"There are two kinds of people who support Hillary. Those that have worked for her. And those that have worked for Trump."So succinct. So packed with meaning through a simple contrast.
Ralph
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Bill Clinton is still the best politician out there
Bill Clinton was on Trevor Noah's Daily Show, where he had the best line of the day. It went something like this:
Ralph
Ralph
Trump may have over-played his hand this time. Angry news panelists admit on air: "We got played."
Donald Trump has been playing coy with the media for several days now. Will he? Or won't he? Admit that he was wrong about President Obama's birth place. He was the chief of the "birther" movement, even claiming once that he sent people to Hawaii to investigate -- and "they can't believe what they're finding." Of course, there were no such people. There was a perfectly valid birth certificate as well as a newspaper announcement of the birth. But he kept it up until today. Trump was playing not only the media but the American people.
Donald Trump lacks the gene, or rather the character, to ever admit that he was wrong. Still, his surrogates (Rudi Guiliani and Mike Pence) have both addressed the question this week and acknowledged that Obama is a natural born U.S. citizen. All that was left was for Trump himself to publicly admit it -- which he hinted that he would do -- promising a big announcement about it at a press conference on Friday at his new hotel in Washington.
Which, of course, guaranteed that cable news programs would go live to cover the hotel opening. And -- big surprise -- he never uttered any words closely resembling "I was wrong" or "I'm sorry." After bragging on his new hotel (under budget and ahead if deadline, another lie), then for 20 minutes allowing some veterans to praise him, he finally made his announcement on Obama's birth; and here is what he said . . . it took all of 30 seconds:
John King, who interviewed Trump the day that Obama produced his birth certificate, was irate. “After four or five years of leading a fraudulent and reckless campaign against the legitimacy of the United States president, you got, what, about six or seven words from Donald Trump?" Berman chimed in, "And none of those words were ‘I’m sorry, I apologize.’ Or explaining why he ever questioned the birth status of the United States president.”
We'll see how long this story lasts. At least CNN seems aghast (finally) and abashed that they got played . . . once again. By promising a big announcement, Trump got live cable coverage of his hotel opening, plus 30 minutes or so of basking in praise. They would never have broadcast that live, except for his teaser of big news coming. Then he stuck it to them with a little 30 second sound bite that created lies, yet only a perfunctory statement that Obama was born in the U.S.. No explanation for why it took him five years; no apology. Then he would not take questions. So he flat-out lied in calling it a "press conference." They were played, and they know it.
The only apt metaphor that occurs to me is Lucy and the old football trick from the "Peanuts" cartoon strip. Is this finally enough for the media to say "enough?" Or will they be Charlie Brown, so trusting and always believing Lucy when she promises that, this time, she really means it. She won't jerk away the football just as Charlie Brown runs forward to kick it. But then she always does. And he always falls flat on his back.
Ralph
Late note: Following that press event, where he took no questions, Trump led a tour of the hotel. He let the press pool camera come along but refused to allow the pool reporter to come, further avoiding any questions. So the networks have all refused to air the video footage of the tour. It's a first pushback from the media. Will they stop fawning over him now?
Last night on MSNBC, David Korn suggested that this may have crossed the line with the mainstream media, because they have been much more direct since then in using the word "lies" about what he says.
Donald Trump lacks the gene, or rather the character, to ever admit that he was wrong. Still, his surrogates (Rudi Guiliani and Mike Pence) have both addressed the question this week and acknowledged that Obama is a natural born U.S. citizen. All that was left was for Trump himself to publicly admit it -- which he hinted that he would do -- promising a big announcement about it at a press conference on Friday at his new hotel in Washington.
Which, of course, guaranteed that cable news programs would go live to cover the hotel opening. And -- big surprise -- he never uttered any words closely resembling "I was wrong" or "I'm sorry." After bragging on his new hotel (under budget and ahead if deadline, another lie), then for 20 minutes allowing some veterans to praise him, he finally made his announcement on Obama's birth; and here is what he said . . . it took all of 30 seconds:
“Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. I finished it. You know what I mean. President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.”The CNN news team, which covered it live, were particularly livid. “We got played,” they admitted on air. Jake Tapper was blunt: “Those are two factually false statements. . . . She and her campaign never, never started the birther issue. Second, Donald Trump did not end the birther issue.” John Berman pointed out that, in 2011, Trump made this his "signature issue. . . . No one has gone as far as Donald Trump on the birther issue."
John King, who interviewed Trump the day that Obama produced his birth certificate, was irate. “After four or five years of leading a fraudulent and reckless campaign against the legitimacy of the United States president, you got, what, about six or seven words from Donald Trump?" Berman chimed in, "And none of those words were ‘I’m sorry, I apologize.’ Or explaining why he ever questioned the birth status of the United States president.”
We'll see how long this story lasts. At least CNN seems aghast (finally) and abashed that they got played . . . once again. By promising a big announcement, Trump got live cable coverage of his hotel opening, plus 30 minutes or so of basking in praise. They would never have broadcast that live, except for his teaser of big news coming. Then he stuck it to them with a little 30 second sound bite that created lies, yet only a perfunctory statement that Obama was born in the U.S.. No explanation for why it took him five years; no apology. Then he would not take questions. So he flat-out lied in calling it a "press conference." They were played, and they know it.
The only apt metaphor that occurs to me is Lucy and the old football trick from the "Peanuts" cartoon strip. Is this finally enough for the media to say "enough?" Or will they be Charlie Brown, so trusting and always believing Lucy when she promises that, this time, she really means it. She won't jerk away the football just as Charlie Brown runs forward to kick it. But then she always does. And he always falls flat on his back.
Ralph
Late note: Following that press event, where he took no questions, Trump led a tour of the hotel. He let the press pool camera come along but refused to allow the pool reporter to come, further avoiding any questions. So the networks have all refused to air the video footage of the tour. It's a first pushback from the media. Will they stop fawning over him now?
Last night on MSNBC, David Korn suggested that this may have crossed the line with the mainstream media, because they have been much more direct since then in using the word "lies" about what he says.
Friday, September 16, 2016
Why the testosterone check, Mr. Trump?
Donald Trump turned his medical report into a big TV theatrical event, going on Dr. Oz's daytime show to have the pitchman for unproved diet pills interpret the results -- or rather what limited results Trump agreed for him to share. There was nothing very remarkable in the results other than that Trump is overweight, loves junk food, and doesn't get much exercise -- all of which are risk factors for a heart attack.
One bit of trivia stood out: his testosterone level was above average. Well, good for him, but here's my question. Why did they check his testosterone? It's not part of a routine exam.
I've had an annual physical every year for the past 40 years, and none of the four different doctors over those years has ever suggested getting a testosterone level. Trump must have requested it himself. So, is there a problem? Or just a huge insecurity and looking for reassurance?
Ralph
One bit of trivia stood out: his testosterone level was above average. Well, good for him, but here's my question. Why did they check his testosterone? It's not part of a routine exam.
I've had an annual physical every year for the past 40 years, and none of the four different doctors over those years has ever suggested getting a testosterone level. Trump must have requested it himself. So, is there a problem? Or just a huge insecurity and looking for reassurance?
Ralph
"Prime Danger In Vote Hack: Sowing Doubt"
"Prime Danger of Vote Hack: Sowing Doubt" is the title of a New York Times article by David Sanger and Charlie Savage. What they say calms my fears of an actual tampering with the vote. But it only amps up the fear that Donald Trump, if it looks as though he's going to lose, will again try to inject doubts about the results. Here's what Sanger and Savage write:
"Russian hackers would not be able to change the outcome of the United States presidential election, the nation’s most senior intelligence and law enforcement officials have assured Congress and the White House in recent weeks.
"But disrupting it, they acknowledge, would be far easier — causing doubts in battleground states, prompting challenges to results and creating enough chaos to make Florida’s hanging chads seem like a quaint problem from the analog age. By some measures, in fact, the disruption has already begun.
"And meddling around the edges of an election could sow doubts about the legitimacy of the results — especially in a year in which the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, has told his supporters that the only way he will lose is if the election is “rigged,” and while campaign officials for his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, have held a series of meetings about preparing for the possibility that the vote will be hacked. . . .
"The systems most vulnerable to cyberattacks are large, centralized databases, where breaking into one part of the system can often give access to all of it. . . . By contrast, the American voting system, with its hodgepodge of state and local polling places, is protected by being decentralized and disconnected. . . .
"But the problem here is not really about manipulation. It’s about the damage you can do with disruption, so that people lose confidence in the system."
"Russian hackers would not be able to change the outcome of the United States presidential election, the nation’s most senior intelligence and law enforcement officials have assured Congress and the White House in recent weeks.
"But disrupting it, they acknowledge, would be far easier — causing doubts in battleground states, prompting challenges to results and creating enough chaos to make Florida’s hanging chads seem like a quaint problem from the analog age. By some measures, in fact, the disruption has already begun.
"And meddling around the edges of an election could sow doubts about the legitimacy of the results — especially in a year in which the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, has told his supporters that the only way he will lose is if the election is “rigged,” and while campaign officials for his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, have held a series of meetings about preparing for the possibility that the vote will be hacked. . . .
"The systems most vulnerable to cyberattacks are large, centralized databases, where breaking into one part of the system can often give access to all of it. . . . By contrast, the American voting system, with its hodgepodge of state and local polling places, is protected by being decentralized and disconnected. . . .
"But the problem here is not really about manipulation. It’s about the damage you can do with disruption, so that people lose confidence in the system."
* * *
The article goes into much more reassuring detail about voting machines, how the system works, and the cyber-security assistance the federal government is offering to the states. What it doesn't do is to offer any suggestions of how to combat Trump's ability to sway large groups of his supporters into believing anything he says. That's the real danger.
Ralph
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Black pastor in Flint, MI tells Trump to stop his political speech in their church
Donald Trump announced a last minute plan to visit Flint, Michigan today. The mayor was in Washington working to get congress to pass a funding bill to help with their lead contaminating water pipes. She informed him she wouldn't be there and said that his request to tour a water plant couldn't be accommodated on such short notice.
Somehow he arranged to speak to about 50 people gathered in an African-America church in Flint, which has been a been a center for distributing water and aid during the crisis. After some short remarks praising the members for their helping response, Trump launched into his stump speech blasting Hillary Clinton for supporting trade agreements that hurt jobs in Michigan.
The church minister, Rev. Faith Green Timmons, walked out on the stage and interrupted to remind him that "I invited you here to thank us for what we've done in Flint, not to give a political speech." He quickly changed course -- but, typically, did not apologize.
Trump's mistakes trying to court black voters are so blatant, so repeatedly wrong-footed, that you can't escape the fact that he has nothing inside to guide him in trying to relate. I don't think it's even working for his real purpose: to reassure the white, educated, wavering Republicans that he's not racist. Maybe he's not, but his inability to relate to black people in their culture just oozes out of him at every pore.
Let's hope the debate moderators take a lesson from Rev. Timmons; yes, you can just step in and stop Trump from doing what he's trying to get away with.
Ralph
Somehow he arranged to speak to about 50 people gathered in an African-America church in Flint, which has been a been a center for distributing water and aid during the crisis. After some short remarks praising the members for their helping response, Trump launched into his stump speech blasting Hillary Clinton for supporting trade agreements that hurt jobs in Michigan.
The church minister, Rev. Faith Green Timmons, walked out on the stage and interrupted to remind him that "I invited you here to thank us for what we've done in Flint, not to give a political speech." He quickly changed course -- but, typically, did not apologize.
Trump's mistakes trying to court black voters are so blatant, so repeatedly wrong-footed, that you can't escape the fact that he has nothing inside to guide him in trying to relate. I don't think it's even working for his real purpose: to reassure the white, educated, wavering Republicans that he's not racist. Maybe he's not, but his inability to relate to black people in their culture just oozes out of him at every pore.
Let's hope the debate moderators take a lesson from Rev. Timmons; yes, you can just step in and stop Trump from doing what he's trying to get away with.
Ralph
More consequences of N.C. bathroom bigotry law
The NCAA has announced that it will hold no championship events in the state of North Carolina in 2016-17 as a response to the North Carolina laws that discriminate against LGBT individuals -- most notably the notorious law that requires trans people to use public bathrooms that match the anatomical sex assignment at birth.
The Chair of the NCAA Board of Governors released a statement saying: “This decision is consistent with the NCAA’s long-standing core values of inclusion, student-athlete well-being and creating a culture of fairness.”
North Carolina is a frequent site for major sports events, especially basketball. The state is often referred to as ground zero for college basketball." This decision will include first and second rounds of men's basketball tournament as well as women's soccer College Cup. The NBA had already announced that it would move its 2017 All Star game from Charlotte.
In addition, as many as five states have banned state employees traveling to North Carolina on official business. The state has lost millions of dollars in tourist spending, as well as investment and jobs from corporations who are shunning the state as a location or to expand existing sites. The national loss of prestige and shame brought upon the state is immeasurable.
But taking away their basketball big games -- that's a blow to state pride that really hurts in N.C. I know, having spent 7 years in school at Duke. There was nothing quite like Duke-UNC basketball rivalry in the 1950's -- and since. So this may have more impact than all the money from the other things they've lost over this bill.
Gov. Pat McCrory remains firmly committed to the law he signed, resisting calls for its repeal, even though it may cost him his re-election bid in November. His rival, current NC Attorney General Roy Cooper, is among those demanding repeal. In the RCP average of polls, Cooper is leading McCrory by 6% . . . before this latest NCAA blow.
Ralph
The Chair of the NCAA Board of Governors released a statement saying: “This decision is consistent with the NCAA’s long-standing core values of inclusion, student-athlete well-being and creating a culture of fairness.”
North Carolina is a frequent site for major sports events, especially basketball. The state is often referred to as ground zero for college basketball." This decision will include first and second rounds of men's basketball tournament as well as women's soccer College Cup. The NBA had already announced that it would move its 2017 All Star game from Charlotte.
In addition, as many as five states have banned state employees traveling to North Carolina on official business. The state has lost millions of dollars in tourist spending, as well as investment and jobs from corporations who are shunning the state as a location or to expand existing sites. The national loss of prestige and shame brought upon the state is immeasurable.
But taking away their basketball big games -- that's a blow to state pride that really hurts in N.C. I know, having spent 7 years in school at Duke. There was nothing quite like Duke-UNC basketball rivalry in the 1950's -- and since. So this may have more impact than all the money from the other things they've lost over this bill.
Gov. Pat McCrory remains firmly committed to the law he signed, resisting calls for its repeal, even though it may cost him his re-election bid in November. His rival, current NC Attorney General Roy Cooper, is among those demanding repeal. In the RCP average of polls, Cooper is leading McCrory by 6% . . . before this latest NCAA blow.
Ralph
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Medium household income rose by 5.2% last year
Median household income rose by 5.2%, from $53,700 to $56,500 between 2014 and 2015. This is the largest single year increase the Census Bureau has ever recorded. A rise in household income was seen across all income groups, while in fact the largest income gains went to the poorest Americans.
Justin Wolfers, a professor of economics at the University of Michigan, told the Huffington Post: "This is a big fucking deal!" The one downside is that people living in rural areas did not show the income rise as did those living in urban areas.
President Obama's approval rating has just gone up another notch to 58%. It's considered a positive indicator if it's above 50%. And the economy is, by most measures, considered to be good -- not great, but good enough to influence the election positively. Low gas prices, for example. And that was before this news about median incomes came out late yesterday.
Ralph
Justin Wolfers, a professor of economics at the University of Michigan, told the Huffington Post: "This is a big fucking deal!" The one downside is that people living in rural areas did not show the income rise as did those living in urban areas.
This dramatic turn-around to a rising median household income bodes well for a Clinton win. According to Emory political science professor Alan Abramowitz's model for predicting the winner of presidential races, two of the most important predictive factors are: the popularity of the incumbent president and the state of the nation's economy. When they are positive, the candidate of the party holding the White House is more likely to win.
President Obama's approval rating has just gone up another notch to 58%. It's considered a positive indicator if it's above 50%. And the economy is, by most measures, considered to be good -- not great, but good enough to influence the election positively. Low gas prices, for example. And that was before this news about median incomes came out late yesterday.
Ralph
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