Friday Night Soother
by digby
Panda brats:
kids…
"what digby sez..."
Month: August 2016
The ultimate endorsement
by digby
What do you think about Hillary Clinton and the Democrats?
[Laughs.] I fucking love them. I have always loved them. And let me just say this: If you’re a politician — not just in Washington but in business and industry, you have to be a politician — there are a lot of things that you have to do that you’re not proud of. There are a lot of compromises you have to make because it means that you can get this other thing over here. And if you think that you can go to fucking Washington and be rainbows and butterflies the whole time, you’re living in a fucking fantasy world.
So now, having said that, think about what a female has to do with that: All of those compromises, all of that shit, double it by ten. And you get to understand who this woman is and how powerful, persuasive, brilliant, and resilient she is. Any female executive, anybody who has been put to the side — women, blacks, gays — for them to succeed in a white-male-dominated culture is an act of brilliance. Of resilience, of grit, of everything you can imagine. So, what do I think of Hillary? I think she’s fucking awesome. Is she in bed with Wall Street? Goddammit, I should hope so! You’ve got to dance with the devil.
So which of the horrible people do you want? That’s more of the question. Do you want a pompous braggart who doesn’t know anything about diplomacy? Or do you want a badass bitch who knows how to get shit done? That’s really the question.
Well when you put it that way …
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It turns out Trump’s a founder
by digby
He’s saying today that he was being sarcastic. He’s quite the comedian. In case you missed Trump’s full comments to Hugh Hewitt about Obama and Clinton founding ISIS, here they are. You be the judge:
HH: I’ve got two more questions. Last night, you said the President was the founder of ISIS. I know what you meant. You meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace.
DT: No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. I do. He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton.
HH: But he’s not sympathetic to them. He hates them. He’s trying to kill them.
DT: I don’t care. He was the founder. His, the way he got out of Iraq was that that was the founding of ISIS, okay?
HH: Well, that, you know, I have a saying, Donald Trump, the mnemonic device I use is Every Liberal Really Seems So, So Sad. E is for Egypt, L is for Libya, S is for Syria, R is for Russia reset. They screwed everything up. You don’t get any argument from me. But by using the term founder, they’re hitting with you on this again. Mistake?
DT: No, it’s no mistake. Everyone’s liking it. I think they’re liking it. I give him the most valuable player award. And I give it to him, and I give it to, I gave the co-founder to Hillary. I don’t know if you heard that.
HH: I did. I did. I played it.
DT: I gave her the co-founder.
HH: I know what you’re arguing…
DT: You’re not, and let me ask you, do you not like that?
HH: I don’t. I think I would say they created, they lost the peace. They created the Libyan vacuum, they created the vacuum into which ISIS came, but they didn’t create ISIS. That’s what I would say.
DT: Well, I disagree.
HH: All right, that’s okay.
DT: I mean, with his bad policies, that’s why ISIS came about.
HH: That’s…
DT: If he would have done things properly, you wouldn’t have had ISIS.
HH: That’s true.
DT: Therefore, he was the founder of ISIS.
Hewitt doesn’t ask him why he uses Obama’s middle name when he talks about this on the stump — the only time he does it. But then this is Hewitt who, for some reason, is a big favorite among the Villagers and has been mainstreaming fever swamp nonsense throughout this election.
By the way, here’s what Trump said about withdrawing from Iraq in the past:
“First, I’d get out of Iraq right now,” Trump said to British GQ in a 2008 interview. “And by the way, I am the greatest hawk who ever lived, a far greater hawk even than Bush. I am the most militant military human being who ever lived. I’d rebuild our military arsenal, and make sure we had the finest weapons in the world. Because countries such as Russia have no respect for us, they laugh at us. Look at what happened in Georgia, a place we were supposed to be protecting.”
Later, Trump said he wished Arizona Sen. John McCain, whom he was backing in the election, had supported pulling troops out of Iraq faster.
“I wish he would promise to get us out of Iraq faster,” said Trump. “I am not in love with that aspect of what he represents.”
Those comments echoed similar remarks in March 2007 when he said forces should be immediately withdrawn from Iraq.
“You know how they get out? They get out,” Trump said to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “That’s how they get out. Declare victory and leave, because I’ll tell you, this country is just going to get further bogged down. They’re in a civil war over there, Wolf. There’s nothing that we’re going to be able to do with a civil war. They are in a major civil war.”
Speaking with Howard Stern in October of that year, Trump said McCain’s support for keeping troops in Iraq was costing him the Republican nomination.
“Anybody who stays in Iraq — look at what happened to McCain — he want to show how tough he is, he’s sunk, immediately, and that’s with the Republicans.”
By late 2011, Trump notoriously began saying the U.S. should take Iraq’s oil before withdrawing. Trump also told CNN’s Piers Morgan in February of that year he would get of troops in Iraq “out real fast.” By 2016, he completely adopted the conservative critique of the Iraq withdrawal.
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Witch or devil? Let’s dunk her in the pond and find out!
by digby
She might be a terrorist too! From Peter Montgomery, we find that certain members of the right are engaged in a lively debate about whether Clinton is the anti-Christ or an Illuminati witch. Seriously:
That provocative question headlines a new Jennifer LeClaire column for Charisma, which promotes what she calls a “documentary” titled “Hillary Clinton – The Antichrist Or the Illuminati Witch?” LeClaire writes:
I don’t believe Hillary is the Antichrist, but the fact that so many people are utterly convinced is telling. The chatter continues. One thing is clear, believers are paying close attention to the signs of the times—including the rise of the Antichrist.
The video, though, does offer some shocking info about Hillary. Check it out for yourself.
“Documentary” is a far too generous term for the incoherent 22-minute mash-up of right-wing Hillary-hating news clips, interviews, and voiceovers that appears on the End Of The World YouTube channel.
Disappointingly, the video doesn’t directly address the question of whether Clinton might be the Antichrist. It does recycle conspiracy theories like Clinton’s supposed plan to confiscate everyone’s guns and talks about “that sexual relationship with Huma Abedin that is whispered about in the dark corners of Washington.”
The video includes snippets from Benghazi hearings, attacks on Planned Parenthood and its founder Margaret Sanger, right-wing news coverage of the Clinton’s email problems, and old news clips about the Whitewater scandal. It includes bits of video and audio from some recognizable speakers like Dick Morris, Robert Novak, Phyllis Schlafly, Glenn Beck, and Ben Carson. Oddly, it ends with a number of somewhat endearing clips of Clinton gamely dancing with celebrities during speaking appearances like Ellen DeGeneres’s television show.
The most inflammatory comments seem to have been snagged from an Infowars video featuring Larry Nichols, who is identified by Infowars as a former “Clinton machine insider.” Nichols says of Hillary Clinton, “she’s an animal.” He says that when the Clintons were still in Arkansas, Bill told him that Hillary would go to Los Angeles once a month with a group of women to be “part of a witches’ church.”
This is looney tunes fringe stuff. But the chants of “lock her up!” and “hang the bitch!” at Trump rallies are definitely echoes of witch hunt frenzies of the past. The “powerful woman must be a witch or the tool of the devil” archetype goes way, way back.
Here’s the “documentary”
No Trump’s not destroying the Democratic Party
by digby
I wrote about the ongoing pundit obsession with the votes of white men for Salon:
Ever since Ronald Reagan enticed many traditionally Democratic white working class voters over to the Republican Party political observers have been intensely interested in what makes this particular faction tick. Indeed, one might even call it an obsession.
There have been different ways of looking at this group over the years. The so-called Reagan Democrats were studied like a lost Amazonian tribe for decades, most famously by Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg who focused on one county in Michigan and found that these voters believed the Democratic party didn’t care about their needs and instead were working on behalf of people of color, feminists, poor people and those who refused to work. They also believed that America was weak, wanted to bring back law and order and hated paying taxes, mostly because they believed they went to help all those other people the Democrats cared about more than them. Sound familiar?
In the 90s the concerns about this group were defined more as a regional problem and the loss of the Southern white rural male became more of a focus with much rending of garments over how to get them back into the fold. Acclaimed Democratic strategists such as Dave “Mudcat” Saunders explained the problem this way:
I don’t know how many northern Democrats who have tolerance for my kind…We’ve got an affection for big guns and fast cars. It’s a macho thing. I’ve not seen any attempt by the Democrats to get into that culture.”
But there was more to it than that, as Saunders explained in his colorful way:
Bubba doesn’t call them illegal immigrants. He calls them illegal aliens. If the Democrats put illegal aliens in their bait can, we’re going to come home with a bunch of white males in the boat.
The Democrats tried very, very hard to respect that culture but they were unwilling to “put illegal aliens in the bait can” to attract these disaffected white males. Neither were they willing to throw feminists, African Americans or any other member of their base over the side and all the NASCAR and bird hunting in the world couldn’t make up for it. The more diverse the Democratic coalition became the less these folks wanted to be a part of it. (Saunders, by the way, was last heard from predicting that Donald Trump would beat Hillary Clinton “like a baby seal.”)
In fact, in the last three presidential races the Democratic candidate lost among non-college educated whites by an average of 22 points. In 2012 it was a record 26 points. However, you’ll notice that the Democratic candidate won those last two races pretty handily. Nonetheless, despite their winning record and a diverse coalition that looks like 2016 America, the Democrats are still seen to have a big “problem” because they are allegedly ignoring the plight of the white working class and failing to attract their votes. This season, with Trump electrifying this cohort with his calls for deporting Mexicans and banning Muslims, the genre is especially plentiful.
Just this week we had Thomas Edsall of the New York Times fretting that Trump was not only ruining the GOP but was also destroying the Democratic party by making it a party of urban and suburban dwelling high earning college educated whites and working class people of color. This is a coalition that apparently cannot work because the higher earning whites are socially distant from the lower earning people of color and somehow this will result in “a base split between the well-to-do, many of whom seek to protect their enclaves against the interests, needs and classically American ambitions of the other half of the party — low-to-moderate income African-Americans and Hispanics and the truly poor.” It remains a mystery how or why Democratic pursuit of the white working class would make a difference in this scenario but it’s clear these voters are still considered the holy grail. It’s almost as if a winning majority doesn’t count unless these white men are among them.
The fact is that the white working class is shrinking in size and is expected to drop to 30 percent of the voting population and 44 percent of white voters. And according to the Economic Policy Institute, these trends are accelerating, with people of color projected to become the majority of working class citizens very soon:
The age cohort projected to make the earliest transition to majority-minority is the one that includes workers age 25 to 34. These are today’s 18- to 27-year-olds and for them, the projected transition year is 2021.
In other words, the Democrats have not abandoned the working class in favor of urban sophisticates. It remains the backbone of their coalition as it’s always been. It’s just that the working class is not as white as it used to be. (And neither is the white college educated cohort as conservative as it used to be.)
Throughout all these decades of stewing over the loss of the working man the Democrats have been the party that better addressed their economic interests. They have not been perfect by any means but there’s no comparison to the trickle down, starve the government philosophy of the GOP. The Democrats have protected and expanded the safety net and supported unions, workplace safety, environmental regulation and legal protections for working people throughout the time that these same working people were refusing to vote for them. And they will continue to do so. It’s fundamental to the party’s ideology and the presence of this large group of working class people of color will ensure that they don’t forget it no matter how many urban hipsters decide to become yuppies in the next few years.
And contrary to what Edsall says, Trump may have actually ended up having a salutary effect on the GOP. The white working class that doesn’t want to join any coalition that contains people of color and feminists has had its economic consciousness raised. They may just want their party to be a little less libertarian and a lot more populist going forward. And that may open up some areas in which the two parties can cooperate. If nothing else it might put to rest the deficit fetish of the past few years and allow some government spending on infrastructure to create jobs that would benefit working people of both parties.
White working class voters have been drifting to the GOP for decades. And Democrats cannot morally abandon their multi-cultural, female majority in order to attract them back if that the price they are expected to pay. You can’t be all things to all people. But the Democratic Party will worry about them and look out for their economic interests anyway because it’s in the interest of everyone that the working class has jobs that pay a living wage and their children have education, health care and opportunity regardless of party, race, ethnicity, gender or religion. White working class Americans will get those same benefits — whether they like it or not.
“The climate goes up it goes down”
by digby
Trump says he wants to try Americans at Guantanamo. But I’m pretty sure he had no idea what he was saying.
Also this:
“I’m not a big believer in man-made climate change,” Trump said, despite vast scientific evidence to the contrary. “There could be some impact, but I don’t believe it’s a devastating impact.”
In the past, Trump has called climate change a “hoax.”
“I would say that it goes up, it goes down,” he said. “Certainly climate has changed. … The problem we have is our businesses are suffering. Our businesses are unable to compete in this country because other countries aren’t being forced to do what our businesses are being forced to do, and it makes us uncompetitive.”
If cities like Miami Beach want to set local rules to fight the effects of rising seas, though, Trump said he wouldn’t get in their way.
“If the local government feels that way, they should do it,” he said. “If they’re doing the roads, and if they want to make them higher, I think that’s probably not the worst thing I’ve ever heard, if you’re going to do them anyway.”
Jesus.
By the way, Clinton is taking a different approach.
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Nothing left to lose
by Tom Sullivan
For a political ticket led by a man fixated on winning, there’s a whole lot in the air that smells like losing.
Lawrence O’Donnell opened The Last Word on Thursday with news from Politico that top Republican Party officials had scheduled a Friday “come to Jesus” meeting in Orlando with Donald Trump’s imploding campaign. O’Donnell quipped that Trump would be disappointed when Jesus didn’t show up.
Politico reported:
Though a campaign source dismissed it as a “typical” gathering, others described it as a more serious meeting, with one calling it an “emergency meeting.” It comes at a time of mounting tension between the campaign and the Republican National Committee, which is facing pressure to pull the plug on Trump’s campaign and redirect party funds down ballot to protect congressional majorities endangered by Trump’s candidacy.
[…]
Another person familiar with the meeting, a Republican operative who works with the campaign, said the planned gathering was “a come-to-Jesus meeting.” That source said that many Trump campaign staffers share the party officials’ frustrations with Trump’s penchant for self-sabotaging rhetoric. “What’s bothering people on the campaign is that they feel like they’re doing all the right things, but they’re losing every news cycle to Hillary and there’s nothing they can do about it.”
In another report, Raw Story quotes “an epic tweetstorm” by Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak about the fear setting in for down-ballot losses triggered by the Trump campaign:
“OK, this shit’s not funny anymore,” he began. “Trump is threatening elected GOPers at all levels in places that haven’t been competitive in decades… We are looking at an extinction-level event.”
And is there anything legislators from the North Carolina Republican Party have left to lose? Yesterday a federal court slapped them down AGAIN for drawing voting districts that discriminate based on race. This time it’s state legislative districts:
RALEIGH – The map that has twice been used to elect the North Carolina General Assembly is unconstitutional because many of the districts are racially gerrymandered, a panel of federal judges ruled Thursday.
Elections can proceed this year, the judges said in their order, because postponing the election would cause “undue disruption.” But the legislature must redraw the districts in the next legislative session for use in 2018.
The judges concluded that “the overriding priority of the redistricting plan was to draw a predetermined, race-based number of districts.”
When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in Shelby County v. Holder it was because “our country has changed.” Guess he doesn’t get out much.
In February, a federal court ordered North Carolina to redraw U.S. Congressional districts after determining that its 1st and 12th were racial gerrymanders. In May, the state Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a state law passed by the Republican legislature to elect Supreme Court justices using retention elections.
In early July, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals declared illegal districts drawn for Wake County school board and county commissioner districts. Later that same day, Republican lawmakers had had enough. Two dozen Republicans in the state House rebelled when their leadership tried to impose similar districts on city council races in Asheville. That attempt went down to defeat. Later last month, a federal judge issued a permanent injunction against implementation of city council districts drawn by Republicans in Raleigh for the city of Greensboro.
Finally, at the end of July the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down as unconstitutional the state’s omnibus voter suppression act because it discriminates against minority voters.
Donald Trump promised Republican primary voters that with him in charge they would win so much, “You’re going to get tired of winning.” They’ve got to be wondering when that starts exactly.
Telegraphing the civil unrest
by digby
This comment coming from one of the men who led the Brooks Brothers’ riot in Florida 2000 to stop the vote in Palm Beach County cannot be discounted:
ROGER STONE: We are going to be laying out a very specific plan in the next couple weeks to combat what I believe will be an egregious and outrageous effort to steal the next election if the polls show as I think they will, that Trump is in a dogfight for the presidency of the United States.
[…]
ALEX JONES (HOST): I think the fact that Trump came out this week and said I am going to fight election fraud, I think that helped send them into this panic.
STONE: Well you have to let them know in advance that you’re not going to stand for it. That if there’s any solid evidence of election irregularities you’re prepared to challenge her swearing in and create a constitutional crisis.
It’s hard to make the case that a decisive victory was stolen but they will certainly try. And considering the excitement of the right wing “Hang the bitch!” contingent, who knows how they’ll react.
Rebel yell
by digby
Ummmm a Confederate flag with Trump’s name on it here in Orlando. pic.twitter.com/FuB5w5uNit— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) August 11, 2016
I took this picture in rural Maryland last week:
Yes, that’s a confederate flag.
Child care for the 1%
by digby
Surprise! Trump’s “childcare plan” is not all its cracked up to be:
When Donald Trump vowed this week to make child care more accessible and affordable, it was just the second time during his White House campaign that he’s talked about an issue that affects millions of working Americans with young children.
The first came months ago in Iowa, when the eventual Republican nominee touted his own record as a business owner during a candidate Q&A, telling voters he provided on-site child-care service for his employees.
There is no evidence, however, that any such programs exist.
The billionaire real estate mogul, who previously voiced his opposition to government-funded universal pre-K programs, said in Newton, Iowa, in November 2015 that he had visited many companies that offered workers on-site child-care centers — and added that he offered such programs himself.
“You know, it’s not expensive for a company to do it. You need one person or two people, and you need some blocks, and you need some swings and some toys,” Trump said. “It’s not an expensive thing, and I do it all over. And I get great people because of it. Because it’s a problem with a lot of other companies.”
Trump pointed specifically to two programs: “They call ’em Trump Kids. Another one calls it Trumpeteers, if you can believe it. I have ’em. I actually have ’em, because I have a lot of different businesses.”
Trump went on to describe “a room that’s a quarter of the size of this. And they have all sorts of — you know, it’s beautiful — they have a lot of children there, and we take care of them. And the parent when they leave the job — usually in my case it’s clubs or hotels — when they leave the job, they pick up their child and their child is totally safe.”
“They even come in during the day during lunch to see their child. It really works out well,” he said.
But the two programs Trump cited — “Trump Kids” and “Trumpeteers” — are programs catering to patrons of Trump’s hotels and golf club. They are not for Trump’s employees, according to staff at Trump’s hotels and clubs across the country.
“Trump Kids” is described on the Trump Hotel Collection website as “a special travel program designed to help make your next family vacation a big hit.” Its offerings include “kid-friendly amenities like kiddie cocktails, coloring books and no-tear bath amenities.”
“The Trumpeteer Program” is described on the website of Trump National Golf Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, as “a program created specifically for our youngest members, ages three to twelve, which offers daily and evening child care, monthly newsletters and weekly events!”