The Politics Thread

[Vee]

Hillary attacks Trump's link to the alt right. Great speech.

[JaneAusten]

Thanks for sharing Vee. It's a shame it was necessary. I think the moments that will resonate is when she talked about the children at schools trying to intimidate minority athletes using racial slurs and Trump campaign signs, like if a presidential candidate can do his why can't I. And also the quotes from various leaders in the GOP(the Dole one really stuck me) over the years against racism and bigotry really stuck out. She did a great job IMO. I always feel both Clintons do so well when faced with adversity and particularly when backed into a corner.

[Vee]

Hillary's also doing Morning Joe tomorrow, which is smart IMO. Take the fight directly to the portion of the media most desperate to feed a fading false equivalency and try to keep the horse race going. It's not working, but it hasn't stopped a lot of the cable outlets from struggling to push it this week in the hopes of reviving the race and numbers, despite the public vocally deciding that the Clinton Foundation isn't really a story ('but the optics!' the media keeps whining, even as their latest hope for Both Sides Do It slips away). Faced with her they'll buckle.

[Vee]

Who's next?

[ReddFoxx]

I really think Hillary's speech is going to cause Trump to have another meltdown, because he hates being called out.

[Vee]

Ann Coulter - touring with her new book calling Trump the anti-immigration savior - is humiliated as he rolls out his confused, disastrous flipflop on immigrants on Day 1 of her tour.

 

Josh Marshall covers Trump's latest disastrous week, and this isn't even counting the Bannon domestic abuse reveal or Hillary's devastating speech.

[Vee]

Everyone should watch all of this. She was on fire and when you have well-known Republican pundits calling it probably the best speech of her political career - in which she ends it by shaming the GOP establishment - that says something.

 

Trump, of course, is already melting down over it. Again.

 

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[DRW50]

The only part I pause at is that a lot of white voters - and a media that enables racism - will blanch at her openly saying he's a racist (even though he is). Still, I respect her for saying it. 

 

Coulter's meltdown has been a hoot, as has, even though I dislike the man, Jeb's "We can believe what he says until he changes his mind again tomorrow" gloating statement. 

 

Maybe some on the far right are finally realizing he will say and do anything and means none of it - unless you're Putin.

[Vee]

No, I don't agree. At this point most white voters are against Trump. More will blanch at these graphic details. Trump's clumsy actions over the last week have been a blundering attempt to calm them, and this buries that.

 

The order for a lot of the media though was to try and keep this a race, so a lot of shows tried to deflect from the speech by asking if Hillary 'went too far' calling Trump a racist and tying him directly to these people, which is so offensive and stupid. But that didn't get much traction and they got huge pushback, especially from Republicans like Andrew Weinstein, a former Dole campaign manager who got antisemitic death threats online recently. When he told his story on Hardball he basically horrified and silenced Chris Matthews, who was trying to push the 'too far?' frame. It's not going to fly - the story instead for the day was her hanging Trump with this and these people, and it's going to keep coming.

 

Again, I honestly think most of the media wants Trump to lose. But the thing to remember is that there's a glib amorality to too many people at the networks where their cash flow and rarefied world keeps them well-insulated from the real-world consequences of so much of this stuff - instead, they view it as a simple ratings game, and figure Trump can't win but is great entertainment, plus they still need their numbers so they have to kabuki it and play up any angle to keep him propped up like "Weekend at Bernie's", like suggesting Hillary 'went too far' even if many at the networks surely know she didn't. Plus most of them just don't like her, so there you go.

 

Crazy old Jennifer Rubin at the Post said Hillary's speech was genius and that her party (the GOP) had to own it because a Republican should have made it months ago. She is right.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Vee

[Vee]

The bitchy tweets from GOP/right wing loyalists who despise Trump are always incredibly entertaining:

 

 

[GMac]

That was a fantastic speech.  All things that desperately needed to be said, but more importantly was the way she said them.  I like HRC, but she tends to come across rehearsed.  Overly rehearsed.  

 

Not here, though.  It was heartfelt, comfortable, genuine.  I loved it and agree that it is the single most impressive speech that she's ever made.  

[DRW50]

Watched the speech. I thought she did a good job. It was a well-written speech in that she had to download a lot of somewhat clumsy information while still seeming approachable, and she just about managed it. I've heard people say these groups shouldn't have gotten free publicity from her, but they already get lots of attention whether she shines a light on them or not. It won't stop the media from doing the "both sides are calling each other racist, it's so nasty!" song and dance, but I guess she knows that. It is at least a way to shame Trump and anyone who tries to whitewash what he enables. And it's something that needed to be said. 

[Vee]

Steve Bannon - in addition to the domestic violence incident - may have committed voter fraud. And failed to pay his taxes.

[Ms. Quartermaine]

Snippet of Trump's doctor on NBC...

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2016 by Ms. Quartermaine

[Vee]

So apparently he's the mad scientist from Independence Day.

 

Breitbart's landlord is a Muslim businessman.

Edited August 27, 2016 by Vee