Orangmandias

by 10:54 am. It has 263 Comments.

orangmandias

Y’all may have already heard this, but it has been confirmed that President Obama’s humiliation of Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner five years ago is indeed what set Trump off on his quest for the presidency:

After the humiliation of President Barack Obama raking him over the coals for pushing birther conspiracy theories, a top surrogate for Donald Trump said he will have his “ultimate revenge” when all of his critics have to “bow down” to him in the White House.

In a clip previewing an upcoming special from PBS Frontline, published online Thursday, Omarosa Manigault spoke about the abject humiliation Trump felt after Obama did an extended bit about the real estate mogul at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner.

“Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump,” Manigault said. “It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him. It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.”

Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidant [and crackpot scumbag! — ed.] with loose ties to the campaign, called the 2011 event “the night that [Trump] resolved to run for president.”

Yeah, nothing deranged and egomaniacal as fuck about that! Since this confirmation is coming from a top campaign surrogate, maybe Lester Holt could ask Trump to explain how the public pantsing he got from PBO figured into his decision to run and whether it’s appropriate to make the American people and indeed the world’s entire population bit-players in Trump’s ego-driven psycho-drama.

While he’s at it, Holt might also ask both candidates to weigh in on the question of whether or not the U.S. president is really the “most powerful man in the universe.” Have leaders throughout the entire universe been considered, not just the Magellanic Clouds (large and small) and Andromeda?


Breaking News: Police in Charlotte are Moving Protestors Ahead of the 12:00 AM EDT Curfew

by 11:02 pm. It has 80 Comments.

Tremaine Lee of MSNBC is reporting live that police in Charlotte have just fired rubber bullets and what he’s describing as pepper spray (most likely pepper ball less than lethal rounds) into fleeing protestors that were marching peacefully towards I277 over an hour before the midnight curfew. Lee is reporting that the police are moving into the area, they then set up a phalanx, move towards the protestors, and as the protestors begin to move out, the police then fire the rubber bullets and pepper rounds towards them.

Here’s the link to WBTV 3 Charlotte’s live feed.

The next major conflict point will be at 12:00 AM EDT when the Mayor of Charlotte has called a curfew to clear the streets from midnight to 6:00 AM EDT. It is unclear how law enforcement in Charlotte plan to enforce that curfew given the several hundred peaceful protestors and demonstrators in the streets of Charlotte. Earlier this evening Reverend Barber in an interview on MSNBC indicated that the Mayor of Charlotte had agreed during a meeting with faith leaders earlier today not to impose and enforce a curfew.

For everyone in the Charlotte area please stay safe.

I’ll update as new information becomes available.

Update at 11:15 PM EDT

Mayor Jennifer Roberts just told Brian Williams on MSNBC that:

We are 45 minutes away from finding out what this means in practice.

Update at 12:00 AM EDT

The Charlotte municipal curfew is now in effect. Significant number of demonstrators/protestors are still out on the street. Hopefully things stay peaceful.

Update 12:07 PM EDT

Update at 12:12 PM EDT

Update at 12:35 AM EDT

Update at 12:52 AM EDT:

 


Important: Save The Day

by 10:03 am. It has 138 Comments.

Because I’m secretly in love with Joss Whedon, this brightened my entire morning:

It’s Joss Whedon’s world, we just live in it.

Don’t boo. Vote.

Open thread.

ETA: Because I love you – if you haven’t seen Michelle Obama’s impression of her husband, you must watch this:

 





This post is in , and has 138 Comments.

Facebook Feud Fodder (Non-Football Open Thread)

by 12:45 pm. It has 346 Comments.

I’m with respected blog colleague Kay in thinking that it makes little sense to blame the Youngs for the horrifying possibility that Trump could be elected because of millennials’ insufficient fealty to the Democratic nominee. Yes, anyone who is determined to throw a vote away on sentient Caucasian dreadlock Jill Stein* or human bong avatar Gary Johnson deserves a clue-by-four upside the noggin.

But it’s the Olds — specifically, older white folks — who weaponized the ferret-wearing shit-gibbon. Let’s put the lion’s share of the blame where it truly belongs.

I think I’ve talked all the millennials in my purview into backing Clinton. (Or possibly they’re lying to me to shut me the hell up.) That said, this piece from Tooney of the Twitters might be good Facebook fodder for the young idealists in your feed who’ve bought into the purity brigade’s anti-Clinton smears:

In conclusion, here’s a front-page shout-out to indefatigable campaign volunteer recruiter BR, who had this to say in the morning thread:

Morning reminder to sign up to volunteer for the campaign. Just takes 30 seconds and is crucial for November. There are lots of things you can do, so please sign up today for just one event. Let me know if you have questions.

Well done, BR. And thank you!

*H/T Sam Bee


Birther Control: Open Thread (Updated)

by 12:36 pm. It has 463 Comments.

Dave Weigel makes a decent point:

A mildly encouraging development: Almost all of the mainstream media stories I’ve seen on Trump’s 90-minute infomercial / 30-second birther statement have noted that he’s lying when he says Hillary Clinton started it. Some even call the claim “false” or “lies” right in the headline.

Open thread!

ETA: Tell it, Hillz!


Big Lie on Deck

by 9:58 am. It has 312 Comments.

Trump is supposed to make a “major announcement” on his racist birther campaign at 10 AM ET. You can watch it live here.

Josh Barro thinks Trump is about to step on a landmine:

Please proceed, racist goon.


Rotten Acorns Land Near Gnarly Oak (Updated)

by 3:16 pm. It has 141 Comments.

Trump’s worthless progeny have run into some inconvenient media peasants during the last 24 hours. First, Ivanka got snippy with a Cosmo interviewer when asked about details of the circa-1960s maternity leave plan and NannyBucks proposal she and her slimy father rolled out a couple of days ago:

Donald Trump’s famously composed eldest daughter, Ivanka, accused a Cosmopolitan reporter of going “negative” and trying to “editorialize” by asking for specifics on her father’s newly announced maternity leave policy before abruptly ending a Wednesday phone interview…

Trump became testier when asked what made her father evolve on the issue of maternity leave, given that he said in a 2004 NBC interview that pregnancy was an “inconvenience for employers.”

“I think that you have a lot of negativity in these questions, and I think my father has put forth a very comprehensive and really revolutionary plan to deal with a lot of issues,” Trump replied, criticizing Gupta for making a “comment like that” and arguing that her father has employed women at all levels of his company for “decades.”

Gupta said she didn’t mean to ask “negative” questions, but argued it was “relevant” to ask questions about past statements made by presidential candidates.

“You said he made those comments. I don’t know that he said those comments,” Trump said.

Gupta clarified that she was quoting directly from the NBC interview.

Trump reiterated that her father should be “celebrated” for his “really incredibly plan” before saying she had to “jump off” the phone.

She probably really did expect her creepy sexist father to be celebrated. What an unpleasant surprise.

Next, Trump Jr. let slip the real reason his scumbag father won’t release his tax returns: because then people would be able to see what’s in them:

Donald Trump Jr. said that one reason his father has yet to release his tax returns, in a break from four decades of precedent for presidential candidates, was that the complicated documents would provoke too many questions.

“He’s got a 12,000-page tax return that would create … financial auditors out of every person in the country asking questions that would detract from [his father’s] main message,” Trump Jr. said in a Wednesday interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

I think it’s time for Democrats to just assert the worst assumptions about what’s in Trump’s tax returns as if they were factual and put the onus on Trump to prove otherwise:

“How can a man like Donald Trump, who uses loopholes to pay no taxes, propose another huge tax cut to benefit rich freeloaders like himself?”

“Why does Trump keep lying about giving tens of millions to charity?”

“If Trump is such a savvy businessman, why is he in hock up to his eyeballs to Russian oligarchs and mobsters?”

Etc. Later, Trump Jr. (or an aide) stole a page from his sister’s playbook and fled an interview that wasn’t going his way:

An aide abruptly shut down a local TV reporter’s Thursday interview with Donald Trump Jr. when the real estate scion was asked about a six-foot-tall portrait of his father reportedly bought with money from the family’s charitable foundation.

“You’re a director of the Trump Foundation charity,” a reporter from Pittsburgh TV station WTAE asked in video flagged by BuzzFeed News. “Did you sign off on charity money for a portrait?”

“No, I don’t know anything about that,” Trump Jr. replied.

“So how come you didn’t know about it?” the reporter pressed.

“All right, that’s it,” a person off-camera interrupted, speaking over Trump Jr. “We have to move on. We have to move on to the next one.”

“I’m not worried—I’m not involved in it,” Trump Jr. added.

“I’m not worried”? Hmm. That sounds like a tell — kinda like “believe me.”

What a trio of despicable, entitled brats Ivanka, Uday and Qusay are. Mitt’s five Mittlets were kind of annoying and comical, but these Trump people are scum. Please FSM, let us be rid of the whole vile bunch forever come November 9.

ETA: By popular demand, here’s an account of another unbelievable comment by Trump Jr. today:

“The media has been her number one surrogate in this,” the younger Trump told radio host Chris Stigall on 1210 WPHT radio in Philadelphia. “Without the media, this wouldn’t even be a contest, but the media has built her up. They’ve let her slide on every in-discrepancy, on every lie, on every DNC game trying to get Bernie Sanders out of this thing.

“If Republicans were doing that, they’d be warming up the gas chamber right now.”

Lie down with neo-Nazis, wake up with Holocaust jokes and white nationalist memes, I guess. 54 more days.