The October 25, 2016 Thread
PRESIDENT
NATIONAL–CNN/ORC–CLINTON 51, Trump 45
NATIONAL–NBC News/SM–CLINTON 50, Trump 44
NATIONAL–ABC News Tracking–CLINTON 53, Trump 41
NORTH CAROLINA–Monmouth–CLINTON 47, Trump 46
NORTH CAROLINA–PPP–CLINTON 47, Trump 44
NORTH CAROLINA–Lucid–CLINTON 42, Trump 41
FLORIDA–Lucid–CLINTON 45, Trump 39
VIRGINIA–Lucid–CLINTON 43, Trump 38
GEORGIA–Lucid–CLINTON 44, Trump 40
NEVADA–Las Vegas Review-Journal–CLINTON 48, Trump 41
NEVADA–KTNV/Rasmussen–CLINTON 46, Trump 42
MICHIGAN–FOX2/Mitchell–CLINTON 49, Trump 41
WASHINGTON–Elway–CLINTON 48, Trump 31
Wired: “Tonight, the Trump campaign is kicking off a show that will air on the candidate’s Facebook page every night at 6:30pm ET via Facebook Live from the campaign war room at Trump Tower. The show will be hosted by Boris Epshteyn, a senior adviser to the campaign, Tomi Lahren, a conservative commentator for Glen Beck’s TheBlaze, and Cliff Sims, another Trump adviser. In tonight’s inaugural episode they will interview Trump campaign manager KellyAnne Conway and adviser Jason Miller.”
“The series, which will stream Trump’s rallies directly each night and feature pre-and post-event commentary, comes on the heels of the campaign’s debate night Facebook Live last week, which brought in more than 9 million views.”
I like the sentiment and clarity, but the process can't happen within the GOP. The party is hopelessly compromised. https://t.co/nrdxLOUlDZ
— Charles Murray (@charlesmurray) October 24, 2016
Trump isn’t that impressed with the First Amendment freedom of the press.
If Donald Trump is president, he’d like to make some changes to the First Amendment. In an interview with WFOR, CBS’ Miami affiliate, Trump was asked if he believes the First Amendment provides “too much protection.” Trump answered in the affirmative, saying he’d like to change the laws to make it easier to sue media companies. Trump lamented that, under current law, “our press is allowed to say whatever they want.”
REPORT: Alarming Jump In Armed ‘Militias’ Responding To Trump’s ‘Rigged Election’ Nonsense https://t.co/haNWfPIcYb
— philip harris (@pharris830) October 24, 2016
Matt Yglesias shares some good news from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The inflation adjusted weekly income of the typical full-time American worker hit an all-time high in the third quarter of 2016, according to data released yesterday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Median weekly earnings had been approximately stagnant for the first 15 years of the 21st century. (They spiked temporarily during the Great Recession because low-wage workers were disproportionately likely to be laid off.) But earnings have rebounded sharply over the past 18 months. That’s a mix of an improving labor market giving workers some bargaining power and cheap energy prices keeping inflation low.
Dems running up big early vote lead in NC — 63% have cast ballots for Clinton vs 37% for Trump, via @ppppolls: https://t.co/IXZxFxI0Qj
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 24, 2016
Donald Trump addressed the latest accusations of inappropriate sexual contact made against him by an adult film performer, CNN reports. Said Trump: “And she’s a porn star. You know, this one that came out recently, ‘he grabbed me and he grabbed me on the arm.’ Oh, I’m sure she’s never been grabbed before.”
Good story https://t.co/7AX3OPPx58
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 24, 2016
The Washington Post on the Democrats dominating early voting in Nevada: “Katy Perry’s glamor, Tom Steyer’s money, Univision’s megaphone and organized labor’s muscle, along with a late assist from Barack Obama, each helped lubricate Harry Reid’s well-oiled political machine over the past 48 hours.”
“The media tends to focus on the lack of enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton relative to President Obama, which is real, but a few thousand more ballots were cast in Nevada on Saturday — during the first day of early voting — than during the kickoff day four years ago, when there was a similar flurry of activity to propel Democrats to the polls. And that was before Air Force One touched down yesterday afternoon.”
“It is a testament to the power of the organization that Reid, the retiring Senate Minority Leader, has built over three decades, which he is now using to get Clinton and his hand-picked successor, Catherine Cortez Masto, across the finish line. As much as 60 percent of the vote will be cast before Nov. 8 in the Silver State.”
More Clinton voters are saying they are voting FOR Hillary (as opposed to against Trump) than ever before. Trump stagnant on this. ABC poll: pic.twitter.com/Ul5Vf6I4Ij
— Nick Gourevitch (@nickgourevitch) October 24, 2016
Sen. Bernie Sanders admitted that if his own campaign staff’s emails were to be hacked, they’d contain substantially unflattering messages about Hillary Clinton, the Daily Beast reports. Said Sanders: “Trust me, if they went into our emails — I suppose which may happen, who knows — I’m sure there would be statements that would be less than flattering about, you know, the Clinton staff. That’s what happens in campaigns.”
Especially during the heat of a campaign.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a loyal soldier for Hillary Clinton since he conceded the Democratic nomination, told the Washington Post he “plans to push liberal legislation with like-minded senators with or without Clinton’s support if she is elected— and to aggressively oppose appointments that do not pass muster with the party’s left wing.”
“Sanders said he and other senators have started plotting legislation that would achieve many of the proposals that fueled his insurgent run for president, including a $15 federal minimum wage, tuition-free public college, ending “mass incarceration” and aggressive steps to fight climate change.”
As well he should. That was the deal. It will help that he will be the Senate Budget Chairman when we win back control of the Senate.
GOP's new argument: We need Congress to stop Hillary. New Dem internal polling has given Ds their response: https://t.co/cVJMMhGcK2
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) October 24, 2016
Harry Reid says if the Republican even hint at blindly obstructing President Clinton’s Supreme Court nominees, it is time to kill the filibuster for good.
Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he is confident that he has laid the groundwork for Democrats to nuke the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees if they win back the Senate in November. […]
“I really do believe that I have set the Senate so when I leave, we’re going to be able to get judges done with a majority. It takes only a simple majority anymore. And, it’s clear to me that if the Republicans try to filibuster another circuit court judge, but especially a Supreme Court justice, I’ve told ’em how and I’ve done it, not just talking about it. I did it in changing the rules of the Senate. It’ll have to be done again,” Reid told TPM in a wide-ranging interview about his time in the Senate and his legacy.
“They mess with the Supreme Court, it’ll be changed just like that in my opinion,” Reid said, snapping his fingers together. “So I’ve set that up. I feel very comfortable with that.”
Rick Klein: “You can’t force a mandate. But Hillary Clinton is now in the enviable position of having some control over what this election will say to both her supporters and opponents. Should she continue on her current trajectory, she’s in line for a major victory, bordering on a blowout by modern standards. ABC News’ new tracking poll has Clinton crushing Donald Trump by 20 points among women nationally, and even up slightly among men. A win that broad, perhaps with an Arizona and/or a Georgia tipping blue, would signal a message that carried beyond expected demographic and geographical boundaries.”
“Fifty-six percent of Clinton supporters say they are mainly voting to support her rather than to oppose Trump; Trump’s similar number is only 41. If Clinton can convince the country that she is going to win by offering up herself – as opposed to being there solely as an alternative to Trump – it could have implications for governing in the not-so-distant future.”
If the Clinton lead holds and Dems win back the Senate, I’m sure the GOP will do a lot of sober, tough soul searching and get themselves back on track.
She needs to articulate a vision that can attract people.
Mouse, you are the constant naysayer. You will always be negative towards Hillary, no matter what she does. You just hate her for no reason. Maybe it is because she is a woman. Who knows? But I think she is doing a very good job of attracting people to her campaign. I think she is articulating an inspiring and popular vision.
She has a vision and she is attracting people. She’s winning with millennials. I am so excited to vote for her. She may not attract you, but you aren’t a Dem or a liberal/progressive. That’s fine, but your vision probably doesn’t line up with the Dem party platform.
I am very attracted to Hillary’s vision when she is standing next to Trump.
Fox News reports this morning that early voting is really favoring Trump. So, you know… It is going to be another smooth and easy election night for everyone.
Mouse, here are 235 examples of Hillary’s visions for a post-election America: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLRYsOHrkk5qcIhtq033bLQ
Sanders warns Clinton: Don’t rush to compromise with GOP
Yeah yeah, I’m not a liberal lol. Hubris destroys. There’s millions of people voting for her like myself with the same concerns. I mean a vision like Bernie articulated at every opportunity.
Vision is great, but can it be implemented? Vision alone doesn’t accomplish much.
And it’s great that Bernie is organizing a group of liberal senators. Obama could have used the help.
Vision motivates people. I would rather feel excited by vision that may not be implemented than just having to vote against some bellicose nutcase. Bernie gave me reason to fight
How exactly have you fought?
Hillary’s vision includes building on Obamacare( incrementally and pragmatically of course) and it looks like she will get her chance sooner rather than later, in fact events may force it to be her first priority. It is becoming clear that private insurers are the Achilles’ heel of Obamacare and some form of public option is the necessary incremental and pragmatic improvement.
Actively supported Bernie’s campaign as long as it lasted
Longer even.
You know, I think a big push to modify the ACA would be a fantastic early move in her presidency. Because one of the biggest “talking points” for Republicans is repealing Obamacare and replacing it with… with something they haven’t come up with yet (and probably never will).
Public option, please.
Running up Bernie’s score as much as possible was essential so he would have as much clout as possible to restrain unwise compromise with Republicans and DINOs.
Unless Bernie has a pretty big coalition to push back on “unwise compromise”, you’ll still see some. Because, you know, neither of the Delaware Senators will be joining him. Which is apparently a rational part of the equation for you.
I see Cassandra is still waiting for a clear progressive majority to form before she signs up.
That’s about the response I would have expected from you, puck. Always looking to outsource effective progressive action to one leader instead of to the pieces that need to join that leader to make it work.
It’s gonna be fun watching you discover how your government works. And has worked since forever.
it’s called expectations management.
If you are foolish enough to think that Bernie and LIz, with a GOP house, mostly comprised of Tea-Bagging Trumpeters and lead by Paul “i do TOO have a spine” Ryan, are going to run the table on the Progressive agenda, you are setting yourself up to be someone who says “Bernie lied! he didn’t push Clinton to DO ANYTHING!!!” (anyone remember how mad people were when Obama didn’t dictate single payer health care?)
The question that any progressive should be asking him or herself right now is how can you best push your local Senators to supporting a progressive coalition. If Bernie is willing to lead, then letting the locals get away with their usual BS counts as a failure to help him.
“I would rather feel excited by vision that may not be implemented”
Really? Well I guess that’s better than grinding it out bit by bit, which obviously is a lot less satisfactory, entertaining, and exciting. Regardless, visions that will not or cannot be implemented are dreams, not visions.
Bernie is a dreamer. We need dreamers, but I don’t want them in charge because ultimately, we are supposed to be getting things done.
good one, liberalgeek.
Not being a progressive, it nonetheless seems to me that the most likely outcome of the election is a Democratic President, extremely narrow Dem control of the Senate, and the GOP holding on but weakened in the House.
That being the case, were I a Dem strategist I would be looking for the victories that do not require the House–Supreme Court and other judicial appoints; climate change treaties and other foreign policy victories. If this were the focus over the first 100 days and victories could be scored, public momentum might be built for pursuing a broader legislative agenda.
The first part of that would be a revision of the ACA (although I admit that skyrocketing premiums and industry pressure from insurers might make this necessary to tackle first). But if you could get away with avoiding that, or banking reform, for the first 100 days it would allow Warren and Sanders time to build their own coalition in the Senate, if that’s possible to do.
“I guess that’s better than grinding it out bit by bit, which obviously is a lot less satisfactory, entertaining, and exciting.”
If you’ve ever been involved in a volunteer effort for anything, you know that splashy but unrealistic attracts more support than slow, realistic progress every time.
@pandora: I am so excited to vote for her. On domestic issues I can see why you’d say that.
On foreign policy–especially with the “no fly zone” proposal for Syria and the undeclared drone war in Yemen–I’m not with her. My problem is the difficulty divorcing the domestic and foreign policies–right now I’m stuck with a lukewarm “She’s better than the alternative” on the world stage, at least as far as our militarized foreign policy is concerned.
This is not abstract to me. I’ve had friends in the military maimed and killed over the past decade in pursuit of imperialistic military policies. I cannot walk away from the fact that we are being taxed to do half the military spending on the planet while our schools rot, our infrastructure crumbles, yada yada. Secretary Clinton offers zip zero nada move in a positive direction on those issues.
Here’s an item for the Crooked Delaware file: The contract for the SuxCo pot clinic has gone to — surprise, surprise — the former state trooper and Carper aide who won the NCCo dispensary job.
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2016/10/24/sussex-county-pot-clinic-operator-picked/92675014/
As I said yesterday, after 225 years of effort, self-government appears to be a failure.
“We need dreamers, but I don’t want them in charge because ultimately, we are supposed to be getting things done.”
“Getting things done” is overrated. If you just want to get things done, elect Republicans to control the White House and Congress. Then lots of things will get done in the first 100 days.
But I’m not the only one lol
“visions that will not or cannot be implemented are dreams, not visions.”
If people had just taken that stance with the Old Testament prophets…
Of course, it’s easy to prophecy decline and chaos. it’s fighting upstream, against entropy, that’s hard.
Visions inspire people to move toward their goal in a more organized and motivated manner. I know exactly what Bernie Sanders stands for and his vision for the nation
“Getting things done” is overrated.
Interesting. So we all will be repeating this back to you when you are bitching about all of the things Hillary is not doing as President.
Two displaced workers sued Disney and here’s what happened:
I’m sure this loophole will be reformed by comprehensive immigration reform, right?
Since getting things done is overrated, I can’t imagine why this could still be important to you.
@puck: You should see how Disney treats the performers at its parks, virtually all of whom are native-born. They get away with it because hey, everybody wants to be in showbiz, even if they have to wear the Goofy costume.
Isn’t it possible that the problem is partly about immigration and partly — maybe even bigly — about an employer long noted for exploitation of labor, one that looks for every possible way to squeeze a nickel out of a dime? Even if, in this case, they have outsourced the exploitation to what amounts to human traffickers, or at least labor traffickers. Apparently it’s cheaper to hire foreigners even with the middlemen taking their cut, so imagine how little the guys at the keyboards are making.
There is a guy named Matt Adams on Facebook claiming he created the La Mar Gun for Lt. Gov. campaign videos on a handshake deal and hasn’t been paid for any of the work despite Gunn having the vids up online.
Wow. I just went to Gunn’s financial report and that seems to be a mess. He counts giving himself 29K+ as receipts (but there is also about 15K in loans ???). I suspect that this crazy accounting just masks that he doesn’t have the money.
Who better to run marijuana dispensaries than some guy who is probably jotting down the license numbers of every car that stops by? And turning it over to his buddies in blue?
The only thing he knows about marijuana is where all the stashes that the cops have confiscated have gone.
Having recently been to Oregon and having seen the economic boon that dispensaries can provide, I can only shake my head in disbelief at how pathetic what passes for Delaware’s efforts are. Only in Delaware can a hack ex-cop pal of Carper’s be given the job of running our medical dispensaries.
@ anonymous,
Exploitation of labor is certainly nothing new. Every sector I have ever worked in does the same.
This is what I mean. At some point, people are going to tire of voting for the democrats just because the republicans have worse rhetoric.