Last Call For Economic Anxiety

So it turns out that "working-class white voters" aren't voting for Trump over economic reasons at all, and as a matter of fact Trump supporters aren't "working-class" in the least.

Economic distress and anxiety across working-class white America have become a widely discussed explanation for the success of Donald Trump. It seems to make sense. Trump's most fervent supporters tend to be white men without college degrees. This same group has suffered economically in our increasingly globalized world, as machines have replaced workers in factories and labor has shifted overseas. Trump has promised to curtail trade and other perceived threats to American workers, including immigrants. 

Yet a major new analysis from Gallup, based on 87,000 interviews the polling company conducted over the past year, suggests this narrative is not complete. While there does seem to be a relationship between economic anxiety and Trump's appeal, the straightforward connection that many observers have assumed does not appear in the data. 

According to this new analysis, those who view Trump favorably have not been disproportionately affected by foreign trade or immigration, compared with people with unfavorable views of the Republican presidential nominee. The results suggest that his supporters, on average, do not have lower incomes than other Americans, nor are they more likely to be unemployed. 

Yet while Trump's supporters might be comparatively well off themselves, they come from places where their neighbors endure other forms of hardship. In their communities, white residents are dying younger, and it is harder for young people who grow up poor to get ahead.

So what's happening is the GOP is screwing over their base, and has made sure through Congress to keep Democrats from passing economic measures that would help the GOP base.  An angry base votes, and votes reliably.  That's always been the plan.

The bigger problem is of course this puts to bed the polite, accepted cover for Trump's virulent and obvious racism, misogyny, and Islamophobic campaign of hatred.

I wonder what the excuse will be for the rest of the contest?

The Turtle's Lament

Even Mitch The Turtle thinks the GOP keeping control of the Senate with Trump rampaging through the landscape is going to be a real problem for them come November.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that GOP prospects for keeping control of the Senate after the November elections are "very dicey," sounding an alarm amid mounting Republican concerns about presidential nominee Donald Trump, 

Speaking to a Louisville-area civic group in his home state, McConnell said Senate Republicans were going to be "on defense" in this year's election, regardless of who led the ticket as the party's presidential candidate. 

Twenty-four GOP-held seats are on the ballot this year, compared with 10 for Democrats, he noted. McConnell was promoted to majority leader two years ago when a Republican surge wrested Senate control from Democrats.

McConnell did not mention Trump as being a drag on Republican down-ballot races, but he chided Trump's campaign tactics. The Kentucky senator said he hopes Trump "settles down and follows the script."

When asked by a reporter about Trump's comments labeling President Barack Obama as the "founder" of the Islamic State group, McConnell replied: "I'm hoping that we can make this election about Hillary Clinton. I think if we do, we can win." 

With the election less than three months away, McConnell said Republicans are in "a dogfight," and listed GOP-held seats in New Hampshire, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida and Indiana as "very competitive." 

"I may or may not be calling the shots next year," McConnell said.

You're probably not going to be calling those shots next year, Mitch.  Let's be honest. And as far as telling Trump to settle down, well, good luck with that.

Donald Trump’s campaign and top Republican Party officials plan what one person called a “come to Jesus” meeting on Friday in Orlando to discuss the Republican nominee’s struggling campaign, according to multiple sources familiar with the scheduled sit-down. 

Though a campaign source dismissed it as a "typical" gathering, others described it as a more serious meeting, with one calling it an "emergency meeting." It comes at a time of mounting tension between the campaign and the Republican National Committee, which is facing pressure to pull the plug on Trump’s campaign and redirect party funds down ballot to protect congressional majorities endangered by Trump’s candidacy.
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The request for the Orlando Ritz Carlton meeting originated with Trump’s campaign, according to a source familiar with the broad details, and is being viewed by RNC officials as a sign that the campaign has come to grips with the difficulty it is having in maintaining a message and running a ground game. 

“They want to patch up a rift that just keeps unfolding,” one source said. “They finally realize they need the RNC for their campaign because, let’s face it, there is no campaign.”

Considering Trump lacks a ground game in Cincy, and in other key places in key swing states, maybe that's true.  I think it's far, far more likely that Trump truly believes his own ego-inflated press and that America will proclaim him leader for life through adoration, because he can't possibly conceive of losing an election. He's Donald Trump, after all.

His rude awakening is going to be lots of fun. Even Mitch is expecting it, and the closer we get to Trump's Waterloo, the more nervous Mitch is going to get about his chances of remaining in that big office in the Senate building.

Trump Cards, Con't

The Rough Orange Beast was in Florida on Thursday, slouching towards Guantanamo Bay, waiting to imprison Americans there for, well, whatever reason he deems fit.

A President Donald Trump might push for Americans accused of terrorism to be tried in military tribunal at the U.S. Navy base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the Republican nominee told the Miami Herald on Thursday. 

“I would say they could be tried there, that would be fine,” Trump said in a brief interview ahead of his speech to home builders in Miami Beach. 

Under current federal law, it’s illegal to try U.S. citizens at military commissions. Changing the law would require an act of Congress. 

In the wide-ranging interview focused on key South Florida issues, Trump continued to question climate change caused by humans. He said he plans to soon sit down with Cuban Americans in Miami to hash out a Cuba policy. And for the first time, he said Congress should set aside money to combat the Zika virus. 

Asked about Guantánamo in the past, Trump has said he would like to “load it up with bad dudes.” He wouldn’t specify to the Herald whether as president he would again allow terrorism suspects captured abroad to be transferred to the detention center. 

“I want to make sure that if we have radical Islamic terrorists, we have a very safe place to keep them,” he said. President Barack Obama, he added, is “allowing people to get out that are terrible people.” 

“Would you try to get the military commissions — the trial court there — to try U.S. citizens?” a reporter asked. 

“Well, I know that they want to try them in our regular court systems, and I don’t like that at all. I don’t like that at all,” he said. “I would say they could be tried there, that would be fine.”

Sure.  The gulag era of the America experiment sounds like a great idea, but at least it's on a sunny island like Cuba, right?  Guess what happens when Trump figures out he gets to decide as President who qualifies as a "terrorism suspect" in this scenario?

Gonna be fun times for all the kids on the Gitmo beaches with the Trump junta, baby.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/donald-trump/article95144337.html#storylink=cpy

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