Month: September 2016

Outreach to the only voters who really matter

by digby

Corey Lewandowski:

“Look, I think Donald Trump’s message tonight was the message that he started with back on June of 2015, which was ‘America First,’” Lewandkowski said. “That’s what he believes, and what he is playing to — and if you look at the polling data, he’s got about an 18 point lead in the demographic of white males who are voting in this election.” 

“They have a high propensity of voting, and so he’s got about an 18 point lead on Hillary Clinton in that particular demographic,” he continued. “This speech is clearly geared at those individuals right now, to make sure they are there, he has locked them in for the election.”

Trump’s immigrant model problem


by digby

Not this kind of problem …

I wrote about it for Salon this morning

On Tuesday night when Donald Trump announced he was going to Mexico to meet with the president the next day there were rumors flying around social media among people with contacts in the campaign that this was a sign of the dominance of the hard line Bannon-Session camp. That seemed odd since the campaign was selling the visit and the immigration speech scheduled later that day in Arizona as more “softening” of his immigration policy. It turned out the rumors were true. There was no softening.

According to this report from NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell, the trip had actually been in the works for some time and the invitation came at the behest of the Trump campaign not the other way around. O’Donnell reported that son-in-law Jared Kushner led the effort and it was only after they secured the invitation that Mexico offered the same to Hillary Clinton. Evidently Trump himself wasn’t all that enthusiastic but agreed to do it as long as he could give the immigration speech he really wanted to give. And so he did. If campaign manager Kellyanne Conway had planned a “pivot” to attract those rapidly defecting white college educated women, Trump apparently decided that what they were looking for was an angry,red-faced demagogue shouting about dangerous foreigners for over an hour.

Despite some dispute about whether his policy of forcing Mexico to finance his great big beautiful wall had come up, his halting and amateurish photo-op in Mexico City was portrayed by the pundits as some sort of turning point because he proved he could appear in a formal setting without talking about the size of his hands. But the speech last night forced many of the credulous press corps to admit that Trump had not changed at all. Politico summed it up nicely with this headline: Trump promises wall and massive deportation program. The GOP candidate ditches his softer approach, returning to his core promise of a big wall, paid for by Mexico.

But that wasn’t all. Trump devoted a lot of time to reciting lurid stories of undocumented immigrants killing Americans through various means in great detail while also making a case that even law biding immigrants are destroying the American way of life. It was, in short, as chilling as any speech he’s given and that’s saying something.

As he was ranting and raving he did manage to lay out something of a “plan” although the legality and constitutionality of its various provisions for ridding America of immigrants is likely to be the subject of furious debate. There was one part of the speech, however, that he may very well come to regret ever bringing up:

Approximately half of new illegal immigrants came on temporary visas and then never, ever left. Why should they? Nobody’s telling them to leave. Stay as long as you want, we’ll take care of you… Last year alone nearly half a million individuals overstayed their temporary visas. Removing these overstays will be a top priority of my administration. If people around the world believe they can just come on a temporary visa and never, ever leave, the Obama-Clinton policy, that’s what it is, then we have a completely open border, and we no longer have a country.

We must send a message that visa expiration dates will be strongly enforced.

Considering that Trump’s own wife is suspected of having over stayed her Visa and working in the US illegally it’s surprising that somebody in the campaign didn’t urge him to back off. It was just a few weeks ago that headlines appeared all over the world  saying Melania Trump reportedly posed nude at one point in her modeling career and revealing some inconsistencies in her story of how she came to live and work in the US. Apparently, she has told numerous people over the years that when she was working as a model here she had to return to Europe every few months to renew her visa which would indicate that she was here on a tourist visa rather than a work visa. That would be illegal. When the story came up a few weeks ago, Trump promised that his wife would hold a press conference to explain but that has failed to materialize.

However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Just this week Mother Jones published a blockbuster expose which would, in a normal campaign, be considered a possible candidacy ending scandal. Since Trump saw fit to make the visa issue a part of his speech last night, this story about illegal immigration, exploitation of under-age girls, failing to pay workers,  criminal abuse of women and knowing violations of federal law at Trump’s modeling agency should at least get wider attention.

Mother Jones interviewed three former models and reviewed financial and immigration documents in a recent lawsuit filed by a fourth and uncovered what amounts to a sweatshop in which Trump pockets millions while charging underage models so much money for their “room and board” in cramped apartments housing half a dozen girls that they end up owing their souls to the company store, also known as Trump Model Management.  And Trump has a little problem with the law:

Two of the former Trump models said Trump’s agency encouraged them to deceive customs officials about why they were visiting the United States and told them to lie on customs forms about where they intended to live. Anna said she received a specific instruction from a Trump agency representative: “If they ask you any questions, you’re just here for meetings.”

One of the models Mother Jones interviewed said, “honestly, they are the most crooked agency I’ve ever worked for, and I’ve worked for quite a few.”

That’s a line echoed by dozens, if not hundreds, of Donald Trump’s former employees from virtually every business he’s run.  But this one runs afoul of Trump’s signature campaign policy and shows him to be on the wrong side of federal immigration law.  I know the bar for Trump is lower than for any presidential candidate in history but surely charges of running an illegal sweatshop exploiting underage girls on tourist visas should garner at least a little attention for the man who promises to put his rival for the presidency in prison?

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Trump’s Top Ten
by Tom Sullivan

As Bruce Banner said in The Avengers, “So, this all seems … horrible.” Donald Trump’s immigration speech in Phoenix last night fits that description. We will have analyses of that speech coming out our bleeding ears for weeks. All in all, the picture Trump painted of an America under Barack Obama and a prospective Hillary Clinton administration looked more like The Road Warrior. Strangely enough, you’d think that might have a certain appeal to Trump’s alt-right supporters.

For those who missed it, a quick summary of the lowlights.

Top Ten Things That Will Never Happen Under A Trump Administration That Will Never Happen

Via transcript by the Los Angeles Times:

#1

We will build a great wall along the southern border.

And Mexico will pay for the wall.

One hundred percent. Buh-leeve him. (Pay no attention to Mexico’s president.)

#2

Under my administration, anyone who illegally crosses the border will be detained until they are removed out of our country and back to the country from which they came.

Trump referenced Eisenhower’s Operation Wetback, which simply dumped Mexicans across the border. Not under Trump. Trump will fly them far from the border and back to their countries of origin. Of course, he’ll need a Trump family-owned airline (Trump Air?) to contract for that work.

#3

Zero tolerance for criminal aliens. Zero. Zero.

Zero. They don’t come in here. They don’t come in here.

According to federal data, there are at least 2 million, 2 million, think of it, criminal aliens now inside of our country, 2 million people criminal aliens. We will begin moving them out day one. As soon as I take office. Day one. In joint operation with local, state, and federal law enforcement.

Break out your flags, charge up your cameras, and crank up the Lee Greenwood. He’ll make us proud to be Americans again.

Moving forward. We will issue detainers for illegal immigrants who are arrested for any crime whatsoever, and they will be placed into immediate removal proceedings if we even have to do that.

We don’t need no stinking due process.

#4

Block funding for sanctuary cities. We block the funding. No more funds.

“Cities that refuse to cooperate” with us will lose federal funding. Cities that assist us we will consider our friends.

#5

Cancel unconstitutional executive orders and enforce all immigration laws.

Because the Kenyan Usurper and Crooked Hillary.

#6

Suspend the issuance of visas to any place where adequate screening cannot occur.

[…]

I call it extreme vetting right? Extreme vetting. I want extreme. It’s going to be so tough …

Another reform, involves new screening tests for all applicants that include, and this is so important, especially if you get the right people. And we will get the right people. An ideological certification to make sure that those we are admitting to our country share our values and love our people.

What could be more American than requiring ideological certification for entry? Certification that the rest of us are a Real Americans comes next.

#7

We will insure that other countries take their people back when they order them deported.

Trump Air will violate foreign countries’ air spaces and bomb them with their own citizens if necessary. (But to what country could he send U.S. citizens not certified Real Americans?)

#8

We will finally complete the biometric entry-exit visa tracking system which we need desperately.

And if that’s not tough enough, supplemented by ankle bracelets for tourists?

#9

We will turn off the jobs and benefits magnet.

And take no action against employers [cough Trump] who hire illegals.

#10

Within just a few years immigration as a share of national population is set to break all historical records. The time has come for a new immigration commission to develop a new set of reforms to our legal immigration system in order to achieve the following goals.

To keep immigration levels measured by population share within historical norms. To select immigrants based on their likelihood of success in U.S. society and their ability to be financially self-sufficient.

We take anybody. Come on in, anybody. Just come on in. Not anymore.

You know, folks, it’s called a two-way street. It is a two-way street, right? We need a system that serves our needs, not the needs of others. Remember, under a Trump administration it’s called America first. Remember that.

Your refugees fleeing starvation and oppression. Screw ’em if they can’t carry their weight.

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

With Trump in control of the golden door, that lamp goes dark.

Finally, if you wondered what Sarah Palin was doing lately to support The Donald.

Rudy Giuliani & Sen. Jeff Sessions wear "Make Mexico Great Again Also" hat prior to Trump #immigration speech. pic.twitter.com/mzvFqiR3zt— CSPAN (@cspan) September 1, 2016

by Spocko

It seems like everyone’s talking about angry white men (AWM) these days. Who are they? What are they angry about and why do we have to get off their lawns?

Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The politicians want to know the answers to these questions so they can get their votes. The mainstream media want to talk about them to help the non-angry white men understand why they must be appeased–instead of all others.

Fox News and right-wing radio just straight up pander to them. They also need to create more, since their viewers are dying off.

(Speaking of dying off, fun fact: If you compare two people with equivalent schooling and income, the Trump supporter will be the sick fat one. I’m not making this up. See WaPo study under the health subhead.)

I was listening to Micheal Kimmel on Marketplace talking about his book, “Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era, which came out in 2013. He has talked to several hundred of these guys and described them as having, “aggrieved entitlement.” (Doesn’t that sound like a joint problem? “Uncle Joe has traveling lumbago–with aggrieved entitlement.”)

“They were right to be angry, they had been badly done by.” What he wanted to say to them–but couldn’t because he was the interviewer–was, “Do you really think that it was immigrants who issued those predatory loans that forced you to sell your house or leave it in the middle of the night? Do you think it was feminist women who are responsible for climate change? Do you think it was LGBT people who outsourced your job?’ So, I feel that they have a right to be angry but they are delivering their mail to the wrong address.”

Too bad he couldn’t ask the question. But if he had, and they believed him, would he have been able to convince them to direct their angry “mail” to the right address? A great idea, but it’s based on a biased premise.

Kimmel is approaching the men and their opinions about the targets of their anger like a good liberal, which is, “People are basically good. If they knew the truth they would direct their anger at the real villains, not scapegoats!” vs the conservative view which is, “People are no damn good. Take care of yourself and family. Only suckers help others. Don’t let “those” people get something for nothing.”

When Trump loses in November, angry white men are going to take it out on people they believe stopped Trump: Progressives, Democrats and women. They will also go after the people they believe made America crappy for them: immigrants, Muslims, people of color, the LGBT community and of course, the “liberal media.”

They will be angrier than ever. They will feel more “voiceless” since Trump has been saying what they all have been thinking. What form will their attacks take? I expect the usual incoherent rants, bumper stickers and comments in “liberal newspapers.” Of course some will go too far.

The good news is that when these threats go beyond the blowhard scale, we have a mechanism in place to address the issue.

Angry White Thugs With Guns Get Busted

Yesterday I wrote a piece for Crooks and Liars. 2 Bundy Ranch Thugs Who Threatened Feds Going To Jail, about how two of Bundy’s militia buddies didn’t get away with their threats.

I think Cooper’s case is an important one for people to know about. The DoJ got Cooper to roll on all his buddies, thus strengthening the government’s case for the main trials in 2017. The government isn’t the ineffective, incompetent group of lazy idiots the Bundy boosters think they are.

If these militia mooks spent more time on the 1st Amendment vs. the 2nd, they would know that threatening speech isn’t protected speech. They might also know social media can be used against them. Here is Sean Anderson broadcasting from the Bundy Oregon stand-off. Link

When the angry white men with guns start with their violent threats after the Trump loss, we have a plan to follow. It involves evidence, arrests, and public trials. There will be convictions and appropriate punishment. They won’t get to go down as noble, patriotic martyrs –but as bullies and criminals.

What is ironic is that for years they said Obama was going to arbitrarily take their guns. When they finally lose them, as well as their freedom of movement, it will all have been done legally and after due process.

An unusual definition of impartial

by digby

Politico reports:

In an interview with New York Times investigative reporter Jo Becker on Wednesday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accused the press of supporting Hillary Clinton, whom he likened to a “demon.” 

“The American liberal press, in falling over themselves to defend Hillary Clinton, are erecting a demon that is going to put nooses around everyone’s necks as soon as she wins the election, which is almost certainly what she’s going to do,” Assange said in the interview, which was broadcast live Wednesday on Facebook.
[…]
In Wednesday’s interview, Assange said WikiLeaks is impartial. He also reiterated earlier statements that he would publish more information about the 2016 election in the future.

Trump, of course, is the guy who wants to change the libel laws so the press can’t publish anything he doesn’t like but whatever. At least he isn’t a demon. (I think he meant succubus actually.)

I wish he sounded unusual but he doesn’t. I get this stuff all day long.

Update: Here’s one now.

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