Octopus Overlords

Carpet_pissr wrote:

Mitch T. McConnell wrote:McConnell joined a growing list of Senate Republicans who sought to distance themselves from supporting Trump Friday night.

"Our support for this deplorable piece of garbage was and is repugnant, and unacceptable in any circumstance," McConnell said. "As a Republican party leader, I strongly believe that we need to apologize directly to the American people, and take full responsibility for supporting this morally disgusting, ideologically pathological, dangerous threat to our country."

That's good, but he's no DeNiro.

Futurama voice actor Billy West has been tweeting Donald Trump quotes in Zapp Brannigan's voice.

I'm a little sad to see that he has ruled out Trump's hot mic quotes as too lewd for this project.

The hashtag, however, is superb: #MakeAmericaBrannigan

That tweet is amazing. I was at a diner last night and they had it on the tv when it happened. All of us facing it saw that but had no idea what had been said. I just sent it to the crew.

Smoove_B wrote:While I like the idea of goons like McConnell standing in front of a group of reporters gritting his teeth and needing to STILL support Trump, I also know he's a soulless husk that feels nothing.

These are people who believe that, in the aftermath of the Trump debacle, party loyalty will be of paramount importance. Assuming that the party can remain intact, careers will be made and broken over which side they took, or how skillfully they straddled the line (e.g., trying to simultaneously support the nominee and deplore the individual).

Bear in mind that, as much as this election is a referendum on Trump, Republicans for the next 4-8 years are going to have to justify having failed to oppose (or not) Hillary Clinton. By the next election cycle Trump will be a half-forgotten caricature while Clinton is more hated than ever, and "at least I didn't support Hillary Goddam Clinton" could prove to have been the smarter option.

Not that they have any good options.

Smoove_B wrote:While I like the idea of goons like McConnell standing in front of a group of reporters gritting his teeth and needing to STILL support Trump, I also know he's a soulless husk that feels nothing.

Not so much any more.

Not surprisingly, I'm still reading about countless individuals on social media who still support Trump.

Most are saying this happened many years ago and he said he was sorry.

WTF

Xmann wrote:Not surprisingly, I'm still reading about countless individuals on social media who still support Trump.

Most are saying this happened many years ago and he said he was sorry.

WTF

My Evangelicals have gone silent while my Deplorables are doubling down.

The concern now is that Trump actually withdraws. Pence - a wing nuts wing nut looks "reasonable" by comparison and becomes an actual threat to be elected?

Thought I just read that Trump this morning says no way he's withdrawing

Holman wrote:My Evangelicals have gone silent while my Deplorables are doubling down.

I was watching a high school football game last night with one of my friends, who is a deplorable. He made an offhand joke about him being a deplorable. I was like "Mark, in fairness to Hillary...you are actually deplorable." He had no defense for that. Because he is pretty deplorable (but in an amusing way, not in a terrible racist way).

Xmann wrote:Thought I just read that Trump this morning says no way he's withdrawing

He's confirmed several times that he has no intention of withdrawing. He's no quitter.

I think we'll see him faking contrition at the debate tomorrow. Even he knows he can't go on the attack this weekend... surely.

Why I think he won't drop out:

Losing the election means little to him. He'll make noises about fighting the good fight and being cheated by the media and by both party establishments. Then he'll move on to his next angle as Palinesque outsider leader of the GOP's Frankenstein insurgency. There, he gets all of the influence with none of the work and blame of the presidency.

Quitting the race, however, sinks his brand and leaves him no such golden path. It humiliates him the way votes can't.

It will be interesting to see what he does. On the one hand, his ego won't let him quit, but on the other it won't let him be beaten like a drum, either.

Notice how all his surrogates have been strangely quiet (although that "apology" had Kellyanne Conway written all over it). Frankly I'm surprised Christie and Giuliani (Trump's Goring and Goebbels*) weren't all over television claiming that the recording was a phony made by Hillary's camp.

And let's not forget that Pence is just as horrific in his own way.






















*Shamelessly stolen from Bill Maher

tgb wrote: Notice how all his surrogates have been strangely quiet (although that "apology" had Kellyanne Conway written all over it). Frankly I'm surprised Christie and Giuliani (Trump's Goring and Goebbels*) weren't all over television claiming that the recording was a phony made by Hillary's camp.

The reports on cable news last night were that the campaign ordered surrogates to stay off TV at least for the remainder of the weekend before Sunday's debate.

Holman wrote:

Xmann wrote:Not surprisingly, I'm still reading about countless individuals on social media who still support Trump.

Most are saying this happened many years ago and he said he was sorry.

WTF

My Evangelicals have gone silent while my Deplorables are doubling down.

Most of the deplorables I know are either playing the "But Clinton treats people so much worse" card ( ), or the "that was just guy talk" card (seriously, ew).

Holman wrote:I think we'll see him faking contrition at the debate tomorrow. Even he knows he can't go on the attack this weekend... surely.

I dunno...I think the only defense Trump knows is offense. He's hinted that he is going to go after Bill Clinton's philandering and Hillary as enabler; I expect him to double down on that. (And I think Hillary can swat it away with "Bill's not running".)

I'm expecting 90 minutes of blatant and thinly veiled ad hominem attacks. Blame-the-media will figure prominently, too. Could be a new low in political discourse.

FWIW I can't imagine Trump dropping out, either. His instinct is to circle the wagons and counterattack. If there's any justice in the world, he'll lose everyone except the deplorables after tomorrow night. But if there were any justice in the world he never would have come this far.

I can imagine him dropping out of the third debate, though, if tomorrow's the disaster we're all hoping for.

gilraen wrote:

tgb wrote: Notice how all his surrogates have been strangely quiet (although that "apology" had Kellyanne Conway written all over it). Frankly I'm surprised Christie and Giuliani (Trump's Goring and Goebbels*) weren't all over television claiming that the recording was a phony made by Hillary's camp.

The reports on cable news last night were that the campaign ordered surrogates to stay off TV at least for the remainder of the weekend before Sunday's debate.

I'll bet.

Now that Trump has made it clear he's going to stay in, I can bet his number one strategy is to focus over and over again on Bill Clinton's exploits and try to paint Hillary as the enabler. Oddly, a fair amount of 1990s fashion has come back in recently as well. Ugh. This is going to get toxic gross, buckle up folks.

tgb wrote:I'm one of those who find it a little surprising/amusing that supporters are choosing this quote as the excuse to break away, when he's been saying and doing things just a vile for the past 15 months.

Me too, but on the other hand, I'm glad something finally stuck. Or seems to be sticking. We'll see.

GreenGoo wrote:

tgb wrote:I'm one of those who find it a little surprising/amusing that supporters are choosing this quote as the excuse to break away, when he's been saying and doing things just a vile for the past 15 months.

Me too, but on the other hand, I'm glad something finally stuck. Or seems to be sticking. We'll see.

There are other highly objectionable things that are easy for establishment Republicans to look past. The crazy policy shit? Trump can't actually build walls or keep Muslims out without the help of Congress, and Congress ain't got time for that nonsense.

You can't hide from this. This is just Trump taking a giant shit on 51% of the electorate. At some point you get to the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Unless you're a delusional asshole like Laura Ingraham, who went on a twitter rant to blame the media for conspiring against Saint Trump.

One of our NJ elected deplorables is suggesting Pence would be a better choice. Given Pence's history, it's not surprising:

WASHINGTON — Rep. Scott Garrett, a leader of the House Republicans' most conservative wing and facing a tough fight for re-election, criticized Donald Trump's comments about women on Saturday and suggested that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence would be a better presidential candidate.

While stopping short of asking Trump to step aside, Garrett (R-5th Dist.) said Pence, the vice-presidential nominee, "would be the best nominee for the Republican Party to defeat Hillary Clinton."

When you have a known bigot strongly implying his party's candidate might not be the best choice...trouble.

Rep. Garrett is my arch-enemy. I go to sleep every night praying that this is the year he loses.

I think Trump's support comes from people desperate for change. This would be why establishment Republican candidates died on the vine. He's sort of the Republican version in 2016 of what Obama was in 2008, someone you can vote for to 'send a message'. Well, he's still the candidate to vote for if you want to send that message.

That's why I don't see why this latest controversy is going to hurt him. To the idiots out there who have given him their support, only to withdraw it now, all I can do is roll my eyes. You knew what you were buying, why return it now?

The 'undecideds' are not really undecided imo. They are just not comfortable admitting what they've decided. I think a lot of people will vote for Hilary when it's time, but do not ever want to tell anyone they are voting for her. I think a lot of people will vote for Trump and never admit it to anyone. That's the suspense of this election for me, which of these groups of embarrassed voters is larger?

geezer wrote:The concern now is that Trump actually withdraws. Pence - a wing nuts wing nut looks "reasonable" by comparison and becomes an actual threat to be elected?

+1

This was my first reaction when I watched the video. Concern that this is big enough to sink him, and that someone reasonable could take his place.

Carpet_pissr wrote:

geezer wrote:The concern now is that Trump actually withdraws. Pence - a wing nuts wing nut looks "reasonable" by comparison and becomes an actual threat to be elected?

+1

This was my first reaction when I watched the video. Concern that this is big enough to sink him, and that someone reasonable could take his place.

It's logistically too late for them to replace Trump on ballots - early voting has already started, every state has a different system, some have paper ballots (that have already been printed), some have touch-screen machines that cannot be easily reprogrammed (they would literally have to be shipped back to the manufacturer, as no remote access is ever allowed).

Hoist with his own tweet.

Reports from today's Wisconsin event are that the crowd is unhappy with Ryan distancing himself from Trump.

Frankenstein!

Holman wrote:Reports from today's Wisconsin event are that the crowd is unhappy with Ryan distancing himself from Trump.

Frankenstein!

NO, NO, NO.

That's Frankenstein's Monster. Frankenstein's the scientist. Sheesh, it's October, there's going to be a test at the end of the month.

Holman wrote:Reports from today's Wisconsin event are that the crowd is unhappy with Ryan distancing himself from Trump.

Frankenstein!

Yeah, they just showed a bit of Ryan's speech, and while he's talking, people in the crowd are periodically yelling, "Donald Trump!" Clearly they didn't come to that event to listen to Ryan talk about Obamacare and GOP politics

“I am sickened by what I heard today,” Ryan said in a statement. “Women are to be championed and revered . . .

. . . and told what to do with their bodies!

Defiant wrote:

Holman wrote:Reports from today's Wisconsin event are that the crowd is unhappy with Ryan distancing himself from Trump.

Frankenstein!

NO, NO, NO.

That's Frankenstein's Monster. Frankenstein's the scientist. Sheesh, it's October, there's going to be a test at the end of the month.

It's completely acceptable shorthand!

---

Also, this just in: Ben Carson speaks for Trump.

The loyal Carson says he has met with Trump, and the takeaways are (1) Trump isn't quitting, and (2) the campaign expects more revelations to come. (One theory going around is that the producers of The Apprentice are sitting on hundreds of hours of footage of Trump being Trump.)

Remember when the whole GOP strategy was for secret revelations to destroy Hillary Clinton?

"Knowledge is knowing that Frankenstein is not the monster. Wisdom is knowing that Frankenstein is the monster."
--original source unknown

milo wrote:"Knowledge is knowing that Frankenstein is not the monster. Wisdom is knowing that Frankenstein is the monster."
--original source unknown

*Yoink*

Hey, remember when "binders full of women" was cringe-worthy? Man, those were the days.

And . . . he just lost McCain:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/sen-joh ... nald-trump

Holman wrote:

Defiant wrote:

Holman wrote:Reports from today's Wisconsin event are that the crowd is unhappy with Ryan distancing himself from Trump.

Frankenstein!

NO, NO, NO.

That's Frankenstein's Monster. Frankenstein's the scientist. Sheesh, it's October, there's going to be a test at the end of the month.

It's completely acceptable shorthand!

---

Also, this just in: Ben Carson speaks for Trump.

The loyal Carson says he has met with Trump, and the takeaways are (1) Trump isn't quitting, and (2) the campaign expects more revelations to come. (One theory going around is that the producers of The Apprentice are sitting on hundreds of hours of footage of Trump being Trump.)

Maybe if he prays hard enough no one will ever hear from the videos again.