Showing posts with label Donald Trump. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Donald Trump. Show all posts

Friday, March 4, 2016

THE DONALD AND THE DUKE

Our own Louisiana treasure, Stephanie Grace, on Trump's handling of his endorsement by David Duke.
Given the ascent of Donald Trump, whose arena-size angerfests are kind of like [Pat] Buchanan’s 1996 rally on steroids, was there ever any doubt?

Keying in Trump’s anti-outsider rallying cry to build a wall on the Mexican border and ban Muslims from entering the United States, Duke, who rarely misses an opportunity to emerge from obscurity and grab a headline, declared that white people who didn’t back Trump were committing “treason” to their “heritage.”
Pat Buchanan was savvy enough to know that though he might get away with coded, racist language to attract supporters, association with David Duke crossed a line that would not play well and would surely come back to bite.
While Buchanan, a political communications pro by trade, knew just what to say in a similar situation, Trump has flailed and flopped all over the place. He first disavowed Duke’s support, then on Sunday reversed himself during a genuinely shocking ABC News interview.

“Well, just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, OK?” Trump said. “I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists.” (My emphasis)
David Duke?  I never heard of the guy.  OK, Mr Trump, you'd have to be living in a cave cut off from all communication not to have heard of Duke, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
After a day of denunciations from the press and rival Republican candidates, Trump backtracked again, claiming that he hadn’t heard the question despite the specificity of his answer. (My emphasis)
And there it is - Trump's denial that is quite obviously not true, because he repeated Duke's name. Tomorrow is primary election day in Louisiana.  Only registered Democrats and Republicans are allowed to vote for their candidate of choice in each party.  My guess is that Trump's botched response to the endorsement of Duke will make little difference in his totals in Louisiana.  His performance in the Republican debate last night, which I thought was his worst, may affect the vote - or not.  Thus far, Trump's die-hard supporters have remained unaffected by reports of his stumbles, misspeaking, and denials of statements that are on record.  

Saturday, January 9, 2016

WHAT IF THE WORST HAPPENS?


Michael Gerson in the Washington Post:
Every Republican of the type concerned with winning in November has been asking the question (at least internally): “What if the worst happens?”

The worst does not mean the nomination of Ted Cruz, in spite of justified fears of political disaster. Cruz is an ideologue with a message perfectly tuned for a relatively small minority of the electorate. 
....

No, the worst outcome for the party would be the nomination of Donald Trump. It is impossible to predict where the political contest between Trump and Hillary Clinton would end up. Clinton has manifestly poor political skills, and Trump possesses a serious talent for the low blow. But Trump’s nomination would not be the temporary victory of one of the GOP’s ideological factions. It would involve the replacement of the humane ideal at the center of the party and its history. If Trump were the nominee, the GOP would cease to be. 
Michael, Michael, the "humane ideal at the center" of the Republican Party disappeared years ago, and the racist, sexist, loathsome Donald Trump candidacy of today is the creation of the GOP, your very own Frankenstein's monster, who is now out of control.  Trump says in plain language what the other so-called establishment Republican candidates speak in veiled code language.  (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, you know what I mean.)

As for Hilary Clinton's "manifestly poor political skills", I wonder if you watched any part of the eleven hour Benghazi!!! hearings, in which Clinton made Trey Gowdy and the other Republicans on the committee look like bumbling fools.  Maybe it's just me, but I thought Clinton's political skills, intelligence, and stamina were very much in evidence.  She would not only perform well against candidate Trump but perhaps send him over the edge to the point where even Republicans would vote for her, or, if they could not bear to cast a vote for a Democrat, they would not vote and perhaps even stay home, which would affect not only the presidential vote but down-ticket Republican candidates. 

Further, the GOP "conservatism" of today quite obviously does not involve "respect for institutions and commitment to reasoned, incremental change" and has not for quite a number of years.

You say:
Liberals who claim that Trumpism is the natural outgrowth, or logical conclusion, of conservatism or Republicanism are simply wrong. Edmund Burke is not the grandfather of Nigel Farage. Lincoln is not even the distant relative of Trump.
You are wrong, Michael. The members of the so-called "center" of the GOP, who no longer have an influential voice in the party, stayed silent through the worst of the excesses perpetrated by Republican members of Congress, thus giving them free rein to vote for their extremist agenda, with the result that the two candidates who now lead in the polls are Trump and Cruz.

Two quotes come to mind:

Silence is the voice of complicity.  (Fr Roy Bourgeois)

For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.  (Hosea 8:7)

Monday, December 14, 2015

DONALD TRUMP'S SONG TO HIMSELF


Photo by Gage Skidmore

HOW GREAT I AM
(To the tune of How Great Thou Art)

O Donald Trump, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds my hands have made;
I see the tower, I hear the jangling quarters,
My power throughout this earth of ours displayed.

CHORUS:

Then sings my soul, O Donald Trump, to me,
How great I am, how great I am.
Then sings my soul, O Donald Trump, to me,
How great I am, how great I am!

And when I think of me my time not sparing;
I choose to run, I scarce can take it in;
That on the stump, my burden gladly bearing,
I lie and shout my way to score a win.

REPEAT CHORUS

When I shall come with shouts of acclamation
As nominee, what joy shall fill my heart!
The right will bow with humble resignation,
And there proclaim, "O Trump, how great Thou art!"

REPEAT CHORUS

Alternative lyrics for the hymn by me, with apologies to Carl Gustav Boberg (1859–1940).

Thursday, September 10, 2015

BOBBY JINDAL V. DONALD TRUMP

Feisty Bobby Jindal decided to take on Donald Trump in a frontal assault in a speech at the National Press Club. In a desperate attempt to get attention, Jindal attacked the No. 1 candidate in the GOP line-up. Jindal and his strategist, Timmy Teepel, observing that no one is paying attention and that Jindal remains in low single digits in the polls, may have thought by attacking Trump, a bit of Trump magic may fall his way. Bobby says:
The Donald Trump Act is great, and the idea of Donald Trump is great -- BUT the reality of Donald Trump is absurd, he's a non-serious carnival act.
Of course, some might say the same about Jindal's reach for the presidency.

Also, Jindal and crew hope the attack on Trump may serve as a distraction from the reality that holes are already appearing in the flim-flam budget passed by the Louisiana Legislature and signed by Jindal. The plan was that the budget, which both the legislature and Jindal knew was flim-flammery, would implode as Jindal's term as governor ended, leaving the mess for the next governor and legislature to clean up, but the governor and his advisers miscalculated, and the holes in the budget showed up too soon.  As Melinda Deslatte says:
As lawmakers patched their way through this year's budget, many of them talked as if they had drawn up a six-month plan, fully expecting Louisiana's next governor to come in with a broader blueprint for fixing the state's financial mess.

They may have been too generous. This budget may not even hold for six months.

One modest cut's already been required, other gaps have emerged and nose-diving oil prices could upend everything.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/business/article32640099.html#storylink=cpy
Oops!  We are to believe President Jindal will make America a great country again, when we have the example of his ruination of the State of Louisiana during his two terms as governor.

Monday, May 9, 2011

THE DONALD


Everyone has the image ahead of me, but it's so funny that I had to have it, too.