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

lol House Committee gives up (finally) on BENGHAZIGATE

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

Thank goodness we'll never, ever hear anyone evoke Benghazi again!

rats flee sinking ship dept:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/28/mutiny-ahead-for-trump-train-as-republicans-head-for-the-hills.html

his campaign is such a clusterfuck that atm my concern is that they do end up dropping him. at this pt whatever damage they incur by overturning the primary results might still not be as bad as running him on the ballot in November

throwing someone else on the ballot would be disastrous, it would totally undermine/derail nat'l party organization (or what's left of it anyway). so I'm kinda hoping they do it (p sure they won't though)

Feeling briefly optimistic... Wouldn't it be something if this disastrous election forced the republicans to ultimately take more moderate stands in order to differentiate themselves from the splinter faction that will surely form in the wake of Trump's defeat? I get that there are any number of other reasons why republicans are speaking out against him (the dearth of funding trickling to downticket races being just one), but I have to say that it's heartening to see some people drawing a line in the sand when I figured the majority would just roll over for any jackass who won the nomination.

principle has nothing to do with it, these people are all facing electoral realities and want to keep their jobs

You'd hope that the voters punish republicans for their intransigence and shitty governing by taking away their control of the congress - and consequently forcing them to moderate if they want to be relevant again. But between gerrymandering and their ideological rigidity it's v easy to imagine 8 more years of gridlock. At some pt right wing voters who actually want legislation to address some of our country's problems need to realize that the eternal obstructionism isn't healthy.

right wing voters don't want legislation, generally speaking

unless it's to imprison doctors who perform abortions

Depends which ones I guess. From where I'm standing it doesn't seem like anyone in the republican base has much of a consistent ideology of governance.

I don't think they believe in governance

It's cool. The impending liberal majority in the SC will take care of business while they gridlock themselves into total irrelevance.

legislation works faster than courts, is the thing. and is better at responding to crises.

er better FOR responding to crises

Like after so long of the gov refusing to do anything to help them trump voters have skipped the step of getting responsive law makers in place and jumped directly to fuck the division of powers only a strongman executive can save us. Why not take a step back and just vote for legislators who want to pass legislation and save the dictatorship for later (I know the answer to this I mean the question rhetorically - fascism is always more fun for authoritarian types)

Re: that Jill Stein quote upthread:

http://www.forwardprogressives.com/green-party-jill-stein-busted-cover-up-praise-bigotry-driven-brexit/

Oh newtiekins:
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/newt-gingrich-trump-poll-224882

xpost It's amazing how many people still don't understand how the internet works.

Are you talking about Stein or the dude complaining about her, because honestly I can see the argument either way.

I don't think she's a bigot I think she's just ignorant

Mostly Stein for thinking she could just cover her tracks.

Someone should have Megyn Kelly walk over and explain those poll results to Newt.

like she probably read one (1) counterintuitive counterpunch article on the topic of brexit and based her opinion on it w/out getting more information. in general she does not seem v curious or particularly bright or educated to me. cf her homeopathy views + vaccination agnosticism.

Imagine if Hillary had tried to pull that...

she is the head of the establishment

lol

http://i2.wp.com/www.forwardprogressives.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/JillStein.jpg

this is pretty lol

In similar 'the internets, how do they work' and 'wow, if Hillary tried to pull the shit pulled by people who oppose Hillary' news: Newly-Hired Trump Aide Deletes Tweets About "Sleazy Donald" for Some Reason.

"And if he's within five points he'll just beat her. I mean, look what happened with Brexit," Gingrich said. "What happens is the elites, the establishment all pile on. The average citizen will not tell pollsters the truth. You get much better results for Trump for example in a computerized online poll than a telephone poll because people don't want to tell the pollster something they think is not socially acceptable."

Even Trump's supporters recognize that voting for him is socially unacceptable.

this is pretty lol

an instant classic imo

http://i.imgur.com/1Sz35Nz.jpg

we are coming to you live from a pile of recyclables alongside the mighty monongahela river

@USChamber
Under Trump's trade plans, we would see higher prices, fewer jobs, and a weaker economy

sad!

I'm really hoping for some producer or engineer at a news station to set up Trump to say something stupid on the air, Lonesome Rhodes-style.

lol he's so bad at this
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-fundraising-british-members-parliament

i'm not about to start giving a shit what the US chamber of commerce thinks

a now familiar story: someone speaks ill of trump, his place of employment gets swarmed by MRA anime nazis

https://newrepublic.com/article/134534/told-truth-donald-trump-rally-trolls-threatened-life

re trump hitting up MPs

why the fuck is he doing this? does he think they have extra 'leave' campaign money sitting around they just want to give to some loud american asshole to do what with exactly?

is that even legal?

legality was my first thought too - isn't it still against the law for foreign government officials to contribute cash to US political campaigns? or did CU gut that too I can't remember

http://www.fec.gov/ans/answers_general.shtml#Can_nonUS_citizens_contribute

not legal.

Like, I wish I could chalk this up to him being a crook (or at least an attempted crook) but, as always, all signs seem to point only to him being incompetent as fuck.

I genuinely think anyone who inherited what he did and had the same perpetual lack of self-reflection could fall ass backwards into the same success that he's had.

this is one of the 92 tweets donald trump has liked?

https://twitter.com/billinwaco/status/698034361837355008

lol

http://www.cracked.com/blog/trump-having-twitter-conversations-with-fake-accounts/

this'll win those voters over!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/michael-cohen-hillary-tweet-trump-000000005.html

They should investigate her for that ASAP.

maybe get a congressional panel set up or something

Don't know if anyone's posted this yet, but I thought this piece by Chris Arnade makes some interesting points:

Why Trump voters are not "complete idiots" - parts 1 and 2

https://medium.com/@Chris_arnade/trump-politics-and-option-pricing-or-why-trump-voters-are-not-idiots-1e364a4ed940#.35t0dyozp
https://medium.com/@Chris_arnade/why-trump-voters-are-not-complete-idiots-part-two-what-should-hillary-do-7cfcbd7aa19e#.vv9r51uis

Really great and a much more articulate take on what I've been saying for a while - lots of people just want to see things get shaken up. Can't doubt that Trump will do that.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say those posts seem kind of patronizing, and reiterate a lot of conventional wisdom (concluding that clinton should highlight the risks of a trump presidency), with well-shot photographs interspersed.