1. Former Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Bachmann dismissed Donald Trump’s comments bragging about sexually assaulting women by bizarrely claiming Hillary Clinton’s election would “lead to even more sexual assaults.” Speaking with American Pastors Network President Sam Rohrer in a radio interview, Bachmann claimed that the Clinton campaign is trying to drive a wedge among evangelicals by focusing on Trump’s “grab their pussy” tape.
“There’s no similarity between what Donald Trump said 11 years ago and what Bill Clinton did,” Bachmann said. “Is sexual assault against women a big issue? You bet it is. And the best thing that Christian men can do is make sure that Hillary Clinton does not become president and the best thing that Christian women can do is make sure that Hillary Clinton does not become president.” And more:
“Donald Trump has already released a list of only pro-life judges that he will support. Hillary Clinton will set a standard in this country that will lead to even more sexual assaults against women because she will be setting an anti-biblical agenda.”
Bachmann went on to claim that billionaire George Soros is looking for “ways to get into the Christian community to divide us.”
“We need to wake up and resist these lies.”
Leave it to the evangelicals; God endorses Trump. With that endorsement, how can he lose?
2. Colorado Conservative Darryl Glenn. Misogyny seems to run through GOP party ranks. After Todd Akin infamously said: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” and Indiana Republican Richard Mourdock said, "I struggled with myself for a long time but I came to realize life is that gift from God, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. It is something that God intended to happen,” we now have Colorado conservative Darryl Glenn making similarly outrageous comments . The Colorado Springs Independent reported Glenn’s outrageous comment at a Jefferson County event:
“If you want an abortion, don’t ask me to pay for it. That’s not something I’m gonna agree with. That’s a gift from God. There are no exceptions with that. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to pray for you.... That’s a life, regardless of how it got there, and I’m going to pray for you.”
Since Glenn says there are no exceptions, does that mean he believes a woman who has, for example, been diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy, which is a significant risk factor for the mother and is almost always fatal for the fetus, has no choice but to die?
Such comments, along with Trump’s now infamous “locker room banter,” make one wonder how any self-respecting woman could vote for a Republican.
3. Actor Jon Voight. Showing both his ignorance and racism, Trump supporter Voight had this to say about the Black vote:
“If Blacks ‘can be educated’ they’ll vote for Trump.”
No comment necessary.
4. David Clark Jr, Sheriff of Milwaukee County. Clark, who addressed the Republican convention in July and appears regularly on TV as a Trump campaign surrogate, has joined other Trump lapdogs, like Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, and Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) in claiming the upcoming election is being rigged by the Media and “crooked Hillary” and the Democrats. Clark posted on twitter a photo of an angry mob wielding weapons along with the words:
It was “pitchforks and torches time.”
While claiming a fix is in is not likely to resonate with state election officials, who understand that tampering with an election in America is virtually impossible, such predictions of fraud are resonating with many of Trump’s more rabid supporters. This has led to widespread worry among both Democrats and Republicans that unruly mobs will disrupt the election by intimidating voters. One Trump supporter in Ohio told the Boston Globe that he would look for “Mexicans, Syrians, people who can’t speak American” and that he would “go right up behind them” and “make them a little bit nervous.”
Horror stories abound about what Trump voters might do if he loses. Close Trump confident Roger Stone has warned that if there’s widespread voter fraud, there will be a constitutional crisis, mass civil disobedience, even a “bloodbath.” Trumps’ rhetoric almost guarantees such an outcome should he lose. These fallacious attacks on the electoral process are casting an unprecedented dark stain on American democracy. A Trump victory is scary enough, but perhaps no more so than a Trump loss.
This unprecedented election raises a number of troubling questions. I can’t predict its outcome, but I can say with some certainty that post-election America will be a much uglier and darker place. Trump is fundamentally altering American politics, and America, particularly conservative America, has only itself to blame.
5. Republican Representative Blake Farenthold (R-TX). Farenthold gives you a glimpse of just how low Republicans will go to defend Donald Trump. Talking to Chris Hayes on his electric teevee program, Farethold said the following. Read this and weep:
HAYES: If a tape came out with Donald Trump saying that: “I really like to rape women,” you would continue to endorse him?
FARENTHOLD: Again, it would, I—that would be bad, and I would have to consider—I’d consider it. But again, we’re talking about what Donald Trump said 10 years ago as opposed to what Hillary Clinton has done in the past two or three years. "I, again, it would, I, I’d, that would be bad. And I would have to consider, I’d, I’d consider it."
So, he’d” consider it.” Lest you think this was an inadvertent slip of the tongue, Farenthold sent on to say:
"He may have crossed the line there, but I don't agree with everything I say sometimes.” …. "With President Trump, I'm ready to get off defense and go on offense. Trump is going to slaughter some sacred cows, and I'm ready for the barbecue."
Nuff said!
6. Donald Trump. In a speech to veterans in Virginia, Donald Trump implied that some vets who suffer from PTSD are not strong:
“When you talk about the mental health problems, when people come back from war and combat — and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over and you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it,” Trump said. “And they see horror stories. They see events that you couldn’t see in a movie. Nobody would believe it.”
It’s an absolute insult to veterans suffering PTSD to insinuate they are weak. It’s also exactly the kind of dangerous language that discourages veterans from seeking help. In an Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), survey, the majority of respondents who had a mental health injury but were not seeking care said that the reason for not pursuing help was concern that their loved ones would perceive them differently. Nearly 80 percent of respondents who indicated a family member had recommended they seek mental health care sought care as a result.
7. Donald Trump. Much of the post-debate analysis I’ve read from the second presidential debate has focused on Donald Trump’s crudeness, his threat to prosecute and jail his political opponent, the way in which he stalked her on the stage, looming in the background and crowding her, and finally his non-apology apology about “locker room banter.” Yes: Trump is most definitely lewd, crude, and socially unacceptable, but that’s hardly the worst of his qualities. His worst quality? His sweeping ignorance to the point of recklessness when it comes to matters of national defense, and specifically America’s nuclear arsenal. This is what Trump had to say recently about the U.S. nuclear deterrent:
“But our nuclear program has fallen way behind, and they’ve gone wild with their nuclear program. Not good. Our government shouldn’t have allowed that to happen. Russia is new in terms of nuclear. We are old. We’re tired. We’re exhausted in terms of nuclear. A very bad thing.”
This is utter nonsense. First off, nuclear weapons are not people. They don’t get “tired” or “exhausted” or “old.” Second, the U.S. nuclear program has not “fallen way behind” the programs of other nations, certainly not Russia’s or China’s. Here’s an undeniable fact: For what it’s worth, the U.S. nuclear arsenal is by far the world’s most powerful and advanced.
The key aspect to nuclear capability is survivability, and nothing is more survivable than America’s force of 18 Trident nuclear submarines. Virtually impossible for any of our enemies to detect, let alone destroy, the America’s Trident force is essentially capable of destroying not only Russia and China, but most of the world. The Ohio-class Trident can carry up to 24 ballistic missiles (20 under the new Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty), each with multiple independently targetable reentry warheads with yields far greater that the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The newer Vanguard-class sub is even more lethal. These warheads can destroy cities as well as even the most hardened targets, like missile silos. Added to our land-based missiles and strategic nuclear bombers, the U.S. arsenal is far superior to any of our adversaries, if that really matters.
Back in March of this year, Trump boasted at a debate that the U.S. military would follow his orders irrespective of their legality. In this latest debate, he yet again revealed that he has no real knowledge of America’s nuclear capability and how modern and powerful (and scary) it truly is.
Sure, Trump is crude, lewd, and sexist, but those qualities won’t destroy the world as we know it. Ignorance about nuclear weapons, combined with impetuosity and an avowed affection for he-man wild-card generals like George S. Patton and Douglas MacArthur, is a recipe for utter disaster.
8. Donald Trump. In a candidacy full of ignorance, lies, deceptions, bombast and a total lack of substance and depth, Trump’s plan for defeating ISIS ranks near the top for absurdity. His “plan” to “defeat ISIS once and for all”:
· Pause immigration from countries that sponsor terrorism.
· End the stream of Syrian refugees entering the country.
· Call violence by Islamic extremists what it is—terrorism.
Got that? That’s his plan to defeat ISIS—1) stop victims of terrorism from entering the US, 2) stop victims of terrorism from entering the US (got to pad that list!), and 3) call terrorists “terrorists.” You see, if you call terrorists “terrorists” they get sucked into a multi-dimensional vortex and everyone lives happily ever after. And only Trump can do it! Is there no end to this man’s ignorance?
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And the winner is:
I’d like to go with Bachmann, but she’s been a previous absurdity winner, so this month I’ve chosen Texas Republican Representative Blake Farenthold.
I saw Farenthold's interview with Chris Hayes and his avoidance and at times rambling incoherent babaling while trying to answer the questions made it obvious that he would defend Trump no matter what he said about rape. As for Trump he could win it every time except he knows exactly what he is doing. Knowing that he can say anything to his uniformed ignorant base and to the educated Republicans who wear blinders and hate Hillary so much that they will except his stance on issues without question. Scary because this includes his total ignorance of the capacity of our military and of foreign policy in general.
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