This is Trump's Hail Mary play https://t.co/EwtyLE975m
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 17, 2016
A hail mary implies you are only down by one touchdown. The Breitbart gambit is Trump swapping his beaten, demoralized starting line with some third stringers who are desperate for game time and nobody cares if they get hurt. Steve Bannon will realize soon that ‘running’ the Trump campaign just makes you the scapegoat-in-waiting for an oaf who would dodge responsibility for a fart in a room with two people in it.
A hail mary would be to hire Roger Ailes. Call him tainted but the man knows how to win. Hiring schmucks who kiss his ass all day represents the moment when, as Republican businessman and Greg Abbott backer Clayton Williams once put it, Trump decides he might as well lean back and enjoy it.
Trentrunner
Wake me up when Trump announces he’s hired James Baker and Karl Rove. Then I’ll be worried.
But for now, I’m just having a truckload of popcorn delivered, because this shit is going to be entertaining (except for all the mainstreaming of hate).
Keith P.
Problem for Trump now is he’s got leftover Lewandowski-ites there trying to shiv Manafort, and you’ve got Manafort folks now ready to shiv Bannon. This is truly amateur hour.
The Other Chuck
The man knows how to settle lawsuits you mean. Thing is, POTUS contests go all the way. There’s not enough curtain for the Wizard of Shit to hide behind this time.
Pangloss
By the end of this election, Trump’s staff will be wearing togas.
schrodinger's cat
It is possible that Trump is deluded and thinks that his bubble represents the entire country.
Chris
@Trentrunner:
This campaign is almost making me wish I ate popcorn.
MattF
@Pangloss: By the end of this election, Trump’s staff will be horses wearing togas.
p.a.
Trump: can you believe the shit i have to do to get elected.?
Putin: (eating blini) mmmphf
Trump: what’s your secret?
Putin: (swallows, drinks) bullets, bad brake lines, poison.
Trump: mmmphf
scav
Because if there’s anything, one single thing that describes the mythic titans of business management, it’s knowing how to hire the stellar staff to handle all the things. Team building.
RSR
Just wait until the rosters expand on Sept 1. We should see all sorts of players not quite ready for the show.
The Other Chuck
@MattF: Actually, I think they’ll just be togas, with no people in them. Hung up on poles, maybe some on mannequins, Trump furiously pacing about his abandoned offices, sawing his tiny hands through the air as he screams at the (literally) empty suits, the spittle and his ungroomed combover flying out in all directions…
bystander
@Pangloss:
I was thinking Trump’s staff will have been pleasured by Lewandowski, Manafort and Bannon. A toga might get in the way.
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat: Bingo. And thanks to this election, we’ll get the opportunity to find out just how large the white nationalist bubble is. This will be useful information.
Just One More Canuck
This isn’t a Hail Mary – it’s garbage time – Wottsamatta U is down by seven touchdowns in the third quarter and brings in their scrubs to get some experience, or in this case, get in on the grift
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Mike Pence must be pretty dumb to have taken the VP job. I mean, here’s how that goes down…Trump puts him in charge of everything and then Trump’s response to anything Pence decides that proves unpopular, inconvenient, or incompetent will be to call him stupid and say that’s not what he, Trump, wanted done. Not that Trump will win anyway, but if he did that’s how it would go down. Pence gets all the responsibility and stress and then gets to be the scapegoat too.
dmsilev
I thought he did bring Ailes on. Maybe not as a paid guy, but hell, Roger just got a few tens of millions of dollars of go-away-please money from Fox.
NorthLeft12
Please, enough with the tired sports analogies NYT. Its times like this that I am thankful that I have used my five NYT freebies and can’t read anymore of their shite.
Also; Media Firebrand = Slanderous and Stupid Jerk in this case.
BTW, Trump is an ignorant and bigoted loser.
The Other Chuck
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I’ll take “Cosmic Truths” for $200, Alex.
cleek
no, it’s not a Hail Mary. it’s the next step in putting together the elements of what will become Trump Media.
germy
Anyone want to bet on what the NY Daily News headline will be on November 9, 2016?
Will it be “You’re Fired”? That’s what I’m guessing, but maybe they’ll be more creative.
germy
@cleek: Joining “The Blaze” as the Voice of the People?
The Other Chuck
@cleek: On the bright side, Trump Media would be another Trump property, which means it’ll fold within a couple years. His only advertisers will be other Trump brands.
bystander
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: OTOH, maybe old Mike knew Trump was a loser and could see he’d end up looking like the anchor, the rock who bore the party’s onus of an anus. Then open up the grifting taps!
germy
@bystander: Dorothy Parker once called Alexander Woollcott a “New Jersey Nero who mistakes his pinafore for a toga” What would she be saying nowadays, I wonder?
mdblanche
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: It still beats trying to get reelected in Indiana.
schrodinger's cat
@cleek: It is the evolution of the Republican party as an off-shoot of hate media. A process that gained momentum with Palin’s VP nod, Trump is the conclusion of that metamorphosis.
Pangloss
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: It’s called “outsourcing,” a practice Trump is quite familiar with.
Gemina13
@bystander:
I don’t know about being pleasured, but they’ll definitely have been fucked.
And Ailes has brought in as an advisor. That should add a touch of “Downfall” from now until the Trumpenbunker falls on November 9th.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: Yes hatebots seem to think that they are representative of the entire population. I have observed that phenomena among Prime Minister Modi’s most sycophantic followers among my Indian acquaintances/friends etc. They no longer include me in their group texts because I call them out on their BS.
germy
@schrodinger’s cat:
We know that Judge Thomas listens to Limbaugh every day. Scalia wondered from the bench about a broccoli mandate, which was right from talk radio. We’ve seen GOP congressmen quote fox news talking points. Eventually they’ll tear down the firewall and nominate Hannity for president, or someone like him…
peach flavored shampoo
@germy: If only. I suspect it’ll be a much more somber, “Riots and shootings break out all across the South; minorities targeting in rampage”
germy
@peach flavored shampoo: I hope they restrict their protests to “typing furiously”
catclub
LGM is taking a much more serious view of the switch.
1. Trump getting his news from RT and spouting its Russian leaning propaganda
2. White nationalists.
3. Concern that police always have a bias for right wing thugs versus leftwing demonstrators/ activists.
Examples from Cleveland convention.
I am hoping for continuing disorganization of the white nationalists.
Matt McIrvin
@germy: You can’t fire somebody you never hired in the first place.
Pangloss
I love those Trump board room photos. “Everybody ready? Let’s play ‘Really Serious Business'”!!
Kay
I didn’t follow the Breitbart saga, but is everyone SURE they’ll be bad at this? I would like to think we’re sure, but I don’t know anything about these people. Are they clearly nuts or just mostly nuts?
Roger Moore
@Trentrunner:
I’d be a lot more worried if I thought there were a chance he’d listen to them. Listening to advice is not Trump’s forte.
Bex
Speaking of hail marys, does anyone remember TBogg’s Andrew Breitbart image contest after B’s demise? The winner was an image of Breitbart’s face on a piece of burnt toast. Hmmmm, burnt toast. Great metaphor for Trump’s campaign.
catclub
@Kay: When Ben Shapiro leaves Breitbart because it is too crazy for him. Wow. Just wow.
Jeffro
@schrodinger’s cat:
I’ll be interested – morbidly fascinated is a better way to put it – to see when Cruz makes his first explicit pitch to the Trumpistas. Nov 9th maybe? “Donald betrayed you and your values by running an amateurish campaign, one that was all about himself…I will listen, I will work to unite this party, I will work to make sure its leaders hear directly from you, the people…and next time it won’t be about Donald Trump…it won’t be about me…it’ll be about you”
MattF
@Kay: I don’t think that’s the issue here, although their awfulness has managed to repel a lot of really awful people. Bannon et. al. think that ‘up close and personal’ with Trump is the true answer, but I think it’s the underlying problem.
Roger Moore
@Pangloss:
They may be wearing white bed sheets, but they won’t be going for a toga wrap, IYKWIMAITYD.
schrodinger's cat
@Jeffro: Cruz is not likeable but a smooth talking and a polished bigot could go far. I don’t see any one like that on the horizon right now. You know, compassionate conservative 2.0.
MattF
@Jeffro: Remember those arguments about whether Cruz or Trump was worse? I expect a replay.
Peale
@Kay: They want more nationalism and bigger rallies. I don’t think its a matter of being “successful.” Trump never really pivoted in his behavior, so this change does nothing. It just gets people talking about how he doesn’t change. But he’ll be the same as he was before.
They could be very successful at holding big rallies and saying that the US in Number One! Let’s get rid of those criminals who are ruining it! But it isn’t going to be effective in producing results.
amk
@Trentrunner: Well, rude rudy has already declared it’s basically a jim baker hire. So, there is that.
MattF
@amk: Yeah, but Rudy has a head injury.
amk
@MattF: sorry, togas have already been reserved for granny starver, mcturtle and the rest of the gopee establishment.
Peale
@Jeffro: “I will listen”. Oh, Jesus. No one in their right mind talks to Ted Cruz. He’s the type of guy who is contantly “listening” to figure out those points where he can push buttons to emotionally scar you for life if you try to dump him, but since it’s obvious from his smirk that he’s doing it, you know in 3 minutes to shut up.
amk
@MattF: As is, the rest of scampaign don’t ?
Waldo
Kinda makes sense if, instead of a football, you imagine Trump hurling a molotov cocktail to his teammates.
EuniceCycle
@Jeffro: Gah, I can actually hear that “quote” in Cruz’s nasally, whiny voice.
trollhattan
They invented the term Fail Mary for exactly these scenarios. Trump, trailing by eight, throws interception in the end zone run back 101 yards.
amk
why, because he is a dinosaur who won eons ago?
New century, new game.
NickM
@The Other Chuck: I don’t know, a Trump Network could be advertising gold. The audience is self-selected to be gullible and a new viewer is born every minute. Could there be a better place to peddle snake oil?
Betty Cracker
@Kay: The Breitbart peeps are barking mad. Joy Reid had a great segment on them last night when she was subbing for Chris Hayes. Here’s a sample of Breitbart headlines she put up:
Nuts, right? But the Trump scampaign surrogate Reid masterfully grilled in that segment was giving the spin we can expect to see going forward: Trump/Breitbart is anti-establishment against both the right and left and Hillary Clinton is History’s Greatest Monster. I think the entire strategy will be to slime Clinton and “the establishment” 24/7 and hope that’s enough to put Trump over the top.
I don’t think it will work because Trump is such an odious, unlikable, incompetent candidate. But they aren’t giving up, IMO. They will try to drag HRC down to Trump’s level and hope there’s enough anti-establishment sentiment to make a race of it.
Frankensteinbeck
@Betty Cracker:
I’m pretty sure the answer will be ‘larger than all other groups of whites wanted to believe, but not large enough to win without the racist-in-denial group.’
@cleek:
It’s an interesting theory, but Trump is so undisciplined, it’s hard to credit that kind of planning. Even if that is his goal, he’s doing a clumsy job of it due to narcissistic laziness. I think the odds he’ll hear the theory from others and go ‘Great idea!’ are reasonable.
catclub
@Peale: The amazing thing is that Trump’s last three weeks: battle with the Khans, calling Obama founder of ISIS, 2nd amendment people, is considered too constrained and not sufficiently populist/crazy for Trump. The new crowd wants to triple Guantanamo!
montanareddog
@germy:
That’ll make Pence happy. He’ll now have 2 people ahead of him (Palin being the other) on the dumbest fucks on a recent Republican presidential ticket listicle
catclub
@NickM:
But generally has to be aged about 60 years before ripeness.
MattF
@catclub: I guess there’s some list of things the ‘new crowd’ wants wrt policy… but I thing the main thing is that they’re visibly and proudly crazy.
RepubAnon
@Kay: For a sports analogy, I view Trump’s Breitbart shift in terms of sailboat racing, where tacking away from the crowd when you’re behind can be a winning tactic if there’s an unexpected wind shift and the lead boats all get becalmed.
Trump knows that he won the primaries because he appealed to the talk radio / Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. “Pivoting to the center” would anger these folks, losing votes for Trump… and he’d probably not have any offsetting gains.
Condemnations from the Republican elites probably help Trump more than hurt him – it merely reinforces the Trump anti-politician, anti-DC-insider Brand. The question becomes whether the right-wingnut, rude-boy, screamer wing of the Republican Party is enough to win in the general election.
This gets us back to the “tack away from the fleet” option: If some October-Surprise level event occurs, Trump’s brand of the anti-politician might be enough to win, especially with the voter suppression tactics the Republicans have implemented. If not, The Donald will claim that Hillary deflated the footballs, and otherwise cheated her way to victory. I expect the next Republican candidate will be a charismatic fundamentalist preacher in the mold of Heinlein’s Nehemiah Scudder
catclub
@Betty Cracker:
77% want change/shakeup, but even a majority of them think Trump will make things worse. I think that number can grow.
That is actually a pitifully small number ( mere majority), since people should realize that there is always a good chance that radical change will be worse, no matter who is managing it.
mapaghimagsik
@srv:
If Bill was running, that would be interesting.
Or does Hillary own that mistake too?
shomi
@Trentrunner: Why? Karl “Romney can still win Ohio” Rove was useless in 2012 despite collecting millions of dollars in consulting fees.
Bruce K
I’d personally frame it more like a two-minute drill … when they’re down by 15. As in: they’ve got to have not just a flawlessly executed game plan, but the right flawlessly executed game plan, plus serious luck, plus critical errors made by the other team. All of which could happen, but … well, has a football team ever scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion, recovered the on-side kick, and then scored another touchdown and two-point conversion, all after the two-minute warning?
catclub
@schrodinger’s cat:
He campaigned this week in Connecticut.
craigie
@srv: Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are actually different people. I know that’s hard for some people to grasp.
catclub
@shomi: Rove has some serious wins. Bannon has never run a campaign, and Trump calls him a winner.
Actually, was Bannon involved in Nehlen being clobbered by Paul Ryan by 75-25?
different-church-lady
Nope, you’re all missing the right sports analogy: this is early in the third period, down by three goals, and you send the goon onto the ice to start a fight in a desperate attempt to fire up your players.
different-church-lady
@catclub:
In an attempt to target blacks, no less.
Mike E
@mapaghimagsik: srv blew the link for “loyalty”… Ed Rendell cannot shut the fuck up
danielx
@scav:
Names. We want names.
Steppy
@germy: (20) I have to believe that “schlonged” will feature prominently.
Woodrowfan
Breitbart has reused old Nazi cartoons. I mean that literally. They took anti-Jewish cartoons from Nazi Germany and reused them.
http://gawker.com/5868847/breitbart-should-probably-stop-posting-nazi-era-anti-semitic-cartoon-to-his-site
amk
@srv: So? Idiot.
different-church-lady
@different-church-lady: actually even that’s not quite right — the goon is also there to try to bait the leading team into taking dumb penalties and rattle their play.
Gindy51
@The Other Chuck: How dumb is Mike Pence? He’s so dumb the state ID goes up 10 points when he leaves.
different-church-lady
@Gindy51: pssst: IQ
hovercraft
@schrodinger’s cat:
According to both Robert Costa and Katy Turr, he is going through the Bernie phenomena, he has large enthusiastic crowds, while Hillary has small boring rallies, ipso facto he is winning. He is on the front pages and at the top of every news show so he is winning. Every one told him he was doing it wrong in the primaries and yet he won, so all the naysayers now are wrong too. This is how he has made his billions or more likely millions, and so why should he listen to these losers who aren’t as successful as him. Most of the people trying to give him advice were affiliated with losing campaigns or a ‘loser’ administration, so why the hell should he listen to them. He’s Trump, the biglliest winner ever in the republican party history.
burnspbesq
@Bruce K:
They would also need a horrifically bad call to go their way at the most advantageous moment, a la last year’s Duke – Miami game.
mapaghimagsik
@Mike E:
Christ, what an asshole
Joyce H
@Betty Cracker:
I saw that and while I liked it, I had one complaint. Reid and the panel talked about the ‘alt-right’ but never defined what that means. I’m sure there are plenty of people who watch MSNBC but aren’t very conversant with the internet and don’t understand the truly unsavory aspects of the ‘alt-right’. I think for a while at least when television talking heads discuss the alt-right, they need to start with a definition, so that their viewers understand we’re talking about racists, neo-nazis, skinheads, conspiracists and anti-government militia types.
Something else that’s been bugging me lately. Whenever the topic of candidates’ health comes up, the only thing the media seems to do about that ridiculous Trump ‘doctor certificate’ is to point and laugh. Someone needs to do some actual investigative journalism on that silly thing because it’s so obviously bogus. And why would the Trump organization go to the trouble to phony up a doctor cert, when it would be so much easier to get a real one? Unless they couldn’t? Unless they’re hiding something?
piratedan
well, in this case, I think trying to frame the picture is like trying to catch a clean snapshot from a moving train….
we have the “mainstream” GOP (also known as the 1% lackey brigade) attempting to wrangle Trump and his message, which contains Ryan and McConnell and Priebus as riders of the tiger that they no longer control. They’re having to eat this shit sandwich that they constructed while trying not to be associated as the chefs in the kitchen.
Then there’s the media juggernaut that has to sell this to generate eyeballs and clickbait in order to maintain their revenue model. Hell, there’s even two media factions… those that are “above it” and are just the water carriers and stenographers of the message and they’re the ones alternately passing this off as if they’re Kevin Bacon’s character Chip in Animal House, screaming “ALL IS WELL” while the town goes into riot mode and then turning around and counting clicks as outraged Dems are trying to keep up with the outrage du juor and the red meat brigade consumes their daily portion of red meat. Then there are the daily media grifters wonder if/how the gravy train of coverage will ever end and hope that this model has legs outside of the election.
Into the mix we have the rejuvenated alt-right/racist know nothings who’ve been kind enough to share with us what life is like inside their bubble, where everyone is an enemy of the state, even the state itself.
Woodrowfan
@different-church-lady: no, he’s right. The number of people who admit to being from Indiana goes up 10% when Pence leaves the state.
redshirt
@Frankensteinbeck: I can totally buy it. Essentially he’s taking his “Apprentice” show and turning it into a Presidential campaign which will then morph into a right wing media platform, the sole purpose of which is to fleece the rubes.
Given that the niche market of appealing to wingnuts seems profitable, this will probably work out for him. And for us. None of his other brands will survive this campaign.
danielx
@different-church-lady:
There’ll be no more foolish and wasted outreach efforts like that while Stephen Bannon is running the effort, by gawd you betcha. I confidently await the appearance of Make America Great Again armbands within a fortnight.
Shell
So, if they launch even more unhinged attacks against Hillary than Trumps been lobbing, how is this a winning strategy?
MomSense
Not sure if this subject has come up here or not but apparently house Repubs in their zeal to pre-impeach Clinton over her emails and public statements released selectively edited portions of her FBI interview. Said FBI interview was classified. Oops. Sort of proves what we figured out a long time ago. They do not care about diplomatic security or the handling of classified material. This isn’t the first time one of these House bozos has released classified information. Wonder what happens now.
burnspbesq
Trump needs his own Nigel de Jong to break a few legs.
Woodrowfan
alas, Trump forgot that while they can edit out his mistakes on The Apprentice, they can’t do that on the campaign trail.
Gindy51
@different-church-lady: autocorrect and edit does not work for me.
danielx
@Woodrowfan:
That’s true, although he’s not as dumb as portrayed. I have heard that his scratchpads are an inch wide, in keeping with his thinking. I believe the rumor about his nickname among his staff being “Legume” is untrue.
Betty Cracker
@Joyce H: Great points.
dmsilev
@MomSense: Did they actually release parts of the interviews? I know the FBI was going to turn the transcripts over to the House lunatics, but that was the last I heard.
Joel
Polling and scores are not analogous. The difference is pretty simple. In sports, you have a precise understanding of the situation (the score, the game time/inning, who is on offense/defense) but with a wide range of potential outcomes. This is why you can have events like the Music City Miracle. The uncertainty in sports outcomes have to do with the occurrence of improbable events.
Truly rare events don’t occur very often in democratic politics. Sure, there have been broad swings in opinion (particularly in past elections) during presidential races, but even then they generally fit within a defined framework of a 65/35 (at most) split in the electorate, one way or another. The uncertainty comes from the measurement itself (i.e. polling). It’s like if you were watching a baseball game and knew that it’s the sixth inning and the home team has 9-12 runs and the visitors have 5-7.
montanareddog
@Joyce H: @Joyce H:
.
The ED pills script, no doubt
The Other Chuck
@Joyce H:
Someone has. Not the least problem with it is that the doctor who wrote it has himself come down with the medical affliction of having been dead for six years.
Mike J
Women’s 470 medal race about to start. US 1 pt back from bronze.
Miss Bianca
@MomSense:
Nothing, of course. They’re Republicans.
? Martin
I think the argument that this is the ultimate wingnut welfare play for Trump makes more sense. Trump isn’t looking to be the next Obama, he’s looking to be the next Rupert Murdoch. Ailes is out at Fox. Trump is running a pure media strategy that is based around the already very successful grift of conservatives by various other media outlets. Brietbart is now officially on board.
Trump may lose the election but if he can build a following of 30% of the electorate and turn them into an audience, then he’s just built the next Fox News overnight and he got his competition to give him free advertising of it. How much of those campaign contributions can be used to build the infrastructure needed? Instead of converting that into OFA, you convert it into an alt-right media outlet. 30% is a shitty presidential result, but its a ratings grand slam. That’s like drawing the World Series every day.
hovercraft
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
He was known as one of the dumbest people in congress for a reason. Plus he was in danger of losing his re-election bid in Indiana. His f**k up last year with the Religious Restoration Bill had made him very unpopular. For him this was an actual hail Mary.
Lizzy L
@MomSense: Clinton rules apply. Anything that would be wrong if a Clinton did it is not wrong when a Republican does it.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@Chris: Raisinets?
Mike E
He’s looking for an Earl Weaver 3-run home run: a blip, a bloop, and a bomb… tho this analogy is prolly wrong because it’s literally what the Trump campaign is looking for, especially the bomb part
amk
@MomSense: This is the party of treasonous thugs who collectively wrote to their own sworn enemy calling on them to kneecap their president and caught zero flak for their treason from the corrupt media.
hovercraft
@cleek:
Well they do have an ace up their sleeve, I hear Roger has a lot of time on his hands these days. And even if he has a non compete clause in his severance package, no one can stop him from giving an old friend some helpful tips gratis. Since FOX has sold out and become part of the liberal media, there is an opening out there, Alex Jones, InfoWars and the Blaze don’t have a far enough reach. Trump and Ailes together could create the biggest most successful empire ever in the history of the world.
catclub
Just amazing: at plum line.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Thanks. I listen to Glen Beck when I’m driving and that’s his thing now – no one is a “constitutionalist”. We need a “constitution party” except I think there is already a “constitution party” – an actual named Party.
He’s anti-Trump though.
So it’s like crazier Glen Beck, or Glen Beck with more added Donald Trump.
catclub
One hopes this ends badly:
Cat48
NYT has a new story up that says Trump is losing his white men. That’s why he has bad polls. I’m glad I don’t work for the bastard. Heh.
Villago Delenda Est
@catclub: The new crowd wants to open up an Auschwitz for Mezzkins.
catclub
@hovercraft: I bet that if Roger Ailes is not constrained by a non-compete clause, Murdoch should sue his lawyers for incompetence.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: I keep worrying that 65-70% of white Americans are crypto-racists of the type who can be provoked to go full white-sheet-murderous if the social taboos are lifted and somebody finds just the right prod.
Certainly I know some of those people. But if it’s really that many, could Barack Hussein Obama have gotten elected President twice? Even against opponents who weren’t willing to go the full white sheet? That’s the counterargument.
Chyron HR
@Cat48:
Sez who?
Jeffro
@EuniceCycle:
My apologies, truly. While I detest Cruz, somehow it’s not hard to figure out about how he would phrase such a pitch.
gene108
@schrodinger’s cat:
To Bush, Jr.’s (Mr. Compassionate Conservative v. 1.0) credit he tried to make the Republican Party inclusive. Many firsts for women and minorities holding Cabinet positions occurred during his Presidency.
Actual Compassionate Conservatism is not rooted in bigotry. It is rooted in crony capitalism and reckless tax cuts that disproportionately favor the wealthy, plus some milquetoast attempts at outreach to the poor that sound O.K. on paper, but are not nearly as effective as government programs, such as “faith based initiatives”.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I love your comments because you’re so cautious.
I feel like you’re hard to persuade that she’s winning which is good! :)
This is what interests me about this whole thing:
Without Ohio and Florida.
So Democrats could kind of slot in VA and CO in future races and make OH and FL less crucial? That’s a big change. Republicans will have to say “we can only compete in states where less than 25% of white adults have a college degree”? Wow.
Patricia Kayden
@schrodinger’s cat: Trump and his supporters are in a very large Rightwing bubble where Trump is going to win because of his huge rallies and the number of his twitter followers and Facebook likes.
They are highly delusional and dangerous at the same time because losing won’t get them out of their bubble. Of course, Trump will walk away from losing just fine.
Jeffro
@Lizzy L:
Anything that would be DIABOLICAL!!1!! for a Clinton to do – right, wrong, or indifferent (like breathing) is still Horrible! if a Democrat does it and is Perfectly Fine :) if a Republican does it.
hovercraft
Those pesky Trump surrogates just can’t help themselves.
From Steve Benen
schrodinger's cat
@Matt McIrvin: You need better friends.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: If you can stomach it, you can take a peak at their website and see for yourself. It’s now an alt-right website promoting sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, racism, and even anti-semitism. I cannot imagine that what is peddled at Breitbart.com will be appealing to the majority of Americans. It certainly won’t fly among minority groups.
I don’t see how having people from an alt-right website run your campaign when you are already doing poorly with key demographic groups is going to be a plus. It’s as if Trump is saying “To hell with it. Let me lose my way.”
Betty Cracker
@catclub: If Patrick Murphy (the likely Dem opponent after the primary is held at the end of this month) has any sense, he’ll club Rubio with that 24/7. And also harp on Rubio’s awful attendance record as a senator. I think we have a good shot at picking Rubio off if we play our cards right.
Hoodie
@cleek: @? Martin: That may be Trump’s play but, for the Lycans drawn to his campaign, it could be the embryo of a significant white nationalist party along the lines of UKIP and FN, one that could eventually gain Congressional seats in places like the deep south. Hillary may be able to unite rational money interests and the left under the Democratic Party, but there will always be a danger of a split that could empower the white nationalists. The UKIP, while a minority, was able to push Brexit through by scaring Cameron into allowing the referendum, and the failure of Labour and moderate Tories to unite on the issue didn’t help, either.
hovercraft
@Cat48:
But Kelly Ann told me that Hillary has a ‘man problem’ just yesterday. True a democrat has not won the white male vote since LBJ ( sorry Raven), but Hillary is not winning that gender gap so she’s in trouble. The media is biased because they are not reporting this huge deficit that exists. I get so confused, didn’t she also say just yesterday that the important thing for Trump to do was to focus on Hillary and not bitch about the media and the voters?
schrodinger's cat
@gene108: I agree. I still remember W going to a mosque in DC immediately after 9/11. Quite a far cry from the Muslim ban proposed by the current nominee.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
Well, it just gets narrower and narrower. They already lost most people who aren’t white. Now they’re down to paring down white people into levels of education and gender. This is not an addition process! They have to ADD. :)
What if the Trump electorate is “white people in those states where fewer than 25% of people have a college degree?” Oh, and mostly men. They’re knocking out a lot of voters.
gogol's wife
@The Other Chuck:
Wow. Why haven’t I seen this in the NYTimes?
MattF
@Cat48: Here’s an excerpt:
Mike J
@Hoodie:
There was no indication that Corbyn was against it.
The Czar of All the Stupids
Hell… Drumpf would dodge responsibility if he were the ONLY person in that room…
different-church-lady
@Patricia Kayden:
Hey, it almost worked for Bernie!
Stan
Trump just pulled two ball bearings out of his pocket and he’s juggling them in his hand now……
Cat48
@Chyron HR:
See @MattF above, heh
One thing Trump’s could try is to drive Hillary’s approvals down so he could win with only 40%. She seems to be doing better on approvals. That’s why Hannity is trying to prove she’s gravely ill.
Tripod
Yep. This is putting some dumb ass sports radio listener in charge, who then goes with the 3rd string QB.
JPL
Naked Trump is all over the internet.. Washington Post
Patch nyc
nsfw The emperor has no b..ls
hovercraft
Great news. The justice Dept. is Ending the Use of Private Prisons
Face
Which means absolutely nothing in terms of the Electoral College. Al Gore can explain.
Trollhattan
@Stan: “something, something, something STRAWBERRIES!”
Matt McIrvin
@Face: Gore’s popular-vote margin was about 450,000, or about 0.5% of the electorate. That’s how close it generally has to be before you get those phenomena.
Kay (not the front-pager)
This is just a hit-and run to say, it looks like Donnie is gonna get schlonged by Hillary.
Kay
@Cat48:
That’s another weird thing, though. She doesn’t look or act “gravely ill”. She gives incredibly complex answers to policy questions in paragraph form. No one but THEM believes this person hit her head and is somehow addled.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: I’ve been watching Virginia for a while now, because I grew up there and still have family there. I think Virginia is becoming a solid blue state in Presidential elections, thanks to an Obama-esque coalition of minorities and highly educated whites, though Virginia liberalism always has a peculiar moderate character to it. The white Southron good old boys will continue to have some power on the state and local level for a while yet.
Colorado, I have less of a feel for. I spent some time in Boulder, which is an atypical place, sort of Berkeley on the Front Range, hippies and students and scientists. Like Virginia, it’s a real patchwork. Colorado Springs is military wingnutopia, Denver has a large Democratic minority vote, the eastern part is an agricultural Plains state and the western half is Mountain West libertarian and zillionaire ski towns. How it all balances out, precisely, I couldn’t tell you.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@hovercraft: Just saw this. This really is good news. Private prisons cost more, are less safe, and kill prisoners. I realize most of my fellow Americans, being assholes, don’t give a shit about that last but I think it’s at least somewhat important.
redshirt
@Kay: They’ve taken projection to a new level. Any charge leveled at Trump will soon be applied by him and his camp to Clinton.
Has he accused her of having small hands yet?
redshirt
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Americans seem to love making prison rape jokes. It’s almost a default response to any topic involving prisons.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: The big thing now is that she leans on pillows. This is clearly the sign of a person at death’s door.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@RepubAnon: No, not Scudder. United States (If I can’t use “The” in front of “Ukraine” then it makes sense that I can’t use it in front of “United States” either) will not be susceptible to a religious demagogue; the demographics aren’t there. More like Buzz Wndrip in It Can’t Happen Here:
gogol's wife
@Stan:
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again —
THE MESS BOYS ATE THE STRAWBERRIES
Kay
@Cat48:
It’s so weirdly childish. She’s beating them so they come up with this ridiculous theory that she’s dying.
It’s like killing off all the characters at the end of a book because the author doesn’t know how to end it.
Joyce H
@The Other Chuck:
Well, that’s all very nice, but when I say ‘investigative journalism’, I mean something more than opining on a blog. I mean a reporter contacting the doctor whose signature is allegedly on the certification.
Well, there’s some sort of explanation about it’s the son not the father, yada-yada. But again, contact the doctor. Ask if it’s his signature. If it is, ask if he wrote the letter or if the letter was prepared for his signature, and if so, by who, and what was the basis for the claims in the letter. And of course, if it’s NOT his signature – whole new ballgame.
Cat48
@Kay:
Kay, I know, it’s despicable. I learned about more horrid things too on Mrs. Greenspans show. She was telling Hillz pollster that he needed to present another medical report bc a lot of this has gone viral. She asked Joel, “What about the one with the vial?” I researched that & it’s a guy walking beside her. Too small to tell in photo but looks like a pen. Also looks like SS. Every blog is producing them. Ughhh
Matt McIrvin
@The Other Chuck:
Well, obviously he regenerated.
MomSense
@dmsilev:
Yes, they actually released parts of the transcripts.
Matt McIrvin
@Cat48: Deatherism is the new birtherism.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: @Matt McIrvin: Interestingly, both CO and VA land on this list of “best-educated states”, as evidenced by high school graduation rates and number of college degress (including Masters + level). Both these states have attracted large numbers of “immigrants” with advanced degrees
I find it interesting that only one state that tends to trend “red” in national elections – New Hampshire – is on the best-educated list, and only one that tends to trend “blue” – Nevada – is on the “worst-educated” list. Coincidence? It would be irresponsible not to speculate!
Cat48
@Matt McIrvin:
I love pillows too, comfort is important! My mom said. That is a loopy one. Bet they spent days coming up with that. Did u notice that one of them is sold in her campaign store? That made it humorous that they used a photo with her pillow.
cokane
@schrodinger’s cat: I think this is probable, not possible. We can’t read minds, but there’s all this talk that Trump doesn’t want to win or w/e, but I just don’t agree. Judging by his various speeches, this is a man whose life is consumed by talk radio and political cable news. He very much wants to win the election (even if you could argue he doesn’t actually want to do the labor of presidenting)
catclub
@The Other Chuck:
Nope. Jacob Bornstein, at the top of the letter is dead, but the signature part is Harold Bornstein.
It is either six year old letterhead, or they kept the name of the senior partner after he has died.
Kay
@Cat48:
Oh, yes, because “proof” always convinces these people and it’s Clinton’s job to disprove anything they say about her. It’s the birther thing all over again. They’re deathers.
Matt McIrvin
@Miss Bianca: I would disagree that NH even leans Republican. Granted, I live a stone’s throw away from the most Republican corner of NH, and that place is pretty damn Republican. But the only time in the last 25 years that they went R in a presidential election was 2000. It was the one state that Kerry gained over Gore.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@redshirt: Yes we do. I used to as well.
Friend of mine wrote a book that was, in part, about prison rape. He had me transfer the interview tapes to CD (yes, he’s old!). So I got to listen to them. And now I can tell everyone this: prison rape is not fucking funny. At all.
Cat48
@Matt McIrvin:
I don’t like deatherism, too morbid! They’re really bad at it! Pillows?
The Other Chuck
@Mike J: I’m waiting to watch Phelps in the 420 race ;)
The Other Chuck
@gogol’s wife: Not a fresh shiny object, I guess. Trump just sets up too many targets to shoot at.
Cat48
@Kay:
She was insistent & Joel gave her a strange look & said NO! He worked for Obama so he’s been down this road b4.
Miss Bianca
@Matt McIrvin: I sit corrected. : )
different-church-lady
@cokane: Trump lives entirely in the present. In his world there is no such thing as wanting to be president. There is only existing in a fashion so awesome that he should just be president. Cause and effect have no relationship to each other, because effect is something that happens later, and his self-awesomeness is timeless.
Matt McIrvin
@Miss Bianca: NH was showing warning signs of trending Trump this year, earlier in the cycle: it’s a very, very white state, so susceptible in much the same way as Iowa. But NH seems to be over it at the moment.
cokane
@different-church-lady: i get what you’re saying, but winning an election is the ego hit this man has been seeking all along. he’s clearly ignorant of the right strategy to do it, but the desire to be a WINNER is clearly the main force animating this whole damn thing
GregB
Should it be called a “Heil Mary” instead?
Face
@GregB: With the number of non-traditionally GOP states he needs to win this year, more like a Hail Maryland.
ET
haha… NBC News made a funny. The headline on the home page “Top moments in Trump surrogate malpractice” for a video.
lollipopguild
@Stan: Strawberries! Who ate the strawberries? Gogol’s wife beat me to it.
catclub
@Matt McIrvin:
So the outlier here among small(ish) very white states is VT. Never much Trumpism there.
Brachiator
@Kay:
Good question. They might actually be pretty good at what they do. But they will also go deeper into the sewer and fling more lies and shit than more reputable advisors.
And they have a relatively shorter window, from now until early October, to work their nasty mojo.
Betty Cracker
@GregB: Stealing that!
Immanentize
@CONGRATULATIONS!: @hovercraft:
This truly is great news. earlier today there was a good comments discussion about Charter Schools — the private prison phenom and charter schools were to aspects of ripping off the public (tax dollar) fisc.
Texas used a wide assortment of private prisons when I was there. They were so awful — especially the food they fed the inmates which seemed to be post-industrial pink slime byproducts. My clients would get sick from the diet and then receive the only medical treatment available — Tylenol.
Thanks, Obama!
WereBear
@Brachiator: It depends on what you think of as “good at it.”
Getting people to drop their coffee in the morning because of the odious asinine report they just released? That they can do.
Matt McIrvin
@catclub: I think Vermont is actually the core of a region of rural/bucolic Northeastern liberalism that is nationally unusual. It extends south into the Berkshires and eastward into western and northern NH. Bernie Sanders land.
But southeastern NH is full of exurban right-wingers fleeing what they imagine to be the liberal horror of Taxachusetts. Of course they end up screwing themselves, because most of them commute to work in Mass. and have to play Mass. income tax anyway (not that it’s actually all that high, as states go) plus NH property tax. On the other hand, the real estate is cheaper out there.
cain
Man, commenting on Balloon Juice is going to be a full time job at the rate of stuff being posted! haha :-)
Aleta
@Kay:
To me Breitbart is an outside piece of the jigsaw picture that right wing outlets make out of current events, if you will. Which is to say, it’s possible if a high adrenaline event occurs in the 2-3 weeks prior to the vote for the event to be amplified so to influence some (unknown) percentage of voters, and Bbart always has a part to play as loudspeaker. It’s one reason these are dangerous times.
Brachiator
@WereBear:
They are good at appealing to the worst instincts of those who are likely to believe their crap.
They are also good at providing odious distractions that consume media airtime and commandeer public discussion, pushing out more relevant conversation.
JMG
@Matt McIrvin: High percentage of white males with college degrees in NH.
redshirt
@Matt McIrvin: Interesting theory. I could see Maine as part of this region and not. Western Maine shares a very close geographical relationship with both northern NH and northern VT, yet there are very few people in that part of Maine. Eastern Maine is where the possible Trump voters live, and that is a region by itself, since its only neighbor is Canada.
Southern Maine – or Northern Mass – is fully within the liberal sphere defined by Boston.
catclub
@Brachiator: Exactly. If the good you want is finding undecided voters to vote for your guy, not so much.
Probably still the GOTV for Trump is what he described, nothing, since he figures if people want to vote for him, they will go out and vote.
Matt McIrvin
The other thing happening in the wingnutosphere right now is that they’re outraged that the Louisiana floods aren’t playing as Obama’s Katrina. Liberal media double standards!
FlipYrWhig
@Cat48: I’m not sure Andrea Mitchell can prove that she’s alive.
Cat48
@Matt McIrvin:
The reason LA is not playing like Hurricane Katrina is bc Fugate, the FEMA man showed up with water, food, and his staff to take applications for HELP on late Saturday, the prez has talked to the governor several times & is briefed on the situation daily. Jay Johnson DHS went down today to survey damage and the prez will go soon, I’m sure. Fugate said FEMA has taken 80,000 applications so far for LA so it’s really bad. Obama doesn’t do Hurricane Katrina’s. :)
Cat48
@FlipYrWhig:
Be nice about Mrs. Greenspan, she’s over 70. Frankly, she looks pretty good. It’s her pissy attitude I don’t care for. I always watch her bc she’s a good indicator of what nonsense might be coming. She used to be the only one who could get a GOP guest.
Mnemosyne
@Matt McIrvin:
It’s almost like the problem with Hurricane Katrina wasn’t the actual natural disaster, but the government’s (lack of) response to said disaster.
I still remember coming in to work after Katrina and one of my otherwise Republican coworkers being LIVID (literally, that red-purple color) with anger about how the people of New Orleans were left to drown. I’ve lost touch with him, but he’s probably never voted Republican since. I thought he was going to break something.
Soylent Green
@catclub: Trump is not going to places like Connecticut to reach out to black voters. As others have noted, he is trying to get back the votes of nice polite white racists in suburbia, the kind of people who find overt racism to be distasteful. After advising black people to pull up their pants and accept that the police are their friends and government services make them dependent, he can turn back to the nice polite suburban racists and say “Hey, I tried to reach them but they wouldn’t listen.” This (he hopes) will get the formerly reliably Republican suburbs back on board.
FlipYrWhig
@Cat48: I didn’t really mean her looks, although I’m sure it looked like I did. I meant her automaton-like conventionality and predictability.
Aleta
If the 3 Republicans left in New England who are running for Congress this term can be defeated, it would be major wonderfulness. (The tea party in previous years turned on and removed some of them, so sad.) Sen. Collins would be the only R in the carpool.
Until the recent past, Maine’s voters had a history of behaving independently instead of by party lines, and of sending a balanced # of R and Ds to Congress. Trump is trying to look more like an independent than a R there, emphasizing the “we need a change (never mind what it might be)” angle. He seems to be persuading some previous Obama voters with his “Obama was too weak and now we need strength” angle. Those two propositions need to be countered somehow.
rikyrah
@Matt McIrvin:
Willard got 60% of the White vote.
and, it didn’t even matter – Electoral College or Popular Vote-wise.
Will a majority of White people vote for Ferret Head?
Yep.
And?
As long as Hillary is President on November 9th….
that’s all that matters.
workworkwork
@schrodinger’s cat: Whatever else you may say about Dubya, I never saw him as a bigot.
He just hated poor people.
Dmbeaster
@Shell: A winning strategy? Trump cares more about his long term brand than winning this election. Way more money in going down in righteous flames of the hellhounds of hate. If he gets lucky and wins, even better. Last thing he wants to do is dilute his brand simply to improve his odds.
redshirt
@Aleta: There’s only one Republican in Maine on the ballot this year – Congressman Polquin. He’s odious of course. Emily Cain is running against him and she should win, but then, she lost to him in 2014, so who knows.
Polquin occupies the seat long held by Mike Michaud, who ran for Governor in 2014 and then was outed as gay and lost.
Joyce H
@workworkwork:
The Bushes always seemed to me to divide the human population into two categories – Family, and Staff.
Matt McIrvin
@Cat48: I’ve been assured that Obama was golfing. Golfing!!! Pictures of Obama golfing while Louisiana drowns are all over wingnut media at this very moment. They don’t quite get the difference between a purely symbolic outrage and a substantive outrage that may have attached symbols, so there’s an idea that the situation is somehow symmetric.