The Art of the Donald Trumpocalypse

[Kurth]

Am I reading too much into this, or is this an implied threat to out Cory Booker?

It's a threat to do something, that's for sure. Trump just does not care.

[Holman]

More likely Trump thinks he has some dirt on Booker's financial/political connections. It's New Jersey after all.

Booker is immune to gay-baiting. From Wikipedia:

Booker has himself been the target of rumors about being gay and has generally refused to address these on principle, which he explained in 2013: "Because I want to challenge people on their homophobia. I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I’m gay, and I say, 'So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I'm straight.'"

[Captain Caveman]

I am increasingly convinced that Trump will refuse to participate in any presidential debates. He'll frame it as a negotiation, and then pull out deeming the terms unfair.

[Jeff V]

I am increasingly convinced that Trump will refuse to participate in any presidential debates. He'll frame it as a negotiation, and then pull out deeming the terms unfair.

I can see that -- no battle of wits could ever be fair to him as he is completely unarmed.

[Kurth]

Not a Bernie supporter, but I must admit I would have loved seeing a Sanders v. Trump debate. Hard for me to not see that ending in fisticuffs.

Bernie wouldn't take Trump's bullshit.

[Kraken]

I am increasingly convinced that Trump will refuse to participate in any presidential debates. He'll frame it as a negotiation, and then pull out deeming the terms unfair.

I can see that -- no battle of wits could ever be fair to him as he is completely unarmed.

Debates as conducted in the US are exchanges of sound bites with precious little substantive back-and-forth. As long as the winner is the contestant with the best zingers, Trump will do fine. Nobody supports him because of his command of policy nuance.

[El Guapo]

I am increasingly convinced that Trump will refuse to participate in any presidential debates. He'll frame it as a negotiation, and then pull out deeming the terms unfair.

I can see that -- no battle of wits could ever be fair to him as he is completely unarmed.

Debates as conducted in the US are exchanges of sound bites with precious little substantive back-and-forth. As long as the winner is the contestant with the best zingers, Trump will do fine. Nobody supports him because of his command of policy nuance.

Also Trump will go into the first debate with the benefit of very low expectations, since people think of Hillary as (among some negative attributes) as being smart and tough and a good debater, while Trump is viewed as a crazy idiot. That will invite media stories along the lines of "Trump did better than expected!" as long as Trump doesn't completely self-destruct on stage.

Smart move might be to do a first debate for that reason, and then come up with reasons afterwards to refuse to do further debates.

[msteelers]

I am increasingly convinced that Trump will refuse to participate in any presidential debates. He'll frame it as a negotiation, and then pull out deeming the terms unfair.

I tend to agree that Trump will avoid the debates, but he pulled that exact scenario in the primaries, and got raked over the coals for it.

[hepcat]

, since people think of Hillary as being smart

Oooh, that's the one thing Trump supporters really hate.

I have this vision of Trump ascending to the stage to the first debate, leaning into the microphone and then simply yelling, "San Dimas football rules!" before throwing up his hands in a victory salute and then just marching off the stage.

[GreenGoo]

Ironic that he keeps stealing "You Can't Always Get What You Want" as campaign music, since I don't think he knows what to do in a situation where he doesn't get what he wants. Other than write an angry tweet about how the other person is a dumb loser.

Followed shortly thereafter by a lawsuit or threat of a lawsuit.

Good luck with that on the international stage.

[Zarathud]

Hillary and Warren will call Trump chicken if he tries to skip the debates, unlike the other Republicans. The media would fully support that narrative, since they want the ratings from the debate.

[tgb]

Trump even cheats children.

Normally the Fields in me would call that a pretty good reason to vote for him, except Trump.

Also, he'll never debate Hillary because she has bigger "hands".

[hepcat]

Popick is quick to explain that the agreement was not written down, but, instead, involves promises from various agents of the Trump campaign which he says were then broken.

Good luck with that lawsuit, buddy.

[El Guapo]

Popick is quick to explain that the agreement was not written down, but, instead, involves promises from various agents of the Trump campaign which he says were then broken.

Good luck with that lawsuit, buddy.

Just to be clear verbal contracts can absolutely be binding, though there's evidentiary issues. Hopefully he has some e-mails. At the least though presumably he can show that he provided a service but received no payment.

[hepcat]

Yes, but the evidence they do have is a napkin with a crayon drawing of an orange stick figure handing a giant bag with a dollar sign on it to 3 little girls.

[tgb]

Popick is quick to explain that the agreement was not written down, but, instead, involves promises from various agents of the Trump campaign which he says were then broken.

Good luck with that lawsuit, buddy.

Just to be clear verbal contracts can absolutely be binding,

Correct. Nice to know that 30 years of Peoples' Court and Judge Judy have taught me something

[YellowKing]

"Greedy Jeff" using kids to extort $$$. Pathetic. Ivanka more talented. @realDonaldTrump

[El Guapo]

Yes, but the evidence they do have is a napkin with a crayon drawing of an orange stick figure handing a giant bag with a dollar sign on it to 3 little girls.

That is a pretty standard Trump contract.

[GreenGoo]

Yes, but the evidence they do have is a napkin with a crayon drawing of an orange stick figure handing a giant bag with a dollar sign on it to 3 little girls.

That is a pretty standard Trump contract.

Particularly the part about delivering the moon only to shit on the carpet when the other guy's not home.

Trump's ability to sell himself to the American public with empty enthusiasm makes me sad I didn't become a Sham-wow salesman.

[Carpet_pissr]

Particularly the part about delivering the moon only to shit piss on the carpet when the other guy's not home.

Fixed!

[Grifman]

Today Trump doubled down on threats against NATO:

"I want them to pay," he said. "They don’t pay us what they should be paying! We lose on everything. Folks, we lose on everything."

He went on to criticize former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's foreign policy record: "She makes it impossible to negotiate. She’s not a negotiator. She’s a fool.”

"We have to walk," Trump added. "Within two days they're calling back! Get back over here, we’ll pay you whatever the hell you want."

"They will pay us if the right person asks," he said. "That’s the way it works, folks. That’s the way it works."

See, he's just ignorant. NATO doesn't pay us anything. The issue with NATOmis that a number of members are not meeting their defense funding targets for their own militaries, it's not a matter of them paying us. I shake my head and just say how did we get here?

[GreenGoo]

See, he's just ignorant. NATO doesn't pay us anything. The issue with NATOmis that a number of members are not meeting their defense funding targets for their own militaries, it's not a matter of them paying us. I shake my head and just say how did we get here?

You're absolutely right and I knew that and yet I let him set the dialogue.

What could be interesting is if the countries not spending the amount required by the treaty turned around and did spend it, but then didn't use the increased resources in their military for NATO based work/missions.

Nothing changes, except those countries which were not fulfilling their obligations are now doing so. Does the US have less heavy lifting to do because others are picking up the slack? No. Does any of that money make it's way to the US. Only indirectly through military purchases. None of it goes to the US government.

Anyway, I'm embarrassed I addressed Drumpf's perception of the problem. Grrr. Now I hate Drumpf and am pissed at myself.

[Defiant]

Seth Meyers on Bernie or Bust Die Hard:

But I know what you're going to say. "But I don't know anyone voting for Trump" Oh, you don't? Did you ask everybody in your yoga class? Did you check with your entire drum circle? Because, guess what? You know you have that crazy uncle you only see on Thanksgiving? Well this country is about 48% crazy uncles, and it's about to be Thanksgiving all day, every day!

[Isgrimnur]

Eric Metaxas

New York Times bestselling author and radio host Eric Metaxas explained Monday why he thinks conservative Christians should vote for Donald Trump.

Metaxas, the author of the recently released book If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty, was interviewed by The Daily Caller's Casey Harper at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and spent most of the interview discussing the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
...
Metaxas wrote in his book that the United States is in grave danger of becoming "America in name only," stressing that the election of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will only help make that danger a reality.

"If Hillary Clinton is elected, I do not believe that we will get a second chance," Metaxas said. "We are at the edge …"

Fearing that Clinton would nominate liberal Supreme Court justices who would "legislate from the bench," Metaxas warned that the Democrats are trying to keep an open border and allow illegal immigration so that the country will never "be able to demographically elect somebody who is a constitutionalist again."
...
"We need to understand that if you care about this country, you care about the rest of the world, you need to take this election very seriously," he added. "Beyond that, I don't think Trump is going to save America. I think Trump would pull us back five feet from the cliff so that we have bought ourselves a little time to keep the republic. I think if Hillary Clinton is elected, we are not going to have that ability."

Metaxas stated that he doesn't think Trump is a great American leader like George Washington, but noted that Americans still have an "obligation to vote."

"We have an obligation to say that 'if I don't vote, I understand that I am allowing Hillary Clinton to become the president if I don't vote for Donald Trump,'" he contended. "It is one of these things that you don't have to like voting for Trump, you can even hate Trump, but you better be sure that you understand what a Hillary Clinton presidency brings."

While Metaxas would not vouch for Trump's virtue, he said that he believes Trump loves America and doesn't believe that Trump is seeking to "line his own pockets" through corruption.
...
"I have been attacked on this and I am baffled because if you love America, sometimes you have to hold your nose and vote for the person who is going to do the least damage or who is going to pull you back from the brink," Metaxas continued. "I am genuinely convinced that means voting for Trump."

Gotta love the ringing endorsements on both sides of the divide. You must vote for the candidate you have because the other person is worse.

As America has been rocked by the recent violence against police officers, Metaxas spoke earlier this month at International Christian Concern's The Bridge conference in Silver Spring, Maryland. The day after five Dallas police officers were killed by Micah Johnson, Metaxas argued that Christians should respond to the killing of the police officers with nothing but silence.

"Is there anything to say about these cops being killed? Anything?" Metaxas asked. "There is really nothing to say in my opinion. It's a horror and the best thing we can do is shut up. It's a horror, a tragedy and sometimes our response as believers, the most wise response is to say 'I have nothing to say. God have mercy. Lord have mercy. I am shut up, I am silenced.' Sometimes as believers we have a tendency to think that I have the answer."

Ah, the John Mayer approach: "I'm never speaking up again" and "Waiting on the world to change".

[GreenGoo]

Ah, the John Mayer approach: "I'm never speaking up again" and "Waiting on the world to change".

I love that these lines bug you enough that they've stuck with you over time. That these lines are an "issue" for you and that these simple lines have coloured your perception of the singer. I am informed by Mayerites that the meaning of the song is not what you think it means. Personally, I think it means what you think it means.

[Isgrimnur]

The first is about him putting his foot in his mouth while on a first date, so it's a bit of a stretch here.

The second, however, is pretty clear

Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
...
It's hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change

Now, if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
...
It's not that we don't care,
We just know that the fight ain't fair
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change
...
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population

So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

And that's not to even get into the stoner anthem, "Who Says".

Don't get me wrong. I own several of his albums and enjoy his music. I just disagree with some of the philosophies stated in the lyrics.

[ImLawBoy]

I'm not that familiar with Mayer (not a big fan), but can't that be interpreted as him being frustrated that we keep waiting on the world to change instead of actually doing something about it?

[Smoove_B]

Don't get me wrong. I own several of his albums and enjoy his music. I just disagree with some of the philosophies stated in the lyrics.

So happy to see something in this thread not related to the Trumpocalypse.

From an interview Mayer gave with The Advocate (sourced from Wiki):

The song's theme centers on the singer and his generation's inaction in regard to current world conditions. However, he attributes this inaction to a lack of power...he also laments the corruption among leaders...

John Mayer confirmed this feeling of discontent between the leaders and that led to an interview with The Advocate, explaining the song this way: "It's saying, 'Well, I'll just watch American Idol because I know that if I were engaged in changing anything for the better, or the better as I see it, it would go unnoticed or be completely ineffective.' A lot of people have that feeling. Even so, the song alludes to hope for the future, with the singer intoning that with his generation's ascension to power, things will change

[LordMortis]

I'm not that familiar with Mayer (not a big fan), but can't that be interpreted as him being frustrated that we keep waiting on the world to change instead of actually doing something about it?

I read it as he's powerless for soon his generation will be in control and the old people will die off and then the young people will make it all better.

One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population

Now there's still lots of criticism to be had. Why wait? What makes you think your generation will be different? Etc...

But it's an interesting amusement for me at the very least and I do think generation landslide has largely been positive thing in later half of the 20th century moving forward.

[Isgrimnur]

There's no call to action in the song, no admonition that waiting is the wrong thing to do. The takeaway I get is that they're going to be handed the keys to rule when the world changes, but through no effort on their part to take or deserve them. It's an assumption that they're going to get to rule. But as we've seen, the generation that included the 60's counterculture is the one ruling the population now. And how have things changed when they were handed the keys?

[GreenGoo]

Now I'm sad we're talking about Mayer, which is totally my fault. Did I mention that I refer to him as Tom Sawyer at home?

[malchior]

Well. That was different. He just asked Russia to hack Hillary's email to find the 30k missing emails at a press conference. Let's watch the American public dismiss him sanctioning a foreign power meddling in our election with a shrug.

[El Guapo]

Well. That was different. He just asked Russia to hack Hillary's email to find the 30k missing emails at a press conference. Let's watch the American public dismiss him sanctioning a foreign power meddling in our election with a shrug.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, here's the story on The Hill:

Donald Trump on Wednesday said he hopes that Russian hackers accused of breaching the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have obtained the tens of thousands of emails that Hillary Clinton deleted from her private email server.

"If they hacked, they probably have her 33,000 emails. I hope they do," Trump told reporters on Wednesday at a press conference at his Miami-area hotel.

"They probably have her 33,000 emails that she lost and deleted. You'd see some beauties, so we'll see."

He went on to address Russia directly: "Russia, if you are listening," he said, "I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by the press."

[tgb]

Chins up, all. Even if Trump does get elected, there's a ray of hope.

Spoiler:

Dear Secret Service:I'm joking.

Spoiler:

50 quatloos to the first OO'er who can supply Jodie Foster's phone number.

[Captain Caveman]

A presidential nominee inviting espionage by a foreign power kind of seems like something that should be a big deal.

[Enough]

A presidential nominee inviting espionage by a foreign power kind of seems like something that should be a big deal.

Pearl-clutcher, Trump was obviously just joking around.

[malchior]

A presidential nominee inviting espionage by a foreign power kind of seems like something that should be a big deal.

Nah. He is just keeping it real. He wasn't serious. I mean this is all a big joke, right?

[Max Peck]

Yeah, here's the story on The Hill:

Donald Trump on Wednesday said he hopes that Russian hackers accused of breaching the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have obtained the tens of thousands of emails that Hillary Clinton deleted from her private email server.

"If they hacked, they probably have her 33,000 emails. I hope they do," Trump told reporters on Wednesday at a press conference at his Miami-area hotel.

"They probably have her 33,000 emails that she lost and deleted. You'd see some beauties, so we'll see."

He went on to address Russia directly: "Russia, if you are listening," he said, "I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by the press."

If nothing else, Russia can probably fabricate some doozies for him. They've got to be better at faking emails than they are at faking satellite photos.

[Rip]

He isn't inviting espionage, there was nothing classified in there, remember?

Besides he is just asking for some help finding lost stuff. If someone finds your lost stuff is that stealing? Even when they are giving it back?