Trump again colludes

Donald Trump pressured the government of Ukraine to find or manufacture dirt on the son of former VP Joe Biden in an attempt to interfere with the United States Presidential election. This sort of thing is a crime, as well as a major ethical issue.

Looking for collusion? Well, there it is.

Roy Moore

Not really surprised that Roy Moore is a kiddie diddler. I always expect it from the overly pious sorts. Anyway, Senate Candidate Roy Moore, everyone.

Doanld the Manchurian?

Could Trump be a real life Manchurian candidate?

The Donald has touted his relationship with Vladimir Putin and praised the dictator on several occasions. Now comes word that Trump's campaign manager has been on Putin's payroll. Manafort got over 12 million dollars for his services. More here.

Now Trump's daughter and Putin's girlfriend are vacationing together. Seriously.

It seems like this should raise eyebrows.

Treason Light

So, actual Presidential Candidate Donald Trump has commited a sort of treason.

I'm not kidding. Trump has suggested that Russia (a foreign power, for those keeping score) should commit an act of cyber warfare against a former United States Secretary of State.

I'm not the only one who finds this troubling.

Trump = Treason seems the sort of thing that should worry voters.

Trump on Cruz

I'm just going to block quote the whole thing, and give the attribution to VOX. I don't want to link to the other places that this is available. Here is what Trump had to say about Ted Cruz after the RNC.

If you turn on the television, if you turn on some of the dishonest media, you’ll see, "Oh well, this happened and this happened." What happened?

Somebody [Cruz] got booed the hell out a place by thousands and thousands of people. There wasn’t one person in the room. Not one. And then they said, "there may not be unity!" Unity? There wasn’t one person in the room who wasn’t — including the Texas delegation, right?

Honestly he may have ruined his political career. I feel so bad. I feel so bad.

And you know, he’ll come and endorse over the next little while. He’ll come and endorse. But I don’t want his endorsement! What difference does it make? I don’t want his endorsement. I have such great endors — I don’t want his endorsement. Just, Ted, stay home, relax, enjoy yourself.

Just a couple of things: I knew his speech. They gave me his speech. I knew exactly what his speech was, because when you go up to speak, you have to give your speech. You know, we don’t want surprises, right? So they gave it, they came to me, they said, "It’s a boring speech, Mr. Trump. Nothing good, nothing bad. He just congratulates you on the victory and here’s the speech."

Well he got up, and in the first two sentences, he added a sentence. In other words, he got up, and he added a sentence. Which could have been viewed as a nasty thing in terms of what he said because it was implying something which is wrong, but that’s okay.

So he took his speech — and you’re bound by that speech, just like you’re bound by the pledge. You’re bound by the pledge. So Ted Cruz took his speech that was done — was on the teleprompter — said hello, then made a statement that wasn’t on the speech and went back to his speech.

See, to me, that’s dishonorable. To me, not signing a pledge is dishonorable, okay? It’s dishonorable. Not a nice thing to do. And I talk this way because we’re all together. We created the one of the most successful conventions in the history of conventions. And the television ratings for this convention were through the roof.

[Trump then spends a couple of minutes talking about ratings, his wife and children's speeches, and the length of his own speech before returning back to Cruz.]

Two other things.

Two other things, just to finish with Ted because I like Ted. He’s fine.

Again, I don’t want his endorsement. If he gives it, I will not accept it. Just so you understand. I will not accept it. It won’t matter. Honestly, he should have done it because nobody cares and he would have been in better shape for four years from now if he’s gonna — I don’t see him winning anyway, frankly. But if he did, it’s fine.

Although maybe I’ll set up a Super PAC if he decides to run. Are you allowed to set up a Super PAC, Mike, if you are the president, to fight somebody?

[Mike Pence shakes his head and mouths the word "no."]

But there were two things that he said yesterday that were lies. Ready?

I didn’t start anything with the wife. A PAC, which he’s very friendly with, released a cover story on my wife, who’s this tremendously successful and elegant model, and she was on the cover of GQ magazine. I think it was GQ, right? And GQ magazine is not exactly Penthouse. But she was on the cover of GQ magazine. An artsy picture, but you know, she was a model. Really successful.

She didn’t need to marry me. She was making a lot of money. Believe me. In fact, I had to work hard to get her to marry me. It wasn’t that easy. It’s true. It’s so true. You think I’m kidding.

So they released this picture, which was — to the people of the state of Utah. I love Utah. I love the people of Utah. But that’s not necessarily where you want to send a risqué photo and everybody in Utah got a picture. And I don’t think they showed that it was GQ. I think they took the GQ off, they cut all the stuff out so you couldn’t see it was a magazine cover from, you know, a reasonably respected magazine. And it was Melania Trump. Now, and I’m saying this just to clear it up because Ted says "he took adv —" I didn’t do anything.

Then when I saw somebody tweeted a picture of Melania and a picture of Heidi [Cruz] — who I think, by the way, is a very nice woman and a very beautiful woman, I have to tell you. I think Heidi Cruz is a great person. I think it’s the best thing he’s got going and his kids, if you wanna know the truth. In a certain way, although he’s got good intellect but he doesn’t know how to use it. And he was a good debater but he didn’t do well in the debates against me, according to every poll. I mean every poll. Just a great debater except he lost in every single poll in every single debate.

So that takes care of the Heidi thing because Heidi is a terrific woman but they sent out — Now he said, "That was a PAC. We had nothing to do —" Folks, most of us are political people, right? We’re not babies. His people were on the PAC. So he said, "We had nothing to do —, we had to —" Now, probably, you could trace it down with emails, but they’re pretty smart, probably just used phone calls. But look, it was a PAC with many of his friends. It was a Cruz Super PAC. I think he even said, "Well it wasn’t really meant for us." It was a Cruz PAC. It was his people.

Okay so they sent out the first picture. Please remember.

Okay. Number two.

His father. I don't know his father, I met him once. I think he's a lovely guy. I think he's a lovely guy. All I did was point out that on the cover of the National Enquirer there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast. Now, Ted never denied that it was his father. Instead he said, "Donald Trump!" — I had nothing to do with it!

This was a magazine that frankly, in many respects, should be very respected. They got OJ, they got Edwards. If that was the New York Times, they would've gotten Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting. I've always said, "Why didn't the National Enquirer get the Pulitzer Prize for Edwards, and OJ Simpson, and all of these things?"

But anyway, so they have a picture, an old picture, having breakfast with Lee Harvey Oswald. Now, I’m not saying anything. Here’s how the press takes that story. This had nothing to do with me. Except I might have pointed it out, but it had nothing to do with me, I have no control over anything. I might have pointed it out. But nobody ever denied — did anyone ever deny that it was his father? It’s a little hard to do, because it looks like him.

So here’s the story, they say, "Donald Trump and his conspiracy theories, he went out and said his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald, and he assassinated the president." What’d I do?

So two things. Those were the two points.

So on those two points, he said about the endorsement — And I just cleared up, I think I’m doing the right thing in doing it but I have to do it. Number one: The Heidi thing you understand now. Number two: I know nothing about his father, I know nothing about Lee Harvey Oswald. But there was a picture on the front page of the National Enquirer which does have credibility, and they’re not going to do pictures like that because they get sued for a lot of money if things are wrong. Okay? A lot of money. And there was a picture, and that’s the only thing I know. So now they use the two things as the reason he won’t support me.

-VOX

some two-bit dictator of a country you couldn’t find on a map

Elizabeth Warren is right on this. Donald Trump's RNC speech sounded like

"some two-bit dictator of a country you couldn’t find on a map."

She was talking to Colbert. Colbert should not have moderated in this conversation. He should have agreed. This is a dangerous time. This nation is on the razor edge of electing an unstable bigot who lacks the basic knowledge to be mayor of Upper Sandusky, let alone Commander in Chief of the greatest military on the planet.

Good info at VOX

lawyers Guns and Money Blog has some good info too.

First they came for the porn . . .

From the Republican platform:

Pornography, with its harmful effects, especially on children, has become a public health crisis that is destroying the lives of millions. We encourage states to continue to fight this public menace and pledge our commitment to children’s safety and well-being.

Nothing about gun violence. Nothing about racism. Nothing about climate change. But, they will fight the porn. 

President Pence

I almost didn’t see it coming. Trump has strong support from crazies, the far right, the alt-right, bigots, and loons. His problem is that the “moderate” wing of the Republican party fears him. They worry that he may  Just start a war with Belgium because he’s bored, or nuke El Paso because it is full of Mexicans. How does Trump fix this? 

Now comes a report  that Trump offered Kasich the VP slot with the assurance that he (Kasich) would be the actual President and Trump merely a figurehead. kasich Turned it down. 

Now we will hear the whispers that Pence got the same deal. Don't worry, they will say, Pence is a grown up and he will be in charge. Choke back your vomit and vote PENCE / trump. 

This is how this sociopath can win. 

I almost didn't see it.

Finished with Daily Kos

I am now supporting Hillary, but KOS spewing lies and idiocy is almost enough to turn me into a Jill Stein voter. Shut the fuck up, Markos. You stopped being relevant to the left about a year ago.

Markos has sold out

Hell, recently he has banned users for diaries that were made up of quotes from Markos himself. It's sad and I am finished. 

Going negative

Hillary decided to go full negative, kitchen sink, nuclear against Bernie. That was am idiotic move. It looks like her campaign has imploded.  Some insiders are starting to suggest that she withdraw. It is sort of fun to watch, though.

Here are some related links for your enjoyment:

backfire

viral

Soaring

tone

and tone

and this

Wisconsin

It's time for Wisconsin to deliver another huge victory to Bernie Sanders.

Here's a round-up of Bernie News

and this from Rolling Stone

“like a Brooklynite"

The Clinton camp now says that they will only debate Bernie if he "tones it down" and that they are worried that he will debate “like a Brooklynite". So, I guess she is saying that New Yorkers are rude, mean, nasty. Why does Hillary hate New York? Why is she afraid of Bernie Sanders?

This is crap. She is spinning out of control. MSNBC is saying that Bernie will win Wisconsin and New York. Bernie just crushed her in Hawaii (the least white state), Alaska (and of the five most diverse states) and Washington. Her poll numbers are starting to collapse. Going forward, Sanders will erase her lead and pull past her prior to the convention.

They see it coming.

They are afraid.

#tonedownforwhat
#whichhillary
#notmeus
#feelthebern

More on the Hillary problem

This sort of covers it.

lately, Hillary is doing everything in her power to tell the Democratic base (Progressives, People of Color and the LGBTQ Community) that she doesn't need them. Guess what, we don't need her either.

Finally, they get it

It is starting to come clear to people that Hillary is less electable than Bernie.  Steve Almond  has a good run-down of arguments against her. These match up closely with what I have been saying for months.  Lawyers Guns and Money is starting to see the light as well. And this.

She keeps doing shit like this

This stuff has a lot of evidence. The polls show the gap. But, more than the polls I trust reality. Hillary is a terrible candidate and one that the GOP has been preparing for for 25 years.

and this

AIDS Denial

Hillary Clinton praised the Reagans and suggested that they were fighters in the war on aids.  This is revisionist history of the worst sort. The Reagan regime had blood not just on its hands, but all over its. This is disgusting. It is disgusting that a candidate for the DEMOCRATIC presidential nomination would say this.

I am stunned.

This is worth a read

Ronald Reagan, who died in 2004, was president for nearly five years before he said the word “Aids” in public, nearly seven years before he gave a speech on a health crisis that would go on to kill more than 650,000 Americans and stigmatize even more. In recent months, published reports have revealed an administration that laughed at the scourge and its victims and a first lady who turned her back on Rock Hudson, a close friend, when he reached out to the White House for help as he was dying from an Aids-related illness. “If there is a hell both Ronny and Nancy are Roasting,” wrote one Sister.... “Nancy and Ron Reagan were a functional team in the Presidency,” wrote Kenneth Bunch, aka Sister Vicious Power Hungry Bitch, one of the order’s co-founders. “They are both responsible for the death of thousands from HIV in the LGBT community due to their inaction in the 1980’s. So I understand the anger in the LGBT community toward Nancy. I feel that anger as well.”

You get some rest now, Ben

Sleepy Ben Carson has ended his "campaign".

I will miss the fruit salad of his debate performances.

RubioBot and Trump's penis

Marco Rubio (R - Borg Cube) has been reprogrammed to sound more like the Trump insult machine. His latest tactic: Insinuating that Trump has a tiny wang. I have to wonder at this strategy. He seems to believe that the way to woo voters is to behave like a twelve-year-old bully on the playground.

I think Rubio needs more beta testing.

Over on the Democratic side, two adults are disagreeing about issues and attempting to make their case to other adults.

Oh well.

Bernie's Path to Victory

Five-Thirty-Eight has a great article on a possible path to the nomination for Berni Sanders. It breaks down benchmarks for each state and which states he really "needs" to win.

It starts, of Course, with Nevada

Nevada. Nevada has a fairly high nonwhite population, but it isn’t especially liberal. Clinton was also well ahead of Sanders in the (relatively small sample) of interviews Morning Consult conducted there earlier this year. It’s possible that Clinton will be hurt because the state holds a caucus, although we don’t have a lot of evidence yet about which Democrat that benefits. In other words — and as much as her campaign might try to avoid admitting it — it’s a state that Clinton “should” win. Conversely, a Sanders win would be a sign he has staying power.

I was interested in Kansas (what with living there). I think Kansas will deliver a massive margin for Sanders. 

Piketty on Sanders

Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the 21st Century, has written an article about the Berni Sanders moment. It is well worth reading. Do so here

Trump v Cruz

Vox discusses why some of the GOP elite seem to prefer Trump to Cruz. They get it dead wrong. The reason the Bob Dole wing of the Republican party prefers Donald Trump over Ted Cruz is simple. Trump can't win, Cruz possibly could.

The calculation is this: Trump on the top of the ballot guarantees that Hillary Clinton (or Berni Sanders) becomes president and likely gives control of congress back to the Democrats. Dole et al think that the Republican party can survive that over the long term.

On the other hand, a Cruz candidacy is likely to create the same effect, but there is a small chance that Cruz could win. A Cruz presidency would wreck the economy for a generation. It would be a disaster of diplomacy. The nation would almost certainly enter into at least one new war. Our allies would possibly abandon us. We would come very close to becoming a failed state. And no other Republican could be elected president in generations.
\

That is their fear. It is a rational fear.