The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, but Akhilleus found this new one that he says is easy to use.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links

Constant Comments

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -- Edward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Monday
Aug082016

The Commentariat -- August 9, 2016

Presidential Race

Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Democrat Hillary Clinton will participate in the three presidential debates as scheduled, her campaign said Monday in response to complaints from Republican Donald Trump that the dates are unsuitable.... The prime-time sessions are set for Sept. 26, Oct. 9 and Oct. 19." -- CW

In Kissimmee, Florida, Hillary Clinton reacted to Donald Trump's economics speech. (more on the speech below):

Adam Pearce of the New York Times: "People who donated to establishment Republican candidates in the primary season are more likely to give money to Hillary Clinton ... than to their own party's candidate, Donald J. Trump.... Of the donors who gave at least $200 to Jeb Bush, Gov. John Kasich, Gov. Chris Christie or Senator Lindsey Graham in the Republican primaries, more have also contributed to Mrs. Clinton than to Mr. Trump, according to Federal Election Commission filings through June.... Donors to Mr. Trump's primary opponents are backing him at a historically low rate.... Mrs. Clinton has received $2.2 million from donors to candidates who dropped out of the Republican presidential primary, about $600,000 more than Mr. Trump has received from such donors, the filings showed." -- CW

Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump used a familiar turn of phrase Monday evening to suggest without evidence a possible link between the execution of an Iranian nuclear scientist and Hillary Clinton's emails, saying that 'many people' were drawing a connection between the two.... By late Monday night, the hashtag #ManyPeopleAreSaying was trending on Twitter nationwide, a sign that the mogul's word choice, which he has used to perpetuate other unsubstantiated claims, had attracted widespread attention." -- CW ...

... Josh Rogin of the Washington Post: "Despite what you might read on Donald Trump’s twitter feed, the Iranian execution of a nuclear scientist who defected to the United States and then changed his mind was not caused by Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. The scientist outed himself; it wasn't Clinton's fault.... There's no reasonable connection between the discussion of Amiri's case on email by Clinton's staff to Amiri's eventual execution.... Add Shahram Amiri to the list of deaths Trump has carelessly speculated that Clinton is responsible for with no real evidence. At least he can't blame her for the Kennedy assassination; he's already got a conspiracy theory for that one." -- CW ...

... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "The parents of two Americans killed in the 2012 attack on a United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, filed a lawsuit on Monday against Hillary Clinton, saying that her '"extreme carelessness" in handling confidential and classified information' while secretary of state contributed to the conditions that led to their sons' deaths. In the wrongful-death lawsuit, Patricia Smith and Charles Woods allege that the attack that killed four Americans, including their sons, Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, 'was directly and proximately caused, at a minimum' by Mrs. Clinton's use of a private email server while in the State Department." ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Republicans have opened a new front in the sprawling legal war over the release of State Department emails: a battle to open up thousands of pages of schedules for former President Bill Clinton. But the clock is ticking down on the GOP's hopes to use the trove of details on Clinton's post-presidency against his wife ... before the November election.... State revealed the existence of the large collection of Bill Clinton schedules after the RNC made an unusual legal move last month, asking a federal judge to declare that the former president's schedules should be released in their entirety because the former president worked closely with State officials and his post-presidency office is funded with taxpayer dollars. The GOP also pointed to the ethical controversy over the Clinton Foundation soliciting donations abroad while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state." -- CW

New York Times graphic.

Sean Sullivan & Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump on Monday proposed collapsing the federal income tax rate from seven brackets down to three and called for allowing child-care expenses to be exempt from taxation in a speech allies hope will help the GOP presidential nominee turn the page on a tumultuous period some Republicans fear has severely damaged his campaign. Trump was interrupted every few minutes by protesters for much of his address at the Detroit Economic Club. He took sharp aim at ... Hillary Clinton in the speech, holding up Detroit, which has been devastated by manufacturing job losses, as 'the living, breathing example' of her 'failed economic agenda.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times fact-checks some of Trump's nonsense. -- CW ...

... Glenn Kessler & Michelle Lee of the Washington Post do the same, providing "a guide to 16 of the more fact-challenged assertions made by the GOP nominee." They pepper their report with language like "ridiculously false," "fairly absurd" & "ridiculous talking point." -- CW

Whoever wrote this, I don't think they know what carried interest is or how it works. -- Ryan Ellis of the Conservative Reform Network ...

... Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: "Trump promised to reduce taxes for the middle class and reform a system that he said favors the rich.... 'He's actually doing less for the middle class than he originally planned,' said Martin A. Sullivan, the chief economist at Tax Analysts.... Many tax experts said Trump's latest speech reveals an even sketchier picture of his economic vision than previous proposals.... He introduced a proposal for an investment income loophole that could actually benefit hedge fund managers and suggested a tax break for child care that would do little for the lowest income earners." -- CW

... New York Times Editors: "Donald Trump said on Monday that he wanted to usher in 'economic renewal,' but most of his proposals would hurt the economy, rack up huge deficits, accelerate climate change and leave the country isolated from the world. In a speech billed as a blueprint for stimulating growth and creating jobs, Mr. Trump offered a grab bag of ideas that borrow from discredited supply-side economics, the fossil fuel industry's wish list and 'America First' isolationism. He also criticized Hillary Clinton and President Obama for what he called their 'job-killing, tax-raising, poverty-inducing' agenda. It was vintage Trump, full of promises of greatness and victories backed by fantastical proposals." -- CW ...

... Washington Post Editors: "Mr. Trump's economic policy speech to the Detroit Economic Club managed to embrace the worst of traditional Republican doctrine while repudiating the best of it.... There was, in short, little in the way of tangible benefit for the downscale Americans for whom Mr. Trump claims to speak.... Brimming with statistics, larded with footnotes, Monday's speech was meant to instill 'message discipline' in the Trump campaign. But even that message's most carefully scripted version is held together by smoke, mirrors and scapegoating." -- CW

... Pat Garofalo of US News: "... Donald Trump delivered an address before the Detroit Economic Club on Monday that was equal parts conservative pablum, distortion and conspiracy theorizing.... The policy content of the telepromptered speech was warmed-over Republican orthodoxy: tax cuts, deregulation and an insistence that any effort to combat climate change be subverted.... He layered on top of that some of his favorite lies: That ... Hillary Clinton called for raising taxes on the middle class (she didn't); that regulation is costing the economy $2 trillion per year (it's not); and that Obamacare will kill some 2 million jobs if it remains the law of the land (it won't). And then he threw in some conspiracy fearmongering about the official Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs numbers, one of his favorite ridiculous theories." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... the contradictions attending Trump's economic platform are more glaring than ever. He goes into the last months of the election campaign as a political schizophrenic. On immigration and trade, he is a pitchfork-wielding Pat Buchanan Republican; on taxes and regulation, he is a dark-suited Paul Ryan Republican.... The Detroit Economic Club ... marks the resting place of Donald Trump the economic populist." -- CW ...

... Timothy Lee of Vox: "With few policy ideas of his own, [Trump] has adopted the standard-issue Republican agenda by default.... The two relatively unorthodox ideas in Trump's plan -- rejecting trade deals and providing tax breaks for child care expenses -- put Trump firmly in the traditional of populist conservative thinkers and politicians. Yet in practice, these ideas represent only a small departure from mainstream conservatism." -- CW ...

... Brian Beutler: "Donald Trump is now running Mitt Romney's campaign plus racism. After perhaps the most damaging political week any presidential candidate has ever endured, Trump went to Detroit to deliver a hastily prepared economic speech intended to make peace with the Republican Party leadership. As the terms of his surrender, Trump offered two key concessions: He adopted House Speaker Paul Ryan's tax policy and the GOP's gaffe-centered 2012 campaign strategy of misquoting or misrepresenting the Democratic candidate's words." -- CW

David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Last October, at a rally in Las Vegas, a friend of Donald Trump's introduced [Trump, saying,] 'You won't hear this in the media, but Donald gave $20 million to the St. Jude children's home. Twenty million dollars,' said Phil Ruffin, the owner of the Treasure Island casino, which was the site of the rally. The crowd cheered. Trump mouthed 'Thank you' twice and waved.... Later that day..., Trump retweeted a message from a fan, criticizing the mainstream media for not broadcasting Ruffin's story about the gift. If Ruffin's story were true, then Trump's gift to St. Jude would appear to be, by far, the largest charitable donation of Trump's life. But when The Washington Post looked for evidence to back up Ruffin's story it could find none.... It seems possible that what Ruffin was referring to actually" was a pledge from Eric Trump's foundation, an entity entirely separate from Donald Trump. (Emphasis added.) (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... CW: Maybe you should start getting your friends & associates to introduce you at social & business gatherings by saying, "You won't hear this in the media, but [Your Name Here] gave $20 million [or more, what the hell] to [name of your favorite charity]." Think how much more people would like & admire you if they thought you gave all your worldly goods & then some to a worthy cause.

David Sanger of the New York Times: "Fifty of the nation's most senior Republican national security officials, many of them former top aides or cabinet members for President George W. Bush, have signed a letter declaring that Donald J. Trump 'lacks the character, values and experience' to be president and 'would put at risk our country's national security and well-being.' Mr. Trump, the officials warn, 'would be the most reckless president in American history.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... CW: This is as big a kick at Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, et al., as it is Donald Trump. Trump may be a bloviating buffoon, but Congressional leaders & other big-name enablers are supposed to be smart enough not to put the country at risk. The letter, a copy of which is here, gives less lily-livered Republicans permission to abandon ship. ...

... ** Fred Kaplan of Slate: "... Donald Trump's foreign policy ideas ... qualify as the most dangerous, disruptive, self-destructive ideas that any major party's nominee has peddled in any living American's memory.... Even if he didn't start a [capricious] war, or escalate one with no notion of how to end it, he is likely -- judging from what he says -- to wreck the few remnants of the post -- World War II order that sustain America's influence and its broad network of (mostly) democratic allies.... Putin in particular must be agog at his potential good fortune." Read on, as Kaplan runs through a parade of horribles that would follow Trump's election. -- CW ...

... Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), in a Washington Post op-ed: "I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president.... My conclusion about Mr. Trump's unsuitability for office is based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics. Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities.... I am also deeply concerned that Mr. Trump's lack of self-restraint and his barrage of ill-informed comments would make an already perilous world even more so." -- CW ...

... Paul Waldman: "... even if none of these defections represents an inspiring profile in courage, their political significance is still profound. That's because it's one thing when you have one or two defections, but the more they start to pile up, the more likely further defections become, each one giving momentum to the next." -- CW

Brian Stelter of CNN: "From the looks of Matt Drudge's home page, Hillary Clinton is so sick, she needs help getting up a flight of stairs.... But looks can be deceiving. The Drudge Report, one of the most widely read sites on the web, is misleading visitors by taking a six-month-old photo out of context. Clinton slipped on some stairs while campaigning in South Carolina ahead of the February 27 primary -- that much is true. A couple of men helped her up the stairs. Photos of the awkward entrance were published right afterward by two wire services, Reuters and Getty.... A right-wing blog called The American Mirror picked up on the tweets and published a short story on Sunday. 'SHOCK PHOTO: Multiple staffers help unstable Hillary up stairs,' the headline said.... The blog post was all Drudge needed to splash the photos across the home page of his hugely popular tip sheet." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... CW: I scanned the American Mirror blogpost; it's worse than Stelter lets on. I'd like to see Drudge keep a schedule like Clinton's, then try to bound up slippery steps in tiny, slick-soled high heels. Women-haters! ...

     ... Oh, look. Here's a pic of President Obama stumbling on stairs at a campaign rally in July 2012. He was indoors! And wearing big ole man-shoes! I guess all the wingers were right: he is totally unfit for the presidency:

Danielle Paquette of the Washington Post: Ivanka Trump, Donald's daughter, "has built her personal brand around this cause, penning a book called 'Women Who Work' and leading the family-friendly policy charge on Donald Trump's presidential campaign. But the company that designs her clothing line, including the $157 sheath she wore during her convention speech, does not offer workers a single day of paid maternity leave.... The company allows just 12 weeks of unpaid leave, the legal minimum for employers with more than 50 workers.... Last month, British newspaper The Independent revealed most of the Ivanka Trump brand's clothing was manufactured in Vietnam and China.... [Ivanka's] message [in 'Women Who Work'] starkly contrasts with past words of her father, who has blamed his wives' careers for troubles in his previous marriages. In 1994, Donald Trump told ABC News, 'I think that putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing.' There is no reference to a paid family leave policy on his campaign website." -- CW ...

... CW: If you want to read a boatload of malarkey (I didn't bother), Lisa DePaulo of Harper's Bizarre (or Bazaar) interviews Ivanka Trump & probably finds out Donald Trump is a great dad & wonderful human being. Also, sexy photos.

Other News & Views

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

"Shelley Ross, once one of the most powerful women in TV news, writes exclusively [in the Daily Beast] on resisting Roger Ailes's invitation to have a 'sexual alliance' with him, the epidemic of sexual harassment in TV news, and how to solve it." -- CW ...

... Gabriel Sherman of New York: "Fox News' senior executives have said they were unaware of sexual-harassment allegations against Roger Ailes before former anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit against him in July. But those claims are now being challenged by Fox host Andrea Tantaros, who says that she complained multiple times to senior Fox executives in 2015 about Ailes's inappropriate sexual behavior toward her. Tantaros says that, after she came forward, she was first demoted and eventually taken off the air in April 2016. Fox continues to pay her." CW Note: Tantaros is a complete ditz, but of course that doesn't mean Ailes has droit du seigneur. ...

... Kyle Blaine of BuzzFeed: Fox "News" sources dispute Tantaros' claims. "During the legal proceedings [over a book Tantaros wrote], according to the sources, Tantaros alleged that she had been mistreated by several Fox News employees, both men and women. Five specific allegations, including 'inappropriate male behavior,' were detailed by Tantaros's legal team in a March 2016 letter made available to BuzzFeed News. Ailes was not among those accused in the letter.... When Tantaros sat down with Fox News' legal and HR team on April 7, she was asked directly if she should could recall any specific statements made to her of a sexual nature. According to the source with direct knowledge, she answered that she could not recall." -- CW ...

... Sarah Ellison has a long piece in Vanity Fair titled "Inside the Fox News Bunker." All the staff are skeert of What Happens Next. CW: I'm sure a lot of Fox employees are nice people who don't deserve to be jerked around by the vicissitudes of Ailes & the Murdock boys. But, for reasons of necessity or opportunism, they did sell their souls to the devil. They should not be surprised that sometimes there is a price to pay.

Beyond the Beltway

Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: "... as more and more states seek ways to help the richest Americans protect their wealth from creditors, divorcing spouses and children, as well as some federal and state tax collectors, critics worry that the effort to attract the lucrative trust business is turning into a competitive game of giveaway.... The clear leaders are Nevada, Delaware, South Dakota and Alaska, but other states have also joined the frenzy. New Hampshire, Wyoming, Tennessee and Ohio all hope to dip a spoon in the trillion-dollar-plus pot of cream that had traditionally been preserved in offshore tax havens like the Cayman Islands." -- CW

Way Beyond

Duet of the Despots. Neil MacFarquhar & Tim Arango of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are expected to reconsider their dispute over Syria when they meet on Tuesday in St. Petersburg, with both leaders interested in a public display of affection to show the West that strained ties have not left them isolated." -- CW

David Sanger & Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "The most recent satellite photographs [of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea]..., collected and scrutinized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research organization, show the construction of what appear to be reinforced [Chinese] aircraft hangars at Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs, all part of the disputed territories. There were no military aircraft seen at the time the photos were taken. But a summary of the center's analysis suggests that the hangars on all three islets have room for 'any fighter-jet in the People's Liberation Army Air Force.'... While China may assert that the structures are for civilian aircraft or other nonmilitary functions, the center says its satellite photos strongly suggest otherwise." -- CW

Comments Off
Sunday
Aug072016

The Commentariat -- August 8, 2016

Afternoon Update: 

David Sanger of the New York Times: "Fifty of the nation's most senior Republican national security officials, many of them former top aides or cabinet members for President George W. Bush, have signed a letter declaring that Donald J. Trump 'lacks the character, values and experience' to be president and 'would put at risk our country's national security and well-being.' Mr. Trump, the officials warn, 'would be the most reckless president in American history.'" -- CW: This is as big a kick at Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, et al., as it is Donald Trump. Trump may be a bloviating buffoon, but Congressional leaders & other big-name enablers are supposed to be smart enough not to put the country at risk. The letter, a copy of which is here, also gives less lily-livered Republicans permission to abandon ship.

David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Last October, at a rally in Las Vegas, a friend of Donald Trump's introduced [Trump, saying,] 'You won't hear this in the media, but Donald gave $20 million to the St. Jude children's home. Twenty million dollars,' said Phil Ruffin, the owner of the Treasure Island casino, which was the site of the rally. The crowd cheered. Trump mouthed 'Thank you' twice and waved.... Later that day..., Trump retweeted a message from a fan, criticizing the mainstream media for not broadcasting Ruffin's story about the gift. If Ruffin's story were true, then Trump's gift to St. Jude would appear to be, by far, the largest charitable donation of Trump's life. But when The Washington Post looked for evidence to back up Ruffin's story it could find none.... It seems possible that what Ruffin was referring to actually" was a pledge from Eric Trump's foundation, an entity entirely separate from Donald Trump. (Emphasis added.) ...

     ... CW: Maybe you should start getting your friends & associates to introduce you at social & business gatherings by saying, "You won't hear this in the media, but [Your Name Here] gave $20 million [or more, what the hell] to [name of your favorite charity]." Think how much more people would like & admire you if they thought you gave all your worldly goods & then some to a worthy cause.

Sean Sullivan & Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump on Monday proposed collapsing the federal income tax rate from seven brackets down to three and called for allowing child-care expenses to be exempt from taxation in a speech allies hope will help the GOP presidential nominee turn the page on a tumultuous period some Republicans fear has severely damaged his campaign. Trump was interrupted every few minutes by protesters for much of his address at the Detroit Economic Club. He took sharp aim at Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the speech, holding up Detroit, which has been devastated by manufacturing job losses, as 'the living, breathing example' of her 'failed economic agenda.'" -- CW ...

... Pat Garofalo of US News: "... Donald Trump delivered an address before the Detroit Economic Club on Monday that was equal parts conservative pablum, distortion and conspiracy theorizing.... The policy content of the telepromptered speech was warmed-over Republican orthodoxy: tax cuts, deregulation and an insistence that any effort to combat climate change be subverted.... He layered on top of that some of his favorite lies: That ... Hillary Clinton called for raising taxes on the middle class (she didn't); that regulation is costing the economy $2 trillion per year (it's not); and that Obamacare will kill some 2 million jobs if it remains the law of the land (it won't). And then he threw in some conspiracy fearmongering about the official Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs numbers, one of his favorite ridiculous theories." -- CW

Brian Stelter of CNN: "From the looks of Matt Drudge's home page, Hillary Clinton is so sick, she needs help getting up a flight of stairs.... But looks can be deceiving. The Drudge Report, one of the most widely read sites on the web, is misleading visitors by taking a six-month-old photo out of context. Clinton slipped on some stairs while campaigning in South Carolina ahead of the February 27 primary -- that much is true. A couple of men helped her up the stairs. Photos of the awkward entrance were published right afterward by two wire services, Reuters and Getty.... A right-wing blog called The American Mirror picked up on the tweets and published a short story on Sunday. 'SHOCK PHOTO: Multiple staffers help unstable Hillary up stairs,' the headline said.... The blog post was all Drudge needed to splash the photos across the home page of his hugely popular tip sheet." ...

     ... CW: I scanned the American Mirror blogpost; it's worse than Stelter lets on. I'd like to see Drudge keep a schedule like Clinton's, then try to bound up slippery steps in tiny, slick-soled high heels. Women-haters! ...

     ... Oh, look. Here's a pic of President Obama stumbling on stairs at a campaign rally in July 2012. He was indoors! And wearing big ole man-shoes! I guess all the wingers were right: he is totally unfit for the presidency:

*****

Presidential Race

AP: "... Hillary Clinton will deliver what aides are billing as a major economic speech on Thursday in Detroit.... Aides say Clinton will outline her economic plans and argue that Trump is only focused on the wealthiest Americans. At campaign events last week, Clinton questioned Trump's commitment to creating American jobs by highlighting his use of outsourcing at his companies." -- CW ...

... David Letterman was on the case four years ago. CW: Thanks to my friend Jan C. for the link:

     (... CW: To the best of my knowledge, Trump has not moved his tie production to Queens. And even tho Macy's dumped Trump more than a year ago for his incendiary, racist comments, his men's clothing is still for sale elsewhere.)

... Jerry Markon of the Washington Post: "In her presidential bid, Hillary Clinton has made job creation a centerpiece of her platform.... Her argument ... has focused on her time in the Senate, when she took on the mission of creating jobs in chronically depressed Upstate New York.... But ... there is little evidence that her economic development programs had a substantial impact on upstate employment.... The former first lady was unable to pass the big-ticket legislation she introduced to benefit the upstate economy. She turned to smaller-scale projects, but some of those fell flat after initial glowing headlines.... Some of her pet economic projects involved loyal campaign contributors, who also supported the Clinton Foundation...." -- CW

Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton will be 'real transparent' with Americans after learning lessons from the controversy over her use of a private email server, her running mate, Tim Kaine, said on Sunday, expressing optimism that she could improve her trust deficit with voters over the next month.... Mr. Kaine's primary objective on NBC was to help Mrs. Clinton move on from her latest email imbroglio: her inaccurate statement last week that the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, had called her answers about her private email server 'truthful.'" -- CW

Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "... Hillary Clinton on Sunday released a video questioning ... Donald Trump's ties to Russia.

... Eric Bradner of CNN: "Former CIA acting-Director Michael Morell said Sunday he'd trust Hillary Clinton with the nation's security, but that Donald Trump is being manipulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Morell ... said on ABC's 'This Week'..., 'I worked with her for four years very closely when she was secretary of state and I was at the CIA. I provided her -- personally provided her some of the most sensitive information that the Central Intelligence Agency has,' he said. 'She never misused it. She always protected it.'... His endorsement could help Clinton amid renewed criticism over her use of a private email server. Morell also said he believes Putin -- 'a trained intelligence officer, worked for the KGB, very talented, manipulated people much smarter than Donald Trump" -- has intentionally been using Trump's ego as a way in with the Republican nominee." -- CW ...

... Cyra Master of the Hill: "Donald Trump lashed out a[t] former CIA Director Michael Morell Sunday evening.... 'Michael Morell, the lightweight former Acting Director of C.I.A., and a man who has made serious bad calls, is a total Clinton flunky!' [Trump tweeted.]... Last week, Morell announced his support for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton." -- CW ...

... David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "Trump and Nukes are Scary. But His Danger to the Climate Is Worse.... Trump is a willfully ignorant climate denier who actively campaigns on drilling more oil faster. Four to eight years of a Trump presidency could easily lock in temperature rises that could without exaggeration reach levels that doom human civilization within a couple of generations.... Donald Trump and the GOP wouldn't need to launch a single nuclear warhead to destroy life on earth as we know it. All they would need is to implement the energy policy they are openly advertising to voters." -- CW

Shane Goldmacher of Politico: "After spending months scolding his rivals for being beholden to their financial backers, Donald Trump unveiled an economic advisory council last week -- and filled it with some of his biggest donors. Of the 13 men -- and they are all men -- ..., five are major donors whose families combined to give Trump's campaign and his joint fundraising account with the Republican Party more than $2 million. Two more have been pursued for campaign contributions.... Trump's new economic team leans heavily on Wall Street investors and hedge-fund managers, despite Trump's railing against them during the early parts of his presidential campaign.... Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech on his plans for the economy on Monday at the Detroit Economic Club." CW Spoiler: He plans to make the economy great again. Also, Hillary Clinton is a crazy harridan. That's about it. ...

... Actually ... Jonathan Swan of the Hill: "Donald Trump will announce in a major economic speech on Monday that childcare payments will be fully tax deductible under a Trump administration, a senior aide told The Hill on Sunday night.... Among the specific policies mentioned in Trump's speech on Monday will be a 'temporary moratorium on regulations,' [a] senior aide said.... Other policies outlined in Trump's speech will include the corporate tax rate being lowered to 15 percent, "which will make us a magnet for global investment in the United States and bring in thousands of new companies." ...

     ... CW: The president has a good deal of authority to decide on how regulations are applied (tho not carte blanche -- would Trump really eliminate FAA safety regs??), Swan's report that "childcare payments will be fully tax deductible under a Trump administration" is nonsense. Tax policy, including the corporate tax rate & elimination of what Swan -- and all Republicans -- call the "death tax," are controlled by Congress, not the president. ...

We'll get a fund, we'll make a phenomenal deal with the low interest rates and rebuild our infrastructure.... People would put money into the fund. The citizens would put money into the fund. -- Donald Trump, August 1

... Wherein Paul Krugman chooses today to make the case for a portion of Trump's economic "plan": "... the most important thing we need is sharply increased public investment in everything from energy to transportation to wastewater treatment. How should we pay for this investment? We shouldn't -- not now, or any time soon. Right now there is an overwhelming case for more government borrowing.... Investing more in infrastructure would clearly make us richer." -- CW

Hill: "Donald Trump has been pressured for months to release his tax returns, but refuses to do so until he is done being audited by the IRS. But experts tell the Wall Street Journal that Trump and his lawyers know the IRS's deadlines, and thus can take their time negotiating settlements and responding to requests for documents. Outstanding audits of Trump go back as far as 2009, the WSJ reported, which means the businessman has given the IRS permission to expand its investigation beyond the three-year statute of limitations.... 'He certainly has a lot of influence over the audit ending sooner or later,' Bryan Skarlatos of Kostelanetz & Fink LLP [said] to the paper. 'It would be relatively easy at this point to extend the audit beyond the elections.'" -- CW

Artist: Illma Gore. CW: I know you're thanking me right now.Frank Lavin in a CNN op-ed: "I had the honor of serving as Ronald Reagan's White House political director from 1987 to 1989.... It might not be entirely clear that Hillary Clinton deserves to win the presidency, but it is thunderingly clear that Donald Trump deserves to lose.... I will do something that I have not done in 40 years of voting: I will vote for the Democratic nominee for president. The depressing truth of the Republican nominee is that Donald Trump talks a great game but he is the emperor who wears no clothes." Via Rebecca Savransky of the Hill. -- CW

Kathleen Gray of the Detroit Free Press: "Current and former governors of Michigan are either working for the Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton, or have declined to endorse Trump in the race for the White House. Former Gov. William Milliken, a moderate Republican from Traverse City, broke ranks over the weekend and is endorsing Clinton for the presidency." Current Gov. Rick Snyder (R) has said he was "staying out of the presidential race." -- CW

Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "Lezlee Westine, a former aide to President George W. Bush, will support Hillary Clinton for president. Westine, who served as the Bush administration's White House Director of Public Liaison and deputy assistant to the president, is one of several Republican figures to publicly announce their support for Clinton in recent weeks." -- CW

BUT. Louis Nelson of Politico: "Jeb Bush has said he will not vote for Donald Trump this November, but the former Florida governor's son is urging fellow Republicans to fall in line behind their party's nominee. Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, who is also serving as the state GOP's victory chairman, stopped short of offering a full endorsement of the Manhattan billionaire. But he told a gathering of Texas Republicans that it is important to back Trump, if only to block Hillary Clinton from winning the White House." -- CW

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Four Donald Trump supporters insisted on CNN over the weekend that recent polls could not be trusted because they were 'skewed' in favor of ... Hillary Clinton." CW: From the Trumpglish New Great American Dictionary: "skewed: adj. def.: biased or distorted in a way not indicating overwhelming support for Donald Trump." ...

... CW: We know this for sure because over at crazed winger Jim Hoft's Gateway Pundit, Joe Hoft reports, "Thanks to social media there is more and more evidence that the polls are way off and if things stay as they are, Trump will win in a landslide!" (Histrionics original.) ...

... Now read Paul Waldman on the possibility of a "rigged" presidential election. CW: Note, too this distinction, which I have sometimes elided: "there's a difference between fraud, which suggests that somebody is trying to manipulate the results from the outside, and saying the system is 'rigged,' which suggests that the system has been set up from the inside to guarantee that one person will win." The rigging, as recent court decisions have verified, is all on the Republican side, where GOP-controlled state legislatures have been busy suppressing votes by likely Democrats.

Everything That Happens Is Because of Me. Yesterday for the first time she said she wants to renegotiate trade agreements. First time, yesterday. Well, because of me. -- Donald Trump, news conference, July 27

Contrary to what Trump claims, Clinton's interest in renegotiating NAFTA is not a recent change of heart. She has been advocating it for nearly a decade. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

** Rebecca Traister of New York: "... the language used by Trump and his allies, the language of delegitimization, is especially telling, and potentially powerful, in a race against the first woman ever nominated for the presidency. It channels a conviction that has deep roots in our culture: A woman could never really win, not over a man.... Not coincidentally, this was also the argument used in many attempts to delegitimize the presidency of our first black commander-in-chief.... In the brief period of Election Night 2012 in which it appeared that [President] Obama might have won the electoral college but lost the popular vote, Trump tweeted furiously that his victory was false: 'He lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country!'; 'The phoney electoral college made a laughing stock out of our nation. The loser one! [sic]'; 'This election is a total sham and a travesty...'... In his impulse to cry illegitimacy when faced with potential insurrection by a woman or a person of color, Trump is not un-American. In fact, it is a response that runs throughout our history." ...

     ... CW: As I've noted before, Trump repeatedly -- and even more obviously -- expresses this same misogynistic view when he says Hillary Clinton "doesn't look presidential." Just this past Saturday, he said, "Now, you tell me, she looks presidential, folks? I look presidential," as Jose DelReal reported (in a graf that didn't get edited). ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. CW: Yesterday, I pointed to this report by Jose DelReal of the Washington Post on Trump's speech in New Hampshire Saturday. The report began, "Donald Trump unleashed a series of nasty personal attacks Saturday against ... Hillary Clinton...." Later in the report, DelReal wrote, "The attacks went far beyond what is considered appropriate in political discourse. And notably, his most charged attacks focused specifically on ad hominem attacks rather than on policy differences." However, contributor Rockygirl read the report later in the day, & by that time the lede read, "Donald Trump unleashed a series of personal attacks." That is, "nasty" had been edited out. And the graf I cited above, which spoke to the inappropriateness of Trump's ad-hominem attacks also got "disappeared." As Rockygirl concluded, "Maybe our optimism for the press is premature." Yup. Looks like we're back to he-said/she-said. Thanks, WashPo editors! BTW, DelReal's original report was still up on the Chicago Tribune site Sunday night, tho if you don't have a Trib subscription, you may have to Google it. ...

... Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times on journalists' obligations to the public when one candidate is "abnormal." Ironically, Rutenberg cites the Washington Post's managing editor on how to handle the crazy: "'When controversy is being stoked, it's our obligation to report that,' said the Washington Post managing editor Cameron Barr. 'If one candidate is doing that more aggressively and consistently than the other, that is an imbalance for sure.' But, he added, 'it's not one that we create, it's one that the candidate is creating.'" -- CW ...

... Driftglass is at his best in this week's takedown of the Sunday Showz. CW: Yes, he may have taken some liberties in his transcript of "This Week With...Whoever Drew The Short Straw." Although I didn't watch, so I'm not sure. ...

... Brian Stelter of CNN calls Sean Hannity & Bill O'Reilly "unpatriotic" for helping Donald Trump promote his "rigged election" conspiracy theory:

This Will Work. McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed: "Key players in the GOP’s anti-Trump movement are preparing to launch an independent presidential campaign for Evan McMullin -- a CIA veteran and the chief policy director of the House Republican conference -- sources close to the effort told BuzzFeed News.... He would make for an unlikely presidential candidate. He has never held elective office before and has spent most of his career as a CIA officer, according to his LinkedIn page. Young and unmarried, McMullin received an MBA at Wharton in 2011, and after a stint at Goldman Sachs, went to work as a policy wonk on Capitol Hill." -- CW ...

     ... BUT McMullin has more than a hundred (100) Twitter followers. ...

... AND This. Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Activists who were unable to block Donald Trump's presidential nomination are trying again, this time petitioning the Republican National Committee to call an emergency meeting to strip him of the nod." -- CW ...

... Brian Beutler: "If Trump stays in the race, and the #NeverTrump crowd ends up costing him the presidency, they will have done a remarkable thing for the country. But the irony is that the Republicans most committed to defeating Trump are generally the most misguided or in denial about the status-quo ante in Republican politics. They've blamed the party for being culpable in Trump's rise. But they want the nominee out because, despite everything that's happened, they still believe the GOP can be entrusted with control of every branch of government." -- CW

Other News & Views

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: Marc "Elias, a go-to lawyer for Democrats in recount fights and redistricting battles, has now taken a prominent and somewhat controversial place among the coalition of groups challenging a wave of state election laws that were rewritten in recent years. With a multimillion-dollar commitment from liberal mega-donor George Soros, Elias is challenging laws that, he argues, diminish the impact of important Democratic Party constituencies of African Americans, Latinos and young people.... Besides joining the efforts of civil rights groups in several states, he has also struck out on his own, bringing additional claims in states that are especially important for Hillary Clinton's campaign and future Democratic candidates." CW: And this is "somewhat controversial" because Republican lawyers would never do any such thing??? Elias is fighting laws Republican lawyers wrote for the purpose of suppressing Democratic votes, for Pete's sake.

John Bacon of USA Today: "An Iranian scientist accused of providing information on his country's nuclear program to the United States has been executed for treason, an Iranian judiciary spokesman said Sunday. Shahram Amiri was charged with spying for enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni-Ejei said in his weekly news conference, the Iranian Student News Agency reported.... Mohseni-Ejei said U.S. officials had been unaware that Iran was monitoring Amiri's efforts for the West. 'The CIA thought that its movements were kept away from the eye of Iranian Intelligence Ministry,' Mohseni-Ejei said. 'They took Amiri to Saudi Arabia.' Amiri, 38, disappeared while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in 2009. He re-emerged a year later in the U.S., claiming in a video that he had been abducted, interrogated, tortured and offered millions in bribes while under 'intense psychological pressure' by the CIA. He said he rejected the U.S. effort to break him. The U.S. said in 2010 that Amiri had defected voluntarily and was paid millions of dollars for providing 'useful information.'" -- CW

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Gabriel Sherman of New York: "... with [Roger] Ailes gone, Fox executives are now looking closely at how Ailes spent Fox money. And what they are discovering is that, beyond [settlement costs of] the sexual-harassment claims, Ailes was also able to use portions of the Fox budget to hire consultants, political operatives, and private detectives who reported only to him.... Last week, according to the source, Fox News dismissed five consultants whom Ailes had hired to do work that was more about advancing his own agenda than Fox's.... According to one highly placed source, [some consultants] worked out of what Fox insiders called 'the Black Room,' an operation Ailes established around 2011 to conduct PR and surveillance campaigns against people he targeted, both inside and outside the company.... Targets of the campaigns included journalists John Cook and Hamilton Nolan, who have aggressively covered Ailes for Gawker." Sherman learned he also was a target. Ailes says the allegations are "totally false." -- CW ...

.. AND here's John Oliver on actual journalism. The "movie trailer" at the end is excellent. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link:

Chas Danner of New York: "Nineteen-year-old American sport shooter Virginia Thrasher has become the first gold-medal winner at the Rio Games, earning an Olympic-record top score (208.0) in the women's 10-meter air rifle competition and defeating two heavily favored Chinese competitors, Du Li and reigning champion Yi Siling. Heading into the match, Thrasher, from Springfield, Virginia, had been ranked number 23 in the world, so it's a pretty surprising win." CW: No it's not surprising. Because Second Amendment.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Julie Makinin of the Los Angeles Times: "Japanese Emperor Akihito addressed the nation on Monday, releasing a rare video message to the public in which the 82-year-old strongly suggested that he wished to abdicate but avoided using that word directly.... Japan's Imperial Household Law, however, does not have any provision for abdication. Japan's parliament, or Diet, would need to revise the law in order for him to abdicate and pass the Chrysanthemum Throne to his eldest son, Crown Prince Naruhito, 56." -- CW

BBC News: "Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told a vast rally in Istanbul that he would approve the return of the death penalty if it was backed by parliament and the public. He was speaking to a crowd of at least a million who had gathered in Turkey's biggest city.... The European Union - which Turkey has applied to join - refuses to accept capital punishment in member states." -- CW

Pamela Constable of the Washington Post: "Two foreign university professors, one American and one Australian, were kidnapped at gunpoint Sunday evening near the Kabul campus of the American University of Afghanistan, municipal police officials said. Neither has been publicly identified. Local media reports said the attackers were wearing Afghan security uniforms and entered the front gates of the large compound, which is guarded and surrounded by high walls. This was the first reported abduction related to the private co-ed university, which has attracted numerous visiting instructors from the United States and other Western countries since it opened in 2004." -- CW

Comments Off
Sunday
Aug072016

The Commentariat -- August 7, 2016

Presidential Race

CW: In response to cries from Republicans to re-focus his campaign on Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump took that to mean, "make a lot of false ad-hominem attacks on my opponent." ...

... Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump unleashed a series of nasty personal attacks Saturday against ... Hillary Clinton, mocking her appearance and questioning her mental health several times during a New Hampshire campaign rally and on social media. 'She is a totally unhinged person. She's unbalanced. And all you have to do is watch her, see her, read about her,' Trump said during a campaign rally in Windham, N.H., Saturday evening. 'She will cause -- if she wins, which hopefully she won't -- the destruction of our country from within.'... [Trump] called Clinton unstable and incompetent several times throughout the rally. At one point, he also called her 'Hillary Rotten Clinton.'... The attacks went far beyond what is considered appropriate in political discourse. And notably, his most charged attacks focused specifically on ad hominem attacks rather than on policy differences." ...

... Annals of Journalism, Ctd. CW: You may not have noticed, but straight reporters at all the major outlets -- even at Politico -- have begun to editorialize about Trump's behavior & remarks. Look at that last sentence cited above, for instance. Pre-Trump, the he-said/she-said standard would have would have left it at, "In a statement, Clinton campaign spokesperson Karen Finney denied that Clinton was crazy and charged that it was Trump who was 'unbalanced and incompetent.'" Or something like that. Now reporters are putting Trump's remarks in the context they merit. That is a yuuuge improvement, and let's hope it lasts post-Trump.

Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy, Ctd. Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Donald Trump is casting doubt on the prospect of fair elections come November, criticism that could prompt his supporters to reject the possibility of a Hillary Clinton victory in the fall as fraudulent. Trump has predicted at almost every rally this past week that the election could be 'rigged' against him. He's labeled the mounting polls showing him trailing Clinton as 'phony' and warned that voter fraud could steal the election from him. The new tack comes days after [Roger Stone,] a top Trump confidante, warned to Breitbart News that there would be a 'rhetorical bloodbath' if the powers that be denied Trump a fair election and laid out a plan for Trump to begin to delegitimize the election results months before the first ballots are cast.... Those warnings have sent a chill through partisans on both sides of the aisle and independent observers alike, who have expressed concern about the implications of sewing distrust in America's democratic system." -- CW

Julian Hattem & Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Nuclear security experts are nervous about the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency. Former officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations are expressing concern over what they describe as Trump's cavalier rhetoric about using nuclear weapons and potentially allowing them to be obtained by U.S. allies.... The Hill spoke to more than half-a-dozen nuclear weapons experts for this story. All expressed a level of concern or anxiety about Trump's control of nuclear weapons and his leadership of global nonproliferation." -- CW

Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "The chairman of the American Nazi Party, Rocky Suhayda, declared on his radio program last month that a Donald Trump victory would present a great opportunity for white nationalists to build pro-white coalitions." -- CW

What Happened When MoDo & DoDo Fell Out. Two weeks ago, Maureen Dowd wrote, "Donald Trump is mad at me. He thinks I've treated him 'very badly.' But he returned my call on Friday night...." The column she wrote was in the form of a Q&A, but evidently Trump didn't care for the Qs, because it would appear he's no longer taking MoDo's calls. The result: an extraordinary takedown. Never underestimate the power of a woman scorned, especially if she has a New York Times column. -- CW

Thomas Batten of the Guardian: "In exciting news for fans of rich old white guys in positions of power, the former reality show host and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has announced the line-up for his economic policy team, a squad exclusively made up of members of the 'fat cat' demographic. Amongst those named in Trump's announcement is Howard Lorber, the 67-year old president and CEO of Vector Group Ltd, and chairman of Nathan's Famous, the fast food hot dog chain.... Actually, Trump and hot dogs are a match made in heaven. The only way either makes sense is if you apply no rational thought to the selection you are making." -- CW

Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Representative Scott Rigell [R] of Virginia says he plans to vote for the Libertarian Party's presidential ticket, becoming the first member of Congress to express support for Gary Johnson's third-party campaign." -- CW

Rebecca Morin of Politico: On Bill Maher's show Friday night, "Julian Assange said WikiLeaks is 'working on' hacking Donald Trump's tax returns.... In a tweet later Saturday morning, however, WikiLeaks denied that it's 'working on' hacking Trump's tax returns. 'Claim is a joke from a comedy show. We are 'working on' encouraging whistleblowers,' WikiLeaks stated." -- CW

Nicholas Kristof: "ONE persistent narrative in American politics is that Hillary Clinton is a slippery, compulsive liar while Donald Trump is a gutsy truth-teller.... Yet the idea that they are even in the same league is preposterous.... [Clinton's lies amount to] junior varsity mendacity. In contrast, Trump is the champ of prevarication.... 'Essentially, Clinton is in the norm for a typical politician,' says Glenn Kessler, who runs Fact-Checker, while Trump 'is just off the charts. There's never been anyone like him, at least in the six years I have been doing this.'"

Congressional Races

Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: Donald "Trump’s plunge in polls this week, along with his dual attacks on the family of a fallen American soldier and the leadership of his own party, has convinced veteran Republican strategists that most of their candidates must navigate around the presidential nominee. Plans for ads that distance congressional candidates from the top of the ticket have accelerated.... At a recent conference of Republican donors, Paul D. Ryan, the speaker of the House, warned that even the party's substantial majority in that chamber might be in jeopardy." -- CW

Alexandra Jaffe of NBC News: "Donald Trump's campaign said Friday it barred House Speaker Paul Ryan's primary challenger Paul Nehlen from entering the candidate's Wisconsin rally because the candidate didn't show a ticket, refuting Nehlen's charges that the Wisconsin Republican Party was working to keep him away." -- CW

Marc Caputo of Politico: "Sen. Marco Rubio [R-Fla.] said Saturday that he doesn't believe a pregnant woman infected with the Zika virus should have the right to an abortion -- even if she had reason to believe the child would be born with severe microcephaly." CW: Somehow I don't think this is going to help him in his bid for re-election. Marco, after all, lives right next-door to the area where Zika-carrying mosquitos were discovered, even in a state that elected him once & voted to re-elect Gov. Rick Scott.

Other News & Views

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "President Obama must approve operational plans to target overseas terrorist suspects with drones or other weapons outside war zones but in some cases does not sign off on specific strikes, according to newly declassified administration guidelines. In addition to setting out the role of the president, the guidelines emphasize the importance of 'verifying' the identity of high-value targets, even as they outline the criteria and legality of striking unidentified others when 'necessary to achieve U.S. policy objectives.'... Those rules included 'near certainty' that the terrorist target was present and that no civilians would be injured or killed, that the target posed a 'continuing and imminent' threat to Americans, that capture was not feasible, and that all relevant domestic and international laws were obeyed.... The president has made clear that he anticipates the more detailed, newly declassified procedures will govern future administrations." -- CW

Way Beyond the Beltway

Chris Johnston, et al., of the Guardian: "Two police officers have been attacked with a machete outside a police station in Belgium, local authorities have said. The officers, both women, were assaulted in Charleroi, south of Brussels, on Saturday afternoon by an attacker shouting in Arabic, police said. According to Charleroi police, the attacker, who has not yet been identified, was shot by a third officer at the scene and has since died. One of the two officers was believed to be badly injured, but both are now out of danger, Charleroi police said." -- CW

News Lede

Washington Post: "Pete Fountain, whose rousing performances on clarinet made him a star of Dixieland music, a familiar figure on television and in nightclubs, and one of the most popular musical ambassadors of his native New Orleans, died Aug. 6 in his home town. He was 86." -- CW

Comments Off
Page 1 ... 922 923 924 925 926 ... 1737 Next 3 Entries ยป