The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Friday
Oct072016
The Commentariat -- October 8, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump said in an interview Saturday that he would not drop out of the race under any circumstances, following calls from several prominent members of his party to do so. 'I'd never withdraw. I've never withdrawn in my life,' Trump told The Washington Post in a phone call from his home in Trump Tower in New York. 'No, I'm not quitting this race. I have tremendous support.... They're not going to make me quit, and they can't make me quit,' Trump said of associates and party leaders who have urged him to step aside." -- CW ...
... Vaughn Hillyard of NBC News: "Mike Pence expressed dismay Saturday over Donald Trump's lewd comments about women, saying in a statement that he was 'offended' but wanted to give his embattled running mate a chance to 'show what is in his heart' at the second presidential debate.... Pence earlier cancelled an appearance in Wisconsin [at Paul Ryan's shindig] amid the fallout from Friday's video." -- CW ...
... Kyle Cheney & Burgess Everett of Politico: "In May, Sen. Deb Fischer stood silently as her nephew led a drive to humiliate fellow Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse for his opposition to Donald Trump. On Saturday, she publicly joined Sasse's side. As Republicans abandon Trump en masse over newly revealed lewd comments about women, Fischer joined Sasse in urging the Republican presidential nominee to step aside. 'The comments made by Mr. Trump were disgusting and totally unacceptable under any circumstance,' she tweeted Saturday afternoon, adding: "It would be wise for him to step aside and allow Mike Pence to serve as our party's nominee.'" -- CW ...
... Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "After standing aside Trump during months of bombastic remarks aimed at Muslims, Latinos and women, Trump's sexually aggressive and lewd remarks, caught on tape in 2005 and aired Friday, were the breaking point. On Saturday morning, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte was the first vulnerable GOP incumbent to withdraw her support. Joe Heck, a Republican running in Nevada, quickly followed suit. 'I wanted to be able to support my party's nominee, chosen by the people, because I feel strongly that we need a change in direction for our country. However, I'm a mom and an American first, and I cannot and will not support a candidate for president who brags about degrading and assaulting women. I will not be voting for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton and instead will be writing in Governor Pence for president...,' Ayotte said." -- CW ...
... CW: Yeah, it's funny how all these Republicans were putting up with every horrifying piece of crap from Trump's horrifying history of abusing, cheating and/or insulting everybody but Putin (last week Ayotte said Trump "absolutely" would make a good role model for his kids, a remark she later retracted), but suddenly when he's caught on tape boasting about committing multiple sexual felonies, they're all shocked & discombobulated. ...
Jonathan Swan of the Hill: "The Republican Party would face enormous political and legal problems should it decide to replace Donald Trump as its presidential nominee, election law experts agree. While a number of prominent Republican lawmakers are urging Trump to step down due to his unacceptable sexual comments, the legal community is engaged in a separate argument about whether the Republican National Committee has the authority to remove Trump without his consent." -- CW ...
... Paulina Firozi of the Hill: "Melania Trump says she was offended by her husband Donald Trump's 'unacceptable' sexual remarks about women, but is asking the nation to accept his apology. Melania Trump said in a Saturday statement that the 'words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me.... This does not represent the man that I know. He has the heart and mind of a leader.'" -- CW ...
... MEANWHILE. Nikita Valdimirov of the Hill: "Bernie Sanders on Saturday responded to the leaked emails that reveal parts of Hillary Clinton's Wall Street speeches, a major point of contention during their primary battle, by reiterating his support for the Democratic Party platform." -- CW
*****
The New York Times' storm-tracker is here. The latest at 9:12 am ET: "Heavy rains from Hurricane Matthew lashed Georgia and South Carolina early Saturday as the storm began to lose some of its strength. Charleston and Savannah were both reporting flooding, with water breaching the sea wall in Charleston. Video of Savannah showed water rushing through the streets amid reports that the Savannah River was out of its banks. In Georgia, where the governor had ordered residents in six coastal counties to evacuate, the hurricane set a storm surge record for Tybee Island, near the state's border with South Carolina." -- CW ...
... The Weather Channel's coverage of Hurricane Matthew continues. ...
... The main story at 7:45 pm ET, Friday, by Ada Carr: "Hurricane Matthew, in its destructive march along the Florida coast on Friday, caused widespread flooding, damage and power outages across the state. At least five people have died." -- CW ...
... The Miami Herald links to numerous Matthew-related stories on its front page. ...
... Azam Ahmed of the New York Times: "As Haiti picks through the detritus left by Hurricane Matthew, more bodies are turning up every hour. Some estimates said that more than 800 people had died in the storm, more than double what the government has reported, though it acknowledged that the toll was unknown. In one part of the country's southern peninsula, nearly 30,000 homes were destroyed and 150 lives lost, officials said. And a full accounting of damage has not even started." -- CW
Presidential Race -- R-Rated Edition
David Sanger & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Obama administration on Friday formally accused the Russian government of stealing and disclosing emails from the Democratic National Committee and from a range of prominent individuals and institutions, immediately raising the issue of whether President Obama would seek sanctions or other retaliation for the cyberattacks. In a joint statement from the director of national intelligence, James Clapper Jr., and the Department of Homeland Security, the government said the leaked emails that have appeared on a variety of websites were 'intended to interfere with the U.S. election process.' The emails were posted on the WikiLeaks site and newer ones under the names DCLeaks.com and Guccifer 2.0.... In the first presidential debate..., Hillary Clinton ...blam[ed] Russia for the attacks.... Donald J. Trump, said there was no evidence that Russia was responsible, suggesting that the Chinese could be behind it, or it 'could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.'" -- CW: This was, of course, an instance of Trump's defending Putin. ...
... Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed: "Excerpts from Hillary Clinton's closed-door paid speeches, including to financial firms, appeared to be made public for the first time on Friday when WikiLeaks published hundreds of hacked emails from her campaign chairman. The speech transcripts, a major subject of contention during the Democratic primary, include quotes from Clinton about her distance from middle-class life ('I'm kind of far removed'); her vision of strategic governing ('you need both a public and a private position'); and her views on trade, health care, and Wall Street ('even if it may not be 100 percent true, if the perception is that somehow the game is rigged.' John Podesta, the Clinton campaign chairman, was the latest victim in a wave of hacks on key figures in Democratic politics and the political establishment in what administration officials say is an effort by Russia to undermine the election." -- CW ...
... Amy Chozick, et al., of the New York Times: "In lucrative paid speeches that Hillary Clinton delivered to elite financial firms but refused to disclose to the public, she displayed an easy comfort with titans of business, embraced unfettered international trade and praised a budget-balancing plan that would have required cuts to Social Security, according to documents posted online Friday by WikiLeaks.... Mrs. Clinton comes across less as a firebrand than as a technocrat at home with her powerful audience, willing to be critical of large financial institutions but more inclined to view them as partners in restoring the country's economic health.... [Some of her] comments could have proven devastating to Mrs. Clinton during the Democratic primary fight, when Mr. Sanders promoted himself as the enemy of Wall Street and of a rigged economic system." -- CW ...
... Kyle Cheney & Sarah Wheaton of Politico: "Clinton's campaign would not confirm the authenticity of the emails -- though it did not explicitly deny it either. Podesta tweeted on Friday evening that he did not 'have time to figure out which docs are real and which are faked.'" -- CW
Amy Chozick & Patrick Healy of the New York Times: Hillary Clinton "is holed up with aides to practice her body language, facial expressions, vocal cadences and more conversational answers about college debt, the heroin epidemic and other topics that have come up at her campaign events.... Donald J. Trump scoffs at all that. 'I don't need to rehearse being human,' he said in an interview last week. He and his advisers say that Sunday night's town hall-style format ... will showcase his comfort on television and his direct style.... Trump advisers [are] acknowledging privately that Sunday's debate is a must-win for their candidate." CW: Hey, Anderson & Martha, ask him about the "locker-room banter." Let's see if he blames Bill Clinton again. ...
... Sexual Predator Runs for President. Not Your Usual Friday Afternoon News Dump:
** David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump bragged in vulgar terms about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women during a 2005 conversation caught on a hot microphone, saying that 'when you're a star, they let you do it,' according to a video obtained by The Washington Post. The video captures Trump talking with Billy Bush, then of 'Access Hollywood,' on a bus with the show's name written across the side. They were arriving on the set of 'Days of Our Lives' to tape a segment about Trump's cameo on the soap opera.... The tape was recorded several months after he married his third wife, Melania.... 'I did try and f--- her. She was married,' Trump says.... 'Grab them by the p---y,' Trump says. 'You can do anything.'... 'This was locker-room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course -- not even close,' Trump said in a statement. 'I apologize if anyone was offended.'... Mike Pence was at a diner in Toledo when the news broke.... But the reporters traveling with Pence were quickly ushered out of the diner by campaign staff, before they could ask Trump's running mate about it, according to Politico." Thanks to MAG for the lead. -- CW ...
... "The Post has edited this video for length." ...
... Here's a transcript of the videotape. ...
... Update. Julie Pace & Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "... Mike Pence, was 'beside himself' and his wife was furious, according to a person familiar with their thinking.... Two Utah Republicans, Gov. Gary Herbert and Rep. Jason Chaffetz withdrew their endorsements, and former Gov. Jon Huntsman did call for the candidate to step aside and let Pence take his place." -- CW ...
... Update. "Access Hollywood" reports that "Nancy," the married woman Trump said he failed to fuck, was Nancy O'Dell, then a co-host with Billy Bush of "Access Hollywood." -- CW ...
... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The lewd discussion offers more insight into how Mr. Trump has spoken about women in private and adds to evidence that he has a penchant for sexist behavior.... Mr. Trump's history of making sexist comments about women has caused him trouble before, but he has largely brushed them off as things he said as an entertainer. The new recording could pose more difficult challenges for the Trump campaign, and Democrats were already pressuring Republicans to disavow Mr. Trump.... Mr. Trump has scheduled with Speaker Paul D. Ryan this weekend an awkward affair.... Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist, [said], 'I recommend Paul come down with a dental emergency tonight." -- CW ...
... Update. Heroic Paul Ryan Disinvites Serial Molester. James West of Mother Jones: "Speaker Paul Ryan issued a statement Friday night condemning Donald Trump's 2005 comments about groping women. Ryan said he was 'sickened' by the video, published by The Washington Post on Friday evening, and said the GOP nominee would no longer join him for an event Saturday morning." -- CW ...
... NEW. Oh, Wait. Not So Heroic. Jeremy Stahl of Slate: "But if you look at the statement he released Friday, Ryan is giving himself plenty of room not to back out [of his endorsement of Trump] now. 'I hope that Mr. Trump treats this situation with the seriousness it deserves' Ryan says, meaning that if Trump says anything about it that Ryan can point to as 'serious,' then he will have nothing to worry about from the Speaker. If history is any guide, he doesn't." CW: See also Trump's "serious" face in the fake-apology video below. I'm sure that counts! ...
... Shane Goldmacher, et al., of Politico: "The Republican Party was in a state of turmoil on Friday night.... As the hours passed, some Republicans began to call for Trump to step aside, leaving the presidential race to vice presidential nominee Mike Pence. Rob Engstrom, the Chamber of Commerce's national political director, was the first to call for Trump to quit, followed by Rep. Mike Coffman, George Pataki and Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock. Sen. Mike Lee said: 'You are the distraction... I respectfully ask you, with all due respect, to step aside.'" -- CW ...
... Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: "Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) on Friday night called for Donald Trump to drop out of the presidential race, breaking her campaign-long silence on the Republican presidential nominee.... Comstock, who faces a competitive reelection challenge in her northern Virginia district, said the Republican Party should nominate Trump's runningmate, Mike Pence, in his place or choose another candidate." -- CW ...
... ** Update. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "During a 90-second videotaped appearance, Mr. Trump ... offered a strikingly brief articulation of regret for a decade-old audiotape in which he boasted about grabbing women's genitals and said he could have his way with women because of his fame. But his real message, which appeared early Saturday, was one of defiance. He described the controversy that upended the Republican Party for most of Friday as a mere 'distraction,' and said that his vulgar remarks captured on the tape were nothing compared with the way Bill and Hillary Clinton had mistreated women.... Grudging though they seemed, Mr. Trump's comments were a marked departure from his lifelong resistance to any admission of fault." --CW ...
... CW: Who was Trump so mad at when he cut this video? Probably those "weak" campaign lackeys who made him fake-apologize and the "losers" who condemned him for a little frat-boy talk when he was a boy of 59. ...
... Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Less than two years after a female journalist [Nancy O'Dell] supposedly rebuffed Donald Trump's sexual advances -- as heard on newly discovered video -- he allegedly tried to have her fired from one of his beauty pageants.... O'Dell co-hosted (along with her Access Hollywood colleague Billy Bush) the Trump-owned Miss USA pageant in 2004 and 2005.... In 2007, TMZ reported that the real-estate mogul wanted to kick O'Dell to the curb as Miss USA host because he allegedly didn't like the way she looked while she was several months pregnant. (Trump's people did not deny the report at the time, and simply refused to comment.)... Ultimately, Trump's bid to get O'dell nixed (whatever his true motivation) was unsuccessful. O'Dell was under contract with NBC, which decided to keep the five-months pregnant host." -- CW ...
... James Hamblin of the Atlantic: "The thing about [Trump]'s words isn't that they're explicit or graphic. It's that they're misogynistic, coercive, abusive, and dehumanizing. And as my colleague David Graham notes, illegal: The candidate is describing forcing himself on women, bragging that they're disinclined to object because of a power structure on which he knowingly capitalizes. Framing this as lewd, even extremely so, is a reminder of the frequent reluctance to name sexual assault.... Trump ... excused his comments as 'locker room banter.' To take him at his word, he misunderstands the ritual: Talking explicitly about sex is different from bragging about forcing yourself on people." -- CW ...
... Danielle Paquette of the Washington Post: "Corey Lewandowski, Trump's former campaign manager, also defended his former boss. 'He speaks from the heart,' Lewandowski said Friday evening on CNN. 'He speaks the way many people speak around the dining room table.'... The Justice Department writes on its website, sexual assault is 'any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.' That would include grabbing an unsuspecting woman 'by the p----.' 'That's nothing less than someone talking about committing sexual violence -- the kissing, the grabbing,' said Bridgette Stumpf, co-executive director of Network for Victim Recovery of D.C. 'He's talking about women as if they're objects, as if they don't have a right to consent to the way someone touches them. This is how sexual violence becomes accepted in our culture.'" ...
... CW: I'll take Lewandowski at his word (altho clearly the organ from which Trump was speaking was not the heart): that Lewandowski talks about "grabbing pussy" at the dinner table. In most families, I'd guess, this is not common dinner-table banter. (In my family, I had a rule: "No talking about body-parts at the dinner table." I'll admit my children found inventive -- & fairly hilarious -- ways to break the rule.) ...
... New York Times Editors: "And so we have now heard the Republican nominee for president of the United States bragging about repeated sexual assault.... In a statement released after the video became public on Friday, Mr. Trump tried to minimize the conversation as 'locker room banter.' As if the problem were just his words rather than his actions." -- CW ...
I know everyone is going to jump on Donald Trump for admitting to serial sexual battery on tape, but try to remember Hillary once had a cold -- Daniel Roberts
... Tara Golshan of Vox: "Trump's response to the video was the exact opposite of an apology: It normalized an extraordinarily degrading kind of banter, attempted to deflect the attention to a rival public figure in Bill Clinton, and used a conditional 'if anyone was offended,' placing 'the onus on others to react -- to claim that they were offended or not,' [linguist Edwin] Battistella points out.... For Trump, this is a strategy. When pushed on his shortcomings or his own failings, he tries to deflect on others. It's sorry behavior, but it's not an apology." -- CW ...
... CW: The only thing that surprised me about Trump's non-apology apology is that he didn't blame the women -- arguing that they "asked for it" by dressing or behaving in a sexually-inviting manner. Maybe that tack will play out in late-nite tweets -- if the campaign gives him back his phone. ...
NEW. Paulina Firozi of the Hill: "CNN host Erin Burnett read aloud on air a story from her friend who said Donald Trump tried to kiss her in 2010.... Burnett said her friend was struck by the detail about Tic Tacs in the audio of Trump talking about kissing women. 'Trump took a Tic Tac, suggesting I take them also. He then leaned in, catching me off guard, and kissed me almost on the lips. I was freaked out,' Burnett says, quoting a message from her friend." -- CW ...
... Nicholas Kristof reports on the allegations of Jill Harth, a businesswoman who says Trump tried to rape her & later stiffed the company her then-boyfriend owned. Some years later, however, Harth became Trump's girlfriend & later asked for a job on the Trump campaign. Kristof finds her story believable. -- CW ...
... NEW. Jeremy Stahl has more on Harth's 1997 lawsuit against Trump for groping her numerous times & then attempting to rape her in Ivanka Trump's bedroom. ...
... Steve M.: "I think the election is over." -- CW ...
... Emily Yahr & Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post: Billy "Bush, 44, is the nephew of George H.W. Bush and cousin of George W. Bush.... Billy Bush ... had a rocky transition [from 'Access Hollywood'] when he joined the 'Today' show as a co-anchor this summer, thanks to a viral argument with weatherman Al Roker about whether embattled swimmer Ryan Lochte lied [to Bush] about his alleged robbery.... Bush also hosted both the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants between 2003 and 2005, and again in 2009. Trump purchased the Miss Universe organization in 1996.... Bush was presumably added to the 'Today' show roster to improve ratings for the 9 a.m. hour. But on Friday, as the Trump video circulated the Internet, comments flooded in, many from women -- the 'Today' show's target audience." -- CW ...
... Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post here, & Brian Stelter of CNN here on how the video came to light. Stelter reports that both "Access Hollywood," an NBC-owned show, & NBC News had the tape before Fahrenthold got it late Friday morning. "Access Hollywood" was "deciding what to do with it" & NBC News "hadn't quite finalized" a story. -- CW ...
... According to Stelter, an "Access Hollywood" producer remembered the tape partly because of this AP story by Garance Burke, published October 3: "In his years as a reality TV boss on 'The Apprentice,' Donald Trump repeatedly demeaned women with sexist language, according to show insiders who said he rated female contestants by the size of their breasts and talked about which ones he'd like to have sex with. The Associated Press interviewed more than 20 people -- former crew members, editors and contestants -- who described crass behavior by Trump behind the scenes of the long-running hit show, in which aspiring capitalists were given tasks to perform as they competed for jobs working for him." -- CW
Mr. Trump Goes to Washington. Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times has more on that time young Donald lobbied Congress to make him richer: "He even said that the recession had been caused by President Ronald Reagan's 1986 tax overhaul -- a conclusion few economists shared -- and could be ended only by allowing investor dollars to flow easily back into real estate. Mr. Trump even argued against the very basis of the policy: The best way to get a recovery, he said, was to raise income taxes on wealthy people, to prod them to invest again in syndicated real estate deals." See Steve Mufson & Max Ehrenfreund's WashPo story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Philip Bump of the Washington Post: In 1989, Donald Trump took out a full-page ad in the New York Daily News aimed at "the Central Park Five," a group of five teens -- four blacks & one Hispanic -- accused of gang-raping & beating, nearly to death, a young white woman jogging in the park. "I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes.," Trump wrote in the ad. The five, who confessed under police interrogations, later retracted their confessions & new evidence exonerated them. New York City paid them $40 million to settle their case. "What's remarkable, though, is that even as he's running for president, Trump stands by his excoriation of the five young men.... It barely needs to be mentioned that there's a potent racial element to this case.... What this case suggests is that Trump would be disinclined to moderate his original view on a subject, even if new evidence emerges.... This case combines a lot of the fault lines that lie beneath Trump's candidacy: divisions over race, an unwillingness to admit mistakes, his continued insistence on the centrality of crime concerns." CW: Presidential? Nope. ...
... Charles Pierce: "Do I have to point out how many ways this disqualifies Donald Trump from the position of decent human being, let alone from the position of president of the United States? There's the pure racism of the original ad. There's the pure racism of his still holding to the opinions expressed in the ad in the face of overwhelming scientific and empirical evidence. There's the know-nothing huffing at the legitimacy of the science used to exonerate the five men, which is reminiscent of the way he waves off the science of climate change and anything else that disturbs the fragile intellectual infrastructure of a career grifter." -- CW
Benjamin Wallace-Wells of the New Yorker views the story of Donald Trump's tax returns, released (in tiny part) by the New York Times, as a New York story, a story of real estate's loss of power to Wall Street technocrats, "the blacks," & a powerful newspaper that exposes his crooked deals. "If the Mitnick episode revealed anything about Trump, it was the direction of his narcissism, that he could take credit for an employee's expertise as if it were a condition of his own character." CW: Wallace-Wells uses a couple of literary references as metaphors, but he missed one that directly embodies his view of Trump: Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence, where the old-money real-estate moguls try to hang on while downtown banking becomes the new power center & a woman of questionable repute threatens their dynastic plans. They won the latter battle, but lost the war to the first.
Yahoo! News: "With just a little over a month until election day, Donald Trump has racked up zero major newspaper endorsements, a first for any major party nominee in American history. While newspaper endorsements don't necessarily change voters' minds, this year's barrage of anti-Trump endorsements could actually move the needle come November, experts say." -- CW
Meet Your Trump Supporters. Kurt Eichenwald of Newsweek on how Trump supporters have threatened him & other journalists, especially those who are Jewish (or even might be Jewish), female or black. "This is exceptional, a circumstance brought about by the gutter rants of Donald Trump and his refusal to condemn the racists, neo-Nazis and other deplorables who support him. That our country has reached this point, where the line between modern American political supporters and Hitler's brownshirts is becoming thinner by the day, is unacceptable. That GOP candidates have stood by and allowed this ugliness to flourish without aggressively condemning their candidate for what he has set loose, simply because they are seeking re-election or fear losing their jobs at the mid-terms, will stain the Republican Party for decades." -- CW
Other News & Views
Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "President Obama cast his ballot [in Chicago] Friday, joking with staff members of the Chicago Board of Elections about being 20 years younger than he is.' -- CW
Robert Bateman of Esquire on three US ships that are traveling, probably through Hurricane Matthew, to provide aid to Haiti. "Apply this as you see fit." CW: Alas, I have no doubt that some or perhaps a majority of the Marines on this mission will not see fit to apply their own heroism in a appropriate way to the political issues of the day. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "EpiPen-maker Mylan reached a $465 million settlement with the Justice Department to 'resolve questions that have been raised' about whether the Medicaid program overpaid for the lifesaving allergy injection, the company said in a release Friday afternoon. In recent weeks, many politicians have called for investigations into whether EpiPen was improperly classified in the Medicaid Drug Rebate program. Under the rebate program, the EpiPen has been classified as a 'non-innovator drug,' which means the company is required to pay only a 13 percent rebate. In contrast, brand name or drugs with a single source must pay a 23.1 percent rebate and an additional amount if price hikes occurred faster than inflation." -- CW
Way Beyond the Beltway
Peter Goodman of the New York Times: "For those blithely inclined toward the view that Britain would somehow find a way to sever its relationship with the European Union free of drama or financial consequences..., Friday was a sobering day of reckoning. As the British pound plunged some 6 percent against the American dollar in the span of two minutes in early trading in Asia, the markets offered a reminder that divorce tends to be messy, expensive and laced with uncertainties. It rarely ends happily.... More than anything, though, the precipitous drop seemed to attest to an increasingly unmistakable reality: Britain's vote to exit the European Union -- Brexit, in common parlance -- has put its commercial relationships with the world on uncertain and potentially perilous ground. That poses risks for the British economy, making its money less attractive to hold." ...
... CW: Here's another lesson: when voters base their "economic theories" on racism and/or isolationism, "it rarely ends happily."
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Reader Comments (30)
My favorite reader comment on the Times post about Trump's mouth-
"Make America Grope Again".
And BTW, I am not at all convinced that Trump's groping event actually happened. Just his ego on fire. But it's no big deal if Trump claims to have sex with a married women when he is married. And is soooo proud of it.
Do you think even one evangelical Christian will change their vote to the person who is still married to one person?
What a gift from Trump for the down ticket. All the GOPers are appalled, appalled I tell you. Haven't heard one of them, who hadn't already said they weren't voting for Trump, capitulate. What a bunch of gutless clowns who couldn't find a moral compass if they sat on one and twirled. Perfect opportunity to point out the huge lack of integrity displayed by Ryan, McConnell, et al. Can you really trust these people to replace your toilet paper role?
So trump's negotiating strategy has been exposed in its crudest terms: Do something outrageous, then have your way with your victim. If it doesn't work, walk away, hold a grudge, and find a new victim.
What's going to happen when he tries to grab Putin's pussy?
This grown-up 7th grader is really scary.
For some time, Mike Pence has reminded me of the West Wing show Florida governor who ran against Bartlet. His debate performance reinforced this impression. I don't know how to do links from my phone (I'm on the road now), BU search YouTube for "West Wing -Crime - Boy I don't know".
Hammm. I wonder whether if it's You Know Who's Waterloo? If this doesn't do it, then he's right: "I could shoot someone on the streets of New York city and it wouldn't make a difference."
So the conservative powers that be are playing with the idea of dumping Trump and promoting mild Mike at this late date? Wouldn't that be a kicker! Talk about a revolution––those 50% deplorables are gonna take to the streets.
Billy Bush was teamed up with Kit Hoover at Access Hollywood for quite a few years. He presented, thanks to Kit's influence, as Andy Hardy to her Judy Garland––clean cut and gee, whiz, a really fun kind of guy. The released video shows otherwise and appears that Bush was just another one of Donald's sycophants.
In the old days the word "Pig" would be the appropriate word to describe " the man who would be king" .
@Nisky: If Putin has a pussy then let's hope it's one that has four legs and lots of fur, otherwise, he be foolin us more than he's foolin us1
Hope these posts today mean that the CW is safe and sound. And her cat, too.
I'm really disturbed by the coverage of the latest revelations about the Orange POS. Pretty much every story I've read includes a sentence saying something along the lines of "this will do serious damage to Trump's ability to attract women voters." We see the same sort of sentence in every story about his racism, too.
Why only women voters? Why should African Americans or Hispanics be the only ones offended by racism?
The notion that only those who are the targets of racism or misogyny are harmed by it is a big part of why they persist.
The Trump tape won't make a bit of difference to his troglodyte minions who probably envy him being able to grope any woman he decides he wants to jump (what a man!). But if you listen to the actual audio, you'll hear a giggling monkey laughing obsequiously as Donaldo goes off on his tear about How to Treat Women.
This guffawing asshole is Bully Bush, nephew of a bunch of other Bush assholes, including Jebbie and The Decider. That Bush family has certainly done it's part in offering role models for character in American life, don't you think? Two started unnecessary wars, one used a comatose woman as a prop in his personal morality play to up his standing with the Bible bangers, another scammed tens of thousands of Americans out of their life savings to line his own pockets, and the grandfather made a bundle doing business with Hitler and wouldn't stop until Congress passed a fucking law telling him to cut the shit. And now the latest member to disgrace himself by giggling like a seventh grader at his hero, a bragging lout.
The fucking Addams Family of American politics. Confederate stalwarts.
Erratum.
Billy Bush is a cousin to the above named assholes, not a nephew. I guess in the Addams Family pecking order that would make him Cousin It.
The key piece here is that Trump had no problem admitting to a criminal offense. As I have said before, the laws that apply to you and me do not apply to Trump. He has absolutely no problem admitting to such actions. He is proud of the 'fact' that the law does not apply to him. This is not just about his behavior. It is about the mental illness that is the basis of his behavior.
@PD: trump will be surprised, Putin will be pissed, and the folks at NORAD will be praying their Commadore 64s are working that day.
This is a test to see if I've finally figured out how to post a link from my phone. If so, I'll share instructions for Nicky Guy and others.
Trump's non-apology apology came across as canned, scripted, 'teleprompted' words from the man who lays claim to having "the best words." He obviously, went off script in his finishing tirade on the Clintons. And, if you listen very carefully to the video, Mr. Sniffles appears still in need of a hanky or perhaps some Sudafed.
So much for the controlling efforts of his team. Lose! lose!
Trump boasts that he was a serial sex abuser. Most stories we've heard up till now were usually based on anonymous sources complaining that Trump had used demeaning language or fired a woman for not being busty enough or becoming "too fat." Will the tape embolden women to come forward, a la the Cosby (alleged ha ha) victims? And will some have the fortitude to do so before the election?
Trump's admission could snowball.
Marie
@Unwashed; Your link to the NY Times article worked. Looks like
a record for comments (over 3,000) to a Times article.
The trump is rude, crude and lewd, just what a lot of his supporters
cotton to.
@Forrest Morris: Talk about record-breaking, The Times does moderate comments so maybe even the count at 3,000 was limited. Later I happened to look again at David Fahrenthold's WaPo article I was stunned to see over 25,200 comments....that's likely some kind of record!
Hardly time to read them all, but my sense was outrage from most of them responding.
Earlier, Marvin wondered if Trump's admission of attacking a married woman and trying to "fuck her" a few months after marrying his third wife who was very possibly an illegal immigrant at the time would have any effect on evangelicals. I have an answer to that question from none other than Ralph Reed, former Religious Right wonder boy who long ago sold out to Mammon but still claims to hold high the cross.
"No"
According to Reed, on NPR this morning, those words do not in any way represent the Donald Trump, a decent God fearing American that he knows. He may have said those things but he didn't mean them and besides, it was a long time ago (and I could almost hear him thinking "and besides, after all he never did actually fuck that woman, so no harm, no foul"). Furthermore, he sniffed, he would have no problem handing over his daughter to work closely alongside the great man.
So, at least one evangelical is a self-serving hypocritical piece of shit who is about as Christian as the serial sex abuser, liar, cheat, and friend to murdering mobsters he's about to vote for.
Confederates truly are a debased and debauched lot.
Yes, it did! @NiskyGuy, apologies but my auto-correct feature re-mispelled your name despite my attempt to spell it properly. So back to a full-size device.
The process to create the hyperlink on a mobile device isn't much different than using a regular computer/laptop with keyboard and mouse.
Within the last week or two other commenters have rued not being able to "to break the code" to set up links in their posts. I rued, too, because I wasn't able to read their articles while on my mobile. At the time I thought, "Geez, you're so close. Only 15 characters. They look funny, but once you get the hang of it it's a piece of cake."
Those 15 characters are:
<
a
space
h
r
e
f
=
"
"
>
<
/
a
>
To start, open two windows in your browser (or tabs on your phone.) One window for RealityChex, the other for your source.
Go ahead and type your comment. Identify the word(s) you what to use as the link. Move your cursor to be in front of the first letter of the word(s). Type the following, omitting the asterisk that I put in to trick the computer:
<*a href="
Go to your other window for the source article. Select the text of the URL at the top of the window. Copy the text of the URL (Mouse: right-clink Copy, Keyboard: ctrl+c, Android device: press and hold your finger on the URL line on the screen, a box will pop up to give options, select Copy.)
Go back to RC and make sure your cursor is after the quotation mark. Paste the URL (Mouse: right-click Paste, Keyboard: ctrl+v, Android device: press and hold your finger in the comment area, a box will pop up to give options, select Paste) Type:
">
Move your cursor to the end of the word(s). Type, again no asterisk:
<*/a>
The end result is ...
<*a href="URL">word(s)<*/a>
...
Take a look at the URL text because sometimes it needs to be edited to change or remove some stuff. Look at the beginning of the URL, it should begin with:
http://www.
If it has an "m." or "mobile.", change it to "www."
Look at the end of the URL, sometimes a lot of junk is tacked on that isn't needed. Most URL's will end in ".html" or a maybe a slash. If you see a question mark midway in the URL, you can delete it and everything to the right. However, don't do this for links to YouTube videos.
When you think you're done, click on Preview Post. The funny stuff should have disappeared and your word(s) should be blue and underlined. Success!
If not, you may have made a simple typo such as:
two spaces between a and h
an apostrophe instead of a quotation mark
a missing quotation mark
Give it a try. I know you can do it!
Regarding those many comments to the articles about Trump's latest outrage (there's at least three or four every week), I'm curious as to how many are from loyal goose stepping Heil Trumpers (but not curious enough to go look myself, not wanting my opinion of fellow members of the species to descend further than it already has).
I'm betting, as there are attached to every single item adumbrating the many facts incontrovertibly proving Trump's manifest unworthiness, a shit storm of misspelled rants are peppered through the list accusing the media, and liberals, and pesky feminists, and minorities, and BLM supporters, and so on down to cute stuffed animals, of unfairly attacking their glorious leader for no good reason other than jealousy and hatred and, of course, a lack of patriotism.
So, no thanks, I can smell the swamp from here. No need to pull on the hazmat suit to wade through TrumpLand's fetid valleys and salted fields.
@Unwashed: Thanks. You're right about the junk that follows "html". Media outlets usually use these extensions to track how readers have accessed the stories: front-page, where on the front-page, mobile device, search engine, aggregator, etc. However, quite a few outlets -- Politico, ABC News, & as you mentioned, YouTube -- make the post-html code an integral part of the URL. I always go back & clean the junk code out of my pages when time allows (the NYT is the worst), but for sources I don't use regularly, I have to test to find out if the extension code is necessary to execute the link.
Marie
MSNBC just read a statement from Pence. The most important part " "I can't defend" his remarks. Kelly Ayotte most assuredly needs the profile in courage and superior judgement award. Just a few days ago named Trump as a role model for her children. Craven asswipe.
Best chance for down ticket Democrats we'll likely ever see. The momentum must be carried into 2018.
I'm betting all of these hollow "denunciations" from Republicans are going to infuriate their führer. I'm assuming he's going to direct a significant amount of time in these last precious weeks directing his destructive blow hole towards his own "allies" of the GOP, demanding they kneel and kiss the ring, maybe submitting to some spanking or "crotch-grabbing" as he's apparently keen to do.
With the millions of Trumpbots cheering him on, he'd never step down now. He'll have to be physically removed, à la statute of Saddam Hussein.
Oh! commenters can be so wickedly awesome! Take for example someone posting as vacohee on this WaPo article by Robert Costa:
"Trump's vow" to continue in the race:
"I’ve never withdrawn in my life."
Clearly, his father should have. "
Paul Ryan sez "... women are to be championed and revered ... "
Talk about an overreaction. How about just "respected as persons?"
"Championed and revered" allows them to still be "other". So you don't actually have to respect them as people. Or pay them the same as men. Or pay attention to their health care concerns.
@Unwashed: Thank you for the instructions. I copied and emailed them to myself, to read after I'm not working 70 hour weeks.
Trump has never withdrawn from anything in his life?
What does he think filing bankruptcy is?
So, as it has many times thus far, the calculus in this race has changed yet again, especially for the Confederate quislings quivering and quaking in the wake of another in a loooooong line of wantonness from their glorious leader, especially for dishonorable, conniving rusty douche clamps like McConnell and Ryan, who, one would think, might be reconsidering their support for this prick. But...
These are the cheap, self-serving frauds who thought they could get away with looking the other way (I never heard the debate, I was working out...) while Trump, with Putin's cock in his mouth, ripped a Gold Star mother and her hero son, described combat veterans suffering from PTSD as not tough enough, bragged about not paying any taxes since OJ was on trial, refused to apologize for calling women pigs and dogs, referred to Mexicans as rapists and murderers, declared that women who had an abortion needed to be punished, sent his louche, loser, Satan spawns, Junior and Little Dracula (thanks Marie!), out to sidle up to Nazis and white supremacists, called for Hillary Clinton to be assassinated, wondered what the problem would be for countries like North Korea to get their hands on nuclear weapons, begged Putin to continue to hack into Democratic databases to help him beat Hillary, refused to take the idea of nuking Europe off the table, promised to pull out of NATO and the UN, thinks there are twelve articles in the Constitution and believes the president is empowered to unilaterally add or delete Constitutional amendments, wants to spend $25-30 billion building a gigantic wall and even more to round up millions of illegal immigrants, broke the law by using his non-profit "foundation" to pay his legal bills, thinks he can "renegotiate" the national debt, or perhaps not pay it at all, spent years whipping up racists with his birther conspiracy theories and is now warning the StormTrumpers that the only way he loses if "they" cheat, prompting unconscionable Trumpbots like Kentucky 'bagger governor Matt Bevin to scream that if Hillary wins, people will have to be murdered.
A single one of any of these would be enough to rock any other campaign to its core. Two would be almost impossible to survive, and three would be instant death. But it took ALL of the outrages listed and many more before just a FEW of the jackals and moral midgets on the right decided that to say "Oooh! Talking about grabbing pussy isn't very nice, is it?"
And neither Ryan nor McConnell are yet willing to state that this doltish, criminal, sexual predator, disgusting racist, mobster loving asshole is not qualified to be president.
Quislings of a higher order. The lesser quislings, like Kelly Ayotte (what a fucking piece of work), have only within the last few days decided that a crotch grabbing presidential candidate might not be the best role model for little Timmy and Suzy.
The entire party is defunct and debased. It is wholly without merit or the vaguest hint of a positive characteristic sufficient to separate it from a long line of historical shell games and cynical shakedowns.
And now they have their perfect archetype and plenty have decided that he is still their...thing.
'I’d never withdraw. I’ve never withdrawn in my life,'
To be sure . . .
While the woman screams "Stop!"
Or cries out, "I'm not on any birth control!".
It's the manly thing to (not) do.
for Mac users to imbed a link, just create a little applescript to copy and paste the html tags; put the script icon on the menu bar or do a hot key. Then just cut and paste the url and text. There should be an equivalent in Windows, but I don't go there. Very often.
I want to add my voice to the choir. I too am disgusted by the craven hypocrisy of trumpoids. What we are seeing and hearing has been this claptrap's 'character' for at least 60 years. When a person shows you what they are, believe them. No one is shocked, only pretending. Anyone who is only now withdrawing support (looking' at you McCain) is worse than the candidate, who is at least authentic scum in everything it does and says. The people who tried to ride the whirlwind while looking the other way are finding there is no other way to look. Tough. They are infected for life. Any one of the appalling positions listed by Ak above should have sunk any presidential run in any decent society.
I consider the Dailykos article I linked the other day about the 'model' agencies trafficking in underage girls to be much worse, and I hope will lead the FBI to investigate. I hope this presidential run will be such a mistake for the claptrap family and business, and end in jail time for at least one of them.
The Cons should not be allowed to replace a candidate at this stage because of a lack of scrutiny of a late entrant.
If the latest docudump on HRC is the best (worst) the Russian arm of the RNC can find, she's the cleanest candidate ever. Having trawled through every iota in her and Bill's lives, this is it?