The Commentariat -- October 22, 2016
Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "Major websites were inaccessible to people across wide swaths of the United States on Friday after a company that manages crucial parts of the internet's infrastructure said it was under attack. Users reported sporadic problems reaching several websites, including Twitter, Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, Reddit, Etsy, SoundCloud and The New York Times. Dyn, whose servers monitor and reroute internet traffic, said it began experiencing what security experts called a distributed denial-of-service attack just after 7 a.m. Reports that many sites were inaccessible started on the East Coast, but spread westward in three waves as the day wore on and into the evening.... A spokeswoman said the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security were looking into the incident and all potential causes, including criminal activity and a nation-state attack." CW: Reality Chex -- and in fact all Squarespace-powered sites -- were down for hours Friday afternoon.
Presidential Race
Emily Stephenson & Chris Kahn of Reuters: "... Donald Trump gained on ... Hillary Clinton among American voters this week, cutting her lead nearly in half, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling released on Friday. The polling data showed Trump's argument that the Nov. 8 election is 'rigged' against him has resonated with members of his party.... Clinton led Trump 44 percent to 40 percent, according to the Oct. 14-20 Reuters/Ipsos poll, a 4-point lead. That compared with 44 percent for Clinton and 37 percent for Trump in the Oct. 7-13 poll released last week." ...
... CW: In the last few days, the tracking is moving toward Trump, despite the huge raps against him. Pundits are very overconfident in the intelligence of the American people. Are people right about the "rigged" polls? Yes. Rigged toward the stupid. ...
... BUT. Katie Glueck & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "For much of his campaign, Donald Trump has done more to repel voting women than he has to win them over. Now mounting evidence suggests they are already punishing him for it at the ballot box. In three crucial battlegrounds -- North Carolina, Florida and Georgia -- women are casting early ballots in disproportionate numbers. And in North Carolina, a must-win state for Trump with detailed early voting data available, it's clear that Democratic women have been particularly motivated to turn out or turn ballots in." CW: So far early voters represent only a tiny fraction of the total votes cast. However, the total early vote in 2012 was 32 percent. ...
... AND. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... while it's probably not a surprise that early vote tallies in several swing states show a shift to the Democrats since 2012, it still means that Clinton has a greater percentage of banked votes than President Obama did at this point four years ago." -- CW
Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton's ... appeal [to Trump-leaning Ohio voters] is part of a broader strategy by Clinton's campaign to exploit what it says is a new opening in a state where she has long struggled to get a steady footing. According to a Clinton aide, her team thinks that after the presidential debates, Ohio -- one of Trump's best states -- is now winnable for her.... Clinton's stop at Cuyahoga Community College on Friday was just a taste of the renewed attention her campaign is giving to the state. Sen. Tim Kaine ... made two stops in Ohio on Wednesday. Vice President Biden is expected to make two stops Monday, and Chelsea Clinton will campaign in Ohio next week, making three appearances in the state." -- CW
Ken Thomas & Lisa Lerer of the AP: "Hillary Clinton's campaign is increasingly preparing for the possibility that Donald Trump may never concede the presidential election should she win, a development that could enormously complicate the crucial early weeks of her preparations to take office.... Campaign officials stress they are not taking the outcome of the election for granted.... 'I've got to figure out how we heal these divides,' she said in a Friday interview with a Tampa radio station WBTP. 'We've got to get together. Maybe that's a role that is meant to be for my presidency if I'm so fortunate to be there.'" -- CW
Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post: An ad "released by the Clinton campaign on Friday afternoon, features Khizr Khan telling his story again. It's a remarkably powerful ad, connecting Trump's rhetoric on Muslims to the real pain that such a pledge would inflict on Muslim Americans. Real people would be affected by all of [Trump's] proposals, the ad reminds us. It's not just words by Trump. The ad, according to the Clinton campaign, will rotate into swing states, including Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania":
Elliot Smilowitz of the Hill: "Hillary Clinton's Brooklyn campaign headquarters was evacuated Friday after receiving a letter with a suspicious white powder inside. The New York Police Department's Emergency Service Unit determined after testing that the powder was not hazardous, the New York Post reported." -- CW
Ashley Parker & Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Addressing a rally in Fletcher, N.C., in the more rural western part of the state, Mr. Trump offered a slightly more restrained version of his typically freewheeling speech, largely seeming to hew to his prepared remarks. Gone were his complaints of a 'rigged' and 'stolen' election ... and he did not, as he has recently, try to beat back accusations from 10 women who have come forward to accuse him of inappropriate sexual advances. Instead, Mr. Trump offered an unusually candid, if still self-congratulatory, assessment of his debate performances -- 'I think the first one was fine, I think we won, easily, the second one, and the third one was our best,' he said -- and acknowledged the possibility that he might not end up in the White House, after all.... Later, at a rally in Johnstown, Pa., Mr. Trump took the stage with a renewed vigor..., complaining of a 'rigged system'...." -- CW ...
... Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "As he took the stage [in Fletcher, N.C.,] Friday afternoon, Donald Trump was as subdued as the modest crowd that turned out to see him. He complained about the usual things -- the dishonest media, his 'corrupt' rival Hillary Clinton -- but his voice was hoarse and his heart didn't seem in it. He also promised to do all that he could to win, but he explained why he might lose. 'What a waste of time if we don't pull this off,' Trump said. 'You know, these guys have said: "It doesn't matter if you win or lose. There's never been a movement like this in the history of this country." I say, it matters to me if we win or lose. So I'll have over $100 million of my own money in this campaign.'..." -- CW ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump offered a new justification on Friday for attacking Bill Clinton's indiscretions and Hillary Clinton's handling of them: Michelle Obama did it first." You'll have to read the details to appreciate how Trump came up with this tenuous claim. -- CW ...
... Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Donald Trump will have 'lots of options' to go after Hillary Clinton if he's elected president, he told supporters Friday. At a rally in Fletcher, North Carolina, Trump again dubbed his opponent 'the most corrupt politician ever to seek the office of the presidency,' a charged comment that sparked raucous chants of 'lock her up' from his supporters.... Based on his past rhetoric, Trump's options would include re-investigating the email controversy that has dogged Clinton's campaign and, as he said in March, appointing Supreme Court justices.... Perhaps unfamiliar with how the Supreme Court works, Trump said during the Republican primary he would 'probably appoint people that would look very seriously at her email disaster because it's criminal activity.'" -- CW
Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times looks into some ways Trump could challenge the election results, but he concludes that none would likely work.
Gail Collins: "There is nothing in the world that Donald Trump can't make worse.... [The Al Smith dinner] has been going on since 1945 without major incident, and it took Donald Trump to screw it up.... The reaction moved into flat-out booing, even before he offered them up the hilarious observation that Clinton was there 'pretending not to hate Catholics.'" -- CW
Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Donald Trump's calls for vigilante poll watchers ... has drawn attention to the consent decree the RNC signed in 1982 that banned the very sort of 'ballot security' measures Trump has encouraged from his supporters. If there's reason to believe the RNC was participating, it could be found in violation of the decree, which could keep the committee under its restrictions for another eight years.... The decree is set to expire in 2017." Despite a claim by Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway that "she is actively working with the national committee, the official party, and campaign lawyers to monitor precincts around the country," according to WashPo reporter Robert Costa, "the RNC has since denied to TPM any coordination on Trump’s supposed voter fraud prevention effort.... Costa told TPM via email that Conway called him back later to tell him she was mistaken about the RNC's involvement." -- CW ...
... BUT. Comrade Trumpski Has a Back-up Plan! Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "At least three American states have turned down Russian requests to monitor polling locations during the election on Nov. 8, as United States officials portrayed the overture as little more than a Russian public relations stunt. Russia's consul general in Houston, Alexander K. Zakharov, wrote letters dated in September to officials in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma requesting that a Russian officer be present 'for a short period of time, when convenient,' with the 'goal of studying the U.S. experience in organization of voting process.'" -- CW
Meet Your Trump Supporters. Ulltra-conservative writer David French of the National Review outlines how many Trump backers have reacted since he un-endorsed Donald Trump. It's truly sickening. -- CW
A Skunk Cabbage by Any Other Name.... Caily Rizzo of Travel & Leisure: "Amidst reports that occupancy rates at Trump Hotels have slipped this election season, the company has announced that new brand hotels will no longer bear the Trump name. The newest line of luxury hotels, geared towards millennials, will be called Scion, the company said.... Although Trump Hotels has said the new name has nothing to do with the eponymous businessman's presidential campaign, empty rooms at the hotels have caused officials 'to reduce rates during the peak season,' according to New York Magazine." -- CW ...
... Digby in Salon: "The Trump brand has a problem and it's spreading beyond his consumer goods to his real estate holdings." -- CW
Crooked Foreigners Try to Influence U.S. Election (Okay, Hayek is a naturalized American, but you know that doesn't count):
Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Donald Trump told Richard Branson during their first encounter that he would spend the remainder of his life trying to destroy five people he had asked to no avail to aid him after his latest bankruptcy, the English business mogul wrote Friday. Branson, the Virgin Group founder who wrote in his blog last week that Trump would be a 'disaster' as president, described a tale of two lunches Friday, starting with his meeting with Trump.... He [went] on to compare his lunch with Trump to dining with Hillary Clinton. 'Here we talked about education reform, the war on drugs, women's rights, conflicts around the globe and the death penalty. She was a good listener as well as an eloquent speaker, Branson wrote." -- CW ...
... Adrian Carrasquillo of BuzzFeed: Actor "Salma Hayek claimed that Donald Trump pursued her while she had a boyfriend, asked her on a date, and then -- angry at being rejected -- planted a National Enquirer story about her being too short for him, in an interview on a nationally syndicated Spanish-language radio show that aired Friday." -- CW
Frank Rich on the presidential race (and whither the GOP post-election): "The GOP elites would have it that [Paul] Ryan is the great white hope (and I do emphasize white) of their party, the 'adult' who will inherit the Earth once the Trump fever has passed. But as [a poll of Republicans] shows yet again, the Republican base doesn't want Ryan any more than it wanted a Kasich (10 percent). It wants another Trump, a new and improved Trump: That's why the aggregate percentage in the poll for the base favorites of the GOP -- Pence, Trump, and Cruz -- is 70 percent as opposed to a total of 25 percent for Ryan and Kasich. So Pence is serving as a placeholder until the next shining demagogue comes along." -- CW
Senate Race
Kevin Robillard of Politico: "Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke has qualified for a televised debate in Louisiana's Senate race after a new poll showed him drawing 5 percent of the vote. Duke, a white supremacist, announced he was running late this summer, saying ... Donald Trump had inspired him and drawn more followers to his cause." CW: Congratulations, Louisiana!
Beyond the Beltway
Kaboom! Ted Sherman & Matt Arco of NJ.com: "In an emotional day of testimony, Bridget Anne Kelly ... [told] a jury she told Gov. Chris Christie in advance about the plan to close toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge in 2013, and had gotten his approval for what she thought was a legitimate traffic study.... And she asserted that other higher-ups in the governor's inner circle were all well-aware of what was going on in Fort Lee, long before it played out, and that no one seemed that concerned about it.... The author of the now-infamous message 'time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee' called what has long appeared to be the smoking gun in the case an innocent response to what she called a 'crazy plan' by David Wildstein, the admitted mastermind of the lane shutdowns. Kelly said Wildstein told her he wanted to realign local toll lanes to reduce travel time for commuters..., and wanted the governor's approval. She said she was parroting his language that the realignment would temporarily cause traffic problems in Fort Lee, and only wanted to let him know the governor had agreed to the plan." ...
... CW: Do read on. One nice touch: Christie got mad at Kelly about another matter & threw a water bottle at her, hitting her arm. He sounds like a great boss. ...
... Ryan Hutchins of Politico has more on Kelly's testimony. ...
... Kate Zernike has the New York Times' story: Kelly "... has yet to face cross-examination. And in her testimony, which will resume on Monday, she will have to explain an even more damning message, sent to Mr. Wildstein when he told her about the traffic problems on the first day of the purported study. 'Is it wrong that I am smiling?' she wrote." -- CW
Another Court Win for Women. CBS News: "A federal judge has blocked a Mississippi law that banned the state's Medicaid program from spending money with any health care provider that offers abortions. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III ruled Thursday in a lawsuit filed in mid-June by two Planned Parenthood affiliates. The law took effect July 1. Jordan said every court to consider similar laws has found they violate the 'free-choice-of-provider' provision of federal law. Medicaid is paid by federal and state dollars." CW: Jordan is a Bush II appointee.
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Reader Comments (3)
Polls show trump gains this week. Just goes to show if you sling
enough mud, some of it is bound to stick, but I think it mostly sticks
to those low information voters who only hear what they want to
hear. I'm being kind by not calling them what they really are; low
IQ voters who have never read a book or any other print other than
right wing sound bites. And yes, I know some of them personally
and they seem to take pride in that fact.
The new New Yorker that will come out on Monday has given the whole of "the Talk of the Town" segment on Hillary (glowing) and Trump (disaster).
Trump's joke about Melania's plagiarism was itself plagiarized from a cartoon. And now Trump has taken out of context something Michelle, in a speech in 2008, was saying about her family and has turned it into a negative directed at Hillary. Grabbing at those old slippery straws that just slither out of those tiny hands––desperation always looks like desperation.
The fact that Bridget Kelly is saying that all the top staff knew about the bridge closing scheme and told Christi about it is riveting. She broke down in tears while testifying, saying she was frightened of Christi (who wouldn't be with water bottle throwing and yelling obscenities ). I'm thinking Christi's "lock her up" stunt aimed at Hillary during one of the Trump rallies, might just be something he's gonna really regret.
David French's reporting (see "meet your Trump supporters" above) on the vile response he and his wife are experiencing from Trump's alt-right nut jobs is horrendous and extremely frightening. It would be like living under a dictatorship that has your number and will get rid of you in some nefarious way. Is this what they mean by making America great again?
So, Frank Rich has become another of those "shut down the Clinton Foundation" increasingly irrelevant cranks. Thanks for the link.