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RNC Recap

If you missed the first day of the Republican National Convention (like me, I was off on an island for the day, with no electricity or internet) Electoral Vote has a concise summary you should read.

Quick summaries of the delegate revolt that was quashed, Paul Ryan’s vanishing act, red meat from Rudy Giuliani and from the mother of one of the Benghazi victims (you just knew they had to talk about Benghazi, right?). I’m sure everyone has heard about Trump’s wife plagiarized parts of her speech from Michelle Obama’s speech at the 2008 Democratic convention. But did you hear that Donald Trump couldn’t stand not being the center of attention 100% of the time, and called into Fox News, which got Fox to cut away from the convention right in the middle of a speech.

Mark Kaufman
© Mark Kaufman

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Gun Rights or Gun Whites?

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© Matt Bors

I’ve noticed that reasoning — “he had a gun” used as an excuse for the police shooting someone (even to the point of police planting a gun on a dead person). So if that is considered a good reason for the police to shoot someone, then how can the NRA keep telling us that everyone should be carrying a gun?

And you know that when I say “someone”, I really mean a person of color.

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Late Night Political Humor

[Jokes from June 28, 2016]

“Donald Trump appears to be softening some of his anti-immigration views lately. So it sounds to me like someone’s shopping for a new wife.” – Conan O’Brien

“Today, Democrats said the committee investigating Hillary Clinton’s involvement with Benghazi was a ‘witch hunt.’ Hillary tried to respond, but just then a house fell on her.” – Conan O’Brien

“Just yesterday, Rio’s acting governor warned the Olympics could be a ‘big failure’, which is actually an improvement, because until yesterday, it looked like a massive catastrophe.” – Stephen Colbert

“Corruption and crime aren’t the only things plaguing the Olympics. There’s also actual plague, because fear over the Zika virus, which can cause birth defects, has led some athletes to stay home and others to take special precautions, like freezing their sperm. ‘What’s going on in there?’ ‘Don’t open the door. I’m training for the Olympics!'” – Stephen Colbert

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Revenge!

Why did Trump pick Mike Pence as his VP, when he really wanted Chris Christie? It is likely because Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner — who is also Trump’s de facto campaign manager — has not forgiven Christie for putting his father, Charles Kushner, in prison, back when Christie was a US attorney. In 2005, Charles Kushner was convicted for making illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.

What a family.

UPDATE: Be sure to read “Mike Pence: Sarah Palin Without The Charisma“. Did you know that Trump hired the same person who vetted Sarah Palin to vet Mike Pence? Or that a former colleague in Congress said of him “Pence, smart? I used to eat salads at the Rayburn cafeteria that had more brains than Mike Pence.” Or that Indiana Republicans are so tired of Pence that they wanted Trump to pick him so they could get rid of him?

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Slavery and the Civil War

civil-war-slavery

Those of us who have lived in the south have seen in person that some people there are still fighting the civil war. They think that losing the actual war was a temporary setback that they will someday overcome. It has almost turned into a religious war, which is why the KKK had such religious overtones. They are the chosen people who will take back America.

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Late Night Political Humor

[Jokes from June 27, 2016]

“Because of England’s Brexit vote, there’s now talk in Scotland and Northern Ireland about leaving the UK. And when I say ‘talk,’ I mean loud, angry, incomprehensible talk.” – Conan O’Brien

“Critics are calling those in Britain who voted to pull out of the European Union ‘racist’ and ‘anti-immigrant.’ After hearing this, Donald Trump said, ‘Wow, I’m running for leader of the wrong country.'” – Conan O’Brien

“Over the weekend, Bernie Sanders’ press secretary left his campaign. Bernie said, ‘Now it’s just me and my podiatrist.'” – Conan O’Brien

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Positions

Garry Trudeau
© Garry Trudeau

Donald Trump seems to be the master of being everything to everybody, sometimes taking contradictory positions in the same day. Which should mean that people will figure out that you can’t believe anything he says. Instead, his run-on mouth seems to be working for him, giving him tons of free media exposure. And the people who support him don’t seem to care if he lies to them. He’s almost like an abusive spouse, whose victim is willing to forgive him for any transgression.

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Late Night Political Humor

[Jokes from June 23, 2016]

“The UK officially voted to leave the European Union. It caused the British pound to hit a 31-year low. You could tell Brits were struggling today. Queen Elizabeth was wearing one of those cardboard crowns from Burger King.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Following the vote, British Prime Minister David Cameron actually resigned, saying that the country needs new leadership. An American was like, ‘Can you start here next January?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“It was such an important vote and it’s good to know that people were making an informed decision. Check out the number two trending topic in the UK while people voted whether or not to leave the EU. ‘What is the EU?’ Half the Britons thought they were voting to leave the ‘EW’.” – Jimmy Fallon

“President Obama is apparently interested in owning an NBA team after he leaves office. You’ll know it’s Obama’s team when they travel too much and never pass anything.” – Jimmy Fallon

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Reality is Strange

Tom Tomorrow
© Tom Tomorrow

While it is true that the world is a better place than it has ever been in the past, it is still sad to think that we are doomed to continue fighting racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry and intolerance for a long time.

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Late Night Political Humor

[Jokes from June 23, 2016]

“Democrats held a big sit-in on the House floor to protest Congress’ refusal to vote on gun control. Or in other words, Democrats were tired of Congress not getting anything done, so they refused to get anything done until someone got something done.” – Jimmy Fallon

“House Democrats staged a dramatic 26-hour sit-in on the floor of the House to force a vote on background check provisions. The Democrats decided to get the Republicans’ attention by doing something they can relate to: sitting on their butts and getting nothing done.” – James Corden

“Democrats staged a 26-hour sit-in on the floor of the House to try to force a vote on new gun control legislation. You know the state of our Congress is terrible when you see a bunch of politicians sitting on their asses and you think to yourself, ‘Wow, they’re finally doing something!'” – Seth Meyers

“The sit-in in the House of Representatives is pretty dramatic. It is so rare that Congress does anything interesting. So I want to take a moment to say something I never thought I would: ‘Thank you Congress for sitting on your ass.'” – Stephen Colbert

“Yesterday House Speaker Paul Ryan referred to the Democratic-led sit-in for gun control as ‘nothing more than a publicity stunt’. He then added, ‘Now if you’ll excuse me, my party’s nominee has a WWE match to fight.'” – Seth Meyers

“After the protest began, Paul Ryan declared a recess and cut off C-SPAN’s live feed. Now, personally, I don’t want to live in a world where Paul Ryan decides what’s on TV. I’m guessing it would just be P90X infomercials and ‘Top Gun’ 24 hours a day.” – Stephen Colbert

“Last night’s sit-in by Congressional Democrats was live-streamed and got over 3 million views. Which is why today, Congress got picked up for two seasons on Netflix.” – Conan O’Brien

“After ending their 26-hour sit-in, House Democrats vowed to continue fighting for gun control when Congress resumes in July. Because it’s going to take that long for some of these guys to get up off the floor.” – Seth Meyers

“The truth is the sit-in failed to force a vote, but it was a huge success in at least one way: It finally bumped Donald Trump out of the news for 24 hours — which, seriously, thank you Democrats.” – James Corden

“Donald Trump is actually taking a break from the campaign to go visit his golf resort in Scotland tomorrow. Right after he leaves the U.S., Republicans will say, ‘Quick! Build the wall!'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Trump’s campaign isn’t doing so well financially. A recent report said his campaign even spent over $100,000 for meals just last month. Trump was like, ‘Well, that’s the price you pay for hiring Chris Christie.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“In response to Hillary Clinton’s slogan ‘I’m with her’, Donald Trump debuted his new slogan, ‘I’m with you’. Then Bernie Sanders debuted his new slogan, ‘I’m still here, dammit!'” – Conan O’Brien

“Bernie Sanders still hasn’t officially dropped out of the race for president, but earlier today, he gave a speech with the theme ‘Where do we go from here?’ I think he was basically asking the crowd for directions back to Vermont.” – Jimmy Fallon

“House Speaker Paul Ryan has unveiled a Republican alternative to Obamacare. It’s called ‘Dying at 50’.” – Conan O’Brien

“It’s been reported that after leaving office, President Obama is considering owning an NBA team. They say Obama wants to be an NBA owner because it’s his only chance to get someone on the court.” – Conan O’Brien

“In its last few days before break, the Supreme Court has been arguing about race, immigration, and abortion. So basically, the Supreme Court has become most people’s families at Thanksgiving.” – Conan O’Brien

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Spammer Trump

You know how Donald Trump raised money last month? By sending out YUUUGE amounts of email spam! I never imagined that anything could be worse than spam clogging up my inbox, but spam from a racist billionaire begging for money?

Trump sent out so much spam that he was cut off by his bulk email vendor. They said they shut him down because the “email in question has raised serious security and legal concerns”.

We’ve already noted that he sent email to numerous foreign politicians, but it turns out that he sent even more to lots of foreigners, even though legally they are not allowed to donate to his campaign, and it would be illegal for his campaign to accept donations for foreigners. But why would that stop Trump?

According to companies that monitor spam, a stunning 79% of fundraising emails from Trump were caught in spam filters, a number which is considered “very high” even in the spam industry. This made Trump’s campaign likely one of the biggest spamming operations out there at the moment.

In all, just 12% of recipients opened Trump’s email, but that is someone balanced by the fact that he sent an estimated 30 to 50 million emails.

Lee Judge
© Lee Judge

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Nailed It!

I highly recommend that you read a new article in Medium by Bernie Sanders. It hits all the bases, including making the point that in order to get progressive reforms, we must elect progressive candidates at all levels of government, not just at the top.

I (once again) thank Sanders for making it ok to be a liberal and a progressive. The right almost succeeded in turning the word “liberal” into an insult. The right had their chance to govern this country, and they shot themselves in the foot, repeatedly. But now, how can anyone look at where we were as George W Bush was leaving office, and where we are now, and argue that we aren’t much better off now.

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Swing State Stunner

While national polls are pretty consistent in showing Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump, you have to remember that darn Electoral College, which makes national polls next to meaningless. The important thing is who wins the swing states.

And in new polls of swing-states, Trump is leading Clinton in the mother of all swing states, Florida. He’s also leading in Pennsylvania, and tied in Ohio. The same polls show that Clinton has higher unfavorable ratings in those same three states than Trump.

So if you think that Trump has absolutely no chance of winning the election and becoming president, think again.

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If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em

[Helen Philpot from Margaret and Helen has a good rant about Donald Trump.]

Margaret, which voters have their heads farther up their asses, Trump supporters or Brexit voters? Wait a minute. Is it farther or further? I don’t know, but either way the asshats they are now wearing aren’t making anyone great again.

I know I offended some Bernie fans when I posted my support of Hillary. But let’s be clear on how the cow ate the cabbage. We need to get on the same team or we’re gonna end up a lot deeper in the shitter than the Brits. If Donald Trump wins this election, the only Bern anyone will be feeling is heartburn.

Donald thinks the way to handle terrorists is to fight fire with fire. According to him, water boarding is bad but it’s no worse than what the terrorist do. So Donald’s plan to deal with terrorists is to be more like the terrorists? In my book, that’s kind of like solving gun violence by giving more people guns. No wait…

You know what? I give up. If violence is your answer then you are too stupid to be asked the question in the first place. Donald’s response to terrorism is torture. His response to a global financial crisis is to celebrate the increase in greens fees at his Scottish golf club. His response to abortion is to punish the woman. His response to immigration is racism. His response to Orlando is to double down on racism. His response to a debate question about sexism is to attack the female moderator. His response to a disability is to mock the disabled.

I’m willing to agree to disagree with the Bernie supporters about who is the better Democratic nominee. In the end, I think we can find common ground. But Donald doesn’t like common ground because he can’t develop it for a profit. News Flash: his supporters aren’t looking for common ground. They (and their leader) seem to prefer scorched earth.

I wish I had something funny to write. I really do. But this isn’t funny anymore. I mean it. Really.

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Donald and Hobbes

I always knew that Bill Watterson was a genius, but who knew that he could predict the future? And kudos for whoever (DeForester?) pasted in Trump’s face.

Donald and Hobbes

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Donald and Hobbes

Donald and Hobbes

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