rossoll of ABC News: "Donald Trump went on the offensive against a military expert and former dean of the Army War College, Jeff McCausland, who said the Republican nominee's comments this weekend about the battle to reclaim Mosul in Iraq show he doesn't have a firm grasp of military strategy. 'You can tell your military expert that I'll sit down and I'll teach him a couple of things,' Trump told ABC's George Stephanopoulos...." CW: Giving credit where credit is due, Trump did learn in military school how to march in formation, make up a bunk & keep his locker neat, lifeskills I doubt he has put into practice in the last half-century.

It's So Unfaaaair:

... Ed O'Keefe & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump made a detour to Washington on Wednesday to officially christen a downtown hotel bearing his name.... Aides insisted it was a non-campaign event, but when Trump took the stage he railed against bloated military hospital construction projects, blasted Obamacare price spikes and congratulated former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for sparring Tuesday night with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly in a contentious primetime interview. 'That was an amazing interview,' Trump said as he pointed at Gingrich. 'We don't play games, Newt, right? We don't play games.'" -- CW: See part of the "amazing interview" in yesterday's Commentariat. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "Cable news producers haven't forgotten Sept. 16. That was the day that media outlets were told to expect a Donald Trump announcement on the birther issue.... So the media congregated for a news conference at Trump's new hotel in Washington, D.C.... The networks covered the event from the very start." What they got was a 30-minutes infomercial for the hotel, followed by a brief statement in which "Trump admits that the president of the United States was born in the United States. Cable news, punked.... [Wednesday] Trump gathered the media for ... a ribbon-cutting for that same hotel. This time, cable news wasn't playing along. All three major cable news networks -- CNN, MSNBC and Fox News -- pretty much skipped live coverage of Trump's remarks." -- CW ...

... Dana Milbank: "It's apt that Donald Trump's new hotel in Washington, which he dedicated at a ribbon-cutting Wednesday, is at the Old Post Office. Just 13 days before the election, Trump is mailing it in.... Trump looks in the closing days of the election as he did when he began -- like a publicity-mad billionaire on a lark. He put the country through hell, stoking grievances in millions, and now, in the end, he's looking out for No 1." -- CW

Bird Man. And [wind turbines] kill all the birds [False]. I don't know if you know that.... Thousands of birds are lying on the ground. And the eagle. You know, certain parts of California -- they've killed so many eagles [False]. You know, they put you in jail if you kill an eagle. And yet these windmills [kill] them by the hundreds [False]. -- Donald Trump, on Herman Cain's radio show, Tuesday

Those [False] notations come from Katie Herzog of Grist. Trump said a lot more about energy sources, so Herzog was obliged to insert quite a few more fact-checks.

Gail Collins wonders if Trump has given up. CW: I don't think so.

Get to Know Your Presidential Candidate. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times talks with Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio in two podcasts. Includes Trump and Family in Their Own Words! CW: Sorry, but long ago I learned I didn't want to get to know Donald Trump.

Trump[s election is going to be the biggest 'fuck you' ever recorded in human history -- and it will feel good. Whether Trump means it or not is kind of irrelevant because he's saying the things to people who are hurting, and that's why every beaten-down, nameless, forgotten working stiff who used to be part of what was called the middle class loves Trump. He is the human Molotov cocktail that they've been waiting for, the human hand grenade that they can legally throw into the system that stole their lives from them. -- Michael Moore ...

... Matthew Sheffield of Salon: "Despite most indicators showing Donald Trump well behind his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the key states he needs to win the Nov. 8 presidential election, populist filmmaker Michael Moore has long argued that the Republican nominee has more support than people may think. At a recent promotional event for his new film 'Michael Moore in TrumpLand,' Moore told audience members that he thinks the loudmouthed GOP nominee is going to win, largely because American elites are so cut off from regular people that they don't realize just how much the middle class has been harmed in recent years." -- CW ...

... CW: I don't know that Trump will win, but I am afraid the results will be much closer than the Clinton blowout some are suggesting (and most of us hope for). I suspect plenty of people, especially men, won't admit to pollsters ("what if my wife is listening!") they will vote for Trump, particularly with the type of publicity he has been getting in the last month. There is a huge shame factor in voting for Donald Trump, and the secret ballot is the magic cover. Even though it appears more Democrats are voting early, they are not all voting for Hillary Clinton. ...

... Ashley Parker & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "New York Times reporters spoke to people attending Trump rallies in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In every crowd, there were supporters who echoed Mr. Trump's message that the polls do not reflect the 'silent majority' who they say will turn out on Nov. 8 and elect him in a landslide." If Trump loses, some of his supporters, "worry that they will be forgotten, along with their concerns and frustrations. Others believe the nation may be headed for violent conflict." -- CW

Meet Your Republican "Leaders." Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz again reversed his position on Donald Trump's presidential candidacy on Wednesday night, saying he'd vote for the Republican nominee but wouldn't endorse him.... [Chaffetz] had previously backed Trump's candidacy before withdrawing his endorsement on Oct. 8.... Chaffetz is one of six Republican members of Congress who have recommitted to voting for Trump after yanking their support, along with Sens. Mike Crapo, Deb Fischer and John Thune and Reps. Scott Garrett and Bradley Byrne." CW: See also Diane's comment at the top of today's thread.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: Fox "News" is having a Megyn Kelly moment. If Kelly stays with the network (she's in contract negotiations now), it could become less stridently Hannity-O'Reilly. ...

... Justin Baragona of Mediaite: "During a panel discussion on CNN tonight, anchor Anderson Cooper pointed out that the last person in the world who should be talking about people being 'fascinated with sex' due to his own personal history is Newt Gingrich.... 'For Newt Gingrich to accuse Megyn Kelly of being fascinated by sex,' Cooper stated. 'This is a guy, who's what, on his third marriage, cheated on his first two wives and was having an affair when he was impeaching Bill Clinton. Isn't that right?'" -- CW

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Wherein Mark Halperin, star of MSNBC & Bloomberg, "interviews" Donald Trump: "Oooh, Mr. Trump what big hands you have," or something like that.

Election News

Matt Friedman of Politico: "Democrats are asking a federal judge to block the Republican National Committee from coordinating with Donald Trump's campaign on 'ballot security' efforts, saying the RNC is violating a decades old legal agreement that bars the group from tactics that critics call voter intimidation. In a motion filed in New Jersey federal court on Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee charges that the RNC has violated the consent decree 'by supporting and enabling the efforts of the Republican candidate for President, Donald J. Trump, as well as his campaign and advisors, to intimidate and discourage minority voters from voting in the 2016 Presidential Election.'" -- CW ...

... MEANWHILE. Christina Wilkie of the Huffington Post: "Vote Protectors [-- a group that supports Donald Trump & is associated with conspiracy theorist & dirty trickster Roger Stone --] plans to issue fake ID badges to its volunteers, who intend to travel to cities with large minority populations and conduct phony 'exit polls' on Election Day." -- CW

Kira Lerner of Think Progress: Those "roughly 45,000 newly registered voters in Indiana  --  almost all of whom are black --  [still] may not be allowed to vote next month after state police targeted the state's largest voter registration drive, forcing it to shut down its operation." CW: As Lerner lays out, this is a GOP-run scam, led by mike pence, "who has pushed the 'voter fraud' conspiracy on the campaign trail alongside Donald Trump." The voter registration group has asked the Voting Section of the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to intervene. So where is the DOJ??? ...

... Jaweed Kaleem of the Los Angeles Times has a fairly comprehensive review of voter fraud allegations & the outcomes of investigations, where completed. The "fraud" in each of these cases was either bureaucratic incompetence, possible bureaucratic interference, or Trump, pence & other Republicans making up crazy shit.

Other News & Views

Connor O'Brien of Politico: "Defense Secretary Ash Carter has suspended collections and ordered a review of the process that's forcing members of the California National Guard to repay enlistment bonuses that may have been paid improperly. In a statement issued Wednesday, the Pentagon chief called the process 'unfair to service members and to taxpayers.'" -- CW

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "For the first time in a quarter-century, the United States abstained Wednesday in the annual United Nations vote condemning the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that the embargo was fully within international law but that it was 'a perfect example of why the U.S. policy of isolation toward Cuba was not working.' She said that 'instead of isolating Cuba ... our policy isolated the United States, including here at the United Nations.'" -- CW

The Continued Radicalization of the Right. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Speaking to reporters after a campaign rally for a Republican U.S. Senate candidate [in Colorado], Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said that there was 'precedent' for a Supreme Court with fewer than nine justices -- appearing to suggest that the blockade on nominee Merrick Garland could last past the election.... Several conservative legal writers have argued that the threat of a Clinton presidency should get Republicans thinking about a long-term blockade on nominees." -- CW ...

... Here's some "intellectual" crackpot named Ilya Shapiro writing for the righty-right-wing Federalist: "The Senate should refuse to confirm all of Hillary Clinton's judicial nominees." -- CW

... CW: If you want a federal government that functions as anything other than one big Fake Investigatory Mob, vote for Democratic candidates, no matter how bad they are. ...

... ** Linda Greenhouse reflects on the rule of law and what Republicans have done to upend it. AND she wrote her column before Ted Cruz & various other crackpots weighed in with their bright ideas about gutting the courts. ...

... Dave Weigel: "Jason Chaffetz, the Utah congressman wrapping up his first term atop the powerful House Oversight Committee, un-endorsed Donald Trump weeks ago. That freed up him to prepare for something else: spending years, come January, probing the record of a President Hillary Clinton. 'It's a target-rich environment,' said Chaffetz in a interview in Salt Lake City's suburbs. 'Even before we get to Day One, we've got two years worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain't good.'... And other Republican leaders say they support Chaffetz's efforts -- raising the specter of more partisan acrimony between them and the White House for the next four years." CW: Congressional Democrats must figure out a way to stop this shit. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Confederates Waste No Time With More Pointless Investigations. Alex Seitz-Wald Benjy Sarlin of NBC News: "In the last few weeks alone, dozens of House Republicans have demanded that a special prosecutor investigate the Clinton Foundation for possible conflicts of interest. Sen. Ted Cruz has called for a 'serious criminal investigation' into a Democratic operative featured in a sting video by conservative activist James O'Keefe. And Speaker Paul Ryan promised 'aggressive oversight work in the House'... Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who would likely serve as the chief antagonist of a second Clinton White House as chair the House Oversight Committee, told Fox News last week the 'quid pro quo' claim alone was worth at least 'four new hearings,'... 'This is exactly what Americans hate about Washington. Before the election has even taken place, Jason Chaffetz is already planning to further abuse his office and waste more taxpayer dollars on political witch hunts against the potential President-elect,' said Clinton campaign spokesperson Brian Fallon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Akhilleus: As it has done for the last eight years and for most of the first Clinton presidency, the Confederate Party will spend its time wasting millions of taxpayer dollars investigating investigations that are currently investigating other investigations. "Four new hearings"? Why not make it 44? After holding 125 hearings on the Benghazi bullshit and coming up with zilch, the spoiled brats in the House will give it another try. In other words, if Hillary wins, they'll make sure she spends most of her time bouncing from one shady investigation to another. The Republican Way. ...

... Steve M.: There is "a general sense among some observers that the GOP is going to be one big circular firing squad.... But Dave Weigel's story today in the Post suggests to me that Trumpites and Trump skeptics will probably kiss and make up soon, united around their new shared goal: destroying Hillary Clinton by any means necessary.... The long-term danger for the establishment is that Trump voters might consider [Paul] Ryan et al. to be failures if the new president isn't literally in prison by the time of the 2018 midterms.... Call their value system "personal survival over country." -- CW ...

... Paul Waldman: "... Republican candidates are ... warning against the dangers of a 'blank check' for Hillary Clinton that might come from electing Democrats for Congress.... Go ahead and vote for Clinton, but split your ticket to vote for me, too. The problem is that ticket-splitting is a recipe for everything people say they hate about Washington.... The problem isn't that 'Washington' can't get anything done these days, it's that we have a Democratic president that Republicans have sworn to oppose in all things. We may wind up with exactly the same thing after November's election. But if that's what you voted for, you don't get to complain." -- CW

Scott Higman & Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "Two senators asked Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch Wednesday to explain a sharp drop in the number of enforcement actions against large pharmaceutical distributors and others by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) requested a wide variety of information about cases brought by DEA's Diversion Control Division in the wake of a Washington Post investigation published over the weekend. The DEA division enforces laws written to prevent the diversion of opioid painkillers to the black market, where they can fall into the hands of substance abusers and drug dealers." CW: Hey, here are some senators doing their jobs. They're Democrats.

Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "Joe Walsh, who was a United States congressman from 2011 until 2013, declared on Wednesday afternoon that he will take up arms if Donald Trump is not elected to the presidency.... For the record, Walsh's apparent plan to form a band of individuals to take up arms against the lawfully elected leader of the United States most likely meets the legal definition of treason.... Though treason prosecutions are unusual, previous federal cases have allowed such prosecutions to move forward when armed individuals join together against the United States." -- CW ...

... Steve M.: "The problem with this sort of cheap talk is that people who are less inhibited (and angrier, and crazier, and more hate-filled) are getting ideas from it. It's making some people feel they have license to do what Walsh pretends he'll do if Hillary Clinton wins. Walsh is too soft-bellied to actually engage in violence, so he's just goading others to do it instead. He's a reprehensible rabble-rouser and a coward." -- CW

We're More Weapons-Crazy Than Ever. Art Swift of Gallup: "The fewest Americans in 20 years favor making it illegal to manufacture, sell or possess semi-automatic guns known as assault rifles. Thirty-six percent now want an assault weapons ban, down from 44% in 2012 and 57% when Gallup first asked the question in 1996." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Ted Sherman & Matt Arco of NJ.com: "After six weeks of testimony, dozens of witnesses and declarations of innocence from the two former Christie administration insiders now on trial, the defense in the Bridgegate scandal has rested. Summations are scheduled to begin on Thursday and the jury is expected to begin their deliberations on Monday.... In a final day of testimony, federal prosecutors continued to methodically chip away at [Bridget Anne] Kelly in her fourth day on the stand, focusing on the inconsistencies with what seven other witnesses told the jury." -- CW ...

... New York Times Editors: "Whatever verdict is delivered in the Bridgegate trial, the picture of Mr. Christie and his administration that has been exposed is devastating. One can search the news accounts in vain for honorable motives, for openness and integrity, for a sense of 'public service' as that overworked term is understood.... Mr. Christie remained the offstage villain, the Mephistopheles of Trenton, but it was impossible for even casual trial observers not to discern, from witness after witness, the evident viciousness and grubbiness of the governor and his administration." -- CW

Craig McCarthy of NJ.com: "Police charged 10 people Wednesday in a protest on the George Washington Bridge that closed lanes and caused extensive delays during morning rush hour.... The immigrants' rights demonstration stopped upper-level traffic completely for about 15 minutes before police arrested the protesters, who chained themselves to the bridge, blocking three lanes. The demonstration caused up to 90-minute delays for drivers heading into the New York City. All lanes were reopened by 8:50 a.m." -- CW

The Commentariat -- October 26, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Ed O'Keefe & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump made a detour to Washington on Wednesday to officially christen a downtown hotel bearing his name.... Aides insisted it was a non-campaign event, but when Trump took the stage he railed against bloated military hospital construction projects, blasted Obamacare price spikes and congratulated former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for sparring Tuesday night with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly in a contentious primetime interview. 'That was an amazing interview,' Trump said as he pointed at Gingrich. 'We don't play games, Newt, right? We don't play games.'" -- CW: See part of the "amazing interview" below.

Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Jason Chaffetz, the Utah congressman wrapping up his first term atop the powerful House Oversight Committee, un-endorsed Donald Trump weeks ago. That freed up him to prepare for something else: spending years, come January, probing the record of a President Hillary Clinton. 'It's a target-rich environment,' said Chaffetz in a interview in Salt Lake City's suburbs. 'Even before we get to Day One, we've got two years worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain't good.'... And other Republican leaders say they support Chaffetz's efforts -- raising the specter of more partisan acrimony between them and the White House for the next four years." ...

... Confederates Waste No Time With More Pointless Investigations. Alex Seitz-Wald & Benjy Sarlin of NBC News: "In the last few weeks alone, dozens of House Republicans have demanded that a special prosecutor investigate the Clinton Foundation for possible conflicts of interest. Sen. Ted Cruz has called for a 'serious criminal investigation' into a Democratic operative featured in a sting video by conservative activist James O'Keefe. And Speaker Paul Ryan promised 'aggressive oversight work in the House'... Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who would likely serve as the chief antagonist of a second Clinton White House as chair the House Oversight Committee, told Fox News last week the 'quid pro quo' claim alone was worth at least 'four new hearings,'" ...

     ... Akhilleus: As it has done for the last eight years and for most of the first Clinton presidency, the Confederate Party will spend its time wasting millions of taxpayer dollars investigating investigations that are currently investigating other investigations. "Four new hearings"? Why not make it 44? After holding 125 hearings on the Benghazi bullshit and coming up with zilch, the spoiled brats in the House will give it another try. In other words, if Hillary wins, they'll make sure she spends most of her time bouncing from one shady investigation to another. The Republican Way.

*****

Presidential Race

Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Although ... Hillary Clinton holds what appears to be a durable three-point lead in crucial Florida, she warned supporters here Tuesday not to get too comfortable. Campaigning simultaneously with ... Donald Trump in the key battleground state that represents potentially his last, tenuous, chance to rebound and win the election, Clinton cautioned, 'It's going to be a close election. Pay no attention to the polls,' she said at a rally at Broward College's North Campus. 'Don't get complacent.'" -- CW ...

... John McCormick of Bloomberg: "Donald Trump has a slim advantage in Florida as critical independent voters narrowly break his way in the must-win battleground state, a Bloomberg Politics poll shows." CW: The Bloomberg poll is very good for Republicans; it has Marco Rubio up by 10 over Patrick Murphy. See also story linked under Senate Race below.

Donald Trump is attacking everything that has set our country apart for 240 years. After spending his entire campaign attacking one group of Americans after another: Immigrants, African-Americans, Latinos, women, POWs, Muslim and people with disabilities. Now, his final target is democracy itself. -- Hillary Clinton, at a rally in Coconut Creek, Florida, Tuesday

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Colin L. Powell, the Republican former secretary of state, said on Tuesday that he planned to vote for Hillary Clinton for president as he condemned her rival, Donald J. Trump, at an event on Long Island.... Mr. Powell went on to praise Mrs. Clinton for her skills as a leader and her experience.... The comments were a change from Mr. Powell's tone in hacked emails from his inbox that were made public in September. In the emails, Mr. Powell criticized Mr. Trump but also expressed bitterness at Mrs. Clinton for repeatedly pointing to Mr. Powell's email habits to explain away her own use of a private email server while she ran the State Department." -- CW

Steve Eder of the New York Times: A new WikiLeaks dump of John Podesta's e-mail account shows how the Clinton campaign worked to control the damaging news that Clinton used a private server. Campaign staffers & supporters tried to protect both Clinton & President Obama, who had exchanged e-mails with Clinton that went to her private e-mail server. -- CW

By Driftglass.Steve Holland of Reuters: "... Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Democrat Hillary Clinton's plan for Syria would 'lead to World War Three,' because of the potential for conflict with military forces from nuclear-armed Russia. In an interview focused largely on foreign policy, Trump said defeating Islamic State is a higher priority than persuading Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, playing down a long-held goal of U.S. policy. Trump questioned how Clinton would negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin after demonizing him; blamed President Barack Obama for a downturn in U.S. relations with the Philippines under its new president, Rodrigo Duterte [a vulgar, mass-murdering strongman]; bemoaned a lack of Republican unity behind his candidacy, and said he would easily win the election if the party leaders would support him." -- CW

Candace Smith of ABC News: "As Donald Trump campaigned in central Florida today, he made his usual appeal to African-Americans, painting a grim and partially inaccurate portrait of black communities. 'African-Americans are living in hell in the inner cities,' he said. 'They are living -- they are living in hell. You walk to the store for a loaf of bread you get shot.' But his comment today struck a particularly tone-deaf chord. Trump was in Sanford, Fla., where teenager Trayvon Martin had been killed four years earlier by a neighborhood watchman while walking home after getting a pack of Skittles." --safari: I particularly appreciate the inclusion of the qualifier "partially". Well played, Ms. Smith, we wouldn't want to mislead our readers.

More Lies. Guess Who? Jeremy Diamond, Julia Manchester & Ashley Killough, of CNN: "Donald Trump claimed Tuesday during an event with staff at his resort here that his employees are having issues with Obamacare -- an account contradicted by his property's general manager -- amid the news that President Barack Obama's signature health care legislation is facing soaring premiums. 'I can say that all of my employees are having a tremendous problem with Obamacare,' Trump said. 'What they're going through with their health care is horrible because of Obamacare, so we'll repeal it and replace it.' ...[BUT]... Clarifying Trump's remarks, the general manager of Trump's property in Doral, David Feder, said "99% of our employees are insured through our hotel." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Akhilleus: I guess Trump Math allows one to describe anything under 1% as 100%. In fact, it's very likely that the remaining 1% don't get any kind of health insurance. They're probably all illegal immigrants. Just Trump's way of Making America Great again. Oh, and I'm guessing Mr. Feder will be looking for a new job by tonight. ...

     ... Update. Eli Stokols of Politico: "In a telephone interview with Fox News shortly after his Doral event Tuesday morning, Trump seemed to misunderstand how the Affordable Care Act works, telling his interviewers that 'I don't much use Obamacare, I must be honest with you, because it is so bad for the people and they can't afford it.' But employer-provided health care is wholly separate from Obamacare insurance, which is designed to offer health plans to Americans who do not get insurance from their job. Trump said of Obamacare, 'We don't use it. So you know, when they interviewed those people, they're happy with their health coverage.'" CW: That is, even after the Doral manager corrected him about the type of policies the resort's employees have, Trump still had no fucking idea what he was talking about. Also, how hilarious is it that after "testifying" a few minutes earlier to his employees' horrible suffering under ObamaCare, Trump said his employees were "happy with their health coverage," which I guess we can hereinafter describe as TrumpyCare.

     ... CW: Not sure Trump was precisely lying here, as Akhilleus writes. Rather, Trump just has zero interest in or knowledge about any aspect of his employees' welfare. During the primary season, Trump claimed his resorts provided childcare -- "some swings ... and some blocks" -- for his employees "all over" & that was one of the reasons he had such good, productive, happy workers. Not true. Some of his resorts had child-sitting accommodations for guests, not for employees. Remember, this is an asshole who would fire a single mother because didn't think she was hot enough. He is not sitting up nights worrying about his employees' healthcare package. Trump has defined down "World's Worst Boss." ...

... Ian Millhiser "explains" Trump's "position" on affordable health care: "Donald Trump';s employees are having a 'tremendous problem' with health plans they don't actually have. Trump himself doesn't make much use of a health plan that he also doesn't have. And all of this is a 'disaster' for the American people. Confused? Don't worry. So is Mr. Trump.... Addressing [the] challenges [healthcare coverage still has] will require a robust understanding of multiple health care markets, how they interact with a slew of government programs, and how the law can be tweaked without setting off new problems with scary names like an 'adverse selection death spiral.' Meanwhile, Donald Trump does not appear to know the first thing about how Obamacare works." -- CW

Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump has no further high-dollar fundraising events planned for the remainder of the campaign, dealing another serious blow to the GOP's effort to finance its get-out-the-vote operation before Election Day." -- CW ...

     ... Update. Sean Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "The consequences of halting major fundraisers will compound the challenges facing a candidate and a party already straining to match Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's much larger and better-financed operation. Unlike Clinton, who has an extensive turnout operation of her own, Trump and many other GOP candidates down the ballot are relying heavily on the Republican National Committee to bring voters to the polls." -- CW ...

... All Hat & No Cattle-Ranching. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "According to the Federal Election Commission filings, Donald Trump's presidential campaign has spent $1.8 million on polling from June 2015 through September of this year (the most recent month for which data are available). The report also lists $3.2 million spent on hats.... Overall, Trump's spent about $15.3 million on collateral -- shirts, hats, signs, etc. -- more than he has spent on field consulting and voter lists and data.... The campaign in a nutshell." -- CW

Politics is a side hobby for Trump, kind of like fishing or model railroading. Hotels, that's serious business, and I hear the hotel is fabulous. Which of his aides would like to take credit for scheduling this trip to D.C.? Is no one able to stand up to this guy? No one at all? -- Curt Anderson, Republican strategist ...

... Maggie Haberman & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "As his poll numbers have declined in the closing weeks of the presidential race, Donald J. Trump has begun to engage in barely veiled promotions of his business brand off the campaign trail, dragging reporters to his marquee properties in between his campaign events. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump added an abrupt appearance at the Trump National Doral, one of his gilded golf courses and resorts in Florida.... On Wednesday..., Mr. Trump planned to attend a ribbon-cutting at his elaborately remade hotel at the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. The stops are a remarkable display of personal promotion by a presidential nominee..., who ... is at least partly casting his eye past the 2016 race, and toward bolstering the brand that bears his name." -- CW

Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's close financial ties to Energy Transfer Partners, operators of the controversial Dakota Access oil pipeline, have been laid bare, with the presidential candidate invested in the company and receiving more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from its chief executive. Trump's financial disclosure forms show the Republican nominee has between $500,000 and $1m invested in Energy Transfer Partners, with a further $500,000 to $1m holding in Phillips 66, which will have a 25% stake in the Dakota Access project once completed.... Kelcy Warren, chief executive of Energy Transfer Partners, has given $103,000 to elect Trump and handed over a further $66,800 to the Republican National Committee.... Trump has signaled his opposition to any restrictions on the development of oil, coal or gas, telling a crowd in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, last week that he would 'lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks to allow these vital energy infrastructure projects to go ahead'." ...

     ... CW: Don't worry people; Trump has promised to put all his holdings in a "blind" trust that only his children can tell him about. Also too, climate change is a hoax.

Natalie Schreyer of Mother Jones on that time Donald Trump wrote a blog post supposedly dedicated to a grieving mother -- actor Kelly Preston -- whose teenaged son had died. Trump used the post to recount at length how he had once hit on Preston at a night club.

Deirdra Funcheon of Fusion on that time the Trump team planned to make Donald into a comic-book superhero in a series called "Trump Takeover." Yes, Trump would save the world from, well, everything not-Trump, and yes, he stiffed the concept developer. With illustrations that should frighten you.

Victoria Gotti Weighs in on "King Con". Michael Daly of The Daily Beast: "Donald Trump has had dealings with members or associates of at least three Mafia families, but you can be sure that he never never groped their wives, girlfriends, or daughters. The widow of Gambino family boss John Gotti makes clear that she would not have allowed her own husband even to speak as Trump did on the now infamous Access Hollywood outtake. 'I was married to #1 gangster and would have cut his throat if he ever said such a foul thing to me,' Victoria Gotti said.... She said of Trump, 'what an embarrassment to the country. My mothers side is from Russia, they must be laughing their 'arses' off, at our politics.' Victoria made her view of The Donald even clearer in a post on Facebook, writing: 'Hoping you women out there who have any 'class or dignity' remember what this 'crude obnoxious megalomaniacal mutt' really thinks about women, someone needs to pull him by that useless twinkie he thinks is worth gold..." --safari...

... Michael Gross of The Daily Beast: The morals of Donald J. Trump, as a longtime model lover and then a modeling agency owner, were forged in another era, one in which young girls were used as a sort of currency between men doing business with one another. It's not a time that Trump, who once blew up gossip reporters' phones to dish on his own sexual exploits, real and imagined, is eager to remember now...I spoke in recent days with two Trump pals, both reluctant to talk about the man they once partied hard with who's now the Republican nominee.... But both men also put Donald Trump in the room with cocaine, very young women and underage girls, and rich, old men there to -- pardon my language, but if the Times can say pussy on its front page, I can say this -- fuck them.... Trump told me that consequence-free promiscuity was then his 'second business.... If I hadn't got married, who knows what would have happened? You had drugs, women and booze all over the fuckin' place.'" --safari

How Trump Reacts When Bested by a Woman (Or What to Expect Nov. 9):

On their first ski trip, Donald went down the slope first, then taunted his new girlfriend Ivana to try to match his brilliant downhill run:

So he goes and stops, and he says, 'Come on, baby. Come on, baby.' I went up. I went two flips up in the air, two flips in front of him. I disappeared. Donald was so angry, he took off his skis, his ski boots, and walked up to the restaurant. ... He could not take it. He could not take it. ...

... Michael Barbaro Is Not a Mental Health Professional But He Plays One on the New York Times' Front Page: "The intense ambitions and undisciplined behaviors of Mr. Trump have confounded even those close to him, especially as his presidential campaign comes to a tumultuous end, and he confronts the possibility of the most stinging defeat of his life. But in the more than five hours of conversations -- the last extensive biographical interviews Mr. Trump granted before running for president -- a powerful driving force emerges: his deep-seated fear of public embarrassment. The recordings reveal a man who is fixated on his own celebrity, anxious about losing his status and contemptuous of those who fall from grace. They capture the visceral pleasure he derives from fighting, his willful lack of interest in history, his reluctance to reflect on his life and his belief that most people do not deserve his respect." CW: Okay, so diagnosis of this particular psychopath isn't all that hard.

... Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "With his years of questioning President Obama's birthplace, his insinuation of voting fraud in black neighborhoods and his refusal to absolve the Central Park Five, Mr. Trump has riled up and shocked voters not used to hearing black Americans' sensibilities handled so dismissively on a public stage. But when ... black Americans were interviewed recently about Mr. Trump’s candidacy, shock was rarely a word that came to mind. More often, they said, what they felt was a numbing familiarity: What the rest of America was now being exposed to are words and thoughts they have heard their whole lives." -- CW

Let's Find Out What's on Newt's Mind!

Newt Gingrich (on air, on Megyn Kelly's Fox "News" show): You are fascinated with sex and you don't care about public policy. ...

Megan Kelly: You can take your anger issues and spend some time working on them, Mr. Speaker.

Newt: You too.

Dan Scavino (Trump's social media director), in a tweet: Megyn Kelly made a total fool out of herself tonight- attacking Donald Trump. Watch what happens to her after this election is over.

Senate Race

CW: I'm with Harry. Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "Tensions are flaring at the highest rungs of the Democratic Party over its decision to pull out of the Florida Senate race, with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Florida donors pressing to go all out to unseat Marco Rubio in the final days of the campaign, but New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and the party's Senate campaign arm arguing it's not feasible because of budget constraints. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee -- under the direction of Schumer and its chairman, Montana Sen. Jon Tester -- has redirected millions of dollars from Florida to North Carolina, Missouri and Indiana. They reason that those states are both much cheaper to advertise in and offer a more promising path to the Senate majority than Florida, where Rubio has long been favored to defeat Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy. But Reid and other Democrats believe that defeating Rubio would be the ultimate Election Day trophy for Democrats, given his national stature and the reelection threat he could post to a potential President Hillary Clinton in 2020." CW: Chuck Schumer is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

Election News

Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "Two weeks from Election Day, a number of battleground states are still fighting over voting laws and whether voters have been adequately informed about an array of changing and sometimes complex rules. An unprecedented number of states have put stricter election laws in place since the last presidential race. And in several cases, those laws were overturned by the courts or are still caught up in litigation, creating the potential for widespread confusion. In some states, such as North Carolina, the rules in place during the primary races have changed for the general election. A federal court in Texas has ordered the state to reissue voter education materials that were misleading to residents. And in the Texas county that includes Fort Worth, voting rights advocates pointed to an email from Republican officials warning election workers in 'Democrat-controlled' polling locations 'to make sure OUR VOTER ID LAW IS FOLLOWED.'" -- CW ...

... Michael Wines of the New York Times: "Despite a string of court victories against restrictive voting laws passed by Republican legislatures, even when voting rights groups win in court, they are at risk of losing on the ground. In an election year when turnout could be crucial, a host of factors -- foot-dragging by states, confusion among voters, the inability of judges to completely roll back bias -- are blunting the effect of court rulings against the laws." ...

... Ari Berman of the Nation: After UW-Green Bay students suffered two-hour waits to vote on primary day, "leaders of eight different student groups -- including the Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian parties and the Black Student Union -- asked the city to put an early-voting location on campus to alleviate long lines. But city officials ignored the request and opened only one early-voting site on September 26 for the entire city ... at the clerk's office, a 15-minute drive from campus, which is open only during business hours. City Clerk Kris Teske, an appointee of Republican Mayor Jim Schmitt, a close ally of Governor Scott Walker, said the city didn't have the money, time, or security to open an early-voting location on campus or anywhere else. But privately Teske ... gave a different reason: ... student voting would benefit the Democratic Party." Berman reproduces her letter, which is explicit. CW: Teske has violated her oath of office & should be forcibly separated from her "nonpartisan" job. I doubt that will happen in Scott Walker's corrupt state. ...

Other News & Views

... CW: And all that is because confederates believe that only propertied white men should have the vote. Think I'm exaggerating? Read the particulars in Jeet Heer's piece:

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: The "Republican electorate is joined by growing ranks of conservative politicians, pundits, and intellectuals [who are] all increasingly willing to say that the existing American political system is hopelessly flawed and needs to be rolled back to the days before blacks and women could vote. On the most obvious level, this can be seen in moves by Republican governors all over America to make voting more difficult, through stringent voting ID laws, new hurdles to registration, and the curtailment of early-voting options. Equally significant has been the gutting of key provisions of the Voting Rights Act by conservative Supreme Court justices in the 2013 Shelby Country v. Holder ruling.... Trump's anti-democratic rhetoric -- and the eagerness of so many good, white patriotic Americans to cheer it and believe it -- is a symptom of the larger trend on the political right toward doubting the legitimacy of the American system." -- CW

Jamelle Blouie of Slate: "This past Saturday, however,SNL struck gold with one of its sharpest political sketches in recent memory...[I]t's easy to read the message as a plea for tolerance and understanding. There's more that unites us than there is that divides us. You can even add a class analysis: Black Americans share more than just common culture with some Trump supporters; they share common interests.... Because of its roots in the South, black culture shares an affinity with the rural white life that Doug represents.... Tucked into this six-minute sketch is a subtle and sophisticated analysis of American politics. It's not that working blacks and working whites are unable to see the things they have in common; it's that the material interests of the former -- freedom from unfair scrutiny, unfair detention, and unjust killings-- are in direct tension with the identity politics of the latter." See video embedded yesterday. --safari

David Cloud of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama has told the Defense Department to expedite its review of nearly 10,000 California National Guard soldiers who have been ordered to repay enlistment bonuses improperly given a decade ago, but he is not backing growing calls for Congress to waive the debts, the White House said Tuesday." -- CW

     ... CW: You know you miss him already.

Pity the Poor Weasel. Ed Kilgore of New York: "In all of the speculation about what Americans will wake up to on November 9 (aside from relief the election is over, assuming there are clear winners and losers who concede), there is one prominent politician who will probably suffer from a chronic postelection headache: House Speaker Paul Ryan. There is a small but quite real chance that a Trump-led Republican meltdown will award Democrats control of the House, leaving Ryan with one of America's worst jobs, House Minority Leader...The more likely but equally hellish outcome would be a significantly reduced GOP majority in the House, leaving Ryan at the mercy of surly backbenchers and vengeful Trumpites...In other words, a weakened Ryan might be right back in the same impossible position John Boehner occupied in much of Barack Obama's second term, with the added problem of a GOP divided not just over legislative strategy and tactics, but over the recently concluded presidential election and the path forward for the entire party." --safari ...

... More Evidence of Trumplodytes Cannibalism. Jeremy Peters & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Some of the loudest voices on the right seem poised to channel [their] anger into one of their favorite and most frequent pursuits: eating their own. Some in the deeply factionalized Republican Party, including Mr. Trump and some of his senior aides, are already fanning the flames for a revolt against the House speaker, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, once Congress reconvenes after the election. Mr. Trump, who has lashed out at the speaker for being critical of him, has privately said that Mr. Ryan should pay a price for his disloyalty, according to two people close to Mr. Trump who insisted on anonymity to describe internal campaign discussions." -- CW ...

... Norm Ornstein in The Atlantic: "[I]t is clear that there is now a yawning gap between the Republican establishment leadership and the party rank-and-file. All of that will make governing by finding the necessary coalitions and compromises much more difficult. But it also suggests that the vote for Speaker will be one of the most fascinating and tumultuous post-election events.... [I]t is a testament to the politics of our times that Paul Ryan, the most conservative Speaker in the history of the country, won't be conservative enough for a solid core of his own party in Congress, and is under siege from his party's presidential nominee and acolytes. And the dynamic in the House will be an early window into the Republican civil war that will follow if Trump loses." --safari

Beyond the Beltway

Ted Sherman & Matt Arco of NJ.com: "In terse and often testy questioning, prosecutors Tuesday challenged Bridget Anne Kelly's explanations for the incriminating emails that pulled her into the 2013 lane closure scandal at the George Washington Bridge. By turns defiant and at times near tears, Kelly insisted that the e-mails and text messages were at times a 'totally poor choice of words,' but were written quickly as banter amid what she thought was a legitimate traffic study at the bridge. She also contradicted the testimony of several prosecution witnesses.... Kelly said she went to [Gov. Chris] Christie a second and third time after the lane closures were put in play and [Fort Lee Mayor Mark] Sokolich suggested in messages to [then-Port Authority deputy director Bill] Baroni and to representatives of her office that he believed he was a victim of retribution. The governor told her to let [Port Authority employee David] Wildstein handle it, she said." -- CW ...

... "An Alternate Universe." Kate Zernike of the New York Times: Kelly "recalled watching Mr. Christie say in two news conferences that he had known nothing about the closings -- much less any intent to punish the mayor. When she tried to remind [Christie's chief-of-staff Kevin] O'Dowd and the governor that they, in fact, knew about the closings beforehand, she testified, they ignored her. Even in January 2014, when a subpoena revealed the incriminating email Ms. Kelly had written before the closings -- 'Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee' -- Mr. Christie and his aides were struggling to get their story straight. They found her a lawyer who assured her that everything was going to be fine and that they would find another job for her; then they fired her. (Ms. Kelly subsequently found another lawyer herself; Mr. Christie recently successfully nominated her original lawyer, Walter F. Timpone, to the state's highest court.)" -- CW

Kirk Johnson of the New York Times: "A federal jury indicated on Tuesday that it had reached a partial verdict in the trial of Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five of their followers, who face felony charges stemming from the armed takeover of a federal wildlife sanctuary in Oregon in January. But two separate notes, sent to the judge from the jury room in Federal District Court [in Portland, Oregon], also suggested that the panel was having trouble reaching consensus on all of the defendants -- apparently agreeing on three of the seven -- and that one juror, a former government employee, may have expressed bias to at least one other juror." -- CW

Megan Cassidy of the Arizona Republic: "Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was officially charged Tuesday with criminal contempt of court when a federal judge affixed her signature, a formality that throws the lawman's political and personal future into a level of crisis never before seen in his 23 years in office." -- CW

Discrimination Doesn't Pay. Zach Ford of Think Progress: "This week, North Carolina found out it is not getting 730 new jobs and a quarter-billion-dollar impact that it was the top contender for. The reason? Its anti-LGBT law, HB2, which bans trans people from using the bathroom and bars municipalities from protecting LGBT people from discrimination. CoStar Group Inc., a real estate analytics company, had been shopping around cities to build a new research operations headquarters... The Atlanta Business Chronicle heard from sources that Charlotte was the favorite. But the jobs are going to Richmond. According to David Dorsch, CoStar Group's commercial real estate broker, 'The primary reason they chose Richmond over Charlotte was HB2.'"--safari

Way Beyond

Misogyny International. Liz Ford of the Guardian: "Physical, sexual and psychological violence against female MPs is undermining democracy and efforts to end gender inequality, according to a study of parliamentarians around the world. More than 40% of female MPs interviewed by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) said they had received threats of death, rape, beatings or abduction while serving their terms, including threats to kidnap or kill their children. More than a fifth said they had been subjected to one or more acts of sexual violence and almost a third said they'd witnessed an attack on a colleague in parliament. Some 80% of MPs said they had been subjected to psychological violence -- hostile behaviour that causes fear or psychological harm. The survey sample used by the IPU was small -- interviews with 55 female MPs from 39 countries in five regions of the world...." -- CW

The Commentariat -- October 25, 2016

Afternoon Update:

More Lies. Guess Who? Jeremy Diamond, et al., of CNN: "Donald Trump claimed Tuesday during an event with staff at his resort here that his employees are having issues with Obamacare -- an account contradicted by his property's general manager -- amid the news that President Barack Obama's signature health care legislation is facing soaring premiums. 'I can say that all of my employees are having a tremendous problem with Obamacare,' Trump said. 'What they're going through with their health care is horrible because of Obamacare, so we'll repeal it and replace it.'... [BUT]...Clarifying Trump's remarks, the general manager of Trump's property in Doral, David Feder, said "99% of our employees are insured through our hotel. Akhilleus: I guess Trump Math allows one to describe anything under 1% as 100%. In fact, it's very likely that the remaining 1% don't get any kind of health insurance. They're probably all illegal immigrants. Just Trump's way of Making America Great again. Oh, and I'm guessing Mr. Feder will be looking for a new job by tonight.

*****

Presidential Race

Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump each launched fresh attacks against the other on Monday, signaling that harshly negative closing arguments may dominate the final two weeks of the campaign. Clinton's campaign tried to build on its case that Trump doesn't respect women, while Trump again questioned the integrity of the election process -- this time asserting that polls showing Clinton ahead across the country are 'phony' and 'rigged.'" -- CW

Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Weaponizing a debate-stage insult that has become a rallying cry for female supporters of Hillary Clinton, Senator Elizabeth Warren let fly a stern, swaggering warning on Monday to Donald J. Trump: 'Nasty women vote.' In a blistering rebuke of Mr. Trump, with Mrs. Clinton seated and smiling onstage beside her [in Manchester, N.H.,], Ms. Warren took furious aim at the Republican nominee's personal and political record, ticking off his history of disparaging remarks during the election and reminding the crowd of the many accusations of sexual assault against him. 'He thinks that because he has a mouthful of Tic Tacs that he can force himself on any woman within groping distance,' Ms. Warren said...." -- CW ...

New Jersey Star-Ledger Editors: "Clinton's sins are venial, and her flaws, as former Gov. Christie Whitman [R] put it, are within the norm in American politics. She has done nothing remotely illegal, and her paranoia may be largely explained by the baseless charges of her overheated critics. After several investigations into the deaths in Benghazi, Republicans hunting for Hillary's scalp came away with a whole lot of nothing. Trump's vow to throw her in prison is an unnerving reminder of his scorn for Constitutional restraint. In fact, we endorse Hillary Clinton not just because Trump is such a scary alternative, but because she is ready for this job, in experience and temperament. Her flaws are outweighed by her virtues, and it's not a close call." -- CW

Amy Chozick & Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "With polls and early voting data signaling that Mrs. Clinton is likely to prevail against Mr. Trump in two weeks, liberal Democrats are already looking past Election Day -- and relying on [Elizabeth] Warren to become the thorn in chief in Mrs. Clinton's side, scrutinizing her appointments and agenda. Mrs. Clinton has vowed that if elected she will work across the aisle with congressional Republicans, but relations with liberals, including Ms. Warren of Massachusetts and Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, could prove quite contentious." -- CW ...

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Sen. Bernie Sanders, a loyal soldier for Hillary Clinton since he conceded the Democratic presidential nomination in July, plans to push liberal legislation with like-minded senators with or without Clinton's support if she is elected -- and to aggressively oppose appointments that do not pass muster with the party's left wing. In an interview, Sanders said he and other senators have started plotting legislation that would achieve many of the proposals that fueled his insurgent run for president, including a $15 federal minimum wage, tuition-free public college, an end to 'mass incarceration' and aggressive steps to fight climate change." -- CW

By Driftglass.John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump warned Monday that his candidacy represents 'the kind of change that arrives only once in lifetime' and launched scattershot attacks against ... Hillary Clinton. 'She lies more than any human being,' Trump said of Clinton during a raucous rally in Tampa, his final stop during a day of campaigning in Florida, a must-win state for him.... During his evening rally in Tampa, Trump pointed toward the assembled press and said: 'These people are among the most dishonest people in the world, the media. They're trying to fix the election for Crooked Hillary.'" -- CW

Nikita Vladimirov of the Hill: "Donald Trump on Monday claimed he has been 'conceptually' endorsed by the military, despite the large number of military figures who have denounced him." CW: By "conceptually," I guess he means, "I think it; ergo, it's true."

It's Okay to Sexually Assault a Porn Star (But I'll Say I Didn't). Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "Donald Trump on Monday addressed the latest accusations of inappropriate sexual contact made against him, saying of the accuser, an adult film performer, 'Oh, I'm sure she's never been grabbed before.' At a news conference Saturday, Jessica Drake accused Trump of grabbing and kissing her without permission and offering her money to go up to his hotel room alone a decade ago. In an appearance on WGIR radio's "New Hampshire Today," Trump called the accusations against him 'total fiction.'" -- CW

The Cowardly Lawyers. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Alarmed by Donald J. Trump's record of filing lawsuits to punish and silence his critics, a committee of media lawyers at the American Bar Association commissioned a report on Mr. Trump's litigation history. The report concluded that Mr. Trump was a 'libel bully' who had filed many meritless suits attacking his opponents and had never won in court. But the bar association refused to publish the report, citing 'the risk of the A.B.A. being sued by Mr. Trump.'

"The Election Is Rigged, So Don't Bother to Vote." Sincerely, DJT. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "It's hard to suss out whether Trump's 'the vote is rigged' message is already tamping down the enthusiasm of his base, but in ABC's new poll, the number of Republicans who reported being likely to vote fell seven points since the Post-ABC poll released earlier this month.... Trump is ... relying heavily on strong turnout from a group of voters that generally doesn't turn out that much.... Telling them instead that the vote is rigged and, implicitly, that their votes may not count seems like the exact opposite of what he should be doing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Akhilleus: Trump's primary calling card has been his contention that he is a business and organizational genius on an order rarely seen, that there is nothing he can't fix. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. He's going Chapter 11 on his own campaign. This guy is so incompetent, he can't even do what is most necessary to win, GOTV. In fact, his big idea is to imply that votes won't matter. Loser or idiot? You make the call.

** Trumpgate -- How Donald Trump Framed Hillary Clinton

Step 1. Give a Criminal a "Charitable Grant." Josh Israel of Think Progress (Oct. 20): The Trump Foundation gave $10,000 to Project Veritas in May 2015.

Step 2. Assist in Dirty Tricks You Can Pretend Are Tied to Your Opponent. Hadas Gold of Politico: "A liberal activist and organizer coordinated with reporters from the conservative news site Breitbart during the primaries to cover his disruptions of events for candidates such as Sen. Marco Rubio. Aaron Black, an associate with Democracy Partners and a former Occupy Wall Street organizer, worked with the pro-Trump site Breitbart, tipping it off about his stunts, exchanging raw video and coordinating coverage, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation.... 'He worked directly with Breitbart's political team on the ground in the primary states to sabotage Marco Rubio & Ted Cruz, and elect Trump as nominee of [the Republican] party,' the source told Politico.... Black has resurfaced recently as one of the people featured in undercover video from the Project Veritas group.... Black in the video says he helped organize protests in Chicago that led to Trump's cancellation of a rally there in March...." ...

Step 3. Have the Criminal Secretly Videotape (and Edit!) the Dirty Tricks. (See Gold.)

Step 4. Accuse Your Opponent & Her Allies of Criminality (in a Maximum-Visibility Venue).

If you look at what came out today on the clips [by Project Veritas]. I was wondering what happened with my rally in Chicago and other rallies where we had such violence. She's the one, and Obama, that caused the violence. They hired people, they paid them $1,500, and they're on tape saying, be violent, cause fights, do bad things. When I saw what they did, which is a criminal act by the way, where they're telling people to go out and start fist-fights and start violence. In particular in Chicago people were hurt, and people could've been killed in that riot. And that was now all on tape started by her. -- Donald Trump, at the third president debate

... CW: Notice how Trump one-upped Nixon. Nixon had teams of dirty tricksters: most notably the Watergate burglars & the "Plumbers." Trump not only has a team of dirty tricksters; he also blames Clinton & President Obama for the dirty tricks his own team perpetrated. If there is criminality in this entire conspiracy, it starts with Donald Trump, who financed, coordinated & encouraged the activity as part of a long-running plot to undermine his opponents.

     ... Worse than Watergate? Not in toto, because the Watergate investigation morphed into exposing the crimes Nixon & his minions committed while he was in office. But worse than the original Watergate burglary? Yes, insofar as Trump arranged to have the dirty tricks "exposed," so he could try to pin the supposed criminal acts on the POTUS & Hillary Clinton. Remember, Trump's Russian allies already had committed the equivalent of the Watergate burglary -- the purpose of which was to steal the DNC's campaign documents-- when they hacked into numerous Democratic accounts, including the DNC's & John Podesta's. Unlike Nixon, who tried to cover up the Watergate burglary, Trump "openly and notoriously" encouraged the Russian hacks. The whole scheme is extraordinary.

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "A video posted on Monday by a British newspaper appeared to show a Republican consultant with ties to Donald J. Trump offering to disguise the source of contributions to a 'super PAC' intended to aid Mr. Trump's presidential campaign. In an accompanying article, the newspaper, The Telegraph, wrote that two of its reporters, posing as representatives of a Chinese national who supported Mr. Trump..., had proposed making a $2 million contribution in support of him. According to the newspaper, the G.O.P. consultant, Jesse Benton, had proposed routing the contribution through his own public relations firm and into nonprofit groups that do not disclose their donors, disguising the foreign source. The groups would then make the contribution to the super PAC, known as Great America PAC, or spend it to benefit Mr. Trump. United States law strictly forbids foreign nationals from making contributions to candidates, political parties or PACs.... Last month [Benton] was sentenced to two years of probation for his role in a 2012 scheme to make secret payments to an Iowa state senator in exchange for an endorsement [of Ron Paul for president]." ...

... CW: Lest we forget, "Benton is strongly associated with the Paul family, serving as a high-ranking staffer for both Ron Paul and Rand Paul. He is married to Ron Paul's granddaughter."

** Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Dana Milbank: "... We in the media made Trump possible in the first place and enjoyed the entertainment (and ratings) he provided for far too long. When the election ends -- if it ends -- there needs to be some newsroom soul-searching.... In general, watchdogs until recently were outnumbered in this election by those who cover politics as horse race, praising the maneuvers of whichever candidate is ahead in the polls. This avowedly neutral approach -- process journalism -- is apolitical. But it's also amoral -- a he-said-she-said approach that in this case confused tactics for truth and what works for what's right....

'It's the revenge of the elites,' Mark Halperin of Bloomberg Politics said ... on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe'.... 'Elites do not accept that that was an appropriate answer.' Host Joe Scarborough agreed that the issue was only of concern to 'people in newsrooms ... with their soy lattes.' Halperin (Harvard '87) went on to say that 'normal people won't care about that answer.'... 'Morning Joe' has come in for a large share of criticism for cheering on the rise of Trump. And contributor Halperin's praise for Trump's tactical genius has been particularly soulless. -- CW

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "The sickness in today's Republican Party is not confined to its current standard-bearer. It is therefore not curable by merely disavowing, however belatedly, the soon-to-be-defeated nominee. The sickness has taken over the Republican base, and there's only one antidote. If Republicans truly want to save the Republican Party, they need to go to war with right-wing media. That is, they need to dismantle the media machine persuading their base to believe completely bonkers, bigoted garbage.... When it comes to the paranoid, destructive excesses of right-wing media -- not just Fox News's headliners such as Sean Hannity, but also Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones -- Republican leaders have been somewhat more reluctant to condemn or even gently critique." -- CW

Here's the thing: Trump didn't come out of nowhere now. For years, Republican politicians and far-right media outlets have been pumping out all kinds of toxic, crazy stuff.... Donald Trump didn't start all this. Like he usually does, he just slapped his name on it, took credit for it, and promoted the heck out of it. -- President Obama, last Thursday ...

... Oliver Darcy & Pamela Engel of Business Insider: "Trump's rise was no accident; rather, it was a natural outgrowth of a growing and influential faction of conservative media that for years fed the Republican base a steady diet of fringe theories masqueraded as news. And Republicans allowed it to happen, as Obama noted. 'They just stood by and said nothing, even though they knew better, while their base actually started believing some of this stuff,' he said.... The president's remarks hit home for numerous Republican strategists and members of the traditional conservative press. Many of them felt that Obama, public enemy No. 1 over the past eight years, had been the one to accurately home in on the problem." -- CW ...

... Who's to Blame? -- the Chickens or the Eggers? Josh Barro of Business Insider: "... the Republican Party cannot be fixed through the taming of its most committed members' favorite media outlets. The popularity of figures who fill Republicans' heads with disinformation -- people like Sean Hannity and Alex Jones and Matt Drudge -- is mostly a symptom of the problems in the party, not a cause.... Wealthy conservatives favor lower taxes on themselves.... This ... is not a compelling electoral argument. So, conservatives built a network of think tanks and magazines and pressure groups funded by wealthy donors whose job was to come up with arguments that would sell the donor class agenda to the masses.... The conservative information sphere has long been full of lies.... If Republicans want to tell the truth and win elections, they're going to have to advance different policy ideas -- and that's why they lie." -- CW

More Media Notes! Must-Not-See TV. Issie Lapowsky of Wired: "Welcome to the Donald Trump show! [Monday night], the Trump campaign [kicked] off a show that will air on the candidate's Facebook page every night at 6:30 pm ET.... In [the] inaugural episode [the show's hosts] ... interview Trump campaign manager KellyAnne Conway and adviser Jason Miller. The series, which will stream Trump's rallies directly each night and feature pre-and post-event commentary, comes on the heels of the campaign's debate night Facebook Live last week, which brought in more than 9 million views. Members of the media quickly seized on the event, calling it a test drive for Trump TV...." -- CW ...

... Charley Lanyon of New York: "The live-stream -- modeled after a cable news network with similar graphics and a news ticker running at the bottom of the screen -- featured Trump campaign advisers Boris Epshteyn and Cliff Sims acting as hosts, interviewing Trump supporters such as campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, The Blaze's conservative commentator Tomi Lahren, and the Republican National Committee's communications director and chief strategist Sean Spicer. In between interviews and clips from Trump campaign ads, the hosts railed against the 'left-wing media' which Epshteyn explained 'screws everything up' and boasted that now they could reach viewers without bias or spin." -- CW

Trivial Pursuits. Jasmine Lee & Kevin Quealy of the New York Times have catalogued "Donald Trump's Twitter Insults: The Complete List (So Far)" since Trump declared his candidacy in June 2015. (Updated Oct. 23.) ...

... "Bigly"? No, no, it's "big league"! Transcribers & linguists agree. CW: Why, it's almost as if Trump speaks at a second-semester fifth-grade level, even if he drops his "g"s.

Election News

Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "PPP's newest North Carolina poll finds that Democrats are running up large leads already during early voting. Among those who say they've already voted, 63% say they cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton to only 37% for Donald Trump. Interestingly, less than half of a percent say they voted for Gary Johnson, which could be a sign that he won't end up getting that much more support than a normal third party candidate. The big Democratic advantage holds down ballot as well. Roy Cooper leads Pat McCrory 61-33 for Governor among those who have already voted, with Libertarian Lon Cecil at 1%. And Deborah Ross leads Richard Burr 52-34 for Senate, with Libertarian Sean Haugh at 7% among those who say they have already cast their ballots." -- CW ...

... Polling of likely North Carolina voters is considerably more grim. CW: Let's hope Trump keeps depressing the GOP vote.

** Vanessa Williams of the Washington Post: "A growing conflict over voting rights and ballot access is playing out in Georgia, where civil rights activists are trading accusations with Republican elected officials and where the stakes have risen considerably with the state's new status as a closely watched battleground. Activists said this month that as many as 100,000 Georgia ­voter-registration applications have not been processed. One of the state's largest counties offered only one early-voting site, prompting hours-long waits for many people at the polls last week. And the state's top election official has refused to extend voter-registration deadlines in counties hardest hit by Hurricane Matthew." ...

     ... CW: Thanks, Supremes! Georgia is one of the states that is off the hook now because of the confederate Supremes gutting the Voting Rights Act in 2013.

Early Voting in Nevada Goes to Democrats. James Hohmann of the Washington Post. "The media tends to focus on the lack of enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton relative to President Obama, which is real, but a few thousand more ballots were cast in Nevada on Saturday -- during the first day of early voting -- than during the kickoff day four years ago, when there was a similar flurry of activity to propel Democrats to the polls. And that was before Air Force One touched down yesterday afternoon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Akhilleus: Block parties for Voto Latino, door to door canvassing, hitting the unions and the churches, Getting.Out.The.Vote. This is how it's done, Donnie, not whining about how it's all so unfair and screaming "rigged election"! Another example of how he does business. He shoots his mouth off but the only action you'll see from Trump is him trying to grope strange women. But this is yet another reason anti-democratic Confederates want to kill expansion of electoral opportunities like early voting. ...

     ... CW: As Nate Silver pointed out in a post also linked yesterday, "Nevada is one of a number of states where Democrats usually do better in early voting than in the vote overall, so this shouldn't be taken to mean that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto, are going to win their races by double digits." ...

... BUT. Ben Botkin of the Las Vegas Review-Journal: "Hillary Clinton is pulling away from Donald Trump in Nevada with early voting underway, according to a poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Clinton ... has a 7-point lead over GOP nominee Donald Trump, 48 percent to 41 percent. Libertarian Gary Johnson has 6 percent support. Four percent of voters are undecided and 1 percent support someone else or no candidate." CW: No doubt this will all change when polling reflects Sheldon Adelson's Review-Journal endorsement of the Trumpenmogul.

     CW BTW: Today was the first day for early voting in Florida, & when friends & I went this morning, the line was about two people long. Not only that, we were at the only polling place in Fort Myers. A lady I chatted with came over from Cape Coral, which is GOP territory, "because the lines were too long there." Extremely anecdotal, to be sure, but not a great sign, particularly because our polling place is in about the only Democratic-leaning area in Southwest Florida.

Other News & Views

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Premiums for midlevel health plans under the Affordable Care Act will increase by an average of 25 percent next year, while consumers in some states will find significantly fewer insurance companies offering coverage, the federal government said Monday. But the Obama administration said three-fourths of consumers would still be able to find plans for less than $100 a month with the help of federal subsidies." -- CW

Lauren Fox of TPM: "Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he is confident that he has laid the groundwork for Democrats to nuke the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees if they win back the Senate in November.... Reid warned that if a Senate Republican minority block [Clinton's] Supreme Court nominee, he is confident the party won't hesitate to change the filibuster rules again. Such a move would be an extension of what Reid did in 2013 when he was still majority leader, eliminating filibusters (with a simple majority vote) on the President's nominees. There was only one exception: the Supreme Court.... Reid said, however, that could change. 'I really do believe that I have set the Senate so when I leave, we're going to be able to get judges done with a majority...,' Reid told TPM in a wide-ranging interview about his time in the Senate and his legacy." ...

     ... CW: Hold your nose & vote for the Democrat even if he's a jerk. I'm talking to you, Indianans. (See Bayh, Birch.)

Reed Abelson of the New York Times: The AARP Monday filed "a federal lawsuit against the government agency that handles the rules on ... so-called wellness programs.... The suit ... argues that the programs violate anti-discrimination laws aimed at protecting workers' medical information. It also questions whether the programs are truly voluntary when the price of not participating can be high. The target of the suit is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency responsible for issuing the rules governing what employers can do." -- CW

How to Make a Maligned Institution Scummier. David Cloud of the Los Angeles Times: "Short of troops to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan a decade ago, the California National Guard enticed thousands of soldiers with bonuses of $15,000 or more to reenlist and go to war. Now the Pentagon is demanding the money back. Nearly 10,000 soldiers, many of whom served multiple combat tours, have been ordered to repay large enlistment bonuses -- and slapped with interest charges, wage garnishments and tax liens if they refuse -- after audits revealed widespread overpayments by the California Guard at the height of the wars last decade." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Akhilleus: The Bush Cheney Debacle keeps on screwing Americans. Hey, if the Pentagon is demanding that soldiers who signed up to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan pay back sign up bonuses, why can't those soldiers demand that the Pentagon give them back their legs, arms, eyes, and mental health they forfeited to make George W. Bush forget that he was a deserter? ...

     ... UPDATE: Cristiano Lima "Hillary Clinton [and other political leaders] slammed the California National Guard and Pentagon on Monday for reportedly demanding solders who fought in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan a decade ago to return enlistment bonuses they received for their service." -- CW

What Unites Us. Dan Zak of the Washington Post: "... Tom Hanks ... pulled off the best political sketch of the year.... 'Saturday Night Live' has staged its 'Black Jeopardy' sketch a few times before, pitting its African American cast members against white guest hosts who can't overcome their own whiteness to answer clues about black culture and jargon. This time, though, the white contestant -- a Trump supporter named Doug played by Hanks -- proved to be surprisingly adept at 'Black Jeopardy'"

Beyond the Beltway

Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "The Virginia Board of Health voted Monday to scrap hospital-style building codes for all abortion clinics, saying that they were unconstitutional under a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The board had signaled months ago that it would lift the requirements for 14 existing clinics but impose them on any new ones. But in an 11-to-4 vote Monday, it decided that the construction requirements should not apply to any of the state's clinics. The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling in June that struck down abortion-clinic regulations in Texas. It also fulfills a central campaign promise of Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who said during the 2013 campaign that he would be a 'brick wall' against abortion restrictions." -- CW

Angela Couloumbis & Craig R. McCoy of philliy.com: "Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane was sentenced Monday to 10 to 23 months in jail for orchestrating an illegal news leak to damage a political enemy, capping a spectacular downfall for a woman once seen as one of the state's fastest-rising stars.... A tearful Kane pleaded for leniency, urging the judge to consider the impact on her sons", to no avail. -- CW

Claude Brodesser-Akner of NJ.com: "A top Democrat said Monday the law firm hired by Gov. Chris Christie to conduct a state-funded investigation of the Bridgegate scandal should refund $8 million to New Jersey taxpayers, saying she is 'infuriated' by court testimony contradicting its findings. 'It is a legal question as to whether we can compel them to refund the money,' state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) told NJ Advance Media. 'But at the least, we are going to demand that they refund it first. This is a big deal. Those millions should go to programs for women's health, for education, that we've had to cut.'" -- CW