Wednesday, June 01, 2016

June

Yes, Republicans.  Bend over; it won't hurt . . . much.


Hi-ho, everyone! It's the first day of June, the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season. If you don't have a disaster plan or supplies in place yet, what the hell are you waiting for?

Public service announcement over. Onward! Allons-y!

There was much movement on the political front since the last time - gosh and gee whillikers, was it only seventeen days ago? - so it's time for a bit of catching up.

Over on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton was told that she was a Very Naughty Person for using her private email server to handle State Department business. The fact that the previous ones, Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, did the same goddamned thing apparently escaped the notice of the Chattering Class. Fun fact, people - the current Secretary, John Kerry, is the only one who is actually following the rules and using the State Department email servers, so you can expect leaks from "highly placed sources within the State Department."

Will this result in criminal charges? No, so stop creaming your jeans about it.

Bernie Sanders is still soldiering on, but has tarnished himself a bit by trying to oust members of the DNC Platform Committee. Save it for the Convention, Bernie, and you're not going to get the nomination anyway. His rhetoric's ratcheting up to near Trumpian levels, which doesn't make him look good.

There are four more primary election dates this month (the District of Columbia Democratic primary on the 14th wraps things up), and Clinton could conceivably lock things up. Today's Quinnipiac poll (skeptical of Clinton; the only polling house more anti-Hillary is Rasmussen, which is a GOP shill) shows her leading Sanders nationally 53 to 39 percent, with rising percentages across gender, education and other lines. Other polls show her numbers rising as well, leaving not much for Sanders to be happy about; the worst poll for Clinton, CBS/NYT, show Clinton at +7.

So now we turn, with heavy heart and growling spleen, to Donald Trump.

The glow that Trump enjoyed after Cruz and Kasich left the campaign has faded. People have started listening to him more as he's started to actually take policy positions, and he's been caught in obvious lies. Sure, he lambastes the media for daring to actually ask him questions rather than fawning over him, and I think that if he does get elected we'll see the first-ever lese majeste laws in this country.

(Don't know what those are? Those are laws where you pay fines, go to jail or prison, or even be shot for criticizing the government or the head of state. Yeah, think about that.)

Back to polling. The GOP-oriented Rasmussen poll indicated, post-Indiana, that Trump was leading Clinton by 5%. That was May 19th. That same pollster now has Clinton leading by 1%, a six-point swing in two weeks. That worries the RNC nabobs, as does the fact that Trump's campaign has already abandoned the "I'm self-funding my campaign so I won't be beholden to no one" idea and has told the Politbureau that it needs money to buy ads for June and July. Not a good sign.

An even worse sign for Trump is that his last set of financial disclosures show that he's in hock to Deutsche Bank for somewhere upwards of $50 million dollars or so. It could be higher, but 50's the threshold on the forms. Deutsche Bank's already been fingered in the past for trying to cover up shenanigans, including trying to influence other national governments. How much pull do you think they - remember, a foreign bank - will have if Trump gets in?

We'll wind up with the Trump University trial. It looks like the classic bait and switch, like Scientology, time-share condos, or used-car sales. Trump, true to his nature, is attacking the judge in the case because he has nothing else; apart from the truth, which would destroy his credibility. Overlooking the fact that Judge Curiel was born in Indiana, Trump and the Trumpanzees are screeching that he's Mexican, and therefore has a conflict of interest.

Still, not to worry!

Bill Kristol, senior editor of the National Review and famed for being Wrong about nearly everything for the past 20 years or so, has been casting about to find a "true conservative" substitute for Trump. This has been rather difficult, as most of the Usual Suspects and rejects from the Bum of the Month Club realize that they don't stand a chance in hell. Still, Kristol persevered.

And picked . . . David French.

WHO!?!?!?

Wasn't he Jody and Buffy's looker-after on Family Affair? No, it wasn't, you sillies; that was Giles French, played by the late Sebastian Cabot.

David French is one of the writer-editors of National Review. He's married with a family, served as an officer in Afghanistan (lawyer in a staff unit) and was awarded the Bronze Star. He's never served in a public office, nor been elected to anything. No organization, no money, no public manifesto as to his policies.

Good job, Billy, You picked another winner.

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