So Jefferson and Washington are more vile than Trump?
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At this point he’s being hammered in the press like there’s no tomorrow with coverage of a major hurricane hitting FL/SC being interrupted, canceled an event, issued two separate apologies, has had at least five prominent Republicans who’d announced their support walk it back and say they will not vote for him, had his VP choice say it’s unacceptable and that he can’t defend him, and things are still brewing.
I don’t know why you think joking about sexual assault would be some minor kerfuffle, but whatever ideas were in your head about that were dead wrong. Bragging about sexual assault is a big deal, even for a loutish scumbag like Trump, and even if it’s a “joke.”
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No, but I shot a Beowulf once. The guy that owned it warned me, but it was like someone punched me in the shoulder.
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And it’s not just the press who are hammering him:
Republican officials are stampeding away from Trump (FiveThirtyEight)
@Chaz1’s brilliant description (“an advent calendar of October surprises”) pretty much summarizes my hope that this trend of Republican defection, however small, will continue as Trump’s skeletons come tumbling out of the closet, one after another.
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On the first day of Trumpmas my true love gave to me:
“Grab her right in the pussy”.
On the second day of Trumpmas my true love gave to me…
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If we are talking absolutes, chattel slavery is worse than anything Trump has done. Sorry.
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Undeniably true… but let’s stick to the present, shall we?
This story is what should be another nail in the coffin for his campaign, and I expect the nails and hammers to keep coming.
Dude is 70 years old, and has lived much of his life in the spotlight; actively seeking attention, all while thinking that his money allowed him to do whatever he wants… so more documentation of that egomania demonstrating that he is unfit to run a whorehouse (let alone a country) is bound to come to light.
I’d still like him to stroke out, but I’ll settle for a dead body or two being discovered in his HUGE closet of fuckery.
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Happy to, I’m just answering the questions asked.
On topic, I don’t see this making any kind of difference to his supporters. Middle of the road voters in this election probably are going to write it off as locker room banter. Here, I’m just thinking about what it takes to be middle of the road in this election. You have to ignore an awful lot to get there.
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Rigged elections. I remember reading a lot of material about rigged elections in GWB 1 and GWB 2. Ohio in particular looked like there had been a number of illegitimate tactics used in the elections but most particularly limiting access to voting for precincts which were predominantly African American. There are plenty of other claims - see Greg Palast. Seems to me that rigging elections is as American as extraordinary rendition.
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America has had some form of democracy since approx 1776. One would hope that it withstand electing a blowhard, Cheeto muppet. Indeed I am already concerned about the tendency for Congress to abdicate its responsibilities and afford too much power to the Executive. Do you really think Trump represents a threat to the Republic greater than the Civil War?. But even if he was that kind of threat the solution is not to exhort the electorate to elect the “right” candidate but to make sure the checks and balances work. Otherwise you will be subject to the risk that a pleasant, politically correct, intelligent psychopath dictator stands for office and wins election.
Trump is not the biggest threat the USA has ever faced. A more appropriate comparison to Trump would be Berlusconi. Hes just a crass, ill-briefed idiot. I dont suggest he is a good candidate for office but the very frame of this discussion suggests that democratic institutions in the US are eroding. That is a way bigger problem and just focusing on the election for President just makes the problem worse.
The Patriot Act should never have passed. The same was true for the National Defense Authorization Act. The widespread use of Executive Orders is shameful and is a practice that should end. In comparison Trump is neither here nor there.
If you argument is that we must always elect the “right” President because one President alone can unwind the Constitution then we are all already fucked. Its only a matter of time before we elect a wrong one. In fact I would suggest its already happened.
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Agreed.
At this point, I think he’d have to pull a George Stillson and use a small child as a human shield during an outbreak of gunfire for some people to be swayed away from his side.
And even then, I have my doubts…
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Dear lord, thats a horrible argument.
Since when was it ok for the worlds most powerful man to shove a cigar into a intern who works for him? And you are running with the “she consented” argument.
Let me spell this out for you.
Donald Trump sucks and is an asshole. The biggest asshole ever ( I dont think so but whatever).
No, please dont stick cigars into office interns vaginas when you are their boss. Its not ok. Its worse when you are the President of the US. And dont you dare try and tell me its cool cos she was down with it.
IT AINT OK.
They can both be ffing assholes. Thats a possibility, ok?
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I don’t think the die-hards will care, but I expect it will erode more support from the middle-of-the road Republicans/poorly informed types who started falling off after the first debate. Pence has said he’s not on speaking terms with Trump for a few days over this, Ryan refused to be seen in public with Trump and cancelled an event over it, GOP leaders are flipping over what this is going to do to Senate races, and various prominent GOP leaders have renounced their prior support for Trump over this. The die hards can’t change their mind, but it’s still really very damaging to have your party’s nominee bragging about sexual assaulting people.
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Two border walls, and “grab her right in the pussy”
On the third day of Trumpmas my true love gave to me…
ETA: you just know the 5th day will have to be something about a golden toilet.
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Ahem.
##They both ARE ‘fucking assholes.’
That’s not the issue.
One is a typical asshole; totally full of crap, but still functioning basically as expected.
The other is a prolasped, hemorrhoid and puss-riddled asshole that’s seeping anal leakage in perpetuity, posing a seriously detrimental hygiene problem, if not an outright sanitation disaster.
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So it turns out that I had a lower opinion of Trump than you. It seems my assessment of his personality definitely included the possibility that he was a sexist pig who would take advantage of women who were impressed by money or fame or just too weak to deal with his piggishness. I figured that a lot of people knew he was that kind of asshole. And a big percentage of those that didnt know he was that kind of asshole don’t care either way.
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When I heard the tape, what I thought he said was that being famous meant that ladies were attracted to him and permitted him to make extremely overt sexual advances. I thought it was idiotic braggadocio and exaggeration. Turns out that maybe he actually did do that stuff and with ladies who had not given any consent - implicit or explicit. Which would makes him guilty of sexual assault. But the tape on its own doesnt tell you that.
Me personally, I think the people voting for Trump or for Clinton are a relatively small percentage of voters. Most are voting against Trump or against Clinton. Maybe this latest information on what kind of idiot scumbag Trump is persuades a block of additional voters that he is the greater evil. But I just dont see it myself. I will take your word for it.
Fair enough. Just tell the kids to keep their cigars to themselves and away from the interns.
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Is this finally enough?! Will this be enough to convince the delusional? It has to. (right??)
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I think the general tendency of politicians very much like Trump do things like refuse to leave office when legal actions would require them to. Ignore, or disband legislatures when checked, find specious but effective end rounds to expand their power could lead, under Trump or in the future to a situation as bad or worse than the Civil War. Especially given the willingness of his party to back him no matter what for the sake of electoral expediency and a party before country mentality.
What exactly do you think happens if Congress attempts to check presidential power. He disputes it. And it ends up in front of a Supreme Court stocked with Trump’s hand picked justices? Say he loses a re-election bid. Refuses to accept the validity of the vote. Does Chief Justice Scott Baio side with our democracy or Trump?
And just an example that’s stuck in my head. Trump has publicly promised to order the military to commit illegal acts (targeting civilians, torture etc). And military leaders have largely said they would refuse those orders. As is legally and ethically required.
But that situation already happened. Good old G-Dubs ordered torture. Faced with the fact that this was illegal and thus the military could be compelled to refuse those orders. They found some lawyers to make a plausible argument that was in fact legal. Parts of the military that supported the torture program had sufficient legal cover to avoid refusing those orders. And those who didn’t were deprived of a legal justification for refusal, and backed into a corner by those supporters.
You don’t think Trump, And the sort of cronies he’ll bring in would use similar methods? Suppose you have the same conflict over something even worse. Broader more heinous torture, bombing civilians, military involvement in deportation (potentially of Americans citizens, something Trump has occasionally hinted at). The against it members of the DOD refuse to accept the legal cover. But there are in favor members backing Trump.
Now you’ve got 2 politicized factions within the military. One supporting the president and one backing, let’s say Congress.
That sort of thing is bad. Even if I trust our system, And the American public won’t bear it. We’d likely keep it low key. Weather the storm, And hopefully strengthen checks to prevent such things. But those sorts of things can escalate quickly. And they cause damage even when the right side wins out. Trump is a walking promise of hundreds of these sorts of disputes.
Do I think they’d happen? Probably not. Would he win out if they did? Maybe. But there’s far to much risk involved. And the slow introduction of such crazy, a few early successes. Some court precedent providing a working baseline. Sufficient support from his loudest, most craven backers. All tends to make the next step more likely. And inure us all from the danger of it all.
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I doubt you have a lower opinion of Trump than I, though you probably have a higher opinion of voters, which is what we were were talking about. IMO, policy it at best a tertiary concern for most voters, for whom being a creepy scumbag is a matter of degrees. This just pushed the creepometer from a 9 to an 11.
No saying how damaging bragging about sexual assault is, but the immediate responses suggest it’s more than a blip. I think the effect will be more traditional Republicans staying home no matter how much they hate Clinton, since checking the box next to the guy bragging about adultery and sexual assault’s too unpalatable.
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Dead Zone reference. (My favorite, of King’s)
I agree, though. It might require something that cowardly and slimey for his supporters to finally abandon him.
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