http://www.dailykos.com/user/Hunter/rss/index.xml News Community Action Copyright 2005 - Steal what you want Sat, 10 Sep 2016 15:14:25 +0000 Sat, 10 Sep 2016 15:14:25 +0000 Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/09/1568395/-After-9-11-Sen-Hillary-Clinton-was-instrumental-in-getting-treatment-for-Ground-Zero-rescuers <p>As we near the 9/11 anniversary, again, let us all take a moment to remember that the junior senator from New York made it a personal mission to ensure rescue workers and others affected by the poisoned air of above Ground Zero were not ignored by their government—during a time when ignoring them was the defacto position of that government. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/09/hillary-clinton-9-11-attacks-response?CMP=share_btn_tw" title="">There's tapes of that, by the way</a>.</p> <blockquote>The Clinton who emerges from the WNYC tapes is passionate, raw and unrestrained. Above all, she is livid. She had just learned that the Bush administration instructed officials of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reassure New Yorkers after 9/11 that the air over Ground Zero was safe. In fact, they had a pretty good idea that it was a toxic pall of asbestos, cement, glass dust, heavy metals, fuels and PCBs. <p>“I am outraged,” Clinton went on. “In the immediate aftermath, the first couple of days, nobody could know. But a week later? Two weeks later? Two months later? Six months later? Give me a break!”</p> </blockquote> <p>Survivors from the attacks who met Clinton at the time tell now-familiar stories: she genuinely cared about them, she followed up afterward, she had an impressive command of detail, and she was relentless in twisting arms in the recalcitrant system until it delivered results.</p> <blockquote>By April 2004 the program had grown to a $90m fund offering three free medical exams a year to 50,000 first responders and residents of lower Manhattan. In 2010, Clinton having passed on the baton to her successor in the US senate, Kirsten Gillibrand, reluctant Republicans in Congress were cajoled into passing the $4bn Zadroga Act, covering the health costs of those impaired by the toxic fumes. Last year the program was extended for 75 years, and now serves 65,000 emergency responders and almost 10,000 9/11 resident survivors.</blockquote> <p>No matter what else you might think about Hillary Clinton, this was one of her most effective campaigns. It's still embarrassing that it was necessary, however.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 911 Democrats GroundZero HealthCare HillaryClinton NewYork _1568395 Fri, 09 Sep 2016 20:31:08 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/09/1568370/-America-s-Dumbest-Congressman-calls-Clinton-mentally-impaired <p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/09/09/gop-congressman-clinton-is-mentally-impaired/">America's Dumbest Congressman speaks</a>.</p> <blockquote>Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.), one of the Republican congressional caucus's most unfiltered members, told a morning crowd at the annual Values Voter Summit that Hillary Clinton was "mentally impaired" thanks to a 2012 concussion and that the news media was not doing all it could to reveal this. <p>"Maybe it was the concussion, the fall, back when she did," [...] "Or maybe, who knows? They won't tell her what's going on with her. If I were going to smash cellphones, BlackBerrys, I'd use a two-pound sledge. Who knows maybe somebody got to wailing around and hit her again. But we need to be praying for Hillary Clinton. There's special needs there. There's mental impairment." [...]</p> <p>As the audience laughed along, Gohmert recounted a recent appearance on "Fox and Friends," where he tweaked the lyrics of a country song to "I can't remember/Hillary's brain's in a blender."</p> </blockquote> <p>Your Republican Party, America.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives Elections LouieGohmert Recommended Republicans ValueVotersSummit _1568370 Fri, 09 Sep 2016 16:51:37 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/09/1568128/-Thursday-Trump-Dump-Will-our-next-war-be-based-on-body-language <p>It's Thursday now, fresh off a Wednesday, and that means we are now one day closer to the presidential election. That's the good news; the bad news is that Donald Trump continues to say and do things, thus necessitating actual coverage of the things he says and does. Which we shall now get on with.</p> <p>Today was largely spent picking up the shrapnel from <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/8/1567986/-Even-NBC-execs-realize-Matt-Lauer-was-a-disaster">yesterday's stinkbomb of a candidate "forum"</a>, in which the two candidates were asked probing <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/8/1567797/-The-Commander-in-Chief-Forum-was-an-embarrassment-but-still-enough-to-disqualify-Trump">national security questions</a> like what about them emails and do you think you would be a good president or a dumb president. Both candidates spent time talking to the press today—and both candidates spent their time talking to the press reflecting on Donald Trump's performance.</p> <p>That's not to say that Trump didn't make news, however. His praise for the "strong" leadership (and poll numbers) of Vladimir Putin when compared to the sitting American president was almost certainly the most praise a Russian president has ever received from inside a United States aircraft carrier. Trump’s pro-Putin stance was backed up today by <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/08/politics/mike-pence-on-donald-trump-vladimir-putin/index.html">vice presidential nominee Mike Pence</a>, who stated it was "inarguable" that Putin "has been a stronger leader" than Barack Obama, and by Trump-supporting Iowa Rep. Steve King, who <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/295029-steve-king-says-putin-a-better-leader-for-his-country-than?utm_campaign=briefingroom&amp;utm_source=twitterfeed&amp;utm_medium=twitterfeed">concurred</a> that the Russian president was stronger "because I watched as the Russian nationalism has been increased substantially. [...] <span>And you have Russian hyper-nationalism and they are proud of being Russians today.</span>"</p> <p>So apparently praise for a civil-rights-deficient Russian strongman is the newest Republican platform plank. In other news:</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Republicans _1568128 Fri, 09 Sep 2016 01:01:26 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/08/1568075/-Intelligence-officials-miffed-with-Trump-first-time-a-candidate-has-politicized-secret-briefings <p>During last night's ShamWow commercial doubling as the closest thing we'll apparently be getting to a national security discussion, Donald Trump made the peculiar claim that during the first of his classified national security briefings—because he is a major presidential candidate, the government is obligated to provide him with those just in case the nation decides to go with Racist Pumpkin as our new chief executive—that he could tell the intelligence officials briefing him were unhappy with their current president because "I'm pretty good with body language. I could tell they were not happy."</p> <p>This was followed on the morning shows by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn agreeing with Trump that that happened, except for the body language part, and the revelation that Chris Christie may or may not have spent that same meeting attempting to get a cranky Flynn to, quote, "shut up."</p> <p>All of this has caused people with actual intelligence—sorry, I mean people from the actual intelligence community—to express alarm at Trump <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/u-s-official-donald-trump-s-body-language-claim-doesn-n644856" title="">bullshitting in this particular venue</a>.</p> <blockquote>"A political candidate has used professional intelligence officers briefing him in a totally non-political setting as props to buttress an argument for his political campaign," said [Former CIA chief Michael Hayden]. "And his political point was actually imputed to them, not even something they allegedly said. The `I can read body language' line was quite remarkable. ... I am confident Director Clapper sent senior professionals to this meeting and so I am equally confident that no such body language ever existed. It's simply not what we do."</blockquote> <p>Donald Trump has already asserted that he is smarter than all the nation's generals, so it should hardly be a surprise that he has superhuman body-language-reading powers able to discern exactly what he wants to see from professionals specifically trained not to betray those thoughts. At this point it wouldn't be surprising if a President Trump also declared himself surgeon general, then started wandering into the nation's operating rooms with a new self-declared mandate to sew four more arms on every patient so that they can be more efficient service workers.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Recommended Republicans Trump _1568075 Thu, 08 Sep 2016 20:31:55 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/08/1567995/-Roger-Ailes-is-Donald-Trump-s-new-wingman-er-debate-coach <p>Fox News head Roger Ailes might have been fired from the network he built, but that just means he has another $40 million and a whole lot of free time on his hands. He's using it to <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/07/media/roger-ailes-donald-trump-presidential-debate-preparation/index.html" title="">help Donald Trump</a>.</p> <blockquote>In recent weeks, Ailes has become one of the most influential voices in the room as Trump prepares for his first head-to-head matchup with Hillary Clinton, on September 26. Ailes has attended at least two of Trump's Sunday debate prep sessions in person, sources said, and talks with Trump by phone multiple times a week.</blockquote> <p>We can presume from this that "Why don't you twirl for me, baby" will be one of Trump's new go-to debate lines.</p> <p>Ailes is an old hand at Republican debate prep, having served in similar capacities for multiple past candidates. He also has an inside track into the third and most crucial debate moderator, Fox News host Chris Wallace, who stuck up for the longtime perv during the perv's darkest days.</p> <blockquote>[T]he fact that the man moderating the third debate is a self-described friend and admirer of Ailes, who in turn is helping Trump on debate prep, strikes some Clinton insiders as problematic. They worry that Ailes' familiarity with Wallace's style and methods will allow him to give Trump an edge over Clinton in preparation.</blockquote> <p>Eh ... I don't know that that's a real concern, to be honest. Wallace's style and methods are known to anyone willing to suffer through videotapes of his past interviews, and both campaigns—or at least the competent one—will have an intern tasked with doing exactly that.</p> <p>The more interesting question to me is whether even Roger Ailes can tweak Trump's infamous inability to stay on topic into some momentary semblance of competence. Based on all available evidence so far, that seems exceedingly unlikely. Then again, if the "debates" are anything like the NBC candidate "forum" we were just subjected to, with the host pressing Clinton for 15 minutes about <em>the optics of her emails</em> before moving on to asking Donald Trump the foreign policy equivalent of <em>if you were ice cream what flavor would you be,</em> he may not appear competent. Roger Ailes may be devoting most of his attention to ensuring his candidate remembers to wear pants that night.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Republicans RogerAiles Trump _1567995 Thu, 08 Sep 2016 17:24:09 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/08/1567758/-Wednesday-Trump-Dump-What-if-this-whole-campaign-was-just-a-publicity-stunt-for-Trump-s-new-hotel <p>Welcome back to your daily roundup of the state of Donald Trump's half of the presidential race, also known as the death of the Republican Party, also known as at least two remaining months of American nightmare fuel. Tonight saw the <em>MSNBC Commander-in-Chief Forum</em>, a not-debate between the nominees from both major American political parties in which they were each asked to prove they love the country, the troops, the veterans, and so on.</p> <p>And it was an insulting, vapid, moronic nothingburger with absolutely no redeeming newsworthiness whatsoever, so let's move on to the rest of the day's, sigh, Trump news.</p> <p>• 2016, summed up in one headline: <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/pence-trump-obama-birther-comments-227840" title="">"Pence breaks with Trump, says Obama born in Hawaii"</a>. Because the Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States still, to this day, refuses to admit that the current (black) president of the nation is in fact truly a natural-born American citizen and not, no-really-not-kidding-on-this-one, a secret African. The Republican candidate <em>for the presidency of the United States</em> still won't admit that, because—and we may have mentioned this before—the Republican Party is just one quivering blob of race-based conspiracy theories.</p> <p>• Trump himself has <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/7/1567559/-Is-Trump-still-a-birther-I-just-don-t-bother-talking-about-it">taken a vow of silence on the matter</a>: "I just don’t bother talking about it." Hopefully he'll find his voice again after the election is over, we've been waiting for the results of his "investigation" into the sitting president's American citizenship for years now.</p> <p>• The majority of the Trumpian day was spent gearing up for the Commander-in-Chief Forum by convincing potential viewers that no, really, Donald Trump could <em>totally</em> run the strongest military force on the planet and that would not result at all in the sort of clusterfuck you would naturally expect it to be. Towards this end, Trump campaign-type person Kellyanne Conway was tasked with blasting recent anti-Trump commercials showing Donald Trump bragging "I love war" and similar sentiments: Conway declined to explain what Donald Trump might have meant by that, instead responding with <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/7/1567566/-Trump-campaign-tries-to-turn-I-love-war-into-the-very-difficult-decision-to-go-to-war">Something Something Benghazi</a>.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Republicans _1567758 Thu, 08 Sep 2016 01:31:30 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/07/1567642/-Mike-Pence-Insults-are-not-a-plan <p>Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, who you'd already forgotten was the Republican vice presidential nominee until this story reminded you for the eleventh or so time just now, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/mike-pence-slams-clinton-tim-kaine-227821#ixzz4Jamn8ARI">is a company man</a>.</p> <blockquote>"All we get from Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine are insults. But insults are not a plan," Pence said. "American people are responding to the positive agenda that Donald Trump has to make America great again."</blockquote> <p>Ahem.</p> <p>Mike Pence says that the other side is too reliant on insults.</p> <p>Also too, Mike Pence would like you to know that insults are not a plan.</p> <p>Mike Pence believes Donald Trump, on the other hand, has been running on a "positive agenda."</p> <p>Mike Pence seems to believe "make America great again" is, in fact, a plan.</p> <p>Dr., Mr., and Mrs. Onion and all the good people of late night television, we present to you ... <em>that which which is beyond satire.</em> The unmockable. The horror that has lived in your dreams all these many years, now come to life and slithering, ever slithering toward your careers and breakfast tables. Donald Trump has chosen the form of your destructor, American satirist dogs, and it is ...</p> <p>... Mike Pence, apparently. Yeah, we didn't see that one coming, either.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections MikePence Republicans Trump _1567642 Wed, 07 Sep 2016 19:02:19 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/07/1567613/-Ein-Volk-ein-Reich-ein-Goober <p>Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump <a href="http://www.snappytv.com/tc/2750275">haz</a> a <a href="https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/773556491408252929" title="">policy</a>.</p> <blockquote>“We will be one people, under one God, saluting one American flag” [standing ovation]</blockquote> <p>Oh boy, here we go. Which God do you suppose he means? Catholic? Presbyterian? It's one of the Jesus ones for sure, right? Those non-Jesus ones will get what's coming to them under a President Trump, every last one of them.</p> <p>And what the hell does this guy have with saluting, all of a sudden? He's now <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/01/1565928/-Donald-Trump-will-require-patriotism-be-taught-in-schools-We-will-stop-apologizing-for-America">all about saluting and mandatory patriotism lessons for the kids today</a>. Also too, though, maybe he could convince his own supporters to stop flying ... other flags ... outside his own rallies.</p> <p>I know, I know, we're not allowed to take his verbal sprays seriously. But the man is perilously close to just <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrer#Ein_Volk.2C_ein_Reich.2C_ein_F.C3.BChrer">stealing Hitler's material outright</a>.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Republicans Trump _1567613 Wed, 07 Sep 2016 17:11:25 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/06/1567399/-Tuesday-Trump-Dump-How-many-different-ways-can-we-put-it-Nothing-our-candidate-says-matters <p>Welcome back to your daily roundup of the Donald Trump presidential campaign, the inevitable answer to what two decades of inexorably dumbing down the Republican electorate might result in. We begin where we ended: With Donald Trump's various campaign hangers-on patiently trying to explain that while Donald Trump <em>does</em> have an immigration policy, trying to define what precisely it is <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/6/1567233/-Trump-spokesperson-Immigration-is-not-a-top-priority" title="">is a fool's errand</a>.</p> <blockquote>Camerota interjected as [Trump spokescritter and most consistent liar on the campaign trail Katrina Pierson] attempted to explain, remarking, "This is a big deal, the idea that he might actually be open to legal status—" <p>"It's actually not," Pierson shot back. "Immigration is not showing to be a top priority for Americans in this election cycle."</p> </blockquote> <p>So there you go. Perhaps Donald Trump is reversing his old immigration stance, or perhaps he is not, but that is the sort of thing that nobody but wonks give a damn about so who cares. Or, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/06/politics/ben-carson-donald-trump-birther/index.html?sr=twCNN090616ben-carson-donald-trump-birther0900PMVODtopLink&amp;linkId=28452867" title="">as fellow Trump supporter Dr. Ben Carson would put it</a>:</p> <blockquote>"Well, it's relatively irrelevant at this point because it is what it is," Carson told Tapper. [...] <p>When Tapper pushed back on Carson's argument that promises made to voters were irrelevant, Carson said campaign policies were often refined once a candidate took office.</p> <p>"Well, I didn't say that they were irrelevant but bear in mind, what you talk about during a campaign and what actually happens, as you know, in all administrations are different," Carson responded. "You get different information, you learn things along the way, and you make adjustments along the way."</p> </blockquote> <p>To sum up, it doesn't matter what the presidential candidate says or whether he contradicts himself later because everybody knows it's all just fodder for the rubes—and right now the candidate needs to attract a different kind of rube. Well, we did say he was the first truly post-factual candidate.</p> <p>Carson went on to agree that Donald Trump ought to apologize for his compulsive past insistence that the first black American president was not truly an American citizen, also known as "birtherism", of which Donald Trump was poster child, but only so that we could get "the hate and rancor out of the way so that we can actually discuss the issues." Which we can discuss all we like, but since we've been told that discussion will have precious little bearing on what candidate Trump would actually do as president, or even what he would say if you asked him next week instead of this week, it seems frankly more productive for us to go back and discuss his birtherism. It is, after all, one of the few things Donald Trump doesn't seem to have changed his mind on.</p> <p>On to the rest of the news.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Republicans Trump _1567399 Tue, 06 Sep 2016 23:56:52 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/06/1567284/-Donald-Trump-God-is-the-ultimate-because-I-was-able-to-buy-this-golf-course <p>Christian Broadcasting Network correspondent David Brody asked Donald Trump "Who is God to you?" The resulting Trump response <a href="http://www1.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2015/09/23/brody-file-video-exclusive-donald-trump-exclaims-god-is-the" title="">could not be improved on by any satirist</a>.</p> <blockquote>David Brody: “Who is God to you? What are some of your thoughts on this?  Clearly, you’re a smart man, you’re a smart businessman, you’ve contemplated this before or have you contemplate this?” <p>Donald Trump: “Well I say God is the ultimate. You know you look at this? Here we are on the Pacific Ocean. How did I ever own this? I bought it 15 years ago. I made one of the great deals they say ever. I have no more mortgage on it as I will certify and represent to you. And I was able to buy this and make a great deal. That’s what I want to do for the country. Make great deals. We have to, we have to bring it back, but God is the ultimate. I mean God created this (points to his golf course and nature surrounding it), and here’s the Pacific Ocean right behind us. So nobody, no thing, no there’s nothing like God.”</p> </blockquote> <p>What does God mean to you, little Billy? God means beachfront property at low, low prices, ma. God is an imported gardener you never have to pay. God is the ultimate banker, and I cheated him outta some prime land on this one, no mortgage or anything. God is a magic fish, and I caught him fair and square.</p> <p>This man is a narcissist so narcissistic that we may have to retire the term narcissistic and instead rename it in honor of the man. Narcissus had nothing on this blowhard.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Recommended Republicans Trump _1567284 Tue, 06 Sep 2016 18:05:17 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/05/1565281/-Before-the-Clinton-Foundation-there-were-emails-Before-that-ACORN-Meet-scandal-by-script <p>Did you know former Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell, like the Clinton family, also has a charity? Probably not, because <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/8/30/12690444/alma-powell-clinton-foundation">nobody has ever given a damn</a>.</p> <blockquote>So what about the charity? Well, Powell’s wife, Alma Powell, took it over. And it kept raking in donations from corporate America. Ken Lay, the chair of Enron, was a big donor. He also backed a literacy-related charity that was founded by the then-president’s mother. The US Department of State, at the time Powell was secretary, went to bat for Enron in a dispute the company was having with the Indian government. <p>Did Lay or any other Enron official attempt to use their connections with Alma Powell (or Barbara Bush, for that matter) to help secure access to State Department personnel in order to voice these concerns? Did any other donors to America’s Promise? I have no idea, because to the best of my knowledge nobody in the media ever launched an extensive investigation into these matters.</p> </blockquote> <p>(Side note: I know I'm getting old because I seem to be only one of a handful of people in America who still remember Enron, and why Enron was bad, and who continues to be concerned about the flaws in the American economic model that encouraged what was essentially nothing more than a taxpayer-targeting grift that would foretell the scams that led to the great recession itself; a new Wall Street model that would show contempt for producing things when all the smart top-floor money could be had in making bets about bets about collections of other bets about companies that actually did. But I digress.)</p> <p>What makes all the talk of Clinton Foundation "scandals" so maddeningly familiar is that for every serious, non-fraudulent story written so far, nobody has ever been able to find a "there" there. Was there any wrongdoing whatsoever? Nobody can find any. Is the Foundation a legitimate charity doing key, worldwide charitable work? Nobody disputes it. Are they good at what they do? Charity watchers say yes. We are nonetheless chained to a news game of Telephone, in which small snippets of fact are rolled and molded into stories that can never produce any actual scandal, but which we are repeatedly told might <em>look bad</em> if you considered only a few snippets here and discounted all the other snippets over there, repeat, and so on.</p> <p>And it would not be so risible, were it not for The Drudge Effect.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) ACORN ClintonFoundation ClintonRules ConservativeConspiracyTheories ConservativeMedia Conservatives ConspiracyTheories Media Republicans _1565281 Mon, 05 Sep 2016 17:31:09 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/05/1566730/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-In-political-journalism-an-abandonment-of-evidence-based-argument <p>The makings of a post-factual press: How the BBC’s obsession with “balance” abandoned evidence-based argument <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/03/bbc-impartiality-skewers-evidence-based-facts" target="_blank" title="">in the run-up to the Brexit vote</a>.</p> <blockquote> <p>“For me,” writes Professor John van Reenen, formerly of the LSE, now at MIT and one of the economists thus likened by Gove to an antisemitic, government-owned Nazi, “it simply capped off a frankly disgusting campaign, one where the Leave side simply impugned the motives of ‘the experts’ rather than seriously engaging with the substance of the economic debate.”</p> <p>But the Leave side might not have got away with this ugliness, nor Remain with prattling about imminent apocalypse, had not the BBC, as well as enabling an often asinine level of argument, allowed its obsession with balance to dictate that any carefully argued observation on Brexit, deserving of analysis, be promptly followed by its formal opponent’s unsubstantiated bluster. [...]</p> <p><span>As with climate change, implicit in extreme BBC impartiality is a distinctly un-BBC like, post-truth proposal that, since all opinions merit equal coverage, the public might as well give up on evidence-based argument. So much was plainly stated by </span><em>Today</em><span>’s Nick Robinson when he assured voters who were, in huge numbers, seeking information from the BBC that the debate was all “claims and counterclaims”, “guesswork”. “No journalist,” he declared, “no pundit, no expert can resolve these questions for you.”</span></p> </blockquote> <div></div> <div> <p>At The Atlantic, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/09/trump-time-capsule-92-how-the-media-undermine-american-democracy/498461/" target="_blank" title="">James Fallows dissects the Washington Post headline “Clinton, Trump exchange racially charged accusations.”</a></p> <blockquote> <p>Trump’s response was just to use the word “bigot” and make his “What the hell do you have to lose?” appeal to black voters. There was no detailed case about Hillary Clinton’s supposed bigotry—literally, none. There was just the one word.</p> <p>Again, you don’t have to agree with Hillary Clinton. But to <span>imagine that she and Donald Trump were doing the same thing is something reporters would never do in any other realm. (“Harvard, Stanford disagree on which is older.” “Ledecky, rivals trade barbs over race results.” “O.J., ex-wife, have difference of views.”) Yet the </span><em>Washington Post</em><span> headline and story above were representative of the tactics-only way in which this latest “scrap” was played, and the reluctance to assess for readers the merits and fidelity-to-fact of the cases the candidates made.</span></p> </blockquote> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">64 days remain until the general election. Are you registered to vote? </a></strong><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">Click here to be sure</a>.</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong><a href="http://High%20Impact%20Posts:%20September%203,%202016" title="">HIGH IMPACT STORIES</a> • <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/04/1566662/-Week-s-High-Impact-Posts-August-27-September-2-2016" title="">THIS WEEK’S HIGH IMPACT STORIES</a></strong></p> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/20/1562048/-Top-Comments-Open-Thread-edition" target="_blank" title="">TOP COMMENTS</a></strong></p> </div> <div></div> <div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>TWEET OF THE DAY</strong></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;White nationalist movement growing much faster than Isis on Twitter, study finds &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/yf5NIUFzUG"&amp;gt;https://t.co/yf5NIUFzUG&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; rosierifka (@rosierifka) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/rosierifka/status/772407327735554048"&amp;gt;September 4, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>White nationalist movement growing much faster than Isis on Twitter, study finds <a href="https://t.co/yf5NIUFzUG">https://t.co/yf5NIUFzUG</a></p>— rosierifka (@rosierifka) <a href="https://twitter.com/rosierifka/status/772407327735554048">September 4, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>BLAST FROM THE PAST</strong></p> <div></div> <div> <p>At Daily Kos on this date in <strong>2008</strong>—<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/09/04/587106/-War-Porn-Gets-Standing-Ovation-From-GOP" target="_blank" title="">War Porn Gets Standing Ovation From GOP</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Congratulations, GOP, for the tackiest, bloodiest bit of propaganda devised in recent memory. Using footage of everything from the Marine barracks bombing to 9/11 in service to a vile, crass, ham-handed, historically botched propaganda piece for your convention.</p> <p>And their little "film" didn't even make a bit of logical or historical sense. It was just the worst Republican masturbatory fantasies about how the world works, said in a grave voice while they showed pictures of people dead and dying. On their watch.</p> <p>What trash these people are.</p> <div></div> </blockquote> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span style="text-align:center">Monday through Friday you can catch the Kagro in the Morning Show 9 AM ET by dropping in </span><a href="http://184.82.147.114:8004/listen.pls">here, or you can download the </a><a href="http://stitcher.com/" title="">Stitcher app</a><span style="text-align:center"> (found in the app stores or at Stitcher.com), and find a live stream there, by searching for "Netroots Radio.”</span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) BBC Brexit Media OpenThreadforNightOwls WashingtonPost _1566730 Mon, 05 Sep 2016 03:01:29 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/03/1566187/-President-Obama-s-Labor-Day-address-As-a-country-we-ve-got-some-choices-to-make <div class="dk-editor-embed embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9 center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder youtube dk-embed" href="//youtube.com/watch?v=LJ855PVL6ew" data-height="281" data-src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LJ855PVL6ew" data-width="500">YouTube Video</a></div> <p>For his Labor Day weekend address, President Obama commemorated, yes, Labor Day.</p> <blockquote> <p><span>I want to talk a little bit about the reason we get to celebrate Labor Day – and that’s the labor movement that helped build this country and our middle class. </span></p> <p><span>For generations, every time the economy changed, hardworking Americans marched and organized and joined unions to demand not simply a bigger paycheck for themselves, but better conditions and more security for the folks working next to them, too.  Their efforts are why we can enjoy things like the 40-hour workweek, overtime pay, and a minimum wage.  Their efforts are why we can depend on health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, and retirement plans.  </span></p> <p><span>All of that progress is stamped with the union label.  All of that progress was fueled with a simple belief:  that our economy works better when it works for everybody.</span></p> </blockquote> <p>But there’s more to do.</p> <blockquote> <p><span>So as a country, we’ve got some choices to make.  Do we want to be a country where the typical woman working full-time earns 79 cents for every dollar a man makes – or one where they earn equal pay for equal work?  Do we want a future where inequality rises as union membership keeps falling – or one where wages are rising for everybody and workers have a say in their prospects?  Are we a people who just talk about family values while remaining the only developed nation that doesn’t offer its workers paid maternity leave – or are we a people who actually value families, and make paid family leave an economic priority for working parents?</span></p> </blockquote> <p><span>To read the transcript in full, check below the fold or visit the </span><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/weekly-address">White House website</a><span>.</span></p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) BarackObama LaborDay WeeklyAddress WhiteHouse _1566187 Sat, 03 Sep 2016 14:01:13 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/03/1566310/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-Inside-an-Ailes-less-Fox-News-It-s-just-mayhem <figure class="image-captioned width-sm align-right"><img alt="Ghost_Owl_2.jpg" src="http://images.dailykos.com/images/127792/large/Ghost_Owl_2.jpg?1453458196" title="Ghost_Owl_2.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <p><a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/how-fox-news-women-took-down-roger-ailes.html" target="_blank">How the women of Fox News took down serial harasser Roger Ailes—and what happens next</a>.</p> <blockquote> <p><span>Several staffers have described feeling like being part of a totalitarian regime whose dictator has just been toppled. “No one knows what to do. No one knows who to report to. It’s just mayhem,” said a Fox host. As details of the Paul, Weiss investigation have filtered through the offices, staffers are expressing a mixture of shock and disgust. The scope of Ailes’s alleged abuse far exceeds what employees could have imagined. “People are so devastated,” one senior executive said. Those I spoke with have also been unnerved by Shine and Brandi’s roles in covering up Ailes’s behavior. [...]</span></p> <p><span>Many people I spoke with believe that the current management arrangement is just a stopgap until the election. “As of November 9, there will be a bloodbath at Fox,” predicts one host. “After the election, the prime-time lineup could be eviscerated. O’Reilly’s been talking about retirement. Megyn could go to another network. And Hannity will go to Trump TV.”</span></p> </blockquote> <div></div> <div> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">66 days remain until the general election. Are you registered to vote? </a></strong><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank">Click here to be sure</a>.</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/02/1566120/-High-Impact-Posts-September-1-2016" title="">HIGH IMPACT STORIES</a> • </strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/2/1566332/-Top-Comments-Taco-Truck-Edition"><strong></strong></a><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/2/1566332/-Top-Comments-Taco-Truck-Edition" title="">TOP COMMENTS</a></strong></p> </div> <div></div> <div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>TWEET OF THE DAY</strong></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;After leaving office, Bill Clinton started a Foundation that helped over 400M people. George Bush painted his dog &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/TJBWkhWVwB"&amp;gt;pic.twitter.com/TJBWkhWVwB&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Richard Hine (@richardhine) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/richardhine/status/771746800277544960"&amp;gt;September 2, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>After leaving office, Bill Clinton started a Foundation that helped over 400M people. George Bush painted his dog <a href="https://t.co/TJBWkhWVwB">pic.twitter.com/TJBWkhWVwB</a></p>— Richard Hine (@richardhine) <a href="https://twitter.com/richardhine/status/771746800277544960">September 2, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>BLAST FROM THE PAST</strong></p> <div></div> <div> <p>At Daily Kos on this date in <strong>2005</strong>—<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/09/02/143992/-LET-ME-GET-THIS-STRAIGHT" target="_blank">Let me get this straight</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Just in case you missed the amazing performance of the Republican leadership yesterday...</p> <p>President George W. Bush said, "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." Well, no one except the entire world and even Mr. Bill.</p> <p>Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went shoe shopping on Fifth Avenue, but not before she played tennis and yukked it up at <em>Spamalot</em>.</p> <p>The Viceroy in charge of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff said "We’re much better prepared than we’ve ever been.” I'm not sure if that was before or after he reminded us that September is National Preparedness Month, so be sure to stock up on duct tape.</p> <p>The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael D. Brown leapt into action, mustering all the emergency disaster management skills he learned as a lawyer for the International Arabian Horse Association Legal Department  (from which he was <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/2/34622/68348">fired</a>).  His money quote: "Paula, the federal government did not even know about the Convention Center people <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/01/pzn.01.html">until today</a>."</p> <p>The Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert said, eh, maybe we should just <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/1/1791/29015">forget all about rebuilding New Orleans</a>.  Because it might cost money and stuff.</p> <div></div> </blockquote> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span>On </span><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/2/1566103/-Daily-Kos-Radio-s-KITM-podcast-AUDIO-Kagro-in-the-Morning-Friday-September-2-2016" target="_blank">today’s <em>Kagro in the Morning</em> show</a><span>, </span><strong>Greg Dworkin</strong><span> explains the taco trucks thing, reminds us how to read the polls &amp; rounds up other news before we get lost in… just exactly how disgusting Roger Ailes is. The only thing that can make us put that aside is: Chris Hamby’s ISDS reporting.</span> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-height="100" data-src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4638345/height/100/width/500/theme/custom/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/render-playlist/no/custom-color/e87822/" data-width="500">Embedded Content</a></div> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknlsM6zUMIdxtz1qEAbhuA" target="_blank">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-kos-radio-kagro-in-morning/id581551976" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://kagrox.libsyn.com/" target="_blank">LibSyn</a> | Support the show: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/kagrox?ty=h" target="_blank">Patreon</a>; <a href="http://paypal.me/KagrointheMorning" target="_blank">PayPal</a>; <a href="http://kagrointhemorning.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">PayPal Subscription</a></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) ConservativeMedia Conservatives FoxNews Media OpenThreadforNightOwls Republicans RogerAiles _1566310 Sat, 03 Sep 2016 03:02:10 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/02/1566306/-Friday-Trump-Dump-Of-Twitters-and-Tacos <p>Welcome back to your daily roundup of the Donald Trump presidential campaign. We begin where we ended: with the Trump campaign having another bad day, nearly all of the damage self-inflicted.</p> <p>• Donald Trump <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/2/1566133/-Donald-Trump-changed-his-immigration-speech-because-a-tweet-made-him-mad">made changes to his immigration "policy" speech on Wednesday</a> in response to getting a spanking from the Mexican president on Twitter, because that is how we in America do "policy" now. The line "They don't know it yet, but they're going to pay for the wall" was added after the president of Mexico tweeted that he had explicitly told Trump Mexico would not be doing that. So there you go; Donald Trump remains steadfast in the face of foreign adversity, so long as you give him four hours to work up to it. Oh, and the foreign adversity isn't actually in the room at the time.</p> <p>• Trump's weekend trip to Detroit becomes less ambitious with each passing day. Yesterday a "script" of Trump's planned interview with Detroit televangelist Wayne T. Jackson <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/2/1566100/-Donald-Trump-s-script-for-talking-to-black-people">was leaked from the campaign</a>, revealing the twelve approved questions Jackson would be asking Trump and the campaign's preferred Trump responses. (In response, Jackson says he will now be asking different questions.)</p> <p>• Today was an exceptionally bad day for Trump adviser and perhaps-someday Trump Network head Roger Ailes, as a <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/how-fox-news-women-took-down-roger-ailes.html">long exposé of sexual harassment claims against him throughout his career</a>. The most noteworthy detail: Fired Fox host Gretchen Carlson had recorded multiple instances of that harassment.</p> <p>• Meanwhile, reports that Fox News under Roger Ailes' leadership <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/02/fox-news-phone-hack-report-media-matters">worked to secretly obtain the phone records of a Media Matters reporter</a>, an illegal act in the United States, has overtones of the phone hacking scandal which shuttered Murdoch's <em>News of the World</em> paper and resulted in multiple criminal convictions. The Trump round table certainly is making Nixon's team look like a bunch of pikers, I'll give them that. Especially when you ...</p> <p>• … meet the newest member of the Trump campaign team, serial Clinton muckraker David Bossie, who will take a leave from the outfit he founded to take a position as deputy campaign manager. You may have heard of that other outfit: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_(organization)">Citizens United</a>. Before that, he was known as the guy who got canned <a href="https://mediamatters.org/research/2016/09/01/media-meet-donald-trump-s-new-deputy-campaign-manager-citizens-united-president-david-bossie/212826">for being too crooked for House Speaker Newt Gingrich</a>; he was fired from his position as the House's top Clinton scandal-investigator after he was caught "leaking" doctored transcripts and interviews that he had re-edited in order to make his evidence look more damning than it was. That, too, should sound familiar, as it would later becomes the go-to model of conservative "journalism". Oh, and President George H.W. Bush was so incensed by fellow Republican Bossie's campaign tactics against Bill Clinton that <a href="http://www.salon.com/2004/07/20/david_bossie/">he filed an FEC complaint against Bossie</a>.</p> <p>I presume the good people of the national media will point each of those things out, while obligingly regurgitating whatever new Clinton attacks Bossie has planned for us this next time around.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Recommended Republicans _1566306 Fri, 02 Sep 2016 22:10:40 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/02/1566174/-Latinos-for-Trump-founder-Vote-for-Trump-or-there-will-be-taco-trucks-on-every-corner <a href="/campaigns/form/sign-if-you-agree-i-support-taco-trucks-on-every-corner" class="dk-action-link" data-action="form" data-slug="sign-if-you-agree-i-support-taco-trucks-on-every-corner" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/form/sign-if-you-agree-i-support-taco-trucks-on-every-corner?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-form-area-sign-if-you-agree-i-support-taco-trucks-on-every-corner-724115" data-href="/campaigns/form/sign-if-you-agree-i-support-taco-trucks-on-every-corner">Campaign Action</a> <p>So as you've probably heard by now, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/latinos-for-trump-founder-taco-trucks-marco-gutierrez-227667#ixzz4J7EkdGCh">this happened</a>.</p> <blockquote>A founder of the Latinos for Trump group on Thursday warned that without Donald Trump in the White House, there would be “taco trucks on every corner” in America. <p>“My culture is a very dominant culture,” the Mexican-born Marco Gutierrez said on MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes.” “It is imposing and it’s causing problems. If you don’t do something about it, you’re going to have taco trucks on every corner.”</p> </blockquote> <p>And thus was born the strangest anti-immigration threat ever dispatched in service of a candidate: Vote for Donald Trump ...</p> <p>... or there will be too many tacos.</p> <p>Tacos will become <em>too</em> available. <em>Too</em> plentiful. You will want tacos, on some breezy summer night, and tacos will be within your grasp.</p> <p>Because Mexican culture is just so "dominant," so "imposing," that it cannot help but overwhelm the much better but far more fragile American culture, and the way this is going to play out is ... the tacos.</p> <p>I give up. I'm convinced now: Donald Trump is pranking us all. Donald Trump, his advisers, his surrogates, and every last interviewed support has been pulling our legs this whole time. There is simply no damn way this is an actual presidential campaign.</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Latinos for Trump founder &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/MarcoGutierrez"&amp;gt;@MarcoGutierrez&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;: &amp;amp;quot;you&amp;amp;#39;re gonna have taco trucks on every corner&amp;amp;quot; &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/inners?src=hash"&amp;gt;#inners&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/Vifo3q7Ah8"&amp;gt;https://t.co/Vifo3q7Ah8&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; All In w/Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/allinwithchris/status/771507148152942592"&amp;gt;September 2, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Latinos for Trump founder <a href="https://twitter.com/MarcoGutierrez">@MarcoGutierrez</a>: "you're gonna have taco trucks on every corner" <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/inners?src=hash">#inners</a> <a href="https://t.co/Vifo3q7Ah8">https://t.co/Vifo3q7Ah8</a></p>— All In w/Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) <a href="https://twitter.com/allinwithchris/status/771507148152942592">September 2, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Food-related deaths in US, 1998-2015:&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&#x1f32d; Hot dogs = 21&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&#x1f32e; Tacos = 1&amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/2xvvWzKlrg"&amp;gt;https://t.co/2xvvWzKlrg&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Dave Gilson (@daudig) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/daudig/status/771745165870411782"&amp;gt;September 2, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Food-related deaths in US, 1998-2015:<br>🌭 Hot dogs = 21<br>🌮 Tacos = 1<a href="https://t.co/2xvvWzKlrg">https://t.co/2xvvWzKlrg</a></p>— Dave Gilson (@daudig) <a href="https://twitter.com/daudig/status/771745165870411782">September 2, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Recommended Republicans _1566174 Fri, 02 Sep 2016 16:33:06 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/02/1565978/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-How-do-you-train-a-dog-to-do-absolutely-positively-nothing <figure class="image-captioned width-sm align-right"><img alt="Night_Owl_Yellow_Eyesx.jpg" src="http://images.dailykos.com/images/128343/large/Night_Owl_Yellow_Eyesx.jpg?1453462239" title="Night_Owl_Yellow_Eyesx.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <p>How do you train a dog to sit perfectly still for eight minutes inside an MRI machine so that you can take an accurate picture of the reaction in their brain as they hear various human words? You can’t train them with food—because to lie still enough to get an accurate picture, they aren’t allowed to so much as drool. But you can make that dog the center of attention, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/08/31/heres-how-scientists-got-dogs-to-lie-still-in-a-brain-scanner-for-eight-minutes/?postshare=6271472686220413&amp;tid=ss_tw" target="_blank">the envy of all the other dogs in the room.</a></p> <div></div> <div> <blockquote> <p><span>[W]e always had a big party in the scanner room. The dogs that were placed on the scanner, we praised them. All the little ones, all the novice dogs, they wanted to be there. They didn’t know why, but they wanted to be there. Even the owners of the [dogs in training] praised and petted the [already] trained dog on the scanner bed. So that dog was the focus, and we ignored the other ones. Everybody wanted to be the focus, they wanted to be praised, they wanted to be rewarded.</span></p> <p><span>This is the </span><a href="http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/the-model-rival-method" target="_blank">model-rival training method</a><span>. Some dogs acted partly as a model for the other dogs, showing what to do and where to be. And also as a rival – all the attention went toward this dog. That’s a social thing. It’s not about cheese or treats. Its about being socially involved in the social interaction with the owners. A good dog wants to be part of this.</span></p> </blockquote> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">67 days remain until the general election. Are you registered to vote? </a></strong><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">Click here to be sure</a>.</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/31/1565399/-High-Impact-Posts-August-31-2016" title="">HIGH IMPACT STORIES</a> • </strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/1/1565976/-Top-Comments-The-Skyline-Drive-Edition"><strong></strong></a><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/1/1565976/-Top-Comments-The-Skyline-Drive-Edition" title="">TOP COMMENTS</a></strong></p> </div> <div></div> <div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>TWEET OF THE DAY</strong></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;today&amp;amp;#39;s fun fact: Charity Navigator gives the Clinton Foundation a higher rating (****) than it gives the Red Cross (***). &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/discuss?src=hash"&amp;gt;#discuss&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/EricBoehlert/status/771428102035603456"&amp;gt;September 1, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>today's fun fact: Charity Navigator gives the Clinton Foundation a higher rating (****) than it gives the Red Cross (***). <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/discuss?src=hash">#discuss</a></p>— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricBoehlert/status/771428102035603456">September 1, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>BLAST FROM THE PAST</strong></p> <div></div> <div> <p>At Daily Kos on this date in <strong>2003</strong>—<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/09/01/379437/-The-Experts-Speak" target="_blank">The Experts Speak</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Don't run on past decision or judgements. Don't run on what you're going to do about Iraq in 2009. Run on what you are doing now, in 2007, to lead us out of Iraq. Show us that leadership, now. That doesn't go for just the presidentials, but for every incumbent Democrat who is going to be asking for our vote in 14 months.</p> <div></div> </blockquote> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p><span>On </span><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/1/1565825/-Daily-Kos-Radio-s-KITM-podcast-AUDIO-Kagro-in-the-Morning-Thursday-September-1-2016" target="_blank">today’s <em>Kagro in the Morning</em> show</a><span>, there was so very much wrong with Donald Trump &amp; the world yesterday that we had to let </span><strong>Armando</strong><span> vent. And repent a little, too. With the Apocalypse perhaps upon us, that was probably a good idea. BTW, “Trump Model Management?” Sounds pervy.</span></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-height="100" data-src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4635661/height/100/width/500/theme/custom/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/render-playlist/no/custom-color/e87822/" data-width="500">Embedded Content</a></div> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknlsM6zUMIdxtz1qEAbhuA" target="_blank">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-kos-radio-kagro-in-morning/id581551976" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://kagrox.libsyn.com/" target="_blank">LibSyn</a> | Support the show: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/kagrox?ty=h" target="_blank">Patreon</a>; <a href="http://paypal.me/KagrointheMorning" target="_blank">PayPal</a>; <a href="http://kagrointhemorning.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">PayPal Subscription</a></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) Dogs OpenThreadforNightOwls Science _1565978 Fri, 02 Sep 2016 03:01:27 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/02/1565973/-Thursday-Trump-Dump-And-now-Act-III <p>Welcome to your daily roundup of the Donald Trump campaign. Yesterday evening saw what could credibly be called the second act climax of Donald Trump's presidential efforts. It came as a speech, hot on the heels of a hastily scheduled trip to Mexico City to meet with the more-than-symbolic target of twelve months of campaign wrath, a speech devoted to mounting the campaign's flag atop all the worst excesses of its past rhetoric, a rancid speech devoted to burying the earlier humiliations of the day with a greatest hits parade of anti-immigrant spite and shrieking nationalism.</p> <p>I'm going to go out on a thin limb indeed here and predict that it was also the beginning of something else. It was the last day even the most credulous of reporters and pundits could take Donald Trump seriously.</p> <p>Whatever premise even his supporters once harbored of Donald Trump being the voice of American resentment who would truly <em>stick it to</em> them damn foreigners once and for all crumbled when Trump stood next to the Mexican president and delivered a meek quarter-pound nothingburger of a speech. It was almost assuredly the most polite Donald Trump has ever been to <em>anyone</em> during his entire race—whether politician, interviewer, reporter, random person on Twitter, American, foreigner, or dog—and while wags tried at least to make something of the fact that he <em>could</em> refrain from chewing the scenery in public, when he really really wanted to, the overall impression left on anyone watching is that Donald Trump, master negotiator and savior of the White Race, choked.</p> <p>But maybe it wasn't a deer-in-the-headlight moment for a candidate whose yearlong Twitter tirade against the Mexican government and Mexican population appeared to vanish into the ether when confronting the demonic southern power face-to-face? Perhaps it was—gasp—statemanship? The all-important "softening", come to life? Proof that the candidate was abandoning the wave of xenophobic nonsense that carried him through the Republican primaries, and was at long last pretending at being the sort of person who even non-racists could get behind?</p> <p>It could have been salvaged as such, if the candidate had only kept his mouth shut. He didn't. He had a speech to give that evening, the much-anticipated <em>immigration policy</em> speech that he and his newest campaign hires had worked on so very long, and delayed for a week, and which this-time-for-sure was going to reboot his campaign to a new level of serious presidentialness and policy-having.</p> <p>Only there wasn't any policy. There was rhetoric, and demonization, and dire warnings, and every lowlight of Trump's past racist rantings repeated with a line under it and an exclamation point behind it and sparklers jammed up its nether-regions just to make sure nobody could accuse him of soft-peddling it. All the talk of <em>pivots</em> and <em>softening</em> and <em>moderation</em> were just so many pretty corpses, by the end of that speech. That goose is cooked.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Republicans _1565973 Fri, 02 Sep 2016 00:01:52 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/01/1565928/-Donald-Trump-will-require-patriotism-be-taught-in-schools-We-will-stop-apologizing-for-America <p>Donald Trump rolls out his plan for molding the kids today into <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/early-returns/ernational/2016/09/01/Donald-Trump-says-he-would-require-schools-to-teach-patriotism/stories/201609010204" title="">proper Americans</a>.</p> <blockquote>Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump today told veterans from across country that he would require patriotism to be taught in schools [...] <p>In addition to teaching patriotism in schools, he called for students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.</p> <p>“We will stop apologizing for America, and we will start celebrating America,” he said. “We will be united by our common cultures, values, and principles, becoming one American nation, one country under the one constitution, saluting one American flag—always saluting.”</p> </blockquote> <p>The reason I've called you in both in today, Mr. and Mrs. Turner, is that little Billy is getting a B in Patriotism this semester and I think it's something we need to look at. In his last homework assignment I asked him to come up with six reasons he loves America, and he was only able to come up with five. His P.E. teacher reports that his saluting is sub-par; the form is acceptable, but we're looking for a more snappy execution in the elbow and at the wrist. These would by themselves be only a matter of general concern, but I'm told that at lunch earlier this week he was saying some somewhat unsavory things about America's generous resettlement of native populations.</p> <p>Now we've noticed that these sorts of things generally tend to start at home, and so I have to ask—is your household fostering a nurturing patriotic environment? I presume Billy has a flag in his room—have you noticed any drop-off in form, during his bedtime salutes? Are his television habits being monitored? National Geographic is fine, it’s a Fox production now, but I hope you've been getting the notes we've been sending home about the Cooking Channel.</p> <p>I'm sure I don't need to remind you both that we here at Eric Trump Middle School take patriotism very seriously, and while a B effort in most classes would count as a fine grade, the president himself has directed that students with a semester grade of B+ or lower in Patriotism be referred to patriotism camp. There is still time for Billy to get his grade up, but it's going to require some work. He’ll be needing to come in for extracurricular patriotism activities after school. This week we'll be egging the house of ... let's see, Gerald Stutch, whose family was recently deported for mentioning segregation. I believe Billy and Gerald knew each other, if our files are right. We're all just one big happy family here!</p> <p>So will Billy be able to attend? Oh, good, I was certain we could make this work. One other thing, I've noticed that his uniform could use a good pressing. He must be such a handful at home!</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Recommended Republicans _1565928 Thu, 01 Sep 2016 20:23:33 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/01/1565874/-So-is-Make-Mexico-Great-Again-Also-a-new-Trump-platform-plank-or-is-it-just-the-hat <p>So <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/make-mexico-great-again-also-hat?utm_content=bufferc7b3d&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer" title="">this happened</a>.</p> <blockquote>Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions both wore a white baseball cap with the words "Make Mexico Great Again Also" on it while speaking ahead of Trump's major speech on immigration in Phoenix on Wednesday night.</blockquote> <p>So, so many questions.</p> <p>Do you think Rudy and Jeff knew the contents of Trump's milk-curdling speech before he belted it out? Was the hat meant to go with the theme in some inexplicable fashion? No, that can't be it.</p> <p>So was the hat made after Trump's disastrous Mexico trip, in an attempt to look friendly toward Mexico to match the apparent theme of Trump's Mexico City chokefest? We love Mexico! We love the taco bowls, and the, um, taco bowls, and, um, spring break and stuff!</p> <p>Where do you go to get baseball caps embroidered with a custom slogan when you need it done in a matter of hours? Is there an emergency embroidery shop that someone on the Trump team just happens to know? Did someone dispatch a Trump helicopter or limo or an entire Trump task force to acquire the hat? Was it dug up from the grave of Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen, hat connoisseur, thus dooming us all to an apocalyptic zombie nightmare until the hat is returned?</p> <p>The "Also." That "also" is the elephant in the room, isn't it? Two top Trump supporters, desperately peddling the notion that their candidate is not, in fact, a raging doofus but a knower of things and a top-notch foreign policy policy-haver, donning a hat with an explicit reference to one of the top three mannerisms the infamously thickheaded Sarah Palin is most known for. Did they ... did they borrow the hat from her?</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Recommended Republicans _1565874 Thu, 01 Sep 2016 18:24:46 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/01/1565649/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-Marked-for-death-by-Jimmy-Kimmel <figure class="image-captioned width-sm align-right"><img alt="Gothic-Owl_Badge.jpg" src="http://images.dailykos.com/images/125663/large/Gothic-Owl_Badge.jpg?1453441310" title="Gothic-Owl_Badge.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <p><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/alex-jones-hillary-clinton-and-jimmy-kimmel-are-trying-kill-me" target="_blank" title="">Right Wing Watch</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Far-right radio host Alex Jones claimed [Sunday] that Hillary Clinton and comedian Jimmy Kimmel have directly threatened his life, warning viewers that if he were to die, it would be the work of the Clintons.</p> <p>“Understand something, Hillary,” he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLqnH0GJelc" target="_blank">said</a>. “If anything happens to me, you and your controllers are the prime suspects. I know now you think you’re above the law, so why do you care? Maybe you want to send a message by getting rid of old Alex Jones?”</p> <p>Jones was upset that Clinton mentioned Jones in her speech denouncing Donald Trump’s ties to the <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/08/how_hillary_clinton_s_alt_right_speech_isolated_and_destroyed_donald_trump.html" target="_blank">alt-right movement</a> and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/trumps-team-bigoted-unhinged-conspiracy-theorists-benefiting-donald-trumps-campaign" title="">conspiracy theorists</a> and that Kimmel, who he suggested works for the New World Order and the Clinton family, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSCEoaIx7E8" target="_blank">made fun of him</a> for his <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/08/29/pickle-jar-truthers-alex-jones-latest-hillary-health-conspiracy-is-extra-twisted/" target="_blank">pickle jar conspiracy theory</a>.</p> </blockquote> <p>They’re all in on it. Jimmy Kimmel, the pickle people … <em>everybody</em>.</p> <div></div> <div> <div> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">68 days remain until the general election. Are you registered to vote? </a></strong><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank">Click here to be sure</a>.</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/31/1565399/-High-Impact-Posts-August-31-2016" title="">HIGH IMPACT STORIES</a> • </strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/31/1565610/-Top-Comments-How-to-talk-to-a-PUA-in-headphones" title=""><strong></strong></a><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/31/1565610/-Top-Comments-How-to-talk-to-a-PUA-in-headphones" title="">TOP COMMENTS</a></strong></p> </div> <div></div> <div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>TWEET OF THE DAY</strong></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;This was the original Ronald clown of McDonald&amp;amp;#39;s. 1963. &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/OBBuZYHCUt"&amp;gt;pic.twitter.com/OBBuZYHCUt&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; History In Pictures (@HistoryInPix) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/HistoryInPix/status/771050676524810241"&amp;gt;August 31, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>This was the original Ronald clown of McDonald's. 1963. <a href="https://t.co/OBBuZYHCUt">pic.twitter.com/OBBuZYHCUt</a></p>— History In Pictures (@HistoryInPix) <a href="https://twitter.com/HistoryInPix/status/771050676524810241">August 31, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>BLAST FROM THE PAST</strong></p> <div></div> <div> <p>At Daily Kos on this date in <strong>2004</strong>—<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/08/31/47587/-Romney-s-convention-surprise" target="_blank">Romney's convention surprise</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Dan Rather helps build <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/29/opinion/main639222.shtml">the hype</a>:</p> <p>Hot tip or just so much hot air?</p> <p>Two individual Republican powers on separate occasions in the past 24 hours have said, on a "Don't quote me by name, but..." basis: "Keep your eyes and ears open for Mitt Romney's convention speech Wednesday night."</p> <p>Romney is Governor of Massachusetts, generally described as a moderate Republican. He's also generally regarded as thirsting to run for president in 2008.</p> <p>What, if anything, he might come forward with when he speaks to the Republican faithful here on Wednesday night is anybody's guess. When a reporter circulates among other Republicans asking, "What could it be, this 'Romney surprise'?" the most common response is: "Beats me."</p> <div></div> </blockquote> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span>On </span><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/31/1565468/-Daily-Kos-Radio-s-KITM-podcast-AUDIO-Kagro-in-the-Morning-Wednesday-August-31-2016" target="_blank">today’s <em>Kagro in the Morning</em> show</a><span>: Trump heads south of the border. In FL, two terrible prosecutors go down &amp; DWS survives. The “alt-right” attempts the Jedi mind trick. Bannons troubles multiply. And </span><strong>Joan McCarter</strong><span> discusses the latest antics from the Freedom Caucus &amp; Paul LePage.</span> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-height="100" data-src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4632486/height/100/width/500/theme/custom/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/render-playlist/no/custom-color/e87822/" data-width="500">Embedded Content</a></div> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknlsM6zUMIdxtz1qEAbhuA" target="_blank">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-kos-radio-kagro-in-morning/id581551976" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://kagrox.libsyn.com/" target="_blank">LibSyn</a> | Support the show: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/kagrox?ty=h" target="_blank">Patreon</a>; <a href="http://paypal.me/KagrointheMorning" target="_blank">PayPal</a>; <a href="http://kagrointhemorning.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">PayPal Subscription</a></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) AlexJones ConservativeConspiracyTheories Conservatives ConspiracyTheories OpenThreadforNightOwls Republicans _1565649 Thu, 01 Sep 2016 03:01:13 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/09/01/1565641/-Wednesday-Trump-Dump-Mexican-president-says-Trump-lied-about-their-meeting <a href="/campaigns/petition/sign-the-petition-hold-donald-trump-accountable-for-his-lies" class="dk-action-link" data-action="petition" data-slug="sign-the-petition-hold-donald-trump-accountable-for-his-lies" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/petition/sign-the-petition-hold-donald-trump-accountable-for-his-lies?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-petition-area-sign-the-petition-hold-donald-trump-accountable-for-his-lies-517874" data-href="/campaigns/petition/sign-the-petition-hold-donald-trump-accountable-for-his-lies">Campaign Action</a> <p>Welcome to Immigration Day on the Trump campaign trail, the 35th reset of the Donald Trump presidential campaign and the fifth-ish of those resets since last Friday. Today was the day Donald Trump gave his Big Immigration Speech. But since that evening speech hasn’t happened as of the time this roundup has to be written, scrubbed, polished, unpolished, spindled, mutilated and ready for you, we’ll have to cover it tomorrow.</p> <p>Trump also <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/31/1565422/-Donald-Trump-goes-to-Mexico-quick-build-the-wall">jetted down to Mexico City</a> at the invitation of that country's president, resulting in one of the <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/31/1565576/-Donald-Trump-in-Mexico">more awkward bits of stagecraft on the campaign trail</a>. The president and the candidate met for about 45 minutes in private, upon which both came out to give brief speeches conspicuously dodging the awkward things Trump has been saying about Mexico for over a year. As for whether or not we will be building a wall that Mexico will be paying for, also known as the entire reason for the Donald Trump campaign, his core promise to a rabidly xenophobic fan base? Donald Trump said it didn't come up.</p> <p>Curiously, however, a spokesman for Peña Nieto told the press that Peña Nieto <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/31/1565633/-Trump-lied-Mexican-president-says-He-told-Trump-he-wouldn-t-pay-for-the-wall">specifically told Trump during the meeting</a> that Mexico would <em>not</em> be paying for such a wall, a statement the Mexican president himself later repeated. Who to believe?</p> <p>The minor question of whether or not Donald Trump flatly lied about his private conversation with a foreign leader aside, the whole event was, naturally, capped off by the only remaining duty of our great national press corps: An afternoon discussion of whether or not Trump "looked presidential" in the venue. The bar on this one continues to drop lower as the campaign goes on; Trump either dodged the core dispute between himself and his host country or lied about the results, but also did not pull his counterpart's hair or insult the Mexican citizenry to their faces, so it was considered afterwards to be a good day.</p> <p>As I mentioned on Twitter at the time, I don't agree that Donald Trump is being graded by the press as if he were a grade-school child, because even schoolchildren giving oral reports (What I Learned In Mexico, by Donny J Trump) are expected to know things. The measure being forever taken of Trump is specifically whether he "looks" or "sounds" presidential. Can he control his temper? Can he keep from insulting his audience? How is his coat today?</p> <p>So Donald Trump is not being graded as if he were a child. Donald Trump is being graded as if he is a Golden Retriever in the ring at the Westminster Dog Show. Does he look the part? His stride—is it confident?</p> <p><em>Glossy coat, good teeth. Bit handler, but missed artery; overall a good showing.</em></p> <p>There was other news today, of course. Here's the rest of it.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Republicans _1565641 Thu, 01 Sep 2016 00:41:21 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/31/1565564/-Gov-Paul-LePage-I-will-no-longer-speak-to-the-press-ever-again-after-today <a href="/campaigns/petition/sign-if-you-agree-paul-lepage-is-a-disgrace-to-maine" class="dk-action-link" data-action="petition" data-slug="sign-if-you-agree-paul-lepage-is-a-disgrace-to-maine" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/petition/sign-if-you-agree-paul-lepage-is-a-disgrace-to-maine?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-petition-area-sign-if-you-agree-paul-lepage-is-a-disgrace-to-maine-730892" data-href="/campaigns/petition/sign-if-you-agree-paul-lepage-is-a-disgrace-to-maine">Campaign Action</a> <p>Paul LePage, the clearly incompetent and forever erratic Republican governor of Maine, says that despite earlier reports (from <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/30/1565145/-LePage-suggests-he-may-step-down-as-Maine-governor">himself</a>), he will not be resigning from office. In the wake of the release of an obscenity-filled tirade of a voicemail message LePage left for a Democratic state representative, however, he has settled on <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/08/31/lepage-says-won-quit/0o9OUNHI7xVCqVvj3GRhNM/story.html?event=event25">another solution</a>.</p> <blockquote>“I will no longer speak to the press ever again after today,” he said. <p>“And I’m serious. Everything will be put into writing. I’m tired of being caught in the gotcha moments.”</p> </blockquote> <p>LePage has indeed been "caught" in a steady stream of "gotcha moments" of his own making. The one intertwined with the aforementioned voice message, for example, would be <a href="http://www.pressherald.com/2016/08/26/house-democrats-condemn-lepage-attack-on-westbrook-legislator/">his press conference assertion</a> that "the enemy right now," in his state's war on drugs, is "people of color."</p> <p>For at least a year, in fact, the press has been <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/maine-lepage-america-craziest-governor-goes-off-the-rails-120320">openly questioning his competence, his integrity, and even his sanity</a>. He's avoided impeachment so far solely because state legislators could not muster the collective will to do so. </p> <p>All right, so now the sitting governor of a state says he'll no longer be speaking to the press at all, because his continually saying stupid and racist things is, of course, their fault. Got it. Oh, and he says he won't be seeking "professional help,” as lawmakers urged him to do, but will seek "spiritual guidance." Presumably so that his next racist tirade will sound more holy, or ... something.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) Conservatives Maine PaulLePage Recommended Repubicans _1565564 Wed, 31 Aug 2016 19:10:48 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/31/1565543/-Michele-Bachman-God-raised-up-Donald-Trump <p>Former Rep. Michele Bachmann, who is a member of Donald Trump's Godly Adviser Task Force, or at least his godly "advisory board,” is quite certain that Donald Trump won the Republican nomination because <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/michele-bachmann-god-trump-nominee-227556">God did that</a>.</p> <blockquote>“I don’t think God sits things out. He’s a sovereign God. Donald Trump became our nominee. I think it’s very likely that in the day that we live in, that Donald Trump is the only individual who could win in a general election of the 17 who ran,” the former Minnesota congresswoman told CBN News’ The Brody File. [...] <p>“I actually supported Ted Cruz. I thought he was fabulous, but I also see that at the end of the day God raised up, I believe, Donald Trump who was going to be the nominee in this election,” she said.</p> </blockquote> <p>Presuming Bachmann is in spiritual tune with the creator of all things (and she must be because she says she is), there are several possibilities here. First, that Donald J. Trump, that Donald J. Trump, the one whose entire schtick is the semi-creative belittlement of any that cross his path and whose entire interior design aesthetic is to use so much gold leaf that it looks like King Midas himself ran around the premises licking things, is indeed the most Godly representation of Godliness that could be found in the modern Republican party. (He was competing against other candidates like ex-preacher Mike Huckabee, of course, who he routed handily.)</p> <p>Or second, God Himself has had just about enough of Donald Trump's gargantuan ego and is putting the screws to the rest of the Republican Party in a single-minded attempt to teach hairboy a lesson even hairboy won't soon forget.</p> <p>It's impossible to say. But Michele Bachmann is quite certain that Donald Trump is the new face of the Republican Party because God wants it that way, which adds quite the spiritual twist to this biblically farcical election season.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections MicheleBachmann Recommended Religion Republicans _1565543 Wed, 31 Aug 2016 18:38:23 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/31/1565331/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-In-Texas-the-mortality-rate-for-pregnant-women-has-doubled <p><span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/29/opinion/states-of-cruelty.html?ref=opinion&amp;_r=0" target="_blank">Paul Krugman</a>:</span></p> <blockquote> <p><span>Something terrible has happened to pregnant women in Texas: their mortality rate has doubled in recent years, and is now comparable to rates in places like Russia or Ukraine. Although researchers into this disaster are careful to say that it can’t be attributed to any one cause, the death surge </span><a href="http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/08/19/maternal-mortality-rates-in-texas-doubled-after-state-cut-funding-to-planned-parenthood/" title="">does coincide</a><span> with the state’s defunding of Planned Parenthood, which led to the closing of many clinics. And all of this should be seen against the general background of Texas policy, which is extremely hostile toward anything that helps low-income residents. [...]</span></p> <p><span>[T]he economic case for being cruel to the unfortunate has lost whatever slight credibility it may once have had. Yet the cruelty goes on. Why?</span></p> </blockquote> <div></div> <div> <div> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">69 days remain until the general election. Are you registered to vote? </a></strong><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">Click here to be sure</a>.</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/30/1565093/-High-Impact-Posts-August-29-2016" title="">HIGH IMPACT STORIES</a> • </strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/30/1565297/-Top-Comments-Enemy-Of-The-Good-Edition" title=""><strong></strong></a><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/30/1565297/-Top-Comments-Enemy-Of-The-Good-Edition" title="">TOP COMMENTS</a></strong></p> </div> <div></div> <div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>TWEET OF THE DAY</strong></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;LOL John Boehner is so happy to be out of Congress.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;He posted a video of him driving an RV on his YouTube channel: &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/AuEvdVIds6"&amp;gt;pic.twitter.com/AuEvdVIds6&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/770650143259516928"&amp;gt;August 30, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>LOL John Boehner is so happy to be out of Congress.<br><br>He posted a video of him driving an RV on his YouTube channel: <a href="https://t.co/AuEvdVIds6">pic.twitter.com/AuEvdVIds6</a></p>— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) <a href="https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/770650143259516928">August 30, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>BLAST FROM THE PAST</strong></p> <div></div> <div> <p>At Daily Kos on this date in <strong>2005</strong>—<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/08/31/142753/-Katrina" target="_blank">Katrina</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>The last four days I was in an isolated cabin in Clinton, Montana, with only tenuous links to the outside world. Today was the first time I was able to truly get a handle on the New Orleans disaster, and it's almost too staggering to comprehend. It's downright biblical.</p> <p>This is the greatest disaster to hit our nation in most of our lifetimes. Worse than 9-11. New Orleans is underwater. Biloxi is 90 percent destroyed. Who knows how many dead. Who knows how many homeless. Who knows how many jobless. We have a bona fide refugee crisis on our hands.</p> <p>There will be a time for a full accounting of what went wrong, both preparing for this thing and relief efforts afterward. I don't know if the time is now or later. Honestly, I don't much care. I'm too horrified by what I'm seeing today. It's overwhelming.</p> <p>I just wish that the president gave a damn about what's happened. Unfortunately, he's<strong> <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;u=/050830/480/capm10208301856">too busy</a> </strong>playing 'country rock star."</p> <div></div> </blockquote> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span>On </span><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/30/1565165/-Daily-Kos-Radio-s-KITM-podcast-AUDIO-Kagro-in-the-Morning-Tuesday-August-30-2016" target="_blank">today’s <em>Kagro in the Morning</em> show</a><span>, we’re so patriotic, we play the national anthem twice! And so nuanced, we protested twice, too. How to understand the Clinton Foundation. And Washington. And everywhere. Even white privilege has nuance. And so does Russian hacking!</span> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-height="100" data-src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4629589/height/100/width/500/theme/custom/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/render-playlist/no/custom-color/e87822/" data-width="500">Embedded Content</a></div> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknlsM6zUMIdxtz1qEAbhuA" target="_blank">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-kos-radio-kagro-in-morning/id581551976" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://kagrox.libsyn.com/" target="_blank">LibSyn</a> | Support the show: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/kagrox?ty=h" target="_blank">Patreon</a>; <a href="http://paypal.me/KagrointheMorning" target="_blank">PayPal</a>; <a href="http://kagrointhemorning.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">PayPal Subscription</a></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) HealthCare OpenThreadforNightOwls Pregnancy Texas _1565331 Wed, 31 Aug 2016 03:01:19 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/31/1565329/-Tuesday-Trump-Dump-When-you-re-the-greatest-debater-ever-you-don-t-need-to-prepare-for-debates <p>Welcome to your daily roundup of Donald Trump campaign news, otherwise known as the reason ten percent of all the people you know are currently digging fallout shelters in their backyards. Well, in <em>somebody's</em> backyard.</p> <p>Today Donald Trump is preparing for tomorrow's very, very important immigration speech, the one that he put off last week so that he could get it exactly right. Trump whisperer Kellyanne Conway says Trump is "<a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/donald-trump-immigration-kellyanne-conway-227560" title="">the most involved in the drafting</a>," which may or may not be even one percent true, but we'll soon find out. The candidate does not do well reading other people's words off a teleprompter.</p> <p>The speech comes at a critical time for Trump. <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/30/1565104/-Abbreviated-pundit-roundup-Trump-s-immigration-issue-debacle" title="">Nobody has the foggiest idea what Trump's current immigration proposals actually are</a>, or more to the point, the Trump campaign has been remarkably incapable of clarifying whether or not those policies have or haven't changed from Trump's earlier campaign demands for a complete border wall, summary deportation of 11 million people, and so on.</p> <p>But deporting 11 million people isn't just a key issue for the Trump base; it's the foundation of his campaign. If he backpedals on <em>that</em>, he becomes a political traitor to his own most fervent (xenophobic) supporters. If he doesn't pull back from his harshest rhetoric, however, he's cooked with non-xenophobic voters. There's only one possible winning scenario, and it's the tightrope the campaign has been walking for two weeks: explain the "policy" in such ambiguous terms that both sides are convinced you're with them. This is what they've tried, and it's only gotten them into hot water. Will Donald Trump, master orator, be able to thread the needle in a way all his more experienced campaign surrogates have not?</p> <p>Let's watch. While we're waiting, however, we must in the meantime suffer through another day of strange, strange Donald Trump news.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Republicans _1565329 Wed, 31 Aug 2016 01:01:20 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/30/1564998/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-After-removing-humans-Facebook-s-new-algorithm-promotes-fake-news <p>After conservative outrage over the allegation that Facebook news editors were biased against conservative sources, Facebook “solved” the problem by removing humans from the decision-making process entirely. As of last Friday, descriptions of news events would be served to readers using an algorithm that cribbed the description from trending news topics. The result is precisely what might be expected—and in a conservative media world increasingly unkempt in the distinction between fact and fiction, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/08/29/a-fake-headline-about-megyn-kelly-was-trending-on-facebook/?tid=sm_tw" target="_blank">precisely what those conservatives demanded</a>.</p> <blockquote> <p>But just days after the policy change, Facebook’s algorithm chose a very bad, factually incorrect headline to explain to its news-hungry users why Megyn Kelly was trending.</p> <p>The headline, which was visible to anyone who hovered over Megyn Kelly’s name on the Trending list, refers to the Fox News personality as a “traitor” and claims that the cable channel has “Kick[ed] her out for backing Hillary.”</p> </blockquote> <p>The algorithm-chosen headline was chosen from a conspiracy-peddling conservative site: “<em>Fox News Exposes Traitor Megyn Kelly, Kicks Her Out For Backing Hillary</em>.” It was, of course, untrue—a “typo-ridden aggregation of an aggregation”—but was served up as legitimate news by Facebook algorithm for “several hours” as a top story.</p> <p>Human intervention can, of course, far more easily police a newsfeed for error-filled stories or deliberate misinformation than current algorithms—but that would introduce claims of <em>bias</em> from those whose stories were passed over for having such errors. A simpler purely algorithmic approach, on the other hand, might identify outlets known for false or misleading stories and prevent them from being used as highlighted representations of a trending topic—but this would amount to “blacklisting” untrustworthy news sources and would be seen, by the purveyors of untrustworthy news, as far worse.</p> <p>The current outcome, then, is precisely what conservatives demanded in their meeting with Facebook: an end to editorial discretion when serving their readership with trending news. Yes, the news might be false—but as long as the story is <em>trending</em>, who cares?</p> <div></div> <div> <div> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank">70 days remain until the general election. Are you registered to vote? </a></strong><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank">Click here to be sure</a>.</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/29/1564801/-High-Impact-Posts-August-28-2016">HIGH IMPACT STORIES</a> • </strong><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/29/1565028/-Top-Comments-I-Saw-a-Comment">TOP COMMENTS</a></strong></p> </div> <div></div> <div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>TWEET OF THE DAY</strong></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Why do we play the national anthem before sporting events, anyway? Has anyone ever forgotten they were American at a football game?&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; David Waldman (@KagroX) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/KagroX/status/770324777621868544"&amp;gt;August 29, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Why do we play the national anthem before sporting events, anyway? Has anyone ever forgotten they were American at a football game?</p>— David Waldman (@KagroX) <a href="https://twitter.com/KagroX/status/770324777621868544">August 29, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>BLAST FROM THE PAST</strong></p> <div></div> <div> <p>At Daily Kos on this date in <strong>2007</strong>—<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/08/29/377953/-Nuclear-Weapons-Nonproliferation-and-the-2008-Democratic-Presidential-Candidates" target="_blank">Nuclear Weapons, Nonproliferation, and the 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidates</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>It was July 16, 1945.  At 5:29:45 AM, the quiet southern New Mexico desert morning was shattered by an explosion, the effects of which were felt as far north as Albuquerque.  It was the famous <a href="http://www.abomb1.org/trinity/trinity1.html">Trinity nuclear weapon test</a>, the brainchild of the Manhattan Project, born of <a href="http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/mp/introduction.shtml">the concern</a> that Nazi Germany was developing a similar weapon.</p> <p>However, Germany wasn't on anyone's mind that morning, as World War II had ended in Europe two months earlier. The war still raged in the Pacific theater;  after the successful test of "the gadget" in New Mexico, Manhattan Project <a href="http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/sites/Metlab.shtml">Metallurgical Laboratory</a> scientist <a href="http://www.clw.org/work/legacy/index.html">Leo Szilard</a>, and 69 of his colleagues sent <a href="http://www.dannen.com/decision/45-07-17.html">a petition</a> to President Truman expressing their opposition to the use of nuclear weapons against Japan.  The petition warned of triggering an arms race, with dire international consequences.</p> <div></div> </blockquote> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span>On </span><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/29/1564860/-Daily-Kos-Radio-s-KITM-podcast-AUDIO-Kagro-in-the-Morning-Monday-August-29-2016" target="_blank">today’s <em>Kagro in the Morning</em> show</a><span>, </span><strong>Greg Dworkin</strong><span> updates the polls &amp; adds a detailed list of the breaking points of 100+ #NeverTrump-ers. Talking  “alt-right?” You’re the real racist! Can’t tell Trump scams from the campaign. Kaepernick’s protest &amp; the national anthem’s 3rd verse.</span> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-height="100" data-src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4626135/height/100/width/500/theme/custom/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/render-playlist/no/custom-color/e87822/" data-width="500">Embedded Content</a></div> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknlsM6zUMIdxtz1qEAbhuA" target="_blank">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-kos-radio-kagro-in-morning/id581551976" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://kagrox.libsyn.com/" target="_blank">LibSyn</a> | Support the show: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/kagrox?ty=h" target="_blank">Patreon</a>; <a href="http://paypal.me/KagrointheMorning" target="_blank">PayPal</a>; <a href="http://kagrointhemorning.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">PayPal Subscription</a></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) ConservativeConspiracyTheories ConservativeMedia Conservatives ConspiracyTheories facebook Media OpenThreadforNightOwls _1564998 Tue, 30 Aug 2016 03:01:26 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/29/1564995/-Monday-Trump-Dump-Trump-tends-to-echo-the-words-of-whomever-last-spoke-to-him <p>Welcome back to the daily roundup of the end of the republic, also known as the Donald Trump presidential campaign.</p> <p>We start this week as we started last week: with Donald Trump's campaign attempting to explain their candidate's actual immigration policy, <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/29/1564829/-Trump-to-give-another-immigration-speech-to-clear-up-his-totally-not-changed-policy">to very little avail</a>. Mike Pence and Kellyanne Conway took to the airwaves to explain that (1) absolutely nothing had changed about Trump's immigration policy proposals and (2) that those policies will be substantially different from what Trump has previously said they were. Also, we have always been at war with Eastasia.</p> <p>On this Wednesday, then, Donald Trump is scheduled to give another "immigration" speech outlining his not-new, not-old theories on what his policies might be. This takes the place of a speech last week that was cancelled because the precise wording of his policy, which is the same policy as ever but also different, was "<a href="https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/767813744412024836">still being modified</a>." Won't that be fun. As for the rest of the day's news:</p> <p>• Vice presidential pick Mike Pence waves off a question as to whether the Trump campaign still believes American-born children of undocumented immigrants <a href="https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/769914286047109121">are, in fact, American citizens</a>: "I think the whole question of anchor babies, as it's known, the whole question of citizenship, of natural-born Americans is a subject for the future." So stripping children of citizenship is still on the table, apparently, but we won't be speaking of it until after something-something-something.</p> <p>• Is the Trump promised border wall going to be a "virtual wall," or a "physical" one? It depends on <a href="https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/770251886570209281">who</a> you <a href="https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/770303652879855616">ask</a>. Seems the sort of thing you'd want to have pinned down by now.</p> <p>• An alarming clue on how the would-be president <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/8/29/12691276/trump-believe-flop-flop" title="">makes, and changes, policy</a>: "Trump tends to echo the words of whomever last spoke to him, making direct access to him even more valuable, the people said, requesting anonymity to talk about internal campaign discussions."</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Recommended Republicans _1564995 Mon, 29 Aug 2016 23:25:09 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/29/1564666/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-Walmart-s-crime-problems-tax-local-police-departments <figure class="image-captioned width-md align-right"><img alt="YellowBackgroundOwlBadge_TEXT_%281%29.jpg" src="http://images.dailykos.com/images/124236/large/YellowBackgroundOwlBadge_TEXT_%281%29.jpg?1453431581" title="YellowBackgroundOwlBadge_TEXT_%281%29.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <p>The reasons for high crime rates at Walmart stores compared to other retailers nationwide are many. Increasingly, local police departments are getting fed up with the problem—and many are <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-walmart-crime/" target="_blank">accusing Walmart of not doing enough to stem the tide</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>It’s not unusual for the department to send a van to transport all the criminals Ross arrests at this Walmart. The call log on the store stretches 126 pages, documenting more than 5,000 trips over the past five years. Last year police were called to the store and three other Tulsa Walmarts just under 2,000 times. By comparison, they were called to the city’s four Target stores about 300 times. Most of the calls to the northeast Supercenter were for shoplifting, but there’s no shortage of more serious crimes, including five armed robberies so far this year, a murder suspect who killed himself with a gunshot to the head in the parking lot last year, and, in 2014, a group of men who got into a parking lot shootout that killed one and seriously injured two others.</p> <p>Police reports from dozens of stores suggest the number of petty crimes committed on Walmart properties nationwide this year will be in the hundreds of thousands. But people dashing out the door with merchandise is the least troubling part of Walmart’s crime problem. More than 200 violent crimes, including attempted kidnappings and multiple stabbings, shootings, and murders, have occurred at the nation’s 4,500 Walmarts this year, or about one a day, according to an analysis of media reports.</p> </blockquote> <div></div> <div> <div> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">71 days remain until the general election. Are you registered to vote? </a></strong><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank">Click here to be sure</a>.</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/28/1564711/-Top-Comments-Characters-edition" title=""><strong></strong></a><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/28/1564711/-Top-Comments-Characters-edition" title="">TOP COMMENTS</a></strong></p> </div> <div></div> <div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>TWEET OF THE DAY</strong></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;And at the end of the day this election isn&amp;amp;#39;t about insiders v. outsiders. It&amp;amp;#39;s people who want to live in a society v. nihilists.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/JYSexton/status/769936461177184256"&amp;gt;August 28, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>And at the end of the day this election isn't about insiders v. outsiders. It's people who want to live in a society v. nihilists.</p>— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) <a href="https://twitter.com/JYSexton/status/769936461177184256">August 28, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>BLAST FROM THE PAST</strong></p> <div></div> <div> <p>At Daily Kos on this date in <strong>2008</strong>—<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/08/29/578015/-Not-Yes-We-Can-but-rather-We-Have-To" target="_blank">Not "Yes We Can," but rather "We Have To"</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>As a highly partisan Dem who has been wishing and hoping and waiting for Obama to do what we in the blogosphere have been asking for for so long from our Dem leadership--draw a sharp contrast with the Republicans and bring the fight to them--I'm a satisfied customer tonight.</p> <p>Barack Obama left behind some of the more squishy "post-partisan" rhetoric and did what he had to do--define McCain as Bush's third term. "Eight is enough" might be a slightly cheesy tag line, but it works. You'll remember it and you'll say "Yeah, eight IS enough," and we can't afford Republican rule any more.</p> <p>This was the speech from someone who is ready to roll up his sleeves and get in the fight. Good show.</p> <div></div> </blockquote> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span style="text-align:center">Monday through Friday you can catch the Kagro in the Morning Show 9 AM ET by dropping in </span><a href="http://184.82.147.114:8004/listen.pls">here, or you can download the </a><a href="http://stitcher.com/">Stitcher app</a><span style="text-align:center"> (found in the app stores or at Stitcher.com), and find a live stream there, by searching for "Netroots Radio.”</span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) Crime lawenforcement OpenThreadforNightOwls Police Walmart _1564666 Mon, 29 Aug 2016 03:01:21 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/27/1564238/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-Papahanaumokua-becomes-world-s-largest-protected-marine-environment <figure class="image-captioned width-md align-right"><img alt="BladeRunnerOwlBadgeTEXT.jpg" src="http://images.dailykos.com/images/107254/large/BladeRunnerOwlBadgeTEXT.jpg?1453305834" title="BladeRunnerOwlBadgeTEXT.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <p>Meet the newest, largest protected marine environment on planet Earth: The half million square miles of the newly expanded Hawaiian marine national monument, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-to-create-the-largest-protected-place-on-the-planet-off-hawaii/2016/08/25/54ecb632-6aec-11e6-99bf-f0cf3a6449a6_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_obamahawaii-1215am:homepage/story" target="_blank"><span>Papahanaumokuakea</span></a>.</p> <blockquote> <p><span>The president more than quadrupled the size of the Papahanaumokuakea (pronounced “Papa-ha-now-moh-koo-ah-kay-ah”) Marine National Monument to 582,578 square miles of land and sea in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. [...]</span></p> <p><span>With Friday’s action, seven presidents — starting with Theodore Roosevelt in 1909 — have taken steps to safeguard parts of the archipelago, which is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world. It is the planet’s largest seabird gathering site, with more than 14 million birds from 22 species, and is home to nearly all Laysan albatrosses and the remaining endangered Hawaiian monk seals.</span></p> </blockquote> <div></div> <div> <p>The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/08/26/fact-sheet-president-obama-create-worlds-largest-marine-protected-area" target="_blank">expansion of the monument</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><span>… provides critical protections for more than 7,000 marine species, including whales and sea turtles listed under the Endangered Species Act and the longest-living marine species in the world — black coral, which have been found to live longer than 4,500 years. Additionally, as ocean acidification, warming, and other impacts of climate change threaten marine ecosystems, expanding the monument will improve ocean resilience, help the region’s distinct physical and biological resources adapt, and create a natural laboratory that will allow scientists to monitor and explore the impacts of climate change on these fragile ecosystems.</span></p> </blockquote> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank">73 days remain until the general election. Are you registered to vote? </a></strong><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank">Click here to be sure</a>.</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/26/1564099/-High-Impact-Posts-August-25-2016">HIGH IMPACT STORIES</a> • <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/26/1564043/-Top-Comments-Dress-Codes-and-Uniforms-Edition">TOP COMMENTS</a></strong></p> </div> <div></div> <div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>TWEET OF THE DAY</strong></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Trump: My campaign CEO is Bigoty von Bigot.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;Clinton: Trump&amp;amp;#39;s campaign CEO is Bigoty von Bigot.&amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/chucktodd"&amp;gt;@chucktodd&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;: Both Sides Race to the bottom!&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; driftglass (@Mr_Electrico) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/Mr_Electrico/status/769284400907452416"&amp;gt;August 26, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Trump: My campaign CEO is Bigoty von Bigot.<br>Clinton: Trump's campaign CEO is Bigoty von Bigot.<a href="https://twitter.com/chucktodd">@chucktodd</a>: Both Sides Race to the bottom!</p>— driftglass (@Mr_Electrico) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mr_Electrico/status/769284400907452416">August 26, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>BLAST FROM THE PAST</strong></p> <div></div> <div> <p>At Daily Kos on this date in <strong>2002</strong>—<a href="http://www.dailykos.net/archives/000209.html#000209" target="_blank">Bush afraid of Congress</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>The Bush Administration has ignored calls to build support for the invasion of Iraq at the UN Security Council. The reasons are obvious -- the US would be hard pressed to pick up a couple of votes, much less the full support of the council.</p> <p>For the same reasons, the administration is now trying to claim it <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61040-2002Aug25.html" title="">doesn't need Congressional approval</a> to invade Iraq.</p> <p>If Bush felt confident he had the votes, he wouldn't be trying to shirk his duties. Congress is the only national branch of government currently occupied by elected officials (Bush and the Supremes were all selected). As such, Congress is the only branch with the moral authority to commit our youth to possible death. Yet in another example of Bush's disdain for democracy, he's hiding behind his legal team's vapid opinions.</p> <p>The gist: the 1991 Gulf War resolution and the 9-11 resolution give the president all the authority he needs.</p> <p>Many observers believe Congress would likely pass a Gulf War II resolution, but with restrictions unpalatable to Bush. For example, the resolution could prohibit a strategy of "regime change," limiting US forces to eliminating Iraq's WMD. There's something to this theory.</p> <div></div> </blockquote> <p>On <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/26/1564078/-Daily-Kos-Radio-s-KITM-podcast-AUDIO-Kagro-in-the-Morning-Friday-August-26-2016" target="_blank">today’s <em>Kagro in the Morning</em> show</a>: Your weekend vagenda: Paul “Dick” LePage leaves a message after the beep. <strong>Greg Dworkin</strong> reviews Clinton’s speech. Bannon’s got a voter fraud problem, but is a just a “regular Joe” living in an Egyptian politician’s house &amp; holding levitating CPAC orgies.</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4620556/height/100/width/500/theme/custom/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/render-playlist/no/custom-color/e87822/" data-height="100" data-width="500">Embedded Content</a></div> <p><span><span><span><span><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknlsM6zUMIdxtz1qEAbhuA" target="_blank">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-kos-radio-kagro-in-morning/id581551976" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://kagrox.libsyn.com/" target="_blank">LibSyn</a> | </span>Support the show: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/kagrox?ty=h" target="_blank">Patreon</a>; <span><a href="http://paypal.me/KagrointheMorning" target="_blank">PayPal</a></span>; <a href="http://kagrointhemorning.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">PayPal Subscription</a></span></span></span></span></p> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span style="text-align:center">Monday through Friday you can catch the Kagro in the Morning Show 9 AM ET by dropping in </span><a href="http://184.82.147.114:8004/listen.pls">here, or you can download the </a><a href="http://stitcher.com/">Stitcher app</a><span style="text-align:center"> (found in the app stores or at Stitcher.com), and find a live stream there, by searching for "Netroots Radio.”</span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) Conservation Environment Hawaii NationalMonuments OpenThreadforNightOwls papahnaumokukea WhiteHouse _1564238 Sat, 27 Aug 2016 03:01:30 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/27/1564222/-Friday-Trump-Dump-Private-Jetachu-I-choose-you <p>Welcome back to your now-daily summary of the Donald Trump presidential campaign, also known as ... you know what, it's becoming increasingly difficult to come up with any more insulting description than "the Donald Trump presidential campaign." Let's skip it today.</p> <p>Today's events can be summarized thusly.</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Am I missing a bunch of statements from Republican leaders saying &amp;amp;quot;How dare you call our nominee racist&amp;amp;quot; or has it been shockingly quiet?&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/BenjySarlin/status/768951594545217536"&amp;gt;August 25, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Am I missing a bunch of statements from Republican leaders saying "How dare you call our nominee racist" or has it been shockingly quiet?</p>— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) <a href="https://twitter.com/BenjySarlin/status/768951594545217536">August 25, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p>Now that we've gotten the news that didn't happen out of the way, let's move on to the news that did.</p> <p>• Another day means another re-re-re-branding of Trump's sketchy immigration policy. Today saw Trump edge back <em>towards</em> <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/26/1564081/-The-Un-Softening-Trump-flips-back-his-flip-flop-on-immigration-or-does-he">his previous hardline stances</a> in the midst of continued anger from his base at the thought he might do anything to the contrary. Even <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/293410-palin-thank-god-trump-sticking-by-building-wall">Sarah Palin</a> had teed off on Trump, warning him not to "go down a path of wishy-washy positions."</p> <p>• The newest Trump campaign hire: <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/26/1564103/-Donald-Trump-fills-hole-in-his-campaign-with-Christie-aide-deeply-involved-in-Bridgegate">ex-Christie aide Bill Stepien</a>, who was fired by Christie for his prominent role in the "Bridgegate" scandal. Because when you're too crooked for even Chris Christie to defend you, you'll still find work in the campaign that hosts Breitbart Guy, Todd Akin's Wordsmith, and <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/trump-adviser-regrets-clinton-firing-squad-phrasing-thanks-t?utm_term=.txZMXOmdOv#.nrBwqD6XD9">Guy Who Continually Insists Hillary Clinton Should Be Shot For Treason</a>.</p> <p>• Publicity for his next-most-recent hire continues to be sketchy, as reporters discovered Steve Bannon <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/26/1564042/-Trump-s-campaign-chief-has-a-history-of-domestic-violence-and-voter-fraud-Should-we-be-surprised">was charged in 1996 for battery and domestic violence</a>. Oh, and that the Florida address he's currently registered to vote at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/26/steve-bannon-florida-registered-vote-donald-trump?CMP=share_btn_tw">is an abandoned house soon do be demolished</a>, and has never lived there, and by the way that would count as actual voter fraud. Oh, and then there's the time he was sued for, and we're not kidding on this one, his behavior <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/26/1564163/-Trump-s-Campaign-CEO-spent-two-years-in-a-sealed-dome-and-got-sued-over-safety-violations">while managing the struggling "Biosphere 2"</a>.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Recommended Republicans _1564222 Sat, 27 Aug 2016 00:15:19 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/26/1564134/-Eric-Trump-says-his-father-is-running-for-president-because-of-internet-conspiracy-theories <p>Eric Trump explains why his pa descended from his gilded tower via his Escalator of Shiny Truth to become <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/eric-trump-my-dad-ran-because-the-white-house-christmas-tree?utm_term=.wkzwxpOeL#.tyQnBYR7M" target="_blank">the hero who will save America</a>.</p> <blockquote>Eric Trump, listing off reasons his father is running for president, said in an interview this week that one of the motivations was the renaming of the White House Christmas tree to “holiday tree.”</blockquote> <p>Except, and stop me if you've heard this one before, vis-a-vis Donald Trump, that never happened. The National Christmas Tree remains the National Christmas Tree everywhere but in conservative email chains. Unfortunately for us, the Trump family lives inside one of those conservative email chains.</p> <blockquote>“He opens up the paper each morning and sees our nation’s leaders giving a hundred billion dollars to Iran.</blockquote> <p>This one will never die in the Trump household, mostly because giving someone money that you owe them is incomprehensible to a Trump when you could just, say, <em>not</em> do that and keep the money yourself. As has been explained repeatedly and using appropriately small words, after the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis (which helped propel Ronald Reagan into the White House, for You Kids Today) the U.S. government froze $400 million Iranian assets in the United States in retaliation. Those assets have remained frozen for decades; this January, however, amid U.S. concerns that The Hague was moving toward a ruling that would heavily favor Iran, a settlement was reached to un-freeze those assets and some, but not all, of the accumulated interest; the total worked out to $1.7 billion. It was publicly announced at the time, and covered in all the papers, and mostly nobody gave a damn, and $1.7 billion is very long way from "a hundred billion dollars" but nobody can accuse a Trump of being good with money.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 ConservativeConspiracyTheories Conservatives ConspiracyTheories DonaldTrump Elections EricTrump Republicans _1564134 Fri, 26 Aug 2016 19:18:49 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/26/1563909/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-Hospitals-won-t-bill-Pulse-nightclub-victims-for-needed-care <figure class="image-captioned width-md align-right"><img alt="OrangeEyeOwl_badgeTEXT_%281%29.jpg" src="http://images.dailykos.com/images/123228/large/OrangeEyeOwl_badgeTEXT_%281%29.jpg?1453423478" title="OrangeEyeOwl_badgeTEXT_%281%29.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <p>The Orlando Sentinel reports that two hospitals that treated victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/pulse-orlando-nightclub-shooting/os-orlando-health-wont-bill-pulse-victims-20160824-story.html" target="_blank">will not be billing survivors for that treatment</a>.</p> <blockquote> <p><span>"The pulse shooting was a horrendous tragedy for the victims, their families and our entire community," Orlando Health President and CEO David Strong said. "During this very trying time, many organizations, individuals and charities have reached out to Orlando Health to show their support. This is simply our way of paying that kindness forward." [...]</span></p> <p><span>At Orlando Health, bills will be sent to health insurers for patients who had coverage, but whatever those policies don't cover will be absorbed by the hospital chain, said spokeswoman Kena Lewis.</span></p> <p><span>At Florida Hospital, which treated a dozen of the clubgoers, officials said they would not even bill the victims' insurance for the treatment, nor will they bill for follow-up surgeries the survivors may need.</span></p> </blockquote> <div></div> <div> <div> <p>The two hospitals expect to write off about $5.5 million.</p> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">74 days remain until the general election. Are you registered to vote? </a></strong><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">Click here to be sure</a>.</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/25/1563853/-High-Impact-Posts-August-24-2016" title="">HIGH IMPACT STORIES</a> • </strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/25/1562560/-Top-Comments-the-Babbage-Lovelace-Hollerith-edition" title=""><strong></strong></a><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/25/1562560/-Top-Comments-the-Babbage-Lovelace-Hollerith-edition" title="">TOP COMMENTS</a></strong></p> </div> <div></div> <div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>TWEET OF THE DAY</strong></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;After what we just saw from both candidates it would be malpractice for &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/KellyannePolls"&amp;gt;@KellyannePolls&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; to let Trump debate Hillary. He&amp;amp;#39;s gonna back out.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/PaulBegala/status/768904139959132160"&amp;gt;August 25, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>After what we just saw from both candidates it would be malpractice for <a href="https://twitter.com/KellyannePolls">@KellyannePolls</a> to let Trump debate Hillary. He's gonna back out.</p>— Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulBegala/status/768904139959132160">August 25, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>BLAST FROM THE PAST</strong></p> <div></div> <div> <p>At Daily Kos on this date in <strong>2012</strong>—<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/23/1123459/-Surprise-Firewall-between-Super-PACs-and-candidates-campaigns-doesn-t-exist" target="_blank">Surprise! Firewall between Super PACs and candidates' campaigns doesn't exist</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Super PACS aren't allowed to coordinate their activities with political parties, candidates and candidates' political action committees. They can raise as much money as they want and spend it how they want, but no collaboration between them and campaigns.</p> <p>Which is a joke. <em>Citizens United</em>'s big laugh on us. It wasn't bad enough that plutocrats have poured so much money into political campaigns that democracy now teeters on the precipice, with hordes of elected officials at the state and federal levels little better than sock puppets for various businesses, from oil to banking. At least there were limits on how much campaign contributors could supply. Those are still in place for the parties, candidates and regular PACs. But not for Super PACs. The trade-off supposedly being that they remain <em>outside</em> groups. But it's a political charade. Utterly transparent. And everybody in Washington knows it.</p> <p>There are rules. But they don't keep outside groups and candidates or their managers from talking to each other about hiring decisions, fundraising, messaging and the like, which makes the rules <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79854.html#ixzz24P2BkSep">essentially worthless</a>.</p> <div></div> </blockquote> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p>On <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/25/1563756/-Daily-Kos-Radio-s-KITM-podcast-AUDIO-Kagro-in-the-Morning-Thursday-August-25-2016" target="_blank">today’s <em>Kagro in the Morning</em> show</a>, listeners get the real news from <strong>Greg Dworkin</strong>. Then, Happy Birthday, <strong>David Waldman</strong> &amp; <strong>Armando</strong>! Here’s 90 min. of 1%er innuendo &amp; garbage! Clinton met with the Kennedy Center’s Schwarzman? Well, Colin Powell went to his b-day party! With Trump!</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-height="100" data-src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4617921/height/100/width/500/theme/custom/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/render-playlist/no/custom-color/e87822/" data-width="500">Embedded Content</a></div> <p><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknlsM6zUMIdxtz1qEAbhuA" target="_blank">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-kos-radio-kagro-in-morning/id581551976" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://kagrox.libsyn.com/" target="_blank">LibSyn</a> | Support the show: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/kagrox?ty=h" target="_blank">Patreon</a>; <a href="http://paypal.me/KagrointheMorning" target="_blank">PayPal</a>; <a href="http://kagrointhemorning.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">PayPal Subscription</a></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) Florida gunviolence HealthCare OpenThreadforNightOwls Orlando pulse _1563909 Fri, 26 Aug 2016 03:01:16 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/25/1563901/-Thursday-Trump-Dump-The-alt-right-says-the-alt-right-is-racist-so-what-s-the-problem <p>Welcome back to your daily tour of the tire fire known as the Donald Trump presidential campaign. On the agenda for today: Donald Trump being very, very mad that people are calling him racist. His alt-right supporters being very, very mad that people are calling them racist. And the opposing presidential candidate gives a 30 minute speech <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/25/1563856/-Transcript-Hillary-Clinton-blasts-Trump-for-alt-right-ties">giving example after example of Donald Trump and his "alt-right" supporters promoting racism</a>.</p> <p>By plan or accident, Clinton's speech tying Donald Trump to the racist far-right couldn't have come at a worse time for the candidate. Trump is <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/25/politics/trump-no-legal-status-for-undocumented-immigrants/index.html">still reeling</a> from his latest, largest screw-up, a supposed "softening" of his immigration position that doesn't seem to contain much actual softening but still has the far-right <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/ann-coulter-mocks-trump-immigration-227392">in an uproar</a> over the thought that the candidate <em>might</em>.</p> <p>This is the scene, then: Donald Trump, caught between an attempt to moderate his rhetoric in order to salvage his collapsing poll numbers and a base that selected him as being the farthest thing from moderate, <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/25/1563694/-Donald-Trump-s-immigration-policy-is-nevermind">muddling through another day trying to avoid spelling out just what his "policies" might actually be</a>. If he chooses to moderate, he drives a wedge between himself and the far-right that they will likely see as abandonment, and dishonest, and the sign that this new candidate has been captured by the same forces that have "moderated" all the others. If he hugs them tight, he can kiss most of the rest of the American electorate goodbye for good.</p> <p>This is the precise campaign moment Hillary Clinton chose to walk to a podium and give a speech tying Trump as tightly as possible to the racist far-right that so easily propelled him through the Republican primaries, making it front-page news across the country come tomorrow.</p> <p>Politics ain't beanbag. On with the rest of it.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Racism Recommended Republicans _1563901 Thu, 25 Aug 2016 23:28:19 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/25/1563803/-Christina-Hartman-s-opponent-warns-the-ultra-progressive-Daily-Kos-is-supporting-her-We-are <figure class="image-captioned width-sm"><a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/dkforch?refcode=%2020160825H1%20thermometer&amp;tandembox=show"><img alt="Goal Thermometer" src="https://secure.actblue.com/x/object/actblue-badges/page/dkforch/thermometer/dark.png"></a> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <p>Earlier this month Daily Kos endorsed <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/12/1559371/-Republicans-fearful-of-losing-the-House-are-dumping-in-money-to-save-it-We-need-to-fight-back" title="">Christina Hartman</a> for Pennsylvania's open 16th Congressional District, part of our effort to identify strong Democratic candidates targeting GOP-held seats this year who could benefit from your support.</p> <p>Hartman's Republican opponent Lloyd Smucker has noticed, and in a new fundraising email his campaign is sounding the alarm bells to supporters. Oh noes! The radical ultra progressives are on the move!</p> <blockquote>Recently, the Daily Kos, a liberal, left wing but influential website endorsed our opponent. They only support candidates who believe the same ultra progressive agenda that they do. Their agenda is bad for America and bad for the residents of the 16th district.This endorsement will open the floodgates of financial support for her. <p>We are not taking anything for granted in this election. That is why we need your help today.</p> <p>Would you be willing to <u>contribute $10, $25 or $100</u> today? to help us fight back against their liberal message?</p> <p>Lloyd is running for Congress to protect the American dream. To keep our families safe and get our great nation back on track. [...]</p> </blockquote> <p>Well golly, doesn't that sound alarming. Smucker is a tea partyesque would-be House member, as is fitting in the era of Trump, whose own terse "issues" page is devoted to promising his base that he will repeal Obamacare, punish states that don't appropriately despise "illegal aliens," and so forth. But he can't do those things if the left-wing ultra progressives gum up the works by supporting a candidate who thinks we have better things to spend our time on than holding still more votes to repeal the only substantive healthcare reform the nation has had in many years or making sure undocumented kids aren’t getting vaccinated or educated if it would cost the rest of us a few thin dimes.</p> <p>All right, so we've got his attention. Now let's make it hurt. If Smucker can use his mailing list to warn that the Daily Kos "ultra progressives" have endorsed his opponent, let's use this opportunity to show just what a Daily Kos endorsement is worth. Let's send another round of donations to Christina Hartman, and help the Democratic voters in Pennsylvania’s 16th District send not another House Republican into the next Congress, but a Rep. Christina Hartman instead.</p> <p><a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/dkforch?refcode=20160825H1&amp;tandembox=show" title="">Click here and donate $3 to Christina Hartman's campaign</a>.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) ChristinaHartman dkebug Elections PA-16 PA16 Pennsylvania _1563803 Thu, 25 Aug 2016 19:19:09 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/25/1563584/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-We-ll-all-be-judged-by-how-we-responded-to-Donald-Trump <figure class="image-captioned width-md align-right"><img alt="Three_Owls_2.jpg" src="http://images.dailykos.com/images/118089/large/Three_Owls_2.jpg?1453385384" title="Three_Owls_2.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <p>Univision news anchor <a href="http://time.com/4463366/jorge-ramos-donald-trump/?xid=tcoshare" target="_blank">Jorge Ramos</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><span>It doesn’t matter who you are—a journalist, a politician or a voter—we’ll all be judged by how we responded to</span> Donald Trump<span>. Like it or not, this election is a plebiscite on the most divisive, polarizing and disrupting figure in American politics in decades. And neutrality is not an option. [...]</span></p> <p>Regardless of whether Donald Trump wins or loses, we will be asked on November 9th: What did you do? Did you support him? Were you brave enough, ethical enough, to challenge him when he insulted immigrants, Muslims, women, war heroes and people with disabilities? Are you on the record correcting his lies? Did you discuss with your friends and family that in a democracy like ours there is no room for racism and discrimination? Or did you just seat idly, silently, allowing others to decide the future of the United States?</p> <p>Because you will be asked.</p> <p><span>Trump has forced journalists to revisit rules of objectivity and fairness. Just providing both points of view is not enough in the current presidential campaign. If a candidate is making racist and sexist remarks, we cannot hide in the principle of neutrality.</span></p> </blockquote> <div></div> <div> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">75 days remain until the general election. Are you registered to vote? </a></strong><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank">Click here to be sure</a>.</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/24/1563414/-High-Impact-Posts-August-23-2016" title="">HIGH IMPACT STORIES</a> • </strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/24/1560725/-Top-Comments-Belated-Dark-amp-Stormy-Edition"><strong></strong></a><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/24/1560725/-Top-Comments-Belated-Dark-amp-Stormy-Edition" title="">TOP COMMENTS</a></strong></p> </div> <div></div> <div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>TWEET OF THE DAY</strong></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Pick 1:&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;amp;quot;Polls miss our voters&amp;amp;#39; enthusiasm, as you can see at giant rallies!&amp;amp;quot; &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;amp;quot;Our voters are too ashamed to admit they&amp;amp;#39;re supporting us!&amp;amp;quot;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/768459394887614465"&amp;gt;August 24, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Pick 1:<br>"Polls miss our voters' enthusiasm, as you can see at giant rallies!" <br>"Our voters are too ashamed to admit they're supporting us!"</p>— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) <a href="https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/768459394887614465">August 24, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>BLAST FROM THE PAST</strong></p> <div></div> <div> <p>At Daily Kos on this date in <strong>2008</strong>—<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/08/24/572298/-Big-Business-Goes-After-Unions-to-Defeat-Democrats" target="_blank">Big Business Goes After Unions to Defeat Democrats</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>As we all know, this November brings major opportunities for Senate pick-ups. And if we get enough Democrats in the Senate, there's a lot of legislation we might be able to get passed that seemed like pipe dreams just two years ago. That's precisely one of the reasons some business groups will be fighting tooth and nail to prevent Democrats from picking up Senate seats.</p> <p>The <a href="http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/">Employee Free Choice Act</a> is <a href="http://www.changetowin.org/issues/workers-rights/freedom-to-join-together-in-unions/employee-free-choice-act-efca.html">one of the most important</a> such bills -- and practically every competitive Senate race is being targeted by anti-union groups with <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/us/politics/21repubs.html?_r=1&amp;ref=">millions of dollars</a> in funding from undisclosed sources:</p> <blockquote> <p>The two groups, which will not disclose the sources of money behind their campaigns, may spend as much as a combined $50 million by November. The extent of the media effort has sent Democrats scrambling for ways to respond to what they call misleading advertisements without getting thrown off their own message. Party leaders are also sharply critical of the secrecy behind the spending.</p> <p>"The fact that these expenditures are not only so large but are undisclosed is extremely troubling," said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who said the groups "are trying to influence the elections with millions of dollars that the public can’t trace."</p> <div></div> </blockquote> </blockquote> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span>On </span><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/24/1563412/-Daily-Kos-Radio-s-KITM-podcast-AUDIO-Kagro-in-the-Morning-Wednesday-August-24-2016" target="_blank">today’s <em>Kagro in the Morning</em> show</a><span>, we had a party going on, with </span><strong>Greg Dworkin</strong><span> discussing the EpiPen piracy &amp; polling news, </span><strong>Armando</strong><span> disagreeing with Greg on polls, and </span><strong>Joan McCarter</strong><span> rallying support for a Dem Senate sweep, so maybe someone will do something about Zika.</span> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-height="100" data-src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4615252/height/100/width/500/theme/custom/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/render-playlist/no/custom-color/e87822/" data-width="500">Embedded Content</a></div> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknlsM6zUMIdxtz1qEAbhuA" target="_blank">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-kos-radio-kagro-in-morning/id581551976" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://kagrox.libsyn.com/" target="_blank">LibSyn</a> | Support the show: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/kagrox?ty=h" target="_blank">Patreon</a>; <a href="http://paypal.me/KagrointheMorning" target="_blank">PayPal</a>; <a href="http://kagrointhemorning.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">PayPal Subscription</a></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 DonaldTrump Elections JorgeRamos Journalism Media OpenThreadforNightOwls _1563584 Thu, 25 Aug 2016 03:01:25 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/25/1563580/-Wednesday-Trump-Dump-Elton-John-has-pianos-I-don-t-have-a-piano <p>Welcome back to your evening summary of the collapse of the Republican Party, as performed in skit, spoof, and/or vignette form by Donald J. Trump and whichever human barnacles are clinging to his campaign on any particular day.</p> <p>Questions about the details of Donald Trump's alleged immigration policies continue, fed primarily by <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/24/1563407/-A-big-ball-of-Trump-wumpy-inny-outy-immigration-stuff">a fountain of contradictory gibberish</a> from the candidate himself. Will there be a wall? Yes. Will we be deporting 11 million people? Absolutely. Will we then be letting many of them right back in? Um, maybe. Will there be a "deportation force" created to round up 11 million residents and ship them somewhere else? He hasn't decided yet.</p> <p>Even the hint of "softening" his anti-immigrant rhetoric is having repercussions, however. The rabidly xenophobic Rep. Steve King <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/steve-king-trump-immigration-stance-227361" title="">took to CNN to both downplay talk of Trump's softening</a> while warning that any actual deviation from his past promises would be a "mistake." And Ann Coulter, having just hastily scrawled a characteristically unsubtle Trump-humping book, is muttering that <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/292488-coulter-its-a-mistake-for-trump-to-soften-on-immigration">she would cancel her book tour</a> if Trump wavered on the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim stances that have made him so dear to her fans. (For the record, this is implausible. Ann Coulter, still desperate to reclaim a fraction of her previous conservative popularity in a world that now has similarly toxic race-baiters and xenophobes on every Republican corner, would not cancel a book tour even if she was on fire.)</p> <p>Elsewhere in the World O' Trump:</p> <p>• “<a href="https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/768545164763750400" target="_blank" title="">We’ve beaten Elton John and he has pianos, right?</a> I don’t have a piano. No piano but we’ve beaten four times Elton John’s record at arenas. Together we’re going to restore ethics and honesty to our government.”</p> <p>• In the wake of numerous media stories and columns on how none of Donald Trump's new "black outreach" efforts have been directed at Actual Black People, the Trump campaign is now contemplating <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/24/1563388/-Trump-now-wants-black-votes-but-his-racist-campaign-may-be-a-problem" title="">trips to "urban areas" where Actual Black People might live</a>. Possibly with Dr. Ben Carson in tow. (This follows ex-campaign chief Corey Lewandowski opining that Trump couldn't do that because those places <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/23/1563109/-Trump-doesnt-visit-black-voters-because-its-too-dangerous">are just too dangerous</a>.)</p> <p>• New Trump Whisperer Kellyanne Conway is <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/24/1563424/-Donald-Trump-s-campaign-manager-unskews-the-polls">unskewing the polls</a>: She says polls can't properly capture the nation's pro-Trump voters because it's not "socially desirable" to admit you might vote for him. Trump voters being notoriously shy and sensitive souls, after all.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Republicans _1563580 Thu, 25 Aug 2016 01:01:18 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/24/1563489/-Tax-dodging-Mylan-Pharmaceuticals-now-under-scrutiny-for-steep-EpiPen-price-hikes <p>Mylan Pharmaceuticals has been on the hotseat after the U.S. Senate got wind of the price hikes that have inflated the price of the company's EpiPen, a key emergency treatment for life-threatening allergic reactions, from $100 to over $600 in recent years despite the product itself having been around for decades. Those price hikes <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/23/1562880/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-EpiPen-prices-have-risen-by-600-percent-causing-patients-to-go-without" title="">have placed the drug out of reach for some parents and patients</a>, and there seems to be no good reason for the price hikes other than the drug's near-monopoly status. The new attention on the company isn't doing it any favors. Consider:</p> <p>• The company purchased <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2016/08/23/epipens-olympic-advertising/?utm_content=buffer5921d&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">$1.7 million</a> worth of ads directing patients toward the drug during NBC's Olympic coverage. While the ads did not name the EpiPen, the website promoted during the spots directed patients toward it as "treatment."</p> <p>• Mylan recently reincorporated in the Netherlands in what is known as an "inversion"—an accounting ploy to reduce its U.S. taxes. CEO Heather Bresch, who is the <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/292458-dem-senators-daughter-could-face-off-with-congress-over-drug">daughter</a> of Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-mylan-inversion-20160823-snap-story.html">called the move necessary to overcome the "competitive disadvantage"</a> of being subject to American taxes.</p> <p>• Despite tax complaints, Mylan isn't hurting for cash. The price hikes lifted EpiPen revenue for the company <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2016/08/23/epipens-olympic-advertising/?utm_content=buffer5921d&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">from $200 million in 2007 to around $1 billion a year now</a>, making it responsible for almost a tenth of the company's total revenue. And during the period Mylan has been raising the EpiPen's price, CEO Bresch's compensation went up by a similar margin: <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/mylan-execs-gave-themselves-raises-they-hiked-epipen-prices-n636591">from $2.5 million to nearly $18 million</a>.</p> <p>• It's not the only one of the company's products to see steep price increases recently: <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/23/how-mylan-hiked-prices-of-lots-of-other-products-besides-life-saving-epipen.html">Wells Fargo senior analyst David Maris found that</a> "Mylan has taken some exceptionally large price increases in 2016," with price hikes "more than 20 percent on 24 products, and more than 100 percent on seven."</p> <blockquote>In his report on Mylan, Maris wrote that while some of the products "may be small relative to Mylan's overall business, we do not believe that the price increases come without a real cost to patients." <p>"And if this turns to headline risk, the could be an impact to reputation and shareholders as well," Maris wrote in June. "In this environment, we believe 400 percent and 500 percent price increases on products are beacons for scrutiny."</p> </blockquote> <p>The company's stock price has indeed taken a dive in recent days now that that scrutiny is real. Congressional investigation of the price hikes now looks all but inevitable, with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) pushing for a September hearing and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) asking both the FTC and the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) epipen HealthCare Mylan _1563489 Wed, 24 Aug 2016 21:01:20 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/24/1563462/-Dr-Ben-Carson-says-his-elderly-candidate-should-disclose-his-medical-history-too <p>Donald Trump surrogate Dr. Ben Carson continues to not be very good <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/ben-carson-hillary-clinton-health-donald-trump-54870b8109d9#.ent9iy6u0" title="">at this whole surrogate thing</a>.</p> <blockquote>Dr. Ben Carson, one of Donald Trump’s most prominent supporters, said that anyone worried about Hillary Clinton’s health should be just as concerned about Trump because both presidential candidates are “elderly,” and there are no guarantees as people get older. [...] <p>“I think somebody who is running for the President of the United States, particularly if they are elderly — and that would include both major candidates — should disclose their medical history,” Carson said. “And I’m not talking about from a year ago or two years ago. I’m talking about currently.”</p> </blockquote> <p>No, no, no. You're not supposed to call Donald Trump "elderly." Sure, he's 70 years old, but he's still the proud owner of (somebody's) bright yellow hair. I think Donald Trump would probably have you tossed out of his building if you called him "elderly." (After all, Donald Trump's own let's-call-him-a-doctor says that the 70 year old would be the healthiest president <em>America has ever known</em>, though the rest of the details surrounding that claim were surprisingly vague.)</p> <p>Choose your words more carefully, Dr. Ben Carson. It's true Donald has a prominent position lined up for you in a future Trump administration—I believe he has you penciled in as his Sturgeon General—but you can still blow this.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 BenCarson Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Republicans _1563462 Wed, 24 Aug 2016 17:20:33 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/24/1563222/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-Fox-News-operates-like-a-sex-fueled-Playboy-Mansion-like-cult <figure class="image-captioned width-sm align-right"><img alt="Night_Owl_Yellow_Eyesx.jpg" src="http://images.dailykos.com/images/121188/large/Night_Owl_Yellow_Eyesx.jpg?1453408013" title="Night_Owl_Yellow_Eyesx.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <p>The other shoe drops: A new suit by ex-Fox News host Andrea Tantaros claims that it wasn’t just network chief Roger Ailes engaged in sexual harassment, but that other top figures at the network <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/andrea-tantaros-fox-news-lawsuit_us_57bc6919e4b0b51733a5d614?bqs1fzet91yvoenrk9" target="_blank">both participated in similar behavior and “condoned” it.</a></p> <blockquote> <p><span>“Fox News masquerades as defender of traditional family values, but behind the scenes, it operates like a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency and misogyny,” the suit reads. [...]</span></p> <p><span>In the suit, Tantaros also described host Bill O’Reilly ― who, in 2004, </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7578-2004Oct28.html">settled </a><span>a high-profile sexual harassment suit leveled by a former producer ― as once asking her to stay with him a “very private” place in Long Island and expressing a desire to see her “as a wild girl.”</span></p> <p>And <span>former Massachusetts senator and Fox News contributor Scott Brown made “sexual inappropriate comments” about Tantaros, according to the suit, and once grabbing her waist while she was buying lunch.</span></p> </blockquote> <p>Tantaros is one of nearly two dozen women to come forward with complaints about harassment at the network after Gretchen Carlson filed suit against Ailes for sexual harassment. Notably, Tantaros is not merely suing Ailes himself, but the network and several named network executives for their own roles in protecting Ailes and, when Tantaros complained, engaging in a public “media vendetta” against her.</p> <div></div> <div> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">80 days remain until the general election. Are you registered to vote? </a></strong><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">Click here to be sure</a>.</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/23/1563038/-High-Impact-Posts-August-22-2016" title="">HIGH IMPACT STORIES</a> • </strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/23/1563236/-Top-Comments-California-Road-Trip-9-The-End-of-the-Trip"><strong></strong></a><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/23/1563236/-Top-Comments-California-Road-Trip-9-The-End-of-the-Trip" title="">TOP COMMENTS</a></strong></p> </div> <div></div> <div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>TWEET OF THE DAY</strong></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;EpiPen plot thickens: &amp;amp;quot;Mylan CEO Heather Bresch&amp;amp;#39;s compensation went from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068; a 671% increase. &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/8mgNZx0Yif"&amp;gt;https://t.co/8mgNZx0Yif&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Emily Willingham (@ejwillingham) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/ejwillingham/status/768234563717861376"&amp;gt;August 23, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>EpiPen plot thickens: "Mylan CEO Heather Bresch's compensation went from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068; a 671% increase. <a href="https://t.co/8mgNZx0Yif">https://t.co/8mgNZx0Yif</a></p>— Emily Willingham (@ejwillingham) <a href="https://twitter.com/ejwillingham/status/768234563717861376">August 23, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>BLAST FROM THE PAST</strong></p> <div></div> <div> <p>At Daily Kos on this date in <strong>2004</strong>—<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/08/23/45734/-Dole-a-hypocrite" target="_blank">Dole a hypocrite</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Josh Marshall <a href="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_08_22.php#003309">applies the smackdown</a> to Bob Dole, so I don't have to:</p> <p>Today Bob Dole suggested that one or more of John Kerry's Purple Hearts may have been fraudulent in some way because they were for "<a href="http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040822/D84KGLT00.html">superficial wounds</a>."</p> <p>Dole knows better.</p> <p>In a 1988 campaign-trail autobiography, here's how Dole described the incident that earned him his first Purple Heart: "As we approached the enemy, there was a brief exchange of gunfire. I took a grenade in hand, pulled the pin, and tossed it in the direction of the farmhouse. It wasn't a very good pitch (remember, I was used to catching passes, not throwing them). In the darkness, the grenade must have struck a tree and bounced off. It exploded nearby, sending a sliver of metal into my leg--the sort of injury the Army patched up with Mercurochrome and a Purple Heart."</p> <div></div> </blockquote> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span>On </span><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/23/1563083/-Daily-Kos-Radio-s-KITM-podcast-AUDIO-Kagro-in-the-Morning-Tuesday-August-23-2016" target="_blank">today’s <em>Kagro in the Morning</em> show</a><span>: Trump hikes his HQ rent. Lewandowski says it’s too dangerous to campaign in black neighborhoods. TX maternity morbidity skyrockets under “pro-life” policies. You can’t just shut down &amp; then restart health clinics. A little like the Clinton Foundation?</span> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" data-height="100" data-src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4612538/height/100/width/500/theme/custom/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/render-playlist/no/custom-color/e87822/" data-width="500">Embedded Content</a></div> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknlsM6zUMIdxtz1qEAbhuA" target="_blank">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-kos-radio-kagro-in-morning/id581551976" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://kagrox.libsyn.com/" target="_blank">LibSyn</a> | Support the show: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/kagrox?ty=h" target="_blank">Patreon</a>; <a href="http://paypal.me/KagrointheMorning" target="_blank">PayPal</a>; <a href="http://kagrointhemorning.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">PayPal Subscription</a></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) AndreaTantaros ConservativeMedia FoxNews Media OpenThreadforNightOwls RogerAiles SexualHarassment _1563222 Wed, 24 Aug 2016 03:01:19 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/24/1563221/-Tuesday-Trump-Dump-So-fast-your-head-will-spin <p>It's now time for your regularly-scheduled report on the ongoing collapse of the Republican Party, otherwise known as Donald Trump's presidential campaign.</p> <p>The fallout of Trump's assurance to top Hispanic supporters that he intended to deal with undocumented migrants in a "humane" fashion—which may have mollified them but predictably caused alarm among the xenophobes who've been backing him—continues, thanks to the candidate's own bafflingly strange rhetoric on the issue. <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/23/1563054/-Trump-s-new-immigration-plan-Same-as-Obama-s-but-with-energy-And-a-wall" title="">On Monday he told Fox News mouth-with-a-vestigial-body-attached Bill O'Reilly</a> that he would be doing "the same thing" as Obama and Bush, but "perhaps with a lot more energy," and that "we're going to get rid of all the bad ones" first—"so fast your head will spin."</p> <p>If there's a substantive or even identifiable policy tangled up in any of that gibberish, scientists have yet to discover it. In other news:</p> <p>• Trump's rolled out his solution to urban violence and "the assault on law enforcement", of a sort: Hire an unidentified "very top" Chicago police figure who told allegedly told Trump <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/23/1563011/-Trump-has-a-secret-plan-to-end-murder-in-Chicago-The-secret-is-police-brutality" title="">he could stop that violence "in one week" if he was able to "use tough police tactics."</a> No word on what those tough police tactics might be.</p> <p>• According to CNN Trump analyst and ex-campaign chief Corey Lewandowski, Trump hasn't been giving his black "outreach" speeches to actual black Americans <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/23/1563109/-Trump-doesnt-visit-black-voters-because-its-too-dangerous">because it would be too dangerous</a>.</p> <p>• It turns out people who've done work on the Donald Trump campaign have publicly posted <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/22/1562784/-Some-Trump-staff-sound-a-lot-like-their-boss-on-social-media">some mighty racist things on social media</a>. Yes, we'll try to contain our shock.</p> <p>• Trump's apparent plan for winning against Hillary Clinton: Say "pantsuit", complain about her voice, and grumble <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/23/1563076/-Trump-won-t-let-go-of-a-key-Hillary-Clinton-weakness-She-fails-to-be-a-man#read-more">that she doesn't "look" presidential</a>. "I look presidential." Clinton <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/23/1563052/-Clinton-is-drawing-on-my-experience-in-elementary-school-to-prepare-to-debate-Trump" title="">remains unimpressed</a>.</p> <p>• The Breitbartian conspiracy theory that Trump's opponent is deathly ill because reasons <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-operative-clinton-will-die-because-wool-coat-d28684385641#.uzzok9lzo" title="">continues to get loonier by the day</a>.</p> <p>• No handouts for losers: Last month Donald Trump <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/23/1563007/-Now-that-Trump-has-suckers-donors-paying-for-it-he-jacked-up-the-rent-on-Trump-Tower-headquarters" title="">steeply raised the rent</a> for his own presidential campaign, which is headquartered (of course) in his Trump Tower. Donors now shell out nearly $170,000 per month for the privilege, though the campaign has apparently been utilizing <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-campaign-rent_us_57bba424e4b03d51368a82b9?o9ix30du10s5rk9">unfinished office space in the building with dangling wires and temporary walls</a>.</p> <p>• The Trump campaign <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/23/1563117/-Trump-still-lags-badly-in-advertising">still lags badly in the advertising race</a>.</p> <p>• After his visit to flood-ravaged Louisiana last week, the Trump campaign claimed Donald Trump was making a $100,000 donation to a Louisiana church (specifically, anti-LGBT hate group leader Tony Perkins' Louisiana church.) That donation hasn't happened yet, and his campaign is not specifying whether Donald Trump means he is personally making such a donation or is directing the Trump Foundation, which is funded primarily via other donors, to do it. Nor is the campaign confirming that Trump <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/23/1563173/-Journalists-haven-t-been-able-to-verify-that-Trump-donated-anything-at-all-to-Louisiana-flood-relief">made any other donations</a> to flood victims.</p> <p>• Also waiting for checks: Trump's fellow Republicans. Trump's July fundraising has <a href="https://apnews.com/12dff01492354c46a7ef5bbc77d1591e/Fellow-Republicans-still-waiting-for-Trump's-promised-cash">"provided the Republican National Committee with less than half as much as Mitt Romney's efforts four years ago."</a></p> <p>• In a National Association for Business Economists survey of its members, Donald Trump <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/23/1562820/-Hillary-Clinton-leads-among-business-economists-Trump-comes-in-third">came in third</a>, just behind Libertarian Gary Johnson.</p> <p>• Another defection: Founding director of the George W. Bush Institute says <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/james-glassman-hillary-clinton-endorsement-227289">he'll be voting for Clinton</a>.</p> <p>• Why isn't the Clinton campaign attacking Donald Trump for his policy flip-flops? Because that would presume Trump has any legitimate "policy" coherent enough to even identify them as flip-flops. <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/23/1563144/-Attacking-Trump-for-flip-flopping-would-only-legitimize-his-so-called-policy-pronouncements">He doesn't</a>.</p> <p>• When staging a <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/768168593188151296" title="">live press event</a> to show how you get along with the common folk, letting the common folk know who you are would seem something you'd want to get out of the way before the cameras showed up.</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Barber asks for Mike Pence&amp;amp;#39;s name after cutting his hair: &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/mZW19ZHyQC"&amp;gt;https://t.co/mZW19ZHyQC&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/axaIxC3MT5"&amp;gt;pic.twitter.com/axaIxC3MT5&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; The Hill (@thehill) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/768197403073732612"&amp;gt;August 23, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Barber asks for Mike Pence's name after cutting his hair: <a href="https://t.co/mZW19ZHyQC">https://t.co/mZW19ZHyQC</a> <a href="https://t.co/axaIxC3MT5">pic.twitter.com/axaIxC3MT5</a></p>— The Hill (@thehill) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/768197403073732612">August 23, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Wait. This is an *actual picture* of Trump campaign office space? &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/qr3uRCHysI"&amp;gt;pic.twitter.com/qr3uRCHysI&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; dan sinker (@dansinker) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/dansinker/status/767938976476860416"&amp;gt;August 23, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Wait. This is an *actual picture* of Trump campaign office space? <a href="https://t.co/qr3uRCHysI">pic.twitter.com/qr3uRCHysI</a></p>— dan sinker (@dansinker) <a href="https://twitter.com/dansinker/status/767938976476860416">August 23, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/Reince"&amp;gt;@Reince&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;: &amp;amp;quot;Im excited about having a candidate who wants to be aggressive and go after black and Hispanic and Asian voters in this country.&amp;amp;quot;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/reidepstein/status/768152126480670720"&amp;gt;August 23, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>&gt;<a href="https://twitter.com/Reince">@Reince</a>: "Im excited about having a candidate who wants to be aggressive and go after black and Hispanic and Asian voters in this country."</p>— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) <a href="https://twitter.com/reidepstein/status/768152126480670720">August 23, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;It is being reported by virtually everyone, and is a fact, that the media pile on against me is the worst in American political history!&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/768083669550366720"&amp;gt;August 23, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>It is being reported by virtually everyone, and is a fact, that the media pile on against me is the worst in American political history!</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/768083669550366720">August 23, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Republicans _1563221 Wed, 24 Aug 2016 01:01:19 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/23/1563173/-Journalists-haven-t-been-able-to-verify-that-Trump-donated-anything-at-all-to-Louisiana-flood-relief <p>When Donald Trump visited flood-ravaged Louisiana last week, he promised a $100,000 donation to a Baton Rouge church—specifically, the Baton Rouge church of anti-LGBT hate group leader Tony Perkins. Because let's face it, Donald Trump isn't going to cut a check to anyone who can't do him a few favors in return, flood or no flood.</p> <p>That check has yet to arrive, and it's <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/08/23/did-donald-trump-make-donations-for-flood-relief-in-louisiana-heres-what-we-know/?postshare=2111471979644122&amp;tid=ss_tw">unclear if Donald Trump himself will be donating even a dime</a>.</p> <blockquote>Perkins said Tuesday that Trump's gift had not yet been paid. <p>"I've been told the church should [receive] it on Friday," he wrote in an email to The Post. Perkins said he was unsure whether Trump planned to make the donation out of his own pocket, or perhaps from the Donald J. Trump Foundation — a nonprofit group that is largely filled with other donors' money, not Trump's own.</p> <p>Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Trump's presidential campaign, did not respond to questions about this promise.</p> </blockquote> <p>The campaign is also clamming up about two other supposed charitable gestures from Trump’s trip. His Louisiana state director claimed that Trump had donated a truckload of relief supplies. As it turns out, nobody can verify that and the campaign isn't talking. And the Louisiana governor specifically asked Trump to give a donation to the Louisiana Flood Relief Fund before his visit; his campaign isn't saying whether he did that either.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Louisiana Republicans _1563173 Tue, 23 Aug 2016 20:31:16 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/23/1563144/-Attacking-Trump-for-flip-flopping-would-only-legitimize-his-so-called-policy-pronouncements <p>This Huffington Post piece explores why the Clinton camp isn't going after Donald Trump <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-flip-flopper_us_57bc4127e4b0b51733a5a32f?qx1s28kg6ywxywrk9">for his notorious policy "flip-flops."</a></p> <blockquote>Part of the reason is the erratic nature of Trump’s policy pronouncements. As one top Clinton aide explained to The Huffington Post, it’s difficult to attack the GOP nominee for flip-flopping if, ultimately, he ends up at the very same position where he started. [...] <p>But the main reason the Clinton camp has kept the “flip-flopper” charge on the shelf is because their research shows that voters respond better to the idea that Trump’s motives are subconscious, rather than political.</p> </blockquote> <p>That may be overcomplicating things. A simpler rationale would be this: There's no need to. The Clinton campaign has largely stayed out of Trump's way, while Trump tools around the country making one ridiculous claim after another, because Trump is doing a remarkably effective job of disemboweling himself during those appearances. He contradicts himself on a regular basis—but the media is already all over it. He says racist and sexist things—and those things are reported. He lies outright—but an increasingly irritated media is beginning to call that out, too.</p> <p>We may be in the general election now, but Donald Trump is still running a campaign aimed firmly at his base of hard-right racists and xenophobes, and there is absolutely no reason why the Clinton camp would want to interrupt him. Clinton almost never engages Trump directly, but instead is continuing the positive we-can-do-better messaging of the Democratic convention. She has given a few speeches slamming particular aspects of Trump's policy stances and demeanor, and that's been sufficient.</p> <p>There's no need to point out to voters that Trump is erratic, incoherent, foolish, narcissistic, inexperienced, radical, xenophobic, aggressive, insulting, bombastic, or stupid. Polls show voters are already quite aware of it, so Clinton can stay far above the fray and look, in contrast to Trump, presidential.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 DonaldTrump Elections HillaryClinton _1563144 Tue, 23 Aug 2016 18:15:08 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/23/1563109/-Lewandowski-Trump-doesn-t-visit-black-voters-because-it-s-too-dangerous <p>Paid CNN Trump shill Corey Lewandowski was asked why, if Donald Trump has now decided he wants the votes of black Americans, he doesn't meet with actual black Americans to tell them so.</p> <p>According to Lewandowski, it's because visiting black people <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/corey-lewandowski-trump-avoids-speaking-to-black-voters-because-hes-not-safe-in-their-communities/">is just too dangerous</a>.</p> <blockquote>“You know what’s amazing to me is that no one remembers Donald Trump went to go have a rally in Chicago at the university. And remember what happened?” Lewandowski began. “It was so chaotic and it was so out-of-control that the Secret Service and the Chicago Police Department told him you cannot get in and out of the facility safely. And that rally was cancelled.” <p>Several panelists jumped in with the same question: “What does that have to do with communicating with the black community?”</p> <p>“Look!” Lewandowski shot back. “That is a black community. He went to the heart of Chicago to give a speech to the University of Chicago in a campus that is predominately African-American to make that argument. And you know what happened? The campus was overrun and it was not a safe environment.”</p> </blockquote> <p>So there ya go. Donald Trump went to a city containing black people once; it didn't go well. The place was "overrun." So from now on he’s only going to address black Americans from a safe distance.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Racism Recommended Republicans _1563109 Tue, 23 Aug 2016 16:57:29 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/23/1562880/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-EpiPen-prices-have-risen-by-600-percent-causing-patients-to-go-without <p>Since 2009, the price of the EpiPen, an epinephrine injector used in emergency situations to reverse the effects of a severe allergic attack, has risen by 600 percent—despite the drug being decades old. The reason seems to be little more than the near-monopoly status of the drug, which was purchased by drug company Mylan in 2007. After reaching $600 or more for a two-dose pack, <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/epipen-price-rise-sparks-concern-for-allergy-sufferers/" target="_blank" title="">it’s causing patients and parents to contemplate going without</a>.</p> <blockquote> <p>“I called the insurance company and asked why it was so high and was told that, actually, it’s $700 total, and my co-pay is $400,” she said. </p> <p>For the first time in 10 years, Ms. Shulman said she briefly considered forgoing the purchase, but didn’t want to risk it. “It’s very wrong,” she said. “It’s gouging parents about their children’s lives. It’s not like letting them sniffle. It’s life or death.” [...]</p> <p><span>The price hike has caught the attention of Washington lawmakers. Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, who has a daughter who carries an EpiPen, has called on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Federal Trade Commission to review whether the price hikes violate any anti-competition rules. Last year, the drug maker Sanofi recalled a competing product, Auvi-Q, because it may not have been delivering the correct amount of epinephrine, leaving the EpiPen as the primary emergency treatment for severe allergic reactions.</span></p> <p><span>“This is a mainstream product that people carry, and it’s getting harder and harder for people to afford it,” said Senator Klobuchar. “It’s just another example of what we keep seeing, outrageous price increases when a monopoly situation ends up in a company’s lap.”</span></p> </blockquote> <div> <p>The drug contained in an EpiPen expires after a year, meaning allergy suffers must purchase new pens on a regular basis regardless of whether or not they are used.</p> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">80 days remain until the general election. Are you registered to vote? </a></strong><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">Click here to be sure</a>.</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/22/1562897/-Top-Comments-A-Spoon-Give-me-a-break" title=""><strong></strong></a><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/22/1562897/-Top-Comments-A-Spoon-Give-me-a-break" title="">TOP COMMENTS</a></strong></p> </div> <div></div> <div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>TWEET OF THE DAY</strong></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Embarrassing that Serious Republicans™ like &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerRyan"&amp;gt;@SpeakerRyan&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; aren&amp;amp;#39;t calling out this dangerous &amp;amp;amp; irresponsible rhetoric &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/ZQk57st2iR"&amp;gt;https://t.co/ZQk57st2iR&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Adam Smith (@asmith83) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/asmith83/status/767866013153124352"&amp;gt;August 22, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Embarrassing that Serious Republicans™ like <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerRyan">@SpeakerRyan</a> aren't calling out this dangerous &amp; irresponsible rhetoric <a href="https://t.co/ZQk57st2iR">https://t.co/ZQk57st2iR</a></p>— Adam Smith (@asmith83) <a href="https://twitter.com/asmith83/status/767866013153124352">August 22, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>BLAST FROM THE PAST</strong></p> <div></div> <div> <p>At Daily Kos on this date in <strong>2011</strong>—<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/22/1009422/-Michelle-Rhee-still-refuses-to-answer-questions-about-cheating-scandal" target="_blank" title="">Michelle Rhee still refuses to answer questions about cheating scandal</a>​:</p> <blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/education/22winerip.html">"Why won't Michelle Rhee talk to USA Today,"</a> <em>The</em> <em>New York Times</em>asks.</p> <p><em>USA Today</em>, of course, broke the story of <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/28/960859/-Investigation-shows-questionable-test-results-under-Michelle-Rhee?via=search" title="">suspicious erasure patterns</a> on standardized tests taken by Washington, D.C. students during Rhee's tenure as the city's schools chancellor. The story was the product of serious investigative journalism by reporters Jack Gillum and Marisol Bello, who marshaled significant amounts of data as well as talking to parents, academics, DC schools administrators and the consultant hired to do a cursory investigation of the possibility of cheating. But Rhee would not talk to them.</p> <p>Now, the <em><em>Times</em> </em>is telling the story of Rhee's refusal. Michael Winerip contrasts her typical eagerness to talk to the press—"It’s hard to find a media outlet, big or small, that she hasn’t talked to. [...] Always, she preens for the cameras"—with her <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/education/22winerip.html">determined evasion</a> of the <em>USA Today</em> reporters.</p> <div></div> </blockquote> <hr> <p><span>On </span><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/22/1562640/-Daily-Kos-Radio-s-KITM-podcast-AUDIO-Kagro-in-the-Morning-Monday-August-22-2016" target="_blank" title="">today’s <em>Kagro in the Morning</em> show</a><span>, we’re live again, back from the south of the Great White North! Trump catch-up day includes the new “campaign” staff, saving the day with Play-Doh, “safe spaces,” and whether or not a racist Trump “media empire” is now the true endgame.</span></p> <div class="table-wrapper"></div> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder dk-x-embed" href="#" title="" data-height="100" data-src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4609529/height/100/width/500/theme/custom/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/no-cache/true/render-playlist/no/custom-color/e87822/" data-width="500">Embedded Content</a></div> <p><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknlsM6zUMIdxtz1qEAbhuA" target="_blank" title="">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-kos-radio-kagro-in-morning/id581551976" target="_blank">iTunes</a> | <a href="http://kagrox.libsyn.com/" target="_blank" title="">LibSyn</a> | Support the show: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/kagrox?ty=h" target="_blank" title="">Patreon</a>; <a href="http://paypal.me/KagrointheMorning" target="_blank">PayPal</a>; <a href="http://kagrointhemorning.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">PayPal Subscription</a></span></p> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) Allergies epipen HealthCare mylar OpenThreadforNightOwls _1562880 Tue, 23 Aug 2016 03:01:14 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/23/1562864/-Monday-Trump-Dump-I-m-white-I-was-very-moved-by-his-comment <p>It's time for the daily roundup of news from the Donald Trump campaign. For those of you waiting for the campaign to have, eventually, a "good day" … prepare to be kept waiting.</p> <p>The bulk of media attention this weekend was devoted Donald Trump's <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/20/1562180/-Trump-surrogate-on-black-outreach-Maybe-been-nice-if-he-had-backdrop-with-a-burning-car">continued efforts</a> to assure minority Americans he is deserving of their support, despite all that stuff he said, and did, and predicated his entire campaign around, and despite his unwillingness to visit with actual non-white voters in order to plead his case. Fear not, though, his new advisers are truly, truly moved by his inclusiveness. <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/22/1562686/-Trump-s-obnoxious-black-voter-outreach-left-his-white-campaign-manager-very-moved">Kellyanne Conway</a>:</p> <blockquote>I live in a white community. I'm white. I was very moved by his comment.</blockquote> <p>And if that's not a perfect little capsule of the Donald Trump campaign, I'm not sure one can be found. On to today's events.</p> <p>• Big trouble: Over the weekend, Trump met with Latino advisers who came away with the impression that Trump was <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/20/1562256/-HUGE-In-meeting-with-Hispanic-advisers-Trump-hints-at-legalization-of-undocumented-immigrants%22" title="">open to some form of legalization</a> of undocumented residents. Today's campaign efforts were devoted to <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/22/1562670/-Trump-s-immigration-flip-flop-flap-gotta-deport-em-all" title="">dousing that fire</a>, assuring his merry band of xenophobic supporters that he said nothing of the sort. This is the key problem for Trump as general election candidate; he won the primary with blisteringly far-right rhetoric on the dangers of immigrant "rapists" and "terrorists", a xenophobic and nationalist campaign through-and-through. It's won him the support of a majority of his party, but is toxic to everyone else. After building his entire brand on it, however, pivoting away now may cost him more supporters than it gains.</p> <p>• More evidence of trouble: In the wake of questions over just what his immigration policy actually is, Trump has cancelled his planned Thursday "immigration speech" because that speech is "<a href="https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/767813744412024836">still being modified</a>." That's campaign speech for "Even though we planned a key policy speech for later in the week, we just realized we don't know what our policy is yet." There's no word on when or if there will be a second attempt.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Recommended Republicans _1562864 Tue, 23 Aug 2016 00:19:17 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/22/1562791/-Is-Sean-Hannity-angling-for-a-Trump-cabinet-position-or-is-he-just-really-really-dumb <p>Donald Trump surrounds himself with the only the best people. Oh, and Fox News conspiracy-promoter-in-chief Sean Hannity, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/business/media/sean-hannity-turns-adviser-in-the-service-of-donald-trump.html?smid=tw-nytimes&amp;smtyp=cur&amp;_r=1">for some reason</a>.</p> <blockquote>Mr. Hannity is not only Mr. Trump’s biggest media booster; he also veers into the role of adviser. Several people I’ve spoken with over the last couple of weeks said Mr. Hannity had for months peppered Mr. Trump, his family members and advisers with suggestions on strategy and messaging. <p>So involved is Mr. Hannity that three separate denizens of the hall of mirrors that is Trump World told me they believed Mr. Hannity was behaving as if he wanted a role in a possible Trump administration — something he denied to me as laughable and contractually prohibitive in an interview on Friday.</p> </blockquote> <p>Laughable, yes. Contractually prohibitive, no. Possible ... well, Donald Trump isn't known for spreading cash to his hired help, so it would depend on whether Hannity felt like dropping his Fox News show in exchange for the usual Trump offer of three bits of string and a kind word about you during his next speech. On the other hand, Sean Hannity is a Roger Ailes backer, and now that Ailes has gotten himself canned from his position as Fox head over a longstanding pattern of sexual harassment, it's possible that certain other male Fox hosts see the writing on the wall and are considering jumping ship to a Trump-branded, Ailes-run media empire after the candidate gets his ass handed to him in the general election. But first it requires a whole lot of brown nosing.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 ConservativeMedia Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections FoxNews Media Recommended Republicans SeanHannity _1562791 Mon, 22 Aug 2016 19:50:52 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/22/1562752/-Trump-talked-to-NBC-about-continuing-The-Apprentice-reality-show-from-the-Oval-Office <a href="/campaigns/form/sign-if-you-agree-with-the-president-donald-trump-is-unfit-for-the-office" class="dk-action-link" data-action="form" data-slug="sign-if-you-agree-with-the-president-donald-trump-is-unfit-for-the-office" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/form/sign-if-you-agree-with-the-president-donald-trump-is-unfit-for-the-office?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-form-area-sign-if-you-agree-with-the-president-donald-trump-is-unfit-for-the-office-666930" data-href="/campaigns/form/sign-if-you-agree-with-the-president-donald-trump-is-unfit-for-the-office">Campaign Action</a> <p>It is becoming clearer to election observers that Donald Trump's presidential campaign is less about anything Donald Trump is going on about during any particular day—and more about promoting Donald Trump, the brand. It’s also clear that whether Trump wins the campaign, or gets buried in a landslide so deep the Republican Party will still be digging out of it long after the oceans have swallowed most of Florida? Both of those are less important to Trump than whether he, personally, makes out with a bit of cash afterward.</p> <p>But if he did win? Oh, the business opportunities! On <em>The Takeaway</em>, Vanity Fair contributing editor Sarah Ellison talks about Trump's plans for the Oval Office, should he be elected. It's <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/story/trump-tv/">all about the ratings, baby</a>.</p> <blockquote> <p><em>Host Todd Zwillich:</em> I just want to point out one detail <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/06/donald-trump-tv-network">from your story</a> that I think a lot of people missed, it has this fantastical idea that Donald Trump discussed with executives at NBC potentially continuing a version of <em>The Apprentice</em> from the Oval Office, if he were elected. We don't have to give up the show, you can still do this from the White House.</p> <p><em>Ellison:</em> Yeah. Yeah. The idea was you couldn't do it during the campaign, because of the equal time laws, but once you were in the White House it's a possibility, you could certainly do it from there. So then we really would be living in a sort of <em>Truman Show</em> reality.</p> </blockquote> <p>Forget talk of 3 AM phone calls. During busy days, do you think the Joint Chiefs of Staff would have to wait out in the hall while Trump finished taping the day's reality show?</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives DonaldTrump Elections Recommended Republicans _1562752 Mon, 22 Aug 2016 18:22:42 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/22/1562385/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-How-the-Tea-Party-scammed-itself-into-oblivion <figure class="image-captioned width-md align-right"><img alt="YellowBackgroundOwlBadge_TEXT_%281%29.jpg" src="http://images.dailykos.com/images/124236/large/YellowBackgroundOwlBadge_TEXT_%281%29.jpg?1453431581" title="YellowBackgroundOwlBadge_TEXT_%281%29.jpg"> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <p>At Politico, Paul Jossey writes of the death of the so-called “Tea Party” movement. The movement didn’t go away on its own, writes Jossey. It was <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/tea-party-pacs-ideas-death-214164" target="_blank">“murdered—and it was an inside job.”</a></p> <blockquote> <p><span>Today, the Tea Party movement is dead, and Trump has co-opted the remnants. What was left of the Tea Party split for a while between Trump and, while he was still in the race, Ted Cruz, who was backed by Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots. In 2014, the Tea Party Patriots group </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/24/us/politics/conservative-pacs-turn-attack-on-gop-leaders-into-fund-raising-tool.html?_r=3" target="_blank">spent</a><span> just 10 percent of the $14.4 million it collected actually supporting candidates, with the rest going to consultants and vendors and Martin’s hefty salary of $15,000 per month; in all, she makes an </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tea-party-pacs-reap-money-for-midterms-but-spend-little-on-candidates/2014/04/26/0e52919a-cbd6-11e3-a75e-463587891b57_story.html?hpid=z3" target="_blank">estimated</a><span> $450,000 a year from her Tea Party-related ventures. Today, of course, it’s all about Trump, but Trump rallies are only Trump rallies, not Tea Party rallies that he assumed control of. There are no more Tea Party rallies. [...]</span></p> <p><em><strong>Any postmortem should start with the fact</strong> </em>that there were always two Tea Parties. First were people who believe in constitutional conservatism. These folks sense the country they will leave their children and grandchildren is a shell of what they inherited. And they have little confidence the Republican Party can muster the courage or will to fix it. </p> <p>Second were lawyers and consultants who read 2009’s political winds and saw a chance to get rich.</p> </blockquote> <div> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">78 days remain until the general election. Are you registered to vote? </a></strong><strong><a href="http://www.canivote.org/" target="_blank" title="">Click here to be sure</a>.</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/21/1562474/-Top-Comments-Time-is-the-Ultimate-Luxury-Edition">TOP COMMENTS</a></strong></p> </div> <div></div> <div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>TWEET OF THE DAY</strong></p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Japanese PM Shinzo Abe just came out of pipe dressed as Mario at closing ceremonies to promote next Olympics. Oh 2016, you&amp;amp;#39;re a strange one.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Jonathan Lee Krohn (@JonathanLKrohn) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/JonathanLKrohn/status/767526139636121600"&amp;gt;August 22, 2016&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Japanese PM Shinzo Abe just came out of pipe dressed as Mario at closing ceremonies to promote next Olympics. Oh 2016, you're a strange one.</p>— Jonathan Lee Krohn (@JonathanLKrohn) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonathanLKrohn/status/767526139636121600">August 22, 2016</a></blockquote> </div> <p class="AlignCenter"><strong>BLAST FROM THE PAST</strong></p> <p>At Daily Kos on this date in <strong>2003</strong>—<a href="http://www.dailykos.net/archives/003891.html#003891" target="_blank" title="">Bush to declare war on Iraq</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Okay, <a href="http://tomburka.com/archives/2003_08.php">this</a> is really funny:</p> <p><em>Today President Bush said the situation in Iraq had deteriorated to the point where he had no choice "but to declare war on that country."</em></p> <p><em>"I've just become aware that good people are dying out there. Terrorists run rampant, killing people, blowing up oil pipelines, wreaking havoc, maybe just plain reaking. They've got to be stopped." </em></p> <p><em>Bush said that he had recently learned that since May 1, 2003, Iraq has become the "number one nexus of the terrorist activities in the world," and he called it "the nexus of the axis of evil," speaking from his ranch in Texas.</em></p> <p><em>He said that it was a difficult decision but he had "no choice" given the state of the country at this time. </em></p> <p><em>"Whoever is running that country has allowed it to turn into a hornet's nest that threatens the stability of the Middle East, and with it, the safety and security of the United States, and of the world."</em></p> <p>Priceless.</p> <div></div> </blockquote> <div></div> <div> <div class="table-wrapper"> <table class="dk5-table"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span style="text-align:center">Monday through Friday you can catch the Kagro in the Morning Show 9 AM ET by dropping in </span><a href="http://184.82.147.114:8004/listen.pls">here, or you can download the </a><a href="http://stitcher.com/">Stitcher app</a><span style="text-align:center"> (found in the app stores or at Stitcher.com), and find a live stream there, by searching for "Netroots Radio.”</span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) Conservatives OpenThreadforNightOwls Republicans TeaParty _1562385 Mon, 22 Aug 2016 03:01:23 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/20/1562256/-HUGE-In-meeting-with-Hispanic-advisers-Trump-hints-at-legalization-of-undocumented-immigrants <p>While this is indeed news or a sort, it seems more a case of Trump shamelessly bullshitting a roomful of his few Hispanic backers <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/adriancarrasquillo/in-major-reversal-trump-indicates-to-hispanic-leaders-openne?utm_term=.aimKOVb7D#.baA2xJwYG" title="">than any so-called "reversal" of policy</a>.</p> <blockquote>In a meeting with his newly announced Hispanic advisory council, Donald Trump suggested he is interested in figuring out a “humane and efficient” manner to deal with immigrants in the country illegally, according to three sources, while stressing that it will still be in line with the border security-focused approach that has invited intense opposition from Latinos and immigrants since he launched his campaign. <p>“He said people who are here is the toughest part of the immigration debate, that it must be something that respects border security but deals with this in a humane and efficient manner,” said Jacob Monty, a Houston-based immigration lawyer who sat in Trump Tower with other Latino supporters and Trump.</p> </blockquote> <p>Yeaaahhhhnno. Keep in mind that Donald Trump believes "humane and efficient" to be forming "commissions" to investigate Muslim Americans, barring immigrants wholesale from troublesome regions, and torturing the families of suspected terrorists if we think doing so would extract useful information. While we have no doubt Trump believes he will be disposing of 11 million of the people he just one day ago again vowed to prevent from taking our "jobs" in a "humane and efficient" fashion, while making certain they cannot come back because we'll be building a "big, beautiful" humane and efficient wall along the entirety of the southern-but-not-northern border, you'd have to be a special kind of stupid to presume your idea of "humane and efficient" and Donald J. Trump's idea of "humane and efficient" turn out to be the same thing.</p> <p>Never, ever trust someone who say they're going to be dealing with millions of people in an ethnically-defined underclass in a "humane and efficient" manner. Just ... don't.</p> <blockquote>Importantly, Trump did not explicitly use the word “legalization,” but people in the room feel it is the direction the campaign is going.</blockquote> <p>I see. So a Trump Tower office full of Donald Trump's invited top Hispanic supporters believe that any minute now, Donald Trump will be headed in the general direction of "legalization". The same Donald Trump who has made the demonization of immigrants, documented or not, "radicalized" or not, refugees or not, the cornerstone of his campaign rhetoric since he first descended his gilded escalator to share his thoughts on Mexican "rapists" with the rest of us. The Donald Trump who just hired the architect of the “alt-right” racist cesspool known as <em>Brietbart</em> to guide his campaign. The Donald Trump whose very first general election television ad, released this very week, suggested freight trains full of undocumented immigrants were crossing our border <em>right now</em>, planning mischief. That guy.</p> <p>He'll be pivoting towards "legalization" of undocumented immigrants any day now.</p> <p>Ooooh, I've got a <em>great</em> idea. A truly wonderful, fantastic, devious idea: Let's believe him. That's right, all you Donald Trump supporters out there, all you racists and xenophobes and people who see invisible immigrants under your beds at night, all you Republicans who tossed Republicans like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio out of the race with extreme prejudice for even <em>daring</em> to once suppose that maybe we ought to be coming to some arrangement other than blanket deportations for every last man, woman and child who could not show their paperwork; Donald Trump just told a room full of Hispanic supporters that he's moving in the direction of “legalization” for undocumented immigrants! He's "pivoting!"</p> <p>Let's watch just how many Trump surrogates come on the television between now and Monday to swat this one down like it was a flaming bee and they were soaked in gasoline. Let’s <em>all</em> watch.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Hunter) 2016 Conservatives dkebug DonaldTrump Elections Immigration Racism Recommended Republicans _1562256 Sat, 20 Aug 2016 22:51:28 +0000