Joining today's are Nicolle Wallace, Mike Barnicle, Mark Halperin, Richard Haass, Katty Kay, Eugene Robinson, Mark Leibovich, Jonathan Capehart, Robert Reich, Chris Jansing, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Andrea Mitchell, Secy. John Kerry, Niall Ferguson, Josh Earnest, Dominic Chu, Randall Lane, Michael Kassan, Keith Weed and more
Do you think Vladimir (Putin) smokes pot? Why is he always late for things? He is late for everything he does and for everything he schedules. He was 20 minutes late for yesterday's dinner with the POTUS. He has been late meeting the POTUS before and he is late for interviews. And, it is that same amount of time when a pot head is late for everything. Coke heads are hours late for events so he is most likely not into doing blow but but pot heads are always like 10 to 20 minutes late for things. I do not know why he would be late for everything unless he does bong hits or something.
Obama, Putin clash over vision for resolving Syrian crisis. U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin clashed Monday over their competing visions for Syria, with Obama urging a political transition to replace the Syrian president but Putin warning it would be a mistake to abandon the current government.
Obama and Putin meet on Syria, remain divided on Assad's fate. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama met on the crisis in Syria but failed to resolve their dispute over the future role of Bashar al-Assad.
In dueling speeches before the UN General Assembly, Obama branded the Syrian leader a child-killing tyrant while Putin said the world should support Assad against the Islamic State group.
The Russian leader urged UN General Assembly members to unite to fight the jihadist group and warned that he plans to step up support for Assad's forces and has not ruled out air strikes.
The US and Russian presidents clinked glasses and shook hands at lunch with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon after their addresses, but nothing could disguise the gulf in their positions.
Putin and Obama later met for 90 minutes for talks the Russian leader dubbed "constructive and business-like" and a senior US official called a "business-like back and forth."
Putin appeared pleased that Obama had agreed to Russia having a role in the debate, and said: "In my opinion there is a basis to work on shared problems together."
Both leaders agreed there should be a process of political transition in Syria but, the US official added, they "fundamentally disagreed" on the role of Assad.
"I think the Russians certainly understood the importance of there being a political resolution in Syria and there being a process that pursues a political resolution," the official said.
"We have a difference about what the outcome of that process would be," he added.
In his first speech to the world body in a decade, Putin warned it was an "enormous mistake to not cooperate with the Syrian group which is fighting the terrorists face-to-face."
"We must address the problems that we are all facing and create a broad anti-terror coalition," he declared, proposing a Security Council resolution on a coalition to include Assad and Iran.
- 'Innocent children' -
Obama said Washington was ready to work with Russia and even Iran against the Islamic State jihadists, but warned this must not mean keeping Assad in power in Damascus indefinitely.
"The United States is prepared to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran, to resolve the conflict," he said.
Rather than a bulwark against jihadist extremism, Obama argued, Assad drives Syrians into the arms of such groups by such acts as dropping "barrel bombs to massacre innocent children."
Not to be outdone, the Russian leader blamed the rise of violent extremism on the US military interventions in Iraq and Libya, which he said unleashed chaos in the Middle East.
He argued that the IS group now running rampant in Syria and Iraq sprang out of the chaos left behind after US-backed forces ousted Saddam Hussein from Baghdad and Moamer Kadhafi in Libya.
After the end of the Cold War, Putin argued, the West emerged as a new "center of domination" of the world and arrogantly took it upon itself to resolve conflicts through force.
This power led to the "emergence of areas of anarchy in the Middle East, with extremists and terrorists," he said.
Raids against the Islamic State group by the US-led coalition of Western and Arab allies are illegal, he argued, because they were not requested by Syria nor authorized by the UN Security Council.
If there were a proper legal basis for air strikes, Russia had not ruled out taking part, he said later at a news conference.
"We are thinking about how to additionally help the Syrian army," he said. "We don't rule anything out. But if we are to act it will only be fully respecting international legal norms."
- France backs US -
Some European powers are reportedly softening their stance, signaling Assad could stay on in an interim role, but France's President Francois Hollande stuck close to Obama's line.
"Russia and Iran say they want to be part of a solution," he said. "So we must work with these countries to explain to them that the route to a solution does not go through Bashar al-Assad."
In his speech, Obama did not specifically address Assad's fate in efforts to re-launch a bid to end a war that has left more than 240,000 dead since 2011.
But he declared that there could be no return to the pre-war status quo, when Assad held sway.
Putin scorned this stance, arguing that only the Syrian people could depose their leader and that Assad had agreed to begin a reform program to bring more people on board.
"I relate to my colleagues the American and French presidents with great respect, but they aren't citizens of Syria and so should not be involved in choosing the leadership," he said.
Moscow has put Washington on the back foot by dispatching troops and aircraft to the war-torn country and pushing reluctant world leaders to admit that Assad could cling to power.
On the ground, Russia has started putting the pieces together by agreeing with Iraq, Syria and Iran that their officers will work together in Baghdad to share intelligence on IS.
Putin says he can work with Obama despite trading barbs on Syria and Isis. Russian leader more conciliatory after speeches in which he applauds Assad regime while Barack Obama condemns ‘might makes right’ doctrine. Vladimir Putin emerged from a rare face-to-face meeting with Barack Obama on Monday night, saying Russia and the US could find a way to work together on Syria, despite deep differences over the country’s leadership.
The US-Russian summit lasted 94 minutes, more than half an hour longer than planned, on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly where the two leaders had traded barbs only hours before, particularly over the future of the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad.
Speaking to Russian journalists after the meeting, Putin said the two had found at least some common ground on the four-year conflict.
The Russian leader described the conversation with Obama as “very constructive, businesslike and very frank”.
“We had some points in common, and we had differences,” Putin said, according to a translation by the Russia Today satellite channel. “I think there is still a way we can work together on the problems we all face.”
He rejected calls earlier in the day from Obama and the French president, Francois Hollande, for Assad to stand down as part of a concerted campaign against Islamic State and other violent extremists.
“I respect my colleagues, the US president and the French president, but I don’t think they are Syrian citizens, so I don’t think they should be deciding on who should lead Syria,” he said.
However, Putin showed more flexibility than he had in his general assembly speech, acknowledging that political reform in Damascus could be part of a solution, but indicated that Assad would be a willing participant in that change.
“There can be simultaneous, political change, but President Assad has already said he agrees with that,” Putin said.
A senior US administration official later said the meeting between the two presidents had been “business-like” and “focused”.
“This was not a situation where either one of them was seeking to score points in a meeting,” the official said. “I think there was a shared desire to figure out a way in which we can address the situation in Syria.
“We have clarity on their objectives. Their objectives are to go after Isil and to support the government.”
Earlier in the day, Obama and Putin had clashed in an exchange of blunt rhetoric as they vied for global leadership on Syria and the fight against Isis.
It was a verbal duel that was reminiscent of some of the tensest episodes of the cold war.
In a throwback to that era, the Russian president, making his first appearance at the general assembly for a decade, was not in the chamber during Obama’s address. He was shown on Russian television walking down the steps of his official plane just as Obama began his address. He arrived at the UN headquarters in midtown Manhattan just after the US president had left the podium.
Likewise, when Putin was speaking, the US presence was reduced to relatively junior officials. And Ukrainian officials walked out during the Russian address.
The most contentious and divisive issue of all was over the continuing slaughter in Syria, the rise of Isis and the mass exodus of refugees from the conflict. And at the core of the US-Russian power struggle was the fate of Bashar al-Assad and whether he is the root of the problem or part of the solution.
It is a fundamental difference that has prevented concerted international action on Syria for the entirety of the four-year war, which has cost the lives of over 250,000 Syrians and driven more than 11 million from their homes. On Monday, against the green marble backdrop of the general assembly podium, the rift appeared as debilitating as ever.
Obama was first of the leaders to speak. He assailed states who gave in to the temptation of a “might makes right” philosophy.
“In accordance with this logic, we should support tyrants like Bashar al-Assad who drops barrel bombs to massacre innocent civilians because the alternative is surely worse,” Obama said in remarks clearly aimed primarily at Putin, who has repeatedly insisted that defeat of Isis can only be achieved by support of the “legitimate government” of Syria.
The US president indicated that he was ready to talk with everyone, including Russia and Iran, in seeking common ground on the issue, but equally clearly laid out US red lines, the most important of which was transition away from Assad.
“Yes, realism dictates that compromise will be required to end the fighting and ultimately stamp out Isil. But realism also requires a managed transition away from Assad and to a new leader, and an inclusive government that recognises there must be an end to this chaos so that the Syrian people can begin to rebuild,” he said.
Obama’s address was also an ode to the twin virtues of democracy and diplomacy, interwoven with admissions of when the US had fallen short of those ideals, in the invasion of Iraq, and the xenophobia that has risen to the surface in the nation’s current political discourse.
Putin’s address was different in tone. While Obama had repeatedly paused for dramatic effect, the Russian leader galloped through his lines. The American president talked optimistically about the common aspirations that united all peoples; Putin struck darker, conspiratorial notes.
He noted how Isis had drawn its strength from former Iraqi servicemen made jobless by the US-led invasion in 2003 and then by the western bombing of Libya that led to the destruction of the Gaddafi regime in Tripoli. He suggested that the religious extremists were sent deliberately into Syria by unnamed powers to destroy the secular, anti-western government in Damascus.
In his speech Putin showed no sign of willingness to compromise on Assad’s fate, not even conceding that Damascus might be ripe for “reform” after Isis was defeated – a more conciliatory formula put forward by the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani. Instead, he increased his praise for the regime, which he said was “fighting valiantly against terror face to face in Syria”. Furthermore, he said, the Syrian forces had been struggling almost alone up till now.
Putin not only presented a rival narrative for the Syrian conflict – he also offered an alternative mechanism for dealing for it. The Russian leader will have left New York by the time Obama chairs a summit on combating Isis and violent extremism on Tuesday. Putin did not mention it. Instead, he called on UN member states to take part in a ministerial meeting convened by Russia in its current role as president of the UN security council, which would lead to a new UN resolution on combating Isis, presumably built around support for the Damascus regime.
On the evidence of the opening morning of a week’s worth of speeches at the general assembly, Putin had gathered some momentum. In her brief remarks on Syria, the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, blamed only Isis and “associated groups” for the violence. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, did not mention Syria by name but stressed the importance of respect for national security as a pillar of the UN charter.
However, the French president, Francois Hollande, stuck to Paris’s position that Assad could have no part in a postwar Syria.
“Bashar al-Assad is the source of the problem. He cannot be part of the solution,” Hollande says. “Just because a terrorist group also carries out massacres doesn’t mean that pardons or amnesties the regime which created this situation...You can’t make the victims and the executioner work together.”
When his turn came, Rouhani blamed the US military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and its support for Israel for creating an environment for terrorism to flourish. In earlier remarks on Sunday, he had stuck to a line on Syria that was close to the Russians’, calling for the fight against Isis to take precedence over any aspirations for reform in Damascus. But in the debating chamber on Monday, he opted to stay out of the US-Russian clash, with all its cold war echoes.
| The President Addresses the 70th United Nations General Assembly |
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| The President Speaks at the U.N. Peacekeeping Summit |
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Putin's UN Syria show pushes Moscow back to center stage.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has stolen the spotlight at the United Nations with a swaggering push on the Syria crisis as he tried to shake off Western isolation over Ukraine.
In his first speech to the UN General Assembly in a decade, Putin on Monday called for a broad UN-backed coalition to fight Islamic State (IS) jihadists before sitting down to talks he called "constructive, business-like and surprisingly open" with his US rival Barack Obama.
The 90-minute meeting between the two leaders was their first official face-off after almost two years of the United States freezing out Moscow. It came with Obama's admission that he was willing to deal with the Kremlin strongman in a bid to resolve the bloodshed in Syria.
Russia thrust itself back into play by dispatching troops and fighter jets to Syria, sparking fears in the West that Moscow might join in the fighting alongside its old ally President Bashar al-Assad.
The Kremlin has batted away demands by the West and regional players such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia for Assad to go immediately and insists members of the US-led coalition need to join forces with him to defeat what they say is the greater evil of IS.
After the meeting Putin appeared pleased that Obama had agreed to Russia having a role in the debate and said that in his opinion "there is a basis to work on shared problems."
A senior White House official said, however, that while both leaders agreed on the need for a political transition in Syria they "fundamentally disagreed" on the role of Assad.
"I think the Russians certainly understand the importance of there being a political resolution in Syria and there being a process that pursues political resolution," the official said.
In a sign of the stakes, UN chief Ban Ki- moon said that if Washington and Moscow could make headway over the four-and-a-half-year-old conflict then progress might be possible.
Later he oversaw an uncomfortable toast in which the two presidents clinked glasses. According to Putin, Obama made his to the success of the United Nations.
- Ukraine in shade -
While Putin's pivot over the Middle East focused attention on Syria, the Americans were keen to show that Obama was not letting the Russian leader off the hook over his seizure of the Crimea region from Ukraine and his alleged backing of a separatist conflict in the country.
The senior White House official said the first half of the Obama-Putin meeting had centered on Ukraine and the US president made a point in his speech of upbraiding Moscow over its meddling in its neighbor.
But Putin's appearance -- heavily trailed by the slavishly loyal state television back in Russia -- still gave him a chance to push the fallout over Ukraine into the background.
He shrugged off an apparent walk-out by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ahead of his speech to the General Assembly and said that the West would never be able to cut Russia out of world affairs.
"In terms of a country like Russia, that is simply impossible," Putin said after his meeting with Obama.
"You just need to look at her size on a map."
In local Political news, VP Biden runs better against GOP field than Hillary Clinton.
Biden Would Enter 2016 Race As Most Popular Candidate:
Joe Biden hasn't yet announced his plans for a 2016 White House bid, but a new poll shows that he would enter the race as the most popular presidential candidate if he chose to toss his hat into the ring.
According to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 40 percent of Americans have a positive impression of Biden, while 28 percent have a negative impression (+12).
That's compared to fellow Democrats Bernie Sanders (+10) and Hillary Clinton (-8), and to top-tier GOP candidates Ben Carson (+8), Carly Fiorina (+7) and Donald Trump (-33).
Biden would also out-perform Clinton in hypothetical head-to-head general election matchups against top Republican presidential hopefuls.
If the 2016 election was held today, voters overall say they'd back Clinton over Trump by 10 points (49 percent to 39 percent), but the former secretary of state would be statistically tied with Fiorina (45 percent for Fiorina, compared to 44 percent for Clinton), Carson (46 percent for Carson, compared to 45 percent for Clinton), and former Florida governor Jeb Bush (44 percent for Bush, compared to 45 percent for Clinton).
But Biden would fare better, besting Bush by eight points (48 percent to 40 percent), Fiorina by six points (47 percent to 41 percent), Carson by eight points (49 percent to 41 percent), and Trump by 19 points (56 percent to 35 percent).
In a hypothetical matchup with Donald Trump, Sanders would also handily defeat the real estate mogul, getting 52 percent of the general election vote compared to Trump's 36 percent.
Part of Biden's current popularity is almost certainly attributable to the fact that he's not officially in the 2016 race. Most of the media coverage of the vice president's potential run has centered around his decision-making about a campaign and the outpouring of sympathy for his family after the tragic death of his son, Beau. None of his potential rivals have aggressively attacked his record, including past gaffes and previously held policy positions that might now be anathema to the Democratic Party's progressives.
"History has shown that the public has a much harsher filter when people become candidates," says Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the poll along with Democratic pollster Peter Hart.
And Biden still trails in the Democratic primary, capturing the support of 17 percent of Democratic primary voters, compared to 35 percent for Sanders and 42 percent for Clinton.
If Biden chooses not to pursue a run for president, Clinton's lead with Democrats would jump. Fifty-three percent of Democratic primary voters say they'd support Clinton without Biden in the race, compared to 38 percent who would back Sanders.
Clinton's overall favorability rating now stands at 39 percent positive, 47 percent negative. When Clinton announced her presidential candidacy in April of this year, that rating was 42 percent positive, 42 percent negative.
The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Sept. 20-24 of 1,000 adults (including nearly 400 reached by cell phone), and it has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.
Morning Papers:
Taliban capture major city in Afghanistan, free hundreds of prisoners. Taliban insurgents launched a massive assault on the northern city of Kunduz Monday, seizing a courthouse, a hospital and other government buildings, and freeing hundreds of inmates from a prison, despite a series of battles with government forces.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told The Associated Press that "Kunduz city has collapsed into the hands of the Taliban."
"Security forces in Kunduz were prepared for an attack, but not one of this size, and not one that was coordinated in 10 different locations at the same time," Sediqqi said.
"With capturing of police compound and governor's office in Kunduz, the whole province fell to our hands,” the Taliban's spokesman said Monday on his Twitter account.
The Taliban used social media to claim the "conquest" of Kunduz and reassure residents that the extremist group -- responsible for the vast majority of nearly 5,000 civilian casualties in the first half of this year, according to the United Nations -- came in peace.
The fast-moving assault took military and intelligence agencies by surprise as the insurgents descended on the city. It marked the first time the insurgents have seized a major urban area since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
US reportedly considers leaving thousands of troops in Afghanistan beyond 2016
Within 12 hours of launching the offensive around 3 a.m., the militants had reached the main square, tearing down photographs of President Ashraf Ghani and other leaders and raising the white flag of the Taliban movement, residents reported.
Hundreds of Taliban forces also broke into a main Kunduz prison and freed more than 600 prisoners, including 140 Taliban fighters. Many people headed for the airport to flee the city.
Abdul Wadood Wahidi, spokesman for the Kunduz governor, had told the Associated Press that three police officers had been wounded and "more than 20 bodies of Taliban fighters are on the battlefield."
He said reinforcements from neighboring provinces had moved to Kunduz City, with more on the way from other cities, including the capital, Kabul, and Mazar-i-Sharif.
The international medical charity Doctors Without Borders says it has treated more than 100 wounded people in the attacks.
Gen. Murad Ali Murad, the deputy chief of army staff, said Monday's attack involved a large number of Taliban drawn from across the north and included foreign fighters, likely Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan members with an eye on the Central Asian states to Afghanistan's north.
"Strategic areas, including the airport, are controlled by Afghan security forces," he said. "Reinforcements have already arrived and attacks on the insurgent positions will be launched soon," he added, without elaborating.
The fall of the city, which has a population in excess of 300,000, marks a major setback for Afghan government forces, who have struggled to combat the Taliban with limited aid from the U.S. and NATO, which shifted to a training and support role at the end of last year.
"Security forces in Kunduz were prepared for an attack, but not one of this size and not one that was coordinated in 10 different locations at the same time," Sediqqi told the Associated Press earlier Monday.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack on his Twitter account, saying the fighters were entering hospitals around the city hunting for wounded government troops. He advised residents to remain indoors.
Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, the head of the Kunduz provincial council, said city residents were "greatly concerned" about the situation.
The United Nations' Assistance Mission to Afghanistan said all its staff had been evacuated from its Kunduz office.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss an ongoing military operation, said the U.S. military was aware the Taliban had taken control of a hospital and a number of government buildings in the city, and that both sides -- the Taliban and government forces -- had sustained a significant number of casualties.
Early indications were that the Afghan forces were in position to push back the attackers and regain control of the city, although the outcome was still in doubt, said the official, speaking earlier Monday before the government announced the fall of the city.
The strategically located Kunduz, a major producer of grain and other food, is one of Afghanistan's wealthiest cities.
The Taliban previously attacked the city in April, in its first major advance into an urban area, but were pushed back by Afghan security forces. The Taliban is since believed to have regrouped and allied with other insurgents.
The Taliban have a history of brutality toward those they regard as apostates, and have banned girls from school as well as music, movies and other trappings of modern life in areas under their control. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Prison worker who helped 2 killers escape gets up to 7 years. A sobbing former prison worker who helped two murderers escape from a maximum-security lockup said she regretted her "horrible mistake" as she was sentenced Monday to up to seven years behind bars as part of a plea deal.
Joyce Mitchell apologized profusely as she was sentenced to 2 1/3 to seven years in prison, saying she acted in part out of fear. She also might have to contribute to the $120,000 in restitution the state is seeking for damages to Clinton Correctional Facility from the brazen June 6 escape. The judge showed little sympathy as he handed down the sentence and set a Nov. 6 restitution hearing.
"If I could take it all back, I would," she told the judge. "I never intended for any of this to happen."
Mitchell entered the courtroom in tears and cried throughout most of the 35-minute sentencing. She apologized to the community, her former co-workers and law enforcement officers for the weeks of fear and disruption the search for the killers caused.
Mitchell, 51, had pleaded guilty to charges related to providing hacksaw blades and other tools to inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat.
Matt was serving 25 years to life for the killing and dismembering of his former boss. Sweat was serving life without parole for killing a sheriff's deputy in 2002.
The pair eluded more than 1,000 searchers who combed the thick woods and bogs of northern New York for much of the next three weeks. Matt was killed by a border agent June 26. Sweat was wounded and captured by a state trooper two days later.
Mitchell admitted becoming close with the pair while she worked as an instructor in the prison tailor shop. She told investigators she agreed to be their getaway driver before backing out after suffering a panic attack. The escapees were forced to scrub plans to head to Mexico and instead fled on foot after emerging from a manhole.
Judge Kevin Ryan noted that the resulting search disrupted life in a wide swath of the region for three weeks.
"A large portion of the local population were terrorized," he said. "Many were forced to flee their homes."
Mitchell said she didn't tell anyone about the inmates' escape plan because Matt had threatened to harm her family, particularly her husband, Lyle, who also worked in the prison.
View galleryJoyce Mitchell cries in Clinton County Court, Monday, …
Joyce Mitchell cries in Clinton County Court, Monday, Sept. 28, 2015, in Plattsburgh, N.Y. Mitchell, …
"I was fearful of Mr. Matt threatening to kill my husband and wanting to know where my son and mother live," she told the judge.
But the judge rebuffed her claim that she was protecting her family by not divulging the escape plot to authorities.
"I just don't find that explanation credible," Ryan said.
Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie echoed that sentiment outside court afterward, telling reporters that "she once again is making excuses." He called her apology an insult to the searchers and victims.
State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott, whose office is investigating the escape, said her report on that probe will show Mitchell "used her position to abuse and manipulate systemic security lapses" at the prison. She said Mitchell "spent months assisting two cold-blooded killers plan and execute their escape" and then misled law enforcement while they were on the run.
Lyle Mitchell gave his wife a thumbs-up as she entered and exited the court. She mouthed "I love you" to him as guards led her away.
Officials said the convicts used tools to cut their way out of their adjacent cells and get into the catwalk between the cell block walls. They crawled through an underground steam pipe and reached a street near the prison walls through a manhole.
Sweat, who is being housed in a solitary cell at a central New York prison, faces charges in the escape.
A prison guard, Gene Palmer, who authorities have said unwittingly abetted the escape plot, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of promoting prison contraband. Officials said he gave the two prisoners frozen hamburger meat Mitchell used to hide the hacksaw blades she smuggled to Sweat and Matt.
Wylie said after court that negotiations were continuing in those two cases. He said Sweat also could face restitution.
Nats suspend Jonathan Papelbon for fight with Bryce Harper. The Washington Nationals announced they have suspended closer Jonathan Papelbon for four games without pay for his role in a dugout incident during which he choked teammate and National League MVP front-runner Bryce Harper.
The team suspension will kick in on Thursday after Papelbon first serves a three-game suspension that was levied by MLB. Papelbon had been appealing the league's suspension, which stemmed from him throwing high and inside at Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado, but he has since dropped the appeal.
When players, coaches on same team brawl
Bryce Harper and Jonathan Papelbon remind us that teammates don't always get along. Here are 11 memorable physical altercations between players, and even coaches, on the same side.
Sunday's incident occurred in the bottom of the eighth inning of the Nationals' series finale against the Phillies, Washington's first game since being mathematically eliminated from playoff contention on Saturday.
After getting out of the batter's box slowly on a pop fly to left field, Harper, 22, returned to the dugout and was approached by Papelbon, the 34-year-old closer who was acquired exactly two months earlier from Philadelphia and had entered Sunday's game in the top of eighth. The two appeared to have a brief but heated exchange that resulted in Papelbon putting his hands on Harper's throat and shoving him into the back wall of the Washington dugout. Several Nationals players and coaches responded immediately and separated the two.
"The behavior exhibited by Papelbon yesterday is not acceptable," Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said in a statement. "That is not at all in line with the way our players are expected to conduct themselves and the Nationals organization will not tolerate it in any way."
With seven games left to play, the combined seven-game suspension ends Papelbon's season. Per MLB policy, Papelbon is not permitted to be with the team during his three-game league suspension. As for the team suspension, which spans the final game of the Nationals' series in Atlanta and all three contests in New York against the Mets this coming weekend, manager Matt Williams said Papelbon would not be traveling with the team.
Though Papelbon was suspended Monday for his actions, Williams on Sunday saw no problem with leaving him in the game. Williams allowed Papelbon to go back out onto the field and pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning of Sunday's game with the scored tied 4-4. Papelbon proceeded to give up five runs (two earned), including a two-run homer to Andres Blanco, before being relieved with two outs.
"I thought it was odd," Rizzo said of Papelbon returning to the mound after the fight. "But there's a lot of things going on in the dugout at the time. Matt missed it. He owned up to it."
On Monday, Williams said that he didn't have a full grasp of what had transpired in the dugout until he watched a video of it following the game. He said that had he known the complete details of incident immediately, he would not have sent Papelbon back out to pitch.
"He would have not gone out for the ninth inning," Williams said. "I take responsibility for that. I could have gotten more information."
As punishment for his involvement, Harper, who did sit out the ninth inning of Sunday's 12-5 loss, was not in the lineup for Monday's 5-1 win over the Reds.
"He was involved in it," Williams said. "He said something to Jonathan, and he played a part in the incident."
Rizzo said the punishment disparity indicates who the franchise believes "was more at fault."
"I don't want to be out of the lineup, of course," Harper said, according to MASNSports.com. "It's something where I just want to play the game and play hard. It was unfortunate what happened yesterday. You don't expect to fight your teammates or anything like that. It's definitely something that, as the Nationals, we don't pride ourselves on that. We're a family in here.
Williams said he had been planning on giving Harper a day off this week following the team's elimination.
For his part, Harper, a franchise cornerstone, said he'd have no problem continuing to be teammates with Papelbon.
"If Paps can help us win a World Series next year, that's what I need. That's what this whole clubhouse needs," Harper said. "We can't be fighting or anything like that."
Papelbon has an $11 million option for next season, but Rizzo hesitated to say the team would definitely bring him back.
"Will he be with us in 2016? He's under contract," Rizzo said about Papelbon. "We're going to evaluate every moving part that we have after the season, and we'll make all those decisions once the final out is made in 2015."
News of the Nationals' dugout blowout resonated in the sports world, with members of the neighboring Washington Redskins weighing in on the situation on Monday.
"That was pretty weird to see," said linebacker Ryan Kerrigan, whose teammates on the defensive line wore customized Nats jerseys in the Redskins' locker room earlier this season. "You hate to see the MVP getting choked out. But those things happen, especially in baseball, especially when you're around the guys six months, although Papelbon was acquired [in July]. Those things happen; hopefully there's no lingering effects." Information from ESPN.com Redskins reporter John Keim and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Cardinals rookie outfielder Stephen Piscotty injured in violent collision with teammate.
St. Louis Cardinals rookie Stephen Piscotty was carted off the field Monday night following a violent collision with teammate Peter Bourjos.
In a frightening scene at PNC Park, Piscotty lay motionless on the grass in left-center field for several minutes. He was strapped to a backboard and waved his left hand as he was driven away, eliciting a big cheer from the Pittsburgh crowd.
Piscotty has a bruise on his head and all tests conducted were negative, the Cardinals said. He will be held overnight at a hospital for observation.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Josh Harrison of the Pirates hit a drive to the gap in left-center. Piscotty, playing left field, stumbled as he chased the ball. Bourjos, playing center, went to the ground as he made a lunging catch, and his left knee struck Piscotty square in the face.
Almost immediately, Bourjos began waving to signal that Piscotty needed medical attention. Cardinals players and manager Mike Matheny gathered in the outfield, some kneeling in obvious concern as workers tended to Piscotty and a hush fell over the crowd.
St. Louis third baseman Matt Carpenter watched with an anguished look on his face.
It was the opener of a pivotal three-game series between the top two teams in the NL Central. St. Louis won 3-0 to move four games in front of Pittsburgh and can clinch its third consecutive division crown with another victory Tuesday night.
Both teams have already locked up playoff berths.
The 24-year-old Piscotty has provided a major boost to the banged-up Cardinals since making his major league debut July 21. He is batting .310 with seven homers, 15 doubles and 39 RBIs in 61 games.
In addition to Piscotty, the Cardinals have lost star catcher Yadier Molina and 14-game winner Carlos Martinez to injuries recently after ace pitcher Adam Wainwright, slugger Matt Holliday, first baseman Matt Adams and outfielder Randal Grichuk missed long stretches of the season with various ailments.
Wainwright has been sidelined since April but hopes to pitch out of the bullpen in the postseason.
St. Louis owns the best record in the majors at 99-58.
Trump’s Tax Plan Is A Big Giveaway To The Wealthiest.
On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will unveil a detailed tax reform plan — and he is already positioning it as a populist proposal. In a press alert about the plan, the campaign states, “Essentially, the plan is a major tax reduction for almost all citizens and corporations, in particular, those in the middle and lower income classes.”
And already, the portion of the plan that affects low-income Americans, which would impose a zero percent tax rate on individuals who make less than $25,000 and married couples who make less than $50,000, is generating headlines. “Trump promises a ZERO per cent tax rate for millions: He plans to cut tax for the poor, middle classes and corporations, soak the rich,” the Daily Mail headline reads. “Mr. Trump’s plan appears designed to help him, as the GOP front-runner, cement his standing as a populist,” the Wall Street Journal article previewing the details states.
But the plan has a number of provisions that will overwhelmingly help the already well off.
Lower taxes for corporations
Trump proposes the lowest corporate tax rate of the entire Republican presidential field so far. He would reduce the rate to just 15 percent; by contrast, Sen. Marco Rubio (FL) would reduce it to 25 percent, while Jeb Bush would impose a top 20 percent corporate rate. That would be the on-paper tax rate; American companies already pay relatively low tax rates in reality, however. Thanks to their ability to take advantage of loopholes, tax breaks, and aggressive accounting schemes, the effective rate they pay is already under 20 percent. Meanwhile, although Trump says his tax reform plan will “create jobs and incentives of all kinds while simultaneously growing the economy,” lower corporate taxes don’t tend to go hand in hand with higher growth. There is no evidence that high rates hurt the economy; rather, those that pay the highest effective rates actually create more jobs than those that find ways to pay less.
And he would also impose a one-time, mandatory 10 percent tax on the profits American corporations hold overseas, which could be paid over a few years, to entice them to bring them back here and in theory create more jobs. A similar although slightly different plan, called a “repatriation holiday,” has been tried before, where corporations were offered a low, temporary tax rate on offshore profits to bring them home. When it was imposed in 2004, companies largely used the profits they brought back to give money to shareholders, rather than invest it in hiring or equipment, and many laid off large number of workers at the same time.
Lower taxes for the rich
It’s not just the poorest who would get a tax cut under Trump’s plan. The wealthy would get a hefty reduction too. The highest individual tax bracket, which would apply to married couples who make more than $300,000, would be lowered from the current 39.6 percent rate to 25 percent. That’s an even lower top tax rate than under Bush’s plan, which proposes a top 28 percent on income; yet analysis of Bush’s plan found that the top 1 percent of earners would get the overwhelming benefit of his tax cuts, with an 11.6 percent increase in after-tax income compared to 1.8 percent more for the poorest and between 2.3 and 3.1 percent for the middle class. As with lowering the top corporate tax rate, there’s little evidence that lower income taxes help spur job growth, as it’s historically been stronger under higher rates. Some economists have found that the optimal tax rate for the wealthiest is closer to 90 percent.
Giveaways to the wealthiest
Trump’s plan would also get rid of the estate tax, which only affects the wealthiest 0.14 percent of Americans. Thanks to reductions in the rate over the years and creative methods of getting around it, those who owe it only pay an effective 16.6 percent rate, and less than 10 percent of the $60 trillion that will get passed down to wealthy heirs and charities over the next half century will be paid in estate tax. Nevertheless, it is a significant and progressive source of government revenue, since it only impacts those most able to pay yet will generate $246 billion over the next decade.
And while Trump would follow through with his rhetoric calling out the lower tax rate hedge fund managers pay on the income they earn from doing their jobs by ending the carried interest loophole, he would also cut the top capital gains tax rate to 20 percent. The current code already means that income made from investments enjoys a much lower 23.8 percent rate than income made from work, which is taxed at a top 39.6 rate. And those who enjoy the benefits of a lower capital gains rate are mostly the rich: 70 percent of the money saved through a lower rate goes to the top 1 percent of earners, while just 7 percent goes to the bottom 80 percent. The lower capital gains tax rate is one of the biggest contributors to growing income inequality.
Donald Trump Ends Fox News Boycott with Bill O’Reilly Interview. Donald Trump’s boycott of Fox News is over after five days, with the Republican presidential candidate scheduled to visit ‘The O’Reilly Factor” on Tuesday, Variety has confirmed.
On Sept. 23, Trump tweeted, “@FoxNews has been treating me very unfairly & I have therefore decided that I won’t be doing any more Fox shows for the foreseeable future.”
Trump’s declaration came after Fox News canceled Trump’s scheduled appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor” last week. In a statement at the time, the network said of Trump, “When coverage doesn’t go his way, he engages in personal attacks on our anchors and hosts, which has grown stale and tiresome. He doesn’t seem to grasp that candidates telling journalists what to ask is not how the media works in this country.”
Trump and the network have been trading barbs since the politician launched his presidential bid in June. According to a statement from Fox News, Trump is scheduled to meet with chairman and CEO Roger Ailes this week to “discuss their differences of opinion regarding Fox’s coverage of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. Ailes will be joined by senior Fox editorial executives. Mr. Trump believes he has been treated unfairly in certain instances, Fox News has held every candidate in this race to the highest journalistic standards throughout our coverage. We believe a candid meeting about our differences is required and that any misunderstandings can be handled without compromising those standards.”
Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few by Robert B. Reich.
From the author of Aftershock and The Work of Nations, his most important book to date—a myth-shattering breakdown of how the economic system that helped make America so strong is now failing us, and what it will take to fix it.
Perhaps no one is better acquainted with the intersection of economics and politics than Robert B. Reich, and now he reveals how power and influence have created a new American oligarchy, a shrinking middle class, and the greatest income inequality and wealth disparity in eighty years. He makes clear how centrally problematic our veneration of the “free market” is, and how it has masked the power of moneyed interests to tilt the market to their benefit.
Reich exposes the falsehoods that have been bolstered by the corruption of our democracy by huge corporations and the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street: that all workers are paid what they’re “worth,” that a higher minimum wage equals fewer jobs, and that corporations must serve shareholders before employees. He shows that the critical choices ahead are not about the size of government but about who government is for: that we must choose not between a free market and “big” government but between a market organized for broadly based prosperity and one designed to deliver the most gains to the top. Ever the pragmatist, ever the optimist, Reich sees hope for reversing our slide toward inequality and diminished opportunity when we shore up the countervailing power of everyone else.
Passionate yet practical, sweeping yet exactingly argued, Saving Capitalism is a revelatory indictment of our economic status quo and an empowering call to civic action.
Regardless of it all today, please stay in touch.
