Clinton Pulling Ahead In Poll

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll released yesterday shows Hillary Clinton expanding her lead nationwide over neo-fascist con man Donald "Rump" Trump to 12 points among likely voters. Earlier in August, she was leading Rump by about 9 points. The poll was conducted from August 18- 22.  Forty-five percent of likely voters indicated support for Clinton, with 33 supporting Rump. When factoring in the minor party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, Clinton still maintained a solid lead of 8 points over Rump.

BONUS:  For good reason, Infidel says "Don't get complacent!"

Mid-Week Speeding Song

Walking On Cars, an indie alternative band from the picturesque town of Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland, has a following in their native land and in Europe, thanks to their 2016 album "Everything This Way." A track from that album, "Speeding Cars," is just now getting airplay in the U.S. Enjoy.

More Fox Sex Follies

Following on the heels of Gretchen Carlson's suit alleging (!) sexual harassment at the upper levels of Fox "News" =cough= Roger "Jabba the Nut"Ailes =cough=,  former Fox host Andrea Tantaros has filed a sexual harassment suit naming Trump "advisor"Ailes and several other high- profile Foxers:

Former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros claims in an explosive new lawsuit that disgraced ex-network chairman Roger Ailes sexually harassed her and that high-ranking executives fostered a newsroom culture in which abusive behavior flourished.  

“Fox News masquerades as defender of traditional family values, but behind the scenes, it operates like a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency and misogyny,” the suit reads. 

Ailes was “the primary culprit,” according to the suit, but “his actions were condoned by his most senior lieutenants who engaged in a concerted effort to silence Tantaros by threats, humiliation, and retaliation.” [snip]

In the suit, Tantaros also described host Bill O’Reilly ― who, in 2004, settled a high-profile sexual harassment suit leveled by a former producer ― as once asking her to stay with him at a “very private” place in Long Island and expressing a desire to see her “as a wild girl.” 

And former Massachusetts senator and Fox News contributor Scott Brown made “sexually inappropriate comments” about Tantaros, according to the suit, and once grabbed her waist while she was buying lunch.  (our emphasis)

The full text of the lawsuit is at the link and provides plenty of explicit details on the misogynistic, "sex- fueled" culture of the Republican Party's communication outlet.  These are damaged, rotten people, folks.

Another Rethug Jumps Ship

That ship would be the S.S. Trump garbage scow, and the jumper would be former Bush Administration senior official -- and founder of the George Bush Institute no less -- James K. Glassman, who announced his support for Hillary Clinton, calling her "by far the superior candidate."  He then tweeted this double barreled fusilade at overweight neo-fascist organ grinder Donald "Rump" Trump and his rabid monkey, Rudy "Noun Verb 9-11" Giuliani:

Poor @rudygiulianiGOP Once-great mayor reduced to spreading health rumors on orders of overweight 70-year-old.

— James K Glassman (@jameskglassman) August 22, 2016

Today's Cartoons: Pivot Trifecta

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A word that should be banished from our media's lexicon after this election* is "pivot." It's the lazy shorthand of our broken media for deception, or if you will, an "Etch-a-Sketch" moment. Neo-fascist con artist Donald "Rump" Trump is so unconvincing in his insincere pitch to African-Americans and Hispanics that he only has a press corps pushing a new "narrative" for him because 1) Horse race! and 2) Hillaryhate.
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* Along with "playbook," "running out the clock," "game changer," etc. Interesting how sports metaphors are used to describe the serious business of electing leaders.

(cartoons, from top: Mike Luckovich, Jim Morin, and Tom Toles, all via GoComics.com)

The Art Of The Steal: Trump Grifts His Own Donors (UPDATED)

Couldn't happen to a more worthy bunch of fat cats and mouth- breathers:

After bragging for a year about how cheaply he was running his campaign, Donald Trump is spending more freely now that other people are contributing ― particularly when the beneficiary is himself. 

Trump nearly quintupled the monthly rent his presidential campaign pays for its headquarters at Trump Tower to $169,758 in July, when he was raising funds from donors, compared with March, when he was self-funding his campaign, according to a Huffington Post review of Federal Election Commission filings. The rent jumped even though he was paying fewer staff in July than he did in March.

Trump has paid his eponymous golf courses and restaurants more than $260,000 since his campaign and the RNC struck a joint fundraising deal in mid-May, after he essentially locked up the GOP nomination. On May 18, the day the fundraising deal was announced, Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach was paid $29,715; Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, was paid $35,845; and Trump Restaurants LLC was paid $125,080, according to FEC records. Such large payments were much rarer when Trump was self-funding.  (our emphasis)

Let's hope these dumbasses continue to fund the "campaign" of neo- fascist con artist Donald "Rump" Trump, lining his pockets with "deals" like this one.

UPDATE:  Meanwhile, do you think Rump is sharing any of his "campaign" contributions with Republicans down ballot?  (Spoiler alert: hahahahaha)

The "New Trump" Same As The Old Trump

Here's how Seth Meyers deals with neo- fascist toddler Donald "Rump" Trump, his latest "pivot" and "campaign" shakeup, the right- wing media, Rump's unhinged surrogates, and the puerile corporate media hungering for a horserace.  It's a far more incisive take on current American politics -- in 11 minutes -- than anything you'll see on cable or read in your newspaper:



BONUS:  While we're at it, have a look at Stephen Colbert, back from vacation, wrapping up what Rump's been up to while he was gone.

Quote of the Day: Gum On The Shoe

"At this point, the whole e-mail business is nothing more or less than gum on the [Clinton] campaign's shoe. The campaign press, of course, is slavering for a press conference so it can grill her for an hour or so about the gum on her campaign's shoe, which is probably the reason why she hasn't had one in quite some time. (Pro Tip: candidates are not obligated in any way to have press conferences.) Meanwhile, Trump's tax returns remain in a locked vault beneath what's left of the Taj in Atlantic City. These returns, I suspect, are not gum on the campaign's shoe but a millstone tied around the campaign's ankle." -- Esquire.com's Charles P. Pierce, correctly noting the utter lack of perspective by our broken, shallow media. So here's the choice: the bombshells in the taxes of neo-fascist con man Donald "Rump" Trump, whom a former CIA Director has (charitably) called "an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation," and whose company has received untold millions in "investments" from Russia vs. Hillary Clinton's e-mail "gum" that the FBI hasn't thought enough of to recommend prosecution of any kind.  One would think our crack "journalists" would find he former set of facts of far greater interest. One would be wrong.

"Tell The Class What You Did On Your Summer Vacation, Weston"

"I helped run Donald Trump's campaign in Jefferson County with my mommy!"  We shit you not:

A mother and her 12-year-old son are running a Trump field operation in a key Colorado county, according to news reports. 

Jefferson County is one of the most densely populated counties in Colorado, a battleground state where GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump was recently trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton, by 14 percentage points. The Trump campaign announced a new office there this month. 

Laurel Imer identifies as the West Denver Field Coordinator for Trump on Facebook. She told KDVR News she is delegating responsibility to her 12-year-old son, Weston. He is reportedly coordinating volunteers for Trump and hopes to lead the office until he starts school in September.  (our emphasis)

Well, he couldn't be any worse than Steve "Breitbart, Not Smart" Bannon and Kellyanne "Insults? Says Who?" Conway, and he's likely more mature than the guy whose campaign he's running.

Meanwhile, we have a visual just coming in of the Rump campaign operation in Colorado (hurry, jump, Weston!):

New Clinton Ad Hits Trump's Dangerous Volatility

The Clinton campaign just announced an $80 million ad buy for the battleground* states of Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and North Carolina covering the rest of August, September and October.  This one was just released:



* Maybe not all so "battleground" in the end.

Today's Tomorrow Cartoon

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(Tom Tomorrow, via Daily Kos)

Trump Pivots Back To The Real Donald Trump

The latest "pivot" to a more "presidential" Donald "Rump" Trump lasted a whole weekend!  Here's the neo- fascist toddler this morning airing his grievances with MSNBC's Joe "Squint" Scarborough and Mika "The Meat Puppet" Brzezinski (it seems Rump didn't like a panelist on the show saying Rump's latest "pivot" was like graduating "from diapers to big boy pants" or Brzezinski's mocking of a recent speech):

Tried watching low-rated @Morning_Joe this morning, unwatchable! @morningmika is off the wall, a neurotic and not very bright mess!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2016

Some day, when things calm down, I'll tell the real story of @JoeNBC and his very insecure long-time girlfriend, @morningmika. Two clowns!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2016

Be careful @JoeNBC & @morningmika or I'll spill the beans on your wives! @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/gDHe7y5pLK

— DonaId J. Trump (@realDenaldTrump) August 22, 2016

To which Squint replied:

Neurotic and not very bright?
Look in the mirror. https://t.co/FPaqGW9JWv

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) August 22, 2016

Hurl personal insults?  Rump would never do that!  Staying on message and "doing great?"  Yessir!

BONUS: Add "vindictive" to Squint's description. Not a good quality for a President, as Jeffrey Goldberg suggests:

"Yes, President Trump, we could theoretically position a satellite over Joe and Mika, but our assets are focused on ISIS at the moment."

— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) August 22, 2016

Across The Universe, Cont.

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From NASA/ESA, August 15, 2016:  Several thousand years ago, a star some 160 000 light-years away from us exploded, scattering stellar shrapnel across the sky. The aftermath of this energetic detonation is shown here in this striking image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3.

The exploding star was a white dwarf located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our nearest neighbouring galaxies. Around 97% of stars within the Milky Way that are between a tenth and eight times the mass of the Sun are expected to end up as white dwarfs. These stars can face a number of different fates, one of which is to explode as supernovae, some of the brightest events ever observed in the Universe. If a white dwarf is part of a binary star system, it can siphon material from a close companion. After gobbling up more than it can handle — and swelling to approximately one and a half times the size of the Sun — the star becomes unstable and ignites as a Type Ia supernova.

This was the case for the supernova remnant pictured here, which is known as DEM L71. It formed when a white dwarf reached the end of its life and ripped itself apart, ejecting a superheated cloud of debris in the process. Slamming into the surrounding interstellar gas, this stellar shrapnel gradually diffused into the separate fiery filaments of material seen scattered across this skyscape.

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, Y. Chu

Quote Of The Day - High Anxiety

"... I have a hard time empathizing with people who are nakedly racist, misogynistic, homophobic and xenophobic (which so many Trump supporters are). And I would also say that my empathy begins and ends with this: I vote for and support leadership and policies I know will benefit these assholes…even if they don’t know it. I feel that’s where my obligation to these people ends."  -- Beth Spencer at Lawyers, Guns and Money, expressing our feelings exactly.  She also links to a good read by Lance Mannion on the Donald "Rump" Trump voter and one of the cretin media's favorite false narratives:  that it's the po' down- and- out "economically anxious," displaced (white) workers who are Rump's base. Bullshit. That's not who the vast majority of them are, and they're not to be patronized or commiserated with.

Sunday Photo Op Cartoon

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Speaking of photo ops ...



(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)