ON THE RECORD. . .
"The Republican Party, the media and voters cannot pretend that Mr. Trump is a normal candidate. Mr. Trump is pathologically dishonest and morally bankrupt. How many more lies will he tell before the week is over? Republicans who care about their integrity should be counting along with us. -- WA Post Editorial 5/25/16
“For Republicans appalled by Trump, there are, in truth, only two reasons to support the top of the ticket — careerism and a timorous fear of being tarred with disloyalty. It would be more intellectually honest for these Republicans to announce that they are writing in The Incredible Hulk for president than to facilely argue that Hillary is worse.” -- Walter Shapiro 5/26/16
“I know that some people are offended that someone who lost and is the former nominee continues to speak, but that’s how I can sleep at night. And there are some people, though it’s a small number, who still value my opinion.” -- Mitt Romney on his decision to take on Donald Trump.
“This opens the door with all kinds of issues with men deciding one day they want to be women and then switching back the next day. --Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on the Obama administration's new directive allowing transgender students to use the bathrooms consistent with their gender.
“I don’t think you hire scum of the Earth to be on your team just because the other side does it.” -- Bernie Sandersabout the Clinton campaign and David Brock, head of the pro-Clinton super PAC Correct the Record.
“… the Democratic nominating process is totally rigged and Crooked Hillary Clinton and Deborah Wasserman Schultz will not allow Bernie Sanders to win …" — Donald Trump agreeing with Bernie Sanders' supporters. 5/27/16
“State officials were simply denying water to Central Valley farmers to prioritize the Delta smelt, a native California fish nearing extinction — or as Trump called it, ‘a certain kind of three-inch fish. If I win, believe me, we’re going to start opening up the water.” -- Donald Trump claiming that California is not facing a drought. 5/28/16
“I think Judge Curiel should be ashamed of himself. I’m telling you, this court system, judges in this court system, federal court, they ought to look into Judge Curiel. Because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace, OK? But we’ll come back in November. Wouldn’t that be wild if I’m president and I come back to do a civil case? Where everybody likes it. OK. This is called life, folks.” -- Donald Trump about the federal judge overseeing the civil litigation against his defunct education program.
“Donald Trump’s vision of America’s energy future: warmer climate, higher seas and worsened smog with increased risks of serious illness among Americans forced to inhale emissions from ramped-up coal-fired power plants.
Yeah, that’ll make America great again.” -- Scott Martelle 5/29/16
“Hillary Clinton is an environmental champion with the passion, experience and savvy to build on President Obama’s environmental legacy. More than any other candidate running, Hillary Clinton understands the environmental challenges America faces, and her approach to solving them is grounded in the possibility and promise our democracy affords us.” -- Rhea Suh, president of the NRDC Action Fund. 5/31/16
"The stakes couldn’t be higher. This is no time for Democrats to keep fighting each other. The general election has already begun. Hillary Clinton, with her long experience, especially as Secretary of State, has a firm grasp of the issues and will be prepared to lead our country on day one." -- Governor Brown in an open letter to CA Democrats and Independents. 5/31/16
“The president that U.S. citizens must vote for is not that dull Hillary – who claimed to adapt the Iranian model to resolve nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula – but Trump, who spoke of holding direct conversation with North Korea.” -- North Korean editorial praising t Donald Trump as a “wise politician” and “far-sighted presidential candidate. 5/31/16 https://www.nknews.org/2016/05/north-korean-editorial-supports-donald-trump/
“We may have to reassert that constitutional balance, and it may not be pretty. So, I’d much rather have an election where we solve this matter at the ballot box than have to resort to the bullet box.” -- Larry Pratt, executive director emeritus of Gun Owners of America, on a Democratic president replacing Justice Antonin Scalia. 7/01/16
IN THIS ISSUE
1. The Borowitz Report: Stephen Hawking angers Trump supporters with baffling array of long words
2. The DAILY GRILL
3. From MEDIA MATTERS (They watch Fox News so you don't have to)
4. From the Late Shows
5. Vince Foster’s Sister Responds to Donald Trump
6. Mark Fiore Cartoon: Future Scope
7. Late Night Jokes for Dems
8. Video Ads and Commentaries
9. 22 million Bush White House emails deleted from non-government server - no problem!
10. How Well Do You Know The Democratic Presidential Candidates? Take This Short Quiz To Find Out.
11. All of Donald Trump’s Four-Pinocchio ratings, in one place
12. State Department OIG report - biased?
13. CEOs Prefer Clinton Over Trump
1. Paul Krugman: Feel the Math
2. Stephen Marche: Donald Trump is a parody of American manhood — and that's what lifts him
3. Pippa Norris: It’s not just Trump. Authoritarian populism is rising across the West. Here’s why.
4. Dahlia Lithwick: Fellow Liberals, Let’s Stop Doing These Things
5. Paul Krugman: Trump’s Delusions of Competence
6. Paul Waldman: Trump’s attacks on other Republicans matter. They show he is unfit for the presidency.
7. Richard Cohen: Trump has taught me to fear my fellow Americans
8. Catherine Rampell: For Donald Trump, every vice is a virtue
9. Scott Martelle: Donald Trump's energy policies would harm the nation and worsen global warming
10. Jonathan Freedland: A plea to Hillary’s Democrat critics: don’t hand the White House to Trump
11. Joe Conason: The truth about Donald Trump’s old mud: The facts about Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton
12. Charles Tiefer: State Department Report On Email Vindicates Clinton
13. Erica Jong: Why I trust Hillary Clinton
| FYI |
1. The Borowitz Report: Stephen Hawking angers Trump supporters with baffling array of long words
The theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking angered supporters of Donald J. Trump on Monday by responding to a question about the billionaire with a baffling array of long words.
Speaking to a television interviewer in London, Hawking called Trump “a demagogue who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator,” a statement that many Trump supporters believed was intentionally designed to confuse them.
Moments after Hawking made the remark, Google reported a sharp increase in searches for the terms “demagogue,” “denominator,” and “Stephen Hawking.” More at http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/
2. The DAILY GRILL
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) op-ed in the Deseret News claimed that his meeting with Judge Merrick Garland didn’t change his mind about delaying action on the nomination until after the presidential election. 5/26/16
VERSUS
The problem: Hatch hadn’t even met with Garland yet. -- The Washington Post 5/26/16
"No, it’s not in the Constitution. If you read and if you look, and if you go to the real scholars, like different people that I can give you, they will tell you. Somebody comes over and they have a baby on our border and it happens to be on this side of the border, we’re not mandated to take care of that baby. You do not have to change the Constitution". -- Donald Trump 1/10/16
VERSUS
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.“ -- Section 1 of the 14th Amendment.
"We are teaching young people a terrible lesson. If I believe that I am a Russian princess, that doesn’t make me a Russian princess, even if my friends and acquaintances are willing to indulge my fantasy," -- USD law professor Gail Heriot in her written statement about transgender rights. 5/25/16
VERSUS
“I think you are an ignorant bigot.” -- U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren’s response. Video. 5/25/16
Just a heads up over this holiday weekend: There will be an independent candidate--an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance. -- Bill Kristol ✔@BillKristol 5/28/16
VERSUS
If dummy Bill Kristol actually does get a spoiler to run as an Independent, say good bye to the Supreme Court! -- Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump 5/28/16
Bill Kristol has been wrong for 2yrs-an embarrassed loser, but if the GOP can't control their own, then they are not a party. Be tough, R's! -- Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump 5/28/16
3. From MEDIA MATTERS (They watch Fox News so you don't have to)
In Reporting On Hillary Clinton, Media Get Facts Wrong On Colin Powell's Private Email Use. Report Found Powell Also Used Private Email On An “Exclusive Basis”\ http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/05/27/reporting-hillary-clinton-media-get-facts-wrong-colin-powells-private-email-use/210613
CNN's Cuomo: Trump “Keeps Making” Vince Foster Conspiracy Theories “Part Of The Campaign” Despite Claiming Ignorance http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/05/27/cnns-cuomo-trump-keeps-making-vince-foster-conspiracy-theories-part-campaign-despite-claiming/210610
Fox's Charles Krauthammer: Obama "Closed The Circle Of That Apology Tour Today In Hiroshima" http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/05/27/foxs-charles-krauthammer-obama-closed-circle-apology-tour-today-hiroshima/210624
4. From the Late Shows
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee: Feel The Turn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrGlaUo4JEE&sns=em
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: Donald Trump's latest conspiracy theories
5. Vince Foster’s Sister Responds to Donald Trump
“It is beyond contempt that a politician would use a family tragedy to further his candidacy, but such is the character of Donald Trump displayed in his recent comments to The Washington Post. In this interview, Trump cynically, crassly and recklessly insinuated that my brother, Vincent W. Foster Jr., may have been murdered because ‘he had intimate knowledge of what was going on’ and that Hillary Clinton may have somehow played a role in Vince’s death.”
“How wrong. How irresponsible. How cruel.” -- Sheila Foster Anthony: Read more at https://politicalwire.com/2016/05/26/vince-fosters-sister-responds/
6. Mark Fiore Cartoon: Future Scope
7. Late Night Jokes for Dems
"Chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus blasted Hillary Clinton on Twitter for using 'bad judgment.' Priebus said, 'I haven't seen judgment this bad since my parents named me Reince Priebus.'" –Conan O'Brien"The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has found that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have nearly opposite results with rural voters compared to urban voters, with Clinton leading Trump by 25 percent in cities, and Trump beating Clinton by 31 percent in places where he wouldn't be caught dead." –Seth Meyers
"At a rally in California yesterday, Bernie Sanders said that if he winds up being the Democratic nominee, 'Donald Trump is toast.' Incidentally, 'toast' is also what Donald Trump's tanning bed is set to." –Seth Meyers
"President Obama signed legislation this week that replaced the term 'Eskimo' in all federal laws with the phrase 'Alaska Native.' 'Fine, I'll have seven Alaska Native pies,' said Chris Christie." –Seth Meyers
"The Trump campaign is about to launch a secret plan to attack Hillary Clinton over the Whitewater scandal from the '90s. We know he's going to do this because they accidentally emailed the secret plan to a reporter. Which means that, shockingly, Hillary Clinton might be the candidate who's second worst while using email." –Stephen Colbert
"Bernie said yesterday that his critics call him 'Santa Claus' because of his white hair. Then Santa said, 'Yeah — even I don't promise people THAT much free stuff.'" –Jimmy Fallon
"Donald Trump is holding his first-ever campaign fundraiser but says he's only doing it because the Republican Party asked him to. Yeah. Trump thought he should do this for the Republican Party, since he turned down their first request: Don't be our candidate." –Conan O'Brien
"A recent survey found that Donald Trump is polling very badly among Asian-Americans. After hearing this, Trump said, 'That's odd, I haven't even gotten around to insulting them yet. I got great material on them.'" –Conan O'Brien
"Troubling news for Hillary Clinton. The FBI says as part of its investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails, it may call her in to speak to them. No word yet on how much Hillary's planning to charge. Could be as much as three grand, $300,000." –Conan O'Brien
"Yesterday, a North Korean official turned down an offer by Donald Trump to visit the country and meet with Kim Jong Un, saying the offer is 'propaganda' and 'nonsense.' This doesn't make Trump look good. You know you're in trouble when the leader of North Korea is like, 'I can't associate myself with that guy.'" –James Corden
"Bernie Sanders today campaigned in California just a few miles from Disneyland. Either that, or Grumpy was on a lunch break." –Seth Meyers
"Donald Trump tweeted that a Hillary Clinton presidency would be 'four more years of stupidity.' As opposed to a Trump presidency, which would be one year of stupidity followed by three years of war with Mexico." –Conan O'Brien
"The NRA on Friday endorsed Donald Trump for president. I guess that reaffirms their commitment to absolutely zero background checks." –Seth Meyers
"A new poll shows that almost half of registered voters say they would consider a third-party candidate as an alternative to Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. A third-party candidate is a little bit like a Tinder date. You think to yourself, what have I got to lose? Can't be worse than my ex." –Seth Meyers
8. Video Ads and Commentaries
DCCC Building Blocks - Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress
The Good Old Days (featuring Donald Trump & the Greensboro 4)
Elizabeth Warren: Takes Donald Trump down over Dodd-Frank?
9. 22 million Bush White House emails deleted from non-government server - no problem!
In 2007, when Congress asked the Bush administration for emails surrounding the firing of eights U.S. attorneys, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales revealed that many of the emails requested could not be produced because they were sent on a non-government email server. The officials had used the private domain gwb43.com, a server run by the Republican National Committee. Two years later, it was revealed that potentially 22 million emails were deleted. April 13, 2007 http://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/web-video/missing-white-house-emails
10. How Well Do You Know The Democratic Presidential Candidates? Take This Short Quiz To Find Out.
11. All of Donald Trump’s Four-Pinocchio ratings, in one place
• Donald Trump’s false comments connecting Mexican immigrants and crime
• Trump’s bogus claim that he never said ‘some of the things’ claimed by Megyn Kelly
• Trump’s zombie claim that Obama spent $4 million to conceal school and passport records
• Trump’s absurd claim that the ‘real’ unemployment rate is 42 percent
• Trump’s tax plan and his claim that ‘it’s going to cost me a fortune’
• Trump’s repeated claim that Obama is accepting 200,000 Syrian refugees
• Trump’s baseless claim that the Bush White House tried to ‘silence’ his Iraq War opposition in 2003
• Repeat after me: Obama is not admitting 100,000, 200,000 or 250,000 Syrian refugees
• Trump’s outrageous claim that ‘thousands’ of New Jersey Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attacks
• Trump’s false claim that the 9/11 hijackers’ wives ‘knew exactly what was going to happen’
• Trump’s claim that he ‘predicted Osama bin Laden’
• Trump’s claim that the unemployment rate is 23 percent
• Trump’s dubious claim that his border wall would cost $8 billion
• Trump’s truly absurd claim he would save $300 billion a year on prescription drugs
• A trio of truthful attack ads about Trump University
• Trump’s false claim he built his empire with a ‘small loan’ from his father
• Trump’s false claim that John Kasich ‘helped’ Lehman Brothers ‘destroy the world economy’
• Trump’s trade rhetoric, stuck in a time warp
• Trump’s smear of Time magazine as the source for his ‘facts’
• Trump’s nonsensical claim he can eliminate $19 trillion in debt in eight years
• Donald Trump’s false claim that there have been no negative ads against Kasich
• Trump’s false claim that the Islamic State is ‘making a fortune’ on Libyan oil
• Trump’s claim that no foreign leader greeting Obama was ‘without precedent’
• Trump’s false claim that ‘scores of recent migrants’ in the U.S. are charged with terrorism
• No, Putin did not call Donald Trump ‘a genius’
• Trump’s false claim that the National Enquirer story on Cruz’s father was not denied
• Donald Trump’s ridiculous claim that Hillary Clinton started the birther movement
• Trump’s false claim that ‘there’s nothing to learn’ from his tax returns
• Donald Trump’s unsupported claim that crime is ‘through the roof’ because of illegal immigration3/22/16 Details at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/03/22/all-of-donald-trumps-four-pinocchio-ratings-in-one-place/?tid=a_inl or http://wpo.st/G1yc1
12. State Department OIG report - biased?
“Our work is becoming overtly anti-State Department, pro-Republican and anti-Clinton,” an OIG source which contacted "The Hill," said, charging that Emilia DiSanto, the OIG deputy director and a former aide to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IO), is working with an “active partisan mandate to undermine both the State Department as a federal agency and Secretary Clinton as a presidential candidate.”
The source also charged that State Inspector General Steve Linick is “more or less under Emilia DiSanto's control, possibly out of a desire for a more prestigious appointed position.”
Clinton campaign officials have argued that the various OIG probes are simply intended to hurt Clinton’s presidential campaign. “They have mounted several different fishing expedition-style investigations since she decided to run for president,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer last month. “There’s no basis to any of them, and I think that it’s intended to create headwinds for her campaign.”
Grassley has been among several Republicans leading the charge on the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of State. He has scrutinized Abedin’s time sheets, concerned she was possibly overpaid while on maternity leave. Amie Parnes 03/01/16 Read more athttp://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/271238-clinton-chief-attacks-state-dept-watchdog
13. CEOs Prefer Clinton Over Trump
A survey, which was sent to all Fortune 500 CEOs, asked which candidate they would favor most as next President of the United States, and gave only the two leading candidates as options. Of those who answered, 58% said Clinton; 42% said Trump. 6/01/16 Read more at http://fortune.com/2016/06/01/fortune-500-ceos-favor-clinton-over-trump/
| OPINION |
1. Paul Krugman: Feel the Math
Here’s what you should know, but may not be hearing clearly in the political reporting: Mrs. Clinton is clearly ahead, both in general election polls and in Electoral College projections based on state polls.
It’s true that her lead isn’t as big as it was before Mr. Trump clinched the G.O.P. nomination, largely because Republicans have consolidated around their presumptive nominee, while many Sanders supporters are still balking at saying that they’ll vote for her.”
But that probably won’t last; many Clinton supporters said similar things about Barack Obama in 2008, but eventually rallied around the nominee. So unless Bernie Sanders refuses to concede and insinuates that the nomination was somehow stolen by the candidate who won more votes, Mrs. Clinton is a clear favorite to win the White House.
Barring the equivalent of a meteor strike, Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee; despite the reluctance of Sanders supporters to concede that reality, she’s currently ahead of Donald Trump. That’s what the math says, and anyone who says it doesn’t is misleading you. 5/30/16 Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/opinion/feel-the-math.html
2. Stephen Marche: Donald Trump is a parody of American manhood — and that's what lifts him
The most popular candidate among white American men is a parody of American manhood. By now, we have become used to the frat-boy performance that defines Donald Trump’s candidacy: the sexual boasting, the condescending or outright insulting treatment of women, the open discussion about the size of his penis. As we approach the general election, it becomes ever more clear that Trump’s flagrant and empty machismo is not a distraction from his campaign but its substance.
Trump’s appeal cannot be ideological; that’s a given. Technically Trump represents the Republican Party, and Republicans will form his base of support in November. But he doesn’t endorse traditional Republican policies and several key members of the conservative intellectual class have described him as a fascist. Certainly he is not a Democrat either. His basic political incoherence has driven his style into the foreground.
When I look at Trump, I see a desperate attempt to recover from failed manhood. His hair alone is an icon of vapid masculine braggadocio. And the more closely I examine Trump’s masculinity, the more hollow it appears.
American men, in selecting Trump, in supporting Trump, are also overcompensating. A revolution in gender relations is underway and traditional notions of manhood, both economic and cultural, have been threatened.
A saving level of introspection may be too much to hope for in 2016. It’s rare enough with individual men, never mind the American electorate. 5/28/16 Read more at http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-marche-trump-masculine-overcompensation-20160527-snap-story.html
3. Pippa Norris: It’s not just Trump. Authoritarian populism is rising across the West. Here’s why.
Many American commentators have had trouble understanding the rise of Donald Trump. How could such a figure surge to become the most likely standard-bearer for the GOP – much less have any chance of entering the White House?
But Trump is far from unique. As many commentators have noted, he fits the wave of authoritarian populists whose support has swelled in many Western democracies.
Well before Trump, a substantial and striking education gap can be observed in American approval of authoritarian leaders.
Most remarkably, by the most recent wave in 2011, almost half — 44 percent — of U.S. non-college graduates approved of having a strong leader unchecked by elections and Congress.
This deeply disturbing finding reflects attitudes usually observed in states such as Russia.
By giving voice to and amplifying fears of cultural change, the Republicans have opened the way for a populist leader. Trump’s support appears to be fueled by a backlash among traditionalists (often men and the less educated) faced with rising American support for issues such as gay marriage, sexual equality, and tolerance of social diversity, all lumped under the phrase “political correctness.” Looking back, we can see precursors to the Trump movement, like the tea party.
Whether or not Trump is elected, he and his followers have articulated a new brutalism and intolerance, altering what’s speakable in American politics.3/11/16 Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/11/its-not-just-trump-authoritarian-populism-is-rising-across-the-west-heres-why/ or http://wpo.st/Ybac1
4. Dahlia Lithwick: Fellow Liberals, Let’s Stop Doing These Things
The 2016 campaign has been focused on rage. Donald Trump’s cunning redirection of his supporters’ economic and racial fury into electoral support has been well-documented. But the fury on the progressive end of the spectrum has been harder to pin down. Some of us on the left seem to be suffering from many of the same symptoms we deride in Trump supporters: outrage with the political process; over-identification with our anger and under-identification with our commonalities; and a pervasive sense that anyone who doesn’t agree with us suffers from debilitating false consciousness.
I’m not a psychologist and can’t speak to the outrage. But I think a lot about how we speak to one another, and I worry that my progressive friends and I are falling victim to some habits and ideas that have made it virtually impossible for the left and right to even engage—much less debate—serious issues anymore in this country. I see them in myself in alarming new ways when I find myself digging in on Bernie vs. Hillary. I wonder if now is the time to talk about it out loud. For a partial list of some of the hideous behaviors have become a reflexive part of my political conversations go to http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/05/fellow_liberals_stop_doing_this_stuff.html
5. Paul Krugman: Trump’s Delusions of Competence
One of the many peculiar things about Mr. Trump's run for the White House is that it rests heavily on his claims of being a masterful businessman, yet it’s far from clear how good he really is at the “art of the deal.” Independent estimates suggest that he’s much less wealthy than he says he is, and probably has much lower income than he claims to have, too. But since he has broken with all precedents by refusing to release his tax returns, it’s impossible to resolve such disputes. (And maybe that’s why he won’t release those returns.)
Remember, too, that Mr. Trump is a clear case of someone born on third base who imagines that he hit a triple: He inherited a fortune, and it’s far from clear that he has expanded that fortune any more than he would have if he had simply parked the money in an index fund.
But leave questions about whether Mr. Trump is the business genius he claims to be on one side. Does business success carry with it the knowledge and instincts needed to make good economic policy? No, it doesn’t.
The truth is that the idea that Donald Trump, of all people, knows how to run the U.S. economy is ludicrous. But will voters ever recognize that truth? Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/opinion/trumps-delusions-of-competence.html?emc=edit_ty_20160527&nl=opinion&nlid=74243604&_r=0 or http://nyti.ms/1WZnKnu
6. Paul Waldman: Trump’s attacks on other Republicans matter. They show he is unfit for the presidency.
Each week of this campaign seems to bring a new, and usually appalling, way in which Donald Trump is completely unlike ordinary politicians. The latest is that he is not only willing but apparently eager to attack other politicians in his own party.
This tells us quite a bit about the campaign Trump running. But it also tells us quite a bit about the kind of president he’d be.
Trump has a clear need not just to beat other people, but to assert his status over them, even to humiliate them. It’s why all his insults to his opponents have that that macho psychosexual element to them — he has to make sure everyone knows that he’s richer, he’s stronger, his wife is younger and hotter, he’s got bigger hands. And when they submit, it isn’t over. They have to keep being reminded that he’s the alpha male and they aren’t. That’s why he mocks Chris Christie, whose abject submission to Trump has been so pathetic, and that’s why he insults Perry even as Perry is endorsing him.
But there’s something else going on: Donald Trump simply cannot let go of a grudge.
Richard Nixon may have had an enemies list, but President Trump would have an enemies book, one that would never stop adding pages. This morning, Trump tweeted that “Such bad judgement and temperament cannot be allowed in the W.H.” Of course, he was talking about Hillary Clinton. But when he can’t stop himself from attacking even the people he needs to help him get elected, it raises more than a few questions about his own temperament. 5/26/16 Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/05/26/trumps-attacks-on-other-republicans-matter-they-show-he-is-unfit-for-the-presidency/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_popns or http://wpo.st/u_jc1
7. Richard Cohen: Trump has taught me to fear my fellow Americans
When I see these Trump supporters on television — the commentators, the Politician’s Puttanesca (a dish to poison the body politic) — I have to wonder where they would draw the line. The answer seems to be: nowhere. They want to win. They want to beat Hillary Clinton, a calling so imperative that sheer morality must give way. Muslims and Mexicans are merely collateral damage in a war that must be fought. What about blacks or Jews? Not yet.
Maybe the talking heads on TV would draw the line at some mild version of fascism, but would the American people do the same? Here, I must hesitate. The easy yes of yesteryear has given way to awful doubt. Trump could win. He could become president, commander in chief, ruler of the Justice Department and head of the IRS. In other words, the American people could elect someone who has not the slightest appreciation for the Constitution or American tradition. When Trump insisted that he could compel a military officer to obey an illegal order, I heard the echo of jackboots on cobblestone.
In America, no one is required to follow an illegal order. It does no good to argue that Trump is just doing a shtick, that he means little of what he says, that he is all swagger and bluff. Trouble is, his supporters do not see him that way. They take him at his word.
History nags. It admonishes. “American exceptionalism” is a phrase that refers to the past, not necessarily the future. Nothing is guaranteed. I’d like to think that Americans really are exceptional, that we have an exceptional faith in democracy and the rule of law. I now have some doubt. I always knew who Trump was. It’s the American people who have come as a surprise. 5/30/16 Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-has-taught-me-to-fear-my-fellow-americans/2016/05/30/1b364736-242a-11e6-aa84-42391ba52c91_story.html or http://wapo.st/1sXU0uL
8. Catherine Rampell: For Donald Trump, every vice is a virtue
To Trump and his many supporters, paying little in taxes is not an effort to shunt more of the federal tax burden onto less wealthy Americans, as was the perception for Romney. For Trump, and perhaps only Trump, this is instead a sign of business smarts, the same kind of smarts Trump would bring to the White House.
He has similarly transformed potentially stigmatizing experiences with the bankruptcy courts into evidence of his legal and fiscal acumen. He has “taken advantage of the laws of this country,” he says, a talent he promises to soon put to work for down-and-out Americans. And more broadly, he portrays his outsize greed— one of the seven deadly sins, mind you — as one of his greatest virtues, which he plans to channel in service of the American public.
Likewise, inconstancy and willingness to cede ground on supposedly core policy positions would be, in any other candidate, huge flaws. But Trump flaunts his flip-flops with style. With Trump, and in basically no other political context, unpredictability is considered desirable, by his own designation.
Even his incivility and insults are not somehow liabilities, but rather proof that he “tells it like it is” (despite all countervailing evidence from his pandering, overpromises and policy reversals).
Maybe Trump is right: He’s not a politician. He’s an alchemist. 5/01/16 Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/for-donald-trump-every-vice-is-a-virtue/2016/05/16/4ace3e64-1b9b-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_rampage or http://wpo.st/Ihjc1
9. Scott Martelle: Donald Trump's energy policies would harm the nation and worsen global warming
Here’s Donald Trump’s vision of America’s energy future: warmer climate, higher seas and worsened smog with increased risks of serious illness among Americans forced to inhale emissions from ramped-up coal-fired power plants.
Yeah, that’ll make America great again.
Trump, unlike Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, says he disbelieves that human activities are causing global warming and the resultant change in the climate, which already have pushed up sea levels, melted glaciers and polar ice caps, exacerbated severe weather patterns and begun to severely stress animal and plant species. Which means Trump, citing thin evidence of his own (he oncedescribed global warming as a Chinese-hatched hoax), rejects the settled science on global warming, though you’d have trouble finding someone who’d take a bet that Trump has bothered to read any of it.
His is a dangerously ignorant view of the environment at a time when the nation, and the world, needs intellectually agile leaders to try to navigate us out of the looming crisis. Trump traveled to North Dakota on Thursday to lay out his back-to-the-future approach to energy policy. It relies on increasing the production — and burning — of oil and coal, and a pledge to revive the nation’s sinking coal industry. But given the global decline in demand for coal, driven in part by the rise in alternative renewables and the conversion of U.S. energy plants to cheaper and cleaner natural gas, a pledge to revive coal mining is meaningless. Not to mention bad environmental policy.
And the people cheered. P.T. Barnum couldn’t have asked for more. 5/29/16 Read more at http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-trump-energy-environment-20160527-snap-story.html
10. Jonathan Freedland: A plea to Hillary’s Democrat critics: don’t hand the White House to Trump
The choice in November will not be between Sanders and Clinton. Barring a freak event – or an FBI indictment over her past use of private email – the choice will be between Clinton and Trump. And on that, anyone on the left should know exactly where they stand.
In 2000 many progressives found Al Gore uninspiring; they said there was little to distinguish him from George W Bush. Some insisted on “voting their conscience” and backing the Green party challenger, Ralph Nader, even in states like Florida, where the main contest was on a knife-edge.
And what a difference electing Al Gore would have made. Gore was a trailblazer on climate change, sounding the alarm a quarter of a century ago. Imagine the impact he could have had if it had been him, rather than Bush, in the White House. To say nothing of the invasion of Iraq, which few believe Gore would have undertaken – an act the current secretary of state, John Kerry, privately describes as “the greatest foreign policy disaster in history”.
Now if you think Bush was bad, just imagine four years of Trump. Deporting immigrants, banning Muslims, demeaning women, sundering alliances, threatening the use of nuclear weapons – how much more do the Bernie brigades need to know, to know that there is only one goal that now matters: stopping this man from becoming president?
If Sander’s succeeds in making her unelectable the winner will not be him or the left. It will be President Donald Trump – and the darkness he will bring to America and the world. 5/27/16 Read more at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/28/plea-hilliary-clinton-democrat-critics-white-house-trump
11. Joe Conason: The truth about Donald Trump’s old mud: The facts about Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton
Whenever Donald Trump lies, which he does almost every day, the American media listen. Sometimes journalists debunk the Republican presidential nominee-to-be, and sometimes they fail to do so. As his campaign descends neck-deep into the sewer of tabloid filth, vetting his attacks on the Clintons is becoming an unpleasant but vital responsibility.
The urge to smear is apparently irresistible to Trump, as he proved repeatedly during the primaries with his nasty assaults on the family of Ted Cruz. But if he still insists on going there, then news outlets must hold him accountable for all his slurs and slanders.
Assisted by Nixon-era dirty trickster Roger Stone, Trump is promoting the absurdly sexist message that Hillary Clinton deserves blame for her husband’s alleged misconduct. To make that case, they have been recruiting — and sometimes paying — women who claim that Bill Clinton victimized them.
Actually, there is only one candidate in 2016 who has faced credible charges of sexual assault: Donald Trump, whose first wife Ivana swore in a divorce deposition that he ripped out her hair and raped her (an accusation she recently withdrew). Perhaps Trump should disclose those divorce papers before he tries to smear Hillary Clinton again. 5/28/16 Read more at http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/joe-conason-truth-donald-trump-old-mud-article-1.2652509
12. Charles Tiefer: State Department Report On Email Vindicates Clinton
The report released Wednesday by the State Department Inspector General on its email records management is being reported as heavy-duty criticism of former Secretary Hillary Clinton. However, the report has more in it that vindicates Clinton than nails her.
It does not add any new serious charges or adverse facts. And, it shows she was less out of line with her predecessors, notably Colin Powell, than has been charged. Powell’s handling of his email was so similar, in fact, that when House Republicans drag this issue through hearings up to Election Day, Powell should be called as a witness – a witness for Clinton. To put it differently, she is having a double standard applied to her. Here are five key aspects of the report.
First, and foremost, it is simply not about classified email. It is about regular, ordinary, run-of-the-mill, unclassified email. Yet it is the classified email, not these messages, that are the focus of the FBI investigation of Clinton. In other words, the report does not, and cannot, talk about the most serious issues. It is about a sideshow. If you are serious about the email charges against Hillary, you should keep your powder dry until at least Clinton is interviewed by the FBI in a matter of weeks, and then until the result of that probe is released.
Second, there is not that much new information about Clinton in it. Certainly, the widely-reported fact that it’s an 83-page report makes it sound like it is big. But half is appendices. Half of the rest is not about the Secretary’s emails, but about cybersecurity. Of the two-dozen pages that are even remotely about Secretaries’ emails, a lot is taken up by retracing the dreary history of records and archival policy. The remainder involves all the secretaries going back two decades – not just Clinton and Powell, who are alike, but also ones of no particular interest, like Madeleine Albright, Condoleeza Rice, and also John Kerry. There’s just not a lot of new facts about Clinton. 5/25/16 Read more at http://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestiefer/2016/05/25/state-department-report-on-email-vindicates-clinton-rather-than-nails-her/#430ce7932c7d
13. Erica Jong: Why I trust Hillary Clinton
There are two men running for president and one lone woman.
Both men have been carried away by the madness of crowds. The truth is we don't know what either of them can or will do. One of the men is a carny barker who is busy proving H.L. Mencken's dictum: "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." The other is an avowed socialist who wants "a revolution" but who has only been tried in a white, low population state.
Then there is the woman. All her life she has fought for civil rights, children's rights and women's rights. We know what she stands for because she has been standing for those things forever: as first lady, senator and secretary of state. And she is standing for them now.
True, she has been around too long to be a "new face." But the men are not new either. One is a real estate guy who boasts that he pays no taxes and the other is a senator whose favorite word is "revolution." Both are old faces, but male. And both have gotten the biggest crowds of their lives and they can't get over it.
So who do you think is more likely to keep promises? The woman warrior or the two guys? For me it's utterly obvious: The woman is more likely to keep her promises to support children, women and people of color.
I trust Hillary Rodham Clinton's long-held beliefs and the prodigious work she has put behind them.
is a beautiful dreamer. Trump is a fake and a fraud. Of the three candidates I know whom to trust.
In your heart of hearts you do, too. 5/26/16 Read more at http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/26/opinions/hillary-clinton-erica-jong/index.html
