In 2010, there were over 100 House seats that Cook Political report rated as competitive. I expect that number to be at least as high in 2018. I have nothing against the DCCC but they tend to spend a lot of money in a small number of races that are winnable.
Not to get all Nassim Nicholas Taleb on you, but the probability tails here are fatter than most people think. Last night, a Montana Republican running for House choked, punched, and body-slammed a reporter, and is now facing misdemeanor assault charges. That race was close already, and the assault occurred so near to the election that it may not have a massive effect, but let’s be honest: we’ve got 238 Republican incumbent assholes running in 2018, at least a few are going to pull some kind of similar shit, and we’ve got to have Democratic candidates who can take advantage when that happens.
So this year we will be raising district funds for the eventual Deocratic nominee in all 238 districts with Republican incumbents. No quarter, nowhere to hide. If a Republican Congressman goes to Indochina…..
geg6
Done.
I love this idea, Doug.
BBA
435, no? Plus the 33 running for Senate.
AndyG
Made a monthly contribution from now until the mid terms.
“We’ll win this war, but we’ll win it only by fighting and showing the Germans that we’ve got more guts than they have or ever will have. We’re not just going to shoot the bastards, we’re going to rip out their living goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We’re going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket.”
RepubAnon
The 50 State strategy is the only path to victory. Ceding vast chunks of the country to Republicans gives them safe zones from which to expand.
Doug!
@BBA:
I mean incumbents.
lamh36
if he wins, as i suspect he still has a good chance to, if he doesn’t go to jail, then he should be hounded on the hill by reporters for the entirety of his tenure…short or long, and he should be an albatross around the necks any GOP who greets him with open arms!
lamh36
The new GOp like their big man Cheeto are a bunch of thugs.
Doug did you see this shit!
And some people are proud that this guy represents the USA??
rikyrah
They should target 150 of them. SERIOUSLY.
Gin & Tonic
Posted this downstairs – great video of our President showing his true self. It’s less than 10 seconds, so watch it.
Also note that he chose in his speech to avoid explicitly reaffirming NATO Article 5. I’m quite sure this was noted pretty much everywhere.
Gin & Tonic
And lamh36 beat me to it.
Peale
@lamh36: And it’s clear from his remarks that he still thinks that if the members of NATO increased their defense spending, the US would somehow obtain that money. He’s expecting tribute payouts and treating those countries like tenants who skipped rent last October.
randy khan
@lamh36:
@Gin & Tonic:
Excellent comment on the video in the Twitter feed: “He wouldn’t do that to Gianforte, I can tell you that.”
PST
Nate Silver is well worth reading this morning. He says that when you dig down to highly vs. somewhat approving or disapproving Trump’s performance, he’s fading. Just looking at the top-line approval and disapproval understates the deterioration. His take on this is that Trump’s base is shrinking. One possibility is a 2018 enthusiasm gap, where we find it easier to get ours out than they do to get theirs out. If that is true, it reinforces what Doug! is saying. What Silver says based on polling reinforces the vibe I’m picking up among my older, white, Midwestern relatives. Lots of them were not Trump voters in the primary and were more Hillary haters than Trump lovers. I’m not defending them! It’s disgusting how they used their votes. But I feel from them a sense of disillusionment that can be converted to apathy.
Doug!
I can’t quite tell what happened in that shoving video.
MattF
@Gin & Tonic: It does seem that a line has been crossed, and Der Trump, as usual, is in the forefront.
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: I guess NATO leaders are not treating him with the adoration he thinks he
deserves.
Ghost of Fitzmas past
These are the same seats we didn’t win last time. Why are you kidding yourselves?
Thoroughly Pizzled
We’ll make them live to regret their cowardice, treason and hate. No prisoners!
Ric Drywall
If Gianforte wins the day after being charged with assault, it’s not going to give us bragging rights. And I suspect he will win.
Corner Stone
@Gin & Tonic:
Pretty sure at least one autocrat noted it with unconcealed pleasure. Name rhymes with Lootin’.
D58826
OT. Der Fuhrer at the NATO summit:
1. isn’t taking questions from the press
2. is lecturing the other members on not paying their fair share, and
3. when given the opportunity, at the new 9/11 memorial, he passed on reaffirming our commitment to Article 5 (mutual defense article invoked only once after 9/11).
oops someone beat me to the article 5 reference
Oh and our Sec. of Commerce will be so disappointed that he missed the protests in Belgium.
hovercraft
@schrodingers_cat:
Re-posting from downstairs.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic:
Eichenwald picked up on it right away. (My emphasis.)
dmsilev
@Ghost of Fitzmas past: To be blunt, the only way to win back the House is to win some seats that we didn’t win last time.
The Moar You Know
@RepubAnon: It got us the House and Senate in 2006 and Obama in 2008. It needs to return with a quickness and never stop.
I might add that the GOP has always run a 50-state strategy with no seat EVER left unchallenged and look how that’s worked out for them. Pretty fucking well I’d say.
D58826
https://twitter.com/speakout_april/status/867763878276550656
also looks like he is telling Merkle to stfu
video at the link. such a petty little piece of s*************
Peale
@SiubhanDuinne: I wonder if former Eastern Bloc countries who don’t wish to be picked off one by one would be interested in staying in NATO but also joining their own Alliance just in case.
Mike in DC
Article 5 is the most important treaty obligation the United States has. If we won’t honor it, our word is worthless worldwide.
Judge Crater
I love that N N Taleb talk. He’s a BS vendor (his term) if there ever was one. His Twitter following (cult), which is rapidly expanding with alt-right and new-nationalism cretins, loves his macho, skin-in-the-game jive. His views on Trump and his administration are laughable. Yesterday, he tweeted a dig at Steve Rattner over Rattner’s description of the latest health care outrage. Rattner was, of course, right and Taleb showed his basic ignorance of how our dysfunctional health care system works. His views on the world are consistently nothing more than nostalgia for pre-industrial revolution societies and ways of life. It’s amazing that intelligent people eat his phony nonsense up.
Peale
@Mike in DC: Yeah. We’re just going to have to coast through the next 3 1/2 years and hope there isn’t an opportunity for him to prove that the US is going to pick and choose who to defend based on whether Trump likes their leader.
Raoul
OT but I’m stashing this here for later. Our failed GOP president, pooping in the NATO punch bowl. The pic is a text block describing the frigid waters of US-European relations.
Putin is seeing his greatest wish begin to unfold: the end of the long and effective special relationship we’ve had with our non-Soviet WWII allies (and Germany).
hovercraft
@D58826:
That’s not Merkel.
Gin & Tonic
@Doug!: Our Pres wasn’t at the front, so he shoved someone to be at the front. The guy he shoved is Dusko Marcovic, PM of Montenegro, which is a) the newest member of NATO and b) the subject of various more or less overt destabilization efforts by Vladimir Vladimirovich.
Gin & Tonic
@hovercraft: It’s Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of Lithuania.
hovercraft
@Raoul:
Were there any Dictators or Autocrats there? You know that’s who he feels most comfortable with, I expect the leaders on the stage with him were democratically elected in spite of the best efforts of Putin, he felt left out of the democratically elected club :(
hovercraft
@Gin & Tonic:
Thanks, though someone might want to tell Hair Furor who she is, he probably thought she was someones secretary.
Another Scott
@Doug!: Donnie throwing his chin up in the air afterward didn’t give it away?
I assume Donnie would have been placed front and (near) center anyway, but his smugness in moving up is, er, distasteful.
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@Judge Crater: Taleb is pretty huckstery himself.
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: Russian masters should be pleased.
David Anderson
Didn’t Dems win a seat in 2008 based on a mistress choking incident—- why yes Rep. Don Sherwood (R-PA-10)
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2006/11/gop-rep-don-sherwood-paid-mistress-500k-keep-quiet-about-abuse-allegations
Weirder things will happen that should open up a seat or two that shouldn’t be rationally competive. (Also see $90 grand in freezer cash for William Jefferson (D-LA) that gave the Republicans a free seat for 2009-2010)
Judge Crater
@schrodingers_cat: Absolutely!
Raoul
@Ghost of Fitzmas past:
Because some of these seats are winnable. And even in the districts that may not be winnable, this is the cycle to push Democrats.
Why?
1. When a Democrat runs in a Congressional race, esp one that hadn’t been contested recently, it can motivate lower interest Dem voters to bother to show up and vote. Other things are on the 2018 ballot. Some might even be statewide races, and a Dem voter voting for a governor or AG or whatever, it doesn’t matter if they vote from a House dist ‘lost cause’. Other end of the scale, more Dem turnout can win downballot local races.
2. Dems running in a contested House race are able to message and move ‘earned media’ that moves Democratic/progressive/liberal ideas into discussions that would otherwise be dominated by conservative frames.
3. In some of these races, the Dem put forward may lose the House race, but have invested in tons of name recognition and a campaign apparatus. Use that to run for mayor or city council or whatever after this. Or run again in two years. Losing forward is a legit strategy.
So, Ghost, you can marinate in Eeyoreism if you wish. Lots of us are opting for the more enjoyable side of the enthusiasm gap.
Rob in CT
The 50-state strategy thing is a little overblown. The Dems won big in 2006 and 2008 primarily because the GOP held power thoroughly shat the bed.
Yes, they contested many races… because those races were reasonably contestable, and candidates wanted to run! They were the out party. The party of “change.” And Bush was unpopular.
Given Trump, we absolutely should be contesting everything. But don’t kid yourself: the next time a Dem President is in the WH, Dems will be at a disadvantage in mid-terms again. It happens time and again.
amk
@Doug!: Reeaally?
hovercraft
@David Anderson:
In normal circumstances yes this is winnable. The problem is as of last night about 250K of the ballots had already been received back by the election board, with no idea of how many more were already in the mail, the expectation was that approximately two thirds of the electorate had voted before this happened. The one bit of good news in that they do have same day registration, so there’s still a shot. Another problem is that too many people may love what he did, MSNBC reporter was in Missoula when it happened, so he jumped in the car to get to Bozeman, had to stop for gas on the way, he told the woman at the gas station what had happened, her response was that’s my kind of politician, so Twitler’s corrosive behavior is now acceptable to the base.
Rob in CT
@Raoul:
Now this bit I think may have merit. Though my sense is that it’s hard to get candidates willing to run when they “know” they’re drawing dead.
Raoul
@Mike in DC: Newsflash: our word is worthless worldwide.
I mean, even if you are a Duarte, and you get a telephone tongue bath, or a Saudi prince with a shiny orb, Trump would drop you in a second if some other avenue benefits him more. May, Macron and Merkel are, I’m sure, crystal clear on this now.
The damage is happening now. In this moment. Eventually recoverable if we can change course post haste. I don’t think we can repair this global damage via the mid-terms, but it is part of the massive task that is right in our faces.
Corner Stone
What a complete asshole.
rikyrah
I’m sure that all of them know fluent English (after all, they’re the elite) I’d bet money that, like Pope Frankie yesterday, they refused to speak English around DOLT45.
Corner Stone
@hovercraft:
I wonder if he had grabbed her by the throat and pulled her out of the car and then asked her, “How about that? Is that your kind of reporter?” “How about this garbage dumpster? is that your kind of dumpster? Let’s find out.”
Frankensteinbeck
@Mike in DC:
After Australia, North Korea, and the Syrian bombing that turned out to be a fake, Trump’s word is worthless worldwide and everyone knows it. Including when he says we won’t honor our obligations. I do understand how foreign leaders are still really, really wishing this weren’t true and there was some way to turn him into a functional intelligence.
D58826
@rikyrah: I think Melania speaks 5 languages so they might want to be careful calling him a rat fink in something other than English. On the other hand maybe SHE does it all the time:-)
hovercraft
@Corner Stone:
Reporters are part of the enemy team so abusing them is okay, their team is made up of delicate snowflakes who are very sensitive and don’t take criticism well, so it’s our fault for asking/ pointing out awkward things, you see we make them get upset and when they are upset they become aggressive, so just stop thinking and just feel, then you too will see the light and join Twitler’s army of Real Americans. They may not lead the charge, but they will totally sucker punch you when you least expect it.
rikyrah
Thugs
Liberal Librarian
May 25, 2017
Yesterday, GOP candidate for the Montana At-Large House seat, Greg Gianforte, was accused of assaulting Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs. Audio taken of the incident and eye witness accounts back up Jacobs’ allegation. As of last night, Gianforte was cited for misdemeanor assault by the Gallatin County Sheriff.
What can you say about this? This is pure political thuggery. There’s no way you can condone this, or explain it away, although Republicans can and will try. Gianforte is thriving in the thuggish atmosphere created by Donald Trump and his brownshirts. One of the signs of fascism is when the press is attacked. Trump did it all last summer with his violent rhetoric towards the press, rhetoric which bordered on the eliminationist. And now rhetoric is being transformed into actual physical violence. A once-proud political party is now nothing more than a collection of thugs. And spare me the cries of the “moderates”; by remaining in the party, by not speaking out, they aid and abet the violence. You are known by the company you keep.
Of course, there are different types of thuggery. There are the thugs with bats and knives and guns. And then there are the thugs with pens. The Trump/Mulvaney budget is an example of the latter. It’s an example of thuggery towards the American commonwealth. Through budget cuts and allocations, it wishes to destroy the idea that we as a society owe anything to each other. It is a dark Randian masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged brought to life. Mick Mulvaney is no less of a thug than Greg Gianforte; he just assaults people with numbers rather than with physical force.
Raoul
@Rob in CT: I hear ya. This is why we can and should be working on grooming candidates. Helping them understand the wider picture. Not to ‘take one for the team’ but to develop new leaders.
Running a legit but hail mary congressional race is a somewhat odd way to enter or move up in politics, but if potential candidates get the analysis, and get a decent amount of money backing their run, they might see the value of the strategy.
And as I said above, and that ties in with this that you said, this particular cycle is the one to run in. In 2022 would I be encouraging lots of folks to step up in R+20 districts? Probably not!
(Oh, I also don’t necessarily think a 50-state strategy needs to be a 435 seat strategy. Would it have made sense to spend 10s of thousands to go after Jeb Hensarling in TX last year? No. But we can and should be investing more in regional efforts within ‘red’ states, there are always purple pockets worth scrapping for. This year? I’ve donated to Dan Wood’s quixotic run)
WereBear
@PST: I was just about to post that!
Great stuff :)
hovercraft
@D58826:
“I think Melania speaks 5 languages so they might want to be careful calling him a rat fink in something other than English.”
These are the same leaders who leaked that they were going to keep it short and sweet and at the level a six year old would understand, and gave a bunch of bling quotes about him being a clownish buffoon, I think many of them wanted him to hear about it. Can you say passive aggressive?
? Martin
We’ve got 4 congressional Republicans in Orange County and we think we can remove all 4. We have good candidates for those seats, money coming in, and organization forming. The DCCC has never given much attention here, though.
zhena gogolia
@Corner Stone:
I AM JUST FILLED WITH EMBARRASSMENT THAT THIS PERSON IS REPRESENTING US ON THE WORLD STAGE. JUST PURE EMBARRASSMENT. WHAT A DISASTER.
GregB
This fucking monster just told the assembled dictators, monarchs and autocrats of the world that he wouldn’t lecture themmand now he’s lecturing and shaking down the most democratic and peaceful places on the planet.
Madness.
SiubhanDuinne
@D58826:
@hovercraft:
I think that’s UKPM Theresa May.
ETA: Oops, nope. Lithuanian PM. Thanks, G&T.
Raoul
I had seen the Montenegrin shove in slow-mo earlier this a.m., but holy cow just saw it in regular speed and it’s worse. What an insecure buffoon. What a cad.
I realize the omission of the Article 5 is far more important as far as policy and potential destabilization, but the two are linked. And ugly.
Miss Bianca
@Corner Stone:
Funny, I was just thinking something eerily similar…
Peale
@? Martin: We’ll see. But they could vote for Clinton AND think that voting for ISSA was a good idea, I’m running out of patience with crap like that.
cain
@SiubhanDuinne:
The U.S. will be happy to supply weapons to anyone if such a thing begins.
Corner Stone
@hovercraft: I’m beyond tired that the expectation of violence, or threatened violence, or now actual violence, is acceptable if it comes from the right side of the spectrum. These supporters are so tough and like their world to be so macho it makes me think they’ve never had a moment of actual fear in their life. And I am at the point where I am ok with that changing.
TenguPhule
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
Now there is a zen riddle for the ages.
cain
@The Moar You Know: I really fucking hate our Democratic apparatus. I swear to god it must be filled with Clinton 3rd way assholes who think we need to be Republican light.
Fuck them, liberal pride, let’s take it to every state, every township, every city.. Fuck the naysayers.
hovercraft
@zhena gogolia:
This should make you smile.
From GOPOLITICO no less.
Corner Stone
@Raoul:
I know I ask the impossible, but look at his face when he does it, specifically his mouth. It’s fucking disgusting that he knows exactly what he’s doing and wants to do it and doesn’t give a shit about anyone around him or how it will look.
TenguPhule
@Mike in DC:
And so goes our sacred honor, along with our currency and everything worth anything in our country.
Civil War would be mandatory.
Corner Stone
@zhena gogolia: I’ll just randomly stop whatever I am doing and think, “I will NEVER FORGIVE the people who voted for this asshole.”
I hate it so much, all of it.
TenguPhule
@Raoul:
Not this time. America can’t afford to wait that long. Because there won’t be a country worth living in if the good guys lose the next one.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
And its only been 4 months. This country is not going to last 4 years of this shit.
hovercraft
@Corner Stone:
They are wife/partner beaters, end of story. It’s always the victims fault for making them hurt you. Go back to Gingrich, Clinton was mean and disrespectful so they had to destroy him, Obama was mean to them so they had to destroy him, the party of personal responsibility is responsible for nothing, they are just poor delicate manly creatures being buffeted by the whims of democrats. Remember GOP elected officials don’t speak for or represent the entire party, but bloggers and people saying mean things on Twitter about republicans represent all of the problems with America’s discourse.
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne:
It’s also how lots of “little” hot conflicts erupt all over that part of the world.
Raoul
One other note. I’ve been somewhat dubious of these ‘give to 239 races’ appeals. No more will I be a doubter. Just looked at ActBlue and MN-03 and MN-02 each have $60-70K in their kitties, from 30,000+ donors each. Collective action does add up! Both these guys are vulnerable. As is MN-06, which for some reason was I guess put on lists late (only $7.5K)?
Anyway. Carry on!
hovercraft
@TenguPhule:
Don’t worry he’s learning. Haven’t we been told for the last 5 days, how well he’s doing on this trip, how in spite of the daily hits he’s taking at home, he is shining on the world stage? How he is getting positive coverage of his trip at least?
Google Twitler Shove:
Trump Accused Of Shoving World Leader At NATO Summit | The Daily Caller
37 mins ago – As President Trump finishes up what has been a successful foreign trip, he is being accused of shoving a fellow world leader during a NATO …
Trump Appears to Shove NATO Leader Aside for Better Position in …
http://www.motherjones
58 mins ago – During a meeting with fellow NATO leaders in Brussels on Thursday, President Donald Trump appeared to shove Prime Minister Milo …
SEE IT: Trump shoves Montenegro’s prime minister at NATO base …
Ny Daily News
1 hour ago – SEE IT: President Trump shoves Montenegro’s prime minister to get to … Trump lectures world leaders about NATO contributions in Brussels.
Donald Trump shoves his way to front of Nato group barging world …
The SUN
1 hour ago – CRINGE-INDUCING footage shows Donald Trump pushing a fellow Nato leader out the way in a brazen display of power.
Watch President Trump push a prime minister aside – CNNPolitics.com
1 min ago – While walking with the NATO leaders during his visit to the alliance’s … Trump pushed Dusko Markovic, the prime minister of Montenegro, … Trump is at the brand-new NATO headquarters in Brussels for a summit with world leaders. … Did Trump just shove another NATO leader to be in the front of the …
Watch Trump casually push a fellow NATO leader out of the way so he …
theweek.com/…/watch-trump-casually-push-fellow-nato-leader-way-preen-front
2 hours ago – Did Trump just shove another NATO leader to be in the front of the group? … got a bit ruffled while he was pushing past a fellow world leader.
Here’s embarrassing video of Trump shoving a NATO leader so he …
to embarrass himself (and the United States) by …
Video seems to show Trump shoving NATO leader to get in front of … AOL
37 mins ago – During his first international tour, Donald Trump made a stop in Brussels to meet with NATO officials — and footage suggests it wasn’t a perfectly …
Yes he’s really doing a bang up on his first trip overseas. The Brits seem to be the most vitriolic right now, but then again they are already pissed about the Manchester leaks. This trip has been a masterclass in diplomacy Rethug Style.
D58826
@hovercraft: Obama threw enough shade to qualify as a solar eclipse. This might be a good tactic for him to use going forward. He can throw the shade w/o overtly breaking the unwritten rule concerning criticizing your successor.
Aleta
@D58826: With the former WH photographer as his sidekick.
Raoul
@TenguPhule: Uh, yeah, I do get it. We have to act now and plan for 2018. Both.
me @ comment 47 above:
D58826
Does this qualify as treason or something:
https://twitter.com/ZeddRebel/status/867789227181953024 and the article https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-alleged-russian-hacker-teamed-up-with-florida-gop-operative-1495724787
D58826
@Aleta: yep
Kay
@Raoul:
More and better people will run if there’s some money available, too. They really do sacrifice to run. It’s a 2nd full time job. Unless you want entirely retirees or 25 year olds you have to make it look worthwhile.
hovercraft
@Aleta:
I looove Pete Souza. I have to say though, Obama apparently had a great sense of humor, and surrounded himself with a staff that did too, they are a bunch of superior trolls, especially on Twitter.
Kay
@D58826:
Good for the WSJ. That’s actual information on what happened. This whole thing is so vague. Russia colluded or cooperated… to do what? What were the things they did? I understand why they can’t name specific people in an ongoing investigation but what did the unnamed people DO? At least we could, I don’t know, look for things like that.
Although if James Comey was fooled by some bullshit “document” it may be hopeless.
Corner Stone
@hovercraft: Grade A people hire A’s. Not only because that’s the kind of people they want but also they are secure enough to be challenged or listen to others.
hovercraft
Could someone forward this to Twitler, please/
Trump and Europe, trading places
Don’t look now, the EU is having a huge 2017.
When Donald Trump won the American presidency last November, the European establishment slipped from deep funk (over Brexit, terrorism, euro troubles, migration, populism) into full depression.
Six months later, the dark jokes about political suicide watches still resonate. They’re just not directed at Continental Europeans.
This week, on his first trip abroad, the U.S. President is meeting a changed Continent. The mood has swung — wildly, some might say manically — to confidence veering toward giddiness.
Is it Brussels or Washington that today resembles a “hellhole” (in the bon mot from Trump’s campaign that so many have gleefully recalled)?
In contrast to its Anglo-Saxon interlocutors — Trump and Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May who, to be generous, both look a lot more politically wobbly than a few short weeks ago — Europe’s famously dysfunctional leadership is positively chipper.
Mood swings, like political swings, happen quickly. This one could sweep back just as rapidly. But for now, to the pleasant surprise of the fervent defenders of the post-war “European project,” the Continent’s Cassandras have been muted by the events of this spring……………..
Germany’s humming economy, which created 4.5 million jobs in the past six years and is near full employment, is the primary engine driving the city’s transformation. Now comes Brexit. As it threatens — to London’s dawning dismay — to send many well-paid jobs out of the City, Frankfurt is the destination at the top of the list.
To businesspeople here, Prime Minister May’s Brexit-means-hard-Brexit is an act of sheer insanity, “an amputation,” as one puts it. And not because it is a rejection of “European values” and liberalism — such airy notions hold little currency for the practical Germans — but because of what it’ll cost the U.K. in lost trade and income………………….
Then come to Madrid or Dublin, until recently synonymous with collapsing banks and bursting bubbles. Both feel like they’re back and roaring. The Irish economy expanded 5.2 percent last year, and even if Brexit is causing headaches in Dublin, with Britain’s departure the city is set to become a back office for the accountants and lawyers who service European finance……………..
Here’s a real news flash: Brussels is having a good year. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, whom Trump met on Thursday, is on a bit of a political winning streak. The Dutch and French voters did their part by rejecting populists. The EU economy is doing better, at least by its relatively modest standards.
And Juncker, along with Council President Donald Tusk, have pulled off their own trick: to give the appearance that the 27 EU members who will remain after Britain leaves are united and committed to the “project” to build Europe free and whole. And that Brexit and Trump, which in their minds seemed ready to combine into a possibly fatal threat to the Western liberal order, may in different ways actually reinforce it………….
Aleta
@hovercraft: He had to get out in front so they could hear his lecture about debt.
TenguPhule
@hovercraft:
It’s like Russia directed a bad remake of “EuroTrip”
TenguPhule
@Aleta:
He still thinks NATO is supposed to pay him.
Let that sink in for a minute.
Corner Stone
@TenguPhule:
That is a severely underrated classic little comedy film. Just hilarious and everything fit together so well.
J R in WV
Not hard to understand how the R candidate in Montana seemed to believe he could get away with physically attacking a reporter when the actual president* Trump is pushing around other national leaders at a conference in Brussels.
Bullies attract other bullies – they like to flock together in order to make it look like being a bully is OK, when all of them – all of us, indeed – know there’s nothing OK about it. It’s repulsive in every way. Right now Trump is the head bully, by virtue of stealing an election with the aid of other international bullies – Russian bullies. So he’s the most repulsive bully in America and the western world.
Of course there are a couple of other chief bullies in the eastern world, and how to balance out which of these world-wide bullies is worst is a difficult task I won’t get into here and now. But president* Trump is in the running for most despicable, that is for sure.
And reading a few comments below the video posted on the Twit, some people attempt to normalize that behavior, “pat on the back” “naturally moving to the front” since he’s leader of the free world, etc. Just as despicable and repulsive as Trump, these near-fascists are.
*Not my President, someone else’s president.
hovercraft
@TenguPhule:
He is his brand, he is the president, so America is now part of his brand and we should all get used to it.
That’s why he doesn’t think there’s any need to separate with his company, and why I’m sure if they dig, they will find lots of more examples of this type of shit.
Who knew that you could get a summer job at the White House while your other gig working for the boss was closed?
A Top Mar-A-Lago Employee Is Quietly Doing Government Work For Trump’s Foreign Trip
Heather Rinkus, the guest reception manager at Trump’s “Winter White House” and wife of a twice-convicted felon, is in Italy with Trump’s logistics team and has been outfitted with a government-issued phone and email.
Posted on May 24, 2017, at 6:52 p.m.
I swear every fucking single goddamn person he’s hired is scamming us!
TenguPhule
@hovercraft:
Working for any of Trump’s Enterprises is going to have to be considered an actual crime soon.
Aleta
@TenguPhule: Moreover, he’s never paid for anything in his life, including his contracts.
Aleta
@J R in WV: I have to wonder if Mr. Montana’s campaign manager lied not only because that’s become a strategy of choice, but because he didn’t expect Fox employees to contradict a lie. Their ilk have relied on Fox to cover for them for so long.
Raoul
@Aleta: It appears that, at least for a moment, a couple Fox reporters/producers have realized the GOP violence worm could turn on them, too.
MisterForkbeard
@Aleta: I agree with the Republican strategists on this one: Basically, admitting fault is a bad idea electorally. Given that this happened this night before the election, they can brazen it out by refusing to concede anything and try and rally the base, and then win the election. Once they win, nothing matters and they can sorrowfully plead to a lesser charge or something – at worst, they’re going to get away with a $500 fine or something.
If they apologized or admitted they were wrong, it would depress turnout and then they’d lose the seat. It’s evident that they don’t actually care about anything but winning and power, so there you go. No reason to ever admit fault.
Raoul
BTW, @Doug! I’m having a blast looking thru the Nominee Funds on ActBlue. I appear to be one of only two morans in the entire US to give a dollar for the eventual nominee for NJ-04.
I don’t mind, really. But it does beg the question: what happens to the money if no Dem runs?
(I’ve also noticed that of the Juicers who’ve given so far, some interesting patterns of what states or individual races we write off. Some funds have 12 BJ donors, many around 5-6, and some are in the 1-3 donor range. Makes sense, but also interesting that so far people don’t appear to be doing the ‘split it evenly’ option. I hope some do over time, let’s test this mutha out!)
janelle
@BBA: Presumably meant incumbent Republicans.
Doug!
@Raoul:
I’m pretty sure that it goes back into the pool for the others.
Doug!
@Raoul:
Actually, I also think it’s really good to give to a race that isn’t getting money yet. That gets challengers in. And since that district is only +9 it should draw as challenger.
Uncle Cosmo
IMO a 3-tier strategy for financing 2018 is needed. The first tier is a basic stipend for whoever emerges from the primaries or caucuses as the Democratic candidate in the general election. More & better cancicates will come forward with the assurance that they would have the resources to be competitive in November once they win the nomination, even if they’re wildly outspent by the plutocracy. The second tier is funds to be allocated based on the relative prospects of the candidates; tie it to internal polling, say. This encourages the candidates to run hard right out of the gate: the better you’re doing, the more $$$ you’ll have to do even better.
The third & smallest tier – say, enough to fund 3-5 House general election campaigns – is what I’ll call the Equine Chorus Fund, in homage to the classic “maybe-the-horse-will-sing” tale. This is for those seemingly-hopeless contests where the opposing campaign comes apart at the seams at the 11th hour via death, incapacitation, indictment, or some other event or revelation that makes the opponent suddenly radioactive.This encourages someone who is at least a plausible office-holder to file as a Democrat, even when the odds look insurmountable, because should lightning strike the resources would be there to bring our candidate home.
What say y’all?
Doug!
@Uncle Cosmo:
I agree. I think the first stipend is usually the most underfunded so that’s I’m focusing on for now.
Another Scott
I’m in. I’ll probably make it monthly but not quite yet.
Thanks for doing this.
I like that it’s pretty easy to get to the page if it doesn’t show up here regularly:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bjnwth (BJ NoWhereToHide)
But here’s hoping Alain can put it up above the fold on the usual “front page”.
Cheers,
Scott.
No One You Know
@lamh36: It’s how he understands “America First, not America Alone.”
Alas, “You [I] am not authorized to view these tweets.”
CLASSIFIED TWEETS. ARRRRRGH.
No One You Know
@Uncle Cosmo: Added to my list of comments for the next Democratic survey Comments section. You’re way smarter than I about this stuff.