Betty talked about this earlier, but it is worth updating and posting again.
There are various theories out there, one of which is that Trump and Bannon don’t care about winning but are setting the stage for a new media network, but I think this reminds me more of the classic domestic abuser:
Websdale also finds that many men kill in a state of what he calls “humiliated fury,” shame that has gone into overdrive for any number of reasons: She is moving out and he is losing control of her, for instance, or he has lost his job and is drinking more.
“It’s about manhood and failing to live up to prescriptions of modern-day masculinity,” he says.
An escalation of abuse is typical just before a battered woman is killed, he notes. There will be more broken bones, more cracked teeth. More calls to 911.
“You can see it coming. You can log it. You can count it,” he says.
In addition to an escalation of abuse, there may be other changes. Maybe an abuser starts keeping a loaded gun on the nightstand, or begins reading her text messages and dropping by her office to make sure she’s at work.
Donald Trump is now angry, humiliated, and waving the gun at the GOP telling them if he can’t have them no one can.
amk
cue, begin the final meltdown, dahnahld.
Poopyman
I’m confused. What does this have to do with home renovation, again?
Shell
“It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me…”
And just in time for Halloween. Now all Trump needs is a burning windmill.
dmsilev
OK, so the monster is lurching towards the village. Now, can we grab our torches and pitchforks and go burn down Castle GOP?
Major Major Major Major
Trump is absolutely acting like an extreme abuser or end-stage alcoholic.
GregB
Jeffrey Dahmer has just parachuted in to the Donner Party to show them how it is done.
Trump’s going full monster now.
amk
gopolitico ‘stories’ just now.
Trump: Disloyal Republicans ‘far more difficult’ than Clinton
Trump ramps up attacks on Paul Ryan: ‘Weak and ineffective leader’
LePage rips Susan Collins over Trump
Rep. Steve King scolds House GOP members for not backing Trump
sweet, sweet schadenfreude.
debit
@Major Major Major Major: When he was pointing at Hillary during the debate and saying all the things he’d do (special prosecutor, put her in jail, etc) I actually shrank back in my chair. My ex was great at looming, pointing and being threatening too, so watching Trump was like a bad flashback.
Peale
I will admit that I was wrong in my disappointment when Clinton launched this line of attack back in, what, August – where she tried to split off the “Good Republicans” from the “Bad Republicans” and cut Ryan off from his voters. It didn’t seem to have much effect at the time. But continuing to push that wedge between the factions now seems to be the biggest story of the day.
James E Powell
Trump’s next tweet:
dmsilev
The NYT Magazine has a long inside-the-Clinton-campaign story up now; nothing earth-shattering, more a-day-in-the-life. It closes, though, with this:
Robin G.
This is definitely a Trump’s Razor moment. There’s nothing tactical in what he’s doing. He’s just a dumbfuck with a lot of rage. Check his receipts for large purchases of fertilizer in the last 72 hours.
Robin G.
@dmsilev: I love that woman.
Betty Cracker
It absolutely has to be a pathological thing because it was pretty clear (to me, at least) that the GOP exodus from the Trump Train had mostly halted after the debate. Not because Trump had done well but rather because he’d fired up his base to an extent that the craven bastards like Ryan and Rubio, etc., weren’t going to completely jump ship. The smart thing to do would have been to talk up the Wikileaks nothingburger to activate the Beltway media’s horse-race promoting impulse.
But nope, Trump couldn’t do that with any level of competence because he felt slighted, and he can’t abide a slight. It’s the same reason he couldn’t lay off the Khans, even though it was a fight he could not possibly win. His ego is so enormous that he just can’t take any suggestion that he’s not perfect. What a ridiculous person. And what a ridiculous party for nominating such an abusive, dangerous fool. It deserves to blow up and die.
Gindy51
@Peale: She’s way the fuck smarter than we are, that’s for sure.
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: @Robin G.: also, I can kill you with my brain
Eric U.
I can’t keep up with the humiliated fury killings around here. I have lived most of my life in Appalachia, either in Virginia or Pennsylvania. The murders are almost all by husbands. Had no idea when I moved to PA that it would be the same as backwoods Virginia, just with better teeth.
I like that theory about Trump. And there is no getting him to stop either, he’s still rehashing the primaries.
Matt McIrvin
Trump’s entire base is decompensating. They’re starting a “no down ballot” campaign out of sheer spite.
Robin G.
@Matt McIrvin: God does not love us that much.
NorthLeft12
@Betty Cracker: I disagree with you here Betty. Deadbeat Donald did exactly what he wanted to do to fire up and further solidify his base in the second debate. He has ensured that his floor is probably no lower than 38% or so, and perhaps he actually believes that it could be a majority.
The Wikileaks stuff would have nowhere near that impact, and perhaps drop his floor to the low thirties. Trump knows his base far better than the republican leadership does.
FlipYrWhig
@Eric U.: Someone clearly told him before Debate #2 to keep talking up Bernie Sanders. Why? I don’t get their strategic thinking even on its own terms.
Shell
His base seems to exist mainly of people who want to come to his rallies so they can chant ‘Lock Her Up’ in unison.
Brachiator
@Poopyman:
It’s from that upcoming horror film, “When a Stranger Calls From the Renovated Bathroom.”
Keith P.
@Poopyman: If you’re like me, you’re very disappointed in Cole for not deciding to remodel his house in the style of Donald J. Trump’s Trump Tower penthouse.
Matt McIrvin
@FlipYrWhig: That actually makes a little bit of sense: they’re trying to drive a wedge between Sanders primary supporters and Hillary Clinton on trade/Wall Street, etc., and get them to at least not vote for Hillary. Of course Sanders himself is telling them to vote for Hillary, but there are still some hard feelings there, so it’s a reasonable thing to do.
Peale
@FlipYrWhig: There’s probably a belief that Sanders voters are still in play. But like everything in this Campaign, Trump can’t focus on anything for more than a day. The time to make a concerted and CONSISTENT play for them was June. But it’s like from time to time he starts going “I’m not Hillary!” to the Bernie supporters in a tweet or two and then gets distracted on whomever pisses him off the most. Most Bernie voters were never actually in play. They’ve all come home. Stein has picked up nothing. Maybe some of them went Liberterian. Maybe in a swing state there is a group of them that exists in significant enough numbers were they at all interested in him at this point. But he’s not a Bernie substitute and its really too late to remember that he was supposed to be courting their discontent.
catclub
while simultaneously saying they are disgusting and no one but him will be interested in them.
catclub
@Shell: With any luck they will forget to vote – not enough excitement.
Brachiator
@FlipYrWhig:
They are working the Wikileaks angle. The Observer (published by the Kushner family, Trump’s in laws) have been spinning memos suggesting that the DNC went out of its way to help Clinton defeat Sanders, So, Clinton is a cheater, Sanders should have been the nominee, blah, blah, blah.
Democrats talk about how they hope that Republicans might stay home if those voters become disenchanted with Trump. Trump’s team hopes that they can push unhappy Democrats into the arms of Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, or stay home also.
kindness
I’m gonna need to go to Costco for all the popcorn I’m gonna need.
Miss Bianca
@Major Major Major Major: heh heh heh. God, I love that show.
But it freaks me out me a little that the guy who had TRUMP tattooed on his forehead was wearing a t-shirt with “big damn heroes” emblazoned on it.
@Brachiator: OK, that wins the Internet for the day, far as I’m concerned.
PaulWartenberg2016
It’s troubling that Trump keeps name-dropping Bernie Sanders, as though that would cause the Democrats supporting Hillary to split.
Bernie’s made it clear to his followers that it’s better to back Hillary than go rogue. Granted, not a lot of them have heard it – nor want to – but enough of them have accepted they are better off with Hillary than the p-ssy-grabbing tiny-fingered tax-dodging cheeto-faced ferret-wearing sh-tgibbon.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@FlipYrWhig:
aggrieved white males who insist that their demands be prioritized – Kurt Eichenwald’s twitter feed about his Putin/Trump intel stories is filled with Berniebros arguing with him.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: Dial M for Mustard
SRW1
So, … ahm, … is the Secret Service gonna form a human shield between Hillary and Trump during debate III?
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
I’ve noticed in the past couple of days Trump supporters are getting angrier and angrier, and I think it fits in with the abuser theory. Obviously he’s lashing out at anyone who would challenge him and do anything less than worship him, and his followers are going right along. But on another level I think it’s even more literal — they’re horrified that it would be his mistreatment of women that would do so much damage to his campaign. Because these bitches need to shut up about him and know their place, amirite?
I knew we had idiots in this country, but I was much more comfortable when they felt pressured to shut the fuck up. Now political news ties my stomach in knots. We’re surrounded by men who have no problem justifying Trump’s behavior and think we should shut up when we point out that it’s wrong.
On a related note, I got into it on Facebook last night with a guy who tried to make that stupid “point” that if women are so offended by what Trump says, who read 50 Shades of Gray? I’ve challenged other people who’ve tried to say the same thing, and I’ve noticed that these guys really hate being told the book was about a (poorly-written, badly thought out) consensual relationship, whereas Trump talked about sexual assault, and there’s a difference. They really hate it. He got all pissy when his “point” was challenged — then he said his only reason for bringing it up was to say that people are too sensitive.
Christ. We’re at the mercy of stupid little babies who can’t be trusted with their own dicks.
Major Major Major Major
@Miss Bianca: that does appear to have been an April Fools joke, fortunately.
FlipYrWhig
@Brachiator: @Peale: @Matt McIrvin: OK, but he’s doing it very badly: he kept reverting to “Bernie Sanders said you had bad judgment, and he was right,” rather than “Like Bernie Sanders said, you’ve championed policies that reward banks and close factories.” I don’t think Trump is capable of thinking beyond “rules” and “sucks,” which is why he says everything is a “disaster.”
Peale
@Brachiator: The only state where I think they may matter is New Hampshire. But like everything involving large groups of people, there were segments within Bernie’s camp and different types of Bernie voters in different sections of the country. I’m not certain what type of Bernie supporter is there. But I think that’s the only state where I think they might still exist in large enough numbers to turn the state Red, and it will take a lot of effort to reach them, for five or so electoral college votes. He needs something bigly. More bigly and beautiful than that.
different-church-lady
@FlipYrWhig: he follows wingnut internet memes instead of creating them. In a weird way he’s more gullible than his supporters.
Miss Bianca
@kindness: I stocked up with a couple huge 2-lb bags. No joke, I did!
@Major Major Major Major: Oh, thank Dog for small mercies. Now I can use the Firefly T-shirt as evidence to say, “see I shoulda known better than to get played like that!”
FlipYrWhig
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: That’s because while half of Sanders supporters are disaffected lefties and impatient debt-ridden young people, the other half is a basket of “fuck everything and everyone” dipshits.
Dave
@Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA: Actually I think that the point of this election, fingers crossed, is that we aren’t at their mercy anymore.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Brachiator:
“He’s in the house… He’s on the toilet!”
Brachiator
@dmsilev:
Actually, in this horror movie, the angry mob is marching in step behind the monster, seeking to burn their own homes to the ground.
Tractarian
Trump is now openly running against his own party.
This could be the beginning of what we have all waited for: the cleavage of the GOP into nativist and establishment camps.
If it continues on this course, Trump will sink even further. Much further than we ever thought possible.
Think Crazification Factor.
Botsplainer
@NorthLeft12:
Trump’s Razor says you’re all wet.
Trump is the base and the base is Trump. It isn’t that he understands them – it is that he is stupid like them, and the things that motivate them motivate him, mainly stupid ones.
Jeffro
@GregB:
This is a beyond awesome way to put it. NOMNOMNOMNOMSad!
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA:
I’ve made note over the years that conservatives have absolutely no understanding of consent as a concept. The gay marriage thing is another example – that it will lead to marrying animals, etc., and it’s the whole underpinning of their abortion/birth control/personhood position. They’re just authoritarians through and through.
SRW1
Trump is no longer campaigning to become POTUS. He’s enacting the GOP Dolchstoss legend to firm up the business basis for his new TV venture.
FlipYrWhig
@Botsplainer: This. The entire campaign is “foreigners and darkies are playing us for fools and eating our lunch, we don’t have to take it anymore, let’s get ’em.”
Brachiator
@Peale:
Trump doesn’t think with any tactical brilliance. He is content to simply cause whatever dissension he can, whether or not it will help him to a significant degree.
MattF
@kindness: New rule: Never argue with someone who buys popcorn by the barrel.
Jeffro
@Tractarian:
That’s exactly right. If half the GOP votes for Trump, and the other half votes Establishment – where “voting” might consist of not voting at all for particular offices, or writing someone in – then Trump and pro-Trump forces are likely to get about that share. Establishment folks are likely to get even less.
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca: Hey, Miss Bianca! I’ve been looking for you – in a totally non-stalkerish way. Hillary’s having a rally in Pueblo tomorrow at the state fairgrounds. I’m thinking of heading up there.
Here’s the link to the event. And apologies to all other Balloon Juicers who’ve already seen it in several threads down below.
Jeffro
@FlipYrWhig:
Why that basket sounds almost…deplorable…
Matt McIrvin
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Traditionalist sexual morality had nothing to do with consent. They disapproved of rape if it was extramarital, but mostly because it was a kind of theft or vandalism of another man’s property–the rapist was wronging the victim’s husband or father.
They see the changes in sexual mores of the last few decades as a process of tearing down all boundaries, so that anything goes. That people were building new standards to replace the old ones only registers to them as a bafflingly arbitrary set of “PC” rules.
shomi
Yawn, yet more ridiculous Ball Juice overanalysis. Trying to paint the idiot as an idiot savant.
I hope this theory about a media network is true. It will be a YOUUUGE disaster like just about everything else Trump touches outside of real estate…which is also a disaster half the time.
Immanentize
All the freude and schaden is well and good, but the Klan was never as violent as when it was broken up. Organizations reign in the worst among them and breaking up the GOP will lead to some serious dangerous crap. Not just people shooting off their mouths….
Judge Crater
Within several weeks the Republican and Democratic establishments, and maybe even the media, will be calling for a “psychiatric intervention” to contain the damage that Trump will have wrought on the body politic. I hope the Chinese have manufactured a straight jacket large enough to contain his portly frame.
Amir Khalid
@James E Powell:
And his last tweet on November 8:
Immanentize
@Major Major Major Major: Ryan to Trump: “Curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal.”
FlipYrWhig
@Jeffro: Yup. Therein lies the source of my eye-roll whenever I hear about how Trump and Sanders voters are two sides of the same coin. Where they overlap, it’s not because of economics or whatever it’s cracked up to be. It’s a small number of people who like the in-your-face attitude and don’t understand much else. That coin has the same thing on both sides.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Matt McIrvin:
They don’t believe you can rape your wife. That’s having trouble with the idea of consent in any context.
Miss Bianca
@Major Major Major Major:
OK, that’s runner-up for Wins the Internets Today. Well-played!
Jeffro
You know, compared to Trump’s OTHER businesses, his “New Breitbart” might do okay. It would have what, a built-in-audience of 25-30M rabid suckers er I mean sets of eyeballs, for starters?
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@Keith P.:
Quoted for the truth. I am so disappointed John didn’t gold plate his toilet.
We could have had posts titled “From the Luxury Cole Retreat in charming West Virginia” but no.
aimai
@Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA: “can’t be trusted with their own dicks?” Or anyone else’s.
waysel
@Matt McIrvin: Thanks for the insight. I think you’re dead on.
Martha from Augusta
@shomi: Hey, I like pie, too!
Peale
@Dave: Yep. I think one of the off “winners” of this election is going to be the conventional wisdom that said Republicans need to nominate someone who can pivot to the general. And they need to do something to shore up their numbers with minority voters if they wanted to win. The Trumpsters who basically are running on the idea that there were missing white voters who could be activated so that the party would never have to do anything to appeal to minorities…well they are about to be shown otherwise. There aren’t missing white voters who exist in enough numbers to overcome another mass exit of minorities. If they ever existed, they existed in places that were already deep red. And probably weren’t voting because they already knew the Republican would win.
Brachiator
@FlipYrWhig:
This is an excellent observation, even though your conclusion is absolutely wrong!!
I love your counter example, because it is exactly the kind of thing that some Clinton supporters (and a lot of Balloon Juicers) would want to hear. It is kind of abstract, and requires some thinking to connect the dots. And it is about ideas.
Instead Trump says that Hillary has bad judgement. And later Crooked Hillary. This is about the person, not primarily about ideas. And it creates a vivid, visceral image in the minds of supporters. And it provides a quick sound bite, a snarky twitter comment, a quippy Facebook post.
Also, Trump doesn’t say that he will “propose or champion policies that will keep factories open.” He says “I know how to create jobs and make the factories come back. But my opponent is a liar who has bad judgement. That’s what I hear from Bernie Sanders.”
Trump’s surrogates were talking up the bad judgment thing well before the second debate. They have been consistent with this. And they always keep it short, even when they talk over a moderator. And they force Clinton to choose her words more carefully.
“Was the private server evidence of bad judgement?”
“Well, I said I made a mistake and would not have had a private server if I had it to do over again.”
Fortunately, Clinton has been more than able to point out the emptiness behind almost all of what Trump says. But his rhetorical technique is just the thing for an age which worships the short snarky comment, short twitter feeds and has reduced language to a few emojis.
Immanentize
@FlipYrWhig: @Matt McIrvin: @Peale: @Brachiator:
Or, this is part of a meta-narrative developed by Bannon that Hillary stole the election from Bernie (Trump keeps saying that) and that when she wins it will be because she stole the election from Donald. Therefore, utterly fraudulent results that need not be followed — and maybe must even be opposed with force?
craigie
Good luck, Mr Trump! I really do hope you win your battle against the GOP. They suck. But you sir, you are a fighter. Go get ’em!
Miss Bianca
@O. Felix Culpa: Curses, I must work! But perhaps I’ll feign illness and go… ; )
How would we recognize each other? Green balloons in our hats??
ETA: You know, a CO/NM BJ meet-up at the HRC rally is an AWESOME idea! Can we pull it off at the last minute?
catclub
Somebody wrote what I was thinking about that locker room talk lameness.
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca: I’m game! I’ll even spring for the green balloons. ;)
ETA: Only caveat for me is I need to leave fairly quickly after the event to get back to HRC HQ in Santa Fe for the evening phone bank. Maybe meet in Pueblo beforehand?
different-church-lady
@shomi: Your heart’s not really in this anymore, is it?
catclub
@different-church-lady: and if the Russian connection news is correct he has an inside source feeding him those internet RT rumors.
different-church-lady
@O. Felix Culpa: maybe choose a different color?
Peale
Josh Marshall, always making me feel that there’s no reason to worry.
Miss Bianca
@O. Felix Culpa: Ooh, you’ve got me thinking about it…if I find green ballons at the Family Dollar during my lunch hour, then GAME ON!! : )
different-church-lady
@catclub: no, he’s just getting them off the same wingnut sites as anyone else. He has a throurough history of regugitating any old wingnut meme. He’s an internet troll in the flesh.
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca: Cool! Let me know what you decide. I’ve only driven through Pueblo en route to visiting family northward, but I’m sure we can find a meeting place beforehand. Green balloons optional.
FlipYrWhig
@Brachiator: But he doesn’t need to invoke Bernie Sanders to do that. If the idea behind mentioning Sanders is to curry favor with Sanders supporters who don’t like Clinton, it would stand to reason that he’d be speaking the language of that group. He doesn’t. He’s just throwing “Bernie Sanders” in his meme stew with everything else and stirring. So it’s not a canny strategy, even a canny strategy ineptly executed. It’s just a further sign that he’s easily distracted and kind of stupid.
ETA: Mmm, curry.
NorthLeft12
@Botsplainer: I think that is exactly what I said.
Brachiator
@GregB:
Excellent.
Tractarian
@Jeffro: @Jeffro:
And it’s not like this wasn’t all predicable. There was a reason most sane observers were shocked watching Trump get the GOP nomination. It was obvious at the time that it was a party-wide act of suicide.
It has always been the case that, though the campaign has been excruciating, there was a potential happy ending in sight – Trump being handed a historic defeat and the GOP discredited for generations.
But the cleavage is coming faster than expected. Combine depressed R turnout (as in 2006) with high R defection (as in 1992) with multiple Rs on the ballot (unprecedented) and you begin to realize what is possible.
Clinton 53%
Trump 27%
Johnson 16%
McMullin 3%
Stein 1%
How does that look?
Brachiator
@Immanentize:
Yep. Although in the end Trump and his supporters don’t have the stones for armed insurrection.
@FlipYrWhig:
Need is not at issue. Trump loves doing it. And as the other poster noted, it feeds into the vivid image of Crooked Hillary stealing the nomination from Bernie.
You keep getting hung up with the idea of a meme stew that confusingly mixes themes, and with canny strategy that is ineptly executed.
Very simply, Trump knows exactly how to talk to his supporters, and how to talk to Sanders supporters (many of whom think that Clinton stole the nomination even if they are now voting for Hillary). The message is not directed at you as a “pure” Clinton supporter.
slag
@craigie:
And don’t forget to take the child-size gloves off!
trnc
Meanwhile, some of his followers appear unhinged enough to point their guns in other directions as well.
psycholinguist
He just went after McCain on twitter:
“The very foul mouthed Sen. John McCain begged for my support during his primary (I gave, he won), then dropped me over locker room remarks!”
That’s not going to go well
Miss Bianca
@Tractarian: Who in hell is McMullin?
Brachiator
@Tractarian:
Not entirely true. Nobody expected Trump to win the GOP nomination. Hell, nobody even expected him to last through the GOP primaries. And nobody knew initially whether he would be able to widen his appeal.
Things are looking good for the Democrats now. But we still have 30 days to go. This carnival ride is going to get bumpier before we get to the end of the line.
p.a.
Target lost. Acquiring new target. Target acquired.
Popcorn, marshmallows, good beer till election day. Enjoy the show.
FlipYrWhig
@Brachiator: But that’s only a subset of Sanders supporters — the assholes. The Sanders supporters who were supposedly fed up with neoliberal etc. aren’t going to be swayed by Trump barking about judgment. If he wanted to talk to them he should be saying economic things. He doesn’t.
Brachiator
@psycholinguist:
Sweet baby Jebus.
Politico was apt in its recent headline, “Trump, Unbound.”
Like the protagonist of Shelley’s poem, Prometheus Unbound, Trump is willing to defy the GOP gods and pull the temple down around their heads.
BroD
Um…you know there’s real danger here right? There are a lot of crazy, pissed Trumpies out there with guns and ammo.
Miss Bianca
It’s not quite Onion caliber, but not bad!
Read the whole thing.
“I’ve been a Democrat all of my adult life,” Trump told a packed and boisterous news conference. “But I knew if I ran as a Republican and said increasingly ridiculous, idiotic, racist and sexist things that I would get a lot of votes.”
But he said he had no idea he would be able to win the Republican nomination and poll 40 percent or better in a national race against Clinton.
“Did people really believe that I could build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and get the Mexicans to pay for it?” Trump asked, “and that we could deport 11 million illegal aliens? That’s ridiculous. How could we possibly do that?”
Jeffro
@Tractarian:
I think you could take 6% away from Johnson and give it to Pence & Reagan as write-ins; other than that, it’s about spot-on =)
I love the thought that if Trump and the Establishment really go at it these next 30 days, President Clinton will have a D Senate and a D House to work with and actually – gasp – get things done for a cycle or two.
Miss Bianca
Oh, rats…in moderation for a naked link that snuck in. Please release me, let me go…
Tractarian
@Brachiator: To clarify, Trump winning the nomination was unexpected. Trump, as nominee, trashing the party is what was predictable.
Brachiator
@FlipYrWhig:
You keep getting hung up in what you think Trump should be saying, and how he should be saying it, based on your expectations or how you would do it.
Trump is who he is, an angry rage monster who has loosed all his restraints and intends on having his revenge. And he is trying to ignite a desire for revenge in Sanders supporters. I’m not saying that this is the most effective strategy. But I think it explains Trump’s psyche and his methods.
psycholinguist
I kind of wonder if McCain still has (or ever had) the weight to deliver the “Have you no sense of Decency Sir?” moment to Trump. I kind of think he has, and this should piss him off enough to at least give it a try.
Sunny Raines
@Robin G.: trump lashing out is manifested as rage, but it’s all driven by his obscene sense of entitlement and his Narcissism
Mnemosyne
@Matt McIrvin:
Have you ever seen Klute, with Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland? It plays as a deeply weird movie today because that’s the killer’s motive and the movie pretty much accepts that as a natural outgrowth of the new morality.
singfoom
It is heartening to watch the GOP implode. They built this and what they built is going to destroy them. It is with glee that I consider the idea that this might be a wave election that allows Democrats to get the House, the Senate and the White House at the same time. The House seems like it’s more likely with every day of the GOP leaders fighting with Trump and making the crazy base mad at them.
That said, I’m worried for what happens after Hillary wins. Truly I am. I am very concerned that Trump’s enragement of his crazy base along with the “rigged” comments will lead to violence by his supporters after he loses. It was one thing to argue about hanging chads and the small margins in Florida in 2000, it’s another to have a large swath of the electorate (27%) be unable to even consider the idea that HRC could win legitimately. I hope we can avoid violence and somehow heal the big divides in our nation. I know the GOP won’t do it. I know that Trump won’t do it. I’m not sure how you reason with irrationality.
raven
@Mnemosyne: “I’ll hang from the shower rod and whistle Maytime if that’s what you want”!
Brachiator
@Tractarian:
I agree. The only people who did not see this coming was the GOP leadership.
Sunny Raines
@Brachiator: most Sanders supporters are sane people. Most accept Sanders explanation that despite irregularities, Clinton won, I.e., whatever the irregularities, while not good were insufficient to change the outcome. Sane Sanders supporters are voting for Clinton full in the knowledge that she is their best choice and someone that can be worked with even if she wasn’t their first or favorite choice.
Then there are the small amount of Sanders supporters that weren’t and aren’t into Sanders message; were only about revolution in their minds, and never were sane. Trump could reach them because all they ever wanted was destruction.
Diana
@Matt McIrvin: this
FlipYrWhig
@Brachiator: I think we’re saying the same thing in two ways: IMHO it’s not a strategy with forethought behind it, it’s just lashing out in all directions, because if it were a strategy, it would look and sound different.
The Moar You Know
@psycholinguist: This John McCain?
Better go looking somewhere more…promising. McCain has no standing to be saying jack shit about mistreatment of women.
ET
Honest question- what is Trump going to do of he looses? He really is I think, convinced he is going to win and if he doesn’t (even if he screams it has been rigged for him to not win which I assume he will do) he will still have lost. That loss will be in the history books and those books in 5, 10 years are going to be even less kind to him than people are being now!
Also it is clear that, Trump has not paid an iotas worth of attention to politics in the last 30 or so years if he thinks Democrats have been more loyal to each other.
Chloe is Queen
On a whim, I googled “Trumpnews.com”. It came up completely blank (someone owns it), but does reference GoDaddy. Interesting indeed…
Soylent Green
The totals won’t shift to that degree. Out of habit people will still vote their usual party preference. No way Johnson breaks 10% nationally. I think Trump’s new floor is about 38%.
Shana
@shomi: I agree with you to a point, Trump is more idiot than idiot savant, however he does have the ability to home in on what he perceives is his opponents weak points. Look at how effectively he rattled that deep bench of Rs in the primaries. His mistake now that he’s really starting to lose is that he’s losing the ability to assess what is and is not a weakness. He had the idea that he might be able to pick off the dissatisfied Bernie supporters, but that doesn’t work now that the vast majority of the party has solidified around Hillary but he knew it once so it still has to be true. Of course he’s miscalculated about Hillary too. He thinks she’s like so many of the women he’s dealt with over the decades who have needed him for something, a job, a deal to go through, whatever. Hillary doesn’t need him for anything and she has decades of dealing with assholes like him and doesn’t get rattled.
Fair Economist
@p.a.:
Wow, you must really need a lot of popcorn and beer if you have to buy a major retailer like Target to get enough!
Brachiator
@ET:
Nobody has any idea. Anybody who says they do is on drugs.
He will have been humbled by a black man (Obama) and defeated by a mere woman (Clinton). So obviously, we will renounce all his worldly goods, become a penitent, and wander throughout the land, dispensing wisdom and hope.
Omnes Omnibus
@Brachiator:
While no one can predict what he will do, I think we can rest assured that he won’t do that.
Brachiator
@FlipYrWhig:
It is absolutely his strategy. It worked for him in the primary. His surrogates build their spin responses around it.
It is focused to the extent that it always seeks to belittle his opponent and to offer himself as the ultra-competent alternative.
Arclite
Could you ever dream a better scenario? The Repub candidate is in a full-fledge war with his party.
catclub
@Brachiator: You had me up till the bit about dispensing wisdom.
catclub
@Soylent Green:
Still revolutionary. Trump at 38% nationally, probably means Texas goes for Hillary. Also, House goes to the Democrats.
chopper
@Matt McIrvin:
i was hoping the dems would make this particular ratfuck happen. something aiming to get trump voters to leave the rest of the ballot blank out of spite. like #leaveitblank or something.
gratuitous
“So passes Donald, son of Fred.”
https://youtu.be/xyEbHZmydsY
Brachiator
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yep.
Matt McIrvin
@Mnemosyne: Hmm, no, but in 1971 that probably would have been a more plausible conclusion than it is today. I’ve thought for a while that in the Sixties and Seventies, there were a lot of bad phenomena caused by the fact that the Sexual Revolution and second-wave feminism were running on parallel threads in what a computer scientist would call a race condition, with poor if any synchronization between the two. A lot of people seemed to take the new sexual liberation as “dudes can do whatever they want to a woman”.
JR in WV
@The Moar You Know:
This!
McCain was never an Officer and a Gentleman. He was an incompetent pilot, shot down because he didn’t follow flight plans for his mission, and divorced his first wife, who stuck with him during all the time he was a POW, to marry a woman with a fabulous fortune, able to fund his political career.
And for her support of his cheap tawdry little political career, he called her a c#nt in front of staff and reporters. She should have slapped him then, and divorced him for cause the very next day. I’m sure her life would have been far more pleasant if she had.
The man was despicable as a member of the USN, and is still despicable right now.
Applejinx
@dmsilev:
The great thing is, she can be saying that to the Republicans, to Wall Street, everybody.
It’s the truth. She has carte blanche to be as liberal as she likes and no longer has any obligation to respect neocon (neo-anything) bullshit. There was a time when you had to honor the Village’s expectations and be the kind of Democrat that Republicans like, but that time is long gone.
It’s true. It’s her, or the abyss.
The Moar You Know
@ET: Who gives a shit? I hope he dies on the spot.
@BroD: And not a one of them with the balls to face the consequences of using them. Assuming they could afford to buy one in the first place. Not to mention these are exactly the kind of tough-talking, pants-wetting motherfuckers who don’t even know how to load much less aim a gun. I’m not at all worried about post-election violence.
Applejinx
@Brachiator: On the other hand, there’s a lot of people in Russia who would be happy to support his cocaine and kiddie habit for the rest of his life, such as it is.
Applejinx
@chopper:
I think #TrumpONLY would work. Call it sending a message, right?
Because of course he’s gonna win and then, unlike the traitorous Republicans, Democrats can be trusted to cry in a corner and give him anything he wants, because they’re weak. Right? Therefore, #TrumpONLY. Heck, why not split the ticket and vote Trump at the top and then fill Washington with weak p**sy Democrats for him to bully? ;)
Matt McIrvin
@Applejinx: They’re already using #NoDownBallot.
laura
@Major Major Major Major: we have a winner! Please come and collect your internet.
Arclite
Even if the house goes to Dems, nothing will change b/c gerrymandering.
aimai
@Arclite: What? That’s beyond dumb. If the House goes to the dems we can fix the gerrymandering.
Brachiator
@ET:
More seriously, if Trump loses, he will be a festering bag of resentment, whatever he does next.
The GOP, however, will be stuck with his angry base, an even bigger festering bag of resentment.
catclub
@The Moar You Know:
I agree. I think spouting off on the internet serves as a pressure release valve.
hedgehog mobile
@O. Felix Culpa: Have fun! Gotta work (I’m in Denver).
philadelphialawyer
“Trump knows exactly….how to talk to Sanders supporters (many of whom think that Clinton stole the nomination even if they are now voting for Hillary).”@Brachiator:
Jeez, you are making Shomi look like he’s on to something.Trump doesn’t know shit about how to talk to Sanders supporters.
First of all, most Sanders supporters moved on, and moved on to Hillary, long ago. Secondly, the overwhelming majority of Sanders supporters know damn well that Hillary did NOT “steal the nomination.” Thirdly, the overwhelming majority of Sanders supporters find Trump to be repulsive, at every (policy, politics, personality) level. Him telling them to dump Hillary actually makes it more likely that they will stick with her. Fourthly, the few complete asshole Sanders supporters who would be likely to go Trump don’t really need his inept, crude, obvious, and transparently phony sympathy, false comradarie, whatever you want to call it, to get them there. Again, his buffoonish, “oh me and Bernie we are in the same boat cuz bad ole Hillary cheated him and is now cheating me” is not only so fucking stupid, so blatantly self serving, and such a load of fucking bullshit, that no one, not even the bottyest of the Bernie Bots, is actually going to buy it, but is actually counterproductive.
It is the raving and ranting of a desperate clown, pushing buttons at random like the Three Stooges in the cockpit of rocket ship.
So, please, as Shomi would say, stop wetting the bed, OK?
different-church-lady
@Brachiator:
Now, to be fair, he’d be a festering bag of resentment even if he won.
Miss Bianca
@hedgehog mobile: @O. Felix Culpa: looks like i’ll have to be at work all day, too! : ( Schade! Cause I sure could have used some Freude right now! OFC, I hope you have a great time!
James E Powell
@JR in WV:
Also too, Obama treated him with respect and personal good will before, during, and after their election contest. McCain responded by being a sore-loser ass wipe.
El Caganer
Dunno if anyone’s already posted this (apologies if you have), but one of my favorite writer’s take on The Donald:
Jeffro
@different-church-lady: speaking of festering bags of resentment…I just saw an Alex Jones cry/yell gibber-rant…I understand the appeal as a circus sideshow, but, how could even a low-info voter watch that craziness and think “hey now THAT guy is insightful!”
Nuts
Arclite
@aimai:
What’s your plan? Districts are drawn up at the state level, which is why for the past 2 decades the Repubs have executed a successful nationwide strategy of the takeover of many state governments for the purposes of gerrymandering. So having the house does us little good, unless you plan on passing some nationwide legislation to try and “fix” it, something the SCOTUS couldn’t figure out. But you’d need a supermajority to pass it (assuming 0 dem defectors), something we won’t be close to.
JustRuss
I think the Trump Network is a possibility, but he’s probably too lazy and incompetent to run a network, and nobody smart enough to run it for him would trust him.
A Trump Show, on the other hand….he’s proven to be ratings gold, and has tons of TV experience. I could see Fox giving him an hour to bash the Clinton administration and kvetch about how our country is descending ever deeper into hell.
leeleeFL
@debit: THIS! Every abused wife knew exactly what was happening there. And the final answer about her never quitting…..he hates her for that. All his other “women” knuckled under and behaved. She just a total b-tch! If there is a third debate, her Secret Service agent should be onstage with her!
leeleeFL
@Robin G.: Me too! More every day!
Omnes Omnibus
@amk: @Arclite: If we have the House, we will also have the Presidency and the Senate. That means bills pass and get signed.
Arclite
@Omnes Omnibus: Repubs didn’t just spend 20 years redistricting everything so that a party with 40% support could get 60% of the house just to give it up so easily. Any legislation that tries to undo this will require a super majority. If you thought passing the ACA was tough…
moops
@JustRuss:
That is the most likely outcome.
40M viewers is a good market. Beck and Hannity and Joe can all fire on each other for ratings gold if President Clinton is too boring for a few weeks. The right-wing omerta seal is broken. It’s all fair game. In politics that is suicide, but on TV it is bankable. Meet the Press can have Grampy attack Clinton and the TRump of the GOP. More targets, more ranchor, more gaffes to gaggle over.
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca: Schade indeed! But I’ll be sure to share the Freude if I go. Stronger together – virtually or otherwise! Greetings to hedgehog, also too.
And maybe we can organize a CO/NM meetup the next time I’m in Denver (have sisters there and in Longmont).
WaterGirl
@psycholinguist: How come no one ever ASKS Trump for support for their campaign? To hear Trump tell it, everybody BEGS him for that.
Which makes me wonder…. does he require them to BEG, or is that just how Trump views himself?
sukabi
He’ll go all family annihilater on the gop before it’s over.
Spinning way out of control…
sukabi
@WaterGirl: I think he actually does make them beg….after he finds some dirt they don’t want aired….
Miss Bianca
@O. Felix Culpa: Would love that – let’s plan on it! We have Hedgehog and Tamara as well as some others on the Front Range – light up the bat signal the next time you come up this way!
Nelle
@JR in WV: My husband, an Annapolis grad, calls McCain an ace for the enemy, as he destroyed five planes in his “career” and always wants people to note that, as you say, he was not following commands when he crashed and was captured.
My daughter is a free-lance journalist down in AZ. She says she is about done with covering Trump supporters – they are seriously unhinged and many carry guns. A lot of the screaming is at the press. She also said that she was picking up a lot of anger at McCain before this last week, particularly among ranchers in the southern part of the state. For an article this weekend, she found four Trump supporters who will not vote for McCain. Two are crossing to vote for Kirkpatrick for the first Democratic votes of their lives (splitting the ticket – Trump on top, then Kirkpatrick). I think the other two plan to leave that space blank.
Brachiator
@philadelphialawyer:
Yawn. You got your opinion. I got mine.
I laid out why I think Trump is doing his act. Nowhere did I say that I thought it would succeed or that Clinton should worry.
Neither you nor I know what’s in the mind of most Bernie supporters. Most of them may have moved on and will support Clinton. But it is abundantly clear that Trump and his surrogates are trying to get to them. This is an irrefutable fact, as noted by Trump’s statements, his surrogates’ statements and the crap pouring from the Kushner family owned Observer and other right wing media. It is a co-ordinated effort, not just the jackass ravings of lunatic Trump.
This only means that they are trying, not that they will succeed.
I’m in California. Should be a safe bet, a walk in the park for Hillary. I am surprised at the number of progressive sites with ballot information and recommendations about the upcoming election that have not endorsed Hillary and still have lots of comments expressing various degrees of butt hurt. A chunk of them give recommendations for every other elective office and the shitload of state propositions up for consideration, but conspicuously fail to endorse Hillary.
I am not worried and don’t much care what these weasels think about Clinton (I was hitting the sites to get other state voter info because I have to voter early). Still, that there are “progressive” stragglers here on well known, reliably lefty sites who have not come home to the Democratic big tent is just plain fucking fact. Some of these people feel free to express their protest vote precisely because they think (rightly) that Clinton will comfortably take California.
philadelphialawyer
@Brachiator:
“Yawn.”
Go to sleep, if you are tired.
“You got your opinion. I got mine.”
Wow, that’s persuasive. And original.
“Nowhere did I say that I thought it would succeed…”
Did too. IE “Trump knows exactly….how to talk to Sanders supporters,” just as I quoted last time.
“It is a co-ordinated effort, not just the jackass ravings of lunatic Trump.”
Sounds like the latter to me. I see no evidence of any “co ordination,” and, no, your random “examples” of it don’t change my mind. It is crappy nonsense that Trump trots out now and then, between his other random jackass ravings.
“Neither you nor I know what’s in the mind of most Bernie supporters…”
Well then, how do you know that Trump “knows exactly how to talk” to them?
“California…fail to endorse Hillary…I’m not worried…”
That’s a relief! For a minute there I thought you were going to wet the bed again.
Look, Trump is completely full of shit. Part of that shit is that he and Sanders are, somehow, two peas in a pod. Nobody fucking buys it, and Trump himself is only half assed, even by his low standards, in how he peddles this particular piece of shit. Even the Purity Pony Cali Progressives that you are so assiduously monitoring are not dissing Hills cuz Trump told them to. And, yeah, I actually DO know that. Because I know at least the first thing about politics. You, apparently, don’t.
Nightie-night.
Brachiator
@philadelphialawyer:
That’s debatable.
You insist on misreading me to reiterate your point that Trump is full of shit. Big whoop. In the end, we both want Clinton to win, and I am not worried about, nor did I express any anxiety about, her chances.
Relax. Go have a cheese sandwich or something.
Vhh
@Amir Khalid: A clinical psychologist told me that the Hitler bunker meltdown scene in Der Untergang/Downfall (Hitler played by Bruno Ganz, and the inspiration for many subtitled parodies on YouTube) is the best portrayal of profound narcissistic injury on film, exactly how it plays out with real patients. With every day, with every speech, Trump moves closer to that abyss. I think HRC et al are calibrating everything they do to draw out the drama to climax shortly before the election. Perhaps shortly after the 3rd debate is the target date?
Karen
@SRW1:
He’s campaigning to be Emperor. Period.
Karen
@Vhh:
Until he goes more feral and goes on a rampage. I can see him using a bomb because HRC’s victory is “rigged.”
tkrr
@Matt McIrvin: There’s quite a few people who still think that. They’re the first to call someone like, say, Laci Green sex-negative just because they don’t like being forced to get consent.