tRump's Foreign Solicitations

driftglass "Dear Foreign Leader Friend...":

My name is Donald J. Trump, Prince of the Great Country of America and I have been requested by the Republican National Campaign Company to contact you for assistance in resolving a matter of importance to your great country. The Republican National Campaign Company has recently concluded a large number of Primaries which have positioned me to assume my rightful title of King of Great Country of America. The Republican National Campaign Company and I are equally desirous of exporting our prosperous greatness to many other parts and regions of the world, however, because of the illegitimate Kenyan regime blocking our efforts in the Great Country of America currently we are unable to move our greatness to other regions...

Busting Bernie

Bernie Sanders Should Endorse and Support Hillary Clinton | Observer:

...But….but…but…. when he continually criticizes Democrats and keeps trying to barter his endorsement of Clinton by raising the price of support that should have been given long ago, he helps Trump. He helps Republicans. He helps the right. He helps the conservative Republican justices of the Supreme Court who attack the principles of justice that progressive believe in and who yearn for a Republican president to name new justices to given them a majority for a generation.

Beware of anyone who purports to be on the left who says “Bernie or bust,” who calls for support of the Green Party candidate, who writes so many endless commentaries of hatred against Clinton that they are really of the right rather than the left, or are as politically unwise as those who supported Ralph Nader in the Florida campaign in 2000 when Al Gore—and not George W. Bush—would have become president if they had voted for Gore...

SCOTUS Drifts To Port

How the two justices from California are moving the Supreme Court to the left - LA Times:

The Supreme Court ended its term this week with two liberal victories – on abortion and affirmative action – that reflect in part a deepening center-left alliance between Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen G. Breyer.

Breyer is the most moderate of the court’s four Democratic appointees, and Kennedy is easily the most moderate of the four Republican appointees. Both share an interest in deciding cases based on a practical assessment of the facts, and not rigid doctrines or legal ideology...

Navy Flogged Over Iran Incident

Navy report: Failure at every level for US ships captured by Iran - CNNPolitics.com:

A devastating new report by military investigators released Thursday found that the 10 sailors captured by Iranians in January suffered from "failed leadership" at all levels on a mission that was plagued by mistakes from beginning to end.
"This incident was the result of failed leadership at multiple levels from the tactical to the operational," investigators wrote in the detailed, partially redacted, report...

No mention of how this was either Clinton or Obama's fault.

From The Missed That Department: Secret Service Agent's Book Denounced By Sercret Service

Secret Service veterans denounce anti-Clinton tell-all book - POLITICO:

The author of a new tell-all book about Hillary Clinton could never have seen any of what he claims — he was too low-ranking — say several high-level members of Secret Service presidential details, including the president of the Association of Former Agents of the United States Secret Service.

On Tuesday, AFAUSSS, which is strictly nonpartisan, is set to release a statement blasting Gary Byrne author of “Crisis in Character,” saying members “strongly denounce” the book, which they add has made security harder by eroding the trust between agents and the people they protect...

tRump Cheating? Breaking Law?

Donald Trump is spamming foreign politicians asking for money - CNET:

...Politicians in the UK and Australia are complaining about fundraising emails from Donald Trump that appear to breach US electoral rules.

A number of members of the UK and Australian parliaments say they have received emails signed by Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr. The messages praise the UK's vote to leave the EU -- known as Brexit -- and entreat the reader for money to fund Trump's US presidential campaign...

Proof Of The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

Bye, Bye Benghazi! | Crooks and Liars:

...Never, ever forget that this wasn't just some random effort to smear Hillary Clinton. It was planned, it was timed, it included meetings at midnight between Darrell Issa and right-wingers like Family Research Council's General Jerry Boykin, Justice Clarence Thomas' wife Ginni Thomas, and a whole host of others. The media timing was planned for maximum damage to Hillary Clinton, and executed by outlets like Breitbart News and more...

And the smearing continues. Every news cast I've seen since the report has led with some variation of  "Report Faults Clinton," and not the truth, "Clinton Innocent Of Claims."

Chaos Syndrome In Politics

Rauch has penned one of the most important political analyses that you will read this season. Long, but well worth the trip.
How American Politics Became So Ineffective - The Atlantic:

...Chaos syndrome is a chronic decline in the political system’s capacity for self-organization. It begins with the weakening of the institutions and brokers—political parties, career politicians, and congressional leaders and committees—that have historically held politicians accountable to one another and prevented everyone in the system from pursuing naked self-interest all the time. As these intermediaries’ influence fades, politicians, activists, and voters all become more individualistic and unaccountable. The system atomizes. Chaos becomes the new normal—both in campaigns and in the government itself...

...Trump, Sanders, and Ted Cruz have in common that they are political sociopaths—meaning not that they are crazy, but that they don’t care what other politicians think about their behavior and they don’t need to care. That three of the four final presidential contenders in 2016 were political sociopaths is a sign of how far chaos syndrome has gone. The old, mediated system selected such people out. The new, disintermediated system seems to be selecting them in...

If I remember my Marquis de Sade correctly, chaos inevitably leads to entropy, an idea that predates the mathematical models of the Universal that has it all dying in the cold void of empty dead space when all the particles in the Universe will be so far apart that no particle can interact with any other particle; thus, the Universe ends with a whimper, not a bang. I will definitely whimper when I see the Duck Dynasty phony beards in the White House.

tRump's Giving

Trump promised millions to charity. We found less than $10,000 over 7 years. - The Washington Post

The Sanders Flushing

Bernie Sanders blew it.:

...Maybe this was inevitable. Maybe Sanders was never going to have the full stamp he clamored for simply on account of having lost. But this underplays the initial strength of his hand. Had Sanders endorsed Clinton at the end of the primaries and recalibrated as an advocate for her campaign—in short, had he mimicked Warren—he would have gotten ahead of his voters. This is important. With an early concession and endorsement, Sanders does two things: He pre-empts any natural movement to Clinton among Democratic primary voters, which lets him claim credit for her improved numbers even if they were inevitable. Like Warren, he would take a starring role in the campaign against Trump. And as we saw in 2008 between Obama and Clinton, a partnership can open the doors to lasting influence...

Post Truth GOPering

PERRspectives: Donald Trump and the 53-Inch Penis:

...One episode provides clarity in the rise of the GOP's "post-truth"
politics. As you may recall, on September 12, 2009, FreedomWorks and
Fox News host Glenn Beck manufactured the "9/12 Rally"
in Washington, DC. Citing the fire department, ABC News estimated the
crowd to be as large as 70,000 Tea Partiers. But among the usual
suspects within conservative media and the right-wing blogosphere, the Tea Baggers tried to put a different number in our faces. The real attendance figure, they crowed, was two million....

A Key Benghazi Point

Republicans Confess: We Played Politics on the Graves of Benghazi Heroes | BNR:

...Rep Trey Gowdy admits he altered the documents that he used to make false claims against Hillary Clinton in a response to a letter from Rep Elijah Cummings. Gowdy admits that he decided to make this improper redaction. That he attempts to obfuscate the point by stating the “Executive” branch, AFTER Gowdy appointed himself as arbiter of classification, asked for the redaction on PRIVACY grounds, something Cummings himself stated in his letter, does not obviate the fact that Gowdy purposefully altered a document in order to falsely accuse Clinton of wrongdoing...

Are Office Pools On tRexit Going Yet?

Is a TrExit©™ coming? I predicted long ago that Trump the Small would quit before he lost.  I wonder what the most popular date for his exit is. Think I'll go with September 6.

How Is Donald Trump Going to Quit?:

...Now, though, the Democrats are just about done squabbling, Republicans are out of distractions, and the cold, sobering reality of what our nation has wrought is finally settling in. Now that the fun is winding down, the small-handed prince of our country’s most base anxieties is going to start looking for a way out. He’s already laying the groundwork, saying on Fox & Friends that “it would be nice to have full support from people that are in office, full verbal support. With all of that being said, I may go a different route if things don’t happen...”

Forced Birthers Lose One

Supreme Court strikes down Texas abortion law - CNNPolitics.com:

In a dramatic ruling, the Supreme Court on Monday threw out a Texas abortion access law in a victory to supporters of abortion rights who argued it would have shuttered all but a handful of clinics in the state.
The 5-3 ruling is the most significant decision from the Supreme Court on abortion in two decades and could serve to deter other states from passing...

Amazing tRump Insults

 ...at the link: Even Trump's Homeland Of Scotland Can't Stand Him | Crooks and Liars

I Am So Sick Of Bernie Sanders

I am almost as old as Sanders but don't act like a child, which is what he has been doing. STFU, Bernie. Enough. You're a ten minute Democrat, lay about left over hippie who just happened to sandbag a bunch of youngsters looking for freebies. Don't think you've fooled any of the rest of us. Your entire campaign was, I think, a GOP funded operation so either you are an idiot or you are a willful, treasonous mole selling out the very people you claim to represent by putting tRump in office. Enough.

Unreal: Bernie Goes on CNN to Attack Hillary | BNR:

...At this stage of the race, fashioning himself as the savior of the Democratic Party and asserting that Hillary has to “make it clear which side she’s on” (which he just did on CNN) is extremely unhelpful, to say the least.

Bernie has squandered a considerable amount of credibility with his post-primary intransigence. He isn’t really hurting Hillary with this behavior — she’s dealt with much worse — he’s ruining his own legacy. And more importantly: he’s doing a big disservice to his supporters in the process.

The Globilization Con

#Brexit, appliances, eucatastrophes and GoT crackpot theories | The Confluence:

...Globalization as we know it is really about a global casino, shareholder value, 401K’s. Did you notice that on Friday when the market dropped, we were all told not to look at our 401Ks? That’s what the gamblers would prefer. They don’t want you to look at how the value of your hard earned money, your retirement plan, is taking a plunge and will continue to do so. “Leave it alone, don’t think about it” is the message we get. Otherwise, you might get angry and they don’t want you to get angry and pull YOUR money out of THEIR market. Don’t look until we have to retire and find that all these monumental shocks left us with a lot less than the financial consultants said. They won’t promise you a guaranteed rate of return or even that you’ll have any principal left.And it’s all up to you. If you don’t plan, if you’re not playing the game correctly, well, it’s you’re fault for not being them...

Hating Clinton

Why Do Republicans Hate Hillary Clinton?:

...Discussing the sad post-primary life of Marco Rubio, Leibovich writes: "Rubio also holds the astonishing position of saying he’ll vote for someone he has previously declared unfit to hold the American nuclear codes. You envision him under a mushroom cloud, assuring his kids that it could be even worse—at least he didn’t vote for Clinton."

This level of anti-Clinton derangement has certainly trickled down to the party's grassroots. Leibovich describes the never-Trump senator from Nebraska, Ben Sasse, who told Leibovich that people in his state "say: 'I’m distraught. I’m opposed to everything Hillary Clinton stands for, and yet I think I have to vote for her. How do you make sense of this? What should I do?' These are young evangelical women, teary sometimes. They say, 'I can never tell my kids I voted for that man...'"

Lewandowski Fuels CNN Revolt

CNN staff revolts over Corey Lewandowski hire | Page Six:

Jeff Zucker couldn't wait to spend $500K on Corey Lewandowski

Ivanka Trump isn’t the only one who doesn’t want Corey Lewandowski around.

Sources told Page Six on Friday that CNN’s “facing a near internal revolt” over Jeff Zucker’s hiring of Lewandowski as an exclusive commentator for the news network days after he was fired as Donald Trump’s campaign manager...

Phony Lawsuit Against Duckworth Dropped

It's AP so no words. Workplace retaliation suit against Tammy Duckworth settled - The Washington Post

Zero From The Drug Testing Duh Zone

Michigan's Welfare Drug Testing Yields Zero Positives | Crooks and Liars:

Well color me surprised! Once again, a terrible Republican plan by Michigan's GOP Governor has failed to achieve its goal; which is to catch those drug-abusing welfare cheats and expose the fraud of the whole 'entitlement' concept. Except, not one of the 303 recipients whom they tested, turned up positive. Not one...

Bernie's Way Forward

What America Needs From Bernie Sanders - The New York Times:

...It’s not enough for Sanders to point out that voting for Trump is voting for bigotry. He needs to make it clear to his voters that they need to show up on Election Day, because staying home is like voting for Trump.

The Masters Of The Universe Are Rather Dim Bulbs

The real Wolf of Wall Street: Why Donald Trump is so popular with the richest investors - Salon.com:

...That would be one of the so-called Masters of the Universe who allegedly keep the engine of capitalism working with their strategic insight and keen grasp of complex issues. When you read something like that you realize how easily all those rich investors got taken in by Trump. It turns out they’re even more clueless than those poor dupes who ran up their credit cards to attend Trump University. They were dazzled by The Donald like everyone else...

Crazy In NC: tRump Rally Edition

Sometimes the title of a post says it all. This one does. American Horror Story | New Republic:

...The shout came after the first mention of Hillary Clinton’s name at Tuesday night’s Donald Trump rally in North Carolina: An opening speaker had called her “Crooked Hillary.” There was a smattering of laughs inside the Greensboro Coliseum. Many of the attendees were boozy-eyed. Many had turned to their neighbors and rolled their eyes, while a few people clapped in the stands...

Crazy In NC: Mecklenburg Pay Edition

Mecklenburg commissioners’ appalling pay hike speaks volumes | The Charlotte Observer:

Out of order. The height of irresponsibility.

So politically tone-deaf it seems downright criminal.

Are we describing Tuesday’s appalling vote by Mecklenburg County commissioners to hike their own pay by 43 percent?

No, those stinging words and phrases fell from the commissioners’ own lips nearly a month ago, when they pelted school board members with lectures about fiscal responsibility. The school board’s sin? Seeking $23 million in new county money as well as an $805 million school construction bond referendum this November...

Everyone who is surprised at their gall raise your hand. Didn't think so.

Sheriff Joe Has More Money Than tRump

How much does Sheriff pay?

Could Donald Trump and Sheriff Joe Arpaio Cost John McCain His Senate Seat? - The Daily Beast:

...Joe Arpaio may be a local sheriff, but his national profile has helped him build a war chest three times the size of Donald Trump’s.

According to Arpaio’s latest campaign finance disclosure (PDF), the combative immigration hardliner has raised nearly $9.9 million for his November bid for a 7th term as Maricopa County sheriff, including $1.94 million since January alone...

Maybe old Tribble Dome should name Joe as his Veep. I'm sure that would save the Straight Talk Express from getting derailed.

Opinion Revision Underway

I have tended to agree with Greenwald's opinions on many matters; now, I'm having to reevaluate some previous thoughts, but then that is life in liberal land--- always looking for those biased facts. Perhaps, I can come to a most astounding and unconservative realization: I can be wrong.

Spitfire List | The Jo Cox Assassination: Assist, Greenwald:

COMMENT: In FTR #888 (among other broadcasts and posts), we noted that Citizen Greenwald ran legal interference for the “leaderless resistance” strategy while working pro bono as an attorney. Most important of his efforts, in our opinion, was his work defending the National Alliance against a suit that alleged that the group’s advocacy of racist violence inspired attacks on two Latino day laborers.

We noted–and repeat again–that the National Alliance’s books and literature are specifically intended as instruction materials, designed to motivate “lone-wolf” killers. Thanks to Citizen Greenwald, the National Alliance was relieved of any possible burden of civil liability in cases where their material achieved the desired goal–murder and mayhem...

But Fools Will Believe...

...because thinking requires effort and the deliberate victims of CDS suffer from the most terminal of all illnesses: laziness. 

The Discredited Books At The Heart Of Trump's Speech:

Donald Trump cited claims from two discredited anti-Clinton books -- Peter Schweizer’s Clinton Cash and Gary Byrne’s Crisis of Character -- in his June 22 speech attacking Hillary Clinton. Clinton Cash is filled with errors and sloppy research, while Crisis of Character has been strongly denounced by Secret Service veterans as implausible...

Bros Get Latino Whacked

Chairman resigns, many Sanders supporters apologize for 'disrespectful' role in Latino caucus election - Omaha.com: Nebraska:

A cadre of young Bernie Sanders backers in Nebraska learned this week that it wasn’t right to play politics with Latinos.

The Sanders group was accused of being “paternalistic” and exhibiting “white privilege” after it engineered the ouster of a longtime Latino leader in favor of a Sanders supporter as chairman of a Latino-centered group during last weekend’s Democratic State Convention...

Clinton Wins Important Endorsement

Republican Brent Scowcroft backs Clinton - CNNPolitics.com:

Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, received an endorsement Wednesday from a heavyweight foreign policy adviser to Republican presidents.
Brent Scowcroft, who served as National Security Adviser to Presidents George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford, and who worked in the White House of Presidents Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, said Clinton "brings truly unique experience and perspective to the White House..."

tRump Does A Sad Bad Clinton

Donald Trump Gives Low-Energy Teleprompter Speech And Nobody Cares. Sad! | Wonkette:

...Donald Trump finally gave his Great Big Anti-Hillary Speech Wednesday; he had planned it for last week before the unpleasantness in Orlando forced him to instead yell at Muslims and tell some lies about immigration and why Hillary Clinton hates The Gays. Constrained again by teleprompters, Trump did his very best to sound Presidential, but instead sounded like Donald Trump under heavy sedation. We aren’t sure it was an improvement. But it was definitely a Trump event: It was held at the Trump SoHo in New York, so we can look forward to seeing at the end of the month how much the campaign paid Trump’s hotel for the day. And he got through the 45-minute speech without saying “bigly” even once...

Please, No More Bernout Whining

The Democratic Primary Wasn’t Rigged | The Nation: 

...But there also needs to be an honest discussion separating fact from fiction. Crying wolf about rigged elections, like some Sanders supporters have done, undermines the legitimacy of documented cases of voter suppression resulting from GOP-passed laws in states like North Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin, which pose a real and urgent threat to American democracy.

Ammosexual Assery

I'm a very well armed liberal and I shot an expert rating using an M-16 back in the day. Gersh Kuntzman's article in the Daily News reported that his experience shooting an AR-15 was frightening. I don't think he's shot many guns but then so what? His experience is the one you should have the first time you shoot. If you're getting a Chris Matthew's tingle up your leg, you should seek counseling or a massage parlor.

Of course, shooting some heavier weaponry is even more noisy, but that doesn't negate his opinion. The ammosexual reaction is tied directly to masculinity, which has been my experience advocating for gun control. If the loons can't figure a way to challenge your patriotism, the next place they always go is your manhood, followed by your IQ. The example below is one of the milder insults Kuntzman published.

To gun lovers, you can't even have an opinion on assault rifles - NY Daily News:

..."Hey there Cupcake!" wrote Gary Haney. "I have never subscribed to the idea of 'gender confusion,' but after reading your article on the AR-15, I'm a believer because there is no way you and I are the same gender. You should surrender your testicles to the Department of Girlymen. I'm not sure where it's located, but your girlfriend Barack does!"...

If all this feels familiar, that's because it is. Debating with a gun nut is exactly the same as trying to discuss abortion or GOP failures. Now it could asserted that they are all the same, i.e. rightwing GOPers, but that doesn't really matter. The salient point is that they cannot be reasoned with so don't even bother. If you want sane gun laws, there is only one way to do it: elect Democrats and vote all the murderous NRA enabled fanatics out of office.

The Days Best Words About The Great Senate Failure Of 2016

When Our Doubt Becomes Despair:

...How many dead people are enough? How much blood on the floor is enough? How much brain matter on the walls is enough? Please. Give us an answer so these folks won't come and pester you until enough of your constituents and fellow citizens have been slaughtered to make it politically feasible for you to do something about the bloodletting. Give the country an answer so it won't bother you again until the bodies out in the countries pile high enough to be noticed from the top of Capitol Hill...

Clinton Ups Her Game

My bold.

Hillary Clinton Warns Trump's Tiny Hands Should Be Nowhere Near The U.S. Economy | Crooks and Liars:

...Clinton equated a Trump presidency with Donald having the nuclear codes to his business life when she said, "You might think that because he has spent his life as a businessman, he'd be better prepared to handle the economy. Well, it turns out, he's dangerous there, too. Just like he shouldn't have his finger on the button, he shouldn't have his hands on our economy."

Then she hit him on all of his failed business endeavors that resulted in lawsuits and Chapter 11's, when she said, "He's written a lot of books about business. They all seem to end at Chapter 11..."

"You've Been Trumped"

The entire documentary is available on YouTube if you're interested.

Merchants Of Death Win Again

Almost Every GOP Senator Just Voted to Keep Letting Terror Suspects Buy Guns | Mother Jones:

...The final votes on these two measures both came in at 47-53 mostly along partisan lines. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) was the only Republican to vote in favor of both Democratic bills. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, voted against Murphy's measure on background checks. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) voted for Feinstein's bill, but against Murphy's...

Little O On tRump Ticket?

What nobody’s mentioned about Corey Lewandowski’s firing — it was about Trump’s VP pick:

...Early on in his campaign, Trump said that he would consider OWN owner Oprah Winfrey as a potential running mate.

No Bump tRump

Trump Officials Disappointed He Didn't Get 'Bump In The Polls' From Orlando Shooting: Bloomberg | Crooks and Liars:

People close to Donald Trump are reportedly scrambling to come up with a political strategy to save his campaign after last week's mass shooting in Orlando failed to give the candidate a "bump in the polls" as his aides had hoped...

SCOTUS Stays Out Of Gun Debate

U.S. top court rejects challenge to state assault weapon bans | Reuters:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left in place gun control laws in New York and Connecticut that ban military-style assault weapons like the one used in last week's massacre at an Orlando nightclub, rejecting a legal challenge by gun rights advocates.

The court's action underlined its reluctance to insert itself into the simmering national debate on gun control. The Supreme Court issued important rulings in gun cases in 2008 and 2010 but has not taken up a major firearms case since...

Big Pot Coming?

Top researchers just demolished a huge fear about legal pot - The Washington Post:

...But in conjunction with the event, a pair of Brookings researchers who study marijuana policy released a report that pours a lot of cold water on the notion that marijuana legalization will usher in "Big Tobacco 2.0."

"The Big Marijuana rubric is more misleading than helpful as a guide to policy," Brookings' John Hudak and Jonathan Rauch write, "because it oversimplifies and stereotypes what is in reality a continuum of business scales and structures..."

If The Captain Fires The First Mate...

 ...is he now steering the boat?

Donald Trump fires embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski - The Washington Post:

Donald Trump fired his embattled campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, on Monday as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee struggled to pivot to the general election and his political operation became at times paralyzed by internal feuding.

The dismissal of Lewandowski, a controversial Trump loyalist who chafed at suggestions that the candidate become more presidential, was seen as an urgent effort to calm Trump's allies, donors and Republican Party officials who increasingly have been alarmed by a recent series of missteps and dramas...

This Is The President I Want

The Hillary Clinton Doctrine: What Orlando reveals about her approach to foreign policy.:

...And are these the right questions, or in any case the only ones, to ask? During one of her first briefings on China as secretary of state, Clinton asked, to the surprise of everyone in the room, highly detailed questions about several dam projects that Beijing had begun—referring to them by name—and wanted to know how neighboring India was reacting to them. “She understood that water resources were a national-security issue in the region,” the briefer recalls.

It was a small moment, but it reveals something important about how Clinton sees the world, beyond the hawk-dove binary. It suggests that, in much the same way she sees domestic policy as a series of interlocking problems, Clinton takes a more expansive view than most hawks (or doves) of what “national security” entails...

Somewhere The Angels Are Singing

End of conservative Supreme Court: Clarence Thomas may be next to leave | Washington Examiner:

Justice Clarence Thomas, a reliable conservative vote on the Supreme Court, is mulling retirement after the presidential election, according to court watchers...

This is the best hope for the Bernouts to actually achieve some of their goals. Clinton being able to name a majority court might just ensure that the worst of the GOPer inspired rulings would be repealed, effectively moving the country back to the more comfortable center, which might offer a legislative opening for more liberal ideas.

When Too Much Donald Becomes Cosmically Too Much Donald

The Republicans’ Big Hot Mess - The New York Times:

...Small wonder that one of Trump’s advisers recently suggested that the candidate not wait until the climactic hour to deliver his remarks but, in a break with precedent, speak every single night. Not just double Donald. No mere triple Trump. Four luscious scoops of him.

It’s an idea where narcissism meets necessity. And it’s reason to take that trip to the Arctic Circle that you’ve long fantasized about. Make sure that you’re beyond the range of the internet, and think about staying through Nov. 8...

Abbott's Pants On Fire

TX Gov. Greg Abbott Humiliated After Outrageous Lie About ISIS And President Obama | Crooks and Liars

...Take for instance this idea that ISIS is using the U.S.-Mexico border to get into the United States. Despite the fact that there's literally zero evidence to support this, and numerous fact checks into past claims have overwhelmingly concluded that ISIS is not coming into the United States through the Mexico border, that hasn't stopped Republicans from repeating this soundly discredited piece of propaganda over the last couple of years...

The Oddity Of The Super-Rich

Understanding Peter Thiel’s Politics:

...But while it’d be easy, and not incorrect, to cast him in the role of a latter-day Charles Foster Kane —  la Frank VanderSloot, the Republican donor who’s offered to fund any lawsuits against Mother Jones — Peter Thiel is more interesting than your run-of-the-mill rich guy. Some of his eccentricities, like his plan to live forever, are to be expected from a high-powered tech entrepreneur. But he’s known for odd politics as well: He’s a big Republican donor in a Valley dominated by Democrats. Though a self-described libertarian, he’s advocated for monopoly and argued that companies should be structured like monarchies. He’s funded idiosyncratic “political” initiatives, such as the Seasteading Institute’s project to create floating libertarian city-states. Famously, in a 2009 essay for Cato Unbound, he declared that he “no longer believe[s] that capitalism and democracy are compatible.” (Thiel has since said that he was wrong to think America was a democracy, calling it instead a “state dominated by very unelected, technocratic agencies”)...

Powerful Letter

What Parents Of Straight Kids Will Never Understand About Orlando:

Think you know what it’s like to be the parent of an LGBTQ kid? Think again...

You.Have.Been.Programmed.With.C D S.

Harvard Study Confirms The Media Tore Down Clinton, Built Up Trump And Sanders | GOOD:

It’s no secret that, from the moment she announced her candidacy back in April 2015, Hillary Clinton has been bludgeoned by negative media coverage. The email server; the Wall Street speaking fees; the attacks from both Trump and Sanders. I’ve debated with people who legitimately fear she will be imprisoned before the election. Some, despite the venomous dismissal of my rolling eyes, have called her a murderer. Others: an old woman, a plutocrat, a crook, abused by her husband, no backbone to speak of. But if you’ve suspected that there’s a reason people are saying these things—perhaps parroting disproportionately negative stories they’ve consumed in the media over the past year-and-a-half—it turns out you’re right...

GOP Can Lose House

Republicans Should Worry About Losing the House - Bloomberg View:

Republicans need to start worrying about losing their majority in the House of Representatives.

Republicans accept the conventional wisdom that Hillary Clinton is favored to win the presidency, and they know that her election would probably end their majority in the Senate. But in a year that has upended political expectations, they have clung to one comforting assumption: Their hold on the House is secure...

Their hold is only secure if the Democrats sit home on election day like they did during the last two elections, but they are pissed now and not likely to get any happier between now and November. The GOP has two hopes: a massive terror attack and a nationwide pouring rainstorm. And both are highly unlikely.

Clinton Is The Only Viable Option

The Trump Donut: A Big Hole in the Middle | Progress Pond:

...I’ll save my thoughts on this for another piece, but here’s a teaser. While it has certainly seemed like Clinton has moved to the left to confront the challenge on her flank from Bernie Sanders, there is now such fertile ground in the center that she may be able to collect up a lot of disaffected voters from the center-right.

These two things don’t have to be mutually exclusive, but they do create a certain tension. Can Clinton solidify her left flank at the same time that she reassures the middle that she’s the proper steward for our country right now?

I Beg To Differ On Warren

Very well written article-- also funny! I will disagree on picking Warren as Veep. She needs to stay in the Senate where she can actually do some good. She's also too old and nothing in her background makes me comfortable with her as Commander-In-Chief; Tammy Duckworth is a totally different kettle of fish in that regard. Finally, Warren's acerbic tongue and manner might be satisfactory in the Northeast but she would be alienating in large portions of the country, where psychic space is still large and well-respected. Plus, why would you add someone to your ticket whose support is at best lukewarm? Clinton might as well put Sanders in if she is playing the "enemies closer" game. A Veep must be good at least at faking loyalty, which means someone who endorsed you no later than month one.



Hillary Clinton in charge is OK, but Elizabeth Warren, too? That’s pushing it | Hadley Freeman | Opinion | The Guardian:

...It is now just about accepted that it looks bad for a leader to have an entirely male team, yet wholly female is still too perverse, too out-there; there is a sense that women are pushing their luck (and few things are less feminine than luck-pushing). The reaction to even the suggestion of an all-female anything, from a movie to a presidency, proves not just that it’s exciting – but that it’s necessary.

tRump Dumping

The Latest Republican Effort to Stop Trump - The Atlantic:

...At this juncture, there are only two obvious people who can stop Donald Trump. One is Trump, who could either for some reason drop out of the race rather than face defeat, or else so thoroughly alienate his party by some statement or deed that there was a groundswell to dump him. But that would require much more than a few delegates scheming over rules and procedures. It would require a full-scale rebellion. (In fact, “rebels” is just how Trump referred to his intraparty detractors in an interview with The New York Times.) The second is Hillary Clinton, who currently leads him in polling. She of course remains unpalatable to most Republicans—though a few have started to hold their noses and go for it.

About That Ammosexual-ACLU Love Fest

Gun Rights Advocates, ACLU Team to Oppose FBI Terror Watch List Gun Ban:

...See, here's the thing. Ever since 2001, with several notable and politically impotent exceptions, this same faction of our politics has supported surveillance without due process, rendition without due process, black sites without due process, torture without due process, and the substantial gutting of due process in domestic areas such as the tort system and voting rights, to say nothing of its defense of racial and ethnic profiling, and of police officers for whom due process turns out to have been pepper spray and/or a bullet.

But suggest that someone whom the FBI suspects enough of being a terrorist to keep him off an airplane should be barred from purchasing a deadly weapon and, suddenly, everybody's a card-carrying member of the ACLU. It's truly a delightful thing to see...

Perhaps A Chance To Break The Gun Control Logjam

Have We Reached the Tipping Point of Gun Control?:

...Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, also said seven months ago that the gun control movement is at a tipping point. “We’re finally at the precipice we’ve been waiting for,” he said at a Brady Campaign event in November. The organization, one of the leading gun control advocacy groups, works to extend background checks at the national level to all sales of firearms, including at gun shows and online. Federal law currently doesn’t apply to about 40 percent of total gun sales that occur each day...

DWS Loses Control

First on CNN: Clinton campaign takes control of DNC - CNNPolitics.com:

Hillary Clinton's campaign is taking the reins of the Democratic National Committee, installing a new top official on Thursday to oversee the party's day-to-day operations through the general election.

Brandon Davis, national political director for the Service Employees International Union, will become the general election chief of staff for the Democratic Party. His selection formalizes the coordination of the Clinton campaign and the committee, a stark contrast to Donald Trump who is currently at odds with his party...

This Week In tRump Horror

Donald Trump's Response To The Orlando Shooting Was Downright Horrific:

After the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, Donald Trump took his terrifying campaign to a new level this week...

The Bitch Is Back

It’s Not Just Trump Fans; His Media Supporters Also Call Clinton A “Bitch”:

The Washington Post noted today that many of Donald Trump’s fans are routinely calling presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton a “bitch.” The sexist attack isn’t just common among Trump fans -- it’s also been regularly used by Trump’s leading media supporters and allies.

The Post noted that many T-shirts calling Clinton a bitch are “sold at nearly all of Trump’s rallies” and “many Trump supporters spotted wearing the shirts at rallies over the past six weeks don’t think the term is that bad.” (Trump, who has a long history of making sexist remarks, claims he does not approve of the term for Clinton.) The Daily Caller has also promoted a Clinton “bitch” T-shirt in its “Daily Dealer” section:...

The Obvious Reason Orlando Wasn't Islamic Terror

After all the gassing of the ozone and the slaughter of pixel trees on the topic of "Islamic Whateverism," I'd like to make an observation. If the actions of ISIL are meant to strike terror into the heart of America, then I would like to say that they missed the target in Orlando.

Of course, the murder of 49 people is a horrible thing under any circumstances, but this rampage was a hate crime, not terrorism. A true Islamic terrorist would strike at some other soft target, rather than a gay nightclub for the simple reason that a good swath of America sees gays as "those people," and much like race, it would make as much sense for ISIL to target a NAACP rally instead of a Klan meeting. If they really wanted to get America terrorized, they would go after...

No. I'm not going there. They will get no ideas from me.

The Outlaw Jersey Whale Is tRump's Car Hop

Scott Brown Says He Won't Fetch Trump's McDonalds Like Christie (Reportedly) Did - BuzzFeed News:

Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who backed Donald Trump during the Republican primary, says he won’t fetch Trump’s McDonalds like Chris Christie reportedly did...

Drug Testing The Rich

Congresswoman Who Used To Receive Welfare Wants To Drug Test Rich People Who Get Tax Breaks | ThinkProgress:

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) has had enough of the growing movement to drug test poor people who need government assistance. So on Tuesday, she’s introducing a bill that she says will make things fairer.

Her “Top 1% Accountability Act” would require anyone claiming itemized tax deductions of over $150,000 in a given year to submit a clean drug test. If a filer doesn’t submit a clean test within three months of filing, he won’t be able to take advantage of tax deductions like the mortgage interest deduction or health insurance tax breaks. Instead he would have to make use of the standard deduction....

The Maleness Of The BerntRumpBros

Louis C.K.: 'Hillary is better at this than any of these people' - CNNPolitics.com:

...So why, despite those considerable qualifications, does C.K. believe Clinton has faced such consistent headwinds with skeptical voters?
"There is a fear of Hillary," he said. "I think some of it has to do with Hillary being such a strong candidate and being a woman. The response to her is very male. The other side is very male-oriented. Trump is a man. Well, he's a boy, and Bernie is an old man."

Donald Trump Knows Nothing About Assimilation

Donald Trump: Muslim Americans Don't Assimilate Because Of Sharia Law | Crooks and Liars:

Donald Trump went on Sean Hannity's Fox News TV program Tuesday evening and sounded more like a Neanderthal than normal.

Resistance is futile, Donald.

As usual, Trump pulled some nonsense out of his butt, this time about Muslim Americas not being able to "assimilate," when he said, "Assimilation has been very hard. It’s almost, I won’t say nonexistent, but it gets to be pretty close..."

The tRump Rules

Trump as Trump Might Describe Him - The Atlantic:

...Trump seems to operate by three ground rules. First, facts don’t matter. Second, innuendo is wonderful. Third, “there are a lot of people that think …” counts as a credible source of information.

This is the code by which Trump suggested that President Obama is a traitor—or at least sympathetic to the vile ideology embraced by the terrorist who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. My colleague David A. Graham reported:...

Self Awareness From The Duh Zone

This Harvard study is a powerful indictment of the media’s role in Donald Trump’s rise - The Washington Post:

I've written repeatedly — and self-righteously — about my belief that ascribing the rise of Donald Trump in the Republican primary race to media complicity is ridiculous. And I believed every word.

But, a new study by Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University casts serious doubts on my position as it documents not only the outsized coverage Trump received — from TV and digital media — in the early days of his campaign but also how overwhelmingly positive that coverage was...

AR-15 Notches Three More

WV 'Sovereign Citizen' Murders Three With AR-15 | Crooks and Liars:

Everything changes when an AR-15 is present. Everything.

Monday there was another mass shooting in West Virginia, which turns out to have been a sovereign citizen who had a dispute with his neighbors over firewood. Instead of resolving the matter peacefully, he pulled out an AR-15 and shot them all to death...

Nobody Likes Donald

Donald Trump favorability: 7 in 10 have unfavorable view - CNNPolitics.com:

Donald Trump's unfavorability level is at 70%, the highest since announcing his presidential campaign, according to a new poll out Tuesday...

Jesus Won't Be Pleased With This Preacher

Orlando shooting praised as 'great' by Sacramento Baptist pastor | Americas | Travel | The Independent:

A Baptist pastor has praised the attack on an LGBT nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 people, the deadliest mass shooting in US history, during a sermon in Sacramento...

Daily PUMA Uncovers Google CDS

Daily PUMA: "Did Google Manipulate Search for Hillary" is the latest example of Clinton Derangement Syndrome by Source Fed's Matt Lieberman..:

This latest foray into Clinton Derangement Syndrome comes courtesy of "Source Fed" and Matthew Lieberman. Matthew Lieberman appears to be the latest strain of Sanders Disciple who wants to calmly explain to his audience how evil the people around Hillary Clinton are for possibly squashing Hillary Clinton cri and Hillary Clinton ind google searches. At the very least, an investigation is needed, Lieberman surmises...

tRump Calls Iraq Vet Thieves

Tipsy-Tongued Donald Accuses US Troops of Stealing Iraq Funds | BNR:

At a campaign event in Greensboro, NC, Donald Trump, who apparently spent his afternoon watching a movie marathon of “Kelly’s Heroes” and “Three Kings,” implied that US soldiers who were tasked with “handing out baskets of money” in Iraq stole it and are now “living very well...”

No. He has no shame. I have one word for you, tRump: Halliburton. 

Another Conservative Hero Falls

Ex-Minuteman Chris Simcox Meets The Rule Of Law: Guilty Of Child Molestation | Crooks and Liars:

At one time, about a decade ago, Chris Simcox was a political figure in high demand: As the cofounder of the nativist border watch operation known as the Minuteman Project, he was a popular guest on TV and radio programs – where he often held forth on the alleged dangers of illegal immigration, demanding that the government enforce “the rule of law” – and his endorsement was avidly sought by a number of conservative politicians. However, in the intervening decade, Simcox’s celebrity has been in sharp decline...

The Hating Of The Media

real economics: New journalism—what happens when mainstream media becomes hated by all?:

The commercial "mainstream" media has been in trouble for quite awhile now. I pretty much gave up on it in 1982. After four years of microscopically examining the flaws of the Carter administration, I realized that the same "journalists" were going to give Reagan a free pass for policy and administrative decisions that were far worse than anything Carter had done...

That's about the time I became disillusioned with them, but I held out hope--- until the selling of the Iraq war occurred. 

tRump As Prez

Long, frightening post.

Donald Trump's Constitution:

....America has been very lucky that three of our greatest wartime presidents were paragons of restraint. George Washington could have been king, but he chose to cast his lot with a republic, to put a broad spectrum of Federalists and anti-Federalists into his cabinet, and to step down after two terms. There were calls for Franklin Roosevelt to assume dictatorial authority, but for the most part he did not ask for or use emergency powers. His appalling decision to round up loyal Japanese Americans into concentration camps was the exception. Lincoln, as Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote, deliberately named rivals to his cabinet, who served as checks on his own predispositions. He implemented emergency wartime measures, such as suspension of habeas corpus, sparingly and with reluctance. Trump would use emergency powers to excess and with relish...

Jesus And The TG

ProgressiveChristianity.org : The Transgender Body of Christ:

...Christians are called to lives of compassion and of supporting the oppressed. They can start small by encouraging the promotion of gender-inclusive restroom signs in their houses of worship. But they don’t have to stop there. We can listen to our transgender siblings, support nondiscrimination against them in the broader society, together working for God’s vision for a just society where none shall make them afraid.

Manufacturing Has Some Good News

Why the Maker Movement Matters - The Atlantic:

...At this moment in U.S. economic history, the demand for people who can work as high-end repair technicians, in construction trades, in manufacturing factories, in high-end shipping and logistics jobs, and in other fields is relatively strong.
And at this moment in technical and economic history, the “maker tools” that have democratized the process of hardware innovation are fostering the growth of the new companies that (according to the important Kauffman foundation report, discussed here) account for nearly all the net job creation in the country...

tRump And Morning Joe

My bold.
Morning Joe Continues The Feud With 'Narcissist' Trump | Crooks and Liars:

...Their horror at Trump's clinically narcissistic reaction to the Orlando shooting? Just one more page in the tome of the completely self-inflicted demise of The Republican Party.

The New York Times' Frank Bruni and Aspen Institute's Walter Isaacson both decry Trump's twitter reaction to the Orlando Shootings.

"He did a victory lap over 50 dead bodies."

"...shows the great concern of the intelligence community [about Trump]."

Of course, Scarborough and company can't admit what honest people know to be true, that the Republican base has been programmed with the blessing of the Republican establishment so thoroughly to believe Fox News lies and Rush Limbaugh racism, that ANY product of the GOP Primary voter is utterly un-electable in a general election...

Veepstakes Part One

The Scary Lawyer Guy Blog: Hillary's Veepstakes:

...For my money, Clinton’s choice will come down to California Congressman Xavier Beccera and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Beccera is Chair of the House Democratic Caucus (4th in the leadership structure) and has served in Congress for more than 20 years. He would be very helpful in moving legislation and would be the first Hispanic-American Vice President. He is also a progressive, which would help corral Sanders’s voters. Patrick has deep ties to the Clintons from his time as head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in the 1990s and he was a two-term Governor. He also has experience in the corporate world (which might work against him in today’s Democratic Party) and delivered one of the stand-out speeches at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. The national stage would not be too big for either of these men, they both add balance and value, pass the Palin Bar and would energize key Democratic constituencies. While I think a compelling case can be made for either man, Patrick’s history with the Clintons, his great oratorical chops, and governing experience give him the advantage.

My prediction: Clinton/Patrick 2016.

The Ginger Dowdgeist Screeches Again

Click on the link to see a sample of her racist crap.

Maureen Dowd Attacks Hillary and Elizabeth Warren With Trump-Style Native American Slurs | BNR:

Maureen Dowd’s unending assault against Hillary’s integrity is a disgrace to the New York Times. Her latest sarcastic and venomous attack is an imaginary meeting between Hillary and Elizabeth Warren...

Emailgate Example

Cannonfire: "Still more on emailgate"

...Hillary, you...you FIEND! You dared to offer condolences regarding the passing of Malawi's president? That's kind of intel is TOP SEEKRIT ULTRA COSMIC GODHEAD! What's next, Hillary? Are you planning on handing the nuclear launch codes to Vladimir Putin?

Actually, confidential is the absolute lowest classification marking. A letter marked "confidential" can be sent via ordinary mail. Back in the pre-internet days, I had quite a few letters arrive in my mailbox "accidentally" opened (which was an all-too-common scenario among the politically active), so I feel confident in saying that Hillary's server was much safer than snail-mail...

1%er Flogs tRump

Meg Whitman likens Donald Trump to Hitler, Mussolini - CNNPolitics.com:

Billionaire and major Republican donor Meg Whitman on Friday compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, two sources in the room told CNN...

Clinton On Reproductive Health

Hillary Clinton Spoke About Reproductive Justice In A Genuinely Intersectional Way:

...“For too long, issues like these have been dismissed by many as ‘women’s issues’ – as though that somehow makes them less worthy, secondary,” Clinton said. “Well, yes, these are women’s issues. They’re also family issues. They’re economic issues. They’re justice issues. They’re fundamental to our country and our future...”

tRaump Shafts People, 1

How Donald Trump Bankrupted His Atlantic City Casinos, but Still Earned Millions - The New York Times:

...Beth Rosser of West Chester, Pa., is still bitter over what happened to her father, whose company Triad Building Specialties nearly collapsed when Mr. Trump took the Taj into bankruptcy. It took three years to recover any money owed for his work on the casino, she said, and her father received only 30 cents on the dollar.

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“Trump crawled his way to the top on the back of little guys, one of them being my father,” said Ms. Rosser, who runs Triad today. “He had no regard for thousands of men and women who worked on those projects. He says he’ll make America great again, but his past shows the complete opposite of that...”

The Inevitable HIV Crisis Is Coming To TX

Since Texas cut Planned Parenthood’s HIV program, Houston hasn't tested a single person.:

In a political gambit to prove that they love fetuses more than anything else in the whole world, Texas lawmakers have put their constituents at higher risk of an HIV outbreak. The Texas Observer reports that since the state ended its 28-year HIV-prevention contract with Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, which covers the Houston area, at the end of last year, one of the three counties that was supposed to take over the program hasn’t conducted a single HIV test...

ABC Lies By tRump Omission

ABC Was The Only Broadcast Network To Ignore Report That “Trump Doesn’t Pay His Bills”:

In June 9 broadcast evening news programs and June 10 morning news programs, ABC was the only broadcast network to ignore a USA Today investigation that found “hundreds of people” who allege that Donald Trump “didn’t pay them for their work...”

Fuzzy tRump

Mitch McConnell Admits That Donald Trump Is Clueless On 'The Issues' | Crooks and Liars:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was very honest on Bloomberg's "Masters In Politics podcast," hosted by Tammy Haddad and Betsy Fischer Martin, when he said that he understood Trump is fuzzy on all the issues and could use some experienced help...

Fox Liar Assigned To Clinton

Fox News Assigns A Benghazi-Obsessed, Serial Misinformer As New Hillary Clinton Campaign Embed:

Fox News tapped national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin as their embed reporter for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Griffin is a frequent Clinton misinformer and has consistently pushed falsehoods about Clinton’s time as secretary of state...

The Daily Flashback: Schiavo Edition

Donald Trump Judge Comments Right in Line with Republican Attitudes Towards Judicial System:

...Part of the conservative brand within the Republican Party has been to attack the integrity of the judicial process, and of the individual judges working within it, every time a decision comes down that sets the flying monkeys aloft. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, to one of the worst and most egregious examples of wingnut meddling: the interference in the case of the late Terri Schiavo, as told by a disreputable author of my casual acquaintance...

Not The Savior Of The Working Man

USA TODAY exclusive: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills:

...Donald Trump often portrays himself as a savior of the working class who will "protect your job." But a USA TODAY NETWORK analysis found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades — and a large number of those involve ordinary Americans, like the Friels, who say Trump or his companies have refused to pay them...

The question that springs to my mind is since it is exceedingly easy to discover tRump's reputation as a chiseling, cheating, swindling fraud, why in God's name would anyone do business with him? I'd have to get at least 90% upfront before I'd do anything for him.

Best Insult Of The Day

My bold below.

Nancy Pelosi Just Cold Trollin’ Paul Ryan Now, And Also She Hatin’ | Wonkette:

Oh, Nancy Pelosi, how we miss thee being the boss of us in the House of Representatives. But for now, fresh-faced boy wonder Paul Ryan is the boss of us, and he is twisting his titties into a knot trying to say out of one toned buttcheek that Donald Trump is a “textbook racist” and oh so naughty, but out of the other buttcheek, he’s like “Trump 2016!” Poor thing. He tried so hard to get out of the position he’s in right now, as the leader of the most dysfunctional herd of syphilitic wombat farts the world has ever seen, AKA House Republicans...

I'd love a job writing stuff like that!

Ammosexual Heads Will Explode

No constitutional right for concealed guns: California appeals court | Reuters:

Firearm owners have no constitutional right to carry a concealed gun in public if they face no specific danger, a divided federal appeals court in California ruled on Thursday, in a victory for gun control advocates.

The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sets a legal precedent in western states, was seen as unlikely to be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the near future...

O Endorses Clinton

Obama Endorses Hillary Clinton, and Urges Democrats to Unite - The New York Times:

President Obama on Thursday formally endorsed Hillary Clinton and called her the most qualified candidate to seek the White House, imploring Democrats to come together to elect her after a bruising party primary.

In a video posted on Mrs. Clinton’s Facebook page, Mr. Obama said, “I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office...”

A Gender Point To Remember About Rape

Amid Stanford’s awful sex assault case, let’s hail the men who protect instead of prey - The Washington Post:

As a country, we’re on a huge precipice of change when it comes to gender issues. Though the Turner case is disturbing, the national outrage it has sparked is uplifting and encouraging...

Clinton's The Sane One

GOP Right Boobs of the Week: Flip-Flop Edition:

...As dumb as the Republican Party is these days, there are signs they’re losing a lot of their financial support. It seems that a great many CEOs, who used to religiously support whomever the GOP ran, may support Hillary this time. (Source) (And no, Bernie Stans, it’s not because she’s “Republican-lite,” it’s because she’s sane...

Clinton's Achievement

It’s time to admit Hillary Clinton is an extraordinarily talented politician - Vox:

...There is something about Clinton that makes it hard to appreciate the magnitude of her achievement. Or perhaps there is something about us that makes it hard to appreciate the magnitude of her achievement...

A Rant Here

Allow Me a Moment to Rant about the God Damned Kids (Alternate Working Title- Your Drum Circle and Feelings Entitles You to Zero Votes)

Betrayal And True Grit

Hillary Clinton's Remarkable Comeback - The Atlantic:

...We may never know exactly when Clinton decided to take another shot. But in so doing, despite her advanced age and despite the humiliation of her 2008 defeat, she displayed a resilience surpassed only by Nixon. It’s a quality she has had all along. In his biography, A Woman in Charge, Carl Bernstein noted that when Hillary, then 14 years old, was being bullied by a bigger girl at school, her mother told her to punch her tormenter. “There’s no room in this house,” she declared, “for cowards.” Elizabeth Drew wrote that after Bill Clinton’s disastrous 1988 nominating speech for Michael Dukakis, Hillary “literally picked him up, got him out of bed and made him face people.” And in March 2008, when Hillary won the Ohio primary despite being far behind Obama in the delegate count, she dedicated her victory to “everyone here in Ohio and across America, who’s ever been counted out but refused to be knocked out and for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up. This one is for you.”

Over the past 30 years, no American political figure has absorbed as many blows as Clinton. And none has responded with more tenacity and grit. Trump talks endlessly about strength. Clinton embodies it.

Bernie, GOPers, and Supers

If the GOP had superdelegates, we might not be in this Trump mess - The Washington Post:

...A belief in direct democracy, apparently, is behind the attack by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other Democratic “progressives” on the institution of “superdelegates” — elected officials and other insiders who get automatic votes at the Democratic Party’s convention, much to their fellow insider Hillary Clinton’s advantage, the critics allege.

“Rigged system!” Sanders cries. It’s hard to separate Sanders’s proclaimed principles from self-interest and sour grapes, especially because when he’s not denouncing the existence of superdelegates, he’s desperately trying to get their votes. Until last year, Sanders thought himself too pure a progressive to actually join the party he now presumes to lead and to lecture...

Bernie v. LGGBT

Sanders campaign again attacks top AIDS activist; LGBT community livid - AMERICAblog News:

The LGBT community wanted a war on AIDS, so Bernie Sanders gave them a war on AIDS activists instead.

For the second time in a week, the Sanders campaign has launched an oddly personal attack on Peter Staley, one of America’s top AIDS activists...

tRump's Bad Deals

The Art of the Screw:

...This is a fascinating passage. Because this is not Trump's reputation in business at all. Remember that no major banks other than Deutsche Bank (and apparently only one division of DB) will do business with Trump anymore. They've all been burned too often. Trump's actual mode of operation is to cut sharp deals in which he wins and the counterparty gets screwed. If and when they sue, he digs in and tries to wait them out.

Remember the New York City real estate professional who I quoted Monday describing Trump's MO. But even more, listen to how New York Times business columnist Joe Nocera puts it: "In every deal, [Trump] has to win and you have to lose. He is notorious for refusing to pay full price to contractors and vendors after they’ve completed work for him. And he basically dares the people he has stiffed to sue him, knowing that his deep pockets and bevy of lawyers give him a big advantage over those who feel wronged by him..."

DWS Must Go

Wasserman Schultz Has a Change of Heart, But Too Little, Too Late:

...She had become a symbol of the failure of Democratic elites to understand that there is an uprising in the land. Millions of Americans are rebelling against the leadership of both parties. They are fed up with inside-the-Beltway politicians who pay only lip service to the deep needs of everyday people and the country; fed up with incumbents who ask for their votes, are given them in good faith, and then return to Washington to do the bidding of the donor class and its lobbyists...

Why does all this remind me of American Fodder Units?

Bernie Ain't Debs

Bernie Sanders Can't Sustain His Revolution Long Term | US News Opinion:

...Sanders famously points to labor leader Eugene Debs as his political role model. Between 1900 and 1920, Debs ran for president five times as a candidate with the Socialist Party of America. Riding a red train, he whistle-stopped the country defending workers and exhorting voters to support him. Debs was jailed for his protests, the last time in 1918 for denouncing U.S. involvement in World War I. He campaigned from prison and still got a million votes. Debs was no flash in the presidential pan. He founded the Socialist Party, built it into a national force and sacrificed for his beliefs.

Sanders is no Debs. His year-long crusade is done. Good thing for Sanders that he's two years into a six-year term. He can go back to being the junior senator from Vermont who also ran for president.

The Continuing Bern

Bernie Sanders Team Claims ‘It Ain’t Over’ After Hillary Clinton Clinches - The Daily Beast:

...For almost anyone not part of the rapture, Sanders still risks looking like one of those holdout Japanese on some godforsaken island, unaware that their war ended ages ago. But he did run an amazing race...

Bernie Shows His Stripes (And Spots)...

...and flaws, and warts, and etc...

Inside the bitter last days of Bernie's revolution - POLITICO:

There’s no strategist pulling the strings, and no collection of burn-it-all-down aides egging him on. At the heart of the rage against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, the campaign aides closest to him say, is Bernie Sanders.

It was the Vermont senator who personally rewrote his campaign manager’s shorter statement after the chaos at the Nevada state party convention and blamed the political establishment for inciting the violence...

First Rat Bails tRump Ship

Mark Kirk: 'I cannot and will not support my party's nominee' - POLITICO:

Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, the most endangered Senate Republican up for reelection this fall, said Tuesday that he will not back Donald Trump for president after a long line of controversial comments from the presumptive GOP nominee...

tRump's Mobster Coming Out

David French: Trump Campaign Tried To Intimidate Family Member | Crooks and Liars:

Donald Trump emulated the mobsters he worked with when he said he wanted foreign countries to "pay protection money" to the U.S., but he also used classic mafioso intimidation tactics against David French by calling his family and issuing veiled threats...

Bernie And The Burners

Bernie Sanders and the politics of paranoia - MarketWatch:

...Put another way: people who want to tear down the system say Bernie is their man. People who actually want tangible improvement in their day-to-day lives go for Hillary.

None of that, at this point, is a surprise. But it also speaks to the limits of the Sanders movement, built more on resentment than on meaningful change...

The Daily Flashback: Atwater Edition

driftglass: The Amazing Helicopter Halperin Makes Lee Atwater Completely Disappear:

...If you're of a certain age, you vividly remember the infamous "Willie Horton" ad. Back in 1988, as George H. W. Bush's presidential campaign was going up in flames, he put the job of winning him the presidency and running the Republican National Committee into the hands of this guy:


And Atwater delivered. He did indeed "strip the bark off the little bastard" (Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis) and made "Willie Horton his running mate". He made George H. W. Bush president, taught his two eager proteges -- Dubya Bush and Karl Rove -- all the tricks of his filthy trade, and poisoned the heart of the Party of Lincoln beyond repair...

All About tRump U Cover-Up

Hackwhackers: "Trump University:" The Palm- Greasing And The Coverup:

...That Republicans are fraudsters always looking to line their pockets at the expense of the rest of us is not news. Nor is the venality and corruption of Republican "presidential" nominee Donald "Rump" Trump. What makes this so compelling is that the story of this insider palm- greasing that they've engaged in so casually is coming out at at time when the corporate media is finally being forced to take note -- by Rump himself! -- of what a hot mess he is, and why he's unfit for the presidency in so many, many ways.

Missing The Point In The tRump U Case

tRump The Brilliant?

With all of tRump's bluster and screaming about "Mexican Judges" and the consequent media hysteria over racism, which has dominated the news cycles, I think we've lost sight of something very important. The judge's heritage has absolutely no bearing and no effect of any kind on the facts of the case. tRump U was a scam operation from beginning to end: a fraud, a swindle, a criminal enterprise, and Donald Trump is a criminal. When will we start hearing all the speculation about indictments, convictions, punishments, and how either Obama or Clinton was responsible for it all? Com'on people! Focus!

Or was this judge-stuff a brilliant ploy by a "vulgar talking yam" to distract us all away from the thing that might get Don "Tiny Hands" Trump stuffed away in ye olde Gray Bar Hotel with his mob buddies?

tRump Hazardous To Health

...among other things.

BuzzFeed Terminates Ad Deal With Republican Party Over Trump - BuzzFeed News:

...We certainly don’t like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company. However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: we don’t run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won’t accept Trump ads for the exact same reason...

Fat Shaming Is Real

Playing The Victim Card: Lindy West and Jessica Valenti’s Visions of Feminism - The Daily Beast:

 ...Indeed, studies in the U.S. and the UK have found that weight discrimination is more pervasive than gender discrimination, and weight bias is worse for women than men...

Trans Porn Hypocrisy

States suing Obama over transgender bathroom order love watching transgender porn: data:

...Fans of transgender pornography (or any legal and consensual pornography) shouldn’t be ashamed, but the numbers of views in these states are so high there is a high statistical probability that some of these viewers are also publicly transphobic.

Of the 11 states, Texas, Georgia and Tennessee are the highest for views of the transgender category. Arizona, Texas, Wisconsin and Utah were also the last states to upload transgender porn videos to the xHamster collection...

Craven tRumpers

Profiles in Cowardice -- GOP Leaders and Donald Trump:

...Even worse, several Republicans who were savaged, slandered and humiliated by Trump have lined up to endorse him. That craven group includes House Speaker Paul Ryan, his wetness Little Marco Rubio, and John (“I like people who were not captured”) McCain.

Do these people have no self-respect, and no concern for their country? Surely, they have not had a conversion experience and concluded that Trump will be a great leader...

tRump Pols Worried

Donald Trump does not have a campaign | MSNBC:

Donald Trump is a candidate without a campaign – and it’s becoming a serious problem.

Republicans working to elect Trump describe a bare-bones effort debilitated by infighting, a lack of staff to carry out basic functions, minimal coordination with allies and a message that’s prisoner to Trump’s momentary whims...

Clinton's Non-Hobby

Hillary Clinton’s So-Called Likability Problem Is Our Issue, Not Hers | The Broad Side:

...Brooks’ theory on women candidates and likability is about to backfire, though, because in a 21st century working woman’s world, there is little time for hobbies, exercise-related or not. Ask around. I’m not comparing most women’s schedules to that of a Secretary of State who flew 950,000 miles or a presidential candidate who seems to suffer sexist slings and arrows at every turn. Most of the women I know don’t have time for a hobby, especially like the tried and true presidential pastime of golf that demands a solid block of at least five undisturbed hours. We’re lucky if we can slip in a little time for the kinds of things Hillary has actually admitted to doing (which Brooks would have discovered with a quick Google search) like her love of HGTV, Parks and Recreation, a nice glass of wine or some quality grandma time with Charlotte. I suspect if Hillary — or most of the women I know — had five hours to herself, she might take up the hobby of competitive napping...

tRump The MetaLiar

Donald Trump Ups His Game, Moves From Lying to Meta-Lying | Mother Jones:

...Hillary Clinton responded with this: "It's no small thing when he suggests that America should withdraw our military support for Japan, encourage them to get nuclear weapons." That's 100 percent accurate. It's not even slightly exaggerated. And yet Trump blithely insists that she's lying and then refuses to answer questions about it. Eventually exhaustion sets in and everyone just lets it go...

White Guy Whining

The White Entitlement of Some Sanders Supporters - The Daily Beast:

...These guys could not understand this struggle. They wanted immediate success and gratification, and they were not used to things not going their way. The issues and the lives of others had become irrelevant. All they wanted was for me to agree that they had been unjustly cheated, and that “Killary” and the DNC had rigged everything against them. I could not agree, so I had to walk away.

Sanders’s message has resonated mostly with a younger, predominantly white electorate like those two guys. Their message and frustrations have been heard loud and clear, but their electoral defeats have resulted in an intensified pack or tribalist mentality that unfortunately has similarities to the white tribalism that has guided Trump’s campaign. Sanders and Trump are mining similar disaffections amongst the white electorate...

Why Bernie Lost

Bash Bernie | Gene Lyons | Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art:

...With so distinguished a record of crackpot opinions, maybe it shouldn't surprise that Bernie has also misjudged the Democratic electorate. Salon's Amanda Marcotte is correct: Sanders didn't lose because establishment Democrats cheated. He lost because his Thomas Frank-influenced theory that strong majorities of white working-class voters would respond enthusiastically to left-wing economic populism turns out to be wrong. The "revolutionary" turnout Bernie kept predicting never materialized...

Comment Of The Day: Both Siderism Edition

Beltway 'Bothsiderist' Is Very, Very Concerned About Public Distrust In Government | Crooks and Liars

ReturnOfThePadawan   

GOP: "we will shut down the government, we will secede from the union, we will make him a one term president, we will use 2nd amendment remedies."

Democrats: the repulicans refuse to work with us.

Bothsiderists: there you have it folks, both sides are equally extreme.

We'll have to leave it there....

tRump Fires Vets

JUST IN: Donald Trump Fired A Veteran For Missing Work Due To Deployment To Afghanistan Americans Against the Tea Party:

...When it comes to using our veterans as a political prop, Donald Trump is happy enough to “work” with them, but when it comes down to it he does not care about veterans at all. He is a bully who forces them to take him to court to fight for their rights. A vote for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is a slap in the face to our veterans.

Clinton The Comfort Tiger

Why Hillary Spanking Trump Should Comfort the American People |:

Hillary Clinton’s much lauded foreign policy speech last Thursday was notable for her fierce, resolute delivery, for turning the page on the long primary battle and for taking the demagogue Trump to school so hard, he dripped flop sweat and could only sputter weak personal attacks in response. She even rendered the Republican Party attack machine silent. Clinton once again demonstrated her command of issues foreign and domestic, but even that was “Trumped” by Mama Tiger making it crystal clear she is a patriot with the utmost respect for America’s people, our ideals and an unshakeable belief that our best days are ahead of us. Trump was put on notice: Clinton will not be a cautious nominee but will go to the wall to realize her policy goals and won’t hesitate to use “the Donald’s” documented behavior to expose his every flaw...

Bernouts Still Not As Bad As The Obots

The Bernie Sanders I Thought I Knew Is Gone — Medium:

...Though tensions might have run high in 2008, as poll numbers show us, neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama ever engaged in such sloppy, cruel, abusive and destructive “anything to win” tactics. They both maintained a level of dignity and civility — a nicety Sanders has conveniently abandoned in the cry for “revolution...”

'...neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama ever engaged in such sloppy, cruel, abusive and destructive “anything to win” tactics.' Well, that's not true.

The rest of the post is quite accurate in describing the destruction of the Bern, but Obama and the Obot legions launched the most vicious attacks I've ever encountered in '08, though a young female Bernout holds the distinction of the single most disgusting political meme I've even seen. The author seems to have forgotten how Obama turned the Clintons into the worst racists in human history in the SC primary and the many other examples of very low and crude politics deployed by Obama. Well, I have not forgotten.

About The Leftist Lunatics

You Might Notice a Trend: The Thing I Don't Get About The Bernie Supporters Who Say They'll Never Vote Hillary:

...Part of their argument is that they can never support Hillary as she is untrustworthy, a liar, too far Right in her politics for their tastes, a War Hawk who'll bomb other nations.

And Trump isn't any of that already?! Every argument these anti-Hillary voters have applies just as well - no, worse - to what Trump will do in the White House...

GOPers Searching For A Defensible Position

Why can’t Never Trumpers just admit they prefer Hillary?:

...Saying what’s plainly obvious—that Hillary Clinton, despites all her flaws, is by a million degrees more qualified to serve as president than Donald Trump just on a simple get-us-through-the-day level—is a dangerous admission for conservative opinion writers like Kristol (sic). They have spent decades selling magazine subscriptions by arguing that Hillary Clinton, a center-left technocrat, is the lowest specimen of life in galactic history. How could they ever admit that she’s preferable to Trump? It wouldn’t be easy. That’s how you know it would be a principled stand.

Clinton Stomps Sanders In VI

Hillary Clinton wins Virgin Islands Democratic caucuses - CNNPolitics.com:

...According to a preliminary vote total, Clinton received 1,308 votes to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' 190...

Burning Mad Bernie

News Bin "Personal Feuds"

...As the “Bernie Sanders movement” prepares to get shipped off to the cartoon graveyard of failed political experiments, we can now see more than ever why it failed so badly despite having started so well: Sanders cares more about himself and his massive ego than he ever did about any of the issues he’s spent so much time talking about. And now that his ego has been dealt a crushing blow by the majority of voters themselves, he’s only interested in getting vengeance on his perceived enemies while he still can...

The End For Gowdy

The Benghazi Committee’s Dead End - The New York Times:

After running a congressional oversight committee like a Republican opposition research shop for more than two years, Representative Trey Gowdy appears to be gearing up for the finale. Democrats on the Select Committee on Benghazi expect that a final report will drop soon, just as Hillary Clinton appears poised to clinch the Democratic nomination. If things had gone his way, Mr. Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, would have found a way to torpedo Mrs. Clinton’s presidential ambitions. After all, Republican lawmakers have admitted that this is precisely what they set out to do...