.
Keep the faith, and one eye on the opposition…
Remember that huge $10M ad buy Trump camp advertised earlier this week? It's Wednesday and here's how it looks: pic.twitter.com/Jrn8M5At4K
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) August 31, 2016
Remember that $10M Trump ad buy?
Two days later, half of that ad buy still hasn’t been purchased https://t.co/z9uPXU6jjG
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) August 31, 2016
And TV stations don’t say “sure, we’ll run the ads, we know you’re good for it, pay us when you can” https://t.co/2jM1zjHN0y
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) August 31, 2016
What’s on the agenda as we look forward (longingly) towards the big weekend?
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
To the paper formerly known as the NY Times — Delete Your Account
rikyrah
Good Morning ?, Everyone ?
satby
Good morning rikyrah! And everyone else. Last two days of the move, garage sale today to try to unload some stuff.
Can NOT wait for all this to be over.
Also not at all sorry that I’m unplugged from the media right now.
The Trumpomatic seems to be spewing garbage out even faster.
bemused
Looking forward to a week with our 3 kids, 2 dils and 2 grandkids, one 3 yr old and one baby. The kids all live far from us in 3 different directions so it’s not often we are all together at the same time. At this stage in life, our top vacation destination is anywhere we can be with them.
raven
Football
Mustang Bobby
Anyone else catch Rachel Maddow’s first segment in her midnight EDT iteration last night? Really good… and scary.
amk
Are these the states with majority butthurt murkans?
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Isn’t she “THE MEDIA“?????
Baud
@raven: I wish. I’d gladly sit through 20 minute intros if they were all like her.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: Cue Glinda: “Are you a good media or a bad media?”
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused: :-) enjoy.
p.a.
@rikyrah: good morning to you, and everyone.
Of all chains, it has to be Chick-fil-hate that is offering what sounds like an actual healthy option: kale/quinoa/faro/veggie/feta bowl w option to add grilled chix. Devil is in the details; sauces, add-ons, serving size, but still, why does it have to be Chick-fil-Hate??!!
of note: Wendy’s even puts hfcs in its hot sauce packets! Popeye’s (must admit my weakness for P’s) hot sauce: peppers, vinegar, salt.
OzarkHillbilly
@p.a.:
Because even they can not ignore the money of the libtard health nuts. This is a good thing.
satby
So my journalist sort of friend posted this from Jeff Jarvis about the current state of journalism. I (and certainly many others) have made the same criticisms often, but I guess it only counts if it comes from another journalist, not outsiders.
Whatever works, if it starts to penetrate the shield of bullshit they now are so wedded to.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I hate homophobia, but like everything else, it’s complicated. Chick-fil-Hate has a mission employing ex-offenders, one of the few businesses that proactively gives paroled cons a chance at a regular job.
Baud
@satby: Cool. I called Clinton supporters the new Silent Majority a couple of months ago.
@satby: People are complicated.
OzarkHillbilly
Charles Clymer- Don’t use my service–or that of any veteran–to justify the silencing of black Americans. Not on my watch. #VeteransForKaepernick
Mustang Bobby
@satby: What if the paroled con is gay? [/trolling]
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: People are complicated. I have known good people, I have known bad people, but I’ve never met a saint or a devil.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: My late dad always made that point; and as a homicide detective he got to meet people at the worst time in their lives.
The Thin Black Duke
It pisses me off that I’m going to be nervous until November because there’s too many stupid people in the country who vote.
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke: And too many stupid people on our side who don’t (or vote third party).
OzarkHillbilly
Union decline has taken big bite out of nonunion paychecks, report says
I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: If they don’t vote, or vote 3rd party, what makes you think they are on our side?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Union thugs get it done.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: True. I should have said “purportedly.”
Immanentize
Hello, All!
@OzarkHillbilly: @satby: this is true true true. I worked with a lot of people (almost all men but a few women) who did some very bad things. But not one of them was as bad as the worst thing they ever did. I think that’s true for all of us. Or, I hope it is.
And Satby — so glad the end of the moving out is near!
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Then I have a younger brother you need to meet.
debbie
@David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch:
I’m behind in my reading. What happened?
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
@debbie: they published ridiculous false account of trump’s speech and are volunteering to be this Nazi’s apologists.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: No I don’t.
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
@debbie:
Baud
@David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch: And the AP wouldn’t delete their false tweet. Pattern?
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: @Baud: I am pretty sure you have seen this great AFSCME public service announcement….
Baud
@Immanentize: Hahahaha. I had not seen that before. That’s exactly the type of ad unions need nowadays to attract young people.
bystander
Chick-fel-Late is disgusting. I don’t really care how they try to smear lipstick on the poor abused chicken they butcher.
Clinton left State with a 60% approval poll. Since then she’s been smeared over Benghazi repeatedly by the repubs and their microphone, the media. What we actually learned from the hearings was that she was a deeply engaged, hard working SoS, but the media could never say anything like that about Clinton. Then we had the offshoot investigation of her private server, which also turned up nothing. But if you use as your predicate “Clintons are dishonest” and repeat it enough, you’ve helped push America toward electing a complete boob whose criminal activities, including fraud and tax cheating, would disqualify him from getting a job on the staff of any of the condos that bear his name.
debbie
@David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch:
Judith Miller lives on! I’ll have to check it out, but not until I’m more fortified. Dinner last night with conservative relatives sapped my strength.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: I have now. :-)
Baud
@debbie: I’m sorry. I’d rather dine with dementors.
JPL
@debbie: Just look at the front page online. Maggie Haberman, Patrick Healy and Julia Preston have articles. They are all different. You can walk away with any view you want. Patrick Healy is the one who talks about the shadows and clouds following Hillary around.
Bobby Thomson
Except for Michigan, those are all states with Senate races. Clinton can lose FL, NC, OH, and still win. I just don’t see how she loses FL if black people are allowed to vote.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: You went to dinner with conservatives? And ate???? Did it stay down?
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
@debbie:
the trail starts here
https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/771195366859386885?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw (scroll threw thread)
Kay
@bystander:
That’s the headline no one will ever write: “Investigation of Hillary Clinton Turns up Nothing”
She is the most investigated person in US history. At this point it must be tens of thousands of people have worked on Hillary Clinton investigations producing at least a million pages. Still nothing! Back to work!
Baud
@Kay: Jesus wishes he had such dedicated followers.
Kay
I also love the newest standard: “The President is directly responsible for every crime committed by an undocumented person”.
No one will ever live up to this. It’s impossible.
p.a.
@debbie: I’ve called mine idiots to their face. Still get holiday invites! I make excuses around election times. (They’re TRUE CONSERVATIVES ™: both their 40-something kids are wards of the state because they are 1) really dumb, 2) lazy. i.e. spent years trying to get on disability (one is now) yet go quahogging and kayaking around parents’ beach house.)
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: But there’s so much smoke, there must be a fire! Somewhere….
Kay
@Baud:
They could hold a convention. People who have been paid to investigate Hillary Clinton. The Whitewater investigation staff would be 20 years older than the Benghazi investigation staff. Some of the email investigators would know the Benghazi investigators. Ken Starr could deliver the keynote.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Psst, it’s a smoke generator.
debbie
@p.a.:
It’s the chain emails that are killing me. If he wasn’t my brother…
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: But the people who hire them are true patriotic job creators! The very backbone of America!!
debbie
@David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch:
Thanks. I’ll take a look after work. I did see, just now, an op-ed piece about how the economy needs Donald Trump. I’m going to need more than just fortitude!
Kay
@Baud:
If you think about it, it’s pretty amazing they never turned up any personal dirt on her. Not a speeding ticket, no affairs, no late property taxes, no disgruntled household staff or unpaid florist bills or pissed off caterers. One of my sisters was struck by how many friends of Clinton spoke at the convention. She said “she has a lot of life-long friends”
It’s a mystery, right, how this cold calculating murderess keeps friends for 50 years? Just further proof of how devious she is. Like flies stuck in her web.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: My older sis who is as sweet as pie but somewhat conservative (and a union teacher- go figure) and more than a little religious used to send me those. I cured her of that habit by quoting her the actual constitution, not the made up one most conservatives believe in.
Baud
@Kay: 99% of people couldn’t survive the scrutiny or withstand the hate that’s been directed at her. She is the 1‰!
DerFarm
@rikyrah: hey Rikyrah.
OzarkHillbilly
“If a country doesn’t work for you find one that does. That’s why all of Trump’s factories are in China.” -Colbert.
Amir Khalid
@debbie:
Did you see the bit at the end that identifies the op-ed contributor? it says
So this guy is not exactly an impartial observer.
Kay
Is anyone planning on questioning why the Mexican President seems determined to elect Donald Trump? THAT was a fucking bizarre and inexplicable event.
You’d think that might be a worthwhile investigation if they can tear themselves away from waiting for Assange to release Hillary Clinton’s personal emails. They don’t have much time. It’s September and Trump could be President of the United States in November. Especially because no one investigated why Putin is promoting him. I think the clock has run out. They don’t have any idea why these people are promoting him, and there’s currently a 25/30% chance this reality show host could be US President.
lollipopguild
@Mustang Bobby: If you know Glinda can you ask her to drop a house on Trump?
Baud
@Kay: But then the polls might not tighten.
Baud
@lollipopguild: Your nym makes that comment.
Kay
So, here’s where we are on the “vetting” of Donald Trump. The NYTimes and Bloomberg have done two pieces months apart on Trump’s business interests. Both were taken from public records that exist (mostly) as a result of thousands of people suing Trump.
Trump himself has released nothing. They don’t know how much he owes and to whom, nor do they know his income, assets or even whether he pays his taxes.
They probably don’t have time to do even a cursory investigation, mostly because they spent 18 months on Hillary Clinton’s emails.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Kay: But Kay, she was in a group that didn’t leave a tip 25 years ago! How can you trust her after that!! I mean, really!!11 She’s as bad as Stalin!11!!ONE
(roll-eyes)
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who still feels guilty about not returning to a five-and-dime store to pay back the $0.10 he (as a kid) owed a clerk.)
Joel
I honestly thought you were referring to this.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Putin. he has the dirt on everybody.
Kay
Oh, and just for the kicker? This non-investigation and non-vetting of Donald Trump is Donald Trump. A person who lies constantly. Documented. Daily. Tens of lies, about everything.
That’s the person they didn’t investigate.
Baud
@Kay: They’ll all endorse Clinton, which in their minds makes up for their lousy reporting.
Patricia Kayden
The last part of that commercial is tearjerking. I also feel it in my bones that Secretary Clinton is going to win. The fact that she’s running against an egomaniac doesn’t hurt her chances either.
Kay: I’m not sure if Nieto wants Trump to be elected. He invited both Secretary Clinton and Trump and only Trump accepted his invitation. I’m sure he’d treat Secretary Clinton with the same courteousness that he extended to Trump yesterday should she decide to accept his invitation.
Frankensteinbeck
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have met a devil. I have met someone who implacably, deliberately, set out to hurt everyone they came into contact with as much as possible. Someone who created relationships in the most manipulative manner possible, just to torture the other person. A person who had no actually honest relationships that I could ever find, and who quite evidently planned this stuff out and really thought about it. The damage done to my social group was catastrophic. I have only, ever, met one person like this, who is totally different from complicated people, thoughtlessly selfish people, or people who have really screwed up issues and can’t stop hurting the ones they love. It was a shocking and life-changing event.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
If Trump wins and someone finally demands docs or docs turn up, then what? I spoke to a person who was being vetted for a US Attorney post once. It takes months. We could have a President who hasn’t had the same level of vetting as any US attorney. The people he hires will have undergone much more investigation than he has.
You don’t even have to go to Clinton for a comparison- you can use Obama. Obama was a state senator and then a US Senator, and they insisted no one knew anything about him. Donald Trump has never been vetted for ANY government position, nor has he ever run for anything before.
It’s just crazily reckless, what they’re doing.
OzarkHillbilly
@Frankensteinbeck: Wow, you know my ex-wife? Seriously, this sounds just like my ex, but even she is no Hitler.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
I would have to submit more information to be appointed a magistrate in Ohio than Donald Trump has submitted. There are hundreds of magistrates. People who adopt children in Ohio get more vetting. I mean Christ almighty has there even been a criminal records check? A credit report? Anything?
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
Our liberal media, at your service, Kay.
Peale
@Kay: it’s like it’s 1998 all over again. The old boys who run the msm will never initiate an investigation if it’s to address a liberal concern, but will certainly pay attention to anything that comes into their inbox from drudge.
rk
I’ve reached the non shattering conclusion that Trump cannot get out of his comfort zone of hate, stupidity and adulation from the moronic masses. It’s a drug at this point. The minute he gets to a somewhat normal place ie. standing and looking semi-normal with a foreign leader, it becomes too much and he has to run back to the two minute hate cheers.
p.a.
@rk: So the question remains: if he stays in his happy place, do his supporters + the MSM sapping of Hillary’s campaign + vote suppression = tRump victory? Poll numbers seem to be tightening.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Ann Coulter said about Trump’s speech, “I hear Churchill had a nice turn of phrase, but Trump’s immigration speech is the most magnificent speech ever given.” Not much more you can say about that. Needless to say, a bunch of other racists loved it, too.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@Kay: Remember Obama was never vetted, and now they’re claiming Hillary hasn’t been vetted. We’re through the looking glass.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Donald Trump holds no professional license so has not had the degree of oversight of any random state licensed nurse. He’s never been elected or appointed to any office or government position, so has never been vetted there.
Bill Clinton’s (actual) crime was lying in a deposition. Donald Trump has been deposed. Has he ever lied in a sworn statement? Based just on his campaign I would say there’s a 99% chance he has- I’m close to CERTAIN he has.
This is just scratching the surface of what an investigation would involve. I could spend a month just compiling real estate records for Donald Trump- what does he OWN? No one knows.
Peale
‘”And while Wednesday didn’t end up living up to the hype of being a monumental day in his campaign, nor did Trump pivot in a substantial way as many politicians would, he did entertain.”
Is to be expected.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay:
This is from 538, right? I’ve never bought their numbers–they claim in their “now-cast” that Trump would have about 25% chance of winning an election held today, which is absurd.
The only opportunity for him to win at all is for a large national change in the race, bigger than any that has occurred so far, to happen in the next eight weeks. You’d think that if his win probability were really 25-30%, we’d have seen something like that already. But Trump has never led in aggregates of state polls, or in HuffPo’s national-poll model. RCP’s more Republican-leaning aggregator, and 538’s now-cast, did have him leading for the single weekend in between the Republican and Democratic conventions, after the combined effect of three weeks of Clinton being hammered on the Comey presser and the opposition party’s maximum convention bounce–a priori, just from the convention schedule, you’d expect that to be the most atypical weekend of the entire year.
In the end, we only have a single sample of this election, Clinton wins or Trump wins, so I suppose we’ll never be able to say what the predicted win probability should have been. But if you look at 538’s track record over the years, their election-eve presidential predictions tend to be too good to justify the amount of hedging they do on their error bars. Sam Wang has been knocking them for this ever since they started.
Kay
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap:
The NYTimes interviewed relatives of Michelle Obama. I know where her father worked. I know where her brother worked and where he went to college. I know which southern state and town her relatives left to settle in Chicago, originally, so I guess 2 generations back. Do they know anything about Trump’s wife? Might be kind of important! She’ll be living in the White House! She must have immigration records. Has anyone seen them? Has anyone even asked to see them?
Because Trump has never been elected or appointed to anything I would think he will be the least-vetted President in modern history and he has a 25% chance- same as Mitt Romney’s.
That’s where we are. They have less than 2 months to vet him.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
But as far as”reckless lack of vetting”- Hillary Clinton could get hit by a bus.
We will know less about President Trump than what is required to serve as a magistrate in this county.
geg6
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap:
Caught a snippet of the morning tv show my John had on this morning and someone actually said, in regard to the fact that Clinton smartly is ignoring the national campaign press, that no one has had a chance to vet Hillary through this whole campaign and would America really elect someone who they know nothing about as president. My gob, it was smacked. I didn’t catch who it was, but I do know it was a network morning show because John loves that shit in the morning. Me, I scuttle around in the morning trying to avoid it.
MomSense
I’m with Ruline. Wow, that was a beautiful segment.
rk
@p.a.:
Well if the voters prefer a hate filled lunatic then of course he’ll win. He’s going to have to manage a victory out of almost an all white support. As a non white all I can say is that I’ve not met a single non white who supports him. But I don’t claim any special knowledge about non whites or anyone else for that matter. All I know is that he has over 50% support amongst whites. I have no idea how that gets him to victory.
Peale
@geg6: the press appears to confuse vetting with hazing, frat boy wankers that they are. They’ve got her diaries. They’ve got emails. They’ve got a classified report from the fbi. They’ve got a treasure trove of classified documents on the first two years of her SoS service from the wiki leaks dump. They’ve got an 900 page autobiography. They’ve got foundation records and tax returns. But she won’t discus her position on whether huma abduein is a Muslim brotherhood plant or whether she was shocked by Dick pics. Priorities.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: My takeaway is that Pena just isn’t very bright or politically savvy, which may also explain his abysmal approval ratings. Trump has an instinct for identifying gullible marks, and it paid off yesterday, at least temporarily. All Trump had to do was stand there looking all puffy and disgruntled, mouth a few platitudes from an index card, and winner, winner, chicken dinner.
But that speech in AZ! My hubby and I were watching the storm for most of the evening, so we missed the speech and the coverage of it. Just saw excerpts of it now. Wow. I usually consider it over the top when people compare US politicians to Hitler. No more. The scapegoating. The outrageous lies. The flatly ridiculous and logistically impossible “solution” that only he can deliver. Hitleresque.
JMG
Clinton does not kiss the media’s ass, so they hate her. Trump doesn’t either, but he makes money for the media and doesn’t bore their jaded shallow souls, so he gets a pass. I believe that in the boardrooms of the mass media conglomerates, they want Trump to win for purely commercial reasons. Good careerists know how to please the boss without being told to do so.
I think Trump will win. And white Americans of which I have the honor to be one, will become the world’s pariahs.
PPCLI
@Amir Khalid @debbie: Remarkably, they forgot to point out that he was also the chief economist of Bear Stearns in the years leading right up to the 2008 bankrupcy that would have collapsed the world economy if it weren’t for the government bail-out that Trump voters still howl about.
“Trump can do to America what I did to Bear Stearns” would have been a more apt headline.
geg6
@JMG:
Only if we let him. And I really do think that statement is over the top. I don’t think he will at all, but I’m still going to continue to work my ass off to make sure I’m right.
mike in dc
The media is really struggling with how to report on the obvious racism, xenophobia and hate speech of the Trump campaign. It’s like there’s a directive “whatever you do, don’t describe it as what it actually is. We don’t want a shitstorm of hate mail or to upset our conservative dinner party friends.”
Elizabelle
@JMG:
With all due respect, I am going to stop reading your comments if you put out shit like that.
Get a hold of yourself.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
This post over at TPM is kind of funny, in a sickening sort of way. Describes the NYT coverage of the faux Hillary scandal.
Betty Cracker
@JMG: I have more faith in the American people than you do. We’re a stupid, greedy, belligerent lot. But we’re not the Weimar Republic.
hovercraft
Bill Kristol and Hugh Hewitt have both declared that yesterday was the best day Trump has ever had.
So put that in your pipe and smoke it, libtards!!
FEMA Camp Counselor
@JMG:
I think you’re drastically overestimating the impact these people have.
They couldn’t get their best buddy McCain elected in 2008. They couldn’t get their patrician Romney elected in 2012. Both of those races were closer then this one at this point 4/8 years ago. What the hell makes you think that this time is where they succeed?
For as much as we like to take the piss out of the media here, I think that a lot of us are being dragged into their framing and their stupid horserace narrative. We haven’t even entered the final stretch of the campaign yet, we haven’t even seen all that organizing and network building and use of the Democratic Justice League pay off yet, and already I’m seeing people curling up into a ball and crying themselves to sleep.
Fuck that. We’ve got this. The media is useless, as expected, but who cares? We didn’t need them before and we don’t need them now.
The Thin Black Duke
As someone quoted earlier, “The non-white voters of this country are going to save white Americans from themselves. Again”
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: Even Weimar Germany had some actual legitimate grievances, the Trumpenproletariat has none.
Proletariat would be a good name for a horse.
bemused
@Kay:
I could visualize Romney in the WH as abhorrent as that thought was. But I simply can’t see Trump and Melania there in any way. Just imagine the months of “redecorating” Trump would want to do before it would be up to his 18th century French frou frou taste.
JMG
I’m sorry if my opinion angers people, but it’s just an opinion. I have no more information than anyone else here, probably less than many. But I have to say what I honestly think.
Of course Clinton could win. She’s the favorite. But to ignore that it’s a very close election is foolish in my opinion.
MattF
@FEMA Camp Counselor: In particular, post-Labor Day is the final exam for everyone. I’ve been waiting for the Congressional recess to end, so we can all watch as the Republicans soil themselves.
And, wrt the election, I’m optimistic, myself– but, of course, we shall see.
Kay
I know I’m obsessing on this, but think about any random state or local race you have followed. The Dem nominee for gov of Ohio was brought down because he didn’t have a driver’s license. If that hadn’t have sunk him the fact that he checked into a parking garage for his (former) government position would have- they would have had records that he didn’t go to work.
We had a candidate for the state ct of appeals who was nixed for late property taxes on her elderly mother’s home. She cared for the mother so the thought was she should have paid them. We had a candidate for mayor of Toledo who had a lousy credit record. She didn’t pay her bills. The thought there was she owes everyone money so would be at risk for corruption and is also of generally bad character. How can it be that a Presidential candidate gets less vetting than that? It’s insane.
JMG
@Kay: In the minds of many, Trump has been vetted because he had a hit TV show. To TV newspeople especially, that’s all they need.
hovercraft
@The Thin Black Duke:
You’re welcome America, world.
raven
@JMG: What’s the difference whether anyone ignores it or not?
bystander
@Kay:
If only there were some third party that could make that examination and report on it in a medium widely available to voters.
Kay
@bemused:
It’s amazing. The two big things Melania has said, that she had a college degree and that she entered and stayed legally? One of them was a lie and no one knows if the other was a lie. Probably a lie! If 50% of what we know about is a lie then odds are the other 50% is too!
I read a tweet where the person said Trump is given the “presumption of innocence” – I wouldn’t use that legal language but WTF? How has this person not been vetted in any real way 19 months into this?
Betty Cracker
@JMG: Complacency is as uncalled for as shorts-soiling. Here’s hoping we can all avoid both over the remaining 68 days.
Major Major Major Major
@Kay: Extreme vetting is for the little people.
Kay
THAT’S not bizarre at all. Let’s all speculate on why the Mexican President is assisting Donald Trump’s campaign, but no one investigate or turn up any facts or connections or communications or anything. We’re still reading Hillary Clinton’s emails. Too busy!
raven
@Betty Cracker: I know, let’s whine about the fucking media all day every day because, you know, it will matter and it is so interesting. I can even give a link to a wing nut blog and the song is the same. blech
Feathers
I keep thanking the FSM, praise her noodly appendage, that I got rid of cable last summer.
hovercraft
John Dingell is a national treasure.
JMG
@Betty Cracker: Fair enough.
magurakurin
@JMG: I don’t know if anyone is angry. And certainly, his name is on the ballot so he could win. I sent 50 dollars to Hillary Clinton on Tuesday and 100 this morning, and that is on top of what I have been sending for the past two months. I’m not taking this lightly.
But…show me on the map how he wins. Start with Obama 2012 and give the Shitgibbon Ohio, Florida, Iowa and Nevada…Clinton 273…boom she’s president. Forget the national polling numbers (where he has only rarely gotten above 40 in the aggregate) and look at the state polls. His path is so difficult and Clinton is not taking this lightly at all. They are working hard everyday and we are really now just getting to the real campaign. Obama is going to hit the trail hard after Labor Day and even Bernie is going to do some rallies after Labor Day. The big guns have yet to be fired.
still….donate, organize, get out the vote.
Kay
I love the NAFTA comments between the Mexican President and Donald Trump, BTW. You know who is pretty important in NAFTA negotiations? Canada. That giant US market to the north. Trump is down there ex-parteing Mexico on an issue of vital importance to Canada. And US media are thrilled! So Presidential! He had a confidential conversation on a trade agreement where one of the three major parties was excluded.
p.a.
@hovercraft:Bill Kristol and Hugh Hewitt have both declared that yesterday was the best day Trump has ever had.
So put that in your pipe and smoke it, libtards!!
FEMA Camp Counselor
@JMG:
This thought process is more common then just you, so you’re not alone by any means. I remember back in ’11/’12 there was a commenter on another blog I frequented who insisted, constantly, that Romney would win and America would regress into the Gilded Age. He had the same information as everyone else, but he thought so little of the US(OK lets be fair here, White America) that he sincerely believed that the Republicans would win.
I don’t know if it’s a generational thing or if it’s colored by where you are and who you spend your time with, but I think that it massively overstates the influence of angry white people during national elections. Maybe it’s just because I spend a lot of time talking to & plugged into the feeds of minority organizers who know exactly what’s at stake and are working their asses off to make sure that we win.
Not incidentally, my time spent with them also plays into my belief of the mainstream press’s irrelevance. Minorities in this country long ago realized that these people don’t speak for them and created parallel institutions in response. They’re plugged into a completely different stream of information then what gets filtered through the mainstream press.
p.a.
@hovercraft:
ROTFLAO
27% or bust!
(2nd attempt at this comment)
Kay
Mexico probably violated NAFTA. Canada should file an objection. They can’t announce they’re re-opening negotiations on an existing trade agreement in a meeting where no one else knows what they said where the agreement directly affects the entire country of Canada not to mention the huge economic implications of US trade with Canada.
Very Presidential. Optically.
MattF
@hovercraft: Yeah, but what does Marc Halperin think. Where ‘think’ is in air-quotes.
hovercraft
@Kay:
Clinton number one does not need to burnish her foreign policy cred. and number two she is probably aware of just how unpopular Pena Nieto is, between the corruption and accusations of murders and the like, now is not the best time to sidle up to the man.
p.a.
Thank you Duncan:
scav
@Kay: In Trumpland, in GREAT ‘Merca, what the other parties in the treaty want are meaningless, they should be grateful they got included at all and demonstrate their gratitude by paying up, pulling their weight, telegraphing their admiration. Otherwise Trump’merka leaves. Canada just didn’t provide enough of a backdrop for the soundbite of perilous danger travel dominence-play Trump needed for the hat commercial.
gogol's wife
@FEMA Camp Counselor:
I like the cut of your jib.
Kay
That’s fine. It means Ohio is at 4 or 5 and 4 or 5 was always what she would win Ohio by. We don’t have landslides. They’d vote for a stuffed panda with an R by his name.
p.a.
@gogol’s wife: is FEMA Camp Counselor a higher civil service job than Death Panelist? I’m looking for something part time.
hovercraft
@MattF:
Unfortunately for the world, we will have to wait till next week to get his ‘take’ on all this’s on vacation. No doubt he will return to tell us that these last two weeks have been at least as bad if not worse for Clinton as the weeks following the convention were for Trump.
Kay
@scav:
Canada is a HUGE US market, as you probably know. No one in the northern tier of the US disses Canada :)
We LOVE them. All Ohio politicians are like “well, CANADA. GREAT country!” They are our biggest trading partner.
We also have a compact with them on the Great Lakes. We jointly control a big portion of North America’s fresh water- some US states and Canada.
JCJ
@Betty Cracker:
Maybe, but as a person who lives in Wisconsin I will look at the recent record of the state –
1) voting for an amendment to the state constitution to prohibit marriage between same sex couples (2006)
2) Voting for Scott Walker (2010)
3) Confirming Scott Walker in the recall election
4) Re-electing Scott Walker (2014)
5) Electing state supreme court justices who are various combinations of incompetent, ignorant, sociopathic.
No warm and fuzzy feelings here
hovercraft
@p.a.:
This. The bulk of democratic votes come from people of color of all ages and the youth vote. The majority of white voters have gone republican every cycle since the 50’s, the groups within the white vote who are with us are the single women and the white youth, which goes about 50/50.
James E Powell
@mike in dc:
I think it’s more than that. I think they realize that if they were to report honestly on Trump that it would destroy his campaign. If they tell the truth, it’s over. They don’t want to do that for several reasons, not the least of which is the loss of revenue.
The Ancient Randonnuer
Tim Kaine getting it done:
Kay
@hovercraft:
Oh, I trust her. I’m not saying she should go. It just occurs to this is the second time Donald Trump’s campaign has been promoted in a bizarre and opaque manner by the leader of another country.
But Hillary Clinton is one who should be investigated? I have no earthly idea what kind of business interests Donald Trump or his weird entourage hold in or with Mexico, and they all lie constantly. Yet we just take their word on everything? They’re discussing “optics”? It’s malpractice. Incredibly reckless.
scav
@Kay: The problem is confusing mere reality with their fevered soundbites. Besides, the current leader of Canada is faaaar too good looking for Trump to willingly stand next to him and blather on in front of cameras for a good long comparison. Peña is at least sufficiently swarthy.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay:
Everyone in Mexico seems to think the explanation is that Peña Nieto is a fool. He has sub-Crazification Factor levels of support.
The Ancient Randonnuer
@JCJ: However, it looks like Wisconsin is set to send Feingold back to the Senate.
Betty Cracker
@JCJ: I live in Florida, so it would be unwise to challenge me to a contest on whose state government is more firmly under the control of sociopathic greedheads or who’s surrounded by the largest contingent of demented, antediluvian yahoos. I like my chances.
hugely
@p.a.: i actually like paneras lentil and quinoa bowls for something healthy if you eat out fast food
rikyrah
@bemused:
Awe. That sounds so sweet. Have a good time with the family ☺??
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: The only real shit that’s come out so far affecting Trump or anyone close to him was the Manafort stuff, which wasn’t even originated by the US press. It was Serhiy Leshchenko in Kyiv who publicized the material that caused Manafort to resign.
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: And then once he resigned, he fell into the memory hole. Like he never even happened.
MattF
A compendium of homophonic spelling errors.
rikyrah
@Kay:
If they don’t want to investigate for themselves, then check out Al Giordano-he had excellent theories, based in knowledge of the area.
Peale
@Betty Cracker: See Trump gets rid of bad people. That’s why he’ll be so good at identifying the good people who’ll staff his administration.
Even though we had been pointing out who he was online for several months, eventually someone got around to fishing.
PPCLI
@Betty Cracker: Yes, it’s absolutely astonishing. Trump hired a campaign manager who was getting bags of cash from a Putin stooge for services rendered. This guy intervened to change the Republican platform concerning the Ukraine. Trump’s foreign policy views were dictated by this guy. He resigned less than two weeks ago. And there’s complete radio silence on that.
But sure, let’s talk about Benghazi again. 11 congressional investigations weren’t enough.
Peale
@Kay: Yep. You can’t even get anyone to complain how their auto industry stole our jobs! Mexican auto parts makers, bad! Canadian Assembly Plants – moreso the better. I wonder what the difference is.
grandpa john
@JMG:Then get information, don’t bother with National polls, go to 538 or PEC ( Sam Wangs Princeton site) or one of the other EV sites that use State polls. to determine Electoral votes. That’s where the truth is found The media will take one poll and treat it like it is the ultimate truth until the next one. Check 538 and check the polls rating, some of them have built in biases they don’t all have the same reliability
Peale
@PPCLI: @PPCLI: He is actually going to be accused of money laundering. Like what he was involved with was actually hiding dirty money. Yet the Clinton Foundation is viewed as a scam for laundering bribes and there’s no basis for that charge except, well, what again?
MomSense
@MattF:
I need that mug!
hovercraft
@Betty Cracker:
Ahem, there’s a state called Maine that may wish to challenge that assertion.
amk
@Peale: Guess comey’s ‘fbi’ is too busy pandering to the rethugs’ whims & fancies to investigate manafort and donnie dick’s russian mob connections.
grandpa john
@magurakurin: Yep too many people look only at the irrevelant national polls when the real story in the EV map and state polls,. In 2012 when the media was creaming in their jeans about Romney, the story told by the EV maps and state polls showed that it wasn’t that close
Peale
@Kay: She should invite him to come and meet with the Mexican American Chamber of Commerce or something. Then the mexican press can write about his audaciously bold and courageous trip into the hellhole that is River Oaks.
hovercraft
@grandpa john: @grandpa john:
From the NY Times via Greg Sargent.
Ian
@Kay:
I think you are overeading this. EPN invited both candidates a while back, Clinton choose to pursue voters in the U.S. instead. Trump only took it up as a publicity stunt.
MattF
Mark Cuban has a plausible theory about why Trump won’t/can’t release his tax returns.
Peale
@Ian: I do like this idea that the Trump stunt was somehow supposed to be tied to an outreach to Latino voters. Like nothing about his current team suggests that he particularly wants Latino voters, or votes of any minority groups at all. Even ideologically pure one. The notion that Bannon and Sessions are sitting there worrying about how to get Latinos a seat at the diversity table is laughable. I’m surprised they haven’t outright sued “Latinos for Trump” for abusing his good name, since they don’t see color and the whole idea of diversity reaks of multiculturalism and makes them vomit a little.
Bruce K
At the risk of paraphrasing Asimov, I suspect that sometime in the twelve months gone past is a date of which future historians will say: “This is the point at which Donald Trump lost the election.”
My money’s on July 21. Any other bets?
Kay
@Ian:
I get that. The question is why the Mexican President went along with the publicly stunt. NAFTA isn’t a publicity stunt. It isn’t optics. It’s an existing treaty between several countries. Immigration isn’t a stunt. It’s a huge federal agency with its own court system. We HAVE a “deportation force”. They can’t even report that- that simple fact. Trump’s “deportation force” that he thinks he invented? That’s an existing federal police agency.
hovercraft
@Bruce K:
If that’s the date he choose to attack Captain Khan’s parents, then I’m with you if not, then the day he did is my pick.
Kay
@MattF:
Donald Trump points out the need for a list of required disclosures. He has released nothing and he has never been vetted or investigated for any public position of any kind. Maybe they didn’t anticipate that, but it has now happened.
hovercraft
@Kay:
At this point the Mexican press is as baffled as everyone else, they think that when he issued the invite he never dreamed that Trump would accept, and when he did Pena Nieto was caught between a rock and a hard place. They think he’s an idiot who got played. His subsequent tweets after the fact saying he will not pay for the wall are seen as weak tea after he stood next to him at the presser and said nothing. Morning Joe and co. are calling Trump a coward for not telling/demanding Mexico pay for the wall to Pena Nieto’s face. So they are both being branded cowards over the wall. Like many of Trump’s stunts, what initially looks good, very soon starts to smell like the turd it actually is.
Kay
So this is what one could reasonably conclude from Donald Trump’s candidacy. The way to avoid any scrutiny or investigation as a candidate for President of the United States is to have zero experience as a public servant in any capacity. It’s also better to not have any licensure or qualifications that include any kind of bar to entry or ethical vetting or monitoring, so that let’s out all the professions, including teaching and nursing.
The secret to his success as a candidate is remaining in the private sector for his entire life and also never entering any field that required any bar to entry. It guarantees nothing of import or relevance to the job he’s applying for will will be revealed, unless he chooses to reveal it.
Some system, huh? It’s a market failure.
Kay
Here’s an amazing thought: Donald Trump has never applied for a job before. He got his current position with no application or vetting of any kind.
The kid behind the counter at McDonalds has filled out an application and had an interview. Not Donald Trump.
JR in WV
@Kay:
Late last night I volunteered to come up to Ohio and GOTV work in person. My plan is 2 or 3 days up there, acouple of days at home, depending on how my aching body holds up.
Working to GOTV here in WV wouldn’t be as helpful, WV is more red than Georgia, for FSM’s sake, and just slightly less red than Alabama. How did this happen to a FDR union state? It seems so sudden. So depressing.
So anyway, gifting money, giving time, not much else I can do.
Matt McIrvin
@Bruce K: Honestly, it was the day he announced. That was also the day he won the Republican nomination by a landslide, and for the same reason.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: As a friend of mine recently said: “Occam’s Razor. The simplest explanation for why somebody is acting like an idiot is that he’s an idiot.” He was talking about Trump (I don’t think he knew about Josh Marshall’s “Trump’s Razor”), but it applies to others as well.
bemused
@Kay:
Rightwingers live in a different world where winning, getting their way by any means, is everything and they have no problem with their side lying like dogs. I’ve seen this quite often among rightwingers I know, many of them old white men, to see a clear pattern.
Bobby Thomson
@Matt McIrvin: this.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
I know this thread is long dead, but a post about whose state is the nuttiest sounds amusing, doesn’t it?