Implausible Deniability

Someone in Drumpf's campaign thought decided to have the wife read words about... bullying.

An instantly obvious sick joke, it seemed. Yet the remarks (near end of this transcript)—

Technology has changed our universe. But like anything that is powerful, it can have a bad side. We have seen these already. As adults, many of us are able to handle mean words, even lies. Children and teenagers can be fragile. They are hurt when they are made fun of or made to feel less in looks or intelligence. This makes their life hard and can force them to hide and retreat. Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and teenagers. It is never OK when a 12 year old girl or boy is mocked, bullied, or attacked. It is terrible when that happens on the playground.

And it is absolutely unacceptable when it is done by someone with no name hiding on the internet.

When the Party of Personal Responsibility speaks, it's a given that what's said is all projection, all the time. But this is particularly stunning, in light of the how "technology" creates a record of its use.

So, about recent "mean words, even lies"...

About who is setting an example for children to bully fellow students who are African-American, Hispanic, Muslim...

And that "our culture has gotten too mean and too violent" is the reason for death threats against Jewish journalists...

Or threats against those perceived as Jewish. A mysteriously "too violent" culture prompting neo-nazi to send potentially lethal epileptogenic video to reporter on the Trump beat.

He's Still Relevant

And bigly, from what Wayne Barrett reports—

Two days before FBI director James Comey rocked the world last week, Rudy Giuliani was on Fox, where he volunteered, un-prodded by any question: "I think he's [Donald Trump] got a surprise or two that you're going to hear about in the next few days. I mean, I'm talking about some pretty big surprises."

Pressed for specifics, he said: "We've got a couple of things up our sleeve that should turn this thing around."

The man who now leads "lock-her-up" chants at Trump rallies spent decades of his life as a federal prosecutor and then mayor working closely with the FBI, and especially its New York office. One of Giuliani's security firms employed a former head of the New York FBI office, and other alumni of it. It was agents of that office, probing Anthony Weiner's alleged sexting of a minor, who pressed Comey to authorize the review of possible Hillary Clinton-related emails on a Weiner device that led to the explosive letter the director wrote Congress.

Barrett runs down numerous other Giuliani-FBI pal connections, including this one—

[Jim] Kallstrom is the former head of the New York FBI office, installed in that post in the '90s by then-FBI director Louis Freeh, one of Giuliani's longtime friends. Kallstrom has, like Giuliani, been on an anti-Comey romp for months, most often on Fox, where he's called the Clintons as a "crime family." He has been invoking unnamed FBI agents who contact him to complain about Comey's exoneration of Clinton in one interview after another, positioning himself as an apolitical champion of FBI values.

Besides apolitically exposing the Clinton crime family on Fox, Kallstrom chairs (though without pay, notes Barrett)

...the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation ... the single biggest beneficiary of Trump's promise to raise millions for veterans when he boycotted the Iowa primary debate. A foundation official said that Trump's million-dollar donation this May, atop $100,000 that he'd given in March, were the biggest individual grants it had ever received. The Trump Foundation had contributed another $230,000 in prior years and Trump won the organization's top honor at its annual Waldorf Astoria gala in 2015.

Much more, in Barrett's piece.

Steve M. takes up Barrett's conclusion, that "Fox is the pipeline for the fifth column inside the bureau"—

... A cabal of current and former law enforcement operatives has made this a live issue again. We think the likes of Giuliani and Kallstrom have been banished to cigar lounges and cable news greenrooms, where they can strut their supposed expertise while recalling the good old days when they had power. But they have power. They're the undead, and they're working with some of the living to undermine American democracy and either install a psychopath as president or hobble the psychopath's opponent if she manages to win.

And they're spreading disinformation via Fox News -- which a lot of smart people told us was on its last legs. Roger Ailes is gone, Bill O'Reilly might retire, Sean Hannity might soon leave for Trump TV, Megyn Kelly might jump ship, and Rupert Murdoch might finally cede full control to his less ideological sons. And yet when this cabal wanted to spread its story, Fox was still the obvious venue...

A Cast Of Thousands

Impeachment 2017, coming very soon. One of the players: chair of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Richard Burr. Currently campaigning on the "assassinate her" platform.

Sticking To Basics

Government forcing Border Patrol, Trump says, into "letting people pour into the country so they can go and vote".

Also: "The Republican nominee for president believes that African-Americans who are innocent should nonetheless be in prison".

Second-Banana Republican

tengrain nails last night's show. Terrible moderator and questions; filibuster by Pence, and largely weak performance by Kaine.

For former talk-radio host Pence, repeating talking points while deflecting questions is second nature. The smooth routine made it inevitable the punditocracy would deem him the winner.

And to a casual viewer, Pence may seem calm and reasonable. Sure, there was projection (accusing the Dems of running an "insult-driven campaign"). And outburst ("You whipped out that Mexican thing again!") But there certainly was no attention to his extremism; from tengrain's post—

Mike Pence is the kind of theocrat who scares me. Unlike Huckabee or Santorum who are essentially Elmer Gantry wannabes using the Rubes to their own advantage, the Pence's of the world are true believers, the sort of evangelists who can lie with impunity because they are lying in service to what they believe is a greater good. Mike Pence has signed into law in Indiana not just the terrible We Don't Serve Your Kind LGBTQ discrimination laws, but he has all also worked dilligently to defund Planned Parenthood and to add insult to women who do seek abortions, he has signed a law that requires women to have funerals for their fetuses.

Pence as "2020 GOP frontrunner" is the other pundit pronouncement. So much positive attention to Pence; can it only lead to tweet-rage from a jealous 2016 nominee?

Coming Soon, To A Screen Near You

"Trump: The Psychotic Break"...

Steve M. pretty much dismisses the Trump tax story, but (half-way through the post) finds Trump's out of control emotional state more consequential.

Steve cites the WaPo's account of the latest rally performance. Steve notes—

The "range of topics" [WaPo's term] included a racist call for Trump voters to monitor polling places in "certain areas," complaints about CNN's reporting on him during the primaries (why is he still complaining about this?), and a moment of physical mockery of Clinton reminiscent of his attempt to imitate disabled journalist Serge Kovaleski...

Also—

Underlining from Josh Marshall; added note, "Manic episode with anti-Semitic facets."

In other words, more of the famously Best Temperament on display.

Legal Eagle

Just released: Trump deposition. This particular one is for his lawsuit against companies that backed out of opening restaurants in the DC hotel, following Trump's speeches against Mexican immigrants.

Trump's statement is the beaut to be expected. Shakezula pulls out this prime bit of self-justification—

I'm running for office. I obviously have credibility because I now, as it turns out, became the Republican nominee running against, we have a total of 17 people that were mostly senators and governors, highly respected people. So it's not like, you know, like I've said anything that could be so bad. Because if I said something that was so bad, they wouldn't have had me go through all of these people and win all of these primary races. And I'm pretty even in the polls or close to even in the polls right now.

So I was very surprised that he wanted to get out of the lease.