.
Jonathan Capehart, in the Washington Post, interviews Al Sharpton on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The result is… multifaceted:
… I asked Sharpton for his view of what’s going on with The Donald and why he’s doing what he’s doing at a meeting with editors and reporters at The Post this morning. There was no better person to ask. Sharpton and Trump are both New Yorkers who have known each other and done battle with each other for years. And they are both targets of and survivors of the Big Apple tabloids that make sport of high-flying folks like them. That’s why Sharpton’s assessment of Trump’s campaign and its future is as vivid as it is correct.
“When you run for president, in my opinion, you run either to win or you run to further a cause,” Sharpton said. He said he believes that Jeb Bush (R) and Hillary Clinton “are running to win.” The candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 pointed out that “I ran to further a cause.” While he said he knew he wasn’t going to beat President George W. Bush in the general election or then-senator John F. Kerry in the primary for that matter, he said he ran because he felt issues “we wanted to raise like criminal justice and all were not going to be in the center stage if we didn’t have a candidate.”…
***********
Apart from the circus, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Baud
That was an interesting read. Probably the best thing I’ve read on Trump’s run (not that I’ve sampled a whole lot).
Thanks, AL.
ETA: Now I feel like Trump should be referred to as Leisure Suit Donald.
Zinsky
As an article in Salon put it, “the GOP is a deeply unserious political party with no interest in responsible governance”. How anyone takes a buffoon like Trump seriously reflects badly on America’s educational system. Running for president shouldn’t be like an episode of The Apprentice – it should be a serious discussion about how we maintain a representative democracy in an overcrowded world of deep religious and cultural differences and finite resources.
OzarkHillbilly
So what cause is the Donald trying to further? Doh! Himself of course. How silly of me.
Amir Khalid
The manager of Liverpool FC, Brendan Rodgers, has just concluded a media conference in Kuala Lumpur, ahead of a friendly on Friday against a Malaysia XI. The sports reporters here always show up to these media conferences wearing their red Liverpool shirts. He never gets any tough questions..
BillinGlendaleCA
Morning Joe has Capehart on, he’s talking about his interview.
ETA: Pretty good start for Morning Joe, Sam Stein is explaining the Huff Post’s decision to cover Trump as Entertainment. Joe disagrees.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Ugh. I agree with Joe. Need to shower extra long this morning.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Lye and really hot water might help.
BillinGlendaleCA
Oh what I learn from Joe, John Kasich balanced the budget in the late 90’s.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Thanks to Clinton’s tax hikes, I’m sure Joe pointed out.
mtiffany
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I’ll say this for him, his ability to keep that bubble of unreality that he surrounds that show with from bursting and taking out a few city blocks in the process is amazing.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: Maybe he should run for his old seat instead of President? We all know what happens to deficits under GOP administrations.
OzarkHillbilly
What do you get when you cross OCD with the NRA?
LA police discover arsenal of 1,200 guns in dead man’s home
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I’m not sure Joe knows this Clinton person.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Good. Better that they be at a centralized location.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s unfortunate that he died because he might have been able to do a reality show. The Gun Hoarder.
satby
Bowman had a good take on the whole tRump thing yesterday:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2015/7/21/132758/262
Sorry about the naked link, the regular way is dicey on the Kindle.
Edited to add: Cole gets a shout out in it.
OzarkHillbilly
Judd Apatow channels Bill Cosby.
Baud
@satby:
Heh.
MattF
@satby: Good article. Yes, Trump has a constituency. Very unlike, e.g., Fiorina, who is loved by the RNC and no one else.
satby
@Baud: I know, right?
Baud
@satby:
I think it should be added to the rotating tag.
Sherparick
I know John Cole is thinking of taking 14 month nap until the 2016 election is over, but I am with Digby here regarding the Republican campaign. Please pass me the popcorn. http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2015/07/mitch-mcconnell-lady-killer.html
debbie
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ll miss E.L. Doctorow. I hate that most of my favorite writers have died or retired.
Sherparick
@satby: I would like to thank John Cole for introducing the nick name “Snowball Snookie” into the blogosphere and Twitterverse. I think Booman, like Drftglass, Steve M., Digby, etc. have all been riffing on two themes, that the base of the Republican Party, approximately 30% of the electorate, is basically crazy and second, that the VSPs of our mainstream, both sides, media cannot, or rather will not, apprehend this fact. As subsidiary points, I believe that this madness that has infected this group is populist “white American” nationalism, for in Snowball Snookie’s famous phrase “real Americans” don’t look like the President; or disagree with the resentments, rage, and desire for revenge which Trump has delightfully tapped into. And this ideology was created and propagated by some of the richest people in the America, some who are just as nutty as the base and some because they Republican Party they support and empower is now basically about: “Business” refers only to the infinitesimal small ruling caste of multinational capital. “Limited government” means a limitless, borderless police state with low internal taxes and little or no social safety net. “Social order” means the stealth revocation of citizenship rights, first for blacks and women, to be sure, but ultimately for everyone else too. “http://www.salon.com/2015/07/18/the_republican_prison_experiment_how_the_right_wing_remaking_of_the_gop_altered_political_reality/
So we do need to remember the political economy of the right wing clown car and the small number of individuals who t have been firehosed with money for the last 40 years as a result. Fox News and Rush Limbaugh were created by plutocrats to serve a purpose, and have served it well. And the same plutocrats own CNN, MSBNC, and the networks, so why should we be surprise when they go to “both sides” the Republicans have Trump, but the Democrats Bernie Sanders and want to increase Social Security benefits?
kc
@OzarkHillbilly:
Demonizing Mexicans, apparently.