Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’s committed to supporting Donald Trump’s presidential bid.
But, the Kentucky Republican wrote, he has expectations of Trump — who he said “now has the opportunity and the obligation to unite our party around our goals.”McConnell said in a statement Wednesday night that he plans to support the real estate mogul, who became the GOP’s presumptive nominee once Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ended his campaign after losing Indiana’s primary on Tuesday night and Ohio Gov. John Kasich then dropped out of the race on Wednesday.
“I have committed to supporting the nominee chosen by Republican voters, and Donald Trump, the presumptive nominee, is now on the verge of clinching that nomination,” McConnell said.
“Republicans are committed to preventing what would be a third term of Barack Obama and restoring economic and national security after eight years of a Democrat in the White House,” he said. “As the presumptive nominee, he now has the opportunity and the obligation to unite our party around our goals.”
There’s going to be a whole bunch of #nevertrump wankery in the upcoming months, but that doesn’t mean they will do anything to defeat him. They may choose to sit out as these two profiles in courage, Bush 41 and Bush 43, but they won’t actually vote for the only other option in the race. But it needs to be said over and over and over again. We are hear because of the Establishment GOP.
For the last couple decades, the GOP has been eagerly supporting the political equivalent of suicide bombers. You can go through the list of the top tier un-elected idiots, whether they be Joe the Plumber, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, the entire coterie at Red State and Hot Air and the National Review, and the gun nutters and fascists and Bundy bros that they all play footsy with, and every one of them was all in on the teahadists and shit fer brains when it served them. And then the elected nutters from Steve King to Bachmann to that you lie shitbird to on and on and on. I’m not even going to waste your time and give you acid indigestion listing all these toilet bowl clingers.
So yeah, now you’re against Trump. You’re so fucking principled. It’d be horrible for conservatism if Trump wins.
Fuck you.
Baud
Election 2016: The Battle for the Soul of White People Begins.
Day 1.
aimai
I adore you, John Cole. you have been an enormous light in great darkness all these years.
BR
Reposted from a couple threads down:
The Media Keeps Letting Trump Get Away With His Iraq Lie:
Chris
I think the upcoming months are going to be mostly about the #nevertrump wankery dying out. They’ll line up behind him. And really, why shouldn’t they? As you say, he’s ultimately exactly the kind of buffoon they’ve promoted and idolized for decades now.
I expect very, very few of these people to cling to their alleged principles when push comes to shove and it’s Trump against one of These People.
Face
So a Clinton victory is just a third term for Obama? Good f#cking lord, the ODS is fierce. Thats pathological.
And what the fuck is “economic security” supposed to mean? Like, when, like, Obama saved the car industry and basically reversed the recession? McConnell is soooo full of shit it’s amazing his organs still function.
Amaranthine RBG
I so wish Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert had stuck it out through November …
Starfish
Ted Cruz for Human President
The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016
Trumps gonna keep Trumpin’, Yertle. And somehow I suppose you’ll continue to write sternly worded letters to him to stay true to ‘Republican goals’ all the way through November.
Baud
@srv: Glad to see Hillary pushing Trump to the left. It reflects her dominance.
BR
@Face:
We should welcome that framing — Obama is more popular than anyone else.
Jeffro
@Face:
I think what the Turtle means is, “I know the GOP stays 110% devoted to ensuring that profits flow up to CEOs and not down to workers…I know we oppose Obamacare…I know we’re trying to finish destroying unions…what I’m hoping is, that by describing the problem repeatedly, y’all voters will be too dumb to recognize that me and my party are the ones causing most of the problem here.”
Now then, on to picking Trump’s running mate!
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trumps-running-mate-here-are-22-possibilities/ar-BBsEtDP?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout
I’ll make a nickel bet on Christie, Ernst, Rubio, or Volde…er…I mean, Rick Scott.
Cacti
The GOP is now the American Fascist Party.
No hiding from it anymore. No plausible deniability, dog whistles, or smiley veneers covering what lies beneath.
The Republicans are a fascist party with a fascist Presidential candidate.
Choke on it you fuckers!
Schlemazel Khan
Senate Officially Mourns Return of Ted Cruz
Punchy
@srv: It will be hilarious to watch all these rock-ribbed conservatives agree through clenched teeth that, yes, raising the minimum wage is something they’d support because, of course, they support The Don and his platform.
I SWEAR this jamoke is a Dem plant.
scav
@srv: Trump speaks out of sides of his mouth that haven’t been expressed yet in this universe. Sort of an n-space surround-sound.
gf120581
At this point, I think McConnell is resigned to becoming Minority Leader again come January. He’s just trying to staunch the bleeding and keep things close enough so the GOP can take the Senate back again in 2018, when the map becomes much more favorable.
Same reason why he’s still continuing the SC blockade (for now, anyway; it may be out of his hands before long if his vulnerable members break to save their skins). He’d much rather keep favor with the nutters in the base so he can keep his leadership perch and avoid Boehner’s fate, even if it does mean losing the majority. And if a whole bunch of his caucus gets tossed, well, better them than him.
Zinsky
How do you r-r-really feel? Now that Rafael Eduardo Cruz is out of the race, can the investigation of the Zodiac Killer continue in earnest?
Schlemazel Khan
@srv:
GENIUS! Piss off your base while fooling nobody! Truly you & the short-fingered vulgarian are intellects of unbelievable power!
Broomfondle and Majicthighs bow before your stupefying brains
redshirt
The Republicans are the enemies of not just Americans, but the entire world. Anyone of good conscience regardless of your perspective must do everything they can to defeat them.
Bobbo
We all joked that McConnell would succeed in making Obama a 2-term president. Now he’s admitting he will fail even in that. Heh indeed
daves09
In a few months w can look forward to Chris Matthews say-“sure he’s said some harsh, things, some tough things(because tweetie loves him some tough-just not lady tough) but does anybody really have any proof he’s a bigot and a racist?” And no proof will ever be e nough.
A Ghost To Most
@Cacti:
This. If I was just a bit closer to retirement, I’d print this and hang it outside my office.
John, I’m surprised this got your motor running. Republicans fall in line. It’s what they do.
Amaranthine RBG
@srv:
Plucking from Il Donald’s past statements, one can construct a pretty good argument that he is to the left of Clontom on many issues.
(The only catch is that most of those statements are contradicted once or twice or several times by other statements. The Domald’s house contains many mansions.)
amk
Hoping that the clinton camp ignores all the ‘polls’, cable and blog noise and is doing active GOTV.
schrodinger's cat
Trump is as much a creation of the Beltway press as it is of the GOP. They gave him a platform for his birther nonsense and they have broadcast his every incendiary utterance.
scav
@Punchy: This is pure dominance display. He wants the party infrastructure and leaders to crawl to him, show their belly. Why else drag Christie on stage and put up with La Ravings of La Palinista and suddenly pull this out of his bag o tricks today? No so much a pivot to the general as a pivot to a corontion in Cleveland.
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat: Yep. For several weeks the so-called liberal network was MSNBTrump.
agorabum
@Baud: wait, is Baud out? Is the campaign suspended?
Baud
@agorabum: White people had their chance with me. I can do the math.
ETA: I haven’t formally suspended yet, however.
gf120581
@scav: One of the most hilarious things of this election cycle is watching Christie, the one time wonder boy of the GOP, now reduced to basically being Trump’s gofer.
Or, more on target, the Bond villain henchman who gets killed off in the second act.
Bob In Portland
But glad to know you feel so morally superior, John.
Omnes Omnibus
@amk: It’s what they’ve been doing. Why would they stop now?
Chris
@redshirt:
Like I’ve said several times in this campaign: I wonder how many of the defense departments of the world’s other major powers have contingency plans for what to do in the event that the U.S. does one day go irretrievably bonkers, i.e. elects a Republican who really is every bit as unhinged as his rhetoric would suggest. Maybe next year we’ll find out.
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: He is their creation, they deserve congratulations on making him the nominee.
MattF
I’ll bet that McConnell is not displeased that Cruz was humiliated by Trump. He’s at the point where he takes hs pleasures where he finds them.
Capri
@daves09: Mathews was absolutely scandalized that Trump used the ghost of JFK to smear Cruz. I don’t think he’ll forgive Trump ever.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Chris:
All of them, Katie.
Bob In Portland
@Cacti:
Only 25 years late, Cacti. I’ve got a few more books to recommend to help you “catch up” but you seem to prefer being 25 years late.
http://www.amazon.com/Old-Nazis-Right-Republican-Party/dp/0896084183/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462413216&sr=1-1&keywords=Russ+Bellant
MattF
I see that the trolls are having trouble keeping up with The Donald. This must be a trying time for them.
Cacti
@Bob In Portland:
Since you’ve already declared ad nauseam that you won’t be voting for the Democratic candidate for President, why the bleeding hell should anybody care about any of your screeds between now and November?
So really, fuck off Bob.
jl
I had a brief vision of HRC, (veep nom here) Sanders, Obama, Biden, Warren. Pelosi, Reid, Big Dawg Bill, Carter all standing smiling with hands clasped on a big podium. Happy Democratic governors and congresscritters too. I hope it is a premonition.
Jerry will skip it, though. Didn’t see Jerry.
And Michelle, and Rosalind, proper protocol is not a strong point of my premonitions. Laura might and W kids might show up too, if Trump makes a big enough ass of himself in the meantime.
SFAW
@jl:
Nor Pigpen. But what about Bob Weir?
MomSense
Shamelessky plugging volunteering for the Clinton/combined campaign in your area. Even if you don’t like making phone calls or knocking on doors there are lots of other things you can do.
redshirt
@Chris: I don’t mean dangerous in terms of war, either. It’s solely the Republican party which prevents the world from taking any major steps towards reversing climate change. An incredibly small percent of people are dooming millions to death, over a few lobbying dollars. It’s sickening.
redshirt
@Cacti: I think it’s time we all ignore Bob. We know the drill by now.
The Thin Black Duke
@SFAW: Hey, how about a shout out to Donna?
Bob In Portland
@Cacti:
catclub
I still blame NBC for not renewing his Apprentice contract.
jl
@SFAW: I’m talking blissed out superannuated alive hippie Jerry Brown, not blissed out superannuated deceased hippie Jerry Garcia. But if Garcia showed up, that would be a sign. More likely Garcia shows than Brown.
SiubhanDuinne
The only possible way this would impress me is if 41 and 43 were to actively denounce and repudiate Trump. Merely sitting out and “refraining from endorsing” is nothing.
Chris
@catclub:
Belafon
Here’s a sobering thought:
Cacti
I saw a great idea being kicked around in other corners of the interwebs, if a certain dead end candidate wants to give aid and comfort to the enemy over the last month of primary season:
Howard Dean, Democratic candidate for US Senate in Vermont.
Bob In Portland
@redshirt:
Yes, and you should ignore all people who disagree with you. That’s the ticket. Like I said, Cole can just ban anyone who doesn’t agree with whatever is agreed to here in the BJ Village.
You are proudly marching behind H. Clinton over the cliff and nothing I could ever say would convince you otherwise. But, redshirt, maybe in twenty-five years you’ll figure it out too.
FlipYrWhig
Why do all the blog’s biggest chuckleheads push Thomas Frank so hard?
SFAW
@The Thin Black Duke:
OK by me.
FlipYrWhig
@Cacti: Oh, that would break so many people’s brains, I love it.
gogol's wife
@jl:
Who’s Jerry? Brown?
Cacti
@redshirt:
Seems like he’s starting get a little antsy about it. :-)
SFAW
@Belafon:
Amazing how he can split his time between Portland and NYC.
kindness
John is pissed because what Republicans have become. As a boomer growing up in the NE, Republicans were fiscally conservative but socially liberal to moderate. My church/clan supported abortion as a personal option as an example. I noticed a difference when I first moved to CA. Republicans in the south were foaming at the mouth crazy. John Birchers. I never saw that growing up. Now days the base makes those Birchers look like liberals.
Bob In Portland
@FlipYrWhig: You’ll never know because it’s on the banned book list in the Village here.
But I’ll give you a hint: You think that the Democratic Party ignoring the interests of everyone under 100k is cool, or temporary, or incrementalism. Fuck you.
Belafon
@Bob In Portland: Wow, Bob. You found the one piece of text that is going to make John beg for mercy and make the rest of us rethink our position. I mean, how could we not know that Clinton and the Democrats are just like the Republicans? Aside from earning a living wage, health care, women’s rights, minority rights, use of force, there’s nothing different between the two parties.
I can see it clearly now. The rain is gone.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bob In Portland: Such language, Bob.
SFAW
@Bob In Portland:
Ooh, sounds like someone is in need of a big hug.
Ruckus
@A Ghost To Most:
Not all of them. Our host for example. There were others like him. I think there just might be a few more that will will at least not vote this time. And some may in fact finally had enough. GBW didn’t enrage some of them because they bought the war thing. But after most of the dust has cleared some of them might just see that even he was a very unfunny joke. And I can see that many of them like what’s in front of them now even less. GWB may in fact be an idiot, but his dad was not considered to be all that bad by many. (I said was) But drumph? It takes a pretty hardliner to make the argument that he’s who they want. Some of this is anecdotal, listening to a couple of guys at work. And they have asked me who I’m voting for so I told them and why. Maybe, just maybe there is a chance that some who vote republican will at least stay home.
Rick Taylor
To any Republicans out there bemoaning the rise of Trump, don’t worry! We Democrats will be sure to defeat him and to save you from the monster of your own creation, without you having to sully yourself with voting for the only candidate who can plausibly keep him out of the whitehouse.
Your welcome.
PsiFighter37
@Belafon: I could definitely see him blurting out something he learns from one of these briefings and really fucking himself over.
The Thin Black Duke
@SFAW: Don’t worry, Bob’s well-used blow up doll is waiting for him. He named it “Putin”, and they’re in love.
SFAW
@PsiFighter37:
Unlikely. He’ll just blame “Teh Media” for misquoting him, and will change his story, etc. It’s worked for him in the past, most like;y will again.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@FlipYrWhig: ‘this person got a book published, so he is smart! I agree with him, so I am smart, too!”
SFAW
@The Thin Black Duke:
I was a significantly happier person — when measured on the “Eewwwww!” scale — before I read that. Can you give me a trigger warning next time, please?
ETA: To clarify: Not sayin’ you’re wrong. Just saying that I REALLY didn’t need to read that.
Chris
@kindness:
Yeah, and I miss those Northeastern Republicans from the old days, because as villagey as it is to say, it really is true that there’s value in having another party to act as a check on complacency and/or corruption in your own. But only if it’s at least marginally sane.
The Thin Black Duke
@SFAW: Sorry. Bob brings out the worse in me.
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: I believe it is an “Eewwwww!” to “Squeeee!” scale.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Michael Steele on MSNBC, as usual . I hope someone has asked him, on air, how much he loved Obama mocking Reince Priebus at that party the other night.
amk
mcturtle still obsessed with term limiting the kenyan. sweet schadenfreude.
hedgehog mobile
@MomSense: On my radar.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
I don’t think Bob registers on the Squeeee! scale.
Well, unless you’re Vladimir Vladimirovich, of course
Omnes Omnibus
@kindness: @Chris: John Rogers was there years ago.
Miss Bianca
@Bob In Portland:
Yeah, it might be nice if Sen. Bennett, among others, came out in favor of Amendment 39, the universal health care plan for CO. However, it looks like there might have to be a substantial tax increase to pay for it. Since Coloradans pay some of the lowest taxes in the United States, but still bitch that they are “taxed enough already” – and passed TABOR, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which has consistently fucked over the ability of state and local government to pay for needed services – I can see why he wouldn’t. His Republican opponents are salivating at the thought of being able to hang support for a huge tax increase on him. And of course, because the Kochs hang out here, there is ratfuckery from them to deal with too.
That’s politics, I’m afraid. I may not like it personally, but I can see why he – and Clinton, if in fact she has come out against it – are taking that stand.
Anya
I try very hard to make sure my distaste for Trump has nothing to do with his weird face and bizarre mannerism. His “reverse raccoon” eyes and bad spray tan looks ugly as fuck. I can’t even focus on him. But I do listen carefully to what he’s saying to understand the appeal. For the life of me I cannon figure out how can anyone with half a brain (who’s not an irredeemable racist) can support him. Trump is someone without shame or honor. He will say anything and lie about anything. He sat accross from Wolf Blitzer and he lied about everything from Hillary (personally) starting the birther movement to Democrats in New York, in large numbers, going to the polls to vote for him. I live in New York and I don’t know a single person who will admit to supporting Trump. I met plenty of people, including random subway riders who despise him. Naturally, Wolfe sat there and didn’t challange him on a single assertion.
On the positive side, I watched Hillary’s interview with Anderson Cooper and I can confidently say that she’s got this. But she will need all of us to defeat this ugly, racist clown.
I never thought I would be at a place where I will work for HRC after 2008. But I will work for her as hard as I worked for Obama. I was contacted today by her campaign to see if I would volunteer for her. I don’t think I can go to Ohio and PA for months like I did in 2012 but I will spend money and time and anything else I can to make sure we don’t face the nightmare of a Trump presidency. I just hope Sanders and some of his most ardent supporters realize what’s at stake. It’s bigger than their ego.
The Thin Black Duke
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Speaking of the WHCD, isn’t it interesting that The Mouth Who Roared hasn’t brought up how Obama tore him a new asshole the other night? Hey, Donnie? Obama hasn’t forgotten about the birth certificate bullshit. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Cacti
@The Thin Black Duke:
I believe on some level, Trump decided to run for POTUS because that (racial slur) made him look foolish in front of all the important people.
Dan
@FlipYrWhig:
they push Thomas Frank so hard because Frank basically states that the problem with Democrats is that they don’t pay enough attention to the tender fee-fees of white people
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: Uhh…where does *that* particular image fall on the scale? Wait, never mind…forget I asked.
The Thin Black Duke
@Cacti: Well, you come at the King, you best not miss.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@The Thin Black Duke: i think Obama and Warren are gonna be taunting The Yam like gangbusters over the next six months, like those planes that made Kong lose his grip on the Empire State Building, and I assume Obama will get very, very serious about the possibility (however remote) of President Trump.
I heard somebody on the Tweety show (I was in the car) saying that Obama is itching to get on the campaign trail. I think he’s gonna be pretty damn good, too.
p.a.
@Bob In Portland:
must be a low cliff
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: I see it as a -10 to +10 scale. That comment would be about a -9.8.
MobiusKlein
@srv: I look forward to Trump pushing the current congress to increase the minimum wage. The dems would do it in a heartbeat
Villago Delenda Est
@Chris: The only thing that concerns them is power. Principles be damned, ethics be damned, humanity be damned, the Enlightenment be damned, morality be damned. Power is all that concerns them
redshirt
@p.a.: More like a very small step.
Amir Khalid
@Dan:
In other words, he’s Jim Webb’s political inspiration?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MobiusKlein: the right to choose, the environment (hasn’t he taken to saying CC is a hoax?), equal pay, LGBT rights….
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: I like how you have this all figured out. I’m betting you are an Order Muppet, after all.
catclub
@SFAW: So Manafort is basically Uncle Duke when he was trying to rehabilitate the reputations of dictators.
trollhattan
@Schlemazel Khan:
Soooo perfect.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I read the NYT review of Frank’s book, I think that was enough. I thought the reviewer largely sympathetic if somewhat skeptical, but s/he did point out that the voice of the working classes Frank is oh-so-concerned with are largely absent from the book. Frank seems to be a top-down populist.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Cacti:
BINGO. POTUS has him right where he wants him.
dmsilev
@trollhattan: In a similar vein, Thousands Of Cheering Americans Packed Into Park For Ted Cruz Concession Speech.
ruemara
@Cacti: I’ve started tagging my voting tweets with #FuckFascism2016.
Had a friend come at me over supporting oligarchs pretending to be for the public. That Bernie heartbrokenness is real, but you should really not attack people who care about you for not supporting Senor Backbench. This was his to lose. And he lost it. Oh well. I’m black & female. If you think oligarchs are what I have to be concerned about, I have some drag training and a deep, dark tan I need to give you. Spend about a week and we’ll see if you give two fucks about “oligarchs”.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca:
How my mind works or lifestyle and personal habits?
Dan
@Amir Khalid:
Ding. and heck, you see this thought with Sanders, that there’s this hidden majority of potentially woke white working class voters out there that just need the right populist tones to arise!
fact is, we lost a lot of the white working class (mostly in the South) after the Civil Rights Act. we’re not getting those votes back, unless we stopped being the party that appealed to PoC. and we’re not going to stop doing that.
Now this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t look out for these voters and their concerns. We should. We just shouldn’t expect to be rewarded with votes for doing so. Look at Bevin in Kentucky. The implementation of the ACA in Kentucky was truly exemplary. Huge credit to the state and its Democratic governor. Helped a lot of people. then they elect a GOP governor who explicitly ran on getting rid of Obamacare, and his biggest vote margins were in the counties that utilized expanded Medicaid the most. We got jack shit politically. Didn’t mean it wasn’t the right thing to do.
chopper
@redshirt:
bbbb but…jill stein!
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
Well, yes.
This is something that occurred to me a couple months ago when wondering how Trump’s conservative opponents would ultimately react to his nomination. His fiercest opposition comes from the party establishment and assorted elites. But the whole reason these people are “establishment” in the first place is that they go where the power is. Once Trump has redefined where the power is, they’ll follow him.
chopper
@Bob In Portland:
ooh, such language. is all you have insults? tsk tsk.
WarMunchkin
@jl: I want a selfish from Hills, Bill, Obama and Carter!
Omnes Omnibus
@WarMunchkin: Selfie or shellfish?
pseudonymous in nc
Boob in Portland must be glad that Putin’s DC bagman, Paul Manafort, is on Team Trumpador.
Villago Delenda Est
@The Thin Black Duke: Not surprising. Bob’s eagerness to be a Putin lickspittle brings out the worst in me, too.
Cacti
@ruemara:
You’re a kinder person than I am. :-)
Any whiffs of treachery, I think he should pay for them dearly. Sending his wifey out to blow kisses at Trump this morning didn’t give me warm fuzzy feelings about his intentions over the next few weeks.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: I base my assertion on what I have seen of your mind at work. For how should I know of your habits or way of life? : )
celticdragonchick
@Bob In Portland:
Kindly go light your dick on fire and chew on the charred remains, Bob.
MobiusKlein
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: as long as the votes happen and laws are passed, I don’t care.
Overton window goes both ways.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: You’ll have to go on trust.
ETA: There is also the possibility that I am an Order Muppet by nature who is working very hard at being a Chaos Muppet as a choice.
SFAW
@catclub:
I’d like to think Hunter had more integrity than that, vis-a-vis working for Trump.
chopper
@Omnes Omnibus:
i don’t think it’s selfish to eat defenseless shellfish.
schrodinger's cat
@Dan: Isn’t that Jim Webb’s argument also? Come to think of it he could be Trump’s VP. Military + Bipartisan Cred.
schrodinger's cat
@chopper: Crabs and Lobsters, not so defenseless actually!
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: I guarantee that Webb despises Trump with the heat of a thousand suns. Vietnam and the Scots-Irish working class are his things.
? Martin
@Chris: The Republicans are now fully admitting that they have no principles – that the only thing the GOP stands for is to oppose Democrats no matter what Democrats stand for. Cleek was dead on.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: I have a better idea, you could be Trump’s VP and destroy his campaign from within.
The Thin Black Duke
@schrodinger’s cat: And that’s what drives me crazy about guys like Frank and Webb. Following their logic, anyone who isn’t a white male is acceptable collateral damage, and that’s a tax I ain’t willing to pay again.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: How is that a better idea?
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: I trust you over Webb.
FYWP
@Omnes Omnibus: You said “Squeeee!” ?
Or am I reading that wrong?
Omnes Omnibus
@The Thin Black Duke: Frank is such a touchstone for the Bernites because (based on the Kansas book, that I did read), he prioritizes economics over everything else. I haven’t read “Listen, Liberal” because it appears to offer more of the same and I ain’t buying the theory.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: Why do you hate me? Be your own Stauffenberg.
Cacti
@The Thin Black Duke:
Maybe after being handheld for the past 240 years of US history, it’s time for southern white males to maybe, learn to get along with everyone else who isn’t them.
Radical idea, I know.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@The Thin Black Duke: well, as a white man, I am intrigued by the idea that I don’t need health insurance, which I assume is (just ) one of the reasons they’re both so dismissive of what Dems have done in the last twenty, thirty, forty years, cause mine is still pretty damn expensive
though I have to say, my recollection is that Webb gave a pretty good endorsement speech of Obama in 2012
Omnes Omnibus
@FYWP:
So?
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@catclub: There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s carrying a grudge about that…
Cheers,
Scott.
? Martin
@The Thin Black Duke:
That’s always been the logic. Sooner or later the goodwill is going to run out and I’d rather the Dems get their shit together now rather than test that any more. Relying on minority voters simply by virtue of the opposition being worse is not only not sustainable, but a day may come when that behavior gets punished by the very voters that were taken advantage of all this time.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: McKay Coppins said that it galls Trump that he isn’t consulted as an oracle the way Buffett and Gates and others are
ETA: and that was one of his reasons for finally getting into the race, which is what gives my point cromulence
chopper
@schrodinger’s cat:
eh it’s a line from an old punk rock song. just figured it fit.
? Martin
@Cacti:
That’s the problem with not killing them all – the survivors conclude that they earned their survival.
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yep. I doubt Trump realizes what kind of bubble he’s been in up until now, only having to go up against the amateur night antics of people like Cruz and Rubio. Obama and Warren are going to eviscerate him, and do it with a smile.
Trump is like a drunk frat boy in a bar whose buddies have convinced him to go try and take a swing at The Rock. It ain’t gonna be pretty, and I am going to enjoy every goddamned minute of it.
FYWP
@Omnes Omnibus: I didn’t know that was in rugby players’ vocabulary range. I learned something; thank you.
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin: Are you advocating going through the South and shooting every white guy? Does Morris Dees live? raven? Easily the stupidest thing you have posted here.
Omnes Omnibus
@FYWP: Try not to be so blinkered in the future.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t hate you at all. You can take one for the team.
Its for a higher patriotic cause.
The Thin Black Duke
@? Martin: Thing is, racism is the infamous 800 lb. gorilla taking a dump in the middle of the room that nobody wants to talk about, so how do you go about trying to get bigots to act rationally? Think about cities in the South during the Jim Crow era that had dirt roads, outhouses, lousy schools, not enough hospitals, children going to bed hungry and no jobs. You’d think people would be pissed, but because there were “White Only” signs posted everywhere, it was O.K. For some white people that was an acceptable trade off. It was back then and it is now. How do you get past that?
jl
@Mnemosyne: One of the town halls, I think Fox, came from a planned (and first ever?) interparty primary debate, but Trump backed out of a debate with Sanders. Seemed like kind of a stunt to me. But Sanders was ready to go and Trump backed out.
But Trump keeps bragging that the Democrats will be easy to beat compared to his fellow Republican contestants. Trump is going to have HRC, Sanders, Obama, Biden, Warren, Reid, Pelosi all over him.And in front of much saner audience.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: Ah, double double cross…unlike those of us who are Chaos Muppets by nature who yearn to become Order Muppets by sheer force of will.
Omnes Omnibus
@FYWP: @Omnes Omnibus: Folks who played rugby.
FlipYrWhig
Remind me, what was the big thing Bernie Sanders did for the white working class that made him such an unimpeachable champion of their interests?
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: There are things one shouldn’t ask others to do.
eric
Let’s see how the more endangered republicans react when asked about the latest crazy ass thing that trump says or when he spits out sentence fragments that contradict gop orthodoxy. that is when the getting will be good.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: Raymond Chandler?
catclub
@Mnemosyne:
In one way, the bubble is still all the free media he gets. Take that away and he goes to zero. Somebody mentioned MSNBC giving him $1B worth of free media and then hearing them wonder why he won.
amk
@? Martin:
so, what exactly the dem party didn’t or did do to make those precious white feefees hurt?
Omnes Omnibus
@FlipYrWhig: Stuff. But let’s do start in on Trump. Bernie won’t win. These fights don’t really matter anymore.
Just Some Fuckhead
Let’s make assbabies, John Cole. I’m smitten.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: Yep. Why not?
Anya
@Mnemosyne: So far Trump has been ignoring Elizabeth Warran. She called him a loser and many other things (all facts). But he never responded. Maybe he knows he can’t win or maybe he thinks his stupid appeal to Sanders supporters will actually succeed so he doesn’t want to attack her.
FlipYrWhig
@Omnes Omnibus: it matters if it’s a proxy war over the future of the Democratic Party and/or American liberalism. But point taken.
jl
@Omnes Omnibus: I hope Sanders has the discipline to play a constructive role up through the convention. I listened to some of his post-Indiana statements. He only sounds passionate when he talks about beating GOP and beating Trump. I think he’s staying in to try to keep his political revolution going because he thinks that will maximize Democratic friendly turnout in November. And I think he does think he can keep his Berniebots energized and working for his political revolution.
Whether that is the right thing to do or not, I don’t know. But from what I could see, that is what Sansers thinks.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, at this point I’d have to say, “who *wasn’t* a rugger?”
FYWP
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m having great fun imagining Our Father Who Art in Houston, JFK, Sean Connery or Javier Bardem saying “Squeeee!” The Big Dog, Brian Epstein, and Kris Kristofferson seem much more plausible users.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Anya: didn’t he respond with the whole “Indian” thing when she said (among other things) he would be richer if he had put his inheritance in an SP index fund?
Biden also too ought to be good for some Trump smackdown
BillinGlendaleCA
@Dan: So the Jim Webb portion of the party.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: Bernie Sanders, my younger brother, HRC, Donald Trump, Brett Favre. Just examples.
Anya
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh yeah! I think he asked: “who said that, the Indian?” or something like that. But that’s very restrained by Trump standards. She called him a loser and challenged his bussines acumen. That must’ve hurt his fragile ego.
The Thin Black Duke
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I live in Massachusetts and I was privileged to see what happened to Scott Brown when he underestimated Elizabeth Warren. When it was over, there was nothing left of poor Scotty but shredded underwear. And because he’s stupid, Trump is going to make the same mistake.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Omnes Omnibus: Trump played rugby, many people said he was fabulous, the best, but none of the people who saw him play have names that can be remembered, but it was spectacular, the applause, most people said he was too good for the team, so he played golf later. Tremendous, believe me.
Mike in NC
@srv: Keep fucking that chicken, you moron.
benw
Apologies to everyone who is in Very Serious mode, but I’m still in the “ha ha Trump” phase. The next thing is his VP pick. It will be a reality-TV show, right? Where the winning VP pick has to run through mazes and survive on an island for a week.
gf120581
@The Thin Black Duke: The irony is, Brown is a big Trump guy. I think he may even be angling to be Trump’s Veep pick. And why not? He’s washed up politically and no sane GOP politician with any future aspirations is going to want to be attached to Trump. So why not let the vacuous pretty boy washout take the plunge and get humiliated?
dww44
@amk: I too hope they’re doing that but I don’t see a ground game in my state and although red it could easily go purple soon. The ONLY way we will carry the day is to GOTV, all the more important given all the impediments to voting that have been put in place since the last time too many of us failed to show up and vote in a mid-term.
ruemara
@FlipYrWhig: He was white and challenged that inadequately liberal black president for not dragging richer white guys out into the street and tossing money to the masses that would fix everything, including racism and sexism. Other than that, I’m at a loss.
Peale
@gf120581: I can’t see Trump going with a loser politician. The whole spiel is that these dummies have negotiated these bad deals. I doubt that he’s going to go with someone who could be seen as making nice with that establishment…a trainer or zookeeper to show him the ropes. Trump isn’t supposed to need a keeper. he won’t pick someone who’d overshadow him like Palin. But he will pick someone like himself.
Aleta
@benw: That’s an excellent idea, but I think the winner should have to interview people from Benghazi and discover some fake new evidence.
? Martin
@Omnes Omnibus:
No, I’m saying Sherman didn’t actually defeat the Confederacy.
? Martin
@The Thin Black Duke:
I think you have to defeat them economically. Marginalize them. Make them fight for their political survival. They’ve had the luxury of holding their positions because they’ve been able to hold power. Strip them of that power.
Redshift
@benw: He told the NYT that he’s going to have a committee for the VP search, and the only person he named who will be on it is Ben Carson. (It’s being reported around that he said Carson will be in charge, which isn’t actually what he said, but it’s not an unreasonable assumption.)
The mind boggles. I really hope he pulls a Cheney.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ben Sasse (NE Senator) seems to be casting around for a ‘real conservative’ third option. I think that would have to be some kind of national write-in campaign at this point, wouldn’t it? And I can’t imagine a candidate they could agree on even for the quixotic charge. I was curious about this though
understanding that he’s a Republican from Nebraska, how exactly is the house ON FIRE?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Redshift: interesting that Trump still feels the need to pander to the fundie crowd
Mike J
Just back from the LD monthly meeting. As much as I love the Democratic party……oy vey. I’ll keep going just to continue to crush the dreams of people who introduce stupid motions by outvoting them by 2-1 margins, but I wish it wasn’t needed.
Redshift
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Even better, Bill Kristol has volunteered to be his VP!
Really. I can’t believe the FSM lives us that much, though.
starscream
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: a black guy’s living in it
Amir Khalid
@Redshift:
Ben Carson could wind up chairman of the VP search committee by default, especially if he’s the only one on the committee at all. You have to wonder if the Donald’s VP search committee is like his foreign-policy advisory panel, which upon close questioning by an interviewer turned out not to exist.
Redshift
The thing that has surprised me most is the number of Republican leaders, elected, media, and wingnut welfare, who honestly believed that these appeals to bigotry, misogyny, and white resentment were just a gateway to draw in all these base voters, but they were now really True Conservatives who were devoted to tax and regulation cuts and all that.
I figured they knew it was all a grift, and knew the elite were screwing over the base, but it seems they’re better at deluding themselves than I realized.
Mnemosyne
@Redshift:
It’s a not unknown phenomenon for someone who gets involved in a long con to start believing in the con themselves.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: I thought it was a timeout, but mcshithead hasn’t returned.
liberal
@Amaranthine RBG:
That’s the thing, though. He’s a high-variance candidate. It’s not implausible he’d be to the left of Clinton, though IMHO the mean is well to the right of her. But it’s also entirely plausible he’d press the nuclear button Ina fit of narcissistic pique
BillinGlendaleCA
@liberal: Trump may sometimes say things that appear to the left of Sec. Clinton, but if you check his positions on his website; he’s pretty much standard issue Republican.
RK
Of course conservatives are against Trump; he’s a Democrat. And if you believe he’s a Republican you probably believe he’s a Birther as well. Trump’s run a yuuuge con and he’s laughing at the marks.
Mike J
@BillinGlendaleCA: How do you define the left of Clinton? Guns? Immigration? Women’s health?
There is nobody running to the left of Hillary Clinton.
MattF
Somewhat OT: Cement Shoes.
MattF
@MattF:Tsk. Wrong link.
RK
@Mike J: Trade and foreign intervention for 2.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: “To the left of Clinton” is whatever Bernie Sanders said that differed from Hillary, updated daily.
Major Major Major Major
@RK: Protectionism isn’t particularly partisan one way or the other. At least, not on the axis we’re probably talking about here.
Redshift
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, I know, a BS artist is more convincing if they believe their own bullshit, at least when they’re saying it. And honestly, it’s a little bit comforting if conservative “intellectuals” actually believe that what they’re advocating will be good for the base (and the country), rather than consciously seeing them as marks on a scam to serve the rich.
On the other hand, the degree to which they have to let ideology blind them to evidence in order to believe that arguably makes them dangerously delusional, so neither option is very comforting for humanity.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: Protectionism and isolationism. And since Hillary has come out against the TPP, I don’t know what her critics have against her in that regard. Personally, I think the protections for the environment and workers built into the TPP are better than those in out current trade agreement with China, which is absolutely nothing.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mike J:
Agreed. Some things Trump may say that some may consider to the left of Sec. Clinton, of course a hour later he may also say the exact opposite. My point is what he has put in writing.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mike J: You might want to modulate the caffeine intake, you’re getting a bit touchy.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: Yeah, I’m mildly pro-TPP. But I’ve always thought of protection/isolation v. trade/internationalism as its own axis, more populist/technocratic than left/right or liberal/conservative.
David M
@Amaranthine RBG:
Sure, he’s said some random things, but overall it seems highly likely that anything that Trump and Congress would produce would be far to the right of what Clinton and Congress would agree on. I wouldn’t put any faith in Trump and the GOP compromising to produce anything that liberals would approve of.
Mike J
@BillinGlendaleCA: Meh. Just been listening to “Democrats” argue against endorsing a sitting governor because they don’t like the superdelegate rules Tad Devine wrote. We endorsed, even without their votes. I’m going to guess that as always, being on the side with fewer votes is proof the system is rigged.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Tend to agree, my academic background is in the dismal science; my default position is minimal trade barriers.
? Martin
@liberal:
He’s not to the left of Clinton on anything. He’s appealing to the America that got left behind in the 60s – civil rights, the sexual revolution, the economic move from physiological needs to self-actualization, and winning the cold war. That’s what the GOP always represented, through various lenses (religion, abortion, small government). He may take a position to the left of Clinton on some narrow foreign policy issue, but anything else and the voters that made him the nominee will tear him apart. This call to return to the 1950s, at least in spirit, is what drives the GOP – and there’s almost nothing about the 1950s which is to the left of Clinton.
I’ve been calling for the extinction burst of the GOP – of this vision of what America should look like for a while. Trump may or may not be it (sure looks like it) but it’s definitely getting close.
Major Major Major Major
@BillinGlendaleCA: Shhhh or somebody might call you a neoliberal and think they won an argument somehow
BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Heh, I’ve been called worse.
Ian
Alright class, how many lies can we count in this sentence?
? Martin
@Mike J:
Exactly.
I will again point out that China has the largest auto manufacturing industry in the world and sells precisely zero cars in the US, not because of tariffs, but because they cannot meet our safety and environmental standards. If you move those kinds of standards into the trade agreements, you’ll have the same effect. If Chinese companies can make vehicles comparable to BMW and meet our regulations and still beat us on price, well, they deserve the market.
Also worth noting that BMW makes their entire global X-series products in the US and exports to the rest of the world. Toyota does the same with a number of models. Lowering trade barriers would only make that scenario more attractive considering that TPP isn’t preventing Germany (BMW home country) or Japan (Toyota home country) from creating their own trade deals with anyone else on earth to make their cars outside the US.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Ian: So they’re proposing that we return things to the way they were in 2008, luv that Republican thinkin’.
Aimai
@The Thin Black Duke: there are a lot of us here!
SFAW
@The Thin Black Duke:
Much as I’d like to believe your assessment to be accurate, Scott Brown was/is amateurish compared to Trump. When his best lines are “Professor Warren” and Injun jokes, it was pretty obvious he’s not even Double-A, never mind The Bigs. It’s not a Willie Mays vs Mario Mendoza comparison, but Trump is on a much higher level re: taking it to Hillary. He’s still a liar and a dumbfuck and a narcissist, but he’s better at the game.
Added to that: Massachusetts, although it has a surprisingly large redneck contingent (and fuck you, Barbara Anderson, you monomanical asshole, I hope you and Howard Jarvis are enjoying the flames together), it ain’t like the rest of the country, with respect to voting patterns
Litbrit
@Bob In Portland: Hear, hear. Thanks for posting about Fang’s piece and also this week’s Politico reveals (re: the Hillary Victory Fund scam.) People *do* need to hear about those things, whether or not they’re pleasant to the partisan ear. #Solidarity
SFAW
@Litbrit:
Re: Fang’s piece: Don’t forget: liberals are the real fascists, because Hitler was a vegetarian.
Bob In Portland
@SFAW: Hitler was supported by Wall Street too.