trump is serious!!!!!

[Gob]

I'd be looking for a baseball bat TBH.

[Lord Jim]

Donald Trump: 'I'm Not Sure If I Ever Asked God's Forgiveness'

Donald Trump says he's not sure if he's asked God for forgiveness, at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa on Saturday, which led some to question the sincerity of his alleged Christian faith.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/donal ... ss-141706/

Well of course not...

God needs to ask Donald Trump For Forgiveness...

Trump Demands An Apology From The Almighty

Republican Presidential candidate and reality TV host Donald Trump demanded an apology from God Almighty today, saying, "My record is perfect, it's excellent; God hasn't been anywhere near as successful as I've been...God's a loser, His losing record speaks for itself...I'm the one who's owed an apology...

I mean just look at it...everything I've done, even with four bankruptcies, it's worked...it's perfect...when I give a speech, the only thing I do wrong is talk over the applause...what I say is absolutely perfect, true and correct...everyone agrees...

God, you know, he means well, but come on, look at the record... He's a total loser..."

[Crackpot]

And don't forget Jesus got caught....

[Long Run]

Donald Trump Is The World’s Greatest Troll

By Nate Silver

“A troll,” according to one definition, “is a person who sows discord … by starting arguments or upsetting people … with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.”

The goal of the troll is to provoke a reaction by any means necessary. Trolls thrive in communities that are open and democratic (they wouldn’t be invited into a discussion otherwise) and which operate in presumed good faith (there need to be some standards of decorum to offend). Presidential nomination contests are highly susceptible to trolling, therefore. Access is fairly open: There’s no longer much of a filter between the campaigns, the media and the public. And it’s comically easy to provoke a reaction. How many times between now and next November will we hear that a candidate’s statement is “offensive,” whether or not it really is?

Trolls operate on the principle that negative attention is better than none. In fact, the troll may feed off the negative attention, claiming it makes him a victim and proves that everyone is out to get him.

Sound like any presidential candidates you know?

* * *

Even before his imbecilic comments about Sen. John McCain this weekend, which came too recently to be included in this data, Trump was receiving far more media attention than any other Republican. Based on Google News, 46 percent of the media coverage of the GOP campaign over the past month was directed toward Trump, more than for Jeb Bush (13 percent), Chris Christie (9 percent), Scott Walker (8 percent), Bobby Jindal (6 percent), Ted Cruz (4 percent) and Marco Rubio (4 percent) combined.

And yet, the public is perhaps even more obsessed with Trump. Among the GOP candidates, he represented 62 percent of the Google search traffic over the past month, having been searched for more than six times as often as second-place Bush.

So if the press were going purely by public demand, there might be even more Trump coverage.

* * *

As is usually the case, however, life gets more complicated when we go from identifying correlations to trying to understand their causes.

* * *
a regression analysis — you can read the gory details in the footnotes3 — suggests that press attention both leads and lags public attention to the candidates. This makes a lot of sense. The public can take cues from the media about which candidates to pay attention to. But the media also gets a lot of feedback from the public. Or to put it more cynically: If Trump-related stories are piling up lots of pageviews and Trump-related TV segments get good ratings, then guess what? You’re probably going to see more of them.4

* * *

Trolls are skilled at taking advantage of this landscape and making the news cycle feed on its own tail, accelerating the feedback loop and producing particularly large bounces and busts in the polls.

* * *

Trump has taken trolling to the next level by being willing to offend members of his own party. Ordinarily, this would be a counterproductive strategy. In a 16-candidate field, however, you can be in first place with 15 or 20 percent of the vote — even if the other 80 or 85 percent of voters hate your guts.

In the long run — as our experience with past trolls shows — Trump’s support will probably fade. Or at least, given his high unfavorable ratings, it will plateau, and other candidates will surpass him as the rest of the field consolidates.

* * *

But what if you want Trump to go away now?

The media isn’t going to stop paying attention to Trump. Nor should it, really: His candidacy is a political story and not just “entertainment.”5

Republicans are another matter, however. They might rightly be concerned that Trump is tarnishing their brand image or at least meddling with their already-challenging task of choosing a candidate. Other Republicans should resist the temptation to extend the news cycle by firing back at him, however — even when what he says is genuinely offensive.6

After 12 years of writing on the Internet, I’ve learned that the old adage is true. Don’t feed the troll. The only way to kill a troll like Trump is to deprive him of attention.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/don ... est-troll/

[wesw]

for what it is worth....

I would certainly not want a loose cannon like trump to be president, heck I thought that McCain was too much of a loose cannon, but I would certainly tell a pollster that trump was my man....

as long as he doesn t do a third party run I think that he is good to have in the race just to demonstrate that the status quo is not good and can be changed.

vote john Kasich.

[RayThom]

August 6, 2015: A Date Which Will Live in Infamy
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015 ... 0002&abg=0
Look at this motley crew. Not one is moving the "excitement needle" into breakout, positive ratings. Obviously, The Donald will NEVER get the RNC nomination. I pray to God he gets so insulted that he makes good on his third party run.


2016 is shaping up to being the beginning of another banner eight years for Democrats.

God bless America.

[BoSoxGal]

And don't forget Jesus got caught....

Good one!

[wesw]

motley crew?

here is how I see all of these candidates faring (fairing?) against hillary

Jeb Bush-successful governor- guaranteed to lose because people will just not go to the polls to vote for him (me included)

Bobby Jindal-governor-too southern by half, no chance

Rick Perry-successful Governor-No chance-viewed as dumb in a George W Bush kinda way

Ted Cruz-Senator-no chance-unlikable

carly fiorino-no chance

Donald trump-might just beat her (wes shudders)

Rick Santorum-Senator-no chance

Ben Carson-Top Tier brain surgeon and Leader and administrator and Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins, one of the top hospitals and medical schools in the world-no chance, but will perhaps be chosen by John Kasich as VP

Chris Christie-Governor-no chance

scott walker-successful governor-slight chance, but wears his faith as a chip on his shoulder right now, which is off putting. he will have to tone it down for the general election, which is also off putting

Lindsey Graham-Senator-military man-JAG-slight chance-he would just get beat to hell with dirty politics

John Kasich-very successful Governor-head of budget committee which balanced budgets and had multi trillion surplus, member of armed services committee in the house for what,17 years? -can and will get African American vote-beautiful wife helps-almost certain victory unless very dirty politics get him, which I think he can handle

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

Hillary Clinton will lose African American turnout and votes. the black community liked barack Obama , in part, because he was black. the majority of black folks aren t fans of illegal immigration or Mexicans. they are not fans of gay marriage. they aren t fans of al Sharpton.
she will keep the vocal minority of black voters. it will not be enough.

she will not get a landslide with white females. she is viewed as dishonest. she will lose turnout and white male votes as well.

she will only sway half of the poor white people. only about 1/3 of which vote anyway.

she is ripe for the picking. maybe even by a democrat.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I wonder when the "black" vote will become almost irrelevant in view of the growth of the Hispanic vote.

[Joe Guy]

Ben Carson-Top Tier brain surgeon and Leader and administrator and Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins, one of the top hospitals and medical schools in the world-no chance, but will perhaps be chosen by John Kasich as VP

That would be similar to John McCain choosing Sarah Palin. It would show terrible judgement on Kasich's part.

[Guinevere]

Love Graham in this - looks like he has a sense of humor, anyway:

[Sue U]

Of course, you don't have to murder your cell phone 8 different ways just because Donald Trump gave your number to the world. You could just change your number.

Maybe change it to 867-5309.

Or BEechwood 4-5789.

But he is old, so PEnnsylvania 6-5000, maybe?

Something easy to remember.

[Lord Jim]

Love Graham in this - looks like he has a sense of humor, anyway:

I saw that; that was pretty good...

I am so sick of Donald Trump, I'm ready to pull out my Walther and put a cap in my TV every time his toxic, juvenile, professional wrestling presence appears on the screen...

I am gaining a true loathing for the man...

I can well understand why Liberal Democrat Hillary supporters...(like well, Guin... ) are in constant chortle with glee mode about his presence in the GOP race...

If I were a Hillary supporter, I'd be in constant chortle with glee mode as well...

If the DNC wanted to insert a mole, A Manchurian Candidate, they couldn't come up with anyone better than Donald Trump...


When Trump announced his candidacy, I suggested that Trump would suck a lot of oxygen out of media attention for other, serious candidates...

I underestimated him...

He's sucked nearly all the oxygen out...

I saw an analysis on CNN that said that of all the coverage given to GOP candidates on the nightly broadcast news over the past two weeks, Donald Trump got 37% of the coverage...

It's easy to understand why the cable news media is attracted to Trump; he's good copy...

He's basically presenting himself as a latter day Network "Howard Beale Running For President" "I WANT YOU TO GET MAD!" type figure...

(Though given his success in life, I think it's probably unlikely that he's really as stupid and ignorant as he is trying to present himself as being...look at all the free media this ego maniac is getting...)

And the mainstream press has definitely fallen down on the job in dealing with Trump...

The New York Times had a front page article about Marco Rubio using part of an $800,000 book advance to pay off college loans, and spending $80,000 dollars on a boat...

And a second front page article about how in 17 years, Rubio got 4 traffic tickets in Southern Florida....

Where's this kind of intense news media rectal exam for Donald Trump?

This is a guy who declared business bankruptcy four times...

There have got to be a lot of small business folks Trump owed money to who were hurt by that, and left holding the bag...

And people who lost their jobs because Trump declared Bankruptcy...

They should be interviewed... and their stories told on cable news ....

And it's certainly true that Trump is not as stupid as he appears to be...(much like Ted Cruz, he cynically seeks to exploit folks who are not a bright as he is...)


Initially, all the other candidates (including the serious candidates; like Bush, Rubio, Walker, Kasich) tried to ignore him....

But there comes a point where you have to put someone like this to ground....

He must be stopped...

ETA:

My party has got to stop worrying about whether or not this train wreck will run third party...

Unlike Sanders, (Who could get the Green Party Nomination for the asking) or Rand Paul...(who could easily get the Libertarian Nomination) Trump will have to spend about a hundred million dollars, just to get on 90% of the ballots as an independent...

And then he'll lose...

Big time...

I say stop worrying about that and call his bluff...

We've got to put an end to this sonuvabitch...

[Econoline]

I can well understand why Liberal Democrat Hillary supporters...(like well, Guin... ) are in constant chortle with glee mode about his presence in the GOP race...

If I were a Hillary supporter, I'd be in constant chortle with glee mode as well...

[Econoline]

And on a more serious note...

http://www.stonekettle.com/2015/07/the- ... heart.html

The Republican Tell Tale Heart

Answer a question for me, Republicans, how is what Trump said any different, any more outrageous, any more insulting or obnoxious, than the things you’ve been saying about your president? About your neighbors? About veterans like me?

You know who you people are?

You’re the ones who call black people “niggers” when you think nobody but “real” Americans are listening.

And then, one day, your kid uses that word in front of a black man. And you’re all embarrassed and upset. Heh heh, Mr. Negro, Sir. I have no idea, no idea, where little Donny learned that word. Bad, Donny, bad! You apologize right now to this inferior thug before he rapes Mommy and robs a liquor store!

Donald Trump is the face of the modern Republican party.

Trump has been polling at the top of the GOP field and you’re just now figuring out what a douchebag he is? Well, that’s just plain hysterical.

Trump badmouthed old Johnny Walnuts, insulted his military service, did he?

And you’re all insulted and outraged? Heh heh, sorry Mr. Veteran, Sir. I have no idea where Little Donny learned that behavior from, no idea. Bad, Donny, bad! You apologize to this faggoty liberal pinko commie traitor right now!

Gee, I wonder where Little Donny learned those words, learned his contempt, learned to Swiftboat a veteran. Gee, I wonder.

(Go to the above link to read the complete essay.)

[Lord Jim]

And on a more serious note...

There is no such thing as, "on a more serious note" that involves Donald Trump...

ETA:

(Go to the above link to read the complete essay.)

After reading just that brief excerpt, I really don't see the need for that....

[Lord Jim]

If Trump wants to run as an independent, he'll have to spend at least 100 million dollars of his own money just to get on the ballots..

And then he'll have to spend at least another 500 million dollars of his own money, ( assuming he has it and wants to spend it) against Hillary and The Republican Nominee (who between them, will have in excess of two billion dollars to spend)...

Just so he can get something along the order of 5% of the vote...

As arrogant as "The Donald" is, I don't think he's that stupid...

[Lord Jim]

Lest any one think that when I said this:

We've got to put an end to this sonuvabitch...

That I was advocating an assassination, let me make very clear that I was not...

I'd be very well satisfied with a racketeering indictment...

[Gob]

If Trump wants to run as an independent, he'll have to spend at least 100 million dollars of his own money just to get on the ballots..

And then he'll have to spend at least another 500 million dollars of his own money, ( assuming he has it and wants to spend it) against Hillary and The Republican Nominee (who between them, will have in excess of two billion dollars to spend)...
.

American politics at it's finest!

[Guinevere]

You have to admit Gob, it's entertaining!

Oh I'm chortling all right. The man is a train wreck, and an embarrassment to the Republican Party. He could do more damage to them than the Tea Party, and that's saying a lot.

And while I don't necessarily agree w Econo's article that he is "the face" of the new Republican Party (no serious and intelligent Republican I know has anything but scorn for the man) you guys need to figure out why he is so successful and fix that, and soon, because he is only drawing from the least common denominator. Granted, that's who he is going after, too, but if those people get out and vote, we are ALL going to have a real problem. That is not the world any of us want.

BTW - Fox's stupid "top 10 polling rule" is also going to hurt the GOP. The last thing you all need are debates that include the crazies and leave out the serious ones w actual leadership skills and experience like Graham and Kasich (who even Bob Reich has good things to say about).