The US According to Republicans

I didn't watch the Republican convention. I'm grateful to those who made the supreme sacrifice. 

Having no chance of winning the adulation he craves, Trump is instead hypercharging the thrust of his “Make America Great Again” campaign by painting the U.S. not only as threatened by dark forces, both foreign and domestic, but also as a nation that is inherently unfair and abusive and that is thus in need of a savior: him, “the only one.”

Accepting the nomination, he exploited the murders of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge and spikes in crime in some major cities to paint America as drenched in bloodshed, including a 50% rise in the number of cops killed in the line of duty so far this year.

Sweet Jesus, I think I saw this movie. Mad Max, right?

Further distorting the truth, Trump pinned the blame for surging crime in selected cities, such as Chicago and Washington, on a supposed “rollback of criminal enforcement” by Obama.

Trump’s insinuation that the President led a drive to go easy on criminals was as insulting to the intelligence as his pledge that “the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end” and that “safety will be restored” starting on Inauguration Day.

So, you're saying he might be stretching the truth a bit?

Also to be feared, of course: killer undocumented aliens.

Plus, of course, Hillary Clinton with her legacy of “death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.”

Did Melania write this? Here's my favorite part.

Over the last eight years, Republicans excoriated Obama as a rock-star President who promised to make the seas recede and who traveled the world apologizing for America’s sins.

They are now rallying behind a pure celebrity candidate whose pledges are unmoored from reality and who has staked his election on nakedly denigrating the U.S. as a crime-ridden, civil-rights-violating nation that lacks the moral standing to protest global authoritarianism.

Projection is an essential part of the Republican DNA. 

Good News, Trumpcare Would Reduce Premiums

Bad news, 18 million would lose their coverage. Well, broken eggs, omelets and all that.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's health care plan would significantly lower premiums purchased directly by consumers but would cause 18 million people to lose their insurance, according to a nonpartisan think tank's study. 

Oh, I said all that already. Well, there's more about crossing state lines to sell insurance and I believe it's already been established that's a bad idea. Oh hell, if God is still in Heaven, he's not going to get elected anyway. 

Congresswoman Stefanik, do you support Trumpcare?

This Election Season Cannot Possibly Get Better

But, I can still hope. Thank you, Josh Marshall.

Yesterday, Caitlin MacNeal reported that Donald Trump had been bombarding MPs from the United Kingdom with fundraising emails asking for money to fund his campaign against "Crooked Hillary." Then last night I reported that Trump and his sons have been upping the ante and sending emails to every member of the parliament of Iceland also asking for money.

I got dibs on the word "spampaign." Portmanteaus are so cool.

UPDATE: I'm so glad Josh Marshall is following this. I've yet to see it reported elsewhere.

Two watchdog groups, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21, said they will file Wednesday a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, arguing that the Donald Trump campaign has broken federal law by sending fundraising emails to foreign elected officials.

The old saw is that ignorance, of the law or otherwise, is not an excuse. We'll see. 

Quote of the Day: Josh Marshall

I try not to write about Trump-related stuff so much. Don't want to step on Shaw's toes. Josh Marshall has a nice post up today saying that Trump is not even running a campaign. Living in a deeply blue state allows me the luxury of not paying a lot of attention to the presidential race and more to the race for district Rep. Anyway.

It would be like sitting in the stands watching a football game. But one team isn't even taking the field because the quarterback is on the sidelines knifing his coaches and teammates. Trump issues daily attacks on GOP insiders as corrupt pansies; they attack him as an unstable racist. You almost feel sorry for the Dems: where's their angle in on the 2016 campaign?

It's such a spectacle. The daily particulars are so mesmerizing that you have to step back to see that Trump isn't even running a campaign.

Thirty-one days til the convention. Won't that be fun!

Bonus quotes from the Trumpster himself, courtesy of Marshall.

"If Hillary gets in, you will have a Supreme Court that will destroy our country as we know it, just remember that. It will destroy. We will have Venezuela," Trump said. "You see what's happening in Venezuela? We're getting fairly close to that anyway. But we will have Venezuela," "We will have something you won't even recognize."

Venezuela, I tells ya!

Newt Just Dropped in the Veepstakes

Can you believe spellcheck doesn't like the word veepstakes? Also patting myself on the back for not going with Et Tu, Newt. Anyway. Et Tu, Newt.

Donald Trump says he was surprised that Newt Gingrich hammered him for noting the Mexican ancestry of the American judge overseeing lawsuits against Trump University.

Trump tells Fox News Channel on Monday that the former House speaker's criticism was "inappropriate." Trump says he's only defending himself against relentless questions about Trump University by questioning the impartiality of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Trump says most customers were satisfied with the school.

Gingrich is one of several prominent Republicans urging Trump to lay off Curiel and unify the GOP.

Palin is back in contention. 

Thanks Dave Granlund

Please don't sue me.

He has some very funny cartoons at his site. And reprints for sale.

And in the pain for Ryan vein:

Just one day after Ryan announced that he will vote for Trump, which came after a month-long standoff, the speaker denounced him for racially tinged criticisms of a federal judge.

It's gonna be a fun-filled five months, unless you're a Republican running for re-election.

Quote of the Day:Rude Pundit

Figure I should start giving credit in the post title if I'm going to use it everyday.

If Trump can prove that people made money in real estate as a result of their taking Trump U. "courses," then wouldn't there be a paper trail and not just people talking about it? Wouldn't we be able to see transactions, mortgages, bank statements, friggin' cancelled checks? In fact, why does Trump never give us documents that prove anything he claims?

Gotta give him credit for the link to Redstate as well.

So the Trump campaign has released a video with purported testimonials from Trump University students which I guess is supposed to show that Trump University was not a scam. This video features three people – none of whom have ever bought or sold real estate for a living. One of them appears to be a professional testimonial-giver for seminars, one appears to give these kinds of seminars for himself, and one of them has an ongoing business and personal relationship with the Trump family, who have allowed him to sell his protein water on a number of their properties. 

Yes, the video defending against Trump U being a scam is also a scam. I was curious whether Donald Douglas would still have Redstate on his blogroll. So, after wading through the slime over there; surprise! no he doesn't.

Since, I'm on the topic of Shady Donald; here's an article from a few months back at Fortune. 

How many major-party Presidential front-runners have faced trial on “financial elder abuse” charges as they rolled toward the nomination?

I'm thinking shady is not a strong enough adjective. Any help would be appreciated. I'm toying with disgraceful and dishonorable for the added benefit of alliteration. 

Donald Vu?

I listen to a little bit of rightwing radio. One can only stand so much. A customary shill on there is how the the US economy will soon be entering another depression, yadda yadda. What to do? 

Why sink all your retirement money into Goldline, of course. 

Goldline’s entire business model was essentially a scam, the city attorney found. It was a bait-and-switch: Consumers wanted to buy gold bullion, but salespeople preyed on their fears — including falsely claiming that the government could seize bullion — and misled them into buying vastly overpriced gold coins instead. Consumers typically paid more than 55 percent above the actual value of the coins, which are much harder to sell down the road, instantly wiping out a large portion of their savings.

Yes, sink was the operative word there. 

Oh, they're experienced alright!

Quote of the Day

Thank you Attorney General Schneiderman, and not only for the quote.

"You are not allowed to protect the trade secrets of a three card Monte game,"

Yeah, because he went on to say:

"Sections of the playbooks have been laid out in our papers that we've submitted in the New York court. It is clearly just a motivational speech to try to sell people at their weekend seminar that you can't possibly learn everything about real estate in three days. You got to spend $10,000, $20,000 on what were called the Trump Elite program, so the playbook just shows it was a pitch up to try to dupe these people into spending more money."

No judge in any of the three cases has dismissed the claims against Trump, Schneiderman said. "Every judge has said these are valid fraud claims. You defrauded people out of money. They're entitled to their day in court. He keeps saying it's an easy case to win but he keeps losing. All he's doing is delaying."

Donald Trump: Friend of the Common Man. 

Trump U Documents

In more good news at the official start of Summer, Donald is going to be letting us in on what went on at Trump U. This might be better than his tax returns.

A federal judge is ordering the release of Trump University internal documents in a class-action lawsuit against the now-defunct real estate school owned by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

The order by U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego, which came Friday in response to a request by The Washington Post, calls for the documents to be released by Thursday.

The Trumpster may have made an error in picking a fight with Jeff Bezos. Why would Curiel rule this way?

The New York real estate mogul, for his part, has claimed that Curiel is a "hater of Donald Trump" and should be ashamed of how he has handled the case. Trump also has questioned whether Curiel, who is Hispanic, is biased against him because of his call for deporting immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

I suppose that's possible. I think it's pretty likely Donald Willetts would have ruled the same way, though.

Josh Marshall on this very same subject.

It is unprecedented for a presidential candidate to personally attack and even threaten a federal judge. (To be fair, I'm not sure there's been a nominee being sued for fraud during the presidential campaign.) But here we have Trump making an openly racist argument against a federal judge, arguing that Curiel is pursuing a vendetta against him because Trump is, he says, "I'm very, very strong on the border."

*******************

 Acosta asked Trump: "Why mention that the judge is Mexican?" Trump answered: "Because I'm a man of principle. Most of the people who took those courses have letters saying they thought it was great, essentially."

Yeah, that explains it. 

Warren Versus Trump

I'd seen that there was some back and forth between Liz Warren and Donald Trump. Where to put my money in a battle of snaps between these two? It's tough because Trump has already proved himself the master of insults worthy of a grade school student. So whataya got Drumpf?

Donald Trump repeatedly mocked Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as “Pocahontas” at a press conference in North Dakota on Thursday, even as a Native American woman present at the event interrupted to call his comments “offensive.”

Really? The Pocahontas thing again? And at the same time managing to insult yet another group of Americans. 

 “I find it offensive that Goofy Elizabeth Warren, sometimes referred to as Pocahontas, pretended to be Native American to get in Harvard,” Trump wrote.

In a tweet of her own, Warren retorted that she “didn’t even go to Harvard.” She was a faculty member at the school.

“Get your facts straight,” Warren wrote.

So, I suppose next Trump will be bashing Harvard and trash talking Warren for not being able to get on the faculty at Trump University. Oh, and in the video at the clip, Trump calls her a big mouth. Classy!

OK, Senator Warren's up. 

 In a Tuesday night speech at the Center for Popular Democracy’s annual gala in Washington, she criticized Trump for profiting of the 2008 housing crisis through buying property on the cheap.

“What kind of man does that?” she asked repeatedly. “A small, insecure money-grubber who doesn’t care who gets hurt, so long as he makes some money off it.”

I gotta say insecure money-grubber is good. Anything else?

She went on to call out Trump on long-harbored desire to eliminate Dodd-Frank regulations on the financial industry.

“Donald Trump is worried about helping poor little Wall Street? Let me find the world’s smallest violin,” she said. She later added: “Can Donald Trump even name three things that Dodd-Frank does?”

I'm pretty sure that he can't, so I'm giving the round and the fight to the senator from the great state of Massachusetts.

OK, so I go over to TPM and see Josh Marshall talking up Senator Warren for VEEP. Sounds like a wonderful idea to me even at the cost of the Senate seat. The possibility of Warren succeeding Clinton as prez in 4 or 8 years makes that more than worth the temporary loss of the seat.

Warren is off-the-cuff, free-wheeling and direct in all the ways Clinton is cautious and rehearsed. But it is a reinforcing rather than an invidious contrast and likely helps bring to the surface Hillary's progressive background that has been buried by decades at the pinnacle of Democratic party politics and years as the punching bag of the left of the party which feels excluded by the seemingly endless Clinton ascendency.

It may sound crazy to attach so much to her recent Twitter contretemps with Donald Trump. But the tone, rhythm and style are exactly what the Democrats need to knock Trump down and bring out his toxic mix of personal insecurity and emotional instability. It's not over-earnest or off-key or droning (traditional Democratic tonalities - let's be honest). She's mocking, substantive and constantly on target.

Indeed, Trump's responses to Warren, his attacks on her, make it clear to me he'll have a hard time handling her.

 Do it for Teddy.  

Troop Lovin' Republicans

I thought I'd put a link up to this story. Donald loves using those troops for window-dressing. He prefers them as free window-dressing, though.

Almost four months after promising $1 million of his own money to veterans’ causes, Donald Trump moved to fulfill that pledge Monday evening — promising the entire sum to a single charity as he came under intense media scrutiny.

Why now?

In recent days, The Washington Post and other media outlets had pressed Trump and his campaign for details about how much the fundraiser had actually raised and whether Trump had given his portion.

The candidate refused to provide details. On Monday, a Post reporter used Twitter — Trump’s preferred social-media platform — to search publicly for any veterans groups that had received Trump’s money.

By Monday afternoon, The Post had found none. But it seems to have caught the candidate’s attention.

Damn meddling kids liberal media. 

It brings to mind this oldie, but goodie of this pair of troop-loving wingnuts. 

A potentially damaging scandal erupted that implicates Fox News Channel personalities Sean Hannity and Oliver North in the worst kind of charitable fraud.

According to complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission and the IRS, the two right-wing icons have exploited American veterans for personal and partisan gain. The actions filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) accuse Hannity and North of misusing millions of dollars collected by the Freedom Alliance, a charity they promote and control.

Great Americans they are!

You Know Who Else is a Questioner?

Donald Trump, that's who!

Donald Trump and his casual “just asking questions”reference to the 1993 suicide of Vince Foster

It'll be great when he's in the WH and can get to the bottom of the Obama birth certificate, Foster's murder, the fake moon landing, Area 51 and on and on.  

One issue on Trump’s radar is the 1993 death of Foster, which has been ruled a suicide by law enforcement officials and a subsequent federal investigation. But some voices on the far right have long argued that the Clintons may have been involved in a conspiracy that led to Foster’s death. 

Oh yes, the conspiracy theorist in chief. No wonder Matt thinks so highly of him.

“I think she’s a much more dangerous political creature than Donald Trump. … He’s kind of like the crazy uncle who occasionally says some brilliant things,” said Funiciello 

Brilliant, I tells ya!

Good for you, Wolf, for doing your job. 

Trump Also Building Wall in Ireland

Although I wouldn't call it a dry run.

Donald Trump wants to build another huge wall, this time to keep out the rising seas threatening to swamp his luxury golf resort in Ireland.

The Republican presidential candidate has called climate change a "con job" and a "hoax." But in an application filed this month in County Clare, Ireland, the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel cites the threat of global warming in seeking a permit to build a nearly two-mile-long stone wall between it and the Atlantic Ocean. The beach in front of the 18th green is disappearing at a rate of about a yard each year.

You probably have to cut the green's fees on a 17 hole course. 

Since we're on Trump hypocrisy, here's a story on Himself's generosity to the veterans. 

Almost four months after promising $1 million of his own money to veterans’ causes, Donald Trump moved to fulfill that pledge Monday evening — promising the entire sum to a single charity as he came under intense media scrutiny.

Trump, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, organized a nationally televised fundraiser for veterans’ causes in Des Moines on Jan. 28. That night, Trump said he had raised $6 million,  including the gift from his own pocket.

“Donald Trump gave $1 million,” he said then.

As recently as last week, Trump’s campaign manager had insisted that the mogul had already given that money away. But that was false: Trump had not.

If he's a billionaire, he sure is a chintzy one. 

Rich Folks Know a Bad Investment When They See One

Wanted to put up a post bookmarking this feel-good article at Salon by Digby and many of the wonderful links therein. There's been too many stories on how the race is "tightening" or Trump is ahead. As a Democrat, I do always recognize that possibility of losing. For today, I'll enjoy reading:

This polling should not be overstated. Trump is getting a standard bump from winding up the primary as Republican partisans, tired from the battle, accept the outcome. Clinton is still in a hard-fought contest with Bernie Sanders who at this point is planning to contest all the way through the convention. That plan may change after the primaries are finished but in the meantime the poll results probably show a weaker front-runner than if she were alone in the race.

And from the NYTimes:

A powerful array of the Republican Party’s largest financial backers remains deeply resistant to Donald J. Trump’s presidential candidacy, forming a wall of opposition that could make it exceedingly difficult for him to meet his goal of raising $1 billion before the November election.

Interviews and emails with more than 50 of the Republican Party’s largest donors, or their representatives, revealed a measure of contempt and distrust toward their own party’s nominee that is unheard of in modern presidential politics.

This is one of the things that reminds me of Funiciello in Trump:

Mr. Trump has turned to the task of winning over elites he once attacked, with some initial success. And he has said he hopes to raise $1 billion, an enormous task given that he named a finance chairman and started scheduling fund-raisers only this month.

Bragging about not taking money from corporations that you spend all your time attacking. That, and general disorganization. Love this:

Several mentioned Mr. Trump’s own fortune, suggesting that if he was as wealthy as he claimed, then he should not need their assistance.

Seems reasonable. This is a link to some of the many ways Trump breaks with the GOP. While some of those may be endearing (as with Matt F), one has to look at the total crazy package. 

Here's a Politico link that discusses the lack of organization thing. 

At the outset of the general election, Hillary Clinton’s campaign looks like a well-oiled juggernaut next to Donald Trump’s vastly smaller, mostly self-funded operation, a POLITICO analysis of Federal Election Commission reports filed Friday found.

Any campaign that hires on Dr. Ben in any capacity is not a well-oiled machine. Herr Trump seems to be having a problem attracting the best talent, in addition to getting donations. I wonder if his businesses suffered from the same afflictions. That could explain the numerous bankruptcies. 

Where's Garland on the List?

So, Donald Trump released his Supreme's wish list. I'm really grateful for the introduction to the twitter stylings of Don Willett.

"We'll rebuild the Death Star. It'll be amazing, believe me. And the rebels will pay for it. —Darth Trump,” Willett posted on April 7, along with a photo of the “Stars Wars” space station.

And,

“Who would the Donald

Name to #SCOTUS? The mind reels.

*weeps—can't finish tweet*” 

And,

“Low-energy Trump University has never made it to #MarchMadness. Or even to the #NIT. Sad! ??” Willett wrote on March 15.

I wish I was that funny. What the release of the list brings to mind for me is, what the fuck is going on with the Merritt Garland nomination? In researching this, just a bit, I came across Congresswoman Esty's attempt to hold the Senate's feet to the fire. Bless her heart. 

Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty (CT-5) today announced she will introduce the Senate’s Court Obligations Trump Unconstitutional Stalling (SCOTUS) Act. This bill is designed keep Congress in session if the Senate does not consider President Obama’s nomination of Chief Judge Merrick Garland to fill the late Antonin Scalia’s seat on the United States Supreme Court within 125 days.

Is there an element of trolling? Of course, and a beautiful bit of trolling it is. It's also a beautiful bit of legislation and I'm off to encourage my congresswoman to vote in favor of it. Make 'em do their job, Elise!

Congresswoman Esty has introduced legislation known as Senate’s Court Obligations Trump Unconstitutional Stalling (SCOTUS) Act. I would certainly love to see you get behind that, Congresswoman Stefanik. I can't really see a reason that the Senate is allowed to quit doing its job during election years. Thanking you in advance for doing the right thing. I do note that Judge Garland is not among Mr. Trump's choices.

Global Warming Denier Advising Trump

Yeah I know, you're surprised it's not Alex Jones.

Donald Trump on Friday picked a prominent climate change skeptic to help him craft his energy policy and pushed back against renewed calls that he release his income tax returns - saying his tax rate is "none of your business." 

And yes, his tax rate is still none of your business. 

Trump/Miller 2016

Nice article at Salon about the sock puppet the Republicans are running for the White House.

On Friday, the already off-the-charts bizarre Donald Trump campaign took a turn for the even weirder after two Washington Post journalists, Marc Fisher and Will Hobson,published a report about Trump’s long history of posing as his own publicist, often for no other purpose but to brag about his sex life. Or, in many cases, his imaginary sex life, as Trump, posing as “John Miller,”  would try to convince reporters that Madonna wanted to have sex with him.

The story immediately took off. “Saturday Night Live” referenced it in a skit. John Oliver, in response to Trump’s denials that he did this, invited “John Miller” to be on “Last Week Tonight”, to prove that he is real. 

I'm willing to accept John Miller as the VEEP candidate without even asking to see his birth certificate. I am that magnanimous.

Degrade Anyone in Nebraska

How much lower can the Republican Party sink in order to descend to the level that Trump is at?

(O)pponents of Trump put forth a resolution that was very simple, did not mention Trump by name, and did not even accuse Trump or anyone else of having made degrading remarks towards women. It did not even condemn any politician who had or might in the future make such remarks, it merely stated that the Nebraska GOP opposed the remarks themselves.

This is the resolution that it was so important to defeat:

Be it resolved that the Nebraska Republican Party strongly opposes all degrading remarks toward women, minorities, and other individuals by Republican elected office holders or party officials, including candidates for President of the United States, because such rhetoric tarnishes the GOP’s legacy as the party of Lincoln, alienates millions of Americans, and jeopardizes Republican majorities in the Nebraska Legislature, the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate. 

It's apparent that RedState is not a big fan of the Trumpster. 

So in order to demonstrate loyalty to Trump, apparently you have to declare that you are not opposed to degrading remarks towards women and minorities.

Placing women and minorities above the GOP candidate? What's wrong with these people? Have they lost their minds at RS?

And while tooling around RS, I found this:

I might have to put them on the old blog roll.

Scott Brown????????????????????????????????????

Is that enough question marks? What would Scott Brown bring to the ticket? He's the male Sarah Palin.

And I suppose Joe Arpaio is if they want to lose 100% of Hispanic voters. Where's Jindal? So many questions.

The perfect VEEP choice would, of course, be John Miller. 

I Love Words, They're So Lexical

Saw this at Esquire when I was over there reading Charles Pierce. It's unfuckingbelievably portentous.

Batshit Should always precede the word "crazy" or any synonym for "crazy": loco, insane, meshuga, deranged, cuckoo, psycho, unhinged, touched.

Those will all come in handy between now and November.