Good Morning!
I’ve pretty much had the television off all week. I could only handle Haterpalooza in small doses of video and print. The Republican Party has no claim to anything any more other than enabling white supremacists, nativists, and bigots. I am no longer patient with any one that is looking towards a third party vote. Donald Trump is not a sane person. He is not a mature adult. He is a clear and present danger to the existence of humanity, this country, and the world. The act of nominating Donald Trump is a declaration of war on humanity, the US Constitution, and civilization. There is no amount of blackmailing emotional, philosophical, or verbal gymnastics that you can do to justify a vote for anyone but Hillary Clinton at this point or you’ve just joined a war against humankind imho.
Here’s Ezra Klein from Vox on the man who wants to be Fascist in Chief. Donald Trump has a dark, hell-realm filled vision of and for the 
USA.
Donald Trump is not a candidate the American people would turn to in normal times. He’s too inexperienced, too eccentric, too volatile, too risky. Voting Trump is burning down the house to collect the insurance money — you don’t do it unless things are really, really bad.
Here is Trump’s problem: Things are not really, really bad. In fact, things are doing much better than when President Obama came into office.
Unemployment is 4.9 percent nationally — a number Trump knows is far from a crisis, because it’s lower than the unemployment rate Mike Pence is presiding over in Indiana, and Trump keeps bragging about his running mate’s economic record. The deficit has gone down in recent years, and the stock market has gone up. The end of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars mean fewer Americans are dying abroad. A plurality approve of the job Obama is doing.
So Trump needs to convince voters that things are bad, even if they’re not. He needs to make Americans afraid again. And tonight, he tried.
“Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation,” Trump said. “The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.”
As Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for Obama, wrote on Twitter, this was Trump’s “Nightmare in America” speech. The address had one goal, and one goal only: to persuade Americans that their country is a dangerous, besieged hellscape, and only Donald Trump can fix it.
I have watched the Republican Party’s decline for some time. It hasn’t been pretty. But this is beyond ugly. Last night was a parade of white supremacists, theocrats, bigots, and the worst the country has had to offer. Any one that does not speak out against this cannot have the country’s best interests at heart. They are simply acting out of some kind of selfishness and privilege that’s beyond my grasp. So, now that I’ve quoted liberal Ezra Klein. Let me get you to the libertarian thoughts on the speech last night. ” Donald Trump’s RNC Speech Was a Terrifying Display of Nightmarish Authoritarianism. The GOP presidential nominee had only one solution to every problem: Give him more power.”
Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican nomination was easily the most overt display of authoritarian fear-mongering I can remember seeing in American politics. The entire speech was dark and dystopian, painting America as a dismal, dangerous place beset by violent outsiders. In response to the nation’s problems, Trump had only one solution: Donald Trump, the strongman who would take America back, by force if necessary.
Trump framed the speech by painting America as a nation under siege from urban crime, terrorism, and immigrants. He talked of rising homicide levels in some cities. He warned darkly of terrorist and immigrants, practically conflating them with urban violence, and told stories of Americans killed by those who had entered the country illegally. The simplest and more straightforward way to interpret Trump’s speech was as a warning that outsiders are coming to America to kill you and your family.
It was a relentlessly grim and gloomy picture of America, built on thinly disguised racial distrust and paranoia. It was a portrait that was also essentially false. Violent crime has been steadily falling for more than two decades. Immigrants are less prone to criminality than native-born Americans.
But portraying America in such a dark light let Trump cast himself as the nation’s dark hero, a kind of billionaire-businessman fixer, unbound by rules or expectations of decorum—President Batman, the only one with the guts and the will to fight for the people.
Trump did not invoke superpowers, of course, but he might as well have; he had no other ideas or solutions to offer.
In addition to terrorism and criminality, Trump stoked anxiety about jobs and the economy, lamenting bad trade deals and the loss of manufacturing jobs. As president, he said, he would take our bad trade deals—especially NAFTA—and turn them into good ones. He did not say one word about how, or even what a “good” trade would look like, only that he would fix the problem. Trump promised to bring outsourced jobs back to America, and, as he has in the past, threatened unspecified “consequences” to companies that move operations overseas.
Trump’s entire speech was packed with threats and power grabs, details be damned. It was a speech about how government should be made bigger and stronger and given more authority over every part of American life, and government, in most cases, simply meant Donald Trump himself. It was an argument for unlimited government under a single man, for rule by Trump’s whim. He sounded less like he was running for president and more like he was campaigning to be an American despot.
Our Dear Miss Brooks calls it the “Death of the Republican Party”. He refers to Trump as the Dark Knight. I prefer to see him as the Joker.
But if Trump is detached from the country, and uninterested in anything but himself, he’s also detached from his party. Trump is not really changing his party as much as dissolving it. A normal party has an apparatus of professionals, who have been around for a while and who can get things done. But those people might as well not exist. This was the most shambolically mis-run convention in memory. A normal party is united by a consistent belief system. For decades, the Republican Party has stood for a forward-looking American-led international order abroad and small-government democratic capitalism at home. Trump is decimating that, too, along with the things Republicans stood for: NATO, entitlement reform, compassionate conservatism and the relatively open movement of ideas, people and trade.
Another long time Republican crony has quit the Republican party. Daniel Pipes joins the likes of Mary Matalin on the rat swim away from the ship.
The Republican Party nominated Donald Trump as its candidate for president of the United States – and I responded by ending my 44-year GOP membership.
Here’s why I bailed, quit, and jumped ship:
First, Trump’s boorish, selfish, puerile, and repulsive character, combined with his prideful ignorance, his off-the-cuff policy making, and his neo-fascistic tendencies make him the most divisive and scary of any serious presidential candidate in American history. He is precisely “the man the founders feared,” in Peter Wehner’s memorable phrase. I want to be no part of this.
Second, his flip-flopping on the issues (“everything is negotiable”) means that, as president, he has the mandate to do any damn thing he wants. This unprecedented and terrifying prospect could mean suing unfriendly reporters or bulldozing a recalcitrant Congress. It could also mean martial law. Count me out.
There are more reasons. Go check it out.
This is what happens when you sell your soul to angry bigots to pass tax cuts for the very wealthy. I should be dancing on a lot of graves–happily Roger Ailes is gone from Fox because the Barbie Army turned him in–but I can’t dance. I can’t celebrate. I can only stand here with my hair on fire and scream.
I’ve got so many places to send you for folks writing about how horrified they were by last night and 
the entire week. I’m going to let my friend Peter rep for them. Peter, I know this goes a step beyond “fair usage” but damn you Godwinned and you Godwinned appropriately.
I am obviously biased: I hate Donald Trump and am appalled that this sociopath has won a major party nomination. Following Trump closely has led me to modify my belief in Godwin’s Law. Here’s a rough paraphrase of it: mention the Nazis in an argument and you lose. I’ve always avoided Nazi and Fascist comparisons, believing them to be hyperbolic: who was worse than Hitler, after all?While I still don’t anticipate an American holocaust in the unlikely event that Trump is elected, I have to place Godwin’s Law on the back burner for the duration of the campaign. Donald Trump and his supporters represent the dark side of the American psyche and must be stopped.
On to the speech, I thought it was, in equal parts, horrible and horrifying. It was dark, brooding, and jumbled. The delivery was LOUD and wildly OTT. I felt bludgeoned after being screamed at for 76 minutes as well as depressed by listening to a speech that didn’t describe the America I live in.In between accusing Hillary Clinton and James Comey of crimes against the state, Trump told us to be scared, very scared. Even the ostensibly “uplifting” parts were stepped on by Trump’s red-faced, angry, and shouty delivery. I have my doubts that the American people want to be screamed at for four years. It will be bad enough to be shouted at for the next 3 1/2 months.
In substance, tone and delivery, it was a white nationalist speech full of attacks on minorities and immigrants. Brown people scare Donald Trump and he wants you to be afraid too. The speech went over well in the anti-Semitic community as well:
Great Trump Speech, America First! Stop Wars! Defeat the Corrupt elites! Protect our Borders!, Fair Trade! Couldn’t have said it better!
In addition to being delivered in a rather Hitlerian manner, Trump’s solution to every problem was himself. I am your voice, he said several times. Sounds like the Fuhrer principle to me. I wasn’t sure if he’s running for President or Dictator. If you saw it, you know it was that bad. The rest of the convention was funny, Trump’s speech was not.
No one will be surprised to hear that the speech was packed with lies and half-truths calculated to scare the living shit out of the audience. Politics USA has come up with 21 fact checked proven lies in the speech. I’m surprised it was that few. The audacity of mendacity should be the campaign’s slogan instead of Making America
WhiteGreat Again.
Please notice the number of likes from last night on the David Duke Tweet and start being very afraid.
I’m going to make this short because I expect there will be another post up shortly announcing the VEEP choice of Clinton and it deserves a stand alone post.
Just rant away here because I know I feel a strong need to rant and cry. Here are some associated links.
The One Reaction Every one should have via The Root.
Celebrity Reaction via CBS (Yeah, how the great have fallen… poor Uncle Walter.)
NPR Fact Checks the speech. (Shorter NPR: Lies and Bigotry)
Oy. Just. OY.
Comments
97 responses to “Friday Reads: Voting is an Act of Citizenship not Philosophical Masturbation”
You can read the vile thing here: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/full-transcript-donald-trump-nomination-acceptance-speech-at-rnc-225974
No thanks, I read it yesterday and watched most of it last night. The only thing missing was German and the Hitler mustache.
I also watched Carl Bernstein this morning on CNN say that Trump’s speech was successful and that Hillary can’t counter him because she’s “a weak messenger.”
Mika also said the speech “worked.” Joe S. wasn’t as happy with it.
Mika has gone to the dark side. The gossip rags are saying that Mika and Joe have a thing going on. And to think, once upon a time I thought Mika had some class. Those days are gone.
Those folks need to check their privilege and check to see if their hearts ran off to the same place they’ve been hiding Cheney’s since birth. If they’re that greedy and attention starved, their brains are akin to pond scum.
I am speechless yet again.
Scary, isn’t it?
Trump has emboldened a swarm of racist misogynist thugs.
Word!
Trump gave a truly unhinged press conference this morning.
Yeah. I saw that. It was completely unhinged but at least CNN got called out for the good work of Lewandowski.
Trump is not a sane person.
Here’s Manafort saying women need higher salaries for men …
http://www.forwardprogressives.com/trump-campaign-chair-women-like-him-because-they-cant-take-care-of-themselves-video/
I heard Manafort make that comment and he was called out on it. The GOP still thinks it’s 1960.
The only VP candidates that aren’t on the new list of DNC speakers are Perez and Castro.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-republican-convention-2016-trump-1469129675-htmlstory.html
Kaine is still in Massachusetts, Warren is in Florida.
Nope, Castro is on the list. Looks like the VP pick could be Perez.
Is Vlisak on the list? I don’t see it.
Vilsack, I mean
Clinton is in Orlando
Warren is in Orlando
Kaine is in Boston
Perez is in DC
Vilsack is scheduled to be in Missouri
Tom Vilsack has finished his town hall meeting in Columbia, Missouri where he was discussing the opioid abuse crisis. He declined comment on his travel plans in the immediate future.
http://www.abc17news.com/news/ag-secretary-tom-vilsack-visits-columbia-stays-mum-on-vp-speculation/40839004
Well rats!!!
Hillary in Orlando. Warren in Orlando. Could be coincidence, but I think not! No one in the party generates enthusiasm more than Warren. She may be too good to pass up.
Just heard they will text us at 3:30 and joint appearance in Miami tomorrow
Kat, did you get any clue about who the pick will be?
Nope
Change in in the 3:30 plan. CNN is reporting that the Clinton campaign is debating when to text the VP announcement given the ongoing situation in Munich.
Thx. Guess we seen in 45 minutes.
Carl Bernstein is a loathsome person, whose mind is so filled with unreasoning hate of Hillary Clinton, that there is apparently nothing he would not prefer to her election. But the real issue is that the TV media gives him a “pundit spot” where he can daily spew forth his hatred for Hillary. The cable news is filled with right-wing people who hate Hillary and like Trump; left-wing or nihilist people who hate Hillary; and then a few carefully selected weak Hillary supporters, who play the role of the genial punching bag Alan Colmes. It is not a coincidence, it is not our own biases coming into play; it is the actual truth that our TV and radio media is virulently anti-Hillary Clinton, and mostly rabidly right-wing. And what these people may be like at home, away from the TV cameras, is not the issue; it is what they disseminate on the air which is the horrible problem.
We’ve seen historically, most notably in the rise to power of the Nazis, that too many people are susceptible to lies and hate-filled rants. A reasonably honorable media would be a protection against this, but ours seems to almost enable, if not encourage, it. Whether s generous person wants to call it “false equivalence,” or “trying to get ratings,” or whether it is something far more insidious,, it is pervasive. Trump’s speech was filled with easy to identify lies and distortions and ridiculous promises, the kind that all would-be dictators make to gain power. If the media does not want to point any of this out, then they are virtually as culpable; partners to fascism.
I totally agree.
Ditto that!
I have to say that I found something that Trump said yesterday about Hillary amusing. He called her “weak.” HA! She is a lot of things. But she is anything but weak and Trump will experience what being strong is all about.
Isn’t that from the Karl Rove playbook? Accuse your opponent of the very thing they’re saying about you.
It’s really kind of schoolyard bully tactics.
Munich shooting.. several dead, . Large shopping mall complex..eye witness says 3shooters… people asked to avoid public places in Munich…
Shelter in place
This is shocking to watch. I was in Germany in 1972. Reminds me of that …
I certainly remember that too.
They seem to have targeted tourist areas. I heard one was a McDonald’s.
And a shopping center
Munich police report 5 people dead, up to 3 shooters still at large.
The world has gone mad.
Yes. Additional report is that shooter(s) were targeting children.
Omigawd. That’s horrible!
Terrible, and they are wondering if it is another Ring Wing Nut, like the guy in Norway, Andrew Behring Breivik. He shot 85 young people! These are the Neo Nazi types.
They think a shooter is dead of suicide so his identity will provide lots of information.
Thanks for the shout-out. It was very hard for me to drop Godwin’s Law. I still believe in it but ya gotta do what you gotta do.
These are strange and unusual circumstances. We are out their in the tails. I’m just hoping if we get a look at the distribution that the tails aren’t fat.
Watching Ivanka I kept thinking about beauty pageants. Her delivery reminded me so much of those women speeches. She looked to me like she confused the platform.
Yes. Good thought. Did you see her dad kinda groped her? Maybe that’s what threw her off.
Sometimes it seems like he doesn’t see the people around him.
I saw that went for the hips.
Check out @giphy’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/giphy/status/756315381455740928?s=09
Whut
That should really help with the terrific relationship between Melania and the kids, huh?
You cannot unsee that, can you?
It’s been all over Twitter since this morning, and someone said he has done that to her before.
Ickkkkkkk
I hope this goes viral.
I didn’t see all the details, the pats as he groped her. And she says she is so devoted to her Pappy.
I’m beginning to fear that these constant attacks maybe false flag incidents perpetrated by the powers that be to install Trump.
Just kidding, sort of.
I wonder if things will settle down when the weather cools off. I vaguely recall reading the long hot summers don’t help with these sorts of things. People are so agitated – it is frightening.
We could all surely use a calm collected dose of Hillary love and togetherness.
Somewhat good news:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/22/purvi-patel-abortion-sentence-reduced
From the article:
Patel’s conviction, in 2015, made her a national symbol in the debate swirling around abortion. Last week, when Donald Trump selected the Indiana governor, Mike Pence, as his partner on the Republican presidential ticket, many abortion rights groups invoked Patel’s name as a cautionary tale. Trump has said women who have illegal abortions ought to face “some form of punishment”. And activists had prevailed upon Pence to clarify the 2009 law used to convict her, without success.
Good.
Feticide? How did that become a thing?
Mike Pence was governor?
They charged her with feticide AND child neglect. As if that makes sense.
This is ridiculous. Hillary should have announced last night. Now she’s going to draw it out until it becomes. anticlimactic if it turns out to be Kaine or Vilsack. She should just get it over with.
Hillary just tweeted about the “horrific situation” in Munich and said “We stand with our friends in Germany”.
I imagine she want’s some air of cheer and festivity when she introduces her Veep pick.
She can’t be seen happy and clapping as the death toll in Germany rises.
Plus, we don’t know if they’re are any Americans among the dead.
All the news now is focused on the Munich attack. It would be the wrong time to make the VP announcement.
One woman was hiding in the McDonald’s bathroom with her son. They are safe but she said she saw a gunman shooting directly into the faces of children.
Are more than 5 dead?
Now police are reporting “at least 8 dead”. The focus of the attack seems to have been the McDonald’s which was full of people, lots of them families.
They’re saying it’s likely a right wing attack. Shooters were making racist comments against Turks and it’s the 5th anniversary of that Norway Shooter
Wow. It went up again.
Six now.
We’re at 9 dead now.
Her Tampa rally is still on but now they’re saying the announcement will be later tonight. MSNBC sent Andrea there. Whoopee
Andrea, ugh.
Thank God there’s a bar!
Dang! I’m supposed to go see a movie tonight. I’d rather stay and celebrate here! OTOH I can miss Andrea. If I were her and that rich I’d retire – they’ve got new talent already! Let it GO Andrea!
eeks hope that wasn’t ageist….
Here’s hoping for the best Skydancers! It’s gonna be Liz Warren – I’ve got a good feeling…
I think it’s good for her to postpone the VP announcement, in view of the Munich tragedy.
Then as soon as I finished that thought, I also thought that these cruel situations are happening so often now that there may be no safe time. That in itself is one of the reasons we need Hillary as POTUS.
Listening to her speech. Wow!
I know. She’s knocking it out of the park. What a joy to listen to her.
Love trumps hate!
Wasn’t it great to hear some sanity, and her voice and tone beautiful, along with those wonderful words. I trust her 110%.
Oh, and I love the olive green with gold bottons, and shoulder pads……..super nice taste. Very presidential.
Hillary on now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5_pUTHDEWc
Such a refreshing change from the last few days!
No VP announcement
They’re saying later tonight
Caught a broadcast of that. Such sanity and goodness. She made some powerful points against Trump “trash talking America.” And his politics of hatred, and making fun of how Trump thinks he alone can fix things, all by his Trumpish self. She will be a remarkable President.
Love Trumps Hate. Love Trumps Hate. Love Trumps Hate. Remember that.
Breaking news: Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel, Donald Trump University Case will proceed, and go forward!
Oh, can’t you just see Trump’s tantrums when he heard that? Bwhaha!
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
They’re playing up Kaine on MSNBC.
Same on CNN.
Just now being informed? Is that the way it is usually done?
https://twitter.com/CNN/status/756638212882333696
The heat and humidity are getting to me. It’s a swamp here. I think I’ll go to bed early, then be pleasantly surprised in the morning when the VP pick is Brown or Warren.
Sleep well?
Not so much.
I hope you can! Humidity keeps me up.