2016 Election Thread

[ashbury]

This.....is....awesome.

Conversely, it's hard to find a Zap Brannigan quote that doesn't work well in Trump's voice. Every mission is a suicide mission. My strategy is so simple an idiot could have devised it. Checkmate.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I'm now heading toward the mid 19th century in White Trash. The sections about Andrew Jackson could easily be about Trump, or at least what Trump claims to be.

 

Fascinating book. I can't recommend it enough.

[TheLeviathan]

 

Conversely, it's hard to find a Zap Brannigan quote that doesn't work well in Trump's voice. Every mission is a suicide mission. My strategy is so simple an idiot could have devised it. Checkmate.

 

It wouldn't shock me one bit if Trump claimed to have Sexlexia.

[BeenHazy]

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's Trump focus group:

 

 

I looked it up, and Robert Smigel says these people are real.  

[ashbury]

I looked it up, and Robert Smigel says these people are real.  

You usually have to get people's permission to show them in a video (otherwise you blur their faces) and it can't be under false pretenses.^* These people agreed to be shown in this video, even after they found out they'd been punked?

 

I live in a country with a lot of mean people apparently. Ordinary folks-next-door types, who think some other people are sub-human.

 

^{* _{Layman's interpretation, obviously}}

[Craig Arko]

 

I live in a country with a lot of mean people apparently. Ordinary folks-next-door types, who think some other people are sub-human.

 

^{* _{Layman's interpretation, obviously}}

You're just noticing that now?

[ashbury]

You're just noticing that now?

I don't get out much.

[PseudoSABR]

So Trump is hoping to turn things around with Steven Bannon of Breitbart news? According to this account, Trump looks like he's doubling down rather than righting the ship.

[Mike Sixel]

Well, I don't think he can win by being "normal" now.....so this is his best bet, a long shot to be sure, but probably his best bet.

 

Breitbart...omg.

[Badsmerf]

I am going to thoroughly enjoy watching that train wreck. I mean, not enjoy? Either way, it will be satisfying.

 

The further trump sinks, the more the gop loathes him, and the more they prove unable to use common sense. It amuses me to a great extent listening to them fumble through interviews when asked questions about support for trump. Absolute cowards.

[PseudoSABR]

 

I am going to thoroughly enjoy watching that train wreck. I mean, not enjoy? Either way, it will be satisfying.

Speaking of Shadenfreude, I give Trump's lawyer from today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2XotbLTfD0

[ashbury]

Speaking of Shadenfreude, I give Trump's lawyer from today:

Said lawyer is claiming he won that exchange, as he supposedly "unraveled" the woman sitting in for Wolf Blitzer. And I bet that, to much of Trump's base, that kind of argument is indeed how you win.

 

Me: Cool, you were on CNN today.

Him: Says who?

 

Or...

"Knock knock."

"Who's there?"

"Says."

"Says who?"

"THE POLLS. ALL OF THEM."

(stolen from someone's twitter feed)

[ashbury]

[PseudoSABR]

 

That face.  There just aren't words in the English language to convey the emotion/attitude of this man. 

 

In any case, that's pretty clever meme, and in such short turn around too.

[Badsmerf]

I really hope they keep it up. The denying and doubling down is going to bleed votes until the election. I just don't understand how so many people can fall in line for this fiasco. It's disheartening too know we have that many millions of Americans willing to vote for that. Although, the numbers are dropping, so i won't lose faith yet.

[PseudoSABR]

 

I really hope they keep it up. The denying and doubling down is going to bleed votes until the election. I just don't understand how so many people can fall in line for this fiasco. It's disheartening too know we have that many millions of Americans willing to vote for that. Although, the numbers are dropping, so i won't lose faith yet.

I don't get it either--I mean I get those who advocate scorched earth for some perceived oppression (poor whites)--but such a group is severely limited in terms of it's share of the actual (voting) population, and most Americans will surrender an ideological victory to do the right thing (or my hopeful (naive) belief in my neighbors suggests).

 

I think this election might shape up to be more like 2008 than 2012; the polls showed Obama ahead by 3.1 yet he won by more than double that.  McCain bet on far-right-wing turn out (very similar to the same population targeted by Trump) in nominating Palin; the polls didn't quite capture the gravity of McCain's misjudgment in picking Palin. (See the first chart in this recent 538 article, an article professing it's not sown up yet to be fair)  Nationally, Clinton leads by six or seven points with lots of undecideds, but on the state level, the polls show a wider gap (for instance the recent Florida poll showing Clinton up by 9).  My take is that people will hold allegiance to a supposed conservative victory until the very moment when they just can't do it, defying what the polls could capture.

 

Many have suggested, and I'm starting to get hip on it, though still not convinced, that Trump knows all this. And his recent hiring of Bierbert's media mogul might be more about sustaining a national and fervent Trump brand post election cycle than winning the Presidency.   Trump might accept he can't win the Presidency, but he can collect the Tea Party and many Republicans that he can mobilize later to whatever weird narcissistic end he sees fit.   There's some conspiracy theory here, but there's also some mix of Occam's razor and Godwin's law. 

 

Trump can lose by 20 points and still carry more than a third of electorate that is totally beholden to him; that might make the campaign worthwhile as scary and cynical as it is to suggest.

[BeenHazy]

 

 

 

Many have suggested, and I'm starting to get hip on it, though still not convinced, that Trump knows all this. And his recent hiring of Bierbert's media mogul might be more about sustaining a national and fervent Trump brand post election cycle than winning the Presidency.   Trump might accept he can't win the Presidency, but he can collect the Tea Party and many Republicans that he can mobilize later to whatever weird narcissistic end he sees fit.   There's some conspiracy theory here, but there's also some mix of Occam's razor and Godwin's law. 

 

Trump can lose by 20 points and still carry more than a third of electorate that is totally beholden to him; that might make the campaign worthwhile as scary and cynical as it is to suggest.

 

So...he's basically creating an older and much larger Insane Clown Posse.

[DaveW]

 

So...he's basically creating an older and much larger Insane Clown Posse.

[Badsmerf]

So...he's basically creating an older and much larger Insane Clown Posse.

Can't. Like. Enough. Times.

[BeenHazy]

Brilliant.

[Badsmerf]

Yeah that has to be one of the better stunts of all time. I'm a huge fan.

[Craig Arko]

Okay, I admit it; I laughed.

 

But, the idea that someone's qualifications should be judged based on how they look? Not really a good idea. I certainly wouldn't wish to be.

 

Let him disqualify himself with the crud that flows from his mouth. That will more than suffice.

[Mike Sixel]

isn't that an "emperor has no clothes" statement, not how he looks statement?

[nicksaviking]

 

isn't that an "emperor has no clothes" statement, not how he looks statement?

 

Right, it's a statement about everyone pretending they don't notice Trump's delusions and poor judgment.

 

Well, thankfully not everyone, just his blind followers.

[BeenHazy]

I think if you did this to any other candidate it would humanize them in the eyes of many people. That's a reaction that is remarkably absent with Trump.

[Craig Arko]

Yeah, I don't think I'm buying that rationalization.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/18/nude-donald-trump-statues-new-york-indecline

 

I just don't like lowest common denominator politics. We're grown-ups now.

[Mike Sixel]

Art challenges us. Art that is not controversial has zero impact on the world....why would you do art, political art, that wasn't controversial?

 

Just like protests that are not inconvenient for people have no impact on the world....

[nicksaviking]

 

Yeah, I don't think I'm buying that rationalization.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/18/nude-donald-trump-statues-new-york-indecline

I just don't like lowest common denominator politics. We're grown-ups now.

 

They should have made his hands small too.

 

My favorite line: “NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small,” a parks department spokesperson told Gothamist.

 

Is that the NYC Parks' way of saying by law they had to take it down but personally they thought it was hilarious?

 

I'm not simply a teenager reading innuendo where there isn't supposed to be any, am I?

[TheLeviathan]

 

Right, it's a statement about everyone pretending they don't notice Trump's delusions and poor judgment.

 

Well, thankfully not everyone, just his blind followers.

 

Yeah, that's not the case when you deliberately make the appearance part of your gag.  

 

If anyone did the same thing about Hillary and pants suits or something else....wouldn't all of you be tarring and feathering them for misogyny?

 

If this really had been an "Emperor had no clothes" thing and they had stayed on that point I'd be more ok with it.  But they strayed well down the "let's rip the old guy for being old" path.

[LaBombo]

 

Is that the NYC Parks' way of saying by law they had to take it down but personally they thought it was hilarious?

 

Well, it is New York, a city that congratulates itself first thing every morning for having the kind of tolerance and inclusivity that restrains its collective burning desire to jail or exile Republicans.

 

Edit:  And by way of a disclaimer, I love NYC the same way I love my lovable old uncle who's pretty sure Bill Gates is the anti-Christ.