Month: July 2016

Politics and Reality Radio: Marcotte: Republicans See a Dystopian Hellscape; Digby: Dems Embrace America

by Joshua Holland

This week, we kick off the show with a look at what the #DNCLeaks do and don’t tell us about the relationship between senior party officials and the Sanders campaign.

Then we’ll be joined by two Salon columnists to take a look back at the two major parties’ political conventions. They offered dramatically different presentations of the world around us.

First, we’ll speak to Amanda Marcotte about what it was like in the belly of the beast — at the GOP convention in Cleveland. Amanda also caught some of the fireworks in Philadelphia.

Then we’ll talk about the Democrats’ remarkably inclusive convention in Philadelphia, which culminated in the first woman being nominated to top a major party ticket.

Playlist:
Sarah Darling: “With or Without You”
Radio Citizen: “The Hop”
Norah Jones: “Come Away With Me”
Sia: “I Go to Sleep”


—jh

Trump QOTW

by digby

He inherited many millions from his father. Just saying:

“I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard,” he said. “I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs — tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I’ve had tremendous success. I think I’ve done a lot.”

There is something wrong with him.

.

A fascinating story of a racist meme

by digby

You really have to read the whole story of this internet meme by Olivia Nuzzi and how it originally came to be and how it has been turned into a Donald Trump white supremacist emblem for Donald Trump. This excerpt takes up the story after the “alt-right” decided to use it to advance their cause:

It began in late 2015 on /r9k/, a controversial 4chan board where, as on any message board, it can be difficult to discern how serious commenters are being or if they’re just fucking around entirely. Nevertheless, /r9k/ has been tied to Elliot Rodger—the UC Santa Barbara shooter who killed six people in 2014—who found fans there, and GamerGate. There, Pepe transformed from harmless cartoon to big green monster.

“We basically mixed Pepe in with Nazi propaganda, etc. We built that association,” @JaredTSwift said.

He sent me a “rare Pepe,” an ironic categorization for certain versions of the meme: Pepe, his eyes red and irises swastika-shaped, against a trippy rainbow backdrop. “Do with it what you will,” he said.

Building the Trump association came next, after which @JaredTSwift said the images got crossover appeal. They began to move from 4chan to Twitter, which is when “journalists were exposed to it via Trump memes.”

On Jan. 7, Cheri Jacobus, a Republican consultant and pundit who is suing Trump for defamation and has been harassed by Trump supporters, tweeted, “The green frog symbol is what white supremacists use in their propaganda. U don’t want to go there.”

#FrogTwitter considered Jacobus, the first prominent person to be duped, its first scalp and inundated her with ever more Pepe images and Trump memes, some of which were violent and sexually explicit.

In one, a blond woman is decapitated before Pepe has intercourse with her headless body. In another, Jacobus’s face is photoshopped onto a topless woman kneeling before Trump, who is himself photoshopped to wear a Nazi uniform.

“When they adapt Pepe the green frog and turn it into an anti-Semite, staring into the screen with the World Trade Center behind it, is that cute or funny?” she asked when reached by phone Wednesday.

“Does that make it OK? I don’t know,” she said. “Violent and disturbing images are violent and disturbing images regardless of what their stated reasons are.”

Jay Nordlinger, a senior editor at National Review, a conservative publication opposed to Trump’s candidacy, asked Twitter on Jan. 30, “Does anyone know what that green face is that ‘alt’ and ‘cuck’ people put in their avatars and their other images?”

@TopKanker replied with an image of Pepe dressed as a Nazi soldier and holding a Star of David.
On May 16, Ben White, a reporter for Politico, tweeted a drawing of Pepe and asked, “What/who is this character and why do I see it associated with Trumpsters/Alt-Right types all the time?”
#FrogTwitter descended on White’s mentions, with predictable results. @DonaldjBismarck, a self-described “Nationalist,” replied with a meme of Hillary Clinton, squinting at a computer screen and asking, “WHO THE HELL IS PEPE?”

“Turns out asking about Pepe was a bad idea,” White tweeted, in conclusion.

But Pepe’s twisted transformation wouldn’t be complete until a few hours after White’s foray down the froghole, when Margarita Noriega, an executive editor at Newsweek, tweeted a Pepe at Marco Rubio.

Benny Polatseck, who runs the public relations firm Colossal PR, accused Noriega of employing an image “used by racists to make fun of latinos.” Noriega deleted the Pepe.
“Most memes are ephemeral by nature, but Pepe is not,” @JaredTSwift told me. “He’s a reflection of our souls, to most of us. It’s disgusting to see people (‘normies,’ if you will) use him so trivially. He belongs to us. And we’ll make him toxic if we have to.”

@JaredTSwift said some of the support for Trump was in jest, but for most of his cohorts, it’s sincere. He even claimed to have voted for Trump in the primary himself, wherever it is he lives, and said he’d vote for him in the general, too.

“In a sense, we’ve managed to push white nationalism into a very mainstream position,” he said. “Trump’s online support has been crucial to his success, I believe, and the fact is that his biggest and most devoted online supporters are white nationalists. Now, we’ve pushed the Overton window. People have adopted our rhetoric, sometimes without even realizing it. We’re setting up for a massive cultural shift.”

There is a sickness at the center of Donald Trump’s support. This is a big part of it.

.

A foolish man

by digby

Yeah, he knows what he’s talking about:

ABC host George Stephanopoulos corrected Donald Trump after the Republican presidential nominee claimed that Russia was “not going to go into Ukraine.”

In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” that aired Sunday, Trump asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not going to invade Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels — and some Russian special forces — have been operating for several years despite Putin’s reluctance to acknowledge any role.

“He’s not going into Ukraine, just so you understand. He’s not going to go to Ukraine,” Trump said.

“Well, he’s already there, isn’t he?” Stephanopoulos replied.

Trump responded by simultaneously criticizing the US’s decision not to intervene to stop the annexation of Crimea, a former Ukrainian territory seized by Russia in 2014, and noting that many citizens of Crimea were allegedly supportive of Russia’s decision to invade.

“Well, he’s there in a certain way, but I’m not there. You have Obama there,” Trump said. “And frankly that part of the world is mess, under Obama. With all the strength that you’re talking about, and with all the power of NATO, and all of this, in the mean time, [Putin] takes Crimea.”

He added: “You know the people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were, and you have to look at that also.”

Earlier in the interview, the real-estate magnate shrugged off his campaign’s influence in removing a provision of the Republican Party platform that would’ve advocated providing arms to Ukraine to defend itself from Russian aggression.

“I was not involved in that. I’d have to take a look at it, but I was not involved in that,” Trump said of the decision to alter the platform.

Seriously people? Here’s the exchange:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Vice President Biden told me this week that Vladimir Putin wants to beat Hillary and Madeleine Albright said that your victory would be a gift to Putin.

And what they’re pointing to is things like your statements about conditioning our commitments to NATO allies, softening the GOP platform on Ukraine, even considering softening sanctions and recognizing Russian annexation of Crimea. They fear that that’s going to hurt America and advance Russia’s interests.

TRUMP: They only fear one thing, losing the election. If our country got along with Russia, that would be a great thing. When Putin goes out and tells everybody — and you talk about a relationship, but he says Donald Trump is going to win and Donald Trump is a genius, and then I have people saying you should disavow. I said, I’m going to disavow that?

But when Putin says good things and when we have a possibility of having a good relationship with Russia…

STEPHANOPOULOS: But if we have a good relationship…

TRUMP: — I think…

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: — his annexation of Crimea.

TRUMP: I’m not going to be mean to anybody. George, you know me pretty well. I don’t bow, OK. I don’t bow.

But if we can have a good relationship with Russia and if Russia would help us get rid of ISIS, frankly, as far as I’m concerned, you’re talking about tremendous amounts of money and lives and everything else, that would be a positive thing, not a negative thing.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Even if that means conditioning our commitments to NATO, as you said?

TRUMP: No, because you’re not going to do that. NATO is going to be just fine. But NATO countries — we have 28 countries — many of them are taking advantage of us because they’re not paying. So we’re protecting these countries and they’re not paying.

And when people leave that last part in, everybody agrees with me.

I’m all in favor of NATO. I said NATO is obsolete. I was asked a question by one of your competitors and I said NATO is obsolete, because it’s not taking care of terror. You understand that. And it turned out I was right. A lot of people gave me credit for that.

Then, three months ago, on the front page of “The Wall Street Journal,” they said NATO to develop a terror division. And somebody who’s supposed to be very extraordinary was put in charge of it.

That was all because of me. So I was right about that.

I was also right about the fact that NATO, we’re being taken advantage of by NATO countries, totally advantage of (INAUDIBLE)…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Then why did you soften the GOP platform on Ukraine?

TRUMP: I wasn’t involved in that. Honestly, I was not involved.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Your people were.

TRUMP: Yes. I was not involved in that. I’d like to — I’d have to take a look at it. But I was not involved in that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you know what they did?

TRUMP: They softened it, I heard, but I was not involved.

STEPHANOPOULOS: They took away the part of the platform calling for the provision of lethal weapons to Ukraine to defend themselves.

Why is that a good idea?

TRUMP: Well, look, you know, I have my own ideas. He’s not going into Ukraine, OK?

Just so you understand. He’s not going to go into Ukraine, all right?

You can mark it down and you can put it down, you can take it anywhere you want.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, he’s already there, isn’t he?

TRUMP: OK, well, he’s there in a certain way, but I’m not there yet. You have Obama there. And frankly, that whole part of the world is a mess under Obama, with all the strength that you’re talking about and all of the power of NATO and all of this, in the meantime, he’s going where — he takes — takes Crimea, he’s sort of — I mean…

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you said you might recognize that.

TRUMP: I’m going to take a look at it. But, you know, the people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were. And you have to look at that, also.

Now, that was under — just so you understand, that was done under Obama’s administration. And as far as the Ukraine is concerned, it’s a mess. And that’s under the Obama’s administration, with his strong ties to NATO.

So with all of these strong ties to NATO, Ukraine is a mess. Crimea has been taken. Don’t blame Donald Trump for that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You said that…

TRUMP: And we’ll do better and yet we’ll have a better relationship with Russia.

And having a good relationship — maybe. and having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing.

Yes, it would be good to have a better relationship with Russia. I doubt anyone disagrees with the most anodyne statement in the world. But the chances of Trump being the one to bring that about (at least in any way that makes sense for a democratic nation) is one in a trillion. He is ignorant and incapable and is far more likely to cause nuclear war. His platitudes about how much Vladimir Putin “likes” him as being the reason why he will bring world peace is idiotic.

.

Trump’s new adviser?

by digby

Dear God:

The morning after Fox News chief Roger Ailes resigned, the cable network’s former director of booking placed a call to the New York law firm hired by 21st Century Fox to investigate sexual-harassment allegations against Ailes. Laurie Luhn told the lawyers at Paul, Weiss that she had been harassed by Ailes for more than 20 years, that executives at Fox News had known about it and helped cover it up, and that it had ruined her life. “It was psychological torture,” she later told me.

So far, most of the women who have spoken publicly about harassment by Ailes in the wake of Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit had said no to Ailes’s sexual advances. They ran out of hotel rooms, they pulled away from embraces, they complained or avoided or generally resisted, even when it hurt their careers. This is the account of a woman who chose to go along with what Roger Ailes wanted — because he was powerful, because she thought he could help her advance her career, because she was professionally adrift and emotionally unmoored.

Doing so helped Luhn’s career for a time — at her peak, she earned $250,000 a year as an event planner at Fox while, according to both her own account and four confirming sources, enjoying Ailes’s protection within the company. But the arrangement required her to do many things she is now horrified by, including luring young female Fox employees into one-on-one situations with Ailes that Luhn knew could result in harassment. “He’s a predator,” she told me. In recent years, Luhn had a series of mental breakdowns that she attributes to the stress of her situation, and was even hospitalized for a time.

There’s more and it’s awful.

There is a lot of talk that Ailes is going to join the Trump campaign. But I don’t think even Trump is idiotic enough to make that official. He will have to do it on the down low. Which I assume he will. 

.

“You know that we can hear you, right?” revisited
by Tom Sullivan

Court of Federal Appeals (Lewis F. Powell Courthouse), Richmond, VA.
By Acroterion (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons.

On Friday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond unanimously struck down North Carolina’s Voter Information Verification Act (VIVA), one of the most sweeping voting “reform” laws in the country, a voter ID law that was about far more than photo IDs. Perhaps the Charlotte Observer Editorial Board put it best:

We knew. Deep down, most of us knew.

We knew that North Carolina’s 2013 voter ID law, like similar laws across the country, was not truly about voter fraud, but voter suppression.

We knew Republicans were less interested in the integrity of elections than in building obstacles for their opponents’ supporters.

We knew. Some Republicans even admitted it. And last week, in North Carolina, they got called on it.

This, as I keep saying, is their M.O.: Find the line. Step over it. Dare someone to push them back.

The federal court did. Judges found that North Carolina’s law targeted African Americans “with almost surgical precision.” Plaintiffs included the League of Women Voters, individual plaintiffs, and the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, led by Rev. William J. Barber II, whose address wowed the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia Thursday night.

It was the third such defeat in the courts this month for Republican voting legislation. On July 19, U.S. District Court Judge James Peterson struck down multiple provisions of Wisconsin’s voting law. In particular:

The law limiting early voting “intentionally discriminates on the basis of race,” Peterson wrote. “I reach this conclusion because I am persuaded that this law was specifically targeted to curtail voting in Milwaukee without any other legitimate purpose.

“The Legislature’s immediate goal was to achieve a partisan objective, but the means of achieving that objective was to suppress the reliably Democratic vote of Milwaukee’s African-Americans.”

On July 20, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Texas “voter fraud” prevention law for having a “discriminatory effect on minorities’ voting rights.”

Contra hands-over-hearts protestations from Republican lawmakers across the country that their only concern in passing such laws is preventing in-person “voter fraud,” the courts confirmed what the Charlotte Observer Editorial Board and the rest of us already knew. These laws are about voter suppression. By design. Researchers have found reports of voter impersonation are “nearly identical with the proportion of the population reporting abduction by extraterrestrials.”

The 4th Circuit found that North Carolina’s law was the product of research. The Washington Post reports:

In particular, the court found that North Carolina lawmakers requested data on racial differences in voting behaviors in the state. “This data showed that African Americans disproportionately lacked the most common kind of photo ID, those issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV),” the judges wrote.

So the law eliminated forms of acceptable IDs to those most likely to be held by whites. As in Wisconsin, limiting early voting as a means of disenfranchising black voters was also a factor.

The data also showed that black voters were more likely to make use of early voting — particularly the first seven days out of North Carolina’s 17-day voting period. So lawmakers eliminated these seven days of voting. “After receipt of this racial data, the General Assembly amended the bill to eliminate the first week of early voting, shortening the total early voting period from seventeen to ten days,” the court found.

Most strikingly, the judges point to a “smoking gun” in North Carolina’s justification for the law, proving discriminatory intent. The state argued in court that “counties with Sunday voting in 2014 were disproportionately black” and “disproportionately Democratic,” and said it did away with Sunday voting as a result.

Judge Diana Diana Gribbon Motz writes:

[I]n what comes as close to a smoking gun as we are likely to see in modern times, the State’s very justification for a challenged statute hinges explicitly on race — specifically its concern that African Americans, who had overwhelmingly voted for Democrats, had too much access to the franchise.

In finding that North Carolina’s voter ID law was discriminatory by design, the 4th Circuit cited the testimony of a former county Republican official to the Daily Show‘s Aasif Mandvi. In a footnote, the ruling says:

7 Some of the statements by those supporting the legislation included a Republican precinct chairman who testified before the House Rules Committee that the photo ID requirement would “disenfranchise some of [Democrats’] special voting blocks [sic],” and that “that within itself is the reason for the photo voter ID, period, end of discussion.” See J.A. 1313-14; Yelton testimony, Transcript of Public Hearing of the North Carolina General Assembly, House Elections Committee (Apr. 10, 2013) at 51. Responding to the outcry over the law after its enactment, the same witness later said publicly: “If [SL 2013-381] hurts the whites so be it. If it hurts a bunch of lazy blacks that want the government to give them everything, so be it.” See J.A. 1313-14; Joe Coscarelli, Don Yelton, GOP Precinct Chair, Delivers Most Baldly Racist Daily Show Interview of All Time, New York Magazine, Oct. 24, 2013. These statements do not prove that any member of the General Assembly necessarily acted with discriminatory intent. But the sheer outrageousness of these public statements by a party leader does provide some evidence of the racial and partisan political environment in which the General Assembly enacted the law.

Full disclosure: I know that guy.

The real purpose of these voting reforms was obvious. Republican lawmakers again stepped over the line and dared America to push them back. What is most amazing is the bald-faced, transparent mendacity with which these lawmakers across the country look constituents in the eye and swear they are passing voter suppression laws in the name of election integrity. As if they think constituents are such fools that by their publicly saying so the public will not see what they are plainly doing in full view of the public. Amazing, yes, but hardly unprecedented.

Just weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Texas abortion clinic law in Hellerstedt. The women on the court, in particular, were not buying the state’s argument that the law was passed out of an abundance of legislative concern for women’s health. In her concurring opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg observed that many other medical procedures are far more risky than abortions, including childbirth, tonsillectomy, colonoscopy, and in-office dental surgery. She agreed with the brief from the American Civil Liberties Union, writing: “[I]t is beyond rational belief that H. B. 2 could genuinely protect the health of women, and certain that the law ‘would simply make it more difficult for them to obtain abortions.'”

Anyone but those fooling themselves knew that was Republican legislators’ intent from the get-go. They are not even being particularly artful about it anymore. They are winking into TV cameras and speaking into live mics about it.

As Aasif Mandvi said in response to Yelton’s “bunch of lazy blacks” comment, “You know that we can hear you, right?”

Shorter Halle and Chomsky

by tristero

Shorter Halle and Chomsky: vote for Clinton, especially if you’re in the swing states.

Adding: Like Michael Moore, I did not wish to vote for Clinton (because of her inexcusable vote for the Bush/Iraq War resolution among other things). However, given the alarming policies and character of all the Republican candidates, I decided during the primaries I would vote for whichever Democrat won the nomination (I’m a lifelong Independent).

From the “you can’t make this stuff  up files”

by digby

Pence sounds as delusional as Trump now. It must be catching.

Mike Pence chastised President Obama on Friday for indirectly referring to Donald Trump as a demagogue, saying — perhaps ironically — that “name calling” has no “place in public life. 

Pence, responding directly to the president’s comments about Trump at the Democratic convention on Wednesday, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt: “I don’t think name calling has any place in public life, and I thought that was unfortunate that the president of the United States would use a term like that.” 

Pence’s remarks backed up against his own running mate’s use of derogative nicknames over the last year on the campaign, including: “Little Michael Bloomberg”, “Crooked Hillary” [Clinton], “Corrupt [Tim] Kaine”, “Liddle Marco [Rubio]”, “Lyin’ Ted” [Cruz], “Crazy Bernie” [Sanders], “Goofy” [Elizabeth Warren] and “Low Energy Jeb” [Bush].

Lately he’s been saying “HIllary Rotten Clinton.” Yes, he has the mind of a 12 year old.

Not a dime’s worth of difference?

by digby

Via Think Progress:

Clinton said: “I believe climate change is real and that we can save our planet while creating millions of good-paying clean energy jobs.”

“I am proud we shaped a global climate agreement,” she said later in the speech. “Now we have to hold every country accountable to their commitments, including ourselves.”

A five-minute video called “Not Reality TV” played at the DNC on Wednesday night, narrated by Sigourney Weaver and produced by James Cameron. It showed the impacts of climate change, touted Hillary Clinton’s clean energy priorities, and attacked Donald Trump for his “reckless denial of climate change” that is “dangerous, a threat to your livelihood, your safety, your children and the prosperity of this nation.”

The video features former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), former President George H.W. Bush, and Pope Francis all expressing varying levels of concern about climate change. This provided a clear distinction with the current GOP nominee, who has consistently denied the reality of climate change and the science that backs it.

Cameron said earlier in the day that Trump was “a madman” and “incredibly reckless, incredibly dangerous” due to his climate denial.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said on Monday night that “Hillary will fight to preserve this earth for our children and grandchildren.”

Clinton’s onetime rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), made the case for Clinton and against Trump when it comes to the climate crisis:

This election is about climate change, the great environmental crisis facing our planet. And the need to leave this world in a way that is healthy and habitable for our children and future generations.

Hillary Clinton is listening to the scientists who tell us that unless we act boldly to transform our energy system in the very near future, there will be more drought, more floods, more acidification of the oceans, more rising sea levels. She understands that we can create hundreds of thousands of jobs transforming our energy system.

Donald Trump? Well, like most Republicans he chooses to reject science. He believes that climate change is a hoax, no need to address it. Hillary Clinton understands that a president’s job is to worry about future generations, not the profits of the fossil fuel industry.

Sanders’ appointees to the party platform committee were instrumental in helping to write thestrongest climate platform in party history. It did not call for a fracking ban — a key Sanders goal — but it did call for a carbon price, a goal of 100 percent renewable energy nationwide, and an outline for steps to exceeding our Paris commitments.

The Republican platform, however, now denies the reality of climate change — a reality the same document treated much more seriously just eight years ago.

Trump says it’s all a conspiracy:

Donald Trump offered a new explanation this week on why he believes climate change is a hoax. Past explanations have includedblaming China for making up climate change for their benefit. But that was before being nominated for President. So what’s his position today?

Speaking with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News, Trump gave an updated account of why he thinks global warming is a hoax.

O’REILLY: Did you ever call climate change a hoax?

TRUMP: Well, I might have because when I look at some of the things that are going on, in fact if you look at Europe where they had their big summit a couple of years ago, where people were sending out emails, scientists practically calling it a hoax and they were laughing at it. So, yeah, I probably did. I see what’s going on and you see what’s going on.

The Discredited ClimateGate Conspiracy Theory

Trump appears to be referring here to the illegal hacking of scientists’ emails in 2009, which climate skeptics gleefully dubbed “ClimateGate.” These conspiracy theories have been thoroughly debunked (see for example FactCheck.org , Union of Concerned Scientists, and Politifact). After the emails were released, every investigative report — from the National Science Foundation Inspector General, NOAA’s Inspector General, Penn State University, University of East Anglica, and the UK Parliament — reached the same conclusion: nothing in the emails in any way altered the overwhelming scientific evidence that the world is warming due to increased levels of pollution.

Illegal Hacking Timed to Disrupt Climate Talks

Despite the thorough debunking of these attacks on scientists, the conspiracy theories gained traction in the media and, as Trump demonstrates, remain a convenient go-to point for skeptics today. The hacked emails were mysteriously dumped in 2009 on a server in Russia at an optimally timed moment as President Obama and world leaders were preparing to head to Copenhagen forge a new global climate agreement. The scientific community was instantly judged guilty in kangaroo courts led by Fox News and other media outlets who chased the story before investigating the facts. Fox News’ Sean Hannity helped lead the charge, declaring:

HANNITY (2009): “it is safe to say that ClimateGate has revealed that global warming and that movement is run by hacks and frauds.”

Fast forward to 2016

Today, NASA says there is a 99 percent chance that 2016 will be the hottest year on record, following the previous record set just last year.

The Democrats are imperfect on this issue. But please … as Wired points out this is the first time any political party has put climate change up front as one of its defining issues. And that party is not the GOP.

.