Your Weekend Politics Round-up! And You Thought This Nonsense Couldn't Get Any Funnier...

There is not anything of substance to learn about the candidates with the election more than 400 days away, but there is plenty to laugh at! Enjoy.

 

We obviously have to start with a Trump heading

Oh, where to begin with Mr. Trump this week. What if I told you the front runner for the Republican nomination believes that the 14th Amendment is unconstitutional? (Wait for it) Still confused? Good. Seven minutes of Bill O' and the Donald should clear up any ambiguities¹⁾Please do not feel obligated to watch all of this, save your sanity

 

 

Well, I am sure that after Mr. Trump is elected, and appoints "America's lawyer," Michael "you can't rape your wife" Cohen as Attorney General, then finally, the question of which amendments to the constitutional are actually constitutional will finally be resolved.

Next, Tonyaa Weathersbee of The Root wrote the piece I have been waiting for, with regards to your friend Mr. Trump: "Is Donald Trump vying to become the next George Wallace?" As far as I know²⁾these campaigns were a bit before my time Perot and Forbes did not traffic mostly in racial fear/animosity to try to gain popular support. Mr. Wallace, on the other hand, did just that. Ms. Weathersbee has more:

And like Wallace—who, after losing his first race for governor in 1958 to an opponent who had the backing of the Ku Klux Klan, vowed, “No other son of a bitch will ever out-n--ger me again”—Trump is apparently taking no chances on being “out-illegaled” by his Republican opponents in the presidential campaign.

 

Stoking prejudice for political gain is nothing new in American politics, unfortunately. The target of the attacks just seem to change over time. Who knows, 50 years from now, if you project our demographic changes, a candidate may be running for office talking about how white people are the cause of everything that is wrong with America.

When some racism gets you to the top of the polls, why not try out a little more? Diminishing marginal returns do not seem to apply to Mr. Trump's racial antagonism. Buzzfeed transcribed how Mr. Trump plans on dealing with gang violence³⁾a very serious issue in our cities, certainly a topic worthy of discussion by the Presidential candidates as explained during a radio interview Thursday:

“You know, a lot of the gangs that you see — this doesn’t hopefully pertain to you guys so much — when you look at Baltimore, when you look at Chicago, and Ferguson a lot of these areas,” Trump said on FM Talk 1065AM on Thursday. “You know, a lot of these gang members are illegal immigrants. They’re gonna be gone. We’re gonna get them out so fast, out of this country. So fast.”

 

"So fast." Heh.

Lastly, this interview with Mr. Trump in the Hollywood Reporter is a true entertainment. I have never read a print interview where I had no idea how the interviewee would respond to the inquiries. I will give you a little taste in case you do not believe me:

You're getting a ton of criticism. Does any of it actually ring true?

People say, "He won't apologize for anything" — well, I was right on illegal immigration. [John] McCain blew it because he's done a poor job of taking care of the veterans. And then the third element so far, you had Megyn Kelly, and I think you've seen what happened with that. I feel quite confident in my position. At the same time, I believe in apologizing. But to apologize for me is very difficult. I definitely would apologize if I were wrong on something.

What was the last thing you apologized for?

It was too many years ago to remember. I have one of the great memories of all time, but it was too long ago.

 

Mr. Trump's media doppelganger is blaming us, the people(???) for the Trump phenomenon.

For those blaming media for Trump's staying power, do recall Trump got about the worst media reception, tone wise, than any candidate in 16.

— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) August 20, 2015

No one is making you discuss Mr. Trump. Feel free to stop at anytime⁴⁾both talking Trump and going on air, thanks.

In case you were wondering, Mr. Trump is holding a "pep rally" in Alabama this weekend. No word if any kin of Mr. Wallace will be there.

 

I suppose we have some time for our Democratic friends as well

Secretary Clinton previously met backstage with Black Lives Matter activists in New Hampshire. This week, the video leaked. It left me with that wide-eyed 'deer in the headlights' type look. Mr. Wilmore, whose Nightly Show looks like it will be a big hit, broke down the leaked footage with the help of a couple of corespondents:

If you watch the entire episode, Mr. Wilmore speaks with two of the activists in the videos that confront Hillary Clinton. I felt like I had a better⁵⁾not complete understanding of the BLM movement after watching.

Next, "The greatest political reporter in the history of Nevada,"⁶⁾definitely not my quote, though he is competent, sure Jon Ralston was on The Rachel Maddow show to discuss Gov. Martin O'Malley's press conference held in front of the Trump Hotel here in Las Vegas on 19 August.

I attended⁷⁾unlike Mr. Ralston the strange press event, held on a traffic median⁸⁾have to say it was the first press conference I have ever been to on a traffic median between the Trump Hotel and the Fashion Show Mall. The only knowledge I had of Gov. O'Malley is from what I learned from the scathing critique of his politics as portrayed by David Simon in The Wire. I have to say, honestly, I was impressed by him. He spoke very well (unfortunately uncommon these days with our political figures), and he went after Hillary in a way no other Democrat has. For example, when asked about her position on the detention of undocumented children, Gov. O'Malley commented "she has changed her position 4 or 5 times; at least it shows she has been thinking about the issue."

Gov. O'Malley has been highly critical of the Democratic National Committee for scheduling only six debates (in 2008 there were more than 25); Sen. Sanders has as well, but not nearly at the volume of Mr. O'Malley. It is not surprising given that Gov. O'Malley is between 2-4% in the polls, and Mr. Carson and Ms. Fiorina received a significant bump after strong performances on the Fox News debate. The public does not seem to desire more debates (now if they had a celebrity debater, maybe the score would change...perhaps Gov. O'Malley should attempt to push Kanye West into the race), which led the Governor to quip in San Francisco:

"Let's hope they don't put it in an undisclosed hangar in Area 51," @MartinOMalley says of first Demo debate set for Las Vegas Oct. 13

— Mark Z. Barabak (@markzbarabak) August 20, 2015

Hitting cleanup for the dems, fake candidate Larry Lessig⁹⁾who? Exactly., who thinks that by teaching at Harvard should entitle him to the office of the Presidency, posted an online poll to determine his VP:

Larry Lessig will choose his VP running mate via an online poll. The other option could be interesting pic.twitter.com/fEVoZWxPE4

— Sam Stein (@samstein) August 19, 2015

I think a Lessig/Trump ticket would be unstoppable. Until they had to be in the same room with one another.

 

In case all this politics wasn't fun enough

We have reached the closing, comedy section our our politics grab-bag of sorts. First¹⁰⁾a hat tip to friend of the blog, Ben Jacobs of The Guardian, from the Washington Free Beacon, a look into the future of what America will look like under the Trump administration.

 

Next, as promised, Mr. Rubio playing catch with an Iowa kid's face:

Marco Rubio hitting the kid in the face with the football is even better as a GIF pic.twitter.com/FLpnHz0un0

— Chris Moody (@moody) August 18, 2015

One wonders how Mr. Trump would have responded to¹¹⁾by that I mean, what names he would call the poor kid that incident. I think we all know that President Obama would have, somehow, caught the ball himself.

Lastly, if you do not keep up with North Carolina politics¹²⁾come on!, you may not know who is polling in 3rd place currently. Because this blog is family-friendly, I cannot even link to the story. Just know that a 15 year old Iowa teenager is playing the practical joke of a lifetime. Seriously, google this nonsense.