The Commentariat -- Sept. 25, 2016

This Is Heartbreaking. Richard Fausset, et al., of the New York Times: "Under mounting pressure from politicians, community leaders and boisterous protesters who have brought this city's main business district to a near-standstill, the Charlotte police chief on Saturday released body and dashboard camera videos of the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, a black resident here. While they do not show everything that happened at the scene, the two released videos appear to show Mr. Scott exiting a white sport-utility vehicle, and backing away from it with his hands at his sides. He did not appear to be acting in a threatening or erratic manner. The police said they had recovered a loaded gun with Mr. Scott's DNA on it, and that he wore an ankle holster. But they did not reveal where they recovered the gun. It was clear from the two angles that he had nothing in his right hand. It was unclear what, if anything, Mr. Scott, who was right-handed, had in his left hand. After Mr. Scott was shot multiple times and fell to the ground, his moans could be heard as officers handcuffed him." Includes video. ...

... CW: No wonder the police didn't want to release the video. This was an unwarranted, unjust killing at the hands of those whose duty it is to protect us.

*****

Presidential Race

Dan Balz & Scott Clement of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will meet Monday night for their first debate in a virtual dead heat in the race for the White House, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.... Likely voters split 46 percent for Clinton and 44 percent for Trump, with Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson at 5 percent and Green Party nominee Jill Stein at 1 percent. Among registered voters, Clinton and Trump are tied at 41 percent, with Johnson at 7 percent and Stein at 2 percent.... Some other national polls currently show Clinton with a slightly larger lead, but on balance, the pre-debate survey averages show the margin in the race in low single digits." CW: The Post team led by Michael Kranish, in a report linked below, detail Trump's "dystopian views" of the state of the country. I too hold a "dystopian view." We live in a country where half the people are at the least ignorant & irresponsible, & at the worst horrible human beings. Until now, that's been a rumor or a "feeling"; now, it's a certainty.

Very "Presidential". David Ferguson of RawStory: "Gennifer Flowers -- a woman with whom former Pres. Bill Clinton had an extramarital affair -- has announced that she is accepting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's invitation to sit in the front row of Monday night's presidential debate. BuzzFeed News reported Saturday that Trump posted on Twitter that he would like to see Ms. Flowers in the audience on Monday. Within hours, Flowers announced that she would be happy to be there. The move by the Trump team appears to indicate that Trump will be bringing up former Pres. Clinton's marital infidelities in an attempt to humiliate Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton at some point during the debate." --safari note: What to do when your candidate is a know-nothing, bombastic moron? Fight dirty. This moves reeks of an Ailes-Gingrich-Breitbert fever dream. How low can you go? We're about to see. ...

... Chas Danner of New York: "Trump threatened, via Twitter, to invite Gennifer Flowers to Monday night's presidential debate in response to the news that the Clinton campaign had invited billionaire and vocal Trump critic Mark Cuban.... The Trump campaign released a negative ad earlier this week featuring footage of the Clintons being interviewed about the affair with Flowers...." In his tweet, Trump misspelled Flowers' name but later revised it. CW: As safari wrote, "very 'presidential.'" ...

... Steve M.: "This is said to be all Hillary Clinton's fault: 'Remember, if you're grossed out by Trump inviting Gennifer Flowers to the debate: Clinton kicked off this bit of trolling by inviting Cuban' -- Edward-Isaac Dovere, [in a tweet].... Of course, Cuban and Flowers are not analogous -- Cuban did not have an affair with Trump's spouse. (As far as we know!).... The only risk is that idiot journalists -- the Chuck Todds, the Mark Halperins -- will think it's a good move.... But I don't think the public will respond well. And if it's just a matter of Flowers sitting mutely in the audience, and later giving an interview to Sean Hannity afterward that will be watched exclusively by people who are already certain to vote for Trump, it won't matter at all." -- CW ...

     ... Update. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Mike Pence insisted Sunday that Gennifer Flowers ... would not be attending Monday's debate, despite Donald Trump's invitation." -- CW ...

... Amie Parnes of the Hill: "Hillary Clinton supporters see a double standard when it comes to Monday's presidential debate, which for the first time will feature a woman debating a man. Throughout the campaign, Clinton has faced questions and criticisms that would not be asked or made to a male candidate, her allies say. The jabs have come even Clinton surrogates such as former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, who this week said he'd like to see Clinton 'smile more' in the debate. The comment left ClintonWorld shaking its collective head." -- CW ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM thinks Trump will have a hard time winning a two person debate, perhaps because he'll say something outrageous, but more likely because he can't answer policy questions in any convincing detail, & his one-line non-answers will reveal to viewers he's not up to the job he seeks. -- CW ...

... Marshall's view jibes with safari's commentary in today's thread (which safari wrote before I linked Marshall's post). Also see Kate M.'s suggestions today for Hillary's guest list.

Roger Angell of the New Yorker: "I am late weighing in on this election -- late in more ways than one. Monday brought my ninety-sixth birthday, and, come November, I will be casting my nineteenth ballot in a Presidential election.... My country faces a danger unmatched in our history since the Cuban missile crisis, in 1962, or perhaps since 1943, when the Axis powers held most of Continental Europe, and Imperial Japan controlled the Pacific rim, from the Aleutians to the Solomon Islands, with the outcome of that war still unknown...The first debate impends, and the odds that Donald Trump may be elected President appear to be narrowing. I will cast my own vote for Hillary Clinton with alacrity and confidence." Angell goes on to explain, through his historical experience, why Trump is so dangerous. Worth the read. -safari

** The New York Times Editors endorse Hillary Clinton for president: In any normal election year, we'd compare the two presidential candidates side by side on the issues. But this is not a normal election year. A comparison like that would be an empty exercise in a race where one candidate -- our choice, Hillary Clinton -- has a record of service and a raft of pragmatic ideas, and the other, Donald Trump, discloses nothing concrete about himself or his plans while promising the moon and offering the stars on layaway. (We will explain in a subsequent editorial why we believe Mr. Trump to be the worst nominee put forward by a major party in modern American history." CW: Read it.

By Driftglass.

Michael Kranish, et al., of the Washington Post: "An examination by The Washington Post of one week of Trump's speeches, tweets and interviews show a candidate who not only continues to rely heavily on thinly sourced or entirely unsubstantiated claims but also uses them to paint a strikingly bleak portrait of an impoverished America, overrun by illegal immigrants, criminals and terrorists -- all designed to set up his theme that he is specially suited to 'make America great again.'... Trump doubled down during the past week on some of his most controversial and debunked statements and made surprising new ones." The reporters detail a week of Trumpbull.-- CW

"A Week of Whoppers." Maggie Haberman & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has unleashed a blizzard of falsehoods, exaggerations and outright lies in the general election, peppering his speeches, interviews and Twitter posts with untruths so frequent that they can seem flighty or random — even compulsive. However, a closer examination, over the course of a week, revealed an unmistakable pattern: Virtually all of Mr. Trump's falsehoods directly bolstered a powerful and self-aggrandizing narrative depicting him as a heroic savior for a nation menaced from every direction. Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist, described the practice as creating 'an unreality bubble that he surrounds himself with.'" The reporters "assembled a list of his 31 biggest whoppers, many of them uttered repeatedly." -- CW

Michael Finnegan of the Los Angeles Times: "Never in modern presidential politics has a major candidate made false statements as routinely as Trump has. Over and over, independent researchers have examined what the Republican nominee says and concluded it was not the truth -- but 'pants on fire' (PolitiFact) or 'four Pinocchios' (Washington Post Fact Checker).... And he is dogged in refusing to stop saying things once they are proved untrue.... At a time of deep public mistrust of the news media, the arbitration of statements of fact, long seen as one of reporters' most basic duties, runs the risk of being perceived as partisan bias. But so does the shirking of that role." -- CW

Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: Politico "subjected every statement made by both the Republican and Democratic candidates -- in speeches, in interviews and on Twitter -- to our magazine's rigorous fact-checking process. The conclusion is inescapable: Trump's mishandling of facts and propensity for exaggeration so greatly exceed Clinton's as to make the comparison almost ludicrous.... According to Politico's five-day analysis Trump averaged about one falsehood every three minutes and 15 seconds over nearly five hours of remarks. In raw numbers, that's 87 erroneous statements in five days." -- CW

CW: These stories are all placed prominently on the sites' main pages.

"Philanthropy" Trump style: in name only. John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "Trump's charitable giving has now become a campaign issue, largely due to a series of Post articles written by David Fahrenthold and his colleagues.... So what is the bottom line? Even including the $1 million Trump donated to veterans earlier this year (after prodding from Fahrenthold), the public records indicate that, over the past quarter of a century, he has given away less than $5 million of his own money. According to his own estimate, he is worth in excess of $10 billion. If we take him at his word, that means his charitable contributions come to about 0.05 per cent of his fortune, or five cents for every $100...Trump likes to portray of himself as a great philanthropist, and the numbers simply don't justify that image." --safari

Rebecca Morin of Politico: "Before Donald Trump mocked Hillary Clinton's postponement of a planned trip to Charlotte, the GOP nominee had nixed his own initial plans to visit the North Carolina city beset by protests after a fatal police shooting of an African-American man. Trump's visit was in 'preliminary stages' when he spoke with North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory on Thursday and they agreed to delay the visit, according to a GOP party official." CW: As Politico reported (see yesterday's Commentariat), "Donald Trump ... accus[ed] his opponent of trying to 'grandstand' and call[ed] her initial decision to go to Charlotte 'dumb.'" So he did what she did, but when she did it, it was "grandstanding" & "dumb."

From a 5-part piece by Der Spiegel: "Whoever emerges victorious in the election on Nov. 8 will likely be the president-elect with the least amount of popular support since World War II. The loser will presumably speak of a conspiracy and complain of the numerous untruths that poisoned the campaign. The phenomenon of Donald Trump, who can trace his roots back 131 years ago to the village of Kallstadt, near Mannheim, will certainly not be the end of this toxic development. He likely won't even be its apex.

Liars, after all, are no longer on the political fringe." -- unwashed

Other News & Views

Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "Republican lawmakers are under increasing fire for racially insensitive comments after the fatal police shootings of black men sparked unrest in two states. Remarks by Reps. Robert Pittenger (N.C.), Tim Huelskamp (Kan.), Steve King (Iowa) and ex-Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.), the GOP's vice-presidential nominee, underscored to some observers Republicans' tone-deafness on issues of race in a year of unprecedented attention to police bias against African-Americans.... [Pence said] that it is offensive to police to talk about 'institutional racism and institutional bias' after fatal shootings. Donald Trump and I believe there's been far too much of this talk,' Pence said while campaigning in Colorado. Trump's campaign has become increasingly identified with racially divisive comments." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Paige Cornwell, et al., of the Seattle Times: "The search continued Saturday morning for the gunman who fatally shot five people Friday night in the Cascade Mall in Burlington.... The victims[four of them female,] identities have not been released, but authorities say they ranged from a teen to seniors. The suspect was described as a Hispanic male in his late teens to mid-20s with a close-shaved haircut. He used a long gun similar to a hunting rifle.... This marks Washington's seventh mass shooting with at least four people shot this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Most recently, three people were shot dead at a house party in Mukilteo n July." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update. Jessica Lee, et al., of the Seattle Times: "Tips and surveillance video led to the arrest of a 20-year-old Oak Harbor man in connection with Friday's deadly shooting at the Cascade Mall, authorities said Saturday night. The suspect, identified as Arcan Cetin, was arrested Saturday evening as he walked along a street in Oak Harbor. Cetin will be turned over to the Skagit County Sheriff's Office, according to Island County authorities." -- CW

Way Beyond

Jonathan Watts & Sibylla Brodzinsky of the Guardian: "In their 52-year fight against the Colombian state, Farc rebels used assault rifles, shrapnel-filled gas canisters, homemade landmines and mortar shells.... Those weapons are now set to be silenced forever as part of a historic peace deal with the government, to be signed on Monday...Like many other Marxist and Maoist followers of the 'armed struggle', the Farc were inspired by the audacious exploits of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara...In the 1960s and 70s, guerrilla groups sprang up in every country in the region except Costa Rica...[M]any turned to the ballot box after the restoration of democracy in much of Latin America in the 1980s took away much of their raison d’etre...The longest-enduring groups, however, are in Peru, and Colombia -- all countries that are not coincidentally centres of drug production and smuggling, which is a source of funds and guns." Includes good historical review of Latin American guerilla movements and the holdouts still active today. --safari

Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Ashifa Kassam of the Guardian: "A small town in Ontario, Canada, has prompted fresh scrutiny of the bottled-water industry after its attempt secure a long-term water supply through the purchase of a well was outbid by the food and drinks multinational Nestlé.... Nestlé Canada currently has permits that allow it to extract up to 4.7m litres of water a day from sources in Ontario.... Last month, after a severe drought triggered questions about the millions of litres a day of water being sold to bottled-water companies in the province, Kathleen Wynne, Ontario's premier, promised a government review into the practice." --safari

Alejandro Dávil Fragoso of ThinkProgress: "Dozens of native tribes from Canada and the United Stateshave joined forces against Alberta's tar sands crude oil transport with the signing of a treaty Thursday. Calling for a clean and sustainable economy, tribes said any further pipeline or rail development for Canadian tar sands puts indigenous territories and waterways at serious risk to toxic spills." --safari

The Commentariat -- Sept. 24, 2016

Afternoonish Update:

Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "Republican lawmakers are under increasing fire for racially insensitive comments after the fatal police shootings of black men sparked unrest in two states.Remarks by Reps. Robert Pittenger (N.C.), Tim Huelskamp (Kan.), Steve King (Iowa) and ex-Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.), the GOP's vice-presidential nominee, underscored to some observers Republicans' tone-deafness on issues of race in a year of unprecedented attention to police bias against African-Americans.... [Pence said] that it is offensive to police to talk about 'institutional racism and institutional bias' after fatal shootings. Donald Trump and I believe there's been far too much of this talk,' Pence said while campaigning in Colorado. Trump's campaign has become increasingly identified with racially divisive comments." -- CW

Paige Cornwell, et al., of the Seattle Times: "The search continued Saturday morning for the gunman who fatally shot five people Friday night in the Cascade Mall in Burlington.... The victims[four of them female,] identities have not been released, but authorities say they ranged from a teen to seniors. The suspect was described as a Hispanic male in his late teens to mid-20s with a close-shaved haircut. He used a long gun similar to a hunting rifle.... This marks Washington’s seventh mass shooting with at least four people shot this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Most recently, three people were shot dead at a house party in Mukilteo in July." -- CW

*****

Presidential Race

Annie Karni of Politico: Ahead of Monday's debate, the candidates poke at each other's weak spots. CW: We know Clinton will come prepared with e-mail answers, none of which so far has been either convincing or smoothly delivered. (Maybe Bernie Sanders should have pressed her on that matter. We know Trump will respond to questions about what he called "my facts" with other deranged TrumpFacts. The biggest question is how Lester Holt will handle the candidates. Unless Trump pulls a Trumpertantrum, & he is being coached not to do that, or challenges Clinton to reveal her testosterone level (his is "good," according to Dr. Oz), it seems quite likely that the press will judge him the winner. ...

... Patrick Healy, et al., of the New York Times on how the candidates are preparing. The Trump dry-runs are pretty funny. -- CW ...

... Tina Nguyen of Vanity Fair: "Judging from virtually every story that has been published about Donald Trump's presidential-debate prep, the Republican nominee is basically just going to wing the entire thing.... Loose-lipped Trump sources are whispering to the media that Trump's unstructured debate practice time includes the candidate sitting in a circle of top advisors who 'throw questions at him,' and failed attempts to get Trump to learn from his past mistakes.... With the momentum seemingly behind Trump, who polls have shown closing in on Clinton in recent weeks, the press is primed to declare him the winner if he manages to turn in a serviceable performance." -- CW ...

... ** Lisa Barrett, in a New York Times op-ed: "When Hillary Clinton participated in a televised forum on national security and military issues this month... , [RNC chair] Reince Priebus tweeted that she was 'angry and defensive the entire time -- no smile and uncomfortable.' Mrs. Clinton, evidently undaunted by Mr. Priebus's opinion on when she should and shouldn't smile, tweeted back, 'Actually, that's just what taking the office of president seriously looks like.'... This is a classic example of a psychological phenomenon that my lab has studied: how people perceive emotion differently in men's and women's faces. It's something for Americans to consider as they watch the first debate between Mrs. Clinton and Donald J. Trump on Monday." Read on.

Nolan McCaskill & Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Hillary Clinton's campaign announced late Friday that it was postponing a trip by the Democratic nominee to Charlotte scheduled for Sunday. 'After further discussion with community leaders, we have decided to postpone Sunday's trip as not to impact the City's resources,' Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri wrote in a statement. 'She will plan to visit Charlotte next Sunday, provided circumstances allow.' The rescheduling comes after Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts made a public plea to Clinton and Donald Trump to delay any campaign trips to the city in light of their 'very stressed resources.' Clinton's campaign had announced the trip earlier Friday.... Donald Trump ... accus[ed] his opponent of trying to 'grandstand' and call[ed] her initial decision to go to Charlotte 'dumb.'" -- CW

Eric Levitz of New York: "Clinton Reveals Plan to Reduce the Trump Children's Inheritance.... Taken together..., [Clinton's] proposals would generate $260 billion over the next decade, which Clinton would use to finance some tax cuts on small businesses and an expansion of the child tax credit. (The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan entity that urges fiscal restraint, says that her math checks out). Donald Trump, by contrast, has proposed repealing the estate tax entirely -- a policy that would ostensibly provide Trump's kids with an extra $4 billion in inheritance (assuming he is worth what he claims to be)." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Drip, Drip. Your Friday Afternoon Docudump. Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "A computer specialist who maintained Hillary Clinton's private email server while she was secretary of state told the FBI that fellow State Department officials had expressed concerns to him about whether the system was properly retaining public records, according to newly released documents from the now-completed [FBI] inquiry. Bryan Pagliano, a former Clinton campaign aide who set up and maintained the server..., said that some agency officials had asked him in late 2009 or early 2010 to convey to Clinton's 'inner circle' that her use of a private server could pose a 'federal records retention issue,' the documents show. In response, Pagliano said, chief of staff Cheryl Mills told him that other secretaries of state, notably Clinton's predecessor Colin Powell, had also used private email, according to the documents.... Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the immunity agreements [the FBI granted Pagliano & Mills] showed that Clinton's email use was 'without a doubt a criminal scheme.'" -- CW ...

... Josh Gerstein & Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "President Barack Obama used a pseudonym in email communications with Hillary Clinton and others, according to FBI records made public Friday.... The interviews [revealed in the FBI docudump] provide more insight into Clinton's lack of technical acumen. According to the FBI's [Huma] Abedin writeup, she 'could not use a computer'; [Monica] Hanley[, a long-time Clinton aide] said Clinton had no idea what her own email password was, and had to rely on aides." -- CW ...

... Rachel Bade of Politico: "The revelation that several Hillary Clinton staffers received partial immunity in the FBI email probe set off another round of partisan fireworks on Friday: Republicans said they're increasingly convinced the Justice Department mishandled the investigation and Democrats accused the GOP of stoking the issue for maximum political damage in the heat of the presidential campaign.... Republicans were also incensed that the immunity deals, which now cover five Clinton staffers at the heart of the controversy, did not require witnesses to cooperate with Congress.... [House Republicans] only learned on Friday of the arrangements with [Clinton aides] ... and almost immediately disclosed them to the AP, which first reported the story.... Democrats also blasted [the House] Oversight [Committee] for failing to make clear earlier Friday that [aides Cheryl] Mills' and [Heather] Sameuelson's immunity was only 'partial,' meaning it only protected them from any criminal charges that might have arisen from scopes of their laptops -- not their statements to the FBI." -- CW

... Drippitty, Drip, Drip. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday ordered the State Department to finish preparing roughly 1,000 pages of Hillary Clinton's emails for release by Nov. 4, a more protracted timetable that means the bulk of Mrs. Clinton’s emails that were uncovered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation will not be released until after the election.... Under the order issued on Friday, in a lawsuit brought by the conservative group, Judicial Watch, the State Department will release 350 pages of emails by Oct. 7, 350 pages by Oct. 21, and another 350 by Nov. 4." -- CW

Cincinnati Enquirer Editors: "The Enquirer has supported Republicans for president for almost a century -- tradition this editorial board doesn't take lightly. But this is not a traditional race, and these are not traditional times. Our country needs calm, thoughtful leadership to deal with the challenges we face at home and abroad. We need a leader who will bring out the best in all Americans, not the worst. That's why there is only one choice when we elect a president in November: Hillary Clinton." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "U.S. intelligence officials are seeking to determine whether [Carter Page,] an American businessman identified by Donald Trump as one of his foreign policy advisers, has opened up private communications with senior Russian officials -- including talks about the possible lifting of economic sanctions if the Republican nominee becomes president, according to multiple sources who have been briefed on the issue." -- CW ...

... Molly O'Toole & Elias Groll of Foreign Policy: Isikoff's "report is only the latest in a series to suggest that the Trump campaign, and especially his aides, have some interest in boosting chummy ties with Moscow. But now, with an ongoing federal investigation, the Page revelations provide the strongest hint yet at negotiations with Russian officials, and drop a bombshell into the 2016 campaign just days ahead of the first presidential debate on Monday." The report compiles a list of Trump & his campaign's known pro-Russia comments & ties. -- CW ...

... CW: So what's worse? -- A sloppy secretary of state who uses what was supposed to be a private e-mail account for public business, as a predecessor had done? Or a greedy presidential candidate who hopes to use the presidency to bend U.S. foreign policy toward an anti-American country for the purpose of making gobs of money for himself & his cohort?

Jonathan Chait: Two surveys, taken together, show "that Donald Trump has not been 'normalized.' Most Americans see him as a racist would-be authoritarian who is highly likely to start a nuclear war. The trouble is, some voters apparently like that in a president." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Dana Milbank: "In the days since I wrote that Hillary Clinton wasn't necessarily wrong to say that half of Trump's supporters are racists and other 'deplorables,' the response has been, well, deplorable. Milbank provides "a sampling of the thousands of emails and social media replies.... I reprint this small sample of the nastygrams not to ruin your next meal but because the half of Trump supporters who aren't motivated by prejudice, and the few voters who remain genuinely undecided, should be aware of the bigotry that Trump has brought into the open -- and that those who vote for Trump are condoning." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: Donald Trump's "rhetoric about black communities reinforces stereotypes about black people, and little else. Like much of what comes out of Trump's mouth, his 'outreach' to black voters is full of lies and exaggerations.... His speeches do not characterize white communities in the same way. On the contrary, he consistently tells white voters that their problems are the result of a 'rigged system' and the machinations of corrupt elites.... Trump has taken racist beliefs about black Americans -- the idea that blacks are violent, uneducated, unemployed criminals -- and repackaged them as expressions of concern about the problems of crime, poverty, and education." -- CW

** Everything You Need to Know about Donald Trump in One Anecdote. Gail Collins: In the 1980s, Trump "acquired a promising 2-year-old racehorse named Alibi." He immediately changed toe colt's name to D.J. Trump. "John O'Donnell, a former Trump casino president, wrote that the colt fell apart when Trump insisted, despite the trainer's objections, that Alibi be worked out even though a virus was going through his barn. O'Donnell claimed Alibi got very sick as a result -- so ill he eventually had to have some of his hooves amputated and was retired. Then, O'Donnell said, Trump announced that he was not buying a defective animal and backed out of the sale." ...

... CW: Reportedly, Gail Collins' long-running meme about Mitt Romney's dog Seamus -- forced to ride on long trips on the roof of the car -- changed votes. A Dogs Against Romney online group formed. I recall seeing a photo of a policeman stopping an anti-Romney motorist with a fake Seamus-on-the-roof because the officer thought the car really did have a dog on the roof. Compared to the Trump, Romney seems like a candidate for a PETA award. The New York Times & other news outlets should dedicate reporters to verifying O'Donnell's story. I'm not kidding. Donald Trump, in his flagrant arrogance & ignorance, would run this country to ruin, just as he did Alibi. And he wouldn't pay a dime for it.

Well, what happened was, after the show, he came out and was just standing there. So I said, 'Mr. Trump, a picture?' And he said, 'You betcha. Just give me a minute.' Then he turns and walks down the hall, all the way to the other end, and gets on the elevator. 'Just give me a minute,' and then he leaves the building. It was hilarious, like a Buster Keaton movie or something. -- Norm MacDonald, on meeting Donald Trump after they both did the Jimmy Fallon show last week

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Frustration is growing within Donald Trump's campaign over the Republican nominee's yawning money gap with ... Hillary Clinton -- just as the presidential race heads into its final fall stretch. Trump's top advisers have held a series of tense conversations in recent days about how to close a fundraising hole that's grown to over $200 million -- a deficit that's led Trump to essentially cede the TV airwaves to his Democratic rival.... The shortfall is putting Trump at a substantial disadvantage during the remaining few weeks of the campaign, as focus shifts to the clinical -- and costly -- process of bringing voters out to the polls." -- CW

Ed Kilgore: Ted Cruz is reportedly mulling an endorsement of Donald Trump, because he thinks it would be good for the country Ted Cruz. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update. "I'm Voting for a Pathological Liar." -- Ted Cruz. Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Senator Ted Cruz said on Friday that he would vote for Donald J. Trump for president, two months after Mr. Cruz pointedly declined to endorse his former rival in a speech at the Republican National Convention. 'After many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump,' Mr. Cruz wrote in a statement on Facebook.... Mr. Cruz said he had based his decision on two factors: a prior pledge to support the Republican nominee -- which Mr. Cruz said in July had been 'abrogated' by Mr. Trump's personal attacks on him -- and his desire to defeat Hillary Clinton.... Mr. Cruz's statement went beyond the perfunctory, praising the policy aims and recent campaign promises of a man he once called a 'pathological liar.'... On Friday, Mr. Trump said he was 'greatly honored' to have the backing of a 'tough and brilliant opponent.'" CW: As Kilgore predicted, Cruz made his non-endorsement endorsement as obscure as possible: on Facebook, on Friday afternoon. ...

... That Was Then; This Is Now. Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn of Mother Jones: "Today, Cruz argues that he's voting for Trump because Hillary Clinton is 'manifestly unfit' to be president. "If Clinton wins, we know -- with 100% certainty — that she would deliver on her left-wing promises, with devastating results for our country," he wrote in his announcement. Seems like only yesterday when Cruz tweeted: 'Flexibility is a good thing, but you shouldn't be flexible on core principles.'" -- CW ...

... Steve M.: "... does this mean that Trumpism is now the undisputed ideology of the Republican Party? Not really. The Republican Party has the same ideology it's had for years, one that can be summed up in one sentence: Democrats are the Antichrist. Foolish pundits, and even politicians like Cruz, think there's more to Republicanism than that, but there isn't. Trumpism is dominant right now because Trump seems like the person who can most effectively cause pain to Democrats, and to the right's other enemies (non-whites, non-conservative women, gay people, climate scientists, etc.).... I think he really thought there'd be a post-November ideological battle, when, really, all there'll be is a contest for who can be nastiest to Democrats." -- CW ...

... Aaron Blake lists "9 truly awful things Ted Cruz & Donald Trump said about each other." One of the reasons Ted gave for not endorsing Trump -- even after the GOP convention -- was this: "I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father.... "That pledge [to support the nominee] was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander my wife that I am going to come like a servile puppy dog for maligning my wife and maligning my father.'" So now that Ted has broken his "principled habit," here's hoping Heidi & Rafael are finding it right comfy under that bus. ...

The Anointed One. Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It's everyone who's ever doubted Donald, who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him. It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe. -- Omarosa Manigault, Trump's African-American outreach director

(... CW: Must be true. Even Ted Not-a-Servile-Puppy-Dog Cruz has at last bowed down to the Emperor Trump. ...)

** Matea Gold & Anu Narayanswamy of the Washington Post: "Corey Lewandowski is set to be paid nearly half a million dollars by Donald Trump's presidential campaign by the end of the year, with almost a quarter of his compensation coming after the controversial political operative was ousted in June as campaign manager. Lewandowski, who is now a paid commentator on CNN, collected at least $415,000 in salary, bonuses and severance from the Trump campaign between April 2015 and August of this year, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal campaign finance filings. Campaign officials said he will continue receiving his $20,000 monthly pay as severance until the end of the year, which would give him a total of $495,000 over two years." -- CW

Other News & Views

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama vetoed legislation on Friday that would allow families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to sue the government of Saudi Arabia for any role in the plot, setting up an extraordinary confrontation with a Congress that unanimously backed the bill and has vowed to uphold it. Mr. Obama's long-anticipated veto of the measure ... is the 12th of his presidency. But [for the first time in his presidency, Congress is likely to] ...override [his] veto ... -- a familiar experience for presidents in the waning months of their terms. In his veto message to Congress, Mr. Obama said the legislation 'undermines core U.S. interests,' upending the normal means by which the government singles out foreign nations as state sponsors of terrorism and opening American officials and military personnel to legal jeopardy." -- CW

** Liz Sly of the Washington Post: "Syrian and Russian warplanes launched a ferocious assault against rebel-held Aleppo on Friday, burying any hopes that a U.S.-backed cease-fire could be salvaged and calling into question whether the deal would ever have worked.... 'It is a horrific situation now in Aleppo, [said ... Ammar al-Selmo, head of the Aleppo branch of the White Helmets civil defense group.... 'There are dead people in the streets, and fires are burning without control.... It is like the end of the world.'... A meeting in New York between Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ended swiftly...." -- CW

Michael Shear & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Hackers on Thursday posted hundreds of emails from a young Democratic operative that contained documents detailing the minute-by-minute schedules and precise movements of the vice president, the first lady and Hillary Clinton during recent campaign fund-raisers and official political events. The emails included names and cellphone numbers of numerous Secret Service agents, spreadsheets with the names and Social Security numbers of campaign donors, and PowerPoint presentations showing step-by-step directions for where officials like Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. should walk when they arrived at events.... The emails were stolen from the personal Gmail account of the Democratic operative, Ian Mellul. They reveal how widely White House officials, Clinton campaign operatives and Secret Service agents have exchanged detailed and sensitive information with people using personal email accounts." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Let No Good Deed Go Unpunished. Ginia Bellafante of the New York Times: Two friends, Lee Parker & Ivan White, were on a beer run Sunday night in Elizabeth, N.J., when they found a backpack on top of a waste bin at the train station. "... the two men opened the backpack and found what appeared to be explosive devices. Undeterred, they carried the backpack to an unpopulated area, so that if it did explode, no one would be harmed. Then they walked to the local police station ... to report what they had discovered." On Monday, Giuliano Farina started a GoFundMe campaign to be split three ways among the two men & the Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless. (Mr. Parker is currently homeless.) "A backlash developed just as quickly." People questioned Mr. Farina's motives -- he is a founder of another Elizabeth charity. Others didn't think the Elizabeth Coalition, with which Farina is not involved, should be included in the GoFundMe distribution. -- CW

Richard Fausset & Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "A cellphone camera video made by the wife of Keith Lamont Scott as he was fatally shot by the police here shows the moments before and after the incident, including the wife's pleas to her husband to get out of his truck and her pleas to the officers not to shoot him. But the video, which was given to The New York Times by lawyers for the family Friday, does not include a view of the shooting itself. Nor does it answer the crucial question of whether Mr. Scott had a gun, as the police have maintained.... At a news conference on Friday, Charlotte officials repeatedly said that the police videos should not be released without a full report.... [Police] Chief [Kerr] Putney said officers had arrested Rayquan Borum and charged him in the death of Justin Carr, who was fatally shot near the Omni Hotel as demonstrators marched through the streets." Includes video. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Manny Fernandez & Michael Wines of the New York Times report on the history of race relations in Tulsa, Oklahoma. CW: I lived in Tulsa in the 1980s, and I promise you it was chockful of outspoken white racists, and that included the city's leaders, as the reporters' anecdote about former police chief Drew Diamond suggests. The heirs of the Sooners maintained a bastion of the Confederacy. I don't doubt that Tulsa is still a backwards place in this & other ways.

Beyond the Beltway

How Chris Christie's Criminal Enterprise Worked. Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "The admitted mastermind of the mysterious George Washington Bridge lane closings broke a three-year silence on Friday, testifying in federal court here that everything he did in his job was at the direction and for the benefit of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. David Wildstein ... described the governor and his aides as scheming for creative ways to use government resources to help Mr. Christie's re-election and, ultimately, his ambitions to run for president.... They saw the Port Authority ... as a particularly sweet 'goody bag,' as an email revealed in court described it." -- CW ...

... Ted Sherman & Matt Arco of NJ.com: "... Wildstein said his focus while serving as a top political appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was to serve the governor." -- CW ...

... Ted Sherman & Matt Arco: "... the administration's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, or IGA, had the names and details of elected officials. Matt Mowers, a former IGA staffer, told jurors about the details of the list, lifting the curtain on the Christie administration's efforts to systematically curry favor with local leaders in exchange for support [for Christie]. Each person on the list was given a number, which would designate that person's likelihood whether to back Christie in an election that was still years off.... The ['Dem Target] List kept track of the perks given to local elected officials..., Mowers testified. IGA also kept tabs on the amount of money local municipalities received from government entities, including the Port Authority." -- CW

Ben Guarino of the Washington Post: "The plan was simple: Order a pizza, rob whoever showed up to deliver the pie. But the caper did not go as the four men expected. That was because Napoleon Harris III, arrived with the pizza in hand.... The narrative ... unfolded like the recap of a superhero comic." Read on." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Commentariat -- Sept. 23, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Richard Fausset & Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "A cellphone camera video made by the wife of Keith Lamont Scott as he was fatally shot by the police here shows the moments before and after the incident, including the wife's pleas to her husband to get out of his truck and her pleas to the officers not to shoot him. But the video, which was given to The New York Times by lawyers for the family Friday, does not include a view of the shooting itself. Nor does it answer the crucial question of whether Mr. Scott had a gun, as the police have maintained.... At a news conference on Friday, Charlotte officials repeatedly said that the police videos should not be released without a full report.... [Police] Chief [Kerr] Putney said officers had arrested Rayquan Borum and charged him in the death of Justin Carr, who was fatally shot near the Omni Hotel as demonstrators marched through the streets." Includes video. -- CW

Michael Shear & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Hackers on Thursday posted hundreds of emails from a young Democratic operative that contained documents detailing the minute-by-minute schedules and precise movements of the vice president, the first lady and Hillary Clinton during recent campaign fund-raisers and official political events. The emails included names and cellphone numbers of numerous Secret Service agents, spreadsheets with the names and Social Security numbers of campaign donors, and PowerPoint presentations showing step-by-step directions for where officials like Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. should walk when they arrived at events.... The emails were stolen from the personal Gmail account of the Democratic operative, Ian Mellul. They reveal how widely White House officials, Clinton campaign operatives and Secret Service agents have exchanged detailed and sensitive information with people using personal email accounts." -- CW

Eric Levitz of New York: "Clinton Reveals Plan to Reduce the Trump Children's Inheritance.... Taken together..., [Clinton's] proposals would generate $260 billion over the next decade, which Clinton would use to finance some tax cuts on small businesses and an expansion of the child tax credit. (The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan entity that urges fiscal restraint, says that her math checks out). Donald Trump, by contrast, has proposed repealing the estate tax entirely -- a policy that would ostensibly provide Trump's kids with an extra $4 billion in inheritance (assuming he is worth what he claims to be)." -- CW

Cincinnati Enquirer Editors: "The Enquirer has supported Republicans for president for almost a century -- a tradition this editorial board doesn't take lightly. But this is not a traditional race, and these are not traditional times. Our country needs calm, thoughtful leadership to deal with the challenges we face at home and abroad. We need a leader who will bring out the best in all Americans, not the worst. That's why there is only one choice when we elect a president in November: Hillary Clinton." -- CW

Jonathan Chait: Two surveys, taken together, show "that Donald Trump has not been 'normalized.' Most Americans see him as a racist would-be authoritarian who is highly likely to start a nuclear war. The trouble is, some voters apparently like that in a president." -- CW ...

... Dana Milbank: "In the days since I wrote that Hillary Clinton wasn't necessarily wrong to say that half of Trump's supporters are racists and other 'deplorables,' the response has been, well, deplorable. Milbank provides "a sampling of the thousands of emails and social media replies.... I reprint this small sample of the nastygrams not to ruin your next meal but because the half of Trump supporters who aren't motivated by prejudice, and the few voters who remain genuinely undecided, should be aware of the bigotry that Trump has brought into the open -- and that those who vote for Trump are condoning." -- CW

Ed Kilgore: Ted Cruz is reportedly mulling an endorsement of Donald Trump, because he thinks it would be good for the country Ted Cruz. -- CW

Ben Guarino of the Washington Post: "The plan was simple: Order a pizza, rob whoever showed up to deliver the pie. But the caper did not go as the four men expected. That was because Napoleon Harris III, arrived with the pizza in hand.... The narrative ... unfolded like the recap of a superhero comic." Read on." -- CW

*****

Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "Yahoo announced on Thursday that the account information of at least 500 million users was stolen by hackers two years ago, in the biggest known intrusion of one company's computer network. In a statement, Yahoo said user information -- including names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates, encrypted passwords and, in some cases, security questions -- was compromised in 2014 by what it believed was a 'state-sponsored actor.'... Changing Yahoo passwords will be just the start for many users. They'll also have to comb through other services to make sure passwords used on those sites aren't too similar to what they were using on Yahoo." -- CW

Presidential Race

Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "Two senior Democratic lawmakers with access to classified intelligence on Thursday accused Russia of 'making a serious and concerted effort to influence the U.S. election,' a charge that appeared aimed at putting pressure on the Obama administration to confront Moscow. The jointly issued statement from Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam B. Schiff -- Californians who are the ranking Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees, respectively -- described recent cyber penetrations of the Democratic National Committee and other U.S. political entities as intrusions that were likely directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin." -- CW

Los Angeles Times Editors endorse Hillary Clinton: "American voters have a clear choice on Nov. 8. We can elect an experienced, thoughtful and deeply knowledgeable public servant or a thin-skinned demagogue who is unqualified and unsuited to be president.... Electing Trump could be catastrophic for the nation. By contrast, Hillary Clinton is one of the best prepared candidates to seek the presidency in many years." -- CW

Peter Stevenson of the Washington Post: "Professor Allan Lichtman, who has correctly predicted every presidential election since 1984," based on a series of "key factors" he weighs, predicts that Donald Trump will win the election. -- CW

Ed Kilgore of New York: "When we think of external events that might affect the presidential election, it&'s generally something national: good or bad economic news, or maybe a terror incident that instantly becomes national news. But sometimes local events can have a disproportionately national impact. And sure enough, there is a growing sentiment that the anti-police protests in Charlotte could shake up elections in the very close battleground state of North Carolina. This being a state with a long history of backlash politics, the natural suspicion is that images of violent protests will help reinforce Donald Trump's law-and-order message in the Tar Heel State." --safari... (See also Nolan McCaskill's report, linked below, on Trump's reaction to the Charlotte protests.)

David Kay Johnston in the Daily Beast: "This means that, relative to wealth, the Clintons have given at a rate a thousand times Trump's verifiable charitable giving. Even accepting Trump's claim that his giving is much larger than the public record shows, the Clintons gave at more than 37 times Trump's rate." -- CW

Paul Krugman: "I am not calling on the news media to take a side; I'm just calling on it to report what is actually happening, without regard for party. In fact, any reporting that doesn't accurately reflect the huge honesty gap between the candidates amounts to misleading readers, giving them a distorted picture that favors the biggest liar. Yet there are, of course, intense pressures on the news media to engage in that distortion. Point out a Trump lie and you will get some pretty amazing mail -- and if we set aside the attacks on your race or ethnic group, accusations that you are a traitor, etc., most of it will declare that you are being a bad journalist because you don't criticize both candidates equally." -- CW ...

... Drew Harwell & Mary Jordan of the Washington Post: Teevee exposure has made a star of Donald Trump & his long experience as a TV showman will give him an advantage in debates with Hillary Clinton. Trump is also a big TV watcher. "Many people, though, find it frightening that the man who wants to be commander in chief spends more time watching TV than reading." -- CW

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "'Why aren't I 50 points ahead?' Hillary Clinton asked rhetorically on Wednesday, echoing a question she surely gets all the time -- and perhaps legitimately wonders herself.... A few reasons:... If you're a major-party presidential nominee in this day and age in American politics, you've frankly got to work pretty hard to get less than 40 or even 45 percent of the vote. Because we're just that partisan.... There's the matter of turnout.... And when it comes to doing that, it helps to have enthusiasm. Right now, Trump may have more of it.... The big reason this election isn't a blowout right now may be Hillary Clinton herself. Trump's image numbers are bad enough that a candidate with even middling numbers of his or her own would probably be leading him by a substantial margin. But Clinton's numbers are also bad, and it makes the race close." -- CW

Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "A key priority of Hillary Clinton's proposed intelligence surge will be to kill or capture Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, her campaign has told the Guardian. During the past year, Clinton, the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee, has placed bolstering the vast US intelligence apparatus at the center of her national security agenda. Days before the first presidential debate -- and after the New York area escaped without mass casualties from multiple bombings -- her campaign has for the first time expanded on how her policies would work." -- CW

Arlette Saenz of ABC News: President Obama offers Hillary Clinton debate advice: "Be yourself & explain what motivates you." With video. -- CW

Jonathan Chait: "The news media's obsession with the emails has, without necessarily intending to do so, conveyed the impression that Clinton committed not just run-of-the-mill political scandals but extraordinary offenses of a historic scale.... The funny thing about the scandal surrounding Clinton's private email account is that there was a similar scandal in the Bush administration.... They ... deleted some 22 million emails, thus systematically flouting the same public-records principle that Clinton evaded. If you forgot about this episode, it is because it was merely a secondary scandal within a larger one, involving a Bush administration scheme to politicize the Department of Justice.... If you don't remember that scandal, it's because it was subsumed beneath a torrent of other scandals." The list goes on. --safari

CW: If you're worried about the right-wing meme, now oozing onto the Hill, that Hillary Clinton has serious brain damage that has caused "sleepy-eye" or something & she is about to go nuts or die or both, you might want to read Steve M. on that, although, as he points out, 'I'm not an ophthalmologist or neurologist" -- and neither are the wingers who are making the claim.

By Driftglass.Natasha Geiling of ThinkProgress: "On Thursday, Donald Trump spoke before an audience full of natural gas and energy industry leaders --  and the message was exactly the same as his economic policy proposal from last week: fewer environmental regulations and more land available to fossil fuel companies.' We need an America-First energy plan,' Trump said. 'This means opening federal lands for oil and gas production; opening offshore areas; and revoking policies that are imposing unnecessary restrictions on innovative new exploration technologies.'... If elected president, Trump has pledged to revoke both the Clean Power Plan and President Obama's Climate Action Plan, the cornerstones of Obama's domestic climate agenda." --safari ...

... It's All Obama's Fault! Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Donald Trump on Thursday pinned the blame for the turmoil in Charlotte, North Carolina, on President Barack Obama, suggesting that the violent protests there show a 'wounded country' that 'looks bad to the world.' Pausing for roughly 10 minutes during an energy speech in Pittsburgh at the Shale Insight Conference to address the Charlotte unrest, Trump also presented himself as the man to heal America's racial divides. Akhilleus: I can see it now, President KKK will be the guy to fix all those racial problems caused by that divisive creep Obama. Whadda guy. Will "Stop and Frisk" be a big part of the fix? (Also linked yesterday.)

** Isaac Arnsdorf & Kenneth Vogel ofPolitico: "Donald Trump's presidential campaign has paid his family's businesses more than $8.2 million, according to a Politico analysis of campaign finance filings, which reveals an integrated business and political operation without precedent in national politics.... In all, the Trump campaign's payments to Trump-owned businesses account for about 7 percent of its $119 million spending total, the analysis found. That's an unprecedented amount of self-dealing in federal politics." --safari ...

... ** Isaac Arnsdorf & Kenneth Vogel: "Donald Trump's campaign isn't alone in patronizing his own businesses: taxpayers are indirectly doing so, too. Federal Election Commission records show that the U.S. Secret Service has paid the Trump campaign about $1.6 million to cover the cost of flying its agents with the candidate on a plane owned and operated by one of his companies.... It's standard practice for the agency to reimburse presidential campaigns for the cost of traveling with the candidates. In fact, the Secret Service has reimbursed the Clinton campaign, too: $2.6 million so far this cycle. The difference with Trump is that one of his companies, TAG Air, Inc., owns the plane, so the government is effectively paying him." --safari

"Trump's English-Only Campaign." Shane Goldmacher of Politico: "With 46 days until the November elections, and as early voting begins in a handful of states, Trump is on the precipice of becoming the only major-party presidential candidate this century not to reach out to millions of American voters whose dominant, first or just preferred language is Spanish. Trump has not only failed to buy any Spanish-language television or radio ads, he so far has avoided even offering a translation of his website into Spanish, breaking with two decades of bipartisan tradition." -- CW

Will Work for Racists. Paul Lewis & Tom Silverstone of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's campaign has replaced an Ohio official who was forced to resign over a racism controversy with a woman who has previously said she was 'offended as an African American' by the Republican candidate and confessed she had 'bashed the crap out' of him in the past. Tracey Winbush is also on record stating Trump had 'denigrated the Republican party'. The Trump campaign announced it had appointed Winbush as its new chair in Mahoning, a crucial Ohio county, on Thursday, shortly after the previous chair resigned over comments she made about racism in a Guardian interview." --safari ...

** Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: "The more Donald Trump presses his supposed effort to appeal to black voters, the more bizarre it gets.... Trump isn't actually speaking to minority voters. He is offering excuses for white Americans who might otherwise hesitate to support a racist candidate.... He declared that his 'movement' already embraces 'everybody.' And one of his county campaign chairs announced that there was no racism before Obama was elected. Not convinced that this is going to make black Americans vote for Trump? On Earth, people know that racism has poisoned America since it was founded. All that changed when Obama was elected in 2008 was that some bigots began to speak more openly.... Trump[' 'outreach to black Americans'] has given [racists] permission to shout their hatred from the rooftops. That's the truth behind his campaign, and no phony town-hall meeting staged by Fox News is going to change it." -- CW ...

... Meet Your Trump Supporters, Ctd. It's All Obama's Fault. Philip Bump of the Washington Post, in a not so surprising interview with a Trump campaign chair in an Ohio county, Kathy Miller, "... she doesn't think 'there was any racism until [Barack] Obama got elected' and that black Americans 'have an advantage' over whites because they 'got into schools without the same grades as white kids.' If black Americans haven't been successful in the last 50 years, she said, 'it's [their] own fault.'" Akhilleus: Well, whadaya know? I never realized that there was NO racism until Obama came along. Damn that Kenyan guy! He ruined it for all of us....so what does the boss say? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Meet Your Trump Supporters, Ctd. Gideon Resnick & Ben Collins of the Daily Beast: "A Silicon Valley titan is putting money behind an unofficial Donald Trump group dedicated to 'shitposting' and circulating internet memes maligning Hillary Clinton. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey financially backed a pro-Trump political organization called Nimble America, a self-described 'social welfare 501(c)4 non-profit' in support of the Republican nominee.... According to Paul Ryan ... of the The Campaign Legal Center, Nimble America can still exist as a 501(c)(4) so long as it does other things besides supporting Trump.... 'The group knows that it can do some candidate election work, but that such work can't be its primary activity -- i.e., it has to spend more than half of its budget on non-candidate-election work,' Ryan told The Daily Beast...." -- CW

Other News & Views

A Tale of Two Cities

Samantha Vicent & Corey Jones of the Tulsa World: "The Tulsa County District Attorney's Office filed a first-degree manslaughter charge Thursday against Officer Betty Shelby in the fatal shooting of Terence Crutcher six days earlier. District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said during a brief news conference that a warrant has been issued for the arrest of Shelby, 42, who is expected to turn herself in to authorities." -- CW ...

... The New York Times story, by Manny Fernandez, is here. ...

... CW: For those of us old enough to remember the "good old days" (that is, the not-so-distant past that Republicans revere, though they want to drag us much further back in time), this is a remarkable story. First, Betty Shelby would not have been a police officer at all; there was no such thing as a policewoman. Second, there were no such things as bodycams & dashcams, & not necessarily for want of technology; rather, law enforcement had the unique prerogative -- and presumption of truthfulness -- to describe any police action on their own terms. That the Tulsa police department installed the means to review its officers' actions is surprising. Third, Tulsa has a long history as a deeply racist city; anyone even suggesting that an on-duty police officer should be charged in the killing of a black citizen would have been ridiculed. The arc of the moral universe has indeed bent toward justice in, of all places, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Jordyn Phelps of ABC News: "In his first public reaction to the violent protests in Charlotte, North Carolina, during an exclusive interview with ABC News' 'Good Morning America,' President Obama called for protesters to seek out peaceful means to address concerns of racial inequalities in the American policing system. 'The way we change the system requires to be able to reach out and engage the broader American community and that requires being peaceful, that requires being thoughtful about what are the specific reforms you're looking for,' Obama told 'GMA' co-anchor Robin Roberts in an interview Thursday] at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture." With video. -- CW ...

... Cleve Wootson, et al., of the Washington Post: "Protesters chanting 'What curfew?' marched Friday in defiance of orders by Charlotte's mayor to clear the streets after midnight, as anger spilled onto the streets for a third night following a deadly police shooting that has become the latest showdown over questions on law enforcement and race.Despite the mayor’s curfew decree, Charlotte Police Capt. Mike Campagna said protests could continue as long they remained peaceful. The split appeared to underscore the careful calculations by authorities in a city now under a state of emergency and patrolled by National Guard troops." -- CW ...

... Gavin Off, et al., of the Charlotte Observer: "After two nights of furious street violence, demonstrators took to the streets of uptown Charlotte again Thursday night and early Friday with passionate but mostly peaceful protests. Only one notable confrontation with police occurred after hundreds of marchers briefly blocked the John Belk Freeway." -- CW ...

... Alex Johnson of NBC News: "A man shot during Wednesday night's protests over the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott died Thursday in a Charlotte, N.C., hospital, police and emergency officials said. Police said the man, identified as Justin Carr, 26, was wounded on the second night of protests following the death of Scott, 43, who was shot this week as police were searching for a different person with an outstanding warrant, police said." -- CW ...

... Alan Blinder, et al., of the New York Times: "The grieving relatives of [Keith Scott,] a man who was killed by the police [in Charlotte, North Carolina,] watched videos on Thursday of the fatal shooting, a wrenching experience that they said revealed no hint of aggression in him and left the family members convinced that the videos should be made public. But the city's police chief, who had arranged for the private viewing, held fast to his decision not to release the recordings." -- CW ...

... New York Times Editors: "... the Police Department in Charlotte, N.C., has responded in exactly the wrong way to a police officer's killing on Tuesday of another black man, Keith Scott. It has opted for stonewalling. The department -- which has said that Mr. Scott brandished a gun when he was shot dead -- has refused to make public the video that might show how the shooting occurred.... There is no legal reason to withhold the video from the public, and in this fraught situation.... The North Carolina legislature, however, made that far more difficult when it passed an ill-advised measure this year that allows police departments to withhold camera footage from the public unless a court orders the release. That law takes effect on Oct 1. But until then, the Charlotte Police Department is free to release the video.... Unfortunately, the city's mayor, Jennifer Roberts, seems largely at sea and distressingly out of touch with how lack of an open governmental response led to demonstrations in places like Ferguson, Mo., Cleveland and Baltimore. She said Thursday morning that she had not even viewed the video." -- CW

... Richard Fausset & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: Charlotte has "gained a reputation for racial amity, from its nationally recognized commitment to busing and integrated schools in the 1970s and '80s, to the election of Harvey Gantt in 1983 as one of the South's first prominent black mayors. But the fatal police shooting on Tuesday of a black resident, Keith Lamont Scott, and the protests that have followed are among numerous bumps and jolts that have shaken Charlotte's sense of itself recently as it emerged from a successful small city to a more complicated larger one." -- CW ...

** Gene Robinson: "If you are a black man in America, exercising your constitutional right to keep and bear arms can be fatal. You might think the National Rifle Association and its amen chorus would be outraged, but apparently they believe Second Amendment rights are for whites only. In reaching that conclusion I am accepting, for the sake of argument, the account given by the Charlotte police of how they came to fatally shoot Keith Lamont Scott on Tuesday.... Scott's relatives claim he was unarmed as well. But let's assume that police are telling the truth and he had a handgun.... North Carolina, after all, is an open-carry state. A citizen has the right to walk around armed if he or she chooses to do so. The mere fact that someone has a firearm is no reason for police to take action.... Our gun laws should be changed. Until then, however, they must be enforced equally." -- CW ...

... Freedom of Speech in Trump's Amerika: Protesters piss you off? Kill them. Elizabeth Preza ofAlternet: "What should peace-loving citizens do if they encounter protesters blocking a highway in Charlotte, NC? Well, if you're USA Today columnist and University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds, you should 'run them down.' Reynolds, who produces a website called 'Instapundit' and whose Twitter account presumably doesn't constitute legal advice, quickly deleted the tweet but this is the internet, and there's nothing like Instashaming to remind a person that advocating for the death of innocent people is really never a good idea." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... **Akhilleus: Only in an Amerika where millions of morons are lining up to vote for a racist demagogue could you find a professor of law from a major university suggesting the cold-blooded murder of citizens for daring to exercise their first amendment rights. Trump must be sending this guy a lot of love. ...

     ... CW Update. Reynolds, who also has a column in USA Today (thanks, USA Today!), now says he's very, very sorry that his tweet was misconstrued & taken out of context: "I retweeted a report of mobs 'stopping traffic and surrounding vehicles' with the comment, 'Run them down.' Those words can easily be taken to advocate drivers going out of their way to run down protesters. I meant no such thing, and I'm sorry it seemed I did. What I meant is that drivers who feel their lives are in danger from a violent mob should not stop their vehicles." He regrets he was "not clearer." CW: Note that in his non-apology apology, Reynolds defends himself by writing that he's written a whole lot of tweets where he didn't condone mass murder. Guess that's context, too. ...

     ... No Wonder Reynolds is very, very sorry. Judd Legum of Think Progress: "Twitter suspended Reynolds' account, on the grounds that his tweet was an incitement of violence. After being suspended, however, Reynolds defended his tweet. He allowed that 'run them down' didn't capture his intent 'fully'  -- but he blamed Twitter's character count, not his own judgment.... Reynolds' tweet was just 14 characters.... [In his apparently forced USA Today 'apology,'] Reynolds is still encouraging violence because he's saying there are still situations in which drivers should run over protesters in a roadway.... On his blog, Reynolds links to his so-called 'apology' and says, 'I don't apologize for saying that you shouldn't stop for angry mobs, even if they're blocking your way. But I could have said it better.' USA Today, however, is apparently satisfied with this. The publication said that Reynolds 'has apologized' and decided to suspend his column for one month." -- CW ...

     ... Oh, And This. Megan Boehnke of the Tennessean: "The University of Tennessee is investigating a tweet by one of its law professors [Glenn Reynolds] after the faculty member and contributing columnist for USA TODAY and the Knoxville News Sentinel urged motorists to run over demonstrators blocking traffic in Charlotte, N.C." CW: How long till Reynolds starts screaming about academic freedom & his free-speech rights? ...

... Trumpbots. John Bresnahan of Politico: "North Carolina GOP Rep. Robert Pittenger said protesters in Charlotte are motivated by racism rather than anger over the fatal police shooting of Keith Scott, an African-American man. 'The grievance in their mind is the animus, the anger,' Pittenger said during an interview with the BBC. 'They hate white people because white people are successful and they're not.'.... Pittenger -- who is under investigation by the FBI and IRS over his ties to his former real-estate firm -- insisted that the 'welfare state' has turned American citizens into slaves." --safari ...

     ... Update. Another Very, Very Sorry Winger Crank. Alice Ollstein of Think Progress: "After receiving wide condemnation for his comments, Pittenger apologized, insisted he has black friends, and accused [BBC News] of taking the remark out of context  -- though both the question and his full answer were aired in full. This is somewhat of a pattern for Pittenger." -- CW ...

Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: "Prison officials have sentenced Chelsea Manning to 14 days in solitary confinement following an attempt to kill herself in July. Manning is serving 35 years in Fort Leavenworth prison in Kansas for leaking a vast collection of secret US government documents about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan." CW: Great idea. Put someone who is suicidal in a situation that invariably causes or exacerbates depression. Federal prison officials are more heartless & dumb than you already thought they were.

***

Marc Santora, et al., of the New York Times: "The father of the man accused of carrying out bombings last weekend in New York and New Jersey said that, two years ago, he warned federal agents explicitly about his son's interest in terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and his fascination with jihadist music, poetry and videos. In a series of interviews with The New York Times on Wednesday and Thursday, Mohammad Rahami, whose son Ahmad Khan Rahami has been charged with using weapons of mass destruction and bombing a place of public use, recounted his interactions with the Federal Bureau of Investigation after he raised his concerns about his son.... His description of that contact differs starkly from the one given by law enforcement officials, who on Thursday challenged the father's account.... [Ahmad] Rahami is accused of building 10 bombs. One exploded in Lower Manhattan, injuring 31 people; another exploded in Seaside Park, N.J., but no one was injured. Five were discovered on Sunday night outside a train station in Elizabeth, N.J." -- CW

... Max Bearak of the Washington Post: President "Obama was so moved by Alex's letter that he read it aloud at the United Nations summit on refugees earlier this week. The president also shared a video of Alex reading the letter on his Facebook page on Wednesday, where it has been shared more than 150,000 times and watched by 8 million people (and counting)." (Akhilleus linked a CNN story about Alex in yesterday's Comments.) -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

This Is Quaint. William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal corruption charges were announced on Thursday against two former close aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a senior state official and six other people, in a devastating blow to the governor's innermost circle and a repudiation of how his prized upstate economic development programs were managed.... The charges against the former aides, Joseph Percoco and Todd R. Howe, and the state official, Alain Kaloyeros..., stemmed from 'two overlapping criminal schemes involving bribery, corruption and fraud in the award of hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts and other official state benefits,' federal prosecutors said in the complaint." CW: Maybe not up to par with bundles of cash in the freezer, but good, old-fashioned, Supreme Court-approved bribery: "In emails and other correspondence, Mr. Percoco and Mr. Howe referred to the bribes as 'ziti,' according to the complaint." (Also linked yesterday.)

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The New York Police Department and a U.S. attorney in North Carolina have begun examining former congressman Anthony Weiner's alleged sexually suggestive online messages with a teenage girl that were reported by a British media outlet, authorities said Thursday. The exact parameters of the investigation remain unclear, but officials said that investigators are interested in a report from DailyMail.com that Weiner chatted with a 15-year-old girl for some months last year. The website reported that the girl had told Weiner she was in high school, and he once commented on her youth." -- CW