Il Douché and His Discontents: The 2016 Primary Voting Thread, Part 4

Maybe this is more significant than I realize, but when Trump always brings up grand-marshalling a parade, it reminds me of Palin talking about her PTA experience as a qualification.

"i've studied this deal more than anyone else" <dismissive laughter from the crowd> "believe me. beeeelieve me."

Maybe this is more significant than I realize, but when Trump always brings up grand-marshalling a parade, it reminds me of Palin talking about her PTA experience as a qualification.

superficially on a different scale but romney's saving-the-olympics bullet point always felt in this class to me.

positing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as akin to a real estate deal is p gross imo

he's v scripted and in behaving himself / trying to act like an adult mode

"Believe me, believe me, believe me...I get the feeling no one believes me."

calling I/P a real estate deal is a kinda super cynical realpolitik take on the situation but it's not v complete. i remember seeing a few years ago polling that showed that israeli + palestinian support for a final deal shot up when provisions like "israel will apologize for the nakba" or "palestine will acknowledge israel is a jewish state" were added, which suggests that the land piece - as serious as it is - is not enough.

yeah I think the non-land-related issues are p essential

I keep thinking that he's not as stupid as he sounds -- that when we wins the nomination he'll study. Bush sounded relatively legible by 2003, and Trump was a better businessman.

dropped a "ivanka is, maybe as we speak, about to have a jewish baby." i don't understand how david duke could possibly watch this and feel like he made the right endorsement.

"ivanka is, maybe as we speak, about to have a jewish baby."

*gag*

Duke takes what he can get

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/us/politics/republican-democratic-voters-poll.html?smid=tw-bna&_r=0

"My colleague Lindsay Graham...I know, I know--we worked some stuff out."

"colleague"?!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/03/21/i-asked-trump-a-policy-question-then-he-called-me-beautiful/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/03/21/a-transcript-of-donald-trumps-meeting-with-the-washington-post-editorial-board/

disgusting that the wapo insists on colluding w trump in obvious fiction "hope hicks"

sad lol when the first thing Sanders mentions about Palestinian suffering is their employment rate. can't say he's not consistent.

I’d work on spirit because the spirit is so low, it’s incredible, the unemployment, you look at unemployment for black youth in this country, African American youth, is 58-59 percent. It’s unthinkable. Unemployment for African Americans – not youth, but African Americans – is very high. And I would create in the inner cities, which is what I really do best, that’s why when I open a building and I show you it’s way ahead of schedule, under budget and everything else—I think it was the Rite Aid store, the store in Baltimore it took them 20 years to get it built, one store, and then it burned down in one night—we have to create incentives for people to love what they are doing, and to make money.

dog trumpet

sad lol when the first thing Sanders mentions about Palestinian suffering is their employment rate. can't say he's not consistent.

That was striking to me too!

And I would create in the inner cities, which is what I really do best, that’s why when I open a building and I show you it’s way ahead of schedule, under budget and everything else—I think it was the Rite Aid store

amazing sentence

http://www.disneyclips.com/imagesnewb/images/cliptiggerhappy.gif

"Buildin' inner thitiez ith what Tiggers do betht! WOOHOOHOO!"

CNN's got one-on-one interviews with all five candidates airing right now. They just cut to a commercial, and as they glided past Trump standing waiting for his turn, I don't think I've ever seen a politician look more Napoleonesque in the way he was standing. I suppose it should have been an unsettling image, but I just burst out laughing.

the online nazis in the usual places are in deep mourning about trump's speech today

the whole libel laws/protesters section in that wapo transcript is surreal reading but associate editorial page editor jo-ann armao is my hero today

HIATT: But your answer is you condone violence when the guy is really egregious and terrible?

TRUMP: No, I condone strong law and order. I’ll tell you what they —

HIATT: Rip him out of his seat, punch him in the face, isn’t that violent?

TRUMP: Well he punched other people.

HIATT: No, I understand that.

TRUMP: Fred, he punched other people. He was punching people. He was — one guy was, you know, I’d like to say —

JO-ANN ARMAO, ASSOCIATE EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR: The Fayetteville protester who was sucker punched — he didn’t punch anyone —

TRUMP: No.

ARMAO: He was being escorted from police, and he was sucker punched.

TRUMP: No. When are you talking about? When?

ARMAO: In Fayetteville.

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, TRUMP 2016 CAMPAIGN MANAGER [to Trump]: North Carolina.

TRUMP: I don’t know. I don’t know which one.

ARMAO: Yes you do.

TRUMP: I don’t know. Because we’ve had so many —

ARMAO: That’s the gentleman you said you were going to look into to see whether or not to pay his legal fees.

TRUMP: Oh well that’s a different — that’s different from the one I’m talking about.

TRUMP: Well he punched other people.

HIATT: No, I understand that.

TRUMP: ...I always say we have to be unpredictable. We’re totally predictable. And predictable is bad. Sitting at a meeting like this and explaining my views and if I do become president, I have these views that are down for the other side to look at, you know. I hate being so open. I hate when they say — like I said get rid of the oil, keep the oil, different things over the years, when people are saying what would you do with regard to the Middle East, when we left — We should have never been in Iraq. It was a horr- it was one of the worst decisions ever made in the history of our country. We then got out badly, then after we got out, I said, “Keep the oil. If we don’t keep it Iran’s going to get it.” And it turns out Iran and ISIS basically—

HIATT: How do you keep it without troops, how do you defend the oil?

TRUMP: You would… You would, well for that– for that, I would circle it. I would defend those areas.

HIATT: With U.S. troops?

TRUMP: Yeah, I would defend the areas with the oil.

just fire oil at the enemy, that'll show'em

I always say we have to be unpredictable. We’re totally predictable. And predictable is bad.

shades of nixon playing chicken w sac

HIATT: I’d like to come back to the campaign. You said a few weeks ago after a family in Chicago gave some money to a PAC opposing you, you said, “They better watch out. They have a lot to hide.” What should they watch out for?

...

TRUMP: Well, it means that I’ll start spending on them. I’ll start taking ads telling them all what a rotten job they’re doing with the Chicago Cubs. I mean, they are spending on me. I mean, so am I allowed to say that? I’ll start doing ads about their baseball team. That it’s not properly run or that they haven’t done a good job in the brokerage business lately.

RYAN: Would you do that while you are president?

TRUMP: No, not while I am president. No, not while I’m president. That is two phases.

Right now, look, you know, I went to a great school, I was a good student and all. I am an intelligent person. My uncle, I would say my uncle was one of the brilliant people. He was at MIT for 35 years. As a great scientist and engineer, actually more than anything else. Dr. John Trump, a great guy. I’m an intelligent person. I understand what is going on.

Is it just me or does that WaPo transcript seem like the first time he's actually been confronted on his views by someone other than a TV news hack too chickenshit to follow up?

tough hardball questioners like Ruth Marcus

TRUMP: I don’t want people to go around thinking that I have a problem. I’m telling you, Ruth, I had so many people. I would say 25, 30 people would tell me … every time I’d shake people’s hand, “Oh, you have nice hands.” Why shouldn’t I? And, by the way, by saying that I solved the problem. Nobody questions … I even held up my hands, and said, “Look, take a look at that hand.”

MARCUS: You told us in the debate ….

TRUMP: And by saying that, I solved the problem. Nobody questions. Everyone held my hand. I said look. Take a look at that hand.

and i'm pretty sure likud considers the gaza withdrawal a disaster so

talkin' bout Ariel's greatest hits of Sabra and Shatila

could you plz call the next one of these the Trump thread? just to avoid confusion.

HIATT: How do you keep it without troops, how do you defend the oil?

TRUMP: You would… You would, well for that– for that, I would circle it. I would draw a circle around it and say, hey, this is our oil. Leave it alone.

TAKE A LOOK AT THIS HAND
IT'S PASSING IN BETWEEN US

again

TRUMP: Well he punched other people.

HIATT: No, I understand that.

cool of Hillary to run to the right of Trump on Israel.

it's how you prove you're "serious"

AIPAC: Well Palestine punched other people

CLINTON: No, I understand that

I was just thinking earlier that, if faced with the Sophie's choice, I would (god help me) take a third term of W. over Trump. And now I'm reading that transcript and thinking, as much as W. often came across like he'd abused a few too many substances during his lost years, Trump often sounds as if he's in the midst of a severe brain event. Trump is so good at elevating regard for other turds just by perpetually being the smelliest one in the room.

if Trump managed to be elected, his entrance interview would be "The permanent govt is making the decisions; go along, or three killshots to the hair."

As a general rule, anytime someone tries to hammer home a self-description ad infinitum, I'm deeply inclined to believe the polar opposite. Yes, please tell us more about how intelligent you are, Donald. And more about this intelligent uncle, because apparently that shit works by way of familial osmosis now? I'd previously thought I was wildly unqualified for any kind of political office but I'm descended from a former Secretary of State so maybe all I need to do is just start telling people what a sensational politician I am and it will become so. People tell me my hands are amazing, too, all the time. Such amazing hands.

my uncle is so amazing, he's going to be so intelligent

The guy basically comports himself like a cross between the kleptocrat King of some nowhere nation, some cartoonishly vain mob boss and the drunk guy holding court at the party who does nothing but boast about dumb shit. "How big is your yacht? Really, that's pretty big. I mean, not as big as my yacht. It's a tremendous yacht. Just tremendous. It gets me all the women, all the power. What's that? Did you say I - did you say something about my yacht? What's that? Nothing? Yeah, that's fucking right, you said nothing. Vito, get this asshole out of here. Get him out!!! And where are the dancers? Where are the fucking dancers!!! I want the fucking dancers to start fucking dancing right fucking now!!! You know, fuck the dancers. Fuck 'em. No, I - you heard me! No fucking dancers! I'm getting the fuck out of here. Vito, get my car. What's th - where are we going? What do you mean, where are we going. Don't fucking ask me where I'm going, I'll fucking tell you when we get there, you fucking ape! Where would you all be without me? Huh? Fucking working the checkout at the fucking supermarket with all the rest of the morons. You should be thanking me for giving me a job. Thanking me! Wait, what? What are you doing? Stop fucking thanking me, you fucking morons! Get off the floor! Jesus fucking Christ, I've got a headache. A huge fucking headache. Vito, run me a bath! Jesus, my head, it hurts to think for all you idiots at once. Vito! Don't just stand there, get the fucking bath ready! Fucking morons ..."

I actually really noticed the mob-boss angle in the CNN interview tonight. He was expressing a kind of theatrical exasperation over something at one point--maybe withdrawing NATO support--and he threw his arms out and gave what-for like he was in Goodfellas: "They wouldn't be happy about it? So they wouldn't be happy about it--what do you want me to do? Now go fuck your mother."

Go get your shinebox

Anderson Cooper asked Bernie if he thought the Cuban revolution was a good thing and Bernie accused him of red-baiting. Nice.