Welcome to Thunderdome

Oliver played a clip of former General Hospital star Antonio Sabato, Jr. telling CNN that he "didn't believe" President Barack Obama "is a Christian" and is convinced the president is a Muslim.

Malcolm wrote:Yes, they do.

Vince wrote:

Malcolm wrote:Yes, they do.

I agree, but to quote some gaping asshole from 4 years ago, "The 80's called and they want their foreign policy back."

Just weeks after she started preparing opposition research files on Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort last spring, Democratic National Committee consultant Alexandra Chalupa got an alarming message when she logged into her personal Yahoo email account.

“Important action required,” read a pop-up box from a Yahoo security team that is informally known as “the Paranoids.” “We strongly suspect that your account has been the target of state-sponsored actors.”

When Popick first reached out to the Trump campaign about performing, he spoke with various people including former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. His understanding from the campaign was that the Kids would make two appearances in Florida, where Popick lives. The first event didn't come to fruition, and Popick says he asked for $2,500 in payment for the second performance, in Pensacola. The campaign made a counter-offer: How about a table where the group could presell albums? Popick took the deal.

When they arrived at the venue, though, there was no table, Popick says. The result was "complete chaos," he said. "They clearly had made no provisions for that."

When Trump made the sudden decision to skip the January Fox News debate and instead hold an event for veterans, a representative of the campaign called Popick to see if the Freedom Kids might perform. The call came the day before the event, Popick says, which was being held in Des Moines at 6:30 p.m. With the promise that the exposure from the event would be "huge," Popick readily agreed, and the kids and their parents packed up for a direct flight to Chicago and a long drive to Iowa.

It wasn't to be. When the plane landed, Popick had a message from the campaign staffer indicating that there was a change of plan. The campaign invited the performers to attend the rally, which they did, in their outfits. The campaign asked Popick not to talk to the media, he says, but then gave them seats within arm's length of the press. "They just were constantly coming over, wanting pictures," Popick said of the news media. "They wanted to take pictures, they wanted to ask questions — and I had to be a real jerk." The cost of the flights, rental car and hotel were all absorbed by Popick.

"These are guys that insist they're straight shooters," Popick said, "'You may not like what we're going to say, but we mean what we say and we say what we mean' — and they just would not say anything of any substance!"

"I've invested a lot of time, effort, money," he continued, "and it's just been complete silence."

It's worth noting that Popick's story mirrors analysis of Trump's record in working with small business owners, some of whom allege that the Republican nominee failed to live up to financial and other commitments he'd made to them.

Leisher wrote:Obama endorses Trump. Says he's voting for him.

Malik Obama, a longtime Democrat, says he won't back Hillary Clinton for several reasons ... including her email scandal, same sex marriage and Moammar Khadafy. Malik -- who lives in Kenya -- told the NY Post he blames Clinton and his brother for killing the Libyan dictator, who he considered a close friend.

“Russia, if you’re listening I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press,” Trump said during a news conference at his South Florida resort on Wednesday.

“They probably have them. I’d like to have them released. It gives me no pause, if they have them, they have them,” Trump added later when asked if his comments were inappropriate. “If Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I mean to be honest with you, I’d love to see them.”

I think president Obama has been the most ignorant president in our history

Vince wrote:We need the Chinese to release the RNC's emails now to complete this sideshow.

Vince wrote:We need the Chinese to release the RNC's emails now to complete this sideshow.

GORDON wrote:

Vince wrote:We need the Chinese to release the RNC's emails now to complete this sideshow.

They're still picking over the clone server of Hillary's that they had.

Asked about comments he had made Wednesday at a news conference in Florida, where he said, “Putin has much better leadership qualities than Obama,” Mr. Trump reiterated his views in slightly starker terms.

“I said he’s a better leader than Obama,” Mr. Trump said. “I said he’s a better leader than Obama, because Obama’s not a leader, so he’s certainly doing a better job than Obama is, and that’s all.”

Donald Trump Jr. suggested Thursday that Barack Obama's speech in Philadelphia Wednesday night lifted a line from his Republican National Convention remarks, pointing out that both addresses contained the line "That's not the America I know."
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Trump Jr. is correct that both he and Obama both used the single phrase in their speeches to their respective party conventions. But it's also a line Obama, along with other past presidents, has used frequently in the past.

Malcolm wrote:There aren't the huge swaths of similarity, as in the speech your relative ripped off.

Trump said his friend, who he labeled a "very great governor," urged him to stay focused on attacking Clinton, not other Democrats.
"He said, 'Don't hit there. Don't hit down. You have one person to beat. It's Hillary Rodham Clinton,'" Trump recalled, adding that he initially objected to the advice. "I said, 'But I really want to. I don't like what they're saying because a lot of it is lies. Not all of it but a lot of it is.' I said, 'I just really ... it makes me feel good.' "

But even as Donald Trump swept into the city Friday for a boisterous rally, he was being eyed warily by voters such as Kathy Colligan, a Republican-leaning independent who is far from sold on the billionaire real estate developer.

“I just don’t really like him personally,” said Colligan, a 53-year-old nurse, as she headed into a Home Depot shortly before Trump was scheduled to speak across town. “He’s kind of arrogant and privileged. And he doesn’t have a lot of information backing up what he says.”

Conversations with more than two dozen voters here revealed a widespread ambivalence about Trump, underscoring the difficult climb he faces in turning this state red after it backed Barack Obama in the past two presidential elections.
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“I have no intention of voting for him,” said Steven Hofman, a longtime GOP activist from Steamboat Springs who sought to be a Cruz delegate. “I don’t think we should elect somebody to the Oval Office who takes his ignorance of public policy as a virtue.”
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“I think he needs to be quieter, not be saying so many things that just pop out of his mouth,” said Cheryl Lafon, 58, a registered Republican who said she prefers Trump over Clinton but remains undecided.
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As Manie Balch contemplated voting for Trump, she shuddered. “I think he’s wild,” the self-described senior citizen and Republican said as she left a Panera Bread restaurant with her family. “I don’t think he’s balanced. Maybe I’ll do a write-in candidate.”
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“I am a little scared of him,” said Don Monn, 78, a retired chemist. “He’s just so reactive. Hopefully he will put good people around him and they will be able to calm him down and say, ‘Just because somebody tweeted something about you, don’t go off and start a war.’ ”

“Will he disappoint us? Will he shock us? Will he madden us? Absolutely,” Rager said of the GOP nominee. But, she added, “when you look past all of that stuff and you see some of the things that he’s doing, it’s reason to be encouraged.”

“’Little’ Michael Bloomberg, who never had the guts to run for president, knows nothing about me. His last term as Mayor was a disaster,” Trump tweeted Friday morning, directly contradicting his praise for Bloomberg during his final term just four years ago.

“Mike Bloomberg is doing a great job as Mayor of New York City,” Trump tweeted April 16, 2012. (Bloomberg left office after three terms at the end of 2013.)

First, he went after Ghazala Khan, the mother of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who had received a Purple Heart for bravery after being killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom. And then stunningly Trump equated his work as a businessman as being a “sacrifice” akin to the sacrifice made by the brave women and men who have served in our nation’s armed forces.