What Trump did during his summer vacation: crashing and burning via "Fake News." For the record, Aug. 15, 2017

    Looked at the front pages tonight, too much bad Trump news for the "In The News" section, and not just on the Charlottesville story. Not including op-ed, only Editorial Board

    NEW YORK TIMES

    Trump Blames "Both Sides in Virginia", Abandons Measured Tone as He Faults ‘Alt-Left’ in Clashes

    By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and MAGGIE HABERMAN 8:49 PM ET

    • In a tense exchange with reporters, President Trump said he did nothing wrong in his initial remarks after the violence in Charlottesville.
    • “Is it George Washington next?” Mr. Trump asked, referring to the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee.

    News Analysis

    Trump Gives White Supremacists an Unequivocal Boost

    By GLENN THRUSH and MAGGIE HABERMAN 35 minutes ago

    When Mr. Trump equated anti-racism protesters with neo-Nazis, he legitimized white supremacists like no modern president

    Related Coverage

    As More C.E.O.s Exit Advisory Panel, Trump Takes Aim

    By DAVID GELLES, KATE KELLY and RACHEL ABRAMS 8:57 PM ET

    After six business leaders stepped down, Mr. Trump criticized their work and said they were “leaving out of embarrassment.”

    Premiums to Soar if Trump Cuts Insurer Subsidy, C.B.O. Says

    By ROBERT PEAR and THOMAS KAPLAN 46 minutes ago

    If President Trump makes good on his promise to “let Obamacare implode,” premiums would increase by as much as 20 percent and the federal deficit would rise.

    Trump Learns That Real Estate Bluster Can Fizzle in Politics

    By DAVID E. SANGER 8:23 PM ET

    In recent days, South Korea, Iran and Venezuela have reminded President Trump that intimidation tactics can get complicated on the global stage.

    South Korea Bluntly Warns U.S. Against Unilateral Attack

    By CHOE SANG-HUN

    President Moon Jae-in said that “no one should be allowed to decide on a military action” over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program without South Korean approval.

    Justice Dept. Demands Data on Visitors to Anti-Trump Website 5:46 PM ET

    Trump Signs Order Rolling Back Environmental Rules on Infrastructure 8:52 PM ET

    Solar Developers and Panel Makers Clash Over Tariff Request 6:40 PM ET

    Tenants Sue Kushner Companies Claiming Rent Overcharge

    Editorial: Trump Makes a Spectacle of Himself

    Given another chance to condemn white supremacists, the president takes up their talking points.

    THE WASHINGTON POST

    Defiant after backlash, Trump reiterates ‘both sides’ to blame in Va.

    Under mounting pressure to set a clear moral tone for the nation, the president instead lashed out defensively, making clear he believes that the participants in a white nationalist and supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., were taking part in a lawful demonstration, and cast aspersions on counterprotesters.
    Trump’s Comments and Reaction
    “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa.”
    — David Duke, former Ku Klux Klan leader
    The Debrief
    From declining to name who was in the wrong on Saturday to a muted denouncement Monday of neo-Nazis and white supremacists and back to his original comments, Trump reminded everyone: He doesn’t like to be told what to say. And he is preternaturally inclined to dance with the ones who brought him.
    Analysis
    The president argued that he initially accused both sides of being at fault because he wasn’t aware of the full facts. But then he defended the aims of the protest and compared George Washington to Robert E. Lee in the process.
     
     
    At a time when the Trump administration argues that creating manufacturing jobs is a critical national goal, many factory workers are making a surprising decision: They’re giving up their jobs.
    Analysis
    Most of those memorials are in states that were on the border with the Confederacy — and that allowed slave ownership, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
    Play Video1:30
     
    The Fix
    Analysis
    The documents showed a campaign aide repeatedly tried to set up meetings with Kremlin officials, but there were three bright spots in the leak.
    The revocation is part of an executive order to streamline the approval process for building infrastructure such as roads, bridges and offices. Environmentalists say it leaves the U.S. more vulnerable to damage from rising seas and oceans.
    The salty, full-throated defense of military service left the Pentagon with a dilemma: Should it edit a transcript of James Mattis’s Aug. 9 appearance?

    In a dangerous time, the Pentagon prepares for a war game on the Korean Peninsula

    Trump administration highlights actions of Islamic State in annual religious freedom summary

     

     

    Comments

    CNN.COM (opinion included here because it's harder to separate out)

    A MELTDOWN FOR THE AGES

    How surprised Trump aides watched the news conference

    Opinion: What threatens Trump's fragile masculinity

    Fox News, Daily Caller delete posts encouraging people to drive through protests

    Lincoln Memorial vandalized

     
     
    and lotsa videos like
    • Tearful Jimmy Fallon gets serious about racism
    • 'Weekend Update' roasts Trump's sons, Scaramucci
    • Internet mocks Trump for ditching decorative plant
    • CNN Anchor: Trump is Ignorant of U.S. History
    • Author: White nationalists more than "slack-jawed yokels"

    Are you a Russian bot? smiley That's like 60-80 links. Have you read them and recommending or are you just calling attention to the headlines?


    She's a speed reader/appraiser, especially in conveyer belt mode. Outtadaway!


    Of course this bot has not read them all. I was just so struck by the flood of stories, as a news junkie I have never seen such a negative flood against a president before. Never so focused on one man. Not since I started watching news on the internet, like 2004. Even before, I don't remember Watergate like this at all.

    It might really be a turning point. I am truly impressed this evening by what seems to be polticial disaster after disaster. It looks like a funky twist on the famous TV commercial: he has fallen and he won't be getting up! I will be quite surprised if rats start don't start deserting this sinking ship even before the Mueller pile on starts. How can he possibly turn the trajectory around? That would be a miracle.

    I thought I would post it all because the flood that started here would be hard to reconstruct after a few days. It will either quiet down for a while or get worse, either way, this looks like an important point in time.


    Maybe things get real crazy now, like Trump fans start shooting NYT and WaPo reporters, who knows? It just strikes me as an important day, where his craziness hit a crescendo and a symphony started playing.


    America loves a bad boy/reformed sinner, and this flood of news is promotion Andy Warhol-style - however bad it is, it's all about Trump - he thrives on that. As many people as it angers, almost as many it thrills. They'll come around. Trump is here to stay, to make our ADHD existence complete. we didn't want boring wonkish policy discussions? Here ya go.


    There is indeed political disaster after disaster but politics, as played by politicians as a whole, is just about who gets the high hand on the lever. Our country's recent history is that despite who gets the upper hand they push in the same direction. It is hard to tell one rat from another. Trump is forced to defend his critical middle [his base] and is getting outflanked on both sides. I agree, it is an important time. 


    And on Fox News, there is the only defense imaginable, # 1 on the Editor's picks page, it's a coup plot by the cosmopolitans:

    Gingrich: Elite media are in a frenzy to undermine Trump

    Aug. 15, 2017 - 4:34 - On 'Hannity,' the former House speaker sounds off about the news media coup against Americans


    yup this day has been one of the toughest spin jobs evah  @ Fox, so looks like Gingrich and Hannity were stuck with it, some just plain refused to try:

    Fox host: Trump comments ‘one of the biggest messes I’ve ever seen'

    @ The Hill, Aug. 15, 6:15 pm

    Fox News's Kat Timpf slammed President Trump on Tuesday for his "disgusting" press conference in which he again blamed "both sides" for the violence that occurred in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend, stepping back from his direct condemnation of white supremacist groups a day earlier. 

    "It was one of the biggest messes I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe it happened," said Timpf, a co-host of “The Fox News Specialists.” 

    “It is honestly crazy for me to have to comment on this right now because I’m still in the phase where I am wondering if it was actually real life — what I just watched." [....]


    Fox News host Shepard Smith said Wednesday that the network tried and failed to get a Republican on-air to defend President Trump's controversial comments on violence in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend

    "Our booking team — and they're good — reached out to Republicans of all stripes across the country today," Smith said on his show "Shepard Smith Reporting." 

    "Let's be honest, Republicans don't often really mind coming on Fox News Channel. We couldn't get anyone to come and defend him here because we thought, in balance, someone should do that," he continued. 

    "We worked very hard at it throughout the day, and we were unsuccessful. And of those who are condemning the president's condemnable actions, I've not heard any prominent leaders, former presidents, members of the House or the Senate use his name while speaking in generalities," he said [....]


    Thanks for all the fascinating links these days. Who needs twitter when you have Artappraiser


    Wrt the Israel angle we talked about:


    hee hee hee 'merica, whatta country!


    *blush* (I gotta cut it down or I'll go broke...comes to mind I said that when the Iraq war started and I did go broke! wink)


    Current number one on "United States trends" on Trump's favorite site to visit in the morning:

    #ImpeachTrump


    Bet this will really drive him further nuts, more than anything else, if he notices it laugh:


    Incredible photo, needs a caption contest, something from Shakespeare might work:


    Any pictures of Cohn and Mnuchin's faces during the "many fine people" segment of the speech?

    Two powerful Jewish business leaders standing in support of a president wholeheartedly defending Nazis. 

    I should really really stop being surprised. But every goddamn day


    No pictures but there is a leaker this morning @ Politico, for what it's worth saying Cohn has "unease" and is "displeased", along with others, though no one has threatened to resign yet:

    White House aides wrestle with Trump’s race comments

    There is a strong feeling of unease among some White House officials, including economic adviser Gary Cohn.

    Mnuchin is a puzzling case. He happens to be a collector of some very sophisticated art, so it can't be the case where he doesn't get what's going  on here. Must be that he has goals that he thinks are more worthy and that it's strategically necessary for those goals not to cause more commotion? I want  to make clear that I am not making excuses. Comes to mind, though, that it's traditional for the Treasury Secretary to try very hard not to indicate opinion on political events.


    Also Mnuchin doesn't have a highly ideological history, it seems. Contributed to Obama. Maybe just really really likes being treasury secretary. I mean it's way above the aspirations and aptitudes of anyone with his credentials. 


    NYTimes has nothing new beyond Politico and us on Cohn and Mnunchin , but on Ivanka tweeting and Jared silent: hmmm, best not try to even figure what's up with that yet:

    Jewish Trump Officials Silent on President’s Defense of Anti-Semitic Protesters

    By Michael D. Shear, Aug. 16

    WASHINGTON — Jewish members of President Trump’s administration remained largely silent Wednesday after Mr. Trump came to the defense of nationalist and right-wing protesters in Charlottesville, Va., who had chanted anti-Semitic slogans and demeaned the president’s Jewish son-in-law.

    Gary D. Cohn, the director of the president’s National Economic Council, who is Jewish, was described by several people close to him as “disgusted” and “deeply upset” by the president’s remarks. But Mr. Cohn has not publicly expressed those views.

    Steven Mnuchin, the secretary of the Treasury and also Jewish, stood silently behind Mr. Trump on Tuesday as the president said there were “very fine people on both sides” at the Virginia incident. Mr. Mnuchin has not said anything since about the president’s remarks.

    And Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, who is also Jewish, has been silent about Mr. Trump’s comments. Ivanka Trump, Mr. Kushner’s wife, who converted to Judaism, said in a tweet on Sunday, “There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis.”

    Requests for comment on Wednesday from Mr. Kushner, Mr. Cohn and Mr. Mnuchin were not answered [....]


    Exclusive probably related to Ivanka's tweet:

    Rabbi That Oversaw Ivanka Trump’s Conversion to Judaism Slams Trump on Charlottesville Response

    By Yashar Ali @ Daily Intelligencer @ NYMag.com, Aug. 16

    The rabbi that oversaw Ivanka Trump’s conversion to Judaism has released a letter to the congregation of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s longtime synagogue condemning President Trump’s widely criticized statements about the violent protests in Charlottesville.

    In a letter sent to members of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun this evening, Rabbi Emeritus Haskel Lookstein (who oversaw Ivanka’s conversion), along with his successors Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz and Rabbi Elie Weinstock, said, “We are appalled by this resurgence of bigotry and antisemitism, and the renewed vigor of the neo-Nazis, KKK, and alt-right.”

    The letter went on: “While we avoid politics, we are deeply troubled by the moral equivalency and equivocation President Trump has offered in his response to this act of violence.”

    Lookstein was close enough to the Trump family that last year he was invited to speak to the Republican National Convention. He initially planned to give an invocation but later dropped out after outcry from the Modern Orthodox community and other groups [....]


    Important development: Axios now has that Bannon is thrilled that the "globalists" are running away over Charlottesville, that he thinks he's winning over the president. Like I hinted at elsewhere on this thread.  As if the race issue is just secondary, that getting rid of the globalist influence was primary. (As NAFTA talks are starting, I might note!)

    So it may very well be that these two Dem-leaning Wall Street types are staying without saying, as someone has to be there with a "globalist" counterpoint.

    I should add that I know more than a few people here think of the Goldman Sachs trickle down type people as part of the whole Republican cabal. With lots of Congressional GOP, that may well be true. But in the White House right now we have Bannon rightie Jacobean populism vs. masters of the universe with liberal socio-cultural values. (Not just anti-racism but anti-gun, pro abortion, etc.) Them's your current choices and they don't fit either political party completely.

    This is precisely  where I see a breakdown of our current two-party ideology. Seriously crossing boundaries, i.e., Bannon's got part of the "eat the rich" thing of some Bernie fans, in addition to the racism. And Dems are painted as elites to many, that Goldman Sachs types and Bloomberg types are simpatico to the Dem party on social issues is further evidence to many. Yes, that Trump is a billionaire, and a shady one at that, is very ironic and where many twains meet. He really does fit independent rather than either party, wacky independent, that is.

    And in a world that is no longer there, Cohn and Mnuchin (and like, Bloomberg) would be Rockefeller Republicans. But that's gone. And let's be honest, even back then, Jews did not feel like they could trust WASPy types so much.

    Trump is a catalyst in just fueling the flames of breaking the unnaturally attained coalitions in both parties.

    But, final point: I think Trump is such a crazy narcissist, and so idiosyncratic because of that, that neither Bannon nor any of us can trust that they have won him over. For example, I'm not at all willing to say his racist leanings aren't genuine now and in the recent past, likely that they probably are genuine, but I think it behooves to keep in mind he showed no sign of sympathy for white suprematicism 17 years ago, almost the opposite. After doing the Central Park Five thing. He bounces around, it seems that even racism is transactional with him. About the only thing that seems to be true across his entire career politically is what Maiello just mentioned on Dr. Cleveland's thread, the propensity to admire dictatorial rough justice for bad hombres. And the hombres are bad as judged by him and him alone. A completely uncontrollable chameleon; no one can trust as to ideology There is none except me me me, my art of the deal talent. This is why so many things he does convulse the country. I mean, really, there are a lot of op-eds out there right now basically saying "Trump administration? There is no Trump administration, just chaos."


    In the 1970s, Trump oversaw housing discrimination 

    https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/us/politics/donald-trump-housing-race...

    In 1989, Trump called for hatred and the death penalty for the Central Park Five

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/07/politics/trump-larry-king-central-park-fiv...

    In the 1990s. Trump was sued for removing black card dealers from tables at his casino

    Trump allegedly disparaged his black casino employees as “lazy” in vividly bigoted terms, according to a 1991 book by John O’Donnell, a former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino.

    “And isn’t it funny. I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my money! I hate it,” O’Donnell recalled Trump saying. “The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”

    “I think the guy is lazy,” Trump said of a black employee, according to O’Donnell. “And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.”

    Trump told an interviewer in 1997 that “the stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true,” but in 1999 accused O’Donnell of having fabricated the quotes.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/us/politics/donald-trump-housing-race...

    Trump was birther in chief in 2011.

    Trump has a decades long history of racism. Most racism is transactional.


    NEWS IN PHOTOS 8.16.17 Vol 53 Issue 32
    I doubt I need to cite the source wink

    I was 40-60 on whether this was actual news.


    WaPo managed to get some people to talk about what's been going on with Kelly, it's pretty detailed but what they got is more general change in modus operandi so far rather than any details on what happened Tues:

     
    The uproar over Trump’s equating of white nationalists and counterprotesters underscored the challenges that even a four-star general such as John Kelly faces in instilling order around the president, whose first instinct when cornered is to lash out.

    By Ashley Parker and Robert Costa, Aug. 16


    Presidential historian Dave Maraniss:

     

    The living former presidents - Bushes, Carter, Clinton & Obama- should make a joint statement calling on the racist Trump to resign.

    — david maraniss (@davidmaraniss) August 15, 2017

     


    Hear, hear.


    Not that it matters much, because Maraniss' work is so highly respected across the political spectrum, but I should correct my label for him. He's really not an historian, he's a biographer.


    Most of his stuff is biography but not all--They Marched Into Sunlight and Once in a Great City, for example.  So I'd say your initial description is more apt.


    AMERICAN DREAMER IS RIGHT ON!


    AA this blog as well as your comments....jeeeeeeeeeeez

    I hereby render unto AA the Dayly Essay of the Day Award for this here Dagblog Site, given to all of AA from all of me.

    WELL DONE, WELL DONE!

    You are creating history here.

    A NEW KIND OF CIVIL WAR IS UPON US ALL.

    I would just add that Taney along with Davis and his coherts as well as Calhoun....

    FUCKEM


    humbly bowing, I'm just a copy and paste artist, too lazy to write like you do, just wanna read and analyze.

    When you said this A NEW KIND OF CIVIL WAR IS UPON US ALL, it made me think: no, what might be going on is that we are finishing up the last one?!

     


    YEAH AA But we hereby make it essay of the year (so far) hahahahaha

    This takes a lot of work, a lot of care and a pc that works!

    Again, well done!

    Oh, and yes the Civil War is still upon us.

    Just ask President Wilson for chrissakes.


    a pc that works!

    hah, you do the self-deprecatory "sorry, I am a befuddled old guy struggling with technology" thing so subtly and well. Sometimes I think Wolraich might want to kill you, but you then you manage to make him feel guilty for thinking that. I've quietly admired your skill in that!

    I don't really have a good PC & internet situation, btw, getting freezes and crashes all the time, frustration and swearing a blue streak, yelling at techies. Currently the worst is major major trouble with incoming cell service for the last month in my home. Talking with other boomers, everyone is handling something similar and big picture, we eventually all think: hey, has this whole increasing productivity thing been a scam to switch us from one kind of useless labor to another kind of useless labor? laugh


    OH AA I forgot this.

    We as a nation need a movie entitled:

    WHAT TRUMP DID ON HIS SUMMER VACATION.

    hahahahhaahahahahahahahah

    I think peeps think this song too archaic, too simplistic, too much of some advertisement for Greenwich Village and yet, the real message should never be lost.

    HAIL WOODSTOCK


    Glad you to see you also see the National Lampoon movie factor coming in here! (Which reminds me, are we way way beyond Chevy Chase making a goofball out of Gerald Ford.or what? It's like another planet.)

    On Havens, I can't imagine why anyone would think it Greenwich Villagey unless they are judging by the visual of clothing, hair, etc.. The song itself is not just in the classic tradition of great spirituals but even more so in the tradition of meditative chanting. So not really hippy dippy at al.


    except if you listen to say Tim Buckley's "I never asked to be your Mountain" from 2 years before, there's a similar vibe, & I think Buckley was definitively Greenwich VIllage - at least for his breakthrough gig, Fillmore East, photos at the time (1966), et al, the rest of his early & later days spent around LA. What to conclude? Idunno - it all floats around, or at least did - no one could wall it off back then.

     


    Oh Peracles, how delightful!

    And the rain was falling on that day....

    Thank you


    Richard, sharing some results from checking in with what Mutable Joe has to say before I take a break from addiction. He's really cranking out a lot of great quips, there's plenty more like this:

    why can't America fall apart at a more civilised hour, I have to be up in four hours

    — joe ❌ (@mutablejoe) August 16, 2017

     

    spaces available for my online course What To Do If You Just Wanted To Destroy Healthcare But Now Are Complicit In White Supremacy, just $6k

    — joe ❌ (@mutablejoe) August 15, 2017

     

    how long can this go on, it feels like we've crossed the Rubicon and marched halfway to Munich

    — joe ❌ (@mutablejoe) August 15, 2017

    yes, it's clear many are psychoanalyzing without a license, but still, it sure looks like one of this morning's tweets comes out of Bezos owning the Washington Post:

    Trump Accuses Amazon of Doing ‘Great Damage’ to Retailers

    If one continually tweets directly from one's id, people are gonna think such things, and psychoanalyze and be cynical about supposed political beliefs, just the way it is.


    He's clearly cognizant of this part of what's happening:

    Trump disbands CEO councils as business leaders desert

    'I am ending both,' he tweets.

    @ Politico.com Updated 08/16/2017 01:29 PM EDT
     
    Will he take it further and go whole hog anti-CEO and anti-Wall Street populism?Where  Bannon wins?

    p.s. The link is worth looking at because it has new statements put out by Campbell Soup and 3M CEO's and scuttlebutt about Blackstone.


    Mere merchants have better morals than the Evangelicals serving on Trump's Evangelical council?

    https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/8/15/16151186/charlottesville-white-...


    The full narrative of the C.E.O. rebellion by the NYTimes is fascinating (started with the wimmins! Indra Nooyi, the chief executive of PepsiCo called Mary T. Barra, the head of General Motors, Virginia M. Rometty, the chief of IBM, and then Rich Lesser, the chief executive of Boston Consulting Group). By Tues. 10 pm, most everyone was on board, including Schwarzman of Blackstone, the chairman and Trump's buddy. They were going to wrap the statement up Weds. morning. But Schwarzman felt he should warn Kushner it was going to happen, that they were going to do it, and he did so late Tues. And that's why Trump was able to tweet a "you can't quit,  you're fired." There's a lot of context, it's a very interesting read:

    C.E.O.s Organize a Mass Defection After Trump Hedges

    By DAVID GELLES, LANDON THOMAS Jr., ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and KATE KELLY 10:21 PM ET

    President Trump’s main council of top corporate leaders disbanded after he equated white nationalist hate groups with the protesters opposing them.

    The Times also mad this chart of all the members of both councils with their statements and actions or lack of them:

    The Business Leaders Who Were on Trump’s Advisory Councils


    FWIW here are pieces on statements by Apple's Tim Cook and Facebook's Zuckerberg.


    Evidence of people not betting that things will quiet down soon of their own accord.  @ NYTTimes:

    Baltimore Swiftly Removes Statues at Night

    By NICHOLAS FANDOS and RUSSELL GOLDMAN 12:47 PM ET

    Mayor Catherine Pugh said that given the political climate, it was important to move “quickly and quietly.”

    Don’t Confuse History and Monuments, Experts Say


    Hope Hicks taking on interim replacement for the Scaramucci job

    "breaking" @ Bloomberg, no details, but with another Shakespearean photo illustration:


    Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks listen to a news conference in the
    Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on April 5, 2017.
    Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

    THIS WAS A HUGE DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY, AA.

    I will just underline that your citations with regard to this day are important!

    I just had to underline this. WE NEED THIS; WE NEED THESE CITATIONS RATHER THAN JUST SITES.

    I just wish to emphasize my awe at your work.

    No kidding, no satire and certainly no cynicism.

    THANK YOU


    Second the appreciation and thanks!

    Ben Carson said all this reaction to Trump's strong embrace of armed torch bearing swastika waving helmet/shield wearing antisemitic shouting Nazi 'blood and soil' KKK members and white supremacists was "overblown".

    Don't have the link.

    Carson also once said Obamacare was worse than slavery (is that why Republicans couldn't stand to repeal it? They love the cruelty?).


    Richard and NCD, it's really helpful and gratifying for me to have your appreciation! Though I do my news posting partly just for my own benefit to figure things out,  it really makes me feel less guilty about spending so much time on it if I know it's useful to others!

    And I just love it when guys like you offer more input and interpretation, it's like smoking crack. No guilt, just other news and history junkies! Thanks back to you and your brains and knowledge for being here! When the skilled get going here interacting on analysis, it beats any stoopid book club for cosmopolitians by a mile!

    (Ever think of how we have the equivalent of a "salon" in the 18th or 19th century here? I do.)


    moved comment


    We all appreciate the links very much, AA. It's not just articles themselves, which are always worth reading. You've also created spaces for discussing these huge issues and set a tone that has helped us get past the factional bickering that too often consumes us. So thank you!


    You surely wouldn't get them if you didn't do the day-in, day-out drudge (no pun intended!) work of maintaining this very civil, add-free, click-bait free space to put them!  Thank you back!


    More leakers about Tuesday and Trump behavior in general:

    ‘He is stubborn and doesn't realize how bad this is getting’

    The Charlottesville furor is the latest example of the chaos that can result from Trump’s temper and refusal to back down.

    @ Politico.com, Updated 08/16/2017 09:24 PM EDT


    Couple of followups for the record:

    Many of the military leaders stood up to the commander-in-chief's opinion, and Dems in the House are going to try to start a censure, rmrd posted two stories on that here on a news thread. And there was plenty of other coverage on that which can be found by googling.

    Trump was planning on holding a rally in Phoenix on Tuesday, but the mayor doesn't want him to.

    In a statement Wednesday night, Stanton said he hopes Trump's "more sound judgment prevails" and that he will delay his visit.
    "I am disappointed that President Trump has chosen to hold a campaign rally as our nation is still healing from the tragic events in Charlottesville," he said.

    Oh and the Presidents Bush

    Former Presidents H.W. and W. Bush denounce racism in wake of Charlottesville @ CNN

    but I've heard and read more than a little criticism that they didn't name Trump in particular, as has also been the case for many of the other GOP statements.

    And there's been substantial speculation from GOP-leaning sources about primarying Trump in 2020.

    And a lot of strong criticism of Trump from one possiblity, Kasich of Ohio. Like here and here.

    And Rachel Maddow was speculating about why Pence in Latin America is totally changing his schedule to come back early.


    Like most mayors of large cities even in red states Stanton is a democrat. I'm sure he didn't want Trump there before Trump's Charlottesville snafu.


    Major defection:

    I Voted for Trump. And I Sorely Regret It.

    By JULIUS KREIN, @ NYTimes.com, Aug. 17, 2017

    Julius Krein is the founder and editor of American Affairs.  Here's the background article that the Times did on his serious political journal supporting "Trumpism": Talking Trumpism: A New Political Journal Enters the Fray, March 8, 2017


    I missed this important one because it happened Aug.13!

    Republican senator: White nationalists can't be part of GOP base

    By Julia Manchester @ The Hill- 08/13/17 10:29 AM EDT  (with CNN Video)

    Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) on Sunday ramped up his pressure on President Trump to call white supremacists out by name, saying they should not be a part of any political base. 

    "White nationalists, white supremacists, they're not a part of anybody's base. They're not a part of this country. They're a part of hatred, they're a part of evil, and we need to stand up to that," Gardner told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" during a discussion of violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

    Whether it's the president of the United States, a senator from any of our great 50 states around the country, or our city councils and school teachers, call it for what it is. It's hatred, it's bigotry. We don't want them in our base, they shouldn't be in a base, they shouldn't be claimed as part of a base, and it has to be made crystal clear," he continued. 

    "He should use this opportunity today to say this is terrorism, this is domestic terrorism, this is white nationalism and it has to stop, and I encourage the president to do so," he said [....]

    It also has his Aug. 12 tweet:


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