Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Celebrate the fucking wins.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

In my day, never was longer.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

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The Beclowning

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According to Don King, “every white woman should cast their vote for Donald Trump.” Uh, thanks, Mr. King. Got any hairstyle tips for us? I’m sure they’ll be just as on point.

King also dropped the n-bomb during his remarks (not captured above), causing some audience members to grimace and others to bury their faces in their hands while Trump’s mug froze in its trademark smirk. Of course, that’s what Twitter latched onto, but I thought King’s rationale for voting for Trump was actually more interesting.

King says that voters shouldn’t choose “Donald Trump the man” but rather vote for him as an instrument to “knock out the system.” I suspect that’s a common sentiment among Trump supporters who aren’t consciously white supremacists but are nonetheless willing to countenance rampant discrimination and chaos to burn everything down.

I know we’re supposed to feel empathy for such folks, but I can’t bring myself to feel anything but contempt for them. Drew Magary captures that contempt perfectly in a DEF-COLE 1-style essay on GQ entitled, “If You Vote for Trump, Then Screw You.” An excerpt:

Because while Trump is a miserable bastard, YOU are the people who have handed him the bullhorn. YOU are the people willing to embarrass this nation and put it on the brink of economic ruin all because you wanna throw an electoral hissy fit. YOU are the people who want to revolutionize the way America does business by voting for its worst businessman, a disgusting neon pig who only makes money when he causes problems for other people instead of solving them. YOU are the thin-skinned yokels who clutch your bandoliers whenever someone hurls the mildest of slurs at you (“deplorables”), while cheering Trump on as he leaves a bonfire of truly hateful invective everywhere he goes. YOU are the people willing to overlook the fact that Trump is an unqualified, ignorant sociopath because DURRRR HILLARY IS BAD TOO DURRRR.

You know what? No, she’s not. She’s fine. I lived through one Clinton, and I can live through another. My reasons for hating Trump are better than your reasons for hating Hillary. Show me all the arguments against her you like. You guys don’t give a shit about facts and research when it comes to Trump, so I’m not gonna give a shit about whatever clumsy meme you cook up to explain why she did Benghazi. Nope. Sorry. Fuck your arguments, and fuck you. Trump has shown no respect for anyone, so I don’t see why you deserve any either. Whatever mildly frustrating centrist liberal bureaucracy that Hillary presides over will be fine compared to the spray tan mushroom cloud that would arise all because YOU thought Trump was such a brave, un-PC dickhead to everyone within shouting distance.

Yeah. What he said. Every word.

Reader Interactions

204Comments

  3. 3.

    patrick II

    Don King is the latest member of ‘Fraudsters for Trump’. I don’t know how he expects to make money for his support — but he’ll find a way. Congratulations Donald on the type of people who are your closest supporters.

  4. 4.

    scav

    Dear Reverend Aunt. Read the above (both parts) will all my familial love and sincere intent. It goes for your church as well and your oft-repeated pretense of superior moral and intellectual education.

  7. 7.

    Jeffro

    Ok, I messed that last one up, let’s try again…

    Just had some fun explaining “Clinton Rules” to my dad and brother, as follows (with thanks to David Fahrenthold for the ‘template’ here!)

    Hillary Clinton spent more than a quarter-million dollars from her charitable foundation to settle lawsuits that involved the former Secretary’s consulting and speech-making business, according to interviews and a review of legal documents.

    Those cases, which together used $258,000 from Clinton’s charity, were among four newly documented expenditures in which Clinton may have violated laws against “self-dealing” — which prohibit nonprofit leaders from using charity money to benefit themselves or their businesses.

    In one case, from 2007, Clinton faced $120,000 in unpaid fines from the town of Martha’s Vineyard., resulting from a dispute over the height of a flagpole.

    In a settlement, Martha’s Vineyard agreed to waive those fines — if Clinton made a $100,000 donation to a specific charity for veterans. Instead, Clinton sent a check from the Clinton Foundation, a charity funded almost entirely by other people’s money, according to tax records.

    In another case, court papers say Clinton’s PR agency in New York agreed to settle a lawsuit by making a donation to the plaintiff’s chosen charity. A $158,000 donation was made by the Clinton Foundation, according to tax records.

    The other expenditures involved smaller amounts. In 2013, Clinton used $5,000 from the foundation to buy advertisements touting her speeches in programs for three events organized by a D.C. preservation group. And in 2014, Clinton spent $10,000 of the foundation’s money on a portrait of herself bought at a charity fundraiser.

    Or, rather, another portrait of herself.

    Several years earlier, Clinton used $20,000 from the Clinton Foundation to buy a different, six-foot-tall portrait.

    Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) railed against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton from the Senate floor Sept. 20. McConnell accused Clinton of being “incapable of making money honestly.” (  / C-SPAN)
    If the Internal Revenue Service were to find that Clinton violated self-dealing rules, the agency could require her to pay penalty taxes or to reimburse the foundation for all the money it spent on her behalf. Clinton is also facing scrutiny from the New York attorney general’s office, which is examining whether the foundation broke state charity laws.

    More broadly, these cases­ also provide new evidence that Clinton ran her charity in a way that may have violated U.S. tax law and gone against the moral conventions of philanthropy

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    (and then I added a note that this is just about word-for-word Fahrenthold’s article about Trump using his “foundation” as a slush fund to pay fines he’s incurred privately.)

    (and then to really rub it in, I included a link to the Clinton Foundation’s charity rating info)

  11. 11.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    The above quote should be posted every time one of Our Progressive Betters among the commentariat over at Booman (and I know there’s at least two regulars here who are regulars over there so you know wtf I’m talking about) pivots the conversation to how Clinton is a neoliberalcorporateminion and would be awful as president, thus we’re not voting for her.

    I can almost understand how racist, crackers can vote for Trump, it’s who they are but when the living examples on the left of the Horseshoe Theory of politics say Clinton’s not pure enough, I just want to scream. In the words of the late, Robin Williams “ASSHOLES DO VEX MEEEEEEEE!”

  12. 12.

    Brachiator

    Don King is still alive? Who knew?

    King says that voters shouldn’t choose “Donald Trump the man” but rather vote for him as an instrument to “knock out the system.”

    Sounds like some of the Bernie busters, with more ignorance. I always wonder, after the system is knocked out, what will replace it? Yeah, yeah, I know it will be great and have walls, but what else?

  13. 13.

    Felonius Monk

    @patrick II:

    I don’t know how he expects to make money for his support — but he’ll find a way.

    Maybe not. He’s a con man, but he’s been conned by a better con man. Trump don’t pay for nothing that he can cheat someone out of.

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    Trump’s Narrow Path to Victory
    by Martin Longman
    September 20, 2016 10:52 AM

    I’m going to put two things side by side here so you can contemplate them in tandem. First, there’s the memo that Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook sent out “to donors, supporters and top volunteers” yesterday.

    “Here’s the story that no poll can tell: Hillary Clinton has many paths to 270 electoral votes, while Donald Trump has very few. Hillary is nearly certain to win 16 ‘blue’ states, including Washington D.C., which will garner her 191 electoral votes. If we add the five states that FiveThirtyEight.com gives Hillary a 70% or greater chance of winning (Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin), Hillary only needs 10 more electoral votes.”

    “Mook then runs down the possibilities for Clinton to win the remaining 10 electoral votes: taking Florida’s 29 electoral votes, North Carolina’s 15, Ohio’s 18, or any two of Colorado, New Hampshire, Iowa, or Nevada.”

    I’ll get into those scenarios in a moment, but the math is correct.

    Next up is an excerpt from a Sean Trende piece for RealClearPolitics.

    “To be sure, Clinton did not want the polls to tighten. At the same time, this was a particularly awful series of news cycles for her, while Trump had managed to go over a month without reprising some of his more polarizing statements, such as his flap with the Khan family, who lost a son in Iraq. We would expect a big swing in the polls, and there was one.”

    “But it did not put Trump over the top. A week in, she still leads by 0.7 points in the four-way RCP average, and 0.9 points in the two-way average. She maintains a lead in the Electoral College, and while North Carolina and Nevada appear to be close, her lead in the next-most-Republican state, Virginia (which would put Trump over the 270 mark), is 3.5 points.”

    “In other words, a truly terrible news cycle was still not enough to put Trump ahead. In a strange way, that’s good news for Clinton.”

  17. 17.

    Scamp Dog

    @Jeffro: One variation from a report about Clinton is that the bad stuff actually happened. In a report on Clinton, something that’s iffy at first glance, but is shown to be not much of a problem, leads to “troubling questions” and “throws a shadow”.

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    @Jeffro: And some idiot will find that and send it to everyone and say it’s really Clinton who did all that stuff, not Trump. Maybe you should be more clear with that because nowhere does it state that it’s a mind experiment or anything like that.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jeffro: Kudos to you for still arguing with Trump-curious / supporting family members. I am done with mine. Not on a permanent “you’re dead to me” basis, but that topic is now off limits forever.

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    If we did not have Fox News and Limbaugh, people would not be so anxious to blow things up and burn things down.

    I wish we could strip Rupert Murdoch of his US citizenship, and break up the big media corporations. Too much megaphone in too few hands. Should never have been allowed.

    Bring back the Fairness Doctrine; make it apply to cable too.

  23. 23.

    different-church-lady

    Well yeah, Magary’s piece is a fun read, nice solace, but it misses an important point: this is exactly the reaction Trump voters want out of people. They feed on other people’s anger and frustration. They’re willing to let the whole country collapse into a pile of shit as long as they can get their jollies over the idea that a liberal is depressed.

    If anything it’s counterproductive: it just helps the Trumpistans get their freak on.

  24. 24.

    Felonius Monk

    That picture up top looks like a meeting of the Dipshits for Donnie Club. From the looks of that coat (or is it a robe) that Don King is wearing, I’m guessing he is the Master Dipshit.

  25. 25.

    Peale

    You would think that more African Americans and Immigrants would sign on to the whole “knock out the system” idea, but for some reason, the outside groups seem to have an interest in keeping the current system loping around. The people who want to knock out the system are those who think they can restore the previous, even worse system.

    Someone should tell Don King that no matter how much the “feminization of america” personally has hurt his business as we move away from boxing as a national past time, its not coming back even with these more manly angry white men on board.

  27. 27.

    different-church-lady

    @Peale: I’m in no position to speak for blacks, but I gotta think most of them know anarchy is not a condition that improves their lives.

  28. 28.

    JPL

    @Iowa Old Lady: I already sent it on. It was brilliant.

    Help me out.. What did Trump mean when he just said this
    Trump says limiting admission of refugees to the US is “not just a matter of terrorism but a matter of quality of life”

  29. 29.

    Chyron HR

    King says […] to “knock out the system.”

    Don’t call him a dumbass
    He’s been stupid for years
    Accounts in arrears
    Leaving creditors in tears

  31. 31.

    Barbara

    It’s a given that Trump would upend the status quo. It’s not a given that, once upended, the new order will be better for the average person, and pretty obvious that that what remains after schism will be worse, and probably, much worse. Isn’t it perfectly obvious that Trump will not just run the White House “like a business” but like a business that belongs to him so that he will be the main beneficiary while the rest of us get screwed? When the NYT interviewed Trump voters, they all viewed him as a high risk/high reward candidate. I get the risk but for the life of me I cannot see the reward they are talking about.

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    @different-church-lady: By that logic, we ought to shut down this blog. It doesn’t get the audience GQ gets, but it’s almost a top 10K blog! Tens of wingnuts might be getting their jollies off our oft-expressed disgust right now!

  34. 34.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The problem here is that there are a lot of marks out there who can’t see through Don King.

    Which is why I’m growing more and more distressed at the prospects for the survival of the republic.

  37. 37.

    hovercraft

    @Brachiator:
    Mogadishu, Somalia here we come! We can haz pirates too!

    These duchebags are just in it for the money. Trump has already said that his will be the reign of retribution to all of us who did not bow to his greatness. Don King will be our next ambassador to France. He’ll show those pansy’s how to handle terrorists because he’s a real tough guy.

  40. 40.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @different-church-lady: People who aren’t sure that their vote makes a difference, people who have heard bullshit about HRC for years and are worried about her, people who are just starting to pay attention, all of those should be approached as persuadable and treated with respect through the election season, Those who already made their pick and chose Trump as well as those who do so in the next 50-some days, fuck then; they are assholes.

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    @Villago Delenda Est: You really think Don King has a lot of pull with people? I don’t. When I saw this, my first thought was that Trump had to scrape the bottom of the barrel of black celebrities to find one who would endorse him, which speaks well of the integrity of black celebrities, IMO.

  42. 42.

    Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap

    @glory b: Yep, I have all the Washington racial slur articles bookmarked so I can go back and re-read them. They are scathing and hilarious.

  43. 43.

    Jeffro

    @WaterGirl:

    And some idiot will find that and send it to everyone and say it’s really Clinton who did all that stuff, not Trump. Maybe you should be more clear with that because nowhere does it state that it’s a mind experiment or anything like that.

    I’m sorry, I should have included the note that I put at the bottom: “The preceding message was taken word-for-word from David Fahrenthold’s awesome expose’ of Trump’s self-dealing with his slush fu…er…excuse me, foundation. All i did was switch ‘Trump’ for ‘Clinton’ ”

    They’re quite hacked off, and understandably so – the cognitive dissonance must be overwhelming.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    More Magary:

    If you vote for him, you’re not making America great again. You are killing it. You are telling the world that America isn’t worth it. You are telling the world that all of our big talk about freedom and unity and ideals is just a load of shit … You are handing the most important job on Earth to Napoleon from Animal Farm.

    Napoleon from Animal Farm. *thwack*

  49. 49.

    hovercraft

    @JPL:
    It’s kinda of a variation on the old there goes the neighborhood, when blacks moved into it. It’s his way of saying a Taco Truck on every corner, these feriners are so alien they can’t adapt, and are instead forcing us to adapt to them. They don’t want America to become like the “blacks” refugees in their own country.

  51. 51.

    different-church-lady

    @Omnes Omnibus: I agree with the sentiment. The problem is that giving that contingent the “fuck yous” they deserve just makes them hoot even louder.

    This election is turning into a battle of noise, and they’ll always have more howler monkeys.

  52. 52.

    JPL

    Another tweet from MaggieNYT

    “American hands will rebuild” the country, “not the hands of people from other countries,” Trump says.

    says the man who used illegals to build his hotels..

  54. 54.

    Jeffro

    @Pogonip: LOL

    I’m going to ask them to picture the media firestorm that would result if the ONLY thing Clinton did was use charity money to buy a six-foot-tall portrait of herself. Just that alone would get her absolutely destroyed for all time; Republicans would actively campaign to have her picture airbrushed out of history books and might even eliminate the letters “C”, “L”, “I”, “N”, and “T” from the alphabet (you still need “O” for “GOP”)

  57. 57.

    jl

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    ” Who takes him seriously? ”

    Trump probably does. I think Trump is that kind of racial bigot (using my preferred typology, refers to a racist who can’t quite admit it to himself).

    Trump has very dear friends among all the ‘The Minorities’, who are wise (aka agree with everything Trump says). Once Trump can get over the bad rap that liberals and misguided PC culture has dealt to him, unfairly, very unfairly. all of ‘The Minorities’ will love him and run to the polls to vote for him.

    Don King, will speak truth to power and prevail with the real people.

  59. 59.

    SWMBO

    I went to lunch today and there was a girl taping fliers with tear off numbers/email addy info. It was only there for a few minutes because the strip mall that she was putting them on made her remove it. I got a glance at it before she took it down and it was HELP US STOP TRUMP!! WE NEED YOU TO HELP GET OUT THE VOTE! PLEASE CONTACT US AND HELP US STOP TRUMP!! I hope she got a lot of them distributed today. She looked eager to take on the world. I loved that. Oh and it was a Broward County Democratic Campaign flier. During the Presidential primary, they called me the day before early voting to ask me for my vote. They asked if I knew where I could go for early voting. Did I need a ride? Etc. In the middle of early voting they called and asked if I had voted yet. Did I need a ride? Etc. This was Hillary’s ground game and it was damned effective. I early voted and they still called the day before the primary to make sure I didn’t need a ride, that I knew where my polling place was, etc. Just beautifully organized and very polite, nice, knowledgeable folks. If I had any questions, they had answers ready and were as helpful as can be. If the rest of her ground game is anything like this, she’s got this.

  60. 60.

    hovercraft

    @Betty Cracker:
    Agree, just like his convention celebrities, no one gave a shit about any of them, except to look up and say, hey Chachi grew up to be a dick. No one was waiting to find out who Don King, Mike Tyson and Dennis Rodman are voting for. Take that back, maybe their families.

  61. 61.

    SueMack

    Couldn’t have said it better myself!! And F*** Don King! I wouldn’t vote for Trump if they ‘rammed poisoned Skittles down my throat’!! At gunpoint, even!

    Damn these people!!

  62. 62.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @rikyrah:

    Thanks for that info… I’ve been feeling pretty on edge about the stupidity of the American electorate.

  63. 63.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @LAO: They want to “burn it all down”. The problem is they don’t realize that they’re in the burning house with no way to get out.

  64. 64.

    Alain the site fixer

    Anyone using the mobile site? Is the Amazon graphic too big? I want to encourage more mobile users to shop via that link but don’t want to piss them off!

  69. 69.

    Poopyman

    @shomi:

    I like that guy. I could have easily wrote written that. In fact maybe it was me.

    Don’t pop a hemorrhoid patting yourself on the head, Chester.

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, too, insider idiot journalist remark that I cannot source for you any better than that: they really, really resent Hillary for not giving them rides on her plane. Holy fuck are they pissy about that. That actually pisses them off more than Trump being an asshole to them in front of crowds and not letting them ride on his plane.

  71. 71.

    Gravenstone

    I’ve been sort of mentally composing my “fuck you” should the unfortunate come to pass and Trump actually be elected. I think I can stop now and simply bookmark the quoted rant.

  72. 72.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    Lumpy Trumpy’s campaign spent $500,000 at Trump affiliated companies in the last reporting period according to FEC documents. I wonder what the GOP would do if the Clinton campaign spent $10K to rent the Clinton library auditorium.

  73. 73.

    psycholinguist

    Nobody else thinks Don King was trolling? Come on – there’s a black guy on stage taking every opportunity to weave “white woman” into every sentence he says. As I’m watching that, two related things come to mind: 1. The scene from Blazing Saddles where the Sheriff asks “where all the white women at”? to antagonize a bunch of rednecks, 2. all the trump rednecks sitting at home watching this black guy on TV keep talking about white women. How do you think that sits with them? Do you actually think the majority of trump supporters want to hear the message that king is stating explicitly – that minorities and women are not RIGHT NOW equal citizens, and that trump is pledging to change the system to allow them equal access? That’s subversive as hell to those people.

  76. 76.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Mnemosyne: thanks! I just added it above the “Leave a Comment” section to get post readers. Again not to clutter but to encourage more moolah for John.

  77. 77.

    bemused

    @Jeffro:

    iow, it has never, ever crossed their minds to apply same rightwing standards to Trump as they do with Hillary or any Dem. It never does and most wingnuts just go on their way wearing blindfolds and stick their thumbs in their ears.

  79. 79.

    Betty Cracker

    @psycholinguist: If you’re right, that’s some genius trolling. I don’t know much about King except that he once beat a guy to death and is accused of fleecing many boxers, but maybe we’re not giving him the credit he deserves!

  81. 81.

    jl

    Just saw this story on detailed content analysis of US news media coverage of elections. What do they cover

    1. horse race
    2. gaffes and the sensational,
    3. (there is no number 3).

    The piece concludes

    ” Polls, projections, strategy, and the like constituted about a fifth of all coverage, whereas issues took up less than one-twelfth and the candidates’ qualifications for the presidency accounted for less than one-thirteenth.

    As the campaign enters its final stage, one might hope that the press will provide America’s voters with information that can help them better understand the policy choices they face in November. No doubt, the presidential debates will help focus the public’s attention on the differences in the Trump and Clinton platforms. Press coverage of past campaigns, however, would suggest that news stories will take voters’ minds in a different direction. There’s a distinct possibility that voters will go to the polls in November with “the wall” and “emails” uppermost in their thoughts. ”

    A Harvard professor studied 10 major media outlets and found a harsh reality about election coverage
    http://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-professor-finds-campaign-policy-issues-absent-from-media-2016-9

  82. 82.

    Betty Cracker

    @Alain the site fixer: Alain, the site speed is markedly slower for me (laptop, Chrome) just recently — the spinny circle keeps appearing as I type, etc. I figured it was you tinkering in the background. If so, please disregard!

  83. 83.

    Miss Bianca

    @Mnemosyne: Wai, how can it be that they resent Hillary MORE for”not letting them do something” that Trump is *also* not letting them do? I mean, I know about CDS and all, but that is just on beyond zebra in terms of pettiness and double-standardness. “Both sides do it, but…but…one side SHOULDN’T do it!”

  86. 86.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    So The Donald’s black friend who knows The Donald isn’t a racist, is Don King.

    I see.

    This begs the question; is it possible to parody Trump? I mean we are getting into “Donald Trump is really a black, lesbian woman who wrote the ‘I have a dream’ speech” territory here.

  88. 88.

    Mike E

    @Alain the site fixer: I’m seeing two ad spots, neither of which are Amazon (droid chrome user…Wisdom Tree up top and Public Records Online just before the comments)

    ETA Ha! After posting this, there it is! It’s kinda cute, not obnoxious

  91. 91.

    lurker dean

    @Jeffro: I can only imagine the reaction if you posted the “Hillary” article, then let them lather up for an hour or so, and then hit them with the fact it was about Trump.

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    @Miss Bianca:

    It was kind of a passing remark, but I admit my jaw dropped. It really seems to be personal for these schmoes and not a Republican vs Democrat thing. Judging by everything else that the person said, they are personally quite liberal and happy to vote for Democrats, but hates Hillary personally. It was weird.

  94. 94.

    sukabi

    @JPL: yep, made me laugh…I’m betting by the end of the day we’ll have some gooper crying about how undignified and unseemly the display was and rumblings about “punishment”.

  95. 95.

    Brachiator

    @sukabi:

    Don’t know if it’s been linked to yet, but the Dems just hijacked an “impeachment” hearing of the IRS commissioner….great fun was had.

    I loved the Editor’s Note at the end of the article:

    Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

  97. 97.

    Elizabelle

    Interesting reader comment on the Business Insider item re the non-issues press coverage:

    Maybe it’s time to changed the Freedom of the Press part of the First Amendment so it’s limited to non-profit press. Once you get the profit motive out of it, people like Rupert Murdoch will get out. What will be left is media outlets who actually go after the important issues. Right now, they chase controversy because their bosses see controversy as profitable. Remove the profit, remove a good deal of the corporate greed that drives coverage.

  100. 100.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Elizabelle: There is no doubt that our current media model is badly dysfunctional if the intent of the “Free Press” part of the First Amendment is to encourage the free flow of information.

  101. 101.

    Trollhattan

    @glory b:
    “WYTS” is indeed fine and cruel writing. Delicious when it’s someone else’s team; cringe-inducing when it’s yours.

  104. 104.

    Gravenstone

    @Mnemosyne: Just for shit like that, Air Force One should put a steerage class in the cargo section, reserved solely for self important media jackals.

  105. 105.

    Poopyman

    @Ruckus: As an old white guy myself, I’d say no. No one should be calling anyone an oreo. Don King is a dumbass who, despite being old and had too many blows to the head, still rushes any microphone he can find. Ain’t that enough?

  107. 107.

    Brachiator

    @Elizabelle:

    Maybe it’s time to changed the Freedom of the Press part of the First Amendment so it’s limited to non-profit press. Once you get the profit motive out of it, people like Rupert Murdoch will get out. What will be left is media outlets who actually go after the important issues.

    Does a unicorn come with this kind of simple minded bullshit?

  108. 108.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Wow! Lead story (not the top-of-hour headlines, the first feature story) flagged on All Things Considered is supposed to be about the Trump Foundation paying some of his legal bills. Let’s see what they do with it.

  109. 109.

    Elizabelle

    @Brachiator: I realize it’s simplistic. But why are we giving up public airwaves to slander and misdirect?

    And I realize cable has different ground rules, but we are not being helped by Fox News lying and lying and lying all day long. Too many stories of retired people who turn into awful people once they’re mainlining Fox.

    Alas, that Business Insider article had few quotable comments. Mostly it was flying monkeys from Drudge, it seems, worrying that Trump was being impugned. The liberal media, Hillary is only lies, yadda yadda yadda. They, like Trump, defile everything they touch.

  110. 110.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:

    says the man who used illegals to build his hotels..

    …and who wants to move into a house built by black slaves.

  111. 111.

    rikyrah

    @Ruckus:

    Is it acceptable for an old white guy to say that Don King sounds like an Oreo? Or is that out of bounds. Asking for a friend.

    It’s ironic that you ask…considering your name.

    Don King=Real Life Uncle Ruckus (Boondocks reference)

  113. 113.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Well, they interviewed David Fahrenthold. Nothing new for those of us who’ve been following his reporting (except he told about a guy from Miami who cleverly tracked down one of the portraits of Trump at his Doral property LOL), but it probably got the Trump Foundation story out to a lot of people who hadn’t heard about it.

  114. 114.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @sukabi: Excellent! I was actually fantasizing about them doing this as I showered after the gym. I pictured them asking if a charitable foundation could pay fines for someone. Goes to show you they’re way ahead of me.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    Donald Trump Jr in radio intvw on not releasing father’s tax returns: “We’ve seen how viral that craziness goes. We want to keep on point.”

    So his father lied repeatedly for the last 6 months and it’s not about an audit. Good to know.

    They won’t release the tax returns because they know it will hurt them politically. Why should the Trump family follow the same rules as everyone else, anyway? They’re special.

  117. 117.

    Mike E

    @Poopyman: Although his wearing a jacket that looks like it’s pieced together from swatches taken from the wardrobe of the 70s version of The Tonight Show does cause me to gape in wide wonder

  119. 119.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay: I hope the news covers the IRS commissioner’s hearing today, where he says there is no reason someone could not release tax returns during an audit, and admitted it might be to prevent further disclosure of what is in them.

    Release the Kraken effing tax returns.

  120. 120.

    Kay

    Can someone ask Donald Trump if he plans on appointing these idiot children of his to unearned positions of power?

    They’re in the news constantly. I have no idea who these people are. They seem to believe we’re all familiar with them or something. I don’t follow socialite news. I’ve never heard of any of them before.

  123. 123.

    Kay

    What kind of jobs and families do Don Jr and Eric and Ivanka have that they can just walk away for 2 years and it doesn’t matter?

    They have no ordinary adult responsibilities they have to attend to?

  125. 125.

    Brachiator

    @Elizabelle:

    I realize it’s simplistic. But why are we giving up public airwaves to slander and misdirect?

    The problem ain’t the media. It’s people. The media outlets covered may have been derelict, but it has always been possible for people to go elsewhere and find exactly what they want.

    But they don’t do it.

    And even the Internets and free blogs too often become accretions of self-feeding biases.

    The First Amendment was never designed to provide you with truth, justice, or even fairness. It is only designed to prevent government from preventing people from having a platform for discussing, venting, persuading. And lying. Lots of lying.

    And what do we or the Business Insider do about the fact that Trump does not appear to have a consistent or coherent policy? Oh, except for “build a wall and kick them out?” What do we do about the fact that this is enough for his strongest supporters?

  126. 126.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay: I wish our asinine media had the balls to tell Trump, no air time for you (interviews and wall to wall coverage of your speeches) until you release your tax returns. Every other nominee for president has done so. It’s alarming and a horrible precedent to set with withholding them.

    Restrict him to Fox News, etc, if he won’t fully disclose them.

    They’ve provided too much oxygen to a fascist (they call him a “nationalist”), and not enough coverage on real issues to Hillary. Time for those asshats to get real and earn their exorbitant salaries.

    I know. Fantasy.

  128. 128.

    Kay

    There is no vital managerial role that requires no work of any kind for extended periods. The Trump children must have the rich-kid equivalent of “no show” jobs. Isn’t the Trump Empire crumbling without their expert leadership?

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    I wish our asinine media had the balls to tell Trump

    Yeah, fat chance. FOX and CNN are part of the campaign at this point. Morning Joe participated in the launch, eagerly.

    There’s no accountability for these people, no regulation, no checks and balances. Cable celebrities have crossed ethical lines so many times “covering” Trump I’ve lost count. It’s already been documented that they gave him millions of dollars in ad time. For all I know they’re on the payroll, like Lewandowski.

  134. 134.

    Brachiator

    @Elizabelle:

    I hope the news covers the IRS commissioner’s hearing today, where he says there is no reason someone could not release tax returns during an audit, and admitted it might be to prevent further disclosure of what is in them.

    This was quite a smart move by the Democrats. Or a bit of serendipity. Look at this as a sharp pre-debate move. The moderators may bring this up. Or not. But even so, it will be harder for Trump to lie and evade if asked about the issue.

  136. 136.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Mnemosyne: They are, almost uniformly, whiny, status-obsessed, sarcastic but terribly unfunny people.

    And I’d bet I know exactly what the reasoning is: “she has problems with ‘likeability’ and needs us, so when she isn’t nice to us she’s asking for trouble, and we’re happy to oblige. Also when she _is_ nice to us we don’t trust that she isn’t putting on an act, because it’s so grudging, which is another aspect of the same problem, and we’re also happy to rub her nose in it.” Fuck them. They’re too ugly for careers in acting and too un-creative for careers in writing, so they do this half-assed too-clever-by-half bullshit somewhere in between.

  137. 137.

    MomSense

    I cannot believe this is happening – the whole freaking thing. The press had months to vet this fucking lunatic Trump and his family and less than two months before the election they still haven’t done it. There are a handful of journalists but they cannot vet decades of this fucker’s shady businesses all by themselves.

    And now google news is running all these stories about Bill Clinton on the defensive because of concerns about the Clinton Foundation. WTFFFFFFF I’m concerned that a charity that actually does important, life saving work is going to be shuttered because our media is incapable of reporting reasonably.

    This is a nightmare. I’m thinking we should stage a protest at one of those pathetic Today Show concerts with signs just stating facts about der Trump’s bankruptcies, taxes, foundation, etc. Maybe we should stage our protest naked in keeping with the balloon juice tradition for mopping up messes.

  138. 138.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Brachiator: The policy is “swagger around and piss people off.” It’s also the attitude, the message, and the source of his fame and fortune.

  139. 139.

    Kay

    @sukabi:

    Raise your hand if you believe there will be MORE scrutiny of Donald Trump after he’s wildly powerful than before he’s wildly powerful.

    If he won’t disclose anything now, he sure as hell won’t after he’s President. I look forward to these same people pleading with him to please, please tell them something.

  141. 141.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    I’ve seen Drew Magary’s posts on Deadspin where he mocks NFL teams on an annual basis during preseason and then mocks everything else about the sport on a weekly basis (even as he underscores the hypocrisy by being a Vikings fan).

    Caustic criticism is not always healthy, and you have to recognize it for what it is. But in this case, Magary is right: Trump voters are just a big pile of assholes who deserve getting told “Go Fuck Yourselves” to their faces because they’ve been warned, and they’ve seen the evidence, and they know he’s a crook, and they STILL want to vote for him because it’s their big FUCK YOU to all the libruls and elites and people they despise. It’s pure hate-voting, and we’re all getting hit with it.

  143. 143.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: Which I had already figured from my own anecdata (ie, all my Jewish friends/members of extended family have tended to skew/donate D), but according to that article Jewish political donations flipped from 75/25 percent D/R in ’12 to…96/4 in ’16. Which basically means that *only* Sheldon Adelson figures he’s so rich and/or connected that NO WAY are the Trumpentroopers going to come for him. Way to go, GOP!

    ETA: When you’ve lost the ultra-Orthodox as supporters, you have *totally* lost.

  145. 145.

    Brachiator

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    If you court neo-nazis, you lose Jewish donors. Go fucking figure.

    I wonder why this didn’t happen sooner? And didn’t Sheldon Adelson give $5 million to Trump?

    And oh, yeah, Trump got real friendly with the president of Egypt. “You’re my kind of authoritarian.”

    How does this play with Jewish donors?

    ETA: The Israeli government in the past has said positive things about Egypt and other authoritarian regimes, seeing them as potentially doing more to suppress dissidents as much as they might suppress supposed terrorists who might pose a threat to Israel.

  147. 147.

    eclare

    @Kay: He’ll just have anyone who questions him killed, or jailed, like his bro, Putin. Can’t believe the press hasn’t figured that out. Well, I guess I can, unfortunately.

  149. 149.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kay: Remember how Trump Jr. told John Kasich that The Donald’s VP would be in charge of foreign policy AND domestic policy, while the man himself would be in charge of “making America great again”? Probably a bit like that.

  150. 150.

    sukabi

    @Kay: yeah, the people that say “well he’ll HAVE to follow the law, constitution, or … ” don’t seem to grasp the idea that he WON’T because he’s got 70 years of doing whatever the fuck he wants when he wants.

    Those folks are actually the VERY PEOPLE that are and have been his marks.

  154. 154.

    JMG

    @sukabi: Back in the 19th century, Ambrose Bierce wrote he didn’t believe P.T. Barnum said “there’s one born every minute” because Barnum was never guilty of understatement. True then, true now.

  155. 155.

    JPL

    @raven: African American’s aren’t excited though. Their enthusiasm gap will pick up, when they discover that Trump supports nationwide stop and frisk.

  156. 156.

    Chris T.

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Yep … reminds me of a couple considering buying a house:

    “The roof leaks.” “Burn it down!”

    “There’s a funny smell in the basement.” “Burn it down!”

    “The windows are painted shut.” “Burn it down!”

    “Oops, now the doors won’t open, we’re locked in.” “That’s it, I’m burning it down now!”

  158. 158.

    Seanly

    @JPL:

    He means that they sully us with their weird, garbled language; their spicy food with exotic ingredients; their style of dress; and the way they take jobs no one else really wants like driving a taxi, working in a convenience store, or picking crops. They destroy our Essence Of Purity. He means that America is only great when it is all-white once again; he’ll get us there after we put the ‘zombies’ and ‘skittles’ to the sword. Our women will be pure and chaste except the fatties who he’ll also have killed.

  159. 159.

    Roger Moore

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    The latest greatest with the Trump Foundation scandal is that one of his aides has said many of the donations to the Foundation are made in lieu of payments to Trump personally, so it’s really his money to spend as he chooses. IOW, he’s been using it as a tax shelter. It makes me think the noise about the Clinton Foundation has been example eleventy zillion of Republican projection.

  162. 162.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    There is no vital managerial role that requires no work of any kind for extended periods. The Trump children must have the rich-kid equivalent of “no show” jobs. Isn’t the Trump Empire crumbling without their expert leadership?

    Kay,

    You slay me.

  166. 166.

    Trollhattan

    @efgoldman:
    I recall he was buddies with Tyson for awhile, so King may have been part of that too. Too bad Donny didn’t piss Tyson off enough to earn a good shot to the jaw.

  168. 168.

    Brachiator

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    If you court neo-nazis, you lose Jewish donors. Go fucking figure.

    But here’s the other side of this. A conservative political analyst on local talk radio here was noting that

    Trump has passed $100 million from donors who individually give less than $200 a piece. He is the best Republican small donor fund raiser the party has ever seen. He has raised more in 3 months from small donors than Mitt Romney or John McCain did in their entire presidential run.

    And another kicker: The RNC gets 20 percent of Trump’s small donor money.

    That is not to say that this makes up for the loss of Jewish donors. But Trump has tapped into a sense of unease and grievance among his largely white base in ways that previous mainstream Republicans never could do.

  169. 169.

    Jeffro

    @lurker dean: it would’ve been great to watch them flipping back-and-forth between Fox news and CNN and/or surf on Breitbart and Drudge, looking for instructions from the outrage machine .

  170. 170.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Jeffro: Perfect. That should be turned into a multi-part tweet so everyone can see what is happening. Trump is getting away with saying and doing things for which the average Democratic politician would be thrown under the bus and run over multiple times. It’s sickening but I guess there’s nothing much to do than encourage family and friends to get out and vote and donate to Secretary Clinton.

  171. 171.

    geg6

    @Mnemosyne:

    This is ridiculous, especially considering that she currently does have them on her plane and has for the last couple of weeks. So, lying to you is what this whiny asshole was doing.

  172. 172.

    Bokonon

    @Betty Cracker: It doesn’t matter if Don King really has pull with people. Trump’s intent is just to win the daily media cycle with some stunt. It will dominate the evening news and Internet memes for a few hours … and block out Clinton from getting a word in edgewise.

  173. 173.

    Patricia Kayden

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage: Nobody is pure enough for them though. This is not a leftwing country. We’ll never have a democratic socialist paradise like Sweden. Those of us on the Left need to be realistic and continue to push our Democratic politicians as far to the left as possible. Being angry at Clinton for being no different than most other Democratic politicians is silly.

  174. 174.

    PIGL

    @Brachiator: What part of her remarks are wrong? There is no way to maintain representative democracy under a) universal suffrage and b) a corrupt and concentrated media oligarchy, itself a consequence of unfettered capital accumulation. You can fix the media system, fix who votes, or give up on democracy. The trend is to door number 3.

  175. 175.

    D58826

    a bit of trolling by the house DF’s today

    WASHINGTON ― House Republican leaders managed to derail a House floor vote last week on impeaching the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, but Donald Trump may wish they also squashed a hearing Wednesday on whether or not impeachment was a good idea.

    That’s because Democrats hijacked the hearing with Commissioner John Koskinen when they got their chance to speak, and managed to skewer Trump’s refusal to release his taxes.

    One Democrat, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), elevated the exercise to A-level trolling by opening his round of questions while munching on a bag of Skittles in a reminder of Donald Trump Jr.’s recent gaffe about Syrian refugees and the likelihood that they “would kill you.”

    But that was just pointed mockery.

    The larger point was to turn a hearing that Democrats deemed a political stunt into a display that instead raised the serious issue of the Republican presidential nominee’s refusal to disclose his taxes.

    X

    All presidential nominees since the 1970s have released their tax returns, but Trump says he cannot unveil his because they are being audited by the IRS.

    Plenty of pundits have called the excuse phony, so Democrats decided to nail it down with Koskinen.

    Although the commissioner refused repeatedly to get into specific talks about Trump, Democrats got him to make the general point.

    “Is there anything that would prohibit someone from releasing tax returns, if they want to, because they’re under audit?” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) asked.

    “No,” Koskinen answered.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/democrats-hijack-irs-impeachment-donald-trump_us_57e2a858e4b0e28b2b5170aa?section=&

  176. 176.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Kay: the kind where the owner pays himself a salary (or not) for doing fuck all but also hires people to do the actual work. Kind of the standard for inherited wealth.

  177. 177.

    Patricia Kayden

    @rikyrah: YAY. We need to keep our head up. I believe CNN has Clinton up 6% which isn’t bad at all given the shellacking she got for having pneumonia last week.

    I keep hearing people saying that her deplorables speech was a gaffe. It’s a sad time when speaking the truth is considered a gaffe. Hope she doesn’t hold back from calling out Trump’s bigotry during their debates. Would be nice if she didn’t even offer to shake his hand at their start.

  180. 180.

    Brachiator

    @efgoldman:

    Didn’t Combover Caligula finance some of King’s promotions back in the day?

    There’s this, which has popped up from a 2015 new item.

    National Review reports that Sharpton and Trump first became partners in the 1980’s when Trump wanted to sell Atlantic City’s casinos as a tourist destination. He reached out to Sharpton to help bring famed boxing announcer Don King into his corner, and the pair became regular boxing buddies and occasional business associates.

    Trump went on to donate “anywhere between $20,000 and $150,000” to Sharpton’s charity the National Youth Movement. News reports during Sharpton’s 2004 presidential run listed Trump as one of Sharpton’s “mentors.”

    And this:

    “We did business together, and we revolutionized Atlantic City, bringing in the biggest events that could be put forth,” King tells NR, describing the mogul as “dead set on building Atlantic City.” King recalls how Trump would fly him in on a helicopter to negotiate deals that were “done on a handshake.”

    And keep in mind a lot of this was when Trump ran in liberal circles. He has always played all sides for his own benefit.

  181. 181.

    Brachiator

    @efgoldman:

    Didn’t Combover Caligula finance some of King’s promotions back in the day?

    Crap. My comment is in moderation. Not quite sure why. Let me try a fast edit:

    A 2015 news item.

    National Review reports that Sharpton and Trump first became partners in the 1980’s when Trump wanted to sell Atlantic City’s c@sinos as a tourist destination. He reached out to Sharpton to help bring famed boxing announcer Don King into his corner, and the pair became regular boxing buddies and occasional business associates.

    Trump went on to donate “anywhere between $20,000 and $150,000” to Sharpton’s charity the National Youth Movement. News reports during Sharpton’s 2004 presidential run listed Trump as one of Sharpton’s “mentors.”

    King on Trump: “We did business together, and we revolutionized Atlantic City, bringing in the biggest events that could be put forth,” King tells NR, describing the mogul as “dead set on building Atlantic City.” King recalls how Trump would fly him in on a helicopter to negotiate deals that were “done on a handshake.”

  183. 183.

    Patricia Kayden

    @JPL: Says the man whose products are all made overseas. There’s a great Clinton ad with David Letterman going through Trump merchandise while announcing the foreign country where each item is made. Trump is sitting through it all with a sheepish smirk on his face.

  185. 185.

    Brachiator

    @Miss Bianca:

    Really? $100 million? The Donald’s campaign has released the figures, has it? Now, why do I suspect this is bullshit?

    Reuters, Politico, the Hill and others are picking up on the story now. I am a very small operation (lol), so I cannot vet this stuff very carefully.

    If Trump is lying, he still has to pony up 20% to the RNC.

  187. 187.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Alain the site fixer:

    Only saw it on one page a while ago, and it didn’t seem too obnoxious. It was smaller than the ads usually are but noticeably bigger than the usual “shop Amazon” gizmo usually is.

  189. 189.

    randy khan

    Am I the only one who’s noticed that Trump always looks unhappy when other people are speaking at his events? (I’ve actually noticed that his general look is a bit on the grumpy side, but it seems more pronounced in photos like the one above.)

  193. 193.

    Elizabelle

    @Brachiator: Yeah, I agree. No restricting the First Amendment.

    But it’s appalling to see mass media as a corporate megaphone/issuer of press releases. Not the reason they were protected with the First Amendment.

  194. 194.

    Steeplejack

    @Alain the site fixer:

    Not to be a buzzkill, and thanks for all your work, but where do we stand on getting “naked” hyperlinks allowed in comments? This is something that would be an easy fix—in fact, it was fixed before and then rebroken somehow—and it probably would be of more use/interest to more commenters than aesthetic placement of the “shop Amazon” gizmo.

    Back in July valued commenter Mike J said that the problem is caused by “outbound link tracking in the yoast plug-in.”

  195. 195.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    It wouldn’t surprise me if Trump is able to raise tons of money from individual marks. He’s a practiced conman, after all, and he’s selling hate, which is a popular product.

    The uneducated (and under-educated), little white guy is a bundle of insecurities. Hate and scapegoating others is one way to appeal to these anxieties. But Trump did not have to sell hate. It says much about him that this is his biggest product. But it says more about Trump than it does the people who he is exploiting.

    It is easier to sell hate when the buyer feels (even if mistaken) that no one is listening to him or cares about him.

    But these people felt alienated from the Democrats and let down by Republicans. It is as foolish to write these people off and to let them fester in their sense of broken promises than it is to ignore any other group with a legitimate grievance.

    So you can say, look at these suckers who have fallen for Trump’s bullshit. Or you can step back and ask why people with so little feel so desperate and betrayed by both mainstream parties that they will en masse contribute hundreds of millions to a man like Trump. It’s not the lazy lie that they are typical Republicans, since they did not contribute to war hero McCain or slick millionaire machine Romney.

    And I suppose one could easily dismiss them all as undesirable racists and sexists. But this does not make them vanish, and a weak economy will only increase their ranks.

  198. 198.

    Procopius

    My first thought is, “Who is Don King, and why should I care what he says?” So I ask my friend Google, and learn that Don King is a boxing promoter, which I think is very much like a real estate developer, and apparently he also owns some gambling houses, like Sheldon Adelson. The second part of my question remains unanswered.

  200. 200.

    Procopius

    @SWMBO: “… they called to see if I had a ride.” Yes, if Hillary still has this kind of organization we can stop worrying about Trump and concentrate on worrying about whether or not she’s going to appoint Victoria Nuland as Secretary of State and Robert Kagan as either National Security Adviser or Secretary of Defense. On the other hand the people who populate the DNC/DCCC/DSCC loathe this kind of thing and destroy it whenever they get a chance (cf. Tim Kane)

  201. 201.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:
    Thank you!
    I had never heard of Uncle Ruckus when I chose the moniker. Almost changed when I found out. But then I said WTF, me having it fits right in. Besides my last name is being sullied by some asswipe who supports Drumpf and that’s enough to cause a ruckus all by itself.

  202. 202.

    Exit 135

    Trump and Don King go way back. Trump promoted boxing matches at his AC properties. More interestingly, trump had a WWE career. He and Vince McMahon go way back as well. Watch the matches where trump got into it ringside. He is truly a carnival barker of the first order. The Republic is doomed.

  203. 203.

    Exit 135

    I forgot to mention that Vince McMahon and his wife are THE major contributors to the Donald J. Trump Foundation. 5 million dollars, to be exact. The foundation which is under NY State review thanks to David A. Fahrenthold,

  204. 204.

    J R in WV

    @Roger Moore:

    How many Republicans, if they controlled a $3 billion foundation, could keep themselves from skimming $2 or $3 million for themselves?

    Not one!

    That’s why they are all so sure the Clintons are playing around with the Clinton Foundation – leave alone the Clintons have made more money honestly than they could possibly spend. It is what they would be compelled to do, thus the Clintons MUST be doing it.

    But not so. I’m giving as much money to Hillary’s campaign right now as I’m spending on myself. That won’t last past November, but still. I’m not stealing from a foundation, I’m giving my own money away to a rich person running for office!

    But no Republican can even imagine being in such a position! Unpossible!!

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