So, you’re giving us the facts, the real Skinner?
Those would seem to be the operant conditions.
I think Trump is just playing with Romney. His favorite thing is revenge after all. Conway is just giving him cover so it won’t (he thinks) look like he’s being an total asshole when he pulls the rug out from under Romney. Then again he might just tweet “Romney begged to be SOS. What a loser. Sad.”
At this point I think Ginsburg’s will will probably demand you stick a board in her back and prop her up on the bench.
And Trump has brought Cruz in for meetings. I doubt he’s forgotten Cruz’s stunt at the Convention. Or his angry response to Trump talking trash about his wife & father. Of course, Cruz came around at the last minute.
So I don’t see a big role for Cruz. Word in Texas is that his own party might primary him when he runs for Senator again.
Cruz is just not a likable guy.
We won’t convince Joe S. of “Morning Joe,” but I agree. Conway channels Trump, he uses her to publicly sabotage Romney, then arranges a leak that he’s ‘furious’ with her, when really, the plan is to be able to pass over Romney and not come off like an a-hole. Then he sits back and enjoys watching it play out on TV… he’s making his own reality show. The more hype the better.
“You’re Fired!”
Trump never wanted Romney for the State Dept. Two things drive Trump - being worshiped and loved by all, and revenge for the tinest insult or slight.
Mitt’s insults were not tiny. Trump is only playing cat and mouse with him, wants to humilate him, get his hopes up, have him at his beck and call, make him worry about apologizing - all the better if Mitt actually does apologize - then give Secy-of-State to someone else (Petraeus or Corker?), because too many of his supporters would feel ‘betrayed’… as Kellyanne said.
I’ll bet he never intended to give Secy-of-State to blabbermouth Rudy Giuliani either … only wanted him to think he had a chance, because he had been loyal (but only after Trump had been nominated). He wanted the critics to taint Rudy enough so he could say ‘sorry pal, thanks for all your support, but you carry too much baggage, iffy overseas business dealings, speeches for big-money, stuff my supporters hate Hillary for, etc.’
Jared’s advice?
Anyone not concerned about the next four years is either completely idiotic or an alt-right deplorable… Really ? Not even a bit concerned?!
I feel like I am watching a slow motion, horrific car crash, 911 analogies also apply… This is a complete and utter disaster for our country and, really, world (bye bye climate).
I guess years and years of vicious alt right lies and propaganda have won the day. Congrats you have successfully brainwashed white people into voting against their very own interest by tying party allegiance to racial identity - just ask all my republican relatives who have lost all common sense and live in the “Fox News” reality
Sigh
I absolutely feel that way. I just heard a report on NPR about the new Secretary of HHS and his plans to repeal the ACA and virtually do away with Medicaid-- 20 million people will be S.O.L. There might be work requirements attached to it or some lame subsidies. I have a friend who runs and agency for the indigent mentally ill-- yeah, maybe they can train to become baristas at Starbucks.
The new guy’s replacement for the ACA will only keep one of its components, letting kids stay on their parents’ policies until age 26. Everything else will be changed beyond recognition. The reporter said none of the options was going to be “affordable” by the people who need them. You will be able to get insurance if you have a pre-existing condition IF you have had NO lapses in coverage and you will pay a higher premium. Medicare will be gutted, too. Coverage down, premiums up. Here is the link to the program–I was in the car. Listen to it–it will curl your fucking hair (it’s only six and a half minutes). The reporter said right out that there was cause for concern for people on Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare.
But listening to the program, I just thought, “You Republicans are evil. You’re getting your revenge on the black liberal president now, aren’t you. And you don’t care who suffers. You don’t give a flying fuck about the millions of people this will hurt. Millions of YOUR supporters who are too stupid to know that you don’t give a damn about them!”
I feel utter despondency. And the man isn’t even P-word yet. 
Zoo and Snowboarder Bo: The animated video I saw had a scary looking Hillary in it, standing in front of packed moving boxes. I believe Bill was in the background tonguing a female. Wish I hadn’t been so flabbergasted watching it, or I’d have remembered more. Is this anything like what you saw?
Here’s how I make myself feel better: this is it for the right wing, come out of the shadows and do to the country (and the world with your insane denial of climate change) what you have been claiming are “solutions” ever since the evil communist-Muslim- err whatever black guy got elected. This will take away the steam from their propaganda because you guys are in charge now, you are mainstream, time to push your shit forward instead of complain from the sidelines, and it will re-energize the activist left again (who is much much tamer since Obama was elected).
Everytime another outrageous thing is done (spoiler alert: trump is just getting started, expect to be amazed in a really bad way) more and more energy goes back into left. Maybe, and I pray for this, some of the hopelessly gerrymandered areas (how republicans cheat the system) can break away… One can hope!
The country will get a giant kick in the balls, maybe that will cause people to see reason again and break this “I’m white therefore I vote republican no matter what” brainwashing that is so spread today.
Also, lots of right wing nut heads live in beach front property - especially here in Florida - talk about drinking your own poison…
Thanks… that does help. I like the way you think.
Eight years of Bush disasters led to Obama and friends getting to play in the sand box for a relatively short period of time before Republicans flooded back into Congress. The interesting thing is it took America six years to realize Bush wasn’t a good president, but America already seems to recognize Trump is terrible. Didn’t matter, though.
Tying party allegiance to racial identity was a problem for dems since when?
It’s just reality, there’s no ways around it. Today, the Republican Party=the white people party, no matter how little they care and actually want to help them.
I say this with enormous sadness, these are my family and friends we are talking about here… They need the kick in the balls that’s coming their way just like cancer sometimes needs brutal chemotherapy
You’re dreaming. Republican voters are just as ignorant and gullible as they’ve ever been. The GOP will tell them that this really is good for the country and they’ll buy it hook, line, and sinker. Only one thing will end this conservative circle-jerk…population growth. And that’s going to be a decades-long process, exacerbated by the new little conservatives they’re raising.
1)Anecdote from lunch today: I took a family member (by marriage) to day surgery and afterwards we had lunch. She’s retired, divorced, 71 years old, not wealthy by any means but not poor either. Has had many health problems over the years. She is a die-hard Republican and has always voted straight ticket… why? Because Mommy and Daddy did. And also, I suspect, because she thinks she’s in a higher class than she is. She owns a long-paid-for house in the fancy-schmancy old neighborhood in town (of course, it’s the cheapest one on the block…). Anyhoo…
I was telling her about Price’s and Ryan’s plans for Medicare–we really can’t talk politics because she has no opinions that are founded on anything. Just “I’m a Republican.” <shrug> When I told her there might be some painful changes in Medicare coming down the pike, she just smiled, because frankly, I don’t think she reads the paper. We were talking about my mom in Assisted Living and how the place she’s in will not kick you out if you run out of money, because they have a fund that will supplement you if you need it, and they do Medicaid. Then I said, “But Ryan and Price also have big changes in mind for Medicaid, which might mean doing away with it as we know it.” This was news to her, too.
But her rejoinder to all of it was, “I think the Republicans will take care of us.” Blind, fucking, clueless faith.
It’s more of don’t-bother-me-with-facts.
- And on the Diane Rehm Show today there was a very interesting discussion, How Journalists Are Rethinking Their Role Under A Trump Presidency– well worth a listen. There was a Trump apologist on there (Scottie–see list below) and she basically said that there are no such things as facts. That everything is someone’s opinion. As for the “millions of illegals who voted,” she said there are statistics to back it up. Pure insanity, and Diane’s guests really let her have it with both barrels. It sounded more like conservative talk radio than the normally genteel, intellectual discussions heard on that show.
In the ensuing discussion, the panelists said that Donald Trump has declared war on facts. That he does not believe in facts and he doesn’t care whether what he is tweeting or saying is based on any reality. That THAT is the reality that we and journalists are now facing: a president who does not believe there is any such thing as a fact.
Holy shit.
These were the guests:
[ul]
[li]James Fallows national correspondent, The Atlantic magazine[/li][li]Margaret Sullivan media columnist, The Washington Post[/li][li]Glenn Thrush senior political correspondent, POLITICO[/li][li]Mark Baldwin executive editor, Rockford Register Star and The Journal-Standard of Freeport[/li][li]Scottie Nell Hughes former Donald Trump surrogate; political editor of RightAlerts.com; contributor to CNN[/li][/ul]
Here are James Fallows’ followup commentsafter his stint on the Diane Rehm show referred to in the previous post.
And it’s not a problem that ~90% of black voters vote for the dems? Do they need a kick in the balls so they diversify their politics?
How long do y’all think it will be before Trump starts taking credit for the sun coming up every morning?
I say it happens before the [del]Coronation[/del] Inauguration.