The Politics Thread

[Ms. Quartermaine]

Hillary press secretary says more medical records to come... 

[Vee]

Good lord, y'all need to calm down. No, Trump should not, cannot and in fact will not win the election - while some of you may have a 'perverse interest' in the idea I can promise you that for a lot of the rest of us around here it would even be catastrophic. Also, according to Nate Silver Trump's mild momentum in polls - where he could only attempt to catch up to Hillary - has completely stalled out.

 

And no, I do not think 90% of the media wants Trump to win. As Josh Marshall points out, they simply regard Trump as a buffoon and don't know how to cover his endless stream of lies, and many of them are too lazy and exhausted by him to keep bothering at all because they consider it repetitious. Plus, a lot of the Beltway press are just amoral, bored and bitchy about the Clintons in general. As for calling the debates doomed to be called for the Republican, yeah, I heard that same line about Romney too and look what happened. IIRC, Hillary is now polling ahead of where Obama was vs. Romney at this time.

 

As to news of the day: Putin views Trump as "an easily manipulated buffoon" subject to flattery and gifts. "According to Putin insiders, he sees Trump as a weaker, far more ignorant, wholly self-absorbed version of Neville Chamberlain. [...] Putin also knows Trump cannot resist a good deal, ie, that benefits him personally. If Trump were president, Putin knows he can offer bargain-basement terms on choice property in Moscow and in St Petersberg, for example, for Trump’s company to build hotels in exchange for geopolitical concessions from the U.S. that have no impact on Trump’s wealth."

 

Most importantly: The Trump Foundation has been taking its own charitable funds and giving them to Donald Trump to buy things for himself. And yes, this story is being carried on other outlets.

Edited September 12, 2016 by Vee

[JaneAusten]

I don't really have any interest in seeing Trump elected trust me. He would be a disaster in every respect but in terms of foreign policy, a total buffoon. I am just so disgusted with our MSM and frankly I don't buy that the exhausted aspect. At least WaPo is actually investing time and resources in this Foundation story so why not collaborate. Let them do this and get the times digging into his Russian connections. And if they are exhausted by Trump, why are they not exhausted by years of email crap with Hillary? Probably because it's easy pickings even if there is NOTHING there. I'm still angry the AP ran that story about the Clinton Foundation insinuating Pay for Play and when nothing came of it, did a tiny little retraction.

 

Unike Carl I don't think the debates will be rigged. I saw enough flack after the CIC forum. Matt Lauer justifiably got eviscerated but not just him. The subtleties were also against HRC. Her stool was too high, there was a constant flow of people walking way behind her while Trump got a stool just high height and no constant flow of people behind him. And even the MSM could see the questions were light weighted for Trump.

Edited September 12, 2016 by JaneAusten

[Vee]

I don't excuse them at all. And they absolutely have made a sport about chasing the Clintons for 20+ years - it is an institutional grudgefuck. But as Josh Marshall says, it's also that in the Beltway press bubble they widely consider Trump a crook and a buffoon already, and find it tiresome (amongst themselves) to keep covering more of his lowlife exploits that often amount to what they would consider the same punchline. They call it "just Trump being Trump" and throw it on the pile, while finding Clinton's secrecy more galling to their collective ego. It's a problem of both laziness and amorality, as well as not considering the public interest enough vs. their own.

Some outlets do hit him hard though, especially after having been called on the double-standard in recent weeks. They grudgingly began to move to cover the Bondi scandal, and I think this Trump Foundation story will be bigger. The debate pressure is now on them as well following Lauer's flameout.

[Roman]

good read...and very true.

[Vee]

Today in Trump troubles, aside from the developing scandal upthread: Mike Pence refuses to denounce David Duke, blames Hillary for smearing him. David Duke is now trending.

[JaneAusten]

By the way off topic, did everyone read about what happened yesterday at many of the NFL opening season games. I guess the president had a pre-recorded message to attendees prior to the game regarding the anniversary of 9/11. People booed him. Seriously you may not like the president but show some respect at least for the men and women who died on that day.

 

 Hypocrites. It's ok to boo president Obama and his tribute to the Americans who died on 9/11 but not ok for NFL players to kneel when the National Anthem gets played.

 

 

And Vee Mike Pence - he also said he hasn't heard anyone who seems to care about seeing Trump's tax returns. WTF is he talking about. They are asked about daily.

Edited September 12, 2016 by JaneAusten

[GMac]

I watched the CBS Evening News tonight.  Of course, they brought up the deplorable remark and showed Trump's "outrage".  However, they then cut to all the horrible things he's said since declaring his candidacy.  They called his ass out.  Good to see that.

 

Really, Trump denouncing her remark takes balls.  He obviously has no room to talk.

 

I would have rather her not said it at all, but it is what it is.

 

 

[JaneAusten]

Frankly I am glad she said it. Finally people are talking about Trump's nastiness where they have all been tap dancing around it.

[DRW50]

He also said that Trump's birtherism is "4 years ago," even though Trump has since refused to say he was wrong, and his surrogates like Rudy "Of course it's legal. It's a war" Fooliani have to lie that he's changed his mind. 

 

I can't stand that blithe bigot. I didn't realize until a few days ago some of the vile things said in his little newsletter back in the '90s - views he likely still supports. 

 

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/mike-pence-lamented-aids-activists-speaking-gop-convention-published-anti-gay-articles-india

 

http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/4336_001.pdf?_ga=1.234380446.161301739.1469202878

 

(this one is really really really NSFW and has explicit talk of fetishes and sex practices)

 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/09/01/mike_pence_gay_sex_essay_ronald_d_ray_on_homosexuals_in_the_military.html

[GMac]

I see your point and that is a positive result.  It comes down to the way she phrased it, and @Juliajms earlier said it perfectly.  The trait (racism, sexism, etc) is deplorable, not necessarily the person.  On the flip side, you would think that at some point in the life of someone that was taught to hate based on race, sex or orientation has an epiphany and realizes their false beliefs.

 

 

 

[DRW50]

I saw various Youtube clips of that Milo man chatting away on MSNBC, indulged by a host who was likely charmed by his accent. I have no respect for MSNBC as it is, but giving a platform for someone who riles up so much hatred guarantees I won't be watching their channel anytime soon.

[JaneAusten]

They still have him on. I mean he was banned from twitter and you know how much it takes for that to happen and MSNBC the alleged champion of progressives(vomiting) has that clown on. Disgusting. He had to be on with either Chuck Todd or Chris Matthews.

Julia was right and many of those people deserve pity but I can't feel sorry for someone who thinks just because someone is brown(their word) or wears a scarf they deserve to be beaten up or set on fire.

Edited September 13, 2016 by JaneAusten

[Ms. Quartermaine]

Trump Supporter Lynches Hillary Clinton Doll Over Interstate 5

 

http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/09/12/deranged-trump-supporter-lynches-hillary-clinton-doll-over-interstate-5-video/

 

[Vee]

This is what I mean by many of the press being lazy, in the privileged bubble (where Clinton has been denying the Beltway press for years) and amoral. From a new GQ profile of idiots undecided voters.

 

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This is an extreme example - I don't think most of the press is as passively pro-Trump as this anonymous idiot (who is getting roasted on Twitter). But I do think there are many lazy, pampered, insulated people in DC who see this all as just a big game that won't affect them, that see Trump as a doomed buffoon they don't need to report on seriously and that hold deep resentment towards the Clintons. The entitled, me-me-me attitude (and whining about the public not caring about the emails!) is the same.

 

Anyway, it's still not shared by the country at large: A new NBC poll has Hillary up 4.

Edited September 13, 2016 by Vee