Weekend Reading, Watching October 14, 2016October 14, 2016 If you’re on Adderall — as millions are — you’ve doubtless already read this. If you’re not but have kids, you’ll want to. She’s not “the lesser of two evils,” argues the Washington Post in its clear-eyed endorsement of Hillary Clinton; “she is a choice Americans can be proud of.” Read why. It’s really good — and worth sharing. I’m sure you’ve seen clips of Michelle’s truth-drenched New Hampshire speech. Here‘s the whole thing. And the President’s speech yesterday in Columbus. It rocks. Have a great weekend.
It’s Not Rocket Science October 11, 2016October 12, 2016 If you want to put millions to work revitalizing our crumbling infrastructure, just vote Democrat up and down the ticket next month. (The Republican Congress blocked it.) If you earn minimum wage and want a 40% raise — or you earn way more but want to see the economy boosted and inequality moderated — take a couple of hours to vote Democrat. (The Republican Congress blocks it.) If you want your LGBT friends to have the same protections you do — so they can’t be fired Monday when the boss finds out they were married Sunday — vote Democrat. (The Senate passed ENDA 64-32 but House Republicans blocked it.) If you want to enact the comprehensive immigration reform economists say would boost our economy, and that passed the Senate 68-32 — and that would improve millions of lives — vote Democrat. (The Republican Congress blocked that, too.) If you agree with these military experts that climate change threatens our national security — Trump and the Republican “science” chairs in the Senate and House believe it is a hoax — vote Democrat up and down the ticket. If you want abortion to be rare — but safe and legal . . . If you want to see sensible gun-safety laws enacted . . . If you want voting to be made easier for people, not harder . . . If you want to break the gridlock and get America really moving again . . . . . . vote Democrat up and down the ticket. Again: It’s not rocket science. And what an amazing outcome we could have. Click here to vote, here to volunteer, here to contribute — and here to see what Republicans are saying about Trump and Clinton.
Prep For Tonight’s Debate . . . October 9, 2016October 8, 2016 Jeffrey Marburg-Goodman makes millennials feel much better about “the emails” — here. And about Libya — here. Share his posts on Facebook? Both before and after the debate? Thanks!
They Endorsed Lincoln, Johnson, And Now Clinton October 7, 2016 Only those three in 156 years. The Atlantic: Hillary Rodham Clinton . . . is among the most prepared candidates ever to seek the presidency. We are confident that she understands the role of the United States in the world; we have no doubt that she will apply herself assiduously to the problems confronting this country; and she has demonstrated an aptitude for analysis and hard work. Donald Trump, on the other hand . . . traffics in conspiracy theories and racist invective; he is appallingly sexist; he is erratic, secretive, and xenophobic; he expresses admiration for authoritarian rulers, and evinces authoritarian tendencies himself. He is easily goaded, a poor quality for someone seeking control of America’s nuclear arsenal. He is an enemy of fact-based discourse; he is ignorant of, and indifferent to, the Constitution; he appears not to read. . . . In its founding statement, The Atlantic promised that it would be “the organ of no party or clique,” and our interest here is not to advance the prospects of the Democratic Party, nor to damage those of the Republican Party. If Hillary Clinton were facing Mitt Romney, or John McCain, or George W. Bush, or, for that matter, any of the leading candidates Trump vanquished in the Republican primaries, we would not have contemplated making this endorsement. We believe in American democracy, in which individuals from various parties of different ideological stripes can advance their ideas and compete for the affection of voters. But Trump is not a man of ideas. He is a demagogue, a xenophobe, a sexist, a know-nothing, and a liar. He is spectacularly unfit for office, and voters—the statesmen and thinkers of the ballot box—should act in defense of American democracy and elect his opponent. Click here to vote, here to volunteer, here to contribute — and here to see what Republicans are saying about Trump and Clinton.
And Now Give It Up For Ezra Klein October 6, 2016October 5, 2016 Start with Michael Chertoff: Clinton’s Former Prosecutor Endorses Her for President. In any sane world, it is thoughts like his, not those of Scott Baio or the guy from Duck Dynasty, that would carry the most weight. Next up, Bill Clinton: “Look, the Affordable Health Care Act did a world of good,” said Bill Clinton. It has helped tens of millions of Americans — very possibly including you, because you and your loved ones can no longer be denied coverage for having, or one day developing, a pre-existing condition. “The fifty-something efforts that the Republicans made to repeal it were a terrible mistake.” Yet for some hardworking folks, it’s proved a real burden — and, given the law’s good intentions, that’s “the craziest thing in the world.” We need to fix it; Hillary agrees; and if the Republicans don’t make it impossible, she will. Watch the whole clip. And now, columnist Ezra Klein, writing here, in Vox: The past 6 days proved Donald Trump is dangerously unfit for the presidency The lesson of the Machado saga: America’s enemies would find Trump predictable and easy to control. Updated by Ezra Klein Oct 1, 2016, 10:30a The past six days proved Donald Trump is dangerously unfit for the presidency. The problem isn’t that Trump is cruel, though he is. The problem isn’t that Trump is boorish, though he is. The problem isn’t that Trump is undisciplined, though he is. The problem is that Trump is predictable and controllable. Through most of this election, those would be the last two words anyone would associate with Donald J. Trump. His brand is impulsivity. The central fact of his political style is that staff can’t control his actions. Who else would launch a presidential campaign by calling Mexicans rapists and murderers? Who else would accuse an opponent’s father of being involved in JFK’s assassination? Who else would humiliate their running mate before introducing him? Who else would tweet schoolyard insults at his challengers and retweet white supremacists praising his virtues? Over the past six days, Hillary Clinton’s campaign revealed that this is a misreading of Donald Trump. His behavior, though unusual, is quite predictable — a fact the Clinton campaign proved by predicting it. His actions, though beyond the control of his allies, can be controlled by his enemies — a fact the Clinton campaign proved by controlling them. So far, this has played out, within the safe space of a presidential campaign, as farce. If Trump were to win the White House, it would play out as tragedy. It’s worth revisiting the Alicia Machado saga from this perspective. What stands out, in retrospect, is how contrived the whole operation was, how transparently Hillary Clinton set the trap in the final moments of the presidential debate. HOLT: We are at — we are at the final question. CLINTON: Well, one thing. One thing, Lester. HOLT: Very quickly, because we’re at the final question now. CLINTON: You know, he tried to switch from looks to stamina. But this is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs, and someone who has said pregnancy is an inconvenience to employers, who has said… TRUMP: I never said that. CLINTON: …women don’t deserve equal pay unless they do as good a job as men. TRUMP: I didn’t say that. CLINTON: And one of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest. He loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them. And he called this woman “Miss Piggy.” Then he called her “Miss Housekeeping,” because she was Latina. Donald, she has a name. TRUMP: Where did you find this? Where did you find this? CLINTON: Her name is Alicia Machado. TRUMP: Where did you find this? CLINTON: And she has become a US citizen, and you can bet… TRUMP: Oh, really? CLINTON: …she’s going to vote this November. Donald Trump can be forgiven for being caught off-guard in the moment. His presidency-disqualifying sin came in the hours after the debate. The Clinton campaign released a slickly produced video featuring Machado. The Guardian and Cosmopolitan rushed pre-planned Machado profiles to publication. Hillary Clinton did everything but spray paint “THIS IS A TRAP” on the side of Trump Tower. And still Trump fell for it. And fell for it. And fell for it. Six days later, he’s still falling for it. There was nothing ingenious about Clinton’s scheme. If anything, it was a bit like her satisfied delivery of “Trumped-up trickle-down economics” — too clever by half, too obviously planned by whole. All Trump had to do was nothing. Or to say: “Hillary Clinton wants to talk about beauty pageants rather than her 30-year record of corruption and failure.” Seriously. That was it. . . . And then [he] tweeted this: Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate? 5:30 AM – 30 Sep 2016 14,490 14,490 Retweets 34,246 34,246 likes “Check out sex tape and past,” tweeted the man who wants to be the next president of the United States of America at 5:30 am. We’re now six days beyond the debate. And Trump is still finding new ways to spring and re-spring Clinton’s trap on himself. On Friday, he told the New York Times that, in response to the Clinton campaign bringing up Machado, he would begin attacking Hillary Clinton for being “married to the single greatest abuser of women in the history of politics” — thus launching the line of assault likeliest to engender sympathy for Hillary Clinton, and opening his checkered marital history to public scrutiny. “She’s nasty, but I can be nastier than she ever can be,” is a thing Trump actually said, aloud, to reporters, in an interview meant to help his campaign. To appreciate just how self-destructive this strategy is, read the third paragraph of the Times story: In an interview with The New York Times, he also contended that infidelity was “never a problem” during his three marriages, though his first ended in an ugly divorce after Mr. Trump began a relationship with the woman who became his second wife. There is a part of me that believes the entire Alicia Machado trap was a long con to bait Trump into berating Clinton for her husband’s infidelities at the second debate, and making his past marital betrayals fair game for the press. What is extraordinary in all this is how enthusiastically Trump has taken the Clinton campaign’s bait, and how unconcerned he’s been with the fact that they meticulously planned all this in advance to damage him. It is almost not fair to call what the Clinton campaign created a trap. They publicly, explicitly, and warmly invited him to participate in their campaign strategy, and he accepted their invitation, because the satisfaction he receives from settling old scores and venting his rage is greater than the satisfaction he receives from leading in national opinion polls. In the context of a presidential campaign, all this is amusing. It will make a wonderful chapter in the next edition of Game Change. But imagine that this wasn’t a presidential campaign. Imagine it was the Trump presidency. And imagine it wasn’t Hillary Clinton trying to bait Trump into attacking Alicia Machado, but ISIS trying to bait Trump into attacking Iraq, or Vladimir Putin trying to bait Trump into breaking with NATO, or Angela Merkel trying to bait Trump into isolating the United States before a key vote at the United Nations, or China trying to bait Trump into giving them an excuse to assert their claim over Taiwan. We have all known, abstractly, that this is a possibility. That Trump is easily baited has been on display since he began running for president. That America’s enemies would construct detailed psychological profiles of him and launch sophisticated plans to take advantage of his weaknesses is obvious. But the expectation was that he would have staff around him — his National Security adviser, his chief of staff — who would explain that the latest provocation is a trap, and who would remind Trump of the importance of avoiding it. But that’s why the Machado affair has been so enlightening. In this case, Hillary Clinton’s campaign explained that they were setting a trap. The media explained that Clinton’s campaign was setting a trap. And all of Trump’s staff and advisers undoubtedly explained that Trump’s enemies were setting a trap. Trump didn’t listen, or perhaps he didn’t care. He sprung the trap anyway. He is more passionate about proving his dominance and humiliating his perceived foes than about following his strategy. As unpredictable and uncontrollable as he is to his allies, he is exactly that predictable and controllable to his enemies, and to America’s enemies. Click here to vote, here to volunteer, here to contribute — and here to see what Republicans are saying about Trump and Clinton.
Give It Up For Roger Cohen . . . October 5, 2016October 5, 2016 . . . who writes in the New York Times: The Trump Possibility Donald Trump is a thug. He’s a thug who talks gibberish, and lies, and cheats, and has issues, to put it mildly, with women. He’s lazy and limited and he has an attention span of a nanosecond. He’s a “gene believer” who thinks he has “great genes” and considers the German blood, of which he is proud, “great stuff.” Mexicans and Muslims, by contrast, don’t make the cut. He’s managed to bring penis size and menstrual cycles and the eating habits of a former Miss Universe into the debate for the highest office in the land. He’s mocked and mimicked the handicapped and the pneumonia-induced malaise of Hillary Clinton. His intellectual interests would not fill a safe-deposit box at Trump Tower. There’s more ingenuity to his hairstyle than any of his rambling pronouncements. His political hero is Vladimir Putin, who has perfected what John le Carré once called the “classic, timeless, all-Russian, bare-faced whopping lie.” This is a man who likes to strut and gloat. He’s such a great businessman he declared a loss of $916 million on his 1995 tax return, a loss so huge the tax software program used by his accountant choked at the amount, which had to be added manually. His cohorts, including the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, reckon this makes Trump a “genius” because he could offset the loss [a loss likely suffered mostly by his investors, not himself — A.T.] against many millions of dollars of income for years afterward and perhaps pay not a dime in taxes. All of which did a lot of good for the United States of America and all the working stiffs who did not know that losing about a billion dollars is a financial masterstroke. And this man, with the support of tens of millions of Americans, is a hairbreadth from the Oval Office. I am shocked — yes, shocked! — Trump’s burbling about the Iran nuclear deal in the first presidential debate has received little attention. He called it “the worst deal I think I’ve ever seen negotiated,” before suggesting “Iran has power over North Korea” and should use it, before saying Iran had been given $400 million and then $1.7 billion and then $150 billion, as well as saying, “this is one of the worst deals ever made by any country in history!” Of course, Trump has no idea what is in the agreement, since that would require reading it, and so he would not have an inkling that it has slashed and ring-fenced Iran’s nuclear capacity until 2030, reversing the Islamic Republic’s steady accumulation of centrifuges, and has also opened the way for Boeing to sell Iran 80 commercial passenger aircraft — just the sort of job-creating deal Trump professes to like. And this man, whose meanness and petulance and childlike inadequacies have been on display for more than a year now, may become president next month. How is this possible? It is possible because spectacle and politics have merged and people no longer know fact from fiction or care about the distinction. It is possible because fear has entered people’s lives and that fear is easily manipulated. It is possible because technology has created anxiety-multipliers such as have never been known before. It is possible because America is a country living with the dim dissatisfaction of two wars without victory and the untold trillions spent on them. It is possible because a very large number of people want to give the finger to the elites who brought the crash of 2008 and rigged the global system and granted themselves impunity. It is possible because of growing inequality and existential dread, especially among the white losers from globalization who know minorities will be the majority in the United States by midcentury. It is possible because both major parties have abandoned the working class. It is possible because a lot of Americans feel the incumbent in the White House has undersold the United States, diminished its distinctive and exceptional nature, talked down its power, and so diluted its greatness and abdicated its responsibility for the well-being of the free world. It is possible because the identity politics embraced by urban, cosmopolitan liberals have provoked an inevitable backlash among those who think white lives matter, too. It is possible because Trump speaks to the basest but also some of the most ineradicable traits of human beings — their capacity for mob anger, their racist resentments, their cruelty, their lust, their search for scapegoats, their insecurities — and promises a miraculous makeover. It is possible because the Clinton family has been in the White House and cozy with the rich and close to the summit of a discredited political establishment for a quarter-century now and, to people who want change or bridle at dynastic privilege, that makes Hillary Clinton an unattractive candidate. It is possible because history demonstrates there is no limit to human folly or the dimensions of the disasters humanity can bring on itself. Yes, it is possible. There is still time to stop a man who keeps stooping lower. That time is now. Click here to vote, here to volunteer, here to contribute — and here to see what Republicans are saying about Trump and Clinton.