Eat you heart out Kim Jong-Un. @ErikWemple skewers Fox & Friends' vapid hagiography of Trump.
https://t.co/vSWNjZUwpk pic.twitter.com/3te83e4tlt
— Reed F. Richardson (@reedfrich) July 22, 2015
The NYTimes, at its most mealy-mouthed:
… For all of Mr. Trump’s rivals, working hard at traditional political events runs the high risk that they will come across as, well, traditional politicians — the very sort he and many of his admirers are rebelling against in the race for the presidential nomination…
But those other candidates and their strategists say that they have little alternative right now to their current course. Lacking Mr. Trump’s attention-generating celebrity, wealth and chutzpah, they say they cannot beat him at his own game. Their best shot, they say, is in patiently and painstakingly organizing voters, raising money, preparing for debates and qualifying for all the primary ballots in the coming months to achieve what it takes to win the nomination….
Reading back through those Trump quotes I tweeted, even I wonder if they're fake
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) July 25, 2015
I do appreciate that Donald Trump is giving the horserace obsessed traveling press a circus instead.
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) July 25, 2015
Jeb Lund, at Rolling Stone:
..[W]hat really blows the GOP 2016 primary apart is something called Worthington’s Law, which states that “more money = better than.” The Republican Party has spent so many decades asserting the inerrant truth of financial social darwinism that Donald Trump is immediately the most important, smartest, wisest and best man for America out of all of them. If he weren’t, how did he make all that money? My god, just think of all the jobs he’s created via golf courses, casinos, exclusive USDA Prime Angus steakcraft, mattress sales, TV production and hotels. And what can they claim? Scott Walker’s basically a career government sponge. Marco Rubio’s cup of coffee in the private sector was a political favor, before he became a government sponge aided by a conservative sugar daddy. Ted Cruz was a lawyer and a government sponge. Jeb Bush? Ahahahaha, you didn’t build that.
Even the other candidates’ appeals to taste and professionalism fall flat. You can’t argue Donald Trump shouldn’t be making policy just because he’s rich when you’ve pushed for and won the complete gutting of the campaign finance system so rich people can write “FOR ZERO DERIVATIVES REGULATION” in the memo of a massive check. This is the system working. How is Trump any less qualified to determine policy than Sheldon Adelson, who may have mob ties in China, who likes to quash marijuana referenda to keep people away from vices that aren’t gambling, and who dictates our position on Israel? How is Trump less qualified to talk about abortion than ten-gallon shithead Foster Friess? Why is his money dirtier than the Kochs, whose exploding pipelines kill people? Hell, if anything, his candidacy cuts out the middleman. My god, think of the savings…
We have to enjoy that kind of lunacy, because the underlying revelation is just too depressing — that all his antics and bloviation aside, Trump is the dark heart of the Republican Party in Carrara marble and brass… Nothing about Trump is new. His brutish, demonizing nativism merely echoes the last decade’s virulence and traces its roots to the “othering” aspects of the Southern Strategy. His twinned aggression and ignorance of foreign policy joins a proud tradition that started sometime around the moment the first conservative hijacked the Dolchstoßlegende to show how “liberals” lost us Vietnam after they lost us Cuba, China, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and — fuck it, why not? — Iran. Donald Trump is going to make us great and strong again without it costing a thing, just like the Eighties and the 2000s. His crass merchandizing and hucksterism falls right in with movement conservatism’s direct-mail history, and his claims to innate wisdom superiority as a wealthy dealmaker can be traced from the Gilded Age right up to Citizens United…
dmsilev
Trump is truly the candidate the GOP deserves. Even if he implodes in the next couple of weeks, he’s got a spot in the first debate, so if nothing else we’ve got that circus to look forward to.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I understand the “saying obnoxious things” part of special forces training is the most grueling, the most dangerous and the moment went most applicants drop out or are let go, so “Donald Trump is like a Navy Seal”? Totally makes sense.
“Donald Trump is real”, though… jury’s still out.
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think they meant Trump was like a seal, that is an aquatic mammal with a tendency to bark at people that can, through great effort, be trained to balance a ball on his nose.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: French commando school includes taunting lessons.
Belafon
@Omnes Omnibus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWBUl7oT9sA
Obviously
Ajabu
Well, Cal Worthington did own a shitload of auto dealerships in California so I guess he’s better than most of us.
According to a profile published in the Sacramento Bee in 1990, Worthington grossed $316.8 million in 1988, making him at the time the largest single owner of a car dealership chain. His advertising agency, named Spot Advertising, had Worthington as its only client and spent $15 million on commercials, the most of any auto dealer at the time. He sold automobiles from 1945 until his death in 2013 and owned a 24,000-acre (9,700 ha; 38 sq mi) ranch located in Orland, California, north of Sacramento.
So I suppose he could run for President, too except for the inconvenience of being dead.
lamh36
BAM! I made a Chocolate Chip Cheesecake! From scratch with cream cheese, almond extract egg whites…etc!
First time ever!
Before and after!!
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/625092147973373952
Also too, my first slow cooker meal of the wknd done…Slow Cooker Tikka Masala. It’s and Indian dish. It came out alright, but I prefer my butter chicken, so I’m gonna try to adapt my butter chicken recipe to a “healthier” version, or smaller portions. Anyway, here is the Tikka Masala. Tomorrow’s recipe will be slow cooker lasagna.
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/625093073593323520
Heliopause
Bingo. I have yet to hear Trump say anything outrageous, in the sense of it being completely different in its essence from anything else mainstream politicians say. It’s just without the varnish. It’s “build the dang fence” in different words, that’s all. And calling your opponents idiots is something pols do all the time, just not in so many words. So fuck the other candidates and the mainstream pundits, I’m going to sit back and enjoy this as long as it lasts.
Ajabu
@efgoldman:
Yeah, but at the time Reagan was only brain dead. Cal is graveyard dead.
Hard to do the Sunday shows from there.
NotMax
Trumpnado.
lamh36
@efgoldman: Butter Chicken
ETA: Had it when I traveled to India. Never was able to find a place in Texas or Louisiana who made the dish. So I found a recipe for it.
Then I found a Butter Chicken “flavor pack” at grocery store and I’ve made it that way ever since
redshirt
Don’t ever stop Donald!
That is, until you win the Republican nomination. Then you can flame out post haste.
redshirt
Two arty questions:
1. Have you read the book “The Magus”?
2. Have you seen the movie “Ex Machina”?
JCJ
@efgoldman:
These bears might be able to catch a fish for him – the bear cam is back
http://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/photosmultimedia/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls.htm
redshirt
@efgoldman: Was it required reading or did you choose to read it?
It’s an odd book.
redshirt
@efgoldman: They’ll be enacted. He’ll lose the court case. A better question is will he be impeached – it’s a difficult climb to do so, but he’s pissed off plenty of Republicans too, so there’s a chance.
I can’t believe we re-elected this guy. I blame the 3rd party candidate – again – but also the uncomfortable reality that his Democratic opponent was gay. Also, a bear baiting ordinance that got the rednecks all fired up.
RSA
@lamh36: Thanks for the inspiration. I have some pork in the fridge, couldn’t think of what to do with it, but a slow cooker vindaloo sounds pretty good.
Mike in NC
@lamh36: My wife got hooked on Indian food when she went there a couple of years ago. Target carries a line of kits by Archer Farms that includes Butter Chicken, Tikka Masala, and others, including Thai Panang Curry. They’re excellent and save loads of work; basically you just need to add meat.
lamh36
Oooh. Tonight’s #SaturdayNightSciFi is The Fifth Element.
I love this movie!
Mike in NC
Republicans not going after Trump might be the result of invoking St Reagan’s famous 11th Commandment.
redshirt
Trump has been attacking Walker via Twitter all night. It’s wonderful.
Trump says that Walker is ruining Wisconsin’s great universities, and he’s right!
mdblanche
Don’t forget the bankruptcy attorneys.
So what was Trump up to today? Just trying to strangle the Koch brothers’ favorite pet. The people who are supposed to be in charge of the Republican Party must have stopped reading “Frankenstein” before they got to the part where the monster turned on his creator and destroyed everyone and everything he loved.
redshirt
@lamh36: Really great movie. Funny, great action, great actors, everything’s pretty great.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I’m trying to build a marketing plan for “Becoming Phoebe.” I have a few ideas (not my own, mind you), but well short of a full plan. So, I’m doing what the child of academics always does in such a situation: I’m reading a book about it.
I’m not enjoying this book. I probably wouldn’t even if it were the perfect book, but this one isn’t. That’s not to say that its ideas are bad; I haven’t gotten far enough into it to know that, yet, and probably won’t know when I finish it. That’s the nature of me reading marketing.
No, the problem is the tone. It feels to me like it’s the script for a 2am infomercial. When I’m reading a book for advice on a subject, I want the information. I do not want the author spending his page count trying to PUMP ME UP. The relentless cheerleading is backfiring for me.
Anyone know of a book on book marketing that is both good and doesn’t feel like it’s narrated by the Sham-Wow guy?
lamh36
@redshirt: it is probably my fav Mila Jovavich movie. And def one of my top Bruce Willis movies!
Liquid
Hey it’s the Seattle Torchlight Parade! I’m amazed SPD hasn’t just tasered the living shit out of Robinson Cano.
catclub
Huntsman was worth twice as much as Romney – did not do him much good. Koch brother ran as a libertarian long ago.
Also, did not do him much good. Perot was a billionaire. Money isn’t everything.
Now money and a very big mouth. And a pliant media.
The real point is that Fox is still pushing him, and as long as they do, no point in other ‘candidates’ hammering on him.
Second point is that defending the dignitude of John McCain ( who was a POW) fell very flat with the rubes. There was a Political Animal pointing out that all the elite pundits decided that would kill any Trump bubble. It didn’t.
Third point of course is that no other GOP candidate has even bothered to attack his statements on Mexican immigrants.
Big deal for latino voters and media.
redshirt
@lamh36: Don’t forget Gary Oldman! He’s an awesome villain in it.
catclub
@efgoldman:
Hey, good on them. Over the air PBS broadcasts here have three on each network, and we get three networks.
redshirt
@efgoldman:
So by choice I take it. I could see that – back in the olden times.
I get the sense the book has fallen off the map of current readers. Which is a shame, for it’s a true mind fuck of a novel.
And the film Ex Machina seems to owe a large debt to it, though this debt is not noted.
different-church-lady
Oh. In other words, all the same things involved in every successful presidential campaign.
lamh36
@redshirt: yes! it’s def one of my fav Oldman villain role…
BR
Fox will eventually turn on Trump — their audience will eventually get bored of him — and they’ll use some inevitable over-reach on Trump’s part to shift their allegiance to one of the other candidates.
redshirt
@BR:
Perhaps such a turn could get the Teabaggers to actually reject Fox – as being too Liberal.
Perhaps the only way Fox gets defeated is by being perceived as “too liberal”, as impossible as that sounds.
catclub
@BR: I am not so sure. There is apparently of LOT of true believer in Roger Ailes.
As long as Ailes likes him, and he obviously does, nobody will dare attack Trump. PLus there is that third party threat.
redshirt
@lamh36: He’s such a great actor. Hard to believe he was also Commissioner Gordon.
redshirt
Anybody here have a Fitbit? Any of you feel like you’re in thrall to your Fitbit?
catclub
@lamh36: Also, Oldman in The Professional. Better villain.
BR
@redshirt:
I guess that could happen, but it seems unlikely because there are no TV outlets that can in a short time step into their place and be “even more conservative”.
@catclub:
True, that does help Trump. I just wonder if at some point the message will come down from on high that he’s got to drop his bias and at least be impartial during the primaries.
redshirt
@efgoldman: And, Ailes and Murdoch are clearly now in opposition, but Ailes just recently signed a 3 year contract. So either he’s fired and collects all 3 years, or he does what he wants, and that’s promote Trump, for whatever insane reason.
ms_canadada
No one has asked Trumpet how he’ll do all the things he says he’ll do, they let him just blather on about his supposed ‘greatness’ as he continues to ridicule his opponents. He behaves like a badly brought up 6 year old, taunting and bloviating, while destroying the reputation of America. I wonder what the leaders of other countries are thinking.
redshirt
@BR:
The Teabaggers will head to the Web, or wherever Glenn Beck is squatting.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Zombie Cal and his dog Spot(which could be a lion, tiger or large snake) and Zombie Earl Schibe(I’ll paint any car for
$39.95$49.95$59.95).MomSense
@lamh36:
I finally finished Fringe. I was a puddle of tears at the end of the series finale.
redshirt
@ms_canadada:
“This seals the deal for Hillary”?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mike in NC:
Hmm, Panang is neither in India or Thailand. It’s in Amirland(my GF’s roommate was from Panang).
redshirt
I’m such a nerd – I just started chuckling over the name Reed F. Richardson.
lamh36
@MomSense: Fringe surpassed X-Files as my top “Modern” sci-fi show. So glad it got that final season and a decent closure finale.
mai naem mobile
This Trump thing is concerning me a little. The GOP doesn’t seem to know how to stop him. He’s got a yooooge ego that I don’t see letting him just slink away. I’m seriously wondering if he would beat HRC because people are fed up. Also, I’m wondering if he’s got some early stage dementia with that lack of filter. Anybody know if his parents had/have dementia?
catclub
@ms_canadada:
Two words: Silvio Berlusconi
mike with a mic
@mai naem mobile:
It’s not dementia. That’s what a lot of people in the mid Atlantic region are like. Sorta like Chris Christie. He sounds like a fucking New Yorker, nothing more, nothing less.
And, IMHO, that attitude is much better than mid west nice or that west coast crap. One puts you to sleep, the other one makes you want to club small animals to death. Keep in mind, “Go fuck yourself” is the traditional greeting in parts of the big east. We don’t do polite and we don’t do nice. If someone is polite and nice it’s time to check if your wallet is still there and worry your drink is drugged.
MomSense
@lamh36:
I really liked it, too. I use to live in Boston so some of the fun for me was seeing old haunts in the show.
MomSense
@mai naem mobile:
I have also been wondering about some sort of early stage dementia.
max
We have to enjoy that kind of lunacy, because the underlying revelation is just too depressing — that all his antics and bloviation aside, Trump is the dark heart of the Republican Party in Carrara marble and brass… Nothing about Trump is new. His brutish, demonizing nativism merely echoes the last decade’s virulence and traces its roots to the “othering” aspects of the Southern Strategy. His twinned aggression and ignorance of foreign policy joins a proud tradition that started sometime around the moment the first conservative hijacked the Dolchstoßlegende to show how “liberals” lost us Vietnam after they lost us Cuba, China, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and — fuck it, why not? — Iran. Donald Trump is going to make us great and strong again without it costing a thing, just like the Eighties and the 2000s. His crass merchandizing and hucksterism falls right in with movement conservatism’s direct-mail history, and his claims to innate wisdom superiority as a wealthy dealmaker can be traced from the Gilded Age right up to Citizens United…
So Trump is the new Reagan but less popular with the other rich guys.
max
[‘Voodoo haironomics.’]
Davis X. Machina
@mai naem mobile:
Not so long as women have the vote.
What’s the gender gap for Trump? In the general election?
Women don’t like assholes….
jl
@mai naem mobile: @Davis X. Machina:
The problem for Trump in a general election is that, so far, 60 to 65 percent of the US voting public say that they would not even consider voting for Trump. The general public is not at all like the rabid GOP base that is active in their primaries.
Misterpuff
@catclub: The Gold Market is a Dead Cat, so FOX is going to market Brawndo. Trump Branded Brawndo.
MomSense
BTW My son just told me about an exchange he had with an ammosexual today. I want to find that guy and punch him in the neck.
meepers
@lamh36: Is it the Kitchens of India pack? I love it, but oh the sodium content…
lamh36
@meepers: actually another brand
mike with a mic
@Davis X. Machina:
Plenty of women are assholes and plenty of women like assholes.
Trumps hope, and entire game now, is that everybody hates the establishment of their own party. With both Trump and Sanders, people like assholes willing to attack other assholes. That translates well into “I want to keep this person in the news” but it sucks for a general election.
MomSense
@efgoldman:
Grrrr.
Kropadope
@mike with a mic:
I haven’t seen a single Sanders ad yet, but isn’t Sanders’s whole shtick about not going negative?
meepers
@lamh36: … Is it low sodium? That and decent taste are a priority at Casa Meepers.
Davis X. Machina
@mike with a mic:
Romney had the largest gender gap in history, at least since 1952
America looked at Bush II and said “Ew. My first husband.” What saved him was the God-talk.
Trump needs the overt religiosity that Bush II had — and he doesn’t have it — to temper that first “Ew”…
the Conster
@redshirt:
I know, it’s ridiculously fun to watch. Trump is the Honey Badger.
mtiffany
@Ajabu:
The upside is that being dead precludes him from from formulating any policy, so no one can attack him or disagree with his positions. The perfect candidate.
lamh36
@meepers: Ya know, I’m not too sure. I haven’t made it in some time.
But I’m pretty sure the salt content isn’t the healthiest.
the Conster
Trump’s speech today was epic, peak Trump. He’d like to be called Supreme Leader like that guy in Iran. His attack on Walker was like a WWE chair over his head. It’s amazing to watch. The odds of his crashing and burning is around 90%, but, he’s going to bring the whole GOP down with him. If it’s Walker that’s left standing, compared to Trump he looks like an assistant manager at one of Trump’s less classy hotels. Walker’s an uneducated doofus, and under the bright lights, he’ll shrink. Trump Trump Trump Trump. LOL.
Tree With Water
A story in today’s NY Times implies the Obama administration stands prepared to release Israeli agent and convicted spy Jason Pollard as a sop to opponents of the Iranian Nuclear deal. Buried well into its telling, this nugget of information is dropped:
“..Iran is seen as too serious a threat for the kind of horse-trading suggested in previous proposals to free Mr. Pollard in exchange for compromise on the Palestinian front, they said. Mr. Pollard has been expected to get out this year in any case, having served the required 30 years of a life sentence, so efforts to portray his release as a grand gesture are already being described as cynical, cheap and misguided..”.
What the hell is going on a that paper?
Kropadope
@efgoldman: That movie was pretty good, though not MacFarlane’s best work, I think. I’m still waiting to see the second Ted movie.
Omnes Omnibus
@the Conster:
Please tell me you left out the “un.”
the Conster
@efgoldman: @Omnes Omnibus:
FIXED!! but you knew that.
Omnes Omnibus
@the Conster: I hoped but didn’t know.
redshirt
@the Conster:
LOL indeed.
Do you do Twitter? Do you follow The Donald? If not, do so ASAP. Laughs await.
And no, Trump will NEVER be President. I’m prepared to take a $1000 to $100 bet with anyone who wants to take it that Trump will NEVER be President of the USA.
redshirt
@efgoldman: He’s a Rhode Island guy. Shouldn’t you support him, out of state pride, at least?
Jeffro
Is it possible that one of these GOP candidates will have the nerve, the moxie, to stage some sort of ‘day of reckoning’ prior to the debate and call Trump out on all of his craziness and non-appealing-to-the-base previous positions? You’d think that one of the 6 relegated to the “kids’ table” at the first debate would see an opportunity here – Perry has already been trying, but it just doesn’t have that “300”-type feel.
Maybe they’re polishing their best comebacks for the debate?
Either way, I am taking my phone off of the hook that evening.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jeffro:
I doubt it.
the Conster
@redshirt:
Yes, twitter. same handle. I don’t follow Trump – don’t need to because everyone RTs him. Instead of presidenting, he’d be in twitterwars with half the country, and suing the other half who he didn’t already fire. He’s unleashed ego, being championed by unleashed Republican id. It’s fire and gasoline. Watching the GOP and Fox try to deal with him is like watching Dr. Frankenstein’s castle go up in flames starting with the curtains.
jl
I have a hard time watching Jeb!. He looks and talks like one of my cousins, I mean exactly like one of my cousins, when he (my cousin) is kind of beered up and making fun of some of the Republicans he knows when they are BSing BS. It is spooky.
Edit: this cousin is a moderate small business owner, and he is an expert at sniffing out BS. He’d be broke if he weren’t. He is hilarious at imitating BSers. And when he does that, he has been a walking talking picture perfect imitation of Jeb! for decades. I guess I was never exposed to Jeb! in action enough to notice it before. It’s getting spooky and infuriating for me to watch a clip of Jeb!
redshirt
@redshirt:
And for any of you legal eagles, in regards to the acronym USA I mean it in the common, most used sense: The United States of America.
So if the Donald becomes President of the Union of Sociopathic Assholes, I won’t owe anyone a thing. Instead, you’ll owe me. Catfish?
Bobby Thomson
@Belafon: also too
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6I7VwjelAIA
redshirt
@the Conster: Presidentin’ by Twitter is something I feel W’d be for, if he we’ren’t already against it.
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt: Too late.
BR
@redshirt:
I have to say, I can really see why he appeals to the GOP, and scarily enough, I can even see him appealing to low-info “moderates” if he were to win the nomination. (It’s not like Trump is really wedded to any political beliefs, so whatever he thinks at the moment is his policy.)
It’s that unabashed grandiosity and self importance, and the valuing of zingers over substance. Given that our culture has been soaking that up in so many forms for so many years, not just in politics, including reality shows like Trump’s, I can see people who aren’t political going for it. That’s scary…
sparrow
@lamh36: One of my favorites, and a classic high school movie for me. My friends and I would just randomly quote the movie all the time… for some reason “Leeloo Dallas Multipass!” never failed to be hilarious.
Omnes Omnibus
@sparrow: High school?
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus: Too late for what?
Kropadope
@redshirt: I’m guessing he means Trump is already president of the Union of Sociopathic Assholes.
Amir Khalid
@BillinGlendaleCA:
And it’s called Penang. (Pulau Pinang in Malay, because most of the state is an island.)
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt: You already made your offer. The caveats come too late. This is why you should always consult with an attorney beforehand.
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus: I feel an internet lawyer of the future will see my addendum and know the original meaning inherent in the addendum, and I shall be protected by the magic that is the Law.
lamh36
Watching Will & Grace on LOGOtv. Every time I watch the episode where Meghan Mullaly as Karen Walker digs Beverly Leslie at some GOP event, it’s not right, but I think of that scene whenever I see Lindsey Graham. It’s not right at all, but I do it everytime
Karen Walker: “Attention Republicans…”
redshirt
@BR:
If you’re scared of Trump you need to recalibrate your fear meters, my friend.
Trump is a circus, a clown, a marketing stunt gone AI and viral. That he now resonates with base Republican primary voters is a wondrous revelation for so many Serious People. Perhaps this will change things?
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt: Nice try. Anyone who accepted your offer before the caveats and any who accept it before they have knowledge of the caveats will win. I hope you didn’t put up too much.
redshirt
@Kropadope: There is no such official organization, of course. Yet.
smike
Anne Laurie, I often enjoy reading your offerings. This one was especially enjoyable.
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus: CAUTION: This take is Hot.
BR
@efgoldman: @redshirt:
I know…my rational brain tells me that there’s nothing to worry about. And I don’t think there really is. But then I remind myself that this is a nation that almost elected Dubya once and then re-elected him. And Dubya wasn’t even half as smooth as Trump, though he did have institutional support behind him, and he was just as mean, hubristic, and dumb.
BillinGlendaleCA
@the Conster: ALL of Trump’s hotels are very CLASSY.
redshirt
@BR: W. had so much more REAL POWER behind him then The Donald can even dream of. The Donald is New View Reach, if you know what I mean (I’m afraid of Tumblr). W. – and JEB! by extension – is royalty.
Omnes Omnibus
@BR: You underestimate W’s skills.
the Conster
@BillinGlendaleCA:
That’s what he’d tell you. If you disagreed with him, he’ll fire you or sue you because that would make him happy, and everyone should try to make him happy. That’s what he told Iowans – Walker’s a loser, destroyed Wisconsin, borrowed so much money that the debt payment is busting the budget, and they all should put him in first in the polls in Iowa, because that would make him happy. Everyone cheered because they love him, and I have no doubt he’ll poll first in Iowa this week. POPCORN!!!
ETA: He said he also supported Walker at first because he heard he was a fighter, but didn’t know what Walker fought for, until Walker’s campaign called Trump dumb. Apparently those are Trump’s fighting words. That’s when he broke the metaphorical chair over Walker’s dumb head. It’s crazy town theater.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: I sit corrected. I did know it was an island and a state, do I get partial credit, teach?
Anne Laurie
@jl:
One of the Spousal Unit’s younger brothers looks exactly like Karl Rove. (He’s also a massive creep, but fortunately for the rest of us, not a powerful/successful one.) I knew BiL long before Karl Rove became a public figure, but family gatherings are rare enough that I still do a double-take every time I spot the guy across the room…
Tree With Water
@redshirt: “Trump will NEVER be President. I’m prepared to take a $1000 to $100 bet with anyone who wants to take it that Trump will NEVER be President of the USA”.
I’m a Californian, and remember a time when a lot of people felt the same way about Ronald Reagan. You’re are right about Trump, of course.
As much as I love what Trump is doing to the republican party, I’m beginning to get greedy. I’m starting to hope he might also be an agent of change for American journalism.. Trump gives living proof to the common, practiced deceit of the hack media that both sides invariably do ‘it’, whatever the ‘it’ du jour happens to be. That’s impossible to do with Trump taking a daily, humungous, front page shit on republican party. Or rather, impossible in the long run, not without explaining what actually happened to the GOP over the past 35 years that served to put the party in the boat it’s in. And if that were to happen- if American journalism somehow regained its bearings- I wonder where they would then begin to report a story they’ve studiously avoided for all that time?
Amir Khalid
As things stand, The Donald really could be the Republican nominee next August. The party can’t just sit tight and hope that his fundamental unseriousness will eventually do in his candidacy; what if it doesn’t?
Why don’t the other candidates shout hm down? Can they not make themselves loud enough? Do they lack the testicular fortitude? Or worse, do they not really disagree with him?
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid:
Be that as it may, they know that their base agrees with him and they can’t offend the base and get elected. They are riding a tiger.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid:
Yes.
mike with a mic
@Kropadope:
Sanders is hugely negative, about the establishment. He’s going about it in a different way than Trump, but it’s very much the same. Both are bashing their parties traditional targets while attacking the national establishment as being unwilling to deal with it because of cowardice and corruption. Neither of them are scripted or give a fuck.
That’s what sells to a certain portion of the population, it’s not a general election win and it sure as fuck isn’t a governing method but it does sell.
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus: This is The Donald’s power completely, and also explains why/how he’ll be around for awhile.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus:
With a gerbil on its head.
redshirt
@BillinGlendaleCA: The gerbil is also in a hoe mask.
Tree With Water
@Amir Khalid: “As things stand, The Donald really could be the Republican nominee next August”.
Easy, big fella. You’re starting to sound like Lindsey Graham in one of his tizzies.
Omnes Omnibus
@mike with a mic: Your analysis is as fatuous as usual.
@BillinGlendaleCA: I had two gerbils as a child, Stanley and Irving, and their spirits spit in your face because you made that suggestion.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: You must have very small opossums in RI.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: I always saw you as more of a ferret kind of guy.
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: Actually, my significant pet was an English Cocker. Yesterday would have been his 42d birthday. Yes, I said happy b-day to the picture that I still display.
redshirt
Gerbils and Hoes
is the name of my new poetry anthology for the years 2011-2012.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Ah, IC. OK, pygmy opossum, not a gerbil. My apologies if any gerbils were offended, especially the spirits of Stanley and Irving.
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: On their behalf, your apology is accepted.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: It’ll be 9 years, on Monday, since we lost our beloved Wendy(American Cocker). Monday also would be my mom’s 89th if she was still with us.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
He’d send his dog.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: I’ve only got a hour or so before i retire to the bed chamber. I want to get on the trail early tomorrow. Night ef.
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: Cockers are special, aren’t they?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: Exactly, his dog Spot(which could be a lion or a tiger or an elephant…).
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Yup, got one sleeping to the left of me.
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’ve never been able to have another dog since. None could match up. Or, if one did, I would feel disloyal. Instead, I’ll spoil other people’s dogs.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Redshirt made the offer but I didn’t see any acceptances before the addendum. I think he’s off the hook here.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
OT: This is a test. I think I need to change my user name; there was an incident earlier this evening on a sports forum where I use the same name as here, and I’d like to not attract any of that lunacy here.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: The acceptances could have been in another fora. I do agree that no one bought in on this thread.
dogwood
@Amir Khalid:
Trump as the nominee is highly unlikely. Someone up-thread made the comment the he/she was starting to worry that Trump could actually beat HRC because the country is so fed up. That’s a fear that comes from reading too many internet discussions. The one thing that Sanders and Trump have in common is that they appeal to the segments of the left and right that are fed up. However, to suggest that means the small segment of voters who are passionately supporting these guys represent the mood of the public in general, is misguided I think. President Obama, has good approval numbers among democrats; I doubt they are demanding a revolution. They’ll stick with Hillary. The not impressed with Trump republicans are the majority. They want to win. After a lot of nonsense and in-fighting, they’ll more than likely settle on Walker.
moderateindy
Worthington’s law…………Mr Show was simply brilliant. If you were a fan of Monte Python you would enjoy Mr. Show with Bob and David. Same format of absurd sketch comedy which more or less segued from one sketch into the next. Bob Odenkirk from Better call Saul, and David Cross from Arrested Development, and a huge cast of brilliant comedians, Sarah Silverman,Jack Black, Brian Posehn etc.
So many great sketches, my favorite might be the HR Puf’n’Stuff parody, the Altered State of Drugachusetts
https://youtu.be/06R80-I8tcI
Ruckus
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I seem to recall that towards my end of seeing his commercials the dog could be any thing other than some sort of regular house pet. Usually the bigger/more outlandish the better.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: We have to have dogs. Always 2, one gets lonely.
dogwood
@mike with a mic:
Didn’t see your comment before I posted mine above. You said it better than I.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Unless someone has redshirts email, which, probably like mine only a FPer or the two people here who have my email.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: My dog Spot took many different forms, I saw Cal’s commercials while growing up.(SoCal Native).
jl
@mike with a mic: OK, give us a link of those outrageous insults Sanders is throwing out there about HRC.
And I think Sanders is very scripted, overly scripted and deliberate, so much that it has hurt his campaign a little already (his inability to adapt extemporaneously to the netroots BLM protest) and it may hurt him more later. The difference I think between Sanders and other politicians is that Sanders scripts himself with a very tight focus on specific policy proposals. He is not good at explaining how he thinks through things to an audience. Sanders does give a very big fuck about policy, he doesn’t give a fuck about political kabuki or media BS or conventional political wisdom. He certainly gives a fuck about being a responsible participant in the electoral process, by not running around threatening a third party run.
There is only one thing I see in common between Sanders and Trump is that they are taping into popular resentment and dissatisfaction (Edit: with probably exactly zero cross over appeal).
But then FDR and Hitler had that in common too. And FDR doted on Falla and liked dogs. You know who else liked dogs…. hmmmmm….?
Ruckus
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Me also, socal native and Cal watcher. Had one of my dad’s employees from TN buy a car from him, saying he was the only honest used car salesman on TV. The guy knew his job, sort of, but was other wise an idiot.
Actually as a socal native of a certain age, born in the first half of the last century, almost no one I knew in school was born here.
sigaba
There are worse things in the world than being lied to. Much worse things.
Amir Khalid
@dogwood:
My point is that the Republican party can’t afford to be complacent about the real threat that The Donald poses — to its presidential chances which are dire enough as it is, given the feebleness of its other candidates; or to the Republican Congressional candidates standing in 2016.
The odds are indeed that he will fizzle out at some point. But they don’t know that for certain. Every day he stays in the race, with his big yap that no one can shut for him, he’s doing them damage. And every day they don’t deal with him, they’re adding to the damage themselves.
Mike G
Trump is Rush Limbaugh with more money and (slightly) less ugliness. Repukes have been marinating in Rush’s bile for decades, which has seamlessly paved the way for marketing a presidential candidate with the same shallow stupidity, aggressive ignorance and hate.
dogwood
@jl:
Where did Mike say Bernie was outrageously insulting HRC? He said his campaign was negative; and I think that’s fair. He’s not negative in the sense that he is engaging in negative rhetoric about his opponents. He’s negative about the country. I’ve watched Bernie’s standard stump speech several times; he certainly isn’t aspirational and definitely not inspirational. I agree with mike, his appeal isn’t broad enough.
Ruckus
@Mike G:
This.
And limpballs hasn’t gone away, has he? And people have tried and he’s lost commercial support, but he’s still spewing crap. Why do people expect T Rump to go away? Because he’s so ridiculous? You can’t boycott him, he’s the one with the money. The base, the tparty like that. Both T Rump and limpballs are them, with more money, T Rump with lots more. That’s the people they look up to. Respect may be way to strong a word but that’s what they have, for people that speak “truth” to power. And no they don’t get the irony in that statement. T Rump has about the same chance right now as any of the 16. He’s not going to be out spent, unless all the benefactors line up behind one candidate and even then it would still be a horse race. He’s not going to quit because people don’t like him, he’s used to that. I’m saying I think he’s here to the end. Very, very hopefully it will be a bitter end for him.
Ruckus
@dogwood:
….he certainly isn’t aspirational and definitely not inspirational. I agree with mike, his appeal isn’t broad enough.
I know a number of people who disagree with your assessment of Sanders. He is exactly who they are looking for and they are very inspired. That his appeal isn’t broad enough that I won’t disagree (or agree) with. But he’s a senator from a small state, it will take time for many to get to know him. That’s when you could know if his appeal is or isn’t broad enough.
Eric
@redshirt:
John Fowleshas really kind of been forgotten, he should be up there with the great British post war writers. Everything I’ve read by him has been great.
There is a movie of The Magus with Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn, Candice Bergen and Anna Karina. It’s ok, but you really can’t do that book in a 2 hour movie. The Collector and The French Lieutenant’s woman are better movies, but as a book I like The Magus best. I haven’t seen the movie of The Ebony Tower, great cast but have never really heard much about beyond that.
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid:
Sure, Trump’s damaging the Republican party (or at least the “brand”). But he’s not, so far, hurting any individual candidate — not even the ones he’s gone after (although this may have changed with his attack on Walker Saturday). He’ll probably drop out eventually, when he loses the spotlight or gets bored, but nobody wants to be the first to draw his considerable fire by ticking him off.
As the fable by Aesop went: Who will bell the cat?
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: My significant-est dog, before Luna, was an American Cocker named Missy. Missy was beaten before we got her, was completely klutzy and goofy, and she was always, always, ALWAYS sick. But I adored her. She had deep, brown eyes and would gaze at me like I was just the greatest thing since sliced wheels.
If I wasn’t spiritually broken, I would swear that she has come back to me in Luna. Luna, despite being twice Missy’s size, and a pit bull/Lab mix, and very healthy and strong….she has my Missy’s exact personality and her eyes are exactly the same. Love my dogs.
dogwood
@Ruckus:
I’m sure his supporters find him inspirational;they care about the same single issue and they’re as angry and passionate as he. But when is Bernie going to talk seriously about something else? By this time in 2008, at least 6 of the democratic candidates had given speeches about foreign policy, energy policy, educations policy etc. Why does Bernie get a pass on this? Those issues can’t be addressed with a couple of lines in a stump speech. As I said the other night, if a non- republican is to win the election, I’m pretty sure the president hopes to hell its not Bernie. Obama would still be stuck being the head of the party, he’d have to do all the fundraising, and he be stuck speaking at all the funerals.
Kathleen
@lamh36: Will you adopt me?
Another Holocene Human
@Mike in NC: Gordon Ramsay did some videos (don’t laugh) from South and Southeast Asia where he goes into detail about how to make those sauces from scratch. I kind of swear by his advice.
My local Indian restaurant is crap (there’s a better one 45 mins away, but it’s a bit spendy) so when I can obtain the right ingredients, I really can make better at home.
Central Planning
@redshirt:
I have a Charge HR. I like the info it gives me and the historical tracking. The real reason I bought it, however, was because it will tie in to work’s healthcare provider and report that I walk enough steps every day and they add money to my HSA.
The charts and info it spits back are pretty cool, and I like watching my heartrate throughout the day, during exercise, sleeping, and so on. The lowest it has gotten while sleeping is 52bpm. I’m hoping a little more exercise and weight loss gets that down to 50.
The other nice thing about the fitbit is that it lets you track the food you eat against the calories you burn (exercise, height, weight, sex) and you can see where you stand instantaneously. It’s helped me be aware of what I eat and realize I need to eat less sometimes (or skip that second helping of dessert :( )
Would I get one if I didn’t get the incentive from work? Probably not, but clearly the incentive is getting me to do the right things.
Another Holocene Human
@redshirt: Some of the nuttier ones have considered Fox too liberal for years.
Fox (and this is frightening) appeals to people who think of themselves as thoughtful moderates who consider both sides. That’s why they have the motto “we report, you decide”, “no spin zone” and bring on potemkin liberals/dems. They make nativist tribalist primal urges seem like thoughtful common sense policy prescriptions to those who need some sugar to get that hairy white supremacy ball down.
Another Holocene Human
@mike with a mic:
It took me yeeeeears to get over this after moving to the South.
Another Holocene Human
@lamh36: How did I miss that? lololol
Karen is so evil. I love her.
Another Holocene Human
@dogwood: Bernie seems to have a reality distortion zone for some of his fans.
I find I have less and less interest in voting Sanders as a protest vote every day. It’s more his stupid fans than him. I don’t think he’s running a serious campaign, he’s running an issues campaign or issue campaign, but a bunch of people don’t get that. They don’t live in reality every day. They didn’t pay attention to what Bernie was saying when he got some MSM time and suggested he would run. The real nuts? Watch them stay home on election day like the obnoxious punks they are. For them, D and R is all the same.
Watch how butthurt they get when other parts of the progressive coalition–we’re talking the activist core here–don’t share their priorities. I predict four more years of hiding under the covers and spinning fantasies that the socialist revolution will come if only they have the right spokesman. (Why pretend they’re fantasizing it’ll be a woman. They don’t and won’t.)
Germy Shoemangler
Germy Shoemangler
I quoted the info about Fred Trump because the question was raised earlier in this thread about Donald possibly suffering from some early-stage dementia.
But he was always like this, wasn’t he?
Chris
@lamh36:
@sparrow:
Two words: Gary Oldman.
Applejinx
@jl: Actually I think they BOTH have different kinds of crossover appeal.
Sanders is drawing HYOOOGE crowds in the deep South. He drew hundreds in what, Alabama, for an organizational meeting he wasn’t even going to appear at? That one blew my little vermonter mind. Did not see THAT coming, I assumed the candidate’s presence was a prerequisite but nope! He is also intensely pushing for a grassroots organization message that is vital for the Dems. It’s basically throw out the ‘every four years, 51%’ dems and start filling up civic positions like the wingnuts used to do before they just started shooting people in theaters.
Trump has one hugely significant characteristic: he’s way, way too arrogant to work with the Republican power structure. Now think about that for a moment. That structure is the set-in-stone, obstructionist, largely austerity-based, Grover Norquist united front who are dead set on taking all the money and shipping all the jobs away to be part of a system for the 1% and do their bidding, whether it’s Sherman Adelson or Bank Of America or whoever. They are organized and they mean business, quite literally.
Trump IS the 1%. He has no special desire to help the other 1%, let ’em burn, they’re his competition. I’m pretty sure if you tried to get Trump to take the Grover Norquist pledge he’d refuse, partly because it’s somebody telling him what to do and partly because ‘hey it takes money to make money’. Guy goes bankrupt frequently. You do that by SPENDING, by building insane stuff that might be useless. It’s like he’s the lie of ‘job creators’ made truth (except only for undocumented laborers, but stay with me here)
The two guys most likely to go ‘Okay, you want an economic boom? Here! Everybody go rebuild our shitty roads, everybody has a job at $50 an hour! Go spend that money in America and we’ll be HYUUUGE!’ are Sanders and Trump, the two opposite extremes. Sanders because he is a socialist, and Trump because he’s a giant asshole who wants to look like Santa and wants to make the biggest THINGS ever. Give him a country and he’ll replace the Eisenhower highway system, in decline, with Trump hypersonic road capsules, just so they can BE the Trump hypersonic road capsules forever after. You only have to sell him on the idea and let it be his.
This is not a guy known for moderation or austerity.
And if you seriously study current economics (try Piketty and Mark Blyth) you know that the worldwide depression brewing is not about bad borrowers, but is purely a banking crisis driven by capital, and that the USA is doing WAY better than the EU entirely because the USA hasn’t adopted austerity measures. We are still deficit spending so our economy is growing while others are shrinking, and we’re doing better in GDP than we lose in deficit. The austerity crowd are losing more in GDP than they gain in cuts.
Until they figure that shit out, Donald Trump could win the Presidency, do various horrible policy things but launch huge Trump-named infrastructure projects, and America would THRIVE. Not because it was Trump, but because at this time in history it’s a huge opportunity to launch just such projects, employ masses in government jobs, and kickstart the economy even harder. (Sanders could do the same thing, or try. Trump might actually have a better chance at making it happen.)
We’re doing sort of okay because Republican gridlock has prevented the Republicans from enacting austerity measures that would’ve temporarily aided the bankers but crippled us. Because we’ve failed to do that, we could be a lot worse off. All we have to do is generate a SHITLOAD more economic activity that’s local (not Cayman Islands, not ‘trading’) and the USA will be in an amazing position.
Any candidate could be doing this, but the only two that seem likely to completely give the big fuck-you to austerity politics are socialist Sanders and asshole Trump, each for their own reasons. And it doesn’t matter what reason is given: it’ll still work.
debbie
@Germy Shoemangler:
Yes, always like this.
Trump suffers from Jersey Big-Mouth syndrome, not Alzheimers. He’s the kind of guy that made Wall Street what it is today.
Applejinx
@dogwood: Aspirational is an interesting word. Sanders and Trump are aspirational in opposite ways.
Trump is literally the aspirational Id of capitalism. You’re supposed to fight and be like him, but he’ll still win because he’s rich. But the idea is, society is a battle to be won by the best and greatest, hence aspirational. Get rich, get powerful, or die.
Sanders is aspirational as a Socialist, which means he’s calling for you to get involved and for people to work together, not against each other. Go out and do civic service, run for office, start small businesses even if they’re never going to be McDonalds, milk your cows, whatever! Get involved in your community. I don’t think this is any less aspirational but it’s a different call. I have been to one of his rallies and I heard him calling out for people to get involved in the process (something often lacking on the Democratic side). You have to define what people aspire TO, is the thing.
SFAW
@sigaba:
Well, no. He tells it as he sees it. I would imagine psychopaths do, as well.
Not that Teh Donald is a psychopath, because someone so “rich” (or who claims to be) can’t be nuts. *Cough* John duPont *cough*
Can they?
MazeDancer
@Applejinx:
Interesting ideas.
Had thought when read about Trump attacking Walker that Trump could actually get the Repubs to support education. Like “What’s this crap about education is bad. Education is great. Education will help your kids become rich.” Trump can create Trump Universities.
bemused
@SFAW:
He tells it like his teaparty wingnut supporters believe it is. I read this same kind of crap from the usual blowhards in local letters to the ed newspapers which are the only places other than a bar or coffee shop that they can spew their garbage. They are thrilled that Trump speaks for them or so they think. He has no more use for them as any other group he trashes.
SFAW
@bemused:
I assume that you mean that they’re the only places because the run-of-the-mill Teabagger doesn’t have unfettered access to large media outlets. (Because their garbage is spewed all over Fox and EIB, it’s just that it’s millionaires/celebrities doing the spewing.)
bemused
@SFAW:
Yes, nor the money that Trump uses to say whatever he wants.
Trump bullied the small group of people who lived in the Menie Estates in Scotland bordering his planned golf course saying they lived in a pigsty, a slum and cut off water and power to them with his construction work. He would do the same to his fans in a nanosecond if they got in his way.
Sherparick
@redshirt: Apparently you have a lot of angry non-college educated white people out in the back woods of Maine because I could not believe the guy got reelected either, but then I looked at the Maine results and he got 48% of the vote in Maine. Those voting for Cutler had also had to prefer LePage to Michaud (gay bias? hating Obama? blaming the Democrats for the decline of Maine’s paper, lumber, and fishing industry?
I figure LePage is a rougher version of Scott Walker (or Walker is a smoother, cleverer version of LePage). They both trumpeted tax cuts their supporters. Now most of the tax cuts go to the rich, but the poor working stiff does see a little tax cut. They then tell their supporters that they have paid for the tax cuts by gutting the money going to “THEM.” (Government workers, school teachers, welfare beneficiaries) who are now suffering to, just like you working stiff, so does that not feel good!! I am not quite sure how the minority thing works in Maine since the state is 95% white, so apparently LePage’s venom is directed at the underclass of white people in Maine who have washed out to the middle and working classes with the decline of Maine’s blue collar industries.
Rand Careaga
@redshirt: I adore The Magus. First read it about forty years ago; have come back to it a couple of times, most recently seven or eight years ago. It makes a strong first impression and (unlike some books that also do) improves upon a second or third reading. Although Ex Machina, which I also esteem greatly, does appear to have some resonances, I’m inclined to doubt whether the novel was a major influence.
redshirt
@Sherparick:
It really surprised me too, as Maine is a generally liberal state on most matters. But there’s a real North/South divide, and even though Michaud is from Northern Maine, I think the revelation of his sexuality really hurt his numbers. Sad, but true. Cutler was a big factor, but not the main reason for the loss.
Amusingly enough he raised sales taxes so now every purchase down at Scumby’s costs a bit more for the vast hordes of utterly poor in the state. LePage also routinely mocks the large French-Canadian minority in the state – which he is part of – to typical applause.
Republicans are sick – I’ve gone from hate to pity for their mental condition.
redshirt
@Rand Careaga: Really? A rich and powerful, older, single male invites a young single man to his remote mansion and then plays sexual mind games with him for his own enigmatic purposes, using a mysterious, beautiful and intelligent woman as the means doesn’t seem like a close match?
I found the connection striking while watching, but maybe that’s because I just read the book last year.
Regardless, the film is excellent and I encourage everyone to watch it.
Anne Laurie
@redshirt:
Not saying I agree, but I’ve also seen The Tempest described that way…
redshirt
@Anne Laurie: And I can see that. The only difference in The Tempest is that it’s his own daughter.