“How Democrats Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Big Donor Money”
Ahh, well, and who among us does not enjoy a Dr. Strangelove reference? Evidently the non-enjoyers include NY Times editors, their readers, the 43% of Democrats who voted for no-PAC Bernie, and even, if we believe what she says rather than what she does, Hillary Clinton.
In any case, the current revised title is
"Democrats Rake In Money, Thanks to Suit by Republicans"
That's not quite "Republicans made us do it!", but it's closer. And it spoils our fun, since it was only last week the Times ran a piece titled
"Liberals See Hillary Clinton’s Focus on Big Donors as Bafflingly Dated".
To be fair there is a lot about Hillary that is baffelingly dated. But in this instance, I think the Times people quickly got the message that running yet another reminder of what a special-interest sell-out their party establishment has foisted on an unhappy Democratic base may not be helpful to the ongoing Hillary cram-down promotional effort.
Showing an utter lack of self-awareness the Times editors assure their readership that, contra Trump and one bad year of crime statistics, crime is NOT out of control and the long term trends have been very good since the 1990's.
Of course, the next time there is a mass shooting and Obama is tearing up on television this will all be forgotten. As will this, from their editorial:
The surge in killings was fueled by street violence in a handful of major cities. While murder rates rose significantly in 25 of the 100 largest cities in 2015, an analysis by The Times found that half of the increase in killings in big cities came from just seven — Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Milwaukee, Nashville and Washington — where most of the victims were young African-American males. Guns were used in nearly three-quarters of the 15,696 homicides in 2015.
So basically, young black men in a few big cities are shooting each other, so therefore we should restrict access to firearms across the nation. Because Black Lives Matter.
As to what we shouldn't do:
Unfortunately, the debate over how best to fight crime is always a combustible one, so even relatively small changes in crime rates can lead to big and often destructive changes in law and policy, like mandatory-minimum prison sentences or stop-and-frisk policing. In the name of greater public safety, policies like these have done immense damage to minority communities around the country, and particularly to the young black and Latino men who have borne their brunt, even as evidence shows that they do little if anything to reduce crime.
Hmm - here I thought I just read that crime had been falling since the 90's, yet now I am being told that aggressive policing didn't have anything to do with it. In New York City crime fell during the Giuliani Gulag and the Bloomberg oppression, but their policies had nothing to do with it. Whatever.
This exchange at the Trump/Clinton debate is one of many that caught people's attention:
CLINTON: Well, it's also fair to say, if we're going to talk about mayors, that under the current mayor, crime has continued to drop, including murders. So there is...
Mr. Trump said that murders are up in New York City. Mrs. Clinton said they are down. Mrs. Clinton is correct. Crime statistics show that murders are down year on year, to 246 from 257. A spokesman for the New York Police Department weighed in on Twitter to say that murders and shootings are down significantly. “#NYC is on pace to have one of the safest years on record for crime.”
The country’s murder rate jumped more last year than it had in nearly half a century, newly released federal crime data showed, although the number of homicides remained far below the levels of the 1980s and ’90s.
And closer to home:
Los Angeles had 282 murders in 2015, compared with 262 in 2014, while New York had 352 murders last year, and about 333 in 2014, the report said.
So murders were higher in 2015 than in 2014. One might even say "murders are up" over that time period. But per the Times fact-checkers, that would be inappropriate, wrong, or simply not worth noting - it is the year-to-date figures we should be looking at, for reasons that elude me.
Compounding the mystery - the same CompStat report that shows murders are down by 4.3% year over year show they are up by 7.9% over two years. Another number for the waste basket!
Not that it matters to the Times, but Hillary did say that "under the current mayor, crime has continued to drop, including murders". DeBlasio took office on Jan 2, 2014. Murders dropped from 335 in 2013 to 328 in 2014, rose to 352 in 2015, and are now down a bit in 2016. If (IF!) the 2016 total is 4.3% less that the 352 of 2015 it will be 337.
So from a 335 level in 2013, murders will have been 328, 352 and 337 in the DeBlasio years. Is the Times sure that "down" is the right word to describe that? Of course they are, because it is the word Hillary used!
it's Dreadful vs. Awful, Take One. I can't imagine either candidate changing my mind but there are plenty of undecideds out there to be swayed. Over to Nate Silver, who is taking flak for exposing ardent progressives to the notion that the nation just isn't that into Hillary:
Not all 2-point leads are created equal, and Clinton’s is on the less-safe side, certainly as compared with the roughly 2-point lead that President Obama had over Mitt Romney on the eve of the 2012 election.
Perhaps the most important reason for that is the higher-than-usual number of undecided and third-party voters. Clinton leads Trump roughly 42-40, based on our national polling average; late in the 2012 race, by contrast, Obama led Romney about 48-46. That means about 18 percent of the electorate isn’t yet committed to one of the major-party candidates, as compared with 6 percent late in 2012.1 The number of undecided and third-party voters has a strong historical correlation with both polling volatility and polling error — and in fact, the polls have been considerably more volatile this year than in 2012.
Some of the videotape of the Charlotte shooting has been released. As advertised it is inconclusive as to whether the victim had a gun, but to my untrained eyes he appears disoriented rather than threatening.
Across the continent, a mall shooter in Washington killed five. The shooter appears to have used a conventional hunting rifle rather than a deadly, scary, high-powered assault rifle, so that's something.
Politico delivers a puff piece on Hillary's debate prep which completely ignores the real questions that are no doubt terrifying Team Hillarity!.
Inside Hillary Clinton’s debate prep
The Democrat holds more moot court than mock debate as she prepares to show her opponent as unbalanced and ill prepared.
"Ill prepared" is either a Freudian slip or a secret coded message highlighting the key question - how sick is Hillarity! and will she have some weird episode on stage?
Seriously, what is the plan if she commences a coughing fit? Do they let her stand their and hack away, or have they worked out a time-out signal? Can she really try to joke it off as "allergic to Trump" with Trump standing there? And by the way, both Trump and the moderator ought to have a plan in the back of their mind for this. Should Trump rush over and perform the Heimlich maneuver? It shows he is a take-charge guy but sort of disrespects personal boundaries. Tricky!
And a coughing fit is a minor worry. Suppose Hillarity! collapses on stage? Is Chelsea's apartment a reasonable drive from the Hofstra University debate site or might her staffers have to whisk The Her to an actual hospital for a real evaluation? Doesn't that imperil the cover-up? And again, Trump needs to a contingency plan for this as well - as a Man of Action he can't just stand there pondering events.
Politico also omits any discussion of just how Hillarity! will be transported onto the stage. She needed help climbing two steps at Temple University the other day - what is the plan for Hofstra? I am certain that Team Hillary has surveyed the site, so where is the reporting? I want a juicy quote along the lines of "It's downhill to the debate stage so we think she can make it. She just won't leave afterwards."
Obama Sees ‘Personal Insult’ if Blacks Don’t Rally for Hillary Clinton
By Amy Chozick and Julie Jirschfeld Davis Sept 18 2016
With Democratic leaders increasingly worried about a lack of passion for Hillary Clinton among young black voters, President Obama is rolling out a new and more personal campaign message: “It’s about me.”
The president told African-Americans this weekend he would consider it a “personal insult” if they did not vote for Mrs. Clinton, implicitly putting his name on the line as his former secretary of state struggles to replicate the coalition that delivered him victories in 2008 and 2012.
Isn't suggesting that Hillarity! can't get this done without a man's help like, sexist, or mansplaining, or something? Libs! Who can keep up?
Donna Brazile, no mansplainer she, conforms to gender stereotypes by botching a sports metaphor:
“That speech went beyond the room. It went beyond the moment,” said Donna Brazile, the interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. “That was the president essentially saying, ‘Don’t leave it on the field.’”
Say what? "Don't leave it on the field" might be advice you give to an absent-minded eight year old who is constantly losing his (or her!) baseball mitt. In the heat of athletic competition the conventionalexhortation is to deliver a maximum effort by leaving everything on the field. Sort of like, well, a manager telling a pitcher to give the team one more inning and empty the tank (a car and gasoline metaphor, for the Uber-addicted among us).
Now to be fair, a less common meaning of "leave it on the field" is to leave the past in the past - you lost, the refs were dreadful, your opponents cheated, the field was muddy, but it's over so move on. Tomorrow is another day!
So maybe Ms. Brazile meant that Obama's supporters should not leave "it" (The election? Obama's legacy?) on the field because the game is not over. That is a pretty subtle reminder.
From Chris Cillizza of the WaPo, who infamously lost interest in Hillary's health just moments (OK, days, but it seemed like a month to a dog) before her collapse:
Donald Trump’s birther event is the greatest trick he’s ever pulled
Well, the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And to complete the circle, the greatest trick the media ever pulled was convincing the world that Trump was the devil.
Which demotes Hillary to mere Anti-Christ. Sexist pigs!
RIGHT AGAIN: In the same vein as not betting against a Sicilian when death is on the line would be to not try to out Reality TV a reality-tv master.
New Records Shed Light on Donald Trump’s $25,000 Gift to Florida Official
...
The Sentinel’s report, which was published on Sept. 13, 2013, paraphrased Ms. Meale’s response and took it a step further, saying that Ms. Bondi’s office would “determine whether Florida should join the multi-state case.” Four days later, a check for $25,000 from the Donald J. Trump Foundation landed in the Tampa office of a political action committee that had been formed to support Ms. Bondi’s 2014 re-election. In mid-October, her office announced that it would not be acting on the Trump University complaints.
...
But documents obtained this week by The New York Times, including a copy of Mr. Trump’s check, at least partly undercut that timeline. Although the check was received by Ms. Bondi’s committee four days after the Sentinel report, and was recorded as such in her financial disclosure filings, it was actually dated and signed by Mr. Trump four days before the article appeared.
But keep hope alive!
The check’s date does not categorically demonstrate that Mr. Trump was not seeking to influence Ms. Bondi, a fellow Republican. Even as he has denied trying to do so in this instance, he has boasted brazenly and repeatedly during his presidential campaign that he has made copious campaign contributions over the past two decades, including to Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, in order to buy access and consideration for his business dealings.
...
What is more, when Mr. Trump wrote that check, he still theoretically had reason to be concerned that Florida’s attorney general could become a player in the legal assault on Trump University.
Through 2010, when the company ceased operations, Florida had been one of the most lucrative markets for his unaccredited for-profit school. It ranked second among states in purchases, with 950 transactions, and third in sales, at $3.3 million, according to an analysis of sales data revealed in court filings.
The lawsuit by New York’s Democratic attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, which was announced on Aug. 25, 2013 — two weeks before Mr. Trump wrote the check to And Justice for All on Sept. 9 — did not cite allegations from consumers in Florida. But news organizations had reported as early as 2010 that the attorneys general of Florida and Texas had fielded complaints from consumers who had paid up to $35,000 for Mr. Trump’s seminars and mentoring programs. His contribution, therefore, could have been a pre-emptive investment to discourage Ms. Bondi from joining the New York case.
Could have been!
The Times continues to struggle with a basic difference between Trump and their favored candidate: Trump's message is that the system is corrupt, like every other big hitter he has bought plenty of politicians, but he can't be bought himself.
Hillary's message is that, well, she's never done anything wrong (Never!) but if elected she will revamp the Clinton Foundation and won't be bought (or give that appearance) again. That is quite different, especially since she and her hubby have amassed $100 million as "public servants" since Wild Bill left the White House.
In the course of berating the Trump campaign Timesfolks Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman include this assertion:
But Mr. Trump, who records little support in the polls among racial minorities and educated whites, did not address any of the past remarks that have contributed to his low standing with those groups.
They link to an article noting that Hillary leads Trump among blacks by 91-1, so we might say "little support" was spot-on and "low standing" was overly generous.
But college educated whites? Trump is doing historically poorly in an area of historic Republican strength, but still - "little support"?
Per a recent CNN/ORC poll linked by the Times, we see (p. 22) that among non-whites Clinton leads Trump 70-17. OTOH, among college-educated whites Clinton leads by 49-35, a 14 point spread far above historical norms. But is that really "little support" comparable to the 91-1 trouncing among blacks? If a 14 point margin represents "little support" the Times might one day report (No they won't) that Ms. Clinton has little support among people 45 and older (minus 15 points), men (-20) or non-college grads (-15).
Somewhat like Pauline Kael the Times wants to convince its readers that People Like Us (i.e., them) simply don't imagine for a moment supporting Trump. Facts can't be allowed to trump fashion!
Clinton’s reluctance to drink water causing tension with her staff: report
Her spinners need to re-frame as a War on Women's issue since her reluctance to drink, water anyway, is probably due to a lifetime of being a non-athlete who is uncertain where the next clean restroom will be.
And didn't we get a timed (and endless!) bathroom break during one of the debates? Yeah, we are really delving into the issues here.
My goodness - even the Times feels obliged to run this AP story, albeit with a buried lead:
Clinton Says,' I'm Feeling Great'; Had Left 9/11 Event Early
NEW YORK — Hillary Clinton unexpectedly left Sunday's 9/11 anniversary ceremony in New York after feeling "overheated," according to her campaign, and retreated to her daughter's nearby apartment. As she exited the apartment shortly before noon, Clinton said, "I'm feeling great."
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement that the Democratic presidential nominee attended the morning ceremony for 90 minutes "to pay her respects and greet some of the families of the fallen.
"During the ceremony, she felt overheated so departed to go to her daughter's apartment, and is feeling much better," Merrill said.
The statement offered no additional details, including whether the 68-year-old Clinton required medical attention. A senior law enforcement official who was briefed on the matter said that after leaving the memorial plaza, Clinton was observed "fainting" in a departure area.
That official spoke on condition of anonymity, because he wasn't authorized to disclose information publicly.
Wow, what? She fainted yet again? It's only one source, but still...
The Twitterverse has video of Hillary stumbling and maybe fainting as she enters what looks like a hearse. Prior to the swoon an aide is bracing Hillary under her left arm while they wait for the car, so one presumes Hillary had complained about, or displayed, wobbliness.
As metaphors for her campaign go, I would say this is just about perfect - Dems will prop her up and drag her across the finish line whatever it takes.
Clinton's departure from the event was not witnessed by the reporters who travel with her campaign, which did not offer any information about why she left and her whereabouts for more than an hour. The campaign also did not take reporters in the motorcade after Clinton's departure from her daughter's apartment, and it was unclear where she was headed from there.
If she was headed off to a medical facility that would explain the secrecy.
THE TIMES VERSION: Timesfolk Jonathan Martin and Amy Chozick give their version. Some snippets:
Mrs. Clinton had arrived at the commemoration event around 8 a.m. and left at about 9:30. But for over an hour after that, her campaign would not offer any information about why she left early or where she was.
Video from the event taken by an attendee captured Mrs. Clinton struggling to steady herself and then stumbling as she stepped off a curb. She required assistance from two Secret Service agents to get into her van. The video, which was posted on Twitter, immediately ricocheted across the internet.
The word "faint" does not appear in their story. Yes, the question of whether she fainted is speculative, but it would have been be easy enough to quote someone offering that description if these "reporters" were so inclined.
So how hot was it?
Mrs. Clinton had arrived at the commemoration event around 8 a.m. and left at about 9:30. ...
...
Temperatures were in the low 80s on Sunday morning in New York, with considerable humidity.
We hear from a senior Republican also in attendance:
Other attendees at the event said afterward that Mrs. Clinton did not appear ill when she first arrived at the former site of the World Trade Center.
“She seemed fine,” said Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York, who recalled greeting and speaking briefly with the former secretary of state around 8:30 a.m.
But about an hour later there was a minor commotion, Mr. King said. A number of New York’s current and former elected officials had been standing in silence as the names of the victims of the attacks were read. Suddenly, Mrs. Clinton, herself a former New York senator, left her position.
Mr. King said it was hot enough that officials working at the event offered the dignitaries bottles of water as they stood. But he noted that he did not see anybody accept a bottle.
NOT HELPING HERSELF:
Hillary brushes off talk of medical issues:
Asked whether she was concerned such questions about her health would affect the election, as the polls have tightened, Mrs. Clinton said, “I’m not concerned about the conspiracy theories. There are so many of them I’ve lost track of them.”
I guess she has lost track of the theory that the concussion has impaired her memory.
Clinton-Half of Trump Supporters Belong in 'Basket of Deplorables'
NEW YORK — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said half the supporters of Republican rival Donald Trump belonged in a "basket of deplorables" of people who were racist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic, or Islamophobic.
Speaking at a fundraiser on Friday night in New York, Clinton said Trump had given voice to hateful rhetoric through his behaviour as a candidate for the White House in the Nov. 8 election.
"To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the 'basket of deplorables,'" Clinton said. "Unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up."
Half? That is a lot of citizens. Of course, as a category she left out pay-to-play senior government officials who scoff at the rule of law, such as the Freedom of Information Act, and lie to the public about it. "Deplorable" covers that reasonably well.
Nice to see her common touch though. She's a divider, not a uniter, who will be proud to be President of some Americans.
It was har de har day at the Times as some hayseed libertarian humiliated himself before a national radio audience:
‘What Is Aleppo?’ Gary Johnson Asks, in an Interview Stumble
By ALAN RAPPEPORT
Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor and Libertarian Party presidential nominee, revealed a surprising lack of foreign policy knowledge on Thursday that could rock his insurgent candidacy when he could not answer a basic question about the crisis in Aleppo, Syria.
“What is Aleppo?” Mr. Johnson said when asked on MSNBC how, as president, he would address the refugee crisis in the war-torn Syrian city.
Well, yes, he shoulda known, as all regular Times readers do. But not all Times writers and editors! Check this Correction-palooza:.
Correction: September 8, 2016
An earlier version of this article misidentified the de facto capital of the Islamic State. It is Raqqa, in northern Syria, not Aleppo.
Correction: September 8, 2016
An earlier version of the above correction misidentified the Syrian capital as Aleppo. It is Damascus.
Ooops, and oops again. But Gary Johnson is still a maroon!
SINCE YOU ASK: NO, of course this doesn't change my vote, since Johnson was never going to win anyway. And if this flub is disqualifying, I can't wait to read the Times endorsement of Hillary.
The Times helps Obama contemplate his climate change legacy and our energy future. The results are predictable - disturbing the Upper West Side readership is a no-no, so there is no mention of fracking, which has put more coal plants out of business than any Obama initiative. Also unmentioned (but you know this) is nuclear power and Obama's role, with Sen. Reid, in putting the kibosh on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
Yeah, it's all anti-science Republicans bought out by the Koch brothers. Whatever.
As a diversion, they do offer up this bit of political analysis about Obama's inability to bring along his own part when he had a mere 59 Democratic Senators and control of the House:
Eight years ago, when Mr. Obama ran for president against Senator John McCain of Arizona, both men had essentially the same position on global warming: It is caused by humans, and Congress should enact legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions and force polluters to buy and trade permits that would slowly lower overall emissions of climate-warming gases.
But in the summer of 2010, a cap-and-trade bill Mr. Obama had tried to push through Congress failed, blocked by senators from both parties.
“One would have hoped for transformational leadership, in the way J.F.K. would have done it,” said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.
Hmm, when your go-to guy for a quote on JFK's leadership is coming from Germany, that might be a red flag. Kennedy's civil rights initiatives were roughly as dead in Congress as Obama's cap-and-trade, but were eventually muscled through by Lyndon Johnson.
Oh, its the Times - let their readers have their fun.
Donald Trump’s Donation Is His Latest Brush With Campaign Fund Rules
By Steve Eder and Meghan Twohey Sept 6 2016
Donald J. Trump, who has repeatedly denounced pay-to-play politics during his insurgent campaign, is now defending himself against claims that he donated $25,000 to a group supporting the Florida attorney general, Pam Bondi, to sway her office’s review of fraud allegations at Trump University.
Please. Trump's message - it's a crooked system, I've bought plenty of these politicians and I won't be bought myself - is quite different from Hillary's message, which amounts to "I won't be for sale anymore". Which, since she and her hubby have amassed a mere $100 million in the course of their public service, seems unlikely - they are relative paupers in the company of their billionaire friends and are still forced to borrow private jets since they can't quite afford to buy one.
IT'S BETTER TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE: The Times runs an editorial with several Trump quotes along the lines of "I buy these politicians all the time" without managing to distinguish between being the buyer and being the seller.
When is a snub not a snub? When team Obama wants to pretend that all is well and the NY Times wants to play along:
Obama Plays Down Confrontation With China Over His Plane’s Stairs
By Mark Landler and Jane Perlez Sept 5 2016
HANGZHOU, China — When Air Force One taxied to a stop in eastern China on Saturday afternoon, American and Chinese officials had already engaged in a lengthy, heated dispute over the most mundane of issues: How would the president depart his plane?
China’s handling of President Obama’s arrival for the Group of 20 summit meeting in Hangzhou has created a narrative that the Chinese snubbed the American president. Some Beijing-controlled news outlets are pushing back, fanning nationalist anger by accusing the Americans of arrogance in the squabble.
The reality, American officials and diplomats familiar with China say, is both simpler and more complicated.
See, her parents were coming out on Sunday and they have been worried about her health, so she really needed to pull herself together... oh, wait:
The United States military had flown in a set of rolling air stairs, as it does on all of Mr. Obama’s foreign trips, and the White House had received Chinese approval to use the equipment. But before Mr. Obama’s arrival, a senior administration official said, the Chinese suddenly reversed themselves.
The Americans were willing to use a Chinese stairway, this official said, but the Chinese insisted that the stairs be taken to the plane by a local driver, who the Americans said could not communicate with the White House team about even the simplest tasks. So the White House demanded that he be replaced with an English-speaking driver, a request the Chinese refused.
As Air Force One was landing, the Chinese relented and told the Americans they could use their own stairs. But by then, officials said, there was no time to make a switch.
So it never dawned on the Chinese that this to-ing and fro-ing might prevent a Grand Entrance by Obama. Just bad luck and poor communication. Of course, if the famously subtle Chinese had really wanted to embarrass Obama the Times would have had no trouble finding someone willing to go on the record and say so; since everyone was denying that as their intention, well, they must be telling the absolute truth.
Fine, no one, not even Hu Fuk Nos, ordered the Code Red and all is well. Whatever.
Administration officials disputed the suggestion that the staircase incident was part of a broader attempt to humiliate Mr. Obama. Instead, they said, it reflected how on edge the Chinese have been in hosting the Group of 20, a major summit meeting involving dozens of world leaders.
Uh huh. For whatever reason the Chinese weren't rattled by the arrivals of Merkel or Putin.
The ongoing attempt to push Their Gal Hil up the mountain and over the top has clearly drained morale at the NY Times (their latest brush with reality covers her low standing among young black).
However, good news is where you find it, so today Gardiner Harris of the Times is allowed to have some fun and draw some laughs with this:
Lucrative Book Deals Might Finance the Obamas’ Post-White House Life
Barry and Michelle are going to cash in within nano-seconds of moving out? Say it ain't so!?!
The comedy continues:
WASHINGTON — After he is out of the White House, President Obama has said that he wants to become a venture capitalist, own part of an N.B.A. franchise and avoid taking off his shoes during security screenings at commercial airports.
As to imminent Shoeless One, my plan for breezing through airport security incorporates TSA Pre-Check. But Obama taking commerical flights? I'm dying - he will be cadging rides on the private jets of his "friends", just like Bill and Hil.
Mr. Harris builds on the theme:
All of those goals, serious or not, might soon be achievable if Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, sign post-presidency book contracts for what literary agents and major publishers say could amount to $20 million to $45 million — more than enough to pay the estimated $22,000 monthly rent for the nine-bedroom home they will occupy in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington and foot the bill for flights on private jets. (Mr. Obama has said he would like to avoid commercial flights once he surrenders Air Force One.)
We would all like to avoid commercial flights but the idea that Obama will actually be paying for his rides is absurd.
I HAVE TO ADD: We are offered some perspective, and a puzzle:
Memoirs by first ladies have also been profitable. Mrs. Clinton earned an $8 million advance for “Living History” after she left the White House...
"Living History"? Should that have been "Herstory"? Even though, obviously, the boss's wife got where she is thanks to the boss.
Seeking Support and Invoking Faith, Donald Trump Visits a Black Church for the First Time
The article is unexpectedly short of snark and even drifts towards positive, as here:
Mr. Jackson had planned to let Mr. Trump speak for just one minute, but at a reception before the service, aides to Mr. Trump asked Mr. Jackson for more time, and he granted it.
“His people said, ‘Mr. Trump had already written this out and he really feels that if he can say it, it would really be a blessing because this is his heart,’” Mr. Jackson said in an interview.
In his relatively muted address, lasting roughly 10 minutes, Mr. Trump did not employ his typical heated language about urban crime or illegal immigration.
Instead, he offered praise for black Christians and called for a “civil rights agenda for our time,” including support for charter schools and new job growth.
And Mr. Trump, who has not made professions of faith a regular element of his campaign, called on Americans to “turn again to our Christian heritage to lift up the soul of our nation.”
As to their gal Hil, the Times is well aware that she is their candidate so they mostly conceal their class consciousness and imagined solidarity with ordinary Americans. Mostly, but not completely:
Where Has Hillary Clinton Been? Ask the Ultrarich
By Amy Choznick and Jonathan Martin
At a private fund-raiser Tuesday night at a waterfront Hamptons estate, Hillary Clinton danced alongside Jimmy Buffett, Jon Bon Jovi and Paul McCartney, and joined in a singalong finale to “Hey Jude.”
“I stand between you and the apocalypse,” a confident Mrs. Clinton declared to laughs, exhibiting a flash of self-awareness and humor to a crowd that included Calvin Klein and Harvey Weinstein and for whom the prospect of a Donald J. Trump presidency is dire.
Mr. Trump has pointed to Mrs. Clinton’s noticeably scant schedule of campaign events this summer to suggest she has been hiding from the public. But Mrs. Clinton has been more than accessible to those who reside in some of the country’s most moneyed enclaves and are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to see her. In the last two weeks of August, Mrs. Clinton raked in roughly $50 million at 22 fund-raising events, averaging around $150,000 an hour, according to a New York Times tally.
And while Mrs. Clinton has faced criticism for her failure to hold a news conference for months, she has fielded hundreds of questions from the ultrarich in places like the Hamptons, Martha’s Vineyard, Beverly Hills and Silicon Valley.
Well, she needs the money because this fall she will be running lots of expensive ads extolling herself as a champion of the Little Guy.
If Mr. Trump appears to be waging his campaign in rallies and network interviews, Mrs. Clinton’s second presidential bid seems to amount to a series of high-dollar fund-raisers with public appearances added to the schedule when they can be fit in. Last week, for example, she diverged just once from her packed fund-raising schedule to deliver a speech.
She has her reasons:
Mrs. Clinton’s aides have gone to great lengths to project an image of her as down-to-earth and attuned to the challenges of what she likes to call “the struggling and the striving.” She began her campaign last year riding in a van to Iowa from New York and spent much of last summer hosting round-table discussions with a handful of what her campaign called “everyday Americans” in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Yet some of the closest relationships Mrs. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have are with their longstanding contributors. If she feels most at ease around millionaires, within the gilded bubble, it is in part because they are some of her most intimate friends.
Oh, please. Even Timefolk Choznick and Martin can't resist this:
...But when she has had a give-and-take this summer about issues, Mrs. Clinton, who has promised to “reshuffle the deck” in favor of the middle class and portrayed Mr. Trump as an out-of-touch billionaire, has almost exclusively been fielding the concerns of the wealthiest Americans.
To businessmen who complain to Mrs. Clinton that President Obama has been unfriendly to their interests, she says she would approach business leaders more like Mr. Clinton did during his administration, which was widely considered amicable to the private sector.
When financiers complain about the regulations implemented by the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, Mrs. Clinton reaffirms her support for strong Wall Street regulation, but adds that she is open to listening to anyone’s ideas and at times notes that she represented the banking industry as a senator.
I can imagine her response to these centi-millionaires worried about a hostile administration:
"Look around and relax" says Imaginary Hillary, "I'm bought and paid for."
The Times also twists the knife by describing the menu and its prices:
For a donation of $2,700, the children (under 16) of donors at an event last month at the Sag Harbor, N.Y., estate of the hedge fund magnate Adam Sender could ask Mrs. Clinton a question. A family photo with Mrs. Clinton cost $10,000, according to attendees.
And when Mrs. Clinton attended a dinner at the Beverly Hills home of the entertainment executive Haim Saban last month, the invitation was very clear. If attendees wanted to dine and receive a photo with Mrs. Clinton they had to pay their own way: “Write not raise” $100,000.
They even highlight Hillary's toughness:
Another advantage to choosing private fund-raisers over town halls or other public events is that Mrs. Clinton can bask in an affectionate embrace as hosts try to limit confrontational engagements.
Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a backer of Democrats and a friend of the Clintons’, made sure attendees did not grill Mrs. Clinton at the $100,000-per-couple lamb dinner Mrs. Forester de Rothschild hosted under a tent on the lawn of her oceanfront Martha’s Vineyard mansion.
“I said, ‘Let’s make it a nice night for her and show her our love,’” Mrs. Forester de Rothschild said.
Hey, Timespeople - Bernie lost. Get over it and get behind Hillary.
Even the Times feels obliged to note a few bits of bad news for Hillary in the labor Day weekend file dump by the FBI:
F.B.I. Papers Offer Closer Look at Hillary Clinton Email Inquiry
By Eric Lichtblau and Adam Goldman Sept 2 2016
WASHINGTON — F.B.I. officials questioned Hillary Clinton extensively about her judgment in using her private email system to discuss classified drone strikes and in allowing aides to destroy large numbers of emails, before ultimately deciding she should not face criminal charges, according to investigative documents released Friday.
The documents provided a number of new details about Mrs. Clinton’s private server, including what appeared to be a frantic effort by a computer specialist to delete an archive of her emails even after a congressional committee had requested they be preserved.
In a 3½-hour interview with the Justice Department’s top counterintelligence officials on July 2, Mrs. Clinton defended her handling of the private email system by repeatedly saying she had deferred to the judgment of her aides, an F.B.I. summary of the interview showed.
Yes, Hillary's pubic position is that she has taken full responsibility for the deplorable decisions of her aides, in which she had no part and never really understood. The buck stops there. Got it.
Blaming Colin Powell:
In its summary of the investigation, the F.B.I. said that Mrs. Clinton had emailed Colin Powell, a former secretary of state, a day after she was sworn in to office about Mr. Powell’s use of a personal email account when he was the country’s top diplomat. Mr. Powell warned Mrs. Clinton that if she used her BlackBerry for official business, those emails could become “official record[s] and subject to the law.”
Mr. Powell, apparently implying that he was cautious in his use of a personal email account, added: “Be very careful. I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data.” According to the summary of her interview, Mrs. Clinton said that she did not know exactly what Mr. Powell was saying in that email and that his message “did not factor into her decision to use a personal email account.”
Mr. Trump is expected to land in Mexico City around 3 p.m. local time (one hour behind Eastern time). He will travel, with hisSecret Service detail to the presidential palace in two helicopters to avoid the frequent gridlock on the capital’s highways. (As a result, Mr. Trump will avoid roadside protestors of his visit.)
• The meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Peña Nieto will start by 4 p.m. local time and last for approximately 50 minutes. The Mexican president, who will be joined by his foreign minister is expected to speak English at the meeting
• Mr. Trump will focus on the positive at the meeting, seeing it as the start of a dialogue about shared economic interests and security interests. Mr. Rubin said he believed Mr. Trump would only briefly mention his intention to build a wall on the U.S-Mexico border and get Mexico to pay for its construction — a deeply offensive proposal to many Mexicans.
• Mr. Trump will depart Mexico City by 5:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. Eastern) en route to Phoenix to deliver his immigration speech.
Well, Trump will make the evening news, if anyone still watches that.
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