Lynna is your curator. I don’t think this thread will run dry for a long time.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Lynna is your curator. I don’t think this thread will run dry for a long time.
Whoops. The link in 498 doesn’t work that well anymore.
Politico’s coverage</a< of the White House Correspondents’ dinner.
Excerpt:
Another anti-Clinton rant by Maureen Dowd , the NYT’s designated Clinton basher, full of half-truths, innuendo, and a longing for Trump.
I’m going to go ahead and say it: I think Trump’s going to win the election. Consider:
1. The US is freaking biased. Sure, a black guy got elected, but only because the economy was so terrible that people were willing to put aside their racism for a bit in the interests of not starving or becoming homeless. And it worked. The economy is better. Now people are likely to feel more free to return to their natural bias towards electing incompetent white men.
2. The whole western world seems to be getting more right wing. A number of parties, from Koch to Putin, are encouraging and funding this trend, but I am inclined to say that the major underlying cause is global warming and the changes that global warming has caused to the world economy. More natural disasters, more wars because of destabilized political situations related to changes in climate and therefore agricultural yields, etc. Then there’s terrorism. Never mind that al Qaeda is pretty much a direct result of Reagan’s intervention in Afghanistan and ISIL only exists because of Bush’s intervention in Iraq and that more of the same will only produce yet more terrorists, “strong” leaders like Trump make people feel better. Why else would Bush have gotten re-elected?
3. Trump is, in some ways, a tabula rosa. Oh, sure, he says stuff, but he says such random stuff that it’s hard to say what he would do if actually elected. So right wing people can fantasize that he’ll get the concentration camps going right away and the wall built the day after he’s sworn in while left wingers can imagine that he really has “New York values” and that his isolationism will make him less aggressive in terms of foreign policy than Clinton.
4. Back to terrorism again. Suppose things aren’t going well for Trump in, oh, say, September. His polls look sickly. He keeps up the crazy late night tweets. All he has to do is arrange a little explosion somewhere and he’s in. And how hard would it be for a man with violent supporters on the streets to arrange a little explosion and blame it on “terrorists”? Not at all.
5. I’ve noticed that even people on this board have gradually reclassified a Trump presidency from “worst possible outcome” to “really, not so bad”. See point 3 above. If this fairly well educated and sensible set of commentators is being influenced to that opinion, what are people who get their information from Fox news and CNN thinking about him?
Maybe it won’t be “so bad”. Maybe Trump’s only Berlosconi and not actually Hitler. But I’m keeping my cv current and considering my possibilities in New Zealand. Just in case.
The Maine State Senate has a Republican majority, but even Republicans sometimes cannot stomach Governor Paul LePage, a Tea Party doofus. (See comment 354 in the previous chapter of this thread for background.)
The good news:
Portland Press Herald link
tomh in comment 500 in the previous chapter referenced Maureen Dowd’s anti-Clinton latest column in which Dowd repeated some myths and some lies as if they were truth. Here’s just one example:
No, that’s not going to fly. Dowd is actually buying into a blatant lie told by Trump, expanded upon by Trump, and repeated hundreds of times by Trump. Still not true.
Link
Two very important corrections!
I don’t know how many times we’ve documented the wackos that support Ted Cruz. Dozens? Well, here’s another. Ted Cruz is adding Micah Clark to the list of anti-LGBT extremists who support him for president. The company Cruz keeps is appalling.
Here’s what Micah Clark said:
Here’s what Cruz said:
Sounds like typical political blather, right? The problem is Micah Clark’s record.
Link
Encouraging LGBT teenagers to seek ex-gay therapy is evil.
@BLF: I’ll say “fair enough” to correction #2. I didn’t mean to imply that everyone on the board held that view, but intent is not magic and I suppose I did. My bad.
As for correction #1, also fair, but the assertion came from the thread “#votebluenomatterwho” and from “Voting for Bernie” on Althian worldview. (Which is not Pharyngula, so I will also amend my original statement to say that it was on FTB, not Pharyngula in particular that gave me this impression. Again, my fault for being sloppy.)
Particularly choice quotes:
“Trump with a Democratic Congress (who is willing to hold him back) would be the best outcome. ” (VB#56)
“It is obvious that he [Trump] does not care about abortion rights, transgender rights, gay rights or any of these social stuff because there is no money, no gain for him. ” (VB#68) This commenter seems to think that Trump wouldn’t press for repeal of marriage rights, abortion rights, etc because they believe Trump’s social conservatism is not heart felt. I doubt that. Trump will do it for cheap political gain and because he’s a misogynist homophobe.
“And if nobody joins me, and America ends up electing someone like Trump, then maybe that’s the president we deserve.”(VfB, main document)
“What is really so scary about Trump anyways?” (VfB, #8)
I could go on, but dinner’s ready, so I’m going to stop documenting there.
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, co-host of “Morning Joe,” has made stupid and incorrect statements before. Most recently, he said that Hillary Clinton ordered others to send classified information to her private server. I hope he walks that back, and soon.
Link
The facts: Clinton never sent or received information marked classified on her private email. Among all the emails that have been released, several show members of Clinton’s State Department team talking to each other (emailing each other) about the fact that they can’t send classified information via email.
Clinton viewed classified info in hard-copy format in her office. When traveling she used other, secure channels and not email. Some info has been re-classified after the fact, a procedure that also applies to other ex-Secretaries of State, like Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell.
There are all kinds of judgement issues, and policy issues on which one can disagree with Clinton, but to have Republicans like Scarborough continually repeating lies is annoying.
dianne @6:
As my biology professor in college was fond of saying, the plural of “anecdote” isn’t “data.”
microraptor @8: Yeah, people keep saying that. But pithy and to the point and wrong in its implication. It all depends on what you’re trying to prove. If you’re trying to prove that X is the usual then it’s true: anecdote is useless. If you’re trying to prove that X exists then anecdote is sufficient. And there are people on FTB who are arguing that a Trump presidency would not be so bad.
But if you’re looking for a more data driven argument, how about this: Trump is now winning more than 50% of the vote in the primaries. Early on he was getting no more than 30-40% and there were claims that he was unlikely to get second line votes from people whose preferred candidate dropped out.
One of the interesting things in this election is that both the probable candidates have large “negatives”, that is, a large percentage of people who say that they would never vote for them no matter what. Whoever wins, it’s going to be a heck of a negative campaign because the winner is likely to be the one who can convince the voters that she/he should be less hated than the other.
The Governor of Virginia, a Democrat, restored voting rights to ex-felons in that state. Terry McAuliffe’s historic executive action would give voting rights back to about 206,000 citizens.
Republicans are outraged. They’re not going to let this go.
Richmond Times Dispatch link
There are racist roots behind denying ex-felons the right to vote.
The Atlantic link
Campaign news:
Indiana’s primary is tomorrow. Trump leads the Republican field in the polls, 49% to Cruz’s 34% and Kasich’s 13%. Clinton has a narrow lead over Sanders in Democratic polls, 50% to 46%.
Donald Trump’s poorly organized ground game caused him to lose during delegate-selection in yet another state. This is a pattern. Trump wins the state primary and then fails to followup when the state’s Republicans meet for the convention that selects delegates. Expect him to whine again because Ted Cruz outmaneuvered him. In Arizona Trump lost about 40 of the 55 delegate slots. In Virginia, same thing: Cruz took 10 of the 13 delegate slots. In Missouri, same thing: Cruz took 18 of 24 delegates. Trump just cannot seem to get his act together.
The Democratic candidates each raised about $26 million in April, and Clinton raised an additional $10 million for other democratic candidates running in state elections. Although this is a big drop for Sanders (almost 50% from the previous month), Sanders still has enough money to campaign in the remaining states, including California.
dianne @9:
You quoted a couple of comments on someone’s blog and claimed that it indicated a trend.
microraptor@12: Actually, when I re-read what I wrote, I more claimed it as a Bild-esque innuendo. So, if I accept that that was a lousy argument, overly influenced by personal experience without sound data backing, are you willing to address the fact that Trump is winning not just the plurality but the majority of votes in the most recent primary elections?
Donald Trump claims that Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, was with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before Oswald killed President John F. Kennedy. Trump’s claim is based on a National Enquirer story. The National Enquirer is a disreputable tabloid.
Meanwhile, Cruz is bringing up Trump’s battles with venereal disease:
Congratulations Republicans, you have turned the GOP primary into a skit from Saturday Night Live.
The quoted text of Trump speaking comes from a telephone interview on Fox News. The quote from Cruz comes from a rally in Indiana. It looks like Cruz is going to go down in flames in Indiana, losing to Trump by double digits today. After that, I predict he will eventually endorse Trump and will praise him for defeating all of those sexually-transmitted diseases.
By building a wall and carpet-bombing, I assume.
blf @15: ha, yeah.
Minimum wage news: This is good news, but I’m afraid that devious corporations will find a way around the recent Supreme Court decision not to hear a fast food industry lawsuit against Seattle. The lawsuit was intended to negate Seattle’s decision to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Think Progress link.
While trying to solve problems that don’t exist, rightwing conservatives create other problems.
Link
Disgraced coal baron Don Blankenship showed up to protest Hillary Clinton in West Virginia.
Link
One segment on Jimmy Kimmel’s “Live!” show featured more scientists discussing climate change than were seen all year on ABC’s evening news show “World News Tonight.”
To view the Kimmel segment, and read a partial transcript, see the Media Matters coverage.
dianne @13:
I’m confused now. I thought the claim was that most voter were supporting Trump now, not just most Republican voters.
A journalist recently postulated that we would soon see “Republican Women for Hillary” groups forming. LA Times link. We are already seeing some white males abandoning the Republican Party:
Politico link
A rightwing lawyer is advising governors to enforce abortion prohibitions even if those prohibitions have been deemed unconstitutional by the courts. Sheesh. How can a guy be a “Christian Reconstructionist” and a person with a law degree? Note the connection to Judge Roy Moore. There’s also a Ted Cruz connection.
Link
Today is primary voting day in Indiana. A record turnout is expected. So how did state officials prepare? They decided to keep polling sites open only until 6 p.m. And Indiana is not one of those states that requires employers to give employees time off to vote.
And thats not all. Like Arizona, the state severely cut the number of available polling sites. For example, in Wells County (the county with the highest turnout rate in Indiana) officials cut the number of voting sites from fifteen to five.
In addition to the built-in difficulties imposed by state officials, several other glitches have already surfaced.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/05/03/3774740/indiana-voting-issues/
State government in Indiana is dominated by Republicans, with Governor Mike Pence at the head.
Recent national polls have, for the first time, shown Trump breaking 50% support among Republican voters. That does not mean that Trump is the most popular presidential candidate overall. He is not the most popular choice nationwide. I think his 50% rating among Republicans is shaky.
In a head-to-head matchup with Hillary Clinton, five out of six polls show Clinton beating Trump. Two polls show Clinton beating Trump by double digits. The average of all six polls shows Clinton beating Trump by 6.2 points. All of these polls will change over time. In other words, this is a snapshot of the race now.
A lot will change after the nominees of the two major parties are selected.
Latest headline. Cruz has dropped out meaning, Trump is the GOP nominee.
I really don’t know what to say. I’ve been working on survival plans for a while now. We non-Trumpists (AKA normal people) will be the new Doomsday Preppers.
Donald Trump won in Indiana. Ted Cruz suspended his campaign, but he also gave a long speech in which he sort of proclaimed himself as the leader of the conservative “movement” in the coming years.
I’ll report percentages tomorrow because we still don’t have all of the Indiana vote counted. However, it does look like Trump won by at least 15 points. Republican officials are now calling Trump the “presumptive nominee.” Trump has been provisionally awarded 45 Indiana delegates out of 57.
The Indiana contest for Democrats is still too close to call, but Bernie Sanders is leading right now.
This is a followup to comment 28.
Sanders is now the projected winner on the Democratic side of the Indiana primary. The Democratic race was close enough that it make little difference in the delegate counts of the two candidates. so far 42 Democratic delegates have been awarded to Sanders; and 36 have been awarded to Clinton. This brings Clinton’s delegate count to 2,201; and Sanders has 1,399 delegates.
On the Republican side, it looks like Trump will get all 57 delegates from Indiana.
Percentages associated with the Indiana primary vote:
Trump 53.2%
Cruz 36.6%
Katich 7.6%
Sanders 52.4%
Clinton 47.6%
I give these polls some credibility, but not much, for the following reasons:
1. A lot of US-Americans just haven’t thought about it yet. Asking them who they would vote for for president is like asking me who I think should win the NBA’s player of the year award (is there even any such thing? pretend there is for now): If given a selection of names, I’d probably pick the one I thought sounded the best, since I have no idea at all who they actually are. I think (many) US voters are responding to election polls in the same way. Remember the infamous “30% of people think Cruz might be the Zodiac Killer” poll? That suggests that people just don’t know who these people are yet.
OTOH, if the “average US-American” (whoever she is) knows one Republican candidate, it is Trump. If she knows on Democratic candidate, it is Clinton. So the polls have more validity than a poll asking whether people would vote for Sanders or Cruz (who and who?) would. Sanders, I fear, is leading in Sanders versus R polls because people don’t know who he is yet. When they do start to think about it, who will they choose?
2. IIRC, at this point in the election, Dukakis was leading. Kerry was leading. Gore was leading, though that hardly counts given that he won. There is a lot of time between now and the election for the Republicans to throw mud. Inevitably some of it will stick. This is where, again, Clinton may actually have an advantage: She has been slimed by the Republicans and Democrats for so long that she’s probably at least internally resistant and probably everyone who is going to think less of her for (Benghazi, her health care reform, not divorcing Bill, being a baby eating lesbian, being a Republican, whatever else people can come up with) already does so. There may not be much room for the Republicans to corrupt her image further. Also, she’s demonstrated that she can handle it and come out looking like the only adult in DC. Probably a better practical choice than Sanders who has been relatively protected from that sort of thing by his gender.
3. People tend to lie in polls if they think their choice is not socially acceptable. But in the voting booth, they’ll do what they want. So Trump may well do better than the polls say.
Has someone posted this already? The Economist considers the election of Trump to be one of the greatest risks to the world at the present. It is actually rated above the risk of jihadist terrorism in terms of threat.
Cross posted from the “Cruz quits” thread.
Taking a realistic look at Bernie Sanders’ path to the Democratic nomination:
Link
Bernie Sanders ended up with 52.7% of the vote in Indiana; Clinton took 47.3% of the vote. Sanders has 43 Indiana delegates. Clinton has 37.
Looking only at the pledged delegate totals so far:
Clinton has 1,682
Sanders has 1,361
The number of delegates needed for the nomination is 2,383
Adding the super delegates to the candidates’ total delegate counts so far:
Clinton has 2,202
Sanders has 1,400
In the popular vote recorded so far in the primaries, Clinton holds a 3.1 million person lead over Sanders. Link
A bigger problem might be turnout for the general election. The Democratic nominee (whoever that is) needs to start worrying about turnout. So far, in state after state the Republican turnout has shown big increases over the primary voter turnout in 2012; conversely, the Democratic turnout has been lower in state after state (Bernie’s enthusiastic supporters have not increased turnout).
John Kasich is suspending his campaign. He will make the official announcement at 5:00 p.m. ET, or so all the media reports claim. The news seems to come directly from Kasich’s campaign staff.
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/john-kasich-suspend-presidential-campaign-n567901
Tweets from Rachael Maddow:
New Jersey is one of the states that will vote soon in the presidential primary race. In that state, current polls show Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders 60% to 32%.
A new Siena poll shows Clinton leading Trump in a general election match-up, 56% to 30%.
Bobby Jindal, the former governor of Louisiana and a former Republican presidential candidate, once described Trump as “an unserious, unstable, narcissistic egomaniac.” Yesterday, Jindal said that he will vote for Trump.
In other news, the looming possibility of an all-Trump-all-the-time Republican nomination for President, (which some people say increases Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will not be moved. He intends to maintain his obstruction to Merrick Garland’s appointment to the Supreme Court. McConnell thinks Trump will win. The only conclusion one can come to is that McConnell thinks it is a good idea to let Donald Trump shape the Supreme Court. [shudder]
Donald Trump says that Ben Carson is going to help pick a Vice Presidential candidate for him.
Trump needs some kind of help, but I don’t think he’ll get it from Ben Carson.
Here’s Trump rambling about a gaffe he made when discussing abortion:
Very Sarah Palinesque of you, Donald.
Link
Holy shit. Millions upon millions of people want this to be their president.
theoretical
rhetorical
academic
You keep using those words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.
That assumes (1) Something resembling a logical thought process is operating; and (2) There isn’t a severe case of Obama Derangement Syndrome.
If you haven’t already seen the photograph, then you should, Woman who defied 300 neo-Nazis at Swedish rally speaks of anger:
I don’t know enough about Ozland politics to “get” many of the details / references in this First Dog on the Moon, but it’s clear “Australia’s only Walkley award-winning marsupial-based cartoonist” is not too impressed, If this budget was a tomato in a shop you would leave it there, it is a bad tomato (cartoon): “Budget 2016 is a tinkering around the edges budget. It is a beige curtain in a funeral home of a budget.”
Perhaps the best panel: “They cut so much out of everything before and now they are putting tiny bits of it back. I think the idea seems to be that Australia should be grateful the government has stopped punching it in the head.”
Do any of our English language mavens want to attempt to diagram that sentence? Thought not.
blf @40, that’s a great photo. I couldn’t help thinking that it was a good thing Tess Ashland was not at a Trump rally.
In other news about civil rights and about people standing up against bigotry, we should have a monument to the gay rights struggle soon.
Washington Post link
I propose a contest: Submit your pick for The Donald’s perfect running mate, and the reasons for your choice. The winner will be decided by popular acclaim. The prize is the sweet knowledge that you are the snarkiest hordling on the ‘net.
The U.S. Department of Justice told Governor Pat McCrory of North Carolina that his anti-LGBT law violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/department-justice-north-carolina-hb2-violates-civil-rights-act
Morgan!?
Using googltranslate, I translated that Trump quote into Japanese and back again.
I hope this makes it clearer.
—
Does the runnning mate need to be alive?
or a real person?
Morgan @44, Trump needs someone who knows more than he does about foreign policy, but we know he doesn’t want to be shown up too much, plus he likes shapely women. I suggest that Trump choose Kim Kardashian as his V.P.
She has boobs, and she knows the top fashion designers in all of the world’s nations. Trump could claim that naming Kim shows how much he loves and respects women. The two candidates would understand each other because they are both into hair and makeup, they are both reality TV stars, and they have huge numbers of social media followers. In fact, Kim, has more followers than Trump. It’s a no-brainer.
chigau @ 46, I kinda like the Japanese translation better. More melodic, methinks. And no, the proposed perfect need not be alive, or even human. Have at it.
Lynna, amazing. Kim Kardashian was my first pick.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign released her first anti-Trump, general election ad. It’s good, and it’s sneaky. The ad relies entirely on unkind things famous Republicans have said about Trump.
Mother Jones link. Video is available at the link.
Trump running mate:
Gríma Wormtongue
@ #49
Count on Republicans to do likewise with quotes from Sanders. “Unqualified” will be repeated ad nauseam.
chigau, well done. Here is my fav description from Wikipedia
I was going to suggest Iago as the Trump’s running mate but is he suitably evil enough?
Morgan @44:
Like I said on Facebook: Trump/Shkreli 2016.
Tony! @ 54: Excellent! Needs no explanation.
Tony! #54
I think I would need an electron microscope to find a shred of ethics or guilt in that ticket.
Not scared enough by President Trump?
In an interview with Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” the presumptive GOP nominee says he’d consider naming former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani secretary of homeland security, Gov. Chris Christie attorney general and Dr. Ben Carson secretary of health and human services.
I think you’re being overly optimistic. For something to be visible on an electron microscope, it has to actually exist. You can’t find unicorns, god, or Trump’s ethics with an electron microscope.
At least then there’d be a successful businessperson on the ticket.
In teh trum-prat’s rent-seeking worldview, the vice-loon is his to hire and fire (and insult) as he pleases. And to blame when he looses the election. So any “running mate” won’t be himself, despite his ego and stupidity being large enough for two positions, but — if he has a “running-mate” — a lackey, who (in his mind) can be fired as soon as The Rest of the Universe tells teh wazzock to feck off.
We know the thugs don’t bother with considerations like being a sensible president if something happens (Palin, Quayle, Agnew, …), and teh trum-prat won’t accept anybody who is more competent than him (which means just about everybody and everything, including the rotten banana I threw out this morning).
A look at the few people known to be interested (Christie, as one example) confirms it’s already a scrapping-bottom-of-corroded-barrel-of-toxic-sludge “process”. (The International New York Times had an article a few days about about the rather large number of thugs who have publicly, or all-but-publicly, said “NO!“, some even more emphatically than that.)
Oh Good Grief! A pigeon (Aerial rattus) just flew into the house and can’t seem to find the way back out. I wonder if it’s auditioning for role…
dianne, #59
Damn.
I am posting links and comments about the hacker “Guccifer” on the “The next six months are going to be entertaining” thread.
The subject is Hillary Clinton’s email server, and the fact that rightwing media is running amok with unproven claims.
Seth Meyers produced a segment that focused on Trump as the presumptive Republican candidate for president:
Salon link. Video and a partial transcript are available at the link.
In the past, Trump has not been as rabidly anti-abortion as anti-abortion activists would like. To make up for that, Trump named a new advisor, total dunderhead John Mashburn:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-anti-abortion-general-election
Republican representatives in the House of Congress proposed an “improving child nutrition” bill to take food away from 3.4 million children.
Link
CBPP research link.
Washington Post link.
A female artist, Illma Gore, was punched in the face by a Trump supporter. Her crime? She painted Donald Trump naked. Daily Kos link.
From an interview on Fusion:
Photos of the damage done by the punch are available at the Daily Kos link.
What won’t Trump stoop to? The list is getting shorter. He is currently pretending to eat taco bowls in order to suck up to Hispanics, while at the same time, he is advertising restaurants in Trump Tower.
Trump posted a photo of himself with a taco bowl and the tweet:
Trump Grill does not have taco bowls on the menu. Trump Café does offer taco bowls. In case you want to eat Tex-Mex food at Trump Tower, now you know.
Today, President Obama commuted the sentences of 58 federal prisoners. These were prisoners convicted of drug crimes, and some were serving life sentences.
The Hill link
So, in the existentially terrifying scenario that Trump actually does manage to get elected in November, who do you think will be his choices for members of his cabinet?
My guess for Secretary of Defense is Joe Arpaio.
I’m also sure he’d appoint Alex Jones to something, but I’m not sure what. Probably Department of Homeland Security or the CIA.
My god! I see it all now. It’s so clear and yet we missed it.
The danger isn’t Trump. It isn’t even Cruz. It’s Kasich!
Kasich’s strategy is clear: He stays in the race, despite clearly never having a path to victory. His motive? To establish himself as “the sane one”, in contrast to Cruz and Trump. His long campaign gives him recognition that, say, Chris Christie or Jeb Bush now lack because of their early dropping out. Yet Kasich, despite being “the sane one” in the media’s eyes, is also acceptable to the right wing because of his anti-choice views and economy destroying economic policy. In short, he’d be a perfect VP for Trump: moderate for the moderates, right wing for the right wingers, a politician for those worried about Trump’s lack of experience, a “gray” personality who will not compete with Trump’s flamboyance and threaten his ego. Yes, a perfect candidate.
Then, the convention. Trump makes his yuge and very presidential acceptance speech and announces that his VP will be Kasich. Kasich graciously accepts. They’re standing on stage together, the perfect photo op (for those with a taste for photos of really ugly white men) when a shot rings out. Trump is killed on national television! Kasich, poor martyred Trump’s blood still on his shirt, gives a rousing speech about not giving in to terrorism, completing the quest, freedom, and AM-ER-I-CA over all! He wins every state but New York and DC. The house and senate turn bright red on his coattails.
Then, Kasich shows his true colors by building Trump’s wall, gutting the NIH, overturning the ACA and Roe v Wade, and sending “terrorists” to camps by the trainload. The US’s press freedom index drops below that of Viet Nam and Venezuela. Life expectancy drops to 50. No one even notices that there isn’t an election in 2020.
Okay, so maybe this is actually the plot of The Manchurian Candidate. You’ve got to admit, it would make a lot of sense.
Regarding a vice presidential pick for Trump, how about Rick Perry? He has already rolled over.
In July, Perry said:
Yesterday Perry said,
Kasich may be out of the running:
Jeb Bush’s team responded to inquiries about a vice presidential slot with, “Hahahahahahahahaha.”
More on Trump’s V.P. pick:
WMTW Portland link.
Actually, LePage would take any job in a Trump Administration.
Yeah, that Paul LePage. See comment 4.
“Your opponents deserve the delicious schadenfreude of watching the Hindenberg-level disaster that a LePage Senate campaign will deliver,” reads a new MoveOn.org petition.
The job growth records for April were good but not great. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 160,000 jobs were added. March was the 67th consecutive month of positive job growth (the best job growth record since 1939), and it was also the 74th consecutive month of private-sector job growth (the longest on record).
What do you think Republicans will make of that?
President Obama told this joke during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner:
Yesterday, Trump was interviewed on Fox News:
Yes, Trump does think that running beauty pageants gives him foreign policy experience.
Rachel Maddow performs anti-Trump Republican anguish as poetry.
Rachel Maddow discusses the risk of Democrats being overconfident in assessing their chances against Trump in the General Election.
Rachel Maddow points out that Trump has turned to the dark side when it comes to choosing a campaign finance chairman for his general election campaign.
Legislators in Missouri think a zygote should have the same constitutional rights as adult human beings.
Link
But children have fewer rights than adults so do you lose rights at birth?
Also, what industry can an embryo engage in and how is it able to enjoy the fruits of said industry?
OMG, ignorance. Trumpian ignorance. Trump threatened to default on U.S. debt and to crash the global economy.
CNBC link.
That won’t work Mr. Trump. U.S. debt does not work the same way that your real estate developer debt works.
http://www.vox.com/2016/5/6/11607464/trump-haircut-default-debt
Trump also suggested that Puerto Rico declare bankruptcy, but that is illegal. Trump tried to apply his basically unethical but legal business skills to the government of Puerto Rico. Doesn’t work.
Lindsey Graham talks about Donald trump:
Good news: Sadiq Khan was elected mayor of London. He is the first Muslim to serve in that post. He replaces a dunderhead who was sort of like a U.K. version of Trump.
Hmmm. If Trump becomes president of the U.S., he would ban Sadiq Khan from entering the country. Or maybe Trump would make an exception for Khan, similar to the exceptions Trump told us he would make for him Muslim friends in Dubai.
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2016/05/06/3776249/khan-voted-first-muslim-mayor-of-london/
What happens when Trump refuses to disavow or to disagree with his supporters on the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer? The neo-Nazi’s celebrate:
Media Matters link
This is a followup to comment 79.
Josh Marshall, editor of Talking Points Memo, weighed in Trump’s idea that he would reduce the national debt by having bond holders accept “haircuts.” Excerpts below (emphasis mine).
Dick Cheney says he will support Trump as the GOP nominee. Fellow torture enthusiasts flocking together.
Why does a university endorse a presidential candidate? That seems un-university-like to me. But that’s what conservative christian Liberty University did. The evangelical school endorsed Donald Trump for president.
Not all of the university’s board members agree. Mark DeMoss, public affairs executive, resigned because he does not agree with Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr.
Religion News Service link
A trial in which Trump will be required to testify has been postponed until after the November election.
Link
Rachel Maddow interviewed Bernie Sanders yesterday. Here is a link to one of the segments. The segment begins with coverage of protestors at a Clinton rally in California.
From the the link above, you can choose to watch the other interview segments as well.
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore earned this suspension from the bench. His anti-gay activism is catching up with him.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/roy-moore-alabama-removal-bench
I would like to see Roy Moore removed from office.
Donald Trump decided to insult Elizabeth Warren some more. Trump’s new adjective to describe Warren is “Goofy.” Warren is standing up to the bully.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-elizabeth-warren-twitter-222923
A few excerpts from Trump’s tweets:
A few excerpts from Warren’s tweets:
Warren’s criticism of Trump on Wednesday was that his campaign is founded in “racism, sexism, and xenophobia.” She pointed out that Trump has more solid support from KKK leaders than from leaders of the Republican party.
Wonkette is always a good read. Here’s her take on the issue of “FBI Obviously In The Tank For Dirty Email Criminal Hillary Clinton”
In case you can’t tell, the title is satire.
This is a followup to comments 79 and 83.
Chris Hayes and David Cay Johnston discussed Trump’s comments about how he would reduce U.S. debt. This is excellent. 6:34 minutes that totally explain what is wrong with Trump’s approach.
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trumponomics-681111619892
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/the-conspirator-in-chief-680407619564
The video is 7:07 minutes.
In order to promote themselves, a soccer team from Argentina produced a promotional video that mocks Donald Trump. The video is just over 1 minute long. Funny and well-done.
Daily Kos link
Trump recently told an NBC host that he was going to run a dignified, high-level general election campaign. He said he would be fair to Clinton if she was fair to him. He said he would focus on the issues.
Here’s some of what he said yesterday at a rally in Oregon:
Here’s an updated delegate count for the Democratic candidates:
Hillary Clinton: 2,229
Bernie Sanders: 1,453
If you only take into account the pledged delegates:
Hillary Clinton: 1,706
Bernie Sanders: 1,414
This somewhat reminds me of teh crud’s plan to finance the government by taxing itself, Zimbabwe to print local ‘US dollar’ to ease severe cash crunch:
Not entirely tongue-in-cheek, Mugabe is probably annoyed his portrait wasn’t chosen to replace Jackson. (Yes, he really is that much of a megalomaniac!)
Ozland is having an election sometime soon, so First Dog on the Moon offers this handy primer, Everything you need to know about the Australian election brought to you by Snitty the Cassowary (cartoon): “Australia is going to the polls! Here’s everything you need to know with Guardian Australia’s senior psephological correspondent, Snitty the Cassowary”.†
† “The Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is a prehistoric death bird that kills people.”
Trump talks about science, sort of:
Quoted text above is from an interview with the Business Insider.
Space Policy link
Trump is a prime example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Excerpts from President Obama’s commencement speech at Howard University:
C-Span link
The “Church Lady” made a appearance on Saturday Light Live. Lucifer in the flesh (Taran Killam as Ted Cruz) and an “orange mannikin,” or “tangerine tornado” (Darell Hammond as Donald Trump) appeared with Church Lady.
Scroll down for the video.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-cruz-spar-satan-snl