Let's talk about the Republican National Convention in Cleveland

[Mecca]

16 minutes ago, nausicaa said:

Same way here. I'm so glad someone had the balls to call out Trump, but I feel very weird respecting Cruz about anything. 

This whole election cycle has been such a mind fuck for me. 

Yep. I just think it is odd that a group of people that claim family values is now ripping into a guy that actually had them last night when he stood up for his family. And again, I think I need a shower for siding with Cruz. Cruz is a jerk and always has been, but he is a jerk that at the very least stood by his family. He never hid the fact he was a jerk. He angers the establishment and happily does it with a smirk. What were they expecting? 

And then the stupid establishment is acting like Cruz is the only one not backing Trump. Where are the Bushes? Oh, and the Governor of the very state they are in? Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain, or Bobby Jindal? They also act like the other speakers at the convention  where not also trying to push their own agenda for their own futures. Most of the speakers threw insults at Clinton and said hardly anything about Trump. They may have been on the stage, but they were not backing Trump. They invited Cruz. Cruz told them he would not endorse Trump. He gave them a copy of the speech. 

Shut the crap up, Republicans. You got what you deserve. Now you have Cruz being talked about more than Trump and you made the delegates look even more ridiculous than they already are. 

[ohSparkly1]

And now according to The Huffington Post, at least, Trump's speech was leaked BY A REPUBLICAN!!!

I still can't bring myself to watch him, though.  I had a yummy dinner and want to keep it down.

[Mecca]

6 minutes ago, ohSparkly1 said:

And now according to The Huffington Post, at least, Trump's speech was leaked BY A REPUBLICAN!!!

I still can't bring myself to watch him, though.  I had a yummy dinner and want to keep it down.

It is OK. I will take one for the team and watch and report back. I actually did buy some popcorn today and a small little cheesecake from Gigi's. I hope I can keep it all down. I wanted a little something that tasted good to keep the bad taste of the convention to a minimum. 

[ohSparkly1]

35 minutes ago, Mecca said:

It is OK. I will take one for the team and watch and report back. I actually did buy some popcorn today and a small little cheesecake from Gigi's. I hope I can keep it all down. I wanted a little something that tasted good to keep the bad taste of the convention to a minimum. 

Major love to you for that.  Thank you for taking one for the team!  You rule!

[PreciousPantsofDoom]

My husband (major political junkie even though we don't live in the US) has the convention on right now.   I have to say that Trump isn't doing a bad job with the speech.  He's saying all the things his followers want to hear, but more to the point, his speech sounds much more like the type of speech one expects from a Presidential candidate.  He's still full of shit, but he sounds more like just a candidate I don't agree with and less like an gigantic class A asshole.

Now, there are holes a mile wide in some of the stuff he is saying (just now he said that he wants to suspend all immigration from countries compromised by terrorism until a proper system of vetting them is in place.   Well what does that mean exactly? Which countries?  How will you vet the people? Where will the finding for that come from? What about refugees fleeing those countries who will suffer the consequences of the inevitable delays that halting immigration will cause? Etc.)  Anyway, speech itself is not terrible.  It actually makes me even more afraid of a Trump presidency though.  I think I prefer when he stands up there sputtering and angry spouting off all kinds of crazy about whoever it is that has last gotten on his shit list.  Much better when it's obvious what a scary disaster he would be as President.  This speech is giving him a thin veneer of civility. Thin. (Doesn't take much thought to understand how weasely  his words are)

[Mecca]

I have to disagree. Donald's speech was awful and in-coherent. It was filled with doom and gloom and gave no solutions. This was supposed to be an acceptance speech for a Presidental nomination. Who the heck starts out their acceptance speech with false crime stats? He ripped apart Hispanics and dehumanized immigrants. We are a family of immigrants and his stance angers me to the core. 

Trump is the problem. He is not the solution. The hate that he spewed tonight and has for over a year is what has allowed the jerks to be open about their jerkiness. This was a divisive speech filled with paranoia. Nothing more. Nothing less. Ivanka had a better speech than her dad. At least her's was more optimistic. He basically ripped minorities apart and spoke about how horrible we are as a nation for 1.15 hours. 

As somone that lives and breathes politics and news in general, this will go down as one of the worst conventions I have ever watched. It was poorly planned and honestly lethargic. You could see and feel the divide. Ted Cruz was the highlight. How sad is it that I say Ted Cruz was the highlight of the whole convention? 

[PreciousPantsofDoom]

I get what you are saying @Mecca, and I largely agree with your opinion of the effects of Trump's campaign, but I still think he didn't do too badly tonight. Partly that is because my expectations are much lower for him than for anyone else. Sure, his usual themes were there, but toned down a bit, and he didn't indulge in some of his more awful statements. For example, when they started chanting to lock up Hilary, he just rather mildly said something about defeating her instead aND then moved on with the speech.  He was on his best behaviour. He's not going to convert anyone with a brain, but he might reassure those who have chosen to support him, but are a little shaky with it. 

  The convention as a whole was a gong show, but his speech was not the low point.

[Mecca]

My expectations are very low of Trump as well, but this was supposed to be about excepting a nomination. His speech was highly inappropriate for the occasion. He was painting the U.S. as a lawless country with no order, and he is going to crack the whip on day one. His message was nuts and alarming, frankly.

I think this was by far his most alarming speech to date. Trumps speech was chock-full of racism. Though he was all over the place and in-coherent a lot of the times, make no mistake his message was crystal clear is some aspects. He was pitting people against each other. He used fear rhetoric to get his point across. He blamed black people and Hispanics for violent crimes. He made several references to immigrants like they were beasts. As I stated earlier, we are a immigrant family, and I don't appreciate my family or others like us being targeted in such a manner. He has made life difficult for immigrants because his rhetoric has given the green light for others like him to pop up and fly their nasty flag with pride. He tried to play off the idea that he was pro-LGBT. But if you listen closely to what he actually said, he said he was going to protect them from foreign Islamic ideology. He does not address anything about the issues within the U.S. that they are up against. Have you read the platform of the GOP on this issue? Disgraceful and alarming and he backs it. 

He may not have said crooked Hillary like he usually does or joined in the chant, but the message is still very much there. Angry. Divisive. Racist. Bigot. You name it. He was beating his nationalism drum rather loudly tonight, louder than I have ever heard it before.

IMO, when you have the nominee of a major party lying and trying to bring a nation down as well as taking the world with him and does not try to hide it like he did tonight, that is a very low point. I just can't give him any credit. He does not deserve one ounce.

[backyard sylph]

16 hours ago, Mecca said:

Yep. I just think it is odd that a group of people that claim family values is now ripping into a guy that actually had them last night when he stood up for his family.

This has been bothering me for awhile. Where is the integrity of people who claim that as the cornerstone of their faith? Back when I attended churches, there was a song I liked; I liked the logical sort of certainty to it, and didn't realize til later that people might use it to be dogmatic...here are the lyrics.

There was the Moral Majority, which was really fairly hideous, but tried to make their claim about what mattered, and then the "Family Values" campaign, which left a lot of people out, but seemed to appeal to the people who now are willing to throw their vote to a man who stands for everything they previously wrung their hands over. The same people treated President Obama as evil, but one thing they can't deny about him is that he has had just the kind of family most of them think is the Best Kind all along, opposite of the Trump family web.

I still like the song, though I think she and I part sharply in understanding the value of context. But that message was for people who believed they were building their houses on rock, not on sand.

No building on the sands of compromise
I won't be borrowed and I can't be bought
There is a line, I will not cross.

And now they are showing support for a man who seems entirely made of sand. He's doing all kinds of borrowing and buying.

[PennySycamore]

@backyard sylph, the Obamas have the kind of family you'd think the family values crowd would admire, but they committed the "sin" of being black. Michelle was also a working mother, they had only girls and didn't have a quiverful, but that's besides the point: the major "offense" of the Obamas was that they are black.  Speaking of the Moral Majority, MM founder Jerry Falwell was a big-time segregationist.  That's how he got his political start.

[backyard sylph]

1 minute ago, PennySycamore said:

@backyard sylph, the Obamas have the kind of family you'd think the family values crowd would admire, but they committed the "sin" of being black. Michelle was also a working mother, they had only girls and didn't have a quiverful, but that's besides the point: the major "offense" of the Obamas was that they are black.  Speaking of the Moral Majority, MM founder Jerry Falwell was a big-time segregationist.  That's how he got his political start.

Yes. Of course you're right. It's just a cognitive dissonance that I cannot wrap my brain around. Remember "Character Matters?" Remember George W. Bush promising to "restore honor and integrity" to the White House? Many of the same people who championed that are willing to be convinced that Donald Trump is now the more sound choice because he "tells it like it is," although data is compiled daily which suggests otherwise, and although he's on his third marriage, to a woman who has been basically everything they wish their daughters not to become.*

*I do not personally care about that. It's very continental of him, too. But whatever.

[louisa05]

15 minutes ago, backyard sylph said:

Yes. Of course you're right. It's just a cognitive dissonance that I cannot wrap my brain around. Remember "Character Matters?" Remember George W. Bush promising to "restore honor and integrity" to the White House? Many of the same people who championed that are willing to be convinced that Donald Drumpf is now the more sound choice because he "tells it like it is," although data is compiled daily which suggests otherwise, and although he's on his third marriage, to a woman who has been basically everything they wish their daughters not to become.*

*I do not personally care about that. It's very continental of him, too. But whatever.

To me, that also shows their hypocrisy. She is "classy" and "elegant" and so much better than Michelle Obama who has never put a foot wrong. Yet she made a living appearing in the kind of magazines/poses that made them boycott convenience stores and bookstores and K-Mart. 

As for the Christians believing he is Christian, I saw a clip yesterday either from the Daily Show or SNL's Weekend Update Convention report (can't remember which) where they were asking delegates in the halls in Cleveland about him being Christian. One woman explained that you have to look at his homes and money because no one could have that much stuff without God's favor. So, as I suspected, in at least some corners, this is brought to us by the abhorrent theology that is the Prosperity Gospel. 

[OyToTheVey]

I'm not going to go into politics. But I think it's shameful how this morning 'journalists' are ganging up on 10 year old Barron Trump. I'm seeing it everywhere. The child is 10 years old and it was a long political event. No shit he's going to yawn. How many adults in that room actually had any idea what was happening? It's completely ridiculous to use a child to pit against his dad when all he probably wanted to do is catch Pokeman around Cleveland. I still remember the shit media said about Chelsea Clinton when she was 12. It was vicious. Children need to be left alone and not used as a pawn.

[RoseWilder]

Trump has declared the convention the best one ever: 

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/republican-convention-trump-226017?lo=ap_a2

 

Wow the delusion and egomania is strong with him. 

 

[Florita]

I think Trump got the bump he needed from the convention and won over most of the Republicans who were undecided. The hardcore Cruz supports, however, weren't swayed and were likely driven further away. Trump's acceptance speech was very well done and much more polished and logically sequenced than his extemporaneous speeches.

The heavy use of the Trump children was an interesting move, since none of them are Republican. Pretty obvious when Ivanka touted equal pay and subsidized childcare. I was getting a "We're the new Kennedys!" vibe from the whole thing. Or maybe it was suppose to be "We're the new Bushes!"?

The media's narrative varied predictably between news outlets. Some showed cheering crowds, others showed empty seats or bored delegates. I assume both are true.

I found Melania's speech boring and hard to watch as she struggled to read and look forward at the same time. The controversy that followed has caused me to pity her - she's just a useful pawn for her husband's ambitions and screwed up the one and only thing she needed to do.

All in all it was typical convention fare. Lots of platitudes, rhetoric, and empty promises. Big government is the cause of, and solution to, all of life's troubles. I expect more of the same bullshit next week.

[sparkles]

11 hours ago, PreciousPantsofDoom said:

I get what you are saying @Mecca, and I largely agree with your opinion of the effects of Trump's campaign, but I still think he didn't do too badly tonight. Partly that is because my expectations are much lower for him than for anyone else. Sure, his usual themes were there, but toned down a bit, and he didn't indulge in some of his more awful statements. For example, when they started chanting to lock up Hilary, he just rather mildly said something about defeating her instead aND then moved on with the speech.  He was on his best behaviour. He's not going to convert anyone with a brain, but he might reassure those who have chosen to support him, but are a little shaky with it. 

  The convention as a whole was a gong show, but his speech was not the low point.

It was a speech prepared by speechwriters and he was reading from a teleprompter (which he does very poorly since he has little experience with it). This was Trump Lite for those reasons only. I can't wait to see what he does in a debate with Clinton, when he won't have the benefit of a script (or someone feeding him lines through an earpiece, which I would put past him) and he has to address substantive issue with something more than a smug smirk and "Neener neener, I'm better than you."

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And now they are showing support for a man who seems entirely made of sand. He's doing all kinds of borrowing and buying.

Well, that's what he's known for, isn't it? And then he declares bankruptcy. Only in this case, it won't just be a casino but an entire country.

[nausicaa]

4 hours ago, louisa05 said:

To me, that also shows their hypocrisy. She is "classy" and "elegant" and so much better than Michelle Obama who has never put a foot wrong. Yet she made a living appearing in the kind of magazines/poses that made them boycott convenience stores and bookstores and K-Mart. 

As for the Christians believing he is Christian, I saw a clip yesterday either from the Daily Show or SNL's Weekend Update Convention report (can't remember which) where they were asking delegates in the halls in Cleveland about him being Christian. One woman explained that you have to look at his homes and money because no one could have that much stuff without God's favor. So, as I suspected, in at least some corners, this is brought to us by the abhorrent theology that is the Prosperity Gospel. 

I don't get that either. Michelle and Barack have the ideal nuclear family in the eyes of conservatives: first marriage, no adultery, two in wedlock children, they eat dinner together every night. They're practically a 1950s sitcom.

Trump on the other hand is, 

-twice divorced

-committed adultery

-married to a woman who has posed in lingerie and nude

-not a regular churchgoer

-owns casinos and promotes gambling

-has made very sexualized comments on stage and in interviews

-insults men's wives

This election has revealed the true core values of a lot of conservative voters. As much as I can't stand people who want to push their religion on me, I can sort of begrudgingly understand someone who sincerely believes their religion is true and that to rescue our country we need to go back to traditional ideals that will lift and sustain us as a society. I disagree with it, but I can respect that you, in your incorrect logic, want what is best for everyone.

But then turning around and supporting Trump? Yeah, you just hate black people, Muslims, and women. Your true colors are emblazoned all over your "Make America Great Again" tee-shirt.

[16strong]

Just dropping by to nominate this masterpiece for a Pulitzer Prize: https://www.yahoo.com/news/endangered-species-alert-elephantidae-republicanus-191621059.html

[47of74]

xHamster had crunched the numbers and found there was lots of porn viewing going on during the 2016 Great Cleveland Steamer Republican National Convention;

dailydot.com/layer8/cleveland-porn-rnc-donald-trump/

Quote

The party of Lincoln, it appears, is also the party of porn.

In Cleveland, where Donald Trump was nominated by his party’s delegates Tuesday afternoon, porn viewership has surpassed—for the first time—New York City, Miami, and Los Angeles, according to a leading adult-video streaming service.

The increase in Cleveland porn traffic during the Republican National Convention is allegedly 184 percent higher than usual, xHamster reports. Cleveland is making history in all sorts of ways, shattering its previous record for porn viewership while topping out at 873,294 views.

There are more people in Cleveland watching porn right now, xHamster says, than when the Cavaliers won the NBA championship (though, it’s not entirely clear what one has to do with the other).

And knowing those family values types, someone probably did watch a porno featuring a Cleveland Steamer during that time....