trump is serious!!!!!

[Scooter]

the two dishonest liberals now leading the two national parties

Sorry, he lost me there. Anyone calling Trump a "liberal" is pretty much a nutcase.

[Lord Jim]

I have a hard time believing that there are many moderate republicans (or Sanders supporters for that matter) who would vote for Trump over Hillary

Well Big RR, the polling I've seen shows that only about 10% of GOP voters are willing to go as far as I am and actually vote for Hillary. The rest of the Never Trump Republicans are split between stay home and a third party protest...

So yes, Hillary would be losing my vote but I'm the exception, not the rule...(as is so frequently the case )

As for the overlap between Sanders and Trump supporters, I wouldn't have thought it likely either (like I said, it doesn't make sense to me) but I know both anecdotally (I've seen numerous average people all across the country on TV on primary days saying they were deciding between Sanders and Trump...in open primaries where you can vote n either party...) and based on polling data I've seen that this "Trump or Sanders" bunch is not an insignificant number...

These are obviously not Democratic base voters, (or Republican base voters either) they are either independents or people who have previously been completely alienated from participating in the political process.

The unfortunate thing about people who have been completely alienated from participating in the political process suddenly deciding to become involved, is that these folks also tend to be the absolute least knowledgeable about any of the issues or the facts regarding public policy. So the result of their participation, is the increase in the overall ignorance level of the voting pool.

As far as I'm concerned, I would just as soon these folks just stay home and watch a Swamp People marathon...

We need more knowledgeable people participating; simply increasing the number of ignorant people showing up at voting booths isn't doing us any favors, nor will it improve the quality of our governance.

[Lord Jim]

the two dishonest liberals now leading the two national parties

Sorry, he lost me there. Anyone calling Trump a "liberal" is pretty much a nutcase.

Trump is pretty hard to define ideologically...he certainly isn't a conservative...

His "philosophy" is basically a hodgepodge of populist drivel, that's all over the map ideologically...

He has some positions that have traditionally been associated with the political left, like his protectionist ideas and his desire to withdraw from most of the world militarily. But he's got other positions that would be considered pretty far right...like his position on torture and targeting the wives and children of terrorists...


His political ideology could probably be best described as Idiot...

ETA:

While I would certainly not classify Trump as a Liberal, I have no problem with a politician doing so if he or she believes that will draw conservative voters away from him. When it comes to drawing votes away from Donald Trump, I'm pretty much a "by any means necessary" kinda guy....

[Sue U]

Here is something not at all scary or even the least bit worrying!

In Which We Use 'Donald Trump' And 'Intelligence' In The Same Sentence
Donald Trump To Start Getting CIA Security Briefings. That Should Be Fun!
By Doktor Zoom -
May 5, 2016 - 1:07pm

I can has nuclear launch codes now?

So here’s a fun fact: Once Donald Trump is officially declared the Republican nominee for president at July’s Republican National Convention, he’ll start getting classified intelligence briefings from the CIA. When Chris Hayes mentioned that little detail of the campaign process, he added, “Just let that sink in for a moment.” Yeah, sorry, we should have warned you to have an emergency defibrillator nearby.

Or as Rachel Maddow put it Wednesday:

Yesterday he was accusing Ted Cruz’s dad of being in on the JFK assassination. Now, he’s about to start getting classified CIA briefings as the Republican Party’s nominee for president.

What could possibly go wrong? After all, if the voters have decided he’s ready to be president, then obviously he’s ready to get all the information a well-informed presidential candidate will need to be able to make good decisions. Heaven knows, Trump has already proven his ability to read generalizations about foreign policy from a teleprompter, so he should be just fine. Plus, he might learn how to pronounce some countries’ names. Besides, as a Very Rich Billionaire, he knows how to handle sensitive information — there’s probably all sorts of important Big Billionaire Secrets that he’s been privy to when he was making all those yooge deals which only ended in a few corporate bankruptcies.

Oh, sure, there are some naysayers who worry there might be something a little questionable about giving national security information to a man given to blurting out whatever stray thoughts come into his weirdly coifed head. Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo tweeted an amusing fact about Trump’s new campaign guru, Paul Manafort:



Honestly, no one needs to worry about that. Just because Manafort has repped a few dictators and oligarchs shouldn’t bother anyone. Stop being so paranoid. And you certainly shouldn’t lose any sleep over this purely hypothetical question from MaddowBlog editor Steve Benen:


What would Trump do, for example, if the CIA told him that his anti-Muslim rhetoric was creating a national security threat?

Duh, he’d get tougher on Muslims, and we’d win bigly. We don’t win anymore, and part of the reason is that we don’t act on our secret information to wipe out ISIS and take their oil. Then, once he’s elected, Trump can find out who the rats in the CIA were who said those nasty things about him and get them fired. Or at least unleash the IRS on them. Also, if he does become president, he’ll be at the top of the intelligence food chain, and can make decisions about what’s classified or not. And as The Guardian cheerfully reminds us, “Trump could, theoretically, pardon himself for any legal action taken if he actually wins.”

Then of course there are the exciting prospects for Trump interviews and debates — even if he manages not to blurt out secrets from his briefings, he already has a habit of telling crowds insane shit that simply isn’t true, assuring them it’s from Top Sources. Once he actually has access to genuine secrets, we won’t know whether his “informed sources” are Alex Jones or the spooks from Fairfax. Not that Trumpers worry too much about sources anyway. Since everyone already assumes he’s full of shit, our enemies will never know whether he’s spouting nonsense or real secrets — it’s a brilliant variation on Nixon’s “Madman Theory” strategy. And if he accidentally does reveal something classified, Trump can always scream at Hillary Clinton for endangering America with her private email server.

Ultimately, there’s probably nothing to worry about. If you need proof Donald Trump can keep a secret, just look at the history of his scammy real estate seminars, “Trump University.” The promotional materials for those seminars promised that if you signed up for the advanced classes, you’d learn all of Donald Trump’s secrets to getting rich, and now he’s getting sued for delivering no secrets at all. This is clearly a man who can keep things under his hat, which is a beautiful red hat with “Make America Great Again” printed on it.

[Guardian / MaddowBlog / Slate]

Source, with fun linkies.

[Lord Jim]

Oh, that's just peachy...

[Scooter]

[Lord Jim]

Here's a taste of things to come...



I think that's a pretty impactful ad, and it's clearly aimed at attracting GOP voters...

There's not one word in it about Hillary Clinton...There's not one word about any of her policy positions...

The whole message is, "Hey if you're a Republican who has misgivings about Trump, you've got plenty of company."...

[Sue U]

O, hai!

[RayThom]

I have never missed voting in any election and November 8th will not be that exception. I will vote my conscience for all others on the ballot EXCEPT Clinton, or Drumpf, or 3rd party.

I'm thinking that if 135,000,000 voters show up at the polls but the total count who voted for president is 65,000,000 then this "anti-vote" will make the point that the new president should not be going to the White House with any kind of mandate. On the contrary, she'll understand that she's merely the lesser of two evils and will need serious introspection in order to insure a second term in 2020.

And in the end... "Every nation gets the government it deserves." Joseph de Maistre

[Lord Jim]

The "lesser of two evils" thing gets trotted out every election cycle, but for me, never has it been more true in my lifetime...

In 2012, I voted for someone who I had no enthusiasm for, but now those look like The Good Old Days...

Now, unless they come up with a third alternative, I'm going to be voting for someone I pretty much detest....

I'm choosing the detestable over the unthinkable...

What a perfectly marvelous choice to have

[RayThom]

... I'm choosing the detestable over the unthinkable...
What a perfectly marvelous choice to have,

Your choice is a true crisis of conscience -- I can almost see you wringing your hands, looking skyward, (w)racked with guilt. My choice is nothing but a shoulder shrug of resignation, with visions of a better America in 2020.

[Lord Jim]

Pretty interesting interview that Jake Tapper recently wrapped up with Paul Ryan...

Ryan is refusing to endorse Trump, saying that he wants to ultimately, but that there's "some work that needs to be done"...

This is pretty extraordinary when you're talking about the Republican Speaker of The House, and the Republican presumptive Presidential nominee...

I get the feeling that Ryan (and some other prominent GOP politicians who have thus far refused to endorse Trump but haven't ruled it out either ) want to try and somehow use their endorsements as leverage to try and get Trumpty to start behaving like a minimally rational human being...

Good luck with that one...

It should have been a real eye opener for anyone who thought that Trump could somehow be "reigned in" or would try to start behaving more "Presidential" when he picked the day that he had the nomination in the bag to say the single craziest, most outrageous, most bizarre thing he has ever said...(The despicable smear of Rafael Cruz being involved in the Kennedy Assassination)

[Big RR]

Like I said before, I can only hope that what Trump said is true and that Rafael is plenty pissed and takes care of the problem before the convention.

[Lord Jim]

[RayThom]

... Ryan is refusing to endorse Trump, saying that he wants to ultimately, but that there's "some work that needs to be done"...

The Repug cosmetologists have over six months to find ways to permanently get the lipstick on the pig.

Hey, it might just work.

[Gob]

GOP Senator Calls for 'Adult' Third-Party Presidential Candidate

Here's one!!

Welcome to the Australian Sex Party campaign launch for senate candidate Dr Meredith Doig



Established in 2009 as a response to increasingly draconian censorship laws and escalating Government encroachment on adult’s civil liberties, the ASXP now has over 6,000 members and have played an incredibly vital role in shaping the Australian political and social landscape:

We were the first Party to call for a Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse

We were the first Party to champion a 24-hour public transport on weekends in Victoria

We were a driving force in legalising R-Rated video games

We elected ASXP leader, Fiona Patten, to the Victorian Government

With your continued support, we hope to have many more elected representatives across Australia to protect your civil liberties. Ensuring that common sense policies around gender and sexual equality, secular government, drug law reform, taxing religious institutions and voluntary assisted dying are championed.

[Scooter]

You could not make this shit up:

Donald Trump Posts Pic Of Taco Bowl For Cinco De Mayo: 'I Love Hispanics!'

Donald Trump, the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, celebrated Cinco de Mayo Thursday with a Tex-Mex taco bowl in New York.

"I love Hispanics!" Trump posted to social media, with a photo of the billionaire hunched over a barely-touched taco bowl purportedly from the Trump Tower Grill.

A recent Gallup poll found nearly 80 percent of Hispanics have an unfavorable view of Trump.



And according to BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski, Trump Grill doesn't have taco bowls on the menu.

Oh yeah, that's going to improve his approval rating among Hispanics, eating a gringo bastardization of Mexican food, that's not even served in the restaurant where he claims to be eating it.

[Lord Jim]

Donald Trump Posts Pic Of Taco Bowl For Cinco De Mayo: 'I Love Hispanics!'...

Oh thank God, at last! The kinder gentler Trump we've all been hoping for...

[Lord Jim]

Gov. Bruce Rauner won't attend GOP convention or endorse Trump for president

Gov. Bruce Rauner won't attend the Republican National Convention or formally endorse Donald Trump for president as fallout from the controversial presumptive nominee reverberates throughout the Illinois GOP.

Aides to the first-term Republican governor said Rauner, who declined to back a candidate in what was once a crowded GOP presidential field, would remain focused on Illinois' troubled finances.

Rauner joins U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk in bypassing the July convention in Cleveland as Illinois' two highest-ranking Republicans seek to avoid the political minefield created by Trump, the real estate mogul and former reality TV show star.

Unlike Rauner, Kirk faces a high-stakes re-election contest in November against Democratic U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth. But Rauner does have some skin in the game on the fall ballot as he seeks to erode Democratic supermajorities in the legislature. The dispute between Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan has left the state politically stalemated without an operating budget for more than 10 months.

Both Rauner and Kirk were entitled to special at-large delegate spots to the national convention, to be formally awarded at the state Republican convention in Peoria that starts May 19. By declining the delegate spots, both Republicans are avoiding having to cast a pledged vote for Trump's nomination, which is virtually assured after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich dropped out of the race this week.

Underscoring the politics behind Rauner's move, the governor's decision means he also will not accept the traditional role of heading up Illinois' 69-member convention delegation and the high-profile media appearances that come with it. At the same time, Rauner avoids any potential appearance with Trump, which some advisers said privately would not be helpful to the governor back home.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... story.html

Needing to avoid being photographed with them is not a problem that ideally one hopes for with a Presidential nominee from your party...

Rauner and Kirk join a long and growing list of high profile Republicans who have found other things to do rather than attend the convention..:

Washington (CNN)Mitt Romney won't attend the Republican National Convention this summer, joining three previous nominees in skipping the event and underscoring the deep divide inside the GOP over Donald Trump becoming the party's standard-bearer.
An aide to Romney said Thursday that the former Massachusetts governor would not go, despite accepting the nomination at the convention four years ago.

With Trump as the party's presumptive nominee, whether to attend the convention has become the latest front in an internal party struggle over how to handle the billionaire businessman's role in the GOP.

A spokesman for former President George W. Bush said yesterday that he would not be attending and a spokesman for former President George H.W. Bush said he would not attend either. Jeb Bush, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination, told CNN earlier this year that he would not attend the convention.
Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, announced last month he was skipping the convention.

The only other living former Republican nominee, Bob Dole, will attend the convention, his spokeswoman told CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/05/politics/ ... onvention/

[rubato]

Here's a taste of things to come...



I think that's a pretty impactful ad, and it's clearly aimed at attracting GOP voters...

There's not one word in it about Hillary Clinton...There's not one word about any of her policy positions...

The whole message is, "Hey if you're a Republican who has misgivings about Trump, you've got plenty of company."...

And you heard it from Satan himself so you know it's true.


Yes,
Rubato