I realize that saying “peak this” has become a joke, but I think Halperin may have a hard time topping this one, where he says Trump is one of the two most talented politicians he’s ever covered (the other being Bill Clinton). The friend who sent this asked: “Halperin believes nothing, what’s in it for him to pretend to believe something so stupid”.
I was going to joke that Trump was paying him, but I guess it’s more likely that the money’s coming in cash payments from the Ukraine.
Corner Stone
Not only is Halperin saying Trump is one of the two most talented presidential candidates in our lifetime, but the real reason Obama was successful in his runs was because he had “smart” white guys all around him.
“He just is.”
That sad little add on after he says Trump is talented. Ha!
Omnes Omnibus
Headdesk, Repeatedly.
Kenneth Kohl
jesus.fcking.christ
amorphous
Halperin knows what’s up. He recognizes Trump’s incredible 25¢-dimensional Don’t Spill The Beans! skills just wow the plebs.
HRA
Mercy! I cannot even give this a proper remark without resorting to trash words.
khead
I couldn’t see the knee pads in the video.
Miss Bianca
I couldn’t even get twenty seconds into it before I wanted to leap thru’ my screen and punch his smugly uncomprehending face. I mean – he gets PAID to be this dumb? Jesus Chicken-Fried Christ, how do *I* get a gig like that?
Baud
Technically true, since he hasn’t “covered” Obama in the traditional journalistic sense so much as attacked him as an agent of Republicans would.
Corner Stone
Ironically Halperin does unwittingly speak the truth there at one point. When he says we don’t realize how much of this campaign, “is just him. Just. Him.”
You’re damn straight, Mark. And guess what?
p.a.
I thought Trump’s ‘strength’ is that he’s not a politician? Or in wingnut singularity is naught > not-naught?
p.s. we’re doomed: my winger cousin predicts a Trump victory because “the polls lie. have you seen the crowds he attracts!?!”
I then referred him to the prevalence of campaign signs for further proof.
amorphous
@Miss Bianca: Well first, do you have principles, dignity, and self-respect? If so, you are disqualified as a candidate. Sorry.
Corner Stone
@Baud: He includes one two term President and slots Trump, elected to nothing, nowhere, never, ahead of another two term and majority popular President.
I wonder why?
Tom Levenson
Dear sweet FSM. It’s really marvelous how completely those around the table don’t get the gap between status and competence on display. Which, of course, is the epitaph of the whole fucking enterprise.
Corner Stone
@p.a.:
He doesn’t say “politician”. He says “presidential candidate”.
Baud
Only a supremely talented politician could have bested the GOP’s deep bench! Ipso facto, haters!
Baud
@Corner Stone:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Miss Bianca
@amorphous: Yeah, I have all these things – sometimes, anyway – you mean that means I can’t get a pundit gig on the TeeVee Machine?? SAD!
rk
Does Halperin:
1) Exist in a different reality than I do or,
2) Is racist shithead who will never ever give credit to a black or brown person for anything.
3) just makes stuff up since he has to talk and fill up time with gibberish or
4) Trump’s blackmailing him (he knows where the hooker is buried)
I need an explanation for why this man said what he did because this goes way beyond crazy!
Trollhattan
Hey now, I went to school and thus, know “fox” isn’t spelled “MSNBC.”
“Even the liberal…” rinse and repeat.
sukabi
Ok, just lost several billion brain cells listening to that horseshit. No hyou wankers it’s not just drumpf running his “campaign” all by himself, IT’S ALL THE FREE MEDIA AND FLUFFING HE’S BEEN GETTING FROM YOU!!!
Dishonest knobgobblers one and all.
Calouste
@rk: AOT,K.
David Fud
@Miss Bianca: Just rip away your soul and you too can earn the sweet, sweet corporate megabucks that Halperin clearly relishes more than his ethics or morals. Or, he is just very impressed with white guys that bend the rules of polite society. Take your pick.
Bobby_D
Occam’s razor must apply. The simplest explanation is that Halperin is just a flaming idiot and actually believes that. Especially after Trump schlonged the “deep bench” of the mighty GOP.
eric
@Corner Stone: This is a little like when people talk about such-and-such being an all time great team BEFORE they end up losing the championship game.
burnspbesq
How can anyone with more than two functioning brain cells believe …
Never mind, I think I just answered my own question.
dmsilev
Alternatively, Trump has promised to pay Halperin, but of course will renege on the actual payment because, well, Trump.
Splitting Image
Halperin is primarily concerned with his continued employment after November.
If everyone recognizes Trump’s failings, people might start thinking Hillary Clinton won the election legitimately. Contrariwise, if she defeats the most talented politician Halperin has ever covered, it is solid evidence that she cheated.
kindness
I can’t even honestly say Donald Trump is one of the most talented fuck ups in history.
WaterGirl
How does helper in have any credibility with anyone anymore?
I was with my sisters in vacation, and I love my sister a lot, I really do, but she said she can’t vote for Hilary because she’s not a Christian. But she can vote for trump. Did I miss something? Is trump a devout Christian? I was raised Catholic (since fallen away) but I seem to recall something about deeds being more important than words. Trump is the anti-Christian, as far as I can tell.
Edit: helper = halperin
Though autocorrect just want awed to change it to hampering, which isn’t a bad autocorrect.
Corner Stone
@David Fud:
It also helps if your daddy is Mort Halperin and served in three presidential administrations, think tanks, etc.
slag
Mark Halperin: “Palin is a talented politician…”
Does he naturally confuse “politician” with “swindler”?
ETA: I forgot about how he erroneously predicted Hillary would choose a Republican VP: http://wonkette.com/601837/hey-hillary-clinton-could-you-pick-sarah-palin-for-veep-thatd-be-great-thanks. Maybe he believes that every time he says something stupid an angel gets its wings.
Corner Stone
@WaterGirl:
Does she not recognize the Methodist Church as Christian?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Tom Levenson:
That show is exhibit A of the power of white supremacy in supporting mediocrity in the form of white male punditry. Wolf Blitzer? Brian Williams?? HELLO!!
Ruckus
@Miss Bianca:
He gets paid to be this much of an asshole, the dumb part is just the icing. So for you to get this job you’d have to give up any and all scruples you might have, you’d have to be comfortable running head first into a concrete wall repeatedly because that’s what it takes to be this stupid and you’d have to be comfortable around other complete assholes because that’s the only kind of human contact you’d be able to get.
ETA For me the money wouldn’t be enough. I’d bet it wouldn’t be enough for you either.
FlipYrWhig
@WaterGirl: Hillary Clinton is a little churchy for my secularist tastes, frankly. Donald Trump transparently bluffs anytime the Bible comes up. Does your sister perhaps use “Christian” as a tag to mean something about, say, abortion or homosexuality?
schrodinger's cat
The fact that Halperin and Bill Kristol have high profile media jobs shows that meritocracy is a lie.
debbie
Trump is talented in the way The Joker is talented. They both sow chaos.
On the other hand, Trump is more talented than Mark Halperin.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Hillary’s actually highly devout, as I understand it. Obviously, not the religious right, if that’s what your sister means.
Trollhattan
O/T while Louisiana drowns, California burns. [psst, call us about that extra water.] This is about an hour to the west, in an area that had two vast fires just last year.
singfoom
@WaterGirl: Sounds like your sister has been misinformed. She’ll probably double down if you challenge her on it, so I’d just drink until you forget she said that.
lollipopguild
@rk: All of these Katie.
WaterGirl
@Corner Stone: thanks so much for that article! I will share it with my sister via email. She didn’t actually say that to me, she said it too friend of mine and I thought it best not to ruin our vacation. But I can send it to her now.
My sister believes all the conservative lies about obama, too. I think she believes he is a secret Muslim. Sigh.
FlipYrWhig
@slag: In that case, I’m going to guess his litmus test is “knows how to work a (sympathetic) crowd without a lot of fancy words.” That’s why he thinks Obama is too eloquent and rehearsed to qualify, and presumably Hillary, McCain, Romney, Gore, and Bush are non-starters, but Trump, Palin, and Bill Clinton are, as far as he can tell, peas in a pod.
WaterGirl
@FlipYrWhig: I’m pretty sure I will find out the answer to that question after I send her the article from corner stone!
lollipopguild
@WaterGirl: Trump would not know Jesus Christ if Christ tapped Trump on the shoulder.
Baud
@lollipopguild: “Nice portrait, Ben. Who’s that other guy?”
quakerinabasement
Halperin is right, but only if you define “politician” as a synonym for huckster.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@WaterGirl:
Believing Obama is a Muslim is the highest correlating factor to whether someone is a Trump supporter. Your sister is lost. Sorry.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
I know how that goes. One of my brothers still questions the birth certificate. I gave up long ago. I will not be drawn into his need for an object of hate.
WaterGirl
@Baud: you probably have that right. Unless Christian actually means behaving in a very un-Christ or Christian-like manner.
Hallelujah! The lady in front of me who talked on her cell phone for 90 minutes just hung up. There is a god!
Keith P.
I just watched in disbelief as Wolf Blitzer’s standin stop an interview to challenge a Trump surrogates statement that trump was always against the Iraq war. And she hammered him on Trump proposing a bunch of stuff we’re already doing. He kept saying it’s be different because trump would bring energy but notWolf wasn’t buying it
WaterGirl
@singfoom: misinformed yes. Double down yes. Drinking, gReat idea. With any luck I’ll be home in an hour.
P.s I have never been in a storm on the train (that didn’t involve snow). The emergency signal just went off on my phone.
bobbo
The fact that Trump’s campaign is a dumpster fire proves that he is a talented politician? Because think how well he’d be doing if his campaign weren’t a dumpster fire? I can’t even
WaterGirl
@lollipopguild: wasn’t Jesus talking with the two Corinthians recently???
Sorry about all the typos, on the iPad on the train.
raven
@WaterGirl: Looks like Kankakee is getting hammered.
satby
@lollipopguild: Christ has a notoriously bad temper when it came to swindlers in the Temple, so I suspect the Lord and Savior® would deck Trump.
WaterGirl
@debbie: it seems crazy, doesn’t it, how different siblings can be from one another politically? I begin to understand how brother could fight against brother in the civil war.
ThresherK
@amorphous: “These are my principles. If you don’t like them, I have others.”
les
@Baud:
A bit scarily, really; she hung with that weird “Family” gang with Brownback and a bunch of nut jobs.
WaterGirl
@raven: and they just announced Kankakee a minute ago… Could be interesting, and not as necessarily in a good way.
satby
@WaterGirl: @raven: Yep, storm all the way home for you. But it may just barely move out by the time you get to your stop.
raven
@satby: It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry. . .
Miss Bianca
@WaterGirl: So, HRC is not a Christian, even tho’ she is, and Donald Trump is Christian, even tho’ he isn’t?
Villago Delenda Est
There is no Hell of sufficient thermal extremity that is adequate to deal with the likes of Halperin.
Villago Delenda Est
@Miss Bianca: “Christian” is code to the tribe for “Rethuglican fucknozzle”
debbie
@WaterGirl:
I’m the outlier, politically speaking. I don’t know how many times I told my mother I was sure the hospital gave her the wrong baby to bring home.
slag
@FlipYrWhig: I have to think, to a certain degree, he really means “disingenuous but believable”. In that regard, Obama and others are probably either too earnest or too unbelievable to fit the bill.
hovercraft
Halpern can go fuck himself. Why is it that every successful black person owes their success to white people? Obama had Ax and Pluoffe, because he fucking hired them, it was his fucking campaign. Hillary, McCain and RMoney had the means to hire whomever were the most talented operatives were, and they did. But guess what the dog didn’t like the fuckin dog food. The candidate is responsible for the campaign they run, Mark Penn and Patti Solis Doyle ran a shitty campaign and that was Hillary’s fault, she hired them, Robby Mook and crew are running a great campaign this time and that’s to her credit. Tapping into a bunch of nativist white people who want to go back to when they were in positions of privilege ( there is still white privilege), does not take talent. Apparently Mark, Joe and Mika find demagoguery impressive. I’m with Gene Robinson, Barack HUSSEIN Obama getting elected twice is more impressive.
Stop acting like we only succeed if benevolent white people ‘save’ us.
Miss Bianca
@Ruckus: I know, I know…it just makes me sad to see the wicked (and the stupid) flourish like the proverbial green bay tree…
Patricia Kayden
@khead: LOL! You also couldn’t see the last ounces of Halperin’s dignity drifting away.
This is the man who referred to President Obama as a dick.
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: @satby: they are warning about flash floods, hoping we don’t run into anything like that.
I was so hoping for rain last week when my family came. Wanted to spend time on my new porch but it was 90 degrees so it was pretty miserable.
Raven I need to send you photos of my new screen doors. They came out awesome, I want to marry them.
Gelfling 545
@WaterGirl: what? HRC is a Methodist. When did that stop being a Christian denomination?
WaterGirl
@Patricia Kayden: if they made bumper stickers that say Halperin is the dick, I would buy one. Or a hundred, and then give them to people for free.
satby
@raven: Two of the five knuckleheads here are pacing and looking expectantly at me because it’s almost dinnertime and they think I’m going out in the deluge to get their food from the garage. Nope.
The other three still have food left in their bowls, so they don’t care.
WaterGirl
@Gelfling 545: um, when the religious right started lying about everytthing?
cokane
Yeah pretty moronic comment by Halperin. Shoot, you could easily argue Perot was more “talented” than Trump. I think Halperin does believe his own bullshit on this though, counter to Doug’s suggestion. His political analysis has long been about evaluating people’s “talent” or whatever based on his own feels, an unrigorous and solipsistic approach to politics also best exemplified by Maureen Dowd.
satby
@WaterGirl: Train embankments usually stay above any flooding, you should be fine.
WaterGirl
@satby: when do you move into the new place? I should know, but I’ve forgotten.
WaterGirl
@satby: glad to hear that!
Kay
Obama is much more popular than Trump.
Trump doesn’t know that?
satby
@WaterGirl: I close Friday, and will start moving some stuff, but my handyguy is going to pull up the carpet in the downstairs and we’re going to see what shape the hardwood is underneath. If it should be refinished he’ll do that first, only living and dining room. But it may only need a buff and polish, fingers crossed.
Brachiator
@WaterGirl:
Clinton is a Methodist. Your sister could google it if she wants to see for herself, I guess.
Trump may be the anti-Christ.
I wonder how deep the Hillary is not a Christian” thing is.
debbie
@Kay:
That poll’s rigged. Really, really rigged.
PsiFighter37
What a flaming moron – and he owes the fact that he is still taken seriously to that shithole of a book, ‘Game Change’.
mike in dc
@Kay:
I would think that Trump’s ego is incapable of absorbing and believing that fact.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Me too. Do you have anything nice to listen too? I’d be tempted to put the ear buds in, turn up the volume, and try to escape the storm outside.
Safe travels, home.
Kay
@debbie:
People don’t like Rudy Giuliani either. We already know this.
You would think with all the highly paid political professionals in the GOP they would at least realize that- people could have voted for Guiliani in a Presidential primary if they liked him- no one did.
Chris Christie, too. Rejected.
schrodinger's cat
@MomSense: Did you hear Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, that I posted in my post on India’s Independence day, this afternoon?
shambala
Kay: Is that supposed to be a surprise? Someone actually paid for a poll about it? Really?
WaterGirl
@satby: either way it will be worth it! Hope the florors are decent enough to keep uncovered.
How excited are you? And by excited, I mean exhausted. :-)
Baud
@debbie: The poll is just being sarcastic.
Kay
@mike in dc:
I love how his whole campaign is based on how everyone hates Obama. Except they don’t. Ooops. Back to the drawing board.
lollipopguild
@ThresherK: “Does he have any Scruples? If he does he must have stolen them from someone else.”
hueyplong
I can only think of sixteen guys less talented than Trump.
This is like calling Trump the best position player on the ’62 Mets.
debbie
@Kay:
I loathe Rudi. He’s a walking argument for barring prosecutors from running for Congress or for the White House.
debbie
@Baud:
But not that much sarcasm, right?
Ruckus
@Miss Bianca:
Trump isn’t bullshitting, he is growing stupidity so just consider his mouth as a fertilizer factory.
@Patricia Kayden:
The reason you can’t see his dignity is that it ran away screaming long ago.
dmsilev
@Kay: That worked for him in the primary. Problem is, an approach which is fine for winning the support of 30 or 40 percent of the GOP primary electorate isn’t going to be great for the general. And he can’t change his approach, because it’s who he is.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: great idea! Just pulled out my iPod shuffle. Jimmy buffet is singing to me, vey soothing.
Thanks for the good wishes!
Kay
Mark Halperin didn’t spot Obama’s political talent? Even after he won twice?
What could “talented” possibly mean in Presidential candidates if it doesn’t mean “won two terms”?
It’s entirely unconnected to winning elections? This is like the Twilight Zone.
Corner Stone
@hueyplong:
Actually, Jeb!’s former Comm Director just said the truth about that. The Republican electorate was not onboard to hear an optimistic message this election. He clearly can’t admit what message they actually wanted to hear, but same same.
jl
Well, gee Kurtz is right. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had brilliant people working for them who helped them win. While Trump is able to create an epic disaster with people only sightly less deranged and ignorant fighting him tooth and nail to create a slightly less epic disaster.
UNFAIR and BIASED media analysis discounts the achievement of Trump.
Should be obvious to anyone, once it is explained by a guy like Kurtz.
I like how he can keep a straight face and look all thoughtful and stuff while he spews mouth farts that wold get a drunken county fair horse race tout bounced off the beat.
RaflW
I gotta give Trump credit: He is giving us the clearest view of every chump and charlatan in the political-industrial complex. Mark Twain couldn’t even expose this many scoundrels, creeps, moral hazards and freaks.
Corner Stone
@hueyplong:
Congrats! You have won this blog’s award for “Most Obscure Historical Reference for America’s Past Time” for the evening. I would say “week” but I am sure SFAW is lurking somewheres about.
RaflW
And Bush Jr. had Turdblossom & Cheney. You learn quite a lot by the company people keep.
James E Powell
@Brachiator:
There are people who use the term “Christian” to denote “people who hate the same people and things I do and who regularly say so out loud in public.” In this respect, in their eyes, Hillary Clinton can never be truly “Christian” and it’s a waste of time to talk to or about such people.
Corner Stone
OMFG! I just had possibly the most terrifying few moments of my life! I was reviewing the to-go menu for my local Indian food restaurant and noticed it says, “Monday: Closed”. Panic! Shortness of breath! The bottom just fucking dropped out of my chest.
But! I pulled it together, somehow, and went to their website. Stumbling, bumbling, trying to hold on while I try to find salvation. And, preys to the jeebus child! They actually are open tonight!
Looks like Southern Indian Food again for this guy. ***WHEW***
hueyplong
@Corner Stone: It causes my soul pain to see that called obscure. A reference to the 1915 A’s would be obscure. A reference to the ’62 Mets seems pretty accessible.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Halperin knows Trump is losing, right? and that probably half of his supporters are voting against a caricature of Hillary Clinton and fantasizing that Chris Christie, or someone like him, will run the White House for him?
also, Obama ‘had Plouffe and Axelrod’? Clinton had Begala, Stephanopolous and Caravelle, who still won’t go away.
satby
@schrodinger’s cat: Thanks for that, I posted that on Facebook to say Happy Independence Day to my friends in India.
Baud
Media is telling me that someone wrote Trump a speech today.
In better news (Kos)
satby
@Corner Stone: Tell them Happy Independence Day from us!
TriassicSands
Meanwhile, over at Mother Jones, Kevin Drum is saying this:
So, which is it? Worst candidate ever? Or best/second best politician ever?
I suppose one could argue that it is possible to be a great politician and a terrible candidate, but if so, what’s the point? Getting elected is the point and it doesn’t look like Trump is headed in that direction.
Personally, I’m going to go with the worst presidential candidate ever. Trump has accomplished an amazing amount without using any of the traditional tools of successful presidential campaigns. But the key word there is “successful.” Right now it doesn’t look like Trump is being successful at what is the whole point of running for president — winning. I attribute his success less to his brilliance as a politician and more to the incredibly sorry state of the American electorate. Only really poorly informed voters could ever support a clown…make that a dangerous clown like Trump. Clinton may win this election, but her victory is not going to magically transform tens of millions of idiots into responsible voters in the future. The quality of our electorate has fallen so far that we may be in perpetual danger of falling prey to a dangerous demagogue, who, unlike Trump, knows how to go about getting elected.
Pogonip
@WaterGirl: “Faith without works is dead.”. Neither is more important than the other, they are two sides of the same coin.
I believe Hillary’s a Methodist, which would make her a liberal Protestant.
How odd. As I’m sitting here typing about religion, suddenly the devil starts beating his wife.
Corner Stone
@hueyplong:
No worries, oldtimer. That’s why I left SFAW the perfect opening.
Corner Stone
@satby:
They used to be a colony of ours?
*BAH-DUMP-DUH! DSSH!*
OGJamie
If we were dictator and going to march people into camps – and I don’t advocate that because it has very bad optics and very bad actual results – I’d just take a couple folks….Halperin and Fournier. That’s it. Not even Steve King or Louie Gohmert or Donald Trump or David Duke. Just Halperin and Fournier. I would even let Dowd stay out because nobody pays attention to her because she works for Pravda on the Hudson. Even Nooners would get a break. Just Halperin and Fournier. I might even give Scarborough a medal in the process….just for not being a complete and utter douche…and it will be copper…doesn’t even deserve bronze.
Major Major Major Major
@TriassicSands:
There are plenty of well-informed voters supporting trump. They’re just racist, and/or sexist, and/or xenophobic, and/or greedy, and/or con artists, and/or well-informed but still stupid.
Turgidson
@Kay:
Mark “Kind of a Dick” Halperin took great pains to attribute Obama’s success to all the smart white men he surrounded himself with. No, really, that was how he explained to Eugene Robinson why Trump was his #2 over twice-elected President Barack Hussein Obama.
Part of this is just that Halperin is a uniquely idiotic and loathsome creature, even among the bottom-feeders that make up Beltway punditry. Part of it is also a related affliction – what I call “Chucklehead Todd Syndrome”* – Halperin isn’t a big fan of Obama and none of his friends are either, so obviously no one anywhere likes the guy. It’s an even more closed-off, out of touch version of David f’ing Brooks’ meditations (sent while attending the Aspen Institute) on what Real ‘Mericans talk about around the Applebee’s Salad Bar.
* Named after Chucklehead Todd because he wrote an entire fucking book about this phenomenon, “The Stranger”.
Kay
Well, FOX News is certainly cleaning house and striding into the 21st century:
The bravery is just so inspiring:
OGJamie
@Major Major Major Major: No, they’re just economically distressed. And misinformed that they are economically distressed. And then, after that, they are racist. Actually, before that…way before that.
Mnemosyne
@WaterGirl:
Unfortunately, within the very specific context of this election, “Christian” = “white supremacist.”
Please note that I am by no means claiming that all Christians are white supremacists. I am only claiming that, within the small group of voters still clinging to Trump, “Christian” is their code word for “white supremacist.” Hillary wants an inclusive country, so therefore by their definition she cannot be a “Christian.”
It was the part where she still thinks Obama is a “Muslim” that made it definitive — in those same circles, “Muslim” is a code word for “black” just as “Christian” is their code word for “white.”
Major Major Major Major
@OGJamie: Ah, yes, the mythical “only racist when” voter.
schrodinger's cat
@satby: Thanks! I am glad you liked it. I love that video, it truly does represent the Indian ideal of unity in diversity.
The Other Chuck
@RaflW: I’ve always wondered what Hunter S. Thompson would have written about the Trump campaign.
Mike E
@Corner Stone: the manager of the ’62 Mets, to his credit, said the greatest pitcher he ever saw was, “that Jewish kid”.
MomSense
@schrodinger’s cat:
I missed it. Going to watch it now!
I read that Shah Rukh Khan was detained at the airport again on his last trip here. At least he publicized it on Twitter so people know about it but how pathetic and ridiculous of us.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@WaterGirl: Ask her; since you are lasped, is it normal for Christian men now to let their wives be photographed in bed with another woman or is sex depravity old fashion, like the Romans?
and as a side bar, am I the only one gets the feeling we are living an issue of the old comic “American Flag”?
Corner Stone
@Mike E: I didn’t know Nolan Ryan was Jewish?
schrodinger's cat
@MomSense: I read that and also read the stupid Twitter responses from India’s homegrown wingnuts. Sad.
sukabi
@lollipopguild: he’d have him deported as an undesirable.
lollipopguild
@Mnemosyne: Excellent to the point comment-one of many reasons I come here.
Frankensteinbeck
@hovercraft:
You have hit upon a piece of deep wisdom. This isn’t just a racist trope, it’s deeply embedded in even the mildest racists. It’s the biggest reason why the Republican Party has gotten steadily more insane since the 80s. When progress towards equality happened because white men deigned to allow it as merciful benefactors, there was plenty of room for compromise and politeness.
@Corner Stone:
True, but even if they wanted to hear Jeb’s message, they didn’t want to hear it from him. I’ve never seen a less competent politician. It would be a totally different kind of idiocy, but I can’t imagine the nonstop whiny, clumsy, self-destructive idiocy we would be subjected to if Jeb:< were the candidate right now.
Corner Stone
@Frankensteinbeck:
They got exactly what they wanted to hear, Jeb’s low energy beside the point. Jeb could not come out yelling racist shit, he only knows how to dogwhistle.
patrick II
@Turgidson:
Halperin:
Turgidson:
Aside from the racial implications of Halperin’s statement you point out is that part of being a great presidential candidate is to get smart political people to believe in you and support you. Axelrod and Plouffe recognized a great man and a great presidential candidate early on. Trump is alone because the opposite is true. It is not something to be admired.
Poopyman
Time to activate the FEMA camps. We have some “pioneers” who need to test them out.
mike in dc
Halperin is the 2nd biggest tool among Beltway pundits, second to Fournier. The go-to guys for saying something unbelievably stupid and counter-intuitive about a political development.
Poopyman
@The Other Chuck: He would have written reams, that’s for sure. I don’t think there’s enough coke in the world to have kept him going. He’d have exhausted himself by now.
frosty
@Kay: Here’s the kicker in that article:
I just can’t fking believe it. John Rogers is an unheralded genius.
D58826
The House has prepared a list of possible perjured statements by Hillary and they are sending them to the FBI for investigation. I think we are beginning to see the outlines of the impeachment resolution in Jan 2017 after Hillary is sworn in.
These worthless pieces of ****** can’t perform the simple task of allocating money to fight Zika but they can continue with their obsession of everything Hillary.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay: As far as the Rethugs are concerned, inside their bubble of the 40 or so percent, everyone hates Obama. Too bad the majority of the country disagrees with them on that, but they insist that attacking a popular President (not one who was openly despised like the vile deserting coward) is the way to go.
Major Major Major Major
So can somebody explain what Manafort meant when he said “nor have I ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia” while denying the $12m cash thing? Cuz… he definitely worked for the government of Ukraine.
RaflW
@The Other Chuck: I’ve seen a couple comments that his original Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail is remarkably prescient. I tried to read it 25 years ago and while I enjoyed some of his madness (Fear and Loathing in las Vegas held my interest), I tired of it and put it down about halfway through. Might be time to give it another whirl?
SiubhanDuinne
@Ruckus:
He has the face to be either and both. I can’t even look at a still picture of him without wanting to throw a punch.
raven
@RaflW: bad craziness
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: What’s your status?
Mnemosyne
@frosty:
Technically, it wasn’t John Rogers who came up with the number — it was his friend Tyrone (may have the name wrong). Rogers just had the blog to publicize it on.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodinger’s cat:
But speaks truth about nepotism.
Poopyman
@Mnemosyne: John Rogers is a writer. “Tyrone” was just a vehicle for exposition.
Mike in NC
@Baud:
Trump Tower?
schrodinger's cat
@MomSense: I have another movie recommendation for you, Chak de India, about the underdog women’s field hockey team with Shahrukh Khan as its coach. It brings out the red headed step child treatment that sports other than cricket get in India, especially women’s sports. Touchy issues like regional biases, the casual misogyny and even religious bigotry are handled well.
Baud
@Mike in NC: We are trying to end the travesty.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ari Melber just introduced a Trump surrogate as “a business man”, the chyron under him says, “Trump Surrogate”. They can’t even get some back bencher or half-baked retired military with an impressive rank?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I noticed that. Odd.
Frankensteinbeck
@Corner Stone:
I completely agree. Trump catapulted into the lead the moment he dished out the hate speech, and stayed there, because he is what the GOP base wants. He is who they are. I am only noting the amusing irony that not only is Jeb not providing the right message, he’s so god damn incompetent that without Trump he still couldn’t possibly have won.
burnspbesq
@Corner Stone:
That would be Elio Chacon, after whose signature line a great indie rock band was named.
Calouste
@Major Major Major Major: I’m not too sure about Manafort working for the Ukrainian government. I think he worked for the party that was forming the government of the Ukraine at that point, but not the government itself. Similar to that working for the Democratic Party doesn’t mean that you are working for the US government, even though the President is a Democrat.
frosty
@Mnemosyne:
Oops, you’re right. Credit to Tyrone then. Even if he’s just exposition. :-)
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
My sister is about as apolitical as you can get, and it sincerely pains her when different people she loves disagree on politics. The last time I visited her (Christmas 2008) she had a small dinner party to which she invited one of her best friends, a rabidly right-wing a̸s̸s̸h̸o̸l̸e̸ d̸o̸u̸c̸h̸e̸h̸a̸m̸s̸t̸e̸r̸ conservative. Well ahead of time, she made both me and her friend CROSS MY HEART PROMISE WITH SUGAR that neither of us would bring up or in any way discuss or allude to politics. And it worked. I think the woman and I would have loathed and despised each other if we had tangled over McCain-Obama, but as it was we were cordial to one another and there was Peace on Earth.
My sister’s twin leans conservative and is prone to believing every nutbar thing that comes along on the Internetzz, but he is willing to listen to reason and rational debunkings of some of the more ridiculous stuff.
The youngest brother would be dangerous if he voted, but fortunately I don’t think he does. And I’m not even going to remind him there’s an election coming up.
TL;DR — I am the solitary lefty in a reasonably big family.
Mnemosyne
@Poopyman:
I’m not too sure about that, though the real person may be protected by a pseudonym. If not, it seems kind of dickish for Rogers to invent a black friend who beneficently shares his wisdom, like Rogers’ own mini Magic Negro.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
@WaterGirl:
Wait, what’s going on in Kankakee?
SiubhanDuinne
@satby:
Ah. Never mind.
/Emily Litella
debbie
@efgoldman:
He’s not acting humiliated. /grumble/
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne: my immediate family is pretty reliably liberal (though my mother is Catholic and sometimes susceptible to anti-Clinton stuff, but she despises Trump), my large and close extended family is probably 60 or 70% Republican. Oddly enough, the ones I’m personally closest to are among the most conservative, and some of the ones I’m the least fond of are the ones I’m politically in sync with.
One of my very Catholic cousins told me a few months back, assuming I shared her leanings, she was disgusted with the way Trump dominated the debates, she wanted to hear what the “real” candidates had to say. I’m very curious to what she’ll do in November, but I’m a bit afraid to ask. I like her a lot and… pretty much don’t want to hear her political views.
Doug!
@OGJamie:
Yes, the optics would be very bad.
lollipopguild
@SiubhanDuinne: Top Secret, Need to Know, you do not have the proper clearence, none of your beeswax. Rain, lots of rain. There, you forced it out of me.
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
A lot of people don’t know this, but Halperin’s father (Mort Halperin) is one of Bill Clinton’s best friends. Clinton even appointed Papa Halperin to his administration – twice.
this should not be held against Hillary, because she worked her ass off to elect Obama and was and has been very loyal to him. That said, some of Clinton’s friends took the 2008 defeat hard, and have never let go of the bitterness. This includes Halperin, Susie Tompkins Buell, Her Baroness Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, sean wilentz, and the laughably ridiculous william galston
SRW1
@Major Major Major Major:
Maybe he plays with the argument that he worked for the president (Yanukovich), not the government. You know, ‘depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is’.
ETA: Or what Calouste said.
Iowa Old Lady
@D58826: What’s the standard for perjury? I can see lots of possibility for different interpretations, slippery wording, false beliefs, etc.
To me, the Rs are unhinged and kind of hysterical in their pursuit of her. But then I’m speaking from my own position too.
sukabi
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: no, they’ve already run flynn up the pole enough, and there are already too many Russian connections within the campaign, so they’re stuck with some ahole off the street, that probably has a record to stand behind drumpf as his surrogate “businessman”, can’t put his name up as folks on social media will do the medias job of vetting the source, and thae would be embarrassing.
SRW1
Shorter Halperin: Trump fucks it up pretty much all by himself. And that’s just awesome!
SiubhanDuinne
@hovercraft:
And the single most important takeaway from your excellent comment is: Hillary knows how to learn, she can and does learn, and it’s greatly to her credit. What a wonderful attribute in a President!
(Obama has it too, and we are the better for it.)
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Dah train and dah rain.
Capri
@Mike in NC: Now that relations with Cuba are normalized, can’t we just unlock the gates and let the rest leave through Cuba? Don’t need congress to pay for that.
ET
Just saw a Hillary ad, the one about nuclear weapons. Loved how they had a video of Trump doing crazy hands and making a face when they were talking about his temperament.
SiubhanDuinne
@RaflW:
And the pig got up and slowly walked away….
Jeffro
FWIW, CNN’s homepage right now says “Trump’s latest reboot: GOPer pins campaign hopes on strongman persona”
I know he’s a uniquely loathsome character…I know just as soon as the next “W” comes along, the media will fall all over themselves with ‘a new day’, ‘a fresh, compassionate face of the GOP’…but still, just look at that headline. Just 10 short years ago, a Republican candidate (even one in Trump’s dire straits) wouldn’t have “latest” in there, wouldn’t even be identified as a “GOPer”, and…”strongman persona”?!? Holy cow.
Prescott Cactus
@SiubhanDuinne: Storms.
sukabi
@Jeffro: well, W did opine on how presidentin’ would be soooo much easier if he could be a dicktater, drumpf just reeeeeally just wants to be a dictator. It’s the further (d)evolution of the gop playbook.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
O.M.G. You poor thing, you PORE li’l thang!!
I’m setting up a go-fund-me for you rite naow, calling an ambulance to get you the care you need, and trying to determine whether your horrible plight is more like the eruption of Vesuvius or the Nazis coming for Anne Frank. Either way, deepest symps.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
I have no idea what that means. What does that mean? Please, someone, explain it to me like I’m 4 years old.
Renie
@SiubhanDuinne: He’s talking about construction workers who take the early LIRR trains to get to work by 7AM in NYC.
Belafon
Just as a reminder, it’s Ukraine, not “the Ukraine.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne: I assume construction workers riding into Manhattan to start on the job well before 9 am?
SiubhanDuinne
@Renie:
Thanks.
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne: So, you want the C.J. Cregg explanation, then?
Corner Stone
@Belafon: Why? It’s “The Outer Banks”. Same, same, is it not?
Gbbalto
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh well done!
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: Hold me.
Brachiator
@Belafon:
Not like The Iraq, and such.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
@Renie:
I kind of got all that, but was (I guess) looking for something a bit more, I dunno, deeper.
No worries.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
As my kids would say, “can totes relate”
and yet here, I would have to say, in their words “#envy”…but then again, I’d first have to have relatives in sync with me to even test the theory…
Ken
@p.a.:
Train wrecks do tend to draw crowds.
Ken
@TriassicSands:
That’s old-school thinking. In the modern Republican party, a Presidential run is primarily a opportunity for grifting. Trump is just the first to keep up the grift after being nominated, and I doubt he’ll be the last – especially with his innovative techniques for diverting contributions into his own pockets during the campaign.
Steeplejack (phone)
@SiubhanDuinne:
Because running Fox News is hard, manly labor just like working on a construction site all day.
P.S. Just riding the train until he gets his limo and driver sorted out.
Renie
@SiubhanDuinne: He probably is not a deep thinker.
Brachiator
@D58826:
The GOP is trying to find new ways of cutting the budget.
What a bunch of dopes.
Belafon
@Corner Stone: “The Ukraine” is a term used to include it in the USSR. Ukraine is a country, like France. We wouldn’t say “the France.”
amk
hackperin – the very face of third rate fourth estate.
Belafon
@D58826:
They would have been out of power a while ago if Democrats would show up for midterms. They should be wondering through the wilderness trying to find themselves, but they keep getting lifelines to extend their power. They know they’re dying, and what they know to do is lash out, destroying everything they can. If they can’t have it, no one can.
amk
@Belafon: 2010 is a decade long nightmare at the very least.
Corner Stone
@Belafon: Sarcasm! Do you not get it?
Jeffro
@D58826:
Naturally, I’d hate to see them drag the country into that kind of nonsense, but if they do: it’s looking more and more likely that there will be a majority-Dem Senate who will pass on the charges, and it would almost certainly blow back on the GOP in the midterms (plus likely would be a huge asset for the Ds continuing on through the 2020 election).
I think they’ll make that calculation and just keep nipping in the hopes of dragging President Clinton down well enough that she loses in 2020. We’ll see.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jeffro: I’m hoping Comey learned his lesson about encouraging these people and is just gonna let this paper work sit on his desk until November.
Amir Khalid
Dafuq is Mark Halperin talking about? As candidates go, Trump is well short of being competent, never mind talented. Running a presidential campaign off the top of your head, as political newbie Trump has been doing, is a sign not of talent but of breathtaking stupidity. He got away with it against a shockingly weak field of Republican candidates. But the result against Hillary — a smarter and more able candidate than Trump, and a far better person — has been pretty much what you’d expect.
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Ha! Comey opined way outside his purview. This is his job.
J R in WV
@WaterGirl:
I’m pretty sure Hillary is a devout Methodist, part of which is never talking about being such, according to that pesky verse in Matthew about praying in private, and the folks braying, er praying in public going to receive their reward, uh, in the fish market.
And running the Clinton Foundations alone makes her a better Christian than the fundagelicals, any of them.
Steeplejack
@Belafon:
Give yer snarkmeter a swat and see if it’s turned on.
J R in WV
I’ve never seen Mornin’ Joe before, so I guess the blond lady is Mika? And Joe is the white guy who isn’t Halperin. To explain, we don’t have, can’t get, wouldn’t have if we could get Cable. Hi-speed sat network connection, yes. Expensive, yes. But the Innertubes are so much more than cable.
And Halperin had the… missing an English word here… to tell Eugene Robinson, one of the most prominent black journalists in this country that Obama won TWO elections to run the country while named Barack Hussein Obama because he hired smart white guys? Amazeballs. What a dumass. Obama won both times because he is the best politician in several generations.
Amir, he almost made you swear in a foreign language, well done brother! Created a brand new nearly swear word, used it perfectly, in your 2nd or 5th language!
And correct as to the facts as well…
Joel
@SiubhanDuinne: Construction workers get to job sites early.
Why someone would have sheet rock on their boots, I have no idea. That shit is supposed to go on walls and it would crush if you walked on it.
Ruckus
@Joel:
That guy wouldn’t know a piece of sheetrock if it fell on him. He heard the word once and decided that all construction workers use sheetrock, it’s rocks that come in sheets. The blank stare that you would most likely get from explaining reality to him would not be worth the energy it took you to say it.
Amir Khalid
@Joel:
That puzzled me too. The stuff is generically known as Gypsum board (Sheetrock is a brand name). Gypsum is a whitish powdery substance. If you crumble it, it looks rather like talcum powder.
FlipYrWhig
@Belafon:
We say “the Netherlands.”
bjacques
Doug!, Trump has more political talent in his little finger than most professional politicians!
bjacques
@Enhanced Voting Techinques:
Scheisskopf for President!
Aw, crap. Dead thread.
sherparick
@rk: When confronted with stupid or evil dialectic, I always go for the synthesis: Its both!
It is amazing how Halperin just dismisses Obama as creation of the “smart” white guys around him. This is an example of how the racism does make you stupid.
Speaking of stupid, but of the “alt” left variety. Scott Lemieux wonders what kind of drugs Thomas Franks is taking. http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2016/08/whats-the-matter-with-thomas-frank after reading Franks latest Guardian piece bemoaning the melt down of Donald Trump’s campaign is an example of white male leftist Obama and Clinton derangement syndrome (and also just terrible political science and misunderstanding about his own country). https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/13/trump-clinton-election-chances-moderate-policies-economy The thing about Franks, Deboer, Greenwald, and the rest of them is that they don’t grok the role of race and misogyny in American politics and its utter awfulness. In some ways they are just as stuck in white privilege as Mark Halperin and Joe Scarborough.
anon
I went to school with Halperin, elementary thru high school. He is a year younger than me. He is a middle child, brother Dave is a year older than me, brother Gary is 3 years younger than me, in the same grade as my sister. Dave and Gary both turned out pretty cool.
I didn’t know his dad, Mort, well, aside from the fact that they gave out excellent Halloween candy and Nixon bugged their phone. Which, really, is everything you want in a neighbor’s dad.
I was in the last class at Walt Whitman that started in 10th grade. The next year it started in 9th grade, which means that Mark never got that important year when he was a freshman and part of the group of the smallest kids in the school. I’ve often thought that being a year ahead or behind would have been far better for his psyche.
SW
Nobody has to pay him. He’s just stupid.
Miss Bianca
@bjacques: That’s it. I’m getting “American Flagg” out of the library. Time for a re-read.
Rafer Janders
@Calouste:
Well, except that it’s more like working for the Communist Party of China while claiming you’re not working for the government of China. At some point it’s distinction without a difference when the party essentially is the government.
Vhh
@Belafon: The Russian word “Ukrain” comes from the root “krai” which means “the edge.” In Russian, things happen “on (the) Ukraine” not “in Ukraine.”
This is the logic behind the original English form “the Ukraine” which is regarded (by Russians) as a geographical feature of Historic Russia in the same sense as the east coast of the US is part of the US. Present day Ukrainians of course prefer to call their country simply Ukraine or Ukrania in English. I admit that as a non native but fairly fluent Russian speaker I find it most natural to say “the Ukraine”, making me a Putin puppet, I guess.