Buttload of Faith: the 2016 Presidential Primary Thread (Pt 2)

We the People are on the brink of replacing the entrenched powers and their monied interests.

I had no idea Facebook, Google, Microsoft at all were in such bad shape

et al

Speaking of bass solos, how great would this campaign be if there was a talent competition?

also a swimsuit competition

you should also be able to win prizes by watching

living together in a decrepit Big Brother house

with daily video diaries

TRUUUUE STORRYYYYYY

I'm in awe over that Scott Adams article

Warning: If you continue reading this post, it will likely change your mind about the upcoming election. Regular readers know I’m a trained hypnotist. This is not a joke. If you keep reading, you will be persuaded, if not today, perhaps later, when it sinks in.

I will start my persuasion by reminding you that I wrote a book {....}

SPOILER - instead of electing ONE guy no one likes, we can elect THREE!

Trump hashed out his bitter feud with Fox tonight...on Fox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBjoe5Frz6Q

Tomorrow, Trump will go out into the middle of 5th avenue in NYC and shoot someone, and we'll forget all about this silly debate thingy.

He will then declare the guy he shoots a wounded warrior, and on Friday he'll host an event in his honour; by Saturday he will be polling around 60%.

I don't think Josh Marshall is nearly as smart as he thinks he is, but this analysis of Trump blowing off tonight's debate is interesting and perceptive.

Trump's comment about Jeb's being "weak", "low energy", "pitiful" ... these are demeaning and denigrating phrases. They seem frankly gross, with an emotional tenor we'd expect from street toughs or frat boys trash talking each other. It's raw and primal and all about dominating by denigrating. But what has really hurt Bush is not so much that Trump is calling him names. It's that Trump has used these attacks to demonstrate that Jeb is unable or unwilling to defend himself. Trump hits him and Jeb takes it. His responses are hapless and weak and generally meaningless. You probably barely remember them. The impact of this is not tied to Trump calling Bush "weak." Trump is engineering encounters that show that Bush is weak.

In an election dominated by national security, this kind of demonstration of power and dominance has a profound impact. That is why the 'Swift Boat' attacks in the 2004 presidential election were so devastating. Whether anybody really believed all these slurs and claims about John Kerry wasn't really the point. What was deadly was his seeming inability to defend himself.

...

Trump doesn't apologize. He hurts people and they go away. He says things that would kill a political mortal (ban members of an entire religion from entering the country) and yet he doesn't get hurt. Virtually everything Trump has done over the last six months, whether it's a policy proposal or personal attack, has driven home this basic point: Trump is strong. He does things other people can't.

This is why Trump has so shaken up and so dominated the GOP primary cycle, at least thus far. As I've said, this kind of dominance symbolism is pervasive in GOP politics. It's not new with Trump at all. Most successful Republican politicians speak this language. And yet somehow for most it is nonetheless a second language. But it's Trump's native language. I still believe it's rooted in the mix of the hyper-aggressive New York real estate world, his decades of immersion in the city's febrile tabloid culture and just being, at the most basic level, a bully. Wherever it comes from, he seems to intuitively get that for this constituency and at this moment just demonstrating that he gets his way, always, is all that really matters. Policy details, protecting the candidate through careful press releases and structured media opportunities ... none of that matters. Trump doesn't kiss babies. Babies kiss him. He doesn't have a billionaire backer; he is a billionaire. Trump doesn't ask for support. He just tells you that you need to stop being a loser and get on board.

So this debate power play is all of a piece. He can just take the table, flip it over and walk out of the room. It's all about him.

There is no question that Trump will completely dominate tomorrow night's debate by his absence. After all, he's the one in the lead everywhere. If he's not there, what is there to talk about? The Rubio v Christie stand off? Jeb? Who cares?

It may be two plus hours of people attacking him without him being there to respond - and the moderators themselves out to get him too. But again, it's still all about him. He can make it all about him by not even being there. He doesn't kowtow to Fox News or go on retainer with the network during the off-season. He calls the shots. And there is little question in my mind that in one fashion or another you will have two competing TV shows tomorrow night, Trump's and everybody else's. And Trump's will almost certainly be better.

or as Bill Clinton says in his autobiography several times - for Americans it's better to be strong and wrong than weak and right

Can we just please have the Trump variant of this already:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dSQqLEv7J9w/TUvZJwQlRNI/AAAAAAAAB_w/XgmkExvl4ds/s1600/Berlusconi+foto+bunga+bunga+la+zona+morta+9.jpg

back in less playpennish circusworld

Yesterday, one of the purest and most noxious examples of (the Very Serious Person) tactic was invoked — by Paul Krugman. The long-time Clinton defender announced that all Serious policy experts “lean Hillary”; he even used the term “serious” unironically to advance his claim:

Meanwhile, the Sanders skepticism of the wonks continues: Paul Starr lays out the case. As far as I can tell, every serious progressive policy expert on either health care or financial reform who has weighed in on the primary seems to lean Hillary.

Let’s repeat that: “every serious progressive policy expert on either health care or financial reform who has weighed in on the primary seems to lean Hillary.”

The economist Dean Baker – previously cited as a financial reform and economic policy expert by Krugman but who now most assuredly does not “lean Hillary” – quickly reacted to his formal exclusion by Krugman from the Club of Seriousness:

Paul Krugman Revokes Credentials of Those Who Don’t Support Clinton . . .

Oh well, so much for those of us backing or leaning towards Sanders. I guess we just have to turn to that old Washington saying, “better right than expert.” In other words, it’s better to rely on people who have a track record of being right than the people who have the best credentials.

As so often happens, those who fancy themselves dissident gate-crashers (which apparently can include someone who is a Nobel-Prize-winning tenured economics professor (at Princeton until somewhat recently), an advisory board member of the nation’s largest corporations, and effectively a life-tenured New York Times columnist) quickly assume the role of vigilantly guarding the gate once they realize they were admitted all along. So congratulations to Paul Krugman on his power of decreeing who is a Serious Expert and announcing that the label applies only to those who want Hillary Clinton be the next President, but not Bernie Sanders.

https://theintercept.com/2016/01/28/paul-krugman-unironically-anoints-himself-arbiter-of-seriousness-only-clinton-supporters-eligible/

Yeah Krugman is sadly not at his best during these elections seasons.

this crazy circus has gone cuckoo-ca-choo

they muted the audio on the Huckabee Hello parody

so now it is a completely silent montage of Huckabee wandering through desolate Iowa with occasional captions that say "gangrene" and "frostbite"

there really is so much beauty in this world

lol wut

Remember when Nancy was allegedly a scary SF lefty?

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/267236-pelosi-distances-dems-from-sanderss-plan-to-raise-taxes

Pelosi is smarter and more effective than Bernie, so there's that

"I've been for single-payer for 30 years, and it is a very popular idea in our country. But we have made a decision about where we're going on healthcare."

So effective at being for things she'll never make a move on. You deserve her.

i mean she's not wrong. and it's sort of hard to expect pelosi to support undoing possibly her greatest achievement

Dems haunted by this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07m39CQRJXw

tho yes obviously distancing herself (and the democrats) from tax increases in an election season is...well unfortunate but not shocking

some achievement, Bob Dole program a dozen years later xxxp

"We're for it and it's popular, but can't do it" - post (and pre?) Clinton Dems in a nutshell

So effective at being for things she'll never make a move on.

lol this is horseshit and you know it

straight from the Nancy's mouth!

http://pubrecord.org/politics/3105/pelosi-allow-floor-single-payer/comment-page-1/

I know you hate facts and history and context and shit but ugh it's so tiresome

allowing floor votes when the outcome is preordained, be still my beating heart

bringing a vote to the floor = making a move

like what else do you think the Speaker of the House does

remind me of the time Bernie got a floor vote in the Senate for a single payer plan

let's pretend he did, as the outcome was the same

man weiner was ok sometimes

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZ0wfq7WQAATAaS.jpg

'alabama media group'

http://www.thenation.com/article/why-im-supporting-hillary-clinton-with-joy-and-without-apologies/

i think literally every sentence of this very long article includes the words "i" or "me."

ugh, Joan Walsh epitomizes smug lib

she used to write similarly dismal pieces for salon which all went like "i've talked before about my disapproval of this..."

i can't actually tell what that editorial cartoonist's opinion is

Just occurred to me that Trump comports himself like a some cartoon Russian oligarch turned strongman, this weird sort of cross between tacky nouveau riche boasting and dictatorial threats. Regardless, he's a lot funnier with a must kill moose and squirrel accent.

I also get Smoove B. vibes. Read this in Trump bluster-voice:

When you have had your fill of dancing, I will take you by the hand and lead you to the most romantic corner of the entire club and sit you down on one of the plush, red-velvet couches. While you rest, I will go the bar and purchase a drink for you. Before I bring it back to you, I will taste it, demanding finer gin should it fall short of my expectations for you. Also, I will ask for less ice so that your gin and tonic is not diluted.

While you sip your drink, I will stroke your hair and tell you such complimentary things as "You are like a fine statue carved out of brown marble," and "Your eyes are like pools of creamy Italian butter," and "You have beautiful shoes." You will know that I mean these things because they come from the heart, and the heart is always true.

Man, wouldn't it be great if Trump showed up to the debate after all, just to heckle from the audience?

why the fuck is huckabee going to trumpstock instead of the fox debate? or is he kids table anyway so who cares? I guess his 'campgaign' is basically in full on grift mode now.

Just came to post about Huckabee too--don't know if I've seen such a pathetic case of sucking up.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/huckabee-attending-trump-rival-iowa-event

i have:

Santorum, who is also competing in the undercard debate, told CNN he was open to attending Trump's event if invited.

"As of now, the senator has not been invited to take part in Mr. Trump's event," a Santorum spokesman told the network. "The senator respects that this is Mr. Trump's event and he's not going to go and crash (it)."

he'll no doubt get more attention by doing trumpfest than being an also-ran at the regular show, so

reports are huckabee and santorum are going to trumpfest

i kind of thought that by fighting with bob vander plaats trump was telling evangelical iowans to get bent but now who knows

xps huh

they muted the audio on the Huckabee Hello parody

so now it is a completely silent montage of Huckabee wandering through desolate Iowa with occasional captions that say "gangrene" and "frostbite"

there really is so much beauty in this world

― its subtle brume (DJP), Thursday, January 28, 2016 11:26 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is so fucking wonderful

i'm trying it with sigur ros in the background, it's good but not quite right. maybe if the video were slowed down. love the slow-mo of someone throwing their cell phone into the snow, maybe a hook allusion? deep.