It is Saturday night, the end of a very hot and miserable day as far as I am concerned — 31 C (88 F) late this afternoon. It is 0100 and 20 C (68 F) with humidity at 78%. Days like this just sap my energy and affect my breathing (asthma). So I have been drinking like a fish and staying quiet. Later Sunday, I will going to visit my mother so at least I'll have the benefit of AC in the car. I hope everybody is surviving the heat wherever you are.
Here it is, Sunday afternoon and the temperature is back up to 30 C (86 F) 60% humidity.
Short Takes
Common Dreams — Bernie Sanders bore down on Donald Trump's economic agenda in a series of tweets on Friday morning, calling him "the poster child of failed trade policies."
The social media take-down began with Sanders posting a link to a Washington Post story from earlier this week, which revealed how a "little-noticed provision in Donald Trump's tax reform plan has the potential to deliver a large tax cut to companies in the Republican presidential nominee's vast business empire."
Click through to see a string of Bernie's tweets. Go Bernie! I'd also suggest reading the Washington Post story (click on "revealed") because it certainly does outline how Drumpf and other high income earners would disproportionately benefit from Drumpf's plan. And to the point of these business entities taking those tax "savings" and reinvesting them in the business, according to Forbes, corporations are still sitting on large cash piles on their balance sheets, much of it sitting offshore. The figures used are from 2013-14.
Raw Story — Mr. Speaker,
When Donald Trump suggested on August 9 that Hillary Clinton could only be stopped from nominating judges by “Second Amendment people,” most of the world gasped, realizing he was inciting violence against his opponent for the presidency. It was unprecedented, beneath contempt. But he didn’t apologize. Given my long experiences with Trump, I knew he would soon string together a babble of words in hopes of twisting his statement beyond recognition. And so he did, with an assist from sycophants like Sean Hannity of Fox News, who nodded like a bobblehead doll as Trump told him he didn’t mean that gun lovers should assassinate Clinton. He only meant they should be voting for him to keep her out of the White House.
That makes no sense, and here’s a crucial thing to know about Trump: He never tries to make his lies or delusions or fantasies make sense. He just spews to explain away the inexplicable.
Call for Assassination
Let’s examine the words that got him into so much trouble: “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day.”
Trump’s post hoc interpretation: He doesn’t know if gun lovers will vote to keep Clinton out of office. Or he hopes gun owners will vote for him. Or only Trump voters with guns could keep Clinton out of office. None of that makes sense.
Read the original statement again. Did he mean it will be a horrible day when Second Amendment people stop her from picking judges? That’s a call for assassination. Or did he mean it will be a horrible day when a President Clinton picks judges and only Second Amendment people might be able to stop it? Another call for assassination.
Trump then blamed the media for applying the rules of grammar and sentence structure to him, instead of being like his acolytes, for whom words and sentences no longer have agreed-upon meanings.
This, Mr. Speaker, is what you would be dealing with in a Trump presidency, and this flagrant disregard for the facts, for the truth, is why I am writing this, my second open letter to you. Trump must be stopped. Let the GOP lose this election. It is the only way to save the Republican Party, and the nation. Even some of his most deranged supporters recognize the danger he poses—one caller into C-SPAN last week said he knew his candidate might start a nuclear war but at least America would win.
Click through for the rest of this fairly long piece. Author Kurt Eichenwald goes on to lay out many of Drump's inconsistencies and lies, some of them sworn under oath in depositions or in Congressional hearings. This is, IMO, the kind of information that needs to get broad exposure, especially with likely Drumpf supporters and voters. Drumpf is a menace to a civilised society.
Alternet — Nearly 100% of likely voters are set on their November 8 presidential pick and the debates won't even start for another month. So, who really is the media fanfare for at this point? After all, as Noam Chomsky points out, the voting decision is really a lot simpler than the pundits have built it up to be. …
Chomsky has consistently declared Donald Trump would be a disaster, and urges voters in swing states to cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton.
There is another video at the end of the article which shows Chomsky giving the same advice to Clinton supporters in 2008. As Chomsky says in 2016 "… I would vote against Trump … you hold your nose and vote Democrat … I don't think there is any other rational choice. Abstaining from voting or say voting for a candidate you prefer, a minority candidate, just amounts to a vote for Donald Trump … " Wise words.
Politico — Republican insiders are more convinced than Democrats that Donald Trump is so far behind Hillary Clinton that he can't win in November.
Roughly half of Republican members of The POLITICO Caucus — activists, strategists and operatives in 11 swing states — believe that Trump’s path to 270 electoral votes is basically shut off after another week in which the GOP nominee appears to have ceded ground in national and most battleground state polls.
Democrats, however, aren’t breaking out the champagne just yet. Seventy-two percent of Democratic insiders said despite Clinton’s clear advantage at this stage of the race, the presidential election isn’t effectively over.
Democrats cited the unpredictability of the 2016 campaign, along with some of Clinton’s own weaknesses, for their bridled optimism. It’s a message that fits neatly with what party leaders are saying publicly and behind closed doors: Don’t get too cocky, even with Clinton well ahead of Trump in the polls. …
“Trump is underperforming so comprehensively across states and demographics it would take video evidence of a smiling Hillary drowning a litter of puppies while terrorists surrounded her with chants of ‘Death to America!’ But in 2016, stranger things have happened.”
Democrats are much less confident about the outcome of the presidential race than Republicans, thankfully. This is not the time to sit back. And it is VERY important to get out the vote.
My Universe —
… in my own time!
Proof that cats take a message and get back to you, later if you're lucky!
Friends! … not dinner.
Dinner on the go!
13 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 14/08/2016”
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Gee, I haven't heard the phrase "drinking like a fish" in an age. Of course, it usually involved a lot of alcohol which I doubt is true in your case. Although, if it does, well….party on!
Your doubt would be well founded Jerry. I drink a lot of water and especially in this heat. Even with that, I managed to get heat exhaustion yesterday which had me feeling quite vile yesterday afternoon. I think my physio exercises, especially the biking, did me in even though I didn't feel it until near the end of my biking.
Well, one little kitty would confirm that treadmills really DO help keep your weight down.
LOL! Trust a doctor to notice that one!
Glad to see your post. It has been in the nineties here long enough that the eighties are starting to seem warm and the seventies almost cool. But then, at mu altitude, the air is thinner and the hear dissipates more at night, which helps. I assume you have been drinking water, since that is what fish drink – they are only full of alcohol (and formaldehyde) in biology labs. It's true that W.C. Fields "drank like a fish," and he was opposed to water on principle because fish – er – have intimate relations in water. But lots of people drank a lot more alcohol in those days.
I'm going to jump to AlterNet because I don't think enough attention has been paid to two things – first, this is not new advice on Chomsky's part. The article does point out, and you cite, that he has been giving this advice for a long time. And it's still good advice. The other is the concept of "swing states." In every presidential election I can remember, since they switched the colors on us, we have had red states, blue states, and purple states. This year we don't have any red states or blue states. We have purple states and crazy states. Seriously. If Trump and Hillary are tied in South Carolina, anything can happen. We also have a lot of people flirting wiith making protest votes. I would think one glance at the Brexit vote would bring them back to reality, but it doesn't seem to be. The polls – the very people who administer the polls, many of them seasoned and skillful, are doubting their own polls. Their big fear is that Trump voters are being undercounted. THIS IS NOT NORMAL. Let's just not take ANY chances. Let's VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO.
Politico – And let's VOTE BLUE ALL THE WAY DOWN THE TICKET. Ryan may be afraid he may lose the House – with all that gerrymandering, I don't see it myself – but we CANNOT take it for granted. And not the Senate either, although our best chance is there.
Universe – Well, if you don't want to be hit by a train car, don't sleep on the tracks. Granted it doesn't seem to bother him much. I was doing another Cheezburger marathon today, and I came across one cat saying he spends 6 hours a day on the treadmill. Maybe some day he'll turn it on. But truly, Lynn, this one's for you:
http://cheezburger.com/8965764608
Amen to:
VOTE BLUE ALL THE WAY DOWN THE TICKET!
Very similar to my closet — Thanks JD!
CD: DT will embrace feeding the rich, while reviling the middle classe, and our poor folks. Keep the tweets coming, Bernie! (and Ms. Warren too!).
RS: Anyone else would be taken in for questioning over a statement like that. Not him, as he rambles on, Incoherently. ugh!
AN: To which I totally agree!! Yes, indeed, wise words!
My Universe: Like the first one, as that's my cat. The other ones are sweet too.
We have been in the 100's here, TX., and have had rain. LA is enduring a severe flooding, people leaving as the water rises. My friend's daughter, husband & 5 children were evacuated from their home. They have lost everything, as have many others. So sad. Hope that your visit with your mother went well. "Drinking like a fish". 'Many moons ago', I would say this, but of course, it was from my old Navy Wave days. Now I'm just a crusty old sailor. LOL.
Take care, and Thanks, Lynn for post.
Wasn't Bernie great in his tweets!
I think everyone should read Kurt Eichenwald's piece because it certainly lays down an extensive history of Trump BS.
I so hear you about the weather.
Of only the Bernie or Busted Bots would vent their wrath at Trump, like Bernie does, instead of Hillary.
Trere is no question that Rump Dump was talking treason.
Chomsky is a strong voice from the far left.
Once Republicansx had a candidate, who was a virtually guaranteed winner. His name was Dewey.
Dinner!! Greatr idea!!
I had to read up on Thomas E Dewey, although I had heard of him before. Seems he was a bit of a sheep in wolf's clothing.
I put that dinner picture in just for you!
See today's Open Thread on Dewey.
Thanks all!
Until the weather started changing about a decade ago, Northern Europe had a few hot days in summer and a heat wave now and again, but nothing as extreme as we have now, and there never was a need to money on putting in ACs. But cars were a different thing and when the first Climate Change heat waves hit us, people took to sitting in their cars, or when they had small children to driving around, to cool off and have their kids fall asleep to the purring of the car motor. But our petrol is very expensive indeed, so anyone who can afford it is now looking into buying an AC of some sort and then not using it for some years because our summers have been so dreadful. 🙁 I hope you'll be able to get yourself a small AC unit for the bedroom to keep quiet in, Lynn, if only for your asthma.
CD: Has anyone really expected a Drumpfian economic plan to be anything other than self serving? But unless he spells it out to them word by word and number by number how he's taking the middle class he's pretending to protect for a ride and only uses them to boost his own income and that of his Republican cronies, his devotees will keep on believing he's their savior and will vote for him. Bernie's tweets are wonderful and spot-on, but read only by those who already knew what was coming.
RS: I agree, Lynn, excellent articles like this should get a wide exposure, and it perhaps the circle in which it's spread is getting a bit bigger, but the true Drumpf devotee will never read it or even hear from it, because "at best" they watch faux news. They are not looking for real information or news, they only want to hear someone repeat what's been echoing in their skulls for a long time.
Alternet: All wise men and women have stated it one way or another: if Americans do not want court disaster and bring ruin to both their own country and the rest of the world, they need to do at least two of three things: they must go out and vote and they must vote Blue, and perhaps hold their nose while doing that. It sounds almost undemocratic and very contradictory, but to safeguard Democracy Americans are forced to forego having a choice. That is also Noam Chomsky's message and he leaves no room for reservations either.
Politico: The Democrats take a very sensible approach in this: it isn't over until it's over, and knowing that there's nothing more fickle than (the great number of undecided) voters, they understand that they have to fight Drumpf to the last day and the last vote. They need to get the vote out; every one counts.
My Universe: The first and the last cat had addopted the wrong human, one that has it in for them 😉