The Commentariat -- August 29, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The FBI is investigating a series of suspected foreign hacks of state election computer systems and websites, and has warned states to be on the alert for potential intrusions. The Aug. 18 warning, issued after two states suffered intrusions into their systems, comes amid heightened concern over Russian hacks of Democratic party organizations and possible meddling in the presidential election." CW: Looks as if the election could indeed be rigged -- in Trump's favor -- but they are giving Trump an excuse for losing if the rigging is ineffective. So, best of both worlds for Donaldovich.
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "On Friday, Donald Trump's doctor basically said that his letter stating that Trump was 'astonishingly' healthy was written under pressure and should not be taken at face value. Trump's response? A call for Hillary Clinton to release more of her health information.... [Trump's tweet, spelled out below] is a bit like calling on your opponent to release a detailed, five-point plan for dealing with immigration when you haven't even said where you stand on deportation." -- CW ...
... Hillary Clinton's campaign annotates the letter that Trump produced attesting to his "astonishingly excellent" health. For some reason, the Clinton camp thinks Trump wrote the letter. -- CW
Amy Chozick & Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton's closest aide, Huma Abedin, said Monday that she intended to separate from her husband, Anthony D. Weiner, the former congressman and New York City mayoral candidate, after it was reported that Mr. Weiner had exchanged suggestive images and messages with a woman while the couple's young child was beside him." CW: So glad to see that Huma took my advice. (Is that Trumpy enough for you? -- It's all about Me, Marie Burns, unprofessional marriage counselor.)
*****
I used to be a Republican. -- CW Neighbor
That's a sentence we're likely to hear more and more often, at least outside confederate strongholds. -- Constant Weader
Presidential Race
"A Pox on Both Their Jetliners." Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump allows the press to travel on their planes. Rutenberg devotes most of his column to complaints about Clinton's lack of accessability. (CW Translation: Both Sides Do It, but Clinton is worse because Trump writes stupid tweets & says idiotic things every day so we always have a story to file.) "An important to-be-fair paragraph: In addition to keeping reporters off his five-star resort of an airplane, Mr. Trump maintains a blacklist of reporters who are banished from the media plane that follows him; has refused to match Mrs. Clinton in sharing his tax returns; and has proposed loosening libel laws to make it easier for public figures to sue journalists, which is about as troubling as it gets.... But a candidate who doesn't want journalists around is a would-be president who presumably doesn't want to be transparent with his or her many millions of viewers and readers -- with you. You don't have to go too far back in history to find the rotten fruit that secrecy has seeded." ...
... CW: Get real, Rutenberg. Hillary doesn't want you to know she spends all her downtime snoozing, except when she's consulting with the doctors who keep her on life-support (okay, not true), and Donaldo doesn't want to get anywhere near your disgusting cooties (true).
Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "The trick out of Brooklyn isn't just to make Hillary Clinton win but to make her win as something other than a brain-damaged crook who stole the election and will spend the next four years selling out the government from her deathbed. The Clinton de-legitimization project is now central to Donald Trump's campaign and ... a prime component of right-wing media.... 'We are already seeing an effort by the Trumpsters to undermine Hillary's presidency before it has even begun,' said longtime Clinton confidant Paul Begala.... 'When you see Trump and his forces at best trying to delegitimize her, at worst trying to delegitimize the entire democratic process, we're heading down a very dangerous path,' [Mo] Elleithee [who has bee a top aide to both Clinton & Kaine --] said." -- CW
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Judd Legum of Think Progress: "... the Associated Press obtained two years of Hillary Clinton's schedules from her tenure as Secretary of State. It culminated with this tweet on their findings: 'BREAKING: AP analysis: More than half those who met Clinton as Cabinet secretary gave money to Clinton Foundation.'... This tweet is completely inaccurate. Asked directly by [Brian] Stelter [of CNN] if she would agree that the tweet is 'inaccurate,' [Kathleen] Carroll[, the AP's executive editor,] said ... the tweet needed 'more precision.' Pressed by Stelter, Carroll said she did not 'regret' the tweet because, if she did, the AP would have deleted it. She then acknowledged that the tweet was 'sloppy.'... The AP's decision to stand by the tweet ... appears to violate their publicly stated 'news values' which apply to 'all media.'" -- CW
... CW: The Los Angeles Times has a similar Hillary Clinton guilt-by-association story. Maybe you can find something in it that Hillary did wrong, but as far as I can see, the only heavy in the story is Doug Band, Bill Clinton's long-time body man.
Trump to Make "You (Miserable) People" Speech. Kevin Cirilli of Bloomberg: "Donald Trump is planning to visit Detroit next weekend to make his first appearance before a predominantly African-American audience as his campaign makes a bid for support from black voters. Trump will visit the Great Faith Ministries on Saturday in Detroit, a predominantly black church located in the heart of the city, said Pastor Mark Burns, a Trump supporter...." -- CW
Cyra Master of the Hill: "Amid swirling and unfounded rumors about Hillary Clinton's health, Donald Trump tweeted Sunday night 'I think that both candidates, Crooked Hillary and myself, should release detailed medical records. I have no problem in doing so! Hillary?'" CW: Yeah, you show me yours, Donald (and not a fake this time), and I'll show you mine.
By Driftglass.
Paulina Firozi of the Hill: "... Donald Trump shared a tweet that tied his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, to the Ku Klux Klan.... The tweet was a reference to the late West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd (D), who was a former KKK member. In 2010, Clinton mourned his death and said Byrd was 'a true American original, my friend and mentor,' CNN reported." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Dan Evon of Snopes: "Robert Byrd was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s and helped establish the hate group's chapter in Sophia, West Virginia. However, in 1952 Byrd avowed that 'After about a year, I became disinterested [in the KKK], quit paying my dues, and dropped my membership in the organization,' and throughout his long political career (he& served for 57 years in the United States Congress) he repeatedly apologized for his involvement with the KKK.... In 2010, even the NAACP released a statement honoring Senator Byrd and mourning his passing: 'Senator Byrd reflects the transformative power of this nation,' stated NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. 'Senator Byrd went from being an active member of the KKK to a being a stalwart supporter of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and many other pieces of seminal legislation that advanced the civil rights and liberties of our country.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Isaac Arnsdorf of Politico: "'We have a psychopath running for president,' David Plouffe said in an interview on NBC News' 'Meet the Press'.... 'I mean, he meets the clinical definition, OK?' After [host Chuck] Todd pushed back that Plouffe isn't a psychologist and that such claims frustrate voters, Plouffe elaborated, 'The grandiose notion of self-worth, pathological lying, lack of empathy and remorse. So I think he does; right, I don't have a degree in psychology.'" -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "... when [ABC's 'This Week" host Martha Raddatz asked ... New Jersey governor [Chris Christie] whether he agrees with Trump that Clinton is a 'bigot,' Christie launched into a kind of non sequitur that politicians and elementary schoolchildren are particularly good at: He said Clinton 'started' it.... Except..., Clinton didn't start this. Trump actually did.... Trump has been referring to the 'bigotry' of Clinton for several weeks. And he outright called Clinton a 'bigot' a day before she launched a full-scale attack on the racist overtones in the Trump campaign. (Though she stopped short of directly labeling Trump a 'racist' or 'bigot.) Phillips provides a timeline. -- CW
Isaac Arnsdorf: Donald Trump's new campaign manager on Sunday moved to clarify his new immigration policy, focusing on 'being fair and humane' instead of deporting all undocumented immigrants. The new plan is, 'if you want to be here legally, you have to apply to be here legally,' Kellyanne Conway told John Dickerson on CBS News' 'Face the Nation.'... That's a clear break from Trump's earlier position, which emphasized removing everyone who was in the country illegally, regardless of their individual circumstances. Conway said Trump's new stance wouldn't cost him voters who were drawn to that hard line because 'this isn't just a referendum on Donald Trump's immigration policy, you have to contrast him to Hillary Clinton's.'" CW: Wait for Trump to contradict her in a tweet. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus announced Sunday that Donald Trump ... will deliver prepared remarks clarifying his views on immigration. 'You're going to find out from Donald Trump very shortly. He's going to be giving prepared remarks on this issue, I think very soon,' Priebus told Chuck Todd, host of NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'His position is going to be tough. His position is going to be fair. His position is going to be humane,' he said." CW: Wait for Trump to contradict him in an ad lib. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Alex Zielinski of Think Progress: "The Only Thing Trump's Campaign Knows About His Immigration Plan Is That It Will Be 'Humane.'" ...
... Trip Gabriel of the New York Times makes a stab at deciphering what-all Trump's team said Sunday (as if it matters): "A parade of surrogates for backed away on Sunday from a primary element of his immigration policy, further muddying an issue on which Mr. Trump himself sowed confusion in recent days. Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana ... would not affirm that their administration would expel the estimated 11 million immigrants who are in the country illegally, a campaign-defining stance that helped Mr. Trump vanquish opponents in the primary race. Asked if Mr. Trump still sought a 'deportation force,' which he called for last year, Mr. Pence said Mr. Trump was speaking of 'a mechanism, not a policy.' He also backed away from Mr. Trump's opposition to automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal immigrants.... On Sunday evening, Mr. Trump posted on Twitter that he will make a 'major speech' about the issue in Arizona on Wednesday." CW: I'm sure he'll straighten out everything. ...
Hillary Clinton is a bigot who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings. -- Donald Trump, read from a teleprompter August 24
Dwayne Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago, Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP! -- Donald Trump, tweet August 27
[Trump] is, in a rather literal sense, doing exactly what he accused Clinton of doing a few days earlier. -- Steve Benen
CW: This is how things were where I spent my childhood.David Edwards of the Raw Story: "CNN contributor and Trump campaign surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes accused Hillary Clinton of the meeting the 'definition of bigotry' for speaking out against racists and white supremacy.... 'Bigotry, if you look at the definition, it's about someone who's small-minded and sits there and directs hate towards a certain group,' she explained. 'Hillary Clinton's speech [attacking alt-right conservatives] was all about hate towards a group that, while my fellow counterpart might consider them to be very racist, it's the exact opposite.'" CW: Yep, they're "the exact opposite" of "very racist"; why, they want black people to have their very own "coloreds only" restrooms & drinking fountains and specially-designated seats at the back of the bus, the way they used to have in the good ole days when America was great.
A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel. -- Pope Francis, February 2016
For a religious leader to question a person's faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President. -- Donald Trump, responding to Francis's remarks ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Much has been made of Donald Trump's problems with a few voting groups -- female voters, blacks and Hispanics, and young voters, in particular. And, to be sure, they are all problems. But relatively speaking, his biggest problem actually appears to be with a different group: Catholics. Yes, the man who once feuded with the pope (how soon we forget that actually happened) is cratering among Catholics.... Catholics have long been a swing vote in presidential elections, and right now they're swinging hard for Clinton." -- CW
All the Best Words. "Trump and the Dark History of Straight Talk." Mark Thompson of the New York Times takes the long view of Trump's "anti-rhetorical" style of speaking. And by long view, I mean back to Julius Caesar: "Veni, vidi, vici." -- CW ...
... digby: "... Trump is not just a garden variety racist demagogue in the mode of George Wallace. His nationalism isn't isolationist --- it's aggressive militarism. He doesn't care about continuing the post-war security consensus to be sure. Alliances are fine as long as they pay protection and he feels like they 'deserve' it. He's got some other ideas. He will make America great again by making the world 'respect' us again. Trump is all ab[o]ut dominance." -- CW
Joe Scarborough, in a Washington Post op-ed has a sad because today's Republican presidential nominee is so unlike George H.W. Bush. CW: Ever so surprisingly, Scarborough takes no credit for his role in the devolution of the GOP into a House of Crackpots, nor for his early eagerness to cater to candidate Trump. Read Scarborough's Wikipage to find out just how confederate that ole boy is. ...
... Nick Gass of Politico: "The time has come for a mental health professional to take a look at Donald Trump on the air, MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski said Monday during a frank discussion of the Republican nominee's well-being.... 'Morning Joe' devoted a significant portion of its opening block to discussing Trump's mental health, a day after President Barack Obama's former campaign manager David Plouffe described him as a 'psychopath.'... Plouffe misspoke, [Joe] Scarborough added, suggesting that he should have said 'sociopath.'" -- CW
Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: Gossip columnist Liz Smith, now 93, remembers Donald Trump back in the day: "I never took him seriously. I didn't even think he would last in New York, because people hated him once they got to know him. He was a horse's ass. Still is." -- CW
Other News & Views
Paul Krugman: The doubling of the mortality rate of pregnant women in Texas "should be seen against the general background of Texas policy, which is extremely hostile toward anything that helps low-income residents.... The economic case for being cruel to the unfortunate has lost whatever slight credibility it may once have had. Yet the cruelty goes on. Why?... It's about race.... In the specific case of Planned Parenthood, this usual answer is overlaid with ... a substantial infusion of misogyny.... America would become a better place if more of us started paying attention to politics beyond the presidential race." -- CW
Rebecca Rosenberg & Bruce Golding of the New York Post: Anthony Weiner is still sharing dickpix & sexting with young women. CW: Get out, Huma!
Beyond the Beltway
Charley Lanyon of New York: "Chicago police are reporting that two suspects have been charged in the shooting death of Nykea Aldridge, a 32-year-old mother of four and cousin of NBA star Dwyane Wade. The suspects are two brothers -- Darwin Sorrells Jr., 26, and Derren Sorrells, 22 -- both convicted felons and 'documented gang members' who were out on parole when the shooting took place. They are being charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder. Police say the pair were trying to shoot an Uber driver dropping off passengers from a nearby car Friday afternoon when they accidentally shot Aldridge. She was killed while pushing her baby in a stroller on the way to register her other children for elementary school." -- CW
Kale Williams of the Oregonian: "The widow of Lavoy Finicum, the 54-year-old Arizona rancher and key figure in the Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupation earlier this year, plans to sue the Oregon State Police and FBI for civil rights violations relating to his death, her lawyer told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Saturday." -- CW
Dennis Hoey of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald: "The political pressure on Gov. Paul LePage over his recent controversial comments and threats grew over the weekend as Democratic legislative leaders suggested that Republican leadership persuade him to resign, a Senate Republican said a censure of him by the Legislature seemed appropriate, and an online petition signed by thousands of people urged him to step down." -- CW ...
... Missed this. German Lopez of Vox: "In defending himself from accusations of racism and homophobia on Friday, Maine Gov. Paul LePage made yet another explicitly racist comment -- arguing that people of color or of Hispanic origin are 'the enemy' and suggesting that they should be shot." CW: Yeah, and the legislature should impeach & convict him for the remark. ...
Way Beyond
AP: "A ceasefire has been declared in Colombia after the commander of the country's Farc guerrillas said its fighters would permanently cease hostilities with the government from the first minute of Monday local time. Timoleón Jimenez, head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, made the announcement on Sunday in Havana, Cuba, where the two sides negotiated for four years before announcing a peace accord for ending five decades of war." -- CW
News Ledes
New York Times: "Gene Wilder, who established himself as one of America's foremost comic actors with his delightfully neurotic performances in three films directed by Mel Brooks; his eccentric star turn in the family classic 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'; and his winning chemistry with Richard Pryor in the box-office smash 'Stir Crazy,' died early Monday morning at his home in Stamford, Conn. He was 83."
New York Times: "An Australian aid worker who was kidnapped in Afghanistan and held for four months has been released and is doing well, Australia's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said on Monday. The aid worker, Kerry Jane Wilson, who is in her 60s and is also known as Katherine Jane, had been working in Afghanistan for about 20 years and had most recently run Zardozi, an organization that promoted the work of Afghan artisans, particularly women.... Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, said in a brief statement that its special forces had carried out a raid to free Ms. Wilson." -- CW
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Reader Comments (13)
Frantically dreaming up euphemisms for the horrors and savagery behind Trumpian promises to unleash his particular brand of racist, misogynistic, and ignorant prescriptions once he is elected dictator, must be as embarrassing as it is challenging. Such as Mike Pence struggling to fit a mask of bleached bureaucracy over Trump's Skeletor death's head by redefining the forced roundup and deportation of 11 million people as a "mechanism not a policy".
How one has a mechanism with no policy goal to create it and guide its use is beyond me. But wingers are past masters at euphemistic descriptions to whitewash the most draconian policies and equally adept at crafting the scariest appellations for the most humane initiatives (healthcare for all as an act of tyranny deserving of armed revolution, eg).
A skunk's asshole by any other name is still "Donald Trump".
@Akhilleus: Well-put. "Malevolent, erratic dictatorship" is the overarching goal. I'm not too sure that's a policy.
It would be ironic that the people who scream freeedom the loudest support the would-be dictator, except that all along, the freeedom they crave -- and Republicans promise -- is from minorities and, usually, women.
See also Krugman's column.
Marie
Here is my list of President Trumps cabinet.
AG - Christie
Surgeon General - Dr. Borenstein
Homeland Security - Bannon
Health and Human Services - Ailes
Education - Giuliani
Defense - Manafort
Sec. of State - Ivanka
Commerce- himself
Energy - nobody
Fine pieces by Krugman and Mark Thompson this morning. Not so fine piece about Anthony Weiner who is still actively, or so it appears, promoting his dangerous liaisons. One could easily brush this off as another poor guy who's got a serious sex problem, but this guy is married to Huma Abedin, Hillary's right hand gal and the right hand folks is gonna play this smarmy story, while the Donald is gonna quack and take a whack at it. "Don't criticize my people when you got Abedin––she's got a whack job for a husband."
The humiliation Huma must feel is beyond my comprehension. I say this because from what I know about her does not fit a woman who would put up with a man who shames her like this. Perhaps this incident will be the last straw?
Could we conclude that the therapy that Weiner received was ineffective?
http://nypost.com/2016/08/28/anthony-weiner-sexted-busty-brunette-while-his-son-was-in-bed-with-him/
Scarborough was wrong. Psychopath and sociopath are really variations of the same thing. Trump qualifies for both.
Marvin,
Your cabinet selections for a Trump dictatorship, which under normal circumstances would come across as acerbically funny, in this case, could be right on the money. HUD, Labor, and Interior would all be abolished so there's no worries there for Trump. Treasury would probably go to little Eric Trumpy for his stellar explanation of daddy's taxes: "Hard to understand. Way too hard for stupid little people."
Oh, and Veterans Affairs? Trump would do that himself. He'd put on his War of 1812 uniform and sit at the head of the table with little army guys spread out in front of him. "Hey, you in the green jacket! Gimme back that tank. I didn't say you could borrow my tank! And by the way, are those medals real or are they fake? I got a medal once. For making the bed. It's a lot bigger than any of yours. It's yuuuuge. It's the best medal ever. I'll bring it in next time we meet, in a couple of years."
Though one could dismiss it as no more than woe-is-me whining from a couple of effete profs, the reported numbers are still disturbing.
The teaching of political history in our universities--I admit to no shame--a thing of the past?
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/29/opinion/why-did-we-stop-teaching-political-history.html?
The first reader comment I saw on the piece confirmed my own bias. We don't teach political because the Right doesn't like it...and they have the money.
My bias confirmed, I stopped reading the comments. Didn't want to learn too much.
Don't put the blame on France, but before Burkini bans, there was a: "silk stocking ban" considered detrimental to the morals of the youth by the a Denver PTA group (in 1920)...
Going around the world there's more and it doesn't just affect women of any religion. " No! No! No! ": Chad, Egypt and parts of Cameroon and Niger ban face-covering veils in public.
Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus: In 2015, women protested against a ban on synthetic lacy underwear. The government officials claimed that their idea was to promote better vaginal health by encouraging women to wear “breathable, comfortable cotton” materials.
In 2011 Barcelona announced that tourists (men & women) who wander the streets in their swimming costumes, or less, could face fines.
Mallorca followed suit with this last year and said penalties of up to £500 could be dished out for wearing swimming costumes in the street.
Qatar No leggings! More found here and elsewhere on the Intertoobz: " and the bans play on "
Sorry! Have nothing to add about Trump!
Florida as a synecdoche for the nation.
Marie's inclusion of that picture from Dade County indicating the location of the "Colored Beach" (picture from 2011, I think), and news of Donaldo inveigling a Russian oligarch with all the sleazy savoir faire, no doubt, of a used car salesman in a loud suit coat, into buying some ramshackle estate for a record amount of money, an estate that now has be torn down, got me thinking about Florida as representative of the bizarre state of the rest of the nation in the Age of Trump.
An article on the National Geographic site extols and attempts to explain the weirdness of Florida. According to the author of a book on the subject, "We’re the petri dish for a lot of things that end up spreading across the country. Our concealed weapons and stand-your-ground laws were both adopted by dozens of other states after us. It seems like every major issue in the country winds up starting in Florida, or reaches its ultimate expression here—like the recent shooting at Pulse Nightclub where you had issues involving gun control, gay rights, terrorism, and Hispanic identity all crisscrossing, in one spot, right here in Florida, in the land of fantasy."
The state where officers used tasers on a runaway llama has a little bit of everything and a lot of certain other things, like political corruption cum stupidity (Neither are restricted to Florida. See NJ for corruption and Maine for stupidity). No wonder their biggest names in politics are a governor who formerly oversaw "the biggest Medicare fraud in US history", a senator who thinks the earth is only 5,000 years old, but isn't really sure, 'cause it's a "mystery, man", and former governor who used a comatose woman and her distraught family to help boost his credit with religious loonies.
The author, Craig Pittman, also mentions the land fraud schemes that put Florida on the map back in the 1920s. "As far back as the 1920s, the Florida land boom was a signal of the boundless, and totally baseless, optimism of the American public—that everyone was bound to make lots of money and good times would continue on without end. Then came the Florida bust in 1926."
And now, today, Florida, like so many other red states, is full of Confederates getting ready to vote for a dangerous lunatic whose boundless pessimism is infecting the country with his own special brand of fear and hatred.
But it's that real estate deal that interests me. Was it a money laundering thing to help out a Russian buddy, or was this Russian just another not too bright victim of Trump's oleaginous, and largely fraudulent sales pitch? Makes me think the deal might have gone down a bit like this. It's up to you which one you think is Trump.
Ain't no Alt about it.
The sudden onslaught of worrywarts in the media (Chuck Todd--could there be a stupider MSM flunky?) striving to navigate the strange "new" tributaries of the Alt-Right River brings me to wonder what is new or even "alt" about it.
So what is the "alt-right"? White supremacists, gun nuts, garden variety racists, secessionists, misogynists, anti-Semites, nativists, nationalists, and reactionaries.
Explain to me how any of this is any different from mainstream Confederate ideology as it has evolved since the Reaganites split off on the evolutionary tree from Homo Sapiens? You can fit Ted Cruz, Steve King, Louie Gohmert, Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Ron Johnson, Joe Barton, David Vitter, and a horde of other missing links from both houses of congress under that heading, never mind the mental midgets in the media who urge them to ever darker depths of dangerous douchiness and treasonous deformities.
The Alt-Right is not some uncharted, newly discovered water source, it's the fucking Amazon drainage basin of the Confederacy, with Fox and Clear Channel broadcasting from the delta formed by the stinking sewage and black silt built up from its outflow. Outfits like Drudge and Breitbart, formerly obscured somewhat by mounds of filth are now lifted by that outflow and sit high and dry, sending out sprays of mud to their minions, one of their number now serving as the majordomo of a presidential campaign. Rather like Australopithecus, red in tooth and claw, come to life and being handed control of the direction of an entire political party.
Nothing Alt about it. And nothing new either. It's been there all along, getting bigger and stronger every year. And the natives camped on its shores, the ones that dance around burning trees and crosses, the ones who keep the guns clean and use pictures of Obama for target practice, the ones who are now lining up to vote for Trumpy, have been trained in treason and selfishness and brought along under the wingnut banner of anti-Americanism for many years. These are no virginal debs at their first ball. They're the fucking walking dead that have been voting for the likes of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell for years, who have been promised revolutions and blood in the streets, who have realized that they've been played for chumps and now they want their chits honored.
Chits that they expect to be paid in full and honored by one DJT.
@Ak: Yours is the best explanation of WTF Alt-Right is —after scanning and Googling over the weekend to make sense of what this 'new' entity' is about...arrived at a conclusion, it's mostly uber-hype for MSM's talking points.
However, could be a newly-evolved species, the "Australopithecus Confederapoliticus" red-toothed critters that feed upon their vanities.
Remember how, on the eve of President Obama's inauguration, Turtle Man and members of his scurvy bunch met to decide that their personal safety, under the Confederate flag, was more important than their country and vowed to make him a one term president? To say no to everything?
Well, this time around, they're not even waiting for the inauguration. They're already meeting to figure out the best ways to fuck with Hillary Clinton for the next four years, and they've decided to choose the way they know best: endless investigations. Investigations of investigations and more investigations to make sure all the other investigations are spending the appropriate amount of money to investigate fictional bullshit.
And Republicans who are trying to keep the Mark of Trump off their foreheads and have said, in effect, "I'll hate myself in the morning, but I may have to vote for Hillary" are preparing their defense by saying now that the second the election is over, they'll be going after her hammer and tong:
"'In any other election, the majority of national security Republicans would be going after her, and I would be enthusiastically doing so,' said [idiot] Kori Schake, a veteran of George W. Bush’s National Security Council and State Department, and an adviser to Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign."
So, let's see, the woman who taught Sarah Palin all about foreign policy (wonder if Schake was responsible for that "I can see Russia from my back porch" quote. That was a good one!) and who was also an advisor to Mr. Noun-verb-and-9/11, is expressing her dismay about having to vote for Clinton. But then comes this, perhaps the most jaw dropping, egregiously stupid, dense as a stone expression of Both Siderism. Seriously, kids, this is amazing:
"'She wasn’t a particularly good secretary of state; the lack of judgment on emails was a shock to a lot of us. She rightly criticized the Bush administration for its failures creating stability in Iraq — and made the exact same mistake herself on Libya.'"
Let me get this straight. Benghazi, a situation Clinton had no control over and no culpability in the loss of four American lives, is EXACTLY the same as the Iraq War over which Bush had complete control (in it's start and prosecution) and complete culpability for the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Exactly the same.
Which means that Republicans can start an unnecessary war based on lies in which thousands of Americans are killed or wounded, hundreds of thousands more killed, wounded, or displaced, costing trillions of dollars, but four people killed under a Democratic administration that had no warning or control over a fast moving situation, is exactly the same thing.
But here's where the Both Sides bullshit ends. Benghazi has been investigated by over a dozen committees, taking hundreds and hundreds of hours and costing millions.
How many investigations have there been about Bush and Cheney's lies to start a war that was not only unnecessary but terribly ill conceived, more poorly prosecuted than the action recounted in the fucking "Charge of the Light Brigade", lasting longer than any war in US history, and costing trillions of dollars.
How many?
None?
But, yeah, both sides.
And now they're planning on never ending investigations because who needs to do the work of governing when you can sit on your ass and shoot spitballs for four to eight years?
Don't worry, Chuck Todd already has his calendar ready for breathless coverage of the first investigation: Is Hillary Still Alive? If so, why?
Paul Krugman - compulsory voting!