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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Bracing for Impact (Open Thread)

Bracing for Impact (Open Thread)

by Betty Cracker|  March 1, 20164:33 pm| 117 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes

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imageVia Politico (I know, I know), Team Lil’ Marco is busily lowering Super Tuesday expectations:

“It was a presentation that defied reality,” said one Rubio backer. “They said their convention strategy was not contingent on winning any states… Even if you go to the [second ballot] why would anyone say Marco Rubio is the guy to give it to?”

Why indeed, anonymous backer?

The article doesn’t say whether or not Rubio plans to give another second- or third-place victory speech. (I suspect not.) I hope Trump waxes the little shit in Florida too.

Open thread!

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Previous Post: « Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
Next Post: Open Thread: Counting Down (Way, Way Down) »

Reader Interactions

117Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    March 1, 2016 at 4:34 pm

    “They said their convention strategy was not contingent on winning any states…

    He and I have that in common.

  2. 2.

    WJS

    March 1, 2016 at 4:35 pm

    Remember this new logic–

    Second place is the winner! Dead men can still vote on the Supreme Court! We’re gonna build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it! And that Obama knows exactly what he’s doing!

    Yay!

  3. 3.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 4:38 pm

    @Baud: But when Baud! 2016! gives a victory speech after coming in third, he sounds like he really means it. And he is so well lubricated, that he probably does.

    That happy warrior attitude will come in handy when Baud! 2016! finally (and virtually) wrests the nomination from reality based politics on the 108th ballot.

  4. 4.

    Linda Featheringill

    March 1, 2016 at 4:40 pm

    It looks to me like Trump is going to be the GOP candidate. I know I have a terrible record of political predictions but even a blind seagull . . . . . .

  5. 5.

    Calouste

    March 1, 2016 at 4:41 pm

    “It was a presentation that defied reality”

    So, Tuesday in the GOP primaries then?

    Anyway, most GOP primaries are winner takes all or winner takes most. Unless the landscape changes significantly, Trump is going to win most primaries considering he leads by 15-20% nationally, and hoover up enough delegates to win on the first ballot. If, because of some tricks, Trump doesn’t win the nomination despite being the obvious leading candidate, he will go ballistic on the GOP.

    ETA: Rubio and his team are probably so stupid that they think all primaries are proportional.

  6. 6.

    dedc79

    March 1, 2016 at 4:41 pm

    Ha!

    “A vote for Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump,” Sullivan said, according to multiple sources.

    The great thing about this sentence is that you can sub in the name of any candidate and it still works (including Trump, of course).

  7. 7.

    piratedan

    March 1, 2016 at 4:42 pm

    how I feel about the GOP roster of candidates can be summed up by paraphrasing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character while he was under the influence of truth serum in True Lies

    yes…. but they were all bad…..

  8. 8.

    rikyrah

    March 1, 2016 at 4:42 pm

    “They said their convention strategy was not contingent on winning any states…

    BWA HA HA HA H HA HA HA HA

  9. 9.

    Turgidson

    March 1, 2016 at 4:42 pm

    If Rubio can’t beat Trump anywhere (even his home state, which seems to have grown fed up with the fact that he openly hates and refuses to do the job they elected him for), they’re more likely to give the nomination to Noam Chomsky than they are to hand it to Young Marco. If there are to be back-room machinations to steal the nomination from the Vulgar Talking Yam, the conspirators will find a fallback choice unsullied by the election insanity. They won’t give it to one of the useless morons who allowed the Trump nomination to happen in the first place by being horrible, chickenshit candidates.

    I honestly have no idea who that might be. If they think they can foist Paul Ryan or some donor class-favored milquetoast fraud on the party after all this, they’re in for some kind of a surprise.

  10. 10.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 4:45 pm

    @Linda Featheringill: I do wish that creepy little fake Rubio, and Cruz, luck in trying to cage together just enough delegates to spark an ugly and contentious floor fight at the GOP convention.

    The GOP richly deserves a complete and humiliating implosion, and Rubo and Cruz might try to pull that off. And then I think Drumpfnado will still emerge victorious to wreak more damage. One can only hope.

    Good News for Republicans!

  11. 11.

    Baud

    March 1, 2016 at 4:45 pm

    @jl:

    And he is so well lubricated,

    That’s what she said.

  12. 12.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    March 1, 2016 at 4:46 pm

    The peasants are revolting.

    The Id of the party has broken free, and not even a wizard could control it now.

  13. 13.

    BGinCHI

    March 1, 2016 at 4:48 pm

    Marco is the only kid in the kindergarten hoping the Little Engine That Could Can’t.

  14. 14.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 4:48 pm

    @Calouste:The GOP primary schedule shifts from mostly proportional to mostly winner-take-all on March 15.

    So, next two weeks are lazy little rich man’s pet Rubios’s main window of opportunity. I hope he does just barely well enough to stay in and create more mess.

    Edit: and most proportional primaries are proportional by C district of county, not by popular vote, so Rubio has to demonstrate a certain minimum level of popular support, and I worry that he doesn’t have enough. to remain in the race as a noxious pest ready to make an even bigger mess of the GOP.

  15. 15.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    March 1, 2016 at 4:51 pm

    I think for the next GOP debate each.candidate should all be standing in front of medium sized tables full of good throwing food and supersoakers. Foods like cream pies,eggs, soft fluffy mashed potatoes, ripe tomatoes, jello etc and just have a massive food fight along with what they call a debate.

  16. 16.

    p.a.

    March 1, 2016 at 4:51 pm

    They said their convention strategy was not contingent on winning.

    Fixt.

  17. 17.

    MattF

    March 1, 2016 at 4:51 pm

    Bruce Bartlett, former Reaganite, has come a long way:

    I will be voting for Donald Trump in the Virginia primary today. Of course, I would not vote for him in the general election; I will vote for whoever the Democrat nominee is. I will do so because the nomination of Trump will go a long way toward destroying the wanker party, which is essential for our nation’s survival.

    More at his Facebook page (note, there’s more than one Bruce Bartlett on Facebook).

  18. 18.

    Gimlet

    March 1, 2016 at 4:52 pm

    @Turgidson:

    If there are to be back-room machinations to steal the nomination from the Vulgar Talking Yam, the conspirators will find a fallback choice unsullied by the election insanity.

    The Republicans are seeing a record number of the party faithful turning out for the primaries AND they want Trump! If they nominate a different candidate, presumably that record number of the party faithful will be very unhappy.

  19. 19.

    Iowa Old Lady

    March 1, 2016 at 4:52 pm

    The floundering around in Fantasyland is just so bizarre. Trump is their candidate. As Scalia (who is still dead) once said, get over it.

  20. 20.

    Miss Bianca

    March 1, 2016 at 4:52 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    I see what you did there.

  21. 21.

    Applejinx

    March 1, 2016 at 4:53 pm

    @Turgidson: Jeb?

    :D

  22. 22.

    Lisa Lampanelli

    March 1, 2016 at 4:53 pm

    Holy friggin moly! The day has finally arrived. I never wanna see a friggin thighmaster ever again.

  23. 23.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 4:54 pm

    @Mai.naem.mobile: debates with wedgies and pantsing allowed. No, required. And properly calibrated dick measuring sticks.

  24. 24.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 1, 2016 at 4:54 pm

    Well, he’s only been campaigning with these comedy stylings for about a week.

    Benjy SarlinVerified account
    ‏@ BenjySarlin
    Rubio in Minnesota bringing the A material: “Donald — maybe you should call him CON-ald — Trump.”

    How long till Super Tuesday? There’s time.

    Sounds like money’s not a problem either

    Reid WilsonVerified account
    ‏@ ConsultReid
    Total Marco Rubio Super Tuesday TV spending: $462k campaign, $1.8m PAC

  25. 25.

    Hal

    March 1, 2016 at 4:55 pm

    I saw a comment from a friend of a friend on Facebook in which this person admitted that Trump would probably get the U.S. in another big war, but that might be good because under President Trump we could show the rest of the world not to mess with the U.S. Oh and Trump is good at business.

    Another comment from a couple of weeks ago had an evangelical friend of friend criticizing other true believers for their hatred towards Trump because how did they know God was not using Trump as a vessel?

    Of he is the nominee we’ll finally know for sure if anything resembling a sane republican still exists. I have a wee bit of doubt.

  26. 26.

    MattF

    March 1, 2016 at 4:55 pm

    @jl: Don’t forget the poop flinging. Monkey see, monkey do do.

  27. 27.

    dmsilev

    March 1, 2016 at 4:55 pm

    @Turgidson: If the VTY is denied the nomination via back-room dealings, he’ll burn the building down around him rather than go quietly into the night. It would literally literally schism the GOP.

    Personally, I think the key to Trump’s strength is, like Samson, his hair. Shave him, and his support will evaporate. Sneak some depilatories into his shampoo and problem solved.

  28. 28.

    Ripley

    March 1, 2016 at 4:55 pm

    …their convention strategy was not contingent on winning any states.

    Well, the Republican government strategy isn’t contingent on actual governing, so this makes a perverse kind of sense.

  29. 29.

    Anoniminous

    March 1, 2016 at 4:57 pm

    @Calouste:

    Except Colorado where the Official Rules Are:

    There is no formal system applied in the Precinct Caucus to relate the presidential preference of the participants to the choice of the precinct’s delegates to the Colorado County Assemblies and District Conventions; (NOTE: It is the District Conventions and the State Convention that will actually elect Republican National Convention delegates to presidential contenders).

  30. 30.

    Gimlet

    March 1, 2016 at 4:57 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Personally, I think the key to Trump’s strength is, like Samson, his hair. Shave him, and his support will evaporate. Sneak some depilatories into his shampoo and problem solved.

    An endorsement and hug from Obama for his favorite politician should do it.

  31. 31.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 4:59 pm

    @MattF: Thanks. I vaguely sensed that I forgot something.

    They should distribute some paper bags and matches to the candidates. If some loser stomps on a lit bag of shit after another candidate dumps in it and throws, then that would be a big, probably fatal, gaffe and sign of weakness.

    But, then probably moot, since Jeb is out of the race.

  32. 32.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    March 1, 2016 at 4:59 pm

    I love that the way the GOP nomination has played out is a display of GOP philosophy -i.e. It’s all about me. Nobody wants to sacrifice for the greater good of the party. Hilarious.

  33. 33.

    srv

    March 1, 2016 at 5:00 pm

    @Turgidson: Noam Chomsky is shrill:

    Though we do not have detailed data, it appears that Trump is appealing primarily to less educated white sectors of the population, lower middle class and working class, people who are angry, frustrated, frightened, bitter about the fact – and it is a fact – that they have been in many ways cast by the wayside. The neoliberal programs of the past generation have been harmful to affected populations almost everywhere, sometimes severely so.

    neoliberalism is a cancer. Trump is the chemotherapy.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    March 1, 2016 at 5:01 pm

    @Mai.naem.mobile:

    Nobody wants to sacrifice for the greater good evil of the party.

    Fixed.

  35. 35.

    Turgidson

    March 1, 2016 at 5:01 pm

    @Gimlet:

    To be clear, I don’t there’s more than a 2% chance of the party doing it – both out of self-interest (better to unite as much as possible behind Trump than to assure a vicious crackup) and out of cowardice (which they’ve already demonstrated in spades).

    But if they do go that route, they won’t be handing the spoils of their heist to Marco f’ing Rubio after he gets his ass kicked in 6 different directions by a carnival barking racist. They’ll go with some blank slate-type right-winger who they think would be able to win back some of Trump’s minions and unite the rest of the party. The best guess I could hazard would be that they go with one of their 2014 Senate victors – Tom Cotton or Corey Gardner.

  36. 36.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 5:02 pm

    @Gimlet: Naw, won’t work. Will just be an alternative way to hide the bald spot that is rumored to be on one side of Drumpf’s head. Trump will use it to win bigger.

    “I have a great relationship with The Balds. They love me. I will overwhelmingly win the Bald vote.”

  37. 37.

    Baud

    March 1, 2016 at 5:02 pm

    @srv:

    neoliberalism is a cancer. Trump is the chemo Kevorkian.

    Fixed.

  38. 38.

    Gimlet

    March 1, 2016 at 5:04 pm

    @jl:

    Some say that “Baud” is just a typo for that.

  39. 39.

    Anoniminous

    March 1, 2016 at 5:05 pm

    @Turgidson:

    If they are going to not nominate Trump they’ll have to pop a cap in his head. Otherwise the GOP would go into complete melt-down mode.

  40. 40.

    hueyplong

    March 1, 2016 at 5:05 pm

    In the most Schaendfreudelicious scenarios for the GOP establishment (as a mind game, I sub in, “all their Senators, House Reps and Governors” who shut down government, screwed over people who could have been insured, refused to consider a Supreme Court appointment, etc., etc.):

    All the “palatable” choices fail miserably right out of the gate.

    They’re left with Trump, the execrable Cruz, and an “acceptable” candidate who makes Dan Quayle look like Abraham Lincoln.

    They debase themselves by supporting the sub-Quayle, who immediately fails miserably, making them look ridiculous for supporting him.

    They’re forced to genuflect before someone (Ted Cruz) they truly, deeply despise on a personal level, but he, too, fails after they’re forced into continual individual acts of debasement in support of his candidacy. Cruz and his supporters are all endlessly degraded by schoolyard taunting during every day of a hopelessly doomed primary campaign stretch.

    Trump turns their convention into something like a combination cheesy casino opening/obviously fraudulent real estate development “grand opening”/fascist rally, with numerous instances of protesters or similar “others” beaten on camera by thugs wearing Trump gear. Imagine how many times network cameras will be zoomed in on closeups of forced smiles or other acts of “enthusiasm” from “establishment” people intercut with the scenes of violence.

    Then, finally, and this is the cool part, some of them have to provide some semblance of support, or at the very least, refrain from demonizing, Hillary Fking Clinton during the general.

    We’d imagine that to be hell on earth for those people. I hope it is.

  41. 41.

    Ramalama

    March 1, 2016 at 5:07 pm

    @Turgidson: I guess it’s a fun idea, but having worked for Noam, I can’t imagine that they’d prefer him over the Bush acolyte. My first day in the office was dealing with FBI who were all over me to check Noam’s files. He had a room of filing cabinets filled with correspondence that he kept. Apparently the Unabomber wrote Noam Chomsky on the wall of his cabin.

  42. 42.

    Origuy

    March 1, 2016 at 5:07 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim: The king is a fink!

  43. 43.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 5:07 pm

    @srv: In terms of relative drops in many measures of economic welfare, working and lower middle class whites got hurt more than others in the Great Recession.

    That might seem offensive to some, since even after the Great Recession, whites are doing better in absolute terms. But lower income Whites got stung, in terms of proportional reductions in income, employment, and a few others, in a way that they have not in far more than a generation. That might have made a big difference in attitude.

  44. 44.

    Calouste

    March 1, 2016 at 5:09 pm

    @jl: Your edit is important. A lot of primaries that are not winner-takes-all overall assign delegates partially at the district level, and there are three delegates per district. Quite a few assign two delegates to the winner and one to second place. Texas assigns 108 delegates that way for example. Coming in third is not going to gain a lot of delegates for Rubio. Some are, like South Carolina, winner-takes-all on the district level, which means that anyone with a decent lead, like Trump, will get all the delegates. I expect that Trump will get 35-40% of the popular vote today, and 60-70% of the delegates, and it will only be that low because Cruz will gain quite a few delegates in his home state.

  45. 45.

    p.a.

    March 1, 2016 at 5:10 pm

    @Baud:

    neoliberalism is a cancer. Trump is the chemo Kevorkian.

    It has become necessary to destroy the country to save it.

  46. 46.

    ? Martin

    March 1, 2016 at 5:11 pm

    @jl:

    In terms of relative drops in many measures of economic welfare, working and lower middle class whites got hurt more than others in the Great Recession.

    Of course. Those policies that they fought so hard for were only supposed to hurt lower middle class blacks. Nobody could have expected those policies would be so colorblind.

  47. 47.

    MattF

    March 1, 2016 at 5:11 pm

    But what is the Republican Establishment going to do to stop Trump? I guess they could kill all the pledged Trump delegates and replace them with zombies, but that would be kinda messy. OTOH, I suppose it would increase the demand for BRAINS on the convention floor.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    March 1, 2016 at 5:11 pm

    @jl: Those whites could have gone with Sanders and put him over the top. They went with Trump. That’s not an arbitrary choice IMHO.

  49. 49.

    Mike J

    March 1, 2016 at 5:11 pm

    @Anoniminous: The paranoid part of my brain has been wondering if they will do just that, and then try to roll into office with Lil Marco, because obviously it was a Democrat//negro/terrorist that really did it. It’s not something I’ve dwelt on, but the thought has passed through my mind.

  50. 50.

    Calouste

    March 1, 2016 at 5:12 pm

    @Anoniminous: Yeah, that’s one of the tricks I mentioned.

  51. 51.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 5:13 pm

    @Baud: I guess being a grouchy old coot who yells a lot does not provide enough authoritarian comfort for the Drumpf yahoos.

    And maybe Drumpf is also better at delivering some other message they like to hear.

    Anyway, a simple con for simple people, I guess.

  52. 52.

    hueyplong

    March 1, 2016 at 5:14 pm

    @p.a.:

    Someone could do a pretty memorable political cartoon sticking your line under a drawing of Trump taking a Zippo to a straw hut labeled “GOP.”

  53. 53.

    srv

    March 1, 2016 at 5:16 pm

    @jl: Correct. It’s the economy, stupid.

    Chomsky gets it. Trump gets it.

    Hillary doesn’t.

  54. 54.

    boatboy_srq

    March 1, 2016 at 5:17 pm

    @WJS:

    Second place is the winner!

    Does anyone else see this as deligitimizing Trump? “See? Rubio WON! (except for that awful t#rd of a candidate, whose name we won’t mention because saying out loud could summon His Yuuugeness.)”

    ETA: not that I think this is bad, necessarily, just humorous – and predictable.

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    March 1, 2016 at 5:18 pm

    @Mike J: Wow. That hadn’t even occurred to me, but there is a lot of coin riding on the outcome. Stranger things have happened.

  56. 56.

    p.a.

    March 1, 2016 at 5:19 pm

    @Baud: It all comes back to the cardboard box and the sparrow on the curtain rod.

  57. 57.

    Rasputin's Evil Twin

    March 1, 2016 at 5:20 pm

    @dmsilev: I’ve been waiting for months for him to grow a little toothbrush ‘stache, the same color and texture (?) as his hair (?) Maybe after the convention.

  58. 58.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 5:21 pm

    @srv:

    IIRC HIspanics and African-Americans got hurt worse in terms of proportional loss in average wealth in housing. So, the Great Recession was an epic mess for everyone.

    HRC has to beat Sanders, which should be widely seen as almost a done deal after today. And she has to triangulate well enough to make a Bloomberg vanity run look like a really unattractive and humiliating waste of time for the old money bags.

    Sanders should have trademarked his signature phrases, since from what I have heard from HRC since SC, he would have a case. If he were a ‘winner’ like Drumpf and certain sleazy concessionaires, he would sue. That is what they do.

  59. 59.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 1, 2016 at 5:23 pm

    @Baud: Just wait until you hit the Convention!

  60. 60.

    Roger Moore

    March 1, 2016 at 5:25 pm

    @MattF:

    OTOH, I suppose it would increase the demand for BRAINS on the convention floor.

    Those zombies are gonna starve. I guess we’ll have to call whoever came up with that plan the granny-eyed zombie starver. (h/t to Charlie Pierce)

  61. 61.

    p.a.

    March 1, 2016 at 5:27 pm

    Has anyone seen polling to indicate white working class (say defined as < high school to maybe some time in juco) Obama voters- admittedly not the vanguard of his election victories- are leaners or likely Trump voters? Is there a chance HRC could lose whatever support the Dems had from that demographic?

  62. 62.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 1, 2016 at 5:28 pm

    @Linda Featheringill: Good. Trump is exactly the racist that Republicans deserve. Just shows how far down they have fallen that they would think someone like him would be palatable to the majority of Americans in a general election.

    Wonder who Republicans will have running for them in 2020. Now that they’ve selected Trump, perhaps they’ll go for David Duke next time. Why not? By then, they’ll need to appeal to the White voters who will be furious that the White House went from a Black man to a woman.

  63. 63.

    srv

    March 1, 2016 at 5:28 pm

    @jl: IDK, perhaps there are foreclosure stats by race.

    In other news, I think there is a pattern here, but I’m not sure what it is…

    Sanders concentrated $5.2 million in ad dollars in just four states — Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Colorado, according to NBC News ad-tracking partner SMG Delta.

    What do those states have in common?

  64. 64.

    Technocrat

    March 1, 2016 at 5:29 pm

    @srv:

    I don’t hear many Trump supporters talking about jobs, or the economy. I do hear a lot of them talking about immigration and “political correctness”. Which is fine – clearly the GOPe has let them down. It hasn’t delivered a walled, mosque-free country where a guy can say “bimbo” without consequence.

    Trump voters may feel betrayed by the “system”, but it’s a different system than Sanders voters are talking about.

  65. 65.

    Lamh36

    March 1, 2016 at 5:30 pm

    Good early evening!!! It’s 1 day early but Zoe decided she was just too cute today so she’s celebrating her 7 mon early

    https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/704772274050752514

  66. 66.

    ? Martin

    March 1, 2016 at 5:31 pm

    @jl:

    So, the Great Recession was an epic mess for everyone.

    It really wasn’t though.

    It really only hurt the non-college educated because it coincided with a technological shift in efficiency that hurt clerical, retail, and continued to hurt manufacturing. At its worst the unemployment rate for college educated peaked at just under 9% – that was for young people. For older workers it peaked at 5%. But where HS educated unemployment rates were only 2-3 points higher before the recession, they were more than double the college educated during the recession, and for young people it’s still over 20%. Minorities had the same trend with the usual biases piled on top.

    College educated saw wage stagnation, but mostly they saw asset loss. That’s no small thing, but even most of them saw their assets recover by now. People that were in jobs that were easy to eliminate due to efficiency got fucked hard. But that’s been true for hundreds of years. It will remain true for hundreds more and it doesn’t matter who is in the White House.

  67. 67.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 5:32 pm

    @srv: Sanders has a chance of pulling out wins in those states. He needs to win a couple or he will have trouble staying in. Unless he wants to turn his campaign into a symbolic one to push his political revolution. I think doing that, and explicitly campaigning on the Revolution, was a high probability Plan B anyway, but Sanders is a good enough politician to know it is far too early to do that without a lot damage to his cause.

    He needs to give HRC a good contest far into the primary for him to have the influence he wants.

    He needs to stay a semi-credible candidate through March so he can get to June where he has a chance to win in some large state primaries.

    Edit: sorry, missed the srv sarcasm. Yes I wonder what those states do have in common (actually I don’t know if they are all overwhelmingly white like IA and NH, are OK and MA?).

  68. 68.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 1, 2016 at 5:33 pm

    @Turgidson: How would the Republican elite get away with not giving the nomination to Trump if he arrives at the Convention with a majority of delegates from all his hard work during the primaries? That wouldn’t work for his enraged, poorly educated voters. I don’t see how this ends well for the GOP if Trump is not their candidate. I also don’t see how this ends well if he is their candidate since he can’t win the general.

    It’s perfect.

  69. 69.

    MattF

    March 1, 2016 at 5:36 pm

    @? Martin: Well, wage stagnation has been going on for 20 years, and anyone with financial experience knew that the asset loss was probably temporary. So, if you had some backup savings and you were not on the verge of retirement, you’ve done OK.

  70. 70.

    ? Martin

    March 1, 2016 at 5:38 pm

    @jl:

    Edit: sorry, missed the srv sarcasm. Yes I wonder what those states do have in common (actually I don’t know if they are all overwhelmingly white like IA and NH, are OK and MA?).

    They are all overwhelmingly white.

  71. 71.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 5:39 pm

    @? Martin: I just checked, I don’t think either OK and and MA can be called overwhelming non-Hispanic White anymore.

    Edit: but don’t let little me get in the way of the BJ Stereotyping System. Who am I to complain?

  72. 72.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 1, 2016 at 5:40 pm

    @Lamh36: She’s lovely. Happy B’Day to her.

  73. 73.

    Technocrat

    March 1, 2016 at 5:41 pm

    @? Martin:

    People that were in jobs that were easy to eliminate due to efficiency got fucked hard. But that’s been true for hundreds of years. It will remain true for hundreds more and it doesn’t matter who is in the White House

    And the effect is accelerating. The Industrial Revolution was about the mechanical amplification and replacement of human labor. But you still needed a brain to drive the new machines. Now that computers can drive cars and win at Go, they are beginning to encroach on the need for human cognition itself.

  74. 74.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 1, 2016 at 5:42 pm

    scene from outside a Clinton rally in Boston, by one of Pierce’s guest writers

    But there also seems to be an angry white male homing device set somewhere deep in the crowd. “Here Comes The Wall!” and “You’re paying for The Wall!” young guys chant as they randomly cut through knots of people. “How many women is Bill banging while his wife’s in Massachusetts?” growls an old white guy who looks like he hasn’t got any since the Korean War

  75. 75.

    JPL

    March 1, 2016 at 5:42 pm

    @Lamh36: I wish you could see the smile on my face when I looked, although probably still smaller than yours every time you hold her .

  76. 76.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 1, 2016 at 5:45 pm

    @jl: Edit: but don’t let little me get in the way of the BJ Stereotyping System. Who am I to complain?

    Or you could copy’n’paste the numbers you’re looking at. Your typing hands don’t appeared to be nailed to that cross.

  77. 77.

    ? Martin

    March 1, 2016 at 5:45 pm

    @MattF:

    Well, wage stagnation has been going on for 20 years, and anyone with financial experience knew that the asset loss was probably temporary. So, if you had some backup savings and you were not on the verge of retirement, you’ve done OK.

    Right. Now, if you went underwater on your house, you may have also lost your ability to relocate for a better job, and that would be very alarming to someone who fits your description who thought they prepared well, but still got stuck. But even there it was temporary, but required weathering for longer than maybe they had prepared.

    Put another way, a lot of people weathered the recession just fine because they were in a position to build their own safety net. Young people hadn’t had time. Minorities often never were in that position. A lot of non-college educated weren’t either.

    As they say, history doesn’t repeat but it does echo. Even if we wiped out the muslims and immigrants and blacks, we’d have to find some white group to push down and victimize and scapegoat like we did with the Irish or the Italians or Jews or Catholics. We couldn’t possibly deal with the economic realities head on.

  78. 78.

    A Ghost To Most

    March 1, 2016 at 5:47 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Just wait until you hit the Convention!

    Wait – the convention isn’t in WV, is it?

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    March 1, 2016 at 5:47 pm

    The assignment for Florida this year is not to praise Marco Antonio but to bury him.

  80. 80.

    Miss Bianca

    March 1, 2016 at 5:47 pm

    @Lamh36:

    Sweet l’il one! She looks like my great-niece!

  81. 81.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 5:48 pm

    @? Martin: Well, my point was just that lower income non-Hispanic Whites, as a group, felt more economic pain from the Great Recession than that group had felt in more than a generation, probably two generations.

    And it got them very riled up and tired of BS.

  82. 82.

    Mary G

    March 1, 2016 at 5:50 pm

    @Lamh36: She is beautiful!

  83. 83.

    Bob In Portland

    March 1, 2016 at 5:51 pm

    Gee, back in the old days when you were powerful and you didn’t like the candidate you had him shot. I’m guessing the ruling class can live with Trump. They’ll probably keep him sedated or something.

  84. 84.

    Roger Moore

    March 1, 2016 at 5:52 pm

    @jl:

    And she has to triangulate well enough to make a Bloomberg vanity run look like a really unattractive and humiliating waste of time for the old money bags.

    Count me among those who think Bloomberg was targeting Bernie and will decide he doesn’t need to run after all if Hillary is nominated.

  85. 85.

    mark

    March 1, 2016 at 5:53 pm

    Hey Betty. Did you see the Florida Senate voted down the pro-fracking bill? Knowing the pathological Republicans, I’m sure we’re not out of the woods yet but….good news! Read an article in the Tallahassee newspaper Sunday with pics that showed Wakulla Springs (stayed at the historical lodge on my wedding night) is ruined.

    Nothing makes my blood boil more than these evil fcks destroying what was once the most beautiful place on earth.

  86. 86.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 5:53 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Again, your handle fits.

    You heard of Wikipedia? You dang lazy kids these days. Next I’m supposed to open your bottle of pop for you?

    From Wiki,
    2010 Census OK: 72% White (which includes Hispanic White)
    2014 Estimate: MA, 74% Non-Hispanic White

  87. 87.

    ? Martin

    March 1, 2016 at 5:54 pm

    @jl: MA is 83% white, OK is 74% white. Relative to NH, yes, they’re are diverse. Relative to the other states up today, they are very white. More accurately, they all have <10% african american population.

    It's probably illustrative to distinguish between african american and latino in this case. Clinton seems to be doing particularly well with african americans, and they're a bit better split on latinos and native americans. So while Oklahoma is more diverse, it's more diverse in a way suited to Sanders as compared to the other states. Texas is really the odd state here – it's not that different from Oklahoma, but Clinton has always done very well there. I don't really understand why that is.

  88. 88.

    O. Felix Culpa

    March 1, 2016 at 5:54 pm

    @Lamh36: Squeee! Damn right she’s too cute! Give her a big hug from the Juicetariat.

  89. 89.

    p.a.

    March 1, 2016 at 5:55 pm

    @jl: The trend has been down for them since Carter/Raygun. Bit of a breather with Clinton.

  90. 90.

    Betty Cracker

    March 1, 2016 at 5:56 pm

    @Lamh36: Damn, she’s a cutie! That is such a wonderful age, too. Pretty soon y’all will be chasing her all over the place, so savor it now! ?

  91. 91.

    Bill

    March 1, 2016 at 5:56 pm

    @Mike J:

    It’s not something I’ve dwelt on, but the thought has passed through my mind.

    I was just saying today that Trump’s campaign reminds me of Wallace’s Populist-Dixiecrat run in 72. And we all know how that ended.

  92. 92.

    Roger Moore

    March 1, 2016 at 5:57 pm

    @jl:

    Yes I wonder what those states do have in common (actually I don’t know if they are all overwhelmingly white like IA and NH, are OK and MA?).

    They aren’t overwhelmingly white, but the Democratic Party in those states is not as heavily black as it is in the states that used to be in the Confederacy.

  93. 93.

    ? Martin

    March 1, 2016 at 5:57 pm

    @jl:

    Well, my point was just that lower income non-Hispanic Whites, as a group, felt more economic pain from the Great Recession than that group had felt in more than a generation, probably two generations.

    I don’t dispute the point. I just blame them for voting in a manner that would lead to that result. They generally thought by virtue of their whiteness that they would be exempt from a lack of social spending. They were wrong. Now, Trump isn’t nearly as hard-lined on killing social spending as every other Republican, so perhaps they have realized their mistake on the social spending. That they are lining up with Trump means they still want their whiteness to save the day, though.

  94. 94.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 1, 2016 at 5:57 pm

    @jl: I’m sorry, did my pointing out the silliness of your attempt at playing the martyr diminish the pleasure you take in playing the martyr, you odd little person?

  95. 95.

    Kay

    March 1, 2016 at 5:58 pm

    @p.a.:

    I don’t think Clinton will lose them just because Democrats have sort of bottomed out:

    In the last three presidential elections, the Democratic candidate lost among white working-class (non-college) voters by an average of 22 points. The worst performance came in 2012 when Obama lost this group by a staggering 26 points (62-36).

    It’s complicated. Younger white working class are less religious, more socially liberal and not knee jerk opposed to government intervention in the economy and so they are much more likely to support a Democrat but as with any group of younger people you need more of them to counter an older group of the same demographic because younger people are less reliable voters than older people are.

    Democrats generally receive greater support among Millennial white working-class voters than among older white working-class voters. This gap peaked in 2008 when Obama’s margin was 30 points better among 18-29 year old white working class Millennial voters than among their older counterparts.

  96. 96.

    bemused

    March 1, 2016 at 6:02 pm

    @MattF:

    His FB page is great. He doesn’t hold back, suffer fools gladly!

  97. 97.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 6:02 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, you ruined it completely and I am distraught.

  98. 98.

    Eric U.

    March 1, 2016 at 6:02 pm

    @Bill: well, Wallace wasn’t quite as racist as Trump has been. I’m starting to wonder if there isn’t something wrong with Trump physically

  99. 99.

    Jacel

    March 1, 2016 at 6:03 pm

    From that remark, it sounds like Rubio has acquired some of Jeb’s anonymous backers.

    Also, how did “liberal” ever get into the term “neoliberal”? I’ve never seen anything resembling liberal values in that movement over the decades. Was calling it something-liberal part of the long-game of draining all value and appeal from the word liberal?

  100. 100.

    jl

    March 1, 2016 at 6:05 pm

    @? Martin: But you were correct that I got overly poetic in saying that the Great Recession was a mess for everyone. If you had enough wealth, or were in highly educated professional class, then you did much better.

  101. 101.

    guachi

    March 1, 2016 at 6:05 pm

    @? Martin:

    They are all overwhelmingly white.

    Except they aren’t. They are above average in whiteness, but not overwhelmingly so.
    US is 63.7 non-hispanic white. The four states where Sanders is concentrating money:
    Minnesota – 83.1
    Massachusetts – 76.1
    Colorado – 70.0
    Oklahoma – 68.7

  102. 102.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    March 1, 2016 at 6:08 pm

    @Eric U.: Me too.

    I never watched The Apprentice, but he looks and sounds quite reasonable here in this September 13, 2001 interview (11:38) with a German TV show.

    Something seems to have broken in his self-control circuitry or maybe it’s some sort of dementia or something….

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  103. 103.

    bemused senior

    March 1, 2016 at 6:13 pm

    @? Martin: HRC was a field organizer for McGovern in South Texas. She then was in Arkansas politics for many years.

  104. 104.

    Kay

    March 1, 2016 at 6:16 pm

    @p.a.:

    Every time you mention Trump getting more white working class, too, you have to weigh that against Clinton getting more college-educated white voters. They turn out better, too :)

    I thought the white working class female demo with Obama in 2012 was interesting. I’m not surprised white working class women were better for us , but you wonder why Democrats don’t zero in there.

  105. 105.

    El Caganer

    March 1, 2016 at 6:21 pm

    @Jacel: It’s from ‘Classical liberalism,’ which is more related to what we would think of as libertarianism.

  106. 106.

    liberal

    March 1, 2016 at 6:24 pm

    @srv: iirc Chomsky said he’s going to vote for Hillary.

  107. 107.

    srv

    March 1, 2016 at 6:24 pm

    @bemused senior:

    Defensive and often lacking in humor in company she did not know well, low on human warmth with strangers, and relentlessly businesslikke, Hillary charmed no one at the campaign headquarters on West Sixth Street, where she sometimes sat at a desk next to Bill’s… “Nobody had met anyone like Hillary before,” recalled Betsey Wright.

    Bill, on the other hand, was very popular. Particularly with the ladies.

  108. 108.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 1, 2016 at 6:29 pm

    @srv: Bill, on the other hand, was very popular. Particularly with the ladies.

    Heh. I see what you did there.

  109. 109.

    p.a.

    March 1, 2016 at 6:31 pm

    @Kay:

    but you wonder why Democrats don’t zero in there.

    I’m afraid I have become too cynical of the nat’l Democratic party. My response is “because there’s no money in it.”

  110. 110.

    Betty Cracker

    March 1, 2016 at 6:34 pm

    @mark: I missed that but am glad to hear it — thanks! Know what you mean about watching the destruction. Sometimes I’m sorry I don’t believe in hell because there are damn sure people who deserve to roast in it!

  111. 111.

    p.a.

    March 1, 2016 at 6:34 pm

    Dems to wobbly, racist Dems: we want you back! Distasteful, but I’ll take every frackin vote I can get this year.

  112. 112.

    Roger Moore

    March 1, 2016 at 6:35 pm

    @liberal:

    iirc Chomsky said he’s going to vote for Hillary.

    He said that if he lived in a battleground state, he’d vote for Hillary over Trump, and it wouldn’t be a hard choice. Chomsky is many things, but stupid isn’t one of them.

  113. 113.

    Michael Bersin

    March 1, 2016 at 6:46 pm

    @Hal:

    “….we’ll finally know for sure if anything resembling a sane republican still exists….”

    That ship sailed a long, long, time ago.

  114. 114.

    Kay

    March 1, 2016 at 6:50 pm

    @p.a.:

    My response is “because there’s no money in it.”

    Hah! Probably true. Remember the whole “nail tech” conversation in 2012?. The “nail techs and waitresses were voting for Obama!”

    Sadly, they have no money.

  115. 115.

    stinger

    March 1, 2016 at 8:22 pm

    @Lamh36: OMG I am so in love with her!

  116. 116.

    Paul in KY

    March 2, 2016 at 8:24 am

    @Lamh36: Best wishes to Zoe & her family!

  117. 117.

    Paul in KY

    March 2, 2016 at 8:26 am

    @Jacel: ‘Neoliberal’ means ‘anti-liberal’ or ‘not liberal’. Those smarmy fucks have nothing to do with true liberalism.

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