Here’s a snapshot of America in February 2016:
Sometimes words fail me.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Meanwhile;
— Taniel (@Taniel) February 28, 2016
Which puts all of the arguments about what constitutes progressive and how best to move forward into rather… stark… perspective.
Nah,
The pony under my bed told me that there would be no difference between Clinton SCOTUS judges and Trump judges.
.
That’s not a pony, nalbar.
It’s just a stunted, seriously outclassed…so far…donkey.
Bet on it.
AG
Keep it classy, AG.
Trump’s your style, for sure.
As we say in he streets of New York…just tellin’ it like it is.
You don’t like it?
You may be in the majority.
Or…maybe not.
Time will tell.
Won’t it.
AG
If by some ill chance, President Trump is the one doing the nominating, I hope, but do not count on it very strongly, that Dems will remember the talk going around now and decide NOT to allow any addition to the SC for four years.
Sounds like sauce for the gander to me.
I see Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III continues to stay true to his name. Trump’s research on the KKK and David Duke should be very interesting. I hope he has a lot of time, because there’s much to research.
Jeffwy Boy speaks with one of those annoying baby “R’s” so actually, he pronounces his name Jeffwason Beawagahd Davis. When it comes to cluster fucks of that ilk, who endorse Ass Trumpeter, I’m not above taking a dig.
Not screwed up … just a period of regression with honesty.
Partisan Clinton/Obama DEMs have been dismissing the financial pain/hurt that has been unavoidably obvious to millions of Americans since 2009. Those Americans may be a bit slow because absent all the easy consumer credit beginning in the 1980 they would have noticed it much sooner. Now they’re lashing out in anger and hopelessness and when such times appear, they look for scapegoats.
In 2008 I wrote — she won, but at what cost? — in the immediate aftermath of the NH primary. The SC DEM primary will look different a year from now than it does today.
Billmon
On a related note: “The Big Short” won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay. Worthy choice by the Academy IMHO.
If I were voting strategically, I would vote for Trump. For one, he might actually be against the TTP. Secondly, Dems might be afraid to pass it with their votes under a Republican(?) president.
And Yes. TTP IS that bad. For us and the developing world.
Glad I am an old woman these days.
Trump’s response to the catch on the Mussolini quote, ‘hey, it’s a good quote!’
After the revelation from Anonymous last Fall with the list of KKK members, including Cornyn, I’m ever hopeful that Anon will pull more tidbits out about Sessions & Trump shortly.
Bizarre.
A very judicious piece detailing what is known about Trump’s father in relation to the KKK :
https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/1927-news-report-donald-trumps-dad-arrested-in-kkk-brawl-with-cops/6534
0
Sorry, here’s the correct URL :
https://boingboing.net/2015/09/09/1927-news-report-donald-trump.html
How about a new rule, a candidate and his/her relatives that are actively engaged in the campaign are fair game. All other relatives are off limits. (That not a defense of Trump’s father who may well have been a despicable person, but he’s dead and can’t speak for himself.) It was disgusting the way the rightwing went after Obama’s parents, a decent and interesting mother and a father that he saw once and had no real relationship with.
I think it’s perfectly legitimate in this case because Trump has explicitly denied any knowledge of them. So it’s not just an insult to our intelligence as they were as powerful for a time as they are presently notorious, but that his own family had direct links to said organization which he supposedly knows nothing about.
David Duke? KKK? What? Huh? Never heard of them. Oh, right, by the way: over here is Jeff Sessions to endorse me for president.
Trump isn’t appealing to your intelligence.
Here’s the thing — the more related and distant crap that is dredged up about a candidate the less impact any of it has on voters. It ends up reflecting negatively on those that push it.
Sheesh didn’t anyone learn anything from the years of the “communist-socialist-fascist-anti-colonalist-atheist-muslim-etc” garbage that we’ve had to endure over the past seven years?
I’m not saying we have to hammer this, or that it’s prudent to do so — indeed, it’s not, and why bother when there’s such great material from his own damn mouth? But I’m also not about to leave it on the table. This is one of those things that just has to be “out there”, floating about.
The stump speech yesterday where Donald complained about the judge in the Trump University case was racist comedy gold as well:
http://gawker.com/donald-trump-says-hispanic-judge-in-trump-university-su-1761863430
It would be nice if he could shut his piehole for once. Proof positive he’s not reading from a teleprompter, though, so he’s Better Than Obummer.
Should be available for this kind of plain-speech:
Nor anyone else’s. Which explains much.
I’ve got to agree with seabe on that one. It’s relevant.
That being said, his daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism and is quite observant. She is said to be quite close to her father. (She’s also a good friend of Chelsea Clinton.)
Yes, Trump has Jewish grandchildren. As does/will Clinton — not that hers will be exclusively raised in the religion.
So, regardless of who wins, Ivanka and Chelsea can have WH sleepovers.
Another report of the incident, printed in The Daily Star, Queens Borough, Wednesday evening June 1, 1927, page 2, says “Fred Trump of 175-24 Devonshire
road, Jamaica, was dismissed on a charge of refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered to do so.”
It was a memorial day parade on Hillside Avenue, Jamaica, and the Klan had a contingent in that parade. The cops were trying to prevent them from parading past the reviewing stand.
Since the police were trying to get the Klan contingent, specifically, to disperse, it sounds like Fred Trump had been marching with the KKK contingent, although that’s not 100% clear.
—1927. I am aware that I had racist relatives that were around at that time. None that I lived near nor had much to do with and have long since passed on.
You think it’s relevant, fine. But don’t complain when the GOP dredges up anything about the Clinton-Rodham kin that stinks.
I’m pretty sure you haven’t been retweeting quotes from white supremacists and openly seeking relationships with and support from famous racists. With that, the relevancy measurement re. relatives is altered.
I do agree that we don’t have to go back to 1927 to discover things much more disturbing and relevant about Trump. We could go all the way back to the Alabama rally he led this afternoon. Or this morning, when he refused to disavow David Duke and the KKK itself. Or yesterday, and the day before, and the day before…
Just so you understand my thinking, I said I consider it “relevant” to the question of why The Donald portrays himself as being so ignorant of the nature of the KKK or who David Duke is. Even for an ignoramus like Trump, I find that pretty astonishing.
It’s relevant in the sense of being a possible clue — by no means a conclusion. And I would point out that unlike, say, Obama, would didn’t even know his father, Trump was raised by his father, who lived a long life; and clearly was his protegé, having inherited his fortune and continued his line of business. Furthermore, the younger Trump has given abundant evidence of nativist prejudice, at least against certain groups. So did his father, later in his career. That being said, in itself the event of 1927 is not determinative of anything about the son —
But it’s certainly interesting.
As you probably know, the late Sen. Robert Byrd was, for a short time as a young man, a member of the Klan. That doesn’t prevent me from holding him in the greatest respect for certain aspects (not all) of his later career. And the fact that he quit the Klan after a short time was a good start.
My thinking is that it’s clear to everybody that Trump’s campaign is an appeal to racists and bigots. Whether he himself is actually a racist is unproven and citing his father’s long ago actions doesn’t add any evidence to answer that question unless one believes that children of racists always grow up to be racists. Many do and many don’t; so, that’s weak evidence.
Seems to me that this is being pulled up again at this time (it was originally reported months ago) because Trump hasn’t directly gone after AAs. Obama, yes, but not other specific AAs or AAs as a group. If he holds such prejudices, he’ll get there in the campaign all on his own. If/when he does, that’s what people will need to see clearly and without the distraction of having first been beaten over their head with what his father did when his father was young.
I’m not sure the distinction between whether Trump is a racist and bigot, or is just deliberately appealing to racists and bigots, is politically significant. The fact is, he’s got David Duke’s endorsement.
Should add because it may not have been clear that I have a low bar for describing someone as a racist or bigot. (Every single one of us in this country has had our brains contaminated with racism and it’s probably not possible for but a few to yank out all the roots, but it doesn’t mean that we should ever give up trying to do so. We frown upon, discourage, etc. racist (and sexist and homophobic) speech because it’s hurtful to the intended target. Equally important is that such language/speech reinforces the bigotry of the speaker and those around him/her.) While bigoted speech may be a tell, the behavior of the speaker is far more important. Exploiting race or the racism in others for any personal gain meets my standard for a racist. Trump is therefore a racist. But so too are the Clintons and they have a longer publicly known track record of doing this than Trump does. Yet others, including AAs, dismiss that evidence as irrelevant. That the Clintons aren’t racists but sometimes use racism for their personal political gains. I don’t care for double standards, but that’s just me.
Equating the Clintons to Trump at this moment in time is particularly offensive. The offense appears intentional.
This. Does. Not. Help. Persuade. People. To. Support. Sanders.
Rhetoric like this hurts the effort, in fact.
Have you moved a single person here with this stuff?
I asked nicely. You still fail comprehension skills. Now fuck off.
“Every single one of us in this country has had our brains contaminated with racism … “
Couldn’t agree more. And that’s why I’m far from a purist on the subject, and why I refuse to give credit to “gotchas” based on some litmus test like saying the word “Negro” instead of “person of color”. But that’s not what we’re dealing with here. There are degrees, and in my judgment, Trump rates fairly high. And when you’re endorsed by David Duke, then you pretend you don’t know who he is, when anybody with an IQ higher than room temperature knows who he is and when there is documented proof that you DO know who he is, well it becomes a legitimate issue, to say the least.
https:/cdanews.com/2016/02/donald-trump-denys-knowing-that-the-kkks-david-duke-supports-him
I believe him that he doesn’t know who David Duke is. (I’m sure he knows now, but at the time of the interview it wasn’t clear to him at all; just one in a sea of names from decades ago that he barely remembers, like most apolitical people.)
This business of him and the White Supremacists — the retweets; the refusal to blanket-condemn or comment — is much more interesting and complex. I think that Trump, like many racists, genuinely doesn’t understand any of this. He’s so self-absorbed and petty-minded that he doesn’t really follow American political trends; he doesn’t really know history and he doesn’t know about hate groups.
I think he sees the tweets and likes them and retweets them, and hears about the endorsements and feels good, because he’s being endorsed, but I truly don’t think he realizes what’s going on. He’s asked to condemn them or whatever and suddenly realizes that he’s stepped into some kind of bear trap, but he doesn’t really grasp what it is; all he knows is that he read what he took to be some perfectly reasonable pro-Trump sentiment which he appreciated and agreed with and suddenly he’s being challenged and confronted, so, of course, being Trump, he won’t capitulate.
But I think his ignorance could be genuine; he may truly not understand any of this besides the fact that they seem to be saying the right things.
Nah, that won’t fly. When Trump considered and rejected involvement with the Reform Party in 2000, he condemned David Duke:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/02/28/3754583/trump-david-duke/
Duke is the most famous representative/former member of the KKK in the United States. Look, Donald just lied when he claimed he didn’t know Duke. And who doesn’t know the KKK?
He was directly asked on a national broadcast this morning if he wanted to reject support from Duke and the KKK, and he refused like a weasel. He’s now tweeting out walkbacks, but the inference is crystal clear.
There is zero reason to give this guy the smallest benefit of the doubt.
Wow! I stand corrected. Thanks.
(It’s still conceivable that he’s blanking on the name, fifteen years later…but I agree it’s unlikely.)
“A former grand wizard of the KKK encouraged people to vote for you and said they’d be race-traitors if they didn’t. Care to denounce that?”
“I don’t know that guy. Need to study him some more.”
That was yesterday. Here’s the stump speech coming into Super Tuesday:
“So, this lying press, they’re such liars. The newspapers said I didn’t reject the support I’m getting from the Ku Klux Klan. I am, I am rejecting the support I’m getting from the Ku Klux Klan. They’re such liars. It’s not my fault people who care about their country want to vote for me, they’re passionate people. And David Duke, who’s this guy? So what if David Duke supports me. I didn’t ask for his support. The press are disgusting liars.”
I see the endorsements from Governors Christie & LePage and Senator Sessions as problems to be overcome, rather than “BIG NEWS!” to be bragged about. But I’m not running for the Republican Presidential nomination. In 2016.
Now we know how the GOP presents absent the monolithic message discipline for which they were once so renowned; as a ragged gaggle of chooks.
Also… Your daily Donald:
Oh, Lordy… But you said it anyway. Il Douche.
He’s extremely good at “not saying” things — approaching the brilliance of the title-holder, Richard Nixon.
You saw the stuff yesterday about that judge? “He’s Hispanic. That’s fine. That’s fine.”
Or when he talks about some business figure who irritates him: “I might sue him. I don’t care. But I could sue him. It doesn’t matter.”
The public fretting of the establishment GOP and media that he will ‘destroy the party’ is just playing right into his hands. Suits his supporters just fine and probably boosts turnout.
If they don’t get to see Dimon and Blankfein in orange jumpsuits at least they can watch the GOP burn; Cleveland is shaping up to be a bonfire with Trump as both arsonist and accelerant.
Whatever, if Mussolini made the statement about lion and sheep, he cribbed it from an inscription scribbled on a wall in northern Italy before a battle in WW 1. See https:/ww1photographs.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/2015.
Pointed out by Justin Raimondo in Antiwar today.
Donny will get right on that research…right after he clears up all this global warming stuff we keep hearing about.
Ready or not, the Republican circus gets a new clown
02/29/16 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
One of the more compelling concerns among Republicans worried about Donald Trump has to do with maturity: the New York developer just doesn’t have the temperament of an American president. Whatever his talents, Trump’s skill set doesn’t include displaying dignity and grace.
It was a little unsettling, then, to see what’s become of Marco Rubio’s pitch on the eve of Super Tuesday. NBC News reported overnight:
In response to the property mogul calling him “little Rubio,” Rubio conceded that Trump was taller than him. However, the Florida senator suggested Trump had small hands for his height.
“And you know what they say about guys with small hands,” Rubio said with a smile, prompting stunned laughter from the crowd. After a brief pause he added: “You can’t trust `em!” The crowd responded with applause.
Congratulations, Republicans. We’ve reached the point in the race for the GOP nomination in which the establishment favorite appears to be telling jokes about the size of his rival’s penis.
It helped add an exclamation point to a weekend in which Rubio thought it would be hilarious to tell jokes about Trump’s hair and skin color. “Donald Trump likes to sue people,” Rubio told an audience on Saturday. “He should sue whoever did that to his face.”
From Charles Pierce
Nobody Can Believe We’re Here, But We’re Here
Trump is really, truly blowing up our politics. It was a long time coming.
……………….
The problem with the Times piece is that it doesn’t take into account two obvious factors that the Republican Party itself resolutely fails to confront: first, that the prion disease that has afflicted the party since Ronald Reagan first fed it the monkeybrains in the 1980s has gotten worse, not better, and second, that the party’s three-decade courtship of the wild and the vile in our politics sooner or later was bound to leave the party open to a renegade campaign that was better at energizing that element than the cumbersome party machinery was. Anyone who thinks the Trump phenomenon is a sui generis explosion of eccentricity has forgotten the incredible collection of rodeo clowns over which Mitt Romney triumphed in 2012. Anyone who thinks He, Trump is unique in his rhetoric and his appeal never has read through Gingrich’s old Thesaurus For Ratfckers that helped fuel his rise to the Speakership. And anyone who thinks Trump’s brand of noisy, arrant bullshit is in anyway unique never has listened to a Cruz’s stump speech, like the one he unlimbered in the windy Atlanta morning, and which always contains the following passage that has no more connection to actual reality than do Trump’s fantastical Mexican drug mules slipping through the New Hampshire woods.
This election is not about one branch of government. It’s about two branches of government. We are one liberal justice away from a five justice left-wing majority the likes of which this country has never seen. We are one justice away from the Supreme Court taking away our fundamental religious liberty, one justice away from the Supreme Court ordering 10 Commandment monuments taken down all over this country, one justice away from the Supreme Court striking down every restriction on abortion and mandating abortion on demand all over this country. We are one justice away from the Supreme Court reading the Second Amendment out of the Bill of Rights and taking away our right to keep and bear arms. We are one justice away from the Supreme Court ordering veterans memorials to be taken down all over this country, and we are not far away from the Supreme Court ordering the chisels to come outto remove the crosses and stars of David from the tombstones of our fallen soldiers.
Of all of the crocks in a campaign full of them, this one paragraph is the most energetically bubbling of them all. Forget that the worst this hypothetical Weatherman majority likely could to America’s gun lovers is to re-establish the regime that existed prior to the Heller decision in 2008. Forget also that there will be no Supreme Court majority for “abortion on demand” or anything like it as long as Anthony Kennedy is alive and dithering. There is no conceivable chance that the Supreme Court will order religious symbols to be chiseled off the tombstones at Arlington. (I would note that Cruz does not mention the crescents that adorn the markers of Muslim service members who have died for his liberty.) It takes a lot of gall for someone like Ted Cruz to imply that someone else is conning the American people.
Oh dear…looks like Morning Joe hooked his boxcar to the wrong choo-choo:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/joe-scarborough-donald-trump-david-duke-kkk-comments
Scarborough will lose access to the nice cocktail weenies at the ritzy parties if he doesn’t Dump Trump.
And Donald’s on the teevee this morning, saying
“I disavowed David Duke
I disavowed David Duke
I disavowed David Duke
I disavowed David Duke
I disavowed David Duke
I disavowed David Duke
I disavowed David Duke
I disavowed David Duke”
On message! LOL
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 2/26/16
New e-mails paint Snyder into corner on Flint crisis
Rachel Maddow reports on a new release of e-mails from the office of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder that show his inner circle knew about the problems in Flint before the governor claims he knew and well before he took action to help.
From Benen:
New CNN poll
Note, this poll was conducted from Wednesday to Saturday, so it includes the days following last week’s debate, which was held on Thursday.
The GOP base has lost its bearings, big time.
They will be met with an unpleasant rendezvous with political reality in November.