The Lies Vance and Trump are Selling

 

The most striking thing that JD Vance has admitted out loud and in public is that even if Haitians are supposed to be here legally, he's still going to call them "illegal aliens". He knows and knew that the "people eating pets" thing was a lie when he spread it. He could easily bother to check whether crime really was up or whether communicable diseases were up, But the point isn't whether he's being honest--he's not. 

It's whether he can induce people to follow up on his story and keep it alive as if it were a big deal. Just like big public lies could induce people to follow up on a land deal in Arkansas, or a lie about a man's honorable service in Viet Nam, or a lie about a fully American man's birth certificate, or an attack on an embassy in Libya by Islamic terrorists, or an email server, or a man's son's laptop, and try to make that into a big deal, whether it really is or not. 

But there is something else in Vance's particular set of lies that is revealing--the idea that if a person can wave a wand over someone and declare them citizens, having a particular office means you can "uncitizen" them.  Or unperson them.

Trump is Showing Us Who He Is--Again

 

Trump tells Black journalists that Kamala Harris "is of Indian heritage ... is she Indian or is she Black? ... she became a Black person." Note the audience laughing at him. pic.twitter.com/PAhmgr1yBS

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 31, 2024

Trump sat for 35 minutes for an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists that was supposed to last an hour, but his own team advised them to wrap it up.  Ending an interview halfway through is exactly what a campaign would do when their guy is "crushing it"--right?

Of course not. Trump put on a racist shitshow because he is a racist shitshow. That's not actually new. What is new is, I think, is the laughter. He is ridiculous beyond belief.

He's befuddled by the idea of someone being able to claim two cultures. (He does not know, I think, where to send her back to.) He projects his inability to grasp the concept on her--it's something she's doing, right? In so doing, he's trying to cast doubt on Kamala Harris' authenticity--where have we seen that before? 

Birtherism. He did the same thing to Barack Obama. And to be completely honest, that should have ended his political career right there. But here he is, running for president--again. Displaying his astonishing ignorance and arrogance--again. And his fellow Republicans and some of his little friends in the media will let him do this again. Maybe for an encore, Trump will request Harris' college transcripts.

Heeeeere's Donny!

 

Trump: “Silence of the lamb! The late great Hannibal Lecter. It is a wonderful man.”
pic.twitter.com/59eH6Wd6vQ

— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) May 12, 2024

Sometimes, I wonder if I try to diagnose Trump from afar just a little too much, you know? What do we make of a segue to praise a (deceased?) fictional serial killer? Is it an awkward joke--or are we just being softened up to find out Trump has eaten a man? (Suddenly the last puzzle piece of the "Q" op slides into place as the uttermost human taboo has been broken.)

Is it really any better that this is probably more evidence that his brain has finally rendered into burger fat and sleaze? Not that Trump's fans in Wildwood or anywhere else seem to care, as of yet. Actually, they seem to be devolving right along with Trump.

(Uh, yes--this is real.  Diapers today, and there will probably be lobotomy stalls coming to Trump rallies in the near future.)

Do you want to know what's sad? My next damn post I'm working on involves this Trump clown, too. He should have been laughed out of political life over birtherism back in 2011--permanently. And yet, here we are.

TWGB: Start the Steal, They Meant

 

So, let's start this TrumpWorld Grab-Bag with Jim Jordan, who was introduced into the conversation a bit ago when his text to Mark Meadows was revealed without attribution. To make this controversial, The Federalist leapt in to "help" by outing the originator of the text as Jim Jordan, so there, and obviously, not attributing Jordan was a kind of fuckery, are we doing this right? No, Federalist overpaid airheads, you are not. Yeah, we could have narrowed this down to the eagerest of beavers, and just because he was only forwarding yet another memo in the dark arts of how to steal an election because you are the president right now and maybe can isn't actually a better look. 

So, okay, Jordan was only passing on the legal opinions of Joseph Schmitz to add to the McEntee, Ellis, Eastman, Whosits, Whatsits, Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe memos. I was already familiar with this name because I do this thing. He was part of the Clinton email hunt way back as part of Trump's early foreign policy team in the 2016 campaign. I never forget anything--it's actually a passion of mine to never forget. And this is the sort of useful SOB who served Trump's putsch.

It was Jordan, not Schmitz, who got the Medal of Freedom for services rendered, but oh, well. Maybe next time, if as a country we are stupid enough to have a next time. (I know the Medal was supposedly for Jordan's defense of Trump during the first impeachment but actually, since Trump stays impeached and lost his election in part because he will never not be impeached, I prefer to believe it is for all manner of loyalty. All. Manner. of. Loyalty. An actual prize for most excellent ass-licking.) 

The Federalist thinks this is--okay? He was just passing on a thing he supposedly didn't think was a how-to about stealing the election?  So weird, because that's what throwing out uncounted votes would mean! 

So anyway, what else is news? Reuters did a piece on retired military folks (like, ahem, Flynn and Waldron) lending their credence and credibility to fake stories about voter fraud.  This reminds me of a couple of threads I have tried to follow on this blog, with varying success--the theocrats in the upper ranks, and the psyops perpetrated by military-affiliated people. It's astonishing to me that right-wing people would use their training to undergo a mission against the homeland for pay or whate...oh wait, I totally think that could be a thing!

In other news, Dominion wants discovery about the Murdochs' emails regarding the voter fraud lies that actually should destroy Fox News, because goddamn it, something should. Also, analysis has shown once again there really isn't any voter fraud to the extent that would move the needle for a national candidate. But for some reason, it's Republicans that think they will get away with it.  

Dressing For Your Salad Bar?

 

Because this actually is kind of wild, COVID-19 disinformation-spreader (among other weird pursuits) Mike Flynn saw a thing about how the weirdos were going to spike the salad dressing with vaccines because that's obviously how capitalism is doing these days. The salad dressing industry is definitely in the pocket of Big Vaccine, controlled by the Harris/Biden syndicate. They're out there making innocent condiments into tools of statist control over your precious bodily fluids. Next thing you know they will be regulating your testicle size via ketchup, see if they don't!

Ok, so he got what he saw entirely wrong in every respect--there is a thing where mRNA can be bred into plants so that can be a more useful way to produce and store vaccine supplies. but no one is trying to Caesar Surprise folks into swallowing a vaccine without knowing what's up. 

But because someone like Flynn, for whatever reason, is listened to, he might make people a little nervous (more nervous, actually) about getting the vaccine. Because why would people be so sneaky about it if it was totally fine and safe--sounds hinky, right? That's what the disinfo game is about--sure it sounds wild and weird to normies. But if you are already clued into that frequency, you want to believe, and totally weird shit stops sounding all that weird to you because you are hearing at least that level of weird like, all the time. 

So we get guys like this one: Lt Col. Doug Hague, who ain't gonna get a COVID-19 vaccine, because FREEDOM! He got all the other shots, but this time, it's a whole thing. He didn't even realize it was about freedom until like, just now. I wonder why he never saw all the anthrax shots and all that before as a problem, huh? (And is he thinking he will have songs sung to his honor in Wingnut Valhalla, because of course he very well might.) 

It reminds me a little bit of Lt. Col. Terry Lakin. The dude lost everything over birtherism, and it remains the dumbest thing I can imagine. The actual Commander in Chief at the time was obviously born in Honolulu. There was ample proof. But this dope preferred court-martial and the loss of benefits he accrued during his long service. He served five months at Leavenworth and lost his medical license. 

Things That Are Definitely Connected

“Courts have actually proved that Republicans have engaged in racism and voter suppression with surgical precision. So this is an old playbook,“ Rev. William Barber says about Pres. Trump and the Republican Party trying to to disenfranchise Black voters. https://t.co/7E8TgTjZok

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 24, 2020

and

Our Seven Letter Insight survey found 79% of Trump voters said that they believe the election was “stolen” through “illegal voting and fraud” despite no evidence of such activity. https://t.co/XZPyuaUHZs pic.twitter.com/ZHcMD1gLtB

— Seven Letter (@SevenLetter) November 23, 2020

And this has been Strangely Blogged's first and latest edition of "Things That Are Definitely Connected."  And a reminder: just because a bunch of people listening to Trump believe a thing is true, does not make a thing true. Just ask Barack Obama's birth certificate.

UPDATE: Wow, why not?

Being Cringingly Racist To Trigger The Libs and Other BS

NEW: In upcoming book, Michael Cohen writes Donald Trump's disdain for Obama was so extreme he hired a "Faux-Bama" to participate in a video in which he "ritualistically belittled the first black president and then fired him." He includes this photo: https://t.co/LGrqsUUrY2 pic.twitter.com/otwYW8VSmQ

— Pervaiz Shallwani (@Pervaizistan) September 6, 2020

Trump's overt racism hardly needs pictures to be verified, but it does help--of course Trump wanted to do a bit where he berated a Fauxbama and told him he was fired. Just think, at the 2012 RNC, celebrity guest Clint Eastwood did a similar act with an empty chair. Wanting to degrade Obama in effigy but being too afraid of letting down "the team" to actually have him be there to whip one's ass seems to be a signifier of Republican males of the Obama age. And let's face it, Obama did whip Trump's ass over birtherism at the 2011 WHCD and like mopey children, a certain group of GOPers have simply never let it go. They blame Obama for sleeping on Katrina, for crying out loud.

Of course some will still say, after all was ludicrously said and done, that Obama is either a Muslim or not born here, because saying things and believing them aren't the same thing. I am reminded of the birthers who managed to believe that somehow, Obama was foreign even if both of his parents were born in the US regardless if Stanley Dunham even visited Kenya or not. The point has nothing to do with reality. It's signifying.

I don't trust Republicans to validly answer poll questions like "Do you believe in Q Anon" for this reason. Even if the basic conspiracy theory is grotesquely stupid and derivative (I mean eating babies! Really!) and borrows from Satanic Panic and every stupid "gay culture is pedo" bit of mis-education in the evangelical hate culture, and even has roots in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the blood libel and its adherents bring up the Rothschilds at random, eh? To own the libs?

Yes, In Plain Sight and Out Loud

Trump says he'll block funding for the Post Office in an effort to prevent voters from casting ballots by mail https://t.co/s3m31HZPk7

— TIME (@TIME) August 13, 2020

Trump admitted out loud that he's doing exactly what it looks like he's doing. WI Sen. Ron Johnson admitted out loud he's doing exactly what it looks like he's doing, too. This is because Trump is a goddamn cheat, but keep in mind, he gets help in his cheating. And even though small businesses and seniors and vets rely on the mail to survive, keep in mind the Trump Administration selectively screwed up the COVID-19 testing and emergency response because they thought it was only affecting blue states. Depraved indifference and criminal negligence, in addition to bald-faced cheating, seem to be traits the GOP are actively proud of now, in addition to casual racism and sheer ignorance.

In other words, it's a day ending in "y".

UPDATE: Sheesh--I forgot to add, Trump is pretty brazen about how he wants to use the power of government to maintain his on hold in other ways. Barr, for one, model of compliance that his is, is not beyond Trump caviling at.

The So-Called Grown-Up President is Mad

The level of projection here is just incredible pic.twitter.com/1rzNgKl9Qa

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 17, 2020

Well, at least, he sounds a bit testy, to me. I guess it might have something to do with the former president seeming to refer to him obliquely with the mention of "so-called grown-ups" in his address to the 2020 graduating class, but Obama has been very much on his mind in other ways, as well. After all, you can't have an "Obamagate" (which seems to be, which shouldn't be surprising by now, a bit of fake news from Trump and friends) without Obama. Or maybe he's still mad that the president he wants to call "incompetent" didn't leave him with clearer instructions on how to do the job he is currently struggling at. (After all, the comparisons were always odious, and become more so all the time.)

But I think it's not just one thing about Obama that eats at him, it's everything. And as far as I'm concerned, Trump can be mad, stay mad and die mad.

Still (And Always) A Birther

Click to Enlarge

These Tweets should remind us the Donald Trump is always going to be a birther because 

1) it works for him, 

2) he's racist and 

3) the truth means nothing to him

but as needed, he will direct his birtherism to new targets, in this case, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, all of whom were born in the USA. 

It's really the Ur-"Ugly White Racist" stereotype he's leaning on here: "If you don't like it here, go back to Africa! (or wherever)".  He's deflecting criticism by implying that these people of color have no right to speak about this country's policies (even though they have been elected by their constituents to do so) because their experiences make them "migrant sympathizers"--in rather the way birtherism, and its companion, the "secret Muslim" hoax, were used to imply that President Obama's experiences made him sympathetic to Islamic nations to undermine his foreign policy goals. 

The simple message--they care more about "those people" than they care about American people. As if it were impossible to do both. And also, implicitly, that what you care about tells us how American you are, for a definition of American that is a certain shade of skin tone and a certain flavor of Christian. 

He lashing out with this particular viciousness because VP Pence's photo-op didn't shift the optics on migrant detention in the way Trump hoped. So, in his typical fashion--he smears the critics, in the same way he smears real journalists as "fake news".  

It's grotesque and overt, and exactly the sort of thing Trump's biggest fans are likely to applaud. 

A Dark and Stormy Night in TrumpWorld

The phrase "it was a dark and stormy night" is a much-parodied line evoking florid prose of a certain level of ridiculousness--of course, nights are actually dark.  "Stormy" is just added as convenient foreshadowing. Things dark and stormy--news at 11! But this being the darkest timeline, "dark and stormy" is now completely accurate for the US state of affairs--the gulf coast of Texas, home to tens of thousands of people and about a third of our oil refining capacity, is bearing the brunt of a category 4 hurricane. The potential for massive flooding, power outages, mass human displacement, loss of life, property loss, and environmental disaster are all laid out there--and on his way to Camp David, President Trump entirely gave his thumbs-up assurance that things would be okay and wished folks in the path of the disaster "Good luck".

I have problems with the response, but whatever. For one thing, you can't begrudge the guy a trip to Camp David, because he naturally needs to rest between vacations, and I personally have come to the conclusion that if he actually sleeps at the White House, he gets visited by the ghosts of Presidents past.

(SCENE:



RN: Dooonald.

DT: Who is that?

RN: This is Richard Nixon, Donald, and I have a message for you.

DT: Richard Nixon? What are you doing here?

RN: Enjoying the air conditioning. The message is: there is no air conditioning where you're going.

END SCENE.)

For another thing, can you expect empathy for people who will suffer at his potential reputational expense? I mean, here they are, poised to lose their property and lives, but has anyone considered how this will make Trump look? Because Trump has.

And while you were looking at the hurricane, here is what Trump is up to:

President Trump is a Complete Horror-show

While being broadcast live on camera, President Trump claims media cameras are being turned off https://t.co/cf0mASESyI

— CNN (@CNN) August 23, 2017

Lying about something as basic as whether the cable news organizations are even covering him while they are actually covering him, is pretty much the stellar, stand-out example of how much Donald Trump, actual President of the US, actually holds your (meaning you--a sentient person) intellect in contempt. He is going to lie about things and his lies will be manifestly untrue. He will say there are no protestors (yep, many). He will say there is such a huge crowd (eh!) And then he goes on to insult the intelligence of intelligent people in other ways.

Does he continue to think his response about Charlottesville was genius--yes, he doubles down. Does he threaten to shut down the government to fund his border wall with Mexico? Mmmm-hmm. Both houses of Congress are held by his party and this idea is stupid, but he thinks it is great. He implies he will pardon Sheriff Joe Arpaio, birther, self-proclaimed "concentration camp" runner. He praises Jeffrey "Sieg Heil" Lord.

And now,because he's a fuckwit and doesn't understand that words have meanings, there will be more agitation--because he doesn't know how to pour oil on troubled waters. He sets shit on fire and thinks this is his tribute, his sacramental flame.

Nothing about this is okay. Nothing. Nothing at all.

(Also, Ben Carson, Hatch violation--this is a campaign rally, and he had no business being there.)

Assange is Maybe A Little Disingenuous

Julian Assange claims President Obama is trying to “delegitimize” Donald Trump with hacking allegations https://t.co/tvKSelcgUm

— Salon (@Salon) January 4, 2017

It's probably my deep partisanship that makes me respond to the idea that President Obama wants to "delegitimize" Donald Trump, with the very obvious: well, who then wanted to see President Obama's birth certificate to determine if Obama was even a citizen, or called for his college transcripts, to try and find out whether he was even smart? Trump made this an acceptable play. For what it's worth, were either of Trump's parents born in the US? What does his birth certificate say? And maybe I want Trump's school transcripts because he doesn't seem so smart, either.

I also have a tendency to think, that if the GRU was peddling the fruits of their warez to Count Hackula in the Ecuadoran Embassy, they probably wouldn't have fronted as GRU or state-sponsored in any way. They used a thing called a "cut out"--pretty basic. They might have represented as a security firm.* Maybe Assange is telling the truth in stating that he doesn't believe that he was contacted by Russian intelligence resources (even if I think this is a buttload of denial). Still and all, the Gateway Pundit-level framing left no possible alternative in my mind that WikiLeaks had a certain political agenda W/R/T the US elections. I don't trust a damn thing he says anymore.

It is pathetic Sean Hannity does. But he is a propagandist by nature. Treating Assange like a major truth telling machine, when just a while ago he was the worst kind of traitor? Turned entirely on what party's narrative Assange served? Yeah., Hannity, we have got you read.


* Ah:

Reminder: #WikiLeaks is a publisher. We don't hack.
Anonymous sources submit documents on our platform.
We verify and publish.#defendWL

— WikiLeaks Task Force (@WLTaskForce) October 25, 2016

Anonymous. They don't even "know".

Donald Trump is Always Gonna Be A Birther

Donald Trump is an uniquely disingenuous man. He is a liar. It's what's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with Trump--he is going to lie about something. He decided to lie and say he thought maybe Barack Obama was not eligible to be president because of his birth certificate. I would like everyone, everyone please! Stop pretending Donald Trump started birtherism. It was just a thing that was around message boards and blogs in 2008 and to their ever-lasting shame, some PUMA-types need to own up that they kind of liked the idea that this was a fun way to kneecap a credible African-American candidate. But no. There were so many fathers and mothers of this failure--Orly Taitz. Jerome Corsi. Near as I can tell, this was never a spectacular issue for Trump until about 2011 or so.

It doesn't appear to be at all true that he stopped after the birth certificate was put out by President Obama.  No, he kept ye olde home fires burning, even being unwilling to state for certain that the President was born in this country as late as Thursday.  I can't be certain about this and it's late, but there's this issue that Trump wanted help on regarding China (which he says he is going to make the best deals with, if you believe him) . The Obama Administration said there wasn't anything they could particularly do for him. And then that was the year Trump got salty. February 7, he writes that letter regarding China.

February 10, he's talking up birtherism.

Now, I see Trump as a vengeful and petty person. He's a get-back guy. He didn't have any information he was really questioning about Obama's birth certificate on behalf of a nation riven by this alien character; he just got thwarted by the Obama Administration about something and decided to be a major asshole about it. So he made it personal. And then when Obama released his long-form birth certificate and had the temerity to laugh about it at the White House Correspondents Dinner, he got so mad. And then for an encore, Obama fucking got Bin Laden.

Trump is a sad egobaby so he didn't even try 2012. But he kept kicking that birther thing until he thought, maybe, 2016 is a good year to run against tired, sad Hillary and prove his ass didn't get beat. So he messaged to the alt-right, and then decides at the nth minute he wants to disavow?

Nope.  It was always a lie. His investigators he pretended to send to Hawaii to find really interesting things? It was a hoax. See--the problem isn't that birtherism was just wrong--oh hell no. The stupidity of having to pretend that Obama's mom would have had to be in Kenya for Obama to be born there just makes cases like Terry Lakin appallingly disappointing--is it really possible to have this much disrespect for another human being that you throw away your actual future for it? But what did Trump have to lose? He discovered that you can have a reputation as a ginormous prick in this country and be celebrated. You could basically get away with murder, if you knew how to massage the press.

So he stood with some veterans, and he talked about his new DC luxury hotel, and then offered up a statement that he figures puts to bed the last five years of him questioning the President's birthplace. While having another prominent birther on the stage with him. As if messaging "Naw, I'm not serious."

And then suggested that Hillary Clinton should do without armed Secret Service protection so we could see what happens.  Not the first time he suggested how easy it could be to kill her, you know, if you had the right armaments. He can stop talking about Obama's birth certificate, but he can't stop whatever it is that makes him sociopathically unconcerned with how what he says translates into what happens to other people.  Because he doesn't care. Because he doesn't think about outcomes. Because he's a conspiracy-theory peddling grifter who wants attention. And nothing will ever make him a guy who didn't demand that the rightfully elected president of my country "show his papers".

That did not make America great. It marked a low point in our discourse and he's been holding it there, since. Nothing he can say changes what garbage he has put out there. Nothing at all. Will he make good on his promise to give millions to charity if he was satisfied that the birth certificate was legitimate? (Just like Sherriff Joe Arpaio used taxpayer money for his stupid birther investigation, I would be surprised if Trump didn't pillage the Trump Foundation a little for the window dressings of this hoax.)

This albatross of birtherism doesn't drop off like that. It stays, it rots, it covers him with flies and maggots. He has popularity because most of his fans don't think he's a sincere loony, but a successfully vindictive slanderer. (Once again--deploringly, I note this is what they want.) But there can't be any ignoring what he said, and this doesn't walk it back or erase it. The record shows he was an open, active, conspiracy theorist who doubted the legal documentation of the sitting president for five years for shits and giggles and a shot at running for president. And that should be seen as really offensive.

UPDATE:

He snowed you poor damn dumb MF's and shared it on the Twitter machine (unless he deletes it):

"Donald Trump’s birther event is the greatest trick he’s ever pulled"https://t.co/zvVQnxeiQ9

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2016

Also, screencap:

Also, screencap about Hillary Clinton's Secret Service detail:

Trump's Losing Ugly--and Dangerously

Trump on Clinton picking SCOTUS judges: "Nothing you can do... Although, the 2nd Amendment, people, maybe there is." https://t.co/U3lH0IiWF7

— CNN (@CNN) August 9, 2016

This morning, I was planning on writing about how Donald Trump, down in the polls, was becoming increasingly ugly in his invective and tactics. The "rigged" insinuations--the idea that if he loses, it won't be because he is a lousy candidate who behaves erratically and has prompted the defections of numerous current and former (albeit, mostly former) GOP officials--it will be because somehow, the system is "rigged". It could be argued that this argument strains credulity and won't even be bought by most Republicans--but is not making that appeal to "most Republicans". He is making that appeal to the folks who still think ACORN is a thing, that Barry Soetero is a Muslim Kenyan, and that the Democratic nomination was won by a person with significant brain damage. Sure, we want to believe those people are rare and weird, sort of FOX News website commenters meets The Hills Have Eyes. But many of them have voter's registrations all right.

And they have guns, and these are the ones who really worry that the Mommy State is going to take their guns and leave them in the kill box of the Chipotle as defenseless as that Pajama Kid from the Obamacare ads.

Now, Trump's proven himself to be worthy of the Republican nomination by being well-acquainted with the oldest tactic against the Clintons--just keep shoveling shit, and sooner or later, some of it will stick. You couldn't help but notice the manipulation factor of the grieving mother of one of the Benghazi attacks' victims holding Hillary Clinton "personally responsible" for her son being killed at the RNC. Now, I know that anger and trying to assign blame and a deeper meaning is a part of grief--but does anyone think Hillary Clinton put on a camouflage pantsuit and her sensible jackboots to kill CIA contractors that day?

That Pat Smith and Charles Woods are now working with the probably disturbed, "endangered white guy", Birther lawyer Larry Klayman to sue Clinton for wrongful death and defamation is just sad. Maybe they believe this guy will manage to accomplish something nine official investigations didn't. But there is a lot of reason for doubt. (Hint--he's not in it for your best interests, parents--he's got axes to grind and he'll use you for a whetstone.) It's deeply visceral. It doesn't have to make sense. So when Trump calls Clinton "Lucifer" and accuses her of corruption and everything else--he's softening her up: some of it will stick. That's why it doesn't really mean anything to him if one of his surrogates suggests the "firing squad" for her and is investigated by the Secret Service--Trump thinks that is a job well done. That's the language "his people" like to hear.

So maybe he'll suggest her emails got an Iranian scientist killed--and Mike Pence even repeats it, even though this is idiotic. Every conspiracy theory you can think of--just shovel that shit. SOP.

What Would a "Birther" Do?

So, imagine that the idiot who sent (allegedly, since we never heard any further about it) investigators into Hawai'i after President Obama's birth certificate only to promise a truly amazing revelation that never ever came, was presented with an opponent whose family history might, just a little, have some Native American extraction, rumored, maybe--

Well, yes, he took the bait.  He decided to call her "Pocahontas" with one side of his face, and call her "very racist" with the other side. And he calls on former Senator Scott Brown (will travel for senate elections) to offer his suggestion that Warren could get a DNA test.

Uh huh. She should show her papers proving her pedigree. Neat trick, you guys.

Tell me--how well did this:

Work for the former Senator from New Hamp---shit, I meant Massachusetts? Not at all?

And yet regardless of what a DNA test would reveal, Elizabeth Warren is still a Senator and way popular with her base. I don't know who Brown is popular with. Trump from the looks of things.

Just like attacking Clinton for her religion, or Ted Cruz for his, or Obama's birth certificate, Trump goes right to that identity politics thing and attacks people for who they might be.  It's kind of weird. Is Elizabeth Warren pretending she's a tribal leader--no. She's just a Senator from Massachusetts doing a pretty good job of knocking his privileged selfish ass whenever she gets a chance.

But you can see how his attacks are just what a conspiracy theorist useless-ass birther would do. Of course. Of course!

The Trump Problem

Joe Scarborough Says He Won't Vote for Trump Unless He Changes His Tune https://t.co/8mC2hbfTD0 pic.twitter.com/NmpV7EK2Rj

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) May 5, 2016

The Morning Joe team is so known for their velvet-glove treatment of Donald Trump that Larry Wilmore made a colorful joke about it at the White House Press Correspondents' Dinner--so it's actually kind of a howler for Joe Scarborough to say now that he just can't support Donald Trump unless he "changes his tune":

“I gotta say I was surprised and disappointed … that yesterday, he stuck by the Muslim ban. That’s a loser. It’s a loser with the majority of Americans. And you’ve got Republicans like me. I just, I’m not going to vote for a guy” like that, Scarborough said, according to Politico.

Well, sure. But wouldn't it have been better to just be a little bit surprised and disappointed the first time he said it? And the disappointment--is it that Trump really seems to mean it--or that he keeps saying it out loud where the general election audience can hear? Does he just want Trump to change what he's saying for the general election regardless of what he believes? Oh! I get it! He wants a principled Republican!

This is why I can't take Senators Susan Collins or Kelly Ayotte as having a credible, sensible, or even half-assed stand when they offer their non-endorsement-level support. That isn't a needle you can really thread, is it? When Speaker of the House Paul Ryan bats his baby-blues and juts his manly jaw to say "I am just not ready" to support Donald Trump at this time--isn't he implying he's looking for a reason to be gotten to "yes" by some silver-tongued art of the deal? When the older, grayer heads of the party simply decline to show up, are they withdrawing support--or is it more like they are backing down from fighting for their party's values in the most conspicuous place?

That last ship has probably sailed. I think Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse has been admirably consistent in rejecting what Trump stands for--he'd be a Constitutional nightmare and I think there could be real agreement between left and right on that--but looking for a third-party conservative to rescue Republicans from the disgrace of considering voting for Hillary Clinton on the basis of knowing what she is actually doing and not being a conspiracy-theory-chugging whackaloon is a bit late. There was this thing called a GOP primary where there were 16 other people, all of them with resumes of varying degrees of seriousness. And nobody wanted them more than the people who wanted Trump, wanted Trump. And I noticed how no one put in their strong endorsements for any of the puppies in that slushy sled race. Folks didn't all pile on in Summer of 2015, when it might have counted. And it would have been a lie anyway, because they all applauded secretly when this jackass was calling for Obama's birth certificate and school records back in 2011. They courted his attention. They mainstreamed his ass.

Boo-hoo.

My advice to the GOP is take the knee on the presidency and focus on the down-ticket races, because those poor exposed congress-critters who can't figure out whether they want to support Trump for president or not need all the help they can get. That's my free-of-charge feelings on how to partially handle the Trump Problem, and I doubt you'd get better from experts at any price.

But as a lifelong Democrat, this problem is only my problem if this doofus gets elected, and I already know I'd do anything I can to not let that happen. I wish everyone else saw it that way--but I wouldn't be surprised if any number of Republicans get into that voting booth when it's only them and their conscience and their Maker, if they believe in one, who know a time for choosing when they see it.

Donald Trump and The Snake

It has come to my attention that Donald Trump has made a habit of reading the lyrics to Al Wilson's The Snake at his rallies, and I find that really fascinating. It works for Trump's message because it is a simple and multipurpose allegory--a woman takes pity on a frozen snake, who revives and bites her, saying "You knew damn well I was a snake when you took me in." He can apply it equally to Syrian refugees or immigrants--by implying that we can't show sympathy to those people, because we should already be aware of the dangers of being "bitten".

It fascinates me because it vaguely reminds me of the relationship Trumpism has to the Republican Party. Tomorrow, it looks almost certain that Marco Rubio will be sunk off the coast of Florida wearing Trump's popularity like a pair of cement shoes, and John Kasich could very well find himself in a similar predicament in Lake Erie, notwithstanding Mitt Romney's heartfelt suggestion that Republicans extensively employ strategic voting in a bid to rid themselves of this meddlesome billionaire.

Notwithstanding, by the by, a week that might have clobbered the credibility of virtually any other candidate for office, ever. Trump at around this time last week stood next to steak, wine, and water with conspicuous "Trump" labels (or conspicuous labels advising they were not possibly true Trumps) as if to, neurotically, display that, as with the rumor of his stubby fingers, he certainly had no problem in the "brand" department. (Is that so? Because it looks to me like he's got more problems than, um, expired meat.) And then of course there is the escalating violence, which Trump appears to actually be encouraging rather than discouraging, and which he appears to condone against protesters and even journalists. And then there's the peculiar way he accuses protesters of being ISIS. I wouldn't be in a big hurry to accept as POTUS some guy who can, straight-faced, repeat unchecked garbage conspiracy theory bullshit, and defend himself with "All I know is what's on the Internet."

But the Republican Party knew damn well what Donald Trump was when they took him in. His flirtation (which seems to have been legit, and well as hella racist) with birtherism should have absolutely barred him from serious political consideration--especially after his humiliation at the 2011 WHCD, where President Obama savaged his birtherism hours before it was revealed that an operation to take out Osama Bin Laden was successful. He looked, then, like an outclassed smacked ass. But as we all know, the GOP tucked poor wounded Trump into their bosom because his endorsement was so pretty.  He gave crazypants sizzle and had mad donor stacks--what's to hate?

I don't know--who he is and what he does? What any competent oppo research on him would show?

But now the Republican establishment and even conservative media is basically bitten. They knew what he was. They handled him--dealt with him--anyway. And who knows? When he recites that little allegory, maybe he knows he's the snake, too.

Donald Trump Vs the 14th Amendment

Dead Youtube link--it's here.

In the linked video, FOX pundit Bill O'Reilly raises some pretty strong points about why Donald Trump's anti-immigration scheme doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. (Climb the hell down folks, I don't say O'Reilly did a good job everyday, but this was that day.) There's a certain logistical issue practical people will end up making with the idea that Trump means to round up and deport 11 million people (not all of whom are even Mexican). How do you locate them? Are you rousting families from settled homes and sending them out into homelessness? Are you having undocumented families living in attics in the US afraid of being picked up and maybe placed in La Migra's detention areas--which will be a real problem, because the government will need to sort where they are sending folks back to. And for US-born people, this means trying to find a way to deport them to a place they have never known.

How is that detention area going to look? When it's swelled by an order of magnitude or so? O'Reilly suggested these people would be rounded up in buses, but maybe, because of the scale, trains might be more appropriate? Will those additional temporary detention housing spaces be in modular barracks or open air--tents, like Sheriff Arpaio keeps some of his prisoners? And how will you keep the US-born children of immigrants from being citizens when the earliest challenge to the 14th Amendment on just this note (as Yastreblansky points out) supported the idea that the 14th Amendment absolutely means the children of immigrants are citizens. The dilution of the 14th Amendment does away with the idea of equal treatment under the law of individuals based on any classification. Following that kind of ecstasy of douchebaggery , why not make plausible a trail of tears and forced labor for undocumented people and their US-born children? (I will not the hell use "illegal alien" or "anchor baby" because these, friends, are classifications of entire human beings based on a legal status that does not in any way diminish their value or dignity as human beings. Even if Jeb Bush thinks these terms are A-ok.)

Is Lenar Whitney "The Most Frightening Candidate"--Really?

Sure, I can see David Wasserman's point about the footloose and fact-free candidate--it's unnerving when you realize that facts don't matter to a candidate and that they are basically pulling things from out of their behinds. But I just don't see her as being so uniquely scary as all that.

After all, what she's had to say about climate change is hardly any different from what Senator James Inhofe says about it, all the time, and he's been a senator for years. Of course, he's completely wrong, and for that matter, so is she. But is that so scary? Why, the Republicans in the Senate have just issued a report claiming that the whole green movement is run by a shadowy cabal of billionaires in a network so vast and opaque that the true extent of it may never really be known. Why, she practically seems standard-issue on that count!

And really--not wanting to land either way on the record regarding where President Obama was born? Hah--she's got company on that score as well. Who hasn't been a little Birther-curious at one time or another? (I mean, not-crazy people, but you know...)

Actually, the most shocking thing to me about how that interview seems to have gone wrong was the accusation that Wasserman was trying to have a "Sarah Palin interview".  As in the interview where the vice-presidential candidate was literally thrown by the question "What do you read?"?  Honestly, that seems more insulting to the candidate, than to the interviewer.

 

Come to think of it, it kind of seems like a certain party has become frightening...