Octopus Overlords

I can just imagine the Vice Presidential debate with Christie - as his opponent I start off with his quotes about Trump being unfit to be president, and then ask him to explain those quotes now

I keep envisioning Trump and Christie as Master Blaster from Beyond Thunderdome. Every time they get pissed, Christie will yell out "Who run Bartertown!" and when they didn't answer Trump, he'd follow it up with "Shut it down, shut it all down!".

'He's got the mind of a child' - sounds about right. It also is apropos considering Christie is currently throwing a temper tantrum and shutting down all road work - even though current projects are fully funded - because he didn't get his way on the gas tax battle here in NJ. It revolves around a sudden "emergency" that crept up on him over two years while he ran for President. I'd say PLEASE TAKE HIM but then that'd involve the end of the United States as a legitimate nation. Sort of a Sophie's choice...

malchior wrote:'He's got the mind of a child' - sounds about right. It also is apropos considering Christie is currently throwing a temper tantrum and shutting down all road work - even though current projects are fully funded - because he didn't get his way on the gas tax battle here in NJ. It revolves around a sudden "emergency" that crept up on him over two years while he ran for President. I'd say PLEASE TAKE HIM but then that'd involve the end of the United States as a legitimate nation. Sort of a Sophie's choice...

Technically the Transportation Trust Fund expires today, right? Although the NJ Senate has said there's enough money in it to make it to August, right? Here's the part I don't get. I "get" the concept that "Hey, we need to maintain roads, so we have to pay for that, here's your new gas tax". I don't get that this is part of some deal to simultaneously lower the State sales tax by 1%. Instead of doing that, why not just divert that 1% Sales Tax into the Transportation Trust Fund, and call it a day?

Who is going to pay for whatever that 1% sales tax money was going towards now?

hepcat wrote:I keep envisioning Trump and Christie as Master Blaster from Beyond Thunderdome. Every time they get pissed, Christie will yell out "Who run Bartertown!" and when they didn't answer Trump, he'd follow it up with "Shut it down, shut it all down!".

Like Rip after seeing a new poll showing Hillary in the lead.

Although that would actually result in denial until he could find one that tells him otherwise.

RunningMn9 wrote:Technically the Transportation Trust Fund expires today, right? Although the NJ Senate has said there's enough money in it to make it to August, right? Here's the part I don't get. I "get" the concept that "Hey, we need to maintain roads, so we have to pay for that, here's your new gas tax". I don't get that this is part of some deal to simultaneously lower the State sales tax by 1%. Instead of doing that, why not just divert that 1% Sales Tax into the Transportation Trust Fund, and call it a day?

Who is going to pay for whatever that 1% sales tax money was going towards now?

This is my issue in a nutshell personally. And this is the camel that is breaking my back. My plan is to exit within the next 2 years. Even if just to PA.

To attempt to concisely summarize this for the non-NJers (who probably don't care but hey why not - some might). The state already mismanaged the so-called Transportation Trust Fund by running up the state credit card to an extent that debt service is eating up the TTF's free cash flow. Yay fiscal mismanagement. So to plug that HUGE crack in the dike they have bandied about multiple deals to raise the gas tax from among the lowest in the nation with reductions in other taxes. Nonetheless this is happening when the state already perpetually has budget issues each year and has to play games. The estimates of the shortfall from the various plans are between $800M and $2B. In the State with 2 or 3rd highest tax burden in the country already. We've never seen the state tighten the belt in our lifetimes so that is obviously going to amp up the shell game. And on top the Dem leadership will likely get their bat shit insane amendment passed mandating the state worker's pension payment be made no matter what. Where is that additional $2-3B coming from? It's all coming from magic land. Anyway the pin has been pulled here. It isn't too long until it all blows up in the taxpayers faces. I plan to not be a taxpayer when that happens.

Rip wrote:

hepcat wrote:I keep envisioning Trump and Christie as Master Blaster from Beyond Thunderdome. Every time they get pissed, Christie will yell out "Who run Bartertown!" and when they didn't answer Trump, he'd follow it up with "Shut it down, shut it all down!".

hepcat wrote:Like Rip after seeing a new poll showing Hillary in the lead.

Speaking of which...



Even Fox news is showing Trump behind.

That's pretty ugly - the Rep Convention is likely to be a shitstorm of crazy as well. I don't see how Trump even becomes anywhere near competitive considering the money and organizational issues.

Trump may have used money from his charity to buy a Tim Tebow signed helmet

Did Donald Trump violate IRS rules, by using a charity's money to buy himself a signed football helmet?

Four years ago, at a charity fundraiser in Palm Beach, Donald Trump got into a bidding war at the evening's live auction. The items up for sale: A Denver Broncos helmet, autographed by then-star quarterback Tim Tebow, and a Tebow jersey.

Trump won, eventually, with a bid of $12,000. Afterward, he posed with the helmet. His purchase made gossip-column news: a flourish of generosity, by a mogul with money to burn. "The Donald giveth, and The Donald payeth," wrote the Palm Beach Daily News. "Blessed be the name of The Donald."

But Trump didn't actually pay with his own money.

Instead, the Susan G. Komen organization — the breast-cancer nonprofit that hosted the party — got a $12,000 payment from another nonprofit , the Donald J. Trump Foundation.

Also...

The same kind of autographed helmet and jersey that Trump bought for $12,000 are now available for about $415, total, online.

I like the part in the WaPo story where Komen points out how Drumpf never gave them cash and he seemingly sparingly contributed to his own foundation as well. Classy as fuck.

The Drumpf is in Denver today at the Western Conservative Summit. Mike Shanahan is hosting a $10k/plate fundraiser for him with Pete Coors today. I am so disappointed as a Broncos fan.

Palin's there as well.





The videos that are sure to appear next week will be a hoot.

Enough wrote:The Drumpf is in Denver today at the Western Conservative Summit. Mike Shanahan is hosting a $10k/plate fundraiser for him with Pete Coors today. I am so disappointed as a Broncos fan.

Hmmm... wonder if this will be enough to shake gilraen's support of the Broncos.

hepcat wrote:Speaking of which...



Even Fox news is showing Trump behind.

Since when has the TV media been current, conservatives have discovered how to use the internet and they've been killing it on facebook for the last two weeks.

A comment about being "current" and the example is discovering Facebook?

I'm going to reserve judgment on the candidates until I've had time to review their MySpace pages.

em2nought wrote:Since when has the TV media been current, conservatives have discovered how to use the internet and they've been killing it on facebook for the last two weeks.

Because, as we all know, organizations like CNN, Reuters, Wall St. Journal, Fox News, and Washington Post have no online presence at all and are strictly TV-based.

I can't even fathom what it means that conservatives have been killing it on Facebook.

RunningMn9 wrote:I can't even fathom what it means that conservatives have been killing it on Facebook.

It means that their echo chamber has the best echoes.

Skinypupy wrote:

em2nought wrote:Since when has the TV media been current, conservatives have discovered how to use the internet and they've been killing it on facebook for the last two weeks.

Because, as we all know, organizations like CNN, Reuters, Wall St. Journal, Fox News, and Washington Post have no online presence at all and are strictly TV-based.

Never the less they always seem to be a bit behind. Yes I'm behind too, kind of ignored whatever those other things are twitters and hashtags, and whatever else is the newest method of replacing voice to voice communications. lol

I'm guessing conservatives have evolved their face book skills to now include posting cat videos? They really are ahead of the game, ain't they?

em2nought wrote:

Skinypupy wrote:

em2nought wrote:Since when has the TV media been current, conservatives have discovered how to use the internet and they've been killing it on facebook for the last two weeks.

Because, as we all know, organizations like CNN, Reuters, Wall St. Journal, Fox News, and Washington Post have no online presence at all and are strictly TV-based.

Never the less they always seem to be a bit behind. Yes I'm behind too, kind of ignored whatever those other things are twitters and hashtags, and whatever else is the newest method of replacing voice to voice communications. lol

So subtle, Donald.

Edit: this was a post of his Star of David tweet, but he's since deleted it.

WTF is up with Trump tweeting a Star of David along with a pile of cash and a tag line about "crooked Hillary"?

He's done some crazy stuff in connection with courting the lowest elements of the Republican base, but this is right up there in terms of blatant anti-Semitic bigotry. Crazy.

Gonna have to defer to Rip to find out where we're seeing this all wrong.

Or for a special salute.

tjg_marantz wrote:Gonna have to defer to Rip to find out where we're seeing this all wrong.

Or for a special salute.

It was just a picture of a star. Quit being such a whiny, overly PC baby about it.

(Rip, am I doing this right?)

It's too early for stars to matter.

I doubt the star even registered, it was just a balloon with the text he wanted.

Then obviously someone pointed out it was a star of david and what the dirt diggers might infer from it so he deleted it. One of the risks of not having 20 layers of spokespeople and lawyers between you and any interaction with the world.

"Where's my Hebrew? Where is he? Oh, there he is! Stand up, Moishe. That's my sheeny. Mazel tov, Moishe. Now sit down."

Rip wrote:One of the risks of not having 20 layers of spokespeople and lawyers between you and any interaction with the world.

At least having a layer is something one might want to consider when trying to become leader of the free world. Just a thought...

Skinypupy wrote:

Rip wrote:One of the risks of not having 20 layers of spokespeople and lawyers between you and any interaction with the world.

At least having a layer is something one might want to consider when trying to become leader of the free world. Just a thought...

I'm sure, but the fact remains this was nothing more than a silly mistake/oversight. Not a sign of some untold anti-semitism.

Not something major like not knowing how to pronounce corpsman.

No, it"s a lot more than that, and it's hard to comprehend how you can't see it.

Star of David + mountains of cash + allegation of "crookedness" = irrefutable evidence of anti-Semitism. And the suggestion that it could just be "a silly mistake/oversight" ignores the fact that there are significant and virulent strains of anti-Semitism running through segments of Trump's base, and this is an issue that he is well aware of. You can't feign surprise or claim it's a mistake when the dogs come running after you've used a dog whistle, especially when you've been told over and over again that there's a pack of dogs nearby.

I'm willing to believe that Trump himself may not be a racist and a bigot. But there's no way you can argue in good faith that the stuff he's said and done on so many occasions -- including this latest -- isn't racist and bigoted.

And that's even worse to me. He (or those in his campaign) are purposefully trying to leverage race/religion/ethnicity as a wedge because they know that helps to rally a certain section of his base.

I fully understand that there are people in this country who have experienced a very different reality from the one I have. While I don't accept it, I can forgive and even understand on some level that parts of Trump's base are racist xenophobes. But playing off those people's worst tendencies is unforgivable.

Stop feeding him.

Kurth wrote:And the suggestion that it could just be "a silly mistake/oversight" ignores the fact that there are significant and virulent strains of anti-Semitism running through segments of Trump's base, and this is an issue that he is well aware of.

If it wasn't for Trump's base, Israel would have been overrun long ago. I'd more likely believe that Obama's base are the true anti-Semites.

I have to admit I didn't actually get the star reference. And I consider myself a whole lot more intelligent than him so perhaps it was an honest mistake. Or maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough. Or maybe I was too busy being horrified by the horrible photoshop (or was it MS paint?) job.

em2nought wrote:

Kurth wrote:And the suggestion that it could just be "a silly mistake/oversight" ignores the fact that there are significant and virulent strains of anti-Semitism running through segments of Trump's base, and this is an issue that he is well aware of.

If it wasn't for Trump's base, Israel would have been overrun long ago. I'd more likely believe that Obama's base are the true anti-Semites.

Complete BS. You do realize that white supremacists overwhelmingly support Trump, right? Why do you think that is?

I'm willing to believe this ad was just a mistake, but your rebuttal is just utter crap.

hepcat wrote:

em2nought wrote:

Kurth wrote:And the suggestion that it could just be "a silly mistake/oversight" ignores the fact that there are significant and virulent strains of anti-Semitism running through segments of Trump's base, and this is an issue that he is well aware of.

If it wasn't for Trump's base, Israel would have been overrun long ago. I'd more likely believe that Obama's base are the true anti-Semites.

Complete BS. You do realize that white supremacists overwhelmingly support Trump, right? Why do you think that is?

I'm willing to believe this ad was just a mistake, but your rebuttal is just utter crap.

Not to mention that Jews voted in large numbers for Obama. Those anti-Semites.

Captain Caveman wrote:Not to mention that Jews voted in large numbers for Obama. Those anti-Semites.

Jews yes, Israelis no. Israelis overwhelmingly supported Romney.
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