For the past two days...

(The fighting GOP elephants post will be up again later.)


BREAKING NEWS:  The Salt Lake Tribune Endorses Hillary to be President.


I have received in several emails and seen on facebook the following meme:

Those two photos are not a comparison.

Why?

This is why:

Men's naked buttocks are not obscene. They're natural. In fact every single male reading this has naked buttocks inside his underwear (that's if he's wearing any). On any given summer's day on any beach in Europe, in various South American or even North American beaches, a male's bare buttocks, and even a female's bare buttocks can be seen. It's not disgusting, it natural. 

A grown man bragging about grabbing a woman's genitals is not "banter," it's bragging about sexual assault.  Donald Trump bragged and admitted to Billy Bush that he does this whenever he's around beautiful women because he can't help himself. Trump said he sexually assaults women, and Billy Bush thought that was hilarious. IMO, that's obscene.

Men walking in a parade with thongs on that show off their buttocks is not the same as a 59 year old man talking about how he likes to grab women's "pussies" against their will.

The outrage is not because Trump used the word "pussy," the outrage comes from Trump's casual boast that he can get away with sexually assaulting women because he's a star.

The Psychotic Rage of Alex Jones, a Right Wing Darling

This is who the fringe right Trumpistas listen to and who whips them up into frenzies of rage and insanity so that they cheer when Trump threatens to jail Hillary. This is the sort of trash they listen to and believe, and you can read almost the same sort of malignant rhetoric against Hillary, President Obama, and "libtards" on certain right wing blogs every day of the week.  

This is the sort of psychotic rage they feed on, and they vote :




ALEX JONES (HOST): I'm never a lesser of two evils person, but with Hillary, there's not even the same universe. She is an abject, psychopathic, demon from Hell that as soon as she gets into power is going to try to destroy the planet. I'm sure of that, and people around her say she's so dark now, and so evil, and so possessed that they are having nightmares, they're freaking out. Folks let me just tell you something, and if media wants to go with this, that's fine. There are dozens of videos and photos of Obama having flies land on him, indoors, at all times of year, and he'll be next to a hundred people and no one has flies on them. Hillary, reportedly, I mean, I was told by people around her that they think she's demon-possessed, okay?

I'm just going to go ahead and say it, okay? They said that they're scared. That's why when I see her when kids are by her, I actually get scared myself, with a child -- with that big rubber face and that -- I mean this woman is dangerous, ladies and gentleman. I'm telling you, she is a demon. This is Biblical. She's going to launch a nuclear war. The Russians are scared of her.

 [...]

 Imagine how bad she smells, man? I'm told her and Obama, just stink, stink, stink, stink. You can't wash that evil off, man. Told there's a rotten smell around Hillary. I'm not kidding, people say, they say -- folks, I've been told this by high up folks. They say listen, Obama and Hillary both smell like sulfur. I never said this because the media will go crazy with it, but I've talked to people that are in protective details, they're scared of her. And they say listen, she's a frickin' demon and she stinks and so does Obama. I go, like what? Sulfur. They smell like Hell.


Infidel753 has a terrific post up about intra wingnut warfare.  

Bring popcorn.

TRUMP'S VISION FOR AMERICA: THROW POLITICAL OPPONENTS IN JAIL

via The Washington Post:



"HAS THERE been a more disturbing low in presidential politics?

 'If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation,' Republican nominee Donald Trump threatened in the course of the second presidential debate Sunday night.

 'It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country,' Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton responded.

 'Because you’d be in jail,' Mr. Trump shot back. 

 Mark the moment.

A major-party presidential nominee is officially promising to lock up his political opponent, despite the fact that an impartial federal investigation concluded that no fair prosecutor would have charged Ms. Clinton in the matter of her e-mails.

If anyone needed any more proof that Mr. Trump does not understand the meaning of rule of law as opposed to arbitrary rule of autocrat — that he would use the levers of the federal government in a vindictive, self-serving and corrupt manner — Mr. Trump provided it."

************************

Skip around the internet and read the usual rabid right news sites and blogs and understand that a large section of the American people are okay with Trump's promise to act like a tin-pot dictator.

I've been astounded at how a man like Trump was able to get this far in American politics -- right up to the door of the White House. But when one reads the excuses his supporters give after each revelation about Trump's lurid sexual exploits and his dictatorial ambitions for America, that frightens and depresses me even more. When Trump is mercifully gone from presidential politics, those people with their lust for authoritarian strongmen will still be around, and they'll still have the power of the voting booth.  A horrible thought.




Talking Points Memo:

(TPM) "I don't think we can discuss this debate as citizens, take stock of it as a country, without noting that this is certainly the first time one candidate has openly threatened to jail the other candidate. Trump said openly that he would instruct the Justice Department to open a new investigation of Clinton and that he'd make sure it ended with her imprisonment. That's something we expect it kleptocracies and thin democracies where electoral defeat can mean exile, imprisonment or death. Such a ferocious claim, one that puts our whole constitutional order on its head, is not something that can be easily undone. That's the ranting threat of a would-be strongman and dictator."

Ryan Dumps Trump

Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, today told his fellow Republicans who are running for re-election to do what they have to do to distance themselves from Trump-- IOW, save your own hides and forget the embarrassment we, the GOP, endorsed for POTUS.

So what Trump has left is his rabid base who, just today at a Trump rally, were screaming at the top of their bloody throats, "LOCK HER UP!" -- a follow-up to Trump's insane promise at last night's debate to put Hillary in jail.

Trump has lost the support of dozens of Republicans from his own party, and now Speaker Ryan is all but letting him twist in the wind.

Not one major newspaper has endorsed Trump, and many newspapers that have never endorsed a Democrat have endorsed Hillary.



From Talking Points Memo:


It Begins: Trump Takes Swipe At Ryan After He Essentially Concedes To Clinton 

It was clear. Trump's campaign was on its own as congressional Republicans just tried to stem the bleeding.

 Ryan explicitly said during a call with members Monday that he was not unendorsing Trump; however, he also said he was not going to be campaigning with the nominee. Instead, he was going to invest his resources in ensuring the Republicans kept control of the House of Representatives.

Ryan spoke on the call with members after a tape from 2005 surfaced Friday recording Trump talking about grabbing women's genitals. Ryan subsequently uninvited Trump to appear with him at a rally Saturday in Wisconsin, but Ryan said little about the tape aside from admonishing Trump for it. 

Monday was the first time Ryan spoke about the state of his endorsement. While Ryan has said that he isn't taking his endorsement away at the moment, the Republican conference is divided over how Ryan has handled Trump's tape. During the call Monday morning, one Republican congressman who spoke to TPM on background said that some members were criticizing Ryan openly for not standing by Trump.

 One member, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) blasted Ryan for essentially ceding the election to Hillary Clinton.

Another Low in American Politics Brought to US by Trump

Richard Wolffe at The Guardian writes—The nicest thing you could say about Trump’s performance was that it was bonkers:

We can understand a totalitarian like Putin threatening to jail his opponent, but I've never heard an American politician threaten his opponent with that in my lifetime. But that's just what the Republican candidate for POTUS did last night, when he wasn't stalking Secretary Clinton as she gave her answers to the questions being asked by the audience.

Another performance by the Short Fingered Vulgarian proved he knows nothing about foreign or domestic issues and that he is the consummate liar that the fact checkers all over the country have said he is.

Trump's performance last night and the revelations about his sexual predations last Friday makes him unfit to be the POTUS, and that's not just my opinion, that's the opinion of an avalanche of Republican politicians and the American people.




PM Carpenter:


And we're all blessed that Trump performed as well he did last night. I was getting a trifle nervous, wondering if Reince Priebus & Co. might come to its senses and somehow figure a way to dump its absolute horror of a nominee. Thus I reveled upon reading this in the Times this morning: "Trump’s performance was sure-footed enough that no more Republican officials disavowed him in the immediate aftermath of the debate." 

In declaring that Clinton has "tremendous hate in her heart," that she "should be ashamed of herself," that she is "the devil," and that as a banana-republic dictator he would put her "in jail," Trump reinvigorated his malevolent base and guaranteed its imperishable presence in GOP Politics 2016. Which is to say, he's untouchable. He also guaranteed that his party will suffer a bloody split in 2017, as saner Republican pols flee the calamitous contours of November's Trumpian antecedent. A devastating performance last night might have pushed Mr. Priebus to do something sane straightaway, and that would have been a real pity. Trump's devastation is much better left for November.

*******************

Never forget that Trump, who insisted last night that he "respects" women, said this to Howard Stern about his (at the time) young daughter, Ivanka:

TRUMP: "My daughter is beautiful, Ivanka."

STERN: "By the way, your daughter."

TRUMP: "She's beautiful."

STERN: "Can I say this? A piece of ass."

TRUMP: "Yeah."

Every man I know knows what "a piece of ass" means when speaking about a female - it means "she's 'f***able." And Donald Trump let the shock jock, Howard Stern, say that about Ivanka.

That's Trump's idea of  "respecting" women. 

His own daughter.

The New York Times Editorial Headline: "The Sleaziness of Donald Trump"

"And so we have now heard the Republican nominee for president of the United States bragging about repeated sexual assault. ... 

 The tape was made “many years ago,” Mr. Trump noted in his statement on Friday. It was made in 2005. He was then 59 years old. It would be hard for anyone to argue that the man he was then is not the man he is now. Mr. Trump also noted that Bill Clinton had “said far worse to me on the golf course.” 

Who knows if that is true, and why should anyone care? Mr. Clinton is not running for president, and, at least until now, Republican politicians have not treated his private behavior as the standard by which they should be judged."





To the right wingers who dismiss what Donald Trump said in the open mic as nothing more than "locker room banter" or "braggadocio," you're wrong, and you're moral cowards.

Trump has been insulting every demographic since he started his campaign by calling Mexicans rapists and killers, by insulting a POW, by mocking a disabled journalist, by demonizing Muslim Americans, African-Americans, by insulting a Gold Star family, by insulting a female FAUX NOOZ talking head, by insulting and demeaning the Republican candidates he ran against in the primaries -- he's insulted everyone except his base: ageing poorly educated white men, KKKers, and white supremacists.

That's who you now defend as we learn about his utter lack of respect for women -- not just beauty queens and casual acquaintances, but his very own daughter. We have Donald Trump saying on audio tape to Howard Stern that it is okay for Stern to refer to his daughter, Ivanka, as a "piece of ass."

TRUMP: "My daughter is beautiful, Ivanka."

STERN: "By the way, your daughter."

TRUMP: "She's beautiful."

STERN: "Can I say this? A piece of ass."

TRUMP: "Yeah."

What sort of father would allow this sort of talk about his daughter? A narcissistic pig, that's who. Because Ivanka's body and sexiness -- "piece of ass" -- in Trump's twisted, sick mind, reflect on him -- his ability to have produced that nice "piece of ass."  That's the man you moral cowards are still making excuses for and still supporting.

Now let me hear you explain to your mothers, wives, and daughters how Donald Trump, who allowed shock jock, Howard Stern to call his daughter -- in front of him -- "a piece of ass" is fit to be POTUS and represent America to the world.

Go ahead. Tell us.

And I'm not accepting "Bill was worse."

"Mr. Clinton is not running for president, and, at least until now, Republican politicians have not treated his private behavior as the standard by which they should be judged."





Bob Schieffer on Face The Nation today:

"This isn't a 'boys will be boys' issue, it's a 'pigs will be pigs' issue."

Saturday Night Oldie -- The Doors, "The End"

Thought of this today.

Who's Surprised?

UPDATE BELOW

I'm not and neither is the rest of sane America, which includes principled Republicans who have finally decided to get out of the gutter and run away from this proto-fascistic "malignant clown."

The only people remaining loyal to Trump are the professional Hillary Haters who make excuses, blame Bill Clinton, blame Hillary Clinton, blame the "Klintoon Machine," for Trump's revolting behavior.  Just like Trump, they will deceive themselves into believing this is nothing compared to WHAT BILL CLINTON DID!  

But Bill Clinton is not running for the presidency. And since when do "family values" voters accept the "He did it too!" excuse for despicable behavior?  By trying to drag Clinton's past into Trump's present, isn't Trump essentially saying "Bill disgraced himself, so you shouldn't be angry when I do the same."  Seriously, do those people accept that excuse from their children? 

This latest shocking, vulgar revelation has the cumulative effect of months and months and months of appalling disclosures about Trump's character, temperament, and lies and that's what makes it so damaging. 

However, as we've seen already, Trump's base will continue to support him because, IMO, they have no core values, so a revolting louche like Trump, as long as he's running against Hillary Clinton, doesn't disgust them.

Watch for these morally unmoored Trump supporters to publish every essay they can find that justifies the Short Fingered Vulgarian's present and past behavior, because that's all they've got.

Good luck with that, Trump supporters. With 31 days left until Election Day, you and Trump will need it.




From PM Carpenter:


The GOP's gutter: With Trump, it's distance or death Firsts are breaking out everywhere. First we got Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee — "a malignant clown," in fellow Republican Mark Kirk's delightful wording; then we got repeated confirmations of just how malignantly unprecedented Trump is (the list is far too lengthy to exhaustively itemize here); and now we get the Old Grey Lady, the paper of record with all the news that's fit to print, with some astonishingly unbowdlerized reporting: Trump didn't say in 2005 that he could grab women by the "p - - - -" and try to "f - - -" one of them — no, the NYT flatly relates that Trump said he could "grab them by the pussy” and that he "did try and fuck her." That should give an extra lift to middle-school boys enrolled in NYT-subscribing, current events classes. 

 [skip] 

As the NY Times might put it, What in the fuck does it take for these cowards to finally show some cajones? On the one hand, sure, there are 2016 political considerations — Trump's base. On the other hand, there is infinity — all that will forever pass, after Trump's November thumping. Democrats will hang this bloody shirt of a malignant clown around the necks of every enabling Republican for a generation to come, even as Trump's generation is demographically dying off. Quite aside from the wretched ethics of sanctioning Trump and Trumpism, the future's electoral headcounts do not bode well for the GOP.

UPDATE:


POLITICO Breaking News: Pence reverses, no longer attending event with Paul Ryan 
By Matthew Nussbaum 10/08/16 12:05 PM EDT  

Friday's This and That

 THIS:

Creepy clown sightings reported in various parts of the country.  

Here's a particularly scary one:

I'm relieved that family and friends in Florida are okay after Matthew terrorified the state.  Speaking of frightening things, Florida Governor Rick Scott has announced that he will not extend voter registration after Hurricane Matthew because there is always the possibility that new Democrats may want to register, and in typical GOP obstruction and ant-democratic fashion, Scott is doing all in his power to keep newly registered Democrats from voting.  Way to go, Guv!



And this on that most disliked candidate in the history of presidential politics:

Not One Major Newspaper Has Endorsed Donald J. Trump

"Newspaper endorsements don't often change many voters' minds—unless they break with traditional party loyalties and make an unexpected pick. In this race, plenty of papers have done just that, and not in the Republican Party's favor. With a month to go until Election Day, no major editorial board has endorsed Trump in the general election.  Faced with the prospect of a Trump presidency, some papers that have endorsed Republicans for decades are painting Hillary Clinton as a qualified and steady leader. 

As the Dallas Morning News, which last endorsed a Democrat before World War II, wrote in its endorsement of Clinton last month, "Her errors are plainly in a different universe than her opponent's." Some newspapers are also endorsing much earlier than usual, rather than waiting until the final week or two of the campaign. The Chicago Sun-Times, which reversed its 2012 decision to stop making presidential endorsements, explained in its September endorsement of Clinton, "The best way to avert a train wreck is to wave a warning flag as soon as possible."






AND THAT:
I've been puzzled by the number of self-identified "family values" Evangelical Christians backing the most valueless, bigoted, and religiously phony GOP candidate I've seen in my lifetime. However, not ALL Evangelicals are in the Trump Clown Car. There are quite a few who have the moral courage of their faith to condemn Trump for the fraud and despicable person that he is.

For the rest of the so-called "Christians" who still support Trump, they will have plenty of time to reflect on why they placed their support in a person who is everything they would have condemned had Trump declared himself to be a liberal Democrat. That they still support this racist liar for POTUS will forever follow them all the days of their lives.




Group of nearly 80 evangelical leaders publish letter condemning Trump “We cannot ignore this bigotry.”

A diverse group of evangelical Christians unveiled a letter on Thursday condemning Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his candidacy, arguing his campaign “affirms racist elements in white culture.” The letter, which is signed by nearly 80 prominent evangelical leaders, thinkers, authors, and pastors, decries Trump’s attacks on women, Muslims, immigrants, refugees, and the disabled, saying such vitriol is an affront to the Christian faith. 

It also highlights how his campaign has energized white nationalists, such as when he was endorsed by leaders of the Ku Klux Klan. “We cannot ignore this bigotry, set it aside, just focus on other issues, or forget the things Mr. Trump has consistently said and done,” the letter reads. “No matter what other issues we also care about, we have to make it publicly clear that Mr. Trump’s racial and religious bigotry and treatment of women is morally unacceptable to us as evangelical Christians, as we attempt to model Jesus’ command to ‘love your neighbors as yourself.’”



GOOD NEWS:

Our FiveThirtyEight update continues to deliver good news with Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the election at 79%, and, were it held today those chances of winning are at almost 87%.

Who will win the presidency?

Chance of winning

Hillary Clinton

78.8%

Donald Trump

21.1%

The TeaPublicans dedicated themselves over the past 7 1/2 years to destroying Barack Hussein Obama's presidency, and they have been relentless in their personal insults to and disrespect for America's first African-American president -- from questioning his American citizenship to attacking him and his family with racial slurs, calling them monkeys and gorillas -- dehumanizing terms that have been used against America's African-American citizens since slaveholding days.

The good news is that the TeaPublican Obama haters have utterly FAILED in their goal of destroying Mr. Obama and his presidency, since as of today, Mr. Obama's approval ratings continue to climb and have hit the 55% .

That's great news for Mr. Obama and the Democrats, since it can only help the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, and refute any TeaPublican claims that Mr. Obama's presidency is a failure.

Good going Mr. President! Good going, America!


(CNN)President Barack Obama's approval rating stands at 55% in a new CNN/ORC poll, the highest mark of his second term, and matching his best at any time since his first year in office.

AGAINST DONALD TRUMP

From The Atlantic:

Against Donald Trump 

 For the third time since The Atlantic’s founding, the editors endorse a candidate for president. The case for Hillary Clinton. 

 Today, our position is similar to the one in which The Atlantic’s editors found themselves in 1964. We are impressed by many of the qualities of the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, even as we are exasperated by others, but we are mainly concerned with the Republican Party’s nominee, Donald J. Trump, who might be the most ostentatiously unqualified major-party candidate in the 227-year history of the American presidency… 

 Our interest here is not to advance the prospects of the Democratic Party, nor to damage those of the Republican Party. If Hillary Clinton were facing Mitt Romney, or John McCain, or George W. Bush, or, for that matter, any of the leading candidates Trump vanquished in the Republican primaries, we would not have contemplated making this endorsement. We believe in American democracy, in which individuals from various parties of different ideological stripes can advance their ideas and compete for the affection of voters. But Trump is not a man of ideas. He is a demagogue, a xenophobe, a sexist, a know-nothing, and a liar. He is spectacularly unfit for office, and voters—the statesmen and thinkers of the ballot box—should act in defense of American democracy and elect his opponent.

How many more conservative newspapers, magazines, and leading Republicans will it take before the Trumpbots let the scales fall from their eyes and they see what a disaster Trump is for their party and would be for America.  

Rational people have already seen Trump for what he is:

"...a demagogue, a xenophobe, a sexist, a know-nothing, and a liar..."

Those who still support this clown and fraud need to join the rest of the rational world.


(More on Trump's highly questionable donations to states' attorneys general.)

All The Things Mike Pence Said Donald Trump Didn't Say

via Huffington Post

North Carolina's HB2 In Action

Julian Assange Plays Trump Supporters For Chumps

The TeaPublicans were all giddy with anticipation for the big, juicy news that would deliver a coup de grace to Hillary Clinton via Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

What they got was a big NOTHING BURGER and played by WikiLeaks.  Now they're all mad as wet hens, claiming somehow the Klintoon Krime Konsortium was responsible, because it's always the Klintoon's fault when the TeaPublicans can't win against her -- it's always the Klintoons and not their gullibility to believe every piece of rumor and gossip, only to be shown how shallow and easily duped they are.


From The Washington Post:


Over the course of two hours Tuesday — with the world’s media and bleary-eyed Trump die-hards across the United States tuning in — Assange and other WikiLeaks officials railed against “neo-McCarthyist hysteria,” blasted the mainstream press, appealed for donations and plugged their books (“40 percent off!”). 

 But what they didn’t do was provide any new information about Clinton — or about anything else, really. The much-vaunted news conference, as it turned out, was little more than an extended infomercial for WikiLeaks on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of its founding. 

 Assange, whose group released a trove of hacked Democratic National Committee documents on the eve of the party’s convention this summer, breezily dismissed the idea that anyone should have expected any news at his news conference.

EJ Dionne of the Washington Post says what I have been saying for months and months about the people who support Trump and Trump himself.  

How can a loyal American even THINK of supporting this madman?


Dionne:  "This should be a wake-up call to political analysts who have gone out of their way since Trump announced his candidacy to pretend that he was the ingenious creator of a political special sauce who deserved our respect for "speaking his mind." No, Trump all along has been a clinically self-involved con man who never took the issues, the presidency or the future of our country seriously. Can there be any doubt that his campaign is a branding exercise gone, quite literally, mad? 



 If this Trump episode [namely, the Alicia M. tweets] does not lead to a flood of defections among Republican politicians supporting him, they will be on record as putting party loyalty (or fear of Trump’s followers in GOP primaries) over the need to protect the nation from a truly unhinged leader. And this should be the end of the pretense, which sometimes drives the media, that whatever might be wrong with Trump, there are things equally wrong with Clinton. Sorry. Clinton may have her problems, but she has never, ever behaved like this."


I strongly recommend Infidel753's astute essay on The Trump movement and what it means.

UNPRECEDENTED: CONSERVATIVE NEWSPAPERS BUCKING TRADITION TO ENDORSE HILLARY!

Conservative Newspapers Bucking Tradition to Endorse Clinton





Conservative columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Dorothy Rabinowitz, explains why she's endorsing Hillary Clinton for POTUS:



"It will be either Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton—experienced, forward-looking, indomitably determined and eminently sane," Pulitzer Prize-winner Dorothy Rabinowitz writes in a column headlined "Hillary-Hatred Derangement Syndrome."



"Her election alone is what stands between the American nation and the reign of the most unstable, proudly uninformed, psychologically unfit president ever to enter the White House." 

*********************

Rabinowitz criticizes those who oppose Clinton, calling them "the NeverHillary forces." She said they know about Trump, but are still willing to vote for him. Rabinowitz wrote, "The NeverHillary forces are another matter entirely—citizens well aware of the darker aspects of Donald Trump's character but who have nonetheless concluded that they should give him their vote.

They are aware of his casual disregard for the truth, his ingrained vindictiveness." She wrote that Trump's supporters might say, "He may be rough around the edges, but he's a fresh face," and "Mr. Trump is the dynamo who will blow up the old order. He's authentic, a man with the courage of his convictions." Rabinowitz countered that Trump has backtracked on several of his plans on immigration and has given "no less than three" different views about abortion.

[snip]


No one witnessing Trump's primary race—his accumulation of Alt-Right cheerleaders, white supremacists and swastika devotees—could fail to notice the menacing tone and the bitterness that came with it," Rabinowitz wrote.




Trump is being supported by approximately 40% of the American voting public. The candidate for POTUS who has mocked disabled people; and just this past weekend, made fun of Hillary Clinton because she recently became ill with pneumonia. He actually mocked someone for becoming ill! 

That's a level of immaturity and imbecility unprecedented in presidential politics. Yet, 40%+ of the American voting public believe this man-child demagogue is qualified to be president. Maybe that's because those 40%+ of the voting public are as immature and vengeful as Trump is.

ANOTHER TEXAS NEWSPAPER ENDORSES HILLARY

Texas Newspaper Destroys The Myth That Hillary Clinton Is The Lesser Of Two Evils


by Jason Easley


"A Texas newspaper hasn’t just endorsed Hillary Clinton. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times destroyed the media created myth that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are equals, but that Clinton is the lesser of two evils. In their endorsement the editorial board of the Caller-Times wrote:

 She is not, as has been sold, a mere lesser of two evils. Her experience and intellect would make her a standout in any group of candidates. Like President Obama said and didn’t need to be fact-checked, she’s more qualified than him or her husband. …. Being the only serious alternative is both Clinton’s fortune and misfortune. It increases the likelihood of victory, but also of presiding over a nation with large groups of dissidents.

While voting against her can be a statement of differing principle, voting for Trump would not rise to that level. It’s not a vote for Republicanism. The Republican Party’s principles and standards are beyond Trump’s reach. …. We perceive in Clinton the capability to bridge the divide — to define rather than exploit our problems and pursue intelligent solutions. Her “basket of deplorables” comment made the task more difficult but it was a rare lapse by an otherwise level-headed servant leader with a history of self-correcting resilience.

The former senator’s Republican colleagues remember her fondly as a middle-ground-seeking master of the art of deal-making. If there is to be a return to bipartisanship, she is the one to lead it.


 It is rare to see an endorsement in this presidential election that focuses on why one candidate should be president instead of why her opponent is unfit to hold the office."

Once Again, Trump Dives Into The Cesspool Of Vulgarity

UPDATE BELOW





The following is example of another one of Trump's dives into the cesspool of vulgarity:

From a rally in Manheim, PA:

“Here's a woman, she’s supposed to fight all of these different things, and she can't make it 15 feet to her car,” Trump said … Trump flailed his arms and jostled side to side. 

He then walked unsteadily away from the podium as if he were able to fall over [...] “She could be crazy. She could actually be crazy.” [...] “I don’t even think she’s loyal to Bill, if you want to know the truth,” 

Trump said as his crowd cheered. “And really, folks, really, why should she be? Right? Why should she be?”



MANHEIM, Pa. — In a rambling speech on Saturday night, Donald Trump imitated Hillary Clinton stumbling at a memorial service last month, suggested that she might be “crazy” and wondered if she is “loyal” to her husband.

Questioning Hillary's "loyalty" to her husband? From a guy who cheated on Wife #1 with Wife #2, and who cheated on Wife #2 with Wife #3 -- a man who publicly bragged about sleeping with other men's wives.  That guy is implying -- with absolutely no evidence -- that Hillary Clinton is an adulterer, like HE IS, and then he mocks her for having had pneumonia? Vulgar is too genteel a word to describe this creep.


Trump is a depraved and dangerous lunatic, and that his supporters still believe he should be president brings into question their sanity as well.


UPDATE:


Analysis: Trump May Have Had the Worst Week in Presidential Campaign History

Imagine this vengeful, incompetent (He lost almost a billion dollars! In a year when the stock market was riding high!?)* narcissist as the leader of the free world up at 3 AM tweeting out gossip about a former beauty queen? 

Now we know why Donnie didn't want to produce his tax returns: He didn't want America to know that he is a billionaire free-loader who enjoys what other Americans' taxes pay for. 

*Trump has been telling his followers that "the system is rigged," then we find out that he used that very same "rigged" system to not pay taxes for years and years and years because the IRS laws allow billionaires to carry losses over to other years so they don't have to pay federal incomes taxes!

Saturday Night Dancing

Elegance, charm, beauty.

From the movie Top Hat, a memorable dance sequence.

I read that Fred Astaire was very much involved in designing Ginger Rogers' gowns. Look at how the ostrich feather dress  flows as she glides across the floor, as she does everything Fred does only backwards and in high heels!

I particularly love this song and dance because of a special young man in my life.

ANOTHER SOLIDLY REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPER ENDORSES SECRETARY CLINTON!

The San Diego Union-Tribune hasn't endorsed a Democrat in 148 years.  Another newspaper acknowledges the danger in electing Trump to the presidency and goes against its more than a century of backing conservative candidates and endorses Secretary Clinton.

Another conservative newspaper showing moral courage.  

The number of these conservative publications supporting the Democratic candidate is unprecedented!




Why Hillary Clinton is the safe choice for president





Sixteen months into his campaign, Donald Trump remains Donald Trump. Despite constant counsel from GOP advisors and insiders to adopt a decorous public persona, Trump continues to lash out at critics, to insist complex problems can be solved with little effort and to depict an America that’s been “ripped off by every single country in the world,” as he said in this week’s debate. 

For millions of Americans upset with the status quo, it’s an entertaining show, and a convincing one. But if Trump is elected president, he will no longer just be putting on a show. Upon inauguration on Jan. 20, he would be in charge of the executive branch of a global superpower and possess enormous authority, operating with no coherent worldview besides “I alone can fix it.” 

Military leaders have said Trump will face pushback if he orders them to do illegal things, such as torturing the families of terrorists, but in many crucial parts of the government, a President Trump will be able to people his administration with individuals whose jobs depend on keeping him happy. 

Imagine that. 

Imagine President Trump. Based on what Trump has said, we could see an administration that’s friendlier to ruthless Russia — which is waging a cyberwar against America — than to such democracies and historic partners as Great Britain, Germany, Canada, Japan and Australia. 

We could see an administration that reneges on its treaty commitments to dozens of nations, throwing the world into turmoil and increasing tensions in regions that historically have relied on the United States to be a stabilizing force. 

 We could see an administration that ruins U.S. trustworthiness in international finance by seeking to refinance terms with debt-holders, putting a singular economic power in the same basket as Greece. We could also see an administration that launches a trade war by abandoning Republican tradition and abrogating international trade deals, destroying a framework that has greatly enriched our nation and the world, even if its benefits haven’t been as well-distributed as one would hope. And we could see an administration with an open enemies list, starting with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, his Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN and more. 

 Now consider President Hillary Clinton. We understand the lack of enthusiasm for her candidacy, the anger over her private email server, family foundation and income from Wall Street speeches, and the questions about how America fared in foreign affairs when she was secretary of state. But despite Trump’s insistence otherwise, she has the better temperament to be president — and the experience, background and relationships with world leaders that we need in a president. 

 As secretary of state, she traveled nearly a million miles and visited a record 112 countries. As a U.S. senator, the Democrat showed she can collaborate with Republicans, using what Roll Call labeled an “incremental approach” that “could help restore a working relationship between the White House and Capitol Hill that has been in tatters” for years. 

As first lady, she expanded health coverage to millions of lower-income children after her husband’s administration lost the battle over universal health care and Democrats lost the Senate and the House. 

Diplomacy. Collaboration. Patience. Mitt Romney, whom we endorsed for president in 2012, exhibited those same traits as the moderate governor of Massachusetts and the business-savvy savior of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. 

Vengeful, dishonest and impulsive, Trump is no Romney. This is why Hillary Clinton is the safest candidate for voters to choose in a complex world. Terrible leaders can knock nations off course. Venezuela is falling apart because of the obstinance and delusions of Hugo Chávez and his successor. 

Argentina is finally coming out of the chaos created by Cristina Kirchner and several of her predecessors. Trump could be our Chávez, our Kirchner. We cannot take that risk. 

This paper has not endorsed a Democrat for president in its 148-year history. But we endorse Clinton. She’s the safe choice for the U.S. and for the world, for Democrats and Republicans alike.