Friday Open Thread

16 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

1. Hate to give him the floor, but here it is:

   On Thursday, at a supposed economic address in Manhattan, Trump was asked, “If you win in November, can you commit to prioritizing legislation to make child care affordable? And if so, what specific piece of legislation will you advance?” 

   And here is Trump’s entire, unedited answer: 

   Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down. You know, I was somebody—we had Sen. Marco Rubio—and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about—that, because look, child care is child care, couldn’t—you know, it’s something—you have to have it in this country. You have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers, compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to. But they’ll get used to it very quickly. And it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us. But they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care. We’re going to have—I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country. Because I have to say, with child care, I want to stay with child care. But those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just—that I just told you about. We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars. And as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers will be taking in. We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people. And then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people. But we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about ‘Make America Great Again.’ We have to do it because right now we’re a failing nation. So we’ll take care of it. Thank you. Very good question. Thank you.

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   1. I found myself reading this nonsense in Christopher Walken's voice and that made it much more enjoyable.

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      1. I'm recalling William Shattner doing a free verse version of Rocket Man. It was actually very, very good.

         Not to leave out Sarah Cooper

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   2. Brad DeLong:

      Try to parse Donald Trump’s speech today, and he presents as a random text generator with a ten-word memory: “bacon” leads to “products” which leads to “energy” which leads to “wind” which leads to “when [wind] doesn’t blow” which leads to “problem”. But there is no train of thought here at all. This presents as a very high level of cognitive deficit indeed:

      Donald Trump: ‘You take a look at bacon and some of these products. Some people do not eat bacon anymore. And we are going to get the energy prices down. We get energy down. You know, this was caused by their horrible energy—wind. They want wind all over the place. But when it doesn’t blow, we have a little problem… <https://newrepublic.com/post/185496/trump-rant-bacon-wind-power>

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      1. It is nice that you are beginning to understand, "the Weave", The ODs' super brilliant rhetorical trick he uses to outfox the libs. Only a stable genius can handle the complexity and nuance of " the Weave".

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   3. And the hits keep coming, although the NYT and WaPo try to edit things to make Trump look good.

      More from Brad DeLong:

      "Were this word salad to have been barfed out by a General-Purpose Transformer Large Language Model, I would judge it to have failed the turning test and not to be of human level intelligence, but just stringing words together according to some probability map:"

      Donald Trump: ‘Joe Bride. This guy. Is just the worst. The worst president in the history of our country will be a fading. [Long pause.] Nightmare. He’ll be a fading. A. I have fading memory. Joe Biden is forming, granting mass, think of. My life could have been so simple. I could have had 200 lawyers less. So simple. I would have had a beautiful life. But this is a beautiful life. This is far more beautiful. What’s better than being with you? Look at that beautiful lake? What is better? This or sitting on the Pacific or Atlantic. Which has sharks. You don’t have sharks. See, that is a big advantage…

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      1. JD "Yes, I am a human. why do you ask?" Vance laments that school shootings are a ‘fact of life’ in the US as he calls for more security

         They're not even offering thoughts and prayers anymore. School shootings are just a fact of life now like the changing of the seasons. Fuck Vance.

          

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   4. Shorter Trump: "I'm for it as long as someone else pays for it".

      No real policy or commitment to child care as a priority.

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2. The story that will not die apparently has reached the "explain it by trends" stage.  This Colorado Sun article:

   Is racism fueling the furor over a Venezuelan gang “takeover” of apartment buildings in Aurora?

   The anti-immigrant backlash and the tendency to equate newcomers to the United States with criminality is nothing new, say sociology and criminology experts, who point out that it’s been happening since the first waves of Irish, Italian and Polish immigrants more than 100 years ago. This is despite the fact that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people who were born in the country, according to decades of research. 

   The pending presidential election — when immigration is among the most contentious issues in the nation and after more than 40,000 South American migrants have come through Denver alone in the past year and a half — brings even more hysteria to the situation, the experts said.

   Others might answer "of course."

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   1. It's not even debatable.  Racism pure and simple.

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   2. Recently finished "Lincoln and the Irish" by Niall O'Dowd. Fascinating parallels to today. Highly recommended. 

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3. Trump deputy campaign manager identified in Arlington National Cemetery dustup

   NPR has the names of the Trump campaign folks involved. Further cementing the facts that this incident did happen and that Trump and his close campaign advisers don't give a fuck about veterans or service members.

    

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4. Dick Cheney will vote for Kamala Harris, daughter says | The Texas Tribune

   You've got to be freaking kidding me…Darth won't even vote for dump. JFC on a stick !

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5. Donald demonstrated his abilities again … after the appeals court hearing.  Trump’s latest rambling meltdown reminds America of his predator past

   Donald Trump used a news conference following a Manhattan court hearing on Friday to make a meandering, conspiratorial, and disjointed rant about the various court judgements against him. Trump has faced increased questioning about his mental acuity and this appearance is likely to raise further concerns.

   The event was billed as a news conference, but Trump took no questions from the media as he reminded the public of the long list of women who have accused him of sexual misconduct.

   When you are explaining, you are losing.

   When Donald Trump is explaining, he is losing — and probably becoming liable for NEW defamation claims.

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   1. "I'm here so we can continue to focus on this defamation lawsuit against me by Carroll because I called her an ugly, lying bitch because that's what I said. I don't even sexually assault ugly bitches. I only sexually assault the good looking whores who are really asking for it. Fuck all the Democrats, liberals an RINOs. Vote for me to be President of the USA. Bye."

      … and people want to vote for this guy?! SMDH.

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6. Still my favorite political cartoonist

   

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