Sunday Morning Comin' Down

Massive Negotiation Edition

Neutron Don once again put his Learning Annex "Neuro-Linguistic Programming" certificate to good use this week.  On "This Week With Donald Trump..."  he ritually repeated the word "massive" whenever the subject of votes or tax cuts came up --

I make deals. I negotiate. I put out a plan that has a massive, massive tax -- bigger than any other candidate. We have to negotiate with congress...

-- while hypnotically intoned the word "negotiate" 15 separate times when challenged on the details of any of his ludicrous proposals

No, no, in my plan they're going down, but by the time it's negotiated, they'll go up.

Look, when I'm negotiating with the Democrats, I'm putting in plan. I'm putting in my optimum plan. It's going to be negotiated, George, it's not going to stay there. They're not going to say there's your plan, let's approve it. They're going to say, let's see what we can do.

Now, it will be a negotiation.

and leaning on the word "so" so hard it broke its tibia:

...so fun

...so much support

...so terrible

...so warm

...so much and so loud

...so well with women for so many years. I broke -- you know, you talk about the glass ceiling, what I've done in terms of jobs for women and I've gotten so much credit, and to this day I have so many women in my company that are doing so well, making so much money...

Conventional Beltway journalism will not stop Donald Trump because how things play politically is all they care about.  Right Matt Bai?  (From "Meet the Trump"):

MATT BAI: Right, but does that hurt him politically?

 Thank's Matt Bai!

Conventional Beltway journalism will not stop Donald Trump because the only story they ever tell is the Both Sides fairy tale.  Right Alex Castellanos? (Back over at  "This Week With Donald Trump...")

CASTELLANOS: I think both parties here created a leadership vacuum. Democrats have more of the same from Washington. And, hey, look how things are going. Not so hot.

 Thank's Alex Castellanos!

And what would Sunday be without Ron "Severe Dementia" Fournier finding a way to pry himself into the national conversation with one more rousing rendition of Both Sides Do It:

The GOP is unraveling. Once the American people realize the power of their pull, the Dem Party also will unspool https://t.co/jkzh1YoHBH

— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) May 8, 2016

It would be easy to get angry at an obviously dishonest clown like Mr. Fournier but very few people realize that, like David Brooks' "ronfournier" is actually a two-part algorithm designed on a dare by a long-forgotten MIT programmer back in 1971, which has since escaped the lab and destroyed American journalism. It was designed to 1) scan daily headlines and process any Republican debacle as a failure of "bothsides" and 2) to deflect any criticism of its output as a bold example of "honestjouralism"

@DarrellsGurl90 holding one side accountable is lazy. Covering half the story is lazy.

— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) May 8, 2016

A couple of other items.

First, now that the 2 AM Republican bar has closed and the lights have come blasting on and holy shit, what the hell do you mean we're engaged to Donald Trump?!!...

...many Republicans have slipped out the back and down the alley to the even shabbier Libertarian 4AM dive where they are buying drinks for the guy at the bar holding forth the virtues of abortion, pot, liberal immigration policy and the EPA.  So you can bet that dispossessed Republicans will be flocking to that banner.  But to his credit, Lar Daly Gary Johnson knows exactly what honey makes the hearts of Beltway pundits go pitter-pat:  that Both Sides are equally disaffected and that the political woods are just bursting with Imaginary Independents that only he can see:

STEPHANOPOULOS: At first blush, it seems like you're going to take more votes from Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton.  Do you agree with that?

JOHNSON: Well, no, absolutely not. And in this Monmouth Poll -- and key for me, George, is just continuing to be in these polls. But in the Monmouth Poll, where I was 11 percent, actually, in that poll, I took more votes away from, uh, Hillary than Trump,  But I think it really -- it draws from both sides and -- and at the end of the day, 50 percent of Americans say they're Independent.  Well, where's their representation?  I think it happens to be Libertarian.

STEPHANOPOULOS: In the past, I guess you got about a million votes, uh, last time around.  Don't you need a lot more reach, a lot more money, in order to increase those numbers?

JOHNSON: Right. It's a real chicken and egg thing.

And the Libertarian Party believes the federal government has no business telling a person what they can do with their chickens and eggs, so how perfect is that!

And finally let me note that it is positively adorable to see a former GOP strategist and born-again "independent" like Matthew Dowd

MATTHEW DOWD, ABC NEWS:   ...  It's -- Donald Trump isn't the problem for the GOP elite, the Republican voters are the problem for the GOP elite.

-- finally arrive at precisely the same conclusion that lowly Liberals figured out long ago:

driftglass:  For example, one must never ask why slandering warpimps like Bill Kristol or David Brooks are allowed a seat of honor at every Beltway table, unquestioned and unmolested.  One must never point out that the real problem with the Republican Party is simply that it is full of Republicans.