The Commentariat -- November 2, 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "President Trump disparaged Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia, in ambiguous and unusually personal terms on Thursday, warning that 'her past' left her 'not qualified to be the governor.' Mr. Trump did not elaborate and offered no evidence for his assertion, which seemed to be a potential preview of the political message he will deliver on Sunday, two days ahead of the election, at a Georgia rally for Brian Kemp, Ms. Abrams's Republican rival. But the decision of the president, who has been criticized for inflammatory language, to invoke Ms. Abrams's background so broadly was a distinct escalation in his attacks on her bid to become the first black woman to be elected governor in the United States. Ms. Abrams, a former Democratic leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, has staked out an array of liberal positions during her campaign, but her tenure in the Legislature has drawn measured praise from the Republicans who led the State Capitol."
Trump's Remarks Used to Justify Mass Murder. Dionne Searcey & Emmanuel Akinwotu of the New York Times: "The Nigerian Army, part of a military criticized for rampant human rights abuses, on Friday used the words of President Trump to justify its fatal shootings of rock-throwing protesters. Soldiers opened fire this past Monday on a march of about 1,000 Islamic Shia activists who had been blocking traffic in the capital, Abuja. Videos circulated on social media showed several protesters hurling rocks at the heavily armed soldiers who then shot fleeing protesters in the back. The Nigerian military said three protesters were killed but the toll appears to have been much higher. Amnesty International as well as leaders of the protest said more than 40 people were killed at the march and two other smaller marches, with more than 100 wounded by bullets. A Reuters reporter counted 20 bodies at the main march.... The Army's official Twitter account posted a video, 'Please Watch and Make Your Deductions,' showing Mr. Trump's anti-migrant speech on Thursday in which he said rocks would be considered firearms if thrown toward the American military at the nation's borders.... 'We're not going to put up with that,' Mr. Trump said in the clip. 'They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back.'"
Heather Long of the Washington Post: "The big news Friday is that wages are growing above 3 percent for the first time since 2009. It's a significant milestone after years of sluggish wage growth and most economists say workers are likely to see strong gains for the foreseeable future. But the good news comes with two caveats. The first is that the 3.1 percent annual wage growth figure the Labor Department reported Friday is slightly inflated because of some hurricane effects.... The second caveat is that while wage growth is getting better, it's still well below the norm.... Corporate profits, meanwhile, are at an all-time high.... Corporate tax cuts have enabled companies to boost profitability, many analysts and executives say. But companies are spending a lot of their extra cash on stock buybacks and dividends, leaving only a little extra for workers."
Patrick Wilson of the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch: "John W. Warner, a Republican who represented Virginia in the U.S. Senate for 30 years, endorsed Democrat Abigail Spanberger in her challenge to Republican Rep. Dave Brat in a close House race that has implications for control of the chamber. Warner's endorsement was the second time this week that the second longest-serving senator in Virginia history crossed the aisle in an endorsement. Earlier, he announced support for Democrat Leslie Cockburn in the 5th U.S. House District race against Republican Denver Riggleman to succeed Rep. Tom Garrett, a Republican who did not seek re-election. Spanberger, a former CIA officer, is challenging Brat in the 7th District, which includes parts of Chesterfield and Henrico counties.... Warner endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., in the 2016 presidential election. He has endorsed Kaine in his race this year against Republican Corey Stewart. In 2017, Warner backed Republican Ed Gillespie for governor."
Mass Murderer & Bomb Mailer Are Inconvenient. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday described the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suspect and the man accused of mailing pipe bombs to prominent Democrats as a pair of 'maniacs' whose actions halted Republican momentum ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections. 'We did have two maniacs stop a momentum that was incredible, because for seven days nobody talked about the elections,' Trump aid at a Missouri campaign rally. 'It stopped a tremendous momentum.'... The president had previously lamented that the mailed bombs had stolen headlines away from the GOP so close to the midterms."
David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "When President Trump issues an election-time order to send up to 15,000 troops to confront what many experts say is a nonexistent threat on the U.S.-Mexico border, what should Defense Secretary Jim Mattis do about it? Mattis's answer, so far, has been to support the president and mostly keep his mouth shut. He gruffly batted back a reporter's question Wednesday about whether Trump's troop deployment order was a political stunt by saying, 'We don't do stunts in this department.' Unfortunately, some of Mattis's colleagues fear he's doing just that in implicitly backing Trump's incendiary talk of an immigrant 'invasion' that requires sending active-duty troops. Watching Mattis walk the Trump tightrope is agonizing. For many Americans, the retired Marine four-star general is the model of a stand-up guy -- the sort of independent, experienced leader who can steady the nation in a time of division. But in dealing with Trump, Mattis often takes a seat and quietly accommodates the president's erratic and divisive rhetoric -- evidently believing that it's better to hold fire and work from inside to sustain sensible policies."
*****
A Lot of People Say ... How Trump Stokes Conspiracy Theories, with Media Assists. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump suggested Wednesday that there might be truth to an unfounded conspiracy theory that philanthropist and Democratic megadonor George Soros is funding a caravan of Central American migrants, telling reporters that he 'wouldn't be surprised' if that is the case. As he left the White House, Trump was asked whether he thinks somebody is funding the migrant caravan that is slowly making its way through Mexico toward the U.S. border. 'I wouldn't be surprised, yeah. I wouldn't be surprised,' Trump responded. Asked whether the funder could be Soros, Trump said: 'I don't know who, but I wouldn't be surprised. A lot of people say yes.'" ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I'm not sure how useful it is for reporters to goad Trump into saying stupid, bigoted stuff on the record, but this does seem to be a game the White House press corps likes to play. Next question: Are white European Christians superior to people of other backgrounds? ...
... Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "... in the lead-up to the midterm elections, President Trump issued a warning to the migrant caravan headed toward the United States. His speech was filled with inaccurate claims." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yesterday, anchors at CNN & MSNBC were complaining that the White House billed the speech as a policy initiative, but it was nothing more than a political harangue. If the speech had been a real policy speech by a real president, White House & other administration experts would have vetted it carefully, & it would have contained no outright misstatements of fact. In the interest of accuracy, it is necessary to call the current occupant of the White House "the President*" and not "the President." ...
... Ted Hesson, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump announced Thursday that the U.S. military would treat any rocks or stones being thrown by asylum-seeking migrants slowly heading toward the U.S.-Mexico border as firearms.... In his remarks, Trump said that 'there's not much difference' between a firearm and getting hit in the face with a rock. 'They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back,' the president said. 'We'll consider -- and I told them -- consider it a rifle. When they throw rocks like they did at the Mexico military and police, I say consider it a rifle.'... Trump's comments ... [raise] questions about the possibility for violent confrontation between migrants and troops or Border Patrol agents.... Under existing rules of engagement, deployed troops should use deadly force only 'when there is a reasonable belief' the subject 'poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm.' U.S. Customs and Border Protection's use-of-force handbook offers similar guidance.... Trump also said Thursday that the administration would seek to detain all migrants arrested at the border, including families and asylum seekers. To accomplish that, he said, the troops would build tent cities on the border." See safari's comment below on rocks as rifles. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Looks as if there's a better chance that the troops will be less engaged with stone-throwing Hondurans than with armed right-wing American militia boys:
... James LaPorta & Chantal Da Silva of Newsweek: "As ... Donald Trump directs thousands of troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in a show of military force against an approaching caravan of migrants from Central America, preliminary intelligence assessments are preparing for encounters with a litany of groups from unregulated militias to transcontinental criminal organizations, according to documents obtained by Newsweek.... 'Estimated 200 unregulated armed militia members currently operating along the southwest border. Reported incidents of unregulated militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments. They operate under the guise of citizen patrols supporting CBP [Customs and Border Protection] primarily between POEs [Points of Entry],' according to the documents." ...
... The More Often Trump Speaks, the More Often He Lies. Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "In the first nine months of his presidency, Trump made 1,318 false or misleading claims, an average of five a day. But in the seven weeks leading up the midterm elections, the president made 1,419 false or misleading claims -- an average of 30 a day.... The flood of presidential misinformation has picked up dramatically as the president has barnstormed across the country, holding rallies with his supporters. Each of those rallies usually yields 35 to 45 suspect claims. But the president often has tacked on interviews with local media (in which he repeats the same false statements) and gaggles with the White House press corps before and after his trips.... Put another way: September was the second-biggest month of the Trump presidency, with 599 false and misleading claims. But that paled next to October, with almost double: 1,104 claims, not counting Oct. 31."
This Russia Thing, Ctd.
Sharon LaFraniere, et al., of the New York Times: An October 2016 e-mail exchange between Steve Bannon and Roger Stone about remarks by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange "underscores how Mr. Stone presented himself to Trump campaign officials: as a conduit of inside information from WikiLeaks, Russia's chosen repository for documents hacked from Democratic computers. Mr. Bannon and two other former senior campaign officials have detailed to prosecutors for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, how Mr. Stone created that impression.... One of them told investigators that Mr. Stone not only seemed to predict WikiLeaks's actions, but that he also took credit afterward for the timing of its disclosures that damaged Hillary Clinton's candidacy. But at the same time, the top tier of Mr. Trump's campaign was deeply skeptical of Mr. Stone.... Still, Mr. Bannon's October 2016 email correspondence shows that the perception that Mr. Stone knew what WikiLeaks had in store for Mrs. Clinton spread to the highest levels of the Trump campaign. No evidence has emerged that Mr. Trump or his advisers alerted the authorities." ...
... Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "What is still not clear is how much Trump campaign advisers knew about the [Russian] hacks at the time -- a subject of the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III -- or the extent of their interactions with far-right figures eager to undermine Mrs. Clinton. Emails obtained by The New York Times provide new insight into those connections, as well as efforts by Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime informal adviser to President Trump and political operative, to seek funding through the campaign for his projects aimed at hurting Mrs. Clinton." Here are copies of the cache of e-mails the Times obtained. ...
... Rosalind Helderman & Manuel Roig-Franzia of the Washington Post: "Roger Stone ... sent an email to Trump's chief campaign strategist in October 2016 that implied that he had information about WikiLeaks's plans to release material that would be damaging to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. In an email to Stephen K. Bannon on Oct. 4 -- days before WikiLeaks began releasing emails hacked from the account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta -- Stone said that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange ... would nevertheless be releasing 'a load every week going forward.'... [Stone's] newly revealed exchange with Bannon undercuts Stone's insistence this week that he never communicated with Trump campaign officials about WikiLeaks. 'There are no such communications, and if Bannon says there are he would be dissembling,' Stone told The Washington Post, which reported Tuesday that Bannon had been asked about Stone's interactions with the campaign in a recent interview with the Mueller team." ...
... Jeet Heer: "Roger Stone's defense in Russian investigation is that he's a notorious liar."
Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "A press conference intended to publicize sexual assault claims against Special Counsel Robert Mueller collapsed in spectacular fashion on Thursday, after the pro-Trump operatives behind the event failed to demonstrate a grasp of even basic details about their accuser or explain why they had repeatedly lied about their project.... Throughout their 45-minute press conference, the two men repeatedly contradicted themselves and each other, giving cryptic non-answers that convinced approximately zero people in attendance that their allegations were anywhere close to the truth.... After initially promising that the accuser, a fashion designer named Carolyne Cass, would appear alongside them, [Jack] Burkman and [Jacob] Wohl appeared to changed their minds by the time reporters assembled inside the dimly lit Holiday Inn in Rossyln, Virginia.... Without an in-person accuser, Wohl and Burkman instead offered a signed affidavit from her that claimed Mueller raped her in a New York hotel room on August 2, 2010.... Despite their claim of an exhaustive investigation of the allegations, Wohl and Burkman failed to know how to spell the accuser's name."
Trump Wags Wall Street. Martin Ferrer of the Guardian: "Asian shares have surged on reports that Donald Trump wants to reach an agreement with Chinese president Xi Jinping about the trade dispute that has dogged markets for months.... Bloomberg later reported that the phone call -- in which Trump and Xi both expressed optimism about resolving their bitter trade disputes -- prompted Trump to ask officials to begin drafting potential terms.... The reports lit a fire under stock markets[.]" --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd say Trump was hoping the headline was, "Trump Saves Market. Only He Can Do It. Go, GOP!" ...
... Bloomberg's story, by Jenny Leonard & others, is here. Mrs. McC: This, combined with the excellent October jobs report, could seal the midterm deal for Republicans -- if Trump's "The Brown Folks Are Coming, the Brown Folks Are Coming" doesn't drown out good economic news.
Kaitlan Collins, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump has told advisers that Heather Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman, is his leading choice to become US ambassador to the United Nations and he could offer the post as soon as this week, two sources familiar with his pick told CNN. If named Nauert, who met with Trump Monday, would leave her role at the State Department to take over from Nikki Haley, who surprised White House officials last month when she announced her decision to step down at the end of the year. People close to the President cautioned that his pick is not final until it is formally announced.... Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Trump confirmed that Nauert is 'under very serious consideration' to become the next US ambassador to the UN.... Nauert, who came to government from Fox News, served as State Department spokesman for both Rex Tillerson and strong>Mike Pompeo but has enjoyed a closer relationship with Trump's second secretary of state than she did Tillerson.... Her elevation to a top diplomatic role underscores the importance Trump has placed on having his top aides also serve as television surrogates.... Still, as a diplomat she lacks experience." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: No problem. When Trump offered Nikki Haley the job, she protested, "I don't even know what the UN does." Trump sees no reason whatsoever for a government official to have any related professional expertise Ben Carson Rick Perry. The main qualification is that they look the parts. You don't have to think too hard to see why Trump picked Haley, Carson & Perry (with glasses) for their respective jobs, and why President Strangelove now may choose a woman who looks ever-so-Aryan to be his U.N. ambassador.
Some Things Are Both Unbelievable AND Predictable. Jesus Rodriguez of Politico: "White House national security adviser John Bolton on Thursday praised Jair Bolsonaro, the bombastic, far-right nationalist who triumphed in Brazil's presidential election over the weekend, calling him a 'like-minded' partner whose ascent should be seen as a welcome development in the region. In a speech on U.S. policy toward Latin America, Bolton said Bolsonaro could be a partner in fighting against leftist leaders who sow instability in the region. He slammed socialist leaders in three countries -- Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua -- as the 'troika of tyranny.'"
Isaac Arnsdorf of ProPublica: "A $10 billion technology upgrade championed by Jared Kushner and [a trio of] Mar-a-Lago [Friends of Trump] is at risk of failing the VA's 7 million patients. The VA gave a software company a $10 billion no-bid contract to replace the agency's records system. The new system is supposed to synchronize with data from other providers...." [Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, in Congressional testimony, played down the involvement of the Mar-a-Lago boys, even though it was the trio's "top focus.... But the program they backed is still hurtling forward -- and not going smoothly. A recent progress report by the software company rated the program's alert level as 'yellow trending towards red.'... The Mar-a-Lago Crowd and the White House frustrated efforts to hire a qualified leader to run the project, according to interviews. The people now in charge have no experience in health care. They have gone against expert advice.... The VA justified the no-bid contract on the basis that it would create 'seamless care' for veterans...." --s
Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House is growing increasingly concerned about allegations of misconduct against Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, according to two senior administration officials, and President Trump has asked aides for more information about a Montana land deal under scrutiny by the Justice Department. Trump told his aides that he is afraid Zinke has broken rules while serving as the interior secretary and is concerned about the Justice Department referral, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.... No decision about Zinke's tenure has been made, the officials said. But the shift within the West Wing highlights the extent to which the interior secretary's standing has slipped in recent months." Mrs. McC: The very premise that Trump is concerned about ethics is sort of hilarious. No doubt Trump has some other reason or reasons to consider showing Zinke the door.
Azeen Ghorayshi of BuzzFeed: "An open letter that denounces attempts to define gender as a binary trait based on anatomy or genetic tests has gathered signatures from more than 1,600 scientists. The letter, which includes the signatures of eight Nobel laureates, was written in response to a memo drafted in spring of 2017 by the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the New York Times. The memo reportedly urged government agencies to adopt a legal definition of sex 'on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.'... The memo also reportedly stated that any disputes over a person's sex would be clarified using genetic testing, a claim that scientists say is unscientific and unethical. The Trump administration has not confirmed the memo or issued any statement -- or proposed regulation -- that adopts the views in the memo. The report incited much debate on Twitter, and today more than 50 companies, including Apple, Google, and Facebook, released a letter condemning it. It also prompted 22 scientists to put together an opposition letter, addressed to 'our elected representatives.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm sorry, sciency people. Your life's work is meaningless, and the Trump administration would be foolish to consider it. You see, their Dear Leader has "a natural instinct for science" and doesn't need to be bothered with your averred expertise, much less common sense & decency.
Doug Stanglin & John Bacon of USA Today: "Wearing a red jumpsuit and a bandage on his left arm, the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting rampage that left 11 people dead pleaded not guilty Thursday in a brief arraignment in federal court where prosecutors emphasized he faces the possibility of the death penalty." Mrs. McC: Evidently that old white boy craves the spotlight of a trial to further spread his message of hate & murder. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Meet Your Elected GOP Official. John Bowden of the Hill: "The FBI says it's investigating a Washington state Republican [Rep. Matt Shea] who distributed a manifesto calling for 'war' against enemies of the Christian religion. The document, a four-page explanation of how to establish Christian law through armed struggle, calls for the end of same-sex marriage, abortion, and the death of all non-Christian males in the U.S. if religious law is not upheld. 'If they do not yield -- kill all males,' the document reads. FBI representatives told local NBC affiliate KHQ 6 that it is investigating the document, which was reported to to the bureau by Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who told the news station that he felt the post was dangerous. 'The document Mr. Shea wrote is not a Sunday school project or an academic study,' Knezovich added to the Washington Spokesman-Review. 'It is a "how to" manual consistent with the ideology and operating philosophy of the Christian Identity/Aryan Nations movement and the Redoubt movement of the 1990s.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's a kicker: Shea is running for re-election. "A spokeswoman for the Northwest Credit Union Association told Spokane Public Radio that the group had requested the return of a $1,000 donation to Shea's campaign." I'd like to know why the hell a local credit union was donating to a campaign for a guy like Shea in the first place. ...
... The Seattle Times has Shea's document here, with a related story by Chad Sokol, well-worth reading in its entirety.
$$$ One More Means of Disenfranchisement. Danielle Lang & Thea Sebastian in a New York Times op-ed: "... this country's felony laws frequently block people from full participation in our society after they've served time by denying them the right to vote. Those who have completed their sentences are all too often prevented from casting ballots simply because they have unpaid court fines and fees. In seven states --- Arkansas, Arizona, Alabama, Connecticut, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida -- laws explicitly prohibit people who owe court debt from voting. In other states -- such as North Carolina, New Mexico and Wisconsin -- in order to regain the vote, people must complete parole or probation, which often requires paying excessive fines and fees.... Regardless of the stated goal of this policy, the effects are clear: Wealthy people can pay these fees and vote immediately, while poor people could spend the rest of their lives in a cycle of debt that denies them the ability to cast a ballot.... Nationally, about 10 million people owe over $50 billion in debt associated with the criminal justice system. Worse, this money is generally being demanded from people who are unlikely to be able to pay it."
Election 2018
The Party of Liars. Paul Krugman: "... at this point the G.O.P.'s campaign message consists of nothing but lies; it's hard to think of a single true thing Republicans are running on. And yes, it's a Republican problem (and it's not just Donald Trump). Democrats aren't saints, but they campaign mostly on real issues, and generally do, in fact, stand for more or less what they claim to stand for. Republicans don't. And the total dishonesty of Republican electioneering should itself be a decisive political issue, because at this point it defines the party's character.... It is now impossible to have intellectual integrity and a conscience while remaining a Republican in good standing." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's assertion that a horde of Middle Eastern terrorists & Central American gang members is about to breach our Southern border unless American soldiers shoot them all dead is of course the Big Lie of the Election Season. But what Democrats, liberals & other sane people forget is that the Big Lie is metaphorically true. That is, old white Republicans' existential fear that "others" will take over the White Man's Country is demographically accurate. White men, by various means, still control the levers of business & government, but that is far less true today than it was 50 years ago & far less true than it will be 50 years from now. The U.S.'s "multi-cultural" identity will not always be limited to Mardi Gras & Cinco de Mayo celebrations. That terrifies a lot of white people to the extent that a "threat" like a few thousand needy asylum-seekers represents or symbolizes the end of American life as they know it, even though the "threat" itself is bogus. One of the cowering, terrified white people, BTW, is the President*. ...
... Philip Rucker & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: In the lead-up to the election, Trump has gone all-racist, and many GOP candidates are following suit. ...
... Michael Shear & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "... with polls showing Democrats ahead in many critical House races, Mr. Trump is using presidential brute force to all but take over the campaign communications strategies for Republican candidates across the country. In tweets, rally speeches, interviews, campaign ads and off-the-cuff remarks to reporters, the president has made immigrants the singular object of his attention.... Mr. Trump is betting that a relentless focus on the threat he envisions from south-of-the-border immigrants, combined with his repeated assertion that Democrats are to blame for letting them into the country, will energize conservative supporters.... On Wednesday afternoon, he tweeted out a 53-second, expletive-filled video that features immigrants charged with violent crimes and images of a throng of brown-skinned men breaching a barrier and running forward. The president's message was clear: Immigrants will kill you and the Democrats are to blame.... The immigration video provoked such outrage that it spawned a flood of news coverage -- or, in the parlance of political consultants, 'earned media,' meaning the Mr. Trump did not have to spend any money to get public attention for it." ...
... William Saletan of Slate: "When you review Trump's record in its entirety, there's no question what's behind his new [incendiary] video [ad]. The pattern that runs through his political career isn't national security, public safety, or respect for the rule of law. It's exploitation of fear of Latinos. The exploitation goes beyond immigration. It extends to religious prejudice (in the case of [Ted] Cruz) and dual loyalty (in the cases of [federal judge Gonzalo Curiel and Columba Bush). So don't run away from this video. Watch it. It was designed to scare you into voting, and it should. It will show you a villain worthy of fear. But that villain isn't Bracamontes, who's locked up on death row. It's the president who goes around our country stoking hatred and violence. Republicans let that president into our White House. Republicans let him stay. On Tuesday, you can vote them out." --s ...
... As Sam Stanton of the Sacramento Bee lays out, "the president's claim [in the racist ad] that 'Democrats let [cop-killer Luis Bracamontes] into our country' is not entirely accurate, and neither is the claim that 'Democrats let him stay.'" Say, one of the people who let Bracamontes stay was, oddly enough, noted racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio: "Records in Arizona show [Bracamontes] was arrested on drug charges again in Phoenix in 1998, then released 'for reasons unknown' by Arpaio's office. Arpaio is a Republican." Mrs. McC: Yeah, and Joe is also the first guy Trump thought should get a big ole pardon. You may detect an ironical understory here, but it's kinda just more of the same: Trump & Republicans do stupid, terrible and/or unpopular things, then blame Democrats. ...
... ** Amanda Marcotte in Salon: "Republicans have nothing to offer voters. That's the main takeaway from these last days of the election season, when the final push -- led by Donald Trump and Fox News -- to get Republican voters to the polls isn't focused on policies or campaign promises, but purely on anger, spite and fear.... On Wednesday, the Republicans released an ad -- tweeted out immediately by Trump -- that's so breathtakingly racist that even CNN was willing to avoid euphemisms ... and simply ran a headline that read, 'Trump shocks with racist new ad days before midterms.'... Literally, the only reason to compare [Luis Bracamontes] to the people in the caravan -- who are largely from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador rather than Mexico... -- is a belief that all Latinos are the same.... The GOP is trying to convince white voters to show up [at the polls] ... to demonstrate their allegiance to white supremacy." Emphasis added. ...
... You don't have to take it from Marcotte. Let's Ask Bob Corker. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Republicans are using news of a migrant caravan to try to motivate GOP voters ahead of next week's midterm elections, with the party hammering immigration in the final days before voters cast ballots. 'We all know what's happening. It's all about revving up the base, using fear to stimulate people to come out at the polls,' Corker told reporters in Nashville on Wednesday. Corker ... recalled how a friend recently asked him if he thought it was being funded by a wealthy Democratic donor. 'I said, are you kidding me? If anybody's funding it, it's some Republican donor, because it has obviously turned into an election issue that has benefited the Republican side,' Corker said." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "I assume ... that Donald Trump is hoping his immigration demagoguery will trigger some kind of incident. That' why he keeps amping things up. He wants something, anything, to happen before November 6 that might scare suburban housewives. Even a modest confrontation involving undocumented workers would probably be worth a point or two at the ballot box. Keep it cool, everyone. And if you can, make sure everyone else does too." --s ...
... Eric Levitz: "... the suggestion that Trump is reviving a brand of racial demagoguery that his party abandoned in 1988 [following outrage over the Willie Horton ad] is plainly untrue. In reality, the president's web video probably isn't the most 'racially charged' Republican ad of the last three months, let alone the past three decades. In September, Republican congressman Duncan Hunter released an ad that claims his Democratic rival is working to 'infiltrate Congress' on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood, and is, therefore, a 'security risk.'... In upstate New York, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has aired multiple commercials attacking an African-American House candidate for having once been a rap musician.... (Indicted) Republican congressman Chris Collins is airing an ad that simply features his Democratic rival Nate McMurray speaking Korean for 30 seconds, while bars of text make unsubstantiated claims insinuating that McMurray's first loyalty is to China.... In many respects, the United States is a less racially intolerant country than it was 30 years ago.... But America ... is (for now) governed by the Republican Party. And over the past three decades, the arc of the GOP's history has bent toward unashamed racist fearmongering."
Michael Tomasky of The Daily Beast: "It's a regular worry of mine that future students of this period who read mainstream journalism won't begin to grasp the full scope of the madness, mendacity, and bottomless gall of the president and his enablers.... We're not doing enough because it's impossible to keep up.... Still, I'd like to step back here and tell future students of this period that the 2018 midterm campaigns are the most dishonest and racist in modern American history on the Republican side. The racism now on public display from Republicans is raw sewage.... [I]t's also the most dishonest because Trump and Republican candidates for Congress are lying more rancidly about health care than I've ever seen either party lie about a single issue in the last 40 years.... If this campaign isn't punished, we really are not the country we thought we were."
Ryan Grim & Briahna Gray of The Intercept: "The Democratic Party has told anybody who'll listen that it sees its path back to power in the House running through so-called Whole Foods districts populated by college-educated white voters who are turned off by the GOP's more explicit turn toward bigotry in recent years.... Elsewhere, Democrats are hoping to win back the more working-class districts that went for Barack Obama in 2012 and then flipped to Trump in 2016.... But [Virginia Democratic candidate Leslie] Cockburn and a host of progressive populists around the country are looking to take it a step further.... They're running values-driven campaigns that take aim at the establishments of both parties, and the result shows a surprising number of close races in districts that national Democrats have long written off. Rural America, this wave of candidates thinks, is ready for a realignment." --s
Florida. Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "In one of South Florida's congressional districts, the party machine swept in to prop up a two-term incumbent by painting his opponent as a puppet of fossil fuel interests and 'dirty coal money.' The only catch? The incumbent is Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo and the party apparatus is the National Republican Congressional Committee, whose coffers this cycle contain nearly $7 million in donations from the oil and gas industry.... Curbelo has received more than $192,000 from energy and natural resource firms, in comparison to the less than $5,000 that [his Democratic opponent Debbie] Mucarsel-Powell has received from the same sector of donors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics." --s
Georgia. Greg Bluestein & Tamar Hallarman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The race for Georgia governor is as close as it's ever been according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Channel 2 Action News poll released Thursday that heightens the possibility of a December runoff between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp. The poll, conducted by the University of Georgia's School of Public and International Affairs, has Abrams at 46.9 percent and Kemp at 46.7 percent, a statistical tie that's within the poll's margin of error of 3 percentage points. It's the third AJC/Channel 2 poll that shows the nationally watched contest is too close to call, and it mirrors other recent surveys that point to a Dec. 4 runoff if neither candidate gets the majority vote needed. Much depends on the performance of Libertarian Ted Metz, who tallies 1.6 percent of the vote, and roughly 5 percent of undecided voters."
Iowa. Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "Please do not ask Rep. Steve King (R-IA) about being a white supremacist. Even though the Iowa Republican is in the closest race of his 15 years in Congress, King was not able to maintain civility when asked about his very long history of embracing and endorsing white supremacy on Thursday.... At an event in Des Moines, King called for an unidentified man to be removed after the latter calmly asked him about the similarities between his past racist comments and the rhetoric that reportedly inspired last weekend;s massacre of 11 people.... King erupted in a temper tantrum that was posted on Twitter by the local news site Iowa Starting Line[.]" [With video] --s
North Dakota. Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) won her 2012 race by less than 3,000 votes -- in no small part due to support from Native Americans. Not long thereafter, North Dakota's Republican legislature passed a law that effectively strips many of these Native Americans of their voting rights. Yet, according to an order handed down by a federal judge on Thursday, this voter suppression law cannot be challenged prior to next week's election." --safari: Millhiser goes on to explain how the Supreme Court and partisan judges doomed N.D. Native American voters.
Washington State. Kate Aronoff of The Intercept: "BP has been bullish about putting a price on carbon. The oil giant was one of six companies to call on governments around the world to adopt a global price on carbon in the lead-up to the Paris climate talks in 2015.... So why is BP spending $13 million to defeat a measure to set a carbon price in Washington state?... This would be the first statewide carbon tax-like measure in the country and a bellwether for climate policy nationwide, flanked with potential wins on other climate-focused ballot initiatives in Arizona (to increase the state's renewable portfolio standard) and Nevada (to prohibit electric utility monopolies).... Overall, the oil industry has spent over $28 million to stop [Washington state's] I-1631 -- making it the most expensive Washington statewide ballot initiative in history -- and is blanketing airwaves with ads urging voters to reject it. " --s
Mark Olalde of Mother Jones: "Voters in six Western states -- Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nevada and Washington -- will head to the polls Nov. 6 with the chance to decide on hotly contested, statewide ballot measures that propose sweeping changes to environmental regulations. Standing to lose billions in future profits, oil, gas and mining companies are opening deep pocketbooks to throw their substantial weight against those initiatives that impact topics ranging from renewable energy to hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking.'" --s
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd.... Until You Get Caught. Matthew Goldstein, et al., of the New York Times: "Goldman Sachs is facing one of the most significant scandals in its history, a multibillion-dollar international fraud that investigators say was masterminded by a flamboyant financier with a taste for Hollywood and carried out with help from the Wall Street firm's bankers. Federal prosecutors on Thursday unveiled a guilty plea from one former Goldman Sachs banker and announced bribery and money laundering charges against a second banker, as part of an investigation into the alleged embezzlement of billions of dollars from a state-run investment fund in Malaysia. Prosecutors also brought charges against the Malaysian businessman they believe stole some of the money: Jho Low, who spent millions of dollars on gifts to celebrities like the actor Leonardo DiCaprio and the model Miranda Kerr. The money was used to buy a Picasso painting, diamond necklaces and Birkin bags as well as to pay for the Hollywood blockbuster 'The Wolf of Wall Street.' Najib Razak, the Malaysian prime minister who established and oversaw the so-called sovereign wealth fund, lost his re-election bid over the scandal, in which American prosecutors said $731 million of the missing money was deposited into his own bank accounts.... The bank has spent years trying to rehabilitate a reputation that was severely damaged by allegations of misconduct and putting profits ahead of clients during the financial crisis."
Patrick Galey of AFP: "The world's oceans have absorbed 60 percent more heat than previously thought over the last quarter of a century, scientists said Thursday, leaving Earth more sensitive still to the effects of climate change. Oceans cover more than two thirds of the planet's surface and play a vital role in sustaining life on Earth. According to their most recent assessment this month, scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say the world's oceans have absorbed 90 percent of the temperature rise caused by man-made carbon emissions.... [The study] found that for each of the last 25 years, oceans had absorbed heat energy equivalent to 150 times the amount of electricity mankind produces annually." --s
Beyond the Beltway
Alex Taylor & Tamar Lapin of the New York Post: "A political event hosted by 'Broad City' star Ilana Glazer at a historic Brooklyn synagogue was cancelled Thursday when a vandal scrawled 'Kill all Jews' inside.... The NYPD said 'anti-Semitic messages' were discovered on the stairwell of Union Temple in Brooklyn Heights at around 8 p.m. Thursday." --s
News Lede
Bloomberg: "American workers enjoyed the biggest leap in pay since 2009 as job gains topped forecasts and the unemployment rate held at a 48-year low, a boost for ... Donald Trump ahead of next week's midterm elections and reason for the Federal Reserve to keep raising interest rates. Nonfarm payrolls rose 250,000 [in October] after a downwardly revised 118,000 gain, a Labor Department report showed Friday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey called for an increase of 200,000 jobs. Average hourly earnings for private workers advanced 3.1 percent from a year earlier and the unemployment rate was unchanged from September at 3.7 percent, both matching projections."
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