I can’t think of another way to describe him after this* [Politico link]:
Donald Trump suggested canceling the election Thursday and granting himself the presidency.
“What a difference. You know, what a difference this is,” Trump said during a rally in Toledo, Ohio, after comparing his tax plan with Hillary Clinton’s.
“And just thinking to myself right now, we should just cancel the election and just give it to Trump, right? What are we even having it for? What are we having it for?” he asked. “Her policies are so bad. Boy, do we have a big difference.”
Because that’s how he rolls, and how the party that nominated him would, if they could.
I got nuthin’ beyond that.
Except perhaps this: the Republican party is a wholly owned Trump subsidiary now. It must be destroyed, its walls pulled down, its proud towers cast down, its fields sown with salt.
Factio Grandaeva Delenda Est
*Actually, I’ve been using that label for the Cheeto-faced Ferret-heedit Shitgibbon for some time. But that’s neither here nor there.
Image: J. W. M. Turner, The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire, 1817.
Trentrunner
Fascist, yes.
Also, toddler: If something is bad for me, I don’t wanna do it. Wah.
Cacti
Trump isn’t running for POTUS so much as he’d like to be dictator for life of the USSA.
Baud
The GOP need to go the way of Vulcan.
(Just finished your excellent book.)
Enhanced Voting Techinques
Cause Donny, the other 55% of your fellow citizens will beat the crap out of your 27% and then lynch you, you wannabe tin pot dicator.
What’s Lincoln’s line to McCellan “Only victorious generals get to be made dictator”
bobbo
Yesterday on the Twitterz someone posted a snapshot of the NYTimes from the 1920s with Mussolini saying pretty much exactly the same thing.
p.a.
Hope he just buys an island somewhere to rule. If it’s populated in less than 2 years his head will be on a pike. A yuge, classy pike with lots of gold leaf.
FlipYrWhig
@Cacti: I definitely get a Robert Mugabe klepto-state vibe from him.
Punchy
Ruh roh. Odds for Dems to take the Senate went from -400 a few days ago to -210 currently. Must be a batch of poor Senate polling numbers I havent seen. Without the Senate HRC is screwed.
Nancy
Here is another way to describe him – NYT editorial on Christie today: the decaying gas giant Donald Trump
Cacti
@FlipYrWhig:
His gushing mancrush for the dictator of Russia says everything about what a Trump presidency would aspire to.
Julie
OT but since there’s no open thread: A verdict is imminent in the Oregon Standoff trial
hovercraft
I’m as jaded as they come, but this asshole still manages to surprise me. Not the fact that he would love to just be “given” the presidency, since not enough of us are willing to vote for him, no it’s the fact that he would go out in public and say it. This is the same man who bleats about tyrants and crooks, but he has no qualms about saying we should just do away with democracy.
I know Kellyanne and all the rest of his merry band of liars are going to tell us that we liberals have no sense of humor, but you shouldn’t joke about shit like this.
Thoughtful David
@Baud:
If only it could be true that the GOP had never actually existed, after all.
redshirt
It’s darkly humorous that the “Conservative” Party is in fact a radical party, looking to literally tear down our system of government. They speak of sedition and secession. Revolution. Anything but Conservative.
Tom Levenson
@Baud: Thanks!
different-church-lady
TRUMP’S INTERIOR MONOLOG: “They must know I’m just shitting them now, right? I mean, they have to figure it out after this one…”
Thoughtful David
@Thoughtful David: I guess maybe it could be like Larry Hagman waking up after being shot, and it turning out that all the horrors perpetuated on the world by the GOP was just a dream.
So, not exactly like the lack of existence of Vulcan, but better than what we’ve got now. Which, unfortunately, it appears that the GOP actually exists.
smintheus
@Punchy: Dems look very good to take the Senate seats in WI, IN, NH and PA.
Credible polls don’t change on a dime. There are a lot of very poorly designed/conducted Senate polls that get published, including those from several partisan Republican pollsters designed just to screw with poll aggregator models.
lollipopguild
@Baud: Did Tom destroy the Planet Vulcan? Or did he hide it away so that we cannot see it anymore?
Major Major Major Major
@Cacti: he’s running for last president.
Turgidson
Meanwhile, “establishment” Republicans, who we’re told are so appalled by Trump’s flouting of norms and general approach to politics that is more like an arsonist than a public servant, are already bragging about the fact that they plan to learn nothing and change nothing after the election. They’re already gearing up to bury the Clinton White House in subpoenas about bullshit scandals that have repeatedly been shown to be bullshit. They’re planning to block any and all judicial nominees made by President Clinton if they hold the Senate. They still want to repeal Obamacare and kick millions of people off their insurance.
They plan on learning and changing absolutely fucking nothing after this is over. Because that sweet nectar of unhinged, mindless Hillary-hatred will heal all wounds. Fucking assholes, the lot of them.
Baud
@lollipopguild: Tom made Newton his bitch.
SiubhanDuinne
@Cacti:
Did I see recently that Trump had criticised George Washington for refusing the title of “King,” or was that just someone being funny?
Saw what you did there. Nicely played.
Turgidson
@smintheus:
You forgot Illinois, the biggest lock to change hands besides maybe Wisconsin. We’d fucking better hold Harry’s seat in NV too. I think Hillary’s ground game + Reid’s machine gets that done, but we’ll see.
gf120581
@smintheus: Don’t forget Illinois as well. Duckworth is basically a lock down here. That’s the majority right there, not even counting MO, NC and FL.
One thing I’ve noticed lately is polling coming from outfits I’ve never heard from. I’d say it’s more intended to keep the illusion that things are competitive than anything else. If GOP voters lose hope, they may not show up and then the downballot gets massacred. It’s all about the downballot at this point.
hovercraft
@FlipYrWhig:
Ahem, excuse me, Zimbabwe does have elections, I can attest to the fact that my mother has stood in lines for hours in Harare, the capital and the most populous city in the country, only to have the votes from the rural areas come in at incredibly inflated numbers that override the urban vote. Villages that have greatly inflated populations at election time are not uncommon. But the elections are free and fair, and they do take place. It’s true that gangs of young men armed with ‘ama ghodho’ clubs, appear in non ZANU areas and beat people up, and some people disappear altogether till after the election, a few for good, but the elections are free and fair.
Baud
@Turgidson: Both sides, dude.
lollipopguild
@Baud: Maybe we should sic Tom on the Donald.
Baud
@lollipopguild: I think we are more likely to have to hold him back.
JanieM
@Baud: I just finished the book too. Loved it! It took me back to my wild youth, when I hoped to become an astrophysicist…… Oh well, as they say, life is what happens when you’re making other plans.
Now I’m going to go find other Levenson books to read.
raven
Go Hokies!!!
Turgidson
@Baud:
Is that you, Ron Fournier?
Baud
@JanieM: I also once dreamed of a life in science. Then I realized I was inept at it.
ThresherK
Rudy 9iul1an1 made some noises about Maybe I should stay on as mayor and we can have this election when it’s convenienter.
Donald Trump makes Rudy look like the thoughtful one.
lollipopguild
@Baud: “Hold me back! Hold me back!”
Baud
@Turgidson: I don’t get paid enough for that.
smintheus
@Turgidson: Yes, IL is such a lock that I forgot it was even being contested.
@gf120581: I think the Dems win at least one of NH or NV or NC. In PA, Toomey has never topped 46% except in a single poll (plus one non-credible poll that puts him at 49%), and he’s on the defensive now about his Trump support.
Tom Levenson
@Baud: That’s going on my tombstone.
Reformed Panty Sniffer
Not to quibble but I think the proper Scottish epithet for the hair fuhrer was “short-fingered, cheetos-faced, ferret-headed, Shitgibbon,” but I could be wrong.
Baud
@Tom Levenson: I have read a lot about the science, but I really learned a great deal with your book about the history and people involved. RReally wonderful.
(I actually listened to the audiobook. I like to imagine you as the voice.)
Turgidson
@smintheus:
It blows my mind that Pat f’ing Toomey, an anti-tax lunatic who used to lead the batshit Club for Growth, has managed to dupe most of the media and voting public into thinking he’s relatively moderate. Was showing a modest amount of backbone on gun control all it took for him to attain that reputation for all time? Ugh.
Mary G
OT but it picked up my spirits “I waited 96 years – gallery of women born before women had the right to vote, all with her.
hovercraft
@hovercraft:
@FlipYrWhig:
I forgot to address the question of of the kleptocracy, funny story, over the last 10 years or so as the sanctions on Zimbabwe have gotten worse and worse, and Mugabe has become more and more dependent on China, the Chinese got so fed up with the kleptocracy that shipments of minerals are now handled directly by the Chinese themselves. It used to be quite common to hear about entire truck convoys would disappear between the mines and their destination, and then the government would say they lacked the funds to repay Chinese loans because of these “heists”.
smintheus
@gf120581: Yes, with the partisans like Rasmussen and Gravis etc. it’s about maintaining an illusion of a horse race. There are a lot of other pollsters just churning out junk polls, often with tiny voter samples (sometimes under 400 voters) or terrible demographics. Many of those are college/university polls where the goal appears to be generating name-recognition for the host institution.
Baud
@Mary G: Nice.
Jeffro
Just saw a John Kasich ad for pro TPP I guess – that man is not going to get elected as a Republican anything, talking about putting the country first and how we should come together and support of things that benefit American workers
I mean, the nerve
Tom Levenson
@Baud: Awww…I blush. Really, thanks.
Ruckus
@ThresherK:
tRump or Rudy911, either one makes anyone’s pet turtle look like the smart one.
Chris
“He was JOOOOOKING! GOD you guys!”
– the entire GOP, tomorrow
cokane
Ehh, he’s said plenty worse. I feel like he was saying “why have the election?” as in “I’m going to win, bigly”. I can see the other interpretation, but, frankly, I think the one I’m saying is more in line with his overall rhetoric.
Baud
@Jeffro: TPP, like the deficit, is a weapon to be used against Dems alone.
smintheus
@Turgidson: Back in the day I ran cross country against Toomey and his school in RI. They were notorious (along with several other Catholic schools) for deliberately lining up at the start of races and injuring the achilles tendons of their opponents’ best runners. I was our top runner and my squad made sure Toomey and gang couldn’t get anywhere near my heels.
Mary G
All Oregon standoff defendants found not guilty.
OMG that’s some Trump-level nullification. Scary!
hovercraft
@Punchy:
The RCP latest senate polls page doesn’t show anything dramatic in the last few days. There is a poll from yesterday showing Rubio up 10, but that was always listed as number 8 or 9 on the depth chart of states that are vulnerable.
Cacti
Has Trump made any statement on the Miss Finland groping accusation?
I’m guessing the “she was too ugly for me to grope” defense isn’t going to fly on this one.
hovercraft
@Mary G:
WTF
SiubhanDuinne
@Mary G:
I’m really sorry my mother (born 1917) isn’t around to see this! She was a default Republican, but there is no doubt in my mind that she would have been an enthusiastic HRC supporter (in fact, I suspect she might have left the GOP during the Dubya years, and I think she would have voted for Obama).
piratedan
@Mary G: unsure how an armed takeover of a federal wildlife refuge and preventing all access by federal workers constitutes a not guilty charge
Pinksnapdragon
OMG. Off topic, but the Malheur Refuge defendants have all been found not guilty on all charges. Unbelieveable.
Trentrunner
@Pinksnapdragon: Wait, what? Given what’s going on right now in North Dakota?
SiubhanDuinne
@Mary G:
WTF!?!? Can hardly believe this! Adam is going to be busy tonight.
Mary G
@hovercraft: I know. It just happened 10 minutes ago, but it’s on “The Oregonian’s” website; no details yet.
Another Holocene Human
For those of you who have been following Michael Tracey and his horribleness on twitter, there is a Trichael Macey parody account now and it is awesome.
geg6
Damn, that’s some mighty big jury nullification going on there in Oregon.
Turgidson
@smintheus:
Christ, what an asshole. Interestingly, that’s basically what the GOP tries to do in the electioneering context now with their Voter ID bullshit.
Hal
This made me lol.
http://www.clickhole.com/article/overconfidence-hillary-clinton-has-already-started-5049
SiubhanDuinne
@Cacti:
He’ll pull out the same lines for any woman who accuses him of groping or molesting her. “Have you seen her? I mean, I don’t think so. I don’t think so. She would certainly not be my first choice, that I can tell you. Believe me, I can do better than that. This one is maybe a 6 on a good day.”
smintheus
@Turgidson: Yep, scorched earth cross country brought to you by the Church…and the Pat Toomey’s of the world. Even my Catholic cross country coach who rarely had a bad word for anybody was appalled by that [email protected] One of my fellow runners had a season-ending achilles injury, leg in a cast for months, thanks to them.
Villago Delenda Est
The GOP must go the way of the NSDAP and the CPSU.
Oblivion.
And the process take as much of the elected offal of it with it.
Patricia Kayden
@Julie: They got off scot free. Imagine that.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mary G: After we hang the defendants, we hang the jury.
Rob
The Bundy Malheur crew: not guilty on (virtually) all counts according to Matt Pearce etc etc on Twitter!
FFS.
I despair.
hovercraft
@Cacti:
Why not?
He has exacting standards, Miss Universe was to fat, according to Salma Hayek he put out a rumor that she was too short. Then again they are both brown, which I assume Miss Finland is not.
JanieM
Malheur: I’m afraid to imagine what this will embolden them to do next. Holy f’in sh!t.
piratedan
@Patricia Kayden: well, they get to go to Nevada for a round of double jeopardy
Rob
@JanieM:
Exactly.
This not guilty verdict can’t be appealed?
raven
@Rob: Uh, no.
Frank Wilhoit
@Ruckus: Our sulcata tortoise resembles that remark. (His language skills may be rubbish, but he’s nobody’s fool.)
debbie
@hovercraft:
How can you be surprised? All he has he has been given. If he’s not given something outright, he takes it and schemes to get out of having to pay for it. The only thing he’s ever had to work for is respectability, and this campaign is more about self-legitimization then actually being president.
Patricia Kayden
@piratedan: Yep. This verdict has sent a strong message that certain people can do whatever the hell they like and walk away free as a bird. Wow.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: it’s an ominous sign.
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
They don’t even have to pay damages?
Kryptik
I really want to know the mindset of the jurors when they deliberated and made that call, because….holy fuck, what did the trial demonstrate that would un-damn them considering their own fucking statements and behavior? They literally didn’t hide what the hell they were doing and couched it in sovcit bullshit.
Villago Delenda Est
@piratedan: Actually, not double jeopardy. Separate set of charges for a totally different incident.
Baud
@debbie: Not unless the U.S. brings a civil claim (and wins).
raven
ALSO – Ammon Bundy’s attorney fought with judge, agents moved in & tackled attorney, media rushed out of court, I’ve never seen that before!
Major Major Major Major
@Kryptik: did they give a statement or something?
Baud
@Kryptik: Could have been one holdout and everyone else gave up so they could go home.
Villago Delenda Est
@Patricia Kayden: It would not be advisable for blah people to try this shit. They’d never even be tried, they’d all be summarily executed on the spot.
Mary G
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, my mom was a Goldwater Republican who gradually pulled away from the party beginning in the 70s over abortion and racism. I think she voted for Libertarians from Reagan thru Bush 2. In 2008 she changed her registration to Democrat to vote for Obama in the primary. Originally she said it was because she despised Hillary for keeping Bill, but she came around to Obama for himself.
After she died I found the front page of the LA Times from Nov. 2008 in her stuff with the headline It’s Obama! The “Hope” yard sign is still in the garage.
Some day I will post about the time in the 1940s when the KKK tried to burn a cross on her lawn.
Kryptik
@Major Major Major Major:
No statement, just…trying to wrap my head around how the hell this verdict could even be a thing.
hueyplong
Re: Oregon verdict, I give you Louise from Being There:
It’s for sure a white man’s world in America. Look here: I raised that boy since he was the size of a piss-ant. And I’ll say right now, he never learned to read and write. No, sir. Had no brains at all. Was stuffed with rice pudding between th’ ears. Shortchanged by the Lord, and dumb as a jackass. Look at him now! Yes, sir, all you’ve gotta be is white in America, to get whatever you want. Gobbledy-gook!
Wasn’t “Gobbledy-gook” the Snack Team Six’s legal defense?
raven
Maybe the government did a really shitty job of making their case.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@smintheus:
And only Catholics did that?
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Villago Delenda Est: We don’t have to speculate about how it would be different if the people occupying weren’t white.
Patricia Kayden
@Villago Delenda Est: You got that right.
Rob
@raven:
Oh no, I hope not.
raven
@Rob: Wouldn’t be the first time.
smintheus
@West of the Rockies (been a while): So I was told by everyone on the team. It was basically a security alert for the team: “Ok we’re running against a Catholic school so everyone knows what to do.” The first time I heard that I was shocked and asked them what the hell they meant. Thought it was a joke; no way, in RI the Catholic schools were almost all vicious in the lengths they went to win.
debbie
@Baud:
That is such a poor precedent.
Calouste
@JanieM: Just like Brian May wanted to become an astrophysicist in his wild youth, and then settled on a boring steady life as a rockstar. Good thing that he managed to fulfill his youthful dreams later in life.
WaterGirl
OT but I was just skimming threads from the past 2 days trying to catch up and I saw references to Ruckus packing up and moving? Would really appreciate it if someone could either fill me in or point me to the right thread. thanks!
hueyplong
Remember that one juror got kicked off after another juror passed a note to the judge calling the kicked off juror biased and a former BMO employee.
They shook off the mistrial voter and went straight to acquittal.
Whether that was an appropriate thing to do under the circumstances is something I don’t know, not having followed the trial closely. But it’s easy to be a little skeptical.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@smintheus:
Why do you suppose that was?
Rob
Two tweets from a reporter/journo type who I believe was in Oregon covering events earlier this year.
john sepulvado @JohnLGC 36s37 seconds ago
john sepulvado
The US DOJ contacted me and OPB halfway through to get me to testify. It was pretty clear at that point the govt had no idea what to dojohn sepulvado added,
Mike Sweeney @M_Sweeney_1
@JohnLGC your thoughts on #oregonstandoff not guilty verdicts?
john sepulvado @JohnLGC 2m2 minutes ago
john sepulvado
I didn’t think they would be convicted outside of Ryan Bundy and Ammon. The government had a really horrible case. Did awful presenting itjohn sepulvado added,
Mike Sweeney @M_Sweeney_1
@JohnLGC your thoughts on #oregonstandoff not guilty verdicts?
So the government really didn’t present their case very well, as raven said a few minutes ago.
Sigh.
Pinksnapdragon
The Malheur verdict has some even uglier ramifications. Yesterday a juror was removed because one of the other jurors claimed he was biased. My guess is that that action took the situation from a mistrial to this. There was no questioning of the juror who made the allegation.
smintheus
@West of the Rockies (been a while): The coaching obviously. I suppose God is forgiving of almost everything, except losers. Fwiw I heard that Catholic schools also had a win-at-all-costs approach in other sports I didn’t play, though not necessarily to the point of perfecting the art of injuring opponents with methods guaranteeing plausible deniability.
gene108
One thing that became abundantly clear to me, during the Bush&co years, especially in the early stages of the Iraq war, is conservatives would love a fascist dictatorship, as long as their guys are in power and stomping in the Untermensch.
Villago Delenda Est
@Pinksnapdragon: I’m sure the juror was biased. Probably the juror did not buy into sovcit horseshit.
Villago Delenda Est
@The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion: It’s interesting to note that if the party that wants to to build something over someone else’s land has lots of money, then the local law enforcement is more than happy to play the part of hired goons in defense of parasites. But if the occupiers are doing it on Federal lands held partially, at least, in trust for the same people protesting in ND, well, go ahead and take shits on burial grounds of the mud people.
Bobby Thomson
@Pinksnapdragon:
I guess that means he wasn’t willing to acquit because Barry Bamz is a ghey Muslin Soc.ialist.
gogiggs
carthago delenda est
Dog Dawg Damn
Guys, I’ve been thinking.
We should just let the Bundy guys go & give Donald Trump the presidency because they are patriots and he is for law and order, so it just makes sense.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Kryptik: Simple farmers, people of the land. The common clay of the new fascist West. You know, morons.
JR in WV
@Mary G:
Racists burnt a cross on my Grandfather’s yard, next door. I don’t think they were capable of organizing a Klan Klavern, though. Stone dolts.
Cracker and toast
@Punchy: Oh noezzz. Time to panic. That’s what you pantswetters do best.
I don’t even know and don’t care where you got those silly numbers or what the hell -200 is even supposed to mean. I’m not even going to tell you what the reality of the situation is. Just go change your Depends.
Is that all you people do all day is look for polls or statistics or whatever so that you can think you are losing. Seems you are not happy otherwise.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Me, too! The narrator on the audiobook was awesome, and I was also imagining him as the Voice of Tom. : )