Accuracy Insufficient

Hillary Clinton, relaxed and in her element at a Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender event in Manhattan, NYC, contended

You know, just to be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?

The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic -- you name it.  And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people -- now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric.

There is both advice both obvious and simple for the worst campaigner among major party presidential nominees of my lifetime:  when you start out with "Just to be grossly generalistic," immediately stop.

Trump co-campaign manager Kellyanne Fitzpatrick Conway tweeted "Come to an event, talk to real people who aren't donors. Or better: have Hillary apologize."  Clinton aide Neera Tanden responded "let's make a deal: your campaign apologizes for calling Mexican immigrants rapists and we'll talk."

Both responses were clever and misleading.  Apologies, generally insincere and failing to express actual regret for the action, are way overrated. And the more exact analogy to Clinton's statement- simultaneously accurate and offensive- is a far different remark made by her opponent.

"Well," Donald Trump observed of Vladimir Putin at the Commander-in-Chief Fiasco headed by Matt Lauer, "he does have an 82 percent approval rating, according to the different pollsters, who, by the way, some of them are based right here. Look, look…"

That's somewhat true, reflecting the result of one recent poll and of one taken many months ago, and unsurprising because media is tightly controlled in Russia and dissenting opinions are not widely disseminated.

That's really irrelevant, however. Trump coupled the statistic with a favorable comparison of the authoritarian with Barack Obama, a president whose election he has strongly implied is illegitimate. That renders a largely accurate statement deeply offensive.

Similarly, Hillary Clinton's comment was both accurate and offensive, as well as politically tone-deaf.

There is little doubt that a majority of Trump supporters is either sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, or Islamaphobic, which is all actually actually maintained by Clinton. There is disagreement about what constitutes sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, or Islamaphobia, and determination of the breath and depth of such sentiment therefore difficult. Nonetheless, Judd Legum presents results from four surveys, two taken in February and two in May, of sentiments among GOP primary voters toward Barack Obama's birthplace, Obama's religion, banning homosexuals from the USA, and white racial superiority.

While only (only?) 16% of Trump primary voters believed whites are racially superior to blacks, fully 31% of them would have supported banning gay people from the country. And in May, 71% supported blocking all Muslims from entering the USA, clearly reflecting phobia- fear- of Islam.  No doubt there is overlap between the 71%, the 31%, and the 16%, but none of the surveys pertained to sexism.

No doubt a majority of Trump voters (and a far lesser number of Clinton voters) would fall into at least one of the four categories, or "baskets," in Clinton's terminology.

Nonetheless, like Trump's claim about Putin's support inside Russia, that's not good enough. Neither statement should have been made and Mrs. Clinton needs to emphasize that the problem posed to the nation is Donald Trump, not his supporters.








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Give Lauer An Assist For Trump's Lay-Up

Did you hear the one about the "court system (for alleged cases of sexual assault in the military) practically doesn't exist?"  How about Hillary Clinton saying "the vets are being treated essentially just fine?"  And what of Trump opposing the war in Iraq?  And that President Obama's reception in China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia  represented “the first time in the history, the storied history of Air Force One” when “high officials” of a host country did not appear to greet the president? (Video below is of President Reagan's 1988 trip to Moscow, in which he was met at the airport by President Gromyko rather than the more powerful Prime Minister Gorbachev, whom he is seen greeting later.) Or that under this President "the generals have been reduced to rubble?"

Donald Trump can be blamed for those lies. However, he cannot be faulted for contending that Vladimir Putin's popularity in Russia is at 82%, for that appears to be true. Good luck to the 18% who admitted they don't like him.

Blaming the candidate for swinging at the 0-2 hanging curve thrown to him by moderator Matt Lauer is optional. This remarkable exchange ensued on Wednesday evening:


LAUER: You recently — you recently received two intelligence briefings.

TRUMP: Yes, I did.

LAUER: Did anything in that briefing, without going into specifics, shock or alarm you?

TRUMP: Yes. Very much so.

LAUER: Did you learn new things in that briefing?

TRUMP: First of all, I have great respect for the people that gave us the briefings. We — they were terrific people. They were experts on Iraq and Iran and different parts of — and Russia. But, yes, there was one thing that shocked me. And it just seems to me that what they said President Obama and Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, who is another total disaster, did exactly the opposite.

It was bad enough that Lauer asked the candidate to reveal his impression of a briefing given to only two human beings and which is expected to be completely confidential.  Invited to slam his opponent, the incumbent President, and current Secretary of State, Trump did not disappoint.

Further, Lauer gave Trump license to speak in generalities, to condemn opponents without offering any specifics. Trump, naturally, implied: I know things which no one else knows and it looks really, really bad for Obama and Clinton.

Anyone can make a mistake. But then Lauer compounded it by asking "Did you learn anything in that briefing — again, not going into specifics — that makes you reconsider some of the things you say you can accomplish, like defeating ISIS quickly?"

Lauer could not be so naive as to think that Donald Trump, who has never admitted error before, would say "oh, yes, I'm reconsidering because they showed me how I was wrong."  Again, the candidate did not disappoint, responding

No, I didn’t learn anything from that standpoint. What I did learn is that our leadership, Barack Obama, did not follow what our experts and our truly — when they call it intelligence, it’s there for a reason — what our experts said to do. 

This is beautiful.  Lauer could not question Trump's claim. Hillary Clinton, as was necessary, took the high road and simply noted that everything told in such briefings must be held confidential. Even the fact-checkers could not question Trump's statement because they are not privy to the information given.

It was a wonderful question for Donald Trump to receive, and he took the low road because he's Donald Trump. (Had he done otherwise and refused comment, the question would have been a waste of time and breath.)

Trump was Trump. Matt Lauer, he of the $28,000,000 salary and the Today Show, should not have been selected to moderate the "Commander-in-Chief Forum," which exposed him as a terrible interviewer on serious matters.  There should be repercussions but for a guy who asks Hillary Clinton seven(7) questions about e-mails, there will not be.

















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Giuliani Lies, Bringing Obama Birth Issue Back

"I come not to bury Caesar, not to praise him," Shakespeare's Marc Antony famously proclaimed. However, I come to praise Donald Trump, not to bury him. Steve M. acknowledges

I could be wrong, but I don't think Trump could bring himself to walk back birtherism, not even if Kellyanne and Ivanka and Jared got on their knees and begged him to. It's what made him as a political figure. And most of the voters in his base are birthers.

That is the nub of it. Trump never would have become a political figure were it not for doubting that President Obama was born in the USA. Hence, he pushed the idea, popular on the right, that Barack Obama was not a legitimate President.  He should stand by it, even unto (political) death. To reverse himself now would- or at least should- strike neutral poltical observers as crass opportunism. He deserves credit for not walking back a claim which forms the very basis of his candidacy.

But as I type this, the Trump camp probably is formulating a statement on the subject, occasioned by the skewering of surrogate Rudy Giuliani by Hardball's Chris Matthews during the 7:00 p.m. Eastern hour on MSNBC. The New York mayor, under intense questioning by Matthews, both stated and restated that Trump now has said that Obama was born in the USA and insisted that Trump now believes the occcupant of the White House was born in the country.

Expect that the Trump campaign will go back and forth on this, much as it has on deportation of illegal immigrants. Steve M., noting that vice-presidential nominee Pence now has acknowledged that Obama was born in the USA, laments that the campaign is having it both ways. In fact, not only is that true of the campaign; it is true of Pence, who has said Obama was born in Hawaii, but not explicitly stating "this country." And make no mistake about it: to much of the far right, Hawaii- the most ethnically and culturally diverse in this country- is not Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, or Idaho. Or even Massachusetts.

But don't expect much questioning of Trump about his remarks in April, 2011 when

Possibly-serious Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is giving few details about the investigation he claims to have launched in Hawaii to get to the bottom of where President Obama was born, but the business mogul told CNN Thursday Americans will be "very surprised" by what he has found.

"We're looking into it very, very strongly. At a certain point in time I'll be revealing some interesting things," Trump said on CNN's American Morning.

Trump first claimed earlier this month he had sent investigators to Obama's home state in an effort to find out if the president was indeed born there, as he says he was and several media organization's independent investigations have confirmed.

"I have people that have been studying it and they cannot believe what they're finding," Trump told NBC then.

The President later released his long-form birth certificate, for which Trump took credit in his characteristically humble manner (below).  However, we're still waiting for results of that investigation. Regrettably, the media isn't, and is unlikely to press Trump about it even now that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani,  presumably speaking for the candidate, has brought the issue back into the limelight.

















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The Brilliance Of Pence

People are impressed. Kurtis Lee of The Los Angeles Times writes


Donald Trump won't talk about his role as a so-called "birther," those who have questioned the citizenship of President Obama....

But his running mate wants to end the conversation. 

"I believe Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. I accept his birthplace," Indiana Gov. Mike Pence told reporters on Wednesday, declining to say if he thinks Trump should apologize. 

Earlier this week, Trump, with Pence at his side aboard the Republican nominee's plane, refused to answer questions about his past comments in which he consistently speculated that Obama was not born in the United States.

Similarly impressed by the apparent distinction between the two men, CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin argued "His running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, clarified on Wednesday that he, for one, believes that Obama was born in the United States.  Why doesn't Trump follow in the steps of Mike Pence and say, 'All right, you're right, he was born in the U.S.? Done, over with. Stop asking me.'"

Even The Huffington Post, which adds to any article about Donald Trump the disclaimer that he is a "serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misognyist, and birther." Under the heading "Mike Pence Believes Obama Was Born in America. Turmp Still Won't Say," we read

Breaking from his running mate Donald Trump on Wednesday,  Mike Pence stated correctly that President Obama was born in the United States. The GOP vice presidential nominee noted that while he has disagreements with Obama, they do not involve the President's birthplace.

So we get "his running mate wants to end the conversation;" Pence "clarified on Wednesday that he, for one, believes that Obama was born in the United States;" and "Mike Pence stated correctly that President Obama was born in the United States."

Each statement has two things in common. They are adoring, and are all wrong.

Mike Pence did not say Barack Obama was born in the United States. He said Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, which is the 50th state.  Reporters everywhere are assuming that because Hawaii entered the Union before Obama was born that Trump's running mate is acknowledging the current President was born in the United States.

But Pence, eyeing 2020 after a Trump defeat in two months, is doing no such thing. He is conceding only that Barack H. Obama was born in Hawaii- and to many Republican votes, that's not the same thing.  Following a disturbingly under-reported survey taken in August, 2009, Public Policy Polling observed

After we conducted polls over the last couple of weeks finding significant numbers of 'birthers' in North Carolina and Virginia, we decided to take the question national but also drum down more specifically on where exactly the people who think Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States do think he's from.

The answer is that 62% of Americans think Obama was born here, while 24% think he was not and 14% are unsure.

10% of the country thinks that he was born in Indonesia, 7% think he was born in Kenya, and 1% think he was born in the Philippines. 

That leaves 20%, which includes at least some people who correctly believe that Obama was born in Hawaii, but who don't consider Hawaii to be part of the United States. You read that right- 6% of poll respondents think that Hawaii is not part of the country and 4% are unsure.

It's hard to say what the rest of that 20% thinks. We did ask them if they thought Obama was born in France and while less than half a percent of respondents did, two thirds of that remaining 20% said they 'weren't sure' whether Obama was a Frenchman.

The figure of 6% is actually misleadingly low.  While 6% believed that Hawaii is not part of the USA, 14% were unsure where he was born. It can be surmised- without speculation- that a portion of that 14% had heard that he was born in Hawaii and didn't quite know what to make of it. It is highly likely that more than 6% of the respondents suspected both that Obama was born in Hawaii but not in this country but expressed uncertainty because they were confused or believed their opinion might not sound right to the pollster.

And that was respondents overall; surely the percentage of Republicans and GOP-leaning Independents was higher, a bloc Pence will be especially concerned about than Democrats after November, and is more interested in even now. Further, saying an individual was born in Hawaii does not provoke the same visceral reaction as saying he or she was born in America; the Hawaiian Islands are still visualized as a somewhat exotic location (as depicted in opening, below).

The media has been played. That Mike Pence is slicker than he appears.















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"We Are Here For You, Donald"

The usually alert Andrew O'Hehir of Salon believes Democrats are pre-emptively blaming the media for a possible loss by Hillary Clinton. He crticizes the New York Times for running Paul Krugman's "How Clinton Gets Gored," in which Krugman noted "throughout the (2000) campaign most media coverage gave the impression that Mr. Bush was a bluff, straightforward guy, while portraying Al Gore... as slippery and dishonest."

There is no time now to explain the mainstream media's jihad against Al Gore in 2008, as Bob Somerby thoroughly did a few years ago. Characteristic, though, of the unbalanced general election reporting that was extraordinarily contemptuous of the Vice-President was a column by Frank Bruni of the "liberal" New York Times in which Al Gore was snidely condemned for demonstrating that he knew more about foreign policy than did his opponent. (After the debacle of the Iraq War was made clear, it didn't occur to Mr. Bruni to acknowledge his smear.)

However, there is no question what is happening to Hillary Clinton, in a campaign featuring phrases, as Michael Tomasky notes, similar to "nevertheless fuels the perception that the Clintons or their associates may have...."  It is one thing not to observe the signs and signals but the mainstream media is telling us what is going on.

CNN has done its part, such as with the "countdown clock" (in video here, beginning at approximately 3:30). The other day, Ashleigh Banfield finally spilled the beans when she admitted

We get these e-mails from the RNC every day doing a countdown (of) how many days it has been since Secretary Clinton has held a news conference...   big for everybody, not little gaggles and bits and pieces here.... I think we're at 176 or so.

Jeff Zeleny, he of the "liberal media," then identified the Republican National Committe as a neutral arbiter, claiming it is "trying to be the referee of this race."  The same network's Dana Bash has remarked Hillary Clinton "is a seasoned debater. Yes, we saw Donald Trump in the primaries debate for the first time, but he is a first-time politician. So for lots of reasons, maybe it's not fair but it's the way it is, the onus is on her."

Maybe it's not fair but, hey, too bad. If someone is more experienced, more knowledgeable, or better qualified, they'll simply raise the bar for her.  "Focus on the facts," Krugman advises. "America and the world can't afford another election tipped by innuendo." But it's what they do, and they're telling us they're doing it.

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On Second, Third, Or Fourth Thought

Last Wednesday, Donald Trump in Phoenix read off one of those evil teleprompters

For those here illegally today, who are seeking legal status, they will have one route and one route only. To return home and apply for reentry like everybody else, under the rules of the new legal immigration system that I have outlined above. Those who have left to seek entry-

Jacob Monty, upon leaving Trump's Hispanic Caucus, promptly blasted the candidate for not having adopted his "plan that would improve border security, remove hardened criminals, and most importantly give work authority to the millions of honest, hardworking immigrants in the U.S." Defending the candidate, I argued

Monty feels wounded because Trump ignored much of his advice- and especially that he did not offer a road to legalization without citizenship, a chance for illegal immigrants to work for businessmen at substandard wages with few if any benefits.

I spoke too soon. Talking Points Memo reports

"We’re going to make that decision into the future," Trump told reporters when discussing the possibility for a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants, according to the Wall Street Journal.

And when asked about Republicans who support a path to legalization without forcing immigrants to first leave the country, Trump replied, "Good question. I’m glad you asked it. ... That decision will be made," according to the Wall Street Journal.

Or maybe not, because

In an interview with ABC News' David Muir, Donald Trump refused to say if undocumented immigrants who don’t necessarily want to become citizens would have to leave the country, admitting the possibility that they could stay.

When asked if some of the 11 million undocumented immigrants could stay, Trump replied, "It could be but what’s going to happen is if you’re going to be a citizen, you’re going to leave and you're going to have to come back."

When Muir asked whether Trump is "open to them staying here undocumented," the candidate responded "I'm going to make a decision,or somebody will. Whether it's me or somebody else because by that time we'll have a secure border, we'll have a wall."

Let's summarize:in Phoenix, Trump was against legalization. With the Wall Street Journal, the "decision" whether to offer a path to legalization "will be made."  With ABC News, Trump reverted to his opposition to legalization expressed in Wednesday's speech, after which he suggested no decision had been made whether illegal immigrants could remain (in 2013, temporary worker program in Canada, below).  That's aside from the reversal in his speech from the reversal he had made about a week earlier. It takes "spinning" and maybe "spin" to a whole new level.

Jane C. Timm has catalogued "117 distinct policy shifts on 20 major issues, tracking only his reversals since he announced his candidacy on June 16, 2015."  And that was before this recent double flip.  It's almost enough to make one question Donald Trump's suitability for the presidency.




















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Coverage That Can't Be Bought

It looks like it's working.

Donald Trump is not all lies and bravado and remarks which seem to undercut any chance of him attaining the presidency. Some moves have been tactically wise, including the media blacklist he initiated approximately.  According to CNN Money in June

In some cases, reporters from the offending outlets can still attend Trump campaign rallies as members of the general public, but without the access and privileges that press credentials provide. In other situations, like press conferences, the reporters cannot attend at all.

The news organizations blocked are Univision, BuzzFeed, Politico, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and the Des Moines Register.

Notably absent from that list is CNN, on whose website "Trump Brings Message of Unity To Black Church in Detroit." Really. There we learn

A subdued Donald Trump on Saturday directly addressed a largely African-American audience for the first time as a presidential candidate, delivering a warmly received message of unity that focused on fixing economic hardship in the black community.

Trump spoke to members of the Great Faith Ministries, a nondenominational church in Detroit, part of his outreach to what is typically a sizable Democratic voting bloc. His visit, however, was greeted by protests outside of the church ahead of his arrival.

Sitting in a pew at the front of the congregation, Trump took a selfie with a church member and at one point held up a baby over his shoulders. He then addressed the congregation.

What, no baby to kiss?  Reporters Eugene Scott and Ashley Killough continue

"For centuries, the African-American church has been the conscience of this country. So true," Trump said, reading from prepared remarks. He added, "The African-American faith community has been one of God's greatest gifts to America and its people."

Whatever the current standing of the black community in the USA, it is passing strange given that blacks in Africa became an African-American community by the process of slavery, a politician would refer to it as a gift from God.  Part of the great American mosaic, they were nonetheless given as a gift to white slaveholders, hardly a gift from God.

It was a slam at God which no one seemed to notice, as Trump was well-received both by the CNN reporters and church attendees, notwithstanding protesters outside the building. Neither did Bishop Wayne Jackson (January, 2014 video below), who had brought Trump to his church for a little politicking, draped a prayer shawl over the candidate's shoulders, and presented him with the evidently messianic Jewish Heritage Study Bible.










As a warning shot to any news outlet tempted to criticize the GOP candidate.Trump's attacks on the media are a strategic masterpiece. Similarly, visiting an African-American church may give to moderately conservative and centrist voters that warm, cozy feeling of voting for someone they believe (inaccurately, in this case) blacks are comfortable with. However, blacks are not likely to be swayed by a fellow who once stated of one of his employees “I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is; I believe that. It’s not anything they can control."

Perhaps "not anything they can control" is what passes for "compassionate conservatism" nowadays. Out of the mouth of David Duke, also a believer in inherent racial inferiority, it woud be recognized as "racism."  In the halls of CNN, however, a fellow who implored "oh, look at my African-American over here!" and tweets bogus statistics charging the black community wih being rife with murderers actually brings a heartfelt "message of unity."





                                                   HAPPY LABOR DAY






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