Sunday Open Thread [7.17.16]

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Ezra Klein says Donald Trump’s speech introducing Mike Pence showed why he shouldn’t be president.
I do not know how to explain what I just watched. It should be easy. Donald Trump introduced Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate. There it is. One sentence. Eleven words. But that doesn’t explain what happened any better than "I spent a few hours letting lysergic acid diethylamide mimic serotonin in my brain" explains an acid trip. What just happened was weird, and it was important. Back in May, EJ Dionne wrote that the hardest thing about covering Donald Trump would be "staying shocked." Watching him, day after day, week after week, month after month, the temptation would be to normalize his behavior, "to move Trump into the political mainstream." But today helped. Donald Trump’s introduction of Mike Pence was shocking. Forget the political mainstream. What happened today sat outside the mainstream for normal human behavior. [...] What started as farce continued as farce. Trump emerged without Pence. He spoke, alone, at a podium adorned with Trump’s name, but not Pence’s. And then Trump proceeded to talk about himself for 28 minutes. There is no other way to say this than to say it: it was the single most bizarre, impulsive, narcissistic performance I have ever seen from a major politician. There is no way I will be able to properly described Trump’s speech to you. You should really just go and watch it yourself.
In money race, the three main Congressional candidates all lead a category

In money race, the three main Congressional candidates all lead a category

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Bryan Townsend has raised $531,644.82 for his Democratic Congressional primary campaign so far, as of the quarterly finance reporting period ending June 30. That tops Sean Barney's $418,205.04 and Lisa Blunt Rochester's $353,246.35. Meanwhile in the 2nd Quarter (from April 1 to June 30), Barney outraised Townsend and Rochester $210,307.29 to $175,971.44 and $138,353.98, respectively. Finally, in terms of cash on hand, Lisa Blunt Rochester leads the pack, with $320,257.32 to Barney's $278,623.81 and Townsend's $247,633.74. However, Lisa's lead in Cash on Hand is because she leads in another category: the candidate who has lent the most money to her own campaign. She has donated $178,900 of her own money to her campaign. So really, her actual Cash on Hand minus her loans is $141,357.32. But there is something interesting about Barney's money....

Saturday Open Thread [7.16.16]

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Josh Marshall has four questions after the failure of the Turkey Coup.
One: Erdogan's government has been trending in an increasingly autocratic direction for years. There are many good things about the failure of this coup. But heads of state who find their fears or paranoias about conspiracies against their rule validated in bloody attempted coups do not tend to loosen their grip. Quite the opposite. The most predictable outcome of this coup is a deepening and tightening of Erdogan's hold on power. That's a big problem. Two: I'm curious what role the US and the EU and its member states played, if any, in how this crisis unfolded. All the key turning points could have happened entirely internal to Turkey. But maybe not. And if not, just how is important in understanding the current world picture - the relative balance of forces of cohesion and disintegration. Three: What's the fate of the fairly substantial number of members of the military who participated in this coup? This obviously goes to question one. Soldiers who conspire against a civilian government need to be punished. But Erdogan tends to overdue rather than underdo these things, to put it mildly. So I am curious to see whether some restraining forces can make their influence felt, which obviously goes to point two. Four: The obvious one. Why did this happen? What was the precipitating event, if there was one, or what were the goals? We don't seem to have a clear or good idea of either. Those will matter a great deal.

The Weekly Addresses

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President Obama acknowledged that the aftermath of tragedies like we've seen in Dallas, Baton Rouge, and Minnesota, can leave us struggling to make sense of these events. Vice President Biden delivered last week's address and commemorated the lives of the five police officers who were killed and the seven people who were wounded in Dallas. Governor Markell honors the life of Tim McClanahan.

Tom Carper is still the most conservative Blue State Senator

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When it comes to making sure the Democrats have some kind of coherent brand statement, Tom Carper isn't a team player. And why is that? I happen to think that he believes he represents West Virginia in the Senate. It's a theory. I didn't say it was a great theory, but just check out the party break down (as expressed by the Cook Partisan Voting Index (PVI)) for the other conservative Dem Senators quoted in the Hill article.
  • Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) R+3
  • Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) R+5
  • Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) Even
  • Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) R+2
  • Tom Carper (D-DE) D+8
Look how Carper sticks out like a sore thumb. ...an infected, pus-filled, throbbing sore thumb. Now look how it makes sense if he is under some delusion that he is representing the Mountain State.

Friday Open Thread [7.15.16]

48 Comments
According to CNN, Donald Trump asked Mike Pence to be his running mate early Thursday evening and Pence accepted, but (as the Indiana governor is surely learning) even the clearest decision is always up for negotiation to Trump. Just hours later, the candidate told Fox News he has yet to make up his mind about who he’s taking to the election, saying, “I’ve got three people that are fantastic” and “I haven’t made my final, final decision.” My God. He is going to pick General Flynn or Gingrich now and look even more the fool. If I were Pence I would tell Donald to go fuck himself.