Alabama: A Warning to the Virginia GOP

Neo-confederate, would be Trump mini-me, Corey Stewart

One question for the Republican Party of Virginia is whether or not it learned anything from the defeat of extremist nut case Roy Moore in Alabama this past Tuesday.  At present, the two announce GOP primary candidates seeking to challenge Senator Tim Kaine are extremists and whack jobs much akin to Moore.  One is a neo-Confederate would be Trump mini me named Corey Stewart who is popular with the rabid dog Virginia GOP base.  The other is self-styled "bishop" E.W. Jackson who went down to a crushing defeat in 2013 to Ralph Northam in the Lt. Governor race. Jackson is a virulent homophobe and ,in my view, is utterly un-tethered from objective reality - something that makes him the perfect for Virginia Christofascists.  A column in the Virginian Pilot questions whether the Virginia GOP will nonetheless select one of these extremists or someone else far from normalcy to challenge Kaine.  Given the lunacy of the Virginia GOP base, it is very possible Kaine will be given the gift of a lunatic as his opponent in November, 2018.  Here are column highlights:

Roy Moore's defeat in ruby-red Alabama may spell trouble for Virginia Republican Senate hopefuls Corey Stewart and E.W. Jackson, both of whom, like Moore, have pursued platforms far from the party's establishment wing.

Both Virginia hopefuls entered the Republican primary campaigning to the right of fellow GOP candidates: Stewart as a self- professed mini Donald Trump who has voiced support for Confederate statues and Jackson a firebrand preacher who has called gay people ill.

After the results were tallied in Alabama - first-time candidate Doug Jones bested Moore by more than 20,000 votes - Stewart, who had stumped for Moore, sounded off against GOP leaders who he said "colluded" with Republicans to undermine the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

Jackson, an African-American minister, tweeted: "The black vote did not turn out against Roy Moore because of the sex scandal, but because of alleged racially insensitive remarks & perceived disdain for black voters."

But experts say such attention-grabbing statements don't represent a version of the Republican Party that can topple Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., next year.

"Extremist messaging is problematic in Virginia, but it's even problematic in Alabama," said Stephen Farnsworth, a professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington. Of Virginia, he said: "An evangelical message or a nativist-focused message might get you a nomination, but it'll be toxic in a general election."

The Virginia GOP's craving for a not-so-extreme candidate could be why Del. Nick Freitas, Culpeper, an Army veteran and tea party-style conservative, is picking up early buzz as an alternative to Stewart.

An hour after the results in Alabama came in, Freitas chose to post on Facebook about a youth counseling program and not the election. He did not return messages seeking comment Wednesday.  

In a 2012 interview with the group Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, which has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Jackson called gay people "perverted" and "very sick people psychologically and mentally and emotionally." Later in the same interview he called homosexuality a "horrible sin" that "poisons culture" and "destroys families."  

[E]arlier this week Jackson suggested Stewart had "some dealings" with the Muslim Brotherhood - a jab Stewart labeled vintage Jackson.

"He's a crackpot," Stewart said in a phone interview Wednesday from Alabama. "He's getting even crazier." Stewart said Democrats would not let Jackson off the hook despite his attempts to moderate his comments on gay and transgender people - and neither would he.

Stewart shows no signs of backing off his self-described anti- politically correct soapbox.  In a minute-long video on Facebook shortly after the results came in, Stewart promised to never surrender to the "Republican establishment," which "colluded together with the Democrats to undermine Judge Moore" and will follow suit in his race next year.

Lindsey Graham Reprise: "My Party Is Completely Screwed Up"

In a Republican presidential candidate pool that looked for the most part like a group of escapees from an insane asylum, prior to his suspension of his campaign, Lindsey Graham, a/k/a the Palmetto Queen, much to my surprise actually came across as a reasonable candidate.  While Graham bears his share of the blame for the decline of the GOP into a fetid mass of lunatics suffering from swamp fever, he at least seems  willing to admit how off the rails the GOP has become.  Last night on The Daily Show again enunciated the sad state of the GOP.  Here are highlights from a piece in Huffington Post:

For Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the only thing worse than the prospect of Ted Cruz as president is the prospect of Donald Trump as president.

Graham begrudgingly expressed his support for Cruz in an interview with Trevor Noah on Wednesday night, telling “The Daily Show” host that the Texas senator was his “15th choice” to win the GOP nomination.

Graham ultimately concluded that Cruz should be the nominee because “he’s not Trump.”

And that’s where things got interesting.

“If Donald Trump carries the banner of my party,” Graham said, “I think it taints conservatism for generations to come. I think his campaign is opportunistic, race-baiting, religious bigotry, xenophobia. Other than that, he’d be a good nominee.”

Noah played a short video clip from late January in which Graham, who was himself a candidate earlier in the presidential race, was asked if he preferred a Cruz nomination or a Trump nomination.

“That’s... like [asking if I’d rather be] shot or poisoned,” Graham responded in the video, “What does it really matter?”

Asked by Noah which candidate is doing the shooting and which is the poison, Graham answered, “Donald is like being shot in the head. You might find an antidote to poisoning, I don’t know, but maybe there’s time.”

“I’m saying my party is completely screwed up for the moment,” he added.

Palin Lunacy; Trump + Gollum; Trump Supporters Are 'Single Men Who Masturbate To Anime'

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are getting a bit rough and tumble in their primary race, but it is nothing compared to the lunacy surrounding the Donald Trump campaign which ranges from an incoherent Sarah Palin - what else is new? - to rants by GOP strategists who are venting over the elements of the insane GOP base that are supporting Donald Trump.  I find Trump's embrace of Sarah Palin's endorsement particularly interesting because it was John McCain's nomination of of Palin as his VP pick that drove my late mother to say "I'm done" to the GOP back in 2008.  Meanwhile, I find GOP strategist Rick Wilson's comments on Trump supporters to be both hysterical and likely 100% on point.   And then there is Ran Paul's equating of Donald Trump with Gollum.  First, some of the commentary on Trump is receiving via the New York Daily News for his embrace of Palin:

Just when you thought it was safe to take politics seriously again, gaffe-prone Sarah Palin stepped back on the presidential stage Tuesday to endorse her spotlight-loving, soulmate — Donald Trump.

Palin, the former Alaska governor turned vice presidential candidate turned political pundit, stood side by side with the billionaire business mogul turned casino owner turned Republican presidential front-runner to tell an Ames, Iowa, crowd how Trump will save America.

“I am here because, like you, I know it is now or never,” Palin told the cheering crowd.

Just when you thought it was safe to take politics seriously again, gaffe-prone Sarah Palin stepped back on the presidential stage Tuesday to endorse her spotlight-loving, soulmate — Donald Trump.

Palin, the former Alaska governor turned vice presidential candidate turned political pundit, stood side by side with the billionaire business mogul turned casino owner turned Republican presidential front-runner to tell an Ames, Iowa, crowd how Trump will save America.

“I am here because, like you, I know it is now or never,” Palin told the cheering crowd.

The match made in reality show heaven was a setback for Trump’s GOP opponents, especially Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who had closed the gap with Trump in recent weeks in Iowa.

The comments of GOP strategist Rick Wilson about Trump's white male supporters almost made me burst out laughing.  Crooks and Liars has the details.  Here are excerpts:

While explaining that he believes that Donald Trump's success in the Republican party does not mean that establishment conservatism is dying, GOP strategist Rick Wilson dismissed the "childless single men" who support Trump's presidential bid.

"The fact of the matter is, most of them are childless single men who masturbate to anime. They’re not real political players. These are not people who matter in the overall course of humanity," Wilson said of Trump supporters on MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes."

Then, lastly there is Rand Paul's equating of Trump with Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Here are excerpts from Politico:

Sen. Rand Paul has a new attack line against Donald Trump: The tycoon is Gollum from J.R. R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.” 

In a Facebook post, Paul writes, “One candidate on this national stage wants you to give him power. He tells you he is rich, so he must be smart. If you give him power he claims he will fix America, but there is another tradition in America. A tradition that believes that power corrupts, and that our goal should be not to gain power but to contain power or limit Presidential power.”

Electing Gollum should not be our objective,” Paul continues. “This race should be about which candidate will best protect you from an overbearing government. I am the only one on this national stage who really doesn’t want power or dominion over you. I want to set you free, I want to leave you alone, and I want a government so small you can barely see it.”

A picture of the real estate mogul is at the top with the text, “Electing Gollum should not be our objective.”

As I said when Trump first entered the race, get out plenty of popcorn!!

Why We Should Celebrate The Trump-Cruz Ascendancy

Following up on the last post is excerpts from a Washington Monthly piece that argues that sane Americans should welcome, if not, celebrate a Trump Cruz contest and what it may do to the Republican Party.  Additionally, the piece makes the totally accurate case that a Trump or Cruz nomination would drive a wooden stake through the false media driven myth that both the Republican Party and the Democrat Party are equally extreme.  The fact is that the GOP is now fully immersed in lunacy that is irreversible unless and until the Christofascists and white supremacists are driven from the party. The problem is that to rid the party of this cancer, one would likely have to kill the patient.  Sort of a case of having to use Agent Orange to kill weeds in your yard and then finding everything in it is now dead. Here are article highlights:

As we enter the third week of January—just two short weeks away from the Iowa caucuses—it is beginning to dawn even on the most stolid political media figures that Donald Trump is the likeliest bet to win the Republican presidential nomination. It is also becoming apparent even to those most in denial that in the event of Trump’s failure Ted Cruz, the most hated man in Washington and 2nd most unelectable of the GOP candidates in November, will almost certainly become the nominee.

Most of the political and journalistic class see the prospect of a Trump/Cruz nomination as so unthinkable that they have spent months denying its very possibility in the face of overwhelming evidence. That’s understandable for two reasons. First, the history of recent Republican elections strongly suggests that Republican voters flirt with anti-establishment candidates before choosing the traditionally sober candidate. Those who believe that this election represents a realigning paradigm shift—even if, as with the those who predicted the housing bubble calamity, they are ultimately right—are presumed wrong and unserious by default. Second, the mere notion that a majority of the GOP electorate would walk into a voting booth in cold blood and choose Trump or Cruz as their nominee would upend the accepted journalistic narrative in which both parties are presumed equally extreme, and destructive partisan rancor is blamed not on the will of the voters but on the political culture of Washington.

The prospect of either Ted Cruz or Donald Trump actually taking the oath of office is understandably terrifying to many people on both sides of the aisle. Their exclusionary, divisive and even totalitarian-inspired politics show an extreme lack of judgment and poor temperament for the office that should give any reasonable voter pause regardless of their views on the issues of the day. And even though both Trump and Cruz are the least electable of the leading GOP candidates in a general election, the vagaries of campaign gaffes, scandals, and unforeseen events could easily throw the race to a Republican underdog. The danger is therefore quite clear.

Even so, the Trump/Cruz ascendancy on the right is nonetheless a good thing for American politics. There are two principal reasons why:

1) It disempowers the conservative economic and media tycoons who created the malaise that fuels the anger of the GOP base. The American middle class has suffered greatly at the hands of the same corporate leaders who have propped up establishment conservative politics for the last several decades.
[A] rogue’s gallery of conservative tycoons from Koch to Walton to Adelson has been buttressed by the likes of ruthless media figures like Roger Ailes and conscience-free consultants like Karl Rove, and feeds an increasingly dangerous and poisonous electoral monster that cripples the possibility of progressive change, particularly via low-turnout midterm elections. Now that monster has turned on its creators. 

No longer can the Republican party of the Bushes and Romneys count on an attack dog to do their dirty work for them on election day so they can implement policy that benefits only economic elites while keeping a sunny, smiling Reaganesque face. The monster has broken free of its chains and it is demanding at long last to be fed. 

No matter how dangerous the outside possibility of Trump or Cruz winning a general election may be, we should all celebrate the panic and desperation of clueless economic elites . . . . 

If you’re a Republican, the disempowerment of the generation of leaders who left the Republican Party a legacy of failure in economics and foreign policy should be welcome even at the expense of temporary embarrassment. If you’re a Democrat you should fear the dangerous beast that is the Trump-Cruz ascendancy, but watching it gorge on the flesh of the malevolent wizards who created it is not only a source of pleasant schadenfreude, but ultimately good for the country.

2) The Trump-Cruz electorate is shrinking, but the power of concentrated wealth is growing. It’s no secret that even as Republican electoral fortunes depend increasingly on aged whites who constitute a smaller percentage of the total population every year, so too do Cruz and Trump rely particularly heavily on these voters within the GOP coalition. Barring the nightmare scenario of a Trump victory followed by a totalitarian consolidation of authority, the likelihood of a Trump-Cruz power coalition surviving more than a four-year cycle is quite low.
If you believe, as most progressives and even many conservative activists do, that the combination of big business interests and crony-capitalist Washington Consensus lobbyists are the biggest challenges facing the country, then a future led by Rubio/Bush is far more to be feared than one led by Trump/Cruz. A similar dynamic exists on the left in the Democratic nomination fight between Clinton and Sanders. A very large number of Americans feel that the system is so broken that it needs an outsider’s wake-up call from any direction—and there is copious evidence to suggest that they are right.

Is the Trump-Cruz ascendancy in the GOP scary? Of course it is. But we should celebrate and encourage it nonetheless. The country is likely to be better for it in the end.

Federal Birther Lawsuit Filed Against Ted Cruz

The political campaign warfare between neo-Fascist Donald Trump and extremist Ted Cruz has intensified as a birther law suit is filed against Ted Cruz.  While Trump is not outwardly connected to the federal lawsuit, many suspect that Trump supporters are behind the filing which seems aimed at kneecapping Cruz in advance of the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries.  Bloomberg Business looks at the lawsuit and some of the likely political machinations behind it. The lawsuit can be viewed here.  Here are some article highlights.

Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz should be disqualified from the race because he isn’t a “natural-born citizen,” a fellow Texan claims in a “birther” challenge filed against the senator in a U.S. court.

The suit seeks a court definition of the term to clarify whether Cruz -- who was born in Canada to an American mother -- can or can’t serve if elected.

“This 229-year question has never been pled, presented to or finally decided by or resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Houston attorney Newton B. Schwartz Sr. said in his 28-page complaint. “Only the U.S. Supreme Court can finally decide, determine judicially and settle this issue now.”

Claiming that “time is of the essence” because of the rapidly approaching Iowa caucuses and March 1 Super Tuesday primaries, Schwartz asked that the case be expedited for resolution by the nation’s highest court as soon as possible.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump pressed the issue during a televised candidate debate Thursday evening in South Carolina, saying he’s bringing up Cruz’s Canadian birthplace “because now he’s doing a little bit better” in the polls. Trump insisted that Cruz receive a judgment from the courts because it would be bad for Republicans to have the issue hanging over their presidential or vice-presidential nominee.

“There is a big overhang. A big question mark on your head,” Trump told Cruz. “You can’t do that to the party.”

Schwartz, 85, said in a phone interview he isn’t connected to any particular campaign, though he personally “probably” supports Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator seeking the Democratic nomination.

The case is Schwartz v. Cruz, 4:16-cv-00106, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).

Donald Trump: George W. Was President on 9-11

The August 6, 2001 Briefing to Bush

As noted yesterday, Donald Trump has had the audacity to bring up a fact that Republicans find particularly inconvenient given their Benghazi witch hunt against Hillary Clinton which is ultimately based solely on the fact that she was Secretary of State at the time: George W. Bush was president on September 11, 2001 and, by their theory against Hillary, is responsible for the massive security failure on that fateful date.  Of course, the truth is that Bush had much more warning about a potential Bin Laden back attack that existed in the Benghazi situation.  But in the GOP alternate universe, none of this matters - or at least did not until The Donald spoke the truth (for a change).  Talking Points Memo looks at the continuing dispute roiling the GOP.  Here are excerpts: 

On Friday, Donald Trump generated substantial controversy when he asserted that George W. Bush was president at the time of the 9/11 attacks.

“When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time,” Trump said. “He was president, O.K.?”

Jeb Bush immediately pushed back, calling Trump’s comments “pathetic” and insisting “my brother kept us safe.”

The media jumped on to the burgeoning controversy. According to The New York Times the idea that Bush was president on 9/11 and failed to stop the attack is a “break from the GOP.” 

According to ABC News, George W. Bush spent the entire month of August 2001 on vacation at his ranch in Texas, which is not typical behavior for someone who is president. Other reports, however, reveal Bush continue to receive the “Presidential Daily Brief” at the ranch, strongly suggesting he was still president.

According to ABC News, George W. Bush spent the entire month of August 2001 on vacation at his ranch in Texas, which is not typical behavior for someone who is president. Other reports, however, reveal Bush continue to receive the “Presidential Daily Brief” at the ranch, strongly suggesting he was still president.

If Hillary has guilt for Benghazi, the GOP and Bush have much more guilt for the massive failure to stop 9-11 from occurring.

New National Poll: Donald Trump Surges, Jeb Bush 3rd

The Republican Party continues to see the consequences of making itself the party of angry aging whites longing for the past and lost white privilege, outright racists, and far right Christian extremists as a new national poll shows the always bombastic Donald Trump surging and assumed GOP establishment candidate Jeb "Jebbie" Bush slipping down to third place.   As Trump surges, the ugly truths about the GOP continue to be highlighted and more and more Americans are waking up to the selfishness, greed, and extremism of the GOP base.  A piece in Politico looks at the most recent poll findings.  Here are highlights:

Donald Trump leads the GOP presidential field by a significant margin, according to a new Quinnipiac University national poll released Thursday.

The poll also indicates that Ohio Gov. John Kasich could ride a post-announcement bump onto the stage for next week’s debate in Cleveland, despite fears that Trump’s wall-to-wall media coverage had overshadowed his late entry into the race.

Fully 20 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters said they would vote for Trump if the primary were held today — the largest share any single candidate has received in Quinnipiac’s seven surveys over the past two years. That puts the brash real-estate magnate ahead of the two other candidates who earn double-digit support: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 13 percent and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 10 percent.

It’s a four-way tie for fourth place — with pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio all at 6 percent. Kasich, at 5 percent, is tied for eighth place with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

That’s enough to vault Kasich into the top 10 in POLITICO’s analysis of the most recent live-caller polling of the GOP primary — and potentially onto the dais at the Fox News debate on Aug. 6. Kasich replaces former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who earned just 2 percent of the vote in the Quinnipiac poll and slipped to 11th in the POLITICO average.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stays at ninth in the average thanks to his 3 percent haul in Thursday’s Quinnipiac poll. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who earned 2 percent in the Quinnipiac poll, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, at 1 percent, are tied for 12th place in the POLITICO average — a full percentage point behind Kasich for the 10th-place spot.

Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former New York Gov. George Pataki also earned just 1 percent of the vote — and are all well behind in the average.

Trump’s strength in the poll comes primarily from male voters: He earns 24 percent of the vote among men. But he also leads among female voters, with 15 percent of the vote to Bush’s 12 percent and Walker’s 9 percent.

[F]or Trump, a 59 percent majority of voters views him unfavorably, with 27 percent who have a favorable opinion. But his image ratings have actually improved over the past two months: In Quinnipiac’s late May poll — taken before he announced his candidacy — just 20 percent viewed him favorably, and 69 percent viewed him unfavorably.

In short, the spectacle continues.  Meanwhile, the Koch brothers seek to derail Trump in favor of one of their puppets.

Karl Rove Calls Donald Trump a Complete Idiot

Donald Trump's entry into the GOP presidential clown car promises to bring lots of entertainment value - especially as other Republicans launch attacks on Trump.  Perhaps the highest entertainment, however, will be how Trump may force other candidates to address his racist statements and other batshitery.  Karl Rove - not my favorite person by any means - has joined those attacking Trump and has described Trump as a "complete idiot"  and "moron." The Chicago Sun Times looks at Rove's attacks on Trump.  Here are highlights:

During a visit to Missouri on Monday, noted Republican strategist Karl Rove had some choice words for newly declared presidential candidate Donald Trump.

While speaking at a Missouri Boys State event (which was closed to the media), Rove offered his take on the massive GOP field, which he described as having three “tiers” of candidates.
Trump, according to Rove, is not only a “third tier” candidate, but also a “complete idiot.”

Here’s a full transcript of what Rove said, via the Show Me Progress blog. 

I do think there are sort of three tiers of candidates. There are three candidates who, in reverse alphabetical order, Walker, Rubio, Bush, or alphabetical order, Bush, Rubio, Walker, or inside out order, Rubio, Walker, Bush, or Rubio Bush, Walker – that’s the top tier. We’re likely to see the nominee come out of that group.

We have a second tier which includes people like Ted Cruz and Governor [Rick] Perry and Ben Carson and maybe a couple of others. And one or two, you know, one or, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum. Maybe one of those gets into the top tier. But right now they’re on the second tier.

And then we’ve got sort of the third tier which are people who really are unlikely to break through. They’re good people, some of them, but they’re unlikely to break through. Or, in the case of Donald Trump, they’re complete idiots. [laughter, applause]    

So, it’s early, but I think the first we’re likely to see somebody win the nomination out of the first tier. And we’re likely to see one or two surprises out of the second tier. And the third tier is gonna be mostly entertaining, except for that guy Trump who’s a complete moron. [laughter] 

Get out the popcorn!! 

National Review Eviscerates Donald Trump's Candidacy

On a less disturbing note - although it demonstrates how insane the Republican Party has become - the National Review (hardly a liberal outlet) is carrying a piece that utterly eviscerates Donald Trump and his narcissistic campaign circus.  Reports now are out that trump paid actors $50 a piece to attend his so-called campaign announcement.  Here are column highlights:

Donald Trump may be the man America needs. Having been through four bankruptcies, the ridiculous buffoon with the worst taste since Caligula is uniquely positioned to lead the most indebted organization in the history of the human race.

The Trump conglomerate is the Argentina of limited-liability companies, having been in bankruptcy as recently as 2009. To be sure, a lot of companies went bankrupt around then. The Trump gang went bankrupt in 2004, too, and in 2001. Before that, Trump was in bankruptcy court back in 1991 when his Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City — the nation’s first casino-cum-strip-club, an aesthetic crime against humanity that is tacky by the standards of Atlantic City — turned out to be such a loser that Trump could not make his debt payments.

Donald Trump, being Donald Trump, announced his candidacy at Trump Plaza, making a weird grand entrance via escalator — going down, of course, the symbolism of which is lost on that witless ape. But who could witness that scene — the self-made man who started with nothing but a modest portfolio of 27,000 New York City properties acquired by his millionaire slumlord father, barely out of his latest bankruptcy and possibly headed for another one as the casino/jiggle-joint bearing his name sinks into the filthy mire of the one U.S. city that makes Las Vegas look respectable, a reality-television grotesque with his plastic-surgery-disaster wife, grunting like a baboon about our country’s “brand” and his own vast wealth — and not see the peerless sign of our times?

On the substance, Trump is — how to put it gently? Oh, why bother! — an ass. Not just an ass, but an ass of exceptionally intense asininity.

Trump’s is a fill-in-the-blanks agenda: He claims to have a plan for defeating ISIS, but he cannot say what it is for reasons of operational security for the mission that exists only in his mind. He assures us the plan is “foolproof,” but whoever coined that word had never met a fool like Donald Trump. Immigration? Build a wall and force the Mexicans to pay for it.

We’ve been to this corner of Crazytown before. If we’re going to have a billionaire dope running for the presidency, I prefer Ross Perot and his cracked tales of Vietnamese hit squads dispatched to take him out while Lee Atwater plotted to crash his daughter’s wedding with phonied-up lesbian sex pictures.

The problem with messiah complexes is that there’s no way to know whether you are going to rise on the third day unless somebody crucifies you. Trump has announced, and I say we get started on that.

If the above hasn't made you laugh enough, check out Cher's twitter comments on "The Donald" here.