While Trump’s boasts of sexual assault are loathsome, it is ironic that his sexism brought him down more than his assaults on liberty and justice. What happens to the rule of law when a presidential candidate threatens to throw their opponent in jail? When he lies even about things that are easily verified to be false, and yet continues to lie about them with impunity and often gets away with it?
We’ve seen it all before, but mostly in dictators, con men, thugs, and sociopaths.
I never would have believed it if someone told me back in 2008 that the Republicans would nominate someone for president who makes Dubya look reasonable in comparison.
This country elected Dubya, and during his watch 9/11 happened. Then he started two disastrous wars from which we are still trying to recover (and deliberately lied us into the second one). The US committed war crimes like torture, and helped radical Islamic terrorists gain power. He started the prison at Guantanamo, a black eye on our country. He totally botched the response to Hurricane Katrina. He exploited anti-homosexual bigotry to bolster his popularity and attract social conservatives. He ignored the environment, gutting the Kyoto Protocol. Then, as icing on the cake, he presided over the destruction of our economy and made tens of millions of people lose their jobs and/or homes.
And now, people are thinking of doing something even worse. Before anyone casts their vote for Donald Trump, I hope they think long and hard. It happened before, and it could happen again. Or it could be an even bigger disaster.
The Republicans say that Clinton would be four more years of Obama, but would they really rather have four more years of Dubya (or worse)?
Matt Taibi is one of my favorite investigative journalists, and his writing is always worth a read (even when I don’t entirely agree with him). His latest article in Rolling Stone “The Fury and Failure of Donald Trump” is a must read. The article is not so much about Trump as his followers, and the resulting destruction of the American political system. In this version, Trump is more of an entertaining symptom than a cause.
On a radio interview on Monday, John McCain said the following:
I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up. I promise you. This is where we need the majority.
That’s right, it doesn’t even matter who the nominee is, McCain is promising that the GOP will block them. It also puts the lie (again) to the Republican claim that they are blocking Merrick Garland because they believe the next president should pick the next Supreme Court justice.
It also really pisses me off about McCain. So much for his motto “Country First“. Or did he give that up when he picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate? He should change his motto to “I will debase myself in any way possible to get reelected”.
And what is his strategy? Leave the Supreme Court empty-handed and deadlocked until a Republican is elected president? Like that is going to happen any time soon (or if ever, given that the demographics against them are getting worse). And even if a Republican does eventually become president, does he think the Democrats will be cooperative and confirm after being blocked for what may be decades?
Our country is screwed.
[Jokes from Sept. 29, 2016]
“Hillary Clinton actually went to her granddaughter’s second birthday party instead of preparing for the first debate against Trump. I guess she figured being around a bunch of screaming toddlers might help her even more.” – Jimmy Fallon
“While speaking to students at the University of New Hampshire yesterday, Hillary Clinton said, ‘Isn’t this one of the strangest elections you’ve ever seen?’ And then college kids were like, ‘Uh, we’re 18. It’s the ONLY election we’ve ever seen.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Hillary Clinton has vowed to crack down on hackers who launch cyberattacks. She said, ‘If anyone’s going to abuse U.S. government computers, it’s gonna be me.'” – Conan O’Brien
“America Online founder Steve Case endorsed Hillary Clinton for president today. Although the last thing Hillary wants to hear is ‘You’ve got mail’.” – Seth Meyers
“Secretary Clinton is still struggling with millennials. By the way, if you’re not sure who millennials are, they’re the ones who never use the term ‘millennials’.” – Stephen Colbert
“A recent poll shows Clinton has the support of just 31 percent of likely voters under 35. So Hillary’s doing everything she can to attract young people. That’s why, for the first time since July, she appeared on the campaign trail this week with that millennial heart-throb, Bernie Sanders.” – Stephen Colbert
“Bernie Sanders is also campaigning with Hillary. Yesterday, he asked a crowd at one of her rallies, ‘Is everybody here ready to transform America?’ Followed by his next question, ‘Does anybody here remember where I parked?'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Bernie! They really like him. He really connects with millennials, because a lot of his clothes are also 18 to 30 years old.” – Stephen Colbert
“Donald Trump spoke at a rally yesterday and told supporters that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is the most unserious campaign in American history. Unserious? This is the person you’re calling unserious? [shows photo of frowning Hillary] She always looks like you just told her you wrecked her car.” – Seth Meyers
“Meanwhile, Donald Trump has a new scandal to deal with today. According to Newsweek, in 1998 he spent $68,000 on a business venture in Cuba. Which was illegal because of the embargo. Trump, of course, denied the allegations. He said there’s no such place as Cuba.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“Donald Trump is reportedly angry that his advisers are saying that he struggled during the first debate. Then his advisers were like, ‘Oh, so you CAN hear us.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“A woman in Washington, D.C., received 13,000 text messages after C-SPAN accidentally put up her phone number during their post-debate analysis. Replied C-SPAN, ‘We have 13,000 viewers?'” – Seth Meyers
“We are still trying to figure out who won Monday’s presidential debate. Democrats say Hillary won, while Republicans are strong in their conviction that there are still two more debates.” – Stephen Colbert
“Yesterday, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson was giving a television interview and was unable to name a single foreign leader. Hmmm… sounds like SOMEONE wants to be Donald Trump’s secretary of state.” – Conan O’Brien
“In an interview yesterday, Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson was unable to name any world leaders when asked who his favorite head of state was. Wow. This might have cost him the election.” – Seth Meyers
“Remember when Mitt Romney almost had to drop out of the race because he put his dog on the top of the car? They were simpler times.” – Jimmy Kimmel
Politico, a fairly right-wing news source, is very worried about Trump’s new rhetoric delegitimizing the election. To the point where they are concerned that he could destroy our democracy. They are calling on top Republicans “to defend the legitimacy of the electoral system”. But will rabid Trump supporters listen to anyone other than Trump?
It is easy to believe something terrible could happen. Trump is already throwing a giant temper tantrum. On Sunday he tweeted “Polls close, but can you believe I lost large numbers of women voters based on made up events THAT NEVER HAPPENED. Media rigging election!”
Indeed, alt-right websites are now blaming the release of the Billy Bush tape on either “GOP elites” or even on a giant Jewish conspiracy. Trump knows he is losing, and true-to-form he will blame his loss on everyone else, including the media, his political opponents, and even his fellow Republicans.
Steve Schmidt, who ran John McCain’s 2008 campaign, and Ari Fleischer of George W. Bush’s campaign are worried. Schmidt said about what Trump is doing “What this would be is an assault on the foundations of the long-established traditions of the country, an assault on democracy, vandalizing it.” Fleischer contrasted how “Al Gore graciously accepted the outcome” to Trump’s rhetoric that has him “disgusted”, and predicting that Trump will never concede.
Do you doubt that Trump would do this? He is already threatening to throw Clinton in jail, accusing her of conspiring with the media to destroy his campaign, claiming that the Democrats are fabricating accusations of sexual assaults against him, and saying that she stole the nomination from Bernie Sanders.
Will Trump destroy our democracy? It certainly looks like he is going to try. Is there anything we can do to stop him?
That settles it — the next time I need to act like an asshole, I’m finding a locker room!
[Jokes from Sept. 28, 2016]
“There are now about six more weeks left in the election. And we know that because this morning, Trump’s hair popped out and saw its shadow.” – Jimmy Fallon
“According to Forbes magazine, Donald Trump’s wealth is down $800 million from last year. He’s only worth $3.7 billion now, and I’ll tell you something, Mexico is going to pay for it.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“But the good news is, while his net worth may be down, his self-worth is at an all-time high.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“At the next debate, Donald Trump is threatening to talk about all of Bill Clinton’s affairs. Hillary’s not too worried, because the debate’s only 90 minutes.” – Conan O’Brien
“The second presidential debate is just 11 days away, and this one will have a town hall format. The first question will be, ‘Why’d you have to do this in OUR town?'” – Jimmy Fallon
“The organizer of the presidential debates is allowing social media users to vote on debate questions. That’s why, as of today, the No. 1 question for the next presidential debate is ‘hey, u up?'” – Conan O’Brien
“Donald Trump is still being mocked for promising in the debate to ‘cut taxes bigly’. Trump has apologized, and promised in the next debate he’ll ‘speak more goodly’.” – Conan O’Brien
“Last night, Donald Trump told an audience that before Monday’s debate — this is a quote — ‘I pretended I was talking to my family.’ Then he admitted he frequently accuses his family of deleting emails and creating ISIS.” – Conan O’Brien
“It’s reported that even the Taliban actually had a debate viewing party. So for the first time, it looks like they’re torturing themselves.” – Jimmy Fallon
“President Obama’s upcoming South by South Lawn festival at the White House will have a virtual reality psychological experiment that makes you feel like you’re in a small jail cell. Or as Obama calls it, ‘the Oval Office’.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Yesterday, a group of Democratic senators sent a letter to Yahoo asking why they took so long to report the hack of 500 million users. That’s how little faith they have in Yahoo email — they sent a LETTER.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Hillary Clinton is campaigning with Bernie Sanders for the millennial vote. They’re trying to get millennials with the opening line, ‘Hey, our combined age is approximately one millennium.'” – Conan O’Brien
“SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced plans yesterday to colonize Mars, saying the main requirement for early settlers would be that they are, quote ‘ready to die.’ Said Hillary, ‘I’ll let you know November 9th.'” – Seth Meyers
“Yesterday was National Register to Vote Day. Singer Katy Perry got naked and told people to vote. The video got like 6 million views already. Hopefully it encouraged people to sign up. But here’s the thing: Anyone who needs Katy Perry to take her shirt off in order to register to vote should not be allowed to register to vote.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“It’s our responsibility as Americans to register to vote, to go to our local polling places, and make a choice between two people nobody can believe are our only available options.” – Jimmy Kimmel
I don’t often agree with David Brooks, but I think he hit the nail on the head in his opinion piece “Donald Trump’s Sad, Lonely Life“. Here’s an excerpt:
Politics is an effort to make human connection, but Trump seems incapable of that. He is essentially adviser-less, friendless. His campaign team is made up of cold mercenaries at best and Roger Ailes at worst. His party treats him as a stench it can’t yet remove.
He was a germophobe through most of his life and cut off contact with others, and now I just picture him alone in the middle of the night, tweeting out hatred.
Trump breaks his own world record for being appalling on a weekly basis, but as the campaign sinks to new low after new low, I find myself experiencing feelings of deep sadness and pity.
Imagine if you had to go through a single day without sharing kind little moments with strangers and friends.
Imagine if you had to endure a single week in a hate-filled world, crowded with enemies of your own making, the object of disgust and derision.
You would be a twisted, tortured shrivel, too, and maybe you’d lash out and try to take cruel revenge on the universe. For Trump this is his whole life.
What have they won? Nobel Prizes!
The Nobel Prizes were recently announced and there are six winners from the US.
Every one of them is an immigrant.
Many of them are now US citizens, but some are not. All of them live permanently in the US, work and do their research in the US, and teach and train students in the US.
So do you really want to build a wall to keep all the immigrants out?
Donald Trump takes irony and hypocrisy to a new level:
Trump’s message for most of this week was that women alleging sexual assault — regardless of how many years had passed, whether they filed charges, whether their claims were held up by the courts — deserve to be heard, rather than discredited or attacked. Trump made this clear by holding a news conference with three of Bill Clinton’s accusers, urging the media to tell their stories and speaking about them in his rallies.
Then, four women came forward alleging Trump groped or kissed them without their consent. And Trump’s stance changed. He attacked the women personally, cast doubt on their motives, called them liars and a part of a politically orchestrated attack.
So which is it? You can’t have it both ways!
Even worse, Trump bragged on a live mic about doing these things. Why would we believe he is innocent? And if he thinks sexual assault is so brag-worthy, then why would he be attacking Bill Clinton over the same thing?
As someone famously said, “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Although I think I know the answer. And I suspect that Trump has several more bottoms to crash through.
[Jokes from Sept. 26, 2016]
“Pundits are noting that this year’s group of debate moderators is the most diverse in history, featuring an African-American, two women, a Filipino, and an openly gay man. Trump was like, “I think I’ve heard this one before, but go ahead.'” – Seth Meyers
“Hillary Clinton has asked “Shark Tank’s” Mark Cuban to attend tonight’s debate. Trump was furious and said, ‘A billionaire reality star has no business being at a presidential debate.'” – Conan O’Brien
“Ahead of tonight’s debate, Hillary Clinton posted an article on Twitter pointing out that no living president has endorsed Donald Trump. Nice try, Hillary, but it just so happens that Vladimir Putin is living.” – Seth Meyers
“We all just watched Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton debate for an hour and a half. Coming into tonight’s debate, Democrats were divided between two strong emotions: panic and pants-crapping. Democrats have not been this nervous since Anthony Weiner asked to borrow their phone.” – Stephen Colbert
“Meanwhile, Donald Trump had to not commit murder — on camera.” – Stephen Colbert
“The experts said in order to win, Hillary Clinton had to project an image of competence, experience, wisdom, health, and vitality, without coming off as angry, bookish, or overbearing. Donald Trump had to not mention his penis.” – Jimmy Kimmel
“In addition to costumes, they also banned balloons and drones. Which explains why Trump uninvited Chris Christie and Ben Carson.” – Jimmy Fallon
“The debate was moderated by NBC’s Lester Holt, which makes sense since he hosted “Dateline” and is used to two rich white people who want to murder each other.” – Stephen Colbert
“There were actually 1,000 people in the audience tonight and they were instructed not to applaud or cheer during the debate. As people watching were like, ‘What about sobbing? Can we quietly sob?'” – Jimmy Fallon
“After tonight’s debate, several Fox News analysts said that Hillary Clinton was the clear winner. So maybe global warming IS a hoax because hell has frozen over.” – Seth Meyers
“Hillary was so prepared, my new nickname for her is Preparation H. Yeah, it’s a compliment. In the primaries, she already proved she could ‘soothe the Bern’.” – Stephen Colbert
“Green Party candidate Jill Stein was escorted off the Hofstra University campus this afternoon after she tried to talk to reporters outside of tonight’s debate without proper credentials. As she was being dragged away by police she shouted, ‘Don’t you know who I am?’ and they said, ‘No. No one does.'” –Seth Meyers
I just want to pass on a Newsweek article that might not get the attention it deserves.
Wednesday at one of his rallies, Trump directly passed on an email from a Russian disinformation campaign designed to manipulate the US election. It is an email that is supposedly from Clinton confidante Sidney Blumenthal (Trump’s favorite whipping boy), and it says that Clinton goofed up on Benghazi. In other words it is a GOP wet dream, and something that Trump would be unable to resist. Finally (conservatives cackle) evidence proving that Clinton is totally responsible for Benghazi!
Except, that email wasn’t written by Blumenthal at all. How do we know? Because the words were taken from an article (in Newsweek) written by Kurt Eichenwald, who recognized his own writing when Trump read it out loud. Not only that, but the article by Eichenwald was not blaming Clinton, it was actually slamming the Republicans for trying to blame Clinton. The Russians had created a false email and leaked it.
Donald Trump quoted the email at a rally in Pennsylvania, announcing it was an email from Blumenthal (it wasn’t), whom he called “sleazy Sidney”. “This just came out a little while ago. I have to tell you this.” And he read the words taken from the Eichenwald article and delivered his money shot: “He’s now admitting they could have done something about Benghazi.” Trump then dramatically dropped the document on the floor, while the crowd chanted “Lock her up!”
So, either Trump is participating in a Russian disinformation campaign against our election, or he is so stupid he is being manipulated by that Russian disinformation campaign. Unfortunately for us, the speed with which Trump came out with this points to the former. Sad.
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