Is this the first election in history

Effing brilliant.

NoCoPilot wrote:

• In which neither candidate dares mention serial adultery?
  
• In which slime competes against smarm?
  
• In which majority negative opinion competes against majority negative opinion?
  
• To demonstrate that POTUS is not a job anyone sane wants anymore?
  

I understand all the points you make, but if you are trying to display an equitable correspondence between Trump and Hillary, I must disagree.

Politics is almost always a choice between the lesser of two evils, but this season seems particularly bad.

While I have never been a huge fan of Hillary Clinton, neither can I understand the extreme hatred some have for her. What, exactly, has she done to earn such acrimony? I know what the Republicans have accused her of, and I think we can all accept that these accusations were one-hundred percent political and without substantial merit. The Republicans have realized for a long time that Clinton was likely to be the Democratic candidate for president, and that she would be a strong opponent to whomever they put up against her. And for that reason alone, they have done all they can to diminish her. I'm not buying it.

Hillary is by her own admission more comfortable with service to the public than with appearing in public. She is not charismatic. She is not "warm and fuzzy." She is not a natural born politician.

And she's up against a reality TV star.

NoCoPilot wrote:

And she's up against a reality TV star.

Of course, "reality" TV isn't. And would Stump really qualify as a star?


Possibly my biggest concern with Clinton right now is who she will put into positions of power in the financial arena. Her husband's choices, and many of Obama's, were terrible.

And you wonder why Trump has supporters.

A Third Of Louisiana Republicans Blame Obama For Hurricane Katrina Response

Quote :

29 percent of Louisiana Republicans said Obama was responsible for the Katrina response. Twenty-eight percent put the blame on President George W. Bush, whose administration did in fact oversee the federal response to Katrina. Nearly half (44 percent) of the Louisiana Republicans polled didn’t know who to blame.

This is interesting.

Trump's disdain for the public is troubling to me.  His offensively-bad combover, his frequent use of bankruptcy to avoid debts, his refusal to share his tax returns, his use of "dog whistle" language, his name-calling and denigration, and then there's the obviously-fake doctor's letter.

Huffington Post linked to, but did not comment on, Dr. Jacob Bornstein's obituary.  I find THAT troubling as well, as on its surface it appears to be a Trump forgery too.

Quote :

He spent his entire professional career as a staff member of the Department of Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, NY. He devoted his entire life to the study and practice of medicine and was completely and unequivocally committed to the care of his patients, who loved and respected him.

Also, the maths don't work out right.  The obit says Jacob was in "private practice" for sixty years and died at 93.  Assuming he worked right up until his passing in 2010, why does his son say he was Trump's "personal physician" since 1980?

The letterhead names doctors Jacob Bornstein and Harold Bornstein. I think the article was trying to suggest that the letter was supposedly from the live doctor, but forged on an old (out-dated) piece of letterhead from when the dead one was still alive. Or something. Confusing and strange.

This has been an hilarious two weeks in the GOP.  First Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was fired for insisting Trump read speeches off a TelePrompTer, speeches that have been written and vetted by his campaign staff, rather than winging it.  Trump fired him because "it wasn't my style."

Next Trump hired right wingnut conspiracy king Steve Bannan of Breitbart News to replace him.  Breitbart is so "out there" that Fox News won't even run their stories.

Yesterday Trump, on the advice of staffers, said he might be "softening" his stance on deporting 12 million illegal immigrants and making them apply for readmission.  Somebody pointed out to him, apparently, that if the illegals are undocumented it's not a simple matter to find them and round them up.  Not to mention the cost of repatriating them to wherever they came from.  And the universal abhorrence when this policy was announced.

In response, the usual far-right demagogues (Ann Coulter et al) went apoplectic, accusing Trump of flip-flopping.

He cannot please the center right and the lunatic fringe at the same time.  Accordingly, his support base -- the 23% white nationalists in the GOP -- look like they'll start abandoning him in droves.  His staff would like to translate that into increased support among the majority center right Republicans, but it's looking increasingly unlikely that'll happen.

Trump will be left with bupkis.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was fired for insisting Trump read speeches off a TelePrompTer,

I believe Manafort was fired because his relationship with certain Russians and his failure to register as a foreign agent was going to become embarrassing to the campaign. Not embarrassing to Trump of course; he can't be embarrassed.

There was more than one issue there.

As you surmise, the "given reason" is the minority reason.

It turns out, according to Rachel Maddow tonight, that the guy who funds Breitbart -- Robert Mercer -- is the same guy who funded the Ted Cruz campaign, and attacks on John McCain, and put Steve Bannon in charge of Trump's campaign.  He's also coincidentally Trumps biggest donor, by far.

Which is why Trump's talking points suddenly sound an awful lot like Breitbart's "alt-right" agenda, which is the rebranding name they've given to the white supremacist movement.  The political wing of the Ku Klux Klan.  

The hand that moves Trump's mouth is a white nationalist.

Interesting article about Bannon. Among the fun stuff:

Quote :

Guardian US added its own bombshell: Bannon and another ex-wife are registered to vote at a vacant house in Florida, a key swing state. That registration could be a violation of election laws, representing voter fraud:

NoCo wrote:

Breitbart's "alt-right" agenda, which is the rebranding name they've given to the white supremacist movement...

Actually, "alt-right" is not something the Breitbart crowd came up with. It's the description used for internet trolls of the asshole persuasion. It's appropriate for the Brietfart bunch, but it's not their creation.

NoCoPilot wrote:

and then there's the obviously-fake doctor's letter.

Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews mentioned something is passing last night, during the hand-off between their programs, which I hadn't thought of and haven't seen mentioned anywhere.

Trump says he's been treated by this gastroenterologist for thirty years -- but there's NOTHING WRONG WITH HIM.

Why would you see a specialist, for 30 years, if there's nothing wrong with you?

Maybe he just really enjoys colonoscopies.

Speaking of that doctor...

Things Said By Donald Trump's Nutjob Doctor, Ranked By How Insane They Are

This thing just sounds more and more like an Onion parody.

And by "thing" I mean Trump's whole candidacy.

Seems we are speaking of the same bunch. I hadn't realized they had crawled out of the swamp.

CNN wrote:

Previously confined to darker corners of the internet, the alt-right is moving into the spotlight.
...
Though the alt-right movement is not a Breitbart creation, the site has served as a reliable outlet for its more polished and popular advocates.