ON THE RECORD ....
“In terms of media coverage, you have to run within the Democratic Party. ... To run as an independent, you need — you could be a billionaire. If you're a billionaire, you can do that. I'm not a billionaire. So the structure of American politics today is such that I thought the right ethic was to run within the Democratic Party.” -- Bernie Sanders explaining why he is running as a Democrat. 3/14/16
“So what to do now? The Republicans’ creation will soon be let loose on the land, leaving to others the job the party failed to carry out. For this former Republican, and perhaps for others, the only choice will be to vote for Hillary Clinton. The party cannot be saved, but the country still can be. -- Robert Kagan, a neoconservative intellectual on the increasing likelihood that Donald Trump will be the Republican Party’s nominee, 3/15/16
“They’re despicable, they are absolutely dishonorable, and absolutely betraying their party and the votes of every American who have voted for Trump.” -- Fox Business Network anchor Lou Dobbs, calling Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan a “twosome from hell” who are selling out their party.
"These are people that punch. People that are violent people. The particular one where I said 'I'd like to bang him,' that was a very vicious – a guy who was swinging, very loud, and then started swinging at the audience. You know what? The audience swung back. And I thought it was very, very appropriate. He was swinging. He was hitting people. And the audience hit back. And that's what we need a little bit more of."-- Donald Trump 3/11/16
"Next time, we might have to kill him." -- 78-year-old John McGraw, a Trump supporter, who sucker punched a protester as security was escorting him from a Trump rally in North Carolina. 3/10/16
“The fracas about Clinton as a million-dollar speaker is merely name-calling, ad hominem attacks, and political maneuvering masquerading as legitimate criticism.” -- Bruce Weinstein, a corporate speaker on ethics. 1/23/16
“We can’t fetishize our phones above every other value. The dangers are real. This notion that sometimes our data is different and can be walled off from these other trade-offs is incorrect.” —President Obama, backing the FBI’s efforts to force Apple to unlock an iPhone used by the San Bernardino terrorists.
“[Trump is] a distillation of what has been going on in their party for more than a decade! This is the message that’s been fed—that you just deny the evidence of science. That compromise is a betrayal. That the other side isn’t simply wrong—we disagree—the other side is destroying the country! Or treasonous! Look it up, that’s what they’ve been saying. So they can’t be surprised when somebody says, ‘I can make up stuff better than that.’” -- President Obama, during a closed-door fundraiser during South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
“Part of the problem and part of the reason it takes so long [to kick them out] is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore, There used to be consequences. There are none anymore. These people are so bad for our country. You have no idea folks, you have no idea. These people are so bad for our country, folks. You have no idea," Trump continued during a longer break in the action. "They contribute nothing. Nothing. And look at the police, they take their lives in their hands. We don't even win here, with protesters anymore. The protesters end up taking over. And frankly, I mean, have to be honest: From my standpoint it makes it a little more exciting, and it gives me time to think about where I want to go next. It's beautiful. It's like intermission. And the guys that are near the event, they see some pretty good stuff. And these people in the media, the most dishonest human beings on Earth. They are the worst. They are the worst. So what they’ll do is they’ll take 10 minutes worth of clips of that and if one policeman accidentally moves a finger and touches this wiseguy, it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen.’ And yet the police are being abused for 10 minutes, OK? Give me a break. Give me a break. We better toughen up, we better smarten up, and we better stop with this political correctness because it’s driving us down the tubes.” -- Trump at the Peabody Opera House — around 12 miles from Ferguson, Mo., the site of racially charged mass protests in 2014.
"Has anybody bought that wine? I want to know what that wine tastes like. I mean, come on. You know that's like some $5 wine. They slap a label on it. They charge you $50 and say it's the greatest wine ever. Come on. Oh, boy. Selling wine. That's not what we're for. Couldn't make it up." -- Barack Obama on Donald Trump's wine. 3/12/16
Sen. Ted Cruz is actually far more dangerous as a presidential candidate than the bigoted billionaire. Ted Cruz is just about everything that’s bad about Trump – plus he’s a religious fanatic.” -- Allen Clifton 3/14/16
Fox News & Cruz are American traitors, in league with the liberal establishment. Silent majority must face fire from a unified oligarchy. -- Ann Coulter@AnnCoulter
"We cannot ignore the fact that the populist sensation of this election hasn’t been Bernie Sanders. It’s been a racist, nationalist demagogue-for-hire with no sincere ideology beyond his own vanity. Mr. Trump is a cipher; his voters love him because he does nothing but hold up a mirror to their basest prejudices and bask in the feedback loop of narcissism. They’re not “afraid”; they’re leading Mr. Trump as much as following him. They called him into being, not the other way around." -- Lindy West 3/11/16
Hillary Clinton wins big yet all these male pundits can talk about is her voice
Hillary shouting her speech. She has the floor; a more conversational tone might be better for connecting with folks at home -- HowardKurtz ✔@HowardKurtz
Hillary having a big night in the primaries. So she's shouting angrily in her victory speech. Supporters loving it. What's she mad at? -- Brit Hume ✔@brithume
Smile. You just had a big night. #PrimaryDay -- Joe Scarborough ✔@JoeNBC
“I think we’ll win before getting to the convention, but I can tell you, if we didn’t and if we’re 20 votes short or if we’re 100 short and we’re at 1,100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400, because we’re way ahead of everybody, I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically. I think it would be — I think you’d have riots. I think you’d have riots. I’m representing a tremendous, many, many millions of people.” -- Donald Trump 3/16/16
“I’m speaking with myself. I have a very good brain.” — Donald Trump, when asked on Morning Joe who he is consulting with on foreign policy.
IN THIS ISSUE
1. "The Daily Show" w/Trevor Noah: Donald Trump’s blue collar disdain.
2. GunFAIL CLXXV
3. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Trump, Pile Of Meat 2016
4. The DAILY GRILL
5. Obama's Approval Rating Hits Almost Three-Year High
6. From MEDIA MATTERS (They watch Fox News so you don't have to)
7. SNL Cold Open: Carson endorsement/Sander’s interview
8. The Daily Show: Trump is lying about his meat
9. SNL: A message from Hillary Clinton
10. The Geography of Trumpism
11. Obamacare's latest 'failure:' $1 trillion saved for Medicare
12. Late Night Jokes for Dems
13. Trump’s Week of Errors, Exaggerations and Flat-out Falsehoods
14. RNC Launches Campaign to Oppose Obama's Supreme Court Pick
15. The Borowitz Report: Sanders Sends Vegan Thugs to Attack Peace-Loving Nazis
16. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee: Cruz 101
17. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Trump Only Knows What's On The Internet
18. A cartoon by MarkFiore: Trump’s High Steaks
1. James Surowiecki: The Campaign of Magical Thinking
2. Kathleen Parker: Are you starting to soften on Donald Trump? Don’t
3. Paul Krugman: Trade and Tribulation
4. Jackie Kucinich: Bernie Sanders’s Conservative Fanboys
5. Alex Kaplan: From The Right-Wing Echo Chamber To The Democratic Debate: Clinton Email Edition
6. Peter Daou; The Brutal Assault on Hillary’s Integrity Is The Gender Barrier Manifested
7. Sally Kohn: America, wake up to the Trump menace
8. Paul Krugman: Trump Is No Accident
9. John Cassidy: Hillary Clinton Versus Donald Trump: The Battle Ahead
10. Dean Obeidallah: No, Trump, Islam Doesn’t Hate America
| FYI |
1. "The Daily Show" w/Trevor Noah: Donald Trump’s blue collar disdain.
2. GunFAIL CLXXV
37 guns were discovered by TSA agents at airports around the country, during the week of January 1-7, 2016.
Also among the count for the week: 12 accidental fatalities, 11 kids accidentally shot, five rounds accidentally fired into neighbors’ homes and properties, three guns accidentally fired while being cleaned, two hunting accidents, two people accidentally shot with guns brought to work, and two accidental discharges by law enforcement officers (one during firearms training). Amazingly, that’s not a terrible week!
Where there are guns, there’s GunFAIL. Read more at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/23/1465848/-What-do-you-have-to-do-to-get-booked-in-this-town-Fire-a-gun-in-the-public-library-GunFAIL-CLXXV
3. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Trump, Pile Of Meat 2016
4. The DAILY GRILL
President Obama “could easily name Merrick Garland, who is a fine man” to the Supreme Court. He probably won’t do that because this appointment is about the election. So I’m pretty sure he’ll name someone the liberal Democratic base wants.” -- Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
VERSUS
Settling for a centrist candidate with decades of judicial experience, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland, a federal appeals judge in Washington, D.C., to the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. -- The Huffington Post. 3/16/15
5. Obama's Approval Rating Hits Almost Three-Year High
Fifty percent of Americans approve of Obama's performance as the country's chief executive, the highest level since May 2013. This is an uptick from his average approval rating during his seventh year in office, which was 46 percent, according to Gallup.
Gallup also pointed out how polarizing Obama remains: 87 percent of Democrats approve of his performance compared to 11 percent of Republicans.
Gallup said Obama's performance rating was lower than Bill Clinton's but higher than predecessor George W. Bush. Obama's rating is similar to that of Ronald Reagan at the same time in his second term. (Reagan's approval in March 1988 was 51 percent.) 3/10/16 Read more at http://talkingpointsmemo.com/polltracker/barack-obama-job-approval-rating-three-year-high
6. From MEDIA MATTERS (They watch Fox News so you don't have to)
"Beanochimp": After Anti-Semitism Controversy, NRA's Ted Nugent Turns To Hispanics http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/03/10/beanochimp-after-anti-semitism-controversy-nras/209143
Right-wing media mocked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Obama prior to and during Trudeau's historic visit to Washington, D.C., calling the event a "first date" and dismissing Trudeau as "the Obama of the North," a "fanboy," and "not the smartest guy in the world." http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/03/10/right-wing-media-mock-canadian-prime-minister-t/209142
Watch President Obama Call Out Conservative Media For Helping Create "An Environment Where Somebody Like A Donald Trump Can Thrive" http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/03/10/president-obama-calls-out-conservative-media-fo/209139
Knights Of The Ku Klux Klan Leader Praises Trump For "Saying Things That Many, Many People" Agree With" http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/03/10/knights-of-the-ku-klux-klan-leader-praises-trum/209137
Media Claim GOP Debate Was "Substantive," Ignore That "The Substance Was Wrong" http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/03/11/media-claim-gop-debate-was-substantive-ignore-t/209186
On CNN, Nina Turner Says GOP's "Chickens Are Coming Home To Roost" With Rise Of Trump "It Is Ironic To Me That Some Of The Same Republicans Right Now, Some Of Them Who Are Calling Out Mr. Trump, Did Not Call Him Out When He Pushed The Birther Movement" http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/03/13/on-cnn-nina-turner-says-gops-chickens-are-comin/209214
Fox's Sean Hannity: "I Don't See Any Violence At Trump Rallies" http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/03/11/foxs-sean-hannity-i-dont-see-any-violence-at-tr/209208
Right-Wing Media Help Rehab Donald Trump As The "Victim" Of Violence At His Events http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/03/14/right-wing-media-help-rehab-donald-trump-as-the/209230
Trump Agrees With Ann Coulter That Fox News And Ted Cruz Are "American Traitors" http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/03/14/trump-agrees-with-ann-coulter-that-fox-news-and/209229
Fox Analyst Calls Trump Rally Protester A "Would-Be Terroris" http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/03/14/fox-analyst-calls-trump-rally-protester-a-would/209225
7. SNL Cold Open: Carson endorsement/Sander’s interview
8. The Daily Show: Trump is lying about his meat
9. SNL: A message from Hillary Clinton
10. The Geography of Trumpism
Mr. Trump has his share of support from the affluent and the well educated, but in the places where support for Mr. Trump runs the strongest, the proportion of the white population that didn’t finish high school is relatively high. So is the proportion of working-age adults who neither have a job nor are looking for one. The third-strongest correlation among hundreds of variables tested: the preponderance of mobile homes.
The high proportion of whites without a high school diploma in these places — the single strongest predictor of Trump support of those we tested — has lasting consequences for incomes, for example. The education pay gap starts small when people are early in their career before widening over the decades of their working lives. College graduates are less likely to become unemployed and more likely to find a new job quickly if they do, and they are comparatively few in Trump-land.
One of the strongest predictors of Trump support is the proportion of the population that is native-born. Relatively few people in the places where Trump is strong are immigrants — and, as their answers on their ancestry reveal, they very much wear Americanness on their sleeve. 3/12/16 Read more at http://nyti.ms/1XkBO7h
11. Obamacare's latest 'failure:' $1 trillion saved for Medicare
That horribly failed program, Obamacare, has done it again. In the next five years or so, it's going to save the federal government more than $1 trillion on Medicare over what the Congressional Budget Office projected when the law was enacted. The Commonwealth Fund highlights those savings, along with some other significant achievements of the law in one of its series of reports on Medicare at 50.
One trillion dollars is a lot of money, and while it can't all be attributed to Obamacare (the recession was a factor, too) the law is saving money and more importantly, saving lives. The reforms the law is making to Medicare, Commonwealth says, "have the potential to reshape not just the Medicare program but the entire U.S. health care system."
So, yeah, Obamacare has been a total disaster and has to be repealed. That's the message Republicans are going to run on—again!—in 2016, no matter what the facts say. Whether you agree with Hillary Clinton that Obamacare needs to be maintained and built upon, or prefer Bernie Sanders’ proposal to transition away from it to a single payer system, it’s clear that a Republican White House would be a disaster for American health care. http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/12/1498741/-Obamacare-s-latest-failure-1-trillion-saved-for-Medicare
12. Late Night Jokes for Dems
"Despite Donald Trump's tough stance on immigration, Trump Modeling Agency is being accused of hiring lower-paid foreign models. In his defense, Trump says those aren't laborers, those are 'future wives.'" – Conan O'Brien
"A reporter claims she was pushed down by one of Donald Trump's campaign advisers. Isn't that crazy? Donald Trump has a campaign adviser." - Conan O'Brien
"When Hillary Clinton debated Bernie Sanders in Miami and what got most people's attention, weirdly, was the color of Bernie Sanders' suit. Some people online said it looked brown. Some people said it looked blue. A few lunatics said eggplant. Clearly, the suit is brown. I mean, that suit is so brown, Donald Trump wants to have it deported." – Jimmy Kimmel
""As a country we could stop focusing on things like the color of Bernie Sanders' suit and start focusing on the fact that he was able to successfully dress himself." – Jimmy Kimmel
"At his press conference last night, Donald Trump had a display of Trump Steaks even though Trump Steaks went out of business nine years ago. When they heard that nine-year-old meat was for sale, Arby's said, 'We'll take those.'" – Conan O'Brien
"In Florida, a drunk half-naked woman crashed her car into a Waffle House. Just a reminder, once again Florida will likely determine who our next president is." – Conan O'Brien
"In the last Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton said that several times a day, she speaks to God. But never for under $100,000." – Conan O'Brien
"Caitlyn Jenner told an interviewer that Hillary Clinton 'only thinks of herself.' Jenner said this while promoting the new season of her reality show 'I Am Cait.'" – Conan O'Brien
"Colin Powell said recently that the Republican candidates are playing 'junior high school tricks on one another.' Powell then excused himself to take a call from someone looking for Dick Hertz." –Conan O'Brien
13. Trump’s Week of Errors, Exaggerations and Flat-out Falsehoods
Donald Trump says he is a truthful man. “Maybe truthful to a fault.” But truthful he is not!
For his more than five dozen statements deemed mischaracterizations, exaggerations, or simply false see http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/03/trump-fact-check-errors-exaggerations-falsehoods-213730
14. RNC Launches Campaign to Oppose Obama's Supreme Court Pick
A task force housed within the Republican National Committee will orchestrate attack ads, petitions and media outreach to bolster a strategy that Senate Republicans adopted as soon as Justice Antonin Scalia died last month: refusing to consider an Obama nominee out of hopes that the next president will be a Republican.
The RNC will contract with America Rising Squared, an outside group targeting Democrats that's run by a longtime aide to GOP Sen. John McCain. GOP chairman Reince Priebus said it would be the most comprehensive judicial response effort in the party's history. 3/14/16 Read more at http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/rnc-launches-campaign-oppose-obamas-supreme-court-pick-37626632
15. The Borowitz Report: Sanders Sends Vegan Thugs to Attack Peace-Loving Nazis
Republican front-runner Donald Trump was crying foul on Monday after Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders allegedly dispatched an army of vegan thugs to attack a rally of peace-loving Nazis in Cincinnati.
Carol Foyler, a Nazi from suburban Cincinnati, said that she feared for her life when one of the vegans “ripped a Trump sign” from her hands and “tried to recycle it.”
Harland Dorrinson, a Kentucky Nazi who drove to Ohio to hear Trump speak, said he would never have attended the rally if he had known “there would be troublemaking vegans there.”
“One of them tried to swing an NPR tote bag at my head,” the terrified Nazi said. http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/
16. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee: Cruz 101
17. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Trump Only Knows What's On The Internet
18. A cartoon by MarkFiore: Trump’s High Steaks
https://vimeo.com/fiorecartoons/trumps
| OPINION |
1. James Surowiecki: The Campaign of Magical Thinking
Voters have also been led to believe that tax cuts unleash such a tidal wave of growth that they pay for themselves. This supply-side dogma holds that, because tax cuts encourage people to work more and invest more (which is true), they can increase tax revenues relative to holding rates steady (which is not true). The empirical evidence is by now unequivocal that, with tax rates at U.S. levels, this doesn’t work; cutting tax rates simply leads to lower tax revenues, which is why, in the wake of the Reagan tax cuts, tax revenues as a share of G.D.P. fell. Yet for thirty-five years, through the Contract with America and the Bush Administration’s $1.6-trillion tax cut, the message has remained essentially the same: lower taxes, higher tax revenues. This message has been fact-checked and refuted over and over again, but, once something becomes an article of political faith, it’s difficult to dislodge. Indeed, Nyhan and the political scientist Jason Reifler carried out a study demonstrating that attempts to set the record straight can even reinforce misperceptions: self-described conservatives were shown evidence that the Bush tax cuts had lowered over-all revenues, but, Nyhan told me, “the information actually made them more likely to believe that the tax cuts had increased revenue.”
Voters didn’t come up with these misperceptions on their own. “The ideas spread because politicians and pundits told people they were true,” Nyhan says. “And once misperceptions are out there they’re very difficult to overcome.” In proffering a tax plan that seems self-evidently absurd, Trump is merely building on the foundation that Republican predecessors laid down and, as is his wont, pushing their ideas further than anyone thought they could go. In Trump, the Republican establishment has met its enemy: itself. 3/21/16 Read more at http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/21/the-g-o-p-s-economic-delusion
2. Kathleen Parker: Are you starting to soften on Donald Trump? Don’t
As Donald Trump continues to surge forward as the most-likely Republican nominee, perfectly sane people are beginning to wonder: “Was there something we missed? Maybe he’s not really so bad.”
Shed that self-doubt and purge the thought. You’re not wrong — and he’s that bad. Just ask the Breitbart reporter who was roughed up at a recent Trump rally. And she’s one of the “good” people. Imagine what happens to his critics once a Trump presidency takes shape.
Nothing makes Trump more acceptable today than yesterday or last week — or six months ago. He is still a boastful, volatile, misogynistic, race-baiting, willfully and strategically ignorant, exploitative fear-monger who is guided by profit over principle and whose hair-trigger temperament has the world on edge.
The only real strength of Trump’s candidacy has been to expose and shame the cowards and opportunists among us. Remember them. 3/11/16 Read more at http://wpo.st/upCL1
3. Paul Krugman: Trade and Tribulation
What the models of international trade used by real experts say is that, in general, agreements that lead to more trade neither create nor destroy jobs; that they usually make countries more efficient and richer, but that the numbers aren’t huge; and that they can easily produce losers as well as winners. In principle the overall gains mean that the winners could compensate the losers, so that everyone gains. In practice, especially given the scorched-earth obstructionism of the G.O.P., that’s not going to happen.
Why, then, did we ever pursue these agreements? A large part of the answer is foreign policy: Global trade agreements from the 1940s to the 1980s were used to bind democratic nations together during the Cold War, Nafta was used to reward and encourage Mexican reformers, and so on.
And anyone ragging on about those past deals, like Mr. Trump or Mr. Sanders, should be asked what, exactly, he proposes doing now. Are they saying that we should rip up America’s international agreements? Have they thought about what that would do to our credibility and standing in the world?
The larger point in this election season is, however, that politicians should be honest and realistic about trade, rather than taking cheap shots. Striking poses is easy; figuring out what we can and should do is a lot harder. But you know, that’s a would-be president’s job. 3/11/16 Read more at http://nyti.ms/1Xhp5Cn
4. Jackie Kucinich: Bernie Sanders’s Conservative Fanboys
No, Karl Rove’s super PAC and other conservative groups haven’t suddenly embraced a $15 minimum wage. But they’re running ads that help him in an effort to weaken Hillary Clinton.
Did Republicans take a break from their own hot mess of a presidential race to boost Bernie Sanders’s White House dreams?
Well, no.
American Crossroads—founded by former Bush adviser Karl Rove—and several other conservative-backed super PACs have spent the last month intentionally fueling the Bern, but their zeal has more to do with an effort to weaken Hillary Clinton, whom they still see as the likely Democratic nominee and harder to defeat in the general election.
Crossroads is one of several groups that has released ads that have been aimed at branding Sanders as the only true progressive in the race—a strategy the Vermont senator’s campaign also embraces.
“If it helps push the needle so that she loses a state, and she comes out a weakened candidate, then fantastic,” said Ian Prior, communications director for Crossroads. 02.22.16 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/23/bernie-sanders-s-conservative-fanboys.html
5. Alex Kaplan: From The Right-Wing Echo Chamber To The Democratic Debate: Clinton Email Edition
On March 9, the right-wing media talking points over Clinton's emails were amplified in an unexpected place -- Univision's Democratic presidential primary debate. Moderator Ramos repeated a dishonest claim made by Republicans -- that Clinton's emails have "endangered our national security" -- and asked Clinton "would you drop out of the race if you get indicted?"
Subsequently, morning shows highlighted Ramos' indictment question, airing footage of it on MSNBC'sMorning Joe, CNN's New Day, NBC's Today, ABC's Good Morning America, and CBS' CBS This Morning. While all of the shows aired the question, most failed to note that it was based on a spurious, worst-case-scenario premise, thus amplifying the right-wing media talking point outside of its usual echo chamber and lending it an air of credibility.
That was not the only conservative media-fueled talking point to make it into the debate. Ramos also asked Clinton whether she lied to the families of victims of the 2012 Benghazi attacks when she "sent an email to [her] daughter Chelsea saying that Al Qaeda was responsible for" the attacks. The baseless charge, which originated from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) during Clinton's October Benghazi committee testimony, was repeatedly pushed by Fox News as a "smoking gun." However, previous congressional reports and investigations noted early intelligence on the attacks was conflicting and that Clinton's email was consistent with intelligence at that time. Read more at http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/03/10/from-the-right-wing-echo-chamber-to-the-democra/209141
6. Peter Daou; The Brutal Assault on Hillary’s Integrity Is The Gender Barrier Manifested
227 years. That’s how long the shutout of women has lasted at the pinnacle of American politics. Along comes Hillary Clinton, one of the most admired and accomplished women in the world, to run for president, and what happens? She is smeared, lied about, assailed, impugned, her character is savaged, her honesty maligned, her very humanity questioned.
She is vilified as a witch, a bitch, shrill, loud, robotic, cold, monstrous, evil, a murderer.
Hordes of online trolls swarm her supporters and surrogates, spewing filthy, misogynistic insults.
She is attacked by Republicans, by the media, by thecommentariat, and by her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, who does this (according to Mother Jones):
“Hey, I’m not saying she’s a crook. I’m just saying she drives a pretty nice car, amirite?” I’d say that Sanders is very much questioning the integrity of Clinton herself, and doing it in a pretty familiar way.
I’ve got a daughter to raise and I couldn’t live with myself if I stood by in silence as Hillary Clinton faced a vicious and vitriolic onslaught without an iota of hard evidence to support the attacks against her.
It is unjust and unfair. But it is par for the course in a world where women are still oppressed. 3/09/16 Read more at http://bluenationreview.com/brutal-assault-on-hillarys-integrity/
7. Sally Kohn: America, wake up to the Trump menace
In the past few days, too many decent Americans have told me they're not worried about the election because Donald Trump can't win. Well let me tell you, anything can happen in an election. But the surefire way for Trump or Cruz to become president is for those of us who oppose them to assume they won't and, through our passivity let it happen.
It's time to wake up, America. It's time to scream from the rooftops. It's time to shine a giant light on social change and progress and defend it with every fiber of our beings. And I don't just mean complaining about Trump to your friends at parties or posting a hashtag on social media. I mean using your mind, body and voice to stand in the way of injustice and stand up for fairness and equality.
How do you do that? By refusing to stereotype Muslims and objecting when others do so around you. By defending not what is derided as political correctness but doing what's correct -- the simple idea of treating everyone respectfully. By being a witness to and even taking the risk to intervene in police harassment and brutality against minorities. By standing up for the idea that in America, we all do better when we all do better.
Even if 63% of Germans didn't vote for Hitler that first time around, many went along willingly eventually. And many no doubt wanted to object, to fight back, but by then it was too late.
It's not too late to save America from the dark and cancerous hatred surging in the veins of these angry voters and their figureheads. It is not too late to protect our principles and preserve the progress we've made and keep fighting for more.
History teaches us not to be complacent. And my friend taught me that even in the very darkest of moments, light persists. There can be no darkness without light. There can be no America without the good people who preserve its ideals, no matter how imperfectly realized, who fight to keep making our country better instead of letting us descend into division and hate.
It's time to wake up. And stand up. And do something. All hands on deck. This is not a drill. The future of our union is at stake. 3/09/16 Read more at http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/09/opinions/trump-and-hitler-kohn/index.html
8. Paul Krugman: Trump Is No Accident
Establishment Republicans who are horrified by the rise of Donald Trump might want to take a minute to remember the glitch heard round the world — the talking point Marco Rubio couldn’t stop repeating in a crucial debate, exposing him to devastating ridicule and sending his campaign into a death spiral.
It went like this: “Let’s dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing.” The clear, if ungrammatical, implication was that all the bad things Republicans claim have happened under President Obama — in particular, America’s allegedly reduced stature in the world — are the result of a deliberate effort to weaken the nation.
In other words, the establishment favorite for the G.O.P. nomination, the man Time magazine once put on its cover with the headline “The Republican Savior,” was deliberately channeling the paranoid style in American politics. He was suggesting, albeit coyly, that a sitting president is a traitor.
And now the establishment is shocked to see a candidate who basically plays the same game, but without the coyness, the overwhelming front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Why?
Donald Trump is not an accident. His party had it coming. 3/14/16 Read more at http://nyti.ms/1M1CFsT
9. John Cassidy: Hillary Clinton Versus Donald Trump: The Battle Ahead
At about eight-thirty last night, after the news came in that Donald Trump had trounced Marco Rubio in Florida, and that Hillary Clinton had won big victories over Bernie Sanders in Florida and North Carolina, Tony Fratto, who was a White House spokesman for George W. Bush’s Administration, tweeted, “What essentially happened today is @HillaryClinton was elected president. We have 8 months of hyperventilating before its official.”
Since overstatement is the norm on Twitter, this divination perhaps didn’t merit much attention, taken on its own. But it reflected a growing belief among Republicans in Washington that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are unstoppable and that, come November, this will spell disaster for the Grand Old Party. By the end of the night on this Ides of March, the third successive primary Tuesday, the gloom in the Republican establishment had deepened further, as both Clinton and Trump had taken huge steps toward securing their respective parties’ nominations.
Despite the machinations of the Never Trump movement, the answer, surely, is that the anti-Trump Republicans can’t deny Trump—not forever. It is still theoretically possible for Republican voters in the remaining states to unite behind Cruz or Kasich (who, in an interview with CNN, described himself as “the little engine who could”), but the more likely outcome is that Trump gets the nomination and the Weekly Standard/National Review crowd, who oppose him, persuade a more orthodox conservative to run on a third-party ticket. But, even in that case, Trump would be the official Republican Party candidate.
Should Trump be confirmed as the G.O.P. Presidential nominee, we can expect more lies, more deceit, and more viciousness. Unless something very unexpected happens, it will be up to Hillary Clinton to keep him out of the White House. 3/16/16 Read more at http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/hillary-clinton-versus-donald-trump-the-battle-ahead
10. Dean Obeidallah: No, Trump, Islam Doesn’t Hate America
Donald Trump took his anti-Muslim jihad to a new, bone-chilling level on Wednesday night. That’s when he declared to CNN’s Anderson Cooper that “Islam hates us.” Trump is wrong, but let me blunt. I hate Trump. Not because he demonizes Muslims, but because he’s a threat to our nation’s soul.
If Trump truly thinks “Islam hates us,” then he should tell that to the families of Muslim Americans who have died for our country. I doubt Trump has the balls to tell the family of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who received the Purple Heart and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery after being killed in Iraq in 2004. And let’s see Trump tell that to the family of Corp. Kareem Khan, who also received the Purple Heart and is buried in Arlington after giving his life in 2007 in defense of our nation.
Does Trump even have the courage to tell the Muslims who have volunteered to serve our nation, including my cousin who served in the U.S. Marines, that they hate America? In fact, almost 6,000 Muslims are currently serving in our armed forces fighting to ensure that all Americans—not just ones of certain faiths—have the same rights.
Will Trump tell the Muslims serving in our Congress, Keith Ellison and Andre Carson, that they hate America? Will he say that to the thousands of Muslims serving as police officers, paramedics, judges, schoolteachers, and others in professions designed to help the people of our nation?
No, Islam doesn’t hate America. But Trump clearly hates American values 3/10/16 Read more at http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/10/no-trump-islam-doesn-t-hate-america.html