Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Accountability, motherfuckers.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

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

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

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

I was promised a recession.

No one could have predicted…

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

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Reader Interactions

185Comments

  3. 3.

    Tom

    What’s so NSFW? I’ve seen worse language (an insinuations) in any number of Trump’s speeches, and those get broadcast on national TV.

  5. 5.

    Corner Stone

    The Republican candidate for President told his followers to find and check out an adult sex tape.

    This is still rattling around in and boggling my brain.

  7. 7.

    Ken

    @Corner Stone: Like dmsliev said. There’s a growing consensus[*] that Trump gets a licensing fee from the Apprentass series.

    [*] At least, it will be growing if enough of us repeat it. We’re an on-line empire, we create our own reality.

  8. 8.

    Schlemazel

    @Corner Stone:
    I sent a note on fb to my repuglican friends asking that they give me a synopsis of the movie after they watched it. Also asked if they were planning on watching the porno Trump had a guess appearance in. (not as a performer obviously, not equipt for the part). But yes he did appear as a guest in an adult video

  9. 9.

    Corner Stone

    Political hacks are going to make fortunes writing the wrap ups on the Trump campaign. I’d like to see an actual investigative journalist or serious author go over it with a thorough review, to see just how nuts, dysfunctional, etc the whole thing really was.

  10. 10.

    rikyrah

    When a man shows you who he is, believe him

    Liberal Librarian
    September 30, 2016

    Well, Donald Trump held on. He held on by the skin of his teeth. You knew it was coming. You knew it was inevitable. But it was glorious to watch him barely control himself.

    This morning at around 5am EDT, the dam broke loose. Trump finally went on the tirade he’d been holding back for four days. And the subject of his ire wasn’t, of course, the woman who had shellacked him in the debate, but another woman, a Latina, a former employee, who had dared to speak out against him.

    Nothing Trump says or does shocks any longer. And that’s a grave problem. The outrageous, the outright evil, has been normalized. It’s become routine. We’ve been deadened to the lies, the vitriol, the incitement. Now Alicia Machado is the target of his rage. But next week it will be someone else. There’s always someone to blame for his failures. He never fails; those around him fail him, or conspire against him. He is the great, virtuous knight, sent to save a fallen America from itself. Anyone who gainsays him is a subhuman to be crushed.

    Imagine if Barack Obama went on a tirade like this. Hell, imagine if George W. Bush did. Our politics have become so debased in only eighteen months that we barely notice this. It now seems normal that a presidential candidate goes on Twitter rampages, releasing his dark id for all the world to see. Any half-decent media would have mocked Trump off the stage at the inception of his campaign. And, at first, he was mocked. He was seen as a joke candidate.

    It’s only when his hateful message gained traction that the media took notice. And it took notice not by being aghast, but by seeing ratings gold. It mainlined Trump like the worst junkie. It rode him to its highest ratings in years. Trump was good for business.

  11. 11.

    Ken

    @craigie:

    Grandpa voted for Trump – then came to live with us!

    After President Trump signed the Paul Ryan Omnibus Budget Reconciliation and Social Security Privatization Act of 2016.

  12. 12.

    rikyrah

    Quick Takes: Trump Gets Outplayed By Women
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    September 30, 2016 4:45 PM
    POLITICAL ANIMAL BLOG

    * Joan Walsh does a great job of explaining why Donald Trump is having a meltdown.

    It’s no accident that three of Trump’s victims – Machado, the Khan family, and Judge Gonzalo Curiel – are not white. Hostility to minorities is the animating energy of the campaign. But the candidate’s derangement over Machado surpasses his prior breakdowns – for a good reason. A woman he once controlled, quite literally – making her exercise in front of the media, to prove she was taking his demands to lose weight seriously – is defying him publicly. Another woman, Hillary Clinton, refused to slink into obscurity after her husband humiliated her (last year Trump shared a fan’s tweet asking, “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?”) and is currently leading him in the race for the presidency.

    * Josh Marshall makes a similar point.

    Trump hit a brick wall in Monday night’s debate. He didn’t prepare. It took Hillary Clinton, a woman he’d spent weeks calling frail and weak, only 15 or 20 minutes to knock him off stride and reduce him to a defensive posture for the rest of the debate…She dominated him in front of more than 80 million people. His inability to contain or damage her kept him angry and unfocused, flailing through the encounter…

    For Trump, Machado must be like a terrifying nightmare: a strong, beautiful Latina, draped in an American flag, who is intent on hurting him but who he is incapable of injuring.

    …The sum of all these facts – the debate defeat, the fight with Machado, the faltering polls – seem to be propelling Trump into a new rage spiral, rooted in narcissistic injuries, seemingly catalyzing itself, reinforcing itself in spiraling cycles of rage and self-injury.

  14. 14.

    sigaba

    Is that the same grampa who always talks about Werther’s Originals and gives you weird creepy kisses on the forehead?

    (this one might be obscure but if you remember the commercial it still creeps me out)

  15. 15.

    Corner Stone

    The live interviews MSNBC does with Trump voters are really disheartening. Sheesh, these people.
    Where did I put down that bag of can’t evens I just bought?

  16. 16.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    It really should be a Harper Collins published book being that Harper Collins is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    @dmsilev:

    I still think that’s a tell that he’s getting a cut of the revenue from said tape.

    Won’t help him much, since most of the people who view it will see pirated versions.

  18. 18.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    @rikyrah: I would like to see HRC walk into the stage for Debate 2 with a baseball bat, hand it to Trump and tell him that hes right – she did get tired of hitting him on the job during Debate 1 and he just does a much better job hitting himself anyway.

  19. 19.

    Corner Stone

    Is every reporter employed at The Hill a right leaning propagandist? I used to think they were fairly middle of the road neutral. But over the last few years they seem to have become more openly distorting viewpoints to a rightwing bent.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    @Corner Stone: I’ve only tuned in to MSNBC a couple of moments today, but it seems like they are trying to push the horse race again. I guess they are concerned Clinton did too well in the debate.

  21. 21.

    Suzanne

    What’s most awesome about those books is that I actually had a couple of those as a kid. I like the new titles better.

    I have reached the stage in this election in which I am no longer awed by the craziness or audacity. Now it’s just gory and gross. If this was a real train wreck, the spectacular explosion part is over and now it’s the long, disgusting slog of mopping up the body parts. Donald, your reality show has grown stale. Go away now.

  23. 23.

    Corner Stone

    @Suzanne: Speaking of gross, Trump has an ad over childcare that Ivanka does the voice narrating for. Just listening to her voice makes me feel gross. She has really destroyed whatever brand she may have had before all this.

  25. 25.

    celticdragonchick

    @Roger Moore:

    There is no sex tape of her. It is another smear from Infowars that Trump has capitalized on.

    Of course, since it has now taken root in the wingnutosphere, it will live forever next to Sandra Fluke rumors and Benghazi.

  26. 26.

    Keith P.

    @Corner Stone: They also tend to have Boris Whatshisname on too much. He’s a pretty bad surrogate (Jeffrey Lords is probably the best…as best as you can do with what you’ve got). I’m listening to him right now try to say how Hillary Clinton went after all the women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual etc. Honestly, I followed all of that stuff religiously in college (it came after OJ, which I was transfixed by as well), and the only thing I can remember was something about Hillary mentioning “bimbo explosions”, but I can’t even remember if that was publicly stated or just a private statement that leaked. Boris is throwing out “all those stories” and “The Wall Street Journal”, but I must not be enough in the know to know what he is talking about.

  28. 28.

    dmsilev

    @Keith P.: It’s a full-time job keeping up with wingnut obsessions. During the first debate, Trump had some line about how the government funded a solar company and look at how poorly that worked out. Your wingnut is going to hear that and say “Aha! Solyndra”. Your political obsessive is going to think “Solyndra. Oy.”. Your normal person is going to say “huh?”.

  30. 30.

    Brachiator

    @rikyrah:

    Any half-decent media would have mocked Trump off the stage at the inception of his campaign.

    Actually, some of the media tried. People forget that in the beginning, almost no one took Trump seriously. Not the media. Not other politicians.

    Even now there are people who say, “Oh, Trump doesn’t expect to win. He’s just doing this to build up his coming media company.”

    Fine, just make sure you help GOTV to make sure Trump doesn’t somehow surprise us with a victory.

  31. 31.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Keith P.: and the only thing I can remember was something about Hillary mentioning “bimbo explosions”,

    I think that was the woman whose name escapes me, who was played by Kathy Bates in the Travolta as Clinton movie. I think the most they’ve got on Hillary is that it was reported that she told an old friend in a private conversation that Lewinsky was a “loony” and a stalker. Boris is a terrible surrogate, but he’s smart enough to stay away from specifics, so it will just be repeated as “accusation that Clinton did X”. If Ari Melber pushed back on that at all I missed it.

    And sooner or later some anchor is gonna start snarking on the “Mr Trump” thing, and all the other anchors are gonna be sorry they didn’t do it first

  33. 33.

    different-church-lady

    @rikyrah:

    Imagine if Barack Obama went on a tirade like this.

    Barack Obama couldn’t even put the condiment of his own damn choice on his own damn burger without being accused of being an alien species.

  34. 34.

    Citizen_X

    @rikyrah:

    “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?”

    Ooh, I know! Because she isn’t promising to fuck America.

    “Fuck America” is Trump’s slogan.

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    @celticdragonchick:

    There is no sex tape of her.

    There is no sex tape of her; there is a sex tape that Trump is encouraging people to see. The suggestion is that Trump is encouraging people to watch because he’s making money from it, which is a vaguely plausible lie, given that he’s give to double dealing and the tape he’s encouraging people to watch has a name riffing on Trump’s TV show.

  36. 36.

    Citizen_X

    Inspirational suggestions from great Republican leaders:

    Bush:
    Go shopping.

    Trump:
    Knock the crap outta them. We’ll pay the legal fees.
    Go watch this porn video.

  37. 37.

    different-church-lady

    What do we suppose the odds are that Trump himself is the one who brings up Machadogeddon at the second debate?

  38. 38.

    chopper

    @Corner Stone:

    as I said in another thread I’m still getting used to the fact that the GOP actually nominated a guy whose bedrock principle is “no fat chicks”.

  39. 39.

    scav

    @Citizen_X: That and the eagerness with which his followers adopt the logic “it’s totally her fault, she can’t satisfy her man! She’s worthless in everything!” does rather suggest personal justification for their own stepping out.

  42. 42.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    @Suzanne: I think this Trump reality show may continue to prison. I think some of the IRS foundation stuff and the Cuba stuff might lead to some hard time and,jeebus,if he’s moronic enough to continue with the veiled threats on Hilz assuming(fingers crossed) he loses,the Secret Service might get involved.

  43. 43.

    SenyorDave

    So Rudy G shows that he’s truly part of the Trump team:

    Report: Finance group apologizes for Giuliani speech

    Attendees of the event told the Observer that Giuliani made comments about “Mexicans in the kitchen at the Waldorf” and how Mexicans are coming to the U.S. to work illegally in kitchens.

    Somebody must have a full audio of the speech. These were finance people under 40. The speech must have been pretty bad if the group felt obligated to issue an apology.

  44. 44.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    @Citizen_X: I wish I was computet competent enough to rewrite his

    “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” to
    “make aMErica great again”

    because that’s what it’s all about for the Donald.

  46. 46.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @rikyrah:
    As you well know, the media has been normalizing Republican behavior this offensive towards Obama for eight years, and against Muslims since 9-11. Trump just doesn’t know when to shut up, so regular people are hearing him unfiltered by the media.

    And this explosion is not about Machado. This is about Clinton defeating and humiliating him in front of millions of people. He CANNOT admit he lost to a woman, or how unbearable that is, so he’s pouring his anger out on a weaker target. Honest, I think that debate will haunt him for the rest of his life. At least when the black guy embarrassed him he could claim not all that many people saw, and he would have won if he’d been allowed to fight back.

  47. 47.

    different-church-lady

    @scav: That’s giving them too much credit. There’s no logic involved, there’s just the playground-level support for the head bully. It doesn’t have to add up in any logical way as long as taunting is primary activity.

    They don’t seem to have noticed the target of the bullying has moved on from the playground to graduate summa cum laude.

  48. 48.

    Another Scott

    I just got back from (in-person absentee) voting in CD-8 in NoVA (using excuse 1C). I was #167 on the tabulating machine.

    Lots of oldsters were there, and they looked non-crazy, but it’s always hard to tell… A few who might have been recent immigrants, also too.

    The people at the check-in desk said the turnout had been “steady”. It’s cool and drizzly, if that matters.

    Outside, the Team D tent had 3 women who seemed motivated and happy to be there. The Teabagger tent had a single lonely woman…

    I feel pretty good about our prospects, at least around here.

    Let’s run up the score!

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who is saving his “I Voted” sticker for November 8.)

  49. 49.

    Elizabelle

    Bill Clinton: successful two-term president. SEX SCANDAL. BIMBO ERUPTIONS.

    Barack Obama: successful two-term president: BIRTH CERTIFICATE.

    George W. Bush: competing with James Buchanan for worst president ever (and Buchanan had more previous successes): iraq war. great recession. 9/11. terrorists want to fly planes into buildings. tora bora.

  50. 50.

    Another Scott

    @Corner Stone: TheHill has opinion pieces mixed in with the “news” pieces on the front page, so sometimes it’s hard to tell just from glancing which they want us to think is news and which isn’t – by design, I’m sure.

    I feel dirty almost every time I read stuff on their site, but they do seem to have congressional news much quicker than other (free) sites I’m aware of. Even stories with a relentless right-wing slant usually have counterpoints from Team D, so there’s usually some value in reading them.

    RollCall, on the other hand, seems to be relentlessly BothSidery when I glance over there.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  51. 51.

    Elizabelle

    @Another Scott: Yippee! I hope to vote Monday. On that note:

    Let’s look at the two amendments to the state constitution on Virginia’s ballot. Clarity counts, no? How would you vote, and do you understand what you’re voting on? (Do a quick read; most voters do.)

    Should Article I of the Constitution of Virginia be amended to prohibit any agreement or combination between an employer and a labor union or labor organization whereby (i) nonmembers of the union or organization are denied the right to work for the employer, (ii) membership to the union or organization is made a condition of employment or continuation of employment by such employer, or (iii) the union or organization acquires an employment monopoly in any such enterprise?

    and

    Shall the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to provide an option to the localities to exempt from taxation the real property of the surviving spouse of any law-enforcement officer, firefighter, search and rescue personnel, or emergency medical services personnel who was killed in the line of duty, where the surviving spouse occupies the real property as his or her principal place of residence and has not remarried?

    One of these paragraphs is not like the other.

  53. 53.

    Brachiator

    @different-church-lady:

    . What do we suppose the odds are that Trump himself is the one who brings up Machadogeddon at the second debate?

    Who knows? I was surprised at how easily Trump fell into Hillary’s traps and allowed himself to be thrown off message in the first debate. Granted, he’s an undisciplined dope, but his desperate need for vindication overwhelmed even an ego need to avoid looking like a total ass in public.

  56. 56.

    different-church-lady

    @Brachiator: It’s kind amazing how this basically can be distilled down to Hillary saying, “You’re horrible towards women,” and Trump saying, “Let me disprove that by being horrible towards a woman.”

  57. 57.

    Shell

    and the Cuba stuff might lead to some hard time

    The statute of limitations is already up on that one. But Im sure with a little more digging there’ll be plenty of other juicy details ready to surface on Donnys business shenanigans.
    *****
    Just sent in my mail-in ballot. Very happy to fill in that little dot with indelible ink next to Hillarys name.

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    I think Trump might do a lot better in the second debate. They will be preparing him intensely, even though what will take the stage is Donald J. Trump.

    Watch out for the fucking horserace media. They’ll grade him on style, not substance, and he will get plenty of his ridiculous bromides out to his supporters, who are looking for a strong rich Daddy, who is full of simplistic answers.

  59. 59.

    dmsilev

    @Brachiator:

    I was surprised at how easily Trump fell into Hillary’s traps and allowed himself to be thrown off message in the first debate.

    It also wasn’t exactly a subtle trap. And by “not exactly a subtle trap”, I mean that Hillary’s lines came packaged in a crate labeled Acme Trump Trap carted on stage by Admiral Akbar.

  61. 61.

    Another Scott

    @Elizabelle: Yeah. They clearly want to confuse people on #1.

    But I hate amendments like these. I voted No on #1 and Yes on #2. #1 was easy. #2 was more difficult because I don’t think that the state Constitution should be tinkered with for little things like this that might affect 5-20 people in the state in a given year. It’s political gamesmanship and gets my dander up.

    But #2 was unanimously approved in both houses, twice, and signed by McAuliffe. It’s not worth my having a heart attack over, and any changes still have to be approved by the locality.

    Good luck Monday!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  62. 62.

    hellslittlestangel

    I do believe that a few years from now the only Americans who will cop to having voted for Little Gloves will be Family Circus regulars Not Me and Ida Know.

  64. 64.

    James E Powell

    @efgoldman:

    I have seen elsewhere that she could have an excellent case for slander.

    Public figures have a tough time winning those, but the depositions would be hilarious.

  65. 65.

    dmsilev

    @Elizabelle: He’s got a problem though. His base (and he himself) want to go hard negative against Hillary, but the townhall format of the second debate makes that a potentially bad idea since it can come off as attacking the ordinary voter who asked the question that triggered the rant on …whatever.

    Actually, if you look at the pattern, Trump gets into trouble when he gets into fights with ordinary people who for some reason attract his anger. True for the Khans, true this week. If there’s some question he doesn’t like, he could say something nasty during the debate, get attacked for it both by Hillary and by the post-debate punditry, and then spend the next 4 or 5 days digging the hole even deeper.

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    * When Dorothy Rabinowitz writes this in the Wall Street Journal, you might want to check on the temperature in hell.

    The end of the election is now in sight. Some among the anti-Hillary brigades have decided, in deference to their exquisite sensibilities, to stay at home on Election Day, rather than vote for Mrs. Clinton. But most Americans will soon make their choice. It will be either Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton—experienced, forward-looking, indomitably determined and eminently sane. Her election alone is what stands between the American nation and the reign of the most unstable, proudly uninformed, psychologically unfit president ever to enter the White House.

    Yep. That’s about it.

  69. 69.

    Brachiator

    @Elizabelle:

    . I think Trump might do a lot better in the second debate. They will be preparing him intensely, even though what will take the stage is Donald J. Trump.

    I don’t know. I still don’t see Trump preparing intensely. That’s not who he is.

    Also, I think he may be preparing for the wrong thing. His people and Trump himself seem intent on bringing up Bill Clinton’s sexual history.

    Hillary’s new piece of bait: that Trump is unfit to be president is not just the claim of the Democrats, it is the judgment of every conservative newspaper in the country.

    Trump is stuck on ancient false controversy and gets his debate prep from sewer journalism like the National Enquirer.

  70. 70.

    PIGL

    I wish Mistermix would post music vids more often, as he did in former times. I for one have been introduced to several bands/musicians I really like thanks to vids he posted.

  72. 72.

    Another Scott

    @Elizabelle: Another thing that bothers me about #2 is that there really shouldn’t be a constitutional provision preventing localities from raising and spending money as they see fit (within broad categories). I would feel much better if the Virginia constitution were modernized to remove anachronisms like these…

    Just looking at Section 14 I see:

    The General Assembly shall not enact any local, special, or private law in the following cases:
    […]
    (7) Exempting property from taxation.

    WTF?!

    IOW, every time someone wants a property tax exemption, we’ve got to amend the Constitution?!?!

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (If wishes were horses…)

  75. 75.

    dmsilev

    @Brachiator:

    Hillary’s new piece of bait: that Trump is unfit to be president is not just the claim of the Democrats, it is the judgment of every conservative newspaper in the country.

    She probably has another, or several other, examples of people that Trump screwed over dramatically and egregiously, and will roll them out as needed. Has Trump bought up the land underneath a nunnery and evicted all the nuns so he could build a garish hotel? That would work.

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    @James E Powell:

    Public figures have a tough time winning those, but the depositions would be hilarious.

    Public figures have a harder time, but 1) it’s not clear that Machado classifies as a public figure and 2) Trump’s behavior probably meets even the higher standard for defaming a public figure. Machado doesn’t seem like she’d classify as a public figure (either a public official or any other person pervasively involved in public affairs) and probably wouldn’t count as a limited purpose public figure (those who have “thrust themselves to the forefront of particular public controversies in order to influence the resolution of the issues involved.”) And Trump’s defamation is both obviously malicious and has continued even though it’s been clearly established that it’s incorrect, which would meet the higher standard for a public figure.

  77. 77.

    Ruckus

    @Suzanne:
    Imagine what just 2 days of him as president would be like. That alone should bring anyone with half an once of decency into the Clinton camp.

  78. 78.

    The Golux

    @rikyrah:

    There’s always someone to blame for his failures.

    I think it’s time to promote a new nickname for him: Crybaby Donnie.

  79. 79.

    Major Major Major Major

    @efgoldman: I just look it up, and they edited out the actual sex but she’s definitely topless and there are sheets involved.

    ETA: obviously this is unimportant but for any defamation charges he could say “that’s what I meant”.

  81. 81.

    SenyorDave

    @Elizabelle: For next debate, he just has to not screw up and people will act like he’s Churchill. I think Hillary has to develop a better narrative on trade and jobs in the Rust Belt states. Something that’s a good mix of hopefulness, change, and lies. Indicate that manufacturing jobs are coming back even though they are not. Stuff about re-training, some comments about negotiating better trade deals that are better for US, if packaged well can help. I think it should be a large focus for her in the debates. Because at this point, barring an October surprise, the only way she loses is if she collapses in states like MI, PA, WI. And she has to point out how Trump has almost always made his products overseas, has shown no commitment to made in the US, just offers lip service. IMO she does best when Trump looks bad. The media says she offers little reason to vote for her, but they almost never actually cover her campaign, and they certainly never talk policy.

  82. 82.

    Shell

    That alone should bring anyone with half an once of decency into the Clinton camp.

    And have we so soon forgotten that Pence has said he’d model his vice-presidency on Dick Cheney?

  83. 83.

    scav

    @different-church-lady: I don’t know, I think the animus towards women is real and the inability to accept responsibility for their actions is shared between Trump and a mass of their followers. It’s the damn foreigners (or feminists) that are stealing men’s jobs and that’s why their careers haven’t been as wealthy as they once dreamed. My adultery is utterly justified (and private), unlike those others we can impeach others over. It may not be logical but it is utterly consistent with how they consistently act and justify themselves. But their hatred for a woman and a black man visibly achieving this sort of success is visceral.

  85. 85.

    SenyorDave

    @dmsilev: Has Trump bought up the land underneath a nunnery and evicted all the nuns so he could build a garish hotel? That would work.

    In his defense he did offer them jobs as cocktail waitresses (at least the ones he considered hot).

  87. 87.

    Emerald

    @Keith P.: Hillary didn’t say “bimbo explosions.” That was a lady who was a close political confidant called Ann somebody. Occurred during the NH primary campaign, I’m pretty sure, and I think it was reported in one of the books about the campaign. Can’t remember her last name, but she was on all the teevee panels for years during that period.

  90. 90.

    Major Major Major Major

    @SenyorDave: she’s starting the concerted effort on positive policy stuff this weekend I think, now that the registration drives are done. This campaign is coming late (they’re smart so it must be by design) this year but it’ll come hard.

    I think some sort of thing like what we need is “smart trade” (but a better phrase) would be decent. And, yes, lies. And pointing out all Trump’s offshoring, undocumented labor, and I presume trouble with unions.

  91. 91.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    avoid looking like a total ass in public.

    Thing is he doesn’t either understand that he looks like a total ass or he likes looking like a total ass. I’m going with option B, with the understanding that it’s possible that he doesn’t understand that he is a total ass, but thinks it’s a good idea.

  92. 92.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Shell: Pence has been trying desperately to get anyone to pay any attention to him, and even that didn’t register with the MSM.

  93. 93.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Corner Stone: It gets better – a story just broke that Trump negotiated for Marla to pose nude for Playboy before they were married. He pressured her to accept the $1 million fee he negotiated but she refused in the end. So…dude shaming other women (falsely) for doing porn tried to get his own mistress to pose nude. He also himself appears in a soft core porn video put out by Playboy (does not appear with nude women, but still). Everything with him is projection.

  94. 94.

    Roger Moore

    @Major Major Major Major:
    I don’t like 2) very much because I hate special tax breaks as a way of achieving public policy. If you want to give people some extra money, give them some extra money. For example, you could create a special widows’ and widowers’ pension on top of the regular service pension. That way everything is on the books, the benefit is clearly spelled out, and you can make rational decisions about the costs and benefits of the policy. Doing it as a tax break hides the true cost, makes it less equal, and makes it more difficult to make intelligent policy decisions.

    If I were dictator for a day, one of my decisions would be to convert all tax expenditures into explicit subsidies. There are lots of benefits that we hide as tax expenditures that nobody would accept if we were forthright about how we were spending the money.

  95. 95.

    Brachiator

    @different-church-lady:

    . It’s kind amazing how this basically can be distilled down to Hillary saying, “You’re horrible towards women,” and Trump saying, “Let me disprove that by being horrible towards a woman.”

    Yes! And what’s even crazier is that he makes things worse by insisting that he was absolutely justified in being horrible to a woman.

    Trump and his supporters try to invoke a Godfather defense. It was just business. Trump had every right to demand that someone in his pageant conform to his rules. His base is sticking to this and won’t let go.

    But it is weak. And now Trump becomes even more despicable by sending out his surrogates to try to destroy Machado personally.

    And the other shoe. Trump supporters and gasbag pundits insist that this is all irrelevant, a Clinton engineered distraction. But it’s more than likely that a president Trump would oppose legislation that would protect women’s civil and human rights.

  97. 97.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I think some sort of thing like what we need is “smart trade” (but a better phrase) would be decent. And, yes, lies. And pointing out all Trump’s offshoring, undocumented labor, and I presume trouble with unions.

    A pretty good line of attack in this regard would be “Donald Trump has always had the power, as a businessman, to bring jobs back to America. Instead his namesake merchandise is made in Mexico or China…because he’s more concerned about his personal profit than the livelihoods of those who actually make his merchandise.”

  98. 98.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore: I don’t like number 2 for the reasons you note and also because it seems to insist that the spouse remain unmarried in order to qualify for the tax break.

  101. 101.

    ChrisH

    What do we do with the 27% principle in a world where at least 40% of the country will be voting for Donald Trump?

    The original concept of 27% had leeway for some of those 27% being just too ideologically blind in their vote choices, but it seems that category needs some big expansion.

  102. 102.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Brachiator: The joke is going to be on him if he loses, because all the stuff that he did with his foundation probably never would have come to light if he never ran for POTUS. Now that it has, the IRS and Attorney General of NY are going to investigate, find enough evidence to convict. At best the fines will be massive – possibly enough to drive him into personal bankruptcy if he’s only worth in the tens of millions. At worst, the fines are massive plus he winds up in white collar prison for a few years.

  103. 103.

    catclub

    @dmsilev:

    Your normal person is going to say “huh?”.

    Your expert is going to say “Wind and Solar are taking over much faster than we thought they would. he is an idiot.”

  105. 105.

    catclub

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    At best the fines will be massive – possibly enough to drive him into personal bankruptcy if he’s only worth in the tens of millions. At worst, the fines are massive plus he winds up in white collar prison for a few years.

    Also on Fitzmas Dick Cheney was going to be indicted and perp-walked out of the White house. Yeah, right.

  107. 107.

    Monala

    @rikyrah: someone posted a link in an earlier thread today to a CNN commentator writing about the media and Trump. He wrote–I kid you not– that it had nothing to do with money or ratings. No, media outlets like CNN gave Trump so much attention because he was so good at working the media and generating that attention. So what else could those poor media outlets do? He added something like, “I wish other candidates had been as good at generating attention– not that I think they should have started saying outrageous and offensive things, of course.”

    So there you have it. Our MAN’s hands are just tied, nit because they care about ratings and money–never!–but because Trump knew how to work them, and the other candidates didn’t.

  108. 108.

    Ruckus

    @Shell:
    The people with less than half an once of decency probably also think that Cheney was a good VP, after all he saved GWB’s sorry ass didn’t he.

  109. 109.

    Brachiator

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    . He also himself appears in a soft core porn video put out by Playboy (does not appear with nude women, but still). Everything with him is projection.

    This would almost make me like Trump. I don’t care that he would appear in a soft core video. It’s his obnoxious behavior and his infantile need for justification that is the problem.

  112. 112.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @SenyorDave: She could point out that we don’t have a free trade agreement with China, so we do slap tariffs on everything imported from there, as Trump should know since a lot of his crappy Trump branded products are made there. Follow that up by asking voters to consider whether Trump is really going to pursue a policy (trade protectionism) that is liable to take a bite out of his profit margins, or whether it’s more likely that he’ll sell his supporters out on that issue to further enrich himself. That’s what I’d say.

    Then I’d go on to talk about my plans to create jobs.

  113. 113.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Suzanne:

    I can’t stop laughing about Wrestle Me for America, You Thieving White Shit. I loved animal books when I was a kid.

  116. 116.

    Ruckus

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
    Do you really think he’d wind up in prison? Heavy fines I can see but prison doesn’t seem realistic, given the way our system actually works. He’d be in his mid 70s at the earliest, he’s not in the best of health anyway so I’d bet a buck on no time. Not that I’d mind paying up you understand….

  119. 119.

    Ruckus

    @catclub:

    Also on Fitzmas Dick Cheney was going to be indicted and perp-walked out of the White house. Yeah, right.

    That was always a pipe dream, even if it shouldn’t have been.

  121. 121.

    Lyrebird

    Just another reason to thank you un-subscribers from the NYT,
    certainly not the yugest, but one very important in my line of work:

    The NYT magazine published a rather perjorative article on one of the main memory researchers to study H.M., famous hippocampectomy patient. HM and the researcher are both deceased, and heaps of distinguished colleagues have signed on to letter .

    TOtally tl;dr and unlikely to be of interest to many,
    but thanks extra anyhow!

  122. 122.

    Roger Moore

    @Brachiator:
    I think there’s a sexist assumption that the deceased was the breadwinner and the widow will be all but destitute without the income, and once she remarries to another breadwinner, she won’t need the benefit anymore.

    @Major Major Major Major:
    I’m an analytical biochemist, but tax expenditures are one of my personal bugaboos. I’ve also concluded that we need to centralize most funding for local governments, so that poor cities like Ferguson aren’t forced to raise money through ad hoc measures like fines and traffic tickets to keep the lights on. Inadequately funded local government is one more thing that exacerbates inequality.

    The two issues are related, especially when it comes to business property taxes. Local governments starved of revenue become desperate to attract businesses that will generate sales tax, and they can get into tax break bidding wars with neighboring governments trying to attract mobile businesses.

  123. 123.

    Amir Khalid

    @Trentrunner:
    Is that what the fuss is all about? HaHa Goodman had something about it on his YouTube channel, but even with his presentation it seemed a nothingburger.

  124. 124.

    scav

    @schrodinger’s cat: Nah, he’s manly, with perfect hair and hands and no complaints anywhere. Totally the sort of hunk his daughter would be all over, except for the unfortunate fact that he’s her father.

  125. 125.

    James E Powell

    @Elizabelle:

    I don’t see anyway that the press/media will allow Trump to lose Debate #2 as badly as he lost Debate #1. They know – we all know – that if he does, it’s over. I mean, it’s probably already over, but if #2 is like #1, many of his more formal supporters will run for cover, especially senators in purple states.

  127. 127.

    Another Scott

    @Roger Moore:

    I’ve also concluded that we need to centralize most funding for local governments, so that poor cities like Ferguson aren’t forced to raise money through ad hoc measures like fines and traffic tickets to keep the lights on. Inadequately funded local government is one more thing that exacerbates inequality.

    I agree with the sentiment and I too think it’s vitally important that localities have reasonably uniform baseline funding for schools and essential services. But if Virginia is a representative example, the devil’s in the details.

    In Virginia, it is almost impossible for localities to raise taxes without the approval of the state legislature. NoVA is the main economic engine of the state, but they can’t raise gas taxes to fund road repairs or mass-transit expansion; they can’t raise sales taxes without approval of the state legislature; etc. In practice, rural and exurban areas have a lock on how urban and near-urban areas fund their local governments. And since the Speaker of the House of Delegates seemingly has more power than just about anyone in the state, including the Governor, it means that one locally-elected guy can have veto power over the entire state.

    I don’t know the details of how the Virginia system came to be this way, and I don’t know how difficult it would be to change, but be very careful about wishing for something similar where you live. ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  128. 128.

    Elizabelle

    I love the blogpost art. Laughed good and hard.

    @gf120581: re “The War with Grandpa”

    Why was the kid at war with Grandpa?

  129. 129.

    Eric U.

    @Another Scott: pennsylvania used to have a tax based on the name of your job. Not on your income, just the name. My wife was getting taxed at the highest rate, because she’s a psychiatrist, even though there were plenty of people making much more than her that were paying much less. For example, almost every tenured professor at Penn State. The state initially got rid of it by setting the tax rate to zero. I wonder if that’s not a solution in Virginia. The local school board fought the zero tax rate by saying that zero was not a number — so much for the vaunted quality of our schools.

  131. 131.

    Amir Khalid

    @James E Powell:
    Does Donald have it in him to perform such that the pundits can plausibly pretend he won prevailed? (Sorry, couldn’t resist the alliteration.) Perhaps he will persist in falling prey to Hillary’s provocation.

  132. 132.

    Eric U.

    @Iowa Old Lady: people like Trump almost never go to jail. Too bad this stuff didn’t come out before, like in the primaries. Would have been fun to see him perp-walked

  135. 135.

    Elizabelle

    @Iowa Old Lady: But if you don’t [prosecute], you’ve got a different justice system for the wealthy and well-connected. You don’t want someone running for president to inoculate himself from legal jeopardy.

    Where did the “Hillary for Jail” shit begin? Was it with Trump, or he co-opted it? Because that sounds like pure out projection.

  136. 136.

    Corner Stone

    @dmsilev:

    It also wasn’t exactly a subtle trap. And by “not exactly a subtle trap”, I mean that Hillary’s lines came packaged in a crate labeled Acme Trump Trap carted on stage by Admiral Akbar.

    So you’re saying there was a trap involved somewhere in there?

  138. 138.

    Roger Moore

    @Another Scott:
    I’ll agree up front that the devil is in the details. An unfair formula for distributing central funds would be even more difficult to cure than uneven local funding, because local governments would lack the power to change their funding. But it seems to me that we’ve done OK by centralizing school funding. The poorest districts are still shortchanged, but it’s not as bad as it once was.

    I would hope that it would actually be easier to figure out how to fund public safety functions. Some of them- I’m thinking fire and ambulance- might well be better off centralized rather than left under local control. Even having a larger state-level police force might be a good idea. It would cut back on a lot of jurisdictional issues for crimes that cross local government boundaries, and it would make it easier to shift resources to areas that are seeing local surges in crime.

  139. 139.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Eric U.: @Elizabelle: You’re both right about the problem with NOT prosecuting Trump too.

    My impression about the “Hillary for Prison” and “Lock Her Up” stuff is that it came out in the open after Comey’s press conference about the emails. At least that’s when a Trump supporter at the gym started raving about Clinton being a criminal. It was probably swimming around in the swamps of right wing web sites before then. Actually, when I think of it, the right wing has been trying to criminalize being a Clinton for a couple of decades.

  141. 141.

    Emerald

    @Pinacacci: Betsy Wright! Ah HA! Yeppers! That’s the one!

    And I think her comment was in direct reference to Gennifer Flowers.

    Memories.

  142. 142.

    Pest Bog Mummy, Frakensteinbeck

    @Iowa Old Lady: and @Elizabelle:
    Republicans have been promising that Hillary would be going to jail any time now for years. They have whole elaborate mythologies of her crimes and FOX news has repeatedly assured them that the evidence is about to be announced that will trigger the indictment. It’s just that most non-FOX viewers hadn’t heard this crazy refrain until people started chanting it at Trump rallies.

  143. 143.

    James E Powell

    @Amir Khalid: @efgoldman:

    For sure, Trump has made the press/media’s job more difficult. Pretty hard to sell a manufactured Clinton scandal when Trump’s latest outrage is what’s drawing eyes & clicks.

    Right now, Trump is a cornered rat. It’s not low bar, it’s no bar.

  144. 144.

    James E Powell

    @Elizabelle:

    Where did the “Hillary for Jail” shit begin? Was it with Trump, or he co-opted it?

    I saw “Hillary for Prison” yard signs at least a year ago.

  145. 145.

    Corner Stone

    @Elizabelle:

    I think Trump might do a lot better in the second debate. They will be preparing him intensely, even though what will take the stage is Donald J. Trump.

    Trump will not do better in the second debate. They will be unable to sufficiently prepare him to answer any question using any actual substance of any kind. His brain just does not work that way, and his ego will not allow him to be caught cross footed. So he will throw out word salad answers and be just as vague as we expect him to be. “We have to be tough. We have to be smarter. We are dealing with vicious, vicious people, but believe me, when I get in there we will be tough and smart, ok? Ok.”
    However, he will be judged to have done much better because the townhall format doesn’t allow HRC to jab him right in the fucking face in front of 80 million people so cleanly. In that first debate she put her folder on the podium, said “excuse me for just a minute”, whipped out pageant pics of Machado and waved them at Trump and then ran them through a shredder and threw the confetti all over him and his lines of coke.
    That will not happen in the second debate. But I am curious what other person of color, hopefully a female PoC business owner that Trump stiffed, HRC name checks in this next debate.

  146. 146.

    Mary G

    Y’all, those who said it was “bimbo eruptions” and not “bimbo explosions” and Betsy Wright, Not Hillary, who said it, are correct.

    My new fantasy is, to produce entertainment and therefore ratings, is that the debate commission, CNN, and Gallup have found an undecided voter who also is a female person of color to ask, calling him Donald like Hillary does, Trump a question about racism in the townhall debate.

  147. 147.

    Corner Stone

    @James E Powell:

    Pretty hard to sell a manufactured Clinton scandal when Trump’s latest outrage is what’s drawing eyes & clicks.

    Someone on MSNBC said this earlier. What ground is he fighting on that can gain him any, any, new voters?
    Trump is talking about Miss Piggy and The Clenis. HRC is talking about National Service, jobs, the economy and student debt.

  150. 150.

    Elizabelle

    @Corner Stone:

    HRC is talking about National Service, jobs, the economy and student debt.

    Voter: “Yeah, but all I hear about is Trump and a p*rno. When is Hillary going to give me a positive reason to vote for her? I know all about Trump, and if that’s all she has ….”

  154. 154.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Felonius Monk: They’re not reeducatable, best I can tell, as they have rationality deflectors and antibodies that actively, aggressively resist science and empiricism.

  155. 155.

    Trentrunner

    @Corner Stone:

    In that first debate she put her folder on the podium, said “excuse me for just a minute”, whipped out pageant pics of Machado and waved them at Trump and then ran them through a shredder and threw the confetti all over him and his lines of coke.

    I think your network had a different feed of the debate than mine did. :)

  156. 156.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Major Major Major Major: I guess you’re unfamiliar with the CA state constitution.

    ETA: At one point(I think the late 70’s, early 80’s) the CA state constitution was the longest in the world.

  157. 157.

    Mary G

    @Iowa Old Lady: Ivanka said that I have to show respect, even if I don’t have any. I think it’s what threw him off initially. I think even Melania might have to call him Mr. Trump.

  158. 158.

    Trentrunner

    @Corner Stone: God, no.

    My point was that the RWMN has taken a Dem remark TOTALLY OUT OF CONTEXT to mean something totally different than what the Dem said, like Obama’s “You didn’t build that” from 2012.

    E.g, “Basement Dwellers” has been trending for hours now on Twitter, and Hugh Hewitt mentioned this “gaffe” on MSNBC this morning as the story that will “hog the spotlight for the next 24-48 hours.”

    Careful listeners, of course, will notice that HRC never uses the phrase “basement dwellers.” And her overall point is empathetic toward Bernie’s supporters (and insightful, I might add).

    Btw, Politico’s first run of the story had the “Hillary Mocks Bernie Supporters” headline.

    So the lie got halfway round the world before the truth could put its pantsuit on.

  159. 159.

    sigaba

    @Elizabelle: Let’s face it, if undecided voters rely on television and their Facebook feed for their news, they’re never going to hear anything positive about anybody. Trump, Hillary, Mike Pence, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Jimmy Fallon, Brad Pitt, George Lucas, anybody. High-engagement news is by definition either anger-inducing or populist glurge.

    You can go through Google News and read half a dozen headlines about “Hillary’s 3AM Revenge Tweets” and not one of them will actually lead with what was in those tweets, some of them only get around to them after several grafs of “context” recapping Trump. The media systematically edits policy and positivity out of coverage because these are bad for engagement and ad impressions.

  160. 160.

    Emerald

    @Corner Stone: -Frankly I think he’s going to suck at the town hall format. He’s never done that before—answer direct questions from mere mortals. Plus, if a questioner lobs him a hostile question he’s going to attack. He can’t help himself. Horrible optics for Herr Drumpf.

    Hillz, OTOH, is highly experienced in town hall settings and is really good at it. She’s going to come across as warm and caring with the sympathetic people, and she’ll handle the hostile questions with aplomb, as always.

    The M$M might want (again) to spin it for Trump, but they’re (again) not going to be able to do it. I predict a worse blowout than the last one, and the cancellation of the third debate.

  164. 164.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Emerald: That Matt Lauer thing was in a town hall format, wasn’t it? Will this one be different? I’d love to hear the advice Clinton’s team is giving (and practicing). They seem so competent.

    Also, does anyone know if the same people prep Kaine for the VP debate?

  166. 166.

    Corner Stone

    @Emerald:

    Frankly I think he’s going to suck at the town hall format. He’s never done that before—answer direct questions from mere mortals. Plus, if a questioner lobs him a hostile question he’s going to attack. He can’t help himself. Horrible optics for Herr Drumpf.

    We saw a little of this with the CinC Forum. Which should have been a prelude to how bad Trump is at answering questions from mere mortals if Matt Lauer hadn’t doghumped the email server question for 13 fucking minutes and made himself the story.

  171. 171.

    john fremont

    @different-church-lady: Reminds of my Facebook feed, when Hillary brought up the “basket of deplorables.” So many people were angry about that comment they started posting the most racist, chauvinistic memes with plenty of F-bombs thrown in.

  173. 173.

    hovercraft

    @Amir Khalid:
    Maybe, they are desperate to call him a winner, afterall they all claim he won the first portion of the debate. I saw a bully who wouldn’t let her finish her sentences, but they saw an assertive authoritative man up there. They don’t grade on the substance, it’s all about ‘style’.

  175. 175.

    Ruckus

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    That’s just one of the reasons why I don’t see him in jail. Even if I think we’d all be better off if he was. Just like most things in life the details are important and what happens afterwards involving others would be of far more importance than jailing him. He’s 70 and not in the best of health, no matter what his quack doc says, late in life vertical growth spurt or not.

  177. 177.

    StringOnAStick

    Anyone here from CO? I’m out of state and I’m wondering if ballots have been mailed yet.

  178. 178.

    Hob

    Btw, if you enjoyed the book covers at that link— that’s just a few favorites someone copied on their blog. The source, with MANY more covers, is here.

  179. 179.

    JR in WV

    @rikyrah:

    And Ms Machado, after starring in a couple of Telenovellas (sp?)
    is now looking pretty good in a Cosmopolitan spread. Too bad, Donald. She will always be a better person than you, and better looking too.

  180. 180.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore:

    I think there’s a sexist assumption that the deceased was the breadwinner and the widow will be all but destitute without the income, and once she remarries to another breadwinner, she won’t need the benefit anymore.

    There is also the perverse incentive of promising a permanent tax break as long as the spouse stays unmarried.

    Taxation ain’t easy. Central funding, and then doling it out to cities and communities comes with its own set of problems. Places like Ferguson still have problems when central authorities refuse to be fair.

  181. 181.

    StringOnAStick

    We’re in rural central MI right now in what looks like prime trumpeter habitat, and we drove to a cider mill/farm stand/tourist trap today. I only saw 3 trump yard signs, 1 Johnson, and a couple with a group of signs for down ballot repubs that were notably missing the trump/ pence sign. I talked my sister in law into voting Hillary by explaining what the Clinton foundation does as opposed to trumps “charity”. That and the racism and white supremacist crap finally opened her eyes. My brother in law is unreachable since he hates them both; trump for obvious reasons, Hillary because of the doubts from 30 years of wingnut Wurlitzer stories, none of which can he point to or explain. He won’t live to see election day, so I was surprised he wanted to watch the debate. I think he just wanted to make fun of trump.

  182. 182.

    StringOnAStick

    @Brachiator: How will the surviving spouse claim the benefit on each year’s tax form, a special check off box? One that has to be on everyone’s form? A special tax reviewer? It just seems like a feel good amendment proposed to create oppo ads and expensive and a PITA to manage every year.

  185. 185.

    Emerald

    @hovercraft: Aha! Yes indeed. Could NOT remember her last name, and she is indeed Barney Frank’s sister.

    But it was Betsy Wright who said “bimbo eruptions,” as somebody else corrected me. I knew it wasn’t Hillz, though.

    Really stokes the old memory machine, doesn’t it?

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