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

Chili's is fine u little lord Fauntleroy mofos

― Steve Gunn Mann-Dude (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, July 17, 2016 6:58 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is the post of the year easy

idk how but i somehow read that as being posted by Morbz the first time, went "huh, okay, sure" and moved on

also: good one, darragh

i just ate a "fritos pie" at a dive bar so i definitely won't disparage chilis

Good start to the convention: Rove vs. Aex Jones at the airport:

https://twitter.com/alyonamink/status/754803339079057408

― Any Given User (Eazy), Sunday, July 17, 2016 6:34 PM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hell yeah

this is the post of the year easy

2nd only to the one right after it

lol treesh was it happy fun? birdy's? i have never actually ordered a frito pie at any place i've ever seen that had them, are they any good? worth the price?

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/07/trump-is-still-taking-fired-managers-advice.html

Although Trump fired Lewandowski last month, the power struggle between Lewandowski and campaign chairman Paul Manafort continues, sources close to the campaign say.

Lewandowski continues to advise Trump to stick to his off-the-cuff style he displayed in the primaries (“Let Trump be Trump,” he calls it). Sources say that Lewandowski even told Trump not to apologize after Trump faced criticism for tweeting the controversial image of Hillary Clinton and a Star of David surrounded by cash.

hahahahahahahahaha

New long Jane Mayer piece on Trump's Art of the Deal ghostwriter:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all

Did not expect Colbert to show up(in costume, no less):

http://jezebel.com/stephen-colbert-hijacks-the-rnc-stage-delivers-anti-tr-1783829143

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diaCHYO7haY

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-pence-clinton-iraq-war-vote-cbs

"I don’t care," Trump said when asked about Pence's past vote for the Iraq War.

"What do you mean you don’t care that he voted?" Stahl asked.

"It’s a long time ago. And he voted that way. And they were also misled. A lot of information was given to people," Trump replied.

Stahl then pointed out that Trump has criticized Hillary Clinton for voting for the Iraq War as a senator.

"You’ve used that vote of Hillary’s, that was the same as Gov. Pence, as the example of her bad judgement," she said.

"Many people have, and frankly, I’m one of the few that was right on Iraq," Trump said in response.

When asked again about how Pence voted, Trump said, "He’s entitled to make a mistake every once in a while."

"But she’s not," Stahl clarified, referring to Clinton.

"She’s not. No, she’s not," Trump said.

lol but seriously, these guys need to point out that Trump was NOT right about Iraq every single time he mentions this

OMG @ that exchange. Is it even cognitive dissonance anymore when there doesn't appear to be any actual cognition involved?

"I think I'm much more humble than you would understand."

Nothing tops this.

My humility is better than anyone else's humility, I can tell you that.

Really hope the dems press Trump on stuff like this a lot: Pence said this about trade deals, he said that about a ban on Muslims, his record on defense of marriage acts is this etc. Because A: Pence is diametrically opposed to Trump's previously stated positions on a ton of issues, and B: I'm sure Trump hasn't thought through his responses to this well. Or at all.

he's got this far without being seriously penalised for not thinking, so why start now?

Iraq war thing is clumsy in a way that might actually be a problem later though - like, assuming he debates Clinton, and tries to bring up his Iraq applause lines, she can plausibly say "well, your running mate was in Congress at that time, and voted the same way I did, so what exactly are you trying to say, Mr. Trump?" Like, it doesn't help her win over any Trump people necessarily but it sort of takes an arrow out of his quiver.

i really do think trump has alzheimers are something. real people aren't like that.

healthy people i should say

he can just say "i picked pence as my running mate to get the establishment blowhard republicans on board not because i agree with him. you need to negotiate to get elected and i'm the best negotiator. it matters that hillary did the same thing bc she's the actual candidate," and his fans will be satisfied.

thats too smart, thats not gonna happen

I'm not convinced these inconsistencies are really going to move anyone.

Don't think that'll matter either, least of all with Trump (who already has 20 years of wild inconsistencies in his very own opinions). Plus whoever Clinton goes with will produce the same contradictions, and ditto to the other point too, albeit probably less drastic. You can't avoid that.

i really do think trump has alzheimers are something. real people aren't like that.

― Treeship, Monday, July 18, 2016 9:36 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

healthy people i should say

― Treeship, Monday, July 18, 2016 9:37 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Imagine living for 60+ years in a bubble where you're surrounded by people who nod thoughtfully at every dumb word that comes out of your mouth. It's kind of akin to a developmental disability.

I feel like that might be an inroad towards a critique that could have an impact upon his potential supporters. Like, they're clearly unmoved by the fact that he's rich, but if you underscore that he's faced none of the challenges that his supporters have faced, that he's never been tested in any significant way or had to overcome any hardships, again drawing the comparison between him and his supporters, I think you might get some people's attention.

another good article:

https://medium.com/@liberaltroll/a-comprehensive-analysis-of-donald-trumps-economic-lunacy-9e5552682695#.r9qe7ba8u

should be a surprise to no one but just a daily reminder that Trump's economic policies are basically impossible and even if you're being generous he's nearly guaranteed to create a massive recession and/or destabilize the world economy

That sounds like expert talk to me. Mighty suspicious.

there is no critique of trump's life story that would be more persuasive to his voters than the prospect of banning muslims and building a wall once he's elected

another good read:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-end-of-a-republican-party/

he's already taken back the muslim ban.

his appeal isn't any one policy or set of policies. it's the vicarious thrill of transgressin. americans have become hedonists in the worst way.

lol *transgression

that's not to say that he isn't actually dangerous or that he won't do destructive things in office.

but i think his voters are taking pleasure in the spectacle and the vicarious thrill of racism and that's why they are so accepting of his inconsistencies/the fact that he is dumb as hell. they get pleasure out of it.

"vicarious thrill of transgressin" is probably the more accurate phrasing in terms of Trump's fans.

trying to argue over policy and consistency won't work to counter this. the best strategy is to make him look small and pathetic.

so is anybody going to die at the convention today?

it will be the death of our innocence

wishin and hopin and transgressin

Roy Cohn quote in that Jane Mayer / New Yorker piece: "Donald pisses ice water."

“I put lipstick on a pig,” he said. “I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is.” He went on, “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.”

Good morning! Country fucked yet?

Whaddaymean 'yet'?

http://dr35ey0x3otoq.cloudfront.net/uploads/default/optimized/3X/5/8/5806f1e8250713e721589a2d72d687f526b24979_1_494x500.jpg

I give Pence a week, maybe two, with Trump's hand up his ass before he starts going off-script. He was clearly straining a bit in that interview.

I wonder what their private conversations are like

have they even had a private conversation

josh marshall has been hinting on twitter that, having watched interviews with trump in the 80s and compared them to today, he's suffering from some kind of degenerative cognitive malady. not in the "GWB changed his accent" sense, more in the CTE sense.

i think trump and pence's private conversations mainly revolve around their favorite chili's appetizers

XPS "So...Chili's--what's that like?"

XP They compare Taco Bowls.

trump doesn't have private conversations

“Trump has been written about a thousand ways from Sunday, but this fundamental aspect of who he is doesn’t seem to be fully understood,” Schwartz told me. “It’s implicit in a lot of what people write, but it’s never explicit—or, at least, I haven’t seen it. And that is that it’s impossible to keep him focussed on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes, and even then . . . ” Schwartz trailed off, shaking his head in amazement. He regards Trump’s inability to concentrate as alarming in a Presidential candidate. “If he had to be briefed on a crisis in the Situation Room, it’s impossible to imagine him paying attention over a long period of time,” he said.

...

Growing desperate, Schwartz devised a strategy for trapping Trump into giving more material. He made plans to spend the weekend with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his mansion in Palm Beach, where there would be fewer distractions. As they chatted in the garden, Ivana icily walked by, clearly annoyed that Schwartz was competing for her husband’s limited free time. Trump again grew impatient. Long before lunch on Saturday, Schwartz recalls, Trump “essentially threw a fit.” He stood up and announced that he couldn’t stand any more questions.

Schwartz went to his room, called his literary agent, Kathy Robbins, and told her that he couldn’t do the book. (Robbins confirms this.) As Schwartz headed back to New York, though, he came up with another plan. He would propose eavesdropping on Trump’s life by following him around on the job and, more important, by listening in on his office phone calls. That way, extracting extended reflections from Trump would not be required. When Schwartz presented the idea to Trump, he loved it.

Not sure how to say this without sounding nuts: if gazillionaires and GOP brokers love Pence far more than Trump (Mayer mentions in a tweet that Charles Koch tried to recruit Pence to run in 2012), does this hurt Trump's chances of, uh, surviving?