Counterview: Trump’s Cynical Exploitation Of Navy SEAL’s Wife

During President Trump’s congressional address on Tuesday night, he offered a tribute to William “Ryan” Owens, the Navy SEAL killed in a raid in Yemen, a raid Trump approved at a dinner that included his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Owen’s wife Carryn, seated next to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, was seen looking up to the ceiling in tears while applause carried on for several minutes.

• • •

15 Promised Outcomes By Candidate Donald Trump

If you move beyond the nationalism and xenophobia fueling his rise, another reason Donald Trump has been so successful is because he doesn’t get bogged down in the details. He refuses to get into the weeds because he knows that is not the purview of his audience. Donald Trump instead promises outcomes like an authoritarian strongman. All of his campaign speeches, once you get past his personal congratulatory rhetoric, revolve around a set of results absent any explanation for how they will be achieved. Here are 15 “explain it as a child” outcomes The Donald promises during his stump speeches.

• • •

Obama Derangement Syndrome, Gettysburg Address Style

Conservatives can’t really be this stupid can they? Okay, to be fair, maybe they aren’t stupid, they are instead ignorant. And you know what? I’m ignorant too when it comes to this particular story (more on that in a moment), but the difference is I’m not using my ignorance to attack the political opposition. I leave that to conservatives, because they are damn good at it.

• • •

House Speaker John Boehner Mysteriously Begins Prefacing Everything He Says With ‘The American People’

WASHINGTON — In a bizarre turn of events after the recent Republican-led government shut down, House Speaker John Boehner has curiously begun prefacing every complete thought with the phrase “The American people.” During a closed-door breakfast meeting with high-ranking Republican officials, an anonymous source confirmed to The Left Call that at one point during the meeting the Speaker started mumbling incoherently before weeping uncontrollably into his Corn Flakes. “Everything was perfectly normal when all of a sudden the Speaker produced a gavel, banged it on the table, and started talking quietly to himself,” said the anonymous source. “I couldn’t make out what he was saying, I’m not sure if it was even English. Then the room got really quiet, and before we could get a grip on what was happening he started crying over his bowl of cereal.”

• • •

War in Afghanistan not “important” enough for Romney convention speech

Mitt Romney - photo by Dave LawrenceJust as Mitt Romney managed to get his head out of his ass (or maybe reports of this are premature?), he proceeded to ram his foot in his mouth. Friday on Fox News, Bret Baier asked Romney about neglecting to mention the troops or the war in Afghanistan during his Republican National Convention speech. Romney replied, “I’m going to regret you repeating it day in and day out. — nervous Romney laughter — No. When you, when you give a speech, you don’t go through a laundry list, you talk about the things you think are important.” — Whoops.

• • •

28 Quotes from President Obama’s DNC Acceptance Speech

President\ Obama - DNCPresident Obama delivered what started out as a safe speech but turned into an optimistic vision for America’s future. People don’t want to be told what is wrong with America, they want a leader to tell them what is right with America. And they want a leader to tell them how we can make things better. Obama’s speech was a renewed message of hope and change but this time he said that change was not him, it was us, and he challenged all of us to strive to make this country better for future generations, just as generations did before us.

• • •