Story soon… BREITBART orbit is ecstatic… the Bannon-Coulter-Sessions wing of the right is now running GOP nominee's campaign
— Robert Costa (@costareports) August 17, 2016
This tweet last night reminded me of pre-abdication Pope Benedict Ratzinger’s more conservative followers, writing hopefully about how purging the ‘doubters’ and ‘weak sisters’ would lead to a hardened Mother Church of “fewer Catholics, but better Catholics”. (When those tactics didn’t work, Benedict threw his tiara in the cardinals’ laps and ‘withdrew from the world’– but not so far that he couldn’t publicly criticize their choice for his successor.)
Google tells me that the ‘fewer, but better’ formulation goes back to Lenin in 1923, but it’s the rallying cry of every cult under stress. The True Believers tell each other that shake-ups and purity tests will lead to a hardened core of steely warriors, while secretly consoling themselves with the thought that in the new regime at least they will have improved their hold over the apparatus… and their share of the spoils, should the group go completely belly-up.
They’re no longer interested in winning the presidential election; they just want to steal everything they can from the collapsing national party, up to and including the pennies off the corpse’s eyes, to enrich their own fiefdoms in the fever swamps of “alt-right” racists, misogynists & xenophobes.
It’d be more entertaining for the rest of us if the rump revanchists weren’t so heavily armed.
Huge rallies. Gloves off. Brutal fights with Clinton. Heavy emphasis on nationalism and populism. That's the Bannon strategy.
— Robert Costa (@costareports) August 17, 2016
if he wanted to win, he would have got someone who could shore up field ops. but he brought in more media because that's all he cares about
— laura olin (@lauraolin) August 17, 2016
"Stephen Bannon a 'bully' who has 'shaped the company into Trump’s personal Pravda',”https://t.co/7KHwoVmzFW pic.twitter.com/R2b7A2GDtv
— Dean Barker (@deanbarker) August 17, 2016
The Trump shakeup has zero to do with winning the election and everything to do with preserving his brand for life after he loses
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) August 17, 2016
Trump is like the guy who fires his doctor for putting him on a diet and finds one who says he can eat steak https://t.co/vCliehDsk2
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) August 17, 2016
Message from a despondent GOP operative:
'I'm beginning to think someone is just messing with us.'
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) August 17, 2016
Rats might desert a sinking ship but sharks come in to feed. — Commentor Aleta
dmsilev
At this juncture, I feel that it is important for us to look back and reflect on what brought us here, and in particular remind ourselves that Andrew Breitbart is still dead.
Baud
The fewest Republicans are the best Republicans.
PsiFighter37
If the strategy is ‘Let Trump be Trump’, bring it on. More than happy to let him sink himself…
Timurid
Must… grift… harder…
aimai
“There will be fewer, but better, Russians” is also a line from Ninotchka. They ask her how the show trials are going in Moscow and that is her answer.
dmsilev
Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, this clip from CNN is amazing. Trump’s campaign lawyer manages to fuse Sarah Palin, Baghdad Bob, and stereotypical NYC dickishness into one moment of pure wow.
slag
@Baud: And hopefully, we’re on our way to seeing the best Republicans in history.
Major Major Major Major
I suspect Trump thinks that more and better yelling IS how one wins.
dmsilev
@aimai: Post-election, it’s going to be a cross between Soviet show trials and the Nazi’s Night of the Long Knives. With just a hint of Lord of the Flies mixed in.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
Given that the Republicans are the party of old folks, a lot of them are going to become the only good Republicans plenty soon.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Hey, they’re putting states in play that no one ever dreamed would be the case. SC, GA, MS, UT?
I say let them keep having relations with that poultry.
PigDog
We are observing the Grand Unified Theory of post-Gingrich Republicanism. Consider that all the following elements now exist in Shitgibbon’s campaign:
Anti-Clinton rhetoric
Roger Ailes involvement
Breitbart running the campaign
Racism/sexism/overall demonization of the Other as an *explicit* strategy
A lifelong con man at the top of the ticket
The personification of the worst of Evangelical Christianity in the VP slot
aarrgghh
so you’re saying they’re a bunch of grifters grifting off grifters?
i’m shocked.
Baud
@dmsilev: That lawyer is right out of central casting. It’s like he learned to lawyer by watching Lionel Hutz.
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
Winning what is the question.
Baud
@Roger Moore: Victory!
JPL
@dmsilev: Type in Says who on the google search engine.. lol
cmorenc
Trump’s strategy at this point still 80+ days out from the election, is to make those of us on the progressive side feel so smug and mocking at his (and his campaign’s) buffoonery and offensiveness, that we start complacently thinking we have it in the bag – and don’t see him rapidly storming from behind to catch up with Clinton over the last three weeks until it’s too late. Of course, his campaign hasn’t figured out how they get to the “rapidly storming from behind to catch up with Clinton” part, but hey, they figure they’ve got several more weeks to figure that out.
The Golux
There aren’t enough antibiotics in the world to cure the Republicans’ (terminal, one hopes) case of don-orrhea.
Let us savor.
Roger Moore
@cmorenc:
Vladimir Vladimirovich will provide them with an October surprise. They’d better just hope it isn’t Julian October.
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: winning at making America great again, obviously.
Baud
@cmorenc: Their plan is working perfectly.
Jeannet
Mikhail Baryshnikov has endorsed Hillary with a very moving video
debbie
This is Christmas in August! Ann Coulter will, just by her presence, alienate any moderates still fence-sitting.
mainmata
Keep two things in mind 1) All of this glee assumes that Trump doesn’t get so bored that he just abandons his own nomination leaving us with Pence (Hilz still wins but probably doesn’t get those marginal states mentioned above) and 2) we’re only talking about the national GOP. The state and local GOP are very healthy, very extremist and will certainly be back in the majority in the HOR (maybe not the Senate but this depends a bit on ballot splitting). So, basically Hilz gets nothing done at least for two years; probably four because GOP has not recognized the legitimacy of any Democratic President since LBJ. The GOP basically has to be eliminated root and branch at the state level or else nothing much changes (except maybe SCOTUS).
dedc79
@Baud: A combo of Hutz and the blue-haired lawyer.
raven
@mainmata: Fuck LBJ.
Baud
@Jeannet: Damn.
Baud
@raven: We should have had a LBJ appreciation thread when you were getting your colonoscopy.
Major Major Major Major
@mainmata: can we stop theorizing that Trump is going to drop out or doesn’t want to win, already? People have been saying that for over a year.
Trentrunner
I might buy this “complacency” concern…if it were the year 2000 and/or the two candidates could be construed as “not a dime’s worth of difference between them.”
This year, with these two candidates, this is NOT the case.
Every friend of mine (all Dems) are fucking terrified of the Great Orange Scrotum, and most of us love/like Hillary and are proud to vote for the first woman president and glad that it’s her.
Obviously this is anecdata, but Trump is so repulsive a person that I find it hard to believe the Dem coalition isn’t motivated by the existential threat of a Trump presidency. #ExpectUs
Be nice to see some data on this, though.
Bruuuuce
@dmsilev: What a slimebag. And in the best traditions of stopped clocks, his last sentence is precisely correct: people are seeing through the nonsense.
NotMax
House of Wacks.
Ripley
Did you hear that they buried him 20 feet under? Because deep down, he’s a really good person.
raven
@Baud: Hernia surgery Tues, that should do. Post a picture of him with his phony ass Silver Star,
Trentrunner
@mainmata: President HRC gets 1-3 SCOTUS picks.
If that’s ALL she gets in 4 years, I’m calling it a win.
Baud
@raven: You getting a volume discount? Good luck.
Major Major Major Major
@Trentrunner: assuming Yertle lets them get confirmed.
raven
@Baud: Look at this shit.
raven
@Baud: I have decent insurance, that’ll do.
mainmata
@Trentrunner: I so love this portmanteau of “anecdata” – Brilliant! But you’re right. Lots of motivation because of who Trump is. Of course, the vote suppressors won’t care that Trump is so bad; they hate Hillary even more than they dislike Trump.
dmsilev
@mainmata: I can’t see Trump dropping out out of his own accord, especially not with the odds massively against him. It would look like he was too afraid to face the voters, and for an ambulatory ego like Trump, having pretty much the entire world regard him as a coward would be intolerable. There’s also no easy way for the GOP to get rid of him. Odds are, November will still be a choice between Clinton and Trump.
p.a.
The Whigs disolved over a real issue; slavery. Federalists just lost elections, but I don’t know if they had to deal with any type of prion disease like we are seeing now.
Major Major Major Major
@mainmata: a friend of mine said last night that after this Aetna thing he might not vote for president at all, since Obama didn’t fight hard for a public option.
No, seriously, he said that, stop laughing.
dedc79
@JPL: Hadn’t realized this is the same michael cohen who argued that Trump couldn’t possibly have raped Ivana Trump because “you cannot rape your spouse. And there’s very clear case law.”
Bruuuuce
@Major Major Major Major: It’s a good bet that if the Senate flips back to blue, they’ll extend the limited nuclear option that precludes filibusters on lower court appointments to SCOTUS. It’s a shame that they have to, but with the disloyal opposition blocking every other choice, and with so much at stake, I see it coming,
Calming Influence
Lately, I’ve found myself daydreaming… Re-education camps; are they really so wrong?
Mnemosyne
@mainmata:
Actually, current polling seems to indicate that we have a chance to grab the House. Sam Wang at Princeton likes our chances.
We have an opportunity to turn this into a wave election. Let’s not waste it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dmsilev: I wouldn’t rule out a twist in that mercurial brain that makes him drop out (though I think it’s extremely unlikely) but I think the rules are the RNC picks his replacement, it doesn’t just fall to Pence. I don’t think they’d pick anybody red-meat enough for his base, and I don’t think his true believers would at this point fall in line behind Kaisch or Ryan. I think Trump’s write-in vote would swamp Candidate X and Johnson, in this wooliest of wool-gathering speculative scenarios.
lamh36
So once again, POC, women and other immigrants, ya know, the ones routinely pissed on and suppressed by white majority, will have to save the US from these Trump idiots
Le sigh
bemused
@The Golux:
Don-orrhea is perfect.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
Us few remaining sane white folks do appreciate it, though I know that’s cold comfort.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
She’s very popular in the North
New Yorkers like her chances.
dmsilev
@Calming Influence:
All thing considered, perhaps we should start with education camps.
JPL
@dedc79: Trump only attracts the best and brightest.
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Candidate for understatement of the year. If you think the wild conspiracy theories are flying among Trump’s supporters now, imagine what they’d do if he dropped out of the race.
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The RNC meets and votes on a replacement. They might just pick Pence, on the grounds that they need a sacrificial goat and Pence was available. Of course, there are deadlines coming up. Filing deadlines for several states have already passed, so they’d need to run a bunch of lawsuits to get injunctions allowing late ballot changes. After that, mid September is a hard deadline, because that’s when the first wave of states sending out absentee and early ballots begins.
So, if he’s still around in a month, they’re well and truly stuck with him.
bobbo
. . . profit!
Hildebrand
@Trentrunner: I have a feeling a great many folks are going to say to themselves, ‘holy shit, I have to vote to make sure that lunatic doesn’t get anywhere near the presidency.’ Even the 3rd party curious I know are assuring me that they will vote Clinton.
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
We could call them “schools”, and actually fund them properly.
PGFan
@Calming Influence:
I know what you mean :-)
Baud
@Roger Moore: FEMA Vouchers!
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: I demand charter reëducation camps!
Villago Delenda Est
@dedc79: He missed the 80’s, didn’t he?
Jeffro
@slag: I am only seven comments in and this thread keeps topping itself …
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
They say she’s a Francophile, but at least they know she knows where France is!
jl
” one who says he can eat steak ”
Steak? Forget steak.
Deep fried pork belly, pop tarts and ice cream! Lots of I scream!
Villago Delenda Est
@Calming Influence: My biggest complaint about B.Barry Bamz: on his thin black ass with regards to getting the FEMA camps up and running.
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
It was mostly the 80s but apparently started in the 70s and didn’t wrap up until the 90s. I find it shocking to think that when I was born, a woman had no legal right to refuse sex to her husband anywhere in the US.
Baud
@Roger Moore: The sanctity of the family was very important.
D58826
They are like drug addicts looking for their next fix. Laying the ground work for impeachment in January 2017 I guess. And since an impeachable offense is anything 218 critters say it is. the legal definition of perjury doesn’t matter.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-panel-to-probe-fbi-about-whether-clinton-perjured-herself-to-congress/ar-BBvKnTX?li=AA5a8k&ocid=spartandhp
Jeffro
Comments 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13: still topping each other … We may not get to peak wingnut but the arc of Balloon Juice is definitely bending towards justice, hilarious justice, tonight
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
He’s not coherent on any particular stances.
gene108
To be fair to Lenin, he did figure out a dedicated and well organized group of radicals could seize power, if they were competing with comparatively less well organized and dedicated opposition; even if his band of radicals had rather unpopular ideas. And he did make it work, with regards to seizing power.
Movement Conservatism has borrowed, either knowingly or unknowingly, from Lenin’s tactics and has had some success in forcing unpopular ideas on the rest of us.
But Trump co-opted the Movement Conservative brand without actually caring for any of its positions, so he’s used up their infrastructure, wowed their followers, with his rhetoric and is leaving them to pick-up the mess he’s going to leave behind. And all the while advancing none of their agenda to the public or if their ideas are advanced it is now under the Trump brand and not their own.
Major Major Major Major
@D58826:
There’s those Clinton Rules again.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@cmorenc: So I’ll need to remember to Early Vote as soon as possible, so I can be distraction-free and complacent for the rest of the fall.
For those in Tennessee, from the webpage of the Secretary of State:
August 10, 2016 First day to receive requests for by-mail ballots from persons other than military and overseas voters. (November State and Federal General Election)
September 24, 2016 Deadline to mail ballots to military and overseas voters who have filed an application for ballot by this date. (November State and Federal General Election)
October 11, 2016 Voter registration deadline. (November State and Federal General Election)
October 19, 2016 First day vote early in person. (November State and Federal General Election)
November 1, 2016 Deadline for receiving an application for a by-mail ballot. (November State and Federal General Election)
November 3, 2016 Last day to vote early in person. (November State and Federal General Election)
November 8, 2016 ELECTION DAY (November State and Federal General Election)
If you don’t live in Tennessee, your state’s Election Commission or Secretary of State should have these details available online. You can usually check your registration status and view a sample ballot, once it’s ready. In Tennessee at least, the FAQ tackles voter ID requirements–interestingly, if you have an expired driver’s license, it still is acceptable here as voter ID, if it has your name and picture on it. There’s also no requirement for the indigent to have photo ID–how you establish that is not clear to me.
If any of the frontpagers would be interested in posting a compendium of these deadlines, I’d be happy to help with the research.
hovercraft
Bad Tweety is back today, he wants Trump to go back to the Trump who talked about the economy, and staying out of dumb wars, and nationalism. When it’s pointed out that he has no interest in studying policy/briefing books he responds that he just need to say we won’t be pushed around and sound tough like Reagan did. On yesterdays show Tweety pointed out, actually played clips of Trump supporting Iraq, saying to just pull out, no matter what, and saying that Obama should just go in and get rid of Ghadaffi, but I guess that was yesterday, today we’re buying Trump’s “I’m always right about foreign policy”.
SAD !
Mnemosyne
@Hildebrand:
I pretty much guarantee you that just about every sane non-white person in the US is thinking that, and a good proportion of sane white people, too.
At this point, the most reliable voting block in the USA is not old white people — it’s now African-American woman. And I guarantee you that every AA woman of voting age in this entire country is going to drag herself over broken glass to vote for Hillary.
Trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major: Yertle is headed back to minority leader status, so there’s that sweetener.
bluefish
God bless Ron Reagan Jr.
Roger Moore
@gene108:
Nonsense. He cares very much about their two true core issues: tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and hating Those People. As long as he’s strong on those points, they’ll let him be a bit unorthodox on other issues.
lamh36
And? I’d wager other Dems at the time felt the same as Kaine did, …but then the Repubs over-reacted, and as usual overplayed their hand and the witch hunt pissed folks off more
@woodruffbets
Tim Kaine just confirmed our reporting from this AM: that he wanted Bill Clinton to resign over the Lewinsky scandal
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
I composed this for the Bernie voters months ago, and I think we can start singing it to shy Republicans, too:
It even scans well.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: my best recollection of my feelings at the time, I was tired of his dumbfuckery (always having been a bit turned off by the lip-biting and other aspects of his persona that I found grating), but also indignant that Ken Starr had slimed his way from a real estate deal in the Ozarks to sniffing through some girl’s underwear drawer
D58826
@Major Major Major Major: What is going to be interesting is how the GOP handles these FBI documents. They are marked secret. The critters have to review them in a secure room. The FBI has to approve any release to the public. So in theory, even if Hillary has confessed to killing Vince Foster, the GOP can’t use any of it to try and influence the election. After all if you are complaining that Hillary mishandled secure documents how can you leak secure documents and keep a straight face? Yes I know its ok if the goopers do it but would make them bigger fools than they already are (which is part of the job description).
Archon
The problem with the Republican party is that it’s full of Republicans.
Baud
@Jeffro: I see you stopped just before mine. Harrumph.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
I sort of liked the earlier version of Bernie:
I think it sums up the rabid anti-Hillary position pretty well.
Cacti
@gene108:
Same is true of 1930s Germany.
The Nazis never got more than 37% of the seats in any Reichstag election. But they succeeded through organization and a willingness to commit violence against any political, social, or cultural opposition.
rikyrah
Greg SargentVerified account
@ThePlumLineGS
New Q polls:
In Colorado, Clinton up 49-39
In Virginia, Clinton up 50-38
In Iowa, Clinton up 47-44
Baud
We got Montel!
Trollhattan
Anybody nostalgic for two months ago and the Berniebro meltdown can wallow in this extended (like Greenwald-length) whinge on how Obama Let You Down.
Swear to god it’s like Trump and an acidic Republican congress don’t even exist in their precious world.
Barb2
@Calming Influence:
Cult deprograming? Some say that Republicanism is more like a cult belief system rather than a real political party. (An old poly Sci prof said that during a lecture.)
Trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Even Iowa huh? Steve King must be sooo happy.
Major Major Major Major
@D58826: Eh, one of them will probably maliciously leak something on day one and it’ll be met with a collective shrug.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hovercraft: and now he’s interviewing Montel Williams. About presidential politics. I wanted to be fair and check my recollection that his show was what I thought it was
D58826
@Trollhattan: could not get past the first paragraph. Think I’ll do something useful – like get something out of the car in the driving thunderstorm:-)
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: He can if they don’t change the filibuster rules.
Matt McIrvin
@Villago Delenda Est: I think FEMA is too busy FEMAing right now.
rikyrah
Greg SargentVerified account
@ThePlumLineGS
Trump’s campaign shakeup confirms either that Trump is delusional or that he’s trying to destroy GOP:
Anoniminous
I get Trump having a range between 38.5% and 45% of the national vote. He just doesn’t have any appeal outside his core of ignorant and bigoted white people. With these numbers the Senate will flip and GOP House seats with 2012 results of R+5 or less are in play.
If you live in such a House district – I don’t dammitall – it is VERY important to work and GOTV for the Democratic challenger.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: The Dems have already lost their virginity on that. Won’t be an issue.
Cacti
I also have to say with respect to Trump being the GOP nominee…
I never thought I’d live to see the day when the party of Ronald Reagan’s perpetual sainthood would nominate a guy who wants to help a Soviet Union revanchist reconstitute the Warsaw Pact.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
Which side are you arguing for?
rikyrah
Smoking Gun Memo Reveals GOP Voter Fraud Bamboozlement In North Carolina
ByTIERNEY SNEED
PublishedAUGUST 17, 2016, 4:46 PM EDT
On the heels of appeals court ruling that restored a week’s worth of early voting in North Carolina, the executive director of the state’s Republican Party emailed a memo to members of local elections boards urging them to push for “party line changes” that cut back on early voting hours, The News and Observer reported.
The memo, sent by NCGOP executive director Dallas Woodhouse on Sunday, said that Republican board members “should fight with all they have to promote safe and secure voting and for rules that are fair to our side.”
“Our Republican Board members should feel empowered to make legal changes to early voting plans, that are supported by Republicans,” Woodhouse wrote. “Republicans can and should make party line changes to early voting.”
Last month, a panel of judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a 2013 law passed by the state’s Republican legislature that cut back early voting in the state from 17 days to 10 days, ruling that it intended to discriminate against African Americans. Other voting restrictions in the law were struck down as well. The state has asked the Supreme Court to halt parts of the ruling and allow North Carolina to keep its cutbacks to early voting, among other provisions.
The memo came as local election boards are working on schedules for early voting that take into account the appeals court decision. Per the News and Observer:
Woodhouse’s memo warmed that “Democrats are mobilizing for a fight over early voting locations and times.”
TS
@lamh36:
And this is part of Breitbart/Stephen Bannon – the campaign will be fought on Monica and emails. It will be nasty from the right & the speaker of the House and the senior Senator from Arizona will still “support the nominee”. They will sign up with the devil to keep their party in power.
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
The fact of the leak, yes; the contents of the leak will be pored over like the Dead Sea Scrolls- a reasonable comparison, since it will almost certainly be missing large chunks of mysteriously deleted exculpatory material.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@efgoldman: @Major Major Major Major: I wonder if, in that case, the Dems will nuke the filibuster. Reid I think was ready, Schumer I’m not so sure. A lot of the old Bulls (like Biden!) who fetishized the Senate are gone, Leahy may be the last one. I suspect Warren would be for it, a couple of more mealy mouthed types like Bennet? Casey? Nelson?
and yes, I’m aware that we may wish we still had the filibuster before too long. Myself, it’s a chance I’m willing to take. If nothing else, it would force a lot of votes, and the whole McConnell-Grassley strategy on Garland is about sparing people like Ayotte and Kirk a tough vote.
Cacti
@Anoniminous:
Have you seen Sam Wang’s comparison at PEC of where the Clinton/Trump race stands compared to Obama/Romney at the same point?
Trump’s on pace to underperform Romney by about 3.2 points in the popular vote. So about 44% nationally.
D58826
@rikyrah: Why is an ‘or’. Facts fit an ‘and’ just as well
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
I’m trying to present candidate Bernie’s position.
gf120581
@Cacti: I also never thought I’d see the day where John “Torture is totally cool!” Woo sides with the Democrats. But today is that day.
rikyrah
The Daily SignalVerified account
@DailySignal
A cadre of Republican senators has a plan to confirm Merrick Garland if their party fails to take the White House.
Bruuuuce
@efgoldman:
As far as the current “collegial” filibuster, I agree completely. But in terms of the old-fashioned, get up and read the phone book into the record sort, if it matters enough to do it, I can concede its value. But this wussy stuff (including also anonymous holds on appointments and legislation) has got to go.
rikyrah
Noah RothmanVerified account
@NoahCRothman
White supremacists are thrilled, see Bannon’s hire as the culmination of their triumphant takeover of the GOP.
dmsilev
@Trollhattan: Too long; didn’t read. Way way too long.
Punchy
Anyone else notice how grotesquely obnoxious the Nat’l Enquirer has become w/r/t coverage of the Clintons? I know the owner (editor?) is a good friend of Trumps, and that would drive the coverage of HRC negative. But….day’um, it’s horrific and absurd. Seems like each issue attempts to be worse than the previous one. Its…BAD.
Major Major Major Major
@rikyrah: a plan? Lol. “Vote on it” is hardly a plan.
Bruuuuce
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think even Schumer (corporatist though my senior Senator is) will pass a limited nuking of the filibuster if the Senate flips, limited to judicial appointments. It’d be nice if he went further and included all Presidential nominees, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Davebo
@Punchy:
Glad you read Nat’l Enquirer so we don’t have too!
debbie
@rikyrah:
Here’s the link to the piece you’ve cited. Worth it for the comments.
Anoniminous
@Cacti:
Yes. Even linked to it late last night.
hovercraft
@Jeannet:
That’s a beautiful endorsement.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: I am sure you all are tired of hearing me say this, but President Obama should put the turtle on notice that the Garland nomination expires on election eve. They can do their jobs or pay the price .
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
So, just to make sure we all have the roles in mind:
Hillary as Jefferson
Bernie as Hamilton
Trump as Burr
Watch out, thought — there’s a commenter here who’s a Burr revisionist, so he’ll probably kick at Trump in that role. ? (I think it’s Bill E. Pilgrim.)
raven
$93,755 of $100k goal to Denham Pet Rescue.
Jeffro
@Baud: oh stop you had me at comment number two …
I can barely keep up as it is – Junior keeps nagging me to help him with his birthday Lego set, and the Olympics are blaring in the background .
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: at first skim I read “suck their thumbs in reaganism.”
rikyrah
Lee Valentine Smith
@leevsmith
And there goes the last remaining 1%. Idiot Trump aide just said there is an ‘African American problem’ in the US
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@dmsilev:
I am trying to picture someone who stroked out from the stress of an intertubes arguement as a hero and just can’t
Gravenstone
@Major Major Major Major: In a Democratically controlled Senate, the extended Nuclear Option is Day One, Act One, Scene One. Turtle will whinge and moan and stomp his little feets, but he’ll be neutered.
hovercraft
@Villago Delenda Est:
His biggest failure as a president.
SAD !
rikyrah
LeBron James Upsets White Fans After Praising Black Olympic Athletes
Many people said that James should be praising all athletes, not just the black ones.
Posted: August 17, 2016
Earlier this week, Cameron Newton made headlines when he made comments that the criticism he’s received as a quarterback haven’t been about race. He also went on to say that we’re beyond racism in the United States, much to the ire of many of his black fans.
But once again, his theory has been disputed—this time, courtesy of LeBron James’ recent praise of Olympic athletes Simone Biles and Simone Manuel.
James posted a congratulatory post to his Instagram and Facebook accounts that got some white people riled up:
FlipYrWhig
@hovercraft:
So, Chris Matthews wants a candidate who talks loudly about the things Chris Matthews cares about now?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@FlipYrWhig: and mostly doesn’t understand
FlipYrWhig
@rikyrah: ALL OLYMPIANS MATTER!
Christ, what a bunch of babies.
FlipYrWhig
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, that’s a given, insofar as Chris Matthews doesn’t understand most things.
Emma
@Mnemosyne: Hey! No, no, no. Burr may have shot Hamilton, but he was fundamentally as decent a man as any of the Founding Fathers. Trump doesn’t fit any of the roles. Even Benedict Arnold was a better man.
rikyrah
Billionaire father and daughter linked to Trump shake-up
By Jonathan Swan – 08/17/16 04:37 PM EDT
Donald Trump’s dramatic staff shake-up on Wednesday revealed the growing influence wielded on his campaign by a Republican mega-donor duo.
The fingerprints of Robert Mercer, a New York hedge fund billionaire, and his middle daughter, Rebekah, can be seen all over the new Trump staffing appointments and other decisions being made by the GOP presidential nominee.
The Mercers, who previously put $13.5 million into a super-PAC supporting Ted Cruz’s bid against Trump, have recently converted the group into the Defeat Crooked Hillary PAC, targeting Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Robert Mercer has reportedly made a “substantial” additional investment of at least $1 million in the new super-PAC, which has already spent $500,000 on digital ads attacking Clinton in eight battleground states. Additionally, he and particularly Rebekah have become influential figures in Trump World in the past few months.
Rebekah Mercer “lives in a beautiful apartment in one of Trump’s buildings on the Upper West Side [of New York City] overlooking the Hudson River,” a source who knows her told The Hill.
A Heritage Foundation trustee and director of the Mercer Family Foundation, Rebekah takes the lead on the details of the Mercers’ political operation, while her father provides the funds.
She’s known as a hands-on operator who won’t open up the Mercer checkbook without strict conditions about which vendors are used and which consultants are hired.
Now loyal to Trump, the Mercers were furious when Cruz didn’t endorse the nominee at the Republican National Convention last month. And because they are among the few mega-donors to get fully behind Trump, they now increasingly have his ear.
Stephen Bannon, the Trump campaign’s newly appointed CEO is “tied at the hip” with Rebekah Mercer, said a source who has worked with the Mercers in their political activities.
mike in dc
The thought that a Breitbart/alt-Right coalition could have even a 1% chance of running the country fucking terrifies me. Can we work hard to reduce that probability to zero in time for election day?
Emma
@rikyrah: Christ have mercy! Words fail.
Truegster
Superb writing and historical connections on this post by Anne Laurie, one of my faves. 2¢
Gravenstone
@rikyrah: Sounds like someone is trying to break himself a political party. So he can buy it dirt cheap in the “dents and remainders” sale come December.
rikyrah
Dominique Moceanu @Dmoceanu Aug 16
@Simone_Biles is now the most decorated American gymnast of all time w/ a combined medal count of World & Olympic medals at 19!
FlipYrWhig
@rikyrah: Remember when Donald Trump was said to be “running to the left” because he said something about hedge fund wealth and higher tax rates for same? Guess that’s slimy water under the crumbling bridge now.
MomSense
@Baud:
I’ll drink to that.
Mnemosyne
@Emma:
There are no true villains in the play (partly because LMM cut that asshole Monroe out of the story), but Trump and Burr are both one-syllable names, so his name fits nicely into many of the lyrics where Burr’s name appears.
I’m hoping that the rumor is true and LMM’s episode of “Drunk History” includes the Monroe takedown from the Chernow book. If it does, IT. IS. EPIC.
Emma
@Mnemosyne: Yes, but I have a soft spot for Burr. Especially since the play! The poor guy doesn’t deserve the association. :-)
Bupalos
Exellent post Ms. Laurie. Dare I say Cracker-worthy?
I dare.
hovercraft
@Punchy:
We were all crowing about the powerful surrogates that Hillary has for this Falls campaign: Obama, Michelle, Biden, Warren, and basically the entirety of the democratic establishment.
Trump has now shown us his equally powerful team:
National Enquirer, Roger Stone, Cohen, Breitbart, Kelly Ann, Palin, Alex Jones, the list of all stars is endless.
Game on people, this is going to be really really ugly.
Jeffro
@mike in dc: could we all go with “dolt-Right”? I’m kind of proud of that one from earlier today
gogol's wife
@aimai:
That is one of the most brutal lines Brackett and Wilder ever wrote.
gogol's wife
@Roger Moore:
hahaha Oktiabr’!!!!
Major Major Major Major
@Bupalos: yum, crackers. I wish I were cracker worthy. Then somebody would have given me crackers.
Skippy-san
Whenever I think of the Trump campaign , I think of the song “This Jesus must die”from Jesus Christ Superstar.
“Fools! You have no perception, the stakes we are gambling are frighteningly high. We must crush him completely”.
Bupalos
@Major Major Major Major: gots to change your nym to Polly Polly Polly Polly.
mike in dc
@Jeffro:
That is pretty good. Alt-Wrong and Alt-Reality would also work.
JanieM
@rikyrah: OMFJ what is wrong with these people. (Rhetorical question.)
gogol's wife
@Baud:
lol
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@rikyrah: ROFL megalomaniacs with deep pockets trying to buy a Democracy. what could possibly go wrong? I mean beyond that for some reason being a spoiled brat doesn’t seem to inspire people to cooperate with you. One theme I am noticing is Trump and the rest of them have no clue how to deal with people and get them to cooperate who isn’t some employee.
Likely idiots like Mss Silver Spoon is why the GoP will never really die. The combination of money and stupidity is just to much for the grifters and conmen to pass up.
MomSense
@Jeannet:
I’ve loved him my whole life. Took classes with him many years ago and he was even more wonderful in person. That video endorsement is from the heart. Thank you so much for sharing it.
gogol's wife
@rikyrah:
Those assholes!
I like Garland, but I hate those people with the fire of a thousand suns.
bluefish
@efgoldman: He lost his shizzle in the most excellent way all over Boris E from Camp Trump on Tweety’s hysteria hour this evening. And talked all over Matthews in the most rousing way. It felt great to watch him sneeze. And I like him.
Major Major Major Major
@mike in dc: I just call them Nazis who know how the internet works. But I’ll admit that’s less catchy.
Brachiator
Nobody knows nothing. Not Trump. Not his new advisors. Not the GOP grandees.
Trump had a surprisingly successful opening game. But he’s got no middle game or any sense of an end game. He always blusters and smarms his way into a deal, but gets in over his head and has to improvise the shit out of the mess he makes. Same thing is happening in the political arena.
I don’t know whether these new people can help save him. But Trump’s ego, and his huge core of insecurity will not accept being seen as a failure. The presidential race is almost secondary to his ego needs.
And the GOP is stuck with him. I can’t watch; but I can’t turn away.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@D58826: What are you talking about? The ReThugs will be leaking the fuck out of those documents, cherry-picking the hell out of them. The best thing Clinton can hope for is a public release of all the investigation’s files. If not, the micro-parsing will be exhausting.
The Czar of All the Stupids
Apart from the Clinton reference, it also sounds suspiciously like the Nuremberg Strategy, circa 1936…
Turgidson
@TS:
All that matters to Paul Ryan is realizing his lifelong dream of bashing the welfare state into pieces small enough for his wealthy benefactors to then steal. He doesn’t give two shits whether the person signing those bills into law is a racist vulgarian who might unleash a nuclear holocaust over an unflattering tweet. As long as he has a working signing hand to gut Medicare, Paul Ryan is happy as a clam.
Dmbeaster
@Major Major Major Major: Tell your friend you will still get him a purity pony for Xmas if he votes Hillary
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
That’s So Raven.
Jeffro
@efgoldman: that’s true so why not have a Obama make them pay for it ? He can say it was his nomination and effective election day there will be a president elect so she can make the nominations .
Glennis
@Major Major Major Major:
Yes, and so did Andrew Breitbart. That’s why he’s dead.
M. Bouffant
@Calming Influence: Not much “re” in the kinds of camps they need to attend; they’d have to have been educated in the first place to be re-educated.
oklahomo
@aarrgghh: It’s grifters, all the way down.
Uncle Cosmo
@Jeffro: Pas mal, as they say in the land of pommes frites. I favor “alt-Reich” myself, inasmuch as it’s also a pun auf deutsch, but different strokes…
Uncle Cosmo
@Bupalos: That would make him a poly-Polly, n’est-ce pas?