1. Donald Trump takes his fascist tendencies out for a spin.
For such a huge bully, Donald Trump sure is a whiny thing. On the one hand, he — much like the Glenn Close character in Fatal Attraction — will not be ignored (see next item). On the other hand, he does not like when people say mean things about him. Whah whah whah.
The blowhard Republican frontrunner had a little hissy fit this week after the Des Moines Register published an editorial suggesting he should quit running for president. The piece also called Trump a “bloviating sideshow.” Trump did not mind the "bloviating" part because he’s not entirely sure what the word means. But a sideshow? How dare they. Everybody knows Trump is the whole show, the only show in town and the greatest show on earth. And did they mention he is very very rich?
Trump has not felt so miffed since Forbes wrote an article saying tht he was not nearly as rich as he claimed to be some years ago. Well, he was pretty miffed on Monday when "Morning Joe" talked about other candidates besides Trump (again, see next item). And he was miffed when John McCain made fun of him. So, yeah, scratch that. He is often miffed.
In response to the editorial, Trump did what any reasonable, American-democracy-free-speech-loving demagogue would do. He banned that mean old newspaper from his event in Iowa. So there.
More of the editorial that stuck in The Donald’s craw:
"By using his considerable wealth, his celebrity status, and his mouth to draw attention to himself, rather than to raise awareness of the issues facing America, he has coarsened our political dialogue and cheapened the electoral process....He has become 'the distraction with traction' — a feckless blowhard who can generate headlines, name recognition and polling numbers not by provoking thought, but by provoking outrage."
Nice. Distraction with traction. Might have to steal that.
After the editorial, Trump issued a statement condemning the paper’s "dishonest reporting," demonstrating, among other things, that he cannot tell the difference between editorializing and reporting.
And also that he is a total chump. A chump with some fascist tendencies, to boot.
2. Donald Trump whines to 'Morning Joe' about not getting enough attention. 'Morning Joe' laughs and laughs and laughs.
"Morning Joe" got his morning laugh this week, courtesy of The Donald, who was interviewed on the show.
“I was just listening to you,” Trump said, after being introduced, “and I was listening to you talking about [Jeb] Bush and [Marco] Rubio and a couple of others and you sort of forgot to mention my name even though I’m creaming them all in the polls. I don’t understand what you’re doing.”
Scarborough guffawed, “Donald, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? We’ve been talking about you for a week. What are you talking about?”
Yeah, but you also talked about other people, Trump replied. And that’s not okay with me. “You were talking about [John] Kasich and you mentioned Bush and Rubio and somebody else that I won’t mention because I actually like that person,” Trump replied. When Trump is king, errr, president, people will only talk about people he wants to talk about.
Scarborough remained flabbergasted, and struggled to find a different question to ask. “What are you talking about?” he said again. “What are you talking about, Donald? How thin is your skin? I’ve been talking about you for a week.”
Trump, as is now well known, never backs down, no matter how trivial the fight. “When you were talking about Bush who, by the way, is about ten points lower than me, you sort of mentioned like, you know, ‘Can Kasich beat Bush?’” he whined. “Well, you know, excuse me, what about Trump? I mean, you know, we are ten points ahead.”
And also, he is very very rich. Did he mention that? And not a loser, like all those other losers. Losers!
3. Important political thinker Dennis Rodman is all in for Donald Trump.
Turns out North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump have something in common, other than laughable hairdos. Dennis Rodman is a big fan of both of them.
Rodman tweeted his valuable support for Trump this week.
The Trumpster appreciated that very much and tweeted back the love. He loves anyone who loves him. And hates anyone who hates him, and resents anyone who doesn’t talk about him enough, and bans anyone who criticizes him. All of these things could also be said of Kim Jong-un.
4. Megyn Kelly really needs to shut up, about pretty much everything.
Another week, another opportunity to be offensively wrong-headed about major news events. Fox darling Megyn Kelly’s “The Kelly File” this week was stuffed full of those moments.
Earlier in the week, Kelly discussed the video of the arrest of Sandra Bland, the woman who was pulled over in Texas for not signaling while black, and arrested for smoking a cigarette while black. Sure enough, Kelly found a way to blame Bland for her own arrest, brutalization and ultimate death.
“Even if you know the cop is wrong, comply and complain later,” she advised, leaving out the more valuable piece of advice, which is to always be white, especially when quarreling with a police officer. Frequent guest, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, who comes in handy whenever you need a black man to blame other blacks for their assault and death at the hands of police officers, also offered some sparkling commentary. He did not like Sandra Bland’s language, young lady. Such language would have embarrassed him if he had been Bland’s father. No word on whether the trooper who pulled Bland over and threatened to “light her up” with his taser, would have made Clarke a proud papa, had he been his son.
Later in the week, Kelly was talking to a Lafayette, Louisiana police sergeant about the horrific shooting at the movie theater there. The shooter was, at this point, identified as an older white man. "Any reason to believe there might be a connection to ISIS, or radical Islam, or terror as we understand it in this country?" Kelly asked, headscratchingly. She had to ask that nonsensical question. She just had to. She is required by FoxNews law.
Seriously, can we just dispense entirely with the notion that Kelly is the smart one over there?
5. Scott Walker is a walking, talking ALEC talking point.
Scott Walker has many friends at the American Legislative Exchange Council because he agrees with the arch-right-wing lobbying group about absolutely everything. It’s almost as if it simply transplanted all of its ideas directly into his head. Hmmmm. Maybe it did. Either that or he has simply plagiarized all of ALEC's ideas—like destroying what little is left of unions, starving schools of money, waging war on women’s reproductive rights, keeping people in prison as long as possible, and making it really hard for people to vote.
It was time for Walker to indulge in a little brag-fest at ALEC’s annual meeting this week in San Diego.
“We took on the unions,” he said. “We passed ... regulatory reform. We defunded Planned Parenthood and passed pro-life legislation. We passed castle doctrine and concealed carry — so law-abiding citizens can protect themselves and their famil[ies], and their property. And I’m proud to say in our state, as blue as it is, our state now says it’s easy to vote but hard to cheat — you need a photo ID to vote.”
The audience lapped it up. It was a major oozing lovefest. Seriously, get a room.
Walker then criticized President Obama for espousing the view that climate change is a major threat to future generations, which is ridiculous, of course. Everyone knows climate change is a threat to generations right here, right now.
h/t: Capital & Main
6. Bobby Jindal does not think a mass shooting should be used as an excuse to talk about gun control.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who thankfully has suspended his run for president, freeing up his seat in the Republican clown car for some perhaps bigger clown, does not want to talk about guns. Some innocent people watching a movie were just gunned down in his state by a right-wing extremist who expressed his hatred for feminists and liberals—but why should that occasion a discussion about how obscenely easy it is to get guns in this country? What do you want to do? Prevent more tragedies or something?
"We are less than 24 hours out, we’ve got two families that need to bury their loved ones. We’ve got families waiting for their loved ones to leave the hospital and are praying for their recovery," Jindal said at a press conference Friday. "There will be an absolute appropriate time for us to talk about policies and politics, and I’m sure that folks will want to score political points off this tragedy, as they’ve tried to do on previous tragedies."
Hmmm, political points. Is that what they’re calling keeping guns out of the hands of mass killers and toddlers these days?
Jindal told reporters he might be happy to discuss gun policy later. How about never? he asked. Is never good for you?
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