Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Republicans in disarray!

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Come on, man.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Everybody saw this coming.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Bark louder, little dog.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

T R E 4 5 O N

Infrastructure week. at last.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Let there be snark.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: THERE WILL BE BLOOD TRUMP

Open Thread: THERE WILL BE BLOOD TRUMP

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(via io9)

As a partisan Dem, I love watching the Repubs run around with their hair on fire…


.

I’d be happier if not for charts like this, though:

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  2. 2.

    Boots Day

    It still seems highly unlikely that we’ll ever have a President Trump. But the biggest upside to a Trump Administration is the severe damage he would do to the Republican brand, between his irrationality, incompetence, and general lack of understanding of what government can and can’t do. After two years of President Trump, the Senate and House could end up under Dem control for a generation.

  3. 3.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    How do we take back the House?

    Yup, still no plans there. Might as well piss into a hurricane.

  4. 4.

    Calouste

    I’ll vote for the first candidate to call this country an ungovernable confederation of dopes and charlatans

    Baud, there’s your chance!

  5. 5.

    NonyNony

    @Boots Day: I don’t think it works that way. Even with W the GOP was only locked out of national politics for 2 years, and they continued to dominate at the state level without even a hiccup.

  6. 6.

    boatboy_srq

    D’you notice Walker doesn’t get mentioned even once in the roll call of Trump’s victims competitors? Imagine that…

  7. 7.

    Matt McIrvin

    I’ll vote for the first candidate to call this country an ungovernable confederation of dopes and charlatans

    That will be Trump, and his numbers will go up.

  8. 8.

    Calouste

    Looking at that could/couldn’t support Trump chart I notice two things:
    1) There are very few “don’t knows”, maybe 1-2%. That seems unlikely.
    2) Trump’s support was already at almost 50% by the time he got in the race in July.

    But yeah, Republicans fall in line, as always. Maybe a few percent won’t vote for him, but that’s it.

  9. 9.

    misterpuff

    Will somebody tell Tweety that implying the Saudis vamoosed after 9/11 with the help of the Bush Crime Family (no other flights allowed in the air) is a tenet of Trutherism. No Trump didn’t say that Bush knocked over the WTC, but referencing the Saudi getaway does infer that in a tenous way.
    So Rep. Appalachian Trail walker ain’t wrong, and Trump said it in a debate, where reporters are supposed to listen.
    Just Buggin’ me….

  11. 11.

    Feudalism Now!

    Why do we have another tRump thread? How about focusing on Senate and Congressional races that could use some attention/ love? Either Bernie or Hillster will get lots of mobilization but the down ticket races are needed to bleed this rethuglican poison from the Republic.

  14. 14.

    boatboy_srq

    @Calouste: If Republicans were to “fall in line,” they’d have done so behind HEB?, or Rubio, or perhaps Fiorina. They didn’t. They’re thronging to the fascist unRepublican instead. This isn’t “falling in line” – it’s rallying the mob. Unfortunately that’s something Trump seems to do well.

  16. 16.

    Steve in the ATL

    @NonyNony: Even with W the GOP was only locked out of national politics for 2 years, and they continued to dominate at the state level without even a hiccup.

    State level is where Citizens United really wrecks democracy

  17. 17.

    replicnt6

    @misterpuff:

    I believe it generally accepted fact that the admin got a lot of Saudis, in particular, royals, the hell out of the country after 9/11. Because we didn’t want to jeopardize our tight relationship with the shining beacon of democracy in the middle east, Saudi Arabia.

    Citing this is hardly Trutherism.

  18. 18.

    Luthe

    @Boots Day: Ha! Trump would be disowned in a heartbeat as “not a real Republican.” That’s what they’ve been trying to do from the start and it will go extra if Prez Trump starts fucking things up. The cockroaches always survive.

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    daveweigel ✔‎@ daveweigel
    Perry. Jindal. Paul. Graham. Carly. Jeb. All GOP stars, all now propping up Trump’s gold-plated throne of skulls.

    I object: Graham was only ever a star on Sunday morning TV shows, and Fiorina was never a star by anybody’s definition. I’ll grant the rest were stars, each for a brief time, among the 30% of the population who self ID as Republicans.

  20. 20.

    SenyorDave

    If David Duke were the GOP nominee most of the conservatives would rally around him. Over time, modern Republicans have shows that the most important issue for them is keeping the whites in charge. Trump is just what the doctor ordered. Krauthammer, Will, the other so-called “reasonable”, thinking man’s conservatives, they will all vote for Trump. I’d be willing to wager that David Brooks will vote for Trump, telling himself that people like him will be a steadying force in the party.

  25. 25.

    jl

    @Luthe: A Trump nomination would do so much damage the GOP’s decades long obsession with destroying social insurance and stealing the ‘lesser’ people’s money, it is hard to see how the could recognize Trump as a real GOPer. And Trump on infrastructure spending that benefits normal people is also a problem.

    Trump campaign verbiage on those topics runs full speed ahead smack into his yooge classy wall of supply-side fantasy tax cuts, so no telling what he would do as President. And Trump has said if he wants to change he can do that perfectly fine and quickly, and detailed policy proposals are BS filler for losers like reporters and wonks. So, no telling what he would do once in office.

    But the greedy cynical operators who run the GOP don’t want to take that bet. They would much rather wait until a subsequent administration to steal immense gobs of money tied up in social insurance programs. But even a Trump campaign would blow a huge hole in their long con and disinformation campaign they use to lure their white bigot dupes. So, that how I see a Trump nomination as a disaster for the GOP Masters of the Universe.

  26. 26.

    SenyorDave

    @Boots Day: Not with the electorate in this country. As people already pointed out in this thread, Bush was out of power for two years and the GOP came back strong. I’m at the point where I think that the southern and midwest lower middle class whites who continue to vote for the Republicans deserve to get screwed (but their kids don’t deserve it). Any person in Kentucky who was on kynect who voted for Bevin is too stupid too have insurance.

  27. 27.

    Bobby Thomson

    @misterpuff: that’s not something crazy believed only by truthers. It’s a known fact that family was allowed to leave the country quickly, and for their own safety. You don’t have to think Bush was complicit in what some Saudis did before the fact to think he had no interest in Saudi Arabia getting the blame, rather than Iraq, or that he generally was owned by the Saudis.

  29. 29.

    goblue72

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: As long as the Democratic Party continues to message primarily to Boomers, we won’t get there. There is a reason that a 74 year Jewish socialist from Vermont with a Brooklyn accent a yard thick is getting any traction at all. A mere 10 years ago, he’d be pulling in less than 1% of the vote.

    Why Boomers Don’t Get Bernie Sanders.

    The general political temperament of the United States shifts periodically – when it does, it upends all the chess pieces. Last time this happened was the mid-1990s with the Gingrich Revolution when white Boomers and Silent Generation types threw a fit. We haven’t had much of a shift since then (with the 4 year Dem control of Congress from 2006-2010 being a temporary blip responding to the Epic Fail of Bush)

    We are 20+ year into that cycle. The worm could easily turn – the populist candidates in both parties are getting a lot more traction than they would have in any recent election. Workers who are just entering the workforce or are mid-career (as opposed to retirees or those close to retirement) are pissed off – and justifiably so. And centrist, incrementalist, technocratic agendas are not going to win back Congress.

  32. 32.

    jl

    @SenyorDave: For too many voters, elections are a matter of ‘what did you do for me yesterday and right now’ without much thought about how and why things happen.

    A lot of people felt screwed anyway by the disappointing jobs and wage recovery under Obama, and was enough for complete disillusionment. Given the responsible consensus view on macroeconomics and fact that Obama (on econ and finance) is, or was, a responsible consensus type of person, not sure how it would have been different, though. I think better jobs and wage picture and a better feeling about where the country is headed would change Democratic prospects in midterms.

    So, yeah, it is a little disappointing that people forgot after a few years that W and GOP almost put them back into another World Great Depression and destroyed their lives completely and they got pissy about a disappointing recovery, but that is how mass democracy works.

  33. 33.

    Brachiator

    @Boots Day:

    It still seems highly unlikely that we’ll ever have a President Trump.

    People have been saying this ever since Trump announced that he was running. Unpossible. But at some point he might become unstoppable.

    But the biggest upside to a Trump Administration is the severe damage he would do to the Republican brand

    Unfortunately, the biggest downside is that a Trump presidency might leave the country itself a smoking ruin.

  34. 34.

    p.a.

    @SenyorDave: re: Kentucky & McConnell, oh how I wish Bamz could issue an exec order privatizing the TVA. My utilities aren’t subsidized (uh, that I know of). Why are theirs? Hate hurting innocent people, but enough is enough; wish BHO could make that POS hurt.

  35. 35.

    Alex.S

    I’m worried about what a Trump candidacy will be like as it moves onwards.

    Not a possible Presidency (I can’t deal with that possibility).

    But a campaign that embraces angry rhetoric directed towards minorities and is sort of winking at followers being violent or angry towards… well, everyone. Or even acknowledging violence by followers as really passionate fans.

  37. 37.

    Aleta

    What with media attention to Malheur (which did expose the organized threat to public land) and to Republican swordplay, the passage of the TPP is quietly ticking along without too much attention, it seems like.

  45. 45.

    RaflW

    @SenyorDave:

    I’d be willing to wager that David Brooks will vote for Trump, telling himself that people like him will be a steadying force in the party.

    I read this and immediately pictured a loaded lifeboat making its way slowly from a sinking ship, and David Brooks panicking so badly that he flips the lifeboat, an oar conks him on the head, and he slips out of his incorrectly donned lifejacket. But as he drowns, he still thinks of himself as a calm, steadying force…

  46. 46.

    Belafon

    We knew a lot of Republicans would find a way to justify a Trump presidency. These are the same people that justify everything with “If Democrats are against it, I’m for it” even if Democrats are against drinking bleach.

  47. 47.

    Kay

    @Aleta:

    The TPP isn’t moving at all:

    House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Sunday that he doesn’t see where the votes are right now to pass the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), and when pressed to explain what he would want to change in order to get the votes, Ryan told Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” he’s not the “dictator of the House.”

    They know they can’t run on it. The trade deals don’t pass in even years.

    The Petersen group, the think tank they all relied on to say “600K jobs” came out with an updated number. It’s “no (net) job gain”.

    If you think Bernie Sanders makes promises he can’t keep, he has nothing on free traders :)

  48. 48.

    danielx

    @Brachiator:

    Unfortunately, the biggest downside is that a Trump presidency might leave the country itself a smoking ruin.

    Yeah, not to mention the rest of the planet.

    @goblue72:

    Hey, I’m a boomer and I get Bernie just fine, thankyewverymuch. Moreover, if you think people just entering the work force are pissed off (justifiably, you’re not wrong), a great many people who were in their fifties when they lost jobs in the recession have never gotten comparable jobs since, because comparable jobs just ain’t there – for boomers or anyone else. They know very well they got screwed, although they may be confused as to who did the screwing and why.

  49. 49.

    schrodinger's cat

    For all the Ranveer Singh fans, a much more subdued but equally smoldering avatar in a movie adapted from an O. Henry’s short set in 1950s in Bengal the newly independent India. With an equally hot Sonakshi Sinha.

    Sawar loon

  51. 51.

    Randy P

    @RaflW: Well, there’s this list from Tom Levenson’s thread below:

    these embarrassments as Senators must go: Kirk, Johnson, Toomey, Portman, Ayotte.

    Toomey is our remaining wingnut Senator in PA, after we ditched Santorum and let him move on to the national stage (you’re welcome, America).

    Yes, it would be very nice to get rid of Toomey. I personally have been rooting for Joe Sestak since his unsuccessful run in 2010, but I understand he’s not the pick of the state Democratic machine. But I’ll take any (D).

    We have a new Democratic governor. It would be nice to have a Democratic legislature because the one we have is still managing to do incredible amounts of damage, especially to education. But I’ll take my unicorns where I can get them.

  53. 53.

    Jeffro

    Already hearing a lot of self-justifying false equivalence from RW folks about “oh, two terrible choices for America…” (Trump and Clinton), “both unfit to lead”, etc etc.

    The choice between Clinton (or any Dem in the country, fwiw) and Trump could not be more clear. I hope she hammers home that contrast every day between now and November

  56. 56.

    Jeffro

    @Belafon: yes – this.

    Everyone’s been talking about Trump’s ceiling in the primaries…once he gets the nomination, his floor – even with all his insanity – is likely 44-45%

  57. 57.

    Chyron HR

    @goblue72:

    Argle bargle purge the boomers

    The only thing you can’t have in this perfect world of total pleasure is your 30th 60th birthday.

  58. 58.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @danielx: Don’t waste your breath with this one, just get on the ice floe with the rest of us Spawn of Satan(aka Boomers).

  62. 62.

    scav

    It is a truth universally acknowledged that there have never before been youths that understood the inevitable inexorable power of true belief and miraculous swift revolution.

  64. 64.

    RaflW

    VIa wonkwire – Kasich: “I don’t know if my purpose is to be president. My purpose is to be out here, doing what I think I need to be doing and we’ll see where it ends up.”

    I guess he saw the poll showing he’s in 2nd in Ohio.

  66. 66.

    jl

    @Kay: People have been calling Petersen and his think tanks on silly assumptions that exaggerate effects of trade deals on jobs. The US style IP law and econ restricts trade and produces income distribution shifts that reduce growth. So, Petersen’s estimates maybe finally had to recognize that the IP provisions that are in the agreement are actually in the agreement and will effect the world just the same as other provisions in the agreement will.

  67. 67.

    goblue72

    @danielx: Now one is saying “all Boomers” nor saying “all Xers” or “all Millenials”. So yes, its perfectly possible that you are a Boomer and get Sanders, while at same time Boomers as a whole do not. And based on the primaries so far, this is bearing out – Boomers heavily vote for Clinton; and Millenials heavily vote for Sanders, and X’ers vote for Sanders as well, if not quite as heavily. The cutoff age appears to be around 45 or so. Even in Nevada, where “Hillary won Latinos”, what she did was win older Latinos – same as all the other gender/race demographics. And given historical voter turnout rates by age, relying on older voters gets you more votes.

    And there is a big difference between “the Recession knocked me off the ladder and I have only partially recovered” versus never getting a chance to get on the ladder to begin with – or if you finally do, finding the climb up is a LOT LOT more blocked. There is a significant difference in that degree – and the degree to which the opportunities afforded Boomers were significantly better than those afforded X’ers and Millenials. (As an example, Gen X’ers entered the workforce around time of early 1990s Bush recession, saw a brief period of job gains during second half of Clinton years, saw all that go up in smoke (along with their 401k’s) in Dot Com bust, had it repeat all over again with the Housing Bubble, saw that go up in even bigger smoke (along with both their 401k’s AND their home equity, if they even owned one), and back to square one now all over again. 20 years pissed down the drain. That is categorically different than what Boomers have experienced.

  68. 68.

    draftmama

    Shouldn’t the contenders for President have to take some sort of intelligence test before they are officially on the ballot. With specific questions about foreign policy, domestic economics, and simple stuff like that?

  69. 69.

    El Caganer

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Remember what they were all chanting in Freaks? “Boomer, boomer, one of us! We accept her, one of us!” Or maybe I’m remembering it wrong – after all, I’m a boomer.

  70. 70.

    El Caganer

    @draftmama: For the Republicans maybe something a little easier. First they have to show they know how to use a knife and fork to feed themselves.

  71. 71.

    PurpleGirl

    @goblue72: No, it isn’t. A good numbers of Boomers experienced that in the 1970s and again in the the 1980s. And each time, a fair number of Boomers never made into the higher salary jobs. And when 2008 rolled around, they lost it all again. Now they are looking at old age with significantly less financial resources. I know this from personal experience. I haven’t worked since 2008, I used up savings when Unemployment ran out and until a received a small inheritance I had NO MONEY. So don’t tell me I’ve had it easy. And any number of friends are in the same fix.

  75. 75.

    James E Powell

    I’ve been assured by every Republican diehard I know that now that JEB! is gone, Rubio is certain to become the consensus and Trump is finished. Or maybe it was Kasich, I forget.

  76. 76.

    James E Powell

    @Boots Day:

    After two years of President Trump, the Senate and House could end up under Dem control for a generation.

    Sure about that? After 8 years of Bush/Cheney disasters, the nation waited exactly two years to give the Republicans veto power over the federal government.

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