Trump is a Golden Ticket For Smart Journalists

There's been lots of talk about Trump winning the war against Megyn Kelley after her tough

questions during the debate, Trump's dickish, sexist responses and Roger Ailes subsequent fold.  But I think that's based on short term thinking.  Yeah, lots of assholes on twitter attacked Kelley afterwards, but guess what:  the dumbest people on the internet are the loudest.  The number of people who tweet shit at you is not indicative of much.  And the 25-30 percent of people who love trump and now hate kelley are part of the same overlapping venn diagram of idiocy.  And now, with Trump's second round of bimbo tweets about Kelley, Ailes is forced to defend her and she comes out looking like a serious journalist and sympathetic figure who got under Trump's skin.

So now Jorge Ramos gets kicked out of a Trump press conference and told to "Go Back To Mexico Univision!".  Trump once again looks great to idiots who love him and like an asshole to everyone else.  Ramos comes out with huge mainstream press, a press core who are appalled and more credibility than every in the Hispanic community.  Trump looks like an angry, racist who can't handle tough questions AGAIN.

So, despite the latest media narrative that Trump's for real and everyone has been underestimating him (as opposed to the original pundit narrative that trump was a joke and only fools thought he would even run), I still think he's gonna be here for a while, be a big factor in the race until at least the end of March, and then fade away and become once again, just a punchline who happens to have had a rich father.  At that point, Megyn Kelley and Jorge Ramos are still here, and look like the journalists who had the balls (and ovaries) to go after Trump early on, which everyone else, including the other GOP candidates, were cowering in fear.

So my advice to some budding young reporter on the Trump campaign trail is ask him the toughest questions you can, and keep asking when he yells at your to shut up.  First off, it could get you famous.  Second, it's also supposed to be your job.

Bern-ing Down the House

The latest poll results our of New Hampshire are undoubtedly good news for Sanders and his supporters.  The Franklin-Pierce poll has him up 44-37 wih an MOE of 4.7.  I think this is also a good thing for liberals and the Democratic party in general.  Sanders' is an unabashed, outspoken liberal who embraces progressive policies and is forcing Clinton to the left.  He's also garnering huge crowds and forcing the media to cover his campaign and his message, helping to change the national dialogue in much the same way the Occupy Wall Street movement did.  But, don't get too excited, you hippie commie Sander-ites.  Outside a few states, not that many people are "Feeling the Bern".  The latest RCP polling average has Clinton +26 in Iowa, +56 in South Carolina and +35 nationally. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/2016_democratic_presidential_nomination-3824.html)

Turns out, Sanders does extremely well with white liberals.  And New Hampshire, Iowa and Vermont have LOTS of very white very liberals.  He does much worse with blacks, hispanics and moderates.  (http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/bernie-sanders-could-win-iowa-and-new-hampshire-then-lose-everywhere-else/).  The Black Lives Matter protesters who've interrupted a couple of his campaign events are one sign of this.  Now, this can certainly change as Sanders builds momentum in these early states where he has a demographic advantage, increases name recognition, spreads his campaign message and works on improving his relationship with non-white voters and in particular activist groups.  He's already working on that and has hired a Symone Sanders, a black criminal justice advocate and supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement as press secretary.  A good first step, but one which need to be followed with a serious policy platform addressing racial justice issues.  However, in the end, I don't think Sanders can overcome Clinton's massive advantages in political connection, national organization, money, fame, etc etc.  And of course the prospect of being the first woman president is a huge historical event which surely will garner additional support from many voters.  So my prediction is Sanders wins New Hampshire, loses Iowa where Clinton's organization takes advantage of the caucus system (having learned some lessons from 2008), and then quickly thereafter dominates the rest of the race.  But for now, I'm happy to see Sanders exceeding expectations, even if I don't think he can win the nomination or (if he did) the presidency.

Maybe Van Gogh Didn't Cut Off His Ear

So apparently two historians reviewing available letters and accounts now think  Vincent van Gogh lost his ear in a fight with  Paul Gauguin and they both agreed to keep it a secret.  Presumably to protect Gauguin from any repercussions, either legal or to his reputation.  This theory isn't bullet proof, but it makes more sense to me than the commonly held belief that Van Gogh cut his own ear off.  That just always seemed hard to believe.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=7506786

The Wire Creator's New HBO Mini-Series looks Great

I consider The Wire to be the best TV show of all time, so I'm excited about this.

 The uncanny resemblance between present and past is the tacit subject of "The Wire" creator David Simon's new miniseries, "Show Me a Hero," adapted from former New York Times reporter Lisa Belkin's kaleidoscopic account of the pitched battle over public housing in Yonkers, N.Y., in the 1980s and 1990s.

As politics if not always as art, the six-part saga is the television series of the year: rarely has a historical portrait seemed more timely than this one. 

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/show-me-a-hero-hbo-david-simon-miniseries-review

Trump at 32% in Post Debate Poll

Wow, I don't even know what to say about this.  I thought The Donald would stay steady after the debates, holding on to his dedicated supporters, but start alienating the rest of the base.  But apparently I underestimated how much republican voters love angry, loudmouthed, misogynistic, rich, white guys.

Here's the breakdown from huffpo on a poll conducted by an outfit called Morning Consult. 

1) 2016 National Republican Primary

Asked of 746 Republican registered voters

Jeb Bush (R)	11%
Ben Carson (R)	9%
Chris Christie (R)	4%
Ted Cruz (R)	4%
Carly Fiorina (R)	3%
Lindsey Graham (R)	1%
Mike Huckabee (R)	4%
Bobby Jindal (R)	1%
John Kasich (R)	3%
George Pataki (R)	0%
Rick Perry (R)	1%
Rand Paul (R)	5%
Marco Rubio (R)	6%
Rick Santorum (R)	1%
Donald Trump (R)	32%
Scott Walker (R)	6%
Other	1%
Undecided	8%

 I've never heard of them, so I can't say if they're a reliable pollster, but for now I'll take it at face value.  Which means that despite, or perhaps because of, Fox's pretty obvious attempt to hurt Trump in the debates and his attack on Kelly regarding her menstrual cycle, Trump has increased his support.  Now, that sounds fucking crazy to me, but what it really seems to mean is that I just can't manage to understand the Republican Id no matter how hard I try.  It also means that unless something unexpected and dramatic happens, Trump will likely remain at the top of the GOP field at least until the primaries start.  If the debate and subsequent brouhaha with Fox and Kelly didn't hurt him (and in fact probably helped him) I don't see what will.  Once voting starts, marginal candidates drop out, and non-trumpites coalesce  around Walker or whoever, then he may start losing support.  But that sure as hell doesn't mean he'll drop out.  If Trump can maintain 20+% support he'll likely stick with it till the convention because fuck it, he's fucking Donald Trump and that's what Donald Trumps do.  Thank you, Lord!  This is YOOOOGE!

http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/polls/morning-consult-22526 

A New Kind of Politician - Groot 2016

Let's make american groot again!

What Happens to Donald Trump?

So now that the GOP establishment and FOX are both trying to destroy Donald Trump's campaign, it seems that the only way to do so is pick 1 or 2 mainstream candidates to back and force the rest of the field to drop out. Then non-trump suporters can coalesce around a consensus front runner. This basically can't happen until the primary season starts, because:


1) I don't think anyone candidates would agree to drop out before then and
2)  Even if they were willing, it would look terrible for the party to be seen as forcing candidates out before voters had any chance to choose. 

So we're probably talking end of February or even early march after super tuesday before Trump can be effectively marginalized and the GOP can even begin to unite and attack the Democratic candidate instead of each other. That's a hell of a long time and probably means an increasingly bitter and damaging intra-party fight for the GOP.  And aside from the Trump issues, the party is facing a more general schism between hard right Cruz type base activists and more pragmatic mainstream GOPers who would like a Jeb or Kasich as the nominee.  This is shaping up to be a real shitshow of a primary season for Republicans. Hooray!