Does Hillary get to go on Fox for a discussion of Cheney's war crimes? pic.twitter.com/tPeLfJgnuL
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) September 1, 2015
"Just as one president has left a path of destruction in his wake, one president can rescue us."-Dick Cheney, 8/29/15 http://t.co/lKLZS44FZY
— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) August 29, 2015
Ensuring this monster a permanent place in America’s political discourse was not the least of Dubya’s crimes against humanity.
Apart from the ongoing battle, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Right to Rise
Here’s the upside for Jeb in the latest polls: all his mainstream rivals are disintegrating.
Chris Christie? Now at two percent! Same with Rick Perry, Jindal. Walker, once thought to be Jeb’s biggest threat, is on life support. Only Rubio truly poses a threat to Bush, and that will all come down to Florida. Trust me, when it comes to having Florida in the bag, Jeb has it down pat.
Kasich is a slight worry but expanding ObamaCare is not what Republican voters want to hear in 2016.
As all the mainstream GOP candidates collapses and drop out due to lack of funds (heard it through the grapevine that the Kochs are thinking of cutting their losses with Walker already!) it will become Jeb vs. Trump, with Jeb taking the far bigger part of the party, especially as the big post-March 15th States swing into play.
Buckle up! It’s going to be an exciting ride, but in the end Jeb will pull this thing out. Trump can’t keep it up forever, and he can’t win in the Big Boy primaries post-March 15th.
Baud
@Right to Rise:
That’s actually excellent news, troll. At this point, most of us would like to see Jeb! in the general.
SatanicPanic
@Right to Rise:
Color me skeptical
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Good god
So the internet suggests to me that the biggest story out the HRC’s emails is some gossip about Sid Blumenthal, but I was just reading Pierce and apparently the newly neutered MSNBC daytime crew (Chuck and Andrea) still has Serious Questions. I don’t have many good things to say about Geraldo Rivera, but when Al Capone’s safe turned out to be empty, he said it was empty and walked away.
Right to Rise
@Baud:
Once the general starts Jeb is going to have a tremendous, incredible amount of corporate funding.
Now, if Romney gets in the primary, things could get real interesting real fast. Loyalties will be very divided among the donor class.
Right to Rise
@SatanicPanic:
Trump can’t be the nominee.
The donors won’t stand for it.
SatanicPanic
@Right to Rise: What power do they have?
SatanicPanic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I agree with Cheney. Obama did a great job cleaning up after Bush and Cheney.
Mike in NC
Cheney was both a leading architect of the disastrous Iraq debacle, and somebody who made millions of dollars from it. Few of history’s other war criminals could make that kind of boast.
American Exceptionalism at work!
Brachiator
@Right to Rise:
Didn’t some former model come forward and declare that yes, Trump can keep it up forever?
Baud
@Right to Rise:
Yes he will. My opinion stands.
RK
Who’s Bob Schooley and why is he always cited? Hillary should go on CNN and apologize for voting for a war out of political expediency then beg forgiveness for all the dead and maimed she played a part in.
beltane
@Brachiator: Marla Maples, the wife in the middle said that. It was over twenty years ago so maybe things have changed since then.
Betty Cracker
@Right to Rise: I sure hope you’re right — it would be such a fitting capstone to the Bush family’s catastrophic participation in American public life if its second-string scion got humiliatingly whupped by a girl!
Baud
@efgoldman:
Picking the right clown isn’t easy. Reasonable people can differ.
Benw
Someone who started a literal firestorm that killed thousands will now discuss a figurative (and pretty hypothetical at this point) firestorm about emails.
Betty Cracker
@beltane: I remember when people used to joke about Ivana being the only Czech the Donald ever bounced. That was a long time ago too.
karen marie
No, I would say all credit goes to the “journalists” who keep asking his opinion and publishing it.
Right to Rise
@SatanicPanic:
The power of funding.
If Trump comes anywhere close to sniffing the nomination, the ultimate Super PAC will form, one formed by the combined forces of all the billionaire donors to swiftboat Trump so fast his head will spin. Imagine, if you will, a Super PAC backed by the combined funding of the Kochs, Richard DeVos, Sheldon Adelson, Charles Schwab, Steve Wynn, Ken Griffin, Paul Singer, and Philip Anschutz, among others, all united in the express purpose of sinking Trump. Negative ad after negative ad after negative ad, viral ‘anti-marketing’ campaigns, front blogs, perhaps even a specially funded anti-Trump book and feature movie documentary, anti-Trump infomercials on primetime network TV. All done by Madison Avenue’s finest.
It will be the ultimate negative ad campaign, the supreme swiftboating, a demonstration of ultimate power such as politics has never seen.
When he declared war on the “hedge fund guys” the other day, that’s the day the Trump campaign ended folks. Trump doesn’t stand a chance.
You don’t want to go to war with the donors.
SatanicPanic
@efgoldman: I don’t like possibility that a bunch of Trump supporters will get agitated and go beat on random Latinos though
Tom Q
Doesn’t our Bush shill find it discomfiting that these mainstream candidates are collapsing, yet Bush’s numbers never seem to go up? The vast bulk of the poll shares at this point go to the truly-crazies: Trump, Carson, Cruz, Huckabee. Even counting Walker as somehow not-loony-right (something I refuse to do), the establishment-acceptable share of the vote is way inferior. Where are Bush’s extra votes supposed to come from? Carson?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@karen marie: YEah, I’ll say that for the Shrubb, he’s mostly kept quiet, even if I suspect it’s only out of laziness, and maybe Bar growled at him to keep his head down for Jebbie’s sake. Cheney’s continued presence on your TeeVee is due to that magical beltway combination of Broderism and Daddy Issues (he speaks in complete sentences in a deep voice, and wears a suit!)
RK
@Right to Rise: Dawned on me yesterday that most of the money and powers that be will do what’s necessary to get the votes from those that will eventually drop out/get pushed out of the race. I said from the beginning Bush would win because money, name recognition and the powerful almost always rule the day.
Calouste
@Right to Rise: Bush3 is behind Trump in the last 2 polls in Florida, and is now polling around 5th in Iowa and New Hampshire. Trump has demolished him.
Mike in NC
WaPo ran an article over the weekend about the deep disdain and ongoing feud between Trump and the Bush crime family, dating back many years. Trump has a yoooouge chip on his shoulder and will cut off poor mama’s boy JEB! at the knees.
Right to Rise
@Calouste:
Trump hasn’t truly faced the wrath of the donors yet. See above.
They’re furious over his attacks on the carried interest loophole. Trump did himself in with that.
JPL
@Tom Q: Math is hard!
Cacti
Have to agree with Paul Begala’s take that Cheney has been Obama’s secret weapon in mustering Democratic Congressional support for the Iran deal.
Brachiator
Poster barney recently noted that yesterday was Van Morrison’s 70th birthday. Turns out that Van the Man performed in East Belfast on Cyprus Avenue (still a beautiful area).
bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-34101711
You can catch an audio of the concert here, at the BBC site, along with links to pictures, a broadcast of Van’s 70 best songs from BBC Radio Ulster, and a few other treats. I think this will be available for the next 28 days or so.
bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0681pb7#play
An interesting interview in the Irish Times is here.
irishtimes.com/culture/music/van/van-morrison-being-famous-is-not-great-for-the-creative-process-not…
Down on Cyprus Avenue
With the childlike visions leaping into view
Clicking clacking of the high heeled shoe
Ford and Fitzroy, Madame Joy
Wanted to throw this up now instead of later this evening since I might not be near my computers for a while.
different-church-lady
You do realize W was the passenger in that car, don’t you?
trollhattan
Somebody go grab srv so we can have our srv-RtR catfight. Rawrrrr!
bobbo
I would think if anyone actually watched CNN, this would help Hillary. Dick Cheney is held in even lower esteem by the public than his Vice President George W. Bush. He just reminds everyone how awful Republicans are.
different-church-lady
@Right to Rise: Trump needs donors why?
Ripley
Wish George H.W. had thought of that several decades back.
Right to Rise
@different-church-lady:
You don’t get it.
See my 6:01 post. The billionaire donors, as a whole, can bury Trump and destroy his image.
Turgidson
@efgoldman:
Self-funding is fine with the GOP as long as the candidate is an acceptable member of The Club. Donald is not a member in good standing, doesn’t want to be, and doesn’t give a shit what those guys think.
So, the redeeming quality of his campaign so far is that he’s willing to say all kinds of (mostly true) things about the other occupants of the Clown Car, and describe GOP dogma in ugly terms that the media is too chickenshit to say and The Club generally doesn’t want GOP candidates saying about each other.
bystander
The Dickster and his evil spawn (well, they’re actually both evil, but you know who I mean) will be on Moanin’ Joe tomorrow. Just a heads up for those who want to set their DVRs before bedtime. ?
Jeffro
Since I think most of us understand the Trump is not going to be the nominee but will hold significant power both in terms of actual votes as well as sway over a significant part of the GOP base , I think the question is: once it becomes clear he cannot win the nomination what will he extort and exchange for that? I think the only thing that he can Asfoor policy wise as for the party to adopt his immigration stance … Or he could extort a spot on the ticket as VP , or extort a spot for someone else that helps accomplish that same goal i.e. Ted Cruz. Why occupy the office when you can control the people in it and the direction of the country on your pet issue ?
Amir Khalid
@Right to Rise:
All the money in America is not going to make up for the ineptitude and halfheartedness of Jeb’s candidacy. And Jeb himself has shown no sign of fixing these problems himself. If a pile of cash attached to a nonentity can win a presidential election, as you seem to be saying, maybe the billionaires should cut out the middleman and run the pile of cash itself as a candidate.
Calouste
@Tom Q: The GOP have told there voters so many times that government is the problem, that they now consider anyone who has ever been in government a problem. Trump, Carson and Fiorina, the candidates who have never been in government, have a combined share of 45-50%. Most of that is going to go with Trump eventually.
And at the moment I consider Kasich the only non-crazy left in the race, well, until he says something off the charts as well. (Someone like Pataki is crazy just for thinking he stands a chance having been out of office for a decade or so).
Right to Rise
@Amir Khalid:
It’s not just the amount of money.
It’s how you use it.
Trump is going down, just like Kerry did.
It’s Swiftboating v. 3.0.
Brachiator
@beltane:
There was another story, as well
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3202153/Donald-Trump-AMAZING-bed-claims-former-Penthouse-Pet-presidenti…
But I was going for the punny joke more than anything else since I don’t take Right to Rise and his Jeb! nonsense seriously.
Jeffro
@Jeffro: whoops that should have said “ask for” policy wise
trollhattan
@Right to Rise:
Kinda like they did to Obama four years ago, right? Besides, which elements of Trump’s image are destroyable? That he’s not a rich, blowhard, immigrant-bashing douchenozzle with a helicopter and hawt wife? These are the things that make him go-go-go with your target demographic.
different-church-lady
@Right to Rise: Trump is winning the “fuck you” vote quite handily. Considering that the GOP has spent 30+ years cultivating the fuck you strain of their base, this means the “donors” have quite a problem on their hands. Trump doesn’t need their money, and they no longer have control of their own monster.
The Donors can throw money into negative ads against Trump or throw money at other candidates, but they can’t starve Trump and they can’t put the fuck you genie back in the bottle. At this point the most they can do is make it a dog fight and hope the fuck you vote has a ceiling somewhere soon.
agorabum
@RK: so hillary, a senator, cast an aye vote in 2002 for the AUMF. If she voted the other way, would anything have been different? Doesn’t appear so.
Also, W invaded in 2003. It was his team that committed the many screw ups (not enough occupation troops, torture, disbanding the army, poor UN protection, etc). The sins of the Bush/Cheney are not also the sins of the Hillary.
trollhattan
@Right to Rise:
All those corporations can lend Jeb a black hand, amirite?
Kay
@Right to Rise:
Yay! I’ll take Jeb or Trump so feel free to vote for either.
I heard Trump was higher energy but Jeb has that exclamation point so there’s that to consider.
Stan of the Sawgrass
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned the disappeared emails having to do with the firing and then appointment of a slew of US Attorneys who were “loyal Bushies.” That was a White House server, not some private account, though I think there were some private accounts involved as well.
Memory hole– in it goes.
Cacti
@agorabum:
Hillary was one of way too many Senate Dems (29 of 50) who voted for the Iraq AUMF.
I find it a lot more bothersome that it took her more than 12 years to describe her vote as a mistake.
Right to Rise
Feature documentary films, books (bought in bulk to become NYT bestsellers with the ghostauthors appearing on the cable
TV and Sunday shows), blogs, callers to talk radio paid to call in and shout down Trump’s talking points, even prime time infomercials. They’ll stop at nothing.
Even Rush Limbaugh’s balls are going to be twisted until he squeals and comes out against Trump.
SatanicPanic
@efgoldman: I’m not suggesting we jail Trump, I’m just saying I’d prefer a candidate who does not go around whipping up people into a frenzy for racist reasons
sukabi
@Right to Rise: that’s quite an accomplishment, to be the last to fail to earn the party’s support. Not exactly a glowing endorsement is it.
FlyingToaster
@Right to Rise:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Trump doesn’t need donors; and yet, he’s got them.
He also (like Jeb?) has a 50-state paid staff.
The traditional donors can’t get him out of the race with just money; they’ve gotta get votes in IA, NH, SC, NV. And hope and pray Trump doesn’t win all of them with a plurality.
Jeb isn’t going to win any of those. Holding out until Florida was Rudy Giuliani’s strategy.
Right to Rise
@FlyingToaster:
The donors will outspend Trump the way Reagan spent the USSR into bankruptcy.
Imagine a Super PAC with all the powers of the donors combined…
Kay
When I see Liz Cheney I think of her senate run.
Is it still accurate that the only job she’s ever had was when her dad hired her?
Turgidson
@Stan of the Sawgrass:
Ron “Severe Dementia” Fournier has decreed from his Twitter pedestal that Democrats demanding that Republicans be held to the same (idiotic) standard Hillary is being held to are “demanding false equivalence.”
Given that Ron’s entire career is based on conjuring up false equivalences and then arrogantly denying he’s doing anything of the sort, I think he knows not what the term actually means. Maybe his obvious head trauma, which causes him to write the same thing over and over and over regardless of context or facts, is also causing his vocabulary to deteriorate. That would be sad.
trollhattan
@FlyingToaster:
You mean President Rudy? How’s he doin’ these days anyway?
Had more or less forgotten about that waste of skin.
Amir Khalid
@Right to Rise:
See trollhattan’s comment #48. On what are the billionaires going to attack the Donald? His supporters actually like all the things about him that offend other voters and turn them off.
Right to Rise
@Amir Khalid:
Just wait. These are things I can’t even mention yet because it’s going to be a surprise.
It especially has to do with his divorces and bankruptcies, just as a hint. Also his Soc1alist positions.
Chyron HR
@Right to Rise:
How did hysterically shrieking “UNLIMITED! CORPORATE! CASH!” while your candidate plummeted in the polls work out for you in 2012?
Right to Rise
@Chyron HR:
If it wasn’t for Sandy, Romney wins.
It’s no secret, btw, that many are now clamoring for Mitt to enter the race. I think it would be an interesting development for sure.
beltane
@Right to Rise: Attacking Trump for his divorces and bankruptcies, the very things he is famous for, won’t work. That’s what they love about Trump.
Turgidson
@Right to Rise:
His mouthbreathing base won’t give a flying shit about those things. And so far they haven’t cared about his past “positions” either, so long as he keeps the xenophobia fire hose on full blast. But I’m all for watching a bunch of angry asshole plutocrats wasting truckloads of their money going after Trump (whether it works or not, since whatever hairball the GOP primary coughs up will lose soundly to Hillary anyway), so I’ll go ahead and make some popcorn.
Cacti
@Right to Rise:
Cool story.
Except it omits the part where Trump goes hammer and tongs after Jeb’s time at Lehman Brothers, his bailed out Savings and Loan, and the criminal records of the Jeb sprogs.
beltane
@Right to Rise: Did Mitt pay better than Bush? I heard he cancelled his staffers’ credit cards before the votes were even counted so the poor slobs couldn’t pay for their rides home.
Right to Rise
Exactly, the very things he is famous for.
Attack the strengths. It’s the way to go.
There’s more dirt on them the public is unaware of. Also all the drinking and fornication that goes on in his cas1nos evangelicals will be turned off and quite a few TV evangelists could have their palms greased enough to join in from the pulpit.
Turgidson
@Right to Rise:
Ha. OK, Dick Morris.
Right to Rise
@Turgidson:
They haven’t seen slickly produced, Madison Avenue-style ads that bring up these points.
It’s all in the messaging, baby. Soon dissing Trump will be the “in” thing to do. Just repeat the message long enough, with enough style and pizzaz, and everyone will believe it.
scav
R2R knows intimately the bedrock redblooded propensity of true patriots to sell their vote to the highest bidder — updated daily.
Kay
I love this top-secret Hillary email because is there anyone who watched Boehner and/or the House Republicans over the last two years who didn’t know this?
Also, it makes me like him a little more.
FlyingToaster
@Right to Rise:
Spend it on what? You could spend a trillion dollars trying to embarass Trump and it JUST WON’T WORK.
Anyone could spend 100K on NH tv ads talking about Bush and Terry Schaivo. Trust me, whatever support he had before will dissolve like snow into the Kankamangus. Add in Nicole, and his mexican wife, and his low energy, and your donors can sit there with their billions and wank all day long,
as god is my witnessthis turkey will not fly.Germy Shoemangler
@Turgidson: What if the billionaires drive Trump into a third party run? If they piss him off, he’ll do it!
Cacti
@Right to Rise:
How fortunate for Jeb that he lacks any strengths to attack.
Right to Rise
@Germy Shoemangler:
He will be so damaged in the public perception by the time the swiftboating is over that it won’t matter. He can take his third party campaign and go get 1% in the popular vote, and stuff it.
Baud
@Kay:
Yeah, now I’m kind of hoping they can recover the deleted emails from the server.
Amir Khalid
@Right to Rise:
There’s this famous quote from Casablanca … how does it go again?
Sourmash
@Right to Rise: you’re beyond delusional, dude. Something something will “happen so fast it will make his head spin”? Who writes like that? An unimaginative one, that’s who. Is that sort of like how Jeb! was going to mow them all down at the last debate? Jesus you’re nuts. It’s gonna be fun to watch Jeb! drive his own campaign into the ground. And your take on trump is totally flawed: your Frankenstein base loves him MORE when the powers attack him. While you’re a tedious bore, I do hope you stick around here to take your lumps and eat humble pie when you are proven wrong, but I’m sure you won’t. Your disappearance after Jebs pathetic debate performance tells us all we need to know about your character: like your hero, you have none.
Turgidson
@Right to Rise:
I won’t make any confident predictions about what will work on Trump’s current supporters. But I will say that slickly produced nonsense is exactly the sort of thing Trump’s brain-moron backers think they’re rebelling against, so there’s no good reason to believe that a bunch of plutocrats from the hated Establishment trying to Death Star Trump into oblivion (and foist another f’ing Bush on them in his place, no less) will work any better than Fox News trying to cut him down, or any of the candidates’ efforts to land a hit on him, have worked.
Gvg
Sounds like the donor class still haven’t noticed money isn’t buying wins. You need large numbers of people to win an election. a certain effective amount of money yes, but beyond that it’s useless and the donor class is too small for the same reasons as the rest of us are too poor.
Why on earth does right to rise want Jeb to win? I mean what good is he? It sounds like you are bragging “your”team will win to rivals, but this is politics. What do you think Jeb will do that will improve your life?
trollhattan
@Cacti:
Okay, I laughed.
Right to Rise
@Sourmash:
Here’s the thing: it’s not going to look like the powers that be attack him.
It’s going to be a front group anonymously funded by “concerned conservatives” or some such name. The idiot sheep will never realize its Adelson and Koch conducting the campaign from behind the scenes.
Right to Rise
@Gvg:
He’s going to get the economy moving again, reform entitlements, set America on the road to a balanced budget and restore our honor and strength on the world stage.
Entitlement reform, especially, is key. We need a grand bargain with patriotic liberals to restore fiscal sanity, only Jeb can build that bridge.
Kay
@Baud:
Right. A lot of the Hillary campaign people didn’t like the Obama campaign people. Now there’s a shocker.
Also? Chelsea Clinton is smart and tells her parents the truth about Clinton Foundation projects.
different-church-lady
@Chyron HR: Yeah, #59 was a tell if there ever was one.
beltane
@Amir Khalid: The Evangelicals love drinking and fornicating more than anyone else. People who are saved can do whatever they want with no remorse.
trollhattan
@Gvg:
This is all about a paycheck for the next fourteen months. Once the S.S. Jeb hits the shoals, RtR is out of a jerb Remember how everybody (raises hand) was a-skeert of Perry jumping in four years ago? How’s his payroll these days?.
FlyingToaster
@beltane: After all the majors called it for Obama, the credit cards were cancelled.
There were a bunch of 20-somethings left without cab money.
Turgidson
@Right to Rise:
Balanced budget? Fiscal sanity? Honor on the world stage? And you’re shilling for a candidate named Bush?
The hits keep coming.
I’m back to thinking this is DougJ.
Amir Khalid
@Right to Rise:
It’s awesome, how you think of the Republican voters who will propel Jeb to the White House as “idiot sheep”.
Right to Rise
I remember when you all “misundestimated” GWB, so keep on snarking.
Come November 2016 you won’t be snarking, and instead will be whining about the “Bush Crime Family” and how the election was “totally stolen”.
Have fun reliving the 2000s!
beltane
@FlyingToaster: At least he didn’t make them relinquish the clothes on their backs and the shoes on their feet. That would be cruel.
FlyingToaster
@Right to Rise: Idiot sheep will see it when the reality shows they watch are telling jokes about Jeb?’s campaign.
different-church-lady
@Right to Rise: “You just said economy and entitlement reform, like you playing Mad Libs. You just like a child. You have the brain of a child. You do not have a high IQ, but you haphazardly came up with a gremlin that’s just made out of bolts and is zig-zagging all over the room and is done completely in animation. You a crazy person, and your idea’s in the movie! Done. Next.”
FlyingToaster
@beltane: Those clothes probably didn’t pass Mormon muster.
trollhattan
@FlyingToaster:
Mittens was/is one cheap motherfvcker. When he was head of the SLC Olympics he’d hold meetings and charge by the slice for pizza he had delivered. He and Princess Ann and the too-busy-for-the-military spawn are so very repellent. Not a redeeming aspect to the entire clan. I wonder what dad must think?
trollhattan
@Right to Rise:
You do realize “the 2000s” include 2008, yes?
FlyingToaster
@Turgidson: Naw, it’s a paid shill. He’s never on more than 45 minutes a day, and he sticks to that day’s talking point like glue.
It’s sad that ¿Heb? has to resort to this strategy; but he’s got dick-all appeal to the 99%.
Gvg
@Right to Rise: How is he going to get the economy moving again? balance the budget….you mean like his brother unbalanced it? restore America’s honor…you mean like turn him war criminal torturing brother over to The Hague? If he would pledge to do that I might actually consider voting for him. the loss of our honor due to his brother will make me hate the GOP. I don’t think you get how serious that is. torture, grrrr. spit!
and I think that is really why Jeb bush is tanking it the polls. people have not actually forgotten nor forgiven lots of things. torture is my reason for hating the family. other people have a different order. If Jeb had been advising his brother not to do these things or breaking from his brother, he might stand a chance. As it is, he should never have entered the race. Proves he is getting unbelievably bad advice. Just like his brother.
Gvg
@Right to Rise: How is he going to do that? balance the budget….you mean like his brother unbalanced it? restore America’s honor…you mean like turn him war criminal torturing brother over to The Hague? If he would pledge to do that I might actually consider voting for him. the loss of our honor due to his brother will make me hate the GOP. I don’t think you get how serious that is. torture, grrrr. spit!
and I think that is really why Jeb bush is tanking it the polls. people have not actually forgotten nor forgiven lots of things. torture is my reason for hating the family. other people have a different order. If Jeb had been advising his brother not to do these things or breaking from his brother, he might stand a chance. As it is, he should never have entered the race. Proves he is getting unbelievably bad advice. Just like his brother.
gf120581
Folks, don’t feed the conservative troll who lurks out here. You just encourage him.
It’s weird, though. I didn’t think we’d ever find someone who’s passionate for JEB! of all people. Hell, even JEB! doesn’t seem too thrilled about his run.
Although with that nonsense about Mitt, I’m starting to wonder if he’s actually Jennifer Rubin.
Sourmash
@Right to Rise: so all these slickly produced Madison ave, direct mails, greasy palmed preachers are all gonna have a different trump story to sell? No way are you or they that creative. And where, pray tell, will all this swiftboatin’ be done? Books, films, teevee, radio, newspapers? You said yourself they are all idiot sheep, and will see it all as “the liberal media” attacking trump. Jesus you don’t get it. You’ve driven the base so deep into the ditch that all they can see is the enemy.
different-church-lady
@gf120581: Really, if this forum were made up of cats, none of them would know how to toy with a mouse properly.
sm*t cl*de
Someone watched way too much Voltron.
sm*t cl*de
@beltane:
Beltane has filled my mind with images of a Trump threesome. Go directly to hell. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.
WaterGirl
Do we know anything about how Major Major Major Major’s surgery went today?
Germy Shoemangler
@FlyingToaster:
C’mon! It’s pure comedy. What paid shill would call GOP voters idiot sheep?
Baud
@WaterGirl:
He’s on the west coast, so it may still be too early for a report.
Iowa Old Lady
@Baud: And since they were removing a growth from his brain, he might not be up to read BJ today either.
On another topic, just looking at the Cheneys makes me grind my teeth. They are terrible people.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady:
But that’s the best time to read BJ.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Drugs make the comments fun, anyway!
Major Major, thinking of you. And I’m certain that I am not alone in that.
scav
Well, I’ll throw it in the (likely dead) open, really don’t want this hanging under Thurston in Stylish Elizabethan RuffRuff.
Georgia police shoot man and kill his dog after responding to wrong house
WaterGirl
Way to let someone take over a thread! Nearly 50% of this thread i made up of comments and replies to the same person.
Mike in NC
The notion that a bunch of greedy billionaires are capable of running a stealth campaign to denigrate Trump in front of his loyal followers wouldn’t qualify as the plot of a bad Batman movie.
FlyingToaster
@WaterGirl: Oh, a few of us have been waiting for the paid shill to turn up so that we could have some fun with it.
See #107 :)
WaterGirl
@FlyingToaster: I have never understood the “fun with trolls” thing.
Mike G
And Dick was manipulating and running the show while his lazy ass went mountain biking and read children’s books.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
I do find the desperation of the Republicans to be fascinating. They empowered the crazy billionaires, they pumped their voters full of hate, and now they’re watching in dismay as the monster they built breaks his bonds and goes stomping off to the village.
Trump doesn’t give a shit what anyone says or thinks about him. He’s been a celebrity for 30 years. Unless the Republicans have photos of him fucking baby goats, there’s nothing they can show us that Trump hasn’t already revealed.
scav
@WaterGirl: Does it help if you imagine them as political cuttlebone? Somewhere between handy for beak health, calcium defiency and cheap catharsis. Some of them come with little bells.
Emma
@Amir Khalid: The winner and still champeen!
smintheus
Cheney on the Clinton email controversy?! He has jumped a new shark. Does he think we don’t remember his “fourth branch” comments? You know, when he was arguing that the Vice President’s office was not subject to the Executive Order mandating the entire Executive branch to maintain and hand over records of their activities for preservation by the Library of Congress?
Bex
@Sourmash: OMG idiot sheep. Do you think it’s Carly?
NonyNony
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Even if evidence of goat fucking was presented, Trump would likely double down, insist that goat fucking was a great old American pasttime, and insist that Jeb! sucks precisely because he’d never fucked a goat.
His numbers would probably go up 2-3 points and Scott Walker would come out in favor of fucking both goats and sheep within a day.
different-church-lady
@WaterGirl: Well, here’s my attempt at explaining it.
Political trolls want you to respond with an earnest answer. Ignoring them does no good, because (a) you concede the field to them and (b) they just keep at it until someone takes the bait. So the starvation technique always breaks down eventually.
But in light of the fact that they crave an earnest rise from their target, I think the best strategy is to mock them in completely disingenuous ways. The secret is to go completely away from the subject they’re fixated on and just go complete Groucho Marx on their ass. I emphasize Groucho, because the key to Groucho’s humor was that the audience got the joke, but the target was always completely clueless about it.
Eventually the troll is “starved” of what he wants and goes off in a minute-and-a-huff, but everyone else is amused.
rikyrah
@Right to Rise:
Now this made me laugh.
Jeb will win on the privatization of Social Security and Medicare?
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@scav:
If they thought they were responding to a burglary call, why the FUCK would they kill the dog? Burglars don’t bring dogs with them.
trollhattan
@NonyNony:
Not without pointing out at least three times that Reagan LURVED goat-fucking and also, too, “It’s about freedom.”
Comparing Scott Walker to a box of rocks seems unfair to rocks. And boxes. This guy is a complete hump.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
I had completely forgotten that Liz abandoned her Senate run because “serious health issues have recently arisen in our family.”
Not that it’s any of my business, but is it known what those “serious health issues” were? Apparently nothing to do with Daddy’s “heart.” I don’t think I ever saw a follow-up.
trollhattan
Bristol Palin has comments on Obama’s Alaska visit. TBogg has advice for Bristol Palin. Hilarity ensues.
WereBear
I’m starting to wonder if people vote for Republicans because they are afraid of them.
Right to Rise
Scott Walker is an utter and total embarrassment. Weak, wavering, and whiny.
A hot-shot Division I QB who does nothing but throw interceptions and fumble away possessions while getting concussed at the “pro” (Presidential) level.
Walker is the RGIII of the GOP.
Schlemazel
@WaterGirl:
He is propbaly not feeling up to posting yet. I am hoping he will pop up on the morning open thread/
ksmiami
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Yes and as an added bonus, Trump wants to keep Social Security and Medicare – not reform entitlements which is WHY his support is growing and the Jeb is looking like a pasty ass hangover from the 90s. Old, white GOPers like those programs mr. Right to be Risible. Good luck with your docker wearing Plutocrat…
catclub
@SatanicPanic: with enough blue pills, who knows.
RK
The question is how things shape up when candidates start dropping out. Trump leads but with a plurality so the question becomes how to narrow the field and pick up those votes. With a full court press Bush should be able to overtake Trump one would think even if Bush isn’t the best candidate. I’d be really surprised to see the Trump smoke and mirrors show triumphant. We’ll see.
Anne Laurie
@Right to Rise: Jeez, what some people will do for money.
Adelson and the Kochs are the ones propping up Scotty Walker’s campaign because they hate Jeb & his backers so much. They’re desperate for an Apple to stand against the Bush cabal’s Microsoft, and they’re not real fussy — they said months ago that they’ll throw their funds behind whichever guy takes the lead, as long as it’s not Jeb, who was pointedly the only Repub candidate not invited to their meet’n’greet.
If somehow Jeb’s Establishment backers push him to the front of the queue eventually, I can see David, Charles & Sheldon taking their dollars home to sulk. I can even see them spending some of those dollars, grudgingly, on The Donald (if only for revenge). But Jeb getting their money… that, I can’t see.
So… in your wildest dreams, a leaden sulky three-times-no-charm Jeb limps into the general, facing Hillary Clinton (and possibly a third-party spite challenge from Trump). With his existing support leaking away, and no help from the Heartland(tm) faction of the GOP donor base. He’d get beaten like a rented mule, and I honestly suspect the 2016 “October surprise” would be Jeb! quitting the race in a flaming snit, leaving whichever luzer signed up as his veep to stand pantsless in front of the audience. Nice!
Just make sure you cash out your debit card quick, dude, cuz your last installment will come in worthless JEB! t-shirts and beer koozies.
BruceFromOhio
DougJ, is that you?
weaselone
@Right to Rise:
So in other words, he’s going to take credit for the things Obama has already done in his Inauguration speech and then screw over the retired people who voted for him.
Sophist
@Right to Rise:
@Right to Rise:
@Right to Rise:
You keep saying this, but you never say how they’ll make this happen, and you are glossing over a couple of sticky details.
Firstly, what is there that you could say about Trump that would make his supporters leave him? How do you destroy the image of a racist clownish blowhard asshole? People have been throwing dirt on Trump for decades. What is there left to say about him that isn’t already a cliche? Trump’s image come’s pre-destroyed.
Secondly, unlike with Kerry, they don’t just need his supporters to stop supporting him, they also need them to turn out in the general. They didn’t have to worry about alienating or discouraging Kerry supporters, but they sure as hell do when it comes to Trump. So not only do they have to figure out a way to take out Trump, they have to do it in a manner that doesn’t poison the well for Jeb? to boot. Trump supporters are the people who talk shit about the “Republican Elite” and the “Republican Establishment”. How exactly do you think they’ll react to the wealthy donor class jamming the knife in Trump’s back, or the candidate on whose behalf said dagger was planted? This will just confirm for them that the whole process is corrupt and beyond salvation. Not exactly the disposition that gets people to the polls.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Right to Rise:
Nobody here besides you and RK really cares who gets the R nomination aside from wanting to see the Donald looking like a fucking fool for a while longer.
The positive side is that we like to watch any republican look like a fucking fool, and Jeb plays the part well.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Right to Rise:
Kerry won the nomination, dipshit.
Bobby Thomson
@Jeffro:
Show your work.
Bobby Thomson
@Kay: I know, right?
redshirt
Damn, you all are so easily trolled.
Note to self: If you want to be popular on BJ, just troll.
NonyNony
@redshirt: To be fair, R2R is pretty much the funniest poster around here. I think Cole should make him a front-pager.
Keith P.
Well at least Jeb! tries to claim that he’s his own person. I think the only time I have seen Liz Cheney interviewed without Daddy at her side is when Daddy was having his heart replaced.
FlyingToaster
@NonyNony: Wasn’t one Freddie de Boer enough?
Ruckus
@Gvg:
Could be like a person I know who is a personal friend of GWB and thinks he is one great person and was one of the best presidents. This was on FB. His second sentence stated that if anyone didn’t agree with him they could unfriend him. I didn’t need to get to the end of the first sentence before I had hit the button.
pseudonymous in nc
Right to Shite is the reason why pie filters exist.
The Republic of Stupidity
@Right to Rise:
I thought that’s what Viagra was for…
Duane
@Brachiator: @different-church-lady:
Sherparick
@SatanicPanic: I was thinking the same thing. I know the rest of the world just dreads the kind of “leadership” Cheney provided during the first 5 years of the Bush Administration. The last three years of Bush (with Rice and Gates) and all of Obama has been one vast clean-up.
By the way, between Health Care, the Iran Deal, and a six year recovery despite the Confederates (I no longer call them Republicans) best efforts at sabotage, America is Great Again due to Obama.
Sherparick
@Right to Rise: Its so nice to have outright defender of the divine right of plutocrats/aristocrats to rule the rest of us on the blog. This was the great thing about Ayn Rand. Before her, the rich at times felt a little guilty about destroying nature and ripping off the public. Hence, Andrew Carnegie funding all those public libraries and Rockerfeller creating his foundation, etc. Now they glory in being sociopaths! The “right to rise” by being ruthless enough to put your boots down on someone else’s head as you climb the greasy pole. It also helps when you wer born at home plate like JEB! and think you hit a home run.
Jeb “You can rise like me, or Donald Trump. First, make sure you are born the son of a multimillionaire, or in my case, the grandson and great grandson of multimillionaires, who made their millions with some pretty sharp dealings.”
I personally love the irony of the fact that the Kochs’ paterfamilias made his big fortune helping Joe Stalin develop Soviet Oil during the late twenties and thirties, the very height of Stalin’s “Great Terror.”
Not quite the quote in French, but it should be: “Behind every great fortune there is a crime.” Balzac, Pere Goiriot.