Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

I really should read my own blog.

Second rate reporter says what?

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

People are complicated. Love is not.

T R E 4 5 O N

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

So many bastards, so little time.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: Practical Politics, and Otherwise

Open Thread: Practical Politics, and Otherwise

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Could it be that Florida volunteers get hit with the same non-negotiable non-disclosure form as those in Ohio (another swing state which the GOP desperately needs to win)?

… The agreement is a required part of the sign-up process for Trump Red Dialer, an online call system that connects volunteers for the Republican presidential candidate with potential voters.

Earlier this year, volunteers for Trump in New York had to sign non-disclosure agreements in person before making phone calls at Trump Tower. But the website requirement is the first indication that online volunteers must also sign the form, even if they’ll never meet a Trump family member, attend a Trump rally, meet a campaign staffer in person or step inside a Trump campaign office…

“It’s not a typical procedure,” said Matt Moore, chairman of the GOP in South Carolina, where campaigns had volunteers making similar calls from their homes ahead of the primary in February. Moore also oversees phone bank operations as the state seeks to elect its candidates in legislative races.

Phone calls are a common tool to persuade voters and to encourage supporters to get out and vote. While presidential campaigns still have volunteers meet at phone bank locations, both the Clinton and now Trump campaign have an online dialer system to which volunteers can get call information and scripts to read to so they can make calls from anywhere.

“We’re most concerned about private information not being shared publicly and maintaining database security, so we do at times require volunteers or volunteer leaders to sign agreements to that effect,” said Moore. But nothing like the non-disparagement clause…

When asked about the necessity of the non-disclosure agreement for online volunteers, Trump Ohio campaign spokesman Seth Unger said: “We are running a state-of-the-art campaign for Mr. Trump that involves best-in-market volunteer platforms, and it is attracting thousands of volunteers who are tired of the same old Washington corruption and back room deals and are securing votes for a change in November.”…

Murphy the Trickster God only knows what horrors will be committed with those volunteers’ addresses after the official collapse of the Trump campaign. But I’m betting the poor fools sign away their rights to redress in that non-disclosure form, irregardless.

Reader Interactions

80Comments

  2. 2.

    Mike in NC

    Drumpf is famously, notoriously cheap. But his very good, very big brain means he doesn’t need the ground game.

  4. 4.

    rikyrah

    Bruce Bartlett @BruceBartlett
    Media are obsessed with balance. When one candidate has a real scandal & the other has nothing, a phony scandal must be invented for balance
    11:38 AM – 29 Aug 2016

  5. 5.

    rikyrah

    Lachlan MarkayVerified account
    ‏@lachlan
    The Trump campaign is requiring volunteers(!) to sign non-disclosure, non-compete, and non-disparagement agreements

  12. 12.

    Anoniminous

    If Trump has released his August fund raising numbers I can’t find them. My take: the figure, it are lousy. The result: he doesn’t have the cash to do anything more than his standard nothing burger campaign organizing we became accustomed to in the primary.

  15. 15.

    sigaba

    I’m sure a lawyer would know better, but I’m not sure how such an NDA could be enforceable without getting paid.

    This reminds me of the legendary “Michael Jackson rider”, where if you worked on a project he was participating in, you were sworn never to speak of it to anyone, and if you made any reference to Michael Jackson’s list of taboo subjects, whether he heard it or not, joking or not, you agreed to pay Michael Jackson $X, plus $Y for every person that was present when you made the offending comment.

  16. 16.

    r€nato

    as has been pointed out elsewhere, this NDA is unenforceable; the volunteer receives nothing in exchange for signing it, that right there makes it invalid. The overly-broad terms would likely also make it invalid… if one had the resources to litigate it.

    Surely someone (somewhere) on Trumputin’s campaign realizes this, or knew it from the start. So it’s just an exercise in bullying and paranoia.

  17. 17.

    Humdog

    I am not a lawyer, but I understand an eternal NDDA where the “employee” never is compensated is not binding. The volunteer gets nothing in return for forever keeping mum about how Trump sucks. What a deal!

  18. 18.

    r€nato

    @Humdog: this is one of the rare instances where I would agree with glibertarians. If you are fucking stupid enough to sign this thing because you are so entirely up Trumputin’s ass you’ll endure any humiliation… you get no sympathy from me when it finally sinks into your thick, thick skull how you got taken by Trumputin and his pathetic excuse for a presidential campaign, bitch about him on the internet, and get slapped with a ridiculous lawsuit for an equally ridiculous amount of money that requires you to hire an attorney for thousands of $ to make it go away.

  21. 21.

    Barney

    This is all part of the Trump plan to make money out his run. He’s already caught the Daily Mail on his hook, so there’s a potential big payout there (I’m guessing Webster Tarpley has little money); this gives him more avenues to sue through. It’s worth a try, even if his lawyers can’t be certain it’s enforceable; he’s got nothing to lose, and some of his volunteers might be rich enough to fleece if they decide to spill the beans on the campaign not really being set up to win.

    The lack of offices in Florida is part of it too; the first rule of the Trump campaign is “payouts go to Trump-controlled entities wherever possible”. And Trump TV is looking ever more likely, with Roger Ailes to squat over it (as long as he doesn’t ask Trump for money, just a steady supply of unwilling interns).

  22. 22.

    piratedan

    well it could be that Trump doesn’t think that local offices buy him much. After all, it appears that the MSM is so invested in their own financial model and his perpetual outrage machine seems fully capable of running continuously to give them the clicks they want and the exposure that he needs. Plus, it seems as if his incessant Gish galloping will not be reined in at least until the first debate. He doesn’t need to do any oppo research because the Media is already handling that for him (Clinton rules fully engaged).

    With his demogaugic model, he doesn’t need boots on the ground, he’s looking like he already has full media saturation.

  23. 23.

    hovercraft

    @Mike in NC:
    He’s very prudent with money, as demonstrated by his habit of not paying people for services rendered. Per TPM this includes 10 staffers. This is a very efficient method for keeping costs down. Trump, bringing fiscal discipline to America.

  24. 24.

    petesh

    @redshirt: dmsilev and I are more on the Python than the Bodhisattva track, just at the moment. Though, come to think of it, No one expects enlightenment should be a koan for our times.

  25. 25.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Calling it a “cluster fuck” and getting sued would be the equivalent of someone yelling “Brezhnev is an idiot” on Red Square in the 70’s and being arrested for disclosing state secrets.

  27. 27.

    Brachiator

    Trump is counting on TV and stunt appearances to make up for the lack of a ground game, and the free publicity he gets from press coverage. But his handlers are finding a way to maximize his “shoot from the hip style.”

    Trump flies to Mexico and the press dutifully note that looks presidential. Then Trump can rush to Arizona to whip up his base, and get rave reviews from hosts, viewers and callers on Fox news and conservative radio stations. Look for more of this in the future. This may be a desperation ploy, but it sticks with what Trump knows best and plays to his comfort zone.

  29. 29.

    petesh

    @Villago Delenda Est: I was in Red Square in 1978, en route from Nepal to the UK, wearing my hair and beard and Levis, and a young woman ran up and kissed me, and then ran away. Liveliest person I saw there.

  30. 30.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Brachiator: Drumpf cannot look “presidential” even if the Disney Animatronics team grafted Abraham Lincoln’s head onto his body.

  33. 33.

    rikyrah

    Reid Wilson
    ‏@PoliticsReid
    Appeals court denies Michigan AG’s request for another hearing, so straight-ticket voting remains an option this yr

  34. 34.

    germy

    Aw c’mon! What’s more American than loyalty oaths?

    I had to Pledge Allegiance To The Flag every morning in grade school. You would think one pledge of allegiance would last a lifetime, right?

    Nope, we had to pledge every morning.

  36. 36.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    Yes. They’ve moved from “Lock her up!” to “String her up!” Trump will end up more of a cropper than Joseph McCarthy and Father Charles Coughlin combined.

  37. 37.

    scav

    If even volunteers can criticize anything Trump related, ever, it somehow throws a light on what working in any actual Trump firm must be like. Rather top-down shambolic, heavily orientated toward PR and appearance rather than actual functioning, unsurprisingly.

  38. 38.

    Anonymous At Work

    NDAs for unpaid volunteers can be binding but courts would look at them critically and narrowly construe the terms to the extent the court felt comfortable with enforcement (Blue pencil rule)
    For an NDA that’s purposefully written this overbroadly, there’s good precedent to throw the entire thing out to spite the company for wasting the court’s time.

    That’s a non-legal analysis.

  39. 39.

    debbie

    @Brachiator:

    Trump flies to Mexico and the press dutifully note that looks presidential.

    I watched the joint statements. What exactly was presidential? Trump looked down at his paper the entire time he was speaking.

  42. 42.

    trnc

    Donald Trump has 1 office open in all of Florida. That’s a total disaster.

    He has at least 3 if you count the governor’s and attorney general’s offices.

  43. 43.

    OGLiberal

    Karen Tumulty, who seemed OK when she worked for TIME, represents everything horrible about how the DC press resents and blamed the Clintons:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clinton-was-right-about-the-vast-right-wing-conspiracy-heres-why-it-exists/2016/09/02/4a5e0fba-6879-11e6-99bf-f0cf3a6449a6_story.html

    She’s one of the big “xxx days without a press conference” cheerleaders. With crap pieces like this, KT, do you wonder why the Clintons don’t trust y’all?

  46. 46.

    r€nato

    @scav: the Cheney/Bush regime was also very big on loyalty at all costs and maintaining the party line at all costs, with vindictive retaliation – even if self-destructive – the price for straying. Ask Joe Wilson about that one.

    So, a Trump/Pence administration would be Bush/Cheney on steroids from that aspect. A recipe for an even bigger disaster. That Trumputin has attracted as much support as he has, is frightening and depressing. Just imagine if he was running a halfway competent campaign, this would be a real race despite Trumputin’s many, many flaws and total unsuitability to the office.

  48. 48.

    r€nato

    @efgoldman: Jimmy John’s. There are many reasons to never, ever patronize that place. From the CEO (founder?) who murders elephants and tigers for sport to their horribly exploitative labor practices that make Wal-Mart look like a union shop and make the Papa John’s douchenozzle look like a nice guy who loves his employees and always tries to do right by them.

  49. 49.

    petesh

    @redshirt: At the time, Aeroflot had the cheapest flights from Delhi to London, so long as you were willing to spend two nights in Moscow. I’d just been trekking in Nepal for a couple of months, solo but staying in tea houses — no electricity for five straight weeks — followed by an awesome experience on Buddha’s birthday at Swyambhunath, just outside Kathmandu … I was very high with no chemical assistance, and I imagine this was pretty obvious, especially in Moscow. In retrospect, I’m surprised they let me in!

  52. 52.

    James E Powell

    When did David Sirota become Hillary Clinton’s very own Inspector Javert? I can’t believe he’s working this hard to get Trump elected. He’s probably just trying to make sure the Republicans hold the senate.

  53. 53.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @r€nato:

    Ask Joe Wilson about that one.

    This puzzled me for several minutes until I realized you were talking about former diplomat/spouse of Valerie Plame, and not the SC Representative who yelled “You lie!” during Obama’s address on health care to a joint session of Congress.

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Drumpf cannot look “presidential” even if the Disney Animatronics team grafted Abraham Lincoln’s head onto his body.

    His most devoted supporters would disagree with you. As I noted in another thread, his appearance in Mexico was getting rave reviews from callers on one of the local talk radio stations here in Southern California.

  57. 57.

    Eric S.

    @r€nato: 25 years ago, when the ISU dorms didn’t serve Sunday dinner, I pretty much lived on JJ sandwiches. I didn’t know any of that. My 19 year old self would not have cared much about the labor but I would have been aghast at the big game hunting. I kind of regret my small part in making that chain.

  58. 58.

    Brachiator

    @debbie: RE: Trump flies to Mexico and the press dutifully note that looks presidential.

    I watched the joint statements. What exactly was presidential? Trump looked down at his paper the entire time he was speaking.

    Trump’s handlers engineered Trump’s appearance in Louisiana with flood victims; they engineered his flight to Mexico. Both had the desired effect in making him look good to his supporters.

    Even the press in Mexico are berating their president for allowing himself to be manipulated by Trump. They say that he looked like a dutiful poodle standing next to The Donald.

    Will all this make a difference? Who knows. Hopefully, not. But it is deliberately designed to answer those who think that Trump would just be a buffoon next to world leaders. The bottom line is that he came off looking much better than the president of Mexico.

  60. 60.

    mayyouliveininterestingtimes

    @rikyrah: Why do people who are so clearly sexist and racist deny it, especially when there are truly no repercussions for doing so within their own circles. Like would these women honestly lose any friends if they all came out as openly racists? No. They would realize that THEY ARE ALL RACIST and then they can be racists together happily ever after.

  61. 61.

    hovercraft

    @rikyrah:
    Wow !!
    I was raised by a black nanny.
    Sorry he dropped the birther crap.
    He’s a muslim.
    A woman shouldn’t be president.
    What the phuck.

  67. 67.

    gene108

    @OGLiberal: I

    What a vomit inducing piece. Basically, if Hillary were not such an uptight bitch the right-wing conspiracy against her and her husband would’ve vanished?

    Bullshit.

    There are other sources that show, no matter what the Clintons did, right-wingers wanted to destroy them for what they believed were these Arkansas low-life’s taking their Presidency from them.

    And if past business deals mattered so much, why so little coverage of all the bad deals Bush, Jr got into and got out of through family connections, as well as Romney’s vulture capital business, and now Trump, who has a history of screwing people over and his only claim to fame is his business savvy.

  70. 70.

    Tokyokie

    @r€nato: It’s been nearly 40 years since I was dozing off in my freshlaw contracts class, but a “contract” in which one party is compelled to bargain away constitutionally protected rights for a lifetime in exchange for no consideration whatsoever? WTF? Not only is such an agreement unenforceable, the lawyers who drew it up knew goddamned good and well it wasn’t enforceable. And every last person the Trump Organization pursues under these NDAs should turn right around and countersue der Trumpenführer AND his high-priced legal talent for the intentional tort of abuse of process and seek damages far in excess of what the original suit sought. And then, after winning in court, file ethics complaints against the aforementioned high-priced legal talent with the appropriate ABA affiliate and seek their disbarment. The only reason that asshole has gotten away with his perpetual contract-violating way of doing business is because his lawyers haven’t had to suffer the consequences of working for him.

  71. 71.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I did a spit-take when I looked farther down in the article and saw that one of the women is Ann Turkel, the former model and actress. Unrecognizable in that picture. I know she’s 70 now, and we can’t all age like Catherine Deneuve, but the collagen and botox really border on self-mutilation.

    Another reason to never click on those “You’ll never believe what [semi-forgotten child star or starlet] looks like now!” links.

  73. 73.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Steeplejack:

    I did a spit-take when I looked farther down in the article and saw that one of the women is Ann Turkel, the former model and actress. Unrecognizable in that picture.

    I had totally forgotten her name, although once you called attention to her I googled and found that I do have a vague memory of her.

    I’ve never had plastic surgery or any kind of, um, enhancements, so there’s a kind of built-in bias already — but I can’t think of anyone who has been significantly improved by knife, suction, or injections. At best, the results are implausible, and at worst — well, we’ve all clicked on those then-and-now photo spreads, haven’t we?

    IMO, what it almost never does is to make the person look younger — which is, presumably, the intended point in the first place. SAD!!

  74. 74.

    hovercraft

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    I used to work on the Upper East Side, at Bloomingdales, those are their stomping grounds. There were so many of them, as bad as they look in those photos, they look much worse up close and personal, we called them the lion people. I say people because there are men who do that to themselves too.
    @Steeplejack: There is no borders, I’ve seen some before and afters, and you almost want to ask why the hell did you do that to yourself, you looked so much better before.

  75. 75.

    nutella

    @Tokyokie:

    Yes, somebody with deep pockets should do that. Very deep pockets.

    Trump’s SOP is outrageous lawsuits to wear out his opponents. He owed Deutsche Bank $40 million for the Chicago Trump Tower. They had a contract and everything! THey sued him and he countersued for $400 million or $4 billion or something ridic, and they caved. He got away with not paying what he owed.

  76. 76.

    Amir Khalid

    @lgerard:
    Pat Boone, interestingly enough, is related by marriage to Democratic stalwart George Clooney. Pat’s daughter Debbie Boone (of You Light Up My Life fame, and to my recollection no other fame) is married to Gabriel Ferrer, a son of George’s aunt Rosemary.

  79. 79.

    Brachiator

    @efgoldman:

    How many times we gotta’ say it?
    Orange Shitweasel has no “plan.” He doesn’t do “planning.”

    Just not true. I understand the mockery of the Balloon Juice echo chamber, but while the dismissals of Trump are understandable, a reality check can be helpful.

    His new team have a definite plan, and when they can get Trump to follow it, it meets with some success.

    But Trump’s gut tells him that his base wants the wild man, and he is probably right here. Listening to the base may not lead him to victory, but it might actually help the GOP.

    There is a current NYT article about how the RNC is exasperated with Trump because he refuses to pivot and do all the expected, cynically BS that the Beltway and conventional wisdom insists is the only way to win an election.

    There is also an NYT article detailing how Trump’s team was prepping him to finally appear at a black church. It’s actually pathetic, and the Times got ahold of the carefully prepared questions and info about how the team is trying to position Trump to be statesmenlike.

    Trump hired these people and sometimes he follows their advice. The trip to Mexico wasn’t just a wild ass stunt. It was carefully orchestrated and Trump followed the script. It’s just lucky for everyone that he can’t stay focused. If he could he might actually have a chance at winning this thing.

  80. 80.

    JosieJ (not Josie)

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    One could make an argument that Jane Fonda has managed to escape the ravages of bad plastic surgery. But then, she knew when to stop: she was realistic about wanting to look younger, but never trying to look outright young.

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