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StrictlyRockers
StrictlyRockers's Journal
StrictlyRockers's Journal
September 30, 2016
For the record, violence is never justified. Using violence in politics is a tactic that fascists use.
Man with Trump cap trolls protesters, only to get attacked
For the record, violence is never justified. Using violence in politics is a tactic that fascists use.
September 30, 2016
<...>
DH: It used to be everybody thought they were middle class.
RJ: I think that even for Democrats when there's a lot of rhetoric pitched at the middle class, there's a lot of white working-class Americans that think that just goes right over their heads and doesn't address their needs. This is all part of the big picture understanding that they are not middle class anymore—is the sense that their own power and influence—whether you're talking cultural influence, demographic influence—is really passing from the scene. They are also realizing that they're losing a big part of the next generation as a lot of their children have left town and left the church. Knowing that they're not hanging on to a significant number of the younger generation has heightened this sense of decline.
DH: Let's talk about the millennial tidal wave. Is it going to be enough for the Democrats? I don't want to make you a prognosticator, that is Silver’s job. But the millennial generation is huge. They're much more liberal but clearly older people vote at higher levels.
RJ: That's right. That's the real challenge for Democrats. If this race weren't among only registered voters but among the general population, it would be a hands down landslide for Hillary Clinton. Against the backdrop of the demographic changes we are experiencing, the ballot box functions as a kind of time machine that, every election cycle, takes the demographics back to where they were a decade ago. In other words, there is a temporal lag between changes in the general population and when they show up at the ballot box, mainly because of higher voter registration and turnout rates among older white Christians.
DH: How long is the lag?
RJ: If you do the white Christians as a kind of metric, there are 45 percent white Christians in the country, and if the trend continues this year white Christians will make up 55 percent of the electorate.
DH: Maybe more so in Pennsylvania and Ohio?
RJ: Interestingly the declines we see among white Christians at the national level have been pretty consistent even if you look at Pennsylvania and Ohio, or at states such as North Carolina that have more recently become battleground states. The elements that are driving the decline are fairly consistent across states. On the one hand, young whites are disaffiliating from Christian churches. On the other hand, it's demographic changes such as Latino immigration and lower birth rates among whites.
Using the proportion of the country that identifies as white and Christian is a good metric of demographic and cultural change. Today, there is a 10 percentage point difference between the proportion of white Christians in the general population, 45 percent, and what we project to be the composition of the electorate in 2016, 55 percent. If the trends continue, it'll be 2024—two election cycles from now—before the electorate looks like the general population today.
DH: Wow, 2024.
RJ: Even with this temporal lag, I argue in my book that Mitt Romney's campaign was the last one that could depend on a white Christian strategy—piling up super majorities of white Christian voters to offset the growing demographics.
DH: It didn't work.
RJ: No. It didn't work for Romney. He basically hit all his marks. He got as many evangelical votes as George W. Bush did. Turn out rate wasn't suppressed and he still lost. Trump looks like he's doubling down on that failed strategy so we'll have a real test case of the viability of that strategy on our hands.
<...>
The End of White Christian America and Trump's Desperate Promises to Save It
http://www.alternet.org/books/end-white-christian-america-and-trumps-desperate-promises-save-it<...>
DH: It used to be everybody thought they were middle class.
RJ: I think that even for Democrats when there's a lot of rhetoric pitched at the middle class, there's a lot of white working-class Americans that think that just goes right over their heads and doesn't address their needs. This is all part of the big picture understanding that they are not middle class anymore—is the sense that their own power and influence—whether you're talking cultural influence, demographic influence—is really passing from the scene. They are also realizing that they're losing a big part of the next generation as a lot of their children have left town and left the church. Knowing that they're not hanging on to a significant number of the younger generation has heightened this sense of decline.
DH: Let's talk about the millennial tidal wave. Is it going to be enough for the Democrats? I don't want to make you a prognosticator, that is Silver’s job. But the millennial generation is huge. They're much more liberal but clearly older people vote at higher levels.
RJ: That's right. That's the real challenge for Democrats. If this race weren't among only registered voters but among the general population, it would be a hands down landslide for Hillary Clinton. Against the backdrop of the demographic changes we are experiencing, the ballot box functions as a kind of time machine that, every election cycle, takes the demographics back to where they were a decade ago. In other words, there is a temporal lag between changes in the general population and when they show up at the ballot box, mainly because of higher voter registration and turnout rates among older white Christians.
DH: How long is the lag?
RJ: If you do the white Christians as a kind of metric, there are 45 percent white Christians in the country, and if the trend continues this year white Christians will make up 55 percent of the electorate.
DH: Maybe more so in Pennsylvania and Ohio?
RJ: Interestingly the declines we see among white Christians at the national level have been pretty consistent even if you look at Pennsylvania and Ohio, or at states such as North Carolina that have more recently become battleground states. The elements that are driving the decline are fairly consistent across states. On the one hand, young whites are disaffiliating from Christian churches. On the other hand, it's demographic changes such as Latino immigration and lower birth rates among whites.
Using the proportion of the country that identifies as white and Christian is a good metric of demographic and cultural change. Today, there is a 10 percentage point difference between the proportion of white Christians in the general population, 45 percent, and what we project to be the composition of the electorate in 2016, 55 percent. If the trends continue, it'll be 2024—two election cycles from now—before the electorate looks like the general population today.
DH: Wow, 2024.
RJ: Even with this temporal lag, I argue in my book that Mitt Romney's campaign was the last one that could depend on a white Christian strategy—piling up super majorities of white Christian voters to offset the growing demographics.
DH: It didn't work.
RJ: No. It didn't work for Romney. He basically hit all his marks. He got as many evangelical votes as George W. Bush did. Turn out rate wasn't suppressed and he still lost. Trump looks like he's doubling down on that failed strategy so we'll have a real test case of the viability of that strategy on our hands.
<...>
September 29, 2016
<...>
“For 20 years I’ve been saying how it’s not true that talk radio is all about ratings and we don’t believe what we say,” he went on. “Then you watch how the media types rolled over for him. Obviously Donald Trump is very good for ratings, and at some point it’s hard not to conclude they decided the Trump train was the gravy train. I’ve been thoroughly disillusioned, and I’m not alone in that. It’s like watching ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’: Oh, my God, they got another one!”
When Trump declared his candidacy in June 2015, the part of his announcement speech that most clearly foreshadowed the campaign to come had to do with immigration. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” he told the crowd at Trump Tower. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
The line struck Sykes as awfully familiar when he heard it. A month before, he had run a segment with Ann Coulter, who had just published her 10th book, an anti-immigration screed titled “¡Adios, America!” Sykes was well aware of Coulter’s views, but he was taken aback when she began a riff on Mexican rapists surging into the United States (a subject that takes up an entire chapter of “¡Adios, America!”). “I remember looking at my producer and going, ‘Wow, this is rather extraordinary,’?” he told me. “When Trump used that line, I instantly recognized it as Ann Coulter’s.”
In fact, Corey Lewandowski had reached out to Coulter for advice in the run-up to Trump’s announcement speech. The address Trump delivered on June 16 bore no resemblance to his prepared text, which contained a mere two sentences about immigration. Instead, he ad-libbed what Coulter today calls “the Mexican rapist speech that won my heart.” When Trump’s remarks provoked fury, Lewandowski called Coulter for backup. Three days later, she went on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher” and, amid shrieks of laughter from the audience, predicted that Trump was the Republican candidate most likely to win the presidency.
One evening this past March, Trump received Coulter at Mar-a-Lago. Though in recent years the two had developed a rapport on Twitter, she had met him face to face only once before he declared his candidacy, a lunch date at Trump Tower in 2011. Over lunch, Trump gave Coulter the impression that he had read her books. He also gave her a few items from his wife’s line of costume jewelry and told Coulter, who keeps a house in Palm Beach, that she was welcome to use the pool at Mar-a-Lago anytime.
<...>
__________________________________________________________________
When I watched this debate between Cenk Uyger of The Young Turks and Ann Coulter a few months ago, I said "Ah ha!", THAT'S where Trump has been getting all of this racist drivel about Mexican rapists planted in his head.
How Donald Trump Set Off a Civil War Within the Right-Wing Media
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/magazine/how-donald-trump-set-off-a-civil-war-within-the-right-wing-media.html<...>
“For 20 years I’ve been saying how it’s not true that talk radio is all about ratings and we don’t believe what we say,” he went on. “Then you watch how the media types rolled over for him. Obviously Donald Trump is very good for ratings, and at some point it’s hard not to conclude they decided the Trump train was the gravy train. I’ve been thoroughly disillusioned, and I’m not alone in that. It’s like watching ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’: Oh, my God, they got another one!”
When Trump declared his candidacy in June 2015, the part of his announcement speech that most clearly foreshadowed the campaign to come had to do with immigration. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” he told the crowd at Trump Tower. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
The line struck Sykes as awfully familiar when he heard it. A month before, he had run a segment with Ann Coulter, who had just published her 10th book, an anti-immigration screed titled “¡Adios, America!” Sykes was well aware of Coulter’s views, but he was taken aback when she began a riff on Mexican rapists surging into the United States (a subject that takes up an entire chapter of “¡Adios, America!”). “I remember looking at my producer and going, ‘Wow, this is rather extraordinary,’?” he told me. “When Trump used that line, I instantly recognized it as Ann Coulter’s.”
In fact, Corey Lewandowski had reached out to Coulter for advice in the run-up to Trump’s announcement speech. The address Trump delivered on June 16 bore no resemblance to his prepared text, which contained a mere two sentences about immigration. Instead, he ad-libbed what Coulter today calls “the Mexican rapist speech that won my heart.” When Trump’s remarks provoked fury, Lewandowski called Coulter for backup. Three days later, she went on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher” and, amid shrieks of laughter from the audience, predicted that Trump was the Republican candidate most likely to win the presidency.
One evening this past March, Trump received Coulter at Mar-a-Lago. Though in recent years the two had developed a rapport on Twitter, she had met him face to face only once before he declared his candidacy, a lunch date at Trump Tower in 2011. Over lunch, Trump gave Coulter the impression that he had read her books. He also gave her a few items from his wife’s line of costume jewelry and told Coulter, who keeps a house in Palm Beach, that she was welcome to use the pool at Mar-a-Lago anytime.
<...>
__________________________________________________________________
When I watched this debate between Cenk Uyger of The Young Turks and Ann Coulter a few months ago, I said "Ah ha!", THAT'S where Trump has been getting all of this racist drivel about Mexican rapists planted in his head.
September 29, 2016
Watch what Michael Moore called “The most amazing open to a show I’ve ever seen”. Last night’s Lawrence O’Donnell. A 19-min uncut uncensored soliloquy wherein LOD disassembles Trump for his hatred towards women such as Rosie O’Donnell, and for doubling down on Fox News on his treatment of Latina beauty queen Alicia Machado whom he called “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeper”.
When class president & class clown debated. (Lawrence O'Donnell on fire last night.)
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/when-class-president-class-clown-debated-774524995635Watch what Michael Moore called “The most amazing open to a show I’ve ever seen”. Last night’s Lawrence O’Donnell. A 19-min uncut uncensored soliloquy wherein LOD disassembles Trump for his hatred towards women such as Rosie O’Donnell, and for doubling down on Fox News on his treatment of Latina beauty queen Alicia Machado whom he called “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeper”.
September 29, 2016
MSNBC Delivers Biggest Dayside Audience in Network History
Congratulations Joy Ann Reid! You deserve praise for your strong progressive message, and for delivering MSNBC this time period's highest ratings in 13 years!
http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy
Airing on the weekends from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m., AM Joy delivered the time period’s biggest total viewer audience since the 1st quarter of 2003 and biggest A25-54 audience since Q4 2012.
http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/q3-2016-ratings-msnbc-delivers-biggest-dayside-audience-in-network-history/305839
MSNBC drew its biggest total day audience ever in the third quarter of 2016, averaging 676,000 viewers. The network grew 80 percent in total day viewers and grew 83 percent in the key news demo from Q3 of 2015. MSNBC also edged CNN in Monday-Friday prime time viewers, by just .6 percent: 1,224,000 to 1,216,000. The network was up 96 percent in total prime time viewers, and improved 112 percent in the demo in prime time.
The ratings for Q3, 2016 (Nielsen Live + Same Day data):
Prime time (Mon-Sun): 1,224,000 total viewers / 297,000 A25-54
Total Day (Mon-Sun): 676,000 total viewers / 168,000 A25-54
Four programs stood out for MSNBC this past quarter: Morning Joe, The Rachel Maddow Show, AM Joy, and the limited-run show The 11th Hour with Brian Williams.
Maddow beat Anderson Cooper 360 (at 9 p.m.) in total viewers and the demo for the third straight quarter.
Morning Joe gave the 6-9 a.m. time period’s biggest total viewer audience in the MSNBC’s 20-year history, breaking the record for the third consecutive quarter. Joe topped CNN in total viewers for the 6th consecutive quarter and won its third straight quarter in the A25-54 demo.
Airing on the weekends from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m., AM Joy delivered the time period’s biggest total viewer audience since the 1st quarter of 2003 and biggest A25-54 audience since Q4 2012.
The 11th Hour, which debuted on September 6th, is leading CNN Tonight in total viewers (but not in the A25-54 demo). The program has given a significant year-over-year boost to MSNBC, posting a total viewer gain of 141 percent from the network’s 11-11:30 p.m. performance in September 2015.
<...>
September 28, 2016
Braggadocious? Is that even a word?
I don't know? Maybe. Who knows?
Randy Rainbow Moderates the First Debate
Braggadocious? Is that even a word?
I don't know? Maybe. Who knows?
September 27, 2016
Tweet of the night
Take away from tonight's Presidential Debate?
Never send 16 Republicans to do a Woman's Job.
https://twitter.com/FredBen217/status/780623665356500992
September 27, 2016
Updated by Matthew Yglesias
@mattyglesias matt@vox.com
Sep 26, 2016, 11:43p
<...>
You would see, in other words, that the Democrats had nominated an experienced politician — it’s what you do.
The other party, by contrast, seems to have done something weird. Their nominee, Donald Trump, seems erratic — peevish, visibly annoyed at being referred to by his first name, lashing out at Rosie O’Donnell for some reason — and mired in controversy. Accused of practicing racial discrimination in his businesses, he says being sued by the federal government is “one of those things” and even though he paid-up there was “no admission of guilt.” Pressed to release his federal income tax returns he said he can’t because he’s being audited, which really just seems like a confirmation that his returns would be interesting and worth seeing.
But beyond the personal controversies, he rather clearly has no idea what he’s talking about.
Trump doesn’t know much about the economy
Trump explained that he talks about how rich he is “not in a bragadocious way” but because “it's time that this country has somebody running the country who has an idea about money.”
And yet from his very first statement in the debate, Trump revealed a frankly bizarre level of ignorance about economic policy.
Literally the first thing Trump said after thanking the moderator was “our jobs are fleeing the country” when, in fact, employment has been steadily increasing for years.
Three sentences later he said the Chinese “are devaluing their currency and there's nobody in our government to fight them” when, in fact, the Chinese are trying to prop up the value of their currency in the face of a massive investor exodus from Chinese real estate.
He also said the Chinese “are using our country as a piggy bank to rebuild China” which isn’t even how piggy banks work, much less the US-Chinese economic relationship.
He said that Mexico is feasting on American manufacturing and “building the bigger plants in the world” when, in fact, Tesla is currently building the biggest factory in the world right in California. The existing biggest factory in the world is also in the United States, where they build Boeing jumbo jets. Number three is a Mitsubishi plant located in Illinois.
One could continue with the factual specifics here, but the overarching theme is pretty clear: The Republicans nominated someone who doesn’t know anything about his signature issue. He lambasted Clinton for her involvement in NAFTA, which he said had devastated American manufacturing, but US manufacturing output has risen about fifty percent since NAFTA passed. And while it’s not true that the world’s biggest factories are opening in Mexico, it is absolutely true that both the Boeing factory and the Mitsubishi factory depend critically on international trade for their viability.
<...>
__________________________________________________________________
Go read the whole thing. Trump exposed himself tonight in front of 100 million people. He very obviously has NO IDEA what he's talking about. He's a bullshit artist, and his bullshit stunk tonight. Sometimes he can spin the words with panache and a bit of style. Tonight, he was just awful.
He seemed both naked and hollow. He acted petulant and snippy. You could see right through the bullshit to the sniffling man-child who was wayyy out of his league. Hillary was well-prepared to seize the initiative from the start. She led him around by the nose and had him over-reacting to every perceived sleight.
I'm doing the happy dance over here. Go Hillary!
Donald Trump’s first presidential debate confirmed he has no idea what he’s talking about
http://www.vox.com/2016/9/26/13066698/trump-debate-trade-fact-check?utm_campaign=mattyglesias&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitterUpdated by Matthew Yglesias
@mattyglesias matt@vox.com
Sep 26, 2016, 11:43p
<...>
You would see, in other words, that the Democrats had nominated an experienced politician — it’s what you do.
The other party, by contrast, seems to have done something weird. Their nominee, Donald Trump, seems erratic — peevish, visibly annoyed at being referred to by his first name, lashing out at Rosie O’Donnell for some reason — and mired in controversy. Accused of practicing racial discrimination in his businesses, he says being sued by the federal government is “one of those things” and even though he paid-up there was “no admission of guilt.” Pressed to release his federal income tax returns he said he can’t because he’s being audited, which really just seems like a confirmation that his returns would be interesting and worth seeing.
But beyond the personal controversies, he rather clearly has no idea what he’s talking about.
Trump doesn’t know much about the economy
Trump explained that he talks about how rich he is “not in a bragadocious way” but because “it's time that this country has somebody running the country who has an idea about money.”
And yet from his very first statement in the debate, Trump revealed a frankly bizarre level of ignorance about economic policy.
Literally the first thing Trump said after thanking the moderator was “our jobs are fleeing the country” when, in fact, employment has been steadily increasing for years.
Three sentences later he said the Chinese “are devaluing their currency and there's nobody in our government to fight them” when, in fact, the Chinese are trying to prop up the value of their currency in the face of a massive investor exodus from Chinese real estate.
He also said the Chinese “are using our country as a piggy bank to rebuild China” which isn’t even how piggy banks work, much less the US-Chinese economic relationship.
He said that Mexico is feasting on American manufacturing and “building the bigger plants in the world” when, in fact, Tesla is currently building the biggest factory in the world right in California. The existing biggest factory in the world is also in the United States, where they build Boeing jumbo jets. Number three is a Mitsubishi plant located in Illinois.
One could continue with the factual specifics here, but the overarching theme is pretty clear: The Republicans nominated someone who doesn’t know anything about his signature issue. He lambasted Clinton for her involvement in NAFTA, which he said had devastated American manufacturing, but US manufacturing output has risen about fifty percent since NAFTA passed. And while it’s not true that the world’s biggest factories are opening in Mexico, it is absolutely true that both the Boeing factory and the Mitsubishi factory depend critically on international trade for their viability.
<...>
__________________________________________________________________
Go read the whole thing. Trump exposed himself tonight in front of 100 million people. He very obviously has NO IDEA what he's talking about. He's a bullshit artist, and his bullshit stunk tonight. Sometimes he can spin the words with panache and a bit of style. Tonight, he was just awful.
He seemed both naked and hollow. He acted petulant and snippy. You could see right through the bullshit to the sniffling man-child who was wayyy out of his league. Hillary was well-prepared to seize the initiative from the start. She led him around by the nose and had him over-reacting to every perceived sleight.
I'm doing the happy dance over here. Go Hillary!
September 25, 2016
In Debate Ad, Tecate Turns Trump's Wall Into a Beer Prop
"A wall that brings us together."
http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/debate-ad-tecate-turns-trump-s-wall-a-beer-prop/305999/
"You're welcome, America."
September 25, 2016
I swear to god, Lester, not one. fracking. question. about. e-mails.
Please, don't force EarlG to skewer you the way he did Matt Lauer!
At the moment, the conventional wisdom seems to be that you do actually have some journalistic integrity. But, I swear to god, Lester, if you start asking about Hillary's emails...there better not be any heavy objects near me and my TV. I swear to god!
Side note: Lester Holt and Matt Lauer are both registered Republicans. Ironically, the only registered Democrat who is hosting one of the debates, is the Fox Snooze guy, Chris Wallace.
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