October 7, 2016

James Wolcott: Donald Trump isn’t “the new normal”—he’s the new abnormal

DONALD TRUMP HAS TOTALLY UPENDED CONSERVATIVE MEDIA, AND IT’S BEAUTIFUL
Yes, the presidential nominee has divided America like no one else, but there is a silver lining: the implosion of Fox News and the G.O.P. tribal wars it’s brought with it.
BY JAMES WOLCOTTNOVEMBER 2016

http://media.vanityfair.com/photos/57f66edac666a0c056e7d0d0/master/w_450,c_limit/wolcott-elephant-rampage.jpg
No man, woman, or set of cloven hooves has done more to bring Americans apart than Donald J. Trump, he who would be emperor. Trump is the Great Divider, the polarizer with a power saw for a mouth. He has sliced the Republican Party asunder, his brand of bellicose, invective-spiked, minority-trashing, proudly ignorant populism more than most country-club, Chamber of Commerce Republicans can swallow at cocktail hour. His hulking usurpation has blotted out even the near past. Only four years ago Mitt Romney was the G.O.P. presidential nominee, and already he looks like an oil painting from mellow antiquity. Romney has not endorsed Trump for president, nor have primary rivals Jeb Bush (his former-president brother and noble father are other non-supporters) and John Kasich, whose campaigns followed traditional themes and metrics and were crushed like paper planes in King Kong’s paws. The Republican Party that these business suits respected, propped up, papered over, and platitudinized is no more. And it’s not coming back, even if Trump loses in a mudslide. Politically, Donald Trump isn’t “the new normal”—he’s the new abnormal, the plus-size genie that broke the bottle.

But let’s look on the bright side, since bright sides are becoming harder to find. Perhaps Trump’s greatest act of division is the tribal war he’s triggered in the conservative media. Bitter fratricide has broken out between the pro-Trump zealots and the anti-Trump stalwarts, pitting talk-radio gasbag against gasbag, pundit against pundit, blogger against blogger, online trolls against byliners. I cannot tell you how much joy this has given me. “Schadenfreude” doesn’t begin to cover it. I keep hoping that it will escalate into the local-news teams’ free-for-all rumble in Anchorman, with George F. Will spearing Bill O’Reilly with a trident—that is my dream for America. If Trump belly-flops on Election Day in bitter defeat, costing Republicans the Senate, the postmortem could provide the perfect bonfire for roasting marshmallows. Let the recriminations begin! The post-Trump conservative landscape will be a charred, feudal battlefield, the survivors fighting for the paltry remains of a party too dumb to live.


MORE:
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/10/donald-trump-conservative-media

October 7, 2016

Rick Scott = Deplorable.

FL Gov Rick Scott refuses to extend voter registration deadlines despite #Matthew. Just happens to be a Trump supporter. Total coincidence.

#HurricaneMatthew
School year calendar extended
Football games moved.
Florida legislative deadlines delayed.
Voting registration? Nope

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article106488297.html


http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/10/06/hurricane_matthew_could_have_devastating_consequences_for_the_election.html

October 7, 2016

GOP operatives fume at Trump: Even the ‘creepy clown walking around Green Bay would beat Hillary’

Politico talked with several of its anonymous GOP operatives this week and asked them whether they thought Mike Pence would beat Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical matchup — and an overwhelming majority of them said, “Yes.”

............

Some of them then went on to note that Hillary Clinton should be an easy candidate for nearly any mainstream Republican to defeat — and that further reflects on what a terrible candidate Donald Trump has been.

“The creepy clown walking around Green Bay would beat Hillary Clinton in 30 states,” said one Nevada Republican. “Fortunately for Hillary, she is running against Donald Trump.”

“Right now, Donald Trump is the only Republican in the United States whom Hillary Clinton can defeat,” seethed a North Carolina Republican. “Trump is the best candidate on the ballot for Democrats in 2016.”


http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/would-pence-beat-clinton-229257
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/10/gop-operatives-fume-at-trump-even-the-creepy-clown-walking-around-green-bay-would-beat-hillary/

October 7, 2016

David Letterman annihilates Trump: He’s ‘a damaged human being — a person to be shunned'

Letterman said he’s surprised that Trump’s presidential campaign has been so successful, but there’s one moment that he thinks should have disqualified the real estate developer and former reality TV star.

“I can remember him doing an impression, behind a podium, of a reporter for the New York Times who has a congenital disorder, and then I thought, if this was somebody else — if this was a member of your family or a next-door neighbor, a guy at work — you would immediately distance yourself from that person,” Letterman said. “And that’s what I thought would happen. Because if you can do that in a national forum, that says to me that you are a damaged human being. If you can do that, and not apologize, you’re a person to be shunned.”

“If I had a show, I would have gone right after him,” Letterman said. “I would have said something like, ‘Hey, nice to see you. Now, let me ask you: What gives you the right to make fun of a human who is less fortunate, physically, than you are?'”

“I don’t know anything about politics,” Letterman said. “I don’t know anything about trade agreements. I don’t know anything about China devaluing the yuan. But if you see somebody who’s not behaving like any other human you’ve known, that means something. They need an appointment with a psychiatrist. They need a diagnosis and they need a prescription.”

MORE:
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/10/david-letterman-annihilates-trump-hes-a-damaged-human-being-a-person-to-be-shunned/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/arts/television/letterman-has-no-love-for-damaged-trump.html?_r=1

October 7, 2016

"Pence & His Imaginary Friend"

KAINE on PENCE: "he's "really auditioning for 2020, he's already assuming that Trump is going to lose."

https://twitter.com/betsy_klein/status/784250747785314304?lang=en
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/politico-morning-consult-poll-pence-2020-229263?platform=hootsuite

October 7, 2016

Sunday should be fun ...

:large

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-town-hall-debate-prep-229267
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/isn-t-practice-trump-gets-softballs-town-hall-n661461

October 7, 2016

BREAKING: Doug Applegate opens up 4-Point Lead Against Trumpian Darrell Issa in New Poll! (CA 49)

No link yet to the poll, but here is an excerpt from the Applegate campaign’s e-mail:

This poll puts us at 46 percent and Issa at 42 percent. The lead is still within the margin of error, but it is a very good sign. This poll proves that what we’ve been doing is working. The phone banks, canvassing, and outreach events have helped us connect with more voters. The ads we’ve been airing have been effectively sharing the truth about Issa’s shameful record.

Getting to this position hasn’t been easy. There were the personal attacks against Doug’s family and then Issa threatened to sue us over an ad he didn’t like. Through it all we have persevered and come out even stronger.

Issa may have money on his side, but you can’t buy votes. We have the truth on our side. The 49th district wants change and a representative who will look out for them – not himself – and who has the same values of integrity and equality and will listen to their concerns.

http://dccc.org/applegate-takes-lead-issa-new-poll/
http://2vmhfw1isbe32j3tgn3epw3x.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/10062016-CA49-Poll-Release-Memo.pdf
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/6/1578703/-BREAKING-Doug-Applegate-opens-up-4-Point-Lead-Against-Trumpian-Darrell-Issa-in-New-Poll-CA-49

October 7, 2016

"Self-deporting Republicans"

October 6, 2016

Sad.

?itok=At8dcoHP
http://www.dailywire.com/news/9752/final-days-cruz-ryan-stump-trump-ben-shapiro

October 6, 2016

Nearly 80 evangelical leaders publish letter condemning Trump “We cannot ignore this bigotry"

A diverse group of evangelical Christians unveiled a letter on Thursday condemning Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his candidacy, arguing his campaign “affirms racist elements in white culture.”

The letter, which is signed by nearly 80 prominent evangelical leaders, thinkers, authors, and pastors, decries Trump’s attacks on women, Muslims, immigrants, refugees, and the disabled, saying such vitriol is an affront to the Christian faith. It also highlights how his campaign has energized white nationalists, such as when he was endorsed by leaders of the Ku Klux Klan.

“We cannot ignore this bigotry, set it aside, just focus on other issues, or forget the things Mr. Trump has consistently said and done,” the letter reads. “No matter what other issues we also care about, we have to make it publicly clear that Mr. Trump’s racial and religious bigotry and treatment of women is morally unacceptable to us as evangelical Christians, as we attempt to model Jesus’ command to ‘love your neighbors as yourself.’”

“We have to make it publicly clear that Mr. Trump’s racial and religious bigotry and treatment of women is morally unacceptable to us as evangelical Christians, as we attempt to model Jesus’ command to ‘love your neighbors as yourself.”

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-evangelicals-letter-d86c70f05194#.ceslsigub