Ted Cruz has become quite the boot licker. How anyone can be so supportive of Trump after the way Trump treated him is beyond me. My guess is Cruz is hoping Trump leaves office or bails on 2020 and by pandering to his base he gets the nomination.

I certainly don't think BLM is racist.

ADL definition is "Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics".

I have not see anything that says BLM believes they are superior to others. They are definitely more focused on blacks but doesn't fit the definition IMO.

Just shows you the morals some of these guys have. Power before principals. If I ever meet him or Devin Nunes in person, I'm likely to kick them both in the throat.

I actually would consider him racist based on the ADL definition. I don't track him so only read the wiki Steve King - Wikipedia

He's a nationalist (denies white nationalist) at the very least. He's anti-immigration. He's made insensitive remarks. He's supportive of racial profiling. Doesn't like affirmative action. Smeared Soros (plenty of people do but not primarily because he is Jewish). None of those IMO makes him a racist.

However, several quotes stick out that ties to the "superior" based on "biological characteristics".


If I went deeper into other sources, I'll assume there are other quotes similar to above 2. So there's a preponderance of evidence that says he fits ADL definition of racist.

Just my 2c.

:lol:

OMG

So for the election this year am I the only thinking Trump wins again?

Wouldn't it be ironic that Florida again has to do a recount again.

Crazy times.

The analogy I heard was that if your family sits down to dinner, and your dad serves everyone's food, and he leaves your plate empty.

And you say, "Hey, I need some food." And he looks at you condescendingly and says, "Actually, we all need food."

That's not what I'm doing.

What's that old saying? Something like, when you're arguing over which chemical irritant you used to disperse the crowd so the President could have a photo op, you're losing.

I don't think the BLM moniker is racist. Inflammatory, divisive, prejudiced, etc., but certainly not racist. Ask me if the group itself is racist and my answer is depends on who you are talking about. A lot of the rhetoric is. Regular proclamations like 'White people be like ... ' and 'Watch Whiteness Work' declare the belief that problems stem not from specific actions or policies but from the very nature of being white. They're far more racist than, say, Trump's infamous screed about Mexican immigrants during the '16 campaign. But like any group, BLM isn't homogenous. Some just want justice. Many others carry it a lot further. So there's a lot of racism in BLM, and the acronym is by definition not a unifying one, but it's not inherently a racist organization.

https://twitter.com/gopchairwoman/st...303618048?s=21

And here I thought that liberals were the ones into participation trophies.

In hindsight, gassing a bunch of peacefully protesting Americans so that you could take audition photos for the Al Pacino role in Devils Advocate 2 might not have been the best PR move.

Trump is doing an interview on Fox radio and he claims that he went to the bunker only, "for an inspection."

lol

Ah, to be a fly in the Oval Office listening to Trump rant. Looking forward to his reaction.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/polit...sts/index.html

It is sad how easy it is to get under his skin. Anything that exposes what a weak man he is just sends him loopy.

Were they also inspecting all the light switches to make sure "off" worked?

Or in foresight. The whole thing smacks of "Make way for the king!" Sheer arrogance at a time when Don needs to be the exact opposite of that.

So, who's the next temporary SecDEF when Trump's hissy fit for disagreeing gets Esper fired?

Dunno. I'm just glad someone has the backbone to stand up to him on this.

In the back of my mind, I wonder if Esper order it, would the Joint Chiefs comply. It won't be good for the country but almost want to see what happens.

According to RCP, after today's poll Trump has a 2.2% average lead...

in Texas.

I don't expect Biden to even compete in TX, but that's a brutal number for Trump.

I expect some Austin and San Antonio polling locations to close because of this.

Can we please remember in all the glee to throw poll numbers out this time around that social desirability is a thing, especially when the country is on fire and admitting you are going to vote for Trump is basically seen as telling a stranger you are a bad person, especially right now?

Shy Trump voters never has been a thing. I don't know why it would start now.

His base maybe, but his base isn’t what’s important. I don’t know how you don’t look at the polls last time around and think there weren’t a number of factors at play.

But hey, I can’t wait for the next 5 months of smug poll articles and social media posts and then waking up one morning and wondering what the fuck just happened. Again.

The primary factors in play in 2016 were a motivated GOP base that rallied behind Trump over the last month of the campaign and an unpopular Dem candidate that independents weren't willing to get behind in large enough numbers.

The first item is still going to be in play in November, but Trump is killing his chances with independents and moderates. He could very well still win, but it's likely going to be another electoral college win with a significant popular loss and his chances of losing by McCain levels are probably just as likely right now.

We think and hope he’s killing his chances with independents and moderates, but he is the same person he was last time around. And in my opinion those poll numbers from independents and moderates are not reliable, especially this far out and with all the outrage and shit burning down right now. People have an uncanny way of voting with their ultimate interest in the booth.

Hope you are right; but will also believe it when I see it and he’s leaving the White House.

Historically, we're at the point where polls start mattering roughly (actually about a month ago IIRC). But more important is the fact that every.single.election since '16 hasn't gone Trump's way. That's pre-pandemic, pre-riots. He could win, and we could also get visited by Martians today. Both are about the same likelihood.

Well if we're talking about Texas, the polls actually underestimated Clinton. The final RCP average had Trump up by 11.7 and Trump ended up only winning by 9.0

Agree

The only reason people are still giving Trump and chance is he's the incumbent and they expect him to try to steal the election somehow. If you look at mid-terms, special elections, and current polling for both the Presidency and generic congress (which is a good measure of current party support) the GOP and Trump really have nothing going for them at this point.

As I've mentioned in this thread, there's a reason McConnell and Graham are pressuring judges to retire. It's not because they expect Trump to win.

I am definitely not counting my chickens yet, but I am hopeful these polls are right. I am hoping for a Godzilla-breathes-fire-down-Trump's-throat type of victory.

I'll believe it when I see it and I'll make no assumptions until it's over.

And we may well be looking at a multiple days of waiting while the paper ballots are counted delay in determining a winner. But I sure hope not.

It's also why the GOP isn't going to agree to another bill to prop up the economy. They want to get ahead of tanking it and blaming Biden. They don't think that Trump has enough of a chance that it is worth keeping things afloat to increase his chances of reelection.

And Trump is too stupid to realize that. And, even if someone came in with a picture book to explain it to him, he lacks the ability to get the GOP members in Congress to do what he wants.

dola:

All that said, I won't believe he is gone until he is gone.

I'm fairly certain if you offered McConnell and Graham control of Senate majority in November and Trump voted out of office they'd take it without hesitation. I think the GOP core understands that the best thing for the health of their party is for Trump to be a 1 term President and Biden is the perfect follow up as a moderate that's committed to not even running for a 2nd term.

The problem is they fear losing Senate and being pulled down with him. They need to walk a fine line between letting Trump sink enough to to lose, but not take the rest of the party with him because, given the choice, they'll take 4 more years of Trump over complete loss of power.

Mattis said he'd speak when the time was right.

It's right, and did he ever.

"In Union There Is Strength

I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.

When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.” At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.

James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that “America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.” We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.

Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.

Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.

We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Park. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite.

Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.


James Mattis"
"

Holy shit

Holy crap, what a statement!

I rarely cuss, but with the wife and kids out of town at the beach, those were my exact words, out loud, in the empty house.

I believe things like this do chip away at his base. I'd be surprised if it noticeably moved the needle, but every little bit helps and this is just one more thing that makes it more difficult to defend his actions. A tipping point for Trump would potentially be if George W were to endorse Biden. At the very least it'd be interesting to see how the current GOP establishment would try to reconcile it.

I like how i read his Wikipedia page (hey, ignorant german here ;) ) and find sth that works well against the backdrop of the video of those cops emptying protesters water bottles out of malice:


https://twitter.com/Youngdaggerdrip/...93923317288961

It's scathing to be sure but will never get to any of his followers, and won't matter if it does. I just went to Fox News website, you know, the ones who claim to be fair and balanced. Not on word of it.

Ironically enough Trump will likely tweet about it which may bring some eyeballs to it, but he is too stupid to comprehend it and lacks the attention span to even read it.

The more who speak out against him - especially those who have worked with him - the easier it becomes to peel people off.

It's about fucking time.

It’s not so much his base as the conservatives on the margin. I was third-party all the way in 2016, but a significant number of my close long-time friends were Trump nose-holders who still can’t stand Trump, but may vote for him. Hearing a respected conservative general publish some of the thoughts that they already had will no doubt move the needle a bit more. I doubt any of them will vote for Biden, but I could easily see more conservatives refusing to vote for Trump.

This won't affect his 38-42% base. It may help with some undecided, independents.

I wonder if the ulterior motive is also to remind the Joint Chiefs of their duty to refuse an illegal order or maybe questionable order.

Again, the demographics mean he has to expand his voter base to win. This doesn't help.

Should trump be defeated in November, I do believe that he may go down as one of the 3 worst presidents of all time.

Just got this text from a friend. He’s not a serious studied Christian like those mentioned in my last post, but is a conservative former marine officer who has become increasingly hostile to Trumpism.

You can always assume that if Trump is accusing someone else of doing it then he's tried to do it himself.

Donald Trump appears to have committed felony voter fraud by registering under the wrong address in Florida.

and I know this initially looks like something that's incredibly nit-picky and no big deal but Florida has actually cracked down hard on others for doing the exact same thing:

Yeah, while I don't see any situation that causes much if any of Trump's base turning away from him to vote for somebody else I do think it's possible that vocal criticism from conservative corners could cause significant numbers of marginal Trump supporters get exhausted enough to simply not vote.

A major difference between this cycle and 2016 by the way that doesn't get enough play is the historically very high amount of late-breaking undecided vote last time around. I believe the undecided vote a month before the '16 election was nearly double what is now (less than 8%). The on-the-fence voters breaking for Trump can't save him when there aren't nearly as many of them.

And I'm pretty sure that generally undecideds break for the challenger rather than the incumbent.

This seems both really good and really bad. Good that Milley states these things, but bad that he felt the need to.

Saw that the sportsbooks have actually flipped over to favoring Biden (or any Dem nominee) for the first time FWIW.

These letters combined with the Esper remarks this morning really make me wonder what Trump has been saying and why the DoD is so nervous.

And this from the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

He has a base as well. That base would want to hear his official position on the military topic of the day.

We also received emails from the Secretary of the Army and Army Chief of staff today that were along the same lines.

Trump reportedly threw out the idea of putting tanks in the streets.

Are you saying you think trump is advocating for more force? Shootings? Drone strikes? etc...?

Tom Cotton is really trying to position himself as the torch bearer for Trump 2024.

I have no idea, but something provoked the Sec of Defense, the CJSC, the ranking officer of the National Guard, the Commandant of the Marines, and Mattis to all issue unprecedented statements about the President and the armed forces respecting the ideas and laws of the U.S.

My neighbor’s comment about Mattis and strategy wasn’t mere spitballing about the guy. He was a senior officer in the Corps, serving under Mattis’s command. After posting that, I walked the dog and ran into him. We talked for 20-30 minutes on the street. At one point I made a comment about how Trump was going to go ballistic. My friend responded with “oh, I’m certain Mattis knew exactly what he was doing with regard to that as well. Trump can’t play 4D chess, but Mattis can. He has a plan.”

At some point that Bolton book will also get cleared and added to the chorus....may have shot themselves in the foot by postponing that.

This has to be Trumps worst nightmare. 2 emergencies to test his leadership. And he is failing miserably. He thinks tweets and photo ops will pull him through. Weak leadership is a bad deal at this point.

Just judging by a quick trip through some of the Conservative spots on reddit this really seems to have had a more of an impact that I expected. Not necessarily a tsunami or anything, but it definitely has some conservatives reevaluating Trump.

None seem to be ready to vote for Biden, but they're wishing there was some republican option other than Trump.

Anderson Cooper: “Given his bone spurs, it must have been very painful to have been rushed down to his bunker.”

Trump takes credit for the Mad Dog nickname.

Probably the only thing Barack Obama & I have in common is that we both had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world’s most overrated General. I asked for his letter of resignation, & felt great about it. His nickname was “Chaos”, which I didn’t like, & changed to “Mad Dog”...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2020

....and Mattis hated it.

Him turning full fascist seems to be the response to internal polls. He has to know he is in deep trouble and we are going to see some scary stuff as he continues to head toward a large defeat.

I don't think his base is going anywhere. Theh have lifted him up to cult status. They never cared about the military either.

What this may do is motivate independents and people in the suburbs. His base hasn't moved and he is pushing hard right to appease their authoritarian leanings.

Timing-wise this all may be happening too early considering how far November is. If the election were Tuesday he would lose in a landslide.

And, in the back of my mind (in a small part but it's still there and also at odds with my thought of how often Trump can/will play a chess vs checkers), I've wondered if this is a dress rehearsal for November

SI

November is a long ways away. There could be a suspension of the election due to another outbreak of something.

Do not put it past Trump to create something that allows him to stay in power.

Bunker boy is now building his wall

I agree with this and the economy is rebounding so that's always a key factor. And there could always be a Hillary-like Oct surprise.

It would not shock me at all, but how does the circumvent the law requiring a new President to be in place on January 21st of next year. I don't see any path to getting around that and the absolute chaos it would cause even trying.

I will have to look for the exact specifics, but there is a plan of succession in place to transfer power if there is an issue with having the election.

The stock markets are not the economy. GDP is still shrinking and unemployment numbers are still on the meteoric rise.

You are right.

I do think there is a good chance that economy will be noticeably rebounding as we get closer to Nov but maybe not enough (and maybe a second shock with a second wave).

The stock market is being propped up by the Fed.

Sincere question: Based on what?

My thoughts are that we are only doing 'this well' because we just put $3.2-trillion into the economy AND a lot of folks/businesses have not paid their first sets of quarterly taxes in 2020 (more income available to spend now, less later/less collected by governments).

We have close to 20% unemployment, very low consumer confidence, lots of questions about imports/exports (long term supply chain), and the continued unease about the pandemic. I don't see a reason to believe the economy is going to noticeably rebound for quite some time. I feel reallly strongly that we are looking more at years than months before we get back to a decent level of unemployment and consumer confidence.

In a month, state and local governments will start making cuts. In two months the enhanced unemployment benefits go away. If things aren't substantially better very quickly, there will be a lot of pain heading into the fall.

One would also have to think that the escalation of partisan tension related to the protests have made the chances of Congress passing another major relief package less likely.

“Perhaps we're getting to the point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally, and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up,” Murkowski tells us.

— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) June 4, 2020

Profiles in Courage, this is not.

Yeah, and it doesn't help that most of the legislature isn't in D.C.

Murkowski can rightly fuck off. I think we've already had enough of her 'brave leadership' that we can handle.

I think everyone should call him Bunker Boy. Bunker Boy and Moscow Mitch.

Regarding my comment on "good chance that economy will be noticeably rebounding as we get closer to Nov", the stock market is a leading indicator of the economy.

It's not the only one, may not be the most important one, but it is one. However, arguably it is in an "irrational exuberance" state right now.

With that said, I don't think you can toss away stock market progress as a "valid" leading indicator during these times. I would assume (and hope) the stock market analysts and Fund managers are doing their due diligence in talking with CEOs, talking with companies' supply chain folks, reading the Fed etc. in addition to watching unemployment, consumer confidence, risk of China, risk of second wave etc.

It's election year. I got to believe the chance is high there will be one more relief package.

Much better than President Tweety but IMO not quite right yet.

If the election were suspended, then Pelosi is no longer Speaker because her term ends on January 3rd. However, the President Pro Tempore is Chuck Grassley and he'll only be 2 years into a 6 year term, so he'd be President on January 21.

Perhaps draw some inspiration from this?

Vote Him Away (The Liar Tweets Tonight) - YouTube

I said it before, the Murkowski, Susan Collins ilk are so full of shit its boggling. They feign concern but do nothing rinse and repeat.

Side bar... I've read that the GOP, through calculations will determine whether or not they feel like they'll lose bigly in November within the next few months. If they come to that conclusion they will tack to the fiscal tightening side of their faux-platform and squeeze hard on the economy so that the next Democratic president resides over a terrible recession/depression so that they can then blame them for the economy and hope that it will be a one term president.

Always a con.

No, Bunker Boy is perfect because it highlights Trump's cowardly nature and he will be driven insane because he doesn't want people to know that he is in fact a total coward.

That seems like a very obvious play.

And the President is so stupid that he won't even realize what they are doing to him.

Kind of felt the same about what Mattis said. I mean it's good he said it but he also gave the President credibility when he was in his role. Same long jackoff motion reading these people speak up now.


Pretty sure if an election was cancelled they aren't going to give a shit about the line of succession.

I realize that by November, we'll be 6 crises past where we are now so none of this will matter.

But for a President so image obsessed, it is kind of crazy that one of the things that's really hurting him is that fact that he had no idea how people hold books, so that Bible video looks so stupid.

Like, if he had just spent any time in his life reading books, he would have learned how to hold them just through repetition.

I assume they’ll do the absolute minimum relief package(if any) that keeps the Senate in GOP control. And then starve the economy so that they can attempt to destroy the Biden presidency and regain the house.