Laughing on Goat Hill

By Pogo, a Trail Mix Contributor

So I was watching Rachel Monday and her take on the Alabama Guv Robert Bentley (the hard of Dixie) having his recorded thoughts about his physical improprieties with a staff member played out on national cable news.  I’m LMAO and Mrs. P. from OH thinks it’s not funny. As a friend used to say, au contraire, Pierre.  Al.com’s sketch comedy group agrees…with me.

ValSiNJReally, what’s not funny about the head of the family values party in the Heart of Dixie – my home state – having his comments about kissing, pulling his employee close, touching her breasts and how he loves it, loves it, loves it played out on a national cable political station? And having fired his Secretary of Law Enforcement who blew the whistle on the affair? And HE’S NOT GOING TO RESIGN! Really, is there anything in politics funnier?

Share

83 thoughts on “Laughing on Goat Hill”

  1. pogo, that comedy routine is good, but this imo was better entertainment-wise.

    Former Alabama Secretary of Law Enforcement Spencer Collier holds a press conference to discuss his firings and allegations Governor Robert Bentley suppressed investigations and had an affair with his chief advisor.
    “ah ’tis spring when an old man’s fancy turns to thoughts of love”…  what a way to start the vernal week: 1st a goper prez wannabe, 2nd a goper gov.

  2. It’s a shame that our long, long, very long and wildly extensive list of GOP sexual dalliances has gone by the wayside.  Apparently when it comes to diagnosis, being a right wing nut job lends itself to the kinkier side of sexual expression.

    The Democrats seem to have romp and giggle until caught personas.   Outside of the family destruction involved  which is awful, there is rarely anything all that unusual in the activities.  The GOP deny, scuttle, and make like cats kicking sand to cover up the shame of it all.  I almost feel sorry for their twisted view of intimacy.  (No I don’t)

     

  3. curiosity got the best of me re “goat hill” and wiki came thru as usual:

    The Alabama State Capitol, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the First Confederate Capitol, is the state capitol building for Alabama. It is located on Capitol Hill, originally Goat Hill, in Montgomery.

    pogo, your thread title delightfully encompasses both the physical as well as emotional aspects of the story considering goat hill is a real place and actually inhabited in this case by an old goat (i.e. an older man who thinks about sex all the time and is always looking for more so they say).

  4. What Susan Sarandon said about Trump was out of this world
    By Jonathan Capehart

    “Let me state clearly that the passion with which Sarandon campaigns for Sanders is something we need more of in American politics. If more were as engaged and active as she is, our ongoing national discussion of the issues would be as dynamic as they would be thrilling. But the Academy Award-winning actress displayed the downside of such fervent participation: the inability or unwillingness of too many to see that their insistence on political purity could lead to calamity.

    This is not Sarandon’s first time making the perfect the enemy of the good. In the 2000 presidential campaign, when misguided progressives believed that a vote for Vice President Al Gore was the same as voting for then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, she was an active supporter of Ralph Nader. And we all know how that turned out.”

    Yes, as i said the other day, anyone who thinks Trump is an alternative to Hillary is BAT SHIT CRAZY!! That they currently support Bernie and go there is even crazier..

  5. Trump Defends Top Aide: Reporter’s Pen Could Have Been A Bomb
    Caitlyn McNeil

    “Donald Trump on Tuesday night continued to defend his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, from battery charges, insisting that his aide was protecting him from a reporter wielding a pen.

    Earlier on Tuesday, Trump said that former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields tried to grab him before Lewandowski intervened, and the Republican presidential candidate continued to describe Fields as a potential threat during a CNN town hall.

    “She was off base,” Trump told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “She had a pen in her hand, which Secret Service is not liking because they don’t know what it is, whether it’s a little bomb.
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-michelle-fields-pen-bomb

  6. So, the Florida lawyer hired to defend Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski against a battery claim was forced to resign as US Attorney in Florida after allegations he bit an exotic dancer in a strip club. You can’t make this up. It’s like Carl Hiaasen, Mel Brooks and the Marx Brothers collaborated on a movie.  http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/274560-trump-aides-lawyer-resigned-from-doj-after-allegedly-biting-a

  7. mediaite quotes drumpf:

    ––”I think if you look at it, he was trying to block her, that’s the way I would view it, and she’s grabbing me and asking questions.”

    “She grabbed me. Before he grabbed her, if he even grabbed her… she grabbed me, and she wasn’t supposed to! She grabbed me once or twice and that’s why I’m looking down at my arm!”

    “Why is she allowed to grab me and shout questions? Can I press charges?”

  8. The first time I visited Goat Hill was in the third grade when our class went to see the inauguration of one George Corley Wallace for the first of his ultimately 3 (4 if you count Lurleen’s term in 1967) terms as guv or Alabama.  We went back 4 years later to see Lurleen sworn in.  I remember the first visit because I lost a transistor radio I had gotten for Christmas (lost is a kind term – it was stolen).  The second time was better – we took the train from Birmingham to Montgomery and had a great time.  I’m sure that the first trip I bought a little Confederate Battle Flag.  My how things have changed.

     
    Pat, thanks for that link to Collier’s presser.  I follow this stuff somewhat closely – my niece’s father in law was a campaign bigwig for Bentley when he ran for guv. Now the guv and Ms. Mason no longer attend the First Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa.

    Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and his top advisor, Rebekah Mason, with whom he admitted having inappropriate sexual conversations, no longer attend First Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa, according to a statement from the pastor.

     “While church discipline is a church family matter, both Governor Robert Bentley and Mrs. Rebekah Mason are no longer members of First Baptist Church Tuscaloosa,” Senior Pastor Gil McKee told Christian News Network on Friday.

    And it just keeps coming.  Bentley Tried to Neuter the Guard Dog, Now He’s Gonna Get Bit

  9. dadgum drumpf! fell for it again…. more free media now for a week.  did she or didn’t she grab him?  and who knows where she meant to insert that deadly pen she had….  oh the potential stories to feed the 24/7 beastly news.

  10. PatD, I almost spit cookies when I heard drumpf last night say the Secret Service wasn’t happy that a reporter had a pen.

  11. Pogo…   sounds like the typical tale of a typical politician.  One can only image what “family values” Trump would bring to the WH.

    And speaking of the Donald…  I gave up watching the third period of the Bruins game to watch him (my Bruins didn’t fare any better than your Cavs did).  The thing that stood out to me was when he said we should give countries like Japan and South Korea nuclear armaments.  So has this become the new Republican cry…  instead of we’d be safer if everyone had a gun, now it’s we’d be safer if everyone had a nuclear weapon… oy vei!

  12. Alexandra Petri on the Trump take on the Lewandowski scrum.

    WE ARE LITERALLY LOOKING AT VIDEO OF THIS HAPPENING.ENOUGH VIDEO THAT POLICE DETERMINED HE COULD BE CHARGED

    BUT TRUMP SAYS IT’S NOTHINGSO(shrug)

    Perhaps this explains Trump’s philosophy. If you, yourself, are subjectively the ultimate arbiter of reality, then only what you permit to be true is actually true. Everything is made up and nothing matters! Whee! Hang up all the fact-checkers. Shut down all the Truth-o-Meters. We have been going about this wrong. All that you need for something to be true is for Donald Trump to say that it is so. And as soon as he says it is false, it is false again. We are in the position of Kate in the fifth act of “The Taming of the Shrew.” (“Sun it is not, when you say it is not; And the moon changes even as your mind. What you will have it nam’d, even that it is, And so it shall be so, for Katharine.”) Sure. Seems right.

  13. My avatar loves your post, Pogo.  Dinos, Rinos, Zell Miller, Joe Lieberman all such sexy men!  Ever since both parties have released their inner child during the 2016 election?  We are subject to juvenile and immature behavior…premature sex, brutal talk, childish fights and that is just the media!   And I am right there with all of these crazies.

  14. So Donalds aid pulled a reporter out of his face after she aggressively pushed passed his security. lol

    I wonder how many bruises  her elbows left on her fellow reporters as she worked her way into position?

    I don’t think that is going to loose him any votes.

    If he had punched her in the face stomped on her a while? Maybe.

    For trump supporters this is just the establishment faking up a controversy to drag down their candidate.

    In my opinion there is more than just a little faux outrage going on here. lol
    But then that is the modern campaign

    Jack

  15. The political poles are shifting and the populist movement is so impressed with suing.  I have heard it throughout my lifetime…I’ll sue them!  I will have my day in court.  The tv airwaves are filled with judge shows that are supported by local lawyer advertising.  This will only embolden Trump.

    I posted in 2008 that I was pushed and shoved by the media in Larimer Square during a Jimmy Carter rally.  The media hogged the front.  If you have ever been in a large crowd where someone starts pushing from the back?  It is almost suffocating.   The reporter, Michele Fields, is really getting great drama.  Some real violence is going-on outside of the political theater and sadly, that will not get a story like this.

  16. Trump’s campaign manager did something wrong under Florida’s law (unwanted touching) unless he has a defense.  Was he trying to run interference and the reporter (who now probably now has an entertainment manager and will end up on a reality show) was just a person in the crowd?

    The last line of his tweet said he hadn’t met her, so it was clearly just a moment in his day that had no significance to him.  He could benefit from anger mngmnt therapy, as could most people.  It was unwanted touching, but maybe he felt it was necessary to protect Trump because she wasn’t where she was supposed to be, either.

    Unwanted touching.  I can’t imagine anyone wanting to touch Mr. Burns’ doppelgänger…or Ted.

    It’s always funnier when it’s someone denying their humanness.  Or sadder.

  17. Yep, we’ve all been to concerts or sports events and been pushed, crushed, grabbed and touched.  Heck, try walking around Rockefeller Center at Christmas.

    Did the reporter have a right to file a complaint? Sure.  Is this also going to be her ticket to the spotlight?  Of course, cuz ‘merica.

  18. oldseahag – enjoyed receiving the bumper stickers – great design – thank you!

  19. An interesting  article.

    For me it demonstrates why community policing works and why broken windows works when done right.

    But if it involves racial profiling , neighborhood profiling or class profiling then it causes more harm than good

     

     Cities, states, and the federal government could make significant strides in fighting crime if policing resources were primarily dedicated to the most problematic neighborhoods, blocks, and even people — the ones communities know are causing trouble but don’t get enough specific attention from the criminal justice system. And coupled with behavioral intervention programs for at-risk youth and adults, these types of policies could greatly reduce violence not just in the US but around the world.

    All I can say to the following is “Amen

    For instance, it’s very unusual to meet people who live in neighborhoods with high rates of violent crime who say, “We want the police out of our neighborhoods.” They want bad police out of their neighborhoods, but they don’t want all police out of their neighborhoods.

  20. Week after week Kasich is demonstrating that he is the most qualified to assume the Republican nomination. Little people must realize if it is a contest between one of Trump’s favored and a little person on the street, roll up what’s left of the little person.

  21. Pogo,

    What do the citizens of Alabama think about Lt Governor Kay Ivey ? We had the Spitzer stuff in NY & ended up with a replacement who was this side of incompetent. Sad thing is Mr Spitzer wasn’t that bad as a Public Servant, at least in comparison to others we’ve had. Unfortunately his private life was less than stellar.

    How do we balance real life vs governing? FDR would have been disqualified; all the male Kennedys, nada; Thomas Jefferson …. and so on. It’s still humorous when I remember the squawking about that divorced Ronald Reagan guy. Just wondering how many future politicians (who might have something positive to offer) see all the publicity, mockery & choose not to run due to personal indiscretions. Bentley brought this on himself, not excusing that. A really bad apple is perceived to ruin the entire barrel. Maybe, just maybe, there were a few worth saving, buried underneath.

     

  22. Sj, I couldn’t say.  My sis is pretty apolitical and I haven’t talked with my politically interested friend about it.   I just became aware of all this a couple days ago.

  23. That was interesting.  My phone showed a call coming in from Djibouti, so of course I let it go to voicemail (because I never answer a call from someone not in my contact list and maybe not even then) and, of course, it was some BS, computer-generated voice about some unknown BS.  When I listened to the voicemail, the screen showed the call was coming from Washington state. The ability to make calls through the internets  has really made a mess of things.

    Tower of Babel 2.0 is imminent.

     

  24. In our small city we got rid of our costly police department and contracted with the sheriff for police services. We were provided dedicated deputies who, upon their arrival, made the rounds of businesses and condos, etc. They earned the residents’ confidence.

    The sheriff also provided backup manpower as required on a near instantaneous basis. The whole range of police services were provided ranging from community relations, to forensics, to jail. It worked just fine.

    Oh, it was against Florida statutes to include income from fines in our budget estimates; we had a substantial rainy day fund. 🙂

  25. Pogo – I’ve been in quite a few earthquakes the past 3 or 4 years.  The even did an earthquake study last year, to see if fracking was responsible.  Of course, they are trying to show the reason is inconclusive.  Fried baloney.  We all know that it started after the fracking started just west of here.

    One family up near Denton, TX won a lawsuit because the fracking chemicals (which they refuse to disclose) were making them sick, giving them nosebleeds, etc.  And of course, the company is appealing it because they have big bucks.

    There is no such thing as safe fracking.  Big gas and oil, big coal, big fossil fuels need to go the way of the dinosaurs before they send us that way, too.

  26. Pogo, entertaining, tho sad, story. I once worked with Lt. Gov. Bill Baxley (on the ’84 John Glenn campaign) and admired him until years later he went foolish, dated a wire services reporter, had her brought to their secret rendezvous hiding in the back seat of state trooper vehicles. His lovely wife Lucy went on to become a politician herself.

  27.  
    blueINdallis,
     
     
    I worked for a time at 30 Rock. in New York.  Something that is even worse than Rockefeller Center at Christmas is the contact sport of getting on and off or just being on a New York City subway at rush hour.

  28. Do they want to self-destruct or are their egos so big that they can’t be controlled?

     

     

  29. purple  – Lucky you, living/working there!

    I’ve had to settle for hotels, a friend’s apartment, and a 3rd-floor walk-up over a sushi joint.

    Subways are always exciting.  On vacation, you learn quickly (and have the freedom) to adjust your travel schedule.

    The DC subway is weirdly deep. Did they tunnel under the swamp?

  30. “Do they want to self-destruct or are their egos so big that they can’t be controlled?”

    blueid, big dawg’s answer during  60 minutes interview:

    Rather: “The central question, if I may, and I know this is difficult, the central question is why?”

    Clinton: “I think I did something for the worst possible reason — just because I could. I think that’s the most , just about the most morally indefensible reason that anybody could have for doing anything. When you do something just because you could … I’ve thought about it a lot. And there are lots of more sophisticated explanations, more complicated psychological explanations. But none of them are an excuse … Only a fool does not look to explain his mistakes.”

  31. pogo & renee, too bad you wasted time with your losing teams and loser pols last night when you could have seen this:
    from hngn story:
    USMNT Soccer Keeps World Cup 2018 Hopes Alive With Win Over Guatemala [VIDEOS]
    The U.S. men’s national soccer team needed a win over Guatemala to have a chance at qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, and it achieved that with a 4-0 victory.

  32. had a sobering tho’t about some sad and serious statistics while otherwise giggling over the drumpfer accousting the breitbarter :

    5 yrs and more than a month ago cbs reporter lara logan was sexually assaulted in egypt,

    1 yr and 5 months ago 3 nbc female journalists were abducted and sexually assaulted in new guinea,

    and according to the  committee to protect journalists 10% of the 71 reporters killed last yr  were women.

  33. ““Donald Trump on Tuesday night continued to defend his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, from battery charges, insisting that his aide was protecting him from a reporter wielding a pen.”

    As we all know, the pen is mightier than the sword, even though it is weaker than the tv camera.

  34. Poobah, sorry to hear you had a weird time with Baxley.  He lost in his gubernatorial shot to the unfortunately named Fob James.  Let me say that Alabama has had much more than its fair share of idiots for governor.  Fob was a pugn turned Dem when pugns couldn’t get elected in Alabama.

  35. And two hours after I blocked the number, I had another robo-call but it didn’t show in the list of recent callers this time. Scumbags. Techno-savvy scumbags.

  36. Renee managed to hit on one of my pet peeves.  Donald J. Trump henceforth referred to as Disgusting Drumpf is not “The Donald”.  There is literally only one man on the planet who is The Donald and it is not Drumpf.  He is in the center of the picture and the gentlemen on either side are subordinate MacDonald chiefs.

    Lord MacDonald of MacDonald

  37. blueid,  if you can still see the number on your caller id, google it.  in the past I’ve been able to find out whether the numbers called were phishers, market surveyors, pol pacs, etc (and all the above fall into scammer category imo).  then report their to the various state or fed agencies applicable  (some state attorneys general have hot lines for such things).  it’s also interesting to see what other people’s experiences have been as victims of those numbers.

  38. patd…   soccer is not for me…

    Jamie…  I find it fascinating that you would take offense at such a trivial thing.  Did you know that when he said he’d give other countries nuclear weapons so that they could take care of their own defense, Anderson Cooper asked if he’d consider giving such a weapon to Saudi Arabia…    he said something along the lines of “sure, why not”.  The Israelis and the rest of the world must be wondering wtf is it with Americans…   today all they’re talking about is his campaign manager.  Can’t say that I blame them.

  39. I would have liked to watch the soccer game, but for some reason was drawn to the Cavs’ losing effort and brief checkins with Anderson Cooper and the Bozos. Poor decision.

  40. Pogo,

    Baxley shall forever be remembered as the politically courageous attorney general who finally brought Chambliss to justice for the evil Birmingham church bombings killing innocent children. Probably cost Baxley his hopes for the governorship.

    Despite Baxley’s later self destruction my personal experience with him was quite positive, will always fondly recall our campaigning together for the great John Glenn. A genuine Southern white progressive.

  41. The Politics of Life has a different jacket than I remember.   I think Trump followed the be more agressive and Jeb the more passive, but it’s supposed to be and not or.

    PatD – I took a screenshot of everything before I deleted it because it was just so weird.

  42. Greg Sargent with some observations about the Hillary – Sanders campaigns and how to keep as many Sanders voters as possible if Hillary wins the nomination.  I agree with much of what Sargent (and Robert Samuelson, who he quotes) says. Yes, she can question how the promises will be achieved without characterizing them harshly.  That would be a good start IMHO.  I would also do a fool’s rush on Wisconsin over the next 5 days, but I don’t think that is going to happen.

  43. is this pandering or is this pandering or is it like bringing candy and flowers to the wife the morning after being out all night with the other woman?
    MADISON, Wis. — Ted Cruz surrounded himself with women — including his mother and wife — at a campaign stop in Wisconsin Wednesday, where he tried to show a softer side to further contrast himself with his brash Republican rival Donald Trump.
    Cruz’s wife, mother and former rival Carly Fiorina joined him for what Cruz called a “celebration of women.” They cast Cruz as the best choice for women voters, while Trump continued to face questions about his defense of his campaign manager who was charged Tuesday with simple battery after an altercation with a female reporter.
    [….]
    “All of us are here for something a lot more important than politics,” Cruz said. “We’re here because we love our families. We’re here because we love our country. … Women are not a special interest. Women are a majority of the United State of America. And every issue is a women’s issue.”

    and BTW from cbs:
    Texas Sen. Ted Cruz needs a big victory in Wisconsin if he hopes to take down GOP front-runner Donald Trump–and a new poll out Wednesday suggests he’s well on his way to winning there.
    Cruz has a double-digit lead in the race: he takes 40 percent, according to the new Marquette Law School poll, compared with 30 percent for Trump and 21 percent for Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Trump’s support is unchanged since Marquette’s previous Wisconsin poll in February: he was at 30 percent in that poll, followed by Cruz at 19 percent, Kasich at 8 percent and candidates who have since dropped out taking 31 percent.

  44. Blue, publisher did a new jacket for latest Politics of Life reprint. That little book really has retained shelf life, was even printed in Korean and German. Not sure why.

  45. The Politics of Life: 25 Rules for Survival in a Brutal and Manipulative World
    by Craig Crawford

     

    you mean this great cover has been improved?  how?   and why?

  46. Poobah, you are exactly right.  Odd that a lawyer doing the morally correct thing is pretty much excluded from higher office – at least in ‘bama.  It’s regrettable.  One thing that surprised a lot of folks down there was that Bear Bryant endorsed his guv run the year after the Chambliss trial.  That endorsement obviously wasn’t enough to propel him to the dem nomination.

    Although his marriage with Lucy broke up after his affair, he supported her successful LT. Gov. race. I never thought badly of Baxley – hey, people have affairs, marriages break up – I had left the state and didn’t follow the tawdry reporting. Not a lot of coverage of it in NH & ME pre internet. My good friend who was Tuscaloosa City Attorney really liked him, prolly still does. Thinking back, I was faculty sponsor for the University young dems when he ran for guv. I know they did not support Fob during the primary.

  47. It was my “go to” gift when I had a batch of graduations after it was published.    I figured they may not remember the check inside of it, but they could use some good advice.  I had no advice of my own to give so…  Too soon to tell if any of it took or not.

  48. In that line of thinking (books), I don’t believe the current crop of prez candidates has tried to turn us against the media.  (Although, the media has done that on its own with their continued coverage of nonsense.)

  49. Blue, publisher tells me it remains a popular title in college book stores. Like my other books, couldn’t replace my tires with the little money I made. Ha, maybe it’ll make a fortune after I’m dead, just like Machiavelli. And David can live off it.

  50. I enjoyed the second act of the Alabama fool – kicked out of his church.  Having lived in the deep South, I enjoy each and every moment one of the damned idiots gets his due.

    Spring is springing out.  And, for all who are old enough to remember, today marks the day Reagan was shot.  C’est la vie

    Do you feel down?  Don’t.  With the actions of the Republicans, candidates and freaking nutty-bar supporters, today and for the last year thirty years forty-eight years of providing the worst of actions and attempts to overturn everything done by TDR, FDR,Truman, Ike,  Kennedy and Johnson, and even some of what Nixon did too, EPA, they are working their way out of governing the U.S.A. YAY

  51.  I don’t believe the current crop of prez candidates has tried to turn us against the media.

    Actually, the hairball has blamed the media for accurately describing his record, and accurately quoting his religious bigotry, and his racist and sexist characterizations. The rest have gone pretty easy on the mainspring mouija, as they usually do in an election year.

  52.  
    Donald Trump Goes Full Anti-Woman, Suggests ‘Punishment’ For Women Who Abort
    Men should be all right, though.
     

    Elise Foley and Igor Bobic and Samantha Lachman

    Trump, who is currently struggling with women voters, was pressed on the issue of abortion during an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, set to air Wednesday evening.
    Matthews asked whether abortion should be punished, and Trump initially skated around the issue. He said some Republicans would say it should be, and that he “would say it’s a very serious problem and it’s a problem we have to decide on.”
    He then asked Matthews — but didn’t answer himself — “Are you going to, say, put them to jail?” and added he was anti-abortion and that “you have to ban” abortion.
    “There has to be some form of punishment,” Trump said, adding “Yeah” when Matthews asked if he meant for the woman. The host asked if that punishment would be closer to 10 days or 10 years, and Trump said he didn’t know.”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-abortion-women-punishment_us_56fc2a99e4b083f5c606880d

  53. Hairball is perfectly happy with the saudis getting nukes. Why doesn’t he just propose giving nukes directly to al qaeda, and cut out the middle man ?

  54. Blue B – My favorite part is when they finally haul out the forgiveness card (for themselves) once they get caught…not that they readily offer it to others.

  55. It strikes me as ironic that both dem candidates’ strongest poll results in March came out in the last 9 days – Bernie with 1 1 point edge in a Seltzer poll and Hillary +18 in a PPP poll. It’s Clinton’s best result in about a month and Bernie’s best result, at least among those polls tracked by fivethirtyeight.

    I’m again looking at the upcoming primaries trying to figure out how Bernie can make it to the convention – what with all the talk about that – and am looking at results in open, semi open, closed and semi closed primaries and caucuses.

    Let’s say he wins in Wisconsin, say by 10% and splits the baby in NY (unlikely, but just say).  HRC would have picked up an additional 160 or so delegates, and Bernie makes up 10-20 depending upon Wyoming.  Then comes Maryland.  Polling there puts HRC at a 30 point advantage.  If that holds, she’ll be about at the delegate margin over Bernie she is at now (Well, 261 compared to 263 now).

    Problem for Bernie is that he hasn’t won a closed primary yet (except the Dems overseas, which isn’t much of a primary), and has won only 4 primaries total (one semi open, one semi closed and one open) and netted 30 delegates in primaries he won. Hillary netted 44 in Georgia.

    The 5 biggest states remaining, NY, NJ, PA, MD & CA are 4 closed and 1 semi closed primaries (1132 delegates). Hillary’s performance in closed primaries is consistently better than Bernie’s – he won Alaska.

    There are 5 open primaries and one closed caucus left (261 delegates). Hillary has done much better in both open and closed primaries, Bernie in closed caucuses. Bernie could make up some ground here, but it will be an uphill slog to do so and there aren’t a lot of delegates in the open primary states.

    Bernie will win WV & OR (and probably KY) by large margins (145 delegates) and probably MT and the Dakotas (59).

    Hillary will likely win DC and NM (54).

    The ONLY ray of light I see for Bernie is to win by 10% or more at least in the 5 big contests and by 75% or more in the rest. Unless history is not a teacher, that doesn’t look likely.

    Of course, I am much better at predicting the future when it’s become the past than I am before then, so I may be wearing a Feel The Bern cap before it’s all over.

     

  56. Jamie, the derby won’t be the same.   from ap:

    Three-time Kentucky Derby winner and Hall of Fame jockey Calvin Borel is retiring

  57. Pogo – don’t be concerned about Maryland making a difference in anything except for the discussion about Blue Crabs from the Bay.   I think we in MD can make a 0.46 percent difference in the run for Dem candidate.

    It is very strange seeing the Tigers in black and orange uniforms against the Baltimore Orioles.  Tigers should be in grey pin stripes.

  58. Patd

    Is there anyone crazy enough to do that ride up the inside of the field while trying not to get killed race?

     

  59. Speaking of books, I am having a ridiculously good time reliving my very first books.  The blog mentions “The Highwayman” but now I’m on to the first time I read James Whitcomb Riley, Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Robert Browning, and Eugene Field … so many.  Volume Two of the 1949 Childcraft was a miracle.  I don’t know the genius who edited it, but there are things in there that some students today won’t see until High School, but it was considered third grade material then.

    Bookworm

  60. Headlines ! Getcher Headlines !

    Longest Serving Ripper Speaker To Be On Sex Predator List ?

    Gooper Goober-Groper Gubner Dr Dr To Be On Sex Predator List ?

    Enquiring Peepholes Want To Know

  61. Here’s a new funny pic from retweeted by Debra Messing my WIll ANd Grace favorite.Twitter…

  62. hillary fabulous on meadow re trump and punishing women.  looking forward to watching the schmucks joe, mika and the other monkeys walking this back, rationalizing trumps statement.

  63. sea, here’s some of that from last night

    http://on.msnbc.com/1qkCxep

    and here’s a Bernie segment later on

    http://on.msnbc.com/233yYXZ
    Sanders on fundraising for Democrats: ‘We’ll see’
    Senator Bernie Sanders, Democratic candidate for president, talks with Rachel Maddow about whether he will help raise money for the Democratic House and Senate campaign committees and other party candidates.

  64. be sure to check out what warren says starting at 3:39 in re drumpf …. very ballsy, girl, but you’ll probably get sued for it.

  65. The Maddow/Bernie exchange has been all over Twitter since it happened.  The Sanders folks had made a big thing about the Clooney fundraiser until people pointed out that the majority of the funds went to down ticket Democrats and that Hillary had helped to raise millions while Sanders had raised next to nothing.

    Don’t have a clue how long the furor will last but I’m sure Sanders isn’t enjoying the blowback.

     

  66.  
    The Great Trump Distortion
    by E.J. Dione

    ” At the least, the media might start asking whether the president’s popularity and Trump’s relative lack of it tell us something very important about what is happening in our nation that is being utterly lost in the clamor of Trumpism. We are allowing a wildly and destructively inaccurate portrait of us as a people to dominate our imaginations and debase our thinking.
         If you will forgive me for borrowing from the man obsessed with talking about “winners,” someone here is a “loser,” and it’s not Barack Obama.”http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/03/31/the_great_trump_distortion_130144.html

  67. ‘Bernie or Bust’ Is Bonkers
    By Charles Blow

    “Bernie Sanders’s surrogate Susan Sarandon went on MSNBC’s “All in With Chris Hayes” earlier this week and said something that made folks’ jaws drop.

    When Hayes asked Sarandon whether Sanders’s supporters would vote for Hillary Clinton if Clinton won the Democratic nomination, this exchange followed:
    SARANDON: I think Bernie probably would encourage people because he doesn’t have any ego. I think a lot of people are, sorry, I can’t bring myself to do that.
    HAYES: How about you personally?
    SARANDON: I don’t know. I’m going to see what happens.
    HAYES: Really?
    SARANDON: Really.
    HAYES: I cannot believe as you’re watching the, if Donald Trump…
    SARANDON: Some people feel Donald Trump will bring the revolution immediately if he gets in then things will really, you know, explode.
    HAYES: You’re saying the Leninist model of…
    SARANDON: Some people feel that.
    (I don’t generally use the Republican front-runner’s name in my columns, but I must present the quote as transcribed. Sorry.)
    What was Sarandon talking about with her coy language? “Bring the revolution”? Exactly what kind of revolution? “Explode”? Was the purpose to present this as a difficult but ultimately positive development?

    Continue reading the main story

    The comments smacked of petulance and privilege.
    No member of an American minority group — whether ethnic, racial, queer-identified, immigrant, refugee or poor — would (or should) assume the luxury of uttering such a imbecilic phrase, filled with lust for doom.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/opinion/campaign-stops/bernie-or-bust-is-bonkers.html?ref=opinion&_r=1

Comments are closed.