The Commentariat -- August 8, 2016

Afternoon Update: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*****

Presidential Race

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other News & Views

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

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

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

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

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

Way Beyond the Beltway

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

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

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

The Commentariat -- August 7, 2016

Presidential Race

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Congressional Races

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

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

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

Other News & Views

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

Way Beyond the Beltway

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

News Lede

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

The Commentariat -- August 6, 2016

With occasional exceptions (like President Obama's thoughtful weekly address), Reality Chex is not covering the Olympics. Since they're of great general interest, you may comment on any aspect of them in the Comments sections. If you work in a political angle, good for you. Enjoy the games! P.S. Yoo Ess Ay! Yoo Ess Ay! -- Constant Weader

Sam Mintz of the Cape Cod Times: "This year is full of 'lasts' for the Obamas, and today marks the start of one more: their last trip to Martha's Vineyard as a presidential family.... Obama's younger daughter, Sasha, picked up a brief summer job to keep herself busy: The 15-year-old worked for a few days this past week at Nancy's, a seafood restaurant in Oak Bluffs...." -- CW

Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: "After months of conflicting signals and economic uncertainty, it became clear on Friday that the American jobs machine has moved back into high gear. A report from the Labor Department that said employers added 255,000 jobs in July had been eagerly anticipated on Wall Street, in Washington and on the campaign trail, and the much-better-than-expected showing immediately rippled through all three arenas. Stocks surged, experts expressed more confidence that the Federal Reserve was likely to raise interest rates at least once this year, and it was evident that long-stagnant wages for ordinary workers were advancing at a more robust pace." -- CW

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker: "The trouble with [Corey] Lewandowski [as a CNN commentator] is not that he came out of a campaign or that he is clearly partisan.... Lewandowski's signal quality is a kind of unsmiling, nonironic loyalty that admits of no countermanding or even complicating detail; he's like the ultimate faithful retainer, still fixedly serving his master as the mansion crumbles around him.... Advancing birtherism in the guise of political analysis is a firing offense." CW: Good read. Lewandowski, best known for manhandling a female Breitbart reporter, had an on-air fit, Talbot reports, when a female correspondent brushed his hand. "Don't touch me!" he said. Twice. What we are seeing in the entire Trump campaign, from Trump on down to those violent supporters the New York Times videotaped, a yuuuge plaintive wail for white mail hegemony. We only have to hope we are close to the last, desperate gasp.

Presidential Race

Yamiche Alcindor & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "After more than 200 days without holding a formal news conference, Hillary Clinton took her most extensive questions from journalists in months on Friday -- and it wasn't so bad after all.... Speaking before] the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists..., Mrs. Clinton said she took 'seriously' the problems she has had winning voters' trust. She clarified her recent mischaracterization of the F.B.I. investigation into her private email server. And she explained that the economic frustration driving many of Donald J. Trump's supporters should be taken as seriously as his 'bigotry' that appeals to some.... On Friday, Mrs. Clinton said she 'may have short circuited' when she made Mr. Comey's remarks seem more favorable toward her than they had, in fact, been. 'I was pointing out in both of those instances that Director Comey had said that my answers in my F.B.I. interview were truthful,' she said. 'That's really the bottom line here.'" -- CW ...

... Charles Pierce: "That's the way you talk when the mule you sold somebody died on the way home." -- CW ...

... She Just Can't Help Herself. Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "In an effort to clarify her most recent statements about her use of a private email server as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton on Friday only further muddled a controversy that has dogged her presidential candidacy from the start. Clinton acknowledged that she had misspoken in two recent media interviews when she claimed that FBI Director James B. Comey had characterized as 'truthful' all of her public statements about her use of a private email server. She explained that Comey was referring only to her interviews with the FBI -- but she also insisted that all of her other public statements on the matter have been consistent with those interviews.... On Friday morning, Clinton reiterated that she never sent or received emails that were classified at the time, which Comey testified to Congress was a statement that was 'not true.'" -- CW ...

... Stephen Braun of the AP: "What resulted Friday were still more mischaracterizations.... Comey has declined to say precisely what Clinton told FBI investigators, but he has never publicly called Clinton's comments truthful. He said only that "we have no basis to conclude that she lied to the FBI" -- a legally calibrated statement.... When Comey was asked during a House hearing the same month about whether Clinton lied to the public, Comey begged off, saying: 'That's a question I'm not qualified to answer. I can speak only about what she said to the FBI.'... Overall, he described her handling of 'very sensitive, highly classified information' as 'extremely careless.'" -- CW ...

(CW BTW: Debbie Wasserman Schultz has learned the Clinton Truthiness Two-Step. Step 1: You lie. Step 2: You "clarify" your lie with another lie. Reporter Cristiano Lima doesn't spell out Step 2, but I'm sure you can spot it.)

Hadas Gold of Politico: "Former CIA director Michael Morell dropped his gig as a CBS News analyst before going public with his support of Hillary Clinton." CW: CBS replaced him with Dubya flak Fran Townsend.

Eric Geller of Politico: "Hackers have compromised the email accounts of a Latino political advocacy group with ties to the Clinton campaign.... In an email obtained by Politico, a staffer for the Latino Victory Project warned people not to open any other emails sent this morning by Latino Victory employees. The infected emails carry the subject line 'Very Important Documents' and include an attached PDF titled 'Important Online PDF.'" -- CW

Rebecca Morin of Politico: "Julian Assange said WikiLeaks is 'working on' hacking Donald Trump's tax returns. In a Friday night video interview on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher questioned Assange about the Democratic National Committee leaks that were released the week before the Democratic convention." -- CW

Harper Neidig of the Hill: "Donald Trump endorsed Paul Ryan on Friday night, after refusing to back the speaker's reelection bid earlier this week.... [Trump's] backing came at a rally in Green Bay, Wis., less than a week before Ryan faces a primary challenger whom has Trump praised, though Ryan appears to have little to worry about in the Tuesday race with businessman Paul Nehlen. A new independent pollreleased on Friday showed Ryan leading Nehlen 80 percent to 14 percent." -- CW ...

... Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Trump also endorsed Arizona Sen. John McCain and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte's reelection efforts during the event.... Trump received a cold shoulder from several of the highest profile Republicans in Wisconsin politics during his campaign event there, with [Paul] Ryan and Gov. Scott Walker notably absent." -- CW ...

... Great! Now Trump Is a Totally Normal Guy. Oh, Wait. Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Donald Trump took his insults of Hillary Clinton to another level on Friday night.... 'In one way, she's a monster,' Trump said of Clinton. 'In another way, she's a weak person. She's actually not strong enough to be president. So she's got both.' Trump, who also referred to Clinton as 'unhinged' and 'unbalanced,' relentlessly attacked the former secretary of state in an improvisational tear that contrasted sharply with his scripted endorsement remarks." CW: Once again, Trump attributes his own disorders & deficiencies to an opponent. It's a compensation mechanism.

Patrick Cohen of the New York Times: "On Friday, Mr. Trump announced his economic team, just days before he is expected to give a speech in Detroit on Monday about what he would do to improve American growth. The 13-member team -- all men -- includes several billionaire bankers and investment managers, and even a part-time professional poker player.... Several of those named often have expressed views against the economic mainstream, voicing suspicions about the Federal Reserve and global trade deals." CW: Cohen provides snapshots of the men Trump named -- looks more like a rogue's gallery of big-bucks bad boys than a financial advisory team. ...

... ** Jim Tankersley of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump announced a new team of ultra-rich financiers and businessmen as his core economic advisers, bringing high-profile names to his inner circle but also possibly stepping on his populist claims to save the middle class.... The median net worth of Trump's official economic advisers appears to be at least several hundred million dollars.... He has painted Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as the candidate of Wall Street, but his team is filled with hedge fund managers, bankers and real estate speculators.... [Hillary] Clinton's inner circle also includes some longtime associates, such as Neera Tanden and Gene Sperling [CW: who, bBTW, are not billionaires]. But she also has spent two years reaching out to more than 200 experts, some of whom she had never met before, to build a sprawling economic agenda." -- CW

Steven Mufson & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: Carter "Page is a little-known Trump adviser with an ambiguous role in his campaign. But since being named to the Republican nominee's team in March, his stature within the foreign policy world has grown considerably, drawing alarm from more established foreign policy experts who view him as having little real understanding about U.S.-Russia relations. Many also say that Page's views may be compromised by his investment in Russian energy giant, Gazprom. Other foreign policy experts from both parties say they are distressed with Page for his criticism of sanctions, praise for Putin and his advisers, and his tepid response to what most U.S. policymakers see as Russian aggression.... [Carter's] open embrace of [Vladimir Putin] is unusual for an adviser to a presidential candidate -- and a break from a decades-old Republican tradition of tough stances toward Moscow." -- CW

(Contributor Diane raises the question: is this fellow a Trump look-alike?

Answer: Well, yes, given that they're a couple of fleshy, old white guys who share a British Isles heritage. Main difference? The guy in the bowler does not have stubby fingers.)

... Louis Nelson of Politico: "Donald Trump said his joke about ejecting a baby from one of his rallies this week was misinterpreted and blamed the 'dishonest' news media for turning a lighthearted moment into a negative story.... The media, he said, instead painted him unfairly:... '... Everyone's having fun, but they say Trump throws baby. You know how terrible that is? It's such a lie. And they know it's a lie.'" ...

     ... CW: Let's see: First he said the baby could stay because he loves babies; then he said, "Actually, I was only kidding; you can get the baby out of here," & dissed the mother for believing he really loved babies who cried when he spoke; now he says, no, he meant what he said the first time, & didn't mean what he said the second time when he said he was kidding the first time. Got that? As for the media, you all are so dumb for not knowing that when Trump says he's not kidding, it means he's kidding. It's Trumpglish! It has all the good words!

Also on the Cape this weekend: Man-of-the-People Donald Trump, who will be attending a fundraiser Saturday night hosted by multi-billionaire William Koch, one of the other-brothers, at his Oyster Harbors mansion. William may be on the outs with his more famous brothers, but he's still a dinosaur. Geoff Spillane of the Cape Cod Times: "The impact of his financial clout on Cape Cod also has been significant throughout the years, especially his opposition to the Cape Wind project. He was chairman of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, donating $1.5 million to stop the offshore wind farm, which was all but dealt a death blow last year when power purchase agreements from NStar and National Grid fell through." CW: In fairness, numerous Kennedys opposed the wind project, too.

Kira Lerner of Think Progress: Trump has pretty much shut up about it this election season, but his campaign surrogates keep wondering out loud and/or claiming that President Obama is foreign-born, a Muslim, or both. -- CW

White Men Dump Trump? Ed Kilgore: "This week's avalanche of not-so-good polling news for the polls-obsessed Donald Trump continues, with signs that maybe this is something more than a temporary post-convention bounce for Hillary Clinton.... But peering inside the polls reveals another finding that should trouble Trump and his campaign more than the top lines: He's even losing steam in the red-hot core of his base of support, the white working class." -- CW

Trump's Forever Plan. Adam Raymond of New York: "Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have options on their websites allowing supporters to set up recurring credit-card donations to their campaigns. But unlike Clinton's, Trump's website has no option to cancel those donations." -- CW

Tales from the GOP Crypt. Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "'If in 96 days Trump loses this election, I am pointing the finger directly at people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham and John McCain,' [Sean] Hannity said [Wednesday on his radio show]. 'I have watched these Republicans be more harsh toward Donald Trump than they've ever been in standing up to Barack Obama and his radical agenda. They did nothing, nothing -- all these phony votes to repeal and replace Obamacare, show votes so they can go back and keep their power and get reelected,' Hannity continued. 'Sorry, you created Donald Trump, all of you. Because of your ineffectiveness, because of your weakness, your spinelessness, your lack of vision, your inability to fight Obama.'" -- CW ...

... AND Hannity has a Twitter account, too. Also is able to spell "dumbass" & "assholes." -- CW

Congressional Races

Rep. Tim Huelskamp (RTP-Kansas), who lost his primary race to a more moderate Republican, sings his swan song & trashes the Republican leadership & pro-Hillary Clinton billionaires, in a Washington Post op-ed. -- CW

Gail Collins focuses on some U.S. Senate races.

Beyond the Beltway

Justin Jouvenal & Antonio Olivo of the Washington Post: Scott Silverthorne, the Democratic mayor of Fairfax City, Virginia, has been arrested following a sting operation. "... police said the 50-year-old was ... using a website to swap methamphetamine for sex with other men." -- CW