Can there be any doubt that the main appeal of Donald Trump is racism and bigotry?
Of course, this is all Barack Obama’s fault. If he hadn’t gotten elected president (and he had the audacity to even be reelected), would there have been any need for Republicans to question his birth, his religion, or his morals?
And if Hillary Clinton gets elected, then the resulting sexism will be her fault.
[Jokes from June 7, 2016]
“Today, presidential primaries are being held in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Or, as it’s being reported in the media, California.” – Conan O’Brien
“It’s being reported that Hillary Clinton now has enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination. Hillary was so excited when she found out she asked her staff to schedule 15 seconds of smiling.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Hillary told her assistant to break out the champagne. And he said, ‘Actually you drank it all when Trump secured his nomination. Do you remember that?'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Hillary Clinton today responded to her status as the presumptive nominee, calling it a ‘historic, unprecedented moment’. Said Hillary, ‘Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would take this long.'” – Seth Meyers
“The Clinton folks aren’t happy about the media jumping the gun on her clinching it. She wanted to announce that at her victory rally tonight, so when she does announce, everyone please act like you didn’t see this coming.” – Stephen Colbert
“Hillary had to reach the threshold of 2,383 delegates to become the presumptive nominee. Hillary hasn’t been this excited about a threshold since the one she carried Bill over on their wedding night.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi said it would be great if Hillary Clinton picked a female running mate. She said it during a speech entitled ‘Hint Hint’.” – Conan O’Brien
“It looks like the general election will come down to Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump. Which is fitting, really, since she’ll be the first female nominee of her party, and he’ll be his party’s last nominee.” – Stephen Colbert
“Paul Ryan said what Trump is saying about a judge of Mexican heritage is the ‘textbook definition’ of a racist comment. Even worse, that textbook is made by Trump University.” – Jimmy Fallon
“House Speaker Paul Ryan described Donald Trump’s remarks about a Hispanic judge as a ‘textbook definition’ of racism. When they heard this, Trump supporters said, ‘You lost us at textbook.'” – Conan O’Brien
“It is being reported that Ivanka Trump is writing a book titled ‘Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules of Success.’ Which is better than the original title, ‘Help! My Dad’s a Nectarine!'” – Seth Meyers
“President Obama yesterday called the Denver Broncos one of the greatest defenses of all time. ‘Wow, thanks!’ said the Army.” – Seth Meyers
The (conservative) National Review reviews this week in Trump:
Trump on Thursday: Trump announces that he will persuade the NRA to support a law “not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns”. Up until then, love of guns was just about the only issue uniting all conservatives and Republicans. But Trump had to blow that.
Trump on Tuesday: The other issue uniting conservatives and Republicans (other than Libertarians) was love of the military and respect for America’s soldiers. So Trump suggests that American troops in Iraq were a bunch of thieves: “Iraq, crooked as hell. How about bringing baskets of money — millions and millions of dollars — and handing it out? I want to know who were the soldiers that had that job, because I think they’re living very well right now, whoever they may be.”
Trump’s campaign tried to claim that Trump was talking about Iraqi soldiers, but nobody sane believes that. Especially since last fall Trump said the same thing, but that time clearly about US soldiers.
And that’s not all. We’ve already discussed Trump’s insensitive remarks about the mass shooting in Orlando, and his dog whistles insinuating “that President Obama might be an ISIS sleeper agent”.
Is there anyone who has not been personally insulted by Trump? Not just all minorities, women, but now the entire Republican base.
It is enough to make conservatives suspect that Trump is purposely trying to hand the White House to Hillary Clinton while tarnishing the GOP’s brand for a generation.
At the very least, it is scaring the hell out of Republican politicians. They are so terrified, they are refusing to comment about Trump. On Tuesday, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell ran away from reporters, saying “I’m not going to be commenting on the presidential candidates today”. Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) said “I’m not gonna make a career out of responding to every comment and every tweet”. And Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) said “I have offered public encouragement at important times, but I must admit that I am personally discouraged by the results”.
National Review’s conclusion? “With Trump as the nominee, every Republican lawmaker will be left doing damage control every day for the remainder of the election.” They still think the Republicans should dump Trump at the convention and replace him with “any other Republican”.
UPDATE: And Trump keeps on being Trump. On Saturday Trump made fun of Bernie Sanders, saying “Crazy Bernie, he’s crazy as a bedbug but you know, he doesn’t quit”. Trump encouraged Sanders to stay in the fight against Clinton, taunting “If he gives up we’ll say ‘Bernie, you’re a loser, you gave up.’” Pissing off Sanders (or his supporters) is just the thing to get them to start fighting to get Clinton elected.
When are religious voters going to get tired of being jerked around by Republicans?
Last week at a supposedly religious event in Washington titled the “Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority” conference, social conservatives were told that Donald Trump is the only choice for evangelicals. Conference leader Ralph Reed cited Trump’s positions on abortion, gay marriage, and the list of socially conservative judges that Trump says he will appoint to the Supreme Court.
Which is complete bullshit. Trump “has been pro-choice most of his life, was and is pro-gay, and has no problem with transgender people using whatever bathroom they like.” Not to mention that Trump frequently swears in public, has bragged about his adultery, says derogatory things about women, and is no model of Christian charity or forgiveness. In fact, it seems like the only time Trump turns the other cheek is so he can lie out of both sides of his mouth. And why would anyone believe Trump’s list of Supreme Court appointees, when it seems more likely that he would appoint one of his children.
The most ironic part is how Reed explained away Trump’s complete lack of religious (and moral) values. He told the audience that they shouldn’t be searching for perfection in their political leaders, saying that there’s only one example of perfection in human history, “and that’s Jesus Christ. Unlike a lot of our friends on the other side, we’re not looking for a political Messiah. Because we already have a Messiah.”
And Reed added that God “uses imperfect people to achieve his perfect will.” Or He will, but only if you vote for Trump (even though Hillary Clinton is far more religious than Trump).
The conference also endorsed Trump’s proposed wall, and invoked the wall around Jerusalem as the reason why Trump’s wall to keep Mexicans out would work. Completely ignoring the fact that the current wall around Jerusalem was built by Sultan Suleiman when Jerusalem was part of the Ottoman Empire, and the wall before that was built to keep out the Crusaders (and the wall before that was built by the Romans, etc.). The Christians never built any wall around Jerusalem; several of the walls were specifically built to keep the Christians out.
But why let facts get in the way?
Stephen Colbert deciphers Trump’s statements about Obama:
UPDATE: Seth Meyers also takes an eloquent shot at Trump:
This segment points out Trump’s hypocrisy and lies. Like when Trump said “I’m far better for the gay community than [Hillary Clinton] is.” Meyers followed this with videos of one of the many times that Trump said that he is against gay marriage, and promising to appoint a Supreme Court justice who will overturn the decision that made gay marriage legal.
In return for Trump banning the Washington Post from his campaign events, Meyers banned Trump from appearing on his show.
Australian comedian Jim Jefferies uses humor to point out why US gun laws are crazy. Being from Australia, which suffered the worst mass shooting in the world before they decided to pass strict gun laws to prevent future tragedies, gives him a good perspective on what the rest of the world must think of all the gun violence here.
I also commend him for taking a subject (gun deaths) that is not the least bit funny and using humor to point out how ridiculous we are.
This video is an excerpt from his Netflix special. It is from 2014, but of course nothing has changed since then (actually it has gotten worse):
Alternatively, you might want to watch the whole thing (I did!), which is split into two videos: Part 1, Part 2.
I’ve talked to many different financial advisors in my time, and I have to say that most of them were more interested in selling me investments that would make them rich, than investments that would make me any money. The problem is commissions.
If a financial advisor talks to you for free, then you are the product. They have to make money somehow, and so selling you things that pay them high commissions is required. And an investment that pays advisors big commissions, by definition, is going to make less money for you. Often, no money at all. In fact, estimates say that bad advice from financial advisors costs retirement savers $17 billion every year.
That’s why John Oliver’s show on financial planning should be required viewing:
Most Americans are being screwed by financial advisors.
You may be asking, what does this have to do with Donald Trump? Well, in April, the Obama administration passed a fiduciary rule, which simply states that financial advisors have a fiduciary responsibility to their customers. In plain English, they can’t purposely cheat people. Seems very reasonable to me. After all, snake oil sales were made illegal a long time ago, why should financial advisors be allowed to lie to you about what their “products” will do?
So of course, Republicans in Congress voted to overturn the rule, claiming that their bill will “protect access to affordable retirement advice”. Well, yeah, it does protect access to cheap, worthless advice that will cost you lots of money.
Then Obama vetoed their bill. For anyone out there wanting to curb the excesses of Wall Street, this should be big news. So the fiduciary rule stands. The Fiscal Times says this rule will “mark an important breakthrough in regulating financial advisers who may prey on older Americans trying to make sense of their holdings and strategies for maximizing their life savings.”
Now, does anyone doubt that Donald Trump would not have vetoed the Republican bill? Given his history of cheating people out of their savings in Trump University, is there any doubt that he would have been a cheerleader for allowing financial advisors to cheat and steal as much as they want?
A former covert CIA agent learned some hard truths about terrorism, and how to defeat it. Are we capable of listening? Can we ever learn this lesson?
If this doesn’t make you think differently about terrorism, then nothing will.
[Jokes from June 6, 2016]
“Bernie Sanders campaigned in California yesterday ahead of the state’s Democratic primary, and even checked out the famous carousel at the Santa Monica Pier. But it got a little awkward when the music stopped and Bernie still wouldn’t admit that the ride was over. ‘This is gonna be a contested carousel!'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Tomorrow is the California primary. Analysts say it’s make or break for Bernie Sanders. Either Bernie wins and he keeps going or he loses and he keeps going.” – Conan O’Brien
“While campaigning in California, ahead of tomorrow’s primary, Bernie Sanders yesterday stopped at a Los Angeles bar popular among the LGBT community. Said Sanders, ‘No! I said I wanted a BLT! What’s the ‘G’ for? It better not be guacamole because that costs an arm and a leg.'” – Seth Meyers
“I saw that before tonight’s game, members of Metallica performed ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’. Yeah, hockey and Metallica — even Donald Trump was like, ‘That’s too white.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Donald Trump is also attracting criticism after he singled out a black supporter at a rally on Friday and told the crowd, ‘Look at my African-American,’ which is clearly racist, but also, he should know his name by now.” – Seth Meyers
“Donald Trump is continuing to draw criticism for his claims that Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage makes him unfit to preside over a lawsuit against Trump University, despite the fact that Curiel was born and raised in Indiana. And when Trump found that out, he said, ‘Oh, no, he’s an Indian, too?'” – Seth Meyers
“A new poll found that Donald Trump’s recent outrageous comments might cost him the state of Florida. You know things are bad when a candidate is considered ‘too crazy for Florida’.” – Conan O’Brien
“After weeks of hesitation, Paul Ryan finally endorsed Donald Trump for president on Thursday. When asked what influenced his decision, Ryan said, ‘Xanax. Lots and lots of Xanax.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“According to a new poll, a majority of Americans say they would not sleep with Donald Trump for $1 million. Well, of course, nobody sleeps with him for $1 million.” – Seth Meyers
“Burger King has merged a Whopper with a burrito to make a Whopperito. So take note, Donald Trump: THAT’S how you Make America Great Again!” – Conan O’Brien
“Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson said that he might run for president of the United States later on down the line. When they heard, the Republican Party asked him, ‘Can you start tomorrow?'” – Conan O’Brien
Less than two weeks before the Orlando massacre — the worst mass shooting in US history — Barack Obama warned about a dangerous loophole in US gun laws. On a PBS Town Hall event, Obama said:
I just came from a meeting today in the Situation Room in which I’ve got people who we know have been on ISIL websites, living here in the United States, US citizens, and we’re allowed to put them on the “No fly” list when it comes to airlines.
But because of the National Rifle Association, I cannot prohibit those people from buying a gun.
This is somebody who is a known ISIL sympathizer.
And if he wants to walk into a gun store or gun show right now and buy as many weapons and ammo as he can, nothing’s prohibiting him from doing that, even though the FBI knows who that person is.
Remember, this was said two weeks ago, and it was eerily (and sadly) prescient, considering that the shooter in Orlando had been investigated by the FBI twice, but was able to purchase two guns and ammo just before the attack.
Look, I support the second amendment, but no right is absolute. Even staunch libertarians believe that rights end when they threaten other rights, and that with rights come responsibilities. I have the right to free speech, but not to libel and slander. I have freedom of religion, but not if my religion includes human sacrifice. I have a right to vote, but that right can depend on my not committing any felonies.
Do Republicans really believe that a terrorist sympathizer’s right to own guns with no background check is more important than the innocent victims’ lives? Of course they do. Less than a year ago, the GOP blocked a bill that would have stopped terrorists from buying guns.
And Donald Trump seems to be doing everything in his power to make this worse, and wasting no time to make it about himself. He sent out the following tweet early Sunday morning: “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism”.
And then this morning Trump said on Fox News “The problem is we have thousands of people right now in our country. You have people that were born in this country” who are susceptible to becoming “radicalized”. That’s right Trump, and it is your words and actions that are radicalizing them. It is bigoted and stupid to blame Islam and make all Muslims the enemy. After all, Hitler claimed to be a Christian, but you don’t hear people blaming “radical Christian terrorism” or proposing that we we should have closed our borders to Christians during WWII.
UPDATE: Samantha Bee expresses her righteous anger over this very issue:
[Political humor gleaned from the web]
It’s official, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have both clinched the nomination for their respective parties. Which means we could be looking at our FIRST female President or our LAST U.S. President.
Hillary responded to her status as the presumptive nominee, calling it a “historic, unprecedented moment.” She looked so radiant making the speech, Bill forgot himself and hit on her.
Even though Hillary has more votes and delegates and super delegates and states, Bernie Sanders vowed to stay in the race and told supporters that the struggle continues. The struggle is to understand math.
Donald Trump claimed this week that Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage makes him unfit to preside over a lawsuit against Trump University, despite the fact that Curiel was born and raised in Indiana. When Trump found that out, he said, “Oh, no, he’s an Indian, too?”
House Speaker Paul Ryan described Trump’s remarks about the Hispanic judge as a “textbook” definition of racism. Even worse, the textbook was made by Trump University.
Trump’s supporters were not fazed by Ryan’s remarks. They’ve never seen a textbook.
In a prepared speech, Trump told supporters he is going to take care of our African-American people. Though, I don’t think he should have added, “Once and for all.”
According to a new poll, Trump is at zero percent among African Americans. Here’s the sad part: That’s up 5 percent from last week.
After weeks of hesitation, Paul Ryan finally endorsed Trump for President. When asked what influenced his decision, Ryan said, “Xanax! Lots and lots of Xanax!”
Bernie Sanders and President Obama had a meeting at the White House, which was fitting since they have a lot in common. They are both beloved political figures who are just a few months away from NOT going to live there.
It’s being reported that Bernie Sanders is planning on cutting half of his campaign staff. Another indication that his run for President is in trouble, he changed his campaign 800 number to 911.
Campaigning in two battleground states, Donald Trump called for GOP unity, saying it was time for Republicans to stop attacking one another.
And then, of course, he immediately starting attacking Mitt Romney, the most recent Republican presidential candidate, saying “Mitt Romney is a sad case. He choked. You know what a choke artist is? You know a guy who missed a kick, you get rid of him, right? He choked like a dog.”
Romney’s crime was saying in an interview that he worried about the moral fraying of society should Trump become the nominee: “I don’t want to see trickle-down racism.”
Apparently, Trump’s idea of unity is for everyone else in the Republican party to shut up. But Trump can continue to attack anyone he doesn’t like, including his now virtually weekly racist comments.
If anyone thought that Trump would stop acting like a two-year-old having a temper tantrum once he pivoted to the general election, they were sadly mistaken. As one Republican pollster put it “Get used to it. This is your life for the next five months.”
[Jokes from May 26-27, 2016]
“Hillary Clinton has said she absolutely will not be debating Bernie Sanders anymore. So today, Trump announced that he will debate Bernie Sanders. Two angry New Yorkers shouting at each other — it’ll be like the whole country is trapped in a subway car!” – Stephen Colbert
“After Hillary Clinton declined to debate Bernie Sanders this month, there’s now talk that Bernie might debate Donald Trump. No word on what the debate will be on, but I’m guessing mute.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Immediately after Trump offered to debate him, Bernie responded by tweeting, ‘Game on.’ Sounds like he’s accepting, but he is an old guy, so he might have just been trying to tell the computer to open solitaire. Not entirely sure.” – Stephen Colbert
“Now, Trump did put one condition on the debate: raise $10-$15 million for women’s health issues. I’m guessing, ‘The Donald Trump Foundation for Women Who Aren’t Anywhere Near a 10, They’re Like a 5 Tops.'” – Stephen Colbert
“Donald Trump issued a statement saying he will not debate Bernie Sanders. For a while, it was looking like they were going to go ahead with it. They even started negotiating the rules. The one thing they both agreed on: no ceiling fans.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Donald Trump, today, officially clinched the Republican nomination, which means he’s one step closer to moving into the smallest house he’s ever lived in.” – Seth Meyers
“Donald Trump’s campaign accidentally sent a reporter an email with details about how Trump was going to attack Hillary Clinton. Or as Trump put it, ‘Wow, another Hillary email scandal. Sad.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“A new survey asked Americans which candidate they’d want to sit next to on a plane and 37 percent chose Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the other 63 percent missed their flight waiting in the TSA line.” – Jimmy Fallon
“When Trump heard that, he was like, ‘What does ‘sit next to someone on a plane’ mean? Did their private jet break, or something?'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Bernie Sanders needs a big win in the California primary. Right now he and Hillary Clinton are in a dead heat. Not so great. Older people sometimes die in the heat.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“President Obama today spoke at the G7 summit in Japan. Bernie Sanders was like, ‘G7?! Bingo!'” – Seth Meyers
“This is a crazy election. But, of course, you know that, unless you have been in a coma. And if you were in a coma, you might want to slip back in for the next six months.” – Stephen Colbert
“It’s being reported the Obama family is planning to move into a nine-bedroom mansion in Washington, D.C., after the president leaves office. I guess he wants to be close enough to drive by the White House every morning and shout, ‘Sucks, doesn’t it?'” – Jimmy Fallon
“The Secret Service had to sweep our building for the second day today. I’ve had so many pat-downs this week, one of the Secret Service guys told me to get checked because I had a lump.” – Jimmy Kimmel
The mainstream media allows Donald Trump to get away with lies and racist attacks without questioning them by treating back-and-forth statements from politicians as part of the horse race of politics. If the media were doing its job, it would not pass on statements without at least checking on their veracity.
Let’s look at a single example. Yesterday, Trump tweeted this:
CNN passed on this tweet without comment, only reporting that “The two have traded barbs throughout the week. … The back-and-forth between Trump and Warren is nothing new.”
But let’s pretend we are responsible journalists and examine this tweet. First of all, he says that Warren is “sometimes referred to as Pocahontas”, which is itself a racist statement. According to an article in “Indian Country Today“:
Trump’s very use of Pocahontas’ name is disrespectful. The story of Pocahontas is heart-wrenching. Toward the end of her life she left her people, went to England, contracted a disease and died at a very young age. When I think of that story – and the hundreds of sad and disturbing stories of how Native people have suffered throughout history, I can’t imagine making a mockery of their names or their lives. In my culture, we have deep respect for our relatives who have gone before us. It would be an utter disgrace to carry on as Donald Trump has about a Native woman whose life was cut short in a terrible way.
Also, note how Trump tries to make it sound like anyone other than himself refers to Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas”.
Which brings up the question, why is Trump calling Warren “Pocahontas”? He is trying to revive a discredited controversy that came up during Warren’s 2012 campaign for the Senate. Her opponent tried to claim that Warren had been a fake “diversity hire” at Harvard. But there is no evidence that Warren had ever used anything about her ethnicity in order to get a job anywhere.
Of course, Trump never allowed lack of any evidence to stop him from claiming that Obama wasn’t born in the US. And he isn’t allowing it to stop him from lying that Warren “pretended to be a Native American in order to advance her career”. Especially considering that there is far more evidence that Trump is pretending to be wealthier than he really is in order to advance his career.
And finally, Trump calls Warren “very racist”, which, as Vox points out, is ironic because it “proves that Trump can also be racist while trying to insult someone for being white.” Regardless, claiming to be a Native American may be dishonest, but it is not racist in any sense of the word.
The point of this post is that CNN didn’t bother to discuss any of this in their article. They merely passed Trump’s tweet along with absolutely no discussion of its merits. Is CNN afraid that if they question Trump, that he will attack them?
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