The New York Times and the Democrats have a new Trump story to peddle.
The crude comments are a huge scandal to the new Puritans of the left.
The explosive revelation of his coarse remarks, on the eve of a crucial debate on Sunday against Hillary Clinton, represented a new low for a campaign that had already redefined the standards of political discourse to fit Mr. Trump’s penchant for insults, mocking, threats and demagogic insinuations. A three-minute video clearly capturing Mr. Trump’s voice, and obtained by The Washington Post, ricocheted across social media and cable television and instantly became one of the most powerful weapons yet for Democrats to persuade undecided female voters and others to back Mrs. Clinton.
The Washington Post seems to be the source.
This is the weekend before the second debate and there is obviously a script running here. The recording was made 11 years ago when Trump was unmarried although he married Melania in 2005. I am unaware of any credible allegations of sexual harassment or rape against Trump, although there has been a lawsuit filed and rejected by a then 13 year old. alleging rape.
Federal Judge Ronnie Abrams has ordered a December status conference hearing after a woman, who calls herself “Jane Doe,” filed a lawsuit claiming that Trump raped her when she was 13 years old in the 1990s. This is the third attempt the plaintiff has made in filing this particular lawsuit. Last Friday, she filed an amended complaint, with a new “witness” named “Joan Doe.” The plaintiff and witnesses in the case are using pseudonyms, they say, to protect their identities.
Ronnie Abrams was appointed by Barack Obama in 2011.
The plaintiff’s allegation seems to be that she was raped in a setting where Jeffrey Epstein of “Lolita Express” and Bill Clinton fame were present.
I think this is probably a setup by the DNC since the alleged rape occurred in the 1990s and the lawsuit has been previously dismissed.
I think there is a permissive atmosphere where wealthy and popular personalities, like Bill Cosby and Bill Clinton, can be helpful to women in a career. After all, Hillary Clinton owes her career to her husband Bill. She may think she has done it on her own but Bill is a much better politician than she is and that has been obvious since the “Hillarycare” debacle in 1994. I don’t mean to imply that women politicians need men. After all Margaret Thatcher did it on her own with only support from her husband in a personal, non-political way.
We will hear a lot about this story for the next two days and it will be important for Trump to deflate this particular balloon next Sunday. Maybe Hillary will have her child actress ask him a question about it.
I assume he anticipated this campaign of vilification but even Trump might be distressed at the levels of hate, especially from Republicans.
I don’t see how he recovers. I’ll give it even odds that he drops out within the next 24 hours. The sexual harassment attack did a lot of damage in the first debate, and he had no good answer for it. He’ll need to ask the American people for forgiveness for this latest thing, but I don’t think he’ll be able to muster the humility to do it.
I thought the story the other day about an Iranian bank renting space in Trump Tower was the stupidest political hit piece ever, but this has topped it.
Hillary’s tweet about this is now and for all times the most perfect example of outrageous chutzpah ever.
I hate the MSM, hate the Democrat party, hate 75% of the GOP. To hell with all of them. To the Never Trump imbeciles saying Trump should step down for Pence–you realize he would get about 25% of the vote, right? You realize the GOP is dead, right?
I don’t see how he recovers.
He recovers by not apologizing, by attacking Bill Clinton as a rapist and moral degenerate, and Hillary as Bill’s enabler who stayed with him because she didn’t have the talent to make it on her own.
It’s bare knuckles time.
Only one person can save Trump now and that is Kellyanne Conway. If she stays he has a chance. She can stand next to him, and people will believe her. If she can provide the appearance that Trump is worth redemption, the voters will see it too.
It will be in stark contrast to Hillary, who everyone knows only stayed on with Bill because her poll numbers benefited.
However, I have this bad feeling Kellyanne is cleaning out her desk as we speak.
I could be wrong but I don’t think this makes a difference.
Is anyone…..supporter or detractor……actually surprised that a rich New York celebrity born the year after ww2 ended, talks this way in private with a bunch of other rich playboys?
Trump has never been in the running to get a single vote that would hinge on this sort of thing. He can lose votes by trying to wriggle around too much or prevaricate or apologize endlessly……he should just shrug and say I’m a crude guy sometimes and I brag a bit too much…….but let’s talk about how I’m going to grab this economy right in the—
Just imagine, the Washington Post just found this! And they are looking diligently for stuff Hillary has said in the past just to keep us all informed.
My God.
Panic, panic, panic.
This sort of thing is why the gop is such a worthless, miserable failure of a political party. Hillary helped cover up her husband’s forcible rape of Juanita Broderick, which troubles the democrat party not at all, while the gop never had a thing to say about it. Trump said lewd things before he ran for office, and some fraction of the gop deserts him, demanding he withdraw from the race.
I agree wholeheartedly.
Watching this contest has really made me despise the Republican party, deeply, thoroughly, and comprehensively. These people are completely and utterly worthless, and they deserve the contempt of all mankind, because they’ve worked hard to earn it.
We’ve got Paul Ryan, the hapless bootlicker who has never had any sort of responsible job outside government, unless he managed to work his way up to chief fry machine operator while at McDonald’s. We’ve got Mike Lee, who is apparently dumb enough not to comprehend what would happen to the gop if Trump actually did step down, perhaps because he figures his Mormon constituents don’t care. We’ve got Erick Erickson, who thought he had a great gig as the guy who would represent the Tea Party types to Washington, but saw his gravy train slip away as Trump became the GOP nominee. We’ve got Glen Beck, who is just nuts- or worse.
I’m sure the gop doesn’t care, but their fecklessness has cost them my reliable straight ticket vote. Hugh Hewitt wrote years ago in one of his books that party identification was something like hair color, and it took work to get people to change. Congrats, gop. You’ve done it. You chased me right out of your sad, sham imitation of a political party, and I’ll rejoice at your obliteration.
Either at the hand of Trump, as he replaces your witless minions in the government- or at the hand of Hillary, as she sends her justice department to imprison you on trumped up charges- ha ha- simply to keep better control of the machinery of the state.
And then we’ll move on to the real contest- a grim, brutal civil war that may well end the existence of the United States, as well as getting me killed.
But at least I’ll have the satisfaction of seeing the gop die first.
You don’t elect a Trump in the hope that he’s got good manners and a bit of discretion. You elect him because the alternative is God awful. She’s no less God awful today.
GOP leaders are already on record as hating Trump, so it doesn’t matter what they do.
Half the voters are affiliated with the parties, and half are independent waiting for the candidates to convince them. After the primaries, the candidates campaign for those independent votes. Independents aren’t surprised at this point – no one is – but this will confirm their dislike for him. Trump has lost their vote.
I keep linking to my post about Watergate the week Mark Felt admitted he was “Deep Throat.”
Felt saw Gray’s selection as an unwelcome politicization of the FBI (by placing it under direct presidential control), an assault on the traditions created by Hoover and an insult to his memory, and a massive personal disappointment. Felt was thus a disgruntled employee at the highest level. He was also a senior official in an organization that traditionally had protected its interests in predictable ways. (By then formally the No. 2 figure in FBI, Felt effectively controlled the agency given Gray’s inexperience and outsider status.) The FBI identified its enemies, then used its vast knowledge of its enemies’ wrongdoings in press leaks designed to be as devastating as possible. While carefully hiding the source of the information, it then watched the victim ”” who was usually guilty as sin ”” crumble. Felt, who himself was later convicted and pardoned for illegal wiretaps and break-ins, was not nearly as appalled by Nixon’s crimes as by Nixon’s decision to pass him over as head of the FBI. He merely set Hoover’s playbook in motion.
Somebody has been saving this tape of Trump’s 2005 comments. I wonder why ?
The Democrat machine is better organized than the Nazis ever were.
“…the new Puritans of the left.”
Wait. This is from the party of evangelicals and the morally correct? The Right has spent eternity characterizing the Left as, well, Donald Trumpish, and now you and your ilk are putting your unwavering and blind support behind someone just like the people you have been demonizing? Or maybe it’s just okay when women are the subject of Republican’s scorn?
Go ahead. Make excuses for this pig. You guys have twisted yourselves into pretzels trying to justify your support for this clown to the point that what you’re saying has no basis in reason. Next you’re going to be telling us that we should ignore something Trump said or did 20 years ago but really consider something Clinton’s husband did 30 years ago.
Oh, wait…
Brian I’ll assume you’re Pro-Trump. Why would you hate the Republican party when it handily voted for him in the primaries? The wisdom of voting for him however, must be questionable to all but the most dogmatic.
This latest “scandal” is a non-issue, because Trump was going to loose anyways. His craptastic performance in the first, most important debate, sealed that fate.
Next you’re going to be telling us that we should ignore something Trump said or did 20 years ago but really consider something Clinton’s husband did 30 years ago.
A Hillary voter weighs in. Bill was traveling on the “Lolita Express” recently. A year or two, anyway. Gennifer Flowers has a few comments in the Daily Mail,too.
Vote for Hillary but don’t boast about your virtue, please.
I just wonder what they have on Paul Ryan. The Stasi had nothing on the DNC.
With the mass cyber surveillance programs, they can potentially have something on everyone. All lot of veiled threats from multiple sources are already out there that if you support Trump you will pay the consequences. Now that can be directed at voters too.
Jason: I’ve said before I’m anti-Hillary and anti-anti-Trump. Trump’s really, really flawed. He’s the first serious candidate to actually run on issues important to lower class, small town Americans. That’s a huge plus. But as an actual person, he’s got a lot to be desired, let’s just say that.
I assumed it was fairly clear in my post I was referring to the GOP as a party, the “establishment” as they say. They’re utterly worthless, with far more in common with the Beltway media and Democrat establishment than with the actual voters they claim to represent.
Trump may be the only guy crazy enough to run against the Deep State.
Obama had no record of accomplishment. The Chicago Tribune sued to get the divorce records of Jack Ryan, the GOP Senate nominee, opened in spite of being sealed. His ex-wife had accused him of wanting her to have public sex. How many have been through a nasty divorce ? The successful pillage of Ryan’s sealed records, which contained allegations not uncommon in nasty divorces, made Obama a Senator.
A Los Angeles city council member, about 15 years ago, was accused by his ex-wife of molesting their daughter in a custody battle. His name was Art Snyder
Snyder abruptly stepped down in 1985 after facing the prospect of a challenge from then-Assemblyman Richard Alatorre. By then, he was embroiled in a bitter child custody battle that included allegations of child molestation. Charges were never filed in the case, said his lawyer, Mark Geragos.
That might be the only case Geragos won.
Anyway, this is a tactic of the Hillary campaign which defended Bill by attacking all the women he raped and molested. More will come and the GOP would show a death wish if they forced him out. It would be interesting if they did manage to take away the nomination and he was elected as an Indeoendent. He’s on the ballot.
Brian: agreed.
I am one issue voter. I want to keep jobs and wealth in America.
The people, that I encounter, who are voting for Trump have already factored in that he is a silly ASS.
Brian:
I’ll agree with you the GOP is dead. At least what we now consider the GOP is dead. That might be a good thing depending on what takes its place.
I must disagree with you that Trump was a “serious” candidate to win a general election. He never was. For reasons that were mostly Trump’s fault. The Clintons couldn’t have hand selected a better opponent.
The lesson for me is there’s one thing Americans hate more than an intrinsically corrupt politician, and that’s a loser. Obviously Hillary’s the corrupt politician. And Mr. Trump is the”¦.
The latest issue of Hillsdale College’s Imprimis has a revealing article on the lack of economic mobility in both the US and Britain. It is an insightful read that every western citizen should be exposed to. The issues that author Frank Buckley discuss at length need a serious candidate to champion. That serious candidate is certainly not some occasionally insolvent, personally troubled, morally dubious, intensely unfocused, reality television star.
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/restoring-americas-economic-mobility/
It seems to me that the Hildabeast and the Trumpster are in a race to the bottom. There is no telling who wins in a contest where each have so many more potential October surprises. I agree with Jonathan:
“He recovers by not apologizing, by attacking Bill Clinton as a rapist and moral degenerate, and Hillary as Bill’s enabler who stayed with him because she didn’t have the talent to make it on her own.”
In addition, he needs to take the kit gloves off and call her out for her compromise of national security, violation of the federal records laws, Bengazi cover-up, her unpopular stands on health care (single payer), trade (NAFTA), budget deficits (new proposed spending compared to new proposed taxes), her role in the destabilization of the Middle East, immigration and increasing refugees without effective screening ….
And he needs to do this in a controlled, civil, but forceful manner. Turn off all of his buttons. Call out the moderator in obvious cases of bias.
Can he do this? I have no idea.
Death6
We should accept this criticism of Trump, as soon as the Dems purge President Lyndon Johnson from their pantheon of heroes. And, purge John Kennedy.
http://disinfo.com/2011/01/lbj-got-his-johnson-out-at-every-opportunity/
Lyndon Johnson Was a Dong-Waving Sex Machine
=== ===
[edited] While other unfaithful presidents were satisfied with little affairs here and there, Johnson’s bevy of babes was referred to by his male aides as a harem (he was said to be jealous of Kennedy’s womanizing ways and wanted to top him). Johnson would make passes at secretaries, and it was known that any who accepted would be promoted to private secretary, two words that in this context should probably have air quotes around them anytime they are uttered. By the time he was done, virtually all of his secretaries, plus his two mistresses, got the Johnson Treatment.
As for waving around his cock (a little extension of him that he had affectionately nicknamed “Jumbo”), he was said to piss in public whenever he felt like it, and if anyone dared confront him, he would whip his dick around and challenge the poor sap with, “Have you seen anything bigger than this?””¦
=== ===
Next you’re going to be telling us that we should ignore something Trump said or did 20 years ago but really consider something Clinton’s husband did 30 years ago.
Something Trump SAID or DID vs the destruction of the people who were the victims of what WJC DID.
JFK, LBJ, WJC were all, from reports, worse behaving men than the silly words of two men trying to out-do each other with tales of derring-do.
Trump is a BULLSHITTER. He is full of it from the get-go, and that is how he gained success.
Any who are ignorant of that should become more aware. I do not like him, and think him a boor, but at least he seems to tell the truth, an action that somehow has evaded the ability of the Democrat candidate who, when asked if she told the truth, stated “I try.”
There is no ‘try’, there is only do or do not. She fails the test. Blatantly.
Wow. I dunno, maybe I’m some kind of dinosaur, but in Canada anyway, a bunch of guys sitting around, and saying terrible things about women is normal. No one means what they say, it’s just guys being idiots.
It sure as hell ain’t very PC though. I guess America has higher standards … I’ll show myself out.
I think Jonah Goldberg is right – that anyone that is surprised by this has willfully denied what was before their eyes for the last year. That doesn’t mean that Goldberg is right about the “Never Trump” movement.
The best summary seemed to me Ryan’s. I can understand why he has trouble standing beside Trump today – but as Ryan pointed out it is a binary choice this time. (And if you doubted that for a moment listen to Stossel’s willingness to broaden the marketplace of ideas and interview Johnson and Stein. They really demonstrate that it doesn’t hurt how lousy someone’s private life is, choosing Steve Moore, Laffer, and Kudlow to work on economic policy is a lot more respectful of the American public than any vulgarity might indicate.)
I like Scott Walker (midwesterners appeal to me); I liked Cruz’s international vision and Rubio’s internationalism; as a woman, I would much rather have a woman who clearly made it on her own like Fiorina and Perry, well, he’s been clearly both a good man and a competent one – we know that here, we’ve seen it work. Hell, I could go on. And I don’t think the Kennedys or Johnson are models we want for our children in many ways, their sexualities being but one but of course others are hinted at in their treatment of women.
It took me a while to say I’d vote for Trump even after it seemed inevitable – I’ve had plenty of experience with people that are as vulgar as Trump. Some of them have been vile the whole way, but a good number of them have been decent people in terms of business contracts and treatment of employees, customers, etc. One of the worst was a teacher that spent more time on my papers than probably the rest of my teachers over many years combined – that required a level of ethics and a certain altruism that was pretty well separated from his sexual jokes and passes. Some would say that I accept a good deal more of that crap than a lady should, but I think that there are proportions.
If you couple Trump’s words with his willingness to ask for advice from those like Michael Flynn than put in the other column our policies in the Middle East and Russia’s neighbors as well as ignoring China’s “islands” – all of which are likely to lead and have led to unimaginable misery – the messy ugly Trump column looks pretty strong. Which is worst – an unwanted pass by a powerful man or politicizing the FBI, IRS, FDA, etc. Would Trump make people of the beliefs of Hillary and John Kerry secretaries of state? If you can convince me of this, I would say, well, there isn’t much difference.
Of course, Trump is lucky – against any of the others in the Republican primary, this vulgarity would leave him more vulnerable. I can’t see how anyone can take Hillary Clinton seriously about this – can you imagine what she would have done if the ex-Miss Universe had been raped by her husband? (Well, I still don’t understand what our standards of citizenship are that we are encouraging and putting up as poster girls cartel mobster’s molls, but that’s another issue.)
Oh, well, these are my two bits.
Actually for once I don’t think Pengun is crazy – but this may be because he, Trump and I are of the generation that saw women’s liberation in terms of sexuality – we came of age in a culture that celebrated Playboy and James Bond, in which the models in Vogue seemed to showcase their bodies – often barely clothed – a good deal more than the dresses. And those are just bits of the iceberg that hit the 50’s culture Titantic. The years after the sixties and seventies has seen a good deal of backlash – my girls are shocked by the shortness of my dresses from that period (Mary Quant going to Goodwill). I think Trump in some ways is old fashioned – it is a fashion that is just as good to get behind us. But it was a different time.
“The Clintons couldn’t have hand selected a better opponent.”
There was no one else. Jeb would’ve gotten his clock cleaned he was such a weak candidate. Cruz, who I liked, is seen (probably correctly) as conniving, sneaky, and only in it for himself. The voters saw it and chose Trump instead. Rubio hung in there, but his slick, robotic performance in the debates turned off suspicious primary voters more interested in storming the alcazar. Carson was a vegetarian, so that automatically disqualifies him. A president must know and savor the taste of red meat before he/she can fulfill the full obligations of office.
Hillary wants to assassinate Julian Assange and Trump likes pussy and says so. The Democrats stand by Hillary without even raising an eyebrow, the cucks go ballistic against Trump.
George Bush’s cousin, Billy, is the other man in this drama. This goes to show how clueless the Bush clan really is, where was Billy when Jeb! was floundering under Trump’s attacks?
I don’t know which would be worse, an early release of this recording during the primaries or the release now. With an early release the downside is that Trump could have been knocked out of the race but if he survived then the public would have been inoculated with this information.
I’m really pissed off at women and these women’s issues having any traction in politics. Their tendency to vote the person instead of the issues saddles me with a worse America. We’ve just lived through Obama, the Paris Hilton of politicians, because Obama was so dreamy and so George Cloonyish with his charm and look at what has happened to America. Now Clinton, by virtue of being a woman, is locking down a majority of the woman’s vote because women want to see a woman in office, never mind that she’s going to sell out the nation to the highest bidder, that she’s thoroughly corrupted the FBI and Justice Department and the State Department.
As much as I detest Bill Clinton, if he was running on Trump’s issues, I’d vote for Clinton.
The NeverTrump world is insanely delusional. I love this:
https://twitter.com/JazzShaw/status/784125286220763136
“One of those sad afternoons where I find myself thinking that if we’d nominated @CarlyFiorina we’d be up by 20 pts right now. :-(”
Right. The candidate who topped out at roughly 5% of the GOP electorate would be winning by 20% in the general? These people are nuts. The main thing underpinning this sort of idiocy is the firm conviction that Trump supporters are ignorant sheep who would vote for anyone the GOP puts on the ballot, whereas NeverTrumpers are oh so principled that they can’t possibly bring themselves to support the candidate of the filthy trash deplorable voters. Rot in hell, GOPe. Rot in hell.
“The latest issue of Hillsdale College’s Imprimis has a revealing article on the lack of economic mobility in both the US and Britain. It is an insightful read that every western citizen should be exposed to. The issues that author Frank Buckley discuss at length need a serious candidate to champion. That serious candidate is certainly not some occasionally insolvent, personally troubled, morally dubious, intensely unfocused, reality television star.”
It is when he is the only one to step up. Let’s be straight here. On the flip side, the paymasters could have floated and supported such a candidate but didn’t. That is the point of this election. And, oh yeah, the problem goes beyond the USA and UK.
I think that they are about to start rotting. Ryan was boo-ed off the stage by Trump supporters today, at the function that he dis-invited Trump from, and which Pence then declined to attend. I know that they have contempt for Trump supporters, but if a sizable fraction of them in Ryan’s district just decide to leave the congressional ballot slot blank, or even vote for the Democrat; Ryan is going to be moving to K Street a lot earlier than he planned. And I have been seeing calls to vote for Trump and leave all down ticket slots blank to screw with the GOPe.
In my House district, our long term Republican incumbent has proved that he is unwilling to oppose the Left when Republicans are either in the minority or in the majority. His latest thing is that he will not attend any functions with the public unless it is also a fundraiser for him; relegating dealings with the peasantry to a staffer. The concept being that people at a fundraiser will be trying to buy his favor and will not be asking any embarrassing questions in public.
So I am going to vote for the Democrat. And as I have told said Democrat directly to her face, that if we have elections in 2018 [and to be honest I am not completely sure that we will actually have one this year] she will probably piss off the district so much that we can replace her, hopefully with a Patriot. And if we don’t have elections in 2018, we will be extremely busy with other things than electoral politics.
Ginny, I share your surprise re: Pengun. Finding myself in agreement with him is usually cause for an immediate re-examination of initial premises and checking one’s train of thought.
Wow. I dunno, maybe I’m some kind of dinosaur, but in Canada anyway, a bunch of guys sitting around, and saying terrible things about women is normal. No one means what they say, it’s just guys being idiots.
It sure as hell ain’t very PC though. I guess America has higher standards ”¦ I’ll show myself out.
Rod Serling to the podium please? Is Rod out there?
I certainly don’t see it as any big thing. Certainly was a stupid thing to say but 11 years ago and bring it up now?
Of course the cynic in me wonders why the Post waits 11 years to bring it out. And I still remember the LA Times refusal to show the video that they held of then candidate Obama toasting a Palestinian activist at a dinner.
And I note the Dem’s selective outrage.
“And I have been seeing calls to vote for Trump and leave all down ticket slots blank to screw with the GOPe.”
That would be sooo smart. Not. Just which group is more likely to come around to the Trump initiatives first, the Republicans or the Democrats? The notion of putting Nancy and Harry back in sole control, even for just two years to screw with the GOPe is about the dumbest thing I have ever heard. In such a case, anything constructive that Trump might try to do would be DOA. It would be at least get a hearing if the GOP still held majorities in both houses of congress.
So who would be advocating voting the dems in? I’d say it might be trolls planted by the dems or Trumpeteers who see the election as lost and only want revenge on their favorite punching bag. While the GOPe may be (mostly are) fellow travelers of the progressives, they are not the greatest threat. We don’t have the luxury of going through another Harry and Nancy show, nor to squander the faint opportunity to do something positive with a Trump presidency.
A Trump presidency might actually motivate an effective purge of the GOP through the candidate selection process. His loss dooms any such hopes. If the GOP gives up control of both houses, Trump will fail as president and the GOP with it. It is more likely to build on the foundation of the GOP than to reinvent a new viable second party. With out a viable opposition, all that is left is a consolidation of a progressive political, cultural and legal monopoly and reign of terror.
Death6
The reaction of the GOPe seems to be a sort of relief that we can get back to the Ruling Class agenda and to hell with those peasants.
Ryan was leading the way.
I still don’t know what is going to happen.
The “rape” allegation, now supported by a New York judge appointed by Obama and who is the sister of ABC legal reporter Dan Abrams, seems a hoax from the beginning.
Donald Trump’s attorney told DailyMail.com on Friday that a lawsuit claiming Trump raped a 13-year-old girl at billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious ‘sex parties’ appears to be a hoax.
Trump had already ‘categorically’ denied the claims but attorney Alan Garten’s statement signals that the Trump campaign is eager to swat down the allegation before it gains any more traction.
‘The allegations are not only categorically false, but disgusting at the highest level and clearly framed to solicit media attention or, more likely, are politically motivated,’ Garten told DailyMail.com in a statement. ‘To be clear, there is absolutely no merit to these claims and, based on our investigation, no evidence that the person who has made these allegations actually exists.’
In a followup telephone interview, Garten cited a litany of specific indications that the lawsuit is a hoax perpetrated by ‘someone with some level of legal background.’
The address listed on the lawsuit exists, he said, but ‘there is no indication or record that that person’ named as the lawsuit plaintiff ‘ever resided there. So we believe it is a false address.’
He also said the phone number listed on the lawsuit papers rings to voicemail and publicly available records tie it to another person.
‘There is no record that the phone number is tied to the person who has made these allegations,’ he said.
‘We believe that this person does not exist.’
The Clinton Crime Family is pulling out all the stops.
Pengun,
The problem is this – one of those bunch of guys had his words recorded and given to his wife. Trump is the guy, and his wife is the independent voter in swing states. Sure, boy’s will be boys, but, unfortunately, wives are wives.
Trump’s scandals in three sentences:
1. Trump called someone fat 20 years ago.
2. Trump paid his taxes.
3. Trump had a private conversation 10 years ago.
Do we want a candidate who’s groped women but wants to get along with Christian conservative Russia and protect American jobs and our borders, or do we want a
candidate who wants to provoke Russia into war, outsource American jobs and have open borders, continue to overthrow secular Arab governments, eg Iraq, Libya, Syria and harass the women who’ve been much more than groped by her husband?
Anonymous: Too late. The GOP is dead. The last 48 hours conclusively demonstrated it, in case anyone had any doubts. If you’re in a political party, you support that party and its nominees. Period. That’s what the grassroots of the GOP were told for 20+ years now, when crappy establishment candidates were shoved forward as nominees. Those who you cannot support you’re saying either they or you don’t belong in the party. Plenty of us are former GOPers for that reason. When the GOPe says that the guy who won the majority of the votes for presidential nominee doesn’t belong in the party, they’re the ones kicking out the majority of the party, not Trump supporters. The NeverTrumpers don’t get to sabotage the candidate of their populist voters then beg those supporters to rally to them. Trump got where he is on two issues–trade and immigration. Ryan, McCain, etc., aren’t with him on those two issues, and won’t ever be. They have nothing but contempt for Trump voters. To hell with them.
This is a manufactured thing and the media, in coordination with Hillary’s campaign, is treating it as news. Meanwhile, Hillary is the freakshow in this campaign, the one they’re scrambling to hide or distract away from. It’s always a risk she could have one of the head-bobbing “seizures” on live TV at any time.
“Mary Quant going to Goodwill” another hippie. ;)
Brian,
The GOPe is not united in opposition to Trump and want desperately to hang on to the houses of congress. They might have concerns with Trump’s ill-considered sweeping statements about those two issues, but push come to a shove, most of them realize that there best hope is to unite behind Trump and support his concerns even if they don’t just rubber stamp his ideas to fix them. Ryan has made a big mistake and is probably hung himself out to dry, either way the presidential campaign goes. This was likely calculated that Trump will lose badly and that the House of Representatives majority is thereby at risk. What he did is unlikely to change that much, but it has isolated him from the majority of GOPe at this point. His leadership position is at risk, not to mention his district election.
None of that changes anything about the importance of consolidating local power from the bottom up. If Trump’s campaign can’t help with that then it probably can’t be done in the context of saving us from the progressive monopoly. “To hell with them” isn’t going to change the fact that it is of vital interest to any hope for some success for a Trump administration to retain GOP majorities in both houses. He has leverage over the GOP, but none over the dems. That was my point and nothing you said contradicts that proposition. If Trump supporters indulge in “screwing” with GOPe by ignoring the down ballot races or even vote for dems, then they might as well vote for the Hildabeast as well. The end result will be much the same, it will just be faster with her in office with Harry and Nancy to facilitate, whereas Trump in company with them will result in only mutually held progressive initiatives seeing the light of day. Everything else from Trump will be DOA.
If it is really too late to reform the GOP, then it doesn’t matter much if Trump wins or not. By the time any viable opposition party could be formed, the progressives would be even more firmly entrenched and secure enough to go after their enemies with no recourse for their targets but ineffective resistance. That may be where we are, but I think it is worth a try at getting the GOP on track before we resort to hunkering down. With the GOP in legislative power and Trump as president, much could be done in a few years if he really wants to get it done.
Death6
I almost forgot, TangoMan, thanks for elevating the discussion to such a high level of civility and manners:
“Hillary wants to assassinate Julian Assange and Trump likes ***** and says so.”
This isn’t your locker room.
Death6
Well, Death6, I think the cat’s out of the bag on the ‘p’ word. In the context of this discussion, considering the stakes involved, I don’t see anything wrong with TangoMan’s comment. He inelegantly but correctly stated the fact that should be given more consideration but isn’t because of coordinated attacks by the Democrat-Media Establishment – Trump is a dirty bastard whose faults are only personal while Hillary’s faults are criminal and a risk to our entire system.
Obama’s version of the ‘locker room’ seems to be acceptable to the Left – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKYmiWiNqOw
How is anything serious accomplished by having vapors and not voting for Trump or being pro-Trump and then screwing the down ballot. Death 6 notes the only hope out there – each of those might not be a perfect break, but at least they are breaks, slowing if not stopping a car in motion at a reckless speed under Hillary and a Democratic Congress. By the way, exactly when is the personal public and the public personal? Hillary used her marriage to emphasize how much she sacrificed for marriage and that she therefore understood its importance and was against gay marriage. Then she turned on a dime. She’s supposed to be a martyred wife when it’s handy and it’s only sex when it isn’t. I’m not sure how much we should ignore or how much use the private – it is often the measure of a man, it seems to me – but it isn’t always the measure of competence.
I’m not sure how much we should ignore or how much use the private – it is often the measure of a man, it seems to me – but it isn’t always the measure of competence.
I assume you mean private grotesqueries like Trump’s.
It is certain that he is a flawed vessel. There are various conspiracy theories like he is a stalking horse for Hillary or he doesn’t really want to win.
I think he might have entered as a lark or as only half serious but realized that his policy ideas were not adopted by anyone else and were resonating with the public.
There was an analogy years ago that I may not recall completely but:
The man who would be president must have “The Fire in the Belly” and be “Able to Ride the Horse.”
Many have the fire in the belly but cannot ride the horse. Some can ride the horse but lack the “Fire in the Belly.”
In the example I read long ago, Eisenhower was the only example of a president who could ride the horse and did not have the fire in the belly.
I don’t know where Trump falls in that spectrum. I think this is a unique year. Maybe 1824 is similar.
I think no matter who is president, we are headed into rough weather. Foreign and economic. I don’t know if Trump can handle it. I know Hillary will make it worse. She has never done anything competently in her life,
As usual, Richard Fernandez sees the path ahead.
The striking thing is how this administration is bequeathing a comprehensive catastrophe to the next president almost without anyone, least of all the semi-retired chief executive, paying more than cursory attention.
And:
The “smartest people” on the planet found they were not quite as clever as they thought.
They should not have been surprised. Over the last decade presidential hopefuls have come from the ranks of thinkers without much experience in governance or the wider world. They knew all the answers — in theory — but none in practice. Individuals who spent all their adult lives learning how to raise money, craft talking points, perfect stances before the camera, fund opposition research, and recruit surrogates found that special skills did not travel so well in the wider world.
God help us. It may be 1914 again.