The Commentariat -- Sept. 21, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Republicans demand hands off by big government and reduced spending. Oops...unless they're the ones who want it. Rich Perry of Saint Peter's Blog: Florida governor Rick Scott is incensed that President Obama won't open the door to the money room for him to mooch off. 'But in a letter directed to the President on Tuesday, the governor lays out the case that it's beyond time for the feds to help out the nation's third-biggest state, following the damages incurred from Hurricane Hermine.... The governor states there has been more than $36 million in damages due to the hurricane. A presidential disaster declaration would provide federal resources to support recovery efforts in Florida."...
... Akhilleus: Funny that wingers in Florida are demanding help from the government for events caused largely by climate change, something they claim doesn't exist. Then they want government money for the Pulse nightclub slayings, this in a state that celebrates gun ownership to the point of rampant idiocy. The reporter suggests that denial of assistance is due to Scott's repeated attempts to undermine the president's programs such as the ACA but offers no proof. Typical.
Tim Berners-Lee & Daniel Weitzner in a Washinton Post op-ed explain to Ted Cruz that he does not own the internet. "Sen. Ted Cruz wants to engineer a United States takeover of a key Internet organization, ICANN, in the name of protecting freedom of expression. Cruz's proposal is one of the key sticking points in finalizing the government spending bill necessary to avert a government shutdown on Sept. 30.... ICANN, in fact, has no power whatsoever over individual speech online. ICANN -- the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -- supervises domain names on the Internet. The actual flow of traffic, and therefore speech, is up to individual network and platform operators." ...
... Akhilleus: Cruz's contention comes from the mistaken, not to say ignorant, belief that somehow the US owns the internet. It does not. In fact, Tim Berners-Lee, widely credited with inventing the modern internet, is an Englishman who was working in Geneva when he came up with the original programming for internet protocols. Once again, Cruz is trying to shut down the government based on lies. Lying has become the most essential item in the Confederate tool box. Oh, and by the way, since when has Ted Cruz been a proponent of free speech for anyone who isn't a far right Confederate asshole?
*****
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday called for a 'course correction' in the march to an integrated world, saying the gains made in recent decades were threatened by 'uncertainty and unease and strife.' Mr. Obama, making his valedictory address before the United Nations General Assembly in New York, painted a picture of nations struggling with economic inequality, sectarian conflict and rising nationalism. 'We cannot dismiss these visions,' he said. 'They are powerful. They reflect dissatisfaction among too many of our citizens.'" -- CW ...
Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: "The Obama administration thinks there is a high probability that Russian airstrikes were responsible for the deadly bombing of a United Nations humanitarian aid convoy, United States officials said Tuesday. The officials said that the administration wanted to allow Moscow the time and space to investigate and announce its own conclusions about the bombing on Monday, which destroyed much of a 31-truck convoy that had been authorized to travel to a rebel-held area in northern Syria. Aghast at the attack, United Nations officials on Tuesday suspended all aid convoys in the war-ravaged country, describing the bombing as a possible war crime and calling the bombers cowards. The attack threatened to completely unravel a fragile agreement between Russia and the United States...." -- CW
Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "The chief executive of Wells Fargo where bankers opened secret and unauthorized credit card and deposit accounts for customers for at least five years in an attempt to meet sales goals -- told a Senate panel Tuesday morning that the illegal activity might have gone on even longer and that no senior executives had been fired as a result. Senators on both sides of the aisle expressed anger and indignation at the chief executive, John G. Stumpf, with several lawmakers calling for him to give back some of his rich compensation.... The executive who oversaw the retail bank, Carrie Tolstedt, was permitted to retire in July rather than be held accountable for the problems, Mr. Stumpf acknowledged.... Senator Elizabeth Warren ... called on Mr. Stumpf to resign and for him to be criminally investigated." -- CW ...
... CW: Warren has never been a prosecutor, but she tried & convicted Stumpf on Tuesday in less than 10 minutes. ...
... David Dayen in the New Republic: "Yesterday's Senate Banking Committee hearing on Wells Fargo should have ended with CEO John Stumpf hauled off in handcuffs. In a little over two hours, Stumpf revealed enough information, combined with what was already known in public records and filings, to make a powerful case for securities fraud. Specifically, that he touted fraudulent sales figures to investors as evidence of the bank's growth, boosting the stock price and personally benefiting by $200 million. Worst of all, Stumpf used low-paid workers as the raw materials for this scheme, and as the scapegoats when it unraveled.... Will President Barack Obama's administration end its tenure as it began, by refusing to prosecute systemic fraud in the financial markets? That's the unavoidable conclusion so far." -- CW ...
... Dana Milbank: "When Wells Fargo chairman and chief executive John Stumpf sat before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, he represented a bank too big to fail, too sprawling to manage and too arrogant to own up to its failures.... If high-level bankers didn't go to prison for the subprime hijinks that caused the 2008 crash, it's a safe bet that none will in the Wells Fargo scandal, either. But if arrogance were a criminal offense, Stumpf would be looking at a life sentence. The bank's fraud, and the executive's insolence, may have one salutary result: It takes off the agenda any plan to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...." -- CW
Lee Fang of the Intercept: "Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, the author of the 2010 Citizens United decision that unraveled almost a century of campaign finance law, doesn't seem to care that the central premise of his historic decision has quickly unraveled. I spoke briefly to Kennedy during his visit to the U.S. Courthouse in Sacramento, before his security detail escorted me out of the room.... Kennedy, after listening to my question about the false crux of his decision, waved his hand and shrugged off the issue:... 'Well, I don't comment ... on my cases.... That's for the bar and the lower bench to figure out.'... Despite his claim that he does not comment on cases, Kennedy often discusses his decisions." Kennedy's security people would only let Fang back into the room if they could screen his questions, an offer he declined. -- CW
Guardian: "Federal prosecutors have charged Ahmad Khan Rahami with planting a series of bombs in New York and New Jersey, including one that injured 31 people when it blew up on a busy street. Rahami is charged with using weapons of mass destruction, and several other charges related to the use of explosives in 'furtherance of a crime of violence'. The criminal complaint was unsealed Tuesday at a federal court in Manhattan." -- CW ...
... Marc Santora, et al., of the New York Times: "Two years before the bombings that Ahmad Khan Rahami is suspected of carrying out in New York and New Jersey, his father told the police that he suspected his son might be involved in terrorism, prompting a review by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the agency said on Tuesday. The father, Mohammad Rahami, in a brief interview, said that at the time he told agents from the F.B.I. about his concern, his son had just had a fight with another of his sons and stabbed the man, leading to a criminal investigation.... 'In August 2014, the F.B.I. initiated an assessment of Ahmad Rahami based upon comments made by his father after a domestic dispute that were subsequently reported to authorities,' the agency said in a statement. 'The F.B.I. conducted internal database reviews, interagency checks, and multiple interviews, none of which revealed ties to terrorism.'" -- CW
Olivia Solon of the Guardian: "The FBI paid more than $1.3m to unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone 5C, but one computer scientist from Cambridge University has shown that the passcodes can be hacked using a store-bought kit worth less than $100. Sergei Skorobogatov demonstrated a technique known as NAND mirroring -- dismissed by the FBI director, James Comey, as being unworkable -- to break into any model of iPhone up to the iPhone 6, including the iPhone 5C. He outlined the attack in a paper published last week as well as a YouTube video." -- CW
We don't know where these people come from. We don't know if they have love or hate in their heart, and there's no way to tell. -- Donald Trump, on displaced Syrians, speaking at a campaign rally in Canton, Ohio ...
... Louisa Loveluck of the Washington Post outlines for Trump the rigorous vetting process Syrian refugees go through before the are admitted to the U.S.
Yet Another Charity Scammer. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors announced an eight-count indictment Tuesday against Patricia P. Driscoll, charging her with a fraud and tax-evasion scheme as president of the Armed Forces Foundation, a Washington-based charity that assists veterans. Driscoll resigned July 12 after 12 years at the military charity following an ESPN 'Outside the Lines' report on her alleged mishandling of funds. In a December tax filing, the foundation reported it had 'become aware of suspected misappropriations' by Driscoll totaling about $600,000 from 2006 to 2014." -- CW ...
... CW: Also, too, Driscoll might be a "trained assassin"! If Driscoll is looking for one of those work-from-home/prison jobs, she should send her resume' to Donald Trump. She's a perfect fit right for the Trump Org.
Presidential Race
Paul Waldman contrasts Hillary Clinton's approach to terrorism -- keep calm, be vigilant -- and Donald Trump's -- be petrified, vote for a big-mouthed jerk. CW: I know there are millions of Americans who see a terrorist lurking around every corner, but it seems to me that "normal" people would intuitively find Clinton's realistic approach much more sensible & comforting. Moreover, Clinton's approach implies that individual citizens have the power to be part of the solution, whereas Trump is arguing -- without having any workable, Constitutional plan -- that when he's in charge terrorists will turn to pixie dust. That is, Trump is pitching a non-plan that would reduce people to helpless babies. Clinton's response to terrorism is the right one -- and, I think, a winner. (See also Skittles Math! linked below) ...
... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "... Hillary Clinton sought Tuesday to present herself as a model of 'steady leadership' in the face of terrorist attacks and took a shot at Republican Donald Trump's temperament and preparation for handling such moments. 'We know what it takes,' Clinton said at the outset of a call with a team of national security and counterterrorism advisers. 'We can't lose our cool and start ranting and waving our arms. We shouldn't toss around extreme proposals that won't be effective and lose sight of who we are. That's what the terrorists are aiming for.'" -- CW
Burgess Everett of Politico: "... Sen. Harry Reid declared Tuesday on the Senate floor that Donald Trump is a 'swindler' who is 'not as rich as he would have us believe.... Simply put, Trump is faking his net worth because he doesn't want us to know that he's not a good businessman,' Reid said. 'Since 2008, Trump has not donated a single penny to his own charity ... does he have money to donate? He says he does, but he doesn't.'... With just a handful of congressional days in session before the election, Reid is unleashing increasingly heated attacks on Trump and Senate Republicans supporting him. Last week, he called Trump a 'human leech' and suggested the business mogul is overweight.... And Republicans aren't exactly rushing to shield Trump from Reid's attacks; many, in fact, have said that Trump should release his tax returns in accordance with presidential tradition." -- CW
Deportation Don. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "With less than a week until the first general election debate, Donald J. Trump has used his recent rallies to sharpen the nationalist message he has embraced throughout the campaign.... In a typical campaign, nominees of both parties modulate positions to appeal to independent voters.... Mr. Trump, on the other hand.... ha heightened his incendiary comments in recent days, striking notes of nationalism as he continues to call for drastic changes to the immigration system.... Mr. Trump's calls for large-scale deportations are opposed by a majority of national voters. And his comments are more familiar to a brand of nationalism seen in France, by figures like Marine Le Pen." -- CW ...
... I do think one reason Trump says outrageous things is to try to hide substantive stories about his shady escapades & (allegedly) criminal acts, like these:
** David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump spent more than a quarter-million dollars from his charitable foundation to settle lawsuits that involved [his] ... for-profit businesses, according to interviews and a review of legal documents. Those cases, which together used $258,000 from Trump's charity, were among four newly documented expenditures in which Trump may have violated laws against 'self-dealing' -- which prohibit nonprofit leaders from using charity money to benefit themselves or their businesses.... More broadly, these cases [which Fahrenthold lists, including Trump's using his foundation to buy yet another portrait of himself] also provide new evidence that Trump ran his charity in a way that may have violated U.S. tax law and gone against the moral conventions of philanthropy.... The four new cases of possible self-dealing were discovered in the Trump Foundation's tax filings. While Trump has refused to release his personal tax returns, the foundation's filings are required to be public." CW: So just imagine what-all the tax returns would reveal. ...
... Charles Pierce figures out the gist of the second case ["Pulitzer vacuuum"] Fahrenthold cites: "Call me cynical, but doesn't this sound very much like Trump's people arranged a million-dollar hole-in-one contest that they knew nobody could win because they knew the hole was short? And then, when they got caught, El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago tapped the foundation to cover his ass. Please, by all means, hand this guy the federal treasury to play with." -- CW ...
... CW: When Trump boasts that he "I don't settle," he means, "I settle, but with other people's money." ...
... Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "Donald Trump bragged Tuesday there's 'nothing like' using other people's money, hours after a report said he used more than $250,000 from his charitable organization to litigate lawsuits against his business interests. Trump, while calling for building safe zones in Syria financed by Gulf states, vaunted the benefits of doing business with 'OPM.' 'It's called OPM. I do it all the time in business. It's called other people's money,' Trump said. 'There's nothing like doing things with other people's money because it takes the risk -- you get a good chunk out of it and it takes the risk.'" -- CW ...
... CW: Now, let's imagine if the news was that Hillary Clinton had used the Clinton Foundation to pay off her personal legal debts. Would it be a one-day story, after which Republicans & the media would move on to her latest hair-do or forensic examinations of photos of her earpiece cheat?
... Update: Or something funny about Clinton's eyes?
By the way, Lester is a Democrat. It's a phony system. They are all Democrats. It's a very unfair system. -- Donald Trump, complaining to Bill O'Reilly about NBC News anchor Lester Holt, who will moderate the first presidential debate ...
... Zeke Miller of Time: "New York State voter registration documents show that Holt has been a registered Republican in the state since 2003." -- CW ...
... Paul Waldman: "Perhaps Trump was confused by the fact that Holt is black, and ignored the fact that he's also really rich." -- CW
Matea Gold & Anu Narayanswamy of the Washington Post: "A late infusion of big money is allowing congressional super PACs to ratchet up their spending in the final weeks before Election Day, financing an air war that will inundate voters in key states, according to campaign finance reports filed Tuesday. On the right, Las Vegas Sands chief executive Sheldon Adelson and other wealthy Republican contributors swelled the coffers of the Senate Leadership Fund, a GOP-allied super PAC that raised more in August than it had in the entire 2016 election cycle.... On the left, the pro-Democratic Senate Majority PAC raised $11.6 million in August, the group's largest monthly take this cycle. The biggest donor was Alexander Soros, a son of investor George Soros, who contributed $1.25 million." -- CW ...
... Nicholas Confessor & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon G. Adelson is shifting tens of millions of dollars into groups backing congressional Republicans despite months of entreaties from allies of Donald J. Trump, according to several Republicans with knowledge of Mr. Adelson's giving, dealing a major setback to Mr. Trump's efforts to rally deep-pocketed Republican givers." -- CW ...
... Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times: "In conversations over the last several months with chief executives and other business leaders..., with few exceptions, at some point, most of the executives say something critical, even derogatory, about Donald Trump -- but it is quickly followed by, 'I could never say that on the record.' Almost as quickly, I ask why. The answer is almost universal: fear." This includes fear of retaliation from Trump and fear of losing pro-Trump customers. -- CW
David Graham of the Atlantic: "Donald Trump Jr. isn't just his father's namesake or dark-haired doppelgänger. He is increasingly emerging as his father's id -- or perhaps simply his father's emissary to the alt-right. Over the last few weeks, Trump has made an effort to tone down his rhetoric and try to avoid the most outrageous comments, the ones that endeared him to the racists, misogynists, and xenophobes who gather in darker corners of the internet.... But it's still important to maintain the base, and that role seems to have fallen to Donald Trump Jr. Trump fils has been increasingly catering to the fringe right in his social-media statements and interviews.... Even as the Skittles controversy bubbled Tuesday morning, Trump Jr. tweeted a link to a [race-baiting] Breitbart story.... The outstanding question now is whether Trump Jr. is a true believer in white genocide or is simply playing one for cynical political purposes...." -- CW ...
... Patrick Evans of BBC News: "Donald Trump Jr's tweet comparing Skittles to refugees has caused a furore on social media. In a new development, the man who took the photo of the Skittles has revealed himself to be a former refugee. David Kittos, 48, from Guildford, UK, [told the BBC], 'This was not done with my permission, I don't support Trump's politics and I would never take his money to use it..... In 1974, when I was six-years old, I was a refugee from the Turkish occupation of Cyprus so I would never approve the use of this image against refugees.'" ...
... How is Donald Trump's Skittles tweet flawed? Judd Legum of Think Progress counts the ways. ...
Yes, my child! Just as a single poisonous mushrooms can kill a whole family, so a solitary Jew can destroy a whole village, a whole city, even an entire Volk. -- Nazi Julius Streicher, in his "children's book" Der Giftpilz, 1938 ...
... Naomi LaChance of the Intercept: "Donald Trump Jr.'s tweet comparing Syrian refugees to Skittles has deep roots. The concept dates back at least to 1938 and a children's book called Der Giftpilz, or The Toadstool, in which a mother explains to her son that it only takes one Jew to destroy an entire people.... The book's author, Julius Streicher, also published a newspaper that Adolf Hitler loved to read, Der Stürmer. The newspaper published anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, anti-communist, and anti-capitalist propaganda. In 1933, soon after Hitler took power, Streicher used his newspaper to call for the extermination of the Jews.... Streicher was hanged at Nuremburg in 1946 for crimes against humanity." -- CW: Not surprising at all that another of Junior Drumpf's "ideas" has its roots in Nazi propaganda. ...
... Skittles Math! Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "The libertarian (and Koch brothers-backed) think tank Cato Institute published a report last week assessing the risk posed by refugees. That report stated that, each year, the risk to an American of being killed by a refugee in a terror attack is 1 in 3.64 billion.... We're talking about one-and-a-half Olympic swimming pools of Skittles[, not a little bowlful].... There's another layer of complexity. The 200 million Skittles a day that end up in the pool have all passed through Wrigley's stringent quality control system. To continue the analogy in an increasingly awkward way, the United States already screens refugees that arrive in the United States through a multilevel process.... Americans born in America commit hundreds of murders a year. In 2014, there were 4.5 murders for every 100,000 Americans. That's a rate thousands of times higher than what's under consideration here." ...
... Trump's Ark. CW: Marvin S. has a great idea in today's Comments, but I'll one-up him: looks like the only sure cure for domestic terrorism is to (a) vote for Trump; (b) he'll deport every person living in the U.S.A. (to someplace), except himself & his family. (No exceptions, Sean Hannity!) Trump is kinda like God & Noah rolled into one.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "CNN commentator and former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was paid $20,000 in August by the campaign for what it described as 'strategy consulting,' raising anew the conflict of interest issue that has dogged the cable network's hiring of Lewandowski. CNN has said previously that Trump's payments to Lewandowski and his consulting firm were 'severance' for his employment by Trump. It began introducing his appearances on the air last month by mentioning that he receives severance from Trump.... [The 'strategy consulting'] would put CNN in the position of employing a person who is also compensated by the campaign and the candidate he comments on -- conflict that most journalistic organizations prohibit.... CNN chairman Jeff Zucker has repeatedly defended the hiring of Lewandowski...." -- CW ...
... MEANWHILE... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: Sean Hannity is endorsing Donald Trump in a video by Trump's campaign. And today "Hannity will host Trump for a town-hall discussion in Cleveland focusing on 'African-American concerns.'... 'We had no knowledge that Sean Hannity was participating in this [ad],' says a Fox News spokesperson, 'and he will not be doing anything along these lines for the remainder of the election.'" CW: I had no knowledge that either Trump or Hannity had "African-American concerns."
Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times: On her Monday night show, Samantha Bee wentfull frontal on Jimmy Fallon for cuddling up with Donald Trump -- on the same day Trump refused to tell WashPo reporter Robert Costa whether or not he believe President Obama was an American. "'If [Fallon] thinks that a race-baiting demagogue is O.K., that gives permission to millions of Americans to also think that,' she continued." Read the whole post; Itzkoff reminds us of NBC's culpability in promoting Trump. CW: Does Fallon's chummy performance put any pressure on NBC News star Lester Holt not to grin & ruffle Trump's hair? Or does he have his marching orders from NBC suits who are planning to add "Political Apprentice" to next fall's schedule? ...
Aww, Trump can be a total sweetheart with someone who has no reason to be terrified of him. I notice there were no cutaway shots to The Roots. I wonder why. -- Samantha Bee, on Fallon's "interview" of Donald Trump ...
... Speaking of late-nite comedy hosts, contributor unwashed links Stephen Colbert's assessment of Donald Trump's birther announcement & Trump's history of charitable giving (profanity bleeped):
... AND here's Seth Meyers -- NBC's late-late-nite anti-Fallon -- on Birther Trump & Bridgegate Christie, also via unwashed:
... AND I thought Trump ended Hillary Clinton's birther obsession long ago. Period. Richard Ruelas of the Arizona Republic in USA Today: "Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio [CW: and Trump backer] on Tuesday vowed to the Surprise Tea Party Patriots, the group that five years ago petitioned him to investigate President Obama's birth certificate, that he was continuing the inquiry. 'I don't care where he's from,' Arpaio [said].... 'We are looking at a forged document. Period.'" ...
... CW: Um, exactly how long does it take to examine "a forged document"? It took researchers less than a year to determine the age of the Shroud of Turin (although, admittedly, the faithful have spent years questioning the findings).
Beyond the Beltway
Joe Marusak & Ely Portillo of the Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer: "A dozen police officers were injured Tuesday night in clashes with several hundred people protesting an officer-involved fatal shooting in the University City area.... In Charlotte, a crowd of several hundred shouting protesters continued to block streets well after midnight, despite the use of tear gas by police in riot gear.... By shortly before 3 a.m., the demonstrators had shut down all lanes of Interstate 85 northbound and started a fire on the highway, before being dispersed by police with nightsticks.... The man who died was identified late Tuesday as Keith Lamont Scott, 43, and the officer who fired the fatal shot was CMPD Officer Brentley Vinson, a police statement said. Both men were African-American, a police source confirmed." -- CW
Peter Holley, et al., of the Washington Post: "A day after police in Oklahoma released video that shows a white Tulsa police officer fatally shooting an unarmed black man, attorneys representing the slain man's family released photos that they said contradict a key claim in authorities' version of events. At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Benjamin Crump -- a civil rights lawyer who has represented many families of those killed in high-profile police shootings -- said Terence Crutcher never reached his hands into the driver's side window of his stalled sport-utility vehicle [as the police have claimed] before he was shot by police. Crutcher couldn't have reached into the vehicle, Crump said, because enhanced photos of the vehicle taken from police video show that the window was rolled up." -- CW
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Reader Comments (18)
I follow Trump! The FBI screwed up. The NY/NJ bomber was on the terrorist watch list. All the FBI had to do is hire about 5 agents to follow the suspect for 24/7 for every day of his life and he could never have pulled it off. Of course this applies to the other 40,000 or so on the list. And we have two choices to pay for this. We can steal Iraq oil or give the rich tax breaks. Makes perfect sense.
Does anyone else find Trump's claims of the terrible unfairness of it all that two of the four moderators for the upcoming debates are Democrats absolutely ludicrous?
What about the fact that he only appears on Fox when he wants to rant and rave and shout "Unfair to Trump!", or on network morning shows where he'll get nothing but softball questions from the likes of Matt Lauer? I want to see him interviewed by Matt Taibbi or watch him try to defend his plans for the economy with Elizabeth Warren.
Essentially, any situation he can't personally control is unfair. The cry of an ignorant coward.
Ak-
Ahhhh....just the thought of Elizabeth Warren "interviewing" Trumpster about his "whatever" warms my heart! If Hillary pulls
out a win, she can thank Obama, Biden, Corey Booker and, most of
all, Elizabeth Warren for being her surrogates.
I am still wondering why she picked Tim Kaine as her VP, even though I know she does not feel threatened by him. He contributes almost nothing, is really quite boring and, along with Hillary, makes them the picture of an old, rich, privileged white couple. No wonder the millennials are not coming out for them. They cannot relate. I still think Hill will win, but I wish she had picked a younger, more dynamic person of color to run with her--Corey Booker or one of the Castro brothers. IMHO, she has done herself no favors by running with Tim Kaine--even though he is a decent guy.
I do understand why Elizabeth Warren did not want to run. My (secret) hope is that Hillary decides to step down in 2020 and Liz Warren decides to step up! Nevah mind, I know this will not happen!
@Kate: Tim Kaine may not flutter the hearts of the young-ens, but politically he is a wise choice. Bernie urged his "B–Bots" to support Hillary, not necessarily get warm and fuzzy about her V.P. who would be ready to take the reins if need be. Here is a good overview of the reasons Kaine was picked for the job:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-07-22/what-tim-kaine-brings-to-hillary-clintons-democratic-ticket
I'm with you all the way re: Warren. Watching her stump on Stumpf yesterday warmed my heart. She's our pit bull with lipstick.
375 TOP scientists –-mind you, not bottom or middle of the road, but TOP–– scientists warn about about a Trump presidency. That's a hell of a lot of very concerned and worried scientists. If I were a Republican veering toward the golden haired demagogue, this might give me pause if nothing else seemed to do. Of course that would mean I was able to think reasonably and cogently and...oh, la de da...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scientists-donald-trump_us_57e1ac04e4b0e80b1b9eda3d?section=&
Don't miss these clips by Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers about Drumpf's birther announcement. Sad that we need to rely on "comedians" rather than "journalists" and "politicians" to speak the truth.
Obama, speaking at the UN, sounds like a sane one-worlder.
I don't consult them, so have to imagine the right-wing websites are going batshit this AM.
Another (let me count the ways!) reason to miss him.
One caveat: His envisioned new world order, though, relies too heavily on corporate control (the TPP, as a large instance) to achieve the glorious goals he has in mind. As presently constituted, big business may be the tie that binds, but it's also the noose that chokes the life out of millions.
But, oh, I will miss him.
Authoritarian monkey see, authoritarian monkey do.
The bombing of a humanitarian aid convoy in Syria provides anyone who cares to pay attention, a preview of how a President Trumpskyev would handle a similar situation.
After it became clear that Russian planes were responsible for the carnage, Russian authorities cried "Unfair to Russia" and blamed "terrorists" for the strike on the convoy. Although it's not 100% clear who was responsible, one suspect seems much more likely. "'All of our information indicates clearly that this was an airstrike. That means there only could have been two entities responsible,' deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Tuesday night, referring to Russia and Syria. He didn't specify which country's planes carried out the strike. 'We hold the Russian government responsible for airstrikes in this airspace given their commitment under the cessation of hostilities was to ground air operations where humanitarian assistance was flowing,'"
Russia, however denies any responsibility (also a Trump specialty). So, a couple of things. Does anyone believe Putin when he says he had nothing to do with bombing anything? The guy is one of the biggest liars on the world stage today. Ahhh....but perhaps not the biggest. That distinction goes to the Orange Headed Baboon, who watches Putin's every move in order to duplicate his duplicitous deviance.
Add to that Trump's proclivity for cowardice and self-serving actions and statements regardless of the most important considerations at hand, and we've just seen a tiny bit of what the world can look forward to with a President Trumpskyev at the controls of the ship of state. For a better look, here's Trump with a couple of "his generals" as they maneuver that ship in the best tradition of authoritarian monkeys.
Tim Kaine brings his great and good character to the table. He speaks fluent Spanish. He has Virginia to offer. Best of all he could take over if she is disabled.
I watched Ms. Warren in utter awe. Forget the V.P. slot. We need her as A.G.
Did anyone else notice more than a few empty panel chairs? I wonder who was supposed to be in them?
And thank you one and all. After many weeks of treatment for TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) and a virtual news blackout, I have fallen off the wagon once more.
Junior scatters the skittles.
A better reason for Junior to refer to refugees he hates and fears--at least for a misanthropic delinquent such as himself--as "Skittles" can be discovered in the original use of the word as noted in the "Trending Words" section of the Meriam-Webster website where reference is made "..to a British bowling game in which a wooden ball is used to knock down pins, or skittles."
How much more fun would it be for Junior, who has, on occasion, battled the vague ennui of being rich and stupid, by shooting and killing animals in the wild while under the protection of professional safari guides so as never to endanger a centimeter of timorous Trump ass flesh, to roll a large ball at rows of refugees, knocking them to the ground. He and his widdow bwother Ewic, could sit on the backs of the downed skittles and have their pictures taken, grinning like hyenas, lording it over the lesser races.
Their white supremacist pals would love it.
Another Trump outrage, this time using his foundation money to illegally pay various fees, and another story about some Trump flunky "dismissing" the factual reporting as a lie.
I don't know how many "dismissals" we've had so far, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say forty or fifty. Now, one or two such charges and there might be something to dismissing them as exaggerations or misinterpretations. But one a week, for a year or more? Added to years of such malfeasance?
Chutzpah doesn't even come close to describing this kind of unmitigated and transparent mendacity. And this is exactly how a Trump administration would act. Lies, dismissals, assignment of blame to anyone but the real perp. The only perp. The Orange Twerp.
By the way, thinking about a Trump presidency, is it possible for an entire nation to file Chapter 11? At least we know he's good at skedaddling on the bills.
All the ammunition in the world is apparently unable to knock out the lies within the people's minds who are Trumpists. He out-Teflons Reagan. And just in case you forget, here is the other half of the puzzlement called the 2016 presidential election:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/how-hillary-clinton-became-a-vessel-for-americas-fury-w440914?utm_source=email
Sorry-- don't know how to imbed...hope this is useable.
Feeling brave? Here's a very sobering article from The New Yorker on what to expect from a Trump presidency:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/26/president-trumps-first-term
Drew Magary of GQ has had it with Trumpbots. To quote Charles Pierce, I'm with him:
http://www.gq.com/story/a-word-for-donald-trump-voters
Patrick,
Wooo...that was a fun read. Too bad that's all it is. I can't help but think of Stormtrumpers cheering, drooling down their "Make 'merica Grate" t-shirts and ordering another round of rotgut every time a new article demonstrates the absolute truth of Trump's jaw-dropping ineligibility to be elected to a zoning board, never mind President of the United States.
It's like saying "We know he's a corrupt, egomaniacal, crooked, lying douchebag, but we spit on decency and truth and the Constitution, and most especially, civility, so there".
As I've said before, the fate of the nation, the ability of actual real Americans to stop a complete takeover by louts who couldn't spell "constitution" even with a cheat sheet, and their leader, the Coward Trump, rests in the hands of the millions who will either throw away their votes on Faker Gary Johnson or Wrongway Jill Stein, or who will stay home thinking there's no difference between the candidates, or the Bernie Sanders dead enders who believe staying home will teach that awful Hillary Clinton a thing or two, or the "undecideds" who themselves couldn't tell you how many branches of government there are, who think maybe a vote for a treasonous racist liar would be a nice "breath of fresh air"
And, kids, that's a lot of constituencies right there, in the face of which sanguinity seems to shrivel.
Don't let it. We can win this thing. It's too late to wish for a different candidate. The fact that a fictional character should be able to best Trump is little comfort now. The last best hope for America is that decent people realize that the future of the American Experiment, perhaps the greatest social and political exercise in the long history of civilization rests on their decision to get off their asses and vote against evil. Pure evil. For as much as we thought of Bush and Cheney as adherents of an evil enterprise, Donaldo makes those guys look eminently reasonable.
Trump's comments on the Tulsa officer who shot and killed Terence Crutcher fit precisely into his mysoginistic viewpoint. "She choked" I wager he would defend a white male to the end. She's expendable, especially in service to Trump.
I worked in law enforcement for 26 years, some of it developing a background check program and in recruitment. The mindset of officers is, in part, identifiable at the outset. The rest is the result of institutionalize beliefs about might, right and patriotism. I've experienced many officers whose attitudes and actions are what made them subject to danger.
In speaking with the Presiding Judge about the new background requirements, he informed me they were too harsh as we "didn't want to lose those football players." (From the local state university)