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

I have a feeling the media spin on the convention was all set to be, "Wow, Trump pulled off a pretty okay convention after all the handwringing" but now the amateur hour narrative will continue.

There are lots of poems that express my values and feelings. But I didn't write them.

Robert Costa ‏@costareports 2m2 minutes ago
Trumpland quickly turned from ebullient to dark after the convention ended Monday and cable went big on plagiarism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republican-national-convention-scrutiny-of-melania-trumps-speech-follows-plagiarism-allegations/2016/07/19/3efc4208-4da4-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html

ha of course they thought they were doing good

Benghazi, e-mails, plagiarism, it never stops:

The Trump campaign now says any allegations of plagiarism are "crazy" — and that any attacks Melania has received are the result of her criticizing presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

"Once again, this is an example of when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton, she seeks to demean her and take her down," Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort said in an early Tuesday morning interview with CNN.

http://www.vox.com/2016/7/19/12222276/melania-trump-plagarism-clinton-rnc

oh boy these ppl are messy

Just in case one is presented with the "just a coincidence / these are common words and sentiments" defense, I find this comparison helpful:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics-live/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2016/07/melania-trump-speech-cropped.jpg

ben carson:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cnu3OgbUMAAglT7.jpg:small

John Perkins • 8 minutes ago
Given that both our current President and Vice President are well known for their plagiarism when running for the office of President, having a candidate for First Lady reading lines similar to the current First Lady's is at best a minor inconvenient.

People who liked Melania Trump based on her reading will continue to do so.

yeah they were talking about that on NBC but it's like, since when has this campaign done anything sensible, they're all gonna say different things and ultimately Trump is going to deny that plagiarism ever occurred and ultimately denounce the media for going after his wife

many xps, wow

of course they're trying to spin it into "wow CROOKED HILLARY is really going after her, WOW what won't she do!?"

Yes, Ben, we share the same values, e.g., we want our children to know that they should be willing to work hard.

For example, they should be willing to google up some content that was widely publicized, change a few words, and then submit it as their own work!

xxp, and John Perkins brings the boring kneejerk tu quoque! Right on schedule!

but yeah the plagiarism thing is a distraction

the cheer for the acquittal of baltimore cops was revolting

I hope the focus will shift away from the plagiarism to the campaign's response to the plagiarism. This level of baldfaced disregard for basic facts needs to be hammered home with every undecided voter (i.e. everyone who hasn't already seen this happen dozens of times during the campaign).

agreed 100%, the fact that this campaign is blatantly lying about essentially everything ought to be raising way more alarms than it is

like the first rule in crisis communications is get in front of the story and apologise if at all possible

they are so, so bad at this

my god, imagine if CROOKED HILLARY was the one who didn't release her tax returns. what a fiasco that would be.

Pro or con, people are talking about Melania instead of Benghazeeleventy!!1.

For a campaign that's supposed to be media-savvy that should be called a loss.

“Talking to operatives here, the mood is something between grim resignation and the Donner Party,” said veteran GOP consultant Mike Murphy on Tuesday morning.

omg, just saw this

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

I don't care if your elevators are white, black, yellow, green or purple.

We should judge them by the content of their character, amirite?

Probably not as prescriptive as it is just a matter of fact. The whitest convention, so white it'll make your head spin.

We don't have white elevators and black elevators and red elevators and purple elevators--we just have the United States of America elevators.

ha how many ppl involved in setting that up thought this doesnt look good then just shrugged and carried on w their lives

Obviously rino DNC plants

I'm still slightly stunned by the fact that the logo of the convention includes half a guitar.

rock city

Some of you more IT & web-marketing inclined folks might enjoy this, where John Hendren(@fart) started digging thru the 3,200 domains registered to various Trump-related concerned:

https://medium.com/@fart/inside-donald-trumps-3-000-bizarre-domains-996871e602b0#.wgmiiz47c

Including digging thru WHOIS files

https://mobile.twitter.com/nathanrabin/status/755419435725361152

And to think, there are still those who think Republicans have trouble appealing to black voters. They've got J.J!

8:10 AM - 19 Jul 2016

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnvJ-IdWgAI8RXF.jpg:large

2 powells

Ahhhhhhahahahaha.

What, all Colin Powells look alike to you?

Should've just been a checkerboard of alternating Powells and Carsons.

Condy Rice is now stuffed down the memory hole?

a 3x2 grid of black republican portraits where one of the spaces is filled by a logo

They could've at least used some anonymous stock image.

It's not like anyone in their party would've been curious enough to try to figure out who it actually was.

Meantime

"When Moochelle said it she was lying. When Melania said it she was telling the truth."

http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=364800

(I promise I will shut up about this soon but for now it is still providing lols)

like the first rule in crisis communications is get in front of the story and apologise if at all possible

Only if you are talking to people outside your base. The people who agree with you have already constructed excuses for you, and you want to affirm those points. Obviously the question of whether or not you should be protecting your voters or seeking new ones is something else. It's possible me that trump at this point is worried about losing his support in some areas, so is choosing to validate his base's excuses rather than apologise and seem others (which would involve contradicting those who have already supported him).

What the hell site is that? xp

Ace of Spades, one of the many junky right-wing sites that are just that.

Meantime, as I posted on the Fox News thread, the last sentence of this excerpt is really firing off conspiracy theory thoughts in my brain right now:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/07/sources-kelly-said-ailes-sexually-harassed-her.html

As New York reported yesterday, Rupert and sons James and Lachlan, the three top executives at 21st Century Fox, have, according to multiple sources, decided that Ailes needs to be removed. Kelly, who has become something of a feminist icon thanks to her tangles with GOP nominee Donald Trump, is seen by many inside Fox as the future of the network. She’s currently in contract negotiations, and given that Bill O’Reilly has said he’s considering retirement, Fox can’t afford to lose her.

According to two sources, yesterday afternoon lawyers for 21st Century Fox gave Ailes a deadline of August 1st to resign or face being fired for cause. Ailes’s legal team, which now includes Susan Estrich, former campaign manager for Michael Dukakis, has yet to respond to the offer. Ailes has also received advice on strategy from Donald Trump and Rudy Guiliani, sources say.

http://verysmartbrothas.com/the-rnc-where-steve-king-defends-white-supremacy-and-melania-trump-disproves-it/

I won’t say too much more about poor Melania, because every joke worth making has already been made. Instead, I’ll just say that the only person feeling worse than her about her speech this morning is Steve King. All that fuss about the master race. And then, a couple hours later, the Grand Wizard’s wife refutes that entire argument by stealing the words from a regular Black girl from the South Side

Hah!

Only if you are talking to people outside your base. The people who agree with you have already constructed excuses for you, and you want to affirm those points. Obviously the question of whether or not you should be protecting your voters or seeking new ones is something else. It's possible me that trump at this point is worried about losing his support in some areas, so is choosing to validate his base's excuses rather than apologise and seem others (which would involve contradicting those who have already supported him).

― two crickets sassing each other (dowd), Tuesday, July 19, 2016 12:06 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

imo this is close but it gives trump too much credit for acting strategically, his behavior is mostly intuitive and it appeals to the gop base and not to everyone else, trump is just being trump is how i break it down to an extent

scapegoating a staffer for the plagiarism would give him the chance to say 'you're fired' tho

and then fire a tshirt cannon into the crowd while ticker-tape rains from the ceiling of the convention centre

and gallop offstage on a glorious white horse firing pearl-handled pistols

xxp sure. when it comes down to it I doubt there is any conspiracy involved.

scapegoating a staffer for the plagiarism would give him the chance to say 'you're fired' tho

― report your crimes to my burning ghost cock (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, July 19, 2016 12:24 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a good point someone shd pitch it to him like that