pastajoe

I really wish SNL was live this week. They wouldn't even have to write any sketches.

@chucktodd Another blockbuster development tonight:Trump wouldn't necessarily honor NATO treaty if Russia invades a NATO member

It was probably available since Clint Eastwood wasn't there to talk to it.

Another crazy night at the RNC. Cruz doesn't endorse Trump in speech, says to vote your conscience. People booing and shouting as he's speaking. Trump walks into arena as Cruz is still speaking to steal his thunder. Heidi Cruz had to be escorted out by security as people heckled her.

So it looks like they had to find someone to take the bullet for Melaina once the hired speechwriters showed the press the original draft they gave to the Trump campaign without the plagiarized portions. Find someone to take the blame and offer to resign. We won't accept it, and we'll set you up with a nice trip to a Trump golf course for your troubles.

My support for Hillary has been shaken by the revelation by Dr. Ben Carson last night that linked her to Lucifer. I'll have to reevaluate my support. Now if he had linked her to Sauron or the Sith Lords, that would have been a deal breaker.

Being a successful businessman and being a political leader are very different. You can't let the country go bankrupt and then come out OK afterwards. You can't default on payments as a country like Trump did to many subcontractors without having the country's credit rating threatened. You can't run a country like it's a for-profit company. There are many programs that have to be paid for that will not result in a pure monetary profit. Trump's form of leadership is to surround himself with yes-men who won't question his decisions. With a lack of knowledge on the details of world affairs and the military, that's a very dangerous person to trust to know best, especially given his thin skin and penchant to react based on emotion. He has his history correct? His support of the Birther movement, that Obama's mother faked his citizenship? The thousands of Muslims in New Jersey he saw cheer 9/11? His claims that he was against the Iraq War, when he's on tape saying he was OK with it? His claims that Clinton told the military to stand down for Benghazi when 9 investigations proved there was no such order given? McCain was not an out of touch moron. I disagreed with his Republican views on issues, but knew he would not endanger the country when it counted. His VP pick was an out of touch moron. Romney was out of touch but not a moron, his economic supply-side philosophy would serve him and the rich well but not the middle class. Again I didn't fear he would make stupid foreign policy decisions. With Trump you have someone who is not out of touch, for he knows what buttons to push to excite people who want easy answers to complex problems. And I wouldn't call him a moron, but more like a narcissist who thinks he knows more than he does, and won't listen to those that do. That's very dangerous. You have to stop taking everything you read so literally. When I said 'footnote your sources', that's a euphemism for do your homework. I agree the episode seems petty, and it would have been treated as such if the campaign just came out and said, "Sorry, we made a mistake. The speechwriter has been fired". Then that's the end of it. But Trump's ego won't let him admit a mistake, and so they make it worse by lying. So now we're left with Melaniagate.

So you think it's overlap and not plagiarism? Students get failed or kicked out of college for doing that. Christie said 93% was original, so it's not plagiarism. Next time you speed in New Jersey try saying, "Officer, I don't speed 93% of the time". Again, not Melania's fault if she didn't do it, but an insight into how a Trump presidency would operate. This will linger on Melania going forward like Quayle and potato, and it's Trump's campaign's fault.

That would just help Trump because he'd have to fill less time because of what he doesn't know.

Reince Priebus and Corey Lewandowski both think the plagiarizing person should be fired. Maybe Trump fired the wrong campaign manager.

That was Republicans, not the general election. And Trump never got a majority of Republican primary voters (45%). So a smaller field may have had more success. Since Trump is now saying no one is going to be fired for plagiarizing the speech, perhaps it was done by someone who can't be fired.

The focus isn't on her (unless she takes responsibility), it's on the campaign that is so undisciplined that they would make such an obvious blunder. And to then deny it's plagiarized, when it's almost word-for-word the same. How would they handle important issues? "President Trump, why did you order a nuclear strike? I didn't order a strike. But there was a nuclear strike. Yeah, so? Are you saying you didn't order it? Maybe it was Canada, I'm just sayin', there's something going on with them. But Canada doesn't have nuclear weapons. Yeah, so?"

One of the complaints from Republicans about Trump is that he hasn't hired the number of staff normally needed for a campaign, so there might not be enough people around to act as editors. I changed more words in college when working on a pre-Internet term paper due in 30 minutes than were changed in that speech. If they had just inserted the line, "As Michelle Obama said..." It would be a non-issue. Footnote the sources.

This denial of obvious plagiarism hurts the Trump brand of being the "honest" candidate who tells it like it is. There are now reports that one of Paul Manafort's people helped write the speech. So for him to then come out and deny plagiarism by a staff writer, and saying those were her words is throwing Melania under the bus and making her look bad. I can't believe that Donald will let this go without defending his wife. Other new reports say that Melania has become disillusioned with the direction of the campaign, and the reason she wasn't at the Pence announcement was because Donald was pressured by his kids to pick Pence over another candidate he and she was more comfortable with (Christie or Gingrich). In a way I feel sorry for Melania. Unfortunately for her, she has now become the story which will overshadow the convention. In the end it won't matter to the die hard supporters, but it doesn't help with expanding the appeal to undecided voters. And then there was the Trump-Pence interview on 60 Minutes, where when asked about Pence voting for the Iraq war, Trump said it was no big deal. It's in the past and they were given false information. But then he doubled down and said it was a horrible decision by Clinton to vote for it, and showed bad judgement. So bad for Clinton, no big deal for Pence. You can't make this stuff up.

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on CNN said there was no cribbing of Michelle's speech, they are common words that are often used. This is just another attack on a woman who challenged Hillary Clinton. So they're doubling down instead of just saying a mistake was made by the speechwriter.

It appears that Melania Trump's speech last night plagerized from Michelle Obama's 2008 speech. Not just similar themes, but some of the exact parts of the speech. And in an interview beforehand she said she wrote most of it. Though she's not the candidate, it's a big faux pas for the Trump campaign to not check the speech. Joe Biden had to quit his presidential run when he did it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/19/melania-trumps-speech-appears-to-have-cribbed-from-michelle-obamas-in-2008/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_fix-melania-michelle-1250am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

The bomb wasn't ready to deploy by the time Germany surrendered. Japan was fire bombed, but it was more difficult because of the lack of airbases close enough to do it frequently. And Japan wouldn't surrender even after the first bomb was dropped. That's how fanatical they were.

I put it on for a tonight and just shook my head. Despite the 9 Republican congressional investigations that found no proof of wrongdoing, they're spending the night talking about Benghazi and blaming Clinton. It's just sad how they disregard the facts that don't fit their narrative, and all the people who lap it up.

Meanwhile, hundreds of upset delegates at the Republican convention as the anti-Trumps were denied a roll call vote on the rules. The RNC ignored them to project an image of party unity, and as a result have highlighted the disunity. And with symbolic irony, the Trump motorcade was in an accident (no one injured).

Ohio governors do not have the power to arbitrarily suspend state laws. Some of the items on the list of things Cleveland was allowed to ban; sabers, shovels, water guns, sleeping bags, canned goods, and tennis balls.

The last hope for whites that "want their country back". Increase white births. They want every white guy to make each shot count. Don't waste bullets.

So all the gun owners who say they're primarily for hunting, sport shooting, and collecting have been lying to us.

It will be interesting to see how Pence explains his differences with Trump. He called Trump's attacks on an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage "inappropriate," and said his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States was "offensive and unconstitutional." But in his favor with Republicans, he's anti-union, and supported the Indiana proposal for businesses to refuse service to gays based on religious beliefs. We have laws to regulate vehicles (age to drive, test for license, types of vehicles allowed to be driven on public roads, restrictions on modifications), and their primary function is transportation. Just bringing gun control up to the same standards as driving and vehicles would be an improvement.

Given the discussion, I assumed you were referencing police. Just because something originated with the military doesn't mean it can't be adapted for non-military purposes. The development of the internet was advanced by the support of the Defense Department. There are civilian street versions of the HumVee. The tools and tactics have been adapted by the police to meet today's threats. I agree that their use should be scrutinized by the civilians they serve, but the police should have those options available.