I DON'T KNOW WHERE THE BOTTOM IS • US presidential elections part VIII

Trump to black voters: 'What the hell do you have to lose?'

a twofer bad look, both condescending and desperate

Meanwhile . . .

A Massachusetts convoy of Trump supporters drove from Wrentham to Foxboro in their trucks, RVs and SUVs on July 31 and were caught on tape spewing racist epithets and calls for anti-black violence.

I'm not c&p-ing any further than that. If you really want to know what they had to say, click through. Suffice to say it's as vile as anything that ever came out of the Jim Crow South.

Not 100% sure I trust a writer named "Andrea Chalupa" but there you go.

There is apparently a federal investigation into the lobbying work done by Manafort-Davis (the company, rather than Manafort, the individual) on behalf of Ukraine which is also concentrating on The Podesta Group:

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/19/politics/paul-manafort-donald-trump-ukraine/index.html

The gist of the allegations is that MD advised a fake NGO to pay $1m+ to TPG to lobby on behalf of Ukrainian government positions. Tony Podesta maintains that he thought the NGO was legit, a number of ex-staff members of TPG have said that everyone knew it was shady and there were arguments over whether the company should have taken the contract on the grounds of legality.

trump *is* having some success reaching out to black voters, though

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160819181700-03-trump-dimondale-mi-0819-overlay-tease.jpg

went to protest/see trump event last night, private fundraiser- basically all the worst people in the world bashfully scuttling in and out of the mpls convention center. choicest moment was when a young woman yelled at me, asking if i was 'poor' and 'one of those student loans guys'

Just found out my wife went to high school with the editor in chief of brietbart

Was he an asshole even then?

He went to Harvard Westlake so I assume he knows no hardship. He's also like 31.

White supremacist trumpling stabs interracial couple:http://m.sfgate.com/news/nation-world/article/White-supremacist-stabs-interracial-couple-after-9172617.php

nice to know the convoy of trucks headed to the trump rally started in my hometown

Build a wall to stop them getting back in

This is...unexpected.

http://www.univision.com/univision-news/politics/trump-to-introduce-reforms-to-legalize-some-undocumented-immigrants

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-donald-trump-companies-at-least-650-million-in-debt/

rudy out there dutifully mainstreaming fringe conspiracy my lord

Ned Raggett
Posted: August 20, 2016 at 9:00:48 PM
This is...unexpected.

http://www.univision.com/univision-news/politics/trump-to-introduce-reforms-to-legalize-some-undocumented-immigrants

trump camp has totally walked this back fwiw he was prob just telling a room full of ppl what he thought they wanted to hear

i mean immigration extremism is his primary issue

rudy out there dutifully mainstreaming fringe conspiracy my lord

Do you mean his Sunday morning interview on Fox? He was throwing everything out there--Hillary's health, Lewinsky-era charges, etc. I think he's going to take on the role that Pence (who seems invisible right now) either isn't interest in or isn't very good at.

the hillary health thing particularly, what a scumbag

but he's America's mayor

I don't think anybody posted this last week:

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-appalling-last-act-of-rudy-giuliani

My recollection was that he was just as slimy at the 2008 convention, contemptuously hissing out "community organizer," but I went back and looked at some of the speech on YouTube, and he was milder than I'd remembered.

his performance has def gotten wilder while still maintaining essentially the same subhuman core

the health thing especially seems like a whisper campaign if it were done by that one dude in high school who was incapable of lowering his voice to a whisper yet inexplicably persisted in trying to talk all the time in the library

I'm sure that all sorts of calculations have gone into this (although with Trump's terrible organization thus far, maybe not)--if we can only get x percent of the vote here, and x number of people out there--but Trump's apparent belief the last few days that he's going to win on the strength of the African-American vote is really, really strange.

he's more signaling to nervous white conservatives that voting for him is okay and doesn't make them racist than he is actually courting black voters

like it's all just a really elaborate version of some of my best friends are black

the fact that trump literally closed his pitch to black voters by yelling WHAT THE HELL HAVE U GOT TO LOSE is blowing my mind

the only people who thought it was a good speech are white conservatives whose "concern" for black people ONLY EVER comes up during flailing attacks on their political nemesis.

trump camp has totally walked this back fwiw he was prob just telling a room full of ppl what he thought they wanted to hear

Would be a hilarious fall if Trump stayed in the news by completely reversing all of his positions.

the only people who thought it was a good speech are white conservatives whose "concern" for black people ONLY EVER comes up during flailing attacks on their political nemesis.

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Sunday, August 21, 2016 5:31 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

these are the same people who said "What are you guys talkin about, he clearly said he DIDN'T want the thanks for being right" after his post-Pulse comments.

he's more signaling to nervous white conservatives that voting for him is okay and doesn't make them racist than he is actually courting black voters

Agree that's a large part of it, but I also think Trump's side knows they can't win today with just white conservatives--I think there's an 11th hour bid to win some black support. Whether their behind-closed-doors goal is a) more than the 1% they polled last week, b) enough to avoid a rout, c) enough to help with house/senate races, or d) enough to actually win, I don't know.

If they'd done all this as soon as they'd secured the nomination, it might have been welcome (although just as transparently phony). Doing so the third week of August, and with Trump's typical bombast, is just weird.

Trump treats politics like a fire sale.

By "Trump's side," I mean the new brain-trust he's brought in--Kellyanne Conway, specifically, who I suspect is the driving force behind all this.

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

hmm

However, if the wife votes for Hillary...

but it does help put those years in perspective xp

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/magazine/the-easiest-way-to-get-rid-of-racism-just-redefine-it.html

It’s not that anyone denies that institutional racism once existed. But the belief now is that systemic racism is a national cancer that was excised long ago, in an operation so successful it didn’t even leave lasting effects. All that remains is individual hatred in the souls of the most monstrous among us — or else, depending on whom you ask, in vengeful minorities who want to nurse grievances and see whites suffer for the sins of past generations. Through the willful perversion of shared history, whites have been able to appropriate the victimhood of minorities and, in an audacious reversal, insist that an obvious thing isn’t real — otherwise known as gaslighting. And as in any case of sustained abuse, gaslighting is integral to institutional racism.

^^ Great piece, thanks for sharing

Ha ha...

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/767685048703279104

Some day, when things calm down, I'll tell the real story of @JoeNBC and his very insecure long-time girlfriend, @morningmika. Two clowns!

Keep waiting for that pivot, folks.

If trump wins I'm not talking to any of you ever again. (That was meant to be a threat, but I suppose it could be the opposite)

the best, most beautiful pivoting

Some day, when things calm down, I'll tell the real story of @JoeNBC and his very insecure long-time girlfriend, @morningmika. Two clowns!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2016

Tried watching low-rated @Morning_Joe this morning, unwatchable! @morningmika is off the wall, a neurotic and not very bright mess!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

Neurotic and not very bright? Look in the mirror. https://t.co/FPaqGW9JWv

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC)

More cannibalization. A friend of mine who's much more familiar with the show than I am (don't have MSNBC--I'll see clips occasionally) says it fawned over Trump in the early stages, and gave him a more vocal platform (daily calls), than anyone.

It's true -- they started the trend of letting him call in.

cool and considerate

http://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2016/08/florida-congressional-candidate-goes-on-twitter-tirade-104864

here's another sterling republican running for office:
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/32805595/republican-congressional-candidate-apologizes-for-incendiary-comments-toward-japanese-people

The end of that article is truly special:

Hawaii Republican Party Chair Fritz Rohlfing said in a statement Friday Kaaihue's comments "do not represent the views, values, or the sentiments of our Party and its members."

"Her vulgar, racially-bigoted, and religiously-intolerant descriptions of Democratic Party candidates are offensive, shameful, and unacceptable in public discourse. I unconditionally denounce her despicable statements. I strongly urge all Hawaii Republicans to join me in disavowing her candidacy."

Kaaihue says she doesn't care what the republican chair says about her.

"Well he's nobody, that's what he is. He's a nobody, and he should be replaced, that's what I think," said Kaaihue.

Also, what in the world at attacking Japanese Americans *in Hawaii*? That's a Pete Wilson/Prop 187 self-own right there.

"Well he's nobody, that's what he is. He's a nobody, and he should be replaced, that's what I think,"

the trumpification of political speech is not a good look for humanity. pls stop

there's a lot i don't get about ethnic politics in HI and i don't think reading that facebook screenshot has made it any clearer to me