The Commentariat -- October 27, 2016
CW: I have wondered throughout the campaign why we haven't heard more war stories about Donald Trump's college career. We know a lot about Hillary's; we learned (to our surprise!) that Ted Cruz was a major pain in the ass even then; we heard Marco Rubio had a checkered college career; we learned Jeb! met his wife on a college excursion, and so forth. So how is it possible we missed Donald's brilliant career -- he's like a really smart person -- as an undergrad at the Wharton School? Well, I just found some archived material that explains it all:
*****
Presidential Race
Nate Silver: "Trump's share of the vote has increased, as he's picked up undecided and third-party voters, probably as the result of Republicans' returning home after a disastrous series of weeks for Trump this month. Clinton, however, is at least holding steady and probably also improving her own numbers somewhat." -- CW
... Via Greg Sargent.
Mitch Perry of Florida Politics: "Hillary Clinton celebrated her 69th birthday by giving a speech in downtown Tampa on Wednesday afternoon, just as the polls are getting tighter between herself and Donald Trump.... Job one of her address was to remind voters that early voting has begun and that they need to get to the polls." -- CW
Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times: "... Tim Kaine courted Utah Mormons by describing his experiences as a missionary, further evidence that the longtime Republican stronghold state is in play this election.... Utah last voted for a Democratic presidential candidate more than a half-century ago. But in recent polls, GOP nominee Donald Trump has been running neck and neck with independent candidate Evan McMullin, with both of them edging Hillary Clinton." -- CW
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "With the polish of a seasoned politician, Khizr Khan strode through the door of a seafood restaurant to the serenade of clicking cameras, clasped hands with cheering Democratic lawmakers and, as he has become famous for doing, unflinchingly argued that Donald J. Trump must not be president. To the naked eye, Mr. Khan, whose son was an American soldier killed in Iraq and who skewered Mr. Trump at the Democratic National Convention, could have been mistaken for someone running for office. But as he made his first appearance on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, he said his mission was greater than politics." CW: I would say Humayun Khan learned heroism at home.
Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton has spoken for years of the 'glass ceiling.'... Dispensing with subtlety, Mrs. Clinton's campaign said on Wednesday that it would ring in election night at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the unglamorous glass fortress on Manhattan's West Side." -- CW
Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "Accepting that his presidential bid will fail, Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld on Tuesday obliquely urged voters to vote for Hillary Clinton. In a Tuesday statement addressed to 'those in the electorate who remain torn between two so-called major party candidates,' the former Massachusetts governor told Republicans not to vote for the GOP nominee out of 'fear for our country.' 'After careful observation and reflection, I have come to believe that Donald Trump, if elected President of the United States, would not be able to stand up to this pressure and this criticism without becoming unhinged and unable to perform competently the duties of his office,' he said at a Boston press conference.... 'This is not the time to cast a jocular or feel-good vote for a man whom you may have briefly found entertaining.' Though Weld goes on to mention Trump by name, his comments could also describe [Weld's running mate Gary] Johnson, who captured headlines with his bumbling responses to foreign policy questions and odd interview antics." -- CW
Sean Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump on Wednesday pledged what he called a 'new deal for black America' as he attempted to make late inroads with a voting bloc that polling shows favors Democrat Hillary Clinton by a vast margin. 'I will be your greatest champion,' Trump said during an campaign rally [in Charlotte, N.C]. 'I will never ever take the African American community for granted. Never, ever.' In a scripted speech heavy on policy specifics, the Republican presidential nominee laid out a plan that he said is built on setting up better schools, lowering crime in inner cities and creating more high-paying jobs." --CW
Donald Knows Best. Nicki Rossoll of ABC News: "Donald Trump went on the offensive against a military expert and former dean of the Army War College, Jeff McCausland, who said the Republican nominee's comments this weekend about the battle to reclaim Mosul in Iraq show he doesn't have a firm grasp of military strategy. 'You can tell your military expert that I'll sit down and I'll teach him a couple of things,' Trump told ABC's George Stephanopoulos...." CW: Giving credit where credit is due, Trump did learn in military school how to march in formation, make up a bunk & keep his locker neat, lifeskills I doubt he has put into practice in the last half-century.
It's So Unfaaaair:
... Ed O'Keefe & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump made a detour to Washington on Wednesday to officially christen a downtown hotel bearing his name.... Aides insisted it was a non-campaign event, but when Trump took the stage he railed against bloated military hospital construction projects, blasted Obamacare price spikes and congratulated former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for sparring Tuesday night with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly in a contentious primetime interview. 'That was an amazing interview,' Trump said as he pointed at Gingrich. 'We don't play games, Newt, right? We don't play games.'" -- CW: See part of the "amazing interview" in yesterday's Commentariat. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "Cable news producers haven't forgotten Sept. 16. That was the day that media outlets were told to expect a Donald Trump announcement on the birther issue.... So the media congregated for a news conference at Trump's new hotel in Washington, D.C.... The networks covered the event from the very start." What they got was a 30-minutes infomercial for the hotel, followed by a brief statement in which "Trump admits that the president of the United States was born in the United States. Cable news, punked.... [Wednesday] Trump gathered the media for ... a ribbon-cutting for that same hotel. This time, cable news wasn't playing along. All three major cable news networks -- CNN, MSNBC and Fox News -- pretty much skipped live coverage of Trump's remarks." -- CW ...
... Dana Milbank: "It's apt that Donald Trump's new hotel in Washington, which he dedicated at a ribbon-cutting Wednesday, is at the Old Post Office. Just 13 days before the election, Trump is mailing it in.... Trump looks in the closing days of the election as he did when he began -- like a publicity-mad billionaire on a lark. He put the country through hell, stoking grievances in millions, and now, in the end, he's looking out for No 1." -- CW
Bird Man. And [wind turbines] kill all the birds [False]. I don't know if you know that.... Thousands of birds are lying on the ground. And the eagle. You know, certain parts of California -- they've killed so many eagles [False]. You know, they put you in jail if you kill an eagle. And yet these windmills [kill] them by the hundreds [False]. -- Donald Trump, on Herman Cain's radio show, Tuesday
Those [False] notations come from Katie Herzog of Grist. Trump said a lot more about energy sources, so Herzog was obliged to insert quite a few more fact-checks.
Gail Collins wonders if Trump has given up. CW: I don't think so.
Get to Know Your Presidential Candidate. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times talks with Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio in two podcasts. Includes Trump and Family in Their Own Words! CW: Sorry, but long ago I learned I didn't want to get to know Donald Trump.
Trump[s election is going to be the biggest 'fuck you' ever recorded in human history -- and it will feel good. Whether Trump means it or not is kind of irrelevant because he's saying the things to people who are hurting, and that's why every beaten-down, nameless, forgotten working stiff who used to be part of what was called the middle class loves Trump. He is the human Molotov cocktail that they've been waiting for, the human hand grenade that they can legally throw into the system that stole their lives from them. -- Michael Moore ...
... Matthew Sheffield of Salon: "Despite most indicators showing Donald Trump well behind his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the key states he needs to win the Nov. 8 presidential election, populist filmmaker Michael Moore has long argued that the Republican nominee has more support than people may think. At a recent promotional event for his new film 'Michael Moore in TrumpLand,' Moore told audience members that he thinks the loudmouthed GOP nominee is going to win, largely because American elites are so cut off from regular people that they don't realize just how much the middle class has been harmed in recent years." -- CW ...
... CW: I don't know that Trump will win, but I am afraid the results will be much closer than the Clinton blowout some are suggesting (and most of us hope for). I suspect plenty of people, especially men, won't admit to pollsters ("what if my wife is listening!") they will vote for Trump, particularly with the type of publicity he has been getting in the last month. There is a huge shame factor in voting for Donald Trump, and the secret ballot is the magic cover. Even though it appears more Democrats are voting early, they are not all voting for Hillary Clinton. ...
... Ashley Parker & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "New York Times reporters spoke to people attending Trump rallies in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In every crowd, there were supporters who echoed Mr. Trump's message that the polls do not reflect the 'silent majority' who they say will turn out on Nov. 8 and elect him in a landslide." If Trump loses, some of his supporters, "worry that they will be forgotten, along with their concerns and frustrations. Others believe the nation may be headed for violent conflict." -- CW
Meet Your Republican "Leaders." Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz again reversed his position on Donald Trump's presidential candidacy on Wednesday night, saying he'd vote for the Republican nominee but wouldn't endorse him.... [Chaffetz] had previously backed Trump's candidacy before withdrawing his endorsement on Oct. 8.... Chaffetz is one of six Republican members of Congress who have recommitted to voting for Trump after yanking their support, along with Sens. Mike Crapo, Deb Fischer and John Thune and Reps. Scott Garrett and Bradley Byrne." CW: See also Diane's comment at the top of today's thread.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: Fox "News" is having a Megyn Kelly moment. If Kelly stays with the network (she's in contract negotiations now), it could become less stridently Hannity-O'Reilly. ...
... Justin Baragona of Mediaite: "During a panel discussion on CNN tonight, anchor Anderson Cooper pointed out that the last person in the world who should be talking about people being 'fascinated with sex' due to his own personal history is Newt Gingrich.... 'For Newt Gingrich to accuse Megyn Kelly of being fascinated by sex,' Cooper stated. 'This is a guy, who's what, on his third marriage, cheated on his first two wives and was having an affair when he was impeaching Bill Clinton. Isn't that right?'" -- CW
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Wherein Mark Halperin, star of MSNBC & Bloomberg, "interviews" Donald Trump: "Oooh, Mr. Trump what big hands you have," or something like that.
Election News
Matt Friedman of Politico: "Democrats are asking a federal judge to block the Republican National Committee from coordinating with Donald Trump's campaign on 'ballot security' efforts, saying the RNC is violating a decades old legal agreement that bars the group from tactics that critics call voter intimidation. In a motion filed in New Jersey federal court on Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee charges that the RNC has violated the consent decree 'by supporting and enabling the efforts of the Republican candidate for President, Donald J. Trump, as well as his campaign and advisors, to intimidate and discourage minority voters from voting in the 2016 Presidential Election.'" -- CW ...
... MEANWHILE. Christina Wilkie of the Huffington Post: "Vote Protectors [-- a group that supports Donald Trump & is associated with conspiracy theorist & dirty trickster Roger Stone --] plans to issue fake ID badges to its volunteers, who intend to travel to cities with large minority populations and conduct phony 'exit polls' on Election Day." -- CW
Kira Lerner of Think Progress: Those "roughly 45,000 newly registered voters in Indiana -- almost all of whom are black -- [still] may not be allowed to vote next month after state police targeted the state's largest voter registration drive, forcing it to shut down its operation." CW: As Lerner lays out, this is a GOP-run scam, led by mike pence, "who has pushed the 'voter fraud' conspiracy on the campaign trail alongside Donald Trump." The voter registration group has asked the Voting Section of the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to intervene. So where is the DOJ??? ...
... Jaweed Kaleem of the Los Angeles Times has a fairly comprehensive review of voter fraud allegations & the outcomes of investigations, where completed. The "fraud" in each of these cases was either bureaucratic incompetence, possible bureaucratic interference, or Trump, pence & other Republicans making up crazy shit.
Other News & Views
Connor O'Brien of Politico: "Defense Secretary Ash Carter has suspended collections and ordered a review of the process that's forcing members of the California National Guard to repay enlistment bonuses that may have been paid improperly. In a statement issued Wednesday, the Pentagon chief called the process 'unfair to service members and to taxpayers.'" -- CW
Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "For the first time in a quarter-century, the United States abstained Wednesday in the annual United Nations vote condemning the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that the embargo was fully within international law but that it was 'a perfect example of why the U.S. policy of isolation toward Cuba was not working.' She said that 'instead of isolating Cuba ... our policy isolated the United States, including here at the United Nations.'" -- CW
The Continued Radicalization of the Right. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Speaking to reporters after a campaign rally for a Republican U.S. Senate candidate [in Colorado], Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said that there was 'precedent' for a Supreme Court with fewer than nine justices -- appearing to suggest that the blockade on nominee Merrick Garland could last past the election.... Several conservative legal writers have argued that the threat of a Clinton presidency should get Republicans thinking about a long-term blockade on nominees." -- CW ...
... Here's some "intellectual" crackpot named Ilya Shapiro writing for the righty-right-wing Federalist: "The Senate should refuse to confirm all of Hillary Clinton's judicial nominees." -- CW
... CW: If you want a federal government that functions as anything other than one big Fake Investigatory Mob, vote for Democratic candidates, no matter how bad they are. ...
... ** Linda Greenhouse reflects on the rule of law and what Republicans have done to upend it. AND she wrote her column before Ted Cruz & various other crackpots weighed in with their bright ideas about gutting the courts. ...
... Dave Weigel: "Jason Chaffetz, the Utah congressman wrapping up his first term atop the powerful House Oversight Committee, un-endorsed Donald Trump weeks ago. That freed up him to prepare for something else: spending years, come January, probing the record of a President Hillary Clinton. 'It's a target-rich environment,' said Chaffetz in a interview in Salt Lake City's suburbs. 'Even before we get to Day One, we've got two years worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain't good.'... And other Republican leaders say they support Chaffetz's efforts -- raising the specter of more partisan acrimony between them and the White House for the next four years." CW: Congressional Democrats must figure out a way to stop this shit. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Confederates Waste No Time With More Pointless Investigations. Alex Seitz-Wald Benjy Sarlin of NBC News: "In the last few weeks alone, dozens of House Republicans have demanded that a special prosecutor investigate the Clinton Foundation for possible conflicts of interest. Sen. Ted Cruz has called for a 'serious criminal investigation' into a Democratic operative featured in a sting video by conservative activist James O'Keefe. And Speaker Paul Ryan promised 'aggressive oversight work in the House'... Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who would likely serve as the chief antagonist of a second Clinton White House as chair the House Oversight Committee, told Fox News last week the 'quid pro quo' claim alone was worth at least 'four new hearings,'... 'This is exactly what Americans hate about Washington. Before the election has even taken place, Jason Chaffetz is already planning to further abuse his office and waste more taxpayer dollars on political witch hunts against the potential President-elect,' said Clinton campaign spokesperson Brian Fallon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Akhilleus: As it has done for the last eight years and for most of the first Clinton presidency, the Confederate Party will spend its time wasting millions of taxpayer dollars investigating investigations that are currently investigating other investigations. "Four new hearings"? Why not make it 44? After holding 125 hearings on the Benghazi bullshit and coming up with zilch, the spoiled brats in the House will give it another try. In other words, if Hillary wins, they'll make sure she spends most of her time bouncing from one shady investigation to another. The Republican Way. ...
... Steve M.: There is "a general sense among some observers that the GOP is going to be one big circular firing squad.... But Dave Weigel's story today in the Post suggests to me that Trumpites and Trump skeptics will probably kiss and make up soon, united around their new shared goal: destroying Hillary Clinton by any means necessary.... The long-term danger for the establishment is that Trump voters might consider [Paul] Ryan et al. to be failures if the new president isn't literally in prison by the time of the 2018 midterms.... Call their value system "personal survival over country." -- CW ...
... Paul Waldman: "... Republican candidates are ... warning against the dangers of a 'blank check' for Hillary Clinton that might come from electing Democrats for Congress.... Go ahead and vote for Clinton, but split your ticket to vote for me, too. The problem is that ticket-splitting is a recipe for everything people say they hate about Washington.... The problem isn't that 'Washington' can't get anything done these days, it's that we have a Democratic president that Republicans have sworn to oppose in all things. We may wind up with exactly the same thing after November's election. But if that's what you voted for, you don't get to complain." -- CW
Scott Higman & Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "Two senators asked Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch Wednesday to explain a sharp drop in the number of enforcement actions against large pharmaceutical distributors and others by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) requested a wide variety of information about cases brought by DEA's Diversion Control Division in the wake of a Washington Post investigation published over the weekend. The DEA division enforces laws written to prevent the diversion of opioid painkillers to the black market, where they can fall into the hands of substance abusers and drug dealers." CW: Hey, here are some senators doing their jobs. They're Democrats.
Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "Joe Walsh, who was a United States congressman from 2011 until 2013, declared on Wednesday afternoon that he will take up arms if Donald Trump is not elected to the presidency.... For the record, Walsh's apparent plan to form a band of individuals to take up arms against the lawfully elected leader of the United States most likely meets the legal definition of treason.... Though treason prosecutions are unusual, previous federal cases have allowed such prosecutions to move forward when armed individuals join together against the United States." -- CW ...
... Steve M.: "The problem with this sort of cheap talk is that people who are less inhibited (and angrier, and crazier, and more hate-filled) are getting ideas from it. It's making some people feel they have license to do what Walsh pretends he'll do if Hillary Clinton wins. Walsh is too soft-bellied to actually engage in violence, so he's just goading others to do it instead. He's a reprehensible rabble-rouser and a coward." -- CW
We're More Weapons-Crazy Than Ever. Art Swift of Gallup: "The fewest Americans in 20 years favor making it illegal to manufacture, sell or possess semi-automatic guns known as assault rifles. Thirty-six percent now want an assault weapons ban, down from 44% in 2012 and 57% when Gallup first asked the question in 1996." -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Ted Sherman & Matt Arco of NJ.com: "After six weeks of testimony, dozens of witnesses and declarations of innocence from the two former Christie administration insiders now on trial, the defense in the Bridgegate scandal has rested. Summations are scheduled to begin on Thursday and the jury is expected to begin their deliberations on Monday.... In a final day of testimony, federal prosecutors continued to methodically chip away at [Bridget Anne] Kelly in her fourth day on the stand, focusing on the inconsistencies with what seven other witnesses told the jury." -- CW ...
... New York Times Editors: "Whatever verdict is delivered in the Bridgegate trial, the picture of Mr. Christie and his administration that has been exposed is devastating. One can search the news accounts in vain for honorable motives, for openness and integrity, for a sense of 'public service' as that overworked term is understood.... Mr. Christie remained the offstage villain, the Mephistopheles of Trenton, but it was impossible for even casual trial observers not to discern, from witness after witness, the evident viciousness and grubbiness of the governor and his administration." -- CW
Craig McCarthy of NJ.com: "Police charged 10 people Wednesday in a protest on the George Washington Bridge that closed lanes and caused extensive delays during morning rush hour.... The immigrants' rights demonstration stopped upper-level traffic completely for about 15 minutes before police arrested the protesters, who chained themselves to the bridge, blocking three lanes. The demonstration caused up to 90-minute delays for drivers heading into the New York City. All lanes were reopened by 8:50 a.m." -- CW
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Reader Comments (22)
Tonight, the moral giant, Jason Chaffetz indicated he will be voting for Trump, but not endorsing or supporting him. Parse that if you can. Previously, pontificating from on high, he maintained he could not face either his daughter or himself and still vote for Trump. Well shit. Now the poor girl has to use a photo to have a full frontal of dad. All the mirrors in the Chaffetz home also have to be covered, as if the family is sitting Shiva, lest dimwit Chaffetz catch a glimpse of himself.
Watching the PBS Newshour on White Nationalists, I listened to Matthew Heimbach going on about 'this land is all mine, it belongs to (us) white people'. Are they completely oblivious to the fact that the indigenous peoples of north and south America are not European whites? I wondered how long since his ancestors were undocumented immigrants. I was shouting at the tv - "If you don't like it, go back to where you came from", though I doubt Merkel wants him. I'm sure there are many African American citizens whose ancestors were cordially invited to join the white population of the US long before any of these crazies were boat people. White dominion is particularly rich in the south-west of the country of course. It's difficult to cope with this ignorance, stupidity, bigotry.....
The singular point of the campaign was an infomercial from this effete clapper.
Gloria, very well said. As I have said before, Lincoln made a big mistake. He should have freed the slaves and left the Confederate States as a separate country.
It's evolution and half of America refuses to believe that humans evolve. Not only in the genetic sense but also the cultural sense. We have come from men vote to women vote to women leader. It only took more than 200 years. Every women can vote but every man cannot get a job as a computer programmer. So if 200 years ago you had a farm, your IQ did not matter. Now your IQ matters a lot. Again, remember that 50% of the population is IQ 100 or less. So the evolution of the human brain did not matter much for the first million years. Your job was to reproduce and live long enough to raise your offspring so they can reproduce. However in the current world, you have other things to do or not. Buy a new car, join a country club. In other words, our culture has not completely adapted to the new reality. As a democracy we sometimes try. But for a large chunk of the population (defined as non- wealthy Republicans) the game has not adjusted. Watching TV can be a horror seeing what others can do and you cannot. That's what sports is all about. Pretending your a winner.
So we need a new form of leadership that works to adapt our culture to the reality of the 21st. century. Good luck.
TWO OVERWEIGHT BOOKENDS:
At the start of this circus there was the Trumpster giving a bloody retort to Megyan Kelly's listing of all the disgusting names he has called women. Yesterday another narcissist whose sexual history reads like a sleazy paperback had the temerity to lecture Megyan on the morality of reporting and accused The Kelly File " of being obsessed with sex"––has a distinct ring to it when you team up those two words. James Fallows has written about Trump's tenancy to project his own personality on others; looks like his overweight booster is doing the same.
The party is losing support from their women. When you lose women you might as well get your hind quarters to the outhouse and do some serious dumping.
RE: the vigilantes at the polls: there are arm bands and printed fake security cards that you can get online––go forth you jerks and hustle up and scare all those colored people who want to vote. If this occurs the Democrats will go back to the Federal court in New Jersey and extend the Decree Consent until 2025. This procedure that Trump is asking his "people" do carry out is ILLEGAL–––does he know this?
Reading about the expected endless hearings on Hillary–– once again playing their "gotcha" games, wasting tax dollars, pretending to do their jobs. The people out in our "great country" who vote for these jabokes are the same ones who complain that nothing gets done, that they feel they are being left behind. Oh yeah? Did you vote for these legislators who are not legislating in your interest? Did you vote in your local elections? Stop complaining and vote for for people who aren't screwing you over and over.
Edsall provides a good summary of the trends in both parties. Nothing we haven't heard before, but nice to see it all in once place.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/27/opinion/campaign-stops/the-great-democratic inversion
Seems to me the shift he documents is just a branching out and continuation, even a consequence of Nixon's Southern strategy. Invite the belligerently narrow-minded true believer racists those civil rights Democrats abandoned into your own tent, stir vigorously and feed a red meat diet for fifty years and see what happens. Wouldn't take much of a Zarathustra to predict the results: Here we are in Trumpland.
Anent yesterday's related comment:
I think Libertarian Weld's oblique suggestion that at this point in the campaign a vote for HRC is in order is an invitation directed at the Koch wing of the Koch-Confederates, that is, at the more rational element of the Republican coalition visibly falling apart.
The Libertarians (many of whom are half-educated; that's their problem) would love to peel the greedy rationalists*, the ones with the money especially, away from the GOP and would not mind leaving their much poorer Confederate base behind.
Come to think of it, Akhilleus has already named that emerging third party. Confederates. Can't improve on that.
*not to be confused with sane
Why down ballot races matter a lot: http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/more-allegations-surface-against-billings-candidate/article_dad61c85-6aac-5adc-8242-823f47db1680.html. When the pond creatures start surfacing during the day, we need to redouble our efforts to focus the light on them.
I read the petition filed by the DCC against the RNC, which is posted on TPM in their article. There is no mention of the printing of a "poll watcher" ID, or "a license to practice intimidation with extreme ignorance" as I prefer to think of them. There's plenty of evidence, but the ID would have added an important element. I suspect the petition was drafted before there was widespread knowledge of the ID.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/dnc-ask-court-to-knock-rnc-for-trump-s-voter-fraud-crusade
Chutzpah or ignorance?
Donaldo now is telling military experts that he will school them in battle strategy and tactics. Ahh...just like he's going to be the new savior of "the blacks" and he'll be bringing back steel and coal mining jobs. Will we also be getting Brylcreem and white picket fences?
It's a given, by now, that Trump is an ignorant blowhard who doesn't have the sense to come in out of the rain, as my mother would say, but his thinking about military issues is particularly troubling.
If he ever did get a chance to sit down with former Army colonel and former dean at the Army's War College, Jeff McCausland, I'm sure he would bring along the Best Made Bed medal he got in high school and that Purple Heart he never earned himself, as totems of his superior military Kung fu. I'm sure the Colonel would be impressed by Trump's fruit salad.
The fact that he keeps going on and on about sneak attack this and sneak attack that should concern every former and current military man and woman lining up to vote for this stooge. Sneak attack? I mean, look at the place. It's in the middle of the fucking desert. How do you sneak up on a city surrounded by sand and rocks? Check out the satellite imagery of Mosul. What's the plan? Have 60,000 guys roll into the city pretending to be tumbleweeds? Maybe he thinks you can disguise tanks as camels. "Hey, Ahmed, check out that funny looking camel. You think it might be a sneak attack?"
Not to mention the fact that announcing you're coming does a number of things, most important of which, it allows civilians to get out of the line of fire. It's not like we planned to sneak up on Berlin in WWII. Does Trump think it's perfectly okay to nuke a major city with civilians in their beds? The guy is an idiot. But worse than that, because he believes he knows best, what would be the chance of the joint chiefs convincing him NOT to bomb Luxembourg in the middle of the night because their ambassador made a joke about his hair? If he wanted to unleash nuclear weapons, who would convince him otherwise? No one. He knows best.
But once again, the most astonishing thing is not the fact of Trump himself, who is simply an avatar for wingnut ideology, on the planning board since Reagan let all those Marines die in Beirut. No, most astonishing is the number of people who have drunk the Confederate Kool Aid and are going to vote for this cretin.
Hey, here's an idea! Since Trumpado is so enamored of sneak attacks, why doesn't he go into hiding from now until the election then leap out from behind a bush outside an Alabama polling place shouting "Surprise! Vote for me!"
Prob'ly not the safest idea. He'd likely be shot by one of his NRA supporters.
So sneak attacks CAN be beneficial! Take that, Col. McCausland.
Anyway, the question, "Chutzpah or ignorance?" Answer: Both.With a big side of "dangerous".
Trump is bad, but there are plenty of terrible people who have already been elected and have been fucking with democracy on an almost daily basis.
Ted Cruz is one such democracy fucker.
Now he wants to stifle the Supreme Court until such time as some future Confederate president can appoint some back up authoritarian wingnut thugs to rescue the four already on the court. And that could mean years and years. Just think of the legal havoc wrought by a permanently stymied Supreme Court.
It seems like every week we hear of more and more outrageous assaults on America from the right. This may seem like just one more, but this is an especially dangerous one because it chokes the effectiveness of one of the three branches of government. Yes, lower courts will still operate, but if Cruz thinks he can get away with leaving a vacancy on the Supreme Court for an indeterminate amount of time, what will prevent him and his traitorous wingnut cohort from allowing the next president (one not named Trump, that is) from naming any judges to federal or appeals court openings? Which means the vast majority of justices are still going to be wingers, many of whom will toe the party line. Not all, perhaps, but enough to ensure that a minority party, growing smaller by the month, will still dominate and control the social, economic, and political realms, that justice will be whatever wingers say it is, with no recourse.
This is a bridge too far even for treasonous anti-democratic haters of the Constitution, like Cruz. Certainly way too far for any American who doesn't believe in the idea that only one party gets to have a say in who rules this nation.
And right on cue, as a perfect demonstration of the how much Confederates hate democracy, a former winger congressman steps up and announces that if Clinton wins, he's going to break out the guns and start killing people. Responsible leadership, like you read about.
I still adhere to the idea that overall, all this confederate talk of "revolution" in the streets is just that, talk. These people are keyboard warriors. They excel in bitching and moaning and complaining about the discrimination of their "values" and "freeedoms", but getting them out of their protected bubbles and organize a sustained social movement, not a chance. That's not to understate the importance of the overall threat, as it only takes one wingnut lunatic following GOP orders to cause mass chaos.
Nevertheless, I'm thinking the combination of amplifying social media cranks and the Twitterization of "journalism" among the Drumpf campaign is going to create some serious problems on election day.
I present to you Exhibit A, a report in Politico that Trump is using some random woman's Facebook page as evidence that voter fraud exists, per Twitter, "A lot of call-ins about vote flipping at the voting booths in Texas. People are not happy. BIG lines. What is going on?"
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/trump-texas-vote-fraud-230384
According to the article, the gist of the story is the woman is incompetent and didn't know how use the voting machine. But she took to Facebook to express her grievances and somehow, thanks to the intertoobz, King Con picked up her story and amplified it across the nation, via his Tweeting prowess. If all it takes is one private, unsubstantiated social media post to claim a threat to our democracy, imagine how many confederates are going to be posting completely baseless and unfounded bullshit on election day, claiming voter fraud where there is none, and hoping to be picked up their Messiah. How many of these cases will be elevated by Drumpf as he sits in his gilded throne and sees his path to electoral college victory shrink along with his wounded, vengeful ego?
This social media baton swap is looking more and more dangerous by the day. It all comes down to the legitimacy that Drumpf's tweets are given by the mass media. Given their record so far, I'm skeptical to say the least.
Moore's "molotov cocktails" metaphor could also come raining down in the form of tweets and Facebook posts, vain attempts to ignite their national megaphone and delegitimize the system they rebel against with such sound and fury.
Vox posted the Susan Seager (update) article on Trump's prolific libel filings. The article was 1st commissioned by the ABA and then suppressed in fear of - you guessed it- a libel suit. The article cites 7 cases filed by Trump as examples. Its lengthy, but informative.
http://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2016/10/26/13408060/aba-libel-law-trump-abuse-times
The constant drip, drip from Wikileaks targeting (and only targeting) the Clinton campaign makes clear that the goals of both Julian Assange and his source, Russian hackers working for Vladimir Putin, are to elect Donald Trump and failing that, damage a Clinton administration as much as possible. For the most part very little of what's been revealed is earth shattering, but it doesn't matter.
Every little thing that can be made to look bad by a media which has Clinton chasing in its DNA is done up royally. Trump whines and moans about the "greatest pile-on in history" but think of what his reaction would be if he had been in the cross hairs for decades as is the case with Hillary Clinton.
It's only been a matter of a few months for him. For Clinton and her family it's been almost a quarter century. Trump would have asked his mob pals to shoot people long before now. As it is, I'm wondering what we might be seeing had Assange asked Russia to hack Trump's e-mails or those of the RNC or Paul Ryan or Ted Cruz. There would likely be much more salacious and damaging material were those dark, snake infested holes plumbed.
Just as a small example, we find the article published by Bloomberg, "Inside the Trump Bunker" which reveals the vote suppression schemes Trump and Breitbart Steve have been working up. Keep those darkies down, make sure Democrats can't vote. This is a lot worse than what John Podesta has to say about e-mails and far more damaging to the democratic process. Of course, it's par for the course for Confederates. Making sure people they hate can't vote has been a staple of wingnut strategizing for a looooong time.
But Assange (and Putin) are not interested in that. And in that respect, as far as I've seen, "journalists" who are more than happy to run with the daily "scoop" of "exclusives" hacked from the Clinton camp by foreign agents, never ask the most basic question of investigative journalism: "Cui bono?"
Who benefits is Trump. And Putin. And Assange. And media outlets happy to see Trump elected if it will get them a few more website clicks.
What doesn't benefit is American democracy. If both sides were being hacked and important information being released, I might think differently. As it is, it's just one side being damaged and one side being immeasurably aided.
One other thought about the Wikileaks/Russia/Assange fatwah against Hillary Clinton and American democracy. I wonder if perhaps Wikileaks is editing their info dumps. It seems that all we've been seeing have been damaging e-mails. I wonder if they've been suppressing anything that might make the Clinton camp look good (or perhaps their Russian sources have already done the cherry picking for them).
Just wondering.
@Akhilleus
I'm not wondering.
@Diane
Your post reminds of the thought I had about Trump's secret plan (Remember McCain's secret plan to get Bin Laden? We never did find out what it was.) to destroy ISIL.
Trump will go with the combat strategy he's practiced for years and knows best.
He's gonna sue 'em.
The Cowardly Turtle
Jason Chaffetz is not the only Confederate with a mile-wide yellow streak up his back. Mitch McConnell's entire body is a deep, cowardly shade of putrid, sickening yellow.
For someone who is supposedly one of the two leaders of the Republican Party, when is the last time you heard the Turtle open his mouth?
Has he been making the rounds of the TV gasbag shows to say one way or the other whether the Orange Headed Bigot is fit to move into the Oval Office? Has he made it clear that his party will not stand for bigotry, hatefulness, vote suppression, lying, racial profiling and unconstitutional religious tests, brutal misogyny, an unbridled nuclear arms race, disavowing decades long treaties with long standing allies, siding with Russia over Americans, or reneging on Constitutional duties of advise and consent on presidential candidates for seats on the Supreme Court and lower courts?
Well, in fact, he has weighed in on all of those issues if only by the absence of his voice. His answer? Yes to all of it. If he disagreed with any of the above, he is clearly too cowardly to say so, so we must assume that he is in full agreement with whatever hateful, ignorant, anti-democratic and anti-American scheme Trumpy can dream up.
Leaders lead. They don't hide under the covers and hope the storm will pass them by so they can emerge unscathed and claim that they've been leading all along. Mitch McConnell is perhaps the most disgraceful senate majority leader in history and without a doubt one of the leading disgraces in a party full of them.
Ken,
Hahahaha.
As I was reading your comment about Trump's Secret Plan to Get ISIS, I wasn't expecting the punchline, but it was a good one. I can see it now. Trumpy sues Al-Baghdadi for breach of contract. He was supposed to beat the crap out of the Iraqis in Mosul, at least long enough for Trump to win! His October surprise foiled by military incompetence of his terrorist buddies. Maybe Al-Baghdadi was getting ready for a sneak attack.
Thanks to Diane for the link to the article about Trump the Libel Bully (and Loser) the ABA was too fearful to publish. I can't see a single thing in there that could be at all defamatory or in any way libelous. Lots of cowards around these days it would appear.
I need help with this one.
The article is short and doesn't include "the rest of the story." Maybe that's what I need.
Anyone?
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/us/bundy-brothers-acquitted-in-takeover-of-oregon-wildlife-refuge.html?
Thanks for posting the article by Linda Greenhouse: her facility and clarity make reading her thoughts like pulling the bow off the wrapper of something great that has yet to be fully revealed.