As often happens, I’m a bit wrong-footed by the time between when I start writing the morning APR and when it runs. I’m writing a couple of hours after some sort of explosion occurred in Chelsea, injuring over two dozen people. At this point, it’s completely unclear if the source of that explosion was a device purposely planted to cause harm, or a half-empty gas tank carelessly thrown into into a burning dumpster. I’m sincerely rooting for an accidental cause, not just because Donald Trump has already made multiple statements about a “bomb” and it’s always good to see Trump in error, and not just because Twitter is already filling up with Islamophobic messages, despite a singular lack of evidence. I’m pulling for an accident because it’s … accidental. Not only does that make it less likely to happen again, it also means that no one walked down to Chelsea today with the intent of hurting a lot of New Yorkers.
I’d rather live in that world.
But despite my fondness for a lot of New Yorkers, and my sincere wish that this momentary concern is simply that, I’m not going to New York this morning. That is, I’m doing something I haven’t done before: I’m putting the entire New York Times on the time-list. The Times-Out list. After a week in which they have continued to scream about splinters in Hillary Clinton’s eye, and to ignore Donald Trump’s log contact lenses, I’m just not in a mood to reward them with any additional reads. So … they’re out. You’ll have to get your Douthat fix elsewhere. (And it’s a metaphor, people. There’s nothing wrong with Hillary’s eyes.)
Instead, let’s look at why Robert Gates who worked for six presidents, both Republican and Democratic, was the subject of so much Trumpian fury at last night’s rally.
"The world we confront is too perilous and too complex to have as president a man who believes he, and he alone, has all the answers and has no need to listen to anyone ... At least on national security, I believe Mr. Trump is beyond repair. He is stubbornly uninformed about the world and how to lead our country and government, and temperamentally unsuited to lead our men and women in uniform. He is unqualified and unfit to be commander-in-chief."
Thank you, Mr. Gates. The line of former Republican officials who are horrified by Trump is over there on the right. Yes, the very long line.
Now, let’s go inside and see who else is talking.
Kathleen Parker got in that line some weeks back.
At a highly choreographed event Friday, the Republican nominee for president of the United States finally issued his verdict on the birthright of our two-term president, who, it turns out, is a real American!
“Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period,” Trump intoned to the great relief of no one.
Well, howdy-do. Welcome to planet Earth, son.
Sometimes I think I see Parker looking around for the exits, so it’s good to see her fully committed to the Never Trump-Train this morning.
… Trump’s announcement was merely a curtain call on a theatrical production otherwise known as Free Publicity for Trump. For the preceding 24 hours, Trump gleefully baited and dragged the media through Con Man’s Swamp, first refusing to answer the question posed by The Post’s Robert Costa about whether Trump still thought Obama wasn’t born in the United States, then building suspense Friday morning that he would make a “big announcement.”
That big announcement? Trump’s new hotel is open! Plus we learned again that major networks will allow Trump all the time he wants to talk about golf courses or hotels, but won’t run a policy speech from Clinton. Fairness!
Leonard Pitts on the scientific details of rubber and glue.
I know you are, but what am I?”
Most of us outgrew the riposte about the same time we outgrew passing notes in class. Apparently, Donald Trump never did. Far from leaving it behind, he has honed it into a potent political tool perfect for this era of post-factual lassitude and cognitive dissonance. As Campaign 2016 grinds toward a reckoning, we are seeing that tool employed with breathtaking shamelessness.
It works like this: Whatever Trump is called or accused of, he turns it back on the accuser. ...
So the man who claims that he’s always opposed the Iraq War (even though he didn’t), the man who said the election is rigged, (even though it isn’t), the man who told us Barack Obama founded ISIS (even though — duh! — he didn’t), the man whose PolitiFact scorecard rules over 80 percent of his rated statements as half-truths and untruths . . . that man complains that Hillary Clinton is “a world-class liar.”
Hell, it doesn’t take Trump for that. Despite Politifact giving Clinton the cleanest bill of truth of any political candidate, the press has turned “credibility problem” in both a mantra and a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but having Donald Trump lecture you about bigotry, transparency or truth is rather like having Kanye West tell you to stop behaving like a jackass.
Lucia Graves on how Trump could make Flint just like the rest of America, by making the rest of America like Flint.
In his appearance at a Methodist church Wednesday, Trump added that the lead poisoning “would have never happened if I were president”. On the contrary: under a president Trump, what happened in Flint could happen everywhere. It would be the inevitable outcome of what is quite possibly the only Trump policy we can be sure of: radical deregulation. ...
Local officials were more worried about saving money than protecting the safety of Flint residents. But they didn’t poison the water to begin with – a whole structural array of forces did, including Trump’s beloved private sector dumping untreated waste.
That’s because the best check on the kind of gross state and local government mismanagement that we saw in Michigan is the EPA. The problem in Flint was not what the EPA did; it’s what it didn’t do. It’s that the EPA was by an order of magnitude far too weak and inactive.
The private sector will always make clean, safe drinking water available. In half-liter bottles at $2 a pop, with the Trump logo on one side. It’s completely safe—so far as you know. After all, Trump is also closing down the FDA. Don’t worry about the crunchy bits in your water. It’s minerals. It’s just minerals.
Dana Milbank has visited Trump’s latest collection of gold-plate.
He campaigns on an “America First” theme — yet about the only American-made thing I could find in my hotel room was the small package of milk-chocolate Trump gold bullion ($25).
He portrays himself as a populist friend of the little guy, yet he makes money renting out a presidential suite for $18,000 a night (a sign informed me that the maximum nightly rate for my room was $5,600).
He derides the “establishment” but makes his living catering to it. The hotel lobby features a Brioni boutique and 3-foot-tall bottles of Veuve Clicquot sharing a bar top with Dom Pérignon; the room comes with a copy of Wine Spectator (“The Cheese Issue”); the hotel charges $15 to launder a shirt, $12 for Peanut M&Ms and $26 for a hamburger (sorry, no taco bowls).
Okay, Trump sells expensive stuff, most of it not from America. Honestly, about the only thing we learned here is some specific pricing and that Milbank’s expense budget stretches way past anything I’d ever dare. Maybe I’m going to have to dip into the NYT after all.
Eugene Robinson on post-freakout democracy.
If Democrats want to beat Donald Trump, they need to get past the freakout stage and get to work.
In a sane and just world, this presidential race would be a walkover. Commentators would already be sketching out their postmortem analyses of an all-but-certain Hillary Clinton victory. Pare the contest down to its essentials: A former senator and secretary of state, eminently qualified to be president, is running against a dangerous demagogue who has never held public office and should not be allowed anywhere near the White House. Ought to be case closed.
So, people who are living five hours in the future from when I’m writing this, has the world suddenly become just and sane? How about just sane? Nope? Well then …
Trump’s current set of handlers — campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and chief executive Steve Bannon — have done a better job than their predecessors of keeping their candidate from committing acts of self-destruction. They have gotten him to use a teleprompter more, rant and rave less, and sometimes go as long as 48 hours without spewing idiotic vitriol on Twitter. These are no small accomplishments.
No, actually, those are pretty small accomplishments. But, the bar has been Lauered to the ground and the press is bringing shovels.
Carl Hiaasen wants to know why Marco Rubio isn’t climbing up on stage with Donald Trump.
This is the stretch of the political season when presidential nominees swoop into key states to appear at rallies with candidates running for other offices.
The big question facing top Republicans on the ballot is: Do I really want to be seen in public with Donald Trump?
It’s an especially queasy decision for two U.S. senators, Marco Rubio of Florida and John McCain of Arizona. Both have been scorned and humiliated by Trump, yet they continue to say they support him.
This should be easy. Rubio is in Florida. Trump comes to Florida all the time. Rubio supports Trump. Trump … kind of remembers that Rubio exists, in the sense that he remembers Rubio saying the “small hands” thing and is still plotting his revenge on Little Marco.
Here’s the dilemma: Rubio and McCain hate Trump’s guts, but they think they need his angry-white-voter base to get re-elected. The result is a self-debasing charade of “distancing” themselves from the racist real-estate developer without repudiating him.
Oh, go on. Grovel. You can’t possibly have any pride or dignity remaining.
Steven Thrasher on why messing up Donald Trump’s hair doesn’t make up for giving him a platform.
On Thursday, Jimmy Fallon had Donald Trump on the Tonight Show and ended the segment by saying, “Donald I want to ask you, because the next time I see you you could be the President of the United States. I just want to know if there is something we could do that’s just not really presidential, really – can I mess your hair up?” Trump let him and the NBC audience roared with laughter. But, for many of us, this is very far from being a joke.
Giving comic cover to Trump just isn’t funny when he’s unleashed forces of anti-blackness and anti-immigrant sentiment. He’s labelled Mexicans rapists, raised the prospect of a ban on Muslims, patronized and insulted African Americans while pretending to be a potential new hope. As a result, Fallon managed to come over as one powerful white man protecting another.
Gee. Why would Fallon come off that way?
Fallon had real power last night and squandered it. I can’t imagine Chelsea Handler, Trevor Noah or the recently departed Larry Wilmore building up Trump like that.
Good lord, would I like to see Trump forced to sit down for twenty minutes with Wilmore.
Robert Wilkins at the newest museum in Washington, D.C.
… on that evening in 1996, remembering a loved one, I was inspired to become part of something positive. I wanted to help build a museum, so that those stories — the painful and the wonderful — would finally have a home.
… the Smithsonian Institution is set to open the National Museum of African American History and Culture. A journey that began against the backdrop of D.W. Griffith’s racist movie, “The Birth of a Nation,” being screened at the White House, will end, four generations later, with an opening ceremony presided over by an African American president and witnessed by luminaries such as Oprah Winfrey and Cicely Tyson, who promote positive images of African Americans on film.
If you haven’t made it to D.C. since the National Museum of the American Indian opened, you’ve already missed one setting that mixes jaw-dropping horror with moments of beauty and inspiration. Now you have two good reasons to get there this year. Three … if you go around inauguration day.
Thomas Platt has an Obama-related item that you won’t find at the new museum. I hope.
I’m the scientist who recently made news for naming a new genus and species of parasite after President Obama. Before you accuse me of being some kind of hater, racist or worse — as plenty have — let me be clear: I absolutely intended it as an honor.
I’ve had two species of parasites named after me, and I take great pride in the fact that colleagues thought my contributions to the field warranted this recognition. If I had named a new predator, say a jungle cat or bird of prey, for Obama, there would have been no question of my intentions. But most people have an unjustly negative opinion of the incredible — and, yes, beautiful — organisms that I have spent my life investigating.
I was along on a trip into the Caribbean in 1979 during which one of the team discovered and named a frog for his wife. So, yeah, people do these things with good intentions. But biology students hate the named for a person thing. Because if you’re looking at, say, the long-eared sunfish, the species name Lepomis megalotis reinforces the fish’s most distinct feature. If that same fish was Lepomis Obamai, you wouldn’t think about it having gill flaps that look like over-sized ears … or wait. That might work.
Before I go, I want to mention that we’re still trying to raise some money for Friends of Veterans, a group that helps homeless vets in Vermont and New Hampshire. We passed $20k last night, which is enough to help 30 vets with the rent, or to provide 10 service dogs to those who need them. It’s fantastic, and as always I’m really blown away by the generosity of our community. A tiip of the hat … and a reminder that the GoFundMe page is still taking contributions.
Well before I finished this APR, the news began reporting the explosion as “intentional” and a second device, whatever it was, has apparent;y been discovered. Sorry guys. Very sorry.