trump is serious!!!!!

[oldr_n_wsr]

My wife tells me that all the time.

[Lord Jim]

It was nice to see on the news this morning that Ryan is making very clear that his "endorsement" of Trump doesn't mean he's going to stop criticizing him...

In a radio interview he slammed Trump for his blatantly racist attacks on the judge hearing the Trump University case, and said that he continues to disagree with Trump on "many things" and dislikes many things he has said and done. He went on to say that he would continue to speak out when Trump does and says things that he finds offensive.


I can't imagine that Bully Boy is going to like that too much...

[rubato]

It was nice to see on the news this morning that Ryan is making very clear that his "endorsement" of Trump doesn't mean he's going to stop criticizing him...

In a radio interview he slammed Trump for his blatantly racist attacks on the judge hearing the Trump University case, and said that he continues to disagree with Trump on "many things" and dislikes many things he has said and done. He went on to say that he would continue to speak out when Trump does and says things that he finds offensive.


I can't imagine that Bully Boy is going to like that too much...

What Ryan has made 'very clear' is that he will stoop to anything.

The GOP will never heal itself until they have leadership with enough balls to cut off the ignorant racist right.



yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

[Econoline]

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/po ... rotesters/

Donald Trump Subsists on a Diet of Chaos. Starve Him.
A few new rules for protesting a Trump rally.

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE | JUN 3, 2016

OK, so here are my Rules For Radicals:

1) Don't punch people in the head.

2) Don't hit people with eggs.

3) Don't steal. Buy your own merchandise to burn in protest.

4) Flag-burning? OK constitutionally, ambiguous tactically. Be judicious, and

5) Avoid these things, not because they are politically disadvantageous, though they might be. Avoid them because...they...are...wrong. Also, don't do any of this shite on national television. The media is not your friend.

Thursday should have been the worst day that He, Trump has experienced on the campaign trail. It began with the continuing drumbeat of news regarding what a tinpot scam Trump University was. Then, in an afternoon speech on foreign policy, Hillary Rodham Clinton removed his viscera and turned it into a lovely wall-hanging, to loud applause and general approbation from a heretofore dubious media claque.

In response, He, Trump took to the podium and went full nutty. I watched the livestream of this performance and came away convinced that, if he'd been walking down the street in Macomb, Atticus Finch would have dropped him with a single shot. His campaign also tossed a reporter from Tiger Beat On The Potomac [note: that's Charlie Pierce's own personal nickname for Politico] from his event, so there was at least one bad story guaranteed to come out of his most recently roused rabble.

And then everybody went outside and it all went to hell.

I'm beginning to wonder for what reason, beyond the ego rush—which I imagine is considerable—he's still having these rallies. The nomination is his. The establishment pushback has proved to be a big bag of feathers; Paul Ryan's abject capitulation on Thursday was only the most recent evidence of that. He's running against HRC, I guess, and this is the only way he knows how to campaign. The hock-a-loogie style has worked for him so far, and there's no earthly reason for him to think it won't work for him going forward.

Besides, it's not like he's going to hunker down and deliver a series of serious policy tracts. He leaves that stuff to the members of his brain trust, like Alex Jones.

No, I think he is going to be doing this stuff all the way through to November. As a politician, He, Trump thrives on chaos. It animates him. It makes him feel as though he can live forever. Ultimately, I don't think you can get elected president that way, but I've been wrong before. I do know that the best way to beat somebody who thrives on chaos is to deny him that which gives his campaign meaning. Starve him of the chaos he needs to live.

And don't punch people in the head. It's goddamned impolite.

[Bicycle Bill]

I have finally figured out who Donald Trump most reminds me of.
This guy:


I wonder how long before someone in the media does something like this the next time they show one of Trump's speeches or remarks made at a rally?
Oh, wait .... at least one of them did!


-"BB"-

[RayThom]

I think there is something wrong with Trump. He seems to have a total lack of consistency.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Is it short term memory loss? That might go with the long term integrity loss

[Crackpot]

You have to have had something in order to lose it.

[rubato]

Failed opportunities. For you. it is still what the GOP needs to do. they need to actually embrace principles and shun people who fall outside of those principles instead of licking their asses.


Suck up to evil and you get some of it on you.



yrs,
rubato

[Scooter]

I have just finished watching what I believe is far and away the finest speech Hillary Clinton has ever delivered...

I didn't agree with everything she said, (especially her defense of the Iran Cave-in deal) and I find her penchant for nodding her head in agreement with what she's said after everything she says stylistically annoying and distracting...

But man oh man, she laid out The Case Against Donald Trump in as comprehensive, detailed, and devastating a way as could possibly be done...

I could never imagine that the day would come that Slick Hillie would give a speech that would actually have me applauding and yelling "right on!"...

But that happened today...

Credit where credit is due...

I was going to say that she definitely ripped The Hairpiece a new one with that speech.

But that would be a lie.













She ripped him at least three new ones.

[Econoline]

From David Gerrold (via Facebook):

For a long time, I have given Trump the benefit of the doubt. I have assumed he was rational enough to know what he is doing.

So I have ridiculed him for his ridiculous behavior.

Recent events have brought me to a different understanding. Donald Trump isn't just "temperamentally unfit" to be president. He is suffering from a serious mental instability.

Perhaps it is dementia. Perhaps it is the early onset of Alzheimer's. Perhaps it is a brain lesion. Or perhaps it is something else.

But whatever it is, I can no longer look at this man and see him as anywhere near the spectrum of what we call rational.

I can look at ... oh, say, Mitch McConnell, and realize that he is trapped in the echo chamber of right wing propaganda, that he has been bought by the billionaire boys, that he is a self-deluded old turdle. But while I might call him a dangerous old fool who should not be trusted with control of the senate, I would not impugn his mental abilities. I would despise him for being able to know what is right and still not doing it.

But with Donald Trump ... this is a man whose mouth is out of control. It doesn't seem to be connected to any real thought processes.

I've studied communication forensics for half a century. I've studied general semantics and transactional analysis and neuro-linguistic programming and a lot of associated disciplines.

One thing is clear -- language is the tool of thought. Language is the expression of thought. Language reveals the processes of thought. Language is the window to the mind.

And what Donald Trump's language reveals is a mind that is disconnected, disjointed, delusional, disordered and demented -- unable to form a coherent thought, trapped in rage and name-calling, desperate for validation as it sinks deeper and deeper into its own black hole of unreason.

If it were only that that Trump is flailing about, if it were only that his behavior reveals the stench of desperation and need, I would say that he is merely a bully drowning in the quicksand of his own failures.

But the hammering avalanche of his retreat from rationality cannot be ignored. There is something seriously wrong with this man's mind. He is becoming increasingly incoherent. He rattles through interviews with bizarre absurdities, sidebars and tangents that have nothing to do with the question, delusional claims and even more delusional promises.

And worst of all -- at the bottom of it, is a dangerous fear of other people. Mexicans, Muslims, the media, anyone smart enough to see that the clothes have no emperor. That fear has given rise to a dangerous incitement of racism and hatred and violence. The more he talks, the worse it will get.

This is not the behavior of a rational human being. This is not the behavior of a sane human being. It is not even the behavior of a fool.

It is the behavior of a dangerously unstable man who has been given a microphone.

It is no longer a joke.

[Econoline]

Also too:

POLITICS | APRIL 30, 2016 | SAMANTHA KILGORE
DOES DONALD TRUMP HAVE ALZHEIMER’S?
QUESTIONS ABOUT GOP FRONTRUNNER’S MENTAL FITNESS ARISE

To refer to Republican frontrunner Donald Trump as crazy is certainly nothing new — many people are appalled by much of what Trump says. But perhaps there is something more substantial to that claim. Even beyond his extreme right-wing rhetoric, there seems to lurk something deeper, and some observers are beginning to wonder if Donald Trump suffers from Alzheimer’s. Perhaps, instead of shaking our collective heads at both the substance of what Trump says and the increasingly bizarre, often disjointed way he says it, concerns over whether or not Trump is actually mentally fit for the presidency should be addressed seriously.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, if two or more “core mental functions” seem impaired, that individual should seek medical help in order to get screened for possible dementia. Core mental functions include memory, communication and langue, ability to focus and pay attention, reasoning and judgment, and visual perception. Symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease go beyond memory loss. People suffering from Alzheimer’s have difficulty remembering newly learned information, are often disoriented, have mood and behavioral changes, an increasing sense of paranoia and suspicion, and a deepening confusion about events, time, and places.

Trump’s language is often disjointed. During the first debate, in August 2015, Trump said, “We need brain in this country to turn it around.” Of course, Trump’s sentiment was obvious — that he believes the United States needs more intelligence in the government — but it was an odd way to say it. And although it’s easy to dismiss Trump as being dumb, he did actually graduate from the prestigious Wharton with a degree in economics. He may have been the same aggressive, abrasive man back then as he is today, but one has to presume he was capable of speaking in complete, grammatical sentences.

For Sophia McClennon of Salon, another moment of concern about Donald Trump’s actual fitness to run for the presidency came with something actually meant to comfort potential voters about Trump’s fitness: The letter from Donald Trump’s doctor that was to show he was in fine shape. The letter is, in many ways, just as bizarre as much of what Trump himself says, and The Daily Beast said that the letter was “more insane than Trump’s campaign.”

The letter, written by Dr. Harold Bornstein, does use fairly standard language to report that Trump is cancer-free and has never had a “significant surgery.” But the rest of the letter is odd, praising Trump’s “extraordinary strength and stamina,” while omitting any mention of the bone spurs that were so bad that Trump was unable to serve during the Vietnam War. Dr. Bornstein then finishes with what seems like a very Trump-like statement of sweeping generalization.

• “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

And then there are the many, many examples of incoherent ramblings by Donald Trump — during rallies, during debates, during interviews. His gaffes are so frequent that they are barely wondered over anymore, but perhaps they are further signs that Trump may not be mentally fit for office.

In a recent rally in Pittsburgh, Trump asked about former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, who was dismissed from his successful career and disgraced because of his involvement in a sexual abuse scandal. Paterno has no connection to Pittsburgh. Furthermore, he died back in 2012. Yet Trump stood on stage and asked, “How’s Joe Paterno? We gonna bring that back? Right? How about that– how about that whole deal?”

In New York, he managed to somehow mix up the tragedy of the September 11 terror attacks with a popular convenience store.

• “I wrote this out, and it’s very close to my heart. Because I was down there and I watched our police and our firemen down at 7/11, down at the World Trade Center right after it came down. And I saw the greatest people I’ve ever seen in action.”

Donald Trump has made his admirable advocacy for New York City in the wake of the terror attacks on September 11 central to his campaign, but despite that, he never corrected himself.

Of course, many of the gaffes Trump makes can be dismissed as just that, perhaps — gaffes. But beyond those mistakes, glaring as they are, Trump often seems to have no connection to whatever current situation he finds himself in. His grasp on reality often seems tenuous at best. One of the most disturbing examples of Trump’s lack of connection came during his interview with the Washington Post editorial board, when the GOP frontrunner was asked if he would consider using a tactical nuclear weapon against ISIS.

Trump’s response is frightening, on several levels.

• “I don’t want to use, I don’t want to start the process of nuclear. Remember the one thing that everybody has said, I’m a counterpuncher. Rubio hit me. Bush hit me. When I said low energy, he’s a low-energy individual, he hit me first. I spent, by the way, he spent 18 million dollars’ worth of negative ads on me. That’s putting [MUFFLED]…”

When the editor pushed further, reminding Trump that the question was about ISIS rather than the other candidates, as his answer had no bearing on the question at hand, Trump again went completely off the rails.

• “I’ll tell you one thing, this is a very good-looking group of people here. Could I just go around so I know who the hell I’m talking to?”

McClennen of Salon is not the first journalist to question Trump’s actual sanity in a serious manner. In October, Death and Taxes, an online magazine, asked if Trump has actual dementia.

• “Trump’s father, Fred Trump, suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease before his death in 1999. Recent studies have shown that Alzheimer’s affects its victims much earlier than previously thought, and, considering The Donald’s behavior on the campaign trail, it might not be too far off the mark to consider that Fred Trump gave more to his son than millions of dollars and a particularly virulent form of racism.”

Writer Steve King pointed to Trump’s “aggressive, late-night tweets, his childish behavior, his name-calling and mood swings” as other behaviors that might actually be symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

For example, after the now-infamous debate featuring Megyn Kelly, Trump went on a complete Twitter rampage between the hours of 2:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Between those two hours, Trump sent out a total of 30 tweets, calling Kelly a loser and a bimbo.

Perhaps not coincidentally, those who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease often contend with insomnia, as well.

There are many such examples that are cause for concern when it comes to Trump’s actual mental fitness. As Death and Taxes points out, it would be fairly easy for Trump to answer that question by submitting to an MMSE/Folstein Test and release the results.

The question is — would he take the test? And if so, would he pass?

http://www.inquisitr.com/3048296/does-d ... Vuk9ZA8.99

[MajGenl.Meade]

Thanks for those two, Econo. Both shared on FB

[RayThom]

Of late, I pray to Jesus every night that Drumpf will somehow self-destruct between now and November. With every passing day I read something new and disturbing regarding his lack of stability and sanity. Let's hope they are all true.

And to think it was only a year ago that the Donald jumped into the Repub race merely to shill his Trump water, steaks, and The Apprentice.

[Econoline]

[Burning Petard]

Is the Donald demented? Officially we can't find out. It is unlikely he will put himself in the hands of a shrink and then tell all. Particularly after the experience of Thomas Eagleton, the only vice-presidential candidate certified sane. The Donald won't even release his tax records.

But what is the consensus of mental health professionals about the Donald? We can't know. Blame it on Barry Goldwater.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/psy ... out-trump/

snailgate

[Lord Jim]

I'm definitely on board with the mentally unstable bit, but I'm somewhat skeptical of the Alzheimer theory...

Arrested emotional development combined with clinical megalomania and a deep insecurity complex sounds like a good explanation....

Graham to Trump backers: 'If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it'

Washington (CNN)South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham urged Republicans backing Donald Trump to rescind their endorsements following the presumptive Republican nominee's comments about judges' ethnicity and religion.
"This is the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy," Graham told The New York Times regarding Trump's comments.

"If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it," he added. "There'll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary" Clinton.

Trump is facing scrutiny for comments he made over the past week accusing Muslim and Mexican judges of being biased. He was asked Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation" if a Muslim judge would treat him unfairly due to his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

"It's possible, yes," Trump said. "Yes. That would be possible, absolutely."

The businessman was already under fire for his assertion that the Mexican parentage of Judge Gonzalo Curiel has colored his rulings in lawsuits against Trump's business school, given Trump's plan to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

CNN has reached out to Graham and the Trump campaign for comments.

Trump surrogate New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dismissed Graham's comments as having any significance.

"Lindsey's lost any credibility he's had. [Wowsers look who's talking ] He should worry about going back to South Carolina and trying to rebuild his base in South Carolina or he won't be in the United States Senate for much longer," he said Tuesday.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/07/politics/ ... index.html

I have to thank Trump for one thing...

Rarely does a day go by when he doesn't try his best to say or do something, (frequently multiple somethings) to try to make me feel better about my decision to vote for Hillary Clinton...

That's very considerate of you Donald...

[rubato]

Graham to Trump backers: 'If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it'

Washington (CNN)South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham urged Republicans backing Donald Trump to rescind their endorsements following the presumptive Republican nominee's comments about judges' ethnicity and religion.
"This is the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy," Graham told The New York Times regarding Trump's comments.

"If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it," he added. "There'll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary" Clinton.

Lindsey Graham actually has a set of balls and a moral standard, something lacking in Mitch McConnell, Ryan, McCain, and most of the rest of the GOP.


Your morals and character are determined by what you will give up to uphold a standard of value.


yrs,
rubato

[Sue U]

Trump surrogate New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dismissed Graham's comments as having any significance.

"Lindsey's lost any credibility he's had. He should worry about going back to South Carolina and trying to rebuild his base in South Carolina or he won't be in the United States Senate for much longer," he said Tuesday.

Hahahahahahahahaha, Chris Christie, guess who's political career is actually over?

These Chris Christie poll numbers are just brutal

Allan Smith
Jun. 6, 2016, 3:05 PM

Chris Christie's image among New Jerseyans has become stunningly bad.

A Monday poll from Monmouth University found Christie's approval rating at an all-time low — worse than the negative ratings respondents gave the state Legislature.

That survey comes weeks after a Quinnipiac University poll found that Christie had the worst approval rating of any governor in nine states surveyed by its polling institute over the past six years.

More than two-thirds of New Jerseyans also responded that they believe Christie endorsed presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump only to improve his chances of obtaining a federal appointment.

Christie's approval rating in the Monmouth poll stood at a dismal 27%, while 63% disapproved of the job the governor is performing. That's a tick worse than he did in the historically bad Quinnipiac survey, in which his approval rating was 29%. When registered voters were isolated in the Monmouth poll, Christie's approval dropped from 27% to 26%.

The approval rating was a record low for the governor in the Monmouth survey. The state Legislature, of which 30% of New Jerseyans approved, stood better than Christie's rating for the first time in his six-plus years in office.

"It's really saying something when the legislature, which rarely manages to get its rating above water, is seen as more effective than the governor," said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.

About 80% of respondents in the Garden State, meanwhile, said that Christie was more concerned with his political future than governing New Jersey. And 68% of New Jersey residents said that the prospect of a future federal appointment was the reason he endorsed Trump.

"Despite his statements to the contrary, the vast majority of New Jerseyans seem to believe that Christie's main concern right now is figuring how to get out of the state as soon as possible," Murray said.

In the Quinnipiac survey, voters in the state, which holds its primary on Tuesday, made it clear that they don't want Trump to select Christie as his running mate when they said, by a 72% to 18% split, that the Manhattan businessman should steer clear of their governor.

"Christie-for-president was a flop and, as far as the local folks are concerned, so is Christie-for-vice president," said Maurice Carroll, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll. "Forget local pride, New Jersey voters say overwhelmingly; they don't want their Gov. on a Trump ticket."

"It's a drastic decline in popularity for a governor who once looked like a strong choice for president," Carroll added.

Christie is in consideration to be Trump's running mate, as the business mogul told The Associated Press in May that the New Jersey governor was on his short list of remaining contenders.

Source.

Christie's terrible numbers are a direct reflection of his association with Trump. New Jersey, a blue state that will elect not-completely-insane Republicans to both Congress and statewide office, is sending a clear signal to Trump through his lickspittle in Trenton. That he gets support from only the slimmest majority of Republicans across the state really says something about how deeply unpopular he is even in his own party. Don't let the door hit you on your way out, Chris.