Trump's Dark, Dark Winter For America

 

Sunday morning, Trumpist chief of staff Mark Meadows, a former neo-fascist congressman from North Carolina (whose district is about to be flipped by Moe Davis), was on State of the Union fighting with Jake Tapper about the pandemic. As U.S. daily cases have spiked into the 80 thousands on both Friday and Saturday and as the death toll hurtles towards a quarter million, Meadows admitted the Regime isn't really trying to defeat the pandemic the way countries like China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan have.

Trump seems so passive about anything that isn't related to lining his own pockets. And all his cronies, like Meadows, are just along for the ride-- "following orders." Especially that putrid excuse for a vice president. He's running around like Trump, criss-crossing the country, spreading COVID, which his whole staff is infected with. CNN reported that at least 5 of Pence's top aides-- including chief of staff Marc Short and outside adviser Marty Obst-- have tested positive. Pence's whole office is freaking out. Pence says he and mother have tested negative. "Despite contact with multiple people who recently tested positive," reported CNN, "Pence is refusing to quarantine in defiance of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines... Pence-- who is the head of the White House's coronavirus task force-- plans to continue traveling and campaigning every day in the final stretch to Election Day, an official told CNN."

Places where Pence is bringing more coronavirus this week: North Carolina, South Carolina, Minnesota. Last week, he was spreading sickness in Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. These are the number of cases per million residents in states Pence visited last week and is going to this week-- along with each state's polling average:

• North Carolina- 24,627 cases per million residents (Biden +1.2%)
• South Carolina- 32,890 cases per million residents (Trump +6.2%)
• Minnesota- 23,427 cases per million residents (Biden +6.0%)
• Florida- 36,142 cases per million residents (Biden +1.5%)
• Indiana- 23,824 cases per million residents (Trump +11.3%)
• Ohio- 16,759 cases per million residents (Trump +0.6%)
• Pennsylvania- 15,417 cases per million residents (Biden +5.1%)
• New Hampshire- 7,530 cases per million residents (Biden +11.0%)

Pence was in Kinston (Lenoir County), North Carolina yesterday and is spreading COVID in Hibbing (Saint Louis County), Minnesota today. Both counties are spiking badly-- Lenoir County:

And Saint Louis County (Minnesota):

Pence's Fly Won Last Night's Debate

 

I know, I know... Pence didn't bring the fly to the debate. It's not like it's his pet or something. In fact, the only fly he gets excited about is Nick Ayers', when it's unzipped.

This morning, when Biden was asked what he plans to do about Trump's on-again-off-again debate threats, he told reporters that "We don’t know what the president’s going to do. He changes his mind every second." But Biden wasn't just talking about how the drugs have deranged him to the point where he can't decide if he's willing to debate or when. And he wasn't just talking about the DC open secret that Trump plans to fire FBI director Christopher Wray, who he hired but who, in Trump's warped mind, failed the loyalty test. Trump called Wray "disappointing," and is furious that Wray hasn't done more to investigate "voter fraud," after Wray said there is no evidence of any coordinated fraud ahead of the election. "He doesn’t see the voting ballots as a problem." (Maybe Wray to bother with Trump's voter fraud fantasies because he was too busy arresting half a dozen Trump supporters who plotted the kidnapping of the Michigan governor Trump has repeatedly and viciously denounced.)

No, what I think was really on Biden's mind was Trump's flip-flop on his psychotic order 2 days ago that his GOP allies in Congress cease negotiating with the Democrats to craft a pandemic relief package. He tried a little typical Trumpish gaslighting to coverup the drug-induced fatal error. "Well I shut down talks two days ago because they weren’t working out. Now they are starting to work out, we’re starting to have some very productive talks." Oh? How were they starting to work out if the Republicans had ended the discussions. That white flag you see going up, isn't from Pelosi. In fact, Señor Trumpanzee add that he thinks Pelosi "wants it to happen, because it’s so good for our country, we really need it."

Meanwhile, in the midst of all this, Pink Eye Pence shows up at the debate with a herpetic lip, loses-- according to every poll, but not according to Señor T-- to a pathetically mediocre Kamala Harris, and then disappears off the radar, cancelling all events and zeroing out his schedule (without admitting he tested positive). Trump also refuses to allow the results of his tests to be seen by the public. Also-- if Pence doesn't have conjunctivitis in his left eye, who punched him? Mother? Was she pissed off because he has herpes again?

I'm disappointed that David Frum won't tell us who punched out Pence, because all he wants to write about is The Fly.

We saw a vice president with a pale face, his mouth cankered by a cold sore, his eyes pink. He looked unwell, which evoked the pandemic that has gripped America-- a pandemic through which the Trump White House has modeled the most irresponsible and unsafe behavior. That irresponsible and unsafe behavior has sickened the president and the first lady, forced the Joint Chiefs of Staff into quarantine, and spread infection though the West Wing. This White House is notorious for non-transparency and untruthfulness. The president evaded a COVID-19 test before the September 29 debate in Cleveland-- a date by which he very probably knew he was infected and infectious. Everybody watching tonight’s debate had to wonder: What’s going on with the vice president? At one point, Pence was at least the titular head of the White House COVID-19 response. He defied safety protocols too. He notably refused to wear a mask on a visit to the Mayo Clinic in April, despite the hospital’s clear rule that he must.

We saw a vice president who had internalized the Trump White House’s culture of disrespect, and especially disrespect to women. He talked over Kamala Harris and the moderator, Susan Page; he ignored the rules of the debate to which he agreed. At the core of the Trump political project is the reassertion of dominance over the historically dominated by the historically dominant. That reassertion of dominance was Pence’s supreme project at this debate too. Pence did not imitate his boss’s manic and undisciplined-- and ultimately catastrophically unsuccessful-- style of dominance. Instead, he brought to this debate the more measured and controlled disdain of a man who had considered the matter carefully-- and decided that the woman in front of him had no right to control him and that the woman to his right did not deserve to be onstage with him. With the sound on, you heard Page trying and failing to summon Pence to order with a repeated, “Mr. Vice President, Mr. Vice President.” With the sound off, you saw Harris-- a vice-presidential nominee, a U.S. senator, a former attorney general of the largest state in the nation-- obliged to smile and smile in an effort to assert herself without seeming… well, you know, without seeming something that might offend somebody. Pence never worried about offending anybody. And he did not feel the need to smile when asserting himself.

We saw a weird moment when a fly landed on Pence’s snow-white hair-- and the vice president did not react at all. No doubt, it’s a conundrum, what to do in such a situation. If Pence had shooed the fly and the fly had refused to shoo, that would have been bad. So he did nothing. And that doing nothing somehow in one powerful visual moment concentrated everything. It symbolized the whole Pence vice presidency, the determined, willful refusal to acknowledge the most blaring and glaring negative realities. Through all of the scandals and the crimes and the disasters of the past four years, Mike Pence was the man who pretended not to notice. And now there was a fly on his head, and he pretended not to notice that too.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

As you can see, I've decided to use an excellent anti-Trump/Pence TV ad as tonight's "meme." It's brought to us by a group calling itself Republican Voters Against Trump but I think it's important to point out that, although a small percentage of Republicans may be against Trump and may even realize that he is a danger to us all, they are still Republicans. They nominated him and eagerly voted for him knowing full well what he is and they had no problem with any of it, not his misogyny, not his virulent racism, not his sleaze, and certainly not the blatantly obvious mental illness that he displayed at his nightly televised rallies for all of us to see. He is who he is, they knew what he is, and their votes put him where he is. None of what Trump is and what Republican voters endorsed with their votes is un-Republican. Trump is simply the ultimate manifestation of what it is to be a Republican. They may have wanted Jeb Bush or any of a number of other leading Republican goons but that doesn't mean Jeb Bush isn't also a racist asshole. Jeb's actions in extreme voter suppression of African-American voters in his time as governor of Florida offers plenty of evidence about that. John "That one" McCain and Mitt "Free Stuff" Romney all showed their racism with their code-speak and the policy outlines in their campaigns. Moscow Mitch? Marco Rubio? Jim Jordan? Susan Collins? Trey Gowdy? Lindsey Graham? Devin Nunes? They and all the other Republicans in the House and Senate showed us where they really stand. They are all Republicans and they all voted to keep Trump, the light of their lives, right where he is. Being a little less of a sociopath or psychopath shouldn't get them off the hook.

Progressives have more than enough enemies among democrats but try naming a single Republican off the top of your head who didn't vote for the Trump-Ryan tax scam, or, against health care repeatedly, more than 50, count 'em, 50 times in numerous cases when it comes to the latter! Try finding a Republican that doesn't want to end Social Security and Medicare (A lot of Dems are bad enough on that issue). Try finding a Republican who doesn't continuously vote for pollution, against a woman's right to choose and against African-Americans having the opportunity to vote, and so on. I've yet to see a chorus of Republicans taking their guy to task for the way he's handling the response to COVID-19. The conservatives who walk among us continue to choose the virus over the citizenry just like they chose an increase of carcinogens and lead in our water. I could go on but you know what Republicans are.

There is no end to the number of Republicans who will now operate for years under the cover of not being Trump as if that is good enough. The enemy of our enemy is not always our friend even if they are temporarily an expedient ally. Our WW2 alliance with Stalin is a good example of that.

Caught Like A Fat Little Orange Rat, Trump Throws Extremist Advisor Peter Navarro Under The Bus

Lambchop by Nancy Ohanian

Yesterday, the Washington Post published, without comment, that "the White House moved to distance itself from an extraordinary op-ed in USA Today in which Peter Navarro, President Trump’s trade adviser, heavily criticized Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, for his handling of the pandemic." Even a toady like Moscow Mitch decided to signal Senate Republicans that it would be safe for them to break with the Trumpist Regime on this. When asked by a reporter, he said that his level faith in Dr. Fauci is "total."

Does anyone imagine that Navarro would have attacked Fauci-- and so viciously-- without an OK from Trump? In fact, L.A. Times reporters Eli Stokols and Noah Bierman wrote yesterday that the regime was forced to spend time and energy dealing with the fallout from Navarro's smear tactic and the Regime campaign against Fauci. "White House officials," they reported, "tried to distance the president from the column. Deputy press secretary Alyssa Farah tweeted that it 'didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone.' Trump, she continued, 'values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration.' But there’s little doubt that Navarro’s broadside reflected-- and appealed to-- the president’s own frustration with Fauci, who has not been invited to the Oval Office to brief Trump since early June and whose proposed television appearances often have been blocked by the White House. According to one administration official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, Navarro had the president’s permission to write the column. 'Not only was he authorized by Trump, he was encouraged,' the official said."




During an interview with The Atlantic Fauci called the attack, part of a campaign by Trump's inner circle, "bizarre." ABCNews.com reported that the White House knows they're in a bad position here and are trying to distance Trump from the mess.

The latest extraordinary escalation in the attacks on Fauci began in earnest, when, in a remarkable broadside against Fauci, who polls show the American public broadly trusts for information on the novel coronavirus, Navarro wrote in the op-ed for USA Today Tuesday that "Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on."

Navarro, who has no known medical expertise, went on to contrast his own response to the coronavirus pandemic with misleading characterizations of Fauci's own comments on the virus. A portion of what he wrote was also included as a statement from him in a Washington Post article published Saturday.

"So when you ask me whether I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice, my answer is: only with skepticism and caution," Navarro wrote.

Asked on Wednesday if he was OK with Navarro's op-ed, Trump did not take issue with its content.

"Well, that's Peter Navarro, but I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Later, as he departed the White House en route to Atlanta, Trump said Navarro should not have written an opinion piece "representing himself."

"Well, he made a statement representing himself," Trump said. "He shouldn't be doing that."

Asked about Navarro's attack and the White House campaign to discredit him during a streaming question-and-answer session with The Atlantic, Fauci responded, "It is a bit bizarre. I don't really fully understand it. You know, I think that would happen with that list that came out I think if you sit down and talk to the people who are involved in that. They are really, I think taken aback by what a big mistake that was, and I think if you talk to reasonable people in the White House they realize that was a major mistake on their part because it doesn't do anything but reflect poorly on them.

"And I don't think that that was their intention. I don't know-- I cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that, but, I mean, I think they realize now that that was not a prudent thing to do because it's only reflecting negatively on them. I can't explain Peter Navarro-- he's in a world by himself. So, I don't even want to go there,” Fauci said.

Among Navarro's qualms with Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is over the efficacy of the antimalarial medication hydroxychloroquine. Long touted by President Donald Trump and Navarro as a promising treatment for COVID-19, Fauci for months disagreed, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined it was "unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19."

The latest criticism fit a pattern of the Trump administration minimizing public health experts and prioritizing an economic recovery, which the president sees as key to his reelection chances.

Earlier Wednesday, a senior White House official, director of strategic communications Alyssa Farah, tweeted that Navarro's op-ed "didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone."

While she added that the president "values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration," she did not disavow anything Navarro wrote.

Separately, a senior White House official said Navarro "went rogue, and put out his personal opinion without any approvals." The official, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity, said "the White House does not stand by these unauthorized opinions and Mr. Navarro owes Dr. Fauci an apology.”

Navarro did not respond to a request for comment on whether he got approval from the president or any other White House official before publishing the op-ed; the White House also did not respond when asked if he got permission from any official outside the communications office.

Asked if Navarro would be punished for writing the op-ed, a White House official said, “We do not comment on internal personnel matters, but [White House] Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is fully engaged.”

A second, senior White House official confirmed Meadows’ involvement but would not elaborate.

Navarro's attack came as the White House sought to discredit Fauci, who has provided a more blunt and sobering assessment of the state of the epidemic than the president and his top aides have sought to project-- one they see as politically inconvenient as Trump campaigns for re-election.

Over the weekend, the White House provided several media outlets with a misleading list of comments made by Fauci, in an effort to undercut him.

Over a week ago, I had noted that Trump was beginning the inevitable attack against Fauci, something Trump was already doing himself by July 9. On Monday the White House was pretending Trump had nothing to do with it while denying to the very people who they were leaking oppo-research on Fauci to that any oppo-research was being leaked.

It must drive Trump bonkers that every poll that has asked people who they trust more, Trump or Fauci comes up with the same answer: Fauci. ABC News continued that "despite the denial of a privately waged smear campaign, one of the president’s top aides made no effort to hide his disdain, airing criticism of Fauci in plain view on social media. The White House's deputy chief of staff for communications, Dan Scavino, who has been by the president’s side since the 2016 campaign, on Sunday posted a cartoon on Facebook depicting Fauci as a running faucet washing the U.S. economy down the drain. 'Sorry, Dr. Faucet! At least you know if I’m going to disagree with a colleague, such as yourself, it’s done publicly-- and not cowardly, behind journalists with leaks. See you tomorrow!' Scavino wrote in a caption accompanying the cartoon.

On Monday, Trump himself shared a tweet disparaging Fauci-- misconstruing a months-old comment Fauci had made-- before telling reporters later in the day that he liked Fauci "personally," had "a very good relationship" with him, and considered him "a very nice person."

But, he added, "I don't always agree with him."

While the president and White House have sought to downplay the appearance of conflict that they have directly stoked, Fauci has been increasingly sidelined within the White House's coronavirus task force.

He is no longer a regular presence at task force briefings with the media led by the vice president, he was not a participant on the vice president’s weekly call with governors on Monday, and it’s been two months since Fauci says he has personally briefed the president.

That's right... Pence prefers to consult Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma instead. Peter Nicholas noted atThe Atlantic "Targeting Fauci seems like a tragic misuse of White House time and energy if officials’ aim is to defeat the coronavirus. But Trump appears more concerned with discrediting Fauci... The attempt to discredit Fauci’s public-health expertise is a political move, and one with disastrous implications. As much as Trump wants and needs Americans to see the virus as a nuisance that’s soon to be overcome, Fauci is a recurring reminder that the crisis remains a grave and enduring threat, and that Trump has mishandled the pandemic. The Americans who believe the White House’s anti-science campaign risk cutting themselves off from potentially life-saving information."

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Mike Pence was instructed to wear a mask when visiting the Mayo Clinic last week. It's common sense and standard policy. Ah, but not if you're a Repug! You think those things like policies and laws don't apply to you. Especially if you're a member of the monstrosity known as the Trump administration. Masks? We don't don't need no stinkin' masks! What the hell do we care if some vulnerable patient gets coronavirus and dies. That's just God's way of sayin' the victim wasn't good enough to be apart of the master race!

As an incredibly bogus and lame excuse Pence is still claiming that he didn't wear a mask, not out of contempt for others, but because he wanted to look the other people in the room in the eye when he was talking at them. I guess it's true about the leather mask but even that doesn't work. He knows they have flaps over the eyes that can be lifted. By the way, I note that there appears to be only one woman in the photo and she has her back to him. I guess it makes him nervous if a woman is looking at him. He might start sweating.

So, why no mask, Mr. Mike? Is it just because you do whatever your psycho boss does? I bet it is. He won't wear one so you won't. I'm reminded of the infamous water bottle clip below, augmented by Stephen Colbert. Have you developed a liking for fast food hamberders, too? What would you do if Donnie Psycho insisted that you share some hookers with him. Damn, I wish he would. You'd just drop dead on the spot.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Time for a quick reality check. Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn't kill.
-Trump's Vice President, Mick Pence

Ah, the Republican approach to reality! Reality check? What reality? Delusion check is much more like it. Kellyanne Conartist's "Alternative facts" and all that. In that one statement from Mike Pence above, you see the essence of being a Republican. You also see it in the meme's statement about Pence causing an uptick in HIV cases in his home state. When you cut out things like sterile syringes and money to prevent disease, disease happens. It did in Pence's Indiana, and it's happening now, nationwide, as a result of Trump and his Republican death cult cutting funding for longstanding Center For Disease Control prevention and research programs. Disease is opportunistic. Open the door and it comes rushing in. Find a Republican that cares about that and win a prize. You'll have better odds if you start buying lottery tickets.

Global warming? I sit here writing this in New York on the night of March 3rd and we've had 4 inches of snow all winter. That's all. Plenty of rain and 50 degree days, though. This morning, I heard about a little girl that got a much hoped for sled for Christmas 2 years ago and has yet to be able to use it. Maybe if her family moves up to Ontario. Maybe. It's not just here. Ask the people in Australia. Ask the people in Mongolia. Just don't ask Mike Pence or any of his sicko kind.

Mike Pence and his crew of Left Behind devotees in charge of protecting America from a potential plague or pandemic? We'd have a better chance if an asteroid was aimed dead at us. My god, from what madhouse do they get these people?

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

I suppose I could go low and say that all it took to get Mike Pence and Lindsey Graham on a plane to the McAllen, Texas migrant concentration camp was the promise of men in cages, hot, sweaty men in cages, but far be it from me to say that. That would just be so... snarky! In truth, it was probably all about a photo-op intent on illustrating the current status of "compassionate conservatism."

Whatever the reason, Pence led an entourage of republican $enators to McAllen last Friday. The picture in tonight's meme shows a mere corner of a cage and a blank-eyed, soulless VP Pence adopting a classic arms crossed pose of petulant indifference ala his boss as he quickly (very quickly) checked out a crowd of nearly 400 Latin American men in a hugely overcrowded cage. They were packed so tightly they could only stand, at least until they dropped. Reports are that Pence and his chapter of the Washington KKK spent all of 90 seconds in the room, didn't speak to any of the men, or, even look at them. Guilty much? Nah. That's Doubtful. Psychopaths don't suffer guilt. Besides, the incarcerated men hadn't had showers in 40 days give or take, and, had no access to even a toothbrush, so there's the matter of the smell.

Pence left the room and ran to the nearest microphone to state that the migrants are receiving "excellent care," are "well cared for," and receiving "compassionate care in a manner the American people would expect." Well, hey, I'm an "American people" and this is not what I expect, or at least have a right to expect. But, yeah, Trump is a dictatorial white supremacist madman so I expect what we've been seeing.

Aside from the psychopathology of all of this, what Pence's visit really was about was an opportunity to proudly display the nasty racist Trumpian treatment of "others" that drives republicans to the polls in happy numbers. Those are the Americans who expect and demand brown people in cages. Pence's trip proves that they are getting what they voted for, human misery for those they consider less than human.

Trump's Pogram And People On Both Sides Of The Aisle

Sparks by Nancy Ohanian

Ivanka and Kushner-in-law are Jews. When government-sanctioned Cossacks-- quietly sanctioned-- were murdering Jews in Imperial Russia there were tsars who protected wealthy Jews in St. Petersburg. A few years ago, I visited the Grand Choral Synagogue that Alexander II sanctioned in 1869 at the request of wealthy Jewish financier Joseph Günzburg-- loudly sanctioned-- Petersburg's first synogogue. Decades later, my grandfather, fleeing Cossacks raiding the countryside, spent his last night in Russia before immigrating to America at that synagogue.

Over the weekend, the Trumpist Regime sent Pence out to the media to claim Trump was not responsible for rabid anti-Semite, self-proclaimed Nazi and Trumpist Cesar Sayoc (#MAGAbomber) in Florida nor for Robert Bowers (#MAGAshooter) in Pittsburgh, who killed 11 people praying in their synagogue and them said "All these Jews need to die." NBC reported that Pence "rejected the suggestion that there is a link between the kind of political rhetoric" used by devoted neo-Nazi Señor Trumpanzee and "acts of violence like Saturday's deadly shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh or last week's mail bombs sent to prominent Trump critics." Pence said "Everyone has their own style, and frankly, people on both sides of the aisle use strong language about our political differences. But I just don’t think you can connect it to acts or threats of violence." Isn't that nice? Just think fall those neo-Nazis whose dinners were spoiled by people on the other side of the aisle. Senator McConnell may have gotten a tummy ache when someone yelled at him.

The vice president called for “unity” earlier in the day at a campaign event in Las Vegas. "What happened this morning in Pittsburgh was not just a criminal act, it was evil," he told NBC News. He added that the administration is "absolutely determined to do everything in our power to prevent these types of attacks from happening in the future."

But when asked about calling Democrats a "mob," as he did at campaign stops a day before, Pence indicated that was part of political debate.

“The American people believe in the freedom of speech,” Pence said. “And throughout the history of this country we’ve always had vigorous debates and then we settle those debates in the ballot box. We don’t settle them through acts or threats of violence like the pipe bombs we saw sent to the Obamas, the Clintons, to CNN and others.”

And he characterized the president’s penchant for name calling as part of the reason Trump has effectively connected with a large contingency of the country.

“The president and I have different styles, but the president connected to the American people because he spoke plainly.”

When asked if the president’s rhetoric is “healthy” for the country’s civil discourse, the vice president said “debate is healthy in America,” and, again, dismissed any connection between “the kind of violent behavior we witnessed in Pittsburgh” to “the political debate.”

After the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting it has become abundantly clear to more Jews that to support Trump now is to say that his pro-Israel policies are more important than his enflaming of anti-Semitism. Jay Michaelson reminded Daily Beast readers yesterday that "After the 9/11 attacks, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said that countries now had to choose between fighting terror and abetting it, that there was no neutral ground. In his metaphor, you were either sitting in the smoking section, or the no-smoking section. In the wake of the worst attack on Jews in American history, all of us, but especially American Jews like me, face a similar decision. We either support Donald Trump and the movement of hate he has unleashed, or we oppose it. There is no neutral ground, no justification that the benefits outweigh the costs. You’re in the smoking section, or the no-smoking section."

For American Jews in particular, this is a moment of reckoning. In the Jewish community, support for Trump is lower than it has been for most Republican presidents, but it’s still around 21 percent. The majority of Jewish Trump supporters are either Orthodox or right-wing on Israel-- in most cases, both. Among Orthodox Jews-- who comprise about one-fifth of American Jews-- support for Trump runs as high as 90 percent.

For two years, Jewish Trump supporters have said that the anti-Semitic alt-right isn’t Trump’s fault; that the president is not personally anti-Semitic (after all, his daughter and son-in-law are Jewish); and, most importantly, he has been a staunch supporter for Israel.

This, they say, outweighs whatever reservations we may have about Trump and the bigotry of his most ardent supporters.

As of October 27, 2018, that jig is up.

No amount of pro-Israel policies-- no embassy in Jerusalem, no encouragement of settlements, no increased aid-- outweighs the existential danger to Jews of the Trump movement’s coddling, or even overt encouragement, of anti-Semitism, racism, and nativism. Even those Jews not motivated by solidarity with Muslims, Mexicans, the media, and others singled out by Trump for opprobrium must now recognize that we Jews, ourselves, are at risk.

Although this should have been clear following the 60-percent increase in anti-Semitic attacks between 2016 and 2017, it is surely undeniable now.

It is beyond obvious that Trump, Fox News, and the “soft” alt-right are guilty of what has been called “stochastic terrorism.”  While they are not legally responsible for any individual particular terrorist act, including the slaughter in Pittsburgh, they have, over the past several years, created the environment in which “lone wolves” like Robert Bowers inevitably commit horrific acts.

In the case of stochastic terrorism, those responsible for it may still condemn each individual act of violence. They may sincerely be disgusted by it.  But without their acts, it would not have happened. They are responsible.

By way of analogy, stochastic terrorists are like teenagers who put grain alcohol in a punch bowl. They may not be legally responsible when a bunch of kids get drunk, and one gets behind the wheel and kills someone in an accident. But any ethical human being knows that such consequences are unavoidable. Maybe not at every party, but one is enough.

In Bowers’ case, the causal connection is clearer that usual. Bowers parroted talking points not merely of the alt-right, which blames Jews for multiculturalism, but also of the ‘soft right’ like Fox News, which has ceaselessly repeated lies that dangerous “Middle Easterners” are among the current caravan of refugees; that ‘illegal’ immigrants are disproportionately criminals (in fact, the crime rate among undocumented people is lower than that of citizens); that immigration is thus an existential danger to America.

Trump, of course, has also said some of the same things, even though his own advisers know that they are false.

If you think about it, how could someone like Robert Bowers not commit a terrorist act? He’s been marinating in a stew of anti-Semitism, nativism, nationalism, and above all, rage. If not Bowers, then it would have been someone else.

And no, it does not matter that Trump condemned the attacks, and that the attacker himself believes Trump isn’t anti-Semitic enough.  For years, Trump’s leading supporters (and family members) have retweeted overt white supremacists and given platforms to them. Even in his recent condemnation of the 13 letter bomb attacks, he managed only to condemn “political violence,” feeding into the right-wing myth that there is equal violence on both sides, just as there were good people on both sides of the Charlottesville white supremacy march. As if antifa activists punching Richard Spencer or heckling Mitch McConnell are equal to a Robert Bowers, Cesar Altieri Sayoc, or Dylann Roof.

Nor, finally, does it matter whether Trump himself is anti-Semitic, which he almost certainly is not (even beyond his family, many of his longtime business associates, as well as his chief mentor, Roy Cohn, are Jewish). He is either unwilling or unable to see how his vicious rhetoric against immigrants and Muslims supports a right-wing movement that also hates Jews. He is unwilling or unable to see how his furious midnight tweets and shouted insults at rallies encourage tens of millions of Americans to be enraged at the media, Hollywood, and ‘elites’-- all of which, in anti-Semitic imagination, are disproportionately Jewish.

He may not get it, but he is responsible. And even if Trump himself can’t see that, we American Jews must.

David Frum noted in his Atlantic column that "one of the special moral challenges for American Jews in the Trump years is that-- for once-- we have largely been exempt from vilification by a hate-exploiting demagogue. Jews historically assume that bigots of any kind must sooner or later turn upon us as well. But Trump largely refrains from explicit anti-Semitism, and to a remarkable degree the pro-Trump conservative media refrain as well. In a true “only in America” moment, people who bear Jewish names and participate in Jewish life have been full partners in much of the Trump project."

There’s no politician to blame for the ideas in the synagogue murderer’s head. There are plenty to blame for the weapons in his hands. And at the top of that list is Trump, whose response to the killing was to blame the synagogue for not having armed guards of its own. In his famous letter to the Jewish congregations of Newport, Rhode Island, the nation’s first president pledged to them a country that would fulfill the biblical prophecy: “Every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

Trump is an unworthy successor to George Washington who feeds off fear, normalizes it, and exploits it. He’s done it again today. This crime is not his fault at all. And yet he nevertheless found a way to use this crime to add to his own accumulating shame.

One week from tomorrow, the American people can start the process of stopping this home-grown fascism-- that is now rearing its ugly head on our soil-- in its tracks. As Andrew Gillum said Saturday, "The reports from Pittsburg are heartbreaking and devastating. Our houses of worship-- like our schools and movie theaters-- should be safe from this epidemic of gun violence. All Americans need words of healing; words of affirmation; and words of condemnation for the rising tide of hatred and anti-Semitism in this country. This epidemic of violence impacts all of us, from worshipers in a synagogue to a bible study meeting in Charleston to the brave men and women in law enforcement who give so much to keep us all safe. Hatred and violence will never win. What is right in our society will triumph over what is wrong."

Late last night the NY Times published an analysis by Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman, For Trump, Dutiful Words of Grief, Then Off to the Next Fight. They wrote that Republican officials have been complaining for months-- among themselves-- that the orangutan occupying the Oval Office "lacks the ability to confront moments of crisis with moral clarity," as though an orangutan can grok the concept of moral clarity, let alone live by it. Trump choses "to inflame the divisions that have torn the country apart rather than try to bring it together." His phony-baloney statement of outrage "at anti-Semitism after Saturday’s slaughter at a Pittsburgh synagogue" was crafted by Ivanka and Kushner-in-law while Trump smoldered, eager to get back "into partisan mode, assailing his enemies. By the evening’s end he was tweeting about baseball, and on Sunday he went after another [Jewish] foe… Inside the White House, advisers veer between resolve, resignation and resentment-- struggling to get Mr. Trump to do and say what a typical president might, frustrated that he does not always heed their guidance and bitter that his critics are piling on. Sometimes they take it upon themselves to do what he will not."

2018 Midterms-- All About Señor Trumpanzee

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal reported that Marc Short, Trump's liaison to Congress is quitting, complaining that trying to push Trump's agenda through the GOP-controlled Congress has reached a point of "diminishing returns." Far right extremists are delighted because they view him as a champion for the GOP establishment’s. They're always bitching that he didn't obtain funding for the Great Wall of Trumpanzee or repeal ObamaCare. Maybe he'll go back to his old job working for the Koch brothers' political operation.Yesterday's Wall Street Journal reported that Marc Short, Trump's liaison to Congress is quitting, complaining that trying to push Trump's agenda through the GOP-controlled Congress has reached a point of "diminishing returns." Far right extremists are delighted because they view him as a champion for the GOP establishment’s. They're always bitching that he didn't obtain funding for the Great Wall of Trumpanzee or repeal ObamaCare. Maybe he'll go back to his old job working for the Koch brothers' political operation.

Sounds grand to me-- for the Democrats. The Capitol Hill Republicans hate his guts as much as Democrats do-- maybe more, if that's possible... but they whisper it and clam up when there are microphones around... pining for an Eisenhower in 2020 to save them. Nazis are in heaven. "Deal with it," said Corey Stewart, the anti-immigrant, pro-Confederate symbols, new Republican nominee for Senate in Virginia: "This is the new Republican Party." As for the people resisting, Stewart said, "They’re dinosaurs. They need to wake up and understand that President Trump has fundamentally remade the Republican Party." In his concession speech, Mark Sanford said, "We are a nation of laws." In her victory speech, the self funding Trumpist who beat him, Katie Arrington had a different interpretation of the Republican Party: "We are the party of President Donald J. Trump."

She's probably right-- and her assertion will be examinable in November. Amy Walter observed for the Cook Political Report yesterday that Trump Is Everything Voters Hoped/Feared He Would Be. She's correct when she asserts that "If you are surprised at what President Donald Trump is doing or how he is behaving or what he is prioritizing, you shouldn’t be. This is what he was doing, what he was saying, and how he was acting throughout the 2016 campaign. On some topics, he has been espousing the same rhetoric for years and years."

Is anyone really surprised that Trump is not interested in following the priorities of GOP party leaders in Congress? Shouldn’t we have expected that the “I alone can fix it” candidate would not feel constrained by the other co-equal branches of government?

...President Trump is not all that much different than candidate Trump. This is why his base of support has remained solid, and why those who never liked him in the first place are as turned off by him as ever.

A Fox News poll, taken June 3-6, asked respondents to give one specific reason for why they either approved or disapproved of the President.  Among the 45 percent of voters who said they approved of the job Trump was doing, the number one reason, volunteered by 24 percent of respondents, was “helping the economy/creating jobs.” But, a combined 53 percent focused more on his style than substance, like “keeping promises,” “getting things done,” “doing what he said,” “putting America first,” and “shaking things up.”

...Trump is everything today as president that voters had hoped or feared he would be when he was a candidate.

This helps explains why Trump’s job approval ratings in the most recent polls from Fox (45 percent) and NBC/Wall Street Journal (44 percent) are close to where he was on Election Day 2016 when he took 46 percent of the vote.

The other similarity between this election and the one in 2016 is that where the spotlight is focused this fall will determine if the election breaks for Democrats or for Republicans. As I wrote back then, when the spotlight was trained on Clinton’s weaknesses (emails, “deplorables,” the Wikileaks trove), her numbers went down and Trump’s went up. When Trump and his temperament were in the spotlight, he went down and she went up.

In 2018, Democrats would like the spotlight to be trained on health care and tax reform. Specifically, they want to be talking about the rising cost of health care and a GOP crafted tax law that they argue is tilted toward the wealthy and big corporations over struggling middle class families. In fact, some of the lowest approval ratings for the president-- and some of the largest advantages Democrats have had on the congressional ballot-- came during the debates and votes on health care legislation and the tax bill.

Republicans certainly would like to see the president be more disciplined. But, the constant swirl and clamor also make it hard for even bad stories to stick around before they are swept off the front pages by something else. The consistently good economic news helps as well.

But, let's be honest, we have no idea where that spotlight will be shining by November. Will it be on a recently released Mueller report? Health care premium hikes? The success/failure of North Korean denuclearization?

One thing we do know, however, is that Trump will never be out of the spotlight. And, as such, opposition to or support for him is what will ultimately determine the outcome of 2018.

Amy's right. Does Pelosi understand that? Does the DCCC? I asked Alan Grayson (D-FL) what he thinks. "Obviously, it’s extremely important to propose and implement policies that improve the lives of ordinary people; that’s what this is supposed to be all about. However, the GOP has set out-- largely successfully-- to make every policy debatable. Universal healthcare, progressive taxation, immigration reform, even climate change: the Republicans have consistently undermined any effort distinguish good policies from bad. The one thing that remains undebatable in the minds of almost everyone is Trump himself,"

And Andy Borowitz sure does too:

As new details emerge from this week’s summit in Singapore, the White House has confirmed that Donald J. Trump unilaterally offered to let Kim Jong Un have Mike Pence as his personal manservant.

The offer reportedly came after Kim spoke glowingly to Trump about the Vice-President’s obsequiousness, sources said.

“Even by North Korean standards, Pence puts my toadies to shame,” Kim reportedly said.

Once the necessary paperwork is squared away, Pence could begin bowing and scraping in Pyongyang as early as next week.

Going forward, Pence’s duties as senior sycophant to Trump are expected to be performed by Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California.

Although State Department insiders were taken by surprise by Trump’s offering of Pence, for whom the U.S. will receive nothing in return, the deal has been met with nearly universal approval.

“At least Trump didn’t give away much this time,” one diplomat said

 

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

-by Noah

Poor little cloying, Trump-worshiping, kiss-ass snowflake Pence. Playing the Simpson's Smithers to Donald Trump's evil corporate pig Mr. Burns, Mike Pence was so offended by people kneeling to protest racial inequality, injustice, and police brutality that he did his master's bidding and walked out of a NFL game on Sunday. His enduring love for his boss made it so easy. Being Señor Trumpanzee's number 2, he gladly staged his boss's requested publicity stunt by going to an Indianapolis Colts game intending to walk out in a huff as soon as someone dared to exercise a right that good Americans died for; and that's exactly what he did, accompanied by his handler/fake wife chaperone, and carrying his pre-written press release with him.

I don't know what species Pence is but I suspect his latin genus-species name would be something like Pencis Douchebagis. The very idea of Americans being against the white supremacy attitudes of his boss and his party scares the shit out of Mike Pence. It makes him soooo mad. Republicans whine on and on about people who kneel against racism, speak against racism, and march against racism. They are affronted. Racism has been their brand for the last 50 years. How dare anyone call them out on it, especially (in their eyes) those "uppity blacks. They call the kneelers ingrates and much, much worse, just as slave owners once called slaves ingrates for not appreciating the gifts of Christianity, housing, and food.

It never occurs to intellectual dimwits that the best way to stop players from kneeling would be to address the evils of racism rather than continue to institutionalize it and expand it, but, why would they when they can play racism for all its worth to drive Republican voters to the polls. Some call Pence's despicable action yet another distraction devised by the Trump administration to pull our attention away from their acts of mayhem, fascism, and corruption. However, calling Pence's action a distraction makes light of this administration's promotion of attitudes and policies that promote racism and injustice.

Trump, Pence and their supporters would have you think that this kneeling thing is about disrespect for the American flag, the military, the national anthem itself, and who knows what else; apple pie and motherhood, perhaps? They childishly bitch and moan about all this while seemingly two-thirds of their own party marches in the streets worshiping the flag of the traitors of the Confederacy and the flag of a man who killed 6,000,000 people in death camps. The rest endorse this behavior with their silent approval. This, folks, is the republican party of 2017. This is what they voted for, march for, and scream about on FOX and in their blogs. If you google their memes about players kneeling, you will be shown an overwhelmingly pervasive tone of Republican racism, right down to pictures of kneeling gorillas in football uniforms. That's one meme you won't be seeing here on DWT.

It's not at all surprising that Pence would do what he did on Sunday. He was once the Indiana governor, a state that, back in the 1920s, was fully controlled by the KKK from the Governor's office and its legislature on down. KKK attitudes have mellowed somewhat in Indiana, but they are still very prevalent, as KKK operatives have recently demonstrated and actively supported Republican candidates in the state. It's safe to say that those attitudes helped Pence get elected in the first place, and, it's no stretch at all to point to that as one of the reasons he was chosen by Trump to be VP. Pence's act on Sunday was a throwing down of the pro-racism gauntlet. The Trump administration was making its stand and calling on its followers to do the same. Pence might as well have burned a cross in the parking lot. But, that's for another day, a day that seems to be approaching.

Addendum: "World Take A Knee Day," an idea whose time has come.

Suppose there was a million kneeling "march" on Washington on January 20th. Why not throw some humiliation back? You know more people would show up than showed up for nutboy's inauguration. If a few players is all it takes to get one walking cancer shaped like a man to leave a stadium, shouldn't we consider a few million American citizens taking a Sunday off to go kneel on the mall in front of the Capitol Building and the White House to purge Congress and the White House of the disease of republicanism? Short of that, perhaps even more Americans could take a knee at noon on November 8th, the one year anniversary of Trump's "election?" At noon on that day, people across the country and the world, Americans and other world citizens, could take a knee, maybe even while "This Land Is Your Land" plays on everyone's iPod or phone.

Is A Deranged, Vengeful Trumpanzee Ready To Destroy GOP Hopes Of Holding Onto The Nevada Senate Seat?

Friday evening, we warned that by handing the Nevada Senate nomination over to worthless conservaDem Jackie Rosen-- who has already managed to stake out a claim as one of the worst freshman Dems in Congress (with a ProgressivePunch “F” score and a crucial vote rating of 33.33 for the current session, worse than conservative North Carolina Republican Walter Jones and tied with Michigan Republican Justin Amash, and the 4th worst of any Democratic first termer-- Schumer would be snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory in the best shot the Democrats have for picking up a Republican-held Senate seat. However, Schumer’s malfeasance may actually be matched by the Trump Regime’s. America First Policies is a shady big money SuperPAC intimately connected to the Regime. Pence personally raises big money for them from secret right-wing donors and they are an attack machine for he and Trump. Except now they’re attacking-- absolutely with Pence’s and Trump’s encouragement-- a Republican: embattled Nevada Senator Dean Heller.

On Friday, encouraged by Nevada’s Republican Governor, Brian Sandoval, Heller explained to Nevadans why he won’t vote for the Senate’s “healthcare” bill, TrumpCare 3.0. “This bill,” he said, “is simply not the answer… I will not support it. It doesn’t protect Nevadans on Medicaid and the most vulnerable Nevadans: the elderly, Nevadans struggling with mental health issues, substance abuse, and people with disabilities.”

America First Policies, judging Heller to be the most vulnerable senator-- and seeking to send a clear, ugly message to other mainstream Republicans who are wavering (primarily Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Rob Portman), pounced immediately. They vowed to spend a million dollars in TV ads against Heller, undermining his viability with Trump-supporting Republicans.

The NRSC, speaking off the record in fear of offending Señor Trumapnzee and his henchman Pence, allowed a spokesperson to tell the media "If true, it's totally insane. It will put them on opposite sides of the party, donors and common sense."

In the past the group has run attack ads in GA-06 against Jon Ossoff and has run ads thanking vulnerable Republicans like David Joyce (OH) and Martha McSally (AZ) for voting against their own constituents to back Trump on eviscerating the healthcare system. Most of the money for the dark money groups Trump and pence control comes from just two pro-fascist American families, the Mercers and the Ricketts and run by right-wing extremists Brian Walsh, Brad Parscale and two Pence operatives, Nick Ayers and Marty Obst.

One of the characters running America First Policies told the media that they plan to keep Republican members of Congress in line by cracking the whip in a big way. "You do not want to mess with Donald Trump’s base in a primary, particularly in a place like Nevada,” he seethed menacingly. “This kind of money in Nevada is real... This is a beginning." Sounds like Bannon is helping them design the anti-Heller campaign, which will paint the senator as "a typical politician" in cahoots with Schumer and Pelosi. McConnell is reported to be upset.

Revisiting the line of so-called-presidential succession

The Man of Orange and our next man in
Vienna, Patrick Park -- Nos. 45 and 46?

Michael Flynn and Donald Trump arrive at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa last week to visit the US Central Command headquarters.

And on it goes -- yadda-yadda, more of this so-called-journalistic nattering. If you really want to read it, and/or check out the links, you'll find it here. It's like these so-called journalists have nothing better to do with their time, all the while that So-Called President Trump and his team are toiling to Make America Great Again.

by Ken

It's too soon to say that the wheels are coming off the so-called Trump administration, even if it's looking more and more like a succession of Keystone Cops shorts, which might be hilarious if this wasn't the officially empowered so-called government of the world's one and only remaining superpower.



Still, I was relieved to discover, via some behind-the-scenes DWT e-mail chatter, that I'm not the only American who's been pondering the constitutionally established (as, of course, constitutionally revised) presidential succession.

Obviously thought of the succession has to being with So-Called Vice President Pence, but can that really happen? Not because the Unspeakable Pence is an extreme-right-wing crackpot, which is constitutionally permissible (cf. R. Reagan and G.W. Bush). Not even because of the overwhelming likelihood that he's not only a seriously pickled alcoholic but a deeply closeted homosexual and, therefore, because of his deepy closeted status, highly subject to blackmail. No, the fatal obstacles to his succession can be found in the extensive Russian intelligence reports, just as soon as Bannon and Preibus can work out who's sitting on the files.

It could be, in line with a suggestion by our Noah, that those files are actually in the possession of So-Called House Speaker Paul "The Rat, and Not Just the Gym Kind" Ryan, who's way far up in that constitutional line of succession. Just watch and see if, when the so-called president finally resigns, the so-called vice president doesn't announce that, much as he'd like to oblige by assuming the office of the so-called presidency, his extensive commitment to attending Fuck Those Goddam Homos rallies all over the country make him unavailable for the job.

SO WHO DOES THIS LEAVE TO TAKE OVER
THE REINS IF/WHEN THE TIME COMES?

Don't bother dusting off your copy of The U.S. Constitution for Dummies, because the information it contains is only tedious but seriously out of date. Or perhaps you were part of the multitude of Trump-haters whose attention was diverted by the hullabaloo over the so-called president's announcement that from now the official language of the country will be Swedish and from now on underwear will be worn on the outside -- diverted, that is, from that day's official announcement of the New Rules of So-Called-Presidential Succession, which was scrawled on the "Official Stuff to Announce" whiteboard of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's office.

"Wait just a darned second!" you say? "The so-called president doesn't have the constitutional authority to change the order of so-called-presidential succession!" Perhaps you missed the announcement, "published" on the "Official Stuff to Announce" whiteboard of the chief Supreme Court spokesperson, of the opinion by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch? To the effect that "From now on, whatever So-Called President Trump says goes"?

"Now wait just another darned second!" you say? "What's this about 'Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch'? There haven't even been confirmation hearings on his nomination yet, let alone confirmation."

Once again, you probably allowed your attention to be diverted the day attention was focused on Judge Gorsuch's nattering about So-Called President Trump's slams to the body of the U.S. judiciary. Because that was the day the White House announced that Judge Gorsuch was "assuming the position," and that while the formal wheels of confirmation grind relentlessly on, the newest justice will fill his time by writing opinions both on cases that are pending on the Supreme Court docket and on cases that haven't yet been formally placed on the docket, which will be decided by the new justice's assumption about how his eight colleagues would vote.

Most of these cases will have been decided, of course, by a 5-4 vote, but a surprising number will have been decided by a unanimous 9-zip vote. Among the latter was the decision in Trump v. Nattering Naysayers, wherein Justice Gorsuch, writing for the unanimous Court, ruled, "What So-Called President Trump says, goes," with the qualification that the ruling -- in the tradition of the one in Let's Make Tiny George Bush President v. the U.S. -- applies only to the present case, and especially doesn't apply to any possibly "Democrat" future president, who will be officially described as "overreaching" and "tyrannical" anytime he or she attempts to exercise any "Democrat"-imagined powers of the presidency.

OKAY, OKAY, BUT WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE
THE SO-CALLED-PRESIDENTIAL SUCCESSION?

Glad you asked. With the so-called vice president officially eliminated from contention, and nobody remembering who exactly the Senate candidate is supposed to be and the idea of a So-Called President Paul Ryan patently ridiculous, who's left on that magical day when the ancient Henry Kissinger is invited to the White House to fulfill his traditional role as Observer of the Forced-Out President Bouncing Off the White House Walls?

1. Vladimir Putin. [Disclosure: This was our Noah's thought, herewith shamelessly stolen. -- Ed.]

2. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen -- ha-ha, just kidding!

2. The so-called president's personal trainer -- ha-ha, kidding again!

2 for real. The so-called president's most-nearly-as-morbidly-obese adviser -- ha-ha, not kidding this time!

3 and 4. The outgoing so-called president's smart daughter and son-in-law, the order to be determined by behind-the-scenes means known, in the interest of marital privacy, only to the participants, the one stipulation being that, regardless of the outcome, all so-called-presidential appearances will include pitches for the smart daughter's product lines.

5 and 6. The outgoing so-called president's grown idiot sons, the order to be determined by a round of rock/paper/what's-the-other-one?

7. The outgoing so-called president's present wife -- but wait, she's a woman, and we can't have that, can we? So scratch this one.

7 (again) and up. The outgoing so-called president's former and future wives, the order to be determined by a round-robin series of mud-wrestling matches. Yeah, these are women too, but isn't this the way we want to see 'em?

Backup alternate. How 'bout that guy who's apparently going to be our ambassador to Austria on account of he's seen The Sound of Music 75 times? "I know every single word and song by heart," says Patrick Park -- sounds like a winner to me!




UPDATE -- A ROSTER OF TOP-TIER CANDIDATES

I didn't see this dispatch from Noah (in response to my mention that I was contemplating concocting a post more or less like the one you see above) in time for inclusion in the original post. As I've now discovered, he proposed some splendid candidates:

Well, there's a whole host of possibilities who think they are the chosen one for the job. Each just as crazy as Trumpy:

That nut in North Korea
Rudy
Alfred E. Newman
Steve Bannon
Eric Trump
Bart Simpson
Phil Robertson
Melania
Pol Pot
Elmo

Commenter Hone has already pointed out that Melania is ineligible by virtue of her country of birth, and this stricture would apply to several other of Noah's and my candidates. But as I pointed out in response, this limitation could be limited to the old-fangled Constitution.

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