Patterico's Pontifications

2/29/2016

Trumpstraction

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:28 am



So, have we heard the last of:

  • Trump University?
  • Trump hiring foreign workers to do the jobs Americans would do, but can’t because he won’t hire them?
  • Hiring illegal Polish workers?

I guess so. Trump creates a racial controversy over David Duke — which, to his fans, plays out as Little Guy vs. Media — and everyone immediately forgets the stories that showed his contempt for the little guy.

And the media plays right into it. They have the burglar’s neck in their jaws, and let him go to chase a car driving by. If they caught the car, they wouldn’t know what to do with it.

Someone tell Lincoln that you can’t fool all of the people all of the time, but apparently you can fool enough of them for a con artist to get control of his party.

85 Responses to “Trumpstraction”

  1. He is a pretty good con artist, huh?

    Patterico (86c8ed)

  2. he’s a great guy number one he’s gonna help us make america great again

    number two he threatens the prerogatives of the ruling class

    this is why the lil guy says ok Mr. Trump we got your back

    failmerica’s just another word for

    nothin left to lose

    happyfeet (831175)

  3. I wonder how many Mexican families Bernie will be able to fit into Mar-al-Lago when he is Secretary of Redistribution under Hillary.

    (Yes, I know I sound like Perry.)

    nk (dbc370)

  4. Trump is certain filled with Number Two.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  5. Somebody remind me, when was Trump charged tried, and convicted of a criminal offense or even had this particular civil suit found for the plaintiffs?

    Last I heard, it was still under adjudication.

    So much for the Constitution and all those pesky Amendments, right, Cruzzers?

    formwiz (6b3a5a)

  6. Breitbart died 4 years ago didn’t he.
    The world is not a better place.

    SarahW (67599f)

  7. He hasn’t been charged — yet. I’ve been wondering whether the reason 0bama’s been holding off on the Clinton indictment is so they can announce a Trump indictment on the same day.

    Milhouse (87c499)

  8. It’s like the trump fan (and that’s what they are–fans) is wanting a quick, easy fix for America. I don’t think there is a quick fix.

    bald01 (f38852)

  9. I don’t think there is a quick fix.

    Sure there is. Keep allowing millions of foreigners in.

    Rev. Hoagie™® (f4eb27)

  10. Ey tuk er jerbs!!

    Leviticus (efada1)

  11. Many of the people backing Trump, such as the apostate libertarian, Bill Quick (this year’s winner of the Charles Johnson Medal), admit that they are simply after the annihilation of the GOPe and do not give a tinker’s damn about the consequences. To them, Trump is Gozer’s Destructor and there is nothing to be fooled about — the destruction is the end, not the means.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  12. The coalition he is building is both broad and quite bizarre. He has outright endorsements from Sarah Palin, Chris Christie (northeast moderate), Jeff Sessions (southeast conservative), Joe Arpaio, Jan Brewer, and proud white supremacist and Klu Klux Klansman David Duke. Blacks like Mike Tyson and Herschel Walker have said good things about him and came very close to outright endorsements. Others who have spoken favorably of him include Planned Parenthood, Vladimir Putin, and Jimmy Carter. Far left pundits like Jonathan Chait and Matt Yglesias have written positively about him. Virtually all came after Trump was vilified by Univision host Jorge Ramos and Univision decided to breech its contract to air his beauty pageant; Macy’s said they would stop carrying his clothing line; and other public rebukes. I don’t think he can be stopped from the nomination. Nor do I see how he can win the general election with 60% of the country claiming to have an unfavorable opinion of him. However, Democrat turnout at their primaries this year is way, way off from 2008 levels, so it looks like Hillary and Bernie are not motivating Dems the way Obama did, so who knows. Anything seems possible this year.

    Scott (31b7e8)

  13. The media knows perfectly well how vulnerable Trump is. But they want him to be the nominee. That way they can destroy him in the general election and whichever socialist gets the demo nominee can win in a landslide.

    Edoc118 (dd3bd8)

  14. An illegal Polish guy did my floors.

    carlitos (c24ed5)

  15. Levidicus there are only three possibilities:

    1. New jobs were created just for immigrants.
    2. They came here and went on the dole and stayed there.
    3. Ey tuk er jerbs!!

    So how many new jobs just for immigrants did you create?

    Rev. Hoagie™® (f4eb27)

  16. Scott, most of those people did not endorse Trump they just said some nice things about him. So can I: He’s entertaining. I still wouldn’t vote for the clown.

    Rev. Hoagie™® (f4eb27)

  17. illegal polish worker is the heart and soul of america

    just cause they didn’t go to harvard is no reason to look down on illegal polish worker

    i don’t understand what’s wrong with people

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  18. In 15 days, he’s going to be the nominee. The rest of you can whine and moan, but it’s going to happen.

    There are a whole bunch of people that are fed up with the GOP and how they want to screw the middle class and lower middle class; just like the Dems want to . I’ve heard people mention there is not a difference between the Dems and the GOP. Never believed it; now I do.

    dee (6592c4)

  19. Am I missing something or is Trump still a minority candidate? The only reason he’s “winning” is that we still have some candidates, too caught up in their egos to get the hell out. When it gets down to it, Cruz and Rubio are going to have to make a tough decision.

    Mike Giles (059ed1)

  20. If Cruz doesn’t win in Texas, he will be in very poor shape,
    but I think he will will in Texas from what the Texans here have to say,
    and then we’ll see what happens next.
    Yes, Mike, I too find the claims of trump “winning” anything with 35% of the vote a bit misleading.

    I chalk it up to the fact that many people want to be part of shaping the news, not reporting it.

    MD in Philly (at the moment not in Philly) (deca84)

  21. Right now, Trump is getting decent publicity. It may not be great publicity, but he’s being taken seriously in the media, and he’s getting lots of attention that is, at worst, neutral. But this is only happening because the left wants to run against Trump in the general election.

    If he wins the Republican nomination, I predict all the good and neutral publicity will evaporate within the hour. Every possible misdeed in his past will be dredged up, and “asked and answered” won’t work. The next time he makes a gaffe (which is probably inevitable), the media will be filled the shrieks and cries of people whose feelings he hurt. They will find the most sympathetic possible victims of Trump’s war on fill-in-the-blank. I suspect the abuse hurled at McCain and Romney will seem like wet, sloppy kisses in comparison.

    Karl Lembke (e37f42)

  22. feets – did you see my email?

    carlitos (c24ed5)

  23. So the theory is that Trump created the flap over the David Duke endorsement (after publicly disavowing it less than a day before) in order to seize the news cycle on his terms (via diminishing those other stories), yet again? If so, that’s very clever. It would also argue that, when it comes to dealing with the media and politics, he’s not the incompetent idiot some are claiming, because he can’t be both incompetent at it and a new Machiavelli.

    BTW, where I don’t understand Trump’s messaging strategy is why he’s not firing back, hard, on the charge leveled by Rubio (Trump hiring foreign workers at his Florida resort). Why isn’t Trump pointing out, loudly, that Rubio’s I-squared bill (Senate bill 153, in 2015) would have tripled the number of such foreign workers?

    I’m also wondering about the efficacy of Rubio’s shift to personal attacks on Trump. Will it help or hurt him? It’s IMHO a two-edged sword; the downside being that it might undermine Rubio’s perceived positives of “likeability” and “niceness”.

    From a strategy results point of view, Super Tuesday promises to be very interesting regarding which strategies proved effective, and which did not, for all the candidates. As to what those results will be, I won’t even pretend to have a guess.

    Arizona CJ (da673d)

  24. Ignorant viral vidiots Lynette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson (aka “Diamond and Silk,” the so-called “Stump For Trump” girls) were on CNN with Carol Costello last Friday morning trying to do damage control for Trump after Thursday’s debate (video here).
    Costello, trying hard to make something out of previously unseen video of a handshake between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio behind Trump’s back during a commercial break, asked the sonic sisters to react. Hardaway referred to them both as “snakes” and then spewed this: (italics, bold mine):

    HARDAWAY: You know, when I look at Marco Rubio, Marco Rubio told us to Google Donald Trump, but I did one better. I Googled him. And when I Googled him, you know, he owes America and the gay community an apology. Because it sounds like that he may have had a gay lifestyle in his past.

    COSTELLO: What?

    HARDAWAY: He owes people an apology.

    COSTELLO: No, Lynnette.

    HARDAWAY: All you have to do is Google him.

    COSTELLO: Lynnette…

    HARDAWAY: You’ll see it. That’s what is on Google. So, you have to [be] cautious when you tell people to Google people. We don’t know. So we’ll say “allegedly.” But he shouldn’t have told people to Google Donald because —

    At this point, Costello made a vain attempt to bring needed relevance to Hardaway’s well-planned schpiel: Marco Rubio told the TV audience to Google “Trump Tower Polish Workers” to reveal well-documented facts backing up his allegation that Trump has a pattern going back decades of importing workers from across the border and overseas instead of employing jobless Americans.

    COSTELLO: Well, we did our own fact check, we did our own fact-check, Rochelle, and we found that Donald Trump did indeed hire workers from outside of the United States to work in his various hotels, in Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, and he did it because he claimed he couldn’t find Americans to work for him. Does that bother you at all?

    HARDAWAY: No, it doesn’t me. Donald Trump is a businessman. He knows how create jobs, he hires people. That’s who we need in our country.

    To recap: In response to being told that Donald Trump hired workers from outside the United States, this female attack dog said someone who will “create jobs” and “hire people” from across the border and overseas is “who we need in our country.”

    Think about that for a moment.

    OK. Let’s continue.

    COSTELLO: But, Rochelle, Donald Trump says illegal immigrants, undocumented immigrants are taking Americans jobs, but he is getting people from outside of the country and hiring them instead of Americans. That doesn’t bother you, Rochelle.

    [Deer in the headlights look for one second]

    RICHARDSON: What bothers me is our unemployment is high. You have people that is homeless. You have veterans not being taken* care of. You have illegal immigrants being taken care of better than our veterans. That’s what’s bothering me right now.

    NOTE: *The CNN transcriber did “Silk” the favor of correcting her language. She actually said “tooken.”

    If you wondered why The Prima Donald said in his Nevada victory speech “I LOVE the poorly-educated!” without any apparent fear, now you have an idea of why. It makes up a large (and loud) part of his base.

    L.N. Smithee (1ed226)

  25. oh! thank you!

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  26. For all of you children of the seventies out there:

    “We’ve Got a Bigger Problem Now.”

    Mar-A-Lago!
    Uber Alles!
    Mar-A-Lago!
    UUUUUBER ALLES!!!

    L.N. Smithee (1ed226)

  27. It’s not clear why the governor has called the press conference, which is scheduled for 3 p.m., but it will likely focus — at least initially — on his naming First Assistant Attorney General Robert Lougy as acting attorney general for the state.

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  28. Reagan gave his first speech after winning the 1980 republican nomination in philadelphia mississippi and it didn’t hurt him in fact it helped him win the south.(if you don’t know what philadelphia mississippi is famous for look it up) Trump will try to bring jobs back to this to america. Ayn randist free trader donors demand crud and punk support free trade or no$$$!

    president trump soon (880f92)

  29. #29 Perry,

    Didn’t Dr. Smith tell you that your internet access must be monitored?

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  30. Reagan gave his first speech after winning the 1980 republican nomination in philadelphia mississippi and it didn’t hurt him in fact it helped him win the south.(if you don’t know what philadelphia mississippi is famous for look it up) Trump will try to bring jobs back to this to america. Ayn randist free trader donors demand crud and punk support free trade or no$$$!

    president trump soon (880f92) — 2/29/2016 @ 12:18 pm

    When you say “look it up”, chances are you want us to find some spurious allegation spread by liberals that Reagan chose Philadelphia, MS because there was a famous lynching there, and he gave a “dog whistle” speech to racist Southerners about “states rights.”

    You may wanna double-check with someone who says that’s slanderous nonsense. Maybe you’ve heard of her: Ann Coulter.

    L.N. Smithee (1ed226)

  31. L.N.Smithee, president trump soon is really a sock for Perry. He’s a radical leftist Obama/Hillary! supporter with no redeeming social value. He’s to the left of Marx and he invented pinkoism.

    Rev. Hoagie™® (f4eb27)

  32. Don’t resent me. California doesn’t vote until July.

    No matter what happens.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  33. Don’t forget Trump Mortgage:

    Trump Mortgage failed. Here’s what that says about the GOP front-runner. http://wapo.st/1pkiBYy?

    T (55f1cc)

  34. 5. Somebody remind me, when was Trump charged tried, and convicted of a criminal offense or even had this particular civil suit found for the plaintiffs?

    formwiz (6b3a5a) — 2/29/2016 @ 8:08 am

    Let’s see. Trump was found to have violated California’s anti-Slapp statute by filing a $1 million counter claim for defamation against a lead plaintiff suing Trump and Trump University. Consequently the court ordered Trump to pay nearly $1 million to cover the plaintiff’s legal bills fighting what the court determined was a “frivolous” and “malicious” lawsuit intended solely
    to intimidate her into dropping the suit. There was no possibility that she had actually defamed him; everything she said was protected speech.

    zhlaw.com/cases/trump-university/

    …On June 17, 2014, the Southern District Court issued an Order granting Plaintiff Tarla Makaeff’s Anti-SLAPP motion against Trump University, LLC (“Trump”), thereby dismissing Trump’s specious $1 million defamation counter-claim against Makaeff. While the victory came more than four years after Trump filed its counterclaim, Makaeff’s case resulted in an important reaffirmation of the applicability of the anti-SLAPP law in federal court. Because Makeaff’s statements arose from protected activity and Trump could not show a probability of prevailing on its defamation claim, the court granted Makaeff’s anti-SLAPP motion. The California Anti-SLAPP Project, a leader in protecting First Amendment Rights, published a thorough article discussing Makaeff’s Anti-SLAPP motion, which can be found by visiting their website here.

    So essentially Trump is an @$$hole in the category of convicted bomber and perjurer Brett
    whathisname, who tried to pull this stunt on Pat. Further proof of Trump’s @$$holery it that,
    having already lost his malicious and frivolous lawsuit against on of his Trump “University”
    victims, he’s threatening to file more frivolous and malicious lawsuits. This time not just
    against the plaintiff, Makaeff, but against the attorneys who helped her SLAPP down Trump.

    Essentially Trump is saying these people continue to defame him by talking about winning
    the anti-SLAPP lawsuit against him. Got that, Trumpster? In TrumpWorld it’s defamatory to
    demonstrate in court that a Trump defamation lawsuit is complete BS.

    In other news Trump “University” fraud lawsuit news, Trump has already been found personally liable for violating NY law by running a fraudulant university.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/r-new-york-judge-finds-donald-trump-liable-for-unlicensed-school-2014-10

    NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump is personally liable for operating a for-profit investment school without the required license, a New York judge ruled in a lawsuit brought by the New York Attorney General against the real estate entrepreneur.

    New York state Supreme Court Justice Cynthia S. Kern said he was notified by the state in 2005 that his Trump Entrepreneur Initiative – known as Trump University until 2010 – was in violation of state education law.

    “It is undisputed that Mr. Trump never complied with the licensing requirements,” Kern wrote in a decision made public on Wednesday…

    And it gets worse for Trump.

    Steve57 (5891a6)

  35. Tiger, you’re one of the very few here who have shown courage over the last few weeks. Most of the Cruz supporters have been merciless in attacking anyone who disagrees with the party line. It’s a sad commentary on a site which prides itself on independent thought. You’re a Great American, and I salute you. Semper Fidelis!

    ropelight (de8a32)

  36. trumpstraction is a dumb word you just made it up to be mean

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  37. happyfeet, I’ve not always been a fan, if fact I’ve been unkind on occasion, but you have won my respect for your honesty involving Trump’s candidacy. Think of me as a friend.

    ropelight (de8a32)

  38. i will!

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  39. Mr Happyfeet,

    Dionne Warwick said it best!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyTpu6BmE88

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  40. And it gets worse for Trump.

    Steve57 (5891a6) — 2/29/2016 @ 1:58 pm

    Personal experience. Once upon a time the papertiger was stopped on the road by a gov officer while driving without a licence.

    He wrote me out a ticket.

    I’ve never been issued a citation for actions I took ten years ago. Where are those statutes of limitations and why are they being waved in the special case of Donald Trump?

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  41. I, for one, appreciated your spirited defense of David Duke, papertiger. I was wondering whether I was not being unfair to Trump supporters by calling them mouth-breathing, dog-molesting, bigoted, ignorant, trailer-park trash skinheads. You put my conscience at ease.

    nk (dbc370)

  42. Hotair has it that Trump will beat Hillary in New York. That would be something wouldn’t it.

    Trump is the hometown favorite while Hil is a carpet bagger import cashing in on her celebrity and the D next to her name.

    Sounds plausible.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  43. nk David Duke’s actual positions are pretty darned hard to find on the net, it turns out.

    The problem is there are so many fake websites copying his, with the purpose of defenestration.

    Some people and their hobbies.

    So I’m going with the Wikipedia. Wiki says David Duke quit the Klan during the Reagan admin. Then started something called the National Association for the Advancement of White People.

    Sauce for the goose. I can hardly wait for White History Month, and White Entertainment Television (although the premiums would likely scare me off subscribing).

    Thank you, NK for being on the look out to monitor my adherence to respectable societies speech codes, or lack there of.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  44. Oh NK. Forgot to ask. How does it feel to get your but kicked by a mouth breather?

    I’ve never had that happen to me. Wonder if it’s different than a regular but whoopin.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  45. Paper, you couldn’t kick nk’s but (sic) if he gave you a 5 minute head start.

    John Hitchcock (f3ad73)

  46. John, I bet you have plenty of experience getting your but kicked by mouth breathers.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  47. Trump is a loser, a jerk, and a liar.

    http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2016/02/28/trump-defends-trump-university-blames-hispanic-judge-for-hostility-against-him/

    He’s attacking the judge in the Kali case for being biased against him because he’s Hispanic. This is just a stupid, stupid move and it fits into the pattern I’m concerned about. He just wants to destroy the GOP in the primary, and clear the field for Hillary! to win in the general. Because look at all the material he’s giving her. He won’t renounce the KKK and David Duke on national TV, and now he’s attacking the judge the fraud case against him for being Hispanic. Talk about helping to fire up the Democratic party base; demonstrate that every charge of racism they ever hurled at the GOP is true in spades. And as the Trumpsters are demonstrating, the more the candidate demagogues on race the more popular the candidate becomes.

    Trump claimed the case should have been thrown out years ago, “but because it was me and because there’s a hostility toward me by the judge – tremendous hostility – beyond belief.” He then noted, as an aside: “I believe he happens to be Spanish, which is fine. He’s Hispanic — which is fine.”

    Asked on “Fox News Sunday” what U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s ethnicity has to do with the lawsuit against him, Trump replied:

    “I think it has to do perhaps with the fact that I’m very, very strong on the border, very, very strong at the border, and he has been extremely hostile to me.”

    According to the California class-action complaint in front of Curiel, a one-year apprenticeship that Trump University students were promised ended after students paid for a three-day seminar. Attendees who were promised a personal photo with Trump received only the chance to take a photo with a cardboard cutout. And many instructors were bankrupt real estate investors.

    His remarks come days after Sen. Marco Rubio brought up the legal troubles of Trump University during the debate in Houston on Thursday.

    “There are people who borrowed $36,000 to go to Trump University, and they’re suing now — $36,000 to go to a university that’s a fake school,” Rubio said. “And you know what they got? They got to take a picture with a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump.”

    Texas Sen. Ted Cruz jumped in, adding: “It’s a fraud case. … I want you to think about, if this man is the nominee, having the Republican nominee on the stand in court, being cross-examined about whether he committed fraud.”

    Trump would have you believe this case should have been thrown out years ago, and it would have been, except the Hispanic judge is hostile to him because he wants to build a wall on the border or something.

    The thing is, this case was filed in Kali in 2010. And the judge ruled that it could proceed in October of that year. And Donald Trump has never been “strong on the border” until he decided to run for President this election season. Here’s how “strong” Donald Trump was on the border and immigration in 2012.

    …“The Democrats didn’t have a policy for dealing with illegal immigrants, but what they did have going for them is they weren’t mean-spirited about it,” Trump told Newsmax’s Ronald Kessler in a Nov. 26, 2012 interview.

    “They didn’t know what the policy was, but what they were is they were kind.”

    …During that 2012 post-election interview, Trump also criticized Romney, whom he had endorsed.

    “He had a crazy policy of self deportation which was maniacal,” Trump said. He was referring to Romney’s answer during a Jan. 2012 primary debate in which he said that instead of rounding up illegal immigrants and deporting them, the U.S. should adopt a policy of “self-deportation.”

    …“It sounded as bad as it was, and he lost all of the Latino vote,” Trump told Kessler. “He lost the Asian vote. He lost everybody who is inspired to come into this country.”

    …Trump did say in the interview that Republicans needed to develop a plan to “take care of this incredible problem that we have with respect to immigration, with respect to people wanting to be wonderful productive citizens of this country.”

    Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/09/2012-flashback-donald-trump-said-gop-was-too-mean-spirited-towards-illegal-immigrants/#ixzz41bAvTLFZ

    Yeah, right. In 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, etc., that Hispanic judge had every reason to by “hostile” to the man saying illegal immigrants only wanted to be “wonderful productive citizens of this country,” that the Republicans were “mean spirited” on the issue while the Democrats were “kind” on
    immigration, and it was Romney’s harsh “maniacal” stand on immigration that caused him to lose the 2012 election.

    Not. That’s just a stupid assertion. If Gonzalo Curiel is supposed to fit the left’s stereotype of a Latino voter which is of course a single issue voter totally on the side of illegal immigration then you know what? Trump was on his side of the issue for almost the entire time this case has been before this judge.

    But let’s face it. Trump knows his supporters are stupid enough to buy this. Just like he knows they’re stupid enough to overlook the fact that Trump “University” was not only a scam, it was designed to be a scam. The Atlantic magazine got ahold of Trump “University’s” confidential playbook. It wasn’t part of the curriculum, and students/suckers were never supposed to see it. You know it even has a section on what to do if a district attorney shows up at one of their fraudulent seminars? Yeah, they were supposed to contact the appropriate media relations person immediately. That’s how Trump operates. He’s a con man with good lawyers and a good PR machine.

    Here’s a hint; legitimate operations have all sorts of procedures for various contingencies such as what to do in case of fire or electrical outage. No legitimate operation has a plan for what to do if the DA starts snooping around.

    So on this Trump “University” lawsuit front his firm belief is that his supporters will buy his spin. Which are completely contrary to the facts, as is easily proven. But since when have facts mattered to the Trumpsters?

    Trump’s firm belief is well founded given that his entire life history shows that there is indeed a sucker born every minute.

    But when you have to try to intimidate your victims into dropping the lawsuit by filing frivolous, malicious lawsuits demanding outrageous damages for non-existent defamation, when you claim victory (as Trump does in the NY case) by saying the statute of limitations means you won’t have to pay much in damages (thereby admitting you violated the law, but so what, right?), and you have to start insulting the judge who repeatedly refuses to dismiss the case against based upon obvious lies, that’s pretty damned desperate. He doesn’t have a defense against these fraud charges because his sole defense was that he shouldn’t be a party to these lawsuits because he had nothing to do with the school except lend his name to it.

    But that’s why the courts insist he is a party to the case. Because that’s the heart of the fraud. He signed promotional letters, lent his name to other promotional materials, and even appeared in promotional videos saying the exact opposite. That he was intimately involved in developing the school, handpicking the instructors, and developing the curriculum so that students would learn his real estate investing secrets.

    The students say they never would have taken these courses and shelled out that kind of money had they known none of that was true. If your sole defense against accusations of fraudulent business practices is Trump’s, “Yeah, I lied, so what” that isn’t actually a defense against fraud.

    So now Trump is just flinging his feces around hoping something sticks. And let’s face it; that’s what he’s been doing his whole life and he obviously enjoys it.

    You Trumpsters must be so proud.

    Steve57 (5891a6)

  48. Mass-hole democrats have lost 20,000 voters changing to un-enrolled or republican since Jan.1.
    Trump swabs.

    mg (31009b)

  49. David Duke harbors really hostile angry views toward Jews. He’s more than just a guy who thinks that the pendulum of affirmative action has swung too far.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  50. I don’t frequent trailer parks. When they come up to me at the off-ramp with a gas can asking for spare change because they “ran out of gas”, I just roll up my window.

    nk (dbc370)

  51. 35. …Most of the Cruz supporters have been merciless in attacking anyone who disagrees with the party line. It’s a sad commentary on a site which prides itself on independent thought. You’re a Great American, and I salute you. Semper Fidelis!

    ropelight (de8a32) — 2/29/2016 @ 2:03 pm

    Do you have any idea how that comment shows a complete lack of self awareness? I’ve been merciless because the facts are all on my side. Meanwhile, you and papertiger will go with Trump’s unsupported, usually demonstrably false, word over verifiable facts every single time.

    You probably even believe he’s being audited, for instance, and he gets audited every year not because he ever does anything wrong (the Donald never does anything wrong, just ask him; that’s why he never has to apologize or seek God’s forgiveness)but that’s just part of being a super rich, awesome high profile businessman who built a great company! And he can’t release his tax returns because of that. Of course, that isn’t true. If you want to believe his paid spokesweasels, they claim he can’t release the tax returns for the same reason you don’t make public statements after the police interview you on a matter.

    But that’s a BS analogy. Tax returns aren’t uttered statements which might cause you problems if those you make in public differ from those you made to the police. They’re documents, and whether or not he’s being audited by the IRS, the IRS already has them. According to tax attorneys and tax law professors who aren’t being paid by Donald Trump, there’s no reason legal or otherwise he couldn’t publicly release the same documents that the IRS already has.

    Of course this latest dodge about releasing his tax returns is just the latest dodge in a whole series of changing stories. He’s variously said that his “team” was looking into it, that it would take a lot of time to prepare the tax return documents for public release (again, not according to tax attorneys who aren’t on Donald Trump’s payroll; it would take some time, yes, but not a lot of time), but on Hugh Hewitt’s show last year he did unequivocally state he’d release his tax returns.

    There was never any mention of any audits either by the IRS or the NY state tax agency, whatever they call it officially. Not once in his variously changing stories has he mentioned anything about audits preventing him from releasing his tax returns.

    So, he’s lying. And he has very good reason to lie. A lot of people have speculated why he continues to be evasive about his tax returns. For instance, it will embarrass him; he’s not close to being as rich as he claims, he never gave a dime personally to the organizations he claims to support, or that the has long supported organizations that he’d rather his newfound conservative base not know about.

    But the real problem is he’s being sued for fraud. And beginning in May and at least through August he’s going to have to testify in these class action lawsuits against him. And he’s going to have to testify about among other things his actual net worth and what percentage of his income he received from Trump “University.”

    So there you go, ropelight. He’s not worried about the IRS. That’s just a smokescreen. Which he knows you’ll buy. Because despite your claims he’s doing your thinking for you.

    Steve57 (5891a6)

  52. Steve, that’s strange because the original complaint from Cuomo, the attorney general of New York at that time, didn’t even insist on a teaching license, or a name change. He merely said Trump University should move their seminars out of state.

    Now you are talking about a class action lawsuit from California?

    I defy you to try and make that not confusing.

    So let me get this straight. If I were to call a number on the side of the road advertising guitar lessons, and afterward, if I am unsatisfied with my progress for whatever reason, I can sue the guitar teacher and get my money back?

    I guess that’s what is meant by “partners in success”. The other side of the coin “scapegoat for failure”.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  53. …… if I am unsatisfied with my progress for whatever reason, I can sue the guitar teacher and get my money back?

    You’re so cute, papertiger. In today’s America you could sue the guitar teacher because you were unsatisfied with your progress because as a professional he should have known you’d be lousy plus, you could sue for unwanted sexual advances, racial slurs and discrimination. It’s up to him to prove you wrong. And I’d bet his insurance company would settle.

    Rev. Hoagie™® (f4eb27)

  54. papertiger, people aren’t suing Trump U for lack of satisfaction with their progress in a real estate career.
    Rather, they’re suing because they feel they didn’t receive what they were promised from the course.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  55. The most annoying thing about mouth-breathers is that they think you are as stupid as they are.

    nk (dbc370)

  56. R.I.P. actor George Kennedy

    Icy (38ffb0)

  57. 40. And it gets worse for Trump.

    Steve57 (5891a6) — 2/29/2016 @ 1:58 pm

    Personal experience. Once upon a time the papertiger was stopped on the road by a gov officer while driving without a licence.

    He wrote me out a ticket.

    I’ve never been issued a citation for actions I took ten years ago. Where are those statutes of limitations and why are they being waved in the special case of Donald Trump?

    papertiger (c2d6da) — 2/29/2016 @ 2:27 pm

    Curious, papertiger, was the lack of a driver’s license ever going to figure as a centerpiece in a fraud case against you? In which you operated a for-profit enterprise that required you to have that license.

    The statute of limitations concerns the amount of damages the state and possibly the plaintiffs can claim due to the fact Trump “University” operated in violation of state law and was not therefore an actual University. And Trump and his crime crew did misrepresent the enterprise as an actual University.

    But the AG was setting the table for the NY class action lawsuit that the state filed on behalf of students who were defrauded. Who can seek damages not limited by the same statute of limitations, as the vast majority of those claims are based upon Trump’s false statements that he was intimately involved in the course, which he said in his own words would teach his real estate techniques using instructors he hand picked. Most of the plaintiffs are not basing their claims in whole or in part on whether or not it was an actual university.

    In any case they’ve established that Trump “University” operated illegally in NY since its inception in 2005, and moreover Trump knew it. As the judge on the NY Supreme Court put it, that fact is not disputed. And that will not help Trump’s defense against the fraud charge.

    In Kali the RICO case (yes, that’s right papertiger, the guy you choose to trust may very well lose a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act lawsuit) against Trump proceeds apace, and the judge rejected Trump’s attorney’s arguments about any statute of limitations preventing the lawsuit from being brought.

    http://www.law360.com/articles/590949/trump-university-students-win-class-cert-in-rico-suit

    …Trump argued that, because the plaintiff had access to all the facts as to whether Trump University was an actual “university” as of July 2009, a four-year statute of limitations for RICO claims blocked the suit, which was filed in October of last year. Cohen didn’t inquire about Trump University’s accreditation and knew while he was in the programs whether Trump’s alleged lack of involvement resulted in teachings of no value, the defendant contended.

    But Judge Curiel held Friday that, “Although [Trump] may yet show that plaintiff and the putative class members knew or should have known that defendant had devised a scheme to falsely market Trump University via mail or wire prior to October 2009,…

    Got that, papertiger? Trump’s defense is that even though he did in fact lie to prospective marks about among other things Trump “University” was an actual university, they had access to the information they needed to see through the fraud. Some defense, huh? Again, you must be proud.

    And Trump is going to have to be very careful when he testifies as mail fraud and wire fraud are actual crimes. That can lead to a lot more than just financial penalties.

    Now do you understand why Trump is being super cautious about releasing his tax returns?

    …the court is satisfied that determination of defendant’s statute of limitations defense in this case will not defeat the predominance of common issues in this case.”

    You see, papertiger, there are a lot more issues in play then whether or not Trump “University” was an actual university or not. You’d never know that if you just listened to Trump’s paid mouthpieces as your only source of propaganda on these lawsuits.

    Which is why you don’t know that, I suppose.

    …Cohen’s suit claimed Trump uniformly misled him and the class that they would learn his real estate secrets through him and his handpicked professors at the elite Trump University, which is now named the Trump Entrepreneur Institute. The plaintiff claims he attended a free seminar after receiving a “special invitation” in the mail, then paid almost $1,500 to attend a three-day real estate retreat, where he paid almost $35,000 more for additional training.

    Cohen said he wouldn’t have attended the live events were it not for a national ad campaign that had an annual budget of $6 million and included YouTube, email, website and traditional postal mail solicitations.

    Judge Curiel on Friday determined that Cohen had introduced evidence that the marketing campaign repeatedly made at least two representations that Trump was integrally involved in Trump University and that it was an actual university.

    He also ruled that Cohen’s claims were typical of those among other proposed class members because plaintiff’s description of his experience with Trump University matched the allegations alleged on behalf of the putative class in his complaint.

    You see, Trump really doesn’t have much of a defense. His first defense was that he wasn’t involved, and therefore shouldn’t be named as a party to the suit. But when he participated in a $6 million advertising campaign Trump-eting his intimate involvement in the course, and that was key to suckering people in, that defense backfires.

    When your fallback defense is, “These people should have known I was lying,” you’ve got to figure you’re in trouble.

    Steve57 (5891a6)

  58. Curious, papertiger, was the lack of a driver’s license ever going to figure as a centerpiece in a fraud case against you? In which you operated a for-profit enterprise that required you to have that license.

    You mean a taxi driver then. lol An Uber driver. heh

    No. I just left my wallet.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  59. The anti Uber driver emergency statute, passed by executive order.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  60. 52. Steve, that’s strange because the original complaint from Cuomo, the attorney general of New York at that time, didn’t even insist on a teaching license, or a name change. He merely said Trump University should move their seminars out of state…

    papertiger (c2d6da) — 2/29/2016 @ 3:55 pm

    No, actually that’s not correct. What Cuomo said was that if Trump “University” wanted to avoid legal problems stemming from the fact that it was using the title university without the required license, Trump could simply not hold any seminars in NY state.

    Then there’d be no harm no foul.

    If they insisted on operating without a license as a titular university in NY state then they’d have problems. But all they would have to do to avoid problems with NY regulators would be, operate outside of the state and therefore out of reach of those regulations and regulators.

    Steve57 (5891a6)

  61. here’s a high traffic conservative site. http://ccpopulism.blogspot.com/ Trump on fire after he doomed Rubio with this comment !!

    Gus Friend (e312eb)

  62. 52. So let me get this straight. If I were to call a number on the side of the road advertising guitar lessons, and afterward, if I am unsatisfied with my progress for whatever reason, I can sue the guitar teacher and get my money back?

    papertiger (c2d6da) — 2/29/2016 @ 3:55 pm

    But you see, these people didn’t call a number they saw on a billboard.

    They got personal letters on very nice paper signed by Donald Trump inviting them to learn his real estate investing methods. People do that for a reason; to make money. And Donald Trump told them if they couldn’t make money with his methods taught by hand picked instructors then they just couldn’t make money.

    I see why you’re finding this confusing. The analogy you concocted is ridiculous.

    If you got a personal letter from Eric Clapton offering you a chance to learn his guitar secrets from instructors he had personally selected (who would then tell you later they knew Eric Clapton and just had dinner with him the other night, as the script Trump “University” instructors followed had them lie) and implying that if you used his methods you were practically guaranteed to make money playing live gigs and on record contracts, then you’d have something closer to what Trump did.

    See, if we were just talking about billboards instead of letters signed by Trump and other fraudulent or deceptive advertising materials such as internet videos, the judge wouldn’t have said the words in reference to Trump’s fall back defense being, “the putative class members knew or should have known that defendant had devised a scheme to falsely market Trump University via mail or wire prior to October 2009.”

    You don’t get roadside billboards via mail, email, or internet. Hence roadside billboards can’t constitute mail or wire fraud.

    Steve57 (5891a6)

  63. people what go to real estate seminars are losers

    yo losers, flip this

    happyfeet (831175)

  64. CC Populism dot blogspot dot com? A high traffic site? And Conservative? Highly suspect on both counts.

    John Hitchcock (f3ad73)

  65. i’m concerned about all this class warefare

    happyfeet (831175)

  66. In a class war, Trumpsters are unarmed.

    nk (dbc370)

  67. it’s not a war it’s an insurrection

    and it is glorious

    happyfeet (831175)

  68. First step, Trumpkin or not, is that you have to vote.

    That would be a great thing to see you do, HF.

    Instead of insisting your vote doesn’t count.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  69. i like voting i just don’t wanna get all enmeshed in the whole civic duty thing while i live in chicago

    if i were to buy some property it would be different

    but I’m not super-enthused about that idea anymore

    CPS sells $725M in bonds at extraordinarily high interest rate

    and that was a substantially scaled back bond offering

    nope

    i don’t really have a horse in this race

    but i love how Mr. Trump scares the harvardtrash

    i love it so much

    happyfeet (831175)

  70. Mr. Happyfeet, there’s no greater gulf in society than that which divides harvardtrash from penntrash.
    And those yale-yahoos are no great shakes, either! (LOL)

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  71. Hf @63, that’s exactly what Trump thought of his “students.” They were losers who deserved to be ripped off.

    After all, what are his defenses that he didn’t commit fraud. In both the lawsuits over the fake Trump properties and the fake Trump University the first defense is that he had nothing to do with any of those projects. The fact that deceiving people into believing the exact opposite is exactly what the fraud depended on to succeed would explain why Trump’s lawyers have never been able to convince a judge to dismiss these suits, or at least dismiss him as a party to the suit.

    He was intimately involved in the false and misleading advertising campaigns.

    His fallback defense; people should have known he was lying. When it came to the fake Trump properties, Trump has insisted that buried somewhere in the fine print of the contract the buyers were not actually buying a Trump property. Even Trump’s lawyers have had to admit that figuring out Trump wasn’t actually the developer of the properties by reading the fine print would have been very difficult. Meanwhile, Trump willingly and actively participated in multi-million dollar advertising campaigns stating bluntly that he was the developer, using words like “This is my finest development yet.”

    And of course the judge in the Kali case noted that he did the same when advertising the fraudulent Trump University. I just don’t think it’s a good thing when you are defending yourself against a fraud charge to hear the judge say, “Although [Trump] may yet show that plaintiff and the putative class members knew or should have known that defendant had devised a scheme to falsely market Trump University via mail or wire prior to October 2009, the court is satisfied that determination of defendant’s statute of limitations defense in this case will not defeat the predominance of common issues in this case.”

    It was funny in Animal House when Otter put his arm around Flounder’s shoulder and said, “Flounder, you can’t spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes. You f***ed up, you trusted us.” But if that were the heart of my defense against an accusation of fraud, that these people had years to figure out I was lying to them so the judge should throw out the case, I wouldn’t be feeling great about my chances. And Trump can’t be feeling good about his chances since the judge didn’t buy it.

    And how does Trump describe the fact that he ripped people off, sometimes for their entire life savings, sometimes even driving them into debt because they believed in Donald Trump?

    While he was ripping into the judge for being Hispanic, here’s how he described it:

    “It’s a small deal, very small,” Trump said of the suit, which could force him to take the stand this summer.

    Yeah, exactly. Screwing over average Joe to get what he wants is as far as Trump is concerned a small deal, a very small deal.

    So just how very small of a deal do you imagine lying to you to get your votes will turn out be, ropelight, papertiger, and the rest of you Trumpsters?

    Steve57 (5891a6)

  72. this is just a silly civil suit brought by a bunch of failmerican idiots what regret how they spended their monies

    yes yes it’s a metaphor

    happyfeet (831175)

  73. crud suppository. crud slimed one time to many trump our next president will flush you and crud dawn the toilet. You ayn randists free trader sociopaths are through! crud and punk ass rube bye bye!

    president trump soon (56e9a1)

  74. How popular is patterico.com?

    Alexa Traffic Ranks
    How is this site ranked relative to other sites?

    Global Rank
    Global rank icon 240,826 15,703
    Rank in United States
    United States Flag 51,000

    ccpopulism.blogspot.com
    We don’t have enough data to rank this website.

    carlitos (c24ed5)

  75. California Republicans like Patterico should have one piece of advice for the rest of America: How do we prevent the political reality of our states from turning into the political reality of your state?

    California Republicans had all kinds of ideological ideas in the works before they created a demographic reality that made all those ideas moot. You are on real thin ice if you’re a California Republican making suggestions to the rest of America.

    Jcurtis (9a271b)

  76. No, that was the 1960s drug-addled free lust hippies that flooded California growing up and taking over the education and political machines, and having babies just like them.

    John Hitchcock (f3ad73)

  77. #2. failmerica’s just another word for
    nothin left to lose

    happyfeet (831175) — 2/29/2016 @ 7:35 am

    ……

    “Trump” is just another word for
    no one left to vote for.

    Luke Stywalker (618b5f)

  78. Mr. Trump will work to help make America great again Mr. Stywalker

    from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam

    that nasty incontinent old woman will just pee on the cushions

    advantage: Mr. The Donald

    happyfeet (831175)

  79. Well, if you think President Trump is bad, you just wait until President Kanye.

    Gabriel Hanna (64d4e1)

  80. California Republicans like Patterico should have one piece of advice for the rest of America: How do we prevent the political reality of our states from turning into the political reality of your state?

    California Republicans had all kinds of ideological ideas in the works before they created a demographic reality that made all those ideas moot. You are on real thin ice if you’re a California Republican making suggestions to the rest of America.

    Jcurtis (9a271b) — 2/29/2016 @ 9:16 pm

    Regarding the “demographic reality” to which you refer: Do some research into California’s Proposition 187 (1994), a measure designed to discourage illegal immigration into the state. It was passed by Republicans, independents and a sizeable minority of Democrats but was held in legal limbo for years until 1999, that magic moment when a Democrat was elected Governor. Using a strategy that would later be used to mortally wound Proposition 8, Gray Davis refused to defend a measure passed by the California electorate that also put him in office; instead, rather than fight the appeal sought by 187’s opponents, he asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to “mediate” the issue. A more accurate description of the result of this was issued by anti-illegal immigration group FAIR (bold mine):

    California’s Proposition 187, a voter-sponsored initiative, was passed in 1994 by 59 percent of the vote. Opponents challenged its constitutionality, and immediately got a favorable ruling from U.S. District Court judge Mariana Pfaelzer. The judge used tortured reasoning to block the law, and many observers felt her decision was unlikely to survive on appeal.

    As the chief law enforcer of the state, Governor Davis was constitutionally bound to defend the law, even though he had been an outspoken opponent of 187 when it was an initiative. So, in a maneuver designed to avoid having Pfaelzer’s ruling overturned by a higher court, Davis entered into a legal “mediation” with 187’s opponents. Thus, both sides in this contrived “mediation” process were out to scuttle the law. Not surprisingly, both “sides” in the rigged mediation procedure quickly agreed to kill it.

    “In no democracy in the world,” FAIR Executive Director Dan Stein charged, “are the results of an election overturned without the voters having their day in court — that is, until today. The decision to drop the appeal of Prop. 187,” he continued, ” has absolutely nothing to do with its constitutionality. This is a capitulation by Governor Davis to pressure from an elite group of pro-illegal immigration politicians and organizations. The implications of this are as frightening for the future of self government in our country as they are outrageous.”

    Stein was not simply correct about that. For all intents and purposes, he was prophetic. You may not be aware of this if you just go by MSM sources, but Proposition 8 was NOT overturned in 2013 because it was found to be unconstitutional (that would be covered in the 2015 Obergefell catastrophe); its overturning by appeal was allowed to remain because nobody representing the electorate of the state of California — the only entity with the legal standing to defend its constitutionality — was willing to do so.

    You may say, “Well, that’s what you get for electing a Democrat.” Not so fast. The screwing of Prop 187 was one of many reasons why Californians wanted to recall Gov. Davis, but not the only one. When Davis was up for grabs in that famous recall election, leaping into the race was Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was because of a DEAL that Ahnuld cut with RINO legislator Abel Maldonado during a budget impasse that California now has open primaries and chooses between the top two-vote getters, even if they’re both from the same party. Maldonado, in exchange for crossing party lines to be the deciding budget vote, got what he wanted: the then-vacant Lt. Governor position and passage of the top-two system. Why? Because he thought being the incumbent LG combined with his Latino heritage would position him well to become the first Hispanic Governor, factoring in the burgeoning population of Spanish-speaking voters that the overturning of 187 facilitated. He didn’t count on someone with greater name-recognition — SF Mayor and gay-rights hero Gavin Newsom — jumping into the LG race after Newsom couldn’t draw enough donors to run against Jerry Brown. Maldonado got beat, but his legacy remains. Because of self-serving RINOs Schwarzenegger and Maldonado, California is unlikely to have any Republicans (much less conservatives) serving at the state level any time in the near future, at the least.

    So, to answer your question, “How do we prevent the political reality of our states from turning into the political reality of your state?”

    A: It’s not good enough to say “Don’t elect Democrats.” NEVER, under any circumstances, allow an allegedly Republican celebrity who has never displayed any serious political knowledge, interest, or acumen to gain footing in an election for an executive position. Rather than seeking to serve, such a person will be more likely trying to accomplish a lifelong goal using fame as a shortcut. He will suck all the oxygen out of any room he enters, leaving opponents who actually might know what the hell they’re talking about gasping for air. It will turn into a popularity contest, and people who ought to stick to political commentary will instead dream about how cool it would be to have a really charismatic guy espousing their beliefs (or even just some of them).

    L.N. Smithee (1ed226)

  81. Days are better when L.N. is amongst us.

    JD (34f761)

  82. Days are also better when I see posts from JD. I hope you are well.

    Simon Jester (2708f4)

  83. L.N. and JD, doesn’t this seem…kind of appropos:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJGUm9e_BLU

    Simon Jester (2708f4)


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