“Nasty woman.” — Donald J. Trump, October 19, 2016, Las Vegas
That was the most coherent statement made by the Republican presidential candidate at Wednesday’s pseudo-debate, the last such spectacle before Election Day ( vote on November 8th for Clinton, November 28th for Trump).
But Mr. Trump isn’t Nigeria’s Sani Abacha, Somalia’s Siad Barre, or Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych. He’s Donald Trump, and doesn’t want a makeover. He likes being Donald Trump, whose outrageous, erratic behavior made him the terror of the GOP playground and won him the nomination. He thinks he can win the presidency the same way, so he doesn’t want to change. Or maybe he just can’t change. In any case he yanked Paul Manafort from the campaign’s driver’s seat and installed Breitbart bad boy Stephen Bannon as his campaign’s CEO, someone as irresponsible as he is. Mr. Bannon will applaud and double-down on every bizarre Trump statement and conspiracy theory. The Trump-Bannon campaign should complete the meltdown of the Republican Party.
More:
“Trump shakes up campaign, demotes top adviser,” Robert Costa, Jose A. DelReal and Jenna Johnson, Washington Post
Update:
Paul Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign Monday morning in order to spend more time with his familylawyers.
Reality TV star and steak salesman Donald J. Trump is a sore loser. As a spoiled rich kid, he was used to getting his way, and he has not mellowed with age. If he’s not winning the race for the Republican presidential candidacy, the other guy must be cheating. “The system is rigged, it’s crooked,” he told Fox News after losing Colorado’s delegates to Ted Cruz:
“There was no voting. I didn’t go out there to make a speech or anything, there’s no voting. The people out there are going crazy, in the Denver area and Colorado itself, and they’re going absolutely crazy because they weren’t given a vote. This was given by politicians – it’s a crooked deal.”
Mr. Trump also claimed: “Our Republican system is absolutely rigged. It’s a phony deal, They wanted to keep people out. This is a dirty trick.”
“Donald Trump won the Florida primary with 46 percent of the vote,” observed Paul Waldman, “yet even though most Florida Republicans voted against him, he got all 99 of the state’s delegates. I don’t recall him complaining about how unfair that was.”
The excitement and the exclamation points could not be contained as John Ellis “Jeb” Bush, railed against “the pampered elites of Washington” and declared his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States.
“The ‘everyday people’ who made Hillary Clinton’s burrito bowl,” Michael Kruse, Politico
“Clinton Bypassed Centrist Taco Bell for Liberal Favorite Chipotle,” Dante Chinni, Wall Street Journal blog
“The Press Isn’t Asking Enough Questions About Hillary’s Trip to Chipotle,” Jaime Fuller, New York Magazine
“This is what four days of inane Clinton-Chipotle coverage looks like,” The Week
_____________
Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-lca
Image (“Hillary Clinton Road Trip, after the Studio of Hanna-Barbera”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
“It is not unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”
– Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776
Related:
“Let the Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy Expire Already,” Senator Bernie Sanders, Truthdig
“How to raise taxes on the rich,” Jeanne Sahadi, CNN Money
“Tax hike for wealthy won’t kill growth, CBO says,” Reuters via NBC News
“The Great Capitalist Heist: How Paris Hilton’s Dogs Ended Up Better Off Than You,” Gerald Friedman, Naked Capitalism [caution: numbers n’ stuff]
Despite defensive maneuvers by the Tea Party Cavalry and artillery barrages from Koch Brothers battleships, Mitt Romney’s gas-filled airship tumbled from the skies over Boca Raton on Monday. Republican strategists blamed Soviet-inspired Sopwith Camels.
NotionsCapital 