Lazy Saturday Reads: Donald Trump’s Massive Meltdown Continues
Posted: October 1, 2016 Filed under: Afternoon Reads, U.S. Politics | Tags: Alicia Machado, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, misogyny, Sexism, Twitter 42 Comments
Good Afternoon!!
Where to begin? Donald Trump appears to be very publicly self-destructing while Hillary Clinton goes about her business, giving speeches about real issues. The Sun-Sentinel:
CORAL SPRINGS – Hillary Clinton showed she knew her South Florida audience, provided a dose of policy prescriptions and offered lots of Donald Trump bashing at a campaign rally Friday.
People in the crowd of more than 2,000 — most of whom stood for hours in a sweltering gymnasium waiting for her arrival and during her speech — loved what they heard.
The article summarizes the high points of Hillary speech and later discusses the latest Florida polls–Hillary is leading now.
Most of the 28-minute speech alternated between citing the lofty policy goals she wants to achieve if elected and criticizing Trump, the Republican nominee. She’d mention a goal, jab at Trump, mention another policy, criticize Trump again, then continue repeating the pattern.
Clinton said she offers a more optimistic view of America than Trump. “I’ve never heard such a dark, fearful image of our country coming from someone who wants to be president of the United States,” she said. “When he talks, sometimes I don’t even recognize the country he’s talking about.”
After she bought up clean energy, she mocked Trump for being afraid to mention his idea of a wall between the U.S. and Mexico when he visited that country. Then she ridiculed Trump for his middle-of the-night Twitter tirades.
“Really, who gets up at 3 o’clock in the morning to engage in a Twitter attack against a former Miss Universe?” she said. “I mean his latest Twitter meltdown is unhinged, even for him. It proves yet again that he is temperamentally unfit to be president of the United States.”
Trump’s early-morning tweets Friday attacked former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. The Clinton-supporting Machado said that when Trump ran the pageant, he called her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping.”
Hillary Clinton greets supporters Friday at the Sunrise Theatre in Fort Pierce, Fla. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
The LA Times: In Florida, Hillary Clinton pushes new plan for volunteering.
Hillary Clinton on Friday called for a new national focus on volunteer service, drawing a contrast between her vision of communal assistance with Donald Trump‘s claim that “I alone can fix” the country’s problems.
The Democratic candidate said she wants to triple the size of AmeriCorps, a domestic service program created by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, in 1993, and double the amount of college scholarships available for people who sign up.
She also suggested a “national service reserve” — sort of like the Army Reserve — for people who don’t want to quit their jobs but are still looking for part-time opportunities to volunteer.
“There is so much work to be done, and so many people who want to help do it,” Clinton said.
Just more “boring” Hillary, proposing programs to engage young people in public service.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has wasted an entire week attacking former Miss Universe Alicia Machado and complaining the debate that he lost so badly was somehow rigged against him.
The Washington Post: Trump’s bad week is a ‘nightmare’ for the GOP.
Republican leaders and strategists are unnerved by Donald Trump’s erratic attacks on a Latina beauty queen and other outbursts this week, increasingly fearful that the GOP nominee is damaging his White House hopes and doing lasting harm to the party in the campaign’s final stretch.
Party officials said they are newly embarrassed by Trump’s impulsive behavior and exasperated by his inability to concentrate on his change message and frame the race as a referendum on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, according to interviews with more than two dozen of them….
Trump went into the first presidential debate Monday night in Hempstead, N.Y., with swagger, ahead or tied in some national and battleground-state polls and, momentarily at least, relatively disciplined on the stump. But his performance was widely panned and revealed his thin skin. In the days since, he has become distracted by old grudges and picked new fights, often involving female or minority targets.
Trump plunged into a feud with Alicia Machado, a Miss Universe winner he mocked and humiliated for her weight gain two decades ago. He punctuated his campaign to discredit her with a series of tweets around 5 a.m. Friday maligning her and referring his followers to Machado’s “sex tape.” There is no evidence that such a tape exists; he appears to have been referring to racy footage of her from a reality television show.
Also this week, Trump raised former president Bill Clinton’s pastextramarital affairs as a campaign issue, delivered his most direct attack yet on Hillary Clinton’s health and waged war with news organizations over alleged bias.
Ezra Klein at Vox: The last six days proved Donald Trump is dangerously unfit for the presidency.
The problem isn’t that Trump is cruel, though he is. The problem isn’t that Trump is boorish, though he is. The problem isn’t that Trump is undisciplined, though he is.
The problem is that Trump is predictable and controllable.
Through most of this election, those would be the last two words anyone would associate with Donald J. Trump. His brand is impulsivity. The central fact of his political style is that staff can’t control his actions. Who else would launch a presidential campaign by calling Mexicans rapists and murderers? Who else would accuse an opponent’s father of being involved in JFK Jr.’s assassination? Who else would humiliate their running mate before introducing him? Who else would tweet schoolyard insults at his challengers and retweet white supremacists praising his virtues?
Over the past six days, Hillary Clinton’s campaign revealed that this is a misreading of Donald Trump. His behavior, though unusual, is quite predictable — a fact the campaign proved by predicting it. His actions, though beyond the control of his allies, can be controlled by his enemies — a fact they proved by controlling them.
So far, this has played out, within the safe space of a presidential campaign, as farce. If Trump were to win the White House, it would play out as tragedy.
Late last night, Trump gave a disastrous interview to the New York Times. I can’t quote from it, but you can read the whole thing at that link. Klein discusses the article in his Vox post.
On Friday, he told the New York Times that, in response to the Clinton campaign bringing up Machado, he would begin attacking Hillary Clinton for being “married to the single greatest abuser of women in the history of politics” — thus launching the line of assault likeliest to engender sympathy for Hillary Clinton, and opening his checkered marital history to public scrutiny.
“She’s nasty, but I can be nastier than she ever can be,” is a thing Trump actually said, aloud, to reporters, in an interview meant to help his campaign.
To appreciate just how self-destructive this strategy is, read the third paragraph of the Times story:
In an interview with The New York Times, he also contended that infidelity was “never a problem” during his three marriages, though his first ended in an ugly divorce after Mr. Trump began a relationship with the woman who became his second wife.
There is a part of me that believes the entire Alicia Machado trap was a long con to bait Trump into berating Clinton for her husband’s infidelities at the second debate, and making his past marital betrayals fair game for the press.
What is extraordinary in all this is how enthusiastically Trump has taken the Clinton campaign’s bait, and how unconcerned he’s been with the fact that they meticulously planned all this in advance to damage him.
Klein goes on to discuss how Trump’s behavior might play out if he were win the presidency. Read the rest at Vox.
More on that from Paul Waldman at The Washington Post: Why Trump’s tweets matter: They shed light on how he’d behave as president.
This has happened before. Trump went on an extended tear about Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over a fraud trial in connection with Trump University, saying that Curiel couldn’t be impartial because “He’s a Mexican” (Curiel is actually an American). Though his comments were roundly condemned by both Democrats and Republicans as racist, Trump kept making them. Later, after he was criticized by Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a soldier who died in Iraq, Trump got in a protracted argument with them, leading to days and days of brutal press coverage, and again, bipartisan condemnation.
On the simplest level, we know why Trump does this: He believes firmly that whenever anyone criticizes him, he simply must attack them back. As he wrote in his 2007 book “Think Big and Kick Ass”:
“When someone crosses you, my advice is ‘Get Even!’…If you’re afraid to fight back people will think of you as a loser, a ‘schmuck!’ They will know they can get away with insulting you, disrespecting you, and taking advantage of you. Don’t let it happen! Always fight back and get even. People will respect you for it.”
But it’s more than that. Trump is right now trying to get even with Machado, even though there’s almost nothing to be gained from it and a tremendous amount to lose. Trump is doing poorly with Latinos and women voters, and one of the biggest risks to his campaign would be anything that not only turns them against him but motivates them to turn out to vote. At the same time, he is very publicly toying with the idea of attacking Clinton because her husband cheated on her.
Given his history and the things he has said, I have no doubt that Trump believes that when a man cheats on a woman it’s her fault for not being attractive enough to keep him faithful; he probably finds Hillary Clinton contemptible for this reason, just as he probably felt the same about his first and second wives when he cheated on and then divorced them. But surely someone has suggested to him that this is not a fruitful strategy to pursue. Yet he just can’t help himself.
What does this have to do with being president? If he were in the Oval Office, Donald Trump would face one crisis after another and situations that demand a kind of delayed emotional gratification. In order to be successful he’d have to regularly set aside whatever impulsive reaction he has to a particular turn of events in favor of a long-term strategy that would be more beneficial to the country.
Last night I watched the Frontline program The Choice, and I highly recommend it. The parts about Trump are fascinating and the parts about Clinton are really wonderful and humanizing. The documentary discusses their early years and compares and contrasts their careers leading up to the presidential race.
Probably the most shocking revelation about the Trump family is that they firmly believe in the “gene theory” of success–that certain people are superior to others because of their genetic heritage. Sound familar?
The Independent: Donald Trump believes he has superior genes, biographer claims.
In an interview for US TV channel PBS, the Republican presidential nominee’s biographer Michael D’Antonio claimed the candidate’s father, Fred Trump, had taught him that the family’s success was genetic.
He said: “The family subscribes to a racehorse theory of human development.
“They believe that there are superior people and that if you put together the genes of a superior woman and a superior man, you get a superior offspring.”
The theory, known as eugenics, first emerged during the 19th century and was used as a pretext for the sterilisation of disabled people until the practice was discredited after the Second World War.
Adolf Hitler’s justification for the Holocaust – in which 11 million people were killed, 6 million of them Jewish – was based on a similar theory of racial hierarchy.
I hope you’ll watch the entire Frontline show if you can find time.
Now what stories are you following today? Let us know in the comment thread and have a great weekend!
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Trump Pleaded The Fifth 97 Times To Avoid Admitting To Adultery
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-pleading-the-fifth_us_57ed79dee4b024a52d2de46d
He’d have been better off if he had drank a Fifth 97 times. He committed adultery, he raped his wife, he physically abused her. It was common knowledge at the time and now, all these years later, with his divorce records sealed, he’s acting as if nothing bad happened. He says he had “good” marriages. I’d be willing to bet he cheated on Marla and has also cheated on Melania. I pity Melania, she walks 2-3 steps behind him almost all the time and you can tell she’s intimidated by him. And Donald doesn’t want to go down this Machado road much further because if he does Melania’s dip into the soft porn pool will surely be brought to center stage.
Hillary has laid down the perfect trap for this hypocrite and he can’t stop himself from jumping into it with both feet.
He met Melania while he was still married to Marla. He treated Marla like shit.
The judge in his first divorce with Ivana said he was “cruel and inhuman”……………Back in 1991, Marla was so pissed at him she took off her stiletto heels and hurled them at his face. She then took off the 7.5 karat diamond and threw it at him too. He scrabbled to find that ring. I heard they caught it all on camera at the Willard Hotel. Now that I would love to see.
Trump Now Hints He May Not Accept Clinton Victory: “We’re Going to See”
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/10/01/trump_again_hints_he_may_not_accept_clinton_victory.html
So what’s he going to do, storm the Federal Government? Talk the States that voted for him into seceding? Lead a revolt? Who gives a shit whether he accepts defeat or not? Once this is over he’ll fade into the background like every other failed candidate. Let him talk, let him tweet, let him make a fool of himself. When November the 9th arrives and he’s on the losing end he can go visit Vladamir and they can hug it out. Until then we have to work to make Hillary’s victory happen.
Geez, his supporters are likely to. They are some of the nastiest fuckers around.
You and I live in Bumfuckerville……We know who these people are. We know they are mostly sexist, racist, lazy jacklegs who couldn’t run across a field without collapsing, much less revolt. Who couldn’t make it through a day without a 6-pack and 20 Marlboro’s.Who don’t like thinking so they let FOX do it for them. Who think power is demonstrated by riding in a 4×4 with a loaded up gun rack and a confederate flag on the cab window. If not for bravado they’d have nothing. They think numbers gives them the appearance of strength, but in the end they’re just a bunch of frightened little jack rabbits scurrying for shelter in the weeds. They’re not ever going to do anything but talk about how good life was before the brown skins and the black skins and the womenz and the queers got all uppity. I have no fear of them whatsoever.
I agree with everything you’ve written, Mouse, EXCEPT – why are you picking on jack rabbits??? Have they harmed you? I would have used cockroaches as an example! 🙂
I was talking with a Hillary caller this afternoon and told her I was 99.9% sure she would have no problem getting into the White House, but there is that .1% (or less) nagging at the back of my pea brain that keeps me alert. Which is probably a good thing – but I refuse to let it get any larger than that!
Hah. Cockroach Defense League here. They’re smart survivors who can make a living under any circumstances. I *hope* the East Jesus Nowheresville crowd aren’t that good. Plus roaches have been around for hundreds of millions of years. That better not be true of the Nowheresville crowd either. I’m counting on this crap being their last wild ride before total irrelevance.
(Also, my sources in the cockroach community tell me that “Eww, what a trump!” is the way young roaches talk about anyone stupid enough to be baited into walking in to a roach motel.)
Quixote – Lol! I don’t know any animals that I would compare to Tangerine Man since I like them all. 🙂 I only used the poor cockroaches because they seem to make humans very very squeamish! And I was imagining how Tangerine Man might react to a cockroach. Do you think his screaming might pierce everyone’s eardrums like a tornado siren? I do!
Tensions are so high in this election, and Trumpets think they are the most powerful, because you know, they are white. They can be very deadly, everyday we see them, and know they are contracted out to do violence. He knows who will be performing for him, and he ranks his leaders, and membership to his club is wide open. Kinda like the mafia, once you are in, there is no way out. They live by his creed, and spreading his klandom to many neighborhoods. My eyes are wide open, and my head is shaking.
Oh good gawdess
I need to watch that Front line show but just watching anything about Trump is just traumatizing.
You got that right!
Me, too.
I dreaded seeing it because PBS is notorious (to me) for its false equivalency, but it sounds good.
It’s well worth watching. Hillary comes off much better than Donald, IMHO.
It was a very good program. Hillary is presented well. People should watch it.
This week I’ve been plunged into a homecoming fest of Banjoville proportions. I have to say the most disheartening thing is to see a little girl with a trump t-shirt…what kind of future is that child going to have?
Being surrounded by that many trump supporters at last nights game, made me ill. It also made that subconsciousness feeling thick in my gut, like I was surrounded by a shit load of body snatchers/aliens. (remember the movies) and that they were all going to turn my way and start screaming and pointing at me.
My baby did win 1st runner up last night. I am so proud of her, the first time an outsider…she is not one of the usual people to be picked, got into the Homecoming court. Her biography was the only one that did not thank Jesus or quote the bible…and she was the only girl who did not mention marrying and having kids. Anyway, it is such a relief that the whole thing is over and done with now. lol
” I have to say the most disheartening thing is to see a little girl with a trump t-shirt…what kind of future is that child going to have?”
She’ll have the same life her parents have, with all of the same prejudices and complexes, or she’ll decide to think for herself. Whichever, by the time she’s grown Donald Trump will be memory in the mold of George Wallace and no one will admit to voting for Trump and she’ll likely not even remember wearing the t-shirt.
My Wife and I went to a movie on Friday afternoon. The theater was loaded with Seniors. We walked into our movie with a couple wearing Trump t-shirts. We decided to sit right in front of them. Right before the movie began I put my arm around my girl. Then the murmurs began. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but I didn’t need to. After a couple of minutes I turned around and said “Shhhhhh!”. And that was that. I kept my arm around her and/or we held hands throughout the entire movie. Nobody died, nobody’s god came down and struck us dead, no children were harmed in the process and life went on. Be who you are, always. Don’t allow them to control your behavior. Wear you Hillary t-shirt to the grocery store. Fly your rainbow flag. As soon as early voting begins we’re going to put on our Rainbow T-shirts and go vote as we always do. If it offends someone’s sensibility I say so what!!! I’ve spent a lifetime being insulted, ridiculed and held in 2nd class citizen status by my own country. No more! They need to get used to sharing this country with all of us who don’t look like them, think like them or love like them. The sooner they get it through their heads that we’re not going away, the better off they’ll be.
Good for you, Mouse!! We need to take it to all the bigots and bullies.
Yes we do! Fearlessly.
I sure ❤ you, Mouse! I'm wearing my New Jerseyans for Hillary T-shirt now and am proud to let everyone see it!
Good for you Delph, wear it with pride…..In my neighborhood I haven’t seen even 1 Trump yard sign, although I know he will win overwhelmingly in this reliable, deep red State. I’ve found that surprising because Romney signs were everywhere in 12′. I have seen some Trump bumper stickers, but not really a lot of them. I, on the other hand, have my Hillary yard sign, window sticker and my rainbow flag flying high. Following Hillary’s example We’re going to fight the good fight till the end and enjoy every minute of it.
Beautiful thing to do Mouse, beautiful. I luv being spunky, when I can. We all need to try it.
I’m just a defiant old woman Fannie and I’m going into the sunset of my my life the exact say way I entered life, kicking and screaming. 🙂
Love is love! Give your wife my thanks too, for helping to scare those bullies with Love!
We’re doing our best, Luna. Two old women daring to show love and affection for each other in public, it must be terrifying.
The only one not brainwashed! Congratulations to you and to Bebe!
Yes, ditto, am so glad for Bebe.
Congratulations to Bebe! I hope that her Homecoming experience was an enjoyable one for the most part.
Trump tried to hook Marla up as a Playboy centerfold, she refused.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-playboy_us_57efc120e4b082aad9bb9a0e?abznws7k1o22zkt9
Trump is all about rules for others, but not for himself. He can stiff small businesses and his employees, but his political opponent is crooked? It’s the woman’s fault for her husband’s infidelity? Women should starve themselves into anorexia, but the men can be gross and sloppy?
Donald, women and all the others you scorn will have our say November 8th. It’ll be a big fat “Fuck You.” It will be so sweet to watch your tantrum then.
HA!
Someone sent some of Trump’s taxes to the NYT!
Trump Tax Records Obtained by The Times Reveal He Could Have Avoided Paying Taxes for Nearly Two Decades.
I’d just been reading that!
So the tax laws allow Trump to basically live tax-free off of what he stiffed contractors and employees for, and for all the bad business decisions and bankruptcies he made. Disgusting.
I hope this fuels a huge wave of support to change the tax laws and axe this provision.
If the tax loophole is legal, I say Hillary should attack Trump on his bankruptcies instead. Trump’s “brilliant” financial acumen turned his business empire into a total failure. In spite of having started out in real estate with millions of dollars from his father, Trump was not a success. The truth is he’s a pathetic little LOSER as a businessman and he had to use fancy lawyers to find tax loopholes to save his thin man-baby skin from rotting in the poorhouse. Sad!
“Donald Trump: Making Tax Attorneys Great Again!”
And don’t forget the accountants! Trump loves them. Tremendous people, accountants, except the black ones:
“I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and at Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”
Now the WikiLeaks has hit, saying Clinton sold weapons to ISIS. New level of ugliness
http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/wikileaks-confirms-hillary-sold-weapons-isis-drops-another-bombshell-breaking-news/
I realize this was from a nut job/hack source, but won’t surprise me if it turns out to be a Wikileak/Trump attempt.
Interesting read profiling a Trump supporter in Pennsylvania: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/finally-someone-who-thinks-like-me/2016/10/01/c9b6f334-7f68-11e6-9070-5c4905bf40dc_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_believer633pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory