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Month: October 2016

Stay nasty my friends

Stay nasty my friends

by digby

James Franco teamed up with EMILY’s List, Priorities USA and Schlep Labs to launch #MostInterestingWoman Campaign in Support of Hillary Clinton and said in a statement, “I am excited to work with an amazing team to create and distribute this unconventional endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president.” 

He added: “Hillary Clinton has led an amazing life; it is not a stretch to describe her as ‘the most interesting woman in the world.’ I wanted more people, particularly younger people, to get to know an extraordinary woman who has, through a lifetime a work, earned our trust and support.”

Pride and privilege by @BloggersRUs

Pride and privilege
by Tom Sullivan


Photo via Dave Massey.

Marion: You can’t do this to me, I’m an AMERICAN.
— from Raiders of the Lost Ark

It’s the sort of line we’ve seen in many a forgotten film. Old films. The kind of films portraying a time when America was “great” in the Trump ball cap sense. It may be its namesake’s greatest appeal.

The New York Times has examined a revealing trove of interviews with Donald Trump. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Michael D’Antonio made the tapes in 2014 for his Trump biography, “The Truth About Trump.” Michael Barbaro writes:

The recordings reveal a man who is fixated on his own celebrity, anxious about losing his status and contemptuous of those who fall from grace. They capture the visceral pleasure he derives from fighting, his willful lack of interest in history, his reluctance to reflect on his life and his belief that most people do not deserve his respect.

Frankly, that might describe a lot of us.

Trump likes to cite Gen. George S. Patton and likely remembers (from the movie, of course) Patton’s speech to the Third Army, “Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser.” What Trump truly fears more than anything is being that loser, “being ignored, overlooked or irrelevant.” Falling from grace is unpardonable:

There is little trace of sympathy or understanding. When people lose face, Mr. Trump’s reaction is swift and unforgiving.

Through much of this election cycle, the Trump phenomenon seems to have been driven by his wealth and celebrity. Americans are attracted to it like moths to a flame. But we might wonder if wealth and celebrity are mere stand-ins what wealth and celebrity really confer: privilege.

“Make America Great Again” says as much about his followers as it does about Trump. He was born into privilege and never lost it. In Trump, many Americans see a promise to restore a greatness — and privilege — they feel they have lost. To foreigners and foreign powers, and to racial and religious minorities, to be sure. But what we also crave is the cocksuredness to insist again, “You can’t do this to me, I’m an AMERICAN.”

Writing for Slate, Susan Matthews wonders if the focus on Trump’s narcissism is misdiagnosis. It is comforting to put a name on the monster, but what needs treatment, she writes, is not his mental health. He seems to excel in spite of it.

What enables him to, psychologist Nigel Barber wrote in Psychology Today, is that “his birth to money and life as a plutocrat that guarantee contact with high-status persons and being fawned over as a VIP.” Matthews writes:

I’d go further than Barber: I think the privilege into which Trump was born has exempted him from the operating rules of civilized society. Whether he’s bragging about sexual assault, denying reality during the debates, or promising to reject the democratic process itself if it does not happen to favor him, the thread that connects them all is privilege. The impunity he has enjoyed is chilling, and so is his blithe certainty that it will always be there for him. The privilege he derives from his gender and his fame and his father and his class and his race seems to have granted him a lifetime pass. The result of such a life is a man whom we cannot help but pathologize.

Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi (1970):

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Till it’s gone

Trumpsters want their lifetime passes back. Sure, they would like to be Trump, to have his wealth and celebrity. But they will settle for the privilege of swaggering down the street with large guns, just to show you they can. They will settle for their country engaging in torture while condemning other countries for it, to be exempted from the rules others must follow. They will settle for screaming at “foreign-looking” American-born neighbors to go home to wherever they came from and protesting, “You can’t do this to me, I’m an AMERICAN” while traveling abroad. Trumpsters bristle at the idea they benefit (or benefited) from any sort of white privilege. But they seethe at seeing it slip away to people they look down on. In Trump, they see what they have lost and a promise of restoration. Trumpsters will follow him, star-spangled, to the ends of the constitution to get their mojo back.

Another 12 pointer

Another 12 pointer

by digby

…lead in the polls that is:

That’s from Democracy Corps which very accurately called the 2012.

They also have some advice for the down ballot candidates:

Overall, the current strategy of linking Republican candidates to Donald Trump and not opposing him produces the biggest overall shift down-ballot. That is an effective message and moves Republicans and independents.

But when Democrats echo the economic message that Clinton used in the debates – vowing to build an economy for everyone and raise taxes on the rich, in contrast with an opponent who wants more trickle-down economics – there is dramatically more consolidation with Democrats and the Rising American Electorate, particularly unmarried women and white unmarried women and millennials. There is room for more consolidation among Democrats down-ballot and at the top of the ticket and this economic message will help Democratic candidates get there.

So Obama has to be locked up too, naturally

So Obama has to be locked up too, naturally

by digby

We’re going to have to build more prisons for all of Trump’s political enemies:

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday that President Barack Obama must be investigated over a private email server Hillary Clinton used while secretary of state, saying Obama “knew all about” her email arrangements.

“That’s why he stuck up for Hillary, because he didn’t want to be dragged in. Because he knew all about her private server,” Trump said of the Democratic president in an interview with Reuters. “This means that he has to be investigated.”

Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival in the Nov. 8 election, was Obama’s first secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

Wikileaks on Tuesday released a batch of hacked emails from the account of Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, which showed her Democratic presidential campaign reacting after Obama said in a television interview that he learned of the private email server through news reports.

“We need to clean this up – he has emails from her – they do not say state.gov,” Cheryl Mills, a longtime Clinton aide, wrote in an email to Podesta after Obama made the comments in a March 2015 television interview.

Obama’s spokesman, Josh Earnest, clarified the remarks after the 2015 interview, saying that while the president had Clinton’s personal email address, which she used instead of government systems, he did not know details about its setup.

It’s tempting to think this is all funny stuff but it really isn’t. He’s introduced this idea that political rivals should be jailed and his yahoo followers don’t understand it as rhetorical excess. It’s going to be hard to wring this poison out of the body politic.

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Ivanka’s bad brand

Ivanka’s bad brand

by digby

I wonder if it’s going to recover:

Critics of Donald Trump are urging shoppers to boycott the clothing line of the Republican candidate’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and the stores that carry it.

San Francisco marketing specialist Shannon Coulter launched the #GrabYourWallets campaign after a video surfaced on Oct. 7 of Trump talking about groping women. Coulter told the Guardian she has experienced sexual harassment at work before and felt she needed to act.

“If Ivanka Trump had distanced herself from the campaign, I would not be boycotting her,” she said in an interview with the Guardian. “But something changed for me when that tape was released.”

Some Twitter users have expressed support.

Coulter also keeps a running Google Doc list of all the stores that sell the products. The stores include Nordstrom, DSW, Zappos, Amazon, Macy’s and several more. She also encourages others to call stores and ask if they sell the products, to keep the list growing.

I wouldn’t buy anything with her brand.  There are plenty of other’s selling similar stuff and plenty of other places in which to buy it.

By the way, they’ve decided to stop using the Trump brand for their new hotel licences. They’re calling it “Scion” in case you want to put that on your “never stay” list.

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QOTD: Lyin’ Kellyanne

QOTD: Lyin’ Kellyanne

by digby

She says they want more debates.


via GIPHY

We’re seeing some positive movement in some of the swing states. And I think some of the polls will tighten, John, because the debates are a very unique opportunity for all of America to see these candidates side by side and I wish there were more debates frankly. 

I think Donald Trump would challenge Hillary Clinton to another debate for a very simple reason I mean, unless you’re a money donor, you’re not going to have much access to Hillary Clinton out on the stump now and so, you have — to give people a free opportunity to see them side by side and really mix it up on the issue, to me is the purest for of democracy.

I’m a big fan of debates so I really feel like the country benefits from those type of forum and we’d be willing to do another one if they can squeeze it in.

Sure you would …

Donald Trump is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life

Donald Trump is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life

by digby

Ok, this is just scary. From Right Wing Watch:

Donald Trump-loving sycophant and ardent conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root was a guest on “The Real Side” radio show last week, where he told host Joe Messina that Trump has never groped a woman in his life, despite having been recorded bragging about doing so, because he is “one of the handsomest billionaires that’s ever lived” and has been sent by God to “save us all.”

Root rejoiced that Trump’s army of “deplorable” supporters have now taken over the GOP, warning that these “savages” are intent on burning Washington, D.C. to the ground.

“Donald Trump is a middle finger to Washington, D.C.,” Root crowed, before warning Christians that they cannot sit on the sideline in this election because Hillary Clinton and the Democrats “are coming to take our Bibles away.”

“If you’re a Christian, you just can’t spend your life worrying about the words of Donald Trump from 11 years ago,” Root said, “or what women he groped 30 years ago. I don’t believe any of it anyway. I believe Donald Trump is one of the handsomest billionaires that’s ever lived; I don’t think he ever had to grope a single woman ever. I think they threw themselves at him, so it’s all a lie.”

“The man isn’t a perfect Christian,” Root admitted, but he is “the perfect guy sent from God and from central casting to be the vicious guy we needed to save America, save capitalism, fight the Clinton crime cartel and save Christianity from these vicious, vicious people. They’re terrible, dirty people and a nice guy could have never won this war. Only a dirty player could win the war, so I think Donald’s the perfect guy, sent by God to fill the perfect role and save us all.”

Ok, it’s one thing to say Trump is the vicious, dirty guy sent by God to smite the evil Hillary Clinton. But to call him “one of the handsomest billionaires that’s ever lived?” That’s just plain crazy.

Getting the rogues riled up

Getting the rogues riled up

by digby


As he sinks further in the polls, Donald Trump is ratcheting up his insistence that the election is being rigged against him in every possible way. The media are all conspiring with “Crooked Hillary,” mass voter fraud is being plotted as we speak and the polls are all phony and designed to keep his voters from turning out on Election Day.

Last week in Colorado Springs he said:

Voter fraud is all too common, and then they criticize us for saying that. But take a look at Philadelphia, what’s been going on, take a look at Chicago, take a look at St. Louis. Take a look at some of these cities, where you see things happening that are horrendous.

You’ll notice he only mentions cities with large African-American populations. He’s not even trying to be subtle about it. And that could spell some trouble for his campaign and the Republican Party, which is under a consent decree that goes back to the early 1980s, when the Justice Department barred the GOP from “ballot security efforts” due to its unseemly habit of intimidating voters in minority areas. The RNC is prohibited from challenging voters at the polls through “caging” and other vote-suppression efforts without following a designated process.

The good news is that Trump’s organizing effort doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. The New York Times reportedthat much like the rest of his campaign it largely seems to be a “Potemkin effort.” Election officials in the cities and states he often cites as hotbeds of voter fraud report very few inquiries for volunteers to become poll watchers. But as election law expert Rick Hasen told the Washington Post, even if there’s no coordinated intimidation, one of the things this rhetoric can do is “get rogue people riled up. Trump sets the fuse and lets someone else do the explosion. It strikes me as a very dangerous thing to be suggesting, because it does lend itself to the possibility of violence at the polls.”

The Boston Globe reported on a few who said they planned to informally “observe”:

“I’m going to go, for sure,” said Steve Webb, a 61-year-old carpenter from Fairfield, Ohio. “I’ll look for … well, it’s called racial profiling. Mexicans. Syrians. People who can’t speak American. I’m going to go right up behind them. I’ll do everything legally. I want to see if they are accountable. I’m not going to do anything illegal. I’m going to make them a little bit nervous.”

On Monday it was “reported” by scam artist James O’Keefe that Hillary Clinton had personally ordered a man in a Donald Duck costume to taunt Trump at his rallies about “ducking” the release of his taxes. Trump spokesman Jason Miller released this statement:

Recent revelations surrounding Hillary Clinton’s corrupt campaign further illustrate that she will stop at nothing to secure the presidency. On a totally disqualifying act that is a violent threat to our democracy, Hillary Clinton directly involved herself in inciting violence directed at Trump supporters.

That is incredibly silly — we’re talking about a man in a Donald Duck costume — but it adds to the fury and sense of grievance Trump is stoking among his supporters, and that’s potentially dangerous.

He insists that Clinton is an illegitimate candidate because she is “guilty as hell” of unnamed federal crimes for which he promises to jail her if he wins the election, inspiring lusty chants of “Lock her up!” at all his rallies. Refrains of“Hang the bitch!” and “Kill her, kill her!” are heard as well. An adviser to the campaign even told a radio station Clinton should be shot for treason. (He remains in Trump’s good graces.)

The candidate himself has made some veiled threats from the podium in the past, suggesting that “Second Amendment people” might take matters into their own hands against Clinton should she win the election. He gins up their anger by suggesting that she plans to confiscate their firearms, which they are more than willing to believe. The far-right anti-government Oath Keepers published an essay last spring predicting “outright civil war” if Clinton wins because “the level of hatred among conservatives for that woman is so stratospheric.”

And if they weren’t agitated before, they surely are now after this dark dystopian rant from National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre’s “get out the vote” video. He spends the first few minutes relaying the horrors of the Obama years, including America’s surrender to ISIS and the ayatollahs, and then assures his members that it’s only going to get worse:

So feel free to mark my words: If, God forbid, Hillary Clinton is elected, she will launch an all-out war on the Second Amendment. She will come for your guns, she will attack your right to carry, she will attack your most basic right to defend your family with a firearm in your home. And she will continue the disastrous policies of this administration to their inevitable conclusion: the creation of a new, post-freedom America that you won’t even recognize.

There is no red line President Hillary Clinton will not cross when it comes to attacking your rights and forcibly taking your guns. She dreams of twisting a knife into the heart of the one freedom that separates us from the rest of the world. The only thing that can stop her is you. The NRA’s 5 million members are history’s most committed, most elite defenders of freedom. You are the Special Forces that swing elections, and I need you now more than ever.

Never accuse LaPierre of understating his point.

The truth is that most NRA members support the sensible gun regulations Clinton and the Democrats have proposed. But there is a large minority of zealots who are convinced by people like the paranoid LaPierre and the feckless Donald Trump that any regulation of guns is tantamount to a total ban. If they believe the election has been stolen through a conspiracy with the media and election officials to rig the results, some of them might get it into their heads that it’s their patriotic duty to do something about it.

Trump and his supporters’ loose talk goes way beyond normal campaign rhetoric, and it’s aimed directly at people who are armed to the teeth. It’s hard to imagine anything more irresponsible.

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A national exorcism by @BloggersRUs

A national exorcism
by Tom Sullivan

With apologies to Kenny Rogers, I woke up this morning with the sunrise shining in. For the first time in memory, the New York Times doesn’t have a Donald Trump story prominently on its landing page. Springtime for Donald is over.

The Washington Post’s “The Fix” (no irony there) declared Monday that “Donald Trump’s chances of winning are approaching zero.” Nevada moved from “toss up” to “lean Democratic.” Cillizza and Blake write, “We’re also moving Utah — yes, Utah! — from ‘lean Republican’ to “toss-up.” In their calculus, even Texas is now merely a “lean Republican” state.

Even Florida. Even private polls by Republican-leaning groups show Hillary Clinton’s “raw vote lead over Trump could end up being 275,000 to 460,000 votes.” Politico cites a conservative business leader from Florida this morning:

“This is in all reality a landslide in our great state,” Tyson wrote, echoing the concerns of numerous Florida Republican insiders and experts. “Based on his consistent failure to improve his standing with non-white voters, voters under 50 and females, it seems fairly obvious to us that Mr. Trump’s only hope left in Florida is a low turnout.”

November 8 is beginning to look less like an election and more like an exorcism. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren campaigned in New Hampshire yesterday beside Hillary Clinton and Senate candidate Maggie Hassan. Warren sounded as if she was ready to battle a demon:

“Nasty women have really had it with guys like you,” Warren said to Trump. “Get this Donald: Nasty women are tough, nasty women are smart. And nasty women vote!”

“And on November 8, we nasty women are going to march our nasty feet to cast our nasty votes to get you out of our lives forever!”

WHAP! Come OUT and be GONE!!

Frankly, a national exorcism is what’s needed on November 8. The rise of the alt-right has felt more like a descent, beginning with Trump descending that escalator in June 2015. Like Mussorgsky’s Chernobog calling forth wraiths and demons unto himself, Trump has unleashed the darkest impulses in the American psyche and proposes giving them rule of the night.

Given recent polling, many progressives unhappy with their presidential choices will be inclined even more, if they reside in safe, blue states, to cast some form of protest vote, believing their choice will send some inchoate message to the establishment and have no harmful effect on the Electoral College outcome. But the message their votes can and must send is that racism, religious intolerance, misogyny and bigotry are unacceptable in this country. It is not enough for Trump to lose and Clinton to win in the Electoral College. Decent Americans across all 50 states must deliver a crushing popular-vote defeat for Trumpism. It will not disappear overnight, of course. But with our votes November 8 we can send the wraiths and demons back underground to the darkness. Send a message as clear as a church bell.

(Early voting is already underway in Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Massachusetts, Texas, Wisconsin and some parts of Florida.)