The horizon is not so far as we can see, but as far as we can imagine

As Trump Melts Down

Notice that the narrative for if he loses is being set up. It will be a stab-in-the-back storyline, as follows:

Republican leaders and billionaires turned on him when he could have won, flocking to Clinton, and there was voter fraud.

The first is true, the second will be believable (Clinton’s proxies did purge voter rolls and so on to help Clinton win the primary), and the hardest core of Trump’s support base will believe that his loss was due to betrayal and cheating.  Of course, the fat cats went against him, he was trying to “help the ordinary guy.”

I have a feeling that, should this play out, some Republicans who went publicly against Trump will pay a price.

This is the founding myth of a movement.

While I thought Trump could win (and I still think it’s not over), I have always believed that if he fails, he will simply be the first, and that those who come after him will be far more disciplined and dangerous.


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88 Comments

  1. Ivory Bill Woodpecker

    …those who come after him will be far more disciplined and dangerous.”

    And the capitalist security agencies, ever more cybernetic and so ever freer from human weakness, will nip off “those who come after him” before they can grow dangerous.

    The Fascists and Communists were both more disciplined than the soft, decadent liberal-veneered capitalists.

    The Commies and the soft, decadent capitalists co-operated to crush the Fascists.

    So, according to the fanboys of discipline, the remaining disciplined group–the Commies–should have taken over the world.

    However, the Commies were human beings, and it is human nature to detest slavery, and therefore to detest discipline and obedience, the characteristic virtues of slaves. The Commies began to seek their own comfort and pleasure, as human beings will, and the drive and discipline of Communism ebbed away inexorably.

    Advantage–soft decadence!

    Discipline is unnatural, because discipline is a form of order, and Mommie Dearest Nature prefers chaos (AKA entropy). Hence, discipline never can be maintained all that long, as historians define “long”–which is why Communism failed, and why ISIS will fail in its turn, even if it is not simply crushed by superior force.

  2. Dan Lynch

    I’m not making any bets on this election. Trump is unpredictable. Hillary has skeletons in her closet. The economy is doing a slow motion slide into recession. We’ll probably have one or more pro-ISIS terrorist attacks between now and election day.
    .
    As Moon of Alabama pointed out today, the establishment’s propaganda war on Trump could backfire. It reinforces the perception that Trump is the anti-establishment candidate and that the system is rigged.
    .
    It will depend on how Trump plays it. He needs to stop worrying about Khan and these other side issues — Khan is not running for president — and stick to his talking points.
    .
    As Ian points out, if Trump does lose, the perception will be that the system is rigged.
    .
    Getting back to the looming recession ….. if Hillary is prez when the recession hits, her neoliberal policies won’t have any answers. If Trump is prez, his deficit-funded infrastructure program will be just what the doctor ordered.

  3. XFR

    Were Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, and FDR “soft, decadent,” etc. or not in your view, IBW?

    Because I’m starting to get the feeling you’re trying to have it both ways.

  4. markfromireland

    Should Trump lose I hope those constructing the foundation myth remember to include that the Clinton victory was only possible because of all the money she corruptly accepted from Putin.

  5. markfromireland

    Note to Ian – thank you for performing the apostrophectomy 🙂

  6. Peter*

    The Trump campaign raised over $60 million from small donors and $80 million total last month so his grassroots support seems to be growing while the elites flock to Clinton who represents them and only them. Even the Wrath of Kahn is understood to be a Clintonite staged stooge attack from a well heeled Clintonite insider with a vested interest in elevating the Red Queen.

    Trump seems to realize that the system is rigged and the only way he can win is with a massive landslide hoping that the Clintonite dirty tricks and lies will enrage enough people to make the rigging of a close race less likely to succeed. The odds are very long with both party elites and their paymasters supporting Clinton, they control the voting system and we will see how far they are willing go to maintain their control.

  7. Invictus

    There is still plenty of time for Clinton to break.

    http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/putins-big-trump-gamble/ri15975

  8. mc

    Trump reportedly considered his running for President as a business opportunity which might in part even lead to his own network. Roger Ailes is out of work and pissed off. Worse than Fox News is possible and conditions in the country will not be nice to Hillary. There may be worse things than his winning. This is only getting started, although IBW will undoubtedly demonstrate that none of this is possible and only idiots would think so.

  9. different clue

    Man . . . that Trump dude really shrinks on you, don’t he? It’s almost like he was secretly tasked with denying other Republicans the nomination, grabbing it for himself, and then imploding on prime time TV in order to throw the election to Hillary.

    Several months ago I remember reading an intriguing theory to just that effect. Here is a story about that in hindsight, complete with a picture of the Trumps and the Clintons yucking it up in a social setting . . . and appearing to Like Eachother for Reals.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bill-clinton-called-donald-trump-ahead-of-republicans-2016-launch/2015/08/05/e2b30bb8-3ae3-11e5-b3ac-8a79bc44e5e2_story.html
    And you know what they say in government . . . when an Agency is forced to deny something is policy, that’s when you know it is policy. Now, Big Dogdoo Clinton is not “in” government, nor is he “is” an agency. But still . . . here comes the denial . . .
    http://national.suntimes.com/national-world-news/7/72/1950972/bill-clinton-didnt-ask-trump-run-president/

    Am I sure this is the “real story”? No, I am not sure. But it seems more plausible to me then cardboard replica tales of a foam rubber Putin-the-Puppetmaster.

  10. Ken Hoop

    IBW believes ‘soft decadence’ has more staying power than hierarchy, at least that’s what his comments logically suggest.
    Authoritarian systems right and left, good and bad, everywhere in the world have had longer rule by far than “soft decadence” which is too soft to have that much staying power.
    He seems to prefer, if he has to choose, liberal globalist capitalism from DC to state capitalism from Moscow and Beijing, and that might keep the blinders balanced for the time being.

  11. Ivory Bill Woodpecker

    Actually, Ken, what I basically think is that all authoritarian systems sink into decadence eventually, as the USSR did, unless they are conquered from outside first, as the major Fascist nations were.

    Part of the genius of the Founders were that they did not expect human beings to be virtuous, and so they devised a system to make the competing selfish interests counteract one another.

    Also, I simply enjoy annoying the fanboys of discipline, those warped souls in whom the impulse to punish, and indeed to be punished, is strong. I’m not the BDSM type, so I find them a silly lot. 😈

  12. Blue Dragon

    I agree. Trump is just the first and the next one will not be a buffoon with incestuous tendencies on display.

  13. Tom W Harris

    In hindsight. Trump was always a long shot, which should be no surprise as he’s the kinda guy who would never take a bath or even brush his teeth. Even a still photo of him stinks like shit.

  14. Peter*

    It’s getting repetitive how Clintonites drag out these petty memes about Trump melting down or not really wanting the job or that real stinker, he’s working for the Clintions whenever they think they have scored some points against him.

    Trump doesn’t rely on handlers and image makers to smooth his image and make him fit the accepted PC box others rely on to slink into power and that is his strongest asset as we have been repeatedly shown. The Clintonites, elites and media have certainly been melting down over his countering this latest designated Clintonite attack dog, Kahn and with his well heeled background and powerful Clintonite connections now exposed he will fade just as the first yapper did, has anyone heard from Lizz the goofy Indian lately.

    There is about three months of this show left to unfold and Trump has chosen all the right targets, the Clintonites, the republican establishment and individuals who dissed him in public which seems to be drawing more and more support his way even as the chattering classes jabber on about his mistakes.

    There is also the chance of another email dump coming on the Clinton Foundation that may not be so easily buried under shouts of, the Russians are coming.

  15. RJMeyers

    I’m tempted to agree that Trump may well be flaming out, but something at a very basic gut level is telling me that the normal rules simply don’t apply right now. I feel uncomfortable that every news source and person of prominence across a wide spectrum is agreeing on this when Trump’s support is outside said spectrum.

    Feels very premature to me.

  16. Ian Welsh

    Anyone who thinks I’m a Clintonite hasn’t been paying attention.

    Let me be more specific: his poll numbers are melting down.

    They certainly aren’t beyond recovery, however, there’s still months to go.

  17. BlizzardOfOz

    You have to take these poll numbers with a grain of salt, don’t you? We know that ratings agencies lie for political reasons, so surely the pollsters are not above fudging their numbers. And we also know how unhinged the elites are about this election. Trump was up 4 and suddenly down 10? Due to, are we meant to suppose, the Constitution-brandishing Mohammedan? Doesn’t add up.

  18. bruce wilder

    Predictably enough, Trump is subject to a full-court press by the news Media, which has by and large dropped all pretence of even-handedness.

    After years of complaining about false equivalence, I ought to be please, but much of what is being written seems as careless of the truth as any of the “both sides do it” narratives.

    The gotcha from the Stephanopoulos interview about Ukraine and Crimea seems egregious.

    It is hard to be sympathetic to a birther, but I hope he fights back.

  19. subgenius

    Given that future attempts are almost certain to be worse, and also given that neither the Democrats or the Republicans will back him – isn’t it better to actually elect this orange buffoon and thus destroy BOTH halves of the joke that is American politics?

    Maybe then there might be at least the possibility of a decent candidate in 1557 days…

  20. okanogen

    Trump is a loser.

    I was saying that last February. He’s like Fast Eddie in The Hustler, except cast as a hollow, broken (mentally ill?) entity who feeds the worst in people. Witness Peter* above.

    But in a party of losers, he was top loser, there was just enough Hollywood fantasy in his schtick to pull that off (you can fool some of the people all of the time). And now, he has met reality. Not the reality of Clinton or the DNC or “The Media”, but the reality of what people in the real world actually think, given a chance to just watch him. This isn’t something others did to himself, he did this all himself. I read someone who said that if he had just taken a vacation the last two weeks, he would probably be in the lead now. Truer words. But he can’t take a break. He can’t NOT be the center of attention, not for two weeks, and not for two days. Barely two hours can go by without him needing another fix of being the center of attention.

    It’s a drug and he is an addict.

    But yeah, he is setting the exit scene now. But it won’t be an exit from the spotlight. He will challenge the legitimacy of our entire political system in order to be the center a new round of attention. He knows good TV, that is clear. The after race will be his sequel. For him, this is Season One of his new meta-reality show: “The President”.

    But here is how he can still win. His batshit-fucking insane followers hold tight, while Gary Johnson gets pushed into a large minority position and focuses on pulling from Clinton voters on the right, while Jill Stein pulls a minor amount from her left. Trump then wins with 38 or less % of the vote.

  21. Greg T

    Trump’ s best chance to win will come from a market crash or some other acute economic crisis. He’s fighting off attacks on all fronts; from the media, which is now conspicuously in the tank for Hillary, from his fellow oligarchs, who are showing their true allegiances, and from the political class, including his fellow Republicans who just as soon see Hillary elected so their graft can proceed apace.
    He can use this to great effect if he can keep a level head.

  22. Peter*

    @Ian

    I didn’t mean to single you out but your headline does parrot the Clintonite meme that many frightened Hillary supporters are clinging to along with the other wishful thinking versions of this meme that have not panned out, recall HP putting his stories in the entertainment section.

    OK seems to be stuck in that loop and calling someone who wiped the floor with the dozen other republican insider candidates a loser is hilarious.

  23. Some Guy

    During the Democratic primary I noted that the DNC/establishment was having to work much harder than you might have expected to secure their coronation, like an aging fighter who wins a 12 round split decision over some upstart that the fighter could have sent to the canvas in 3 rounds in their prime.

    Of course, the establishment fighters on the Republican side barely made it out of their corners.

    Now in the general, the establishment has had to put every hand on deck to try and stop Trump. The media has thrown their pretenses of objectivity to the winds, the neocons and similar are openly crossing the aisle, the billionaires are queued up to show their love for Clinton, etc.

    Of course if Trump wins, this means that they are extremely exposed. But as you say, even if Trump loses, as I’ve always assumed he would, it’s still a very difficult situation. Trump’s supporters will be that much stronger having faced everything the establishment has to offer, and the establishment itself will be exposed (alongside, dangerously for them, monitory groups) as the puppet hand that imposed the most unpopular president in history on the American public.

    And when things go south under Clinton, as seems almost inevitable given the various swirling crises from economic to environmental to geopolitical, the question becomes where the mob turns next.

  24. DMC

    You have to admit having Trump as the nominee enlivened the otherwise wholly yawn inducing Clinton coranation and as Dan Lynch would have it above, it does make a certain amount of sense for Trump to have been running to lose the whole time. Donald gets to indulge his ego like never before and Hillary gets the Oval Office. And don’t be surprised when some anonymous Trump holding company gets some fat Government contracts in a year or so.

  25. Mallam

    I like how you casually throw up there Clintonite proxies as purging voter rolls to help her win. That’s nonsense, Ian. Voters were purged. It’s disgusting. It was illegal. But if you think purging voter rolls in majority Hispanic areas of Brooklyn were designed to help Clinton, it’s no wonder your electoral analysis isn’t the greatest at times. Why lie about this? In fact it’s far more likely that it was done to help Donald Trump. It was a Republican commissioner who did the purging. And in the summer of 2015 — a few day after he announced.

    Now I’m not saying Trump is why this purge occurred. But if you’re going to jump to conspiracy, that’s more likely than Clinton proxies. After all, it’s Trump who is bleeding those voters. Not a monolithic bloc, but just the other day he was winning 13% of Hispanic voters in fucking Florida, where overall there’s a stronger GOP lean.

  26. someofparts

    I think Hillary will win and after she takes office all of the frustration and outrage Trump channeled will grow. She will continue with policies that materially harm 80% of us while causing economic/ecologic dislocations to increase. Meanwhile someone “more disciplined and dangerous” will be in the wings and have the Trump campaign to study. When Hillary’s policies inevitably lead to some econ and/or eco disaster too big to paper over, our man on horseback will be swept into office in her wake.

    Even though I flatter myself that I’m too well-informed to be manipulated by the candidates, I have been surprised by my emotional responses to the campaigns. My work and social experiences the last three decades in this country are littered with bitter frustrations and extravagant injustices. When people attack Trump it literally triggers those memories and I am surprised to find a wellspring of rage in myself. I’ve noticed that the longer politics keeps my formerly repressed rage on plain view in my everyday mind, the more I remember and the deeper the rage gets.

  27. V. Arnold

    someofparts
    August 4, 2016

    Yes, the rage; the bloody RAGE!!!
    It does not subside; it grows…
    What about the Usians? Do they rage?
    I think not…

  28. I am in agreement with those who think that the major and open smear campaign of Trump is premature and may backfire. The personal attack of “a disintegrating campaign staff” and “personal unreliability” with concomitant “unfitness to serve” will become boring long before the end of the 100-day campaign when not illustrated with visuals, and there are none.

  29. Ivory Bill Woodpecker

    I am in agreement with those who think that the major and open smear campaign of Trump is premature and may backfire.

    [snark]

    Yeah, large, well-financed, dedicated smear campaigns never have any lasting effects on their targets. That’s why the Clintons recovered almost instantly from that smear campaign that began against them 25 years ago, and now nobody says anything bad about them.

    [/snark]

  30. Ken Hoop

    Welsh should clarify he’s not a Clintonite with a sincere endorsement of Stein.
    Nothing short of that will do, objectively.

    Okanogan, do you mean to infer that “our entire political system” is legitimate, or merely that Trump is not your ideal choice to challenge it?

  31. EGrise

    A few observations:

    1) Between the media’s open attacks and obvious bias, the Dem vote rigging against an honest man (like Bernie or not, that’s how he’s largely perceived by non-partisans), the internecine GOP warfare, the stagnant economy, the bullshit used to sell horrific, costly wars, ad nauseum, we’re verging on a crisis of legitimacy in the US.

    2) A Trump loss that has even a whiff of impropriety could very well set an unpredictable chain of events in motion. Unfortunately our aristocracy is too filled with hubris, and their courtiers too impressed by their own cleverness, to see this.

    3) I think Trump is more important to many voters as a symbol, less as a man which is why a lot of the attacks against him haven’t stuck and ultimately won’t stick. Most don’t care. But the Dolchstoßlegende being built around him is very frightening indeed: another piece in the “turnkey fascism” being assembled here, just waiting for someone more cunning and determined than Trump to seize.

    4) If Hillary wins, she will be the last female president in my lifetime, like Obama will be the last black president. Obama got lucky and things held together, but it won’t last. When things go pear-shaped, Hillary’s just not up to the task.

    5) Considering Max Weber, check out this article over at Aeon: Charisma is a mysterious and dangerous gift.

  32. Peter*

    @Woody

    The Clintons questionable if barely legal behavior did provide an opening for the repugs to smear them and helped to create the nonsense memes aimed at them but that’s just politics. That kabuki was entertaining if embarrassing theater and Bill did lose his law license for being a proven liar but the real damage to the country especially minorities was what happened when they worked together to pass NAFTA, deregulate the Banksters and build the incarceration state to turn much of the minority youth into profit centers for investor’s gains.

    The Clintonites seemed to have adopted this same smear technique along with the nonsense so that old butt-hurt whine about the poor Clintons being attacked by the great rightwing conspiracy is hypocritical at best. This time the Clintonites are again partnering with their repug accomplices to attack Trump who threatens their common interests.

  33. Ché Pasa

    That crisis of legitimacy has been apparent for many years.

    Trump is part of that “aristocracy” — don’t pretend he is some kind of Man of the People. He is not. He is a representative of his class–  only difference being his somewhat rougher edges than many of his peers.

    There is now and has always been an inherent tendency toward authoritarianism if not outright fascism in America’s system of governance. It’s built in, and both major party candidates are fully on board with it, pretty much the way any candidate must be in order to reach the presidential level.

  34. atcooper

    Isn’t Trump new money? His old man made the fortune in real estate, yeah? If he is new money, he’s not really aristocracy. See the attacks back in the day on the Kennedys as bootlegger money for more of what I mean.

  35. I just viewed a video that convinced me that Hillary has some serious brain or mental problem. See http://tinyurl.com/z6ersd9 . You can’t miss her bizarre head nodding. My cousin, an eye doctor, took one look at her, recently, on TV, and said that she’s on anti-depressants. Something about her eyes being open too wide.

    Meanwhile, 2 days ago, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) started a petition urging :

    “I call on mental health professionals to publicly urge the Republican party to conduct an evaluation of Mr. Trump and officially determine if he is mentally fit to lead the free world. #DiagnoseTrump”

    See http://tinyurl.com/hc58xbu

    This wild election is getting curiouser and curiouser…..

  36. Peter*

    @Che

    Trump is certainly not aristocracy he is at the top of the entrepreneur developer class that actually builds things not just living off of inheritances. The Clintons are certainly trying to become political nuvo aristocracy and they are nuvo riche who have built nothing but crooked connections seeking power.

    I agree about authoritarianism being a cornerstone of western civilization but Trump does seem to be challenging some of the manifestations of that arrogance especially in our military projection around the world. He has fearlessly touched the political third rails of NATO and the US as world policeman and the authoritarians are flocking to the safety of the Clintonite status quo.

  37. Hugh

    The Clintons are the dishonest grifting lawyers. With them, even the word “is” is not what it seems and can not be taken at face value. Yet their lies and deceits are remarkably unsubtle. They are in your face. Hillary is running as the “experienced” candidate even though her record is one of serial failure and doubling down on already bad decisions. She is the candidate of the status quo, like Obama, promising change. She is the creature of Wall Street with her obscenely well paid speeches to Goldman Sachs which she refuses to release parading billionaires out in her support like Bloomberg and Buffett even as she talks about the little guy, jobs, and helping the rapidly vanishing middle class.

    Trump is the unscrupulous, narcissistic businessman. For him, everything is profit, loss, bottomline, his bottomline. Everything is about him and screw anyone who gets in his way. As a narcissist, he has come this far because he does not care what other people think. That has been both his strength and his weakness. The Khan episode simply illustrated that, as a narcissist, he is incapable of even being aware of the feelings of others or having any real sympathy for them.

    Neither of these disturbingly defective individuals give a shit about us. Trump can claim that the system is rigged against, and he’s right the system is rigged against him, as a candidate. The system’s choice/sockpuppet is Clinton. But where the system is really rigged is against us. We should never forget or minimize that.

  38. atcooper

    Maybe the new / old money distinction is lost to time. It’s one aspect of Europe I’m constantly jealous of, class consciousness. Maybe a vocabulary focused on generational differences among immigrants is the way to go. Its very hard to talk internal problems among folks who just arrived from something much worse

  39. Lisa

    We shall see, very early days yet and the US media ‘Trump Hate’ feeding frenzy is becoming counter productive. They now all look like bullies of this ‘brave spokesman for ordinary people’.

    If he and his team have half a brain they can use this beautifully against Clinton.

  40. Tom

    Ah, the poll numbers are useless. Unlike Bernie who rolled over and took it in the ass from Clinton, Trump will fight back and ram the stick up Hillary’s ass.

    Frankly I say the rot in America began when Nixon was pardoned instead of arrested and tried for Watergate. It set a bad precedent and this nation is still paying for it.

  41. V. Arnold

    Yep, worst candidates in history; I’ll go with Clint on this one:
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-04/its-sad-time-history-clint-eastwood-rages-“were-really-pussy-generation-fking-get-ov

    In the end; it doesn’t matter one whit who gets in office; we’re flat fucked either way. We’ll get the candidate we deserve…

  42. V. Arnold

    Oops; make that the “president” (not candidate, we already got them) we deserve…

  43. Ché Pasa

    Gee, I didn’t realize aristos in the US were limited to those who lived off their inheritance and investment income and didn’t actually “work” at all.

    Learn something new every day.

    ….

  44. Billikin

    Lisa: “the US media ‘Trump Hate’ feeding frenzy is becoming counter productive. They now all look like bullies of this ‘brave spokesman for ordinary people’.

    “If he and his team have half a brain they can use this beautifully against Clinton.”

    I doubt if Trump can play the Victim Card. He is running as the Alpha Male and if the alpha male is bullied, he is no longer the alpha male.

  45. Tom

    Jaish al-Fatah has taken the Ramouseh Artillery College in West Aleppo, which has never fallen before. Siege of Eastern Aleppo is essentially broken and West Aleppo is now under siege. Jaish al-Fatah has once again turned the tables on the Regime.

  46. atcooper

    Yea, I only mentioned the new money angle because it’s the only explanation I can come to for why so many of the Republican elite are abandoning Trump. The racism, sexism, and nationalism is nothing new, it’s the break from the Reagan consensus that scares them.

  47. Peter*

    @Che

    This is a lame semantics debate but to me someone who’s father was a carpenter and mother was a maid is not an aristocrat, no matter how wealthy they become, while someone such as FDR and TR were bred aristocrats. The only prominent person I can think of today as aristocratic is Al Gore but I’m sure there are others. Aristocrats become politicians or some other type of leaders because noblesse oblige is expected of them by their class.

    Back on subject, there is this whiny meme about this election being a charade or a display of the worst possible candidates and the outcome will be more of the same which I do partially agree with. Clinton personifies the degenerate parasite political class at its worst and I rue the idea of spending much of my remaining life living under the bug eyes of the Red Queen and her quislings. I’ve long viewed Trump as just another rich prick but his success at disrupting the status quo and shattering the right wing can’t be denied, who could have imagined a year ago that he could tell the republican elite and more importantly the real powers such as Adelson and Koch to go piss up a rope and win the primaries easily while threatening the sacred cows of the Right. This is unprecedented and mirrors what the Left wishes it could do to the Democrat Party and their backers.

  48. someofparts

    “who could have imagined a year ago that he could tell the republican elite and more importantly the real powers such as Adelson and Koch to go piss up a rope and win the primaries easily while threatening the sacred cows of the Right. This is unprecedented and mirrors what the Left wishes it could do to the Democrat Party and their backers.”

    from Matt Taibbi –

    “Thirteen million and three hundred thousand Republican voters had defied the will of their party and soundly rejected hundred-million-dollar insider favorites like Jeb Bush to re-seize control of their own political destiny. That they made perhaps the most ridiculous choice in the history of democracy was really a secondary issue.

    It was a tremendous accomplishment that real-life conservative voters did what progressives could not quite do in the Democratic primaries. Republican voters penetrated the many layers of money and political connections and corporate media policing that, like the labyrinth of barricades around the Q, are designed to keep the riffraff from getting their mitts on the political process.

    But it wasn’t covered that way. What started a year ago as an amusing story about a clown car full of bumbling primary hopefuls was about to be described to the world not as a groundbreaking act of defiance, but as a spectacular failure of democracy.

    The once-divided media class now came together to gang-troll flyover America for its preposterous decision, turning the coverage of the convention into a parable on the evil of letting voters make up their own dumb minds. This was the Fatal Attraction of political coverage, a warning disguised as a story: Look what happens, you rubes, when you step outside the lines.”

  49. Peter*

    I doubt that Trump supporters need or will appreciate a passive aggressive pep talk or pat on the head from a liberal commenter such as Matt. Without Trump stepping up to the plate there was no choice to make and their ‘ridiculous choice’ may be bringing some representative democracy back into play. They also don’t need a liberal telling them what the liberal or the conservative press is spinning about their chosen representative, I think they are as aware as anyone else who is engaged about what the PTB is up to. What he calls the ‘once-divided media class’ was an illusion he seems to have believed when they have always been in service of the status quo only now all pretense of faux division has been stripped away by the rise of Trump.

  50. Ghostwheel

    “This penny can’t be bought.”

    Dmitry Orlov pipes in about how voters should decide this November. His view is that yes, we should indeed vote, but that we flip a coin between the four candidates, Trump, Clinton, Johnson and Stein.

    As a revolutionary act, he suggests handing out pennies to your fellow voters.

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45233.htm

  51. ks

    @Che Pasa,

    Yes it’s come to this, pretending that Trump is not part of the elite (albeit the drunk uncle) because he’s not an “aristocrat”. Pretending that the media who gave him enough free airtime to drown his primary rivals is biased against him now for mostly just reporting what he is actually saying. Pretending that the election is rigged against the GOP! candidate. Pretending the oafish billionaire who has spent a lifetime screwing over the common man is a symbol of the common man.

    Meanwhile back in reality, Trump is indeed imploding. He’s bleeding support across the board and has no reasonable path to 270. His jumping off the ledge point looks to have been when he said he “wasn’t ready” to support Ryan and McCain. That even woke Reince Preibus out of his drunker stupor long enough for him to get Trump off of Twitter for a few hours and get him in line to support Ryan. I think the GOP has given up on the Presidential election and are now trying to limit the damage down ticket.

  52. mc

    Fri Aug 5, 2016 5:20pm EDT
    Related: Election 2016, Politics
    Clinton’s lead over Trump narrows to less than three points: Reuters/Ipsos

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-poll-idUSKCN10G2BQ?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social

  53. wendy davis

    @ ghostwheel: too precious: orlov’s: Here, the perfectly obvious solution is to vote randomly.

    if ya wanna vote, ya might consider voting for ajamu baraka, unless your’e one of those ‘lesser evil’ other guys. pffft.

    ya have any idea how many times the orangutan hairdo guy has been bailed out by his businesses declaring bankruptcy, his business debts being (ahem) ‘restructured’? yeah, i looked it up when the fridge repairmen came and honked on about loving to vote for: “a self-made multi-billionaire.”

    the class differential meme was crazy enough that i hadn’t the heart to tell him anything i’d found out; he was Joe 6-pack wanting to be a Trumpette one day.

    do y’all have any idea how much shit is going down in the world as you debate electoral politics? nah.

  54. Peter*

    @MC

    I think this was what is called a dead man or in this case a dead woman bounce but the fact is that all the PR and BS shoveled at the DNC did virtually nothing to change the race. I think the worst possible thing for Trump now is moving into the lead too soon where he loses his underdog status.

  55. Peter*

    This is one of those precious moments HRC seems to deliver like clockwork or grinding mismatched gears. She is now claiming/lying about the FBI verifying that she only spoke the truth about the email scandal in all of her statements on that subject while Director Comey stated he was only referring to the FBI interview and also stated that her public statements were questionable.

    This woman just cannot stop lying.

  56. Ivory Bill Woodpecker

    Judge Curiel rules that Orange Julius Caesar must face trial for racketeering in the affair of Trump U.

    The trial in this class action suit is scheduled to begin right after the national election.

    As my favorite semi-Vulcan would say, “Fascinating…” :mrgreen:

  57. Peter*

    Nice try at a Clintonite diversion, Woody but this is a civil suit about money not racketeering a criminal offense. Now that you’ve brought up racketeering, that may be a legal description of what was going on at the Clinton Foundation, we may hear more about that soon.

  58. Tom

    Ramouseh District of Aleppo was just liberated. Eastern Aleppo now has a new supply route and Jaish Al-Fatah is now sending aid to Fatah Al-Halab.

    Pictures coming out now from there of the Rebel Victory. This is just the beginning though, JAF and FAH are now joining forces to finish the job in liberating Aleppo from Assad, ISIS, and SDF Terrorists.

  59. Ché Pasa

    Trump made a lot of his money the classic way — by theft. All those bankruptcies and failures to pay contractors are strategic actions intended to increase/enhances his wealth — at the expense of those he owes money to. From reports, it’s been a very successful strategy. Since it has long been used by many of his class, and since the victims have very little recourse (the law and the courts acting to protect and enhance wealth after all), theft of this sort is considered “normal” among the elites and aristos of this and many other countries. They do it all the time. They do it to one another.

    When they do it well, consistently and profitably, they are members of The Club. Meritocracy!

    Fraud, lying, bullying, and much more/worse, are all part of the game. Celebrity only makes it more fun for the players.

    This is who Trump is. And he is an example of his class. To posit him as a Man of the People is absurd if not utterly crazy. Yet that’s the way he’s been promoting himself, and I’m sure he’s thrilled to bits that so many of the rubes are falling for his bullshit.

    As for Hillary, her lies and dissembling are what lawyers do in service to their clients. Her clients are not you and me, though in order to keep us tame, she may be inclined to toss a bone or two our way (as long as her clients agree — cf. Obama, B.). That’s all we really need to know.

    A billionaire thief and bully in the White House may be entertaining as heck if you’re into that kind of thing, but he’s not going to do a damn thing on your behalf or mine. He may — easily — make life much worse for the masses without even trying.

    On the other hand, Herself in her service to her clients, would be no better for the rest of us, and because she is so closely aligned with both the permanent government elites and the Highest of the Mighty in the private sector, she will be far more able to carry out whatever nefarious plans they might have for global domination or worse.

    We, the Rabble, factor hardly at all, except to the extent that we can be exploited or disposed of.

    Trump will not save us.

    Nor will Hillary.

    Any more than Bush or Obama did.

    That’s not what Presidents are for.

    Vote for anyone or don’t vote at all. It hardly matters any more. (Examples: look at what happens in Europe when the Rabble vote the “wrong” way. Same thing has been happening in this country, we just don’t notice it quite as easily.)

  60. Peter*

    @Che

    You seem to represent this new group of commenters I’ve seem on various sites that I will call the Artful Dodger Clintonites. Your apologia for Clinton’s serial lying doesn’t appear very artful but it is telling while the rest is a thinly disguised version of lesser evilism in service of the Red Queen.

    According to Forbes about 60% of Trump’s wealth comes from the real-estate investments he made with his share of inheritance in the late ’70s. These Manhattan investments were considered risky at that time but they paid off very well for him and his siblings.

    Your comments about the contract disputes during his building projects just shows you know little or nothing about the construction business where if a contractor doesn’t fulfill his contract or produces shoddy work the builder can and often does refuse final payment but there is little if any profit from this hassle that often causes expensive delays and expensive repairs of the substandard work. A builder cannot build if he doesn’t pay his contractors who fulfill their contracts.

    Bankruptcy laws are a big topic for debate and they certainly helped Trump to limit his losses but he still took a beating on the Atlantic City casino investments along with the other investors. Blame it on the airlines who’s cheap flights to Vegas destroyed those projects.

  61. wendy davis

    @ Ché Pasa: Yes. And you might like Paul Haeder’s wild ride after watching Old Sourpuss and R. Reich on DN!. II’d grabbed the link, but couldn’t abide to read or watch so far. He even brings an homage to (retired Ranger) Lt. Col. Dave Grossman into it via a Catholic website link. But no, his ‘Killology’ wasn’t mentioned.

    ‘Talking About Clinton v. Trump the Day of the First Bomb Dropped; Afterthoughts in a world tied to bats in the belfry as our daily existence to just make it past the 10 pm news’

    Enjoy. (smile) http://bit.ly/2aWSSSL

  62. wendy davis

    @ Peter: oh, piddle. Now you’re the ‘ya didn’t indict the Queen of Cackle hard enough’ police?

    and you might wanna disregard the Marxist ‘theft of labor stuff’, but there are plenty of other exposés of the T-dude’s bidness dealings.

    https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/08/trump-real-estate-theft-public-land-taxes/

  63. Peter*

    I suppose I’ll have to add young Sam Stein the Jacobin author to my list of Artful Dodger Clintonites because he too is calling for the defeat of Trump which can only be possible with the rise of the Red Queen. It is interesting that in this long expose on capitalist pig Trump there was not one claim of illegal activity, no bribes, no illegal dealings in his acquisitions only petty claims about supposedly stolen wages and insider influence helping his deals which is SOP everywhere. I despise the fact that I have to appear to support Trump but these often petty and inaccurate Clintonite attack memes beg to be confronted so those who will vote can make that difficult decision and stop the rise of the more effective capitalist pig and her backers.

    The poor Polish illegals, without hardhats, was a touching story but they were mistreated by their contractor who Trump paid and now he has paid more to make this go away. BTW these guys were paid about 60% above the minimum wage at that time, at least those who got paid. I don’t think it’s the builders responsibility to follow the contractor around and make sure he treats his workers properly. Probably not a wise thing to do anyway because this contractor was probably Mob another requirement to build in NYC.

    I have no problem with real analysis of Trump the capitalist pig who seems to want to make Amerika great again by bringing some jobs back that other capitalist pigs and their friends the Clintons sent to foreign countries. He also wants to stop and renegotiate the so called trade deals that made this industrial stripping of the US possible, not very socialist but better than nuttin.

  64. Okanogen

    The Trump love here is nauseating. Let me guess, you are white. Of course. Of all my friends, only the white ones think there is only an academic difference between Clinton and Trump.

    That is because Trump doesn’t even bother to hide his racism, and racism doesn’t affect you, only economic issues really affect you. Get this right, he is David Duke’s endorsed candidate.
    At this point, the Trump lovers will say “You just don’t understand what is best for you!”. I have also heard “Why don’t you just go to [your family’s] country!”, that was from a friend, supposedly. A white friend who was offended I would rule Trump right the fuck out because he hates people like me, like my parents and cousins. Like my children.

    If you are white, and you think of yourself as liberal or left, and you are supporting Trump, why don’t you just take this time to sit down, and shut the fuck up. You are wrong.

  65. Ché Pasa

    It’s really quite hilarious. The perfect rube is the one who believes that anyone who doesn’t abase themselves before the Trumpish Majesty is by definition a sideways Clintonite.

    This is absurd — being charitable about it.

    Abasing oneself before Mrs. Clinton is as absurd.

    Neither one is working for you or me, nor can they nor will they. They serve their own interests and those of the relatively few people with whom they are closely associated.

    FTR, I haven’t voted for a president since Carter. When what’s-his-name, the movie actor, was elected Governor of California long before his presidential triumph, it was pretty clear to me that a chain that had long bound the American people together had been broken, and nothing would ever be the same again. Sure enough.

    We can criticize the way things were pre-Movie Actor Governor/President, and we should, though those who actually remember the way things were are dying out. But the way things have been since then have — with damn few exceptions — been designed disasters for the masses. Period. Our rulers know that the rubes are easy marks, and they take full and gleeful advantage.

    Nothing either of these two candidates have said or done has demonstrated any inclination to undo — let alone reverse — the the path to perdition we’ve been on. One of them takes a slightly different route than the other, that’s all.

    I agree with Okanogen that the Trump Love on this and quite a few other supposed “progressive” sites is sickening. I get it, though. For many Trump-lovers, the most important thing in the whole wide world is skewering Mrs. Clinton, forwards and back, twice on Sundays, and they believe Trump is the best vehicle to do it. Except he isn’t doing it, is he… apart from his usual trash talk there’s been little or nothing of substance out of his campaign to skewer Herself with, partly I’m sure out of ignorance and incompetence in the political sphere, partly too because I think he considers her and the whole Clinton/Government apparat to be a useful ally, even friend, in pursuit of his own objectives.

    I other words, it’s no advantage to him to take her down and/or alienate her Ruling Class clients.

    All his racist, xenophobic baggage is a sideshow when it comes to that. Reagan had much of the same baggage, though he usually managed to be more discreet about it. Usually. He got elected again and again by being the candidate who “told it like it was” and appealing to the unreconstructed racism and xenophobia of so many white Americans, no matter the harm Reaganite policies would do to their own selves. We’re living amid the rubble.

    And I don’t think it’s possible to elect that sort of candidate to the White House again, especially not if those who rule us don’t want it to happen. There are too many sophisticated ways to manipulate elections these days. It took the active, lawless intervention of the Supreme Court to put Bush II in the White House. Nothing like that sort of active interference from on high is necessary today.

    The other side of the coin is that nothing We, the Rabble, do or are likely to do is of much interest or consequence to they who rule us. They have so insulated and protected themselves, they feel a sense of god-like invulnerability. Bourbon-esque.

    And we have some idea how history treats that kind of hubris, eh?

  66. We need a law, saying the the oldest president can be elected is 67.

  67. BlizzardOfOz

    That feeling when two Conquistador-American irredentists show up to call you “racist”.

  68. Peter*

    OK;

    Did the folks at Correct the Record task you with the liberal racial guilt meme? If so it’s not working and you may need to call in one of their rapid response teams to pick up where you failed.

    Clinton is the most effective racist in this race with her and her liberal Cracker mate who helped build the incarceration state that has filled our private prison industrial complex with black and brown victims who are viewed as little more than long term profit generators.

    I can’t tell you to ‘sit down and shut the fuck up’ because that’s a TOS violation and my comments are already being singled out for special treatment and besides your using that authoritarian reactionary language means you are frustrated and already realize your Red Queen is a loser.

  69. atcooper

    Black Americans have been dealing with lesser evilism a long time. There’s much to be learned there. Malcolm X’s bio is a good start.

  70. Ivory Bill Woodpecker

    Yes, but it might be even more fun to watch the hater contingent of the Unicorn Left lose their minds if she wins. 😈

  71. Peter*

    @Che

    I suppose you could be clueless about the tells you display in your comments and you armor of nonvoter apathy and leftist impartiality might be believable but your ratcheting up of the arrogant Clintonite themes, seemingly right out of a playbook, shows another agenda in play. I’ve seen a number of commenters state they might hold their noses and vote for Trump because even with a gas mask the rot of Crooked Hillary penetrates and nauseates, others do like some of his ideas and proposals but few show any affection for the guy.

    The aggressive but petty ‘Trump Lovers’ attack segues seamlessly into the passive emotional defense of poor ‘Mrs’ Clinton who is being, apparently unfairly, skewered by the truth.

  72. Duder

    @IBW

    Be careful what you wish for. There is a good chance those Republicans driven crazy by HRC will impeach her in the House and with due cause. The rightwing shit storm is far from over and will not end with Trump’s defeat by Hillary. Hold on to your hat liberal apologist, it is going to be a wild ride.

  73. different clue

    @Duder,

    Clinton is the OverClass’s preferred Trillion Dollar Obama 2.0 presidential designee-of-choice. If they get her elected, they will not want her lucrative-for-themselves time and attention consumed with Impeachment dramas. A coalition of Country Club-Wall Street Republicans and Catfood Democrats in the House will try and prevent the Tea People from getting anywhere with Impeachment.

    If the Tea People should manage to get Clinton on trial in the Senate, President Clinton would be aquitted by the staid and dignified Senators.

    Hope . . . must lie elsewhere.

  74. Ivory Bill Woodpecker

    The rightwing shit storm is far from over and will not end with Trump’s defeat by Hillary.

    And if Clinton is elected, how much longer can the Republican Senate justify delaying the nomination of that 5th Justice, producing a Supreme Court majority which will rule that all voter suppression and gerrymandering methods violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment?

    Without voter suppression and gerrymandering, the GOP dies.

  75. Duder

    “the GOP dies”

    Fantastic, and we can dispense with the fiction of a two-party state and be honest about one-party authoritarian rule. Only one party rule US politics, the party of money.

    What a fantasy world you live in IBW. As if the Democrats care about voter suppression and gerrymandering. Why would a party that actively engages in voter suppression take away its own tools?

  76. Ivory Bill Woodpecker

    I was going to ask what Duder was talking about, but on second thought, as long as his sources, which he thinks would prove his claims of Democratic voter suppression, come from the media, I would not believe them.

    The media–Mad Right, Ostensibly Sensible Center, and Unicorn Left alike–have told so many nasty lies about the Clintons that now, if they happened to stumble upon nasty truths about the Clintons, I would simply assume they were more nasty lies. “The Media–er, Boy–Who Cried ‘Wolf!'” and all that. I doubt I am alone in this. Indeed, I’ve noticed that Clinton supporters and Trump supporters alike tend to believe that the media is biased against their chosen candidates, as did Sanders supporters.

  77. ks

    @Che Pasa,

    It’s really quite hilarious. The perfect rube is the one who believes that anyone who doesn’t abase themselves before the Trumpish Majesty is by definition a sideways Clintonite.”

    At first I thought it was a joke as surely the deep thinkers here couldn’t be so simple minded but, after repeated shouts of Clintonite!, I realized some were indeed that simple minded.

  78. different clue

    If Trump looks likely to be elected according to the polling and the feel of things . . . just before the election . . . numbers of Sanderists will come back to Clinton and the Democrats in the end. The spectacle of a President Trump will seem just too awful to bear.

    If Trump keeps visibly melting down, and stays more melted and less visibly likely to be elected then ever when the election is close, numbers of Sanderists will feel that since Clinton’s victory is likely without “their” votes, they will be free to vote for someone or something else. The more inevitable Clinton’s victory is credibly portrayed as being in the MSM and the SSM, the more Sanderists will feel that Clinton will be okay without them anyway, so they can go vote Third Party, or Write Sanders In, or Leave The Presidential Line Blank, or . . . whatever.

  79. Peter*

    It seems that the Clintonites such as Woody have almost nothing left besides denial and diversion to try to distract people from the ugly facts about what will be in store for nearly everyone once the Red Queen takes power.

    I don’t think we have ever seen all of the power centers in the country line up so readily behind such a power hungry and screw-loose personality and it seems that they believe the only way to maintain their power is to turn loose someone such as HRC on the country and world.

    What we will soon see, especially if the polls remain close, is how far they are willing to go and what they will openly show the public as they move to make certain that they install the Red Queen no matter what the voters decide. We have already seen an election that if not fixed was tainted by massive corruption and the response was underwhelming even with documented proof it was basically ignored and accepted as normal.

  80. markfromireland

    Donald Trump turns to economy to reboot campaign

    Donald Trump will seek to reorient his campaign this week amid alarm in the Republican party, with a new economic plan which includes claims that he can double US economic growth by imposing fresh tariffs on China and renegotiating global trade rules.

    In Detroit on Monday, Mr Trump will lay out a proposal to stimulate the country’s recent lacklustre economic growth through trade and tax incentives aimed at pushing American businesses to bring home jobs and overseas profits, advisers told the Financial Times.

    It is an attempt by Mr Trump and his staff to refocus their campaign on the economy, one of the few areas where polling had shown the property developer to be stronger than Hillary Clinton but one where the Democratic nominee has been gaining ground.

    Mr Trump’s falling poll numbers have alarmed Republicans after he lashed out at the family of a fallen Muslim-American soldier and engaged in open political warfare with leaders of his own party. Mr Trump took steps towards rectifying the damage on Friday, endorsing House Speaker Paul Ryan and Republican senators John McCain and Kelly Ayotte, after initially wavering on his support for their re-election races.

    [snip]

    Trump advisers say the New York mogul can make up lost ground by talking about jobs and the economy. According to an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll conducted last week, 46 per cent of registered voters view Mr Trump as stronger on the economy, compared with 42 per cent who think Mrs Clinton is. A Washington Post-ABC News poll on Sunday gave Mrs Clinton a narrow lead on the economy.

    Two of Mr Trump’s economic advisers told the Financial Times that the backbone of his plan to boost US growth remained his trade “doctrine” and forcing China and other trading partners into renegotiating their economic relationship with the US by imposing defensive tariffs.

    They likened his approach to Ronald Reagan’s tough stand against Japan in the 1980s, which led to the signing of the 1985 Plaza Accord and the revaluation of the yen.

    [snip]

    Read in full at Financial Times (NB: paywall): Donald Trump turns to economy to reboot campaign – FT.com

  81. Silent Velcro

    Trump v. Clinton is the shit show the MSM wanted and got. Bush v. Clinton would have been an epic snooze fest as there’s barely any daylight between them and watching paint dry would have been 100 times more exciting. Trump has actually managed to do progressives a solid by single- handedly destroying the Republic Party. Trump is a sheep in wolf’s clothing and the real Left should make sure he overwhelmingly defeats and vanquishes the Clinton Crime Syndicate once and for all. That’s the only hope for real progressive reform.

  82. Tom W Harris

    Whatever Trump pays Petey to spew his guts out is way too much. His stuff ain’t worth two shits a day much less two cents a decade.

  83. Peter*

    @Tommy

    I thought the Clintonites would send one of their Black Knights to vanquish me from the field of battle but they sent the village drunk to annoy me to death.

  84. Tom W Harris

    Yer already dead to most of us, pal. But since you killed this thread. I guess to you it was worth it.

  85. Peter*

    I certainly don’t want to be your or any other Clintonite’s pal which is the ethical kiss of death so your emotional rejection is something I will always be proud of.

  86. Hillary’s exaggerated head bobbing at the link I posted was voluntary motion. Snopes has a non-truncated video: http://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-seizure-video/

    Stills seems overly exuberant…

  87. realitychecker

    “May the best whiner win”—Confucius

    (Or was that someone else? Who the fuck cares. The best whiners are the strongest leaders, doncha know?)

    It’s only castles burning.

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