The Character That Matters

I really like Roger Kimball, although sometimes American Greatness grates.

In any case, an excellent piece.

RTWT:

Further thoughts about the "character issue" @theamgreatness https://t.co/nOTNQO0oLA

— Roger Kimball (@rogerkimball) January 5, 2019

Candidates Struggle to Remain Civil at the Al Smith Charity Dinner (VIDEO)

Actually, sounds like a pretty hilarious roast.

At New York Magazine, "A Night of Laughter, Charity, and Boos: The Candidates Struggle to Remain Civil at the Al Smith Charity Dinner."

Book Review: Nancy Isenberg's, White Trash

This is a great book review, from Professor Jefferson Cowie, at Foreign Affairs, "The Great White Nope: Poor, Working Class, and Left Behind in America."

Here's the book, at Amazon, Nancy Isenberg, White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America.

And an excerpt from Professor Cowie's review:

Most Americans are optimistic about their futures—but poor and working-class whites are not. According to a recent analysis published by the Brookings Institution, poor Hispanics are almost a third more likely than their white counterparts to imagine a better future. And poor African Americans—who face far higher rates of incarceration and unemployment and who fall victim far more frequently to both violent crime and police brutality—are nearly three times as optimistic as poor whites. Carol Graham, the economist who oversaw the analysis, concluded that poor whites suffer less from direct material deprivation than from the intangible but profound problems of “unhappiness, stress, and lack of hope.” That might explain why the slogan of the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump—“Make America Great Again!”—sounds so good to so many of them.

A stunning U-turn in the fortunes of poor and working-class whites began in the 1970s, as deindustrialization, automation, globalization, and the growth of the high-technology and service sectors transformed the U.S. economy. In the decades since, many blue-collar jobs have vanished, wages have stagnated for less educated Americans, wealth has accumulated at the top of the economic food chain, and social mobility has become vastly harder to achieve. Technological and financial innovations have fostered economic and social vitality in urban centers on the coasts. But those changes have brought far fewer benefits to the formerly industrial South and Midwest. As economic decline has hollowed out civic life and the national political conversation has focused on other issues, many people in “flyover country” have sought solace in opioids and methamphetamine; some have lashed out by embracing white nationalist rage. As whites come closer to becoming a plurality in the United States (or a “white minority,” in more paranoid terms), many have become receptive to nativist or bigoted appeals and thinly veiled promises to protect their endangered racial privilege: think of Trump’s promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and his invocation of an unspecified bygone era when the United States was “great,” which many white Trump supporters seem to understand as a reference to a time when they felt themselves to be more firmly at the center of civic and economic life.

Trump also loves to tell his audiences that they are victims of a “rigged” political system that empowers elites at their expense. On that count, the evidence supports him. Consider, for example, the findings of a widely cited 2014 study by the political scientists Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, who researched public opinion on approximately 1,800 policy proposals (as captured by surveys taken between 1981 and 2002) and found that only those ideas endorsed by the wealthiest ten percent of Americans became law. This domination of politics by economic elites has produced the de facto disenfranchisement of everyone else—a burden experienced by the entire remaining 90 percent, of course, but perhaps felt most acutely by those who have fallen the furthest.

For poor and working-class white Americans, the profound shifts of the past few decades have proved literally lethal: beginning around 1999, life expectancy—which had been increasing dramatically for all Americans during the twentieth century—began to decrease for less educated middle-aged whites. Angus Deaton, the Nobel Prize–winning economist who discovered this trend along with his wife and collaborator, the economist Anne Case, speculated that this demographic group is “susceptible to despair” because they have “lost the narrative of their lives.”

Nancy Isenberg’s White Trash aims to uncover the historical roots of this social calamity and explain its political effects. It’s an ambitious book that doesn’t quite succeed but that is nonetheless frequently revelatory...

Keep reading.

First Lady Michelle Obama Attacks Donald Trump for 'Sexual Predator' Comments (VIDEO)

She's going low after saying Democrats go high.

It's the Democrat-left that's dragged this entire election through the mud of personal character assassination. They always do. It's the only way they can win elections.

Julianna Goldman reports for CBS This Morning:

The Democrat Echo Chamber

I've long attacked Glenn Greenwald as a fanatical Israel-hating leftist, but as you know, he's intriguing, and I've often admired his against-the-grain take on politics.

I know, I know. He's a traitor as well, but still. A broken clock's right twice a day.

In any case, at the Intercept, "In the Democratic Echo Chamber, Inconvenient Truths Are Recast as Putin Plots":

DONALD TRUMP, FOR reasons I’ve repeatedly pointed out, is an extremist, despicable, and dangerous candidate, and his almost-certain humiliating defeat is less than a month away. So I realize there is little appetite in certain circles for critiques of any of the tawdry and sometimes fraudulent journalistic claims and tactics being deployed to further that goal. In the face of an abusive, misogynistic, bigoted, scary, lawless authoritarian, what’s a little journalistic fraud or constant fearmongering about subversive Kremlin agents between friends if it helps to stop him?

But come January, Democrats will continue to be the dominant political faction in the U.S. — more so than ever — and the tactics they are now embracing will endure past the election, making them worthy of scrutiny. Those tactics now most prominently include dismissing away any facts or documents that reflect negatively on their leaders as fake, and strongly insinuating that anyone who questions or opposes those leaders is a stooge or agent of the Kremlin, tasked with a subversive and dangerously un-American mission on behalf of hostile actors in Moscow...

Keep reading.

Donald Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway Berates ‘Wishy-Washy ’ Republican Leaders (VIDEO)

At ABC News, via Memeorandum.

Obama Justice Department Helped Hillary Clinton Avoid Political Fallout from Private Emails

This kind of coordination between the regime in power and the party's imminent presidential nominee is what you'd expect in a one-party dictatorship. And here we are, the entire political system, up in arms about politically incorrect lewd comments from 11 years ago.

The American democracy's barely functioning. Indeed, if it wasn't for an anti-American organization, WikiLeaks, we'd have likely never known about the true scale of depraved corruption among Hillary Clinton, the Obama regime, the Democrats, and the insidious left-wing party press.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Emails Show Hillary Clinton Campaign’s Response to Fallout":

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton’s political team sought to contain any potential fallout over her use of a private email server by communicating with government agencies, enlisting help of congressional allies and managing public statements, newly released emails show.

Hacked emails belonging to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta were posted by the website WikiLeaks this week, showing her staff candidly debating the tone and substance of responses to media after the 2015 disclosure of her use of a private email server while leading the State Department during President Barack Obama’s first term.

In several electronic exchanges, Mrs. Clinton’s staff appeared to be in communication with government officials about the email issue. One campaign official is shown telling colleagues about a coming procedural step, which was part of the public record, that he suggests he learned from Justice Department officials.

In another case, an attorney for Mrs. Clinton appeared to know the contents of a State Department document release concerning speeches by former President Bill Clinton before it was made public.

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign hasn’t confirmed or denied the authenticity of the email trove posted by WikiLeaks, but a campaign spokesman said the release of apparently stolen internal communications showcases Russian attempts to interfere in the U.S. election on behalf of Mrs. Clinton’s Republican rival, Donald Trump. U.S. intelligence agencies have publicly accused Russia of directing hacks and leaks aimed at top Democratic Party officials, but they haven’t reached a conclusion in the specific breach of Mr. Podesta’s emails.

“The timing shows you that even Putin knows Trump had a bad weekend and a bad debate. The only remaining question is why Donald Trump continues to make apologies for the Russians,” said campaign spokesman Glen Caplin. The campaign declined to comment further.

Campaign spokesman Brian Fallon, who worked at Justice before joining the campaign in 2015, is shown in the emails to be giving a heads up about a preliminary hearing in a lawsuit brought by a Vice News reporter against the State Department. Justice Department attorneys were representing their colleagues at State in the matter. The information provided to Mr. Fallon was in the court’s docket.

“DOJ folks inform me there is a status hearing in this case this morning, so we could have a window into the judge’s thinking about this proposed production schedule as quickly as today,” Mr. Fallon wrote to his colleagues on the campaign.

The Clinton attorney, Heather Samuelson, is shown providing a detailed accounting of Bill Clinton speeches discussed in documents that were to be released by State. She also reported how much the former president, who commanded six-figure sums for his speaking engagements, was paid.

“There is one request where speaking fee would have been paid by Turkish govt—WJC’s office declined this,” Ms. Samuelson wrote, referring to Mr. Clinton. “And one speaking engagement with fee from Canadian government, which he did do.”

Ms. Samuelson didn’t immediately return a request for comment...

Well, of course Ms. Samuelson's unavailable for comment! This is an authoritarian regime we're talking about. They're completely unaccountable.

But keep reading.

Things are coming to a head in this country. A Trump win or not, things are gonna blow. Mark my words. Things are going to erupt around here. People will only take the abuse for so long. We're beyond the tipping point now. We're going to explode.

Will 'Fed-Up' Millennials Vote for Third Party Candidates?

I don't vote third party. Insignificant protest votes are a waste.

Frankly, I'll bet "fed-up" Millennials, if they don't like the choices, will simply decide to sit this one out. It's not like their cohort's voter turnout rate is overpowering, or anything.

In any case, from the front-page at today's USA Today:

Here's where fed-up Millennials are thinking about putting their votes. https://t.co/jefc6Zwb7W

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) October 11, 2016

Foreign Policy Magazine Endorses Hillary Clinton

I've seen and ignored a wave of Hillary Clinton newspaper endorsements as completely expected. Even USA Today issued an endorsement, and they never do.

That's true as well for Foreign Policy, which I thought worth reading, since international relations is my academic specialty (and I've been reading the magazine for over 20 years).

I actually had to laugh at this passage, since the editors might as well be describing Barack Obama:

He has promoted a delusional and narcissistic view of the world, one in which he seems to feel that the power of his personality in negotiations could redirect the course of other nations, remake or supplant treaties, and contain those tyrants he does not actually embrace.

At any rate, read the whole thing, as they say:

The editors of Foreign Policy have never endorsed a candidate for political office -- until now. https://t.co/2BvlgKcvDu pic.twitter.com/xJ0FJ0j7xc

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) October 10, 2016

Why Did NBC News Sit on the Trump Tape for So Long?

Well, it's obvious that NBC wanted to have a big "October surprise," but the story leaked and the Washington Post actually got the scoop.

But see Jack Shafer, at Politico, "Stories get held at every news organization, but NBC doesn’t look good here, and no amount of finessing will make them look any prettier."

Sabato's Crystal Ball: Second Debate 'Reinforces the New Status Quo'

Here's the latest from Larry Sabato and Co., "Clinton Adds to Her Electoral College Edge":

In the broad sweep of U.S. history, very occasionally one of the major parties simply disqualifies itself from the contest to win the White House by nominating an unelectable, non-mainstream candidate. We suspect that there will never be a better example than Donald Trump. The Republican Party chose a deeply divisive figure — one not supported by many senior figures in the GOP even before the release of Trump’s raunchy 2005 discussion with Access Hollywood’s (and now The Today Show’s) superficial, celebrity-worshipping Billy Bush. (Yes, he is of the Bush family, so a Bush finally speared Trump, however unintentionally.) Their X-rated discussion, and Trump’s insistence on discussing Bill Clinton’s sordid past, has caused voters to usher children out of the room when the TV news comes on. Is this the most embarrassing campaign ever? It must be close...

Keep reading.

Hillary Worried About Jihadists Entering With Refugees in Private Speech

Well, she was saying how refugees were part of the fabric of America at the debate last night. Like so much else, that's not what she said in private.

At Blazing Cat Fur.

Shailene Woodley Arrested

She's a cool chick.

At LAT:

Shailene Woodley was arrested while protesting Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota https://t.co/X7aWIPiWGs pic.twitter.com/6TimGzYmJT

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) October 10, 2016

PREVIOUSLY: "Shailene Woodley Says 'No' to Lesbian Revolutionary Feminism — #RadFem."

Don't Miss This Debate Analysis from Dan Balz at the Washington Post

I say "don't miss" it not because it's so great or anything, but for the breathless revelatory tone.

Dan Balz and other deans of the establishment media class were just shocked by what they saw last night. Utterly shocked. And they had a hard time writing about it, especially in terms of attempts at objectivity. Balz is so predisposed against Donald Trump is ridiculous, and I normally consider him a fairly balanced reporter. But again, these people were just shocked that Trump would take on the entire establishment with such authority and gusto. And they were in denial that he actually won.

Read on my iPhone last night right before bed and I tweeted:

Heh. Going where no man has gone before - with the people loving it! #Debates #DebateNight #DonaldTrump https://t.co/PMairIsmz8

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) October 10, 2016

Post-Debate Panel on Hannity's Last Night (VIDEO)

It's interesting. Listen to Laura Ingraham and Monica Crowley at the opening of the video especially. Nigel Farage comments as well.

We had CNN on last night, and folks there were literally in shock at what happened at the debate, in denial even at how well Donald Trump did.

I'll scroll some of CNN's videos later.

Meanwhile check this out:




PREVIOUSLY: "A CAUSTIC QUARREL: INTENSELY PERSONAL ATTACKS DOMINATE 2nd DEBATE."

A CAUSTIC QUARREL: INTENSELY PERSONAL ATTACKS DOMINATE 2nd DEBATE

That's the banner headline at this morning's Los Angeles Times.

And here's the story online, "Trump and Clinton swipe at each other in vicious second debate." And the analysis, "After a mediocre debate performance, Trump still faces an uphill climb."

I thought it was an energizing debate. I like a fighter, and Donald Trump's got a lot of fight left in him.

Donald Trump Strolled Through Dressing Room Full of Nude Beauty Queens

Heh.

Actually, I'm sure millions of men dream of taking such a stroll, lol.

At BuzzFeed, where else?

See, "“We Were All Naked” When Donald Trump Walked Through Beauty Queen Dressing Room."

“We were all naked” when Donald Trump walked through beauty queen dressing room https://t.co/ZHfPT5AIAb pic.twitter.com/kuoJgDvk0z

— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) October 9, 2016

Donald Trump Pushes Back Against Cowardly GOP Leaders

Good for him.

At WSJ, "Abandoned by GOP Leaders After His Lewd Comments, Trump Pushes Back":

NEWS: Trump urges surrogates to unload on Republicans abandoning him, per new talking pts just forwarded to me (1/)

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) October 9, 2016

Trump talking pts urge total war on Rs: "They are more concerned with their political future than they are about the future of the country"

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) October 9, 2016

Donald Trump, faced with a coast-to-coast rebellion and a political party in turmoil, Sunday pushed back against Republicans who have abandoned his candidacy after video surfaced of him lewdly bragging about forcing himself on women.

Confronted by a growing chorus of GOP candidates and officials repudiating their own presidential candidate, Mr. Trump Sunday morning sent a series of messages on Twitter denouncing those who have turned their back on him.

“So many self-righteous hypocrites,” said Mr. Trump. “Watch their poll numbers—and elections—go down.”

The release on Friday of a 2005 video of Mr. Trump making lewd and degrading comments about women has led to recriminations from all corners of the party, as the Republican National Committee and its candidates scrambled for ways to protect other GOP candidates and avoid a cataclysmic down-ballot loss.

The speed and breadth of the abandonment of Mr. Trump’s candidacy shocked some longtime party members. “Our party is in its deepest crisis since Watergate in 1974,” said Ron Nehring, former chairman of the California Republican Party, referring to the midterm election when the resignation of then-President Richard M. Nixon led to a Democratic landslide.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told party officials to redirect funds away from Mr. Trump to down-ballot candidates, according to an official informed of the decision. In practical terms, the party will be working to mobilize voters who support GOP House and Senate candidates regardless of their position on the presidential race.

The number of Republicans who denounced Mr. Trump’s comments, withdrew their endorsement of him or asked him to drop out of the race mounted over the weekend, but it was clear that the issue will not go away for those who are trying to carve their own personal path to re-election.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, a Republican facing a tough re-election bid in 2016, was one of the first on Saturday to reverse her position and announce she would not vote for Mr. Trump. On Sunday reporters grilled her on why this occasion led her to abandon him, while she stuck by him on other occasions he said other things she found offensive.

“Those tapes are fundamentally different; he’s talking about assault,” she said in a brief press conference.

Democrats are portraying Ms. Ayotte’s change of heart as rank political opportunism. “There is no answer for what has changed now for Ayotte besides the political winds,’’ said Meira Bernstein, spokesman for the senator’s Democratic challenger, Gov. Maggie Hassan.

The controversy will shape Sunday night’s second presidential town-hall style debate in St. Louis. Mr. Trump has told The Wall Street Journal he won’t quit the race and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani reiterated that Sunday.

“Gosh almighty, he who hasn’t sinned throw the first stone here,” Mr. Giuliani, a confidant of Mr. Trump, said on CNN. “The fact is that men at times talk like that. Not all men, but men do.”

Mr. Giuliani said that Mr. Trump had made “a full and complete apology” for his boastful remarks about pressing himself on women a decade ago, when he was 59 years old. Today’s 70-year-old candidate has changed his thinking significantly about women since then, Mr. Giuliani said.

In the 2005 recording, Mr. Trump said: “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.…

“And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.…Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything,” Mr. Trump added. He also referred to a married woman whom he said he tried to seduce: “I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and f—her.…”

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine said Sunday on CNN that Mr. Trump’s comments about women show a “pattern of assaultive behavior.”

When 2008 Republican nominee John McCain withdrew on Saturday his endorsement of Mr. Trump, that left 1996 nominee Bob Dole as the only living GOP nominee backing Mr. Trump.

In an interview, Mr. Dole said he is still supportive of the party’s nominee. “It was 11 years ago. He shouldn’t have said it, but there’s nothing he can do about it except to do well in the debate,” he said...

More.

So Why is Donald Trump's 'Lewd' Tape the Straw That Broke the Camel's Back?

Heh.

I think the tape's just giving all these establishment hacks an easy exit ramp in preparation for their 2016 machinations. Everyone's looking out for their own skin because they frankly have no clue what's going to happen on election day. Some early polling data show that the so-called "lewd" tape hasn't blinkered Trump's core support. There may be some independents turned off, but if you thought all these modern leftist women were going for Trump, I've got a bridge I can sell you.

From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "QUESTION ASKED: “So why is that tape — which to me just sounds like Trump being Trump — the straw that broke the camel’s back?”"

A Richochet piece is linked there, but Ed adds:

Why was Mitt Romney’s perfectly defensible 47 percent comment the straw that broke his campaign? Because the media coordinated its distribution as part of a massive simultaneous carpet bombing...

RTWT.

Jon Voight Fires Back at Robert DeNiro

Heh.

DeNiro's a leftist. He's advocating political violence against Donald Trump, just like a good fascist.

Jon Voight fires back at De Niro for saying he'd 'like to punch Trump in the face' https://t.co/uAHZxwLmod pic.twitter.com/yB5r7EDMlA

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) October 9, 2016