Comments

  1. KG says

    The military rulers of Thailand have “won” a referendum on the new constitution, which gives them effective veto power. They allegedly got 61.5% of the votes cast, but turnout was 55%, no campaigning against their draft was allowed, and no independent monitors were permitted. THe new constitution gives strong powers to a wholly-appointed “Senate”. The BBC says the new constitution is best described as “guided democracy”. This is crap: it’s far better described as permanent military rule with an unconvincing civilian facade. The Thai elite – of which the military is a key component – felt that democratic elections kept producing the wrong result: the party which has won all elections for the last 15 years – but was never allowed to complete its term – while it had somewhat dubious leadership, was overwhelmingly supported by the poor. Naturally, there will be strong protests from the democratic governments of the west against this usurpation of popular democratic rights – and as I write, I see a squadron of hippopotami streaking overhead.

  2. says

    Article by Republican strategist Rick Wilson (maybe the first and only time I link to the NY Daily News, or Rick Wilson, for that matter):

    “Beat him like a drum: Donald Trump must not just lose in November; to correct the institutions he’s broken, he must suffer a humiliating defeat”

    It’s been a little over a year now. It’s been a year of spectacle and showmanship, fury and farce, demagoguery and disaster. A year in which Donald Trump’s con game tricked about 35% of Republicans into voting for him, before Vichy Republican leaders meekly bowed to his will.

    The single worst major party nominee in modern history — a man who has no political core, lies practically every time he speaks and is patently unstable — reached this point because every leader and institution in my party, the Republican Party, has failed again and again to grapple with the grim realities of Trump’s impact on the election, the conservative movement and the character of our nation.

    And so, now, here we are: As revealed by poll after poll, Americans feel worn down by the dirty, ugly character of the dirty, ugly candidate at the top of the GOP ticket.

    …

    A growing number of Americans are coming to the realization that Trump is more than just a political train wreck; he’s a real threat to the nation, what with the fear of nuclear weapons and the sweeping power of the federal government in his tiny paws.

    Those of us who believe, who know, that Trump is dangerous can’t just settle for him being beaten in November. We need to ensure that he is on the business end of a decisive, humiliating defeat — so that the terribly divisive forces he has unleashed are delivered a death blow.

    …

    The first reason the loss at the polls needs to be total: to snuff out the corrosive fiction that the system is rigged. Trump hasn’t just leveled this charge, ridiculously, about the Republican primary, which he won despite the elites trying to stop him, and somewhat less ridiculously about the Democratic one. He’s now complaining before the fact that the November election will be fixed.

    …

    As though his demagoguery hasn’t been poisonous enough already, now he needs his minions to believe that if and when he loses, it was because some nefarious conspiracy of state officials was sitting in dark rooms literally switching votes from Trump to Clinton.

    …

    The second reason Trump needs to fall hard in November is that the Party of Lincoln needs a complete, top-to-bottom reset — one that completely purges the Trumpkins who believe racial animus is a governing philosophy and that their ignorant and angry primal screams can ever build a Republican majority.

    After a pretty decisive loss to Obama in 2012, the Republican Party produced an exhaustive, detailed post-mortem pointing the way forward, focused largely on how to better connect with the growing Latino vote.

    None of the lessons were actually learned. All the recommendations about fixing the posture of the party have been treated as though they had been printed on toilet paper.

    …

    Perhaps the most important reason Trump needs to suffer an epic loss is to destroy the aura around Donald himself.

    Donald Trump and the revolting personality cult he has built around himself are an affront to the Party of Lincoln, to constitutional conservatism and to the fundamental beliefs of the American republic.

    That sounds sweeping and condemnatory, and it should. This isn’t a normal political candidate in a normal political year. Only the short, sharp shock of a jarring defeat at the hands of the worst Democratic nominee possible [sic] will break us out of the direction Trump and Trumpism would take this nation.

    We can’t have four or eight or 12 or 16 years with an irresponsible almost-President gleefully undermining everything the next two or three Presidents and Congresses try to accomplish — while selling socks made in Vietnam branded with his logo, and probably reverse mortgages to boot.

    He needs to be put as far into exile as is humanly possible so that the country can heal from the deep wounds he’s inflicted upon it.

    I want to be clear here. As a principled conservative, I loathe the high likelihood that Hillary Clinton will — barring a bear attack or some other unforeseen externality — win this election.

    …

    However, Trump would be far worse. He’d be more dangerous to our safety and our republic. And since I know his loss is coming, I pray to God that it is total. You should, too.

  3. gijoel says

    I still feel Trump’s rise to power has been due to marriage equality. Whilst he hasn’t come out and stated that he’s homophobic (that I recall), he hits a lot of buttons that resonates with someone who would.

  5. says

    And just a reminder of the general state of the Republican Party these days:

    “Marco Rubio: women with Zika should not be allowed abortions”

    Florida senator Marco Rubio has said women infected with the Zika virus should not be allowed to have abortions, even if their babies have microcephaly, the severe developmental disorder than can result from infection with the disease.

    “If I’m going to err, I’m going to err on the side of life,” the Republican told Politico. Rubio, who has championed Zika funding bills in the Senate, also blamed Democrats for the failure to pass such federal aid.

    …

    In the Senate, Rubio has supported the provision of funding for work against Zika. In May, after a $1.1bn funding measure he sponsored passed the Senate, he cited an estimate from the CDC director, Tom Frieden, that the lifetime cost of caring for a child born with microcephaly could reach $10m.

    “We’re going to be dealing with Zika for multiple years,” Rubio said. “Outside of the human cost is the economic cost of this. We’re going to be spending money on Zika for the foreseeable future.”

    On Saturday, he added: “Obviously, microcephaly is a terrible prenatal condition that kids are born with. And when they are, it’s a lifetime of difficulties. So I get it.

    “I’m not pretending to you that that’s an easy question you asked me. But I’m pro-life. And I’m strongly pro-life. I believe all human life should be protected by our law, irrespective of the circumstances or condition of that life.”

    Obama asked Congress for $1.9bn of funding, which was blocked in the Senate in June. House Republicans had appended unrelated provisions to the bill – involving, for instance, abortion restrictions and the Confederate flag – and Senate Democrats refused to pass it in its altered form.

    Rubio blamed the failure to pass any anti-Zika funding on Democrats, who have blamed Republicans for inserting such “poison pill” clauses into the relevant bill. One such clause had a measure to defund Planned Parenthood, the women’s health provider and a frequent target of anti-abortion campaigners.

    “The Planned Parenthood angle is something they basically made up to have a political reason not to pass Zika so they can come back in August and campaign on it,” Rubio said. “That’s what I mean by political volleyball. Both sides have played that game. I would have preferred the House just passed a clean funding bill and I’ll vote for that if it comes out.”…

  6. laurentweppe says

    None of the lessons were actually learned. All the recommendations about fixing the posture of the party have been treated as though they had been printed on toilet paper.

    Oh, lessons were learned all right, just the wrong ones:
    “If the Proles won’t perceive our genius, then the Proles are the enemy to be subjugated by any mean necessary” That is the lesson the GOP and its core constituencies learned.

  7. Menyambal says

    #2, SC. I agree (mostly). Trump must lose hard. Anybody voting third-party is cutting into the only thing that matters, which is the popular perception of the popular vote. Joe Snackpack isn’t going to care that some vote went to a socialist third party, all he’s going to remember is the margin by which one candidate wins over the other. Trump must lose so bad that all his followers feel it, or we’re going to have another hogtied presidency.

    Look you. If the Democrats win in a squeaker, the only place they can go for more votes is rightward. Yeah, you may argue different, but I can argue thusly. If, on the other hand, they win by a whopping excess, they can comfortably be all socialist next time, and still have confidence in winning. Your vote now is prep for the next round. (If you want to send a more specific message, write a letter, donate money or run for office.)

    As for my “mostly” caveat, I don’t think Hillary Clinton is all that bad. She and her husband have been the subject of slurs and slander for years, much of it bullspit, and a lot of it has stuck in people’s minds. It’s hard to clear out the clutter, but she has been investigated too many times to be getting away with much. If you want somebody better than her, work to change the system. If you want a tough, smart, experienced president, she’s the one.

    (I still remember the conservative newspaper that printed an article about the Clinton’s White House Christmas tree – their personal one in the family quarters. The article went into graphic details about the perverse decorations, which supposedly included cock rings and dildos. The tree as described would have been ironic exaggeration in a ‘Frisco gay brothel, and the story would been stupid in a lad mag, but there it was in a small-town newspaper on the night before Christmas.)

  8. says

    Remember Al Baldasaro, one of Trump’s advisors who called for Hillary Clinton to be shot? See comment 121 in the previous chapter of the Moments of Political Madness thread for the details on that despicable moment.

    Well, New Hampshire state Rep. Al Baldasaro (R), the co-chair of Trump’s state veterans coalition, is back in the news. This time it is because Trump heaped praise on him. “Al has been so great,” Trump said. “Where’s Al? Where’s my vet?” That was yesterday.

    Baldasaro went on to call Hillary Clinton a “piece of garbage.”

    At one point, the Trump campaign, through various spokespeople, tried to distance themselves from Baldasaro, but as we can see, no action was taken to get rid of Baldasaro. No action was taken to get him to stop suggesting that we put Hillary Clinton in front of a firing squad. Obviously, Trump likes Baldasaro the way he is, obnoxious and ignorant.

    As Trump’s veteran’s adviser, Baldasaro has also been a loud voice in the campaign to heap disrespect and lies on Khizr Khan and his wife. He posted bogus articles claiming that Khizr Khan was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood (not true).

    In the past, Baldasaro approved of the audience at one of the Republican debates booing a gay marine.

    I was so disgusted over that gay marine coming out. I thought the audience, when they booed the marine, I thought it was great.

    Link

  9. says

    Time for some news from the Olympics.

    Ibtihaj Muhammad is a fencer from the United States. She will compete on Monday while wearing a hijab. Of more direct relevance to this thread are her statements about Donald Trump:

    I think his words are very dangerous. When these types of comments are made, no one thinks about how they really affect people. I’m African-American. I don’t have another home to go to. My family was born here. I was born here. I’ve grown up in Jersey. All my family’s from Jersey. It’s like, well, where do we go? […]

    I’m hopeful that, in my efforts to represent our country well as an athlete ― that they change the rhetoric around how people think and perceive the Muslim community. […]

    The Civil Rights Movement wasn’t that long ago. Segregation wasn’t that long ago. Japanese internment wasn’t that long ago. […]

    And when you think things like you want to ban Muslims from entering the country or you want to build a wall to separate the U.S. from Mexico I think these are things that are reminiscent of really dark times within, not just our country, but worldwide.

    In February, Muhammad said that Trump was “providing a platform for hate speech and fearmongering” and “creating a space where it’s acceptable to speak out against immigrants, to speak out against Muslims and to really publicize this inherent racism that I feel a lot of people have.”

    Link

  10. jrkrideau says

    @3 gijoe

    I disagree slightly. But I am not from the USA so I may not be reading the situation all that closely.

    The homophobia is a strong selling point but the racism (deport 11 million Mexicans)/religious intolerance (Halt all Muslims coming into the USA) is surely playing well and I think a lot of poorer Americans feel abandoned by both the Republicans and the Democrats.

    He appeals as the brave outsider fighting against the elites who have watched complacently as many poorer Americans saw living standards flat-line or decline.

    @ 5 SC (Salty Current)

    And just a reminder of the general state of the Republican Party these days:

    “Marco Rubio: women with Zika should not be allowed abortions”

    It appears to a lot of people outside the USA that the entire Republican Party has gone mad and every GOP govenor I have heard about seems to have become a sadist. The party is not what it used to be.

  11. Tethys says

    Trumps rise to prominence is an entirely predictable outcome of the Southern Strategy. Racism, sexism disguised as tradition, homophobia, and appealing to the most regressive religious factions has long been official GOP strategy.

  12. Pierce R. Butler says

    Menyambal @ # 7: … Hillary Clinton … has been investigated too many times to be getting away with much.

    Except for the “much” that our current crop of Republicans (ptui!) like, such as turning Libya & Syria into devastated terrorist centers, allowing Honduras to be wrecked into a refugee factory, greenlighting every Israeli atrocity, shoveling billions of dollars into the weapons industry, allowing absolute free rein to international financial predators, …

  13. says

    Tethys, if you’re still around – I saw your comment on the other thread. Thanks so much for your well wishes. I have a little anxiety – I’ve never had real surgery and anesthesia makes me nervous* – but I’m also excited about the massive improvement in my health.

    * So just in case: To everyone – even those with whom I haven’t gotten along – it’s been real. On the other hand, if I return in a few days commenting incoherently, blame it on the Percocet. :)

  14. Tethys says

    SC, I suspect your comments while on percocet will be more coherent than anything written by Mr baseball analogy. He is still prattling away in the serious academic thread.

  15. kayden says

    @Lynna at 8

    How does Trump get away with having these odious spokespersons say outrageous lies about people with zero consequences? The media should be asking Trump about Baldasaro every day until he is forced to disavow him completely just like President Obama was forced to disavow Reverend Wright.

    Trump is showing us what type of people he would have in his cabinet and as advisors should the American people elect him as President in November.

  17. says

    The New York Times published a thoughtful and thorough article on the Khan family, on an American family. This excellent profile puts Donald Trump into the worst possible light simply by showing through a myriad of details how patriotic Mr. Khan really is, and what a good person his son, Captain Khan, was.

  18. says

    Never-Trump Republicans have a candidate to offer … finally. It’s Evan Mcmullin.

    Key players in GOP’s anti-Trump movement are preparing to launch an independent presidential campaign for Evan McMullin — a CIA veteran and the chief policy director of the House Republican conference — sources close to the effort told BuzzFeed News. […]

    He would make for an unlikely presidential candidate. He has never held elective office before and has spent most of his career as a CIA officer, according to his LinkedIn page. Young and unmarried, McMullin received an MBA at Wharton in 2011, and after a stint at Goldman Sachs, went to work as a policy wonk on Capitol Hill. […]

    Apart from his low profile, his candidacy will face other substantial hurdles in gaining traction — especially with ballot access and fundraising. […]

    BuzzFeed News link

    McMullin is from Utah, one of the states where it is not too late for him to get on the ballot. Maybe he will shave a few points off Trump’s vote total here are there. That may be the purpose of his candidacy.

    http://www.evanmcmullin.com tells us that “It’s never too late to do the right thing.”

  19. says

    Some doofus in Texas left a threatening message for members of a local mosque. Excerpts:

    Fuck you, fuck Muhammad, fuck Islam. This is America. If you don’t like the way we do shit, get the fuck out.

    We’ll start just cutting off the heads of all of you motherfuckers. Huh? How would you like that? Maybe we need another Christian crusade, which I think we do.

    We will cut all your heads off, you understand me? All of you.

    Link

    The man leaving the message identified himself as a Christian and as an army veteran.

    The bit about cutting off heads reminds me of Donald Trump. Violence and threats of violence against Muslims are on the rise, in part thanks to Trump’s rhetoric.

    The FBI is investigating.

  20. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    It didn’t take long. AP FACT CHECK on Trump’s speech to the Detroit Economic Club.
    Lowlights of his speech:

    In his centerpiece speech on the economy, Donald Trump wrongly accused Hillary Clinton of wanting to increase middle-class taxes and blamed America’s crumbling roads and bridges in part on the money spent on refugees, a minuscule expense in comparison with infrastructure.
    A look at some of his claims and how they compare with the facts:
    TRUMP: “She said she wanted to raise taxes on the middle class.”
    THE FACTS: If Clinton said that — and it’s highly debatable — it’s clear she didn’t mean to. Her economic agenda calls for middle-class tax cuts (which are not specified) and she has repeatedly said she would not raise taxes on middle incomes. In a speech in Omaha, Nebraska, last week, she talked about “fairer rules for the middle class” and delivered a line that was difficult to understand, either “we are going to raise taxes on the middle class” or “we aren’t.”
    If she said the former, it was obviously a flub. Her policy on middle-class taxes has been consistent — no increases.

    TRUMP: “You cannot even start a small business under the tremendous regulatory burden we have today.”
    THE FACTS: Trump is exaggerating. There are clear signs that new business formation has slowed, but it hasn’t ground to the halt that he suggests.
    Between 2011 and 2013, the most recent years available, the Census Bureau found that the number of companies that employ fewer than four people has increased by 43,232 to 3.58 million.
    Nor should anyone assume that regulation alone explains the decline in small business starts. Most entrepreneurs relied on personal savings, home equity and credit cards to finance new companies before the housing bust hurt their ability to access credit, according to a speech by Dennis Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Other studies say student loans are inhibiting entrepreneurship among younger Americans.

    TRUMP: The country’s infrastructure has suffered “yet we found the money to resettle millions of refugees at taxpayer expense.”
    THE FACT: You have to go a long way back to get to “millions” of refugees.
    Over the last eight years, the period Trump addresses when pointing to failures of President Barack Obama, the U.S. resettled 530,830 refugees. That includes many from the final year of the Bush administration. So far in the budget year that ends Sept. 30, the U.S. has resettled 59,099 refugees. Last year, 69,933. Over the last 15 years: about 850,000.
    The State Department puts the cost of the resettlement program to taxpayers at less than $1.2 billion a year. That’s roughly 0.03 percent of the federal budget, a rounding error according to most experts. That sum would hardly make up for the infrastructure shortfall. The American Society of Civil Engineers said in a report that the government needs to spend $1.4 trillion through 2025 to close the infrastructure funding gap.

    TRUMP: “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, before NAFTA went into effect, there were 285,000 auto workers in Michigan. Today, that number is only 160,000.”
    THE FACTS: Trump is playing fast and loose with the stats. The numbers cited in his speech don’t even line up with the footnotes provided by his campaign.
    Michigan actually added jobs after the North American Free Trade Agreement began in 1994, when auto plants employed roughly 200,000 workers. Over the next six years, their ranks increased to 231,000. The decline only occurred after the tech bubble burst and U.S. automakers lost market share among U.S. consumers, a decline that prompted a government bailout that caused Michigan auto jobs to start rising again in late 2009.
    Many U.S. auto jobs also relocated to other states. Foreign automakers such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan built plants in other states, including Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama.
    An analysis by the liberal Economic Policy Institute shows that auto job growth in Mexico began to sharply accelerate in 2004. One reason why auto production has increased so much in Mexico is its extensive network of international trade agreements in addition to NAFTA, with German luxury carmaker BMW calling the agreements in 2014 a decisive factor for building its first auto plants in Mexico.

    TRUMP on the unemployment rate: “This 5 percent figure is one of the biggest hoaxes in modern American politics.”
    THE FACTS: The unemployment rate has its shortcomings but it is not a “hoax.”
    The unemployment rate has become controversial since the recession ended because many people have stopped looking for work, and the government doesn’t count those out of work unless they are actively searching for jobs. If an unemployed person gives up on a job hunt, that reduces the unemployment rate without anyone being hired, so it has overstated the improvement in the job market.
    Still, a broader measure of unemployment that includes people who have recently stopped looking for jobs has also fallen — from a peak of 17.4 percent in 2010 to 9.7 percent now.
    The proportion of Americans working or looking for work is now 62.8 percent, near the lowest level since the 1970s. That’s down from 66 percent before the recession. At least half that decline in the workforce stems from greater retirements, as baby boomers age. *including me*
    Many of the figures Trump cited in his speech are compiled by the same monthly survey that produces the unemployment figure he considers a hoax.

    Emphasis mine.

  21. says

    Nerd @20, thanks for posting that fact check.

    It’s interesting that one of Trump’s repeated canards is that Hillary Clinton is in the pocket of Wall Street, but he is the one that wants to deregulate the financial industry. He is the one that hired a team of all-white males who have many ties to the financial industry as economic advisors.

    Trump called for a moratorium on all new government regulations. That would, presumably, include regulations that Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders have all called for.

    As far as the unemployment figures go, despite the drawbacks of that statistical model, we can all see that the same criteria have been applied for many years, so the downward trend of the unemployment rate during the Obama administration is real.

    The Trump campaign has circulated a video based on an incorrect transcript to claim that Clinton said she would raise taxes on the middle class. This is so blatantly wrong. Once again, we find that Trump and his team are incapable of vetting their sources.

    Spokesman Josh Schwerin told us Clinton actually said the exact opposite.

    He pointed to numerous reporters who agreed and forwarded us a transcript of Clinton’s prepared remarks that reads, “We aren’t going to raise taxes on the middle class.”

    It’s a classic case of she-heard-he-heard, so we asked experts to arbitrate. They agreed with the Clinton camp and offered some technical evidence to prove it. Get ready for some science.

    Alan Yu, a linguistics professor at the University of Chicago who specializes in phonology, ran the audio through a computer program called Praat, which analyzes phonetics.

    By analyzing the sound waves, we can see that Clinton was saying “aren’t,” because she definitely pronounced the “n,” though she didn’t really hit the “t.”

    Link

  22. says

    At the Republican convention, Ivanka Trump introduced her father. During Ivanka’s speech, she said:

    Policies that allow women with children to thrive should not be novelties. They should be the norm.

    So how does the company that works with Ivanka to produce her clothing line support female employees? Not well at all. the G-III apparel Group does not provide paid leave for new mothers. New mothers can take 12 weeks of unpaid leave. That’s it.

    To make matters more hypocritical:

    In addition to her fashion line, she [Ivanka] serves as a vice president of the Trump Organization and wrote a book titled “Women Who Work.”

    Link

  23. says

    Back in March, more than 100 Republican national security advisors signed a letter calling Trump “fundamentally dishonest,” and warning that Trump “would use the authority of his office to act in ways that make America less safe.”

    Now a new warning letter has been published. Fifty Republican national security officials, many of them more prominent than those who signed the March letter, signed a letter that calls Trump a “risk” to America’s national security. All of the signatories will not vote for Trump: “None of us will vote for Donald Trump.”

    PDF link to the complete text of the letter.

    Excerpt:

    […] Most fundamentally, Mr. Trump lacks the character, values, and experience to be President. He weakens U.S. moral authority as the leader of the free world. He appears to lack basic knowledge about and belief in the U.S. Constitution, U.S. laws, and U.S. institutions, including religious tolerance, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary.

    In addition, Mr. Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he has little understanding of America’s vital national interests, its complex diplomatic challenges, its indispensable alliances, and the democratic values on which U.S. foreign policy must be based. At the same time, he persistently compliments our adversaries and threatens our allies and friends. Unlike previous Presidents who had limited experience in foreign affairs, Mr. Trump has shown no interest in educating himself. He continues to display an alarming ignorance of basic facts of contemporary international politics. Despite his lack of knowledge, Mr. Trump claims that he understands foreign affairs and “knows more about ISIS than the generals do.” […]

  25. moarscienceplz says

    SC #2:

    Only the short, sharp shock of a jarring defeat at the hands of the worst Democratic nominee possible [sic] will break us out of the direction Trump and Trumpism would take this nation.

    From Nixon’s Southern Strategy of 1968 to the present, the main effort of the Republican Party has been to stoke anger and fear in non-college educated whites that the brown people will take their jobs, their homes and their lives. So losing in 2016 will not redirect the GOP any more than losing in 2012 did. The party is rotten to the core and must disintegrate at some point, but that point may be several decades away.

  26. Mrdead Inmypocket says

    Hmm, moments of political madness you say?

    There’s been an interesting turn of events on a subject I’ve been following for a few decades. For those of you not from the US. Back in 1965 the US had to pass legislation that ensured all people got a fair shake at voting, by all people I mean people of color. It was called the Voting Rights act. It was probably one of the most important pieces of legislation for the civil rights movement. You see, there were people in quite a few states and counties that would make up bullshit regulations like signature cards and literacy tests, so they had a pretense to deny registration or to throw your vote out, meaning, you’re not white. The Voting Rights act said that certain states and counties had to seek Department of Justice approval before making such legislation because they can’t be trusted not to be racist. (That description is a little reductive but captures the essence I think.)

    Skip forward to 2013, the Supreme Court found in Shelby County v. Holder that such restrictions were now decades out of date and didn’t need federal oversight any longer because racism is a thing of the past apparently.

    You are going to be shocked to read that, immediately after that decision, and I mean within a day, the Republican governor and a cabal of republican lawmakers in North Carolina announced “We’re gonna make some changes around here now that all that Civil rights bullshit is out of the way”. Within weeks they passed new voter legislation.

    The pretense was that they needed to address concerns of voter fraud. Which is a non problem not requiring any kind of draconian action, studies have been done showing voter fraud to be statistically rare. But the Republicans passed legislation that was supposedly to address that problem. It was challenged in Federal appeals court. And what do you think the court found? Here is a PDF
    http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/nc-4th.pdf

    If you don’t want to read all that here is the short of it. My bold
    ——
    “Supreme Court has explained that polarization renders minority voters uniquely vulnerable to the inevitable tendency of elected officials to entrench themselves by targeting groups unlikely to vote for them. In North Carolina, restriction of voting mechanisms and procedures that most heavily affect African Americans will predictably redound to the benefit of one political party and to the disadvantage of the other. As the evidence in the record makes clear, that is what happened here.

    After years of preclearance and expansion of voting access, by 2013 African American registration and turnout rates had finally reached near-parity with white registration and turnout rates. African Americans were poised to act as a major electoral force. But, on the day after the Supreme Court issued Shelby County v. Holder, 133 S. Ct. 2612 (2013), eliminating preclearance obligations, a leader of the party that newly dominated the legislature (and the party that rarely enjoyed African American support) announced an intention to enact what he characterized as an “omnibus” election law. Before enacting that law, the legislature requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices. Upon receipt of the race data, the General Assembly enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African Americans. Appeal: 16-1468 Doc: 150 Filed: 07/29/2016

    In response to claims that intentional racial discrimination animated its action, the State offered only meager justifications. Although the new provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision, they constitute inapt remedies for the problems assertedly justifying them and, in fact, impose cures for problems that did not exist. Thus the asserted justifications cannot and do not conceal the State’s true motivation. “In essence,” as in League of United
    Latin American Citizens v. Perry (LULAC), 548 U.S. 399, 440 (2006), “the State took away [minority voters’] opportunity
    because [they] were about to exercise it.” As in LULAC, “this bears the mark of intentional discrimination.” Id.

    Faced with this record, we can only conclude that the North Carolina General Assembly enacted the challenged provisions of the law with discriminatory intent. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the district court to the contrary and remand with instructions to enjoin the challenged provisions of the law. ”
    ——

    TL/DR- 1968 Ground breaking civil rights legislation.
    2013 We don’t need those laws because Obama is president and that means nobody is racist any more.
    2013 North Carolina Republicans say “We need to address voter fraud issues”. Passes new legislation.
    2016 Federal appeals court says “Your supposed voter fraud legislation doesn’t really address voter fraud, What it does is seek to target African Americans and keep them from voting”. “You racist fucks”. <–Maybe the court didn't say that last part but they were thinking it I'm sure.

  27. ck, the Irate Lump says

    kayden wrote:

    How does Trump get away with having these odious spokespersons say outrageous lies about people with zero consequences?

    I don’t think Trump is capable of feeling shame, and the outrageous lies are what appeals most to Trump’s audience. He will always stand behind these people, because he’s been given no reason not to. Hell, the current polls indicate that he has little to gain from shedding these terrible people.

    I agree with the article SC posted. Trump must not only lose, but lose so badly that no one ever considers following his lead. If he gets ~40-49% of the vote, we’ve still all lost, even if he technically lost.

  28. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Interesting poll, looking at what scares young Usians.

    A new GenForward poll of Americans age 18-30 shows widespread anxiety among young people about attacks from both inside and outside the United States.
    Sixty-two percent of young African-Americans and 55 percent of Hispanics surveyed said they were very concerned about the threat of violence committed by white extremists, compared to one-third of whites and 41 percent of Asian-Americans.
    GenForward is a survey by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll is designed to pay special attention to the voices of young adults of color, highlighting how race and ethnicity shape the opinions of a new generation.
    Gregg Higgins, 27, was one of the whites who said he was very worried about violence by extremists in his own race. In fact, he said he was more concerned about “the homegrown white extremists” than the threat of violence from people outside the United States or people inspired by foreign extremists.
    A social worker in Pittsburgh, Higgins said the growing political tension during the current election cycle has “shown a really ugly part of our past coming through and being more heard.” He described it as “white males who are angry and who aren’t now afraid to show that anger.”
    “That fear of loss of control and loss of privilege is what’s inspiring this vitriol and this hate,” Higgins said…
    Violence committed by people from outside the country also caused unease, especially among Hispanic young adults. Fifty-six percent of Hispanics polled said they were very concerned, compared to 49 percent of African-Americans, 40 percent of Asian-Americans and 41 percent of whites…
    Most young adults in the poll labeled as hate crimes both the shooting deaths at the Charleston church and the Orlando night club, against African-Americans and against LGBT people, respectively.But the poll shows people view the Orlando shooting differently, depending on their race.Among young whites, most also described the Orlando shooting as a terrorist attack. Fifty-eight percent of whites considered it that, compared to only 32 percent of African-Americans, 40 percent of Hispanics and 44 percent of Asian-Americans. Gunman Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group during a call with police dispatchers during a standoff before he was shot and killed.A third or less of young people of each racial and ethnic group called the Charleston attack terrorism….
    But most young people said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s calls to temporarily ban Muslims from coming to the U.S. goes too far.More than two-thirds of those surveyed said they oppose a temporary prohibition on any Muslim who isn’t a U.S. citizen from entering the country: 64 percent of whites, 66 percent of Hispanics and 79 percent of African-Americans and Asian-Americans.

  31. says

    John Oliver produced a great piece discussing journalism, the struggles of local newspapers, the relationship of print news to digital clearing houses like the Huffington Post, etc. I feel like this issue is more important than just the availability of “news.” We are losing a cornerstone of democracy, a foundation for building the habit of thinking logically, and the ability to vet our sources.

    YouTube link

  32. says

    Here are some depressing results from a Public Policy Polling survey of voters in North Carolina:

    69% of Trump voters think that if Hillary Clinton wins the election it will be because it was rigged, to only 16% who think it would be because she got more votes than Trump.

    More specifically 40% of Trump voters think that ACORN (which hasn’t existed in years) will steal the election for Clinton. […]

    48% of Trump voters think that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton deserve the blame for Humayun Khan’s death to 16% who absolve them and 36% who aren’t sure one way or the other (Obama was in the Illinois Legislature when it happened.) […]

    Even though Trump ended up admitting it didn’t exist, 47% of his voters say they saw the video of Iran collecting 400 million dollars from the United States to only 46% who say they didn’t see the video. […]

    Trump said last week that Hillary Clinton is the devil, and 41% of Trump voters say they think she is indeed the devil to 42% who disagree with that sentiment and 17% who aren’t sure one way or the other.

    Link to PPP PDF of polling results.

    Trump voters are giving me nightmares.

    More hopeful survey results:

    Clinton supporters do not believe she is the devil.

    58% of all voters polled think that Trump should release his tax returns.

    54% of all voters polled think that Trump’s feud with the Khan family is inappropriate.

    54% of all voters polled think that Trump should not be trusted with nuclear weapons.

    For the first time since March, Hillary Clinton leads in North Carolina. 43% for Clinton, 41% for Trump, 7% for Gary Johnson, and 2% for Jill Stein. If you remove Johnson and Stein from the polling, Clinton still leads, narrowly. 47/46.

  33. says

    We can add Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, to the list of Republicans who are not supporting Trump. Here is an excerpt from the op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post:

    I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president. This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country.

  34. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Good news for LGBT rights. Young people overwhelmingly agree that they should have full rights and privileges.

    .
    Young people in America overwhelmingly support LGBT rights when it comes to policies on employment, health care and adoption, according to a new survey.
    The GenForward survey of Americans ages 18-30 found that support for those policies has increased over the past two years, especially among young whites. But relatively few of these young adults consider rights for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender to be among the top issues facing the United States.
    According to the findings, 92 percent of young adults support HIV and AIDs prevention, 90 percent support equal employment, and 80 percent support LGBT adoption. Across racial and ethnic groups, broad majorities support training police on transgender issues, government support for organizations for LGBT youth and insurance coverage for transgender health issues….
    In the past two years, support has increased from 69 percent to 84 percent among young whites for policies such as allowing gays and lesbians to legally adopt children. Support among this group for employment equality for LGBT individuals rose from 84 percent to 92 percent. The poll also suggests support for allowing adoption by gays and lesbians has increased among Hispanics over the past two years, from 65 percent to 75 percent.
    Christie Cocklin, 27, a self-identified multiracial American from Providence, Rhode Island, says that LGBT rights are just common sense.
    “People who don’t identify as heterosexual are human like we are, and should be entitled to the same kind of rights,” she said. “I have friends who are LGBT and I feel that it’s discrimination to not allow them adoption or employment or whatever.”

    The last quoted paragraph says it all.

  35. says

    Trump is working hard to delegitimize Hillary Clinton’s presidency before she has even won the office. Mitch McConnell at least waited until President Obama was inaugurated before he declared all-out-no-holds-barred obstructionism as Republican policy.

    […] “Much more alarming is the language about the election [being] rigged,” Theda Skocpol, a professor of government and sociology at Harvard University, told TPM.

    Trump’s insistence on delegitimizing a Clinton presidency in a generic sense is in some respects a continuation of the GOP congressional strategy of the Obama era.

    “There was an effort not just to vote against everything that Obama and Democrats were for, but to delegitimize the process and and then take advantage of the anger that would result. And it worked like a charm in the midterms of 2010 and 2014,” Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told TPM. “A lot of this anger that is being churned up against Clinton is going to be used in the same way.”

    But it’s undeniable that Trump goes beyond the dog-whistle intimations of past politicians by specifically suggesting that Clinton could only be elected thanks to a “dishonest machine,” […]

    “It’s definitely going to set the groundwork, if Hillary wins, for an ongoing, sort of at least simmering question about how she won, whether she should have been in the race,” said John W. Patty, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. “That’s part of the narrative among some of the people chanting ‘lock her up’—it’s that they really believe that she got away with a crime.”

    If current polling trends don’t change drastically, Trump’s insinuations may not be enough to turn the election in his favor. But at the very least, he has offered congressional GOPers a few handy devices to justify refusing to work with her come January. […]

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-clinton-legitimacy-campaign

    All the more important then to also elect down-ballot Democrats.

  36. says

    Hillary Clinton has agreed to the presidential debate schedule set by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Trump is still hemming and hawing about the whole thing:

    Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will “absolutely” commit to three presidential debates with Hillary Clinton, but he suggested that he’d try to renegotiate the terms first. […]

    Trump said he also reserved the right to object to the […] choice of moderators, telling Time that “certain moderators would be unacceptable, absolutely.”

    A commission official told Time that while certain “fine points” could be negotiated, the format as announced was non-negotiable. […]

    Link

    Link to interview with Time.

    Link to previous Moments of Political Madness thread, were we first started a discussion of Trump trying to weasel out of debated Clinton. See comments 357 and 362 as well.

  37. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    A couple more economic fact checks appeared under the subtitle, “Trump shapes facts to fit economic agenda”

    TRUMP: “The United States also has the highest business tax rate among the major industrialized nations of the world, at 35 percent. It’s almost 40 percent when you add in taxes at the state level.”
    THE FACTS: The stated corporate tax rate looks high, but most U.S. businesses don’t pay it. The tax code is full of deductions, credits and loopholes that limit the tax burden for many companies. The effective corporate income tax rate is around 27 percent, roughly in line with global averages, according to government estimates.
    Another way to look at it is examining federal corporate taxes as a share of the U.S. economy. Corporate taxes made up just 1.9 percent last year, according to the government. That is well below the historic average of 2.7 percent, but slightly above the Reagan-era levels during the 1980s. In some years, the majority of all large U.S.-controlled corporations reported no federal tax liability, according to the Government Accountability Office.

    TRUMP, on what would happen if he became president: “The auto industry will come roaring back.”
    THE FACTS: The industry has already roared back from the financial crisis. Total U.S. auto sales reached a record level of 17.5 million last year, and are on track to top that figure this year. Overseas automakers are benefiting from those sales, but many foreign car makers such as Toyota, Honda and Volkswagen have factories in the United States. Ford Motor Co., meanwhile, says its sales are at the highest level in a decade.

    TRUMP: Repealing and replacing Obama’s health care law would mean “saving another 2 million American jobs.”
    THE FACTS: Since Obama’s health care law came into effect, the economy has added more than 14.6 million jobs and the jobless rate has fallen to 4.9 percent from 9.9. percent. So how can it be that repealing the law would mean 2 million more jobs?
    Trump’s charge has its origins in an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that the labor force would be smaller by about 2 million workers in 2025 under the health care law than without it. But that’s not because the law is a job-killer. The agency explained that the main impact of subsidized coverage under the law is on the supply of labor. Translation: It gives many people the opportunity to retire, stay at home with family or switch to part-time work, because they can get health insurance more easily outside of their jobs.
    That voluntary retreat from the workforce, made possible by the law’s benefits, is not the same as employers slashing jobs because of the law’s costs.
    Overall, the health care law seems to have had limited impact on jobs.

    TRUMP: “Nearly 12 million people have been added to the food stamp rolls and … it’s growing so rapidly since President Obama took office.”
    THE FACTS: He’s right that the number of food stamp recipients has grown substantially since Obama took office. More than 28 million people received food stamps in 2008, before Obama was inaugurated. As of May, the most recent data available, 43.5 million people were receiving them.
    If anything, Trump understated the rise of food-stamp recipients when he put the increase at nearly 12 million. His figure appears to be from 2009, when Obama already was in office.
    The number grew rapidly in the aftermath of the recession, peaking at 47.8 million in 2012. It’s fallen 9 percent since. That’s because of an improving economy and the return of a three-month time limit on benefits for unemployed, childless adults that was suspended in many states when unemployment rates spiked. Even so, it remains far higher than before Obama became president.

    Emphasis mine.
    Link.

  38. says

    birgerjohansson @30, yeah, I know, shocking. Totally shocking. /sarcasm

    Now it seems that some secret tapes of Roger Ailes being ultra creepy have surfaced. The tapes are likely to push the out-of-court settlement costs sky high for Fox.

    Multiple women who allege that former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes sexually harassed them have recorded audio tapes of conversations with Ailes, according to a report out Monday night from Vanity Fair.

    The tapes are likely to take center stage as settlement talks begin with fired Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who sued Ailes for sexual harassment and retaliation on July 6. On Monday, Fox News host Andrea Tantaros, who remains on paid leave from the network, alleged through her lawyer that Ailes also sexually harassed her and that she was sidelined when she spoke up.

    Citing two anonymous sources familiar with the tapes, Vanity Fair reported the recordings could push Carlson’s settlement into the eight-figure range, and parent company 21st Century Fox is asking Ailes to personally fund some of the settlement.

    Ailes’ attorneys have argued Carlson’s suit should be resolved through closed-door, private arbitration as a provision of her contract.

    “If they litigate the case, all the tapes will become public, directly and through others,” one source told Vanity Fair. “Then you will have a parade of women come in. Nobody wants that.”

    The former Fox News boss, who reportedly departed with a golden parachute in excess of $40 million, has repeatedly denied allegations of harassment through his legal team.

    Link

  39. says

    Trump just threatened Hillary Clinton with assassination:

    If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.

    Link

  40. says

    Oh, this must hit Trump right where it hurts, in his ego (which is closely attached to his bank account). Hillary Clinton is taking high-dollar donors away from Trump.

    Hillary Clinton on Tuesday added another name to the rapidly growing list of major Republican donors she has taken away from GOP nominee Donald Trump — former MGM CEO Harry Sloan.

    Sloan is a mainstay of Republican fundraising, having served on national finance committees for John McCain and Mitt Romney. As the 2016 election got underway, he signed on with John Kasich.

    […] Sloan said he could not support Trump, who he contended, “does not embody the values that have made me a lifelong Republican. He is unprepared and temperamentally unfit to be our President. […] it is clear to me that Hillary Clinton is the right choice in this election.” […]

    Sloan’s support for the Democratic nominee isn’t entirely new. On June 30, he cut a $33,400 check to a Clinton joint fundraising account, according to federal campaign finance records.

    In recent days, a number of high-profile Republicans have announced their support for Clinton. Last week, billionaire Silicon Valley executive Meg Whitman, who ran for California governor in 2010, revealed that she would be helping the former secretary of state.

    Link

  41. says

    Cross posted from the “It works both ways” thread.

    This smear campaign directed at Hillary Clinton’s health has really gone too far. And it is getting worse by the day:

    Hillary Clinton supposedly has Parkinson’s disease, syphilis, brain damage, a brain tumor, autism, a degenerative disease that is giving her seizures and/or strokes, and a blood clot, according to InfoWars writer Paul Joseph Watson. Oh, and he says she has a drug problem.

    All of these diagnoses—save for Parkinson’s, which commanded a separate full-length article—came in a single one of Watson’s YouTube videos released on Thursday. It now has over 1.6 million views at press time. […]

    The National Enquirer posted a story dubbed “Hillary Clinton’s Secret Health Crisis” on Monday. […]

    By midday on Monday, the No. 2 trending Google search about Hillary Clinton was: “Is Hillary having health problems?”

    Fox News’ Sean Hannity devoted a section of his program to the rumors of bad health last night. CNN’s Jeffrey Lord then doubled down on national TV, saying that “Donald Trump is willing to point out other things people have been pointing out for years” when asked about Clinton’s health.

    Those “people” are, in this case, writers like Watson, who certainly isn’t the first to question Hillary’s health in the last few months […] Watson is a writer at InfoWars and […] his own offshoot website, PrisonPlanet, runs a YouTube channel with nearly a half-million subscribers.

    Within minutes of posting to Youtube, Watson’s video was at the top of /r/The_Donald, a heavily moderated Reddit community that serves as a clearinghouse for pro-Trump talking points and conspiracies against Clinton. […]

    Watson told The Daily Beast […] “I didn’t ‘WedMD’ anything. I spoke to health experts in private and I collated statements made by health professionals that were already part of the public record,” he said.

    One of the rare “experts” Watson cites on record is Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical executive who raised the price of the lifesaving HIV drug Daraprim by over 5,000 percent overnight and is currently out on bail after being indicted on charges of securities fraud.

    Shkreli, who resigned as the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals in December, is the lone source in the article “Pharmaceutical Exec: Hillary Clinton Has Parkinson’s Disease.” […]

    Link.

  42. says

    This is a followup to comment 39.

    Here is the extended version of Trump’s exact statement:

    Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment. By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. But I’ll tell you what: that will be a horrible day. If Hillary gets to put her judges—right now we’re tied, you see what’s going on, we’re tied because Scalia—this was not supposed to happen, Justice Scalia was supposed to be around for ten more years at least. And now he’s gone.

    The first sentence is utterly false. Trump has been repeating for weeks now that Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment. She does not, and has said so several times. There’s no basis for Trump’s claim.

    The reference to Scalia is, in part, a dog whistle to the conspiracy theorists who think that Obama or Clinton had Scalia killed.

  43. says

    Congresswoman Giffords and Captain Kelly responded to Trump’s remarks:

    Donald Trump might astound Americans on a routine basis, but we must draw a bright red line between political speech and suggestions of violence.

    Responsible, stable individuals won’t take trump’s rhetoric to its literal end, but his words may provide a magnet for those seeking infamy. They may provide inspiration or permission for those bent on bloodshed.

    What political leaders say matters to their followers. When candidates descend into coarseness and insult, our politics follow suit. When they affirm violence, we should fear that violence will follow.

    It must be the responsibility of all Americans—from Donald trump himself, to his supporters, to those who remain silent or oppose him—to unambiguously condemn these remarks and the violence they insinuate. The integrity of our democracy and the decency of our nation is at stake.

  44. KG says

    Hillary Clinton supposedly has Parkinson’s disease, syphilis, brain damage, a brain tumor, autism, a degenerative disease that is giving her seizures and/or strokes, and a blood clot, according to InfoWars writer Paul Joseph Watson.

    Why doesn’t he just claim she’s dead?

  45. quotetheunquote says

    Re @39 & @43.

    Apparently, Trump T. Trump was just “misunderstood”, he wasn’t calling for insurrection at all; yea, right.

    Gets more like Niixon every day.

  46. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    I too have seen reports that Drumph is claiming that he surely was not dog whistling for gunfire at Hill [lying as usual]. That what he was politely implying was for all the 2nd Amendment fans to get out and vote for not Hill, voting for me will ensure your 2nd amendment forevah.
    yet the original sentence was phrased in such a way that it was clearly a dog whistle for a little more direct action (ie gunfire) than just a vote click. He worded the sentence purely for the “plausible deniability” aspect that he is now demonstrating by reiterating it and trying to camouflage it with “I meant vote, not gunfire”.
    —–
    otherwise, in Detroit, seems someone hacked his teleprompter; substituting a single letter to make him say a werd.
    referring of course to famous gaff of “… these tittties, like right here in detroit” instead of “these cities…”
    I’m sure one of his adolescent intern teleprompter operators had a good giggle and won a few bets when Drumph said it right on live TV.
    Daily Show covered it pretty thoroughly, investigating if audio glitches distorted what he actually spoke. Concluding that he did say it as reported. *snicker*

  47. says

    slithey tove @46, that Daily Show segment was funny.

    In more news related to reactions to Trump’s pro-assassination comments, here is a cross post from the “Dangerous Times” thread.

    Dan Rather responded to Trump’s “Second Amendment” comments:

    […] When he suggested that “The Second Amendment People” can stop Hillary Clinton he crossed a line with dangerous potential. By any objective analysis, this is a new low and unprecedented in the history of American presidential politics. This is no longer about policy, civility, decency or even temperament. This is a direct threat of violence against a political rival. […]

    Candidate Trump will undoubtably issue an explanation; some of his surrogates are already engaged in trying to gloss it over, but once the words are out there they cannot be taken back. That is what inciting violence means.

    To anyone who still pretends this is a normal election of Republican against Democrat, history is watching. And I suspect its verdict will be harsh. Many have tried to do a side-shuffle and issue statements saying they strongly disagree with his rhetoric but still support the candidate. That is becoming woefully insufficient. The rhetoric is the candidate.

    […] We will soon know whether anyone who has publicly supported Trump explains how they can continue to do. […]

    Facebook link.

  48. says

    Donald Trump is promoting a fringe conspiracy theory that claims Hillary Clinton is responsible for the death of an Iranian nuclear scientist.

    The latest right-wing conspiracy theory being promoted by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is that the recent execution of an Iranian nuclear scientist who had worked with Americans was the result of emails about him that had been compromised by going through Hillary Clinton’s private server.

    It’s not true, but that didn’t stop right-wing attorney and conspiracy theorist extraordinaire Larry Klayman from using the case to drive home his claim that 80 people connected to Clinton “scandals” mysteriously wound up dead during Bill Clinton’s administration. […]

    […] this is a woman who, whether she was responsible for it or not, that during the administration of Bill Clinton over 80 people died, vanished. And I’m not saying that she was responsible for all 80 people, but people have asked questions. Why did 80 people die, material witnesses in the cases? I was involved with Ken Starr in going against her. Ron Brown died in a mysterious plane crash in Croatia. Maybe it was an accident, but you know what, when 80 people die questions are going to be asked.

    And bad things have happened in our system and, in this case, Hillary Clinton, whether she intended it or not, is likely responsible for the death of this double American agent spy with Iran and she’s undoubtedly responsible for the death of Sean Smith and also Tyrone Woods.

    Right Wing Watch link

    On Fox News, Sean Hannity dedicated an entire segment to pushing this conspiracy theory as truth. In the same segment, Hannity faulted the Clinton campaign for not rebutting any of the rumors about Clinton’s health, with the implication that, therefore, all of the rumors must be true.

    Fox and Friends, with Steve Doocy as co-host, did the same thing Hannity did.

    Breitbart followed up with an article claiming “Hillary Clinton Very Likely Caused Iranian Nuclear Scientist’s Death.”

    The Drudge Report posted an article that quoted rightwing doofus, Senator Tom Cotton, and that asked the question: “Did Clinton email lead to execution in Iran.” [The answer is “no”.]

    Trump’s statement: “Many people are saying that the Iranians killed the scientist who helped the U.S. because of Hillary Clinton’s hacked emails.”

    Yes, “many people” who are totally unreliable sources are repeating that, but that doesn’t make it true.

    From Media Matters:

    Echoing a myth peddled by right-wing media, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed that there was a link between the execution of Shahram Amiri, a nuclear scientist in Iran, and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s private email server, which contained a couple emails that appear to discuss Amiri’s case. But there is no evidence either that Clinton’s server was hacked, which would have been necessary for Iran to see the emails, or that the email discussion of Amiri had any connection to his eventual death.

    Link

    From The Washington Post:

    Despite what you might read on Donald Trump’s twitter feed, the Iranian execution of a nuclear scientist who defected to the United States and then changed his mind was not caused by Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. The scientist outed himself; it wasn’t Clinton’s fault. […]

    [T]here’s no reasonable connection between the discussion of Amiri’s case on email by Clinton’s staff to Amiri’s eventual execution. There’s no evidence her server was hacked. The Iranians knew all about Amiri well before the emails were released publicly. His kidnapping story never held water and his fate was sealed long before his sentence was carried out. [The Washington Post, 8/8/16]

    From the Washington Post Fact Checker:

    Truly, this is among the stupidest claims made so far in this campaign.

    There’s an easy way to figure this out before you make a fool of yourself on the radio or on Twitter: Simply check the newspaper clips.

    We have assembled below the mentions of Shahram Amiri, the executed scientist, in The Washington Post in 2009 and 2010, and then placed the emails to Clinton in the timeline. You will note that the emails in question do not even mention his name — which appeared frequently on the front page of The Post and other newspapers at the time. […]

    As can be seen with this timeline of newspaper articles, the defection and then return of Amiri was widely covered in the news media in 2009 and 2010. Iranian officials could have learned everything they needed to know about Amiri’s defection from reading The Post. Moreover, Iran first publicly raised questions about his disappearance. There was little to be learned from the cryptic messages in Clinton’s emails, even if Iran had somehow gained access to Clinton’s server.

    Mystery solved! And four more Pinocchios for Donald Trump. [The Washington Post, 8/9/16]

  49. says

    Hillary Clinton responded to Trump’s “Second Amendment” remarks during a speech she gave today in Iowa:

    Let me say something about what I think is a critical difference between my opponent and myself. Words matter, my friends. And if you are running to be president, or you are president of the United States, words can have tremendous consequences.

    Yesterday we witnessed the latest in a long line of casual comments by Donald Trump that crossed the line. His casual cruelty to a gold star family. His casual suggestion that more countries should have nuclear weapons. And now his casual inciting of violence. Every single one of these incidents shows us that Donald Trump simply does not have the temperament to be president and commander in chief of the United States.

  50. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    *cross posted with the Dangerous Times Thread*
    The Secret Service was not amused with The Donalds 2nd amendment remarks:

    The U.S. Secret Service has had “more than one” conversation with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign regarding comments the candidate made about gun rights, CNN reported on Wednesday.

    Link.

  51. says

    Cory Lewandowski’s explanation/defense for Trump casually suggesting that someone assassinate Hillary Clinton included a suggestion that we all cut Trump some slack because he frequently talks in a “stream of consciousness” style.

    Yikes! And, no, I reject that as an excuse.

    […] CNN on Wednesday went to former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to see if he could offer a good explanation for exactly what Trump meant with his latest outrageous remarks.

    Long story short: He couldn’t.

    “I don’t know what he meant,” Lewandowski said when asked by host Chris Cuomo to explain Trump’s declaration that “Second Amendment people” could stop Hillary Clinton from appointing judges after she gets elected as president.

    Lewandowski quickly tried to pivot away from being unable to interpret the words of his former boss, but Cuomo wouldn’t let him off the hook so easily.

    “Isn’t that a problem?” Cuomo asked. “If you don’t know where he’s going when he says something as President of the United States, is that really of no concern?”

    Lewandowski responded by totally dodging the question.

    “I think the larger issue is, what he was trying to do was rally those people who believe in the Second Amendment,” Lewandowski replied. “If you care about this election, you care about the Second Amendement… you have to make sure you’re united, you’re together, and you go to the ballot box and stop Hillary Clinton.”

    Earlier in the segment, Lewandowski said that we should cut Trump some slack since he frequently talks in a “stream of conscious” style, which is not something that’s typically desirable in a president.

    RawStory link

  52. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Trump appears to working a way to avoid the debates with Hillary Clinton, or at least complain about them.

    7:58 p.m.

    Donald Trump says he’s concerned that the moderators in the upcoming presidential debates won’t be fair.
    Trump has said he wants to participate in all three scheduled debates with Hillary Clinton but hasn’t concretely committed. He’s complained that two debates are scheduled at the same time as NFL games and he says “that’s really unfair to do that.”
    Trump tells Fox News that Republicans and conservatives get unfair treatment by moderators and the media. He says he wants to see a “fair moderator” selected.
    The commission organizing the debates hasn’t yet announced the moderators.
    Trump also says that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will be working with the commission on his behalf on the debate-planning.

    The Donald, reality has a liberal bias….
    LINK.

  53. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Update on the Secret Service talking to the Trump Campaign.

    A federal official on Wednesday denied a news report that the U.S. Secret Service had formally spoken with Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign regarding his suggestion a day earlier that gun rights activists could stop Democratic rival Hillary Clinton from curtailing their access to firearms.

    Link.
    Somehow I suspect words were exchanged without using tuxedos….

  54. Saad says

    American pro-torture white supremacist and popular choice for president of the United States Donald Trump says Obama is the founder of ISIS

    ISIS is honoring President Obama. He is the founder of ISIS. He’s the founder of ISIS, OK? He’s the founder. He founded ISIS.”

    At least that’s what I think he’s saying. He’s not being very clear.

  55. says

    This is a followup to Saad’s post @54.

    Yes, it’s clear to me. I wonder how Trump’s campaign personnel will try to wriggle out of this one.

    CNBC: Do you think it’s appropriate to call the sitting president of the United States the founder of a terrorist organization that wants to kill Americans?

    Trump: He was the founder of ISIS. Absolutely. He was the founder, absolutely the founder. In fact, he gets … in sports they have awards … he gets the most valuable award. I mean. Him and Hillary. She gets it too. Is something wrong with saying that? What? Are people complaining that I’m saying that he was the founder of ISIS?

    Response from the Clinton campaign was given by senior policy adviser Jake sullivan:

    This is another example of Donald Trump trash-talking the United States. It goes without saying that this is a false claim from a presidential candidate with an aversion to the truth and an unprecedented lack of knowledge. What’s remarkable about Trump’s comments is that once again, he’s echoing the talking points of Putin and our adversaries to attack American leaders and American interests, while failing to offer any serious plans to confront terrorism or make this country more secure.

  56. says

    Trump triples down on his ignorant remark about the “founder of ISIS”:

    Some media figures, including conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, attempted to cleanup Trump’s comments and explain what he really “meant,” claiming that Trump’s comments were “not literal,” but just a poorly-worded criticism of President Obama’s terror policies.

    Hewitt hosted Trump on August 11, and tried desperately to help Trump walk back his comments, guiding him by saying, “I know what you meant. You meant that he created the vacuum [for ISIS], he lost the peace.”

    But Trump immediately refuted Hewitt’s assertion, responding, “No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. I do.”

    Hewitt tried again, saying, “[B]y using the term founder, they’re hitting with you on this again. Mistake?”

    Trump again denied that he meant something different than what he said: “No, it’s no mistake. Everyone’s liking it. I think they’re liking it.”

    Link

  57. says

    Rightwing media is jumping to conclusions, and jumping to the wrong conclusions:

    Several news shows and outlets covering a new email dump by conservative group Judicial Watch have ignored developments undermining the group’s claims that emails show the State Department rewarded Clinton Foundation donors with access at the foundation’s request. Judicial Watch baselessly suggested that Doug Band, an aide to Bill Clinton, worked as an agent of the Clinton Foundation to facilitate a donor’s meeting with a U.S. ambassador. Numerous media outlets have reported on the story without noting that the ambassador has since explained that he never met with the donor.

    Link

    Feltman told CNN Wednesday that he never met with Chagoury.

    “I have never met nor spoken with Mr Chagoury. I was not aware of the proposal that he speak to me until this email exchange was released, but in any case we never spoke,” he said. [CNN.com, 8/10/16]

    Fox News is calling the story “pay for play.” Trump is calling it “pay for play.” The Wall Street Journal called it “pay for play.”

    Some mainstream media outlets are also jumping to the wrong conclusion: CBS This Morning called it “evidence of favors for donors.” ABC’s Good Morning America called it “Fresh questions about whether favors were exchanged for donations to The Clinton Foundation.”

    None of that is true. Furthermore, Band sent the emails in his capacity as a personal aide to Presdient Bill Clinton, and not as a representative of The Clinton Foundation.

    […] The Clinton campaign pointed out that Band emailed “on behalf of President Clinton from his presidentclinton.org email, not on behalf of the Foundation.” [Media Matters, 8/10/16] […]

    A fact sheet distributed to surrogates by the Clinton campaign states that Chagoury, who is of Lebanese descent, “was simply seeking to share his insights on the upcoming Lebanese election with the right person at the Department of State for whom this information might be helpful. In seeking to provide information, he was not seeking action by the Department.” Nor does the Times explain what Chagoury’s “interests in Lebanon” are — while the language suggests he has business interests in the country, the paper provides no evidence that is the case. Chagoury has engaged in philanthropic ventures in Lebanon. [Media Matters, 8/10/16]

  58. says

    There have been rumors floating around for some time that the RNC was threatening to cut off funds to Donald Trump’s campaign. Now, more than seventy Republicans signed a letter to Chairman Reince Priebus asking him to cut off funds to Trump, and to redirect those funds to Senate and House races.

    […] “We believe that Donald Trump’s divisiveness, recklessness, incompetence, and record-breaking unpopularity risk turning this election into a Democratic landslide, and only the immediate shift of all available RNC resources to vulnerable Senate and House races will prevent the GOP from drowning with a Trump-emblazoned anchor around its neck,” states a draft of the letter obtained by POLITICO. […]

    Former Sen. Gordon Humphrey of New Hampshire and former Reps. Chris Shays of Connecticut, Tom Coleman of Missouri and Vin Weber of Minnesota are among the Republicans lending their name to the letter. Close to 20 of the co-signers are former RNC staffers, […]

    Republican Andrew Weinstein, a vocal anti-Trump Republican, is one of the operatives organizing the letter, which began circulating earlier this week and is expected to be sent next week. Weinstein served as director of media relations for the Dole/Kemp presidential campaign and was deputy press secretary to then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

    Weinstein said that the letter is coming from “People who want the party to protect its majorities in the Senate and the House. It’s not an endorsement of anybody.” […]

    Politico link

  59. birgerjohansson says

    FW from The Guardian:
    “Hate Trump? You should still hold Clinton’s feet to the fire” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/11/hate-trump-still-hold-clinton-accountable
    “It will make Hillary Clinton a stronger candidate if she’s held accountable for her past and for her actions. Oh, and it’s not a vote for Donald Trump.
    It means we are still using our brains, “That we are not checkmated,” as Michelle Alexander puts it, that engaging in discourse is not just possible, but necessary in a race with less than terrific choices. No matter who you ultimately vote for, don’t stop demanding a candidate endorse policies that benefit you in order to get your support, even if you vote for them.”

  60. says

    A followup comment from Trump regarding the backlash he is receiving for calling President Obama the “founder of ISIS”:

    […] “Is there something wrong with saying that? Are people complaining that I said he was the founder of ISIS?” Trump said. “Look, all I do is tell the truth. I’m a truth teller. All I do is tell the truth.”

    “If at the end of 90 days I fall in short because I’m somewhat politically incorrect even though I’m supposed to be the smart one and even though I’m supposed to have a lot of good ideas, it’s okay,” he continued. “I go back to a very good way of life.” […]

    Link

    Sounds like Trump is lining up more excuses for losing in November. To his claim that “the system is rigged” he is adding the idea that if he loses it will be because he told the truth.

  62. says

    Donald Trump claimed that he provides childcare for his workers.

    […] on-site childcare “is something that can be done, I think, very easily by a company.”

    “It’s not expensive for a company to do it,” Trump added. “You need one person or two people, and you need some blocks and you need some swings and some toys. You know, surely, it’s not expensive. It’s not an expensive thing.”

    “I do it all over, and I get great people because of it,” he said in November.

    No, he does not provide childcare. That’s a load of bollocks.

    […] an extensive review from The Daily Beast could find no evidence that this was true. […] according to New York’s Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), there is no licensed childcare facility in Trump Tower, where the Trump Organization is headquartered. A representative from the OCFS told The Daily Beast that even small company daycares would have to be licensed.[…]

    Al Kare, a waiter in one of the cafes at Trump’s Taj Mahal casino, told The Daily Beast that he and the mother of his children had to work split shifts to be able to take care of their kids while maintaining a steady stream of income.
    “We were never provided any form of childcare or any benefits,” Kare said. He’s worked there for 20 years and said they did not offer paid maternity leave.

    “I work Taj as my main job. I work banquets. Now I cut trees,” Kare said. “Why, just to take care of my family. You have to work like that. Like an animal.” […]

    The situation for working parents is no better in Trump’s casinos including the Taj Mahal in New Jersey which is set to close soon.

    “What my husband and I did, we had to switch shifts,” Myra Gonzalez, a pastry chef at the casino, explained to The Daily Beast. “We just switched shifts. It was tough on the relationship. It was a tough time. He never supplied us with any childcare.”

    Bethany Khan, the director of communications for the the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, told The Daily Beast that “workers at Trump Hotel Las Vegas do not have childcare benefits as part of the employee benefits package.”

    […] It’s strange then that Trump would suggest that this is commonplace in his company with little to no evidence suggesting that it’s true. […]

    Link

  63. says

    Two Democratic candidates who spent part of their childhoods in refugee camps racked up impressive victories in Minnesota’s primary elections on Tuesday.

    Both of those victories are in-your-face rebuttals to Trump’s demeaning comments about immigrants.

    […] Ilhan Omar, 33, was born in Somalia and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for four years before her family arrived in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, home to North America’s largest Somali population. Following her primary victory over incumbent Rep. Phyllis Kahn (D), Omar is now poised to represent Cedar-Riverside and become the first Somali-American legislator in the country.

    In a speech to her supporters Tuesday night, Omar said, “Tonight we made history and it marks the beginning of the future of our district, a new era of representation. Tonight is about the power of you.”

    Fue Lee, 24, moved with his family from a Thai refugee camp to north Minneapolis in 1992. His victory over veteran incumbent Rep. Joe Mullery (D) was considered something of an upset. In an interview with the Hmong Times, Lee said that part of what motivated his decision to run is his desire to “help marginalized communities to engage in democracy. We need to make it easier not harder.”

    “As a young Hmong American I am passionate about public service,” Lee continued, adding that he feels it’s important for elected officials to “embody the communities that we live in.” […]

    Think Progress link

  64. says

    Trump lied about sending his personal jet to ferry marines home in 1991. Trump’s campaign backed up the lie:

    The Trump campaign has confirmed to Hannity.com that Mr. Trump did indeed send his plane to make two trips from North Carolina to Miami, Florida to transport over 200 Gulf War Marines back home.

    Sean Hannity, the dumbest anchor on Fox News, made a big deal of this in May of this year:

    200 Stranded Marines Needed A Plane Ride Home, Here’s How Donald Trump Responded.

    Nope. That’s bollocks. Not correct. The Washington Post Fact Checker gave the story four Pinocchios.

    […] it’s clear that Trump had nothing to do with the dispatch of the jet to the troops stranded at Camp Lejeune. The aircraft that ferried the troops was part of the Trump Shuttle fleet, at a time when Trump barely had control over the airline and was frantically trying to negotiate deals with bankers to prevent the collapse of his business empire.

    Trump Shuttle had a contract with the military, and this flight home was part of that contract. Simple as that.

    Sean Hannity needs to prominently correct this article. The Trump campaign, meanwhile, earns Four Pinocchios for confirming a story that is easily debunked.

    Furthermore, the marine use of a Trump Shuttle plane was a direct result of a disastrous business decision made by Trump.

    […] when Trump bought the shuttle from Eastern Airlines, he made a bad deal, accepting an additional five planes instead of a lower purchase price

    […] a Boeing 727 jet that was part of a Trump Shuttle fleet — an airline that Trump briefly owned before it was essentially seized by the banks because he failed to make payments on his loans. It had a white fuselage. [Not Trump’s private jet, which seats far fewer people, and has a dark fuselage]

    […] Trump had put the Trump Shuttle up for sale on April 27, 1990, but by September couldn’t make loan payments and needed to cut a new deal with his bankers. By the time the TOW company went off to war, Trump had not paid interest on a $235 million Citibank loan for months.

    When the warriors returned from Saudi Arabia, the banks had made it clear they would determine how and when the shuttle was sold. Trump was in such financial straits that he had even agreed to sell his personal jet for $6.5 million in a bid to raise cash.

    So how did the Trump Shuttle end up helping the Marines at Camp Lejeune?

    Well, it turns out when Trump bought the shuttle from Eastern Airlines, he made a bad deal, accepting an additional five planes instead of a lower purchase price because the market had turned south. As the Daily Beast noted, in an entertaining account of Trump’s foray into the airline business, “the shuttle needed only 16 planes to operate a full hourly schedule at its three cities, with one or two jets as spares, and extra aircraft are anathema to an airline — they don’t make money sitting on the ground.”

    So some of those extra planes were contracted out to the U.S. military to ferry personnel in the United States during Operations Desert Shield/Storm in 1990-1991. […]

  65. says

    Actor and activist Martin Sheen had a few things to say about Donald Trump. Here are a few highlights:

    […] he’s an empty-headed moron.

    […] He’s a very self-centered promoter.

    One word to describe him: “Scary”.

    The tsunami that’s going to hit him has not reached the shore yet. […] Donald Trump is finished.

    Big supporter of Hillary: She has some common sense.

    Link to interview in the Hollywood Reporter.

  66. says

    Emily Crockett, writing for Vox, compared Trump’s “Second Amendment” comments to the “violent fantasies” of anti-abortion activists:

    It’s a pattern that abortion providers in particular have seen play out time and again. Public figures or advocates demonize a person or group as a loathsome, inhuman monster, often using violent imagery and righteous rhetoric — like comparing abortion to slavery, or saying it’s worse than the Holocaust.

    Then when someone commits the act of violence that many people would consider an appropriate response to such extreme atrocities (who wouldn’t kill Hitler if they had the chance?), those same public figures react with shock and say that no one could have predicted this.

    But it’s very predictable, statistically if not individually. Right after a series of anti-abortion videos made the baseless claims that Planned Parenthood is staffed by “butchers” who “sell baby parts” — claims that were then repeated incessantly by Republican officials and lawmakers — violent threats against abortion providers skyrocketed, and the FBI took notice. And pretty soon, Robert Lewis Dear was ranting about “baby parts” after killing three people and wounding nine at a Planned Parenthood.

    Trump has suggested before that Hillary Clinton might be a murderer. But his obsessions with how “crooked” Hillary is and how the system is “rigged” to favor her may actually be more relevant here, and more dangerous. [Vox, 8/10/16]

  67. says

    The Hillary Clinton campaign released a new ad that puts more pressure on Donald Trump to release his tax returns. You can see the video here. It is about 1 minute long.

    Another source for the video, with accompanying text.

  68. says

    NBC News coverage of Hillary Clinton’s economic address .

    Excerpt:

    What economic policy concessions might Hillary Clinton offer up to woo Republicans? If her speech Thursday in Warren, Michigan is any indication, the answer is: Nothing.

    In her first major economic address since her campaign began actively courting the Republicans turned off by Donald Trump, Clinton made no major pivot to the ideological center.

    Instead, Clinton reiterated several of the policy positions she adopted during her primary fight against Bernie Sanders, even while making a direct appeal to Independent voters and Republicans.

    Clinton didn’t toy with entitlement reform or hint at grand bargains on deficit reduction. Instead, she talked about expanding Social Security, debt-free college, making corporations pay higher taxes, a public option for health care, raising the minimum wage, opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the concentration of wealth in “the top 1 percent.” […]

  69. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Another attempt to defund Planned Parenthood bites the judicial dust.

    A federal judge blocked an Ohio law aimed at diverting public money from Planned Parenthood, saying in a Friday ruling that the group stood to suffer “irreparable injury.”
    The state law targets the more than $1.4 million in funding that Planned Parenthood gets through Ohio’s health department. That money, which is mostly from the federal government, supports certain education and prevention programs. The Ohio law would bar such funds from going to entities that perform or promote abortions.
    The restrictions, which had been slated to take effect in May, were signed by Republican Gov. John Kasich during his failed presidential bid.
    Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region sued the state, claiming the law violated their constitutional rights by denying them the funds “in retaliation for” providing abortions. The lawsuit names the state’s health director as a defendant.
    U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett in Cincinnati sided with Planned Parenthood on Friday in granting a permanent injunction that keeps state officials from enforcing the law’s provisions.
    The judge said in many instances, Planned Parenthood was chosen over other entities to receive the funds as part of a competitive grant process. He said if the changes were to take effect, the group couldn’t offer some free services and also would no longer have access to the juvenile justice and foster care systems to teach teenagers about healthy relationships.
    If not blocked, Barrett wrote, Planned Parenthood would “suffer a continuing irreparable injury for which there is no adequate remedy at law.”
    The state’s attorneys had argued Planned Parenthood was trying to override state policy choices, and no entity has a constitutional right to receive public money…
    The group’s attorneys argued the law was unconstitutional because it requires, as a condition of receiving government funds, that recipients abandon their constitutionally protected rights to free speech and to provide abortion services.
    Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, women have a constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy before a fetus is able to survive outside the womb, generally around 24 weeks of pregnancy.
    Planned Parenthood is a national target because of its role as the largest U.S. abortion provider.
    Federal law and the laws of most states already prevent public money from paying for abortions except in rare circumstances, but the recent defunding bills prohibit state money for any services by an organization that also provides abortions.
    According to Planned Parenthood, politicians in 24 states have either enacted or proposed measures since last July that target the organization with defunding.
    In most of the 24 states, the cuts haven’t taken effect. Some measures have been blocked by the courts or put on hold over litigation, and a defunding bill in Virginia was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

    Link. Evidently most state legislatures need a few remedial courses in Constitutional Law.

  70. says

    Nerd @69, good news so far concerning the protection of funding that goes to Planned Parenthood. I don’t think that Republican-dominated legislators are thinking things through to their logical consequences when they pass laws like that. To thumb their noses at abortion providers they are willing to delete other services that their citizens need.

    In other news, the renewed emphasis on Trump’s tax returns is having an effect. The rally Trump held in Erie, Pennsylvania today was interrupted by protestors holding up signs challenging Trump to release his tax forms. Link.

  71. says

    Hillary Clinton released her 2015 tax returns today. You can review the entirety of the forms on Talking Points Memo if you want to see for yourself.

    Highlights: They listed itemized deductions of $2,242,022; and they listed income of $10.6 million. Their income dropped considerably from 2014, when they earned $27.9 million. The total amount of tax they paid in 2015 was $3.6 million, an effective tax rate of 34.2 percent on their adjusted gross income. If you combine state, local and federal taxes, the Clintons paid 43.2% in taxes. They donated a total of $1.04 million to charity, about 9.8% of their income.

    Bill Clinton earned more than Hillary.

    The Clinton campaign also released ten years of returns for Vice Presidential candidate, Tim Kaine.

  72. says

    This is a followup to comments 54 (Saad), 55, 56, and 60.

    Trump is attempting to walk back his more than a dozen claims that President Obama is the “founder of ISIS.” This is ridiculous.

    Ratings challenged @CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) “the founder” of ISIS, & MVP. THEY DON’T GET SARCASM?

    I love watching these poor, pathetic people (pundits) on television working so hard and so seriously to try and figure me out. They can’t!

    Think Progress link

    What is he, the biggest troll to walk the planet?

  73. says

    News on the marijuana front:

    […] “We applaud the steps taken today by the Obama Administration to remove research barriers that have significantly limited the scientific study of marijuana,” Harris [Maya Harris, a senior policy adviser to the Clinton campaign] said. “Marijuana is already being used for medical purposes in states across the country, and it has the potential for even further medical use. As Hillary Clinton has said throughout this campaign, we should make it easier to study marijuana so that we can better understand its potential benefits, as well as its side effects.”

    “As president, Hillary will build on the important steps announced today by rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II substance,” she continued. “She will also ensure Colorado, and other states that have enacted marijuana laws, can continue to serve as laboratories of democracy.” […]

    Link

  74. says

    This is a followup to comments 54, 55, 56, 60 and 72.

    Trump has reversed himself … again. After claiming that his comments about President Obama being the founder of ISIS were “sarcasm” (see comment 72), Trump told rally attendees in Erie, PA that his initial remark was not “that sarcastic, to be honest with you.”
    Link

  75. tomh says

    “his initial remark was not “that sarcastic, to be honest with you.””

    That’s funny. Then he brags that people can’t “figure him out.” It’s true – if you say three things that are all opposed to each other, (is that possible?), you can definitely be hard to figure out.

  76. says

    This is a followup to comment 41.

    I thought you might like to know the source for some of the senseless smears about Hillary Clinton’s supposed health problems. It turns out that a “doctor” working for Breitbart is the quack behind many of the Hillary-is-dying memes.

    […] pro-Trump website Breitbart published Dr. Jane Orient’s unfounded speculation that Hillary Clinton could be “medically unfit to serve,” referring to Dr. Orient as the “executive director of a physicians’ organization.”

    Dr. Orient is indeed the executive director of a medical organization but not a large one like the 200,000-member American Medical Association (AMA).

    Rather, she belongs to a small, Tuscon-based conservative nonprofit organization called the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) […]

    AAPS is a small nonprofit organization with Tea Party ties that prioritizes “individual liberty, personal responsibility, [and] limited government.” Their journal, as Mother Jones reported, has published articles suggesting that abortion causes breast cancer, that vaccines cause autism, and that AIDS is not caused by HIV. […]

    […] it should have been clear from Orient’s blog post that she is not exactly a detached observer of the 2016 election.

    In her blog post, Orient repeats the usual conspiracy theories about the former Secretary of State’s physical condition. First, she comments on the photograph of Clinton supposedly having difficulty with a set of stairs, which was actually taken after an accidental slip.

    “Did she simply trip?” Orient asks. And then, breathlessly: “Or was it a seizure or a stroke?”

    In addition to that bit of grossly unethical speculation, Orient uses circuitous, Trump-esque phrasing to paint a picture of an ailing Clinton.

    […] she packs a mouthful of qualifiers into her claim that an object in a Secret Service agent’s hand “purportedly might have been an autoinjector of Valium”.

    In other words, there’s no proof for anything Orient says—and often, there’s evidence to the contradictory—but that didn’t stop Breitbart from lapping her words up and slapping it with the headline “Physician: Mainstream Media ‘Strangely Silent’ About Hillary Clinton’s Health.”

    […] this most recent wave of misinformation about Clinton’s health was started by the National Enquirer, which endorsed Trump in March, and by InfoWars writer Paul Joseph Watson, who works for professional conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. […]

    Link

  77. says

    I guess the Trump campaign is going to continue to insult and misrepresent the Khan family forever.

    The co-chair of Donald Trump’s New York campaign operation questioned whether Gold Star parent Khizr Khan deserves the military honor.

    In an interview with the Imus in the Morning radio show, Trump surrogate Carl Paladino attacked Khan for his criticisms of Trump.

    “I don’t care if he’s a Gold Star parent,” Paladino said. “He certainly doesn’t deserve that title, OK, if he’s as anti-American as he’s illustrated in his speeches and in his discussion.

    I mean, if he’s a member of the Muslim Brotherhood or supporting, you know, the ISIS-type of attitude against America, there’s no reason for Donald Trump to have to honor this man.”

    Link

  78. says

    This is a followup to comment 71.

    The Trump campaign’s response to the release of the Clinton’s 2015 tax returns is to call the release a “distraction.”

    “Hillary Clinton has turned over the only records nobody wants to see from her – the American public wants to see the 33,000 emails she deleted to obstruct an FBI investigation,” Jason Miller, a top campaign spokesman, said in a statement Friday afternoon.

    “Everything she doesn’t want us to see has been digitally shredded or put under lock and key. This document release is nothing more than an attempt at distraction and misdirection by an individual who created and then purged an illegal private email server.”

    Miller went onto accuse Clinton of hiding emails in order “to keep authorities from untangling this corrupt scheme that reaches into the world’s shady corridors of power.” […]

    Link

    Sounds to me like the Trump campaign just wants to change the subject.

  79. says

    Donald Trump, classy as ever. At a rally where Black Lives Matter protestors showed up, Trump mocked one of the protestors:

    Go home to mom. And your mother is voting for Trump.

  80. says

    Another former Reagan official has jumped off the Trump train.

    Robert Tuttle, who served as assistant to the president and director of presidential personnel in Reagan’s administration, says his vote for Clinton will be his first vote for a Democrat in his entire life.

    “The Republican nominee for president has no government experience and has done nothing in his career to demonstrate that he is competent to be president,” Tuttle said in a statement.

    “He has made repeated misstatements and inaccurate statements. He has insulted minorities, women, a war hero and Gold Star parents. He is unqualified and unfit to be president,” said Tuttle, who also was ambassador to the United Kingdom under George W. Bush. “I have never voted for a Democrat but I will vote for Secretary Clinton.” […]

    Link

  81. says

    RuPaul, host of RuPaul’s Drag Race, endorsed Hillary Clinton:

    […] let me just say this: If you’re a politician — not just in Washington but in business and industry, you have to be a politician — there are a lot of things that you have to do that you’re not proud of. There are a lot of compromises you have to make because it means that you can get this other thing over here.

    And if you think that you can go to fucking Washington and be rainbows and butterflies the whole time, you’re living in a fucking fantasy world.

    So now, having said that, think about what a female has to do with that: All of those compromises, all of that shit, double it by ten. And you get to understand who this woman is and how powerful, persuasive, brilliant, and resilient she is.

    Any female executive, anybody who has been put to the side — women, blacks, gays — for them to succeed in a white-male-dominated culture is an act of brilliance. Of resilience, of grit, of everything you can imagine.

    So, what do I think of Hillary? I think she’s fucking awesome. Is she in bed with Wall Street? Goddammit, I should hope so! You’ve got to dance with the devil.

    So which of the horrible people do you want? That’s more of the question. Do you want a pompous braggart who doesn’t know anything about diplomacy? Or do you want a badass bitch who knows how to get shit done? That’s really the question.

    Link

  82. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Trump dodging responsibility for his mouth:

    It’s the media’s fault. That’s out of context. Never said it in the first place.
    Donald Trump’s claim Friday that he was merely being “sarcastic” in accusing President Barack Obama of establishing a terrorist group was his latest attempt to blame others for the uproar over what he says. It’s an instinct that Trump’s opponents say a president can’t possess. Some Republicans seem to have the same concern.
    This time, it followed two days of critical headlines and Democratic outrage over Trump’s claim that Obama was the “founder” of the Islamic State group. As Trump repeated the claim more than a dozen times, interviewers sought to ensure Trump wasn’t being misconstrued. Surely, they offered, he meant Obama’s policies had enabled the extremist group’s rise.
    “No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. I do,” Trump said, using one acronym for the group. (His remark comes at 15:26 of the interview .)
    Then an about-face Friday. “THEY DON’T GET SARCASM?” he tweeted.
    Or was he being sarcastic about the sarcasm? Hours later, he told a rally in Pennsylvania he was “obviously being sarcastic — but not that sarcastic, to be honest with you.”

    LInk.
    Trump, some advice from President Truman, “The Buck Stops Here”. Any problem you have with controlling your mouth stops with YOU, and with NOBODY ELSE.
    You want to stop your problem, stop speaking about that which you don’t have three independent sources to that aren’t right wing paranoid “pundits”.

  83. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Eyewitness testimony from someone who was at one of Hillary Clinton’s “health episodes”. By LISA LERER, AP

    I’ve never been part of a conspiracy theory. Now, video of my surprised facial expression has become Exhibit A in the latest unfounded speculation about Hillary Clinton.
    It starts with Clinton’s visit to a muffin shop in Washington on June 10, five days before the District of Columbia’s Democratic primary. The then-presumptive Democratic nominee popped in for a photo op with Mayor Muriel Bowser and other officials supporting her campaign.
    As an Associated Press reporter who’s spent more than a year covering her candidacy, I was there for her appearance. After she ordered herself a “cold chai,” my colleagues and I shouted some questions, mostly about Clinton’s recent meeting with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
    Perhaps eager to avoid answering or maybe just taken aback by our volume, Clinton responded with an exaggerated motion, shaking her head vigorously for a few seconds. Video of the moment shows me holding out my recorder in front of her, laughing and stepping back in surprise. After the exchange, she took a few more photos, exited the shop and greeted supporters waiting outside.
    Two months later, that innocuous exchange has become the fodder for one of some Trump supporters’ most popular conspiracy theories: her failing health. Where I saw evasiveness, they see seizures.
    Stringing the footage together with shots of Clinton seeming to get help going up stairs, they pressed the case that Clinton has health issues serious enough to disqualify her from the presidency. The hashtag? #HillaryHealth.
    “Wow! Did Hillary Clinton Just Suffer a Seizure on Camera?” asked Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit on July 23, more than a month after that day at the muffin shop.
    Much of such speculation about the state of Clinton’s health stems from a concussion she sustained in December 2012 after fainting, an episode her doctor has attributed to a stomach virus and dehydration. During the course of her treatment, she was found to have a blood clot in a vein in the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear.
    To recover, Clinton spent a few days in New York-Presbyterian Hospital and took a month-long absence from the State Department for treatment.
    Republican strategist Karl Rove later called it a “serious health episode” that would be an issue if Clinton ran for president, fueling a theory the concussion posed a graver threat to her abilities than Clinton and her team let on.
    A July 2015 letter released by Clinton’s campaign proclaimed her in “excellent physical condition and fit to serve as president of the United States,” according to Dr. Lisa Bardack, an internist and chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Mount Kisco Medical Group in New York.
    Bardack also said testing in 2013 showed “complete resolution” of the concussion’s effects, including double vision, which Clinton wore glasses with special lenses to address — further fueling rumors.
    Such medical records are routinely released by presidential candidates. Trump’s, released in December, proclaimed him to be in “extraordinary” health.*snicker*
    Clinton’s campaign didn’t comment on the latest round of speculation.
    That hasn’t stopped plenty of people online. After the video appeared on cable news, my Twitter feed exploded. One commenter compared me to actress Shelley Duvall from the horror movie “The Shining.”
    The conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity opened a 6-minute Thursday night segment titled “Hillary’s Health” by saying, “as speculation swirls about Hillary Clinton’s health,” citing a headline from the right-wing news site Drudge Report.
    Hannity repeatedly played the muffin shop footage, describing what Clinton was doing as “this sort of twitching thing that she does in front of reporters that was really bad” and then as “a violent, violent, repetitive jerking of the head.”
    Seemingly as “proof” that something was amiss with Clinton, Hannity exclaimed: “Watch the reporter, like, pull back as she — the reporter got scared. And she keeps doing it. What is that?”
    Fox News never contacted me to ask that question. For the record, I wasn’t scared for a moment.

    My emphasis. Link.

  84. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Sigh, signs of desperation. “The Latest: Trump says only way he can lose Pa. is cheating”

    7:15 p.m.
    Donald Trump says the only way he can lose in Pennsylvania is if there’s cheating.
    Trump tells a rally in Altoona that he plans to watch certain parts of Pennsylvania closely on Election Day. He’s noting that he’s had huge turnout for rallies in the state as evidence of what he says is overwhelming support.
    But Trump says he wants to ensure that Hillary Clinton’s supporters don’t vote multiple times. He’s citing concerns about voter fraud….
    6:50 p.m.
    Donald Trump is warning his Pennsylvania supporters about potential voter fraud in the state and suggests that they volunteer to monitor the election.
    Speaking at a Friday evening rally in Altoona, Trump says, “We don’t want to see people voting five times, folks,” and adds: “We have to be very careful.”
    In 2014, a Pennsylvania judge struck down a law requiring voters to produce state-approved photo ID in order to vote.
    Trump has repeatedly questioned the integrity of the nation’s voting system, an unprecedented assertion by a modern presidential candidate.

    Link.

  85. militantagnostic says

    Much of such speculation about the state of Clinton’s health stems from a concussion she sustained in December 2012 after fainting, an episode her doctor has attributed to a stomach virus and dehydration.

    This sort of thing won’t be an issue with President Trump. His skull is dense enough to block neutrinos.

  86. says

    All best wishes for successful surgery, and a rapid recovery.

    Thanks, KG. The surgery was more involved than they’d expected and there was a small injury to a nearby organ, so it took twice as long as expected (the people waiting for me were frantic). But ultimately it was successful and I’m just taking it easy and recovering. Percocet has been very helpful.

    Incidentally, between sleeping spells I’m reading Ian Kershaw’s Making Friends with Hitler: Lord Londonderry, The Nazis and the Road to World War II. There’s a section on early attitudes toward Hitler and the Nazis. Many on the German Left saw him as “little more than a sham and a charlatan” and a capitalist tool. The “conservative Right tended to presume that, though he had his uses in whipping up emotions in the national cause, he was not much more than a mouthpiece of the disaffected masses, the demagogic leader of a protest party without a clear political programme, who, if properly ‘boxed in’, could be contained and controlled until the ‘traditional forces’ of rule could re-establish themselves” (pp. 25-6).*

    A summary of British newspaper reactions in the early 1930s:

    The most penetrating criticism of the Hitler regime after 1933 would regularly come from the Manchester Guardian… In 1930, however, even this newspaper dismissed Hitler as a mere braggart without genuine or sustainable principles, and thought those in his party, though more aggressive, violent and barbaric [sic] than in any other except the Communist Party, would behave as ‘ordinary politicians when in office’…. Not dissimilar was the verdict of the Observer, that Hitler was ‘dramatic, violent, and shallow’, a ‘ranting fool’ amounting to little more than a ‘megaphone’ of the widespread discontent. The Times thought it was difficult to know what the Nazi Party wanted, apart from making Germany strong again, but was optimistic that Hitler would eventually guide its revolutionary spirit into ‘useful channels’. Oddly, the Daily Mail, a mass-circulation newspaper whose owner, Lord Rothermere, was sympathetic to Hitler (and, in the early 1930s, to Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists), was practically alone in at least acknowledging – from a position of admiration – that the Nazi leader was not just a talented demagogue but also ideologically driven, that there was ‘intense conviction behind his words’.” (pp. 28-9)

    * I’ll say more about this when I post about Alfred Hugenberg.

  87. says

    Steve Kornacki covered Donald Trump’s pronouncements that the only way he’ll lose in Pennsylvania is if “certain sections” of the state cheat.

    Trump is setting up a conflict. He’s down by double digits in that state and others.

    Link. The video is 2:09 minutes long.

    militantagnostic @84, Chris Hayes presented an excellent segment to cover the baseless right-wing conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton is suffering from a medical condition. The video is 7:42 minutes long. This is the best coverage I’ve seen.

  88. says

    Donald Trump’s call for Republican voters to go around to all the precincts in Pennsylvania to keep Clinton supporters from committing voter fraud is against the law.

    This is from a discussion of a consent decree that bars the Republican National Committee from engaging in activities like the ones Trump described. The discussion is from 2013:

    The Supreme Court on Monday declined the Republican National Committee’s request to lift a three-decade-old court order that limits the national GOP’s ability to challenge voters’ eligibility at the polls.

    Link

    Here is an excerpt from the decree itself:

    Republicans must not engage in […] any ballot security activities in polling places or election districts where the racial or ethnic composition of such districts is a factor in the decision to conduct, or the actual conduct of, such activities there […]

    Here’s is just a part of Trump’s rant:

    We have some great people here, some great leaders here, of the Republican Party, and they’re very concerned about that [cheating at the polls], and that’s the way we could lose the state.

    We have to call up law enforcement, and we have to have the sheriffs, and the police chiefs, and everybody watching. Because if we get cheated out of this election, if we get cheated out of a win in Pennsylvania, which is such a vital state, especially when I know what’s happening here, folks. I know it — she can’t beat what’s happening here.

    Trump is in love with the love he gets from his enthusiastic rally attendees. He thinks that his rallies are more indicative of his popularity than the polls, and more indicative of his popularity than what the vote count in Pennsylvania will turn out to be in November. He is delusional.

  89. says

    Yes, Trump is doing more than just ranting about supposed voter fraud, he and his campaign are actively recruiting “election observers.”

    Help Me Stop Crooked Hillary From Rigging This Election! Please fill out this form to receive more information about becoming a volunteer Trump Election Observer.

  90. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Lynna#86, I don’t know if there is a problem with your link or my computer, but I couldn’t access the video via the link, it just hung up trying to load.
    No matter, went to MSNBC and the Rachel Maddow show, and it came up. I would recommend two of the companion videos with Steve Kornacki, one talking about the recent NBC/Marist polls in key states like Pennsylvania with the man who ran the polls, and the second which is an analysis of the polls, and why Hillary Clinton is leading by double digit in many states. The electoral votes in all the states where Hillary Clinton has double digits lead is 271. No wonder the bluster from the Trump Campaign has increased.

  92. says

    Two men, including the mosque’s imam, were shot in the head and killed after leaving prayer services in a Queens mosque. The shooter hasn’t been caught. Police don’t yet know what the motive was.

  94. says

    Nerd @89, I agree. Those two related segments that Kornacki presented for The Rachel Maddow show are worth watching.

    SC @90, such joyful and good news for some of the people of Manbij. Some of those civilians had been used as human shields, which is so despicable. On the other hand, a lot of civilians died before the city was liberated.

    SC @91, Trump is making America meaner, or at least making it more common for people to express their meanness openly.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/opinion/sunday/donald-trump-is-making-america-meaner.html

  95. says

    An insider talks about what it was like to work for Trump Magazine.

    Bills went unpaid. They turned off the electricity. Our paychecks started bouncing. I got cancer and they canceled my health coverage. Here’s what it was like to work for Donald Trump’s failed magazine. […]

    A steady stream of news releases trumpeted the magazine’s supposed advertising prowess. […] by the end of 2005, the magazine had lost more than $3 million, according to Forbes. In typical Trump fashion, the mogul was still making money—he received a licensing fee of $120,000 per issue in 2005, raised to $135,000 per issue in 2006—even as Jacobson’s company, Premiere Publishing Group, sank deeper into the red. […]

    The lack of organization was rampant. There was no companywide database for subscriptions; all the information was stored in Excel spreadsheets that were emailed back and forth. Staff meetings were few and far between, with little communication taking place despite our close quarters. Jacobson’s demands were erratic and always urgent, and often had no clear connection to the publication, including shipping framed paintings via UPS and DHL. […]

    In the six months I worked there, I never met or spoke with Donald himself, and he never came to the office. […]

    That, my friends, is a typical Trump business operation. Sheesh.
    Link

  96. says

    Oh, FFS. Trump is coming up with every excuse he can think of to explain away the fact that he is, currently, a loser.

    Now he is claiming that if it wasn’t for the “disgusting media” he would be “beating Hillary by 20%.”

    Trump also claimed that Hillary Clinton is “being protected by the media. She is not a talented person or politician. The dishonest media refuses to expose!”

    He went on to say: “I am not only fighting Crooked Hillary, I am fighting the dishonest and corrupt media and her government protection process. People get it!”

    From Trump’s point of view I gather that anyone who does not praise him continually is dishonest and corrupt.

    Quotes come from Trump’s Twitter feed.

  97. says

    Mike Pence, Trump’s V.P. pick, says that he will make his tax returns available to the public soon.

    It’s hard to think of a better way to make Trump look bad when it comes to taxes.

    Link

  99. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    I can’t help but infer the worst from Trump’s call for “election poll monitors” to watch the polling places during the election day. I see thugs telling, with body language, to vote for the correct candidate, let me see you ballot after you mark it before running it through that polling machine [for paper ballot precincts].
    you know… if the election polls were rigged, could casual observers see anything? All the fraud would occur behind the scenes, sending false results to the news outlets to publish. Putting strong-arms at the polls won’t intimidate the fraudsters. (ask Trump about that *wink*).
    This is clearly a dog-whistle, inciting violence (at least: intimidation) at polling stations, to reduce participation of innocent voters.
    me sees desperation

  100. says

    Woah – NYT headline today: “Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Trump Aide.”

    …Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.

    In addition, criminal prosecutors are investigating a group of offshore shell companies that helped members of Mr. Yanukovych’s inner circle finance their lavish lifestyles, including a palatial presidential residence with a private zoo, golf course and tennis court. Among the hundreds of murky transactions these companies engaged in was an $18 million deal to sell Ukrainian cable television assets to a partnership put together by Mr. Manafort and a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin….

  101. says

    A few notes:

    Corey Lewandowski tweeted the NYT Manafort story, and then the Clinton campaign retweeted Lewandowski.

    Today is Trump’s big foreign policy speech.

    DNC consultant Alexandra Chalupa says it was when she started doing opposition research on Manafort that she started receiving warning notices from Yahoo email security saying “Important action required. We strongly suspect that your account has been the target of state-sponsored actors.”

  102. says

    Also, in his speech Trump is expected to reveal his plan to defeat ISIS (again, I can’t believe we need to discuss this man’s candidacy seriously). This is at a moment at which ISIS has been driven out of Manbij and forces are advancing toward Raqqa and Mosul:

    The U.S.-led coalition plans to place simultaneous military pressure on the Islamic State’s two critical strongholds in Iraq and Syria to thwart the militant group’s grip in the region, a top U.S. commander said.

    Conducting offensives at about the same time in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and in Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria, will force the militants to choose which city to defend and undermine their ability to control their forces. The plan also calls for coordinating ground offensives in both cities.

    …

    The Islamic State has lost about 40% of the territory in Iraq it held at its peak last year. Progress has been slower in Syria, but the militant group has lost about 20% of its territory there. Recent successes give commanders new hope there for the opposition forces that the coalition backs.

    …

    The ground battles in Raqqa and Mosul are still months away. Iraqi security forces have started preliminary operations in Mosul, but the Iraqis are still mobilizing forces and slowly moving toward the city.

    In Syria, commanders have cited progress that U.S.-backed fighters have made in pushing militants from Manbij, a key Islamic State stronghold, though those forces are still 70 miles from Raqqa.

    Still, ground forces in both countries are closer to seizing the key Islamic State strongholds than at any time since the militants swept into Iraq from Syria more than two years ago….

  104. says

    A life-long Republican from Utah, David Irvine, a former chairman of the Davis County Republican Party and a former Republican member of the Utah House of Representatives, has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.

    Excerpts:

    […] I’ve been an active Republican for all of my adult life. That this venerable political party, once home to visionary thinkers and leaders, could hand its presidential nomination to Trump, who seems not to know how much he doesn’t know and could not care less, is unfathomable to me. It is unfortunate that so many of those who claim to be leaders of the congressional and presidential wings of the Republican Party have long since made their Faustian bargains and are actively endorsing a totally self-centered know-nothing who behaves like the caricature of a banana-republic dictator. […]

    There’s a point where this failure to withdraw an endorsement becomes a self-indicting embrace of a demagogue’s values.

    Trump is riding astride the Four Horsemen of Calumny he has resurrected from an earlier and equally dismal Republican playbook: Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear. Then-Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, R-Maine, coined the phrase on June 1, 1950, as the first in the Senate to oppose Sen. Joe McCarthy. Smith’s “Declaration of Conscience” laid out four fundamental American values that McCarthyism and now Trumpism seek to trample: (1) the right to criticize, (2) the right to hold unpopular beliefs, (3) the right to protest and (4) the right of independent thought. […]

    we live a political reality that unless Hillary Clinton gets more electoral votes, Trump and his tweeting fingers will be moving into the White House, where the nuclear codes also reside. There have been Utah voices urging Utahns to either not vote or vote for a third-party candidate — on “principle” — but it’s really a binary choice…

    … every Clinton vote is crucially important. A nonvote or a Johnson vote is a vote for Trump.

    http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/4222913-155/op-ed-this-lifelong-republican-will-be

  105. says

    Breitbart is a “news” cite that heavily favors Trump. The site also frequently posts inaccurate or misleading information about Democratic Party candidates. The editor-in-chief Alex Marlow recently explained why Breitbart has decided to conduct its own polls.

    It’s an open secret that polls are often manipulated and spun to create momentum for a particular candidate or issue. Breitbart News Network’s first national poll marks the start of a major initiative to give our readers an accurate assessment on where the American people stand on the key topics and people of the day — without the mainstream media filter.

    Right. It’s more like an open conspiracy theory, but go ahead and conduct your own polls.

    What were the results of their first poll? Quite similar to other polls recently conducted by well-established and trusted pollsters: Hillary Clinton is beating Donald Trump.

    The Breitbart poll showed Clinton with 42% of the vote nationwide, Trump with 37%, Johnson with 9%, and Stein with 3%.

    In NBC, Bloomberg, Quinnipiac University and Monmouth University polls, Clinton leads nationwide with a margin ranging from six to twelve points.

    Beware of reading too much into future Breitbart polls, (yes, they will be conduction many polls in addition to their usual work of connecting President Obama to ISIS). Breitbart’s partner in this polling effort is Gravis, an organization that was so wrong in some of it’s 2014 predictions that it broke records of wrongness, getting, for example, one race in Maryland wrong by 96 percentage points.

  106. says

    Donald Trump’s NY campaign co-chair, Carl Paladino, is still hitting back at the Khan family.

    […] Kahn’s [sic] history of advocating for Islamist terrorists like the Muslim Brotherhood and his prior communications with terrorist individuals and organizations give reason to his dumb attempt to enter the arena and re-define to real Americans the Trump they know as a patriotic leader who will confront and destroy America’s demons and do what Hillary and her hero Barack don’t have the fortitude or disposition to do.

    Allowing himself to be so controlled by Hillary that he would dishonor the memory of his heroic son shows the man’s lack of character and backbone. I am certain that most Gold Star parents would despise Mr Kahn’s [sic] attempt to politicize his son’s loss. Hillary should be ashamed and pillaged for encouraging the Kahn’s [sic] to so tragically make fools of themselves. […]

    The full text of Paladino’s rant can be read at BuzzFeed.

  107. Saad says

    American white supremacist and mediocre businessman Donald Trump proposes ideological test for people (Muslims) coming to the U.S.

    Donald Trump on Monday will call for a new ideological test for admission to the United States, vetting applicants on their stance on issues like religious freedom, gender equality and gay rights. The policy would represent a significant shift in how the U.S. manages entry into the country.

    Wait…wait… he wants to test others on gender equality and gay rights?

  108. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    The Wall Street Journal has a message for Donald Trump. Shape up, or step down.

    Republican Donald Trump should fix his stumbling White House campaign in the next three weeks or step down, The Wall Street Journal said on Monday in a sharply worded warning from a leading conservative voice.
    Trump has alienated his party and failed to establish a competent campaign operation, the paper said in an editorial.
    The Journal’s editorial board, which generally favors Republicans, has been critical of Trump and has questioned his conservative credentials, but its warning on Monday was its strongest attack yet. It echoed growing alarm about Trump’s candidacy among many leading Republicans who have been slow to embrace him or have completely distanced themselves….
    The Journal urged Trump’s backers to push the candidate to conduct himself with a more presidential demeanor and begin running a more disciplined campaign.
    “If they can’t get Mr. Trump to change his act by Labor Day, the GOP will have no choice but to write off the nominee as hopeless and focus on salvaging the Senate and House and other down-ballot races,” it said.
    Labor Day, which falls on Sept. 5 this year, marks the end of U.S. summer vacations and traditionally launches the final phase of the long U.S. election season.
    “As for Mr. Trump, he needs to stop blaming everyone else and decide if he wants to behave like someone who wants to be president – or turn the nomination over to Mike Pence,” it said, referring to the Indiana governor, who is Trump’s vice presidential running mate.

    Link.
    Strong words from an editorial board that normally would be supporting the republican candidate without question.

  109. Saad says

    Erm, last sentence obviously not part of the article (though I wish journalists would report on him like that)

  110. Saad says

    All these Republicans whining about Trump and acting like Trump is some rogue force that has hijacked their party when he followed exactly the same democratic process as everyone. The real question these Republicans should be asking is why their constituency is so energized by Trump?

  111. says

    Trump recently called Hillary Clinton “The Devil.”

    On the fringes of the rightwing, this is not a metaphor.

    In his latest video, extremist right-wing activist Theodore Shoebat declared that Hillary Clinton is a devil worshipper who wants to kill Christians and therefore must be put to death. […]

    “The facts are the woman hates children,” he said. “The facts are the woman loves homosexuality, so would it surprise me if it was confirmed, emphatically, that she is a sodomite? Would not surprise me in the least bit. The woman is a sick devil worshipper. She’s a devil worshipper! It would not surprise me in the least bit that this woman goes into a dark room somewhere and worships the devil in front of an image of Baphomet.” […]

    “Hillary Clinton is worthy of death,” Shoebat proclaimed. “She supports the slaughtering of millions of American babies. She promotes homosexuality, which is against human life … She would love to see the death of all Christians. [snipped the bit about concentration camps for Christians] This type of woman, this evil, wicked woman, what do you think she deserves? She deserves the death penalty. End of story.”

    Shoebat and his father Walid were behind the baseless report that Khizr Khan, the father of a slain Muslim-American soldier who blasted Donald Trump in a speech at the Democratic National Convention last month, is a Muslim Brotherhood spy and that his late son was an Islamist terrorist; a claim that was widely promoted by Trump supporters and campaign surrogates.

    Link

    Yes, Trump and the Trump campaign personnel listen to Shoebat.

  112. says

    More nonsense from rightwing media:

    Right-wing media are [trying to create a scandal out of] the 2011 State Department International Security Advisory Board (ISAB) appointment of Rajiv Fernando, a Chicago-based securities trader and Clinton Foundation donor, suggesting Fernando knew “absolutely nothing about intel” and claiming he was only appointed because “he donated up to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation.” But Fernando is an expert in cybersecurity, which the ISAB prepared a report on in 2014, and the State Department said the ISAB is “looking for a broad range of experiences” when considering candidates. […]

    From Fox News:

    CHRIS WALLACE (HOST): Let’s talk about another case. Rajiv Fernando. He was a securities trader who gave at least $1 million to the [Clinton Foundation], and was appointed to the International Security Advisory Board, senator, although he had absolutely no qualifications and no experience in that area. […] [Fox Broadcasting Co., Fox News Sunday, 8/14/16]:

    From Fox’s Sean Hannity:

    SEAN HANNITY (HOST): And, Monica [Crowley], look at a guy like Raj Fernando. He’s a securities trader. He has absolutely no background at all in national security, but he donated up to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, and he was literally appointed by Clinton to the Security Advisory Board. Zero. Zero background in this.

    MONICA CROWLEY: Right. No national security experience, but a big fat paycheck and a big, fat wallet. This is textbook corruption, Sean. This is about Mrs. Clinton leveraging her public office as secretary of state in order to gain favors in the form of money being paid out to the Clinton Foundation to enrich that foundation and, by extension, her and her husband. Here’s a question that hasn’t been raised, Sean. I want somebody to ask the president of the United States what he thinks — how he — what he thinks about his secretary of state using her office in this way, and essentially running a rogue intelligence operation under his nose. […] [Fox News, Hannity, 8/11/16]

    What the ISAB had to say:

    […] ISAB Executive Director Richard Hartman wrote that Fernando “brings relative youth, enthusiasm, a business perspective, and expertise in cyber security to the Board.” [ABC News, 6/10/16]

  113. says

    Polls show Trump losing every swing state. This could change, as we all know, but it is a sign that negative ads and negative coverage of Trump are finally sinking in. Voters are noticing.

    […] there are six states that have moved especially dramatically in Clinton’s direction.

    Four of these — Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire — have pretty consistently supported Democratic presidential candidates for decades, and are returning to old form despite speculation that Trump could put them in play this year.

    There are another two — Virginia and Colorado — that appear to have transformed. They were solid Republican states in presidential years as recently as 2004. But Barack Obama won them twice, and Clinton is now leading in both by very comfortable double-digit margins.

    If those six swing state leads hold up, they’ll be enough to give Clinton the presidency even if the national race tightens enough to let Trump win the old standbys of Ohio and Florida. […]

    Vox link

  114. says

    John Oliver mocked Trump’s explanation that he was being “sarcastic” when he called for “Second Amendment people” to take care of Hillary Clinton, and when he said President Obama is the “founder of ISIS.”

    You can watch the video on Slate.

  115. says

    Earlier, Lynna posted Trump’s list of economic advisors. One of the Steves is Stephen Moore, a Koch stooge, who’s no friend of democracy.

    Lynna:

    Breitbart’s partner in this polling effort is Gravis, an organization that was so wrong in some of it’s 2014 predictions that it broke records of wrongness, getting, for example, one race in Maryland wrong by 96 percentage points.

    I could’ve sworn I’d written something about Gravis in the past but can’t find it – I must be confusing it with another company. I did come across this and this, though.

    Saad quoting:

    Donald Trump on Monday will call for a new ideological test for admission to the United States, vetting applicants on their stance on issues like religious freedom,

    *poof* goes my brain.

  116. says

    SC @114, thanks for those links to the perfidy of Gravis. It absolutely figures that Breitbart would team up with a bunch of fellow scam artists … and even with that partnership Breitbart failed to prove that Trump is winning. My schadenfreude moment of the day.

    In other news, we chronicle Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani’s failing memory:

    Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Monday said terrorists failed to successfully strike the United States in the eight years before President Obama and former secretary of State Hillary Clinton took office.

    “Under those eight years, before Obama came along, we didn’t have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack in the United States,” Giuliani said Monday ahead of a speech by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on foreign policy. “They all started when Clinton and Obama got into office.”

    The Hill link

    Giuliani lives in New York. He was there. Uh, 9/11.

    Context shows that Giuliani may have been talking about a period of time after September 11, 2001, but he was most definitely vague about that. Also, the USA was not free from terrorism in 2009.
    https://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_AmericanTerrorismDeaths_FactSheet_Oct2015.pdf

    Giuliani has claimed before that the record of the Bush/Cheney administration is nearly flawless, and that it should be imitated. That reminds me of Trump’s surrogate, Katrina Pierson, claiming that President Obama took us to war in Afghanistan. After a few days of mockery, she was forced to take that back.

  117. says

    In the state of New York, new polling shows Hillary Clinton beating Trump 57% to 27%. Nevertheless, Trump still claims he will win his home state. And Trump’s follower, Alex Jones, presented what he called “unskewed polls” to prove that Trump is winning in New York.

    Trump’s unfavorable rating in New York is a whopping 72%.

    Alex Jones also thinks Trump is winning in California.

  118. says

    John Oliver has done it again. He took a potentially sleep-inducing and/or confusing topic and presented it with humor … humor spiced with indignation. The topic this time is subprime auto loans.

    You can view the video on Slate. Keegan-Michael Key and Bob Balaban join Oliver to make some great points near the end of the video.

  119. says

    During Trump’s foreign policy speech today, he proposed ideological purity tests, a propaganda agency to define the enemy (radical Islam), and “vicious” actions against enemy sympathizers. And then he pointed out that Hillary Clinton lacks “the moral character” to implement a plan like his.

    Trump also riffed on the recent Hillary-is-sick-or-dying memes we’ve seen from rightwing media. He claimed that Clinton lacks “mental and physical stamina”.

    Daily Kos link

  120. says

    This is a followup to comment 107 (Saad).

    Steve Benen, writing for The Maddow Blog, took a closer look at Trump’s foreign policy speech.

    Most of Donald Trump’s big speeches tend to raise questions about his competence, but yesterday’s address on foreign policy and national security was stranger than most. It left many wondering, for example, if the Republican presidential candidate is familiar with his own past opinions.

    Trump, for example, is on record supporting the war in Iraq, the ouster of the Mubarak government in Egypt, and the U.S. military offensive in Libya. Yesterday, Trump not only pretended he never held those positions, he also blamed these policies for contributing to the rise of ISIS.

    It led MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin to note that the national security framework he described “was so contradictory and filled with so many obvious falsehoods that it’s virtually impossible to tell what he would do as president.”

    There was, meanwhile, one part of the speech that deserves closer scrutiny. NBC News reported:

    Donald Trump on Monday promised “extreme vetting” of immigrants, including ideological screening that that will allow only those who “share our values and respect our people” into the United States.

    Among the traits that Trump would screen for are those who have “hostile attitudes” toward the U.S., those who believe “Sharia law should supplant American law,” people who “don’t believe in our Constitution or who support bigotry and hatred.” […]

    It sounds to me like Donald Trump would fail his own idealogical purity test. He supports all kinds of unconstitutional actions, which is why Mr. Khan suggested that Trump read the Constitution. Trump and his followers also support bigotry and hatred.

  121. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    re 120:
    Donald Trump on Monday promised “extreme vetting” of immigrants, including ideological screening that that will allow only those who “share our values and respect our people” into the United States.
    only if he was voted to be dictator. The US Constitution disagrees with Drumph’s proposal:
    Section. 8.

    The Congress shall have Power […]
    To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, …

    but all his hoarde think he can fix everything he wants. hmmm
    ————————————————————————————————
    tangent
    I know it pointless to complain about ads on FaceBook at a seperate website, yet still quite annoyed at all “recommended posts” on FB from Trump &or Pence asking for donations and simple entry into a contest, with huge winnings, with a small donation. yuk. go away Drumph/Pence

  122. says

    President Obama spoke at a Democratic Party fundraiser last night. Among other things, he said:

    “What I do want to emphasize is needing a sense of urgency and finishing the job of getting her elected. And you notice I haven’t said much about her opponent. Frankly, I’m tired of talking about her opponent. I don’t have to make the case against her opponent because every time he talks he makes the case against his own candidacy.”

    “There’s still a lot of uncertainty out there,” the president added. “And if we are not running scared until the day after the election, we are going to be making a grave mistake.”

    If Democrats do not “do their jobs,” Obama warned, “then it’s still possible for her to lose.”

    “And when I say ‘do our jobs,’ what I mean is we are going to have to continue to be engaged,” Obama said. “We are going to continue to have to write checks. We are going to continue to have to make phone calls, and rally people behind her candidacy. We are still going to have to fight what has been an unrelenting negative campaign against her that has made a dent in the opinion of people even who are inclined to vote for her.”

  123. says

    Trump accused President Obama of bribing an Attorney General to investigate Trump University. Trump has hinted at this before, now he is repeating the false charge and adding a lot of conspiracy-theory-like details:

    “The attorney general of New York meets with Barack Obama in Syracuse,” Trump said at a rally in Bentonville, Arkansas. “The following day he sues me. What they don’t say is, I believe, fifteen thousand or a lot of money was paid to the attorney general by the law firm in California that is suing me.” […]

    Trump repeated his charge against Obama just moments later. “All of a sudden the attorney general ― his name is Eric Schneiderman, not respected in New York, doing a terrible job, probably is not electable in New York, but who knows ― and he meets with Obama, gets a campaign contribution, I think, I think it’s fifteen thousand dollars, and all of a sudden, he meets with Obama in, I believe, Syracuse, and the following day or two he brings a lawsuit against me.”

    Huff Po link.

    Trump knows all about bribing AGs. He did so in Florida and in Texas. Trump assumes everyone is as unethical as he is.

    Florida’s attorney general personally solicited a political contribution from Donald Trump around the same time her office deliberated joining an investigation of alleged fraud at Trump University and its affiliates.

    The new disclosure from Attorney General Pam Bondi’s spokesman to the Associated Press on Monday provides additional details around the unusual circumstances of Trump’s $25,000 donation to Bondi. After the money came in, Bondi’s office nixed suing Trump. […]

    Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton moved to muzzle a former state regulator who says he was ordered in 2010 to drop a fraud investigation into Trump University for political reasons […]

    Link

  124. says

    This is a followup to some of the posts up-thread that discuss Trump’s claim that President Obama is the “founder of ISIS,” and that Hillary Clinton in the “co-founder.”

    On the record, Trump advocated the actions for which he now heaps calumny on the heads of Hillary Clinton and President Obama:

    […] 10 years ago, Trump called for a complete US withdrawal of troops from Iraq and indicated that he didn’t give a damn if this led to civil war and greater violence there. He even predicted that such a move would cause the rise of “vicious” forces in Iraq. But Trump believed this would not be the United States’ problem. […]

    In a 2006 CNBC interview, Trump was asked to critique Bush’s performance in the White House. Trump immediately brought up the Iraq War:

    I would like to see our president get us out of the war [in Iraq] because the war is a total catastrophe. I would like to see President Bush get us out of Iraq, which is a total mess, a total catastrophe, and it’s not going to get any better. It’s only going to get worse. It’s a mess. […]

    What you have to do is get out of Iraq. You can do it nicely. You can do it slowly. You can do it radically.

    […] he noted that a US withdrawal should proceed, even though it would precipitate more violence in the region and the worst and most violent forces would benefit. It’s almost as if Trump foresaw the rise of ISIS—but didn’t believe that this mattered for the United States:

    I would announce that we have been victorious in Iraq and all the troops are coming home and let those people have their civil war. And, by the way, no matter if we stay or if we leave, the most vicious person that you’ve ever seen in your—. Saddam Hussein is going to be like a nice guy compared to the one who’s taking over Iraq. Somebody will take over Iraq, whether we’re there or not, but probably when we leave, will take over Iraq. He will make Saddam Hussein…He will make Saddam Hussein look like a baby. […]

    I just said, announce victory, get them home…Let’s say, “Victory, Tremendous.” Have a big thing in the streets. Then get out real fast before you get shot. Let’s get home…Hey, hate us over there. Now how, how, do you—. The people that like us hate us. Those are the good ones. Then you have the double hate where they wanna just shoot us. But how do you solve that problem? You got to get out of Iraq.

    Trump was clear at the time: The United States had to remove its troops, even if that would cause a civil war and a dramatic expansion of violence and terror in Iraq and the region. Now he denounces Obama and Clinton, who were not in charge of US foreign policy at that time, for supposedly implementing the policy he demanded. By Trump’s own standards—sarcastic or not—he is at least an honorary founder of ISIS. […]

    Link

    Trump now describes the get-out-of-Iraq plan as “naive” and as an example of “bad judgement.”

    Just a reminder: Barack Obama was not in the White House, he was not the President of the USA, and Hillary Clinton was not secretary of state when ISIS was “founded.”

    Another reminder: It was President George W. Bush who signed a U.S.-troops-out-of-Iraq agreement with the Iraqi government.

  125. says

    A writer for Newsweek, Kurt Eichenwald, was interviewed on CNN. He made some cogent points about rightwing media pushing the Hillary-is-sick-or-dying-meme:

    […] SEAN HANNITY: Let me go back to this video, Dr. Siegel, that’s on the screen now. We’ll put it up again. It’s a violent, violent, repetitive jerking of the head here. Now, you can see it’s uncontrollable. Watch the reporter like, pull back as — the reporter got scared and she keeps doing it. What is that?

    [END VIDEO]

    COSTELLO: OK, so Kurt, you were watching that and?

    KURT EICHENWALD: It’s nothing. Sean Hannity tried to say that it was seizures. I have seizures, and I’ve got to tell you, it was incredibly offensive that Sean Hannity took something that no competent doctor would ever say was a seizure — it was Hillary Clinton goofing around — and try and make it into a medical case.

    And I also want to talk about what your other guest just said, which is “people are saying.” This is the Trump garbage approach, […] Here is the letter from Donald Trump’s doctor. And I will say flat out, this is not a real letter. Because what you have, number one, it’s not from an internist. It’s from a doctor who treats digestive problems. Number two, he says that all of Mr. Trump’s medical tests are positive. That means that everything he was tested for, he has. No competent or real doctor would write this. It also says such things as, “Donald Trump will be the healthiest president in the history of the United States.” That sounds a lot like Donald Trump. It doesn’t have a real letterhead. The letterhead was written on Microsoft word.

    So, they want all of Hillary Clinton’s medical records released. Her letter has within it the test results, what tests were done, what the — medical history. None of that Donald Trump has released. […]

    AMY KREMER: Kurt, are you a physician? Are you a physician? Because, I don’t think you’re qualified — from my understanding, you’re not a physician, and you’re not qualified to say what is accurate and what’s not with Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. […]

    EICHENWALD: I have not said a word about Donald Trump’s health. What I have said is this is not a real letter. Because, if you have a doctor who thinks that a test result is positive, that means you have tested positive for the problem. That is not something that requires a medical degree. That is something that requires basic, general knowledge. If your doctor is telling you that you are testing positive for every disease he is checking for, then, yeah, you do not have a competent doctor. This is a gastroenterologist. He doesn’t have an internist, according to his own letter. He says this is his primary physician, a doctor who treats digestive problems. I am not putting into question Mr. Trump’s health. What I’m saying is, if they want the medical records, then we need an internist to give a real result of his exams. Give the answers as to what his tests are.

    Link

  126. says

    During a segment on the “All In” show, conservative radio host Charlie Sykes explained that rightwing media had paved the way for Trump’s followers to believe every outrageous thing Trump says.

    CHARLIE SYKES: […] over the years, conservative talk show hosts, and I’m certainly one of them, we have done a remarkable job of attacking and challenging the mainstream media. But perhaps what we did was also then to destroy any sense of a standard. Who are the referees? Where do you go to basically say, this is the truth?

    Now you have Donald Trump comes along and the man says things that are demonstrably untrue on a regular basis. […] And when you try to point out, OK this is not true, this is a lie, and then you cite The Washington Post or The New York Times, their response is, ah that’s the mainstream media. So we’ve done such a good job of discrediting them, that there’s almost no, there’s no place to go to be able to fact check. […]

    […] there was a certain amount of dismissal of conservative ideas. And as a result, the conservative alternative media, and I’m part of that, grew up and I was very proud of that and I assumed that what we were doing was informing people, making people smart, giving people factual information, telling them the other side of the story. And unfortunately what’s happened is it has morphed into this alternative reality where as Joan says, we live in these different silos.

    And having discredited the mainstream media, now what do we have? We have the InfoWars, we have the Breitbarts, we have the Drudges, in which information is passed, things that that bear no resemblance to reality whatsoever. So I’m in the position of having on a regular basis to basically say, look, that information is not valid, that’s not true, that’s not accurate. And yet we have so effectively conditioned many of our listeners not to pay any attention to something outside that bubble, outside that silo, that now we have this Donald Trump phenomena.

    And what you’re seeing is Donald Trump understanding that he needs to delegitimize the press itself, not just criticize bias. He needs to delegitimize any of those media stories that are going to come out about him because there’s a lot still to come.

    Link

    Video is also available at the link.

  128. says

    Trump’s promise to “build a wall” along the USA/Mexico border is an idea that is slowly losing support.

    […] The PEPS [RAND Corp’s Presidential Election Panel Survey (PEPS)] data track changes in support for the [border] wall among the same individuals who were interviewed in December-January and July-August 2016. Their support for the border wall dropped from 48 percent to 38 percent. […]

    Washington Post link

    Likewise, support for building a wall dropped from 45% to 39% according to a CBS/New York Times poll. That drop in support was measured over six months, from January to July 2016.

  129. says

    This is a followup of sorts to comments 26 (Mrdead) and 84 (Nerd).

    Kris Kobach, infamous champion of rightwing-based voting restrictions is at it again.

    […] Over the weekend, Kobach spoke at an American Civil Rights Union event at the Republican National Lawyers Association convention in Colorado, where he urged his fellow election officials and lawyers to adopt legislation modeled after a law he helped push through in Kansas.

    Kansas’ voter ID law is one of the harshest in the country, requiring that those registering to vote produce “proof of citizenship” such as a passport, birth certificate or naturalization papers. Since the law went into effect in 2013, it has been caught up in legal battles as it wreaks havoc with the state’s elections.

    In May, a federal judge ruled that Kansas couldn’t require people registering using a federal form to produce the burdensome extra documentation. In response, Kobach tried to set up a two-tier voting system in which people who registered using the federal form could only vote in federal elections and would be barred from casting ballots in state and local races. Then, in a last-minute decision, another federal judge ruled that Kobach couldn’t throw out the primary votes of more than 17,000 people who hadn’t produced the extra documentation, including many who had registered using the federal form. […]

    During the ACRU event, Kobach touted his SAFE Act, which was designed to require proof of U.S. citizenship and proof of identity in a manner fulfilling the requirements the U.S. Supreme Court has held are consistent with the Constitution. It is model legislation for states to adopt as part of their election laws, rather than a federal law, since the Constitution entrusts the sovereign states with primary responsibility for holding elections. […]

    Kobach, who also specializes in draconian anti-immigrant legislation, acts like something of a one-man American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the group that helps spread conservative and corporate-friendly laws to state legislatures. In fact, Kobach responded on his weekly radio program last month to a critic who called him an “ALEC pawn,” saying that he is the one who is trying to get ALEC to spread voter restrictions across the country.

    “I’ve been trying to get the American Legislative Exchange Council interested in photo ID and proof of citizenship,” he said. “They never called me and said, ‘Hey, Kobach, would you do this?’ I’ve been trying to get them off their backside and get them encouraging other states to do it.”

    Link

  130. raven says

    Trump is doubling down.
    1. He demoted Paul Manafort. Manafort is a stone cold mercenary but is at least competent.
    2. He has hired Roger Ailes, the leader of Fox NoNews until he got too horrible for even them.
    3. He has a new head of his campaign. Steven Bannon of Breitbart.

    I’d never heard of him but he is apparently another horrible person, a cross between Ailes and Limbaugh.
    Bannon and Ailes are right wing lunatic fringers who not only live in the RW echo chamber but helped create it.
    I’d guess this campaign is going to get a lot uglier. And this is good news for Hillary as much as we can tell from inside Crazyland USA.

  131. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    The US Court of Appeals has upheld the right of voters to use a straight party ticket in Michigan.

    A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday rejected Michigan’s bid to reinstate its ban on straight-party voting, a ruling that means voters in the state will be able to use one mark to select all candidates from one party in the Nov. 8 general election.
    A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled unanimously to uphold an injunction issued by a federal judge in July that temporarily suspended Michigan’s law that abolished straight-ticket voting.
    The matter remains pending before the federal courts for a definitive ruling.
    Michigan’s is one of several legal battles over state voting rules ahead of the November election, including stricter voter identification laws in some states and laws on the voting rights of felons in others.
    African-American voters are more likely to use the straight-party option on the ballot than white voters, according to civil rights groups who had challenged the new Michigan law abolishing the 125-year-old practice.

    Link
    Ah yes, brings back memories of the old voting machines. Pull the lever on the left, and a straight party ticket was voted for if you moved the completed ballot lever prior to moving other votes for lower offices (nice Ka-Chunk to imply your vote was taken seriously).

  132. says

    This is a followup to raven’s comment 129.

    Rachel Maddow did an excellent job of explaining just how rightwing, how twisted Steve Bannon is. As chairman of Breitbart News, it was Bannon who dissed John McCain’s character for months before Donald Trump ran with the “he’s not a war hero” smear.

    Breitbart turns out to have been Trump’s source for dissing Paul Ryan, for some of his Islamophobia, for conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton, for white supremacist swill, etc. etc.
    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-embraces-radical-right-with-new-hire-746334788002

    More coverage from Talking Points Memo:

    Members of the white nationalist alt-right may be cheering Donald Trump’s hire of Breitbart News Executive Chairman Steve Bannon, but some of Bannon’s own former staffers have expressed concerns about their onetime boss. […]

    “It signals a dangerous and, even more so, combative and divisive turn,” Former Breitbart News spokesman Kurt Bardella told Media Matters on Wednesday about Bannon’s hiring by the Republican nominee. “It’s an indication that this campaign, as negative as it has been, is going to be even more so going forward. If the media thought that their relationship with the Trump campaign was challenging before this, it’s going to be 10 times worse now.”

    Bardella called Bannon “pathological liar who has a temperament that governs by bullying and intimidation and functions very much like a dictator at Breitbart.”

    [Former Breitbart Editor-At-Large Ben Shapiro said] “Breitbart has become the alt-right go-to website, with Yiannopoulos pushing white ethno-nationalism as a legitimate response to political correctness, and the comment section turning into a cesspool for white supremacist mememakers,” Shapiro wrote. […]

    [Former Breitbart editor Dana Loesch said] “One of the worst people on God’s green earth was just instituted as the chairman and CEO of the Trump campaign. And if you are, as I am, not wanting to see Hillary Clinton in the White House, you need to seriously, seriously be concerned about that.”

    More coverage from Think Progress

    […] until now, Trump has danced around openly embracing the white nationalist alt-right: He’ll retweet their adulation of him and borrow their talking points, […]

    On Wednesday, Trump named Steven K. Bannon, the executive chairman of the conservative website Breitbart News (known for their drooling Trump coverage), as his new campaign CEO. In doing so, Trump signaled that he’s ready to formally embrace the alt-right and their white nationalist views.

    “Under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart openly embraced the white supremacist Alt-Right,” former Breitbart Editor-at-large and currently editor-in-chief of the Daily Wire Ben Shapiro wrote. […]

  133. says

    Yay! About damned time.

    The Justice Department is doing something about reform. They plan to dispense entirely with the use of private prisons. Man oh man, this is going to make profitable and unethical companies like Corrections Corp of America very angry. I can hear the lobbyists swarming already.

    The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the government.

    Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced the decision on Thursday in a memo that instructs officials to either decline to renew the contracts for private prison operators when they expire or “substantially reduce” the contracts’ scope. The goal, Yates wrote, is “reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons.”

    “They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department’s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security,” Yates wrote.

    Link

  134. says

    This is a followup to comments 129 and 131.

    Let’s look at Stephen Bannon’s past moments of infamy. Now that Bannon is Trump’s new campaign CEO, Trump is likely to be even more outrageous when it comes to peddling conspiracy theories as truth.

    Bannon has repeatedly touted the idea that longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin supports Muslim terrorists.

    […] more breaking news on Huma Abedin […] I still can’t figure out how she got the security clearance.

    Trump follower and total doofus Roger Stone replies to Bannon:

    It’s very, very hard to understand because of her ties to the Muslim World League. And the league’s ties to extremism and to terrorism, to an organization, a trust, which funded the actual attack on America on 9/11 are inexorable. This is a fact; this isn’t fiction. And Hillary continues to dodge all of these questions. […]

    Most of the experts I look at, I’ve spoken to, looking at the various facts regarding Huma and her rise, where she came from, her family background, her various connections, conclude that she is most likely a Saudi spy, which is my own conclusion.

    Bannon features this kind of speculation and conversation on both Breitbart (website) and his Sirius XM radio show.

  135. says

    More stupidity and slander from Stephen Bannon, new CEO of Trump’s campaign and Chief Whacko at Breitbart:

    On Thursday, Senate sources told Breitbart News exclusively that they have been informed one of the reasons that President Barack Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, has not turned over requested documents on his sources of foreign funding is that one of the names listed is a group purportedly called “Friends of Hamas.”

    “Friends of Hamas” is a nonexistent group.

    Here is a Breitbart connection to Trump’s claim that President Obama is the “founder of ISIS”:

    […] While Trump drew criticism for his claim that Obama founded ISIS, a comment that he later claimed was sarcastic “but not that sarcastic,” Breitbart rushed to his defense. Trump happily tweeted a link to a story in the ultraconservative outlet that purportedly backed up Trump’s claim that Obama supported the terrorist group. According to the site, “Hillary Clinton received a classified intelligence report stating that the Obama administration was actively supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq, the terrorist group that became the Islamic State.” […]

    The intelligence report Breitbart cited did not say that the Obama administration supported Al Qaeda or any terrorist group. It only stated that many terrorist groups, including AQI, which later became ISIS, have entered the Syrian conflict. The U.S. has supported opposition groups fighting both Assad and ISIS, and nowhere in the memo does it claim that the U.S. backs Al Qaeda. […]

    Right Wing Watch link

    Expert testimony debunked the Breitbart story about Obama supporting AlQaeda in Iraq:

    “The United States has never backed AQI and has never backed ISIS,” said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a terrorism expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. “It was never part of the opposition that the United States supported, full stop.”

    Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, agreed. “It has never been the policy or stated goal of the Obama administration to arm or assist al-Qaida,” he said.

    “I would say it’s another unsupportable conspiracy theory,” said John Limbert, an international affairs professor at the U.S. Naval Academy who previously served as a foreign service officer in post-war Iraq and as deputy coordinator for counterterrorism in the State Department.

    John Pike, the director of globalsecurity.org, said it would be putting it “mildly” to call it a conspiracy theory. And Gartenstein-Ross also used that term, tweeting that Trump’s effort to make this argument was a “transparently fallacious conspiracy theory.”

    Politifact link

    Despite being thoroughly debunked, Breitbart continues to support this conspiracy theory.

  136. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    Drumph (aka Trump) goes to a black community looking to win their votes but gets misdirected to Wisconsin with a white population of 95% for a rally speech of 99% White people. To tell them he is asking for, and gonna get, all the blaqck votes cuz the Dems lie to them about needing to be fed by welfare, leading to crime and urban disruption. That feeding the urbans with welfare, all the rich guys can’t move in to reinvigorate the economy of those blighted regions.
    *spit* [falling into the rhetoric they spout]
    all that opening paragraph was pure satire/sarcasm/cynicism

  137. says

    In several posts up-thread we discussed the bizarre rightwing conspiracy theories being pushed about Hillary Clinton’s supposed bad health and/or near-death health crisis.

    Rachel Maddow took on the issue last night.
    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/right-wing-stokes-weird-fake-clinton-theory-746304579763

    The segment begins with a news overview, and then it switches to health reports on the presidential candidates about the 1:00 minute mark. The video is 9:51 minutes long.

  138. says

    A white supremacist stabbed an interacial couple in Olympia, Washington. So, who did the local news station blame for the stabbing? Black Lives Matter. First, some background:

    […] .. he was part of a white supremacy group and had come to downtown Olympia because he had heard that the Black Lives Matter movement had left anti-police graffiti downtown. (Graffiti urging violence against police was left in downtown Olympia on Sunday, but police have not blamed Black Lives Matter protesters for the graffiti.)

    The suspect said he “took a blood oath to fight on the street, and if he was let go tonight, he planned on heading down to the next Donald Trump rally and stomping out more of the Black Lives Matter group,” court documents say.

    He told police several times that he was defending them and that he had their backs. “At one point he stated that he knew we couldn’t hurt the black groups on the street so he wanted to let us know that he takes care of them for us. That he is able to fight those fights and will continue the fight against all of the Black Lives Matters people,” court documents say.”

    http://komonews.com/news/local/african-american-man-stabbed-in-olympia-attacker-mentions-black-lives-matter

    That is all fairly clear, but despite the clarity, news station KING5-Seattle did not report it that way. Their headline was “”Black Lives Matter’ may have led to stabbing”.
    https://twitter.com/IjeomaOluo/status/766086828457795584/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

  139. says

    This is a followup to comments 129, 131, 133 and 134.

    Breitbart News and its chairman, Steve Bannon, are also know for producing and disseminating misleading (or downright false) stories about Planned Parenthood.

    […] Under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart News writers have compared Planned Parenthood providers to Nazis, staunchly defended discredited anti-choice activist David Daleiden, and claimed contraceptives make women “unattractive and crazy.” […]

    In February of 2016, Breitbart News published an article by conservative commentator Crystal Wright alleging that Planned Parenthood was targeting black women by placing clinics in predominately black neighborhoods. Wright also attacked NARAL board member Renee Bracey Sherman, writing that Sherman was “like so many other black Americans who show a slavish support for abortion” despite the “sinister pattern of black genocide.” […]

    In a July 2015 article, Breitbart News editor-at-large John Nolte wrote that it was “proper” to “reexamine the racist, pro-Nazi roots of Planned Parenthood, an organization found by vile racist Margaret Sanger.” Nolte also pushed a debunked right-wing claim that the Planned Parenthood founder was a “eugenicist” who “praised Nazi Germany’s sterilization policies” — a fact he said was “just not widely reported by the same media that obsesses over a [Confederate] flag.” […]

    Former Breitbart News editor-at-large Ben Shapiro used the 2015 death of Cecil the lion — a well-known Zimbabwean animal icon killed by a recreational game hunter — as a way to attack Planned Parenthood. In a July 2015 article, Shapiro criticized the fact that “the world lost its collective mind” over Cecil’s death but media “rush to ignore the fact that Democrats now force American taxpayers to foot the bill for hundreds of thousands of murders of babies by organizations including Planned Parenthood.” Shapiro also compared Planned Parenthood providers to infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, alleging that Planned Parenthood was “carving up murdered babies to sell their body parts, Mendele-Style” […]

    Deriding the media for discussing women’s health, Breitbart News tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos made a number of unsupported claims about the effects of using contraceptives. Yiannopoulos argued that birth control not only “destroyed the institution of marriage” but also makes women “fat,” “unsexy,” and “a slut.” After making these claims, Yiannopoulos warned that, if a woman stops taking birth control, “you will be faced with a woman who has spent the last half-decade not learning how to deal with the Twilight Zone insanity endemic to the female brain.” […]

    Media Matters link

  140. says

    Here is part of the Clinton campaign response to the “ludicrous,” “ridiculous,” “trumped-up” “deranged conspiracy theories” about Hillary Clinton’s health:

    As Secretary Clinton’s long time physician, I [internist Lisa Bardack] released a medical statement during the campaign indicating that she is in excellent health. I have recently been made aware of allegedly ‘leaked’ medical documents regarding Secretary Clinton with my name on them. These documents are false, were not written by me and are not based on any medical facts. To reiterate what I said in my previous statement, Secretary Clinton is in excellent health and fit to serve as President of the United States.”

    Politico link

    In addition to fake medical documents, fake MRIs are also appearing on rightwing websites.

  141. says

    An interesting endorsement for Hillary Clinton:

    […] WIRED has never made a practice of endorsing candidates for president of the United States. Through five election cycles we’ve written about politics and politicians and held them up against our ideals. But we’ve avoided telling you, our readers, who WIRED viewed as the best choice.

    Today we will. WIRED sees only one person running for president who can do the job: Hillary Clinton. […]

    Link

  142. lepidoptera says

    Chris Clarke recently wrote a series on the environmental platforms of U.S. political parties.

    The Green and Libertarian Parties’ Environmental Platforms One’s short. One’s long. Both would legalize cannabis.

    The Democratic Environmental Platform: Short on Substance Some progress on climate, but the rest of the planet gets short shrift.

    The Republican Party’s Environmental Platform: Factually Challenged When it comes to full-bore misrepresentation of environmental facts, the Republican Party’s 2016 platform is really a thing to behold.

  143. lepidoptera says

    Sanders to Launch ‘Our Revolution’ Next Week

    Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will address supporters on Aug. 24 to tout “Our Revolution,” a new organization intended to harness the energy of his supporters and help progressive political candidates across the country.

    Sanders will speak from Ripley Manor in Washington, D.C., and Our Revolution’s launch will also air live at more than 2,000 organizing meetings nationwide, Sanders said in a press release issued Thursday.

    “During our campaign we assembled a movement of millions of people ready to fight for the country we know we can become,” Sanders said in an email to supporters.

    “Now it’s time for all of us to get to work. At this meeting, I and others will lay out some of the next steps we can take as a movement to empower a wave of progressive candidates this November and win the major upcoming fights for the values we share.”

  144. quotetheunquote says

    Trump T. Trump is apologizing, in some vague way, for having “said the wrong thing … particularly where it may have caused personal pain.”

    Guardian Link

    What’s this? Another sign of the coming of the End Times? Or, just trying to turn the Titanic?

  145. says

    The Trump campaign released its first TV ad today. Any Trump ads you’ve seen prior to this were produced by PACs or other groups.

    The ad can be viewed on Twitter. The ad includes scare tactics, especially some targeting immigrants. It includes lies. For example, it states that undocumented immigrants who commit crimes get to stay if Hillary Clinton is elected president. It gives the impression that Hillary Clinton will “flood” the U.S. with undocumented immigrants and terrorists.

  146. says

    Governor John Bel Edwards said that he preferred that President Obama wait a week or two before visiting Louisiana to view the devastation (still ongoing) from recent floods. Edwards said he is getting all the help he needs from the federal government in general, and from FEMA in particular. Link to video of interview with Edwards.

    He wants most high-profile visitors to stay away for now because their visits require that he pull hundreds of police officers and other first responders away from the tasks of rescue and recovery in order to provide security. Trump is ignoring this. Trump did not consult with the Governor. He is going to visit Louisiana today come hell or high water.

    Right wing media outlets are already excoriating President Obama for being on vacation while Louisiana is experiencing floods that have decimated more than 40,000 homes. However, as noted, Governor Edwards said he has spoken to President Obama and that all of his requests have been met in a matter of hours.

    Trump’s visit will be all spectacle and no help.
    https://twitter.com/HallieJackson/status/766607410958049280

    Some people are asking Trump to make a donation to the LA Flood Relief Fund instead of making a visit.

  148. says

    Paul Manafort resigned from his position as campaign manager for Trump, though it looks more like Trump pushed him out the door.

    Manafort was getting a lot of press attention for “charges ranging from leading anti-NATO rallies that encouraged Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, to illegally funneling millions of overseas dollars into to US lobbying firms, to taking more than $12 million in under-the-table payments […]”. Link

    The announcement of Manafort’s departure is titled “Donald J. Trump Statement” and it reads:

    This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign. I an very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process. Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success. —Donald J. Trump.

  149. What a Maroon, living up to the 'nym says

    Trump did not consult with the Governor. He is going to visit Louisiana today come hell or high water.

    The high water’s already come, so I guess he’s bringing the hell.

  150. says

    House Republicans requested and received copies of the FBI’s notes from an interview with Hillary Clinton. All of the materials the FBI gave to House Republicans are classified, and came with warnings to that effect.

    Nevertheless, House Republicans are leaking bits and pieces of the classified material all over the place. Not only that, they are following their usual procedure of leaking cherry-picked quotes without context. They are arranging leaked material in configurations that change the meaning, or that give the impression they want to give.

    http://www.dailynewsbin.com/news/hillary-clinton-campaign-just-caught-house-republicans-leaking-classified-information/25712/

  151. Vivec says

    So, as expected, Jill Stein’s not doing too well in Texas polls.

    At the moment, according to a poll by Public Policy Polling, she’s polling at 2% support – tied in support with Harambe, the dead gorilla from the Cincinnati zoo, and behind in support with Deez Nuts, the fictional candidate with 3% support.

  153. says

    This is a followup to comment 144.

    The new (first) campaign ad from Trump also pushes the rigged-elections conspiracy theory.

    At one point, the ad shows people standing in line, waiting to vote. Doomsday-ish music plays in the background. The words “system rigged” appear on the screen.

  154. says

    This is a followup to comments 144 and 152.

    More troubling details from Trump’s new campaign ad: when it comes to immigration policy, the ad cites the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a group that provides propaganda for rightwing politicians that are rabidly anti-immigrant.

    CIS has ties to white nationalism or white supremacy (choose your damning descriptor). They also have a history of lies, and of skewing facts to suit their purpose. Yes, that’s right, Trump does not know how to vet his sources.

    […] One recent CIS “fact” that quickly became a matter of orthodoxy in the anti-immigrant movement was its insistence in 2014 that “all employment growth since 2000 went to immigrants.” This assertion was repeated over and over again in the right-wing media, including on Rush Limbaugh’s radio program. Sen. Jeff Sessions, a leading anti-immigration voice in Congress, cited this “fact” in an “immigration handbook” for incoming Republican members of Congress. Former Sen. Rick Santorum incorporated it into his talking points for his 2016 presidential campaign.

    But CIS’ study was highly flawed, as many outside observers explained. Alex Nowrasteh of the libertarian Cato Institute meticulously recreated the center’s data and discovered that the only reasonable conclusion he could come to “is that immigrants hold about a percentage of jobs in the economy that is roughly equal to their percent of the population.” […]

    One flawed study tried unconvincingly to prove that the U.S. is at risk of having parents come to the U.S. to have children with the specific intent of raising them (in foreign countries) to become Islamic extremists who would then return to the U.S. as citizens to commit terrorist attacks, also known as Rep. Louie Gohmert’s “terror baby” theory.

    […] CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian argued that the GOP shouldn’t bother trying to increase its share of the Latino vote because “generally speaking, Hispanic voters are Democrats, and so the idea of importing more of them as a solution to the Republican Party’s problems is kind of silly.” In another interview, Krikorian argued that immigration reform would “destroy the Republican Party” and ultimately “the republic.”

    The next year, he charged that Democrats were using immigration as “a way of importing voters” and to “create the conditions, such as increased poverty, increased lack of health insurance, that lead even non-immigrant voters to be more receptive to big government solutions.” At one point, Krikorian told Republicans that they should oppose immigration reform simply to deny President Obama a political victory. […]

    http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/anti-immigrant-lobby-white-nationalist-roots-organizations-fighting-immigration

  155. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Analysis of Trump’s claim of voter fraud.

    The presidential nominee has voiced strong support for North Carolina’s stringent voter ID law — struck down as discriminatory, but to be appealed — saying without it, voters will cast ballots “15 times” for Democrat Hillary Clinton. He also launched a new effort on his website last week seeking volunteers to root out fraud at the polls.

    Facts: News21, a reporting project affiliated with Arizona State University, in 2012 found 2,068 cases of election fraud nationwide since 2000. Of those, just 10 involved voter impersonation — or one out of every 15 million prospective voters. More common was absentee mail-in ballot fraud, with 491 cases. None affected the outcome of an election.
    Lorraine Minnite, a political science professor at Rutgers University-Camden, says voter impersonation fraud is rare because it’s difficult to do on a large-enough scale to tip an election.
    “It’s so irrational to even try just for one or two more votes,” said Minnite, author of “The Myth of Voter Fraud.”
    In court cases that temporarily invalidated some of the ID laws, including North Carolina, Wisconsin and North Dakota, election officials could barely cite a case in which a person was charged with in-person voting fraud.

    Early voting facts: North Carolina is the first to kick off early voting on Sept. 9, when its residents may request and submit mail-in absentee ballots through election day for any reason. It will be followed by Georgia, Wisconsin, Virginia and Iowa.
    A total of 37 states also offer in-person early voting, typically in mid to late October.
    Over the years, mail-in early voters usually have been older, better educated and more likely white, while in-person early voters were often young people and black Americans, according to University of Florida professor Michael McDonald, an expert in election statistics.
    As a result, early voting will likely be concentrated heavily among registered Republicans initially before turning in the Democrats’ favor in late October to early November. Those initial numbers will offer clues as to the depth of Trump’s support among his biggest partisans, who vote right away, McDonald said. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, a potential wild card is its voter ID law. An appeals court recently invalidated restrictions that cut in person early voting from 17 to 10 days, but the governor has vowed to appeal, creating uncertainty about the extent of early voting this fall.

    Link
    The Redhead and I will be voting by mail due to her disability.

  156. says

    This is a followup to comments 146 and 147.

    Only CBS’s morning show covered new allegations against Paul Manafort. Other morning shows failed to show anything similar to this:

    MARGARET BRENNAN (CO-HOST): This morning, a Ukrainian lawmaker is revealing new details about millions of dollars in cash possibly set aside for Donald Trump’s campaign chairman by a pro-Russian political party he consulted for. Investigators are looking for the person who signed for that money. Paul Manafort says he never received any secret payments. Our Charlie D’Agata is in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, where he has seen the evidence. Charlie, good morning.

    CHARLIE D’AGATA: Good morning. Well this is a copy of the statement that was released condensed from the black ledger. And yes, there are items like expenses and computer equipment, but in some cases the reason for payment is listed in just one word: “Manafort.”

    It details what appears to be undisclosed cash payments to Paul Manafort from his client’s party at the time, Russian-backed former President Viktor Yanukovych, like never before. 22 items dating back from November 20th, 2007. The biggest entries — $1.3 million, $1.15 million, and $3.5 million — simply state “payment” or “Paul Manafort contract,” in all, totaling to $12.8 million. The new details were brought to life by anti-corruption politician Serhiy Leshchenko. Do you believe that’s enough to start pursuing criminal charges against Mr. Manafort?

    SERHIY LESHCHENKO: There are some investigations in Ukraine based on these records. And I believe he has to be interrogated in this case too.

    D’AGATA: Investigators are now trying to determine whether Manafort played a key role in secretly routing millions of dollars to U.S. lobbyists. Though none of the entries are signed by Manafort, it’s Vitaliy Kalyuzhny’s signature that appears most. He was a senior member of Yanukovych’s party who founded an organization that reportedly paid millions of dollars to Washington-based lobbyists in order to sway public opinion in favor of Russian-backed Yanukovych. And anti-corruption officials say another name popped up on that ledger, Larry King. The name of the former CNN host appears next to a payment of $225,000 just two months before this 2011 interview with then-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. Just another bizarre twist in what has become an increasingly murky tale.

    Well Larry King aside, as far as investigators here are concerned, Paul Manafort may be guilty of tax evasion, money laundering, and illegally providing funds for lobbyists in the United States, and he should face questioning here or in America.

    Link

  157. says

    This is a followup to comments 48, 76, 105, 115, 116, 125, 129, 131, 133, 134, and 138.

    Media Matters chronicled 186 times that Trump used news articles from Breitbart to disseminate lies on social media. The list begins in 2012, when Trump used Breitbart to back up his Birther conspiracy madness, and it continues into the present.

    Not only does Trump not know how to vet his sources, he loves, loves, loves one of the worst sources of all, Breitbart News.

    In addition to trumpeting all that Breitbart News swill on social media, Trump appeared as a guest on Steve Bannon’s Breitbart News Daily radio show.

    Trump even got his Muslims-celebrating-9/11-on-rooftops-in-New-Jersey story from Breitbart. That’s just one of the “pants on fire” lies.

    There’s also a Trump-Breitbart feedback loop in which they clownishly bolster each other’s lies.

  158. says

    This is a followup to comment 145.

    Trump’s visit to Louisiana got worse when he invited Tony Perkins and Franklin Graham to accompany him. Mike Pence also accompanied Trump.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-weather-idUSKCN10U1B3

    […] “We welcome him to (Louisiana), but not for a photo op,” the governor’s office said in a statement. “Instead we hope he’ll consider volunteering or making a sizable donation to the LA Flood Relief Fund to help the victims of this storm.”

    Yet Kellie Michelli, who lost her home in the flood and was also at the church to pick up food with her family, beamed as she showed off an autograph on a Trump hat from an earlier rally in Baton Rouge.

    “He took time out of his busy schedule to come here,” Michelli said. “I don’t care if he gives a nickel, he showed he cared by coming here.” […]

    Trump’s visit was full of photo ops, autograph signing, meaningless vague reassurances, and sniping at President Obama. He spoke to crowds that were almost all white.

    Response:

    […] Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival in the Nov. 8 election, said on social media that she had spoken with the governor by phone on Friday, and the flooding was worse than expected.

    “My heart breaks for Louisiana, and right now, the relief effort can’t afford any distractions,” she said on Facebook, directing people to support organizations providing assistance.

    Some people in Louisiana have urged President Barack Obama to cut short a vacation on Martha’s Vineyard in New England to visit and view the flood devastation. Obama’s vacation is due to end on Sunday.

    Edwards said he urged the president to wait a few weeks before visiting as the huge presidential security undertaking involved would interfere with recovery efforts.

    “It is a major ordeal,” he told MSNBC late Thursday, the same day U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson met with Edwards to see the emergency response.

    Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate defended Obama’s decision not to visit.

    “We still have response operations going on,” Fugate told CNN. “To move the president into a disaster area actually takes away some time from the response and the focus on” saving people. […]

    Of course, Breitbart covered Trump’s visit: “TRUMP VISITS LOUISIANA FLOOD VICTIMS AS HILLARY RESTS AND OBAMA VACATIONS.”

  159. raven says

    Taxpayers Living Abroad – IRS.gov
    https:/ /www. irs.gov/…taxpayers/taxpayers-living-abroad
    Internal Revenue Service
    Mar 3, 2016 – Taxpayers Living Abroad. If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien, the rules for filing income, estate, and gift tax returns and paying estimated tax are generally the same whether you are in the United States or abroad. Your worldwide income is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where you reside.

    1. Paul Manafort may well be guilty of income tax evasion. I just looked up the IRS rules.
    If you are a US citizen living abroad, you still have to pay US taxes. IIRC, you can deduct foreign taxes paid though.

    2. I doubt that Manafort paid US income taxes. A lot of his considerable income in the Ukraine seems to have been off the books even there.

    3. It may be impossible for the IRS to figure it out. Ukraine is in perpetual chaos and I’m sure a lot of banking records are simply lost or the dog ate them. In countries like Ukraine income tax evasion is a way of life.

  160. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    I still shill The Daily Show
    last night one of their correspondents presented Drumph’s proposed “extreme vetting”, qustionaire for all potential immigrants to take. Asking many Trumpists questions from the quiz, they all failed every single question. And completely continued to advocate their Trump. The quiz advocates non discrimination against LGBT. When asked if they support gay marriage, the universal response was “no, it’s disgusting”. When asked who gay marriage hurts, one answer was “strate couples”, with no mention of how. And when giving their quiz results with a big (F) across it, they all laughed (of course).
    I don’t think any of them cares what filth Trump speaks or thinks or does; they just don’t want a woman to be president. Hillary could be a saint (as if) and still they’d find some trivial flaw to hold her from office. It’s not that they really think she is evil, they just know she’s a woman and POTUS is never a woman, ever. One of the interviewed said, “President is a man’s job. A woman has too many hormones and could go to war in an instant!” When the reply was “You know it was always a man who declared war, eh”. She just chuckled, saying “when I think of a President I think it’s a man. [dot]”
    pfft. that was my brief synopsis of last night’s Daily. oh well

  161. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    I guess it is appropriate for Drumph to visit the cesspool of swill that Louisiana has become, so similar to the swamp that produced him.

  162. says

    Planned Parenthood filed suit to stop an anti-abortion law in Florida, and they won. It is still possible that state officials will appeal the ruling and take the case to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, but it is looking less likely that mostly Republican elected officials in Florida will be able to prevent or harass women who have abortions.

    The provisions of the law that were challenged:

    Requiring that state officials inspect half the medical records at facilities that provide abortions in Florida each year—affecting an estimated 35,000 women annually. […] prying into private medical records […]

    • Barring all public funding of non-abortion preventive services to abortion providers. Although Florida does not provide any money directly to Planned Parenthood, the organization’s lawyers said the law would have cost it about half a million dollars for preventive services such as providing pelvic exams and contraceptives, supporting youth outreach programs, screening for HIV, and checking for breast and cervical cancer. The provision would have made it impossible for Medicaid patients to use Planned Parenthood for preventive and other non-abortion services. (Florida and federal law already forbid the use of public funds to finance abortion.)

    • Defining pregnancy trimesters in such a way that Planned Parenthood said would reduce the time period when it is allowed to provide abortions.

    Link

  165. says

    President Obama will visit Louisiana next Tuesday. Hopefully, by that time his visit will not cause too much disruption of the recovery effort.

    […] “The President is mindful of the impact that his travel has on first responders and wants to ensure that his presence does not interfere with ongoing recovery efforts,” White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said in a statement announcing next week’s visit.

    According to Earnest’s statement, Obama has received updates from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate while on his vacation.

    “He is also eager to get a first-hand look at the impact of the devastating floods, hear from more officials about the response, including how the federal government can assist and tell the people of Louisiana that the American people will be with them as they rebuild their community and come back stronger than ever,” Earnest said. […]

    Link

  166. says

    We looked at the Trump campaign’s new TV ad earlier (see comments 144, 152 and 153). Let’s take a look at the latest ad from the Clinton campaign, in which proposals to help working families are highlighted: The Hill link.

    The ad talks about cutting the cost of child care, providing a path to debt-free college education, equal pay for women, and mandated paid family leave.

    Big contrast between the Clinton ad and the Trump ad.

  167. says

    Have you wondered why Trump is repeatedly comparing Hillary Clinton to Angela Merkel? Why has he created a hashtag aimed at equating the two women (#AmericasMerkel)? Why has he included the comparison in official Trump campaign press releases?

    Here’s a reason, or set of reasons:

    […] To white nationalist communities that fervently support Trump, Merkel has been a popular villain. Sites like the Daily Stormer, the White Genocide Project, American Renaissance, and The White Resister have posted constantly about her since the Syrian refugee crisis began escalating earlier this year. They have accused her of making a “deliberate attempt to turn Germany from a majority White country into a minority White country.” They have called her a “crazy childless bitch,” an “anti-White traitor,” and “a patron saint of terrorists.” They have asked, in articles about Merkel, “Why would you allow a woman to run a country, unless you were doing it as a joke?” […]

    Think Progress link.

    More telling details are available at the link.

    Misogyny and white supremacy go together.

  168. says

    The story behind Trump’s concerted effort to equate Hillary Clinton with Angela Merkel:

    […] To white nationalist communities that fervently support Trump, Merkel has been a popular villain. Sites like the Daily Stormer, the White Genocide Project, American Renaissance, and The White Resister have posted constantly about her since the Syrian refugee crisis began escalating earlier this year. They have accused her of making a “deliberate attempt to turn Germany from a majority White country into a minority White country.” They have called her a “crazy childless bitch,” an “anti-White traitor,” and “a patron saint of terrorists.” They have asked, in articles about Merkel, “Why would you allow a woman to run a country, unless you were doing it as a joke?” […]

    Think Progress link.

  169. tomh says

    If I were advising the Dems, I would remind them of the saying attributed to Lyndon Johnson: “make the SOB deny it.” This applies to Trump’s tax returns. They can’t possibly be as bad as I would claim they are, without fear of contradiction as long as he won’t make them public. The Dems should repeat non-stop that Trump pays no taxes at all and never has paid any taxes. They should say that he makes no charitable contributions whatever, and specifically no type of military contributions, and that when he says he does he is lying. My bet is that he will never make his tax returns public, which leaves the field free for the Dems, not Hillary but others like Keane, Eliz Warren, etc. And if (the SOB) ever denies it, well, there’s an easy way to settle it.

  170. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Last night, Trump was in a overwhelmingly white town in Michigan appealing to black voters. (See the problem already?)

    Republican Donald Trump again made a direct appeal to black voters Friday night, urging them to abandon the Democratic Party and give him a chance.
    Speaking at a rally in Dimondale, Michigan, an overwhelmingly white suburb outside of Lansing, the GOP nominee argued that Democrats, including his rival Hillary Clinton, have taken advantage of African-American voters and taken their votes for granted.
    “Tonight, I’m asking for the vote of every single African-American citizen in this country who wants to see a better future,” Trump told the crowd.
    “What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump?” he asked them. “You’re living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed — what the hell do you have to lose?”
    He also made a bold prediction: “At the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95 percent of the African-American vote. I promise you.”
    Most polls show Trump trailing Clinton significantly among black voters. President Barack Obama won roughly 93 percent of black voters in his re-election campaign in 2012.
    But Trump once again accused Clinton of “bigotry,” claiming she sees African-Americans “only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future,”
    And he painted a dismal role of life for African-Americans in the workforce, declaring that, in cities like Detroit, they “have become refugees in their own country.”

    Responses:
    On Twitter, the Clinton campaign responded, “This is so ignorant it’s staggering.”
    The Clinton campaign’s Marlon Marshall added in a statement: “Donald Trump asks what the African-American community has to lose by voting for him. The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African-American President, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color.”
    Marshall said, “Trump painting the entire community as living in poverty with no jobs continues to show he is completely out of touch with the African-American community.”

    Link
    Ego, misinformation, ignorance, no plan, almost a Trump Bingo.

  171. says

    Nerd @170, yes it’s a Trumpian blast signifying nothing new all right.

    He gave most of that speech using text on a teleprompter, but the improvisational bit about how bad African American communities are was his own. He just couldn’t stay on script. He had to go further and lump all African Americans and their communities into an insulting picture of crime and poverty.

    My bet is that 95% of any group is not so easily fooled by Trump. He is not even going to get 95% of white men to vote for him.

    It takes her awhile to get to it, but Rachel Maddow hosted a segment about Trump citing the racist group, Center for Immigration Studies, in his new TV ad. The eugenicist John Tanton, a guy certain that African Americans were less intelligent than whites, played a major role in founding groups that remain sources for Trump.

  172. says

    Re Nerd’s comment 170, yes, Donald Trump claimed he would eventually get 95% of the black vote.

    Here are the current facts he would have to overcome in order to do that:

    A recent poll found that Trump trailed Hillary Clinton among African-Americans by a margin of 92–2. Polls the key states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, found that Trump attracted zero percent of the black vote. (Even Mitt Romney, running against the first African-American president, managed to get 6%.)

    Trump also said, as Nerd noted,

    You’re living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs. 58% of your youth in unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?

    Here are some facts to rebut that depiction of a monolithic, desperate group:

    The black poverty rate is too high but most blacks, more than 72%, do not live in poverty. The black unemployment rate is too high but 92% of blacks in the labor force have jobs.

    In the past, Trump posted statistics from white supremacist sites that claim 81% of whites in USA homicide numbers are killed by blacks. In non-Trumpian reality, the figure is 14%.

    Trump believes what he is saying, but that doesn’t make it true.

  173. says

    Trump claimed that his visit to Louisiana was not political, and that there would be no press. He said he was just going there to help.

    There was plenty of press coverage. He spent exactly 49 seconds helping to unload a truck full of toys (Playdoh, etc.). He signed autographs, took selfies with admirers, made a disparaging comment about President Obama …. and then he left.

  174. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Lest anyone think Hillary Clinton hasn’t been out fundraising and campaigning, She has. With The Donald shooting himself in the foot, she doesn’t have to be loud to be effective.

    Donald Trump may be dominating the political chatter as he reboots a trailing campaign, but it’s Clinton who’s winning positive headlines during visits to some of the most competitive states in the presidential race.
    The Republican nominee’s constant state of campaign chaos is dulling the impact of stories about Clinton’s emails and allowing her to spend plenty of time raising money behind closed doors….
    A disastrous stretch for Trump has helped solidify Clinton’s lead in national preference polls and most surveys in closely contested states. Clinton campaigned in Ohio and Pennsylvania this past week, and the Democratic nominee’s voter registration efforts and policy pitches went largely unnoticed as Trump shook up his campaign staff…
    Clinton seems more than content to let Trump dominate coverage on cable news and in national newspapers. In the meantime, her campaign has carefully courted journalists in the communities she visits, pushing tailored policy messages. For example, stressing her plans to respond to the Zika virus in Florida and how she’d support manufacturing jobs in Detroit.
    Local supporters have hit Trump on issues such as his refusal to release his tax returns. Clinton had an opinion piece on water quality in this past week in Florida’s Treasure Coast Newspapers.
    After an appearance in Ohio on Wednesday, the top headline the next day in The Plain Dealer in Cleveland read, “Clinton Tears Trump Plan to Cut Estate Tax,” while The New York Times’ main campaign story focused on the tumult in the Trump campaign…
    She’s keeping up the pace, heading this weekend to Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast and to California next week. Clinton is on track to top the $90 million she raised for her campaign and Democratic allies in July.
    Her campaign has been hard at work in the battleground states, eyeing the start of early voting in some places next month.
    At his rallies, Trump often urges his backers to vote. But Clinton gets into the details at her events, plugging registration and urging people to cast absentee ballots.
    “If you aren’t registered and you’re eligible, see the persons with the clipboards here,” Clinton said during a recent event in Kissimmee, Florida. “We want you to be registered, and then we want you to be part of this campaign.”…

    And she kept away from Louisiana, like Obama, when the Governor asked politicians to stay away as they distract from the relief effort.

  175. says

    Nerd @174, thanks for that campaign news roundup. Clinton always gets to the details. Trump ignores the details. He prefers bombast.

    Trump seems to be determined to make everyone think that Hillary Clinton is weak, and that she needs a nap. He tweeted “#WheresHillary? Sleeping!!!!” No, she was not. At 6:17 PM on 19 Aug 2016, Hillary Clinton was dining with her husband. They were celebrating Bill’s 70th birthday.

    Clinton did the right thing in response to the flooding in Louisiana: she encouraged people to donate money to relief funds.

    The Clinton campaign has a new ad that responds to Trump’s supposedly softer touch that included a vague apology. Trump said:

    Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing.

    I have done that. And believe it or not, I regret it. And I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues.

    The Clinton ad highlights the hypocrisy in that non-apology, while also documenting Trump’s past refusals to apologize. You can view the ad on The Hill’s website.

    One example out of many: Trump is asked if he regrets getting in a fight with the family of fallen soldier, to which he replies, “I don’t regret anything.”

  176. says

    More fallout from the Hobby Lobby case:

    Businesses can cite religious freedom laws to discriminate against transgender employees, a federal court in Michigan ruled on Thursday — the first time a court found that the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) can potentially be used to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

    The decision is the latest in a back-and-forth between the federal government and Detroit-based R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, which fired its transgender funeral director, Aimee Stephens, because she began transitioning and “dress[ing] as a woman” at work. The funeral home’s owner admitted that he fired her because she began transitioning, citing the business’s restrictive dress code.

    But previously, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit had found that the ban on sex discrimination encoded in federal law — specifically, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act — also protect trans people. So at first glance, that made the funeral home’s decision to fire a trans employee look illegal.

    US District Judge Sean Cox acknowledged the higher court’s ruling over Title VII. But, citing the controversial Supreme Court ruling in Hobby Lobby, he said the federal RFRA may allow the funeral home to discriminate against its trans employee anyway. Cox agreed that the federal government has a compelling interest to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination, but he argued that the government had not proven that it took the least restrictive means necessary to achieve that goal in this case.

    This speaks to legal technicalities in RFRAs: They broadly protect people’s religious rights as long as the government doesn’t prove it has a compelling interest to interfere with those rights and the government doesn’t prove it’s interfering with those rights in the least restrictive means possible. […]

    http://www.vox.com/2016/8/20/12558034/religious-freedom-lgbtq-discrimination-michigan

  177. says

    This is a followup to comments 100 (SC), 101 (SC), 147 (KG), 148, 156 and 159 (raven).

    CNN has reported that the FBI and the Justice Department are investigating Paul Manafort.

    FBI and Justice Department prosecutors are conducting an investigation into possible US ties to alleged corruption of the former pro-Russian president of Ukraine, including the work of Paul Manafort’s firm, according to multiple US law enforcement officials.

    The investigation is broad and is looking into whether US companies and the financial system were used to aid alleged corruption by the party of former president Viktor Yanukovych.

    Link

  178. says

    Here’s another “it’s about damned time” moment in reform of the justice system in the USA.

    Jailing people before they are tried in court because they can’t afford bail is unconstitutional, according to federal appeals court documents the Justice Department filed Thursday.

    The filings mark the first time the agency has openly criticized the bail industry. In its amicus brief, the Justice Department wrote, “Bail practices that incarcerate indigent individuals before trial solely because of their inability to pay for their release violate the Fourteenth Amendment” and “result in the unnecessary incarceration of numerous individuals who are presumed innocent.” […]

    Jailing the poor for an inability to pay a fine, bail, or other debt has deep roots in American history that is still widely practiced. California is currently facing a class-action lawsuit for charging defendants exorbitant bail amounts, which then forces them to take out interest-accruing loans from bail bondsmen. The city of Jennings, Missouri was recently ordered to pay nearly 2,000 prisoners $4.75 million who were jailed because they couldn’t pay court fines and fees.

    Think Progress link.

  179. says

    More evidence that Trump is a bad businessman, and that he does not have as much money as he claims:

    An investigation into Donald Trump’s real-estate holdings by The New York Times has called into question the Republican nominee’s claims of having great business savvy. According to the report, Trump’s companies are at least $650 million in debt—more than twice as much as he disclosed in financial forms for the presidential campaign.

    The discovery calls attention to how much of Trump’s finances remain a mystery, as he has refused to release tax returns or allow for any independent appraisal of his assets.

    In addition to the debt, Trump’s assets are also tied up in three passive partnerships owing an extra $2 billion to various lenders, the report said. The report mapped the financial web for 30 of Trump’s properties in the U.S., but much of Trump’s financial empire remained murky

    “The success of his empire depends on an ability to get credit, to get loans extended to his business entities,” University of Minnesota Law Professor Richard Painter was quoted saying in the report. “And we simply don’t know a lot about his financial dealings, here or around the world,” he warned.

    The summary above is from The Daily Beast.

    Here is a link to the original New York Times article.

  180. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    This just set my WTF detector off. Trump says GOP needs to reach out to African-Americans.

    Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Saturday that his party must do a better job appealing to African-American voters and that he wants the GOP to become their political home as it was in the era of Abraham Lincoln.
    “I fully recognize that outreach to the African-American community is an area where the Republican Party must do better, and will do better,” Trump said during a rally in Fredericksburg, located between Richmond and Washington in the critical battleground state of Virginia.
    In spite of past fiery rhetoric that alienated many minority voters, and speaking — as usual — to an overwhelmingly white crowd, Trump said that he wants “an inclusive party.” He noted that the “GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln” and said, “I want our party to be a home of the African-American voter once again.”

    Donald The Trump, you have any idea how to go about that? It all starts with you repudiating your white supremacist support.
    *I don’t think so Tim*

  181. says

    As is detailed in many comments up-thread, Steve Bannon is Breitbart News chairman and now a campaign chair for Trump.

    Bannon is such a white nationalist and such a bad boss to his employees, that more than one follower has jumped ship. Kurt Bardella, Bannon’s former spokesman, was also a spokesman for über rightwing wingnut Darrell Issa. Bardella’s background puts him firmly in the role of rightwing whacko himself.

    However, Bardella is jumping ship. He doesn’t support Trump. He disses Steve Bannon publicly:

    What eventually caused me to terminate my relationship with Breitbart was Steve’s guidance of Breitbart to become the de facto propaganda machine for Donald Trump. […] It is glaringly obvious that Donald Trump does not have the temperament or the judgment to occupy the Oval Office. This is one of those times where the best interests of the whole outweigh any partisan allegiances or any specific issue. It’s why I’ve made the personal choice to vote for Hillary Clinton in November. Donald Trump is dangerous for America.

    The Hill link

  182. says

    This is a followup to comment 173.

    One Louisiana flood relief worker responded to Trump’s visit:

    […] Trump. Seriously. Where is the check. Like where is the fucking check.

    My people are drowning. My co-workers and family and friends have lost everything. My friends and co-workers that haven’t lost everything are taking off work (my boyfriend is taking PTO) to clean out people’s homes and rip out sheet rock and carpet. Give us money or GTFO.

    I don’t want to see you in your suit in AUGUST carrying boxes off a truck like you care about us. Louisiana is an incredible place. Baton Rouge is my home and I have watched people drop EVERYTHING to help one another during this time. The whole country seems to be floored by the generosity and love that our residents show each other during tough times, but to us this is normal. This is Louisiana. And you do not belong here.

    Raw Story link

    From Frank Vyan Walton, writing for Daily Kos:

    […] He [Trump] brought an 18-wheeler filled with random crap, he shoveled around some play doh then he jumped back on his Trump Shuttle after spitting out this little gem.

    While speaking with volunteers at the Greenwell Springs Baptist Church, north of Baton Rouge, Trump said, “The president says he doesn’t want to come, he is trying to get out of a golf game.”

    No, he didn’t you clueless orange bridge troll. This is what he and FEMA have done.

    Over 3,800 members of the National Guard have been working to help the state complete important tasks like evacuations and search and rescue operations. The Army Corps of Engineers deployed subject matter experts to help state and local counterparts with debris removal. The Small Business Administration is providing a wide range of services to both businesses and homeowners, including low-interest disaster loans. Over 300 AmeriCorps members (from FEMA Corps and other programs) have been deployed to help various groups with operations like mucking and gutting homes damaged by the floodwaters.

    Here at FEMA, we’ve deployed nearly 1,100 staff members to the Baton Rouge area—this includes housing inspectors, disaster survivor assistance teams, and an Urban Search and Rescue team from Texas.

    Trump brought one truck, FEMA brought 5,000 people with expertise, knowledge and energy. Also food, and some Play Doh. Obama will be visiting Louisiana next week after the primary crisis is over and his presence would be less of a disruption. Like the Governor asked. But Trump doesn’t have the class, or the tact, or the common sense to rise above a cheap empty meaningless political stunt to do what people politely ask him to do when he’s in full-on bombastic bull in the tea cup shop mode. […]

  183. says

    Oh, FFS.

    Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is pushing the Hillary-Clinton-is-dying-or-really-sick conspiracy theory. And he is pushing it hard.

    Giuliani is a Trump surrogate, and as such he gets a lot of air time, especially on Fox News. In his most recent interview, Giuliani suggested that the biased liberal media is refusing to focus on Hillary’s health, and that the media is duping the public. Giuliani is spouting vague warnings, and he urges us to “go online!”

    She hardly appeared this week. I don’t know where she was. The media fails to point out several signs of illness by her. All you’ve got to do is go online!

    Giuliani must be reading Breitbart News, The Drudge Report and The Daily Caller.

    When the Fox News host reminded Giuliani that Clinton’s doctors have issued statements saying the claims of ill health are false, Giuliani doubled down:

    Go online and put down “Hillary Clinton illness” and take a look at the videos yourself.

  184. says

    Ezra Klein from Vox nailed it:

    […] The Donald Trump pitch is that he will hire the best people — he will find the best people, he will manage them, he will bring the competencies of an executive from the business class to run an organization effectively. I think one real problem for him, in the campaign chaos, is he’s not being able to show that pitch. He’s not hiring the best people. He’s getting very inexperienced people. He’s not being able to run a stable organization. He’s not running an effective organization. He’s a media celebrity and he’s running like one. But in terms of the idea that we needed a businessman, he’s showing that he doesn’t actually have those skills.

  185. tomh says

    When she was a Cruz supporter, Kellyanne Conway was very vocal about Trump being transparent and releasing his tax returns. Now that she’s Trump’s campaign manager, Conway says she no longer believes Trump needs to release his tax returns. She told ABC’s “This Week” that now that she’s on the inside, she realizes “that this audit is a serious matter, and he has said when the audit is complete he will release his tax returns.” It’s a serious matter, because if the returns are ever made public, it will show what a scam artist Trump is. The Dems need to keep hammering on this.

  186. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    re 185
    I support the new strategy proposed: Call Trump Broke! Assert emphatically, with no evidence. With the implication of “prove me wrong Trump, show your tax return to prove you do have money. Otherwise you prove that we are correct that you really are penniless, living in the buildings you stole from the workers who built them.”
    I know it won’t work, yet it would be kool [sic] to see it attempted.

  187. tomh says

    According to Newsweek, there is actually no proof that Trump is really being audited. When pressed for the standard letter from the IRS stating that he is under audit, the campaign points to an unusual letter from his lawyers, stating that the IRS examinations of his returns from the year 2009 and forward are ongoing. Further request for something from the IRS showing an audit were ignored.

    Those returns will never see the light of day – it will be stalled until after November and, win or lose, they won’t be made public.

  188. says

    This is an interesting case. The Navajo Nation filed motions to allow it to intervene in a child abuse lawsuit against the mormon church. The mormons, on the other hand, don’t want the Navajo Nation to be involved because that, so church leaders say, would irreparably harm their religious freedom.

    I’m on the side of the Navajos in this case.

    […] The case alleges that four Navajos — two men and two women […] suffered abuse during the 1960s to early ’80s while participating in the church-sponsored Indian Student Placement Program, also known as the Lamanite Placement Program, which placed thousands of Navajo children into Mormon foster homes in Utah, Idaho and New Mexico […]

    The Navajo Nation says that because The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “maintained churches on the reservation … proselytized members on the reservation, entered into agreements with tribal members on the reservation, took tribal children from their homes on the reservation and were notified of, and failed to report, abuse on the reservation” that it falls under its jurisdiction.

    The church has said it would suffer “irreparable harm” if the case were tried in tribal court because its constitutional religious freedoms might be denied […] . Attorneys for the church filed a proposal in response to the filings Friday, asking the court to grant its motion for preliminary injunction, keeping the case in federal court, because the Navajo children lived in Utah cities and towns outside the reservation.

    […] the court has yet to address a motion filed by the four Navajos’ attorneys in July to subpoena LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson to testify at a deposition, claiming he has “unique information” about the alleged rapes and molestations because he was an apostle in the church, starting in 1963, when LDS Social Services ran the placement program. The church filed a subsequent motion to quash the subpoena.

    The four Navajos seek apologies from the church, as well as unspecified financial damages from the religious organization. A motion hearing is scheduled for Monday.

    Salt Lake Tribune link

    Church leaders will probably do everything they can to prevent the subpoena of President Monson. That guy would make a fool of himself in public.

    In the comments section, one reader noted that the Book of Mormon teaches racism against Native Americans. Yes, it does.

  189. says

    Why would there even be a question about the efficacy or appropriateness of Trump’s proposed “deportation force” to eject undocumented immigrants from the USA? That proposal is so obviously bugnuts that ridicule is all it deserves.

    Unfortunately for Trump’s surrogates and campaign staff, they have to take seriously:

    During an appearance on CNN on Sunday morning, Donald Trump’s new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said that one of his titular policies—a deportation force for undocumented immigrants—is “to be determined.”

    “As the weeks unfold, he will lay out the specifics of that plan that he would implement as president of the United States,” Conway said a day after reports emerged that Trump would perhaps be softening his immigration plan which has frequently centered around building a wall at the border of Mexico and the United States.

    The Daily Beast link. Video is also available at the link.

  190. Pierce R. Butler says

    Lynna, OM @ # 183: Giuliani is a Trump surrogate…

    I must’ve missed another memo.

    When did news-speak start calling campaign spokespeople “surrogates” – and why?

  191. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Campaign Surrogates

    Guiliani would be an interest surrogate:

    Still another type of campaign surrogate is the interest surrogate. These surrogates are often high-profile leaders of a minority or large voting bloc. Candidates can use these campaign surrogates to assuage voter fears that they might not look out for that particular demographic. The most common type of campaign surrogate in this type is a leader of the African-American community. White candidates use these campaign surrogates to assure African-American voters that they will look out for their interests. In recent years Hispanic campaign surrogates have become more and more important as well.

    Why: A campaign surrogate is a term used to describe a person who acts on the behalf of a candidate running for some sort of political office. The campaign surrogate often appears at public events that the candidate cannot make it to, or may simply appear to bolster the image of the candidate in a certain demographic.

    The Candidate can’t make many Sunday morning political shows in one day. One of his many surrogates can be present for every one of the shows.

  193. says

    Not reassuring at all: Michele Bachmann says she is advising Donald Trump on foreign policy. As part of her claim, she said:

    He [Trump] also recognizes there is a threat around the world, not just here in Minnesota, of radical Islam. I wish our President Obama also understood the threat of radical Islam and took it seriously.

    The Hill link

  194. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Some discussion of the Clinton’s campaign targets for fundraising.

    Hillary Clinton’s campaign is halfway to its goal of raising a billion dollars for the 2016 race, according to her finance director.
    Dennis Cheng announced the achievement on Thursday in a meeting with staff at the campaign’s headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, according to a campaign aide who was present for the meeting but wasn’t authorized to discuss internal campaign strategy and spoke on condition of anonymity.
    Her campaign has resisted publicizing a fundraising target for the general election, fearing it would draw attention to big donors at a time when voters angry about the role of money in politics. She aimed to raise $100 million for her primary bid.
    Clinton raised $90 million for her campaign and Democratic party committees in July, according to finance reports released on Saturday. She’s maintained a staff of about 700 for months, opened up offices across the country and already spent $67 million on general election ads. This week, she’ll spend at least $10 million more on ads.
    GOP rival Donald Trump raised $80 million for his campaign and the Republican party, including a $2 million contribution from Trump himself. He’s kept his payroll to about 70 employees, only began airing ads in recent days and has not undertaken a significant operational buildout across the country. Instead, nearly half the money he spent in July went to one web design firm, whose president is the campaign’s director of digital marketing.
    Clinton’s campaign is in the midst of a fundraising blitz, with 43 events planned in 14 states over the next two weeks, according to a schedule obtained by The Associated Press.
    She was spending the weekend greeting donors on Massachusetts’ Cape Cod before heading to California for a series of events at the homes of Hollywood celebrities and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Later this month, she will head to the Hamptons on New York’s Long Island for another fundraising swing.
    President Barack Obama hosted an event last Monday on Martha’s Vineyard, off the Massachusetts coast, where he was vacationing. Her running mate, Tim Kaine, and former President Bill Clinton also have events planned around the United States.

    Sounds like not only will her Campaign be well funded, but some as a selfish-less leader it may flow to down-ticket candidates (Duckworth and Schneider her in IL), so she could govern if elected.
    I keep thinking cynically that Trump’s fundraising will end up in his own pocket….

  195. says

    Some of Trump’s fundraising is ending up in his own pocket. And some ends up in the pockets of business associates, even if those associates have no political campaign experience.

    […] a closer inspection of the campaign finance report filed just before Saturday’s midnight deadline indicates the haul came at a steep price and that the campaign was still not dedicating resources to catching up on building the staff and field organization […]

    Though the campaign touted an $80 million figure for its July fundraising, just $36.7 million of that total went directly to the campaign. The rest came in through joint fundraising vehicles with the Republican National Committee and state parties. At least $9.5 million of that money is off limits for spending on the election because it’s designated for the RNC’s convention, headquarters and legal accounts. […]

    The campaign more than doubled its spending from the previous month to $18.5 million in July, far more than in any other period of the campaign. Most of that money went toward expanding the campaign’s online fundraising operation.

    A full 45 percent, or $8.4 million, went to Giles-Parscale, the San Antonio-based digital marketing firm that has done Trump’s online advertising. (The company had never worked for a campaign before 2016.) The campaign also paid $100,000 to the Prosper Group for fundraising consulting.

    Meanwhile, spending on the 84-person staff and field organizing barely increased from the previous month, to just $392,000 and $432,000, respectively. The campaign dropped much more — $1.8 million — on hats and other merchandise.

    By comparison, the Hillary Clinton campaign in July spent $2.9 million on its 703-person payroll and $25.8 million on media.

    […] the Clinton campaign and its allied super PACs still started August with a major financial advantage, with about $97 million stockpiled, compared with $43 million for Trump and his allies. […]

    He also continued patronizing his own businesses, spending at least $732,000 on his private jet and at his properties in New York, Miami and Palm Beach.

    Link

  196. says

    Uh, wait. What now?

    Trump’s new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, has one thing in common with Trump. She blithely contradicts herself in less than five seconds … in the same interview.

    During her time as a Ted Cruz supporter, she said this: “”Do I want somebody who hurls personal insults [referring to Trump] or who goes and talks about philosophical differences [referring to Cruz]?”

    During an interview on ABC’s “This Week” yesterday, this exchange took place:

    STEPHANOPOULOS: So what changed for you? And do you stand by those comments?

    CONWAY: I do. And the reason is I don’t like when people hurl personal insults. That will never change. That’s not my style. I’m a mother of four small children. And it would be a terrible example for me to feel otherwise —

    STEPHANOPOULOS: You think Mr. Trump’s going to change on that?

    CONWAY: Well, but he doesn’t hurl personal insults.

    She must be working for some other Trump. Trump has hurled personal insults against:
    – Mexican immigrants (“they’re rapists)
    – President Obama (“a loser,” “weak,” etc.)
    – John McCain (“not a war hero”)
    – reporter Serge Kovaleski (Trump mocked movements related to Kovaleski’s disability)
    – Marco Rubion (“Little Marco”)
    – Ted Cruz (“Lyin’ Ted”)
    – Hillary Clinton (“Crooked Hillary,” “weak,” etc.)
    – Elizabeth Warren (“Goofy” and “Pocahontas”)

    There’s a lot more where that came from, including Trump’s person insults directed at other journalists (Katy Tur), many media outlets (Washington Post, New York Times, etc.), and other politicians (Michael Bloomberg, Jeb Bush, etc.)

  197. tomh says

    @ 196
    Just hours later, Trump was back on Twitter, going after Joe Scarborough and his Morning Joe show.

    “Tried watching low-rated @Morning_Joe this morning, unwatchable! @morningmika is off the wall, a neurotic and not very bright mess,” Trump said of Mika Brzezinski, who co-hosts the program with Joe Scarborough.

    He followed this with, “Some day, when things calm down, I’ll tell the real story of @JoeNBC and his very insecure long-time girlfriend, @morningmika. Two clowns!”

    But it’s good to know that Trump “doesn’t hurl personal insults.”

  198. says

    Ha, ha. tomh @197, thanks for that addition. So nice to see Trump making sure that everyone knows his new campaign manager is a liar.

    In other news, Rachel Maddow covered the fact that Trump’s security people threw a brown-skinned person out of one of his rallies, right after Trump has declared his devotion to African Americans in another rally.

    I’ll judge Trump by those actions.

  199. What a Maroon, living up to the 'nym says

    Lynna @ 196, tomh @ 197,

    See, if you don’t think the targets of your insults are people, then by definition your insults aren’t personal.

  200. says

    @199, just groups of subhumans then, according to Trump.

    In a new ad from the Clinton campaign, Trump is the bomb … and not in a good way.
    Link. Scroll down for video.

  201. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    An article on Trump’s staff online posts. The Title is: Racism and talk of religious war: Trump staff’s online posts.
    A few “hilights”

    Donald Trump’s paid campaign staffers have declared on their personal social media accounts that Muslims are unfit to be U.S. citizens, mocked how Mexicans talk, called for Secretary of State John Kerry to be hanged and stated their readiness for a possible civil war, according to a review by The Associated Press of their postings.
    The AP examined the social media feeds of more than 50 current and former campaign employees who helped propel Trump through the primary elections. The campaign has employed a mix of veteran political operatives and outsiders. Most come across as dedicated, enthusiastic partisans, but at least seven expressed views that were overtly racially charged, supportive of violent actions or broadly hostile to Muslims.
    A graphic designer for Trump’s advance team approvingly posted video of a black man eating fried chicken and criticizing fellow blacks for ignorance, irresponsibility and having too many children. A Trump field organizer in Virginia declared that Muslims were seeking to impose Sharia law in America and that “those who understand Islam for what it is are gearing up for the fight.”
    The AP’s findings come at a time when Trump is showing new interest in appealing to minority voters, insisting he will be fair in dealing with the 11 million people in the U.S. illegally and explicitly pitching himself to African-Americans, saying “what do you have to lose?”…
    The AP was able to review the accounts of only a minority of Trump staffers: Others set their accounts to private, some could not be found or identified with confidence as Trump campaign employees….
    Before being tapped as statewide director of coalitions, Craig Bachler of Bradenton, Florida, posted jokes in 2015 about Mexican accents superimposed over pictures of an overweight man wearing a sombrero. Bachler was named by the campaign as official staff in November, though there is no record he has been paid for his work. Bachler did not respond to a request for comment via Facebook or a message left at his office voicemail. After AP’s inquiries, Bachler blocked access to an AP reporter, and his Facebook account — which included a photo of Bachler with Trump — was scrubbed to remove the offensive post.
    Teresa Unrue, a field organizer and graphic designer in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for Trump’s advance team, shared a video on her Facebook account July 11 — the week before the Republican National Convention — of a black man eating fried chicken while shaming fellow black people.
    “Why are you mad about slavery?” the man asks. “Y’all weren’t no damn slaves.”
    “Had me crack’n up!! Thank you!” Unrue wrote of the video. “Please share this with people.”
    In a short phone conversation, Unrue said she tried to keep her personal social media comments positive and referred questions to the campaign.
    Some posts fixated on stories of black-on-white violence with claims that news about such crimes was being suppressed.
    “How about this little white boy being murdered by a black man,” grassroots organizer Annie Marie Delgado of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, wrote in December 2014 post, one of a number highlighting crimes against white people before Trump declared his candidacy. Delgado also shared a discredited, hoax photo of the State Department’s Kerry with Jane Fonda, and commented: “I say hang them!” She was paid $11,146 through April, according to campaign records.
    Fear or dislike of Muslims was a recurring theme. Though Trump at one point proposed temporarily barring foreign Muslims from entering the country and scrutinizing the activities of mosques, he has sometimes distinguished Islamic extremists who pose a risk and those who don’t. “I love the Muslims,” Trump said in September, expressing willingness to appoint one to his Cabinet.
    On Facebook, Mark Kevin Lloyd of Lynchburg, Virginia, who has been paid $36,000 as Trump’s field director in the state, shared a post June 30 calling Islam “a barbaric cult.” He shared a meme June 16, four days after the Orlando nightclub shooting by a heavily armed Muslim who professed allegiance to the Islamic State group. The meme said people should be forced to eat bacon before they can purchase firearms…
    Many accounts AP reviewed embraced conspiracy theories. Lloyd, the Virginia field director, said Obama is aiding the Iranian nuclear program as part of the president’s “‘final solution’ to the Israel problem,” a phrase evoking the Holocaust.
    Delgado, the Florida organizer, circulated a theory that the company Edible Arrangements LLC is funneling money to Hamas, a claim that the Anti-Defamation League, a U.S. Jewish organization, has repeatedly dismissed as false.
    Unrue posted a link to a website that alleged that the U.S. government assassinated Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier this year after a history of heart trouble.
    Racially charged social media posts from Trump campaign employees and associates have already been a repeated source of embarrassment. Trump fired one adviser who had used a racial slur to describe Obama’s children, and the campaign denounced Trump’s longtime Mar-a-Lago butler for saying he would support dragging Obama from the White House and hanging him.

    The article also looked into Clinton’s staff.

    The AP also reviewed the public social media accounts of more than three dozen employees of Hillary Clinton’s far larger campaign staff and found nothing as inflammatory. One staffer said Trump’s style of speaking reminded him of a roommate who had taken too many hallucinogenic mushrooms. AP also reviewed images attached to more than 19,000 stolen internal emails from the Democratic National Committee for racially or religiously inflammatory memes, finding nothing of note.
    The Clinton campaign declined to comment on its procedures for vetting staff. It employs more than 650 people, according to its FEC filings.

    And a Romney Deputy Campaign Manager also showed integrity.

    Katie Packer, a 2012 Romney deputy campaign manager who opposes Trump, said the social media posts AP reviewed would have all been immediate disqualifiers for anyone who had applied for a campaign job — even if the postings weren’t visible to the public.
    “A comfort level with people who think this is OK is indicative of what you think is OK,” Packer said. “Maybe the campaign just doesn’t know about this, but that’s malpractice.”

  202. says

    A lot of businessmen do not back the scam artist/con man Trump:

    Prominent financial news group Forbes reported on Monday that a survey by economy experts who work for businesses, trade associations and government agencies across the country are “flatly” rejecting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

    The majority of NABE members (55%) feel former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would do the best job managing the U.S. economy. Trump received just 14% of the votes by 414 members. NABE director and survey chair LaVaughn Henry states that one of the most overwhelming reasons these conservative-to-moderate business economists chose Hillary over Trump is due to her “definitive plan” that has been out there for months — opposed to, “Just trust me.”

    Another prominent reason for NABE’s opposition to Trump is his stated plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. […]

    Link

  203. says

    Nerd @201, another entry for our “the company Trump keeps” file. Also, as Katie Packer said, this shows that the campaign is not being managed well. Trump did not hire “the best people” and both he and his top aides are really bad at running a campaign.

    In other Trumpish news, Vanity Fair published a story in which details are provided about Trump asking NBC if “The Apprentice” reality show could be done from the Oval Office. More proof that Trump is a doofus and that he just wants to expand his brand. Link

    Host Todd Zwillich: I just want to point out one detail from your story that I think a lot of people missed, it has this fantastical idea that Donald Trump discussed with executives at NBC potentially continuing a version of The Apprentice from the Oval Office, if he were elected. We don’t have to give up the show, you can still do this from the White House.

    Ellison: Yeah. Yeah. The idea was you couldn’t do it during the campaign, because of the equal time laws, but once you were in the White House it’s a possibility, you could certainly do it from there. So then we really would be living in a sort of Truman Show reality..

    Vanity Fair link

  205. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Oh, this is interesting. 12-Year Old Running Trump’s Campaign in Colorado.

    Is a 12-year-old really in charge of Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Jefferson County, Colorado?
    A television report describes Weston Imer (EYE’-mer) as running the field operation in the state’s fourth most populated county. The boy’s mother, Laurel Imer, is technically in charge but says she’s ceded responsibility to her son until school starts.
    But Trump’s Colorado co-chair, Robert Blaha, says while the campaign likes to have Weston speak at rallies and knock on doors, he’s not the campaign office boss.
    Says Blaha in an interview: “There’s not the possibility a 12-year-old can run an office.”

    Is there any vetting at the national level in the Trump Campaign????

  207. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    While the Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe (D), couldn’t restore voting rights to all felons in the state, he restored the rights of 13,000 felons who served their time.

    A defiant Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Monday that he again restored the voting rights of about 13,000 felons who served their time after his previous attempt was thwarted by Republican lawmakers and the state Supreme Court.
    Virginia’s highest court ruled in July that governors cannot restore rights en masse, but must consider each offender on a case-by-case basis. That ruling invalidated a sweeping executive order issued by McAuliffe in April that had given back the voting rights of more than 200,000 felons who completed their sentences.
    McAuliffe blasted the court Monday for ignoring the “the clear text of the Constitution” and accused Republicans of trying to suppress voters’ voices. But he pledged to move forward, saying he won’t let the felon disenfranchisement “destroy lives and families, and destabilize communities.”
    “These individuals are gainfully employed. They send their children and their grandchildren to our schools. They shop in our grocery stores and they pay taxes. And I am not content to condemn them for eternity as inferior second-class citizens,” McAuliffe said during an event at the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial.
    Rights-restoration letters were mailed Friday to the roughly 13,000 people who had registered to vote before their rights were taken away by the court, McAuliffe said. His administration processed each felon’s paperwork individually to comply with the ruling, he said.
    Moving forward, McAuliffe will individually restore the rights of other felons who meet the requirements, giving priority to those who request it, he said. The orders also allow the felons to serve on a jury, run for public office and become a notary public.
    A voter-registration application will be included in each of the rights-restoration letters sent to felons, McAuliffe said. The deadline to register to vote in Virginia for November’s election is Oct. 17.
    The Virginia Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision striking down his executive order was a significant blow to McAuliffe, who called felon disenfranchisement a vestige of the state’s Jim Crow past because it disproportionately impacts African-Americans.

    Making lemonade out of lemons. Applause. More letters in the future!!!

  208. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Not the usual Presidential fare, but still politically relevant.
    The Fed (the folks that control the money supply) are becoming more diverse.

    The U.S. Federal Reserve has two guiding goals when designing monetary policy: maximum employment and stable inflation.
    But as the country’s central bankers converge for their annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming this week, they are under increasing pressure to reform their own system and goals to better reflect the diversity of America and its incomes…
    Fed Up, a network of community organizations and labor unions that wants a more diverse, transparent and income-inequality aware central bank, will meet with Kansas City Fed President Esther George.
    It may be one reason why the organizers changed the dress code for the evening, usually a suited and booted affair, to casual attire.
    So far three other Fed policymakers, New York’s William Dudley, Cleveland’s Loretta Mester and Boston’s Eric Rosengren, are also scheduled to show up…
    The activists will look to build on their proposals, put forward in conjunction with former top Fed policy adviser Andrew Levin, to make the Fed’s 12 regional banks government entities. The Fed is the world’s only major central bank that is not fully public.
    POWERFUL ALLIES
    The group has recently been joined by powerful allies in Congress in forcing racial, gender and income inequality up the Fed’s agenda.
    Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has come out in favor of restricting the financial world’s influence on regional Fed boards.
    In May, 127 U.S. lawmakers including Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders sent a letter to Fed Chair Janet Yellen urging more diversity among its ranks in order to “reflect and represent the interests of our diverse country.”
    Currently 11 of the 12 regional Fed presidents are white, 10 are male, and none are black or Latino. At the Board level, the highest echelons of the Fed, Yellen is the first woman chair in the central bank’s 103-year history.
    SIGNS OF CHANGE
    There are indications that the steady drumbeat of pressure is having some effect on areas on which the Fed does have some control.
    “I believe that diversity is extremely important in all parts of the Federal Reserve,” Yellen told Congress in June under sustained scrutiny from lawmakers about the Fed’s performance.
    Minorities now make up 24 percent of regional Fed bank boards, up from 16 percent in 2010, while 46 percent of all directors are either non-white or a woman.
    Yellen, who has not been shy in speaking on income inequality, has also noted that rising inequality could curb U.S. economic growth.
    And for a Fed not used to addressing distributional issues associated with monetary policy, such considerations are now seeping into policy discussions…

    Sounds like improvement.

  209. says

    This is a followup to comments 194 and 195.

    After Trump’s campaign began accepting donations, he raised the rent for the campaign headquarters in Trump Tower to about five times as much as it was before.

    The $35,000 he was charging in the first place was iffy. He put campaign staff into a space that he could not rent to anyone else. It was unfinished space.

    So, yes, donors to Trump’s campaign are throwing money at Trump, and he is putting it in his pocket.

    His campaign aides explained the rent increase as stemming from a move to larger offices. However, no new personnel were hired.

    Donald Trump began paying nearly five times in monthly rent for his presidential campaign headquarters once he began accepting funding from donors, according to a close analysis of his Federal Election Commission filings […]

    Back in March, when he said his campaign was entirely self-funded, Trump paid Trump Tower Commercial LLC $35,458 for rent. That amount was consistent with what he had paid since launching his presidential bid in the summer of 2015. By July, however, once he started raising funds from donors, he paid $169,758 in rent for the same space.

    […] that the discrepancy was particularly striking since Trump was paying 197 employees and consultants in March, compared to only 172 in July. The filings don’t clarify whether Trump is now renting significantly more office space in his midtown Manhattan building or why he would do so given his reduced staff size.

    […] The campaign paid $72,800 in rent May 31, $110,684 on June 9, and $169,758 on July 10.

    Trump’s most recent FEC reports indicate that he has also continued to funnel campaign funds back into his own businesses, including his golf courses, hotels, and restaurants. […]

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-increased-rent-trump-tower-campaign-donations

  211. says

    Another Republican says he cannot vote for Trump, and he will vote for Clinton.

    Former President George W. Bush’s Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy is the latest high-ranking Republican to announce his support for Hillary Clinton’s White House bid.

    James Glassman, who is also the founding director of the George W. Bush Institute at the former president’s library in Dallas, told MSNBC Monday evening that Clinton is “by far the superior candidate.” […]

    Link

  212. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Lynna@209, that explains this article, Fellow Republicans still waiting for Trump’s promised cash

    Donald Trump portrays himself as an indispensable cash resource for fellow Republicans up and down the ballot.
    But while Trump is pulling in donor checks, an Associated Press review of campaign finance filings shows most of his fellow Republicans are still waiting for their cut. And the 2016 presidential nominee has a lot of work to do to if he wants to match the amount of financial aid Mitt Romney gave to his party four years ago.
    “Typically you see the nominee lift everyone up,” said Chris Schrimpf, a spokesman for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, one of Trump’s defeated primary rivals. The state features a critical Senate race this year, but Trump has all but ignored the Ohio state party. “This time, if anything, everyone else is carrying his water.”

    Donald Trump, this sounds crooked.

  213. says

    Here’s a summary of negative things Trump has said about Hillary Clinton, things that, essentially, add up “she’s a woman and women are weak an not presidential.”

    […] Clinton, Trump said in a speech last week, “lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS and all the many adversaries we face.”

    […] He has repeatedly called attention to Clinton’s voice, saying listening to her gives him a headache. Last December, he mocked her wardrobe. “She puts on her pantsuit in the morning,” he told a Las Vegas audience. At rallies and in speeches, the billionaire mogul has also used stereotypes about women to demean Clinton, who stands to become America’s first female president if she wins in November.

    […] A frequent point of criticism: Clinton doesn’t look like a typical president.

    “Now you tell me she looks presidential, folks,” he said at a recent rally in New Hampshire.

    “I look presidential,” he insisted. […]

    http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cd818dbeb6fb445ca374a5583b17ecad/trumps-stamina-attack-clinton-stirs-talk-gender-bias

  214. a_ray_in_dilbert_space says

    Part of me keeps thinking that this might be Trump’s ultimate scam. He heard that the winner of the Presidential race would have to raise a billion dollars, and he thought, “Hey, this is how I could really become a real billionaire!” I keep expecting Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks to come out on stage with him to start singing “Springtime for Hitler,” as they board a Trump Jet and fly away to Trump’s private island lair.

  215. says

    Ah, yes. As usual Fox News is engaging in a lying and/or misleading presentation of the latest email “scandal.” I am so tired of this. They never get the facts straight.

    Fox News hosts Martha MacCallum and Tucker Carlson misleadingly claimed that nearly 15,000 emails related to the FBI probe into Hillary Clinton’s private server she used as secretary of state, and that the State Department will soon release, are “new” and that “nobody knew about [them] last week.”

    In fact, a Washington Post report on the emails explained that FBI Director James Comey disclosed the existence of these emails in July, and he said “investigators found no evidence that the emails it found ‘were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them,’” and the Post explains that “like many users, Clinton periodically deleted emails, or they were purged when devices were changed.”

    The State Department also has not yet determined how many of the emails are personal and not work-related, and how many may be duplicated of emails already released to the public. […]

    Link

    Excerpt from the August 23 show:

    TUCKER CARLSON: Well, it’s a tragedy. It discredits not simply Hillary Clinton and her presidential campaign but the U.S. government. I mean, she ran the State Department, and they allowed this, and now you’re watching State Department flacks to have to spin for her. The whole thing is gravely embarrassing to the country. It makes our government look incompetent and third world, and for good reason. By the way, does anybody think this is end of it?

    I mean, 15,000 new emails that nobody knew about last week? What comes next? You see what I’m saying? So, this is going to be a story that unfolds for years. And it has all kinds of very sad implications. And keep in mind, Hillary Clinton as of today is likely to be the next president of the United States. What does that mean? It means it’s going to be pretty hard for her to dodge this story if elected. And that’s bad for all of us.

  216. says

    Seth Meyers mocked Trump’s supposed expression of remorse for saying “the wrong thing” and for supposedly pivoting to a more serious presidential campaign.

    The video is 11:31 minutes long, and it is excellent.

  217. says

    The New York Times editorial board responded to Trump’s claims that elections are “rigged.”

    Donald Trump is calling for volunteers to watch the polls in November, and he is making no bones about why.

    “Help me stop Crooked Hillary from rigging this election!” says the application form on his campaign website.

    There are so many lies and delusions flowing daily from the Trump campaign that it’s easy to miss the times when the Republican nominee is being not just ludicrous, but dangerous. This is one. […]

    He is accusing the government he wants to lead of being both victim and perpetrator of a vast conspiracy. And he is setting the stage for an upwelling of right-wing outrage, cuing up a crisis of electoral legitimacy. If Mrs. Clinton wins, get ready for at least four years, maybe eight, of the catcalls and loathing that plagued President Obama’s two terms.

    A more immediate concern is what happens on Nov. 8, when squads of Trump volunteers fan out to defend their candidate’s presumed victory. It does not seem far-fetched to expect that signatures will be pointlessly challenged and citizens intimidated and inconvenienced, that the ruckus of the Trump campaign will spread to polling places around the country. […]

    Mr. Trump’s brain is a pincushion for conspiracy theories, so maybe it’s no surprise that he thinks the Clinton campaign will be sending African-Americans and foreigners into booths across the country to fake their votes over and over, millions of times.

    Now, more than ever, the country needs responsible political leaders and the courts to defend and expand voting rights, rather than sitting silently while Mr. Trump further demolishes public confidence in the foundations of our government.

  218. says

    Oh, FFS. More fallout resulting from Trump’s choice of Steve Bannon as the new CEO of the Trump campaign.

    Donald Trump called for a special prosecutor to conduct an “expedited investigation” into the Clinton Foundation, just days after former Breitbart News chairman Stephen Bannon was named chief executive of Trump’s campaign. Bannon helped spread the baseless smears hyped in the discredited Clinton Cash book that Trump is now lifting his attacks from.

    Trump said during an August 22 campaign rally that “an expedited investigation by a Special Prosecutor” into the Clinton Foundation — specifically into claims of “coordination between the pay-for-play State Department and the corrupt Clinton Foundation” — is required because the FBI and Department of Justice “certainly cannot be trusted to quickly or impartially investigate Hillary Clinton’s crimes.”

    […] Bannon has long led a smear campaign against Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation with discredited and false attacks.

    After Breitbart editor-at-large Peter Schweizer wrote the error-filled Clinton Cash — which made a series of baseless allegations of corruption and quid pro quo by the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton — Bannon wrote and produced the accompanying documentary film. […]

    Among the discredited attacks that Trump has adopted from Bannon and Schweizer’s smear campaign include claims that Clinton “signed off” on a Russian uranium deal that led to “millions of dollars in donations” to the Clinton Foundation. That conspiracy has been widely discredited, and Schweizer himself admitted he had no “direct evidence” proving Clinton intervened on the issue.

    Trump also echoed Bannon and Schweizer’s evidence-free claim that an Iranian telecommunications company escaped sanctions from Clinton while secretary of state because it paid Bill Clinton for a speech. […]

    Link

  219. says

    Here is an excerpt from Wonkette’s coverage of the rightwing claim that Breitbart News cannot be a racist, mysogynistic, white supremacist swamp because … because Milo Yiannopoulos writes for Breitbart.

    A Trump surrogate named Steve Cortes explained to MSNBC’s Joy Reid that it’s unpossible for Breitbart to be TRULY racist and white supremacist, because Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos, the guy who is permanently banned from Twitter for inciting a campaign of racist hate against the amazing Leslie Jones of SNL and Ghostbusters fame, is a verified, gayer than a three-dollar-bill queersexual. And everybody knows that if you are a man and you like dicks, then you are by definition Not Racist. […]

    REID [Joy Reid of MSNBC]: The Southern Poverty Law Center has described the Trump campaign bringing Breitbart’s Stephen Bannon in as cozying up to the alt-right. And the explainer that Breitbart themselves put up to explain who they are was written by a guy named Milo Yiannopoulos, who who is known as being really sort of a guru to the alt-right — he’s one of the people that hounded a comedian from “Saturday Night Live” off the internet with racist invective. […]

    They are white nationalists. Does that make you uncomfortable to be in the same camp with them?

    CORTES: Well, I would say they are nationalists. I wouldn’t say they are white nationalists. And Milo, by the way, who you cite, who is certainly the most known member of the alt-right, he’s very provocative. He also happens to be incredibly gay! And very, very public about it.

    REID: Does that mean he can’t be a white nationalist? You say he can’t be gay and a white nationalist? Because you can …

    CORTES: No, but it argues against the idea that it’s an inherently sort of racist, retrograde white Christian …

    REID: What does being gay have to do with it? You can be gay and racist.

  220. says

    Trump promised to make a donation to Louisiana flood relief. No one has been able to verify that he actually donated anything.

    […] he promised a $100,000 donation to a Baton Rouge church—specifically, the Baton Rouge church of anti-LGBT hate group leader Tony Perkins. […]

    That check has yet to arrive, and it’s unclear if Donald Trump himself will be donating even a dime.

    In the past, many donations to charity claimed by Trump actually came from his foundation. He does not put his own money into that foundation. He puts other people’s money in there, and then he spends it and/or donates it, while claiming credit for good works he did not do.

    Perkins said Tuesday that Trump’s gift had not yet been paid.

    “I’ve been told the church should [receive] it on Friday,” he wrote in an email to The Post. Perkins said he was unsure whether Trump planned to make the donation out of his own pocket, or perhaps from the Donald J. Trump Foundation — a nonprofit group that is largely filled with other donors’ money, not Trump’s own. […]

    The campaign is also clamming up about two other supposed charitable gestures from Trump’s trip. His Louisiana state director claimed that Trump had donated a truckload of relief supplies. As it turns out, nobody can verify that and the campaign isn’t talking. And the Louisiana governor specifically asked Trump to give a donation to the Louisiana Flood Relief Fund before his visit; his campaign isn’t saying whether he did that either. […]

    Link

    If Donald Trump did actually donate goods or money, you would think that his campaign would be trumpeting that news to anyone and everyone.

  221. says

    Here is part of Trump’s plan to stop crime: let “tough” cops take charge, and by giving those tough cops permission to “counterattack.”

    […] Donald Trump said Monday that he would simply put “tough” cops in charge. […]

    “I know police in Chicago,” Trump replied. “If they were given the authority to do it, they would get it done.”

    “How? How?” O’Reilly pressed.

    “[…] By being very much tougher than they are right now,” Trump said. “They are right now not tough. I mean, I could tell you this very long and quite boring story but when I was in Chicago, I got to meet a couple of very top police. I said, ‘How do you stop this? How do you stop this? If you were put in charge,’ to a specific person, ‘Do you think you could stop it?’ He said, ‘Mr. Trump, I would be able to stop it in one week.’ And I believed him 100 percent.” […]

    Trump, who has actively courted the endorsement of the national Fraternal Order of Police union and campaigned as the “law and order” candidate said that he would serve as a “cheerleader for the police” as president.

    “They are not being respected by our leadership and they literally—they don’t have spirit,” the Republican nominee said. “They lose their spirit. Every time something happens, it’s the police’s fault.”

    “Alright. So your tone is pro-police,” O’Reilly said.

    “You have to give them back their spirit,” Trump insisted.

    “How do you stop the bad guys from attacking them?” O’Reilly asked.

    “By giving them back your spirit and by allowing them to go and counterattack,” Trump said.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-oreilly-stop-crime-tough-police

  222. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    My #180 showed Trump was saying that Blacks should vote for him.
    Lynna’s #221, is why that won’t happen. Blacks, and anybody who understands Dog Whistles, understand exactly what Trump is saying. They will not vote for somebody who will use badly behaved police to keep down black voices about the residual institutional discrimination they receive.

  223. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Hillary Clinton with a double-digit lead over Donald Trump.

    Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton leads Republican rival Donald Trump by 12 percentage points among likely voters, her strongest showing this month, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday.
    The Aug. 18-22 poll showed that 45 percent of voters supported Clinton, while 33 percent backed Trump ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
    Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state, has led Trump, a New York businessman, throughout most of the 2016 campaign. But her latest lead represents a stronger level of support than polls indicated over the past few weeks. Earlier in August, Clinton’s lead over Trump ranged from 3 to 9 percentage points in the poll.
    The poll also found that about 22 percent of likely voters would not pick either candidate. That lack of support is high compared with how people responded to the poll during the 2012 presidential election between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney…
    Clinton held a smaller lead in a separate four-way poll that included Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Jill Stein of the Green Party. Among likely voters, 41 percent supported Clinton, while 33 percent backed Trump. Johnson was backed by 7 percent and Stein by 2 percent…

    Poor Greens, can’t escape the 2-3% range.

  224. tomh says

    @ #223
    It’s a little surprising to me that Johnson voters are coming from the Clinton side. I would have expected them to be unhappy Republicans.

  226. KG says

    tomh@224,

    I don’t think the results indicate that Johnson voters are not unhappy Republicans.
    1) Nerd’s link says the 4-way was a “separate poll”. I read that as meaning different people were asked, so the two are not directly comparable.
    2) Even if that’s not the case, there will be unhappy Republicans who simply cannot stomach Trump, so will plump for Clinton if those are the only choices; but given a right-wing alternative like Johnson, will switch to him.

  227. says

    Win for grad unions:

    Punctuating a string of Obama-era moves to shore up labor rights and expand protections for workers, the National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday that students who work as teaching and research assistants at private universities have a federally backed right to unionize.

    The case arose from a petition filed by a group of graduate students at Columbia University, who are seeking to win recognition for a union that will allow them a say over such issues as the quality of their health insurance and the timeliness of stipend payments.

    Echoing longstanding complaints from blue-collar workers that they have become replaceable cogs in a globalized economic machine, the effort reflects a growing view among more highly educated employees in recent decades that they, too, are at the mercy of faceless organizations and are not being treated like professionals and aspiring professionals whose opinions are worthy of respect.

    “What we’re fundamentally concerned about isn’t really money,” said Paul R. Katz, one of the Columbia graduate students involved in the organizing efforts. “It’s a question of power and democracy in a space in the academy that’s increasingly corporatized, hierarchical. That’s what we’re most concerned about.”
    …

    The decision reverses a 2004 ruling by the board involving graduate student assistants at Brown University. The ruling held that the assistants could not be considered employees because they “are primarily students and have a primarily educational, not economic, relationship with their university.”

    The current board disagreed, arguing that Columbia students could be deemed employees if they perform and are compensated for work that the university oversees, even if their relationship was substantially broader.

    …

    Highly educated workers in other fields have also chafed at a growing sense of their own powerlessness. Recent law school graduates have lamented their rising debt and declining prospects for landing a law firm job. Many medical interns and residents have unionized in recent years, while a group of doctors at a medical center in Oregon formed a union of hospitalists in 2014….

    Administration rhetoric continues to make my blood boil:

    Columbia and other universities that weighed in with the board before the ruling argued that collective bargaining would lead to a more adversarial relationship between students and the university that would undermine its educational purpose.

  229. says

    I checked my state’s (Minnesota) voting site today to see who’s going to be on my ballot. Trump’s not on it. I’m not sure what to make of it, but the Candidate Filings section says that Presidential candidates have until August 29 to file. Trump has 5 more days. I think I’ll look again on Tuesday.

  230. says

    An Associated Press story about the Clinton Foundation opened with this misleading paragraph:

    More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money — either personally or through companies or groups — to the Clinton Foundation. It’s an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president.

    Link

    Well, no. that’s not that extraordinary for “people outside government.” Clinton was really busy meeting with people inside government when she was Secretary of State. As Steve Benen noted:

    […] “more than half” of those Clinton met with “outside of government” supported her husband’s charitable foundation. In other words, to arrive at the controversial figure, the Associated Press had to exclude all kinds of people: State Department officials, diplomats, ambassadors, foreign leaders and officials, White House personnel, military servicemen and women, etc.

    In other words, after excluding the people any Secretary of State might ordinarily see on a typical day, and looking exclusively at this smaller subset of people Hillary Clinton met with, more than half of them contributed to Bill Clinton’s charity.

    […] there’s no evidence of actual wrongdoing. Even Clinton’s critics have not yet pointed to any specific instances of impropriety or ethical lapses. We’re looking at a story with smoke, but no fire.

    To bolster its thesis, the Associated Press’ report noted, for example, that Clinton met three times with Muhammad Yunus, “a Bangladeshi economist who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering low-interest ‘microcredit’ for poor business owners.” It’s true that Yunus had partnered with the Clinton Foundation to help people in developing nations, but it’s also true that the Nobel laureate is exactly the kind of non-governmental official one might expect a Secretary of State to meet with and assist.

    The Associated Press article also noted Clinton having met with the head of an international AIDS charity, who also contributed to her husband’s foundation. Again, the piece points to this as possibly problematic, but there’s no reason to believe a Secretary of State wouldn’t have had the same meeting, regardless of any charitable contributions.

    […] there are no real allegations of wrongdoing here, only assorted details that seem kinda sorta wrong to Clinton’s detractors. The result is something that resembles a “controversy,” even if the evidence is vague and unpersuasive. There’s a perception of some unidentified wrongdoing, and evidently, that’s enough. […]

    After the AP received some criticism, for it’s article, the editors changed the headline. It used to read “More than half those who met Clinton as Cabinet secretary gave money to Clinton Foundation.” Now it reads “Many Donors to Clinton Foundation Met with Her at State.” That’s still a little bit strange for a headline, but it’s better than what we are seeing on rightwing media sources, which is mostly “Pay for Play” or “Clinton to be Prosecuted.”

  231. tomh says

    An interesting article in the New York Times, “Why Donald Trump’s Election Observers Are a Bad Idea,” detailing the long, ugly history of election “observers” throughout American history. Intimidation and violence were a standard part of such observers, and there’s no reason to think Trump’s minions would be any different.

  232. says

    tomh@231, agreed. Also, in states where open-carry or concealed-carry are common practice, some of the “election observers” will show up as armed citizens. If this concept catches on and grows, it will be yet another way for Republicans to disenfranchise some voters though sheer intimidation.

    As a followup to comment 231, I wanted to note the Michael A. Cohen, writing for the Boston Globe, took the time to debunk the “sound and fury, signifying nothing” around Hillary Clinton’s emails, with special emphasis on emails related to interactions between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department. Excerpts below:

    […] In 2009, Band [Clinton Foundation top honcho Doug Band]reached out to Abedin and asked if she could help put a Nigerian businessman of Lebanese descent named Gilbert Chagoury – who had donated to the Clinton Foundation — in touch with “the substance person re: Lebanon.” Chagoury apparently wanted to pass along information about upcoming elections in Lebanon. Considering that State Department diplomats glean information and intelligence from civil society leaders, activists, and business people on a regular basis there’s nothing particularly untoward about the ask. But because Chagoury is a Clinton donor, there’s a scent of scandal.

    So what happened? Abedin told Band she’d reach out to Jeffrey Feltman, the acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs at the time. […] Feltman says he never met or spoke to Chagoury, and “No one ever told me he was seeking me out.”

    So: Clinton Foundation asks for help with donor, and doesn’t get it.

    A Politico story this week accused Band of reaching out to Abedin in 2009 to get Crown Prince Salman of Bahraina a meeting with Clinton. Now, Bahrain is a close US ally, and home to the Navy’s Sixth Fleet, so there’s nothing unusual about this ask, either, but it’s the kind of thing that should go through official channels — which it did. Abedin responded by tellingBand “the crown prince had asked to see Clinton through ‘normal channels’ ” but that she hadn’t yet committed “until she knows how she will feel.” Two days later, Abeden e-mails Band back to say the meeting is now on.

    With or without Band’s assistance, Clinton almost certainly would have agreed to meet with a top official of a US ally, especially in a region critical to national security interests, and at a time when Iran, a neighbor of Bahrain, was in the throes of pro-democracy demonstrations. There’s no evidence that Band’s e-mail tipped the balance.

    Okay, so these examples disappoint, but what about this tantalizing lead from The Washington Post Tuesday: “A sports executive who was a major donor to the Clinton Foundation . . . wanted help getting a visa for a British soccer player with a criminal past.” And then this: “U2 rocker and philanthropist Bono, also a regular at foundation events, wanted high-level help broadcasting a live link to the International Space Station during concerts.” Deeper in the story we find out, neither was helped by Abedin, who responded “no clue” when asked about Bono’s odd request. […]

    The scandal here seems to be that people who gave money to the Clinton Foundation had e-mails sent to the Clinton State Department requesting favors that were repeatedly denied. Still, evidence has never been the key ingredient of a Clinton scandal. Optics and the appearance of scandal are always where the action has been. […]

  233. says

    This is a followup to comment 221.

    The Chicago Police Department is denying that any of their officers ever told Donald Trump that “tough police tactics” could eradicate crime in Chicago.

    I must be learning to read the tells in Trump’s voice and mannerisms when he is telling a lie. As soon he started on that bit about talking to a tough police officer, I could tell that he was lying. Of course, he is usually lying, so it wouldn’t take much to guess correctly when Trump is lying.

    […] “No one in the senior command at CPD has ever met with Donald Trump or a member of his campaign,” police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday.

    Trump recounted his alleged encounter with senior police officials in an interview with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on Monday, saying police told him they could stop the “horror show” of violent crime in the Windy City “if they were given the authority to do it.”

    “I mean, I could tell you this very long and quite boring story but when I was in Chicago, I got to meet a couple of very top police,” Trump recalled. “I said, ‘How do you stop this? How do you stop this? If you were put in charge,’ to a specific person, ‘Do you think you could stop it?’ He said, ‘Mr. Trump, I would be able to stop it in one week.’ And I believed him 100 percent.”

    [Trump] noted that he recommended the officer for some kind of promotion. […]

    Guglielmi, the police spokesman, told the Tribune that Trump has never met with the department’s deputy superintendents, district commanders, chiefs of patrol or chiefs of detectives.

    Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said that the real estate mogul never specifically mentioned that the police officers were in senior command. Instead, she told the Tribune, he meant that the “top” officers were “capable, smart and talented.”

    Chicago police have accused Trump of falsely attributing information to them before. After a planned rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago was canceled in March because of mass protests, Trump said he spoke to law enforcement about safety risks before deciding to cancel the event. Police released a statement denying that a conversation took place.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chicago-police-deny-trump-tough-policing-stop-crime

  234. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Needless to say, the African-American response is less than overwhelming by Trump’s attempts at outreach.

    Black Republicans cheer Donald Trump for a newfound outreach to African-Americans, but say the GOP presidential nominee must take his message beyond arenas filled with white supporters and venture into the inner cities.
    Many rank-and-file black voters, meanwhile, dismiss the overtures as another racially charged pitch from a campaign aimed exclusively at whites, from Trump’s emphasis on “law and order” to his withering critiques of President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black chief executive. It was Trump in 2011 who fiercely challenged Obama’s U.S. birth.
    “Any minority who would vote for him is crazy, ought to have their head examined,” said Ike Jenkins, an 81-year-old retired business owner in the predominantly black suburb of East Cleveland.
    Foluke Bennett, a 43-year-old from Philadelphia, went further, labeling the GOP standard-bearer’s remarks as “racist,” pointing, among other things, to his referencing African-Americans as “the blacks.”…
    Certainly, each Trump pronouncement drew roaring approval from his rally audiences. Many black voters, however, hear the appeal differently.
    As he sold Cleveland Cavaliers NBA championship swag, street vendor Steve T, 47, said the “disrespectful” comments represent “the real Trump.”
    “Not all of us live in poverty, crime,” he said. “You can’t get votes from people you don’t even understand.”
    In Philadelphia, Bennett said, “It’s crazy to think that he would have the audacity to ask us what we have to lose. If anything, his comments just made the line even more clear as to why black people won’t vote for him.”
    In East Cleveland, Jenkins and several other retirees gathered in a neighborhood restaurant echo many of Trump’s arguments. James Smith, a 79-year-old former butcher, points out the window and laments “a community that’s old and poor.” Jenkins says “handouts keep people in slavery.” Randall Darnell blasts an economy that traps laborers, black and white, in “legalized slavery.”
    But every one plans to vote for Clinton, and nearly all said they see Trump’s latest arguments aimed more at whites.
    “He’s talking about black people” when he mentions violence in cities, Smith said, “not to black people

    Donald Trump, what would have as the response to the Ferguson BLM protestors? Anything other than “let them protest, they have a legitimate grievance” is why you will get no traction in the African-American community.

  235. says

    According to an analysis done by Media Matters, Fox News host Sean Hannity has given Donald Trump’s presidential campaign $31 million in free publicity. (That’s 22+ hours of airtime since June 2015.)

    To make matters worse, Hannity is reportedly “advising” Trump’s campaign. Can you say “conflict of interest”?

    The picture is more dire than the $31 million in free publicity because that total does not include all the time Hannity spent spewing propaganda for Trump when Trump was not on the air with him.

    Media Matters link

  236. says

    Stephen Colbert mocked Trump and his surrogates for spreading conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton’s health. Video at the link.

    Excerpt:

    But here’s the thing. I also want to say this to the Trump people out there. I don’t know why they keep saying things like “frail” or “weak” or “low energy.” You’re just tip-toeing around the medical condition that you’re really upset about, one that she has that no other president in history has ever faced. Hillary Clinton has chronic no-penis.

  237. says

    Here is an excerpt from the Clinton campaign response to the irresponsible story published by the Associated Press (see comments 230 and 232).

    […] top-ranking officials with the Democratic nominee’s team accused the media and critics of “cherry-picking.”

    “Well, because they took a small sliver of her tenure as secretary of state, less than half the time, less than a fraction of the meetings, fewer than I think 3 percent, the number they’ve looked at of all the meetings,” chief strategist Joel Benenson told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.” “This is a woman who met with over 17,000 world leaders, countless other government officials, public officials in the United States. And they’ve looked at 185 meetings and tried to draw a conclusion from that.”

    In its report, the AP noted that 85 of the 154 people from non-government-related interests who met with or who had scheduled phone calls with Clinton either donated to her family’s charitable organization or had committed funds. […]

    Link

  238. says

    This is a followup to comments 194, 195 and 209.

    Donald Trump used some of the campaign donations he received to buy copies of his own book Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again. Furthermore, he paid the retail price to purchase his own books, paying a total of $55,000 to Barnes & Noble.

    […] On May 10, the Trump campaign paid Barnes & Noble $55,055, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission. That amounts to more than 3,500 copies of the hardcover version of Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again, or just over 5,000 copies of the renamed paperback release, Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America.

    A spokesperson for the Republican nominee told The Daily Beast the books were purchased “as part of gifting at the convention, which we have to do.” Sure enough, delegates in attendance at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July were given canvas tote bags, stamped with the Trump slogan, and filled with copies of Crippled America, as well as Kleenex and Make America Great Again! cups, hats, and T-shirts. Delegates were also given plastic fetus figurines. […]

    “It’s fine for a candidate’s book to be purchased by his committee, but it’s impermissible to receive royalties from the publisher,” Ryan said [Paul Ryan (not that one), of the nonpartisan nonprofit Campaign Legal Center]. “That amounts to an illegal conversion of campaign funds to personal use. There’s a well established precedent from the FEC that funds from the campaign account can’t end up in your own pocket.”

    When asked if Trump agreed to forgo royalties for sales of the book, the Trump campaign refused to comment on the record […]

    Federal campaign law dictates that campaign spending must not “result in the conversion of campaign funds to the personal use of the candidate or any other person.” […]

    The Daily Beast link.

  239. says

    This is a followup to Nerd’s comment #234.

    Trump’s Vision of Black America Is a White Supremacist Fantasy

    […] “Poverty. Rejection. Horrible education. No housing. No homes. No ownership. Crime at levels nobody has seen,” said Trump, painting a dystopian picture of black life for rallygoers. “You can go to war zones in countries that we’re fighting and it’s safer than living in some of our inner cities. They’re run by the Democrats.”

    Trump continued. “Look, it is a disaster the way African Americans are living,” he said, erroneously suggesting that most black Americans live in inner cities. “We’ll get rid of the crime. You’ll be able to walk down the street without getting shot. Right now, you walk down the street, you get shot.”

    As big a problem as violent crime is in the nation’s most segregated and impoverished communities, the world Trump describes doesn’t exist for the vast majority of black Americans in 2016. For them, as for most Americans, crime is at historic lows, and cities are safer than they’ve ever been.

    Despite this, Trump seems to envision an America where all blacks live in cities that are one part the Detroit riots of 1968, one part the Los Angeles riots of 1992, and one part John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.

    Which is all to say that Trump has taken his earlier appeal to black voters—or rather, his appeal to whites vis-à-vis blacks—and pushed it in a lurid and fantastical direction. In Akron, Trump didn’t describe life for black Americans as much as he described a white supremacist fantasy in which blacks live miserable, brutish, and nearly subhuman lives in cities dominated by feckless Democrats. And he punctuated that fantasy with a call to vigilance for his audience, asking them to watch out for “fraud” in those same neighborhoods. […]

    None of this counts as “outreach” to black voters. But it also goes beyond traditional coded appeals to conservative whites. It sounds less like rhetoric from a Republican presidential nominee—or at least, rhetoric used in public—and more like a headline at Breitbart or other white nationalist forums and websites, where racist fearmongering is the norm and where black Americans and their communities are often portrayed in sensational and offensive ways. We’re a news cycle or two from Trump invoking the knockout game. […]

  240. says

    Nigel Farage, rightwing doofus from the United Kingdom, is set to join Donald Trump at a rally in Jackson, Mississippi.

    […] in the two months since Britain voted to leave the EU, Farage has become a hero to some Trump supporters within the conservative movement. Trump himself has hailed the vote as Britain taking “their country back.”

    The Brexit campaign has become an analogy and a cautionary tale about Trump’s run for the White House.

    […] his appearance is the latest evidence that Trump is embracing the comparison between his campaign and the Brexit vote, a decision motivated by fears of immigration that seems likely to be economically and politically chaotic for the United Kingdom. […]

    Vox link

  241. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Trump is now wooing Hispanic voters in Florida.

    Visiting a battleground state he can’t afford to lose, Donald Trump promised Hispanics “a much better life” on Wednesday in a Florida speech that continued his recent effort to soften his tone and broaden his support 11 weeks before the presidential election.
    The Republican presidential candidate also repeated his promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to keep out immigrants, underscoring the tricky balancing act he faces in retaining backing from conservatives while beckoning to moderates for their votes.
    “I am going to fight to give every Hispanic citizen a much better future, a much better life,” Trump told a rally in Tampa as polls show him trailing in the critical state. “You have the right to walk outside without being shot. You have a right to a good education for your child. You have the right to own your home. You have the right to have a good job.”…
    Now facing a bigger electorate, Trump suggested that Hispanics have been taken for granted by Democrats. He said the 600,000 Latino-owned businesses in Florida would benefit under his economic plan, but he offered few specifics.
    “Hispanics are tired of being used by these phony politicians,” Trump roared above the rumbles of a thunderstorm audible inside. “I say, what do you have to lose? I will fix it.”
    Hispanics make up a sizeable and growing percentage of Florida’s population. Trump will have a narrow path to the White House without winning the Sunshine State, where he owns several resorts and which he dubbed “his second home” on Wednesday.

    Funny how those jobs don’t seem to include Trump business’ where he hires Europeans like Poles to staff his resorts instead of using the local population (often brown and black), and his promises always has a “trust me” attached.

  242. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Another The Donald in La-La land moment. Trump calls Hillary Clinton a bigot.

    9 p.m.
    Donald Trump is declaring that Hillary Clinton “is a bigot” in his latest outreach to minority voters.
    The Republican presidential nominee drew loud cheers from a crowd in Jackson, Mississippi, on Wednesday when he declared that Democrats have taken minorities’ support for granted.
    He said of his Democratic opponent, “Hillary Clinton is a bigot who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future.”
    Trump also gave a vague preview of his new immigration policy, which is slated to be unveiled next week. He said any immigration policy he supports must pass three tests: It should improve the wages, safety and quality of life for U.S. citizens.
    He offered no specifics.

    OK The Donald Trump. Show us 40-50% minorities in your top campaign people, and in your holding company in NYC. Or you show with prima facie evidence who the bigot really is….and it isn’t Hillary Clinton.

  243. says

    Donald Trump thinks he can win a battle with Hillary Clinton over who has the hottest celebrities. Clinton is not fighting, but Trump is engaging in his usual one-way battle over petty stuff. And he is looking very bad in the process.

    Thinking about the Republican convention after that event in Cleveland, Trump said, “I wasn’t looking for star power; I was looking for policy.” Ha. Not buying that since before the convention, Trump had talked about have “A-List celebrities” and athletes who are “champions. What we got is Scott Baio and an underwear model. There were no A-listers.

    Maybe Trump’s feelings are still a little hurt over that, because now Trump is dissing Hillary Clinton for the celebrities who have hosted or appeared at fundraisers for her in the past week.

    Donald Trump apparently does not think Justin Timberlake is bringing sexy back.

    Speaking at a rally in Tampa on Wednesday, Trump offered his take on Hillary Clinton’s supporters: “The only people enthusiastic about her campaign are Hollywood celebrities, in many cases celebrities that aren’t very hot anymore.”

    USA Today link

    Other celebrities supporting Clinton include:
    Beyonce
    Leonardo DiCaprio
    Matt Damon
    Julianne Moore
    Kerry Washington
    George Clooney
    Meryl Streep
    Katy Perry
    Paul Simon
    Lena Dunham
    Tony Goldwyn
    and more

    I don’t think Trump can win this battle with Jon Voight and James Woods.

    Anyway, the pettiness is eyebrow-raising.

  244. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Lynna @243, you forgot Cher (from a 8/23/16 fundraiser).
    Some highlights:

    She compared him to Hitler, likened his campaign to a “racist” version of “Fun with Dick and Jane” and even said he evoked the murderous child star in “The Bad Seed.”
    “I just think he’s” an idiot, Cher said of Donald J. Trump, adding a decidedly unprintable modifier…
    Cher warned that Mr. Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” was only a guise for a more divisive message. “He means, ‘We want to make America straight and white,’” she said.
    And she belittled Mr. Trump for his stumbling reference at the Republican convention to the “L.G.B.T.Q.” community. “It’s like he just learned it, you know?” she said to laughter.
    Speaking without notes, Cher’s performance was more of an insult-comedy routine than a traditional political speech…
    “I know that if he got into office, our world would be the worst place,” Cher said. “I don’t think we could imagine how bad it could get.”
    She added that, “if breaking news ever happened and he had to go to the podium, we would just all go …”
    She finished her thought with a four-letter expression of disgust. Then she walked off to a roar of applause….

    Cher also praised Hillary Clinton:
    Cher did more than just blister Mr. Trump. She also offered a blunt appraisal of Mrs. Clinton’s strengths and weaknesses. “This chick is just tougher than Chinese algebra,” Cher said of the Democratic nominee.
    Prompting a mix of nervous laughter and applause, she added, “She is shy, and she’s not the greatest speaker in the world.”
    Cher said Mrs. Clinton had told her of being deeply affected by her failed effort to spearhead an overhaul of the nation’s health care system in 1993. “She got so crushed by the G.O.P., just for trying to set up health care, and she never thought it would be so personal, and she said it made her kind of pull in.”
    “I hope she doesn’t mind my telling this story,” Cher said, adding: “Too late now!”

  245. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    re 244:
    Speaking of Cher inspired me to violate copyright by posting lyrics to one of my favorite songs of hers:

    “Half Breed

    My father married a pure Cherokee
    My mother’s people were ashamed of me
    The indians said I was white by law
    The White Man always called me “Indian Squaw”

    [Chorus:]
    Half-breed, that’s all I ever heard
    Half-breed, how I learned to hate the word
    Half-breed, she’s no good they warned
    Both sides were against me since the day I was born

    We never settled, went from town to town
    When you’re not welcome you don’t hang around
    The other children always laughed at me “Give her a feather, she’s a Cherokee”

    [Repeat Chorus]

    We weren’t accepted and I felt ashamed
    Nineteen I left them, tell me who’s to blame
    My life since then has been from man to man
    But I can’t run away from what I am

    [Repeat chorus]

  247. Brother Ogvorbis, Fully Defenestrated Emperor of Steam, Fire and Absurdity says

    I know that this does not actually come under the heading of political madness, more like political sanity, but this seems like an appropriate place to drop it (especially since the GOP platform specifically wants to get rid of the USFS, BLM, and all other federal land agencies).

    One hundred years ago today, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Organic Act created a National Park Service to preserve natural and cultural treasures in such manner that they can be enjoyed today and preserved for the future. All National Parks, all 412 units of the National Park Service, are celebrating this Centennial today through Sunday. Entrance fees are waived (Expanded Amenity Fees (such as fees for specific activities or programmes).

    National Parks have been described as America’s Greatest Idea. It was not completely the US’s idea — we borrowed from England, Germany, and other nations, the idea of public lands.

    And the GOP really dislikes the NPS. No new logging, mining, drilling in NPS lands — some mines are grandfathered for the life of the mining claim, some lateral drilling under NPS lands. Minimal commercial activities with National Parks. No hunting in most NPS areas — National Recreation Areas and National Preserves do allow hunting. And the NPS focuses on some really uncomfortable realities for authoritarian Americans — Manzanar, Sand Creek Massacre, Martin Luther King, Selma to Montgomery, César E. Chávez, Port Chicago Naval Magazine, Lowell, Salem Maritime, Nez Perce, Whitebird Battlefield — which seem to imply that the US is not perfect. Which is part of the reason that federal land agencies, including the NPS, are running at about half staff with pitifully low budgets and aging work forces.

    One of the planks in the GOP platform is returning all federal lands to the states so the states can dispose of them as they wish. Which means that National Forests would be bought by two or three multi-national lumber companies. BLM lands would go to ConAgra or other giant agribusinesses (which would destroy the family ranches in the West). National Parks would be bought by entertainment companies or mining interests or hotel chains. And become playgrounds for the 1%.

    So celebrate America’s Greatest Idea on this, it’s Centennial.

    While it still exists.

  248. says

    Nerd @244, thank you for adding Cher to the list!

    Brother Ogvorbis @247, I’m with you on this 100%. It was nice to have the National Park closest to me waive entry fees to celebrate the Centennial. I live in a place where a lot of my neighbors are of the opinion that all federal lands like national forests, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), etc. should be turned over to the states. What a disaster that would be.

    There are a lot of BLM areas in neighboring states that, if they don’t go to agribusiness conglomerates, will go to oil and gas conglomerates.

  249. says

    Oh, FFS. Really? He changed “the words he is saying” but not his immigration policies? Trump and his campaign personnel are not making any sense. They are not even sticking to the stupid, xenophobic, but relatively clear “border wall” and “deportation force” language.

    This is ridiculous:

    You have somebody who is terrific, who has been here … a long time. A long court proceeding, long everything, okay? In other words, to get them [undocumented immigrants] out, can we go through a process or do you think they have to get out? Tell me. I mean, I don’t know. You tell me. [Trump said to an audience at a town hall in Texas last night]

    Meanwhile, his campaign spokespeople, like Katrina Pierson, are saying stuff that is equally mind-boggling:

    He hasn’t changed his position on immigration. He’s changed the words that he is saying…. He’s using different words to give that message.

    At one point, Trump also said:

    Pay back-taxes, they have to pay taxes, there’s no amnesty, as such, there’s no amnesty, but we work with them.

    Meanwhile his 2016 platform still proposes:
    – a border wall
    – mass deportation
    – an end to birthright citizenship

    Here is just one of many segments from last night’s Rachel Maddow show in which Rachel interviewed Trump’s new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway. Maddow asked her about the “extreme vetting” and “cold war precedent” that Trump talked about for allowing in (or not allowing in) immigrants from countries that “exported terrorists.” I almost felt sorry for Conway as she tried to make sense of that, and Maddow wouldn’t let her off the hook.

    The bottom line is that we have a lot of pronouncements from Trump, very few if any specific on how he intends to implement his policies, and a lot of other statements contradicting the original pronouncements.

  252. says

    From Sarah Kliff, writing for Vox, some thoughtful analysis of the EpiPen price gouging scandal:

    […] The story of Mylan’s giant EpiPen price increase is, more fundamentally, a story about America’s unique drug pricing policies. We are the only developed nation that lets drugmakers set their own prices, maximizing profits the same way sellers of chairs, mugs, shoes, or any other manufactured goods would.

    In Europe, Canada, and Australia, governments view the market for cures as essentially uncompetitive and set the price as part of a bureaucratic process, similar to how electricity or water are priced in regulated US utility markets.

    Other countries do this for drugs and medical care – but not other products, like phones or cars – because of something fundamentally unique about medication: If consumers can’t afford the product, they could have worse odds of living. In some cases, they face quite certain odds of dying. So most governments have decided that keeping these products affordable is a good reason to introduce more government regulation. […]

    http://www.vox.com/2016/8/23/12608316/epipen-price-mylan

  253. says

    Another reason to take the documents released by Russian hackers with a bigger grain of salt:

    Often, in war, mistakes are made. Sometimes, in Russia’s information war against the West, mistakes are made and then published for all the world to see.

    That seems to be what happened when two supposedly independent hacking groups, believed by security experts to have ties to the Kremlin, posted the same documents stolen from a philanthropy run by George Soros. But the hack included a twist: Some of the documents taken by one group were altered in a bid to try and link Soros to Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, revealing how hackers likely working for Moscow are editing documents to smear their victims.

    Ottawa Citizen link to an article titled “Whoopsie: Russian hackers post same document twice, but with glaring differences.”

    And there’s this:

    The metadata show that the Russian operators apparently edited some documents, and in some cases created new documents after the intruders were already expunged from the DNC network on June 11. A file called donors.xls, for instance, was created more than a day after the story came out, on June 15, most likely by copy-pasting an existing list into a clean document.

    […] Documents that were leaked by or through an intelligence operation should be handled with great care, and journalists should not simply treat them as reliable sources.

    Peacock Panache link

    And no, you cannot trust Julian Assange.

  254. Brother Ogvorbis, Fully Defenestrated Emperor of Steam, Fire and Absurdity says

    Pay back-taxes, they have to pay taxes, there’s no amnesty, as such, there’s no amnesty, but we work with them.

    Bullshit, Mr. Trump. Even undocumented non-citizens pay taxes. Sales taxes. Excise taxes. Use taxes. Through their rent, they pay property taxes. And, save for those working for dishonest employers, they pay state, local and federal income taxes — and they do not qualify for earned income tax credits and other aid to the working poor. Matter of fact, they pay higher taxes compared to their disposable income than the rich do. This one makes just as much sense as Romney’s 48% idiocy.

  255. says

    Hillary Clinton delivered a scathing speech today. She exposed and then shredded Trump’s alt-right (white supremacist) connections, and she excoriated Trump personally.
    Speech transcript link.
    Washington Post link to video of the speech, and to an annotated text.

    With great timing, David Duke, former KKK leader, made a statement yesterday:

    […] “No candidate in this country would dare even stand up and say, ‘Yes, I definitely am going to defend the rights and the heritage of European-Americans,’” he [Duke] continued. “One can go on to say, ‘Yes I want to respect the rights of all but I believe our people have rights too and the ethnic cleansing of America has got to stop.’ I believe this is a sleeping tiger that is easily awakened.”

    Trump, Duke went on to say, “has energized European-Americans in sort of the implicit statements he makes, such as ‘take America back,’ and we’re going to take America back.”

    Right Wing Watch link

  256. says

    Here is Donald Trump’s reaction to the speech Hillary Clinton gave today:

    Just watched recap of #Crooked Hillary’s speech. Very short and lies. She is the only one fear-mongering!

    Barbara Morrill of Daily Kos helpfully listed the so-called “lies” from Clinton’s speech:

    When Trump was getting his start in business, he was sued by the Justice Department for refusing to rent apartments to black and Latino tenants.

    State regulators fined one of Trump’s casinos for repeatedly removing black dealers from the floor.

    And let’s not forget Trump first gained political prominence leading the charge for the so-called “Birthers.”

    He described Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals.

    Trump said a distinguished federal judge born in Indiana couldn’t be trusted to do his job because, quote, “He’s a Mexican.”

    This is someone who retweets white supremacists online, like the user who goes by the name “white-genocide-TM.”

    His campaign famously posted an anti-Semitic image – a Star of David imposed over a sea of dollar bills – that first appeared on a white supremacist website.

    The Trump campaign also selected a prominent white nationalist leader as a delegate in California.

    When asked in a nationally televised interview whether he would disavow the support of David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, Trump wouldn’t do it.

    Trump said thousands of American Muslims in New Jersey cheered the 9/11 attacks. They didn’t.

    He suggested that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the Kennedy assassination.

    Just recently, Trump claimed President Obama founded ISIS.

    He went on Jones’ show and said: “Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down.”

    The latest shake-up was designed to – quote – “Let Trump be Trump.” To do that, he hired Stephen Bannon, the head of a right-wing website called Breitbart.com, as campaign CEO. To give you a flavor of his work, here are a few headlines they’ve published:

    “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy.”
    “Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?”
    “Gabby Giffords: The Gun Control Movement’s Human Shield”
    “Hoist It High And Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims A Glorious Heritage.”

    And in no particular order, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact. […]

  257. says

    Coverage of Clinton’s speech from Katherine Krueger of Talking Points Memo:

    In one of her most forceful and surefooted speeches to date, Hillary Clinton on Thursday eviscerated Donald Trump for “offering a dog whistle” to stir up the white nationalist, anti-immigrant, alt-right fringe supporters of his campaign.

    Clinton’s Reno, Nevada speech was a show-stopping denouncement of Trump’s worst ills during the campaign, from branding undocumented Mexican immigrants as “rapists” on day one to tweeting a Star of David, being slow to repudiate an endorsement from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and, most recently, hiring a new campaign CEO who ran the far-right news site Breitbart.

    From the beginning, the GOP nominee has built his campaign on “prejudice and paranoia,” Clinton said, all the while inviting the “radical fringe” to take over the Republican Party.

    Then Clinton took aim at Trump’s “most hateful supporters,” members of the so-called alternative right, a loosely organized, anti-establishment movement that has proliferated in white nationalist, anti-Muslim, meme-loving corners of the internet.

    “No one should have any illusions about what’s really going on here,” she said. “The names may have changed. Racists now call themselves ‘racialists.’ White supremacists now call themselves ‘white nationalists.’ The paranoid fringe now calls itself ‘alt-right,’ but the hate burns just as bright.”

    Citing the Mexican proverb, “tell me with whom you walk, and I will tell you who you are,” Clinton said, “We know who Trump is. A few words on a TelePrompTer won’t change that.” It was a dig at Trump’s recent spate of campaign trail speeches aimed at black and Latino voters.

    “He says he wants to make America great again, but more and more it seems as though his real message seems to be make America hate again,” she continued.

    While riffing on Trump’s recent line asking black voters, “What the hell do you have to lose?”, Clinton said Trump has a lot of gall to ask the communities “he’s ignored and mistreated for decades” what they have to lose under a Trump presidency. […]

  258. says

    Jeb Bush’s response to Trump’s recent statements about African American communities and about immigration:

    I don’t know what to believe about a guy who doesn’t believe in things. This is all a game. His views will change based on the feedback he gets from a crowd or what he thinks he has to do.

    It is everchanging. I’m happy he is making efforts to reach out to constituencies Republicans have ignored. I think that is a very healthy thing for our party. It is a smart thing for him to do if it is sincere. But his views on immigration? I can’t comment on because we’re talking in the morning … and tomorrow it might be different.

  259. says

    Some reaction to Clinton’s speech from Chris Roberts, a guy who writes for a white nationalist website, “American Renaissance”:

    She is afraid of us. She is afraid of a movement that mostly exists on the internet. One of the forces that launched the Alt Right is Twitter. White advocates are active on Twitter not because they make a living at it, but because they believe in what they do. And they are running a risk. If you think people aren’t fired for saying the wrong things on social media, just ask Justine Sacco or Wendy Bell.

    Hillary Clinton and her pals are afraid of us because we are reaching more and more white people. If whites really understood the racial implications of what she stands for, they wouldn’t vote for her as dog catcher. […]

    We do not claim that Donald Trump is part of the Alt Right or that he is an advocate for white people. It is clearly unfair to make him responsible for our views. However, by promoting polices (sic) that put America first, he will slow our decline and perhaps even pave the way to an American Renaissance in which the truth about race is no longer a taboo, and we can begin to build a brighter future for our country and our people.

    If you agree with American Renaissance that it is time for whites to take a stand, we want to hear from you. Tell us your story in the comments thread, send us a Tweet showing your support, write me an email ([email protected]), or donate to support our work. [Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed 8/25/16; American Renaissance, 8/25/16]

  260. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Lynna #257, looks like Hillary Clinton is starting a Scorched Trump Policy, where his own words are coming back to haunt him. I think Trump was hoping Labor Day would be “everything said in the primaries is forgiven” day. No, Donald, no. Everything you said in the primaries, you must either repudiate in the clear, precise language, or it is your ill-chosen words to be thrown in your and the voters faces until the General Election in November.
    I also would like to see every time Trump or his surrogates mentions the Clinton Foundation, Clinton and her surrogates mention Trump’s tax filings. Or rather, lack thereof shown to the public….

  261. says

    Joy Reid discusses the alt-right with Tamron Hall:

    […] JOY REID: Well, essentially Tameron, the alt-right consider themselves an alternative to traditional conservatism, which they think is weak tea. Their basic belief is that white Americans need to protect themselves against multiculturalism and immigration, which they believe are essentially watering down American culture and putting white people at a disadvantage. It’s interesting that the term “bigot” was actually written into Donald Trump’s speech, it wasn’t an ad-lib, and that is actually a signal from the alt-right because they do believe that the real quote, unquote racism is racism against white Americans. So they’re mostly young, they’re very tech-savvy, they’ve been connected to things like gamer-gate, going after women, going after people of color. What you’re seeing happen to Leslie Jones, that’s a prime example.

    HALL: So what’s the difference in, I guess, the alt-right and white nationalists, white supremacists, KKK, are these all the same people, just with a different name here?

    REID: Well, just as David Duke took the KKK and dressed it up in a suit and tie, the alt-right is also white nationalism. But they differentiate themselves in their own minds, saying well, they are pro-white, and that they claim that that is not racism. So they are basically the next generation of what are traditionally the neo-Nazi movements, the KKK, they are essentially saying they are a pro white movement that wants to make America more masculine. They feel America has become to feminized […]

    HALL: When Hillary Clinton attempts to tie Donald Trump to the alt-right, what proof does she, or anyone, have to point to that he has either courted these people or somehow enjoyed their attention and their support?

    REID: Well, Donald Trump, there have been several studies that have shown how many times he’s retweeted neo-Nazis on social media, […] And then [Former Breitbart CEO Steve] Bannon himself, who has embraced the alt-right, he’s said he wanted to make Breitbart.com the home of the alt-right. And remember even before he got there, Breitbart made its name going after Shirley Sherrod, going after ACORN., trying to promote this idea of reverse racism. So it was a natural place for the alt-right to gravitate to. […]

    REID: […] There are a lot of different sites. One of the earliest ones that was associated was a site called VDARE.com, which was named after Virginia Dare, the first white settler in Virginia. They were an early proponent of stopping nonwhite immigration. But there are several people associated with it who call themselves racialists. […]

    REID: […] his [Trump’s] supporters in the alt-right, who by the way cheered when Steve Bannon was added to that campaign, they said that their movement was becoming mainstream because of it. […]

    REID: […] he’s getting a lot of pressure from doctrinaireRepublicans to try to in some ways reach out to people of color. So he’s doing this dual dance, where he has the alt right in his pocket, wants to keep their support, but he also wants to do something to change his numbers among people of color and Latinos. You really kind of can’t do both. But that is what he is trying to do.

    HALL: There’s [not been a person in history who’s been supported by an alt-right organization and then blacks and Hispanics.

    REID: Yeah, David Duke and the African-American community and alt-right all in one coalition would be unprecedented.

    That’s a long excerpt, but I think Joy Reid’s intelligent take on the alt-right is worth reading.

  262. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    A group called 9/11 day has called upon all political campaigns to take a day off on 9/11, and not show any ads, and use the day for service and remembrance (Obama and Romney heeded the call in 2012). The Clinton Campaign has agreed. Still no word from the Trump Campaign.

  263. says

    Wonkette covered Hillary Clinton’s speech well.

    Excerpt:

    The best thing you need to know about this part is that Hillz directly slung shit at Donald Trump’s pal, the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. It was WONDERFUL. She rattled off a litany of horseshit Jones believes — that 9/11 and Oklahoma City were inside jobs, and that the Sandy Hook victims were child actors and nobody was actually killed that day. And she pointed out that “Trump doesn’t challenge those lies,” and that he actually said to Jones that he Would Not Let Him Down.

    And really, they are two peas in a pod, because Hillary talked about Trump’s own conspiracy theorist beliefs, like how he was one of the primary promoters of the birther movement, and also the time Trump accused Ted Cruz’s dad of helping murder John F. Kennedy. Hillary comin’ atcha with another zinger:

    This is what happens when you treat the National Enquirer like gospel. […]

  264. says

    This is a followup to comments 57, 112, 218, 230, 232, and 260 (Nerd).

    Some cogent and reasonable responses to The Clinton Foundation “scandal”:

    From Norman Ornstein: “Really an embarrassment for AP, and other journalists who just glommed onto story uncritically. Where are standards?”

    From Charles Pierce: “The topic is The Clinton Foundation, and the new e-mails released by the ratfcking legal operation known as Judicial Watch, which got the AP all a’quiver. Here is the simple answer to that: no quid pro quo, no pay-for-play, no matter how many respected people want to believe it’s there.”

    From Nancy LeTourneau: “The Associated Press has just shown us why it is important to be vigilant in how we consume the news as it is reported. They took some interesting information they gathered and spun it into something it wasn’t…scandalous. … That is basically what most every drummed up ‘scandal’ against Hillary Clinton comes down to: from the perspective of the people judging her – it looks bad. Welcome to the world of optics as scandal.”

    From Matt Yglesias: “According to their reporting, Clinton spent a remarkably large share of her time as America’s chief diplomat talking to people who had donated money to the Clinton Foundation. She went out of her way to help these Clinton Foundation donors, and her decision to do so raises important concerns about the ethics of her conduct as secretary and potentially as president. It’s a striking piece of reporting that made immediate waves in my social media feed, as political journalists of all stripes retweeted the story’s headline conclusions.

    “Except it turns out not to be true. The nut fact that the AP uses to lead its coverage is wrong, and Braun and Sullivan’s reporting reveals absolutely no unethical conduct. In fact, they found so little unethical conduct that an enormous amount of space is taken up by a detailed recounting of the time Clinton tried to help a former Nobel Peace Prize winner who’s also the recipient of a Congressional Gold Medal and a Presidential Medal of Freedom.”

    From Paul Waldman: “Are you ready for the shocking news, the scandalous details, the mind-blowing malfeasance? Well hold on to your hat, because here it is:

    “When Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, many people wanted to speak with her.

    “Astonishing, I know.

    “Here’s the truth: every development in any story having to do with anything involving email and Hillary Clinton is going to get trumpeted on the front page as though it were scandalous, no matter what the substance of it actually is. […] we could have no better evidence than the treatment of this particular story.”

  265. says

    Ann Coulter has a SAD moment thanks to Trump waffling on immigration.

    As Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo puts it: Coulter Goes to War with Trump And It Is Glorious.

    Excerpt:

    Liberals may die tonight because there are limited supplies of those injections they give you for acute schadenfreude toxicity. Ann Coulter has been Donald Trump’s biggest New York City white nationalist supporter. […] Just today her new book In Trump We Trust was released, a genuflecting, tour de force […] in the book itself she writes that Trump can do anything, change his position on anything – none of it matters. She and they are that devoted. Everything except shift on immigration.

    So today, the very day her book comes out he shambles his way to embracing the Rubio/Bush ‘Amnesty’ agenda he spent the last year railing against and using as a cudgel to destroy the Republican establishment’s favored ones. She even had an opening book party hosted by Breitbart.

    Already at the book party, photos snapped by Twitters journos showed a sad visage and perhaps a growing thunder …

    I’ve been waiting all evening to see whether she’s muscle through at least the first day of the book tour without acknowledging Trump had dumped her whole agenda. It seems not. She just kicked off an epic rant on twitter.

    Only part he left out was the “hoops” they’ll have to jump through! Trump:”No citizenship. Let me go a step further—they’ll pay back-taxes”

    Trump: “they have to pay taxes, there’s no amnesty” [Pro Tip: “Back taxes” means we pay illegals $30k apiece in EITC.}

    It’s not “amnesty.” It’s “comprehensive immigration reform”!!!! Trump: “they have to pay taxes, there’s no amnesty.”

    Well, if it’s “hard,” then nevermind. Trump: “… to take a person who’s been here for 15 or 20 years ….It’s a very, very hard thing.”

    […]

  266. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    What kind of an idiot would tell people that they should vote for him cuz nobody is worse than him[?]
    I know he didn’t ask it that way, but that’s how I heard it.
    Insulting the people he’s asking to vote for him, you filthy guys live in shite and got nothin, so WTH, why not vote for me.
    Like saying you people are too stupid to figure out who to vote for, so vote for me, you can’t do worse
    —
    oooh, being a liberal, I gotz me a bleeding heart, so I’m too sensitive, so I mishear his dog whistles instead of the truthinesses they are.

  267. tomh says

    Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), calling on Trump to release his tax returns and his medical records, said on CNN that “If you want to become president, you’re going to have to open up your kimono and show everything.”

  269. Saad says

    Trump quote from Lynna’s #249

    I mean, I don’t know. You tell me.

    This may as well be his campaign slogan.

  270. blf says

    Trump campaign chief is registered to vote in Florida at unoccupied home:

    Stephen Bannon’s enrollment is apparent violation of crucial swing state’s election law requiring voters to be legal residents of county they register in

    Donald Trump’s new presidential campaign chief is registered to vote in a key swing state at an empty house where he does not live, in an apparent breach of election laws.

    Stephen Bannon […] has an active voter registration at the house in Miami-Dade County, Florida, which is vacant and due to be demolished to make way for a new development.

    “I have emptied the property,” Luis Guevara, the owner of the house, which is in the Coconut Grove section of the city, said in an interview. “Nobody lives there{…} we are going to make a construction there.” Neighbors said the property had been abandoned for several months.

    Bannon […] formerly rented the house for use by his ex-wife, Diane Clohesy, but did not live there himself. Clohesy, a Tea Party activist, moved out of the house earlier this year and has her own irregular voting registration arrangement. According to public records, Bannon and Clohesy divorced seven years ago.

    Bannon previously rented another house for Clohesy in Miami from 2013 to 2015 and assigned his voter registration to the property during that period. But a source with direct knowledge of the rental agreement for this house said Bannon did not live there either, and that Bannon and Clohesy were not in a relationship.

    Bannon, Clohesy and Trump’s campaign repeatedly declined to answer detailed questions about Bannon’s voting arrangements. Jason Miller, a Trump campaign spokesman, eventually said in an email: “Mr Bannon moved to another location in Florida.” Miller declined to answer further questions.

    Bannon is executive chairman of the rightwing website Breitbart News, which has for years aggressively claimed that voter fraud is rife among minorities and in Democratic-leaning areas. […]

    […]

    Election officials in Miami-Dade make clear to prospective voters that they are required to actually live in the county and to use their home address in election paperwork. “You must reside in Miami-Dade County,” their website states. It adds: “When you register to vote, an actual residence address is required by law.” […]

    [… numerous additional apparent shenanigans …]

    Bannon […] is known to stay at the so-called “Breitbart embassy”, a luxurious $2.4m townhouse beside the supreme court in Washington DC, where his website’s staff work from basement offices. A Bloomberg profile of Bannon published last October, with which he cooperated, stated that Bannon “occupies” the townhouse and described it as being “his”.

    But according to records at the DC office of tax and revenue, the Breitbart house is actually owned by Mostafa El-Gindy, an Egyptian businessman and former member of parliament. Gindy has received favorable coverage from Breitbart News, which styles him as a “senior statesman”, without an accompanying disclosure that he is the website’s landlord.

    […]

    Clohesy appears in the county election register as living at 102 Governmental Center, which is actually the address of the elections supervisor’s office. [Tonya] Edwards, the spokeswoman for the office, told the Guardian this designation was intended for homeless people.

  271. says

    Nerd @260, I approve of the way Clinton uses Trump’s own words to indict him, as you noted. Trump still runs to Twitter and calls her “a liar.” Using Trump’s own words, and the words/headlines of his staff, make it hard for anyone to believe the “liar” insult.

    blf@270, Ha! Maybe Republicans are always looking for voter fraud cases because they are the ones familiar with committing voter fraud. Bannon is an unethical doofus on several levels. I was particularly offended by the Breitbart News headline about Gabby Giffords.

    One thing I’ve noticed, not a lot of Republicans are out there defending Trump against the points Clinton made in her speech yesterday.

  272. says

    This segment from Rachel Maddow provides details about the funding behind fringe-right news mogul and Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon. Billionaire Robert Mercer backs Bannon, and he also backs Kellyanne Conway (Trump’s new campaign manager); and Mercer backed the conservative Super PAC that Conway previously ran (that PAC supported Ted Cruz).

    Mercer switched his support to Trump. He is now the single largest funder of the Trump for president effort and of Breitbart News. He is part of the effort to mainstream previously unacceptable views from the alt-right.

  273. says

    Going back to the administration of Nixon, there are 45 people still alive who have served on the White House Council Economic Advisers. The Wall Street Journal polled those advisors. None of them are voting for Trump.
    Maddow Show link.

    In a followup to comment 270, here is more bad news that reveals Steve Bannon’s character: he has faced domestic violence charges:

    He was charged in February 1996 with domestic violence, battery and attempting to dissuade a victim from reporting a crime, but the case was dropped when [his then wife Mary Louise] Piccard did not show up in court. In court records, Ms. Piccard later claimed that Mr. Bannon instructed her to leave town to avoid testifying.

    Mr. Bannon, she said, told her that “if I went to court he and his attorney would make sure that I would be the one who was guilty.”

    Mr. Bannon’s lawyer, she said, “threatened me,” telling her that if Mr. Bannon went to jail, she “would have no money and no way to support the children.”

  274. says

    Trump dances around comments made by one of his followers that Hillary Clinton should be shot. Trump refuses to condemn the language promoting violence:

    Q: One of your good friends and one of your biggest supporters here in New Hampshire, state Rep. Al Baldasaro, he’s here today. He said some controversial things over the last month or two about Hillary Clinton, suggesting she should be put in front of a firing squad for treason. What do you think about his comments? Do you condone them?

    Trump: Well, I didn’t know that but I will tell you he’s a very fine person. He is a person that loves the military and loves the veterans. He is a man that, as far as veterans and veterans affairs goes, I don’t think anybody knows more than Al. He loves the veterans and what I really know about him is that nobody wants to take care of the veterans of this country, who have been treated horribly, more than Al. So that’s what I do know.

    Q: But you don’t condone any comments?

    Trump: I don’t know what he said. You’d have to show me what he said.

    https://twitter.com/aseitzwald/status/768930969160220672

  275. says

    As a followup to comment 274, a reader of the news article about Al Baldasaro suggesting Clinton should be shot wrote this:

    Perhaps Trump could clarify his position if he offered to pay legal fees for the would be citizen-executioners. Certainly he could provide snacks for the meetings with Secret Service agents.

    By the way, the Military Times did not agree with Baldasaro’s comments. Trump can repeat the word “veterans” and “military” all he wants as he dodges questions, but veterans and current military personnel do not agree with him.

    A top adviser to Donald Trump on veterans issues who is under investigation for comments calling for Hillary Clinton to be executed for treason was unapologetic late Wednesday, accusing the media of twisting his words.

    “I never said she should be shot,” said Al Baldasaro, a New Hampshire state representative and delegate at the Republican convention in Cleveland. “As usual, the liberal media is taking it out of context. What I said was she should be up on treason charges, and the punishment for that is a firing squad.” […]

    “She is a disgrace for the lies that she told those mothers about their children that got killed over there in Benghazi,” he said. “This whole thing disgusts me, Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.” […]

    Veterans groups called the comments offensive.

    “For a Trump supporter who is a veteran to come out and say that a political opponent should be put to death damages the campaign, our community and the entire country,” said Bill Rausch, executive director of Got Your Six. “It’s ridiculous, and it goes against all military values and what we believe.”

    Rausch said Trump officials should ask for Baldasaro’s resignation from all campaign activities, and distance themselves from the comments.

    Alexander McCoy, a Marine Corps veteran and organizer behind the #VetsvsHate protests outside the Republican convention, called Baldasaro’s new comments “the latest in a long line of inflammatory statements by him and Trump.”

    “This shows again that the Trump campaign is not serious about helping America,” he said.

    Paul Rieckhoff , CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans ‏of America, blasted both the timing and content of Baldasaro’s comments.

    “In light of recent shooting incidents, this rhetoric is toxic and irresponsible,” he said in a series of tweets on the topic. “Especially from a veteran leader.” […]

  276. says

    The Governor of Maine, Paul LePage, is fed up with people calling him a racist, so this is how he handled the issue:

    […] Maine Gov. Paul LePage, left a bizarre and threatening voicemail for a Democratic state lawmaker he thought called him racist, calling Rep. Drew Gattine a “socialist cocksucker.”

    “Mr. Gattine, this is Gov. Paul Richard LePage,” a recording of the message begins. “I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist, you cocksucker.”

    “I want to talk to you. I want you to prove that I’m a racist. I’ve spent my life helping black people and you little son-of-a-bitch, socialist cocksucker,” the governor continued. “You … I need you to, just friggin. I want you to record this and make it public because I am after you. Thank you.” […]

    The governor later called the same news crew to his home to continuing slamming Gattine as “a snot-nosed little guy” that he would love to challenge to an old-fashioned duel.

    “I’d like him to come up here because, tell you right now, I wish it were 1825,” he reportedly said. “We would have a duel, that’s how angry I am, and I would not put my gun in the air, I guarantee you, I would not be Hamilton. I would point it right between his eyes, because he is a snot-nosed little runt and he has not done a damn thing since he’s been in this Legislature to help move the state forward.”

    Gattine has long criticized the governor for his plans to reform the state’s welfare programs, but he told the newspaper that he never called LePage racist.

    You can listen to the voicemail in all its glory over at the Press Herald.

    Portland Press Herald link

  277. says

    Trump ally Roger Stone explains the Trump campaign’s view of Hillary Clinton’s attack on alt-right news sources:

    […] See, they [Democrats] think they’re in the mainstream. They’re actually the extremists. We’re in the mainstream. What’s more chilling to me is the idea that we need to censor or shut down alternative media. Those are the tactics of a Hitler or a Stalin. I’m for free expression. Left, right, middle. Everybody should be allowed to speak. […]

    Who’s the racist? She’s [Hillary Clinton] the racist.

    Media Matters link

  278. says

    Oh, this is bad. Contestants on Trump’s show had to agree to nudity and other invasions of privacy:

    Appearing on The Apprentice with Donald Trump required agreeing to a series of odd and invasive demands regarding sex, nudity, and food consumption. According to a copy of an NBC contract reviewed by The Daily Beast, contestants had to agree to be filmed, “whether I am clothed, partially clothed or naked, whether I am aware or unaware of such videotaping, filming or recording.”

    2016 is the first election in American history in which lowbrow entertainment and politics have merged to such a degree that they are nearly indistinguishable. The requirements for The Apprentice contestants, while almost certainly not mandated by Trump himself, underscore just how strange this brave new world is. […]

    But ambition and shamelessness were not the only boxes participants needed to check.

    The men and women who wanted a shot at proximity to Trump and the grand prize were first asked some mundane questions, such as “What is your favorite movie?” and “If you could hold any political office, what would it be and why?” according a candidate application reviewed by The Daily Beast.

    Then they were made to undergo sexually transmitted disease screenings, which tested for “HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HPV, syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and herpes,” according to the contract.

    Along with such testing, contestants had to accept “that Producer may impose one or more Series Rules regarding the type of sexual activity, if any, that participants will be permitted to engage in.” […]

    The Daily Beast link

  279. tomh says

    @ #276
    Did Clinton suggest that we “shut down alternative media?” I must have missed that.

  280. What a Maroon, living up to the 'nym says

    So, if you want a preview of what a Trump presidency might look like, consider the case of the Philippines:

    While Americans are merely considering electing Donald Trump, the Philippines just went ahead and did it. Rodrigo Duterte was elected on a “law and order,” “war on drugs” kind of platform that makes Batman sound like a civil libertarian. He’s been president for about seven weeks and, well, people are dying.

    The New York Times reports that nearly 1,800 people have been killed in Duterte’s “war on drugs.” In seven weeks! The killings have been carried out by police and vigilantes. That’s regular people just whipped up into a frenzy to go out and kill some drug dealers.

    Were all the people killed actually involved in the drug trade? Who knows. Who cares? I’m sure many of them looked like drug dealers, and that’s enough when you have untrained civilians going out there to take back the streets:

    Under Mr. Duterte, who campaigned on a pledge to rid the country of drug dealers, 712 suspects have been killed in police operations, National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa said. Vigilante killings have totaled 1,067 during the same period, he said, although it was unclear how many were directly related to the illegal drug trade…

    Mr. Duterte is said to have incited the wave of killings with his vow to eradicate crime. He has said the police should “shoot to kill” when they encounter members of organized crime or suspects who violently resist arrest.

    In related news, Duterte’s popularity has soared.

    And for a sickening example of the toll this campaign is taking, click here.

  281. blf says

    Follow-up @270, Steve Bannon moves Florida voter registration to home of Breitbart writer:

    Donald Trump’s campaign CEO transfers enrollment to home of Andy Badolato after Guardian disclosed he was registered at home where he did not live
    […]
    Stephen Bannon is now registered to vote at the Florida house of Andy Badolato, who reports for Breitbart News and has worked with Bannon in the past on the production of political films.

    According to public records, Badolato […] and two of his adult sons are also registered to vote at the property, which he co-owns with his ex-wife.

    […]

    The Sarasota County supervisor of elections advises new registrants that they must use the address of their legal residence, and notes prominently that applying with untrue information can result in a felony charge punishable by five years in prison or a fine of up to $5,000.

    Bannon, the recently hired chief executive of Trump’s presidential campaign, made the amendment to his registration after being contacted by the Guardian for a report published on Friday morning about his previous voting registration arrangements.

    Bannon, his ex-wife Diane Clohesy and the Trump campaign have not disputed that Bannon did not live in the Miami houses with Clohesy when given eight separate opportunities to do so before and after publication.
    […]

  282. says

    This is a followup to the first paragraph in comment 273.

    More economists are warning that if Trump becomes president, an economic downturn is likely.

    A couple of months ago, four economists at Moody’s Analytics prepared a report intended to provide clients with useful information: the “cumulative economic benefits and costs” of Donald Trump’s agenda.

    The results were rather alarming: as the Wall Street Journal reported, Trump’s proposals, if taken at face value, would likely produce “a prolonged recession and heavy job losses that would fall hardest on low- and middle-income workers.” […]

    Making matters slightly worse, the WSJ reported yesterday that the 2016 Republican nominee “garners no support from any of the White House economists who have advised U.S. presidents for the past half-century.”
    The Wall Street Journal this month reached out to all 45 surviving former members of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under the past eight presidents, going back to Richard Nixon, to get their views on this year’s presidential election. […]

    “I have known personally every Republican president since Richard Nixon,” Harvard University economist Martin Feldstein, who chaired the CEA under Ronald Reagan, told the Journal. “They all showed a real understanding of economics and international affairs…. Donald Trump does not have that understanding and does not seem to be concerned about it. That alone disqualifies him in my judgment.” […]

    When it comes to the dominant issues of the presidential race, the economy and job creation don’t spend too much time in the spotlight. Perhaps that’s to be expected when the unemployment rate goes from 10% to 4.9%. But whether the issue is on front pages or not, for voters principally concerned with the state of the economy, Trump is campaigning from a position of weakness.

    Link

  283. says

    Eric Trump told BuzzFeed that, basically, Donald Trump is running for the presidency because he believes all kinds of conspiracy theories and whacko, rightwing memes.

    Eric Trump, listing off reasons his father is running for president, said in an interview this week that one of the motivations was the renaming of the White House Christmas tree to the “holiday tree.”
    [Not true]

    The tree placed on the White House lawn during the holiday season is still called the National Christmas Tree.

    “He opens up the paper each morning and sees our nation’s leaders giving a hundred billion dollars to Iran, [Not true.] or he opens the paper and some new school district has just eliminated the ability for its students to say the pledge of allegiance […] [Not true.]

    As Hunter of Daily Kos explained:

    […] As has been explained repeatedly and using appropriately small words, after the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis (which helped propel Ronald Reagan into the White House, for You Kids Today) the U.S. government froze $400 million Iranian assets in the United States in retaliation. Those assets have remained frozen for decades; this January, however, amid U.S. concerns that The Hague was moving toward a ruling that would heavily favor Iran, a settlement was reached to un-freeze those assets and some, but not all, of the accumulated interest; the total worked out to $1.7 billion. It was publicly announced at the time, and covered in all the papers, and mostly nobody gave a damn, and $1.7 billion is very long way from “a hundred billion dollars” but nobody can accuse a Trump of being good with money. […]

    […] Chain emails that began when President Obama took office falsely claimed that tree had been renamed. A tree on Capitol Hill was briefly called a “holiday tree” in the ’90s, but the name was changed in 2005 at the direction of then-Speaker Dennis Hastert.

  284. says

    tomh @278:

    Did Clinton suggest that we “shut down alternative media?” I must have missed that.

    Right. Of course she didn’t say that, but that sort of freeze peach argument is being made by other right-wingers in order to defend Trump, Alex Jones, Breitbart, etc. For example, here is Sean Hannity making that argument:

    She’s out there accusing, what, Alex Jones? Really, she [Hillary Clinton] doesn’t believe in freedom of speech? What did Alex Jones say that’s so “alt-right?”

  285. says

    Hillary Clinton picked up another union endorsement today:

    Hillary Clinton picked up a major union endorsement Friday from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

    The Teamsters’ executive board voted unanimously to support Clinton for president, the union said.

    “We are proud to endorse Hillary Clinton for President of the United States,” Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa said in a statement. “She is the right candidate for the middle class and working men and women across the country.”

    “The Oval Office needs to be occupied by a serious candidate who understands what it means to govern responsibly,” Hoffa added.

    “Donald Trump supports national right-to-work laws that are proven to weaken the middle class and has a long track record of shipping jobs out of the country as a businessman. He is no friend to working Americans.”

    The Teamsters were one of the last major unions who had not yet endorsed, with the AFL-CIO and SEIU having backed Clinton so months ago.

    Link

  286. says

    Scientific American does not usually take sides in political arguments, but Donald Trump has gotten under their skin.

    […] one of the two major party candidates for the highest office in the land has repeatedly and resoundingly demonstrated a disregard, if not outright contempt, for science. Donald Trump also has shown an authoritarian tendency to base policy arguments on questionable assertions of fact and a cult of personality.

    Scientific American is not in the business of endorsing political candidates. But we do take a stand for science—the most reliable path to objective knowledge the world has seen—and the Enlightenment values that gave rise to it. For more than 170 years we have documented, for better and for worse, the rise of science and technology and their impact on the nation and the world. […]

    We encourage the nation’s political leaders to demonstrate a respect for scientific truths in word and deed. And we urge the people who vote to hold them to that standard.

    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/donald-trump-s-lack-of-respect-for-science-is-alarming/

  287. says

    President Obama used part of his weekly address to speak out against Republicans in Congress who have not funded the fight against the Zika virus:

    […] Republicans in Congress did not share Ashley’s “extreme concern,” nor that of other Americans expecting children. They said no. Instead, we were forced to use resources we need to keep fighting Ebola, cancer, and other diseases. We took that step because we have a responsibility to protect the American people. But that’s not a sustainable solution. And Congress has been on a seven-week recess without doing anything to protect Americans from the Zika virus. […]

    So my Administration has done what we can on our own. Our primary focus has been protecting pregnant women and families planning to have children. For months now, the CDC has been working closely with officials in Florida and other states. NIH and other agencies have moved aggressively to develop a vaccine. And we’re working with the private sector to develop more options to test for and prevent infection. For weeks, a CDC emergency response team has been on the ground in South Florida, working alongside the excellent public health officials there – folks who have a strong track record of responding aggressively to the mosquitoes that carry viruses like Zika. They know what they’re doing. […]

    But every day that Republican leaders in Congress wait to do their job, every day our experts have to wait to get the resources they need – that has real-life consequences. Weaker mosquito-control efforts. Longer wait times to get accurate diagnostic results. Delayed vaccines. It puts more Americans at risk. […]

    Link

  288. says

    Greg Palast, writing for Rolling Stone, provided an overview and some new details regarding the “GOP’s stealth war against voters.”

    […] When Donald Trump claimed, “the election’s going to be rigged,” he wasn’t entirely wrong. But the threat was not, as Trump warned, from Americans committing the crime of “voting many, many times.” What’s far more likely to undermine democracy in November is the culmination of a decade-long Republican effort to disenfranchise voters under the guise of battling voter fraud.

    The latest tool: Election officials in more than two dozen states have compiled lists of citizens whom they allege could be registered in more than one state – thus potentially able to cast multiple ballots – and eligible to be purged from the voter rolls.

    The data is processed through a system called the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, […] Rolling Stone obtained a portion of the list and the names of 1 million targeted voters. According to our analysis, the Crosscheck list disproportionately threatens solid Democratic constituencies: young, black, Hispanic and Asian-American voters […]

    […] despite hiring an ex-FBI agent to lead the hunt, the state [North Carolina] has charged exactly zero double voters from the Crosscheck list. […] So far, Crosscheck has tagged an astonishing 7.2 million suspects, yet we found no more than four perpetrators who have been charged with double voting or deliberate double registration.

    On its surface, Crosscheck seems quite reasonable. Twenty-eight participating states share their voter lists and, in the name of dispassionate, race-blind Big Data, seek to ensure the rolls are up to date. To make sure the system finds suspect voters, Crosscheck supposedly matches first, middle and last name, plus birth date, and provides the last four digits of a Social Security number for additional verification.

    In reality, however, there have been signs that the program doesn’t operate as advertised. Some states have dropped out of Crosscheck, citing problems with its methodology, as Oregon’s secretary of state recently explained: “We left [Crosscheck] because the data we received was unreliable.”

    In our effort to report on the program, we contacted every state for their Crosscheck list. But because voting twice is a felony, state after state told us their lists of suspects were part of a criminal investigation and, as such, confidential. Then we got a break. A clerk in Virginia sent us its Crosscheck list of suspects, which a letter from the state later said was done “in error.”

    The Virginia list was a revelation. In all, 342,556 names were listed as apparently registered to vote in both Virginia and another state as of January 2014. Thirteen percent of the people on the Crosscheck list, already flagged as inactive voters, were almost immediately removed, meaning a stunning 41,637 names were “canceled” from voter rolls, most of them just before Election Day.

    We were able to obtain more lists – Georgia and Washington state, the total number of voters adding up to more than 1 million matches – and Crosscheck’s results seemed at best deeply flawed. We found that one-fourth of the names on the list actually lacked a middle-name match. The system can also mistakenly identify fathers and sons as the same voter, ignoring designations of Jr. and Sr. A whole lot of people named “James Brown” are suspected of voting or registering twice, 357 of them in Georgia alone. […]

    We had Mark Swedlund, a database expert whose clients include eBay and American Express, look at the data from Georgia and Virginia, and he was shocked by Crosscheck’s “childish methodology.” He added, “God forbid your name is Garcia, of which there are 858,000 in the U.S., and your first name is Joseph or Jose. You’re probably suspected of voting in 27 states.”

    Swedlund’s statistical analysis found that African-American, Latino and Asian names predominate, a simple result of the Crosscheck matching process, which spews out little more than a bunch of common names.[…] If your name is Washington, there’s an 89 percent chance you’re African-American. If your last name is Hernandez, there’s a 94 percent chance you’re Hispanic. If your name is Kim, there’s a 95 percent chance you’re Asian. […]

    Every voter that the state marks as a legitimate match receives a postcard that is colorless and covered with minuscule text. The voter must verify his or her address and mail it back to their secretary of state. Fail to return the postcard and the process of taking your name off the voter rolls begins.

    This postcard game amplifies Crosscheck’s built-in racial bias. According to the Census Bureau, white voters are 21 percent more likely than blacks or Hispanics to respond to their official requests; homeowners are 32 percent more likely to respond than renters; and the young are 74 percent less likely than the old to respond. Those on the move – students and the poor, who often shift apartments while hunting for work – will likely not get the mail in the first place.

    […] Based on the data, the program – whether by design or misapplication – could save the GOP from impending electoral annihilation. And not surprisingly, almost all Crosscheck states are Republican-controlled.

    The man behind crosscheck is Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, […] He is best known as the author of Arizona’s “Driving While Brown Law,” which allowed cops to pull over drivers and ask for proof of their legal status. He co-wrote the ultraconservative 2016 RNC party platform, working in a recommendation that Crosscheck be adopted by every state in the Union. He’s also the Trump adviser who came up with a proposal to force Mexico into paying for Trump’s wall. […]

    Apologies for the long post, but the details of the nefarious tactics Republicans are using to disenfranchise voters is so important.

  289. says

    Here is one example of the effects of the “Crosscheck” voter identification tactic discussed in comment 287:

    […] In Dayton, we tracked down several of the suspects on our lists. Hot spots of “potential duplicate” voters, we couldn’t help but notice, were in neighborhoods where the streets are pocked with rundown houses and boarded storefronts. On Otterbein Avenue, I met Donald Webster, who, like most in his neighborhood, is African-American.

    Crosscheck lists him registered in Ohio as Donald Alexander Webster Jr., while registered a second time as Donald Eugene Webster (no “Jr.”) in Charlottesville, Virginia. Webster says he’s never been a “Eugene” and has never been to Charlottesville. I explained that both he and his Virginia doppelgänger were subject to losing their ability to vote.

    “How low can they go?” he asked. “I mean, how can they do that?”

    I put his question to Robert Fitrakis, a voting-rights attorney who examined our Crosscheck data. I showed him Donald Webster’s listing – and page after page of Ohio voters. Fitrakis says that the Ohio secretary of state’s enthusiasm for Crosscheck fits a pattern: “He doesn’t want to match middle names, because he doesn’t want real matches. They’re targeting people with clearly defined ethnic names that typically vote for the Democratic Party. He wants to win Ohio the only way he knows how – by taking away the rights of citizens to vote.” […]

  290. says

    Trump uses another tragedy as an occasion to trumpet his greatness and wonderfulness:

    On Friday afternoon, Nykea Aldridge, who was the cousin of basketball star Dwyane Wade, was shot and killed while pushing her baby in a stroller. By Saturday morning, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was using the incident as proof of his campaign’s future success.

    Dwayne Wade’s cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!

     — @realdonaldtrump

    Without taking a moment to express sympathy for the family, Trump said in his tweet, “Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!” […]

    https://thinkprogress.org/trump-chicago-shooting-fd411cced4f1#.yfl2fxhho

    You will notice that Trump did not take the time to spell Dwyane Wade’s name correctly.

    The victim was on her way to register her children for school.

  291. says

    Maine Governor Paul LePage is digging his hole deeper and deeper.

    He was already in trouble for characterizing drug dealers in Maine as “D-Money” and “Shifty” who were not only pushing drugs, but impregnating white girls. He claimed he had a 3-ring binder full of photos of drug dealers and that 90% of them were black or hispanic. Then he threatened to shoot a legislator who pointed out LePage’s “racially charged” language. Then he called people of color “the enemy.”

    Governor LePage seems to want to shoot a lot of people:

    A bad guy is a bad guy. I don’t care what color he is. When you go to war, if you know the enemy, the enemy dresses in red and you dress in blue, you shoot at red. You shoot the enemy. You try to identify the enemy. And the enemy right now, the overwhelming majority of people coming in are people of color or people of Hispanic origin.

    https://thinkprogress.org/lepage-people-of-color-enemy-b62af56fd799#.rwn9vbebz

    Well that’s a change from his previous focus on African Americans.

    The governor has offered a veritable potpourri of racist and homophobic remarks over the years. In his voicemail to state Rep. Drew Gattine (D) on Thursday, in an apparent attempt to convince people that he is not a racist, he said, “I want to talk to you. I want you to prove that I’m a racist. I’ve spent my life helping black people and you little son-of-a-bitch, socialist cocksucker.”

    On Wednesday, he called Khizr Khan, the father of a fallen Muslim soldier, a “con artist.” During a town hall on that same day, he said nearly all of Maine’s drug dealers are black or Hispanic. “I don’t ask them to come to Maine (to) sell their poison, but they come,” he said. “And I will tell you, that 90 percent-plus of those pictures in my book — and it’s a three-ring binder — are black and Hispanic people from Waterbury, Connecticut, the Bronx and Brooklyn.”[…]

    In the past, Governor LePage invited the NAACP to “kiss my butt.” He said that asylum seekers come to the USA to bring the “ziki fly.” He is a rabid supporter of Donald Trump, and Trump likes him back.

  292. says

    Trump’s absurd medical history (a one-page letter) was written five minutes. NBC News covered the story, with an exclusive interview. You can view the video, and read a partial transcript, on Media Matters.

    […] DR. HAROLD BORNSTEIN: Well I thought about it all day and at the end, I get rushed and I get anxious when I get rushed. So, I tried to get four or five lines done as fast as possible, so they would be happy.

    JACKSON: Dr. Harold Bornstein, who says he examines Trump every May, remembering that December day when a black car from the Trump team waited outside his Park Avenue office.

    BORNSTEIN: “In five minutes,” they said “we’re going to get this desk and write that letter while the driver waited.”

    JACKSON: Five minutes, four paragraphs, filled with adjectives that Trump himself might use. “Astonishingly excellent.” “Extraordinary.” Bornestein describing his patient as “the healthiest individual ever elected.” No time, he says, to proofread, the letter beginning “to whom my concern.”

    BORNSTEIN: In the rush, I think some of those words didn’t come out exactly the way they were meant.

    JACKSON: Trump would be the oldest president ever elected. He enjoys fast food.

    TRUMP: I had the other night, I had Kentucky Fried Chicken, not the worst thing in the world.

    JACKSON: But beyond the letter, Trump hasn’t shared anymore details about his medical status. Bornstein’s not concerned.

    BORNSTEIN: His health is excellent, particularly his mental health — he thinks he is the best, which works out just fine. … I think he would be fit because I think that his brain is turned on 24 hours a day. […]

  293. says

    This is a followup to comment 289.

    Trump is getting some pushback for his insensitive and stupid tweet in which he seemed to gloat over the shooting death of an African American woman.

    From Josh Jordan:

    There’s nothing more horrifying than a presidential candidate patting himself on the back after someone is killed. All politicians are shameless opportunists, but it’s stories like Dwyane Wade’s cousin being shot that gets Trump out of bed with a smile.

    From Tim Miller:

    This is the digital equivalent of passing out yard signs at a funeral. Emotional intelligence here is less than 0

    From David Harris-Gershon:

    Trump after Nice: I WAS RIGHT!
    Trump after Orlando: I WAS RIGHT!
    Trump after @DwyaneWade’s cousin shot: I WAS RIGHT!
    Utter lack of empathy.

    From Tom Nichols:

    Dems: Tragic, and it’s guns
    GOP: Tragic, but it’s culture
    Trump: This is what I’ve been tellin’ those blacks. I’m awesome.

  294. tomh says

    @ 290

    “I think he would be fit because I think that his brain is turned on 24 hours a day.”

    Does this guy really have a medical license? That’s scary.

  295. says

    More bad demographic news for the Republican Party:

    Every month for the next two decades, 50,000 Hispanics turn 18 and become eligible to vote, according to Resurgent Republic, a Republican research group.

    So what are Republicans doing about this? They are fielding candidates like Donald Trump to make sure Hispanics identify the Republican Party as the party of bigotry and doom.

    The Clinton campaign, on the other hand, is taking advantage of the demographic shifts. And they are helping the Democratic Party to plan for the future.

    The Clinton campaign said it invested hundreds of thousands of dollars this month in a coordinated program with the Arizona Democratic Party to win races up and down the ballot, a commitment the Obama campaign decided not to make in 2012. Together they are targeting 450,000 people they have identified as likely Democratic voters whom they hope to place on the state’s early voting list.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/27/us/politics/donald-trump-minority-voters-hispanic-latino-west.html

  296. says

    Leave it to Joy Reid, a real journalist, to get the whole Clinton Foundation story right. Link.

    Reid discussed aspects of the story that I have not seen highlighted by other media sources. Reid interviewed Washington Post reporter Spencer Hsu. Hsu also got the story right.

    The video is 10:33 minutes long.

  297. says

    Leave it to Joy Reid, a real journalist, to get the whole Clinton Foundation story right.

    Honestly, I’d love it if Joy Reid were on all day at MSNBC. She’s phenomenal,* and everyone before Chris Hayes on weekdays is mediocre to terrible. I miss Alex Wagner – she was on “With All Due Respect” this week, which was nice, but watching her unfortunately meant putting up with the regular bozos.

    More bad demographic news for the Republican Party:…

    So what are Republicans doing about this? They are fielding candidates like Donald Trump to make sure Hispanics identify the Republican Party as the party of bigotry and doom.

    Two recent books, both quick reads, relevant to this issue:

    The End of White Christian America, Robert P. Jones (very useful, though a couple of the arguments are infuriating)

    White Rage, Carol Anderson (highly recommended)

    * She shut down an attempt today to suggest that Planned Parenthood was eugenicist with grace and speed. It was beautiful.

  299. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Twilight Zone territory for The Donald. NSA is protecting Hillary e-mails.

    Donald Trump accused the National Security Agency on Friday of having the ability to access Hillary Clinton’s erased emails, but declining to do so in order to protect the Democratic presidential nominee.
    “I hear the NSA maybe has the emails,” Trump said in a phone interview on Fox News’ “On The Record.” “A lot of people say the NSA would have the emails if they really wanted to get them.”
    “Obviously they don’t want to get them,” he added. “They’re protecting her, they’re coddling her. And it’s the only way she could even consider running.”

    I think The Donald’s Tin Foil Hat is on too tight.

  300. says

    People keep trying to take the Associated Press to task for their inaccurate headlines and inaccurate reporting/tweeting, but the AP refuses to acknowledge the errors. Here is an excerpt from an CNN show hosted by Brian Stelter:

    STELTER: Really one of the things that was scrutinized the most was that tweet, let’s put it back on screen if we can. It suggested that half of the people Clinton met, overall during her State Department time were donors to the Clinton Foundation. Would you agree that tweet was inaccurate?

    KATHLEEN CARROLL, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ASSOCIATED PRESS: I would say that we’re a lot better at breaking stories and covering news and gathering video and taking photographs than we are on tweets on some day and this one could have used some more precision.

    STELTER: Does that mean regret?

    CARROLL: No. If we felt it was wrong we would have taken it down right away.

    STELTER: But it was wrong. It says that half of the people she met with were donors.

    CARROLL: Yeah. I think it was sloppy.

    STELTER: Sloppy?

    CARROLL: Yeah.

    STELTER: Why not delete it? Why not take it down and correct it?

    CARROLL: Well, you know maybe going forward we would need to work more on our precision on the tweets.

    http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/08/28/ap-executive-editor-refuses-take-down-clinton-foundation-tweet-she-admits-sloppy/212713

    “Precision” my ass. How about just not purposely misleading everyone who reads the lie you posted?

  301. says

    We don’t want no stinkin’ atheist money:

    On Monday, Matt Wilbourn, the founder of the Muskogee Atheist Community in Oklahoma, made a $100 donation in his organization’s name to the Murrow Indian Children’s Home. Later that day, his phone rang.

    “I received a phone call an hour later from the lady who accepted my donation earlier telling me that her director asked her to call me and tell me that my donation was not accepted,” Wilbourn wrote on a Go Fund Me page. “She went on to say that they are funded by the American Baptist Churches Association and accepting a donation from atheists would go against everything they believe in.”

    “I emailed the director and even told her that I’m raising the amount to $250. I’m awaiting her response,” he added.

    Wilbourn and his wife, Keli, launched a fundraiser for the children’s home after their experience. As of Saturday night, they had raised more than $28,000 for the kids, from religious people and atheists outraged at Wilbourn’s rejection.

    “I am a Christian who stands with the Muskogee Atheist Community today! Thank you for fighting back with love instead of spreading hateful words,” wrote Sherry Phillips-Kidd, and online supporter.

    “My advice to Murrow Indian Children’s Home: Don’t perish while clinging to the steeple of your burning church because you rejected the rescue helicopter in favor of holding out for the firetruck you prayed God to send,” Joe Miller, another backer, wrote. […]

    Link

  302. says

    Even students at evangelical Christian colleges are rejecting Trump … well, some of them are.

    […] Trump’s VP nominee railed against Hillary Clinton in Northern Virginia on Saturday afternoon—but he chose to do it at an evangelical Christian college with a history of anti-Trump sentiment. Students protested outside, while inside students stood in silent protest until they were ejected mid-speech.

    The protests and poor attendance at the speech at Patrick Henry College illustrate the challenges that Trump has appealing to evangelical Christians, especially younger ones, who are turned off by his tone, his campaign ideas and his personal history—and are not at all assauged by his choice of Pence for his running mate. […]

    Link

  303. says

    Some anti-science folderol is going on in Utah, and taxpayers are paying for it.

    The keynote speaker for Uintah County’s annual Uintah Basin Energy Summit is a controversial climate-change denier noted for right-wing propaganda and smear campaigns against scientists who warn about global warming.

    Marc Morano […] has been criticized for scolding […] scientists who warn of climate change and then releasing their personal emails, resulting in threatening messages. […]

    Morano worked for Rush Limbaugh in the 1990s […], where he published the since-debunked Swift Boat Veterans’ attacks on 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s record in Vietnam.

    He served as director of communications for Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, one of the Senate’s most ardent climate-change deniers.

    Morano, with no formal education in climate science, also founded and became executive editor of Climate Depot, a website devoted to countering climate scientists’ warnings about global warming. In 2012, Media Matters dubbed him “Climate-Change Misinformer of the Year.” […]

    “I could see it if an oil and gas association brought him in to speak to their skepticism about the climate-change argument,” said Matt Pacenza, executive director of HEAL Utah. “But this is a government-sponsored event, and he is being paid with taxpayer money.”

    Event sponsors include the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA), Utah State University, the Governor’s Office of Energy Development, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and Rocky Mountain Power. […]

    Sylvia Wilkins, of Uintah County Travel and Tourism, said sponsors try to include a variety of speakers.

    “Having Marc Morano as our keynote speaker does not mean that his views are shared or endorsed by Uintah County and its governing officials. The energy summit takes place because of the many industry partners and stakeholders that come together to sponsor the event.”

    Salt Lake Tribune link

    From the readers’ comments section:

    Just as it would be inappropriate for a scientist to stand at the pulpit during general conference and slam the LDS religion, it’s just as inappropriate to have some religious wacko preaching at a yearly energy summit. Its a secular event, meant for scientific experts not religious nuts.
    ——————
    99% of “scientists” said the earth was flat
    ——————————-
    The second side is not saying that they earth is not getting warmer; rather they are saying let’s show reason, logic, and science in developing good approaches. [bullshit]
    ——————
    “…rather they are saying let’s show reason, logic, and science in developing good approaches.” Because having 95% of the world’s real climate scientists, you know, the ones who actually study climate science and have PhDs and do research and use “reason, logic, and science” and everything, just isn’t enough. Instead let’s listen to swift-boaters and Rush and shills for big energy corporations because hey! Both sides do it!
    ——————
    Yes, yes, we know. There are many opinions to be shared on the topic. I think you’re not seeing the big picture. Marc Morano is a known and proven charlatan. He’s a professional liar. His claims and fear mongering against climate change is unwarranted. He has no credentials. The guy is a fraud. So, that’s someone you want telling lies to those who attend the energy conference? For what? Comedy relief?

  304. says

    Hillary Clinton released a plan to improve mental health care in the USA. Here are a few highlights:
    – federal support for suicide prevention
    – improving the way(s) in which the criminal justice system (including police) deal with individuals who have mental health problems
    – behavioral science research
    – neurological research
    – housing and jobs for people with mental health issues
    – integrating community-based or local treatment with broader healthcare systems
    – expanded reimbursement for collaborative care, with reimbursements coming from Medicare and Medicaid
    – more attention to veterans with mental health issues

    More details on the issue of parity between mental health care and physical health care:

    The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, which Hillary proudly co-sponsored, requires that mental health benefits under group health plans be equal to benefits for other medical conditions. The Affordable Care Act built on this important law by requiring that insurance plans offered in the individual and small group markets offer mental health coverage as an essential health benefit. But while the right laws are on the books, they are too often ignored or not enforced. Millions of Americans still get turned away when seeking treatment for mental illness, even when the interventions are well-established and evidence-based. A recent report published by the National Alliance on Mental Illness suggested that a patient seeking mental health services is twice as likely to be denied coverage by a private insurer as a patient seeking general medical care.

    Hillary Clinton link.

    Clinton’s plan bolsters enforcement of existing parity laws, and it improves monitoring for compliance with those laws.

  305. says

    The doctor who wrote the absurd laudatory letter supposedly confirming Donald Trump’s “astonishingly excellent” health, Harold Bornstein, is coming under increasing scrutiny.

    Politico link

    Hillary clinton link

    1. Jacob Bornstein, M.D.—whose name appears first in the letterhead—passed away in 2010, five years before this letter was published.

    2. P.C. typically denotes a firm or medical practice (versus a practitioner).

    3. The website listed does not exist.

    4. Usually, doctors’ letters released publicly do not include email addresses, in order to avoid HIPAA violations.

    5. There’s a pretty glaring typo at the start of the letter.

    6. The manner in which Dr. Bornstein describes Donald Trump’s tests is positively alarming. “Positive” test results might sound good but, as all doctors (and patients!) should know, they indicate that you have the condition you were tested for.

    7. Dr. Bornstein describes Trump’s lab test results as “astonishingly excellent,” which isn’t a real medical description. And while we’re at it: Why would a doctor ever be astonished by good test results?

    8. At least 15 pounds? Scales these days can accurately measure weight loss, but maybe Dr. Bornstein was just eyeballing it.

    9. Similarly, “test scores” aren’t a real thing doctors give. This isn’t math class, it’s medicine.

    10. Dr. Bornstein doesn’t explain what tests he conducted to know that Trump’s “physical strength and stamina are extraordinary,” so we’ll just have to take his word for it.

    11. “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” What a whopper of a closing statement! We feel confident saying Dr. Bornstein has never examined George Washington.

    12. Dr. Bornstein includes the abbreviation “F.A.C.G.” in his signature. One problem there: He hasn’t actually been a fellow at the American College of Gastroenterologists since 1995.

    13. Although Dr. Bornstein is affiliated with Lenox Hill Hospital, he’s nowhere to be found on its Division of Gastroenterology page—which he (incorrectly) calls “Section of Gastroenterology” in his signature. […]

  306. says

    Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, is separating from her husband Anthony Weiner. Of course, Trump thought he should weigh in on this personal matter.

    “Huma is making a very wise decision,” Trump said in a statement. “I know Anthony Weiner well, and she will be far better off without him.”

    Trump then tied in Hillary Clinton, casting the Democratic presidential nominee as a candidate with poor judgment.

    “I only worry for the country in that Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information,” he said in the statement.

    “Who knows what he learned and who he told? It’s just another example of Hillary Clinton’s bad judgment. It is possible that our country and its security have been greatly compromised by this.”

    […] Abedin said she made the decision “after long and painful consideration and work on my marriage.”

    Link

    The idea that Huma Abedin would have shared state secrets with her husband is ridiculous. Trump has been claiming that Abedin shared classified information with others for some time. It’s one of his smear tactics.

  309. blf says

    Lynna@303, Dr Jen Gunter did a fairly exhaustive analysis of teh trum-prat’s doctor’s letter (I’m a doctor these are the things I find concerning with Trump’s medical letter). In that analysis and the readers’s comments, it was pointed out a few of issues aren’t too problematic; e.g., the website used to exist, and the letterhead (and practice name?) apparently simply wasn’t changed after the elder Dr Bornstein died.

    Dr Jenson and her readers are nonetheless quite critical of the letter, calling it (as examples) “medically illiterate” with “nonsensical medical information” and “[providing] essentially no medical information.”

  310. says

    blf @307, thanks for the additional information. I think the “medically illiterate” and “nonsensical” descriptions are the most damning.

    In other news, Trump’s V.P. pick, Mike Pence, tried to reassure voters by saying that the “deportation force” that Trump called for previously is a “mechanism” and not a “policy.” WTF?

  311. says

    A district judge in Arkansas is running what is essentially a debtor’s prison:

    […] In a nearly 60 page lawsuit filed against the city of Sherwood, Pulaski County and District Judge Milas Hale Tuesday, the ACLU of Arkansas along with several law groups, challenges what it calls a violation of constitutional rights for people accused of writing hot checks. […]

    “The problem is there’s just no due process that’s afforded these people,” Sklar [Rita Sklar, with the ACLU of Arkansas] said.

    Sklar says the check writers are not asked about their financial state or if they can afford to pay the fines and court fees, sometimes landing them behind bars.

    The lawsuit also alleges the hot check suspects wait in a line at the district court house and often by the time they make it through, they’re not offered legal counsel before heading into the courtroom.

    “You can walk in there with a $15 check that you bounced and walk out of there with $400 that you owe in fees, fines and costs,” Sklar said. […]

    “It’s really making money on the backs of the poor and it is hard to think of anything more reprehensible to be honest with you,” Godbee [Jama Godbee, owner of Kiehl Avenue Flea Market] said. […]

    Arkansas Matters link

  312. says

    Bette Midler says, “Donald Trump calls on Hillary to shut down her foundation. Meanwhile, we’re all still begging him to choose a more natural color for his.”

  313. says

    Oh, man oh man. This is really bad news about possible election-rigging schemes that have nothing to do with the kind of “rigged system” Trump has been talking about:

    The FBI has uncovered evidence that foreign hackers penetrated two state election databases in recent weeks, prompting the bureau to warn election officials across the country to take new steps to enhance the security of their computer systems, according to federal and state law enforcement officials.

    The FBI warning, contained in a “flash” alert from the FBI’s Cyber Division, a copy of which was obtained by Yahoo News, comes amid heightened concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about the possibility of cyberintrusions, potentially by Russian state-sponsored hackers, aimed at disrupting the November elections. […]

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/fbi-says-foreign-hackers-penetrated-000000175.html

  314. says

    This transcript of a robocall from David Duke says it all:

    Hi, this is David Duke. I’m sorry I missed you. I’m running for U.S. Senate.

    I’ll tell the truth that no other candidate will dare say. Unless massive immigration is stopped now, we’ll be out numbered and outvoted in our own nation. It’s happening.

    We’re losing our gun rights, our free speech. We’re taxed to death. We’re losing our jobs and businesses to unfair trade. We’re losing our country. Look at the Super Bowl salute to the Black Panther cop killers. [Oh, look, a Beyoncé reference.]

    It’s time to stand up and vote for Donald Trump for president and vote for me David Duke for the U.S. Senate. I’d love to hear from you. To find out more contribute or volunteer for the DavidDuke.com. Go to Davidduke.com. Together, we’ll save America and save Louisiana. Paid for by the Duke campaign.

    Yes, Trump is the candidate for white supremacists.

  315. says

    Wonkette covered Donald Trump’s plans to include actual black voters in his outreach to black voters:

    Donald Trump is really really serious about his outreach to black voters (no he isn’t, not one bit), and to prove it, he’s even planning to brave the mean streets of a black city and visit an African-American church in Detroit Saturday, with actual black people in the audience. That’s going to make it really difficult for his security team to decide who needs to be removed in advance. […]

  316. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Lynna #313, what if no black voters show up inside the church, but are only outside protesting his white supremacist support? Camera op, if that is the case.

  318. says

    Nerd and blf, my bet is that Trump and his cohorts have carefully planned this outing. It will be scripted. It will include an apparently polite black audience. We’ll see.

  319. says

    We have more good news related to private prisons. See comment 133 for previous discussion.

    The Department of Homeland Security plans to study the use of privately run detention centers for migrants (undocumented immigrants). The detention centers have been criticized as unsafe on several levels (health, sanitation, medical services, physical safety, etc.). DHS may discontinue the use of these privately run prisons.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-prisons-immigration-idUSKCN1141W7

  320. says

    This is a followup to comments 41, 48, 76, 83 (Nerd), 85 (militant agnostic), 125, 137, 140, 183, 210, and 236.

    I have a headache. Be warned, after reading this you may have one too. Sarah Palin has weighed in on the issue of Hillary Clinton’s health.

    Leave Hillary Alone, Bullies. Aww, c’mon guys, give her a break. Anyone can be out of commission…. for weeks on end… whilst in the heat of battle for the highest office in the land. No press conferences for nearly a year? No scheduled campaign events for days upon days? No statements, no answers, no accountability, no problem. Layin’ low to run out the clock before November, but you’re SEXIST for noticing it.

    Good thing media didn’t hound the crap out of ’08 candidate John McCain for his decades-old military medical records or I’d guess them to be hypocrites. Leave Hillary alone! All that email-evidenced yoga, and wedding planning, and cookie-baking-grandma-duty wears you out. Believe you me.

    Rock-running recently, I tripped over my own two feet and crashed & burned face-first. I recovered with the doc’s SuperGlue, and now any man who asks “what happened?” I’ll refer to as just a mean ol’ SEXIST bully. The next woman running for POTUS has no need to answer to much of anything, for we’ve got weddings to plan, and Down Dogs to do, and cookies in the oven! So just leave us alone, boys.

    The text is from Palin’s Facebook page.

  321. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    re 318:
    sympathies for reading Palin do a ‘double sexism’ while calling Clinton detractors “sexist”.
    Irony flies right over her head, don’t it? (errr maybe not “irony” but “self-contradictory”, or some weird pretzel logic thingie)

  322. says

    slithey tove, I’ll op for “weird pretzel logic” as the best explanation.

    In other news: Trump surrogate, Pastor Mark Burns, tweeted out a cartoon of Hillary Clinton in blackface. Burns is an African American man who is also a rabid Trump follower.

    The black-faced Hillary is holding a placard that says “Fuck the police” with the “fuck” rendered as “#@!*”. (So, is Pastor Burns an NWA fan that watched the film “Straight Outta Compton”?) She is wearing a T-shirt that says “No hot sauce no peace!” The cartoon has Clinton saying: “I ain’t no ways tired of pandering to African Americans. Black Americans, THANK YOU FOR YOUR VOTES and letting me use you again..See you again in 4 years.”

    Burns says the cartoon is satire. The text he used echoes Trump’s claims that Hillary Clinton is a “bigot” that thinks of African Americans only as votes and not as humans.

    The cartoon may have been removed from Burns’s Twitter account. Burns posted an apology video.

    You can see the original cartoon here:
    https://twitter.com/thehill?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
    Scroll down to find the blackface image.

    http://www.npr.org/2016/08/29/491858156/trump-surrogate-tweets-cartoon-of-hillary-clinton-in-blackface

  323. says

    This is a followup to comments 303 and 307.

    More news related to the eccentric doctor who wrote Trump’s absurd medical non-history recommendation letter. Doctor Harold Bernstein may have “overmedicated” patients who then died in his care.

    [….] In 2002, he paid $86,250 to the husband of former patient to settle a lawsuit alleging that Bornstein overmedicated his wife with powerful, unneeded prescriptions, which contributed to her addiction—and ultimately her death.

    The 2002 lawsuit is one of three malpractice claims brought against Trump’s long-time gastroenterologist since 1992, two of which allege the doctor improperly administered powerful drugs which led to the death of patients. Both of those cases were settled before jury trials, with no finding of liability against Dr. Bornstein. […]

    In one of the complaints, reviewed by The Daily Beast, Kenneth Levin alleged Bornstein, “was negligent, careless, and unskilled in failing to properly diagnose the plaintiff” in treating his wife, Janet Levin.

    The complaint also alleges Bornstein was negligent “in failing to make a referral to a mental health professional; in wrongfully prescribing tuinal, morphine, and valium, particularly in light of the history of drinking; in improperly and negligently seeing the patient without providing treatment; and in overmedicating the decedent.”

    According to the complaint, Bornstein began treating 49-year-old Janet Levin in 1994 and soon was seeing her “several times a week,” but provided no further medical treatment other than medicating her with the medications tuinal and valium “greatly in excess of appropriate dosages.” […]

    “He prescribed for her medication disproportionate for her physical weight and she ended up falling and dying,” the family member said. “I’m not saying it is because of him, but he contributed for her death. This is now 18 years ago. […]

    Lorraine Pollifrone alleged Bornstein “improperly medicated” her husband 57-year-old Vincent Pollifrone, causing his death during a colonoscopy. […]

    More details are presented in the article by Brandy Zadrozny for The Daily Beast.

  325. says

    There are pages at the Therapists’ Manifesto site suggesting ways members of the public can participate and responding to questions and concerns from therapists. The latter page is very interesting – for example:

    Doesn’t this manifesto cross the line between professional work and political work?

    This question goes to the heart of the matter. If you treat anxious or depressed Latino or Muslim clients who are frightened about Trumpism, is your job only to treat their symptoms or to also oppose public xenophobia? If you treat couples where men are influenced by a culture of double-down, admit-no-mistakes masculinity, is your work only with your own clients when hyper-masculinity is now being culturally celebrated?

    …

    We have to be concerned with public mental health and the social conditions that promote human flourishing or dysfunction, which means public involvement–a citizen politics that does begin and end with casting ballots or supporting candidates.

    We believe the nature of our work combines the private and the public–and public work is inherently political, not in the sense of “support my candidate” but rather as we-the-people exercising civic muscle to improve our communities and our world, and when necessary, to stand in opposition to forces that threaten public well-being.

  326. says

    Here’s an update on the latest polls.

    News/SurveyMonkey poll:
    Hillary Clinton: 48% (down from 50% last week)
    Donald Trump: 42% (unchanged since last week)

    Public Policy Polling results:
    Hillary Clinton 48% (down from 50% a month ago)
    Donald Trump 43% (down from 45% a month ago)

    Monmouth University Poll:
    Hillary Clinton 49% (up from 47% in June)
    Donald Trump 42% (up from 40% in June)

  327. says

    This is a followup to comment 302, in which Hillary Clinton’s plan to improve mental health services was discussed.

    The Republican National Committee did not respond to Clinton’s plan, not even with the usual “it will cost too much” press release.

    Donald Trump did not respond to Clinton’s mental health plan, but he did talk about Anthony Weiner at lot. (Trump doesn’t have a plan.)

    No Congressional Republicans responded.

    Republicans seem to be totally disinterested in policy. In the meantime, Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, says, “So much of the campaign has been content-free cacophony, with no substance being discussed.” Yeah, right. Talk to your candidate about that.

  328. says

    Here’s another rightwing meme that should have been thrown in the garbage a lot time ago, but which recently resurfaced. The smear this time is that Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin are romantically involved.

    To give new life to this rumor, The Drudge Report posted a photo earlier today of Hillary Clinton giving Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi a hug in 2011, when Clinton was Secretary of State. No, Matthew Drudge, that is not Huma Abedin. That is Aung San Suu Kyi. And, no, that has nothing to do with a lesbian relationship nor with any kind of sexual romance.

    […] The photo only shows Suu Kyi’s back, but NBC News’ Bradd Jaffy pointed out on Twitter that the photo does not show Abedin at all. He also pointed out that the same photo had been incorrectly used on anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller’s website before.

    Rumors that have long circulated in the fever swamps of the right-wing internet that Clinton and Abedin, who now serves as her campaign co-chair, are somehow romantically involved have came to a head again after Abedin, who is married to former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), announced the couple’s separation on Monday.

    The separation followed the news that Weiner was accused of sending lewd photos of himself to other women, which he was caught doing twice before, ending both his congressional career and his 2013 bid for mayor of New York City.

    Drudge changed the photo on the post to one of Clinton and Abedin around 10:30 a.m.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/drudge-confuses-abedin-aung-san-suu-kyi

    What a bunch of doofuses. Pamela Geller’s anti-Muslim lies and smears also feed Breitbart News.

  329. says

    The US met its goal of resettling 10,000 refugees from Syria. That number is small when you compare it to the much larger number of refugees that need resettlement (about 1/5th of 1%), and it is small when you compare it to the better job Canada is doing when it comes to resettling refugees from Syria.

    But, when you compare that 10,000 number to the number that Trump and other Republicans wanted to resettle in the USA, it is huge. This is a victory for the Obama administration, considering the political climate.

    “Our 10,000th Syrian refugee will arrive this afternoon,” National Security Advisor Susan said in a statement. “On behalf of the President and his Administration, I extend the warmest of welcomes to each and every one of our Syrian arrivals, as well as the many other refugees resettled this year from all over the world.”

    The announcement comes after months of widespread criticism over the pace of the resettlement from one side of the aisle […]

    [I snipped details of Republican obstructionism, and snipped chart showing a rebuttal to Governors of some states that are refusing to take in Syrian refugees.]

    Governors from more than half of country are attempting to block refugees… […]

    Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump played on the nation’s anxieties by saying there is “no system to vet” Syrian refugees and a “better, bigger, more horrible version of the legendary Trojan horse.” Politifact checked Trump’s statement and labelled it ‘false’.

    In fact, the U.S. has an extremely strenuous screening process for refugees, […] 80 percent of whom are women or children, countering the right wing narrative that most Syrian refugees are working age men […]

    Think Progress link

    […] More than 800,000 refugees have been resettled in the U.S. since 9/11. “In those 14 years, exactly three resettled refugees have been arrested for planning terrorist activities — and it is worth noting two were not planning an attack in the United States and the plans of the third were barely credible,” Kathleen Newland, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, wrote in an op-ed last year.

  330. says

    Mother Jones published an article that presents proof that former models for Trump Model Management worked in the USA illegally, without proper work permits.

    […] Trump Model Management has profited from using foreign models who came to the United States on tourist visas that did not permit them to work here, according to three former Trump models, all noncitizens, who shared their stories with Mother Jones. Financial and immigration records included in a recent lawsuit filed by a fourth former Trump model show that she, too, worked for Trump’s agency in the United States without a proper visa.

    Foreigners who visit the United States as tourists are generally not permitted to engage in any sort of employment unless they obtain a special visa, a process that typically entails an employer applying for approval on behalf of a prospective employee. Employers risk fines and possible criminal charges for using undocumented labor.

    Founded in 1999, Trump Model Management “has risen to the top of the fashion market,” boasts the Trump Organization’s website, and has a name “that symbolizes success.” According to a financial disclosure filed by his campaign in May, Donald Trump earned nearly $2 million from the company, in which he holds an 85 percent stake. Meanwhile, some former Trump models say they barely made any money working for the agency because of the high fees for rent and other expenses that were charged by the company.

    Canadian-born Rachel Blais spent nearly three years working for Trump Model Management. After first signing with the agency in March 2004, she said, she performed a series of modeling gigs for Trump’s company in the United States without a work visa.

    […] Blais provided a detailed financial statement from Trump Model Management and a letter from an immigration lawyer who, in the fall of 2004, eventually secured a visa that would permit her to work legally in the United States. These records show a six-month gap between when she began working in the United States and when she was granted a work visa. During that time, Blais appeared on Trump’s hit reality TV show, The Apprentice, modeling outfits designed by his business protégés. As Blais walked the runway, Donald Trump looked on from the front row. […]

    Two other former Trump models—who requested anonymity to speak freely about their experiences, and who we are giving the pseudonyms Anna and Kate—said the agency never obtained work visas on their behalf, even as they performed modeling assignments in the United States. (They provided photographs from some of these jobs, and Mother Jones confirmed with the photographers or stylists that these shoots occurred in the United States.)

    […] without work visas, they lived in constant fear of getting caught. […]

    Blais once appeared in various publications, including Vogue, Elle, and Harpers Bazaar, and she posed wearing the designs of such fashion luminaries as Gianfranco Ferré, Dolce & Gabbana, and Jean Paul Gaultier. Her modeling career began when she was 16 and spanned numerous top-name agencies across four continents.

    […] In a recent interview, she said her experience with Trump’s firm stood out: “Honestly, they are the most crooked agency I’ve ever worked for, and I’ve worked for quite a few.”

    I snipped the details of the horrible living conditions in which Trump housed his models (crowded basement rooms for which models were charged huge fees, no air conditioning, etc.

    Trump did not pay his models will, or even at all:

    “It was very much the case of you earn your visa,” Anna said. “Essentially, if you got enough work and they liked you enough, they’d pay for a visa, but you weren’t about to see a dime before you could prove your worth.”

    Trump charged his models for trainers, beauty treatments, travel, rent, and administrative costs.

    “This is a system where they actually end up making money on the back of these foreign workers,” Blais added. She noted that models can end up in debt to their agencies, once rent and numerous other fees are extracted. […]

    “It is like modern-day slavery” Blais said of working for Trump Model Management—and she is not alone in describing her time with Trump’s company in those terms. Former Trump model Alexia Palmer, who filed a lawsuit against Trump Model Management for fraud and wage theft in 2014, has said she “felt like a slave.” […]

  331. says

    We can add this Nevada Republican to our ever-growing list showing “the company Trump keeps.” Trump follower Wayne Allyn Root claims to be in Trump’s inner circle, and Root led Trump campaign rallies in Nevada. Root is a doofus.

    Root said:

    […] that people who receive federal benefits such as Medicaid, welfare and food stamps should lose their right to vote, as should women who use “free contraception” under the Affordable Care Act.

    […] Roughly one in five Americans benefit from means-tested benefit programs, while 67 percent of women with private health insurance use copay-free contraception through the Affordable Care Act (which, by the way, is paid for by insurance companies, not by the federal government).

    Root [said] “the middle class is basically paying, paying, paying and the poor get everything free, and it’s a disaster.” […]

    “So if the people who payed the taxes were the only ones allowed to vote, we’d have landslide [Republican] victories,” he said, “[…] People with conflict of interest shouldn’t be allowed to vote. If you collect welfare, you have no right to vote. The day you get off welfare, you get your voting rights back. […]”

    “Social Security should not, Medicare should not, because you paid into the system,” he said. “But all the other stuff, all the other goodies, free Obama phones, free contraception, you know what, you can get them but you shouldn’t be allowed to vote, it’s a conflict of interest. Take that away, we’d win every single election in this country.”

    Link

  334. says

    Yeah, Trump is landing in Mexico today. He is going to meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at Nieto’s invitation. Nieto also invited Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s team said that she will meet with Nieto when the time is right (paraphrase).

    Apparently Steve Bannon talked Trump into going to Mexico. It was such a last minute decision that all kinds of security and organizational teams were up all night to make it happen. My assessment is that to Trump it matters very little what is said during the meeting. What matters more is that he commands the spotlight during the current news cycle.

    Steve Benen, writing for The Maddow Blog, made some good points about Trump’s visit to Mexico:

    1. Trump has repeatedly trashed Mexico and Mexicans. In case no one’s noticed, Trump hasn’t exactly been generous in his praise of our neighbors to the South. Today’s trip creates an opportunity to revisit all of the ugly comments the GOP candidate has made about Mexico and Mexicans, which has cost him considerable support among U.S. Latinos.

    2. Nieto has his own domestic politics to consider. There’s ample evidence that Trump is deeply unpopular in Mexico, so its president has no incentive to be a warm, welcoming host. On the contrary, Nieto, who has his own domestic political problems to deal with, would very likely get a boost in his home country by making every effort to embarrass Trump publicly. (Remember, earlier this year, Nieto compared Trump to Hitler.)

    3. Failure is an option. Trump actually seems to believe he can go to Mexico, initiate some substantive negotiations, and push Mexican officials into making some concessions. If those efforts come up short, as appears likely, the Republican who assures voters he can convince Mexico to pay for a border wall will be stuck with another election-year failure.

    4. There’s no realistic way this will alter the presidential race. I’m trying to think of the U.S. constituency that will say, “I was skeptical of Trump before, but now that he’s made a brief, last-minute trip to Mexico, where he’s widely loathed, I’m starting to see him as a statesman.” It’s exceedingly unlikely that such voters exist.

  335. says

    Here is a nice roundup of some of the worst things Trump has said about Mexico and and about Mexican immigrants. You will recognize the first one, but may be surprised how thoroughly Trump has doubled and tripled down on the insults:

    When Mexico sends their people … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.
    —————-
    What can be simpler or more accurately stated? The Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.
    —————-
    (In the interview, Trump left no doubt that he believes the Mexican government is taking an active role in pushing migrants into the United States: He used the word “forcing” four times to describe what the government was doing.) Link.
    ——————
    “The Mexican legal system is corrupt, as is much of Mexico. Pay me the money that is owed me now – and stop sending criminals over our border,” said Trump, who at the time was engaged in litigation in the country over a resort in Baja.
    —————–
    [From Trump’s website]: The Mexican government and its leadership has made many disparaging remarks about me to the Pope, because they want to continue to rip off the United States, both on trade and at the border, and they understand I am totally wise to them. The Pope only heard one side of the story – he didn’t see the crime, the drug trafficking and the negative economic impact the current policies have on the United States. …

    They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant.
    —————-
    If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened.
    —————
    Republican White House hopeful Donald Trump has said he would stop cash sent home by Mexicans based in the US, until the country pays for a border wall.

    The prospect of losing a vital source of income would force Mexico into a “one-time payment” of $5-10bn, says Mr Trump. BBC link.

    Several commenters on Twitter have noted that, now that Trump is in Mexico, we should definitely build the wall, ground his plane, and put Trump in prison over that Baja deal.

  336. says

    There’s a lot of activity on Twitter today under the hashtags #YouAreNotWelcome and #NoEresBienvenidoTrump.

    Here a few examples:

    Listen @realDonaldTrump, we Mexicans expect nothing less than an apology for calling us “criminals and rapists”. [from historian Enrique Krauze]
    ————-
    Moctezuma invitó a almorzar a Hernán Cortés y le fue súper bien. Eso le dijeron sus asesores a Peña Nieto. Y allá vamos. [from Mexican novelist Antonio Ortuño: “Montezuma invited Hernán Cortés to lunch and it went really well. That’s what Peña Nieto’s advisors told him. And here we go.”]
    ————
    Sr. @realDonaldTrump aunque lo hayan invitado, sepa que no es bienvenido. Los mexicanos tenemos dignidad y repudiamos su discurso de odio. [from Margarita Zavala de Calderón, politician and wife of former Mexican President Felipe Calderón: “Mr. @realDonaldTrump even though you’ve been invited, know that you’re not welcome. We Mexicans have dignity and reject your hate speech.”]
    —————
    This is what @realDonaldTrump said about Mexicans: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Yes, Mexicans remember. [from Univison anchor Jorge Ramos]
    ——————
    La mayor estupidez en la historia de la presidencia mexicana. No tiene paralelo lo que acaban de anunciar. [from academic Jesús Silva-Herzog Márquez: “The greatest stupidity in the history of the Mexican presidency. What they just announced is unparalleled.”]
    —————–
    La lista es gigante: La corrupción, la incapacidad, la falta de conciencia del bien común – y ahora esto – convierte a @epn en un traidor. [from actor Gael García Bernal: “The list is huge: corruption, incompetency, lack of awareness of the common good—and now this—makes @epn a traitor.”]

  337. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    A news report of another potential “Freedom Caucus” revolt against House Speaker Ryan. It appears to have been triggered by the primary defeat of Kansas Representative Tim Huelskamp by double digits to a more moderate republican.

    Conservatives don’t have enough votes to oust Ryan (R-Wis.). But they say their coup movement shows his hold on the speakership is far more tenuous than he realizes. Denying Ryan re-election on the first ballot would undermine his political future and cast him as a conservative pariah, they say, and may give conservatives leverage to enact rules changes that would help them push their agenda for years…
    House Freedom Caucus members are discussing four major proposals, though the talks are in early stages and haven’t gained formal backing. Their ideas include increasing caucus representation on committees, bulking up subcommittee staff with hard-liners who could be groomed for election, allowing the GOP House campaign arm to collect contributions for the Freedom Caucus that could be directed to conservative candidates, and clarifying rules-suspension votes….
    One HFC member said Ryan came into the speakership promising to try to stop establishment GOP groups from going after conservatives…

    Sounds like a bunch of spoiled brats who don’t understand how to work properly with their colleagues.

  338. says

    Hillary Clinton commented further on Trump’s trip to Mexico.

    “You don’t build a coalition by insulting our friends or acting like a loose cannon. You do it by putting in the slow, hard, work of building relationships,” she said while talking about international diplomacy. “It’s more than a photo op. It takes consistency and reliability.”

    “And it certainly takes more than trying to make up for a year of insults and insinuations by dropping in on our neighbors for a few hours, and then flying home again,” she added. “That is not how it works.”

    Link

    Clinton was speaking at an American Legion convention in Ohio today. She made the point that, as a Senator, she had worked to increase the funds paid to Gold Star Families. She also covered health issues for vets, the importance of working with our NATO allies, and Trump’s undisciplined approach to nuclear disarmament.

  339. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    re 336:
    my strawman Trump would tell all the residents of Mexico that he is visiting to applaud them for STAYING IN MEXICO. That he only said the Mexican government was dumping all the druggies and rapists rounded up n Mexico on America. That’s what the wall is for, to keep the crims from escaping Mexico justice. Believe. Me. I. Can. Do. It. ____ With Me Your Problems Will Be Solved Bing Bing Bavoom.
    Drumph is a master of flipping his words around all over to make himself look good, regardless of how offensive it was.
    [more gordian knot than pretzel for his lodge-ick [reed as phonemes] ]

  340. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Dang, Xfinity “upgraded” their website today, and navigation to find the news is mess. Did run across this article
    What We Found Reading 3,721 Pages of Hillary Clinton’s Schedule
    I liked the lead:

    Hillary Clinton’s life is exhausting. Even reading Clinton’s schedule is exhausting. I know, because I did it — I read every page of Clinton’s State Department schedule from early 2009 through the middle of 2011 when she was secretary.

    Reads like a consummate politician in action.
    A Sec. of State “snow day”:

    Hillary Clinton does not take snow days

    Over the weekend of the 2010 “Snowmageddon” storm on the East Coast, Clinton hunkered down at her home in New York, making phone calls. On Saturday, she called diplomat Strobe Talbot at 8 a.m., the president of Honduras at 9:15, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at 9:30, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit at 10:06.

    But on Sunday, all shuttles to D.C. were canceled due to the snowstorm, which was on its way to inundating the state of Maryland with a peak of more than 38 inches of snow. So at 9 a.m. on Monday, Clinton set out by car to Washington, arriving at her D.C. home a grueling 6½ hours later. On the way, her schedule shows, she worked the phones, calling State Department officials throughout the road trip. On Tuesday and Wednesday, she stayed at home in Georgetown, again working the phones.

    And even strange events:

    She once conducted a ribbon cutting in the shower
    On Monday, March 15, 2010, Clinton attended a dedication ceremony in the basement of the State Department for a set of new showers for employees who wanted to bike or run to work and needed a place to clean up. The calendar entry indicates that Clinton took a “brief tour of the showers” and posed for photos with the staff who engineered the shower project.

    I got tired just reading the article.

  341. says

    Nerd @340, That amount of detail shows that Trump is lying when he says that Clinton is weak and has no stamina.

    In other news, more coverage of the speech Clinton gave today (see comment 338):

    For much of the speech, Hillary concentrated on laying out her record as a supporter of the active military, of veterans, and of military families. And she detailed actions that the next president should take to ensure that the American military retains a preeminent position including preventing the privatization of the Veterans Administration, and ending the sequestration so the Pentagon and other agencies can plan for sensible, consistent funding rather than dealing with arbitrary cuts.

    Thoughout the speech Clinton maintained a posture that was itself humble. She constantly spoke of her previous service as a “privilege,” pointed up her awareness of the sacrifices made by members of the armed services and their families, and frequently referred to the presidency as an open question, as in “whoever is elected” and “if I am given the great honor of serving.”

    It wasn’t Hillary Clinton’s most beautiful speech. It had lists of policy points mingled with broader statements that kept it from soaring. But there’s no speech she’s given that provides greater contrast with Donald Trump. […]

    Link

    C-SPAN link to video of the complete speech.

  342. says

    Some good news regarding the preservation of voting rights:

    The Supreme Court denied Wednesday North Carolina’s request to allow it to implement a series of voting restrictions struck down by an appeals court. The state was unable to win over any of the court’s liberal justices to provide it the fifth vote needed to halt the appeals court ruling.

    The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that the voting restrictions were passed with the intent to discriminate against minority voters.

    Wednesday’s order stems from a legal challenge brought against the state by voting rights group as well as the Department of Justices for provisions in the omnibus voting legislation passed by GOP North Carolina lawmakers in 2013. The appeals court found in an opinion released in late July that five provisions of the law — a photo IDs requirement, a cutback to early voting, the elimination of same day registration, a ban of out-of-precinct voting and a prohibition on pre-registration of young voters — “disproportionately affected African Americans” and targeted “African Americans with almost surgical precision.”

    North Carolina had asked the Supreme Court for an emergency stay on the ruling so it could implement some of the invalidated provisions — specifically its photo ID requirement, the early voting limits and the pre-registration ban — for November’s election. According to Wednesday’s order, the conservative justices were willing to side with the state on at least some of North Carolina’s request. However, the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last February has robbed the conservative bloc its crucial fifth vote necessary to halt the appeals court decision.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scotus-north-carolina-voting-stay-denied

  343. says

    White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest cast some shade on Trump’s visit to Mexico:

    “It is not uncommon of course for leading presidential candidates to make overseas trips,” Earnest told the press pool. “One of the highlights was a trip to Germany, where the president spoke in Berlin to a crowd of about 100,000 Germans who warmly received him and enthusiastically cheered his speech. We’ll see if Mr. Trump is similarly received.”

  344. says

    Donald Trump has insulted members of the press … again. You can add this latest insult to his revoking of press credentials for all Washington Post reporters (and other reporters), to his repeated taunts and insults aimed at members of the press in the “pen” at his rallies, and to his promise to “open up our libel laws” if he is elected so that he can more easily sue members of the press.

    Just one day after a traveling print pool was put in place for Donald Trump’s campaign, the campaign is leaving the press behind on its big trip to Mexico […]

    The last-minute trip to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto was announced on Tuesday. And while there is a charter plane for the press traveling with Trump, their plane was directed to Phoenix where Trump will later give an immigration speech.

    […]

    On the daily call with Trump communications director Jason Miller, reporters were “seething,” one source on the call, who asked not to be named because the call is off the record, told POLITICO.

    According to the source, the campaign only told the five-network television pool about the opportunity to cover the meeting around 3 a.m. While some reporters were weighing chartering their own plane to Mexico, they decided against it partly because the campaign did not indicate there would be a press availability until Conway’s comments this morning. [Kellyanne Conway’s comments contradicted other Trump campaign officials.]

    Politico link

  345. says

    Julian Assange has really gone off the rails. He is hanging out somewhere in the hinterlands of rabid-rightwing-fringe territory.

    In an interview with New York Times investigative reporter Jo Becker on Wednesday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accused the press of supporting Hillary Clinton, whom he likened to a “demon.”

    “The American liberal press, in falling over themselves to defend Hillary Clinton, are erecting a demon that is going to put nooses around everyone’s necks as soon as she wins the election, which is almost certainly what she’s going to do,” Assange said in the interview, which was broadcast live Wednesday on Facebook.

    WikiLeaks has already aimed to influence the 2016 election. In July, the organization released a trove of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee’s servers that showed Democratic staffers criticizing Sen. Bernie Sanders. Assange has defended the release of the emails, which prompted a flurry of resignations within the DNC. Assange has been accused of helping fuel conspiracy theories about the circumstances surrounding the death of Democratic staffer Seth Rich, who was killed in a mugging earlier this year. […]

    Link

    Meanwhile, Assange is telling everyone who will listen to him that WikiLeaks is “impartial.”

  346. says

    Here is what happens at every Trump rally:

    Trump asks the crowd: “Who’s going to pay for the wall??”

    Crowd: “MEXICO!”

    Here is what happened when Trump went to Mexico:

    “Who pays for the wall? We didn’t discuss that.” [Trump told the press.]

  347. says

    More coverage of Trump in Mexico:

    After months of promising to use his skills as a negotiator to get Mexico to pay for a wall at the country’s border with the U.S., Donald Trump said Wednesday that he and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto did not discuss who would pay for the wall.

    Speaking at a joint press conference after their private meeting in Mexico City, Trump said he was “straightforward” in discussing his views on trade and immigration with Peña Nieto […]

    “Who pays for the wall? We didn’t discuss,” Trump told reporters. He confirmed they did speak about the wall but not payment.

    The GOP nominee spoke in starkly different terms about Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. illegally than he has in other venues.

    “And the United States’ first, second, and third generation Mexicans are just beyond reproach. Spectacular, spectacular, hard working people. I have such great respect for them, and their strong values of family, faith, and community,” Trump said. [cough, choke]

    He also outlined five shared goals for both countries, which included ending illegal immigration, improving the North American Foreign Trade Agreement, stopping drugs from entering the U.S., and keeping manufacturing wealth in the hemisphere. On the issue of borders, Trump called for increased security, which he called a “mutually beneficial” goal. He said the ability for either country to build a physical wall was a “sovereign right.”

    For his part, Peña Nieto called the meeting “open and constructive.”

    On the issue of immigration, the Mexican president provided something of a counterbalance to Trump’s fiery campaign rhetoric, noting that illegal immigration has reached a 10-year low and that the immigration has actually reached a net negative rate, with more Mexicans leaving than entering the country. […]

    Link

  348. says

    This is a followup to comments 346 and 347.

    The president of Mexico says that he and Trump did talk about the wall, and that he told Trump that Mexico would not pay for the wall.

    Gosh, what are the chances Trump is lying?

  349. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Trump not tell the Truth? As in his speaking at a Black Church in Detroit? A change in plans.

    When Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump comes to Detroit this weekend to try to strengthen his standing in the African-American community, he will be attending a service at a church and doing a one-on-one interview with the congregation’s leader, Bishop Wayne T. Jackson.
    That’s about it.
    Trump won’t be speaking to the black congregation at Great Faith Ministries International during the 11 a.m. service. And his Saturday interview with Jackson on the church’s Impact Network — which will not be open to the public or the news media — won’t air for at least a week after the event.

    Definitely goes along with the Editors Note for every Trump article at the Huffington Post (link to an example).

    Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

  350. says

    In Arizona tonight, Donald Trump gave the scariest political speech I’ve heard in the USA. It was chilling. It was a hate speech. It was a nativist speech.

    Unfortunately, you really need to watch the whole speech to get full effect of the horror, to realize how far Trump has gone.

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/politics/donald-trump-immigration-speech/

    [….] Trump’s hardline speech on illegal immigration contrasted strikingly with his tone in Mexico hours earlier.

    […] “If we’re going to make our immigration system work, then we have to be prepared to talk honestly and without fear about these important and very sensitive issues,” Trump said.

    He added: “It’s our right as a sovereign nation to choose immigrants that we think are the likeliest to thrive and flourish and love us.”

    He also pledged his administration would enforce a “zero tolerance” policy toward criminal undocumented immigrants.

    About that last sentence, it sounds more reasonable than it was in Trump’s speech. He delivered a litany of crimes, like people beaten to death with a hammer, raped, killed, etc. by illegal immigrants. He wallowed in the details

    […] “Day one, my first hour in office, those people are gone,” Trump said of undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes in the US.

    Trump vowed to create a “deportation task force” within the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division “focused on identifying and quickly removing the most dangerous criminal illegal aliens in America.”

    “Maybe they’ll be able to deport her,” Trump said, joking the task force could deport his Democratic rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. […]

    “Mexico will pay for the wall. 100%. They don’t know it yet but they’re going to pay for the wall,” Trump said as his supporters roared.

    The wall, Trump said, will be “beautiful” and “impenetrable,” and will include high-tech technologies to prevent illegal border crossings. […]

    Trump did not tip his hand Wednesday as he spoke alongside Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto following their meeting.
    Trump stressed the need to secure the US-Mexico border with a “physical wall,” but did not signal whether he still favors deporting all undocumented immigrants living in the US. [….]

    Racial profiling by cops? Trump approves. Every bad thing you have heard of, and some you have not, Trump approves them all.

    “Countless Americans who have died in recent years would be alive today if not for the open border policies of this administration and the administration that causes this horrible, horrible thought process. It is called Hillary Clinton,” he said. [….]

    “Within [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], I am going to create a new special deportation task force focused on identifying and quickly removing the dangerous criminal illegal immigrants in America who have evaded justice, just like Hillary Clinton has evaded justice, okay? Maybe they’ll be able to deport her,” he said. […]

    “In many cases, by the way, they’re treated better than our vets,” Trump said. […]

    “Applicants will be asked for their views about honor killings; about respect for women and gays and minorities, attitudes on radical Islam,” Trump said tonight. […]

    ABC News link

  352. Saad says

    “Applicants will be asked for their views about honor killings; about respect for women and gays and minorities, attitudes on radical Islam,” Trump said tonight. […]

    Minorities as in Mexicans and Muslims?

  353. says

    Rachel Maddow delved into the darkness at the bottom of Trump’s bigoted, fascistic speech. The video is about sixeen minutes long.

    […] throughout American history, when normal politics breaks down, fringe voices gain prominence scapegoating immigrant groups.

    Lots of history, extending back to Lincoln’s administration. She brings it up to date with Trump and trumpism.

  354. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Conservative Hispanics reaction to The Donald’s immigration speech: Dump Trump.

    The hope that some Hispanics were holding onto that Donald Trump could be compassionate toward immigrants vanished with his speech in Arizona.
    Some Latinos who were backing him or hoped to couldn’t justify being in his corner after what they saw as him unleashing law enforcement on immigrants, regardless of whether they were criminals or had lived in the country for years, raised families and paid taxes.
    “Awful!” said Massey Villarreal, a Houston businessman who had opposed Trump, then supported him and was done with him after Wednesday’s speech. “As a compassionate conservative, I am disappointed with the immigration speech. “I’m going to flip, but not flop. I am no longer supporting Trump for president, but cannot with any conscience support Hillary (Clinton),” Villarreal told NBC Latino Wednesday night.

    For almost two weeks, some Republican Hispanics have been wading through the spin that Trump and his campaign were putting out on his immigration policies.
    After meeting with him Aug. 20 at his home, some believed he had heard their concerns about the statements he’d made about immigrants and his plans to make them all leave the country. Some thought he might even offer a form of legalization.
    Jacob Monty, who had been at the meeting and advising Trump on Hispanics, also told NBC Latino that he is no longer supporting Trump. Monty is an immigration attorney from Houston who also chairs the Latino-Jewish Alliance.
    “I am convinced that Donald Trump listens to whomever speaks to him last,” Monty said. He said groups who advocate for harsh immigration enforcement such as FAIR and Numbers USA “must have spent time with him after he returned from Mexico and he listened to them.”

    Guess what The Donald, you just lost more potential votes than what you gained with your bigotry.

  355. says

    Writers at Daily Kos described trump’s speech as “fascism in it’s purest, most vile form, slathered in an unbroken stream of lies,” and that’s the way it struck me.

    Who liked, nay, loved, the speech? White supremacists and former KKK leaders:

    From David Duke: Excellent speech by Donald Trump tonight. Deport criminal aliens, end catch and release, enforce immigration laws & America First.

    From Jared Taylor, white supremacist and founder of American Renaissance: Hell of a speech. Almost perfect. Logical, deeply felt, and powerfully delivered. Now watch how the media twists it.

    From Virginia Dare, editor at a white supremacist website: In a sane country, everything Trump has proposed tonight so far would be regarded as so obviously true it wouldn’t even be up for debate.

    From Ann Coulter: I think I’ll watch this speech every night before going to bed so that I will sleep like a baby.

  356. says

    Here a few excerpts from Josh Marshall’s commentary:

    […] When we see this lurid, stab-in-the-back incitement, the wild hyperbole, the febrile railing against outsiders who will make us no longer a country – the similarities [to fascism] are real. More than anything, perhaps the most chilling part of this day is the contrast between the two men – a measured, calm statesman figure we saw this afternoon [in Mexico] and this railing, angry demagogue figure who captured the emotional tenor of Klan rally. As I said, the ability to shift from one persona to the other is a sign of danger in itself.

    […] let me go to the specifics. On balance, Trump doubled-down on just about everything.

    He’ll build the Wall and Mexico will pay for the Wall. Check and check. Its almost a catechism.

    On mass deportation, there was more obfuscation than change. Trump said everyone without proper documentation is subject to deportation – the violent and the patriotic, the productive and the dependent are all together. He said there are some two million alien criminals in the country who will be deported immediately. On top of that, he said there is a large but unspecified number of additional aliens who are also criminals and they’ll be deported immediately too.

    I believe the federal government actually puts that number between 600k and 700k. So Trump’s number is roughly three times the actual number and then many more on top of that. One million more? Five million more? You can take your pick depending on your mood and what you want to hear. Wild fabulation about numbers and facts was a signature of the speech. […]

    He has apparently dropped the “deportation force” in favor of a “deportation task force” created within ICE to speed mass deportation. Again, obfuscation not difference.

    Finally he made clear there is no path to citizenship or legal residency for any undocumented immigrants. The only path is to leave the country and return through normal channels. And this can only happen after tighter strictures are placed on legal immigration. Even under current law this amounts to decades out of the country.

    This is all certainly a more complicated explanation of his policy than what Trump said in the primaries – that all 11 million will have to be deported and fast. But substantively, it sounds like the same policy, with more obfuscation, more bows to prioritization and some cognizance of the scale of the task. But substantively it’s the same.

    We’ve been at this for two or three weeks – dropping his hardline positions, picking them back up, briefly going a la carte. If this is the final statement, we’re basically where we started, just with a few garnishes about our love for the Mexican people and the wonders of immigration that happened in the past. The flurry of bogus specifics is meant to obscure the big picture: everyone has to go.

    […] This is a blood soaked white nationalist politics that has caught fire with a significant minority of the electorate. There’s no reason to imagine that changes before November. And I think we’ll be with it for some time after as well.

  357. says

    This is a followup to Nerd’s comment 354.

    Jacob Monty is a powerful voice in the Latino community. He resigned from Trump’s “National Hispanic Advisory Council” after hearing Trump’s speech in Arizona. Good. I hope all of Trump’s Latino “advisors” jump ship.

    “I was a strong supporter of Donald Trump when I believed he was going to address the immigration problem realistically and compassionately. What I heard today was not realistic and not compassionate.”

  358. says

    Here is a summary of some Trump’s outrageous comments that blamed President Obama and Hillary Clinton for many of the troubling issues surrounding immigration:

    […] he also claimed the Obama administration has implemented policies that prioritize the interests of undocumented immigrants over those of Americans. The former, he claimed, are treated “even better than our vets.” President Obama and Hillary Clinton, he added, “support catch and release on the border. They support visa overstays. They support the release of dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, criminals from detention.”

    “Hillary Clinton, for instance, talks constantly about her fears that families will be separated, but she’s not talking about the American families who have been permanently separated from their loved ones because of a preventable homicide, because of a preventable death, because of murder.” […]

    Mother Jones link

    No, the Obama administration does not prioritize undocumented immigrants over other Americans. No, his administration does not treat undocumented immigrants better than veterans. No, neither Obama nor Clinton support visitors overstaying their visa. No, neither Clinton nor Obama supports the release of “dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, criminals.”

    Does Trump think that criminals become more dangerous if he repeats the adjective multiple times? Apparently, that works at his rallies.

  359. says

    This is a followup to comment 357.

    Another member of Trump’s “Hispanic Advisory Board” has quit.

    […] Less than two weeks ago, Texas pastor Ramiro Peña was named a member of Donald Trump’s Hispanic advisory board.

    Soon afterward, Peña appeared on “The Jim Bakker Show,” where he explicitly endorsed Trump and said on several occasions that God is using Trump to save the country and will judge America if we don’t elect him president.

    Peña, however, changed his tune yesterday after Trump gave a speech on immigration in which he reiterated the same policies on mass deportation and building a border wall that he has promoted throughout his presidential bid. […]

    Pena delivered a harsh condemnation in an email to senior Trump and Republican National Committee leaders […]

    “I am so sorry but I believe Mr. Trump lost the election tonight. The ‘National Hispanic Advisory Council’ seems to be simply for optics and I do not have the time or energy for a scam.” […]

    “I will pray over the next couple of days but it is difficult to [imagine] how I can continue to associate with the Trump campaign. I owe my national audience an explanation.”

    Right Wing Watch link

  360. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    AP Fact Check of Trump’s immigration speech.

    TRUMP: “President Obama and Hillary Clinton have engaged in gross dereliction of duty by surrendering the safety of the American people to open borders.”
    THE FACTS: Trump actually praised President Barack Obama in the past for deporting an unprecedented number of people during his first term, a record that does not square with an accusation of supporting an “open” border.
    Obama increased Border Patrol staffing to an all-time high of 21,444 agents in 2011 and his administration has virtually ended the practice of “voluntary returns,” or turning back Mexicans without any consequences.
    Both Obama and Clinton support a more lenient policy than Trump has proposed, but what they lay out is not an open border.
    Clinton has promised to extend Obama’s actions that would let people brought to the country illegally as children remain in the country, as well as to let some parents of U.S. citizens stay. Both seek legislation that would allow most of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally to stay if they pass a background check, learn English and pay taxes. However, those who fail the background check or commit crimes would be deported.

    TRUMP, on people illegally in the U.S.: “They’re treated better than our vets.”
    THE FACTS: People in the country illegally do not have the right to work, vote or receive most government benefits. A modest number have been exempted from deportation because of an Obama administration action but most live under the risk of being removed from the country.
    Veterans are guaranteed government health care and because almost all are citizens, the right to vote and other government benefits.
    The quality of their care has been criticized by Trump and others but people in the country illegally do not have equivalent rights to health care, except for emergency treatment. Public hospitals are required to provide emergency medical care regardless of immigration status.

    TRUMP: “When politicians talk about immigration reform they usually mean the following: amnesty, open borders, lower wages … It should mean improvements to our laws and policies to make life better for American citizens.”
    THE FACTS: No politician of either party who supports overhauling immigration laws supports “amnesty,” but the meaning of “amnesty” varies depending on who is talking.
    The sweeping and bipartisan immigration bill that passed the Senate in 2013 was derided by opponents as amnesty, but supporters including GOP Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida disputed that, noting numerous requirements imposed on immigrants in the country illegally along a 13-year path to citizenship, including paying penalties.
    The bill proposed spending tens of billions of dollars to double the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents and greatly increase border security. And the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office studied the bill and projected that it would lower wages for the entire workforce slightly over the first 10 years after becoming law, but would then increase wages for the entire workforce by even more, at the same time boosting economic output and increasing the GDP.

    TRUMP, on the number of people in the U.S. illegally: “Our government has no idea. It could be 3 million, it could be 30 million. They have no idea.”
    THE FACTS: The government actually has an idea. The Homeland Security Department estimates there are 11.4 million people in the United States illegally. Few in the immigration debate challenge that estimate.
    The figure comes from an analysis of the most recent Census Data. The government compares the number of people whom the Census reports as foreign-born with the number of people who have been admitted legally and gained citizenship. The most recent estimate dates to January 2012. It roughly matches the estimates of demographers from the Pew Foundation, which issues its estimates more rapidly than the government.
    Experts believe the number of people in the U.S. illegally has been steadily declining as Mexicans and others return to their home country and illegal border crossings dwindle.

    TRUMP, on ending the practice of releasing people who are caught crossing the border illegally, pending a court appearance: “We are going to end catch-and-release … Under my administration, anyone who illegally crosses the border will be detained until they are removed out of our country and back to the country from which they came.”
    THE FACTS: Many of the releases in question were ordered by courts. They were not a policy of the Obama administration.
    A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled last year the federal government’s detention of children and their mothers who were caught crossing the border illegally violated a 1997 court settlement. In July, an appeals court narrowed the scope, saying children must be quickly released but not their parents. From October through July, 48,311 unaccompanied children were arrested crossing the border from Mexico; many more children were caught with their families.
    Many crossing the border illegally claim asylum, which must be adjudicated by an immigration judge. People can claim asylum because they are being persecuted or fear persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group or political opinion.

    TRUMP, on preventing people from overstaying their visas and remaining in the country illegally: “We will finally complete the biometric entry-exit visa tracking system, which we need desperately. For years Congress has required biometric entry-exit visa tracking systems but it has never been completed. The politicians are all talk, no action. Never happens, never happens … In my administration we will ensure that this system is in place.”
    THE FACTS: Trump is correct in focusing on visa overstays as a source of much illegal immigration. The biometric system he wants to complete, though, presents enormous logistical, technical and financial challenges, and he gave no details how he would address it differently than his predecessors.
    Congress mandated the system first in 1996 and only now has the Obama administration begun implementing it on select flights at nine airports and at a border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico.
    The scope of the problem is immense – and not one that Trump’s proposed border wall could fix.
    The U.S. admits more than 45 million people annually on tourist, student and work visas. The government says 99 percent of them leave when required. But 1 percent overstay their visas, and that’s more than 450,000 people annually.

    TRUMP, after meeting Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto: “I shared my strong view that NAFTA has been a far greater benefit to Mexico than it has been to the United States and that it must be improved upon. … I expressed that … we must take action to stem this tremendous outflow of jobs from our country. It’s happening every day, it’s getting worse and worse and worse, and we have to stop it.”
    THE FACTS: The loss of manufacturing jobs is generally attributed to China, not Mexico.
    Some U.S. companies have moved jobs to Mexico — the Carrier Corp. recently decided to relocate an air conditioning factory there from Indiana. But there is little data to show that the trend is getting “worse and worse.”
    No reliable annual measures exist of job flows between the U.S. and Mexico. The United States hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs from 2000 to 2010, when more than 5.5 million were lost, but most economists blame the emergence of China as a manufacturing powerhouse and the increasing automation of many factories.
    Recently, manufacturing has done a bit better: Since 2010, U.S. manufacturing jobs have increased by about 900,000. And many economists credit NAFTA with helping the U.S. auto industry by providing a cheap source of parts that otherwise might have been sourced in China. A report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research argued that imports of subsidized U.S. agricultural products put as many as 2 million Mexican farmers out of work. And since NAFTA’s implementation in 1994, Mexico has grown more slowly than many of its Latin American counterparts.

    TRUMP: “We didn’t discuss that. We didn’t discuss who pays for the wall, we didn’t discuss.” … “We did discuss the wall. We didn’t discuss payment of the wall. That’ll be for a later date.”
    PENA NIETO on Twitter, in Spanish: “At the beginning of the conversation with Donald Trump I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall.”
    THE FACTS: The facts may depend on what your definition of a discussion is. If the Mexican president opened with a comment that his country won’t pay for the wall and Trump did not respond to it, that may not have been a discussion in his mind. But the subject, it seems, came up. The Trump campaign’s brief statement on the meeting did not quibble with Pena Nieto’s account. It said the meeting “was not a negotiation.”

    Sorry about the length, but so much ignorance.

  361. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Hillary Clinton has been busy during August filling the campaign coffers for the fall.

    Hillary Clinton hauled in $143 million in August for her presidential bid and the Democratic party, her best month yet in a fundraising push that lays the groundwork for her fall campaign.
    The Democratic nominee brought in $62 million for her campaign last month and another $81 million for the Democratic National Committee and state parties. Clinton begins September with more than $68 million in the bank for her campaign against rival Donald Trump.
    The money will help bankroll Clinton’s large advertising campaign in battleground states that will help determine the outcome of the 2016 election, along with the large get-out-the-vote operation that her team has been assembling across the country.
    Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, said more than 2.3 million people have contributed to the campaign and as a result, “we are heading into the final two months of the race with the resources we need to organize and mobilize millions of voters across the country.”

    Unlike the other guy, she is helping those downballot.
    *i.e. Tammy and Brad could use some help*

  362. says

    Thanks, Nerd, for the fact-check in comment 360. You put your finger on the main problem, Trump is ignorant.

    In a speech he delivered on Hillary Clinton’s behalf, Joe Biden made the same point today.

    […] “A guy [Trump] who says, and he means it, American workers make too much money. No, no, I mean just think, all kidding aside. I’m being deadly earnest here. This part’s not the campaign speech, man, this is about, about the character of the person we’re talking about electing president of the United States,” he said.

    The vice president also slammed Trump as being “thoroughly, totally, completely uninformed” and said he presents a serious threat to the United States’ foreign policy. Biden said Trump’s comments about wanting to abolish NATO and the possibility that he would have access to the nuclear codes are alarming.

    Biden said he had to change his schedule to meet with the presidents of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania to reassure them of the U.S.’ commitment to the NATO alliance given Trump’s comments.

    “They are scared to death with good reason that Russia will cross the border and annex them like they did Crimea,” he said. […]

    Politico link

  363. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Trump’s immigration pitch falls flat with Republicans near the border

    […]”I hope that he does really, in his heart, have a little more compassion than what he spouts out,” said Dave Mitchell, 58, of Surprise, Arizona, a self-described moderate who says he is begrudgingly planning to vote for Trump….
    For many moderate Republicans in Arizona, Trump’s efforts on Wednesday fell flat.
    Linda Yaeger, a 62-year-old retired Air Force officer who teaches at a community college in Glendale, said she watched Trump’s appearance in Mexico on her tablet between classes. She said she had hoped Trump would take a more moderate tone after the meeting with the Mexican president, but was disappointed by his speech later that day in her home state.
    “Being a moderate Republican means (being) an endangered species right now,” Yaeger said, explaining that she felt the party had moved too far to the right.
    Lois Pidde, 70, an office manager in Casa Grande, said she agreed with Trump that immigration is a problem, but opposed his proposed solutions, such as the need for a border wall or a suspension of Muslim immigration to shore up national security.
    “I used to be able to turn him off when he was on ‘The Apprentice’ and I’d like to keep it that way,” she said, referring to Trump’s reality TV show. She said she was likely to vote for New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate.
    Josh Jensen, 35, a Border Patrol agent from southeastern Arizona, said he thinks Trump’s plan to build a wall is ill-conceived and is voting for Johnson too.
    “I was thinking maybe Hillary over Trump,” Jensen said. “But I can’t vote for either one of the two candidates.”
    April Chase, 58, of Arizona, was aware of Trump’s trip to Mexico but did not watch it. A moderate Republican, she plans to write in U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont – who lost the Democratic primary campaign to Clinton. She said she felt Trump was dishonest, “so I kind of steered away from that.”

    A non-vote for Trump is always good news.

  364. says

    New “controversies” or “scandals” are popping up around Hillary Clinton. Writing for The Maddow Blog, Steve Benen took the time to debunk the hysteria. Bolding is mine.

    […] an ill-defined “controversy” surrounding the Clinton Foundation […] The AP [Associated Press] , looking for evidence of influence peddling involving foundation donors and Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State, didn’t find evidence of wrongdoing, but the news service nevertheless published an overwrought story that dominated campaign coverage.

    The piece, however, was a complete mess, accompanied by a demonstrably false claim the AP published on Twitter – which still hasn’t been deleted. […] one of the key takeaways from last week is that Clinton is now burdened by a new “scandal,” even if she didn’t do anything wrong and the allegations crumbled under scrutiny.

    This week, it’s apparently time for a new not-so-controversial controversy. Politico reported this morning that Bill Clinton’s staff “used a decades-old federal government program, originally created to keep former presidents out of the poorhouse, to subsidize his family’s foundation and an associated business, and to support his wife’s private email server.”

    Politico added that its review “does not reveal anything illegal,” and deep into the piece, in the 24th paragraph, the article explains that the payroll system Clinton set up is actually permissible and perfectly understandable given the logistical challenges of his schedule.

    Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum summarized just how meaningless these revelations are.

    …Clinton gets the princely sum of $96,600 each year for staff, and tracks the work these staffers do in his capacity as ex-president. He bills the GSA for that work, and bills other organizations when the staff does work for them. This is bog standard stuff. Staff time is tracked, and then charged out. This is not just “not illegal,” it’s the way pretty much any similar kind of operation works. […]

    There’s really nothing even remotely blurry or scandalous or shady or anything else. It’s just the standard way anyone operates who has multiple interests, multiple funding sources, and staffers who do work for multiple organizations. There’s no hint that any of the charges were incorrect, or that any of the purchases were misallocated.

    […] the search for new Clinton-related allegations has led to some unfortunate reports in recent months. TPM had an interesting item yesterday about the New York Times running nearly two dozen pieces since early May alerting readers to “clouds” or “shadows” surrounding the Democratic presidential nominee – each involving allegations that may appear controversial, even if Clinton didn’t actually do anything wrong.

    Vox had an important piece in July about the “Clinton Rules,” which are defined by a few key tenets, including:

    1) Everything, no matter how ludicrous-sounding, is worthy of a full investigation by federal agencies, Congress, the “vast right-wing conspiracy,” and mainstream media outlets.

    2) Every allegation, no matter how ludicrous, is believable until it can be proven completely and utterly false. And even then, it keeps a life of its own in the conservative media world.

    3) The media assumes that Clinton is acting in bad faith until there’s hard evidence otherwise.
    It’s worth keeping these “rules” in mind as the election season progresses.

  365. says

    Here’s an excerpt from Dan Rather’s longer, and poignant, reaction to Trump’s immigration speech:

    […] Make no mistake, this was a toxic mix of jingoism, nativism, and chauvinism. Many of you would like to think, not in America, not in our country could this type of rhetoric gain currency. But in other countries, and in other times in history, we have seen the impossible become possible to horrific effect. Trump is betting his political future on this idea – that there is a deep, tribal, and dark sea of the molten lava of hate and aggrievement. This volcano from below appeals to dangerous instincts- can it yield a path to the presidency and power? […]

    https://www.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10157354317530716

  366. says

    Many of you would like to think, not in America, not in our country could this type of rhetoric gain currency. But in other countries, and in other times in history, we have seen the impossible become possible to horrific effect.

    Yes, we’ve seen it in this country.

    Dan Rather:

    Trump is betting his political future on this idea – that there is a deep, tribal, and dark sea of the molten lava of hate and aggrievement.

    No. “Deep, tribal, dark,” “savage,” “barbaric,” “animalistic” – it all needs to go. Everyone needs to try to talk about politics without using these terms.

  368. says

    Joy Reid hosted All In last night. One of the guests was Marco Gutierrez, Trump surrogate and founder of Latinos for Trump. He was very shaky trying to answer her questions from the start, and then it got bizarre. He suggested that Mexican culture is bad and imperialistic, and that “If you don’t do something about it, you’re gonna have taco trucks on every corner.” Reid was like, “I don’t know what you mean by that, and I’m almost afraid to ask.” Earlier, she’d asked Steve Cortes to stop calling people “illegals,” and he refused.

    By the way, FAIR summarized Breitbart’s portrait of the alt-right: “So that’s the tour of the alt-right given by Breitbart: Essentially, it’s racist intellectuals, natural racists, people who make racist jokes and Nazis.”

  369. Brother Ogvorbis, Fully Defenestrated Emperor of Steam, Fire and Absurdity says

    Pennsyvlania State University, displaying a mind-numbing callousness (or cluelessness), is honouring Joe Paterno:

    Penn State plans to honor longtime head coach Joe Paterno before the team’s game against Temple on Sept. 17, according to the athletic department’s promotional schedule.

    The tribute will honor the 50th anniversary of Paterno’s first game as the Nittany Lions head coach. Paterno served as the head coach from 1966 to 2011. [ from Sports Illustrated ]

    Keep in mind that there are still civil suits pending brought by abuse survivors. There are still some criminal cases wending their way through the process.

    Yes, he was a good (and long-lived) football coach. Yes, he put Penn State on the map as a place not just for sports, but for academics and research. Yes, he churned much of his salary back into the campus as donations (usually anonymous (or, at least, he attempted to keep them anonymous (so he would look more humble?))). Yes, when a complaint was made to him, he did what was required of him and reported it up the chain of command. And yes, when he saw nothing happening, he went along and said nothing. And yes, he allowed Sandusky years more contact with children.

    I heard this on a sports talk radio show this morning. And, to be fair, Mike Greenburg, as well as three guests (including Herm Edwards), all thought that this was a stupid idea. One thing did strike me, though — they used the term victims every time. Not once did they use the word survivor.

    And I know that others will have a different idea about this, but here goes.

    I was victimized. For about two years, I was a victim. Now I am a survivor. Well, so far I am a survivor — only one suicide attempt (unsuccessful, obviously (I can’t even do that right!)). Maybe I am parsing this too much but, for me (and I speak only for me), a victim is immediate. A victim is someone who was just raped and during the immediate aftermath. A survivor is that same person five, or ten, or (in my case) forty years later.

    The kids that Sandusky raped were victimized. They were victims. Now they are survivors trying to survive in a world that worships college football coaches. Trying to survive in a world that assumes that boys cannot be raped or, if they are raped, they are gay, or effeminate, or not real men. Trying to survive in a world which assumes that forcing yourself on someone shows you are a man, being forced shows you are a girl. Trying to survive in a world in which seeking not just justice, but recompense for the hurt, the pain, the humiliation, the stress, the depression, is somehow unseemly money-grabbing lawyer-fueled badness. Trying to survive in a world in which we are forever fixed in the minds of many, or maybe most, adults as victims — victims then, victims now, victims forever — and not survivors trying to find ourselves in a thoroughly fucked up world.

  370. Brother Ogvorbis, Fully Defenestrated Emperor of Steam, Fire and Absurdity says

    Shit. Sorry for the tl/dr. I didn’t mean to dump that here.

  371. says

    Didn’t seem unduly long or off-topic to me, Og. I would add only that the whole construct of toxic masculinity wherein “being a girl” is the worst thing that can happen to a man is the root of So. Much. Oppression. Of men, of women, of non-binary people. Honouring Paterno is reprehensible.

  373. Brother Ogvorbis, Fully Defenestrated Emperor of Steam, Fire and Absurdity says

    CatieCat @371:

    Didn’t seem unduly long or off-topic to me, Og

    The subject is very definitely apropos when discuss what is wrong with the US politically and culturally. I just shouldn’t have personalized it. Sorry.

  375. says

    Og, @369, that was not off topic. We have all kinds of justice system reforms we need to address, along with all kinds of social/cultural changes that will benefit everyone, including children. Our educational system(s) is part of this. I value your personal input.

    SC @374, I noticed that Trump and his lackeys proffered a series of excuses. If it takes 3 or 4 excuses to explain “mistakes” that were made, then maybe someone needs training. I’m not buying that improbable cascade of “mistakes,” but if it really went down like that, then all of Trump’s accountants, assistants, lawyers etc. need to be fired. Wonkette’s coverage.

    In the category of “fines paid by Trump”, the Daily Mail reported that he was fined $10,000 for ripping a bench out of a public area so that he could sell Trump-branded merchandise there. Scam artist.

    In other news, two retired four-star generals, who have not endorsed a political candidate before now, just endorsed Hillary Clinton:

    Both Gens. Bob Sennewald and David Maddox said they have never endorsed a candidate, but felt compelled to speak out this year.
    “Having each served over 34 years and retired as an Army 4-star general, we each have worked closely with America’s strongest allies, both in NATO and throughout Asia,” the two said in a joint statement.

    “Our votes have always been private, and neither of us has ever previously lent his name or voice to a presidential candidate. Having studied what is at stake for this country and the alternatives we have now, we see only one viable leader, and will be voting this November for Secretary Hillary Clinton.”

    The Hill link

  376. says

    The 2016 debate schedule is set, and the moderators for those debates have been chosen.

    First Presidential Debate:
    Monday, September 26, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
    Moderator: Lester Holt, Anchor, NBC Nightly News

    Vice Presidential debate:
    Tuesday, October 4, Longwood University, Farmville, VA
    Moderator: Elaine Quijano, CBSN Anchor and CBS News Correspondent

    Second Presidential Debate:
    Sunday, October 9, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
    Moderator:s Martha Raddatz, ABC’s Chief Global Affairs Correspondent, and Anderson Cooper, Anchor, CNN

    Third Presidential Debate:
    Wednesday, October 19, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
    Chris Wallace, Anchor, Fox News Sunday

    Now that the schedule is set, I don’t think Trump has any wiggle room. He will have to participate.

  377. says

    SC @368, I watched that segment in which Joy Reid interviewed Marco Gutierrez, the Trump surrogate. That “taco truck on every corner” slur against Mexican culture was eyebrow-raising. WTF? Also … bring on the taco trucks. I need one in my neighborhood. Maybe we’ll see one parked in front of Trump tower.

    In other news, John McCain finds himself in an unexpectedly close race for the Senate in Arizona. His Republican supporters are trying to help him out by issuing a “Wanted” poster of his opponent, Ann Kirkpatrick. The poster features multiple bullet holes. For good measure, the poster is also decorated with unflattering photos of President Obama and Hillary Clinton.

    Gabby Giffords issued a statement condemning the “Wanted” poster:

    In a state and country that know the toll of gun violence too well, there is no room for invoking the use of firearms in our politics.

    Our political leaders have the responsibility to avoid a descent into messages that might suggest that elections are settled anywhere else than at the ballot box. We urge Arizonans of every political stripe to join us in asking the Arizona Republican Party to refrain from using this irresponsible imagery and to apologize.

    http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/2/1566158/-WT-actual-F-Arizona-Republicans-Bullet-holes-on-a-wanted-poster-of-Democrat-Ann-Kirkpatrick

    The poster was distributed electronically as a digital image to reporters, legislators, and voters. Senator McCain, are you okay with this?

  378. says

    Oh, FFS.

    David Bossie, an ultra rightwing conspiracy theorist, has been appointed to Trump’s campaign team as deputy campaign manager.

    Bossie is the doofus who specializes in investigating the Clintons. He has been doing so since the 1990s. His methods were so unethical that his fellow Republicans kicked him out in May of 1998.

    […] Under pressure from Speaker Newt Gingrich, Representative Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican who heads the House Government and Reform Committee, accepted the resignation of the aide, David N. Bossie, a dogged anti-Clinton sleuth.

    NY Times link

    Bossie had selectively edited transcripts of interviews with Clinton confidant Webster Hubbell.

    Even George H.W. Bush dissed Bossie, condemning his “filthy campaign tactics.” Media Matters link

    […] Bossie joined Citizens United in 1992 as its director of political affairs, which he quickly transformed into a full-time job of hounding the Clintons. The group was essentially a two-man operation. Four years earlier Citizens United had produced the infamous race-baiting Willie Horton ad. “That spot was, is, will ever after be a nightmare,” GOP strategist Mary Matalin once told the Chicago Tribune.

    In fact, in 1992, Bush’s father condemned Bossie and Brown’s gutter practices, telling reporters: “We will do whatever we can to stop any filthy campaign tactics.” During that same campaign, George W. Bush, on his father’s behalf, even sent out a letter to 85,000 Republican contributors encouraging them not to contribute to Brown and Bossie’s effort.

    […]

    Also in 1992, President George H.W. Bush, repudiating Bossie’s tactics, filed an FEC complaint against Bossie’s group after it produced a TV ad inviting voters to call a hot line to hear (almost certainly doctored) tape-recorded conversations between Clinton and Gennifer Flowers. [Salon, 7/20/04]

    More on this doofus soon …

  379. says

    This is a followup to comment 378.

    We can certainly add the news about Davide Bossie to our “the company Trump keeps” file.

    In 1997, Bossie alleged, without any basis whatsoever, that Susan Coleman committed suicide after an affair with Bill Clinton. “Coleman’s mother told CBS that Bossie hounded her relentlessly with his false story, even following her to an Army hospital in Georgia, where she was visiting her husband, in recovery from a stroke. Bossie and another man ‘burst into the sick man’s room and began questioning the shaken mother about her daughter’s suicide’” [Salon, 7/20/04].

    It was Bossie’s Citizens United that produced the movie “Hillary: The Movie.” That piece of rightwing cultural dreck was so bad that the FEC ruled that it was not a movie, but a 90-minute campaign commercial. [Salon, 10/28/14]

    In 1994, the Chicago Tribune published an article showing that Bossie was “part of the campaign to use the Whitewater controversy to attack President Bill Clinton, pointing out that he ‘harvests tales of alleged wrongdoings from a network of Clinton enemies, then peddles them to Capitol Hill and media contacts in hopes of prompting scandalous stories.'” [Chicago Tribune, 3/27/94]

    Does Bossie remind you of James O’Keefe and David Daleiden? Deceptively editing video, deceptively editing transcripts, and peddling misleading stories to the press … yes, they are birds of a feather.

  380. says

    This a followup to comment 378 and 379.

    Rachel Maddow did a far better job than I could of exposing David Bossie for what he is. The video is 16 minutes long.

    Bossie is Trumps new deputy campaign manager. Bossie spent the past thirty years attacking the Clintons. He must be really frustrated by now. He hasn’t managed to put Bill or Hillary in jail.

    After Maddow’s presentation, I was just shaking my head. How did we come to this? Politicians may have had guys like Bossie working for them in secret, or undercover, but to put him at the top of a campaign? Sheesh.

  381. says

    Excerpts from President Obama’s Labor Day address:

    […] For generations, every time the economy changed, hardworking Americans marched and organized and joined unions to demand not simply a bigger paycheck for themselves, but better conditions and more security for the folks working next to them, too. Their efforts are why we can enjoy things like the 40-hour workweek, overtime pay, and a minimum wage. Their efforts are why we can depend on health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, and retirement plans.

    All of that progress is stamped with the union label. All of that progress was fueled with a simple belief: that our economy works better when it works for everybody.

    That’s the spirit that’s made the progress of these past seven and a half years possible. We’ve rescued our economy from another depression, cut our unemployment rate in half, […]

    we took action to help millions of workers finally collect the overtime pay they’ve earned. It’s why I issued a call to raise the minimum wage, and when Congress ignored that call, 18 states and the District of Columbia, plus another 51 cities and counties went ahead and gave their workers a raise. It’s why the very first bill I signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; why we gave paid sick days to federal contractors; why we’ve fought for worker safety and the right to organize.

    […] For a few years after the recession, the top one percent did capture almost all income gains. But that share has been cut by almost half. Last year, income for everybody else grew at the fastest pace since the 1990s. And another 20 million Americans know the financial security of health insurance.

    […] too many working folks still feel left behind by an economy that’s constantly changing.

    So as a country, we’ve got some choices to make. Do we want to be a country where the typical woman working full-time earns 79 cents for every dollar a man makes – or one where they earn equal pay for equal work? Do we want a future where inequality rises as union membership keeps falling – or one where wages are rising for everybody and workers have a say in their prospects? Are we a people who just talk about family values while remaining the only developed nation that doesn’t offer its workers paid maternity leave – or are we a people who actually value families, and make paid family leave an economic priority for working parents?

    […] And it means exercising our rights to speak up in the workplace, to join a union, and above all, to vote. […]

  382. says

    A Republican in North Carolina admitted that voter-restriction measures in that state have nothing to with preventing voter fraud:

    “Of course it’s political. Why else would you do it?” he said, explaining that Republicans, like any political party, want to protect their majority. While GOP lawmakers might have passed the law to suppress some voters, Wrenn said, that does not mean it was racist.

    “Look, if African Americans voted overwhelmingly Republican, they would have kept early voting right where it was,” Wrenn said. “It wasn’t about discriminating against African Americans. They just ended up in the middle of it because they vote Democrat.”

    Washington Post link.

  383. says

    Oh, FFS. Everyone including the New York Times is jumping on a new Clinton “scandal” that is not a scandal at all. This crap is making me weary.

    The New York Times’ headline this morning certainly gives the impression of a notable scoop: “Emails Raise New Questions About Clinton Foundation Ties to State Dept.” Here’s the lede:

    A top aide to Hillary Clinton at the State Department agreed to try to obtain a special diplomatic passport for an adviser to former President Bill Clinton in 2009, according to emails released Thursday, raising new questions about whether people tied to the Clinton Foundation received special access at the department.

    The request by the adviser, Douglas J. Band, who started one arm of the Clintons’ charitable foundation, was unusual, and the State Department never issued the passport.

    Congratulations, New York Times, you spread a misleading story that right wing media quickly turned into a completely false story:

    RedState, a prominent far-right website, quickly alerted readers to the idea that it “looks like” the Clinton Foundation “illegally obtained diplomatic passports.”

    Except, it doesn’t “look like” that at all. In reality, that description is pretty much the opposite of what happened.

    In 2009, two Americans were being held in North Korea, and former President Bill Clinton went to negotiate their release. As part of the trip, a Clinton aide reached out to one of Hillary Clinton’s aides at the State Department, asking for diplomatic passports – strictly as part of this mission.

    The State Department rejected the request. Bill Clinton and his team were acting as unofficial emissaries, so they weren’t eligible for diplomatic documents. The former president and his team went anyway and brought the hostages home. […]

    Okay, all is legit here. No scandal. None whatsoever. That didn’t stop every rightwing site I read from posting it in the same way that RedState posted it. There is not even anything there to “raise questions” you muckraking NY Times editors.

    These pseudo-scandals are the constant “drip drip” that everyone keeps referencing when it comes to Hillary Clinton’s “untrustworthiness”. Pure, unadulterated, fucked up propaganda.

    Vox’s Matt Yglesias wrote this morning, “It’s common at this point in the Clinton Foundation pseudo-scandal cycle for the person in my position to point out that there’s no quid pro quo and no evidence of wrongdoing, and then for the skeptics to say that corruption can take more insidious forms than a quid pro quo. But honestly, what questions does this raise?”

    I haven’t the foggiest idea. On the list of not-so-controversial Clinton controversies, this is probably the thinnest and least compelling. With some of the others, one can fairly say there’s smoke but no fire. The new report in the Times, however, is an unlit match.

    Link

  384. says

    PFAW statement on Trump’s hiring of Bossie:

    During the primary, Trump railed against everything he’s now doing when it comes to money in politics: He has welcomed Super PACs and he’s actively courting special interests. To top it all off, he’s now hired an ardent foe of campaign finance regulation, the man who helped open the floodgates for unlimited corporate political spending as the president of Citizens United.

    This is just the latest addition to the mountain of evidence that as president Donald Trump would give free reign to special interests and appoint Supreme Court justices who will protect the privileges of the wealthy and powerful, but not the rights of ordinary people.

  385. says

    Trump delivered an awkward speech to the congregation of a black church in Detroit today. In addition to claiming that he is there to listen and to learn (kind of late for that Mr. 70-year-old man), he claimed that he would bring jobs back to African communities (no details, none).

    To back up Trump’s outreach to black voters, he has been relying on a group of advisors called the National Diversity Coalition.

    […] Organized earlier this year, and led by Trump’s Apprentice protégé Omarosa Manigault and other Trump surrogates, the coalition posted a list of 55 advisers, most of them African American, Asian American, and Latino, to convey that Trump has attracted a broad base of supporters.

    But a closer look at this group reveals at least a half dozen figures who subscribe to a range of conspiracy theories and fringe ideas—including that President Obama is in cahoots with ISIS, that a top Hillary Clinton aide is a Saudi spy, that Clinton supports “genocide of black people through abortion,” and that “Jews are the wealthiest people in the world.” […]

    Mother Jones link

    More details are available at the link, including the fact that the chair of Hispanic Patriots for Trump, Dahlys Hamilton, is a conspiracy theorist who talks about our “globalist puppet masters,” and who believes that 9/11, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the murders of children at Sandy Hook were all “false flag” operations. To sum up: “Everything we know is a lie” but Trump will fix it all.

  386. says

    News from the Texas Supreme Court:

    On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court refused to review a lower court ruling holding that cities may not deprive married same-sex couples the benefits it provides to opposite-sex couples. The court’s decision leaves in place a pro-equality ruling that forbids the government from discriminating against gay people for no good reason. But one judge, Justice John Devine, argued that his court should have taken the case and reversed the lower court’s judgment. His opinion is an ominous sign that conservative judges are striving to work around Obergefell v. Hodges and affirm the constitutionality of state-sponsored anti-gay discrimination. […]

    Why should Texas be permitted to deprive same-sex couples of the benefits provided to opposite-sex couples? Because the state has an “interest in encouraging procreation.” Devine speculates that “offering certain benefits to opposite-sex couples would encourage procreation within marriage.”

    After all, benefits such as health insurance provide financial security as couples decide whether to have a child. An opposite-sex marriage is the only marital relationship where children are raised by their biological parents. In any other relationship, the child must be removed from at least one natural parent, perhaps two, before being adopted by her new parent(s). This does not diminish any child’s inherent dignity, a fact the City presumably recognizes by extending benefits to their employees’ children regardless of the employees’ marital status. But it does explain why the State might choose to direct resources to opposite-sex couples.

    This argument is profoundly insulting to nonbiological children: It suggests that a gay employee’s nonbiological child, birthed by the employee’s same-sex spouse, is not as worthy of state “resources” as an employee’s biological child would be. (Why would such a child be less deserving of state benefits? Devine doesn’t attempt to explain—and cannot, as the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor spoke scathingly of the government’s efforts to “humiliate” the children of same-sex couples by treating their parents unequally.) […]

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/09/02/texas_supreme_court_justice_wants_to_deny_same_sex_spousal_benefits.html

  387. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    re 386:
    that Texas attempt is contradictory in their own terms. They seem to assuming that if a child is not directly biologically procreated by their adoptive parents, then the parents consider them “disposable” and not worthy of nurturing care such as medical insurance coverage provides. So the states will deny state aid to gay parents to make the children the state is so worried about, even more disposable?
    It’s our job to protect every last child in this here state, and gays don’t care about kids, so instead of forcing gays to care for the kids they want to raise, we won’t give those kids any help at all.Take that you gheys.
    *gargle*spit*

  388. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Early voting is starting next week.

    Two months before Election Day, early voting kicks off next week in North Carolina, the first in a run of key states where minority voters and young adults who cast ballots in advance could give one of the White House contenders a decisive advantage.
    For Donald Trump, it’s a major test of whether his recent outreach to non-white groups is translating into votes. In the increasingly diverse battleground states of North Carolina, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia — all must-win states for Trump, except Colorado — it’s minorities in particular who can tip the scales.
    Early voters are expected to make up between 50 to 75 percent or more of all ballots in the six states, based on 2012 figures. That’s compared to a national average of 35 percent, up from 22 percent in 2004, according to election data compiled by The Associated Press.
    Mail-in ballots are popular among older, white Republicans, and party officials are betting they can bank plenty of their votes. But in several swing states, Hispanics, blacks and first-time voters typically have been more likely than whites to cast ballots early — and cast them for Democrats. Therein lies the challenge for team Trump.
    Says Marlon Marshall, Hillary Clinton’s director of state campaigns and political engagement: “We can’t say this will be locked up with early voting, but it can absolutely make a huge difference.”
    “Every early voter we get is one less person we need to mobilize on Election Day,” he says.

    Organizational details are also in the article, with the Clinton Campaign well ahead of the Trump Campaign.

    I mailed in our vote-by-mail applications, and ballots should be sent to us at the end of September.

  389. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    re 388
    erp.
    I see one possibility. The GOP could flood the mail-in ballots with overwhelming quantity of fraudulent votes, to not only make legitimate mail ins go uncounted but also shore up their mantra of “voter fraud”. Even if it shoots themselves in the foot.
    *all confidential BTW, dont want the GOP to be informed of this secret plan, eh. keep quiet* *looking over shoulder* *shrugs*

  390. says

    More statistical backup for things we already knew about Trump’s followers:

    According to a new working paper by Jonathon Rothwell, senior economist at Gallup, the voters cheering, clapping, and nodding in agreement at Trump’s speeches aren’t likely to be interacting with racial or ethnic minorities or immigrants on a regular basis: The best predictor of whether a person supports a Trump presidency is how white their neighborhood is.

    Donald Trump’s foreign policy speech Monday was like a menacing kidnapper’s note, with out-of-context snippets of news stories, half-truths, and full-fledged lies arranged to spell out a familiar threat: immigrants. […]

    According to data provided by the Public Religion Research Institute, 65 percent of Trump supporters feared being victims of terrorism, versus 51 percent of all Americans. Three-fourths of Trump supporters feared being victims of crime, versus 63 percent overall. Trump supporters also disproportionately feared foreign influence: 83 percent said the American way of life needed to be protected from it, versus 55 percent overall. […]

    Rothwell found that pro-Trump folks tend to live in neighborhoods that are super white—sometimes, whiter than the wider regions they live in. “People living in zip codes with disproportionately high shares of white residents are significantly and robustly more likely to view Trump favorably,” Rothwell writes in the paper. […]

    What these findings mean, Rothwell concludes, is that support for Trump’s nativism has a lot to do with ignorance about immigrants and minorities, which in turn has a lot to do with residential segregation. “Limited interactions with racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, and college graduates may contribute to prejudicial stereotypes, political and cultural misunderstandings, and a general fear of rejection and not-belonging,” he writes.

    City Lab link.
    Newsweek link.
    The Atlantic link.

  391. blf says

    According to data provided by the Public Religion Research Institute, 65 percent of Trump supporters feared being victims of terrorism, versus 51 percent of all Americans.

    Oh good grief. I live in southern France, in a village on the coast between Marseille and Nice, the latter the site of famous very recent and deadly incident (but cannot think of anything recent in the former, if you discount the Euro 2016 soccer thuggery). My concern about being a “victim of terrorism”? Essentially non-existent, unless either Le Pen’s or Trump’s brownshirts come to town, and then it’s those brownshirts I’d be worried about.

    In London many yonks ago I was a within a hundred metres of a firebombing (an attack on a shop selling Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses). Admittedly, I had no idea what the feck was going on at the time — just loads of police and firefighters, and annoyed that the tube (Underground) station was closed-off — but still not-concerned even once I learned what had happened.

  392. says

    This is followup to comment 383.

    Josh Marshall, editor of Talking Points Memo, took at closer look at the failure of the New York Times to objectively report on issues related to the Clinton Foundation.

    Excerpt:

    […] The Times uniquely, though only as a leading example for the rest of the national press, has a decades’ long history of being lead around by rightwing opposition researchers into dead ends which amount to journalistic comedy – especially when it comes to the Clintons. But here, while all this is happening we have a real live specimen example of direct political and prosecutorial corruption, misuse of a 501c3 nonprofit and various efforts to conceal this corruption and the underlying corruption of Trump’s ‘Trump University’ real estate seminar scam. […]

  393. says

    This is a followup to comments 368 and 377.

    Wonkette covered the threat of “taco trucks on every corner.”

    Excerpt:

    […] “My culture is a dominant culture, and it’s imposing and it’s causing problems. If you don’t do something about it, you’re gonna have taco trucks [on] every corner,” the Mexican-born Gutierrez stated.

    DO NOT THREATEN US WITH A GOOD TIME, SIR.

    Because that would be AMAZING, would it not? Can you imagine being anywhere in America — New Orleans, the hinterlands of Wyoming, wherever, BUMFUCK MONTANA WITH THE EDITRIX WHO IS SO HUNGRY FOR TACOS RIGHT NOW — and craving good tacos, and immediately being able to satisfy that craving, because there is a taco truck on LITERALLY EVERY CORNER?

    Now we know that, for some Trump supporters, that would be terrifying, because it implies non-white people owning businesses and being successful, and also existing. Also, real Mexican taco flavors are probably too spicy and fancy for those idiots,[…]

    Gutierrez’s point, we think, was that his people, Mexicans, are very dangerous and bad […]

  394. blf says

    real Mexican taco flavors are probably too spicy and fancy for those idiots

    That made me chuckle. I wonder how much “they” would freak out if “they” learned it’s possible to get tacos with bugs as fillings (e.g., Cuchamás (green caterpillars) or Escamoles (ant larvae)) ? That could be amusing…

    (I myself have had Chapulines (grasshoppers), albeit not in a taco.)

  395. Brother Ogvorbis, Fully Defenestrated Emperor of Steam, Fire and Absurdity says

    Also, real Mexican taco flavors are probably too spicy and fancy for those idiots,

    WARNING –FIRE STORY — WARNING

    \\FIRE STORY BEGINS\\

    Some years ago, I was posted to a forest fire on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon. One evening, two women parked a trailer outside the rodeo grounds where the fire camp was (they had permission from the fire and tribe). They sold Navajo Tacos — frybread with taco filling.

    They had three ‘heat levels’ — hot, mild and anglo. I ordered mild. It was delicious. And my eyes were watering, my tongue burning and had a nice layer of sweat on my forehead. I cannot imagine what the hot would have been like.

  396. says

    Ha! Good story, Og @395. I like the idea of an “anglo” choice.

    I have to admit that when it comes to authentic Mexican food, I always order mild. And even then, I may need a drink to quench the fire.

    What we have learned from this taco-truck episode is:
    1. Joe Reid has an awesome jaw-dropping face in response to bigoted nonsense.
    2. Most people love tacos way more than they love Trump.
    3. Some of Trump’s followers are self-loathing.

  398. says

    Lynna, that piece by Josh Marshall warrants reading in full,* as does this one – “Trump’s Blood Libel & Press Failure”:

    …We tend to think in over-literal or clumsy ways about ‘hate speech’. Most often we assume that it’s a matter of using particular words, referring to a black woman as the n-word or calling a Jew a [redacted]. And these slurs are often the bread and butter of hate speech. But they don’t constitute it in themselves. …Hate speech is rants meant to inflame, inspire fear or rage or violence against a particular class of people. The precise vocabulary is not the heart of the matter. There’s no question that what Trump’s Wednesday night speech was was hate speech, a tirade filled with yelling, a snarling voice, air chopped to bits with slashing hands and through it all a story of American victims helpless before a looming threat from dangerous, predatory outsiders.

    I’ve discussed the matter a few times in these pages. But I’m stunned at how little reaction or discussion we see of how sick and dangerous it is to parade these victimized families around like props….

    …

    Watch Trump’s speeches, with the yelling, the reddened face, the demand for vengeance and you see there’s little to distinguish them from what we see at Aryan Nations or other white hate rallies that we all immediately recognize as reprehensible, wrong and frankly terrifying. This isn’t ‘rough’ language or ‘hard edged’ rhetoric. It’s hate speech. Precisely what policy solution Trump is calling for is almost beside the point. Indeed, it wouldn’t be hate speech any less if Trump specified no policy solution at all.

    This isn’t normal. It was normal in the Jim Crow South, as it was in Eastern Europe for centuries. It’s not normal in America in the 21st century. And yet it’s become normalized. It’s a mammoth failure of our political press. But it’s not just theirs, ours. It’s a collective failure that we’re all responsible for. By any reasonable standard, Donald Trump’s speech on Wednesday night should have ended the campaign, as should numerous other rallies where Trump has done more or less the same thing for months. There’s a reason why the worst of the worst, the organized and avowed racists, were thrilled and almost giddy watching the spectacle. But it has become normalized. We do not even see it for what it is. It’s like we’ve all been cast under a spell. That normalization will be with us long after this particular demagogue, Donald Trump, has left the stage. Call this what it is: it is hate speech, in its deepest and most dangerous form.

    The failure, or refusal, of the press to report consistently about Trump’s neo-fascism (alt-right, populist nationalism, nationalist populism – whatever name they’re giving it at any particular moment) is cowardly and inexcusable. And the tendency to describe his actions and rhetoric as “tough,” “strong,” “bold,” “audacious,” “spirited,” and so forth seems almost calculated to serve his purposes.

  399. blf says

    There are 10 states where only white candidates have won statewide office:

    […]
    According to an analysis by the Associated Press, Missouri is one of 10 states since Reconstruction where only white candidates have won contests for president, senator, governor and other nonjudicial offices elected statewide. The others are Alabama, Arkansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wyoming and Mississippi, which had the nation’s first two black senators in the 1870s when those seats were chosen by legislators rather than popularly elected.

    […]

    [Missouri secretary of state candidate Robin] Smith and West Virginia auditor candidate Mary Ann Claytor are the only black candidates for statewide office who will appear on the ballot this November as major party nominees in the 10 states where no minority has ever won such a race. Four Native American candidates are running for statewide office in the Dakotas. All are Democrats.

    Statewide posts aren’t the only elected positions in which minority representation has lagged. An AP analysis published in June found non-Hispanic whites make up a little more than 60% of the US population but hold more than 80% of all congressional and state legislative seats.

    […]

    Beyond the 10 states that have never elected a minority in a nonjudicial statewide race, six others had been included on the list before backing Barack Obama for president: Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

    […]

    In 2008, Denise Juneau became the first American Indian woman in the nation elected to statewide office when she won her campaign for Montana superintendent of public instruction.
    […]

  400. says

    blf@399, That’s kind of depressing. Only white candidates? I think that Utah narrowly escaped this category when the voters chose Mia Love.

    SC @398, thanks for that post. Good details to document Trump’s racism and hate speech. A few other media outlets are noticing the problem you highlighted, and they are calling their colleagues to account.

    It’s time for the media in this country to admit what the rest of us have known for more than a year: They are addicted to Donald Trump.

    Not a day goes by that the orange face of the Republican presidential nominee isn’t featured at the top of the webpage of every news service at least once during the day. He leads nearly every cable news show. It doesn’t matter if what he says makes sense (it doesn’t). It doesn’t matter if he’s telling the truth (he’s not). It doesn’t matter who he’s insulting (just about everyone). All that matters is that when Trump opens his mouth, the media jump, focus the cameras, and aim the microphones.

    Look at the examples from this week. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton delivered a substantive plan about mental health, with plenty of details. She gave a foreign policy speech to the American Legion and talked about American exceptionalism. Yet all the media could do was talk about Trump’s will-he-or-won’t-he fuzzy and flip-flopping approach to immigration. […]

    A report from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy detailed the over-reliance on Trump stories across the media (this particular study left out cable news, which was even worse). The Harvard study said Trump had won the “invisible primary” with a preponderance of coverage, most of it positive or neutral. And Trump received $2 billion in free media coverage, according to the tracking firm mediaQuant.

    […] “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” CNN’s Jeff Zucker bragged about how Trump is a ratings bonanza for the cable news station.

    […] Mika Brzezinski this week called out her co-host Joe Scarborough and the media in general for the Trump obsession, especially as it applied to speculation about immigration policy:

    Look at this conversation! We’re talking about nothing! We’re talking about a guy who means nothing, who says nothing, who has no opinions. We’re talking about a speech, that will probably end up being something that he doesn’t mean. And we’re pretending to try and “translate strategy” out of it. … I don’t know what we’ve talked about, honestly. Nothing!

    As the Republican presidential nominee, of course Trump deserves coverage, but not complete dominance of a 24-hour news cycle. […] Here’s a 12-step program for the media to come clean. […]

    1. We admit […] that our news feeds […] our headlines have become nothing but clickbait. […]

    2. […] restoring good news judgment also could restore us and the nation to sanity.

    […]

    6. We are entirely ready to cover issues and not just horse-race polling.

    […]

    9. […] Wouldn’t it be nice if reporters, anchors, and columnists dropped the “both sides do it” nonsense? […]

    10. […] Corrections need to be displayed prominently, not buried in a one-paragraph posting on an inside page.

    […] experiences of minorities in this country: African-Americans, Latinos, Muslims, too often women, and too many others are unseen in media […]

    Link

  401. says

    Speaking of the media not playing fair, a Trump shill lied on Meet the Press today, and the moderator let him get away with it.

    The steady decline of Meet the Press continues today as Trump shill Alex Castellanos flat out lied about the Clinton Foundation and then shadow Republican Chuck Todd refused to challenge him.

    Castellanos stated concerning the Clinton Foundation “Most charities give 75% of their money as direct aid. The Clinton Foundation gives less than 10%. In 2013, they raised $140 million bucks and sent $9 million in direct aid. It’s a slush fund for the Clintons.”

    An analysis by FactCheck (www.factcheck.org/…) reported the following quote from the charity monitoring group CharityWatch,

    “Considering all of the organizations affiliated with the Clinton Foundation, he said, CharityWatch concluded about 89 percent of its budget is spent on programs. That’s the amount it spent on charity in 2013, he said. We looked at the consolidated financial statements (see page 4) and calculated that in 2013, 88.3 percent of spending was designated as going toward program services — $196.6 million out of $222.6 million in reported expenses.”​

    I can forgive Alex Costellanos, he’s a paid spokesweasel for the Republicans. I can’t forgive Chuck Todd who let such an egregious falsehood go by without a retort. Tim Russert would have been all over that one.

    Link

  402. says

    Hillary Clinton has a plan to put a stop to unjustified price spikes for prescription drugs.

    Hillary Clinton already had a plan to lower prescription drug costs. In fact, it was one of the first pieces of her agenda that she rolled out. But following the furor over Mylan’s decision to increase EpiPen prices by some 500 percent, her campaign has released a new proposal specifically aimed at stopping “unjustified” price spikes on pharmaceuticals. And it’s surprisingly bold.

    Here’s the major idea: As president, Clinton would create a task force of regulators with the power to decide whether price increases on old, essential medicines and devices were reasonable given product improvements and the amount of competition in the market. If not, the task force would have the power to mete out punishments to companies that were trying to profiteer, potentially with fines. As the fact sheet states:

    In cases where there is a price spike and a lack of competition for a lifesaving treatment that has long been on the market, Hillary’s plan will enable the ability to fine or increase rebates from drug companies who are excessively raising prices. Revenue or savings from these penalties could be used to support the aforementioned new programs to make lowercost, effective alternatives available, and speed up approvals that will lead to greater competition.

    This might not sound particularly dramatic at first, but it would represent a serious shift in Washington’s relationship with the pharmaceutical business. The United States is basically alone among developed countries in that it largely lets drugmakers charge whatever the market will bear.

    Democrats, including Clinton, have long wanted to allow Medicare to negotiate pharma prices, which it currently can’t. (Donald Trump is in favor of this, as well.) But it sounds like the committee Clinton is imagining would have power over what companies can charge anybody. The body wouldn’t officially be able to set prices on long-available drugs, but its ability to slap a financial penalty on the next company that jacks up the cost of a 20-year-old medical implement or pill would come pretty darn close. […]

    Link

  403. says

    Excerpts from an interview with John K. Wilson, the author of Trump Unveiled: Exposing the Bigoted Billionaire (www.trumpunveiled.com):

    […] Trump’s approach is violent isolationism, which is likely to cause numerous wars. It’s well known among Trump’s critics that he’s lying when he says that he opposed the war in Iraq before it began, and pretends that he was a leader of the anti-war movement.

    What’s less publicized is the fact that Trump had consistently supported, from 1991 to 2003, invading Iraq and overthrowing Saddam Hussein—the very thing that he now says was a horrible idea and a key reason why Hillary Clinton shouldn’t be elected president. That means Trump is not only far to the right of Clinton, but he’s also far to the right of Dick Cheney. Trump wasn’t reluctant to start a war in Iraq; he was only disappointed that we hadn’t invaded Iraq long ago.

    The Never Trump movement understands that Trump generally follows the conservative line on judicial appointments and domestic policies, and that Congress can check his deviations.

    It’s foreign policy where Trump provokes fear from the right, not because he’s a pacifist, but because he’s an unpredictable lunatic, and the presidency today has vast unchecked powers beyond the borders of the United States. […]

    Trump’s paranoia is far worse than Nixon’s, and Trump goes far beyond paranoia to a general belief in conspiracy theories even when they don’t involve him. Trump became the leader of the birthers not merely because he wanted to appeal to the racist far right, but also because he genuinely embraces conspiracy theories.

    Conspiratorial thinking is dangerous for many reasons. It shows irrational reasoning and someone largely incapable of weighing evidence and determining actual causes for problems.

    Science, to a conspiracy nut, is just another conspiracy, which is why Trump always calls climate change a “hoax.”

    Conspiracy theorists also tend to see enemies everywhere. Since Trump has vowed to destroy America’s enemies, and he regards any critics as his personal enemy, there is a danger that Trump will be a traditional authoritarian leader, conflating criticism with treason.

    Many people imagine that the American system of checks and balances prevents a terrible abuse of presidential power. But the truth is that we’ve never tested it by electing a conspiracy nut as president. […]

    Link

  404. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    A poll shows increased support in the under 18-30 year olds for the Black Life Matters movement.

    Support for the Black Lives Matter movement has increased among young white adults, according to a poll that suggests a majority of white, black, Asian and Hispanic young adults now support the movement calling for accountability for police in the deaths of African-Americans.
    Fifty-one percent of white adults between the ages of 18 and 30 say in a GenForward poll they now strongly or somewhat support Black Lives Matter, a 10-point increase since June, while 42 percent said they do not support the movement.
    But most young whites also think the movement’s rhetoric encourages violence against the police, while the vast majority of young blacks say it does not. And young whites are more likely to consider violence against police a serious problem than say the same about the killings of African-Americans by police.
    Black, Hispanic and Asian youth already had expressed strong majority support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the June poll. Eighty-five percent of African-American young adults now say they support the protesters. Sixty-seven percent of Asian and 62 percent of Hispanic young adults agreed with that sentiment.

  405. blf says

    Vicente Fox (former president of Mexico), who previously wrote an opinion piece for the Grauniad (Let’s raise our voices against this dictator, Donald Trump: “Trump’s latest idea, to force Mexico to pay for a wall, is disgraceful. He says that he’ll make America great again, but I believe he’s only making it worse”) has written another, Mexicans gave Donald Trump the hostile welcome he deserved:

    After all his lies and poisonous rhetoric about us, he came to Mexico to try to be civil. But it’s too late for that, Donald

    Mexico was the focus of the global lens last week thanks to an unexpected and dreadful event: the visit of the most rude and unapologetic US presidential candidate in political history. Why did Donald Trump come here? It was the question that millions of Mexicans kept asking ourselves while saying, “You’re not welcome!”

    The Republican presidential candidate arrived in my country offering diplomacy as fake as a $3 bill. He knows that he’s not welcome and was aware of his rejection, by not just Mexico but all of Latin America, and the other countries and cultures he has offended. He has not only gathered the hate and distaste of the world, but with this visit to my country he has confirmed that he is without a doubt someone who cannot be trusted. You only have to look at the stunt that he pulled on his trip to Mexico: a charade to prove the unprovable — civility.

    […] It is clear that Trump loves only ratings, not credibility. His campaign is a farce and he has been deceiving his followers since the beginning. But the biggest issue is that he handles information like a virus, which has sickened the American people.

    Last Wednesday, in front of the cameras he didn’t have any choice but to recognise Mexico as a commercial partner, and the hard work Mexicans do in the US. Nevertheless, a few hours later, he came out again saying that Mexico would pay for the wall, when our President Enrique Peña Nieto had said otherwise. This vile act offended not only a free and sovereign country, but his own voters as well.

    A guy like Trump cannot and will not show the minimum respect for anything, instead making a huge display of selfishness. He used the president of Mexico and all of the country’s citizens to his own benefit. Lies continue to gather — such as […] he’s paying for his own campaign — and his denigration of women continues unabated.

    […]

    [… E]ven though I’m against walls, I’d gladly build one around Trump, to spare the world from people like him. We don’t need you.

    Gracias, Presidente Fox !

  406. blf says

    With a bit of luck, Sarkoführer will have some problems standing for the French presidency next year, Nicolas Sarkozy should face trial over alleged illegal funding — prosecutors:

    Ex-French president, who intends to run for office again in 2017, may be tried over allegations around failed 2012 campaign

    French prosecutors are to recommend that Nicolas Sarkozy stands trial over alleged irregularities in his failed 2012 re-election campaign, which could affect the former president’s hopes of returning to the Élysée Palace [French presidency –blf].

    Sarkozy, who last month launched his candidacy for next year’s presidential election, has been under investigation over alleged illegal campaign finances.

    Prosecutors will recommend that Sarkozy should be tried over the allegations concerning how the cost of his failed 2012 campaign reached more than double the legal limit […]

    […]

    As a result [of false invoices], the campaign was able to greatly exceed a spending limit of €22.5m, according to the prosecution. The maximum penalty he could face was a fine of €3,700, lawyers said. [Oh for feck’s sake! About €18m over the limit, and the fine is less that €4k!? –blf]

    The winner of a crucial centre-right primary election in November is likely to go on to face François Hollande, who beat Sarkozy in the 2012 election, and the far-right Front National [French nazis –blf] leader, Marine Le Pen.

    Sarkozy’s ambitions have not been helped by a series of scandals, including allegations that he used money from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to fund his 2007 campaign, that he was involved in kickbacks from an arms deal in the 1990s, and that he tried to bribe a magistrate to get information on another corruption case.

    [This case] could prove the most damaging, especially after the investigation found that Sarkozy asked for more campaign events in mid-March 2012, about two months before the vote.

    […]

  407. says

    Even Colin Powell has a faulty memory, or he is lying:

    […] Colin Powell Has Been Untruthful Regarding His Discussions with Clinton about Use of Private Email

    In response to press accounts regarding his discussions with Hillary Clinton regarding the use of private email as Secretary of State, Colin Powell told People Magazine:

    Her people have been trying to pin it on me, The truth is, she was using [the private email server] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did.

    This is a complete falsehood. We know this as a result of the FBI Report, which states at p. 11 that Clinton exchanged e-nails with Powell on the subject on January 23, 2009, just two days after Clinton was sworn in as Secretary of State. Thus it was not “a year before” as Powell falsely claimed — it was actually before Clinton made the decision to use private e-mail.

    What is more remarkable is the advice Powell actually gave Clinton:

    Be very careful, I got around [recordkeeping requirements] by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data.

    Think about that. Not only was Powell advising Clinton to evade her recordkeeping requirements, he actually admitted that he did so himself! Let’s put it this way, if the Media could have put Powell’s words in Clinton’s mouth, the impeachment trial would be on as we speak (even before she was elected!) But in fact, Clinton did nothing suggested by Powell to evade her recordkeeping requirement. To the point of NOT deleting emails after she left as Secretary of State. If this was a criminal enterprise to avoid FARA and FOIA, it sure was an incompetent one.

    And, another myth bites the dust:

    […] The Bureau of Information Security Management Stated There Was No Prohibition Against The Use of Private E-mails

    The FBI Report flatly states at p. 11:

    The Bureau of Information Security Management [stated] there was no restriction on the use of personal email accounts for official business. Thus, Clinton’s use of private e-mail and a private server was NOT prohibited. […]

    DK link

    Many more details are available at the link, including a fascinating look at the debunking of Clinton’s use of secure mediums for classified information. The article is part 1 of a two-part, detailed look at the FBI report that exonerates Hillary Clinton.

  408. says

    Native Americans protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline were attacked by unleashed attack dogs.

    Background:

    […] The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has sued the federal government, saying the Native American tribe was not properly consulted over the project to construct a 1,168-mile crude oil pipeline that extends over four states.

    While proponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline tout its economic boost, opponents question its environmental impact.

    The US Army Corps of Engineers approved the project, granting final permits in July, to the dismay of environmentalists and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

    CNN link

    […] yesterday, private guards armed with pepper spray and attack dogs unleashed their canines into the crowd. […]

    http://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/4/dakota_access_pipeline_company_attacks_native

  409. says

    Joy Reid did a good job of covering the “scandals” surrounding Hillary Clinton. Video and a partial transcript are available at Media Matters.

    Excerpt:

    […] So after that 24 hour Trump-related debacle, the very next morning, the big headline on Politico was this: “Bill Clinton used tax dollars to subsidize foundation, private email server.”

    The headline resurrected the specter of Hillary Clinton’s emails with the suggestion that Bill Clinton used federal money set aside for former presidents to subsidize Clinton Foundation workers and email servers, including work performed on Hillary Clinton’s private server. But, dig a little deeper into the story, and it turns out even after reviewing thousands of pages of records, Politico’s investigation does not reveal anything illegal.

    And after the Clinton campaign responded by pointing out that Clinton’s email servers were, in fact, paid for with her own money and the servers in question housed former president speeches, not his wife’semails, Politico switched to a new headline, saying the tax dollars went not to her private email server, but to private email support.

    Lynna suffers from head-desk episode

    But the media search for scandal in Clintons emails continued on Thursday when The New York Times announced “Emails Raise New Questions About Clinton Foundation Ties to State Dept.”

    Those new questions involved a long time adviser to Bill Clinton, Doug Band, who attempted to obtain a special diplomatic passport related to Clinton’s 2009 mission to free two American journalists detained in North Korea.

    Except there was no there there either, because the answer to those questions about whether the Clinton Foundation received special access from Hillary Clinton’s State Department was a resounding no. As theTimes reports in the story, the State Department never issued the passport to the foundation official who made the request. So why is the media looking for a Clinton scandal when there’s none to find […]?

    […] the standards for what qualifies as a Hillary Clinton scandal aren’t about smoking guns, they’re about a magical thing called “optics.” […]

  410. says

    Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine will participate in a traditional Labor Day rally in Cleveland, Ohio today. The rally is being held in an African American neighborhood.

    Clinton is flying to the rally in her newly-christened campaign jet, a Boeing 737 with “H” logos and a slogan. About 40 journalists are traveling with her, so that should put an end to the complaints about a lack of press availability.

  411. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    The Richmond Times-Dispatch has endorsed Libertarian Johnson for president.

    The Richmond Times-Dispatch formally endorsed Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, and they’re calling on the presidential debate commission to include him in the next debate. Bart Hinkle, the deputy editor of that paper, explains why the editorial board chose Johnson, despite his low poll numbers.

    Apparently the consider both Clinton and Trump as not have the morals/character they expect from a president.

    “Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton meets the fundamental moral and professional standards we have every right to expect of an American president,” the editorial board writes.

    Their goal appears to be getting Johnson into the presidential debates.

  412. says

    Charles M. Blow, writing for The New York Times, took a hard look at Donald Trump’s visit to Detroit:

    […] So, after weeks of preaching his sinister sermon of black pathology to mostly white audiences as part of his utterly fake “black outreach” — which is in fact the effort of a bigot to disguise his bigotry — Donald Trump finally brought his message before a few mostly black audiences. [snipped visit to Philadelphia where The Donald spoke at a private event to invited people of color]

    No sir, stop right there. We are not going to allow any deflection or redefining of words here. You are a bigot. […] No one manufactured your bigotry; you manifested it.

    […] You are a reprobate and a charlatan who has ridden a wave of intolerance to its crest.

    You were a chief birther against President Obama. You have maligned Mexicans and slandered Muslims. You have treated women with disdain. You have mocked the handicapped. You have displayed a staggering lack of basic knowledge about governance. You have applauded dictators. You have encouraged the assault of protesters at your rallies.

    You are a prime example of the worst of humanity. You are what happens when incuriosity meets intolerance. […]

    Then on Saturday, Trump traveled to Detroit and visited with a church congregation, or at least with a fraction of that congregation, judging from an image of the nearly empty venue.

    Before Trump read his remarks, he said, “I just wrote this the other day knowing that I would be here, and I mean it from the heart.”

    That’s the first thing that sounded like a lie. The New York Times reported last week that Trump’s advisers had gotten the questions Trump was supposed to answer during an interview in Detroit and prepared a script for him. What makes us think that they didn’t also write his pandering speech? […]

    The speech was feather-light on policy, but what was there was just repackaged Republican claptrap that reinforced negative perceptions about liberalism and blackness.

    Trump said, “I believe we need a civil rights agenda of our time, one that ensures the rights to a great education and the right to live in safety and in peace and to have a really, really great job, a good-paying job, and one that you love to go to every morning.”

    Translation: I want to further weaken public education through more charters and vouchers. I want to flood your neighborhoods with more police because you can’t control yourselves. I want you to stop freeloading, get off welfare, and get a job.

    Everything about this spectacle was offensive: that a black pastor had invited this money changer into the temple to defile it; […]

    But again, the citizens of Detroit — or black people in general — are not the intended audience for this pageant of perversity. You can’t earnestly court the black vote while at the same time your party is enacting laws in multiple states to suppress the black vote. The whole thing is a logical fallacy.

    Trump closed his speech in Detroit by quoting a passage from First John, Chapter 4 in the Bible: “No one has ever seen God but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

    I too would like to close by quoting a passage from 1 John 4: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

    Everything about Trump reads to me as false, and I hope that on Election Day, America exercises the gift of discernment.

  413. says

    Trump tweeted:

    Lyin’ Hillary Clinton told the FBI that she did not know the “C” markings on documents stood for CLASSIFIED. How can this be happening?

    Trump, you doofus, actual classified material is supposed to be marked with more than a “(C)” buried in the document. Classified documents are supposed to be marked with the level of classification in the header, in a footer (and in the case of email, in the subject line).

    Furthermore, you have it wrong about that “(C)”. It does NOT indicate “classified.” It indicates “confidential” which is security ranking lower than “classified.” As CCN reporter John Noonan noted:

    (C) stands for CONFIDENTIAL. Confidential, Secret, Top Secret are levels of classification. DoD Directive 5200.01.

    Noonan knows what he is talking about. He He was national security adviser to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and has a background that makes him competent in this area.

  418. says

    Donald Trump doubles down on his decision to ignore the concept of developing and describing policies:

    […] “She’s [Hillary Clinton’s] got people that sit in cubicles writing policy all day. Nothing’s ever going to happen. It’s just a waste of paper,” he told Time Magazine in June. “My voters don’t care and the public doesn’t care. They know you’re going to do a good job once you’re there.”

    To date, Trump’s campaign has posted just seven policy proposals on his website. There are 38 on Clinton’s site, ranging from efforts to cure Alzheimer’s disease to Wall Street and criminal justice reform. […]

    Associated Press link

    From CNN’s Brian Stelter: “Trump’s site has 9,000 words of policy proposals. Clinton’s site: 112,735 words.”

    From an article posted by Politico in May:

    […] a campaign source said Trump didn’t want to “waste time on policy,” because he believes “it would make him less effective on the stump.”

    [From the same source:] “It won’t be until after he is elected but before he’s inaugurated that he will figure out exactly what he is going to do.”

    As has been pointed out many times, Trump is inexperienced when it comes governing. He has no record of governing. He expects people to trust him to govern. Once he is elected, he’ll let you know how he is going to govern. Or maybe he will just wing it on a day-to-day basis.

  419. says

    Trump has decided to focus on a different way of attacking Hillary Clinton. He has done this before, but now he is repeating it in an endless-loop: he thinks Hillary Clinton does not look presidential.

    Does she look presidential, fellas? Give me a break.

    The use of “fellas” bothers me.

    Here’s more:

    MUIR [ABC News’ David Muir]: Let me ask you. You’ve often talked about Hillary Clinton’s stamina. You even said she doesn’t “look presidential.”

    TRUMP: I really do believe that.

    MUIR: But what do you mean by that?

    TRUMP: Well, I just don’t think she has a presidential look and you need a presidential look.

  420. says

    A followup on Trump as the scam artist who managed to stop a suit against Trump University in Texas in 2010. (This is a lawsuit that was separate from the suit that was pending in Florida until Trump sent the Attorney General Pam Bondi a $25,000 donation for her campaign.)

    John Owens was the deputy chief of consumer protection for the state of Texas at the time:

    According to the documents provided by Owens, his team sought to sue Trump, his company and several business associates to help recover more than $2.6 million students spent on seminars and materials, plus another $2.8 million in penalties and fees. […]

    Owens said he was so surprised at the order to stand down he made a copy of the case file and took it home.

    “It had to be political in my mind because Donald Trump was treated differently than any other similarly situated scam artist in the 16 years I was at the consumer protection office,” said Owens, who lives in Houston. […]

    […] Trump gave donations totaling $35,000 to Abbott’s gubernatorial campaign three years after his office closed the Trump U case.

    CBS News link

    The CBS News story also provides details regarding the present Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, trying to muzzle John Owens.

    […] Paxton’s office issued a cease and desist letter to former Deputy Chief of Consumer Protection John Owens after he made public copies of a 14-page internal summary of the state’s case against Donald Trump for scamming millions from students of his now-defunct real estate seminar. […]

  421. says

    This is awesome.

    A taco truck set up next to a Trump appearance and sold many, many tacos.
    Link

    […] his visit did bring out the entrepreneurial spirit in Nancy Paz, a Mexican immigrant. Paz and her family took their business, the Tacos El Caballo truck, to set up as near as legally possible to the church Trump was visiting. NPR reports:

    “Because Donald say the Mexican people, they doesn’t work,” Paz told Pluta. “We come here to say, yes, we work hard, for the family.”

    The truck did brisk business this morning — so much so that a form of surge pricing kicked in, raising the price for a steak, pork, or chicken taco from $1.50 to $2.50, Pluta reports.

  423. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Dang, the spellchecker in the iPad is crazy. # 422. Should read “This reeks of corruption more…”

  424. says

    Nerd @422, yes, Trump looks guilty for using Trump Foundation money to bribe Pam Bondi, the Florida Attorney General.

    Moreover, Trump being Trump, he and his minions compounded the crime/mistake by trying to conceal the donation. They claimed at one point that it went to a legit charity in Kansas. (The IRS caught him anyway. He and the minions still claim that about five levels of mistakes and clerical errors led to the illegal donation, which has since been corrected by having Trump repay the foundation from out of his personal pocket — there’s no proof of that.)

    And then Trump claimed that he never discussed the campaign donation with Bondi, nope, not ever. Maybe he forgot that Bondi already said she made the ask personally, to Trump (but, wiggle, wiggle, before she contemplated taking Trump U. to court).

    One more layer of immoral murk: the money in Trump Foundation is not Trump’s. None of it. That is, he has not given any of his own money to his charitable foundation since 2008. He gets other people to give money to the foundation, and when the foundation makes charitable contributions, he takes personal credit.

    The $25,000 Trump gave to Pam Bondi was not his own money. He gave somebody else’s money to her, and he collected the benefit in the form of a dropped lawsuit. I don’t even know what to call that. “Quid pro quo” doesn’t quite cover it.

    Trump also claimed that he gave Bondi the money because he has known her and has respected her work for years. Nope. There is no evidence, none, that he and Bondi had more than an acquaintance. At least there is no evidence in the Florida press (going back years) of a Trump-Bondi friendship. They may have a friendship, but there is nothing in the public record to indicate that.

    After the threatened lawsuit, followed by the illegal donation, we do see a Trump-Bondi relationship of sorts. For example, she gave a speech at the Republican convention. She is now busily dissing Hillary Clinton.

  425. says

    Trump was questioned by his favorite retired general yesterday, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. There was an audience at the “Town Hall” event, but it wasn’t really a town hall event: no one from the audience was allowed to ask a question.

    Despite the totally friendly questioning by General Flynn, Trump struggled. He veered from one incoherent statement to another and/or he just segued to a discussion of his improving poll numbers. When he was asked about cyber-security threats, Trump sounded like he had only a vague idea of how to address the issue.

    You know cyber is becoming so big today. It’s becoming something that a number of years ago, short number of years ago, wasn’t even a word. And now the cyber is so big. And you know you look at what they’re doing with the Internet, how they’re taking and recruiting people through the Internet. And part of it is the psychology because so many people think they’re winning. [Then he started to talk about his poll numbers and how they were positive and were all over the internet.]

    Here is Trump’s reply to a question about Iran:

    We also happened to have given them Iraq. Because, you know, I always say, Iraq and Iran were very similar militarily, and they’d fight, fight, fight, and then they’d rest. They’d fight, fight, fight, and then Saddam Hussein would do the gas, and somebody else would do something else, and they’d rest.

    Here is his answer to a question about defeating ISIS:

    I am also going to convene my top generals and give them a simple instruction: They will have 30 days to submit to the Oval Office a plan for defeating ISIS.

    Hmmm. Earlier, Trump told us he had a plan for defeating ISIS but he wouldn’t reveal the details because he didn’t want to give ISIS any advance warning. He also told us that he knows “more about ISIS than the generals. Believe me.” If so, why would he seek the advice of his “top generals”?

    From yesterday’s fiasco, I would say that it’s not looking good for Trump when it comes to his performance at tonight’s Commander-in-Chief Forum. The forum will air at 8pm Eastern time on MSNBC and NBC. Maddow Show link.

  426. says

    For the first time in more than 75 years, the Dallas Morning News has endorsed a Democrat for president.

    There is only one serious candidate on the presidential ballot in November. We recommend Hillary Clinton.

    We don’t come to this decision easily. This newspaper has not recommended a Democrat for the nation’s highest office since before World War II — if you’re counting, that’s more than 75 years and nearly 20 elections. […]

    Resume vs. resume, judgment vs. judgment, this election is no contest. […]

    Treason? Murder? Her being cleared of crimes by investigation after investigation has no effect on these political hyenas; they refuse to see anything but conspiracies and cover-ups. […]

    Trump’s values are hostile to conservatism. He plays on fear — exploiting base instincts of xenophobia, racism and misogyny — to bring out the worst in all of us, rather than the best. His serial shifts on fundamental issues reveal an astounding absence of preparedness. And his improvisational insults and midnight tweets exhibit a dangerous lack of judgment and impulse control.

    Dallas News link

  427. blf says

    @425, on teh trum-prat’s somewhat incoherent claim that “cyber” is a relatively new word: Being new didn’t smell right to me (neither did its use as a word and not a prefix — more on this below), so I looked it up in The Online Etymology Dictionary. Whilst it turns out teh trump-prat is correct in that it’s apparently new (dating back only to the 1990s or so), there was an amusing quote:

    Cyber is such a perfect prefix. Because nobody has any idea what it means, it can be grafted onto any old word to make it seem new, cool — and therefore strange, spooky. {“New York” magazine, Dec 23, 1996}

    That sounds just like teh trum-prat, say something that can (and will probably be taken to) mean anything.

    But— it gets even more amusing with the use of the word “cyber”. The first attested use as a word was as a shorthand for “cybersex”. So, translating teh trum-prat, we get You know cybersex is becoming so big today. It’s becoming something that a number of years ago, short number of years ago, wasn’t even a word. And now the cybersex is so big. And you know you look at what they’re doing with the Internet, how they’re taking and recruiting people through the Internet.

  428. says

    Oh, FFS! Really, New York Times? You did again. You got the story completely wrong. The NY Times headline reads “Senate Democrats Block Zika Bill Over Planned Parenthood Provisions.”

    No, that’s not right. Senators returned to work on Tuesday (yesterday), and they did vote on the Zika funding bill, but that is not the whole story, that is not the meat of the story.

    The Zika funding bill that Republicans are pushing:

    1. Does not fund prevention, vaccine research, etc at the level that President Obama and the agencies fighting the disease requested.

    2. Blocks funds from going to Planned Parenthood, which is an organization uniquely capable of addressing prevention and treatment for women.

    3. Allows the Confederate flag to be displayed in veterans’ cemeteries. (WTF?)

    4. Makes drastic cuts to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). (Unacceptable in my opinion.)

    5. Weakens EPA regulations that protect our water supply nationwide.

    So how do the increasingly-Republican-like doofuses at the NY Times describe this failure in the Senate?

    Senate Democrats again stymied a $1.1 billion plan to fight the Zika virus, demanding that Republicans drop an effort to block Planned Parenthood from receiving money to combat the mosquito-borne disease.

    […] public health experts say [funds] desperately needed as they prepare for the possibility that Zika will spread to other states along the gulf coast. […]

    Here’s what Harry Reid said:

    Republicans were more interested in attacking Planned Parenthood and flying the Confederate flag. Can’t make that stuff up—that’s really the truth—than protecting women and babies from this awful virus.

    Republicans loaded the bill with poison, and after they forced Democrats to reject the bill, they waited for media outlets like the NYT to take the bait and publish misleading headlines. That may be good politics if Republicans are trying to cheat their way to a public opinion that favors them, but it is also an unethical, evil blow that will land on the heads of pregnant women and babies.

  429. blf says

    Headlines are notoriously prone to being misleading, which is not helped by them usually being composed by a different individual than the author and subject to quite severe space restrictions. Also, the headlines tend to change in different editions, even if the content of the story does not.

    Anyone who has a habit of actually reading newspapers knows not to presume the essence of the story is captured by the headline. That’s even before you get to the problem that different people will think different parts of a story are the most important.

    Perhaps the canonical example (in the UK press) was a headline along the lines of “Earthquake in X; 2 Brits die”, all of which was true, but managed to overlook the destruction of a city, the numerous deaths and injuries of the local population, and so on.

  430. blf says

    Although I myself despise monarchs (even the “constitutional” kind), every now and then one of them does something worthy of respect. This seems to be such a case, King of Norway reigns on Facebook after diversity speech (all emphasis in the original, and please notice that headline doesn’t give any meaningful clew as to the contents of the speech):

    King Harald shook up the royal garden party with a speech in support of refugees and gay rights which has since gone viral

    A 79-year-old monarch is perhaps not the most likely person to deliver a rousing speech in support of refugees, religious tolerance, diversity and LGBT rights, and a royal garden party may not be the most likely place to hear it.

    But an impassioned five-minute address on the need for inclusiveness and acceptance by Norway’s King Harald last week to 1,500 slightly startled — but ultimately delighted — guests in the park of the Royal Palace in Oslo has gone viral.

    […]

    Explicitly backing gay rights, the king, who will be 80 in February, said Norwegians were “girls who love girls, boys who love boys, and girls and boys who love each other”. He also voiced support for religious diversity, saying Norwegians believed “in God, in Allah, in the universe — and in nothing”.

    Calling on people to embrace “trust, solidarity and generosity”, he said the notion of home could not be confined within national borders. “It is not always easy to say where we are from, what nationality we are. Home is where our heart is.”

    Norwegians came in all ages, abilities, heights, family statuses and careers, the king continued, referencing a hit Norwegian DJ Kygo alongside the altogether more classical composer Grieg to prove it. “In other words,” he said. “Norway is you. Norway is us.”

    […]

    Harald insisted Norwegians came not only “from north Norway, central Norway, southern Norway and all the other regions”, but from “Afghanistan, Pakistan and Poland, from Sweden, Somalia and Syria”.

    […]

  431. Air says

    @424

    I am very unclear how DT paying his foundation $25K makes the foundation debacle ‘legal.’ There would still appear to be a illegal donation; the only thing the money does is balance the foundation’s books. Bondi is still $25K to the good from the foundation, right? And if DT gave $25 K to Bondi, would he not be violating the political contribution limit for an individual (see Ivanka’s $500 donation to Bondi as an example)?

  433. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    re Air@431:
    in addition to @432, the simplest clarification is the summary: Trump University was under inventigation by NYC for fraud, and Fla was about to jump onto the prosecution, moments before formalizing the collaboration, Bondi asked Trump for campaign contributions, to which he instantly contributed $25K, after which Fla recused and dropped out.
    hmmm, suspicious? me thinks so..

  434. Air says

    @433
    Yeah, I get the quid pro quo part. The accounting part is what I am interested in and the Guardian article at 432 doesn’t address it. To recap: has Bondi paid back the illegal donation to the foundation? It doesn’t appear so.

  435. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    To recap: has Bondi paid back the illegal donation to the foundation? It doesn’t appear so.

    Payback, if done immediately, say within a couple of months, would have been meaningful. Too late for that now. Nothing will save the situation at this point in time. It reeks of corruption.

  436. blf says

    Texas is up to its usual racist tricks, Mexican heritage textbook for Texas schools full of ‘offensive stereotypes’ (edits by the Grauniad are in {curly braces}):

    Ruben Cortez and a committee found Mexican American studies textbook for use in public schools has 141 errors of fact, interpretation and omission

    Along with other Hispanic education advocates, Ruben Cortez was pleased to discover that Texas might approve a Mexican American studies textbook for use in public schools.

    Then he read it.

    The textbook, Mexican American Heritage, is packed with “flagrant falsehoods and offensive racial stereotypes”, the state board of education member told a press conference on Tuesday in Brownsville, near the border with Mexico. “Frankly this sounds like something in line with what you’d hear in the Trump campaign.”

    Cortez convened an eight-member committee of academics and teachers to examine the book, and they produced a 54-page report (pdf) which details what they say are 141 errors of fact, interpretation and omission.

    […]

    According to the book, Chicano activists adopted a revolutionary narrative that opposed western civilization and wanted to destroy this society. The report’s authors also take exception to a passage that states: Illegal immigration has{…} caused a number of economic and security problems in the United States over which people are divided on how to solve. Poverty, non-assimilation, drugs, crime and exploitation are among some of these problems.

    […]

    The book repeats a view of Mexicans as indolent, then fails to challenge the falsehood, the report says. It quotes a passage: Stereotypically, Mexicans were viewed as lazy compared to European or American workers. Industrialists were very driven, competitive men who were always on the clock and continually concerned about efficiency.
    They were used to their workers putting in a full day’s work, quietly and obediently, and respecting rules [note all the authoritarianism here –blf], authority and property. In contrast, Mexican laborers were not reared to put in a full day’s work so vigorously. There was a cultural attitude of ‘mañana,’ or ‘tomorrow’, when it came to high-gear production. It was also traditional to skip work on Mondays, and drinking on the job could be a problem.

    The publisher, Virginia-based Momentum Instruction, is run by Cynthia Dunbar, who served a four-year term on the [Texas] state education board and wrote a book in 2008, One Nation Under God, subtitled How the Left is Trying to Erase What Made Us Great, which described public education as a subtly deceptive tool of perversion.

    If my memory is correct — I haven’t checked this — Dunbar is the eejit who is opposed to public education.

    [… A bunch of absurd statements from Dunbar, ending with this doozy:] There’s no racial bias in the textbook, I don’t know why they keep twisting it to try to put it forward.

    […]

  437. says

    The Trump Foundation paid the $25,000 to a PAC supporting Bondi, not directly to Bondi herself. Still an illegal source for the donation, as the Trump Foundation is not allowed to contribute to political campaigns. However, donating to a PAC does get around the limits on donations from individuals.

    No, Bondi has not returned the $25,000, nor has her PAC.

    No, Trump paying back the $25,000 to his own foundation does not make everything okay, nor is that repayment a sure thing — there’s no proof he did that. However, it is the slim reed on which Trump’s spokespeople are hanging their “everything has been made right” hat.

  438. says

    Trump has always tried to influence politicians by making illegal donations. From a New York Times article published today:

    Mr. Trump’s payment of a $2,500 penalty to the Internal Revenue Service over [his improper campaign contribution to Florida’s Pam Bondi] amounted to only the latest slap of his wrist in a decades-long record of shattering political donation limits and circumventing the rules governing contributions and lobbying.

    In the 1980s, Mr. Trump was compelled to testify under oath before New York State officials after he directed tens of thousands of dollars to the president of the New York City Council through myriad subsidiary companies to evade contribution limits. In the 1990s, the Federal Election Commission fined Mr. Trump for exceeding the annual limit on campaign contributions by $47,050, the largest violation in a single year. And in 2000, the New York State lobbying commission imposed a $250,000 fine for Mr. Trump’s failing to disclose the full extent of his lobbying of state legislators. […]

    Jon Chait, writing for New York Magazine, also noted Trump’s consistency when it comes to being corrupt:

    […] Trump’s entire business career reeks, beginning with his early associations with organized crime and proceeding through a career of swindling. “No other candidate for the White House this year has anything close to Trump’s record of repeated social and business dealings with mobsters, swindlers, and other crooks,” reports David Cay Johnston.

    Trump is not merely comfortable doing business with criminals and thugs – his habits of manipulating bankruptcy laws and swindling his partners have left him reliant upon, let us say, unconventional sources of investment, many of whom are the scum of the Earth. […]

    Trump’s repetition of the claim that Hillary Clinton is the most corrupt politician ever is likely projection on his part.

    Writing for the Washington Post, Paul Waldman listed Trump’s major episodes of corruption, double-dealing, and fraud. Here is an excerpt from a long article:

    Trump’s casino bankruptcies, which left investors holding the bag while he skedaddled with their money.

    Trump’s habit of refusing to pay contractors who had done work for him, many of whom are struggling small businesses.

    Trump University, which includes not only the people who got scammed and the Florida investigation, but also a similar story from Texas where the investigation into Trump U was quashed.

    The Trump Institute, another get-rich-quick scheme in which Trump allowed a couple of grifters to use his name to bilk people out of their money.

    The Trump Network, a multi-level marketing venture (a.k.a. pyramid scheme) that involved customers mailing in a urine sample which would be analyzed to produce for them a specially formulated package of multivitamins.

    Trump Model Management, which reportedly had foreign models lie to customs officials and work in the U.S. illegally, and kept them in squalid conditions while they earned almost nothing for the work they did.

    Trump’s employment of foreign guest workers at his resorts, which involves a claim that he can’t find Americans to do the work.

    Trump’s use of hundreds of undocumented workers from Poland in the 1980s, who were paid a pittance for their illegal work.

    Trump’s history of being charged with housing discrimination.

    Trump’s connections to mafia figures involved in New York construction.

    The time Trump paid the Federal Trade Commission $750,000 over charges that he violated anti-trust laws when trying to take over a rival casino company.

    The fact that Trump is now being advised by Roger Ailes, who was forced out as Fox News chief when dozens of women came forward to charge him with sexual harassment. According to the allegations, Ailes’s behavior was positively monstrous; as just one indicator, his abusive and predatory actions toward women were so well-known and so loathsome that in 1968 the morally upstanding folks in the Nixon administration refused to allow him to work there despite his key role in getting Nixon elected.

  439. says

    The endorsement battle, military category:

    Trump’s campaign lists 88 U.S. military leaders that have endorsed the Republican candidate.

    Hillary Clinton’s campaign lists 95 retired generals and admirals that have endorsed her.

    The two lists are not comparable.

    Most of the retired officers who flagged their support for Mr. Trump on Tuesday aren’t military leaders well known inside the Pentagon or Washington, D.C.

    A majority haven’t served since the first Iraq war in the early ’90s. […]

    At least two of the names on the pro-Trump list have faced scrutiny in the national spotlight.

    Retired Lt. General William G. “Jerry” Boykin was criticized by then-President George W. Bush in 2003 for casting the fight against terrorism as a religious war between a “Christian nation” and Satan. He also said a militant Muslim militia leader in Somalia worshiped an “idol’’ and not “a real God.’’ Mr. Boykin, […] serves as executive vice president at the Family Research Council […]

    Retired Lt. General Thomas G. McInerney is a Fox News military analyst who has challenged Mr. Obama’s eligibility to be president based on the theory that he wasn’t born in the U.S. […]

    Wall Street Journal link.

  440. says

    Hillary Clinton has seasonal allergies that sometimes cause a coughing fit. Right-wing media outlets play video of the coughing fits on endless loops which are accompanied by scare-tactic text claiming that Hillary is dying.

    Newt Gingrich tried to get in on the act. While discussing Clinton’s health, Gingrich had a coughing fit of his own. Gingrich’s cough sounded worse than Clinton’s.

    When former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared on Sean Hannity’s talk radio program on Tuesday, the two engaged in a long segment of banter and speculation about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s cough. Then, Gingrich started coughing himself.

    Hannity opened the show with a segment of Clinton coughing, then went back to rehash it later with Gingrich. During a spirited debate over the length of the coughing fit, Gingrich remarked to Hannity that he thought the coughs are “deeper” and “last much longer” than her husband’s when he had coughing attacks over acid reflux in the nineties.

    Hannity, pointing to a persistent myth about Clinton’s health, clocked Clinton’s cough at precisely four minutes and twenty-two seconds and said, before turning to a concussion Clinton had several years ago, “I think we need to know if she’s healthy.” […]

    “Now you sound like Hillary!” Hannity said. “Can I get you a drink of water? By the way, yours didn’t last 4 minutes and 20 seconds―thank God!” […]

    “I fly so much, my throat dries out,” said Gingrich.

    Think Progress link

    Conclusion: everyone is dying, probably of black lung or some other respiratory disease.

  441. says

    Mike Pence does not agree with the Birtherism that Trump rabidly supported a few years ago, (and that Trump still refuses to retract):

    Unlike his running mate, Mike Pence said he believes Barack Obama was born in the United States. After Donald Trump repeatedly declined to retract or apologize for his past claims that the president is not a U.S. citizen—a conspiracy theory that first brought the real-estate mogul to political prominence in 2011—his vice-presidential pick has been forced to play cleanup for him.

    “I believe Barack Obama was born in Hawaii,” Pence told reporters Wednesday. “I accept his birthplace.” Asked whether Trump should apologize for having stoked the widely debunked claims, Pence demurred, instead saying “Trump’s record both as a businessman and as a political leader and a patron in supporting minority efforts… really speaks for itself.”

    Link

  442. says

    This is a followup to comments 368 (SC) and 377.

    Remember Marco Gutierrez, the Trump follower who threatened everyone with the assurance that if Hillary Clinton is elected president there will be a “taco truck on every corner”?

    That guy is a slime ball on several levels. No wonder he likes hanging out with his fellow trumpeters.

    Abuses leveled at immigrants can be particularly vicious. As part of a foreclosure rescue scam, Marco Gutierrez bullied and intimidated HERA’s monolingual Spanish-Speaking homeowner client, charging over $16,000 for a loan modification.

    He took the homeowner’s car as partial payment but never changed registration, racking up unpaid tickets under the homeowner’s name. When HERA helped the homeowner complain to authorities, the scammer filed a meritless lawsuit against the homeowner (and against a HERA staffer).

    In the course of defending the case, HERA discovered that Gutierrez was a serial litigant who had filed dozens of actions against his “clients”.

    Gutierrez was using the court system to bully vulnerable residents across several counties into paying amounts they did not owe him and to retaliate against those who complained about his practices.

    After defeating Gutierrez’s claims, HERA brought a successful vexatious litigant motion against Gutierrez. As a result, both HERA’s client and countless other unrepresented homeowners who might have fallen prey to Gutierrez’s tactics are now protected.

    The text above is excerpted from a 2013-2014 annual report by HERA, housing and economic rights advocates.

  444. militantagnostic says

    I will say this in favour of Donald Trump. He is the best refutation to any argument that capitalism is a meritocracy.

  445. says

    This just happened:

    Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson was caught by surprise on Thursday morning during a visit with MSNBC on what was — in no way — intended to be a “gotcha” question.

    Morning Joe‘s Mike Barnicle asked the former New Mexico Governor, “What would you do if you were elected about Aleppo?” referencing the Syrian city that has been the hotbed of airstrikes and the setting for the refugee crisis.

    “And what is Aleppo?” he asked with a blank stare to the complete silence of the Morning Joe panelists.

  446. says

    Donald Trump thinks he can pick “new generals” when he is president. He wants to get rid of the generals that are in charge during President Obama’s administration.

    A few details:

    – He called the existing generals of the US military “rubble” and declared that he would replace them with selections from the list of retirees who endorsed Trump.

    – Given the opportunity to walk back his previous statement, Trump instead doubled-down on the idea that rape in the military is the inevitable result of allowing women to serve alongside men.

    – He spent a full two minutes singing the praises of Vladimir Putin, and when reminded of a few of Putin’s foibles—invading Crimea, supporting dictators, generally killing people he doesn’t like—Trump replied with a remark about “things Obama has done.”

    – He excused his Putin love by declaring that Putin “has an 82 percent approval rating.” 82 percent? Bah! Fearless Leader won last election with 117 percent of vote!

    – Trump once again called on America to replace nation-building with empire-building by “taking Iraq’s oil.” Using some kind of unspecified special troops that we can only assume includes Bruce Willis and the best damn oil-stealers on Earth.

    – He revealed that he doesn’t have a secret plan to eliminate ISIS, except that he does have a secret plan, except that he’s going to ask the generals, and maybe he will make a hybrid plan, or maybe not. But he’s not telling.

    – In perhaps the peak insanity of the night (though really, by the time we reached this point, my insanity detector was numb) Trump let America in on his secret military intelligence briefings and revealed the startling fact that he could tell that the intelligence staff was really pissed at Obama, and Clinton, and John Kerry … because “I’m really good at body language.”

    – He finished by declaring that Hillary Clinton has “a happy trigger.”

    Link

  447. says

    How did Matt Lauer treat Hillary Clinton? He was a moderator that sometimes did a good job, and sometimes did a terrible job.

    Keep in mind that each presidential candidate had only half an hour to speak, and that the subject of the entire Commander in Chief Forum was supposed to be national security, veterans issues, and our current combat status. And yet, here’s what Matt Lauer did to Clinton:

    […] Lauer started his interview by sandbagging Hillary Clinton, interrupting her first answer with a lengthy “question” about the email server that was both unrelated to the supposed topic of the evening, and weighted with built-in scorn up to and including the idea that Clinton’s non-crime was “disqualifying” of her candidacy. Before Hillary could complete her answer to this are-we-really-going-to-do-this zinger, Lauer interrupted her again. With another email question. Then he did it again.

    Watching a replay of the affair, it’s not that Matt Lauer interrupted some of Hillary Clinton’s answers. It’s that he interrupted all of HIllary Clinton’s answers. Repeatedly, he leaped in mid-sentence, first to spew out ‘questions’ that were actually lengthy position statements allowing no obvious response, then to break in and remind Clinton that they were running out of time when she tried to beat Lauer’s words into an actual question. Lauer displayed a level of disrespect and antagonism to Hillary Clinton that wasn’t just unprofessional, it was punchable.

    […] He didn’t challenge Trump’s flat-out lies, and several times handed the Republican candidate open-ended questions with an intellectual challenge between “what’s your favorite color” and “how cool are puppies?” Lauer never hit Trump with anything remotely equivalent to emails—nothing about his taxes, his failed business deals, his 3,500 lawsuits, or the handy bribes that made some of those lawsuits go away. Since this was ostensibly a forum on military issues, Lauer might have asked Trump to explain his attacks on a Gold-Star family, or the five deferments that kept Trump from ever having to come near service of his own. Nope.

    Overall he treated Trump like a respected businessman, while addressing Clinton as if she was a PA assigned to warm up his coffee between floats in the Macy’s parade. […]

    Link

  448. says

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/lauers-pathetic-interview-made-me-think-trump-can-win.html

    Excerpts:

    […] Lauer’s performance was not merely a failure, it was horrifying and shocking. The shock, for me, was the realization that most Americans inhabit a very different news environment than professional journalists. […] Most voters, and all the more so undecided voters, subsist on a news diet supplied by the likes of Matt Lauer. And the reality transmitted to them from Lauer […] is a world in which Clinton and Trump are equivalently flawed.

    Lauer focused a third of his questioning time on Clinton’s private email server.[…]

    The word judgment has been used a lot around you, Secretary Clinton, over the last year and a half. And in particular concerning your use of your personal email and server to communicate while you were secretary of state. You have said it’s a mistake.

    You said you made not the best choice.

    You were communicating on highly sensitive topics. Why wasn’t it more than a mistake? Why wasn’t it disqualifying, if you want to be commander-in-chief?

    Lauer followed up with four more email-related questions. The impression an uninformed or even moderately informed viewer would receive from this interview is that the email issue represents a sinister crime, perhaps completely disqualifying from office, rather than an unjustifiable but routine act of government non-transparency.

    The email exchange would not by itself be so alarming except when viewed in juxtaposition with Lauer’s hapless interview of Trump. Trump began the interview by boldly insisting, “I was totally against the war in Iraq. You can look at Esquire magazine from 2004. You can look at before that.” This is a lie. Trump has been quoted supporting the invasion beforehand and even afterward. Nobody has produced any evidence of Trump contradicting his support for the war before it started. His line to Lauer was transparently ridiculous – how could a 2004 interview supply evidence of having opposed a war that began in 2003? But Lauer did not try even a single follow-up. […]

    In conclusion:

    The average undecided voter is getting snippets of news from television personalities like Lauer, who are failing to convey the fact that the election pits a normal politician with normal political failings against an ignorant, bigoted, pathologically dishonest authoritarian.

  449. says

    Not content with their other inane conspiracy theories, right-wingers are now promoting another conspiracy theory, namely that Hillary Clinton wore an earpiece during the Commander in Chief Forum so that answers could be fed to her.

    There was no earpiece.

    There was a slight reflection of stage lights on part of her ear at one point, but, no, not an earpiece. Sheesh.

    Trump’s son has followed up on this. It is clear that Trump Jr. reads and believes InfoWars. Again, sheesh. The major source of inane conspiracy theories, Alex Jones, in the U.S. is a source for Trump’s campaign.

    Trump himself is running with this stupid theory:

    Republican nominee Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is running with the Alex Jones-fueled conspiracy that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was fed answers through a secret earpiece while participating in NBC’s September 7 “Commander-in-Chief Forum.”

    Infowars.com is run by Jones, a conspiracy theorist who believes the government was behind the 9/11 attacks and other national tragedies. Jones recently said he’s been advising Trump. Infowars posted a September 8 story headlined, “WAS HILLARY WEARING AN EARPIECE DURING LAST NIGHT’S PRESIDENTIAL FORUM?”

    The piece, authored by Infowars writer Paul Joseph Watson, began: “Was Hillary Clinton wearing an earpiece during last night’s presidential forum? That’s the latest question swirling around the Internet after pictures appeared to show Hillary with some kind of flesh-colored device embedded inside her ear.” Watson added, “Conservative actor James Woods drew attention the issue with the simple question, ‘Earpiece?’ and a close up image of Hillary from last night’s forum. … ‘She can’t even #lie without help from a gaggle of other #liars through an earpiece,’ tweeted Woods.”

    The Drudge Report, which has repeatedly mainstreamed absurd conspiracy theories about Clinton during the election, made the Infowars piece its top story with the headline, “HILLARY AND THE EAR PEARL.”

    CNN reporter Brian Stelter tweeted in response to Drudge: “For the record, and I can’t believe I even have to say this, NBC would not have permitted a ‘#HillaryEarPiece.’” A Clinton spokesperson stated: “There was no earpiece.”

    Writer Joe Hoft at Gateway Pundit — which is frequently linked to by Donald Trump — headlined a blog post, “She Cheated! Crooked Hillary Wore Ear Piece During Last Night’s Veteran’s Forum.” […]

    Sean Hannity’s website ran a piece citing Gateway Pundit and headlined, “PHOTOS: Was Hillary Wearing An Earpiece At Last Night’s Forum?” The piece, bylined “Hannity.com Staff,” stated: “Whether the device is Clinton’s own communication device, something provided by NBC, or a hearing aid is unclear.[…]

    FoxNews.com posted a piece about the “earpiece,” writing that the “website True Pundit quoted unnamed New York police sources saying Clinton was wearing an ‘inductive earpiece’ during the NBC forum hosted by Matt Lauer. […]

    The Trump campaign has also been pushing the conspiracy theory. Donald Trump Jr., who regularly promotes Alex Jones, tweeted: “Was Hillary Wearing an Earpiece During Last Night’s Presidential Forum? … via @realalexjones.” […]

    Media Matters link

    Yeah, they are all on the “I’m stupid” bandwagon. This new conspiracy theory should die immediately … but it probably won’t.

  450. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    What really happened at The Donald’s security briefing.

    As U.S. officials cast doubt on Donald Trump’s claim he read the “body language” of intelligence officials at a recent briefing, NBC News has learned exclusive details of what unfolded in the room – one of Trump’s advisers repeatedly interrupted the briefers until Chris Christie intervened, sources said.
    The Aug. 17 briefing is attracting fresh scrutiny after Trump said at NBC’s Command-in-Chief Forum that he divined that intelligence officials were “not happy” with President Obama. …
    However, a U.S. official pointed out that intelligence officers don’t give policy advice, so it would be inaccurate to say that Obama failed to follow the advice of the intelligence community. A second U.S. official said analysts are trained not to allow their body language to betray their thinking. …
    Meanwhile, three people with knowledge of the matter told NBC News that one of the advisers Trump brought to the briefing, retired general Mike Flynn, repeatedly interrupted the briefing with pointed questions.
    Christie, the New Jersey governor and Trump adviser, touched Flynn’s arm in an effort get him to calm down and let the officials continue, one of the sources said. Requests for comment from Flynn and Christie were not immediately returned.
    In an interview on TODAY, Flynn was asked whether he saw what Trump claims he did at the briefing.
    “I sure did…in a very specific way,” Flynn said, though he went on to say that his conclusion was based not on body language but on intelligence officials drawing distinctions between the content of their briefing and White House policy.
    Michael Morell, a former acting CIA director who was President George W. Bush’s briefer and is now a Hillary Clinton supporter, said Trump’s comments about his briefing were extraordinary.
    “This is first time that I can remember a candidate for president doing a readout from an intelligence briefing, and it’s the first time a candidate has politicized their intelligence briefing. Both of those are highly inappropriate and crossed a long standing red line respected by both parties,” he said.
    “To me this is just the most recent example that underscores that this guy is unfit to be commander in chief,” Morell continued.
    “His comments show that he’s got no understanding of how intelligence works. Intelligence officers do not make policy recommendations. It’s not their job and anyone running for president should know that. The people who briefed him, I’m pretty sure were career analysts — senior intel professionals. There is no way that they would in any way signal displeasure with the policies of the president.”
    That said, intelligence officials have asserted they warned the administration repeatedly about the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria well before Obama ordered a bombing campaign. And as NBC News has reported, senior intelligence officials in 2012 proposed a covert operation to oust Bashar Assad in Syria, but Obama decided not to move forward with it.

  451. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Hillary Clinton, ISIS is hoping for Trump victory.

    12:00 p.m.
    Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has told an Israeli TV station that the Islamic State group is hoping for a Donald Trump victory.
    Clinton tells Channel 2 TV that the Republican presidential candidate’s critical comments about Muslims have played into the hands of the extremist group.
    She says extremists “are saying, ‘Please Allah, make Trump president of America.'”
    In the interview, she vows to defeat the militant group and adds, “I don’t want them to feel as if they can be getting more recruits because of our politics.”
    The full interview is set to be broadcast later Thursday.

    Yes, The Donald, you are a tool for ISIS because you know nothing about them.

  452. says

    The head of the RNC, Reince Priebus, tweeted about Hillary Clinton not smiling during the Commander in Chief Forum. He tweeted that “no smile […]” comment while Clinton was talking about terrorism, veterans’ suicide rates, and other serious topics.

    At a press conference today she was asked about Reince Priebus’ comment. Here’s her reply:

    Donald Trump talked about his deep admiration of Vladimir Putin. Maybe he did it with a smile—and the RNC appreciated that.

  454. says

    Tomorrow Donald Trump will add to the list of questionable company he keeps. He is scheduled to speak at the annual Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.

    That summit is hosted by the Family Research Council, a hate group in their own right. Other speakers will include people who claim to be ex-gays (PFOX), members of the John Birch Society, promoters of laws criminalizing homosexuality, and other assorted doofuses.

    Just to give you a flavor of how bad this group is, here are some details related to Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX):

    […] The group’s materials have described coming out as “a kind of murder of the family” and railed against “homofascism.” One of the group’s top officials, Greg Quinlan, has claimed that President Obama and Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and Elena Kagan are all secretly gay and has accused gay people of “sexual cannibalism.” Quinlan even blamed suicides among gay youth on gay “recruitment”: “We’re making martyrs out of kids that we’re recruiting to behave as homosexuals when no one is born that way, and that’s the problem and that’s the issue.” […]

    FRC President Tony Perkins, who has defended PFOX’s work giving “options” to children “struggling” with homosexuality, successfully lobbied the Republican National Committee to adopt a resolution opposing laws that seek to curb the use of ex-gay therapy on minors as part of its 2016 party platform. […]

    And then there are the members of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality.

    […] A former Family Research Council official, Peter LaBarbera founded Americans For Truth About Homosexuality […]

    He has said that the people really being persecuted today are anti-gay activists,comparing himself and others to Jews living in Nazi Germany. […]

    LaBarbera has lamented that anti-gay violence is no longer “normal,” called pedophilia “a subset of the larger deviance of homosexuality,” […]

    In LaBarbera’s ideal America, the government would imprison doctors who perform sex reassignment surgery for transgender people, close the door to refugees who are gay, launch a campaign against “homosexual behavior” just as it did against tobacco products and “re-stigmatize” homosexuality. […]

    Go ahead, Donald Trump, cozy up to these people. They are your followers.

    Right Wing Watch link

  455. says

    Hillary Clinton responds to criticism that she is “too cold”:

    I was taking a law school admissions test in a big classroom at Harvard. My friend and I were some of the only women in the room. I was feeling nervous. I was a senior in college. I wasn’t sure how well I’d do. And while we’re waiting for the exam to start, a group of men began to yell things like: “You don’t need to be here.” And “There’s plenty else you can do.”

    It turned into a real ‘pile on. One of them even said: “If you take my spot, I’ll get drafted, and I’ll go to Vietnam, and I’ll die.” And they weren’t kidding around. It was intense. It got very personal.

    But I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t afford to get distracted because I didn’t want to mess up the test. So I just kept looking down, hoping that the proctor would walk in the room.

    I know that I can be perceived as aloof or cold or unemotional. But I had to learn as a young woman to control my emotions. And that’s a hard path to walk. Because you need to protect yourself, you need to keep steady, but at the same time you don’t want to seem”‘walled off.”

    And sometimes I think I come across more in the “walled off” arena. And if I create that perception, then I take responsibility. I don’t view myself as cold or unemotional. And neither do my friends. And neither does my family. But if that sometimes is the perception I create, then I can’t blame people for thinking that.

    https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork/posts/1362236273850469:0

  456. says

    Writing for Vox, Matthew Yglesias made some interesting points about the Commander in Chief Forum:

    What Donald Trump said at Wednesday night’s Commander-in-Chief Forum on the aircraft carrier was shocking.

    He specifically defended Vladimir Putin as superior to Barack Obama, suggested women serving in the military should expect to be raped, hinted at a political purge of the officer corps, blatantly lied about his own past statements on Iraq and Libya, and called on the American military to commit war crimes.

    To top it all off, he pedantically corrected a PTSD-suffering veteran about the number of suicides by American military personnel — and he got the number wrong; the veteran was right all along.

    It was shocking, but we are not shocked. […]

    We’re used to Trump’s lying and his nonsense because we’ve been hearing it for a long time. But it’s not normal. Candidates are supposed to want to demonstrate progressively growing mastery of the issues over time. […] Trump just doesn’t. […]

  457. says

    Trump is still lying. And he is citing an article in Esquire to prove that he is not lying. Esquire is not having it:

    Esquire added an editor’s note to its August 2004 profile of Donald Trump on Thursday afternoon that fact-checks the GOP nominee’s claims that he opposed the Iraq War from the beginning.

    During NBC News’ Commander-In-Chief forum on Wednesday night, Trump continued to deny that he had supported the Iraq War, citing the old Esquire story as proof.

    Esquire appended an editor’s note to the story in question to set the record straight.

    “During the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed to have been against the Iraq War from the beginning, and he has cited this story as proof,” the note reads. “The Iraq War began in March 2003, more than a year before this story ran, thus nullifying Trump’s timeline.”

    Deputy editor John Hendrickson tweeted an explanation for the update: “Donald Trump won’t stop lying.”

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/esquire-fact-checks-trump-on-iraq-war

    In other lying piece-of-crap moments, Trump also claimed today that he would have captured Osama Bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks.

    In a 15-minute effort to set the “terribly dishonest” media straight before a speech on school choice in Cleveland, Donald Trump claimed that with him at the helm, Osama bin Laden would’ve been captured even before the Sept, 11, 2001 terror attacks.

    “I would’ve been tougher on terrorism. Bin Laden would’ve been caught a long time ago, before he was ultimately caught, prior to the downing of the World Trade Center,” Trump said during an aside about his record on Iraq.

    The GOP nominee went on to say that if he had been in Congress at the time, he would have cast a vote opposing the invasion.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-osama-bin-laden-sept-11-attacks

    Bullshit.

    Trump also claimed he gave statements “much closer” to the invasion of Iraq saying he was against the war. He said those statements “superseded” his earlier, much-cited interview with shock jock radio host Howard Stern, where Trump said he did support the invasion.

    Bullshit. As news hosts are reporting this evening, Trump is actually claiming that statements he made after the pro-Iraq-war statement he made to Howard Stern show that he was against the war from the beginning. More timeline problems. In his mind, Trump is a time traveler?

  458. says

    Military leaders were not happy with Trump’s claim that he would sideline some officers and then choose different officers for top posts:

    Donald Trump’s broadside against the top military brass is drawing warnings of a crisis in civilian-military relations should he become commander in chief and begin bypassing generals and admirals now serving under President Barack Obama.

    “It would be unprecedented,” said Mackubin Thomas Owens, a retired Marine colonel and former instructor at the Naval War College. “This would be making the military into a partisan prize. The idea you are going to come in and fire all the generals and admirals would be nearly impossible for a variety of reasons, but would also be stupid.” […]

    […] the Republican presidential nominee charged the top rungs of the officer corps have been “reduced to rubble,” […]

    He also said that, in drawing up a new strategy to defeat the Islamic State, he would rely on “different generals” […]

    Nonetheless, any attempt to sideline top officers in one fell swoop […] is viewed by some retired officers and longtime Pentagon officials as undermining a tradition of keeping the active-duty military out of politics as much as possible. Unfairly painting a number of generals and admirals as lackeys of Obama would erode the perception that as an institution they are independent, they said.

    Those are fears that top uniformed officers themselves have expressed privately for months as they have sought — not always successfully — to deflect questions from reporters about controversial proposals put forward by Trump, including his calls to torture terrorism suspects and his questioning of the relevance of the NATO military alliance. […]

    Presidents actually have little influence over who becomes a general or admiral. The one and two-stars — brigadier or major generals or rear admirals — are selected in a process guided by law and overseen by military promotion boards.

    However, those who rise to three-star lieutenant generals and vice admirals or four-star generals and admirals — the highest current ranks — are heavily influenced by the president, whose choices must be confirmed by the Senate. […]

    The Obama administration also has been criticized for its relationship with the top ranks and for the removal of a number of officers — including retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, one of Trump’s top surrogates who was head of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014.

    Flynn said Thursday that Trump is “absolutely right” about how the Obama administration has treated officers like him. […]

    Politico

    Yeah, that’s because Flynn is a rabid rightwing doofus — somewhere near the same camp as General Boykin.

  459. says

    I just heard a couple of bizarre conversations on MSNBC, in which Chuck Todd and others basically acquitted themselves of the charge of double standards by suggesting that Clinton brings this all on herself with her lawyerliness and stubborn insistence on setting the record straight (as though she’s not pounded by repetitive misleading questions).

    For one thing, being lawyerly is supposed to be a negative quality for a presidential candidate now? Right, the ability to make a clear argument using facts and logic, being attentive to details and evidence – those are definitely qualities no one wants in a president.

    For another, yes, she sounds like her own defense counsel, but that’s because she has to do the work of the media. The media have the responsibility to set the record straight rather than indulging in rumor and innuendo. The question Lauer asked about classified information in those emails, for example, should have been answered months ago by the media themselves. The issue of proper and improper markings was clarified at the Comey hearing and in the 24 hours surrounding it. The facts of the matter were established then – all they had to do was report them accurately. And I find their refrain that Clinton and others have to “understand” that the political/mediatic “reality” is reality disgustingly self-serving and false. The media don’t have to be advocates for any particular candidate, but they should be advocates for the truth.

  460. says

    My entirely speculative notion of what happened in those intelligence briefings:

    The briefers were trying to convey the substantive information and being constantly interrupted by Flynn looking for a basis for some anti-Obama spin. The briefers repeatedly had to explain in response that making policy recommendations isn’t their job or something they’re allowed to do. Trump, who knows as little about intelligence briefings as he does about anything else, read this as frustration with Obama for making policy decisions not in keeping with their recommendations.

  461. says

    “It would be unprecedented,” said Mackubin Thomas Owens, a retired Marine colonel and former instructor at the Naval War College. “This would be making the military into a partisan prize.

    Donald Rumsfeld. It’s not at all unprecedented.

    I doubt Trump would give the military the gutkick it needs. Clinton certainly won’t. The whiny generals are safe.

  463. says

    Congress has passed a bill allowing the families of 9-11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. Obama will likely veto it, but the Senate might have enough votes to override the veto. I hope that since this weekend is the 15th anniversary of the attack and this bill is being passed, people will turn their attention back to the 28 pages of the 9-11 report that were declassified in July. When they were released, the news was immediately swamped (as intended, no doubt*) by election/convention coverage, but the information about the Saudi regime’s involvement and their hindering terrorism investigations was truly damning.

    * They were also spun mightily by the Saudis and their protectors and propagandists here in the US, and much of the spin was accepted or passed on by the media.

  464. KG says

    I doubt Trump would give the military the gutkick it needs. Clinton certainly won’t. – Marcus Ranum@461

    Hmm, now what does that actually amount to? Looks to me like: “Clinton certainly won’t give the military the gutkick it needs, Trump probably won’t, but just might. So if giving the military the gutkick it needs is your priority, vote Trump!”

  465. says

    SC @459:

    The question Lauer asked about classified information in those emails, for example, should have been answered months ago by the media themselves. The issue of proper and improper markings was clarified at the Comey hearing and in the 24 hours surrounding it. The facts of the matter were established then – all they had to do was report them accurately.

    Exactly. Well said. I knew about the improper markings, and about Comey’s conclusion regarding those markings. You knew. Why didn’t Matt Lauer know?

    I felt like Lauer was prosecuting Clinton using innuendo, incomplete “facts,” and ignorance.

    The one thing Hillary Clinton can do is depend on her surrogates to defend her more in some instances. She stood alone at the Commander in Chief Forum, so of course she had no choice but to defend herself.

    Lauer didn’t give her enough time to talk about her response to ISIS, and he spent too much time on already-settled email issues.

  466. says

    No, Putin did not call Trump “brilliant” in the way that we understand the word. He called Trump flamboyant or colorful, something like that.

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/no-putin-did-not-call-trump-brilliant-760970819906

    In the meantime, the not-so-brilliant Donald Trump was duped by Larry King into appearing on state-owned Russian television. Trump dissed American foreign policy, American Media, and well, everything but himself.

    The claim of being duped by Larry King is the Trump campaign’s official excuse. Really?

    Oh, Larry King, you trickster you.

    The Donald Trump campaign is scrambling to explain how the GOP nominee ended up on Russia-backed TV Thursday night, and they’re trying to get Larry King to take the fall.

    A Trump spokeswoman told Bloomberg News’ Kevin Cirilli that the Republican nominee agreed to a phone interview for King’s podcast, and that he was unaware the interview would appear on Russian Television. […]

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-camp-explanation-rt-interview

    It gets worse:

    […] During the phone interview, King asked Trump about reports that American officials are looking into whether Russia is trying to influence U.S. elections.

    “I think it’s probably unlikely. Maybe the Democrats are putting that out — who knows,” Trump replied. “If they are doing something, I hope that somebody’s going to be able to find out so they can end it. Because that would not be appropriate at all.”

    Typical Trump. He is putting out the idea that the whole hacking thing is a false flag operation by the Democrats. Then he says just enough to cover his ass. Rightwing media sources are already running with the false-flag conspiracy theory. Oh, Democrats, you tricksters.

  469. says

    SC @ 468, that tale of Trump’s response shows how shameful his actions are, and how fake. These details are par for the course when it comes to Trump, this is how he operates:

    […] Trump did present the museum on his first and only visit there with his very first recorded charitable donation in connection with 9/11. The check for was $100,000, but it was drawn on his foundation, to which he has not contributed a penny in more than six years. He therefore continued a perfect record of not giving a penny of his own money to the memorial, not even the admission price, which the museum said was waived for him and his entourage, a saving of $24 for the adults, $18 in the case of a senior citizen such as Trump.

    It continues to amaze me that some people think Trump is more sincere, less fake, more of a real person. Bullshit.

  470. says

    This is a followup to comment 454.

    Actor Jon Voight introduced Donald Trump today at the Values Voter Summit. Excerpt:

    My heart aches watching Donald Trump, day after day, pouring his heart out telling the American people what he wants to do to save the nation. How can anyone doubt his sincerity? I can only feel if God allows truth to be said and heard that we will see Donald Trump as the next president of this great America and he will lift the dark cloud that hovers over us now.

    Link. Video is available at the link.

  471. says

    Republican doofus and Congress critter from Texas, Louie Gohmert, also spoke at the Values Voter Summit.

    […] after diagnosing Hillary Clinton as “mentally impaired,” Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, insisted that he was right to predict that the 2009 Matthew Shepard hate crimes act would lead to the persecution of Christians.

    Gohmert warned before the passage of the hate crimes bill that it would turn the U.S. into Nazi Germany and lead the way to the legalization of pedophilia, bestiality and necrophilia.

    In his Values Voter speech, Gohmert conveniently failed to mention a single example of the 2009 law being “used against Christians” or of the law making it legal for people to have sex with children, animals or the deceased, but that didn’t stop him from boasting that he was right all along.

    Gohmert also bizarrely claimed that the Supreme Court has established secular humanism as the official government religion and that Hillary Clinton is bent on “taking away your freedom of speech and allowing that part of the Muslim Brotherhood plan” of “subjugating the U.S. Constitution to Sharia law.”

    “Your religious freedom will be gone, your freedom of speech will be gone” under a Clinton presidency, he said. “Freedom of the press, well, that’s not officially gone, it’s just if you express truth in the press, the rest of the press makes fun of you.”

    Link

    The company Trump keeps.

  474. Brother Ogvorbis, Fully Defenestrated Emperor of Steam, Fire and Absurdity says

    Just had a discussion with one of our volunteers. He stated, “Trump would never have let the ragheads pull off 9/11. Only Democrat Presidents are that loose with national security!”

    I explained that George W. Bush was, and is, a Republican. His response? “No, that happened because of Clinton. He bin Laden sending all the guns and rockets to Afghanistan and besides it happened so close to Bush taking office that it still was Clinton’s fault.”

    I explained that it was Ronald Reagan that armed the opposition in Afghanistan. His response? “Oh, no, they armed the good guys who threw the commies out. Reagan never gave weapons to Muslims.”

    I explained that the Reagan administration gave arms to anyone who was willing to fight the Soviets. His response? “You spend too much time reading the liberal history books and watching the liberal news. What really happened is different.”

    I explained that I look at the sources, weigh the evidence, and make my own conclusions. I don’t let Faux News lead me by my nose. He scoffed and said that Faux News is liberal — they tried to stop Trump and look at all the sex suits, that’s what liberals do.

    I walked away.

    I guess I really shouldn’t call it a discussion. That wold have implied that he listened to what I said. And processed it.

    That said, the last few days have been bad with nightmares — all three — from fifteen years ago. Some panic attacks out of nowhere. And all this shit about “Never Forget!” Including from my own agency. Damnit! Some of us are trying to forget. Or at least deal with the memories. At my park, five of us served down in Manhattan after the attacks. Two took early retirement because of stress-related illnesses (and, among those three, a total of seven stays in hospitals for ‘depression’), one passed away from a heart attack, and one retired at his minimum retirement age. So I am left. And I am told to ‘never forget.’ Usually by someone who uses that as a springboard into how Trump will protect us.

    Have I mentioned that I hate this shit?

  475. Brother Ogvorbis, Fully Defenestrated Emperor of Steam, Fire and Absurdity says

    Sorry. Last two paragraphs should be ignored. Just me angsting.

  476. says

    I’ve fainted sometimes in excessive heat – and cold – since I was quite young, so I don’t tend to think it’s a big deal. It’s not sweltering in the northeast this week, but the sun is strong and the air is barely moving. (Coumadin might also contribute, in Clinton’s case.)

  477. says

    SC @ 472 and 473, thanks for those links. Funny and enlightening, especially Stuart Stevens who know how to make an understated, dry-humor joke about Trump’s decorating style. Trump’s apartment in Trump Tower reminds me of the photos we saw of Saddam Hussein’s various McMansions. Trump’s youngest child looks like a hostage forced to play a part.

    Brother Ogvorbis @474, thanks for that tale of your encounter with a dunderheaded Trump follower. Sheesh. As for letting us know that you have difficulty dealing with the “never forget” hoopla around marking anniversaries of 9/11: I’m with you there. I had to just leave all of my media-accessing devices off for awhile. That event directly threatened my daughter’s life. Contemplating it raises my blood pressure, makes me anxious, and ofter results in crying jags. I do what I can, then I take a break. You may have noticed the one and a half day break.

    SC @476, my daughter, who is of course much younger than I am, has had fainting spells from being overheated, especially in crowded situations like the one Hillary Clinton encountered at the 9/11 memorial. Clinton was not the only one to leave the ceremony early and seek respite in air-conditioned car or apartment. Clinton looked fine after a short break, so, no, there is no reason for Trump to add this to his list of Hillary-is-sick-and-dying bleats. Clinton stood there for 1.5 hours in excessive heat and humidity.

  479. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    I see SC beat me with the pneumonia announcement.
    Link

    5:20 p.m.
    Hillary Clinton’s doctor says the Democratic presidential nominee was diagnosed on Friday with pneumonia, put on antibiotics and advised to rest and modify her campaign schedule.
    Dr. Lisa Bardack says in a statement that Clinton is “recovering nicely” after attending a Sept. 11 anniversary event in lower Manhattan. Clinton was seen on video appearing to struggle to stay on her feet as she got into a vehicle to leave the event.
    Bardack says Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies, and in a follow-up examination Friday of her cough, Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia.
    The statement says Clinton became overheated at the 9/11 event and dehydrated, but is now rehydrated.

  480. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    This is a disturbing report, of Trump supporters, including his son, and an alt-right symbol.

    A white nationalist symbol has made its way into the latest back and forth in the 2016 presidential campaign.
    Amid the flurry of statements about Hillary Clinton calling “half” of Donald Trump supporters a “basket of deplorables,” — a reference to some of the Republican nominee’s supporters who ascribe to views popular among the white nationalist-linked alt-right movement — informal Trump adviser and confidante Roger Stone tweeted a picture of the poster from the movie “The Expendables” altered as “The Deplorables.” Donald Trump, Jr., one of Trump’s sons, posted the same image on Instagram. The origin of the image is unclear.
    The Photoshopped faces in the picture include Trump, running mate Gov. Mike Pence, Gov. Chris Christie, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Dr. Ben Carson, both of Trump’s eldest sons, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, alt-right icon Milo Yiannopoulos, and Stone himself.
    Prominently featured over Trump’s right shoulder: popular white nationalist symbol, Pepe the Frog.
    “Pepe the Frog is a huge favorite white supremacist meme,” Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center told NBC News of the meme.
    While Pepe the Frog may not be a household name, the meme is known to members of the alt-right on the internet.
    “It’s constantly used in those circles,” Beirich said. “The white nationalists are gonna love this because they’re gonna feel like ‘yeah we’re in there with Trump, there’s Pepe the Frog.'”
    A white nationalist symbol has made its way into the latest back and forth in the 2016 presidential campaign.
    Amid the flurry of statements about Hillary Clinton calling “half” of Donald Trump supporters a “basket of deplorables,” — a reference to some of the Republican nominee’s supporters who ascribe to views popular among the white nationalist-linked alt-right movement — informal Trump adviser and confidante Roger Stone tweeted a picture of the poster from the movie “The Expendables” altered as “The Deplorables.” Donald Trump, Jr., one of Trump’s sons, posted the same image on Instagram. The origin of the image is unclear.
    The Photoshopped faces in the picture include Trump, running mate Gov. Mike Pence, Gov. Chris Christie, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Dr. Ben Carson, both of Trump’s eldest sons, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, alt-right icon Milo Yiannopoulos, and Stone himself.
    Prominently featured over Trump’s right shoulder: popular white nationalist symbol, Pepe the Frog.
    “Pepe the Frog is a huge favorite white supremacist meme,” Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center told NBC News of the meme.
    While Pepe the Frog may not be a household name, the meme is known to members of the alt-right on the internet.
    “It’s constantly used in those circles,” Beirich said. “The white nationalists are gonna love this because they’re gonna feel like ‘yeah we’re in there with Trump, there’s Pepe the Frog.'”
    Pepe the Frog, a cartoon amphibian, was popularized on the website 4chan, and became associated with the neo-Nazi movement.

    While I suspect the campaign will say they are mocking Clinton’s statement, I think they are comfortable with the image, which says something bad about them. How long can they keep up the masquerade?

  482. Saad says

    SC, #481

    Yes to all of that. But I believe Trump said something to the effect that the U.S. military is weak so those last two links wouldn’t mean anything to him.

    Also, what would Trump have done if he had pneumonia?

  483. tomh says

    Now I see that Trump wants no moderator for the debates.

    “I think maybe we should have no moderator. Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate. I think the system is being rigged so it’s going to be a very unfair debate.”

    I don’t blame him – that way the one with the loudest voice can control the whole thing. Clinton would never get a word in edgewise.

  484. says

    Yes to all of that. But I believe Trump said something to the effect that the U.S. military is weak so those last two links wouldn’t mean anything to him.

    Ha! – I actually though of that while I was posting. Presumably, he’d bring in his own group of non-swooners. (This did make me smile.)

    Also, what would Trump have done if he had pneumonia?

    I suspect he would cancel planned events and either offer no explanation or lie. Trump, incidentally, has to be one of the most physically pampered human beings who’s ever lived.

  485. says

    SC, your link in 484 to the New Yorker also made me smile. “UNCONSCIOUS CLINTON MORE FIT TO BE PRESIDENT THAN CONSCIOUS TRUMP”

    In other news, Donald Trump is hammering away at what he considers to be Hillary Clinton’s “biggest mistake” of the campaign. He is repeating over and over that Clinton not only insulted all of the people who are Trump voters, but that she also doesn’t want to be president for them, that she doesn’t care about them.

    Here’s what Clinton said (at a New York fundraiser) that is causing such a ruckus:

    I know there are only 60 days left to make our case — and don’t get complacent, don’t see the latest outrageous, offensive, inappropriate comment and think well he’s done this time. We are living in a volatile political environment. You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?

    “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people — now [have] 11 million.

    He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks — they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.

    But the other basket — and I know this because I see friends from all over America here — I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas — as well as, you know, New York and California — but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change. It doesn’t really even matter where it comes from.

    They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different.”

    Her remarks are being compared to Mitt Romney’s “47%” statement that is seen as largely sinking his campaign.

    Clinton’s partial apology/explanation:

    “Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that’s never a good idea. I regret saying ‘half’ — that was wrong.”

    As Steve Benen put it:

    The Republican line over the weekend was based on a simple premise: Clinton criticizing Trump is fine; Clinton criticizing Americans who follow Trump is not.

    Here is the Trump campaign’s 30-second ad showing Hillary Clinton “viciously demonizing hard working people like you.” You Tube link.

    There is ample data to support Clinton’s remarks, but I doubt that matters much. Her remarks are still likely to drive some fence-sitters to vote for Trump, and/or her remarks will harden the decisions Trump’s followers have already made. Mother Jones link.

    […] The Reuters poll he links to clearly shows that less than half of Trump’s supporters are deplorable. At most it’s 49 percent, and the average is only 43 percent. […]

  486. says

    A followup to comment 485: In a speech today, Trump said that Clinton is unsuited to serve because she attacked voters. Trump said Clinton “expressed hatred for millions of Americans,” that she has “contempt in her heart for millions of voters.”

  488. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Turns out a respiratory infection had been making the rounds of the Clinton Campaign workers before she came down with pneumonia.

    An outbreak of respiratory illness swept through Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the weeks before she was diagnosed with pneumonia and fell ill at this year’s 9/11 memorial ceremony, campaign aides said Monday.
    The Democratic presidential candidate abruptly left Sunday’s event after feeling “overheated.” A video later posted on Twitter showed her staggering and eventually slumping forward before being held up by three people as she was helped into a van.
    On Sunday, her campaign answered questions about Clinton’s health and whereabouts with two short statements, both issued hours after she left the memorial in lower Manhattan. More than 20 hours later, her campaign gave a fuller accounting of the episode, which sparked a wave of bipartisan concern about her health and questions about her political transparency.
    Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said the former secretary of state started to feel hot at the event, which took place on a muggy day in New York. There was little shade where Clinton was standing alongside other dignitaries.
    As family members of 9/11 victims read the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks, she decided to leave and get a drink of water. She was wearing a wool suit and had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday, a fact her campaign had not made public.
    In fact, campaign aides said Monday, a number of staff members at her campaign headquarters had been ill in recent weeks, including campaign manager Robby Mook.
    “I probably came in a few more days than I should have over the last few weeks,” he told CNN on Monday. “I’m still actually recovering from the cough that I got through that.”

    Doesn’t sound like Clinton is particularly susceptible. It can be hard to avoid the bug going around the office if you visit frequently or work there.

  489. says

    From Hillary to you:

    Thanks to everyone who’s reached out with well wishes! I’m feeling fine and getting better. -H

    In other news, a rightwing politician is threatening to shoot people … again. And in doing so, he also expects himself, his children and his grandchildren to be shot.

    […] Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, who was given the Distinguished Christian Statesman award at the Values Voter Summit on Friday, made a rather head-turning speech to that group on Saturday evening.

    Apparently Gov Bevin thinks that the potential election of Hillary Clinton as President will bring us to the brink of “…going one way or we’re going the other way, politically, spiritually, morally, economically, from a liberty standpoint. We’re going one way or we’re going the other way.” Worse, he seems to think that this directional choice could lead to some kind of physical confrontation (although he hopes they can use non-physical means first) that might even require that one or more of his NINE children shed some of the wet red stuff.

    He encouraged the audience to fight in every possibly [sic] way so that they aren’t forced “to do it physically.” However, he argues that it may come to the shedding of blood.

    “I will tell you this: I do think it would be possible, but at what price?” he said, after being asked if he thought America would survive Clinton. “At what price? The roots of the tree of liberty are watered by what? The blood, of who? The tyrants to be sure, but who else? The patriots.”

    He continued wondering whose blood will be shed in this possible physical confrontation. “It may be that of those in this room. It might be that of our children and grandchildren. I have nine children. It breaks my heart to think that it might be their blood that is needed…”

    Daily Kos link
    Raw Story link

  490. says

    To recap – the past several days…

    The Trump campaign:

    – Trump referred to Senator Elizabeth Warren with a racist slur
    – Trump Jr. and Roger Stone tweeted a white-supremacist meme and left it up; the Trump campaign didn’t respond when David Duke shared a similar meme; Mike Pence refused to acknowledge that Duke is (a) deplorable
    – Trump’s foundation was revealed as a scam
    – Trump made absurd political claims about his classified security briefings
    – Trump suggested he would replace top military staff
    – Trump lied, again, about his position on the Iraq war before it started
    – the press finally paid attention to Trump’s payment to Pam Bondi and the subsequent cover-up
    – Trump said the US should have stolen Iraq’s oil because “to the victor go the spoils”; his surrogate Rudy Giuliani then argued that anything in war is legal
    – Trump retweeted this from 9/11 in 2013, then deleted it
    – Trump said that an earlier tweet about sexual assault being the expected result of men and women serving together in the military was “correct” (repeating once again the absurd line about many people believing something is true); he subsequently suggested that the military should really set up a judicial division
    – Trump condescendingly and mistakenly “corrected” a veteran about veteran suicide statistics, and proceeded to offer an insultingly ignorant response
    – Trump still didn’t release his taxes
    – Trump claimed the authoritarian Putin was a better leader than Obama in their respective countries and was supported by his surrogates
    – Trump appeared on Russian propaganda TV; the champion vetter’s campaign later claimed he’d been unaware it was Russian propaganda TV
    – audio was published of Trump on 9/11 talking about how his building was now the tallest in the financial district
    – it was revealed that Trump improperly took 9/11 recovery funds
    – several of Trump’s lies about 9/11 (hundreds of friends lost, charitable contributions, what he saw from his penthouse, etc.) came to light
    – arson was suspected in the fire at the mosque attended by the Orlando nightclub shooter
    – white supremacists met in DC to discuss their love of Trump and the new dawn his campaign brings
    – some of Trump’s surrogates claimed he’s no longer a birther, but he continued to refuse to discuss it or apologize, perpetuating his attempt to delegitimize the sitting president

    The Clinton campaign:

    – Clinton smiled twice as much as Trump but still not enough during a Commander-in-Chief forum
    – Clinton seemed possibly annoyed at an excessive focus on her emails; she gave substantive answers to policy questions despite repeated interruptions
    – Clinton made the “basket of deplorables” comment and subsequent apology/clarification
    – revelations about Clinton’s work in public service related to 9/11 came to light
    – Clinton tried to push through pneumonia and had a dizziness/fainting episode after standing in the heat for an hour and a half; she didn’t immediately reveal the pneumonia diagnosis, and kept the press in the dark for several hours regarding the cause of the incident

    Naturally, the media is portraying this as a terrible series of days for Clinton.

  491. says

    At Trump’s rally yesterday in Asheville, NC, protesters were hit by an attendee as they were being escorted out of the arena. Afterwards, a partisan group asked the Asheville police department to investigate Trump for inciting a riot, with this description:

    I wanted to report an assault at Donald Trump’s rally in Asheville. You can see the video here of at least two protestors being slapped by at least two other people, as others stand by and encourage the attacker. As the protestors who were assaulted were being dragged out of Donald Trump’s rally, Donald Trump gives the “thumbs up” and smiles as his crowd chants “hey hey hey, goodbye.”

    The man who can be seen hitting the protesters was allowed to remain for the entirety of the rally, and apparently wasn’t arrested. Trump complained that “the ‘disgusting’ media would cover up the fact that the protesters gave him the middle finger as they were escorted out.” “They won’t report the gesture,” he said, as if this has any relevance (all the more concerning given that he said on Friday that he would order an attack on Iran in response to gestures). He proceeded to ask the crowd if there was anywhere more fun than a Trump rally.

  493. says

    SC, thanks for that summary in comment 490. That was excellent. Bitter laughter at your conclusion, which is all too correct.

    Regarding the details in comment 491, Chris Hayes made a telling comment about the incident, saying that he had viewed the video and found himself thinking, “Well, it was more of a slap than a punch.” (paraphrased). To his credit, Hayes went on to criticize his own reaction.

    So, yeah, we’ve come to this. Trump is so bad, and his followers are so prone to violence that we are somewhat relieved when the followers only slap people instead of punching them; and we are relieved when Trump does not shoot people who give him the finger. We are starting to let this unacceptable behavior and unacceptable rhetoric go unchallenged.

  494. says

    Regarding SC’s link to the House Anti-Science Committee in comment 492: Doofuses and dunderheads are bad enough, but when you give a rightwing doofus subpoena power and money to squander, you have a whole new level of dangerous stupidity.

    In other news, Donald Trump said some stupid stuff about the Federal Reserve. His ignorant comments can be traced back to ridiculous rightwing conspiracy theories, and to Trump’s signature lack of understanding when it comes to how government functions:

    […] he said Fed chair Janet Yellen’s interest rate decisions proved she was “obviously not independent” from the White House and was, in fact, a partisan conspirator out to help Democrats.

    “It’s staying at zero because she’s obviously political and she’s doing what Obama wants her to do,” Trump told CNBC on Monday. “And I know that’s not supposed to be the way it is, but that’s why it’s low.” […]

    What changed between May and today? Nothing. The Fed has the same policy of low interest rates that Trump gushed over just four months ago.

    http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-says-fed-policy-he-supported-now-partisan-conspiracy-n646821

    Trump thinks that, as “the new guy” in the White House, he will raise interest rates. Not how it works, Trump.

    Back in May, Trump said that raising rates would be a “disaster.” He sure likes to apply that work “disaster” to everything but himself. He also described Donald J. Trump as a “low-interest-rate person,” whatever the hell that means. Anyway, that seems to be the opposite of his current proposal to raise rates.

    As for Janet Yellen, he said she “should be ashamed,” though why she should be ashamed of doing her job, I don’t know.

  495. says

    Regarding SC’s link to the North Carolina Republican Party in comment 492, Governor Pat McCrory continues to run campaign ads that defend and promote his anti-LGBT law. I think he is going to lose this fight.

    In other news, the details behind Donald Trump’s foundation for charitable giving (a scam, really), just get worse and worse as more is revealed. I am particularly fond of the damning story of how Trump (and his wife Melania) used foundation money ($20,000) to buy a six-foot portrait of himself.

    In 2007, for instance, Trump and his wife, Melania, attended a benefit for a children’s charity held at Mar-a-Lago. The night’s entertainment was Michael Israel, who bills himself as “the original speed painter.” His frenetic act involved painting giant portraits in five to seven minutes — then auctioning off the art he’d just created.

    He painted Trump. […]

    Washington Post link

  496. says

    Not enough good news, but still it is definitely good news when we see personal incomes rise as the poverty rate shrinks. This news, which can be attributed to actions taken by the Obama administration, does not match Trump’s doom-and-gloom-only analysis of Obama’s policies.

    The nation’s official poverty rate in 2015 was 13.5 percent, with 43.1 million people in poverty, 3.5 million fewer than in 2014. The 1.2 percentage point decrease in the poverty rate from 2014 to 2015 represents the largest annual percentage point drop in poverty since 1999.

    The percentage of people without health insurance coverage for the entire 2015 calendar year was 9.1 percent, down from 10.4 percent in 2014. The number of people without health insurance declined to 29.0 million from 33.0 million over the period. […]

    The real median income of Hispanic households increased by 6.1 percent between 2014 and 2015. Non-Hispanic white and black households also saw increases of 4.4 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively. While Asian households had the highest median income in 2015, the percentage change in their real median income was not statistically significant between 2014 and 2015. The differences between the 2014 to 2015 percentage changes in median income for non-Hispanic white, black and Hispanic households were not statistically different. […]

    The poverty rate for families and the number of families in poverty were 10.4 percent and 8.6 million in 2015, a decrease from 11.6 percent and 9.5 million families in 2014. […]

    Gender differences in poverty rates were more pronounced for those ages 18 to 64. The poverty rate for women ages 18 to 64 was 14.2 percent while the poverty rate for men ages 18 to 64 was 10.5 percent.

    Income and Poverty report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

    Health insurance coverage report from the census bureau.

  498. says

    SC @497, I’m not sure I like the “who insulted voters more” battle between Trump and Clinton. The answer is obviously Trump, but I don’t think that fact matters. Or, more precisely, that fact is buried in blather from Trump. A losing battle for both parties?

    Meanwhile, Trump’s followers continue to call for Clinton’s execution, to call for “treason” charges to be brought, etc. One Trump follower showed his antipathy towards Clinton by hanging her in effigy near an interstate highway in Oregon. Talking Points Memo link.

  499. says

    SC @497, I’m not sure I like the “who insulted voters more” battle between Trump and Clinton. The answer is obviously Trump, but I don’t think that fact matters. Or, more precisely, that fact is buried in blather from Trump.

    I agree. I was thinking yesterday that what they should do is keep the voice-over from the Trump ad and replace the generic crowd shots with some video from the rallies (like from the montage the NY Times compiled), rally violence, Trump’s (and Jr.’s) retweets of white supremacists and racist memes, Breitbart headlines, some of the t-shirts and signs from the rallies and events, comments and threats his supporters have made to reporters, and so on.

    This could be totally off-the-wall speculation, but I’m wondering what the results of Trump’s physical were. Maybe they’re just setting this all up so that people are suspicious before his results or records are released and show him to be in great health, but I have to wonder. He made a ridiculous comment a few days ago about how he expected the results would be good and if he didn’t he wouldn’t have shared that he’d had the physical. That was a window into his thinking, but it also suggested that he agreed to the release before he knew the actual results, which is risky. It could be that he doesn’t regularly see a physician and believed himself to be in much better health than he actually is (which would be perfectly in keeping with his character); it could be that the physical was with Bornstein or someone else he expected would spin the results, discovering too late that that wasn’t the case. But today, Kellyanne Conway – who continues to offer little about the tests, results, or nature of the information to be disclosed – said this:

    “Well, but remember, Andrea. I mean, I’m with Dr. Oz and millions of Americans on this. I don’t know why we need such extensive medical reporting when we all have a right to privacy?”…”And frankly, I’m also with most of the American people who are very upset that many of them had to change doctors under Obamacare. Why would someone change a doctor when they have been healthy for so long? I think that is being lost in the conversation.”

    Why she would suddenly start talking like this and trying to distract from the subject of his health remains to be seen. But it’s possible this drumbeat about health and transparency blew up in Trump’s face. I guess we’ll know in the next couple of days.

  500. says

    And today Dr. Oz gave a little preview of how detailed Trump’s revelations (“I think that both candidates, Crooked Hillary and myself, should release detailed medical records. I have no problem in doing so! Hillary?”*) would be:

    Trump is supposed to release the results of a physical from last week on an appearance on The Dr. Oz Show that will be taped Wednesday but air Thursday, according to Fox News.

    But Mehmet Oz, in a radio interview with Fox News Radio’s Kilmeade & Friends Tuesday, said if Trump has embarrassing results, “I bet he won’t release them.”

    Oz also vowed not to ask Trump any questions “he doesn’t want to have answered, and I also don’t want to talk about anybody else.”

    * For the record, Clinton last year released the standard information that Obama and Romney both did. Trump has released nothing to date.