Wednesday Open Thread [8.17.16]

Wednesday Open Thread [8.17.16]

Trump has shaken up his campaign for a third time. There has been talk that Trump is basically the comments sections of Breitbart and INFOWARS if it took human form. Well, now Trump has hired Breitbart.
Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon will “temporarily step down from his role with Breitbart News” to join the team as the campaign CEO, while Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway will be promoted to campaign manager. [...] While Paul Manafort will stay on as campaign chairman and chief strategist, two Trump advisers who spoke to the Washington Post on condition of anonymity said that his internal role would be diminished as the Republican nominee tries to retake the reigns of his campaign. The aides told the Post that Trump has felt “controlled” and “boxed in” by staffers urging him to tone down his rhetoric and pivot towards a general election audience. As a seasoned campaign operative, Manafort played a key role in trying to turn Trump’s understaffed, shoestring operation into a more traditional national presidential campaign. But the notoriously blustery real estate mogul has shrugged off these efforts, continuing to get in trouble for off-the-cuff comments like his claim that “Second Amendment people” could keep Hillary Clinton from appointing liberal Supreme Court justices. As his poll numbers in national surveys and battleground states have fallen, Trump has expressed a wish to return to the kind of combative campaign that fueled his success in the Republican primary.
So.... wait a minute. This staff shakeup is not an effort to run a more disciplined presidential on message campaign It is an effort to get more undisciplined and more uncontrolled. Ok then.
Truth, accuracy, and “fact checking” are all meaningless bullshit.

Truth, accuracy, and “fact checking” are all meaningless bullshit.

..and now I'm not so worried about an October Surprise. But first read this...
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday that he was using “abbreviated language” when he claimed that the U.S. had seen no terror attacks carried out by Islamic extremists before President Barack Obama came into office. "You speak in somewhat abbreviated language," he told the New York Daily News by way of explaining his Monday introduction for Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio. "All human beings speak in abbreviated language at times."

Ken Simpler should enroll his kids in public school

The last sensible Delaware Republican, Mike Stafford, put this on his Facebook yesterday. I could not agree more.
Mike Stafford Yesterday at 9:37am · Before he ran for office, I recall asking Ken Simpler where his kids went to school after listening to +30 minutes of canned Rodel and Scott Walker-style anti-union and "education reform" tropes and talking points come spewing out of his mouth. His answer wasn't the local public school! I told him a politician who talks about education reform but doesn't have their kids in public school is like a Chevy salesman who drives a Toyota, only worse- because such a politician is willing to experiment on other peoples' children.
Tuesday Open Thread [8.16.16]

Tuesday Open Thread [8.16.16]

Nate Cohn: “The Upshot’s model gives Mrs. Clinton an 88 percent chance of winning. It’s about the same probability of hitting a field goal from the 20-yard line.” “That’s a pretty good way to think about it. If Mrs. Clinton ultimately wins, we will probably look back and say she had more or less already won it by this point. If she loses, these next two months will be talked about for decades.” “The game-winning field-goal analogy has one big weakness: She may win this by a lot more than a field goal.”

Sucks to be Bonini

Poor chap. Not only did Copeland sucker him into being on the drubbed side of an electoral drubbing, now he has Lyme Disease. In all honesty, he should drop out. What does he owe the DEGOP? Why should he put his health on the line to spare Copeland the embarrassment of sitting with Laser Lafferty on Return Day? He shouldn't.
Monday Open Thread [8.15.16]

Monday Open Thread [8.15.16]

Paul Krugman: “Just to be clear, I’m not saying that top Republicans were or are personally bigoted — but that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that they were willing to curry favor with bigots in the service of tax cuts for the rich and financial deregulation. Remember, Mitt Romney eagerly accepted a Trump endorsement in 2012, knowing full well that he was welcoming a racist conspiracy theorist into his camp.” “All that has happened this year is a move of those white nationalists from part of the supporting cast to a starring role. So when Republicans who went along with the earlier strategy draw the line at Mr. Trump, they’re not really taking a stand on principle; they’re just complaining about the price. And the party’s top leadership isn’t even willing to do that.”

Saturday Open Thread [8.13.16]

Donald Trump said he “certainly” wants to take part in the presidential debates this fall, but wants to see a fair moderator, The Hill reports. Said Trump: “That’s all I’m looking for. Because we have a lot of very unfair people treating us, as Republicans and as conservatives. If you’re a Republican and a conservative, you get very unfair treatment.” That's how he back out of the debate, he will reject all of the Commission's chosen moderators.