Open thread.

I’m bloody to the elbows from all this red meat that was thrown around a few hours ago. Let’s discuss.

Posted at 12:11 am in Current events |
 

70 responses to “Open thread.”

  1. Sherri said on July 22, 2016 at 12:46 am

    I just sent another donation to Hillary’s campaign. Made me feel a little better.

    I had an email discussion today with an old friend from high school. He’s a Republican, conservative, never voted for anybody but a Republican, his heroes back in high school were Willam F Buckley and Ronald Reagan (this before Reagan was elected President.) He sent me an email about something, and I’d figured I’d ask him The Question, because I didn’t really care whether I preserved the relationship or not. He’s kept the relationship alive all this time, not me.

    The answer is, yes, he’s voting for Trump. He thinks Trump is a clown, but it doesn’t bother him if he’s a racist, misogynist, bigoted narcissist. He doesn’t care that Trump would destabilize the international situation, because he thinks the current situation is broken. He thinks we need to defeat the Muslims, then ally with them against the Chinese. (Honestly, he really does think this way, always has – the world is just a giant Risk board to him, with the forces of good fighting the forces of evil.) I could tell him why he doesn’t care that Trump is a racist and a bigot and a misogynist, but it wouldn’t do any good. I’ve tried to gently explain that maybe being a rich white man insulates him from some things, but then he just tells me how being a conservative surrounded by liberals is just like that. (He grew up in Tennessee, and lives in Kentucky.)

    He did say that had Cruz been nominated, he wouldn’t have voted Republican for the first time in his life, because while Trump may be a nut, Cruz is a religious nut, and that makes him harder to contain. He still wouldn’t have voted for Hillary; he thinks she’s pure evil. “I know she was created in God’s image but I am open to the notion that she is so warped and twisted by her own desperate desire for significance, and her lack of achieving it, she has ceased to be in any meaningful way human.” He’s always hated the Clintons, long before Whitewater or Monica or anything else. They somehow offend him by their very existence.

    Basically, he’s a Methodist Manichean, and while outwardly charming, there is a bigoted mean streak in him. He’d really prefer all those people just go somewhere else, though he’d never be so gauche as to say it so directly.

    Strange guy. You should have met his mother.

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  2. Dexter said on July 22, 2016 at 1:25 am

    Oh, for joy and relief…I’ll be able to sleep tonight after all…after watching for an hour ten, Trump finally said it: he’s gonna do it, he’s going to build that wall. He’s also now the voice of the disenfranchised workers the Clintons and Obamas ruined with rotten trade agreements.
    A man of the people, oh hell yes.
    Yep, he said it all.
    Yes he did.

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  3. Jolene said on July 22, 2016 at 2:32 am

    I liked this piece from Ezra Klein re Trump’s reliance on fear. For example, as Klein points out, thousands of Americans die every year in accidents caused by drunk drivers, but the only one who gets any symphony from Donald Trump is the one killed by an illegal immigrant.

    Basically, he has no practical policy solutions for any problem. He also seems to have no idea that there is a Congress and that it plays a fairly important role in the making of laws.

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  4. David C. said on July 22, 2016 at 6:06 am

    The Rs at work have been strangely subdued this week. I have a feeling that won’t continue today. I’ll have to put in the ear buds and turn the music up to 11.

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  5. Suzanne said on July 22, 2016 at 7:03 am

    I refused to watch. My husband did so I could hear parts and I looked at Twitter. I heard nothing but fear mongering. I heard no plan, no policies, no details whatsoever. Just fear, fear, fear, but don’t you worry! I am going to take care of it!

    I guess I always thought the likes of Hitler were in some way evil geniuses. Maybe not. Maybe just good shouters with no plan whatsoever, which is why they ultimately fail but have to keep killing people along the way to shut them up when they figure out they’ve been had.

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  6. Alan Stamm said on July 22, 2016 at 7:15 am

    Ron Fournier, a son of Detroit writing for The Atlantic, says it well in this set of four tweets late last night:

    The man who made hyperbole and deception the art of his business dealings delivered an address filled with empty promises.

    No POTUS — no 1 person — can eliminate crime. Nobody can fix the nation’s problems alone. Trump is either knowingly inflating his import

    Or the United States is just 270 electoral votes away from putting a megalomaniac in the Oval Office, a cotton candy-haired Mussolini.

    The GOP candidate doesn’t care about the truth. But he wants America to trust him.

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  7. alex said on July 22, 2016 at 7:21 am

    For all its energy, I thought Trump’s speech was tedious, and his “embrace” of LGBTQ people empty. When he framed the Orlando shooting as an Islamic crime against the U.S. and said that he would protect LBGTQ people from “a dangerous foreign ideology,” I blurted out loud “What about the dangerous domestic one?” I’ve been forced to live in fear of discrimination and fear for my safety for most of my life, and never once have I been concerned that it was Muslims I needed to worry about.

    The same people who purported to hate phony, scripted politicians at the beginning of this campaign have just fallen hook, line and sinker for the biggest charlatan ever. And one who’s a lot more dangerous when he’s finally reading from a script.

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  8. Alan Stamm said on July 22, 2016 at 7:24 am

    John Cassidy’s take in The New Yorker begins:

    In the history of democracies, there are numerous instances of authoritarian “strongmen” rising to power, and virtually all of them have based their appeal on a promise to restore order. Donald Trump clearly aspires to join this list, and, in one sense, his apocalyptic speech accepting the Republican nomination for President, on Thursday night, in Cleveland, merely confirmed what we already know.”

    –> 13 more paragraphs: http://bit.ly/2a50imV

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  9. Alan Stamm said on July 22, 2016 at 7:30 am

    One more, at risk of abusing the gracious let’s discuss invitation:

    “This angry groundhog came out and he just vomited on everybody for an hour.”
    — Jon Stewart, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

    Transcript (11 paragraphs) via The NYT, bless ’em: http://nyti.ms/2aeSr5U

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  10. Jill said on July 22, 2016 at 8:40 am

    Jeff (tmmo), congratulations to you, Mrs. Jeff and especially your son on his earning Eagle. Related to what some people mentioned yesterday, when I’m hiring and see Eagle on someone’s resume it gives the candidate a leg up. Have you told us your son’s project? I don’t remember hearing it.
    My nephew was inducted into the Order of the Arrow (Boy Scouts’ version of an honor society) last weekend and is working toward Eagle. We’re very proud of him.

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  11. ROGirl said on July 22, 2016 at 9:12 am

    Yeah, the world is a very scary place, but the prospect of Donald Trump running this country frightens me a lot more than any other credible scenario in the realm of possibilities.

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  12. nancy said on July 22, 2016 at 9:13 am

    I will also never again allow a friendly comment about Ivanka to pass unchallenged. That was the speech that really surprised me. Talk about empty promises — he’s going to change the labor laws, make sure affordable child care is available to every working mother, etc. Bull. Shit. She is his pretty blonde enabler, and enablers are as guilty as he is, from here on out.

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  13. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on July 22, 2016 at 9:14 am

    I’m taking my son for his Order of the Arrow induction tonight; Eagle Court of Honor is Sunday (my wife is filling the pulpit while I’m at camp with him down in Portsmouth), so it’s a full weekend. His project was building three top-bar beehives, learning how to “populate” a beehive with a package that comes in the mail of 4,000 bees and 1 queen in a box (yes, I have pictures, many many pictures), and doing education at school, community, and our church about the importance of bees to the environment and for agriculture and humanity in general.

    As for last night, I just keep thinking of this:

    NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise…surprise and fear…fear and surprise…. Our two weapons are fear and surprise…and ruthless efficiency…. Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency…and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope…. Our *four*…no… *Amongst* our weapons…. Amongst our weaponry…are such elements as fear, surprise…. I’ll come in again.

    [The Inquisition exits]

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  14. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on July 22, 2016 at 9:16 am

    My wife turned to me during Ivanka’s speech and said “Which convention is this?” She could deliver what she said verbatim next week in Philly . . . striking, of course, any reference to The Orange One.

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  15. nancy said on July 22, 2016 at 9:16 am

    I’ll add this more comforting thought: It’s good that Trump’s speech was dark and scary, because this election will be all about turnout. If you need a spear in your buttcheeks to get to the polls, then there it was. Go. VOTE.

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  16. adrianne said on July 22, 2016 at 9:18 am

    I for one will never forgive Bernie and his followers for demonizing Hillary throughout the primary season and beyond. If the unthinkable happens and we have a President Trump, they must share in the blame. BTW, another walkback on the email case: Apparently now the FBI is saying, ahem, NONE of the emails had classified information. None.

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  17. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on July 22, 2016 at 9:20 am

    Hey. HEY! Keep that spear away from my backside, ma’am, I’m moving along.

    My Saturday column is already getting me some fun and frolicsome e-mail; I clearly don’t understand many, many things (most of which aren’t true, but as a smart Roman official once said, “What is truth?”) — http://www.newarkadvocate.com/story/life/2016/07/22/hope-wings-peace-persists/87386606/

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  18. Jolene said on July 22, 2016 at 9:37 am

    What will become of the beehive now that he’s finished the project? Can they be left on their own, or does he need to recruit someone to maintain it?

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  19. Suzanne said on July 22, 2016 at 9:41 am

    Listening to Morning Edition interview with delegate from Texas. [not a transcript, mind you, but my memory]

    Interviewer: What do you hope people watching the convention take away from it?
    Delegate: That we are a diverse bunch and have a lot of love!

    Whaaaat?? Diverse as in: there are Baptists & Lutherans? 50 yr olds AND 60 year olds??? People from the South & the mid-west? Love? As long as they don’t perceive you as a threat, which if you are breathing, they do.

    As I was wishing my husband good-night last night, I glanced at the tv as the camera panned the convention crowd. I saw only angry, middle-aged white people.

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  20. Diane said on July 22, 2016 at 9:57 am

    So what was the deal with the Donald’s speech last night? I have not been able to bring myself to watch any of the convention but my husband has been watching. He is a Democrat slightly to the left of me (an Obama supporter in the very early days eight years ago, when I still thought a black man had no chance at the presidency in this country and he was for Bernie in the early days of this go round). He came upstairs and said something like Trump finally didn’t look like a buffoon, the speech was well done and Hillary is going to have to be on the top of her game. I have seen nothing similar in any commentary I turned to in my panic after that comment. So did the speech and anything new or different to the debate?

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  21. Peter said on July 22, 2016 at 9:57 am

    Well, gee, wasn’t that a great sales pitch from Mr. Happy last night?

    Adrienne, I wouldn’t be so harsh on Bernie. He might have put a few logs on, but that fire’s been raging for a couple of decades now.

    And I’ve said it before, but I just don’t get it, and I don’t think I ever will. The intense hatred some people have had for Hillary, Obama, W, and Bill Clinton (and not the same people in each case) baffles me. I can understand being opposed to their policies, or not liking them personally, but to hear some people talk you’d think they were a notch or two beneath Himmler.

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  22. Bob (Not Greene) said on July 22, 2016 at 9:59 am

    That’s a mighty broad brush Adrianne, but thanks for pointing out who’s demonizing who. The condescension is marvelous. If Hillary loses to, of all people, Donald Fucking Trump, it won’t be because of a small percentage of Bernie Bro dead-enders. It’ll be because Hillary remains a flawed candidate. Instead of trying to find a scapegoat for a Hillary loss, which is not going to happen in any case, let’s focus on the fascists at the doorstep and work to convince anyone who’s hedging that there’s room for them in the fold. Marginalizing people who are actually allies may feel good, but it’s not helping.

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  23. Dorothy said on July 22, 2016 at 10:01 am

    Jolene posts an interesting question, as I know the Lad is headed to college. There are plenty of beekeepers in that area who might buy his hive, Jeff, and if you need a contact person my husband can find one for you. He still keeps in touch with many of the beekeepers in Knox County. And there’s always Simpsons Beekeeping Supplies in Danville who could suggest something if you are not going to keep up the hive.

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  24. St Bitch said on July 22, 2016 at 10:18 am

    Thank you, Nancy, for (once again) speaking my mind. Ivanka Trump makes me shudder…as much now as she did when my nightmare of a Chinese dragon-lady roommate in Nashville was drooling over her autobiography.

    Glad that I’m not living in an updated version of Fidel’s Cuba, and therefore not a captive audience, I had no intention of subjecting myself to the @#$%^& (words escape me…’nausea-inducing’ is inadequate). When I eventually tuned in to MSNBC for regurgitation, confident that the @#$%^& was over, he was still.blowing.hard. Quick on the draw, my trigger finger on the remote, I made my flat screen go dark.

    If I could accompany my mother to the voting booth, I’d get her registered. But weeks of drumming ‘Hillary Clinton’ into her demented Republican-committee-woman brain wouldn’t hold up once she took two steps out of my orbit. Anyway, I prefer to let this surreal brand of political terrorism continue to ferment outside her tenuous grasp of any kind of reality.

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  25. adrianne said on July 22, 2016 at 10:27 am

    If they’re allies, it’s time to start acting like them. I still see incredible Hillary hate from the Bernie bros. And no, it’s NOT Hillary’s fault. Jesus!

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  26. Jolene said on July 22, 2016 at 10:29 am

    A follow-up to Nancy’s comment re Ivanka’s promise that her father would “change the labor laws”, a laughable idea given his own history and the prevailing views of the GOP. Rebecca Traister spells out what’s what.

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  27. Jolene said on July 22, 2016 at 10:31 am

    St. Bitch, maybe you could help your mother vote absentee.

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  28. brian stouder said on July 22, 2016 at 10:32 am

    Maybe it’s just that I’m gettin’ old, but my ears are still ringing.

    Honestly and truly – and despite that this sounds like a cliché – I’m more than a little frightened of the prospect of the Donald winning the White House.

    I remember being taken aback, more than three decades ago (when I had hair!) when an older guy expressed a similar opinion of President Kennedy. Our household always loved the Kennedys. My mom and dad were Navy veterans, and JFK was a heroic Navy commander, so there’s that.

    But he was awfully young, and indeed – he made egregious mistakes. From this distance, reading about his short time in the White House, he looks a lot like Captain Kirk (I suppose RFK would be Dr McCoy, and McNamara would be Spock), maneuvering the nation right through one potentially catastrophic situation after another.

    The Cuban crisis leaps to mind, and the related, and much scarier Berlin crisis leap to mind…and in the terrible ending – we had a 2-week interlude wherein Kennedy & his brother signed off on the Vietnamese military take-over (and the deaths of Diehm & his brother), and then the president went to Dallas, and thence into the history books.

    The phrase that sticks with me (I forget who said it) was that from that moment on, the American flag was nailed to the post in Vietnam, and forward we went.

    By way of saying – I guess in some ways Trumpian triumphalism isn’t all that new….but that thought isn’t comforting, at all

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  29. alex said on July 22, 2016 at 10:38 am

    Diane, I think your husband is concerned, and rightly so, that Trump with a prompter or some debate coaching might do some serious damage. He isn’t tethered down by any facts and he speaks with such forcefulness and conviction that even I found myself questioning what I already know to be objectively true or false. He didn’t look like a buffoon this time, but rather a very calculating and charismatic manipulator.

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  30. St Bitch said on July 22, 2016 at 10:39 am

    Good idea, Jolene @27. I’ll look into it.

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  31. Bob (Not Greene) said on July 22, 2016 at 10:50 am

    OK, Adrianne, have it your way. Let’s keep scapegoating people who don’t automatically fall in line on demand. Always good to have someone to blame other than ourselves.

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  32. adrianne said on July 22, 2016 at 10:53 am

    Bob, please. If you want to actually hear from women, esp., who were attacked all during the primary season for their support of Hillary, I’ve got lots for you. You don’t want to hear it, so goodbye!

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  33. Deborah said on July 22, 2016 at 11:08 am

    I do not get the Hillary hate, at all. I emailed my sister asking her if she’s changed her mind about not voting for Trump, I’m curious to read her response. But my guess is that she won’t respond and I’ll take that as her being too embarrassed to tell me that she’s going to vote for him after all.

    I’m about to head out to the airport in Albuquerque to pick up my husband, his Southwest flight wasn’t canceled, just a little late.

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  34. brian stouder said on July 22, 2016 at 11:09 am

    My son was a Bernie voter, and he still dislikes HRC intensely. (full disclosure: when I was almost 21, I would have agreed with him, probably)

    The position I maintain is 3-pronged:

    1. You must vote

    2. You must realize that one or the other (between the Donald and HRC) WILL win the office

    3. Given #2 above, I’d think lonnnnnnng and hard before going with a third party

    Beyond that, I do not go.

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  35. Sherri said on July 22, 2016 at 11:10 am

    Hillary is a flawed candidate, true. But I sure am tired of hearing that from people who are supposed to be our allies, as if their candidate weren’t even more flawed. Lots of Democrats (like me) didn’t vote for him for a reason, but I wouldn’t still be complaining about his flaws now, I’d be sending money to his campaign, in the face of what we’ve seen from Trump.

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  36. Ann said on July 22, 2016 at 11:14 am

    Eriz Zorn on Facebook this morning. “From Barack Obama’s convention speech in 2008: ‘The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and our respect..;…What I will not do is suggest that the senator takes his positions for political purposes, because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other’s character and each other’s patriotism…let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain.’
    Read the whole thing. Contrast its tone with the harsh, blistering bluster of Trump’s harangue last night.”

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  37. Bob (Not Greene) said on July 22, 2016 at 11:29 am

    Adrianne, I’m not debating what you’re saying. I’m saying if you think you need all the votes you can get, you’d be better off changing your strategy for obtaining them. My objection to your original comment was lumping all Bernie supporters together as somehow demonizing Hillary. My view of the field was that the demonization wasn’t unidirectional. Anyway, that campaign is over. There is a real threat, but it’s not the vast majority of people who supported Bernie.

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  38. brian stouder said on July 22, 2016 at 11:30 am

    Fort Wayne alert!! Fort Wayne alert!!

    Nancy’s old friend Mitch Harper turned up on the national stage, for a fleeting moment

    http://wane.com/2016/07/22/former-city-councilman-helps-bring-down-trump-protester/

    The lead:

    CLEVELAND, Ohio (WANE) – A woman who interrupted Donald Trump’s presidential nomination acceptance speech on the last night of the Republican National Convention was stopped in her tracks by a man named Mitch Harper.

    Yes, the same Mitch Harper who served two terms on Fort Wayne City Council. The same Mitch Harper, who at the age of 22, was elected to serve in the Indiana House of Representatives.

    …AND – now he has a beard!

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  39. brian stouder said on July 22, 2016 at 11:55 am

    And here, right from the party organ that ails us (so to speak), is a fun read!

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/07/22/trump-buries-bitter-rival-cruz-in-farewell-to-cleveland.html#

    an excerpt:

    Donald Trump said goodbye to Cleveland Friday, pronouncing the Republican National Convention a yuge success and launching a barrage of parting shots at GOP rival Ted Cruz, who refused to endorse him in a controversial speech that got the Texas senator booed off the stage. The vindictive victory lap laid bare Trump’s simmering anger at Cruz, who brought drama to Quicken Loans Arena Wednesday when he began a speech to cheers and ended in a raucous shorus of boos after refusing to endorse the man who had bested him. “I like Ted, he’s fine,” Trump said in a trademark, ad-libbed press conference. “I don’t need his endorsement. If he gives it to me, I will not accept it”

    and – there’s more bitter sniping, directly from the nominee!

    By way of saying, whatever damage bitter-Bernie fans might do to HRC’s efforts may well be over-shadowed by Trump’s scorched-earth policy toward Cruz and anyone who liked him

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  40. alex said on July 22, 2016 at 11:59 am

    Whaddaya mean now? He’s always been married to a woman.

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  41. Jolene said on July 22, 2016 at 12:38 pm

    The Trump appearance that Brian mentioned above was absolutely insane. The political reporters and pundits I follow on Twitter were going wild; they couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Here’s a commentary that contains an excerpt and some analysis, but the key point is at the end: Trump couldn’t keep his act together for 12 hours!

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  42. Nancy Friedman said on July 22, 2016 at 12:59 pm

    Speaking of Ivanka, this was on her Twitter timeline this morning: https://twitter.com/IvankaTrump/status/756492146484580352
    “Shop Ivanka’s look from her #RNC speech: http://bit.ly/29Qj7dE #RNCinCLE”

    As New Republic senior editor @HeerJeet commented:
    “Like I said, not a campaign but a grift in the form of a campaign.”

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  43. Peter said on July 22, 2016 at 1:08 pm

    Wow – that was some press conference.

    You know how people say if you get laid off or fired you should take a big trip because it will take your mind off of what happened and when you land a new job you won;t get vacation time till who knows when? I could never do that because I would worry about not having a job.

    It’s the same way with this yahoo. I want to laugh, I want to look at that guy and say what a phony, what a maroon, what a long eared idjit galoot. But in the back of my mind I’m thinking if this guy wins I won’t be laughing any more…..

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  44. basset said on July 22, 2016 at 1:57 pm

    first time I got fired it was at the end of my shift, ten pm on a Sunday with a vacation flight out the next morning. Turned it into a job hunt, ended up better off.

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  45. brian stouder said on July 22, 2016 at 1:59 pm

    We arrived back from vacation Monday night, recuperated on Tuesday, and then back to work Wednesday….and today it seems like we got back a month ago!

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  46. Sue said on July 22, 2016 at 2:21 pm

    Open thread – oh good.
    Does anyone else think that when Hillary wins, the first Standing Rule of her administration will be never to leave Bill alone in the WH? Someone’s going to sneak a babe in there and get pics, and Bill doesn’t seem as sharp as he used to be. Setting Bill Up is going to be as much of a goal as Obstructing Hillary.
    Also, I didn’t realize I had to support Trump because my husband doesn’t make enough money.

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  47. Diane said on July 22, 2016 at 2:37 pm

    Thanks Alex @29. I think you are right but that was just too scary for me to contemplate. I have apparently been drifting along in a la la land where someone like Trump could not possibly become president of this country.

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  48. Jill said on July 22, 2016 at 2:45 pm

    Thanks for the info on the Eagle project, Jeff (tmmo). Interesting.

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  49. BethB from Indiana said on July 22, 2016 at 2:47 pm

    St. Bitch, my precinct doesn’t have handicap access, and the five steps leading into the building have a loose railing that has been that way for the last ten years. Anyway, I’ve voted by absentee ballot for a number of years. If a person needs help filling out the ballot, there is a place on the material that is sent back with the ballot to indicate that the individual voting had help. This might be the way to help your mother vote.

    This November, I am going to try to vote in person. I will brave the nasty stairs and loose railing to ensure that my precinct has my Democratic vote counted along with the 99.9% Republican votes in Hamilton County. Despite having voted absentee a number of times already, I am always a bit leery of absentee ballots making it into the final count. This year it is too important to leave to chance.

    Jeff (tmmo), congratulations on your son’s Eagle and Honor Scout achievements. My cousin was an Eagle Scout; I know how much work it takes. Your family has every right to be proud. I’ll be looking forward to hearing about his upcoming days at OU. Another cousin’s son is a music major grad of OU. It’s a great school. I did a few summer school grad courses there in the early 1970s.

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  50. Dexter said on July 22, 2016 at 3:04 pm

    Yeah, I did not know that The Donald was a (long-lost?) nephew of The Brothers Reuther. Walter, Victor G. and Roy…and nephew The Donald T. Rump, keeper of the flame, with LAW and ORDER as a kicker. Wow. Law and order, alright…Kubrick knew all about Law and Order.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcbQ1RIStus

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  51. LAMary said on July 22, 2016 at 3:07 pm

    Shop Ivanka’s look? This all makes me screamy.

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  52. Scout said on July 22, 2016 at 3:26 pm

    The dialog between Bob (NG) and Adrienne is reminiscent of the type of thing I see on Facebook all the time: ‘If you Hillary supporters want Bernie Bros to come on board you need to be nicer to us.’ Because obviously, worrying about who is being rude to whom is way more important than the ferret-headed, tiny-fingered, fascist elephant in the room.

    Sorry if I’m ruffling feathers. This whole week of Fear and Loathing in Las Cleveland has me on edge. I’m a lesbian (1,2), my partner is Latina (3), my grandkids are of Mexican heritage (4) and one of them is gay (5). There is a lot at stake for this country and me and my family personally. I go back and forth between thinking, no way are we that stupid as a country and, but what if we are?

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  53. Sherri said on July 22, 2016 at 4:07 pm

    Clay Shirky reminds us that as white liberals, we are a minority, and winning elections isn’t about policy or passion, it’s about headcount: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/clay-shirky-stop-trump-twitter

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  54. Judybusy said on July 22, 2016 at 4:37 pm

    Scout, the link I shared on FB about how our families would be affected engendered stooopid anti-Hillary comments “she’s a crook and a liar” but at least that person’s still voting for her….and an unhelpful comment from my BIL about how the Libertarian party is gaining ground! Totally missing the point. He does this crap every time I post something political. I am very worried about this election and the hate-mongering.

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  55. David C. said on July 22, 2016 at 5:26 pm

    It looks to me like the Bernie Bros are a spent force. I’v seen polls suggesting that Sanders supporters are moving to Hillary quicker than Hillary supporters moved to President Obama on ’08. Sure there will be a few dead enders who will probably vote for Jill Stein, but she’s such a nut-job I’m not too worried about that.

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  56. St Bitch said on July 22, 2016 at 6:17 pm

    Adrianne – you’re not alone (here) in your resentment of Sanders. But as David C says, he’s a spent force. After squandering my initial good will with his unrelenting self-righteousness and dissing of Obama via Hillary, I can’t be bothered with even a faint-hearted welcome upon his begrudging and belated endorsement. Until it became evident that Hillary wasn’t going to be indicted, he hedged all bets that he would emerge as the Democratic leader of the anti-tRump coalition. Any hold-out Bernie Bros still demanding that Hillary prove herself have always been a lost cause. It’s time to let Bernie Sanders fade into his speaking slot at the convention, and footnote in history.

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  57. adrianne said on July 22, 2016 at 6:32 pm

    I’m totally willing to let that happen. But it doesn’t appear likely among the Bernie bitter enders. Jesus Christ, let it rest!

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  58. Sherri said on July 22, 2016 at 6:32 pm

    Since we don’t have Molly Ivins around any more to pithily sum up Trumps speech, we’ll make do with Garry Kasparov:

    I’ve heard this sort of speech a lot in the last 15 years and trust me, it doesn’t sound any better in Russian.

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  59. adrianne said on July 22, 2016 at 6:43 pm

    I give you Melissa McEwan, AKA Shakespeare’s Sister, on the misogny involved in the 2016 election:

    http://bluenationreview.com/weve-reached-peak-hillary-hate/

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  60. Scout said on July 22, 2016 at 6:51 pm

    And here is an epic Awesomely Luvvie rant to kick off the weekend.

    http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2016/07/omg-donald-trump.html

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  61. Jolene said on July 22, 2016 at 8:29 pm

    Tim Kaine for Veep! Hillary just announced her pick.

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  62. Sherri said on July 22, 2016 at 9:26 pm

    White men make up 80% of Congress, but poor Rep. Sean Duffy(R-WI) feels like they’ve “been left aside a little bit in the politics of who speaks to them.” I guess he’s been so intimidated by being in the majority his three terms in Congress that it’s only now with Trump speaking out that he feels empowered to stand up for white men.

    http://www.snappytv.com/tc/2420951

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  63. Deborah said on July 22, 2016 at 9:34 pm

    My husband thinks Trump supporters are transfixed in a personality cult. And of course some Republicans will just vote for him because he’s the R nominee, we all know that. He probably is getting a bump in the polls right now, it’s to be expected. So next week it’s the Dems turn to get the spotlight and we can all calm down a bit. Let’s hope they make it a rip roaring event with top notch speeches that will inspire us all anew. We all have a lot at stake, as I’ve said my biggest fear is the loss of healthcare for Little Bird. Give money if you can, and convince your friends and loved ones to register if they haven’t yet. And VOTE blue!

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  64. Deborah said on July 22, 2016 at 9:41 pm

    Of all people, here’s a column by David Brooks that expresses the personality cult idea http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/opinion/campaign-stops/the-dark-knight.html?_r=0.

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  65. Deborah said on July 22, 2016 at 10:37 pm

    I read up on Kaine. I was disappointed at first because, yawn, another pale male, but I think he’s a wise choice after reading his experience and views. He’s morally opposed to abortion as a lifelong Catholic, but doesn’t think we should be legislating such decisions people need to be able to make for themselves. He has been a member of a black Catholic Church for 30 years and has done a lot of work on desegregation. Will he help Hillary get elected? He might help her appeal more to moderates, but Five Thirty Eight doesn’t think he can help her that much in his home state of VA, like maybe give her a 2 point bump. But she isn’t doing badly in VA, or maybe I’m wrong about that?

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  66. Jolene said on July 23, 2016 at 2:31 am

    The Real Clear Politics currently has Clinton up 4.5 points in Virginia. I think she would have carried The state with or without Kaine, but two points is a lot in a presidential election– or any election. Lots of African American voters in VA. Northern Virginia, where most of the voters are swings heavily Democratic. Democrats currently hold all statewide offices–both Senate seats, governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.

    Kaine is a popular figure here. Though low-key, he is affable and charming. Also very smart. (A few years ago, he was declared The Best Speller in the United States.!) He will kill Pence in a debate, especially since Pence will be having to defend the indefensible Trump.

    He was a missionary in Honduras and speaks Spanish fluently. In fact, he gave a speech in the Senate favoring immigration reform in Spanish.

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  67. Jolene said on July 23, 2016 at 2:38 am

    Here are ten things the Washington Post thinks you should know about Kaine.

    In addition, he is reported to be popular with both Rs and Ds in Congress. If elected, he will help her deal with Congress. In fact, I’d bet that some Republican members of Congress will vote for Clinton and Kaine, not that we will ever know.

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  68. Jolene said on July 23, 2016 at 2:55 am

    From @ananavarro on Twitter: Hispanic Outreach: @HillaryClinton has Spanish-speaking do-gooder who was a missionary in Honduras; Trump has Joe Arpaio…and a taco bowl.

    (Navarro is a GOP commentator on CNN. I don’t follow her, but, apparently, she has been highly critical of Trump.)

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  69. ROGirl said on July 23, 2016 at 7:09 am

    This lays out the Republican trajectory that culminated with Trump.

    http://www.vox.com/2016/7/18/12210500/diagnosed-dysfunction-republican-party

    And Godwin himself weighs in on the proper way to make Trump/Hitler comparisons

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/12/14/sure-call-trump-a-nazi-just-make-sure-you-know-what-youre-talking-about/

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  70. Bitter Scribe said on July 25, 2016 at 10:40 am

    Alan @#6: Oh, Ron Fournier can go jump himself. He’s a useless both-sides-do-it hand-wringer.

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