Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

“woke” is the new caravan.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Republicans in disarray!

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

People are complicated. Love is not.

I really should read my own blog.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

The words do not have to be perfect.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Wonky Works

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Wonky Works

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Apart from committing to GOTV, what’s on the agenda for the day?

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171Comments

  3. 3.

    TS

    Joe is running so scared about his personal life. Yesterday emails all morning, today is the Clinton Foundation. It’s a “death knoll” for the campaign.
    My heavens they will never accept that the Clintons do good things.

    Click. Guess will have to wait for the ratings to sink again.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I think I slept on my wife’s pillow last night and caught her vertigo from it. Sucks.

    Speaking of the wife, she spent last night in Madrid after missing all of the connecting flights due to the mechanical difficulties they had on her flight out of Palma. Hopefully we will see her today. The Woofmeister is barely talking to me now and Miss Kitty won’t leave me alone.

  5. 5.

    Mustang Bobby

    @TS: As Richard Ben-Veniste (he of Watergate special prosecutor fame) noted, “Would you rather have an ex-president raising money to fight malaria or one who sits in his bathtub painting pictures of his toes?”

  6. 6.

    TS

    @Mustang Bobby: One was an illegitimate President (all non republicans fit this category) so obviously the toes are for the win.

    Must admit it is amusing to see the polls completely discount the earnest best attempts of “the team” to turn an A rated charity into something nefarious. They should stay with unskewing the polls.

  8. 8.

    Patricia Kayden

    I’ll wait until Trump’s “pivot” is fully appreciated by the electorate before celebrating these new polls. We’ll see if his “outreach” to the African American community actually works to make him more palatable to the White voters he’s actually appealing to. The media has been ecstatic with Trump’s ability to read (rather poorly) from teleprompters and stay on message so it will be interesting to see if his polls rise as a consequence.

  11. 11.

    Jeff Spender

    The gnashing of teeth and rending of garments from the Berners I know has commenced.

    It’s weird to see movements die before they begin.

  14. 14.

    MattF

    What the RWNJs hate about the Clinton Foundation is the word ‘Clinton’. That’s all there is to it.

  19. 19.

    Raven

    Whew anethesia and opioids can be weird. I didn’t sleep much (nice having BJ chats) but, when I did I was in the OR chatting with folks in full dress scrubs. All that Jazz redux!

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    You gotta be fucking kidding me.

    The organization is specifically scrutinizing the deaths of LaTonya Williams, 19, and her boyfriend, Jermaine Byrd, 22. They were run over by a car one evening in 2015 while walking on a sidewalk near Martin Luther King Drive and Kienlen Avenue. The driver wasn’t charged with a crime and didn’t have any points taken off her drivers license.

    ….

    Darica Robinson struck Williams and Byrd in a borrowed car when they were walking home from buying snacks at a nearby convenience store, according to an investigation report by St. Louis County police. Robinson, who was 19 at the time, stayed at the scene and called 911. While witnesses gave a conflicting account, she told police that an oncoming vehicle came “flying” toward her, forcing her to swerve across two lanes of oncoming traffic before jumping the curb, the report states. Robinson agreed to a sobriety test, which showed she was sober. She wasn’t texting or speaking on her cellphone right before the crash, according to test results noted in the investigation. St. Louis County prosecutors ultimately chose not to pursue criminal charges. But four traffic tickets were issued: speeding, failure to drive within a single lane, operating a motor vehicle without a valid drivers license and driving a vehicle without insurance.

    ….

    Robinson negotiated an agreement with prosecutor Sara Fuelling that amended the speeding ticket to a nonmoving, illegal parking violation; the other three citations were dismissed. Municipal Court Judge Craig Concannon signed off on the file.

    Well, duuuuuhhhhhh, you aren’t supposed to park on top of people. You know???

    St. Louis County Counselor Peter Krane, who oversees municipal court prosecutions, confirmed the information about the case and stood by the decisions. Because Robinson wasn’t charged with a crime, he said, the municipal court didn’t hold her accountable for the deaths either. He said Robinson’s driving credentials were updated before the municipal court matters were decided. He said she could have been speeding to avoid a head-on collision.

    Uhhh, you don’t speed up when faced with an oncoming vehicle, you just don’t. You swerve. Pretty safe to say she was already speeding when she swerved. But you know what the kicker is?

    Including court costs, Krane said the illegal parking violation fine to Robinson is $162.50. He said Robinson had not paid the ticket. A municipal court warrant has been issued for her arrest, which should be exercised the next time she is pulled over. “It’s troublesome,” Krane said, “because she didn’t live up to her side of the agreement in that sense.”

    Uh no asshole, it’s troubling because “She killed two people,” Pfremmer said. “She was not punished. She didn’t get any points off her license. Where is the justice? There is none.”

  25. 25.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    she told police that an oncoming vehicle came “flying” toward her, forcing her to swerve across two lanes of oncoming traffic before jumping the curb,

    I’m no scientist, but this sounds like she swerved atthe oncoming car rather than away from it. Unless they build roads differently in St. Louis.

  27. 27.

    Raven

    @Baud: the biggest whine was convincing my wife I needed to be on the couch for Me And not for her. I reclined in bed and fiddled with my iPad until 1am and then bolted. She maintains that having the tube on doesn’t bother her but it bothers me because I don’t buy it!

  29. 29.

    Mustang Bobby

    @Raven: Yeah, I was in here around 3:15. I’m usually up at that hour writing at BBWW. I saw the thread about the earthquake and popped in. How are you doing? All systems functioning within normal parameters?

  30. 30.

    debbie

    @TS:

    The focus on the foundation needs to pivot from donor access to accomplishments. A few well-timed tweets with numbers would be a big help.

  31. 31.

    debbie

    @Raven:

    Nothing more warped than the brain! Some mornings, I cannot believe what it put me through during the night.

    Glad you’re doing well. Hope the soreness passes quickly.

  36. 36.

    NorthLeft12

    @Baud: I just don’t see that Trump will ever lose his [ahem] base. Those crazy asshats have nowhere else to go, and worse, have a much better handle on what Trump is all about than those polite bigots that Trump is making a pitch for now.

    Although let me clarify one thing, Trump’s base has no idea that they are being conned. They think the con is on [or will be on] everyone else.

    As Mark Twain said; “It is easier to fool a man, than to convince him that he has been fooled.”

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Raven: I once had a dream like that. My 1 yr old son was on the gurney when all of the doctors and nurses took on a very dark visage and began circling him, while chanting in some evil language. I grabbed him up and held him tight all the while whispering in his ear, “I won’t let them get you. I won’t let them get you…”

    In the last 40 years or so, it was the only nightmare I actually wanted to wake up from.

  39. 39.

    Mustang Bobby

    @NorthLeft12: I had to listen to Robert Seigel (sp) on All Things Considered fawningly interview Trump supporters in central PA yesterday afternoon. They all think he’s flawed but will “get things done.” Some even allowed as how they don’t like what he’s said about the Khans but he’s still better than that evil Hillary.

    I get it that NPR feels an obligation to cover the GOP, but not bloody enable them.

  41. 41.

    debbie

    @NorthLeft12:

    If Trump vacillates on immigration, they’ll definitely leave him, but they’ll probably just stay home or skip voting for president.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Raven: @Baud: Well, as I always say, “When I’m in pain by God somebody’s gonna know about it!” Right about then the wife tells me to STFU.

  47. 47.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @NorthLeft12:
    I’m not sure of that. His whole attraction was that they finally had a raging, openly racist asshole to vote for. His voters are specifically sick and tired of dog whistles.

    But then, I don’t think this will last. Trump has no discipline, and his advisors are now trying to keep him hidden so he doesn’t do the only thing he knows how.

  48. 48.

    TS

    @debbie: Some folks have been doing that – but going to the google to find it is impossible given the current negatives on display. It apparently returns 88% of funds raised to charity work – which compared to most GOP fund raising is quite amazing. I have no doubt there are people out there talking the good side (like James Carville)
    “What the Clinton Foundation does, it takes money from rich people and it gives it to poor people. Most people think that’s a pretty good idea,” Carville told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

  50. 50.

    amk

    Recently saw a NV poll, which was tight with she devil only up by two points. Any reason why nvians think donnie dick is any good for them?

  51. 51.

    Kay

    Ohio’s plan to add some quality controls for charter schools is delayed yet again, after Republican legislators on Monday blamed the Ohio Department of Education for mishandling evaluations of charter oversight organizations known as “sponsors” and blocked them from going forward.

    Kasich and the GOP announced that they were “reforming” charter schools last spring. Much bill-signing and back-slapping, many photographs. Since then, they’ve been quietly gutting their own law by weakening the rules attached to it and now they’ve all but killed it. In August. Off the front page.

    Local media are (finally) getting it, but they’re still missing the extent of it. There aren’t just charter school operators who are involved and lobbying. Charters outsource everything. There are accounting firm contracts and law firm contracts and janitorial contracts and food service contracts. Layers and layers of contracts at each school or school chain. It’s an entire publicly-funded industry.

  53. 53.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Raven: Damn, that’s far worse. At the time of my dream my son was having difficulties and they thought he had cystic fibrosis, after 3 borderline results the 4th result was finally far enough from the line to convince them he didn’t.

  54. 54.

    Raven

    Great, the tree guys are coming! I’m not calling them off because it’s tough to get them with the storms and downed trees we have been having.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    Members of Congress are in an unusual position as they demand an explanation for Mylan NV’s 400 percent price hike for the EpiPen and focus attention squarely on its CEO: Heather Bresch.
    If lawmakers follow the usual script, Bresch could get called up to Capitol Hill next month to explain her company’s justification for raising the price on the life-saving allergy shot. But that could be awkward, since she’s the daughter of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
    While Bresch’s family ties may mute the ire of some lawmakers, others are already asking the company about taxpayers having to foot the bill for these price increases — particularly after Bresch and the company successfully pushed legislation to encourage use of the EpiPen in schools nationwide.

    Good going, Democrats. Awesome. Democrats pushed public schools to buy the pens and then a Democratic Senator’s daughter immediately raised the price 400%.

  60. 60.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Have you seen the ads by ECOT? Absolute bullshit and total distortion of the facts, yet there’s been no response.

    By the way, I read yesterday’s morning thread long after it was dead, and you were/are right. Clinton needs a press conference with a format of statement/questions. Definitively address the emails and now add statistics about the Clinton Foundation. Good on you.

  61. 61.

    satby

    @Kay: I wish someone would start investigating the k-12 corporation and it’s effect on schools. Most of the public schools around this part of Michiana use that, and I don’t think people even realize that their entire public school system ha been outsourced and privatized.

  63. 63.

    craigie

    @OzarkHillbilly: I wish this was the only case like this, but the truth is, if you want to kill someone, run them over. Chances are nothing bad will happen to you.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @Kay: Meh. Unless there is evidence of collusion, I’m not holding even Machine responsible for his children’s actions.

  66. 66.

    satby

    @Kay: How is that the fault of the Democratic party? That would be one greedy, nominally Democratic family.
    Republicans never accuse their entire party for the many high profile outrages a Republican might commit, it’s always just that individual. We shouldn’t tar the entire Democratic party for the actions of a family member of one.

  68. 68.

    Kay

    @satby:

    California did investigate the K12 stand-alone schools:

    Facing a torrent of accusations, a for-profit company that operates taxpayer-funded online charter schools throughout California has reached a $168.5 million settlement with the state over claims it manipulated attendance records and overstated its students’ success.
    The deal, announced Friday by Attorney General Kamala Harris, comes almost three months after the Bay Area News Group published an investigation of K12 Inc., a publicly traded Virginia company, which raked in more than $310 million in state funding over the past 12 years operating a profitable but low-performing network of “virtual” schools for about 15,000 students.

    You’re right though, stand-alone isn’t a big enough market so they push it into public schools too. The investigations can’t keep up with the industry. They’re always a couple of years behind.

    They should stop settling so much. We need some trials. People perceive these settlements as companies buying their way out of trouble. It looks bad to settle everything. It looks like two-tier justice.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @satby:

    Because they should have done more due diligence before pushing purchases in publicly-funded entities, like schools. I blame Democrats because they vastly expanded the market without anticipating that this company would take that guaranteed market and jack up the price.

  71. 71.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:

    Run up the score…GOTV

    I have a pretty busy day ahead today, so can I just say, “Amen” here and I’ll check in w/ y’all later. :)

  72. 72.

    evodevo

    @rikyrah: If the Presidential looks like a blowout, time to concentrate on those down-ticket races, and get the idiots out of Congress …

  73. 73.

    scav

    @amk: Allez le Canada! C’est une honte pour la France, l’idée que l’essence même d’une femme française c’est d’être nue sûr la plage.

  75. 75.

    Mustang Bobby

    @satby: Charter schools — in Florida, at least — are the Republicans’ perfect plot: take money away from “government” schools and give them to their friends who create companies that make Trump U look like Harvard in terms of accountability and transparency.

  77. 77.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: Heavens! What did she have to do to be punished for killing two human beings? Outrageous that she walked away with such a small fine (which she hasn’t even paid).

    @Kay: Personally, I don’t see why the fact that she’s Manchin’s daughter should play any role in Legislators’ outrage of the jacking up of the price for the EpiPen. She needs to be called before Congressional committees to explain the price hike and I’d say the same even if she was Malia or Sasha Obama.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    I didn’t see it but a GOP state senator who supported increased regulation mentioned it – “national laughingstock”. She’s a newer legislator and I think she’s naive. She managed to get some GOP members for vote for it, but I knew they’d quietly gut it. The administrative rules are the operation of the thing. That’s where the lobbying magic happens. She’ll learn.

    I hate to say it but Pennsylvania is arguably worse than Ohio, and Michigan is also terrible, along with Florida….

  79. 79.

    bemused

    @Raven:

    Glad to hear you did fine overnight. Just don’t get too involved overseeing the tree removal folks today.

    One of our sons is on vacay in Finland and sent a pic of a sweet Samoyed he met, reminding me of your Bohdi Sammy genes. He showed Sammy’s owner pics of the three Sams in our family.

  83. 83.

    Patricia Kayden

    @scav: Come on now. Stop showing off. What the hell did you just say? I can understand bits and pieces but need you to translate.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Well, it is good policy but public schools are a kind of dumping ground for every policy. They get everything on their plate. A public school system can’t replace the lack of a public health system. Lawmakers dump everything on them. It’s fucking impossible to do all these things well. They set them up to fail.

    It’s like they sit around and identify a problem and then say “I know- give it to public schools to solve!” No one follows up or asks if they have the capacity or funding to perform the 50 new mandates or “suggestions” every year.

  86. 86.

    bemused

    @amk:

    Horrified by the effort to ban burkinis in France. WTH! Hope that idea doesn’t migrate to our haters here.

  88. 88.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I think schools should be more aggressive, demand more. If they get new bullying and new epipen and new duties on psychological screening along with higher standards on academics they need more money. They can’t be the dumping ground for all public policy initiatives that are good or needed or desirable. 33 states have cut public school funding since 2008 and 50 states and the federal government have added mandate after mandate. Something has to give.

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Davebo: I can assure you, it has, and not all for the better according to my wife. Still very beautiful to me tho. My favorite thing to do when there is to just go off and wander by my lonesome in some place where nobody but a local would ever go.

  91. 91.

    scav

    @Patricia Kayden: Steaming enough long term to inflict my faaaaaaaar from perfect, let alone pride worthy French on yelling at those mean craven hatred-pandering idiots en La France pourii directly. Spitting on their two-fer reduction of the very essence of French womanhood into sitting naked on beach because that’s the line their actively wrestling people to the ground over. Their so-called principle of liberté has been shaky for a long time, repeatedly, but they haul the jack-boots out because women aren’t disrobed enough to suit their prejudices.

  92. 92.

    bemused

    @Raven:

    Issue for me too at times. Texting with several friends, one mentioned her two daughters when young sang a song to their grampa that started out “Oh, oh, penI$”. Didn’t hear about gramps reaction but my clumsy fingers reply typed dong instead of song. I swear these stupid typos are directed by outside evil forces.

  93. 93.

    Baud

    @Kay: Fair enough. The military should be our jobs program either. But good policy is impossible right now when it goes outside established paradigms.

  95. 95.

    Cat48

    @amk:

    Polls in NV are sometimes wrong bc the Hispanics are not polled properly. Some prefer to speak Spanish & regular pollsters don’t pick them up. The polls always showed Sen. Reid losing, but his machine turned folks out. Colorado is usually like that too, Obama was in the MOE in 2012, but won handily.

  96. 96.

    hovercraft

    Mornin’ Joe is stunned to discover that the Clintons were so unconcerned about the appearance of corruption. They don’t care, they were more concerned about the business of making money. Nicole and Joe say that now the AP and the NY Times are now validating the book Clinton Cash. If she had any other opponent, she’d be DOA. The Clintons are just above the law. They played clips from Trump last night where he is lying and calling her names, without comment, except to say he is hammering her. Now were back to the Lincoln bedroom and foreign donations. Now they are lauding Maureen Dowd and Ron Fournier (both democrats) as being always right about them.

  99. 99.

    eclare

    @Kay: Did you see John Oliver’s piece from this past Sunday on charter schools? If you go to Youtube and google that, you should be able to pull up the video. And yes, a lot of the piece is specifically on Ohio laws governing them.

  105. 105.

    nonynony

    @Kay:

    I think schools should be more aggressive, demand more.

    The problem is that public schools are a fractured system organized at not even at the state level. Which means that collective action by schools is incredibly difficult. And that’s before you get into the fact that a number of jokers who get elected to school boards don’t even believe in collective action and will moan about “unfunded mandates” but as soon as you propose “well, why don’t we band together with other schools in this state and sue the state/lobby the state for funding for those mandates” they suddenly pivot to screaming about socialism and whatnot.

    The public schools are a dumping ground because they’re the one place in the system with no power to actually fight back. And even when they do fight back they often win superficial victories that never amount to anything real of consequence (remember in the 90s when the Ohio Supreme Court ruled our school funding system unconstitutional something like 3 times? And see how much the funding system has changed since then? That’s another reason there’s little to no pushback on things – even the folks sympathetic to the idea of banding together to push back don’t think it would do any good.)

  106. 106.

    Raven

    @eclare: Fine, lots of nice comments about the house, garden and food. It was also there 10 anniversary so my wife and the other “founder” gave little speeches. The best thing? Over!

  108. 108.

    Cat48

    @hovercraft:

    I watched Mrs. Greenspan yesterday and she & Bob Shrum got into a fight over Clinton Foundation. The fight ended with her saying the FBI is looking into the Clinton Foundation. SO. There is video at Real Clear Politics if anyone is interested.
    I don’t know what to think. Mitchell says Pete Williams told her. View it if you want. I don’t know what to think.

  109. 109.

    Kay

    @nonynony:

    I was on a school committee and I learned a lot. Not “school board”- they’re elected- I was appointed.

    Some of these things are worthwhile, but choices have to be made. Bullying is a problem. We should be past allowing people to torture other people in school. Our worst bullying incident happened on a bus. The driver has a 30 year perfect safety record- because she drives– she does one thing. So should we hire 40 adults for two shifts so the bus drivers can drive and what should we cut to do that? The school psychologist? She’s expensive but wonderful. It’s like triage.

  111. 111.

    Emma

    @Cat48: Comey has to do maximum damage now to hide the unprofessional, biased way he handled the email situation. He has to find a justification for what he did. It’s Whitewater all over again.

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @Emma:

    Agreed. I had no idea why he was pontificating up there. State the facts and get off the stage. I don’t trust him now and I don’t think anyone else should either. It amazes me how easily they piss away institutional credibility. Like it has no value.

  115. 115.

    Gin & Tonic

    Ukraine marks 25 years of independence today. It remains perilous. Remarkable how many other countries take this status for granted, but nothing is ever guaranteed.

  117. 117.

    Cat48

    @Emma:

    Well, if he is investigating, he has been more quiet about it. I don’t trust Mitchell anymore bc she has coddled Trump & his supporters too much. I’m not voting Trump, I’m voting Hillz. They were glad to let Gov McDonnell go for his meetings & gifts he received.

  119. 119.

    Elizabelle

    @Mustang Bobby: Heard that one on NPR too, and winced. Hadn’t realized white men supporting Trump were an undercovered interview subject.

    One of the men said he might have voted for Hillary five years ago, but “emailz.”

    Liar. That one is supporting Trump because of his business acumen and ability to staff with top people.

    Uh huh.

  120. 120.

    D58826

    @Cat48: And the FBI isn’t investigating Trumps business practices, esp his alleged ties to the mob in Atlantic City? Since Christie is so het up on special prosecutors maybe he should appoint one to look into his pals alleged mob ties.

  121. 121.

    Cat48

    @Kay:

    I agree about the pontificating. My spouse was outraged, also when he gave the GOP her interview. He’s certain that has never been done for one individual.

  122. 122.

    D58826

    If the FBI wants to make itself useful maybe they should investigate ‘How did an EpiPen get to costing $600’?

  123. 123.

    rikyrah

    US women’s gymnastics team flips over Broadway’s ‘Hamilton’

    NEW YORK (AP) — How do you follow winning Olympic gold at the Rio Olympics? How about a chance to see “Hamilton” on Broadway?

    The Tony Award-winning smash musical on Tuesday night welcomed the U.S. women’s gymnastics team — Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Madison Kocian and Laurie Hernandez — who gave the show a standing ovation and greeted the cast onstage afterward at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.

    The gymnasts, dressed in skirts and rompers, sat together in Row G to take in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop-flavored biography about the first U.S. treasury secretary, a night that had athletic gold meeting theatrical gold.

    “I thought you were amazing,” Raisman told Tony Award-nominee Brandon Victor Dixon, who just happened to be making his debut appearance replacing Tony Award-winner Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr.

    “Gymnastics is my favorite Olympic sport, hands-down. Since the days of Kim Zmeskal, I’ve been about the U.S. gymnastics team. So, I love these ladies. I’m so proud of them. I worship them. I think they’re amazing and I got so hyped when I heard they were in the audience tonight,” Dixon said.

  125. 125.

    Cat48

    @D58826:

    The day after Manafort quit, CNN reported that the Justice Department & FBI is investigating him and the two lobbying firms that received overseas money, etc. That’s probably why he resigned. I haven’t seen anything else about the inv.

  128. 128.

    rikyrah

    Can Trump Get Any Less Support from African Americans?
    What Trump is actually saying during his so-called “outreach.”
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    August 23, 2016 3:40 PM

    I can’t honestly describe Donald Trump’s so-called “outreach” to African Americans as a joke – because it’s not funny. But it certainly isn’t serious. As Ed Kilgore wrote the other day, his appeal to Black voters is actually directed at White voters. Here’s a great example:

    Trump’s fundamental pitch to African-Americans was the hoariest of all conservative cross-racial appeals: the “plantation” meme whereby black folk are scolded as suckers for supporting a Democratic Party interested only in their votes and in keeping them dependent on government.

    Yep. Nothing more, nothing less that Mitt Romney’s “free stuff.”

    But over the last couple of days, Trump and his supporters have managed to dig the ditch even deeper. Last night on the O’Reilly Factor, the Republican nominee basically alluded to giving a wink and a nod to police brutality.

    Pushed by Fox News host Bill O’Reilly to provide specifics on curbing violent crime in cities like Chicago, Donald Trump said Monday that he would simply put “tough” cops in charge.

    “So, specifically, specifically. How do you do it? How do you do it?” O’Reilly asked.

    “I know police in Chicago,” Trump replied. “If they were given the authority to do it, they would get it done.”

    “How? How?” O’Reilly pressed.

    “You have unbelievable—how? By being very much tougher than they are right now,” Trump said. “They are right now not tough. I mean, I could tell you this very long and quite boring story but when I was in Chicago, I got to meet a couple of very top police. I said, ‘How do you stop this? How do you stop this? If you were put in charge,’ to a specific person, ‘Do you think you could stop it?’ He said, ‘Mr. Trump, I would be able to stop it in one week.’ And I believed him 100 percent.”

    That gives Trump a modicum of deniability if anyone accuses him of promoting police brutality. But everyone knows exactly what he means – just like we knew what he was referring to when he suggested that “2nd amendment people” have a way of dealing with Hillary Clinton. This has been Trump’s racialized message all along. From the time he called for the death penalty for black and brown teenagers who were falsely accused in the Central Park murder to his law and order message at the Republican Convention, he’s been consistent on this one.

  129. 129.

    rikyrah

    Can the Democrats Win the House?
    A Clinton win doesn’t guarantee realignment, but it could be a first step.
    by Martin Longman
    August 23, 2016 11:58 AM

    Nate Cohn:

    Mrs. Clinton is up by around seven percentage points in polling averages. But historically, a seven-point victory for the president’s party in the national popular vote is not the way to start a wave election. Richard Nixon’s huge victory in 1972 didn’t give Republicans the House. Neither Ronald Reagan nor George H.W. Bush took the House in 1984 or 1988. Bill Clinton didn’t retake the House in 1996.

    The president’s party had down-ballot success in those elections, but gains were generally modest.

    A Hillary Clinton landslide, though, might be likelier to result in a big shift in the House than in the past. That’s because the relationship between presidential and down-ballot vote choice has tightened. In 2012, President Obama’s share of the vote tracked very closely with the result of contested House races, albeit with Democratic and Republican incumbents tending to do a bit better. This is a long-term trend.

    This is only a very small piece of the puzzle, but it’s an important one. There is less ticket-splitting than there used to be, so where a presidential candidate wins, members of their own party tend to win, too. More so than in the past, anyway.

  130. 130.

    rikyrah

    How the AP Spun the Story About the Clinton Foundation
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    August 24, 2016 9:19 AM

    The Associated Press has just shown us why it is important to be vigilant in how we consume the news as it is reported. They took some interesting information they gathered and spun it into something it wasn’t…scandalous. Here is their lead-in introduction:

    More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money – either personally or through companies or groups – to the Clinton Foundation. It’s an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president.

    At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its international programs, according to a review of State Department calendars released so far to The Associated Press. Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million.

    ……………………………………….

    In other words, what it comes down to is “it just plain looks bad.” That is basically what most every drummed up “scandal” against Hillary Clinton comes down to: from the perspective of the people judging her – it looks bad. Welcome to the world of optics as scandal.

    One way to look at this is that the AP spun the story they wanted to tell about this information. That happens almost all the time and we often don’t notice. To clarify how that happened here, note first of all the AP headline: “Many Donors to Clinton Foundation Met With Her at State.” As Adam Khan points out – that’s actually not true.

  131. 131.

    rikyrah

    A Shift in Battlegrounds
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    August 19, 2016 9:00 AM

    …………………….

    Here is where it gets interesting. If you include the non-battleground blue states that Democrats have historically won with wins in that first four (where Clinton has big leads), she’s already at 272 electoral votes. Did you see what we did there? Clinton could lose Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and Nevada and still win. That is how overwhelming the Democratic majority is in the electoral college right now. The much-ballyhooed battlegrounds are gravy and – at least in the era of Trump – Democrats are starting to play on Republican turf (Georgia and Arizona). Beyond that, states like Texas and South Carolina are trending towards being battlegrounds.

    Certainly some of this is related to a distaste for Donald Trump. But it is also the beginning of a big shift in how demographics will change the electoral map. The new battlegrounds are states where we also see significant increases in the number of people of color. Trump’s insistence on a strategy of ramping up the white vote combined with Clinton’s excellent work with people of color is accelerating a shift in battlegrounds that was already underway.

  133. 133.

    Kay

    @Cat48:

    My spouse was once a prosecutor and he said “oh, not good form. Why is he still talking?” Cringe-worthy behavior.

  134. 134.

    D58826

    @Cat48: Had seen that about Manafort but was wondering about ‘old little hands’ himself, esp with the casinos in AC.

  136. 136.

    Cat48

    I was out looking at news & this was funny — Preibus says he’s certain that the new, improved Trump will tie or pass Hillz in the polls by Labor Day. The National Polls where Clinton is ahead by 6pts. We will see. As long as we lead in Battlegrounds, not too worried about Nationals. Rombot once had a huge Natl lead.

  137. 137.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @rikyrah: As a person who has managed the finances of nonprofit organizations, I can tell you that the level of required disclosures is very high – the annual IRS 990 filing demands much more in disclosures than corporate returns. If there was anything fishy with the Clinton Foundation itself, that would have come out long ago. To the contrary, the foundation appears to be a well-run organization with minimal overhead that actually delivers services according to its charitable intents.

    As for the meetings, high-profile people meet with each other all the time. It’s how that world rolls. Nobody has mentioned even a whiff of a quid pro quo…it’s just the Clinton name that arouses suspicion…because, you know, Clinton. Nothing to see here. But the press continues to enable by innuendo. Sigh.

  139. 139.

    Miss Bianca

    @hovercraft: Wow, that sounds just like what some troll was saying here the other day. When did left-wing trolls start taking their talking points from right-wing talk show hosts? Or has this always been a thing?

  141. 141.

    Ben Cisco

    @MattF: Not quite all. They’re 1) using money from rich people to 2) benefit people of color who 3) aren’t part of the moneyed elite. That’s all three of their sweet spots in one disgusting package.

  142. 142.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Cat48:

    Rombot once had a huge Natl lead.

    Not really. It got close a couple of times, and some individual polls had him ahead. There did seem to be a general pro-Romney bias of a point or two in national polling, for reasons nobody has really understood.

    Trump isn’t doing as well.

  143. 143.

    shomi

    That is still not good enough. I will not be happy unless Trump EC is in double digits. Too much to hope for I know.

    A media echo chamber meme that Clinton may be the first person in our lifetimes to win without needing important battleground states would be kind of nice and demoralizing for Repubs right about now.

  144. 144.

    hovercraft

    @Raven: @bemused:
    She’s actually not in France, it’s their running gag, anytime she ahs a day off they say she’s in some “exotic” place to imply that she’s an elitist.

  145. 145.

    Emma

    @Cat48: My own reasoning exactly. She was never trustworthy to begin with — she’s so conventional in her thinking she probably still wears drawers instead of panties. And she never has given me any reason to think she can think outside her box.

  146. 146.

    hovercraft

    @rikyrah:
    As virtually every black talking head has pointed out, the only people willing to give him any credit for this will we white.

  149. 149.

    shomi

    Yesterday was awesome. Started out with the media trying to say polls are tighening…it’s a horse race yada yada. Trumps new strategy working blah blah probably because some poll somewhere if looked at upside down in just the right light with just the right amount of ‘unskewing’ said so. Then BAM….BAM. A poll from Washington Post and then another one from Reuters shows Clintons lead widening. Bigfooting the other stories.

    It was a beautiful thing.

  150. 150.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @shomi: I’ve never watched MJ and only know of its existence through this blog. Speaking as a sample of one, I doubt the show has much direct impact on the general electorate. It probably serves more as a barometer of current media talking points anti-Clinton smears.

    ETA: I just learned how to do strike-throughs. A proud moment for me. And the world yawns. :)

  151. 151.

    Patricia Kayden

    @shomi: The media is desperate for a horse race. Unfortunately for them, one Candidate is completely bonkers so there probably will be no horse race this time around. Sad.

  152. 152.

    catclub

    @JPL: The default is that 1. pedestrians or bicyclists are in the way and probably at fault.
    2. The car is so necessary to life that taking it away can only be done with overwhelming evidence, and if your lawyer is also incompetent..

    You had one job: Don’t kill people with the two ton moving object you are driving.

  155. 155.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    ETA: I just learned how to do strike-throughs. A proud moment for me. And the world yawns. :)

    c̸o̸n̸g̸r̸a̸t̸u̸l̸a̸t̸i̸o̸n̸s̸!

  156. 156.

    Hal

    @shomi: Chris Matthews mentioned a couple of days ago that there was a national poll or two showing a little movement, but state polls (where the election is actually won) did not. One of his guests from 538 made the point that Obama was leading Romney in state polls, and those turned out to be very accurate.

  157. 157.

    Hal

    I saw a post from a friend today; a friend who is very gay, very liberal, and living the life with his boyfriend. Very supportive, but conservative family, father is not a Trump supporter. But, he absolutely thinks Hillary has killed people. The post the father had up was all about the trail of bodies, Hillary’s murdered several “top” people this year, all apparently had some key post at the DNC, or were going to testify with the FBI etc. There really is nothing you can do about this, but this is one of my only trepidation’s about November. Some people, and they are not all Trumpsters, really believe every bad thing, every conspiracy, about her.

  158. 158.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    That single-character strike-through is really ugly. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. That way lies “13 exotic fonts on a flyer” madness.

  161. 161.

    glory b

    @Kay: Heather with the lies about her non existent graduate degree (she kept her job, the WVU admin who aided in the falsification got fired), the staunch patriot who “regretfully” moved Mylan’s official HQ to Ireland because of the onerous US taxes it would pay, who’s bluest of blue dog father had an ad in which he shot up a copy of the Affordable Care Act, that Heather???

    No!!!

  164. 164.

    Kay

    @glory b:

    Heather with the lies

    I love local background. It’s my favorite thing.

    They’re so godammned greedy. 50 million US children attend public schools. Every school will buy these, because no school wants to be the idiot school that didn’t take simple measures to avoid a tragedy.

    That’s not enough for them though- they have to jack up the price 400%.

  165. 165.

    J R in WV

    @Raven:

    All you have to do is point and wave, right?

    Shouldn’t be strenuous at all, just get a chair in the right spot, where they can see you waving and pointing. And hear you yelling. When the chain saw isn’t running.

    Glad you’re doing well. I slept like a log after my surgeries. Not the first night in the hospital, the next night at home. So tonight you should be good to go.

    I read and listened to their TV channel with classical music. It started to repeat after a couple of hours.

  166. 166.

    Anonymous patient

    @Kay:

    Joe Manchin is probably the most corrupt member of the senate. My ex-cop (retired LT) buddy believes he is mobbed up. All the WV cops think that.

    His daughter got a MBA at WVU without going to class or taking any tests, just was awarded one – so she could become CEO of Mylan. Since Dad was the Gobernator, no problem.

    So honesty is a family thing. And so raising the price of a really inexpensive drug by hundreds of percent, no problemo. After all, that profit margin drives the bonus AND the payroll numbers.

  167. 167.

    catclub

    @Kay: I think a much better way to raise the price is simply cut the time until you have to dispose of old ones in half – That silently doubles the price.* Then make sure to notify buyers that there pens have expired and they need to buy new ones.

    *{Assumes that most epipens are not used, but sit around waiting for use, this assumption could be in error.}

  168. 168.

    ruckus

    @TS:
    The whole point of conservative charities is that they aren’t giving money to the poor. They don’t care about inefficiency/efficiency if they did they’d give to the government, in taxes, which is far more efficient. The Clinton Foundation is efficient, that’s not good to them.

  169. 169.

    Splitting Image

    @amk:

    Canada’s Mounties allow women in uniform to wear hijabs.

    Collective murkan & french heads essplosion.

    Good for the Mounties!

    Canada! Leading the world in tolerance since… since.. well, I guess since October of last year. Was that beady-eyed weasel really in charge for nine whole years? Feels like a bad dream.

  170. 170.

    JustRuss

    That picture by Reuters tells you everything you need to know about our media and the horse race. That’s one of the best pictures of Trump I’ve seen in this campaign, and one of the worst of Clinton. But I’m sure that wasn’t intentional.

  171. 171.

    catclub

    @ruckus:

    The Clinton Foundation is efficient, that’s not good to them.

    The states blocking medicaid claiming it would bankrupt the state account forthe value of any improvement in the health of its citizens
    as Zero.

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