Open Thread for Friday, June 17, 2016

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This being Friday afternoon, practically no one will read this, but you who do can count yourselves as special:

South Carolinians observe anniversary of Emanuel AME killings — You’ve probably been hearing about it all day. Any thoughts?

  1. Russian Track and Field Team Barred From Rio Olympics — Both the NYT and WSJ are leading with this right now, so it’s a really slow news day. With the Russians, isn’t this kind of a dog-bites-man thing? Or am I thinking of the East Germans?
  2. Dozens of GOP delegates launch new push to halt Donald Trump — Very een-ter-resting. Also interesting is that the WashPost’s top three stories are about Trump, so getting barred from his campaign hasn’t cramped their style at all. The lede is about his business ties to Russia, which casts a new light on his cozying up to Putin. The third is about Trump’s long-standing relationship with the late Roy Cohn, who the story says “showed Trump how to exploit power and instill fear through a simple formula: attack, counterattack and never apologize.”
  3. Jo Cox

    Jo Cox

    Jo Cox killing: suspect’s far-right links a ‘priority line of inquiry’ — Everything, including politics, stands still when one person gets shot in Britain. Because unlike in certain countries we know and love, it seldom happens there. Guess why? Of course, she was an MP, so there’s that.

  4. Suspect who allegedly shot at car with five victims inside turns himself into police — So how did he do that? Was it magic — did he actually become a police, or did he merely put on a cop costume so that everyone thought he had turned himself into police? I like the Baltimore-style use of “police” to refer to an individual, like on “The Wire.” You know, like when McNulty or somebody said, “You’re a good police.”

15 thoughts on “Open Thread for Friday, June 17, 2016

  1. Bryan Caskey

    Grilling some steaks for dinner and celebrating our 12 year anniversary (observed) tonight.

    Have a good weekend, commentariat.

  2. Karen Pearson

    It’s a wonder that the Olympic committee is brave enough to actually ban the Russian team despite their obvious cheating. It’s also a wonder that even some of the GOP is being brave enough to challenge Trump. Will wonders never cease .

  3. Harry Harris

    I still believe D Trump wants out and is making moves to give him an excuse to withdraw and declare “humbug” on the Republicans for not supporting him. Given his personality, can anyone imagine his having a job as demanding as the presidency? I can almost hear his withdrawal speech. “I’m not running with a bunch of losers behind me – though I could easily win if they weren’t so soft and scared.” I would give his dropping out or being forced out an 80% chance. The Republicans will find a way to dump him and get a substitute candidate in who will go along with their agenda to further favor and enrich the well-off (including me) and the super rich. They want to get complete control of the economy and tax policy (Wall Streeters), environmental and energy policy (Koch brothers), while they throw a few bones to the religious right. Don’t believe me? Just watch.

    1. Benton WILLIAMSON

      I agree he is likely to bail. He does not like to lose. And think the mafia may make him do it to avoid further scrutiny of their dealings. Would say 50% at this stage. Reminds me of good ol Kirk Finlay who told me once running for office was a blast, and serving in office was a real pain. Trump magnifies that several fold in a bad way.

  4. Burl Burlingame

    Trump is a businessman whose sole product is the cachet of his name, which he is doing real damage to. He may never recover.

    1. Burl Burlingame

      Although it is possible Trump will win the presidency, it’s also very possible that he could become the biggest loser in electoral history. Could his ego handle that? Could his business survive that?

      1. Norm Ivey

        I suspect magazines, newspapers and websites around the globe are readying their November 9 headlines with an image of Trump and headlines like “What a loser!” and “Trump Suffers YUGE loss.”

          1. Doug Ross

            Hmmm.. the gloating is starting pretty early. Must be nice to have such a strong candidate on your side. Someone universally admired with a clean ethics background.

            1. Scout

              Really? So fantasizing about possible headlines in the event of his loss counts as “gloating”? Even though I have made no claims as to the likelihood of this event nor have I necessarily professed any particular affinity for any other candidate.

              If you think that’s “gloating”, fine. I do want him to lose. I will whole heartedly commit to that.

      2. Doug Ross

        “biggest loser in electoral history”

        Worse than McGovern against Nixon? 520-17 electoral vote and 61-37 on the popular vote?
        No chance. Not with Hillary on the other side of the ticket. I would suspect Trump’s floor is the same as John McCain’s total. There isn’t any chance of Hillary winning Texas or South Carolina. And there’s no way she get’s 60% of the vote with her negatives. If Gary Johnson gets any traction, neither candidate will get 48%.

        1. Brad Warthen Post author

          No, it’s going to be disturbingly close, I fear.

          You have to figure in the close to 40 percent who would vote for a yaller dog if it had an R after its name (they’re no different from Democratic partisans in this respect).

          Then there’s the fact that not ALL of us independents are wise enough to know how to choose between the lesser of two weevils.

          Add in the fact that Hillary’s got the SECOND highest negatives (after Trump) of any recent major-party nominee, and you’ve got a close race…

        2. Doug Ross

          My fantasy result would be Trump or Hillary at 44, second place at 42, and others at 14. That would mean whoever won couldn’t claim any type of support from the majority of Americans. Imagine if the winner gets a lower percentage than Mitt Romney (47.2%) got in 2012. That is not very far fetched at this point.

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