Trail Mix

The infamous Koch brothers reportedly hate Donald Trump, but instead of dropping a dime to stop him they long ago chose to opt out of this presidential campaign cycle. Word is they decided that joining the Never-Trump brigades would only boost his momentum. Sounds like they wimped out, and considering they are certainly not Hillary fans, two of the mightiest conservative donors in the country are on the sidelines.

It is like the TV show Glee didn’t shut down after all. Now starring Bernie, Hillary, Donald as rival chorus leaders sabotaging their way to Nationals. Slushies for all!

By PatD, a Trail Mix Contributor

Thank you, PBS Newshour, for your segment last night on one of the Trail’s favorite people.

PBS: Mark Twain once said that “hunger is the handmaid of genius,” and he was speaking from personal experience. By 1894, Twain was an esteemed writer, an international celebrity — and dead broke thanks to a few bad investments. To stave off debt, he embarked on the world’s first stand-up comedy tour, chronicled in Richard Zacks’ new book, “Chasing the Last Laugh.” Zacks joins Jeffrey Brown for more.

More Posts by PatD

The same Super Pac that spent $66.5 million ripping Mitt Romney’s face off in 2012 has just begun a similar crusade against Donald Trump with a $6 million television ad buy over the next 3 weeks in Florida, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia — battleground states where recent polls have shown a surprisingly tight race between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Obama’s former big money attack dog, Priorities USA, which is now working for Clinton, is paying for the ads (see below) targeting Trump’s reputation as a sexist pig. Republican primary foes and their super-pac pals tried this approach, but it was too little, too late, and fell on mostly deaf ears among the GOP rank and file.

A broader, more diverse general election audience might see these ads a bit differently. How they test market over the next month will be most telling about whether the Clinton campaign can take down the Donald.

https://youtu.be/JekzM26TF3Q

https://youtu.be/IkeLYDZdPSc

Trump’s Response
Quick to react, the soon-to-be GOP nominee tweeted the reaction he has used before when his treatment of women is at issue: “Amazing that Crooked Hillary can do a hit ad on me concerning women when her husband was the WORST abuser of woman in U.S. political history.” He has also called Hillary an “enabler” of Bill’s womanizing who victimized his accusers, making these next few weeks a test of whether his counter punch against the Clinton pac ads is effective.