Republicans are coming up short on the Iran deal. And they might be okay with that. @byamberphillips http://t.co/KPTLAmB7eV
— Scott Clement (@sfcpoll) August 25, 2015
This is a) likely correct; and b) likely the source of the #IranDeal opposition's ire over the past month. https://t.co/qmns9Jru8Q
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) August 25, 2015
Sept. 8 | The nuclear deal w #Iran & implications: A speech by frmr VP Cheney #CheneyatAEI http://t.co/72I44CocIh pic.twitter.com/mM0ufTV5Yw
— AEI (@AEI) August 25, 2015
Translation: They’ve given up on blocking in Congress, now laying groundwork to blame every bad future event on deal https://t.co/FfQVF6YVdy
— Matt Duss (@mattduss) August 25, 2015
@dandrezner I think the AEI/Cheney speech signals a shift in approach: https://t.co/rjJfYWORCy
— Matt Duss (@mattduss) August 25, 2015
@dandrezner That, or "I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile & stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.”
— Matt Duss (@mattduss) August 25, 2015
There was an old anti-Communist trope when I was growing up during the Cold War: A Russian factory hand tells a foreign correspondent, They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work. The current GOP is re-writing it: We pretend we’re actually interested in legislating, and the media pretends they believe us.
Tree With Water
I’ve concluded the guy just likes to show off:
“Stephen Hawking may have just unlocked one of science’s biggest mysteries involving black holes..”.
Iowa Old Lady
OMG. Mr IOL is in the middle of a phone poll, cheerfully claiming to be a Republican who supports Trump with Walker as his second choice. I expect his pants to burst into flames any moment.
Schlemazel
The best of all outcomes for the goopers. They get to pretend they did something that they have convinced the base MUST be done but are not responsible for anything that comes of it. It worked on the ACA, nobody blames them for the damage they did to the bill and their troglodyte supporters can claim all sorts of invented imaginary ills to blame on it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Iowa Old Lady: Do you have a fire extinguisher close by, or a camera(pics or it didn’t happen)?
ETA: Just wanted to add to chorus, damn this site is SLOOOWWWW.
Iowa Old Lady
@BillinGlendaleCA: I think a bucket of cold water is the right choice. I had to leave the room because I was laughing too loudly.
rikyrah
Private colleges keep police policies and procedures under wraps
Private universities in Chicago are keeping even the most basic information about how their armed officers are supposed to do their jobs from the public, despite promises to increase transparency.
In April, University of Chicago announced that it would begin releasing information about “how the [university police] department fulfills its duties.” The move was intended to mollify student and community activists—and headed off a bill in the state legislature that would have required them to release the same information to the public that municipal police departments do.
This month, the Reporter tested that pledge of transparency by asking U of C and the other two private universities in Chicago with armed, sworn police departments—Northwestern and Loyola—to provide us with a copy of their departments’ policies, procedures and directives, the documents that govern a police officer’s day-to-day duties and responsibilities. All three denied our request.
A U of C spokeswoman said in an email that releasing department policies is not considered a “best practice.”
But President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing said the opposite in its final report released in May. The eleven-member committee, which included police chiefs, law professors and civil rights advocates, recommended that law enforcement agencies make department policies, along with data on stops and arrests by police, available for public review.
“This isn’t some radical, far-out thing,” said Craig Futterman, director of the University of Chicago Law School’s Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project. “It’s sort of a basic concept of transparency and openness and accountability that people have the right to know about the practices and policies of their police who are sworn to protect them.”
http://chicagoreporter.com/private-colleges-keep-campus-police-policies-and-procedures-under-wraps/
Mike E
@Iowa Old Lady: Bravo! Tell him I’ll do my part in the NC primary, should The Donald last that long.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
And so are its people.
@Iowa Old Lady:
“claiming”
Famous last words.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
AND FOLKS ARE SUPPOSED TO GET VOTER ID FOR VOTING HOW?
……………………………
Alabama closing 45 of 49 DMVs by next March!!!
ALEA to begin closing driver’s license offices; 4 to remain open
…The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said budget cuts will result in closing driver’s license offices across the state.
The agency said the cut will be in phases, with 33 offices closed during the first wave.
In January 2016, a further 12 offices will close. By March, all but four offices in the entire state will shut their doors.
The offices that will remain open, ALEA said, are Huntsville, Montgomery, Mobile, and Birmingham.
“Unfortunately, what citizens can expect are longer lines, oftentimes scheduling way in advance to get an opportunity,” said ALEA Secretary Spencer Collier. “Probably the worst is that some… are going to have to travel a significant distance to be able to get that driver’s license service.”
http://www.waff.com/story/29869389/alea-to-begin-closing-drivers-license-offices-4-to-remain-open
Mike J
Man wearing “Less Government, more freedom” t-shirt thanks firefighters who saved his house.
https://twitter.com/chuckwestover/status/635531608737587200
p.a.
@Tree With Water: link?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Hey!!!
rikyrah
How companies make millions off lead-poisoned, poor blacks
By Terrence McCoy August 25 at 2:48 PM
BALTIMORE CITY — The letter arrived in April last year, a mishmash of strange numbers and words. This at first did not alarm Rose. Most letters are that way for her — frustrating puzzles she can’t solve. Rose, who can scarcely read or write, calls herself a “lead kid.” Her childhood home, where lead paint chips blanketed her bedsheets like snowflakes, “affected me really bad,” she says. “In everything I do.”
She says she can’t work a professional job. She can’t live alone. And, she says, she surely couldn’t understand this letter.
So on that April day, the 20-year-old says she asked her mom to give it a look. Her mother glanced at the words, then back at her daughter. “What does this mean all of your payments were sold to a third party?” her mother recalls saying.
The distraught woman said the letter, written by her insurance company, referred to Rose’s lead checks. The family had settled a lead-paint lawsuit against one notorious Baltimore slumlord in 2007, granting Rose a monthly check of nearly $1,000, with yearly increases. Those payments were guaranteed for 35 years.
“It’s been sold?” Rose asked, memories soon flashing.
She remembered a nice, white man. He had called her one day on the telephone months after she’d squeaked through high school with a “one-point something” grade-point average. His name was Brendan, though she said he never mentioned his last name. He told her she could make some fast money. He told her he worked for a local company named Access Funding. He talked to her as a friend.
Rose, who court records say suffers from “irreversible brain damage,” didn’t have a lot of friends. She didn’t trust many people. Growing up off North Avenue in West Baltimore, she said she’s seen people killed.
But Brendan was different. He bought her a fancy meal at Longhorn Steakhouse, she said, and guaranteed a vacation for the family. He seemed like a gentleman, someone she said she could trust .
One day soon after, a notary arrived at her house and slid her a 12-page “purchase” agreement. Rose was alone. But she wasn’t worried. She said she spoke to a lawyer named Charles E. Smith on the phone about the contract. She felt confident in what it stated. She was selling some checks in the distant future for some quick money, right?
The reality, however, was substantially different. Rose sold everything to Access Funding — 420 monthly lead checks between 2017 and 2052. They amounted to a total of nearly $574,000 and had a present value of roughly $338,000.
In return, Access Funding paid her less than $63,000.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/how-companies-make-millions-off-lead-poisoned-poor-blacks/2015/08/25/7460c1de-0d8c-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html?hpid=z1
David Koch
@Mike J:
/fixed
FlipYrWhig
@rikyrah: Holy SHIT. That is one of the most despicable deeds I have ever heard of.
MattF
So, there’s a lot of sound and fury, Congress gets to vote twice against Obummer, and… in the end… that one gets his way.
The concept, I guess is that the R base won’t notice, but I’m thinking that comfortable assumption is starting to break down. Like, maybe voting to repeal Obamacare 56 times was overdoing it, just little a bit, and even the tea partiers have kinda sorta figured it out.
BillinGlendaleCA
@David Koch: Must be a tRump guy, if he was a jeb! guy it’d read “Less Chinese, more Whites”.
Iowa Old Lady
@Baud: @Mike E: I’m honestly kind of horrified. The words coming out of his mouth were just so wrong.
MattF
Just got a ‘You don’t have permission to edit this comment’ when trying to edit a comment. So, FYWP, and something is amiss here.
Mark B.
The real bullshit thing is that this is a good deal, and the Republicans that know anything about foreign policy (admittedly, a small set) know it. If this treaty would have been negotiated by, say, Lindsay Graham, they’d be killing each other to congratulate him on what a triumph of negotiation this deal was. But since it was negotiated by Kerry and the Obama team along with an international team, they have a knee-jerk reaction to oppose it. Because that’s all they know how to do.
slag
@Mike J: I love that one. Too bad for that guy that self-congratulatory ignorance isn’t flame retardant.
Ruckus
@FlipYrWhig:
Agreed.
And that’s a pretty high bar to scale, the most despicable deeds bar.
Thoughtful Today
PublicPolicyPolling.com
Today:
“Bernie Sanders now leads the field in the [New Hampshire] state with 42% to 35% for Hillary Clinton, 6% for Jim Webb, 4% for Martin O’Malley, 2% for Lincoln Chafee, and 1% for Lawrence Lessig.”
“The main story in New Hampshire is how universally popular Sanders has become with the Democratic electorate. 78% see him favorably to only 12% with a negative opinion- that makes him easily the most popular candidate on either side with their party’s voters.”
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2015/08/ppps-new-new-hampshire-poll-finds-donald-trump-in-the-strongest-position-of-any-poll-weve-done-anywhere-since-he-entered-the.html
Tree With Water
I have no idea what a Kraken is, and yet I know exactly what the writer means. Sounds about right, too.
Roger Moore
@Mark B.:
There are no Real Republicans who know anything about foreign policy. All the ones who know anything are RINOs.
NotMax
@Thoughtful Today
New Hampshire = Vermont with a swath of ocean frontage.
gratuitous
Dick Cheney is going to weigh in publicly on the deal with Iran? I’m sorry, but you need at least one micron of credibility to do that, and Cheney is two microns short.
That’s like getting an abstinence lecture from Ron Jeremy.
Baud
@NotMax:
Bernie’s a nice guy, and I’m glad people are listening to his message. But I agree that New Hampshire is a must win for him.
Schlemazel
@rikyrah:
Yikes! More people need to go to jail but won’t.
I always wonder when I see ads for places that buy annuities, just how crooked are they and who are the people they are preying on? This is horrible
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady:
“Honey, we need to talk…”
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@rikyrah:
Okay, how is it even fucking legal for them to have a BRAIN DAMAGED person sign a contract? Or are they just assuming they’re going to be able to take the money and run like most con artists?
shell
Cheney,eh. Who in the GOP thought it could possibly be a good idea to have this blood-soaked Gollum to make a speech? He’s one step away from gargling “Precious…my precious.”
Hal
How is Cheney even still alive?
Schlemazel
love that, gonna keep it
Schlemazel
@Hal:
The good die young
Greg
This is exactly why Trump is leading in the polls. Because, yet again, Republican voters are being told that this is the end of the world, and yet, Republican legislators can’t/won’t do a damn thing about it.
Who _wouldn’t_ be in favor of someone with no government experience whatsoever if this was the story you keep being fed?
Keith G
I don’t care about the theatrics and don’t care about who is playing which parlor game. As long as the damned agreement is left in place is all that matters.
One less reason to blow shit up in some foreign land.
sharl
@Mike J: I saw that via a customary ALL CAPS attaboy from ANGRY NORTH IDAHO:
And it turns out that LA Times reporter Matt Pearce checked further into Mr. Less-Government-More-Freedom:
So, in other words, the usual lack of self-awareness, hypocrisy, and general cluelessness we’ve come to expect from the Don’t Tread On Me crowd.
Mark B.
@Hal: The undead tend to stick around long past their expiration date.
Roger Moore
@Hal:
He got a heart transplant. Also, too, we haven’t found all of his horcruxes yet.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I was wondering if she was legally competent to sign the contract.
Schlemazel
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Seems like a decent lawyer could work this exact angle and get the person their money back. They might have gotten away with it if they had made a little less but this is so gross I don’t see how they could defend it.
Librarian
Kraken ? Isn’t that a candy bar?
NotMax
@Hal
Neither heaven nor hell want him to befoul the place?
Baud
@Schlemazel:
Because Cheney has stolen their life force.
Howard Beale IV
Holy fuck-Trump just threw the Univision reporter out of his presser.
Baud
@Howard Beale IV:
He’s just sealed the nom.
Calouste
@Librarian: I don’t know what you call a candy bar
jl
I don’t think the opposition really cared all that much about whether Iran got nukes or not in the first place. The brains that tell the GOPers what to do probably have actual analysts who have gamed out a world with Iranian nukes, just as there are military and intelligence brains that do that same for the Israeli government, The brains have a very different view of the deal and feasible ways ahead than the politician demagogues do.
They want to keep bogeyman scare stories alive for political purposes. So, if the Obama can line up enough Democratic support, they will just open up the appropriate envelope full of BS talking points and accusations and move on.
From the Washington Post Senate whip count for Iran deal:
” Yes or leaning yes (34 needed to uphold veto, keep the deal): 33 ”
Whip count: Where the Senate stands on the Iran deal
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/07/14/whip-count-where-the-senate-stands-on-the-iran-deal/
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Honestly, I’m kind of assuming it was completely not legal and the company is going to vanish leaving a mess behind. This was basically the same as bashing the poor woman on the head and stealing her wallet.
David Koch
@Hal:
Actually he’s among the undead
Anoniminous
@Iowa Old Lady:
When we lived in Iowa we got so sick of the damn polling we started supporting everybody from the Constitution to the Socialist Worker’s Party.
sharl
@rikyrah: Damn, lead poisoning is the horrible gift that keeps on giving. This also came out after Freddie Gray’s killing – his family was impacted as well.
Shoulda figured that financial vampires would be attracted to something like this, in the same way that – in the mid-aughts especially – scumbag mortgage service companies talked poor folks into signing contracts for home loans they could never possibly pay back in full.
goblue72
Given the amount of oil money that flows into the GOP, I’m not exactly shocked at their opposition. While most is probably borne from the “oppose anything Obama” silliness – I can also imagine that the oil drillers in Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, etc. aren’t exactly thrilled at the prospect of the Iran sanctions being lifted and their 700,000 plus barrels per day entering the market. The U.S. shale oil guys are probably pooping their pants at the propsect of oil staying at or under $40 a barrel for an extended period.
jl
@Baud:
TPM blog has an analysis today that says Trump only needs to do well in the early proportional outcome primary states to come into the GOP convention with a plurality of delegates, assuming half or so of the other hapless dweeds can hang until March.
That would be nice, a GOP convention with Trump forces able to get themselves a lot of attention. I’ve read that Trump is aggressively building ground games in early states and trying to adopt Obama campaign style outreach efforts to get people who have not previously voted in primaries involved.
From what I have seen of the GOP primary polls, this cycle is like an inverted version of the previous cycles’ roller coasters: Trump steadily rides on top of them all, while other other vicious and pathetic loons roll up and down on some kiddie ride far below. As long as this BS hurts them, that is fine with me.
Grift the con long enough, and eventually the con grifts you, that is the GOP’s problem IMHO.
David Koch
@Baud: in all seriousness, unless Trump is found with a dead girl or live boy he’s the nominee.
Today’s PPP poll has him ahead of ¡Jeb! 34-11 in NH.
all these beltway morons who insist ¡Jeb! will eventually win have offered no supporting explanation or scenario.
Mike in NC
Trump is arguing with reporters in Iowa live on MSNBC right now. Awesome stuff.
Iowa Old Lady
@Anoniminous: It’s tempting.
@Howard Beale IV: I am in awe. Just when you think Trump couldn’t go beyond, he does.
kdaug
Speaking of barely working…
I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this
Best live show I’ve seen, and I’m an Austinite. (Plus, Wooten still reigns supreme, bar none. Let the flames commence).
raven
“David Duke, the anti-Semitic former Ku Klux Klan leader, praised Republican front-runner Donald Trump for his immigration policy proposals and said Trump is “the best of the lot.”
David Koch
¡Jeb! is Dubya without the brains.
raven
@kdaug: I saw Michael Martin Murphy at the Armadillo and Freda and the Firedogs at the Broken Spoke!
David Koch
ahhhahahhahahahahahhahaaahhahahaah
He’s the Don Rickles of politics and completely focused on taking ¡Jeb! down.
jl
@David Koch: That depends on how many GOPer primary voters continue to say that they will never even consider voting for Trump. Trump does great at 25 to 30 percent with sixteen competitors, how will do when there are only four? And that winnowing will (edit: I should have typed ‘may’) be done when big winner-take-all primaries come into view.
As mentioned above, TPM blog has an analysis of how it might play out in terms of numbers of delegates. If Trump can do well in early proportional outcome primary states, will an an unholy mess of a convention without a majority favorite, and the vindictive disruptive crypto-racist/sexist Trump coming in with a plurality. I like that scenario, since seems to me that it promises to inflict maximum damage on that fraudulent crony corporate dominated rump pretending to be a major national political party.
Baud
@jl: @David Koch:
We’ll see. I remember a lot of breathless analysis suggesting that Romney couldn’t get enough delegates to avoid a brokered convention. He did.
GregB
Is Cheney planning on wearing The Joker make-up and eating a live baby after his speech?
David Koch
Oh shit. Coulter just endorsed Trump.
He’s the pied piper of crazy.
Baud
@David Koch:
And grifters.
jl
@David Koch: Or the (to many people) winning personality.
NotMax
@David Koch
RtR has been curiously mum of late.
Maybe the last check didn’t clear.
Jeffro
So who’s up for letting us all know about the first right-wing website that claims that this
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/curtis-smith-white-house-fence-jumper
…is part of an Obama…no, wait, a HILLARY!…plot, somehow?
Did he bust in and come across Obama and Hillary both, wiping her server?
Or perhaps he was detained by “Secret” “Service” agents who were rolling up their prayer rugs?
Come on, you know some wingnut is going to make us all proud within the next 24 hours…
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@sharl:
There were a LOT of elderly people in poor neighborhoods in Los Angeles who got victimized that way during the housing bubble. They were in tiny houses in South LA that were worth $500K or more on paper once the vultures descended on them, and there was no way for them to pay the “refi” on their fixed incomes. A lot of sad stories.
Right to Rise
@David Koch:
How does Jeb win?
A battle of attrition.
Breaking this down to Trump vs. Jeb while the dwarves watch on the sidelines is exactly what Jeb wants. Jeb and Trump are going to get in a battle of dollars. While Trump has one personal fortune, Bush has fundraising prowess to draw on as many billionaires as possible.
Jeb will beat Trump the same way Reagan defeated the USSR-goading him into spending himself into another bankruptcy.
Anoniminous
@jl:
Until the state GOP parties quit dicking around and set a date it’s impossible to figure delegates. At the moment Super Tuesday will be proportionally assigned including Texas with it’s 108 District Delegates. Whether Texas decides to stay in Super Tuesday or go after March 14th really affects the race.
Jeffro
@David Koch: She endorsed him when he came out with “his” immigration policy…said something like “…if this is his policy, he can personally perform abortions IN the White House, I don’t care…”
She’ll be an interesting one in her later years…no one will be able to tell, of course. Dementia and Coulter present 99% the same.
Tree With Water
@Anoniminous: I’m convinced that’s why the 2012 GOP candidate for governor of California was thrashed as badly as she was by voters. That is, her deep pocket takeover of California airwaves became an assault upon the ears of everyone for weeks with her vapid political commercials. By election day, people up and down the state hated her guts. She was bound for defeat in the first place, no doubt about it. But instead of being beating soundly, she was electorally creamed on account of those obnoxious ads.
redshirt
@David Koch: Trump is burning Republicans like no one has in… ever? I can’t recall any “major” political figures sending sick burns to their competitors like he is. I mean, damn, he put out on ad where Babs Bush bad talks Jeb! It’s awesome.
NonyNony
@David Koch:
Unless the size of the clown car stays over 12 well into the primary season, Trump will NOT be the nominee.
However – if the size of the clown car stays over 12 well into primary season, all bets are off. And the GOP starts re-thinking its primary process for 2020.
Mike J
@GregB:
Are parents making offerings to Cheney too, or just Trump?
Jeffro
@Right to Rise:
I know he has a lot of bucks, but he better hurry up and “attrit” Rubio, Walker, and Cruz. They seem to be doing quite well, thanks.
beltane
@Right to Rise: Bankruptcy never stopped Donald Trump before.
BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax:
You noticed that too.
Naw, jeb! has plenty of money, brains on the other hand…
Wow, you didn’t even need to say RtR 3 times.
David Koch
@jl: I think this is Goldwarter ’64.
Breaking the religious barrier and blacks getting Civil Rights drove them crazy. You read the books and see the documentaries and the mood was Goldwater wouldn’t last and the blue-bloods Rockefeller, George Romney, Scranton would eventually win.
I think Obama breaking the color barrier and gays getting Civil Rights has triggered another mass political suicide. And boring blue-bloods once again won’t stop another demagogue who tells them extremism in the defense of
libertyWhites is no vice.Jeffro
@jl:
He should hold at that point or a little higher. The only candidates “his” people overlap with are Carson and Cruz. Unless they’re in that final four (and I’m thinking they’re not), Carson’s and Cruz’s could easily migrate (ooo there’s that word) over to Trump, unless he’s already out, in which case the reverse happens.
I’m telling you, Cruz is loving this.
Baud
@David Koch:
I agree.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Right to Rise: Ya can’t buy votes.
Right to Rise
@David Koch:
Trump actually leads Hillary in several key swing states now. Jeb of course does even better.
Hillary is on the ropes. Even Bob Woodward said that the Hillary E-mails could be like the Nixon Tapes.
NotMax
@rRght to Rise
Ah, welcome back. Gravy train must still be chugging along.
Make yerself to home. The blinkered nincompoop seats are to the right.
Right to Rise
Jen Rubin: the Media need to do their job.
Domench: GOP Needs to Stand for Freedom, not White Identity Politics.
goblue72
@jl: Good points. I can definitely see an outcome that as the other candidates start dropping like flies, those voters will shift to El Jebe.
I look at guys like Cruz, Perry, Carson – and they – and their supporters – are as nutty as Trump. But looking at Christie, Jindal, Fiorina, Kaisch, Walker, etc. – they all seem a lot closer to an Establishment candidate like JEB!, than they do to the nutbar wing and Trump.
The whole other thing is that that while there are a number of nutbar primaries early in the GOP primary calendar – as we get into the heart of March, you start seeing states like California, New York and Illinois come into play. While those states don’t matter for the GOP in the GENERAL election, they do play a role during the GOP PRIMARY. They are big states, with big populations and thus a lot of delegates. They also all tend to feature Republican voters who skew a bit more moderate.
Assuming John Ellis Bush lasts through the early primaries (which his money will let him survive), he can certainly win those bigger states. Same thing happened with McCain – he won the primary not by wining the nutbar states, but by winning the big “Blue” states. Willard won those kinds of states too.
Where those big Blue states are our firewall in the general, those big Blue states are the GOP Establishment’s firewall for the primary.
Trump may make it deep into March, but he’s not very likely to escape it. He’s surrounded by guys trying to squeeze out a percentage or two by out-crazy-ing each other. If its down to him and J.E.B., the distinctions are sharpened and Jeb can pivot to “Vote for me – I’m not going to take our entire Party down in flames” mode.
Trump is a Summer replacement series on TV and nothing more.
Anoniminous
@David Koch:
JEB! has the GOP establishment, the Corporate Wing, and the Bush machine not part of the first two. These were the same folks backing Romney and he got 2 million more votes than the “insurgent” candidates combined. Second, the rules of various primaries are rigged toward shoveling delegates to the candidate the state party supports, e.g., in 2012 Missouri voted 55% to 25% Santorum but Romney won the bound delegate count 12 to 7; in the end Romney got 31 delegates to Santorum’s 13. Other states, other things, I like to use Missouri because the fix was so egregious.
kdaug
@David Koch:
May they find their cliff.
goblue72
@Right to Rise: I though Reagan defeated the Soviets by scaring them into realizing an Alzheimer’s patient had his finger on the button – at least, when he remembered what the button was for.
Matt McIrvin
@NotMax: There’s actually a political difference between the two: Vermont (and the Berkshires) are dominated by a freakishly unusual population of rural white liberals, whereas New Hampshire also has a contingent of cranky libertarian types and greater-Boston exurbanites, who are actually relatively right-wing. NH used to be a conservative state; now it’s purple. Vermont is deep, deep blue.
But NH’s Democrats probably are not that different from Vermont Democrats, and I’d certainly expect them to be receptive to Bernie Sanders.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Right to Rise:
ROTFLMFAO. (Catches breath) ROTFLMFAO…
Kropadope
@Right to Rise:
What is Jeb(?!?!?) doing to help solve this pressing issue?
Won’t that hurt your boy, Jeb(?!?!?) ?
David Koch
Here’s a very short video clip that shows why Trump will win Iowa, South Carolina, and New Hampshire
jl
I see incongruous pleas for help from the mighty, the unlimited corporate cashed set. I am perflummeled.
NotMax
@goblue72
“Can I press it now, Mommy? Can I, huh? Oooh – shiny.”
Kropadope
@goblue72:
I wonder how many times in his post-presidency he accidentally called for his nurse expecting a different outcome.
Schlemazel
@jl:
The question of winnowing comes down (I believe) to which, if any, billionaire gives up his rentboy. The Kochs are into Snotty Walker for several hundred million, they may not want to walk away from that investment. With any luck a couple of the others will keep raising figure the others will fold. If that scenario plays out (pasta be praised, hear my prayer) then having 4 or 5 left in much later than ever before could pave the way for T-rump. A brokered convention would be the perfect storm. No way the party gives the nod to T-rump and the screaming will be blood curdling. Pasta willing.
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
Oh, absolutely (see Sununu, Shaheen, Ayotte, the Manchester Union-Leader and so on).
Was using a shorthand pointed at the Dem. primary.
David Koch
On a brighter note: these two are going out in grand style
jl
@Schlemazel:
I find Walkers attempts to adopt a ‘more Trump-like style’ amusing so far. Cancel the Chinese diplomatic dinner and buy him a Big Mac and yell at him at McDonalds? I wonder if Trump has tweeted “Walker is WEAK! LOSER. Make the Chinese guy buy his own burger!’
I have no idea what will happen. My take on the TPM post today is that if Trump does well enough in the early proportional primaries, and enough of the other losers hang on, he can limp into the convention with a plurality, in which case GOP mess ensues. But as other commenters rightly pointed out, the likelihood of this scenario depends on a primary schedule that is not yet finalized.
My fantasy dream scenario is that some of primary schedule is determined at last minute to squash Trump, with conniving of RNC. Trump sues RNC, and RNC pays Trump enough ‘make-him-go-away’ money to fund a really yooge and classy Trump third party campaign. That would be win win win, in my book.
BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: I see shades of the CA recall.
Roger Moore
@Kropadope:
Not at all. Their job is to carry water for the Republican establishment. That’s what they’re being paid for, after all.
Kropadope
@Roger Moore: You’re right, my mistake.
Schlemazel
@jl:
My dream scenario would be the goopers shafting Dump, he would not take that quietly. They could also go into a brokered convention and shaft him there. Either way he is going to scream bloody murder. After that he either goes 3rd party and saps the GOP of 30% of their votes or he goes home & 30% of the gooper voters stay home in November. THAT would be beautiful!
Baud
@Schlemazel:
That’s some good political porn you’ve written there.
Kay
@jl:
I watched a Trump speech. He’s going to ding Bush with that “he’s low energy” line. He does this mimicking, where he slumps his shoulders and hangs his arms down that really does resemble Jeb Bush.
I just think GOP voters hate weakness- it’s the big sin for them- and it makes Bush look weak that Trump makes fun of him.
NotMax
@Kay
Campaigning by character assassination can take one only so far. Sooner or later, policy becomes paramount.
Iowa Old Lady
Oh wow. The Univision reporter Trump tossed from his presser was Jorge Ramos. They physically removed him. The reporters then asked him repeatedly why he tossed out a reporter from a major network. Trump denied throwing him out, said it was security that did it. Also said he didn’t know Ramos.
goblue72
@Iowa Old Lady: Crazy. He’s like the Latino Walter Kronkite. Course, if you’ve lost every Latino vote, there’s probably nothing but upside from tossing Ramos in front of Trump’s white supremacist base.
redshirt
In regards Trump running as a 3rd party – don’t you have to do things in every state to get on the ballot as a 3rd party? Like, well in advance?
catclub
@Right to Rise:
1. Hoist, petard.
2. She is the media – but alas, helpless. Kind of like the right-wing columnists who repeatedly announce that the liberal media never prints their views. In print. All the time.
Iowa Old Lady
@goblue72: It’s the headline on Huffington Post: Trump Tosses Ramos.
He told him to “go back to Univision.”
Holy shit.
Chris
@Baud: Man…I will remember where I was when I read it..but I think you are right..
jl
@NotMax: I think there is a ‘let them hear who can hear’ problem with policy in the GOP. What sloganeering ignorant bullet-point BS has passed has for policy in the GOP? If policy meant anything at all, the GOP primary base would have already dinged Trump for his ignorant BS, and they haven’t.
But, you do have a point that it may mean something in larger states with supposedly saner GOP base. We will see how much.
In the meantime, Jeb!? wrote a few more lines for a future effective attack ad against him in the general election.
Jeb Bush Doesn’t Know Dick About Women’s Healthcare
Wonkette
‘I don’t think Planned Parenthood ought to get a penny because they are not doing women’s health issues.”
http://wonkette.com/593283/jeb-bush-doesnt-know-dick-about-womens-healthcare
Note another obvious misstatement of verifiable facts. Jeb!? is very lazy and ignorant (maybe even more so than the average low information voter? Hard to believe, but I think a possibility. Even many low info voters know Social Security retirement age.), or very arrogant and cynical, or of course, maybe both.
Bex
@Right to Rise@NotMax: Oops. The check just cleared.
jl
@efgoldman: It is a fantasy dream. I admit that. It would be fun to watch Trump try it, though.
NotMax
@redshirt
Yes (deadlines vary by state, natch), but as it is getting on the ballot for the general, not the primaries, still plenty of time and opportunity.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Sooner or later, policy becomes paramount.
Enough of the repub side doesn’t care about real policy. And they’ve already heard about all the policy they do care about.
Anne Laurie
@NotMax:
Old Irish proverb: Heaven won’t have him, and Hell doesn’t want him!
Chris
@Kay:
I never realized this till you wrote it, but yeah. That explains a ton of the Trump phenomenon. They’re RWAs. They’re drawn to abrasive, blustering bullies, whose personalities they equate with strength. Trump has everyone beat on that count.
NotMax
@efgoldman
Put up a pic for you on the thread wherein we were talking music.
Kropadope
@redshirt:
Well, we are a little more than 14 months away from the election still.
Mom Says I'm Handsome
@Right to Rise: I miss Bruce.
Ruckus
@Chris:
This why so many of their dirty tricks have worked so well over the years, their side not only expects them, they demand them. T Rump is a dirty trick all on his own, without doing anything but opening his mouth.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
Yeah, after the election.
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
If you’ve never heard it, give the anti-McCarthy radio play The Investigator a listen sometime.
You’ll like it.
David Koch
@Iowa Old Lady:
/fixed
catclub
Report: Man Killed At Penn. Courthouse Was White House Fence Jumper
The first comment was that mental health care in the US needs work.
NotMax
@NotMax
Bad linky. Me fix.
Matt McIrvin
@NotMax: Got it.
For a long time, because it squared with my experience of family members, I thought that NH’s slow leftward drift was because of the southern part of the state being in the political orbit of Boston.
That’s wrong, though; if you look at election maps, those people are some of the Tea Partiest people in the state! They’re suburban/exurban folk seeking lower taxes. Though if they have jobs in Massachusetts, they have to pay Mass. income tax anyway, so it may not actually make sense for them. The most Democratic parts of the state are rural, so in that sense it’s probably a lot like Vermont.
NotMax
@efgoldman
Powerful satire. Informative article on its background at the same link.
If you listen all the way to the end, will understand why AL’s mention of the Irish proverb triggered the impulse to bring it up.
Debbie
@rikyrah:
This despicable act proves why it’s vital to keep the GOP from watering down or otherwise weakening the CFPB. These animals will never learn until they’re permanently sent up the river.
Calouste
@goblue72:
If you vote for a candidate whose only political experience is losing a Senate race by double digits, you are a nutbar.
NotMax
@efgoldman
My parents owned the LP and would host listening parties. But all there felt it had to be done so furtively that the drapes were closed tight and the lights dimmed.
goblue72
@Calouste: Indication of rank stupidity, sure. But not necessarily straight nutbar.
Calouste
@NotMax: Gary Johnson dropped out of the GOP primaries in december 2011 and was the Libertarian Party candidate in the 2012 election. He got 1% of the vote, how much do you think Trump will get in that scenario?
NotMax
@efgoldman
The YOOGE party.
“Classy, not assy.”
:)
@Calouste
Any percentage he pries away from voting R is a plus.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: The Trump Party!
Calouste
@efgoldman: I’ll have “Freedom Party” in the pool.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
It’ll be the Make America Great Again party.
Already has the hats and T-shirts.
Bookmakers have Mingobat Party at 5000 to 1. :)
snetzky
@IowaOldLady want to invite you to join Progressive Minds of Iowa on Facebook. We have lunch once a month and talk progressive politics. One of our members, Kim Weaver, is taking on Steve King this election.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
And yet, if anyone dared to suggest that there should be federal/national standards for driving ability and vehicle roadworthiness, let alone citizenship/residency requirements for voting, we’d all go deaf from the screams of “State’s Rights!!!”
The Pale Scot
@jl:
Facts not in evidence.
The Pale Scot
@goblue72:
And a lot of those shale plays are financed with junk bonds, speculators that bought them on margin are going to get hosed.
Cue video of the world’s tiniest violin.
Duane
Applejinx
Trump go bankrupt? Trump will never go bankrupt again. The wingnut nutballs will literally throw money at him given the slightest opportunity. He’s really pulling it off, this guy. Breathtaking.
There’s no way he won’t be the Republican nominee because he’ll absolutely run a HYOOOGE third party campaign, and he’s clearly getting into his act hook line and sinker. This guy has never, ever had this much ‘narcissistic supply’. Not only that, count on him dominating the wingnut discourse after he loses: no ‘Romney sadly pumps his own gas’ photos for Trump.
He really does represent something. Too bad it’s a shitty something.
Want some political porn? Imagine Trump, who’s held all sorts of political positions and has no real ethos, running either R or I and losing, and ending up afterwards holding ALL the wingnut cards but hating the R establishment with an undying, vindictive passion. They are so fucked: their only hope is to become a pure Trump subsidiary and go down with his ship. Thanks to Trump, the Republican Party as we know it is over. He’s running against them as much as he’s running against the Democrats, and he’s winning. If they dare to fuck with him their world will be a sea of glass.
Then, you might see Trump dragging out some of his old opinions like singlepayer government health care. He might come out all in favor of Basic Income (throw out all the bureaucratic welfare stuff and just cut everybody a HYOOGE check). Who pays? All the OTHER 0.001%ers who didn’t support him for President! He’s going to have a massive grudge against his class.
There are, shall we say, possibilities here if you look beyond the election. America could end up holding all the cards, globally, in a world where our hard-left and hard-right turn to classic Keynsian remedies and everybody else is still playing the old dead Republican austerity games. We’re already doing better than most thanks to Obama and our inability to commit to Eurozone austerity.
Larv
@Kay:
This is what Josh Marshall has coined the “Republicans’ Bitch-Slap theory of electoral politics.”