The nation may survive, but the wound to hope and order will never fully heal - US elections 2016: the october surprises

rick wilson's twitter responses to his detractors are pretty classic

somehow i'm still seeing new disgusting revelations
https://twitter.com/TheRealKamie/status/786353787615281152

like

"DNC members don't really represent constituents anyway"

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/5423#efmAshA2F

ok first of all this is a comment made by mark siegel and then passed along to hillary's campaign by luzzatto. second of all it is a self-evidently true observation. DNC members don't have constituents because they aren't elected.

i don't know why u make me explain these things

@mckaycoppins @fmanjoo check out the spaces are after those periods. looks like it may be three, four? wtf.

those aren't spaces, the text has been justified.

full-service law firm

those aren't spaces, the text has been justified.

Oh I don't think anybody could justify that text

amazing: http://www.mtv.com/news/2941818/the-story-the-media-wont-tell-you-about-the-debate/

― esempiu (crüt)

You are the same as the others.
You build monuments to yourself, monuments that fall.
You seek power over man and so you seek followers, though they also fall.
You pretend any man is separate from any other man, though this is foolish.
You thirst in desperation for money, though it follows no one to the grave.
You attack and you yell and you lash out with your tongue and you lie.
You tell so many lies.

SO GREAT

yeah, that mtv piece is amazing

So I guess whatever bombshell is allegedly imminent must be getting vetted or otherwise checked out legally, right? That's the only reason I can think of people knowing it's coming (if it is) but being so coy about it. Meanwhile, I presume the explosion of groping (or worse) accusations will continue. What's he up to on Twitter?

He hasn't tweeted for 13 hours. Some record surely>

Calm before the storm.

And indeed:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/786551712228208640

More telling:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/rnc-donald-trump-ad-spending-229711

Some very interesting meat at the end of that:

The RNC says that its joint get-out-the-vote program with the Trump campaign had more than 1,000 staffers in the field last month, as compared to fewer than 900 working for Romney in October 2012.

Brad Parscale, Trump’s digital director, said the campaign’s get-out-the-vote effort with the RNC is “outperforming 2012 numbers in nearly every battleground state.” And he praised the RNC for providing “vital ground game infrastructure, data research and modeling, financial partnership and have staff integrated throughout our teams.”

But a handful of veteran GOP field organizers have privately questioned the strength of the RNC’s field program in recent interviews. Republicans trail Democrats organizationally in numerous swing states, with far fewer field staffers and canvassers to turn out votes for Trump.

And some Republicans suspect the abdication of the air war may stem less from a strategic shift to ground operations and more from the RNC’s financial position. Through the end of August, the committee had raised $231 million over the course of the election cycle, far short of the $356 million it had raised at the same point in the 2012 campaign.

OK, so help me out here. Pretend for the sake of argument that Trump ever had a clear path to election. Then pretend he wasn't likely about to get trounced. Then pretend that the RNC *did* want to replace him, whether or not there is a ticking time bomb disclosure set to go off. I've had this argument with two friends now, folks who wince every time something worse happens to Trump, because they think Pence or Ryan still have a shot at topping the ticket (and, goes their argument, winning). But that train has long left the station, right? Not even in terms of bylaws and other basic bureaucratic things, but in terms of the Constitution. Voting has already begun in earnest, absentee, overseas and early, so even assuming (for the sake of this exercise) that the RNC wanted to make a change, they really can't, can they, not without a Constitutional challenge on the basis that all those aforementioned early voters would be disenfranchised. Right? Even assuming they wanted to make a change, that would likely take the greatest state by state (and Federal level too) legal challenge this country has ever seen, which would take forever, which they/we don't have (except when it comes to the Supreme Court, ha ha).

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, even if it comes up that Trump fondled a toddler and fucked an underage dog on video, he's stuck on the ticket, right?

THose people aren't voting for Trump but for people who say they will vote for him in the Electoral College

Is that the argument?

but if those electors turn around and assign those Trump votes to, say, Pence, you're gonna have several million (in this case, actually justifiably) angry unhinged deplorables to contend with.

also, I feel pretty confident that the number of people you could conceivably sway from not voting/voting 3rd party/voting Hillary to voting Pence is far far outweighed by the number of people who are Trump or Bust.

There is no way to remove Trump from the ballot. There is no argument that would hold any water in court that he could be replaced by another candidate. Your friends are weird.

There is some provision in GOP rules to replace the nominee, but it would require picking and gathering the same number of delegates that voted at the convention and having them re-vote for someone else. Not gonna happen in 27 days. And hell would break loose. If Trump voluntarily dropped off the votes already cast for him would go to the person picked to replace him since the electors probably wouldn't change.

and there are people voting in states already

That Trump tweet is deleted.

That Trump tweet is deleted.

Headline on Nov. 9

That's interesting. He's more of a double-downer than a deleter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector

Next Keifer series

here's a partial explanation for why the USC/LAT tracking poll has been so garbage:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/upshot/how-one-19-year-old-illinois-man-is-distorting-national-polling-averages.html

I wonder what he deleted that was worse/dumber than these two tweets which are still up there?

Why didn't the writer of the twelve year old article in People Magazine mention the "incident" in her story. Because it did not happen!

...

The phony story in the failing @nytimes is a TOTAL FABRICATION. Written by same people as last discredited story on women. WATCH!

also, I feel pretty confident that the number of people you could conceivably sway from not voting/voting 3rd party/voting Hillary to voting Pence is far far outweighed by the number of people who are Trump or Bust.

if this was true Trump probably wouldn't have made the top of the ticket in the first place. regardless of how awfully things are going, he's still the most popular member of the Republican party right now.

The deleted tweet was an earlier version of the second one, where he misspelled 'phony' as 'phoney.'

Meanwhile in Virginia. I love the fact that the staffers there were blindsided.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-s-campaign-pulling-out-virginia-n665541?cid=public-rss_20161013

the use of the word 'phony' makes me wonder if trump is basically a grownup holden caulfield

A new Weekly Standard cri de coeur

http://www.weeklystandard.com/late-stage-trumpism-a-parable/article/2004846

Meanwhile in Virginia. I love the fact that the staffers there were blindsided.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-s-campaign-pulling-out-virginia-n665541?cid=public-rss_20161013

ffs he's obsessed with creating jobs but he can't even keep his own staffers employed

is late stage trumpism anything like end-stage renal failure

that "phoney" deleted tweet reminds me of the old joke about spell-checking somebody else's suicide note

if end-stage renal failure could hurt other people then yeah i guess so xp

Depends where one sprays

excited to see what the republicans who renounced trump last friday then re-endorsed on monday do today

I was gonna say the article was silly hyperbole but then again, to me being a Trump voter is like being Officer Murphy in Robocop screaming "thank you" to Boddicker as his limbs get shot off so I guess article otm

xpost probably a group circle-jerk to ease the tension

Ryan going 'No, really, this is fucked up' again:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/paul-ryan-donald-trump-house-republicans-229716

Wednesday evening, according to the participant, Ryan sought to clarify his earlier remarks on Trump. Ryan told that he had never intended to pick a fight with Trump, but rather to simply highlight the need to maintain the party’s hold on the chamber. For his members to survive, Ryan said on the call, they would need Trump to do well in November.

But Ryan also had tough words for Trump. The speaker said that the media was set on driving a wedge between Trump the congressional wing of the party, but that Trump — whom Ryan described as lacking political discipline — had failed to understand that dynamic.

Ryan is aware that Trump's troubles have put the House in play. Democrats must net 30 seats in order to capture the majority, a tall order but one that’s become less unrealistic as Trump craters.

And now, true brilliance:

https://twitter.com/DineshDSouza/status/786537269997899777

Lol @ "failed to understand." Trump never cared about House Republicans. Breitbart attacks the GOP all the time.

I was gonna say the article was silly hyperbole but then again, to me being a Trump voter is like being Officer Murphy in Robocop screaming "thank you" to Boddicker as his limbs get shot off so I guess article otm

trump voters seem eager to start dispensing deadly justice once they're empowered by trump so the metaphor is def sound

A new Weekly Standard cri de coeur

http://www.weeklystandard.com/late-stage-trumpism-a-parable/article/2004846

― Ned Raggett

i saw this outer limits episode. the ending is that the narrator sadly shakes his head and gets in the cab, and as he drives away the camera pans over to its livery reading "LEGALLY BLIND TAXI COMPANY"

PEC has identified a weird subset to me. there's this strange dude who keeps posting the same shit in Sam's comments almost weekly, saying he wants Trump to be President, but Dems to control Congress. He never explains why, and Sam pretty much says the outcome he desires is highly unlikely if not impossible, but my guess is he doesn't like Hillary, but thinks Trump is dangerous enough that a Dem Congress could stop his flights of fancy, and then in 4 years, mr Magical Progressive Candidate knocks him out of office (ooooo....k).

I feel like, though, everybody smugly pointing out "c'mon, Trump can't do the things he says, he's not dictator" kinda misses the point that a Trump presidency legitimizes xenophobic, sexist, rapey, ignorant behavior and gives a megaphone to some of these "repeal the 19th" assholes even if Trump himself doesn't say it. Like, it might not result in any legislation that significantly impacts anyone, but it does encourage the bullying behavior and worsen our relationships with Europe that we had to work for years to repair after Bush took a chainsaw to them.