It will be much easier to spend the next few weeks working feverishly than it would be to spend the next four years suffering hellishly.
— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) September 17, 2016
Ted Talks pic.twitter.com/lbdrEZ9WLw
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) September 18, 2016
Ted Strickland, that would be. Have I mentioned recently that I {heart} my senior Senator, Liz Warren?
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren spent a weekend in Ohio revving up Democratic base voters by laying into Republican Donald Trump, calling him everything from a “nasty little bully” to a man with a “dark and ugly soul.”
In Cleveland on Sunday, Warren targeted him for “inviting his followers to commit a terrible act of violence on his opponent,” charging only “a little bully who can’t win in a fair fight” would do such a thing.
Warren added that “Trump has led the charge on the “birther” movement and only when his handlers tied him down and made him did he finally admit that it wasn’t true.”
“What kind of a man does that? A man with a dark and ugly soul. A man that will never be president,” she said…
Ohio remains a key swing state, particularly for Trump, whose path to the White House narrows considerably without the state. But recent polls have shown the Republican opening a slight lead on Clinton, and Democrats are concerned he could win the state if their voters stay home.
To avoid that possibility, the Clinton campaign dispatched two of the liberal movement’s most beloved figures this weekend to rev up millennial voters weekend: Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, both of whom delivered red meat to the liberal base at college campuses across Ohio…
Was obvious 6 months ago Warren & Sanders would be campaigning to young voters, regardless of 20 pt lead or deficit https://t.co/C1BowzXHav
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) September 19, 2016
Apart from soldiering forward together, what’s on the agenda as we start another week?
.@timkaine: Trump needs to answer whether he believed birther theories "and who he was trying to appease." #ThisWeek https://t.co/ACOSkHL0LK
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 18, 2016
Shalimar
Trump didn’t care whether his birtherism was true or not. I doubt he even thought about it much. Questioning Obama got him attention from a huge number of people, which is his main goal in life.
Botsplainer
Anybody know whether Lucretia, Cesare or Juan were in the vicinity of that New Jersey train station?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Botsplainer: Isn’t Lucretia’s hubby from Jersey?
?BillinGlendaleCA
In honor of the Emmy’s last night, I give you Hollywoodland.
Botsplainer
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I think so…
Matt McIrvin
Just saw a Trumpist commenter on Sam Wang’s blog gloating that he’ll be arrested in January for talking down Trump.
?BillinGlendaleCA
…And one more: How the other half live(or don’t live)….
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Matt McIrvin: Trump has said that he’ll change the law and go after the media if the “treat him unfairly”.
Kay
I’ll just give you my opinion,although no one asked for it :)
Ohio was always going to be close. It isn’t Clinton’s “fault”, it’s just a divided state and Republicans were always going to come home to Trump. I don’t believe the 3rd party polling. I think they’re saying they’ll vote for 3rd parties because they’re being offered that option. Ohio always has lots of choices on Prez ballots and it’s not this huge factor because pollsters don’t ask about them.
Obama won Ohio in 12 by almost 3 and Bush won in 04 by a little more than 2. This is what we’re talking about here.
AnderJ
Let’s how this will be reported:
link
rikyrah
Good Morning ?, Everyone ?
rikyrah
@Kay:
Thanks for this Kay
Botsplainer
@Matt McIrvin:
Well, we ARE getting our Reichstag fire in the form of these “terror attacks”. Why not threaten to lock up critics?
Kay
My county doesn’t matter that much because we only have about 8k Dem votes but Republicans here are not wingnuts and they don’t like Trump. It isn’t just my precinct, which is college-educated R (mostly) – there’s no Trump activity anywhere in this county. The GOP chair in the next county over from mine is anti-Trump. She hates him.
I think Trump depresses R turnout here unless white low income voters who generally don’t vote at all come out. I actually think one of the reasons Portman is doing so well is Republicans are pouring all their energy into that race. They don’t have to be embarrassed when supporting Portman.
CarolDuhart2
@Kay: Kay, how will Trump affect Dem turnout? I suspect that it will bring out infrequent Dem voters who will basically drag Strickland over the finish line.
Mustang Bobby
@Kay: My parents, who live in a retirement community in the suburbs of Cincinnati, say the sense they get from their Republican friends (Mom and Dad are the lonely Democrats) is that they view Trump as a vulgarian and “tacky.” They can’t vote for someone they wouldn’t have over for drinks.
satby
@AnderJ: link isn’t working.
@rikyrah: Good morning!
Mai.naem.mobile
I am beginning to wonder if the NY/NJ bombs are an early October surprise or if there’s more of this to come. Already saw some beauty website bimbo on Twitter saying she’s been a Democrat forever but is now going to vote Trumpy because Obama and Clinton aren’t keeping her safe. Jayzus! Please tell me Americans aren’t this dumb.
Cat48
@Kay:
Some of the youngers were not nice at first but Warren quickly changed topics. The Bernie people didn’t seem sold on Clinton either, all the lies told about Hillz have been absorbed by them. I hope they will think about Bernie & Elizabeth’s message & not vote 3rd party. I don’t think Obama’s win was big in 2008 either.
Kay
@AnderJ:
World trade is bigger than the clown and his merry band of followers. Trump pretends US companies aren’t multinationals but that isn’t true. They are. They source and sell all over the world. The GOP Congress will be useless to stop him but these huge companies aren’t going to let the reality tv show star destroy their businesses.
What does he think happens to the “US” auto industry without supply chains? What does he think happens to Honda production in the US? We have a Mexican-owned company here that makes Honda wiring. His childish idea that this is “simple” is not true. It’s incredibly complex.
Trade is “long arc”. Donald Trump will be a bump in the road within a 50 year context.
He’s never once been asked a specific trade question- a deal, a sector, the impact. Not once.
RK
Trump was never a Birther which is all you really need to know about his character.
Botsplainer
@Mai.naem.mobile:
Americans are this dumb.
A Trump-Pence administration destroys the economy, engages us in huge conflicts, retrenches on criminalization of homosexuality, shatters reproductive rights and even goes after contraception. We’d get the right wing fever dream government – everyone would be poorer, soldiers would be dying, civil rights a distant memory and we’d hear lots of bleats about “personal relationships with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” while being assured how It loves is, and to just hold on for the afterlife.
magurakurin
@Cat48: what can be said? They are not sincere people. They spent a year hailing Sanders as the last honest man and the only hope…now they refuse to believe what he is saying. Some are voting Johnson, yet he wants to abolish the federal minimum wage, stop all federal funding of higher ed and health care, and impose a regressive consumption tax. All of these are the polar opposite of Sanders. They just are’nt serious people. Policy means nothing. Just donate, volunteer if possible and vote.
Botsplainer
@Kay:
German industrialists and bankers signed right up.
Mustang Bobby
Trump slammed Ford for moving their small car production to Mexico. But he left out the part where Ford is going to retool the plant in the US to make larger vehicles. The small cars don’t make as much of a profit and if they kept building them here, they’d lose money and probably have to lay off workers. The bigger vehicles make more money for the company, and they sell more of them.
As to Kay’s point about multinational companies, Honda builds Accords in Ohio. I believe that’s the only plant in the world that does, which means when you see an Accord with right-hand drive in Japan, it’s an import. My Ford Mustang has an engine that was built in Germany, and the airbags (including the ones replaced by the recall) are from Japan.
Applejinx
World trade is already precarious, for precisely the reasons that gave the UK Brexit: after neoliberalism and globalization, anyone not the investor class is too poor to consume stuff like it was the 80s. And they in turn have nothing to invest in, see above.
This article on global shipping is very interesting and very predictable. These things aren’t abstracts: they’re dominoes. We can’t afford to have Trump in charge of the inevitable collapse of neoliberal capitalism. Everything is changing and Hillary Clinton is most likely to adapt to the new conditions. (Bernie wouldn’t know what to do, but Hillary might come up with something. Trump, no fucking way)
Kay
@Mustang Bobby:
I think it’s more than that. It’s his temperament. He’s just unsuited to the whole self-image of college educated Republicans here. Their defining characteristic is “moderate” or “conventional” and that’s present in every aspect of their lives. They don’t reject the status quo- they ARE the status quo. They don’t think of themselves as powerless, because they’re not.
The truth is, too, the economy is humming here. I’m as close to the local economy as a person can get- it directly affects my bottom line and it is as good as I have ever seen it. Ever. We’re basically at full employment. Judges are telling defendants “don’t tell me you can’t get a job” and that’s true. ANYONE can get a job. They’ll hire felons, whatever.
Peale
@Kay: yep. How much economic shock does he expect everyone to tolerate because he has difficulty opening luxury condos in a Mexican resort? Will agribusiness simply go back to small 80 acre family farms because there isn’t a pool of agricultural labor to draw from? While we’re dealing with the return of Bush era healthcare price increases and uninsured rates?
Botsplainer
@Kay:
Yeah, the economy is great here, too. I remember how it went for me the last time the GOP was in charge – it was shit. My client base was struggling, and that meant Inwas struggling, too. I suspect I would fare somewhat better in a Trump administration than I did last time under Bush (more upscale client base, and wife works with a lot of meritorious inheritors), at least until the nuclear IEDs start going off…
Botsplainer
@Peale: it would be a true triumph of movement conservatism – everybody poorer, no safety net, civil and voting rights gutted and lots of Jesus to try and sell the immiserated.
Success!
Kay
@Mustang Bobby:
I also bet Ivanaka’s child care proposal went over like a lead balloon with real Republicans. They’re still spitting mad over basic healthcare for poor children. They’re going to support a pregnancy stipend? Fat fucking chance. These are the same old people who sit down and write a letter to the editor about free student lunches.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Applejinx: There are a lot of Chinese, Vietnamese, Mexicans, and other consumers who are able to buy a hell of a lot more now than they could in the 80s.
Peale
@Botsplainer: yep. On the plus side, it took W and republican policies six years to catch up with them. I figure this cycle will hit them in 3.
Schlemazel
@Mai.naem.mobile:
I would tell you that but mommy taught me to never lie.
amk
@Kay: Are the dems even hitting this point day after day?
Botsplainer
@Kay: what few people realize is that the boomers were mostly from conservative parts of the country. Thing was, the liberal third was in the big media markets, so they had an outsized influence and image.
The right has never forgiven that – those older letter writers are older boomers.
Their Grapes of Wrath, depression parents would be disgusted with them, for the most part.
Kay
@Botsplainer:
My people are solidly middle class/working class. They’re ALL working. Many of them are working mandatory overtime.
It pisses me off on a personal level because the recession was hard. I took a pay cut so I didn’t lay anyone off, and we were okay because we’re frugal and we don’t load up on debt. I sacrificed.
Trump is not my fault just like the banker-led collapse wasn’t my fault. I want 3-5 years of a good economy. I’m pissed that these fucking idiots are messing me up, again. I’ve really come to loathe conservatives. Their recklessness impacts me and mine directly.
Botsplainer
@Kay:
Yeah – score hits below the hull line on a near daily basis by laying this at the feet of conservatives, not Republicans. That seems to be working as a decent rhetorical device, as far as my communications are concerned.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Botsplainer:
My bet is they’re mainly Silents.
Botsplainer
And I’ll add – about 5 good economic years makes me fairly whole.
Did anybody consider Trump’s whining about Yelling keeping the economy good in order to boost Obama? Who doesnt want the economy to run well?
Kay
Everyone has to quickly correct their hot take on why GOP voters chose Trump:
Ooops! So the economy is good? For everyone? There goes that excuse.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: There is absolutely nothing conservative about “conservatives”. They are as radical as they get.
Botsplainer
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Some, I have them pegged as the ones who came of age between 1955 and 1960 – if drafted, their service was soft.
Kay
@Botsplainer:
We all need 5 years to get ready for the next finance sector implosion. They’re developing the models to tank the economy as we speak.
Botsplainer
@OzarkHillbilly:
Revanchist or reactionary more closely defines them. However, since so much advertising proudly touts their conservatism, let’s tie the anchor to their necks, feet and hands.
Botsplainer
@Kay:
As we speak, there is some asshole with a Wharton degree and Armani suit coming up with some complex Ponzi scheme that slides through a regulatory loophole that will be the Next Big Thing.
Imagine, if you will, a Gucci loafer stomping on a human face forever…
Cat48
@magurakurin: I can’t do much else right now so I have been donating once a week. I started back in the primaries.
Betty Cracker
@Kay:
Amen to that. Conservatives generally make life meaner, more difficult and less productive, and the evidence is all around us. That people continue to think of them as fiscally responsible is a testament to the power of branding — and stupidity.
Waldo
@Botsplainer: And those are just the foreseeable horrors.
Kay
@Botsplainer:
I’m so sick of them. I know they’re disappointed with their lives and how much money they made, but they’re only disappointed because they had an unrealistic view of how fabulous and irreplaceable they were to begin with.
It sticks in my craw because they insist they were “better educated” and “harder working” than younger people and they weren’t. Not by any measure. I was there. This idea that we were subject to all this “rigor” and “work ethic” is just nonsense. Younger people are more serious, not less. They drink less, the use drugs less and they get pregnant less.
My 8th grader’s school work is harder than what I did. It’s also harder than his 28 year old brother’s. Is he “unserious”? Yes. He’s 14. That’s permitted.
amk
Looks like china is all ‘leveraged out’ and ‘the 2007-08’ chinese version might hit the world economy.
Kay
@Botsplainer:
My husband was watching football yesterday and I saw an ad for refinancing student loans. Really slick. Not cheapo.
I knew they’d figure out a way to skim 3% off that crisis. My son works in fintech and he chortles about cutting bankers out. It seems to be his inspiration. “Frictionless” – he wants all the skimmers cut out
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: I doubt that actually constitutes “good for everyone”. There are places in this country where there are just no jobs.
Botsplainer
@Kay:
There was a set of memes flying around that was popular with millennials – the face of a happy young boomer man spouting the litany of anti-millennial garbage, with the bottom caption countering with how easy the boomer had it while transitioning to adulthood.
As far as I’m concerned, it was devastating.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Isn’t this amazing?
They know nothing and they have no process to mandate disclosure. It’s scary how truly vulnerable we are to literally anyone as President.
This is why they shouldn’t have spent 18 months on emails. They won’t get the time back. It’s a stunning omission- a HUGE blunder but it’s an absence of action rather than an action so they won’t be held accountable.
They don’t know jack shit about the GOP nominee and they spent 18 months vetting the career public servant who has reams of paper, rooms full of documented history. Incredible.
It may work out okay though. They began the investigation after Labor Day, so it’s all current. They better pray that’s true.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
They were reported down the shore.
Botsplainer
@Matt McIrvin:
And no matter how much money is spent, there cannot be a sustainable economy in those places.
Mobile
@?BillinGlendaleCA: This Silent experienced the “summer of love” before he went off to Nam. I am happily voting for HRC. Many of my generation are pretty progressive. There are other folks I would have preferred, but that’s ok.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I know but there have always been places in this country with no jobs. They’re acting as if Obama destroyed West Virginia and Kentucky, or Detroit. Bobby Kennedy was saying the same things, in the same places.
Detroit is actually on a bit of an upswing. My son works in Chicago and he was recruited to go to Detroit. He was tempted because of housing costs.
Peale
@Kay: we won’t get five. Two years after they repeal Sarbanes Oxley and Dodd Frank to show how much the love business, you’ll be hit with a good old fashioned panic when the economy slows and people realize you can’t believe financial statements again. Not so much a new loophole, but an old one.
amk
@Matt McIrvin: You mean the ‘deep red’ states? Where they pride themselves of being so for decades?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mobile: Being that the average of soldiers in Nam was 19, you were quite a bit older then.
Kay
@Botsplainer:
They’re nicer than we are. A quarter of my high school class would have been suspended for bullying under current standards. They may actually be better people :)
I actually love the “shaming” thing they say- their social norm- “fat shaming”, etc. I hear my son and his friends. That’s true. It’s mean to shame people for who they are. We were never told that. Christ, ADULTS were leading us in being mean to other people.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: They were lazy. Clinton stories practically wrote themselves. Trump stories required a lot of nitty gritty digging and interviewing. And then more digging, and then more interviewing. And then more….
magurakurin
@Cat48: me too, but I started around July. little by little.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Exactly, Hillary disclosed everything. The reason they knew about her being paid for speeches is that it was in the tax returns she released.
Kay is absolutely correct, we know nothing about Trump.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Thanks for the on the ground news. We are basically at full employment nationally, yet Ferret Head talks like this is 2008.
Black unemployment is higher, but it is ALWAYS higher.
Hal
@Kay: What does Ivanka even know about child care outside of nannies? She reminds of Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development talking about bananas: “How much could a banana cost? Ten dollars?”
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: I can’t wait for my sons’ generation to take over.
rikyrah
@Kay:
They have a problem with poor children getting HEALTH CARE? ???
DA PHUQ?
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
These are the same people who kept up a daily drumbeat “X number of days since Clinton held a press conference”
They didn’t notice Trump hasn’t released anything? It’s not “markets”! 70% of people polled believe Trump is hiding something. They would have gotten WAY more clicks with juicy Trump stories than their endless, boring speculation on the email server. Even the released emails were a bore. Did you read them? It’s what people write at work.
They should explain how this happened. How did they lose 18 months? Clinton signed that letter. Why is the Clinton campaign solely charged with doing ordinary vetting of a presidential candidate? WTF?
rikyrah
@Kay:
Kay, a few months in they found that the average Trump voter makes 72k.
Economic anxiety?Phuck.outta.here
You should know better...
Why anyone would consider staying home, and not voting, for this election is beyond me…
I cannot imagine that…
NorthLeft12
As a lot of you have been saying for weeks, if not months, the loyal Republican voters were always going to eventually support Deadbeat Donald. The most hypocritical among them just put on a show of disgust and outrage over Trump’s most egregious remarks.
I love how the pundits were almost begging him to moderate his comments at all, so that they could declare him a changed man and those “moderate Republicans” [an oxymoron if I ever heard one] could safely declare that they would vote for Trump.
In fact, Trump has not moderated his tone, campaign or policies at all. They are as vile, chaotic, violent, incomprehensible, and unworkable as ever. The right wingers just don’t have any patience and are in full support mode now.
This was always going to be a battle of GOTV, with Sec. Clinton’s team way ahead in organization.
I have faith in you guys to see this through. I believe you understand the importance of this election and sense the same determination Hillary projects to finish this strong and send Deadbeat Donald back to his gaudy and gauche digs.
magurakurin
The Shitgibbon will be dancing with glee.
Shalimar
@Mai.naem.mobile: She isn’t being kept safe because of attacks which so far have resulted in 0 fatalities? Ask her if she would feel safer with President Trump in charge. He would probably respond by bombing Cleveland. They put on bad conventions. They must be up to something nefarious.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: They’re supposed to just hurry up and die.
bemused
Read “How to flip a Trump voter without pushing too hard” on Alternet and Raw Story this morning. Erica Etelson asked communication trainer, Sharon Ellison, creator of “powerful non-defensive communication and author of “Taking the War Out of Our Words” how to engage Trump supporters without triggering their defense entrenchment mode. The goal is to not phrase a question that immediately gets the other person’s back up and start ranting but to calmly ask a question in a way that allows the person to ponder the issue later Ellison’s video demonstrating this was interesting but as she said, simple but not easy.
Has anyone else checked this out? It would definitely not be easy to engage a Trump supporter in a gentle, inquisitive manner while concentrating on not rolling your eyes or letting “are you insane or stupid” expressions cross your face.
daveNYC
@Botsplainer: Quite possibly, but I haven’t heard of anything rolling around that sounds like it might become the next great time bomb. Student loan securitization maybe, but even that has major differences from the mortgage gig.
At the moment, I think the biggest risk out of the financial industry is that the UK pulls the trigger on Article 50, the EU flat out nixes the financial passport and single market, at which point financial firms leave London and the English economy (and I’m saying English because post-Brexit I’m not sure what would be left of the UK) goes south and that drags everything else down with it (at least maybe in Europe).
Otherwise, there’s probably something that someone is working on, but the next smoking hole in the ground might just come from the regular economy. Plus side is that it’s relatively unlikely that anything major will happen in the next two months, so my worry from earlier in the year that the economy could turn bad and hurt Clinton doesn’t seem likely to happen.
NorthLeft12
@Kay: And Botsplainer; Yes, I FB posted a similar video of anti-millennial garbage that was done to satirize the idiot boomers and Xers who spout it. I used the post to apologize to my kids and nieces and nephews for the absolute mess we are leaving them. The worse part is that we [my generation] are actively sabotaging their efforts to do anything about it.
I did end it on a hopeful note that based on what I have seen so far, I think they have the right stuff to make things better again. And they will have my deepest appreciation for doing that.
JMG
@magurakurin: So law enforcement identified a suspect in less than 48 hours? That’s good police work, faster than they did for the Boston Marathon bombing.
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused:
Not even possible for me.
magurakurin
@JMG:
from Josh Marshal’s place
?BillinGlendaleCA
@magurakurin:
Obviously this means we should bomb and invade Afghanistan.
/Republican
magurakurin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: should be easy, we already got guys there.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@magurakurin: …and take their oil, what? No Oil! OK, take their..eh…Afghans.
magurakurin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: ze ‘eroin. We take ze ‘eroin…and sell it in Ohio and Kentucky. Big win. Huge.
Mobile
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yup. Mid-20’s
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: Same here. In my real-life GOTV efforts, I focus on the lower hanging fruit, i.e., Democrats who are “meh” on Clinton and embittered (but not spiteful or dumb) Sanders supporters.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You left out “gleefully”.
gene108
@Peale:
As long as they leave the 1933 and 1934 Securities Acts alone, there’s a fighting chance to recover.
Gut those and we’re dead.
It’s amazing how much of modern finance is built around the assumption those two New Deal laws are untouchable.
And Trump’s the sort of guy, who could look at all the angles a man could con his way through the world of finance, without those laws in place.
NorthLeft12
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
By all means, you can take their people, blankets, cultural treasures, whatever, as per the Guiliani Doctrine……ie. “You invade it, you can take it.”
That appears to be a corollary Colin Powell’s Pottery Barn theory of “You broke it, you bought/own it.”
Kay
This is what his presidency will be like. Clownish, but with grave consequences for ordinary people. No one can rely on him. You won’t even know if food safety regs are coming or going. No one will be able to plan or predict anything, and lower and middle class people are less resilient as far as risk, not more so.
Just catastrophic, and the Republican Party put us here.
Botsplainer
@bemused:
Sounds like too much work, especially when I consider my RWNJ mother.
We’re better off wielding baseball bats and swinging hard at the head, like at a zombie…
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
That would be the toughest part. I could possibly with concerted practice learn to moderate my tone and the way I ask a question but controlling my face at the same time would be a real challenge.
I think learning non-adversarial communication skills would be generally useful. When it comes to Trump supporters or Republicans at large though, that would require intensive training for me. I might try it with reasonably intelligent and sane Republicans I know but I doubt very much that rabid, hysterical Republican deplorables are capable of registering anything but sticking it to liberals and every other group they hate.
Botsplainer
@magurakurin:
Reichstag fire.
Matt McIrvin
@OzarkHillbilly: At this point, I don’t even think I can engage third-party-curious progressives in a gentle, inquisitive manner. They keep talking about how turned off they are by negativity and fear pitches and basically how they want their feelings coddled. I just want to tell them this is not a fucking game, but they’ve already rejected that. The danger is that I’m going to just sound completely deranged and start screaming about how Trump is going to cave in their skulls with a rifle butt.
bemused
@Botsplainer:
Right. Total waste of time.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: I find myself wanting to insult them, and that is uncharacteristic of me.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: I hear ya. Yesterday, hubby and I had lunch at a small-town tavern, and a wingnut lady at an adjacent table started loudly pontificating about the Kaepernick anthem thing and then moved on to Trump and the non-existent immigrant crime wave — “he’s right, you know!” — etc. I could see the veins throbbing in hubby’s temples, so I started babbling about inane shit to distract him so he wouldn’t stand up and upend a bowl of chili on the idiotic woman’s head. Which I totally wanted to do myself!
JPL
@gene108: The traders have been punished enough, and never would take advantage of investors again. Trump’s economic adviser said that about bankers, why not traders.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Has Trump restated his position to deport American Muslims, since the person the FBI is hunting is of Afghan descent? There will be purging.
Percysowner
On Trump news of the day. Donald Trump On Manhattan Bomb: ‘I Called It Before The News’. Because, of course he did! All Hilary does is call for resole, not fear.
In international news, both Hilary and Donald are going to meet with the President of Egypt. That should go well. Let’s hope he at least doesn’t ask the man to “walk like an Egyptian”.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@AnderJ: Bad link. I fix.
raven
@Percysowner: Or rent him a “Condo Made of Stona”
SenyorDave
I thnik this is a really good summary called The Case Against Donald Trump.
http://theweek.com/articles/648712/case-against-donald-trump?yptr=yahoo
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
@Betty Cracker:
New York Times article showing that in a four way race, the white vote in Florida leans toward Trump
I’m guessing also that third party voters see themselves as high information voters, who understand things with greater nuance than others.
But we still have a way to go until election day. But given that absentee voting is increasing and maybe high in Florida, you have maybe until mid October to reach a good chunk of these people.
I also think the mantra that these people would never vote for Clinton is false. A vote against Trump is a potential vote for Clinton.
Mr. Mack
@daveNYC: One area that concerns me is the auto loan industry. HUGE increase in sub-prime loans, and HUGE defaults on those. 72 months is becoming the norm…and I see 84 month loans touted for cars that will likely not last 5 years…much less 7. So, inevitably, too many car loans are about absorbing negative equity from previous purchasers. I’m no economist…but isn’t that a bubble set to burst?
Elizabelle
For GOTV: Thank you, Kevin Drum. A list of 84 positive reasons to vote for Hillary Clinton. They’re short, many are memorable, and they’re inspiring.
The Progressive Case For Hillary Clinton Is Pretty Overwhelming
Study up. There will be a quiz tonight!
And Happy Monday.
Mike E
@raven: he’s my favorite honky!
Brachiator
@Mr. Mack:
Yep. You will likely see an increase in cancellation of debt, as people are unable to repay the loans. The lenders will be able to write off their losses but the dopes who got suckered into these bad loans will end up having to include the COD amount as taxable income, leading to an increased tax bill.
Schlemazel
@Mr. Mack:
No problem! Simply roll it over into a 92 month loan on a new car. Easy-peasy the economy keeps humming along for another few years
Peale
@Brachiator:
I think I said this yesterday, but Democratic undecided voters just take more time to come home. Every single time. There is nothing btw about Trump that is different policy wise than anything that other Republicans have been saying in my lifetime. He actually is a good fit for them. He’s a white male in a suit, and a loudmouth, unlike Bush, but you’ll really have to scour hard to find any difference in policy between him and Paul Ryan. Clinton is running on Democratic policies, but Democrats just don’t respond to their own policies in the same way. It think they’ll come home eventually and she’ll pull back up, but I don’t know. If this election is just about race and whether or not to deport immigrants (which we ALREADY DO!), I don’t see how this changes. There are large swaths of Democratic voters for whom Immigration is an important issue (though not always in our favor) but not a changing issue. Just like if this election were solely about LGBT rights. Its not just that this eleciton has been “issue free.” Its that the number of issues (2) are very limited in their appeal.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator:
I agree they see themselves that way. They are wrong. But I’m devoting time to campaign volunteering here in FL and will continue to do so. In fact, I’m taking a week off early next month, and I actually feel guilty about that!
Brachiator
@Peale:
This is objectively false.
And the idea that Florida Democrats will come around, no worries, is not confirmed by past election results.
Schlemazel
@Brachiator:
Given that Drumpf has taken every side of every issue at one time or another(often in the same sentence) you may be technically correct. OTOH he normally floats around standard GOP bullshit solutions but simply foregoes the dog whistle part
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Fab! But why do you feel guilty about taking the week off next month? It’s honestly the most important work you can be doing.
Staving off an economic decline, which you know would occur on Trump-Pence’s watch. And all the craziness and ugliness, rewarded and crowing.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: I’m taking a week off from working and volunteering to take a vacation.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Oh. Then guilt away.
Kidding. Enjoy the vacay. Is it to a cold climate?
Brachiator
@Elizabelle: Great Kevin Drum piece. People should post the graphic about who lies on Facebook to their Trump and third party voting friends.
The Big Lie is that Hillary is dishonest. In reality, she and Obama lie less than any other major political figure.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: No. I’ll still be in Florida, but in an extremely isolated place. Probably no access to the outside world at all for days at a time, unless cell tower signals have improved greatly over the last few years. I’ll see more birds and alligators than people for sure!
D58826
Hard to keep the faith with the Hillary dropping from 70% chance of winning to 65% in past two days on KOS. And that probably doesn’t include the weekend terror attacks. Even the optimist Wang had her down from 90% to 80% last week.
If at this point in the election cycle enough people support Trump to give him a 1 in 3 chance of being elected then there is something serious wrong with this country.
Not panic but ……………
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: I suspect by then you’ll be badly in need of a break.
Brachiator
@Schlemazel:
It’s not what is technically correct. It’s what is objectively true. Trump does not have a coherent, let alone consistent policy. To focus on bits and pieces and then conclude that he is a typical Republican is not logical. It also misses the point that his blustering stupidity should be disqualifying.
To say that he is a typical Republican gives him unearned legitimacy.
Trump’s position on the wall and immigration, for example, defies chamber of commerce Republican mantra.
ETA. I don’t get why some posters don’t use the name Trump. I don’t get the snark here.
OzarkHillbilly
@D58826:
If it took you that long, you just haven’t been paying attention. ;-)
D58826
and on Huffington from Trump:
This is deadly serious not some kind of f****K horserace.
Barbara
@Elizabelle: Posted it on my Facebook page. I don’t really use Facebook to communicate with people, but to the extent people see it and pass it along it might do some good. I got turned off Facebook early because someone I thought I knew reasonably well turned out to be a lunatic. I knew she was on the conservative side of the equation, but her comments on Obama were a typical combination of vitriol and idiocy that can only be ascribed to racism, no matter what other excuse is given.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Sounds restorative.
Being out of the US this summer, and away from all the cray cray and “breaking news” and shabby reporting was tonic.
You will be rested and ready for the final push, and will probably think up some wicked funny blogposts while you’re away. With the birds and crocs.
D58826
@OzarkHillbilly: Well I’ve been wondering for a long time but figured the number would be in the 20% range and sinking by now. That even dyed in the wool conservatives would realize that this guy could start WWIII with his twitter account. Obviously, like the flu, stupidity is contagious.
Brachiator
Great article in the Guardian on gun ownership in America. A tidbit.
Also, a surprising distinction in gun ownership trends by gender.
1994 to 2015
Gun decline driven by men
42 to 32 percent decrease
9 to 12 percent increase by women
Having trouble providing a link via smartphone, but the article is easy to find.
OzarkHillbilly
@Brachiator:
Republicans have legitimacy? Who’da thunk it?
Elizabelle
@D58826: I saw last night’s 60 Minutes piece on nuclear response as very subtle pushback against Donald Trump. Who was never referred to, if memory serves.
All the emphasizing that the launch decision came solely from the President, not from Congress. That it was solely the President’s decision. Repeated about three times.
Donald Trump with nukes, with very little time to “think” once a threat is detected?
Elizabelle
@Barbara: I’d rather not know a lot of the stuff I’ve found out about people on Facebook. It’s troubling. And they’re right out there. Sometimes oblivious.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: Thanks for your hard work in Ohio. I assume it will come down to a GOTV effort which should tip the scales to a Clinton victory.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
Drumpf is his ancestral German surname.
WaterGirl
wow, that was a great little bit of Kaine backing Trump into a corner – donald, tell us, are you a fool or a coward?
Brachiator
@D58826:
Trump has this absolutely infantile need to get constant “center of attention” vindication, even if he has to lie to do it.
And so, he is smarter than any politician, a greater tactical genius than any general, and a newsier newshound than any reporter.
Sadly, his supporters see this as some “clear the air” anti political correct honesty.
WaterGirl
OT, but I was really impressed this morning to see an email message from the chancellor of the University of Illinois Chicago. Excerpt:
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
Yes, this I know. People have a right to change their names.
Is there some point that people are trying to make in using that name?
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
Isn’t this what Jill Stein says about Democrats?
Joel
@Brachiator: Drumpf is his name.
Joel
@Brachiator: It’s a reference.
OzarkHillbilly
@Brachiator: Jill Stein has legitimacy? Who’da thunk it.
SenyorDave
@Brachiator: Isn’t this what Jill Stein says about Democrats?
Anytime I see Jill Stein’s name mentioned, I feel disgust. She always says that there is no real difference between Trump and Clinton. Maybe she should ask a person of color how they feel about that statement. Jill Stein will not be looked upon kindly by history, and for good reason. How could anyone calling themselves a progressive not be campaigning strongly against Trump? She’s an enabler of the worst candidate for president in US history. She should be asked that during every interview.
Botsplainer
@Brachiator:
While I tend to agree with you, I think the point that people make about using it is to show that he has immigrants in the relatively recent past in his family.
Elizabelle
Fuck Carol Costello. I just turned CNN off.
She talks about how scary it is in New York and Minnesota, “and you have two candidates who are just playing politics with this.”
I think she said it with a straight face. Wasn’t watching. She’s spent her segment punching holes in Hillary’s statement.
Costello earlier talked about how people can understand profiling and they can understand building a wall. You are giving them something “solid” to grasp onto.
Again, fuck Carol Costello. And CNN. They’re fearmongering.
dww44
@Kay: I hope NR is reading this post. Thanks as always, Kay, for your informed, insightful, and altogether sane posts.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…. gasp…..wheeze… It would be easier to grasp a wisp of smoke.
gvg
@Brachiator: His family are recent immigrants who Americanized their name and blended in fairly quickly. America gave him the opportunity to be rich. Now he wants to prevent other immigrants from coming to safety. Some people resent that two faced meanness more than some of the other things he has said in done or feel that Trump would feel more insulted by being told he isn’t that American either. His mother is scottish and his wife is foreign….and he wants to remove birthright citizenship. He challanged Obama’s too…….nasty two faced liar etc, The point is Trump would probably not like being called Drumph and it would probably not be a sucessful brand name here either. Mind you, I can’t be bothered to do it myself, but I understood the dig.
D58826
MSNBC has Bernie Kieik on as an analysis. They listed his credential;s but forgot the ex-con part.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: That’s great to hear re UIC.
College students voting can make a big difference, and it’s why some localities make it so hard for them to do so.
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly: I know. We’re actually discussing “simple-minded people”, but Carol left that part out.
ChrisGrrr
@raven: You are a character, in the best possible way.
D58826
Trump makes the ‘bombing’ call like a horserace but Obama waits and lets the investigators release the information as it becomes available. Gonna miss Obama
Marjowil
@Brachiator: It’s a hat tip I think to John Oliver who early on did a piece about how Trump’s licensing of his name was bull crap and we should strip him of its veneer by using his original name.
Uncle Cosmo
@OzarkHillbilly: Reactionaries. Motto: “Back to the Fifties.” Divided between how far back they want to go, the 1950s or the 1850s.
Brachiator
@Marjowil:
Ah. Thanks for this.
Chris
@Kay:
@Betty Cracker:
Me three.
It kind of bothers me in that it’s probably not any sensible way to deal with politics long term – they’re half the country, after all. But I really don’t know how the hell else I’m supposed to react to people who vote on literally nothing else but how to screw me and millions of others over.
NorthLeft12
@gvg: What is funny about Deadbeat Donald’s family history was his comment in a primary debate that his family did not come to America just to have their job taken by an immigrant. or words to that effect.
The guy is just completely clueless, without an ounce of self awareness or empathy.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Botsplainer:
If someone hasn’t already mentioned it, the oldest boomers were 9 years old in 1955.
HelloRochester
We all agree that if Hillary loses this thing that Donna Brazile should be barred from “helping” the party with anything resembling even a Democratic town council race, right? That we’ll finally have enough evidence that she’s not good at her job, right?
Cleos
@Botsplainer:
The boomers’ parents were from the “Greatest [if you ignore the racism, sexism, homophobia & warmongering] GeneratIon” for the most part. And that generation was not the one who “got us through the Depression”, as it’s invariably phrased — that was the boomers’ grandparents.
The worms of catchphrases have eaten deep, but all of us already knew that.