Daily Kos

Nope, Republican voters aren't sick of him yet.

PPP's newest Iowa poll finds Donald Trump leading the Republican field in the state even after a weekend of controversy. He's at 19% to 12% for Ben Carson and Scott Walker, 11% for Jeb Bush, 10% for Carly Fiorina, 9% for Ted Cruz, and 6% for Mike Huckabee and Marco Rubio.

That's Iowa. Nationally, he's blowing the rest of the field away.

Real estate magnate Donald Trump’s lead over the Republican field grew in the several days after his performance at the first GOP presidential debate, according to a new Morning Consult survey, even after he invited a new round of scorn from fellow candidates over impolitic comments about Fox News host Megyn Kelly.

Trump leads the Republican field with 32 percent of the vote, up 7 percentage points over last week’s Morning Consult tracking poll. Trump’s nearest GOP rival, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, clocked in at 11 percent.

Good work, Republican Party. You built that!

11:32 AM PT (Laura Clawson): But wait, there's more. Reuters/Ipsos:

Trump led the party's 17-strong 2016 presidential field with the backing of 24 percent of Republican voters, the same level of support he earned before Thursday's debate.

His closest rival, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, trails at 12 percent, down from 17 percent before the debate. No other candidate earned more than 8 percent in the online poll, which was conducted between the end of the debate on Thursday and Sunday.

Donald Trump wasn't on the stage at this weekend's RedState gathering, having been disinvited for being himself, so a handful of the candidates who are badly trailing him in the polls took the opportunity to attempt to make some headlines. What's a better target than the Supreme Court? They don't want to be seen outright attacking gay people or misbehaving as badly as Trump on women's issues. So the next best thing is attacking the court for its decisions on gay people and women.

Gov. Bobby Jindal (LA) says while he'd really like just to get rid of the court, he'd happily toss six of the current justices:

"Instead of getting rid of the entire Supreme Court what if we got rid of about two-thirds of the Supreme Court.

“I mean there are three justices that got it right," he said. "I wouldn’t mind keeping [Samuel] Alito, [Clarence] Thomas and [Antonio] Scalia. It is the other six I wouldn’t mind getting rid of."

By getting it "right" Jindal means marriage equality and Obamacare. Mike Huckabee continued his rant on the "judicial tyranny" of the court, and said that he would crack down on them with an executive order to invoke the 5th and 14th amendments to end Roe v. Wade. Because he has such a deep understanding of the constitution. Sitting Senator Marco Rubio (FL) also showed his deep knowledge of our system of government, telling RedStaters that "too many Supreme Court justices 'manipulate the Constitution,'" and that he would "appoint justices who simply interpret the document." Because apparently he's capable of reading minds and would just know who to pick.

Then there's Rick Perry, who decided to bring some "Texas tough" to the issue and one-up his rival Ted Cruz, who has completely melted down over the court. Perry wants term limits on justices, because:

“When you are unelected, and you are appointed, the concept of ‘I’m here and there ain’t really nothing you can do about it’ is not really what America is all about,” Perry said.

The real solution is appointing judges who don’t legislate from the bench but rather adhere strictly to the Constitution, Perry said. He highlighted his 2005 appointment of Don Willett to the Texas Supreme Court, adding that Willett would be a strong addition to the high court under the next president.

Which led to this judicial pearl of wisdom: "I don’t do squishy on judges." So there you have it, a slew of would-be Republican presidents just itching to have a major constitutional crisis on their watch.

There's nothing so grand as avoidance when you've got problems—or at least that's the solution to improving the country's race relations Scott Walker floated over the weekend, reports Igor Bobic.

Walker was campaigning outside a restaurant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, when a reporter asked him about the anniversary of the death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and what it portends for race relations in South Carolina. The governor answered that Americans should emulate the families of the victims of the Charleston church shooting.

"One, I think in general if anyone focuses on racial discord we’re going to get more (of that)," Walker said in a video posted by Democratic opposition research firm American Bridge. "If we focus on unity we’re going to get more of that... The families of the massacre in Charleston showed us the way."

The families of the Charleston shooting victims made an incredible show of strength and grace, no doubt. But Walker's prescription for healing the country's racial divisions amounts to this—victims of unfair, unjust, or even murderous behavior should simply rise above and focus on things that unite us.

So basically, we should all just ignore racism and racial inequity and then when that ignorance produces something undeniably horrific—like the Charleston massacre—we should call upon the victims for a superhuman show of character.

Why not just say, hey, if you're going to be critical, then shut up.

Of course, it's uncomfortable for Republicans to talk about race, racism, and racial inequities since their policies typically exacerbate all three. Walker's no exception.

Soon after taking office, he defunded a program that tracked the race of people stopped by police, even though black residents of Madison’s Dane County were found to be more than 97 times more likely to go to jail for a drug crime than a white resident. Now, the Governor’s new budget proposes an $8 million jail expansion in Dane County, at the same time many social services are being eliminated.

Now that Wisconsin isn't tracking racial profiling anymore, maybe it doesn't exist.

Economist Dean Baker has noticed something about Obamacare and jobs that is pretty significant: it's giving people who want the flexibility to work part time the opportunity to do so. The growth in part-time employment has been a persistent and troubling aspect of the economic recovering from the great recession. But Baker says it doesn't have to be so troubling.

"[This has] in my mind been incredibly underreported, because this is one of the really good aspects of the Affordable Care Act. I mean, it's important that people get health insurance, that's a really big deal, but one of the problems that we had in the market before we had the Affordable Care Act was that people felt tied to their jobs. Most people pre-Medicare age get insurance through their employer, so what that means is that, particularly if they are in bad health ... they are very worried that if they leave their job or if they lose their job, they're going to lose insurance for themselves and/or their family. Well, now that you can get insurance through the exchanges we see there's a big increase in voluntary part-time employment. ... These are people who choose to work part-time. It's particularly [apparent] among young parents and what we also see among people pre-Medicare age. ... To me, that is a great story, so they can spend time with their families, their kids."

The largest increases in people choosing to work part-time are among younger people with children, a 10.2 percentage point increase in the share of workers under 35 who have 1 or 2 kids and a 15.4 percent increase for those younger workers with three of more kids. Factored into this has to be the high cost of child care—parents might still feel that they don't have much choice about one of them working part-time because they can't afford day care. At the same time though, now they have that option because they can get health insurance.

On Sunday evening, Sen. Bernie Sanders became the second Democratic candidate for president to release a comprehensive plan addressing police brutality, serious criminal justice reforms, and other issues specifically tied to racial justice. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley released his own plan addressing serious systemic reforms in the justice system about a week prior to Sanders.

Both plans from Sanders and O'Malley are very comprehensive and address scores of the root issues at hand that plague people of color as it pertains to police brutality, the death penalty, sentencing guidelines, and so much more.

Of course, each candidate gets to tweak and improve what he or she sees released from the first candidate to take the step. In that sense, Bernie's plan is powerful because it uses a vocabulary that resonates deeply with activists and leaders. It starts out like this:

We must pursue policies that transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color. That starts with addressing the four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic.

PHYSICAL VIOLENCE

PERPETRATED BY THE STATE
Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Samuel DuBose. We know their names. Each of them died unarmed at the hands of police officers or in police custody. The chants are growing louder. People are angry and they have a right to be angry. We should not fool ourselves into thinking that this violence only affects those whose names have appeared on TV or in the newspaper. African Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.

Following this, Bernie goes on to detail other forms of violence faced by African Americans in a powerful nuanced manner, including political violence, legal violence, and economic violence. Beyond just hitting it correctly on tone, Sanders and his team got much of it correct on substance as well, with detailed solutions for each problem they enumerate.

The question is now being raised as to when and where Hillary Clinton will release such a plan.

Anyone watching the GOP debates Thursday might have noticed a sharp contrast in the candidates' handling of two issues: abortion and LGBT rights. While the candidates crowed about defunding Planned Parenthood and their enthusiasm for forcing women and girls to carry their babies to term regardless of circumstance (rape, incest, or potential loss of life), they exhibited little zeal for the topic of same-sex marriage.

If anything, Ohio Gov. John Kasich's assertion that he would unconditionally embrace his daughters if they were gay practically won the night on social issues—appealing to moderates on both sides of the aisle. Asked by moderator Megyn Kelly how he would explain his opposition to same-sex marriage to a gay son or daughter, Kasich first noted that the Supreme Court has ruled and "we'll accept it" before adding that he had recently attended the wedding of a gay friend.

"Because somebody doesn’t think the way I do, doesn’t mean that I can’t care about them or can’t love them. So if one of my daughters happened to be that, of course I would love them and I would accept them. Because you know what? That’s what we’re taught when we have strong faith."

Kasich stopped several times for heavy applause, then gave an almost boyish smile upon finishing and realizing he had hit the answer out of the park.

No other candidate jumped in to challenge Kasich's answer. Rand Paul was asked directly what he would do to "ensure Christians are not prosecuted for speaking out against gay marriage."

"Look, I don’t want my marriage or my guns registered in Washington," he said. "And if people have an opinion, it’s a religious opinion that is heartly felt, obviously they should be allowed to practice that and no government should interfere with them."

It surely fell short of the kind of hot-button call and response the GOP's religious zealots wanted to hear.

For more on the GOP surrender, head below the fold.

Sunday marked exactly 365 days since Ferguson, Missouri, teenager Michael Brown was shot, killed, and left on the scorching hot road by the local police for four hours on Canfield Drive. Since that day in 2014, the United States has become a protest nation with an astounding 980 public protests nationwide. This past year has changed our country, as awareness of police brutality and systemic inequity is at a generational high.

So, as thousands of women and men from across the nation gathered this weekend in Ferguson, Missouri, it was equal parts reunion and mourning, but soon devolved into a painful, messy deja vu like night that looked and felt eerily similar to a more tragic, painful Ferguson of 2014. While the tragedy and pain will surely steal the headlines, and maybe they should, the day and the weekend were so much more than that.

Donald Trump dominated the weekend, again, responding to the suggestion raised by Fox's Megyn Kelly in Thursday's debate that he might come across as a misogynist with a misogynistic tirade against Kelly. With all political media demanding that Trump apologize to Kelly, Trump continues to be Trump.

Donald Trump thinks Megyn Kelly should be apologizing to him for asking a “stupid” and “unfair” question.

“She should really be apologizing to me, you want to know the truth. And other candidates have said that,” Trump said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” […]

Trump blamed the media for fueling the controversy behind his latest statement that Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever.”

“Who would say such a thing? I really said nothing, because I wanted to get on to jobs and whatever the next subject was,” Trump said Monday during an earlier telephone interview with NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie on “Today.”

The "blood out of her whatever" line uttered Friday night in an interview with CNN's Don Lemon dominated the weekend. Trump was asked about it by Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, telling Todd "[w]hen I'm attacked, I fight back. When I was attacked viciously by those women, of course, it's very hard for them to attack me on looks, because I'm so good looking. […] But I was attacked very viciously by those women." Pause a moment to consider that Donald Trump dominated this Sunday's Meet the Press. Thanks, Chuck Todd.

The fallout from Trump's comments has also been generating media ink, including the fact that noted sexist Erick Erickson disinvited Trump from the annual RedState gathering and instead invited Kelly, with whom he once publicly fought over his statement that it's scientifically proven that women are inferior to men. Also, too, there's the question of whether or not Trump aide Roger Stone resigned or was fired over a conflict about the whole Megyn Kelly situation. Stone insists he quit because the fight was distracting from "core issue messages." Because the Trump campaign so far has been all about the issues messaging.

Meanwhile, an online poll conducted by NBC post-debate has Trump leading his nearest competitor, Ted Cruz, by 10 points. The dominant question for all the other candidates this weekend: How do you feel about Trump?

Reposted from Comics by Laura Clawson

Reposted from Daily Kos Elections by Jeff Singer Leading Off:

• MI-10: Just go ahead and read this story. It's insane. No, it's super mega crazy insanely insane. You have to read it. The whole thing. Did you really not click? Click now. Go read. Then come back here. We're not going to summarize it!

Okay, okay. Maybe you're reading this newsletter on the subway and there's no signal and you're just dying to know what's up. In that case, you should save the link for when you get back above ground. But maybe you're stuck on the subway because the power went out and you'll be there for who knows how many hours before you see the light of day again and so we'll take pity on you: The story in question involves two tea-partying Michigan state representatives, Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat, who had an affair (they're both married—to other people—with kids), then tried to cover it up by asking an aide to anonymously mass-mail Republicans across the state with a fake smear letter claiming that Courser had been "caught behind a Lansing nightclub" paying for sex with another man.

Told you you'd want to click. Anyhow, the aide, Ben Graham, refused but sensibly realized something really messed up was up and recorded more than one conversation with Courser about this psychotic request. (He got fired not long after he declined to participate in this lunacy.) Those recordings made their way to the Detroit News, as did a copy of the email, which was sent out by lord knows who—though certainly at Courser's instigation, since much of the email matched up verbatim with things he told his Graham.

What the hell was Courser thinking? He called this absurd skullduggery a "controlled burn," and explained to Graham, "In a controlled burn, you do a little bit of truth mixed in with a lot of lies." Well, the burn went way, way out of control and has now incinerated Courser's career, along with Gamrat's. Graham advised Courser on tape to resign. He should have done so back then. It's impossible to imagine he won't have to do so now.

As for why this is appearing in the Digest, Courser had been mentioned as a possible successor to GOP Rep. Candice Miller, who is retiring at the end of this term. Suffice it to say he won't get mentioned again. But seriously, go read the piece.

Back for another Monday. It's time once again to pretend we live in a normal era, with rational politics and sensible leaders, debating the many plausible options we have for moving forward with the great, continuing experiment that is our self-governance!

Hahahahahahaha!

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David Waldman, Total Superstar. Supporting his show will empower it to be better, even enabling the hiring of talented staff! An incredibly entertaining, enlightening, and educational debate! That is, the Armando vs. Greg Dworkin debate on today’s episode. They argue, but both are intelligent and informed, and therefore so is their argument. Donald Trump insults almost everyone, is loved by almost all, and is great for business. The moderators were good, but still remain Fox employees. The Tea Party personified. What the experts thought of it all. Where do we go from here - and what each candidate would look like on a dollar bill. Plus a special appearance for additional debate discussion by John Amato of Crooks & Liars!

Thanks again to Scott Anderson for the show summary!

Need more info on how to listen? Find it below the fold.

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…

Monday Margaret and Helen Blogging

The blogosphere's orneriest octogenarians watched the debate. The Republicans really wish they hadn't:

Margaret, let’s be clear.  I am obviously using the term vagina in the narrowest sense of the word as defined by the Republican Party: a noun referring to women.  And it was pretty clear at the debate that vaginas  have no value unless a baby needs to pass through one on its way to church or its minimum wage job.  Of course, if that baby is black or brown, then the intended destination changes to either prison or Mexico respectively.

They'll also have to pry PP from
the deck of their their cold,
fully-armed battle cruiser.

I don’t pretend to think that any of the presidential candidates will ever read what I write, but if they did I hope they will remember this:  

Millions of women have been going to Planned Parenthood for nearly 100 years.  We all remember the exceptional care and the quality of the information we received from the staff at those clinics. We remember when Planned Parenthood staff held our hands and comforted us during some of our scariest moments.  We remember the relief we felt when they provided us with medically accurate information that we so desperately needed.  And women of my age also remember what it was like when safe, legal abortions were not available. […]

So to the Republican Presidential Candidates I say in the only words they seem to understand: You can close Planned Parenthood when you pry it from our cold, dead hands.

Read the whole thing here. Democratic congress critters: there's your town hall meeting rebuttal when the crazies try to shut you down.

Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]