Lynna is your curator. I don’t think this thread will run dry for a long time.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Lynna is your curator. I don’t think this thread will run dry for a long time.
Anti-LGBT dunderhead North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory finds himself in hot water again. He is catching a lot of flak for a law he signed that is designed to keep police camera recordings out of the public eye.
Link
With no background check at all, the guy who shot five Dallas police officers bought an AK-47 rifle through Facebook, and then finalized the deal in a retail store parking lot.
Micah Johnson used an Izhmash-Saiga 5.45 mm rifle, an AK-style variant, during the Dallas shooting, but he had a much larger arsenal of firearms, including the AK-47 he bought through Facebook.
Mother Jones link
Donald Trump continues to insult Ruth Bader Ginsburg via Twitter:
Politico link
See comment 480 and comment 498 in older comments.
Oh FFS. Ultra rightwing nutjob and lawyer Larry Klayman is suing a lot of black people for endangering his life.
Wonkette link
Oi am so sucking fick of the radical right wing embrace Dr. King as ‘a good black man’, holding him up as the one and only way to work towards equal rights, especially when these same asshats, back in the day, would have been condemning Dr. King, and all he stood for/stands for, as Un-American, as a commie plot, as trying to gin up a race war.
Brother Ogvorbis, comment 5, ditto. I agree. Dr. King is “a good black man” in part because he is dead.
Cross posted from the “don’t have to think twice” thread.
The first night of the Republican convention will have a “Benghazi Focus,” and that tells you that Republicans have decided to live in fantasy land; and that, in reality, they’ve got nothing. All of Trump’s conspiracy theories about the attack in 2012 have been debunked.
Link
One other detail about the Republican convention: six of the people with speaking slots have the last name “Trump.” There’s the candidate himself, his wife, and four of his kids. Other speakers:
– pro golfer Natalie Gulbis
– former Calvin Kein underwear model Antonio Sabato Jr.
– former fotball star Tim Tebow
– Peter Thiel
– Ultimate Fighting Champ president Dana White
– Mary Fallin, governor of Oklahoma
– Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin
– Rick Scott, governor of Florida
– Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader
– Paul Ryan, House Speaker
– Kevin McCarthy, House Majority Leader
Sarah Palin won’t be there. Sad!
President Obama and his diplomatic team deserve some kudos for the nuclear deal with Iran. Despite dire warnings from Republicans, and scorn from Donald Trump, the deal is actually working.
From coverage in the NY Times:
Lots of challenges remain, but this proves that when congressional Republicans sent a letter to Iranian leaders telling them not to trust President Obama, and making other claims intended to sabotage American foreign policy, they were wrong. They were stupid.
Trump has vowed to revoke the agreement if he is elected President. If he tears up the Iran deal, the consequences could be bad for everyone on planet earth. Now who looks like a dangerous guy whose actions just might lead to nuclear war? It’s not Clinton. It’s Trump.
The latest campaign ad from the Clinton campaign: Daily Kos link. Scroll down for the 1-minute video.
Think Progress posted mini-biographies of some of the speakers who will appear at the Republican convention.
Details at the link.
Moar like it!
Hey everyone.
I got into a discussion in meatspace, and my Googling is weak. Has anyone got any 101-level material on how various forms of prejudice feed one another?
jy3 @ comment 11, you may find these links useful
The neuroscience of prejudice and stereotyping
http://www.understandingprejudice.org
Understanding the Selection Bias: Social Network Processes and the Effect of Prejudice on the Avoidance of Outgroup Friends
What Drives Subconscious Racial Prejudice?
Giving prejudice an attitude adjustment: The implications of attitude strength and social network attitudinal composition for prejudice and prejudice reduction
A truck has driven at speed into a crowd in Nice, France. There have been reports that it is a terrorist attack, with claims that the police shot the driver dead at the scene, that several people observing Bastille Day celebrations have been killed in the collision, and that additional gunshots have been heard leading some to speculate that accomplices may be loose in the city.
Here’s a link to the BBC report on the incident.
Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, is the head of a House panel that is investigating fetal tissue sales by Planned Parenthood. The issue is bogus, and is based on the deceptive videos distributed about a year ago. The panel has made numerous errors, including making the names and addresses of scientific researchers public.
Despite all this, the investigation rolls on. Today, more than fifty organizations sent an appeal to House Speaker Paul Ryan, asking him to disband the panel.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2016/07/14/3798399/50-orgs-infant-lives/
Gregory @13 and 14, one report lists 30 people killed and 100 injured. Early reports in situations like this are subject to revision, so we’ll see what the official reports say. It sounds really bad. Some reports say as many as 60 people are dead.
No doubt, Trump will try to turn this to his advantage.
Trump and two of his kids are in more legal trouble, this time over a tax evasion scheme.
That “I don’t know him” defense is something we’ve heard before from Trump.
The Daily Beast link.
Lynna, OM @ 16;
I agree completely that all early reports on incidents like this can be chaotic and thus potentially misleading, but early indications are that this is bad as you say.
It is sadly inevitable – Trump and the other political scavengers won’t be slow to try to capitalize on this.
Trump’s fellow white supremacist Newt Gingrich proposes a “sharia test” for all Muslims who immigrated to the U.S.
Apart from being horribly discriminatory, it’s also the most stupid plan I’ve ever heard. It’s literally asking a terrorist, “Are you a terrorist?”
And now he’s offended the media is criticizing him for it
Maybe Gingrich thinks that Sharia is like Midichlorians — just check the blood sample.
Oh, FFS. I think I have whiplash after trying to keep up with the on-again, off-again announcements about Trump’s V.P. pick.
Trump said,
Then he utterly failed to appear stable during the announcement melodrama surroundingf his V.P. pick.
Maddow Blog link.
NBC News link that includes Trump being irritated.
This is a followup to comment 6.
After Trump’s campaign and Republican organizers announced the list of people who have speaking slots at the convention, Tim Tebow denied that he would appear.
So, it looks to me like the Trumpsters made a sort of wish list, released it to the media, and did not confirm the engagement with each listed speaker. Bad management!
https://twitter.com/HallieJackson/status/753752493490831361
A two-day old Quinnipiac poll had everyone rattled because it showed a very close race between Clinton and Trump. It even showed Trump leading in Florida and Pennsylvania. The poll turned out to be an outlier.
Here are the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll results.
In Colorado: Clinton leads Trump, 43% to 35%.
In Florida: Clinton leads Trump, 44% to 37%.
In North Carolina, Clinton leads Trump, 44% to 38%.
In Virginia, Clinton leads Trump, 44% to 35%.
The media only gets into a repetitive tizzy when polls show Trump doing sort of well. When polls show Clinton leading, they don’t even report it.
In general, it is still too early to trust polling results. An average of polls, or a long-term trend in the polls is slightly more meaningful. The tizzies are not needed.
The latest polling average shows Clinton leading in Colorado, Florida, and Virginia.
Right. Newt Gingrich, author of Rediscovering Allah* in America, is against religious law.
* Sure, it’s “God” in the original title, but the basic ideas are the same.
The Republican Convention is in financial trouble.
Link
Here is Tim Tebow rejecting the speaking role at the Republican National Convention.
Elizabeth Warren is endorsing some female candidates for elected office. She takes a swipe at Donald Trump while doing so. Here are some excerpts from her endorsement:
Link
So far, 84 people died in the attack in Nice, France. So many critical patients are in the hospital that we may see that number rise.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign wasted no time in going after Mike Pence, Trump’s V.P. pick. The 1:09 minute video is quite good.
Talking Points Memo link.
Scroll down to view the video.
We’ve talked about this plank of the Republican platform before, but now we have more detail. The GOP wants to get rid of National Parks and National Forests:
Link
Well, yikes! This doesn’t sound good. We have very little information at this point, but it looks like a coup is underway in Turkey.
Link
@32
Oh shit! Well, I don’t mean to victim blame, but Erdogan was looking more and more like a “eternal president” fascist and I can’t say I’ll be sad if they have him out of there before too long. At some point, you just attack and imprison too many protesters and journalists for the people to stand.
Most likely, some of them are basically dead already, with brain damage too severe to recover. But if you can get someone who has suffered severe trauma to the hospital with their brain still intact and their heart not irrecoverably stopped, most of the time they’ll make it. So I expect more deaths, but hopefully not too many more.
Vivec@33,
True enough that Erdogan is a highly repressive and near-theocratic ruler, but a military coup is not going to improve matters, whether it succeeds or not. Just look at Egypt.
I’ve been planning to post about Manbij and how the Kurdish forces in Syria were likely being obstructed or slowed in taking it from ISIS because of interference by the Turkish government. Yesterday, I read that John Kerry had just met with Putin about coordinating efforts against ISIS in Syria, and I thought that was interesting (both the meeting itself and the lack of attention to it). The MSNBC talking heads are now saying no one at the Pentagon saw this coming because that’s what they’ve been told. How are these people journalists? It never occurs to them to question what they’re being told? They have to know they’re disinformed constantly, and that the relationship of the information provided by the government to the truth is incidental. It’s possible this came as a complete surprise, but there’s not even the slightest raising of a question. It’s embarrassing.
SC@36,
Erdogan has been reported recently to be trying to improve relations with both Syria and Russia (as well as Israel). Difficult to know how that relates to the Kerry/Putin meeting you mention, or the current attempted coup.
Now Nicholas Burns is talking about all of the important concerns of the US government in responding to this, including – in all seriousness – what’s the “right thing to do in terms of our democratic values.” Chuck Todd is nodding away. Embarrassing.
I’m not sure what else you can really do to get rid of someone that is perfectly willing to subvert the political process to stay in power. How many politicians get found face-down in the Bosporus and how many protesters disappear before you look to a means other than the one he has bought and paid for?
Hasn’t the military traditionally been the secularising force in Turkey, ‘upholding the legacy of Atatürk’?
Not that that’s a great argument for dispensing with democracy, of course …
More proof that Trump is a bad manager. It’s called bad management. (Riffing on Trump’s reply to how he would build a wall, or how he would deport undocumented immigrants: “It’s called good management!”) It’s called incompetence. Trump can’t even properly choose and announce a V.P. pick.
No, he was not really delaying his new conference out of respect for those killed in Nice, France. He was delaying because he had messed up, or feared he had messed up:
Washington Post link
Other sources reported that:
– The Trump/Pence logo looks amateurish, and perhaps like the giant “T” is fucking the “P.”
– The campaign did not register the proper URLs for necessary domain names
– The convention’s finances and speaker’s list are still a mess
– The Trump field operations on the ground are almost non-existent.
Congress released the 28 pages from the 9-11 report.
Vivec@39,
Mass demonstrations, use of social media, civil disobedience, strikes, occupations, pressure for disinvestment… All these means have, in various combinations, been successful in removing repressive and unpopular regimes. The fundamental problem in Turkey is that so far, Erdogan has a lot of popular support. In such a position, what must be done is to build a political alternative; and despite the repression, there is still room in Turkey to do that, as the HDP’s success in entering parliament shows.
We have seen what happens when a repressive, Islamist regime with a lot of popular support is overthrown by a military coup: the military in Egypt have imprisoned, tortured and killed far more peoiple than Morsi did, and show absolutely no sign of wishing to restore democracy. Posturing purblind Marxoids like Maryam Namazie, unable to recognise what was very clearly a counter-revolutionary putsch, welcomed Al-Sisi’s coup, which has left the Egyptian people – including the foolish Egyptian secularists who called for army intervention – in a worse position than under either Mubarak or Morsi.
Hopeful news:
Washington Post link.
Definition: “nones” for the purposes of the Pew poll meant religiously unaffiliated voters who consider themselves atheists, agnostics, or “nothing in particular.”
Bad news: voters that identify as secular go to the polls less than do religious people. They don’t participate in elections, even if they prefer Democratic candidates by a two-to-one margin.
Former Congress critter Michele Bachmann is an advisor to Donald Trump. She advises him on religious matters. Here is one of her recent pronouncements:
So Bachmann is making the point that when Trump is president, all faiths, including Jews, will be free to say, “Merry Christmas.” It will be so wonderful.
Huff Po link
Elizabeth Warren’s take on the Trump/Pence ticket:
Hillary Clinton’s campaign created and distributed a video mocking Trump’s V.P. decision process (more like an indecision skit). It’s good.
The Hill link
Trump engages in over-simplification and hyperbole … again.
Link
I watched the clock this morning during Trump’s introduction of of Pence. Took him more than 34 minutes to get to Pence, even during the time he talked about Pence he would drift off topic, and I think he only dedicated about two minutes to Pence (I left the room briefly and when I returned Pence was already onstage).
There were many false and debunked claims. There was also one statement about which I’m very skeptical. Trump was talking about how religious people are so oppressed and fearful of speaking their minds, and said that he’d met with several religious leaders (I think he said at Trump Tower) – “the top, top Evangelicals” and other Christians, Jews…and even some Muslim leaders. He said something like “Many people would be surprised to hear that, but there were some Muslim leaders, too.” It could be true – authoritarians of all stripes do gravitate towards one another, and there’s no shortage of authoritarian Muslim leaders. But it had the feeling of a lie he made up on the spot to try to appear less bigoted. I’m curious who these Muslim leaders are who met with Trump and what their take was. I see he was asked to meet with Muslim leaders on a couple of occasions back in December, but I don’t remember reading anything about a meeting actually taking place.
SC @ 49, that speech meant to introduce Pence was a long rant of the usual type from Trump. In fact, at one point, he said he would get to Mike Pence soon, and then he talked for twenty more minutes. It was like Trump had to keep reminding himself why he was there … and he didn’t really like why he was there.
Trump didn’t want to share the stage, didn’t want to relinquish the microphone, had to refer to notes when he finally did get around to Pence, and generally exhibited a reluctance to announce his V.P. pick. It was awful to watch.
From The New Yorker, here is more background on Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the murderous truck driver in Nice, France:
Ben Taub wrote the article.
Democratic Party leaders are focusing on voter registration, a wise move.
The Nation link
Lynna #50, Trump’s actions are consistent with this article:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/donald-trumps-ego-drives-presidential-bid/
Pence, or any VP, isn’t about Trump.
A followup to comment 52: Oregon registered 120,000 new voters in the first six months of their automatic registration system. If more people vote, Trump loses.
More followup to comment 49: Pence told lies as well. He claimed that Donald Trump is going to reduced taxes. Reducing taxes by a lot for the top .01% and by very little for others does not merit a claim that Trump is reducing taxes for “small businesses, farmers and workers.” Bullshit.
More followup to SC’s comment 49, and my subsequent comments: The music playing as Trump was about to take the stage to introduce Pence was “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones.
Hillary Clinton pledged today to push for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United ruling. Previews of Clinton’s speech at the Netroots Nation conference later today, revealed the pledge.
Politico link
In other Clinton news, Hillary will announce her V.P. pick on Friday.
A telling excerpt from Trump’s speech during which he failed repeatedly to properly introduce Mike Pence:
Mike Pence enthusiastically supported NAFTA.
Trump also repeated the brazen lie that he was against the war in Iraq from the beginning. Pence was also an enthusiastic supporter of that war.
I suppose everyone has heard by now that several policemen have been shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The police answered a call to 911, and they were apparently ambushed when they arrived on the scene. At least one person is under arrest. Details are still coming in.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/baton-rouge-police-reports-multiple-officers-shot-n611101
Three officers are dead. At least four other officers were injured.
Two wrongs (and it was wrong in a fundamental sense in *both* cases) do not make a _____! (Fill in the blank.)
However, it is the (time-honoured) task of the state to de-escalate the violence. The vengeance is a pendulum, it isn’t going to slow down if you hit it back, but when you introduce friction and attenuate the forces on both sides (equitable justice, good procedures, building trust and jail for the perpetrators) you may slow it down and eventually stop it.
This is a followup to comment 46.
Elizabeth Warren posted several tweets critical of Trump and of his V.P. pick, Mike Pence.
Trump fired back in his usual manner:
Paul Ryan posted a selfie of himself with more than a hundred Capitol Hill interns. The interns are overwhelmingly white. About 99% white. This is not a good look, but Ryan is happy with it.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/07/17/paul_ryan_posts_a_selfie_with_a_collection_of_overwhelmingly_white_interns.html
Some news about hangers-on who are one step removed from the official Republican convention roster of events, but who are indicative of the fringe elements drawn to Trump’s campaign:
Media Matters link
Cleveland Police Union President Steve Loomis asked Ohio Gov. John Kasich to suspend the open carry laws in Cuyahoga County for the Republican National Convention this week.
In light of recent events, and taking into account the number of people who have said they will be coming to Cleveland bearing arms, that sounds reasonable to me. Yes, the open carry laws should not be in effect anywhere near the convention or its buffer zone.
If the open carry laws are suspended during convention week, it will not be the Governor who does so:
Yeah, yeah. Blah, blah. Who, exactly, can play the important role of not allowing people to carry weapons into the area surrounding the convention center?
Wow. Apparently another speaker will be Milo Yiannopoulos. Does anyone know if it will be televised or livestreamed?
President Obama spoke to the nation today in response to the killing of three police officers in Baton Rouge. In addition to condolences and other reasonable statements, Obama specifically called for political leaders and other leaders to refrain from inflammatory rhetoric.
Trump posted this today on Twitter and on Facebook:
For once, Kasich is right about something. If the governor can just suspend laws, what’s to stop him from suspending civil rights laws, or the right to an abortion, just because protesters might show up and there would be a danger to the community. If Ohio wants open carry laws, they should have to live with the results.
I found the Unity Rally livestream: fb.me/3IjKM1AS6
Yikes and yikes again concerning the Unity Rally livestream. I tried. I just can’t watch it. Too awful. I’ll look for a summary later. Thanks, SC, for the link anyway. I’m just not up to stomaching that much nonsense today.
From the comments associated with the Unity Rally:
Speaking of nonsense, Republicans far and wide are blaming President Obama and Hillary Clinton for the unrest in Turkey. Mike Pence said:
I’m not buying that nonsensical swill. And neither is Steve Benen:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/blaming-obama-turkeys-attempted-coup-bonkers
Here’s another instance of Trump stoking divisiveness while dissing President Obama. Speaking on Fox News this morning, Trump gave this critique of Obama’s response to the shooting of police officers in Baton Rouge:
On Twitter, Trump added:
Trump’s top aide, Paul Manafort backed his candidate up by saying that the Obama administration is responsible for the racial tensions in cities. Manafort also said that disrespect for law enforcement starts at the top, with Obama.
So, that’s the approach the Republicans are taking, all the while claiming to unite the country.
Here’s part of what Obama said:
Here is part of what Hillary Clinton said:
Still, Trump can cite “body language” to claim that “there’s something going on.”
I know! The livestream mercifully cut out after a while, so I was only able to see one speaker, but that was enough. And the comments! It is interesting that the corporate media don’t even seem to be mentioning it.
I’m not up on convention protocol enough to understand what exactly is happening at the RNC.
The RNC rules committee is having a helluva time. They are supposed to vote on rule governing the way the convention is run. Right now they are running under the temporary regime of rules voted for in 2012. Many people want to make changes to those rules.
The Secretary (head) of the rules committee seems to be hiding in a closet somewhere. Who knows what will happen? Not the Trump campaign, that’s for sure.
Gavin Long, the person who shot the Baton Rouge Police, appears to be a “Sovereign Citizen”, beyond the law.
Some attitude.
Reince Priebus, introducing Mary Buestrin, just started to read her line: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman…”
Holy shit – they just called it on a voice vote, which wasn’t at all clear, ignoring the petitions completely. Now stop-Trump delegates are chanting “Roll call vote!”
Entire Colorado delegation has walked out.
Gordon Humphrey, former NH Senator, just called the pro-Trump forces brownshirts and said they’re acting like fascists, which “isn’t far from Trump himself.”
As far as I can tell, the Republicans just ignored their own rules regarding the petitions that had been filed so that a roll-call vote would be held instead of the Ayes/Nays voice vote they pushed through.
So much for the “law and order” party. That did look like a fascist move.
Explanation of the current ruckus on the floor of the Republican Convention (from Hunter of Daily Kos):
Which states supposedly withdrew? Nobody knows. Did any states really withdraw? Were there six or seven states who did not withdraw their petitions? It looks like it, and therefore the roll call vote should have been held.
Reince Priebus was totally absent during the kerfuffle. He’s supposed to be in charge.
Iowa and Colorado delegates walked out.
yeah, that 2nd voice vote during the RNC, had loud “I”s, and loud “nay”s. To my untrained ear, watching over the cnn boobtube, it sounded to me like the nays had it, which the Chairdude immediately declared “ayes have it!!!”(I think it was also just as the cnn commentator was about to say the nays were louder).
I just harrumphed that the RNC would blatantly avoid any challenge to there written rules, even when their constituency is vocally demanding it.
– dinosaurs locked in amber — is my foregone reaction, (rather than shouting at the TV screen.)
Ben Ginsberg was saying that as soon as the petitions were submitted, the whips were going around and pushing the signers to sign a petition withdrawing their signatures. But they won’t provide any information about which states then had to be withdrawn. Mike Lee said he was calling for a point of information but was being ignored. Update: they’re saying the states withdrawn are Minnesota, Iowa, DC, and Maine.
I don’t know whether the claim about sufficient withdrawals is true, but it’s quite telling how they would treat dissenters in their own party.
SC @81, thanks for the info.
I think the Republican convention organizers would have been better off if they had let the roll call vote take place. Some states would have been able to voice their opinion that the “vote their conscience” rule should have been adopted. That, most likely, would have been defeated, but the petitioners would have been heard.
Refusing to hear them is the fascist part. And now everyone’s feelings are hurt. Plus, the petitioners have a plan B and C. The opportunity to let dissenters be heard and then move on has been lost. They are trying instead to silence the dissenters. Expect more dissent.
Rupert Murdoch and his sons (mostly the sons) have decided that Fox News head Roger Ailes should be presented with the choice to resign or be fired. This is fallout from multiple accusations of sexual harassment filed against Ailes by female employees.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/07/murdochs-have-decided-to-remove-roger-ailes.html
We all know how much Trump touts his “Art of the Deal” book as the best book ever, second only to the bible. The book was written by Tony Schwartz, Trump’s ghostwriter. Jane Mayer of The New Yorker interviewed Schwartz and wrote a full-length piece that provides details of how the book was written and what insights Schwartz has to offer after working so closely with Trump.
The entire article is well worth reading. Here are a few excerpts:
That book spent 48 weeks on the best-seller list. The book made Trump look like the successful tycoon he imagines himself to be. Schwarz is now feeling some guilt.
Just wanted this noted. (Source)
Oh – MSNBC did do a short report from the Unity Rally, and noted more than once how small the crowd was – a couple hundred people. (The reporter said that when the organizers had originally applied for a permit, they estimated attendance at 10,000; when that was denied, they revised it down to 5,000.)
SC @86, so glad to see that the Unity Rally was shunned by almost everyone. About 200 people attended? That’s good news.
In other news, here’s another excerpt from comments by Tony Schwartz (see comment 84):
In addition to Melania Trump, who will be speaking at the Republican convention tonight? Sheriff David Clarke, for one.
Link
Who else is speaking at the Republican convention? Michelle Van Etten, purveyor of pills that claim to improve health and fight cancer. Van Etten peddles her pseudoscience via a pyramid scheme, and based on unreliable “research” from Clemson University.
Link
A Republican explains why he is not voting for Donald Trump: Hillary Clinton’s latest campaign ad.
Scroll down for the video.
Video looked good.
I dredged the infamous anti-Goldwater video of ’64 from my memory.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=goldwater+daisy+ad
Definitely over the top, but Trump scares me more than Goldwater did.
One Republican delegate was angry enough about the forced voice vote on the floor today that he resigned. And the guy is a top fundraiser as well, so that doesn’t look good.
Link
That article needs to be shared far and wide.
People are reporting that Melania Trump’s speech was plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech.
OMFG: The odious Chris Matthews just suggested that the speechwriter should be humiliated and even executed, because that would show strength.
And there was the rickroll
“If you want someone to fight for your country, I assure you, he is your guy. He will never give up. And most importantly, he will never let you down.”
which almost suggests sabotage.
Yep, parts of the speech Melania delivered were plagiarized from a speech given by the current First Lady.
It will be interesting to see how Trump handles this.
He’ll probably just claim repeatedly that it was MIchelle Obama who plagiarised Melania Trump. ignoring the fact that Obama’s speech was given 8 years earlier. He knows that if he repeats a lie often enough, his supporters believe it, and the media just report it as “Democrats say… Republicans say”.
Pence wants to suspend the open carry law during the convention. Quite apart from the whole issue of whether a governor can do that or not, isn’t that a flat out admission that open carry laws make society more, not less, dangerous?
Eh, what? The Republicans are invoking Nixon? Nixon? Seriously? I guess Nixon was a better president than Reagan, but…huh?
Trump’s right hand man, Paul Manafort, said:
The order of those “common words,” the phrasing, was cribbed from Michelle Obama’s speech.
The knee-jerk reaction to blame Hillary Clinton is just ridiculous.
Rather than admit that a mistake was made, the Trump campaign is lying, further divorcing themselves from reality, and insuring that this negative story lasts more than a couple of days.
Not on the same page in Republican land:
– Manafort makes excuses and apparently doesn’t know what plagiarism is.
– RNC Chairman Reince Priebus joins MSNBC’s Chris Matthews in suggesting that the speech writer (or writers) be fired.
– Chris Christie brushes the whole thing off because it was just a tiny, itty bit of plagiarism. Could have been worse, so let’s just forget it.
– Vice President Biden plagiarized some stuff in 1988, so both sides do it, so it is all okay (Biden was forced to drop out of the presidential race. Nobody pretended it was not really plagiarism.)
Trump’s campaign is a mess.
I don’t know if that’s a paraphrase or from earlier remarks, but what he said in the video I saw a bit ago was “When Hillary is threatened by a female, the first thing she does is try to destroy the person…”
A female.
One of the worst aspects of last night’s Republican convention reality show was the blatant manipulation of people grieving for lost loved ones. For example, Pat Smith, whose son was killed during the 2012 attack in Benghazi, cried on stage as she blamed Hillary Clinton.
Yes, we experience empathy when we see her grief. Her raw and emotional presentation was memorable. It was also inappropriate for a political convention. She was manipulated by the RNC and the Trump campaign. Her claims about the circumstances, however, were not true. Republican-led investigations (multiple investigations) all concluded that she is wrong on the facts. Yes, it is a tragedy that her son died. No, her grief does not suddenly make all of the conspiracy theories true.
Maddow Blog link
Video segment in which Richard Engel discusses the Benghazi presentation with Rachel Maddow.
More explanation, or really a non-explanation from the Trump campaign, for the plagiarized portions of Melania Trump’s speech:
Referring to the speech, Melania Trump told Matt Lauer:
Response from Brian Beutler, who writes for The New Republic:
SC @102, Manafort is repeating the same or similar comments.
The Trump Institute was based on plagiarized text. I think the Trump campaign, and all of Trump’s endeavors, have a quality control problem, a management problem, and an attitude problem.
Journalist Matt Pearce (National reporter for the Los Angeles Times) summarized the issue of Melania’s speech:
Response from Katrina Pierson, Trump’s spokeswoman:
Not sure they need more trouble than they already have, but it looks like norovirus has made an appearance at the Republican National Convention.
Los Angeles Times link
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo posted his take on the first night of the Republican Convention:
Nice detail from Jon Favreau, former Obama speechwriter:
And there’s this:
Queen’s Brian May released a statement in response to the Trump campaign using Queen’s music:
Wait a minute. Maybe Melania did play a big part in adding a plagiarized passage to her speech.
Link
I wonder if this explains why Trump himself has not weighed in concerning the plagiarism: because he knows his wife played a major role.
From the GOP platform:
What is the logical conclusion?
Think Progress link
He lies about everything. Trump lies even when he doesn’t gain anything from the lie:
Think Progress link
Maybe he does gain something. He gets to indulge over and over again is self-aggrandizement. That makes him feel good.
Another in the never-ending textbook controversies in Texas:
Link
Donald Trump is now officially the presidential nominee of the Republican Party.
So Trump ran for a long time on the claim that he was self-funding his campaign. Even had he made donations to the campaign rather than loans, the claim would have been false: there was a donation button on the campaign site and he took in millions of dollars in donations (which, incidentally, he downplayed in an amazing display of ingratitude). But his self-funding claim was always undercut at its core by the fact that he’d actually loaned the campaign money, and could use future donations to pay it back. He repeatedly said he had no intention of recouping the loans (which he consistently publicly valued at $55 million while they were at the time around $46 million), but never formally moved to convert them to donations.
After the pitiful fundraising totals and the fact that a significant portion of the money had gone back into Trump’s and his family’s pockets were revealed last month, Trump was pushed about the loans. The campaign, in an official statement, claimed that he had converted the loans to gifts. That turned out to be a lie – there was no form submitted to the FEC to that effect. When questioned, Hope Hicks said the form would be submitted by the end of the day – this was in late June – but it wasn’t. Then they said it would appear in the next FEC filing. If Trump had always intended for these loans to be converted into gifts as the self-funding hype required, and if he had the financial wherewithal to convert them, the lies and delays are mysterious.
In any case, the next FEC filing deadline is tomorrow. Fundraising professionals have already raised questions about the June fundraising claims the Trump campaign has made – both the figures claimed and the impressiveness of the amount raised even if the figures do turn out to be true. The fundraising operation appears still to be a total mess. They’ll also have to release their expenditures, which should be interesting.
But what will be the result if the filing doesn’t contain the official conversion of the loans? Evidently, even if Trump doesn’t convert the loans, they automatically convert 20 days after the end of the convention. And he can only use money raised before his official nomination to pay them off. So there’s a real possibility they won’t even have the money to pay back the loans, in addition to the ire it would provoke if he actually used donations to pay them back. Again, this makes the delays and lies concerning the loans suspicious and strange. The only explanations I can think of are that he really didn’t have the money to spare and/or continued to hope sufficient donations would come in this month to recoup them and that no one would be paying attention to the FEC filing.
Trump has told repeated lies about the use of his own money. And more generally, a campaign whose popularity was based in large part on the idea of self-funding has turned to the most traditional money sources, including courting the richest donors and even turning to illegal tactics like soliciting donations from foreigners. So it seems likely that Trump will actually have to pay out tens of millions of dollars. But regardless, it’s a campaign with a starting premise that’s now plainly gone – it’ll be funded by the same agenda-driven superrich people who’ve always been behind Republicans, or it won’t be funded.
SC @65, Wired covered the appearance of Milo Yiannopoulos at the America First Unity Rally.
SC @114, Trump lies about his finances, just as he lies about everything. He is not as rich as he claims. He does not have as much cash on hand as he claims. He will pocket as much as he can of any donations that come in.
Meanwhile, he and his team are also bad managers. The bad management showed up in the convention again today. Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow discussed the “errors and delays,” the lack of preparation, and the “run on a shoestring” nature of the convention. Link.
David Frum summarizes the problems with the convention, and with Melania Trump’s speech:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/melania-trumps-speech-matters/492038/
From Frum:
Amazingly, he’s all three.
The Frum article links to one at Politico about fundraising. It confirms a lot of what I just said above, but has two irritating qualities: First, it simply switches to covering Trump’s like any other campaign, as though the professed hostility to big donors and professions of self-funding weren’t significant claims made for almost a year and noted by many supporters. And this is at the same time it reports on the change:
Yes. That’s the story. Not just “how do Trump’s big-donor fundraising prospects line up with Clinton’s?” FFS. Second, it parrots some of the spin:
Evidence, please.
Looks like that will be the case in the end, but only by default – not by plan. (And it could be mostly borrowed to begin with, for all we know.)
And who his campaign is now assiduously courting. Again – the story. Especially because he continues to use the attacks about Clinton being beholden to rich special interests.
Donald Trump Jr. is certainly a chip off the old block. He does one thing better than his father, he reads from the teleprompter more skillfully.
He also reads lies, like that Hillary Clinton wants to appoint Supreme Court Justices that will repeal the Second Amendment.
Donald Trump Junior has five kids. He looks and sounds like a wolf, a wolf that has been impeccably groomed. He is also an avid big game hunter.
Don Jr. says that the Democrats created the problem of inequality. If we get rid of all the Democrats, inequality will disappear, implies the wolf. “We are going to put Americans first, all Americans, not a special class of crony elites at the top of the heap.”
Don Jr. denounced the crony class of favored elites. Has he looked in the mirror lately? I think Don Jr. is running for future president.
Trump’s daughter Tiffany said that she saved all of her report cards, going back to kindergarten because Daddy Trump wrote sweet things on them. Sounds like the desperate act of a girl who only saw her father for two weeks per year. Tiffany is the daughter of short-term wife Marla Maples
Surreal moment: the general manager of Trump Winery spoke.
Chris Christie conducted a call-and-response session during which he had the audience declare Hillary Clinton “GUILTY!” for a series of supposed crimes.
The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. This is a first for that organization, their first endorsement.
In other news, the plagiarism behind Melania Trump’s speech has finally been explained.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/meredith-mciver-melania-trump-speech
Melania Trump received a draft of a speech from a professional speech writer, Matthew Scully, but she rejected that. The speech Scully submitted to Trump’s campaign did not include the plagiarized phrases Melania used. Then Melania and a writer who helped Trump with his book, “Think Like a Billionaire,” proceeded in an amateurish fashion to craft a speech that was not properly vetted.
Paul Manafort was wrong when he claimed that no plagiarism was committed and that only “common words” were used. Other Trump spokespeople were wrong when they quoted My Little Pony characters saying something different, but with a vaguely similar idea, to prove that Melania had not stolen bits of her speech from Michelle Obama. The spokespeople were not coordinated with the Trump family story. It was a mess.
Trump is happy about the whole thing:
This is despicable. One of Trump’s advisors suggested that Hillary Clinton should be shot.
Link
The other threats of violence:
Delegate Michael Folk tweeted Friday that Hillary Clinton “should be tried for treason, murder, and crimes against the US Constitution… then hung on the Mall in Washington, DC.”
Duane Flowers of New Jersey said in a public meeting, “Hillary, she should be hanging from a tree.”
Newark Advocate link
A few more details related to the plagiarism scandal (see comment 210):
As Max Temkin pointed out: “Trump Organization letterhead & employees are corporate resources which may not be legally used in campaigns.” A Trump employee was used to help Melania write her speech. When that employee issued an apology and offered to resign, she did so on Trump letterhead.
In addition to praising Donald Trump, which, apparently, all of his employees do, Meredith McIver said this, “A person she [Melania] has always liked is Michelle Obama.” Praise for Michelle Obama from inside the Trump family. Hmmm. Mixed messages.
Trump’s sons have killed animals that are included in lists of endangered species.
Link
Donald Trump loves people from the sports world. We’ve heard him tell his audiences at rallies how great Bobby Knight is, for example.
Back in early May, Trump tweeted: “Honored to have received the endorsement of Lou Holtz – a great guy!” Holtz is a former Notre Dame football coach. He is also an anti-immigrant, racist dunderhead.
Yesterday, at a Republican National Coalition for Life luncheon, Holtz ranted about immigrants, calling the number of immigrants in the USA an “invasion.” He went on to say: “I don’t want to become you, I don’t want to speak your language, I don’t want to celebrate your holidays, I sure as hell don’t want to cheer for your soccer team!”
Holtz was forced to resign a position as coach in 1983 after he participated in advertisements for the infamously racist Senator Jesse Helms. Holtz praised Hilter in 2008, calling him “a great leader.”
In his speech yesterday, Holtz criticized people receiving any kind of government assistance. His words echoes Mitt Romney: “Forty-seven percent of people make a living by the way they vote. They can make a living by the way they vote … but they can’t make a life.”
Sounds like a Trump supporter.
An update on what’s happening in the UK Labour Party:
1) The party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) decided by 18-14 that Jeremy Corbyn did not need to get the endorsement of 20% of Labour MPs and MEPs to be on the ballot paper. A legal challenge has been mounted to this, but I’d be very surprised if it gets anywhere: the courts are very wary of being seen to interfere in politics, and the wording of the rules, if not completely unambiguous, certainly allows the interpretation the NEC chose. Owen Smith (see below) has publicly welcomed the NEC decision.
2) However, the NEC also decided (apparently after several Corbyn supporters had left) that only members who joined before 12th January can vote automatically – despite the fact that advertisements for membership promise a vote in leadership elections. Those who joined since (or, as far as I can tell, anyone else) could get a vote by registering as a Labour supporter for £25 in a two-day window that ended this afternoon. Some members of Labour-affiliated trades unions (those who pay the “political levy” which goes to the party) also get a vote. This restriction on which members can vote is a transparent attempt to damage Corbyn’s chances – 130,000 have joined since the Brexit vote alone, and are thought to be mainly Corbyn supporters.
3) However, 183,000 people have actually paid the £25! This is quite astonishing. Expect their bona fides to be scrutinised sceptically. (I should say I did actually meet one member of another party who had registered for £3 to vote for Corbyn last time – but he won an overwhelming victory, and a very clear one among actual members.)
4) One of the two challengers to Corbyn, Angela Eagle, has dropped out in favour of the other, Owen Smith (or “Owen Who?” as he is more widely known outside Westminster). Smith got more nominations from Labour MPs, and he and Eagle had agreed that whoever got fewer would drop out. Eagle carries the baggage of having voted for the Iraq war, while Smith was only elected in 2010 – post-Blair, in other words.
5) Smith is presenting himself as a left-winger, in an attempt to lure Corbyn supporters to vote for him. However, the Corbyn camp are labelling him “Blair-lite”, pointing to his abstention in a vote on Tory welfare cuts, comments he made while a professional lobbyist working for Pfizer, about the advantages of “competition” in the NHS (widely considered Blairite code for privatization – and what sort of leftist takes an £80,000 job lobbying for Big Pharma anyway?), support for PFI (Private Finance Initiative) deals – a disastrous Blairite wheeze to pay private companies vast sums to build and maintain schools and hospitals rather than borrowing at historically low rates – and for Academies (schools funded by the state, but run by private companies or trusts), his actual comments on Iraq in 2005-6, when he said he didn’t know which way he’d have voted in 2003, and his vote just on Monday to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system with new and improved WDMs.
My conclusion: Corbyn is likely but not certain to win the vote. If he does, the party will split, with probably more than half of Labour MPs breaking away – although Smith has promised to support Corbyn if he wins. If Smith wins, any left-wing breakaway will be much smaller, although some members and supporters will go to the Greens, or in Scotland to the SNP and in Wales to Plaid Cymru.
In a comic aside, a miniature wall appears around Donald Trump’s star in Hollywood.
Minimalist art. The Redhead will not be impressed (I typed a couple of her papers in college). But I like it, but it should be about 25 km tall. Then the Redhead might be impressed.
I’d hoped the FEC filing deadline was close of business today, but evidently it’s midnight. That doesn’t mean the campaigns can’t file before that. But there’s already speculation that the campaign will delay the filing.
As part of his Salem Witch Trial/Spanish Inquisition/Mob Rule presentation in which he “prosecuted” Hillary Clinton and had the audience lustily declare her “GUILTY!” over and over again, Chris Christie presented some “facts” later shown to be false. Here is just one example:
Notice the timeline. The girls were kidnapped two years after Clinton had resigned her post as Secretary of State. CNN made a bigger point of this:
From the Washington Post:
Bernie Sanders is meeting with 1900 of his supporters prior to the Democratic Convention. Guidance will be provided on issues and how to support Clinton.
This a followup to comments 84 and 93.
Donald Trump is suing, or threatening to sue, Tony Schwartz, Trump’s ghostwriter for the book “Art of the Deal.” Well, of course he is. Schwartz told the truth and The New Yorker published it.
Trump had his lawyers send Schwartz a cease-and-desist letter that also demanded that Schwartz repay all of the royalties he had earned on the book. Ridiculous. Rachel Maddow interviewed Schwartz. I’ll be able to post a link to that later, when MSNBC posts it.
Apparently the 5th US Court of Appeals saw through the Texas attempt to require a picture ID for voting.
Gee Texas, maybe if you could have been able to show actual (not imagined) voter fraud, you might have won….
This is a followup to comments 84, 93, and 130.
Link to video of interview.
Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter for Donald Trump’s book “Art of the Deal”, speaks out about his experience of working with the GOP nominee.
This is a followup to comment 121.
The Republican that called for the execution of Hillary Clinton has done so again! And this time he did it in even more troubling circumstances:
Link
This is a followup to comment 133.
This is the Trump Republican Party.
Nerd @131, I was glad to see the court strike down the latest attempt by the state of Texas to disenfranchise voters. I am also disheartened by how frequently these attempts to restrict voting rights have to be fought in the courts.
In other news, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo pointed out that many of the people speaking on Trump’s behalf at the convention are involved in (manage or run) multi-level marketing schemes. They are all scammers. This seems to be the actual Trump economic plan: start your own MLM. Become a scam artist. And, preferably, pay Trump for the use of his name while you’re at it.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/amazing–22
Not all of the scammers onstage at the RNC were introduced by noting their connection to MLMs. You have to look into their backgrounds to find the facts.
Lynna @135
and get Mexico to pay for it.
and @134
Ref #127
The report seems to have been filed: http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00580100/1089674/
Copypasta from the report:
27. Loan Repayments Made
(a) Repayments of loans Made or Guaranteed By Candidate 0.00
More copypasta, possibly the right lines (numbers are this period, then cycle to date, then zero):
17. Contributions (other than loans) From:
(a) Individuals/Persons Other than Political Committees
(i) itemized 7784849.48 12361022.78 0.00
(ii) unitemized 12109361.92 24598834.93 0.00
(iii) Total contributions 19894211.40 36959857.71 0.00
(b) Political Party Commitees 0.00 57.62 0.00
(c) Other Political Committees 0.00 0.00 0.00
(d) The Candidate 2046629.75 2442137.97 0.0
19. Loans Received:
(a) Loans Received From or Guaranteed By Candidate 1805320.00 47508505.39 0.00
Perhaps someone who understands this stuff can explain it, but I don’t see anything that hints of $47.5 million in loans being converted to a like amount of donations.
Minor correction to #125: I wasn’t accurate about which trades union members can vote in the Labour leadership contest. According to the BBC:
The Clinton campaign issued a new ad. The ad is a compilation of all the the nice things Donald Trump said about the Clintons not too long ago. YouTube link
Now that everybody, even Republicans, know that parts of Melania Trump’s speech were plagiarized, Trump supporters have come up with a new way to push the issue into the background … or so they think.
Newt Gingrich said that the plagiarism won’t matter because Melania is “stunningly attractive.”
Senator Mark Kirk offered a similar reason to skip past the issue of plagiarism: “Melania is a very pretty woman with that foreign accent of hers.”
Vladimir Putin must be smiling even in his sleep. Trump is trashing NATO again.
Link
Mike Pence is not going to be able to reassure other nations when it comes to Trump.
Trump is also trashing the USA as if he were a foreign leader who is trying to make points against the U.S.
Link
Jeffrey Goldberg, writing for the Atlantic, sees some serious consequences for loose talk that comes from Trump:
Link
I don’t think Trump understands or considers the consequences.
This is a followup to comments 84, 87, 93, and 130.
This is an excerpt from an interview Tony Schwartz gave to MSNBC:
Mike Pence’s speech, and the introduction of him as the V.P. pick, was overshadowed at the Republican National Convention by the raucous booing that accompanied Ted Cruz’s speech.
Link
Here is what Cruz said in lieu of endorsing Trump:
It was scary moment, with mob violence in the air. Security people escorted Heidi Cruz out of the building. Republican delegates taunted her and shouted at her. Classy all the way.
More white supremacy and misogyny at the Republican National Convention:
Media Matters link
Christiane Amanpour weighed in on Trump’s “frightening” NATO position. Here is an excerpt from a longer interview:
Trump taunted the GOP during a private donor meeting in Cleveland.
Politico link
Yes, that sounds like Trump. Threaten people with whom you are supposed to be working closely.
A summary of the Republican Convention so far, from New York Times’ David Leonhardt:
An interesting development in the North Carolina law aimed the state’s LGBT community. The NBA (National Basketball Association) has pulled the scheduled 2017 All-Star game from Charlotte because of the law. This may not mean much to non-sports fans, but the economic impact of hosting the four day weekend event in recent years, runs about $70-$100 million for the host city. The 2016 game in Toronto brought in about $110M to the city. Plus the international publicity, as it is televised world-wide. Now it will bring a shining light on the discriminatory law.
Well, that’s that then. Roger Ailes is out.
Link
The press release about Ailes’ resignation does not mention the charges of sexual harassment filed by female employees.
This is a followup to comments 142 and 146.
The office of House Speaker Paul Ryan responded to Trump’s remarks concerning NATO:
“The speaker believes the U.S. should defend our NATO allies.”
A growing list of Republicans have criticized Trump’s comments, including:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
Senator Lindsey Graham
John Bolton, former ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush
Trump got caught retaliating against workers who wanted to unionize. He agreed to pay a $11,200 fine, which I think is too low.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/07/21/3800770/trump-settlement-vegas/
This is a followup to comment 62.
This is awesome. Interns working for Democrats in the House of Congress responded to the all-white-interns selfie taken by Paul Ryan with a selfie of their own. The difference is striking. A picture worth more than all of Paul Ryan’s word.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/07/21/3799308/paul-ryan-selfie/
See the link for both Ryan’s selfie with interns, and the selfie showing the diversity of Democratic interns.
AP fact check of Trump’s speech. As is expected by now, full of untruths. The summary:
Benghazi, the e-mail servers, immigrants, and hispanics loomed large in his truthiness. He showed no context for the police killed on the job either.
The Obama administration making the streets safer for policemen…
I was very pleased MSNBC had Tony Schwartz return yesterday evening just before the speeches (I haven’t found the video yet – maybe later today). He called out what I had been fuming about all day: this ridiculous line the media were taking that Trump could “salvage” the convention and move ahead if could just stay on message and deliver a great speech last night. Schwartz was as dumbfounded as I was at the idea that a speech read from teleprompters – or an improvised one, for that matter – would change anything about who Trump is or what his candidacy represents.
This morning, Trump gave even more evidence of his narcissism, foolishness, mendacity, and inability to focus or complete a thought. I think the Democratic Convention might prove almost impossible for him. Clinton’s set to announce her running mate soon, and attention is already shifting to Philadelphia and the DNC. I expect it will be virtually unbearable for him to lose the spotlight, and that he’ll lash out in a variety of disgusting ways over the next several days trying to draw it back to himself. I hope the media won’t give in to it, but my expectations aren’t high.
David Duke has announced that he will run for the US Senate from Louisiana:
“I’m overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I’ve championed for years. My slogan remains America first.”
(He applauded Trump’s RNC speech.)
Listening to Trump’s speech last night made me so weary I could barely move. Wait, that might be depression.
I see PZ posted a separate thread for discussion of Trump’s trumpism, so I’ll mostly just leave the eyebrow raising at Trump’s “facts” over there.
Trump is not done with Cruz. You will remember that back in May Trump said,
Miami Herald link.
He continued to cast aspersions on Trump’s family this morning:
Vox link.
Trump uttered that drivel at an event in Ohio.
Trump thinks he can count on the “credibility” of the National Enquirer. This, my friends, is day #1 of Trump’s official campaign as the Republican nominee. He is no longer the presumptive nominee.
The facts:
Remember the time Trump retweeted a graphic showing a Star of David, a pile of money, and a photo of Hillary Clinton? Well, the guy responsible for Star of David image, Dan Scavino, joined Trump onstage at an event in Ohio today.
In other white supremacist, anti-semitic, racist news associated with Trump, a person posting as user @Western_Triumph posted from the convention floor last night as Trump accepted the GOP presidential nomination. Western Triumph’s bio makes use of white supremacist slogans, and of the following hashtags: #AltRight, #RaceRealist, #LoveYourRace, and #ProWhite.
Link
Far from dissociating himself from these white supremacists, Trump brings one of them up on stage (Dan Scavino) when he thinks he can get away with it. His campaign team gives some of them passes to get into rallies and into the convention. (See comment 133)
The Vox fact check of Trump’s speech.
One of Trump’s first lies? “I am humbled…” Nope. Doesn’t look like it. doesn’t sound like it.
One of Trump’s other lies told at the beginning of the speech: “I will present the facts plainly and honestly.” [painful laughter mixed with eye rolling]
Excerpt:
The Trump campaign and the RNC used music from the Rolling Stones without permission … again.
Daily Kos posted the video segment in which Jon Stewart returned to The Late Show to spend ten minutes excoriating events and speakers from the Republican National Convention.
George Harrison’s estate condemned Donald Trump for using Harrison’s music without authorization.
Bernie Sanders took to Twitter to condemn Trump during Trump’s speech:
President Obama participated this morning in a joint press conference with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Obama used the opportunity to dispute the claims Trump made about rising crime rates:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-refutes-trump-claim-rising-crime-rates
Huh. I thought he said “jibe.”
not to derail, but am I the only one to notice that Drumph spent his whole speech shouting, as if it was an open auditorium? Did he not notice that thing in front of him called a microphone and the huge speakers all around him? I only bring this up to highlight yet more of his hypocrisy after ranting about Hillary’s voice being so shrill during her speeches.(and to compare to Bern’s loud voice).
I know tone-of-voice is the least of our Drumph concerns. I still needed to rant: about it, as well.
slithey tove @165, I noticed that. Also, Drumph has made disparaging comments about Hillary Clinton shouting and/or having an irritating voice. He is worse, and his speech was way too long. I kept thinking he was going to shout himself into a heart attack. The shouting may have been his attempt to overcome the inevitable impression that, in reading from the teleprompter, it was not really his speech but more of a collaborative effort of multiple speech writers and consultants.
In other news, this is a followup to comment 158: In addition to white supremacists, other special guests in the convention hall included Alex Jones. We’ve run into him before. He is Trump’s buddy that pushes an amazing array of paranoid conspiracy theories.
Link
SC @164, I think you are right. The President said “jibe.”
More quotes from President Obama’s statement at the press conference in Mexico:
Trump lies … again … about petty stuff that doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t matter, except for this: it is more proof that he is a compulsive liar. He cannot stop himself.
Link
No, Drumph, that was not a rock concert you attended. It was not a reality show. It was a political convention that you perverted.
That tickets were for sale on eBay is a fantasy, one that Drumph concocted in his doesn’t-work-properly mind.
Trump did not mention climate change during his speech, but he did mention a related issue: energy policy. In doing so, he presented “facts” that were not “facts,” and out-of-context facts that were completely misleading.
Slate link to article by Ben Adler
Another thing Trump lied about … to no apparent end, for no apparent reason:
Link
Don’t believe a word that guy says.
Climate news:
Washington Post link.
— @169
I refer to think she said that kinda sloppily. Like saying only half of her intention.
Let me share the version of what I consider she was trying to say:
; or so I like to optimistically think.
Saw my first presidential bumper sticker today. For Johnson, the Libertarian candidate. The driver of the car was overly aggressive for the traffic level. Wonder if there is a correlation?
The Washington Post featured a full-page editorial titled, “Donald Trump is a unique threat to American democracy.”
Excerpt:
Link
Hillary Clinton chose Tim Kaine as her Vice President.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/hillary-clinton-tim-kaine-vice-president-2
I guess I missed this article by Adam Gopnik at the time, probably because of the Nice attack. Apologies if you’ve already posted and/or commented on it, Lynna.
* Evidence, please.
Oh, he shouted. And he does that awful gurgle-yell thing – “lghghghghghgyin’ Ted.” I often can’t take it, and have to mute. And that can be even worse; seriously, try watching one of his speeches with no sound – scary. The only voice I dislike more is Chris Matthews’.
Actually, Trump’s is the worst, but none of the major candidates this year have had voices I like. Clinton’s is the best of them, but that’s not saying much. I like Barack and Michelle Obamas’ voices. I like Rachel Maddow’s voice, which has a certain clarity of tone, and Joy Reid’s voice. Elizabeth Warren’s voice, at its best, can be sharp but still sort of sing-songy…
It seems I pay excessive attention to voices. :)
Lynna, OM, @ # 170: Don’t believe a word that guy says.
Yes, but more specifically: never believe a number that guy says.
Trump was just ordered to pay $300,000 in attorney’s fees because he cheated a painting contractor in Miami.
Link
Miami Herald link
I agree with SC @177, Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid both have great voices. Clear, easy to understand, and capable of expressing passion without screaming. Love listening to those women. You can hear the intelligence behind the voice.
If I had to give as many speeches as Hillary Clinton does, my voice would be rough, would have a raspy edge. I don’t know how she does it.
The leaked emails showing that some officials at the DNC criticized Sanders and made fun of him are upsetting. That’s despicable behavior. I think that the DNC is going to have to clean house.
Trump is using Clinton’s V.P. pick, Tim Kaine, to make another play for Bernie Sanders’ supporters. Trump still thinks that Sanders’ supporters will vote for him, despite what Bernie has been saying. (See comment 162 for some of Bernie’s comments.)
Here are some of the comments Trump posted today:
A few more details about Tim Kaine:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/07/22/3801047/tim-kaine-hillary-vp/
It looks to me like progressives will find quite a bit to complain about in Tim Kaine’s past records of governing and voting, but less to claim about if you look at his record in the last few years. I hope this means that he is a man capable of learning. I’m reserving judgement for now.
Michael Tomasky of The Daily Beast offers a review of Tim Kaine’s speech today.
Short excerpts from the speeches available here:
NBC News link
Full speech not yet posted.
Debbie Wassermai-Schulz has been disinvited from speaking at the Democratic National Convention. As head of the Democratic National Committee, she will still gavel the convention into session, and she will officially end the convention.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/22/politics/dnc-wikileaks-emails/
That sounds like the right way to handle this.
Russian hackers trying to help Trump?
Link
Need more evidence. And we also need Trump to release his tax returns.
Trump explains that he is even worse than we thought he was when it comes to banning Muslims:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-muslim-ban-expansion
Lynna, OM, quoting DailyKos @ # 185: … Putin’s goal to retake the Baltic states which he began with the military invasion of Ukraine…
Count on DK to get part of the story right, and leave out enough to bungle the rest. Ftr: Putin acted primarily in response to the US destabilization and coup of Ukraine, and continues to confront US-driven NATO military maneuvers and missile emplacements in eastern Europe.
None of which makes Vladimir P any less of a nickel-plated bastard, but it irks me when under-informed Democratic Party sock puppets parrot the government/corporate media line of Cold War II aggressive disinformation.
Pierce @187, Thanks for the additional information and perspective.
In other news, Donald Trump said some stupid stuff about Roger Ailes.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-ailes-campaign-run
Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is endorsing Hillary Clinton.
Here is some of what Bloomberg said about Trump:
He is accurate about Trump. Some Republicans have been calling their fellow Republican, Bloomberg, a Democrat for some time. He is not a Democrat. He did, however, take more progressive positions on checking the spread of assault weapons, on addressing climate change, and on immigration reform.
Meanwhile, some progressive Democrats see the Bloomberg endorsement as proof that Hillary Clinton is not a progressive. I see it more as Bloomberg joining the “stop Trump” forces. It will be interesting to see what he has to say at the convention.
Donald Trump thinks he prevented his supporters from beating up Ted Cruz:
Link
However, several news reporters who had a view of the entryway where Trump was waiting in the wings saw handlers signal him to enter when the booing of Ted Cruz was peaking. Looked staged, and planned.
This is a followup to comment 184. Debbie Wassermai-Schulz has stepped down. she is no longer head of the Democratic National Committee.
Now that he has failed to get Bernie Sanders to withdraw his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, Trump has turned to insulting Sanders:
The quotes are from Trump’s Twitter feed.
This is a correction to comment 191. Debbie Wasserman Schulz’s resignation will not take effect until after the end of the Democratic Convention … later this week. Donna Brazile will serve as the interim chairperson.
In other news, cyber experts are agreeing with DNC spokespeople that the email leak was orchestrated by Russian hackers.
Washington Post link
I would still like to see more proof.
Statement from Debbie Wasserman Schultz:
NBC News link
It looks like the SDF are closing in on ISIS in Manbij. Ojalá :).
Daniel Kelly said this:
Nevertheless, Governor Scott Walker appointed Daniel Kelly to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Ian Millhiser of Think Progress took a closer look at this appointment and made some interesting comments:
Yes, that’s right. This is yet another anti-union, über conservative move by Scott Walker. That guy has been and continues to be a disaster for Wisconsin.
This is a followup to comment 192.
In addition to insulting Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump has mounted an insult campaign against Tim Kaine. One of Trump’s insults is based on a lie, that Kaine took more undisclosed personal gifts than former Governor Bob McDonnell.
Here is one of Trump’s lies:
Donald Trump Jr. is doing his chip-off-the-old-block thing again. This time his subject is the unemployment rate. Trump Jr. said:
Here is economist Christine Romans debunking Junior’s claim:
Link
re 198:
Like Newt Gingrich says: .
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
trying to Interpret Newt, he might mean: that he isn’t just denying facts; in politics, the only important thing is how the people feel regardless of the facts. [Monty Python’s comedic phrase of “She turned me into a newt!!!!” is currently a prescient curse]
Looks like Trump Jr is following Newt’s lead. Just make everyone FEEL the unemployment is TOO high, and they will vote for the guy that says he FEELS he’ll fix it. — actual facts and plans unimportant.
News for Trump Jr. I not unemployed. I was employed for 39 years. I am now retired, and not looking for work. The Redhead and I are on Medicare, only the Redhead is on SSA at the moment, and I paid into both funds for my entire career. I’m not looking for work as I am the primary caretaker for a partially paralyzed person. We’re living off my IRA, which I contributed to while I was employed.
Now Trump Jr., why do you consider me unemployed, and not retired?
/rhetorical
The Democratic National Convention has not yet officially started. There are, however, some speeches and rallies going on.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz spoke at a breakfast meeting of the Florida delegation. She was booed off the stage by Bernie Sanders’ supporters. That looked bad, and as a result she will not gavel in the Democratic Convention.
Smart move.
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the mayor of Baltimore and the DNC secretary will gavel the convention to order.
Speakers tonight include Elizabeth Warren, Michelle Obama, Cory Booker, and Bernie Sanders.
Nerd @200, you’re doing lots of work every day, but Trump would count you as unemployed. Sometimes he also counts part-time workers as unemployed. Not all part-time worker consider themselves underemployed, let alone unemployed.
Anyway, there is a standard for measuring unemployment, and the Obama Administration has stuck to that standard. I think Donald Jr. is like his father in another way, he does not know how to vet his sources.
More details on the hack of the DNC network:
Link
Bernie Sanders’ supporters booed Bernie Sanders before the convention got under way. Bernie was speaking to a crowd of his supporters at another venue. When he got to the part of his speech where he repeated his endorsement of Hillary Clinton the crowd booed. When he talked about “unity,” about backing Hillary, etc. the crowd booed.
In addition to booing Debbie Wasserman Schultz, an earlier crowd of Florida delegates also booed Nancy Pelosi.
The convention is now underway. Dr. Cynthia L. Hale had to pause during the invocation and wait until chants of “Bernie” died down.
Link
This whole convention thing is looking a little rough around the edges.
There are reports of at least 15 people killed and many injured in a stabbing attack outside Tokyo.
*Observation*
It appears some Sander’s supporters can’t accept that Sander’s lost the Democratic popular vote over all states by almost 3.8 million votes. They seem to want to pretend that Sander’s won the popular vote, and are behaving arrogantly.
Sanders has emailed his supporters asking that they don’t disrupt the convention. I can’t find a link to the whole text yet, but some is quoted here:
enough with the angst over the DNC already. Look at the platform. it’s pretty damn reasonable overall, and far to the left of where it was a year ago.
meanwhile… there’s trouble in River City…
http://time.com/4406567/republican-platform-johnson-amendment-churches-political-organizing/
Nerd @206: the 3.6 million vote difference, with Hillary getting that much over Sanders, is a larger gap than we saw between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in an earlier election season. There really is no reason to doubt the definitive win that Clinton racked up.
Sanders’ supporters should be angry about comments made by DNC leaders regarding his religion, etc., but that was the result of a limited, narrow group of people doing wrong. One of those DNC leaders has already been ousted. The theory that the whole system was so rigged that Bernie was ripped off just doesn’t hold water. Look at the facts. Add up all of the supposedly “rigged” parts and you still have a Clinton win and a Sanders loss.
Clinton and Sanders worked together on the Democratic platform. That’s a win for the Sanders campaign. Sanders is now a national figure, one who will be more powerful in the Senate. That’s a win.
Meanwhile, some Sanders supporters booed Elijah Cummings. Elijah Cummings! That’s a WTF moment. That’s jumping the shark. Wonkette link.
The irrationality behind part (not all) of the protests in Bernie’s name smells too much like the irrationality of Trump supporters. I hope they work past that.
Sanders sent out a message to his supporters asking that, as a courtesy to him, they do not protest on the floor of the convention. Didn’t work.
So I’m looking at a double rainbow. I had no idea it was a meme. I’ve never seen one before, and didn’t know they existed. Very cool.
From the Wonkette link:
a) Are they five?
b) No, Bernie Sanders didn’t in fact demonize Hillary Clinton during the primaries (though his campaign didn’t speak out strongly against the demonization by many of his followers). And he didn’t just endorse her today (just before bedtime, in that metaphor).
The disability rights advocate was great.
Sarah Silverman to the Bernie or Bust people: “You’re being ridiculous.”
Michelle Obama delivered a magnificent speech. One for the ages. Unfortunately, the tension between Sanders and Clinton supporters is the only news story on constant replay/repeat in most of the media.
Coverage of Michelle Obama’s speech by Rolling Stone. Video available at the link.
Here is coverage of Michelle Obama’s speech on MSNBC News. Video excerpts also available at the link, but not the whole speech.
SC referenced Sarah Silverman. Eugene Robinson, Rachel Maddow, etc. discussed it:
Link
Michelle Obama, orator.
One of the CNN reporters focused on the convention focusing on partitioning the constituency into various groups, such as: straight, gay, black, white, rich, poor, etc etc. To which the other reporter replied “such an argument refutes itself. Saying that various groups want to be recognized, is very different than saying all these groups should be hated”.
Now that the Bernie or bust people are actually booing Bernie, can we admit that it was never about Bernie, it was always about keeping a woman out of power?
The basic problem with the far left in the US is that they cannot be bothered to learn how democracy actually works. They seem to feel entitled to their way regardless of whether their vote can be counted upon or not–indeed whether they vote or not. So for their benefit, here’s a Politics 101 primer: Do you want Mrs. Clinton (or Barrack Obama or any other politician) to move to the left? Then support them from the left–not just in Presidential election years, but in off years. Elect their allies to congress, to governorships, state legislators… Have policies you support? Then fucking work to convince politicians that they aren’t committing political suicide by supporting your positions.
It’s politics. Is it too dirty a game for you? Then go play Pokemon Go and let the adults play.
While in North Carolina yesterday, Donald Trump said that the latest polls show him receiving the “largest bump in the history of conventions.” Nope. Not factual.
In the YouGov/Economist poll, Clinton gained by a small amount after the GOP convention. The NBC News/Survey Monkey poll shows Trump with no post-convention bounce. That poll shows Clinton at 46% and Trump at 45%, which is exactly what that poll showed before the Republican convention. So, no change. Definitely not the “largest bump in the history of conventions.”
There are some post-GOP-convention polls that show Trump got a modest bounce. Link
Real Clear Politics link, with stats that show Trump with a 0.9% bump after the convention.
In Manbij, the fighting is street to street, but the SDF are claiming they now control 80% of the city and are in the process of clearing out the last pockets of ISIS. I haven’t been able to discover whether humanitarian aid has been sent or reached them through Iraqi Kurdistan.
This is a followup to comments 185, 193, and 203.
We now have evidence that, yes, it was state-sponsored Russian hackers who stole those emails from the Democratic National Committee. The emails were released just before the Democratic convention, which looks like an attempt to disrupt the Dems in order to help Trump.
Details from NBC News.
Excerpt:
Additional links:
https://www2.fireeye.com/rs/848-DID-242/images/rpt-apt29-hammertoss.pdf
https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/bears-midst-intrusion-democratic-national-committee/
During yesterday’s Democratic Convention, who was booing and who was heckling? What were they chanting?
Among other things, they chanted “No TPP” when Elijah Cummings was talking about his parents, who were sharecroppers.
They chanted “Goldman Sachs” during Elizabeth Warren’s speech.
They chanted “Bernie, Bernie” and “Feel the Bern” at almost everyone.
Most of the sustained booing came from the California section, and they were still at it this morning:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sanders-easy-to-boo
Ha! I just posted that on the Hope thread.
USA Freedom Kids now planning to sue Trump for nonpayment.
Part of tonight’s roster of speakers at the Democratic Convention includes: Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner. Maria Hamilton, mother of Dontre Hamilton. Lezley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown. Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland. Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin. Lucia McBath, mother of Jordan Davis. Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley, mother of Hadiya Pendleton.
Some Republicans are already frothing at the mouth over this part of the Dem program:
Link
Sherriff Clarke seems to be saying that being stopped for a minor traffic violation may result in you being shot by police, but that’s okay because it is the way law enforcement in the USA fights “mainstream criminal behavior.” Talk about a warped perspective.
Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, posted a list that connects Donald Trump more firmly to Vladimir Putin:
Some people object to the term “blackballed,” preferring to say that major banks in the USA are unwilling to loan Trump money because of past bad experiences with him.
http://robertreich.org
Robert Reich also carefully detailed his reasons to conclude that Hillary is trustworthy.
I’m not sure I entirely agree with Reich here. Ken Starr and his ilk, (including Trump), will turn any nothing burger into a feast of misleading repetition of lies and innuendo. This is what they do. I think Hillary Clinton’s best defense is to continue to place her detailed policy positions in the public eye, and to let people like Michelle Obama attest to her character.
Do you remember the three girls who sang and danced in a strangely propagandistic and somewhat awkward way at one of Donald Trump’s rallies? Those girls, USA Freedom Kids, and their management team are now suing Donald Trump. Why? Trump didn’t pay them, nor did he provide agreed-upon opportunities to sell USA Freedom Kids albums, etc.
Link
“5 Times Donald Trump Smeared, Cheated And Mocked Veterans”
More people jumping on the news that Trump is financially connected to oligarchs in Russia, this time from the right:
The Hill link
Hillary Clinton has given several speeches in which she talked about foreign policy. She also posted policy papers on her official campaign website.
So, what do the Republicans do in response? They trot out former “Apprentice” star, Omarosa Manigault, to address the media on foreign policy per the Trump Campaign. [Cue eyebrow-raising, laughter, and ridicule.]
Link
A few responses to Omarosa’s role:
Some Trump’s tweets in response to the Democratic Convention:
Cory Booker responded to Trump’s strange comment:
Donald Trump did not respond to Booker’s brotherly love.
More journalists (and even leaders in the defense world) are pointing out that the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee emails brings the issue of Donald Trump’s tax returns back into the spotlight.
The quoted text is from an article by James Fallows, writing for The Atlantic.
Emphasis mine.
Tonight’s schedule for the Democratic Convention includes some well-known entertainers. (No, not Scott Baio.)
Meryl Streep will introduce a film about Hillary Clinton that will be shown in prime time.
Alicia Keys will perform.
Wonkette commented on the lawsuit being filed by the U.S.A Freedom Kids band:
More details at the link. More nefarious and unfair treatment came from the Trump campaign.
History.
1) I had heart palpitations. Wasn’t expecting that.
2) Bernie Sanders is true class. It had to have been so hard to do that, and he emerged as a real champion.
Occasionally, friends or family fall prey to conspiracy theories, and then they send those wild fantasies to me … usually in a huge font size and with many exclamation marks. Here are some excerpts from the conspiracy theory sent to me yesterday:
(3) Stephanie Rawlings-Blake looked smashing. Sorry, but I fucking love that dress. She also did a great job.)
Andra Day.
In full agreement with SC in comment 239, and 240. I love Andra Day’s voice. Great performance.
The close of the day, when there was a video presentation of all the men who have been president … and then Hillary was there. Dramatic and slightly cheesy special effects, but really effective. I liked that.
Here’s the video I referred to in comment 241:
http://www.nbcnews.com/video/hillary-clinton-delivers-message-to-young-girls-732852291986
Apart from the complete inappropriateness of the moment, does it strike anyone else as strange that the current radical leftist movement is essentially an isolationist, protectionist movement? The argument is not, as far as I can tell, that TPP is a bad treaty and a better one needs to be made or that NAFTA was a bad treaty poorly implemented and needs to be reformed, but rather that treaties such as NAFTA and TPP are inherently bad and that, by extension, promoting international trade is inherently bad.
Instead of demanding “no TPP” why not add a condition to the TPP that free flow of goods only happens if there is also free flow of people? In short, something like the demand that the EU is making on Britain if they intend to leave but want to keep market access. No free market without open borders.
In a typically absurd press conference, Trump just encouraged the Russian government to obtain and release Clinton’s emails – “Russia if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” Katie Tur asked if he has any qualms about doing this, and after he told her to “be quiet” he said that he doesn’t. He’s actively calling on Putin to criminally break into US servers and interfere with US elections.
SC @245, I saw that. Incredible.
In the same press conference, Trump said that we don’t really know who hacked the DNC. Other sources say we do know.
From the New York Times: “American intelligence agencies have told the White House they now have ‘high confidence’ that the Russian government was behind the theft of emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee, according to federal officials who have been briefed on the evidence.”
From Fidelis Cybersecurity: “I come from a law enforcement background, and it’s [about being] beyond a reasonable doubt. And I would say it’s beyond a reasonable doubt that Russians stole the DNC materials.”
The New York Times also reported:
Motive?
Anyway, a candidate for president of the USA inviting Russia to hack organizations here is mind boggling.
The Clinton campaign issued this statement:
I suppose that Trump will tell us that he was joking after he gets enough negative feedback. His own V.P. pick, Mike Pence, came out and said that if the FBI investigation shows that foreign governments are hacking U.S. institutions that he would expect appropriate measures to be taken. Pence and Trump are on different tracks entirely.
And Trump’s interpretation (to use the word loosely) of the hacking is so perfectly clownish: He claims that if it is the Russians it shows Putin’s lack of respect for Obama’s government and for Clinton. In contrast, he said, Putin respects him. Right – Putin wants to see him elected because he respects Trump so much, not because he sees him as an easily manipulable stooge and fears Clinton.
Russian intelligence must find it hilarious – in today’s press conference, he yet again falsely claimed that Putin had called him a “genius” and said he hoped Putin would like him. His desperate, pathological need for affirmation, attention, and a reputation for “toughness” would make him ridiculously easy to manipulate.
Pushback against Trump’s stupid comments encouraging Russia to attack his political opponent is also coming from conservatives. Steve Benen noted:
In the same press conference Trump also claimed that “they” are saying he received the biggest post-convention poll bounce “in memory.” No one is saying that because it is not true. Well, Trump is saying that.
See comment 220 for some details regarding polls.
and Putin is rigorously denying Russian involvement in hacking the DNC. surprise surprise, what else is there.
When Bill Clinton took on the task of reintroducing Hillary Clinton to the nation last night, he said one thing that really struck me as true.
After presenting a long (rather overlong) litany of Hillary’s achievements and examples of her work ethic, Bill asked how anyone could reconcile that record with the picture Republicans paint of Hillary. His answer: “You can’t. One is real, the other is made up.” Bill went on to say:
Yes, commentators were calling it “breathtaking” and “staggering.” It’s all of these things. Truly unbelievable. As I predicted last Friday: “I expect it will be virtually unbearable for him to lose the spotlight, and that he’ll lash out in a variety of disgusting ways over the next several days trying to draw it back to himself.” He’s predictably compulsive. The Russians would play him like a harp.
About that email hacking thing, no need to worry. According to some right-wingers it is a false flag operation. Of course it is. (/sarcasm)
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ada-fisher-dnc-hack-false-flag
Donald Trump just took three different positions on the minimum wage within about 30 seconds.
Think Progress link
More from the Steve Benen piece Lynna linked to above:
*dreaming*
The spirit of Leonard Nimoy would come out of death, and go In Search of and find Donald Trump’s Tax Forms.
/*dreaming*
CNN included a Trump-troll covering the Democrat Convention. He spoke the expected conundrum of how the Democrats were so against voting rights, enacting Jim Crow, against women’s vote, etc. (and Republicans were the abolitionists, etc) to which the more reasonable panelist pointed out, “yeah that’s true, recognize (dipshit). They got past that, you’re talking history, not current events, sheesh” [a little paraphrasing included].
And of course the Trumptroll objected to the list of women leaders omitting a few prominent republican women, and that Hillary is not the first woman to be nominated to a major office, remember Palin?? *eyebrows*.
The reasonable guy didn’t even have to point out that being asked to be on McCain’s ticket is not actually nomination by the voting public.
They politely avoided (while eyerolling) calling Palin the word-kaleidoscope she frequently appears to be without being victimized by secondary sources jumbling up her speeches into word salad to mock her.
Trumptroll was very tu quoque [sic]. meaning repeatedly spouting, “Democrats were just as racist as they accuse Trump as being;” *eyebrows* so why should we believe democrats spew?” *more eyebrows*
..
other than the single troll, the panel, with more than just Cooper360, seemed to be quite appreciative, and informed by, the background the speakers were giving about Hillary. Filling in all the details easily left out of news stories.
Yep, it has already happened: Fox News Anchor Bret Baier says that Donald Trump was joking about calling for Russia to hack Hillary Clinton.
Meanwhile, MSNBC played back to back clips of Trump claiming to “know Putin very well” back in November, and of his claiming not to know Putin “at all” today.
Here is a bit more reaction to Trump’s comments:
Nerd @256, I thought it might be more useful for the Russians to find Trump’s tax forms and then release those.
Trump’s top aide, Paul Manafort, repeated again today that Trump is not going to release his tax returns.
Bill O’Reilly is one of the few right wing doofuses that have criticized Michelle Obama after she gave that great speech on Monday night.
O’Reilly responded to this part of Michelle Obama’s speech:
O’Reilly said, among other offensive things that the slaves who built the White House were “well-fed and had decent lodgings.” Here are some excerpts from O’Reilly’s on-air rant:
As Jay Bookman said, “We have an eyewitness, First Lady Abigail Adams, who said those slaves were ‘half fed, and destitute of clothing’.”
Quest Love of The Roots band really went after Bill O’Reilly. Quest Love posted a photo of a slave with a terribly scarred back to go with this comment:
A few more reactions to Bill O’Reilly’s comments about slaves who built the White House being “well-fed [etc.]”:
From Shonda Rhimes: “Bill: Chat about cuisine after they steal ur name, homeland, family then beat u, breed u and make u work for free.”
From Rabia Chaudry: “I will provide decent lodging and food to Bill O’Reilly if he becomes my slave. Need a shed built.”
From Ken Jennings: “Persistent wage gap between slaves and non-slaves largely a result of the slaves’ lifestyle and family choices”
From Leon Wolf: “For his next hot historical take, Bill O’Reilly will tell us about the free dental care at Auschwitz.”
From Paul Krugman: “Sometimes they’re worse than you could imagine, even taking into account that they’re worse than you can imagine.”
@Lynna, #260, quoting O’RLY:
Bwahahahahahahhahaahahahahahahahahhahahahaha. That alone would give some very compelling evidence of O’RLY’s neural incapacity, even if we didn’t have all the other evidence.
Hillary Clinton made history last night when she became the first woman to be nominated by a major party for president. Nevertheless, several major news outlets did not feature a photo of her on their front page. Instead, they featured photos of men.
The Wall Street Journal showed a photo of Bernie Sanders, under the headline “Clinton Wins Historic Nomination.” The Wall Street Journal also featured a photo of Bill Clinton in another version of their paper, under the headline “Hillary Clinton Wins Nomination.”
The Chicago Tribune showed a photo of Bill Clinton, under the headline “Clinton claims nomination.”
Inside pages were often no better.
Media Matters link.
Right-wing media is seizing on the story of the Russians hacking the Democratic National Committee network to claim that that means the Russians also hacked Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
There is no evidence that Clinton’s server was hacked by anyone. There is no evidence it was hacked by the Russians. Donald Trump seems to also be conflating the two, conflating the DNC network with Clinton’s private server.
Hugh Hewitt:
Dick Morris:
National Review’s Jonah Goldberg:
Rush Limbaugh:
Paul Manafort:
On the schedule for today/tonight’s Democratic convention (not a complete list):
President Barack Obama
Vice President Joe Biden
Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (an independent, not a Democrat)
Daniel Driffin, an HIV/AIDS activist
Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton
Representative Maxine Waters
Several other U.S. Representatives
President of NARAL Ilyse Hogue
A female tech entrepreneur, Books Bell
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
Jesse Jackson
California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom
Representative Ruben Gallego from Arizona
Martin O’Malley
Sigourney Weaver
California Governor Jerry Brown
Advocates for gun violence prevention measures, including Erica Smegielski
Angela Bassett
Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly
Leon Panetta
Senator Sherrod Brown
Dr. Jill Biden
Lenny Kravitz
This article quotes Trump from 2014:
They link to the video of the NPC event, and he does in fact say just that (so no one has to watch the whole thing – he’s asked the question at around 47:50 in).
SC (#252):
Trump’s more of a vuvuzela, if you ask me.
Lynna #259. I didn’t say who the spirit of LN should give a copy of the tax forms to…
I suspect that another source than the Russians would be needed to get it published.
In September 2014, during his peak Birther period, Donald Trump also appealed to hackers:
Nerd @268, you are correct. The Russian hackers would not be a good source for Trump’s tax returns. They might get their hands on them, but they wouldn’t release them publicly. They might use them to pressure already-gullible, Putin-loving Trump to take more actions favorable to Russia.
In other news, Trump announced that he thinks the Geneva Convention is “out of date.” Trump added:
Trup also said that the European Union was created to “beat the United States.”
Lynna@263, the Grauniad points out there is a reason for the poor-seeming choice of photographs of the historic moment, Hillary Clinton broke the glass ceiling — but didn’t break many front pages: “The Democratic presidential nominee wasn’t onstage as she made history, leaving newspaper editors in an awkward spot when it came to photos”.
Oh, my, Trump is going to hate this. This will hit him where it hurts. The ratings for the Democratic convention are higher than the ratings for the Republican convention.
At least 24.3 million people watched the Democratic Convention on Tuesday night, which is about 25% more people than watched day two of the RNC.
blf @271. I’m not buying that excuse. Hillary Clinton appeared, looking rather resplendent, by video link. Editors could have used an image snipped from that video link, preferably the glass-breaking. They could have used an image of Clinton from the DNC live feed of that night. They could have used any photo of Clinton that they have on file (which is what they often do for famous white men).
Lynna, editors did every one of those things you mentioned. Try reading the fecking link rather than just the excerpt. It even has examples for feck’s sake.
At least 44 people have been killed by an ISIS suicide bomber in Qamishli.
For your next argument about Obamacare: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/27/average-health-insurance-premiums-fell-after-obamacare-took-effect-study-says.html
blf @274, I think we may be misunderstanding each other. I was focusing only on newspapers that did not feature Hillary Clinton on their covers.
For the third straight night in a row, the Democratic convention racked up higher ratings than last week’s Republican convention.
Donald Trump’s response to losing in the ratings is to tell his supporters not to watch the final night of the Democratic convention.
Last week Trump was so happy with the ratings for the Republican convention that he bragged about them. He even predicted that no one would watch the Democratic convention. Now his campaign is sending fund-raising emails that tell supporters not to watch as Clinton accepts the Democratic nomination.
Watching the first woman nominated for the presidency accept that nomination is likely to get high ratings. Trump having his undies in a bunch, not so much.
This 2016 Democratic convention has higher ratings than the Dem convention in 2012.
The numbers for 2016:
Monday, 26 million viewers versus 23 million for night one of the RNC
Tuesday, 24 million, versus 19 million for night two of the RNC
Wednesday, Democratic convention viewership about 15% higher than viewership for night three of the RNC
Views from live streaming sources such as PBS and C-SPAN are not counted in those ratings.
Another long-time Republican just quit the Republican Party.
Philly link
The organization VoteVets called for the GOP to remove Trump from the ticket. Here is the statement from VoteVets Chairman Jon Soltz:
VoteVets link
To defend himself against videos showing him making fun of disabled people, Trump made this argument:
Well, yes. I think you would do that because the law requires you to do so. The law is the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Trump also denied, again, that he was making fun of disabled journalist Serge Kovaleski. Everyone can see him making fun of Kovaleski. It’s on video.
To make matters worse for Trump, his compliance with the ADA has not been stellar:
That’s just a partial list. You can read about more instances of Trump’s non-compliance in an article by Gideon Resnick.
Kansas is facing another credit downgrade.
State Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley (D) told the Kansas Associated Press, “It’s just the fundamental, ongoing budget crisis that’s been caused by Sam Brownback’s failed tax experiment. The sooner they acknowledge that, the better off this state will be.”
Topeka Capital-Journal link
Many people have suggested that Donald Trump should not receive intelligence briefings prior to the election in November. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper dismissed that idea.
A few people have also said that Hillary Clinton should not receive intelligence briefings. Clapper dismissed that idea too.
Donald Trump just came up with a new reason why he thinks Hillary Clinton should not receive intelligence briefings:
Trump said that publicly.
Meanwhile, Representative David Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island, formally requested that the executive branch “withhold classified materials and briefings from Donald Trump.”
re 270: sorry I’m late:
delusion from the deluded turnip, no surprise.
I guess I’m deceived to think EU was inspired by the US and modeled after us, imitating the US success at joining a collection of independent States into a unified economic system. I guess I take US exceptionalism for granted tsk tsk.
Trump has been saying for some time that President Obama is not really an American (the whole Birther thing), and that he doesn’t know what it means to be an American. It was interesting to see President Obama turn the tables on Trump at the Democratic convention last night. Obama effectively turned Trump into the epitome of an un-American individual.
Here are some excerpts from Obama’s speech:
Full text of President Obama’s DNC speech.
Another excerpt from President Obama’s speech:
NBC News link to video of Obama’s DNC speech. 44 minutes
Rush Limbaugh, being as classy as ever, made these comments about Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech which will be delivered at the Democratic convention tonight:
Remember ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council? That’s the rightwing organization that writes so-called “model legislation” for rightwing legislators. That way, the legislators don’t have do any work at all before they submit bills that weaken unions, that take money away from public schools, and that weaken environmental protections and regulations, (to name just a few of their despicable goals). The model legislation that ALEC churns out is corporate-funded, and often written by corporate personnel and/or lobbyists.
Trump’s V.P. pick, Mike Pence, is making an effort to strengthen ties between ALEC and the Trump campaign. Pence’s emphasis is on education. He wants more “academic freedom,” which in conservative-speak means taking more money out of the public school system and putting more money into a private school system with fewer means of oversight. Religiously-based private schools love this approach. Corporations who want to make a lot of money by sucking up state and federal funds while offering substandard education … they love this approach.
The Koch brothers and other private entities are backing this. There’s a chart showing more of the right-wing corporate backers of the education reform echo chamber in a Media Matters article.
This is hilarious in a dark-comedy way: Donald Trump Jr. has accused Barack Obama of plagiarizing a line from his RNC speech.
Junior said:
President Obama said:
Uh, yeah, that doesn’t qualify as plagiarism, Junior. For one thing, if we look at some of Obama’s past speeches, it might be said that you lifted some lines from him. Or perhaps you stole your line from former president George Bush.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-jr-obama-plagiarism
Junior is still really upset about media reports showing that parts of Melania Trump’s speech were cribbed from Michelle Obama’s 2008 DNC speech.
Trump and immigrant labor, a tale of hypocrisy: he says one thing and does another.
Slate link
Trump prefers his employees to be similar to indentured servants, and that’s why he is still using H-2Bs to bring laborers into the country. Here’s quote from David Seminara, a fellow with the Center for Immigration Studies:
National Review article
Here’s a quote from Danny Fontenot, the director of the hospitality program at Palm Beach State College:
The Fontenot quote comes from a New York Times article written in February.
This report is from yesterday. It is the latest incident showing Trump to be a guy who suppresses access for media outlets he does not like:
Slate link
Retribution, suppression, despicable tactics. That’s Trump.
Tonight’s DNC schedule features several U.S. Representatives, several civil rights leaders (notably, Dolores Huerta), some Governors, some mayors, and some senators.
Family members of fallen law enforcement officers will speak.
The head of Republican Women for Hillary will speak.
Musical performances include Carole King, Sheila E + Family, and Katy Perry.
Other celebrities include: Chloe Grace Moritz, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, and Kareem Adbul Jabaar.
Chelsea Clinton will introduce her mother.
Sheila E. is the next musical performance. Also, Rev. William Barber will speak later (hopefully it won’t be too goddy :)).
Schedule:
http://fox8.com/2016/07/28/schedule-of-speakers-for-final-night-of-democratic-national-convention-released/
Putin wannabe.
Trump now talking about how he wants to hit some of the DNC speakers.
Paraphrasing Elizabeth Warren: “Hillary Clinton is a weeble.”
Sheila E. coming up.
SC @296, That speech by Trump in Davenport, Iowa was disturbing. He went on and on about how he wanted to punch people, about how hard he wanted to hit them, especially “a little guy.” The “little guy” is probably a reference to Michael Bloomberg, a real billionaire who is richer than Trump, and a guy who said that, as a New Yorker he knows “a con when I see one.” The “con” details were all related to Donald Trump.
“I was going to hit this guy so hard his head would spin” etc. That’s a YouTube link to a video segment.
There are three or four cases of Zika virus in south Florida. The cases do not seem to be travel related. Officials think that local mosquitoes in south Florida are now carrying the Zika virus.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/28/florida-investigates-two-more-zika-cases-people-who-havent-traveled/87655028/
Interesting article from Reuters about the Progressive wing of the Democrats.
“Unless Republicans are all Native Americans, they are immigrants too.” – Andrew Cuomo
“Make America Native Again.”
There’s a movement from the rightwing to boycott the films or other performances of Academy Award winning actor Bradley Cooper. Why? Cooper was spotted in the audience at the Democratic National Convention.
This was considered a betrayal by right-wingers because Cooper had a leading role (“American hero Chris Kyle) in the movie “American Sniper,” a favorite of conservatives.
Cooper has been a Democrat for a couple of decades.
The backlash and proposed boycott include statements like this:
Yes. I hate the response that runs “This guy’s been rich and pampered all his life. He’s probably never been in a fistfight.” He was raised by an authoritarian father, and when he started acting out aggressively and cruelly he was sent to an authoritarian institution. New York Military Academy was a violent, miserable place and educated him further in authoritarianism. Wealth doesn’t shield kids from having damaging childhoods. He’s a 70 year-old man whose response to criticism is bluster and threats of physical violence. It’s tragic.
A new Gallup poll that Trump will not like:
Here are some results from an NBC News poll:
William Barber.
9:03pm EDT.
Rev. William Barber II speaking at DNC.
for a Conservative Evangelical Preacher, he is making a lot of sense that is usually so absent of religio people.
to quote: “disgusting how some speak so much about what the bible says so little and say so little about what the bible says so much…” without having to fill in the obvious blanks.
Also significant that he focused attention back to the opening paragraph of the Constitution. “estalblish Justice, provide for Common defense…” (emphasis in his voice).
Unlike the NRA infested Rethuglicans who focus on a single amendment to the Constitution propagating the myth that it is soon to be stolen (by those idiots who are afraid of getting shot [paraphrasing their propaganda]).
as an atheist I hesitate to make this recommendation: seek out the transcript of his DNC address.
“And those who have no faith, but they love this nation…”
I had a feeling they were heading toward the Berkeley-’60s “join us.” It works.
Bill Bogert, a “lifelong Republican” who did an Anti-Goldwater ad in 1968, has now recorded an Anti-Trump ad. CBC Radio One’s As it Happens interviewed him.
He considers Trump to be far worse than Goldwater – the latter was at least competent. He is not big fan of Hillary Clinton, preferring Elizabeth Warren, bu he will vote for her. He has harsh words for those who won’t vote.
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.3699151
that should read “an Anti-Goldwater ad in 1964“
Splitters!
Melania Trump’s website and biography have been scrubbed after people started asking questions about her falsely claimed university degree. The funny aspect is that in more than one place the bio read: “After obtaining a degree in design and architecture at University in Slovenia,…” – missing a rather important detail.
Prosecutor in Michigan announcing felony charges against several individuals in Michigan health and environmental departments related to the lead poisoning in Flint. So far, they’ve charged nine people and filed a civil suit against two companies. Their investigation isn’t over.
The trumptroll on CNN accused Hil of plagiarizing “like you (falsely *wink*wink*) accuse Melania of”, for using a common 4 word phrase in Hil’s acceptance speech. The troll raised his eyebrows, saying “…she didn’t even acknowledge her use of it; so you’ll just give HER a pass?????? [shrug]”
totally avoiding the fact that Melania plagiarized entire sentences from Michelle’s speech, that were constructed significantly different than common phrases. Not noticing that Hil also motioned slightly indicating the use of a common phrase in her speech. Not so, Melania.
and then, Troll attacked Hil for her husband’s transgressions. Noting a single Democrat woman accusing Bill of raping female staff during his presidency; in response to a list of many Republican women that are migrating to Dem, away from the treasonousTrumpit.
The troll was trying, and failing, to play the tu quoque card.
In his speech at the Democratic National Convention, President Obama indirectly referred to Trump as a “demagogue.”
Mike Pence, Trump’s V.P. pick, responded by saying, “I don’t think name calling has any place in public life.” [loud laughter] Does Governor Pence remember that Trump is the presidential nominee to whom he is tied?
Here’s what Donald trump said about he Republican National Convention last week:
Here’s what Trump said about the Republican National Convention today:
One of the most powerful speeches given at the Democratic convention was delivered by Khizr Khan.
Scroll down to view an excerpt from the video on NBC News.
Excerpt from coverage of this speech:
While Mr. Khan was delivering his speech, Donald Trump was in Iowa complaining again that America was not allowed to waterboard suspects.
A section of Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech that I liked:
From Lynna’s #317
Such voters! Wow! Many patriotism!
Sounding very much like the retired four-star marine general he is, John Allen shouted at the Democratic audience like they were his troops. Allen was backed up by a stage full of fellow generals, admirals and Iraq/Afghanistan veterans. One of the vets wore a turban.
General John Allen made a lot of sense. He said that the U.S. military would not carry out the illegal orders that Donald Trump proposed. He was the epitome of indignation at the thought of Trump as Commander in Chief.
C-SPAN video and text
Reaction comment:
Before he decided to distance himself from the not-so-good Republican Convention, claiming he only showed up to give a speech on the last night (not true), Trump had previously claimed to have provided criticism of the RC stage set, and to have “decided” on or approved every aspect of the schedule. Sad!
Donald Trump’s reaction to General Allen’s speech (see comment 321):
Doug Elmets, a life-long Republican, and a guy who worked with President Ronald Reagan, delivered a speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Video on Daily Kos.
Excerpts from his speech:
North Carolina Republican legislators have been defeated by the courts … again. This is good news for voting rights in that state.
Talking Points Memo link.
Moody’s analytics took a look at Hillary Clinton’s economic proposals, and the news is mostly good.
Think Progress link
Hillary Clinton’s full acceptance speech is posted on Mother Jones.
This is a followup to comment 318.
Right-wingers did not like, nor did they believe Khizr Khan:
Right Wing Watch link
This is a followup to comments 318 and 328.
During Khizr Khan’s speech, Fox News played a Benghazi, anti-Clinton ad. Link
Here are the other speeches Fox News ignored. They did not air these speeches, and they did not discuss them on air:
Speeches that addressed gun violence:
– Mother Whose Son Was Killed In The Orlando Nightclub Massacre Advocated “Common Sense” Gun Safety Laws.
– Daughter Of Sandy Hook Victim Called Out Politicians Who “Cower Behind The Gun Lobby.”
– Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Advocated “Stand[ing] Up To The Gun Lobby.”
– Charleston Church Shooting Survivors Lauded Clinton For Pushing To “Close The Charleston Loophole.”
– Former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Called For “Common Sense Measures To Reduce Gun Violence.”
Equality and Civil Liberties
– Sarah McBride, The First Openly Transgender Person To Speak At A Major Party Convention, Called For Transgender Equality.
– Father Of An American Muslim Soldier Killed In Iraq: Trump “Consistently Smears The Character Of Muslims.”
– Disability Rights Advocate: Trump “Bullies And Profits Off Of The Vulnerable Americans.”
Immigration
– Eleven-Year-Old Girl Spoke About Her Fear Her Parents Could Be Deported.
– DREAMER: Clinton “Will Fight To Keep Our Families Together.” Astrid Silva
Policing and Criminal Justice Reform
– Mothers Of The Movement Urge “Common Sense Gun Legislation” And Criminal Justice Reform.
– Pittsburgh Police Chief: “We Can Respect And Support Our Police Officers While At The Same Time Pushing For These Important Criminal Justice Reform.”
– Former NYPD Detective: Clinton Is The “Toughest Champion” For 9/11 First Responders
National Security
– Former CIA Chief Leon Panetta: Electing Trump Would Put “An Erratic Finger On Our Nuclear Weapons.”
– Retired Admiral Slammed Trump For Endorsing Torture, Praising Dictators, And Calling For Russia To Hack Clinton.
Reproductive Rights
– NARAL President Ilyse Hogue Recounted Her Decision To Have An Abortion, Noting That “About One In Three American Women Have Abortions.”
– Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards Was The First Speaker To Say The Word “Abortion” On The Convention Stage.
The above list of speeches ignored by Fox News is my summary of information presented by Media Matters.
In other news, Rush Limbaugh intimated that if Sanders had not endorsed Hillary Clinton, she would have had him killed:
Link
One speech that conservative radio hosts did discuss briefly was that of transgender rights activist, Sarah McBride. Steve Deace called McBride a “freak show,” and went on to call her “the cross-dressing dude.”
Link
This is a followup to comment 300.
Senate Democrats called on Congress to cancel or cut short the seven-week recess they are currently enjoying in order to deal with the Zika virus emergency.
speaking of biased commercials during the DNC. before Hil’s acceptance there was a gun fearmonger ad saying Hil was set to remove the 2nd amendment and shortly confiscate guns. message from NRA [surprise!! /sarc]
(surprise being that it was CNN showing the ad and not the unsurprising NRA shill of FauxNoise)
the actual shocking* moment was when Hil forthrightly told the public “I am NOT against the 2nd Amendment. I am NOT trying to confiscate guns from the public. I want to keep our children safe. By passing common sense laws about thorough background checks.” [ * — meaning shockingly pleased]
It seemed as though she saw that ad and addressed it directly.
Jill Stein is still hurting her case by pandering to anti-vaxxers:
Slate link
Stephen Colbert covers the last night of the Democratic National Convention, with an emphasis on the speeches, and on the Bernie Sanders’ supporters “fart-in” protest.
Scroll down to view the video.
More hacking reports:
Reuters link
NBC News link
This is a followup to comment 289.
Some teachers in Indiana are calling Mike Pence out for his association with ALEC.
Link
Rachel Maddow just reported that Donald Trump Jr. went to the Neshoba County Fair (where Reagan appeared in 1980 just after the convention to talk about how he supported states’ rights – Maddow discussed it in the context of Trump’s stop in Patchogue). Jr. told them he supports the continued use of the confederate flag.
Good news from the courts about the GOP voter laws.
http://my.xfinity.com/articles/news-politics/20160730/US–Voting.Rights-Rulings/
Applause, applause, applause.
SC @337, Donald Trump Jr. is freaking me out. He is a confederate-flag-loving doofus with a lot of similarities to his father. But here’s the real problem: he’s young. Junior is going to be around for what seems like forever.
In other news, the Houston Chronicle endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.
http://www.chron.com/opinion/recommendations/article/For-Hillary-Clinton-8650345.php
Here’s the video of the Maddow report – “Donald Trump, Jr. makes curious campaign detour.”
Lawrence O’Donnell last night had the Khans and Tony Schwartz. Worth watching.
SC @340, Maddow did a great job in that segment. There’s no one else who ties history, politics, civil rights, and emotion together like she does.
We are close to the anniversary of the day when the remains of civil rights heroes Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner were discovered in 1964. Donald Trump Jr. went to the scene of that crime in Mississippi to campaign to a mostly white audience in a state that is already mostly conservative and mostly Republican. I assume that being there, and putting in a plug for confederate flags, made him feel very comfortable.
Rachel Maddow also covered the way that Trump’s campaign completely ignored the Republican Party platform with the sole exception of insisting on a concession to Russia that involved Ukraine.
For a nice bit of humor, watch this Maddow presentation of the way in which Donald Trump confused Tom Kean with Tim Kaine. More delightful history married to current events. The joke is on Trump … again.
I was wondering when Trump would start weaseling out of the upcoming presidential debates. Guess what, he’s already laying the groundwork.
Trump still has his don’t-like-the-moderators, and his media-not-treating-me-fairly excuses in his back pocket.
The idea of debating Hillary Clinton probably scares him.
Ah, this incident is just so Trumpish. The self-proclaimed greatest builder in the world was giving a speech at a rally in Colorado. The fire marshal in charge of the venue stopped letting people in once the room reached its capacity. Trump didn’t like that. He didn’t like that one bit.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-fire-marshall-clinton-voter-accusation
Oh, please. Really?
Link
Trump wants love and appreciation from Hillary Clinton. He thinks she should have said, “I’d like to congratulate my Republican opponent for having done something that nobody has ever done in the history of politics in this nation.”
I get a laugh out of the way that Trump tells people what wording they should use when showering him with praise.
Incompetence on display again. Remember when the Trump campaign sent out email fundraising requests to lots of foreign dignitaries and elected officials? They are, unbelievably, doing it again … or still doing it. Sad!
An image of the actual fund-raising email is available here.
Trump sent the email out after the close of the Democratic convention.
This is a followup to comments 318, 328 and 329.
For just once, Trump could have taken the high road. But, no, he is incapable of that.
ABC News link
Trump should have watched the segment on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show to which SC provided a link in comment 340. He would have learned that Mrs. Khan did not speak because her emotional pain was so great that she didn’t think she could deliver a speech in that setting.
What Mrs. Khan did manage to say on the Lawrence O’Donnell show:
Trevor Noah’s take on statements Trump made after the Democratic Convention: Scroll down to watch the 12:33 minute video.
Excerpt:
Mr. Khan also said that they had gone over the speech together, and she was the one who thought he should say what he did and leave out the part telling Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan they have a moral responsibility to speak out.
Trump should also have watched the segment that followed, with Tony Schwartz. When O’Donnell asked if he thought Trump would hear Khan and say something like “I don’t mean Muslims like you and your son,” Schwartz said Trump is such a damaged human being that he could have watched Khan’s speech and not have been moved. He imagined (I’m paraphrasing) that Trump’s response would have been to be composing a tweet that would try to discount Khan’s comments, with a bunch of campaign staffers behind him with straitjackets preventing him from publishing it. I thought he was right at the time, and Trump’s now proved him right.
You know what would be hell? Thousands of people packed into a hall fighting to escape during a fire.
Doesn’t give you much confidence his properties are up to code, does it?
Yep, I bet his fire codes are up to his ADA standards. I bet he just doesn’t get the need for anything other than what his ego says, much less safety regulations.
Trump’s reply to Khan:
All of his assertions are appended with “I think” or “Believe me”.
Believe me, that is a sure sign of conman.
Seriously, I threw his phrase into my observation to mock him as the asshat mongoose toupee he is.
factually, he didn’t create those jobs, he hired people to do those jobs then refused to pay them. His only sacrifice was declaring Chapter 11 to keep the money scheduled to pay those jobs.
More quotes:
I’m sure Donald would say the same thing about Melania (Marla, Ivana,…).
I’d like to hear his current and former wives speak freely – no NDAs. If the freedom of women’s (and all) voices is so important to Trump, he can get rid of any such restrictions.
Trump’s only a few years older than me. Trump, what was your draft status back during the ‘Nam War? Daddy buy you your deferments?
Mr. Khan made the point that his wife was his partner in drafting his speech, and that he needed her standing next him in order to deliver it.
You would think that Trump would know this by now and would stop making disparaging remarks about her not being allowed to speak. As SC pointed out, Trump repeated the disparaging remarks in other venues.
More evidence that Trump is incapable of learning. Maybe it is also evidence that he lives in a bubble of his own making.
Putin already invaded Ukraine. What does doofus Trump say about this?
Link
That’s not an old quote from Trump. It is current. It aired today as part of an interview conducted by George Stephanopoulos.
In the same interview with George Stephanopoulos (comment 356), Trump claimed:
Nope. He did not get a letter. He is lying.
Here is the NFL’s response:
This is a followup to comment 344.
Remember that fire marshall that Trump insulted in Colorado for enforcing the rules about the number of people allowed into a venue? Well, the fire department to which that fire marshall is attached had to to rescue Trump from an elevator earlier.
9 News link, Colorado
Trump still went on stage and insulted the fire department.
Khizr Khan’s response to Donald Trump dissing both Mrs. Khan and Muslim culture:
Link
A lot of people, including Republican leaders, do not agree with Trump’s bashing of Mr. and Mrs. Khan. Who does agree with Trump? ISIS does.
Link
Consequences: a weatherman in Dallas was asked to retire after he posted on Facebook some criticism of the Mothers of the Movement who spoke about their slain sons at the DNC.
Dallas Morning News link
Here is Bob Goosmann’s post:
And here is Bob Goodman’s explanation:
A lot of people in Dallas agree with Bob Goosmann, and they have posted their bile in the comments section on the Dallas News website, and well as in other venues.
More details to debunk Trump’s claim that Hillary Clinton’s campaign had a hand in setting up a debate schedule that would disadvantage him:
Talking Points Memo link
Donald Trump is not going to let his ill-conceived fight with the Khan family go. Mr. and Mrs. Khan must be really getting under his skin.
Here are the Trumpish tweets from this morning:
Mark Cuban (a very rich guy who is known for his appearances on the TV show “Shark Tank”) endorsed Hillary Clinton. What is more interesting is what he said about Trump:
Trump demonstrates that he can’t spell:
All errors are in the original.
In other news, some Trump donors tried to set up a meeting between Trump and Charles Koch. Koch refused to meet with Trump. Now Trump claims that the Koch brothers reached out to him, but that he turned them down. Yeah, Donald, that’s really likely. Not.
Politico documented the Koch’s rejection of The Donald.
Trump got a modest bump in the polls after the Republican convention. After the Democratic convention, Hillary Clinton erased Trump’s bump. She is ahead in most polls.
From CBS News:
In reports from Public Policy Polling, Clinton leads Trump 50% to 45%. The five-point advantage still holds when third party candidates are added to the polling.
The margins are still far too slim to engender confidence.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars organization is adding its voice to many that are condemning Donald Trump:
Here is an excerpt from a letter addressed to Trump from 17 Gold Star families:
http://www.votevets.org/press/gold-star-letter
This is a followup to comments 227, 342, and 356.
Trump is so far off the rails that he has the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. worried:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ukraine-ambassador-trump-russia
Is Donald Trump a tool of ISIS?
ISIS agrees with Trump about Capt. Khan.
Donald the Trump, you are being Trumped by ISIS. Reign in your hate, which is what they are using to get YOU to do their bidding.
Nerd @370, yes. We see that the dictator of North Korea, a whole bunch of white supremacists, and ISIS side with Donald Trump. The company he keeps.
Who else? Well Trump’ adviser for Veterans affairs agrees with Trump when it comes to attacking a Muslim family whose son died serving in the U.S. military.
Oh, FFS.
Link
I’m beginning to wonder if Khizr Khan will be able to sustain his good opinion of his adopted country, the USA. Donald Trump and rightwing conspiracy theorists are certainly going to test his resolve.
Here is what former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said in reference to the war of words between Trump and the Khan family:
WTF?
Trump’s paranoia is starting to get the better of him.
He suggests the general election may be rigged.
Gee Donald, if the populace doesn’t elect you because you are such an unlikeable know-nothing, the voting must be rigged, as you must always win.
I’d say to check his ego, but even the Apollo Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center isn’t big enough to hold his ego.
Nerd @373, yeah, Trump is looking for excuses now. He is likely to lose and he knows it.
It gets worse, Trump surrogates like Roger Stone are promoting the idea that there will be civil unrest if Trump loses:
Warren Buffett joined Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail today. He spoke in Omaha, Nebraska. In addition to saying lots of laudatory things about Clinton, Buffett challenged Trump to release his tax returns.
Link
Here’s what Warren Buffet had to say about Trump’s recent criticism of the Khan family:
Translation: “I’m now afraid I’m going to lose, based on recent polls.” He said the primary was rigged until he won, and then he actually said outright that now that he’d won he didn’t care and wasn’t saying that anymore. Just like his “Ted Cruz is no longer a liar, we don’t say Lyin’ Ted anymore. We love Ted, we love him, right? We love him. Now we don’t want to say Lyin’ Ted. I’d love to pull it out and just use it on lying, crooked Hillary because she is a liar.” It’s all in his head.
Another judge declaring a state’s ID laws unconstitutional.
Dang, deleted the left point for the close blockquote in #378. My bad.
Probable evidence for election fraud: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5O9I4XJdSISNzJyaWIxaWpZWnM/view?pref=2&pli=1
Have’nt read it yet, but I thought I’d share. Its from an organization called Election Justice USA. Here is their website: http://electionjusticeusa.org/.
The third party people are pushing it hard.
Donald Trump at today’s rally (shown on Maddow):
“…Takes guts to do this, believe me. And everybody said – …no, it takes guts! I could be having a very nice life right now. I don’t have to be with you people, ranting and raving, right? Could have a very nice life.”
Also my previous post @380. Would it be OK to link it on other threads on this site? I dont want to get accused of spamming, but I do want enough people to see it and read it. I value peoples thoughts on these things, including for or against voting a third party.
On another political thread? Sure. Just don’t get carried away and put it on multiple other threads.
Thanks PZ.
You know what struck me just now?
Y’all remember the PUMAs and hillaryis44? The “organised” berniebros(tm)(r) remind me a lot of those persons of… dubious arguments against Obama. But, more importantly, they remind me of Trumpites.
At the time, I believe the consensus was that the major voices in that whole PUMA and H44 thing were “republican plants” and trying to stir up shit against Obama and his campaign.
(http://www.hillaryis44.org/ currently proudly waving the trump flags, fyi)
I just never thought Donald Trump would be the hill they will die on.
I guess I’m getting a nice preview of what it’s like to sit at the throne in the middle of chaos; a mad god pipped to dreams by the stir of thousands of undying flutists.
Here are two Daily Kos posts/threads (or whatever they call them there) about what logicalcat mentions:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/7/29/1554022/-Election-Justice-USA-Study-Finds-that-Without-Election-Fraud-Sanders-Would-Have-Won-by-Landslide
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/7/30/1554556/-Sham-Group-Election-Justice-USA-Set-Up-By-Dead-Enders-To-Smear-Hillary
Rachel Maddow hosted a segment in which she interviewed Garry Trudeau, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and author of the new book “Yuge!” Trudeau say the Trump presidency coming a couple of decades ago. Video, about 9.5 minutes long.
The segment begins by showing the recent episode of The Simpsons, in which Donald Trump takes a 3AM phone call. Quite funny.
The Trudeau portion of the segment highlights the fact that Trump has always been Trump. No change folks. He is consistently a narcissistic blowhard.
At least one congressional Republican has decided that he can’t stomach Trump:
http://www.nbcnews.com/card/gop-congressman-im-voting-clinton-trump-unfit-n621536
President Obama was blunt when asked about Trump during a press conference this morning:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-trump-unfit-gop-endorsements
Trump flip-flopped on his feelings toward crying babies today. At a rally in Virginia, he said a few tolerant things and then he went full Trump on the baby: “You can get the baby out of here.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-baby-get-him-outta-here
Video available at the link.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign raised “nearly $90 million” in July. The campaign heads into August with $58 million on hand. They are using some of the money to fund efforts to make sure people are registered to vote. Some states and local election boards are still doing things like purging voters who haven’t voted in two years off the rolls. Nerd documented some of the voter-restriction battles in comments up-thread.
This is a followup to comments 220 and 356.
Hillary Clinton’s post-convention rise in the polls is increasing. What does Trump have to say about it?
Trump was particularly angry at CNN for posting a poll in which he trails Clinton by 8 points. About CNN, Trump said:
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/how-big-is-hillary-clintons-convention-bounce-226545
SC @386, thank you for those links.
The material presented at the first link looks like a case of forming a conclusion and then looking for cherry-picked or misleading data to back it up.
The second link leads to an article that presents more reasoned arguments. Here are some excerpts:
In a comprehensive article, Newsweek writers exposed Trump as a business fraud. Being a good businessman is the foundation of Trump’s campaign for the presidency. Now we can dispense with that reason altogether.
The entire article is worth reading. Here are a few excerpts:
Donald Trump campaigned in Pennsylvania yesterday. He said some dumb stuff, some incorrect stuff, and some narcissistic stuff … all while supposedly making points about green sources of energy.
Think Progress link
No, Donald, you do not. You are praising yourself, but there’s no backup for that praise.
No, Donald, the payback is not 18 years, and the cost has declined dramatically.
Not content with being wrong about solar, Trump went on to be wrong about wind.
At the link, see charts showing bird deaths. Cats, building windows, automobiles and power lines all kill more birds than wind turbines.
Trump also made some incorrect claims about regulations and inspection regimes killing the coal industry:
Hillary Clinton posted the details of her plan to increase spending on infrastructure. The plan includes ways to pay for the infrastructure spending.
Donald Trump made a yuge, blustering claim for which he has no backup whatsoever. On Fox Business News today, Trump said that he would “at least double” whatever Clinton says she will spend on infrastructure. How would he pay for that?
He’s talking about $550 billion.
In the same interview, Trump said he would reduce taxes.
Paul Lewis, vice president of policy and finance at the Eno Center for Transportation, said:
While talking about the need to rebuild infrastructure, Trump claimed that 61% of bridges in the U.S. are structurally deficient. The actual number is about 10%, a percentage that climbs to 24% if all of the functionally obsolete bridges are included. Not 61%.
Hmm. Reminded of the phrase from Babylon 5 TV Series, “and so it begins”.
Trump is refusing to endorse those republicans who have criticized him for his Kahn Family travesty.
Looks like the implosion is beginning.
@386
Thanks for the links. Reading the comments in those links it seems this study was just a collection of bullshit from around the internet now collected in something like a trade paperback, to use comic book terms. But I haven’t read it yet. A snippet from the comment section:
Did a little bit of digging, and found that my US Senator, Mark Kirk (R), isn’t endorsing Trump, nor is my Congress Critter, Bob Dold (R). Both are in tight elections in a democrat leaning state during Presidential election years. Neither lack of endorsement will effect my vote for for a democrat for both positions.
(We have a rethug businessman Governor who can’t understand that his best option for the desired balanced budget is to RAISE TAXES, since he was elected in the non-Presidential even year election.) I liked the old “fiscal conservative” republicans (Country Club Republicans), which meant balanced budget. Not like the present Governors like Brownback and Rauner who try to make the state unworkable via spending cuts due to ideology.
French President Francois Hollande said a few things about Trump.
In related news, Captain Khan’s commander in Iraq speaks out, along with other military personnel with whom Captain Khan served:
Link
Excerpt from Army Pfc. Vanessa Brenes-Remirez’s statement:
In other words, Captain Khan was nothing like Donald Trump.
More Trump paranoia: The Latest: Trump: People without ID will ‘vote 10 times’
Funny how ANY state enacting photo ID laws did not show evidence of voter fraud without photo ID. They just presupposed it.
@397
I can find many more applicable B5 quotes for Trump.
“How will it end?”
“In Fire.”
“Do you really want to know what I want? Do you really want to know the truth? I want my people to reclaim their rightful place in the galaxy. I want to see the Centauri stretch forth their hand again and command the stars. I want a rebirth of glory, a renaissance of power! I want to stop running through my life like a man late for an appointment, afraid to look back or look forward. I want us to be what we used to be! I want… I want it all back the way it was. Does that answer your question?”
“It’s like being nibbled to death by cats”
[blockquote]A sergeant had ordered her to dig a foxhole after she had been on guard duty all night. She was already exhausted, but she had set to digging when Khan happened past.
“What are you doing?” Khan asked by her recollection “You just did guard duty. Go sit down.”
“Sir?” a stunned Brenes-Ramirez asked.
“Go sit down,” Khan said. “That’s an order.”
The 19-year-old private found herself sitting and watching an officer work the shovel. The sergeant returned.
“What are you doing, sir?” the sergeant asked Khan.
“I’m helping,” Khan replied.[/blockquote]
Forget the rank he had on his collar (which often tells you nothing at all), this man was a fucking leader.
sunofa
Interesting news from the Kansas Primary Election.
A Teabagger, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, who has been a thorn in side of House Speakers Boenhner and Ryan was defeated in the primary. Huelskamp had lost his seat on the Agricultural Committee, which proved fatal.
Kansans also defeated at least 11 staunch Brownback lost their primaries to candidates who want to fund education, and reach across the aisle to the Democrats.
Idaho legislators have chosen a sneaky, craven way to mislead women seeking abortions in that state.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2016/08/03/3804651/idaho-ultrasound-list/
Trump is remarkably resistant to doing the prep work he actually needs to do in order to stick to relevant facts when he is giving a speech. Apparently, Trump’s prep/research team is equally resistant to doing their job well.
Trump went to Loudoun County in Virginia to hold a rally. He got nearly everything he said wrong, mostly because he presented the-sky-is-falling information that is not relevant to Loudoun.
Link
This is the only way to accomplish criminal justice reform right now, with Congress on another vacation, and with the Republican-dominated legislative branch still in obstructionist mode.
Link
Reporters from the New York Times who have followed the Trump campaign from the beginning compiled examples of some of the most vitriolic and/or violent language used by Trump supporters.
The 3:11-minute video is available on the Salon website.
Excerpt from some of the chants:
If you think that some of these supporters will not engage in violence when Trump loses the election, you will be proven wrong … unfortunately.
Trump’s spokesperson Katrina Pierson thinks that being gay is not normal:
Link
Pierson posted that in February of 2012, so it is not current. Still, this counts as another entry in “the company he keeps” category that condemns Trump.
Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, is displaying his ignorance and his love of conspiracy theories … again.
Link
Newt Gingrich seems to have jumped off the Trump train.
Daily Beast link.
Former Trump campaign manager, and current CNN shill for Trump, Corey Lewandowski, revised the Birther nonsense today. Here’s Wonkette’s take on this development:
@ #410
Well, sure, if you ignore the fact that last year was the warmest year on record, according to NASA and the NOAA. And that 15 of the 16 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001. If you ignore those details, then I guess you could prove “scientifically” that it’s not getting any warmer.
toms @413, exactly. Apparently, some Republicans think those facts are just part of a giant conspiracy perpetrated by liberals. Dunderheads.
In other news, (news in which Republicans choose to ignore facts again), Trump’s campaign said, among other boneheaded things, that Zika is an insignificant issue.
Twelve babies have already been born in the U.S. with brain damage due to the Zika virus. And the virus is spreading in Florida, as health officials confirmed yesterday.
Link
Hillary Clinton set up a transition team in case she is elected in November.
Background:
Needless to say, Mitt Romney wasted his money.
Actually, both candidates have been looking into the transition.
Sounds like Clinton is ahead of Trump, more ways than one, as Gov. Christie just criticized Trump for his Khan family remarks.
If you really want to be depressed, check out this NYT article, “Voices From Donald Trump’s Rallies, Uncensored,” a compilation of video from reporters who followed Trump rallies for a year.
“New York Times reporters have spent over a year covering Donald J. Trump’s rallies, witnessing so many provocations and heated confrontations at them that the cumulative effect can be numbing”… “But what struck us was the frequency with which some Trump supporters use coarse, vitriolic, even violent language — in the epithets they shout and chant, the signs they carry, the T-shirts they wear — a pattern not seen in connection with any other recent political candidate, in any party.”
“hang the bitch” and, “build a wall — kill them all,” are typical chants you hear at a rally.
OMG, this approach is not going to help Trump climb out of the hole he has dug in the past few days. He is going after Megyn Kelly again. Digging into ancient history from the primary debates:
Link
Yes, that’s from today. Trump talked about Megyn Kelly, and he also offered excuses for making fun of a disabled reporter by claiming that he was “acting out ‘groveling'” Nobody is buying that.
As an aside, why can’t Trump let these old controversies go?
If you really want to be depressed, check out this NYT article, “Voices From Donald Trump’s Rallies, Uncensored,” a compilation of video from reporters who followed Trump rallies for a year.
“New York Times reporters have spent over a year covering Donald J. Trump’s rallies, witnessing so many provocations and heated confrontations at them that the cumulative effect can be numbing”… “But what struck us was the frequency with which some Trump supporters use coarse, vitriolic, even violent language — in the epithets they shout and chant, the signs they carry, the T-shirts they wear — a pattern not seen in connection with any other recent political candidate, in any party.”
“Kill her” and, “Build a wall — kill them all,” are typical chants you hear at a rally.
Thank you for posting that, tomh. I’ve read several of their (and others’) articles about the rallies, and hoped that someone was recording the shouts and chants. The montage is very effective.
The Redhead has several Jewish friends. The Donald’s rhetoric reminds them of a fascist from the ’30s. Same cadence, same vile, same hatred, same “trust me”. Which means I don’t trust him.
Anyone manage to get into Raw Story tonight? All I’m getting at the moment is a 404, and that’s using both Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.
Never mind, it’s working again.
Cross posted from the “Mike Pence, creationist” thread.
Mike Pence used his biblical approach to all things to bash marriage equality as well. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential pick, has been hammering away at Pence.
Kaine spoke at a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina yesterday. He spoke in support of LBGT issues, and against the discriminatory HB2 law. Here is an excerpt from coverage at that rally:
Link
I’m sure Trump thinks running for the presidency will strengthen his brand, however, new data shows that his campaign is not helping the Trump brand. It’s hurting.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-properties-foursquare-data-visits-down
Trump is going down in flames.
After reading about Eastwood’s comments about Trump’s racism and the “pussification” of America, I ironically point to a line from one his better-known films:
“Endeavor to persevere.”
Same attitude, Clint. Same arrogant, dismissive, racist attitude.
Trump got caught lying again. After top aides in his campaign admitted that the video Trump described did not exist, Trump proceeded to repeat the lie.
Link
There is no such video.
Where did doofus Trump watch something he misinterpreted and then expanded into a lie? He got it from watching Fox News.
Link
Moreover, Trump falsely claimed that he watched the video at a security briefing. He called it “top secret.” WTF?
President Obama addressed this issue during a press conference at the Pentagon today. The press conference was an update that included successful forays against ISIS in Iraq, but reporters asked him about Trump’s claim that the U.S. had paid ransom money for four hostages. Obama made the point that the non-secret, non-ransom transfer of money to Iran was not what Trump described at all. U.S. News & World Report link.
The B-roll (or file footage used as background) that Trump saw included a large title identifying “Geneva, Switzerland” as the location.
Meanwhile, lots of security experts are making fun of Trump. There’s loud laughter. Daily Beast link.
Trump’s explanation for why the fantasy video he concocted in his head was given to the USA by Iran:
Ben Carson is still on Trump’s side, and he is still campaigning for Trump. Here is the latest stupid thing Carson said to explain away the fact that we don’t hear stories about Trump helping people:
[ha, ha, ha, ha, ….]
This is a followup to comment 425.
Here are few more details from President Obama’s press conference:
Link
We are seeing more and more stupidity from the rightwing in describing the $400 million repayment to Iran, payment of Iran’s own money, that was part of the nuclear deal. This comes from Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican from New York:
Notice how Zeldin snuck in an implication that President Obama is supporting Iran, is playing for Iran, instead of the interests of the USA.
In case you want to dig into the issue some more, Media Matters posted all of the myths and facts related to the $400 million payment to Iran.
At a Trump rally held at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania on Monday, Trump supporters beat up a protestor. The supporters punched and shoved the protestor over and over again. The protestor was bleeding.
What did the protestor do? He waved a sign.
Wonkette link.
Clinton sees a potential group of voters for the General Election. Republicans, especially republican women who object to the The Donald.
Good idea if she doesn’t forget the the core supporters.
I know they couldn’t actually do this, but wouldn’t it be funny if they showed him a fake video and told him it was “top secret,” just to see what he’d do?
An apolitical guy who never endorsed a presidential candidate before has endorsed Hillary Clinton.
Former head of the CIA Michael Morell issued a statement along with his endorsement:
Morell went on to say:
Morell closed his statement with the most memorable condemnation of Donald Trump:
NY Times link.
Trump’s surrogates and aides are pushing the idea that if Trump loses it will be because the system is rigged. Do these people know they are setting the stage for unrest and possibly violence?
Here’s what Paul Manafort said today:
Donald Trump has selected economic policy team. Thirteen white men, none of whom have a degree in economics, make up this roster of rascals.
Think Progress link
Carl Paladino is a Trump surrogate. He is also honorary co-chair of the Trump campaign. Yesterday, Carl Paladino said this:
The Trump campaign is circulating a video in which Hillary Clinton says that she will not raise taxes on the middle class … but the Trump campaign claims that in the video Clinton “vows to raise taxes on the middle class.”
Here’s what Clinton actually says in the video:
The Trump campaign claims that “aren’t” is “are” in the video. Nope wrong.
Trump’s lackeys could have checked dozens of other videos of Clinton’s speeches in which she repeats her plan to not raise taxes on the middle class.
Link
Uh-oh. If anyone sets up a recurring political contribution on Donald Trump’s website, they will be make donations (via their credit card) until the end of time, or until they reach the legal limit of $2,700 per person.
On the Hillary Clinton website you can “remove card” to cancel recurring payments. Not so for scam artist Donald Trump.
Slate link
Akira @424, Clint Eastwood and Donald Trump have this in common: they both think about the government as if it were a corporation. It isn’t.
Excerpt from what Eastwood said in the Esquire interview:
Excerpt from analysis by journalist Gary Legum:
Salon link
Neither Trump nor Eastwood understands how the government works on any level.
Oh, dear (sarcasm), Trump’s poll numbers are giving him a headache (“I don’t know about the accuracy of these polls.). That goes for all of the Trumpster’s followers too. What to do? They’ll make up their own poll numbers! Great idea.
http://www.vox.com/2016/8/5/12386128/trump-clinton-biased-polls
Sounds like a throwback to the Romney campaign.
This is a followup to comment 437.
Wonkette has great coverage of the Trump campaign releasing the “laziest dumbass ad of the 2016 campaign.”
Professional liar and video provocateur, James O’Keefe, made a video to back up Republican claims that voter fraud is a real thing, and we should be super worried. O’Keefe failed miserably. But the Drudge Report is pushing his bogus video anyway.
More details on Talking Points Memo.
Donald Trump is holding a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin today. Journalists from Talking Points Memo mingled with Trump supporters and recorded these hateful comments, posters, and T-shirts:
– I wish Hillary had married O.J.
– Jesus died for you. Trump lives for you.
– Hillary Clinton satanized America
etc.
Well, the spice must flow!
The SDF have taken Manbij.
During a speech he gave at a rally yesterday evening in Wisconsin, Donald Trump finally endorsed Paul Ryan, John McCain and Kelly Ayotte. Somehow someone got to Trump and forced him to behave like a slightly more reasonable candidate who is supposedly uniting the Republican party.
During the endorsement section of the speech, Trump read from a piece of paper like a person taken hostage.
The “good guy” and “we’re going to do a lot of wonderful things” were Trump’s ad libs he added to the text he was reading.
Regarding John McCain, Trump read from his piece of paper a message that included the lie that he holds McCain “in the highest esteem for his service to our country in uniform and in public office.”
Team Refugees on Twitter.
Most unconvincing, coerced endorsements ever. It was hilarious. You could almost see the resentment and peevishness brewing within.
SC @447, thanks for that link. The Olympic team(s) made up of refugees is the most inspiring thing I’ve seen in a while. I appreciated the story behind the female swimmer who escaped from Syria.
SC @448, I think Trump was in “let’s just get this over with” mode when he was reading those endorsements. He threw in a few ad libs, but it was obvious that it was not his choice to endorse those three Republicans.
In other news, here is a nice contrast between the way Joe Biden treats people who work for him, and the way that the Trump family treats people that work for them:
And here is a tweet from Donald Trump Jr.:
Link
You can watch Trump fake his way through endorsing Paul Ryan, John McCain and Kelly Ayotte here: Slate link.
Scroll down for the video, 1:34 minutes long.