Curb Your Authoritarianism? The 2016 Conventional Wisdom Thread (Elections, Part 6)

Want to paint a series of desolate landscapes with Jeb! somewhere in the background, looking forlornly at his shoes.

plenty of doubt about warren

kaine and castro both seem like legit alternatives but u gotta think dnc likes the optics of hillary/warren

Certainly Clinton is a least testing the waters with the joint appearances. I guess it's possible that she's only on board as an attack dog, but that seems unlikely.

the last sentence is a pearl:

"She said she's 5 percent Native American. She was unable to prove it. She used the fact that she was Native American to advance her career," Trump said, as quoted by NBC News. "Elizabeth Warren is a total fraud. I know it. Other people who work with her know it. Elizabeth Warren is a total fraud."

"She made up her heritage which I think is racist," he continued. "I think she's a racist actually, because what she did was very racist."

the most racist, just unbelievable, the racism

that's what some people are saying anyway. I would never say that.

"I think she's a racist actually, because what she did was very racist."

Unassailable logic there. I think Trump is an idiot actually, because what he said was very idiotic.

This has become a tack of racists lately. Probably spearheaded by Trump. Calling me out for saying something racist is totally racist!

god knows I'm no Clinton fan but who was saying in May that she's gonna be in trouble once he starts campaigning in the general election?

xpost It's all about muddying the waters as much as possible and blurring the lines between reality and whatever world is occupied by people who view Trump as a leader.

Meanwhile in "pathetic footnote" news:

Failed presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is paying $25,000 for playing "Eye of the Tiger" at a rally last year without the band's permission, CNNMoney has discovered.

Huckabee played the triumphant song by the band Survivor at a rally he held for Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

But Huckabee never paid for the rights -- so his campaign got sued for copyright infringement.

He recently agreed to a confidential settlement with Rude Music. That company is owned by the Survivor guitarist who cowrote the song, Frankie Sullivan.

They settled out of court, and it came to light when Huckabee listed the $25,000 cost as a campaign expense on federal election records. A payment to Rude Music is listed as a "legal settlement" for "copyright infringement."

the donor pool and Citizens United undoubtedly played a role also

this is getting overlooked a lot, I think, maybe partly because it was such an unexpected effect of the CU ruling. Everybody assumed (wrongly, apparently) that CU would benefit the GOP, but all it really did was allow loser candidates to remain bankrolled for way longer than was justified, totally fucking up the primary in the process.

― Οὖτις, Monday, June 27, 2016 10:57 AM (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Agreed, there's a section near the end of Jane Mayer's Koch book that talks about how members of the press corps decided CU wasn't a big deal, since the super-PACs weren't coordinated enough to unseat Obama in 2012. But there have been all these other effects of CU, effects that are in no way subtle, that a lot of pundit-types have totally ignored.

Want to paint a series of desolate landscapes with Jeb! somewhere in the background, looking forlornly at his shoes.

― There must be some magic clue inside these gentle walls (Old Lunch)

George could do this. Rub it in even further.

I think Warren is there to attract the hard core Bernie supporters, since she is well-liked by them. I did see fb stuff calling her a sell-out when she endorsed Clinton, but that is the fringe, I think.

Calling me out for saying something racist is totally racist!

This just happened to me on Facebook, dudes defending Make America White guy on the grounds of freedom of speech, and how "liberals" are the first to attack and name-call anyone who doesn't agree with their beliefs. (With the disclaimer that they don't identify as conservative, they're just defending his freedoms.)

Blocked.

"This has become a tack of racists lately. Probably spearheaded by Trump. Calling me out for saying something racist is totally racist!"

ah, yes, the "i'm rubber, you're glue" tactic.

"I think Warren is there to attract the hard core Bernie supporters, since she is well-liked by them. I did see fb stuff calling her a sell-out when she endorsed Clinton, but that is the fringe, I think."

does bernie still have non-fringe support at this point? i mean he did lose the primary pretty conclusively.

When did jeering at someone because you think their ideas are stupid or ugly or hurtful or just plain bad become an attack on their freedom of speech? That's attacking their ideas, not their speech. To attack their speech itself requires an attempt to silence them, not ridicule them.

sounds like something a racist would say

Warren's pretty well-liked by a lot of Democrats, not just Bernie fans. She's a rising figure within the party, it makes sense that she'd be out on the trail. Honestly this was probably her year to go for President, thought I suspect she may not actually want that job.

Also she has the added bonus of getting under Trump's skin, forcing him to go on a particularly lame attack route. I can't imagine all this "goofy Pocahontas" stuff plays to anyone who isn't deep within the Republican base. As shown above, Trump has to explain the whole backstory of the insult in a way he didn't have to do with "Lyin' Ted" or "Little Marco."

Xp

Bernie definitely has non-fringe support. The core of his support, at least among young people I know, was based on how he foregrounded issues of economic equality. The bros/purists were a marginal faction imo.

trump's son is a scam artist like his dad

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/us/politics/cambridge-whos-who-trump-brand.html

he's also ugly

some award-winning documentary filmmaker needs to do a really classy, multi-episode miniseries about the trumps and their history of racism and swindling, and get it on HBO or something. so many people would watch, and it could do some good.

they should get the best documentarians, the greatest people.

some of those documentarians, they make good documents, and some of them are the best documents in the world

there's not enough time between now and November for that to happen tbh

although it may happen afterwards, the post-mortems on this election are gonna be voluminous

there's not enough time between now and November for that to happen tbh

I bet most of us could string together 88 minutes of clips pretty easily.

does bernie still have non-fringe support at this point? i mean he did lose the primary pretty conclusively.

― hypnic jerk (rushomancy)

What Treeship said, and if my fb feed is any indication, some people seem convinced that when *all* the California votes are counted he will be ahead. Many also use #writeinbernie or some such hashtag.

He'll win California, that is, not that he'll lead overall delegates. They're deluded but not crazy.

(xposts) I was at a film yesterday, and during the previews an image of Trump flashed by from this:

http://www.sho.com/the-circus-inside-the-greatest-political-show-on-earth

Any good? I take it they've aired a few episodes already--don't know anything about it.

What Treeship said, and if my fb feed is any indication, some people seem convinced that when *all* the California votes are counted he will be ahead. Many also use #writeinbernie or some such hashtag.

― nickn

but aren't these the same people who are denouncing elizabeth warren for endorsing clinton? on my feed they are.

I'm surprised people think that, Bernie would have to win something like 85% of the uncounted ballots to take California, which, well, seems pretty unlikely.

to rushomancy:
Yes, but the greater % of Bernie fans will likely feel OK with HRC with Warren's approval.

to intheblanks:
They seem sure that it's not a random selection of uncounted votes, but that there's malfeasance afoot and Bernie votes were "conveniently lost."

So, maybe they are crazy, I was being polite.

Anyone denouncing Warren for appearing with Clinton seriously need to understand that democracy works on compromise.

I dunno, that thing just now in the UK sure seems uncompromising

Probably more accurate to say American democracy works on compromise, because we elect trustees, not delegates (to borrow from actual poli sci terms).
Democracy that runs on true delegates and/or plebiscites works a little differently.

Henry Paulson just endorsed Hillary. What a sad loser.

Henry Paulson is all about whatever he thinks is best for Wall Street and big finance. In a choice between HRC and Donald the winner in that sweepstakes is a no-brainer.

re Paulson - the one endorsement that likely seals my brother-in-law's vote for Hil.

(very Republican finance guy who sadly isn't averse to dabbling in Clinton conspiracy theories when drunk and using phrases like "climate alarmists")

i don't really have any contact with right-wing "thought" beyond what appears on my trending feed, but is it me, or have what's left of the republicans been turning up the distraction machine full force this weekend? it's a little bit strange because they seem to be saying, in effect, "PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN IN FRONT OF THE CURTAIN!"

on James Dobson's comments re: Trump's conversion and what happens when shit you say blithely to a gullible Evangelical radio audience leaks outside of the tribe.

went for a bike ride through my hometown the other day. a good amount of trump signs. i felt a mix of loathing and embarrassment for them.

in any case it was surprising. these would mostly be conservatives of the old school waspy bent we're talking about.

Early morning, not enough coffee, I misunderstood Henry Paulson as Henry Gibson.

https://img.discogs.com/HWR4vMsQajdo2pvS265f78OudhQ=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-2202671-1269568589.jpeg.jpg

This has become a tack of racists lately. Probably spearheaded by Trump. Calling me out for saying something racist is totally racist!

― There must be some magic clue inside these gentle walls (Old Lunch), Monday, 27 June 2016 19:43 (Yesterday)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzPBn5SLcxE

http://m.chron.com/news/politics/article/Trump-says-Texas-won-t-secede-if-he-s-president-8328266.php

"Texas will never do that because Texas loves me," Donald Trump told reporters in Scotland on Friday. "Texas would never do that if I'm president."

lol House Committee gives up (finally) on BENGHAZIGATE

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/us/politics/hillary-clinton-benghazi.html?_r=0