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Off the Deep End?

Donald Trump seems have lost it, and is being reduced to lunatic raving in order to get attention. On Thursday, he just kept repeating his accusations that Barack Obama is the founder of the Islamic State (despite the fact that the IS was founded in 1999, ten years before Obama became president, and even before Obama was elected to the Senate in 2005).

How bad is it? On the conservative Hugh Hewitt radio show, Hewitt even offered Trump a way out by suggesting “I know what you meant. You meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace.” But Trump would have none of that, replying “No I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. I do.”

Hewitt tried again, saying about Obama, “But he’s not sympathetic to them. He hates them. He’s trying to kill them.” Trump, of course, doubles down, “I don’t care. He was the founder.”

According to Electoral Vote, Trump is caught in a “downward spiral“. Paul Krugman calls it a “derp spiral” because you have to consider that losing makes Trump behave even crazier.

Many Republican politicians rallied around Trump during the convention because there was a chance he could win. But now that Trump has started stinking like a loser, they will desert him like rats on a sinking ship. And the donors, campaign volunteers, and staffers will follow, along with any moderate or independent voters left.

And perhaps, deep down, Trump realizes this. When asked how he would win the election, Trump said he would “Just keep doing the same thing I’m doing right now. At the end it’s either going to work or I’m going to, you know, I’m going to have a very, very nice long vacation.” Let’s just hope that vacation is as long as possible.

UPDATE: Trump is now pathetically trying to claim he was just being sarcastic about Obama founding ISIS. What bullshit. Trump wouldn’t know sarcasm if it hit him in the face.

UPDATE2: After saying he was just being sarcastic, at a rally Friday afternoon he said “So I said, the founder of ISIS. Obviously I’m being sarcastic. Then, then — but not that sarcastic, to be honest with you.“.

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Late Night Political Humor

[Jokes from July 28, 2016]

“Tonight Hillary Clinton gave her big speech at the Democratic Convention, officially accepting the nomination for president. The speech went well, but the lightning shooting from her hands was a bit much.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Hillary Clinton broke the glass ceiling, and just in case that point was lost on you, with Trump so close to the presidency, Hillary just became the largest ‘break glass in case of emergency’ ever.” – James Corden

“Donald Trump vowed that when he is president he will replace the broken glass ceiling with a reinforced titanium steel ceiling and that women are going to pay for it.” – James Corden

“Hillary Clinton said tonight that Donald Trump has taken the Republican Party from Ronald Reagan’s ‘Morning in America’ to ‘Midnight in America’. Which frankly is a little insulting those of us who come on at 1:00 a.m. Midnight is not terrible.” – Seth Meyers

“Morgan Freeman narrated Hillary Clinton’s introduction video at the DNC, and for some reason, Hillary gave her speech as Morgan Freeman tonight.” – Seth Meyers

“Hillary Clinton gave her big speech at the Democratic Convention this evening. And there was an awkward moment when she finished the speech and said, ‘Now where’s my check?'” – Conan O’Brien

“After Hillary spoke tonight, instead of the balloon drop, Bill Clinton should have climbed to the top of the rafters and released all the old condoms he had.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Hillary’s choice for running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, gave a speech last night where he revealed that not only does he habla español, he can do a Donald Trump impression. He did such a convincing job that Tim Kaine is now leading Hillary Clinton by 3 percent.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“During President Obama’s speech last night, he referred to Donald Trump as a ‘home-grown demagogue’. In response, Trump supporters said ‘Hey — two syllable words only!'” – Conan O’Brien

“During his big speech, President Obama said that no matter how many times Hillary Clinton gets knocked down, she always gets back up. At which point, he was accused of plagiarizing his speech from Chumbawamba.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Last night, President Obama gave Mrs. Clinton a powerful endorsement, at the end of which, she joined him on stage for an embrace that was about as awkward as when the groom dances with his mother-in-law at a wedding.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Vice President Joe Biden spoke at the convention last night. He walked out to the theme from the movie Rocky. I’m guessing that’s how he enters everywhere he goes.” – Seth Meyers

“After Joe Biden used the word ‘malarkey’ in his speech, it became the most searched word on the internet. Mostly from people who thought ‘malarkey’ was a new Pokémon.” – Conan O’Brien

“Bill Clinton said he watched all six Police Academy movies with his daughter Chelsea, which got awkward when Chelsea was like, ‘That wasn’t me’.” – James Corden

“When George W. Bush saw this, he was like, ‘Pfft, a few days? I did that for eight years.'” – James Corden

“Former Republican Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg spoke at the DNC last night. He told the crowd Hillary Clinton understands this is not reality television. Though if it were, she is not here to make friends!” – Seth Meyers

“Bradley Cooper was spotted at the Democratic Convention and it angered conservatives because he portrayed Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in American Sniper. These are the same people who were angry when they learned that Ben Affleck isn’t really Batman.” – Conan O’Brien

“Donald Trump told reporters yesterday that he doesn’t know who Vladimir Putin is. He then paused and went, ‘Oh, you mean Vlad? Yeah, of course I know Vlad.'” – Seth Meyers

“Today, Donald Trump said that when he asked Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails he was being ‘sarcastic’. Which makes sense — if anyone understands comedy, it’s the Russians.” – Conan O’Brien

“Trump wants to build a wall and bring in foreign workers. It’s like he’s playing a game of tic-tac-toe against himself. Or maybe this is a Telemundo prank show. We sent a bunch of workers to the United States. Wait until they find out who their new boss is.” –Jimmy Kimmel

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This is How Democrats Will Take Back the Senate

Ann Kirkpatrick is running for the Senate against John McCain. She has released a devastating ad that directly links McCain to Donald Trump, while showing Trump saying nasty things about McCain. This is how Democrats can use Trump as a weapon against Republicans:

I’m noticing that Republican politicians are slowly announcing that they are not supporting Trump. Some have even gone as far as to announce that they are going to vote for Hillary Clinton. Why did they wait so long? Because they didn’t want to say anything against Trump during their primary. Primaries are increasingly partisan, forcing Republicans to swing to the right (or at least not piss off the wing-nuts). But after the primaries are over, they have to swing the other way. I expect that we will see more and more Republicans distance themselves from Trump in the future, as each state has their primaries and the winner stops being afraid of revealing what they really think about Trump.

Robert Ariail
© Robert Ariail

Drew Sheneman
© Drew Sheneman

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Trump Says No to Transparency

During the Republican primary, Donald Trump claimed he couldn’t be bought. Well, it sure looks like he is now for sale. He’s even bragging about how much money is being donated to his campaign. And what’s worse, we have no idea who is buying him. Trump is refusing to name any of his fundraising bundlers.

The executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics says “The fact that he has not released his bundlers is very upsetting. This is a basic piece of information that the voters need: Who is bankrolling the campaign? And who are the bag men who are holding out the bags collecting the contributions?”

Indeed, Hillary Clinton has already voluntarily released the names of her bundlers who have raised at least $100,000, and the Clinton campaign discloses the name and location of all fundraisers that either she or Tim Kaine attend. And, of course, she has released decades of tax returns. Trump refuses to do any of this.

A spokesperson for “Every Voice”, a group working to reducing the influence of money in politics, said “Trump spent his entire primary campaign calling his opponents puppets of big donors and now some of those same big donors are raising money for his campaign. He’s been all talk and no action on money in politics.”

Trump has simultaneously flipped “from attacking donors to soliciting [money from] them, from bashing super PACS to embracing them, from promising to release his taxes to refusing.” Trump claimed that Sheldon Adelson was backing Marco Rubio during the primary “because he feels he can mold him into his perfect little puppet.” But now it is Trump who is taking money from Adelson.

And Trump is already paying his big donors back for their money. His newly named economic advisory council is filled with campaign contributors who have chipped in more than $2 million.

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Stalling Tactics

Last night, Donald Trump announced that his wife Melania will hold a press conference sometime “over the next couple of weeks” to address allegations that she violated US immigration laws by working illegally in the US.

Who is willing to bet that no such news conference will actually happen, and that Trump is just trying to get the story out of the news cycle? After all, he is doing the same thing about plenty of other allegations.

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Voter Fraud?

Many Republican controlled states have passed voter fraud laws, which make it much harder for people (cough, Democratic-leaning voters) to vote.
Electoral Vote has a short, pointed article about voter fraud, pointing out what a fraud it is. Here’s an excerpt (and by excerpt, I mean about half the whole article):

From time to time we see an article in which the author cites the case of someone who impersonated a voter as a test and got a ballot. From one or two instances, the author concludes in-person voter fraud must be rampant. An analogy could be made with tiger teams trying to smuggle weapons onto airplanes. Often the latter works. But there is a huge difference between the two exercises. If one person smuggles one weapon onto one plane, it could result in a plane crash, with hundreds of people being killed. If one fraudulent voter manages to vote illegally, it is not going to change an election result, except maybe for dogcatcher in a town with seven voters.

Consider what it would take to actually change, say, a congressional election. The closest congressional election in 2012 was in IL-13, where Rodney Davis (R) defeated David Gill (D) 137,034 votes to 136,032. To flip that election, Gill would have had to get 1,003 people to vote for him illegally. How would one recruit 1,003 people to cast fraudulent votes? Place an ad on Craigslist or in the local newspaper? Probably not a great idea, since asking people to commit a felony is not something you want to get caught doing. Maybe a radio spot? Attend a meeting of the College Democrats and pass out a flyer? Remember, this has to be done very covertly. Once you explain to an interested party what you want, most of them are going to sense you are asking them to commit a crime, even if they don’t know the exact penalty. Most likely you are going to have to talk to thousands of people to get 1,003 who agree. Obviously, there is a great danger that more than a few of the people who you approach and who say “no” might go to the police.

In short, even flipping the closest congressional seat would be an extremely difficult and risky process, with thousands of people knowing about it, any of whom could expose the scheme. When considering Voter ID laws, and other “anti-fraud” measures, this microscopic chance of fraudulent voting changing an election result has to be weighed against the very real possibility of thousands of actual voters being disenfranchised because they lack voting credentials and are unable to overcome barriers intentionally put in place to make it difficult to get them.

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Late Night Political Humor

[Jokes from July 27, 2016]

“Tonight, President Obama is going to make a speech trying to convince people to vote for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump. It’s a speech entitled, ‘I Can’t Believe This Is Necessary.'” – Conan O’Brien

“The first sentence of Bill Clinton’s speech was “In the spring of 1971, I met a girl.” You can imagine the relief in the room when they realized he was talking about Hillary.” – Conan O’Brien

“Last night Bill Clinton said the first two times he proposed to Hillary, she said no. Clinton then said, “So let’s stop all this talk about Hillary’s bad judgement.” – Conan O’Brien

“After Michelle Obama’s speech where she said the White House was built by slaves, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said the slaves who built the White House were “well fed” and had “decent lodging.” Leave it to Fox News to provide a fair and balanced view of slavery.” – Conan O’Brien

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Manchurian Candidate?

Ruben Bolling
© Ruben Bolling

Can Donald Trump really be called a Manchurian candidate if he betrays his country willingly?

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Late Night Political Humor

[Jokes from July 26, 2016]

“Of course, it’s the Democratic Convention, which began last night. There were several big moments, and by the end, everyone was chanting ‘I’m With Her!’ Unfortunately for Hillary, they were talking about Michelle Obama.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Experts are saying that the highlight of the Democratic Convention’s first night was Michelle Obama’s speech. In fact, Melania Trump said she already knows it by heart.” – Conan O’Brien

“The Democrats have had some impressive speakers so far. Last night Michelle Obama delivered her second convention speech of the week. The first lady made a very powerful point. She noted that she and her husband wake up every day in a house built by slaves. To which Donald Trump replied, ‘Really? Can I get the name of your contractor?'” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Michelle gave a really big speech last night. But she wasn’t the only one. Bernie Sanders gave the final speech of the night, which kept being delayed by applause. Bernie was like, ‘Please stop with the clapping! You’ll make the lights go off and on!” – Jimmy Fallon

“Bernie Sanders said that he knows people are disappointed in the results of the primaries, saying, ‘I think it’s fair to say nobody is more disappointed than I am.’ At which point, Jeb Bush threw his empty Hagen Daazs container at the TV.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Bernie Sanders supporters were so angry last night that they booed each mention of Hillary Clinton’s name, and even booed the pastor leading the pre-convention prayer. Of course, this was Philadelphia. Booing is just how people exhale.” – Seth Meyers

“It was a big night for Bernie Sanders. You could tell. For the the first time ever it appears he combed his hair.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Boyz II Men opened up the Democratic Convention yesterday performing their hit ‘Motown Philly.’ Then they closed it out with Bernie Sanders singing ‘It’s so Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Democrats held a roll call vote today to formally elect Hillary Clinton as their party’s nominee. Delegates had the option of voting either ‘no’ or ‘ugh, fine.'” – Seth Meyers

“Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated by a major party in the United States, which even if she doesn’t win is going to look great on her resume.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“If Hillary wins, it will be interesting to see because Bill Clinton would be our nation’s first first man. Which is interesting. We’ve had a first man on the moon, a first man to climb Mount Everest, a first man to run a four-minute mile. Nobody ever thought to be just the first man. I guess Adam maybe was the first first man.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Bill Clinton spoke tonight. He was the major speaker of the evening. Of course he strongly supported his wife to be our next president. In a surprise move he asked Melania Trump to be his first lady.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Today, shortly before we taped the show, Hillary Clinton became the first female presidential nominee of a major party. So now little girls everywhere can say, ‘One day I’m gonna grow up and run against an insane reality TV star.'” – Conan O’Brien

“Yesterday at the DNC, Elizabeth Warren said, ‘Trump’s entire campaign is just one more late-night Trump infomercial.’ Trump called her ‘stupid’ then said, ‘But wait there’s more…” – Conan O’Brien

“Donald Trump is now leading Hillary Clinton by 28 points with white voters without a college degree. However, Hillary is ahead by 98 points with voters who went to Trump University.” –Conan O’Brien

“It’s being reported that 19 out of the 31 apartment buildings in the Rio Olympic Village are not ready yet. Today, Rio organizers asked, ‘How does everybody feel about a ‘Fall Olympics’?'” – Conan O’Brien

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Trumps Violated Immigration Laws

There is strong evidence that both Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump violated immigration laws.

Let’s start with Melania. There are lots of holes in her story of how she came to the US. She says she arrived in 1996 on a short-term visa, which would have made it illegal for her to work here. But a recently published set of nude photos of the would-be first lady were shot in the US in 1995. That would make her an undocumented worker and an illegal alien. You know, the kind that Trump is campaigning against. Or does the law not apply to his wife?

Trump has said “These are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay. I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse.” And yet, Trump himself abused this program at one of his companies, and he even ripped off the workers he brought into the country by refusing to pay them the salary they were promised in their contract. It is clear that the whole reason he was bringing in foreign workers was so that he could pay them less, which is illegal. In some cases he paid them pennies on the dollar.

His whole business career is filled with examples of him violating the law and cheating people. Why would anyone think he would be any different as president?

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Late Night Political Humor

[Jokes from July 25, 2016]

“The theme for the Democrats today at the Democratic Convention is ‘United Together.’ Which really is the best way to be united. So much better than being united apart.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Hillary Clinton’s main task this week is to divert attention from leaked DNC emails and other negative press. Hillary’s going to begin her speech with the rousing first line — ‘Hey, Look, There’s a Pokémon!'” – Conan O’Brien

“Tonight was the start of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where today the temperature was over 100 degrees. As if Hillary Clinton needed another reason to sweat. She went through two pantsuits.” – Jimmy Fallon

“In fact, it was so hot Hillary met with some Bernie supporters just for the chilly reception.” – Jimmy Fallon

“According to a poll, 90 percent of Bernie Sanders supporters plan to vote for Hillary Clinton in November. The other 10 percent plan to put their hand down the sink and then turn on the disposal.” – Conan O’Brien

“After the Republican Convention last week, the DNC was supposed to be the boring one. It was quite the opposite. Every time Hillary Clinton’s name was mentioned there were boos from Bernie Sanders fans. Even Bernie had to ask his supporters to calm down. After a year of telling them not to calm down. It’s like Chef Boyardee telling people to take it easy on the ravioli.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Earlier tonight, Bernie Sanders spoke at the Democratic National Convention. Sanders’ speech was interrupted by dozens of applause breaks and three pee breaks.” – Conan O’Brien

“First Lady Michelle Obama spoke tonight on the first day of the Democratic National Convention, while Melania Trump furiously took notes.” – Seth Meyers

“Hillary Clinton introduced her new running mate Senator Tim Kaine at an event in Miami this weekend. She found Kaine while searching a stock photo database for ‘white businessman’.” – Seth Meyers

“President Obama appeared on Face the Nation this weekend and said of Hillary Clinton, ‘She’s not always flashy, and there are better speechmakers, but she knows her stuff.’ Man, I’d hate to see Obama set somebody up on a blind date. ‘She’s got one wonky eye and she talks too much, but you don’t wanna die alone, do ya?'” – Seth Meyers

“Donald Trump will be holding a Q and A session on the online message board Reddit during the Democratic Convention this week — though Trump’s Q and A will be unique in that he will both ask and answer the questions. ‘Am I the most handsome candidate in history? Interesting question, thanks for asking. I will say, a lot of people think so.'” – Seth Meyers

“We may be seeing more Trumps in politics. In fact, Donald Trump’s son, Donald Jr., told CNN he hasn’t ruled out running for mayor of New York next year. When she heard that, Hillary Clinton turned to Chelsea and said, ‘Clear your schedule.'” – Jimmy Fallon

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Getting the Government We Deserve

I don’t have enough time to summarize this excellent article from Five Thirty Eight, but you should go read it. Politicians and others like to complain that elections are rigged, but this article says that the real rigging of our elections is being done by the voters themselves. It is short and easy to read — go read it.

My only complaint against the article is that it is short on solutions. It mentions changing to non-partisan primaries only in passing, even though this system is working very well in three states now. It also dismisses non-partisan redistricting as not helping enough, but I say that the problem is so serious that every little bit of help is required.

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Trump versus Trump

Believe it or not, Donald Trump sued people whose last name was actually “Trump” for using their own name.

It turns out that there is a company founded by brothers Eddie and Jules Trump called “The Trump Group”. They do a lot of real estate development in places like Florida, but when they tried to buy a business in the New York area, Donald Trump sued them, claiming that their “recent entrance in the New York area utilizing the name ‘the Trump Group’ can only be viewed as a poorly veiled attempt at trading on the goodwill, reputation and financial credibility of the plaintiff.”

He lost.

This is especially hilarious because Trump had a twitter war with Jon Stewart about the fact that Trump is actually not the Donald’s real family name (it’s Drumpf).

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Late Night Political Humor

[Jokes from July 21, 2016]

“Last night was night three of the Republican Convention, and if you thought the first two nights were exciting — then you really need to get out more.” – James Corden

“The Republican Convention had a theme each day, and today’s was ‘Make America One Again.’ Let’s be honest, that was not the first draft.” – Seth Meyers

“The big drama last night came courtesy of Sen. Ted Cruz, who chose not to endorse Donald Trump, even though they let him give a speech. There were a lot of boos for Ted Cruz. How dare he? One of the reasons he didn’t voice his support for Trump, he reportedly has plans to run for president again in 2020. Why not? It went so well this time.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Ted Cruz spoke in the convention last night and was loudly booed because he refused to support Donald Trump for president — and I’m surprised to learn that Ted Cruz has a backbone, considering that he has no face bones.” – Seth Meyers

“The big story of last night was that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, despite being invited by Donald Trump, refused to endorse him in his speech and this prompted the audience to boo him. I will say Ted Cruz was completely unfazed by the booing. I think it was because he thought they were going ‘Cruuuz,’ he’s like, Thanks guys, thank you, thank you.'” – James Corden

“Following the outrage that Cruz did not endorse Trump last night, Cruz’s wife, Heidi, was escorted from the convention by security as people yelled, ‘Goldman Sachs!’ Careful, Republicans — if you say it three times, Hillary will appear.” – Seth Meyers

“A lot of people are wondering why the Trump campaign would even invite Ted Cruz to speak at the convention in the first place. It turns out Ben Carson summoned him the night before by saying the word ‘Lucifer’ three times.” – Jimmy Fallon

“It was a good day for Ben Carson. He just signed a deal to be the new face of Tylenol PM.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s running mate Mike Pence gave a speech at the convention last night and even poked fun at the fact most people don’t know who he is. I guess even Donald Trump calls him ‘Vice President Hey Buddy’.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Traditionally the third night of the convention is supposed to be all about the VP pick and everyone was saying that the Ted Cruz fiasco overshadowed Trump’s VP Mike Pence. Even Trump doesn’t seem to like him that much. There was an awkward moment between them at the end of Pence’s speech [shows video of air-kiss]. They greeted each other the way you greet your girlfriend’s mom the first time. You’re like, ‘Are we going to — do we — we just kiss on the lips — muah — just kiss on the lips.'” – James Corden

“Following Mike Pence’s speech last night, Donald Trump joined his running mate on stage and appeared to make an air-kiss gesture to him, and Pence tried to send Trump to a gay re-education camp.” – Seth Meyers

“I really like Trump and Pence’s chemistry. You can tell these guys have been friends since all the way back on July 18th of 2016.” – James Corden

“In Cleveland tonight, Donald Trump officially accepted the Republican nomination. Throwing ‘Make America Great’ t-shirts into the crowd — not really, but it’s kind of believable, right?” – Jimmy Kimmel

“When he finished his speech, they dropped 125,000 balloons, poor Chris Christie spent all day blowing them up.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Ivanka Trump introduced her father tonight says he is color blind and gender neutral — which means that Trump cannot use the bathroom anywhere.” – Seth Meyers

“The Democrats support special labeling for GMO foods. Republicans support teen abstinence programs. So they can compromise, and now, teens have to wear labels telling everyone they’re virgins.” – Jimmy Fallon

“The Republicans want to defund Planned Parenthood. The Democrats want to stop Donald Trump from preventing access to birth control. They compromised, and now, Planned Parenthood will hand out pictures of Donald Trump as birth control.” – Jimmy Fallon

“There’s a new weather phenomenon, causing unusually high temperatures, expected to get up to 115 degrees in some states. So, don’t go to some of those states. And the fear is that the heat dome will turn into a thunderdome, and we’ll have to turn to Mad Max to help us.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“President Obama said to drink water, stay out of the sun, and check on your neighbors. Can you imagine checking on your neighbors in Los Angeles? And Donald Trump tweeting, ‘The sun is the worst. Hot, lazy, stupid, the sun is a big fat loser.'” – Jimmy Kimmel

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Trump’s Return

Jonathan Rosenberg
Jonathan Rosenberg Jonathan Rosenberg Jonathan Rosenberg Jonathan RosenbergJonathan Rosenberg
© Jonathan Rosenberg

We need to keep up the heat on Donald Trump to release his tax returns. That worked on Mitt Romney. One way to do that is to speculate on what could be in them that is so horrible that Trump would be afraid to release them. Trump likes to claim that he always tell the truth, that he is a straight shooter, and that he has nothing to hide. Let’s see those returns!

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