And, The Winner Is...

The last, best flatterer to get his ear!

"Finalist", as on Reality TV... Who wasn't thinking that? Although Charles Pierce went for another Trump venue—

Finalists? The swimsuit competition between Giuliani, Carson, and Bolton must have been a sight to see.

That from a long post on "Camp Runamuck in Manhattan," lede of which is, "You have to wonder just how far from its best self the United States has wandered when one of the nation's leading war criminals is nervous about the incoming administration."

John Yoo is the war criminal being referenced. From Yoo quotes ("I don't think he has a very good sense of how our law enforcement system works"), Pierce segues to Camp Runamuck, where

...Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of the president-elect, is now the straw boss of the larval regime. It has been reported by various people that Kushner has purged from the inner circle anyone who was in any way friendly to Chris Christie who, as U.S. Attorney in New Jersey, sent Kushner's pappy to the federal sneezer for a spell, partly because Kushner's pere had gotten back at his brother-in-law by setting the poor sap up with a pricey woman of the town.

In short, the transition team of a president-elect who already has demonstrated a jones for reckless revenge is now being run by a guy who has made a life's work of reckless revenge against anyone who helped send his father up the river for an act of reckless revenge. This is no longer a political operation. It's a Sergio Leone film.

Current chaotic jockeying aside, winners will be selected; in Pierce's words, "The actual parade of horribles will come in due time."

To Each His Own Grift

Ben Carson's failed "book tour posing as a candidacy" is capped off by this announcement--

According to Dr. Ben Carson's business manager Armstrong Williams, Dr. Ben Carson will not serve in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.

Williams told Circa, that "the President-elect offered him anything he wanted to do. But in the end he didn't want anything." Adding that "his background didn't prepare him to run a federal agency."

One Thing So Unlike The Other

Yesterday: Trump's awkward photo op in Louisiana flood zone. Steve M. picks this up, from Guardian coverage: a local holds forth on Trump's visit and on, uhh, other subjects—

"This is his stomping grounds," said Greg Patterson, who was cleaning muck from his store called the Pit Stop. The idea that a billionaire from Manhattan could describe the working-class corner of Louisiana as "his stomping grounds" did not strike Patterson as contradictory.

"We've got 2,000 houses damaged just in this area alone," he said, stretching his arm out to the south. "These people are already back in their homes, working to repair them. It's not like down in the Ninth Ward."

...

"I mean that's a bunch of government-owned housing," Patterson said. "Nobody here is looking for handouts or waiting on the government. These are Trump's people."

As the Guardian's reporter adds, there have been over 60,000 applications for FEMA aid.

Steve notes—

Of course, people like Patterson might literally believe that they can accept aid from FEMA, or handouts from Trump, and still be "self-sufficient" -- unlike Those People in New Orleans -- because, well, y'know.

In Comments, Jon Gallagher adds—

"Those people" in the Ninth Ward were not coping with a flooded river (and just in case you live by a river and don't know this: RIVERS FLOOD, IT'S WHAT THEY DO!).

The Ninth Ward was coping with the failure of a canal built through their neighborhood by the US Army Corps of Engineers to carry shipping traffic between the Mississippi Rive and Lake Pontchartrain. In other words, they weren't building houses in a flood plain, then expecting the government to bail them out when the inevitable happens, like white folks do. The government brought the flood to them, and could barely lift a finger to help them.

So, hey hard working Mr Greg Patterson, consider taking responsibility for your own self, and move out of the flood plain. The Mississippi has a tendency to move whenever and wherever it it wants (see "The Control of Nature", John McPhee, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_Control_Act_of_1928, and http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/05/what-weve-done-to-the-mississippi-river-an-explainer/239058/) and we taxpayers have been on the hook for decades to keep you and yours dry. Now that Global Climate Change (that you probably don't believe in) is well past its tipping point, you need to move to higher ground.

Obama, who happened to be on vacation, postponed visiting the area—just as Governor Edwards had requested, to avoid the strain on services that would be caused by having to provide the necessary security. On that topic of media comparisons of Obama to a previous vacation from the White House, Steve notes—

... In the current flooding, 13 people are dead and 40,000 homes have been damaged. In Katrina, at least 986 people died and 1 million homes were damaged. The current flooding is horrible, but Bush was faced with a much worse disaster, and dealt with it inadequately. In the current crisis, the heads of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security have been to flood zone, 20 parishes have already been declared federal disaster areas, and quite a bit of assistance is already being provided. If the federal response turns out to be insufficient, that's a reason to grumble about the president. But that's not what we're hearing. We're hearing payback for the criticism of Bush's apparent indifference to Katrina.

Also, tengrain here, on what is and is not "Katrina."

"African-American Shoutreach"

Shakezula—

You know it's election season when a nominee from the party of bigotry stands in front of a bunch of white people and announces that since African-Americans' lives are terrible anyway (because that bigotry thing works really well) they should vote for him.

Not even a snarky paraphrase; not when Trump actually suggested the lousy bunch of losers should just smarten up and vote for him—

As Trump seems not to have brought along My African-American, none were in attendance. The speech was a great success, the audience agreeing: Lock Her Up.

Going With Tradition

Trump adviser Joseph Schmitz had anti-Semitic history at Defense Department. The quotes obtained by McClatchy are doozeys—

"His summary of his tenure's achievement reported as '... I fired the Jews,'" wrote Meyer, a former official in the Pentagon inspector general's office whose grievance was obtained by McClatchy.

...

"In [Schmitz's] final days [as inspector general], he allegedly lectured Mr. Crane on the details of concentration camps and how the ovens were too small to kill 6 million Jews," wrote Meyer, whose complaint is before the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).

Schmitz comes by this as a birthright; his father was notorious as national director of the John Birch Society; Orange County Congressman; and one-time presidential candidate (he replaced George Wallace on the American Independent Party ticket, after the assassination attempt on Wallace). His political career was ended in a sex scandal that included child abuse accusations against the woman whose child he fathered (and refused to support).

Pretty much an equal opportunity bigot, though Jews came in for special attention; links and quotes from Schmitz père in Steve M.'s post.

Marks Confirm: Deck Shuffled

Manafort now officially out of Trump's campaign; the Breitbart piece of work in charge. Yet Trump issues "apology" over previous inflammatory statements ...

Steve M. notes Bannon's ethos of "anchor left, pivot right": his planting stories in the NYT and other respected media ("left") to advance the agenda. Steve concludes that Bannon convinced Trump to divert the media with the pretend apology—

It looks to me as if Trump is trying to "anchor left" by impressing the mainstream press with his phony contrition. And I suppose more seemingly substantive teleprompter speeches will follow, in order to gull the MSM rubes.

I'm sure Trump agreed to this only because Bannon told him it would better prepare the ground for vicious attacks on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. So more of those attacks are coming. The point of this was to soften the MSM up.

Brannon brings Trump access to the current crop of insane plutocrats who fund the GOP. Next stop: Trump News Network.

Red And White

For anyone with a memory of the Cold War, it was ironic (to say the least) when red became the official color of the GOP. I've always taken adoption of that particular color as nose-thumbing, and as a manifestation of the psychological projection of notables like Grover Norquist (see, for example, his declaration of Leninist principles in the war against Commie-libs).

Bring on Trump, to make the "Red" literal, through his ties to Russia.

Campaign staff may have been reshuffled with Paul Manafort under new scrutiny, since the discovery of secret payments he received from Putin's former Ukrainian puppet. Manafort hasn't gone anywhere, despite media focus on the newly named figures (a "Campaign Manager"—and a "Campaign CEO," no less...)

Manafort's history as lobbyist is one of "stealthily reinventing the world's nastiest tyrants as noble defenders of freedom," in Franklin Foer's account. Foer notes that the original link between Trump and Manafort was through Roy Cohn; so much for anti-Communism...

As Foer notes, Manafort, who ran Reagan's southern campaign in 1980, was responsible for its opening in Philadelphia, MS. Everything about Manafort's history suggests his serving as a link to both Red and White; the usefulness of both is seen in Trump's campaign reliance on white supremacist themes derived from Russian disinformation sources.

But it seems Manafort's approach just wasn't blatant enough; white supremacist anti-immigration groups are celebrating Trump's new Breitbartian "Campaign CEO," Stephen Bannon.

It's quite a program for Trump: gaining access to classified briefings and stirring up the most violent of armed domestic crazies.

That's just for now. Until November, and whenever the expected Trump TV launch happens, it remains to be seen what is to be unleashed.

Today In Fox News Candidacy

In his mind: not floundering, as he again overhauls staff. As Steve M. says here—

I think Trump believes he's finally righting the ship. Campaigning the way he wants to campaign has to work, because he's masterminded "a flawless campaign" (his words) -- or at least it was flawless until people who had doubts about his genius instincts began to meddle.

... Trump has spent years imbibing the right-wing media message that "real Americans" are all angry white Fox viewers, and that white liberals, white moderates, and non-whites who are skeptical of wingnuttery either don't exist or are undocumented aliens or only show up in electoral vote totals becaue of voter fraud. In this view, there's no difference between the Republican primary electorate and the general electorate -- those folks are "taking their country back," and everyone who's not them took possession of the country through evil subterfuge.

When this doesn't work, I don't know how Trump's going to explain it -- media bias, probably, or Clinton subterfuge....

It can't be his fault. Dammit, he should be winning. He really believes that -- still.

The predictable corollary: the GOP will be be allowed to wash its hands of the loss. Steve again, here, on why Republicans will succeed at pretending pretend Trump was never one of them.

Even as the base will have been driven to a new frenzy by Fox and the rest, and will be ready to explode over the newest and yooogest Dolchstoßlegende.

Today In Fox News Candidacy

It's back to basics, as Ailes advises Trump on "debate prep."

Says Steve M.—

Well, there may not be much actual prep, but I'm sure Ailes will have many ideas about how Trump can be even more toxically aggressive and offputting than he already is.

Reviewing Ailes' ugly tricks during Poppy Bush's run against Dukakis, Steve suggests that—

If Ailes were smart, he'd be advising Trump to surprise Clinton with kindness (and also with a mastery of policy). But Ailes is too much of a toxic male to think that way, as is Trump -- and Trump won't nail the policy in any case. Advised by Ailes, Trump is going to aim punches at Clinton that she sees coming a mile away.

They Asked For It; Every Last One Of Them

Via Shakezula: Roger Stone makes a new promise on Trump's behalf—

Donald Trump has made it pretty clear that if he is elected president he will seek the prosecution of Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea – that they would do anything necessary to remain in power.

Chelsea's power? That appears to be the invitation to her wedding not offered to Trump.

Shakezula: "And he vowed that he would one day run for president and have every member of the family thrown in prison ... Never mind, that's too much like a coherent plan." That's funny, yet viewing Trump's campaign as a "coherent plan" may be apt, at least in psychological terms.

I just saw this, which was posted last month. It makes a lot of sense, this explanation of Trump's entire career as self-creation in service to revenge against "insiders" who've snubbed him. Two years before the start of the pilot, The Apprentice - POTUS, McKay Coppins wrote a profile of Trump predicting he wouldn't run; during the GOP primary, the author became the target of a Trump tirade. Now, Coppins finds—

... What had most struck me during my two days with Trump was his sad struggle to extract even an ounce of respect from a political establishment that plainly viewed him as a sideshow. But what I didn't realize at the time was that he'd felt this way for virtually his entire life — face pressed up against the window, longing for an invitation, burning with resentment, plotting his revenge.

I had landed on a long and esteemed list of haters and losers — spanning decades, stretching from Wharton to Wall Street to the Oval Office — who have ridiculed him, rejected him, dismissed him, mocked him, sneered at him, humiliated him — and, now, propelled him all the way to the Republican presidential nomination, with just one hater left standing between him and the nuclear launch codes.

New Achievements In Kicking Irony's Corpse

tengrain previews Trump's "national security speech"—

Trump is also expected to propose creating a new, ideological test for admission to the country that would assess a candidate's stances on issues like religious freedom, gender equality and gay rights. ... applicants would be vetted to see whether they support American values like tolerance and pluralism.

Today In The Fox News Candidacy

Today In The Fox News Candidacy

Today In The Fox News Candidacy

Nice of CNN, to add the parenthetical and Fact check...

Today In The Fox News Candidacy

Don Loves Vlad

Josh Marshall reports.

Pierce provides the gist—

In brief: In his business dealings, He, Trump seems increasingly dependent on money from Russia and from the former Soviet republics within its increasingly active sphere of influence. This is because most of the big banks on this side of the pond won't go near him without HazMat suits. (Gee, could it be that his sudden emergence as a Warren-esque crusader against the "rigged system" of the banksters is less of a principled opposition and simply pure animal vengeance? Unpossible!)

And Pierce concludes—

This should be the only story about the Trump campaign until he comes clean. It should be the only question anybody asks him. Frankly, even beyond the threat to this election, it's a measure of the pure arrogance of He, Trump. And if Trump thinks his ability to game the American real-estate market, and his success at swindling the rubes who signed up for Trump University, makes him ready to deal with a guy who managed to survive a career at the top-level of the KGB only to make himself the presiding autocrat of the world's leading kleptocracy, I'd like to be there when he finds out how wrong he is.

Reality Show: The Finale

This week's installment ends; "reviews are in". Among Trump's fans is one David Duke, who announced a new run for Congress.

Pivoting... Trump reportedly stayed with the script last night; today he's back in form, and threatening to end the political careers of Ted Cruz and John Kasich.

Roy Edroso sums up last night—

There are all kinds of things you can say about Trump's speech last night, and pundits are busy saying them. What I will say is that in terms of policy it was perfectly consonant with 50 years of American conservatism -- by which I mean, there was no policy, except to scare voters out of their wits and then offer to let Daddy take care of them. This has been the traditional appeal of even the more avuncular GOP candidates like Reagan, whose celebrated sunniness was only powerful in contrast to the dark Democratic dystopia he and his henchmen were constantly portraying as the only alternative to himself. If Trump is more frightening to some people than Reagan or any of the others, it's mainly because when he does this routine, he indulges very few of the fake pieties I talked about yesterday with which conservatives traditionally try to make their bait-and-switch look socially acceptable. That's his main innovation. But just because you're scared doesn't mean other people don't find it attractive. Just like Reagan, Trump has a sunny shtick -- those goofy faces he pulls, the snarl-smile with thumbs up, seem wolfish and creepy to me. But then I didn't buy what Reagan was selling either, and I bet a lot of whatever customers of his are still alive are voting for Trump.

What I'm saying is, make sure your passport's renewed.

Psychological Profile

Some details filled in, by Jane Mayer's interview with Tony Schwartz, Trump's "Art of the Deal" ghostwriter—

Schwartz thought that "The Art of the Deal" would be an easy project....For research, he planned to interview Trump on a series of Saturday mornings.... But the discussion was soon hobbled by what Schwartz regards as one of Trump's most essential characteristics: "He has no attention span."

...."Trump has been written about a thousand ways from Sunday, but this fundamental aspect of who he is doesn’t seem to be fully understood," Schwartz told me. "It's implicit in a lot of what people write, but it's never explicit—or, at least, I haven't seen it. And that is that it's impossible to keep him focussed on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes, and even then . . ." Schwartz trailed off, shaking his head in amazement.

If Schwartz was responsible for building Trump's image as America's CEO, he now regrets it. And tries to make amends by ... this...

Details, details... More that are not particularly shocking, but useful to have confirmed. Charles Pierce—

We learn from this week's New York Times Magazine that the brain trust of the nominee's campaign went for one of the Grandest of Grand Bargains. We also learn that, at least in its pitch to John Kasich, He, Trump considers his role as president to be not far distant from his role as chancellor of Trump University. Namely, he's the midnight-movie TV pitchman while Kasich is the guy who does the actual job, hides the dough, shreds the documents, and accepts all subpoenas.

From the Times Magazine's report:

... according to the Kasich adviser (who spoke only under the condition that he not be named), Donald Jr. wanted to make him an offer nonetheless: Did he have any interest in being the most powerful vice president in history? When Kasich's adviser asked how this would be the case, Donald Jr. explained that his father's vice president would be in charge of domestic and foreign policy. Then what, the adviser asked, would Trump be in charge of? "Making America great again" was the casual reply.

Death March 2

Last night, among a would-be lynch mob. Which had to settle for a mock witch trial.

Charles Pierce saw Christie's performance as feature in "the Volksgerichtshof portion of the festivities." The part in which—

One after another, the establishment pols came rolling out to pledge their undying fealty to the new boss. I'm surprised that He, Trump let them keep their belts on so their pants wouldn't fall down.

The Morning After...

Night One of the freak show.

The GOPvention opened with ... a prayer...

This shows how weak Trump's political instincts really are. His team exploited a grieving mother, but instead of milking the exploitation, Trump called Fox during her speech, earning a cut away to himself. It would seem a clumsy W-style hug for this woman was called for, but Trump's sociopathy is accompanied by a germ phobia.

Of all people for Melania's speechwriter to plagiarize...

It is pretty astounding, considering how this team has spent the last eight years demonizing the First Lady.

The twitterverse soon contributed more, #FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes.

And tonight...

It would be hard for Wingnuttia to top Monday's Make America Safe Again festivities, but they seem to be up for the challenge of riding their high horse on a low road. Tonight’s theme is Make America Work Again.

tengrain adds Brian Beutler's tweet of last night:

Will be hard for tomorrow night's theme of "a minority will take your job" to top tonight's theme of "a minority is going to kill you."