Beach Peanuts

Despite Reality, GOP Pretends Americans Won't Care That Trump Is A Walking Conflict Of Interest

Ponder for a moment, this headline from Politico today:

"GOP Wagers Americans Don't Care About Trump's Conflicts"

That's quite the wager in a sea of wagers the Republican Party seems wiling to make in their post-reality Trump existence.

Unfortunately for them, the polls say they're wrong. Americans very much care about Trump's obvious conflicts of interest as he prepares to enter the (oh, I shudder to write this) White House. Yet the GOP plan to keep playing their "the American people say" game as if saying it will make it so. After all, they've played it for years. Those same Americans who they claim "don't care" that Trump will turn the country into his own personal ATM as he fills his pockets with their tax dollars and pushes policies that serve only to enrich him and his family, also "don't want" health care, clean water and air, nor do they really care to vote, among other things. Oddly, "the American people" just love Republican policies that hurt them. That's why more than two million more of them voted for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump and why Democrats picked up seats in this election.

But I digress.

Getting back to that claim, why on earth would the American people not care about Trump's conflicts of interest? After all, wasn't it in part that he won after perpetuating and running on Hillary Clinton's myriad imaginary conflicts of interest? I believe "Crooked Hillary" was the moniker he used while encouraging chants to "lock her up" at his rallies. In fact, he was still at it last week.

Part of his shtick was falsely claiming the Clinton Foundation, which is actually a charitable foundation, unlike the Trump Foundation, was a scandalous conflict of interest that Hillary Clinton used to enrich herself. It wasn't anything of the sort, but his argument only served to point out that everything he says is projection.  

Another argument Trump made (an idea he got from Bernie Sanders, and thanks for that too, Bernie!) was that Hillary Clinton was a puppet of Goldman Sachs and Wall Street because she visited them on the public speaking circuit. According to Bernie and Trump, we were to believe that because she made a speech at Goldman Sachs once, she would be at their beck and call were she to become President. "Drain the swamp!" Trump bleated during his ego booster rallies. Yet we Americans are now told by the Republicans that we really don't care that Trump is filling rather than draining the swamp as he stocks his future Administration with Goldman Sachs and Wall Street executives, some of the very same people who caused the economic crisis in 2008? 

Yes, Republicans think you're stupid.

And speaking of creatures of the swamp, ponder also what one Newton Leroy Gingrich had to say in that Politico article:

“In a pre-Trump world dominated by left-wing ideas, anyone successful is inherently dangerous and should be punished for trying to serve the country.… I’d say to the left wing, get over it.”

More projection from Newt. "Get over it," he says, after he and his party demonized Hillary Clinton for being successful in her political career on behalf of the people who aren't millionaires and billionaires and subsequently lacking a voice in our ever eroding democracy, and who was therefore dangerous, and should be punished for trying to continue to serve her country. But Newton the professional grifter would very much like you to get over the fact that a man whose middle name is "bankruptcy" will be running the country like one of his failing businesses, and that every American will now be tantamount to a Trump University victim. 

Last but not least in our chain of hypocrisy, we have GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the man who made Hillary Clinton witch hunts his primary concern both before, and after what he thought would be her election as POTUS. Suddenly, his interest in oversight has evaporated:

Trump has argued he’s not legally required as president to deal with his conflicts, and Chaffetz repeated that assessment. “There are public perceptions that I’m sure they’re keenly aware of,” he said.

Trump’s feet will be held to the fire should his business interests become a problem, Chaffetz promised. But he also argued Democrats were going overboard by flogging an issue that remains in the theoretical. 

“It is a little ridiculous to send me six letters before he’s even been sworn in to go on, essentially, fishing trips,” he said. “That’s not what we do.”

Legal requirements aside, there are Constitutional requirements involved, something else Chaffetz and Republicans claimed to hold in high regard, but as Trump prepares to set the Constitution on fire, apparently the Chairman of the Oversight Committee will now simply provide him with the gasoline and matches. 

As for fishing trips not being "what we do," let's revisit what Chaffetz said back in October about investigating Hillary Clinton when he thought she was about to win:

The election is 12 days away but Republicans are already promising years of investigations and blocked nominees if Hillary Clinton wins.

 

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says he has lined up enough material from Clinton's four years as secretary of state for two years of probes.

 

"It's a target-rich environment," Chaffetz told The Washington Post. "Even before we get to Day One, we've got two years' worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain't good."

 

Now, let's step back to what Chaffetz said about investigating Trump's conflicts of interest  just four days ago:

 

"I will when there is an allegation of wrongdoing. But he hasn't even been sworn in yet," Chaffetz said Thursday in an interview. "At least let the guy actually become a federal employee before you start screaming for investigations."

 

Yeah, what's the rush? He's not Hillary Clinton after all! Let's wait until there are actual allegations, says Chaffetz as he closes his eyes and ears to allegations and evidence piling up in newspaper reports, on television, and ignores all of those Americans who actually DO care about Trump's conflicts of interest who are screaming about them as I write this. Oversight? Surely you jest, America!

 

Listen to Republicans who say you don't care about Trump's conflicts of interest, not to mention his incompetence and unfitness for office?

 

Just trust Republicans on this, you're not interested in all that. Right?

 

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Marco Rubio Insults Voters' Intelligence During Debate

 Lying For Dummies

This is hardly "breaking news" to anyone who pays attention, but Marco Rubio thinks voters are stupid. Or at least he hopes they are.

In the first of his debates against his Democratic opponent Patrick Murphy earlier this week, Rubio tried to snow voters once again by dancing around the question of whether he would commit to serving a full term if he wins his Senate seat back. You know, the one he swore he wasn't running for again when he flamed out in the presidential primaries.

The audience actually laughed at Rubio's "answer" while he dodged and weaved to try and convince voters he really, REALLY wouldn't run for President again in 2020 and thus abandon the job he rarely shows up for again as he did when he launched his failed 2016 presidential bid. You can see that here in a video posted on a new website by the Florida Democratic Party.

But Rubio didn't end the stupid there. No sir. He had more Trump-like lies to tell, and much like Donald Trump, who Rubio happily supports, Rubio chose one that can easily be fact checked. Worse, (for Rubio, anyway) he chose a lie that's stupid on its face. 

Rubio's statement: 

"If Congressman Murphy trusts Hillary Clinton 100 percent, he’s in rare company, because not even Tim Kaine is willing to say that," Rubio said, "and he’s her running mate."

That's right, Tim Kaine chose to be Hillary Clinton's running mate because he doesn't trust her. And if you believe that, Rubio would like to sell you some waterfront property in South Florida that can double as a "houseboat" of sorts whenever it rains now, thanks to rising seas and climate change, another thing Rubio plays dumb about.

This little statement earned him a "Pants On Fire" from PolitiFact, (I guess only because they don't yet have a "No Pants" rating) because Tim Kaine has been telling voters how and why he overwhelmingly trusts Hillary Clinton since the day she chose him as her Vice Presidential nominee.

Further, Rubio tried to persuade fact checkers it was true by pointing them to an interview Kaine did recently. In the interview Kaine indeed didn't say he "trusts Hillary Clinton," and there was a good reason why: Because during the interview, no one ever asked him that question.

Once again, the only person Marco Rubio proves time and time again can't be trusted is Marco Rubio.

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In Desperation, Marco Rubio Gives Hacking Hypocrisy A Spin

What A Hack

Oh, Marco. Never change...

After getting nearly laughed out of the studio during his debate with Patrick Murphy earlier this week when he danced around the answer to the tough question "Will you serve your entire six year term if reelected?" Marco Rubio is slipping in the polls. The belief that he would just easily sail his way back into the Senate isn't quite working out the way he'd hoped. Even his hometown paper, The Miami Herald, has washed their hands of him and endorsed Murphy instead.

As the man Rubio supports for President would say, "Sad!"

Today Rubio tried a new twist to gain attention, favor, and perhaps votes, and it's quite the pretzel:

For starters, let me just say big of him to wait until he knew there was nothing of political import to be found in those hacks (and no, Rubio, they aren't "leaks." They're called "stolen information") to make such a statement in the first place. After all, Wikileaks didn't just start dropping this stuff yesterday.

Some seeing this declaration of so-called principle on Rubio's part, including some in the beltway media, are patting Rubio on the back for taking a moral stand where others in his party won't. I say don't be gullible. Sure, there's a chance he actually means this, just as there's a chance that climate change isn't really happening and Marco Rubio is just the only one privy to the truth.

It's more likely he's "not talking about it" by talking about it now for good reasons. Let me suggest a few.

He may be hoping he'll get name dropped by Hillary Clinton during the final debate tonight and credited for taking a stand in the hopes of winning over some Murphy voters. The problem there is, of course, he still supports Trump, which brings us to another problem: Trump is the one who invited Russian hackers to take a look-see at Hillary Clinton in the first place, and not long after, it seems they obliged. And then some. This of course, then leads to Trump's Putin problem, and so on, and so on. You could say it's a virtual Matryoshka doll of problems for Rubio.

Of course then there's Rubio's Captain Obvious impersonation. Leave it to Rubio to be the last one to notice the elephant in the room, that his own party, and perhaps his own personal information, are hardly immune to hackers. I can't be the only one picturing the moment when Rubio started trying to mentally picture everything he might have written over the years in his own emails, and then imagining him thinking to himself, "Oh crap!" 

Thirdly, it's truly adorable that Rubio wants to warn others against trying to "capitalize politically" only after giving it careful time and thought to figure out his own way of politically capitalizing on the subject himself, and then "leaking" his holier-than-thou thoughts on the Wikileak problem to the awaiting media.

Never mind that Rubio has, and still does, support the only presidential candidate who is practically inviting Putin to interfere with our election, and our democracy in the first place. That hasn't changed.

So, nice try Marco. Oh, and good luck with your delete key, by the way.

(Matryoshka doll photo: Wikipedia)

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Just. Watch.

First Lady Michelle Obama speaks out about Donald Trump, and why she supports Hillary Clinton:

 

 

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Marco Rubio's Continued Support Of Trump Should Disqualify Him

Marco Rubio Courting Voters For 2020

After 11 women came forward in just one day this week to say that Donald Trump is indeed just the man he boasted to be: one who could sexually assault women and get away with it because of who he is, Marco Rubio is one of the Florida Republicans still endorsing him for President.

Marco Rubio, who has daughters of his own, is still supporting Trump even after revelations that Trump walked in on naked teenagers in the dressing room at a beauty pageant he owned, something that was apparently the norm for him at the other pageants he owned, walk-ins which he called "inspections."

After everything that Donald Trump has said and done for over a year now, beginning with his charge that Mexicans were drug dealers and rapists, to the allegations now spilling out daily for things he's done in the past, the only time Rubio opposed Trump was when he was a threat to Rubio's own political ambitions for 2016 in the presidential primaries. Soon after dropping out, Rubio flip-flopped on his decision to run for his Senate seat again, and as he did so, he endorsed the man who humiliated him, and who did a number of things Rubio criticized him for previously.

Because that's who Rubio is. He will do just about anything, no matter how low and dishonest, to further his political career.

Even if you were to ignore everything else Rubio's done and said, like how he hates his job in the Senate, and the fact that he's set records for his absenteeism there, how he's taken stands against women, health care, the LGBT community, and just about anything that would be good for his constituents -because Obama- his support for an admitted sexual predator for the office of the President tells you all you need to know about his "character" and that alone disqualifies him from office.

The two women you see above are Trump supporters at one of his rallies from photos circulating on Twitter, and there are many more just like them. These are the types of voters Rubio hopes to win over with his support of Trump. Because Rubio is running for the Senate again not because he wants the job, but because he wants to keep the seat warm as a stepping stone to another run for POTUS in 2020. And in doing so, if he has to stand in support of a sexual predator to do it, so be it.

When the "Trump Tapes" first surfaced last week, where Trump bragged that he could sexually assault women and get away with it because he was a star, this was the only thing Rubio said about it, a single tweet:

Which, in Rubio doublespeak, means absolutely nothing. It's a typical move by Rubio, who seeks to have it both ways on any number of positions, which is to publicly "condemn" something while continuing to support it. Because not long after this tweet, Rubio was asked if he still supported Trump. His response was "my position has not changed." He claimed that he wished there were better choices for president, but he supports the one who is an admitted sexual predator (among other things) and continues to bash his opponent, Democrat Patrick Murphy, because he would stand with Hillary Clinton on the issues. You know, issues like improving health care, the economy, creating jobs, improving the lives of women and children, and more. These are the kinds of horrors Rubio cannot stomach, while he apparently can stomach a candidate who walks in on naked teenagers, and who looks at 10-year-old girls and says he'll be dating them in 10 years.

Because that's who Rubio is. He supports Trump and he wants the support of Trump voters like those pictured above in the future.

Even today as I write, more allegations against Trump are coming out. And as I write, Rubio still supports the man the allegations are against.

Among those new allegations today: Trump once said that "deeply troubled teens" are "always the best in bed:" 

In a jaw-dropping 2004 interview with Sirius XM shock jock Howard Stern, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that actress Lindsay Lohan is clearly “deeply troubled” and therefore “great in bed.”

...“What do you think of Lindsay Lohan?” Trump asked Stern.

“I think she’s hot,” Stern replied.

“There’s something there right?” Trump said. “But you have to like freckles. I’ve seen a, you know, close up of her chest and a lot of freckles. Are you into freckles?”

“I’m not into freckles, but the red hair thing I like. I like her on the cover of Entertainment Weekly,” said Stern.

A bit later, Trump said, “Now does the father wreck, does that bother you a little bit?”

“Oh yeah, because first of all, if the father’s a wreck like the way he is…,” Stern said.

“Right,” Trump agreed.

Stern asked, “Can you imagine the sex with this troubled teen?”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Trump said. “She’s probably deeply troubled and therefore great in bed. How come the deeply troubled women, you know, deeply, deeply troubled, they’re always the best in bed?”

That's the man Rubio hopes becomes the next President.

This also surfaced today:

Kristin Anderson was deep in conversation with acquaintances at a crowded Manhattan nightspot and did not notice the figure to her right on a red velvet couch — until, she recalls, his fingers slid under her miniskirt, moved up her inner thigh, and touched her vagina through her underwear. 

Anderson shoved the hand away, fled the couch and turned to take her first good look at the man who had touched her, she said.

She recognized him as Donald Trump.

...Anderson, who said she doesn’t support Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton, did not initially approach The Post. A reporter contacted her after hearing her story from a person who knew of it, and she spent several days trying to decide whether to go public.

Anderson’s decision to do so follows last week’s disclosure by The Washington Post of a 2005 video in which Trump boasted to “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush that his celebrity gave him the ability to grab women “by the p---y. You can do anything.”

Trump insisted that his comments were “just words” and dismissed them as “locker room banter.”

Pressed about them in Sunday night’s debate against Clinton, Trump said that he had never done the things he had talked about, which would constitute sexual assault.

What Anderson described, however, is consistent with the behavior Trump described on the video.

“It wasn’t a sexual come-on. I don’t know why he did it. It was like just to prove that he could do it, and nothing would happen,” Anderson said. “There was zero conversation. We didn’t even really look at each other. It was very random, very nonchalant on his part.”

Rubio, who has young daughters of his own, thinks the man who does this should run the country, because others who think the same just might vote for Rubio in the future.

These are just the latest in a virtual tsunami of women coming forward to say that Trump is very much the man who boasted he could get away with sexually assaulting women because he's Donald Trump, and they have the emotional scars to prove it.

There are a lot of reasons Marco Rubio isn't fit for another go at the Senate job he hates, and likely won't fully serve because he'll take another run at POTUS, but these top the list.

And that goes for every other Republican out there who continues to support this repulsive man for President.

This is not leadership. This is cowardice at the most extreme level. 

Marco Rubio doesn't deserve anyone's vote.

Period.

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 Marco Rubio: I'm With Deplorable

Marco Rubio, the Senator who hates his job, rarely shows up to prove it, and won't commit to serving a full term if reelected in the hopes that even his own state won't reject him a second time in a Presidential run, has stepped up to prove once again that he's a shameless hypocrite.

Rubio vowed early on that he would place the country in danger by supporting someone he called a dangerous con man within reach of the nuclear codes in spite of that man's taste for revenge against those who don't agree with him. And that was before we heard Trump boast of his ability to sexually assault women.

We're talking, of course, about Donald Trump, who humiliated "Little Marco" soundly over and over again during the primaries and continued to do so even after Rubio dropped out.

Even though Trump called Mexicans drug dealers and rapists, called for religious tests for immigration, called for a Muslim ban, serves as a virtual recruiting tool for terrorists, says he loves war and wonders why we can't causally use nuclear weapons, stiffs people who work for him, refuses to release his tax returns and admits he doesn't pay his taxes, has a fondness for dictators, refused to denounce the support of the KKK and then hired the alt-right to run his campaign, ignores intelligence briefings while spreading misinformation about them for political purposes, and on and on and on, Rubio continued to support him. Even after it was discovered that Trump violated the Cuba embargo, a pet issue for Rubio, he ignored it, then tried to cover up for Trump. And to put icing on the cake, a tape revealed that Trump bragged about his ability to sexually assault women because he could get away with it thanks to his "star" power.

After all that, Rubio not only still supports him, but now has re-endorsed him to reaffirm his commitment to the man as if he were renewing his wedding vows. Because Rubio truly has no shame.

Here's what he had to say as he re-committed to an admitted sexual predator:

"I ran against Donald Trump," Rubio said in a statement Tuesday. "And while I respect that voters chose him as the GOP nominee, I have never hesitated to oppose his policies I disagree with. And I have consistently rejected his offensive rhetoric and behavior."

"I disagree with him on many things, but I disagree with his opponent on virtually everything," he added. "I wish we had better choices for President. But I do not want Hillary Clinton to be our next President. And therefore my position has not changed."

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that Rubio stands by the man who thinks sexually assaulting women is perfectly acceptable as a form of "locker room" behavior. After all, Rubio once tried to get under Trump's skin by teasing him about the size of his...well, "hands," during a debate. Rubio also voted to block the Violence Against Women Act because not only would it protect women from domestic abusers in general, but because it would have protected LGBT and immigrant women in particular. Of course Rubio also feels women should be forced to give birth even in cases of rape and incest. So in many ways, Trump and Rubio are a good fit.

While Rubio may well want to hang on to the racist and "deplorable" Trump voters who think women are merely sexual objects and breeders, among their other warped views, there are a lot more voters out there who would rather not hand the country over to a racist dictator wannabe who thinks it's okay to force himself on women.

Rubio says he wishes we had "a better choice for President." Well, we do, and that's Hillary Clinton, who among other things, wants to create jobs, improve the economy, keep improving health care coverage for everyone, and level the playing field on income inequality, rather than Trump, who would rather continue screwing over more than just his female conquests while getting richer via elected office.

But we also have a better choice for Rubio's Senate seat, and that choice is Democrat Patrick Murphy.

Since Rubio doesn't really like the job in the first place, I say let's make his dreams come true and give him lots of time off with our vote in November.

 

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Stipanovich Will Vote For Hillary Clinton, Says Rubio's Support For Trump is "Demoralizing"

Longtime Florida Republican Strategist Mac Stipanovich said today he's voting for Hillary Clinton:

Stipanovich has long opposed Donald Trump. Back in May he penned an open letter to his fellow Republicans urging them to do the same. Now Stipanovich is going a step further:

“In case you didn’t know, I just said something I’ve never said before. I said I was going to vote for Hillary Clinton," he said.

And while Stipanovich says he's still going to cast a vote for Marco Rubio, he also said this:

Stipanovich says Rubio’s reluctance to withdraw that endorsement while criticizing Trump “is just beyond disappointing, it’s demoralizing.”

It's a shame that his disappointment in Rubio isn't enough to cost him his vote.

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Trump Super PAC Chair Rick Scott Refuses To Extend Voter Registration Despite Hurricane

Matthew And Scott, A Perfect Storm For More Voter Suppression

You've probably heard the phrase "never let a good crisis go to waste." Well, so has Florida's Governor Rick Scott, who has employed it liberally since he became governor.

So when Hurricane Matthew came along this week during the final days for voter registration in Florida, threatening to potentially cut off a few of those days before the deadline, he seized the opportunity for political advantage.

Democrats and the Hillary Clinton campaign asked him to extend the deadline in light of the storm, and Scott immediately responded "no" during his statewide tour of pre-hurricane photo-ops.

So as he was telling Florida residents the dangerous storm "would kill them," Scott didn't feel the storm was severe enough to give those who were trying to save their own lives and the lives of others additional time to prepare to participate in democracy after the storm passes. Even as Florida was undergoing the largest mass evacuation in the state's history, (1.5 million living on the east coast) Scott insisted that Floridians had already had enough time to register to vote:

“I’m not going to extend it,” Gov. Rick Scott told reporters in Tallahassee. “Everybody has had a lot of time to register. On top of that, we have lots of opportunities to vote: early voting, absentee voting, Election Day. So I don’t intend to make any changes.”

Even the Republican governors of the other states impacted by Hurricane Matthew, Georgia and South Carolina, saw the importance of extending the voter registration deadlines there and granted them.

But Rick Scott said "no."

By law, Floridians have until October 11 to register. By not extending the deadline to accommodate those who have every right to believe they can register right up until that deadline if they choose, but may now miss that deadline due to unforeseen events like having to flee their communities during a deadly hurricane and/or facing days of putting their lives back together, Scott is essentially shortening their time to register to vote.

Many will recall another extension Scott refused to make in 2012. That year, Scott also refused to extend early voting, and as a result, some waited six hours in line to vote. Many were still in line after the polls closed. This was after Scott had tried other voter suppression tactics like purging voter rolls of eligible voters, making it harder for students to register on college campuses, and refusing to restore voter rights for felons, with help from his SOS who also doesn't see the need for online voter registration.

In essence, Rick Scott wants government to stay out of your business, unless you want to participate in democracy. 

So after ordering the shutdown of government offices in preparation for Hurricane Matthew, (some being elections offices where one could register to vote, many closed for the remainder of the week and potentially into next week), urging nearly the entire east coast of Florida to evacuate, and touring the state urging people to prepare for a dangerous hurricane that had already taken hundreds of lives before it reached Florida, apparently giving those fleeing their homes a little extra time to register to vote was a bridge too far for Scott. In other words, sure, the hurricane may kill you, but if you thought you had plenty of time left to register to vote, well, if you snooze, you lose! 

Now, extending the deadline may not seem like a big deal to some, but Florida is a swing state that Donald Trump would like to win, and Rick Scott would love to deliver it to him. In fact, in addition to being the governor who has the power to extend voting registration deadlines, not to mention extending early voting, Scott is also the chair of a Trump Super PAC called Rebuilding America Now. But that conflict of interest just the beginning.

Currently, Hillary Clinton is beating Trump in the polls. Then there are several other facts and figures to consider, and no doubt Scott considered them as well when he made his decision against extending the deadline.

For one thing, many people do wait until the last minute to register:

Elections supervisors typically see a surge in voter interest immediately before the registration closes. About 50,000 people registered during the final five days in 2012, according to University of Florida professor Daniel A. Smith, who studies Florida voting trends.

“Right at the end, people feel the urgency to do something,” said Gihan Perera, head of Florida New Majority, which called off its sign-up events at schools, churches and football games in South Florida and the Jacksonville area.

Given that last minute registration history, and the fact that this year, the very thought of turning the White House over to the likes of Donald Trump may well drive fear-stricken voters to the polls in record numbers, there's probably more than a good chance that people will "feel the urgency to do something." This week is also one of the busiest weeks for voter registration drive schedules according to those involved. On Wednesday many voter registration drives had to be cancelled in the wake of the storm. Even those registering by mail could lose out. Voter applications must be postmarked by next Tuesday to be accepted. That may be a huge problem considering mail from communities on nearly the entire east coast could either come to a halt, or be lost altogether.

No doubt these considerations were music to Scott's ears. Consider this response from his spokeswoman, after Democrats requested the extension:

“For any political party to ask this in the middle of a storm is political,” said Jackie Schutz, a spokeswoman for Scott, and “our No. 1 focus is protecting life. There’ll be another day for politics.”

However, as Scott was touring the state yesterday in preparation for Matthew, it was indeed very much a day for politics as far as he was concerned:

Late Thursday, about 90 minutes after the governor’s final press briefing, Scott’s office revealed he’d taken calls earlier in the day about Matthew with two top Trump supporters: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The late schedule revision meant the governor avoided questions from reporters about the conversations.

What are the chances that the conversation involved seizing the opportunity to use the hurricane to Trump's advantage? We'll never know since Scott made sure no one in the press could ask him.

 

There's also the fact that this year in Florida, Democrats are crushing Republicans in voter registration as it is:

 

The Florida Democratic Party has submitted about 488,000 voter-registration forms it has collected for this election, while Republicans have submitted roughly 60,000, according to state reports.

 

And if all that isn't enough, there's the possibility of another nightmare scenario in the mind of a law professor who happens to be an election law expert, and to those still having flashbacks to the 2000 election, suffice it to say the idea of this sequence of events could trigger many more.

 

Today, as we get word that so far four Floridans have been killed, and as hurricane Matthew is still creating devastation up the coast, Democratic members of Florida’s Congressional delegation are again asking Scott to extend the deadline by three days. Just three days. To register to vote. In the wake of deadly hurricane possibly displacing over a million voters. 

 

Too much to ask?

 

All of these things combined could create a "perfect storm" if you will, in the mind of Florida's "run government like a business" dictator wannabe who prefers profits over people, if Rick Scott fancies turning the country over to another one who's even worse than he is.

 

And he does.

 

Did I mention Scott happens to be the chair of a Trump Super PAC? 
 

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New Clinton Ad Hitting Trump Over Cuba May Sideswipe Marco Rubio

Hillary Clinton has a new ad running in Florida that blasts Donald Trump over his foray into Cuba in 1998 that allegedly violated the embargo:

A radio ad from the Clinton campaign that premiered Monday across South Florida knocks Donald Trump as two-faced for allegedly violating the Cuba embargo then shortly after railing against Castro to a Cuban American audience.

“One Donald comes to Miami to sip cafecito Cubano and talk about the human rights abuses of Castro’s Communist regime,” a narrator says in “Two Trumps." “The other Donald thinks that because of his money and his business, he’s above the law.”

The ad then summarizes the recent Newsweek report which claims Donald Trump violated the Cuba embargo in 1998. The report revealed that one Trump company paid a consulting firm more than $68,000 to travel to Cuba and explore business opportunities on the island. The firm later instructed Trump executives how to make the expense appear legal by disguising it as a charitable effort, Newsweek reported. The U.S. embargo generally prohibited U.S. companies from doing business in Cuba, with narrow exceptions. 

“While our parents and grandparents were fighting the Castro regime both on and off the island, Donald Trump was looking to line his pocket, and even worse, those of the Castro brothers. This is a serious insult to our community,” the ad concludes.

Months after the alleged business activity in Cuba, as a candidate for the Reform Party’s presidential nomination, Trump told the crowd at a campaign stop in Miami that “putting money and investing money in Cuba right now doesn’t go to the people of Cuba. It goes to Fidel Castro. He’s a murderer. He’s a killer. He’s a bad guy in every respect, and, frankly, the embargo must stand if for no other reason than, if it does stand, he will come down.”

While the ad targets Trump, it may also serve as a reminder of Marco Rubio's latest hypocrisy pretzel.

When the Newsweek article broke, Rubio first said let's wait for the facts, then used a misleading article to twist those facts and defend Trump on an issue Rubio's relentlessly attacked President Obama for. 

Despite the fact that polls show the majority of Cuban-Americans in Rubio's backyard in South Florida support the U.S. decision to open diplomatic relations with Cuba and 63 percent oppose the U.S. embargo of the island nation, Rubio continues to place himself on the wrong side of this issue and it's been one of his favorite lines of attack against the President.

No matter what Trump says and does, Rubio also puts himself on the wrong side of a growing majority of voters who say Trump is unfit to be President. Now that Trump has played both sides on the Cuba issue (he now also attacks the President over it), it appears Rubio is willing to let him get away with it. By doing so, Rubio shows us once again that there is no issue he will take a stand for and later flip-flop on to suit his own political ambitions. And like Trump, if he has to twist the facts to do it, so be it.

In essence, Rubio and Trump are two peas in a rotten pod.

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Dumb And Dangerous

(Updated below.)

Speak casually about using nuclear weapons?

Invite Russia to interfere with our elections?

Suggest your opponent be dealt with as per the Second Amendment?

Incite violence against protesters and the media?

Along with thoroughly humiliating him during the primaries, apparently these are all things Marco Rubio is perfectly willing to tolerate from Donald Trump. 

Now there's a new item to add to the list of crazy and dangerous things that Trump says which will still, STILL never cost him the support of Marco Rubio:

“ISIS is honoring President Obama,” he said during a rally in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.  “He’s the founder of ISIS. He founded ISIS."

“I would say the co-founder would be Crooked Hillary Clinton,” Trump added of Obama’s former secretary of State and his Democratic rival.

In spite of this obviously ridiculous comment, and even after many a conservative tried to help Trump walk it back, he doubled down and insisted it was true before trying to claim it was merely "sarcasm" today.

Of course, it doesn't really matter to Trump supporters, who he, Rubio, and the GOP have primed with inaccuracies to foment hate against the President for years now. After all, Trump is indeed the "founder" of the Birther movement.

Still, Rubio has jumped into the fray, apparently pretending to be the adult in the room.

There's just one problem. While trying to clean up Trump's latest mess, "Little Marco" missed a spot. See if you can find it here:

"ISIS was founded by radical jihadists, not by the president," Rubio said Thursday, according to the Naples Daily News.

Rubio, who is running for reelection in Florida, made the comment in Naples before heading to Orlando to campaign with Trump, according to the report. 

That's right. Rubio made the comment as he was on his way to campaign WITH Donald Trump. 

Marco Rubio, the guy who holds himself out as an expert on terrorism, will still support presidential candidate Trump in spite of the fact that he casually throws words and harebrained ideas about nuclear weapons and terrorism around just to get a reaction for his own personal amusement on the campaign trail.

But then what could we really expect from Rubio, the guy who sought a spot on the Florida 9-11 Select Committee on Security to boost his political career but rarely showed up for the meetings long before he took his absenteeism problem to the U.S. Senate?

When it comes to selling snake oil to the public no matter who gets hurt in the process, Donald Trump and the man he taunted as "Little Marco" really are birds of a feather.

UPDATE: Just minutes after publishing this, Trump flip-flopped again and said he wasn't being sarcastic when he said that President Obama was the founder of ISIS. Because of course he did. 

Meanwhile, Marco Rubio continues to support Trump anyway. Because of course he does.

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