ON THE RECORD. . .
“My worship for him is like the people of North Korea worship Dear Leader — blind loyalty. Once he gave that Mexican rapist speech, I’ll walk across glass for him. That’s basically it. Unlike the crazy Cruz supporters, I’ll criticize him, and I have, but it’s all minor stylistic stuff. We all want to shoot him at various times.” — Ann Coulter on her support of Donald Trump. 8/24/16
"Everything Trump promises comes with an expiration date. We knew it during the primary, and now it is apparent he has duped his most loyal supporters on the issue they care about most, immigration. Don't say we didn't warn them." -- Ted Cruz’s former Senate communications director, Amanda Carpenter. 8/24/16
"He hasn't changed his position on immigration. He's changed the words that he is saying." -- Donald Trump's national spokeswoman, Katrina Pierson. 8/25/16
“A man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far reaches of the internet, should never run our government or command our military,” she said. -- Hillary Clinton in Reno, Nevada. 8/25/16.
“Well, I can only say that whatever his views are this morning, they might change this afternoon, and they were different than they were last night, and they'll be different tomorrow,"-- Jeb Bush on Trump's latest pivot on immigration, which closely resembles Bush's own position on the issue. 8/25/16
“You would have a bunch of people who know nothing about taxes trying to look through and trying to come up with assumptions on things they know nothing about. It would be foolish to do. I’m actually the biggest proponent of not doing it.” -- Eric Trump on his father releasing his tax returns. 8/24/16
“The main difficulty Trump faces in dispelling the impression that he is a racist is that Trump is, in fact, a gigantic racist.” -- Jonathan Chait 8/22/16
“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.” -- Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) following his homophobic remarks about a state lawmaker.
“I think the assessment was that Donald Trump would try and do some things to appeal to the middle of the electorate, to appeal to suburban college-educated women. He’s not. I mean, basically, we have a psychopath running for President. I mean, he meets the clinical definition, okay?” -- Former Obama campaign chief David Plouffe
“We’re losing our country. Look at the Super Bowl salute to the Black Panther cop killers. It’s time to stand up and vote for Donald Trump for president and vote for me, David Duke for the U.S. Senate.” --A new robocall from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke
Failing cities are not the result of liberal and progressive policies. Democratic ideas and programs that were working have been gutted and purposefully discredited, defunded and attacked ideologically by the very Republicans who did the gutting. -- Jesse Jackson 8/29/16
IN THIS ISSUE
1. The DAILY GRILL
2. From MEDIA MATTERS (They watch Fox News so you don't have to)
3. Andy Borowitz: Pence Recaptured After Fleeing Trump Campaign Bus
4. From the Late Shows
5. Political Ads/Statements
6. NASA: Earth is warming at a pace 'unprecedented in 1,000 years'
7. First Read: Democrats Are on Track to Take Back the Senate
8. Saudi prince says he twice saved Trump from bankruptcy
9. ‘Dr. Drew’ show canceled days after host’s negative speculation about Hillary Clinton’s health
10. Poll: Vast Majority Don’t See Immigrants as a Problem
11. Trump Attacks Hillary's "Criminal" Foundation, Forgets He Donated $110,000 to It
12. Late night political jokes for Dems
13. Trump Forced to Defend Key Red States
1. Scot Lehigh: Voters are getting it right on Clinton and Trump
2. Ann Friedman: Sick and tired of hearing that Hillary Clinton is sick and tired
3. Sarah Posneraug: How Donald Trump's New Campaign Chief Created an Online Haven for White Nationalists
4. Judd Legum: How The Trump Campaign Became One Long Episode Of Hannity
5. Jane Mayer: Roger Ailes, The Clintons, And The Scandals Of The Scandalmongers
6. Dana Milbank: The singular danger of Trump
7. Jennifer Rubin Trump’s ‘measured path’ is more like a dumpster fire
8. Joy-Ann Reid: Can President Hillary Survive the Media’s Fake Scandals?
9. Paul Krugman: No, Donald Trump, America Isn’t a Hellhole
10. Michael Gerson: Trump’s Repellent Inner Circle
11. Eugene Robinson: Trump's Hot Air Balloon Is Ripping
12. Matthew Goldenberg, a professional opinion: You don't need a psychiatrist to know there's something wrong with Donald Trump
13. Melissa Jeltsen: Let’s Call The Conspiracy Theories About Hillary’s Health What They Are
14. Edward-Isaac Dovere: Trump’s new aim: Poison a Clinton presidency
15. Jonathan Allen: Clinton Met With Donors — So What?
16. Gabriel Schoenfeld: Hillary hatred is a reckless indulgence
17. Jennifer Rubin: Does it matter if Trump really is crazy?
| FYI |
1. The DAILY GRILL
"@DiamondandSilk: Crooked Hillary getting desperate. On TV bashing Trump. @CNN, she forgot how she said a KKK member was her mentor. -- Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
VERSUS
"Senator Byrd reflects the transformative power of this nation," stated NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. Senator Byrd went from being an active member of the KKK to a being a stalwart supporter of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and many other pieces of seminal legislation that advanced the civil rights and liberties of our country." -- NAACP statement mourning the passing of US Senator Robert Byrd. 6/29/10
“Hillary Clinton ran the State Department like a failed leader in a third-world country. … Now, it looks like it’s 50 percent of the people that saw her had to make contributions to the Clinton Foundation.” — Donald Trump, at a rally in Tampa. 8/24/16
VERSUS
That’s not what the AP found, at all. The AP focused on 85 out of 154 people who met with Clinton but were not foreign government representatives or federal employees. It is based on partial records released by the State Department so far and does not reflect the full scope of people with whom Clinton met as secretary of state. --Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Washington Post Fact Checker 8/25/16
"Or, he sees the tree on the White House lawn has been renamed 'Holiday tree' instead of 'Christmas tree.' I could go on and on for hours. Those are the very things that made my father run, and those are the very things he cares about." -- Eric Trump. 8/25/16
VERSUS
The tree placed on the White House lawn during the holiday season is still called theNational Christmas Tree. --Buzzfeed News
BREAKING: AP analysis: More than half those who met Clinton as Cabinet secretary gave money to Clinton Foundation The Associated Press on Twitter
VERSUS
There was one problem: This tweet is completely inaccurate. The AP analysis includes only 154 meetings. It excludes all meetings with domestic and foreign government officials — the people who a Secretary of State spends most of her time meeting. -- Judd Legum Editor-In-Chief, ThinkProgress
2. From MEDIA MATTERS (They watch Fox News so you don't have to)
What Is The “Alt-Right”? A Guide To The White Nationalist Movement Now Leading Conservative Media http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/08/25/what-alt-right-guide-white-nationalist-movement-now-leading-conservative-media/212643
Fox's Shepard Smith: Clinton's Speech Tying Trump To The Alt-Right "Used Donald Trump's Own Words" Against Him http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/08/25/foxs-shepard-smith-clintons-speech-tying-trump-alt-right-used-donald-trumps-own-words-against-him/212673
Hillary Clinton Blasts Donald Trump For Aligning With 9/11 And Sandy Hook Truther Alex Jones http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/08/25/hillary-clinton-blasts-donald-trump-aligning-911-and-sandy-hook-truther-alex-jones/212671
Clinton: Trump "Actually Went On Jones' Show And Said, 'Your Reputation Is Amazing, I Will Not Let You Down'" http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/08/25/hillary-clinton-blasts-donald-trump-aligning-911-and-sandy-hook-truther-alex-jones/212671
Trump Ally Roger Stone: Clinton's Attacks On The "Alt-Right" Are "The Tactics Of A Hitler Or A Stalin" http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/08/26/trump-ally-roger-stone-clintons-attacks-alt-right-are-tactics-hitler-or-stalin/212692
White Nationalists Stand With Trump After Clinton Highlights His Racist "Alt-Right" Ties http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/08/25/white-nationalists-stand-trump-after-clinton-highlights-his-racist-alt-right-ties/212674
Hannity Defends Alex Jones From Hillary Clinton: "Really, She Doesn’t Believe In Freedom Of Speech?"http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/08/26/hannity-defends-alex-jones-hillary-clinton-really-she-doesn-t-believe-freedom-speech/212699
Mark Cuban Explains To CNN’s Don Lemon That Clinton Did Nothing Wrong In Her Email Usehttp://mediamatters.org/video/2016/08/29/mark-cuban-explains-cnn-s-don-lemon-clinton-did-nothing-wrong-her-email-use/212741
ABC Reports Corey Lewandowski “Is Back In The Fold” With Trump Campaign While Remaining Paid CNN Contributor http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/08/29/abc-reports-corey-lewandowski-back-fold-trump-campaign-while-remaining-paid-cnn-contributor/212737
3. Andy Borowitz: Pence Recaptured After Fleeing Trump Campaign Bus
Calling it a “scary moment” and a “close call,” Donald Trump’s campaign officials confirmed that they had recaptured Mike Pence after the Indiana governor attempted to flee the campaign bus in the early hours of Friday morning.
According to the campaign, Pence had asked to stop at a McDonald’s in rural Virginia so that he could use the bathroom, but aides grew concerned when the governor failed to reappear after twenty minutes.
After determining that Pence had given them the slip, Trump staffers fanned out across the Virginia backcountry, where the governor was believed to have fled.
News that Pence had vanished touched off a panic in Indiana, where residents feared that he might return to resume his political career.
After forty-five minutes of searching, however, campaign officials located a bedraggled and dazed Pence walking along Virginia State Route 287, where the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee was attempting unsuccessfully to hitch a ride.
In the aftermath of Pence’s disappearance, Hope Hicks, Trump’s press secretary, attempted to downplay the severity of the incident. “This is the kind of thing that happens in the course of a long and demanding campaign,” she said. “Having said that, we’re grateful to have Mike Pence back with us, and we won’t let him get away again.”
Reportedly, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie offered to fill in for Pence in the event that he became unable to fulfill his duties. That offer was declined.
ELSEWHERE: Obama Pays Mexico Five Billion Dollars To Keep Donald Trump: President Barack Obama defended his decision on Wednesday to issue a payment of five billion dollars to Mexico to compel that nation to retain custody of Donald J. Trump.
The President bristled at the suggestion that paying Mexico to keep Trump was “reverse ransom” and an extravagant use of taxpayer money. “There is only one accurate word for this payment: a bargain,” he said. Read more at http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/
4. From the Late Shows
Late Night with Seth Meyers: Chicago President Update
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Barbra Streisand Duets with Donald Trump
Jimmy Kimmel Reveals the Truth Behind Hillary Clinton's #PickleGate
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Donald Trump's Extraordinary Health Report
Joe Scarborough: #AmnestyDon
5. Political Ads/Statements
Trump and the extreme right-wing | The Briefing
Everything | Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump and the Alt-Right | The Briefing
Hat | Hillary Clinton
6. NASA: Earth is warming at a pace 'unprecedented in 1,000 years'
The planet is warming at a pace not experienced within the past 1,000 years, at least, making it “very unlikely” that the world will stay within a crucial temperature limit agreed by nations just last year, according to Nasa’s top climate scientist.
This year has already seen scorching heat around the world, with the average global temperature peaking at 1.38C above levels experienced in the 19th century, perilously close to the 1.5C limit agreed in the landmark Paris climate accord. July was the warmest month since modern record keeping began in 1880, with each month since October 2015 setting a new high mark for heat.
Lingering carbon dioxide already emitted from power generation, transport and agriculture is already likely to raise sea levels by around three feet by the end of the century, and potentially by 70 feet in the centuries to come. Increasing temperatures will shrink the polar ice caps, make large areas of the Middle East and North Africa unbearable to live in and accelerate what’s known as Earth’s“sixth mass extinction” of animal species. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/30/nasa-climate-change-warning-earth-temperature-warming
7. First Read: Democrats Are on Track to Take Back the Senate
We're now just a little more than two months until Decision Day 2016, and here is the downballot reality: Democrats are on track to take back the Senate. It's not a slam dunk, of course. But in the battle for control of the Senate, you'd rather be the Democrats than the Republicans. Here's the math: With the GOP holding a 54-46 majority, Democrats need to pick up four Senate seats if they win the White House (because the vice president gets to break a 50-50 tie), and they need five seats if they don't.
So you if you're the Democrats, you can realistically get to four pickups and control of the Senate, if Clinton wins the presidential race. 8/30/16 Read more at http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/first-read-democrats-are-track-take-back-senate-n639906
8. Saudi prince says he twice saved Trump from bankruptcy
Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal said he twice saved US presidential candidate Donald Trump from bankruptcy, describing him as a “bad and ungrateful person”.
In an interview with Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper, the prince said he bought Trump’s hotels after they were acquired by the banks which demanded he repay his debts.
The yacht he used to come to Antalya, southwest of Turkey, is one he bought from Trump when he was threatened with bankruptcy.
Earlier, the Saudi prince called on Trump to immediately withdraw from the presidential race describing him as a disgrace to the Republican Party and America. 8/25/16 Read more at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160825-saudi-prince-says-he-twice-saved-trump-from-bankruptcy/#.V79gDaNiEZo.twitter
9. ‘Dr. Drew’ show canceled days after host’s negative speculation about Hillary Clinton’s health
Drew Pinsky’s six-year-old HLN show, “Dr. Drew On Call,” has been canceled by CNN, effective Sept. 22.
The decision came eight days after Pinsky’s comments on a radio show on Aug. 17 questioning the health and medical care of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president. After looking at bits and pieces of Clinton’s health-care records she made public in 2015, he said he was “gravely concerned not just about her health, but her health care.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/08/26/dr-drew-show-canceled-days-after-his-negative-speculation-about-hillary-clintons-health/
10. Poll: Vast Majority Don’t See Immigrants as a Problem
A new Pew Research Center poll finds that 71% say undocumented immigrants living in the United States mostly fill jobs citizens do not want, while just 24% say they mostly take jobs citizens want.
About three-quarters of Americans (76%) say undocumented immigrants are “as honest and hard-working” as U.S. citizens, while 67% say they are no more likely than U.S. citizens to commit serious crimes. 8/25/16 Read more at http://www.people-press.org/2016/08/25/on-immigration-policy-partisan-differences-but-also-some-common-ground/
11. Trump Attacks Hillary's "Criminal" Foundation, Forgets He Donated $110,000 to It
In another harsh attack on his opponent, Donald Trump at a New Hampshire rally on Thursday accused Hillary Clinton of running a "vast criminal enterprise" that was worse than Watergate, alleging that the Clinton Foundation was part of some sort of pay-to-play scheme while Clinton was secretary of state. Trump did not cite any evidence as he repeated this hyperbolic charge and his supporters shouted "lock her up." Moreover, Trump did not mention that his own foundation donated at least $110,000 to the Clinton Foundation. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/trump-attacks-hillary-forgets-he-donated-clinton-foundation
12. Late night political jokes for Dems
"After more than a year of promising mass ations of undocumented immigrants, last night Donald Trump actually referred to them as 'great people.' Even Ryan Lochte was like, 'Get your story straight, man!'" –Jimmy Fallon
"The Trump campaign said pollsters aren't counting people who are afraid to say they're Trump supporters. That's right, because Trump supporters are very, very shy." –Conan O'Brien
"At first Donald Trump came out with guns blazing, said he's going to kick all the Mexicans out, he's going to build a wall to keep them from coming back in. Last night during a town hall on Fox News he said he could be softening, which is normal, it happens to a lot of men his age." –Jimmy Kimmel
"He's now agreed to give immigrants a 30-minute head start before he tries to catch them with a net." –Jimmy Kimmel
"A new poll released today shows Hillary Clinton is 9 points ahead of Donald Trump in New Mexico. And 100 points ahead in Old Mexico." –Seth Meyers
"A new report has found that Donald Trump may have used some of his campaign funds to buy thousands of copies of his own book. Oh my God, that's what he's gonna use to build the wall!" –Seth Meyers
"A 12-year-old boy is actually running one of Trump's campaign offices in Colorado. When asked how an inexperienced child could be running things, the boy said, 'Look, he's the nominee and we're stuck with him.'" –Jimmy Fallon
"Donald Trump is accusing Hillary Clinton of being too ill, too frail to be commander in chief. Rudy Giuliani made a suggestion to go online and look up 'Hillary Clinton illness' – if it's on the internet, you know it must be true." –Stephen Colbert
"Melania Trump is planning to sue a British newspaper for defamation. Apparently, the paper called her 'happily married.'" –Conan O'Brien
13. Trump Forced to Defend Key Red States
After weeks of Brooklyn telegraphing a competitive race in traditionally red states and making public moves that look like initial investments — boosting staff, holding fundraisers, and promising more investments — Trump is now campaigning in Arizona, which has voted Republican in 15 of the last 16 elections, while his running mate goes to Georgia, a state that’s gone red in seven of the last eight cycles.
That’s a deployment of precious resources away from swing states that Trump must win to make the Electoral College math work in his favor. 8/31/16 Read more at http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/clinton-trump-electoral-strategy-227561
| OPINION |
1. Scot Lehigh: Voters are getting it right on Clinton and Trump
THIS IS a summer that has shown American politics at its democracy-affirming best.
I can guess what some are thinking: You’ve joined the ranks of mad dogs and Englishmen out in the midday sun; how can anyone make such a statement in this time of Donald Trump and his choleric crowds, his takeover of the Republican Party, his dark and angry convention, his conspiracy-theory mindset, his reckless and inflammatory statements?
Here’s why: Republican Party primary voters may not have been able to see through Donald Trump, but the broader electorate has recognized that he’s unfit to be president. Voters don’t always sort things out on punditry’s preferred timetable, which can lead to some Henny Penny hysteria among the commentariat. And yet this season those voters have done themselves proud. Even with the distractions of this lovely summer, they’ve taken an accurate measure of Trump’s dime-store demagoguery and rejected his dog-whistle politics.
Those who view America as a ship of fools have worried that voters could be duped into putting this modern-day Captain Queeg at the helm. In fact, Americans have arrived at the right judgment before the debates have even taken place. And it’s nigh unto impossible to imagine them changing their minds after seeing these two rivals head to head. 8/23/16 Read more at http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/08/23/voters-are-getting-right-clinton-and-trump/VzXUHE1gM21Sld3TVDeOaO/story.html
2. Ann Friedman: Sick and tired of hearing that Hillary Clinton is sick and tired
Hillary Clinton is sick and tired, declared Donald Trump at a rally this month. “She’s actually not strong enough to be president,” he added. You’d be forgiven for taking his comment metaphorically, but he and his supporters mean it quite literally. Even though Trump is two years older than Clinton, and her doctors have declared that she’s perfectly healthy, the latest anti-Clinton campaign is focused on her physical unfitness for office.
According to the conspiracy theorists, evidence of her infirmity includes the lumbar-support pillows she uses while conducting seated interviews, photos of her accepting a helping hand while climbing a set of icy stairs, a fake MRI scan and lumps under her jacket that could only be caused by a defibrillator — not a bulletproof vest.
A theme that should be restricted to ideological-fringe message boards has become a standard talking point on the right. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani accused the news media of ignoring Clinton’s supposed health crisis, encouraging people to Google “Hillary Clinton illness.” The calls for Clinton to release more detailed health records are the 2016 version of that old right-wing demand that Barack Obama show his birth certificate. And they are just as loaded with prejudice.
Of course I have to concede that I’m concerned about Hillary’s health, too. Anyone with a schedule as demanding as hers would have to be lying — or taking some really powerful uppers — to say they weren’t tired. I know why she’s probably wearing a bulletproof vest (which the right has mistaken for a defibrillator), and it scares me. She should be able to say, honestly and without fear of confirming gender stereotypes, that running for president is exhausting and sometimes frightening. But I’m sure that she won’t. 8/24/16 Read more at http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-friedman-hillary-clinton-health-conspiracy-20160824-snap-story.html
3. Sarah Posneraug: How Donald Trump's New Campaign Chief Created an Online Haven for White Nationalists
Last week, when Donald Trump tapped the chairman of Breitbart Media to lead his campaign, he wasn't simply turning to a trusted ally and veteran propagandist. By bringing on Stephen Bannon, Trump was signaling a wholehearted embrace of the "alt-right," a once-motley assemblage of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, ethno-nationalistic provocateurs who have coalesced behind Trump and curried the GOP nominee's favor on social media. In short, Trump has embraced the core readership of Breitbart News.
"We're the platform for the alt-right," Bannon told me proudly when I interviewed him at the Republican National Convention in July. Though disavowed by every other major conservative news outlet, the alt-right has been Bannon's target audience ever since he took over Breitbart News from its late founder, Andrew Breitbart, four years ago. Under Bannon's leadership, the site has plunged into the fever swamps of conservatism, cheering white nationalist groups as an "eclectic mix of renegades," accusing President Barack Obama of importing "more hating Muslims," and waging an incessant war against the purveyors of "political correctness."
Exactly who and what defines the alt-right is hotly debated in conservative circles, but its most visible proponents—who tend to be young, white, and male—are united in a belief that traditional movement conservatism has failed. They often criticize immigration policies and a "globalist" agenda as examples of how the deck is stacked in favor of outsiders instead of "real Americans." They bash social conservatives as ineffective sellouts to the GOP establishment, and rail against neo-conservative hawks for their embrace of Israel. They see themselves as a threat to the establishment, far bolder and edgier than Fox News. While often tapping into legitimate economic grievances, their social-media hashtags (such as #altright on Twitter) dredge up torrents of racist, sexist, and xenophobic memes. 8/22/16 Read more at http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/stephen-bannon-donald-trump-alt-right-breitbart-news
4. Judd Legum: How The Trump Campaign Became One Long Episode Of Hannity
Fox News star Sean Hannity has made one thing clear: He is “not a journalist.”
Which begs the question: What is he?
The New York Times provided one answer. Hannity is a regular, if unofficial, Trump advisor. According to the Times, Hannity has “peppered Mr. Trump, his family members and advisers with suggestions on strategy and messaging.”
“Do I talk to my friend who I’ve known for years and speak my mind? I can’t not speak my mind,” Hannity told the New York Times.
Yet Hannity’s role is, in many respects, unprecedented. He controls an hour of primetime on the most popular cable channel in America. He has made clear that his top priority is electing Donald Trump the next president of the United States.
The last two nights, Hannity has devoted the entire hour to interviewing Trump. But these aren’t simple interviews — it is an elaborate propaganda event produced by Hannity.
First, Hannity relentlessly promotes the events, helping Trump build a crowd.
Then, Hannity invites special guests — always Trump fans — to hammer home whatever Trump wants the message to be. Last night’s topic was immigration and Hannity provided Rudy Giuliani, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions and Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. (Hannity recently described Don Jr. as his “best friend.”) https://thinkprogress.org/how-the-trump-campaign-became-one-long-episode-of-hannity-1dfa7a56f768#.w7t86taly
5. Jane Mayer: Roger Ailes, The Clintons, And The Scandals Of The Scandalmongers
This election year, the big question was supposed to be whether Hillary Clinton would shatter the glass ceiling. Instead, it has become the year in which one of the country’s most towering glass houses has shattered. Few people may remember it now, but Fox News, which Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation launched in 1996, became a ratings leader largely because of its gleefully censorious coverage of Bill Clinton’s sex scandals. Now the network is mired in its own scandal. Last month, Roger Ailes resigned as Fox News’s chairman and C.E.O. in the face of multiple allegations of sexual harassment, including a lawsuit filed against him by the former anchor Gretchen Carlson. (Ailes has denied Carlson’s allegations.)
The unfolding embarrassment at the network poses a host of questions—not the least of which is how the network’s executives justified their Javert-like pursuit of Clinton’s extramarital affairs, given their boss’s own repeated sexual misconduct. If you go back and look carefully at the chronology, some of Ailes’s most egregious alleged harassment of women was taking place at the same time that Fox News was suggesting that Clinton deserved to be impeached. Sexual harassment is a serious issue, and it merits serious coverage, but it’s hard to believe that the suits at Fox were motivated by genuine concern, given their own corporate culture. 8/24/16 Read more at http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/roger-ailes-the-clintons-and-the-scandals-of-the-scandalmongers
6. Dana Milbank: The singular danger of Trump
The singular danger of Trump makes this year different. Trump isn’t really a conservative or a Republican. Voters know this, which is why Democratic efforts to tie down-ballot candidates to him aren’t working well. When Trump (hopefully) is gone, these surviving Republicans need a reckoning to reclaim their party from the fringe.
Trump invites violence as a political tool. He suggests “Second Amendment people” — gun owners — could stop judges Clinton nominates. He has spoken of paying the legal fees of supporters who assault hecklers at events, saying things like “knock the crap out of them” and “I’d like to punch him in the face.” Trump has alleged the vote will be “rigged” against him, and those around him suggest violence could ensue. There have been dozens of incidents of violence at Trump events, including by his then-campaign-manager.
Trump brought racism and paranoia into the mainstream with his “America First” campaign and his leadership of the movement challenging Obama’s American birth. He hesitated to disavow David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan. His tweets have included messages from white supremacists, a Jewish star atop a pile of cash, phony crime statistics that originated with neo-Nazis, a quote from Mussolini, even an image of Nazi soldiers superimposed on the American flag next to Trump’s likeness. Trump has mocked Asian accents and the disabled. He has said “half” of the 11 million illegal immigrants are criminals.
So how do we talk to children about Trump? We tell them what Holocaust survivors have told me: that what Trump is doing reminds them of 1930s Germany, and that grownups are not going to let that happen here. 8/26/16 Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-singular-danger-of-trump/2016/08/26/a2c408f6-6b9b-11e6-ba32-5a4bf5aad4fa_story.html?utm_term=.d5763d67f07b&wpisrc=nl_popns&wpmm=1
7. Jennifer Rubin: Trump’s ‘measured path’ is more like a dumpster fire
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, according to news reports, declared, in a conference call this week: “It’s going to be important for us and for Donald Trump to continue down this measured path that he’s on, and if he does that, I think he’s going to be tied or ahead at or just after Labor Day.”
The “measured path” looks more like a dumpster fire. Trump has confounded supporters, critics and the media with varying versions of an immigration plan, one that was supposed to be fixed in concrete, so to speak, and require a “deportation force” to round up 11 million people in 11 months or so. As Jeb Bush summed up, “I don’t know what to believe about a guy who doesn’t believe in things.” Mark Krikorian, of the anti-immigrant Center for Immigration Studies, had his hopes up that someone would finally oppose any form of legalization. Now with Trump’s mimicry of the Gang of Eight, he callsTrump’s flip-flop “the last straw.”
Meanwhile, Trump has insulted African Americans and Hispanics with his assertion that their lives are a “disaster.” (Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe hit the nail on the head: “Well, basically the implication is, ‘Your life sucks.’ ”) Who could resist such a charmer?
When Hillary Clinton beat him over the head with his own record and affiliations, the campaign sputtered, shooting out one indignant press release after another.
Interestingly, it did not dispute the facts enumerated in Clinton’s speech.
Finally, Trump is still wasting time in places such as Mississippi and has a single puny ad buy. Is he running for president? If the entire electorate consisted of Sean Hannity’s audience, he’d be ahead by a mile.
Like we said, a dumpster fire. The “measured path” is nowhere in sight. 8/26/16 Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/08/26/trumps-measured-path-is-more-like-a-dumpster-fire
8. Joy-Ann Reid: Can President Hillary Survive the Media’s Fake Scandals?
Whatever its cause, the media’s general Hillary Clinton loathing is a foundational truth that would define her as president. Even a landslide victory in November would surely be accompanied by a sidebar emphasizing how very unpopular and utterly disliked she is; and how her presidency could not have been possible without the utter decrepitude of Donald Trump.
Republicans, as longtime Clinton friend and adviser James Carville predicted this week on Bloomberg and MSNBC, would surely declare her presidency to be both accidental and illegitimate because of phantom “voter fraud” and Trump’s distortion of the political alchemy. If the past eight years of is prologue, the GOP will paint this supposed illegitimacy onto every proposal out of the Clinton White House; from budget bills to Supreme Court nominations, and attempt to freeze the federal government in place until 2020, when Paul Ryan or Marco Rubio can have another go.
The Republican-controlled House would likely begin to immediately investigate the new president, rehashing the amorphous, never-ending media bait that is “emailgate,” perhaps with an eye toward impeachment. And their cries of “corruption” and “criminality” will be duly covered by We, the Media, reinforcing the age-old narrative of Clintonian chicanery in a public already battered by Bad Hillary narratives. The coverage will of course be the most brutal on Trump TV, where perhaps Roger Ailes will direct a new cast of Trump TV characters, led by Sean Hannity and Alex Jones, to whip Hillary Clinton on a daily basis. When the first polls are taken, after this narrative has been sufficiently flogged, the new president will come up short in usual areas: honesty, trustworthiness, popularity, and raw public support.
The feedback loop is endless, it’s self-reinforcing, and it is not ever going to change.
I suspect we’re in for a long four years. 8/26/16 Read more at http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/26/can-president-hillary-survive-the-media-s-fake-scandals.html
9. Paul Krugman: No, Donald Trump, America Isn’t a Hellhole
Back when the Trump campaign was ostensibly about the loss of middle-class jobs, it was at least pretending to be about a real issue: Employment in manufacturing really is way down; real wages of blue-collar workers have fallen. You could say that Trumpism isn’t the answer (it isn’t), but not that the issue was a figment of the candidate’s imagination.
But when Mr. Trump portrays America’s cities as hellholes of runaway crime and social collapse, what on earth is he talking about? Urban life is one of the things that has gone right with America. In fact, it has gone so right that those of us who remember the bad old days still find it hard to believe.
Let’s talk specifically about violent crime. Consider, in particular, the murder rate, arguably the most solid indicator for long-run comparisons because there’s no ambiguity about definitions. Homicides did shoot up between the early 1960s and the 1980s, and images of a future dystopia — think “Escape From New York” (1981) or Blade Runner (1982) — became a staple of popular culture. Conservative writers assured us that soaring crime was the inevitable result of a collapse in traditional values and that things would get even worse unless those values were restored.
But then a funny thing happened: The murder rate began falling, and falling, and falling. By 2014 it was all the way back down to where it was half a century earlier. There was some rise in 2015, but so far, at least, it’sbarely a blip in the long-run picture.
Basically, American cities are as safe as they’ve ever been. Nobody is completely sure why crime has plunged, but the point is that the nightmare landscape of the Republican candidate’s rhetoric — call it Trump’s hellhole? — bears no resemblance to reality. 8/26/16 Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/opinion/no-donald-trump-america-isnt-a-hellhole.html
10. Michael Gerson: Trump’s Repellent Inner Circle
Consider this list of Trump’s chosen: Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski had a brutal and demeaning style that resulted in a staff revolt, and his manhandling of a female reporter overshadowed the Trump campaign for weeks. Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was paid lucrative consulting fees by foreign interests and resigned after reports that Ukraine anti-corruption investigators were scrutinizing millions in alleged payments there.”
Longtime adviser Roger Stone is a crackpot conspiracy theorist who asserts that Bill and Hillary Clinton are “plausibly responsible” for the deaths of roughly 40 people and that Hillary Clinton should be “executed for murder.” Confidant Roger Ailes recently stepped down from his job at Fox News under a cloud of sexual harassment claims. And Steve Bannon, Trump’s new campaign chief executive, is known for his bullying tactics and for running a website (Breitbart News) that flirts with white nationalism.
“There are a few exceptions to this pattern — Kellyanne Conway and Mike Pence come to mind — but Trump has hired and elevated some of the very worst people in American politics, known for their cruelty, radicalism, prejudice and corruption.
Here we are also getting a good feel for the candidate. Trump’s campaign has been a roiling, noxious, dysfunctional mess from the start, characterized by public feuds, subject to sudden leadership changes and unable to fulfill key functions (like actually having a campaign apparatus in key states). And Trump’s personnel selections have been both instructive and disastrous.
Trump, more than most, needs to surround himself with people who compensate for his alarming weaknesses. Instead, his choices demonstrate and amplify those weaknesses, becoming one more reason to utterly reject his leadership. 8/25/16 Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/star-of-the-show/2016/08/25/a539743e-6afd-11e6-8225-fbb8a6fc65bc_story.html
11. Eugene Robinson: Trump's Hot Air Balloon Is Ripping
I realize that most of Trump's ardent fans do not take kindly to being lectured by the likes of me. But it is with a certain degree of genuine sympathy that I say what has to be said: Your candidate is a flake. A fraud. A bag of air. A con man. A joke.
I understand the frustration that made the Republican base such fertile ground for the Trump phenomenon to flourish. The GOP leadership spent the entire Obama administration making promises it knew it could not keep -- on immigration, the economy, fighting terrorism, repealing Obamacare and so on. This was good short-term politics, especially in the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections, but many voters became disillusioned with politics and politicians. Enter Trump, a non-politician with zero scruples, who quickly identified which buttons to push -- and pushed them like crazy.
I also understand that for some voters, Hillary Clinton is basically, as Trump called her, "the devil." There are those who will vote for Trump just to keep his opponent from becoming president.
But no one, at this point, should cling to the illusion that a vote for Trump is a vote for any specific policy on any given issue. Having said all kinds of outrageous things to win the nomination, he is now trying -- clumsily -- to say more moderate things in an attempt not to get crushed in November. I wouldn't take his new, "humane" immigration stance any more seriously than his earlier draconian pronouncements.
In a sense, spokeswoman Pierson was right: Trump doesn't actually have positions. He only has words.
There is anger, bigotry and ignorance behind many of those words. But mostly, where substance ought to be found, there is just arrogance and ego. Trump thinks his supporters are suckers who will line up to buy deportation one day and amnesty the next. Some champion. 8/26/16 Read more at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/08/26/trumps_hot_air_balloon_is_ripping_131612.html
12. Matthew Goldenberg, a professional opinion: You don't need a psychiatrist to know there's something wrong with Donald Trump
Perhaps the most important reason to skip a psychiatric assessment of Trump is that it just isn't necessary. You don’t have to be a psychiatrist to know that there’s something seriously wrong with the candidate. The lessons I learned in preschool, kindergarten and elementary school — not in medical school, residency and years of psychiatric practice — are what tell me that Trump is unfit for the job. My core values as an American — not my professional training — are what make me concerned about a Trump presidency.
Trump should never be president, but not because he may or may not have a mental disorder. He shouldn't be president because he disparages women, denigrates Mexicans and Muslims and mocks the disabled. He shouldn't be president because he demonizes the media and impugns those who challenge him. He shouldn't be president because he insinuates that his rivals might be assassinated and advocates the commission of war crimes. He shouldn't be president because he rejects science and demonstrates a remarkable lack of knowledge or interest when it comes to foreign and domestic policy.
As a psychiatrist, I don’t have a public opinion on Trump. As a citizen, I certainly do .8/23/16 Read more at http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-goldenberg-trump-mental-health-20160823-snap-story.html
13. Melissa Jeltsen: Let’s Call The Conspiracy Theories About Hillary’s Health What They Are
If you listen to right-wing media and Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton is sick. Far too sick to be president.
She might be suffering from a language disorder called dysphasia, according to non-medical expert and Trump talking head Katrina Pierson. Or maybe it’s seizures ― at least Fox News host Sean Hannity thinks so. The Drudge Report is concerned about her coughing. Online sleuths note she’s been using an awful lot ofpillows. Rudy Giuliani thinks it’s “bizarre” that she had to pee during a debate, and urged the public to Google “Hillary Clinton illness” to learn the truth.
Trump, who’s never met a conspiracy theory he doesn’t like, has insinuated that Clinton isn’t well. He declared that Clinton lacks the“mental and physical stamina” to take on ISIS. He’s characterized heras “unstable,” “unbalanced” and “totally unhinged.”
“Honestly, I don’t think she’s all there,” Trump said.
Let’s get real: The wild conspiracy theories around Clinton’s health are a convenient way to mask misogyny inside “legitimate” medical concerns. Her critics can’t call her crazy, so instead they use stand-ins like “unbalanced” and lacking “mental stamina.”
Trump has a long history of gendered attacks on Clinton. He has said she doesn’t “look” presidential. He doesn’t like her voice. He even made a callous joke about someone shooting her.
Now, he’s arguing that she’s not physically or mentally up for the job. That’s sexism, plain and simple. 8/27/16 Read more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lets-call-the-conspiracy-theories-about-hillarys-health-what-they-are_us_57bf6cb1e4b085c1ff28af62
14. Edward-Isaac Dovere: Trump’s new aim: Poison a Clinton presidency
The Clinton de-legitimization project is now central to Donald Trump’s campaign and such a prime component of right-wing media that it’s already seeped beyond extremist chatrooms into ‘lock her up’ chants on the convention floor, national news stories debating whether polls actually can be rigged, and voters puzzling over that photo they think they saw of her needing to be carried up the stairs.
Leading Democrats in Washington and beyond recognize Trump’s tactic because they’ve seen it before. President Barack Obama and his allies spent eight years sandbagged by the birth certificate/Bill Ayers/his-middle-name’s-Hussein attacks that all boil down to the same thinking now threatening Clinton: He’s a fake; his presidency either doesn’t count or is a Moorish-style Trojan horse.
“We are already seeing an effort by the Trumpsters to undermine Hillary's presidency before it has even begun,” said longtime Clinton confidant Paul Begala. 8/29/16 Read more at http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/trump-clinton-poison-conspiracy-227485
15. Jonathan Allen: Clinton Met With Donors — So What?
lap the handcuffs on. Lock Hillary Clinton up without trial! Maybe, as one Donald Trump ally suggested, just summarily execute her for treason.
What’s the charge? She had … (cover the children’s ears) … meetings! And some of them — fewer than two a month — were with Clinton Foundation donors.
There are private meetings between donors and officeholders? Right here in #ThisTown city? Someone tell members of Congress! They’ll want to act immediately to ban — er, take advantage of — this egregious system of pay for play.
Oh wait, they already do. They all meet with donors. That’s how they get their money. But rather than having meetings with people who also make philanthropic contributions to major international charities, they tend to insist that donors show up at fundraising events so that a campaign check can be handed over person-to-person. Some have even been known to pass each other checks on the House floor or in a little computer closet called the “red room” adjacent to the House floor.
Trump gave the Clinton Foundation money and then later said that he got Bill and Hillary Clinton’s attendance at his wedding — his third wedding for those keeping track at home — in return. So, his money for a meeting with the Clintons. Does that make him guilty of bribery or them guilty of charging too little to endure that? http://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/meetings-right-thistown-city
16. Gabriel Schoenfeld: Hillary hatred is a reckless indulgence
To hear the Hillary haters tell it, the Democratic presidential nominee is suffering from a number of critical illnesses that render her unfit for office and which she is hiding from the public. Rudy Giuliani, now a leading Donald Trump surrogate, says the evidence for the various diagnoses is right there on the Internet.
Of course, leveling such an unfounded accusation is both reckless and nutty. Bush Derangement Syndrome was the name of the malady conservatives ascribed to those who heaped obloquy on our last Republican president. Now Hillary Derangement Syndrome has struck Giuliani and quite a few other Republicans hard.
This is by no means a new affliction. Ever since she entered public life as America’s first lady, a barrage of allegations, many fair but quite a few preposterous, have been hurled against President Clinton’s wife. Without any foundation, she is said to be implicated in the “murder” of her friend Vincent Foster, to have caused the fiasco inBenghazi, and to be covertly promoting the Muslim Brotherhood. Trump has gone so far as to call her “the devil,” to which his supporters responded with thunderous applause. For those of us not subsumed by Hillary hatred, the level of anger is a mystery?
Her haters regard her as a traitor and a witch.
The trouble is, she is neither. She is an imperfect candidate running against a reckless, impulsive, ignorant, immature man who cannot be trusted with a Twitter account, let alone nuclear weapons. Hatred is a poison that both induces irrationality and springs from it. Hating Clinton and regarding her and Trump as equivalent evils is a profound mistake. http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/08/26/hillary-scandals-emails-benghazi-liar-white-men-trump-sexism-gabriel-schoenfeld/89344536/
17. Jennifer Rubin: Does it matter if Trump really is crazy?
For months now, ordinary people, politicians and pundits have speculated in public and private: Is there, you know, something wrong with Donald Trump? Laymen would say he is “nuts” or “crazy,” while a mental health professional might say “suffering from a personality disorder.”
However, it does not matter. We don’t care, and it should not matter, if Trump has “narcissistic personality disorder” or is just a self-centered jerk. Whether he is ill or evil, afflicted or just obnoxious, ailing or inhumane, the result is the same. At age 70, he is not about to “seek help” or change his behavior. He may be unable to change his behavior; he certainly is unwilling to. Whatever the origins of his behavior, the results — millions of Americans are concluding — make him unfit to serve.
It might be reassuring in some sense to find out that Trump is ill. The reality is that it’s just as likely that he’s an obnoxious, entitled ignoramus. Either way, he shouldn’t get anywhere near the Oval Office. 8/29/16 Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/08/29/does-it-matter-if-trump-really-is-crazy/
