* According to Ben Carson, Saul Alinsky = Lucifer = Hillary Clinton. It really shouldn’t surprise us that authoritarians are unable to distinguish any gray area in how they define the “good guys” and the “bad guys.” For people like Carson, if Clinton admired Alinsky, she must have swallowed everything he ever wrote/said/did whole. That’s how authoritarians roll. But if you’d like a more nuanced look at what Hillary Clinton actually wrote about Alinsky, you might want to go back and read this.
* Last night Donald Trump, Jr. said this about his father’s candidacy: “We’re going to put Americans first — all Americans. Not a special class of crony elites at the top of the heap.” Of course, that’s not the message Trump is sending to his pals on Wall Street.
Donald Trump has told prospective donors that, if elected president, he plans to nominate former Goldman Sachs banker Steve Mnuchin for U.S. Treasury Secretary.
That’s according to Anthony Scaramucci, a high-profile hedge fund manager and Trump fundraiser….Earlier this year, the 53-year-old Mnuchin joined Donald Trump’s campaign as national finance chairman.
Kevin Drum sums up the message:
Trump’s message to Wall Street is: The guy calling you for donations is going to be Secretary of the Treasury in a few months. So no worries: treat him right and he’ll treat you right.
* Donald Trump always says that “the Hispanics” love him. I guess we’re going to have to continue looking for the ones he’s talking about.
The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, giving the presumptive Democratic nominee the 38-year-old chamber’s first-ever official backing of a presidential candidate…
He said the chamber broke its 38-year tradition of neutrality in the elections because “these are extraordinary times.”
He said the decision to break with history and back one of the candidates “is an unprecedented step for our organization and not one we took lightly.” The chamber’s board leans Republican, and debate over endorsing Clinton was “lively, robust.” The board also is 50 percent men and 50 percent women.
“We believe they call for extraordinary measures,” Palomarez said. “We believed Hillary Clinton was the right person for this job.”
* This doesn’t surprise me:
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson alluded on Wednesday to conversations he’s had with former Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush about a possible endorsement.
“I can’t say that we haven’t had conversations, but no push on the conversations,” Johnson, who is in Cleveland observing the Republican National Convention, said on CNN. When asked who initiated the talks, he said “not me,” but he declined to elaborate, adding, “I want to protect the innocent here.”
* Here is tonight’s line-up of speakers in Cleveland:
Laura Ingraham, Radio Host
Phil Ruffin, Businessman
Pam Bondi, Attorney General of Florida
Eileen Collins, Astronaut (retired)
Michelle Van Etten, Small Business Owner
Kentucky State Senator Ralph Alvarado, Jr.
Darrell Scott, Pastor
Harold Hamm, Continental Resources
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker
Lynne Patton, The Eric Trump Foundation
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida)
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
Eric Trump, Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization
Newt & Callista Gingrich, Former Speaker of the House and his wife
Indiana Governor Mike Pence, Presumptive candidate for Vice President
Not that it matters, but tonight’s theme is supposed to be “Make America First Again.” Using a very Trumpian turn of phrase, Ed Kilgore calls it “Loser Night at the RNC.”
* Finally, this is a shout-out to Third Eye Blind – who created a bit of a ruckus at a charity event in Cleveland last night with this song.
