Nicholas Frankovich:
Last week America was introduced to Anthony Senecal, that curious octogenarian who lives in Trump’s house in Florida and writes bilious Facebook posts about his view that the president should be lynched. Senecal is flesh and blood. “John Miller” and “John Barron,” who are not, are made of faith, trust, and pixie dust. Former associates of the Republican party’s presumptive nominee for president in 2016, the pair was presented to a bemused nation on Friday.
This most recent distraction — the revelation that Trump impersonated his own, imaginary publicists on the phone for several years in the 1980s and ’90s, confessed to it then, and denies it now — freshly illustrates his well-established flair for drama and deception. It also ratchets up a little the Fremdscham that he stirs in those who, as Rachel Lu put it the other day, “remain un-hypnotized” by his antics: They feel his embarrassment, and all the more so because he does not, or pretends he doesn’t. Instead of correcting course, he doubles down and rubs the public’s nose in it.
We should be talking instead about ISIS and Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, his supporters say on Twitter and elsewhere, disingenuously. His campaign is nearly bereft of ideas and policy arguments except the flavor of the moment. He contradicts himself routinely, with insouciance. It matters to most voters and to many donors, though clearly not to his base. Has a presidential campaign ever been built on such a small ratio of substance to mood music? Obama 2008. There you go.
A vocal and passionate bloc of voters on the right want their own Obama, a president who for a change —change! — will cut out all that “principled conservative” jabber about “the Constitution” and exercise an imperial presidency in their interest, as they perceive it. They resent conservatives for standing between them and the Left. The new populists, or nationalists, demand to have at it: “Out of the way, you had your chance, our turn, we’ll show you how it’s done.” What they mean is that they aim to install a Clinton donor in the Oval Office, to keep Clinton herself out of it. Got that? Meet the new boss, same as the old one. Or worse than the old one? That’s a question for another post.
We the people are the boss, of course, and Mr. or Mme. President our public servant, at least on paper. That notion is now fairly quaint, a parchment piety. Too many Americans would rather have a king, like the Israelites who ended up with Saul. It turns out that the demand for an American monarch far exceeds the supply of willing candidates. Voters in the market for such a thing will take what’s on offer. That is how the Republican party has come to this, preparing to nominate for president a person whose primary qualification for the office is that he can rage with senior-style ferocity, like Lear on the heath.
To deflect attention from a swelling drumbeat of questions about what might be in his tax returns, Trump released to the Washington Post a tape of a phone interview that “John Miller” gave to a reporter for a celebrity-gossip magazine in 1991. So speculates the reporter, Sue Carswell, who says that she lost the tape long ago and that the only other person who would have had a copy is Trump. But if he was the one who released it, why did he appear caught off guard when asked about it on TV on Friday, and why did he hang up when asked about it again a few hours later, 44 minutes into an interview with the Post?
Whatever the bottom of that peculiar story is, it’s backward-looking and sad, a picture — it’s ironic — of what Americans who rally to Trump fear their country has become. Remember Shelley Levene, the paunchy, andropausal real-estate con man played by Jack Lemmon in Glengarry Glen Ross? On the phone with potential marks who probably won’t buy the sketchy and possibly nonexistent real estate he’s so desperately pitching, he shouts directions to and answers questions from his nonexistent secretary. The guy is sunk.
Carswell suggests that we keep our eye on Trump’s failure to release his returns. Others, including Paul Krugman, suspect that the reason he’s stonewalling is that the returns show him to be poorer than he lets on. In his book TrumpNation (2005), Timothy L. O’Brien wrote that “three people with direct knowledge” of Trump’s finances estimated that his net worth was between $150 and $250 million. Trump sued O’Brien for defamation, insisting that he was a billionaire, and lost in court.
@Redteam: Green Party–Jill Stein–she’ll pull votes from HRC’
My predictions off? You still got 55% R TO 45% D 0% 3rd Parties–E.C 300R-235D??
Re Trump on immigration–looks like Coulter got him to flip flop back.
@Richard Wheeler:
Won’t matter. other numbers about right. What happened to the vegetarian party, it’s not listed in Minnesota. Did they concede?
This is what happens when someone finally asks a serious question that should get a serious answer.
Do you not realize that this guy is playing you for fools?
Every person who is audited by the IRS receives a notification letter from the IRS stating that is the case. Trump should have such a letter for each year that is under audit. They reveal no other information, so there’s no reason whatsoever why he can’t provide evidence that his claim is true.
Unless, of course, he’s lying about it. If he is, the next question is obvious: What is he hiding from the American people? Lies? Deceptions? Extensive ties with Russian investors? Millions made from the very business practices he condemns? Tax evasions and avoidance on a level that would scandalize the average American?
There’s no equivalency between that question and Hillary Clinton’s failure to mention she had been diagnosed with pneumonia. Pretending they have the same level of importance is an insult to the intelligence of anyone watching this interview. Clinton’s taxes are all public, years into the past.
@Greg: Until Hillary comes clean on her emails, the Clinton Foundation and why she destroyed all those devices when ordered to preserve the information, I don’t expect Trump to disclose a single detail. This game has been one-sided long enough and giving the left political ammunition while they are allowed to hide behind a stonewall of secrecy should end.
Trump is under no obligation to reveal any more than he has.
@Bill, #104:
Really? What if the tax information being hidden had to do with foreign financial interests, investments, and partnerships that would put Trump and his family’s financial interests in direct conflict with U.S. national security interests? Would that be something voters have a right to know about?
Another breaking story to ignore: How the Trump Organization’s Foreign Business Ties Could Upend U.S. National Security
This is no charitable organization, like the Clinton Foundation, where 90 percent of all money that comes directly funds the charitable programs themselves, and the rest goes for operating expenses. The Trump Organization that is about nothing but profits.
We’ve got the documentation pertaining to the Clinton Foundation. It’s been examined in every detail. But what the Trump Organization might be up to is none of the voters’ business?
This guy never should have been nominated without such questions being cleared up. He was given a pass because he wasn’t taken seriously. Now you basically want to give him a free pass all the way to the White House without knowing a thing more about him, beyond what he wants to tell you.
Clinton’s 20 Questions for Donald Trump.
Since no one else has asked them, she has done so. Every one of them is totally serious and substantive. He should probably practice his answers before the first presidential debate. I doubt if insults or changing the subject to emails or Benghazi or the Clinton Foundation is going to get him out of the corner. Maybe he should consider calling in sick. Of course that might make him look like a wimp, since Clinton shows up even when she’s ready to fall down from pneumonia.
@Greg: #105 Now you basically want to give him a free pass all the way to the White House without knowing a thing more about him, beyond what he wants to tell you. Sounds realllly familiar!
He is a bit of a con man (you can keep your heath care!) but at least there is nooo reason if he acts lawlessly he cant be impeached in a NewYork minute, nothing historical about him, the congress wont be racist or sexist by sending him packing, he can join the impeached ranks even that would make him third in line.
Hillarys husband sooo concerned about his lovely bride he doesnt even know what she has he thinks its the flu! What no huddle to get the lies straight?
You should feel so much better with him spewing liberal entitlement bullshit, paid maternity pfft .
@kitt, #107:
Sorry, but what’s happening with Donald Trump is an entirely new sort of American Disaster.
The Republican Party now exists in name only. Trump owns it. It’s leaders can whine or grumble behind his back however much they wish, but they’ll keep out of his way and genuflect whenever they see him coming, because he has a mob behind him. If they think a guy who has this level of power over them during an election will somehow become controllable once installed in the White House, they’re dreaming.
The “conservative values” the Republican Party once embraced have become nothing more than a panel of buttons pushed to manipulate a reality television audience. These people predictably respond to identified bells and whistles. They lack any in-depth understanding of how the world works, and aren’t inclined to try to learn more. They know what they think they know, and are distressed by any indications suggesting that might not be quite enough. They’ve been waiting for someone to come along and tell them exactly what they want to hear, and he has now arrived.
The problem isn’t really Donald Trump. He’s just a slick and highly successful opportunist, doing exactly what he’s been doing his entire life. The problem is the audience. They know what they’ve been told about Hillary Clinton, and they question none of it because she’s become The Enemy. They’re totally blind to all of the warning flags and blinking alarm lights surrounding Donald Trump, because anyone pointing them out must be The Enemy.
They won’t think about the fact that a Russian dictator and former KGB officer is utilizing his nation’s cyber-war capabilities manipulate an election. They won’t think about the implications of Trump’s extensive international financial entanglements that could put the interests of the President of the United States and his family in direct conflict with the interests of the United States as a whole. They won’t think about the fact that his tax returns would open a window on all that is hidden, and that his excuse for not making them public is a lie. They don’t care that he has contradicted himself so often on fundamental policy points that none can be known with certainty. They won’t think about any of Hillary Clinton’s 20 questions, simply because Hillary Clinton has asked them. If she asks them during the debate, it will probably just make them angry.
This is stupidity. There’s no other word for it. Why do intelligent people behave so stupidly, when their nation’s future and their own futures could be at risk?
“Hillary Clinton” is not an intelligent answer to that question. That response is nothing more than a dog reflexively barking because someone rang the doorbell.
@Greg: We should be so far ahead of the world in the area of computers and computer security, nooo we stuffed billions into a weather scam. Who not only let them catch up but become a threat? A good look at the DNC hack, oh our email has been compromised, lets change passwords, I think we will email new passwords to everybody, thats liberal intelligence drooling fools. We must get all liberals flushed out of our system, watch them swirl. Dons liberal BS on punishing private companies that want to leave, or bossing them to give paid maternity leave you must love that kind of government control freakism suck it up buttercup he is a liberal Frankenstein, but he isn’t Hilliary. I hope she expresses more hate for the people we in her eyes are all deplorable dirty masses, only fit for fleecing.
Yes I am going to vote for Don the Con, only to keep the brain dead greed zombie out of the white house.
What anyone pays in taxes is only their business I hope he didnt pay a thin dime!
@Greg: Shrillary needs to answer a whole lot more than 20 questions.
Just for the record, releasing tax records (I haven’t seen Hillary’s) doesn’t tell very much. Guess it depends on whether you reveal ‘backup data’ or not. When mine asks for total of Deductibles, it only itemizes by Insurance, Charity, Mortgages, etc. I’ve never listed ‘all of the details’.
How do you think parroting ‘Trump needs to answer 20 questions’ helps anyone’s case. If he needs to answer 20, she needs to answer the same 20. While all the news today was about ‘both Trump and Hillary’ release their medical info, is followed by Trumps medical info, but not Hillary’s. Seems as if she still wants to keep a lot of secrets.
@Greg: Greg, you haven’t told us if you are one of the despicables. Hillary put everyone into two classes Deplorable or Despicable. Which are you?
@Greg:
That’s been true since about 1988.
mob is better defined as ‘middle class Americans that have had no representation for 30 years’.
that’s been true for about 30 years and those people that truly embrace conservatism are ready for some more of it for the first time in many years, that’s why the huge following of Trump. To get rid of the faux conservatives.
They know that they have not heard half of the facts they should know. They do know if it comes from the Clinton camp, it’s a lie..
Let me see if I understand this. Having an extensive knowledge of international financing is a “negative’ thing? So, being stupid would be better? Oh, now I see your admiration of Hillary.
You sure got that right.
The “negative thing” is having multi-million dollar dealings in foreign nations that are directly affected by the foreign policy decisions you are make as president. Say, for example, with Russia, or a Middle Eastern dictator. And having so damn many of them that anything resembling a “blind trust” arrangement is a joke.
And then there are breaking stories such as this one.
This man has never, ever been vetted by anybody. It only seems to have occurred to anyone that he should be less than two months before the presidential election. Nothing he has ever said about himself has been seriously challenged, and his position is that he’s not required to prove anything. To question anything he claims is an unfair attack.
@kitt:Sorry to hear you’ve capitulated to the Trumpists-Thought you might hang tough with Sen. Cruz–How bout a throwback NIght of the Living Dead—er Trumpists. For the good times Thanks
@Richard Wheeler: Yes my plan is to vote,get drunk and puke. One of them is going to win, lesser of 2 weevils ol boy.
I hope to wake up the next day and find MSM having a complete nervous breakdown.
USA is better to withstand 4 years of a nincompoop than it is intentional destruction.
If Trump paid $0 in taxes, that means none of his money was included in the 33 billion Obama slipped under Irans door in foreign cash and gold to pay for terrorism. Perhaps it was all Haitian donations that Clintons had stashed in the rear of the State Dept.
Before Hillary got publicly so sick that she had to admit it, Donald Trump made a promise about releasing his taxes over his lawyer’s objections.
He said, IF Hillary would release all of her deleted emails, he would release his tax forms.
So far as I know she won’t dignify that with an answer.
Se had, however, insisted on SIT-DOWN debates before her illness became known.
@Greg:
Seems to me that if he has multi million dollar dealings in a foregn country, he would want that country to be friendly to the US and to be successful economically. both of which would be a plus to the US.
From the Washing Post? All reporters there have rabies. Pack of wild dogs all foaming at the mouth. Not credible at all.
So? Who vetted Hillary? When? Who vetted Obama? When? When did vetting become a standard? Why does that standard only apply to Republicans?
I guess you’re just loving all these new polls out showing Trump leading everything every where. I guess people don’t like to be ‘a deplorable’.
I notice Hillary regained her weight that she suddenly lost Sunday.
@kitt: “Vote for nincompoop Trump then get drunk’
Why not Good a plan as any
@Richard Wheeler:
I haven’t heard so much name calling since the first grade. You think you’ll grow up one day?
@Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables): Talk to my friend Kitt–I’m quoting her #115.
BTW Glad you accept you are a walking talking “Deplorable”
@Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables): Its true Red I said it ,but I feel nincompoop is not a label but rather a state of being for Trump, Just as thief and liar are not just names for Clinton but rather part of her very fabric. Be kind, at one point I had a real statesman to vote for.
@Richard Wheeler:
kinda like a ‘badge of honor’ those that are not admirers of HRC. I thought you were on that list also, you claim you don’t admire her.
@kitt:
Though you might have intended it, you only said the US was better to have a nincompoop than Hillary. You didn’t mention Trump in that sentence.
@Richard Wheeler: You didn’t quote her. You made up something an put quote marks around it. A quote is exact language.
@Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables): I am afraid I do think he is a nincompoop, everytime he is winning he says something to screw it up, losing he says vile things, some of his pals like Pecker do him no favors. He is who he is, I am looking at damage control for this election, I am not and never will be a fan of Trump, Those that vote the Trump ticket will most likely vote republican on the down ballot. With his platform taking on more liberal entitlement based tones I trust him less and less. He hasn’t a clue what he might win, running a business is not not not like DC, I just pray he fires many pay for play appointees. Perhaps doesnt do everything his very liberal daughter tells him is good. Registered democrats both his precious golden children.
@Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables), #19:
The Trumpster is a scurrilous jackanapes, make no mistake about it.
Trump’s NEW excuse for not releasing his tax returns: People would look at them, and have questions.
@Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables): Kitt says she thinks Trump’s a nincompoop–which is being unkind to nincompoops.
Deplorables by HRC’S definition make up 50% of TRUMP supporters –she said they are racists., homophobes , xenophobes–you know the drill—I think she’s being kind.
Trump just made some major changes in his tax plan, if anyone cares.
@Richard Wheeler: Perhaps she is speaking of the ex-democrats in the rust belt I saw on PBS News Hour she really hates those that have tired of being lied to by their party.
Interesting not a single mention of Congressional hearings on security breeches or emails but an entire segment on Trump the birther. For a publicly funded program seems they heavily lean leftist, that is deplorable I would like my tax dollar taken from them.
@Greg: That excuse is as good as Kerrys dont report on terrorism so the people wont know.
@kitt: The discussion is not whether you said Trump is a nincompoop, it’s whether Wheeler ‘quoted’ you. He did not. He made up something based on what you said. Just typical liberal dishonesty.
@kitt:
the only problem being that Hillary and her crew were the originators of the birther business.
Didn’t your mother’s teach you that ‘namecalling’ is not nice?
@Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables): You’re a lot like your hero DT—real trouble admitting when you’re wrong or the ability to apologize.
Those unattractive qualities may cost Trump the election
In addition he’s crass and classless
Damn lucky HRC is his opponent—it’s gonna be ugly.
BTW Do you agree with Trump that Obama was born in the U.S.A?
@Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables), #132:
That might be the latest bald-face lie to come out of Donald Trump’s mouth, but I’m not sure; I haven’t checked the news for the past 30 minutes or so.
@Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables): I know HRCs crew started it but the biased MSM will never admit it. Obama stumping for hillary on tax payer dime not cool.
Rich was replying to me, saying my plan was as good as any in this election. I dont care if you think name calling isn’t nice, I dont take it back… NINCOMPOOP with special emphasis on poop. @Greg: There are some real interesting emails Guccifer2 wants you to read. I cant wait for Assanges little suprises.
Flashbacks to 2008
http://www.progressive.org/news/2008/01/5995/obama-trounces-clintons%E2%80%99-racist-entitled-sc
All on tape somewhere would make a great political commercial for those that voted for him twice and find him so charming.
@Greg:
You don’t have to check the latest news; this has been known since 2007 when the issue first came up… and not from Trump. However, to dissolve all doubt, here is CNN, the liberal fount of knowledge, confirming what most of us already knew:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/09/16/hillary-clinton-campaign-manager-admits-birtherism-started/
So, the genesis of the accusation was the Clinton campaign, even if you believe their rendition of the events. But, Obama himself fanned the flames by promoting ongoing secrecy over, of all things, his birth certificate. To anyone that had bought into that conspiracy, the fact that it took 5 or 6 years to produce an actual certificate does little to remove all doubt.
And if it is racist to harbor a doubt about Obama’s nationality, then the original racists are the Clinton campaign; though their story is they fired the originator of the claim and apologized to Obama, did they publicly denounce the story? Or, did they allow it to fester and grow and hope for some benefit from it? Plus, was it racist to doubt McCain’s nationality?
Trump might not have found the results he was hoping for, but he and he alone is responsible for answering the question and putting it to rest.
How about this, Greg?
Hillary’s campaign doesn’t care where or how they get their money; stealing from the poor
That some low-level Clinton campaign staffer circulated a rumor Obama was not born in the United States is not what your lying gasbag of a candidate has been claiming.
His claim is that birtherism was invented and promoted by the Hillary Clinton campaign, when he himself was one of its strongest proponents and was largely responsible for turning it into a national fantasy. The lie serves as a perfect example of how Donald Trump routinely operates. He’ll get on any horse that’s pointed in the direction he’s traveling, and ride it until it drops. Truth is not the least bit relevant to him.
@Richard Wheeler:
I don’t have a clue where he was hatched. I doubt Obama knows. I can say that the first stories out about where he was born was by the Clinton campaign staff in 07 and as you know, a virgin can’t be unscrewed. Once it’s been said, it’s out there. I do know that if Barack Sr is his daddy, then he’s not a natural born citizen of the US because Sr was a citizen of Britain at the time. But then I doubt that Obama Sr is really his daddy, I think it’s much more likely to be Frank Marshal Davis, who is/was an American at the time. I do know that the public has not seen a real birth certificate, I’m not even sure one exists. If and when I’m wrong about something, I will admit it, but hasn’t happened yet. Still betting Hillary never takes the stage in a debate.
@Greg:
You might be the only person in the whole world that doesn’t know when and where the story originated.
@Bill… Deplorable Me:
uh, you mean to get a fake one released. It’s been proven to be fake. There is no birth certificate on record in Hawaii for Obama.
@Greg:
Certainly not relevant to you. You now admit the Clinton campaign started the birther issue, but now want to blame Trump for promoting it. He just took the lead from Hill’s group and demanded proof one way or the other. He pretty well got the truth by Obama posting a fake bc on line. Had he had a real certificate, he could have just posted that and kept the fake one for himself.
@kitt: Bill, Another Vet–
From RT #138—” If and when I’m wrong about something, I will admit it, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
Ultimate hubris—clear to see why he’s F.A’s foremost Trumpeteer.
@Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables), #138:
Wingnuts were cooking up birther conspiracy theories from the moment Obama arrived on the national scene. This one, from a Free Republic conservative forum, appeared on March 1, 2008:
I haven’t seen a link posted to anything earlier than that.
Wherever the rumor got started, there’s no record that Hillary Clinton or her campaign ever took the claim up in any significant way. Trump, on the other hand, made it the centerpiece of one of his prolonged campaigns to gain national media attention. It’s all about the attention. Even his current candidacy.
@Greg:
Glad to see you admit racist motives were not the reason he wanted Obama to prove where he was born, I never could see why it was\is racist.
As if having a disagreement with someone of a different color or sex cant be about an issue. Always sexist or racist or any other vile name a liberal can think of just because they cant back up heir opinion with logic or facts, or especially when they are proven wrong by logic or facts. Do you think as Hillary lost her run at the nomination back in 08, and Trump invited her to his wedding, and gave her contributions it was his was of getting revenge for his candidate losing?
@Richard Wheeler:
Let me prove where you’re wrong RW. Give us a quote of me saying I ‘support’ Trump. Wouldn’t you think someone that is a Trumpeteer would be saying he ‘supports’ him? I’ve certainly said I would vote for the Republican nominee.
Don’t continue to just be a blowhard, actually prove something one time. Give us that quote.
@Greg:
tell all of us just which ‘prolonged campaign’ was Trump in prior to this year? Hillary’s campaign, on the other hand, hatched and spread the likely true story back in 07.
@Greg:
You do realize that was almost a year after Hillary’s campaign had started circulating the fact that Obama himself claimed he was from Kenya. Remember his profile of the author of his book where it clearly stated he was born in Kenya?
so it’s hardly something born by Trump in 08.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthers/booklet.asp
Though I’m skeptical of Snopes, it’s about a Dimocrat so it must be true.
as a footnote: Let me point out that Obama didn’t rush out and demand the Literary agent correct her mistake:
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2146622/Barack-Obama-Kenyan-born-2007-according-literary-agency–months-announcing-bid-U-S-presidency.html#ixzz4KdgTHSnh
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@Redteam (One of The Proud Deplorables): Why do you think Trump now says Obama was born in Hawaii?—is he trolling for moderate and Indie voters?—Does he think guys like you will stick with him no matter what he does over the next 51 days?
Prediction You’ll see a lot more of Indie Ivanka pushing women’s issues over next 50 days.
@Richard Wheeler:
What would you have him say?
Perhaps he has exhausted all leads and his evidence shows Obama was born in Hawaii. One has to wonder why Obama himself never provided the evidence to confirm it. Perhaps stonewalling and secrecy are just is natural first instincts.
@Bill… Deplorable Me: Of course my question was to RT who STILL believes no valid B.C. has been produced.
Maybe BHO -NOW at 55% approval was always toying with the foolish birthers.