I've had people say it's a hardening, actually ~ US presidential election 2016 part 9/11 never forget

http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/clinton-losing-key-millennial-support-nationally-key-states-n650076

she should run on legalizing marijuana duh.

538, TPM, PEC, etc: "Don't pay much attention to any individual polls, or haphazard mixing-and-matching national and state polls using different methods"

every other outlet: "Look at this TREND identified by mixing and matching some state and national polls using different methods"

Speaking of state polls: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-notable-new-poll

Has anybody read Corey Robin's _The Reactionary Mind_? I just checked it out this weekend.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CsrHLZ1WEAAAtn7.jpg

i dunno looks like trump is dominating to me

http://i.imgur.com/grtCaGb.gif

http://i.imgur.com/bWnD5FO.jpg

/dadgifjoke

kingfish the corey robin book is an entertaining jumble of essays. i think he has the rightist intellgentsia types clocked fairly well but he doesn't (and isn't really trying to) have an apparatus for understanding the trumpy mindset. since it's like a decade's worth of essays it can be repetitive and the thesis outlined in the introduction, while probably accurate, isn't effectively "proved."

i think the general ilx opinion is that corey robin is a clown. i kinda like the dude but he can be a little breathless.

otm. It has its pithy moments, notably when tracing the history of conservatism through the musty byways of Burke.

He's more obnoxious as a blogger

I really can't see how events like this weekend's in NY/NJ, with a presumably Muslim suspect, do anything but help Trump. "We have to get real tough." That's as deep as it goes.

what does that even mean? I also find it really strange that some people identify Trump as being tough. like what makes this fat privileged turd tough in their eyes?

well, for some, he's a man.

my guess is they don't pay attention - thing about Trump is he's a stereotypical bully, "tough" only when his targets are far away. he would never make his "what the hell do you have to lose?" pitch to an actual black crowd - when he met with Mexico's president he didn't dare bring up that he would make them pay for the wall.

and all the bullyboy schoolyard talk xp

"presumably Muslim"

he's a racist who promoses to mete out unfair, unjust punishment to nonwhite people, which equates with 'toughness' to racists

xp (to the tune of "Suddenly Seymour")

hey Phil, howbout if i said "any suspect with Ahmad or Khan in his name," you fucking fuck? ie a *****head to the average American shitstain who sings the national anthem. OK?

thing is, people have been saying for practically a year that any domestic attack somehow automatically plays into trump's hands, just because terrorism/ISIS/strongman-against-threats talk is a huge part of his campaign. but it hasn't held up with previous events, in large part because he tends to respond to all news items in transparently self-aggrandizing and stupid ways that make him look uninformed, unreliable, and dangerous. not to his supporters but to everybody else.

he seemed to go up in the polls after san bernardino, but it's never been clear to me that there was any causal relationship there - the boost he got corresponded almost 1:1 with ben carson's precipitous decline, and the timeline overlaps with all the scrutiny put on carson's record, the grain-storing pyramids, all of that. IIRC he basically went down or stayed where he was after paris and orlando.

It's just nice that you've ~presumably~ already eliminated the possibility of a white person!

from the NY Times:

Here’s what we don’t yet know:

• Who was responsible for the explosion, but the police released a photo of a suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, wanted in connection with the bombing.

i'll be charitable and just assume you missed this.

There is such a thing as a white Muslim too.

Or a non-white non-muslim. The possibilities are endless!

In an interview on Fox and Friends this morning, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump discussed the recent bombing in New York City and bragged that he “called it.” Trump said in the interview that he should be a newscaster because “I called it before the news” and that he knew this would happen.

This is another instance of Trump seemingly taking credit for being right during a tragedy; after 49 people were killed in a shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando over the summer, Trump tweeted, “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism…”

In the interview on Monday, Trump used the New York bombing as evidence that the Obama administration is not tough on terror. But when pressed on specifics, Trump had difficulty explaining what he would change in his administration.

Trump told Fox host Steve Doocy that to fight terrorism, “we’re going to have to do something extremely tough over there.” When Doocy asked Trump what that means, Trump responded, “Like knock the hell out of them.” There have been nearly 10,000 air strikes against ISIS in Iraq alone since 2014.

http://heavy.com/news/2016/09/watch-video-donald-trump-respond-response-to-new-york-city-chelsea-bombing-ahmad-khan-rahami-terrorism-brag-called-it-foreign-policy-iraq/

sounds like a dove to me!

After Orlando, I ruled out Trump getting a second look because he Talks Tough.

Yeah, it's not gonna happen. Trump will step on his own dick (already has, in fact; see above) and blow any opportunity to convince anybody not already in his leaky little electoral dinghy that he's The Man We Need In This Dark Hour. But hey, if it's one more way you can be anti-Clinton, have at it, you myopic fuck.

uh, are you thinking i posted that as an endorsement? if yes, did you hit your head this morning?

I think it's only a matter of time before your anti-Clinton mania tips over into objective pro-Trumpism.

kiss my ass.

it's interesting how many Clinton supporters, whatever their level of enthusiasm, have been driven fucking nuts by this election.

Happy Monday everyone! How was your weekend?

Looking forward to President Trump sending the Three Stooges into Arabland or wherever to knock the hell out of 'em and make their heads spin.

What is this fantasy world his mind occupies? What do we do about terror? We beat it, because we're winners and they're losers. What do you do about a problem? You fix it. I'm three years old.

How do you respond to a question? With an answer. Tautologies are solutions.

The Tony Soprano attitude distracts from and compensates for the lack of any reference to the miracle logistics required to fulfill his many promises. For example he mentioned how he would "end terror" this past weekend, right?

End terror, and replace it with something much, much better.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/26/president-trumps-first-term
^this thing right here is a wild read

phew. i survived that terrifying load time when you're afraid it's Andy Borowitz

trump demonstrates his idea of how journalism is supposed to work:

Donald Trump on Monday took credit for referring to an explosive device set off in Manhattan on Saturday night as a “bomb” before news outlets or law enforcement, saying “I called it.”

“I should be a newscaster because I called it before the news,” Trump said in a phone interview on “Fox and Friends. “What I said was exactly correct and everybody says while he was right, he called it too soon. Okay. Give me a break.”

from that New Yorker piece by Osnos:

For many years, Trump has expressed curiosity about nuclear weapons. In 1984, still in his thirties, he told the Washington Post that he wanted to negotiate nuclear treaties with the Soviets. “It would take an hour and a half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles,” he said. “I think I know most of it anyway.” According to Bruce G. Blair, a research scholar at the Program on Science and Global Security, at Princeton, Trump encountered a U.S. nuclear-arms negotiator at a reception in 1990 and offered advice on how to cut a “terrific” deal with a Soviet counterpart. Trump told him to arrive late, stand over the Soviet negotiator, stick his finger in his chest, and say, “Fuck you!”

Morbz, I had not yet seen that news yet this morning. Mea culpa.

What is this fantasy world his mind occupies? What do we do about terror? We beat it

u realize this absurd fantasy has been national status quo for at least 15 years

Presumably, the presidents of the last 15 years have issued instructions to the military more substantial than, "Just go beat 'em. Just, y'know...knock 'em on their asses or whatever. Go!"

His jingoism isn't a matter of dumbing it down for the public. He really is just that fucking dumb.

eh isnt 'blow it all up' US policy more often than not?

He is governed, above all, by his faith in the ultimate power of transaction—an encompassing perversion of realism that is less a preference for putting interests ahead of values than a belief that interests have no place for values.

I'm convinced this could be worded better. I'm going to come back and work on it later.

Recently, a former Republican White House official whom Trump has called on for his insights told me, “Honestly, the problem with Donald is he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.”

=(

Somehow can't imagine Trump ever uttering any variant of, "Oh, I didn't know that."

(See the Scott Adams-esque “It would take an hour and a half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles" quote upthread.)

“I think I know most of it anyway.”