June 24, 2016

Is America Looking At Trump-Style Civil War? The Rhetoric Is Killing!

June 24, 2016/ Anne Enke

Will Trump Swallow the GOP Whole? The New York Times

Every week or so during the spring, I met with Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, at the party headquarters on Capitol Hill. We fell into a familiar routine. I would enter his office, usually chaperoned by Sean Spicer, the R.N.C.’s chief strategist and head of communications. Priebus has a healthy appreciation for gallows humor, which is not a bad thing for an R.N.C. chairman these days. “I haven’t started pouring Baileys in my cereal yet,” he says often enough that it has become a signature line. I would regularly break the ice with something sarcastic, like asking Priebus how his party’s Hispanic outreach program was going on the morning after the committee’s head of Hispanic outreach resigned rather than work another day for Donald Trump’s election. “The scent of party unity is in the air,” I said in May when Paul Ryan reported that he was “not there yet” on supporting Trump. “No, that’s incense,” Priebus said, pointing out that he had been burning some behind his desk.

As suits a man occupying what might be the toughest political job in America, Priebus does his best to stay availed of serene distractions. He plays jazz piano at home late at night and gazes into the 29-gallon saltwater fish tank that he keeps next to his desk. “You see that big eel?” Priebus asked one day, pointing out a black slithery creature on the bottom, before noting others. “That’s a yellow tang, hippo tang, a spotted puffer. There’s an anemone. An urchin. An orange clown fish.” He took a hunk of shrimp from a refrigerator and dangled it with a set of tongs into the water. A race to the bottom ensued as bits fell away and the fish vied for pieces of flesh. It was difficult to look away from the feeding frenzy. The big orange clown fish flailed at front and center. I asked Priebus if it reminded him of anyone. “That’s not funny,” he said with something between a slight grunt and chuckle.

Trump: More Goebbels Than Hitler?

Donald Trump Isn't Hitler - He's Like Goebbels The Daily Beast

It's too easy and a total exaggeration to compare Donald Trump with Hitler, writes Clive Irving. But to say that Trump shares a remarkable understanding of how to use the media to convince the populace to support his ideas with media genius Joseph Goebbels is not an exaggeration.

Goebbels was Hitler’s indispensable genius of spin. Long before the Nazis came to power, Goebbels understood what had to be done to gain that power. Fundamentally the German public needed to be made to happily acquiesce in the idea that the nation needed a demagogue to right its grievances.

Related: Why Trump Can't Become a Dictator Politico

Taking Down Huma Abedin (Again)

Trump Ally Clinton Aide Could Be Terrorist Agent Politico

As America faces the very real prospect of returning to the McCarthy era, Trump ally Roger Stone continues the top tactic of politicos in that era: guilt by insinuation.

Hillary Clinton chief aide Huma Abedin has already been accused by Republicans in 2012 of having pernicious ties to radical Islam and an anti-American agenda. Sen. John McCain condemned the attacks on Abedin.

Still, it's clear that Trump intends to attack Huma Abedin and HIllary Clinton visciously, holding his own modern-day McCarthy hearings by making speeches and calling into the morning shows, where he has a much larger platform.

“I also think that now that Islamic terrorism is going to be front and center, there’s going to be a new focus on whether this administration, the administration of Hillary Clinton at State was permeated at the highest levels by Saudi intelligence and others who are not loyal Americans," Stone said. "I speak specifically of Huma Abedin, the right-hand woman, now vice-chairman or co-chairman of vice—of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign."

Abedin was born in Michigan to an Indian father and a Pakistani mother. She moved with her family to Saudi Arabia at the age of two, and attended a British girls' school before returning to the United States for college.

Stone remarked upon reports from the likes of Breitbart, as well as Vanity Fair, The Atlantic and Harper's that Abedin "has very troubling ties to a man who was directly tied to funding terrorism, Abdullah Omar Nasseef. Now I have a very hard-hitting piece coming up in Breitbart that lays this out chapter and verse," Stone said, teasing out an upcoming article. "It’s not just Huma. It’s her mother and her father who are, who are hardcore Islamic ideologues, her brothers—“

After Orlando, It's Clearer than Ever: This Election Is a Civil War by Rebecca Traister New York Magazine

"On the night that Omar Mateen killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Donald Trump’s friend and former campaign adviser Roger Stone wrote a post on his website that was seemingly unrelated. It concerned Huma Abedin, a close aide to Hillary Clinton. In the brief post, Stone idly wondered if, in addition to being Clinton’s “chic gal pal,” Abedin might not also be a “Saudi Spy? ... Foreign Spy?” or “Terrorist plant?”

On any other day, after any other week, Stone’s comments might well have been written off as nothing more than his readily expressed bigotry. But at this juncture, they seemed in sync with the larger message that Stone’s compatriot Donald Trump was about to push through major media. Appearing on Fox News the morning after the shooting, Trump said of President Barack Obama’s refusal to use the words “radical Islamic terrorism”: “Look, we’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind. And the something else in mind — you know, people can’t believe it. People cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can’t even mention the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ There’s something going on. It’s inconceivable. There’s something going on.”

You don’t need to recall that Donald Trump got his political start with Republicans by waging a lengthy campaign to force our first African-American president to cough up a birth certificate to understand the Republican nominee’s suggestion that Obama is working with or supporting or at least sympathetic to Islamic terrorism. And you don’t need a roadmap to understand his ally Roger Stone — who on Monday took his show to the airwaves, arguing in a radio interview that “now that Islamic terrorism is going to be front and center, there’s going to be a new focus on whether ... the administration of Hillary Clinton at State was permeated at the highest levels by Saudi intelligence and others who are not loyal Americans” — was trying to cast similar doubt on the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, in this case via her long-time aide. “I speak specifically of Huma Abedin,” Stone said on Sirius radio, “the right-hand woman, now vice-chairman or co-chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.” He went on to describe Abedin — whose background is well known — in birther-esque terms of mystery. “She has a very troubling past. She comes out of nowhere. She seems to have an enormous amount of cash ... so we have to ask: Do we have a Saudi spy in our midst? Do we have a terrorist agent?”

These suggestions from both Trump and Stone are so brazen and grotesque in their bigotry and dishonesty that they might take your breath away were they not so in keeping with the tone and substance of the larger electoral war being waged around us as we turn a perilous corner toward the fall."

Hillary Clinton Headlines June 24, 2016

How the Rebel Flag Rose Again and Is Helping Trump Politico

British Voters Unleash a Transatlantic Tsunami Politico

Trump celebrates 'Brexit' vote: When the pound goes down, more people are coming to Turnberry Washington Post

Uprising in the Rust Belt Politico

The Re-Re-Re-Re-Reboot of Trump The Atlantic

Why Is Donald Trump Begging for Money As If He's Broke? The Atlantic

Defiant Sanders tells supporters: 'You can beat the establishment' The Hill

How Donald Trump May Have Wasted A Monthlong Advantage Over Hillary Clinton NPR

Clinton Aide: Trump Will Cause Economic Ice Age Politico

Apple won't aid GOP convention over Trump Politico

Is Donald Trump's Endgame the Launch of Trump News? Vanity Fair

Trump C-Chair to GOP: Support Him 'Or Just Shut the Hell Up' Politico

Paul Ryan Is Worried About A Constitutional Crisis But Supports Trump Anyway Vanity Fair

Donald Trump and the Art of the Nasty Political Nickname Politico

June 21, 2016

Clinton Seeks Rock Star Dem Convention AS Black Lawmakers Say 'No Way' To Ending Superdelegates

June 21, 2016/ Anne Enke

HIllary Clinton's lead in the polls may be larger than it seems. Here's Why. Washington Post

We know that one of the reasons the polls were wrong in the 2012 presidential campaign involved underestimating the voting power of minorities.

We know that the infamous Monmouth poll from 6 wks ago showing Trump tied or leading HIllary in swing states made assumptions about the % of Latino and African American voters voting in the 2016 presidential and significant assumptions around the DECLINE of so-called minority voters this year. There was the opposite trend in the primary voting data and new voter registration. To be fair, voter suppression laws are in effect since 2012. Monmouth estimated a combined reasons effective decrease of 4%, with a significant impact on results. Also, Bernie continued to draw white voters against Trump in greater #s than Clinton.

"Now, in 2016, it looks like many pollsters didn’t learn much from 2012.

Several polls suffer from flaws in how they sample Latinos. While large bilingual polls of Latino voters from outlets such as Latino Decisions and Univision/Washington Post have reported very little support for Donald Trump, other national polls that interview Latinos only in English show that 29 percent to 37 percent of Latinos will support Trump — better even than Romney fared. These polls also show Trump doing as well or better among Asian-Americans, compared to Romney. Some polls even estimate that 20 percent to 25 percent of blacks support Trump."

About Those Superdelegates, Bernie

Sanders collides with black lawmakers Politico

We suppose that if Bernie had good relations with black lawmakers, he would known that he's on a collision course with the Congressional Black Caucus with his proposals to 1) end superdelegates and 2) open Democratic primaries up to independents and Republicans

This isn't the first letter sent by the CBC to the Sanders campaign. A couple months ago the Caucus sent a letter demanding that Sanders stop describing Hillary's wins in the Southern states as not representative of the Democratic party and representing conservatives instead. I think Bernie was even complaining about Virginia -- although he did spare Massachusetts.

Simply stated, the CBC sent a defiant message to Bernie saying in spirit "Don't even think about it. It will never happen. Over our dead bodies." Philadelphia just got a whole lot more interesting and Senator Sanders is in the hot seat in a way that may surprise him.

Of course, if Bernie didn't spend his whole life lecturing us and reached out to members of the 'establishment' (that would be 98% of the members of Congress) and their colleagues, he would know that the CBC views his proposals as totally rascist, sexist and anti-LGBT community. Who have I forgotten? Sorry, just leave a comment.

No offence intended to the terrific men who are Hillary supporters. You understand what I'm sayin'. When you want to turn the Democratic party over to Republicans, you scare the crap out of every Democrat except white men who probably welcome the opportunity to get us all marching to their orders again. Bernie's strategy to recruit Republicans has scared the wits our of us since the day we heard about it a year ago in Rolling Stone ~ Anne

Grandma & Grandpa Clinton

Chelsea Clinton left New York's Lennox Hospital with husband Marc Mezvinsky and new baby boy Aidan on Monday afternoon. In tow were proud grandparents Hillary and Bill Clinton, who are "over the moon" with the birth of their second grandchild.

Clinton Seeks Rock-Star Convention Lineup Politico

The apparently broke Donald Trump campaign is promising true spectacle at the upcoming Republican Convention.His counterpart Hillary Clinton has a few tricks up her own sleeve, including reaching out to the Tony-Award-winning writer and star of the hit musical 'Hamilton' Lin-Manuel Miranda about appearing at the convention.

It's far from a done deal for Miranda, who will leave Broadway's 'Hamilton' on July 9 and is scheduled to be in London filming a Disney remake of 'Marry Poppins' the week of the convention.

Democratic convention entertainment will put extra focus on young voters, African-Americans and Latinos.

For the Democrats to follow Republicans is generally considered to be an advantage, writes Politico. But with Trump being Trump, it's already possible that he will dominate the stage every night in Cleveland.

'"He's a political Kardashian,” said Democratic strategist Tommy Vietor, a former aide to Obama. “His campaign has been the longest, grossest sex tape ever released.”

Some Democrats involved with the campaign worry that without big, out-of-the-box “moments,” Trump coverage — even if it’s negative — will seep into Clinton’s big week. And while Clinton seems to have found her footing attacking an opponent whose bare-bones campaign appears to be in free fall, her campaign still needs to put out a clear and positive message about the Democratic nominee. Entertaining acts can accentuate that, said Clinton allies."