Trump is an interesting opponent, in no small part because the press glugs down his watery bullshit the way someone lost in the desert would inhale an ice-cold beer. Just look at the KKK incident — as hard as every opponent is trying to pin that on old Donald, he’s probably going to get away with a too little, too late disavowal of David Duke. That’s not even a dog whistle, it’s like a racist-calling foghorn. Still, the media, by and large, will sweep it under the rug, because they and Trump are both beholden to the God of the click, and Trump makes it rain clicks, every single day.
The media love means that Trump has a unique opportunity to pivot to a kinder, gentler Donald as soon as he sews up the nomination. He’s already doing it by trotting out his wife and kids, and there’s no doubt that we’ll see him get his prostate examined at Planned Parenthood, forget that he ever called himself a Christian, and attend a gay wedding by the end of June. If I had to guess at his anti-Clinton strategy, I’ll bet that he skips the personal attacks and concentrates on Hillary being a bought-and-paid-for shill for the establishment.
Still, in her speech tonight, Hillary brought up one thing the New Trump™ can’t run away from: What kind of asshole do you need to be to think that America isn’t great? As she said tonight, “America never stopped being great.” We have our problems, like every other country, but anyone paying attention can see that we’re top turd on this rocky shitpile orbiting the Sun. And, if America isn’t great for some minority voters and immigrants, the reason is Donald Trump and the people like him.
So, while I don’t think a Trump candidacy is an automatic win for any Democrat, I’m pretty optimistic about our chances against this clown. Bring on the dancing horses.
Linda Featheringill
I’m one of those crazy nuts who think that Clinton wouldn’t beat Trump.
Anoniminous
If we can’t whip this dude’s ass the Democratic Party should pack it in.
Jeffro
I think he made it pretty clear tonight : i’m on a roll and the R establishment better get behind me in a hurry … Exciting times !
Corner Stone
@Linda Featheringill: What’s that all about?
beltane
@Jeffro: His going after Rubio for being a loser was particularly poignant.
Corner Stone
If Massholes go for HRC this shebang bang is over, over.
Jeffro
Also I think the whole idea of staging tonight’s Trump pseudo-press conference is only going to help the Democrats pull independents ( all three of them left in the country ) into the D fold … Especially with Christie standing there in the background … Trump calling out McConnell and Ryan specifically was a nice touch so I think we should all send him a thank you note for that .
Corner Stone
@beltane: Rubio is a loser. WTF is he even got to look forward to?
Corner Stone
Ted Cruz is the fucking worst.
Patricia Kayden
There is a video of Trump supporters assaulting a lone Black woman at one of Adolph Trump’s rallies. It’s appalling. Yet Trump is claiming that he’s going to get the Black vote. Idiot.
Linda Featheringill
@Corner Stone:
What’s is all about? I just mean what I said.
beltane
@Corner Stone: A long life as a well-paid lobbyist? Taxpayer funded health care for the rest of his long life? Politicians do very well even when the lose.
MazeDancer
Loved Hillary’s speech. Tone is perfect. Deeply dislike “Make America Whole Again” line. Hope she changes it. Confusing. What’s missing? Sounds like America is broken. Doesn’t build on America’s always been great. Trump already dismantling it.
Got to give Trump credit for staging that Fake Presidential Presser. Playing the role already.
Patricia Kayden
@Linda Featheringill: Why? Perhaps among White voters Clinton won’t beat Trump but overall I don’t see him beating her among minority voters. It shouldn’t be hard to run against him in the general.
Helen
No way am I listening to Cruz. CLICK
Corner Stone
Cruz has beaten Trump one…two…three times! And gotten crushed some twelve other times. Hmmm…
dslak
Shiver and say the words of every lie you’ve heard
(I’ll wait)
Jeffro
Cruz asking for Rubio, Kasich, and Carson to prayerfully drop out… The thought of him as a party unifying statesman is giving me abdominal cramps (Oh and bonus JFK quote just now too)
Nate Dawg
America shouldn’t have a President whose words would make you embarrassed if your children were to hear them. –Rafael Cruz.
Pretty strong argument.
Corner Stone
@Linda Featheringill: Ok, so you’re a crazy nut, as you state. Got it.
dslak
@MazeDancer: She developed it a bit more tonight: “We have to fill in gaps that have been hollowed out & left people behind.” Standard Dem message of we help everyone.
Redshift
Rubio was a close second in Virginia! Hey, if third place is like winning for Rubio, then second place is like super-winning, right?
Mike J
Will mail in my ballot from Villier’s Terrace.
Corner Stone
@MazeDancer: It’s not a bad tagline.
Linda Featheringill
@Patricia Kayden:
Are you assuming a good turnout?
BBA
History teaches us that fascists don’t win elections without…irregularities. You know, armed men in matching shirts looking over the voters’ shoulders. That kind of irregularities.
Trucker hats aren’t as intimidating as the classic Blackshirt and Brownshirt uniforms, but Trump has a few months to work on his style.
Amir Khalid
@Nate Dawg:
It’s an argument you could also use against Ted Cruz.
Rick Taylor
“If I had to guess at his anti-Clinton strategy, I’ll bet that he skips the personal attacks and concentrates on Hillary being a bought-and-paid-for shill for the establishment.”
I don’t think Trump is capable of doing that. When he thinks he’s been personally attacked, he attacks back. It’s how he rolls.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
I have heard the word “racist” more in the past two weeks than I have in my entire 60 years, and amazingly a ton of it has been coming from Republicans. It’s like the racist dam burst. Look out!!! Thanks Obama!
On the other side of the racist coin, Bernie has locked up the white vote in Vermont and Oklahoma.
Mandalay
Cruz just said “As president I will repeal Obamacare”.
I don’t think he’s too clear on the concepts of legislation, or the limits of presidential power.
Hitless
@Patricia Kayden:
I really think you underestimate how many people dislike Clinton and the voter turnout Trump will generate. There will be a lot of people who normally wouldn’t bother to vote that will turn out for Trump…he’s their hope and change (in a totally reactionary way).
Just to be clear, Clinton will have my vote. But I think Trump will be difficult for Clinton to beat.
Misterpuff
In what universe does “I will abolish the IRS” exist as an applause line and not a confirmation of wackohood?
Elie
@Linda Featheringill:
Well Linda, what is your reason for saying that and what is your evidence to support that conclusion? If you are having an emotional reaction that’s ok, but just say that. A lot is at stake here and you are not a person who is given to weird pronouncements. If you have something to say that we should know (beyond you are just not happy with things), then lets hear it…
BBA
@Mandalay: No way the Republicans win the Presidency while losing the Senate.
No way the Republicans lose the House, probably not in my lifetime (and I’m only 30).
This is a promise Cruz can keep.
The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016
@Linda Featheringill: @Hitless: There’s more than just white voters out there, y’know.
Redshift
@Corner Stone:
Dem primaries are all proportional. By definition, whoever comes out on top in Mass only makes the tiniest difference, except for bullshit pundit “momentum.”
I’m not a Bernie supporter, but if we’re going to mock the pundits, we shouldn’t be buying into their idea that winning a close contest in a proportional delegates is “decisive.”
Davis X. Machina
@Rick Taylor:
Troll Trump early, and troll him hard. Make him punch down, and be seen punching down, and only against surrogates. He’ll be infuriated at the slight implied by not being directly attacked, peer to peer.
WarMunchkin
I mean, Trump is beatable, but he’ll be a Rorschach test for many people, since his rhetoric is all over the place, which is especially dangerous.
John Revolta
@Corner Stone: One of his big donors is a billionaire auto dealer in Florida………..I bet he could find a spot for Marco
SiubhanDuinne
I’m not listening to Cruz, but I see his punchable face, and I just want to snarl and bite something. I have an unreasonable* hatred of this man.
*(It’s actually extremely reasonable, my hatred, but my visceral reaction is extreme.)
Corner Stone
Ted Cruz just bullshitted his way all the way through that dumpster fire of a speech. How awful that POS is.
dedc79
Was watching Trump’s victory presser and didn’t think things could get more depressing, and then I started watching Cruz….
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s all quite understandable.
Elie
@Hitless:
Ok I get it. These are the folks who believed Bernie was going to wrap it up on Super Tuesday. Ok. Everyone needs their time to be upset. But after, I assume you would like another outcome from Trump winning, right? Please check in when you are ready to move on to do what needs to be done.
Misterpuff
Cruz: “when I’m President, small businesses will explode – since I will have gutted the EPA like Texas – just don’t live next to a fertilizer factory.”
Linda Featheringill
@Hitless:
Welcome to my side of the boat.
Hitless
@The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016: And not all white voters will vote for Trump. But a lot will. And a lot of non-white voters will not have access to a ballot due to new voter ID laws. I think we shouldn’t underestimate the difficulty of electing a president.
WarMunchkin
But if you want to know how *actually* to win, it has nothing to do with attacks or narratives. It’s the same thing as it’s always been – register people to vote, get them to the polls.
Thinking about how to best Trump on twitter, in other words, is far less effective than asking your five closest friends whether they’ve registered to vote or whether they need help getting their voter ID, and after, asking them to pass on the message to their five closest friends.
Matt McIrvin
@Hitless: If Trump got some huge extra advantage over other candidates from turnout, we’d surely see it in these primary races where he’s competing with the likes of John Kasich and Marco Rubio. But we’re actually not; the results are tracking the polls pretty closely, and if anything, Trumpy usually gets a slightly smaller percentage in the actual vote.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
they’re gonna need a bigger boat I mean extra security
Corner Stone
@Redshift: I’m not echoing pundit BS. If he can’t win MA, and not just pick up a proportion of delegates, where does he make up delegates next?
It’s not punditing, just real life questions. Where does he pick up the gap from here?
Linda Featheringill
@Elie:
No. Nobody believed that Super Tuesday would be a win for Bernie. It always was Hillary’s. There was a hope that Bernie would pick up enough delegates to make the rest of the race possible.
Elie
@efgoldman:
I think he is gonna be surprised. She aint the only one going to attack him. And the attack will be subtle and multi-dimensional. He is about to learn what “modern warfare” is about. He has no idea and as rich? as he thinks he is, he will not have the remotest capability to deal with what is coming his way. Count on it.
MomSense
What the hell were those speeches? Trump rambled on and on and on with Christie looking bewildered behind him. Cruz is prayerfully asking for Trump’s votes? Has he seen a Trump rally lately? It seems less prayer circle and more angry mob to me.
The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016
@Hitless: So voter ID laws disenfranchise millions of African-Americans while Drunk Uncle Racist gathers even more white voters than Mitt Romney? Um, OK then.
You can stay scared. I’m gonna enjoy the ride to Secretary Clinton’s inaguration.
Mike J
@Corner Stone: If you can’t win the favorite son races, it’s hard to see how you win.
hamletta
Good Lord, Matthews has Tom Delay on.
Kay
I can’t stop reading this stuff. How do they think this will go when they take their voters pick and replace him with these two idiots? Well? They think that will go well?
Elie
@Linda Featheringill:
With all due respect, would you rather Trump win or Hillary? Sanders was always a dream (you knew that didn’t you?)
Something about going to war with what you have?…. Not what you wish you had?
Tony P.
Listening to He, Trump reminds me of listening to Princess Dumbass of the North Woods, except in baritone. Same chopped sentence salad, same thick dressing of superlatives. Why the media take Trump more seriously than Palin is a mystery that is not entirely cleared up by correcting for the ever-present double standard.
Anyway, I am sitting back waiting for any of the pundits to start reminding people of The Donald’s birtherism, and maybe even reminiscing about how the Kenyan Usurper reduced him to a punch line at that famous Correspondents’ Dinner,
–TP
Mary G
The Republican talking heads on CNN are fighting about whether Ted Cruz i as liar or not. Van Jones is just sitting there smirking at Paul Begala. Now he jumped in when the Trump fan said that Trump is not a racist .
piratedan
I get that Hilary has big unfavorables… but when I look at what she’s getting dinged for…
e-mails – a big fat nothingburger, she behaved exactly as her predecessors had. There’s jack shit to this…
Benghazi – yeah, how did that turn out?
Bill – she loves him and forgave him, why is she to blame for him being a horndog?
Wall Street – she got paid to speak, and she got paid well and she didn’t hide from it. You think that campaign debt just fucking goes away?
Hawkish – she’s more hawkish than many would like… and if she was less so, I can’t see how that could be used against her politically, can you? She has a much less likelihood to bomb the shit outta anyone just because she could.
Is she perfect, no… but when I put her in comparison up against ANY GOP candidate, she’s better on… human rights, women’s issues, minority issues, immigration, financial reform, rebuilding infrastructure, science, the environment, etc etc etc.. I simply can’t get why there’s all the need and demand for fainting couches.
I think that most people are simply fucking tired of people associating the word scandal with her and either wish she was fucking guilty of something, anything or could we simply stop throwing spitballs at her until there’s something actually fucking there.
Applejinx
Fuck that shit, man. America is NOT GREAT. It’s killin’ me and just about everybody I know. Since when did Balloon Juice abandon snark and go in for Republican Exceptionalism? Is this fuckin’ Lake Wobegon all of a sudden?
Talk like that is a good way to sound like you don’t know what the fuck you’re even talking about and would probably be impressed at supermarket scanners. Let’s not get too into that argument. The correct spin is to promise you’ll MAKE America super great, not make excuses for the shitshow it’s become. How great was it for Sandra Bland?
Felanius Kootea
@Patricia Kayden: I agree. I think that many people are vastly underestimating minority turnout to prevent a fascist Trump presidency that will be most devastating to people of color. I know friends of friends (Latinos) who are voting in the Dem primaries for the first time in their lives because Trump scares them, not because they love Hillary or Bernie.
Linda Featheringill
In a Clinton-Trump race, the folks that really dislike Hillary will stay at home. The newly-energized young people won’t bother to vote. Trump fans will by God get to the polls.
schrodinger's cat
Bernie Sanders supporters sure know how to rain on a parade.
Redshift
@Corner Stone: Ah, sorry, I misinterpreted your statement about winning MA to be about the final outcome there, as opposed to the outcome we already know.
Misterpuff
Tom Delay has a soul – so he says.
beltane
@Kay: Gosh, they really can’t give up on Rubio. It’s bizarre.
Patricia Kayden
@Linda Featheringill: Yes. If Trump’s potential nightmarish presidency doesn’t motivate every Democrat (especially minorities) to get out in November, I would be shocked beyond words.
Any Republican is scary but a know nothing bigot like Trump is especially horrifying sine he has no filter and his supporters are violent.
Plus I anticipate President Obama successfully rallying for Clinton once we get into the general.
Nate Dawg
Tom Delay on MSNBC saying he would never support Trump and the party will nominate someone else regardless of his winning a plurality of delegates.
John Revolta
Heh. I’ll bet Dem voters in both OK and VT right now are thinking “What the…………Really? Eeewwwww……..”
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
Wow. Quite the discussion on CNN right now.
MomSense
@SiubhanDuinne:
Unfortunately I saw a photo on my Twitter timeline of Ted Cruz’ nose immediately after a rendition of Hitler’s micropenis. They look so similar that I now cannot look at Ted’s nose without seeing the other.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hamletta: Is he calling him “Mr Leader” ?
@Tony P.: an under-discussed aspect of this campaign. It was one of the funniest things on John Oliver’s rant that Oliver didn’t say, Trump saying “I have a great vocabulary, I know great words” or something like that.
The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016
@Linda Featheringill:
We call these people Republicans.
The newly-energized young white people. And they haven’t been showing up in enough numbers to help Sanders to begin with.
Yes, all 27% of them. What of the other 73% of us?
schrodinger's cat
@beltane: Neo is their only hope.
Omnes Omnibus
@Linda Featheringill: That’s actually rather insulting to Sanders supporters.
@Applejinx: Bad night, huh?
Corner Stone
@Applejinx: Christ.
Kay
@beltane:
Rubio polls at above 30 with Latinos. I just think they settled on that and then added their usual delusion that there would be millions of “independents” rejecting the Democrat. That sort of equals “win”, if you squint just right and throw in Florida and maybe Virginia. Well, maybe not Virginia anymore.
Matt McIrvin
@Patricia Kayden: I do think Trump will motivate massive anti-Trump turnout. The scenario that scares me is just that some high-profile third-party candidate gets in and splits the anti-Trump vote, because people are terrible at voting strategically in those situations. I don’t trust that such a person will take more votes from Trump than from Hillary Clinton.
WarMunchkin
@Applejinx:
Yeah, second this. I mean I get it in one sense – after eight years of these guys foam finger USA’ing us, it’s nice to give it back. But we still have lots of problems in the country, and the language of American Exceptionalism sucks. Realism and pragmatism are about identifying problems, ascertaining the degree to which they are problems, telling their stories and prescribing effective solutions.
And there’s a political danger, too. Trump just gave a presser where he said that transportation infrastructure in the country is decaying. This is true. Yes, he’s a crazy asshole who will just as likely say that he’ll build a gold plated train tomorrow, but “America is Great” is not the counter. “Here’s how to fix it” is.
Also, nationalist rhetoric only works when you’re part of the nationalist view of the American volk, which is of course not us.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: Who?
Tripod
@Linda Featheringill:
It’s gone the other way. She’s already up ~200 delegates on the night. Those margins are killing Sanders.
BBA
@Applejinx: You’re a troll, but I realize more and more how right the Rev. Wright is.
Trump is the nominee. God damn America.
Marc
Sanders just won 4 or 5 states, Clinton won 6 or 7. She got a lot more delegates, which is what really matters, and Mass. is just bragging rights. He just got a ton of money donated to his campaign and isn’t going anywhere.
More to the point – Clinton, who dragged the 2008 race out to the bitter end even though she had no chance of catching Obama in the primaries, is the last damn person on the planet to tell anyone else to pack it in early.
Yup, Clinton is the overwhelming favorite to be nominated. Nope, Sanders isn’t dropping out, nor should he.
(Note: I’m going off the NYTimes exit polls with large projected Sanders leads in Co and Mn.)
RaflW
@Kay: I hate that Trump is advancing so far. But I am at least a bit mollified by seeing people like Erickson shatter before our eyes.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Heh!
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Marc:
I agree. The two candidates and their supporters need to keep this conversation going, but with more respect for each other.
FlyingToaster
@Applejinx: America is still the 800lb gorilla in the room.
Omnes Omnibus
@Marc:
When did she do that?
beltane
@Matt McIrvin: I can’t imagine who such a candidate would be. Michael Bloomberg is not different enough from Hillary to pose any kind of threat on that end. I do worry about depressed turnout, not from the perspective of the presidential race, but because I think much of the country could be pushed further into right-wing control. Every time the Republicans are seemingly destroyed, they reappear in more virulent form.
Corner Stone
@Marc:
Link to her saying that in 2016?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Applejinx:
I’m going to get deservedly hammered for saying this, but every time I see your comments I picture you as a Furry. Please tell me I’m wrong.
Linda Featheringill
@The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016:
I like your nym. Baud would be a great candidate!
The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016
@Marc:
The question that has to be asked is just where is he going without minority voters and convinced superdelegates?
OK, so where did she say that?
Mike J
Kansas(37), Nebraska(30), Louisiana(58) Saturday.
Maine(30) on Sunday.
Michigan(148), Mississippi(41) Tuesday.
billb
Tony, you nailed it, the secret weapon to take down tRump is our President. He has a rapier sharp wit, and a Seal Team Six skill at delivering punishment. Hills just has to bring Hope 2.0, and let The Prez rip tRump a hundred cuts in his coruption-funded career.
The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016
@Linda Featheringill: I trust Baud more than anyone running. Except maybe Joe Walsh, should he run again.
RaflW
@Nate Dawg: Resigned-in-scandal GOP grifter Tom Delay doesn’t like Trump? What has this country come to?
NR
@Elie: People voting for Trump out of spite over Hillary beating Bernie for the nomination are not who you need to worry about. The number of people who do that will be negligible and will have no effect on the election.
No, the people you need to worry about are the ones who genuinely think that Trump is a better option. I’m calling it right now: Trump is going to run to Hillary’s left on issues like reining in Wall Street and US foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East. Maybe campaign finance as well. So for voters who consider those issues to be the most important, Trump is going to look very appealing. And I think Hillary is completely unprepared to be outflanked to her left. Bernie couldn’t do it because black voters stayed loyal to Hillary. But while that was enough for her to win the primary, it won’t be enough for her to win the general.
Omnes Omnibus
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Damn you. Once one pictures things…
Corner Stone
@WarMunchkin:
Nobody who votes R gives one fucking shit about infrastructure. They aren’t motivated to vote for it and they don’t prick their ears up when a candidate talks about investing in it.
Trump picked up more votes by not denying David Duke than he ever will by suggesting our national infrastructure is crumbling.
Linda Featheringill
@NR:
Trump running on the left? Now THAT is an interesting thought.
Amir Khalid
@Tripod:
As I recall, the question was never if Hillary would win super Tuesday, but by how much she would win. And the reporting is that she has won big.
Corner Stone
Because you’re once, twice, three times a lady.
/Cruz in drag, high heels and makeup in a cabaret in Tangiers
Matt McIrvin
@Omnes Omnibus: I was thinking Mitt Romney.
kc
Here’s a link to Hillary saying something.
hamletta
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Actually, it turned out to be pretty good. Delay said that the GOP could go by the rules and choose a non-Trump nominee at the convention.
GOP analyst guy said that would be crazy; Rachel agreed, saying there’s no way you can do that if the voters have voted for this guy.
It was interesting.
The Thin Black Duke
In some white people’s minds, non-white voters don’t exist, I guess.
Linda Featheringill
I suspect that Trump knows every single chink in Clinton’s armor. He probably knows Bernie’s, too, but then Bernie has been so open about this faults and mistakes that character assassination probably wouldn’t work.
Amir Khalid
@The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016:
Joe Walsh is a great guitar player and Ringo Starr’s BIL. I’m sure he’d make a great Congressman.
Or did you mean that other Joe Walsh?
Matt McIrvin
@Marc:
This is true. Also, there’s some irony in watching the distribution of votes, because Clinton was the white-brand Democrat in 2008.
NR
@Linda Featheringill: He’s already basically said as much.
I fully expect that as soon as he locks up the nomination, Trump will pivot and start attacking Hillary from the left on many issues (except immigration, there’s no way he could pivot on that without destroying his campaign). But he’ll go after her for being too cozy with Wall Street and too hawkish in the Middle East. And my bet is that she’ll be completely unable to deal with those kinds of attacks.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Omnes Omnibus:
You’re welcome.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
this knocks Joe Lieberman’s “three way tie for third” thing right out of the park, it may be the most pathetic thing Rubio has said, except for the “wet his pants” line
The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016
ABC’s rundown on the Democratic exit polls. Clinton wins big with women, minorities, voters over 45, and Democrats. Sanders wins big with Millenials and independents.
RaflW
@Marc: CO called for Sanders. I guess that’s the pot vote.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Applejinx:
Yeahbut. She’s responding to Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan.
It’s the Again she has issues with. And rightfully so.
It’s just another version of “I want my country back”. It’s a dog-whistle. She’s fighting the meme, not saying America doesn’t have problems.
Cheers,
Scott.
Amir Khalid
@Linda Featheringill:
After a quarter-century of hostile publicity, everyone knows every chink in Clinton’s armour. And she’s still standing.
chopper
@Linda Featheringill:
riiiiiiight.
The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016
@Amir Khalid: The awesome Joe Walsh, not the Teahadi deadbeat dad, of course.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Nate Dawg: Sounds like the Bugman picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
jl
@Linda Featheringill: Trump has picked a few issues where he can be perceived as running to the let of HRC. That is one of the reasons that the establishment GOP fears and hates Trump so much.
Probably influence of corporations and big money is main one, and HRC is weak there.
But on other issues like, Middle East, social insurance, infrastructure and job programs, social justice, HRC will do just fine. HRC has been talking like a Berniebro lately, and I think we will hear more of that.
chopper
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
lol. “we’d have won if the other team hadn’t shown up”
Felanius Kootea
@NR: Right. All the Blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans and sane White people are going to forget everything Drumpf said in the primaries, including his endorsement by the KKK and Mussolini tweets and vote for him. All the people who put Obama in the White House twice will magically disappear because Drumpf! And the Democrats will run ads letting everyone know how much nicer Drumpf is than Hillary. Please take a nap. You need it.
Frankensteinbeck
Nope. Trump won’t go kinder and gentler the same way the GOP didn’t rein in their minority bashing after 2012. He is what he is. Guy’s got the self control of a marmoset on PCP.
@NR:
I’m calling it now: No way in Hell. Hillary only looks conservative compared to a guy calling for breaking up the banks and an immediate shift to single payer. Trump will do what he has always done, which is say whatever shit that pops into his head at the time. Once in a blue moon it will be superficially to the left of Hillary, and then he will say something thoroughly right wing on the same topic. We are in zero danger of Trump looking liberal compared to Hillary in the general.
EDIT – @Linda Featheringill:
What? Bernie’s not the candidate who sat through an eleven hour grilling by hostile Senators whose admitted purpose was to find something, anything, to make her look bad. Bernie is the angry, shouty guy whose record has not been heavily examined publicly. Hillary is the one who’s weathered this storm for over two decades and come out on top. Trump is going to run into run head first into Hillary Clinton’s brick wall, and whine and tantrum and look like the spoiled child he is.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
If they think Trump has gone rogue now, if they even try to take the nomination from him… I only wish it would happen
Linda Featheringill
@Amir Khalid:
You do have a point there.
hamletta
@The Thin Black Duke: Remember that pollster guy at CNN who used to do that all the time? He’d break out the numbers and say, “Without the black vote, Dems would never win!” as if it was, y’know, relevant.
He was a dick.
Corner Stone
This is fucking crazy town.
Adam L Silverman
Soyuz module safely separated at 11:00 PM EST. The descent module is flying free and touchdown is expected in about 20 minutes.
jl
@Felanius Kootea: And just because Drumpf thinks that he is world historical genius who can shape shift himself into a very informed and articulate dignified statesman with presidential gravitas and moderation, then he will actually be able to do that.
Yeah, sure, Donny, sure, sure you can…
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hamletta: Bill Schneider, I believe of AEI
Amir Khalid
@NR:
Sorry, but I don’t see the Donald out-arguing a former Secretary of State, and a highly regarded one at that, on foreign policy. And there are more dimensions to that area of presidential responsibility than hawk/dove. I look forward to the barefaced hypocrisy of a New York billionaire denouncing Hillary for being too close to Wall Street.
Omnes Omnibus
Remember Obama eviscerating Trump at the nerd prom? The man has a paper thin skin. If HRC breaks out into laughter at one of his insult attempts during a debate, it diminishes Trump. The key to beating Trump is to show everyone how ridiculous he is. He can’t take the heat. Twenty-five years have shown that HRC can.
Marc
@The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016: Please. Obama understood the rules and racked up large margins in the caucus states. The remaining states were proportional, and there was no scenario where she could catch up given the mistakes made in the early going. Yet she went straight through to the end – because she had a lot of supporters. There was a hell of a lot of heat about that in 2008 – I think that people simply forget that.
My point is that, given the fact that she *did not* concede to Obama when she had no chance of catching up to him in the primaries, there is no justification for her campaign to expect someone else to do so under similar circumstances.
In any case, since Sanders is running an issue campaign, not trying to tear the leader down personally, I don’t think that an extended primary season hurts the party or the eventual nominee at all.
Applejinx
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Ah, those younger days… the pictures I could post. What tipped you off?
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, but this time it’s not Hillary’s fault. As a would-be indie game developer I’m expected to work for months to get something together for sale. Pretty much the only game in town is Steam, and I just relaunched my campaign since I’d learned so much since the first time. Thing is, it seems like it might have backfired, which means I’ve blown several months for nothing, and I really couldn’t afford to do that. Nobody’s fault, it’s just that when every damn thing you do has to work like a lottery ticket, you can end up very seriously screwed by simple bad luck or making one mistake.
If you are an indie anything, small business, sole proprietor mom-n-pop kind of operation, this country wants you dead. It’s very disheartening, all the more as it is an accidental outcome of many factors that weren’t designed to be a death sentence for anyone not working for an insurance company or gun manufacturer.
Yeah, crap night, and I am dumbfounded that Hillary has the gall to claim ‘America never stopped being great!’. For her maybe. I suppose having a racist demagogue close to winning the Presidency, and all of Congress playing two-year-olds, is also great? How about fracking, is that great? How about Flint, how great is it for them?
FlipYrWhig
All of MSNBC wants to talk about how Donald Trump had flags behind him. Good God this network has fallen apart.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
So it’s a tie!
FlipYrWhig
@Applejinx: Scoreboard.
Mnemosyne
@NR:
You realize that no Democrat has gotten a majority of the white vote since Carter, right?
I seriously doubt there will be many African-American, Latino, or Asian-American voters who are going to switch to Trump. And has been pointed out here many, many, many times, it’s minority voters who saved the Democrats’ bacon while the MAJORITY of white voters went Republican.
Even in blue states, the majority of whites vote Republican. Take a look at the 2012 presidential results from California or Massachusetts sometime. White voters just aren’t that important anymore, because national Democrats can win without them. Sorry.
PhoenixRising
@NR: yes, Trump will run to Clinton’s left. But your conclusion is not supported by that premise.
Best case: HRC moves left again, as she has to keep Bernie from gaining a position.
Throw me into that briar patch.
The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016
@Marc:
True, but have you explained this to some of Sanders’s supporters.
chopper
@Marc:
Is her campaign doing that?
The Thin Black Duke
@Frankensteinbeck: Yep. There’s a saying in boxing that goes, “Everybody’s got a plan until they get hit in the mouth”, and let’s be real, Trump has been beating up on what the “sweet science” would call a bunch of tomato cans. Trump thinks he’s ready for Hillary, but he ain’t, not really.
Joel
@Kay: Rubio is such a callow pissant. The testosterone driven aspect of the Republican base has and will continue rejecting him outright.
hamletta
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He’d go full on ROUGE — as in painting his face with the blood of Reince Priebus.
kc
@hamletta:
Commenters on this blog make the same point (the Democrats need black voters) pretty frequently.
Elie
@Applejinx:
Dunno how much you have traveled outside of the US with enough time to get to know the country and its issues. One small issue if you have ever been in Europe… have you ever seen how much handicapped access many countries have (or do not have?) Very few elevators and many many stairs to public buildings. Poor access on streetcars and buses. Every bus in the US has handicap access. I’d say 90%+ access for buildings as well. PLEEZ — don’t take my word for it. Go and take a look yourself. Much of what you take for granted here is questionable in many places. We are by no means perfect… but check it out, bro.
chopper
@Applejinx:
do you honestly expect a democrat running for president to talk about how shitty things are when we’ve had a democrat in the WH for the last 7 years?!. i swear to god, people have no bleeding political instincts sometimes.
Applejinx
@The Thin Black Duke: I agree. That’ll be some consolation: the Rs really don’t want to form ranks behind Trump (LOOK HOW MUCH CHRISTIE IS ENJOYING IT AHAHAHA) and I continue to think the Clinton people are outrageously ruthless and well-connected. I’m pretty sure she will wipe the floor with him, and he utterly deserves every bit of that, and it WILL be fun to watch.
mclaren
What kind of asshole do you need to be to think that America isn’t great?
The kind of asshole who looks around and sees observable reality.
Shithole America is falling apart. The freeways are crumbling, the bridges are collapsing, the sewers are imploding, the water mains are spraying gushers into the potholed streets, the buildings are rotting, the schools are disintegrating, there are no crayons, no pencils, no books, no chairs… JFK airport is a disgrace, St. Louis and New Orleans and Detroit looks like bombed-out warzones, we’ve got police who are muggers with badges using asset forfeiture to steal anything that isn’t nailed down, we’ve got Wall Street crime lords who smash-and-grab their way to wealth and leave the taxpayers holding the bill. We’ve got pharma sharks like Martin Shkreli who loot and pillage and get away with it because they’ve bribed congress into making their crimes legal, we’ve got a military that couldn’t win a bar fight and a broken collapsing medical-industrial complex that charges $117,000 for an out-of-network doctor to tie off 6 stitches in a suture and a congress that can’t find its ass with both hands in a hall of mirrors.
Shithole America is crumbling and everyone knows it. For once, Trump told the truth. And guess what? It resonates.
Then we have rich entitled assholes like the Clintons who tell us how our problems are their problems while the fly 40,000 feet above the rest of us in their private jets on the way to Davos to hobnob with the russian oligarchs and the military dictators they’ve propped up in power, and people like Hillary Clinton have the almighty gall to tell us “America never stopped being great.”
Hey.
Rich entitled shit-for-brains!
If America were really “great,” we wouldn’t be reading headlines like:
“Yelp Employee Fired After Public Post To CEO Saying She Can’t Afford Food.”
Anya
@Linda Featheringill: And I bet the Clintons know a lot about Donald since he used to suck up to them and seek their attention.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Or not
Adam L Silverman
Chutes have been deployed.
Mnemosyne
@The Thin Black Duke:
Non-white voters are the only thing keeping this country from a total fucking disaster, and the Berniebros just can’t wrap their heads around that fact. Ted Devine is still convinced that white working-class voters who haven’t voted Democratic in 30 years are more important than the Obama coalition. This, sadly, is why Sanders will fail, and ironically is the same reason Clinton failed in 2008: bad campaign management that’s stuck in the past.
Joel
@NR: anyone who credibly believes Trump as “left” of Clinton is either a blithering idiot or just plain racist. Most likely both. Why? Because they are fine with imposing economic and military devastation on Muslims, Mexicans and Central Americans in exchange for some mild rhetoric against Wall Street?
Applejinx
@chopper: The Republican Congress has no power and their total, utter obstructionism didn’t matter? What good did Obama do Flint, or Kansas, or Wisconsin? Obama has not been able to help people nearly as much as he’d have liked to. How can you think this has been working? Does it have to be Obama’s fault that this place is a shithole run by corrupt robber barons? He’s only one part of the system and has been fought from day one. I can’t blame him for much.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Per NY Times:
Clinton so far wins 335 delegates
Sanders so far wins 145 delegates.
Clearly, a split decision tonight.
FlipYrWhig
I like Tulsi Gabbard but COME ON MSNBC is this really the way you want to cover this night of results? Now they’re suggesting that Hillary is going to run roughshod over all her foes. Jesus lord.
Matt McIrvin
@Mnemosyne:
They still need a sufficiently large minority of whites, or they lose.
I have a hard time believing that Trump’s white vote will outperform Reagan’s in 1984, though, and that’s really the level we’re talking about here for Trump to win a two-way race without minorities.
hamletta
@kc: No, not the same at all. Schneider’s implication was that black votes don’t really count.
beltane
@Elie:
This is greatly countered by the fact that buses or any other form of public transportation are just not a thing here. Outside of a few very expensive urban areas, you really need a car here, and if you are disabled or elderly you will be a prisoner in your own home but for the kindness of family or private charities. My elderly relatives in Europe enjoy a much greater quality of life than my elderly parents do here.
Corner Stone
@FlipYrWhig: You like her because she’s pretty attractive, right? It can’t be her political positions. And I agree she’s an attractive person, physically. But her politics are shit.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@FlipYrWhig: What did they say?
WarMunchkin
@Corner Stone:
Primary voters, no. General election voters were swayed by Dukakis in a tank. The danger is not traditional R voters, it’s Dem-leaning I voters who read into Trump whatever they want to read. Digby has a post up featuring a Bill Clinton and Barack Obama supporting couple that pretty much does exactly this.
FlipYrWhig
@Corner Stone: um mostly shallow reasons I concede.
Mnemosyne
@Matt McIrvin:
IIRC, a Republican would need to get something like 80-85 percent of the white vote instead of the 65-70 percent they’ve been getting regularly. If the country becomes racially divided to that extent, we’re in much bigger trouble than President Trump can bring.
Matt McIrvin
@Mnemosyne: I think it’s more like 67-68 percent instead of the 59-60 percent they get regularly. But that’s the idea. That large a landslide is actually hard to achieve.
FlipYrWhig
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: That Tulsi was running a risk crossing the Hillary Clinton machine, jeopardizing her political future. Brian Williams brought it up and she played to it.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Via (Trix)
REVOLUTION!
The Thin Black Duke
@WarMunchkin: White voters, you mean. Those are the folks who are mesmerized by the Trump blitzkrieg. Thankfully, I think they’re outnumbered.
Amir Khalid
Isn’t there some deadline by which Mike Bloomberg must announce a candidacy, if he is to get on the ballot in enough states? Or is he just thinking out loud yet again about running, and not following through?
O. Felix Culpa
@Linda Featheringill: My guess is that minority turnout for HRC will be very high. The chilling prospect of a Trump (or any R) presidency is highly motivational. Obama will stump for her too. I anticipate strong Dem GOTV efforts in November. It’s never wise to take victory for granted, but I feel cautiously optimistic.
kc
@hamletta:
Gotcha, okay. That is obnoxious indeed.
mclaren
As the redoubtable fellatiast of American hubris mistermix utterly fails to recognize, this election season is actually different. There’s a reason why Bernie Sanders has arisen on the left and Trump on the right.
In response, mistermix pens a backwards pig-ignorant halfwitted paean to the monument to failure that is modern America, showing that he has gotten the message of this election so completely wrong that an epic poem would be required to fully explain the depth and breadth of his total misunderstanding of this moment in American history.
I’ll let William S. Lind do the honors in explaining how totally mistermix has gotten everything wrong. America is not “great,” the American Way of Life is not “magnificent and getting better every day,” the U.S. military is not “the greatest fighting force the world has ever known,” the U.S. medical system is not “the envy of the world” and America’s government is not “the pride of democracy and the crown jewel of the human race.”
On the contrary: “The American people, taken by and large, are the most timorous, sniveling, poltroonish, ignominious mob of serfs and goose-steppers ever gathered under one flag in Christendom since the fall of the Eastern empire.” — H. L. Mencken, “On Living in the United States,” The American Mercury, 1927.
Take it away, William S. Lind!
Source: “Failure as a Way of Life,” William S. Lind, The American Conservative, 15 February 2016.
kc
@O. Felix Culpa:
I hope you’re right. Democratic turnout (in SC at least) for the primary was way down.
chopper
@Applejinx:
that’s a good slogan. Hillary should add it to her stump speech.
Adam L Silverman
Russian ground control has just confirmed that the Soyuz module has safely landed at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Captain Kelly, Sergeant Kornienko, and Lieutenant Colonel Volkov are safely on the ground!
WarMunchkin
@The Thin Black Duke: Yes. What of it? I want to win the House.
@Corner Stone:
First Hindu member of congress, one of two female veterans…
HelpThe99ers
About that media love:
“Leslie Moonves on Donald Trump: “It May Not Be Good for America, but It’s Damn Good for CBS””
(link)
Killing America, one quarterly earning report at a time.
El Caganer
I met a genuine Trump voter at the bar. He told me that Clinton would be the same as Obama, and that the country couldn’t take four more years of that. As he had told me only minutes before that he just got a $15K/yr raise, I don’t think he was talking about the economy. What could it be that the country couldn’t take four more years of? Perhaps there is some way that Clinton and Obama are different than previous Presidents? Whatever could that be? It is a mystery!
mclaren
@Adam L Silverman:
These are only targeting rounds. Wait until the people who see what’s going on this shithole of a country start walking in the real artillery barrage, rhetorically speaking.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Amir Khalid: Mid March.
danielx
@Misterpuff:
CPAC, conservative cruises (they exist), places like that. You know, that whole alternative universe.
Omnes Omnibus
@mclaren: One does realize that ALS (what unfortunate initials) was talking about the landing of the space station astronauts, yes?
Mandalay
@efgoldman:
I seriously doubt it. They can tinker, but getting rid of something where a lot of voters have skin in the game is not easy. Republican politicians have been screaming for years about repealing Obamacare, but there is scant evidence that it is a priority with voters.
Rand Paul wanted to abolish the IRS yet he stressed that he would still retain the tax break for mortgages. He understood very well that getting rid of something that would financially hurt a lot of voters was also against his self interest.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@FlipYrWhig: Who played to it?
Adam L Silverman
@mclaren: I was talking about the Soyuz module reentry sequence, what are you talking about? Because I’m confused!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Amir Khalid: I tend to think Bloomberg and/or people in his entourage were trying to put the fear in Sanders. Not that Bloomaparte wouldn’t accept the presidency if we asked him to, but I suspect that’s all the effort His Lordship would deign to put toward a campaign.
Mandalay
@mclaren:
You just taught me a new word. I had no idea. Thanks.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: I go with B). Filing deadlines in some states come up in days.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Please see comment 195!
I’ve decided to tell people I’m actually named for Louis Silverman (that’s what the L stands for – and spelled the French way). He was Hiram Maxim’s shop foreman and design partner for a while:
http://www.forgottenweapons.com/maxim-silverman-1896-pistol/
Since my parents originally wanted to name Ariel or Uriel (each parent pronounced it differently), but the rabbi talked them out of it with the argument: this is Central Florida, what are you trying to do to the kid? I was going to be ALS regardless.
Bobby Thomson
@Marc: I’m not telling Sanders to pack it in early. I’m telling him to stop campaigning for the Republicans. He. Can’t. Win. It’s simple arithmetic at this point.
If he wants to attack Trump, great. More power to him. But if he’s just going to poison the well with a new generation so that they become completely disillusioned with politics, well, fuck him up the ass sideways with a rusty pitchfork.
mclaren
@Joel:
Unfortunately for you, the facts demur. Trump is clearly to the left of Hillary Clinton when it comes to endless unwinnable foreign wars.
Let’s hear from Ms. Clinton:
Source: “Hillary Clinton Promises A More Muscular Foreign Policy As President – From Iran to Syria to Ukraine, Clinton wants the U.S. to be more aggressive,” Huffington Post, 9 September 2015.
Now let’s hear from Donald Trump on foreign policy:
You tell me: is Trump to the left of Hillary in foreign policy?
Which candidate is saying “we would have been better off if the politicians took a day off instead of going into war”? The Democrat? Or the Republican?
Here’s what Donald Trump said in one of the debates:
You tell me — is that to the left of Hillary Clinton’s ignorant warmongering money-wasting braggadocio?
Yes or no?
Get a clue. Donald Trump is winning primaries because he occasionally says sensible things that no one in Washington will say. Blunt statements of fact, far far far to the left of anything the bellicose Washington-wired military-contractor-indebted Beltway insider warmonger Hillary Clinton will say about America’s endless unwinnable wars.
chopper
@Omnes Omnibus:
either way I’m still outraged.
Corner Stone
@WarMunchkin: I’m busting Flip’s chops. He gets it and it’s ok that others do not.
Although she is a hot Hindu vet.
Adam L Silverman
@chopper: Me too!
KS in MA
@Adam L Silverman: Good for your parents’ rabbi! And you can’t help what Louis did for a living.
mike in dc
I don’t think Sanders is on a kamikaze mission to discredit Clinton at all costs. I think his message will shift once it becomes mathematically prohibitive for him to win. At the moment, he probably feels his chances haven’t dropped into low single digits yet.
FlipYrWhig
@mclaren: Trump wants to shoot Muslims with pork bullets. He isn’t to the left of anybody.
gwangung
@WarMunchkin:
Which is why saying America is Great is precisely the RIGHT tone to take. It taps into the streak of optimism that underlies all American culture. These are Dems that live in the center, and they simply don’t think America doesn’t work. Or that the problems the progressives see are (race, big money, etc.) anything but a temporary difficulty we can deal with.
Omnes Omnibus
@mclaren: If it come down to Clinton vs Trump, how will you vote? Who is left of whom?
FlipYrWhig
@Corner Stone: Never gonna get it never gonna get it
Bobby Thomson
@Marc:
Bull fucking shit.
Timurid
@mclaren:
The horrible stuff you list in that post is almost entirely the fault of the Republicans.
If Trump really wanted to be taken seriously, the first step would be to run as something other than a Republican.
mclaren
@FlipYrWhig:
And Hillary Clinton wants to burn brown babies with white phosphorus munitions, the way the U.S. army did at Fallujah.
Try again, goofball.
Bobby Thomson
@mike in dc:
He is, at least so far.
With proportional allocation of delegates, it already is, barring Clinton’s death or imprisonment, either of which would make the elections irrelevant.
If he does, he’s wrong. There are plenty of states between now and the 15th that will make things even worse for him, and not enough wiggle room on the other side to make up the difference.
Corner Stone
@FlipYrWhig: Pork chops and Hindu hotness…Am I just completely off base here or am I pulling a Rubio?
mclaren
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’ll crawl across broken glass to vote for Clinton, because while Trump is far to the left of Clinton in terms of foreign policy, he’s (a) batshit insane and therefore unreliable, and (b) the usual tax-cuts-for-billionaires troglodyte R on most other issues.
Plus, Trump is a bully and a demagogue and a clinical narcissistic personality disorder on two feet with most of the Hare sociopathy checklist ticked off to boot.
Marc
@Bobby Thomson: If you want a destructive primary, look at the Republicans. This season is incredibly mild, far less contentious than 2008. 2 real candidates, with the contours of the outcome settled pretty early in the process. So I’m not seeing the grief.
Adam L Silverman
@KS in MA: One of the toughest guys at my high school in Tampa was a Greek-American kid from Tarpon Springs named Ariel, so I don’t think it was that big an issue. What’s funny is I’ve tumbled across a large number of other Adam Silverman’s over the years – all have different middle names. But as far as I can tell I’m the oldest of all of them. One is a research scientist in California. Whenever my work email would go down and people would email my gmail, if they left the “l” out he’d get it. At one point he was so worried about receiving information he wasn’t supposed to that I had the G2 (Officer in Charge of Intelligence), who was our Special Security Officer (SSO), send him an email indicating it was not his fault, he wasn’t seeking this out, it was operator error on the sender’s end, and he had nothing to worry about.
As for Louis Silverman, I’d actually like to know if there’s a familial relationship. I really don’t know where my folks got Louis from as a middle name – I’ve always thought they just liked it and the French spelling too.
FlipYrWhig
@Corner Stone: Priyanka if you catch my drift
FlipYrWhig
@mclaren: Trump wants to bomb the shit out of anyone who looks at America funny. He also says some flimflam about wars being expensive because his brand is making great deals, the best. There’s no “left” in that except to extremely wishful thinkers.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman:
My parents chose my names because they liked the way they sound together. By the time my brother was born dynastic things came into play – he got saddled with my dad’s middle name.
WarMunchkin
@Corner Stone: @FlipYrWhig: And they say the Sanders people are the bros.
pseudonymous in nc
Dumping this at the end, but I just don’t know how to gauge this one. I see Hillary advocates and campaign workers and they’re fantastic, but they’re fantastic in exactly the right way to bring out people who think that their vote might shut them up.
I don’t know if there’s a ‘Trump Democrat’ demographic yet, but I can honestly see a cohort that isn’t necessarily self-identified Republican, but is misogynistic and libertarian-ish and hates ‘SJWs’ who are apparently taking away their fun and ability to be bigoted. G*m*rg*t* types. And so I worry.
Omnes Omnibus
@WarMunchkin: Dear god.
mclaren
@Matt McIrvin:
Particularly since Trump hasn’t yet been seriously challenged on any of his pie-in-the-sky policies. Trump is pulling stuff out of his ass, making shit up as he goes along — and that’s been fine for the no-necks who turn out in Republican primaries.
But serious voters listening to a debate twixt Hillary and The Donald will hear Hillary ask him: “Great, you want to repeal Obamacare and pass something better. What? Give us details. Explain how the Republicans in congress will vote for it. Let’s hear your grand plan.”
And Trump will bluster and waffle and fum-fuh and blow smoke up everyone’s ass, and everyone will know it.
And then Hillary will say: “Trump claims ` If you look at what’s going on, we have the highest taxes anywhere in the world. We pay more business tax, we pay more personal tax. We have the highest taxes in the world.
It’s shutting off our economy. It’s shutting off our country. … Yes, we will do my tax plan, and it will be great. We will have a dynamic economy again.’ Explain how this is different from the failed Reaganomics trickle-down scheme that didn’t work in 1981 and didn’t work against in 2001 when George W. Bush tried it a second time. Lay out the details, Mr. Trump — explain it to us.”
And Trump will spout bullshit, like “[America has] the highest taxes in the world,” which is obviously false and everyone knows it’s false, and his credibility will implode.
Trump is just a fast-talking New York three card monte artist. Everyone knows the type. He won’t last 10 minutes in a debate with Hillary.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: My parents wanted us to have biblical names. So I’m Adam and my brother is Noah. They were worried Ariel or Uriel would get me in trouble, but naming the two of us like this was perfectly acceptable for some reason…
He also got an “L” first letter middle name. But what they really wanted, for some reason I do not understand, were Hebrew names that translated to something. My Hebrew name is Adam Eliezer, which translates to “First Born (Human), Servant of God”. Or if you want to be really literal “(Blood) Red Man (Human), Servant of God”. My brother is Noakh Laev, which translates to “Righteous Heart”. Technically it translates to “Made up name that doesn’t exist in any know Semitic language or dialect Heart”. Noah isn’t a Semitic name or word. None of the linguists are really sure where it came from as it appears in the Hebrews’ version of the genealogy and flood story, but not in the older Semitic versions from Bab-El or Ugarit, etc. So because Noah was said to have been a righteous man, the word itself is often/sometimes translated that way.
I really don’t know why they couldn’t just go with the Hebrew names as our middle names in English. And I’ve never gotten a good answer to the question.
Omnes Omnibus
@mclaren:
One of the few times I agree with you.
FlipYrWhig
@WarMunchkin: I refudiate my lust.
mclaren
@Applejinx:
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Except that students in Germany can get a four-year university degree for free, while in Shithole America, it costs a quarter million dollars and up.
Yes, America is the top turd on this rocky shitpile orbiting the sun…except that people who get sick in the Netherlands or Spain have to pay a couple of hundred bucks and get all the meds and all their procedures taken care of by a health care system that actually works.
Whereas in Shithole America:
Source: “Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All but Useless,” The New York Times, 14 November 2015.
Countries like Canada have gun control and as a result their police are well-mannered and treat the citizens decently. Meanwhile, in Shithole America
“Canadian News Outlet Warns Canadians That US Law Enforcement Officers Will Pull Them Over And Seize Their Cash”
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, America is definitely “top turd on this rocky shitpile orbiting the sun.”
I think you’re doing the equivalent of reciting Aeschylus to a cage full of hyenas, Applejinx. These Hillbots are not going to listen to anything but FUCK YEAH, MURKA, NUMBER ONE!!!
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Adam and Noah are common New England names. I have ancestors named after people from the “begat” section because that’s how Puritans rolled. My brother and I got Biblical names, but not ones that caused social problems.
Elie
@beltane:
Yeah in some places but not all. Ever tried rolling your wheelchair along cobbles? How about an apartment on the 6th floor with only stairs? Sure, if you are lucky enough to have single floor access, no prob. I tell you I have been pretty surprised myself for what passed for ok in many countries in Europe. Just sayin… Much less handicapped access than in the US…
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Neither parent is from New England. And we’re definitely not Puritans! It is what it is. I’ve no issue with our names, though I’m sure at times my parents thought they should’ve gone with Esau and Jacob.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
bad campaign management that’s stuck in the past.
Had a thought just a bit ago, all the people here knocking Clinton because of what happened in 2008 or really at any other time in the last 25 yrs really need to stop watching any MSM “news.” This is not the same contest as 8 yrs ago and while she may be the same basic person she’s always been, she really isn’t the same. She has had some pretty good experiences in the last 8 yrs and she’s learned a lot during that time. She isn’t campaigning the same, she isn’t saying the same things she did then, she is a different person. She has grown, and yes she had to have some values to grow from but she has done so. It’s nice to see.
mclaren
@WarMunchkin:
Independents used to be a significant block of the electorate, but they’ve steadily shrunk until they’re now a very small segment of the voting population.
As Kevin Drum points out in the article, “Yes, Virginia, there are no independent voters”:
At least, ever since 2004.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: Co-sign.
mclaren
@Ruckus:
I heard this argument summarized in 1968 as “the New Nixon.”
Didn’t fly then.
Won’t fly now.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
I got saddled with the entirety of my dad’s name. Always figured that they lacked the imagination to come up with anything else. They did make sure that I’m not Jr. – they tacked the II on the end so that no one could use Jr. Of course they hadn’t realized that I had to have at least a different nickname or yelling out a name would cause confusion. (We yelled in my family)
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: Did they call you ll?
LAC
I would love to have someone explain why two cuntwaffles like Steve Schmidt and Nicole Wallace are still being asked for their election opinions. Didn’t these idiots prop up the always dumb Palin in 2008?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Bobby Thomson:
He doesn’t know how to not poison the well though. He’s an old white guy gadfly from a liberal rural white state who has never really pushed him to build bridges because he’s loveable gadfly Bernie. Until he isn’t. He can’t pivot, because then he’d have to start talking about things he’s never had to think about in the last 35 years in Congress. He has no natural constituencies, no organizational alliances, no party support and is too old to start now. Clap harder though.
mclaren
@Mnemosyne:
Here’s a little sign that HRC is getting smarter about Latino and black outreach this time around.
Spanish-language paper op-ed “Hillary is the leader our country needs.” (in Spanish)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: His answer to Tweety last week about Mitch McConnell was particularly pathetic. “look out the window, Mitch, and mill-yunns of Americans…” He did, he is, he saw the primaries, the huge crowds– he still thinks obstructionism is his best bet.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
No but II is on my birth certificate rather than Jr.
I’ve actually used my nickname as my first name my entire life. Many people don’t know my real first name. They could probably figure it out pretty easily but have never heard me use it.
OGB
Seeing as no one else in this thread has paid homage – Echo & the Bunnymen FTW! Very shrewd mistermix….
Omnes Omnibus
@OGB: It was noted far above.
mclaren
However odious Hillary is, Trump has so many skeletons in his closet, he could start a cementary:
And then there’s the good old New Jersey mobbed-up mafia contractor stuff:
Plus, Trump University:
And, of course, more undocumented workers:
Yeah, Donald, tell us again how “our borders are like swiss cheese” and you’re going to put a stop to “companies that won’t hire Americans because they prefer to pay illegal immigrants less.”
PatrickG
@Omnes Omnibus:
A thousand times this. I greatly look forward to Trump being upset that Clinton doesn’t give a shit about him.
Yutsano
@mclaren: I’m sill aghast no one has done a federal tax lien search on Trump yet. That’s easily available public information and I’d bet a YUUUUGE amount of money (well $5) he’s got quite a few. Plus half his audits are related to business income.
Vanya
“What kind of asshole do you need to be to think that America isn’t great?”
Probably the kind of assshole that thinks murdering innocent Pakistani villagers with drones is evil. Or the kind of asshole that thinks rampant inequality and stagnant wages for the bottom 50% with poor social mobility and expensive health care means that life for many Americans is in many ways inferior to the life the average German, Singaporean, Norwegian, or Japanese leads. When Hillary starts spouting Reaganesque rhetoric she starts losing me. Trump and Sanders are both tapping into real anger and disaffection. Yes, some of this anger is misplaced and based more in racist resentment than reality. But a lot of it is justified. Hillary is not going to beat Trump by boasting about how well the top 10% live.
Applejinx
@mclaren: Erm, I didn’t say what you quoted, but thanks for further arguing my point about how there’s loads of room for improvement up in this country :)
FlipYrWhig
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Bernie Sanders believes that politicians are swayed by people in the streets. He’s the boy who never grew up.
Original Lee
My conservative friends on FB (some of them Tea Party, most of them Old Young Republicans), have been pretty steady with the Trump derision. But now the Hillary hate is ramping up. They’re scouring the internet for Democrats blasting Hillary and posting what they find to each other. Example A from this morning.
I am very carefully saving my energy for the summer and fall. If I argue with them now, they won’t remember anything I say six months hence.