;)
The Commentariat -- October 26, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Congressional leaders and the Obama administration are close to a crucial budget deal that would modestly increase domestic spending over the next two years and raise the federal borrowing limit. The accord would avert a potentially cataclysmic default on the government's debt and dispense with perhaps the most divisive issue in Washington just days before Speaker John A. Boehner is expected to turn over his gavel to Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin. While congressional aides cautioned that the deal was far from certain, and the Treasury Department declined to comment, officials briefed on the negotiations said the emerging accord would call for cuts in spending on Medicare and Social Security disability benefits." CW: That last of which is mighty stupid. ...
... The Washington Post story, by Kelsey Snell, is here.
** Ken Dilanian of the Washington Post: "The Army Green Berets who requested the Oct. 3 airstrike on the Doctors without Borders trauma center in Afghanistan were aware it was a functioning hospital but believed it was under Taliban control, The Associated Press has learned. The information adds to the evidence the site was familiar to the U.S. and raises questions about whether the attack violated international law.... The attack left a mounting death toll, now up to 30 people."
Ole Miss Joins USA 150 Years after Civil War. Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "The Mississippi flag was taken down at the state's public university Monday morning, after student leaders, faculty and staff called for its removal because of its prominent Confederate emblem. It was a dramatic change for a university long proud of its southern traditions and ties to the Confederacy...."
Unpossible! On our side, you've got the No. 2 guy [who] tried to kill someone at 14, and the No. 1 is high energy and crazy as hell. How am I losing to these people? -- Sen. Lindsey Graham, GOP presidential candidate
*****
Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Tens of thousands of people with modest incomes are at risk of losing health insurance subsidies in January because they did not file income tax returns, federal officials and consumer advocates say. Under federal rules, anyone who receives an insurance subsidy must file a tax return to verify that the person was eligible and received the proper amount of financial assistance based on household income.... Many of the people potentially affected have incomes so low that they would not otherwise have to file tax returns. But if they received insurance subsidies in 2014, they were required to file this year."
A Disaster Waiting to Happen. Ashley Halsey & Michael Laris of the Washington Post: "Railroad industry lobbyists have flooded key members of Congress with cash in a so-far successful effort to get them to postpone the installation & implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC), an automatic braking system, even though the National Transportation Safety Board "has investigated 145 rail accidents since 1969 that PTC could have prevented, with a death toll of 288 and 6,574 people injured.... [Meanwhile,] the number of rail tank cars carrying flammable material in the United States has grown from 9,500 seven years ago to 493,126 last year, thanks to the boom in domestic oil produced in the Bakken oil fields.... A federal official familiar with [the] 2008 negotiations [establishing the deadline, said,] 'The railroads were in the room, and [Association of American Railroads] and those guys were the ones who said 2015 was doable. They did not embrace the deadline, but they said it was a fair bill.'..."
Sellouts! Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: GOP base says Freedom Caucus members who support Paul Ryan for speaker are no longer crazy enough. ...
... BUT. Gery Legum of Salon: Ryan is already caving to the Crazy Caucus. ...
We know that the Ryan budget is very hostile toward federal employees. It would dramatically cut their effective pay. The Ryan budgets have always looked to federal employees as a piggy bank to be used to reduce the deficit rather than as an important resource to provide services to the American people. -- Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), whose district includes 1,000s of federal workers
Bill Daley, President Obama's former chief-of-staff, says in a Washington Post op-ed that GOP dysfunction began with Sarah Palin: "Palin's blatant lack of competence and preparedness needs no belaboring.... Now the 'settle for flash' aura of Palin's candidacy looks like a warning that the party was prizing glib, red-meat rhetoric over reasoned solutions.... Once McCain put Palin on the ticket, Republican 'grown-ups,' who presumably knew better, had to bite their tongues. But after the election..., they either remained quiet or abetted the dumbing-down of the party. They stood by as Donald Trump and others noisily pushed claims that Obama was born in Kenya. And they gladly rode the tea party tiger to sweeping victories in 2010 and 2014."
"Free Mitt Romney!: Paul Krugman: "... a few days ago Mr. Romney couldn't help himself: he boasted to the Boston Globe that 'Without Romneycare, we wouldn't have had Obamacare' and that as a result 'a lot of people wouldn't have health insurance.'... Mr. Romney quickly tried to walk his comments back, claiming that Obamacare is very different from Romneycare, which it isn't, and that it has failed. But you know, it hasn't.... From the point of view of the Republican base, covering the uninsured, or helping the unlucky in general, isn't a feature, it's a bug...: the base is actually willing to lose money in order to perpetuate suffering."
New York Times Editors: "Clearly, concealed carry does not transform ordinary citizens into superheroes. Rather, it compounds the risks to innocent lives, particularly as state legislatures, bowing to the gun lobby, invite more citizens to venture out naïvely with firearms in more and more public places, including restaurants, churches and schools. College campuses are the latest goal for the gun lobby -- a perverse marketing campaign after the gun massacre that took 10 lives this month at a community college in Oregon."
Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "A widening internal investigation at Volkswagen is focusing not only on who was responsible for installing illegal software designed to fool emissions testers, but also on which managers may have learned of the deception and failed to take appropriate action, a person briefed on the inquiry said. The failure of people inside the carmaker to sound warnings about illegal engine software has emerged as a crucial element of the scandal, in which 11 million cars were programmed to produce far fewer emissions during laboratory testing than they did under normal driving conditions."
Marisa Bellack of the Washington Post: "... there was a 19th-century echo in the American Cancer Society's announcement this past week of revised guidelines for breast cancer screening. Whereas anxiety was once a reason for aggressive medical intervention, it is now invoked to avoid intervention -- an argument that is both patronizing and unscientific. There may be good reasons for women in their early 40s to forgo regular mammograms, but this isn't one of them.... There doesn't seem to be as much concern about a hysterical response to a prostate cancer screening."
Rebecca Ruiz of the New York Times: "This fall, legal claims of wage theft in professional cheerleading have spread from the N.F.L. to the N.B.A., and basketball teams' treatment of female performers is under intense scrutiny. Lauren Herington, a former dancer for the Milwaukee Bucks, sued the team in federal court in Wisconsin last month, charging that she had been paid well under the minimum wage during the 2013-14 season."
Mary Chapman of the New York Times: "Minutes before their contract was set to expire, the United Automobile Workers union and General Motors announced a tentative agreement Sunday night on a new national agreement covering about 52,000 employees."
AP: "A video of the joint raid of a prison in Iraq by US and Kurdish forces in which 70 hostages held by Islamic State (Isis) were rescued has been released. Helmet-camera footage, released on Sunday, shows the raid on Thursday of the prison, which was controlled by Isis militants in Hawija, 9 miles (15km) west of the city of Kirkuk.... US army Master Sgt Joshua Wheeler, 39, of Roland, Oklahoma, was killed during the operation, officials said on Friday. He is the first American to die in combat as part of the US Operation Inherent Resolve." Includes video.
Presidential Race
Digby, in Salon, on politics as teevee drama. "Bill and Hillary Clinton ... are the stars of the nation's longest running TV soap opera.... Hillary Clinton is the biggest political star of all. Along with her husband, she has been in the harsh spotlight of national politics for 25 years, and has gone through more ups and downs, heartache and triumph than your average Telenovela heroine."
Eric Bradner of CNN: "Bernie Sanders says his criticism of Hillary Clinton's 'shouting' on gun control has nothing to do with her gender.... Sanders criticized the "shouting" from both sides on gun issues in the first Democratic presidential debate. Clinton said Saturday in Iowa that Sanders' remarks came with a gender-related undercurrent. She said: 'I'm not shouting. It's just that when women talk, some people think we're shouting.' Sanders on Sunday laughed at her suggestion that his remarks were about gender." ...
... Jonathan Martin & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Nearly eight years after [Hillary] Clinton was humbled by a third-place finish in Iowa, she has gone to great lengths to demonstrate her commitment to winning the state that first propelled Barack Obama to the presidency. But in a campaign that seems to be testing every long-held assumption about the electorate, Mrs. Clinton is facing a stiff challenge from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont that is again showcasing her difficulties with liberal activists in a state where she and her husband do not have deep ties."
Charles Pierce: "Iowa Democrats had themselves a rollicking, yabba-dabba-doo time at the annual Slave-Raper, Indian-Slaughterer fundraising rodeo on Saturday in Des Moines.... All three of them came into Hy-Vee Hall knowing that the putative Democratic frontrunner had reasserted herself in a very serious way. Their respective reactions to this change in circumstances created a change in tone, an awareness that, to become president, you not only have to sell your vision to the country, but you also have to beat somebody.... Without mentioning her name, Sanders relentlessly portrayed Clinton's base-pleasuring moves in this campaign as the same kind of cold political calculations that, in the past, she had made in supporting the Iraq War and the Defense of Marriage Act."
Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. delayed making a decision about a potential presidential campaign for months, in part because of the tears of his 11-year-old granddaughter. That time for family healing after the death of her father, the vice president's son Beau, in May ultimately meant he would not be able to win, Mr. Biden said ... in an interview televised on Sunday night on CBS's '60 Minutes.'" ...
... You can watch the interview, by Nora O'Donnell, of Vice President & Dr. Biden here.
It has not been easy for me. I started off in Brooklyn. My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars. I came into Manhattan, and I had to pay him back, and I had to pay him back with interest. But I came into Manhattan and I started buying properties, and I did great. -- Donald Trump, relating his rags-to-riches story
You know, many successful people start out with nothing. The poor, hapless Donald began his career a millon dollars in debt! Plus interest! -- Constant Weader
A Kindlier, Gentler Trump? Yeah, Right. Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "'When I'm president I'm going to unify the country,' the property billionaire told CNN on Sunday, in a surprise call for more civility in politics. 'A lot of people think I'm a tough guy, but actually I am a nice guy,' he added. 'Barack Obama has divided this country unbelievably and it's all hatred. I think it hurts both parties, it hurts the country.'" Of Hillary Clinton's appearance before the Benghaazi! committee, Trump said, "It was very partisan. The level of hatred between Republicans and Democrats was unbelievable. I have never seen anything like it." CW: If it's "all hatred," Mr. Birther, the hatred is coming from you & your side.
The press has a lower approval rating than Congress. They're scum. -- Donald Trump, in New Hampshire this morning
Like Jeb!, Trump Has Other "Cool Things" He Could Be Doing. This isn't so easy. I can be at other places at 7 in the morning, not on live television all over the world. -- Donald Trump, same rally
Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "... Marco Rubio has defended his common and much-criticised absences from Senate business, saying: 'Voting is not the only part of the Senate job.' Speaking to CNN in an interview broadcast on Sunday, the Florida senator also deflected the suggestion that his own statement this week, that federal employees who did not perform in their roles should be fired, could be turned back on him. Rubio has the worst voting attendance record in the Senate this year." ...
... David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: Action figure Marco Rubio can't stand the glacial pace of his day job, so he has most quit doing the job, & he won't be doing it in the future.
Still Crazy ... AND Cruel & Sexist. Jonathan Martin: "... Ben Carson said Sunday he believed that abortion should be outlawed even in cases of rape and incest, comparing the procedure with slavery. 'I would not be in favor of killing a baby because the baby came about in that way,' Mr. Carson said on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' citing 'the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who were the result of rape or incest.'" ...
... AND, since he hasn't figured out a way to compare abortion to Hitler, he compares women who seek abortions to slaveholders. ...
... But Now, Back to Hitler. Kyle Balluck of the Hill: "... Ben Carson is defending comments in which he said an armed Jewish population could have stopped the Nazis.... Carson also said there should be no compromises on the Second Amendment." He got straight on Noah Webster v. Daniel Webster this time, however. ...
... Fire Chuck Todd! CW: Todd, being the fake journalist that he is, lets Carson get away with repeating his fake history. After Dr. Ben repeats his little history-of-the-Holocaust malarkey, Chuck moves right along to the next, unrelated question, never citing historians who say Carson is wrong on every aspect of the story. If you want to know why a crazy man has a shot at becoming POTUS, the answer is Chuck & Co. Evidently Chucky thinks "Meet the Press" means "meet and greet," a mixer sort of happening where folks can show up to chat & make friends with the show's staff. ...
... Still Baffling. Chris Wallace can't understand Dr. Ben's prescription for Medicare. Apparently, neither can Dr. Ben. "When Wallace pressed him on his past indication he would eliminate Medicare, Carson said he’s perfectly capable of changing his mind." Includes video. You figure it out. I think he's saying you're on your own, buddy.
Bushed, Bothered & Bewildered. Eli Stokols of Politico: A "closed-door summit [in Houston] for Jeb Bush's richest donors was meant to be a pep rally, a reunion for loyalists eager to celebrate the family legacy with two former presidents. But as George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush draw supporters together under gray skies and unrelenting rains, the gathering has become a rescue operation for a candidate who looks unable to meet the expectations of the family brand. Many of these dedicated Bush supporters are no longer denying that the guest of honor is unable to connect with a GOP electorate that has become increasingly fractured and stridently ideological since -- and in reaction to -- his brother's presidency.... 'I look at this party now and I hardly recognize it,' one Florida-based donor said." ...
... "A Tale of Two Establishment Favorites." John Cassidy of the New Yorker contrasts the status of Jeb!'s campaign with that of Hillary's. ...
...Steve M. makes a telling point: "It's a quitters-never-win kind of family (though the persistence is usually accompanied by the employment of amoral attack dogs like Lee Atwater, Roger Ailes, and Karl Rove, an approach Jeb isn't taking yet)." In raw politics, the above-the-fray noblesse oblige 'tude works only if your staff operates more like Tricky Dick's dirty-tricks plumbers.
HaHaHaHaHa. Melissa Cronin of Gawker: "New Jersey Governor Chris Christie ... nearly missed his 9:55 Amtrak train from DC to New York. Then, he didn't get the seat he wanted on the train. Then, to make things even worse, he got kicked out of the quiet car!" Fellow passenger Alexander Mann told Gawker, "He got on last minute yelling at his two secret service agents I think because of a seat mixup, sat down and immediately started making phone calls on the quiet car. After about 10 minutes the conductor asked him to stop or go to another car. He got up and walked out again yelling at his secret service.' Mann also said that Christie was having an intense phone conversation, repeating the phrases, 'this is frickin' ridiculous' and 'seriously?! seriously?!'" CW: Wonder if the actual word Christie used was "frickin'." ...
... Maggie Haberman: "Aides to Mr. Christie said the episode was far less dramatic than what was portrayed in the Gawker account.... A spokeswoman, Samantha Smith, said that the governor was not yelling.... At least one other person backed up Ms. Smith's account." CW: Aw, shucks. I prefer to think he was yelling & carrying on. ...
... Guardian: "... Chris Christie said on Sunday the Black Lives Matter protest movement was creating an environment that could put police officers at risk. Speaking on CBS, he said: 'I don't believe that movement should be justified when they are calling for the murder of police officers.' He also accused President Obama of supporting the movement and encouraging 'lawlessness' while not backing up law enforcement." CW: Which is, of course, an absolute crock. If I were seated in the quiet car next to Gov. Crisco, I'd be yelling at him.
CW: How to tell when a presidential contender is finished: news outlets do a dump of their research on a candidate they haven't reported on in weeks. Here's Politico's entry:
Matt Katz: Chris "Christie was on the train returning from an appearance on CBS's Face The Nation, where he went further than most Republican presidential candidates by alleging that the Black Lives Matter movement calls for killing cops. But that extraordinary comment about a critical American civic issue was lost as Gawker's account of Christie screaming on his phone, drinking a McDonald's strawberry smoothie -- and just being so Christie -- lit up political Twitter.... In 2011...," etc. CW: Ben & Scary's new flavor of the month is Carson Candy Nutty Swirl. Christie Creme Triple Chunky Monkey has been retired. ...
... AND here's today's New York Times entry:
... Michael Barbaro: "Those who worked with [Carly Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard] described an exhilarating, blunt, self-punishing figure who stayed in the office until 1 a.m. (and expected aides to do the same) -- a boss who could be warm, even nurturing, but who could abruptly turn cold and unforgiving." CW: Sorry, Carly. The Frozen Caramel Fiorina has melted.
Senate Races
She's Ba-a-a-ack! Burgess Everett & Elena Schneider of Politico: "Republicans have had enough of Sharron Angle, the one-time Senate hopeful who crashed and burned against then-Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2010. And now the GOP in Nevada and Washington is trying to chase her out of another campaign that could again jeopardize the party's chances of capturing Reid's Senate seat. Angle's very public flirtation with a primary bid against Rep. Joe Heck, the party favorite to take on Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, is reviving Democratic dreams and Republican nightmares from the 2010 election."
Timothy Cama of the Hill: "Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) came out in support late Sunday of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regulation that seeks a 32-percent cut in the power sector's carbon dioxide emissions. Ayotte, who faces a tough reeelection bid in a state that voted for President Obama in the last two presidential cycles, is the first congressional Republican to openly endorse the rule dubbed the Clean Power Plan.... New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan is seeking the Democratic nomination to face Ayotte, and would be seen as a top-notch challenger. She's already attacked Ayotte on climate, signaling she intends to make it an issue in the race. Hassan on Friday called for the state's congressional delegation to support the climate plan. She accused Ayotte of siding 'with corporate special interests over New Hampshire's environment,' arguing the senator had fought to protect tax breaks for oil companies and voted to block the EPA from moving forward with regulations to reduce carbon emissions."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Argentine voters sent the country's presidential race into a runoff on Sunday, boosting hopes in the opposition after Mauricio Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires, made a surprisingly strong showing against the candidate endorsed by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, according to partial results released by the electoral authorities."
Washington Post: "A massive earthquake rocked northeastern Afghanistan on Monday with tremors felt across the region from Pakistan to Central Asia, leaving dozens dead amid collapsed buildings and panicked stampedes with officials bracing for possible further casualties."
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Reader Comments (13)
'Barack Obama has divided this country unbelievably and it’s all hatred. I think it hurts both parties, it hurts the country.'” - Donald Trump (quoted above)
Mr. Trump is just shocked - SHOCKED! - to learn that the audience to whom he has insisted that Barack Obama was probably not an American, but in fact a usurper in the office of POTUS, now hates the guy. Who could have predicted?
Charles Pierce has an interesting piece on the trial of Don Blankenship of Massey Energy for criminal actions that arguably led to the mining disaster that killed 29 miners in West Virginia in 2010.
It may not last that long but I'm enjoying a pleasant wave of chuckles at the vision of Chris Christie in the "quiet car". Makes me wonder how long it would take for passengers to request that Trumpy depart the "self-effacing" car. How about a "rational" car? Look! Ben Carson's on the platform. Lock the door. Perhaps Amtrak offers a "cool kids" car. Sorry Jeb! But there are plenty of seats in the "rich lying, inarticulate dork" car. Oh, and your brother George is sitting right up front.
"Chris Christie in the quiet car." Sounds like something out of "Clue". Colonel Mustard in the library with the lead pipe.
And there goes the White House...receding into the distance as Christie heads for the "bellowing bully" car.
Ha! I'm liking Amtrak a little better today.
So many examples of Confederate disconnection from the real world.
Example #3,493: "Hey, I'm Donald Trump. I'm just a reg'lar guy like you, and I'm sure you remember how oppressive it was when your dad loaned you a million bucks and you had to pay it back. Hard times, brother. Hard times."
The best thing is that he has no clue what this sounds like to 99% of Americans.
What's next? "Do you guys remember your first bottle of Romanee-Conti Grand Cru? I distinctly remember thinking '$20 grand for this?' I'll take an old bottle of Montrachet any day of the week, right guys?" Or "My first Rolls was a pain. Do you guys remember how the individually heated seats never worked properly? And all the trouble the chauffeur had keeping the chrome work shiny? Boy, those were some hard times."
Looks like there's another Repugnant "debate" this Wednesday.
I'd like to think my high standards won't allow me to watch it, but there is that fascination of the abomination thing, so I suspect I won't be able to resist, not entirely anyway.
Now that I see in the NYTimes that Playboy has or will stop publishing nude photos, the nation must be grateful there's still political pornography aplenty to fill the void.
@Akhilleus: The rich are different from you and me. They think getting a million-dollar loan is a hardship.
Marie
More Confederate disconnection from the real world.
Example #5,980: Most Important (Confederate) Person in the 21st Century.
According to Fucker Carlson's Daily Cholera, Paul Ryan is the most important wingnut in the 21st century. Paul Ryan. A fraud, a liar, and a hypocrite. I guess that shows you something about their priorities.
Here we have a guy who came from a wealthy family that made enormous sums off government contracts but who then took a handout from the government via social security, to pay for his college education. A guy who then went into government and has had not drawn a non-government check in his life, one who knocks off $350 bottles of wine with wealthy donors and who takes $174,000 a year from taxpayers but spends his time attacking the least well off, designing Potemkin budgets that purport to demonstrate his genius but really show nothing more than a vicious demagogue intent on pulling the plug on programs that help the poor and downtrodden; who castigates inner city black men as lazy moochers who don't care for the "culture of work", one who would take food from the mouths of poor children by cutting food stamps to the bone, chiding them that poor kids don't need food, they just need Jesus.
Every single one of his "budgets" have been exercises in adding further hardships to those who can least bear them and piling further riches on those who least need them.
Still he is cast as a "wonk" and a "legislative genius" and yet his legislative history is nearly as paltry as his knowledge of actual economics (oh, wait, he did once rename a post office in his home town. Pretty heady legislative stuff, that). He bases his economic philosophy on a self-absorbed writer of the worst kind of hypocritical fiction, someone who was neither a philosopher nor economist, one who preached the virtues of selfishness.
Ryan learned those lessons well.
He's got a good life, paid for by American taxpayers, but he wishes to undermine the worst off in this country and help the elite and the wealthy.
No wonder they think he's such a great guy. He's a guy who washes dishes at a food pantry that are already clean and pretends he's helping the poor. Before rushing out to a meeting where he will kill funding for that facility. This, in right wing world, is what constitutes an important person. A fraud, a liar, and a hypocrite.
Paul Ryan.
"The rich are different from you and me."
Once upon a time in my distant youth, because of a connection through a friend of a friend, I attended a wedding reception at Chevy Chase Country Club. As I stood around in my rented tux, trying not to be mistaken for a waiter, I overheard the following conversation between two lads about my age:
"I'm flying to Paris tomorrow on the Concord."
"Oh? Business?"
"No, I need some shirts."
This was said without a glimmer of affectation -- as if I had said I was going to stop by Sears and buy some socks.
Trumpy is feeling the power. The power of the demagogue standing in the midst of haters and begrudgers. And, from the sound of it, he's on the verge. Right on it. And maybe just over it into wielding that power, responding to and encouraging the haters to act on their spite, to let the bile boil over.
At a rally for haters, (because, let's face it; Trump is not appealing to poli-sci majors, lovers of small government, to philosophically minded libertarians and Bill Buckley types) in Miami on Friday nightTrump heard protesters in the crowd. Confederates have no patience for opposing views and Trump promised them he would only put up with it for a short time before allowing things to get violent:
"See the first group, I was nice. Oh, take your time," he said. "The second group, I was pretty nice. The third group, I'll be a little more violent. "
"I'll be...more violent" says the guy who may very well become the GOP's candidate for president.
It's all fun until someone is beaten with a pipe and urinated on for not looking like a Trump voter. Oh wait. That's already happened.
The past is prologue. The GOP continues it's descent into the maelstrom:
"Our first slide into the abyss itself, from the belt of foam above, had carried us to a great distance down the slope..." and there's further for them to go. And us along with them.
Trumpy is feeling the power. The power of the demagogue standing in the midst of haters and begrudgers. And, from the sound of it, he's on the verge. Right on it. And maybe just over it into wielding that power, responding to and encouraging the haters to act on their spite, to let the bile boil over.
At a rally for haters, (because, let's face it; Trump is not appealing to poli-sci majors, lovers of small government, to philosophically minded libertarians and Bill Buckley types) in Miami on Friday nightTrump heard protesters in the crowd. Confederates have no patience for opposing views and Trump promised them he would only put up with it for a short time before allowing things to get violent:
"See the first group, I was nice. Oh, take your time," he said. "The second group, I was pretty nice. The third group, I'll be a little more violent. "
"I'll be...more violent" says the guy who may very well become the GOP's candidate for president.
It's all fun until someone is beaten with a pipe and urinated on for not looking like a Trump voter. Oh wait. That's already happened.
The past is prologue. The GOP continues it's descent into the maelstrom:
"Our first slide into the abyss itself, from the belt of foam above, had carried us to a great distance down the slope..." and there's further for them to go. And us along with them.
Oh, and Lindsey Graham (I almost forgot all about that dude) wants to know how in the wide, wide world of sports he's losing to the amateurs, weirdos, and whackos? He let it happen. That's how. He never had the balls (or the ethics) to fight the nuts from taking over so now he can get ready to write the speech announcing his dropping out of the race.
@Akhilleus: So then guess what happened? Kim Bellware of the Huffington Post: "Ariel Rojas, one of eight student protesters from Florida International University, was seen on video being forcefully dragged to the ground by his collar and then kicked as rally-goers cheered." (Actually, it's not clear from Bellware's report whether the Trump supporters dragged Rojas out before or after Trump's remark about getting more violent.)
Haters? Nah.
Marie
Marie,
A guy named Rojas being kicked and beaten by Trump supporters?
How could that happen?? I suspect if his name were Dow or Jones, it would be different.
I know you have this Godwin's Law aversion, and I won't come out and say it, but to have a demagogue stand in front of a horde of haters and espouse violence as an antidote to opposition places Trump in the vanguard of demagogic leaders who foment violence. Maybe he isn't a failed painter, but Donald (my cheap dad made me pay back that tiny million dollar loan) Trump may be too appreciative of the power of the lowest common denominator for his own good. And, just maybe, Trumpy isn't a whole helluva lot different from the haters himself.
Cuts to Medicare and Social Security disability payments in exchange for increased welfare, err, military spending? What a deal!
I'm all for cutting welfare--of the corporate kind. How about starting with Medicare Advantage programs and their built-in 12-14 percent corporate profit? Wonder if that was part of the negotiations?
Wonder if the President is buying 18 months of space in which he can do more outrageous things to tear the country apart? I certainly hope so.
And yes, Akhilleus, Lindsey Graham, who has a law degree and can actually speak in sentences, puzzled that he is so ignominiously hoist by his own petard?
Duh.