Dems paying skilled fishermen to teach others to fish, GOP buying up spoiling fish https://t.co/96CIC5GnDj
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) August 21, 2016
BREAKING: Clinton leads Trump by 12 points in strongest showing this month – Reuters/Ipsos poll pic.twitter.com/mRgV6ifnBv
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) August 23, 2016
Jesus. RCP has Hillary with 272 electoral votes … and that's without Florida, Ohio, or NC. https://t.co/iYhuFKuSgE
— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) August 24, 2016
Also doesn't include Iowa or Nevada. https://t.co/d2Y2b3gdRf
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) August 24, 2016
Apart from committing to GOTV, what’s on the agenda for the day?
rikyrah
Good Morning ?, Everyone ?
rikyrah
Run up the score.
GOTV
TS
Joe is running so scared about his personal life. Yesterday emails all morning, today is the Clinton Foundation. It’s a “death knoll” for the campaign.
My heavens they will never accept that the Clintons do good things.
Click. Guess will have to wait for the ratings to sink again.
OzarkHillbilly
I think I slept on my wife’s pillow last night and caught her vertigo from it. Sucks.
Speaking of the wife, she spent last night in Madrid after missing all of the connecting flights due to the mechanical difficulties they had on her flight out of Palma. Hopefully we will see her today. The Woofmeister is barely talking to me now and Miss Kitty won’t leave me alone.
Mustang Bobby
@TS: As Richard Ben-Veniste (he of Watergate special prosecutor fame) noted, “Would you rather have an ex-president raising money to fight malaria or one who sits in his bathtub painting pictures of his toes?”
TS
@Mustang Bobby: One was an illegitimate President (all non republicans fit this category) so obviously the toes are for the win.
Must admit it is amusing to see the polls completely discount the earnest best attempts of “the team” to turn an A rated charity into something nefarious. They should stay with unskewing the polls.
Baud
@rikyrah: This.
Patricia Kayden
I’ll wait until Trump’s “pivot” is fully appreciated by the electorate before celebrating these new polls. We’ll see if his “outreach” to the African American community actually works to make him more palatable to the White voters he’s actually appealing to. The media has been ecstatic with Trump’s ability to read (rather poorly) from teleprompters and stay on message so it will be interesting to see if his polls rise as a consequence.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: Agree. I think and hope the pivot will have the opposite effect. He’ll chase “respectable” white voters and lose his base.
Immanentize
Morning All!
Ozark — I am sending good travel karma towards Spain for your wife!
Jeff Spender
The gnashing of teeth and rending of garments from the Berners I know has commenced.
It’s weird to see movements die before they begin.
liberal
Thanks, Obama!
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: Apparently, Ann Coulter is worried that Trump will soften his immigration stance after meeting with Latino Conservatives last Saturday. **chuckle**
http://www.mediaite.com/online/ann-coulter-thinks-its-a-mistake-for-trump-to-soften-his-stance-on-immigration/
Don’t worry, Ann. It’s a 360 degree pivot.
MattF
What the RWNJs hate about the Clinton Foundation is the word ‘Clinton’. That’s all there is to it.
Baud
@Jeff Spender: Because of the Our Revolution thing?
@Patricia Kayden: Heehee.
Baud
@MattF: They should rename it the Baud! Foundation. Problem solved.
Jeff Spender
@Baud: Yeah. Lots of them scratching their heads and wondering where Bernie’s been.
Baud
@Jeff Spender: I could go off on the whole situation. But eyes on the prize, and that’s the election.
Raven
Whew anethesia and opioids can be weird. I didn’t sleep much (nice having BJ chats) but, when I did I was in the OR chatting with folks in full dress scrubs. All that Jazz redux!
Baud
@Raven: Any pain today?
OzarkHillbilly
You gotta be fucking kidding me.
….
….
Well, duuuuuhhhhhh, you aren’t supposed to park on top of people. You know???
Uhhh, you don’t speed up when faced with an oncoming vehicle, you just don’t. You swerve. Pretty safe to say she was already speeding when she swerved. But you know what the kicker is?
Uh no asshole, it’s troubling because “She killed two people,” Pfremmer said. “She was not punished. She didn’t get any points off her license. Where is the justice? There is none.”
Raven
@Baud: Certainly “soreness” when getting up and down but tolerable. (Like there is a choice)
Baud
@Raven: You can whine about it. That’s what I would do.
Raven
@Mustang Bobby: didn’t I see you pop up in the middle of the night?
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m no scientist, but this sounds like she swerved atthe oncoming car rather than away from it. Unless they build roads differently in St. Louis.
debbie
@Baud:
Isn’t whining mandatory?
@Raven:
That’s your brain processing what was done to its container.
Raven
@Baud: the biggest whine was convincing my wife I needed to be on the couch for Me And not for her. I reclined in bed and fiddled with my iPad until 1am and then bolted. She maintains that having the tube on doesn’t bother her but it bothers me because I don’t buy it!
Raven
@debbie: pretty cool,huh?
Mustang Bobby
@Raven: Yeah, I was in here around 3:15. I’m usually up at that hour writing at BBWW. I saw the thread about the earthquake and popped in. How are you doing? All systems functioning within normal parameters?
debbie
@TS:
The focus on the foundation needs to pivot from donor access to accomplishments. A few well-timed tweets with numbers would be a big help.
debbie
@Raven:
Nothing more warped than the brain! Some mornings, I cannot believe what it put me through during the night.
Glad you’re doing well. Hope the soreness passes quickly.
Raven
@Mustang Bobby: Ah, I see. I think I’m better than I had thought. I’m mobile but getting up and down is a little hard. Should get better by tomorrow.
Immanentize
@Raven: all That Jazz maybe — was Jessica Lange there?
Raven
I get it tha Joe is going to hammer Hil every day but he’s all over Trump as well.
Raven
@Immanentize: Ann Reinking (sp) was my fav.
Eta. Wow, I just looked an Ann and I share the same birthday and year.!
NorthLeft12
@Baud: I just don’t see that Trump will ever lose his [ahem] base. Those crazy asshats have nowhere else to go, and worse, have a much better handle on what Trump is all about than those polite bigots that Trump is making a pitch for now.
Although let me clarify one thing, Trump’s base has no idea that they are being conned. They think the con is on [or will be on] everyone else.
As Mark Twain said; “It is easier to fool a man, than to convince him that he has been fooled.”
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: I once had a dream like that. My 1 yr old son was on the gurney when all of the doctors and nurses took on a very dark visage and began circling him, while chanting in some evil language. I grabbed him up and held him tight all the while whispering in his ear, “I won’t let them get you. I won’t let them get you…”
In the last 40 years or so, it was the only nightmare I actually wanted to wake up from.
Baud
@NorthLeft12: They wouldn’t go anywhere else. They’d just lose interest and stay home.
Mustang Bobby
@NorthLeft12: I had to listen to Robert Seigel (sp) on All Things Considered fawningly interview Trump supporters in central PA yesterday afternoon. They all think he’s flawed but will “get things done.” Some even allowed as how they don’t like what he’s said about the Khans but he’s still better than that evil Hillary.
I get it that NPR feels an obligation to cover the GOP, but not bloody enable them.
Immanentize
@Raven: well you are clearly on the mend!! Take it easy for a bit and no log rolling….
debbie
@NorthLeft12:
If Trump vacillates on immigration, they’ll definitely leave him, but they’ll probably just stay home or skip voting for president.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: @Baud: Well, as I always say, “When I’m in pain by God somebody’s gonna know about it!” Right about then the wife tells me to STFU.
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: my dad dreamed that he saw al his kids face down in a water filled ditch. I guess the Pacific might do that to one.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: This is the lead to the article on the front page
Trailnet wants stiffer penalities for St. Louis drivers who run over people
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Raven: Had a lot of love for Erzsebet Foldi myself.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@OzarkHillbilly: This. When I feel bad, I whine. Screw stoicism.
Frankensteinbeck
@NorthLeft12:
I’m not sure of that. His whole attraction was that they finally had a raging, openly racist asshole to vote for. His voters are specifically sick and tired of dog whistles.
But then, I don’t think this will last. Trump has no discipline, and his advisors are now trying to keep him hidden so he doesn’t do the only thing he knows how.
TS
@debbie: Some folks have been doing that – but going to the google to find it is impossible given the current negatives on display. It apparently returns 88% of funds raised to charity work – which compared to most GOP fund raising is quite amazing. I have no doubt there are people out there talking the good side (like James Carville)
“What the Clinton Foundation does, it takes money from rich people and it gives it to poor people. Most people think that’s a pretty good idea,” Carville told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Safe travels and welcome home to Mrs. Ozark!
amk
Recently saw a NV poll, which was tight with she devil only up by two points. Any reason why nvians think donnie dick is any good for them?
Kay
Kasich and the GOP announced that they were “reforming” charter schools last spring. Much bill-signing and back-slapping, many photographs. Since then, they’ve been quietly gutting their own law by weakening the rules attached to it and now they’ve all but killed it. In August. Off the front page.
Local media are (finally) getting it, but they’re still missing the extent of it. There aren’t just charter school operators who are involved and lobbying. Charters outsource everything. There are accounting firm contracts and law firm contracts and janitorial contracts and food service contracts. Layers and layers of contracts at each school or school chain. It’s an entire publicly-funded industry.
satby
@Raven: Good to hear you’re doing pretty well.
Fuck LBJ.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: Damn, that’s far worse. At the time of my dream my son was having difficulties and they thought he had cystic fibrosis, after 3 borderline results the 4th result was finally far enough from the line to convince them he didn’t.
Raven
Great, the tree guys are coming! I’m not calling them off because it’s tough to get them with the storms and downed trees we have been having.
Iowa Old Lady
@Kay: John Oliver did a segment on charter schools this week and used Ohio’s as a terrible example.
rikyrah
@debbie:
By the people who evaluate charities – the Clinton Foundation gets good marks
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: We didn’t drown either! He had dreams and then he had recollections as he slept. He experienced what they now call late onset PTSD.
Raven
@satby: yo
Kay
Good going, Democrats. Awesome. Democrats pushed public schools to buy the pens and then a Democratic Senator’s daughter immediately raised the price 400%.
debbie
@Kay:
Have you seen the ads by ECOT? Absolute bullshit and total distortion of the facts, yet there’s been no response.
By the way, I read yesterday’s morning thread long after it was dead, and you were/are right. Clinton needs a press conference with a format of statement/questions. Definitively address the emails and now add statistics about the Clinton Foundation. Good on you.
satby
@Kay: I wish someone would start investigating the k-12 corporation and it’s effect on schools. Most of the public schools around this part of Michiana use that, and I don’t think people even realize that their entire public school system ha been outsourced and privatized.
amk
Canada’s Mounties allow women in uniform to wear hijabs.
Collective murkan & french heads essplosion.
craigie
@OzarkHillbilly: I wish this was the only case like this, but the truth is, if you want to kill someone, run them over. Chances are nothing bad will happen to you.
debbie
@rikyrah:
I totally agree but it’s not getting much publicity. The rabble doesn’t read executive summaries.
Baud
@Kay: Meh. Unless there is evidence of collusion, I’m not holding even Machine responsible for his children’s actions.
satby
@Kay: How is that the fault of the Democratic party? That would be one greedy, nominally Democratic family.
Republicans never accuse their entire party for the many high profile outrages a Republican might commit, it’s always just that individual. We shouldn’t tar the entire Democratic party for the actions of a family member of one.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: Don’t offer to help, OK?
Kay
@satby:
California did investigate the K12 stand-alone schools:
You’re right though, stand-alone isn’t a big enough market so they push it into public schools too. The investigations can’t keep up with the industry. They’re always a couple of years behind.
They should stop settling so much. We need some trials. People perceive these settlements as companies buying their way out of trouble. It looks bad to settle everything. It looks like two-tier justice.
Davebo
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s been almost 30 years since I was in Mallorca. I’d love to go back and see if it’s changed at all.
Kay
@satby:
Because they should have done more due diligence before pushing purchases in publicly-funded entities, like schools. I blame Democrats because they vastly expanded the market without anticipating that this company would take that guaranteed market and jack up the price.
Jeffro
@rikyrah:
I have a pretty busy day ahead today, so can I just say, “Amen” here and I’ll check in w/ y’all later. :)
evodevo
@rikyrah: If the Presidential looks like a blowout, time to concentrate on those down-ticket races, and get the idiots out of Congress …
scav
@amk: Allez le Canada! C’est une honte pour la France, l’idée que l’essence même d’une femme française c’est d’être nue sûr la plage.
rikyrah
@Iowa Old Lady:
It was blistering Kay.
Mustang Bobby
@satby: Charter schools — in Florida, at least — are the Republicans’ perfect plot: take money away from “government” schools and give them to their friends who create companies that make Trump U look like Harvard in terms of accountability and transparency.
Baud
@Kay: EpiPens in schools sounds like a good policy. But I’m not familiar with the details.
Patricia Kayden
@OzarkHillbilly: Heavens! What did she have to do to be punished for killing two human beings? Outrageous that she walked away with such a small fine (which she hasn’t even paid).
@Kay: Personally, I don’t see why the fact that she’s Manchin’s daughter should play any role in Legislators’ outrage of the jacking up of the price for the EpiPen. She needs to be called before Congressional committees to explain the price hike and I’d say the same even if she was Malia or Sasha Obama.
Kay
@Iowa Old Lady:
I didn’t see it but a GOP state senator who supported increased regulation mentioned it – “national laughingstock”. She’s a newer legislator and I think she’s naive. She managed to get some GOP members for vote for it, but I knew they’d quietly gut it. The administrative rules are the operation of the thing. That’s where the lobbying magic happens. She’ll learn.
I hate to say it but Pennsylvania is arguably worse than Ohio, and Michigan is also terrible, along with Florida….
bemused
@Raven:
Glad to hear you did fine overnight. Just don’t get too involved overseeing the tree removal folks today.
One of our sons is on vacay in Finland and sent a pic of a sweet Samoyed he met, reminding me of your Bohdi Sammy genes. He showed Sammy’s owner pics of the three Sams in our family.
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: roger that
Raven
@bemused: there is a Facebook vid of a chimp petty a did that looks just like the Bohdi!
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: Sasha is a capitalist pig.
Patricia Kayden
@scav: Come on now. Stop showing off. What the hell did you just say? I can understand bits and pieces but need you to translate.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: LOL. So we’re told by Rightwingers. And her Dad is not so hot either.
Kay
@Baud:
Well, it is good policy but public schools are a kind of dumping ground for every policy. They get everything on their plate. A public school system can’t replace the lack of a public health system. Lawmakers dump everything on them. It’s fucking impossible to do all these things well. They set them up to fail.
It’s like they sit around and identify a problem and then say “I know- give it to public schools to solve!” No one follows up or asks if they have the capacity or funding to perform the 50 new mandates or “suggestions” every year.
bemused
@amk:
Horrified by the effort to ban burkinis in France. WTH! Hope that idea doesn’t migrate to our haters here.
bemused
@Raven:
Wait, what? Chimp petty a did?
Kay
@Baud:
I think schools should be more aggressive, demand more. If they get new bullying and new epipen and new duties on psychological screening along with higher standards on academics they need more money. They can’t be the dumping ground for all public policy initiatives that are good or needed or desirable. 33 states have cut public school funding since 2008 and 50 states and the federal government have added mandate after mandate. Something has to give.
OzarkHillbilly
@Davebo: I can assure you, it has, and not all for the better according to my wife. Still very beautiful to me tho. My favorite thing to do when there is to just go off and wander by my lonesome in some place where nobody but a local would ever go.
Raven
@bemused: petting, I’m on my iPad and typing can be an issue!
scav
@Patricia Kayden: Steaming enough long term to inflict my faaaaaaaar from perfect, let alone pride worthy French on yelling at those mean craven hatred-pandering idiots en La France pourii directly. Spitting on their two-fer reduction of the very essence of French womanhood into sitting naked on beach because that’s the line their actively wrestling people to the ground over. Their so-called principle of liberté has been shaky for a long time, repeatedly, but they haul the jack-boots out because women aren’t disrobed enough to suit their prejudices.
bemused
@Raven:
Issue for me too at times. Texting with several friends, one mentioned her two daughters when young sang a song to their grampa that started out “Oh, oh, penI$”. Didn’t hear about gramps reaction but my clumsy fingers reply typed dong instead of song. I swear these stupid typos are directed by outside evil forces.
Baud
@Kay: Fair enough. The military should be our jobs program either. But good policy is impossible right now when it goes outside established paradigms.
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused: It will, but we have this little thing called the 1st amendment.
Cat48
@amk:
Polls in NV are sometimes wrong bc the Hispanics are not polled properly. Some prefer to speak Spanish & regular pollsters don’t pick them up. The polls always showed Sen. Reid losing, but his machine turned folks out. Colorado is usually like that too, Obama was in the MOE in 2012, but won handily.
hovercraft
Mornin’ Joe is stunned to discover that the Clintons were so unconcerned about the appearance of corruption. They don’t care, they were more concerned about the business of making money. Nicole and Joe say that now the AP and the NY Times are now validating the book Clinton Cash. If she had any other opponent, she’d be DOA. The Clintons are just above the law. They played clips from Trump last night where he is lying and calling her names, without comment, except to say he is hammering her. Now were back to the Lincoln bedroom and foreign donations. Now they are lauding Maureen Dowd and Ron Fournier (both democrats) as being always right about them.
bemused
@hovercraft:
Yes but what did Mika say?
Baud
@hovercraft: I’m more comfortable when Joe and the gang are against us.
eclare
@Kay: Did you see John Oliver’s piece from this past Sunday on charter schools? If you go to Youtube and google that, you should be able to pull up the video. And yes, a lot of the piece is specifically on Ohio laws governing them.
Raven
@bemused: she in Fraaaance
eclare
@Raven: How was the garden party?
Baud
@Raven: Without Joe?
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
It couldn’t look more xenophobic. Bikini clad women along side almost totally covered women who are singled out.
Mustang Bobby
@hovercraft: That’s because Republicans can’t imagine anyone being altruistic without being corrupt. That’s how they roll, so they think that’s how everyone works it.
nonynony
@Kay:
The problem is that public schools are a fractured system organized at not even at the state level. Which means that collective action by schools is incredibly difficult. And that’s before you get into the fact that a number of jokers who get elected to school boards don’t even believe in collective action and will moan about “unfunded mandates” but as soon as you propose “well, why don’t we band together with other schools in this state and sue the state/lobby the state for funding for those mandates” they suddenly pivot to screaming about socialism and whatnot.
The public schools are a dumping ground because they’re the one place in the system with no power to actually fight back. And even when they do fight back they often win superficial victories that never amount to anything real of consequence (remember in the 90s when the Ohio Supreme Court ruled our school funding system unconstitutional something like 3 times? And see how much the funding system has changed since then? That’s another reason there’s little to no pushback on things – even the folks sympathetic to the idea of banding together to push back don’t think it would do any good.)
Raven
@eclare: Fine, lots of nice comments about the house, garden and food. It was also there 10 anniversary so my wife and the other “founder” gave little speeches. The best thing? Over!
MattF
@hovercraft: They’re cheerleaders. If they were jumping up and down on mini-trampolines, it would be clearer.
Cat48
@hovercraft:
I watched Mrs. Greenspan yesterday and she & Bob Shrum got into a fight over Clinton Foundation. The fight ended with her saying the FBI is looking into the Clinton Foundation. SO. There is video at Real Clear Politics if anyone is interested.
I don’t know what to think. Mitchell says Pete Williams told her. View it if you want. I don’t know what to think.
Kay
@nonynony:
I was on a school committee and I learned a lot. Not “school board”- they’re elected- I was appointed.
Some of these things are worthwhile, but choices have to be made. Bullying is a problem. We should be past allowing people to torture other people in school. Our worst bullying incident happened on a bus. The driver has a 30 year perfect safety record- because she drives– she does one thing. So should we hire 40 adults for two shifts so the bus drivers can drive and what should we cut to do that? The school psychologist? She’s expensive but wonderful. It’s like triage.
eclare
@Raven: Great! And yes, the work done pre-event never ends.
Emma
@Cat48: Comey has to do maximum damage now to hide the unprofessional, biased way he handled the email situation. He has to find a justification for what he did. It’s Whitewater all over again.
D58826
Lets get real, if the Clinton’s catered the Last Supper they would be criticized
Kay
@Emma:
Agreed. I had no idea why he was pontificating up there. State the facts and get off the stage. I don’t trust him now and I don’t think anyone else should either. It amazes me how easily they piss away institutional credibility. Like it has no value.
MattF
@D58826: They bought the matzohs from a friend of a friend!
Gin & Tonic
Ukraine marks 25 years of independence today. It remains perilous. Remarkable how many other countries take this status for granted, but nothing is ever guaranteed.
Peale
@D58826: so many people they know end up dead, dontcha know.
Cat48
@Emma:
Well, if he is investigating, he has been more quiet about it. I don’t trust Mitchell anymore bc she has coddled Trump & his supporters too much. I’m not voting Trump, I’m voting Hillz. They were glad to let Gov McDonnell go for his meetings & gifts he received.
MattF
@Peale: Not to mention all the people they don’t know. Obvsly a conspiracy.
Elizabelle
@Mustang Bobby: Heard that one on NPR too, and winced. Hadn’t realized white men supporting Trump were an undercovered interview subject.
One of the men said he might have voted for Hillary five years ago, but “emailz.”
Liar. That one is supporting Trump because of his business acumen and ability to staff with top people.
Uh huh.
D58826
@Cat48: And the FBI isn’t investigating Trumps business practices, esp his alleged ties to the mob in Atlantic City? Since Christie is so het up on special prosecutors maybe he should appoint one to look into his pals alleged mob ties.
Cat48
@Kay:
I agree about the pontificating. My spouse was outraged, also when he gave the GOP her interview. He’s certain that has never been done for one individual.
D58826
If the FBI wants to make itself useful maybe they should investigate ‘How did an EpiPen get to costing $600’?
rikyrah
US women’s gymnastics team flips over Broadway’s ‘Hamilton’
NEW YORK (AP) — How do you follow winning Olympic gold at the Rio Olympics? How about a chance to see “Hamilton” on Broadway?
The Tony Award-winning smash musical on Tuesday night welcomed the U.S. women’s gymnastics team — Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Madison Kocian and Laurie Hernandez — who gave the show a standing ovation and greeted the cast onstage afterward at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
The gymnasts, dressed in skirts and rompers, sat together in Row G to take in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop-flavored biography about the first U.S. treasury secretary, a night that had athletic gold meeting theatrical gold.
“I thought you were amazing,” Raisman told Tony Award-nominee Brandon Victor Dixon, who just happened to be making his debut appearance replacing Tony Award-winner Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr.
“Gymnastics is my favorite Olympic sport, hands-down. Since the days of Kim Zmeskal, I’ve been about the U.S. gymnastics team. So, I love these ladies. I’m so proud of them. I worship them. I think they’re amazing and I got so hyped when I heard they were in the audience tonight,” Dixon said.
liberal
The pricks at Mylan pulled this same shit in the late 1990s with anxiety meds:
link
Cat48
@D58826:
The day after Manafort quit, CNN reported that the Justice Department & FBI is investigating him and the two lobbying firms that received overseas money, etc. That’s probably why he resigned. I haven’t seen anything else about the inv.
liberal
@Kay: don’t trust him now? Lol. He’s a Republican.
Peale
@Kay: unfortunately, he will serve as the republican attack dog for her entire administration.
rikyrah
Can Trump Get Any Less Support from African Americans?
What Trump is actually saying during his so-called “outreach.”
by Nancy LeTourneau
August 23, 2016 3:40 PM
I can’t honestly describe Donald Trump’s so-called “outreach” to African Americans as a joke – because it’s not funny. But it certainly isn’t serious. As Ed Kilgore wrote the other day, his appeal to Black voters is actually directed at White voters. Here’s a great example:
Trump’s fundamental pitch to African-Americans was the hoariest of all conservative cross-racial appeals: the “plantation” meme whereby black folk are scolded as suckers for supporting a Democratic Party interested only in their votes and in keeping them dependent on government.
Yep. Nothing more, nothing less that Mitt Romney’s “free stuff.”
But over the last couple of days, Trump and his supporters have managed to dig the ditch even deeper. Last night on the O’Reilly Factor, the Republican nominee basically alluded to giving a wink and a nod to police brutality.
Pushed by Fox News host Bill O’Reilly to provide specifics on curbing violent crime in cities like Chicago, Donald Trump said Monday that he would simply put “tough” cops in charge.
“So, specifically, specifically. How do you do it? How do you do it?” O’Reilly asked.
“I know police in Chicago,” Trump replied. “If they were given the authority to do it, they would get it done.”
“How? How?” O’Reilly pressed.
“You have unbelievable—how? By being very much tougher than they are right now,” Trump said. “They are right now not tough. I mean, I could tell you this very long and quite boring story but when I was in Chicago, I got to meet a couple of very top police. I said, ‘How do you stop this? How do you stop this? If you were put in charge,’ to a specific person, ‘Do you think you could stop it?’ He said, ‘Mr. Trump, I would be able to stop it in one week.’ And I believed him 100 percent.”
That gives Trump a modicum of deniability if anyone accuses him of promoting police brutality. But everyone knows exactly what he means – just like we knew what he was referring to when he suggested that “2nd amendment people” have a way of dealing with Hillary Clinton. This has been Trump’s racialized message all along. From the time he called for the death penalty for black and brown teenagers who were falsely accused in the Central Park murder to his law and order message at the Republican Convention, he’s been consistent on this one.
rikyrah
Can the Democrats Win the House?
A Clinton win doesn’t guarantee realignment, but it could be a first step.
by Martin Longman
August 23, 2016 11:58 AM
This is only a very small piece of the puzzle, but it’s an important one. There is less ticket-splitting than there used to be, so where a presidential candidate wins, members of their own party tend to win, too. More so than in the past, anyway.
rikyrah
How the AP Spun the Story About the Clinton Foundation
by Nancy LeTourneau
August 24, 2016 9:19 AM
The Associated Press has just shown us why it is important to be vigilant in how we consume the news as it is reported. They took some interesting information they gathered and spun it into something it wasn’t…scandalous. Here is their lead-in introduction:
……………………………………….
In other words, what it comes down to is “it just plain looks bad.” That is basically what most every drummed up “scandal” against Hillary Clinton comes down to: from the perspective of the people judging her – it looks bad. Welcome to the world of optics as scandal.
One way to look at this is that the AP spun the story they wanted to tell about this information. That happens almost all the time and we often don’t notice. To clarify how that happened here, note first of all the AP headline: “Many Donors to Clinton Foundation Met With Her at State.” As Adam Khan points out – that’s actually not true.
rikyrah
A Shift in Battlegrounds
by Nancy LeTourneau
August 19, 2016 9:00 AM
…………………….
Here is where it gets interesting. If you include the non-battleground blue states that Democrats have historically won with wins in that first four (where Clinton has big leads), she’s already at 272 electoral votes. Did you see what we did there? Clinton could lose Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and Nevada and still win. That is how overwhelming the Democratic majority is in the electoral college right now. The much-ballyhooed battlegrounds are gravy and – at least in the era of Trump – Democrats are starting to play on Republican turf (Georgia and Arizona). Beyond that, states like Texas and South Carolina are trending towards being battlegrounds.
Certainly some of this is related to a distaste for Donald Trump. But it is also the beginning of a big shift in how demographics will change the electoral map. The new battlegrounds are states where we also see significant increases in the number of people of color. Trump’s insistence on a strategy of ramping up the white vote combined with Clinton’s excellent work with people of color is accelerating a shift in battlegrounds that was already underway.
Punchy
First Italy, now Myanmar. 6.8 shaker. Does Cali get theirs tomorrow?
Kay
@Cat48:
My spouse was once a prosecutor and he said “oh, not good form. Why is he still talking?” Cringe-worthy behavior.
D58826
@Cat48: Had seen that about Manafort but was wondering about ‘old little hands’ himself, esp with the casinos in AC.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven:
@Comrade Scrutinizer:
Me too, for both. Love love love the “Everything Old is New Again” scene!
ATJ is one of my Top Ten movies. I’m overdue to watch it again.
Cat48
I was out looking at news & this was funny — Preibus says he’s certain that the new, improved Trump will tie or pass Hillz in the polls by Labor Day. The National Polls where Clinton is ahead by 6pts. We will see. As long as we lead in Battlegrounds, not too worried about Nationals. Rombot once had a huge Natl lead.
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah: As a person who has managed the finances of nonprofit organizations, I can tell you that the level of required disclosures is very high – the annual IRS 990 filing demands much more in disclosures than corporate returns. If there was anything fishy with the Clinton Foundation itself, that would have come out long ago. To the contrary, the foundation appears to be a well-run organization with minimal overhead that actually delivers services according to its charitable intents.
As for the meetings, high-profile people meet with each other all the time. It’s how that world rolls. Nobody has mentioned even a whiff of a quid pro quo…it’s just the Clinton name that arouses suspicion…because, you know, Clinton. Nothing to see here. But the press continues to enable by innuendo. Sigh.
laura
@Kay: kamala Harris is going to be excellent in the US Senate.
Miss Bianca
@hovercraft: Wow, that sounds just like what some troll was saying here the other day. When did left-wing trolls start taking their talking points from right-wing talk show hosts? Or has this always been a thing?
Joel
@OzarkHillbilly: drivers never get fucking punished for vehicular fatalities. That is the dark secret of this fucking country.
Ben Cisco
@MattF: Not quite all. They’re 1) using money from rich people to 2) benefit people of color who 3) aren’t part of the moneyed elite. That’s all three of their sweet spots in one disgusting package.
Matt McIrvin
@Cat48:
Not really. It got close a couple of times, and some individual polls had him ahead. There did seem to be a general pro-Romney bias of a point or two in national polling, for reasons nobody has really understood.
Trump isn’t doing as well.
shomi
That is still not good enough. I will not be happy unless Trump EC is in double digits. Too much to hope for I know.
A media echo chamber meme that Clinton may be the first person in our lifetimes to win without needing important battleground states would be kind of nice and demoralizing for Repubs right about now.
hovercraft
@Raven: @bemused:
She’s actually not in France, it’s their running gag, anytime she ahs a day off they say she’s in some “exotic” place to imply that she’s an elitist.
Emma
@Cat48: My own reasoning exactly. She was never trustworthy to begin with — she’s so conventional in her thinking she probably still wears drawers instead of panties. And she never has given me any reason to think she can think outside her box.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
As virtually every black talking head has pointed out, the only people willing to give him any credit for this will we white.
shomi
@TS: Does anyone still watch that show anymore?
Patricia Kayden
@hovercraft: Ron Fournier is a Democrat? In which planet?
shomi
Yesterday was awesome. Started out with the media trying to say polls are tighening…it’s a horse race yada yada. Trumps new strategy working blah blah probably because some poll somewhere if looked at upside down in just the right light with just the right amount of ‘unskewing’ said so. Then BAM….BAM. A poll from Washington Post and then another one from Reuters shows Clintons lead widening. Bigfooting the other stories.
It was a beautiful thing.
O. Felix Culpa
@shomi: I’ve never watched MJ and only know of its existence through this blog. Speaking as a sample of one, I doubt the show has much direct impact on the general electorate. It probably serves more as a barometer of current media talking
pointsanti-Clinton smears.ETA: I just learned how to do strike-throughs. A proud moment for me. And the world yawns. :)
Patricia Kayden
@shomi: The media is desperate for a horse race. Unfortunately for them, one Candidate is completely bonkers so there probably will be no horse race this time around. Sad.
catclub
@JPL: The default is that 1. pedestrians or bicyclists are in the way and probably at fault.
2. The car is so necessary to life that taking it away can only be done with overwhelming evidence, and if your lawyer is also incompetent..
You had one job: Don’t kill people with the two ton moving object you are driving.
catclub
@Cat48:
Don’t watch Andrea Mitchell?
Felonius Monk
@O. Felix Culpa:
Welcome to the Strike-Through Club. You’ve earned your
Badge.SiubhanDuinne
@O. Felix Culpa:
c̸o̸n̸g̸r̸a̸t̸u̸l̸a̸t̸i̸o̸n̸s̸!
Hal
@shomi: Chris Matthews mentioned a couple of days ago that there was a national poll or two showing a little movement, but state polls (where the election is actually won) did not. One of his guests from 538 made the point that Obama was leading Romney in state polls, and those turned out to be very accurate.
Hal
I saw a post from a friend today; a friend who is very gay, very liberal, and living the life with his boyfriend. Very supportive, but conservative family, father is not a Trump supporter. But, he absolutely thinks Hillary has killed people. The post the father had up was all about the trail of bodies, Hillary’s murdered several “top” people this year, all apparently had some key post at the DNC, or were going to testify with the FBI etc. There really is nothing you can do about this, but this is one of my only trepidation’s about November. Some people, and they are not all Trumpsters, really believe every bad thing, every conspiracy, about her.
Steeplejack (phone)
@SiubhanDuinne:
That single-character strike-through is really ugly. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. That way lies “13 exotic fonts on a flyer” madness.
Steeplejack (phone)
@O. Felix Culpa:
Would have been even more impressive if you had struck the entire phrase you wanted: “talking points.”
O. Felix Culpa
@Steeplejack (phone):
Excellentpedantic point. But duly noted.glory b
@Kay: Heather with the lies about her non existent graduate degree (she kept her job, the WVU admin who aided in the falsification got fired), the staunch patriot who “regretfully” moved Mylan’s official HQ to Ireland because of the onerous US taxes it would pay, who’s bluest of blue dog father had an ad in which he shot up a copy of the Affordable Care Act, that Heather???
No!!!
Steeplejack (phone)
@O. Felix Culpa:
With great power comes great responsibility.
O. Felix Culpa
@Steeplejack (phone): Hah! Uneasy rests the head that wears the strike-through crown.
Kay
@glory b:
I love local background. It’s my favorite thing.
They’re so godammned greedy. 50 million US children attend public schools. Every school will buy these, because no school wants to be the idiot school that didn’t take simple measures to avoid a tragedy.
That’s not enough for them though- they have to jack up the price 400%.
J R in WV
@Raven:
All you have to do is point and wave, right?
Shouldn’t be strenuous at all, just get a chair in the right spot, where they can see you waving and pointing. And hear you yelling. When the chain saw isn’t running.
Glad you’re doing well. I slept like a log after my surgeries. Not the first night in the hospital, the next night at home. So tonight you should be good to go.
I read and listened to their TV channel with classical music. It started to repeat after a couple of hours.
Anonymous patient
@Kay:
Joe Manchin is probably the most corrupt member of the senate. My ex-cop (retired LT) buddy believes he is mobbed up. All the WV cops think that.
His daughter got a MBA at WVU without going to class or taking any tests, just was awarded one – so she could become CEO of Mylan. Since Dad was the Gobernator, no problem.
So honesty is a family thing. And so raising the price of a really inexpensive drug by hundreds of percent, no problemo. After all, that profit margin drives the bonus AND the payroll numbers.
catclub
@Kay: I think a much better way to raise the price is simply cut the time until you have to dispose of old ones in half – That silently doubles the price.* Then make sure to notify buyers that there pens have expired and they need to buy new ones.
*{Assumes that most epipens are not used, but sit around waiting for use, this assumption could be in error.}
ruckus
@TS:
The whole point of conservative charities is that they aren’t giving money to the poor. They don’t care about inefficiency/efficiency if they did they’d give to the government, in taxes, which is far more efficient. The Clinton Foundation is efficient, that’s not good to them.
Splitting Image
@amk:
Good for the Mounties!
Canada! Leading the world in tolerance since… since.. well, I guess since October of last year. Was that beady-eyed weasel really in charge for nine whole years? Feels like a bad dream.
JustRuss
That picture by Reuters tells you everything you need to know about our media and the horse race. That’s one of the best pictures of Trump I’ve seen in this campaign, and one of the worst of Clinton. But I’m sure that wasn’t intentional.
catclub
@ruckus:
The states blocking medicaid claiming it would bankrupt the state account forthe value of any improvement in the health of its citizens
as Zero.