[kenberg]

Quote

In an interview with The New York Times, Trump said the United States shouldn't automatically come to the defense of fellow NATO members if they are attacked unless those countries have paid their bills to the alliance.

 Winstonm, on 2016-July-21, 15:03, said:

Or, I suppose, unless those NATO members had filed for bankruptcy protection....

This is the person the Republicans are rallying around? Even for a person who will say anything, there are some things that he shouldn't say. Of course there can be issues with our allies over the financing of NATO operations. There will be disagreements. A statement such as the above is not the way to resolve the disagreements.

The question is not how a liberal can support Trump, the question is how a conservative can support Trump. Or how anyone can support Trump. We cannot have someone such as this representing the US on the world stage.

[mike777]

Perhaps this is Trump's first step to have America be more Swedish. Perhaps he wants to reduce military spending and pull out of Nato. Sweden is out of Nato. Will be interesting to see if posters who wish America's military to be reduced will back this.

[Winstonm]

 mike777, on 2016-July-21, 18:02, said:

Perhaps this is Trump's first step to have America be more Swedish. Perhaps he wants to reduce military spending and pull out of Nato. Sweden is out of Nato. Will be interesting to see if posters who wish America's military to be reduced will back this.

Perhaps you can tell us where you get that S#$% that you smoke?

[Winstonm]

Tried to watch Trump's speech but he was so vacuous I finally decided that if Hillary loses to this guy we may as well pack up the bags and vacate the country because it is no longer America.

[barmar]

I think it was the Daily Show that a few weeks ago said that Hillary and Donald are really lucky, because they're both incredibly unliked, but they're running against the only opponent they could possibly beat.

[kenberg]

 Winstonm, on 2016-July-21, 20:38, said:

Tried to watch Trump's speech but he was so vacuous I finally decided that if Hillary loses to this guy we may as well pack up the bags and vacate the country because it is no longer America.

I could not bring myself to turn it on. I intended to, but when the time came I just couldn't do it. I'm not sure "vacuous" is the right word, for Trump some vacuity could be an improvement. I think that his nomination is a great mistake, I think his careless formulation of ideas, his off the cuff threats, his distortion of reality has already done great damage. A resounding rejection in November is the best hope to set things right.

I think Obama can confuse giving a good speech with setting a good policy, and if Hilary has any core beliefs I am not sure what they are, but this is an unfortunate part of the way politics often is. Trump is a disaster of a whole different magnitude.

[Winstonm]

Regardless of whether or not Trump can win, simply the idea that so many Americans can band together in fearful acceptance of a demagogue who promises safety against "them" is at best troubling.

[Winstonm]

I found this article interesting and relevant.

[y66]

At best troubling? How about at best a total f**king disaster, i.e., a continuation of the republican status quo. And at worst unthinkable beyond the collective imagination of the darkest minds in the water cooler.

[y66]

From America Über Alles

Quote

The political accommodation between establishment conservatives and the Trump campaign is making political historians very apprehensive. They see parallels between the rise of the far right in the Weimar Republic of 1920s Germany and the ascendancy of right-wing populism in the United States. The code words and slogans (“threat to the national character” then, “America First” now) are similar, as is the demonization of foreigners. The warning is stark: Today’s Republicans, like the conservatives who put Adolf Hitler in power, are playing a very dangerous game with democracy.

[y66]

[Winstonm]

This election will determine the numbers of the crazies in the voting electorate. Just as the Trump crazies are happy to cast a vote against anything Obama, so, too, must the sane nation rise up, hold its collective nose, and rush to the polls in droves to elect ANYONE BUT TRUMP.

Living in the capitol of faith healing (Tulsa), I am used to being surrounded by people who eschew evidence in favor of faith. I have assumed that these people were a rather vast minority within the U.S. but now my faith wavers - because of the evidence presented in Cleveland. My concern is that there are way more crazies than I ever imagined.

I simply cannot contemplate a U.S. with Donald Trump as president and with the current Republican Congress - I would have to think it time to relocate to some place sane.

[mike777]

I was thinking about going third party but I understand he is a full blown open borders guy in the extreme. I am a big immigration guy and hate how the Donald talks about it but this third party guy is even worse than what Trump in some fantasy wants.


I expect 538 to have Ohio and Fl back in Hillary's column in a week or two.
trump got the predicted temporary bump.

[PassedOut]

Praise the Lord, I’ve seen the dark

Quote

I can train you in the most effective technique of persuasion yet devised, developed by Hopi medicine men centuries ago and used by Navy SEALs, now “Top Secret” and so I am exposing myself to felony indictment by the very mention of the name “Hopi hypnosis,” or Hopnosis, and could be sent to prison for up to 25 years, but I don’t care. A man must do what a man must do.

I can send you a 35-minute video on a DVD that will teach you how to employ this technique for $47.95, plus $13.50 handling and postage.

The technique involves (1) breath control, (2) steady eye contact, and (3) the silent mental repetition of a code word that carries the hypnotic power. It’s as simple as that.

I have used Hopnosis to talk a used-car salesman into selling me a 2010 Honda Accord for half of list price, make my teenage daughter turn over her iPhone and go to her room, and convince my wife that the Chinese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. And I have persuaded 75 friends who are Democrats to vote Republican in the fall. In three days.

If each of us changed 150 minds every six days between now and November, the country can be saved. Either we use this technique or we surrender to the enemy and leave with our tails between our legs.

[kenberg]

 PassedOut, on 2016-July-25, 06:54, said:

Praise the Lord, I've seen the dark

As much as I enjoyed this, it reminded me of a very old radio line: "Tain't funny, McGee".

[Winstonm]

 PassedOut, on 2016-July-25, 06:54, said:

Praise the Lord, I’ve seen the dark

There's one born every minute, or so the saying goes...

[kenberg]

Becky mentioned that the latest email disaster might have a welcome side effect. Possibly people will once again consider speaking to each other face to face. Perhaps instead of providing wifi, Starbucks will provide electronically enhanced "safe spots" where people can say what is on their mind. "Hernando's Hideaway, where all you hear are castanets" as the old song says.

I do not see this showing that "the system is rigged", at least not any more rigged than I always thought that it was. I think instead that it shows we have some really stupid people in really high ranking positions.

If you had asked me on Thursday who Debby Wasserman Schultz was I could not have told you, and I imagine that a month form now I will have forgotten. Apparently she is some self-important not particularly bright person that nobody likes or trusts. She was in charge why? She is being replaced by Donna Brazile. Really? As to the leaks, I have not much read them. There is an e-mail discussion about Sanders' religion. Not that he is Jewish, nobody cares, but he might not really believe in God at all. Horrors. Maybe this could be used against him. There is an idea, let's put it up on Facebook. Who shall we blame? Apparently some moron [Added: Hillary's campaign manager I guess] was on the tv explaining that the Russians were behind the leaks. Probably they were. The Post reported some time back that the Russians had hacked into the DNC e-mail. But is that really the point? "We behaved like idiots and those nasty Russkies are taking advantage of it, vote for Hillary". Is this the message he wants to send? Given the advance knowledge that the e-mails had been hacked, they had a while to come up with a response. This is what they came up with? The Russians did it?

Good grief.

[kenberg]

Best comment so far from the Dem convention comes from Eva Longoria. After describing herself as a ninth generation American born in Texas, she said "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us".

Sarah Silverman's quip about HC's inspirational story, that only a few years ago she was a secretary and soon she will be president, was pretty good. But Longoria was inspired.

Al Franken's riff on his doctorate in megalomaniac studies from Trump U was a hoot.

For a first day, it's pretty good.

I liked Paul Simon singing Bridge Over Troubled Waters. Becky thought maybe he should have accepted his age and declined to sing, but I'm a sucker for this sort of thing and was ready to sing along. Becky would surely have objected to that.

[cherdano]

 kenberg, on 2016-July-25, 09:17, said:

As to the leaks, I have not much read them. There is an e-mail discussion about Sanders' religion. Not that he is Jewish, nobody cares, but he might not really believe in God at all. Horrors. Maybe this could be used against him. There is an idea, let's put it up on Facebook. Who shall we blame? Apparently some moron [Added: Hillary's campaign manager I guess] was on the tv explaining that the Russians were behind the leaks. Probably they were. The Post reported some time back that the Russians had hacked into the DNC e-mail. But is that really the point? "We behaved like idiots and those nasty Russkies are taking advantage of it, vote for Hillary". Is this the message he wants to send? Given the advance knowledge that the e-mails had been hacked, they had a while to come up with a response. This is what they came up with? The Russians did it?

Good grief.

But 1. it is true, and 2. there is really nothing to respond to. DNC staffers had an opinion on who should be their party's nominee? Good grief, of course they did, almost all party members had an opinion. Ok, one staffer suggested asking Sanders whether he is an atheist - but they never really followed up on that.

That the top DNC staff should be privately impartial in the most important decision their party is taking every 4 years is a mind-boggling idea.

[kenberg]

 cherdano, on 2016-July-25, 21:08, said:

But 1. it is true, and 2. there is really nothing to respond to. DNC staffers had an opinion on who should be their party's nominee? Good grief, of course they did, almost all party members had an opinion. Ok, one staffer suggested asking Sanders whether he is an atheist - but they never really followed up on that.

That the top DNC staff should be privately impartial in the most important decision their party is taking every 4 years is a mind-boggling idea.

I could be an optimist and say we agree but that is unlikely. It does not surprise me at all that the members of the DNC have a preference and that they try to see what they can do to bring about the outcome that they prefer. The myth is that they are, in this year and others, neutral. I imagine that they rarely are. They represent the establishment, Bernie ran against the establishment, the establishment fought back. No surprise at all. As I said, I don't think that this shows the system is any more rigged than I always thought it was. Now you might object to "rigged". Fair enough, so do I. It is Bernie's, and Donald's, charge, not mine.

Some years ago a colleague was at a meeting where they were to consider candidates for a high level position in the university administration. One of the committee said of one of the candidates, "We cannot hire him, he is an evangelical". My friend, a devout Christian, found this remark offensive. I, a long time atheist, agreed. The best that could be said is that the guy was smart enough not to put it in an e-mail. "No, no, they mis-heard. I said he was even a jelly roll".

It would not surprise me at all if the RNC made some moves to try to keep Trump out. I wish they had succeeded.

So right, no surprise.