A lot of folks worry Trump will go down ugly in November, swinging at bugbears like ACORN and, I don’t know, the Jews or something. I bet this here five internet bucks that the opposite happens. Trump may not know a single damn thing about nuclear policy but he knows a bit about image. When you go down flailing in desperation it just underlines how much you failed.
Tell me if this sounds like a fighter to you.
On CNBC on Thursday, Trump twice mused on what his future might hold. Both times he seemed totally fine with the idea of losing.
“If at the end of 90 days I fall in short,” Trump said, “it’s OK. I go back to a very good way of life. It’s not what I’m looking to do. I think we’re going to have a victory, but we’ll see.”
Later, asked what he might do to turn around his crashing poll numbers, Trump basically said he wouldn’t change a thing. “Just keep doing the same thing I’m doing right now. At the end it’s either going to, you know, work or I’m going to have a very, very nice long vacation.”
This is a great time to bring back a favorite tale from back in ’07.
[L]et me tell you a story full of sordid maneuvers, backroom deals, tragedy, triumph and innocent victims. You see, at this time last year John had not registered Democratic at that point so a case could be made that Cole, the maverick Republican blogger who left RedState when Republicanism betrayed Barry Goldwater, better represents conservatism than Republican zombies who fill the conservative category every year. It was gratifying when the judges agreed. Completely incidental and not at all on my mind at the time, the bitter tears from rightwingers who take the contest far too seriously, and who certainly would have lost a one to eleven split vote, would have been delicious.Then something happened that may never be explained. Maybe the bitter tears angle occurred to the judges. Maybe their inbox filled up with youtube vids of Michelle Malkin spelling out threatening messages in her cheerleader outfit. Maybe something even more mind-bogglingly awful happened. Officially the awards gurus mysteriously discovered a bug in the code that ‘forced’ them to bump us and the Jawa Report from the conservative category, but you and I and Gene “Time Cube” Ray know that there is more to the story than that. I can handle what happened to us; a reasonable but mistaken person could see our candidacy as an inspired attempt to raise trouble in blogland right. Seeing the innocent guys at Jawa go down, however, still weighs heavy on my conscience.
The joke of this story was that rightwing blogs really, really cared about that awards competition (it was the Weblog Awards sponsored by Real Clear Politics). Back then every conservative blog filled its sidebar with little graphic bugs announcing awards, award runner-ups, group memberships, military affiliation (if any) etc. It was like chest salad in the military for those guys. These days that space is taken up by ads for Goldline and denture cream. When Real Clear Politics dumped us in the Top 250 Blogs category I figured we were a goner because RedState was a significantly bigger blog and they really wanted that award. Their front page was an all day full court press to VOTE VOTE VOTE. But somehow a mix of pleading and grave threats payed off and we started to pull ahead.
Then a weird thing happened. In the last couple days of voting RedState went dark about the award. They just shut up about it completely. I guess Erickson figured they were already pushing about as hard as they could, so a few more email blasts would just make them look like bigger losers.
I sincerely think that Trump getting increasingly desperate, louder and more offensive with every passing week is the GOP’s second worst case scenario, and maybe not even that. I think it would hurt the party much more if their Presidential candidate basically decides the whole contest is dumb and not worth his time. If he can’t stop a girl from beating him, the next best option for a narcissist bordering on worse is to let her win. Before you get me wrong, resigning would never occur to him. That chain around Reince Preibus’s neck? You could not pry it from Trump’s stubby fingers with a five foot crowbar. The press will keep covering him and some subset of people will send money and shout his name, certainly enough to fill a rally hall in Spokane or Couer D’Alene.
If Trump rages futilely against the dying of the light, at least he will inspire people. Maybe not good people, but you know those folks who call your average Congressional office about Agenda 21 Clinton death list space lizards all day? There are a lot of them. The froth keeps them active but you need to keep stirring it. The thing that will really depress GOP turnout is a depressed candidate. If I were Reince Preibus, and I thank jeebus daily that I’m not, I would be terrified that Trump just settles into a comfortable routine of just the stuff he likes: rallies, collecting money, hangout sessions with Sean Hannity. If he does not give the tiniest little shit about the party or America then why bother with busy work like organizing, ad buying, debate prep or kissing up to the wealthy assholes who keep the party’s lights on.
You know what, imagine for a second that Trump does check out halfway through, pocket the campaign money(*) and leave the party’s stakeholders utterly destitute. Given the way his projects tend to go, any other outcome would be a surprise.
***
(*) OK, you say that is illegal. I call as expert witness a narcissistic winner of the sperm lottery who has decades of experience circumventing finance laws. Guess who I have in mind.
Villago Delenda Est
ACTUAL conservatives are supposed to be about maintaining stability. Just about everything the Democratic party does is about maintaining stability, by incrementally changing the system to make it more stable. Bismarck understood this concept when he invented the Social Security meme back in the 19th century.
Our “conservatives” don’t give a rat’s ass about stability, as long as their bank vaults are protected.
Harold Samson
I bet my buddy that Trump would “run out of steam,” become listless and distracted and drop to “low energy.”
Show biz has edumacated me to the ways of the extreme narcissist.
Gin & Tonic
@Villago Delenda Est: Rightist =/= conservative.
The Other Chuck
@Villago Delenda Est:
Giving their willingness to blow up the world economy, I think they don’t give a shit about anything except hurting people they hate, and they hate damn near everybody.
scav
I’m not entirely convinced he can hold to a plan of action one way or the other for long enough to predict. And, if it does quiet down, I’d guess it’s more to do with personal boredom and lack of adrenaline hits than coherent image management.
WereBear
Whatever Trump does, it will be disastrous for Republicans. Like calling in a substitute babysitter, expecting to go over the fridge contents, bedtime instructions, etc; and instead someone in an ape suit shows up, turning over couches and flinging poo.
They thought they were getting a candidate? Good luck with that one!
Villago Delenda Est
@scav: Or he strokes out. Not totally out of the question, no matter what his personal quack tells us.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gin & Tonic: Exactly. They’ve stolen that term and are twisting into precisely what John Stewart Mill was talking about.
acallidryas
Ha. I was just having this conversation with one of my friends. She was concerned about Trump riling up rioters when Clinton wins, but I put my money on this scenario. Just a “soft dropout”-not resigning, but putting even less effort into campaigning and reinvest in his rallies and the Trump Network or Trump Hats or whatever the next grift is.
dedc79
I’m far less worried about how Trump handles defeat than how his diehard supporters handle it. Yes, how he handles it may have some impact on how they handle it, but the crazies are gonna act crazy no matter what.
cckids
@scav: I agree. Also, even though he is reputedly doing less campaigning than any candidate in recent memory, he is probably still doing WAY more actual “work” than he usually does. I mean, his usual life is pretty cushy and soft. I’m sure he is tired of all of it except the roars of applause. We’ll see if that’s enough to keep him going.
It’s more than obvious that he isn’t capable of or interested in doing the real work of campaigning for or being president.
Mnemosyne
I predict that the Designated Scapegoat for Trump is going to be the media. He didn’t fail because he was a bad candidate, he failed because the media never gave him a fair shake. It’s all THEIR fault!
I think we’re already seeing this at his rallies. I hope the MSM is proud of themselves for feeding the beast in the hope that they could turn his shit into ratings.
JPL
I’m going to stream Trump’s rally for a few minutes, just to see what Trump shows up. The boring one, or the manic one.
Villago Delenda Est
@dedc79: That’s the problem. They’ve been angried up, and dispelling that anger is going to be difficult. I fear that blood will be shed in the process. It may be that the first time someone dies for failure to comply with some “patriot’s” demands will break the fever. This assumes that the Drumpfenproletariat is not too far gone. Or we’ll have a Rwanda scenario on our hands.
raven
@JPL: Not watching the xtra time USA-Sweden soccer game?
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne: As long as they still get ratings while their minions perish, they won’t mind.
acallidryas
@Mnemosyne: I think the Republican party itself is going to come in for some strong criticism from Trump. That they didn’t all support him like they should have, they didn’t put enough money in, etc.
Of course, that could just be wishful thinking on my part.
Neldob
Democrats are the real conservatives (and really more patriotic too). I apologize post haste for the dorkiness.
raven
damn
pseudonymous in nc
Sweden just had a legit goal disallowed: wasn’t offside for the cross, and the deflection was off a US player. The assistant bottled it.
WereBear
@acallidryas: He’s going to spread blame like a firehose. I’m sure everyone will get their share :)
Earl
Trump will transition to the next grift — he’ll have a whole mailing list of morons to mine for gold, and goddamn is there a lot of gold in the idiot mines. I’ve read speculation he’ll launch a fox news competitor, which actually seems like something he may be good at. It’s hard to deny the man knows show business.
Even if Trump doesn’t go the rigged/acorn/vote theft route, supporters will. Fox news, Rush, Hannity, etc. The same forces that have torpedoed any attempt to reach out to latinos will spin into action, even if plainly saying any election in which too many black/latino/liberal voters vote is illegitimate torpedoes their chances to reach out to those constituencies. Look at the ballot restriction laws in NC or WI; these people outright target blacks to prevent voting.
SiubhanDuinne
@Harold Samson:
Hate to be Jeb when that happens.
CONGRATULATIONS!
I think he waits until there’s no way he can be taken off any ballots and then that’s it. Just stops. He’s showing signs of doing so already, and more to the point, has now publicly said he doesn’t give a shit if he wins or not, which is what I always did back in elementary school when I realized I was about to get my ass handed to me.
His “followers” are cause for more than a little concern. They’re going to have the worst case of blue balls ever and are going to be looking for someone to kill.
Miss Bianca
@WereBear:
Right now, I am L’ingMAO over this image. Thank you, thank you for that – sorely needed!
Hungry Joe
It could be that he’ll ease into that script, like the kid who’s behind at a game and makes it clear that he’s no longer making an effort, which proves that he didn’t “really” lose because he wasn’t trying. But, Bill Kristol-like, I’ve been wrong about damn near everything I thought would happen. I wish I had a transcript of conversations with friends from last year: Walker, Jeb or Rubio? Kasich or Cruz? If anyone mentioned Trump, it was to get a laugh.
Trump is now the political personification of William Goldman’s line about the way Hollywood works: “Nobody knows anything.” Or, a line from an older source — James Branch Cabell — in another context: “Anything is rather more than likely to happen.”
Brachiator
@acallidryas:
Trump supporters can be very enthusiastic at rallies or conventions, but most of them are too old, too fat, and too out of shape, to put up any kind of fight, let alone go full riot.
dedc79
@Villago Delenda Est: Yeah. And after election day Trump may just quietly walk away or he may lash out, but one thing he’s definitely NOT going to do is to talk his crazy supporters down off the ledge. And even if he tried to so, it’ll be way too late for it. It’s already too late now.
raven
@Hungry Joe: Ot Tom Petty “Most things I worry about, never happen anyway:”!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
– HotelExecutive.com (from 2009).
According to a contemporaneous ABC story, Trump Resorts (or related companies) filed for bankruptcy three times by then.
Donnie won’t sweat failing. He never has. He’ll make money on his efforts, bigly, because he always has – even in failure.
Cheers,
Scott.
scav
@Brachiator: He’s just as likely to berate his followers for failing him. Damn miners didn’t bother to show up, just like the religious people failed Romney.
ETA @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: And bankruptcy ins’t failing. Bankruptcy is clever clever tricksy getting out of playing bills gold-plated alpha shark proof of superiority.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I don’t know. He says he won’t mind if he loses; but this guy lives for humiliating people. I don’t know how he can spin it as anything other than being humiliated if Clinton wipes the floor with him, as it looks ever more likely she will. Maybe he says shit now about not caring much, but my guess is that he’s seething inside. I don’t know how he can keep that from leaking out.
Dadadadadadada
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I hope you’re wrong, of course, but I also wonder if many of Trump’s supporters will tire of this game around the time he does. The whole Trump ethos ranks “putting on a show” well ahead of “getting anything done,” so it’s likely that a whole lot of his rally-attenders will feel they did their part just by showing up and yelling, and won’t even bother to vote, and will spend the rest of their lives bragging about how “we sure showed them!” and not noticing that they made no difference at all. (Rather like the 60s radicals love talking about all the radical things they did, and gloss over the fact that their whole political agenda was soundly defeated and spent 2 whole decades underground.)
Then again, it only takes one of the blue-balls crowd to make a tragic mess, so maybe we’re both right.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
The journalists’ and political insiders’ tell-all books have the potential of being a lot of fun to read, once President Clinton and her Administration have settled in.
I’m pretty sure Katy Tur is working on hers. The Marie-Claire article is just an amuse-bouche.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Brachiator:
I don’t know about this. How in shape do you have to be to go on a shooting spree? That’s the kind of shit that scares me.
Miss Bianca
@scav: After all, Hitler, toward the end of the war, decided to interpret Germany’s imminent ignominious defeat as meaning that the German Volk did not deserve to have him as Fuehrer.
germy
meanwhile…
JPL
@raven: Changed my mind about watching Trump, because I can.
Villago Delenda Est
The crazy of the Drumpfenproletariat is the current story at Yr Wonkette right now
CaseyL
If it’s all a con – and I go back and forth about that- then he won’t mind “losing” because it was never about actually getting elected. It was about grifting, or being the center of attention for a while. Looked at that way – the whole thing’s a scam – then at some point it’ll be too boring or too much work to bother with.
So: if it was all an act, then he’ll just walk away, because that’s what he does.
If it wasn’t… FSM knows.
raven
@JPL: Hope missed the 1st PK
germy
Fox News Is Laying The Groundwork For Trump To Skip Out On Presidential Debates
raven
dang!
James E Powell
@Villago Delenda Est:
For many years now, conservative has just been a euphemism for the alliance of rich people, racists, and religious fanatics.
JPL
Shit…
SiubhanDuinne
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yup. You think like Lord Peter Wimsey:
— Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night, 1936
John Revolta
Trump’s fans (that’s all they are; I wouldn’t even call them supporters, except in the athletic sense) aren’t gonna do shit. When he loses, they’re gonna go back to their couch and turn on the NASCAR and spend the next 4 to 8 years bitching and moaning. They’re too stupid, old and lazy to do much else. His candidacy isn’t much more to them than “The Apprentice 2: Ethnic Boogaboogaboo”. A small group will make some noise about second amendment solutions, but they ain’t about to risk getting thrown in stir next to the Bundys without even a Goddamn flatscreen. Fuck these fools.
LesGS
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): And all you have to do is swing by an A-A church, a UU fellowship, or a mosque, and you’ll find scores of folks you’ve been hating on for years already.
Not like it hasn’t happened before.
bluehill
off topic – did anyone post about this 28 lb Maine coon?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIdxanjDzlH/?taken-by=catstradamus
Steve is going to need to start hitting the gym (or taking steroids).
raven
Holy shit, USA eliminated!
KB
I think your note with the asterisk is exactly right. He will have a steady cash flow from donors who thought they were giving a one-time donation, but actually signed up for a monthly credit card charge with no way to cancel. He will continue his campaign indefinitely (2020? 2024?) so he can use that money for “expenses”, and I suspect most of the donors are too stupid to notice or to do anything about it if they did notice.
That’s why he continues to preach to the choir instead of trying to expand his coalition. He’s already decided who his marks are.
Crashman
This seems awfully plausible. Just keep collecting contributions, ridiculously overcharging the campaign to use Trump properties and resources, and half-ass it to Election Day. Quite a grift!
Trollhattan
@Earl:
Good point SaraPac worked for a good while as a cash machine for Snowbilly Snookie and Trump has decades more experience marketing himself that she, so he can keep it running until he’s dirt farming, which I suspect will happen sooner than he realizes given how crappy he looks these days.
Mike in NC
Putin owns several yooouuuuge and very classy dachas, I’ve heard.
NCSteve
Trump only says he doesn’t care if he loses because he’s still convinced he’ll win. But the narcissism has, quite predictably, now bloomed into full-on megalomania and if he loses, he’ll have that nice long vacation in a Big Beautiful mental institution, because he’s going to meltdown like a poorly design nuclear reactor operated by illiterate teenagers.
Trump’s entire life has been a continual race to keep ahead of that nagging little voice in his subconscious–which I am pretty sure uses his father’s voice–calling him every terrible thing he says about others, or the opposite of every thing he says about himself: loser, failure, fraud, small-membered sexual incompetent. This run is all about that voice, and about being belittled by Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondent’s Dinner (thanks, Obama!). He surrounds, and has always surrounded, himself with brown-nosing sycophantic yes-men. No one dares tell him bad news. No one is permitted to tell him he’s wrong. So when he loses, it will come as a total shock.
He’s constructed a bubble of unreality around himself and defines himself and everyone else in terms of domination and forcing submission through the infliction of humiliation. (Though, remarkably, it’s possible he doesn’t treat his kids that way). When he loses, when he is is crushed in a yooooge humiliating, historic, crushing defeat, the shock will make him go nuts. Maybe he’ll go nuts quietly, but more likely not. Most likely, he’s going go off like Hitler in that rant all the “Downfall” parodies are made out of and then he’s going to throw a Big Beautiful public tantrum calculated for maximum damage to a ungrateful nation unworthy of his genius.
Matt McIrvin
There were also the Koufax Awards in the left blogosphere. Do those still exist?
Anyway, I think in the first or second year I was actually nominated for Best Commenter for the stuff I was writing in the comments of The Poor Man. And the hell of it is, those comments were stupid, I am embarrassed by them and I entirely repudiate them. I didn’t win, though, because one of the other nominees in that category was Heather “Digby” Parton, who obviously nobody was going to beat, and I’ll always be grateful to her for beating me.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: for some reason, I always remember Lord Peter as saying “the first thing a good principle does is kill somebody.”
ETA: but however the quote actually runs, its existence is one of the reasons that “Gaudy Night” is one of my favorite books ever.
Origuy
@acallidryas:
In other words, he’ll ghost the Republican Party. Stop returning their calls, stop answering their texts, unfollow them on Facebook, etc. His friends will tell them, “He’s just not that into you anymore.”
chopper
“why is the ticket all sticky?”
WereBear
@Villago Delenda Est: Of course it was a Florida Man. Of course it was.
Brachiator
@germy:
Clinton could invite Gary Johnson and Jill Stein to the presidential debates. Ratings might not be as high as a Trump debate, but it would be more interesting.
? Martin
@dedc79: Precisely. Ryan’s problem isn’t Trump, it’s the people that vote for Trump. He’s still stuck with them after the election, all jacked up on Mountain Dew and armed to the teeth.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
I have a feeling that Assange’s attempts to meddle in the US election are not going over well in Quito. They’re willing to let him sleep on their couch, but once he starts picking fights and then trying to hide inside the embassy, he may be out on his ear.
? Martin
@raven: No way! Man, that’s stunning.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: Bad for Clinton, though, since it’d just be these two minor figures beating on her over her supposed corruption in a tag team with the moderators.
PGFan
@Brachiator: I think that’s probably true. Plus they’re cowards who talk big when in crowds of likeminded people. Meanwhile, as with the Bundy’s at the wildlife refuge, all those folks with their guns screaming about taking a stand failed pretty markedly to show up and help out.
JGabriel
Tim F. @ Top:
… and blame it on the GOP.
No fair, most winners of the sperm lottery are narcissists. That said, I’ll guess Romney. Or Trump himself.
Trollhattan
@NCSteve:
Funny enough, Mittens suffered the same fate for the same reasons, only was very polite in how he want about it. Recalling he had not even prepared a concession speech.
Am ‘looking forward” to Sully’s reaction to the first debate when Trump doesn’t literally burst into flame at the dais and is thus, declared the surprise “winner.” Expectations are so low he can stay afloat by exceeding them in tiny, meaningless ways.
enplaned
@Miss Bianca:
Wimsey’s observation, also in Gaudy Night, that only the English boast of being mongrel goes double for Americans.
Brachiator
The Clinton Tax Return
Interesting reading.
This gives Trump plenty of time to lie, bluster, insult, preen and vent for the Sunday pundit shows.
Villago Delenda Est
@PGFan: Individually, they’re cowards. But there is safety in numbers. What one can accomplish when one has an angry, focused mob at one’s back is astonishing.
Trollhattan
@Brachiator:
That would be a crazy thing to do–they’ll both expend their energies attacking her as just as bad as Trump and she’ll have to stand there and take it. No thanks.
PGFan
@SiubhanDuinne: Gaudy Night is a great book!
enplaned
@Brachiator: In 1980, if I recall correctly, Carter refused to participate in debates that involved Anderson. I dimly recall Anderson participating in one debate with Reagan.
JMG
@enplaned: For years when I was asked my ethno-national identity, my response was “suburban.”
Villago Delenda Est
@WereBear: I just startled the cat!
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: What’s more likely is that the Swedish investigators will get answers to their questions, quickly close their case, and drop the extradition request. This then forces the Ecuadorians hand: Assange no longer has a reason to claim asylum from malicious prosecution within their London embassy as London no longer has an extradition request to honor from Sweden. This gives Ecuador the excuse to get him out of their embassy. And once he leaves their embassy, he’ll be picked up. Assange is not stupid, so he’s going to work to manipulate this to his advantage, but I don’t think he’ll be able to do so this time.
Poopyman
I’m still sticking with “Gone by Labor Day”. Mark it.
enplaned
@Mnemosyne: And what a shame that would be…
Mike J
@Brachiator:
No. Don’t want to give Johnson oxygen and give Republicans a reason to show up at the polls and vote for downballot races. Stein’s just a fucking loon that nobody would want to be around. Vermin Supreme would be better TV and more grounded in reality.
gene108
BALLOON JUICE WON AWARDS!!!
THIS SHOULD BE FRONT PAGE NEWS!!!
You go guys!!!!!!!!!
SiubhanDuinne
@PGFan:
I read it at least once a year. So many wonderful layers to it!
wjs
Trump is paying his own companies with campaign funds raised from suckers–THAT’S how he has ALREADY pocketed a lot of money. The possibility that he quits the race grows stronger but he really has to find a scapegoat. The RNC taking away money from his campaign would be a great place to start. Trump can quit the race, blame the fact that the GOP insiders “turned” on him, and walk away from this AFTER the campaign pays the money it owes to Trump-run companies FIRST.
PGFan
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yes, but they won’t be in a mob on election night — they’ll be home. However, I think it’s sadly possible that gun-nuts and/or various bigots could go out and do shootings or burn mosques, etc. I think there IS danger, just not some kind of coordinated nationwide mob action.
enplaned
@Mike J: Agree on Stein. Might be more willing to entertain Johnson, not because I at all support him, but if there was convincing evidence that he’d draw more support from GOPers than from centrist Democrats. That’s a big if.
JGabriel
@raven:
Nukes? I’m still here, so if it’s nuclear weapons I guess the missiles are still in the air headed this way.
Stella B.
@JMG: I’m “midwestern”. Many generations!
PGFan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yes! Love all the Peter Wimsey books — Busman’s Honeymoon is such a terrific end to the series.
mike in dc
Over/under on how many commentators on Fox News will be visibly drunk on Election night: 4
I’ll take the over.
They will be staring mutely at the election returns like a man who just finished paying off his mortgage watching his home burn down to the foundation.
JGabriel
JMG:
For years when people asked me what I do, my response was “Suffer.”
Actually, it still is. I’m a real hit at parties.
wjs
@mike in dc: When Megyn Kelly is running the place, most of those assholes will be working for Al Jazeera.
Brachiator
@Mike J:
Republicans will do this anyway in many districts, depending on their interest in local issues.
Democrats can get out their own vote; they don’t have much influence on suppressing the conservative vote.
And who knows. The GOP may devote money to pumping up interest in downticket races to insure GOP control of the Congress.
Clinton having some debates gets her face before the public and underscores Trump’s cowardice, should he bow out.
Or Clinton could have an event for veterans, stealing more of Trump’s thunder.
enplaned
@PGFan: Proto-feminist, even. Have to believe it’s among the very earliest popular novels/mysteries to advocate straightforwardly for equality in marriage, and to portray a hero seeking that in a mate.
scav
@PGFan: Murder must advertise has some very perceptive sections.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@PGFan: C’mon. It was cold.
JPL
@Poopyman: Trump will become the October surprise, when he sails into the sunset.
enplaned
@PGFan: Not a big fan of the Jill Paton Walsh continuation, however. I read one and it was… OK. Started a second and couldn’t do it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
It’s quoted accurately — copy-pasted from GN on my Kindle app. But you may be thinking of the conversation that immediately follows (LPW is talking to the Warden of Shrewsbury College, and she speaks first):
(I adore that last sentence.)
Iowa Old Lady
@Brachiator: I’d rather watch Trump than Jill Stein. I find her off-putting.
rikyrah
Newspaper apologizes for ‘insensitive’ Simone Manuel headline
Simone Manuel made history on Thursday night in Rio when she tied Penny Oleksiak in the 100m freestyle to win a gold medal, becoming the first female African-American swimmer to win a gold for the U.S. in an individual event.
The accomplishment by Manuel was incredible and significant, and it led to tons of celebration from American fans. The 20-year-old Stanford student also made headlines throughout the country, though one was not as kind as others.
The San Jose Mercury News insulted Manuel by omitting her name from its headline and simply calling her an “African American”:
The Northern California newspaper scrambled to try fixing things after receiving some backlash, but they screwed up the amended headline by forgetting the word “with.”
On take three, they finally got it right. The new headline stated “Olympics: Stanford’s Simone Manuel and Michael Phelps make history.” The Mercury News also apologized for the original headline.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: that scene is arguably my favorite in the book. It’s doing so many things on so many levels – for one thing, I find the philosophical arguments compelling in and of themselves. For another, they are actually servicing the plot – or at least, Lord Peter’s plotting.
ETA: one of my other favorite scenes is between Harriet and Miss DeVine, where they talk about people’s “proper jobs”, and come to the conclusion that another person can, in fact, become someone’s “job”. Harriet asks something like, “but you don’t despise the people who make someone else their job?” and Miss DeVine says something like, “so far from despising them – I find them dangerous.” For some reason, that’s always chilled me.
raven
@? Martin: It’s going the get pinned on Hope.
Trollhattan
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Yeah, not even a box of dicks got them out there. Wusses.
bluehill
If Trump’s plan is to keep doing what he’s been doing, I can see more and more outlandish stuff coming out of his mouth. His whole campaign has been based on stirring up his base so of course he’s not going to stop. Except the comments need to be more and more crazy to have the same effect, so I’m not looking forward to seeing how bad it will get. Words do have consequences and I fear the price to be paid. This will fall squarely on repub leadership for appeasing their nominee. Talk about leading from behind.
SiubhanDuinne
@WereBear:
O/T, but I am very very happy to see you back and commenting!
Mike E
@raven: They didn’t have it…Abby was missed, Solo looked distracted, and the middle never gelled. I’m not surprised, just a tad disappointed tho.
gene108
@Brachiator:
Trump is smart for not releasing his tax returns.
Like Romney, Trump’s probably using every trick in the book to lower his tax rate to as close to zero as possible.
There’s nothing in his returns that will make him look better. There’s plenty that will probably make him look worse.
Right now there’s nothing specific for people to rail against Trump, with regards to taxes, other than not releasing them.
WereBear
@SiubhanDuinne: Thank you! I missed ya’ll.
catclub
@bluehill: maybe the guy is a midget?
Feebog
@mike in dc:
And realizing their insurance policy lapsed.
Villago Delenda Est
@Iowa Old Lady: Her pandering to the woo vote sickens me.
Mai.naem.mobile
I hope one of the campaign bigwigs writes a ‘fictional’ book about a POTUS campaign that just happens to have all the characters,with different nes etc. Self publish. I’m guessing it would be a best seller. Pull a Trumpy and send the proceeds to Dubai or the Caymans in case Trumpy decides to sue and wins.
Villago Delenda Est
@gene108: I think his greatest fear is that they’ll show him not to be a billionaire. But a mere plebeian millionaire.
catclub
@Feebog: This is starting to sound like the celebrations right before Fitzmas. Makes me nervous.
Shell
Back to a nice way of life? Take a nice long vacation? Hope his rabidly faithful base is hearing how seriously their “working man’s” candidate is taking the whole thing. “So we didn’t win.. So long, suckers. Im going back to my golden tower and trophy wife.”
Kay
catclub
@Mai.naem.mobile:
Describe the candidate as having petite hands and love tackle to match, and Trump will never recognize that guy.
SiubhanDuinne
@enplaned:
Equality in all endeavours. Here’s another delightful and insightful exchange:
Just brilliant. And a truth rarely acknowledged, even today.
Miss Bianca
and, o/t but…this just happened in my home state: another rapist avoids prison because it, might, you know, ruin his life or something.
I keep hoping that as more and more women enter the legal profession, that more and more women might end up as judges. And then, maybe, rape – even when it’s committed by “nice” white boys – will be taken seriously as a crime, and prosecuted and sentenced accordingly.
Evidently, we’ve still got a ways to go.
Brachiator
@Iowa Old Lady:
I don’t think that Stein will poll high enough to get into a debate, but in this crazy election cycle it would be interesting for Clinton to point out Trump’s cowardice in not showing up, and then having Johnson and Stein as debate opponents. But this is more weak wishful thinking than anything I would expect to see. And there are probably good reasons to keep Stein and company as far away as possible from any potential free publicity.
Chris T.
I like Krugman’s column today, Pieces of Silver. Though we should note that those still backing Trump expect to get, not 30 pieces of silver, but more like 30 million pieces of silver. Which makes it all worthwhile, n’est ce pas?
Miss Bianca
@Kay: “It’s Jerry, sir. They’re just not taking the war seriously.”
Eric U.
the letter forgiving the loan put me off for a while, but now I’m sure Trump’s going to take all the money he can. That requires him to stay in the race.
I kinda thought he would accept matching funds just so he could steal that, but I see no mention of it
catclub
@Kay: I just visited the two candidates’ websites. One is professional and has various ways to draw you in, get you to volunteer, find an event, buy state customized swag,
also video. The other one, not so much.
catclub
@Eric U.:
I was wondering about that, also.
Mnemosyne
@enplaned:
Sayers was writing in the 1930s, so more than proto-feminist. Women had only won the right to vote about 15 years previous after a very bloody struggle.
Don’t forget, Peter meets Harriet when she’s accused of murdering her live-in boyfriend and he doesn’t think it’s any big deal that she was “living in sin.”
Chip Daniels
Study of Trump’s followers in WaPo–
I kinda want to say that they are who we thought they are, or in my case, the demographic profile precisely fits the Trump followers I know personally.
Nice enough folk- middle aged and above, prosperous one-truck contractors living in modest white suburbia but prodded just slightly will explode with barely disguised rage against the changing world around them.
They are the folks who post those “Back in our day” memes on Facebook about dialing on a rotary phone and respecting ones elders* and working hard and not sniveling.*
The study shows that its not these people themselves who are suffering, but they see the writing on the wall and don’t like it, and are looking for someone to hate on.
*Yeah, they all lived in an alternate 1960s- 1970s than I actually remember.
Stan
He didn’t want our STUPID, crooked ISIS Presidency anyway.
enplaned
@SiubhanDuinne: True — complete equality, not just in the context of relationships. That said, I found that some of the most vivid writing in GN is about the relationship that each is seeking and the importance of balance between them. The refuge they find in each other in Busman’s Holiday comes as quite a relief after the constant concern over this issue in GN.
I love this from GN:
Brachiator
@gene108:
Or fearful. His great wealth could be smoke and mirrors.
Maybe he’s just a rich guy, not a fat cat plutocrat.
raven
@Mike E: Yea I like it but I really am no tactician so I hope for the best.
Mike E
That was some volleyball match between the US & Italy! These 2 squads scrimmaged earlier even tho they’re in the same group, and that prolly turned this prelim into a tester which the US women won 3-1
Robert Sneddon
@Feebog: I know of a writer who was paying three mortgages at the same time — he got divorced and his ex-wife got the house (mortgage number 1), he bought a house for himself and to-be-wife-number 2, closed on it on the Friday (mortgage number 2) and it burned to the ground at the weekend. He HAD planned to get house insurance on the Monday… House number 3 meant mortgage number 3.
He wrote a lot. Really a lot. He was writing and selling a million words a year for several years — that’s equivalent to ten or twelve novels annually, and everything he wrote had to sell. He didn’t have time to angst over word choices, or enjoy a pleasant month of writer’s block, or rework a chapter here or a paragraph there to make it better.
ObBeatles: Paperback Writer.
PGFan
@enplaned:
Yes!
waysel
@SiubhanDuinne: DLS was wonderful.
Trollhattan
@Chip Daniels: Friends attended a wedding last weekend and sat across from a couple at the reception who made it clear they are Trump! voters. DINKs and Silicon Valley equity refugees, they decamped to the foothills and a six-thousand square foot house with a 2k sq ft pool. She retired and raises giant cats (attn Cole) and he commutes back to the Bay Area to his landscaping bidnez. Yes, they feel their lifestyle is under assault and dadgumit, changes are in order! Also, too, can’t trust Hillary.
Le sigh.
SiubhanDuinne
@enplaned:
Yes. That line makes me smile every time. I do think the punt scene and the self-defense scene are some of the most erotic writing I know. Love this bit:
Mary G
In one of his bankruptcies, Trump’s creditors managed to put him on a personal allowance of only $450,000 a month. If he did that well with a bunch of banks, I can only imagine what he will cost the Republican party. Reince must be getting Bailey’s by IV now.
PGFan
@scav:
It does! And some of it is very funny! Another favorite.
enplaned
@Mnemosyne: As a kid, I lived down the road from an upper-class Scotswoman and her husband. She’d been to Oxbridge, but early enough that she hadn’t been able to get a degree. She didn’t like Harriett or Sayers. I assume this had to do with Vane/Sayers unorthodox background. Sayers, like Vane, lived a highly unconventional life, even having a child out of wedlock. Vane was clearly meant to be Sayers’s avatar, but she gave her a much more conventional (and perhaps happier) ending. Give to your creation what you couldn’t get for yourself, perhaps.
I love the short-story of Peter and Harriett with their young sons — including Cuthbert the snake in the bed of the tiresome houseguest. I always felt bad for Sayers under the assumption that this was what she wanted. But who knows, maybe I am wrong in that assumption.
PGFan
@enplaned:
Same here. Could not recapture the magic.
D58826
@Brachiator: And if I remember correctly the one tax return Mittens released had him paying an effective rate of around 13% (way lower than mine). And he only paid that much because he didn’t take a couple of deductions. If he had his rate would have been under 10%.
SiubhanDuinne
What a treat to find so many DLS fans here!
Trollhattan
@Robert Sneddon:
Jeez. Virtually unheard of to buy a house in California w/o insurance. I suppose it’s possible if it’s a cash transaction with an owner who holds title, but wow is that ever a bad streak of luck.
JPL
@Mary G: Reince introduced Trump today in Erie. I wonder if he is the designated babysitter. Raven mentioned that soccer was on, so I didn’t really watch Trump.
Mike E
@raven: They had a great run, and we’re fun to watch these past tourneys… that Abby equalizer v Brazil back in the day was one of the greatest goals of all time IMO
ETA and Han Solo has a better exit than Hope: she tweets out a salty, shitty plaint against Sweden… no class.
enplaned
@SiubhanDuinne: I dunno if you’ve read the Lymond historical novels by Dorothy Dunnett. Totally different genre but to me, without a doubt, Dunnett’s creation, Francis Crawford of Lymond, owes a massive debt to Lord Peter (and yet is something totally unto himself).
If you do try reading them, I’ve heard folks say the beginning of Game of Kings (first Lymond novel) is hard work. I’ve never found it so, but it has that reputation. In other words, perseverance may be rewarded.
Iowa Old Lady
Trump at his Erie, PA rally:
Uncle Cosmo
@Adam L Silverman:
What are the chances he can be sneaked out in a boot (= trunk for you Yanks) & spirited over to the Russian embassy? It’s only ~1.5 mi away as the buzzard flies, near the NW corner of Hyde Park, & the Ass oughta be able to stifle any claustrophobia for that long.
Brachiator
@D58826:
Seems like more innocent times, almost. From WaPo
He was watchin’ the deductions, they’re so cute. Watchin’ the deductions.
Adam L Silverman
@Uncle Cosmo: I have no idea.
sam
Given the way he’s already been shown on FEC forms to be funnelling campaign funds into Trumpco enterprises by renting offices from Trump buildings, holding rallies and speeches at various Trump properties, etc., I think it would be a pretty easy move to simply spend the back half of the campaign “campaigning” entirely from Mar-a-Lago, with its exorbitant rental fees.
Redshift
@acallidryas:
I think this could have some legs, since the right wing anger driving the media narrative of “populism” and “economic anxiety” in the primaries was actually largely directed at GOP elites, because they promised unattainable things like repealing Obamacare and maybe even impediment. If Trump starts going in that direction before the election, it would definitely be worth some campaign effort to depress GOP turnout by reminding the base that their local GOP senator/congressman is one of the elites who failed to deliver and sandbagged Trump.
In fact, that could be pretty delicious. If they distance themselves from Trump, hit their base on their disloyalty. If they don’t, hit everyone else on their ties to the orange nutcase.
Trollhattan
Evidently, Florida Man turned out for The Donald last night, including one with a cute li’l hipster bun.
More here.“If Donald Trump loses, will the Republican party sink with him?”
Amir Khalid
@Uncle Cosmo:
It seems to me that with his effort to interfere n the US presidential election, Assange has outlasted his welcome at the embassy. Hence the decision to finally let the Swedish authorities question him. Not too sure the Ecuadorians would go to that kind of trouble for such a guy.
Redshift
@Iowa Old Lady: This is why cleaning up after Trump is a hopeless task. He is incapable of every admitting he was wrong, so he’ll always eventually follow up any “here’s what he really meant,” (even his own) with, “no, I meant exactly what I said!”
Emma
@SiubhanDuinne: That is one of my favorite scenes in the whole series.
Well, I guess I’m in the minority. I like the Walsh books. I especially like her handling of Peter inheriting the title and the relationship between Peter’s oldest and Bunter’s son — it’s like watching the crumbling of the rigid social caste system.
Trollhattan
@Iowa Old Lady: @Redshift:
My deep fear is after the election we’ll discover Trump has taken every last parenthesis from the Strategic Punctuation Reserve.
Iowa Old Lady
@Redshift: From watching his interview with Hugh Hewitt, you can see that he thinks the whole Obama founded ISIS is a winner and he can’t understand why anyone would object. He’s been told to say he was joking, so he does, but he still thinks it’s a great line, so he has to say so.
Amir Khalid
@Trollhattan:
As long as he leaves the semicolons alone, I could live with that.
SiubhanDuinne
@enplaned:
You know, I have meant for years to read them, and just never have. Thanks for the prod — will let you know what I think.
Uncle Cosmo
@Adam L Silverman: More to the point, if the Swedes drop charges & Ecuador then asks him to leave the premises, on what grounds would the UK authorities “pick him up” when he walks out of the embassy? I guess they have a case for violation of bail, but if the reasons he was on bail in the first place no longer apply, that seems awfully weak. The Brits will be accused of holding him on a technicality for no other reason than to provide time for the US to file an extradition request.
Emma
@Uncle Cosmo: Actually, I think the Swedes get first crack at him. All the US has to do is sit back and wait.
Mary G
@enplaned: Second the Dunnett suggestion. They start slow but you end up reading late into the night.
Miss Bianca
@Uncle Cosmo: I’m just sort of wondering why the Swedes would necessarily drop the extradition case. I could see its strategic purpose, but to me, IF the charges actually have any legs and they *don’t* push for extradition…I dunno, that would leave a bad taste in my mouth. Like rape is really *not* important enough a crime to prolong an international incident over.
catclub
@Uncle Cosmo:
I suspect that request is already typed up and waiting for the right moment. The Chelsea Manning leaks were and still are a big deal, and the US Gov thinks Assange convinced Manning to release those files.
Brachiator
Just as long as he goes down. Anything else is a bonus.
Trollhattan
@Brachiator:
Not to mention he’s “pre-ugly.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Mary G:
Just what I need.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Villago Delenda Est: Donnie keeps claiming that NYC tax credit with the $500k cutoff, so he’s probably worried that his tax return will show that lowly Obama has more income than he does…
;-)
There may be something wrong with David Cay Johnston’s supposition that Trump claims negative income, but there’s almost certainly a bunch of fishy (but possibly legal) stuff going on with his taxes so that he can hide income and create fake losses and pay much lower taxes than he should.
Cheers,
Scott.
Robert Sneddon
@Trollhattan: This was back in the Sixties, when a jobbing writer could make a decent living at 3 cents a word as long as they sold everything they wrote. I know of another author (Robert Lionel Fanthorpe) who wrote more than that, three books a month for several years. He dictated into a tape recorder and his wife and daughters typed up the manuscripts. Each book was 158 pages no more no less, cheap disposable reading material sold in train and bus stations. Diligent historians have identified thirty plus of his pen names but even he lost track of them all.
sunny raines
although more bellicose, trump is just like all republicans: they are WAY better shooting their mouths off about people in positions of responsibility then they are being that person of responsibility. The smart republicans (such as they are) know this about themselves and their fellow republicans and avoid taking on responsibility at all costs. Just a bunch of immature babies.
Matt McIrvin
@Robert Sneddon: I think Philip K. Dick basically wrote a lot of his novels in a week-long amphetamine bender.
Capri
@mike in dc: Drunk on Champaign maybe. Fox News is a business enterprise. Eight years of Obama was very good for business. Eight years of Hillary would be even better. Hating on Nancy Pelosi can only go so far.
Shalimar
@Brachiator: IIRC, it was commonly accepted among tax experts that Romney was going to amend his return after the election was over and claim the deduction he chose not to claim originally. I wonder if there was any way to follow up on that and confirm that he did it?
Shalimar
@Uncle Cosmo: Assange could be under sealed indictment already in the US. If he is, then I assume the relevant British agency is aware of this and the extradition request is already on file ready to be activated as soon as Assange touches British soil.
If it were still 2010, I am certain this would be true. Assange was right to be paranoid then, the US clearly wanted him in prison. Who knows whether the important parties in the Obama administration have the same interest in arresting Assange as they did then.
Trollhattan
@Robert Sneddon:
158 pages each–love it! That’s five signatures plus a title sheet per book. “Mind the pennies and the pounds take care of themselves.”
philadelphialawyer
@Mnemosyne: Not just at the rallies. Buchanan and his commentariate at TAC are already claiming this. As is Raimondo. I think other conserva-thinkers are going this way now, too. Jeez, it is only August and the alibi-ing is already starting. The whole process is “rigged.” The liberal MSM is in the bag for Hillary. “They” NEVER even mention email-gate, Benghazi-gate, Clinton Foundation-gate, tarmac-gate, and so on. Trump is facing “unprecedented” scrutiny.
The POS got a free ride, if not outright fluffing, for over a year, and now that the basic reporting of merely pointing out the full of crap, lying, racist, etc, etc crap that he, and his minions and supporters, regularly spew, is finally getting some airtime, well, that is just “unfair.”
It just can’t be that enough women, African Americans, liberal white men, Hispanics, Asian Americans, LGBT folks, Muslims, Jews, former Sanders’ supporters, still relatively sane Republicans, etc, etc folks want Hillary, and want no part of Trump. No, the Buchananites and the butt hurt generally combine the Trump and Sanders phenomena, do some voodoo math, and, voila, it is obvious the “majority” of the country wants “change,” if not outright “revolution,” but “the Establishment” and the media won’t allow it.
Brachiator
@Shalimar:
No, not unless Romney was asked about it and fessed up.
Dan Riley
You’ve pretty much convinced me. I’ve thought he would go the martyr route…banging on the rigged election and media bias bongos. But after reading this, I think you may be right…martyrdom is probably too aspirational for him. Taking the money and running while laughing at the rubes is far more in keeping with who he is.
Lurker Extraordinaire
Delurking to say: I’m gonna need someone to name their band Death List Space Lizards or Sperm Lottery. Please and thank you.
Back to lurking.
The Lodger
@Amir Khalid: The colons actually remind me of Trump.
J R in WV
@philadelphialawyer:
Way late to say so, but I love your comment! So on point, so logical, so well argued. So Democratic!
J R in WV
@Lurker Extraordinaire:
And YOU~!! I love your NYM, don’t be a stranger!
philadelphialawyer
@J R in WV: Thank you, from a proud Democrat!