Category: Uncategorized

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Ann Coulter: If Trump “Softens” On Immigration That Could Mean End Of My Book Tour

Right-wing nut Ann Coulter is out promoting her newly minted pro-Donald Trump book, In Trump We Trust, but says the book tour could end if Trump really does “soften” his proposed immigration policies.

Mediaite recaps:

Coulter appeared on MSNBC’s Hardball Tuesday evening, where Chris Matthews asked her to weigh in on recent remarks from Trump in which he admitted that he was considering “softening” his policies on immigration. “We’re not looking to hurt people,” Trump had said.

Coulter said Trump’s comments “sounded very consultant to me,” adding, “This could be the shortest book tour ever if he’s really softening his position on immigration.” Her latest book is entitled In Trump We Trust.

“I don’t think he is” softening, she added. “I think this is a mistake. It sounds like it’s coming from consultants,” she said. “I’ve thought he’s made other mistakes, and I’ve given him constructive criticism when I think he makes a mistake. I think this is a mistake.”

Even as Coulter was speaking those words to Chris Matthews, the Donald was telling Sean Hannity of Fox News that “softening” is exactly what he plans to do.

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Donald Trump On Immigration Policy: “There Could Certainly Be A Softening”

Well, here comes that “general election pivot” we’ve all been told was coming from Republican Donald Trump.

I can’t see how “softening” his approach to immigration will make his core supporters happy.

From CBS News:

Donald Trump indicated he could be on his way to one of the most surprising policy shifts of his presidential campaign: that he might be open to letting at least some undocumented immigrants in the United States remain. This came after days of confusion about his stance on large-scale deportations and after an immigration speech planned for Thursday in Colorado was scrapped.

“There could certainly be a softening because we’re not looking to hurt people,” Trump said to Fox News commentator Sean Hannity in a town hall that aired on Tuesday night on “Hannity.” “We have some great people in this country. We have some great, great people in this country but we’re going to follow the laws of this country and what people don’t realize–we have very, very strong laws.”

His answer was in response to a question from Hannity about whether Trump would be willing to change laws to accommodate undocumented immigrants who had committed no crimes, apart from their immigration violation.

It could be a significant shift in both policy and tone for the GOP nominee, given that Trump has spent almost the entirety of his candidacy supporting a mass deportation policy that would allow those that hadn’t committed crimes to return legally after deportation. He has also routinely linked illegal immigrants to crime.

For months, Trump even touted the President Dwight D. Eisenhower-era “Operation Wetback,” a controversial operation in which the United States government rounded up and forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of undocumented Mexican immigrants, some of whom died in the process.

Political reporters have noted that Trump and his surrogates on the campaign trail have avoided the word “deportation” like the plague these past two weeks.

It’s interesting that Trump has mentioned that both Presidents Obama and Bush deported large numbers of undocumented immigrants during their administrations, and takes time to say we have “very, very strong laws.”

When you add that all up, you have to wonder what it is that Trump’s opposing then. He seems to be saying Obama and Bush did their jobs. And THAT makes for an odd pivot in my mind.

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Trump Campaign Says Polling Skewed Because It’s Trendy To Oppose Trump

The Trump campaign is now telling folks, like the UK’s Channel 4, that presidential polling showing Donald Trump trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton isn’t accurate because it’s become gauche to be a professed Trump supporter these days.

Via Mediaite:

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told the UK’s Channel 4 that Donald Trump is actually winning the election, but every poll is wrong because Trump voters are undercover.

Conway denied on the Channel 4 special “President Trump: Can He Really Win?” that Trump was losing and denounced the polls that showed him down to Hillary Clinton as “cherry-picked polling numbers that are put out there by media outlets that are also bent on his destruction.”

“Donald Trump performs consistently better in online polling where a human being is not talking to another human being about what he or she may do in the election,” she argued. “It’s because it’s become socially desirable, if you’re a college educated person in the United States of America, to say that you’re against Donald Trump.”

“The hidden Trump vote in this country is a very significant proposition,” she insisted.

“Have you been able to put a number on that?” asked the Channel 4 interviewer.

“Yes,” Conway responded confidently.

“What do you think that is?”

“I can’t discuss it,” she said. “It’s a project we’re doing internally. I call it the undercover Trump voter, but it’s real.”

Very interesting spin. I find it very hard to believe that, given the “out and proud” Trump crazies, that there are enough “undercover Trump voters” to really skew every major poll in the country for a month.

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Time Flies: 25th Anniversary Of Vanessa Williams’ “The Comfort Zone”

Hard to believe that it was 25 years ago this week that the uber-talented Vanessa Williams released her smash hit album, The Comfort Zone.

Regular readers of The Randy Report know that I went to college with Vanessa long before that Miss America title, tons of hit records, starring on Broadway, in movies and wide spread television fame.

We’re still good friends today, and I love her recordings.

The Comfort Zone, her second album, gave us several top charting singles including Vanessa’s first #1 hit, “Saved The Best For Last.”

I can listen to this album every day.  So very Vanessa.  Rock on, V.

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Hillary Clinton Proves Her Good Health By Opening A Jar Of Pickles

I love when presidential candidates (and presidents for that matter) can share their sense of humor on talk shows.

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton chatted with Jimmy Kimmel last night on a range of topics including the new line of attack from Donald Trump and his surrogates regarding her health.

From ABC News:

When Kimmel asked Clinton about the rumors swirling about her health, she offered up her hand and said “take my pulse.”

Kimmel agreed as Clinton explained “to make sure I’m alive.” That’s when Kimmel took her hand and gasped telling the audience “oh my god there’s nothing there.”

Clinton played off Kimmel’s words, implying that the stories are baseless. “With every breath I take, I feel like it’s a new lease on life,” Clinton quipped sarcastically.

And then she opened a jar of pickles to prove she’s health.

I kid you not. I think that’s hilarious.

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New Music: Idina Menzel “Queen Of Swords”

From Idina Menzel’s upcoming album Idina., set for release September 23, everyone’s favorite Broadway/Frozen diva drops this new music video for “Queen of Swords.”

On her official website, Idina calls the new collection “The most personal introspective album I’ve made.”

Listen for that last note!

You can pre-order the album on iTunes here. Both “Queen of Swords” and “I See You” are available for immediate download. 

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Reuters/Ipsos Poll: Hillary Clinton Opens Up 12 Lead Over Donald Trump

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Democrat Hillary Clinton with a strong 12 point lead over Republican Donald Trump.

Even as Trump relentlessly hammers Clinton over an “everything but the kitchen sink” range of issues, likely voters favor Clinton over Trump 45% versus 33%.

Even in a four-way poll that Clinton holds a decisive 8 point lead over Trump, still well outside the 3 point margin of error.

The four man race broke down as Clinton getting 41%, Trump 33%, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson 7% and Green Party candidate 2%.

From Reuters:

Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state, has led Trump, a New York businessman, throughout most of the 2016 campaign. But her latest lead represents a stronger level of support than polls indicated over the past few weeks. Earlier in August, Clinton’s lead over Trump ranged from 3 to 9 percentage points in the poll.

The poll also found that about 22 percent of likely voters would not pick either candidate. That lack of support is high compared with how people responded to the poll during the 2012 presidential election between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.

“Those who are wavering right now are just as likely to be thinking about supporting a third-party candidate instead, and not between Clinton and Trump,” said Tom Smith, who directs the Center for the Study of Politics and Society at the University of Chicago.

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News Round-Up: August 23, 2016

Some news stories you may have missed:

• Kayne Lawton posted something about food on his Instagram, but… there’s food in the pic?

• There’s yet another sexual harassment lawsuit filed against former Fox News boss Roger Ailes.

• Right-wing nutjob Ann Coulter says if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, there will never be another Republican president. I’m not seeing the problem here…

• GOP presidential candidate flew to Louisiana for a photo op during which he spent exactly 49 seconds “helping” the people affected by disastrous flooding, and gave a $100K donation to the church of virulently anti-LGBT Tony Perkins.

• Homocon and Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos raised between $100-250K for scholarships for “white men” but in almost a year none of the money has been distributed as the cash sits in Yiannopoulos’ bank account.

• Speaking of Milo, Trump supporters have begun to defend accusations of racism by saying “We can’t be racist because Milo is gay.” Feel free to explain that cognitive dissonance.

• Melania Trump is suing the Daily Mail and other outlets for insinuating she was an “escort” in the 1990s.

• A federal judge has ordered the release of another 15,000 emails from Hillary Clinton’s email server over the course of four dates in October.

• The man who wrote the Republican National Convention speech for Pat Smith, whose son was killed in the Benghazi attacks, now says he will probably be voting for Hillary Clinton.

• Check out the one and only Cher introducing Hillary Clinton at a fundraiser in Provincetown this past weekend.

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Trump Campaign Manager: Trump Does “Hurl Insults” But It’s The Victim’s Fault

Donald Trump’s new campaign manager (is this version 3.0?) Kellyanne Conway sat down with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly to chat on several Trumpian topics, including his penchant for insulting folks he doesn’t like via the campaign stump and Twitter.

After Conway told the media this past Sunday that Trump “doesn’t hurl personal insults,” Megyn Kelly had to call Conway out.

From Talking Points Memo:

After Trump took to Twitter to slam Mika Brzezinski as “neurotic” and call her the “very insecure long-time girlfriend” of co-host Joe Scarborough, Fox News host Megyn Kelly recounted how Conway had argued Trump doesn’t employ personal attacks.

“Now, you know that’s not true,” Kelly said on her show.

Conway replied that Trump “doesn’t do it without being attacked first,” a well-worn defense Trump himself has used since his campaign’s infancy.

“But does that excuse it? Just today he called Mika Brzezinski neurotic, which is another term, basically, for mentally ill,” the Fox News host responded. “He’s called other female news personalities things like crazy. The man does hurl personal insults.”

“But not unprompted,” Conway said.

It’s always interesting the language games these surrogates play. Note how Kellyanne won’t say that Trump will “deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants.” She’s clearly dodging a word or phrase that she doesn’t want uttered on record. And while she gets away with it, the viewer sees that she’s dodging. And that throws up a flag.

The questions about insults starts at the 6:50 mark, but I think the full interview is worth watching.