October 25, 2016

Trump's Doral Stunt

The images and footage of workers at Trump's Doral hotel/golf course tops the most despicable stunts of his in this election.

I have no way of knowing if the praise Trump directly elicited from the workers who spoke in that press appearance was genuine and not coerced, but that's the thing. There's an automatic question of coercion; a question of whether these folks working for Trump outside of his campaign feel their jobs may be at risk if they refuse to participate in his praisefest.

Ali Vitali @alivitali
"This guy better say good or I'll say: you're fired," Trump says as employee takes him up on offer to speak. He speaks glowingly of Trump.

The entire thing has a Dickensian creep to it, not to mention the cheesy, Trumpworld backdrop. Is this a presidential campaign or an infomercial?

This was about promoting Trump enterprises, shoring up his brand, hoping to insulate his family business from the toxicity of his campaign by making it look like he's all inclusive. What I see are minority workers in a subservient role being exploited by their megalomaniac boss, using his presidential campaign to generate and attract business to his personal enterprises.


...Brad makes a good point here:

Bradd Jaffy ?@BraddJaffy 53m53 minutes ago
This answer = particularly revealing—considering Trump summoned the media to Trump Doral this am—2 wks till Elex Day http://nyti.ms/2eBssHN




Bradd Jaffy @BraddJaffy 3h3 hours ago
Tues: 'Trump Doral' FL golf resort event

Wed: 'Trump Int'l Hotel' DC event

2 weeks till election — GOP nominee is promoting his properties


Bradd Jaffy ?@BraddJaffy 45m45 minutes ago
Today's (Wed.) DC hotel ribbon cutting marks Trump's 32nd event at a Trump property since his campaign began
(via @AnthonyNBCNews)

October 20, 2016

Hard to overstate importance of Hillary's debate appearance last night

...Trump is everything the republican party stands for and aspires to. What the millions watching the debate saw last night was the unvarnished version of republican party politics completely taken apart by Hillary Clinton.

Republicans might have been better served by someone who blurred the truth about their politics and agenda, like Congress regularly does, but Trump was more than willing to present the ugly side of the right wing in the debate. What republicans are left with is a radioactive political brand on everything Trump supported and defended in his ignorant bliss.

That, coupled with a presumptive President Clinton solidifying her position in the opposition, made for a convincing and compelling portrait of a national leader with a responsible agenda. With the republican party still unable to separate from their toxic nominee, their own most prominent source of opposition looked like little more than a bad joke on that debate stage; hypocritical, bitter, and profane.

It shouldn't be forgotten how every mechanization and manipulation republicans worked for almost a decade to be a thorn in candidate Clinton's side in this very election (looking at you Benghazi and Wikimail) were firmly laid to rest by Hillary in this final debate opportunity for Trump.

There was only one adult on stage last night; viewers witnessed only one person mature enough and prepared to be president. Hillary owned that contest and is well-poised to bring together millions of Americans to support her in the next one.

October 19, 2016

Almost unbelievable how awful Trump is at this, even expecting him to be a buffoon

Ethan Klapper ?@ethanklapper 12h12 hours ago
Trump to go after Clinton's health tomorrow http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/19/us/politics/melania-trump-bill-clinton.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share …



...I don't believe there will ever be a ceiling to the idiocy coming from the Trump campaign and their candidate. Every time I think I've heard the worst from them, they manage to come up with something even more unbelievably stupid.

For tonight's debate, Trump plans to highlight Benghazi, Kenya, and Hillary's health. It actually hurts to try and understand such a ludicrous and almost juvenile strategy... that is, until you realize most of the Trump campaign is being run and promoted by the two-bit entertainer, himself. There's none of the sly pretense in Trump's politics that establishment GOP pols use to lubricate their political initiatives.

He clumsily exposes the banality behind their manipulations and waves it all around like a perfect fool in his hysterical campaign, providing an easy target for anyone with half a mind for what has been the totality of the republican political agenda throughout the past eight years; Kenya, Benghazi prominent among those.

In tonight's debate Trump will most assuredly destroy any political benefit of the invented scandals republicans labored for years to make relevant in this very election against Hillary Clinton. That's why so many prominent republican pols have shied away from his candidacy. He's screwing the pooch. Giving away the store. Dropping them in it.

We're not done handing Trump's ass back to them. This planned attack on Hillary's health tonight is one more opportunity for the public to see the naked ugliness that undergirds republican politics. Let the sideshow begin.

October 8, 2016

Republicans want to draw the line now, after normalizing racism and bigotry with every Trump gaffe

...every outrage they ignored or dismissed to support Trump in this campaign. THIS is what outrages them, above all else?

How likely is it that they didn't already know of the depths of Trump's vulgarity and abusiveness toward women? How is it they missed the rape charges; the sexual assault charges and settlements; the endless stream of vulgarities Trump committed to Twitter...?

Does this uprising of theirs mean all of the rest of Trump's nonsense was acceptable to them?

Or, could it be they've really been embarrassed and appalled, all along, that Trump is their standard-bearer and were just waiting for a seminal moment like this AH video to galvanize their opposition and fall in behind the rest of the civilized and mature world in denouncing the serial misogynist?

Tell you what, I'm not here to shield Trump supporters too stupid and craven to stand up to this loser from the consequences of their reckless politics. Republicans compromise our values like this every day. Pretending to care now is far too late, and too little, to redeem their hollow party.

Oh, and good luck changing horses this late in the contest...

Andrew S. Ginsburg ?@GinsburgJobs 2h2 hours ago New York, NY
It is too late for the GOP to rid itself of the Trump stench http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-hot-mic_us_57f85ea9e4b0b6a4303277b6?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004 … via @HuffPostPol

The GOP has limited, if any, options to replace Trump on the ballot and they all depend on him actually choosing to quit. But regardless of what happens, it cannot cleanse itself of his stench. At last not yet.

In all likelihood, a cleanse wasn’t available even by the time that Graham urged his fellow Republicans to jump ship. After all, when the South Carolina Republican made that plea, Trump had already called Mexican immigrants rapists, proposed a full ban of Muslims entering the United States, and had a well-known reputation as a misogynist. To have taken an off-ramp then would have been to imply that those prior moments didn’t rise to the status of disqualifying.

Since Graham’s comments, it’s been only more of the same. Trump publicly started a fight with a Gold Star family (questioning whether the mother of a fallen soldier had been forbidden from speaking because of her religion). He retweeted a blatantly anti-Semitic image. He accused the current president of founding the so-called Islamic State, suggested that gun enthusiasts take out Hillary Clinton, and called a Miss Universe winner fat ― and then later defended himself by saying that she was indeed fat. It was revealed he had likely not paid federal income taxes for 18 years and he publicly stoked the birther conspiracy theory before delivering a half-hearted disavowal.

In prior campaigns, each of these moments would have individually proved catastrophic. But if Trump showed one political gift, it was in his ability to move on from calamity, even if it meant stepping into the next. When elected Republicans didn’t withdraw their endorsements, they not only helped normalize this behavior, they weaved it into the party’s image. By the time they got around to expressing horror at his hot-mic moment, it rang painfully hollow...

That stench? It’s not new. You just couldn’t smell it anymore.

read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-hot-mic_us_57f85ea9e4b0b6a4303277b6?

related:

Donald Trump’s Comments About Groping Women Are The Least-Surprising Thing Ever
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-groping-misogny-history_us_57f84c00e4b068ecb5dea118?