1685

At this point, I’ll be happy if there is a Republican party left that I can remain a member of after November. That there will be actually elected official, that I can mostly respect will be a bonus.

1686

At the risk of hyperbole, this election has moved beyond surreal to become profoundly disturbing.
Is cutting taxes this important to the Republican establishment that they all don’t disown Trump?

1687

The spineless GOP have handcuffed themselves to a dead hooker here. They deserve to get eviscerated on the ballot.

1688
1689

Heh, this Trump speech attendee appeared to understand what he was saying:

1690

kinda scary all the other people there either ignored what he said or smiled.

1691

Turns out there’s a word for what Trump’s doing. It’s called stochastic terrorism.

1692

And the woman with him is just cackling at it…good one, Donald, good one!

1693

And it sounds an awful lot like the tactics used by the alt-right. For example, Milo Yiannopoulos calling Leslie Jones a “hot black guy.” He’s basically daring everyone to try to silence him.

1694

I’m not sure that the guy was really surprised, as much as he really liked it.

Hey Mabel, he finally said it! What a great guy! Where’s my rifle, Mabel? We going hunting!

1695

I think he felt that little twiddle you feel when you hear something that you know is in bad taste and that you probably wouldn’t utter yourself but are amused by all the same, alloyed perhaps with a tinge of shame. “Oh boy, he went there!”

1696

The claim was not based on any substantive evidence, but its construction was familiar and designed to inure the candidate from having to defend its truth or credibility. After all, this was not Trump talking – it was the “many people” for whom he has become a tribune and champion.

On the trail and in interviews, Trump has a habit of punctuating his more self-assured claims with the phrase, “believe me.” But when he wants space between himself and the words he is about to speak or tweet, he defers to other sources, relying on a rhetorical sleight that has drawn new scrutiny as the race hits its home stretch.

1697

Really liked that article. Especially appreciated the four categories:

Many people are saying X.
You know, X? Nobody talks about X.
I heard X.
Some people say X.

1698

Hell yes. Check thread - 90 replies. Oh fuck, what has he said now?

1699

Here is a fun exercise.

Diagram this Donald sentence.

1700

He’ll probably win.

The unrelenting press just feeds him.

1701

March of 2016, is that you?

There is overwhelming evidence that this unrelenting press is doing anything but the opposite of what you suggest. It has all but killed his candidacy.

1702

They said that about Truman.

1703

By that I mean the only ‘evidence’ in politics is election day.

The more they cane him the more he’ll look like an outsider, and pick up a bunch of voters who are disenfranchised by both parties. They know he has a loose mouth they just won’t care.

He won’t appeal to people who read opinion pieces or their authors.

We had a new populist party led by a similar character in the second last election pick up 20% of the vote, and this is in a country where voting is compulsory. Trump gets the Republican vote as well.

He’s every chance.

1704

People don’t have to read opinion pieces on Trump to realize he’s a pathological liar and a narcissistic shit heel who deserves to be President of his own fan club and nothing else.

By the way, many people (Sam Wang, Drew Linzer, Nate Silver) correctly predicted the 2012 EV (electoral college vote) election results. It’s also irrelevant that Trump is abnormal, that doesn’t change math or how polling works (the polls during the primaries were correct. Sam Wang correctly predicted trump would win in early February.) No different now. It’s not a foregone conclusion, but it’s likely going to take some kind of unknown wild card (ISIS attack, damaging Wikileak email dump) to change the trajectory of the race.