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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Another Op’nin, Another (Klown) Show

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Another Op’nin, Another (Klown) Show

by Anne Laurie|  March 3, 20166:03 am| 105 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Repubs in Disarray!, Assholes

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A Cruz-Rubio tickets makes the most sense right now. Pair up, announce the deal, let Rubio win Florida, get to convention and make it so.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) March 2, 2016

I enjoy homoerotic fan fiction as much as the next guy, but this requires too much suspension of disbelief. https://t.co/2MSIjFBS7I

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) March 2, 2016

Only four on stage for tonight’s GOP debate — Dr. Carson has decided against attending, despite (or because) it’s being held in his hometown, Detroit. Another Fox News special, hyped as the rematch between Donald ‘The Douchenozzle’ Trump and Megyn ‘Blood Coming Out of Her Wherever’ Kelly.

I’d actually watch, if I thought there was a chance Chris Christie would show up as a stand-in for his new man-crush, prepared to once again body-slam Little Marco into sweaty submission…
***********
Apart from crappy theatricals, what’s on the agenda for the day?

christie for trump vp sheneman
(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)

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Previous Post: « Late Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread, Christianist Edition
Next Post: Reporters Don’t Want to Count »

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  1. 1.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    March 3, 2016 at 6:07 am

    Morning Joe leads with…Hillary’s email. (This is my shocked face.)

  2. 2.

    debbie

    March 3, 2016 at 6:10 am

    I can’t decide which irony is the best: evangelical pastors disavowing their congregations (one has relabeled himself as a Gospel Christian) or Mitt thinking he’s the party’s savior?

  3. 3.

    Kay

    March 3, 2016 at 6:15 am

    This is an amazing story about this family, Christie, and Trump:

    Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, is married to Jared Kushner, the heir to a Garden State real estate empire, for whom she converted to Judaism and lives an Orthodox Jewish life. The Kushners, in turn, have a roller coaster history with Christie – enough of a soap opera that a “Law and Order” episode was built around it.
    In Christie’s early career as a successful New Jersey U.S. attorney, he arrested and charged Jared’s father, Charles Kushner, with trying to foil an investigation into an alleged illicit activity through obstruction of justice and witness tampering.
    Christie subsequently negotiated a plea agreement with Ivanka’s father-in-law in which Charles Kushner was sentenced to two years in federal prison in Alabama, though he was released in 2006 after just 14 months to spend the remainder of his sentence in a New Jersey halfway house.
    Charles Kushner, a longtime supporter of the Democratic party, jumped party ship when he donated $100,000 to Trump’s PAC and hosted a Jersey Shore reception for Trump at his seaside mansion last summer, back when Trump was still lobbing insults at Christie.
    Meanwhile, the rival branch of the Kushner clan is headed by Charles’s Republican brother, Murray, a major Christie ally. The two brothers have a deep and long-standing feud, so much so that New York Magazine described the history between them as “A Cain and Abel Story.”

  4. 4.

    Randy P

    March 3, 2016 at 6:15 am

    Read an interesting story yesterday in the NYT about a Fox “CIA Analyst” grifter. Needless to say, he’d never been near the CIA. But he had a nice bit of grift going on there on the wingnut welfare circuit. Before being uncovered (by an actual CIA analyst) and subsequently arrested on various charges.

    Fox isn’t on my radar so I hadn’t heard of this particular talking head, but it was a nice bit of schadenfreude to read nevertheless. As is the continuing saga of their unhappiness with Trump.

  5. 5.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 3, 2016 at 6:23 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I guess after she has been elected, the idiots on the Right will finally figure out that no one outside of their bubble gives a dang about Secretary Clinton’s emails.

  6. 6.

    Mustang Bobby

    March 3, 2016 at 6:26 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I would love to hear Joe explain why Hillary Clinton can’t be trusted but up until the David Duke moment he never questioned Trump’s documented bullshittery.

  7. 7.

    Splitting Image

    March 3, 2016 at 6:33 am

    If I understand things correctly, this is the current state of the Republican race:

    Donald Trump would be the presumptive nominee if he were anybody but Donald Trump.

    Given that Donald Trump is an erratic and unelectable buffoon, Ted Cruz would be the obvious alternative to rally around if he were anybody but Ted Cruz.

    Given that Ted Cruz has the most punchable face in the country and a personality to match, Marco Rubio would be the obvious alternative to rally around if he showed the least signs of competence or gravitas.

    John Kasich is losing to all three of these people.

    Have I got all that right?

  8. 8.

    amk

    March 3, 2016 at 6:36 am

    @Splitting Image:

    you left out mittbot 4.0.

  9. 9.

    WereBear

    March 3, 2016 at 6:36 am

    @Kay: Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, is married to Jared Kushner, the heir to a Garden State real estate empire, for whom she converted to Judaism and lives an Orthodox Jewish life.

    Having read the book Unorthodox, I shudder. It must be true love with money, because neither could persuade me to go fundamentalist of any flavor.

  10. 10.

    Kay

    March 3, 2016 at 6:36 am

    I love that these incredibly wealthy, supposedly wildly sophisticated people accept everything Trump says as fact:

    The pitch to Wall Street titans and other CEOs is that a President Trump would be disastrous for markets and the economy. Many economists say that if the U.S. were to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants in a single year, the immediate hit to gross domestic product would lead to a depression. And slapping massive tariffs on goods from Mexico and China could dramatically increase prices for U.S. consumers and create destabilizing trade wars. “The most important thing about Trump is, he is completely unpredictable and volatile, and the one thing business needs is predictability,” Packer said.

    Trump isn’t going to deport 11 million people and he isn’t going to start trade wars, either. It’s against the law to “slap tariffs” on Mexico and China, which is the entire point of having trade deals – so successive Presidents can’t destabilize markets. Trade deals are laws, not suggestions. That’s why Congress votes on them.

    They are listening to a reality tv show star as if he means what he says and actually has some plan to carry this out unilaterally. He’s deluding his voters, but it’s alarming that he’s able to pull the rest of these people in.

  11. 11.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    March 3, 2016 at 6:39 am

    @Patricia Kayden:
    @Mustang Bobby: Joe’s not on today, so it was Mika giving her “look of disapproval”.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 3, 2016 at 6:39 am

    @Splitting Image: You left out Carson who forgot there was a debate tonight and won’t be there.

  13. 13.

    gene108

    March 3, 2016 at 6:41 am

    Six NJ newspapers concurrently demand Christie to resign as Governor.

    What an embarrassment. What an utter disgrace.

    We’re fed up with Gov. Chris Christie’s arrogance.

    We’re fed up with his opportunism.

    We’re fed up with his hypocrisy.

    We’re fed up with his sarcasm.

    We’re fed up with his long neglect of the state to pursue his own selfish agenda.

    We’re disgusted with his endorsement of Donald Trump after he spent months on the campaign trail trashing him, calling him unqualified by temperament and experience to be president.

    And we’re fed up with his continuing travel out of state on New Jersey’s dime, stumping for Trump, after finally abandoning his own presidential campaign.

    For the good of the state, it’s time for Christie to do his long-neglected constituents a favor and resign as governor. If he refuses, citizens should initiate a recall effort.

    That is just the start. It gets nastier.

  14. 14.

    Kay

    March 3, 2016 at 6:42 am

    @WereBear:

    The grossest part of the love affair with Christie (which seems to be over) is how they avoided the corruption. Every story involving Chris Christie also involves some hinky connection between donors and state contracts, or warring donors, or harsh (or lenient, depending!) prosecutions involving donors or political enemies. He’s corrupt. There’s like 500 red flags. They had to TRY not to see it. He’s pure ambition and greed.

  15. 15.

    MomSense

    March 3, 2016 at 6:45 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    How terrible are the heads of MSNBC that they actually like that show and want more of it? Joe and Mika are the type of couple I would try to avoid bumping into at the grocery store. A two minute chance meeting to exchange pleasantries would be too much.

  16. 16.

    Kay

    March 3, 2016 at 6:46 am

    @gene108:

    The sarcasm really is offensive- the passive aggressive bullying tone and how he uses sarcasm to avoid answering questions. I bet he’s been relying on that since 7th grade.

  17. 17.

    WereBear

    March 3, 2016 at 6:51 am

    @Splitting Image: So so right! I love it.

  18. 18.

    Mustang Bobby

    March 3, 2016 at 6:51 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Someone should give them a high colonic and send them on a ten-mile hike (HT Hawkeye Pierce).

  19. 19.

    Kay

    March 3, 2016 at 6:54 am

    @MomSense:

    I had satellite radio in my last car (I have a different car now) and I used to listen to Morning Joe because it’s like an advance warning system for every horrible idea and “narrative” they’re all going to be pushing.

    I think that’s the claim to fame- not that normal people take them seriously, but that a certain subset of “thought leaders” take them seriously.

  20. 20.

    bystander

    March 3, 2016 at 6:57 am

    I’ll believe Ivana Jr. is orthodox when I see her in a sheitel. Until then she’s just playing an orthodox Jewish woman on teevee.

  21. 21.

    bystander

    March 3, 2016 at 7:00 am

    @Kay: They were desperately trying to spin this latest inconsequential tidbit about the guy who installed Clinton’s computer. Unless he tells everyone he heard her giggling about having killed Vince Foster, the story is another nothingburger and even Joe’s commentariat couldn’t figure out how to spin it as End of Days on the Mayan calendar.

  22. 22.

    WereBear

    March 3, 2016 at 7:01 am

    If I may do a First World Whine, I’m going to be at a conference today. It is proceeding utterly normally: five hours sleep, the coffee shop playlist included “Young Girl Get Out of My Mind,” my most annoying co-worker is in charge of our group, and it was one degree when I got up, resulting in a costume change that had cascading effects on my whole prep.

    On the other hand, I found my custom name tag, they brewed a fresh pot of coffee for me, and it’s only one day. With luck, I should make it through.

  23. 23.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    March 3, 2016 at 7:01 am

    @Kay: That’s pretty much why I watch it.

    @Mustang Bobby: As you probably know, I’ve been hiking alot as of late. This is part of me returning to my teenage passions. One hike my dad and I took, several times was Malibu Creek State Park close to where we lived. It was 20th Century Fox’s old movie ranch. While the land had been donated to the state, they were still filming some stuff there even into the late 70’s. The set for M*A*S*H was still an active set. I’ve got some pretty good pictures.

  24. 24.

    WereBear

    March 3, 2016 at 7:05 am

    @Kay: They are listening to a reality tv show star as if he means what he says and actually has some plan to carry this out unilaterally. He’s deluding his voters, but it’s alarming that he’s able to pull the rest of these people in.

    Proof, if more was needed, that Wall Street Titans and corporate CEOs are ridiculously overpaid, overvalued, and overwhelmingly dependent on smarter people they hire for such purposes.

  25. 25.

    Mustang Bobby

    March 3, 2016 at 7:05 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: My one regret when I was living in SoCal in 1981 was not going up there.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 3, 2016 at 7:07 am

    @Kay: Oh I don’t know, I like sarcasm. It beats killing people. (somebody gave me a t-shirt with that on it. I can’t imagine why they would give it to me… ;-)

  27. 27.

    rikyrah

    March 3, 2016 at 7:08 am

    Good Morning ?, Everyone ?

  28. 28.

    Mustang Bobby

    March 3, 2016 at 7:09 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Christie has yet to learn that sarcasm works best when you’re punching up. Punching down just reinforces the bully meme. Gee, like he didn’t know that already.

  29. 29.

    WereBear

    March 3, 2016 at 7:09 am

    @bystander: Did she shave her head? Is that a wig? Do they eat out? Is she shaking hands with men?

    Yeah, right.

    /brooklynaccent

  30. 30.

    Mary

    March 3, 2016 at 7:10 am

    @Kay: While I pretty much agree, I also recall that a lot of people said that candidate Bush wouldn’t really do all the things he said he would do, and it turned out a lot of people were wrong.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    March 3, 2016 at 7:11 am

    @bystander:

    The emails bore me. I wouldn’t know if she actually did anything wrong because I hear “server” and I’m immediately bored and impatient. It seems like they classify everything and I just don’t have this giant fear of “security” or whatever. My ID info was exposed from when I worked with the postal service (I got a letter) and my health info was exposed by my insurance company (I got another letter). None of this shit is “safe” anyway.

    I have to force myself to pretend to listen to the tech guy we hire to fix things at the law office. I want him to stop explaining things to me but I don’t want to be impolite.

  32. 32.

    WereBear

    March 3, 2016 at 7:11 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Congrats. I hear you gave the boot the boot.

  33. 33.

    MomSense

    March 3, 2016 at 7:12 am

    @Kay:

    It seems like Joe is the first to roll out the daily Republican talking points. He has said three and a half moderate things in his lifetime so he gets to portray himself as a moderate that has disagreed with his party. You are a brave woman to listen to his voice even.

  34. 34.

    WereBear

    March 3, 2016 at 7:14 am

    @MomSense: The only way I could handle Joe’s face was when he followed the old Keith Olbermann show. Keith would do one of his Special Comments and then they would cut to Joe, looking like someone just hit him on the back of the head with a shovel.

    Priceless.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 3, 2016 at 7:16 am

    @WereBear: That would be enough to make me lock myself in a garage with a running car and a full tank of gas.

  36. 36.

    WereBear

    March 3, 2016 at 7:17 am

    Oh, for the love of heaven, they’ve got a Perry Como wannabe doing “Light My Fire.”

    But I need more coffee.

    Oh, jeez, he’s doing Dylan Styling. It’s a musical train wreck.

  37. 37.

    Kay

    March 3, 2016 at 7:18 am

    @Mary:

    Right, but Bush had the authority to do the things he did. He either went to Congress or Congress chose to ignore what he was doing (torture). A huge tariff in violation of a treaty is akin to an act of war. It’s an economic attack on those countries. It’s the equivalent of sanctions on Iran. Trade is foreign policy. The idea that it would just mean “higher prices on consumer goods” misses the enormity of what would be a hostile act.

  38. 38.

    Phylllis

    March 3, 2016 at 7:19 am

    @Kay: I think it’s a feature of the IT personality. I have wanted to tell our fellow so many times “The Internet is like the water at my house; I want to turn it on & have it come out. Don’t really care how it gets here.”

  39. 39.

    WereBear

    March 3, 2016 at 7:20 am

    @Phylllis: It is an IT thing. They find this stuff utterly fascinating! Don’t you?

    Heck, even plumbers tell you the float valve broke the rocker arm and such.

  40. 40.

    gene108

    March 3, 2016 at 7:23 am

    @Kay:

    In 2009, when he first ran for governor, it was the worst of the recession. Corzine tried doing things to stimulate the economy, but he was never loved as governor on his best days.

    Once Christie got elected he played the local NJ party bosses, both Democrats and Republicans, so he did not get any serious opposition.

    From what I’ve seen of NJ politics, kickbacks and the like are expected by local party bosses, if you want to get things done. There’s a level of “kiss the ring” from the Party bosses, in NJ, and Christie played their game.

    So when Democrats should have been hammering him for cutting education spending and property tax relief (NJ has the highest property taxes in the country), they just let it go.

    He came off as a moderate.

    Though he was benefited by a Democratic legislature that curbed his worst excesses, with regards to policy, because his views are just as reactionary as other Republican governors, elected in 2010.

    He got a big boost pre-reelection from what was initially seen as a strong response to Hurricane Sandy. And the economy, by 2013, was recovering to the point, where the good feelings of job growth mellowed the “throw the bums out, they aren’t saving our jobs” mood that was prevelant in 2009.

    But he really benefited from buying off Democratic politicians in the state, so there was very little opposition to his re-election effort from the state Democratic Party as a whole. Several prominent state Democrats lined up endorsing Christie.

    But after the closure of the GW bridge, at the Ft. Lee interchange, and what became apparent that his Sandy response sucked in the long term, people started to get fed up with him.

    Sort of like Bush, Jr, on a local level, he had a shtick that impressed plenty of people, but when you cannot back it up with good policy, people eventually get tired of it and want to see results.

    And that is where we are now.

    With a governor, who played the corruption inherent on state level politics here, in order to avoid honest opposition, who benefited from what seemed like an initial strong response to a natural disaster, and Obama’s pulling the economy out of the brink of collapse.

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 3, 2016 at 7:23 am

    @Mustang Bobby: I freely admit I am a sarcastic SOB. I use it on everybody, including myself. I do try to not do it out of meanness tho. I don’t like it when I hurt my feeling (it’s the last one I’ve got).

  42. 42.

    Mustang Bobby

    March 3, 2016 at 7:28 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: My role models in no particular order are Groucho Marx and Mel Brooks… and the writers for Hawkeye Pierce, including the immortal Larry Gelbart.

  43. 43.

    Joel

    March 3, 2016 at 7:28 am

    Aubrey McClendon is dead after crashing his car. He was indicted on price manipulation just this week.

  44. 44.

    Iowa Old Lady

    March 3, 2016 at 7:29 am

    There’s a set of people who believe their candidate won’t do the outrageous things he says but like him for saying them. Matt Bevin says he’ll do away with people’s health insurance and his voters say oh he never will. He’s just sticking it to Obama. Then they vote for him.

    Oddly these same people complain that politicians don’t deliver.

  45. 45.

    Betty Cracker

    March 3, 2016 at 7:31 am

    @Kay: The only thing that interests me about the HRC emails story is its power to induce wingnut hysteria. I was helping an uncle set up WiFi and sort out email issues MONTHS ago (and that he would ask me demonstrates just how technically incompetent and desperate he was), and the whole time, Fox News was blaring in the background. Every guest and panel member on every show was yapping about HRC’s upcoming indictment and incarceration.

    They really, really believe this. And the funny thing is, even if she did do something scandalous, like forward classified messages straight to Mullah Omar, I don’t think anyone outside the Fox bubble would believe it now. They’ve cried wolf too many times.

  46. 46.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 3, 2016 at 7:32 am

    @WereBear: Thanx. I’ve still got a ways to go, it feels funny walking on it in a normal fashion, I’ve still got more than a little pain, and of course it’s weak as all get out, but slow but steady will get me there. Unfortunately I’m not a very patient person so in some ways this period will be even harder for me. I’ll get there.

  47. 47.

    Kay

    March 3, 2016 at 7:34 am

    @Mary:

    What Donald Trump is telling his voters about trade is just a lie. He wouldn’t even need government to stop him. The biggest “US” companies would stop him because their interests aren’t limited to the US and they’re wholly dependent on the current trade system to operate.

  48. 48.

    Phylllis

    March 3, 2016 at 7:35 am

    @WereBear: Yep; would you like my 8-hour discussion of the ins and outs of Title I? I do have a condensed 5-hour overview, if you’re pressed for time? :-).

  49. 49.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    March 3, 2016 at 7:36 am

    A Romney Super Pac has done 7 attack ads in the last 5 days against Trump. They’ve also launched an attack ad on Cruz and Kasich.

    Here is their (ad) on Trump’s mob ties.

    Gotta think Mittens is desperately trying to put the band back together again.

  50. 50.

    Peale

    March 3, 2016 at 7:37 am

    @Kay: it’s true that Trump couldn’t do that. Just like technically he couldn’t start torturing the parents of Muslim extremists without a lot of help from the institutions that are supposed to punish a president who breaks the law. I would not be so sure that he wouldn’t do something illegal. He is running on breaking the laws, not changing them.

  51. 51.

    Mustang Bobby

    March 3, 2016 at 7:38 am

    @Phylllis: I’ve got a four-hour Power Point on the new Uniform Guidance on Grants. I may set up a Twitter feed for it. :)

  52. 52.

    gene108

    March 3, 2016 at 7:38 am

    @Kay:

    One thing Republicans do is fall in-line. If their President is popular and tells them to jump, they will say how high.

    I fully expect a Republican Congress to fall in-line behind Trumps agenda, because as long as Trump is popular, they do not want to risk a primary from an angry Trump supporter.

  53. 53.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 3, 2016 at 7:41 am

    @Kay: In the New York Times’ first mention of Hitler in 1922, they figured the antisemitic stuff was just rabblerousing bullshit.

    Most of the time, that’s the way to bet. It may the way to bet here. But when the stakes are very high it pays to consider low-probability outcomes.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    March 3, 2016 at 7:41 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    They really, really believe this.

    They’ve learned nothing then, wingnut celebrity media, because I think a big part of the rebellion in the GOP is justified- they were lied to. They were never going to be able to “repeal” Obamacare. Eric Holder was never doing a perp walk, Obama was never getting impeached, voter fraud is BS, and on and on.

    They lied to their base over 3 cycles to gin up turnout and none of the things they promised happened. Remember after 2012 when a couple of conservative commenters admitted this? That there was an industry devoted to lying to rank and file GOP voters? This admission was part of their (supposed) gut check after Romney loss. Nothing changed. They’re still doing it.

  55. 55.

    Peale

    March 3, 2016 at 7:46 am

    @Kay: yeah. My guess is that he will manage to yell at one manufacturer long enough to convince them to move a factory from Mexico to the U.S. it has to be from Mexico or China because those are the two countries which are causing all of our trade woes in trump land. There will be a big ribbon cutting. 1,500 people in a small town will have new jobs. We’ll congratulate ourselves for finally winning something. And then someone will point out that Donald only has to do that 10,000 more times.

  56. 56.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    March 3, 2016 at 7:46 am

    @gene108: Would it go along with Trump raising taxes, that’s what a tariff is.

  57. 57.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 3, 2016 at 7:47 am

    @Betty Cracker: I love the fact that a # of the “classified” emails were forwards of newspaper articles that the CIA thought….. I really don’t have a clue what they were thinking when they decided to classify something that is in the public domain.

    I also like the fact that FOX has yet to call for not even an investigation of either Powell or Rice, much less the prosecution of them.

  58. 58.

    p.a.

    March 3, 2016 at 7:48 am

    Detroit eh? Guess they’ll dig deeply into Flint in the debate.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    March 3, 2016 at 7:50 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Trump talks as if there are US companies and US products. That’s not true as far as large companies. There’s a lot of manufacturing where I live and it is impossible to divide “US” from “world” – we have a German company and a Japanese company who make auto components. I don’t know where the German parts end up but the Japanese parts end up in Hondas, which are assembled in Ohio. People in the “rural rustbelt” don’t even make these nationalist distinctions he’s making. His pitch is a fantasy.

  60. 60.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    March 3, 2016 at 7:53 am

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 2h2 hours ago

    Failed candidate Mitt Romney,who ran one of the worst races in presidential history,is working with the establishment to bury a big “R” win!

    1,508 retweets 3,868 likes

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 9h9 hours ago

    Looks like two-time failed candidate Mitt Romney is going to be telling Republicans how to get elected. Not a good messenger!

    4,590 retweets 13,508 likes

  61. 61.

    Mr. Twister

    March 3, 2016 at 7:57 am

    @MomSense: One word: Comcast.

  62. 62.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 3, 2016 at 7:57 am

    @p.a.: I hope they give Rubio a bottle of Flint water to quench his insatiable thirst during the debate.

  63. 63.

    Botsplainer

    March 3, 2016 at 7:59 am

    This piece fascinates me to no end, about another leader who wasn’t a typical politician, who wasn’t PC, who always spoke his mind, and who had followers who tended to express a little too much zeal over policies which the leader really wasn’t all that into, and just used the rhetoric to manipulate himself into power….

    “Several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers and keep them aroused, enthusiastic, and in line for the time when his organization is perfected and sufficiently powerful to be employed effectively for political purposes.”

    A sophisticated politician credited Hitler with peculiar political cleverness for laying emphasis and overemphasis on anti-Semitism, saying “You can’t expect the masses to understand or appreciate your finer real aims. You must feed the masses with cruder morsels and ideals like anti-Semitism. It would be politically all wrong to tell them the truth about where you really are leading them.

    NYT, 1922.

  64. 64.

    raven

    March 3, 2016 at 8:01 am

    @Mustang Bobby: And on a clear day you can see old Hong King. . .

  65. 65.

    Botsplainer

    March 3, 2016 at 8:02 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    LOL-I was in the midst of crafting a response when you beat me to it.

  66. 66.

    RSA

    March 3, 2016 at 8:02 am

    @WereBear:

    It is an IT thing. They find this stuff utterly fascinating! Don’t you? Heck, even plumbers tell you the float valve broke the rocker arm and such.

    True. A lot of techies do that, for whatever reason. Sometimes it’s like talking to the guy at the car repair shop who will go into great deal about what he needs to fix, assuming that you know all of the jargon to describe the problem under the hood of your car (jargon that of course you should be familiar with, by his lights, as should everyone). And then the problem comes back a week later.

  67. 67.

    Splitting Image

    March 3, 2016 at 8:08 am

    @amk:

    you left out mittbot 4.0.

    Last time out I called Mittens the worst Presidential candidate since Mondale and Dukakis, but given the available alternatives, I can almost forgive the guy for thinking he deserves another chance.

    At least Mitt’s OS is more reliable than Rubio’s. Lacking in many needed features, but reliable.

  68. 68.

    danielx

    March 3, 2016 at 8:10 am

    I’d actually watch, if I thought there was a chance Chris Christie would show up as a stand-in for his new man-crush, prepared to once again body-slam Little Marco into sweaty submission…

    Thank you, Anne, for inflicting this image upon me during the sacred first cup of coffee. I shall try not to have it show up on the mental screen again (shudder) as the day goes on.

    @Splitting Image:

    Have I got all that right?

    Yeah, pretty much.

  69. 69.

    JPL

    March 3, 2016 at 8:15 am

    @Botsplainer: George Wallace lost when he tried to portray himself as inclusive. It was only when he became rabid, that he had followers.

  70. 70.

    Germy

    March 3, 2016 at 8:16 am

    @RSA:

    it’s like talking to the guy at the car repair shop who will go into great deal about what he needs to fix, assuming that you know all of the jargon to describe the problem under the hood of your car (jargon that of course you should be familiar with, by his lights, as should everyone). And then the problem comes back a week later.

    I’ve always suspected the auto mechanics do that to test how much the customer understands about his car. If the customer looks confused by what the mechanic says, it’s a red flag that says “We can bullshit this customer” and a little check mark is put next to his name.

    One commenter here bristled when I complained about dishonest auto mechanics; he said something to the effect that he’s had nothing but great experiences. But then he admitted he knew how to dismantle and reassemble his own car. I suspect his mechanic knows that, and doesn’t bother to bullshit him.

    But if my wife goes to a mechanic because her car is hesitating and making a weird sound, she’ll get “the speech” and then they’ll try to rip her off.

  71. 71.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 3, 2016 at 8:17 am

    @Splitting Image: As I mentioned elsewhere, I know people who are hankering for Mitt to get in the race somehow, and believe he’d be superior to anyone currently running in either party. Fairly-well-off, educated New England centrists, who usually vote Democratic but treasure their non-partisanness. Probably not very representative of the national zeitgeist.

  72. 72.

    gvg

    March 3, 2016 at 8:20 am

    I disagree that Trump couldn’t do these promised things. What he is promising is pretty close to what other legislators promise. He could probably get the votes to overturn laws of he got advised well enough to do that.

    Lots of ifs, but I am one of those who said don’t worry so much about what Bush say’s, he can’t actually do that…

    In addition, while these things would actually hurt overall US business, most business deals have rivals or rival business types and while many existing deals would be hurt, I think their might be others that could make a profit. Buying “unsellable” goods at fire sale prices maybe.

  73. 73.

    John D.

    March 3, 2016 at 8:22 am

    @WereBear: @Phyllis @Kay As a long-time IT guy, you misunderstand what your guy is doing.

    It’s not because we find it fascinating, though we do.

    It’s because we occasionally find someone who takes in the knowledge we are giving and stops calling us with easily fixed items. They are happier. We are happier. It’s a win-win.

    People look at IT like wizardry sometimes. It’s not. It’s utterly logical. 9 times out of 10 your computer is doing exactly what you told it to, because you didn’t know how to tell it what you wanted. So we’ll try to educate you on how to get it to do what you actually want. We almost never mind being told you aren’t interested in hearing it. It’s not impolite to tell your IT guy you have no interest nor ability to retain the info. I mean, don’t tell them to shut the fuck up or anything, but a polite indication of disinterest is usually enough.

  74. 74.

    MattF

    March 3, 2016 at 8:23 am

    @Germy: The real problem with modern cars is that no one but a dealer can repair them. They have gizmos and sensors on everything. I just had a round of ‘can’t start the car’ problems that were fixed by replacing the battery and the battery-charging sensor– I doubt that an independent garage would have (or could have) replaced the sensor.

  75. 75.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 3, 2016 at 8:25 am

    @gvg: Well, he couldn’t do everything he promises, because his promises are logically inconsistent with one another. But if he got in he’d have a fairly rabid Republican Congress to work with, and at the very least I’d expect a whole lot of frothing right-wing legislation to get passed.

    I still don’t understand why people think they “can’t” repeal the ACA. Of course they can; all it takes is passing a law they’ve explicitly promised to pass ten million times, and we’ll get to actually see whether HSAs plus selling insurance across state lines is an adequate substitute for real health coverage (Trump just released his “plan”, and guess what, it’s the same old Republican bullshit). Sure, there would be a lot of appalling political consequences, but I don’t really trust their rationality at this point.

  76. 76.

    danielx

    March 3, 2016 at 8:28 am

    @Kay:

    They’ve learned nothing then, wingnut celebrity media, because I think a big part of the rebellion in the GOP is justified- they were lied to.

    Yes, they were lied to, and they have been lied to, for a hell of a lot longer than the last three cycles, and yes, there’s a whole industry of people (like Rush, to name the leading example) who have made an extremely good thing out of lying to them, for good and sufficient reasons. In this, as in many other things, old Abe had it right – you can indeed lie to some of the people all of the time, for a fairly lengthy period.

    One cannot get a majority of voters – who are decidedly non-rich – to knowingly pull the lever for a party that nakedly says “our platform is further enrichment of the wealthy, and, oh, by the way, we’re also going to make your retirement benefits take a hit.” That’s where deep psychological insight comes into play. Most people, even when they have a sneaking suspicion that they are being shafted economically, are not well attuned to the complexities of credit default swaps, the London Interbank Offered Rate, or quantitative easing. And the media are definitely not interested in wising them up, especially when they can instead supply celebrity interviews, singing contests, or commercialized orgies like the opening ceremonies of the Olympics

    Since the GOP is loath to tell the public in straightforward terms what their economic agenda is, and the media are not exactly forcing the GOP’s hand, and, finally, the people are operating in a knowledge deficit, Republicans respond by sleight of hand: “We’re more American than that Kenyan socialist in the White House!” Or “The Obama administration is riddled with Muslim extremists.” Or “Planned Parenthood is taxpayer-subsidized murder.” Or “Obama wants to take away your guns.” Even “Obama raised your taxes,” when in fact he lowered them. Stuff that is not terribly persuasive to well-informed people, but a lot of people are surprisingly ill-informed, and very few institutions – the corporate media least of all – have any interest in their being well-informed.

  77. 77.

    Germy

    March 3, 2016 at 8:28 am

    @MattF: I agree. There’s a nice local mechanic around the block from me who I like, but if it isn’t an oil change or tire rotation or something else simple, I have to go to the dealer.

    Some dealerships are okay, but some have service departments from hell.

  78. 78.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 3, 2016 at 8:40 am

    Massachusetts passed a “right to repair” law that requires manufacturers to supply independent mechanics with the proprietary documentation to service their cars. I don’t know if the playing field is completely level, but my wife usually uses an independent mechanic and has had fair success.

  79. 79.

    Carbon Dated

    March 3, 2016 at 8:40 am

    I like Jeet Heer but isn’t his tweet a tad sophomoric and more than a little offensive?

  80. 80.

    Kay

    March 3, 2016 at 8:43 am

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Looks like two-time failed candidate Mitt Romney is going to be telling Republicans how to get elected. Not a good messenger!

    He’s smart though, because GOP voters were lied to about that, too. Skewed polls, Obama is “toast”- this is a moderate GOP area and they were as sure as one could be they were going to win in 2012. I don’t think Romney was ever ahead in Ohio, most polls.

    He’s playing right into their anger and they should be angry. A lot of people are getting paid a lot of money to lie to them.

  81. 81.

    yellowdog

    March 3, 2016 at 8:45 am

    @Kay: The PTB do value stability. Drumpf is alarming to them not because he may do what he says he will do but because they don’t know WHAT he will do.

  82. 82.

    Germy

    March 3, 2016 at 8:47 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Massachusetts passed a “right to repair” law that requires manufacturers to supply independent mechanics with the proprietary documentation to service their cars.

    I didn’t know that. From what I’ve seen, lots of small independent mechanics are suffering because people are skipping them and going straight to the dealer.

    The small mechanic in my town is trying to compensate by selling tires, but there’s only so many he can sell.

  83. 83.

    Glidwrith

    March 3, 2016 at 8:48 am

    @rikyrah: Good Morning to you, dear Sir!

  84. 84.

    Kay

    March 3, 2016 at 8:49 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I love my mechanic. He’s independent. It’s so nice when you get a relationship with them. We buy newer used cars with cash. I can call him with a specific car in mind and he’ll tell me to buy or not to buy it, and why. The one time I ignored him I regretted it although he made more money :)

  85. 85.

    Gelfling545

    March 3, 2016 at 9:12 am

    @WereBear: I will never comprehend why public venues think awful music is preferable to silence.

  86. 86.

    p.a.

    March 3, 2016 at 9:14 am

    @JPL: Tom Watson too, a generation or two earlier.

  87. 87.

    Kathleen

    March 3, 2016 at 9:16 am

    @Kay: Accompanied by a thousand throbbing strings no doubt. duh. wrong reply to. should not comment using phone

  88. 88.

    Russ

    March 3, 2016 at 9:23 am

    How Republicans are the dishonest auto mechanics of politics.

    I’ve always suspected the auto mechanics do that to test how much the customer understands about his car. If the customer looks confused by what the mechanic says, it’s a red flag that says “We can bullshit this customer” and a little check mark is put next to his name.

    check mark = Republican voter

    One cannot get a majority of voters – who are decidedly non-rich – to knowingly pull the lever for a party that nakedly says “our platform is further enrichment of the wealthy, and, oh, by the way, we’re also going to make your retirement benefits take a hit.” That’s where deep psychological insight comes into play. Most people, even when they have a sneaking suspicion that they are being shafted economically, are not well attuned to the complexities of credit default swaps, the London Interbank Offered Rate, or quantitative easing. And the media are definitely not interested in wising them up, especially when they can instead supply celebrity interviews, singing contests, or commercialized orgies like the opening ceremonies of the Olympics

    Since the GOP is loath to tell the public in straightforward terms what their economic agenda is, and the media are not exactly forcing the GOP’s hand, and, finally, the people are operating in a knowledge deficit, Republicans respond by sleight of hand: “We’re more American than that Kenyan socialist in the White House!” Or “The Obama administration is riddled with Muslim extremists.” Or “Planned Parenthood is taxpayer-subsidized murder.” Or “Obama wants to take away your guns.” Even “Obama raised your taxes,” when in fact he lowered them. Stuff that is not terribly persuasive to well-informed people, but a lot of people are surprisingly ill-informed, and very few institutions – the corporate media least of all – have any interest in their being well-informed.

  89. 89.

    gene108

    March 3, 2016 at 9:33 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Bush, Jr. imposed steel tariffs in 2002, the WTO eventually struck them down.

    If a tariff can buy a few votes, Republicans will go along.

  90. 90.

    NotMax

    March 3, 2016 at 9:38 am

    Ouch. Popped awake by age. Every joint from the waist on down on the left side aches, every joint on the right side above the waist aches.

    Hobbled down to the street to put out the trash (as was awake anyway; it could have waited until the next pick-up), and was greeted with a sight soon to be extinct – large field of sugar cane down at sea level, on the central isthmus, being burned. 4 in the morning, and there was someone pulled over right across the street, with multiple cameras set up on tripods, snapping photos. Lowering clouds in the sky illuminated in flickering orange, great mushroom plumes of smoke, dancing flames on the ground.

    Think I may have inadvertently scared the heck out of the photographer.

  91. 91.

    RSA

    March 3, 2016 at 9:45 am

    @Germy:

    But if my wife goes to a mechanic because her car is hesitating and making a weird sound, she’ll get “the speech” and then they’ll try to rip her off.

    I’m eminently bullshittable when it comes to car repair, myself. It’s taken me some time to find a place I trust, and I’ve stuck with them for years now. I expect it would have taken me a lot longer, if not forever, if I weren’t a guy.

  92. 92.

    Germy

    March 3, 2016 at 9:55 am

    @NotMax: That’s something I never anticipated about getting older. When I was young, I had this image in my mind of my “older self” dozing contentedly in my easy chair; a bit slower perhaps, but relaxed and comfortable.

    Instead I wake up multiple times each night because my arm hurts, or my back hurts, or my leg. I change position and sleep fitfully until it’s time to wake up again with more pain. And I’m not more relaxed. There’s more worries about money and my grown children (the bullshit they face in this economic and job climate) and wondering if the latest pain is the first sign of some hideous final illness.

    I had a co-worker who had some shoulder pain. Ignored it. Thought it was a sprain. He moved to a different company and we lost track of him. As I recall, the last time we spoke, he was rubbing his shoulder. A few weeks ago I got an email about his death. He’d finally seen a doctor and an MRI showed advanced cancer. He went straight to hospice and that was that.

  93. 93.

    Renie

    March 3, 2016 at 10:13 am

    I’m definitely watching the clown show tonite just to see how trump handles romney speaking out against him. I wonder whose bright idea that was cuz I’m sure its going to backfire.

  94. 94.

    geg6

    March 3, 2016 at 10:29 am

    @Germy:

    I wouldn’t go to a dealership for repairs for anything. Ever. Pay out of your ass, get a bunch of stuff you don’t really need and be talked down to as a bonus, that’s what you get with a dealership’s repair shop. I have a great local mechanic and he can fix anything that’s wrong with my VW. He’s replaced various sensors, etc. that have gone bad over the years with no problem, much less hassle and a much lower sticker price. You’re crazy to stick with a dealer. Do some research and find a good local mechanic that knows what he’s doing. You’ll never regret it.

  95. 95.

    Linnaeus

    March 3, 2016 at 10:32 am

    Off to lovely Sunnyside, Washington for a business trip. Maybe I’ll see some golden eagles on the way.

  96. 96.

    Applejinx

    March 3, 2016 at 10:35 am

    @Joel: You know, that’s what gets me.

    We’ve got these captains of industry, rulers of the world, making all of society into a zero-sum crab-bucket thing where you have to fight fight FIGHT all day and all night long in order to get to the top, because everything is better if people are motivated to fight each other for every scrap.

    And they are MISERABLE. The winners are miserable. The up-and-comers are miserable and driving themselves unthinkably hard (I’m thinking of the mid-upper level finance guys, here, I’m thinking Wall Street) to get their prize. And there’s no prize because it’s crabs all the way up. There’s no actual top to be had.

    They are miserable. They hurt. Maybe in the Eighties they were ‘fat cats’ but increasingly now everything’s ‘disrupted’ and they’re desperate and scared, from top to bottom. And boy, can they fight.

    I see that in Hillary Clinton, too. WOW can she fight. Is she happy? Can she afford to be?

    This is why I’m such a berniac. This system is HORRIBLE. You’d think the masters of the universe here would be happy as it’s all set up to serve them, but they’re absolutely not. They are more exposed than your average eighty-year-old Clinton campaign operative to the instabilty of the world in 2016. They know what ‘disruption’ means, and they know there’s no such thing as a comfortable King anymore.

    If even the hyper-powered winners of the system are so miserable they have to fight like starving crabs for every scrap of gain (whether the scraps are measured in nickels or billions) and drive into a concrete abutment to kill themselves when the cold equations turn up ‘double zero’, then this is wrong. It’s all horribly wrong.

    And I know the feeling. I have no concrete abutments handy on typical drives I make. I remind myself that going head-on into oncoming traffic is murderous, every time MY wheel comes up double zero (I’m a lot more used to it than that guy, so it’s not that hard to repress the thoughts) but I absolutely understand the guy going ‘a concrete abutment is not a person. This time? This time?’

    All you gotta do is turn the wheel, close your eyes and floor it.

    We don’t have to live like this.

  97. 97.

    Applejinx

    March 3, 2016 at 10:37 am

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Well, he is on a mission from God.

  98. 98.

    Chyron HR

    March 3, 2016 at 10:42 am

    @Applejinx:

    I remind myself that going head-on into oncoming traffic is murderous, every time MY wheel comes up double zero (I’m a lot more used to it than that guy, so it’s not that hard to repress the thoughts) but I absolutely understand the guy going ‘a concrete abutment is not a person. This time? This time?’

    All you gotta do is turn the wheel, close your eyes and floor it.

    “Well, I have to go now, Duane, because I’m due back on the planet Earth.”

  99. 99.

    Germy

    March 3, 2016 at 10:46 am

    @geg6: I prefer my local small business mechanic. He’s honest and I trust him. But twice he told me he didn’t have the computers to fix the problem, and told me to see the dealership.

  100. 100.

    Germy

    March 3, 2016 at 10:47 am

    @Applejinx: I understood he did what he did because he was facing indictment. If no charges were being brought against him, he most likely would have continued happily in his rise to the toppermost top of the poppermost.

  101. 101.

    Applejinx

    March 3, 2016 at 10:51 am

    @Germy: Guys like that are dropping like flies, having coronaries in their thirties and forties from eighty and ninety hour weeks. My point is, they’re not happy. Rise, yes, happy no.

    I think the whole ‘freemarket cutthroat capitalism’ thing seems much less appealing expressed as ‘it’s crabs all the way up’.

  102. 102.

    Ella in New Mexico

    March 3, 2016 at 12:53 pm

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    A Romney Super Pac

    And there you have it: the sum-total reason we saw Mittens on the TV today.

    He’s happened upon the incredible pot of gold that is now called “Ben Carson’s gravy train of pyramid-scheme fundraising for personal wealth”.

  103. 103.

    J R in WV

    March 3, 2016 at 2:49 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Hi Hilllbilly!

    Glad you finally kicked the boot. Are you signed up for physical therapy now? It really helps to get someone who knows, in your case, ankles and feet. In my case, shoulders and spines.

    Take care~!

    WV Hillbilly J R

  104. 104.

    Anne Laurie

    March 3, 2016 at 4:52 pm

    @Carbon Dated:

    I like Jeet Heer but isn’t his tweet a tad sophomoric and more than a little offensive?

    He’s addressing Erick Erickson, for whom there is no such thing as ‘too offensive’.

  105. 105.

    Booger

    March 3, 2016 at 8:50 pm

    Well at least now retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson can embark on a career as a motivational mumbler.

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