ON THE RECORD. . .
“Donald Trump is doing to the national GOP brand in 2016 what Proposition 187 did to California Republicans in 1994. He continues to inflict lasting, perhaps irreparable, damage to the party’s image among Hispanics. It is not hyperbole to say that Trumpism could relegate the party of Abraham Lincoln to long-term minority status.” -- James Hohmann, 6/02/16
“I’ve never been too good at math but I can figure that one out. I think he better do a little mathing. I don’t know what that’s going to prove. Sometimes you just have to give up. I’ve lost before. The numbers aren’t there.” -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Bernie Sanders' plan to campaign through the Democratic convention. 6/02/16
“Donald Trump’s ideas aren’t just different — they are dangerously incoherent. They’re not really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies.” -- Hillary Clinton 6/02/16
“The insults to the Mexican community, the Latino community, the Muslim community, and women, and African-Americans and veterans. I understand the anger. But we are not going to defeat Trump by throwing eggs or getting involved in violence of any kind. We defeat Trump when we stand together as one people and fight for a progressive agenda. Educate. Organize. Bring out large numbers of people." -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) 6/04/16
“Look at my African-American over here. Are you the greatest? You know what I’m talking about? Okay. ”-- Donald Trump interrupting a tirade against the protesters to call out a black supporter in the crowd. 6/03/16
"Like everyone else on the planet, Michelle and I mourn his passing. But we’re also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest chose to grace our time." -- Barack and Michelle Obama's statement on the death of boxing great Muhammad Ali, 6/03/16
“Donald Trump is not mentally fit to serve as president. ... Everything he thinks, he says. That’s not candor, that’s lunacy. ... [Republicans] are going to have to own every crazy word, every lunatic tweet, every racist statement out of this guy’s mouth for the next five months. They should be running for the hills.” -- Watch GOP strategist Rick Wilson in an interview with Chris Hayes HERE.
“Hillary Clinton is going to be the nominee of the Democratic Party. She is the only thing standing between us and President Trump. That should be enough motivation for all of us to put our differences behind us and focus on helping her win.” -- Jay Carson, Hillary’s 2008 press secretary. 6/06/16
"This is one of the worst mistakes Trump has made, and I think it's inexcusable. This judge was born in Indiana. He is an American, period. When you come to America, you get to become an American." --Newt Gingrich comparing Trump's attack on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel to a liberal attacking Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on the grounds that he's black. 6/06/16
“I cannot. I will not presume to speak on behalf of every American of Mexican descent, for every undocumented worker born in Mexico who is contributing to our country every day or, for that matter, every decent citizen in Mexico. But, I am sure that many of these individuals would agree with me when I say: “Mr. Trump, you’re a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your ass.” -- Rep. Filemon Vela (D-TX) in an open letter to Donald Trump
“I will not stand silent if the party of Lincoln and the end of slavery buckles under the racial bias of a bigot.” -- Sen. David Johnson (R-IO) suspending his Republican Party membership to protest “the racist remarks and judicial jihad” by presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
"I think it's very un-American for a political leader to question whether a person can judge based on his heritage. If he continues this line of attack then I think people really need to reconsider the future of the party. This is the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy. If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it. There'll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary" Clinton.” -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)6/07/16
“If delegates didn't exist, and the popular vote alone counted, Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee. If superdelegates didn't exist, and only pledged delegates determined the outcome, Clinton would be the Democratic nominee. If only superdelegates mattered, and party insiders alone chose the presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee.” -- ABC’s Rick Klein
“Hey Donald, guess what, I'm not going to support you until you get your act together. You are acting like a bush league loser, you’re acting like a racist, and you’re acting like a bigot. This is called art of the deal. I'm taking my deal off the table, Donald, until you come back to the table and get on the other side of the table and prove you are not a bigot and and prove you’re not going to take my party down in the ditch, you don't have my endorsement and you can't use Hillary Clinton as a gun against my head. I'm not scared of you and I'm not scared of the base because they are just as pissed off as me. It’s called art of the deal, it’s what Donald Trump has been preaching all his life. Don't use Hillary Clinton as an excuse as your blank check to say racist things about people born in Indiana. No, Donald! You don’t get to play it that way.” -- MSNBC host Joe Scarborough 6/08/16
IN THIS ISSUE
1. Trump Literally Said All Those Things
2. The DAILY GRILL
3. GunFAIL CLXXXIV
4. Why ‘Missing’ White Voters Won’t Help Trump
5. The Easiest Way to Identify a Trump Supporter
6. From MEDIA MATTERS (They watch Fox News so you don't have to)
7. Late Night Jokes for Dems
8. From the Late Shows
9. Ohio Purges Non-Voters from the Rolls
10. The 224 People, Places and Things Donald Trump Has Insulted on Twitter: A Complete List
11. Trump’s Attacks on Judges Worry Legal Experts
12. Former Trump University Workers Call the School a ‘Lie’ and a ‘Scheme’ in Testimony
13. Hillary Clinton schools Donald Trump on foreign policy
14. The Borowitz Report: Trump: Mexicans Swarming Across Border, Enrolling in Law School, and Becoming Biased Judges
15. Mark Fiore cartoon: Trump News Tonight!
16. Ads
1. Eleanor Clift: Hillary Clinton Shatters America’s 240-Year-Old Glass Ceiling
2. Mark Green: Don't panic, Democrats, Hillary Clinton will beat Donald Trump
3. Froma Harrop: A Trump Presidency Would Sink All Boats
4. Paul Krugman: The Id That Ate the Planet
5. Jonathan Chait: The Good News Is That Donald Trump’s Campaign Is an Absolute Strategic and Managerial Garbage Fire
6. Chris Cillizza: The ‘new Trump’ is a no-show
7. David Frum: The Broken Guardrails of Democracy
8. Sam Kleiner: With His Finger on the Trigger
9. NY Times Editorial: The Benghazi Committee’s Dead End
10. Peter Beinart: Hillary Clinton's Remarkable Comeback
11. LA Times Editorial: Bernie Sanders supporters have to face the facts: Hillary Clinton has won
| FYI |
1. Trump Literally Said All Those Things
Hillary Clinton just delivered a major national security address in which, among other things, she took aim at a wide-ranging catalogue of dangerous comments that Donald Trump has made. Some of the comments she referenced are so ignorant, incoherent or outrageous, it could be hard to believe they actually came out of the mouth of the GOP’s presidential nominee.
But they literally did. All of them. The lines from Clinton’s speech are followed by theTrump quotes:
• This is a man who said that more countries should have nuclear weapons, including Saudi Arabia.
ANDERSON COOPER: Saudi Arabia, nuclear weapons?
TRUMP: Saudi Arabia, absolutely.• This is someone who has threatened to abandon our allies in NATO – the countries that work with us to root out terrorists abroad before the strike us at home.
TRUMP: “We don't really need NATO in its current form. NATO is obsolete… if we have to walk, we walk.”
• He believes we can treat the U.S. economy like one of his casinos and default on our debts to the rest of the world, which would cause an economic catastrophe far worse than anything we experienced in 2008.
TRUMP: “I’ve borrowed knowing that you can pay back with discounts... I would borrow knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal.”
• He has said that he would order our military to carry out torture...
TRUMP: “Don’t tell me it doesn’t work — torture works… Waterboarding is fine, but it’s not nearly tough enough, ok?”
• and the murder of civilians who are related to suspected terrorists...
TRUMP: "The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families”
• even though those are war crimes.
TRUMP: “They won’t refuse. They’re not going to refuse me, If I say do it, they’re going to do it.”
More at https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/updates/2016/06/02/trump-literally-said-all-those-things/
2. The DAILY GRILL
"I don't use teleprompters. Wouldn't that be easy, teleprompters? I watched Hillary the other day and she has the biggest teleprompters I've ever seen. In fact, if you're sitting on that side of the room or that side of the room you can't see her because when they are outside, they are painted black and you can't even see her." -- Trump in January
VERSUS
A pair of teleprompters flanked the podium at the Trump National Golf Club in suburban New York City, and the celebrity businessman appeared to be reading from them as he delivered a speech that featured far less of his trademark bluster. -- AP 6/07/16
“Literally eight months before the first ballot was cast in Iowa, she had almost all of the superdelegates on board. That is an absurd system. … Now, on Tuesday night, on the 7th, you are going to hear from media saying that Hillary Clinton has received 80 or 90 delegates from New Jersey and other states…the nominating process is over, Secretary Clinton has won. That is factually incorrect. That is just not factually correct.” —Sen. Bernie Sanders5/31/16
VERSUS
Sanders is misleading his supporters when he suggests it is “factually incorrect” for the media to crown Clinton the presumptive nominee on June 7. In a narrow technical sense, the nominee is not chosen until the convention. But, barring some miracle, on June 7, Sanders will have lost the race for both pledged delegates and superdelegates. That leaves him with no hope to claim the nomination–unless he wants to overturn the will of the voters. But respecting the will of the voters was the original reason he complained about the superdelegate system in the first place. -- WA Post Fact Checker awards Sanders Three Pinocchios
"She (Hillary) made a speech, she’s making another one tomorrow, and they sent me a copy of the speech, and it was such lies about my foreign policy, that they said I want Japan to get nuclear weapons. Give me a break." --Trump at a rally in Sacramento.
VERSUS
TRUMP: It’s not like, gee whiz, nobody has them. So, North Korea has nukes. Japan has a problem with that. I mean, they have a big problem with that. Maybe they would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea.
WALLACE: With nukes?
TRUMP: Including with nukes, yes, including with nukes. -- Trump in an April interview with Chris Wallace.
““She’s got to do a better job. Okay? Your governor has got to do a better job. She’s not doing the job. Hey! Maybe I’ll run for governor of New Mexico. I’ll get this place going. She’s not doing the job. We’ve got to get her moving. Come on: Let’s go, governor.” -- Donald Trump criticizing NM Gov. Susana Martinez (R) during a campaign rally in her state Tuesday night, blaming the Latina governor for her state’s economic woes. 5/ 25/16
VERSUS
“I’d like to have it. I respect her. I have always liked her.” - Trump seeking NM Gov. Susana Martinez (R) endorsement. 6/02/16
Muslim Americans are our friends and our neighbors, our co-workers, our sports heroes -- and, yes, they are our men and women in uniform who are willing to die in defense of our country. We have to remember that. -- President Obama referring to Muhammad Ali and other Muslim athletes like Kareen Abdul-Jabar and Shaquille O'Neal 12/06/15
VERSUS
Obama said in his speech that Muslims are our sports heroes. What sport is he talking about, and who? Is Obama profiling? -- Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
3. GunFAIL CLXXXIV
59 guns were discovered by TSA agents at airports across the country, during the week of March 4-10, 2016.
The GunFAIL-watching world was rocked by the shooting of Facebook-famous gun rights advocate Jamie Gilt, by her 4-year-old son, who found a loose pistol in the back seat of the family pick-up and shot her in the back while she drove.
Strictly by the numbers, though, it was a fairly routine week. Twenty-one people accidentally shot themselves, sixteen minors were accidentally shot, and seven people were accidentally shot to death. Four people accidentally fired weapons into neighboring homes, four people accidentally fired guns they were cleaning, four people had accidents while target shooting, and three police officers accidentally discharged their weapons.
In Ocala, FL, someone out at the gun range to fire an antique shotgun managed to accidentally shoot an entire family of five (plus another, non-related teenager). That may be a GunFAIL series record in terms of the number of related individuals accidentally shot in a single discharge.
More stories are at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/06/02/1497577/-If-you-shoot-me-again-young-man-so-help-me-I-will-turn-this-car-right-around-GunFAIL-CLXXXIV
4. Why ‘Missing’ White Voters Won’t Help Trump
The good news for Trump is that nationally, there’s plenty of room for white turnout to improve. If non-Hispanic whites had turned out at the same rate in 2012 that they did in 1992, there would have been 8.8 million additional white voters — far more than Obama’s 5 million-vote margin of victory. But before Democrats panic, here’s the catch, and it’s a doozy for Trump: These ‘missing’ white voters disproportionately live in states that won’t matter in a close presidential race. 6/02/16 Read more at http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/missing-white-voters-might-help-trump-but-less-so-where-he-needs-it/
5. The Easiest Way to Identify a Trump Supporter
You can ask just one simple question to find out whether someone likes Donald Trump more than Hillary Clinton: Is Barack Obama a Muslim? If the answer is yes, 89 percent of the time that person will have a higher opinion of Trump than Clinton. It’s even more accurate than asking them if they are Republican (87 percent).” http://www.vox.com/2016/6/2/11833548/donald-trump-support-race-religion-economy
6. From MEDIA MATTERS (They watch Fox News so you don't have to)
Trump Supporter Hannity Whines About San Diego Radio Affiliate Airing Clinton’s Foreign Policy Speechhttp://mediamatters.org/video/2016/06/02/trump-supporter-hannity-whines-about-san-diego-radio-affiliate-airing-clinton-s-foreign-policy/210686
Voices in conservative media repeatedly legitimized Trump’s debunked conspiracies, policy proposals, and statistics, some of which echoed longtime narratives from prominent right-wing media figures. http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/06/02/how-conservative-media-enabled-trump-s-outrageous-lies/210603
Rush Limbaugh: Clinton's "Rhetoric Caused" Violence Against Trump Supporters http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/06/03/rush-limbaugh-clintons-rhetoric-caused-violence-against-trump-supporters/210706
Morning Joe's Brzezinski: Paul "Completely Sold Out" By Endorsing Trump http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/06/03/morning-joes-brzezinski-paul-ryan-completely-sold-out-endorsing-trump/210695
"Have You No Shame, Sir?": Fox Guest Excoriates Trump For Racist Attacks On Federal Judge http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/06/03/have-you-no-shame-sir-fox-guest-excoriates-trump-racist-attacks-federal-judge/210724
7. Late Night Jokes for Dems
"Despite her promises to be tough on Wall Street, a new report has found that groups supporting Hillary Clinton have received $25 million from the financial industry. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders has received a new waffle iron for opening a savings account." –Seth Meyers
"One of the ways that Trump is treating the convention like a reality show is holding off announcing his running mate. As one Trumpling said, 'Announcing the vice-presidential nominee before the convention is like announcing the winner of 'Celebrity Apprentice' before the final show is on the air.' It's an apt metaphor, because this year's Republican convention will be the series finale of America." –Stephen Colbert
"RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said yesterday that Donald Trump will 'have to answer for' his behavior towards women. Said Trump, 'I'll have my girl write something up.'" –Seth Meyers
"Donald Trump is now saying that his proposed ban on Muslims was 'just a suggestion.' Then he admitted his presidential campaign is 'just a bar bet.'" –Conan O'Brien
"During the Republican convention in Cleveland, an artist is going to photograph 100 nude women to make a statement. The statement is, 'This is the only way to get people to Cleveland.'" –Conan O'Brien
"The FBI just announced yesterday that fewer and fewer Americans are going off to join ISIS. Or as Fox News reported it, 'Once Again, Jobs Drop Under Obama.'" –Conan O'Brien
"Paul Ryan right now is like a girl at a bar at the end of the night where all the hot guys have left. So she's trying to convince herself that it would be worth taking home the guy with the orange skin and weird hair." –James Corden
"But Ryan is not the only one who seems to be changing his mind about Trump. Former presidential candidate John McCain stated this week that he thinks Donald Trump could be a 'capable leader.' John McCain spent several years in a Vietnam prison, and now saying 'Donald Trump is capable' sounds like the hardest thing he's ever had to do." –James Corden
"I'm sorry, but saying Donald Trump could be a capable leader is not very reassuring. If you are about to have an operation and they tell you that your doctor could be a capable surgeon, you would be like, 'You know what? It was a minor heart attack. I'm good. Don't worry.'" –James Corden
"Donald Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee, but there are a few people he still has to win over. For instance, everyone in the GOP." –Stephen Colbert
8. From the Late Shows
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee: The Bed We've Made
The Briefing: Republicans praised Hillary...until she was running for president.
https://amp.twimg.com/v/1b1b5458-4fd4-4ce9-a92b-cb4d9970e945
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Debt Buyers
9. Ohio Purges Non-Voters from the Rolls
As the Nov. 8 elections loom, officials in Ohio have removed tens of thousands of voters from registration lists because they have not cast a ballot since 2008.
All U.S. states periodically cleanse their voter rolls, but only a handful remove voters simply because they don’t vote on a regular basis. And nowhere could the practice have a greater potential impact in the state-by-state battle for the White House than Ohio, a swing state that has backed the winner in every presidential election since 1960.
Voters of all stripes in Ohio are affected, but the policy appears to be helping Republicans in the state's largest metropolitan areas, according to a Reuters survey of voter lists. In the state’s three largest counties that include Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, voters have been struck from the rolls in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods at roughly twice the rate as in Republican neighborhoods. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-votingrights-ohio-insight-idUSKCN0YO19D
10. The 224 People, Places and Things Donald Trump Has Insulted on Twitter: A Complete List
Since declaring his candidacy for president last June, Donald Trump has used Twitter to lob insults at presidential candidates,journalists, news organizations, nations, a Neil Young song and even a lectern in the Oval Office. We know this becausewe’ve read, tagged and quoted them all. For, a directory of sorts, with links to the original tweets (insults within the last thirty days are highlighted) go to http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/28/upshot/donald-trump-twitter-insults.html?_r=0#deb-sopan
11. Trump’s Attacks on Judges Worry Legal Experts
Donald Trump’s highly personal, racially tinged attacks on a federal judge overseeing a pair of lawsuits against him have set off a wave of alarm among legal experts, who worry that the Republican presidential candidate’s vendetta signals a remarkable disregard for judicial independence.
That attitude, many argue, could carry constitutional implications if Trump becomes president. 6/02/16 Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2016/06/01/437ccae6-280b-11e6-a3c4-0724e8e24f3f_story.html
12. Former Trump University Workers Call the School a ‘Lie’ and a ‘Scheme’ in Testimony
In blunt testimony revealed on Tuesday, former managers of Trump University, the for-profit school started by Donald J. Trump, portray it as an unscrupulous business that relied on high-pressure sales tactics, employed unqualified instructors, made deceptive claims and exploited vulnerable students willing to pay tens of thousands for Mr. Trump’s insights.
One sales manager for Trump University, Ronald Schnackenberg, recounted how he was reprimanded for not pushing a financially struggling couple hard enough to sign up for a $35,000 real estate class, despite his conclusion that it would endanger their economic future. He watched with disgust, he said, as a fellow Trump University salesman persuaded the couple to purchase the class anyway.
I believe that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme, and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money.” -- Testimony From Ronald Schnackenberg, a Former Employee of Trump University. 6/01/16 Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/01/us/politics/schnackenberg-testimony.html
13. Hillary Clinton schools Donald Trump on foreign policy
“Donald Trump’s ideas aren’t just different—they are dangerously incoherent. They’re not even really ideas—just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds, and outright lies. He is not just unprepared—he is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability, and immense responsibility.”
“If you really believe America is weak—with our military, our values, our capabilities that no other country comes close to matching—then you don’t know America. And you certainly don’t deserve to lead it.”
“Now Moscow and Beijing are deeply envious of our alliances around the world, because they have nothing to match them. They’d love for us to elect a president who would jeopardize that source of strength. If Donald gets his way, they’ll be celebrating in the Kremlin. We cannot let that happen.” More at https://www.hillaryclinton.com/feed/hillary-clinton-just-spent-34-minutes-schooling-donald-trump-foreign-policy/
14. The Borowitz Report: Trump: Mexicans Swarming Across Border, Enrolling in Law School, and Becoming Biased Judges
Unless the United States builds a wall, Mexicans will swarm across the border, enroll in law school en masse, and eventually become biased judges, Donald J. Trump warned supporters on Monday.
At a rally in San Jose, the presumptive Republican nominee said that “making America great again” meant preventing the nation from becoming “overrun by Mexican judges.”
In a line that drew a rousing ovation from supporters, Trump blasted Mexican leaders for their role in the crisis, claiming, “They’re sending us their worst people: lawyers.” Read more at http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-mexicans-swarming-across-border-enrolling-in-law-school-and-becoming-biased-judges
15. Mark Fiore cartoon: Trump News Tonight!
16. Ads
Priorities USA Action ad: Grace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QUYQUd0Qh8
Donald Trump narcissist
https://amp.twimg.com/v/85d61190-d754-468a-9c04-35b58ec11532
| OPINION |
1. Eleanor Clift: Hillary Clinton Shatters America’s 240-Year-Old Glass Ceiling
History was a long time coming, but it arrived last night when the venerable Associated Press broke the news that Hillary Rodham Clinton had surpassed the needed number of delegates to secure the Democratic nomination.
For women born in the middle of the last century, this is the kind of unimagined achievement that makes you wonder if you stepped into the middle of a new Broadway play, perhaps “Hamilton” spun in another way to make the Founding Fathers turn over in their graves.
Like Clinton herself, these women, and I’m one of them, found their voices during the women’s movement of the 1970s, the civil rights movement of the 1960s and beyond, and the antiwar movement of the sixties and seventies. And while Clinton has her flaws, as we all do, she was on the front lines of all this social change, especially when it comes to women and girls.
“I got to tell you, according to the news, we are on the brink of a historic, historic unprecedented moment, but we still have work to do, don’t we?” Clinton said at a rally in California, one of six states holding elections today, and the one that could send her off with a big boost if she can edge out rival Bernie Sanders.
History made quietly with math is history all the same.
There are plenty more tests ahead, but for now Clinton has gone where no other woman in American history has gone. Adapting what Neil Armstrong said when he set foot on the moon, “That’s one small step for woman, one giant leap for humankind.” 6.07.16 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/07/hillary-clinton-quietly-shatters-the-glass-ceiling.html
2. Mark Green: Don't panic, Democrats, Hillary Clinton will beat Donald Trump
Trump's smear-and-fear debate tactics worked in the GOP primaries, but they are unlikely to succeed against a poised, savvy politician with dozens of debates under her belt.
In political ads, Trump will try to define Clinton as “crooked” and an “enabler.” That’s the best he’s got. Meanwhile, Clinton can pummel Trump’s unpresidential temperament, ignorance about nuclear weapons, business sleaze that hurts real people, misogynistic comments and endorsements from Klansmen.
Remember how the economy nearly collapsed and $14 trillion of wealth vanished under the last Republican president? Under Obama, the economy has grown for 75 straight months, and the unemployment rate fell from 10% to less than 5%. Clinton should not lose the economic argument to a one-percenter who wants to cut his taxes.
How can Trump pass the commander in chief test? America ultimately will conclude that an experienced former secretary of State is more trustworthy than a tantrum-prone narcissist, as Clinton effectively explained in her San Diego address last Thursday.
Who wins a race for both POTUS and SCOTUS between a tough-love mom and your crazy uncle? Based on historic trends and their comparative assets, my best guess is that Clinton prevails by at least 53% to 46%, perhaps even a double-digit landslide. The most unpopular presidential nominee ever won’t be elected president. At least not if Democrats remember Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ admonition: “The way the inevitable came to pass was effort.” 5/07/16 Read more at http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-green-hillary-clinton-will-win-20160606-snap-story.html
3. Froma Harrop: A Trump Presidency Would Sink All Boats
Hello, investors. Come join the foreign policy experts in daily panic attacks over what a President Donald Trump would mean for your world. What does one do about a candidate whose tax plan would send America into the fiscal abyss -- who flaps lips about not making good on the national debt?
We're not talking just about the very rich. Anyone with a retirement account or a small portfolio has something to lose. The economic consensus is that a Trump presidency would sink all boats. And that certainly applies to Trump's own economically struggling followers in the least seaworthy craft.
Some might think that Trump's tax plan -- including the repeal of the federal tax on estates bigger than $5.43 million -- would impress the income elite, but they would be wrong. In a recent poll of Fortune 500 executives, 58 percent of the respondents said they would support Hillary Clinton over Trump.
Most in this Republican-leaning group are undoubtedly asking themselves: What good is a fur-lined deck chair if the ship's going down?
The business community runs on stability. It can't prosper under a showman who says crazy things and denies having said them moments later. A Trump presidency promises more chaos than a Marx Brothers movie -- and you can believe it would be a lot less fun. 6/07/16 Read more at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/06/07/a_trump_presidency_would_sink_all_boats_130793.html
4. Washington Post Editorial: Mr. Ryan’s endorsement of Trump: A sad day for the GOP — and America
AS DONALD Trump was building a campaign on lies, bigotry, insults, fearmongering and unreason, a few Republican leaders of apparent principle offered some resistance. Foremost among them was House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.). In March, Mr. Ryan insisted that “all of us as leaders can hold ourselves to the highest standards of integrity and decency” and that “we shouldn’t accept ugliness as the norm.”
On Thursday Mr. Ryan capitulated to ugliness. It was a sad day for the speaker, for his party and for all Americans who hoped that some Republican leaders would have the fortitude to put principle over partisanship, job security or the forlorn fantasy that Mr. Trump will advance a traditional GOP agenda.
Mr. Ryan has endorsed a man whose “solutions” include banning Muslims from entering the country, who casts aspersions on judges because of their ethnicity, who mocks people with disabilities, who lies repeatedly, who would muzzle the free press. Each one of these is disqualifying — particularly for anyone who believes in conducting the nation’s politics in a constructive, reasonable manner or who claims to have the long-term interests of the nation, rather than a short-term win at the ballot box or in Congress, in mind.
Following Mr. Ryan’s endorsement, some insisted that the speaker had little choice. This is false. “My dad used to say, ‘If you’re not a part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem,’ ” Mr. Ryan said in March. When he has a comparable conversation with his children, how will Mr. Ryan explain the decision he made in this campaign? 6/02/16 Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mr-ryan-capitulates-to-ugliness/2016/06/02/a497fe4c-2903-11e6- ae4a-3cdd5fe74204_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_opinions or http://wapo.st/1RS6Miq
5. Jonathan Chait: The Good News Is That Donald Trump’s Campaign Is an Absolute Strategic and Managerial Garbage Fire
Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States would pose an unprecedented threat to the health of American democracy and possibly world stability. There is, however, an upside: Trump’s campaign is an absolute garbage fire. By all accounts it is the most organizationally and strategically inept campaign for a successful major-party nominee in recorded history. Ashley Parker and Maggie Haberman round up many of the details, but the basic story that emerges from their reports and others is that Trump has absolutely no idea what he’s doing.
“Trump is a reality-television performer who tapped into a deep vein of cultural resentment that appeals to a decided minority of the electorate. Fortunately, many of the same qualities that would make Trump epically dangerous in the presidency — his impulsive ignorance, blustering arrogance, and contempt for data — also make him unlikely to obtain it. 6/05/16 Read more at http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/05/trumps-campaign-is-a-managerial-garbage-fire.html
6. Chris Cillizza: The ‘new Trump’ is a no-show
At this point, conversations about Trump’s ability and willingness to offend are almost pointless. Ditto debates about whether and how Trump’s comments will affect his standing in the 2016 race. He does and says things that not only would be poison for any other politician of either party but also play dangerously with racial and ethnic politics. Yet, to date, he has prospered.
What is important is that we can now dismiss the notion that Trump will adjust his rhetoric or his issue positions to accommodate the general electorate. That idea is totally and completely false. There is no Trump 2.0, no reinvention of Trump as more inclusive or less combative waiting just on the horizon. This is it.
Trump has said as much. 6/05/16 Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-new-trump-is-a-no-show/2016/06/05/378b8a94-2b29-11e6-9de3-6e6e7a14000c_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_wemost-draw5
7. David Frum: The Broken Guardrails of Democracy
Donald Trump’s dishonesty is qualitatively different than anything before seen from a major-party nominee. The stack of lies teeters so tall that one obscures another: lies about New Jersey Muslims celebrating 9/11, lies about his opposition to the Iraq and Afghanistan war, lies about his wealth, lies about the size of his crowds, lies about women he’s dated, lies about his donations to charity, lies about self-funding his campaign. “Whatever lie he’s telling, in that minute he believes it,” Senator Ted Cruz said of Trump in May 2016. "But the man is utterly amoral. Morality does not exist for him.”
As late as March, 2016, more than half of Republicans and Republican leaders described Trump as “dishonest” in a Washington Post survey. They voted for him in the primaries all the same, and by rising pluralities even as the lies accumulated.
Trump’s lies weren’t overlooked—and they weren’t believed. They were condoned by Republicans who had come to believe, “everybody does it.” MSNBC host Joe Scarborough spoke for many:
Conservatives that have been betrayed by the Washington establishment for 30 years, by Republican candidates that run for office saying they're going to balance the budget and lie. Republican candidates that run and say they're going to overturn Obamacare and lie. Republican candidates who say vote for me and I'm going to have a humble foreign policy and lie.
But Scarborough’s list of betrayals weren’t “lies.” They were failures, failures made inevitable by the impossibility of the Republican base’s own demands. (How do you balance the budget while cutting taxes, without touching either defense or Medicare?) As one unfriendly critic noted, the Republican rank-and-file weren’t exactly innocent victims of elite deception.
Republican voters … wanted everything, and, after all, GOP leaders promised them that it was possible—even though those same leaders knew it was not. 5/31/16 Read more at http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/the-seven-broken-guardrails-of-democracy/484829/
8. Sam Kleiner: With His Finger on the Trigger
It can be hard to take Trump seriously on foreign policy, but the implications of what he has said on nuclear weapons are extremely serious. A Trump presidency could reverse decades of American presidents’ work to hold the line against the spread of nuclear weapons, ushering in a new era of proliferation. U.S. leaders have applied “tremendous pressure” on allies to get them to turn back their nuclear programs. They have led efforts to successfully reduce the number of states that had or were actively pursuing nuclear weapons, from 23 in the 1960s down to nine.
In the months ahead, Donald Trump will continue to try convincing Americans that he is a credible candidate who can be trusted to occupy the Oval Office. He has begun to style himself as a foreign-policy realist. But he’s not a realist—he’s a radical. Stephen Walt, a prominent realist scholar, has written, “realists prefer to ‘speak softly and carry a big stick;’ Trump’s modus operandi consists of waving the big stick while running a big mouth.” His loose talk during the campaign has already damaged America’s alliances. And on the central question of nuclear weapons, he has clearly exposed himself to be weak-kneed in his acceptance of international proliferation. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/06/donald-trump-nuclear-weapons/485504/
9. NY Times Editorial: The Benghazi Committee’s Dead End
If things had gone his way, Mr. Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, would have found a way to torpedo Mrs. Clinton’s presidential ambitions. After all, Republican lawmakers have admitted that this is precisely what they set out to do.
But things have not gone well for Mr. Gowdy, who has run the investigation with the dexterity and grace of a blindfolded toddler swinging at a piñata. Having pored over reams of documents, grilled Mrs. Clinton in an 11-hour session in October and hauled in more than 100 people for interviews, the Republicans seem to have come up with nothing.
The Benghazi committee, which was set up in May 2014, has been operational for longer than the 9/11 Commission was. It has dragged on longer than congressional investigations into the attack on Pearl Harbor, the assassination of President Kennedy, Watergate, the Iran-contra scandal, the 1983 bombing that killed 241 American service members in Beirut and the response to Hurricane Katrina.
The committee has spent nearly $7 million looking into an incident that had already been the subject of an independent investigation commissioned by the State Department and nine reports issued byseven other congressional committees. Those reviews faulted the federal government for failing to provide proper security for the American ambassador in Libya and three of his colleagues who were killed, but found no evidence of a cover-up or gross negligence by Mrs. Clinton.
Representative Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said the exercise showed Congress at its worst. “If you want a case study of why people are frustrated with government, this investigation is it,” said Mr. Cummings, who, along with a handful of Democrats, has remained on the committee to monitor what they regard as a partisan crusade. “They see all this effort, all this money, a budget that is endless, addressing issues that have already been addressed.” 6/03/16 Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/04/opinion/the-benghazi-committees-dead-end.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
10. Peter Beinart: Hillary Clinton's Remarkable Comeback
In purely political terms, Clinton’s victory—after losing the Democratic nomination in 2008—constitutes the greatest comeback by a presidential candidate since Richard Nixon won the Republican nomination in 1968, after losing the presidential election of 1960.
Many forget how devastating Clinton’s 2008 loss was. Over the course of the campaign, her party’s most powerful leaders—people she had worked with for decades—betrayed her. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sought out Barack Obama and secretly urged him to challenge her. Former Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who according to John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s Game Change, considered Clinton an “icy prima donna,” did as well. Chuck Schumer publicly endorsed Clinton; as her fellow senator from New York, he had to. But he also privately urged Obama to run. West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, an old ally from Clinton’s health-care fight, endorsed Obama and said he was doing it for his kids.
Ted Kennedy endorsed Obama publicly, despite being repeatedly begged not to by Bill Clinton. So did Representative Lois Capps, even though Bill had campaigned for her, spoken at her late husband’s funeral, and employed her daughter at the White House. Bill had also employed former Energy Secretary and U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson. Nonetheless, Richardson—who ran himself in 2008—made a deal to send his supporters to Obama if he failed to meet the delegate threshold at individual Iowa caucus sites. He did so, according to Heilemann and Halperin, despite having promised the Clintons he would not. James Carville dubbed him “Judas.”
That wasn’t even the worst of it. Civil-rights legend John Lewis endorsed Clinton and then rescinded his endorsement to support Obama. Claire McCaskill betrayed the Clintons twice. They had campaigned hard for McCaskill when she sought a Missouri Senate seat in 2006. Then, that fall, she publicly declared that “I don’t want my daughter near” Bill. McCaskill assuaged the Clintons’ fury with an emotional apology to Bill. Then, in January 2008, she became the first female senator to endorse Obama.
Over the past 30 years, no American political figure has absorbed as many blows as Clinton. And none has responded with more tenacity and grit. Trump talks endlessly about strength. Clinton embodies it. 6/07/16 Read more at http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/hillary-clintons-remarkable-triumph/486119/
11. LA Times Editorial: Bernie Sanders supporters have to face the facts: Hillary Clinton has won
Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders were outraged on Monday when news reports suggested that Hillary Clinton had clinched the Democratic presidential nomination even before Tuesday’s contests in California and five other states. But now that those states have voted, they — and he — need to face facts.
Despite Sanders’ pledge Tuesday night to “continue the fight,” the contest for the Democratic nomination is effectively over — and not because the system was rigged in Clinton’s favor or because she was given a free pass by the “corporate media.”
With only next week’s District of Columbia primary remaining on the schedule, Clinton has outperformed Sanders in the total number of votes cast, states won and pledged delegates earned. On Tuesday she won in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, leaving Sanders to claim North Dakota and Montana. True, she won’t actually be the nominee until a vote at the Democratic National Convention. But even Sanders can’t honestly believe that so-called superdelegates — prominent party members who overwhelmingly support Clinton — will transfer their allegiance to him.
As for Clinton, she is now in sight of a political personal best that would have huge historical significance. As we said in endorsing her, the former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of State has demonstrated a mastery of foreign and domestic policy that would position her well, even if she were facing a similarly knowledgeable and well-prepared Republican opponent.
That she instead will be opposed by Trump, an intemperate, intolerant and ill-informed businessman and television reality star, ought to be a source of optimism for her and her party. But Trump’s improbable success in capturing the Republican nomination counsels against complacency.
Clinton is on notice that, even with such problematic competition, she must show that she not only is competent but capable of articulating a vision of prosperity and national renewal. Sanders can provide valuable assistance in that undertaking, and he should start doing so now. 6/07/16 Read more at http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-democratic-primary-20160607-snap-story.html