The Commentariat -- October 18, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "Like his father, Donald Trump Jr. has a history of engaging in controversial conversations with radio shock-jocks.... On shows like 'Opie and Anthony,' the now-defunct 'The Six Pack,' and 'Opie with Jim Norton,' the younger Trump made a joke about the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, expressed regret he could no longer mock overweight people, invoked Arab stereotypes, and joked about child beauty contestants being abused by their parents. The Trump son also noted there were hours of footage of the 'The Apprentice' left on the cutting room floor that would appeal to those with a 'sick sense of humor.'" -- CW
Kevin Freking of the AP: "President Barack Obama praised Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Tuesday for 'bold' and 'progressive' leadership that Obama said is exactly what Europe needs at a time of crisis and soul-searching. Obama also hailed U.S. relations with Italy, saying America has many strong allies around the world but that few are as strong, reliable and capable as the boot-shaped country.... Standing in the sun-washed Rose Garden after private talks on a range of world issues, Obama said during a news conference with Renzi that he counted his much younger counterpart -- Renzi is 41, Obama is 55 -- among his closest partners and friends on the world stage.... Hours earlier, Obama said it was a 'bittersweet moment' as he and first lady Michelle Obama welcomed the Italian leader and his wife for an official visit and the final state dinner of Obama's presidency. 'We've saved the best for last,' Obama said, grinning." -- CW ...
... Arlette Saenz of ABC News: "President Obama today characterized Donald Trump's affection for Russian President Vladimir Putin as an 'unprecedented' moment in U.S. history. 'Any characterization that somehow we have improperly challenged Russian aggression or have somehow tried to encroach on their legitimate interests is just wrong. And Mr. Trump's continued flattery of Mr. Putin and the degree to which he appears to model many of his policies and approaches to politics of Mr. Putin is unprecedented in American politics,' the president said at a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi." -- CW ...
... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama said Tuesday that Donald J. Trump should 'stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes.' Speaking at a Rose Garden news conference with Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, Mr. Obama also called it 'unprecedented' for any presidential candidate to 'discredit the elections' before any votes were even cast, as Mr. Trump has done repeatedly in recent days." -- CW
... Video of the full press conference is here.
Send in the Thugs. Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's 'election protection' effort will be run by Mike Roman, a Republican operative best known for promoting a video of apparent voter intimidation by the New Black Panthers outside a polling place in 2008. Roman is to oversee poll-watching efforts as Trump undertakes an unprecedented effort by a major party nominee by calling into question the legitimacy of the popular vote weeks before election day. The Republican nominee has insisted, without evidence, that dead people and undocumented immigrants are voting in the United States." -- CW
Charles Pierce: "Imagine where we'd be if Trump didn't go bananas every night....People who are confused as to how the party of moral values and Jesus militants came to this have forgotten their William James. 'Piety is the mask,' James wrote. 'The inner force is tribal instinct.'" -- CW
Consumers to Donald Trump: You’re fired! Corey Schouten of CBS Moneywatch. "Donald J. Trump thought he could ride the coattails of his lucrative personal brand and business interests to the White House. But mounting evidence suggests his nasty and divisive run for president is harming his business interests instead. Traffic is down at Trump-branded resorts and golf courses, consumer surveys show his name now adds less value to a product, he's become radioactive as a mass entertainer and spokesman, and charities are wary about holding fundraising events at his swanky Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. Bottom line: His brand may lack the stamina to fully weather his own rhetorical assault on women, immigrants, Muslims, people with disabilities, Gold Star families, and so on. Akhilleus: It's a conspiracy, dammit! Everyone loves me! I'm yuuuuuge with the ladies and "the blacks" and the A-rabs and even hose dirty messicans. I hire plenty of them to clean the toilets in my hotels. They love me! They can't fire me. The author does point out that the Trump family businesses are in good hands while daddy is off blowtorching democracy because the kids -- I'm guessing Junior and Little Dracula -- are so smart and "well adjusted". Hmmmm.....must be thinking of some other Trump family. Well adjusted? Smart? Nahh. ...
... See also Kevin Drum's post, linked below.
Caroline Grueskin of the Bismarck (North Dakota) Tribune: "Criminal charges filed against a journalist, who covered a pipeline protest, were dropped Monday after a judge refused to sign the complaint against her. Judge John Grinsteiner did not find probable cause that Amy Goodman had engaged in a riot while reporting on a clash between protesters and private security in September.... Prosecutor Ladd Erickson had asked the judge to charge Goodman with engaging in a riot after dropping a criminal trespass charge against her, due to legal problems proving the charge.... Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now, a radio/news program that airs on 1,400 stations worldwide. She has won several prestigious awards for her reporting. Nearly 200 people came to the courthouse to support Goodman." -- CW
*****
Presidential Race
High-Quality Polling Says.... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post. "The polls are coming fast and furious right now, and they're increasingly bad for Donald Trump. In fact, we can now say this: Were Trump to actually win, it would represent the biggest late comeback in the history of presidential polls.... Monmouth University is the most recent to show a big swing in Hillary Clinton's favor. Its just-released national survey has her leading Trump by 12 points, 50-38. That 12-point margin is the biggest so far this month...and other recent high-quality polls have shown her up 9 points (NBC-WSJ last week), 8 points (George Washington University), 7 points (Fox News) and 4 points (Washington Post-ABC News)." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Akhilleus: I could be wrong, but I can't recall ever hearing so many polls qualified as "high quality" to differentiate them from the numbers generated by psycho fascists, the typical sources of Trump's polling data, after polling other white supremacists -- who also live in their parents' basements or in some fortified double wide -- all of whom spend their daylight hours cleaning the guns and their nights jerking off to Nazi porn.
Matt Flegenheimer & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton's campaign is planning its most ambitious push yet into traditionally right-leaning states, a new offensive aimed at extending her growing advantage over Donald J. Trump while bolstering down-ballot candidates in what party leaders increasingly suggest could be a sweeping victory for Democrats at every level. Signaling extraordinary confidence in Mrs. Clinton's electoral position and a new determination to deliver a punishing message to Mr. Trump and Republicans about his racially tinged campaign, her aides said Monday that she would aggressively compete in Arizona, a state with a growing Hispanic population that has been ground zero for the country's heated debate over immigration.... [Clinton is] aiming to flip as many red states as possible to run up an electoral landslide [AND] redirecting funds and energy down the ballot...." CW: See also John McCain's pledge under Senate Races below.
Tal Kopan of CNN: "A top official at the State Department repeatedly sought to have the FBI back down on classifying the contents of an email from Hillary Clinton's private email server, documents released Monday revealed. According to notes from interviews conducted during an FBI investigation into Clinton's email practices, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy personally tried to convince FBI officials that the email should be declassified. One interviewee described feeling 'pressured' by another FBI official at Kennedy's request. The FBI [and the State Department are] denying that any 'quid pro quo' was offered in the fight between the bureau and State Department over the classification level of the email, though one interview described it as such. At issue are somewhat contradictory interview notes contained in the crop of newly released FBI documents." -- CW ...
... Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "Donald Trump escalated his attacks on a State Department official who allegedly floated a quid-pro-quo to protect Hillary Clinton, accusing him of 'felony corruption' on Monday night in Wisconsin." CW: What did you expect? I suppose the plan is to throw Kennedy in jail along with Clinton.
Nobody should be surprised, because back in the Great Recession, when millions of jobs across America hung in the balance, Donald Trump said rescuing the auto industry didn't really matter very much. He said, and I quote again, 'Let it go.' Now, I can't imagine that. I supported President Obama's decision to rescue the auto industry in America. -- Hillary Clinton, in remarks at a campaign rally at Wayne State University, Detroit, Oct. 10
The record is clear that Trump in 2008 was supportive of rescuing the auto industry, saying the government should do everything it could to save it: 'You just can't lose Chrysler, you can't lose Ford, and you can't lose General Motors.' He touted DIP financing, but he was relatively agnostic about the preferred path. Even in 2015, when Trump seemed more uncertain about the preferred option, he said 'you could have done it the way it went.' Clinton twists his 'let it go' comment out of context and pretends he said it in 2008. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post
Daniel Drezner of the Washington Post: "After reading all three speeches [Hillary Clinton gave to Goldman Sachs] ... I don't understand why Clinton didn't make them public back in the spring.... What comes through is Clinton's comfort talking about the subtleties of international relations. The contrast with the current GOP nominee is rather striking.... There is nothing in the way of bluff or bluster in these transcripts.... These transcripts mostly reveal a person who says similar things in private that she does in public." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump said he would be willing to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin before Inauguration Day if he is elected president, breaking sharply with precedent and showing little compunction over stepping on the heels of President Obama's final months in office. 'Putin has no respect at all for Obama. And I think that you have potentially a really catastrophic situation here, I'll be honest with you,' Trump told conservative radio host Michael Savage during an interview. 'I will say this, if I win on November 8th ... I think I could see myself meeting with Putin and meeting with Russia prior to the start of the administration. I think it would be wonderful.'" -- CW ...
... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times better captures Trump's advocacy for Putin: "Donald J. Trump suggested on Monday that Hillary Clinton was too 'tough' in her language about Russia, and said that if he won the election, he might meet with President Vladimir V. Putin before being sworn in." CW: Trump thinks Putin would be our ally in the fight against ISIS if only Clinton & Obama had been nicer to him. Apparently Trump is unaware that Putin is already fighting ISIS.
Of course, there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. -- Donald Trump, October 17 tweet
Actual instances of voter fraud -- such as voter impersonation, ballot stuffing and bought votes -- are extremely rare, often unintentional and not on a scale large enough to affect a national election. Trump's alarming claim, once again, is without proof. -- Linda Qiu of PolitiFact
By Driftglass.... Clinton's New Voting Bloc: Dead People. Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "At a Monday campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, [Donald Trump] made the unfounded yet oddly specific prediction that '1.8 million deceased individuals' will vote for 'somebody else' in the presidential election. The statistic, which apparently came from a 2012 Pew study, found that up to 1.8 million active voter registrations came from deceased voters. Yet the study found no evidence of fraud or illegitimate ballots actually being cast, instead concluding that state voter databases were outdated." -- CW
In order to effect an election through impersonating somebody at the polls, you would have to do something that is incredibly impossible. Number one, you've got to find out who you're going to impersonate. Number two, you've got to be sure they don't come to the polls. Number three, you've got to hope nobody at the polls knows you. Number four, you have to be willing to sign your name and risk five years a felony, and then, you've got to find about 5,000 or 10,000 other folks that can do it and keep quiet. It doesn't make any sense at all. -- The Rev. William Barber II, of the North Carolina NAACP, explaining how voter impersonation "works" ...
... Greg Sargent: "... it's not unreasonable to speculate that Trump is ultimately trying to cast our entire democratic process as illegitimate, laying the groundwork to press this argument long after election day." -- CW
... See more under "The Accomplice," ff., linked below.
Asawin Suebsaeng & Gideon Resnick of the Daily Beast: "Oscar nominee Gary Busey allegedly sexually assaulted a female Apprentice employee during his time on the show, five Apprentice employees tell The Daily Beast. Donald Trump knew about the incident, laughed it off, and kept Busey on his TV series, these staffers said. Multiple Apprentice employees, including the alleged victim herself, told The Daily Beast that ... [Busey] 'grabbed' one of their colleagues 'firmly between [the] legs' during the 2011 season of Celebrity Apprentice. Busey also forcibly put the female staffer's hand on the crotch of his pants.... [The woman] also said that Trump would say 'gross things all the time' during The Apprentice, and that the atmosphere of Trump Tower was 'a disgusting place to work' due to the high frequency of sexual harassment.... '[Trump] is and always has been a joke -- I can't believe anyone now is taking him seriously,' she continued. 'He's a monster.'" -- CW
** Washington Post Editors: "WHAT HAS allowed the United States to last for so long as a democracy, when so many other countries have failed?... When we hold elections, the losing party acknowledges the legitimacy of the winner, and the winner allows the loser to survive to fight another day. Now, for the first time in modern history, a major-party candidate rejects both sides of that equation. If he loses, Donald Trump says, it will be due to cheating that makes the result illegitimate. If he wins, he will imprison his defeated opponent.... A voter's first obligation should be to preserve the republic which has been, for so long, the envy of the world." CW: Yes, and that's also the sworn obligation of every elected & appointed federal officeholder (and most state & local officials, too). What about it, Mitch & Pauly? ...
... "Trump's Descent into Ideological Psychosis." Former Dubya speechwriter Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: "In recent days, Trump has sneered at the looks of a woman who accuses him of sexual assault, denigrated the appearance of Hillary Clinton, proposed to drug-test his opponent, used his campaign to promote what appears to be a Russian covert operation, asserted that Clinton has held secret meetings with international bankers 'to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty,' attacked 'Saturday Night Live,' promised to jail his opponent and contended that the 'whole election is being rigged. Which means that Trump is sickeningly cruel, boorish, bonkers, subversive, conspiratorial, obsessive, authoritarian and reckless with the reputation of American democracy.... [Trump] is frighteningly unstable under pressure. He is easily baited, highly sensitive to slights, prone to using faulty information from the Internet, hyperbolic and vengeful." -- CW: Hey, you forgot the part about blaming Clinton for firebombing a local GOP HQ.
Jason Sattler in USA Today: "Barring a radical twist of fate, the biggest uncertainty of the election now seems to be which number will be higher: total accusations of sexual assault against Donald Trump, or total electoral votes for him. But even if he is crushed badly on Nov. 8, Trump has signaled he is not likely to give a concession speech. So Republicans should be prepared to do it for him.... The GOP needs to put forth at least one and possibly several 'designated conceders' who could take the stage for a candidate whose ego may not allow him any such decency." Sattler puts forth a number of designated-conceder candidates, including Sarah Palin, who could "use the concession speech she didn't get to give in 2008."
... BTW, if you're wondering what the penis diagram reference is at the top of the segment above, here's your answer.
The Accomplice. Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "... Mike Pence is urging supporters to sign up as poll watchers as he and Donald Trump raise questions about the integrity of the 2016 elections. Speaking at a rally on Monday in Ohio, Pence warned of the possibility of...voter fraud, adding that the national media 'is trying to rig this election with their biased coverage.'" ...
... CW: And don't forget: Gov. pence is apparently engineering a massive voter suppression operation in Indiana, primarily against black voters, according to reports. Rigged election? You betcha. Notice too how pence tries to straddle the fence in his remarks: pretending to go along with Trump's "rigged election" theme while actually blaming the "rigging" on press coverage rather than on some vast global conspiracy. But he sure is determined to make sure "those people" don't get to vote. Voter suppression is a horrible form of racial prejudice -- because it works. ...
... Ari Berman of the Nation, who wrote the book on voter suppression: "The true danger to American democracy stems from Republican-led efforts to make it harder to vote. This is the first presidential election in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act, and 14 states -- nearly all controlled by the GOP -- have new voting restrictions in place for the first presidential cycle in 2016. There are far more people turned away from the polls by restrictions like voter-ID laws, cuts to early voting, and felon-disenfranchisement efforts -- which disproportionately impact people of color, young voters and low-income voters -- than cases of voter fraud." -- CW
He's not the man that we saw -- we heard him on the tape... Many times, I gave him an advice and I didn't agree to do all the tapes on Howard Stern, with Billy Bush because I know those people. They hook him on. They try to get from him some -- some unappropriate and dirty language.... I see that mainstream media. They want to damage my family and my husband's campaign. -- Melania Trump to Fox "News"'s Ainsley Earhardt
... Melania Speaks! Maggie Haberman & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Three months after she was humiliated when she delivered a plagiarized speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Melania Trump emerged from near-silence Monday to defend her husband during the worst stretch of his candidacy, saying 'he was egged on' by a television personality to boast about forcing himself on women." ...
... CW: Maybe Melania should have stuck with plagiarism. Obviously, this was the Trump campaign's idea, but they have her saying that a person who would have to negotiate with & confront world leaders can't stand up to a twerp like Billy Bush. ...
... The story has been updated to reflect more of Melania's remarks: "Ms. Trump, in an extensive interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, said the women who had accused Donald J. Trump of groping and kissing them were lying, and likened her husband to a teenage boy who engages in macho boasting. She echoed her husband's complaint that he was the victim of a broad conspiracy between the news media and the Clinton campaign." CW: In other words, now both she & Donald are doing exactly what Donald has accused Hillary Clinton of doing: maligning alleged victims of the husband's sexual assault. And the "teenage boy"? He was 59. Later she undercuts her argument in responding to a questions about Donald's Twitter addiction: "That's his decision. He is an adult," she says.
... Nolan McCaskill & Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Melania Trump on Monday suggested it's fair for the media and Donald Trump to bring up former President Bill Clinton's infidelities during his wife's presidential campaign, saying, 'They're asking for it.' 'Well, if they bring up my past, why not?' Melania Trump asked, according to an excerpt of her interview with Fox News' Ainsley Earhardt." ...
... CW: The New York Post -- a right-wing tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch -- & a Ted Cruz super-PAC both published nude photos of Melania, but the Clinton campaign, as far as I'm aware, has barely mentioned her, & certainly has not "brought up her past." Maybe Melania doesn't know the difference between Cruz & Clinton, but she should. ...
... John Koblin of the New York Times: "Billy Bush is officially out at NBC. The network announced the news on Monday after several days of negotiations over the terms of his departure, less than two weeks after a video from 2005 surfaced in which he and Donald J. Trump engaged in a vulgar and misogynistic conversation about women.... He was believed to be walking away with a payout worth millions of dollars...." -- CW ...
... Kevin Drum, too, has just begun to appreciate Billy Bush's "Svengali-like powers," but he moves on to highlight a few stories that provide anecdotal evidence that the Trump brand has suffered as consumers get to know the Donald. CW: What a shame of Trump has to take another $$billion tax write-off.
Matt Shuham of TPM: "Donald Trump's campaign manager on Monday distanced herself from Trump's tactic of targeting the appearances of the women who've accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior over the past week. 'It's not how I would answer the question,' Kellyanne Conway said in an appearance on MSNBC..., responding to a clip of Trump saying at a Friday rally that Jessica Leeds, 74, 'would not be my first choice.'... Minutes later, when CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Conway in a separate interview if she wished Trump 'wouldn't have made fun of these women,' Conway replied, 'I would not say those things.'" CW: Obviously, the Trump campaign has sidelined Conway, who is certainly the top "shackle" Trump shed, & she's thinking about her future.
AND Whatever Happened to Chris Christie? Matt Friedman of Politico: "During the final few weeks of the presidential campaign, as Trump falls further behind in the polls, picks fights with his own party's leaders and makes unsupported claims about a 'rigged' campaign, [N.J. Gov Chris] Christie -- one of Trump's most faithful surrogates since primary season -- hasn't been there to back him up. The governor has not withdrawn his endorsement of Trump, despite calling the nominee's hot mic comments bragging about groping women 'indefensible.' But Christie -- who has appeared on camera to defend all manner of Trump controversy over the course of the campaign -- pulled out of an Oct. 9 appearance on CNN the day after the Trump hot-mic tape surfaced.... The governor was also was notably absent from the audience at the presidential debate the next night, despite reports that he helped Trump campaign prepare for it." ...
... CW: I too have missed Gov. Chrisco, though fortunately for me his name keeps coming up in a criminal trial. (See stories linked under Beyond the Beltway.)
CW: Maybe one of the reasons wingers hate journalists is that they have no idea what reporters actually do: like checking into the veracity of explosive claims rather than, say, accepting as fact jokes they read on the Twitters, then conveying those jokes to readers as outrageous "facts." ...
... Brian Beutler Connects Limbaugh & McCain: "Trump won the GOP nomination because the conservative media was already heavily Trumpified, and a Trump media conglomerate makes no sense because the conservative media will remain Trumpified once the election is over." -- CW ...
Senate Races
Chris Massie of CNN: In an interview on a Philadelphia radio station, Sen. John McCain [R-Az.] promised that Republicans would be 'united against any Supreme Court nominee' put forth by [Hillary] Clinton.... A spokesperson from McCain's Senate office later clarified his comments on opposing a Clinton-nominated justice. 'Senator McCain believes you can only judge people by their record and Hillary Clinton has a clear record of supporting liberal judicial nominees,' said McCain spokesperson Rachael Dean. 'That being said, Senator McCain will, of course, thoroughly examine the record of any Supreme Court nominee put before the Senate....'" ...
... Akhilleus: Oh yeah, just like he's been considering Merrick Garland for the better part of a year. Don't believe a word this guy says. When McCain says Confederates won't consider anyone Clinton nominates, he means it. Trump is only the ugly tip of the winger iceberg. It's the ones under the water line, like McCain and Ryan and McConnell who will tear open the hull of the good ship United States.
... CW: This really is a shocking admission on McCain's part. Not only is he promising Senate gridlock; he's promising continued Supreme Court gridlock. Further, one has to assume he and his fellow Republicans would take the same tack against lower court nominees. If your state has a U.S. Senate race this year, vote for the Democrat, no matter how ridiculous (s)he may be. McCain himself is up for re-election this year. He has a well-qualified opponent in Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick. It's time for McCain to enjoy his old age in one or more of those nine homes he & his wife own. Maybe he could wile away his days reading up on the Constitution, which Trump has apparently caused him to forget. ...
... Jonathan Chait: "The fact that it is McCain, a personal friend of Clinton and as strong an institutionalist as can be found in the Senate, who is proposing to extend the blockade [of Democratic Supreme Court nominees] indefinitely shows just how deep the commitment runs through the party. The old norms held that presidents were given some deference in filling Supreme Court vacancies. Senators might object to a particular nominee on the basis of ideological extremism or lack of qualifications, but the president's general right to appoint a member of his judicial team was considered sacrosanct. Like all the other norms holding back the exercise of power, this one has now collapsed. The new rule is that a president needs 50 senators to fill a Supreme Court vacancy."
... CW: Our Constitution works only if the three branches of government perform the duties it prescribes. More and more, Republicans have opted out of doing even the minimum required of them under our form of government, thus crippling the other two branches. To vote for down-ballot Republicans is to vote for a somewhat controlled form of anarchy. ...
... PIgWhiP. The Party of Ignorant White People. Steve M.: "Obstructionism thrills the Republican base almost as much as a Trump speech, and it makes moderate voters just give up on politics altogether. It's an excellent way for the GOP to get ready for the midterms. And remember, the Republican base literally believes that the next Democratic Supreme Court justice will abolish Christianity in America and mandate total gun confiscation. If a justice is approved, every incumbent Republican senator is at risk of a primary challenge. So they're not going to go down without a vicious fight." -- CW
Other News & Views
Robert Pear of the New York Times: "When the Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplace opens in two weeks, many consumers will have a new option for the law's fourth open-enrollment period: standardized health plans that cover basic services without a deductible. With many health plans on the marketplace coming with deductibles in the thousands of dollars, consumers have complained that they were getting little benefit beyond coverage for catastrophic problems. The new standardized options are meant to address that concern -- to ensure that 'enrollees receive some upfront value for their premium dollars,' as the Obama administration said." -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Mark Stern of Slate: "Poor Rick Scott! The Florida Republican governor had just one job this election season: Vigorously enforce the state's voter disenfranchisement laws to disqualify as many Democratic votes as possible. Unfortunately for Scott, over the weekend, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker barred the governor from deploying one of his best disenfranchisement tools through two equally excoriating rulings. Both decisions provide an excellent example of the federal judiciary's increasing skepticism over irrational voting restrictions." Read on. CW: Walker is an Obama appointee. If thousands of Democratic votes count this election, we can thank Mark Walker for not letting Rick Scott's designated "handwriting analysts" toss our ballots in the trash. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jeff Stein of Vox has a good round-up of events following the firebombing of the Orange County, North Carolina, GOP HQ. ...
... Anne Blythe, et al., of the Charlotte Observer have more: "In Carrboro on Sunday, representatives from an Orange County Democrats office called police to ask for extra patrols. Volunteers closed that office early after finding 'death to capitalism' written on the front of the Main Street building." CW: Carrboro also is in Orange County, contiguous to Chapel Hill, the home of UNC.
The First Amendment in the Age of Trump: Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times. There is "a genuine attack on the 1st Amendment being waged by prosecutors in North Dakota. There, prosecutors are threatening journalist Amy Goodman with a jail term and criminal fine for reporting on a public protest against an oil pipeline project.... State's Atty. Ladd Erickson, who brought the charges, told the Bismarck Tribune that Goodman 'put together a piece to influence the world on her agenda, basically. That's fine, but it doesn't immunize her from the laws of her state.' Goodman observes in response: 'We have a 1st Amendment. Is he saying that journalism is a crime? I think what he's doing is sending a message to reporters: "Do not come to North Dakota."'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Akhilleus: Goodman was first charged with trespassing and threatened with jail time. When Erickson couldn't make that stick, he opted for charging her as a "rioter". The charges change depending on what the Confederates think they can get away with, the goal being to quash reporting. Oh, by the way, the day the bulldozers, contractors, and their attack dogs went after protesters, Goodman was the only national reporter on the scene. Trump's daily assaults on the First Amendment embolden Confederates to decide who has rights and who doesn't. If he's elected, it will be much worse.
Michael Kiefer of the Arizona Republic: "Acting on a judge's request, a U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor has filed a proposed order to show cause as to whether Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio should be held in criminal contempt of federal court. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton asked for the proposed order to use as a 'charging document' to continue criminal proceedings against the embattled sheriff. She has yet to sign the order." -- CW
Bridgegate Trial, Ctd. Ted Sherman & Mark Mueller of NJ.com: "Bill Baroni said he believed David Wildstein. The former Port Authority executive, charged with using the world's busiest bridge as a tool of political retribution, took the stand in his own defense Monday, maintaining he knew nothing about a plot to punish the mayor of Fort Lee. He said he believed the closure of local access lanes at the bridge was part of a legitimate traffic study proposed by Wildstein aimed at easing congestion on the bridge's chronically congested upper level." -- CW ...
... Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "Mr. Baroni did not contradict Mr. Wildstein’s most politically explosive assertion that Mr. Christie knew about the lane closings as they were happening." -- CW
Zimmerman Wins Again! Jason Silverstein of the New York Daily News. "The Florida man who fired a gunshot at perpetual menace George Zimmerman was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday for attempted murder. Matthew Apperson, 37, had testified that he shot in self-defense during a road rage incident with Zimmerman last year. He said Zimmerman's intimidating reputation -- especially for his fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin -- made him fear for his life.... 'The crux here is Mr. Apperson's blatant disregard for my life, any life,' Zimmerman told the judge Monday. Akhilleus: Wait, wasn't Zimmerman's excuse for murdering an unarmed teenager that "he feared for his life"? As to the murderer Zimmerman's astounding quote about Apperson's "disregard" for his life, I am stricken speechless. There's justice and then there's the law. They ain't the same. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Travis Andrews of the Washington Post: "To resounding applause Monday, the West York, Pa., town council voted to accept Charles Wasko's offer to resign as mayor, following a controversy about his posting of offensive and racist memes and messages to his personal Facebook page.... In a strange and confusing twist, though, it's not entirely clear if Wasko will actually follow through on his offer to resign. He did not attend Monday's meeting, nor were any outlets able to speak with him that evening. But Wasko did post a lengthy diatribe to his Facebook on Monday night, which led to doubt if he will actually leave his office." -- CW
Way Beyond
Loveday Morris & Kareem Fahim of the Washington Post: "Iraqi Kurdish forces advancing toward the northern city of Mosul paused Tuesday on the second day of a long-awaited offensive after the Islamic State staged tough resistance in villages east of the strategic city. The front lines were largely quiet after fierce fighting as Kurdish forces pushed to retake a string of villages on the edge of their territory as new footholds closer to Mosul -- the last main stronghold for the Islamic State in Iraq and a critical showdown for both sides. However, the Iraqi military made some gains." -- CW ...
... Martin Chulov, et al., of the Guardian: "Iraqi forces, supported by US-led airstrikes and special forces, advanced on Mosul from the east and the south on Monday in the first phase of a long-planned offensive to retake the city from Islamic State." -- CW ...
... Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "In a statement on Monday morning, the American general in charge of the coalition's war in Iraq and Syria, Lt Gen Stephen Townsend, openly acknowledged the presence of 'forward air controllers' amongst the US 'advisory' contributions to the battle." -- CW
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Reader Comments (15)
I just saw a Trump commercial repeatedly accusing Hillary of lying.
A pathological liar, repeatedly lying about lying. This is what we have become. The truth, the facts are easy to ignore. Since it is impossible for Trump to lose, it must be crooked Hillary rigging the election.
In 1958 Pat Brown, Jerry Brown's dad, won by 60% running for Governor of Calif. He won again for a second term but when he ran for a third time he was badly beaten by Reagan in 1966 who had given what is known as the "Time for Choosing Speech" at the Republican convention for Goldwater who lost to LBJ. This speech laid the groundwork for Reagan's climb, not because of the the content, but of the way it was delivered. Pence referred to this speech yesterday with I imagine that same goal in mind forgetting perhaps how badly Goldwater got creamed.
And Goldwater came from Arizona which has been a red state since something like 1948 except in 1996 Clinton won by a hair. Arizona has always voted Republican but when Bernie rallied there he got thousands more than Trump. Tomorrow Bernie will be back to give speeches throughout the state for Hillary who has zeroed in on Arizona as she has in other red states.
But when The Arizona Republic paper endorsed Hillary they were bombarded with death threats, vile hate mail and calls. People actually spit on young kids who go door to door selling subscriptions. Some time ago one of their journalists, Don Bowles, was murdered by a bomb that had been placed in his car.
This election has unleashed the venom and hatred that has been nestling in the bosoms of these bien pensants or assholes in English. Yesterday at a Trump rally in Wisconsin there were loud shouts of "Paul Ryan sucks" for about ten minutes. We have gotten down into the gutter thanks to the man who would be king and when he loses he will not claim defeat but will claim "the game is rigged." How dangerous and how pitiful.
Now on to the matter of Melania's "little boy" remarks. She said,"I have two boys, my eleven yr. old and Donald." This explanation was to quell the bad bus battering I suppose as though we could excuse it on those terms. I have known a few women who have referred to their husbands as their child––"I always tell people I have three children, my husband being the third"––and I am always taken aback by these statements. How does this work exactly? Does he call you mommy? Reagan called Nancy, Mommy. Do you as the wife of this boy-man run the ship, call the shots, man the sails? And make excuses for infantile actions because, oh, heck, he's such a kid! Are you as this kind of wife an enabler? Is Melania an enabler? We do know she sure is "sticking by her man."
Todays NJ Star Ledger editorial says the truth about rigging the election.
http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/10/republicans_talk_nobly_about_democracy_but_will_th.html
I hope on Weds. the subject comes up in the debate and Hillary declares that there is a serious attempt to rig the election, by Trump!
And the proof of the delusional and totally ignorant state of mind of Trump supporters is the poll showing that 2/3 are not confident that their votes will be counted. They have no clue about the electoral system and the fact that elections are all local activities and that in the majority of Republican vote counters are Republicans!
On Trump's 1.8 million voters who will be voting for somebody else:
After my husband died in 2013, I never called the county to ask them to remove his name from the voter rolls. He died in the county where he was registered to vote, so I expect the registrar removed his name, based on the public record of his death.
But it is possible my husband is still on the rolls. The chance of my trying to vote for him, however, is zero, as is the likelihood that someone else would try to impersonate him.
When Trump makes this false claim about "dead voters," he also is impugning 1.7999999 million family members who would not use their deceased loved ones' voter registrations to give themselves an extra vote. Not that disparaging honorable people has ever phased him. It's what he does.
Marie
The Defenders
The "millions of dead people will vote against Trump" meme has become an insistent talking point for former mayor NounVerb&9/11 who has bartered away whatever acicular remnant of reputation remained to him for the lubricious pleasure of serving as the fawning, obsequious manservant for a blustering, ignorant bully boy.
Want a chuckle? (okay, rueful chuckle...) Google "Giuliani defends Trump" and stand back. It's as disgusting as it is staggering.
"Giuliani defends Trump: But he just had to use those deductions!"
"Giuliani defends Trump: Bill Clinton cheated on Hillary so...."
"Giuliani defends Trump: And Hillary cheated on Bill. Trump is a saint compared to these horrible people!"
"Giuliani defends Trump: Oh, no big deal. Men all talk like that."
"Giuliani defends Trump: Trump won't quit! He's a MAN."
"Giuliani defends Trump: Can't blame Trump. Both sides have sinned."
"Giuliani defends Trump: Stop and Frisk is good. Lester Holt lied when he said it was unconstitutional. He was wrong. I know! I was a great prosecutor!"
"Giuliani defends Trump: Hillary assassination? C'mon. If the Donald wanted her dead, she'd be dead. He'd come right out and say it."
"Giuliani defends Trump: He's just like St. Augustine!"
"Giuliani defends Trump: Sure we should take Iraq's oil. Nothing is illegal in war. You can do anything."
"Giuliani defends Trump: Not paying taxes? He's a genius."
"Giuliani defends Trump: Of COURSE the election will be stolen!"
"Giuliani defends Trump: ...and of COURSE Obama invented ISIS."
"Giuliani defends Trump: Hillary is on death's door. Donald said so."
One wonders what he's getting out of this deal with the Dunce. Money? Personal enjoyment? Air time? Is that it? Exposure (so to speak)? Christ, if that's all it is, he could walk into Times Square at rush hour and whip it out. His reputation would be significantly better off.
Serial adulterer and defender of slimy things Gingrich is much cannier than Giuliani, the self-proclaimed genius prosecutor. Gingrich now and then will stay at arm's-length from the Agent Orange cloud by winking a bit and offering mild criticisms such as "There are two Trumps; the big one and the little one. The big one is a world historical figure. The little one, frankly is stupid". This gives him, he believes, the right to later claim that he knew all along that Trump was a fraud. But Giuliani would pull his tongue out of his head with red-hot pincers rather than admit that the Boss was ever wrong.
Disgusting. And if I gave a shit about this douchebag, which I don't, I might say, sad as well.
Then there is "A pimple on my ass kept me from killing the entire North Vietnamese army by myself" boy, Rushbo. The concept of morality itself checks into an asylum for several weeks whenever this drug addled bottom feeder opens the excrement hole in his face. Upon hearing of Trump's assertion that, because he's a star, he can grab pussy anytime he wants, Limbaugh defended Trump by stating that, hey, it's not abuse if they let you do anything. They're sluts. So what? And never one to allow an opportunity to demean blacks, his "defense" of Trump goes on to say "But blacks.....bitches, hos....they're to blame, not Donald!"
Anyone looking for the base reasons (and I do mean base) for the savage immorality and debauched behavior of the Confederate Party will think they've gone to Research Heaven listening to just a couple of minutes of any Limbaugh screed.
But these are just three of the many who support, defend, and enable the worst fraud in American presidential politics. No, the Confederate Party won't tumble into the dustbin of history on November 9th, but all connected with it deserve perdition (even if it isn't real, it damn well oughta be). These people have a lot to answer for.
Dear Children of America:
Here's a real role model for you.
Trump Steaks: Failed. Trump Vodka: Failed. Trump casinos: Failed. Trump University, errr-r Institute: Failed.
—so the next failed venture? Trump TV.
The price could be right, but "Trump TV" isn't likely to happen
...said Sandy Grushow, CEO of Phase2Media and former chairman of Fox Television Entertainment Group.: ""There's a little issue of advertising," "Most big brand advertisers would avoid it like the plague. The last thing anyone is looking for is controversy for fear of being boycotted."
@Nancy: Bravo to the football player's boycott!
@AK: Guiliani = Fear of being obsolete. (for reference: see Jack Welch and other execs or politicians who have lost their power base—can't go quietly into the night).
First Trump's disgusting monologue (accompanied by obsequious giggling from another Bush family idiot) was passed off as "locker room talk" now Trump's wife, Melania, wants to poo-pooh it as "boy talk". Boy talk? Really? What's next, preschool banter? Pretty soon it will be just a dream, a fabrication made up by the liberal media. It never really happened at all.
Boy talk. If I had ever talked like that as a boy, my parents would have disowned me.
Melania should have stayed in the shadows. Her inane comments only make clear what a churlish, amateurish operation this joy ride has been from the start.
In a moment of boredom following the 2012 election I sat down to calculate how many of the 100,000,000 Americans who did NOT vote would be required to cast their votes strategically in order to give Mitt the presidency. 1,000,000 would have done the job. Out of 127,000,000 votes cast that's not very many. But to organize that many voters without a crystal ball to see where to send them to vote? Impossible doesn't come close!
I think that a successful democracy requires a homogeneous population. Not in racial terms but in political terms. The losers must feel that the winners will not deviate too far from a set of shared national values. The American political system is on the verge of collapse. Both left and right feel that the other party is a threat to the American way of life and the losers in the last 2 presidential elections feel no compulsion to share the burdens of governance,retreating to a no position on any proposals advanced by the Democrats. Reaching out to the alienated 40% through the screen of Republican politicians is going to be Hillary's toughest job and I don't have a clue how to do it. I would suggest outlawing gerrymandering and the electoral college and reforming political financing would be a good start. Of course that requires control of all 3 levels of government and how likely is that?
As I said before, Trump is not running for POTUS, he wants to be the President of the US of Trump, his new company. Unfortunately, 95% of the people voting for him can't afford Trump products and a growing number of people who can afford it are getting nauseous every time the see or hear the word Trump. Wouldn't it be fun if the election resulted in the end of the brand name Trump?
As if the convention appearance wasn't bad enough, Trump is again exploiting the agony of Pat Smith, who lost her son at Benghazi and wants someone to relieve her of the agony and anger that is most certainly real. It is akin to having used Kathy Shelton as a human shield in his pre-debate stunt. Quite clearly, Ms. Shelton has been irreparably harmed by the rape and is still suffering. In these instances, Trump reveals himself as purely evil and deserving of notice only for the breadth of loathsome he has achieved.
In his campaign to defile the democratic process, the country and anyone else in his path, I'm most disturbed by his utter disregard for these two women and his concerted effort to foment their pain for his own benefit.
The Emperor Trumpula
Over the last few days I've been scouring the backgrounds of iniquitous assholes to see if I could find some historical analog for the vile excesses of Trvmpvs (the Hitler thing having become too obvious). So I turned to my old friend Suetonius, historian of the Caesars.
And sure enough, there it was: A rotten son of a bitch who fucked over everyone he went into business with in order to enrich himself. A narcissistic, incompetent pervert who, according to Suetonius, "...lived in the habit of incest with all his sisters..It is believed, that he deflowered one of them." Trump, who can be seen groping his daughter at the Confederate Convention, of all places, has called her "a nice piece of ass" and averred that he would love to "go out" with her. Ahem. This Roman son of a bitch was also similarly possessed of the most "...excessive confidence and the most abject timidity." Trump the braggart is also, at root, a coward.
As regards his treatment of women, "...there was hardly any lady of distinction with whom he did not make free. He used commonly to invite them with their husbands to supper, and...examine them very closely, like those who traffic in slaves; Afterwards, as often as he was in the humour, he would quit the room, send for her he liked best, and in a short time return with marks of recent disorder about them. He would then commend or disparage her in the presence of the company, recounting the charms or defects of her person and behaviour in private." Sound familiar?
This upright stalwart's name? Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, commonly known as Caligula.
Caligula was almost as narcissistic as Trump, who slaps his name on everything from steaks to jets to neckties. In the Roman's case " He ordered all the images of the gods...to be brought from Greece, that he might take the heads off, and put on his own." And like Donaldo, he was insanely jealous of the success of others. Caligula, who had no military victories of his own (he, like Trump, found ways to avoid military service), decided that celebrations in honor of the great sea battle won by his forebear, Caesar Augustus, against the forces of Marc Antony and Cleopatra at Actium, be forbidden "... affirming that they had been most pernicious and fatal to the Roman people."
Both are big fans of torture, and it doesn't even matter very much if the condemned is guilty or not. Examples must be made. "Persons were often put to the torture in his presence" and at least on one occasion "having punished one person for another, by mistaking his name, he said, 'he deserved it quite as much.'" Does anyone believe Trump would arrive at a more humane conclusion?
They both share a fondness for foul mouthed imprecations. Caligula, according to Suetonius, "... aggravated his barbarous actions by language equally outrageous." Check off another box.
Both indulge in personal flamboyance and displays designed to highlight their superiority to ordinary humans. In Caligula's case, during one such display he was "...mounted on a horse richly caparisoned, wearing on his head a crown of oak leaves, armed with a battle-axe, a Spanish buckler and a sword, and in a cloak made of cloth of gold; the day following, in the habit of a charioteer, standing in a chariot, drawn by two high-bred horses..." Very Trumpian. He even takes for himself, unearned, the Roman version of a Purple Heart. At least Caligula, as far as we know, never spent charity funds to purchase likenesses of himself.
Both also had no problem beggaring others so that they might live in luxury. Trump's many Chapter 11 filings allowed him to skate on his debts so that he might keep the wealth accumulated at others' expense. Like Trvmpvs, Caligula "...spent enormous sums, and the whole treasures which had been amassed by Tiberius Caesar, amounting to two thousand seven hundred millions of sesterces, within less than a year...Having therefore quite exhausted these funds, and being in want of money, he had recourse to plundering the people." Something Trump, no doubt, has in mind as an unending source of income if he becomes emperor, er, president.
Suetonius' conclusion is that Caligula "...was destined to be the ruin of himself and all mankind; and that he was rearing a hydra for the people of Rome, and a Phaeton for all the world." (Suetonius, as befits a chronicler in the fullness of empire, was wont, and not without some justification, to assert that what happens in Rome will affect the rest of the world.)
Suetonius' reference to "a Phaeton for all the world" is perhaps the most apt of the Caligula/Trvmpvs comparisons. Phaeton, offspring of the sun god Helios and a spoiled little creep, decided that it was he who should one day grab the reins of power, that of the sun chariot, and drive to glory in the sky. Phaeton, however, was a braggart and an incompetent who was sorely lacking in the skill and experience needed to control the great horses pulling the sun across the heavens. Seeing that the fiery orb itself was in danger of crashing down and igniting the entire world, Zeus shoved a lightning bold up Phaeton's ass, killing him instantly, but saving the earth.
Our Zeus will be the Electoral College.
Oh, and by the way, Caligula? Murdered by his own guards for being a perverted rat bastard.
Me, I'll settle for the lightning bolt up the ass.
Quotes all from Suetonius' "Lives of the Twelve Caesars"
Jeez, what is it with the lamestream media companies? Roger Ailes gets fired for sexual harassment and gets a golden parachute of $40M. Billy Bush "works" for only 3 months, at most, gets caught on tape saying despicable things and then negotiates a multi-million payout without a non-compete restriction.
If the rest of us were in those situations we would be told to clean out our desk while being supervised by HR, and then told to "not let the exit door hit us is the ass" while leaving. We also wouldn't even be able to file for unemployment benefits.
What's wrong with this picture?
@Unwashed: Roger Ailes probably had a habit of collecting the dirty laundry of everyone in a position to hurt him at Fox "News." The Murdoch boys were probably prudent to tell him to just take this little $40MM token of our esteem, Rog, and go. Please.
Maybe NBC "News" doesn't want to ruffle the feathers of the Bush dynasty too, too much. I'd still like to hear from Jeb! Funny how celebrity-hound Billy could, according to Melania, wrap the gentlemanly Don around his little finger, yet Jeb!TheSmartOne, with his near-$100MM war chest (and/or a phone call to Cousin Billy), couldn't nick the Teflon. However the election turns out, it will be a blue, blue Thanksgiving at the Bush compound.
Marie