Is it possible for me to pre-read all the "Trump Is Pivoting" stories that will come out this week? I'd like to be efficient.
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) August 8, 2016
BREAKING FIRST ON @Morning_Joe: Multiple sources say an independent conservative candidate will announce his candidacy for president today.
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) August 8, 2016
Would someone please check to see if Ronald Reagan's grave has been disturbed? https://t.co/TMW9JOr4Tw
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) August 8, 2016
Mr. Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire:
… The big noise on tout les ‘Toobz Monday morning was that this guy, Evan McMullin, a career spook who lives in Utah, announced that he would be running for president specifically as an anti-He, Trump candidate. This came at the same time as He, Trump was preparing to reset his campaign for the 400th time, this time before the Detroit Economic Club…
“In a year where Americans have lost faith in the candidates of both major parties, it’s time for a generation of new leadership to step up,” McMullin said in a statement to ABC News. “It’s never too late to do the right thing, and America deserves much better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton can offer us. I humbly offer myself as a leader who can give millions of disaffected Americans a conservative choice for President.”
“Humbly” is a nice touch, I have to admit. Would it be overly cynical to wonder if behind this sudden emergence of his caucus’ policy director as an anti-Trump independent candidate we would find the fine hand of Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from the state of Wisconsin? Surely that nice boy from Janesville who used to flip burgers for a living wouldn’t think of such a thing?…
I don’t have any problem with anybody’s attempt to ratfck the campaign of El Caudillo de Mar-A-Lago, which, after all, takes advice from Roger Stone and Alex Jones. I wish candidate McMullin well. I suspect he will attain a kind of instant credibility and it’s possible he won’t lack for money. The conservatives who have not yet been assimilated are floundering and they’re desperate enough to latch onto anyone. And if Ryan really is behind this, I will have to give him credit for a kind of political animal cunning I didn’t think he had in him.But, dear god, Republicans. You nominated He, Trump. Take your beating and regroup.
Pierce notes, for the record, that McMullin has worked for Goldman Sachs as well as the CIA, which will certainly not at all agitate certain BernieBusters Steiniacs and Johnson/Welders. But then, it’s still show business, even if McMullins the little man with a broom following the elephants’ parade…
SCOOP: Anti-Trump Republican Launching Independent Presidential Bid. Candidate is @Evan_McMullin https://t.co/HG5WoKvdUM
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) August 8, 2016
Executive editor at the Daily Beast:
.@timkmak brought us this story a couple of weeks ago. We passed b/c it seemed so David French 2.0. https://t.co/kYjmCTsTKy
— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) August 8, 2016
cokane
Deadlines have already passed in a number of states to get on the ballot (or are very close arriving, thus virtually impossible to meet sig requirements). Moreover a number of states do not have a write-in option. I dunno why people keep floating this “alternate candidate” bullshit, especially in mainstream media where a basic fact check should torpedo this stupidity.
Corner Stone
If he denies Trump UT this thing may as well be an episode of Laugh-In.
Corner Stone
@cokane: The Rick Wilson told us all on MSNBC that if 20 ballot expert lawyers exist, they are on their election team.
daves09
Satire, irony, sanity; they’re all dead.
Mary G
I think this may be a stratagem of the Romney-bot’s specifically for Mormons, particularly in Utah, to give people who hate Trump but can’t stomach Hillary or Johnson, because of abortions, a choice. It screws Trump over nicely.
Baud
The guy doesn’t appear to have a website yet. Good start.
Major Major Major Major
Ok. This showed up in a Facebook comment thread:
I asked the commenter if he was a Markov generator based on Internet conspiracy message boards.
PaulWartenberg2016
Talk about a useless gesture. this guy is nowhere near a respectable enough figure to be a GOP SAVIOR. And we’re supposed to take him SERIOUSLY?
If this McMullin was so great and influential a player within the GOP, why didn’t he run during the primaries when he could have stopped Trump?!
This isn’t even going to put a dent in Gary Johnson’s polling numbers. I guarantee more Republicans are going to vote for the Libertarian – especially in small-population states like Utah and New Hampshire and hell why not New Mexico – because he stands an actual chance of winning a handful of electoral college votes away from Trump.
Corner Stone
@daves09: Not only dead. Murder, She Wrote
dmsilev
A couple of fun Opinion pieces up today. First, in the NYT from a former Bush speechwriter, Mike Pence Should Get Donald Trump to Withdraw:
Secondly, Susan Collins takes to the WaPo to explain why she is not voting for Trump (though she didn’t go all the way and say she would vote for Clinton):
(the incidents were attacking the judge overseeing the Trump University lawsuits, making fun of a disabled reporter, and the Khan Event).
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I can’t take golf seriously as an Olympic sport.
PaulWartenberg2016
I wanna do a road trip to Georgia during this election cycle to talk to people and make sure enough people are flipping their votes to Hillary. Getting GA to turn Blue along with FA and NC and maybe even SC (!) and TX (!) will go a long way towards breaking the Republican Southern Strategy – the source of all ills – once and for all.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
I prefer to signal to society my opposition to fascism.
cokane
per https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_access_for_presidential_candidates not official but rough guide,
deadlines have passed in AR DE FL GA IL IN KS MD MI MA MS NE NJ NM NC OK PA SC SD TX VT WA WV WI
and a whole bunch hit deadlines on the 10th — this month. It’s just bullshit deception that Buzzfeed is selling their story as a “SCOOP”
PaulWartenberg2016
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
One of these days a great Greek golfer will appear and win the Gold, maybe then the sport will be truly Olympian.
rikyrah
Independent candidate?
huh?
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: Are you sure that wasn’t a spoof or snark?
Baud
@dmsilev:
I was expecting that article to go in a different direction after this line. I am disappointed.
Keith P.
I’m looking at the impending civil war in the GOP in late November (oh, man, is Erick Erickson pissed at all this), and I’m thinking that the resolution is not going to be quick. Maybe one more presidential cycle loss, and they’ll finally figure out long-term planning. But really, all the “serious” and “true conservative” Repubs are ready to jettison/end the career of anyone supporting Trump. And on the side, the Trumpsters are already blaming Party A for ruining Trump’s image and costing him the election. It’s going to be a bloodbath that will drag on unless they split the party into two actual parties (and let one of them die in the wilderness or start governing by coalition)
schrodinger's cat
I have never heard of this person before.
Corner Stone
@dmsilev:
Any person who holds these views but still can not say out loud they will vote for HRC are cowards. There is no moral support available for cowards who declare Trump to be unfit for the job but still blush under an umbrella when it comes to HRC. Vote, don’t vote. There is only one way to move forward and not be a coward re: Trump.
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: he also said elsewhere that the CIA psy-ops’d Omar Mateen into shooting up Pulse, I put it at 50/50.
Hunter Gathers
I’ve often asked myself, ‘How many votes would a Mayonnaise Sandwich would get in an election?’ Now I get to find out. Hooray?
Baud
@dmsilev:
? Martin
I would like to point out that pre conventions, when the race was roughly tied, the polling in Texas was Trump +7. There hasn’t been a poll there since. Now, I don’t think Clinton will win Texas, but fuck do I want the GOP to spend money there to defend it.
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat: And probably never will again.
dmsilev
@Baud: One could certainly imagine someone in the “GOP establishment” arranging for a pistol to be delivered to Gov. Pence with the message “You’ll only get one shot. Make it count.”
AnotherBruce
@Corner Stone: Here comes da judge
lamh36
this is what Nutrisystem considers flatbread pizza???
surprisingly the final result didn’t taste half bad…once ya added some Cajun seasoning ??
BTW, this is considered 2 meals!
Anne Laurie
@Major Major Major Major: Forward this tweet to him/them:
Baud
@dmsilev:
Valkyrie II: Electric Boogaloo.
Baud
@AnotherBruce:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hIcKkKID8k
p.a.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016. At a joint Washington news conference today, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Appalachia) and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Cheese) announced that the Republican Party would be taking an indefinite leave of absence to ‘find itself’.
“We feel we’ve just been floundering for a while now”, said Ryan.
“Floundering”, repeated McConnell.
The Two men stated the Republicans would meet and seek to regroup either at Stone Mt. Georgia or Philadelphia, Mississippi. Animatronic Ronald Reagans are being delivered to Congress to replace the actual politicians.
Ryan again:”The Reagans are programmed to vote ‘Nay’, so the changeover for the sabbatical should be seamless.”
“Seamless”, said McConnell.
dmsilev
@? Martin: There was a poll out today from Georgia showing Clinton up by 7 points. If the GOP has to defend Georgia once October rolls around, we’re basically in a game-over situation. Texas would be fun, but it’s hellishly expensive to run a state-wide campaign there so I doubt the Clinton team would spend anything.
Baud
@AnotherBruce:
Here comes da judge.
amk
@schrodinger’s cat:
oktoberaugust surprize?piratedan
what I find to be laughable is anyone thinking Mike Pence can rescue anything is beyond me, I doubt that lame fuck can even pull out the socks stuck in the back of the dryer.
Mike E
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Bring back beisbol!
ETA Take that, Russia!
Suzanne
Just got home from work. The leader of my studio had a stroke over the weekend. We all are worried about him and now have a lot of extra work to do.
I wish there were women’s gymnastics on. Love watching those girls kick ass.
Corner Stone
@shomi:
I’m possibly going to masturbate in a few minutes over items having nothing to do with Trump.
Coincidence?
amk
collins. courageous coward
Emma
@Baud: Oh good, someone understood what that was all about! It read like Sanskrit put through a Quenya translator to me.
Citizen_X
@Major Major Major Major:
How does a secret ballot “signal” anything?
OT: the “energy companies hate this” ad I’m getting right now says “Reverse Your Energy Bill In Half!” That would be neat, whatever it is, right?
one_particular_harbour, fka Botsplainer
@Baud:
LOL – It’s got a “Huey P Long meets Hitler” feel to it, doesn’t it?
hovercraft
Take that cheater !!
Amir Khalid
The Johnson/Welders (ouch!) are offering Republicans a better Republican candidate than Trump, with some libertarian artificial flavouring. This Egg McMuffin chap looks like he’s competing for a similar space. It seems to me that if either candidate gains much traction it will be at Trump’s expense, which would hand Hillary the election.
Meanwhile, 538’s Harry Enten notes that about one in three of Bernie backers are still not with Hillary; but they are so few, and her current polling over lead over Trump so large, that they might not matter much after all.
mike in dc
@? Martin: She’d have to be dead even or up a point, and then some left leaning pac would have to make noise about dropping a couple million there.
sigaba
This whole business is turning into the California recall election. Fortunately Hillz is a lot more popular than Gray Davis.
Oldgold
In addition to Utah, McMullin will help Hillary in Arizona and Nevada..
Emma
@lamh36: I had lunch with someone on Nutrasystem once. After she had finished her “pizza” I gave her half my shrimp salad sandwich.
Prescott Cactus
@Daniel Drezner :
Ronnie was disturbed long before he made it into the grave.
khead
Georgia is “in play”. Prolly Arizona too. I’m giving 3 (or 4) to 1 odds against Trump and still getting no takers. I am loving this election. Beyond my wildest dreams.
rikyrah
HUH?
Bradd JaffyVerified account
@BraddJaffy
Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg are getting a reality show — ‘Martha & Snoop’s Dinner Party’
Schlemazel
@Keith P.:
It would be a beautify dream to think the GOP would break into 3. I assume they would form a coalition in the House, at least if the parts were 50%+ but they would never have the Senate or the White House and, with luck, they would lose a lot of state houses in 2018 & 2020 so we could fix the gerrmand and break the bastards strangle hold on the nation for a generation at least. If they can do that it will be the first decent thing they have done for the nation since the New England GOP supported LBJ and the Civil Rights and voting rights acts in 64 & 65.
Mike E
@Corner Stone: pls don’t shomi
one_particular_harbour, fka Botsplainer
@Corner Stone:
There are no 20 year old Olympic gymnasts that actually want you, CS.
You get the Ukrainian power weight lifters. The male ones.
Baud
@rikyrah: The way things are going, they should run for president on the same ticket.
some guy
the Night of Long Knives is gonna take months and months to play out for the GOP. good.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Mike E: I don’t think I rooted against the Russians this hard when they were the Soviet Union.
Baud
Interesting that the religious right doesn’t have their own candidate. They are sticking with Trump. Revealing.
one_particular_harbour, fka Botsplainer
@rikyrah:
I would totally go to that – Martha’s canapés and Snoop’s dank smoke.
Mike E
@rikyrah: 11 herbs n spices!
Patricia Kayden
@daves09: Not quite yet. We have three more months for Trump to pull insanity out of his behind. He can go much lower.
SFAW
@dmsilev:
Mike “Stinkum” Pence?
jl
How is Trumps ersatz populism going to continue hiding its ersatz if Trump has to please the GOP donors?
Part of his plan today is to abolish the estate tax completely.
I’ve heard that one before.
Prescott Cactus
@Mike E: + a ten pack of 9 volt batteries for the smoke detectors.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: (who was quoting a nimrod)
If voting has no effect, why are Republicans trying to make it illegal?
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: They have Pence who will do the presidenting while Trump acts as the figurehead. Pence is pretty Christianist.
schrodinger's cat
@Amir Khalid: I met one of those this Saturday, she said she was thinking of voting for Trump because that will really change things. This Bernie Bro (actually sis) is 60 year old black woman. I was speechless.
Mary G
@Baud: Here is McMullin’s website. I still say Ryan is too stupid to have set this up.
SFAW
@Suzanne:
Is that a new gymnastic event? Cool!
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
A few days ago, I realized that these Hitler/Mussolini comparisons to Trump are all wrong. Aside from Nazi analogies being the nuclear weapons of rhetoric, almost always better left in their silos, those comparisons don’t work. Hitler and Mussolini were both savvy in ways Trump is not. (We remember the latter almost exclusively for the buffoonery, especially late in his regime, but that’s not inclusive of the whole story.) Both were also legitimate war heroes, and Trump definitely isn’t that, Purple Heart be damned.
Besides, go back about seventy years, and you find a much better analogy to Trump: Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. He does a much better job of capturing not just the authoritarianism and danger, but also the farce. Hopefully we don’t have to suffer a humiliating military loss to the Germans to be rid of him.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
I think there is a huge junction between the evangelicals and the racists and they will be the base of the ‘Natural Law’ party. Ayn Paul and the Bernie dead-enders will root the New Libertarian Party and Ryan McConnell and those boys will probably retain the ‘Republican’moniker. It will be a joy to see because the Natural Law kids have less in common with the GOP, particularly once the populist types start attacking the 1%’ers
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So is McMullin there for the anti trump conservative vote, or to for the anti-trump conservative donors?
laura
@sigaba: the recall was the MOST undemocratic act I ever witnessed (until the SC decided a political question in an uncitable case) in purposefully overturning a valid election on the flimsiest of grounds. Thank the FSM that the recall’s primary driver lost out in a clown-car election to Der Gropenfuehrer who then helped crater the budget by repealing a vehicle license tax and twice vetoed a sound, viable single-player Healthcare plan that made it through both houses of the legislature with Republican majorities both times (thank you Sheila Keuhl)!
Harrumph.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: Well that should be …. interesting. Strange bedfellows, to say the least.
Mike E
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: heh, way back in the day when they couldn’t get decent jeans and toilet paper…I find I’m more charitable now toward all the many nations but yeah, fuck Russia
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
You the Man! One of the awesomer things I’ve read in a while.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
Hillary being sued by the usual suspect on behalf of Patricia Smith etc.
Patricia Kayden
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Rick Wilson is behind this campaign, so I assume he’s running out of money and this is his hustle.
Corner Stone
@one_particular_harbour, fka Botsplainer: Gymnasts creep me out. Little munchkins with huge lats and thighs.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: I still want to figure out how to goad Trump by calling Pence the “smart one” on the ticket.
lamh36
Baud
@Mary G: Thanks. Very interesting.
Baud
@lamh36: Make the Olympics Great Again!
Major Major Major Major
@Citizen_X: well, if you were to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow…
Omnes Omnibus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:He even has own Eugenie.
*Not literally the same path, but an updated version of the same thing.
Jeffro
@dmsilev:
True, and yet none of them go with the obvious: if you want to slap down Trump and Trumpism, vote Clinton to run up the score/double the pain on the Trumpkins. That, coupled with a “c’mon people get serious, we’ll survive 4 years of HRC” message would tell me they’re really ‘there’ there.
Ah well, stages of grief and all that…
dmsilev
@schrodinger’s cat: Well, Trump would certainly change things, that’s true.
Not all change is good.
Baud
@Corner Stone: The swimmers seem to be evolving into merepeople before our eyes.
Corner Stone
That NFTG face by Phelps pre-race is nuts.
“Me? You’re coming for me? You?”
cckids
@PaulWartenberg2016: More Mormons will write in Mitt Romney than will vote for this nobody.
SFAW
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Don’t know about Duce, but if I understand things correctly, Hitler was no war hero. Except, perhaps — as with Deadbeat Donnie — in his own mind.
schrodinger's cat
@dmsilev: Yup she is frustrated and wants to burn it all down. She seemed to agree with me that Trump was far worse than Hillary.
Patricia Kayden
@schrodinger’s cat: None of us have. Cannot imagine that he actually thinks he will be running a serious campaign. Bizarre that someone would wait until three months before the election to throw his hat into the ring.
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: I have for-real done that. Ok, technically it was a neutron beam not a flow, and the polarity in question was the spin polarization as part of a neutron scattering experiment, but I have indeed reversed the polarity of a neutron flow.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Maybe it’s a pathetic ploy to deny HRC a majority of EC votes and let Paul Ryan pick the President.
Idiotic, but convince me this wouldn’t occur to them.
ETA: I finally made it to San Jose. It’s lovely. I’m exhausted, the sun won’t go down like it properly should.
Frankensteinbeck
@dmsilev:
My prediction is that all of these people loudly declaring they won’t vote for Trump because he’s not the Republican Party will vote for Trump and pretend they’re not. Their concern is the party’s reputation, not whether Trump wins. The people who will switch sides or just not vote are the ones grumbling to themselves and turning off the television.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
I assume you’re doing Nutrisystem because it works best with your weird work schedule, but I’m not sure I’d want to take diet advice from Marie Osmond. ?
I’ve seen worse than that from Weight Watchers, tho. Much worse. Google “weight watchers mackerel pudding” if you don’t believe me.
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat: So if you start talking about how evil Hillary is, she’ll support Hillary in order to produce real change?
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: You’ll find a way!
catclub
@Schlemazel: Somehow I can imagine the national GOP splitting but staying together to control all the states it already does.
Corner Stone
@Baud: Maybe? If you picture them, as I do, as Daryl Hannah in Splash then I guess that’s kind of true.
lamh36
Ha, you could see the SA swimmer went out of his way to get in Phelps eye sight and he keeps staring at Phelps…..guess he trying to play that psych game…lol
chopper
@Major Major Major Major:
Almost sounds like old school mclaren from the day.
Jeffro
Btw is there any doubt that a tenth of Trump’s nuttiness/lying/whatever would have already sunk the Democratic candidate to about 25% nationally, and probably would have doomed the party for the next six elections? I am STILL seeing nonsense about Trump ‘pivoting’, ‘improving’, ‘getting on message’, etc. Ye must be kidding me, laddies.
If this was even a “Generic Democrat”, we’d be talking about the loss of the Senate, House, and the Clerk of the Peace in Altoona, PA. W/ HRC in the race, if she had pulled all this crazy crap? Mondale would be like “well hey at least I won Minnesota…”
dmsilev
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Pushing a third-party ‘true conservative’ is the wrong way to go about that strategy. He would, assuming for the sake of argument that this lasts more than a couple of days, split the conservative vote and Clinton would end up with more rather than fewer Electoral votes (since you don’t need a majority to win any given state, just a plurality). Look to the Greens if you you are searching for evidence of attempts to split the left-leaning vote.
catclub
@Ultraviolet Thunder: This is what they seem to think, but it makes no sense, because all of the extra candidates they propose will all absorb GOP votes, not Hillary Democratic votes.
Apparently they do not know anyone who would actually be attractive to Democratic voters.
Baud
@Jeffro: All true.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
Snoop is working hard to become Respectable. He had that reality show where he was coaching his kid’s Pop Warner football team, and he’s been doing some negotiations between the LAPD and BLM here in LA (and apparently doing a pretty good job of it).
Either that, or he wants some of Rev. Run’s success — Run has had, like, three different Food Network shows and they’ve all done really well.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@dmsilev: @catclub:
True, but are those GOP voters VOTING? It only makes sense if people who otherwise would sit out vote for the 3rd party guy and dilute the D vote.
Omnes Omnibus
@chopper: Not enough abuse.
rikyrah
If you need to laugh today:
babygirl.
@THEROYALKOURT
I’m gonna watch this video every timeeeeeee it comes up on my timeline ??????
lamh36
I was inherently rooting against the SA dude cause…hello South Africa…lol.
But trying to psych out Phelps is obnoxious as hell.
rikyrah
@Mnemosyne:
.
Rev. Run stays on tv……he knows how to keep himself a show.
Patricia Kayden
@Jeffro: How is he pivoting? Trump is not going to change. The most I expect to see is him reading more from teleprompters.
The media is desperate for a pivot which will never come.
Schlemazel
@SFAW:
By all accounts, Hitler was a brave soldier: he was promoted to the rank of Corporal, was wounded twice (in 1916 and 1918) and was awarded several medals.
? Martin
@dmsilev: I think that’s the wrong way to think about it. If Texas is in play, then Clinton can pull her money out of Ohio and Florida and put it into Texas. What Texas needs more than anything to turn is voter registration and GOTV on the left. Right now that isn’t happening because money is being spent everywhere but Texas. Now, I don’t think it’d make Texas a blue state in the conventional sense, but it would shove it noticeably left and make it that much harder for the GOP to hold – both at the state and national level – and that much easier for Dems to justify putting money there.
We know that there are enough latinos in the state to make it a blue state. We can’t seem to find the will or means to turn them into voters. Demographically, it’s already a battleground state if not a lean blue state.
Fair Economist
We had “Trump Curry” for dinner tonight. It was all-white ingredients (onion, potato, and cauliflower) steamed until the heads got soft.
Schlemazel
@catclub:
Not if they split votes for Gov. With a little luck maybe the Dems will win a few 3-ways for state reps & control a few houses. Gotta work the GOTV hard.
rikyrah
@lamh36:
That was ridiculous
danielx
1. Like this is gonna happen. The only way Trump is getting out of this race is feet first.
2. The fuck he didn’t, as certain parties back in Mike Pence’s home state would put it.
Pence had plenty of evidence as to what kind of crazy the toupéd fucktrumpet actually is before the Republican convention, and he volunteered for the job. Granted that Pence’s ambition vastly outweighs his intellect (no great feat), he does have a professional pol’s shrewdness on purely political matters. The only reason I can figure he’s doing this at all is that he figures one way or another, Trump isn’t going to last long. After Trump?
Pence is probably looking at the parade of fools and miscreants that Trump beat and thinking “hey, if he beat that parade of losers, why not me? I can at least give a speech in which I follow an idea for more that a minute and I have a head of magnificent political hair which would be a shame to let go to waste.” And so forth.
Major Major Major Major
@Fair Economist: yum, lol
Barb2
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
“Do you know the way to San Jose?”
Old pop tune, seems fitting after your journey. I used to live there, went to San Jose State University. Raygun tried to shut the University down.
You should have seen SJ when orchards filled the valley.
Suzanne
@lamh36: I am watching the synchronized diving and one of the American divers is a total dude to who looks like Zac Efron and his name is Steele Johnson, and I cannot help but think he has a bright future in gay porn.
Fair Economist
@Ultraviolet Thunder: The purpose of a “reasonable” third-party conservative is not to keep Hillary out of the White House – it makes it more likely she’ll get in. The purpose is to save downballot candidate by giving “sane” conservatives a reason to show up and vote.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Fair Economist:
White on the inside and orange goop on the outside?
Patricia Kayden
@Fair Economist: And then covered by the curry. That sounds symbolic of something.
Mary G
I don’t think the purpose of McMullin is to throw the election to the house or anything. He looks like a charisma-free sad sack and admits he is more comfortable in the back rooms than on the stage. His positions are wingnut 101: America is exceptional and must run the world, gunz are good, life begins at conception, the border must be secured, trade is good, and poors AKA brown people are lazy:
I think they are trying to bolster their de-legitimization of Hillary by not letting her run up the score. This guy will appeal to the Republicans that the alt-right that is all in for Trump has been sneering at as the GOPe (for establishment) for a couple of years now.
Schlemazel
@Fair Economist:
Not sure that curry would be kosher for a Trump dish, I’d expect a béchamel.
Served over white rice I assume?
Lizzy L
@danielx:
“Pence is probably looking at the parade of fools and miscreants that Trump beat and thinking “hey, if he beat that parade of losers, why not me?”
I despise Ted Cruz, but I think I might enjoy watching Mike Pence’s attempt to take on Ted Cruz. Yeah, no.
mainmata
@Keith P.: Yes, this stupid GOP idea that you never enter into voting coalitions in either House has long been totally destructive and pointless. I get it; not making the government work is their point but they just enable the more powerful executive Presidency as a result. Ok, rarely Orange Julius allowed open votes but those were dire emergencies. Meanwhile, voters get fed up with the chaos. National GOP literally doesn’t exist anymore even as state-level GOP revanchist parties are thriving. If the Senate flips and Clinton wins, then it’s over for the GOP HOR. They will be faced with continuing the deadender game or compromising with massive internal divisions even worse than now.
? Martin
@Mary G: McMullen can’t get on the ballot, so it’s a pointless exercise. Trump might be replaceable because the courts will recognize the GOP as deserving to be on the ballot based on the number of voters that identify with the party, but they’re not going to grant exceptions to some newcomer with no recognized base of support.
Lizzy L
One of these days I’ll remember to use the blockquote feature…
SFAW
@Schlemazel:
By some accounts. Others were less glowing.
Not an expert, my comments are based on some stuff I read in the last 1-2 weeks, possibly here, mentioning that his contemporaries were less impressed. Maybe my comprehension skills (and memory) are waning, stranger things have happened. And too damn lazy to go look to see if I got it wrong or right.
Geoduck
In another article he posted, I was sad to see the Pierce has announced that if Hillary accepts an endorsement from Henry Kissinger, then he (Pierce) is taking his ball and going home, and will vote for Johnson. Of all the things to choose as your hill to die on…
Fair Economist
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
LOL Yes, kind of. Didn’t even think of that part!
@Schlemazel:
Of course!
Emma
@Geoduck: He’s always had a bit of Hillary Derangement Syndrome going. If we’re talking about Charles of Esquire.
Mary G
@? Martin: He can still get on in Utah, Arizona, Idaho and Nevada, where lots of Mormons live. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t filed there today and could even get Utah’s 6 EVs. It’s just symbolic. They will make a big fuss about challenging deadlines in all the other states and then when Hillary wins, they will say that if McMullen hadn’t been frozen out, she wouldn’t have won as big.
Ken
@danielx: Have there been any recent polls of Indiana? From what I understand they really didn’t like Pence, but which direction might that push them?
SFAW
@Schlemazel:
Found some of the stuff I had seen. Not into it enough to discern whether they’re accurate..
Here.
Here.
Keith P.
@dmsilev: The list of prominent Republicans who are not voting for Trump is getting larger. If Rice or Powell vote no, it’s going to be real, real bad for Trump (although, right now, it already is. I’m looking at TPM’s daily graph, and other than that post convention spike (that really looks like an outlier), he’s capped at 42%. As these moderates start dropping, Trump is losing any potential for gains short of fixing that f’n ridiculous hair. I was joking recently about him getting some Rick Perry glasses, but now I think the odds are decent that he’s going to show up on TV one day with a Don Jr. hairdo.
danielx
@Lizzy L:
Possibly….Mike Pence is detestable in some ways, but not as detestable as Trump is in every way. Cruz, on the other hand, is almost as detestable as Trump. Even his colleagues hate him, whereas Pence, as a governor, has to work with people on a daily basis to get shit done, i.e., the day to day running of a semi-populous state. The only thing Cruz has ever had to get done is self-promotion; he’s not in the Senate to accomplish legislative-type things. Pick your poison – Pence is a theocrat and Cruz is a cruzocrat, but policy wise there’s not much to choose from.
lamh36
@Suzanne: LOL…he is D. Boudia’s partner…
My gaydar is way off to non-existent…cause I swear Boudia was gay, but nope married with baby…
As for gay porn… hell, all the divers have just the look for it and with the skimpy speedoes…it’s just good there was no wardrobe malfunctions…lol
Mandalay
@Suzanne:
It’s not gymnastics, but if you want to see girls kicking ass at the Olympics, there is this:
Australia wins first-ever women’s rugby gold medal
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geoduck: It’s a very strange story (if true). Why would Clinton want Kissinger’s endorsement? Who’s the target to be won over? I suspect to most people he’s the guy who’s been screwing up their dead pool for the past twenty years. I don’t like Colin Powell, but at least that courting his endorsement makes sense.
ETA: and yeah, that bit about “accepting the endorsement” is where Pierce crosses the line into HDS
lamh36
I know NBC has gotten flack for their sexist coverage…but one of the cotroversies, I saw LIVE and as I said, the announcers were actually referencing this article about the swimmer and her husband. Where she said, she credits her husband for her being a different winning athlete.
Not to take any flack from NBC, cause yeah, the commentary has been ridiculous, but this one had a bit of backstory to it.
Katinka Hosszu and Her Husband Raise Eyebrows at the Pool
amk
@Ken: Indiana is still red per nate of silver. Caution: It’s nate.
Suzanne
@lamh36: I totally thought Boudia was gay, too. And Johnson kept talking about Christ in that way that screams that he’s compensating for something. I remain unconvinced that we are wrong.
phantomist
Beautiful northern skies tonight. If you’re above the 45th in the midwest go outside.
Lizzy L
@danielx: Cruz is slime incarnate. I would still enjoy watching him dismember Mike Pence.
Anoniminous
@lamh36:
Meaningless by itself. There’s way too much variation in human behavior for one data point to be definitive.
Chris
@Anne Laurie:
I agree completely. In fact, that’s about the best summary I’ve seen of the whole childish “I’m voting my conscience!” thing.
But I won’t be reposting it, or spreading that message far and wide… Because most of the “conscience” voting people I know are Republican #NeverTrumpists. I want these people to piss away their votes. Slap them hard enough with the fact that their defiant moment will make no difference at all and that it won’t even be remembered by anyone, and they’re as likely to hold their nose and vote for Trump as hold their nose and vote for Hillary – they’re people who’re deep enough into the wingnut hive mind that they really do believe the two are equivalent, which is why they’re third partiers in the first place. Best to just let them make their grand stand against reality.
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Apparently Hillary and Kissinger are pals IRL but don’t talk about politics.
Me, I would want Kissinger’s opinion on world events if only to know what not to do.
Emma
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, ever since the Kissingers and the Clintons coincided at a couple of Oscar de la Renta’s house parties (think tropical Downton Abbey) and Kissinger mentioned that he had heard from his buddies at State that Hillz was a good administrator, it has been taken as an article of faith by some leftists that Henry is the eminence grise behind Hillz.
lamh36
@Suzanne: See, I’m glad to think I wasn’t the only one who was like “huh David Boudia is married…to a woman…well hmm”…lol
As for Johnson, I admit, I didn’t watch the after match interview, I hate the questions so much…but I did think it was cute that he was sooo overcome at winning Silver, while Boudia, was like…”meh”…LOL
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: RBG and Scalia went (yay past tense) to the opera together.
Charles “the good one” Johnson at LGF finds wingnuts forging documents about Hillary having seizures. I’m telling you this is gonna be a Thing
Mike E
@danielx: meh…Pence is a smarmy douche canoe
lamh36
Ugh… this new Bridget Jones is likely to be stupid as hell, but…
COLIN FIRTH..I just can’t quit you!
btw, i swear I thought it said “Daddy’s Back”…BWHAHAHAHAH
Wyliecoat
Has anyone seen the new wiki leaks threat of exposing Hillary Clinton’s links to ISIS. My teenager is freaking out and I only found one article on it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Kissinger’s advice on how to do something might be good. Kissinger’s advice on what to do, not so much.
Suzanne
@lamh36: I have never met a dude who waxes his chest and oils his skin that much who was lower than a 3 on the Kinsey scale. I know he’s a diver. Still.
grandpa john
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: As Samuel Butler said many years ago
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Emma: and St Bernard claimed, falsely, in one of the debates that Clinton had referred to HK as her “mentor”. A few of our trolls were off and running with that one.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m thinking it would be more like, Find out what Kissinger says to do, and then do the opposite.
Emma
@Wyliecoat: Tell your teenager that unless Wilileaks has actual pictures of Hillary in a hijab sitting on a horse in the middle of an ISIS camp that it would be logical to assume Assange and the Russians are up to some forgery.
SFAW
@Mike E:
Is that better or worse than a ferret-headed shitgibbon?
Mnemosyne
@Wyliecoat:
I’m assuming it dates from when the US was still trying to figure out if there were elements of the Syrian opposition who could be useful to us. But at this point, I wouldn’t put it past Assange to forge shit. He has kind of an issue with women.
Emma
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Did he? Why am I not surprised?
SiubhanDuinne
I love Gilbert & Sullivan.
I do not love Donald Trump.
I enjoy writing doggerel parodies.
Here you go.
lamh36
Ok…I’m too tired to stay up any longer…I wasn’t planning on watching the Mens Gymnastics final, but NBC guide said it was supposed to be on broadcast tonight…what the hell NBC?
Before I go, wanted to share my good news…
Got a phone interview scheduled for my dream job on Friday! I’ve been trying to land a job here for YEARS and this is the closet I’ve EVER been! So I’m so psyched and can’t wait til Friday!!!
Anyway, I can’t stay up any longer…I’m off to bed.
Don’t know if anyone recalls, but I had to reschedule that other telephone thing I was supposed to have last Thursday, but the woman, who I’ve dubbed Flaky Lady, kept flaking out on me. It’s supposed to happen tomorrow, but we’ll see if Flaky Lady calls me tomorrow morning.
But the BIG NEWS is the phone interview on Friday!
GAHHHHH!!!!
Night guys.
Mnemosyne
For the knitters, I bought this shawl kit from Craftsy. They do tend to have nice kits with good yarns at decent prices.
grandpa john
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: this tells all you need to know
The parents were represented by Washington, D.C., lawyer Larry Klayman, a frequent critic of the Clintons.
GregB
How perfect of Trump to come out and endorse all of the in trouble Republican’s and the end if the week where the bottom fell out of his campaign.
The Republican’s are finally, finally bumping up against their demographic electoral apocalypse.
They were also in their anti-intellectual information feedback loop long enough to convince them that they had their finger on all of America’s pulse instead on the walking dead of their base.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: Models and actors?
Major Major Major Major
@lamh36: break a leg! Congrats!!
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: He was good at what he did. What he did was horrible. Take the technical advice; avoid the strategic.
Lizzy L
@lamh36: Good luck!!!
Chris
@SFAW:
Not actually related to clearing up the historical record, but my favorite portrayal of WW1-Hitler in fiction was from an eighties movie called “The Ace of Aces,” where the opening sequence at one point shows a “Corporal Hitler” as a useless twit who’s constantly having to be dressed down by his exasperated superior “Lieutenant Rosenblum.”
In my head-canon, that totally happened.
Mike E
@SFAW: I report, you decide!
?BillinGlendaleCA
I went on an adventure today, I ran across and took a picture of this star on the Walk of Fame.
Dadadadadadada
@SFAW: Well, he volunteered for service, and was wounded in combat. That puts him about 1000 levels above Deferment (ow, my heel spurs!) Donnie.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris: One of the best cinematic representations of young Hitler was is in the movie “Max” which looked at the era in which he was trying to be an artist and also was becoming a part of the right-wing movement in 1920s Germany.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
FIFY.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@SFAW: It’s not so much that they are inaccurate as they are incomplete. Yes, Hitler served as a regimental runner, which was safer than being a battalion runner, but there are some caveats to that.
1) Before becoming a runner, he was a combat infantryman. He served as such at the First Battle of Ypres (known to the Germans as Kindermord bei Ypern in 1914. His claim that he was the only survivor of his platoon is almost certainly an exaggeration, but his company of 250 at the start of the battle was reduced to 42 by the end; Weber’s citation of 13 lost on the single day of October 29th is very misleading, as he uses it to suggest that that was the total losses by the company in the battle. In fact, they were in the line for almost the whole month, and 13 casualties in one day is actually pretty high.
2) While being a regimental runner was safer than being a battalion runner, that’s a far cry from saying that it was actually safe. As the war went on, one of their tasks was to repair telephone wires that were cut. Given that the general reason for the cut was artillery fire, and they went out while the shelling was still underway, the danger was real. Hitler picked up both of his wounds while serving as a runner, both from artillery fire.
3) Yes, it was more common for those serving at headquarters to win an Iron Cross, First Class than for those at the front, but it was still uncommon for a lance corporal to receive one.
Weber picks and chooses his sources, and carries some of the facts he unearthed a lot farther than they can really go. The letters and other sources he found are valuable, and shed a lot of light on Hitler’s falsehoods about how his political views were viewed in the unit, but they don’t do what he claims and debunk the idea that Hitler served well and courageously in WW1.
Prescott Cactus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m hoping you had the common indecency to leave some sort of bodily fluid on that piece of tile before departing.
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Sad to see that the wall built around it is now gone.
I assume we can thank Obama for that.
Ruckus
@danielx:
Pence is disgusting. Comparing the three of them as being bad, worse, worst is a waste of time and electrons. They are all fucking disasters. The number of people injured by any one of them will be so far in excess of acceptable that the differences are at best semantics.
Suzanne
@lamh36: Woot woot, congrats! Be sure to let us know how it goes!
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus:
The answer is in the question.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
Fingers crossed — it’s about time somebody here has some good luck!
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: Objection, assuming facts not in evidence.
Ruckus
@Prescott Cactus:
I was thinking of a more solid substance.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Prescott Cactus: I would have but I had better plans for the afternoon than spending it in the Hollywood division’s jail. His star is right next to the Dolby Theater, it was rather crowded.
@dmsilev: I had forgotten about the wall when I took the pic and was somewhat surprised to see a star for him(though they’re just bought and paid for). It’s always a good bet to thank Obama for these things.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: Heh, the area is under video surveillance.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, this is definitely inference. But have you ever met any male models and/or actors who completely wax and oil their bodies who are exclusively straight? I have not. That is not my life experience.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: I see it as a possible job requirement. I don’t really look beyond that.
Matt McIrvin
That New York Times election widget that rikyrah likes to mention is looking brutal right now.
Scroll down to the bottom where it lets you play with “the most competitive states”. Trump’s options have been whittled down to 2 wins and 1 tie out of 1024 possibilities. Which means that to win, he really has to cut into states that the NYT doesn’t currently consider all that competitive. (Though their model still has a 15% tail where he wins, so I guess, like many others, they consider a national shift that would let him do that still an open possibility.)
SFAW
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Thanks for the additional info, I appreciate the help.
I guess I don’t think that “serving well and courageously” necessarily makes one a “legitimate war hero.”
And not being a “legitimate war hero” does not detract from one’s service.
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: Compare to Trump. I am willing to argue the honorable service thing vs. heroism thing until the cows come home, but compare to Trump and who the fuck cares.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
The original discussion had little if anything to do with Deadbeat Donnie. I took exception — perhaps wrongly — with the characterization that Hitler was a “legitimate war hero.”
Lizzy L
@Matt McIrvin: That is a fun toy. AFAICT, if Clinton wins Florida, that’s it, it’s over, thank you for playing, everybody go home now. Works for me.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I was going to add something about some people with guns not liking to see the stars defaced. I think it’s sort of like pissing on a grave, can be done but is it worth it.
At one time weren’t the stars awarded in some fashion?
ETA Also too, defacing that star in my fashion might get one a lecture, and a thank you from some of the local judges.
rikyrah
@lamh36:
Congratulations ???
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: Fair enough. Dolphie had, at a minimum, honorable war service. Ignoring the Iron Crosses, getting gassed is enough of a sign that some was up at the front; the medals said he did his job – they may say nothing more than that. Every soldier knows that most medals have variable meanings.
rikyrah
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah ??
Steeplejack (phone)
@lamh36:
Good luck with the interview!
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think we’re in agreement.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: I believe the stars were always a fundraising scheme for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
Ruckus
@SFAW:
What one does one the battlefield is what makes one a legitimate war hero. I think one could argue either way against Hitler being one but going out into the field of fire to repair telegraph wires or run messages in WWI seems to qualify. I’d bet in WWI a metal for this would normally be given posthumously. And maybe he was a suck up beyond measure. But I don’t get the impression that the German Army awarded Iron Crosses to enlisted without a reason.
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: Agreed. Fighting over Hitler’s heroism seems weird. He had a record that appealed to his people. Those who served, made the call that he did enough. The rest of his record should sort of overwhelm his war record.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
That deserves a repeat.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Omnes Omnibus: One thing about Hitler’s Iron Cross, First Class is that the officer that nominated him for it was Jewish. Given that Hitler was already loudly anti-Semitic, to the point of irritating some of his fellow soldiers, I suspect that it wasn’t a freebie.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Ruckus: Agreed. I’m just a pedant who reads a lot about both world wars.
Mussolini’s service was entirely as an infantryman, though it ended after nine months when he was caught in the accidental detonation of a mortar bomb in his trench, leaving him with shrapnel wounds bad enough that he was discharged. It was his second wound.
That generation was filled with people who advocated going to war, and then actually served on the front lines of that war. Something the current chickenhawks can’t manage.
CalD
Ummmm… Evan who?
Omnes Omnibus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I still leave it at my last comment. Only the soldier who gets the medal knows what it really means.
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
The thing I thought was interesting in the Guardian story was that they made the point that he was decorated a few times, but never promoted beyond corporal. Almost as if they realized that it was a very bad idea for that guy to have power over other people.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: The Germans did not promote a lot of people who got shitloads of medals. von Richthofen commanded a squadron and was only a captain (equivalent). Comparing rank with decorations in the German army is difficult.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Mnemosyne: Officers in his brigade claimed that Hitler refused promotion beyond lance corporal. Make of that what you will.
Nom de Plume
Whatever Hitler’s service in the war–and it may have been brave and honorable–in my mind it only indicts him further, since he knew full well what war was, and still chose to inflict it on countless others.
Applejinx
@Major Major Major Major: Dude, I want a volun-manupula-control machine. That sounds awesome :)
Applejinx
@dmsilev: Fuckin’ do it. I would send money to Hillary if she said she was going to run a state-wide campaign in Texas.
karen marie
@dmsilev: These fucking Republican concern trolls, like Susan Collins, are really starting to piss me off.
Has she been in a coma for the last 30 years? Since when have any Republicans, including Susan fucking Collins, treated anyone with respect? Their entire ethos is based on mocking the vulnerable and inflaming prejudices. It baffles me that anyone believes her bullshit.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@catclub: Then again, it could be a way to support Hillary without actually being seen to, you know, support Hillary. Make sure some big donors cash on your boy, and remind him he gets to keep what’s left, but that a couple-three state-wide ad buys and at least one national one are mandatory, to show serious intent. He’ll be golden for speaking engagements and commentary for years to come, having magically become known as a Very Serious Thinker, Trump will lose votes, and you, the Puppetmaster, will not have been caught openly endorsing That Woman.
artem1s
@cokane:
grifting. period. he’s trolling for donor lists and then will sell them to the highest snake oil bidder. it’s the only option left now. If they were serious about politics they would be putting their energy/money into saving the house and a couple of Senate seats.
hugely
@Fair Economist: what, no yams?
gex
@dmsilev: Or an AR-15 with the note, “Take as many shots as you need.”