The Commentariat -- July 23, 2016

One-day Special! Tomorrow Only! Reality Chex will be a Trump-free Zone. -- Constant Weader 

Presidential Race

** Ho-hum. Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton named Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia to be her running mate Friday, selecting a battleground state politician with working-class roots and a fluency in Spanish, traits that she believes can bolster her chances to defeat Donald J. Trump in November. Mrs. Clinton's choice, which she announced via text message to supporters, came after her advisers spent months poring over potential vice-presidential candidates who could lift the Democratic ticket in an unpredictable race against Mr. Trump. In the end, Mrs. Clinton decided Mr. Kaine, 58, a former governor of Virginia who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and speaks fluent Spanish, had the qualifications and background and the personal chemistry with her to make the ticket a success." -- CW ...

... In her profile of Kaine, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times claims, "At heart, Mr. Kaine is an old-fashioned liberal, dyed in the wool." -- CW ...

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "... Several organizations, including some with ties to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)..., sharply questioned Kaine's liberal bona fides, pointing to Kaine's support of trade deals and regulations favorable to big banks.... Kaine's selection was touted by other traditional boosters of the Democratic Party, including several labor union leaders." -- CW ...

... Nora Caplan-Bricker of Slate on the history of Tim Kaine's positions on reproductive rights. -- CW ...

... Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "In selecting Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate, Hillary Clinton is sending the clearest signal yet that she is confident she will win the presidential election. If she were worried, she would have chosen Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who could have helped her win that critical Midwestern state.... And Mr. Brown could have energized progressives nationally.... Other picks could have helped her more on Election Day. Former Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa, for instance, would have turned out Democrats and independents in his swing state. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey would have galvanized fellow African-Americans in key cities.... Tom Perez, labor secretary, and Julian Castro, housing secretary, might have boosted Hispanic voting in Florida and the West. Mr. Kaine, by contrast, doesn't bring obvious political rewards."

Mrs. Clinton also wants a vice president who would have a good relationship with Mr. Clinton, especially since the two-term president would likely have some sort of policy role and be an outside presence in the White House.... Mr. Kaine is also a relatively low-key person who understands the importance of ceding the spotlight to the Clintons, according to Democrats close to him. CW: In other words, exactly the scenario I dreaded -- Bull Clinton causing mischief again in the White House. Hillary not only expects it; she's encouraging it. ...

... Zaid Jilani of the Intercept: Shortly before Hillary Clinton announced she had chosen Kaine as her running mate, Kaine "praised the [Trans-Pacific Partnership] as an improvement of the status quo, but maintained that he had not yet decided how to vote on final approval of the agreement." -- CW ...

... Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Republicans have signaled in recent days that they will use Kaine's acceptance of [gifts from deep-pockets donors] as a line of attack against the newly selected vice presidential candidate, looking to stoke concern among Democrats that Kaine is not the progressive candidate they had hoped for. 'He followed the rules, but it's a question of whether the Democrat Party can stomach that coziness with donors,' said former attorney general Jerry Kilgore, the Republican who Kaine defeated in 2005.... There are stark differences between Kaine's gifts and [those of Gov. Bob] McDonnell's. For one, Kaine's gifts were properly disclosed; McDonnell failed to disclose some of what he received. For another, Kaine has never faced accusations of promising state action in exchange for any of his gifts." -- CW

** Fire Debbie! Michael Shear & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Top officials at the Democratic National Committee criticized and mocked Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont during the primary campaign, even though the organization publicly insisted that it was neutral in the race, according to committee emails made public on Friday by WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks posted almost 20,000 emails sent or received by a handful of top committee officials and provided an online tool to search through them. While WikiLeaks did not reveal the source of the leak, the committee said last month that Russian hackers had penetrated its computer system. Among the emails released on Friday were several embarrassing messages that suggest the committee's chairwoman, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, and other officials favored Hillary Clinton over Mr. Sanders -- a claim the senator made repeatedly during the primaries." -- CW ...

... Elliot Smilowitz & Joe Uchill of the Hill: "Top officials at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) privately planned how to undermine Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign, according to a trove of emails released by WikiLeaks on Friday." -- CW ...

... Daniel Strauss & Bianca Ocasio of Politico: DNC chair "... Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz once referred to Bernie Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver as a 'damn liar' in an internal email to an aide." In other internal correspondence she called Weaver "particularly scummy" and "an ASS." -- CW ...

... Sam Biddle of the Intercept: "Among the nearly 20,000 internal emails from the Democratic National Committee, released Friday by Wikileaks and presumably provided by the hacker 'Guccifer 2.0,' [who later claimed to be the hacker] is a May 2016 message from DNC CFO Brad Marshall. In it, he suggested that the party should 'get someone to ask' ... Bernie Sanders about his religious beliefs.... It is also unclear why the Democratic National Committee, which isn't supposed to favor one Democratic candidate over another..., would have attempted to subvert the Sanders campaign on the grounds that 'he is an atheist.'" CW: Unbelievably. Marshall denied to Biddle that he was writing about Sanders; he claimed the e-mail must have referred to some other Jewish atheist, a claim for which Marshall should be awarded the Paul Manafort Prize for Today's Biggest Whopper by a Political Operative. ...

... Tom Hamburger & Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "The cache of emails also includes communications with journalists and discussions of news organizations, and the emails provide a new perspective on the deference shown to major donors -- and the efforts to carefully calibrate rewards based on a contributor's financial generosity." -- CW ...

... Muzzle Mika! Ben Norton of Salon: "Debbie Wasserman Schultz ... was furious when she was criticized by MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski. Wasserman Schultz called for Brzezinski to 'apologize' and told her co-worker Chuck Todd 'this must stop.' The DNC chair even complained to MSNBC's president. In May, Brzezinski held a segment on the program 'Morning Joe' in which she condemned Wasserman Schultz's 'unfair' treatment of Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary. 'This has been very poorly handled from the start. It has been unfair, and they haven't taken him seriously, and it starts, quite frankly, with the person that we just heard speaking,' Brzezinski said, referring to Wasserman Schultz. 'She should step down,' Brzezinski added." ...

     ... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. CW: "Chuck, this must stop"? Debbie is just as dismissive of a free & independent press as is Donnie the Dictator. And, Chuck Todd, who is, theoretically at least, a member of the free & independent press, seems happy to discuss "stopping" Brzezinski. [The Intercept's reproduction of the e-mail exchange shows Chuck asking a DNC staffer if an MSNBC-DNC joint call is "a good idea." So Chuck was maybe kinda wondering about journalistic ethics & all, even if he did think a political operative was the person to consult on such matters.] They're all good pals: Debbie mentions "our breakfast"; it's not clear who was breakfasting with whom, but the suggestion is that at least Debbie and MSNBC president Phil Griffin were having pancakes in their PJs. Very Fox "Newsy." Phil & Chuck should explain themselves.

Politico: "Donald Trump was up early on Saturday morning, and he had some thoughts to share about Hillary Clinton's choice of running mate.... On Friday, the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all attacked Kaine with similar messages, casting him as a continuation of the 'status quo' embodied by President Barack Obama." CW: Yeah, but Mitch didn't call Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas" as Chief Tweets-in-the-Night did.

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "After bragging that he had unified the party in one of the most 'love-filled' conventions in political history [Friday morning], Mr. Trump went on an extended diatribe against Mr. Cruz, who declined to endorse him during his own convention speech on Wednesday night and urged people to vote with their conscience. The speech embarrassed Mr. Trump and cast a shadow of discord over the convention." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Dan Spinelli of Politico: "A day after accepting the Republican Party's nomination for president, Donald Trump rehashed a conspiracy theory that claims the man who killed President John F. Kennedy once cavorted with Ted Cruz's father. -- CW (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Nick Gass has more on Trump's remarks about Cruz. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Daniel Drezner of the Washington Post: "Trump's acolytes can spin this however they want, but this was a factually incorrect and morally abhorrent speech." ...

... The Marshall Project "truth-tests" Trump on his law-and-order claims. Maybe if they grade on a curve, he could get a D-. Via Paul Waldman, linked below.

Midnight in America. Dana Milbank: "For more than an hour, [Donald Trump] shook his fists, chopped the air, stuck out his chin, bared his bottom teeth, paced behind the lectern, tugged on his lapels -- and delivered the darkest piece of rhetoric spoken by a major political figure in modern American history.... Trump's warnings of imminent catastrophe serve a purpose: In times of panic, the appeal of an authoritarian is greater. And Trump presented himself as the classic strongman." -- CW ...

... Paul Waldman: "Republicans are exploring an election day plan to post someone at every polling place who will shout 'Oh my god look behind you there's a terrorist!!!' at every voter on their way in." CW: Don't worry; Waldman is kidding. But maybe he shouldn't give the Trumpsters any ideas. ...

... CW: On that note, I don't think Apocalypse Now! will work as a campaign strategy. Americans are generally optimists, & most will quickly tire of Trump's "vision" of the U.S. as a third-world country that must turn inward & pledge allegiance to an insane despot to save itself from the savage hordes. ...

... Andrew O'Hehir of Salon, who was in the room, on the contrary thought the dark message resonated well enough to give Trump a victory in November. CW: O'Hehir is an astute observer, so it's worth reading his analysis. ...

... Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland, in the New Republic, compares Donald Trump's acceptance speech with the one he claims it was modeled on: Richard Nixon's 1968 convention speech: "... last night I sat in person through the whole damned 77-minute hot mess, and I'm here to say: Mr. Trump, I've studied Richard Nixon. And you're no Richard Nixon." -- CW ...

... Philip Bump: "Faced with a real threat, [George W.] Bush appealed to America's strengths. After building a Potemkin crisis, Trump told Americans that only he was good enough to deal with it. The question that lingers for those skeptical of Trump's view of the world is this: What would he have done if he were in Bush's place on September 11?" -- CW ...

Philip Bump of the Washington Post can't figure out who Ivanka Trump was endorsing in her convention speech inasmuch as her claims about her father's support for equal opportunity for women is pretty much nonexistent beyond his claim to be "the best for women" & a promise to "look into [equal pay] very strongly." (CW: whatever that means). (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** Washington Post Editors, in a rare full-page editorial: "DONALD J. TRUMP, until now a Republican problem, this week became a challenge the nation must confront and overcome. The real estate tycoon is uniquely unqualified to serve as president, in experience and temperament. He is mounting a campaign of snarl and sneer, not substance. To the extent he has views, they are wrong in their diagnosis of America's problems and dangerous in their proposed solutions. Mr. Trump's politics of denigration and division could strain the bonds that have held a diverse nation together. His contempt for constitutional norms might reveal the nation's two-century-old experiment in checks and balances to be more fragile than we knew." -- CW

Frank Rich on the Republican convention, the Roger Ailes scandal & the future of the Republican party: "... the only defense we have against Trump is his opponent. She must make sure that the other America, the America that is appalled, victimized, and scandalized by Trump and what he represents, goes to the polls to vote "no." Is Hillary Clinton up to it? I don't know." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Other News & Views

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama on Friday rejected what he described as Donald J. Trump's vision of America as a nation 'on the verge of collapse.'... During a White House news conference, Mr. Obama said that any 'vision of violence and chaos everywhere doesn't really jibe with the experience of most people.' Countering Mr. Trump's assertion of a crime wave in the country, offered during an acceptance speech..., Mr. Obama said the rate of violent crime had fallen to the lowest levels 'in the last three or four decades.'... Turning to Mr. Trump's assertion that the United States was being inundated with illegal immigrants, Mr. Obama said that 'we have far fewer undocumented workers crossing the border than we did in the '80s, the '90s, or when George Bush was president. That is fact.'" -- CW ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "President Barack Obama wasted no time Friday delivering another implicit rebuke of Donald Trump on Mexico and immigration, hours after the Republican nominee officially claimed the party mantle to take on ... Hillary Clinton in November. 'Let me start by saying something that is too often overlooked, but bears repeating -- especially given some of the heated rhetoric that we sometimes hear. The United States values tremendously our enduring partnership with Mexico and our extraordinary ties of family and friendship with the Mexican people,' Obama said at the start of a joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Manuel Roig-Franzia, et al., of the Washington Post: "News of [Gretchen] Carlson's firing [from Fox 'News'], and the lawsuit she filed shortly thereafter, have now prompted 25 women to come forward with what they describe as similar harassment claims against [Fox 'News' chief Roger] Ailes that stretch across five decades..., according to Carlson's attorney, Nancy Erika Smith.... Many of the allegations that have become public ... are clustered in the decades long before Ailes became" CEO of Fox "News" in 1996. BUT, "'It became common knowledge that women did not want to be alone with him,' [a] former [Fox 'News'] staffer said. '... It became a locker room, towel-snapping environment. He would say things like, "She's really got the goods" and "look at the t--s on that one.'" Sometimes, the former staffer said, Ailes made 'jokes that he liked having women on their knees. The tone he set went through the organization.'" ...

     ... CW: My prediction: Ailes will help Trump "News" get up and running in 2017.

Beyond the Beltway

Fenit Nirappil & Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: Virginia "Gov. Terry McAuliffe's decision to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons violates Virginia's constitution, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday, dealing a major blow to the Democratic governor with implications for the November presidential race in the crucial swing state. In a 4-to-3 decision, the court ruled that McAuliffe overstepped his clemency powers by issuing a sweeping order in April restoring rights to all ex-offenders who are no longer incarcerated or on probation or parole.... A defiant McAuliffe released a statement late Friday saying that he would pick up his executive pen and restore the rights of those felons on an individual basis, even if it means signing more than 200,000 orders." -- CW

Mark Berman & Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: "Authorities in North Miami, Fla., said Friday that they had placed a second police officer on leave as part of the investigation into a police shooting there earlier this week in which an officer shot and wounded an unarmed man. The second officer was placed on unpaid administrative leave because of 'conflicting statements given to the investigators' looking into the shooting,Larry M. Spring Jr., the North Miami city manager, said at a news conference." -- CW

Way Beyond

Rukmini Callimachi, et al., of the New York Times: "A shooting rampage outside a shopping mall in Munich on Friday evening left 10 people dead and at least 21 wounded and sent Germany's third-largest city into lockdown as the police scrambled to find what they initially said were as many as three assailants. By early Saturday, the police said the attack was probably the work of single gunman whose body was found less than a mile from the mall. Officials said he had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The officials also said the police were using a robot to examine the contents of a backpack belonging to the suspect, who was not identified." -- CW ...

... The Guardian has live updates here. The "gunman was [an] 18-year-old German of Iranian descent." -- CW ...

... Souad Mekhennet, et al., of the Washington Post: "Munich authorities said Saturday that the gunman who went on a rampage at a shopping center Friday, leaving nine people dead, had no ties to the Islamic State or other extremist groups. Instead, police believe he was obsessed with mass killings and may have been mentally ill." -- CW

Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Boris Johnson appeared to distance Britain from Donald Trump on Friday, saying that the country's decision to leave the European Union should not be likened to the Republican presidential candidate's 'America first' isolationist foreign policy. The foreign secretary also claimed European countries had shown a willingness to move quickly to reach a settlement on the terms of Britain's exit from the trade block and insisted that a 'balance can be struck' between free trade and the free movement of workers." -- CW

The Commentariat -- July 22, 2016

Coming up on Reality Chex: Trump-free Sunday. Unless Trump announces he's going to quit and release his voters to Bernie Sanders, I'm skipping all the Trump news and commentary here Sunday. So get your last blast tomorrow. I'm sure I'll have to post some retro-links in Monday's Commentariat. -- Constant Weader 

Afternoon Update:

Nick Gass of Politico: "President Barack Obama wasted no time Friday delivering another implicit rebuke of Donald Trump on Mexico and immigration, hours after the Republican nominee officially claimed the party mantle to take on ... Hillary Clinton in November. 'Let me start by saying something that is too often overlooked, but bears repeating -- especially given some of the heated rhetoric that we sometimes hear. The United States values tremendously our enduring partnership with Mexico and our extraordinary ties of family and friendship with the Mexican people,' Obama said at the start of a joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto." -- CW ...

Frank Rich on the Republican convention, the Roger Ailes scandal & the future of the Republican party: "... the only defense we have against Trump is his opponent. She must make sure that the other America, the America that is appalled, victimized, and scandalized by Trump and what he represents, goes to the polls to vote "no." Is Hillary Clinton up to it? I don't know." -- CW

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "After bragging that he had unified the party in one of the most 'love-filled' conventions in political history [this morning], Mr. Trump went on an extended diatribe against Mr. Cruz, who declined to endorse him during his own convention speech on Wednesday night and urged people to vote with their conscience. The speech embarrassed Mr. Trump and cast a shadow of discord over the convention." -- CW ...

... Dan Spinelli of Politico: "A day after accepting the Republican Party's nomination for president, Donald Trump rehashed a conspiracy theory that claims the man who killed President John F. Kennedy once cavorted with Ted Cruz's father. -- CW ...

... Nick Gass has more on Trump's remarks about Cruz. -- CW

Philip Bump of the Washington Post can't figure out who Ivanka Trump was endorsing inasmuch as her claims about his support for equality opportunity for women is pretty much nonexistent beyond his claim to be "the best for women" & a promise to "look into [equal pay] very strongly." (CW: whatever that means).

*****

GOP Convention & Presidential Race

I alone can fix it. -- Donald Trump, acceptance speech

Big Brother Harangues the Mole People.The Demiurge. Patrick Healy & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times on Trump's acceptance speech: "With dark imagery and an almost angry tone, Mr. Trump portrayed the United States as a diminished and even humiliated nation, and offered himself as an all-powerful savior who could resurrect the country's standing in the eyes of both enemies and law-abiding Americans." -- CW ...

... Philip Rucker & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Rather than pivoting to the political middle with an uplifting address, Trump ... focused intensively on the alleged dangers posed by immigrants and refugees, showing that on the biggest stage of his campaign he would not shy away from rhetoric that many minority voters find repulsive.... Trump spoke with so much gusto it sounded much of the time as though he were screaming, and by the end his face was notably red and glistening with sweat. The address lasted an extraordinary 76 minutes...." -- CW ...

... Glenn Kessler & Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: "The dark portrait of America that ... Trump sketched .. is a compendium of doomsday stats that fall apart upon close scrutiny. Numbers are taken out of context, data is manipulated, and sometimes the facts are wrong. When facts are inconveniently positive -- such as rising incomes and an unemployment rate under 5 percent -- Trump simply declines to mention them.... In his speech, Trump promised to present 'the plain facts that have been edited out of your nightly news and your morning newspaper.' But he relies on statistics that are ripe for manipulation.: Kessler & Lee provide "a rundown of 25 of Trump's key claims -- and how they differ from reality...." -- CW ...

... Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "In the most consequential speech of his life..., Mr. Trump sounded much like the unreflective man who had started it with an escalator ride in the lobby of Trump Tower: He conjured up chaos and promised overnight solutions.... He portrayed himself, over and over, as an almost messianic figure prepared to rescue the country from the ills of urban crime, illegal immigration and global terrorism.... But Mr. Trump made no real case for his qualifications to lead the world's largest largest economy and strongest military.... Speechwriters from both parties were stupefied." -- CW ...

The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon -- and I mean soon -- come to an end. Beginning on January 20th 2017, safety will be restored. -- Donald Trump, acceptance speech ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "'I am the law and order candidate,' Donald Trump declared.... Despite a small uptick this year, crime in America has been in steep decline since 1992 and is currently near a four-decade low.... For Trump..., crime links together the various strands of Trump's politics that might otherwise be diffuse: immigration (enforcing the law at the border), racial resentment (supporting police in the age of Black Lives Matter), foreign affairs (a tough military stance being a form of international crime control), and partisan politics ('Crooked Hillary' being an imagined criminal).... Trump is running to be a strong man, and as such it's in his interest to stir up fear and anxiety about a world spinning out of control, which only he can bring order to.... Even if the crime and violence issue isn't a sure bet, it's something that has paid off for Trump before and just might again." -- CW ...

... BUT. Matt Yglesias of Vox: "For a candidate who just delivered an entire high-profile speech on the supposedly sky-high crime rates in the US, he doesn't seem to have very many ideas about fixing them.... The reason Trump doesn't have anything to say about [crime-abatement policy] is that he's too lazy to look into it and come up with anything." -- CW ...

     ... CW: I'll disagree with Yglesias on the cause of Trump's vagueness. I think Trump does have plans to quash what he thinks of as crime. The problem is that they're all extra-Constitutional. He would ignore all of the guarantees of the First Amendment, not to mention the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh & Eighth. Trump may not know or care about this, but at least his speechwriter or other vetters knew better than to let him spell them out. ...

... ** Greg Sargent: Donald Trump "has explicitly said he is modeling his campaign on Nixon's 1968 effort.... If Trump set out to emulate Nixon, and to draw a link between our times and the tumultuous late 1960s, Trump ended up proving to be more divisive, demagogic, hateful, xenophobic, ethno-nationalist, and overtly authoritarian than Nixon ever was." -- CW ...

... Make America White Again. Jonathan Chait: "What makes his acceptance speech new and different is that he offers more than just himself as the solution. He offers his supporters a restoration of the social order Obama inverted. Trump's election will not only make Trump the president, it will represent white America attaining the necessary level of collective consciousness, rising as one." -- CW ...

... David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "The prepared text of Trump's remarks, released ahead of his speech, shows he will paint a dire and frightening vision of an America besieged by hostile forces abroad and unrest at home -- and cast Hillary Clinton, his presumptive Democratic opponent, as unfit to face those dire times." -- CW ...

... Philip Bump & Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's prepared remarks accepting the Republican nomination in Cleveland on Thursday night were provided on an embargoed basis. The embargo was broken by other news organizations; therefore we are posting them here. A note: These remarks can and likely will change before Trump delivers them Thursday night. We will update them as necessary, and note what changed." -- CW ...

... A Mole in the Trump Campaign. Ken Vogel & Julia Ioffe in Politico: "A super PAC backing Hillary Clinton on Thursday night mysteriously obtained and leaked drafts of Donald Trump's nomination speech -- and those of several other convention speakers -- hours before the night's proceedings were set to kick off, sending the Trump campaign scrambling on the final night of what has been a chaotic convention.... Correct the Record [-- founded by Clinton ally David Brock --] sent the text of Trump's draft speech to its press list a little after 6 p.m., gloating 'as if this convention hasn't been enough of a failure for Trump, somehow he let US get a hold of his full remarks before the speech.'" -- CW ...

... The Washington Post's liveblog of tonight's convention is here. The New York Times' liveblog, which is usually funnier, is here. ...

... Maureen Dowd: Ivanka Trump "was glossy, both in how she looked and how she spoke. She glossed over all of her father's ugly rhetoric and incitements, his erratic behavior and lack of any policy depth or even any policy, and offered a gauzy, idealized vision of a Bobby Kennedy-style figure as her father channeled Richard Nixon in '68." -- CW ...

... Tony Romm of Politico: "Technology investor [CW: and obsessed Gawker avenger] Peter Thiel implored Republicans from the convention stage on Thursday against waging 'culture wars' on lesbian, gay and transgender communities, mere days after the GOP approved a national platform that defines marriage as between 'one man and one woman.'... He said attempts to require transgender Americans to use particular bathrooms is a 'distraction from our real problem.' And in a first for a GOP convention, the Facebook board member and PayPal co-founder drew attention to his own sexuality: 'I am proud to be gay, I am proud to be a Republican, but most of all, I am proud to be an American,' he said." ...

     ... CW: For some reason, there weren't any speakers imploring Republicans not to wage "cultural wars" against non-Christian religions or against non-white people.

Ezra Klein: [Thursday] night, Donald J. Trump will accept the Republican Party's nomination for president of the United States. And I am, for the first time since I began covering American politics, genuinely afraid.... Trump is the most dangerous major candidate for president in memory. He pairs terrible ideas with an alarming temperament; he's a racist, a sexist, and a demagogue, but he's also a narcissist, a bully, and a dilettante. He lies so constantly and so fluently that it's hard to know if he even realizes he's lying. He delights in schoolyard taunts and luxuriates in backlash.... He has continued to retweet white supremacists, make racist comments, pick unnecessary fights, contradict himself on the stump, and show an almost gleeful disinterest in building a real campaign or learning about policy." ...

     ... CW: My fear is that Trump will be elected for the same reason motorists slow down to gawk at car accidents. Shocking, messy, gruesome -- these are entertaining. The hope is that more Americans than not will realize that in voting for Trump, they're not just driving by; they will be the victims of the car wreck, their lives forever diminished by a momentary lapse. ...

... Tim Egan: "The man who couldn't manage his own convention, the creator of a 'university' built on fraud, bet his shot at the top job in the world on a panicked public and collective amnesia of his serial misdeeds. 'I will restore law and order to our country, believe me, believe me,' he said. And the instigator of four corporate bankruptcies, the man who stiffed plumbers and carpenters, the failed casino owner, promised to use his dark arts to 'make our country rich again.'" -- CW ...

... ** Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg: "Trump's convention has been a fiasco.... leaving the rationales for [his] candidacy in tatters.... Incompetence is everywhere. Seats throughout the arena are empty in prime time. The schedule has run late, causing key speakers to miss valuable television slots.... And, of course, there was the epic plagiarism in Melania Trump's speech. The series of blatant untruths the campaign produced to try to quell the controversy was amateurish even for this group. Worse, the speech plagiarized Michelle Obama of all people. Worse again, it plagiarized a passage on the Obama family values -- which Donald Trump had gone to great lengths to portray as alien and un-American. ('There's something going on there.') -- CW

Trump's Idea of a Charm Offensive. Alex Isenstadt, et al., of Politico: "Just hours before accepting the Republican Party's presidential nomination, Donald Trump taunted his party on Thursday, ripping into his rivals and joking that, had he run as an independent, he could have defeated the GOP.... Trump said the way the audience reacted to [Ted] Cruz showed the party is united, lambasting the media for suggesting otherwise.... He also continued his assault on Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has refused to endorse Trump or appear at this week's convention...." -- CW

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says Donald Trump was wrong to suggest the U.S. wouldn't defend a NATO ally if they are attacked. '... I thought what he said about NATO yesterday was ... not accurate,' McConnell said Thursday during a Facebook Live interview with The New York Times. 'I'm willing to kind of chalk that up to a rookie mistake.'" ...

     ... CW: Sorry, Mitch, a "rookie mistake" is something like thinking you're speaking in private & saying "they cling to their guns and religion," not telling the NYT the U.S must "always be prepared to walk" out on NATO. ...

... Nahal Toosi of Politico: "The comments [on NATO] drew scorn not only from American allies but also from several top Republicans, undermining the party's efforts to project unity during its national convention.... The international blowback was swift.... Trump's comments were especially unnerving to smaller NATO countries, such as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who in recent years have begun to fear Russia's military aims.... 'Ronald Reagan would be ashamed. Harry Truman would be ashamed. Republicans, Democrats and Independents who help build NATO into the most successful military alliance in history would all come to the same conclusion: Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit and fundamentally ill-prepared to be our commander in chief,' [Hillary] Clinton senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in the statement." -- CW ...

... David Corn of Mother Jones: "Trump's remarks [about NATO] were so potentially damaging to his campaign that when I asked Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager, about the interview, he falsely claimed that the Times reporters -- David Sanger and Maggie Haberman — had made up the damning quotes. Trump's majordomo was trying to BS his way through another Trump controversy." -- CW ...

... Washington Post Editors: "Trump would wreck, not restore, America's standing in the world.... What's astonishing about Mr. Trump ... is the obvious casualness with which he muses about such matters [as abandoning NATO] -- as if the words of even a potential commander in chief do not influence world affairs the moment they are uttered." -- CW ...

... Steve M.: "Trump wants to destabilize NATO and doesn't care if World War III starts. Hillary Clinton wants to appoint left-centrist judges to the Supreme Court. Verdict from the vast majority of Very Serious Republicans: 'The choice is clear! Hillary's too dangerous!'" -- CW ...

... "The Siberian Candidate." Paul Krugman: "... the Trump campaign's recent behavior has quite a few foreign policy experts wondering just what kind of hold Mr. Putin has over the Republican nominee, and whether that influence will continue if he wins." CW: Krugman's column echoes conspiracy theorist language, and the evidence he piles up is a bit sketchy. But it's a big enough pile that the aggregate makes the theory look highly plausible.

On the Menu: Green Eggs & A Ham. Matt Flegenheimer & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Facing jeers even from many of his own constituents, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on Thursday defended his non-endorsement of Donald J. Trump, talking down hecklers at a fractious breakfast forum the morning after his performance onstage upended the Republican National Convention. In an extraordinary display of party division -- at a typically staid Texas state delegation breakfast that is held with the intentions of exemplifying convention-week harmony -- Mr. Cruz strained to manage the vitriol directed his way, stressing that he had not said a cross word about Mr. Trump.... 'I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father,' he said...." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... David Brooks' column is almost worth reading today: "I'm not a Cruz fan, but his naked ambition does fuel amazing courage. As the Republican Party is slouching off on a suicide march, at least Cruz is standing athwart history yelling 'Stop!' When the Trump train implodes, the docile followers who are now booing and denouncing Ted Cruz will claim they were on his side all along." -- CW

... Tony Cook of the Indianapolis Star: "Sen. Dan Coats [R-Ind.] issued a blistering rebuke Thursday of fellow Sen. Ted Cruz... Coats told IndyStar, 'He only thinks of himself, he doesn't think about party. He's a wrecking ball.... He's the most self-centered, narcissistic, pathological liar I've ever seen -- and you can quote me on that,' he said." ...

     ... CW: Well, yeah, that's true enough, but the description fits Donald Trump even better.

"Make American Afraid Again." David Maraniss in the Washington Post on how the GOP convention is going: "More talk about who and what they wanted to undo, dismantle, destroy, obliterate or send off to the clink than create and build and empower. More boilerplate speeches in a half-empty hall by third-rate celebs and second-tier pols than the showbiz glitz and glam promised by the man who hates to be bored.... And most noticeable of all, more disharmony than unity." -- CW

Joon Suh of Third Way: "'My tax plan is going to cost me a fortune,' Donald Trump said at press conference in Trump Tower last September. It won't. One lesser-noticed section of Trump's tax plan would bestow a $7.1 billion tax cut on the Trump family dynasty. That's just through his proposed elimination of the federal estate tax -- not counting breaks on capital gains and income that would also disproportionately favor the wealthy and, altogether, increase the national debt by $9.5 trillion in just 10 years." -- CW

Are You a "Real American"? CW: I'm Not. Nate Silver: Republican "politicians, implicitly and often explicitly, usually have certain people in mind when they refer to 'real Americans.' They often mean white people without college degrees.... They usually mean practicing Christians. Their examples usually refer to people in the South or the Midwest — not East Coast elites or West Coast hippies.... To be a 'real American' means that a lot of people are left out. Overall, 'real Americans' made up only 20 percent of the electorate in 2012. And 'real American' men were just 9 percent of it." -- CW ...

... Transitional Family Values. The Geisha & the Businesswoman. Jill Filipovic in a New York Times op-ed: "Convention-goers ... [will] witness how the Trump family embodies a very old sexist hypocrisy: Men who want one thing for their wives and another for their children.... Mr. Trump ... blames giving his wife too much responsibility in his business for his first divorce, and his wife's wanting him to spend too much time at home with her and their daughter for his second.... Melania Trump ... emphasizes that her role as a mother comes before all else; Mr. Trump has spoken disparagingly of working women, does little in the way of child care, and expects women to be more aesthetically appealing than intellectually substantive.... By contrast, Mr. Trump took out a campaign ad featuring Ivanka, and said of her: 'I am so proud of Ivanka. She is a terrific person, a devoted mother and an exceptional entrepreneur.'" -- CW

Eric Levitz of New York: Tim Kaine, reportedly the Clintons' favorite for veep, has given liberals quite a few reasons not to like him. "This week, Kaine provided left Democrats with two fresh reasons to see his selection as a repudiation of their agenda. On Monday, the senator added his name to two letters urging the federal government to scale back regulations on community and regional banks.... According to the Intercept's David Dayen, the rule Kaine proposes 'could allow community banks and credit unions to sell high-risk mortgages or personal loans without the disclosure and ability to pay rules in place across the industry.' Such bad loans may not take down our financial system, but they could ruin the lives of the families that receive them." ...

     ... CW: Kaine is very much Bill Clinton-style. He reminds me of Bill's choosing Al & Al's choosing that whiney prick Joe Lieberman. We'll see if Hillary is wearing the pants in the Clinton family or just the pantsuit when we learn her veep pick. If she chooses Kaine, we can pretty much count on Clinton II being just that. ...

... Amy Chozick of the New York Times has more on the many reasons liberals will be disappointed if Clinton chooses Kaine. ...

     ... CW Update: Here's the disheartening new lede to Chozick's story: "Democrats close to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign signaled strongly Thursday that she would choose Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate, rounding out the ticket with a popular politician from a battleground state." So it's Clinton II: Change You Can Forget About. Bank deregulation? Check. TPP? Check. Reproductive rights? Meh. ...

... Daniel Strauss & Zachary Warmbrodt of Politico: "A few days before Hillary Clinton is expected to unveil her running mate, a group of progressives are lashing out at Sen. Tim Kaine, widely seen as the frontrunner for the spot, over his support for loosening bank regulations." -- CW

Other News & Views

** Adios, Mo-Fo. John Koblin, et al., of the New York Times: "Roger Ailes stepped down on Thursday as chairman and chief executive of Fox News after a sexual harassment scandal, ending a 20-year reign as head of the cable network he built into a ratings juggernaut and an influential platform for Republican politics. Rupert Murdoch, the 85-year-old media mogul who started Fox News with Mr. Ailes, will assume the role of chairman and will be an interim chief executive of Fox News channel and Fox Business Network until a permanent replacement for Mr. Ailes is found. Mr. Ailes will receive about $40 million as part of a settlement agreement, according to two people briefed on the matter, which essentially amounts to the remainder of his existing employment contract through 2018." -- CW ...

... Here's 21st Century Fox's lawyer-crafted statement. -- CW ...

... Jim Rutenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "Executives at 21st Century Fox decided to end the tenure of Roger Ailes after lawyers they hired to investigate an allegation of sexual harassment against him took statements from at least six other women who described inappropriate behavior from Mr. Ailes, two people briefed on the inquiry said Wednesday.... In interviews, several current and former Fox News employees said inappropriate comments about a woman’s appearance and her sex life were frequent in the newsroom." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... BFFs. Brian Stelter of CNN: "Even as he was negotiating the end of his time leading Fox News, Roger Ailes was still talking with ... Donald Trump. The two counseled each other in multiple phone calls this week, two Trump aides told CNNMoney." -- CW

Beyond the Beltway

Scott Cacciola of the New York Times: "The National Basketball Association announced on Thursday that it would not hold the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte, N.C., the most significant fallout yet from state legislation that eliminated specific anti-discrimination protections for lesbians, gays and bisexuals." -- CW

We're Incompetent & Trigger-Happy But Not Racist! Alex Harris, et al., of the Miami Herald: "The North Miami police officer who shot an unarmed, black mental health worker caring for a patient actually took aim at the autistic man next to him, but missed, the head of the police union said Thursday." Both the supposedly intended victim & the shooter are Hispanic, so it's all okay. The police union claims the cops couldn't hear the victim repeatedly shouting that all the autistic man had was a toy truck. -- CW

Way Beyond

Dom Phillips of the Washington Post: "Brazilian police have arrested 10 people suspected of planning terrorist attacks during the Rio Olympics, Brazilian prosecutors in the southern state of Parana said Thursday. The 10, all Brazilians, had declared loyalty to the Islamic State and were communicating via cellphone messenger services Telegram and WhatsApp to plan attacks during the Summer Games, which open Aug. 5, Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes told reporters in the capital, Brasilia." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Elaine Ganley & Thomas Adamson of the AP: "The truck driver who killed 84 people on a Nice beachfront had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, the Paris prosecutor said Thursday. Prosecutor Francois Molins said five suspects currently in custody are facing preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the July 14 attack...." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)

Max Bearak of the Washington Post: Air strikes on Tuesday -- which may have been led by the U.S. coalition -- killed dozens of Syrians fleeing ISIS, but no ISIS fighters. "If Tuesday's airstrikes were indeed by coalition jets, and not Russian or Syrian government warplanes, this would easily be the highest civilian toll from any action by the coalition since it formed in 2014. Faced with the likelihood of a grave error by the coalition, U.S. officials responded cautiously, emphasizing the need to verify what had happened." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Commentariat -- July 21, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Green Eggs & A Ham. Matt Flegenheimer & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Facing jeers even from many of his own constituents, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on Thursday defended his non-endorsement of Donald J. Trump, talking down hecklers at a fractious breakfast forum the morning after his performance onstage upended the Republican National Convention. In an extraordinary display of party division -- at a typically staid Texas state delegation breakfast that is held with the intentions of exemplifying convention-week harmony -- Mr. Cruz strained to manage the vitriol directed his way, stressing that he had not said a cross word about Mr. Trump.... 'I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father,' he said...." -- CW

Jim Rutenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "Executives at 21st Century Fox decided to end the tenure of Roger Ailes after lawyers they hired to investigate an allegation of sexual harassment against him took statements from at least six other women who described inappropriate behavior from Mr. Ailes, two people briefed on the inquiry said Wednesday.... In interviews, several current and former Fox News employees said inappropriate comments about a woman's appearance and her sex life were frequent in the newsroom." -- CW

Dom Phillips of the Washington Post: "Brazilian police have arrested 10 people suspected of planning terrorist attacks during the Rio Olympics, Brazilian prosecutors in the southern state of Parana said Thursday. The 10, all Brazilians, had declared loyalty to the Islamic State and were communicating via cellphone messenger services Telegram and WhatsApp to plan attacks during the Summer Games, which open Aug. 5, Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes told reporters in the capital, Brasilia." -- CW

Elaine Ganley & Thomas Adamson of the AP: "The truck driver who killed 84 people on a Nice beachfront had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, the Paris prosecutor said Thursday. Prosecutor Francois Molins said five suspects currently in custody are facing preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the July 14 attack...." -- CW

Max Bearak of the Washington Post: Air strikes on Tuesday -- which may have been led by the U.S. coalition -- killed dozens of Syrians fleeing ISIS, but no ISIS fighters. "If Tuesday's airstrikes were indeed by coalition jets, and not Russian or Syrian government warplanes, this would easily be the highest civilian toll from any action by the coalition since it formed in 2014. Faced with the likelihood of a grave error by the coalition, U.S. officials responded cautiously, emphasizing the need to verify what had happened." -- CW

*****

GOP Convention & Presidential Race

CW: Many of today's ledes are pretty rich.

The New York Times is liveblogging Day 3 of the convention. -- CW ...

... Here's the Washington Post's liveblog. -- CW ...

... Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Texas Sen. Ted Cruz declined to endorse Donald Trump on Wednesday night during his prime-time Republican National Convention speech, telling voters to 'vote your conscience' in November.... The crowd in the Quicken Loans Arena broke out in chants of 'we want Trump,' to which Cruz replied, 'I appreciate the enthusiasm of the New York delegation.' The audience proceeded to break out in overwhelming boos. As Cruz concluded his speech, cameras cut to Trump arriving in the arena, giving the crowd a thumbs up." -- CW ...

... Patrick Healy & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "The Republican convention erupted into tumult on Wednesday night as the bitter primary battle between Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz reignited unexpectedly, crushing hopes that the party could project unity. In the most electric moment of the convention, boos and jeers broke out as it became clear that Mr. Cruz -- in a prime-time address from center stage -- was not going to endorse Mr. Trump.... Mr. Trump himself suddenly appear[ed] in the back of the convention hall. Virtually every head in the room seemed to turn from Mr. Cruz to Mr. Trump, who was stone-faced and clearly angry as he egged on delegates by pumping his fist.... Security personnel escorted ... Heidi [Cruz] out of the hall.... The drama overshadowed the appearance of Mr. Pence, who was expected to be the highlight of the convention's third night.... [Later,] when [Mr. Cruz] tried to enter the convention suite of the Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, he was turned away." -- CW ...

... Ed Kilgore: "The man constantly referred to from the podium as the world's greatest negotiator went along with giving his last and strongest rival for the nomination a prime-time speaking gig knowing that Ted Cruz would not endorse him. Cruz took the stage knowing the Trump majority of the crowd would be angered if he conspicuously failed to offer the kind of straight-forward support Marco Rubio had just provided in a short video played on the giant screen in Quicken Arena. This arrangement was difficult to make sense of from either politician's perspective.... Once again, Trump has lost control of his own convention." -- CW ...

... Josh Marshall: "... I believe in my heart that Ted Cruz is an odious weasel.... But that was a singular moment.... He affirmatively not only refused to endorse Trump but exhorted fellow Republicans not to vote for Trump. Yes, he used the coded phrasing 'vote your conscience.' But in context that meant with with crystal clarity: Your Republican identity in no way obligates you to vote for Donald Trump. Rather 'vote your conscience' and do not vote for Donald Trump.... Cruz came into Trump's house, Trump's party and humiliated him." -- CW ...

... Dara Lind of Vox: "Ted Cruz just launched his campaign for the 2020 presidential nomination.... He's making a bet: that Donald Trump will fail catastrophically in November and the Republican Party's next leader will be someone who wasn't implicated in the catastrophe.... What made Cruz's convention speech so remarkable is that during the presidential primary..., Ted Cruz buddied up to Trump.... It all fell apart, of course, as the struggle between the two for the Iowa caucuses dissolved their partnership faster than you can say 'Lyin' Ted.'" -- CW ...

... A "source within the Cruz team" tells winger Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire that the negative reaction to the Cruz speech "was orchestrated by the Trump campaign to make Senator Cruz a pariah within the party." CW: If so, how very Machiavellian of you Donaldo. Except the Pariah Plot is looking a bit like a backfire.

Gay or straight, the Bill of Rights protects the rights of all of us to live according to our conscience. -- Ted Cruz, convention speech

Ted Cruz believes that, gay or straight, you are protected by the fundamental rights of the constitution, unless you're gay. -- Scott Lemieux, in LG&$

** David Sanger & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump ... said Wednesday that if he were elected, he would not pressure Turkey or other authoritarian allies about conducting purges of their political adversaries or cracking down on civil liberties. The United States, he said, has to 'fix our own mess' before trying to alter the behavior of other nations. 'I don't think we have a right to lecture,' Mr. Trump said in a wide-ranging interview.... 'Look at what is happening in our country,' he said. 'How are we going to lecture when people are shooting policemen in cold blood?' During a 45-minute conversation, he explicitly raised new questions about his commitment to automatically defend NATO allies if they are attacked, saying he would first look at their contributions to the alliance." The transcript of the interview is here.-- CW ...

... Cassandra Vinograd of NBC News: "Donald Trump set off alarm bells in European capitals Thursday after suggesting he might not honor the core tenet of the NATO military alliance.... The comments were perceived by some analysts as carte blanche for Russia to intimidate NATO allies and a potential harbinger of the alliance's collapse were Trump to be elected." -- CW ...

... Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic: "Donald J. Trump, has chosen this week to unmask himself as a de facto agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a KGB-trained dictator who seeks to rebuild the Soviet empire by undermining the free nations of Europe, marginalizing NATO, and ending America's reign as the world's sole superpower.... Donald Trump, should he be elected president, would bring an end to the postwar international order, and liberate dictators ... to advance their own interests. The moral arc of the universe is long, and, if Trump is elected, it will bend in the direction of despotism and darkness." -- CW ...

... Jordan Weissman of Slate: In his acceptance speech for the vice-presidential nomination, "Mike Pence said that Donald Trump would stand with our allies right after Donald Trump told the New York Times that he might not stand with our allies." -- CW ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Republicans in Chaos Must Decide Whether to Elect a Madman.... [Donald Trump] is ignorant and has dangerous views completely outside the normal range.... In light of the risks presented by Trump, who might break the rule of law and the democratic form of government, his party has offered a strange message. Rather than tamp down the fears of what he would do, they have inflamed them....[Trump's New York Times interview] retroactively justified [Ted] Cruz's extraordinary decision to take the stage in prime time and decline to endorse his party's nominee, even as boos rained down." -- CW

Maggie HABERMAN: What do you think people will take away from this convention? What are you hoping?

Donald TRUMP: From the convention? The fact that I'm very well liked.

... Greg Sargent: "Trump wants the key takeaway from the whole convention -- including his speech tonight -- to be that people come to appreciate that he is very well liked, specifically, that he is already very well liked. Not that he hopes to spell out his party's vision for America (if you can call it that) with new sweep and clarity." CW: A "madman," you say, Chait? How could you?

This is a joyless convention. The mood among the delegates, I've found, is somewhere between grim resignation and the Donner Party. -- Mike Murphy, top Jeb! advisor ...

... "Donald Trump's Convention Is a Low-Energy Show So Far." Adam Nagourney & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump came [to Cleveland] promising a nominating convention bursting with glitz, energy, celebrity and the highest of show business production values. Instead, at least for the first two nights, Mr. Trump struggled to stage the biggest show of his political career: his own convention. The party gathering, after an unusually contentious primary season, has been marked by a noticeable absence of energy and swaths of empty seats.... The crowd seemed to come alive only when the subject was not Mr. Trump but Hillary Clinton...." CW: So pleased to see this as the top story (at least for the moment) on the Times' online front page. It should really piss off Mr. Big. ...

... Karen Tumulty & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Even before Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination..., [he] was promising that he would put on a convention spectacle unlike any that had ever come before.... 'It's very important to put some showbiz into a convention. Otherwise, people are going to fall asleep,' he [said].... But the Trump Show has yet to dazzle -- and there have been some moments where it has been almost painful to watch." -- CW ...

... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "... the friends and family members who have said they want the country to know the Donald Trump they know so well have mostly spoken in generalities and bromides.... '[The convention is] an exercise in vanity.... It's not about a serious effort to win an election,'... said Stuart Stevens..., who helped run Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign." CW: Could be because #RealDonaldTrump is #RealObnoxious.

Washington Post Editors: The Republican National Convention "descended to a new low Tuesday night when delegates assembled in Cleveland kept repeating their favorite chant: 'Lock her up! Lock her up!'... 'Embarrassed for my country by this chant,' Stanford University professor (and Post contributor) Michael McFaul tweeted Tuesday. 'Dictatorships lock up the opposition, not democracies.'... New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie led the crowd in a trial by mob Tuesday night, lobbing accusation after accusation at the former secretary of state, asking the crowd after each one to declare her 'guilty or not guilty.' 'Guilty!' was the predictable reply, though nearly all of his charges concerned policy choices, not behavior that was even conceivably illegal.... The 'lock her up' motif rightly heightens fears of how Mr. Trump would govern, given the contempt he has shown for traditional democratic norms and the rank ignorance of the Constitution he has displayed." -- CW

... David Corn of Mother Jones: "'Lock her up! Lock her up!'... This moment marked the culmination of a meme on the right: that Clinton is not a legitimate leader and that her election would not be legitimate. By embracing this theme and placing it center stage at Trumpalooza, Donald Trump and the GOP were undermining, if not threatening, democratic governance.... Minutes after the 'lock her up' chants, defeated GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson linked Clinton to Lucifer (because of a college paper she wrote on leftist organizer Saul Alinsky). And on Wednesday morning, the news broke that a prominent Trump supporter, Al Baldasaro, had declared on a radio show that Clinton deserved to 'be put in the firing line and shot for treason.'... Trump once referred to Baldasaro as 'my favorite vet.' [There's more. See also the WashPo story on Baldasar, linked below.]... Trump has encouraged all this.... This is a perilous moment." -- CW ...

... ** Dana Milbank: "Delegates to the Republican National Convention are divided this week over a crucial question: Should Hillary Clinton be summarily executed? Or merely imprisoned without trial?" -- CW ...

... Rebecca Traister of New York: "The Republican Party wants to return us to a time in which white male authority and power was absolute, in which punishment could be meted out as the majority desired, quelling the threats of minority upstarts.... Even if they are tepid on Trump personally, those Republicans who are [in Cleveland] -- who are speaking nightly, on television, to millions of Americans -- are exhibiting a frothing excitement for the resentments and aggressions he's given them permission to voice openly. It turns out that Donald Trump is far from unique. What we have seen, this week, is the Republican Party offering its stage and its imprimatur to speakers who have ... [been] buoyed and energized by the way in which Trump's candidacy has allowed them to come out as inciters of sexist, racist, violent mob action and xenophobic fearmongering" -- CW

Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: Former ballet dancer "Meredith McIver ... took the blame for the disastrous plagiarism of Michelle Obama in Melania Trump's prime-time speech Monday at the Republican National Convention. In the statement, Ms. McIver, a 65-year-old co-author of several books with Donald J. Trump, said that as she and Ms. Trump were preparing her speech, Ms. Trump mentioned that she admired Mrs. Obama and read to Ms. McIver parts of the first lady's 2008 speech at the Democratic convention. Ms. McIver said she had inadvertently left portions of the Obama speech in the final draft. 'This was my mistake,' she wrote. She wrote that she had offered her resignation, but that the Trumps had rejected it." -- CW ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's campaign finally admitted on Wednesday that parts of Melania Trump's convention speech had been plagiarized, releasing a brief statement from the person responsible.... But there's another problem.... The letterhead of the statement [Meredith McIver issued]: The Trump Organization, which is to say Donald Trump's personal business. And ... McIver describes herself: As an employee of the Trump Organization, not the campaign. If Trump used corporate resources to write a political speech, that could be illegal [depending upon the way McIver was paid for her work]." -- CW ...

... P.S. Jim Fallows: The night after Melania Trump "ran into a buzzsaw for misappropriated material," Donald Trump, Jr., delivered a convention speech that recycled bits of a previously-published article by his speechwriter. Without attribution, of course. "... this is something you don't do this way. You don't recycle, without attribution, things you've written and let someone else present them as his or her own words." -- CW

Michelle Goldberg & Chelsea Hassler of Slate: "... anti-Hillary Clinton rhetoric at this week's Republican National Convention ... has been a thematic constant, often overshadowing any and all reference to the Republican nominee himself. It's no surprise, then, that RNC attendees and supporters of the party have followed suit -- but some have taken it to a much baser level, groping at the lowest of low-hanging fruit by attacking Hillary's gender and sexuality." The reporters provide photographic evidence. -- CW

David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "The Secret Service is investigating one of Donald Trump's most outspoken supporters, a New Hampshire state representative who said this week that Hillary Clinton should be shot for treason.... [Al] Baldasaro, a Republican from Londonderry, N.H., is a former Marine who calls himself Trump's 'veteran advisor.'... In May, when Trump criticized the news media for its coverage of his promise to give $1 million to veterans groups, Baldasaro was given a speaking role and a place in the background when Trump spoke.... 'Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason,' Baldasaro said earlier in the week on ... a conservative radio show.... On Wednesday, Baldasaro stood by those comments in an interview with WMUR of Manchester, N.H.... 'As far as I'm concerned, it is treason and the penalty for treason is the firing squad -- or maybe it's the electric chair now,' Baldasaro said." -- CW ...

... "Meh!" -- Trump Camp. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Trump campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks told NH1 News, 'We're incredibly grateful for [Baldasaro's] support, but we don't agree with his comments.'" -- CW

Jane Mayer of the New Yorker: "On Monday..., the day that this magazine published my interview with [Tony] Schwartz, [who ghost-wrote The Art of the Deal,] and hours after Schwartz appeared on 'Good Morning America' to voice his concerns about Trump's 'impulsive and self-centered' character..., the general counsel and vice-president of the Trump Organization, issued a threatening cease-and-desist letter to Schwartz.... On Thursday..., Schwartz said that ... he would make no retractions or apologies. '... It is axiomatic that when Trump feels attacked, he will strike back. That's precisely what's so frightening about his becoming president.'" -- CW ...

He's been trying to get work from me for 30 years. He wrote me letters [asking for work]... I never liked him. -- Donald Trump, yesterday

Schwartz says this is 'totally false,' and that he has made no business overtures to Trump during the last twenty-eight years. Asked last night to provide any evidence that Schwartz had ever sought work from Trump after the publication of 'The Art of the Deal, [Trump attorney Jason] Greenblatt said he could provide none at that moment, but would try to find some soon. -- Jane Mayer, linked above

Calvin Woodward of the AP with a fact-check: "Donald Trump's new running mate and other Republicans are wrongly accusing Hillary Clinton of speaking with indifference about the death of Americans in Benghazi, Libya -- twisting her comments out of context to make their indictment.... At no point has Clinton said -- or even implied -- that it makes no difference whether Americans died in the Benghazi attacks." -- CW ...

... Glenn Kessler & Michelle Lee of the Washington Post also fact-check the bull. -- CW

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Mike Pence wasn't pleased with Indiana’s top leaders [-- then-Gov. Evan Bayh (D) & Sen. Dan Coats (R) ---] in the early 1990s as they tried to block out-of-state trash from landing in Hoosier landfills, and ... he wrote an essay comparing their efforts to how Nazi Germany had treated 'politically unpopular' Jews.... Pence ... likened what Bayh and Coats were doing to Nazi leaders as they started seizing the assets of banks owned by Jewish minorities." -- CW

Amy Chozick & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "As Hillary Clinton prepares to make her choice for a vice-presidential candidate, Bill Clinton has privately expressed his support for Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, according to three Democrats briefed on the conversations with the former president this week. Mr. Clinton believes that Mr. Kaine, 58, a former governor and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has the domestic and national security résumé that both appeals to voters and makes him prepared for the presidency." -- CW

Dan Spinelli of Politico: "Six protesters from a pro-Bernie Sanders group were arrested in a sit-in Wednesday in Philadelphia, in what could be an early hint of what's to come once the Democratic Party's convention begins next week, a spokesman for the activists said. The afternoon protest took place at the Center City headquarters of the Democratic National Convention's host committee, which the activists condemned for refusing to release the convention's financial records. The protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct and failure to disperse, but were released shortly afterward and issued civil fines...." -- CW

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Steve M.: Ron Fournier, "the king of Both Sides Do It," asks, "Why is the convention so negative? For the same reasons next weeks' Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia likely will be an anti-Trump orgy."... "Do you see what Fournier does there? He invokes things that have actually happened during the Republican convention, then says they're equivalent to things he thinks Clinton and her supporters will do at the Democratic convention. Voila! Instant false equivalence!" CW: How the hell did Fournier get a job at the Atlantic? Update: Oh, the Atlantic owns the National Journal, which employs Fournier.

Other News & Views

Manny Fernandez & Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas' voter identification law, one of the strictest in the country, violated the Voting Rights Act and that the state must find ways to accommodate voters who face hardships in obtaining the necessary documents.... The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, found that the law had a discriminatory effect on blacks and Latinos, who often lack the forms of identification required under the Texas law. But the ruling did not strike down the law entirely, ruling instead that new procedures must be found to assist potential voters lacking the required identification. The ruling also sent back for reconsideration the question of whether Texas legislators had acted with a discriminatory purpose...." CW: The Fifth Circuit is the most conservative in the country. ...

... Reid Wilson of the Hill: "A federal judge in Milwaukee on Tuesday blocked a Wisconsin state law that would have required voters to show a photo identification when casting a ballot in November's presidential election. U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman issued a preliminary ruling allowing voters who do not have photo identification to cast a ballot provided they sign an affidavit attesting to their identity. Voters without identification will have to list a reason they were unable to obtain a document, including lacking a birth certificate, work schedules or disability or illness. CW: Adelman is a Clinton appointee. Thanks to Haley S. for the lead.

Beyond the Beltway

Michael Miller of the Washington Post: "Police in South Florida shot an unarmed black caretaker Monday as he tried to help his autistic patient. Charles Kinsey was trying to retrieve a young autistic man who had wandered away from an assisted living facility and was blocking traffic when Kinsey was shot by a North Miami police officer. In cell phone footage of the incident that emerged Wednesday, Kinsey can be seen lying on the ground with his hands in the air, trying to calm the autistic man and defuse the situation.... 'All he has is a toy truck in his hand,' Kinsey can be heard saying in the video as police officers with assault rifles hide behind telephone poles approximately 30 feet away.... 'There is no need for guns,' [Kinsley tells the police].... Seconds later, off camera, one of the officers fired his weapon three times. A bullet tore through Kinsey's right leg.... Kinsey said he was even more stunned by what happened afterwards, when police handcuffed him and left him bleeding on the pavement for 'about 20 minutes.'" ...

     ... CW: Just when you think police violence can't get worse, you find out it's now a capital offense to help the disabled while black.

Way Beyond

Ben Hubbard & Ceylan Yeginsu of the New York Times: "Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared a three-month state of emergency on Wednesday that gave the state extra powers to pass laws as the authorities pursue individuals suspected of attempting to topple his government." -- CW