I honestly had no idea that the Trump campaign would be this much of a complete and total clusterfuck. I mean, I knew it was going to be bad. But I didn’t think it was going to be THIS bad.
I’m just flabbergasted that it is really this awful. My biggest concern now is that someone like Cruz will get the nomination and the media will rehabilitate him as a “sane” conservative, when his ideas are just as bad or in many cases worse than Trump’s.
Comrade Jake
The Unforgettable Trumpster Fire continues to burn.
Karmus
We ain’t seen nothin’ yet?
elm
I can’t imagine Trump’s supporters accepting any substitute. If anything happens to him before the convention or before the election, his enthusiastic supporters will riot — especially if they convince themselves that the GOP has stabbed them in the back.
Wiesman
I’ve been thinking the same thing, but then I see polls (http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/polls/morning-consult-24717) that put Trump only down by 2 and I start freaking out. I mean, sure, yes, outliers happen, but still…. shouldn’t this thing be a blow out?
patrick
I hope so, too… I’m looking forward to a half-empty convention floor when he gives his acceptance speech.
RM Harrington
fear not any move to oust trump or a trump bow out will feed the fires that will destroy the GOP…..they are ready to split…History will record it as one of President Obama’s achievements…..
the Conster, la Citoyenne
They can’t let him get the nomination, and they can’t keep him from getting the nomination. Popcorn!!
Face
Cruz would be 100x worse than Trump as president. The former thinks he’s truly god reincarnate, while the latter is a con man but he knows he is.
I’m still wondering how the “Clarence Thomas to retire” rumors came to be, and if there’s any truth to them. If so, this election could remake America, as we’d get at least 3 SCOTUS seats to turn….that is, if McConnell allows it.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
You can’t make this shit up.
dexwood
TRUMP / CLUSTERFUCK 2016
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
I’ve said all along that his whole stated value is his name – a self-declared dollar figure with nothing backing it in reality. Mark Cuban thinks so, too.
Bernie Madoff and Sir Alan Stanford were actually more convincing at this.
Trump is the loud guy drinking at the country club bar, telling all listeners that they’re fools if they don’t take advantage of the fabulous investment opportunity he’s generously offering them. Its a top rate of return. Just enormous, believe me.
Droopy
The whole thing has been like a bad novel where the idea that a real political party would let something like this happen is just too implausible. So why not a crazy, riotous convention, fights over the nominee, compromise candidates, Palin, Cruz, Cotton, Sase, Ernst, Ryan, Walker – you couldn’t invent cartoonishly stupid characters like that.
SiubhanDuinne
@Face:
If all goes according to plan, McConnell will no longer be Majority Leader, and it won’t matter what he “allows.”
JPL
Here’s Trump after he preaches religious liberty, abortion and Hillary’s not religious to the evangelicals. Some posed with him for pictures afterwards. lol link
John, Can you add the picture to the front page?
schrodinger's cat
The Punditubbies have already started rehabilitating the GOP. Even they cannot make Trump look good, so now its all about how Trump hijacked the poor old sad GOP. That’s pretty much the gist of the articles in Atlantic and NYT magazine.
Iowa Old Lady
This is exactly what I’m worried about. Clinton is dismantling him, piece by piece. Will she have to start over if they replace him as their nominee? Of course, the new person won’t have time, money, or an organization. It’s a kamikaze mission.
Major Major Major Major
My one concern, and y’all know this isn’t concern trolling, is that Hillary will focus on the easy “OMG look at Donald Trump!” campaign route and not articulate a liberal vision for America. I know, I know–she has! And I didn’t have much pause at all before today’s speech. She’s now done two policy speeches that are mostly just attacks on Trump and don’t really talk about any positive policy positions.
So I’m not saying she doesn’t have those positions, but it’d be bad to not try and sell them just because ganging up on Trump is fun, easy, and safe.
On the one hand, there’s no reason to upset the apple cart if running against Trump is the safe bet. On the other hand, if he’s so easy to beat, we might as well make sure we’re voting in a liberal agenda, and not just preventing the apocalypse. Does articulating your vision rather than running against the opposition actually do anything? Is any of this even a thing? I don’t know!
Gene108
But he’ll still get, at a minimum of 40% of the vote, and more likely closer to 45%.
The real issue is what his impact on turn out/down ticket races will be.
Will he boost turn out or cause people to stay home?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Even if, in some corner of that mercurial brain, Trump were secretly relieved to be pushed out, his ego would never allow his replacement to win. And I can’t think of any candidate who would be willing to be a) Trump’s punching bag for five or six months and b) the guy who lost to Hillary, even if it were at the desperate if unspoken request of an increasingly spectral “establishment”, somebody with the standing to do it, and no ambition left of their own. I can’t remember the name of the Westchester selectman or alderman or whatever the hell he was who stepped up to run a token campaign against HRC in NY in ’06, but I’ve always suspected he did it because the party agreed to pay his country club dues for the rest of his life. I can’t imagine anyone doing that on a national scale. Not for all the directorships on Wall St and all the handwritten notes Barbara Bush can still leave her claw marks on.
Iowa Old Lady
@Major Major Major Major: Yes! I thought the same thing today. Of course, I also love the Trump beating.
Schlemazel Khan
@Face:
If they want a 7 member USSC or even a 6 member one given the current members I’ll live with that because those most likely to leave are from the small 4 not the good team.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Droopy:
It’s like a Bizarroworld Allen Drury novel.
About the only thing he got correct in his actual writing was the fecklessness and cupidity of the Bernie Sanders/Emoprog left.
hovercraft
These people will not allow him to be removed
Go read the whole thing, these people are rabid dogs who would burn this mo-fo down if was removed.
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ll bet Baud! would do it.
dedc79
I too am worried that Trump will get booted before or at the convention, but I don’t think we need to worry about Ted Cruz. That guy is less electable than Trump.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Iowa Old Lady:
Everybody likes seeing Biff Tannen get kicked in the teeth.
J.
So, two questions re Trump: 1) How come Anonymous or some hacker hasn’t dug up/released Trump’s tax returns? (Not that I’m advocating someone hacking the IRS, though hackers have tapped into just about every government agency, or hacking in general. But I’m kind of surprised someone hasn’t done this.) 2) Again, NOT advocating this but… what would happen if someone shot Trump? Would he become a martyr?
Mai.naem.mobile
Do I saw a Kerry Edwards sticker the other day and I was mentally going through the list of candidate with their veeps and for the life of me I could not remember Gores running mate,and then it came to me – Lieberprick! I saw a tweet yesterday about how Lieberprick can’t decide.between Clinton and Trump. This former Dem,now independent just can’t decide between those two.
schrodinger's cat
@hovercraft: I am not going to step in that toxic waste, I take your word for it.
zmulls
It’s plausible that — at this point — the Romney cabal could get a rules change passed. But gloriosky, a good 20% (estimate pulled out of my butt) of the GOP vote would feel so betrayed they would depress turnout in the fall. They could get a different candidate, but the idea that the guy who won the delegates and won the vote could be ousted, would not sit right with x% of the party.
Plus there’s the question of who would get the nomination instead. Once you got past the first ballot, and Trump failed to clear the threshold (and would inevitably sink), there is no one candidate to coalesce around. Even the “sane” Republicans would be split between anointing Jeb, drafting Ryan or deigning to ask Romney back (oh, yes, there would be Romney folks working the floor, or off in quiet rooms). Cruz would make his case, Kasich would still hope that he would be the guy standing at the end of the day. Even Newt Gingrich would be on your teevee, trying to get his name into the mix. It would be a real nice clambake and we’d all have a glorious time.
Quinerly
Afternoon laughs….http://crooksandliars.com/2016/06/hashtag-trump-so-poor-takes-over-twitter
Gaffa
@Major Major Major Major:
Major, Hillary is a wonk at heart. Don’t worry, she’ll happily spend far too much time going over eye-glazing details over many, many plans to improve things in these here United States — and good for her. She won’t just be attacking Trump.
Schlemazel Khan
My greatest fear is that Drumpf will back out before the convention. If the GOP pulls a fast one it would be certain death for their candidate & maybe the party as a whole. But it would not surprise me if I learned that there were people trying to put together a couple hundred million as a way to convince Drumpf that he needs to back out gracefully NOW!. As others have stated the new clown would still be far behind in money and organization but so much of the Clinton campaign so far has focused on the Drumpfenstein monster that even a Psycho Cruz would look normal in comparison.
Major Major Major Major
@J.: Probably because those hacker groups are just a bunch of dipshit script kiddies with a Twitter account who don’t know how to actually do squat.
You’ll more likely see somebody at an accountant’s office, or someone in that position, leak a file.
hovercraft
@patrick:
Well if he follows through on his plan to speak every night and has his celebrity supporters around him he can turn it into a four night rally/ convention. Can’t you just picture it Jon Voight is in talks with him about a possible role. It would be a ratings extravaganza.
Rick Taylor
@Major Major Major Major:
I think Clinton is doing what she ought to do; setting the narrative for who Trump is. This way, even if Trump does manage to eventually moderate his behavior, that narrative will have been set and it will be harder to overcome it.
Clinton still has months to set out her own positive vision, and I think she should. But I think she’s starting with what she ought to.
RareSanity
I know this isn’t a new, or even controversial thought, but after the FEC filing it’s becoming more apparent to me at least…
Trump doesn’t actually want to win. Running for President is more valuable to him and his brand than actually being President. How else could it possibly be explained that he effectively has no campaign infrastructure? It doesn’t take a political consultant to know that you can’t win a seat on the city council, let alone POTUS, without some campaign infrastructure.
This election is going to be one for the history books, for sure…
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@dedc79:
I still think he’s a gutless worm for leaving open the possibility of supporting Trump after Trump personally attacked his dad and his wife.
There’s some things that a man simply cannot tolerate, and certain bright lines, and those attacks were beyond the pale, even against a shitheel like Cruz.
A real man stands up and says “Fuck you, Donald – meet me and say those things in my presence, and I’ll knock your flabby ginger ass out”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mai.naem.mobile: he needed the Dirty Sex Man to come bail him out in ’06. He’ll never forgive them for that.
In other news
anybody wanna play Guess Their Complexion?
Major Major Major Major
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
FTFY.
The attacks on his wife were disgusting though.
hovercraft
@schrodinger’s cat:
It’s a Slate link. It ends with an attendee calling for Hillary to be hanged in the street, yes a public hanging.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
I thought you wanted Hillary to win.
Patricia Kayden
Naw. That would lead to the base going ape wild. They voted for Trump and by gosh, they’re going to get Trump. He’s exactly who they deserve.
In any case, Cruz is even less popular than Trump so that wouldn’t help Republicans in November at all.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Just some bubbas, I suppose. Graham said today that the new Collins bill which narrows the terrorist list, doesn’t have any bubbas on it.
Matt McIrvin
Hillary could eviscerate Cruz, and anyone other than Trump or Cruz is going to have zero legitimacy in the eyes of Republican voters, let alone Democratic ones. At this point, I don’t think the Republicans can get off the Trump train without taking a hit even bigger than running Trump.
Brachiator
@J.:
This is harder to accomplish than you might think, even allowing for IRS problems and inefficiencies.
I am not even going to try to address your second hypothetical.
schrodinger's cat
If GOP denies Trump the nomination, in no way is that going to be good for their electoral prospects. Before Orlando I know the CW on this blog was that an event like San Bernadino would benefit Trump.GOP is malevolent but not all powerful.
Chris
This is what consistently infuriated me about the Republican primary for almost an entire year. Trump was used as an easy… I don’t want to say “scapegoat” because that implies he doesn’t deserve it. But he was made the standard-bearer for everything that’s wrong with the GOP, with every single other candidate suddenly a Reasonable, Moderate, Very Serious Person simply by virtue of not being Donald Trump.
No, the GOP should very much be made to carry this pregnancy to term, and I think they will. They don’t have a choice.
By the way, since you bring up Ted Cruz? Much has been made of what it says about the GOP that Donald Trump is their nominee. To me, what’s almost as revealing is that the next most successful candidate was Ted Cruz. In other words, there really is no “moderate” wing of the GOP anymore, even by the incredibly low standards that allowed us to pass John McCain and Mitt Romney off as “moderates.” They’re all bugfuck insane.
Major Major Major Major
@JPL: What’s up with that bill? Doesn’t look terrible.
Hoodie
@Schlemazel Khan: Hmmm . . . contemplating the optics of a party that has to bribe its presumptive nominee to get him to go away. They might have to off him, because he wouldn’t be able to resist telling everyone how much money they gave him to walk away. While anything is possible, I don’t see any way the GOP gets out of this without leaving a mess. I still think their best choice is to let him flame out and try to stay far enough away to avoid getting too burned. That probably means losing the Senate, but they probably can still hold on to the House but will lose heavily in the more purple districts, which stands to make their caucus even crazier than it is now.
Matt McIrvin
@Mai.naem.mobile: I can’t believe that clown once got the Democratic vice-presidential nomination. What a mistake.
schrodinger's cat
@hovercraft: Trump supporters hate Obama, so they are going for anti-Obama. All drama all the time.
patrick II
Me too. What surprises me is not there is disagreement, competition and strife over the vision thing, but that just basic competent management is so poor. There have been plenty of presidential campaigns in the past and the basic organizational structure of a campaign is well understood. It makes sense that Donald would emphasize would make some changes that would emphasize free and national media, but to just totally ignore basic organizational structure and management is nuts.
I have never been on an ocean liner, but if I suddenly had to run one I might decide where I wanted it to go, but past that I would hire experienced managers who understood the organization required to run a ship, and knew exactly the structure, personnel and logistics needed to make a voyage. What’s happening in the Trump campaign seems past incompetence. But he won the republican nomination and I haven’t, so maybe this is applied business genius and we should all sit back in awe and wonder.
scav
Knowing and being related to a few Trump supporters, I so want to be around to watch them weeping into their cornflakes. One I’ll let off with a slight depression, the other I want to hurt hurt hurt. Don’t even want a road to Damascus conversion, I want her slammed down, dug up from the ensuring crater, bounced around the sides a few time and then plowed under further
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: He is our Palin.
JPL
@Major Major Major Major: I agree. It’s a dent but at least it is a starting point. I wish they would close the gun show loophole, but that’s not going happen with this Senate.
J.
@Major Major Major Major:
That would be a beautiful thing.
TriassicSands
It’s funny, I came to B-J just now to post a comment, OT if necessary, about Trump’s flailing campaign and the threat it poses for Clinton. Imagine my surprise to find this thread.
I’d worry much more about Kasich than Cruz, who admittedly would be the worst possible president. But Kasich has a much better chance of beating Clinton. If Trump quits or is replaced, the replacement will enter the campaign as the “savior” of the GOP, and Kasich has much, much better personal approval poll numbers than Clinton. Ohio is not imploding the way Kansas and Oklahoma are, so Kasich would get a huge boost entering the campaign. Clinton would have to completely retool her own campaign to run against an opponent who will be seen as much more moderate than he really is.
Be careful what you wish for is always a good idea, and wishing for a Trump nomination always carried with it the risk that he could actually win in November. However, now that we’re seeing that he is just as bad at running a campaign as he is at everything else (except ripping people off), he looks like a much safer nominee for Clinton to run against than any of the other prominent Republicans.
I think Clinton would beat Cruz, maybe not by much, but he is such an asshole, I think that would come out over the long haul and his obviously extreme policies would be hard to hide. Not so for Kasich. He’s soft-spoken, which is what qualifies as moderate in the Republican Party. Lots of people who would never vote for Trump will gladly vote for Kasich. He gives all the Hillary-haters a viable option, and the media will fall in line with false equivalence and anti-Hillary coverage that will take a real toll.
I usually think it is unwise to hope for the opposing party’s worst candidate to get the nomination, because of the chance he (or she) could win. But in this case, Clinton’s best chance of being president is running against Trump. Against any other Republican things will get a lot dicier, I fear, and against Kasich, unless he surprises and runs yet another terrible Republican presidential campaign, I think it will be a real uphill battle for Clinton.
I agree with elm that if the Republicans stop Trump from getting the nomination that could create chaos in the GOP. But if Trump quits, it could be a different matter. Still, it’s hard to imagine Trump quitting without his trying to take the whole party down with him Victim!!!
What a mess. I’m just going to relax and see how things turn out. Worrying won’t do any good and who knows how this will all play out? Trump is quite simply the wildest card ever in presidential politics.
Maybe Clinton can lend him some money to help keep him in the race.
The Dangerman
It makes perfect sense once you look at it with the knowledge that Trump has no interest in the Presidency (seriously, think he would place all his holdings in a blind trust?).
ETA: Doesn’t this FEC report feel like the Long Knives are coming out?
Chris
@schrodinger’s cat:
And meanwhile, pretty much all the Republicans I know are busily talking themselves into supporting Trump. The only exception being the lone Ron Paul supporter who’s registered GOP but hasn’t actually voted for a candidate from either party in the general, well, ever, so far as I know. Otherwise? They’ll all be Trump supporters in the fall. Heck, before that.
Major Major Major Major
@JPL: My feelings about this remind me of the immigration bill. “Huh. That… is how the senate is supposed to work. Weird.”
Hopefully it doesn’t meet the same fate.
SiubhanDuinne
I had a long conversation this afternoon with a Canadian friend who wanted to know what I thought would happen with Trump.
I told him that in almost 74 years on the planet, with at least 56 of them following or being active in politics, I have never seen anything like this year. I told him that, depending on the time of day and whether I’ve had caffeine or a glass of wine, I’m quite capable of believing any of the following (sometimes all at once, sometimes in various combination):
– Trump pivots seamlessly to good behavior and acceptable policies. The party elders and the nation as a whole breathe a great sigh of relief. Trump easily receives the GOP nomination at the convention, Hillary stumbles, and Trumpt goes on to win the general. Bigly.
– Trump will have to fight the GOP establishment for the nom, but eventually he’ll prevail. However, he will have done so much damage to himself/the party that his campaign in the general is doomed.
– Trump has discovered during the campaign that he really doesn’t want to be President after all, and will find some way to duck the nomination and/or election while still saving face and making it look like a win for him. These could include having to leave the race or decline the nomination because of unforeseen “health” issues; departing in a huff because the Republican establishment was “unfair” to him; or launching a (doomed) third-party campaign if the GOP fails or refuses to nominate him. There are infinite variations both as to specific event and specific timing, but any possible scenario would be to the Greater Glory of Trump.
– Trump never wanted the Republican nomination in the first place. The whole thing is a big joke and a big scam on the party and the media, and at some critical moment at the convention he will pull off the mask, figuratively speaking, and gleefully announce that he’s really a loyal Democrat and planned this whole thing over a year ago with his BFFs Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. “See you in Philadelphia, suckahs!!”
Then my Canadian friend asked me what I thought about Bernie Sanders, and I was speechless.
J.
@Brachiator: I only brought up the second point because yesterday I read that some guy “wanted to shoot Donald Trump.”
debbie
According to the NPR report I heard this afternoon, Trump seems to have at least partially reassured the evangelicals he met with this afternoon. This ought to ensure his getting to the convention.
RaflW
@dexwood: Can I order the bumper sticker, please?
Aqualad08
I really have to give some major props to the MSNBC day time crew, who have been cherry-picking the polls to make it seem like a horse race HARD CORE all day. I mean, shit, glossing over the Draper Sterling shit in favor of a Quinnipiac turd showing it tied in Ohio (despite HRC being four down in the previous poll)? WELL DONE, MSNBC! Clap clap clap…
Bobby Thomson
@Wiesman: breathe, chicken little. Morning consult didn’t exist before trump’s campaign and has had a consistent house bias in his favor.
NotMax
Cruz has less of a chance of becoming the nominee than you do.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: Did you pause and say, “Bernie who?” ; )
RaflW
This, of course, is my favorite headline of the day.
Trump spent more than $1 million in May reimbursing his companies and family
dedc79
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
And recall that Cruz also distinguished himself early on in the race by the extent to which he praised Trump and even collaborated with him on a joint rally in DC.
Hal
Does Trump have a career after all of this ends? If he goes to the general and loses big, or if he doesn’t make it to the convention at all, would anyone ever take him seriously again?
dmsilev
It’s hard to see how the GOP would get rid of Trump in any way that wouldn’t amount to conceding the Presidential election. They could buy him off or pull some sort of rules-based coup, but in both cases, whoever replaces him wouldn’t have any sort of legitimacy. They could hope that Trump quits, perhaps helping the process on by sabotaging the campaign, but again you run into legitimacy issues plus Trump likely sitting on the sidelines taking potshots at his replacement.
All that aside, not-Trump would have to set up a campaign and associated infrastructure completely from scratch in the middle of what would effectively be a Party Civil War.
Mnemosyne
I still maintain that the pre-approved placeholder candidate is going to be Alan Keyes. He’s (pre-)tanned, rested, and ready to get his ass handed to him by yet another Democrat.
Bobby Thomson
@Major Major Major Major: liberal laws come from big majorities, not campaign rhetoric. If hanging a trump anvil brings the former, the choice is easy.
Frank Wilhoit
@Face: There is no reason to think that Cruz ought to be taken at face value, any more than Trump.
GOVCHRIS1988
@hovercraft: Holy shit, thats a lot of nutball. And the gays for Trump guy must not be getting laid for the rest of his life. I can’t believe Anna Khait voted for President Obama in 2008. You can’t go from over the moon Liberal to Victoria Jackson batshit in eight years like that.
SiubhanDuinne
@Major Major Major Major:
I think she can do both, and to a certain extent has done (that is, articulate her policy proposals/positions and go after Trump in the same speech).
I guess I’d like to see a little more of a sandwich style speech format — state the wonky policy stuff at the beginning, then launch into the red meat Trump stuff to get the crowd revved up, and then swing back to a quick recap summary of why her policies are much better for the country. But that’s really just a matter of formatting, and I trust HRC and her advisors and speech writers.
Keith P.
@Brachiator: Even reading tax records is logged….came up a few years back with employees reading some celebrity returns. If they weren’t horrible Trump would leak them himself and blame the IRS.
rikyrah
@Wiesman:
Remember. National polls mean little.
270 to win!
Roger Moore
Even if he flames out between now and the convention, the Republicans are still in a very tough spot. Whoever they pick to replace him won’t have an active campaign, since even Cruz and Kasich shut theirs down when they conceded. Getting going from a standing start with only 4 months until the election would be a very hard task. The only advantage is that they’d actually be trying to build a competitive campaign apparatus, while Trump seems to be blowing that off.
Mnemosyne
@Gene108:
Yes, he will. Because, sadly, a majority of my fellow white voters prefer to vote for their tribe.
Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporate Shill
@RaflW:
“This shows he is a great businessman!”
/wingnut
Amir Khalid
@dmsilev:
So Trump’s candidacy has become a
sort ofKobayashi Maru test for the Republican party?dexwood
@RaflW:
Feel free to print as many as you like.
Snarki, child of Loki
Yeah, something about some illegal immigrant trying to grab a cops gun and shoot Trump.
Can you guess the nationality/complexion?
Very white. British. Fun fun fun.
hovercraft
@Chris:
I think it will be a battle within the media, with some pushing back and saying you built it to the repubs and another contingent selling the hijacked story. From the Slate article above.
p.a.
@scav: They’re just going to blame another boogie man: Acorn 2, The Newer New Blacker Black Panthers, Illegals voting for Hillary in greater numbers than there are actual immigrants in the US, etc. They’re brain dead, and believe in magic.
senator tankerbell
One thing I’m not at all sure about is that the Trumpkins out there would revolt if somehow, were he not to make it past Cleveland. Wouldn’t they just go back to doing what they always have done, which is voting for whatever dog whistler the GOP puts out there? They may be more excited than usual by Trump, which pushed them to vote in the primary, but we have evidence that these people already vote in general elections. They might be less enthused by whatever clown were to replace Fuckface von Clownstick, but they’ll still vote for him. Am I missing something?
SoupCatcher
One of Trump’s “plans” is to charge countries that have U.S. bases in them. Another is to charge Mexico to build a wall. I wonder if he’s taking the same approach to election infrastructure: “Hey, GOP Billionaires, you build it.” And then he can use all his fundraising to build his own liquidity.
hovercraft
@debbie:
David Brody of the CBN said it was a very good meeting and he got two standing ovations.
Amir Khalid
@Snarki, child of Loki:
As a Briton, he probably didn’t realise how easy it is to get a gun in America, and went for the high-risk/low probability of success tactic of stealing a police officer’s gun.
senator tankerbell
And let’s not forget that in the event of an about-face by the GOP, the media will breathlessly fall all over themselves about how “serious” the party is and how they are righting the ship. They will not be allowed to look like the clown show that they are.
Cacti
Even if he’s replaced, the Donald’s true believers won’t go a long with it, and he’ll peel off the hardcore wingnut vote.
Brachiator
I keep thinking that the GOP will find some way to impose some order and discipline and get their show on the road. It’s just nuts to see that part of the problem is Trump himself fighting off good, if overly conventional, advice.
But looking back, there was a time when even the relatively efficient Ross Perot campaign ran off the rails. Still, the Republican madness is 50 Shades of Crazy.
Roger Moore
@The Dangerman:
He can’t since his most valuable asset by far is his name.
Schlemazel Khan
@Hoodie:
The contract would contain an NDA whereby he forfeits everything plus damages. The big problem would be setting up some sort of escrow account so he could not have the money until he behaved himself through the entire election. The greedy bastard would do it if the price is right.
Patricia Kayden
@senator tankerbell: Or they may decide not to vote this November at all to retaliate against the Republicans for replacing Trump with another Clown Car Occupant. I keep hearing Trump claim that he’s brought new voters into the Republican Party. I assume those new voters are Trump fans and wouldn’t vote for anyone else but Trump.
p.a.
@srv: Who hasn’t been predicting a 2017 downturn? #businesscyclerules
Why not try something so old it’ll seem new: Dems giving up Panama Canal= US doom. Or Medicare= slavery. Jeeeesus.
Schlemazel Khan
@Baud:
HEY NOW! Lieberman is an asshole & a worthless piece of shit but there is no reason to go that low on him!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hovercraft: twitter found something to chuckle at
it’s a framed Playboy cover on his personal Wall of Neediness
Roger Moore
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think you missed out on what’s actually happening:
-Trump never really wanted to be president, but rather than trying to find a graceful way of leaving the race now that he’s won the nomination, he’s just blowing off the hard work of running a competent general election campaign.
Schlemazel Khan
@dmsilev:
I would assume that the buy-out would include a story that Drumpf would put out to explain why he is regretfully stepping aside. Maybe a phony health issue that would clear up in 6 months, maybe a family thing with Melanoma and/or Barren. But the story would be part of the cover deal & would have to convince the morans it was OK to support brand X instead.
EDIT: Brand X would still be hampered by lack of money and organization but if the story works would still be in better shape than Drumpf is now
Mathguy
@hovercraft: This type of article annoys the hell out of me. It normalizes nut jobs like Khalit (a Survivor contestant? Please.) and her ilk. There was a similar article in the Guardian a few days ago by Dave Eggers, and he talked about how normal everyone was, except when they exhibited what was on their minds, which was batshit craziness.
Anoniminous
The Infotainment Mediums are going to have to work double hard to turn this Charlie Fox into a horse race. HuffPo has Trump polling at 38%. That’s beyond pathetic. Even the RomneyBot 2012 was polling at 43% in mid-June.
dedc79
Strange times…
JPL
@dedc79: IOKIYR
Major Major Major Major
@dedc79: “See, the way you really want to work with the Middle East, and Muslims in general, is you make sure to commit blasphemy while you’re executing them. Then they’ll stop being so hostile!”
Rommie
If Trump quits or is pushed aside, the replacement is automatically the First Loser if it’s one of the primary candidates, a Proven Loser if it’s Romney or Ryan, and Left Field for anyone else. Throw that in with even more party acrimony from the change, and I’m not that worried about a switch. Hillary will light whatever schmoo they send out ON FIRE – she doesn’t have to hold back against an (R) opponent. If she can’t get 270 EV in this scenario, then J.H.C. Himself couldn’t either.
And the convention is where we’ll get the Positive Policy speech about why to vote FOR her, and not just vote against the suit on the other podium.
The Dangerman
@Roger Moore:
Which is where my theory goes off the rails as I don’t see any endgame where his name doesn’t become synonymous with mud. He can’t be shellacked by Hillary and still have a good name. Getting replaced at the convention surely ends his brand. His only option to save his name is a well timed coronary best I can tell.
JPL
@RaflW: I’d like to know if he inflated the cost of leasing those spaces.
JPL
@srv: You didn’t include the part, where she doesn’t think brexit would cause a recession here.
rikyrah
At my favorite Mexican restaurant, picking up dinner, and they have Univision on. Unlike the MSM, they are breaking down Trump to a fraction.
dedc79
@Major Major Major Major: i do think that’s probably a pretty fair reflection of his views
GregB
At least this election has finally exposed 90% of conservative evangelical Christians as the earthly vulgar Machiavellian’s we knew they were.
Frankensteinbeck
@senator tankerbell:
You have missed two things. Neither guarantees that you’re wrong. First, we’ve never been here as a country. This is weird. This is beyond weird. Even comparisons to weird cases like Berlusconi are not sufficiently weird. The only times anything even close to this strange happened in American presidential elections, they signaled a reshuffling of voters as one party ceased to exist. It’s hard to guess what will happen in unprecedented circumstances. Second, Trump has stirred up the hate in people whose defining feature was that they were sick and tired of not being able to yell bigoted slurs at the top of their lungs. They haven’t been in this state in a long time. Even if they don’t do something crazy, ‘majorly depressed turnout’ is a reasonable guess. ‘Majorly depressed turnout’ would mean Democrats picking up both houses of congress and the presidency. it only takes about a 10 point victory in the presidential race to make a retake of the House likely. The odds of that were remote until the GOP nominated a guy whose platform is ‘I’m rubber and you’re glue, anything you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.’
SiubhanDuinne
@Roger Moore:
Hmm, I think that’s implicit between the lines, but maybe I should have spelled it out.
Bill Arnold
@J.:
Re your “2)” this has been a concern for a while; the Secret Service is pretty good these days, and the probability of an attempt is fairly low IMO unless he starts doing well against his opponent (e.g. in the polls). Mundane risks to his health (including mental health) are more significant. (Just guessing here though.)
Re your “1)”, (tax return leak) surprises are always possible :-). That sort of thing would be saved for a little later in the election cycle methinks, and would mean some serious talent (and/or tradecraft) combined with political activism. (Which would be a very interesting development.)
Matt McIrvin
@Wiesman: Morning Consult has a pretty consistent pro-Trump house effect compared to most other pollsters. During the primary campaign they claimed everyone else was wrong because of failure to account for shy Trumpsters in live phone polls. But Trump didn’t greatly outperform most polling during the primary campaign.
That said, I don’t think this election is going to be a Reagan v. Mondale ’84-level blowout. Partisans are just too polarized and loyal today, especially Republican partisans; they can hate Donald Trump with a burning intensity and still think Hillary Clinton is even worse and needs to be stopped anyway. At best we’ll get something like Obama v. McCain ’08, and I’ll take it.
sm*t cl*de
@debbie:
It is good of that consortium of scammers and conmen to tie themselves to the boat-anchor.
p.a.
@GregB: exposed!? not a bug: a feature. they’re no more or less craven than their followers. craven all the way down…
rikyrah
@hovercraft:
I don’t believe that anyone who voted for President Obama would give Trump a second look. I call bullshyt on the entire article.
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That’s too funny, according to the research Benjy Sarlin did at msnbc the so called ‘evangelical’ vote has become about identity, it no longer necessarily signifies religiosity it’s a new tribe. Where Trump is still struggling is with those who regularly attend church hence his problem in Utah. Those charlatans posing with Trump are all about power. The fact that his advance team could even phuck up a photo op shows how much they suck.
jl
To hope for Trump nom, or hope for not-Trump nom? What flavor of catastrophic risk does one prefer?
If this gets worse, we can start to hope for the long dreamed of crack-up of the current debased rump of the GOP.
I believe a contest of ideas and a two party system is important for a healthy democracy. No reason it has to be THIS two party system though.
Maybe if we are lucky, in a few years we will have a two party system of centrist and lefty Democrats. I have no idea how such a transformation would work though. But would only be safe if current GOP just busts up into whatever tiny and disorganized hunks and chunks were coughed up by complete chaos and whomping electoral defeat.
rikyrah
Am I wrong….isn’t the GOP Convention less than 30 days away?
Bobby Thomson
@The Dangerman: you think he would if he won?
scav
@p.a.: Oh, the she in question is already gearing up for that and imaging votes being stolen by left, right and centrist traitors, but I would so like a trouncing that even her innumerate little diva soul is subconsciously aware of, even if her lips are unsullied by acknowledging same. Running up a solid women v. men voting pattern (along with educational attainment) would be icing on my revenge served degrees Kelvin cake because this idiot was lecturing me about how she personally was the perfected active feminist and smarter and more religiously enlightened and trained to boot.
hovercraft
@Mathguy:
I think that when exposed to the insanity most people recoil in horror and don’t want to be associated with that. At least that’s my hope.
Ridnik Chrome
@Face: I suspect there really is something to the rumors. Thomas knows that Scalia’s replacement will almost certainly be a Democrat, and Kennedy’s probably will be, too. He doesn’t want to spend his declining years writing embittered dissents for a shrinking right wing minority, because there’s not much fun in that, so he’s going to bail out while he’s still got a few good years left. And who can blame him?
Anoniminous
@Frankensteinbeck:
Yup.
We are off in BizarroLand. Have to go back to the election of 1860 to even approach the weirdness of this this election. And it STILL only marginally approaches the total weirdosity of this thing.
Many a Ph.d. thesis will be written about this election.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mathguy:
How do they always make it sound like someone who managed to emerge from a Nazi concentration camp after three or four years still alive but weighing 73 pounds?
Oh, sorry, did I go Godwin there? Apologies.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@elm: Months of Trump flaiing arround and looking like a looser and his support in the GOP will go away.
lollipopguild
@Amir Khalid: One of the best comments about Trump?gop ever!
MomSense
@Major Major Major Major:
I’m not worried about it. We have to define der Trump and the GOP early before the punditubbies and media do their rehabilitation dance. There will be plenty of events, interviews, town halls, debates, round table discussions, and so on before this is done.
Right now we have to just plaster him with thin – skinned fraud who takes advantage of hard working people and will sell you and your loved ones out in a New York minute for a buck.
Anoniminous
@rikyrah:
July 18–21, 2016
RoonieRoo
I know this is just a crazy thought but it’s one that struck me today. What if, after losing the election to Hillary, Trump sued the RNC for his $40 million and used as his excuse that they undermined him or something crazy like that. I’m sure this has absolutely no legal standing at all but we’re talking about Trump here. It would fit his pattern of how he does all his business. It would be the most awesome thing ever!
Donut
@Ridnik Chrome:
I guess I’m of the mind that the Thomas rumor is a product of GOP whispering campaigns. They REALLY need evangelicals and the nuttiest of the nuttiest 27% to be motivated to show up and vote this year, given the top of the ticket.
The Dangerman
@Bobby Thomson:
Not a chance; I think he knows he’d suck at being a President. Thus, still ends up mud. Not a good endgame either.
I almost buy the theory that he’ll rip off the mask in Cleveland and tell the Republicans to get bent and this was all a joke except he’d have to live the rest of his life with a massive security detail. Still mud.
jl
@RoonieRoo: Trump sues the US voting population of breach of contract, which was that they were supposed to vote the THE WINNER. Yeah…. that makes sense in Trumpworld. You better lawyer up now.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
Not wrong. The GOP convention starts Monday 18 July and ends Thursday 21 July — one month from today.
Matt McIrvin
@jl: I agree–I’ve never bought it when people worry about the Republican Party dying because “we need two healthy parties”. The US constitutional system tends to produce two parties as a strongly favored equilibrium state. Kill one and another pops up to take its place; this happened multiple times in the 19th century.
And there’s no moral reason that one of the parties really needs to be far to the right of the Democrats, apart from the political fact that many Americans are far to the right of the Democrats.
I think the more likely thing that happens is that the Republicans spend some time in the wilderness as a sort of Trumpist white-nationalist party, then finally get their act together and reemerge as something more viable. But if that doesn’t happen, the Democrats could split along several possible axes.
The more interesting possibilities are the ones where it might be hard for a well-intentioned liberal to choose which way to go! We could end up with an ideological split along something like Sanders v. Clinton lines (in which one party is leftier on economics and foreign policy but the other is somewhat better at racial justice and feminism), or something like that.
Emma
@scav: “Active feminist”? As opposed to “deactivated feminist?” Oy vey !
patroclus
@Anoniminous: I don’t know about that. 1968, with George Wallace was pretty weird. 1948, when the Dems split into three parties, was weird. 1912, when TR challenged a sitting President, and then formed a third party after the convention, was definitely weird. 1896, when Bryan took the Democratic nomination away from the regulars by merely giving an exciting speech was beyond weird. 1876, when the USSC had to decide it (like 2000) was weird. So far, this one’s relatively tame compared to those.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
The BJ Party! We tilt to the left.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Hmmmm…
Emphasis added. Could obvious non-viability be considered under “or otherwise”?
Karlb
@Schlemazel Khan: @Schlemazel Khan:
“those most likely to leave are from the small 4 not the good team.”
Not sure what you mean by “likely to leave” but the oldest are Ginsburg, Kennedy and Breyer (83, 79, 77). The others are under 70.
jl
@Matt McIrvin: I don’t think a huge proportion of Americans are so very far to the right on many specific policy issues. Rather, they have been conned by the GOP, which has turned into a giant long-running con, to vote based on appeal to various levels and kinds of bigotry and class resentment. I think Sanders and Warren have, maybe, made a little dent in that. Not much, but a start.
I don’t think there are enough die-hard and committed White racists and extreme authoritarians to support a national party, if the GOP swindle can be unraveled.
I think we have to hope for far worse than what we’ve seen so far for a GOP crack-up. Even if Trump is whomped, he might still get, unbelievably to me, 40 percent of the vote. Which I don’t think would be bad enough to crack up the GOP racket. But, let us hope for the worst for the GOP.
Baud
@Grumpy Code Monkey: The key term is vacancy. Not sure how nonviability gets you there.
redshirt
I’ve been off world for a couple of days; what happened?
lollipopguild
At work yesterday a customer came in with a conservative talk show on his phone-I could not tell who the host was but I did hear the host say that if the Polls show Hitlerly up by 7 points it really means that Trump is up by 7 points because…..
cokane
It isn’t even bad yet. It’s going to get worse. Peak Trump was a myth (except in the polls lol)
Cruz would be polling just as badly imo — he might not look as buffoonish but thats a low bar. That their runner-up this year is just as bad, is a sign of how fucked that party is.
Suffragete City elftx
I doubt the Hair Furor’s kids want him to drop out. They seem pretty invested in this clusterfuk.
Also suspect the Thomas retiring rumor was thrown out there by GOP operatives. Smells like bs.
hovercraft
@The Dangerman:
He has already lost value internationally, no one wants to be associated with him. Middle East business associates distancing themselves, he was supposed to go to Ireland this week, the president initially said he would not meet him then changed to say he would meet with him to tell about the error of his ways. Now the visit is up in the air, with the campaign saying the itinerary is still up in the air. It will continue to get worse.
SiubhanDuinne
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod
We’re going to end up with Priebus/Schlafly 2016, aren’t we?
Shell
Why was he going to Ireland in the first place?
SiubhanDuinne
@redshirt:
You won’t believe…..
The Dangerman
@SiubhanDuinne:
Dear Penthouse Forum, I never thought…
Roger Moore
@jl:
I think the ideal outcome would be a meltdown in the middle of his acceptance speech at the convention. Maybe not a complete speaking in incoherent gibberish meltdown, but crazy enough to make even diehard Republicans question whether he should be on the ballot. Having the meltdown at the convention means all the big name Republicans will have just pledged their fealty to him, and it would put him on a huge stage for it.
? Martin
Nobody from NYC had any question it would be like this. He’s been like this for decades. Everyone else mainly knew the NBC Trump that sat in a studio designed by someone else acting through a plot that someone else designed. He’s always been a loudmouth bully that claimed he was more powerful than a locomotive, while behind the scenes he’s paying off one credit card with another and calling in favors from guys he helped get laid.
And I agree we haven’t even hit that bad points yet. There’s been no crisis point. Everyone still believes there is time to salvage this. Wait until everyone realizes there isn’t time and they panic. That’s when the real fun will start.
RoonieRoo
@Shell: He’s opening one of his resorts in Aberdeen I think. The locals loathe him and apparently they’ve planted some large Mexican flags just on the other side of the property line around his golf course.
gorram
@Frankensteinbeck: What do you see as the closest analogous events in US electoral history?
RandomMonster
@lollipopguild:
When it looks like you’re screwed, you need to get unskewed!
Emma
@RoonieRoo: Ahem… That’s in Scotland
RandomMonster
@Baud:
The BJ Party! We hang to the left!
I’d buy that t-shirt.
NotMax
@patroclus
Actually, 1876 was decided by a Congressionally-created electoral commission consisting of 5 House members, 5 Senate members and 5 Justices, created to rule on validity and acceptance of electoral votes (some states submitted two different slates), whose 8-7 ruling resulted in a 185-184 electoral victory for Hayes
The so-called Compromise of 1877 played a major role, too, in squelching challenge and protest to the outcome of the commission.
Mary G
The big mystery is why, with Citizens United and all the billionaire donors like Adelson and Kochs around, they can’t get their act together at all. Trump has $1.3 million and the RNC is $7 million in the hole. I’m pretty sure the party and the whole conservative movement is so rotten and hollow they wouldn’t get Reagan elected if he came out of his grave tan, rested and ready.
You’d think there would be a few competent Republican campaign staffers sitting around the house collecting unemployment, but apparently not.
hamletta
@Mary G: Actually, the Trump campaign approached some comm directors who declined, because they don’t want to wreck their careers.
sm*t cl*de
@hovercraft:
Their definition of True Chri$tianity can extend to include LDS, and Mammon-worshippers like Trump, but not Methodists.
NotMax
@Face
Ham-handed signal that he’s ready to receive the phone call from Trump to join the ticket.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@Schlemazel Khan: Trump steps aside when it’s announced one his kids has been diagnosed as altruistic.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@dedc79: Trump
What is with conservatards and their obvious made up stories? The Philippian Insurrection, that damn thing is still going on, Trump = Idiot.
Frapping conservative flag bothering windbag revisitists. Snoops says Pershing deliberatly avoided exacuting Muslims to reslove the problem.
Alex.S
I have no idea which of the four current big Trump stories this post is referring to. Maybe five if you count his bragging about being a king of debt.
* Lewandowski firing
* Nonexistent fundraising
* Saying the public “doesn’t know anything about Hillary in terms of religion”
* Saying that Hillary’s fundraising is “blood money”
I guess it has been a long week for the Trump campaign…
NotMax
Were I in possession of any artistic skill whatsoever (can’t draw a straight line with a ruler and a pencil) would design an – ahem – appropriate coat of arms, with motto, for Trump.
Absent that, others’ ideas and suggestions might be fun.
SiubhanDuinne
@Enhanced Voting Techinques:
Damned vaccines.
gorram
@RoonieRoo: Batallón de San Patricio! Éirinn go Brách!
Major Major Major Major
@Alex.S: all of them, Katie.
I really hope that every Tuesday from now until November we can say “man, rough week for the trump campaign”
schrodinger's cat
Trump is a loose cannon. His most ardent supporters will go crazy if GOP tries to deny him the nomination. Either ways its bad news for them.
hovercraft
@Enhanced Voting Techinques:
Trump doesn’t care that it’s not true, it’s a staple of his stump speech, the first time he told it it was debunked but it conveys the contempt he feels for moslems (sic). If he removed all the lies from his stump speech he would say my name is Donald Trump thank you. Or maybe the snake story, which I’ve never actually heard, if it’s true.
Elie
@Mary G:
The Bush family has been the blockage and they have no intention of ever letting that boot off Trump’s neck.
Also — folks have just assumed that the man is sane enough to chart a course and has enough discipline to carry it through. He is old, he is not fully sane and might be beginning dementia. I think his kids were surprised and are scrambling to protect their interests more than his. He is old, he is tired and not in full command of his faculties. This was a huge ego exercise but he ran out of steam and can’t figure his way out of this jam anymore. Too bad for the Repubs because they are stuck with this. And oh by the way, I think his finances and possibly his family’s will be shit canned after this. And just to make sure, the Bushes will hold their throats just a little longer after he is rhetorically dead — just to make sure. It will be interesting to say the least to see what the Repubs do because the sad truth is that they actually have a well defined constituency for hate that they are not going to be able to manage in any sane way after this. All the years of dog whistles and winks to the racists as well as above all, hatred of government, will make them pretty darned ungovernable.
Roger Moore
@Mary G:
The whole thing about SuperPACs is that they’re necessary because there are still serious limits on how much any individual can give to a campaign or party. So the couple dozen big-spending GOP billionaires can’t just step in and solve the money problems Trump and the RNC are facing. They can buy ads, which is what Citizens United was about, but they can’t pay for staffers or the like. Trump will have to pay off that $40 million debt his campaign owes with contributions that are capped at $2700 each.
Major Major Major Major
@hovercraft: But his name is Donald Drumpf.
(I know, I know…)
dmsilev
@Roger Moore:
Well, there are some stories floating around saying that the campaign is considering having Trump give a prime-time address on each of the four nights of the convention, so the odds of a meltdown are nontrivial. For maximum chaos, the best, I think, would be to have the meltdown the evening before the roll call.
NickM
If ever an emperor lacked clothes, it’s Trump (sorry for the image!) He’s running a confidence game and at some point the crowd might break for the exits. Will it happen all at once? Will there be dead Enders? It seems to me the loyalty isn’t so much to Trump as the ugliness he epitomizes.
Felonius Monk
@NotMax:
Maybe a large puckered Asshole with the motto: Taurum Excretum.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@srv:
I remember back in 2008, and some joker somehow set up some kind of interweb magic so that when you tried to go to Hillaryis44, you went instead to a site called Hillaryis404, with a screen that had the 404 message on it. I loved that. Good times…
dww44
@Wiesman: I just happened on a piece just before 8 p.m. on Hardball with Steve Kornacki subbing for Matthews. Jonathan Alter was discussing some recent quite respectable poll (I missed catching the name of it) that showed that Trump had strength in the Midwest that had not previously been tapped into and that Democrats were discounting Trump too soon.
That in a few months a look back at the campaign will show that Trump hit his low point in June. That the latter would be collecting lots of donations, will run a competitive campaign and the election will be a close one. In other words, Democrats, don’t get too confident too soon. The election is not over by a long shot.
Alter may be correct in his assessment, but he’s often come across as a negative Nellie to me. OTOH, I’ve learned to never underestimate the strength of the GOP nor the voters who vote for them.
Southern Beale
@Face:
I’m still wondering how the “Clarence Thomas to retire” rumors came to be, and if there’s any truth to them.
I’m probably late to the game on this one, but I’m convinced the rumors are false, completely ginned up by one RW outfit trying to scare the anti-Trump contingent to the polls. The story seems to have started with the Philip Anschutz-owned Washington Examiner, and I can totally see the Rove crowd trying to spread the message that yes, Trump is repulsive, but TWO SUPREME COURT JUSTICES ARE ON THE LINE.
NotMax
Woody Guthrie spinning in his grave.(emphasis added)
redshirt
@Alex.S: I asked basically the same question and got no answers. Apparently no answers here at BJ tonight.
Tilda Swinton's Receding Hairline
@srv: Try this one. Hillz set it up, the wheels are coming off alright, right off the Repulikkklown kar.
Major Major Major Major
@dww44: Don’t listen to polls until August, follow the averages if you do.
Matt McIrvin
@jl: I think that not many Americans are really conservative ideologues, but a lot of white Americans are way more racist than they let on, or even think they are. And even if they’re not that racist in the sense of having a simple animus toward non-white people, you can still scare them by claiming that, say, a horde of Muslim immigrants is going to come to your neighborhood and institute sharia law and start persecuting women and gays (getting some liberal support with that last bit, by pointing to the illiberalism of many of the foreigners). Building a multicultural, tolerant society is genuinely hard and there are internal tradeoffs and dilemmas to deal with–someone who doesn’t want it to happen at all can use those to open cracks and shove in a wedge. You see it in the sudden pivot by right-wing Christianists to claim that they’re the true champions of gay rights because they’re anti-Muslim.
I don’t think this is enough for a coalition that can consistently win presidential elections–Obama never would have gotten elected it if were. But I think it’s enough for a viable national party that can control Congress and a lot of states, and maybe win the odd presidential election under favorable conditions.
For a while.
Peale
@shomi: for once I’ll agree with your smarmy ass. Even if Trump somehow tapped into a big old pile of white racists who haven’t been voting because no one has represented their values, those people aren’t going to vote on their own. They’ve moved. They’re not registered to vote. Their going to need at least as much voter contact as democratic voters. And trump is not going to have squat to identify and contact them.
bk
@srv: And that has to do with Clinton what now?
rikyrah
@NBCNews now5 seconds ago
Trump’s family is now fully in charge of his campaign, sources say
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Wow, is that intended to be reassuring? It’s okay, the kids are gonna take care of dad and get him in line.
Vote for Dad (who needs his kids to take care of him) as the most powerful main the world!
P.S. Double-wow. If they are looking to reassure people, that is not a good photo at the link.
NotMax
@rikyrah
Ferdinand and Imelda 2.0.
RaflW
@hovercraft:
He doesn’t have an advance team.
That should be blindingly obvious by now. That allegedly media-savvy, slick as pig shit ‘major evangelists’ don’t have a publicist with them who would spot such an easily mocked values-crash is moderately surprising.
Villago Delenda Est
@Alex.S: The Lewandowski firing is just a diversion to appease some RNC people. It’s not real…Lewandowski is being “replaced” but he’s still around.
The serious story is the nonexistent fundraising, and the report showing him and his family pocketing over 1 mil in May. The attacks on Hillary on religion, of all things, might play with the Jeebofascists, but her faith is ridiculously authentic, unless you consider Methodism to be a branch of Islam.
rikyrah
Mark Cuban @mcuban Jun 8
1) I expect @realDonaldTrump to try to calm down. He doesn’t have the cash to fund his campaign, he needs to appease donors quickly
2) he had less than 165mm in cash and falling for a campaign that will cost 750mm or more. He will have to grovel for that cash and will
3) the real fun/drama will come from all the “hidden” videos from his private fundraisers. He will say what they want to hear. Get ready !
4)the real “index” for this election will be RNC vs DNC fundraising.RNC will need less $ for POTUS but much more downstream to counter Trump
5) the reality is that @realDonaldTrump will be MORE beholden to donors than @HillaryClinton because his fund raising is so far behind
NickM
@rikyrah: Great. They want to be our ruling dynasty. Low rent Lannisters. “A Trump never pays his debts.”
Baud
@rikyrah:
Two words:. More. Merchandising.
manyakitty
Priorities USA has launched a nasty ad here in NEOhio. Video clips with captions “I love war. I’m great at war.” I know more about ISIS than the, than the generals.” etc. ad nauseam.
WaterGirl
I turned the channel to MSNBC about noon, and then paused it so I could fast forward and catch Loretta Lynch whenever she started to speak. Every 20 minutes or so I would fast forward at triple speed to see if Lynch had started yet. Holy crap, every time I un-paused the TV it was Donald Trump all the time. Then I turned the TV on tonight (still on MSNBC) and I’ll be damned if Trump wasn’t on again. I can’t believe people watch the 24-hour channels. ugh.
Baud
@WaterGirl: MSNBTrump.
NotMax
@Baud
One year from now, may the kiddies be accosting strangers on the street with a furtive “Psst. Hey buddy, wanna buy a hat?”
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: They’re watching their inheritance being pissed away. Of course they’re trying to take control.
I hope every last one of those shits is reduced to penury.
rikyrah
Jon Ward @jonward11 5h5 hours ago
evangelical in meeting with Trump says he talks to Christians like a person who just bought Rosetta stone and is practicing for first time
Mobil RoonieRoo
@Emma: I know. I assumed it was all one trip.
trnc
@Alex.S: I’m wondering about the Draper-Sterling thing and the “forensic audit” of Lewandowski’s spending – how does this end well for Deadbeat Donald? Even if Lewandowski is 100% responsible for the shady spending (to non-Trump-owned companies, anyway), can the campaign really go after him? I can only imagine the amount of crap Corey knows about Trump. If anyone knows where all the bodies are buried, he’d be the guy.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I can hear him now, “Did you hear the one about the two corinthians?”
Baud
@rikyrah:
“Blessed are the poor?! Pfft. Losers.”
Major Major Major Major
@WaterGirl: reminds me of Kasich talking to the Talmudic scholars
rikyrah
Ari Berman
@AriBerman
17 states w/ new voting restrictions total 70% of electoral votes needed to win presidency
redshirt
@Baud: “The meek shall inherit the Earth? LOSERS.”
hovercraft
@dww44:
Quinnipiac which typically leans slightly right in their samples, has them tied in PA and OH, and her up by 8 in FL.
smith
@trnc:
Do you really think Trump can be embarrassed by anything? The guy digs up his own bodies and gleefully tosses them about.
manyakitty
@rikyrah: Wow, did you see the pictures on the teaser stories at the bottom? HRC is standing at a lectern, smiling confidently, the short-fingered vulgarian is in full, open-mouthed scream.
Emma
@Mobil RoonieRoo: Oops. I thought the Irish one was a back stop after the Scotland kerfuffle.
JPL
@rikyrah: As long as Trump praises the right to discriminate and appointing justices to rid us of the right to choose, they don’t care.
rikyrah
Carpool Karaoke: Anthony Kiedis interrupted James Corden singalong to save a baby’s life
Kiedis rejected that he was a ‘hero’ after the incident
RaflW
So, the GOP is so locked into saying Iran = Badguys at all times, a group of them have written to Boeing’s CEO asking that they nix a civilian aircraft deal worth $25 billion dollars. Yeah, Republicans!
Let’s junk a few thousand Seattle area jobs (and Topeka KS, and Chicago, and …) so that we can stay on-message for Rethugs that the Obama deal with Iran is bad bad bad.
We don’t need Trump to see buffoonery and America-last economic self-sabotage.
aimai
@Frankensteinbeck: Trumps genius was realizing that you could make voting for the Republican transactional, aspirational, in the same way that voting for Obama was transactional and aspirational for the democrats. He made his voters feel great about themselves–and really, absent that, why turn out to vote at all? These working class white voters very seldom vote. They are depressed, busy, angry. In red states where their candidates whip them into a frenzy they will turn out to vote against gays and for guns. But its been like eating spinach for eight years under Obama. They felt like they were fighting a rearguard action in a losing battle. Trump gave them something to feel like they were voting for. as well as against. If he drops out they will go looking for that sweet, hot, fix of hate. I don’t think any ordinary candidate can deliver it–not without solidifying the anti Republican vote in a backlash comperable to the one Trump is creating. So I don’t think even Cruz can get over. If he tries to play the statesman he loses the mouthbreathers, if he tries to keep them engaged with red meat he loses the scared middle.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: Thanks for reminding me of that. And basketball rings. All the Republican candidates must have been raised by wolves.
Origuy
@Villago Delenda Est:
Ivanka can take of herself, or her husband can, and I don’t give a damn about Uday and Qusay. But Trump has two younger kids; Tiffany, who’s stayed outside the spotlight and has a career, and Tommen, I mean Barron, who’s only ten. I hope he’s established trust funds for them.
hovercraft
@manyakitty:
It’s running in all the swing states, everyone forgets that this is what Obambi did to RMoney in 2012. The polls were really tight, but RMoney had no money left after Newt and Santorum drained all his cash, the dems spent the summer hammering away at him and he never recovered.
RaflW
@rikyrah: The Kim Jong un-ing of the GOP presidential standardbearer is complete.
redshirt
@RaflW: Republicans are the party of Business.
Except they’re not.
But CNN told me this morning that the country favors Trump to handle the economy over Hillary. Why not?
catclub
@rikyrah: There are lots of people who like attention. They know that saying they voted for Obama will get them some if they are Trump fans.
Nonetheless, I take them at their word. People are even less logical than you imagine.
rikyrah
Be afraid, Donald Trump. We’re about to see the best of Barack Obama
Richard Wolffe
This hyper-competitive president still has six months to go – and he’s made it clear he’s going to ruthlessly undermine the Republican nominee
What do you say about a man who first questioned your birth and then your allegiance to your country?
How do you respond to someone who thinks the best way to get your job is to accuse you of being weak and suggest you’re on the side of your nation’s enemies?
For Barack Obama and his senior aides, these are not abstract questions. Donald Trump may trigger a widespread sense of disbelief and disgust among Democrats. But inside the White House, they don’t have the luxury of expressing those feelings in public.
So when the moment came for speaking out loud last week, the US president’s response was both highly personal and intensely measured. It was a counterpunching argument against a street-fighting candidate that mixed one-liner rebukes with nuanced policy.
It also pointed the way to how this president – enjoying his final months in office and positive approval numbers – intends to interject in an election dominated by a reality TV star who represents the total repudiation of everything he stands for, in style and in substance.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@WaterGirl: Ahem. Wolves would have raised them better. Exponentially so.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
Yes I’m sure that will reassure everyone, three novices whose only experience is working for their dad, are now going to run a presidential campaign. What could possibly go wrong. I’m sure the beltway will be impressed since they all worship ‘businessmen’.
rikyrah
Trump Threatens to Abandon the RNC
Paryt Devastated by Trump’s fundraising start
June 21, 2016
“As top Republicans expressed astonishment and alarm over Donald Trump’s paltry campaign fundraising totals, the presumptive nominee blamed party leaders Tuesday and threatened to rely on his personal fortune instead of helping the GOP seek the cash it needs,” the Washington Post reports.
“Such a move would effectively amount to abandonment of the Republican National Committee and the rest of the GOP ticket, which relies on the presidential nominee to help raise hundreds of millions to fund a national field organization for the fall elections.”
dww44
@hovercraft: Thanks. That makes sense;that has long been my take on Quinnipac. However Alter called them a quite respectable outfit and proceeded to highlight Trump’s competitiveness.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
He really is on a tare.
RaflW
The GOP diversity/outreach continues per plan: “House could vote to block Harriet Tubman from $20 bill” – POLITICO
schrodinger's cat
@WaterGirl: Or are they feral, abandoned by their parents when they were young?
Mobil RoonieRoo
@Emma: it could be. I hadn’t heard he canceled the opening but nothing that he does makes any sense to me.
WaterGirl
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): You’re right, I didn’t think that through. I have kind of a fascination with wolves. In a good way. What was I thinking?
dmsilev
@rikyrah:
After what happened to Mitt 47% Romney, we can expect competent campaign operations to screen for cameras etc at closed events.
Trump does not have a competent campaign operation…
J R in WV
@hovercraft:
Who finally got to Osama bin Laden????
Not Bush, who had year to get around to that. He said “I don’t even think about him anymore!” Once Bush had taken out Saddam he didn’t give a shit about Osama bin Laden any more.
But then came Obama, who took care of business. Anyone talking about who’s harder on terrorists and not giving props to Obama is working for ISIL/Daesh themselves.
And that’s all there is to that. I hope Hillary goes there and makes that point over and over. Bush failed, Obama did not.
WaterGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: That works for me!
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
See this is why I don’t get people who say the dumpster is not dumb. Every time he engages with Obama he gets his ass kicked but he keeps coming back for more. Obama is going to relish sticking that shiv into him again and again, and he can do it with a smile. What Donald doesn’t get is that people find Obama likable, Drumph not so much.
Elie
@Villago Delenda Est:
THIS — I also hope that happens. They were going to “humor” the racist asshole that is their “Dad”. I hope that he destroys every financial part of the Trump brand and particularly for the son in law, his shit too. They have belatedly caught on to the destructive power of the old asshole. Now, may they live the consequences…
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: He’s not liquid. This is an empty threat on his part.
rikyrah
Ari Berman
@AriBerman
Trump strategist Paul Manafort ran Reagan’s racially odious Southern strategy in 1980
Elie
@hovercraft:
I don’t get it either. He is overwhelmingly if not stupid, really really damaged mentally — to the extent that it makes him stupid. I actually have said and think that he is in early dementia.
Matt McIrvin
@SiubhanDuinne: (listing one of several scenarios)
I think we’ve been told the New Trump was about to be rolled out, only to see the Old Trump again, so many times that it’s hard to believe this is going to happen. Trump can, in fact, do an OK job reading a teleprompter speech, and he kept enough of a lid on it during a few of the early primary debates (the ones with a gazillion candidates, mostly attacking each other) that he wasn’t even the main story. But the oppo material about him that’s already out there isn’t going away, and this stuff enrages him. And when he sticks to a script, he also becomes… low-energy. He loses most of what gave him any appeal in the first place.
I think the Republicans are going to try really, really hard to get Trump to do that pivot. But time is running short, and it’ll be particularly hard for him to maintain the stance through a two-way debate against Hillary Clinton.
Ian
@SiubhanDuinne:
I like this plan
Mary G
@rikyrah: Every time I think of POTUS letting loose on Trump, I chuckle evilly and rub my hands together like Snidely Whiplash, or the guy in the silent movie who ties the girl to the railroad track. Except this time I win!
Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporate Shill
@hovercraft:
Is this what Peak Wingnut looks like at the event horizon? All assholery, appearing endless as the assholes continually explode but never actually fizzle out?
What would Hawking say?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@WaterGirl: It surprised me from you (which I why I didn’t announce “counsel for wolves would like a word.”)
The Lodger
@NotMax: here’s a motto: Apparent sicut manuum tantum minor
(They look like hands, only smaller.)
redshirt
@Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporate Shill: I think Peak Wingnut may look like Heaven. That is, a blinding bright light as you are spaghettified.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mary G: If there is a debate, Hillary will manage to agitate him into saying something explosive that will delight his base but appall the rest of the country, and that will be it.
Brachiator
New Trump, or Old Trump questions Clinton’s religion. Is this desperate, stupid, or desperately stupid?
Hard to believe that this is the same guy who ran the table on the other GOP candidates.
ETA. Hillary is a Goldwater Muslim. Everyone knows this.
schrodinger's cat
Smiling Trump looks menacing, like he is baring his fangs at you. Isn’t showing your teeth a symbol aggression among most mammals?
Elie
@Matt McIrvin:
I don’t think that he can do it. The signal by his kids that they are “taking over” is bad…. shows weakness. Its what you would do for your failing old man who can’t manage his affairs. And its not just his poll numbers. He has no money and no organization. That is a profound failure that can’t be mitigated by just saying Wups! They are stepping in on a mess and now everyone knows. Their concern my guess is less about his being President than they surviving this with their businesses intact.
Ian
@Hoodie:
They get a little bit more batshit insane every election. I can take them being even more insane if we can flip 26 seats.
Matt McIrvin
@dww44: Quinnipiac is a respectable outfit. But my impression is that they don’t try very hard to re-weight their results to match a reasonable demographic model of the electorate.
I think that if you’re going to follow state polling, the right thing to do is to look at an aggregator, and the only one already trying to generate a map is Sam Wang’s PEC (which is a little squirrely still because there just aren’t enough state polls yet). His map currently looks remarkably 2012-like.
Original Lee
@Roger Moore:I can see it now: President Donald Trump (TM). Alternatively, The President Formerly Known As Donald Trump (TM). The President Who Cannot Be Named Due to Intellectual Property Rights.
WaterGirl
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I appreciate your holding back, and your faith in me.
Celebrity Bowling
The fudagelicals were fitted for their Trump albatross today. Donald Trump announced his Evangelical Advisory Board (list from Politico):
· Michele Bachmann – Former Congresswoman
· A.R. Bernard – Senior Pastor and CEO, Christian Cultural Center
· Mark Burns – Pastor, Harvest Praise and Worship Center
· Tim Clinton – President, American Association of Christian Counselors
· Kenneth and Gloria Copeland – Founders, Kenneth Copeland Ministries
· James Dobson – Author, Psychologist and Host, My Family Talk
· Jerry Falwell, Jr. – President, Liberty University
· Ronnie Floyd – Senior Pastor, Cross Church
· Jentezen Franklin – Senior Pastor, Free Chapel
· Jack Graham – Senior Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church
· Harry Jackson – Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church
· Robert Jeffress – Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Dallas
· David Jeremiah – Senior Pastor, Shadow Mountain Community Church
· Richard Land – President, Southern Evangelical Seminary
· James MacDonald – Founder and Senior Pastor, Harvest Bible Chapel
· Johnnie Moore – Author, President of The KAIROS Company
· Robert Morris – Senior Pastor, Gateway Church
· Tom Mullins – Senior Pastor, Christ Fellowship
· Ralph Reed – Founder, Faith and Freedom Coalition
· James Robison – Founder, Life OUTREACH International
· Tony Suarez – Executive Vice President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
· Jay Strack – President, Student Leadership University
· Paula White – Senior Pastor, New Destiny Christian Center
· Tom Winters – Attorney, Winters and King, Inc.
· Sealy Yates – Attorney, Yates and Yates
Delicious irony …
amk
wonder who deadbeat donnie is freaking out more, the rethugs or the bjérs.
Mary G
@Villago Delenda Est: Then he will double down on Twitter the next day, and the day after that deny he ever said it, or if he, he was misinterpreted.
redshirt
Good evening, Balloon Juice.
Original Lee
@rikyrah: Had some workmen in today to repair some storm damage. Two of them were Hispanic. They had a tablet and were streaming Telemundo while they worked. I don’t habla mucho Espanol, but Trump’s name figured prominently during about an hour of one program, and those two were sniggering so hard they were sometimes having to stop what they were doing.
Capt Seaweed
Vice President Michele Bachmann. Could happen…
redshirt
@Original Lee: While I agree with their perspective, I think it’s a terrible idea for contract workers to express their political views. For their own revenue purposes.
Technocrat
For Trump, or not for Trump, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of an awakened media,
Or to take arms against a sea of grift
And by opposing end it.
To revolt — to support,
No more; and by revolt to say we end
The own-goals and the thousand bizarre rantings
That Trump is heir to: ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d.
NotMax
@Original Lee
When he auctions off the rights to replace the 50 stars on the flag with 50 corporate logos, we’ll have a yuuge surplus.
Ian
@senator tankerbell:
no. They are Republicans
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
The folks at Gallup must be positively giddy that they sat this one out.
redshirt
Can anyone confirm I’m not invisible?
The Lodger
@efgoldman: He’d be kind of moldy, for sure.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator: The rest of the GOP field was ignoring him and worrying about each other. All that fighting for the “establishment track”. They all thought he was a joke. But he tapped into the base they refuse to believe is what their party is all about now.
They built this monster. It’s destroying them. And I’m enjoying every minute of it.
NotMax
@redshirt
(turns head from side to side)
Who said that?
Matt McIrvin
@Matt McIrvin: …I guess RCP has their map going as well (but it doesn’t say anything much different from PEC’s map; their estimate is microscopically more Republican, and they are much more generally inclined to call toss-ups).
Villago Delenda Est
@Celebrity Bowling: A wretched hive of scum and villainy that makes Mos Eisley look like a vacation spot.
redshirt
@NotMax: Ghost thanks!
Elie
@redshirt:
LOL — Good evening! (west coast here)
manyakitty
@redshirt: Did you hear something?
different-church-lady
@aimai: Trump’s “genius” was realizing he could get the entire racist freak slice of the GOP pie to himself, while the rest of it would be split sixteen ways.
Gvg
It just occurred to me I haven’t got a clue how it would impact things if Trump got assassinated. Someone apparently tried in a silly way today. News is saying an illegal Brit. Very odd. I am glad it wasn’t an obvious cliche for the rabid GOP supporters to unite in bashing.
Maybe a close call will be Trump’s excuse to drop out or maybe he really will get scared. He has never struck me as courageous and all Presidents have haters and random nuts. Bet Trump didn’t think of that.
fuckwit
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: My old man was the campaign manager of an Assemblyman from Westchester who in the 1970s was tapped by the party to run a suicide-mission campaign against a very popular County Executive. Deals had been made. My old man was oblivious to this and as determined to win. People came from the national party HQ, to tell him “kid, it’s not your night”. Not willing to accept this, he was fired from the campaign. The Assemblyman kept his safe seat for a few more years, then the party made good on their deal, and he got appointed as a Judge, which he enjoyed immensely and kept that office until he was very old and died.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gvg: It’s amazing how this “assassination attempt” isn’t getting much play. If the nutcase had more melanin, I’m sure we’d get a lot more noise about it.
J R in WV
@redshirt:
I can see you, if you mean your comments…
redshirt
@fuckwit: As the son of a Judge do you feel any wiser? More able to Judge?
redshirt
@manyakitty: Boo!
hovercraft
@Villago Delenda Est:
Trump agreed to 3 presidential and 1 vp debate yesterday.
hovercraft
@Villago Delenda Est:
Trump agreed to 3 presidential and 1 vp debate yesterday.
Monday, September 26, 2016
First presidential debate
Location: Wright State University, Dayton, OH
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Vice presidential debate
Location: Longwood University, Farmville, VA
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Second presidential debate
Location: Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Third presidential debate
Location: University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
Villago Delenda Est
@hovercraft: Yesterday he agreed. He can always renege, and I would not be surprised if he did.
Peter
@Matt McIrvin: Honestly, I think that if Trump keeps running his campaign the way he has all the way to November, we’re going to be looking at at least ten points in Clinton’s favor. I know that that’s a big get in a Presidential election, but a big part of being the candidate is organizing and getting people out to the polls, and right now he’s totally ceding that ground to Clinton. He’s not even trying. If nobody’s able to get through to him soon, it won’t matter how loyal his voters are; not enough of them will show up at the polls.
redshirt
@hovercraft: That’s BREAKING NEWS my friend. You need to chyron that stuff.
Also, Trump is going to fuck with all of it. The procedures, the dates, the times, etc.
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Rabid weasels.
hovercraft
@Matt McIrvin:
538 score A-, R+0.7, as I said leans slightly right. Sam Wang is excellent.
hovercraft
@redshirt:
I can see you. Welcome back.
aimai
@Capt Seaweed: She’ll quit after he cops a feel on public TV.
hovercraft
@Villago Delenda Est: @redshirt:
I think the agreement is between the RNC, DNC, and the candidates. If he backs out Priorities can run ads in all the swing states asking what’s he afraid of. He won’t be able to help himself, now if he gets annihilated by her in the first debate, then I can see him hiding under the bed.
StringOnAStick
Part of my job includes assessing people for signs of mental issues, mostly as a way of knowing what I am dealing with as I clean their teeth and decide how much instruction they can handle. Drumph has “early dementia” written all over him to anyone not in his family or inner circle. Family and inner circle tend to see this stuff later because the slow changes seem normal until suddenly it all becomes too overwhelming to ignore any longer. To me, the kids taking over the campaign is exactly that, and his bombast and dominant personality is all that kept them cowed, at least until now. I bet the recent family meetings sans Drumph pere have been rather exciting. They suddenly realized the old man is going nuts and is about to tear up their meal ticket. Watching how they try to unwind this will be most excellent entertainment.
seaboogie
@StringOnAStick: I sent Trump a tweet noting that he has had a really lousy day, but to please hang in there #GOPdestruction not complete….
because I am very kind and supportive person that way (pats self on back…)
rikyrah
This thread has been a hoot ?
Elie
@StringOnAStick:
This. Not a really a happy thing to see and way too often in the general population. The family ends up feeling pretty powerless as they have to deal with a pretty heavy situation. This is more than the usual so as much as I dislike what this man represents, I feel for what they are facing… There will be no face saving way out of this for them or him.
Elie
@StringOnAStick:
My father had Parkinson dementia and it was a very sad and drawn out decline. It broke out hearts as he was physically a strong person who loved life. He died after a long battle over a couple of years — multiple admissions for pneumonia after aspirating. I don’t necessarily predict that Trump will have that but its a long long goodbye to someone you knew and loved….
The Other Chuck
@Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporate Shill:
Careful … beyond that lies a Naked Wingularity. I don’t think my mind can take imagining what transpires there.
The Other Chuck
@different-church-lady:
Huh. That pretty much summed it up. Methinks the GOP’s first move is going to be to ensure far fewer swimmers in the candidate pool next time.
Elie
@The Other Chuck:
I think that they will have a bigger crisis. Their constituents have totally given themselves over to a hate filled, nationalist agenda that is open in its hostility not only to our diverse society but to government and governance. What do you do when the people you think are “your party” won’t follow you? They are stuck I am afraid and so is our country that has a House and Senate filled with ambitious members who know they have to represent people who are at the edge of civility. This will be a test for them, for us and for our system. Yes, they brought these people to this point, but now that we are here, what is to be done? Trump pissed in the punchbowl and everyone saw it. Its up to them to say that either the punch is not fit to drink or that its great, have a cup! I am afraid that the Republicans are just beginning their time of trial and testing. Unfortunately, we are tied to them through this as there is no way to soon completely separate their fate from our own….
Applejinx
@JPL: She could be right. If Hillary wins AND gets expansionary with the economy (by which I mean stimulus and completely rejecting austerity thinking) while the UK Brexits and they and the Eurozone crash, we could end up booming while the rest of the world busts.
A gamble, but if your concern is US power the potential rewards are huge. Hils would have to be the proverbial free-spending liberal, and would have to do what Bill did in the 90s—hike taxes on the rich and powerful by promising they’ll be better off, which they were in short order—but this time around the first order of business is to prop up the poors because Big Business absolutely won’t. Her inner wonk has to work overtime because she’s got to come up with FDR-like policies all over again: all the more, because once you make those entitlements they never go away.
Those who actually do this populist stuff will end up holding all the cards. Those who take that energy plus racism to double down on the policy that created the desperation in the first place… and they do it because people are dumb and racist, and it works… those people are dangerous to themselves as well as others, because what they’re trying to do won’t actually deal with the real problems. But it does make the rich much richer, and when the rich are completely in control of everything, it’s not surprising that this is what we get.
Ben
@The Dangerman: This. If, by some miracle, DonTheCon were to be elected POTUS he’d be impeached within 6 months. No way he could stay away from running his businesses and that ‘blind trust’ would turn into the ’20/20 trust’.
Original Lee
@StringOnAStick: I kinda feel sorry for the Drumpf kids. The Long Goodbye sucks, and to have it begin under the glaring lights of international publicity really really sucks. My dad had Lewy Body Dementia (all the delusions of Alzheimer’s PLUS the hallucinations and loss of physical autonomy of Parkinson’s – what a deal!!!). He had been a semi-public figure for years, and the first few years with the disease were awful. Being out and about was an enormous strain on him and on my mom. It was hard enough when he needed a minder with him at all times, I can’t imagine what it must be like when it’s someone like Drumpf.
ImpureScience
Didn’t Sheldon Adelson say he’d be contributing big-time?