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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Friday Morning Open Thread: Manic Panic Mode

Friday Morning Open Thread: Manic Panic Mode

by Anne Laurie|  August 19, 20165:57 am| 248 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUDS

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Trump could sweep our entire Toss Up column and still come short of 270. New ratings: https://t.co/dzi8TFZh7z pic.twitter.com/z27Oy7Zq0x

— CookPoliticalReport (@CookPolitical) August 17, 2016

Folks, remember this! Remember I said this from day one! THE SYSTEM IS TOTALLY RIGGED!! VERY BAD!! @CookPolitical pic.twitter.com/RGGMG9ql9v

— DonaId J. Trump (@realDenaldTrump) August 18, 2016

Greg Sargent, in the Washington Post:

The big news of [Wednesday] morning — that Donald Trump has shaken up his campaign and is doubling down on the narrow strategy that worked in the GOP primaries but is failing catastrophically in the general election — would appear to leave only two possibilities.

Either Trump is delusional, to the point of being entirely incapable of appreciating why he’s currently losing to Hillary Clinton. Or he has a diabolical plan to break apart the Republican Party and pocket a big chunk of it for himself, for post-election fun and profit. My money is on the former…

One other explanation for Trump’s latest moves comes courtesy of CNN’s Brian Stelter, who suggested this morning that Trump may be positioning himself to launch a new media enterprise after a November loss. Bannon and former Fox exec Roger Ailes (who is also advising Trump), Stelter noted, would be just the team for Trump to do that. If so, perhaps Trump is very consciously sticking to his strategy of fusing white nationalism with rousing WWE style political entertainment, and very consciously avoiding broader demographic outreach that might dilute this approach’s appeal to his core constituencies, in order to split off a chunk of the GOP and keep it for himself later as a following and national audience. As I said, my money is on the Trump-is-delusional explanation, and the reporting appears to confirm it. But this alternate rationale does make some sense, too, and bears watching.

Apart from the ongoing schadenfreude festival, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up the week?

Rearranging the dick chairs on the Titanic. https://t.co/i6inP7wqNu

— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) August 17, 2016

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Previous Post: « Overnight Open Thread With Music
Next Post: It’s All Over But the Lying »

Reader Interactions

248Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    August 19, 2016 at 6:05 am

    They were showing the new attack Hillary ads on the news yesterday. I was like meh. Nasty, but not unexpectedly so.

  2. 2.

    Schlemazel

    August 19, 2016 at 6:06 am

    That asshole is going to burn the place down. He has amped his morans up past 11, they are going to be enraged when he loses by a huge margin and I am very worried about how they will react. I expect violence is a strong possibility.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    August 19, 2016 at 6:08 am

    Question for techies. I’m traveling soon and will connect to wifi hotspots with my phone for Internet access. I’ve heard that I should get a VPN app for security purposes. Any recommendations for Android? I want something free and simple to use. There seem to be three really popular ones in the Play store, but I don’t know one from the other.

    Thanks!

  4. 4.

    Baud

    August 19, 2016 at 6:09 am

    @Schlemazel:

    The violence if he wins will be worse.

  5. 5.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2016 at 6:09 am

    Good Morning ? , Everyone ?

  6. 6.

    Schlemazel

    August 19, 2016 at 6:14 am

    @Baud:
    No doubt but that would be coming from his White House. OTOH, he is not going to win so that is not a worry.

  7. 7.

    seaboogie

    August 19, 2016 at 6:15 am

    Anne Laurie – I got suckered into this once and Levenson got hooked into it too via me – your Trump link is “Denald Trump”, so a really good troll, but not the actual Ludicrous Tangerine Ballsack.

  8. 8.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2016 at 6:18 am

    @Schlemazel:
    They are all talk. That is why we need to crush him.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    August 19, 2016 at 6:20 am

    @rikyrah: This. Now that would be a Good Morning.

  10. 10.

    amk

    August 19, 2016 at 6:20 am

    AL – that’s not real donnie dick’s real twitter a/c.

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2016 at 6:23 am

    Putting the wife on a plane for Spain tomorrow. She is going for 2+ whole glorious days in sunny Mallorca. Comes back on Tuesday. Her jet lag on return will be whiplashed beyond endurance. She has to go because she finally sold her parents condo and the existing power of atty she has is not the right kind of PoA and she was unable to get the right kind of PoA because the guy who does them at the Chicago consulate is on siesta for the entire month of August. In other words, it’s Spain.

    Meanwhile my Minnesota sis suddenly decided to come down to sunny STL for the exact same time period that my wife will be gone, so instead of having some uninhibited time to spend with my plethora of girlfriends I have to entertain my sis and her hubby which makes my wife very happy.

    I just can’t win.

  12. 12.

    Schlemazel

    August 19, 2016 at 6:23 am

    @rikyrah:
    Like the nut job that stabbed a black man in the back to “defend the police from BLM”?

  13. 13.

    Ceci n'est pas mon nym

    August 19, 2016 at 6:24 am

    @Baud: No comparison info, in fact no info on mobile apps at all, but I’m using Strong VPN on my Mac Air and found it simple and effective. I got it for the Olympics, specifically to access the Internet via the UK. And that was easy to figure out.

  14. 14.

    seaboogie

    August 19, 2016 at 6:27 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Or – you could buy a second ticket to Spain and leave your key under the doormat for sis and her hubby – maybe extend the trip to a week or more….

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2016 at 6:27 am

    @Schlemazel: Meh. They have to put down their beers, turn off Hannity, and get up out of their LayZboys first. My bet is most can’t even be bothered to vote. Donald has already told them it doesn’t matter if they do or not.

  16. 16.

    David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch

    August 19, 2016 at 6:36 am

    I wonder who’s leaking the Manforth/Ukraine stuff to the papers – Clinton or US intelligence.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2016 at 6:36 am

    @seaboogie: we thought about that, but I just got a 2nd batch of chickens on Weds. and they have to be attended to twice a day. While the neighbors could do it, I’d feel uncomfortable asking for that much. We will go back at some point in the next couple years. Her cousin has a vacation house on the coast near Valencia.

    Sucks to be me.

  18. 18.

    seaboogie

    August 19, 2016 at 6:41 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Heh. A second batch of chickens is the best excuse for almost anything I could imagine.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2016 at 6:42 am

    Good news:

    The Obama administration said on Thursday that it planned to end the federal government’s use of private prisons, after an inquiry found they were drastically more unsafe than publicly run facilities.
    ….
    Yates said in her memo that research had found private prisons “simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources” and “do not save substantially on costs” either. Essential government education and training programs for prisoners “have proved difficult to replicate and outsource” in the private sector, she said.

    The decision was announced days after the Department of Justice’s inspector general released a damning investigation report. It found instances of inmate-on-inmate assaults were 28% higher in contract prisons than in government-run facilities, and that the confiscation of contraband mobile phones occurred eight times more frequently. Federal inmates in private prisons were found to be nine times more likely to be placed on lockdown than those at other federal prisons, and were frequently subjected to arbitrary solitary confinement.

    And as a bonus:

    The decision immediately prompted a sharp decline in the share prices of America’s biggest private prison companies.

    Fvck them fvckin’ fvcks.

  20. 20.

    Loviatar

    August 19, 2016 at 6:44 am

    I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Colin Powell is without honor.

    Hillary Clinton Told F.B.I. Colin Powell Advised Her to Use Private Email

    Pressed by the F.B.I. about her email practices at the State Department, Hillary Clinton told investigators that former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had advised her to use a personal email account.

    “Toward the end of the evening, over dessert, Albright asked all of the former secretaries to offer one salient bit of counsel to the nation’s next top diplomat,” Mr. Conason writes. “Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer.”

    Mr. Powell’s office released a statement on Thursday night saying he had no recollection of the dinner conversation. He did write Mrs. Clinton an email memo, which may exist in the F.B.I. files, describing his use of his personal email account for unclassified messages “and how it vastly improved communications within the State Department,” the statement said.

  21. 21.

    Greg Gabrielse

    August 19, 2016 at 6:44 am

    So let me get this straight. The system is rigged, so Mr Trump can’t win. So what is his recourse if he does win? Is the system still rigged?

  22. 22.

    raven

    August 19, 2016 at 6:46 am

    We had a big ass limb crash into the middle of the garden, luckily it missed any fencing, but I have to take the day off to tackle the fucker and get it out of the way before the garden party Sunday!

  23. 23.

    Baud

    August 19, 2016 at 6:50 am

    Just saw the story about the US women’s wrestling gold. Nice upset.

  24. 24.

    Jeff Spender

    August 19, 2016 at 6:54 am

    Saw some useless CNN panel talking about Trump’s pivot and how he sounds reasonable.

    My question has been this: why do people think Bernie would be doing any better with the media we have?

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2016 at 6:54 am

    @raven: So God decided your wife’s arrangements could use some improving, eh? Everybody’s a critic.

  26. 26.

    seaboogie

    August 19, 2016 at 6:56 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yay, and also YAY! Fuck those fuckers who foment and profit on human misery – twicet – up their heinies!

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2016 at 6:58 am

    Heh:

    A nude statue of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump without te$ticles was taken down on Thursday after causing quite the stir in New York’s Union Square. The anarchist group INDECLINE erected the statue, titled The Emperor Has No Balls, overnight Thursday.

    “It’s horrendously, tragically beautiful,” said Jeanne-Marie Patrick as she knelt down to take a picture. She came and saw the statue on her break after catching a glimpse on Facebook. Despite being disappointed that the face wasn’t quite accurate, she was in awe of it. “It’s been a horrible week, this has been the best thing that happened to me all week,” Patrick said.

    Union Square was packed with people of all ages taking selfies and laughing at his bulging belly and lumpy form. Athelea Sookia got her friend to snap a photo as she tugged on Trump’s stubby p3nis with a smile.

  28. 28.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    August 19, 2016 at 6:59 am

    Good Morning All! How about some pretty pics for a fine Friday? Loaded on the Bus and headed to Beverly(Hills that is…).

  29. 29.

    burnspbesq

    August 19, 2016 at 7:02 am

    Luv mah kitteh, but I really could do without her hopping up on the bed with a dead mouse at 3:00 a.m.

  30. 30.

    satby

    August 19, 2016 at 7:03 am

    Good morning everyone (especially @rikyrah:)!

    I’m so behind on blog threads. Closing on the new house today, then the packing gets real. I think I still don’t quite believe it’s real.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    August 19, 2016 at 7:04 am

    @satby: Congrats! And good luck.

  32. 32.

    Patricia Kayden

    August 19, 2016 at 7:07 am

    @Baud: I’m not in a swing state so have yet to see an anti-Clinton ad.

    @burnspbesq: Awww. Take the mouse in the spirit it was given to you. It’s a symbol of kitty love.

  33. 33.

    SRW1

    August 19, 2016 at 7:08 am

    @burnspbesq:

    Unappreciative moaner. S/he wants to share breakfast!

  34. 34.

    Baud

    August 19, 2016 at 7:14 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Nice.

  35. 35.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2016 at 7:16 am

    @Schlemazel:
    There will be isolated cases, but this thought of large scale violence. …um,no.
    The isolated cases are bad enough. And the MSM will NEVER attach it to Trump, just like they didn’t attach the cannibal in Florida, wearing a Trump “Make America Great ” hat to him. I expect nothing less from the MSM, where every White killer is a mentally ill lone wolf deserving of CONTEXT, and Black men, even those where it is demonstrated that they searched out help for mental issues, are nothing but thugs, and they are NEVER given context.

  36. 36.

    debit

    August 19, 2016 at 7:17 am

    @satby: Good luck and best wishes for a speedy, trouble free closing.

  37. 37.

    debbie

    August 19, 2016 at 7:17 am

    @Baud:

    Plenty here, of course, but they’re all PACs. It’ll be interesting to see what the Trumpsters come up with for themselves.

  38. 38.

    satby

    August 19, 2016 at 7:17 am

    @Baud: Thanks! Big changes. I’m excited but a bit sad to leave the mini-farm. But it’s the right time to make the change, or so Mother Nature insisted ?
    It will be good.

  39. 39.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2016 at 7:17 am

    @satby:
    Good luck with the move??

  40. 40.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2016 at 7:18 am

    Sending positive thoughts to ruemara today for the interview ?☺

  41. 41.

    satby

    August 19, 2016 at 7:19 am

    @debit: Thanks! Walter is coming next Friday, right? I bet you’re anxious to get boy home.

  42. 42.

    satby

    August 19, 2016 at 7:20 am

    @rikyrah: @rikyrah: Yes, thanks!
    And best, best, BEST of luck to ruemara in the interview!

  43. 43.

    Baud

    August 19, 2016 at 7:22 am

    @debbie: Usually, campaign ads are more effective, but who knows with this guy.

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2016 at 7:22 am

    @burnspbesq: Just ungrateful, you are.

    @satby: congrats

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: a couple of real winners in there.

  45. 45.

    WereBear

    August 19, 2016 at 7:24 am

    @satby: It is exciting though. Best wishes!

  46. 46.

    Baud

    August 19, 2016 at 7:25 am

    @satby: Turn Indiana blue.

  47. 47.

    debbie

    August 19, 2016 at 7:29 am

    @satby:

    Hope the closing goes smoothly. Good luck!

  48. 48.

    sherparick

    August 19, 2016 at 7:29 am

    @Schlemazel: Except so many of them are old. Since I am now old, I can tell you the idea moving out of my nice comfortable house, with my nice comfortable wife and my nice comfortable cats, to go into the field with a bunch yahoos and do a repeat of Pickett’s charge (but this time as farce), is not to appealing. I expect a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

  49. 49.

    satby

    August 19, 2016 at 7:30 am

    @burnspbesq: Well, I don’t receive presents graciously at 3am either, don’t feel bad. And wash the sheets in case any fleas started bailing once the host was dead.

  50. 50.

    sherparick

    August 19, 2016 at 7:30 am

    @satby: Congrats and good luck.

  51. 51.

    WereBear

    August 19, 2016 at 7:30 am

    Best of luck to Ruemara on the interview.

  52. 52.

    satby

    August 19, 2016 at 7:32 am

    Thanks all! Now, moar coffee. Need.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    August 19, 2016 at 7:32 am

    @sherparick:

    And you may find yourself in a beautiful house
    With a beautiful wife
    And you may ask yourself, well
    How did I get here?

  54. 54.

    MomSense

    August 19, 2016 at 7:34 am

    @satby:

    Congratulations, Satby!

    Goid morning everyone.☀️

  55. 55.

    sherparick

    August 19, 2016 at 7:34 am

    @burnspbesq: Hey, she is just showing you that she is doing her job! Assuming you don’t have one of those pet doors (not really a good idea with a cat), then the dead mouse had been a live mouse in your house (could not resist).

  56. 56.

    WereBear

    August 19, 2016 at 7:34 am

    Trump can be both delusional and have pirate-type plans for some rip off scheme. It’s not like the concept would be NEW to him.

    fusing white nationalism with rousing WWE style political entertainment

    This would undermine Fox News. Because there would no longer be the pretext of serious discussion, and Trump fans have indicated they want the full strength, right in the vein, crazy delusional shit.

    The weird thing is, I could see that working.

  57. 57.

    jacy

    August 19, 2016 at 7:35 am

    @satby:

    Cheers on the house! Here’s to no domestic disasters in your future and plenty of joy!

  58. 58.

    debbie

    August 19, 2016 at 7:36 am

    @WereBear:

    I wonder if this is some sort of Ailes’ revenge against Murdoch for abandoning him?

  59. 59.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 19, 2016 at 7:41 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    she tugged on Trump’s stubby p3nis with a smile.

    Phrasing!

  60. 60.

    Waldo

    August 19, 2016 at 7:41 am

    @debbie:

    I wonder if this is some sort of Ailes’ revenge against Murdoch for abandoning him?

    Let’s hope.

  61. 61.

    WereBear

    August 19, 2016 at 7:43 am

    @debbie: Exactly where my thoughts were running! Yes!

    Someone in a downstairs thread mentioned that Ailes would be restrained by a non-competition clause, but since when has such petty legalisms stopped a True Republican Warrior?

  62. 62.

    SFAW

    August 19, 2016 at 7:43 am

    @burnspbesq:

    Perhaps next time your cat can bring you a live mouse? Would that improve your mood?

    Boy, some people will complain about ANYTHING.

  63. 63.

    WereBear

    August 19, 2016 at 7:45 am

    I am not an anarchist, but I do think this Trump statue is pure genius of the times. It has been EVERYWHERE, and the statement from the Park Department was the perfect capper to the event.

    Can any candidate overcome this kind of public mockery?

  64. 64.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    August 19, 2016 at 7:46 am

    @Baud: Thanks much, I still have Wednesday’s pics to do. I visited The Japanese Garden(Suiho-En, Garden of Water & Fragrance). It does have a certain fragrance all right, especially on the eastern side where it abuts the neighboring sewage treatment plant.

    I was the site for filming several Star Trek episodes(it was Starfleet Academy).

  65. 65.

    Iowa Old Lady

    August 19, 2016 at 7:47 am

    I’m seeing rumors that House Republicans are already leaking info from the FBI interview files, which is classified. I don’t know if that’s true, and if it is, it wouldn’t surprise me. But first, I believe that’s a felony. And second, they’d be doing what they’re using their most shocked tones to accuse Clinton of doing. Is irony totally dead?

  66. 66.

    debbie

    August 19, 2016 at 7:48 am

    NPR’s reporting that at a NC rally yesterday, Trump said he regretted some of the things he’s said during his campaign. Obviously part of his makeover, but I wonder how long until he disavows that statement during an interview with a reporter? “I regret what I’ve said. But not really that much.”

  67. 67.

    Just One More Canuck

    August 19, 2016 at 7:48 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: The pictures look pretty good considering you were loaded

  68. 68.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    August 19, 2016 at 7:49 am

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    But first, I believe that’s a felony.

    Adam was asking about that last night.

  69. 69.

    Betty Cracker

    August 19, 2016 at 7:49 am

    Either Trump is delusional, to the point of being entirely incapable of appreciating why he’s currently losing to Hillary Clinton. Or he has a diabolical plan to break apart the Republican Party and pocket a big chunk of it for himself, for post-election fun and profit. My money is on the former… [Sargent in WaPo, as quoted above]

    Nah. They’re trying to win with a Trump-Breitbart-WikiLeaks merger that will slime Clinton from the hard right and hard left. They hope to cobble together a coalition comprising the white nationalist GOP base, “burn it all down” independents, Clinton haters and other folks who are susceptible to an anti-establishment message.

    I don’t think it will work, but it’s not delusional per se. They don’t really have any other recourse, considering the hole Trump is in and his proven inability to credibly imitate a statesman.

  70. 70.

    debbie

    August 19, 2016 at 7:49 am

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    For decades, the GOP has granted itself exempt from irony. “Have you no shame, sir?”

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2016 at 7:49 am

    @Baud: Or you might ask, “Where did I go wrong?”

  72. 72.

    debbie

    August 19, 2016 at 7:51 am

    Just heard that it was an anarchist collective named In Decline that’s responsible for the Trump statues. I’m listening to an interview with a member who says they’re not much happier with Clinton, but there may not be time to create something with her.

    Some morning, the news is just too much fun to have to stop to go to work!

  73. 73.

    NorthLeft12

    August 19, 2016 at 7:53 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The decision immediately prompted a sharp decline in the share prices of America’s biggest private prison companies.

    This is more ammo for the free market morans who will whine to anyone who will listen…”Why does Obama hate capitalism?” And before you have a chance to say anything, they will tell you.

    Another win for President Obama and more importantly, for the justice system of the US. The bad news is that the miserable excuses for Repub governors will double down and try and make up for the losses.

    Speaking of miserable excuses for human beings, what kind of person looks at the incarceration of men and women and think; “Hey, I can make a lot of money off that!”

  74. 74.

    Matt McIrvin

    August 19, 2016 at 7:56 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Nah. They’re trying to win with a Trump-Breitbart-WikiLeaks merger that will slime Clinton from the hard right and hard left. They hope to cobble together a coalition comprising the white nationalist GOP base, “burn it all down” independents, Clinton haters and other folks who are susceptible to an anti-establishment message.

    That was always the plan, though, to the extent there was a plan. Trump has been making explicit pitches to disappointed Bernie supporters since before the Democratic convention.

  75. 75.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 19, 2016 at 7:57 am

    @debbie:

    I wonder how long until he disavows that statement during an interview with a reporter? “I regret what I’ve said. But not really that much.”

    “I was being sarcastic!”

  76. 76.

    Kay

    August 19, 2016 at 7:57 am

    @debbie:

    He said two weeks ago that he didn’t regret any of it so what happened? A 70 year old had a complete change of personality and values system in 2 weeks? Wow. That’s more than a pivot. That’s some kind of life-changing death bed conversion.

    Bullshit. More bullshit from a person who has relied on tricking gullible people his entire career.

    I knew they would attempt to rehabilitate him so I’m not surprised but boy, I hope it doesn’t work. Trump is a moron. He’s not just NOT unusually talented or bright, he’s well below average. He can’t put three related concepts together in a coherent paragraph. Below the median.

  77. 77.

    WereBear

    August 19, 2016 at 8:00 am

    @NorthLeft12: Speaking of miserable excuses for human beings, what kind of person looks at the incarceration of men and women and think; “Hey, I can make a lot of money off that!”

    That is exactly how the Republicans have also undermined this country: the normalization of outright sadism in the pursuit of profit.

    If you do it small scale, for fun, you go to jail. If you do it to enough people while making money, you are a Republican hero!

    The scandal in Pennsylvania, where a judge got kickbacks for every juvenile he sent to a private correctional facility, and was sending people away for spitballs and satirical websites; that is how low they can sink.

    Completely derailed these kid’s lives. For a nice house and a boat.

  78. 78.

    Thoughtful David

    August 19, 2016 at 8:00 am

    @Loviatar:
    It bears repeating. That fvcker had actual credibility before the Iraq War, and decided to use it to lie us into the war. Had he not gone along with Junior Bush’s lies, and instead done as little as resign without saying why, it would have opened a lot of questions and given a lot of people cover to challenge the war rationale. It might even have stopped the war, although probably not. But it would have made it more clearly Bush’s responsibility. Instead Powell lied and thousands of people died.
    When Powell, as a black man, decided to hitch his wagon to the Republican star, he decided evil was ok with him.

  79. 79.

    David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch

    August 19, 2016 at 8:01 am

    @debbie: Dopey low-energy media doesn’t get Trump’s sarcasm. Sad!

  80. 80.

    amk

    August 19, 2016 at 8:01 am

    @Kay: Yup, yet another one of his cons, which the 3rd rate media punks will try to sell to the voters.

  81. 81.

    Baud

    August 19, 2016 at 8:03 am

    @Betty Cracker: They want to separate the white from the chaff.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    August 19, 2016 at 8:05 am

    @Kay: To be fair, when Clinton said she regretted using her own email server, the media immediately dropped the story.

  83. 83.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2016 at 8:05 am

    Wow, a banker with a conscience? Who’da thunk it:

    A Deutsche Bank whistleblower has turned down his share of the $16.5m whistleblower award, stating that the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) did not do enough to punish the executives responsible for the bank’s wrongdoing.

    Eric Ben-Artzi, a former risk officer, went to the regulators after he was fired by Deutsche Bank for raising alarm over the bank’s inflated valuation of its portfolio of credit derivatives. According to him, by imposing a $55m fine on the bank but letting the executives off scot-free, the SEC has instead punished the bank’s “rank-and-file” employees and shareholders.

    “I request that my share of the award be given to Deutsche and its stakeholders,” he wrote on Thursday in an opinion piece published by the Financial Times. (Ben-Artzi was eligible to receive $8.25m, according to the FT.) He noted that financial award was a “powerful incentive” when he first decided to help SEC and that he is not “at liberty to reject” the award since portion of it belongs to his lawyers and his ex-wife.

    Ben-Artzi said that the result of SEC’s lengthy investigation was “disappointing” and that “top executives retired with multimillion-dollar bonuses based on the misrepresentation of the bank’s balance sheet”.

    The reason why Deutsche Bank was only subject to a $55m fine is that its top lawyers have long been “revolved” in and out of the SEC, according to Ben-Artzi.

    “Robert Rice, the chief lawyer in charge of the internal investigation at Deutsche in 2011, became the SEC’s chief counsel in 2013,” he wrote. “Robert Khuzami, Deutsche’s top lawyer in North America, became head of the SEC’s enforcement division after the financial crisis. Their boss, Richard Walker, the bank’s longtime general counsel (he left the bank this year) was once head of enforcement at the SEC.”

    Ben-Artzi added that Mary Jo White, the current chair of the SEC, has known both Rice and Khuzami for as long as 20 years. She “bears the ultimate responsibility for the Deutsche fine”, he wrote.

  84. 84.

    Kay

    August 19, 2016 at 8:06 am

    @WereBear:

    I was in and around the local people who were promoting for-profit jails (not prisons, but jails) so I’ll tell you what the compassionate conservative rationale was.

    We would pay less in wages and overhead because the facilities would be more efficient and the savings would go toward making prisoners lives better. New facilities, more programming, you know the privatization song and dance. It never changes.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    August 19, 2016 at 8:09 am

    @Baud:

    I read some of them on Twitter and here’s how they justify asking her about the emails for 24 months. They say it’s her fault because she never holds press conferences. They would have “moved on” but she didn’t let them.

    True. This is the reason they ask the same email question 500 times. Punishment. She’ll pay for denying access! We’ll all pay!

  86. 86.

    burnspbesq

    August 19, 2016 at 8:10 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    She got plenty of praise and scratching … after the hazmat team left.

  87. 87.

    Baud

    August 19, 2016 at 8:11 am

    @Kay: She needs to give them all cute nicknames, stat!

  88. 88.

    Jeffro

    August 19, 2016 at 8:12 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The decision immediately prompted a sharp decline in the share prices of America’s biggest private prison companies.

    Which, in a sane and just world, would never have existed in the first place. Good riddance (actually, you said it better)

  89. 89.

    MattF

    August 19, 2016 at 8:14 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Ex-banker.

  90. 90.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    August 19, 2016 at 8:14 am

    @Kay: But he’s assured us that he was a great student at Penn. He was asking for Obama’s transcripts, maybe we should see his(and his Tax Returns as well).

  91. 91.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2016 at 8:16 am

    @Kay:

    I hope it doesn’t work.

    Don’t worry, this is Trump we’re talking about. Nothing short of a lobotomy would work.

  92. 92.

    sherparick

    August 19, 2016 at 8:16 am

    @Baud: and back at cha!

    “…Letting the days go by
    Let the water hold me down
    Letting the days go by
    Water flowing underground
    Into the blue again
    After the money’s gone
    Once in a lifetime
    Water flowing underground

    Same as it ever was…”

    Ironically, David Byrne, whose politics are libertarian to conservative, was very dismayed by the rise of the Trumpster.

    http://www.rawstory.com/2016/02/talking-heads-david-byrne-explains-why-trump-voters-are-seemingly-unaware-of-his-lies-and-bullsht/

    1. Which goes to the question, are Trump, Bannon, and Ailes stupid or delusional or evil? Again, there are reasons to suspect that all three conditions are at play.

    a. As poor Dana Perino is finding out, Fox’s leading men, O’Reilly, Bolling, and Hannity, are pushing the meme that that “polls” are wrong, look at those enthusiastic crowd in the thousands! Why is that? Because Fox News old and very white audience wants to hear that news. http://www.politicususa.com/2015/12/28/fox-news-literally-dying-age-younger-viewers-refuse-watch-fox.html So they give the marks what they want.

    b. As the odious Charlie Sykes, Conservative Talk Radio Personality, fan of the odious Scott Walker, says himself, 30 years of Conservative talk radio has created a large faction of the population that dismisses reports of MSM and hence there is no longer an “objective” referee. A lot of conservative politicians and personalities have wrapped themselves into this bubble and Trump is one of them. The MSM media polls and stories about polls can be dismissed. Likewise, that Blacks and Hispanics and single women are going to vote overwhelmingly against Trump is just not observed (in this blindness, a large part of the MSM (Ron Fournier?) also suffers inability to accept that whites are only 70% and falling share of the electorate and hence are astounded when thy don’t win elections when getting 60% of the white vote.

    b. I think we are also seeing the flaw in the Sean Trende argument of the “missing white vote.” The going the full white nationalist way to draw that vote out and to get it to vote Republican is having the consequence of drawing out minority voters (Black, Asian, and Hispanic), an alienating white college educated, more worldly part of the Republican base who are put off by the stupidity.

    c. But there will still be that large 30% of the population to grift, particularly the olds, after the election.

  93. 93.

    Jeffro

    August 19, 2016 at 8:17 am

    @Greg Gabrielse:

    The system is rigged, so Mr Trump can’t win. So what is his recourse if he does win? Is the system still rigged?

    Well, given his propensity to sue at the drop of a hat, I’d imagine he’ll have his crack legal team out there suing in most any & every state that he loses. Should be exciting as they try to make the “legal” case that, “…since Mr. Trump’s rallies were so large and his voters so motivated, it’s clear that the election was rigged…”

    Should be exciting to see him sue media outlets for reporting his own words during this whole campaign season, too – sad!

    No in all seriousness, the GOP in the Age of Obama has turned into a perpetual grievance machine – Trump, for all his faults, does have his finger on that particular pulse. He’ll do well with the rump of the GOP as his base while he creates Mega-BreitbartTV, starting November 9th…

  94. 94.

    WereBear

    August 19, 2016 at 8:19 am

    @Kay: The privatization rationale always assumed they could do the same thing the government did, only better AND with profit.

    Which assumes magic on the part of business that I cannot understand.

    I have been exasperated over government laws and regulations, but nothing ignites my white hot rage like the treatment I get from corporations. No thought goes into these positions at all.

  95. 95.

    Immanentize

    August 19, 2016 at 8:20 am

    @Kay: And we were just talking about Charter Schools which were based pretty much on the same rationale at the very same moment.

    Private prisons in Texas were horrible. Yes there were many new (tax dollar paid for) constructions but they were shoddy, the guards were ill trained and some plain sadists (with dogs!), the food was wretched (or retching?) and medical treatment pretty much non existent. And they wanted the most docile and least dangerous prisoners….

  96. 96.

    Patricia Kayden

    August 19, 2016 at 8:20 am

    @Jeff Spender: This is our media. Because Trump reads (poorly) from teleprompters and makes a non-apology apology, we’re supposed to forget his nasty, bigoted comments during the entirety of his campaign. And we’re also supposed to forget his racist past. And forget the fact that he has retweeted lies from White Supremacists. And that he has hired an alt-right bigot to run his campaign.

    The media is eager to deem Trump presidential based on a few teleprompter speeches. Sigh.

  97. 97.

    Loviatar

    August 19, 2016 at 8:21 am

    @Thoughtful David:

    My disenchantment with him also began with his lying us into the Iraq War, however my hatred of him solidified when I learned of the part he played in covering up the My Lai Massacre.

    Colin Powell, then a 31-year-old Army major, was charged with investigating the letter, which did not specifically refer to Mỹ Lai, as Glen had limited knowledge of the events there. In his report, Powell wrote, “In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between Americal Division soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent.” Powell’s handling of the assignment was later characterized by some observers as “whitewashing” the atrocities of Mỹ Lai. In May 2004, Powell, then United States Secretary of State, told CNN’s Larry King, “I mean, I was in a unit that was responsible for My Lai. I got there after My Lai happened. So, in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they are still to be deplored.”

    In every race, ethnicity and religion, you will always have those willing to sell out their own for personal gain.

  98. 98.

    amk

    August 19, 2016 at 8:24 am

    @Kay: This while they are physically getting their asses kicked out of the donnie dick’s ‘rallies’ and they are on his blacklist. Fucking cowards and liars.

  99. 99.

    Betty Cracker

    August 19, 2016 at 8:24 am

    @Matt McIrvin: Yeah, but Trump was supposed to go back to using dog whistles after sewing up the primary to hang onto the Romney voters and appeal to the center. Now he’s put the head of a white nationalist hate site in charge of his campaign and is eager to benefit from a collaboration between Russian hackers and WikiLeaks. I guess that’s a species of “pivot,” just not the one the GOP thought they’d get.

  100. 100.

    Patricia Kayden

    August 19, 2016 at 8:24 am

    @Betty Cracker: Trying to drag Secretary Clinton down to Trump’s level is all his side has. They’re just now opening a few offices in swing states and just now putting out anti-Clinton ads. I doubt they have any GOTV procedures in place as yet. Trump is running on tweets, rallies and t.v. interviews.

    While Secretary Clinton shouldn’t lower herself to his level, she needs surrogates to hit him back hard every time he and his sycophants try to slime her.

  101. 101.

    The Red Pen

    August 19, 2016 at 8:24 am

    Short note of thanks to the BJ commentariat for the kind wishes about my cat yesterday. It meant a lot.

  102. 102.

    different-church-lady

    August 19, 2016 at 8:25 am

    @debbie: “I regret my earlier regret.”

  103. 103.

    Patricia Kayden

    August 19, 2016 at 8:28 am

    @Loviatar: describing his use of his personal email account for unclassified messages

    Is Powell trying to insinuate that he used a different server for classified messages?

    Powell endorsed President Obama in 2008 and 2012 so I expect he will endorse Secretary Clinton. He’ll never wash his responsibility for the Iraq War off his hands though so not sure how much that would matter.

  104. 104.

    laura

    August 19, 2016 at 8:30 am

    @satby: wishing you smooth sailing to your new home.

  105. 105.

    Eric U.

    August 19, 2016 at 8:34 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: seems to me that at some point they criminalized receiving classified information. Which is an idea that I strongly disagree with, but maybe it’s necessary to avoid leaks. OTOH, even if it wasn’t illegal to possess classified information, a prosecutor could proceed on the notion that it must have been gained by obviously illegal espionage on the part of the news organization. At one point, reporters and news organizations had enough sense to keep a lid on obviously dangerous information, but unfortunately that is no longer the case. Not saying that the FBI files are actually dangerous, it seems that there was nothing on the email server that was not available from public sources. I suppose the FBI could have co-mingled actual classified information.

  106. 106.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2016 at 8:35 am

    Religions around the world have interpreted natural phenomena as God’s will for as long as we’ve had gods and religions. But in God’s arsenal of punishments, perhaps none are as storied as the flood.

    In modern times, conservative evangelicals have claimed floods, such as the one that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005, are God’s punishment for moral decay. By moral decay, they typically mean abortion or homosexuality.

    One prominent evangelical who’s a fan of this line of thinking is Tony Perkins, the head of the rabidly anti-gay Family Research Council. In a 2015 interview with Messianic Jewish pastor Jonathan Cahn, Perkins agreed that Hurricane Joaquin, a devastating storm that hit Hawaii last year, was “a sign of God’s wrath,” punishment for abortion and for the legalization of same-sex marriage. Perkins also frequently compares homosexuality to pedophilia. “It is a homosexual problem,” he said. He also believes “the homosexual community” is engaged in behavior “that will destroy our nation”.

    As a member of that “homosexual community” who has endured this rhetoric for his entire adult life, I must admit I found it difficult to not raise an eyebrow at the mental image of Tony Perkins paddling in a canoe after his house was swept away in the flood that’s currently affecting Louisiana.

    “This is a flood of near-biblical proportions,” Perkins said on his radio show. “We had to escape from our home Saturday by canoe. We had about 10 feet of water at the end of our driveway. Our house flooded, a few of our cars flooded.” Thankfully, none of his family was harmed.

    You could be forgiven for thinking of this as some kind of twisted justice, or at least as a delicious bit of divine irony.

    It is getting harder and harder to maintain my atheism, but I will not restrain my glee at Gawd’s divine retribution.

  107. 107.

    Jeffro

    August 19, 2016 at 8:36 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    This is our media. Because Trump reads (poorly) from teleprompters and makes a non-apology apology, we’re supposed to forget his nasty, bigoted comments during the entirety of his campaign. And we’re also supposed to forget his racist past. And forget the fact that he has retweeted lies from White Supremacists. And that he has hired an alt-right bigot to run his campaign.

    The media is eager to deem Trump presidential based on a few teleprompter speeches. Sigh.

    Sigh indeed. Hope the Clinton campaign runs some ads showing this shameless ‘lowering-of-the-bar’ (quick clips of Trump’s previous abhorrent behavior, quick shot of him saying ‘I regret…’ yesterday, clip of pundit drooling over Trump ‘pivot’, last shot is kids/families/Khans/etc looking blankly at camera w/ caption, “Really???”)

    Oh and a good hashtag of course…#dontlowerthebar is probably too long…#TrumpIsStillTrump maybe?

  108. 108.

    Matt McIrvin

    August 19, 2016 at 8:40 am

    @Betty Cracker: This year I’m feeling the notion of the “burn it down” far left and the racist/dudebro far right meeting in a circle more strongly than ever. Trump was supposed to move to the center but he just went to the antipodes instead.

  109. 109.

    Peale

    August 19, 2016 at 8:41 am

    @Betty Cracker: trump really is showing that as president, he’d be worthless at sticking with any plan that took more than 12 hours to achieve. He is a shambles. He’s got no “grit” whatsoever. A whimp in the face of any adversity.

    Maybe they have internal polls that show that the reason he’s lost support is because making nice with Paul Ryan for four days was too much for the alt right. Or the supporters who left were the dozen BernieBros who can’t stand Ryan,

    Lol. Like they pay for internal polls.

  110. 110.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    August 19, 2016 at 8:42 am

    @Betty Cracker: The Clinton hate from the Trump campaign, which is primarily undisguised white supremacy and fascism at this point, is going to be amplified by the GOP. I doubt that anyone in the GOP thinks (or wants) Trump to win at this point, but they are trying to save the downticket. The point isn’t to convince anyone to switch from Clinton as much as it is to suppress the vote by increasing CDS-“Fuck em all, I’m not going to vote.”

  111. 111.

    Eric U.

    August 19, 2016 at 8:44 am

    @efgoldman: it will not be brave action. Continued harassment of non-whites, calling the cops when someone speaks a language other than english, that sort of thing. The worst will be like the guy who ran over one of his neighbors and then shot and killed her spouse. LINK I suppose we may see more incidents like the Bundys and Republican terrorists like McVeigh.

  112. 112.

    Shalimar

    August 19, 2016 at 8:46 am

    The system where dozens of different independent pollsters ask tens of thousands of people “who do you want to vote for?” and get the answer “anyone other than that asshole” is systematically rigged somehow. Ok.

  113. 113.

    Cermet

    August 19, 2016 at 8:49 am

    @David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch: The Ukraine Intelligence service is realizing the info – Duh; they – the Ukrainians – fear tRump more than we do.

    Will leave for Germany this weekend – hope it stays calm while I’m there.

  114. 114.

    danielx

    August 19, 2016 at 8:50 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Nothing short of a lobotomy would work.

    Probably true, but who could tell?

  115. 115.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2016 at 8:53 am

    @danielx: He would be quieter and drool more. I think the bib would give it away.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    August 19, 2016 at 8:53 am

    I think the coverage of the debates will be rough sledding. Clinton will prepare and do a good or great job and Trump will show up and they’ll give him a trophy.

    I’m sick of it. It devalues work and that hurts everyone who works. 30 years of work doesn’t matter, effort doesn’t matter, merit doesn’t matter. What matters is gimmicks and making stuff up. That this privileged, entitled nasty dope has gotten this far is just appalling.

    They’re falling all over themselves to congratulate him on this non-apology. The bar couldn’t get any lower. Must be nice to be a big white guy with a big mouth and a rich daddy. Too bad everyone can’t “achieve” that.

  117. 117.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2016 at 8:56 am

    @Kay:

    Bullshit. More bullshit from a person who has relied on tricking gullible people his entire career.

    I knew they would attempt to rehabilitate him so I’m not surprised but boy, I hope it doesn’t work. Trump is a moron. He’s not just NOT unusually talented or bright, he’s well below average. He can’t put three related concepts together in a coherent paragraph. Below the median.

    tell it Kay.

    As I commented yesterday, I spent the evening going over yesterday’s BJ threads, and your Trump disdain is a thing of beauty, Kay.

    I could FEEL the contempt while scrolling on the tablet.

    I wish you would Front page it.

  118. 118.

    Kay

    August 19, 2016 at 9:01 am

    @rikyrah:

    He has “spent his life rebuilding neighborhoods”. Lie. There are people who have actually done that. This lie takes something away from them. That’s what lying about accomplishments does- that’s part of why it’s wrong. There are people who really do these things.

  119. 119.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 19, 2016 at 9:02 am

    @Cermet: I’m leaving for Ukraine tomorrow. I also hope it stays calm.

  120. 120.

    WaterGirl

    August 19, 2016 at 9:02 am

    OzarkHillbilly, I am about to find out what happens when you (accidentally) leave out the egg from your cozy oatmeal breakfast recipe. I realized it before I put it in the oven, but everything else was already in the casserole dish, so I guess this will be a science experiment!

  121. 121.

    different-church-lady

    August 19, 2016 at 9:03 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I think we should post this at Daily Kos just for the joy of seeing the inevitable, deadly earnest “Lobotomy is no laughing matter!” scold-fest unfold for the next seventeen months.

  122. 122.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 19, 2016 at 9:05 am

    @David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch:

    I wonder who’s leaking the Manforth/Ukraine stuff to the papers – Clinton or US intelligence.

    A lot of it is coming out of Ukraine, both from the government and from NGO actors. And it’s not “leaking” as such, since Manafort’s connections were very well known there. What’s relatively new is the stuff from the Yanukovych-party ledgers, which they left behind when they fled Kiev in February of 2014, and was quickly collected by a small group of journalists/activists.

  123. 123.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    August 19, 2016 at 9:07 am

    @Kay: Just another vote for you to get back on the front page, Kay.

  124. 124.

    Weaselone

    August 19, 2016 at 9:08 am

    @Loviatar:
    Eh. I have a hard time being outraged about this. It’s not an explicit denial and Powell has admitted his use of a personal email address for day to day communications while at State.

    The thing that outrages me is that, I believe the 4 SoS’s prior to Kerry all used alternate email setups to conduct business.

  125. 125.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    August 19, 2016 at 9:08 am

    @different-church-lady: That’s just retarded! (Dkos is pretty much an exemplar of butthurt at times.)

  126. 126.

    Bruce K

    August 19, 2016 at 9:09 am

    Let’s not get too wrapped up with AL falling for the fake Donald Trump tweet. The Republicans have handed over the keys to their presidential campaign to the heirs of Andrew Breitbart, and Poe’s Law is most assuredly in effect.

  127. 127.

    MattF

    August 19, 2016 at 9:10 am

    Not actually OT: A deck chair from the Titanic.

  128. 128.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2016 at 9:10 am

    @Kay:

    I read some of them on Twitter and here’s how they justify asking her about the emails for 24 months. They say it’s her fault because she never holds press conferences. They would have “moved on” but she didn’t let them.

    True. This is the reason they ask the same email question 500 times. Punishment. She’ll pay for denying access! We’ll all pay

    !

    I’m petty like this..

    I hope she continues to do what President Obama has done, which is go around those clowns.

    If she never had but 2 Press Conferences a year with those clowns, I wouldn’t care.

  129. 129.

    eric

    August 19, 2016 at 9:13 am

    @Jeffro: The Trump campaign is the sentencing defense used by the rapist that got probation. Yes, i did a bad thing, but look at me. if i say i am sorry that you felt hurt by my actions, isnt that enough? answer from judge and MSM….yes

  130. 130.

    MomSense

    August 19, 2016 at 9:14 am

    @Kay:

    They’re falling all over themselves to congratulate him on this non-apology. The bar couldn’t get any lower. Must be nice to be a big white guy with a big mouth and a rich daddy. Too bad everyone can’t “achieve” that.

    They’re falling all over themselves because the VSP/punditubbies are deluded and self important enough to think that der Trump is actually taking their advice. It’s really disgusting and pathetic.

  131. 131.

    Central Planning

    August 19, 2016 at 9:14 am

    @burnspbesq:

    with a dead mouse at 3:00 a.m.

    Better than a live mouse at 3:00am

  132. 132.

    aimai

    August 19, 2016 at 9:14 am

    @Comrade Scrutinizer: My daughter is spending a couple of weeks as a “lay observer” in a hospital here, a catholic hospital. The older white irish catholic nurses are all strongly against Trump because he will “blow us all up” but they hate Hillary becuase she will be “for the corporations” (left over Bernie crap) and “four more years of Obama” (whatever that means to them) and are very much disgusted with politics. Its not a great attitude and my poor daughter, who is only 17 and only there as an observer, can’t really intervene.

  133. 133.

    Feathers

    August 19, 2016 at 9:15 am

    @Loviatar: Powell is the son of Jamaican immigrants. Some of the most horribly racist shit about African Americans that I’ve heard has been from Caribbean immigrants. White racists at least know that they shouldn’t be saying this stuff, even if they believe it in their heart. Unfortunately, there is a certain number of Black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean who blame the racism that they experience upon arriving in America not on white America, but on the descendants of slaves, who if they just behaved properly and were not so horrible, would not have given Black people this terrible reputation, which for some reason is now also imputed to the honest and hard working Africans and Caribbean-Americans.

    Racism, like any abuse, can either open one’s eyes and inspire compassion for other victims of abuse, or it can curdle the heart, continuing the cycle.

    Edited to add: Not saying this describes Colin Powell’s attitudes. Most immigrants are idealistic and pro the best of America. But we must be aware of the flip side behaviors that exist as well.

  134. 134.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2016 at 9:15 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    @Betty Cracker: Trying to drag Secretary Clinton down to Trump’s level is all his side has. They’re just now opening a few offices in swing states and just now putting out anti-Clinton ads. I doubt they have any GOTV procedures in place as yet. Trump is running on tweets, rallies and t.v. interviews.

    To be honest, this is where her being attacked for 25 years works to our benefit. It is what it is.

    And, yes, this is all they have.

    Remember…

    WE have won a lot of the voter suppression cases.

    and Willard got 60% of the White Vote – and it DIDN’T EVEN MATTER.

  135. 135.

    Cat48

    August 19, 2016 at 9:15 am

    Daily News says before the Trump rally began, the cops asked a Muslim woman to leave. She was handing out free pens that said Peace Be With You or something like that. Guess she was disturbing the nice white people.

  136. 136.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 19, 2016 at 9:15 am

    @Baud: so sprachte Greg Sargent
    Greg Sargent ‏@ ThePlumLineGS 2h2 hours ago
    CLINTON: “I regret emails.” [repeats 1000x]

    MEDIA: “Why won’t you express regret?:”

    TRUMP: “I regret _____ ”

    MEDIA: “All is forgiven!”
    1,236 retweets 1,562 likes

    ETA: On Joy Reid’s late night wrap up, whatever the hell they call it, Katy Tur and a couple of other Bright Young Things were all white hot fantodded about Trump’s newfound talent for reading off a teleprompter, his best week ever, a new dawn! I admit to muting it when they start airing his droning, but wasn’t it just a few days ago he was telling Hannity we need a foreign policy based on plunder and spoils of war? We should’ve kept the Iraqi oil, really good oil? Am I the only one who wondered where we were supposed to put it?

  137. 137.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2016 at 9:17 am

    @Kay:

    I think the coverage of the debates will be rough sledding. Clinton will prepare and do a good or great job and Trump will show up and they’ll give him a trophy.

    I’m sick of it. It devalues work and that hurts everyone who works. 30 years of work doesn’t matter, effort doesn’t matter, merit doesn’t matter. What matters is gimmicks and making stuff up. That this privileged, entitled nasty dope has gotten this far is just appalling.

    Keep on preaching it, Kay.

    TELL IT!!!!!

  138. 138.

    Jeffro

    August 19, 2016 at 9:21 am

    @Shalimar:

    The system where dozens of different independent pollsters ask tens of thousands of people “who do you want to vote for?” and get the answer “anyone other than that asshole” is systematically rigged somehow. Ok.

    I just want to hear RW pundits telling folks with a straight face how the media pumped up Trump in the primaries, but then smeared him in the general. I have a feeling it will not include any discussion of the failings of the “deep bench”, how Trump was better aligned with the typical GOP voter, or how (whether you measure from March, June, or the RNC) Trump put himself in a hole simply with his own words.

    Nope, it’ll be that dastardly media…pumped up their weakest guy to get him through the primaries, then turned on him with a vengeance to support HIstory’s Second Greatest Monster.

  139. 139.

    Peale

    August 19, 2016 at 9:21 am

    @Kay: yep. From what I can tell he’s built resorts in Florida, probably on empty land that wasn’t a “neighborhood” to begin with. Put skyscrapers in places that had skyscrapers. His biggest development in nyc is a housing complex on west side that is almost singular for being near Times Square but street dead. The community where no one walks around outside.

  140. 140.

    MattF

    August 19, 2016 at 9:23 am

    @Kay: I agree. Debates (if they take place) will be the last chance for media to put their thumb on the scale.

  141. 141.

    satby

    August 19, 2016 at 9:24 am

    @jacy: How are you guys doing?
    And thanks!

  142. 142.

    Immanentize

    August 19, 2016 at 9:24 am

    @MomSense:

    punditubbies

    So excellent. I will steal this if OK with you with vague credit to Momsense.

  143. 143.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 19, 2016 at 9:29 am

    @WereBear:

    The weird thing is, I could see that working.

    eh, maybe. The wingnuttery is pretty heavily saturated. It would be classic Donald to both get trashed in the election and launch a Trump News that promptly fails.

  144. 144.

    Kay

    August 19, 2016 at 9:30 am

    @MattF:

    I saw photos of his rally in NC. They curtained off huge areas to make it look full. Now maybe it’s a huge venue and he still had a big crowd, but his fans were not coming to hear teleprompter Trump. Those rallies were freaking hatefests.

    I hope the crowds dwindle and that gets covered. Because if you take away the hate Trump is a mediocre politician. He’s not talented. He was relying on getting those people to shriek at the press pen and chant “lock her up!”. THAT was the draw.

  145. 145.

    peach flavored shampoo

    August 19, 2016 at 9:32 am

    just like they didn’t attach the cannibal in Florida, wearing a Trump “Make America Great ” hat to him

    The who did what wearing what, say what?

  146. 146.

    Kay

    August 19, 2016 at 9:34 am

    Donald J. TrumpVerified account
    ‏@realDonaldTrump
    Thank you to everyone for all of the nice comments, by Twitter, pundits and otherwise for my speech last night.

    And, there it is. All is forgiven and it’s time to pretend the last year never happened.

    Mistakes were made.

  147. 147.

    Immanentize

    August 19, 2016 at 9:38 am

    @Kay: there was always a theory in his camp that you could do anything before Labor Day. He’s just called it a bit early.

  148. 148.

    Jeffro

    August 19, 2016 at 9:39 am

    @eric:

    The Trump campaign is the sentencing defense used by the rapist that got probation. Yes, i did a bad thing, but look at me. if i say i am sorry that you felt hurt by my actions, isnt that enough? answer from judge and MSM….yes

    Yup, spot-on.

    Conway’s helping him walk it back much as you’ve noted…”he meant he regrets that anyone took his remarks badly”…Scarborough’s trying to say the ‘screaming racist’ is a character that Trump’s been playing…ugh

  149. 149.

    Punchy

    August 19, 2016 at 9:44 am

    @Kay: Pretty big disconnect between what the media is saying and what people already believe w/r/t his unfitness for the office. His negatives are baked in, independent of the narrative the media tries to sell at this point. Not to mention, there’s no way he stays this “moderate” until September, let alone November.

    But you just keep fretting this, you good Democrat! :)

  150. 150.

    amk

    August 19, 2016 at 9:45 am

    Once the altright racists get turned off by the donnie dick’s faux mea culpa, let’s see his ‘crowd pulling power’.

  151. 151.

    GregB

    August 19, 2016 at 9:45 am

    @Jeffro:

    Now that all recent past fuck ups are forgiven on Trump the media can get to to bottom of who Hillary Clinton represented as a law intern when she was 23 and why Bill Clinton smoked weed when he was 19.

  152. 152.

    WaterGirl

    August 19, 2016 at 9:47 am

    I am woefully behind on BJ – I had a family visit, preparations for the visit, followed by my vacation and now catching up on all the post-company stuff like washing a zillion sets of sheets and towels.

    I’m okay on politics, I think. Trump is stupid, crazy, evil and lazy. Hillary Clinton emails! The olympics. Info coming out about Ukraine (guessing it is mostly being ignored).

    Sounds like I’ve missed a lot of BJ-people stuff. The 100k fundraising & match for a shelter? ruemara job interview? custody news from jacy? debit has an arrival date for walter? cliff notes versions or links to important threads would be most welcome!

  153. 153.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 19, 2016 at 9:49 am

    White supremacist stabs interracial couple after seeing them kiss at bar, police say
    “He tells them, ‘Yeah, I stabbed them. I’m a white supremacist,’” Lower said. “He begins talking about Donald Trump rallies and attacking people at the Black Lives Matter protest.”

  154. 154.

    nonynony

    August 19, 2016 at 9:49 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Is Powell trying to insinuate that he used a different server for classified messages?

    This whole e-mail story has been reported so stupidly that I can see how you’d have this question (because if it were reported clearly people would realize there wasn’t anything to it). But the way it worked is that classified e-mail messages stay within the secure State Department network and only on e-mail servers approved to hold classified data. Non-classified e-mails were – in Powell’s case – sent to his personal Gmail account and in Clinton’s case sent to a personal e-mail server she’d set up. These had different e-mail addresses and were used for different purposes. In both cases it seems that this was done primarily so that Powell and Clinton could use their own handheld devices to check non-classified e-mails during meetings and whatnot without having to go find a computer approved for classified information or switching to an old-model Blackberry which was the only device approved at the time to make connections to classified e-mail servers (whether this is still true or not I don’t know because the reporting around this story is so goddamn useless).

    So what Powell was saying is that he recommended having an e-mail account for the day-to-day work crap and a second e-mail account purely for transmitting and receiving classified information via the State Department’s email system. And that’s what Clinton did, she just used her own server instead of using Gmail (possibly because she wanted more control over leaks on her personal e-mail and assumed that some intern or contractor at Google getting ahold of her e-mails and selling them to the National Enquirer would be a thing that could happen and would be more likely to happen to her than to Powell.)

  155. 155.

    Glidwrith

    August 19, 2016 at 9:50 am

    Today is our 21st wedding anniversary. Reminiscing about The Day – Best Man with his head out the limo window, helmet hair and skreaking hand wound cameras. Good times.

  156. 156.

    Major Major Major Major

    August 19, 2016 at 9:51 am

    @amk: They’ll just say that they know he’s only pretending not to be a racist shitheel, and for once they’ll be right. The alt-reich folks are rather fond of the “Donald Trump is an 11-dimensional troll” theory.

    @Punchy: Well we wouldn’t be democrats if we didn’t constantly worry about how we were going to fuck it up this time.

  157. 157.

    Jeffro

    August 19, 2016 at 9:52 am

    @GregB:

    Now that all recent past fuck ups are forgiven on Trump the media can get to to bottom of who Hillary Clinton represented as a law intern when she was 23 and why Bill Clinton smoked weed when he was 19.

    I have no doubt that with Breitbart/Bannon on the case, they’ll be getting to the bottom of a lot worse than that, unfortunately. 80 days of made-up insanity and filth.

    “When they go low, we go high…” AND we get-out-the-vote!

    Pivot all you want, Trump. Lie all you want, Bannon. Enable all you want, media. We’re still going to get. out. the. VOTE!

  158. 158.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 19, 2016 at 9:55 am

    Having been on the road all this week, I’ve seen more MSNBC in my motel room than I see in six months when I’m home. And today, apart from the Trump “regret” story and the HRC-Colin Powell stuff, they seem to be taking particular delight in hitting President Obama on two fronts: “ransom for hostages,” and “how dare he stay on vacation and not come to Louisiana?!?!”

  159. 159.

    Jeffro

    August 19, 2016 at 9:58 am

    Btw there is a cartoon up of…wow…it’s a cartoon called “Extreme Vetting”

    It has Trump in an interrogation room, and the stereotypical interrogator’s bright light is shining on…Omran, that poor Syrian kid who got pulled from the recent Aleppo bombing? The one sitting dazed in an orange chair after he was rescued?

    Wow.

    Cartoon is at caglecartoons dot com (I saw it on Twitter too)

  160. 160.

    D58826

    August 19, 2016 at 9:59 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Speaking of e-mails. Seems at least one tidbit from the FBI files has leaked. Seems Hillary told the FBI twice that Collin Powell recommended the use of a private e-mail account. She said it confirmed in her mind what she was thinking of doing any way.

    Of course for Hillary it’s totally different since Powell used AOL and she used her private server. Will the appropriate agencies review Powell’s e-mails for any secure information? Oh wait he deleted them. Oh well that’s ok he is a Goper.

    In the meantime the House wants to look into perjury charges because in one context Hillary said her lawyers reviewed all of the e-mails and in another she said read. They also want to pursue the idea that she lied about there not being any top secret information in the e-mails, in spite of:
    1. two were mis-classified
    2. according to the letter sent to Congress by the FBI one had vague and possibly confusing security markings deep in the e-mail string and
    3. the rest were classified after the fact.

    But somewhere there must be a crime that Hillary has committed. Somewhere………

  161. 161.

    Major Major Major Major

    August 19, 2016 at 10:00 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: I accidentally read part of a Chris Chilliizziaar column today where he was talking about how Obama is staying “on vacation” because he despises posturing. Which is, of course, true. In the middle of the story he had a little paragraph that said, approximately, “and for those of you who say ‘But all Obama DOES is posture!’, remember that I’m describing how the president sees himself.”

    That’s when I closed the browser tab.

  162. 162.

    Kropadope

    August 19, 2016 at 10:01 am

    I forget who posted this article the other day about the development growth unholy spawning of the modern contemporary American right wing. But I take issue with it’s premise…

    That belief is comforting, but it is wrong. Trump is a unique character, but the principles he defends and the passions he inflames have been part of the modern American right since its formation in the aftermath of the second world war before the American Civil War.

    Fixt

  163. 163.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 19, 2016 at 10:07 am

    @Jeffro:

    Wow. I’d love to put that up on my FB page (obviously with artist and site attribution) but they seem to want me to buy a license in order to do that. But wow indeed, that is powerful.

  164. 164.

    Honus

    August 19, 2016 at 10:07 am

    In fact trump is right. The system is rigged. In his favor. The electoral college provides disproportionate representation to small rural states.

  165. 165.

    1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)

    August 19, 2016 at 10:08 am

    @NorthLeft12: @WereBear: @OzarkHillbilly:

    When you make running prisons a profit-making enterprise, you of course need to maintain a steady supply of prisoners. By whatever means are necessary.

    Of course, this sort of thing would never lead to increased demand for mandatory minimum sentences, increased criminalization of various human activities, or resistance to decriminalization of marijuana.
    If you buy that, can I have $50 for a good cause? No, you don’t need to know what the good cause is. Just trust me.

  166. 166.

    Major Major Major Major

    August 19, 2016 at 10:08 am

    @Honus: Uh, how exactly?

  167. 167.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2016 at 10:09 am

    @Glidwrith:

    Happy Anniversary :)

  168. 168.

    amk

    August 19, 2016 at 10:10 am

    Robert Costa @costareports

    SCOOP: A close friend of Manafort tells me he has resigned
    7:28 PM – 19 Aug 2016

  169. 169.

    Tenar Darell

    August 19, 2016 at 10:11 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I love this for its happening style aesthetics, its tongue in cheek point that this Emperor really has no clothes, and for the comeuppance it delivers to this man who is now embodying all the old but new -isms we thought we at least beat back a little. I’d like to see the supporting materials of where else these statues showed up and what happened. I want to know how it was pulled off, because it is really a brilliant use of mockery in art.

    My only qualm is what would happen/how I would feel about a Hillary Clinton sculpture, but then I had to remind myself what’s been happening to her image for years. IIRC (because who wants to google for it) there’s been plenty of blow-up dolls with Hillary masks already. The worst has already happened to her, a lot. Hard to worry about the consequences of this work when they’ve already occurred.

  170. 170.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2016 at 10:13 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    they seem to be taking particular delight in hitting President Obama on two fronts: “ransom for hostages,” and “how dare he stay on vacation and not come to Louisiana?!?!”

    WITHOUT reporting that the actual GOVERNOR of Louisiana has said that:
    1. he’s gotten everything that the state needs
    2. he got it in record time
    3. he’s on the phone with the Vacation White House (Valerie Jarrett) every day
    4. and, the people in charge of FEMA are competent
    5. And, the Governor has specifically said that RIGHT NOW, the state doesn’t need the DISTRACTION of the President coming. Maybe in a few weeks, when they’re deep into rebuilding. BUT NOT NOW.

    Yes…I can see how this hurts the President.

  171. 171.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 19, 2016 at 10:13 am

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I can’t remember now whether it was the Baton Rouge police chief or maybe the Lieutenant Governor of the state, but some official made the perfectly obvious point that if the President were to come down now to inspect the damage first-hand, they would have to pull a large number of first responders off their rescue/recovery duties and put them on traffic/security detail. He also pointed out that FEMA folks are doing a great job.

  172. 172.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 19, 2016 at 10:14 am

    BREAKING (if unsurprising): Paul Manafort has resigned.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

  173. 173.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2016 at 10:15 am

    @Tenar Darell:

    The worst has already happened to her, a lot. Hard to worry about the consequences of this work when they’ve already occurred.

    25 years of demonization.

    that’s why I say…BRING IT.

    That’s all you got?????

  174. 174.

    D58826

    August 19, 2016 at 10:15 am

    @rikyrah: @SiubhanDuinne: You keep confusing real world facts with media generated optics. Optics are much more important because you can talk about them forever without have to actual prove anything

  175. 175.

    Cat48

    August 19, 2016 at 10:16 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Ok, guess my husband & I can’t go out anymore. Where did this happen? City or State. Being near a military base helps us blend in where we live.

  176. 176.

    mike in dc

    August 19, 2016 at 10:17 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    There it is.

  177. 177.

    JanieM

    August 19, 2016 at 10:17 am

    @Major Major Major Major: I would assume Honus is referring to the fact that each small rural state gets two electoral votes for its senators, the same # as e.g. New York and California. Skewed, like the Senate, in relation to population, but not as badly, since each state gets an elector for each of its reps as well, and the # of reps *is* proportional to population.

    ETA: edited for clarity, but pre-caffeine, so possibly still not as clear as it could be

  178. 178.

    MattF

    August 19, 2016 at 10:18 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, Twitterverse agrees. There’s NYT articles coming on Manafort, and they won’t be a positive development for Trump.

  179. 179.

    nonynony

    August 19, 2016 at 10:20 am

    @Cat48: Story says Olympia WA.

    Also from the story:

    police said Rowe’s behavior grew stranger as officers tried to wrestle him into the back of a patrol car.

    “He tells them, ‘Yeah, I stabbed them. I’m a white supremacist,’” Lower said. “He begins talking about Donald Trump rallies and attacking people at the Black Lives Matter protest.”

    …

    According to court documents obtained by the Olympian, Rowe, who was unconscious when police encountered him, had tattoos that read “skinhead,” “white power” and “hooligan.” One tattoo showed the Confederate flag.

    …

    “This has all the hallmarks of a hate crime,” Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Wheeler said

    I’d say it not only has all of the hallmarks of a hate crime, it has two or three copies of some of them. Yeesh.

  180. 180.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2016 at 10:20 am

    Study finds Latinos age at slower rate than other ethnicities

    In the quest to find the fountain of youth, scientists may one day look to Latinos to find the answer, as a new study shows they age at a slower rate than individuals of other ethnicities. The findings, published in Genome Biology, used several biomarkers to study changes linked to aging in the genome.

    “Latinos live longer than Caucasians, despite experiencing higher rates of diabetes and other diseases,” Steve Horvath, lead author and professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, said in a news release. “Our study helps explain this by demonstrating that Latinos age more slowly at the molecular level.”

    The biomarkers evaluated included an “epigenetic clock” developed by Horvath that tracks an epigenetic shift linked to aging in the genome. Epigenetics is the study of changes to the DNA molecule that influence which genes are active but don’t alter the DNA sequence itself.

  181. 181.

    Punchy

    August 19, 2016 at 10:20 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Again, I ask. Which one is Paul Manafort and which one is Rick Pitino? A or B?

  182. 182.

    bystander

    August 19, 2016 at 10:20 am

    @amk: Ha! His nose was so out of joint on top of his looming legal problems. I do hope there’s some follow up on his failure to register as a foreign lobbyist.

    @SiubhanDuinne: You’re absolutely right. It was the Governor saying they did not need to divert resources. As if Obama did not know that. But Trump is on his way so,you can expect some WATB display that would put a 2 year old to shame.

  183. 183.

    Jeffro

    August 19, 2016 at 10:21 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: Saw some wit on Twitter (I think it was from LOL GOP): “By the end of this campaign, Trump will have had 5 different campaigns from 3 different campaign managers”

    As my 15-year-old would say: “daaaaang…THAT is some serious SHADE bein’ thrown…”

    /oldguy attempt

  184. 184.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 19, 2016 at 10:24 am

    @mike in dc:

    Whomp!!

    @Punchy:

    That’s kind of amazing. Separated at birth.

  185. 185.

    C. Isaac

    August 19, 2016 at 10:24 am

    Wow.

    The cars just keep piling up on the Trump trainwreck. It’s simply mindblowing how off the rails this is getting.

    I just want it to translate into the greatest political defeat of an opponent since 1984. Trumpism needs to be repudiated and crushed so thoroughly we do not see it again in our lifetime.

  186. 186.

    Ken

    August 19, 2016 at 10:25 am

    @Jeffro:

    He’ll do well with the rump of the GOP as his base while he creates Mega-BreitbartTV

    True, except there’s no way that Breitbart gets top billing. The name will have “Trump”, possibly repeated several times.

  187. 187.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 19, 2016 at 10:27 am

    @D58826:

    And “optics” is their buzzword du jour.

  188. 188.

    germy

    August 19, 2016 at 10:28 am

    Seeing that map, it always looks to me like Alaska is running away from the rest of the states.

    Also, those big red states look so scary, but they are sparsely populated (the conservatives like extra shoulder room). Sort of like RWNJs who leave comments on news sites. They want to appear numerous, but they’re not a majority.

  189. 189.

    ruemara

    August 19, 2016 at 10:28 am

    You guys. Thanks very much for the well wishes. I have a few hours before the interview to fret myself into a state, so that’s a plan. I have notes & questions to finalize during breakfast.

    Congrats on the house, satby. May it go smoothly. And congrats on the mouse, burns. May your hunger always be satiated.

  190. 190.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 19, 2016 at 10:31 am

    in any sane world, Trump’s visit would make Obama’s point that grandstanding photo ops don’t do much in situations like this. He says he’s there to “help”. Okay. How?

    (and while I usually avoid the fashion-policing, seeing as my style Guru is Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison, Trump looks really stupid in that baseball cap and blazer combo

  191. 191.

    Cat48

    August 19, 2016 at 10:31 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Maybe the Administration has spoiled LA. VP Joe was just there for the policemens funerals a few weeks ago, Obama twice for mini hurricanes, and several times for the fucken BP spill. The Govenor said Fugate had spent an entire day with him & his people have been there a week with water & food. FEMA has taken 88,000 applications for assistance. Fugate said the water will be there a while & a place to stay is most important. The Dem Governor really bragged on Obama when he was on Rachel. The GOP monkeys need to stfu bc their going to have to give FEMA $1B or more for LA & pay the fn,ZIKA funds Obama asked for in JANUARY. sigh

  192. 192.

    Aleta

    August 19, 2016 at 10:31 am

    I have a question about Balloon Juice and hotspots. Is there something about this site that would cause high download? I’ve been using a hotspot for the last 3 weeks, mostly for news and BJ. No youtube, no video, not streaming anything. Still the gigabyte count has been unusually and very high, much more than other years. Or is there something about going to the posts through JC Twitter links that would cause high download?

    (I mostly only use the hotspot for 2 months of the year, with a (grandfathered) plan where I pay low monthly rate but pay $10 per gigabyte after exceeding 2 gigabytes. It’s still the cheapest way since I only use it those 2 months. It never caps.)

  193. 193.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 19, 2016 at 10:32 am

    @bystander:

    Couldn’t remember who in LA said what, but it’s true. Any visit anywhere by a high-level official, let alone the freaking POTUS, is a logistical and security challenge. During a time of chaos and confusion, it would be exponentially more so. They don’t need that kind of headache right now, and Obama is doing the thoughtful thing. I’m sure he’ll visit in a week or so after the waters have receded and he can get a better idea of the extent of the damage.

  194. 194.

    ruemara

    August 19, 2016 at 10:33 am

    @Glidwrith: Awww. Happy Anniversary! I hope you guys have a great night out.

  195. 195.

    randy khan

    August 19, 2016 at 10:35 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    And, typical of the Trump campaign, Manfort’s resignation wasn’t on the same day as the new people came on board, so there’s another news cycle of “campaign in disarray” stories to stomp on the potential stories about him actually spending money on TV ads.

  196. 196.

    ruemara

    August 19, 2016 at 10:37 am

    @rikyrah: when will they test black DNA? No one believes my age.

  197. 197.

    Immanentize

    August 19, 2016 at 10:38 am

    @1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet): this exactly. As serious violent crimes have diminished arrests went up for smaller and non-violent crimes. These types of criminals are the sweet spot for the private prison industry.

  198. 198.

    Aleta

    August 19, 2016 at 10:38 am

    Someone in T’s camp will now put out naked images of HRC.

  199. 199.

    Jeffro

    August 19, 2016 at 10:39 am

    @germy:

    Also, those big red states look so scary, but they are sparsely populated (the conservatives like extra shoulder room). Sort of like RWNJs who leave comments on news sites. They want to appear numerous, but they’re not a majority.

    True story: after the 2004 elections, a conservative wrote in to my local paper and was crowing about the “total land area ‘won’ by the Bush/Cheney ticket”, as yet more evidence of W’s ‘mandate’. (Yes I wrote a sarcastic rebuttal – never pass on low-hanging fruit like that!) I mean, the mind boggles…

  200. 200.

    Immanentize

    August 19, 2016 at 10:40 am

    @ruemara: good luck!! Remember the most successful candidates are always the ones that get the interviewers to talk about themselves!!

  201. 201.

    Aleta

    August 19, 2016 at 10:43 am

    Yesterday Tr said on twitter: “They will soon be calling me MR. BREXIT!”

    Landing in Scotland and congratulating them for leaving the UK is one of his biggest achievements it seems.

  202. 202.

    Cat48

    August 19, 2016 at 10:45 am

    @nonynony:
    That’s really scary. Even if I only had a tiny flesh wound from something like that, it would totally traumatize me for months. I might never leave the house again. Heh

  203. 203.

    WaterGirl

    August 19, 2016 at 10:46 am

    @ruemara: I am late to the party on this, but sending good thoughts for the interview. I always do my best in an interview when I can remember that I am interviewing them as much as they are interviewing me. Go get ’em!

  204. 204.

    Tenar Darell

    August 19, 2016 at 10:48 am

    @MomSense: &
    @Kay: So right. That clip of pundit *spit* people asking Hillary Clinton over and over and over “why do you think people don’t like you” for TWENTY-FIVE years just slayed me. After watching that IMHO she has an absolute right to look at every person in the press like they’re something you scraped off your shoes. And just like the mediocre white-man she has the right to dictate the terms of how she interacts with the press. Trump gets to call-in to his “friends” on Morning Joe, then Clinton should get to hand-pick her interviewer or the venue she does best in.

  205. 205.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    August 19, 2016 at 10:51 am

    Someone in a downstairs thread mentioned that Ailes would be restrained by a non-competition clause

    @WereBear: Ugly truth: unless you get lucky, very lucky, judges don’t enforce these. They’re on fairly shaky legal ground in the first place, and the other ugly truth is that they’re usually used to ruin people’s lives, something of which the judges are pretty cognizant.

  206. 206.

    D58826

    August 19, 2016 at 10:53 am

    And now the VSP’s are having a fainting spell over the 400 million dollars in Iranian money that the US returned to Iran last Jan. at the time the Americans were released. Lets just change one fact on this. Rather than turning the money over immediately after the Americans were released, suppose the money was turned over 2 months later. Does any one think that the GOPers/VSP would not be yelling ransom? And just a thought – in every wh-don-it I ever read the ransom is paid upfront not after the fact. But OPTICS again

  207. 207.

    bemused

    August 19, 2016 at 10:55 am

    Trump’s sole reason for being is to bully everyone into groveling before him and acknowledge he is the yoogest kahuna ever. He doesn’t seem to be concerned about alienating just about anyone or any group you could name and what effect that could have on his profit making ventures after he lose in Nov.

  208. 208.

    Chris

    August 19, 2016 at 10:55 am

    @Loviatar:

    Colin Powell was a good little soldier of the Movement, who had a little misunderstanding about the nature of his place in it. After all the dues he’d obediently paid throughout his career (beginning with the glowing review of My Lai way back when), he thought he was a made man. Never realizing that to his bosses, he was just a useful prop to be used for cover and then discarded.

    Yeah, I don’t have too much respect for him either.

  209. 209.

    CaseyL

    August 19, 2016 at 10:55 am

    I’m staying home today on account of not feeling well.

    The irony of that is, my office has AC, my house doesn’t, and it’s supposed to get up into the 90s today here in Seattle. Bleh.

    Quite a lot of news to catch up on: ruemara’s interview (sending good vibes!), satby got her new house (congrats, though I’d be sad, too, to leave that sweet mini-farm), OzarkHillbilly’s weekend of adventure (spouse gone! new chickens! have fun!), and Trump continuing to leave a slime trail everywhere he goes.

    Happy Friday, y’all!

  210. 210.

    Mike E

    August 19, 2016 at 11:11 am

    Y’all need to get some of them pine tree air fresheners, hang em in a quiet room and breathe…candles work too, but keep an extinguisher handy just in case!

  211. 211.

    Chris

    August 19, 2016 at 11:11 am

    @Kay:

    It’s always been this way with the Republican/Democrat double standard, but you know the bar is low when it applies even to Donald Trump. For much of this campaign, Trump has been the token Republican they don’t like – much of the media (and “establishment Republican”) whining about Trump has consisted of projecting the entirety of the GOP’s sins (racism, sexism, homophobia, ultramilitarism) onto Trump as if this were something new before denouncing him. That, at least, is admitting that he’s bad news, even if they won’t hold anyone else in the party responsible. But the fact that every time he does anything that falls at all short of their worst expectations, a bunch of them fall all over themselves proclaiming that he’s changed shows that no, they won’t even make an exception for Trump. They really are all in the tank for the GOP.

  212. 212.

    bemused

    August 19, 2016 at 11:15 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    My family is biracial and this couple could have been our kid and spouse. I will not allow any Republican, anyone, in my presence to make excuses for Trump and say Trump doesn’t mean what he says and incites against people of color and so many other Americans. They are just as guilty by condoning or rationalize that Trump isn’t deliberately, recklessly giving haters license to act out. They can’t hide behind their pretense of denial anymore.

  213. 213.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    August 19, 2016 at 11:16 am

    Colin Powell was a good little soldier of the Movement, who had a little misunderstanding about the nature of his place in it. After all the dues he’d obediently paid throughout his career (beginning with the glowing review of My Lai way back when), he thought he was a made man. Never realizing that to his bosses, he was just a useful prop to be used for cover and then discarded.

    Yeah, I don’t have too much respect for him either.

    @Chris: Having once been suckered into doing something I knew wasn’t right (Not My Lai level of evil, thank goodness!) I can feel very sorry for Powell as I, too, thought it was a big deal to those who had me do it. I was simply an errand boy as far as they were concerned. As was Powell.

    So I feel tremendous sorrow for him, as I know what drives a guy to go there, but also don’t respect him at all, as I know the thought process you have to go through to take those actions that you know ain’t right.

  214. 214.

    Ceci n'est pas mon nym

    August 19, 2016 at 11:22 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: I seem to recall W doing exactly that, coming into New Orleans [*], pulling 50 or so first responders off duty to walk around and stand behind him for photo ops, having electricity restored to one big tent for a speech and then… flying off again. And the lights turned back off.

    Of course as always, IOKIYAR.

    [*] I’m thinking this was Katrina, but a nagging corner of my brain says it was not New Orleans but another disaster somewhere in Florida which i’m not recalling the details of.

  215. 215.

    sukabi

    August 19, 2016 at 11:27 am

    @David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch: third possibility is the Russians… Manafort is rumored to owe on a deal gone bad, get him cut loose from drumpf, since it’s obvious drumpf’s campaign is a joke they won’t be paid back that way, and collect.

  216. 216.

    germy

    August 19, 2016 at 11:29 am

    @Jeffro: I wonder how he reacted to your rebuttal. “Land mass” … holy shit!

    “Get out the prairie dog vote!”

  217. 217.

    Poopyman

    August 19, 2016 at 11:29 am

    @amk:

    7:28 PM – 19 Aug 2016

    From where? The Philippines?

  218. 218.

    catclub

    August 19, 2016 at 11:30 am

    @David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch:

    I wonder who’s leaking the Manforth/Ukraine stuff to the papers – Clinton or US intelligence.

    One leaks, other confirms as second source.

  219. 219.

    germy

    August 19, 2016 at 11:30 am

    @Ceci n’est pas mon nym: Reminds me of Paul Ryan showing up at a shelter to wash some already clean pots and pans.

  220. 220.

    catclub

    August 19, 2016 at 11:33 am

    @Ceci n’est pas mon nym: It was Katrina.

  221. 221.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 19, 2016 at 11:43 am

    @Chris: Never realizing that to his bosses, he was just a useful prop to be used for cover and then discarded.

    Drives me crazy how the media treat Powell as if he tried to be a voice of caution and reason in the Bush administration (which I guess he did, but never very hard or very loudly), and only later resigned in frustration. Cheney and Rumsfeld ran roughshod over him, and made fun of him in private. Bush-Rove kept him around through the ’04 election to reassure the tote-baggers and what we’re now apparently calling college educated white suburbanites, then they tossed him aside.

  222. 222.

    Chris

    August 19, 2016 at 11:47 am

    @CONGRATULATIONS!:

    My thing is, it’s one thing to make that kind of mistake once, and another to do it for an entire career. Colin Powell’s career in this kind of role starts at My Lai and ends with the Iraq War thirty years later.

    Also, I admit, I’m still pissed off at him over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. It showed that he wasn’t just a good little soldier who did whatever his superiors told him, but that he was perfectly capable of campaigning against his commander-in-chief in the court of public opinion (was there any more public and dedicated opponent to Bill Clinton’s initial push to allow gays to serve openly?) – he was just selective about when he did so. (Quite obviously because Clinton wasn’t in his chosen political fraternity).

    And, well, when you decide that something as ridiculous as keeping gays out of the military is worth rebelling against your C-in-C over, but something on the scale of a war (or a war crime) isn’t, well, the things that says about your morality aren’t pretty.

  223. 223.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 19, 2016 at 11:48 am

    @Ceci n’est pas mon nym:

    I remember that too. And yes, it was Katrina.

  224. 224.

    Chris

    August 19, 2016 at 11:49 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Sadly, his terrible treatment by that administration is probably the closest any of the Iraq War architects will come to being punished. I enjoy it on that level if nothing else.

  225. 225.

    lurker dean

    August 19, 2016 at 11:50 am

    @Baud: this is late but my understanding is that the opera browser now has built in VPN you can turn on. i used to use opera exclusively and recently started using it again, it’s pretty good. much faster than firefox on my work computer.

  226. 226.

    germy

    August 19, 2016 at 11:59 am

    @lurker dean: I did a quick google search (to find out if it works for Macs) and found this:

    Opera Browser News Feature Doesn’t Include Conservative Outlets
    Breitbart News‎ – 2 days ago

  227. 227.

    Miss Bianca

    August 19, 2016 at 12:11 pm

    @burnspbesq: Could have been worse. Could have been half-dead.

  228. 228.

    pat

    August 19, 2016 at 12:15 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Well shouldn’t you be happy that she killed it first?

    eta… I wasn’t the first one with that thought.

  229. 229.

    shomi

    August 19, 2016 at 12:17 pm

    @Schlemazel: Yawn, his followers are too stupid to do anything organized. Just another mob and it wouldn’t be anything close to something like Baltimore. More like a Juggalos gathering that has run out of Faygo.

  230. 230.

    Stan

    August 19, 2016 at 12:20 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: Wait, Tony Perkins is gay?

  231. 231.

    Miss Bianca

    August 19, 2016 at 12:21 pm

    @WereBear:

    Completely derailed these kid’s lives. For a nice house and a boat.

    For all the good that ended up doing him…he’s in the jail house himself now, from what I recall. Was it a private prison he got sent to, by any chance?

  232. 232.

    shomi

    August 19, 2016 at 12:24 pm

    Yea but Trump is like totally winning when you unskew all the polls.

  233. 233.

    Miss Bianca

    August 19, 2016 at 12:33 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Remind me again…wasn’t MSNBC supposed to be the “liberal” version of Fox News?

  234. 234.

    Stan

    August 19, 2016 at 12:35 pm

    @JanieM: Not to get too deep in the weeds, but each State gets representation according to its total population. Not according to how many people can actually vote.

    This system worked extremely well in subverting democracy in the slave states before 1865 and in the jim crow era also. Ever wonder why most of our pre-1860 presidents were slaveowners?

  235. 235.

    Miss Bianca

    August 19, 2016 at 12:37 pm

    @ruemara: Another well-wish, well after the fact!

  236. 236.

    JanieM

    August 19, 2016 at 12:52 pm

    @Stan:

    @JanieM: Not to get too deep in the weeds, but each State gets representation according to its total population. Not according to how many people can actually vote.

    Well yes, in the House, and I said that: “and the # of reps *is* proportional to population.” I don’t think I said anything about how many people vote, so I don’t know why you’re bringing it up.

    Each state also gets two senators.

    The # of electors from each state is the sum of the two (# in House plus two senators). Are you contradicting that?

    Wyoming has one rep in Congress and two senators, thus three electors for a population of less than 600,000.

    California has 53 in Congress and two senators, thus 55 electors for a population of almost 39 million.

    Thus Wyoming gets an elector for each 200,000 people (actually fewer), whereas California gets one elector for each (roughly) 700,000 people. Or in other words, what Honus said in the first place.

  237. 237.

    Karen marie

    August 19, 2016 at 12:57 pm

    The CNN article says poor Donald was at his golf club in NJ when he spoke to Conway. I laughed at the report that their conversation included her telling him she “didn’t like the direction of his campaign.” That’s what everyone trying to help him has said (except Lewandowski) and look where it got them!

    But it was the golf course reference that struck me. Poor Donald doesn’t play golf, does he? I know he’s posed with instruments of the game but I’ve never heard that he actually plays. My guess is he owns these clubs solely for the ability ownership provides for him to rub elbows – and take money from – people who would not otherwise give him the time of day. What a sad, sad person.

  238. 238.

    JanieM

    August 19, 2016 at 1:03 pm

    Also relevant: in the Electoral College voting, all the states are winner take all (candidate who wins the popular vote gets all the EC votes), except Maine and Nebraska, where two votes (corr. to the two senators) go to the overall winner, and the others are apportioned by Congressional district.

    Not to get too deep into the weeds or anything.

  239. 239.

    The Lodger

    August 19, 2016 at 1:20 pm

    @Ken: “Well, the Trump, Trump, Trump, eggs, Breitbart and Trump hasn’t got much Trump in it…”

  240. 240.

    Feebog

    August 19, 2016 at 1:34 pm

    @Miss Bianca:

    wasn’t MSNBC supposed to be the “liberal” version of Fox News?

    They have lost a ton of really good people. Harris-Perry for example. I still watch Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow, as they are two of the most intelligent and honest journalists around, but beyond that, meh.

  241. 241.

    Feebog

    August 19, 2016 at 1:37 pm

    @Karen marie:

    Poor Donald doesn’t play golf, does he?

    I think he plays. And no doubt cheats.

  242. 242.

    catclub

    August 19, 2016 at 1:50 pm

    @germy: Excellent feature!

  243. 243.

    J R in WV

    August 19, 2016 at 2:17 pm

    @Thoughtful David:

    I would feel sorry for Gen. (ret) Powell, except that his whole career was based upon covering up stuff for the Army, starting with an attempted cover-up of the My Lai murder of civilians not involved with combat.

    I’m glad, even happy, that this despicable person has shown the public that his life was dedicated to the protection of evil-doers, and that he isn’t worth the concern of honest and good people.

  244. 244.

    Lurker Extraordinaire

    August 19, 2016 at 2:20 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: But….he’s gonna win NY, damn it!

  245. 245.

    J R in WV

    August 19, 2016 at 3:17 pm

    @Cat48:

    Olympia, Washington. The attacker was just released from prison, had racist tattoos, appears to have been deranged beyond his racist hatred. Appears that neither victim was badly damaged, physically.

    Best of luck to you and your spouse! Remember that crime of all sorts is way down and still becoming less common, in spite of Trump’s agitation and lies. The TV news shows operate with an “If it bleeds, it leads!” philosophy.

    Years ago we recruited a recently arrived Indian man (brilliant, a genius) and as part of getting him settled we told him that WV has among the lowest crime rates in the nation. Later he asked how that could be with so much crime reported on TV. I pointed out that the local TV stations would report a murder 150 miles away if they didn’t have a more local one.

    I think you guys can stroll hand in hand most places.

  246. 246.

    sunny raines

    August 19, 2016 at 3:22 pm

    more than ever, red states should be ashamed of themselves

  247. 247.

    J R in WV

    August 19, 2016 at 3:24 pm

    @Aleta:

    You might want an ad-blocker when you have constrained bandwidth. That helps, and one of the ads is a video that runs all the time.

    Then you can make a small contribution to make up for the loss of income from those ads.

  248. 248.

    Marjowil

    August 19, 2016 at 5:17 pm

    @debbie: I’d hate to see a naked Hillary. I think that would be offensive. And yes, that’s a double standard.

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