Businessman Mark Cuban continued his crusade against Donald Trump on Tuesday by targeting the presumptive Republican nominee’s lack of substance and failed business ventures.
“It’s rare that you see someone get stupider before your eyes, but he’s really working at it,” the billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner told “Extra.” “You have to give him credit. It’s a difficult thing to do, but he’s accomplished it.”
I feel sorry for the people who are foaming over the threat they perceive behind sensible gun legislation. Some people fear their government and their fellow citizens. Some are furiously certain that liberals and Democrats want to take their guns as the first step toward a new Holocaust. It’s sad that clutching a weapon of mass murder doesn’t make people one whit less afraid. And it’s alarming that frightened, paranoid people serve the Gun Industry. Sales will rise again this week Ca-ching!
Congress was elected to protect our children, not sell them out for campaign contributions from gun manufacturers and the NRA. They can yammer about the Second Amendment all they want, but that’s just another smoke screen so we don’t notice that their jobs are paid for with our children’s blood.
Who really needs assault-style rifles that can kill 50 people and wound 53 more in a matter of minutes? Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson claims the people need them to fight off “a growing police state.” Johnson believes when citizens have assault weapons, the government is more likely to grant them due process. Read that again; it’s as crazy as it sounds.
Arizona is not the only red state where Trump is vulnerable. In Georgia, Democrats dream of capitalizing on the large black and growing Latino populations to put the state in play. And in Utah, one of the nation’s most solidly Republican states, a recent poll had the race tied. Resistance to Trump among Mormons, who make up a majority of Utah’s voters, is intense; Romney is a leader of the “Never Trump” movement.
The Mormon resistance may have an effect in Arizona as well. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints counts more than 400,000 members here, which is roughly 6 percent of the state’s population. If enough Mormons vote against Trump or stay home, it would depress his vote total.
The swing vote here traditionally is moderate Republican women — and doubts about Trump’s character has softened his support with this block. Arizona has a celebrated history of electing female executives, including Brewer and her predecessor, Democrat Janet Napolitano, which is another reason Clinton’s allies feel bullish.
“This literally is an ‘Anybody but Trump’ movement,” said Kendal Unruh, a Republican delegate from Colorado who is leading the campaign. “Nobody has any idea who is going to step in and be the nominee, but we’re not worried about that. We’re just doing that job to make sure that he’s not the face of our party.”
The fresh wave of anti-Trump organizing comes as a growing number of Republicans have signaled that they will not support Trump for president. …
In a statement Friday, Trump dismissed the plots against him.
“I won almost 14 million votes, which is by far more votes than any candidate in the history of the Republican primaries,” Trump said. “I have tremendous support and get the biggest crowds by far, and any such move would not only be totally illegal, but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying.”
Juliet Eilperin, Robert Costa, Anne Gearan, The Washington Post
The disparity between the two encapsulates the choice facing voters this fall: Do they see Trump’s bombast as the solution to a dangerous world, or do they find comfort in Clinton’s more familiar manner? …
Stuart Stevens [Republican], who served as Mitt Romney’s chief strategist during the 2012 campaign, called Trump’s statements and actions on Sunday “childish.”
“Every day he finds a different way to show he’s unqualified to be president,” Stevens said. “Today he’s [congratulating himself] at a time when 50 people are slaughtered.” …
Obama described the attack as “a sobering reminder that attacks on any American — regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation — is an attack on all of us and on the fundamental values of equality and dignity that define us as a country.”
And he made a point of saying the Orlando nightclub where the killing occurred “was a place of solidarity and empowerment,” where members of the city’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community “came together to be with friends, to dance and to sing and to live.”
It is unclear whether the more nuanced approach Clinton and Obama are advocating — one that calls on Americans to refrain from targeting people from the Mideast or of Middle Eastern descent while pursuing incremental gains against Islamist extremists overseas — will resonate with the majority of voters.
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams
