.@realDonaldTrump says he could shoot people and still wouldn't lose voters https://t.co/sksGrgJngJ pic.twitter.com/8YIr5Qgkqx
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 23, 2016
Well, other than the voters he shot. https://t.co/tHIpQr6LS1
— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 23, 2016
So, he's Dick Cheney https://t.co/G58okRXxH9
— laura olin (@lauraolin) January 23, 2016
Actually, given recent precedent, he’d probably spike to 45% https://t.co/LYgYKerQgG
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) January 23, 2016
Depends on the color of who he shoots. https://t.co/G3xY6CHlrC
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) January 23, 2016
TRUMP: Guys, I'm running out of outrageous things to say. STAFF: Maybe compliment Hitler? TRUMP: Not yet. For now… https://t.co/gpBxd6afX3
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) January 23, 2016
Ted Cruz is visiting Chuck Grassley's hometown of New Hartford today. Chuck Grassley is at a Trump rally two hours away.
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 23, 2016
That's not the point. Grassley normalizes Trump, mainstreams his candidacy. Other candidates don't need that https://t.co/76WReM0Elb
— James Pethokoukis (@JimPethokoukis) January 23, 2016
@DanielLarison I think nominating Trump destroys the GOP as a national party.
— James Joyner (@DrJJoyner) January 23, 2016
I agree, but it's fascinating that GOP leaders have decided that this isn't true. https://t.co/zV4UuVSQCt
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) January 23, 2016
I wonder who will write the October 2016 National Review editorial endorsing Donald Trump?
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) January 23, 2016
NotMax
For those who missed it earlier, he’s riffing (it seems) from this piece in New Yorker earlier in the week.
schrodinger's cat
If Trump is so odious why are we giving him oxygen? I am going to continue ignore him until he wins a primary or caucus.
J R in WV
Today a friend who lives in North Carolina called to see how we were doing in the Snowmaggedon; we’re fine and enjoying the quiet.
He told me that Western Illinois U had been holding mock presidential campaigns for years, first the primaries and then the general election, and that they had a 100% accuracy level since 1975 (earlier at other schools).
This year’s mock election was last November, and Bernie Sanders beat ?Jeb? Bush. 400 electorial votes to 100 odd.
Here’s the press release: WIU Press Release !
And here’s a Chicago news story about it: NBC Chicago!
Pretty strange. I was invited to a neighborhood Bernie “Feel the Bern” party tonight, but the snow is 18 inches deep. So I got no where to go tonight.
redshirt
@schrodinger’s cat: I doubt Trump reads BJ.
Baud
@J R in WV:
Jeb?
Culture of Truth
Both sides do it
Litlebritdifrnt
Trump posted a tweet this evening linking to an article that said that the NRO was doomed. His tweet said “I love making correct predictions” or something like that. The article from “The Week” was dated January 30, 2014. I responded to his tweet “Nostradamus you are not”
NotMax
@Baud
At this point, Jeb’s goal in life seems to be getting hired to revive William Miller’s old gig shilling for American Express.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@NotMax: Rubio says it’s a bad idea for Donald to shoot people on 5th Avenue.
“A bad idea”. “I wouldn’t recommend that.”
:-/
sheesh.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mike J
If Trump shot somebody on 5th Avenue (as he said in the full quote), it would probably be a Jew. Wouldn’t cost him any votes.
NotMax
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Such a courageous, bold stand.
Everyone knows you shoot ’em on the Bowery, or Hell’s Kitchen. ;)
NotMax
@Mike J
Or hire a Jewish hit man.
“I can off him for you wholesale.”
*hangs head in shame*
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: some of us have bills to pay…
redshirt
@NotMax: *Outsources hit to Mexico for 1/3rd the cost.
J R in WV
@Baud:
Yeah, that’s what they found, won the nomination, lost the election worse than his Dad, GHW Bush, did his re-election.
Sweet if that’s what happens. Read the links, amazing, really.
ETA fix typos.
Baud
@NotMax: Oy vay.
ruemara
Please. The empirical evidence says that if he shot someone brown, he’d be lauded as a savior and made king for life.
Baud
@J R in WV:
If he won the nomination, I can see him losing that badly. I just can’t see him winning the nomination.
Schlemazel
@NotMax:
Actually both those places are gentrified so he’d be popping an upscale white person most likely. Now it is true, he would be shooting a New Yorker so almost all of his followers would think that was OK.
“New Yorkers, you A-rabs can’t kill em thats our job!”
redshirt
To be serious for a moment, we all know some of Trump’s followers would cheer literal mass shootings into ditches that the victims dug themselves. Make them pay for it.
Have we always been on this edge, or is this truly new?
David *Born in the USA* Koch
I love watching the circular firing squad. It’s like the ending of “Reservoir Dogs”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
my favorite Trumpia of the last few days
David *Born in the USA* Koch
@redshirt: @redshirt: No. It’s not new.
redshirt
@David *Born in the USA* Koch: I am enjoying what Trump is doing to the Republican Party, but it’s getting more and more like actual “playing with fire”.
David *Born in the USA* Koch
@NotMax: As Trump recently said, Jews know how to build a gas station.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Meanwhile, in serious reformiconland, the problem in New York is that there aren’t enough guns
Is it, indeed, almost impossible to “even” have a gun in New York? Or only if you say it’s for protecting your family?
redshirt
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Obviously, if there were more guns in NYC there’d be a lot less shootings.
#RUBIOGUNTRUTHS
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I think this thing is going to his head badly. I don’t know how it’ll end, but my guess is it’ll be ugly.
Baud
Everyone wants to be Baud!
Schlemazel
@David *Born in the USA* Koch:
It could have been worse, he could have told the Jewish group it was the Germans that new how to build gas stations.
ThresherK
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I understand they replaced the stock image of a Soviet soldier with this American military man.
the Conster
It’s entertaining to watch the Wingnut Voltron trying to bring down the rampaging Frankenstein monster with keyboard kommands. He’s exposed all of them as the impotent whiny babymen they are, and not one of them can do anything about him. Especially Glenn Beck who has totally lost the plot. He had a whole career grifting the same rubes that follow Trump now, because Trump doesn’t need to grift them. Not sure how it all ends for Trump, but he’s on a trajectory that will probably be Shakespearean in its arc.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Reuters story about Trump’s comments and so forth:
Oooh. That might be really good. I hope she gets deep under his skin and twists the knife a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
ThresherK
@NotMax: Sure, if you want the Dead End Kids or the Jets and Sharks all on your ass.
redshirt
@the Conster: Well said. It’s a thing of beauty, maybe the more so since it has an edge of actual danger.
different-church-lady
At this point I wouldn’t count on it.
Pogonip
@redshirt: He has people to do that for him.
Mike J
@Baud: Will preznit baud give me turkee?
Baud
@Mike J: One in every pot.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Preznit baud give ppl pot?
Schlemazel
@Baud:
turkey AND pot! I’m sold
Baud 2016!
EDIT: @Omnes Omnibus: great minds & all
dmsilev
@David *Born in the USA* Koch: Or the ending of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Except that The Good appears not to exist.
redshirt
@Pogonip: I doubt that.
At least I want to doubt that. Heaven help us all if this blog is being Oppo researched.
scav
wouldn’t be unduly surprised if some of his supporters just run out into the streets and shooting voters just to voice their support. The rock-solid, patriotic, ‘merca-first, family-friendly, cradle-rocking, conservative holy-rollers are ready to drill baby drill.
BR
I still believe that what we need to see is a liberal / progressive / Democratic leader or two need to sincerely start complimenting Trump for various things and talking about how much they like him, etc. Attacking him feeds his strength. If Al Gore were to suddenly start giving high-profile interviews about how much he likes Trump, it would really mess with Trump’s argument to GOP primary voters. That needs to happen now, rather than 6 months from now.
the Conster
@redshirt:
It is dangerous – Trump’s followers are delusional zealots. I feel like even though I’m in a safely blue state, I’m not going to be nearly far enough away to avoid the Trump implosion fallout.
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Remember, Rubio is the one who claimed he spent Christmas Day buying a gun to “protect his family against ISIS”.
Schlemazel
@dmsilev:
The Bad, the Stupid and the Ugly!
Its a nine-way standoff and everyone is cheering for multiple injuries all around! The most pleasant thing about this so far is that the goppers have unleashed the slime on each other, it is going to be harder to say worse about Bernie or Hil than they have been saying about each other.
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: I said some of us have bills to pay.
magurakurin
@J R in WV:
That sounds creepy. The whole Bernie Sanders “feeling the bern” thing is creeping me out. Too much cult of personality for my tastes. He’s just another politician. Full stop.
I hope Clinton wins Iowa and things settle down a bit.
dmsilev
@Schlemazel: Deciding which candidate goes into which category is hard. Trump is certainly on Team Ugly, that’s for sure.
redshirt
@the Conster: It’s only dangerous if Trump wins or somehow has down ticket coat tails – which I don’t see either happening. Just the opposite. As for his followers after his electoral defeat? Just some more white dudes we won’t call terrorists.
We can deal with that peacefully. Right?
Cacti
Trump’s right. About the only thing he could do to alienate the wingnut base at this point is declare his love for Allah, or say Reagan was overrated.
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: 1/4? How low can hired hits go? Surely there’s a Laotian prepared to underbid whatever you offer?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: There’s only one Baud.
Patricia Kayden
Trump is saying the craziest things he can think of and yet cannot drop out of the race. What will it take for the media to finally call his bluff? He doesn’t have the demeanor or experience to lead the most powerful country in the world. And he keeps showing us this every single day. It’s almost like he’s shouting “Somebody please stop me!”
Mike J
@the Conster:
I assure you, there is no such thing as a state blue enough to get away from right wing violence. The Pacific Northwest, so famously liberal they make sitcoms about how liberal we are, has huge concentrations of white supremacists.
There is no place that doesn’t have them.
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: So are you saying there is something to this immigrants and offshoring cutting honest American labor?//
the Conster
@redshirt:
Trump ‘s found great success in mining that vein of low info xenophobic authoritarians who don’t ever go away – he’s a marketing genius. He’s giving red meat to that ravening horde, and since they’re constantly voracious, if he doesn’t keep feeding them, they’ll find the next one who will. Who no doubt will be quick to appear to push them further into madness. Having that many lunatics among us is not good.
different-church-lady
@magurakurin: When they have these parties, which bit of him do they feel?
Schlemazel
@dmsilev:
Yeah, many, the dumpster fire included, fall into 2 or more of the 3 catagories!
Mike J
Guy dressed as RCMP outside Cruz event in Iowa.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Patricia Kayden: He’s got a glass jaw. Remember him whining last year when he fell behind in Iowa?
When he can’t spin a competition as a win for him, he’ll see it as damaging his brand. That’s what matters most to him. Then he’ll have to do something besides talk about how great he is and how everyone else is weak. What? Who knows. But getting out is a possibility then.
Cheers,
Scott.
the Conster
@Mike J:
Yeah. White supremacists suck.
redshirt
@the Conster: True, but there’s something to be said for bleeding out the poison. We are progressing as a nation. As a world, even. There will be retrograde forces, and we must deal with them. Trump’s drawing blood, and I think this will turn out to be a good for our country. Maybe in a longer run.
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: There’s always someone cheaper in this small world, afterall.
redshirt
That’s why there will be no FULL COMMUNISM until we are a post scarcity planet – meaning everyone on Earth has their needs met and the global economy is truly global – a worker in rural Uruguay makes the same as Inuit Tax Professional.
Till then, there will always be assholes.
Fair Economist
@Patricia Kayden:
The whole Trump business is getting increasingly surreal. This latest bit about “I could shoot somebody down and get away with it” is honest-to-Betsy Fascist fascist, not even the neofascist and fascist lite that infests the world these days. This all makes less and less sense. Does he really believe all this stuff? Is it really the yuuugest ratfuck in history? Is he going senile like Scalia? This is getting ridiculous enough that if you dreamed it you’d wake up from realizing how nonsensical it all is.
Seriously, if a year ago, somebody had said “I had a dream where Donald Trump ran for President on expelling 11 million people from America, bragged that he could mow down people on the street and ended up with an overwhelming lead in the Republican primary.” what would you have said? Probably something like “that’s a really CRAZY dream!”
the Conster
@redshirt:
I still have this fantasy that at some point soon Trump will get tired or bored with all the hard work, admits it was all a giant reality show marketing scheme that went off the rails, tells his followers that they’re all a bunch of idiot gullible rubes and to go home in shame and disgrace.
Suzanne
We actually got to the point where that party is so fucked up that one of them suggested killing someone and the rest of them are all like, “Wheeeeeeeeeeell, maybe that’s notsa soooo bad, Obama is weak and is in favor of not killing people. Ergo, killing people is good!”
Howard Beale IV
Here’s something for Betty on the feral chickens in Hawaii.
Anya
@Mike J: My cousins were attacked by skin heads in Portland. One was visiting the other & they stayed a little too long at a coffee shop talking. They haven’t seen each other for 15-years so they got carried away. That story still shocks me. Mind you this was the early 2000s so I hope things changed for the better. But I doubt it.
22over7
@Fair Economist: Honestly? I think he’s testing to see how far he really can go. His followers are white, angry, and heavily armed. Might be a ripe opportunity for brown shirts.
As for his completely free pass, I’m suspecting he has something. Dossiers? Video? Hell, he’s been hanging around the most powerful circles for decades. What if he’s been keeping mementos?
redshirt
@the Conster: He’ll definitely cash out at some point, but never telling his followers they’re idiots. He’s got a brand to sell, after all.
MomSense
Is this real life?
Helen
Tina Fey on SNL. Because, of course.
catclub
@Patricia Kayden:
I suspect he does not have the endurance. Hillary has been in the business for decades.
I also suspect he does far fewer events per day than other candidates.
Anoniminous
@22over7:
Mussolini’s paramilitary was called Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, in English: The Voluntary Militia for National Security, they were called Black Shirts after their uniform which was based on the elite Alpine units of the Italian Army. The Sturmabteilung was named after the elite military units of the German Imperial Army. Both groups were thugs, murders, and barely capable of street brawling but they liked to play dress-up and strut around pretending they were the biggest, baddest, sons-of-bitches in the valley.
Sound familiar?
catclub
@the Conster:
OTOH, if he actually gets the nom and gets elected, blame NBC for canceling his run on their Apprentice show.
David *Born in the USA* Koch
Tina Fey is rocking it
the Conster
@MomSense:
It’s impossible to tell anymore. I think that’s how we know we’re in an event horizon.
redshirt
@the Conster: THE WINGULARITY IS NIGH!
the Conster
@Anoniminous:
Give people snappy uniforms, and they’re capable of doing terrible things. Just ask Hugo Boss.
22over7
@Anoniminous: That’s what I’m saying. He has many of the ingredients to create his own little coup.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
As evidence, he goes back to the Merry Christmas in department stores, fercrissake.
The Republic, Blah Blah Blah...
@the Conster:
Morel like gravity’s rainbow…
Just listen for the sputtering to stop then run for cover… ’cause he’s coming down…
srv
Well, that sucks. Paul Ray of Twine Time RIP.
John, why don’t you have a WV radio show like you did in HS?
El Caganer
Who’s writing The Donald’s lines now? Hanns Johst?
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Mushrooms?
HRA
Trump will leave when he no longer is valuable to keeping the media amused and mesmerized by his antics. At least, it’s what seems to have been the initial goal. At one point he looked as if he was seriously into being a candidate and may still be somewhat still in that mode. This last attempt for taking the oxygen away from other candidates was a return to the original plan.
Anoniminous
@the Conster:
Don’t even need snappy uniforms, alas. Just the right environment. But I agree uniforms do help. Put in a uniform AND the right environment young and not-so-young men can be readily manipulated by older men, from that fact flows every army, ever.
Soylent Green
Oh, bullshit. Trump gets the nom, loses the general, Rethugs retreat to default position — “If only we had nominated a true conservative” — while keeping statehouse dominance, gaining lots of seats in midterms, and successfully gumming up the federal works for another eight years.
NotMax
@the Conster
Gone down the memory hole (and meticulously scrubbed form the ‘net) were the initial uniforms pushed by Bush/Cheney for the new Homeland Security enforcement divisions.
Tailored, button-down black uniforms with lightning bolt insignia on the belt and elsewhere.
Lamh36
yes!!! SNL brought back Tina Fey & Darrell Hammond!
Tina Fey as Sarah Palin is here for you, America. ?? #SNL
Anoniminous
@the Conster:
Don’t even need snappy uniforms, alas. Just the right environment. But I agree uniforms do help. Put in a uniform AND the right environment young and not-so-young men can be readily manipulated by older men, from that fact flows every army, ever.
@22over7:
I agree all the bits are there but I seriously doubt Trump has the political smarts, the will, or the organization to stage a coup. If there was somebody like George Wallace running around, then I’d be concerned.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@catclub: He supposedly flies home to sleep in his own bed every night.
Yeah, that’ll work for a President.
Cheers,
Scott.
moderateindy
Trump is a plant set up by the Bush family. They did their polling early, and realized Jeb could not get the nomination in the traditional fashion running against all the other generic GOPers.
So they got Trump to run, and really gin up the crazy. The regular dog whistles were no longer adequate. Thus he negated the other candidates ability to gain momentum by feeding the frenzy that is the GOP base.
So Trump will win the nomination, then be gunned down by what will be reported to be an Arab, or Black lives matter member. Then the back room serious members of the party will get together, and have to nominate someone, and voila !Jeb is the guy.
After all that’s not any more ludicrous than what is actually happening.
Then Hillary falters, and Bernie gets the Dem nomination. On election day !Jeb saturates the airwaves with one of his patented inspirational speeches, causing all right wingers that watch it to get so bored that they doze off, and sleep right through closing time at the polls.
And there you have it; Western Illinois University gets it correct again!!! Go Leathernecks!! (that’s WIU’s sports teams’ nickname)
The Republic, Blah Blah Blah...
@efgoldman: Ha!
The subconscious wisdom of the ‘unintentional mistake’… indeed…
Kinda like a ouija board…
What’s that talking hat from the Harry Potter flicks? The sorting hat?
Some needs to do a parody of that w/ Trump’s hair talking for him, like that hat…
benw
@the Conster: if it’s a tragedy, then everyone will be dead. If it’s a comedy, then everyone will cross-dress for awhile before getting married. If it’s historical, then it’s all the Plantagenets fault.
kdaug
@redshirt: I forgot once that this was the internet and everything, and was surprised when some Maddow folks gave us a shout out. Assume nothing.
Anoniminous
FYWP
Anya
18-year old Ted Cruz’s aspiration was “to rule the world…” Even at that age he was a douchebag.
Anya
@Lamh36: I was not impressed because no one can out crazy the real thing. Palin is beyond parody. It’s hard to achieve that level of crazy.
redshirt
@kdaug: “Maddow Folks” is my new folk band.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@efgoldman: He mentioned trying to get the backups moved to 4 AM ET in the thread earlier today.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Anoniminous
@El Caganer:
When I hear the name Hanns Johst I reach for my gun.
22over7
@Anoniminous: You’re right, maybe not a coup in the standard sense. But all those angry white guys with all those guns makes me nervous. Also that Trump has spit on Washington, laughed at the other candidates, and has the media helpless. He’s ignoring Rupert Murdoch. He’s daring the Billionaire Boys to try and knock him down. I don’t know, but this has gone a lot further than I thought it would, and it makes me itch.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: Its when the automatic backups and a couple of other things kick in. He’s asked WP to move it back to 4:00 AM EST and is still waiting on an answer.
redshirt
@22over7: Can he win? Yes, of course, it’s possible. But how possible – what would you put the odds at?
I’d say a 20% chance, if he’s the Republican nominee. 3% chance if he’s an independent.
I feel confident with such odds.
Lamh36
another skit from tonight’s SNL
#SNL Vaporizes Hollywood For Snubbing Black Actors At Awards Show bit.ly/1ScacAX (VIDEO)
22over7
@redshirt: Ok, it’s late, and I’m feeling reckless. What if his followers started showing up at rallies? Polling places? Lots of open-carry states now. Trump is delighted whenever somebody gets beat up at one of his rallies.
If he wins the nomination, I think he could be dangerous.
Anoniminous
@22over7:
In a way he is in the middle of a coup of the GOP. The Establishment/Corporate Wings are having hysterics at the thought of Trump as their nominee. They thought they have everything set-up to push JEB! through to the nomination and then The Donald comes along and screws it up. I confess he foxed me as well. I thought JEB! had the thing sewn up. Trump plays to the GOP DumbAss Bigot Wing with some slop support from the DumbAss Fundie-Cons who aren’t being grifted by Cruz. Which is enough to get him the nomination in a mightily divided contest. He will be an absolute disaster on the campaign trail when the 90% of American voters who don’t obsess over this stuff 24/7 finally decide to Pay Attention and the Infotainment Mediums figure they have to pretend to be journalists.
I’m not so worried about Trump as I am the next guy who decides he is the Leader America needs.
Cacti
@J R in WV:
What the bleeding hell does one do at a “Feel the Bern” party?
Sit around and fap to favorite photos of Bernie scowling and shaking his fist?
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: Speaking of reaching for revolvers….
GregB
Reasonable people can disagree whether Trump is a fascist and while they are disagreeing they can dig their own graves in front of the machine gun nest. Fuck this man and his Redhat mooks.9
redshirt
@Cacti: I’d rather they feel the Bern, as it were, than shush the Bush.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Cacti:
While listening to Bernie’s folk album.
redshirt
@22over7: If our election places are over run by rednecks with guns then we truly are lost. But I don’t think that would happen, without response.
22over7
@redshirt: Yes. It’ll require a response.
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
That’s pretty good.
How about Nina Simone going all Lotta Lenya on Everyone’s Gone to the Moon?
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: How about Lotte herself?
jl
I’m more worried about what the arrogant billionaire fool Bloomberg will do than either Trump or Cruz. I heard on news that Bloomberg will throw his worthless dried up ass into the race if there is no ‘centrist’ candidate, and he thinks HRC is a centrist candidate. WTF Bloomberg. Either the guy is an narcissistic idiot or this is a stunt to give HRC a boost.
Saw a national poll that showed HRC and Trump essentially tied with Bloomberg in. Too close for comfort.
Well, no more money for Bernie.
Unless Sanders shows some willingness to at least try to explain his policies and appeal to more conservative Democratic voters in the large primary states, I don’t see how he can win. And recent developments in his campaign indicate to me that he has no interest in doing that.
He had an uphill battle anyway, not so much money, but time to get his name and message out is very short after first smaller primary states.
Well, if Bloomberg thinks HRC is his kind of centrist, and he won’t run if she is the nominee, we won’t have to worry about it. But the toxic tool has a big enough ego to go ahead even if HRC is nominated, the more he things about it, and the more he sees Trump getting so much attention. Egotistical assholes are like that.
rikyrah
@the Conster:
The only way to “redeem” what has been lost in the Trump brand is to continue on and win.
El Caganer
@Cacti: Maybe they have some sort of Sanders sex toy.
Omnes Omnibus
@El Caganer: Well, there goes any chance of my getting sleep tonight. Wait, I have a ball peen hammer – I’ll be okay.
redshirt
@El Caganer: With life like cold sores???
Amir Khalid
@jl:
According to what I’ve read in these threads, Mike Bloomberg is little-known outside New York City, and no longer popular even there. He probably is a narcissist at that, but if the assessment his aides offer him is at all realistic, it will tell him his run would have no serious chance of pulling Hillary to the right, let alone Bernie. If he runs anyway, he will be a fringe candidate.
sigaba
@jl: I hope Bloomberg stays the hell away but, even if he does suck up a bunch of votes from HRC, it’s hard to see him collecting EVs. John Anderson Scenario.
Also odd realization: if Trump is the Republican nominee, HRC is the Democrat, and Bloomberg entered as an independent, all of the candidates would be New Yorkers. Which one would win New York? Only one of the three people running can win their home state…
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: My family once lived on a corner on a hill and the snow plow driver would somehow manage to drop the snow from around the corner into our driveway. We had no snowblower (“I have a teen aged son; why would I need a snowblower” quoth my father, who bought one the year I went away to college. Kid brother was too small and young to do it well). Shoveling snow is is one of the few forms of manual labor an actually really good at.
Amir Khalid
@sigaba:
If i were a gambling man, I’d bet on Hillary.
Bobby D
@J R in WV: Weird, I went to grad school there and don’t remember anything of the sort. Then again, I don’t remember much from that time, except lots of partying, abundant psychedelics, corrupt cops, and a bar on the square called the Cafe, where the bartender Guy made wicked Long Island Ice teas in a pint glass that were 85% liquor with a splash of coke.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bobby D:
This might explain the lack of memories.
Peale
@sigaba: Hillary would win in New York. Bloomberg was the mayor of New York but people don’t forget he was a republican.
jl
@Amir Khalid: @sigaba:
I hope you folks are correct.
I am probably freaked out because I heard that GOP hack who masquerades as an academic at UV, Sabato, almost chortling about how this would mean a Trump or Cruz win. That probably sent my lizard brain fear and terror neurons into overdrive.
But it is true that Bloomberg was not popular in his own city by the end of his administration. Also as people get to know who Bloomberg is, a Wall Street high class hooker will not be popular. As Bloombergs spills his more genteel and high toned brand of racial and ethnic bigotry (euphemism alert), he’ll attract more Trump supporters, probably the ones more likely to actually vote. So if Bloomberg is pulling from Trump/HRC 60/40, that will even out as people learn who Bloomberg is.
Bloomberg is an old and sad looking 70 something. Sanders looks like an effing teenager by comparison.
Omnes Omnibus
@jl: Bloomberg will be as big a factor in this election as the last NYC mayor who ran.
jl
@efgoldman: I damn you for ‘sharing’ that. Behold, you have been damned.
Edit: why don’t you behave yourself like that nice young man @Omnes Omnibus: ?
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m always up for Lotte. She did the first, and to my ear and taste, the absolute best recording of Alabama Song.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Hamlet.
jl
@efgoldman: This means Baud MUST win. Tell him to get his ass in gear and start campaigning outside of the 80s pornstache, penny slots, and stale beer circuit.
Omnes Omnibus
@jl: Nice? Young? I’ll cop to man.
Anoniminous
Bloomberg? Didn’t he play left throwback for the Miskatonic University Fighting Cephalopods?
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
Much Ado About Nothing, surely.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: I am not really a fan of the song or Mahagonny. It has never worked for me.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: “Should I or shouldn’t I?” vs “Who gives a fuck?” Interesting question. POV becomes involved….
redshirt
@Anoniminous:
I’ve gazed deeply into that unblinking eye and walked away and look how great I a-
jl
So, Trump says he could shoot a man in Times Square just to watch him die, and his GOPers would love him just the same. And Cruz lied his ass off worse in his admission that he lied about his health insurance.
Let’s see just how insensate and depraved the GOP primary base has become.
I’ve been reduced to watching Kasich rise in the polls in NH, hoping it is the start of a trend. I think the ass Kasich would be the least disastrous GOPer for nominee. At least he, unlike all the other governors, did not totally screw up his own state. Screwed it, yes, but not totally.
To be reduced to longing for a (relatively) statesmanlike like Romney to run, is horrifying.
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
Tastes differ and certainly people, even very experienced and sophisticated people can agree to disagree when discussing the Arts and Culture, so all I can say is your punishment will be to be tied to a chair and forced to listen to The Osmonds until your brain explodes and boils out of your nose.
cmorenc
@redshirt:
Some people will post very sternly written letters to newspaper editorial pages. Others will express their outrage in Balloon Juice posts.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: Okay… Fine. I’ll just roll this grenade into the room.
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
I counter with.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: Actually, I was going with the implicit threat of that. You brought this on yourself.
ETA: And this.
MomSense
@Anoniminous: @Omnes Omnibus:
Now now you two. This is the good stuff.
redshirt
@cmorenc: Static people shout purple rage!
Or, in other words, not here, not today.
Omnes Omnibus
@ MomSense: Your link is all messed up.
ETA: Does this help everyone?
BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
True.
You may need to get your eyes checked, kid.
Anoniminous
How about a truce and some New Orleans style Guns and Roses from PostModern Jukebox.
Their cover of Gangsta’s Paradise is frickin’ amazing.
(Paperlace, sheesh)
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid: Mike Bloomberg is probably the closest we can get to a real-life Pratchett-style Patrician (you could even argue that the finance industry is as close as we can get to the Assassin’s Guild). He could ‘rule’ New York City for three terms, by setting all the ‘guilds’ against each other and buying a judicious selection of supporters, but there’s no way he could expand that strategy to get elected nationally. (Or even state-wide — assuming he’d want to bother; New York state is essentially Ankh-Morpork surrounded by its
cabbage fieldsdairy farmers, satellite city-suburbs, and tourist attractions.)Best analogy would probably be Lee Quan Yew, who could rule Singapore for life, but who never could have run Malaysia — even if he’d wanted to run!
ruemara
@Cacti: Based on pictures of a friend’s decor, yes. She has homemade buttons, paintings, handmade pins and 90% of her social media is memes. I worry about her, because she’s unhealthily focused on her abiding love for a man she doesn’t even know his positions beyond free shit. It’s odd. Almost everyone I know is anti-Hillary and not just pro-Bernie, but practically worshipful. On his best 10 years, he’s been less than Obama, but somehow, he’s pure and a sign of a new era.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie: “A man has to know his limitations”
Anoniminous
MomSense: that is really good, a guy to watch. Makes me think of Sam Cooke.
Anne Laurie
@efgoldman:
Yup. The joke is that every time Mike Bloomberg starts talking too publicly about actually jumping into the race, one of his closest advisers whispers in his ear “Mike Dukakis”.
(Bloomberg was actually born & educated in Medford, MA, so he’d be another short little ethnic Democrat from Kennedy/Kerry country, even apart from his professional career in the Big Rotten Apple. Unlike Donald Trump, he had to make his own fortune, and not in the publicity business, either.)
Amir Khalid
@Anne Laurie:
Being ethnically Chinese, Lee Kuan Yew would never have gotten anywhere near being PM of Malaysia. He’d never have been let into UMNO, the Malay-only lead party in the Alliance coalition where all the PMs since independence have come from (the Alliance also had a Chinese-only party, MCA, and an Indian-only party, the MIC). I think this was at least part of the reason he wanted out of Malaysia, and shed no real tears when Singapore got booted after less than two years.
And Mike Bloomberg is nothing like him. No American politician could have gotten away with his kind of iron-fisted rule. By comparison, all Bloomberg did was make a few nannyish rules, not all of which have stayed in place.
In any case, Lee Kuan Yew has done even better than rule Singapore for life. His son Lee Hsien-Loong has been PM for the last 12 years.
David *Born in the USA* Koch
So Bloomberg is worried about Trump and Sanders.
He will easily wilt once Trump starts personally savaging him and once Sanders starts denouncing his wealth and economic record.
De Blasio barely attacked Bloomberg’s record (just scratching the surface) and he had a near nervous breakdown.
He’s just too thin skinned and used to everyone kissing his butt.
He’s not cut out to withstand the withering attacks an Obama and Clinton endured.
David *Born in the USA* Koch
@jl:
That’s partially right. He has to take away moderates and conservatives and pragmatic white liberals, but the bigger issue is people of color.
Matt McIrvin
@redshirt: Is he “bleeding out the poison” or is he mainstreaming and legitimizing it?
I increasingly think a lot of us are going to get killed before this is all over. There are a fair number of Trumpists in my neighborhood. I worry about my daughter’s little friends who are black or brown.
Matt McIrvin
@redshirt:
Response? The next day is too late: by then he’s already won the election. All people need is to be too scared to go vote.
Marcia
@dmsilev: But remember, in that movie the “good” was rather relative; allows for a wide range of possible endings in RL.
bemused
@Anya:
It’s eerie how much young Ted Cruz looks and sounds like that pathetic punk Martin Shkreli.
El Caganer
@Anoniminous: PMJ’s version of My Heart Will Go On is the only one I’ve heard that actually makes that weepy dreck sound like music.
Marcia
@cmorenc: Rednecks with guns at a polling place wouldn’t even have to load them. All they’d have to do is wave them around and threaten to take away potential voters’ smart phones — our technology-addled citizenry would rather elect an ISIS fanatic than be “unconnected” for a nanosecond.
The gray adder
@schrodinger’s cat: THIS.
The gray adder
@schrodinger’s cat: THIS.@magurakurin: building a cult of personality is pretty much required to get elected.
El Caganer
@Marcia: They’d probably let you vote if you brought snacks.