June 21, 2016

Donald Trump isn’t running a bad campaign.

He’s not really running a campaign at all.

It's become commonplace in political circles to bash Donald Trump for running a bad general-election campaign since he secured the GOP nomination seven weeks ago today. But that misses the point. Donald Trump is not running a bad campaign. He is barely running any sort of campaign at all — at least not by any definition that any political person would recognize.

Take Trump's fundraising. He collected $3.1 million in the month of May and ended the month with $1.2 million in the bank. Trump's campaign released a statement Tuesday insisting that "the campaign’s fundraising has been incredible and we continue to see a tremendous outpouring of support for Mr. Trump and money to the Republican Party," but little evidence is available to suggest that's accurate. After all, if Trump could not raise any significant money in the month when he became the presumptive nominee why would June, when he has been beset by questions about his readiness to be the GOP nominee, be better?


<snip>

On the fundraising, staffing and ad fronts then, what Trump is doing bares little resemblance to a modern presidential campaign or, really, a modern Senate or House campaign.

Compare what Clinton's campaign is doing today with what Trump has spent almost the past two months doing. In anticipation of an address aimed at Trump's economic policies, the Clinton team briefed a series of state and national reporters on what will be in the speech. Surrogates fanned out to preview the speech and will serve as supporting voices once she finishes it. She tweeted out a video this morning taking on Trump's claim that he is a very good businessman.

Trump does none of that. (And I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that he will have no strategic plan on how to effectively rebut Clinton's speech.) What does he do? He travels the country, giving speeches — often wildly at variance with one another in their message. He calls in to TV news shows. He tweets. And, according to his campaign finance report covering contributions and expenditures in May, he builds a virtuous financial circle for himself and his companies.

<snip>

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/21/donald-trump-isnt-running-a-bad-campaign-because-hes-not-really-running-a-campaign-at-all/

June 21, 2016

I can pinpoint precisely when I became pro-LGBT. The summer I turned 12.

Of course, the phrase LGBT didn't even exist at the time. And I didn't know much about sex itself- of any kind.

I found this book in my parents' library.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Well_of_Loneliness

I loved the protagonist. I suffered with her- no that's not too strong a word to use. It awoke something in me. Empathy, I suppose, but something more than that.

Granted, that such a book was available to me in the mid sixties, speaks to the fact that my parents weren't homophobic- I was named after a relative who was somewhat famously bi. My parents had close LGBT friends.

But that book made such a huge impression on me. Rereading it recently as an adult, I saw its flaws as a work of literature, but if literature is at least partly the ability to let us see from the perspective of others, it remains a notable work.

June 21, 2016

Freeper thread on the Trumpster's anemic fundraising, is a riot.

Denial in so many delectable forms.


A few of my favorites:

Trump only has to put out a call for money and he’d have $50m in a heartbeat.

...

Or the stroke of the pen. This imbalance in funds has to be intentional.



I think the media is seeing its revenues sink this election cycle. OMG, Trump only has a million dollars, (panic, oh panic) he can’t possibly win with that! or pay us off? - he could make up that out of petty cash.


Yup. He's DOOMED now.😂



“Quisling never Trump “Republicans””

On November 29th, when we are giving thanks for a Trump victory, we won’t forget their names and what they did.

They are trying to throw the election to Hillary Clinton, and it is beyond reprehensible.

They will be tossed aside by their Dem friends, as usual, and will be persona non grata in the new Republican party.



I think the media is seeing its revenues sink this election cycle.
Bingo! They will attempt to make it appear close all the way to the end to try to force the candidates to spend.


“This imbalance in funds has to be intentional.”

Agree. He’s going to demonstrate how very much can be accomplished with very little collected money, by using brains and balls.

The old political paradigms are breaking apart, and uniparty hacks haven’t a clue. They are in incapable of comprehension, from living lies for so long.



B.S!!! He has more money than she’ll ever have...

He isn’t worried about the RNC money, he doesn’t want it, that’s for those jackasses like RINO RYAN to get re elected...

“This imbalance in funds has to be intentional.”

He’s going to use it to point out Hillary’s wall street connections, donations from foreign governments, and her being beholden to voters.

While he is just an everyday man, running a presidential campaign in a shoestring budget - and can do the same with the government.

June 21, 2016

What do you read in the expression on this man's face?

?1466509464

High anxiety, fear, desperation. That's what I see

June 21, 2016

Trump just utterly collapsed in Florida, at least according to this new Q Poll

<snip>

A new set of Quinnipiac University polls released Tuesday showed the former secretary of state expanding her lead over Trump in Florida, garnering 47% support to his 39% support among self-identified registered voters surveyed last week.

That's a notably larger lead than a similar Quinnipiac survey taken last month that showed Clinton with a 1-point lead over the real estate magnate.

But Tuesday's polls also found a much tighter race in Ohio and Pennsylvania. According to the Quinnipiac surveys, Clinton and Trump remain tied in Pennsylvania, while Clinton leads Trump by a single point in Ohio.

<snip>

read:http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-lead-florida-2016-6

June 21, 2016

In Praise of Vandalism

this sign was "splattered with black paint".



http://www.11alive.com/news/local/buford/satan-made-gays-church-sign-vandalized/250364895

And a hearty fuck you to the purveyor of hate, the pastor of the church.


Edit: I've edited out a photo of what the sign said. It's simply too hateful to post.

June 21, 2016

OK. I've joined the crew that doesn't think Trump will be the nominee

Prior to the last few days, I couldn't wrap my mind around his narcissism/ego allowing him to drop out. Now I can't wrap my mind around his narcissism/ego allowing him to stay in and get beaten to shit over the next few months let alone being beaten to shit on election day by Hillary- a woman.

The last few days have revealed his campaign as nothing but a Potemkin Village. It's not built to sustain over the next month let alone until November. What would be worse for his business concerns? Dropping out now under the flimsy, filmy veil of "health" or staying in and being beat to shit for the next 5 months? Or forget his business concerns, this guy's thin skin and perilously overinflated ego, will self-destruct long before November.

I just don't see him making it to November.

June 21, 2016

The young Brit that tried to kill Trump the other day

I can't help but wonder if he thought he was stopping another Hitler. That led me to think about how easy it is to make momentous theoretical decisions based on hindsight and how difficult it is to make actual decisions in real time.

Authorities: UK man arrested at rally planned to kill Trump

A British man arrested at a weekend Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas tried to grab a police officer's gun so he could kill the presidential candidate after planning an assassination for about a year, according to authorities.

U.S. Secret Service agents said Michael Steven Sandford approached a Las Vegas police officer at the campaign stop to say he wanted Trump's autograph, but that he then tried to take the weapon.

A complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Nevada charges Sandford, 20, with an act of violence on restricted grounds. He was denied bail during a court appearance later in the day. His court-appointed attorney said he was living out of his car and in the country illegally after overstaying a visa.

Sanford has not entered a plea.

The arrest happened relatively quietly at a campaign stop seen as peaceful compared to the mayhem at the presumptive Republican nominee's recent events in San Jose, California, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_ATTEMPTED_ATTACK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-06-20-16-01-59

June 21, 2016

Donal Trump's fundraising totals for May are disastrously bad

Donald Trump's campaign raised $3.1 million in May and ended last month with $1.3 million in the bank, a remarkably poor showing that will only heighten Republican concerns about his ability to run a serious general election campaign against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump's paltry fundraising last month is totally inexplicable given that he effectively secured the Republican presidential nomination on May 3 when he crushed Texas. Sen. Ted Cruz in the Indiana primary. Cruz ended his campaign that night. Ohio Gov. John Kasich dropped out the next day.

It also runs directly counter to assertions made Monday by Trump's now-deposed campaign manager Corey Lewandowski who repeatedly insisted that "money is pouring in" to Trump's coffers. (It's possible Lewandowski was referring to Trump's June fundraising. But if Trump did so poorly in May why would he suddenly improve in June amid a series of self-inflicted campaign wounds that have made it impossible for him to find a message much less stay on it?)

Trump had 27 days as the presumptive nominee to raise money in May. A quick bit of division means he averaged $114,000 raised in those 27 days. As the presumptive Republican nominee. Who is running against the Democrat Republican most love to hate. With polls that showed the general election race close.

<snip>

read:https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/20/donald-trumps-may-fundraising-totals-are-stunningly-bad/

June 21, 2016

I know it's pointless to whinge about the MSM, but let's face it

they could have done to trump months ago what they're doing now..

I suppose one can look at it as a good thing that they didn't. He's by far the weakest candidate the republicans could possibly have chosen. But he's making acceptable things that should have stayed buried. We've always had course strands prominently woven into our culture, but we keep adding more and more, and they're dangerous. Unleashing the id is a lousy idea. I'm not talking about the way of saying things, though that's part of it. I'm talking about uttering things that should never be uttered. Genies and bottles. It really has nothing to do with political correctness.

I'm not saying this well, as T.S. Eliot said plaintively in The Love Song... "that is not what I meant at all. That is not it at all".

I can't prove it. I can't even provide evidence for it. But I believe Trump has done and is doing real damage over the past year. He's midwifing a rough beast (sorry for all the poetry references).

And you, dear MSM honchos, have helped him. Turning on him now doesn't absolve you even a little bit.