The Commentariat -- Sept. 11, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Jonathan Martin & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton on Sunday abruptly left a ceremony in New York marking the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks before it concluded because she became 'overheated,' according to a campaign spokesman.... Mrs. Clinton had arrived at the commemoration event around 8 a.m. and left at about 9:30. But for over an hour after that, her campaign would not offer any information about why she left early or where she was.... At about 11:40 a.m., Mrs. Clinton, wearing sunglasses, emerged from [her daughter's] apartment in New York's Flatiron district. She waved to onlookers and posed for pictures with a little girl on the sidewalk. 'I'm feeling great,' Mrs. Clinton said. 'It's a beautiful day in New York.'... Video from the event taken by an attendee captured Mrs. Clinton struggling to steady herself and then stumbling as she stepped off a curb. She required assistance from two Secret Service agents to get into her van. The video, which was posted on Twitter, immediately ricocheted across the internet." -- CW ...

... CW: So far Trump is behaving himself on this. We'll see what happens.

Theodoric Meyer of Politico: "CIA Director John Brennan pushed back against Donald Trump's claim that he could read disapproval of President Barack Obama's policies in the body language of the intelligence officers who gave him a confidential national security briefing.... Brennan said..., '"I know the briefers that have been briefing the candidates.'... Brennan said he was "fully confident" they [had not telegraphed a negative view of the President's policies]...." -- CW

*****

Kayla Epstein of the Washington Post: "The yearly ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial commemorating the victims at Ground Zero began at 8:40 a.m. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was in attendance, as were ... Hillary Clinton, who was a U.S. senator for New York when the attack occurred, and Donald Trump." -- CW

AP: "President Barack Obama is joining the nation in remembering the nearly 3,000 people who died in the Sept. 11 attacks 15 years ago. Obama is observing the somber anniversary with a moment of silence in the White House residence at 8:46 a.m. EDT. That's when the first of four hijacked airplanes slammed into the north tower of New York City's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Afterward, Obama will address a Pentagon memorial service." -- CW

Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "Christine Todd Whitman [R], who as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under George W Bush at the time of the 9/11 attacks told the public the air around Ground Zero in New York was safe to breathe, has admitted for the first time she was wrong.... Whitman made an unprecedented apology to those affected but denied she had ever lied about the air quality or known at the time it was dangerous.... A week after two hijacked passenger jets were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center..., Whitman issued a statement. It said: 'I am glad to reassure the people of New York ... that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink.'... In 2003, the EPA inspector general criticized the agency's handling of the crisis, finding that the EPA had no basis for its swift pronouncements about air quality. Politicians, including the then New York senator Hillary Clinton, laid into the Bush administration, accusing it of deceiving the public." BTW, Whitman also gets in a dig at Rudy A-Noun-a-Verb-and-9/11 Giuliani, whom she blames for allowing workers to work on Ground Zero without respirators, as the EPA recommended. CW

Renae Merle of the Washington Post: "U.S. officials tout [Medtronics] as one of America's finest [companies]. It's actually based in Ireland.... The move ... has saved Medtronic more than $3 billion in taxes and helped the company fund an acquisition spree as it emerged as the world's largest medical device maker.... What Medtronic hasn't done is give up many perks of being a U.S. company. In addition to attending U.S. trade missions, which can help it find customers, Medtronic still holds dozens of government contracts. Since its inversion, it has been awarded more than $40 million in contracts, according to federal procurement data." ...

     ... CW: Congress could fix this. Thanks to little factors like, "The firm spent a record $5.3 million on its lobbying efforts in 2014, according to Opensecrets.org, including hiring former Sens. Trent Lott and John Breaux to help defend it against anti-inversion legislation introduced in Congress." You can also see the huge advantage this practice gives to big U.S. corporations that can afford to move operations (or shell operations) to low-taxing countries.

Samantha Sunne in a Washington Post op-ed, says she was arrested, cuffed & thrown in a New York City holding cell for four hours because she had put her feet up on the seat in front of her in an A-train subway car. (She was arrested around 2:30 am, so I presume the car was nearly empty.) "I was lucky I was white.... Criminalizing small acts can have major consequences for nonwhite and low-income people, who are disproportionately arrested and convicted for these infractions.... 'The kinds of things that [people of color] get arrested for, these innocuous acts, have been virtually decriminalized among white communities,' said Robert Gangi, director of the Police Reform Organizing Project." -- CW

Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "In a windowless room in a swanky hotel half a block from the White House on Friday afternoon, three of the most visible leaders of the alt-right movement held a two-hour press conference to discuss their affection for Donald Trump and their hopes for a white homeland.... The three alt-right leaders ... made two things very clear: They think white people are genetically predisposed to be more moral and intelligent than black people, and they do not want to share their envisioned utopian ethno-state with folks of the Jewish persuasion." Um, something about whitey-white people having better "microbes in their mouths." CW: More later. I have to go get my magnifying mirror, open wide & admire my super-microbes. I bet they're swell. Meanwhile, see more below on these "hard-working, amazing" anti-Semitic, racist Trump supporters.

Presidential Race

The Clinton & Trump campaigns are on hiatus today, so we could just have a day where Trump doesn't say some crazy shit. But don't count on it.

Michael Kruse of Politico: On September 11, 2001, Donald Trump boasted that with the fall of the Twin Towers, he once again owned the tallest building in Manhattan. Also ,"A decade and a half before pledging to 'bomb the shit out of' ISIS and proposing a deportation force and a Muslim ban, Trump didn't talk about retribution or leap to conclusions about who was responsible. In fact, he avoided identifying potential enemies -- any terrorist organization or Muslims in general. He spoke cogently and even poignantly about New York's changed skyline and the need to never forget.... As nightfall approached, Hillary Clinton joined congressional colleagues on the steps of the Capitol, standing next to some of her fiercest political opponents, singing 'God Bless America' with tears in her eyes. But maybe the most surprising difference between Clinton and Trump on September 11 and in the nerve-racking days and weeks that followed: She, not he, sounded like the tougher talker." -- CW ...

Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "For decades, news organizations have refrained from releasing early results in presidential battleground states on Election Day, adhering to a strict, time-honored embargo until a majority of polls there have closed. Now, a group of data scientists, journalists and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs is seeking to upend that reporting tradition, providing detailed projections of who is winning at any given time on Election Day in key swing states.... The company spearheading the effort, VoteCastr, plans real-time projections of presidential and Senate races in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It plans to publish a map and tables of its projected results on Slate...." -- CW

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "For the anchors chosen to preside over this fall's presidential debates, the excoriation of [Matt] Lauer was a wake-up call signaling what modern viewers now expect from a moderator -- and a stark example of how media figures can become partisan flash points in a hyper-polarized election.... [Chris] Wallace raised eyebrows after saying that he did not consider fact-checking -- or 'truth-squading,' in his words -- to be a central component of his moderating role. His comments circulated again in the days after what was arguably Mr. Lauer's most memorable misstep, when he failed to challenge Mr. Trump's false claim that he had opposed the Iraq war.... There is also the presence of Mr. Trump, a candidate who freely dissembles in a manner rarely seen in a presidential campaign." ...

     ... CW Fact-Check: "Wallace raised eyebrows": No, Grynbaum, eyebrows weren't raised; ire was. "... dissembles in a manner rarely seen in a presidential campaign." How rarely? Absolutely never.

Theodoric Meyer of Politico: "Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both paused their campaign ads on Sunday, the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, a day when politics is traditionally set aside. But Clinton didn't hold back from criticizing her GOP opponent in a pre-taped interview with Chris Cuomo on CNN's 'State of the Union,' saying that Trump's rhetoric has made it harder to protect the country from future attacks. 'What unfortunately Donald Trump has done is made our job harder, and given a lot of aid and comfort to ISIS operative, even ISIS officials, who want to create this as some kind of clash of civilizations, a religious war,' Clinton said. 'It's not, and we can't let it become that.'... CNN's Jake Tapper said the network reached out to Trump about also making a Sept. 11 appearance, but that he declined." -- CW

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Republicans ... pounced Saturday on Hillary Clinton's remarks that half of Donald J. Trump's supporters fit into a 'basket of deplorables,' saying it showed she was out of touch with an economically hard-hit electorate.... By Saturday morning, #BasketofDeplorables was trending on Twitter as Mr. Trump's campaign demanded an apology.... By Saturday afternoon, Mrs. Clinton had acknowledged her stumble. 'Last night I was "grossly generalistic," and that's never a good idea,' she said in a statement. 'I regret saying "half" -- that was wrong.' She then used the opportunity to double down on her criticism of her opponent. 'It's deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia,' she said, 'and given a national platform to hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people.'" ...

... Hillary Clinton, at a fundraiser, Friday:

... CW: I think the percentage of Trump supporters who fit into that basket is greater than 50. It is impossible for a non-racist, non-sexist, etc. person to support Trump. ...

     ... Update. As I Was Saying... Judd Legum of Think Progress: "... whether Clinton is correct is a factual matter. Let's look at the polling data.... About two-thirds of Trump supporters believe Obama is a Muslim.... 59 percent of Trump supporters believe Obama was not born in the United States.... [A Reuters poll conducted in June] found that 40% of Trump supporters believed that blacks were more 'lazy' than whites and nearly 50% believed blacks were more 'violent' than whites.... A PPP poll of South Carolina voters in February found that 31 percent of Trump backers] supported banning LGBT people from the United States [& another 16% were 'not sure'].... Clinton appears to be more likely to be downplaying the issue than overstating it." -- CW ...

     ... Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic: "... nearly 60 percent of Trump's supporters hold 'unfavorable views' of Islam, and 76 percent support a ban on Muslims entering the United States." But don't expect mainstream reporters to fact-check Clinton on this: "... a reporter or an outlet pointing out the evidenced racism of Trump's supporters in response to a statement made by his rival risks being seen as having taken a side not just against Trump, not just against racism, but against his supporters too." So, report the controversy as a "both sides" story. ...

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton's assertion that half of Donald Trump's supporters fit into a 'basket of deplorables' is not something for which she needs to apologize, her Democratic running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.), said Saturday in an interview. 'She said, "Look, I'm generalizing here, but a lot of his support is coming from this odd place, that he's given a platform to the alt-right and white nationalists,"' Kaine said in an interview with The Washington Post. 'But then she went on to say, "Look, there's also a number of his supporters that have economic anxieties, and we've got to speak to those."'" -- CW ...

Americans beset by 'economic anxieties' voting for any Republican is like going to Bernie Madoff for investment advice. -- Akhilleus, in today's Comments

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "Donald Trump has not only brought haters into the mainstream, he has normalized hate for a much broader swathe of the population who were perhaps already disaffected but had their grievances and latent prejudices held in check by social norms.... Trump is in the midst of a making one of the country's two major parties into a white nationalist hate group.... This election has become a battle to combat the moral and civic cancer Trump has injecting into the body politic.... Backing down would make Clinton appear weak, accomplish nothing of value and confuse what is actually at stake in the election." -- CW ...

... Issac Bailey, in a CNN opinion piece, lists some of Trump's "deplorables." "But what's most deplorable is the knee-jerk pushback against anyone who dares point out this reality, as though exposing the deplorable is worse than the deplorable things themselves.... (Trump) has lifted [the alt-right] up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people -- now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks -- they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America,' Clinton said. Trump has lifted them up. He has given them voice.... The only debate seems to be what percentage of Trump's followers are animated by his bigotry." -- CW ...

Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of amazing, hard working people. I think it will cost her at the Polls! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet

An "amazing" (whatever that means) and "hard-working" person can be a bigot, too. -- Constant Weader

... Dave Weigel: "... in the first real test of how the quote could be weaponized, [Mike] Pence came up with a fistful of nothing." First, he lost his notes & took a while to find them. Then he couldn't read them in a way that makes sense, so his audience had no idea what he was talking about. -- CW

David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "The Donald J. Trump Foundation is not like other charities.... For one thing, nearly all of its money comes from people other than Trump. In tax records, the last gift from Trump was in 2008. Since then, all of the donations have been other people's money -- an arrangement that experts say is almost unheard of for a family foundation.... In many cases, [Trump] passes it on to other charities, which often are under the impression that it is Trump's own money. In two cases, he has used money from his charity to buy himself a gift.... Money from the Trump Foundation has also been used for political purposes, which is against the law.... Trump's foundation appears to have repeatedly broken IRS rules.... In five cases, the Trump Foundation told the IRS that it had given a gift to a charity whose leaders told The Post that they had never received it.... The Trump Foundation still gives out small, scattered gifts -- which seem driven by the demands of Trump's businesses and social life, rather than a desire to support charitable causes.... [Trump] transform[ed] the foundation from a standard-issue rich person's philanthropy into a charity that allowed a rich man to be philanthropic for free." Read the examples Fahrenthold includes. -- CW ...

... Scammer-in-Chief, Ctd. Cameron Joseph of the New York Daily News: "Donald Trump's tale about why he took $150,000 in 9/11 money is as tall as the Downtown skyscraper he says he used in recovery efforts, according to government records. Though [Trump] ... has repeatedly suggested he got that money for helping others out after the attacks, documents obtained by the Daily News show that Trump's account was just a huge lie. Records from the Empire State Development Corp., which administered the recovery program, show that Trump's company asked for those funds for 'rent loss,' 'cleanup' and 'repair' -- not to recuperate money lost in helping people.... Trump's organization was one of a number of well-heeled companies that received funds from a state program aimed at helping local businesses whose bottom lines were hurt by the terror attacks.... It's unclear what, if any, help Trump provided to those affected by 9/11." -- CW

CW: I guess this is not politicking. Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: Donald "Trump visited Ground Zero early Sunday morning, where he spoke to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and New York Rep. Peter King (R). 'Fifteen years ago, America suffered the worst terrorist attack in its history. Thousands of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and innocent American children were murdered by radical Islamic terrorists,' Trump ... said in a statement."

Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Larry King on Friday rebutted the Donald Trump campaign's assertion that the Republican candidate didn't know he had agreed to speak on Russian state television when King interviewed him." King said he was not in on the negotiations to do the interview, but Trump had appeared on his show before, so he should have known it would be broadcast on the RT network. -- CW

By Driftglass.Chas Danner of New York: "Speaking at a campaign rally in Pensacola, Florida on Friday night Donald Trump indicated that, as president, he would attack Iran if their sailors made improper gestures towards the U.S. Navy.... 'When [the Iranians] circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats, and they make gestures at our people that they shouldn't be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water.'... But while it's indeed worrisome, if not exactly news, that the apparent body-language expert is unable to follow plans, or scripts, or basic political norms -- in this case Trump, a major-party's presidential candidate, indicated that he would be willing to start an armed conflict with another country, not to defend America's citizens, interests, or allies -- but over injured pride.... Trump also questioned Hillary Clinton's mental health again on Friday, saying that he thinks she is 'an unstable person' and 'trigger-happy.' Earlier in the day, Trump had addressed the Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C. and criticized Clinton for being 'just too quick to intervene, invade, or to push for regime change with people we don't even know who they are, they take over, and they're far worse.'" -- CW

Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: "That, within a six-month span, Trump's estimates [of the 'real' unemployment rate] ranged from twenty, or 'close to twenty,' per cent all the way up to forty-two per cent suggest he's not using an overly rigorous model.... While a few of Trump's claims about the labor force might generously be considered merely hyperbole or gross exaggeration, the unemployment numbers he cites appear to be wholesale inventions." -- CW

More Notes from the Stupid File. A recent photo shows Donald Trump standing very close to a black man so he can't be a racist because "No racist would ever do that." CW: So there's a Trump supporter I guess you could label "amazing" (although not as "amazing" as Dom from Florida who won't vote for Clinton because he just knows she doesn't shave her arms & legs. See yesterday's Commentariat.).

The Commentariat -- Sept. 10, 2016

David Sanger of the New York Times: "Russia and the United States reached agreement early Saturday on a new plan to reduce violence in the Syria conflict that, if successful, could lead for the first time to joint military targeting by the two big powers against Islamic jihadists in Syria. The agreement was reached after 10 months of failed cease-fires and suspended efforts for a political settlement in the Syria war, which began more than five years ago, has left nearly a half-million people dead and created the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, announced the agreement in Geneva after weeks of negotiations that were marred, in President Obama's words, by deep 'mistrust' between the Russians and Americans." CW: Please, Nobel committee, give Kerry the peace prize.

David Sanger, et al.: "North Korea's latest test of an atomic weapon leaves the United States with an uncomfortable choice: Stick with a policy of incremental sanctions that has clearly failed to stop the country's nuclear advances, or pick among alternatives that range from the highly risky to the repugnant. A hard embargo, in which Washington and its allies block all shipping into and out of North Korea and seek to paralyze its finances, risks confrontations that allies in Asia fear could quickly escalate into war. But restarting talks on the North's terms would reward the defiance of its young leader, Kim Jong-un, with no guarantee that he will dismantle the nuclear program irrevocably." -- CW

Good News for Democracy. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A U.S. elections agency must remove a proof-of-citizenship requirement from a federal form used by people in Kansas, Alabama and Georgia to register to vote for November's election, a federal appeals court panel in Washington ordered late Friday, reversing a lower court. The 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit came one day after civil rights groups in oral arguments said that the requirement could disenfranchise tens of thousands of U.S. citizens applying to vote in Kansas without required papers. Kansas is the only state enforcing the requirement to show documentation such as a birth certificate, passport or naturalization papers instead of accepting signed and sworn affirmation of citizenship." CW: The two judges who decided the case: Judith W. Rogers, is a Clinton appointee, and Stephen F. Williams, a Reagan appointee. Judge Raymond Randolph, the dissenter, is a Bush I appointee. ...

... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Friday refused to allow Michigan to ban voters from casting straight-ticket ballots in the coming election after lower courts found the prohibition was likely to discriminate against African Americans and result in long lines at the polls.... Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they would have granted the state's request." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rachel Stassen-Berger of the Pioneer Press: "Minnesota Democrats have sued to get ... Donald Trump's name removed from the state's general election ballots. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's Thursday lawsuit claims the Minnesota Republican Party failed to nominate its presidential electors ... in accordance with state law. Keith Downey, the chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, said last month that the party called a special meeting to approve alternative electors because it had previously neglected to do so. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

AP: "A judge is ordering the state of Utah not to stop funding its Planned Parenthood branch over advocacy for legal abortion or unproven allegations against the national organization. The move comes after an appeals court decided a defunding order from Utah Gov. Gary Herbert was likely an unconstitutional political move designed to punish the group because it provides abortions. The prohibition signed Sunday by U.S. District Judge Dee Benson in Salt Lake City will be in effect as a court battle over the governor's order plays out." -- CW: Benson, who now has senior status, was a Bush I appointee. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Joe Heim & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "A federal judge ruled Friday against the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's request for a preliminary injunction to halt construction on the Dakota Access crude oil pipeline that the tribe says endangers sacred burial grounds and could threaten its water supply from Lake Oahe, a dammed section of the Missouri river. But in a development that stunned even the tribe's lawyers, the decision by District Judge James E. Boasberg was effectively put on hold by a federal order to stop construction near the tribe's reservation until the Army Corps of Engineers can revisit its previous decisions in the disputed portion." CW: Boasberg is an Obama appointee.

Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Charles Pierce on the massive Wells Fargo fleece-the-customers scam which the CFPB outted. "... this says something truly awful about the company's upper management and the culture that has developed at all levels of the institution. A den of thieves, with elevators and Christmas bonuses. The truest thing that Bernie Sanders said in his stump speech always was that the basic business plan of this industry is fraud. It also was one of the few examples of understatement he allowed himself.... The Republican Party considers the CFPB to be an example of 'onerous regulation' and has vowed to kill it dead so that Americans can be free to get swindled by these sharpers.... Hey, I've got an idea. Let's let folks take the money that Social Security takes out of their paychecks and invest it in the big ol' casino in lower Manhattan [which is the GOP's excellent plan]. -- CW

How Ignorant of History Are Facebook's Censors? Abby Ohlheiser of the Washington Post: "If you were to pick a handful of images that changed how people think about war, Nick Ut's most famous photograph would surely be among them. The image of 9-year-old Kim Phuc running from napalm -- her skin burning, her clothes burned away -- defined the horrors of the Vietnam War. Norwegian author Tom Egeland ... shared the photo to Facebook weeks ago. But Facebook's moderators saw the Pulitzer Prize-winning image [as] a violation of the site's nudity policy.... [They] removed the photograph from Egeland's page, along with its accompanying text. His account was suspended for 24 hours after he shared an interview with Phuc criticizing Facebook's decision to censor this image.... Incredible outrage ... swept across Norway..., becoming the subject of an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg from Norway's largest newspaper, and rising all the way up to the country's prime minister." When PM Erna Solberg reposted the photo on her own Facebook page, Facebook deleted that, too. Facebook also threatened to remove the photo from the newspaper's Facebook page. "After initially defending its decision to remove the photograph, Facebook decided to 'reinstate' the image [on Egeland's page] on Friday afternoon." --CW

Presidential Race

... you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic -- you name it. And, unfortunately, there are people like that. -- Hillary Clinton, at a Manhattan fundraiser, Friday

Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Democrats are increasingly worried that Hillary Clinton has not built a formidable lead against Donald Trump despite his historic weaknesses as a national party candidate. Even [Clinton]'s advisers acknowledge that she must make changes, and quickly. Clinton leads Trump by a mere three percentage points, having fallen from her high of nine points in August, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average.... Among Democrats' concerns is the fact that Clinton spent a great deal of time over the summer raising millions of dollars in private fundraisers while Trump was devoting much of his schedule to rallies, speeches and TV appearances...." -- CW

John Wagner of the Washington Post: In Birmingham, Alabama, Tim "Kaine said he found it 'shocking,' 'horrible' and highly disrespectful that ... Mike Pence had on Thursday characterized [Vladimir] Putin as a stronger leader than President Obama, an assessment that echoed that of ... Donald Trump, a day before. 'When Mike Pence said that, I just had to reflect that if you don't know the difference between leadership and dictatorship, then where do I start with you?' said Kaine.... Kaine said ... Pence's comments showed a 'shocking level of disrespect for the president.'... At a rally later Friday in Norfolk, [Virginia,] Kaine took his argument one step further. 'That irrational hostility toward President Obama ... is unpatriotic, and we got to call it out,' Kaine told a crowd at Old Dominion University." CW: We've all had enough of that shit. See also conservative Philip Klein's analysis, linked below.

Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "... after more than a year of uncharacteristic restraint — a notable shift from eight years ago, when his simmering instincts often burdened Hillary Clinton's first presidential run — [former President Bill] Clinton seems to have had enough. 'Did I solve every problem? No,' he told a crowd on Wednesday in Orlando, Fla. 'Did I get caught trying? You bet.'... 'I got tickled the other day when Mr. Trump called my foundation a criminal enterprise,' he said on Tuesday in Durham, N.C., noting that Mr. Trump had paid a fine for making a political donation using funds from his own foundation.... 'So when someone who doesn't know the first thing about philanthropy tries to bring the Clinton Foundation into his political sideshow, [Clinton spokesman Angel] Urena said of Mr. Trump, 'President Clinton is going to stand up for it.'" -- CW ...

... Tim Hains of Real Clear Politics (Sept. 7): "Former President Bill Clinton ... says that Donald Trump's promise to 'Make America Great Again' is a racist codeword. 'If you're a white southerner, you know exactly what it means,' Clinton said." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Clinton Presidential Library has released nearly two dozen photos of Donald Trump socializing with President Bill Clinton -- including one that shows the two men with their arms around Trump's then-girlfriend, Melania, and Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kylie Bax -- images from a collection that underscores just how chummy Trump once was with the president and his wife Hillary." CW: According to Bax, "Bill was in another box [at the U.S. Open tennis park at Flushing Meadows] and he came by to say hello to Donald."

NYT, Republicans Can't Control Themselves. Adam Goldman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A computer specialist who deleted Hillary Clinton's emails despite orders from Congress to preserve them was given immunity by the Justice Department during its investigation into her personal email account.... Republicans have called for the department to investigate the deletions, but the immunity deal with the specialist, Paul Combetta, makes it unlikely that the request will go far.... 'As the F.B.I.'s report notes, [Clinton campaign spokesman Brian] Fallon said, 'neither Hillary Clinton nor her attorneys had knowledge of the Platte River Network employee's actions. It appears he acted on his own and against guidance given by both Clinton's and Platte River's attorneys to retain all data in compliance with a congressional preservation request.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matthew Teague of the Guardian: "Donald Trump made a half-hearted attempt to distance himself from ... Vladimir Putin, on Friday night at a rally in [Pensacola,] Florida, but aimed inflammatory comments at Iran and his political opponent Hillary Clinton.... It appears to make little political sense for Trump to campaign in his most devoted quarter, at this point in the race.... But Trump's methods continue to defy political gravity. His poll numbers have steadily risen, and they now show him nearly even with Clinton. One group of supporters did not make a return to Friday's rally: the singing, dancing girl group called Freedom Kids.... The group's manager and one girl's father, Jeff Popick, allege Trump 'played' the girls and didn't pay them." -- CW ...

By Driftglass.She is being so protected, she could walk into this arena right now and shoot somebody with 20,000 people watching, right smack in the middle of the heart, and she wouldn't be prosecuted. O.K.? That's what's happening. -- Donald Trump, speaking of Hillary Clinton, at the Pensacola rally, Friday ...

... Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump's comments followed an extended, and at times vicious and unscripted, criticism of Mrs. Clinton..., whom he called 'an unstable person.' He repeatedly criticized the decision not to prosecute her over her email scandal, and also her record as secretary of state." ...

... CW: Here again, we see Trump projecting his own faults onto an opponent. It's uncanny. If there's anyone who is not unstable, it's Hillary Clinton, yet Trump, who is crazy, who demonstrated that lunacy even in his criticism of Clinton, turns his own condition on Clinton. I'm only half-kidding when I say that if Trump is elected, members of the public should band together to bring suit to have him committed to a mental institution for the duration of his term. If unhappy people everywhere can be committed because they "pose a danger to themselves or others," committing Trump is a no-brainer. mike pence is horrible, but he's capable of carrying out the duties of the presidency, no matter how abysmally. I wouldn't be surprised if he agreed to be Trump's running mate on the assumption Trump would have a breakdown "on Day One." ...

... Here's some evidence: pence is running an anti-Trump campaign. Why, just yesterday ...

... Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: "Mike Pence on Friday said he couldn't spill the beans on his first confidential national security briefing of the campaign, citing 'great respect' for the classified nature of the information shared. The comments from Donald Trump's running mate came after the Republican nominee got heat from the intelligence community for offering a politicized readout of his own briefings." -- CW ...

... AND Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, on Friday released 10 years' worth of tax returns to the media -- revealing a modest family income, relative to the top of the Republican ticket, and reliable contributions to charity. The document release draws an uncomfortable contrast for the campaign: Trump himself has not released his tax returns...." -- CW

Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "Donald Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, and Rudy Giuliani, one of his main campaign surrogates, have both claimed that Trump believes President Obama was born in the U.S. Giuliani, bizarrely, has even claimed that Trump came out and said he believes that Obama was born in the U.S. 'two years ago, three years ago.' That would be remarkable since as recently as earlier this year Trump vowed to write a 'very successful' book outlining his birther conspiracy theory. Indeed, Trump calls himself a 'proud' birther and has regularly promoted the birther conspiracy theory on his Twitter feed, even implying that Obama had a government official killed as part of a cover-up of his supposedly fake birth certificate." Tashman provides the TrumpTweets to make his case. -- CW ...

... Upside-Down World. In case you were viewing Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway as "the sane one," Greg Sargent details how this morning Conway turned a remark by Trump -- "I guess so." -- when asked in 2002 if he favored the Iraq War -- into meaning he was against it. She went on to complain that, "Senator Obama said he would have done that [-- voted against authorization of the war --] in 2008, and everybody just took him at his word. As Sargent points out, & Conway certainly knew, "Obama did give a big speech in 2002 against the war just before the Senate vote giving George W. Bush authority to invade.... It has been widely discussed for years as one of the reasons he went on to defeat Clinton in the 2008 primaries (which Conway referenced).... So we aren't taking Obama's opposition to the war at the time 'at his word.' There is a record of it." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Conway: "We on the Trump Campaign Have No Fucking Idea What We're Doing." (paraphrase) Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Donald Trump's campaign manager on Friday denied that [Trump] ... willingly appeared on a Russian government-sponsored television network. 'As you know, former CNN superstar Larry King has a podcast and Mr. Trump went on his podcast. Nobody said it was going to be on Russian TV,' Kellyanne Conway said on CNN's 'New Day.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Philip Klein of the (right-wing) Washington Examiner excerpts the exchange between Matt Lauer & Donald Trump in which Trump compares Vladimir Putin to President Obama: "Donald Trump's decision to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin's leadership skills relative to President Obama's is getting a lot of attention, but what Trump actually said is much worse.... Trump not only said Obama was a weaker leader, but he implied that Obama was just as morally bad as Putin, if not worse.... Trump is dismissing actions Putin took threatening neighbors and working against U.S. interests by essentially saying, well, Obama has done a lot of things that were just as bad.... Trump is ... saying that none of the evil actions [Putin is] taking have been any worse than Obama. And that is reprehensible and indefensible." Via Greg Sargent. -- CW

Gail Collins was wondering if Donald Trump & his surrogates were sexists who used gender-specific attacks against Hillary Clinton. So she studied up on it. You won't be surprised to learn what she found. But then again, she's a girl, so her finding is so unfaaair. ...

She doesn't shave her arms and legs, and she's sick. She's going to die. She's having seizures on TV. -- Dom Howard, at Trump's rally in Pensacola, Florida, on Hillary Clinton's health & grooming

First I wondering how Dom there happened to catch a glimpse of Hillary's hairy armpits and legs. Then I was wondering if Donald Trump shaves his (under)arms & legs. This could be the first time in history an imagined failure to shave one's pits was cited as a disqualifier for the presidency. Did George Washington shave his legs? What about Ronald Reagan? Why, Abe Lincoln quit shaving his face when an 11-year-old girl suggested he would look more presidential with a beard. -- Constant Weader

The Commentariat -- Sept. 9, 2016

Afternoon Update:

NYT, Republicans Can't Control Themselves. Adam Goldman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A computer specialist who deleted Hillary Clinton's emails despite orders from Congress to preserve them was given immunity by the Justice Department during its investigation into her personal email account.... Republicans have called for the department to investigate the deletions, but the immunity deal with the specialist, Paul Combetta, makes it unlikely that the request will go far.... 'As the F.B.I.'s report notes, [Clinton campaign spokesman Brian] Fallon said, 'neither Hillary Clinton nor her attorneys had knowledge of the Platte River Network employee's actions. It appears he acted on his own and against guidance given by both Clinton's and Platte River's attorneys to retain all data in compliance with a congressional preservation request.'" -- CW

Upside-Down World. In case you were viewing Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway as "the sane one," Greg Sargent details how this morning Conway turned a remark by Trump -- "I guess so." -- when asked in 2002 if he favored the Iraq War -- into meaning he was against it. She went on to complain that, "Senator Obama said he would have done that [-- voted against authorization of the war --] in 2008, and everybody just took him at his word. As Sargent points out, & as Conway certainly knew, "Obama did give a big speech in 2002 against the war just before the Senate vote giving George W. Bush authority to invade.... It has been widely discussed for years as one of the reasons he went on to defeat Clinton in the 2008 primaries (which Conway referenced).... So we aren't taking Obama's opposition to the war at the time 'at his word.' There is a record of it." -- CW ...

... Conway: "We on the Trump Campaign Have No Fucking Idea What We're Doing." (paraphrase) Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Donald Trump's campaign manager on Friday denied that [Trump] ... willingly appeared on a Russian government-sponsored television network. 'As you know, former CNN superstar Larry King has a podcast and Mr. Trump went on his podcast. Nobody said it was going to be on Russian TV,' Kellyanne Conway said on CNN's 'New Day.'" -- CW

Tim Hains of Real Clear Politics (Sept. 7): "Former President Bill Clinton ... says that Donald Trump's promise to 'Make America Great Again' is a racist codeword. "If you're a white southerner, you know exactly what it means,' Clinton said." -- CW

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Friday refused to allow Michigan to ban voters from casting straight-ticket ballots in the coming election after lower courts found the prohibition was likely to discriminate against African Americans and result in long lines at the polls.... Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they would have granted the state's request." -- CW

Rachel Stassen-Berger of the Pioneer Press: "Minnesota Democrats have sued to get ... Donald Trump's name removed from the state's general election ballots. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's Thursday lawsuit claims the Minnesota Republican Party failed to nominate its presidential electors ... in accordance with state law. Keith Downey, the chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, said last month that the party called a special meeting to approve alternative electors because it had previously neglected to do so. -- CW

AP: "A judge is ordering the state of Utah not to stop funding its Planned Parenthood branch over advocacy for legal abortion or unproven allegations against the national organization. The move comes after an appeals court decided a defunding order from Utah Gov. Gary Herbert was likely an unconstitutional political move designed to punish the group because it provides abortions. The prohibition signed Sunday by U.S. District Judge Dee Benson in Salt Lake City will be in effect as a court battle over the governor's order plays out." -- CW: Benson, who now has senior status, was a Bush I appointee.

*****

Presidential Race

Jose DelReal, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Thursday, the full force of the Democratic Party, including President Obama, rallied around Hillary Clinton, saying that rival Donald Trump is unfit for office. On the Republican side, there was no such unity as lawmakers struggled with how to respond to the GOP nominee's claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a stronger leader than Obama." -- CW

Paul Krugman: Donald Trump employs a "big liar" technique. "The lies are constant, coming in a steady torrent, and are never acknowledged, simply repeated. He evidently believes that this strategy will keep the news media flummoxed, unable to believe, or at least say openly, that the candidate of a major party lies that much.... Over all, [Hillary Clinton's] record on truthfulness, as compiled by PolitiFact, looks pretty good for a politician -- much better than that of any of the contenders for the Republican nomination, and for that matter much better than that of Mitt Romney in the last presidential election.... Oh, and it barely got covered in the media, but her claim that Colin Powell advised her to set up a private email account was ... completely true, validated by an email that Mr. Powell sent three days after she took office, which contradicts some of his own claims." ...

... CW: Not to beat a dead horse, but in light of the actual truth, Powell's petulant response to Hillary Clinton's claim he had advised her on e-mail practices is classic bull and hugely defamatory, especially given the media's propensity to assume Clinton lies and Powell is a gentleman above reproach, except maybe in his infamous performance before the U.N:

Her people have been trying to pin it on me. The truth is, she was using [the private email server] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did.... Why do you think [she said I advised her]? It doesn't bother me. But it's okay; I'm free. -- Colin Powell, to People magazine, August 2016

...NEW. BTW, if you think Powell apologized to Clinton for that comment once he'd been caught in a misstatement that impugned her character and implied she lied to DOJ investigators, think again. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Colin Powell is defending his use of a personal email account during his time as secretary of state, as Democrats stepped up complaints that the intense focus on Hillary Clinton's email practices reflects a double standard.... 'I have tremendous respect for Secretary Powell and his decades of service to our nation, despite the poor judgment shown in this email,' said [Rep. Elijah] Cummings [D-Md.], who secured the Clinton-Powell exchange from State this week and released it Wednesday night. 'I think everyone in this room knows what is really going on here: this hearing is not about an effort to improve FOIA [the Freeom of Information Act] or federal recordkeeping. This is an attack -- an attack on Hillary Clinton's candidacy ... and just the latest in a series of attacks,' Cummings said. 'Secretary Clinton has produced some 55,000 pages of emails while Secretary Powell has produced none.'" -- CW

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Brian Stelter of CNN: "NBC News knows the 'Commander-in-Chief Forum' was not Matt Lauer's finest hour. One executive, speaking anonymously, was blunt about it: 'Disaster.'... By mid-morning on Thursday, the hashtag 'Lauering the Bar' ... was trending on Twitter." -- CW ...

... ** James Poniewozik of the New York Times: "Seemingly unprepared on military and foreign policy specifics, [host Matt Lauer] performed like a soldier sent on a mission without ammunition.... Roughly a third of his questioning [of Hillary Clinton] dealt with the emails.... It suggested, as the rest of the forum confirmed, that Mr. Lauer was steadiest handling issues familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of the morning politics headlines.... [Lauer's] interview [of Donald Trump] was the apotheosis of this presidential campaign's forced marriage of entertainment and news. The host of NBC's morning show interviewed the former star of its reality show 'The Apprentice,' and the whole thing played out as farce." CW: Do read the whole critique. It's a hoot, and it's true. ...

... Charles Pierce: "I was exhausted by the sheer magnitude of the mendacity and ignorance, by Lauer's somewhat understandable inability to check the deluge of lies and inanity, and by the postgame commentary that tried to explain why the event had been something more than a clinical manifestation of sociopathic megalomania. Then Brian Williams threw it over to his colleague Hugh Hewitt, who thought Donald Trump had had a great night.... We're all so fcking doomed." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Frank Rich: "... the problem here wasn't just that Clinton was grilled and Trump was not. There was a rudeness to Clinton on [Matt] Lauer's part reminiscent of Rick Lazio's paper-waving performance in his debate with Clinton during the 2000 Senate race in New York. Repeatedly, Lauer nagged Clinton to speed up and keep her answers short -- a demand he never made of Trump.... [Lauer's] incompetence and double standard have handed Trump a big post Labor Day gift just as the polls are tightening." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... New York Times Editors: "If the moderators of the coming debates do not figure out a better way to get the candidates to speak accurately about their records and policies -- especially Mr. Trump, who seems to feel he can skate by unchallenged with his own version of reality while Mrs. Clinton is grilled and entangled in the fine points of domestic and foreign policy -- then they will have done the country a grave disservice." ...

... CW: One possible positive outcome of Lauer's predictably idiotic performance is that the presidential debate moderators -- even Fox "News"'s Chris Wallace -- may decide they should do their jobs lest they be subjected to the trouncing Lauer has gotten. Then again, the teevee journos may be incapable of asking probing questions, following up & calling out bull. ...

Gabrielle Levy of US News: "Hillary Clinton held her first formal press conference in months Thursday morning, taking questions on the tarmac of the White Plains, New York, airport.... Clinton announced she would be meeting to discuss her plan to defeat the Islamic State group on Friday with a bipartisan group of former generals and national security officials.... Clinton ... said Trump's answers proved once again he was 'temperamentally unfit' and 'totally unqualified' to be commander-in-chief, and slammed him for insulting the military by saying U.S. generals had been 'reduced to rubble.'... And while Clinton has faced relentless questions about her handling of sensitive information, it was Trump, she said, who crossed a line in commenting Wednesday night on the nature of the classified briefings he is receiving.... Trump said he could tell from his briefers' 'body language' that they were unhappy with Obama's leadership..., a statement Clinton said was 'totally inappropriate and undisciplined.' 'I would never comment on any aspect of an intelligence briefing that I received,' she said." -- CW ...

... Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "But as a candidate for president in 2008, Clinton herself commented on a secret briefing, citing it twice in her criticism of the George W. Bush administration. In a Feb. 25 speech..., she said she had pushed the administration to provide information about their Iraq withdrawal plans.... 'We finally were able to secure a briefing which although classified, I can tell you was cursory. It did not inspire confidence in our readiness to do this important task of withdrawing our troops and equipment.'" She made a similar comment on "Meet the Press." "'There's a difference between a security briefing done by intel community, and an Iraq policy briefing by Bush's DoD,' [Clinton] press secretary Brian Fallon tweeted. 'Members of Congress routinely exit policy briefings held by admin officials & express general dissatisfaction w/policy choices being made.'" -- CW

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton suggested in a television interview in Israel, broadcast on Thursday, that the Islamic State is 'rooting for Donald Trump's victory' and that terrorists are praying, 'Please, Allah, make Trump president of America.' Speaking with Israel's Channel 2, Mrs. Clinton said that by singling out Muslims during his campaign, Mr. Trump had played into the hands of extremists and helped their recruitment efforts, in effect 'giving aid and comfort to their evil ambitions.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Washington Post Editors: "The Hillary Clinton email story is out of control. Judging by BY the amount of time NBC's Matt Lauer spent pressing Hillary Clinton on her emails during Wednesday's national security presidential forum, one would think that her homebrew server was one of the most important issues facing the country this election. It is not.... Imagine how history would judge today's Americans if, looking back at this election, the record showed that voters empowered a dangerous man because of ... a minor email scandal. There is no equivalence between Ms. Clinton's wrongs and Mr. Trump's manifest unfitness for office." -- CW

** Jonathan Chait: "The harrowing reality is that the only thing standing between handing control of the Executive branch to a wildly ignorant, racist demagogue with a fondness for the authoritarian world is the second-most-unpopular presidential nominee in the history of modern polling. (The most-unpopular candidate is Donald Trump, though the gap between the two is narrowing.) That Clinton is viewed as the near-equivalent of Trump, a grotesque buffoon who has committed what would normally be considered a campaign-defining gaffe at a rate of approximately once a day for 15 months, required the convergence of several factors." Read on. -- CW

... Ed Pilkington of the Guardian & Andrea Bernstein of WNYC in the Guardian: "Of all the varied chapters of Clinton's tumultuous 30 years in public life, the story of her response to the attacks on the twin towers is one of the richest in terms of the clues it provides as to what to expect from a Clinton presidency. It reveals elements of her character, of her domestic policy strengths, as well as her tendency to lean towards the hawkish side in international affairs." -- CW

... This is all way too serious. Let's hear what the crazy people are saying today. ...

Alex Griswold of Mediaite: "The latest anti-Hillary Clinton conspiracy is that the Democratic presidential candidate was wearing a hidden earpiece to feed her answers during an NBC forum Thursday night. The conspiracy was apparently started by a tweet from actor James Wood that purported to show a device in Clinton's ear.... That apparently was enough for The Drudge Report to run with, linking to a story from notorious conspiracy site InfoWars.com. The Alex Jones-run site cited as evidence the Woods tweet and an unsourced story on a blog called TruePundit claiming Clinton's earpiece was 'invisible.'... Conveniently, if the earpiece was 'invisible,' the allegation cannot be rebutted by sharing images showing that Clinton was very obviously not wearing an earpiece." CW: I didn't watch the show, but I thought Clinton was getting radio signals through her teeth.

Sorry, but the invisible earpiece is no longer the latest conspiracy theory: Andrew Stiles of Heat Street: "Hillary Clinton, 68, finally held a press conference on Thursday.... Notice anything? Clinton wore a pantsuit and a necklace that, upon further analytical examination, appears to resemble a 'Life Alert' style device for the elderly." ...

... CW: For anyone of any age who lives alone, a Life Alert or similar device is a good idea. I'm planning to get one myself soon. But Clinton does not live alone. Ever. She has 24-hour security personnel wherever she goes, and she is surrounded by other people during most of the day. If she's "fallen and can't get up," those people will help her. Besides, she can afford an "invisible" Life Alert like the earpiece. But thanks for the "analytical examination," Andrew.

This Is Astounding. Jose DelReal: "Donald Trump criticized U.S. foreign policy and the American political press corps Thursday during an interview on RT America, a state-owned Russian television network.... Asked during the RT America interview [by Larry King] what has surprised him most about the political process, Trump unloaded on the American press. 'Well, I think the dishonesty of the media. The media has been unbelievably dishonest,' Trump responded. 'I mean they'll take a statement that you make which is perfect and they'll cut it up and chop it up and shorten it or lengthen it or do something with it.' When King asked Trump if he believed reports that Russian hackers may have targeted Democratic Party databases..., Trump said..., 'I think it's probably unlikely. I think maybe the Democrats are putting that out....'... King also asked Trump about Russian President Vladimir Putin's assertion that the hack was a 'public service,' even as he claimed the Russian government was not involved. 'I don't have any opinion on it. I don't know anything about it.'" -- CW ...

... Jonathan Martin & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's campaign on Thursday reaffirmed its extraordinary embrace of Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, signaling a preference for the leadership of an authoritarian adversary over that of America's own president, despite a cascade of criticism from Democrats and expressions of discomfort among Republicans.... Democrats and even some Republicans said the fury would have been unceasing on the right had a Democratic presidential candidate held up the leader of a hostile power to deride a Republican president.... Hillary Clinton excoriated Mr. Trump for asserting that Mr. Putin is a better leader than President Obama, saying it was 'not just unpatriotic and insulting to the people of our country, as well as to our commander in chief, it is scary.'... It is all rather confounding -- unless Mr. Trump is simply eyeing postelection business interests...." -- CW ...

... The Onion Media Matters: Appearing on Russian-backed teevee, Donald Trump applauds Chris Wallace's promise not to fact-check him. -- CW

By Driftglass.Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star: "Over the course of 13 minutes of a Thursday speech at a Cleveland school, Trump offered nine explanations and justifications for his position on the war in 2002 and 2003. Most of them were false, contradictory or both. Even by the standards of presidential-campaign spin, this was a highly abnormal level of dishonesty, especially for a scripted speech." -- CW

** William Saletan of Slate: "Wednesday night's 'Commander-in-Chief Forum' ... was a debacle.... But Trump still managed, through boastful indifference, to reveal the most important thing about his presidency: He would make the United States an authoritarian country." CW: Read on, because Saletan compiles quite a case against Trump, based only on this one brief interview.

Jennifer Steinhauer & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Speaking at a candidates' forum, Mr. Trump defended one of his Twitter posts from 2013..., and said that he had been 'absolutely correct' in posting a message that said, 'What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?'... Lawmakers and military experts ... said Mr. Trump had displayed ignorance of the Pentagon's decades-long struggle to curb such assaults and the military justice system that is in place to prosecute them. 'That's more than victim blaming, and it misunderstands the historical role of women in the military,' said retired Col. Don Christensen, a former chief prosecutor of the Air Force.... Mr. Trump's proposed solution of creating a military justice system to deal with sexual assault also puzzled national security experts. A military justice system has been in place in some form since the 1774 British Articles of War." -- CW

Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "As U.S. officials cast doubt on Donald Trump's claim he read the 'body language' of intelligence officials at a recent briefing, NBC News has learned exclusive details of ... reported tension between one of Trump's advisers ... retired Gen. Michael Flynn ... and the briefers.... Current and former U.S. intelligence officials ... told NBC News that many members of the current intelligence community -- leadership rank and file -- were angered by Trump's comments Wednesday night, and the possibility that he may have disclosed details of his intelligence briefing or attempted to politicize it.... 'A political candidate has used professional intelligence officers briefing him in a totally non-political setting as props to buttress an argument for his political campaign,' said [former CIA & NSA Director Gen. Michael] Hayden.... 'The"I can read body language" line was quite remarkable.... I am confident Director Clapper sent senior professionals to this meeting and so I am equally confident that no such body language ever existed.'... Michael Morell, a former acting CIA director who was President George W. Bush's briefer and is now a Hillary Clinton supporter, said..., 'This is the first time that I can remember a candidate for president doing a readout from an intelligence briefing, and it's the first time a candidate has politicized their intelligence briefing. Both of those are highly inappropriate and crossed a long standing red line respected by both parties.'..." -- CW ...

... Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "Did U.S. intelligence analysts betray disdain for President Obama and Hillary Clinton during recent classified briefings with Donald Trump, as the GOP candidate claimed Wednesday? Doing so would represent an almost inconceivable violation of training and tradition, former U.S. intelligence officials said.... Among U.S. intelligence officials, Trump's claim amounts to an accusation of a serious breach of professional ethics.... Their roles require spy services to steer clear of seeking to influence policy. Analysts trained to remain impartial are particularly allergic to domestic politics.... 'This is unprecedented,' said David Priess, a former CIA officer who delivered daily briefings to senior members of the George W. Bush administration." ...

... CW: It's worth noting that Trump made the body-language remark in answer to a question by Matt Lauer: "Did you learn anything in that briefing -- again, not going into specifics -- that makes you reconsider some of the things you say you can accomplish, like defeating ISIS quickly?" So all it takes is a question from a fake journalist to get Trump to breach national security protocols. Trump's remark shows, on several levels, what an unfit blowhard he is. (1) It's a lie perpetrated for political gain; (2) it's a violation of the ground rules for the briefings; (3) he's such a blabbermouth obviously he's a yuuuge national security risk; (4) it's an insult to career officials; (5) he thinks he discerns "body language" that is a figment of his imagination; (6) thus, he would base policy decisions of "feelings" or imaginary "senses" he had of what was really going on; and (7) he doesn't have the "judgment" he claims is his main qualification to be POTUS. But at least the comment answered a question I asked a short while ago: "How long will it take Trump to spill the beans on his intel briefings?" (paraphrase) Answer: about a week.

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Despite what you may learn watching 'The Apprentice,' you can't just fire your way to success. Still, Trump seems to think there is no problem that can't be solved through layoffs." On Wednesday, Trump said he would fire the generals who served under President Obama. "Just a few weeks earlier, Trump suggested he might soon be cleaning house in the country's intelligence agencies, too.... As president, he would also cleanse the entire executive branch of career civil servants appointed during President Obama's tenure. 'As you know from his other career, Donald likes to fire people,' Trump adviser and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said..., which would require changing federal civil service law.... At least Trump practices what he preaches. Within his own campaign, he fired and replaced two campaign managers over two months.... As proof of Trump's claim that he hires only 'the best people,' the latest all-star lineup includes an accused sexual predator and the man who presided over the leading forum of the racist alt-right." -- CW

So Ronald Reagan is going to go into negotiations with Putin from a position of strength. -- Rudy Giuliani, Thursday, confusing Reagan with Trump, in a Chris Matthews interview in which Giuliani ticked off a bunch of evidence that Hillary Clinton had health issues, including mental health issues

Where's Melania? Mary Jordan & Stephanie McCrummen of the Washington Post: "Melania Trump ... has not spoken publicly [since the Republican convention] and has largely vanished from view, leaving a trail of questions and voids in her personal biography. Her long silence followed the fiasco over her convention speech, parts of which turned out to have been plagiarized.... Then she took her website down after revelations that there was no record she had obtained a college degree, as her site had claimed.... [Despite evidence to the contrary,] Donald Trump has said his wife is 'so documented.'... Even as the campaign declines to fill in details of her life story, Melania Trump has deployed an attorney to beat back news reports probing her past. Last week, the former fashion model filed a libel suit against a blogger and a British newspaper for reports, since retracted, suggesting that she once worked as an escort.... Recently, Melania Trump's absence has become conspicuous enough to spawn such Twitter hashtags as #WhereisMelania and #FreeMelania...." -- CW

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor and Libertarian Party presidential nominee, revealed a surprising lack of foreign policy knowledge on Thursday that could rock his insurgent candidacy when he could not answer a basic question about the crisis in Aleppo, Syria. 'What is Aleppo?' Mr. Johnson said when asked on MSNBC how, as president, he would address the refugee crisis in the war-torn Syrian city. When pressed as to whether he was serious, Mr. Johnson indicated that he really was not aware of the city, which has been widely covered during the years that Syria has been engulfed in civil war." Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Philip Bump: "A writer for Fusion points out that [Johnson] has done this before, at one point asking an interviewer, 'Who's Harriet Tubman?'" CW: The date of the gaffe was a couple of months after "Who's Jack Lew?" named Tubman to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Tim Egan on the stupidity & danger of voting for a stoner or a woman who plans to put Ed Snowden in her cabinet. -- CW

Other News & Views

Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: Daniel Jones, "the man at the center of the US Senate's landmark investigation of the CIA torture program, has gone public for the first time about an experience that led to the CIA spying on him as part of what he calls a 'failed coverup'. For six years..., Jones was the chief investigator for the Senate intelligence committee's inquiry into CIA detentions and interrogations carried out in the post-9/11 Bush era. Jones and his team turned 6.3m pages of internal CIA documents into a scathing study which concluded that torture was ineffective and that the CIA had lied about it to two presidents, Congress and the US public." -- CW ...

... Here's the first part of Ackerman's three-part series on "the Senate investigation into torture, the crisis with the CIA it spurred and" Jones.

Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Matt Egan of CNN: "On Thursday, federal regulators said Wells Fargo (WFC) employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts -- without their customers knowing it -- since 2011. The phony accounts earned the bank unwarranted fees and allowed Wells Fargo employees to boost their sales figures and make more money. 'Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses,' Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a statement. Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that it had fired 5,300 employees over the last few years related to the shady behavior. Employees went so far as to create phony PIN numbers and fake email addresses to enroll customers in online banking services, the CFPB said.... The CFPB said Wells Fargo will pay 'full restitutions to all victims.'... Wells Fargo is being slapped with the largest penalty since the CFPB was founded in 2011. The bank agreed to pay $185 million in fines, along with $5 million to refund customers." -- CW ...

... Here's the New York Times story, by Michael Corkery. -- CW

Rachel Weiner & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "U.S. authorities have arrested two North Carolina men accused of hacking into the private email accounts of high-ranking U.S. intelligence officials. Andrew Otto Boggs, aka 'INCURSIO,' 22, of North Wilkesboro, N.C. and Justin Gray Liverman, aka 'D3F4ULT,' 24, of Morehead City, N.C. were both arrested Thursday morning and will be extradited next week to the Eastern District of Virginia, where federal prosecutors have spent months building a case against a group that calls itself Crackas With Attitude. The hacking collective has claimed to have gained access to the private email accounts of CIA ­Director John O. Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors will not attempt to retry former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, on corruption charges, ending a years-long saga.... The conclusion came unceremoniously, as prosecutors filed one-paragraph documents telling a federal appeals court they would move to dismiss the indictments. It means that the McDonnells -- who have always maintained they did nothing illegal -- will avoid criminal convictions and prison time. But the images produced at their trial -- the troubled marriage, the lavish vacations, a Ferrari ride, the Rolex watch -- can hardly be undone." -- CW

Way Beyond

Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "South Korean officials said that they had detected an 'artificial' tremor emanating from North Korea on Friday morning, indicating that the country has conducted its fifth nuclear test despite threats of more sanctions from Washington and the United Nations. The Korea Meteorological Administration detected the tremor and was analyzing data to see if it was caused by an earthquake or by an underground nuclear detonation, a spokeswoman said." -- CW ...

     ... The story has been updated, with Jane Perlez added to the byline. New Lede: "North Korea conducted its fifth underground nuclear test on Friday, its government said, despite threats of more sanctions from the United States and the United Nations. The latest test, according to South Korean officials, produced a more powerful explosive yield than the North's previous detonations, indicating that the country was making progress in its efforts to build a functional nuclear warhead."