Real suffragist Valentine’s from 1915: https://t.co/QjApbrvI7t pic.twitter.com/1K6MALTBfp
— laura olin (@lauraolin) February 14, 2016
I think somebody with better tech skills than mine needs to start repurposing these Valentines to use in GOTV efforts directed at Pinterest and Instagram users. Maybe set up an Etsy store…
And for the red-meat crowd, one of the best clips from last night’s GOP debate:
Tech query: For some reason, when I use YouTube’s ’embed’ function, it’s no longer including the volume-control bar at the bottom — in fact, the volume on these embeds is cranked considerably higher than I have the volume set on my machine. Apart from recommending you just hit the ‘watch on Youtube’ icon at the bottom right so you can dial it down, anybody got a fix for this?
Seebach
Any news yet on a new South Carolina poll? I’m biting my nails wondering if Trump torpedoed himself, or torpedoed Bush.
pacem appellant
Woot! I just got banned for a week from the GoS for wishing Scalia dead in a diary (It should be noted that one cannot wish death upon the dead). The diary in question has since been unpublished. After re-reading it, I did wish that some SCJes would meet an early grave, but macabre doesn’t seem to be against the rules (and the note I received specifically said for wishing Scalia dead, oh if wishes were horses…). Wishing is not hoping. Scheming is not desire.
I’m taking this as a badge of honor. I do not think I can ever be convinced that dancing on the graves of our enemies is somehow unseemly. Semantics aside, I did not wish death on anyone. I did note that any justices meeting any early end would be very beneficial to progressive politics.
ShadeTail
Youtube embeds not showing the controls at the bottom isn’t just you. Everywhere I see embeds, that’s happening now.
Truth is, the controls are still there, but for some reason they’ve been rendered invisible. If you know where they’re supposed to be, you can still click them and make them work. Beyond that, youtube is probably working on squashing whatever bug causes this.
gogol's wife
Wow. I didn’t watch this last night. How slimy is Jeb Bush.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Seems to me the logical follow up question for his next phone-in is “if they lied, who’s they?” Condi Mushroom Clouds? St Colin?
Tripod
After some thought, I only wish Hunter Thompson was here to eulogize Scalia. Since he’s not, I’ll just note that Antonin Scalia was swine, represented the worst impulses of humanity, and the world will be a better place for his passing.
Tripod
I respect that Trump went right to the black rotten heart at the center when trolling the Bush family.
Smiling Mortician
@Tripod: And repeatedly. He won’t be able to walk any of it back — but then again, he is Trump and only losers walk stuff back.
redshirt
@Tripod: I love that Trump got Jeb to throw W. under the bus regarding Eminent Domain.
Ella in New Mexico
I hope Trump keeps this Bush Lied thing going. it validates the Democrats and especially Obama’s positions, it hammers Jeb and demonstrates that all the other jackasses on the R stage “Still Believe” like the war-mongering cowards they are.
Perhaps he needs some talking points, such as, the war being a forgone conclusion long before 9/11, having been masterminded by Project for the New America.
Why, here’s just a short list of the VIP’s who were planning and pressuring the President and Congress to invade Iraq as early as 1996…Recognize any names, Donald?
Elliott Abrams
Gary Bauer
William J. Bennett
John Bolton
John Ellis “Jeb” Bush
Dick Cheney
Eliot A. Cohen
Midge Decter
Paula Dobriansky
Steve Forbes
Aaron Friedberg
Francis Fukuyama
Frank Gaffney
Fred C. Ikle
Donald Kagan
Zalmay Khalilzad
I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby
Richard Perle
Norman Podhoretz
J. Danforth Quayle
Peter W. Rodman
Stephen P. Rosen
Henry S. Rowen]
Donald Rumsfeld
Vin Weber
George Weigel]
Paul Wolfowitz
James Woolsey
Robert Zoellick
SligoRover1973
I’m a lurker here and rarely comment. However, despise Trump all you want (and I do), in my flawed recollection nobody in the Democratic Party has gone after the sacred Bush legacy like this in a Presidential debate. I’d be happy to be corrected.
Trump might as well as have said “Bush lied, people died.”
Hillary Rettig
first time I’ve actually watched any of the GOP debates. astonished more at the crowds. Trump told the truth about Iraq being on GWB and not a peep. Bush lies right in their faces, in the most obvious ways, and raucous applause.
Tripod
@Seebach:
Jeb’s getting voted off the island. I mean what are his ratfuckers going to run on the robo-dialers? “Donald Trump is a vile piece of shit”? The GOP electorate sees that as a big plus. They can’t race bait him, he’s already inoculated himself (and then some) from those attacks. “Your MOM!”?? Trump is already there and enjoys rolling around in the shit pile.
Trump is King Rat.
Hillary Rettig
That said, has “Your mother should have run,” ever been said at a presidential debate before ever in US history? It was an amazing line.
Mike J
@Hillary Rettig: When addressing Bush you could add, “away from your father”.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
Only way that line would be better is if Trump had said YO MAMMA.
The Other Chuck
@pacem appellant: I got permanently banned from posting anything for wishing death on WBC members. I stopped going. Their site, their rules, I guess, no big loss to me.
The Other Chuck
@Hillary Rettig: What I noticed was not a single word from ¿Jeb? in defense of his brother. Trump hadn’t even brought up Bush The Elder or Babs.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel: It was fun to watch trump tell the truth about W. and 9/11, but I sure as hell don’t want him as president.
Edit: I do not understand the thousands of people who are apparently unable to make that distinction. Not you, obviously!
redshirt
@WaterGirl: I enjoyed it immensely and have no intention of voting for Trump. :)
WaterGirl
So… when your kitties steal 5 or 5 pieces of stale bread from the garbage, do you still feed them dinner?
gogol's wife
@The Other Chuck:
That amazed me too. I was like, wait, what? Which Bush do you think he was talking about?
Keith G
Trump is at once the most fun, and yet scary, and also cramp-inducing candidate (who also has a shot of winning the semifinals) that I have ever watched.
His is just a ton of bug-fuck karma dropped on the head of the GOP.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@WaterGirl:
Of course not!
@redshirt:
(What the crimson chemise said.)
MattF
Jeb!’s problem is that no one actually wants to vote for him– he’s the Republican base’s third or fourth or fifth (out of six!) choice. That said, it’s still possible that the Brinks Trucks will manage to drag him into the nomination. He needs to get a few more clues, though, before that endpoint can even be conceptualized.
Jeffro
I may have to go back and re-watch the entire debate tonight, it was THAT good.
Should be intriguing once the debate stage consists of Trump, Cruz, and whichever hapless Establishment guy is still hanging in there.
The Other Chuck
@MattF: Personally I think the Brinks Trucks are being rerouted in Kasich’s direction. ¿Jeb? is toast.
redshirt
@Keith G: It’s amazing because it’s not supposed to be like this. People can’t just say whatever they want! And yet Trump, the billionaire, is acting like Tony the factory supervisor who’s had enough of all this bullshit.
As a tactic it doesn’t even register because would would think it?! I’ll give Jeb some more small credit in that he seems to have remodulated enough now to both take an attack gracefully and then respond. I can’t even blame him for getting blindsided by Trump at the beginning because again, who could imagine it? Such lack of decorum!
Jeffro
@MattF: I can’t see it, trucks or no trucks. I can see Carson, then Kaisch getting out, and then the GOP donor class will have to choose who’s going to chase Trump and Cruz all the way to & through the convention. If they choose Bush, they’ll get more back-and-forth with Trump all spring and strengthen Trump’s hold on his 40-45% of GOP voters.
I still think Trump’s main (original) purpose in this campaign was just to make sure Jeb doesn’t get the nom. Ending up on top may have surprised him, but he is in it primarily to make sure Bush isn’t the nominee (maybe to make sure Cruz isn’t, now, too)
The Other Chuck
“I won the lottery the day I was born.”
Yes you did, ¿Jeb?, you certainly lucked out when you fell out of the right vagina. Well, maybe you’re thinking not so much now.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@Jeffro:
Not disagreeing with or questioning your belief, although I hadn’t thought — at least, not early on — that Trump had any motivation apart from the Greater Glory of Trump. But assuming you are right, do you think this is a long-simmering grudge dating from whatever that eminent domain golf course thing in Florida was?
Baud
I was disappointed that Trump pledged to use less profanity.
Thankfully, he’s a liar like the rest of them, so I expect a few F-bombs at the next debate.
gene108
@Hillary Rettig:
Every time I’ve heard Trump talk about 9/11/01 in a debate it is clear that what happened that Tuesday morning is very personal for him; he lost someone or something close to him.
All the “mismanagement” that happened after that has just fueled whatever rage he felt that morning.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@Baud:
More likely to drop F-bombs, C-bombs, and P-bombs at his rallies rather than in debates. I’m still holding out for him to spout some completely unacceptable racial slur against AAs, Muslims, and/or Hispanics. You know he wants to, and you know his base would cream themselves in ecstasy if he did.
Ruckus
@The Other Chuck:
Well, maybe you’re thinking not so much now.
Somehow I doubt this. He doesn’t seem to be bright enough to make the connection. He also doesn’t see that his brother’s 8 yrs was a problem in any way. Nothing went wrong, everything worked just as it was supposed to. Except of course that his anointment seems to have run right off the rails. And then burned to the ground. And that patch of earth salted so it never grows back. And that doesn’t compute with anything or better, everything he’s been told his entire life.
muddy
How about a palate cleanser? Here’s something really sweet for Valentine’s Day: Pat and Marcelle Leahy.
That’s the best thing I’ve seen all day.
Tripod
@Jeffro:
They needed to split Trump’s appeal geographically with a Dixie-fried, southern cross waving, unreconstructed asshole.
Baud
@Tripod: Unfortunately for them, raven is a Democrat.
ETA: ;-)
pacem appellant
@The Other Chuck: Westboro Baptist Church? Seems like it would be criminal to not wish ill will of them. I’m not sweating it. I’m kind of proud. I still like two or three front pagers there, but for the most part, it’s not as wonky as it was 13 years ago when I first found the site. I like a lot of what they’re trying to do, and they’re big enough to have their finger in many pies, but my interests (and time) remain narrowly focused on retail politics.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@muddy:
Heh. I was just getting ready to post another palate-cleanser, and quite a sexy one at that! Listened to NPR’s Living on Earth this afternoon, which featured one of the arguably most erotic interviews I’ve ever heard.
Because we’re all animal-lovers here, and it’s Valentine’s Day, here’s the link with a transcript.
Jeffro
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel: It could be that plus any number of other things.
Trump probably blames W for Obama – he of the suspect birth, he of the supposed Muslim background, he who personally embarrassed Trump on at least a couple public occasions – even being in office. So Jeb catches flak by association there.
Trump clearly feels W & Co. were responsible for 9/11 and for leading the US into the Iraq War…that was no act last night. How much of that is due to Trump’s feeling fearful from 9/11->forward, only his shrink can say.
And I think Trump does have some serious resentment towards old money, establishment types.
Trump clearly IS irritated at how milquetoast and weak Jeb personally is…last night’s debate didn’t change that much, although the media are giving it a shot here and there.
Having watched this play out over a half year now, I really don’t think they’re going to be able to stop Trump.
Jeffro
@Tripod: That’s a good point…they would need someone very polished, someone who could speak to all that voter anger, someone who can blow all the right religious dogwhistles, etc. But they don’t.
This is why when various right-leaning friends and relatives would talk about their side’s “deep bench” I would just about wet myself laughing. It would be hard to put up a more flawed collection of candidates than the GOP did this cycle, and that’s what they get in this this post-Citizens United era. Big bucks behind seriously bad candidates + seriously weakened parties (the GOP for now; both, eventually) = this exact kind of chaos.
Personally I hope CU gets overturned before this kind of stupidity gets into the Democratic party as well.
Jeffro
@Tripod: Oh and btw I’m sure that Cruz thought he was going to be exactly the person you’re describing. Except he has not the faintest clue just how detested he is by his colleagues…and how quickly, how easily voters can pick up on Cruz’s two-faced lying (on its own, or just judging by the reactions of other GOP politicians towards him. It’s not natural, especially in the GOP).
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@Jeffro:
I still really can’t fathom that. I think the RNC and big-money donors are doing everything humanly (and probably INhumanly) possible to keep Trump from getting the nomination. Whether that means playing fast and loose with how they assign delegates, or whatever other kind of ratfucking they may have in mind, I could not say. But I do think that the GOP PTB/MOTU won’t be daunted by legal niceties, and I do think they will stop at almost nothing to halt him in his tracks.
Could be wrong, of course. Wouldn’t be the first time in my life.
EDIT: By the way, I think your analysis of Trump’s resentments is very plausible.
redshirt
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel: I sure hope they do and that introduces a Trump legal challenge. Let them knife each other while we run the Empire responsibly.
redshirt
It’s amusing on Freep that like every 60th comment there is one comment that is actually logical and sensible and it’s like a slap in the face. But then you realize that person was posting on Freep.
M. Bouffant
TECH QUERY: When you’ve clicked on “Embed”, click “SHOW MORE” & scroll to under the how-it-will-look preview video, & you’ll be able to choose whether or not to show “player controls” &/or “video title and player actions”. I don’t think the controls will display until you start the video, however, even if it’s set to show them.
Fair Economist
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel: This post by an apparently sane GOP activist indicates how they powers-that-be most likely hope to stop Trump. Basically, there are enough proportional contests that if the PTB can keep Trump below 50% (which flips a number of contests to winner-take-all) he won’t have a majority on the first ballot. After the first ballot, most delegates are released, and since most of the delegates are ordinary GOPers they will never vote in Trump and the party leaders will be able to find some compromise candidate (Paul Ryan, most likely, IMO).
WereBear
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel: If thwarted, Trump will go third party. And drag his fans with him.
I am charmed by the many lose-lose scenarios which have popped up for Republicans lately. Keep them coming, Universe!
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@Fair Economist:
Thanks. That’s both useful and interesting.
Best sentence in the entire piece (which tracks rather well with what I’ve been saying for months) is:
Eric U.
@pacem appellant: dKos has always had community banning of people that speak ill of the newly departed. It was a banning bloodbath when Tim Russert died. I think there may have even been an un-front-paging that happened, don’t exactly remember. Which is funny, because Kos lost his position as a “serious person” when he said the 4 mercenaries hung from the bridge in Fallujah had it coming.
@Fair Economist: brokered convention would be a dream, I think. The republicans I know are already pissed that they can’t get their choice. Of course, how you distinguish between the shitstains they want and the shitstain they are going to get is beyond my humble abilities
Fair Economist
Maybe Trump had a meeting scheduled in the WTC on 9/11. Or maybe the “friends” he says he lost were real friends and not just business acquaintances.
Mnemosyne
@Jeffro:
Trump is a native New Yorker, born and bred. I think he identifies very strongly with the city as his hometown and did feel the attack on it very personally. I think that’s the biggest reason for his visceral loathing of the Bushes, and everything else (business deals gone wrong, Obama’s election) has only solidified Trump’s feelings.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@WereBear:
Yes, he will, always assuming he really, actually wants to keep running (I still don’t think he wants to be POTUS). But I kinda hope he does. I’d love to see Trump, Jeb! (or Rubio, or Ryan) and Hillary on a three-way debate stage. Hillary would make mincemeat of them.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@Fair Economist:
PASTA how I wish that happens! Nothing would be more likely to piss Trump off enough to go on his own or, barring that, to piss off his followers enough to refuse to vote in November. Wither of those I am OK with.
Fair Economist
@WereBear: Third party Trump is probably doom for the Republican Presidential nominee, but it’s very good for the Congressional Republicans. On the whole, I’d rather he didn’t.
Even more disturbing is the possibility Bloomberg runs too and we get a 4-way Sanders/Trump/Bloomberg/Ryan race. Given blind loyalty with Republicans I could see that ending up very badly.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@Eric U.:
I think all lefty blogs have to be super careful because if the fox assholes can find one comment on a lefty blog anywhere in the word comparing Scalia to Hitler then all Democrats are guilty. They never do this sort of shit with Redstate or any of the wingnut sites where that sort thing is front page material.
Jeffro
@Fair Economist:
Delegates are basically representatives of the campaign/candidate that nominated them to be delegates…they’re surrogates for that candidate. There’s no reason to think that a Trump delegate would do anything other than what Trump tells them to do (same with the rest). It’s not as if there was some random selection of GOP voters – all party loyalists first and foremost – who were named delegates and assigned a candidate to vote for.
These delegates are most certainly going to vote for their candidate on that 1st vote. I think it’s likely that no GOP candidate will top 50% of the delegates overall (as I’ve said before, I think Trump will be in the lead with 40-45% support, Cruz will have about 20-25%, and the remaining 1, 2, or 3 Establishment candidates will have the rest. My fear has been that Cruz will extort his way on to the ticket as Veep in exchange for putting the Establishment guy over the top…a scenario I think is more likely than not, unfortunately. Trump will never put Cruz on as his VP, so Cruz is valuable only to the Establishment guy…but Cruz is not a party-1st guy and so here is what he says to the Establishment:
“Put me on as VP or I will encourage my delegates to vote for Trump, to put him over the top, and they’ll do it. Good luck with doing much of anything as a party for a decade if you go that route.”
Now, if I was an Establishment maven and wanted to try and salvage something here, I am looking at two options: do we move forward with Cruz as VP and hope Trump doesn’t encourage his people to stay at home (or run third party)?, or do I encourage the Establishment guy (as long as it’s not Jeb) to take the VP slot w/ Trump?
Exciting times!
pacem appellant
@Eric U.: I’d forgotten about Kos stating the obvious about those mercenaries. He gained two points in my book when the TradMed stopped treating him seriously after that (if they ever did). Wonder if he got banned for a week as well? I wonder if Wonkette has a guest diary model in the works?
Jeffro
@Mnemosyne: Yup. I think he was on board with “compassionate conservatism” until it turned out to be “asleep-at-the-wheel (or guard post?) conservatism” and got a few thousand New Yorkers killed, got Iraq invaded, and got Obama elected twice.
These supposedly pro-business types need to remember that when they vote GOP, they vote for the whole package.
Jeffro
@Fair Economist:
Where did this 4-way thing come from? Morning Joe?
It’ll be Clinton and a Republican.
JG
You have controls set to 0 in the link to the video. Change that value to a 1
https://www.youtube.com/embed/nOJz1zqC2LY?rel=0&controls=1&showinfo=0&wmode=opaque
Eric U.
Bloomberg is so funny if he thinks he gets any votes at all. I don’t think he gets Perot 2 numbers. All it would take is some superPac to run an add pointing out he tried to ban sodas over 32 oz, and nobody votes for him
Fair Economist
@Jeffro:
Not according to that writer. He says most delegates are relatively important people in the party who are invited by the candidate. There are a lot of delegate spots to fill and they can’t be too selective. Generally they’re favorable to the candidate, but they’re not agents of the candidate – they’re people with strong commitments to the GOP.
Trump, interestingly, may be an exception in that most of his delegates in Illinois actually *are* Trump volunteers without important roles in the party. So he will have a good number of loyalists. But not 100%, and anyway, if they’re short of a majority they can be outvoted.
I agree with your horsetrading analysis although I wonder if Cruz would want the VP spot. He seems to be in a good position for him bombthrowing from the Senate.
Jeffro
@Fair Economist:
The campaigns/candidates most certainly can be, and are, selective. You’re right that they would also typically be long-time GOP loyalists but in the case of Trump delegates, as you note, they may well be newbies whose first loyalty is to Trump. They – all of the delegates, from each candidate – are going to be listening very carefully to and doing the bidding of their candidate.
Jeffro
@Fair Economist:
Cruz is all about power, and his bomb throwing in the Senate has just been a means to an end. If you’re the VP, you’re a just a presidential bullet – or a pretzel in the presidential windpipe – away from the Oval Office. (Not to mention a “VP Cruz” would be likely to extort all sorts of other delegated duties, and would be essentially free to campaign for eight years).
tybee
@Baud:
i feel slighted.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
It’s just, if not ironic, that Scalia died from erotic asphyxiation.
Iowa Old Lady
@Jeffro: IMHO, Morning Joe wants to be Trump’s VP. The All-TV Personality Ticket.
Geoduck
@Jeffro: For all the terrible things that Cruz is, I don’t think he’s stupid. He’s probably very aware of how much he is loathed by everyone, and arrogant enough to think it doesn’t matter.
Jeffro
@Eric U.: Bloomberg running is Reince Priebus’ fondest wish at this point (he said as much recently). It’s sheer GOP fantasyland. And yet, even that is a false hope for ol’ Reince – Bloomberg would likely pull 10% from each party, max (probably more like 10% of Rs and 5% of Ds)
I know it is entertaining for Morning Joe and similar to tout Bloomberg, but I wish they’d really think about it: are Sanders voters going to pull for a billionaire who, liberal or not, *is* Wall Street? Are Clinton voters going to sabotage her chances by going with someone who’s similar on social issues, but even more Wall Street-associated than she is (right or wrong)? I think not.
On the GOP side, I can’t see a Trump or Cruz voter going for Bloomberg, that’s for sure. And why would an Establishment voter – assuming that somehow, some way, the Establishment guy gets the nom – throw away such a hard-earned vote and hand the election to the Democrat?
Bloomberg: gimme a break
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
BAM!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Eric U.: Perot was folksy (or at least able to fake it) and seemed to share Trump’s fondness for the spotlight. Bloomberg has the personality of a grouper on ice. I don’t doubt his courtiers (Rendell, Wolfson, probably a few journalists– Fournier, for example) are whispering flattery in his ear, and he loves it, but not enough to touch the hoi polloi. Scarborough checks his email every day, desperate for an invitation to run as an indy on someone else’s money.
Mike J
A bit of snark in a straight news story from wapo:
Jeffro
@Geoduck:
True, true – I do think he’s aware of how loathed he is by his Senate colleagues. What I don’t think he gets is how unappealing he is in general (on TV, in person – but I will admit, personal bias may be affecting some of that) and perhaps more importantly, how his colleagues’ loathing of him has spillover effects.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s not normal (especially in the GOP) for politicians to so clearly detest one of their own. There’s already been a fair amount of articles about the GOP warming to Trump if it comes down to Trump or Cruz. That is huge. Even Trump detests Cruz, that much is clear – and that has been, thank goodness, a hindrance to Cruz thus far.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Iowa Old Lady:
Joe of the Morning has a personality? I’ve watched and hadn’t noticed one.
Steve in the ATL
@Jeffro:
I always got the feeling that Paul Ryan didn’t expect his ticket to win and was just raising his profile for future runs and/or grifting. Can’t decide whether Cruz is in that same situation or if his messiah complex has convinced that he’s going to win.
fuckwit
Holy shit, did the Rethug debate really turn into a goddamned Maury Povitch or Jerry Springer episode?
That’s amazing. And awesome. And hilarious.
This confirms what I have always thought, and know, and can prove up one side and down the other. Trump is a TROLL. That’s all he is. He has no politics, no ideology except greed and anger, he has no principles, all he cares about is attacking people and getting attention for himself. He just likes getting a rise out of people. He’s a bully, he’s a troll. There’s no strategy. There’s no goal. It’s all just pure ego.
That is amazing. The R frontrunner just attacked the most recent R preznit… and attacked his brother who is running.
This is a very exciting time to be alive.
Keep fucking that chicken.
Jeffro
@Steve in the ATL: Well in both cases, it was/is a no-lose proposition. There’s not a significant downside and as you say, you raise your profile for future runs, grifting, both.
Regardless of what Ryan thought would happen (remember, there was a lot of bad math on the R side that showed Romney winning) the difference this time is, Cruz no doubt sees a way to the actual nomination for himself and the presidency after that. I am positive he has also gamed out how to finagle the VP slot should the nomination not fall into his hands.
Cruz was always banking on Trump eventually flaming out and leaving all of those anti-establishment and/or religious-right GOP voters unsatisfied with an Establishment choice. That still could happen for various reasons…I think that unfortunately, the most likely reason for Trump to take a significant downturn at this point would be a Trump rally turning extremely ugly, as in a protestor getting maimed or killed.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Grouper on ice everywhere are justifiable offended. Please apologize to me, pro bono counsel for their estates. Thank you in advance.
Roger Moore
@Fair Economist:
I assume some of it is that he’s simply tired of people who weren’t in New York on 9/11 and who didn’t know anyone who died acting as if it was a deep personal tragedy for them. It pisses me off, and I think it would be worse for somebody who was personally affected as Trump was.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): ^justifably and I waited too long to edit.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
Four years. If you think he’d be loyal to the president and refuse to run against him when it came time for reelection, you haven’t been paying attention.
Steve in the ATL
@Jeffro:
That’s pretty reasonable, though the Stones survived Altamont….
Mandalay
@gene108:
This. The rest of his banter is sticking the boot in on his opponents as part of his schtick, or being nasty for the sake of it, but he seems deadly serious and genuinely angry whenever 9/11 comes up. And Trump freely admits that he holds grudges.
The lack of outrage from the GOP over his calumny last night is deafening. I hope Trump will be shitting on dubya until the day he dies. It looks like Trump is aiming to make dubya be remembered as a shit stain on the presidency, and I wish him well in that noble goal.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Jeffro: We saw “The Big Short” this afternoon. Good film!
News clips featuring Bloomberg were shown briefly.
He has a history. He couldn’t be more closely tied to Wall Street. In addition to the Large Soda stuff, he bullied the system to change the rules so that he could run for Mayor for a 3rd term. Stop and Frisk, anyone? It’s hard to believe that he would have any chance at being elected President.
I suspect he’ll look into it, yet again, and ultimately decide not to run “this time”, but say he’ll keep it in mind “in case he’s needed” in the future, or something.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@Roger Moore:
Oh come on, that is barely checkers when we could be talking chess here. I have no doubt that 2 years in, Cruz would be hinting strongly at all the things that POTUS really should be doing (as well as doing for Cruz) if he expected to keep Cruz on board for the re-election campaign.
What would get weird would be the aftermath of a successful re-election campaign, as POTUS then no longer needs Cruz…and perhaps Cruz no longer needs POTUS. But let’s leave that particular nightmare to thriller writers, please.
TOP123
@Roger Moore: A-MEN! No love for Trump, but that’s a fair point. Native-born New Yorker (not sure what that qualifies me for that it doesn’t Cruz, other than possibly the Presidency, but I’m a Baud supporter anyway) and moved to the Deep Red Belt six months before the attacks. Can tell you, the NYC-fetishism from people who previously had little nice to say gets tiresome quickly.
redshirt
@efgoldman: In the year 2016 a Naderite is a Berniebro.
Jeffro
@efgoldman: Somehow I do not see an overlap between Clinton voters and former Nader voters? No Hillary voter is going to defect to Bloomberg anyway.
Don’t worry about it, Bloomberg is not going to run and wouldn’t impact the Ds worse than the Rs if he did.
On a related note, I wish I had Morning Joe’s job sometimes…pull ridiculous political/election scenarios out of one’s nether regions and then play “What If?” for a couple of hours every morning? I’m looking forward to it in retirement but it’s even more appealing as a full-time, well-paid, on-the-air job. Talk about winning the lottery, that guy.
TOP123
@Jeffro: I’d settle for a New York Times opinion column. Less work.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
I just got a e-mail from Bernie decrying the DNC reversing its refusal to take contributions from lobbyists. Later on it morphs into his usual screed against billionaires.
Is it really nefarious?
TheHill:
Hmm. Bernie’s e-mail doesn’t mention PACs…
I really wonder if Bernie’s people understand what they’re doing. Running by attacking the national party doesn’t seem to be a smart move to me. Not for someone who only (nominally) joined the party in September and has no national infrastructure to speak of. Not in a time of Citizens United.
It’s fine to complain about the system as it is, one that lets anonymous millionaires and billionaires spend as much as they want trashing people. But it’s senseless, it seems to me, to complain about a party trying to find ways to compete in such an environment.
(Citizens United was decided in January 2010, so when Obama put the policy in place for the 2008 campaign there was less risk to him and the party to do so than to keep it in place now.)
But we’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
oldswede
@Mandalay: It probably is personal, but Trump is a New York real estate tycoon. The twin towers attack did not boost real estate values.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Saw it a few weeks ago. Agree!
Mandalay
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
There’s a more to it than that. Not unreasonably, Sanders sees it as a way of giving Clinton an “unfair” advantage:
I put “unfair” in quotes because Clinton is a Democrat and Sanders isn’t. I support Bernie, but he wants to have his cake and eat it too. He’s more than happy to use the Democratic Party to help him run as an independent, so he can hardly cry foul when the scales get subtly tipped in favor of a candidate who is a Democrat.
sukabi
@Roger Moore: don’t think even the current bunch of the insane clown posse is crazy enough to have cruz as their vp…. they’d have to be constantly waiting to be shivved…cruz wants power, not second place.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
hahhahahhahahahhahaahhahahahahhahahaahahahah
Trump is pushing ¿Jeb? to a mental breakdown.
catclub
@Jeffro:
Yep. This. The most likely Bloomberg voters are Republicans who refuse to vote for Trump.
This would only cause Trump to take even fewer states.
Anne Laurie
@Hillary Rettig:
The South Carolina RNC gave most of the audience tickets to their base — rich white folks, many with military ties, long-term Bush Crime Family supporters who are willing to settle for Rubio if Jeb can’t cut the mustard. These are not the sort of people who’ll be impressed by some Yankee parvenu shouting insults at an upstanding lady like Bar Bush (especially if, per local reports, they’d all been tailgating before the event).
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@muddy:
Has Leahy endorsed Bernie?
Mandalay
The allegedly reasonable and moderate John Kasich:
Kasich wants to return to the days of the smoke filled room, where he would stand a great chance of being secretly selected as the GOP candidate. Upstarts like Cruz and Trump – preferred by over half of the GOP – would get squashed like bugs.
Kasich is just as much a threat to democracy as Trump and Cruz.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Mandalay: Interesting. Thanks.
Going to the Hillary Victory Fund web site, I see this in the fine print at the bottom:
I count 32 state parties, or up to $320k for that. Or a grand total of $356,100 if I’ve done the math correctly. $2700/356100 = 0.8%. This hardly sounds like some slush fund that is going to buy Hillary – or Bernie. It’s a terribly inefficient way to buy a politician.
(The Teabagger moneymen don’t give their money to the GOP, they give it to a PAC that runs ads for the candidate of their choice. Attacking the DNC over this seems to miss the forest for the trees.)
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@fuckwit:
SHINE ON TRUMP YOU CRAZY DISRUPTING GOP DIAMOND
Republicans are now whatever Trump says they are. Which is bugfuck crazy. Heckuva job, Bushie.
Anne Laurie
@M. Bouffant: THANK YOU so much!
(and your fellow commentors will be thanking you too, no doubt!)
redshirt
@Mandalay: They are all a threat. We’re literally facing super villains here, folks. We just don’t openly discuss it, for some (ahem, Repuke) reason.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Just hand wave that all away and call it corruption when it becomes clear that this isn’t just going to happen because Bernie wanted to do it all his half baked way, because there was nothing to learn from Obama.
Jeffro
@Mandalay:
Really? Just as much? Come on now…
Clyde
@Anne Laurie: Did you find the trick to show the youtube player controls? Follow the share options until you see the embed check boxes. Clear the “Show player controls” check box. The embed code will contain a parameter “controls=0”, change the 0 to a 1 and try embedding the iframe again with controls=1.
redshirt
Quote me for truth
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
This.
Anyone who thinks any one of these idiots would be better than any other is smoking something. They each may be bad in their own way but none of them is better than any of the others in any meaningful way and the result of electing any one of them would be horrible.
Doug R
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Sounds fine in the CU era. You even have to give your name if you contribute more than $200, which should be the law EVERYWHERE.
Kay
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
They’re not saying it will buy Clinton or Sanders. They’re saying it will buy the DNC – that the PAC donors will control the direction of the organization- who and what they back.
Mandalay
@Jeffro:
For all their many failings, I don’t hear Trump or Cruz (or anyone else) pushing for getting rid of the public debates – only the “reasonable” and “moderate” Kasich. Now why would that be the case?…..
A self-important piece of shit slime like Kasich is just as much a threat to democracy as the rest of the clown car, and as others have pointed out, he would happily sign all the insanity that an all Republican Congress would send his way.
Kay
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
It’s a much bigger argument than “advantage Clinton”, or buying any specific candidate. It’s the influence on the DNC and then down to the state parties, because power is having money to pass around. The charge is the institutional Party will be (more) beholden.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Kay: That may be the argument that those worried about the DNC changing this policy are using, but I don’t see it being a strong one. The DNC budget is so large and the contribution limits are so low that it still seems like a poor way to gain influence.
Rich people donate for access to politicians. Obama’s policy of restricting access by lobbyists is a good one, and that still is in place. Some millionaire who wants access to politicians isn’t going to give money to the DNC or state parties, they’re going to go directly to fundraisers for the candidates. They’re going to give to superpacs that are supporting (with a wink and a nudge) a particular candidate.
How much do we gripe about the DNC not supporting the state and local parties? How much do we complain that DWS is an idiot who doesn’t know how to run the party? What Democrats running for office are afraid of her and the DNC?
It seems to me that the national parties are far too weak these days. The DNC needs to be competitive these days, and it seems to me that concerns about the DNC being for sale to lobbyists is overblown.
In my perfect world, there would be federal matching funds for individual donations up to, say, $500, and all political contributions (and any political spending on mass-media) would have to be reported to the FEC within 24 hours. And all political contributions (and spending) by corporations and similar artificial “people” would have to be reported similarly. And there would be free air time for candidate issue ads. We’re not there yet, and probably won’t be anytime soon…
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Cat48
Bernie was asked if he wanted to contribute a portion of his contributions like Clinton & he said he would have to think about it. Guess he doesnt understand or is knowingly smearing Clinton as he often does. He has a Pac that has contributed around $1M so far but smears Hillary for having a Pac. I’m starting to really dislike him since if you’re a Dem, you’re contaminated–all of us! Only the Bernie Bros are pure. He is turning into the Dem’s
Trump. I know he’s just a nice old man— ha, ha
shortribs
OT: Saw Deadpool today, most hilarious movie I’ve seen in many years. As much as I generally dislike super hero movies, I hope Deadpool gets a long franchise.
Vhh
@Tripod:You should never wrestle a pig in the mud. You’ll get dirty and the pig likes it.