National

Josh Marshall:

This isn't getting a lot of attention. But it should. Everybody took note when Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that American Muslims across the river in New Jersey celebrated and cheered as the Twin Towers fell on 9/11 - an entirely fabricated claim. Last night on Bill O'Reilly's show and then separately at a rally in Westfield, Indiana he did something very similar and in so doing cemented his status an impulsive propagator of race-hatred and violence. The details of the rapid-fire fulmination are important. So let's look at them closely. Trump claimed that people - "some people" - called for a moment of silence for mass killer Micah Johnson, the now deceased mass shooter who killed five police officers in Dallas on Thursday night. There is no evidence this ever happened. Searches of the web and social media showed no evidence. Even Trump's campaign co-chair said today that he can't come up with any evidence that it happened. As in the case of the celebrations over the fall of the twin towers, even to say there's 'no evidence' understates the matter. This didn't happen. Trump made it up. [...] A would-be strong man, an authoritarian personality, isn't just against disorder and violence. They need disorder and violence. That is their raison d'etre, it is the problem that they are purportedly there to solve. The point bears repeating: authoritarian figures require violence and disorder. Look at the language. "11 cities potentially in a blow up stage" .. "Anger. Hatred. Hatred! Started by a maniac!" ... "And some people ask for a moment of silence for him. For the killer." At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law, if you translate the German, the febrile and agitated language of 'hatred', 'anger', 'maniac' ... this is the kind of florid and incendiary language Adolf Hitler used in many of his speeches. Note too the actual progression of what Trump said: "Marches all over the United States - and tough marches. Anger. Hatred. Hatred! Started by a maniac!"

His disgusting politics are well known, but the many other ways he is disgusting have always been a matter of speculation. Until now.

Here is Bernie endorsing Hillary and Hillary's speech immediately after (which was one of her better speeches this campaign). It was as if I had written the endorsement speech myself, and I give much credit to the Senator for writing and delivering it. Yes, I have, in Dana's words, trashed the Senator throughout the campaign, much as Dana and others have trashed Hillary. But it is time to move on, to let it go (cue Frozen soundtrack), and to come together. And thanks to Hillary and Bernie's combined efforts in reaching agreement on the platform, we have the beginnings of a Democratic juggernaut that shall obliterate all Republicans.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has ramped up her criticism of Donald Trump in recent days, going so far as to say late Monday that the businessman is a…

And just like that... #NetDE https://t.co/CxkAPt2XvU

— Tom Lehman (@teelehman) July 12, 2016

Democrats advance most progressive platform in party history https://t.co/cUh4shj8sr

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 10, 2016

I remember saying this some weeks ago and being laughed at by the Sanderistas here. Now that Bernie agrees with me that the Democratic Party has the most progressive platform ever, who is laughing now? Hell, even Jeff Weaver is on board. Here is more on just how liberal and progressive the Democratic platform is, and that we do have Bernie to thank for it. His campaign, in the end, did exactly what I wanted it to do: keep Hillary on the left by giving her the incentive to stay there. Without Sanders or any serious challenge from progressive quarters, I am not sure Hillary would have moved dramatically to the center or right because American politics doesn't work like that anymore. There are no moderates to win over in that middle ground. Everyone is polarized and turning out your own base is the way to win. But the Sanders challenge helped Hillary shed the last vestiges of 90's caution and to be vocal about her progressive positions.

Carney inexplicably STILL wants to cut the state budget, not grow it. In spite of all of the evidence to the contrary, he still views debt as an anathema, and growth killing austerity as a virtue. He basically still believes in the utter failed Republican economics of trickle down. It makes no sense, and in the era of very cheap borrowing, it is the exact opposite of what we should actually be doing. And what's worse, the markets have taken notice.[See Swiss Negative Yield Bonds] Smart money is beginning to adjust to the new normal and accept the fact that deficit hawks and austerity evangelists like Carney are determined to strangle economic growth with their wrongheadedness - which would be simply goofy at this point, were it not so pernicious. Here is Paul Krugman on the topic:

I don't think I'm reading between the lines to say that Carney's plan is more of the same giveaways (both monetary and regulatory) to large corporations: John understands that the…