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Initial thoughts

I need more sleep. And alcohol.

Democrats, Republican leadership, Newspapers, Columnists:  “Don’t drive into that iceberg!”  Americans:  “Look, an iceberg!  Let’s hit it!”

This was the last dying cry of the Angry White Man:  “If I’m going down, I’m taking you all with me!”derp-trump

I said all along that we should have nominated Bernie because too many people didn’t like Hillary and she might lose, and was roundly criticized by many Democrats for my naive view, insisting she would win. One of us was proven wrong last night.

That doesn’t mean I was right, of course, but the electorate is angry at politics as usual. It’s why Bernie was popular and why he had the enthusiastic support Hillary could only dream of. Even though Bernie has been in government for a long time, he has never been seen as the “insider.”

We saw the same thing with the GOP — they rejected all the insiders and went for the agitator, the angry guy who vowed to fight against the Washington elite (which includes the Republicans, of course).

The Democrats just always underestimate how much a large percentage of the country hates the Clintons.  This same percentage rejected another Bush too, but we didn’t learn the lesson from that we should have.

The GOP ultimately only have themselves to blame for creating the atmosphere where this could happen.

Everything I was taught with my Political Science degree didn’t mean a thing this year, and it appears that every other “expert” probably feels the same way right now.

Even if I agreed with Trump on all the issues, I can’t believe people would support such a vulgar, crude, happily ignorant man. When you have an image of what a President looks like, Trump is the exact opposite of that.

Does this send a message to Republicans? “See? We should be more racist, more sexist, more crude. Clearly that’s what people want.”

This is American’s version of Brexit. Stock markets have already fallen; the economy is on its way down just in anticipation of what Trump will do to it. But of course, no matter how often that happens under Republicans, they’ll find some way to blame the Democrats.

If you are worried about a Trump presidency and you did not do everything in your power to prevent it, don’t go whining to me that you’re not responsible because you voted for a third party.

On one hand, Trump will probably just go around the country giving speeches and letting Pence run everything. On the other hand, Pence is worse than Trump in many ways, because he actually believes the crap he says.

And finally, one last thought given my lack of sleep and coffee:  Given that all the experts were wrong in their predictions, maybe Trump was right about the election being rigged? Has anyone seen Putin’s computer anywhere?

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Editorial cartoon: One more day

Clay Bennett editorial cartoon

Clay Bennett

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Why are people still knocking on my door days before the election?

Someone asked why people were knocking on doors campaigning this late – surely everyone has made their minds up by now.

One of the most important things a campaign can do is go door to door, identify which voters are going to support the candidate, and then make sure they have a ride to the polls. It’s not about convincing people to vote for your candidate at that point.vote-button

On election day, you call them again and remind them to vote and get them to the polls if they haven’t already. You have volunteers with cars (and donuts and coffee) to take them.

This is the Get Out the Vote part of the campaign that wins elections. The GOTV part of every campaign is important.

Trust me; I used to do this for a living. I was a campaign manager for a state rep in Boston way back in the 80s.

Here’s how it worked:

We had a list of registered Democrats. We’d go door to door, talk to them, and then put numbers next to each name. 5 meant they were definitely voting for our candidate, 4 meant maybe, on down to 1 meaning absolutely no way.

When you’ve contacted all the Democrats, then you start knocking on the independents’ doors.  If you get through them (highly unlikely; by this time, that’s a lot of doors), you can try knocking on Republicans, but there’s probably a better use of your time.

Then as the election gets close, you call them to remind them, starting with all the 5s. When you’ve finished the 5s, you go to the 4s, and so on.

And on election day, you do it again, to make sure they have voted and see if they need a ride.

That’s how you win elections.

Hillary has a strong GOTV organization. Trump has none. It will make a difference in close states.

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How The Grinch Stole the Election

Every Who Down in Whoville Liked Clinton a lot…
But the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, did not!
The Grinch hated Clinton that bordered on fear
Something about emails but it’s not quite clear
I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been that his brain was two sizes too small.
And he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming,
“I must stop this stupid election from coming!”
“I know just what to do!” The Grinch laughed all around.
And he jumped in his car and drove into town.
All the Whos were all dreaming sweet dreams without care.
When he came to the first little house on the square.
“This is stop number one.” The Grinch made a bee-line
And he ran ‘cross the lawn for the “Hillary” sign
He continued all night, taking signs near and far
Then he loaded them all in the back of his car
“Pooh Pooh to the Whos!” he said with a big grin.
“They’re finding out now that Clinton can’t win!”
And he turned on the tube and rubbed at his eyes
He couldn’t believe that horrible surprise
Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,
Had voted for Hillary without signs at all!
“Maybe voting,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a sign.”
“Maybe choosing a candidate is more benign”
And did the Grinch change? Now don’t be a chump
The Grinch after all, was a voter for Trump.
grinch1

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For Trump Supporters: a Thought Experiment

Dear Trump supporters:

Just for the hell of it, let’s pretend a Democrat is running for President. And then let’s imagine you discover the following:

  • He’s been married three times and admits he cheated on his wives
  • He refuses to show you his tax returns
  • He’s facing a major lawsuit over a business he started where he allegedly defrauded his customers

  • He has another trial pending where he is accused of raping an underage girl
  • He has admitted to groping women against their will
  • He’s been sued many times, lost quite a few cases, and settled many more
  • He has hired illegal immigrants to do work on his property
  • He’s created fake charities and used the money to pay off his own debts and buy paintings of himself
  • He’s been endorsed by the KKK and the American Nazi Party

I could go on, but the question remains: Would you let a Democrat get away with these things? Be honest now.

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Editorial cartoon: The Manchurian candidate

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Ruben Bolling

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The truth about Trump’s rape trial

While Republicans claim that a bunch of emails that no one has ever seen are evidence of some unknown and random felony, Trump’s lawyers are getting ready to defend the man against child rape.donald-ivanka-trump-throwback-photo-ftr-1.jpg

Yeah, tell me again how “they’re both the same.”

But then again, as much as I hate Trump, I love facts more. Is there anything to this rape trial?

I briefly looked into it and here’s what I found.

First off, this is a civil trial, not a criminal trial. It’s about money. It’s not being brought by a prosecutor. The anonymous victim first filed this in California, where it was dismissed for technical reasons having to do with service, and then refiled it in New York, where it is set for pre-trial conferences in December. (If Trump were a Democrat, the GOP would have already spent millions on an investigation into this by now.)

Apparently, this victim had been “searching for a lawyer” which is a bad sign — if this was an easily provable case, there would be plenty of lawyers lining up for it. A patent lawyer eventually took the case.  Mmm-kay.

The lawsuit stems from an alleged incident during parties held by Jeffrey Epstein where Trump was in attendance.  The suit is against both men.

Epstein has spent more than a year in jail on child molestation and is a registered sex offender. He’s settled other similar cases from his victims. And Trump is an admitted sexual abuser — I’ve had clients who have been found guilty of the things Trump has claimed to have done (and which have been confirmed by more than a dozen victims now). My clients are on Megan’s Law list.

Trump’s treatment of women is well known, and it’s believable that he could have done something like this. That doesn’t mean he’s guilty, but you have to admit it kind of fits into this kind of personality. It’s not like he’s a raging feminist — the man has commented sexually about underage girls before more than once and let’s not forget his creepy comments about his own daughter.  “Women,” he has said. “You have to treat them like shit.”

It’s also not the first time he’s been accused of rape, either.

So while this lawsuit looks a bit suspicious, Trump fits the profile of a man who would do this.  Doesn’t mean he’s guilty, of course. We shall see what happens.

 

 

 

 

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Another non-scandal excites Trumpettes

Let’s see.

Days before the election, FBI Director (and Republican) James Comey announced that there were new emails involving Hillary Clinton.247be87d-7c13-4cd2-885a-9bebad10bd5a-jumbo16x9_ap16147060028688secofstate

He has not seen these and has no idea if there is anything in them.

The emails are not from Clinton’s server, and apparently are mostly between Clinton and her campaign staff.

Such an FBI announcement is unprecedented and prosecutors everywhere are calling it inappropriate and an obvious political move, as there is no legal reason to announce an investigation before you have even looked at the evidence.

Hillary has called for all of the emails to immediately be released so everyone can see that there is nothing incriminating or illegal in them — just like there was nothing incriminating or illegal in all the other emails that have been released.

Meanwhile, Republicans who gleefully jump on this are happily supporting a man who has a rape trial and a fraud trial scheduled within the next few months.

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Editorial cartoon: Trick or trick

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David Horsey

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The nightmare won’t end on election day

Let’s face it, Hillary Clinton has one person she will need to thank for destroying Donald Trump on November 8th, and that person is Donald Trump. She isn’t winning by a big margin so much as he is losing by a big margin. I still hold that had the Democrats nominated anyone else, the election would be even more of a wipeout.monsters-trump-2-11864-1450133554-22_dblbig

The saddest thing is that after the election is over, the nightmare that we’ve experienced in this campaign will continue.

The craziest and most extreme Trump supporters, emboldened by his refusal to accept democracy coupled with the Bundy “not guilty” finding, will take arms to the streets under the delusion that treason is patriotic.

The less crazy (including Trump) will yell that the election was fixed despite the possibility that this may be the biggest popular vote blow-out since Nixon defeated McGovern. They’ll fill the right-wing blogs with enough conspiracy theories to keep them busy till the next election.

The Republicans will dig their heels in even more and, since they will probably still hold the House, start impeachment proceedings against Clinton while spending millions more on investigations that will most likely once again lead to nothing.

Dear God, it will never end.

Trump has destroyed much of the Republican party and has done great harm to democracy, and we’re not going to recover from that quickly or easily.