Collecting My Midweek Thoughts

Dear Lord I do NOT want to write about Donald Trump but the Tipper Gore hater in me can't help but note that The Donald was using Twisted Sister as rally music last week. If you had told me 30 years ago during the record censorship hearings...



Note the resemblance between Mad Niedermeyer and Mad Donald.

The real importance of Trump - who will be the next to last candidate in the race, at which point all establishment support will consolidate behind the Not Donald - is his impact on the lower tier of the insanely large field:

I love how everyone is now calling it the kids table https://t.co/J4zzkaHRhO

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) July 28, 2015

And note who the Biggest Loser is. Digby: "Christie is desperate. He was supposed to be the prime asshole who told voters to 'sit down and shut up' and Trump has out-assholed him."

The A-Hole competition is fierce, with Mike Huckabee resorting to breaking Godwin's Law over the weekend, saying, "The Iran deal is marching the Israelis to the door of the oven." Jewish groups took offense, naturally - but they were never Huckabee's intended audience.

See, when Democrats toe the Likud line, and far too many do, it's about a certain narrow segment of the Jewish electorate. But when Republicans do, it's something different.

Of course Huck isn't trying to scare Jews, he's trying to scare fundies for whom Jews are just a tool for the end days.

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 27, 2015

Most true tweet of the week.

But back to Trump one LAST (I swear) time:

.@RealDonaldTrump’s new pitch: I’m so rich I can’t be bought http://t.co/0UwqNRqCkp | AP Photo pic.twitter.com/sej7tAgs8z

— POLITICO (@politico) July 28, 2015

Don't laugh. It's a big part of the appeal to the cohort of voters convinced (wrongly) that All Politicians Are Crooks.

One of my last Wisconsin elections was the 1988 US Senate race to replace William Proxmire, who was famous for spending zero money on his elections. The winner, Herb Kohl, owned department stores and a basketball team, and turned that on its ear with a "Nobody's Senator But Yours" slogan. Proxmire was not for sale, but the implied argument was, neither was Kohl - because he was too rich to be bought. It worked, for four terms. (Tammy Baldwin was definitely an upgrade, though.)

Second truest tweet of the week:

LOL, dude wrong rally (sort of) #IACaucus pic.twitter.com/ikxbmI8MTo

— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) July 25, 2015

Rand Paul is teetering at the edge of the Kid's Table. At best, his seat at the Grownup Debate is a seat in a high chair. And the left-libertarian dynamic that we saw locally in the justice center elections and less successfully in last year's county attorney primary is why. The anti-war anti-drone anti-NSA vote is consolidating behind Sanders rather than Paul. I said it first...

Down the ballot, Desmund Adams is an interesting Democratic candidate in the 3rd CD. Pat Murphy in the 1st? Not so much.  And I still haven't guessed who the mystery candidate for the 4th CD, set to announce at the Wing Ding, may be.

And the Iowa City school board race is now up to nine candidates, and also up to five seats with the Tuyet (Dorau) Baruah resignation. Look for a school candidate rundown Friday, and a mock election update Thursday night. And don't forget to: