#NeverTrump

Monday, July 11 update:  Trump did an interview this morning with The Fix blogger Chris Cillizza, and contrary to some recent reporting, appears to be leaning away from retired Lt. General Michael T. Flynn. Why? Because the military is one of his strong suits: 

"I have five people, including the general," Trump told me in a 25-minute phone conversation on Monday morning, referring to retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn. "I do like the military, but I do very much like the political."

Trump added, "I will make my mind up over the next three to four days. In my mind, I have someone that would be really good."

Although Trump was careful not to eliminate Flynn, it was clear that he believed picking someone "political" was the right move, meaning, presumably, that former speaker Newt Gingrich, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and one other political person are in his final four.

Trump said he was prizing political experience over military experience for two main reasons.

First, he feels as though he doesn't need much help on the military/national security front. "

I have such great respect for the general, but believe it or not that will be one of my strong suits," he said. "I was against the war in Iraq from the start." (The Washington Post's Fact Checker column disagreed with that assessment.)

Read the entire post here.

Original post: 
On March 2, 121 members of the Republican national security community published an open letter explaining why they are united in their opposition to Donald Trump as president. Here it is, in full: 

We the undersigned, members of the Republican national security community, represent a broad spectrum of opinion on America’s role in the world and what is necessary to keep us safe and prosperous. We have disagreed with one another on many issues, including the Iraq war and intervention in Syria. But we are united in our opposition to a Donald Trump presidency. Recognizing as we do, the conditions in American politics that have contributed to his popularity, we nonetheless are obligated to state our core objections clearly:

His vision of American influence and power in the world is wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle. He swings from isolationism to military adventurism within the space of one sentence.

His advocacy for aggressively waging trade wars is a recipe for economic disaster in a globally connected world.

His embrace of the expansive use of torture is inexcusable. 

His hateful, anti-Muslim rhetoric undercuts the seriousness of combating Islamic radicalism by alienating partners in the Islamic world making significant contributions to the effort. Furthermore, it endangers the safety and Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of American Muslims.

Controlling our border and preventing illegal immigration is a serious issue, but his insistence that Mexico will fund a wall on the southern border inflames unhelpful passions, and rests on an utter misreading of, and contempt for, our southern neighbor.

Similarly, his insistence that close allies such as Japan must pay vast sums for protection is the sentiment of a racketeer, not the leader of the alliances that have served us so well since World War II.

His admiration for foreign dictators such as Vladimir Putin is unacceptable for the leader of the world’s greatest democracy.

He is fundamentally dishonest. Evidence of this includes his attempts to deny positions he has unquestionably taken in the past, including on the 2003 Iraq war and the 2011 Libyan conflict. We accept that views evolve over time, but this is simply misrepresentation.

His equation of business acumen with foreign policy experience is false. Not all lethal conflicts can be resolved as a real estate deal might, and there is no recourse to bankruptcy court in international affairs.

Mr. Trump’s own statements lead us to conclude that as president, he would use the authority of his office to act in ways that make America less safe, and which would diminish our standing in the world. Furthermore, his expansive view of how presidential power should be wielded against his detractors poses a distinct threat to civil liberty in the United States. Therefore, as committed and loyal Republicans, we are unable to support a Party ticket with Mr. Trump at its head. We commit ourselves to working energetically to prevent the election of someone so utterly unfitted to the office.

You can see the signatories here. 

I thought of this letter when I saw this new video, from the Center for American Progress Action Fund. It. Is. Terrifying. 

 

Days until Election Day: 130

Ryan!

Watching the Olympic swimming trials and yikes! There's my old friend Ryan Lochte. I was writing about him 4 years ago during the London Olympics and yikes! He's back. Here's what I was thinking in 2012:

Give Ryan A Rose

Matthew McConaughey

Issue dated July 4, 2016

Last week's issue featured the Orlando shooting victims and I apologize, I didn't capture the image while it was available at people.com. 

Trump Being Trump

Watch this video and think about what it says about Donald Trump.

Muhammad Ali

Issue dated June 20, 2016

Is The Donald Losing It?

Not the election. I'm wondering if The Donald is losing his mind. He's appeared to be increasingly unhinged over the course of the last week, and today I've been contemplating the possibility that at some point, before the actual election, he pitches the ultimate fit, packs up his toys and goes home.

Clearly he's not used to the kind of scrutiny he's currently receiving. Did he assume that having dispatched 16 Republicans in the primaries, he would be left alone as the presumptive nominee? Heather Digby Parton, writing at Salon, thinks so: (And note that this was written before info came out about Trump's conference call with supporters this afternoon. Read about that here.)

Why is Donald Trump so out of sorts? Against all odds he managed to win the Republican nomination against the best and brightest stars from all factions of the Republican party. He did it without spending nearly as much money as the rest and without any study or preparation. He dominated the media which reportedly gave him a couple of billion dollars worth of free airtime. He came out of the primary five weeks ago on top of the world, ready to take on the Democrats who were still skirmishing in their primary, divided and at each others’ throats. It was the perfect time to make that presidential “pivot” from the primary to the general and start to show non-Republican Americans that he could be their president too. That didn’t happen.

Instead we’ve seen Donald Trump do nothing but air his endless grievances, whine about the press, complain that he’s being cheated, and double down on his dyspeptic racism, sexism and xenophobia. The more people tell him to cool it the more he explodes in public. He is the most ungracious winner in American politics. What gives?

If one had to guess it’s that he thought that he’d already gotten the hardest hits he was going to have to take. It seems he believed that because he faced a large group of GOP heavyweights and had the rapt attention of the press for six months that he’d passed the crucible and he’d get unquestioning adoration from here on in. 

Unfortunately, this is where political inexperience and an unwillingness to listen to anyone but sycophants and the voices in your head creates a problem. The primary was a cakewalk compared to the general election for a number of reasons, the most important being that his rivals were all walking on eggshells trying not to offend his voters. Most of them were also Republican office holders and professional politicians who have a responsibility to their party and they generally try not to destroy their own members just in case they become the nominee. By the time they realized that it might actually be Donald Trump it was too late. (Read the article here.) 

Trump's been getting hammered over the last few days, not just by Hillary but by Republicans as well, specifically because of his comments, which he has refused to disavow, about the Judge hearing the Trump University case. From Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post, in a post titled "Did Donald Trump (Finally) Go Too Far?:"  

Witness the reaction to Trump's comments over the past few days regarding Gonzalo Curiel and the allegation that the judge's Mexican heritage effectively disqualifies him from offering an unbiased view of a pending case regarding Trump University.

Unlike even a few months ago when Trump was making offensive comments, the condemnation from across the spectrum of the Republican party has been both swift and biting. Newt Gingrich, widely rumored to be a member of Trump's vice presidential shortlist, called the comment "inexcusable" and described it as the "worst mistake" Trump has made in the campaign to date. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a day after he endorsed Trump, said that he "completely disagree[d] with the thinking" behind Trump's comment on Curiel. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he "couldn't disagree more with a statement like that." Maine Sen. Susan Collins tweeted out her disapproval Monday morning.

… So what, you say? Lots of Republicans have called out Trump before for things he said — and it helped him! And Clinton attacking Trump is nothing but good for Trump as he tries to unite the GOP! I'm not so sure. As I noted above, I think the number of Republicans condemning Trump and the language they are using to do it is qualitatively different than in the past. I also think Trump's circumstances have changed markedly since he made most of his most famous/infamous comments. (Read the article here.) 

Digby Parton finishes with this: 

He is a racist, sexist bigot. But his behavior points to something else as well. He’s throwing up whatever distractions he can to muddy the waters about this Trump University issue. And he’s fraying around the edges as people begin to look more closely at all of his business ventures, many of which seem to be similar scams, like Trump Mortgage and this multi-level marketing scheme, ACN.

It appears that Donald Trump agreed to sell his name to just about anyone who asked him, no matter how cheap or fraudulent. Why would he do that? Perhaps the question he really doesn’t want to have to answer is, “does it make any sense that a billionaire would be involved with a series of tawdry, snake oil con games?” It looks like he’ll say anything to misdirect the press and keep them from asking it.

The whole Trump phenomenon is looking different today and I find myself wondering if at some point he just walks away. Maybe to preempt further scrutiny of his business dealings, maybe because he doesn't want to be labeled an official Loser by losing the election, or maybe because at some point all of this will stop being fun. Maybe all of the above. It doesn't get mentioned very often but Trump turns 70 a week from tomorrow and running for president is really, really hard work. Today Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee. Will that still be the case on Election Day? As of right now, I'd say "possibly not." 

Days until Election Day: 154

Cheering

Ana Navarro is a Republican commentator. I don't agree with everything she says but I'm cheering for this:

The Donald's Big Red Hat

He's been wearing his hat again so I thought I'd re-post the following.

Question: Why does The Donald wear The Big Red Hat?



Answer: To prevent this:



Seriously. If you watch closely, he almost never wears the hat at indoor events. He wears it at outdoor events to prevent a hairdo malfunction. Sad!

Amber Heard

Issue dated June 13 2016


The big Depp/Heard blow-up is no surprise as the main story. ( I had expected to see a story about the gorilla that was killed at a Cincinnati zoo.) I have to fuss about the smaller headline in the top left corner: "Hottest Beach Bodies!" Really, People? It's only been 2 weeks since a very similar story at the top of the cover dated May 30, "Most Talked About Bodies, 2016!" I really, really hope we're not going to see stories about (mostly) women's bodies every week all summer long.

Issue dated May 30, 2016