Lynna is your curator. I don’t think this thread will run dry for a long time.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Lynna is your curator. I don’t think this thread will run dry for a long time.
I also read these threads regularly, thanks Lynna.
Thank you, PZ, for refreshing this thread. (Even though the thread is active, there’s an automatic cutoff to commenting after a certain amount of time. This is one way of keeping spammers etc. from harassing PZ via older threads. PZ refreshes the Moments of Political Madness thread when it hits the cutoff.)
Marco Rubio said some stupid stuff about reproductive rights for women.
ABC New link.
Rubio wants the authority to force women to bear a child, even a child that may be the result of rape or incest.
Other, choice Marco Rubio moments of stupidity and/or robotic malfunction from the previous Moments of Political Madness thread.
Ted Cruz still doesn’t know what “carpet bombing” is, but whatever it is, he’s for it:
Carpet bombing involves indiscriminate bombing of large areas without regard to collateral damage.
In the debate, Martha Raddatz pressed Cruz on the question of carpet bombing:
Cruz also came out in favor of waterboarding, as did Trump, with Trump adding that he would use interrogation techniques worse than waterboarding.
Debate transcript from the Washington Post.
Rather malfunction than “madness”, but worth mentioning here:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/wp-content/blogs.dir/36/files/2016/02/robio.gif
I know this is hard to believe since Ted Cruz is so extremely rightwing already, but it is true that he has moved further to the right in the past two months.
In December, Cruz said:
That was then. Now that he needs to court the most extreme, most evangelical torture wing of the Republican/Tea Party faithful, Cruz has changed his tune, but he has changed it in a way that would make a lawyer blush:
New Republic Link.
Donald Trump is to the right of Cruz when it comes to torture:
The quoted text is from the debate transcript. Link in comment 3.
Ted Cruz said some more stupid stuff about women’s rights:
Mother Jones link.
re: Lynna, OM #7
I wonder if Cruz realizes that the armed forces in the US are voluntary, and that the government would not “forcibly put them in a foxhole”? If they consented to join the military and they were part of a combat force, they could end up in a foxhole, but no entity would have forced it upon them. Also, if the republicans would stop trying to start wars all over the world, the opportunity for such a scenario would decrease dramatically.
johnson 28, good points. I agree. Cruz definitely has his facts wrong, as well as his attitude.
Also, if women are in a foxhole with a “220-pound psychopath” is that saying something really derogatory about male members of the military? Cruz’s comments are nonsense from top to bottom.
Ted Cruz’s campaign is continuing the tradition it has established of being the sleaziest Republican campaign in the race.
In Iowa his campaign staff and supporters announced that Ben Carson was leaving the race, so caucus for Ted! Nope. Carson was taking a brief break in Florida, and was not leaving the race.
The Cruz campaign also sent “voter violation” mailers to potential caucus goers, trying to scare them into voting for Ted.
Now, in New Hampshire, the Cruz campaign sent out a mailer that says “check enclosed” on the envelope, but what is inside is a fake check made out to Cruz.
Super Bowl politcs: Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani dissed Beyoncé’s halftime performance, claiming that she promoted the Black Panther Party and incited violence against police.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/giuliani-beyonce-super-bowl
Continuing his grumpy old man schtick, Giuliani said:
I saw some violence in the stadium, but it consisted of large football players crashing into each other. One was even taken off the field and treated for concussion.
So what’s this “going further with torturing people” that Trump’s in favor of, anyway? Floggings? Thumb screws? Making them watch reruns of The Apprentice?
Oh, no. This is not good news, and it has the potential to turn into worse news: another setback for reasonable gun safety laws.
Think Progress link.
(In the previous incarnation of this thread, there was some discussion about the term “Western Hemisphere” in respect to a proposed, and entirely unconstitutional, state bill authorizing(? requiring?) that state’s Governor to use her/his non-existent military authority to attack / expel refugees who are not . Almost precisely when the last incarnation autoclosed, I was trying to post the following…)
If you use the conventional definition of Western Hemisphere, It excludes a fair amount of Europe and includes part of Africa: “The Western Hemisphere is a geographical term for the half of the earth that lies west of the prime meridian […] and east of the antimeridian […]. In this sense, the Western Hemisphere consists of the Americas, the western portions of Europe and Africa, the extreme eastern tip of Russia, numerous territories in Oceania, and a portion of Antarctica, while excluding some of the Aleutian Islands to the southwest of the Alaskan mainland.”
microraptor @12, I don’t know what Trump has in mind as expanded torture techniques, but I do know that he just confirmed that he would be willing to stand in front of a bunch of Syrian children and tell them that they can’t come to the USA. Link.
You noticed no doubt that Trump also thinks torture works. So, all righty then, he is stupid, ill-informed, and cruel. Got it. If we had video of him making Syrian children cry I don’t think that would play well with the general public.
In other news, cruel and stupid officials in Texas want to reclassify detention centers for undocumented immigrant children as “child care facilities.” I know Republican officials have a penchant for naming things the opposite of what they actually are, but this move is really disgusting.
Big red flag right there. The private prison facilities in Texas have a terrible reputation.
Link.
Ted Cruz said some more stupid stuff about climate change:
Marco Rubio said stupid stuff about climate change:
Donald Trump called climate change a “hoax.”
Mother Jones link.
For those with the stomach for it, here is a roundup of the lies Ted Cruz told during Saturday’s Republican debate.
In other news Robot Rubio hosted a Super Bowl party. It was sad.
Salon link.
This is a followup to a story we started following in November. New doctrinal guidelines issued by mormon church leaders in Utah have resulted in the deaths of mormons who are gay.
Slate link.
Reminder: What the thugs say, and especially what teh trum-prat says, uses one concept of “reality”, what they do / mean uses an unrelated concept of “reality”, and (frequently fortunately) what they accomplish is governed by Reality as most people know it.
He could “confirm” he is a wazzock, and whilst that happens to be correct, I still would be very cautious in believing him. (He’d first have to convince me he knows what a “wazzock” is…)
More on the robotic nature of Marco Rubio’s campaign: it turns out that even for interviews or question sessions with reporters, his staff selects the reporters. There is no free exchange.
CNN link
Sen. John McCain really dislikes Trump’s call for more torture. McCain is a Republican, but he does not hold back in his condemnation of Trump’s love of torture.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mccain-trump-waterboarding-torture
A bunch of Republican legislators in Michigan want to do away with permits for concealed-carry weapons. These guys; Tom Barrett, Lee Chatfield, Triston Cole, and Jim Runestad, introduced House Bills 5301-5304 on Feb. 2.
Their claim is that the Concealed Pistol License permit requirement that is currently on the books in Michigan is “government over-reach.”
Cole’s argument descended further into stupidity as he went on:
Michigan Live link.
There’s often a long line of likely candidates for worst Congress Critter, but maybe we should move Sheriff Paul Babeu to the head of the line. This rightwing doofus is running for Congress in the state of Arizona. Before that, he lived in Massachusetts, where he ran a school for troubled teens. The DeSisto School was notorious. A state investigation turned up all kinds of nastiness:
That’s not what kept Babeu out of Congress on his first attempt. No, the tactic that defeated him was a news that he was gay. Classy Arizona politics.
A home video, newly-emerged, gives us a taste of just how bad Babeu is.
Democratic Rep. Katherine Clark said of DeSisto School and Babeu:
Babeu worked on the Mitt Romney campaign, and on the John McCain campaign.
Bette Midler tweeted a photo of Donald Trump, with this caption:
Republican Congress Critters have found a new way to insult President Obama.
The Obama administration has prepared a new budget proposal, which was supposed to be presented to the Senate and House Budget Committees tomorrow, (during traditional budget week). The chairmen of those two committees refused to invite Shaun Donovan, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to speak about the Obama plan.
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/02/08/congress-declines-to-hear-obamas-budget-proposal-in-person/
The end result will be more obstructionism on the part of Congress.
Tonight’s Rachel Maddow show will include an interview with Hillary Clinton.
In international news, the United Arab Emirates joined Saudi Arabia is saying that they are ready to send ground troops to Syria to fight ISIS.
Jeb Bush made a strange announcement about the Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United. That’s the ruling that really made “Super PACs” popular as a way to finance campaigns. Jeb is supported by the Super PAC “Right to Rise,” which has raised more than a $100 million for him.
But Jeb said today that he would “eliminate” (strange word choice) the Citizens United ruling.
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is still considering entering the race for president.
The quote is from an interview in the Financial Times.
If he runs, Bloomberg plans to run on a third party ticket.
Transphobia is on public display in the South Dakota legislature.
Of course they are all Republicans.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/02/08/3747263/south-dakota-transphobia-on-parade/
This is a followup to comment 27. This makes Jeb Bush’s strange statement about eliminating Citizens United more understandable.
In other words, he wants all those billionaires contributing to his Super Pac to give the money directly to him instead. He wants to do away with the pesky $2,700 limit on individual contributions to his campaign.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/02/08/3747327/jeb-bush-citizens-united/
Since going after the Republicans still standing would be like shooting fish in a barrel, another topic: What in the name of Hades went through Madeleine Albright and Gloria Steinem’s minds to make them open their mouths?! Thank you, you two, for reminding me why I refuse to vote for that entitled corporate shill Hillary if (and probably when) she gets the nomination. I don’t know what rock you live under but insulting and threatening the voters – especially when there is a candidate we actually like – is not a good way to endear us to you.
I particularly marveled at the elegant and presidentially-competent manner in which they were all introduced to the debate.
Made me feel all warm and heart-palpitatingly squishy deep inside. Those Republicans certainly have that knack of following along the lines of a Frank Capra sort of celebration of American Know How.
After that it was beyond description.
A followup to comment 31.
Madeleine Albright used one the catchphrases she has used for decades, and she used it in the wrong setting. It was a stupid and clueless move.
Gloria Steinem just said something stupid, and then did not apologize properly.
Both of them did Hillary Clinton no favors. But neither one of those women is Hillary Clinton. She is not them. The “entitled corporate shill Hillary” sounds like oversimplification to me.
Madeleine Albright said:
That kind of threat was completely out of place in a presidential campaign. It had the unfortunate effect of insinuating that young women should vote for Clinton because she is a woman. Wrong idea. Wrong tone. Cluelessness when it came to where she was when she chose to repeat her favorite catchphrase, one that has been memorialized on Starbucks coffee cups.
Gloria Steinem said:
Oh, FFS, Gloria. Really? Gloria is 81 years old. Maybe she still has not gotten over the way things were when she was a girl. The idea that young women will choose a candidate based on what young men are choosing is an insult to young women.
Here’s Steinem’s apology:
Yeah, yeah. That’s almost a not-pology. And you did some damage.
Those two elderly women rebuked young women voters. Yuck. Offensive.
Well put Lynna. But looming larger than Albright and Steinem’s words (and their non-apologies) was Clinton’s equally absent reaction (“We’re getting offended by everything these days”) which bordered on being annoyed she even had to address this. This is emblematic of Clinton: that is, someone who sees the White House as her birthright, the election as a mere formality, and the votes as due to her. It is this overwhelming arrogance – coupled with her previous and/or current positions on everything from Iraq to same sex rights to banking – that make it clear she has no intention of making decisions based on the interest of the people or the country and frankly make her just as frightening as most of the current Republican crop. I have no intention of voting for her even as the lesser of two evils.
On another note the “special place in hell” remark, no matter when or against whom it was used, is condescending and insulting in its very nature. I disagree with nearly everything the current Republican crop stands for but for me to proclaim such a line against anyone who might vote for one in November would be childish and pathetic. Would a vote for, lets say Jeb, be short-sighted? Yes. Misguided? Yup. Not in the people’s best interest? I would say so. But its that rigid “with us or against us” mentality that is a disgusting feature of both the hard right and the hard left whenever it appears.
In other words, you’ll be voting for the greater of two evils, which, of course, is the practical effect of not voting, or voting for a third party. You truly don’t see any difference in the two parties?
If I might ask, what is it that the Republicans stand for that you agree with?
Thank you Lynna for that wealth of information! The work behind it is evident and a model of how it is done, of how far one can go in the digging. It is truly an inspiration!
“Cruz also came out in favor of waterboarding, as did Trump, with Trump adding that he would use interrogation techniques worse than waterboarding.”
That these war crimes are today considered acceptable, even honorable, in the RNC debate is partially due to Obama administration not prosecuting the tortures from the Bush administration.
Donald Trump repeated a misogynistic slur last night:
Yes, Trump encouraged someone else to say “pu_sy” first so that he had an excuse to repeat it into the microphone.
MSNBC link.
The Marco Robot got caught in a recursive loop again: You Tube link.
I’m the father of two little girls … They are capable of doing anything in their heart’s desire. But the idea that their government would forcibly put them in a foxhole with a 220-pound psychopath trying to kill them doesn’t make any sense at all.
Um, Senator Cruz? Question. Exactly who in the government is trying to put your little girls into a foxhole with a 220-pound psychopath trying to kill them?
I see a psychopath using your little girls for some crass and rather transparent pandering, but it’s not the government.
In an interview with Hillary Clinton, Rachel Maddow draws her out on the “bernie bros” without actually mentioning them. Clinton also doesn’t mention the “clit-trash” etc. insults aimed at people who support her, but she alludes to them indirectly. Maddow makes the point that she doesn’t seem to get the really nasty comments, though some are pretty aggressive.
The video starts with with a question about the state of the race, about a rumored “shake up” in campaign staff, etc. This part of the interview is 9:51 minutes long. Link to interview. Other subjects like Dodd-Frank, donations from hedge funds guys, etc. are covered. Clinton made some good points about the powerful groups she stood up to. More detail on that would have made those points better.
This interview was done at the end of a long day in which Clinton had visited Flint, Michigan to help organize the help that is needed there. Here is the interview that covered the Flint, Michigan toxic water crisis.
We sometimes focus on the heated language between the Sanders and Clinton campaigns, but the rhetoric coming from the Republican side is far more heated, much less based on facts, and more relentless. Here is an interview in which Hillary Clinton discusses with Rachel Maddow “the residual effect of years of Republican attacks is that many voters have a general feeling of distrust, and how she plans to address that in her campaign.” Interesting interview. In many ways, there’s a general point here about how rightwing repetition of myths and slurs causes that crap to stick to all Democratic candidates, not just Clinton.
This is a followup to comment 38.
More coverage of Donald Trump’s use of a misogynistic slur:
Trump was both glorying in the moment on morning TV talk shows, and at the same time defending himself:
Link.
Here’s your almost-daily update on the Bundy militants occupying the wildlife refuge in Oregon.
There are only four of them left. One is David Fry, a tech guy. Thanks to him we have new crazy videos to watch.
Daily Kos link.
Partial transcript on Twitter of the audio from one video.
It looks like Bernie Sanders is going to rack up a big win in New Hampshire. All of the poll results are not in yet, of course. I’ll update this later.
In other news, one of Trump’s sons, Trump Jr., whined a bit to reporters:
Link
“In other words, you’ll be voting for the greater of two evils, which, of course, is the practical effect of not voting, or voting for a third party.”
That is a similar logic to the creationist creed that atheism is a religion. The absence of support for A does not equate to support for B. Regardless of who might be functionally worse in office, not casting a vote has the actual effect of saying ‘I support neither of you’ and forces the party in the future to run someone who does stand for the voters. Many elections have been decided not because of the support one candidate had but because of the lack of support for his opponent.
“You truly don’t see any difference in the two parties?”
I see an enormous difference between the two parties with the GOP wanting to take us back to the social glory days of the 1950s. But that still doesn’t change the fact that Hillary has some extremely troubling stances on some very important issues. Regardless of the risk of getting a Republican elected, if I cast my vote for Hillary and she wins, I will have to live with myself knowing that I helped in facilitating the next war she starts or the next step on the road to corporate serfdom.
“If I might ask, what is it that the Republicans stand for that you agree with?”
Fair point. I can’t think of a thing. Maybe I was reminiscing for the old days when there were one or two of them who DIDN’T think they were running for Grand Inquisitor.
If they were only trying to take us back to the 1950s, I’d be relatively happy. But they, especially Trump, seem to be going for more like the late 1930s in Germany. That’s…a problem. A few years ago (actually, quite a few years ago now), there was an election in Louisiana between the ex-head of the KKK and another guy. Other guy was a crook-indited and convicted. The unofficial slogan of his campaign was “Vote for the crook! It’s important.” Same here. Vote for the corporate stooge (if she gets nominated). It’s important.
This is a followup to comment 11.
The Daily Show presented a segment in which Jessica Williams, “Senior Beyonce Correspondent,” defended the Super Bowl halftime show. Link. Scroll down for video.
Complete nonsense. Not voting has no “actual effect” at all, and certainly doesn’t force the party to do anything. The practical effect of voting for a Democrat is that it cancels out a Republican vote. Not voting at all allows the Republican vote to count.
For some time now Donald Trump has been saying “there’s something we don’t know about” in reference to President Obama. Without specifying the “something,” Trump was dog-whistling to right-wingers that Obama is a Muslim and/or a terrorist sympathizer.
Trump defined the “something,” sort of, during an interview with über rightwing radio host Michael Savage.
Right Wing Watch link.
That’s as close as Trump has come to saying that President Obama may be a terrorist sympathizer. Trump keeps repeating that utter crap, and edging closer to libel all the time. There are already rightwing factions that call for Obama to be tried for treason. These tactics are dangerous and stupid.
Shock jock, Alex Jones, is aiming an increasingly vile stream of invective at Bernie Sanders.
Right Wing Watch link.
The call for physical violence, “You need to have your jaws broken,” is especially despicable.
Samantha Bee covered the presidential campaigns in New Hampshire. Totally funny. Scroll way down for the video. 6:26 minutes of awesome.
Salon link.
Trevor Noah covered the GOP debate and other issues. Salon link. Scroll down for video.
Republican state legislators keep doing this: mandating drug testing for welfare recipients. It never works. The scheme failed in Florida and other states. There are always few positive tests. The testing is expensive, and insulting to welfare recipients. The testing always disproves a favorite rightwing myth that most welfare recipients abuse drugs.
So what did Tennessee legislators do? They mandated drug testing and now they are in denial.
Think Progress link.
We should drug-test Republican legislators when they apply for a small business loan. Let’s also drug-test every pastor, bishop, and preacher since they are receiving a lot of taxpayer support.
Republican legislators also proved that, yes, they are for big, wasteful government if it means they can get their jollies by harassing poor people.
“Not voting has no “actual effect” at all, and certainly doesn’t force the party to do anything”
I disagree. The main consideration of a party when picking a nominee is who can get elected (Doing what they are told is another, which is why Bernie isn’t the clear front-runner). Why do you think some of the more mottled feathers on the Republican’s lunatic wing are causing such consternation among the GOP brass? If they do go down the road of selecting one of their true fire-breathers and they get trashed by Bernie or Hillary in November it would almost certainly spell the end of the Tea Party because no political party can survive an unbroken line of failures. This would force the Republicans to at least pay lip service to moderate voters. Not that this would miraculously create a warm and fuzzy feeling for me, but its a start.
Hillary was disastrously wrong on Iraq and I frankly think she would be the most likely of any candidate to start another war. She would continue or enhance many of the most onerous anti-terror laws that have turned this country into a police-state. She was wrong on same sex rights with her stance moving coldly and in complete tandem to national polls (had those not changed she would still be a proud supporter of “traditional marriage”). She can cuddle up to corporate interests with the best of them, Trump included. I see zero chance of her tackling race relations and not much more concerning immigration. She would be a clear choice for women’s rights and education. But those alone aren’t close to enough for me to overlook everything else. Sorry, but I refuse to vote for her.
Uh, Marco Robot, you should not be proud of those ratings:
Link
Oh, look, a guy who wants to PZ’s book—well, not PZ’s book specifically, but all books written by atheists:
Link
Would Bernie Sanders be electable in Germany?
“US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said recently that in Germany his ideas would not be considered “radical”. But how German are his policies really?”
I’m sorry the link for 57 isn’t working. The link should be http://www.thelocal.de/20160128/what-germany-would-think-of-bernie-sanders .
Well, if enough people agree with you, we’ll all get to enjoy a Trump, or Cruz, or Rubio presidency. By not voting, you seem to be trying to send the message that a Democratic candidate who is too conservative won’t get elected. Sorry, that’s a little too subtle. The message is the opposite, the candidate has to be more conservative to get elected.
We’ve been following a bill proposed in the Utah state legislature that would legalize medical marijuana. Mormon leaders weighed in against the bill, and now some votes have been lost.
Salt Lake Tribune link.
Finally, some good news for voting rights. This only affects one state, but it is still a step in the right direction.
Link
Uh oh. It looks like President Obama may have some competition when it comes to being crowned by rightwingers as the Antichrist. Maybe Beyoncé will win that contest?
Link
In New Hampshire Marco Robot encountered a voter who is gay. Timothy Kierstead did not cut Marco Robot any slack:
Way to repeat yourself Mr. Robot. And way to highlight your ignorance. New Hampshire passed a law to allow same-sex marriage in 2009.
@54
it does not matter how many votes are cast, the winner is the one who gets the most of the votes that are cast. Any strategy that suppresses the vote of the opposing side is a positive for your side. One of the most important things you can do to win an election is to get your supporters to the polls better than your opposition.
So your strategy is to advocate in effect to just forfeit the election and further would lead to dropping out of the political sphere all together
hows it go all that is needed for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.
uncle frogy
What the heck? How clueless do you have to be say this:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/katrina-pierson-trump-pussy-comments-brought-back-freedom-of-speech
Frogy, I understand your feeling but the fact remains that choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. My problem with Hillary is not a matter of one or two relatively minor disagreements. She would truly be a horrible and dangerous person to have in the White House. The fact that the same is true of the Republican field doesn’t change it. In regards to “good men doing nothing”, you can just as easily say that acquiescing to support a candidate whom you consider dangerous merely because of who their opponent is is very much ‘doing nothing’. The way we change the world is if we see harm, we step up and confront it rather than sighing and saying “It could be worse”. This black-and-white view of politics is one of the more distressing aspects of our country today.
U.S. District Court Judge David Godbey of Dallas said “No” to Texas officials who thought they could refuse to let Syrian refugees resettle in their state.
The executive branch of the federal government handles the process of resettling refugees, not the states.
MSNBC link.
Governor Paul LePage of Maine is always good for a few eyebrow-raising moments of disbelief. He’s the guy that recently accused black drug dealers of coming into Maine from other states to rape white girls.
Now he has decided to rail against “socialists,” in writing.
Portland Press Herald link.
Governor LePage has taken up permanent residence in LaLa Land.
Slime balls joined together in order to be more slimy:
The “truth” Nugent told was that Jews are responsible for gun control. In doing so, Nugent highlighted former New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg; as well as Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Charles Schumer and other politicians.
Media Matters link.
The way the Republican Party grants delegates to presidential candidates greatly favors front runners. In this case, it favors Donald Trump.
NRP link.
There are so many other GOP candidates vying for second to fifth place in New Hampshire that they are likely to split the non-Trump vote, which means that a lot of votes for those other candidates will end up in Trump’s win column anyway.
Depressing news: according to New Hampshire exit polls, two thirds of Republican voters agree that Muslims should be banned from entering the USA.
Lynna @69:
Isn’t Nugent supposed to be dead or in prison now?
On another note, it has just been pointed out to me that Donald Trump and Martin Shkreli share the exact same arrogant, sniveling smirk… the kind that makes you want to remove it with a cheese grater. Coincidence or long-lost offspring? Discuss.
We don’t have all the results in yet, but the projected winners in New Hampshire are Donald Trump for the Republicans; and Bernie Sanders for the Democrats.
If you are looking for sort of good news, Trump won with about 1/3 of the Republican votes, with the rest of the votes spread out among the other candidates. It looks like Kasich will get second place.
The Democratic race was closer. It’s a decisive win for Sanders, but Clinton will come away with 40%+ of the vote. It looks to me like Sanders and Clinton will both go to Nevada and South Carolina in good shape.
microraptor @72, you are correct. Nugent worked for the Mitt Romney campaign, and during that campaign he said, “If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will be either be dead or in jail by this time next year.”
Promises, promises.
Two big firsts for the New Hampshire primaries:
* it was the first time in American history a non-Christian (and likely agnostic/atheist) won a presidential primary.
* it was the first time a non-incumbent won a primary with 60% of the vote.
One of the most interesting data points for me is that Bernie and Hillary split the registered Democrat vote 50/50, but Bernie walked away with something like 75% of the independent vote.
Who is more electable in the general now?
I guess it depends if you think New Hampshire is representative of the entire country or not.
Didn’t Pat Buchanan win the New Hampshire primary one year?
I know Hillary won it in 2008
The people who Bernie was able to sway in great numbers in New Hampshire are the kind of people needed to win against the Republicans.
Hillary will lose these demographics badly in the general.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sanderss-oddball-coalition-savors-its-improbable-then-inevitable-victory/2016/02/09/86503a92-cf64-11e5-b2bc-988409ee911b_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Donald Trump gave a WTF acceptance speech.
Rolling Stone link.
At the start of the speech, Trump sounded like he was accepting an Academy Award:
Washington Post link.
There was more in that vein, including thanks to his wife, to Don and Vanessa, to Ivanka, and to a real estate developer named Jared. Oh, yeah, and to Lara, Eric, Hope and Corey
Correction to comment 74.
When the final New Hampshire results were in, Sanders got 60% of the vote (146,321); and Clinton got 38% (92,898). The two candidates are still close when it comes to DNC convention delegates. When you add Iowa and NH together, Sanders has 15 delegates and Clinton has 14.
In the GOP race, Trump came away with 35% of the vote. Kasich is in second place with 16%; Cruz in 3rd with 12%; Jeb Bush in 4th with 11%; and Marco Rubio in 5th with 11%. Christie got 7% and Fiorina got 4%; Ben carson, etc. were all in the 2% to 0% range.
http://nhpr.org/post/2016-presidential-primary-results
Winning in New Hampshire seems to have prompted Trump to make more outrageous comments on morning media outlets, including a policy to assassinate Kim Jong Un:
Worse than Dick Cheney?
@ #80
These Sanders supporters will vote for Trump? Sounds unlikely.
You’d be amazed at how many people in NH had a hard time picking which ballot to pick so they could vote either Trump or Sanders. The average swing voter is watching their lifestyle slowly change from lower-middle-class to straight up poor, and only Trump and Sanders are speaking to that fear and anger.
Then you have all the disenchanted liberal voters that usually don’t vote, but would trek to the polls for Bernie. Something they will never do for Hillary.
One of the pillars of the argument for Sanders’ electability is that his campaign is so inspiring that it will bring new voters and new coalitions of voters out of the woodwork. Maybe. Supporters of Sanders can hope for that, and they are working toward achieving that.
A reality check, it hasn’t happened yet … at least not to the degree that is being hyped in the media, and certainly not to the degree that is being hyped by Sanders’ supporters.
I prefer to be realistic, which includes knowing that Sanders still has work to do. Counting Hillary Clinton out too soon would be a mistake.
Link.
@ #85
You’re right, I would be amazed. So amazed that I don’t believe it.
Strange but true. This is a crazy year for politics.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/09/for-some-n-h-voters-yooge-choice-between-donald-trump-and-bernie-sanders/
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/voters-deciding-between-sanders-and-trump-598107203518
Clinton’s newest ad to address systemic racism in the criminal justice system.
The Sanders connection to high-dollar donors: this article takes a look at some of the connections that Sanders has to lobbyists and large individual donors. It also quotes a Sanders rebuttal, and rebuttals by members of his staff.
I don’t expect a Senator to function without some of these connections. I think a lot is being made of what is probably nothing, but it is a fact that both Sanders and Clinton have some connections to high-dollar donors. Doesn’t mean either one of them is “bought” nor that either one of them ever changed a vote thanks to those connections.
There’s also the point to be made that Clinton donated some of her speaking fees to charitable foundations. Sanders did likewise with his much smaller fees.
@ #88
True is a relative term when you’re talking about a Washington Post opinion piece. The author found two people in New Hampshire who claimed they were deciding between Sanders and Trump, and extrapolated that into a nationwide phenomenon, in what looks like a desperate attempt to invent a startling theory and generate readership. It stretches “true” to the breaking point.
No Republican candidates have mentioned the water crisis in Flint, Michigan in any of their social media accounts. Would that be because a Republican Governor is in charge?
microraptor @78: yes, Pat Buchanan won the New Hampshire primary in 1992, with 38% of the vote. Rachel Maddow made the point that Buchanan’s acceptance speech was almost all culture-war, and that it was depressing for gay people.
In the both the Buchanan and Trump instances, we can console ourselves with the fact that almost 2/3 of the Republicans did NOT vote for the most dunderheaded candidate in the race.
*Shrug*
I’ve met more than a couple Trump/Sanders undecideds in real life. It requires an odd mix of policy ignorance and trust in sketchy gut feelings, but the demographic is real, and every one I met in that demographic hates Clinton.
Here’s Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/watch-hillary-clintons-concession-speech-in-nh-619865155846
Someone emailed me to say that the link in comment 93 didn’t work.
Here’s the ABC link to that speech.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/hillary-clintons-speech-hampshire-loss-sanders-36823527
Here’s the ABC link to Bernie Sander’s speech:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/bernie-sanders-full-speech-hampshire-primary-36824671
Here’s the link to John Kasich’s speech:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/john-kasich-supporters-hampshire-36825739
This is bad news.
Text is quoted from the Washington Post.
Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS fundraising mechanism is notorious for secretly collecting unlimited funds (donor’s names are secret) and then using those funds not for “social welfare” but for campaign attack ads. That’s illegal, but Rove does it anyway. https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/697104290322714625
Yay! Carly Fiorina has dropped out of the Republican race for president. One less lying liar to cover.
Chris Christie is expected to drop out of the race, but he hasn’t made it official yet.
In other news, Bernie Sanders’ win in NH prompted more donations to his campaign, about $2.6 million since last night. Might have been more, but his website crashed.
Republicans in the House and Senate are still refusing to even have President’s Obama’s new budget proposal presented to them.
The budget looks pretty good to me:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obama-budget-snubbed-by-congress
The article includes quotes from former Republican staffers, all saying that the President’s budget should be reviewed. One Congresswoman said: “I fear the 114th Congress will now be remembered for its unprecedented disrespect toward our nation’s Commander In Chief and its embarrassing inability to govern.”
Double that as of this morning.
https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/697511587226193921
http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/bernie-sanders-fundraising-new-hampshire#.ymq41PQB2
What the Republicans think about a potential third part run by Michael Bloomberg:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/priebus-bloomberg-2016-run
So, yeah, all good new for the GOP, and very bad news for Democrats.
Republicans in the House of Congress are looking for another way to cut benefits that go to needy families.
Think Progress link
This is a headline that is sort of misleading, but the article does cover an issue that MassMomentum brought up in comment 76: Bernie Sanders disappoints some atheists with his ‘very strong religious’ feelings.
I think the worst thing we can do at this point is underestimate Trump. Sure, the man is a babbling fascist with as many solid policy ideas as an empty burlap sack. But his support is not limited to the more dismal corners of the Red States. There is a disturbing number of people in purple or even blue states (such as the Rust Belt) who support him. It doesn’t matter WHY these people are willing to vote for the guy… not thinking he is serious about his more outlandish claims, a general bitterness with politics, starry-eyed love over his perceived charisma (Hitler had it too)… it doesn’t matter. MassMomentumEnergy’s idea of undecided voters going for Trump is frighteningly likely. Especially if Hillary gets the nomination. The combination of disgust for her and mindless infatuation with Trump could very well put him in the White House (does anyone know the process for applying for political refuge status in Canada?)
The most normal of the Republican presidential candidates (not saying much, I know) is Ohio Governor John Kasich. He’s preferable to Trump and Cruz, that’s for sure. But, beware:
Link
It would be wrong to condemn Kasich based on the rhetoric of his spiritual advisor, but I would like to hear Kasich say he disagrees with that crap.
Fox News, (and, embarrassingly, other media outlets) are getting the story about Hillary Clinton’s emails all wrong … again.
The story about Hillary’s emails is that the FBI is investigating and they are tight lipped about it.
Given the Clintons’ history, I would be shocked if a group of FBI agents couldn’t come up with a long list of indictable offenses just by digging through her email dump. It will be interesting to see what eventually shakes out of it all.
http://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000152-c304-d19a-addf-cb3d623f0001
If the FBI’s general counsel sent that letter about me, I’d be freaking out and planning on getting dragged through the court system meat grinder. Maybe Hillary’s privilege will save her, but that letter should scare her something fierce.
As an addendum, I would be shocked if a group of FBI agents couldn’t come up with a list of indictable offenses after digging through almost anyone’s email. Throw money and power into the mix, and it becomes an almost certainty.
MassMomentum @108, I agree.
For Republicans who have a stake in the email controversy, one of the most effective tactics is just to prolong the the investigation. They want the dark cloud to hang around forever.
I was a little surprised when some of the Republicans, and Fox News, did not take a step back when it was revealed that Colin Powell and Condi Rice sent and received classified documents. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Facts are not the point, a smear campaign is the point. Bernie Sanders was right to refuse to jump on that bandwagon.
The City of Ferguson, after a years negotiation with the Feds about their police and court system, refused to implement the consent decree, and added some changes favorable to themselves.
The Federal government is suing their asses. And they expect to defend the suit despite their deficit.
When the cost of defending yourself unsuccessfully against the inevitable, is likely more than the cost of compliance, I see either profound racism, profound madness, or a combination thereof.
It’s confirmed: Chris Christie is ending his presidential bid. He will say he is “suspending” his campaign, like they all do. That’s a legal status that allows him to continue to raise money, pay campaign bills, etc. How many “suspended” campaigns are resurrected?
In “oh FFS!” news, the Supreme Court has made a decision that could put the Climate Accord (recently signed in Paris) in jeopardy.
New York Times link.
Wired link.
It is unusual for the Supreme Court to put the brakes on EPA admissions rules before the case has been heard by lower courts. This interim halt is entirely unprecedented and unnecessary. Conservative justices allowed this stupid move.
Inside Climate News link.
Nerd @108, I agree. Retrograde forces in Ferguson are fighting a losing battle, but they will be able to slow progress for some time. Disgusting. This will move will not be appreciated by most of the citizens of Ferguson.
So, the city council votes unanimously to accept a consent decree … and then they go about rewriting it?
Some sources are saying that the changes are meant to cover the asses of the city council when they disband the Ferguson police department in order to make most of the rest of the decree moot.
Looks like Bernie raised $7+ mil in the 24hrs since his NH victory speech (averaging something like $34 dollars per donation).
He might actually be able to bankrupt Hillary in a spending arms race.
Sure she has that sweet super PAC dough, but that can only be used for advertising and the like, not for salaries and canvassers which is the real lifeblood of a campaign. Her current donors are all pretty much tapped out, her small donor pool is pathetic (#ImNotKiddingMaddi), and getting new donors to back a troubled campaign is not only hard, $2,700 a plate dinners is going to play bad. I seriously doubt she has as many volunteer hours as Bernie which also cuts into her cash reserve. Unlike Bernie, she doesn’t pay her interns, so that helps. Even so, she could quickly find herself scrambling for cash to keep up in a campaign lasting far longer than she ever imagined.
What a crazy election year.
Yes, Bernie has lots of small donors. Yes, he raised enormous sums of money after the win in NH. Good for him. That’s great!
Hillary Clinton has 700,000+ small donors who have given under $100; and that does not count the small donors who have contributed more than once. Her small donor totals are not as big as Bernie’s, but are also not as nonexistent or negligible as MassMomentum implied in 111.
Just looking for a reality check here.
This morning the Congressional Black Caucus endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. Their caucus vote was unanimous.
As the campaigns head to South Carolina in about 9 days, we should be on the lookout for dirty tricks from the Republicans.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/south-carolina-dirty-tricks-republicans-219116
Peace Action, an organization with about 200,000 members, endorsed Bernie Sanders for President today.
https://peaceblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/largest-peace-group-endorses-sanders/
Female military veterans have more trouble getting proper health care than do their male counterparts. Mother Jones has the story.
In other news, anti-abortion efforts are ramping up for a season of city-by-city and state-by-state efforts to either make abortion illegal or make access to abortion more difficult. Here is part of latest mailer from Personhood USA:
Link.
Rush Limbaugh came very close to endorsing Ted Cruz for president:
Ben Carson floated the idea that he could be Trump’s pick for vice president. [laughing, but horrified at the same time]
More from Ben Carson:
Hmmm, less than 25,000 people have voted for him so far if you add Iowa and New Hampshire votes. Carson is polling 5th in South Carolina.
He is deluded.
Heidi Cruz is as addled as her husband, Ted Cruz:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/heidi-cruz-face-of-god
Ted Cruz is the face of god?
Pathetic, not nonexistent nor negligible. ;-)
Of course they did. No politician is going to cross the Clinton machine until the writing is already on the wall and a bit weather worn.
Probably the best foreign policy endorsement possible.
My primary concern with the next Commander in Chief is that they not bomb the fuck out of the world.
Iraq, Honduras, Libya, Syria: that is Clinton’s “experience.” She loves war, and can be guaranteed to start at least a few small wars and might bumble into a big one.
The republicans are worse.
Bernie is far from a pacifist, but out of everyone with at least a snow ball’s chance in hell of making it through the political meat grinder to the Oval Office, he is the least likely to drop bombs on some poor schmo half the world away. That is important to me.
Lynna, #118
Totally not how I pictured Him.
Oh man, it is even worse.
The Congressional Black Caucus PAC endorsed Hillary without input from the Congressional Black Caucus. How Clintonian.
https://twitter.com/keithellison/status/697809288203522048
There will be another Democratic debate tonight, in Wisconsin.
PBS will stream it live if you don’t want to bother with watching on TV. The debate starts at 9 p.m. ET.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/demdebate/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/demdebate/
Democratic debate tonight in Wisconsin. 9 p.m. ET, broadcast on PBS.
Moderators are Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff.
Donald Trump retweeted from a “WhiteGenocideTM” account … again.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-whitegenocidetm-retweet
Apologies for duplicating the Democratic debate info up-thread. The first comment took so long to show up that I thought something had gone awry.
Saad @120, some of the other supposedly godly Republican candidates do not see Cruz as the face of god. Mike Huckabee said:
Distinction: the Congressional Black Caucus PAC endorsed Clinton. There’s a CBC PAC board. Still looking into this so that future posts will present the details correctly.
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/congressional-black-caucus-endorse-clinton-n516216
More on the CBC PAC board:
https://theintercept.com/2016/02/11/congressional-black-caucus-hillary/?comments=1#comments
This is Jack’s complete lack of surprise.
Donald Trump had police remove a Clemson professor who was wearing a Muslim headdress at his rally.
Here’s a bit of backstory from a person familiar with Clemson, South Carolina:
Link.
An issue on which Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton agree:
Link.
This is an “oh FFS” moment. Rightwing radio hosts have started to insult Bernie Sanders’ wife. They have been making insulting and stupid comments about Hillary Clinton’s appearance for some time. We sort of expected that. Now they’re going after Jane Sanders.
Link.
Bernie Sanders has been speaking out about reform of drug policies for some time. Now he has gone a step further.
Raw Story link.
Sounds like a good bill to me. For one thing, weed is still illegal at the federal level, no matter what progressive steps some states have taken. As a result, businesses serving cannabis customers do not have access to our banking system. Forcing those businesses into a cash-only operation can be dangerous, and may even impede the collection of taxes.
Oh, this is one nasty condemnation of Republican Congress critters.
Ali Shamkhani is the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. “We acted upon our independent resolve and moved the process forward,” Shamkhani said.
The prisoner swap to which Shamkhani referred was the part of the recent deal in which Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and three other U.S. citizens were freed. In exchange, the USA released seven Iranians. Donald Trump and other Republicans called the Iranians that were released “the worst of the worst,” “terrorists,” etc. However those seven individuals were all more like business people committing white collar crimes, not violent acts. They broke the laws pertaining to sanctions against Iran. They shipped or sold goods to Iran.
The families of the U.S. citizens who were released will be really angry, I should think, to learn that their loved ones may have been imprisoned for many more months if Republican Congress critters had gotten their way.
This is an all-too-typical move by Republican congressmen.
Link.
House Republicans are completely against letting each pregnant woman make the choice herself.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (DNC chair) on the importance of super delegates:
http://progressivewonk.com/debbie-wasserman-schultz-just-gave-the-weirdest-answer-about-superdelegates-on-cnn-are-they-clintons-firewall-93/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=reddit&utm_source=news
If Bernie wins the popular vote, comes to the convention with the most pledged delegates, and the DNC hands the nomination to Hillary, shit is going to get real. The ’68 convention will look like tea time at the convalescent home in comparison.
Rachel Maddow brought us up to date on the plan to replace lead pipes in Flint, Michigan.
She compared the new pipe-replacement technique to laparoscopy.
George W. Bush is hitting the campaign trail in South Carolina to support Jeb.
Trump doesn’t have a good ground game in SC, but everyone expects him to win anyway.
Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone has decided to put his mega bucks behind John Kasich.
Marco Rubio’s tax plan, or no-tax plan, reduces capital gains taxes to almost nothing. Paul Krugman called it “Rubio for the Rich.”
A moment from last night’s debate that drew a lot of applause:
I agree with the intention and the sentiment, but there will be a problem when it comes to execution. I’m sure Sanders meant “prisons” that incarcerate people convicted of serious crimes, and not “jails” which hold people awaiting trial and people who may have committed less serious crimes. That aside, there’s a state-by-state population of prisoners who are not in federal prisons.
Same Facts link.
Maybe Sanders has another plan, and/or more details that we can examine.
Analysis of last night’s Democratic debate from Kevin Drum of Mother Jones:
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/02/hillary
@ #137
What? A politician making impossible promises to appeal to the gullible? Shocking.
Hillary Clinton’s closing statement from the debate last night:
From Bernie Sanders’ closing statement:
I haven’t found a source that I don’t have to pay for for the entire closing statement from Sanders. I’ll keep looking.
Other sources:
http://www.npr.org/2016/02/11/466448610/watch-the-pbs-democratic-primary-debate
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/watch-live-pbs-newshour-democratic-primary-debate/
http://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/pbs-democratic-debate-presidential-election-2016/
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/02/11/winners-losers-pbscnn-democratic-debate.html
The Washington Post posted a transcript of the debate. That’s the source I tried to use, but they want me to pay for a subscription. If someone else has not yet used up their monthly allotment of free-access articles, please do us a favor and get the closing statement from Sanders to post here. Thanks.
President Obama plans to add considerable acreage to land he has already protected at National Monuments.
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-monuments-20160212-story.html
So far, we have a total of 265 million acres of protected land during the Obama administration, the bulk of it in the expansion of a marine monument in the Pacific Ocean.
Senator Dianne Feinstein asked for the land designations. She tried to get it through Congress, but Republicans stopped her. The designations from Obama do not include funding, that has to come from Congress. Republicans are not likely to grant funding.
Sanders’ closing statement:
“All right, look, this has been a great debate. A lot of interesting issues have come together. Let me conclude by just saying this.
There is no president, in my view, not Hillary Clinton, not Bernie Sanders, who has the capability or the power to take on Wall Street, large campaign donors, the corporate media, the big money interests in this country alone.
This campaign is not just about electing a president. What this campaign is about is creating a process for a political revolution in which millions of Americans, working people who have given up on the political process, they don’t think anybody hears their pains or their concerns.
Young people for whom getting involved in politics is as, you know, it’s like going to the moon. It ain’t going to happen. Low income people who are not involved in the political process.
SANDERS: What this campaign is not only about electing someone who has the most progressive agenda, it is about bringing tens of millions of people together to demand that we have a government that represents all of us and not just the 1 percent, who today have so much economic and political power.
Thank you all very much.”
The Ted Cruz campaign created an attack ad against Marco Rubio. The Cruz ad employs a softcore porn actress. Whoops. Cruz did not intend to do that, so he pulled the ad.
Link.
Buzz Feed link.
Thanks tom @143.
The Republican candidates (with the exception of Trump) are speaking at a “Faith and Family” forum in South Carolina. A lot of weapon’s grade pandering and stupidity is coming out of that forum.
From Jeb Bush:
Sound like Jeb has adopted the Trumpian rhetorical flourish of repeating himself in order to emphasize that the falsehood he has just uttered is really true, really true. It just is.
More on this forum later. I need to get the exact quote from Cruz: he said that the rules in the Bible should be the basis of government.
Ted Cruz said some more stupid stuff:
Link
Franklin Graham said some stupid stuff:
Link.
The Daily Show analyzes and then attends a Trump rally.
Scroll down for videos.
Here’s some good news, President Obama’s administration plans to provide expanded Medicaid services to pregnant women and children in Flint, MI. It even looks like Governor Snyder may help by actually cooperating with a good idea.
Politico link
Re: Bernie’s comment about trying to get our prison population lower than China’s (which has a billion more people than us).
It depends on how hard core he wants to go: he could declare the end to the war on drugs.
Approximately 98,000 federal prisoners are in prison for non-violent drug crimes. Another 21,000 are there for non-violent immigration offenses. He could pardon all of them his first day in office (logistically probably not recommended).
There are around 140,000 non-violent drug offenders in California and New York prisons. California has already been sued to release prisoners as overcrowding has been judged cruel and unusual punishment. The logic behind Brown v. Plata could be used against other states as well. Both CA and NY are under democratic control and could be very willing to play ball under the protection presidential cover.
There are 804,800 state prisoners across the nation that are serving sentences for non-violent drug crimes.
Furthermore, there are around 650,000 people released from prison normally each year. If we assume that the 50% of federal inmates and 16% of state inmates that were convicted for non-violent drug offenses are no longer put in prison for such crimes, and that otherwise the prison population would remain steady, that is around 42,000 federal and 90,000 state prisoners per year that will no longer be going into the system to balance out those leaving, or a 132,000 deficit per year, or 528,000 people over his first term.
Reducing the US prison population by half a million people over four years is more than possible. The only question is, do we have the will to do it.
Democratic debate analysis from Glenn thrush of Politico.
The gloves have come off:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/dnc-allowing-donations-from-federal-lobbyists-and-pacs/2016/02/12/22b1c38c-d196-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html
We are seeing signs that Paul Ryan is getting tired of being Speaker of the House. Frustrated. Weary. About 40 of the Republicans he speaks for are Tea Party diehards who want to kill government:
Politico link.
Dream on Speaker Ryan. Some of the doofuses under your wing do not want to do anything but obstruct the functions of government.
If Ryan says, “fuck this shit, I’m outta here” who is going to replace him?
No one else wanted the position the first time and it seemed Ryan was strong armed into it.
MassMomentum @153, good point. I don’t think there are any Republican Congress critters dumb enough to take the job of Speaker if Ryan throws up his hands and walks out.
During the last Republican game of thrones, some conservatives tried to recruit somebody from outside the Congress (Newt Gingrich, anyone?). Maybe Ryan can hang in there until after the presidential election, after which the Congress critters can recruit Trump to whip the Republicans into line. (Assuming we don’t get President Trump.)
Speaking of Trump, he is now threatening to sue Ted Cruz over the question of Cruz’s Canadian citizenship.
Donald Trump has spiced up his conspiracy theories about immigrants by sprinkling Pope Francis into the mix.
Think Progress link.
Secretary of State John Kerry has been trying to negotiate a cease fire in Syria for some time. Now he has succeeded. The big question: will it hold?
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2016/02/12/3749208/syria-ceasefire/
@ #149
Even granting your totally unrealistic projections, reducing the prison population by a half million in four years, doesn’t look like it brings our number down below China, even in raw numbers. At least according to the numbers from the BBC. And, of course, if you look at prison population per 100,000 people, it’s laughable.
I thought the quote in #138 hit the nail on the head, “Bernie Sanders delivers all these big, stemwinding proposals and doesn’t really have to explain how he’s going to pass any of them or get them paid for. But he sure is visionary!” In the case of prisoners, he doesn’t even have to explain how he thinks such a thing is possible.
Some more details regarding the nasty push-polling being conducted in South Carolina:
Ted Cruz denies having anything to do with that push poll, but he has a connection to Remington Research. It’s a consulting firm the Jeff Roe, Cruz’s campaign manager, founded.
The story comes from the Washington Post.
Eyebrow-raising criticism from the rightwing:
Media Matters link.
Rush Limbaugh defended the Koch brothers and George W. Bush:
Media Matters link.
With their support of the American Legislative Council alone, the Koch brothers have affected government policy, and continue to do so. They’ve also had a big effect on down-ticket races where they backed Republicans for state office.
Yikes.
Uh, Gia Arnold, for what, exactly, did you need the AR-15, the combat knife and black ski mask?
No surprise there. We assume the mom with the AR-15 and the ski mask is a Tea Partier.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gia-arnold-arrested-niagara-falls
There are now only six candidates left in the Republican race for the nomination to be the GOP candidate for president. (I never thought I would be writing “only six” with a sense of relief. That’s still a lot of candidates.)
Trump, Kasich, Cruz, Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Carson are scheduled to debate.
All six GOP candidates will appear on the debate stage tomorrow night. The February 13 debate will be held in South Carolina. CBS is the network host.
Fucking Kentucky. Fucking Bevin. Fuck’s sake.
Say what!? Ben Carson thinks that Democrats are deliberately destroying black families in order to cultivate their votes. You do realize that makes no sense even as political spin, right Mr. Carson?
Link.
Good economic news:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-budget-idUSKCN0VJ2AN
Holy crap! The Senate actually confirmed some of the ambassadors chosen by President Obama. Unprecedented (sarcasm). And about damned time (I’m talking to you Ted Cruz.).
MSNBC link.
Before we get too excited, there is still a backlog of nominees. Who knows when the Senate will clear the backlog.
Oh, FFS. Fox News is now insulting Bernie Sanders’ looks and his voice:
The quote is from Fox News’ “Your World” show (today), with Charles Gasparino as the guest.
Fox News is so sure that Trump is going to become the GOP candidate for president that they are seriously discussing who should be his V.P. pick. Who is Fox pushing? Scott Brown.
Brown now works for Fox as a contributor. He is a former Senator (served half a term, Elizabeth Warren replaced him). Fox likes Scott Brown because he is handsome has a good-looking wife.
That’s just one of a half-dozen mentions on Fox that touted Brown as V.P. material.
Scott Brown is the guy that warned his constituents that ISIS might cross the southern border with the USA, and that they would bring Ebola with them. Brown was connected to a penny stock scam that was run out of a fake address in Florida.
Lynna @ 130:
Lynna @ 167:
Thanks for braving the environment to post these snippets. I’ve had too many “FFS moments” that I can’t even read/watch the news anymore. But reading this thread gives me the gist of what’s going on and doesn’t make me want to throw my laptop. :-)
I’m so tired of the BernieVSHillary show hogging my post feed that I have unfollowed nearly all my American friends on FB until after the primaries are done, and even tried installing filters to block newsfeeds with either name in them.
…that managed to narrow it down to where it’s only 10% of my feed instead of 75% at least.
but of course, threads about Donald Trump now tend to dominate.
*sigh*
well, then is it any wonder they think he would be a good match for Trump?
This is a followup to comment 86.
Rachel Maddow covered the issue of voter turnout. She pointed out that the predicted-but-not-yet-materialized huge voter turnout may change in Nevada.
In other news, we’ve been talking about the evil company Ted Cruz keeps for some time. Rachel Maddow covered the issue well.
Well if we are talking about the evil company one keeps….
http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/hillary-clinton-kissinger-vacation-dominican-republic-de-la-renta
Weirdly, this sort of makes sense:
Raw Story link.
Well, Trump didn’t have to file a lawsuit against Ted Cruz. Trump’s supporters did that for him.
The Hill link.
Madeline Albright apologized. And rightly so, in my opinion.
Talking Points Memo link.
NY Times link to Albright’s complete essay.
This is a followup of sorts to comment 163.
Governor Matt Bevin and his Republican cohorts have made an effort to further restrict access to abortion services for the women of Kentucky.
The bill does allow women to avert their eyes during the ultrasound. Sheesh.
Think Progress link.
The dismal history of poisoning children with lead in the USA … mostly children in households below the poverty line:
Mother Jones link.
Nasty Rumors are floating around. Here’s a debunking of one of them:
That post is no longer available — the site managers removed it because it is false.
Daily Kos link
argh derailing slightly, to express myself, unrelated to any previous comments in this thread but in the same subject….
Trump in inconceivable. I confess that I can’t believe he actually thinks anything he is saying is actually his attitude. He is exploiting his ability to throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. The disgusting thing is not the shit he is throwing but the fact it doesn’t just stick to the wall but the wall is grabbing for it and asking for more. Conflating his NH win with Bern’s, which a pundit summarized as “anti-establishment” attitude of the voters, is mostly the motivation for this rant.
uhmm, the reason for the use of the “confession” word above: Trump is just throwin the shit around, meaning Trump ain’t as moronic as he projects himself to be, he too is confused by the enthusiastic response he got. Which lead to that disguised insult hypothetical about committing murder with many witnesses and not losing a single vote. He was not proclaiming his value as a candidate, but insulting his followers for following him regardless of horrific acts he my undertake.
He’s still a total a-hole and is famous as one, the horror is not the fame for assholishness but the election results and continued ascendancy up the election “ladder”.
Frustrating.
as anti-establishment as I am, I cannot understand anti-establishment voting for a speedhead throwing shit to illustrate how deluded the public is by greedy politikians[sic]. I’d rather vote for the old idealist Bern who at least has reasonable ideas for the proper function of government rather than a ahole who just likes to throw shit at everyone around him.
sheesh, that rant went longer than expected, move along. nuthin to c here
Here’s another “oh, FFS!” moment, which I summarize in order to reduce the number of laptops being subjected to defenestration:
Yep, mucho ridiculous we-hate-Obama speech is still oozing from Fox News hosts. The quoted text is from Jesse Watters, co-host of Fox News’ “The Five.”
slithey tove @180, I agree. Seeing people pick up Trump’s shit and carry it home for veneration is what I find most frustrating.
The pundits who repeat the “outsider” meme are engaging in a facile analysis that does not hold up under scrutiny.
A thoughtful look at infrastructure in the USA:
That’s an excerpt from “A Country Breaking Down” by Elizabeth Drew. The article is in the New York Review of Books.
Poor Ted Cruz. He is a Senator from Texas, but several Texas newspapers have not only refused to endorse him for president, they have endorsed other Republican candidates.
The Dallas Morning News endorsed Kasich.
The Houston Chronicle endorsed Jeb Bush.
The San Antonio Express endorsed Jeb Bush.
The Houston Chronicle is Cruz’s hometown paper. That’s gotta hurt. Again, we see the people who know him best rejecting Cruz.
Breaking news from the USAian political world: Antonin Scalia died today at a resort in Texas. So, coming soon: trying to confirm a new Supreme Court justice during an election year with a Senate not likely to want to do so.
Anton Scalia is dead. I feel like a horrible person for being happy over it, but considering how much his awful opinions have damaged my country for the past few decades it is good news. Hooray, Obama will get to appoint another Supreme Court Justice.Scalia found Dead at Texas Ranch
Scalia was 79 years old, so I suppose his death is not all that surprising. This will definitely bring the subject of Supreme Court appointees to the forefront of political discussions.
It is unlikely that President Obama will be allowed by the Republicans to choose a new justice. The Court will probably limp along with 8 justices until after the new president is sworn in.
It is highly likely that Republican candidates will be invigorated by this. They will push harder to elect a Republican so that a conservative justice can be chosen to replace Scalia.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/us-world/article/Senior-Associate-Justice-Antonin-Scalia-found-6828930.php
Scalia is the justice who recently opined that black students might be more comfortable, or would do better at “less advanced” schools than the University of Texas.
@187 Lynna, OM: So a good question might be, then, does President Obama attempt to push a nomination through the Senate, or does he let it ride, knowing that it’s not gonna happen?
I can’t find any legal requirements for appointing a new justice. I’m sure the repubs will do everything possible to drag their heels until after the election, but I’m hoping that Obama has actually been waiting for just such an eventuality and already has a nominee, and a plan to get them installed ASAP.
@Tethys (186)
I feel like a terrible person for celebrating his death, too.
Worse, probably, because I bet actual money on him being the next one to leave the court.
With a majority, Republicans can just reject a nominee. Since the Senate is in recess until February 22nd, Obama could make a recess appointment to the Court that would last until the end of the year. To say the least, this would be controversial, particularly in light of the recent SC decision striking down as unconstitutional three recess appointments made by Obama.
I am posting all my thoughts on the death of Scalia, and on replacing him with an Obama appointee, in the This could change a lot of things thread.
Josh Marshall predicted Republican obstructionism:
The current “government”-of-loons in Poland has its panties in a twist, Polish move to strip Holocaust expert of award sparks protests:
Quoted in @166: “An aide to Cruz said that he decided to lift his hold [in the Senate on Presidental nominations] because .”
Snickers. Yeah, sure. Slightly more likely, because the crud realized (or was convinced by someone — is there anyone? — he listens to) that it was making him look like a wozzack.
Somewhat more likely, he was told to drop it by his paymasters.
(I suspect his real motivation is something else — and since this is teh crud, something that benefits him personally — but can’t quite put my finger on what it might be.)
Isn’t teh robot still “Hold”ing a bunch of nominations in protest at defrosting of relations with Cuba?
The actual attack being in 1941. Faux & Kockroach Bros., UnLimited, “Facts Loose”™©.
blf @195, couldn’t help but notice that right-wingers in Poland do the same thing that right-wingers in the USA do: they equate “patriotism” with making themselves look better than anyone else, with whitewashing history, etc. They equate “unpatriotic” with “anything that makes us look bad” and with being factually correct when it comes to history.
They may like the bubble they live in, but the air in there must get stale.
In other news, here are just some of the lies that Republican candidates for president told during the debate last night:
Does it strike anyone else as faintly ridiculous that Cruz and Rubio are fighting over who can be the most inhumane when addressing the issue of undocumented immigrants?
Oh, Marco Robot, you make this so easy for us.
Link.
In answering a question about Scalia’s death, Ben Carson also said that the mandate for the President to nominate Supreme Court justices was not in the Constitution. The moderates let that pass at the time, but corrected the mistake later, noting that the Constitution states that the President shall nominate and that the Senate shall “advise and consent.”
Carson’s ignorance is astounding.
Moment of unintentional humor from the Republican debate:
Donald Trump said: “You can’t lie and then hold up the bible, OK?”
He was referring to Ted Cruz, but, really, the self-delusion factor is funny.
During the Republican debate, the candidates interrupted each other, shouted at each other, ignored the moderators and generally behaved like middle school kids on a sugar high, with no adults present. To get a taste of how awful it was, see the video posted by Think Progress.
In addition to that moment, Trump was particularly intent on insulting Jeb Bush and on interrupting him constantly. Trump did it so much that the audience booed him several times.
Lynna@198, At the moment, I myself broadly consider the current Polish-wazzocks to be the “best” suggestive-example of a thugist “government” in the States, albeit without the nuclear weapons (massive military) or economic clout. The previous Canadian “government” is possibly another example, albeit they failed on sheer nastiness scale. (At the moment I am only considering governments in broadly-“democratic” countries, which rules out places like Russia, the bigger China, and the apartheid states of former South Africa and the current Israel.)
As such, it is not at all surprising the Polish and USArseholian thugs sound very similar. (Of course, this is somewhat circular reasoning…)
Mother Jones did us a service by posting five of the most memorable moments from the Republican debate. At least this approach shortens the amount of hell-on-earth we have to live through if we want to hear what the candidates have to say.
There’s both text and videos at the link.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a politician blatantly lie as much as Ted Cruz. He doesn’t seem to care if what he says is true or not, only if it fits his purposes. That’s truly scary, especially if he believes that God condones everything he does because he’s on the “right” side.
Jamelle Bouie’s take on the Republican debate:
Oh, I see. That’s better Mr. Trump. Cruz is the biggest liar in a bunch of liars, including you.
A few more scary (and a few reasonable) moments from the Republican debate:
Tricky Dickie, Ford, Carter, Teagun, Bush I, Clinton I, Cheney, and Obama aren’t liars? Please adjust your reality…
Polygamist mormons in Utah use the children of the cultists to help them perpetrate frauds.
Salt Lake Tribune line.
President Reagan talks about the “Constitutional obligation” to maintain the Supreme Court at full strength:
C-Span link.
Hillary Clinton’s comments regarding appointing a replacement for Justice Scalia:
Ted Cruz said some more stupid stuff about nominating a Supreme Court justice:
To a man, I think the Republicans are sure that their party will win the 2016 election and we will have a Republican president. Well, John Kasich may have his doubts, but the remainder of the candidates are counting on winning the election. I don’t think they should be that confidents.
What Bernie Sanders said about nominating a Supreme Court justice:
The editors of Salon weigh in on replacing Scalia, and on Scalia’s legacy:
The article goes on to discuss Bush v. Gore in detail, including the fact that Scalia claimed over and over that the decision was 7-2, when in fact there were four dissenting opinions.
What Ruth Bader Ginsburg said about Justice Scalia:
What Justice Scalia said about Justice Ginsburg:
Slate link.
Statements from other justices are also posted at the Slate link.
It’s enough to make you mad. Corporations cheat on their taxes, finding ways to get around the relatively lax U.S. tax codes.
Link.
The article goes on to offer a solution, but I have my doubts about it.
Donald Trump wants you to know that the reason people booed him so frequently during the Republican debate is not because he was acting like rude asshat. No that couldn’t be it.
Yeah, right. The audience was full of donors and that’s why Trump was booed. Not buying it.
The quoted text is from two tweets Trump posted.
Elizabeth Warren responded to Republicans:
No, they shouldn’t – but nor should the liberal/progressive/Democrat people I see online absolutely sure that Trump, or Cruz, or any and all Republican candidates can’t possily beat Clinton (or Sanders, or either). Investors and financiers across the globe have the jitters, the EU staggers from crisis to crisis, we’re alarmingly close to a Russo-Turkish war (haven’t had one of those since 1918) – the rest of the world doesn’t stop because the USA is holding a presidential election, and neither the Republican Congress nor the Supremes can make it.
John Oliver produced an excellent segment on voting rights. This is a big issue for the 2016 election. I wish I could make every Republican presidential candidate watch this.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/john-oliver-returns-voting-rights
Scroll down for video.
Alex Jones thinks President Obama murdered Justice Scalia, and he thinks that Obama plans to murder Trump next.
Jones is a powerful voice on the extreme rightwing. Expect this latest conspiracy theory to gain a foothold, and then metastasize. I mean, it makes perfect sense, right (sarcasm).
Link
Ben Carson dipped in the rightwing swamp of fake quotes to come up with a reference to Stalin. Carson did that during the debate, but there were so many other moments-of-madness that it went largely unnoticed.
New Republic link.
Marco Robot Rubio is infamous for not showing up to do his job as a Senator. His absentee rate is over 60%, far exceeding every other senator. Despite that fact, all of you taxpayers in the USA shell out $60,000 for Rubio to have a speech writer on his staff.
How many speeches has Rubio given on the Senate floor? Eight since January 2015. For some perspective on those 8 speeches, other senators have racked up more than 100 speeches since January 2015.
To be fair, the speechwriter also edits Rubio’s press releases, letters etc.
Katrina Pierson is the top spokesperson for Donald Trump. We have been flabbergasted by what she is willing to say on camera, online, and in public before. She made hateful comments about Muslims; wore a necklace made of bullets and threatened to wear one featuring a fetus; and she collected $11,000 in unemployment when she worked on Ted Cruz’s senate campaign.
Katrina’s lastest online postings include:
How can even Trump think that this woman is suitable as a spokesperson?
Katrina Pierson has taught “Agenda 21” conspiracy theory to Tea Partiers all over the USA. Agenda 21 is the conspiracy theory that claims the UN will force people into the equivalent of internment camps, etc. Michele Bachmann subscribes to this theory too, one aspect of which is that President Obama will become head of the UN and will use it as his platform to rule the world as the Antichrist.
Here is one of Bachmann’s latest insane rants against President Obama.
Jeb Bush said some more stupid stuff about choosing a replacement for Justice Scalia. This is in addition to the stupid stuff he said during the debate on Saturday night.
Re @221, I don’t know what precisely a “speech given on the Senate floor” is, but with that caveat, meh. So what if the robot has only given eight and some others an order of magnitude more? Those 100-times speakers could easily be bloviating eejits (and I’m inclined to think probably are, as a general tendency).
I’d be far more interested in what was (and was not) said, and done; votes (and votes missed); and so on. It’s like , it isn’t the fact it was done / wasn’t given, but the rationale (reasons) and actions / inactions. One, two, a dozen well-considered speeches is easily potentially far more valuable. Of course, if those one, two, dozen are bloviations, that would be useful to know. In this case, with teh badly-programmed robot, I assume the eight were variants of
+++ NEED MOAR CASH ERROR +++and+++ OBAMA MAKES ME FROTHING ERROR +++with an occasional+++ TAPE JAMMED ERROR +++.Oh, FFS. Rand Paul is no longer a candidate for president, but he has weighed in heavily on the Republican side of the argument about a replacement for Justice Scalia. While doing so, Paul said a bunch of stupid stuff.
Think Progress link.
If you are a Republican, I guess you could say that some of Rubio’s speeches before the Senate were not just bloviating.
He opposed President Obama’s policies toward Israel (bloviating to my mind). Mainly, he was upset because President Obama was not spending more time in Israel, and was not sucking up to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He gave a speech in which he said government officials should be fired for not doing their jobs, thus breaking irony meters nationwide.
He gave a speech opposing the nuclear deal with Iran.
He gave a speech asking that Department of Veterans Affairs leaders fire poor-performing employees more quickly. He was against due process for all workers.
He gave an anti-Obamacare speech.
About Justice Scalia’s “originalist” approach to the Constitution:
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/postscript-antonin-scalia-1936-2016
Thanks, Lynna, for the rundown (@226) on what teh robot actually spoke on, which is far more interesting that the raw number of times he spoke. Several of those listed struck me as being essentially the speculated
+++ OBAMA MAKES ME FROTHING ERROR +++program.For quite reliably-loony frothing, there is always teh wazzock. Now teh trum-prat is threatening, again, the national thugs-in-chief, Trump threatens third-party run over ‘unfair’ treatment by Republican party:
The Grauniad goes on to point out with the South Carolina primary happening in few days, it’s an odd threat to reissue: Teh wazzock is high in the polls there. It also seems a bit odd to me, since (or so it’s been reported) some “leading” thugs are no longer completely opposed to a trum-prat candidacy, mostly due to loathing teh crud even moar (a classic “an enemy of my enemy is my friend” false-dichotomy situation).
blf, The Wazzock in Chief made me laugh when started whining about being booed, and when he started threatening to run as a third party candidate.
I remember him saying that all deals are negotiations, and all deals can be renegotiated. It looks like he wants to renegotiate his signed agreement with the RNC. I don’t think that will work. What does he want, debate audiences that, like his rallies, consist of mainly Trump supporters?
This is good news … I hope: President Obama and President Putin have agreed to work harder to get the diplomatic and military cooperation they need to implement a cease-fire in Syria. The two countries are also said to be cooperating more to get aid to civilians.
In bad news, it looks like the Assad regime bombed another Doctors Without Borders hospital in Syria. Link
I hope Trump does everything he is currently threatening to do:
1. Sue Ted Cruz for being born in Canada
2. Sue Ted Cruz for lying about Ben Carson leaving the race in Iowa
3. Sue Ted Cruz for “voter violation” mailers in Iowa
4. Sue Ted Cruz for push-polling robocalls in South Carolina
5. Run as a third-party candidate
I mean, I’ve been waiting for an implosion for months now. Could we please just get on with it?
A Republican National committeewoman from Nevada, Diana Orrock, thinks that both Cruz and Rubio are not eligible to run for president.
Orrock supports Trump. She has joined forces with another Republican woman, “Devvy Kidd,” to put a lot of anti-Cruz and anti-Rubio stuff online.
Link.
Scrutiny of the plan Bernie Sanders proposed for putting enough money in the pot to pay for free college tuition, etc. is increasing.
Jeb Bush and Chris Christie floated the promise of 4% growth, Scott Walker upped that to 4.5%. People made fun of them for that. Sanders at least has numbers and a plan to back up his 5.3% claims.
Still, it is, as economist Goolsbee said, “magic flying puppies with winning Lotto tickets tied to their collars.” Here’s why: are there any modern presidents that can claim 4% or higher growth? No. None. Clinton, Obama, Reagan … none of them spurred growth to those levels. If they had done so, the Fed would have raised interest rates to cool inflation threats.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/us/politics/left-leaning-economists-question-cost-of-bernie-sanderss-plans.html
Taking a closer look at Republican voters in South Carolina, we can see why Trump is still polling at the head of the pack (35% to 38% depending on the poll):
– 60% want a ban on Muslims entering the United States
– 29% want to shut down mosques
– 47% want to establish a national database of all Muslims
– 25% want to outlaw Islam in the USA
Hillary Clinton barks like a dog:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/hillary-clinton-barks-story-fact-checking-dog-36959259
She postulated a fact-checking dog that would bark every time Republicans said something like, “The great recession was caused by too much regulation.”
Not as big a deal as people are making it out to be.
But the rightwing is having fun with it, calling Clinton “barking mad” and posting videos of Clinton supposedly barking when she was not doing so. Some included ageism: “Grandma barks like a dog for votes!” There are “speaking her native tongue” comments, and even worse: “If she looks like a dog and barks like a dog …”
On his All In show, Chris Hayes apologized for previously airing some of Bill Clinton’s remarks without proper context. He corrected the error.
This is a followup to comment 234.
More on polling Republican voters inSouth Carolina:
– 30% wish the South had won the Civil War, that goes up to 38% for Trump supporters.
– 20% support banning homosexuals from entering the U.S., that goes up to 31% for Trump supporters.
More details are posted on Think Progress.
Oh, FFS. Venal behavior by coal company executives:
Link.
More spittle-flecked ranting from the rightwing about the upcoming Obama SCOTUS appointee:
Link
Link
Donald Trump joined the conspiracy theorists in speculating about Scalia’s death:
Link
Marco Robot Rubio stumbled again. He used a scene from a boat crossing a harbor in Canada to illustrate his “morning again in America” campaign ad.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/meganapper/opening-shot-in-rubios-morning-again-in-america-ad-appears-t#.jweXllEQK
General dunderhead and like-minded robot Sam Brownback (governor of Kansas) endorsed Marco Rubio.
“For people of faith, who care about religious liberty, life and marriage, it’s time for us to rally around Senator Ted Cruz,” said religious rightwing doofus James Dobson.
The latest PPP poll shows Clinton leading Sanders 55% to 34%; but polls also show an upward trend for Sanders.
Cornel West posted his support for Bernie Sanders:
Daily Kos link
Ben Carson told the truth:
BuzzFeed link
Yeah, not all Republicans are whacko when it comes to seeing President Obama nominate a replacement for Scalia:
Link.
How the disability voting bloc could swing the 2016 election
“In an election where gender and race are both popular topics of discussion, there’s a silent but formidable group of voters that no one’s talking about: disabled voters.”
“At last census, roughly 20% of the US population identified with some degree of disability, spanning a huge range of impairments across race, gender, age and class. Disabled people represent a huge electoral bloc, one Jim Dickson, the co-chair of the National Council on Independent Living’s voting rights subcomittee, contends is as formidable as other minority bloc voters.”
As we all know by now, right-wingers and religious nutters were really offended by Beyoncé’s performance at the Super Bowl.
Uh, yeah, not so much dunderheads. Nobody showed up for the protest.
Link.
The police set up some barriers and manned them … to protect NFL headquarters against no one.
Donald Trump told us already that he is all for waterboarding and worse forms of torture. He even sent his son out to tell reporters that waterboarding is “no different than what happens on college campuses and frat houses every day.”
Trump does not want us to forget how much he likes the idea of torturing people. In today’s issue of USA Today, a op-ed from Trump says:
Link
Donald Trump is still really hurt by his loss in Iowa. We can tell because he is still insulting Ted Cruz over and over again. Now Trump has added a new twist, demanding that the RNC intervene to discipline Cruz, and if the RNC fails to do that, well Trump considers that failure another reason to run as a third party candidate.
Link.
Obsessive much?
The issue of support for solar power is being highlighted in Nevada. Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have commented and offered some solutions.
The back story:
A summary of the Sanders approach:
A summary of the Clinton approach:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/02/16/3749765/bernie-sanders-nevada-solar-workers/
More spittle-flecked blather from the rightwing about nominating a replacement for Justice Scalia:
That’s conservative talk radio host Mark Levin speaking. Levin also warned Senate Republicans to act and vote the right way, threatening them with reelection opposition if they stepped out of line.
Link.
More rightwing whackitude about Justice Scalia’s death:
Glenn Beck asserted that God allowed Scalia to die in order to wake America up (“on the verge of losing its liberty,” and “hanging by a thread” … that last phrase is a mormon thing) so that America will see Ted Cruz as its savior and vote the right way. So, according to Beck, God killed Scalia.
According to Alex Jones, the same thing he said yesterday bears repeating today: President Obama killed Scalia.
Link.
Lynna @250, I think I sprained my eyeballs reading that rank stupidity from Alex Jones.
Rachel Maddow analyzed the current state of election year politics and then she focused on Republican obstructionism when it comes to replacing Justice Scalia. She notes that the Republicans are threatening to damage the structure of the system of government in the USA.
The video begins with a look a current polling, and at the formidable lead that Trump has in South Carolina. 17:13 minutes of excellent analysis.
CatieCat @251: Yes, that was a painful experience. I think I am still damaged from reading and summarizing that drivel.
Alex Jones is really popular with extreme right-wingers. Donald Trump appeared on his show, and Trump praised his “amazing reputation.”
We can often trace batshit crazy stuff that politicians quote right back to Alex Jones or to InfoWars in general. Forbes claimed that Alex Jones had moved from the fringes to the center of Republican politics. No, Republican politics moved so far to the right that they fell right into the Jones swamp.
Jones holds forth for fours hours every day on more than 60 AM and FM radio stations. As of 2013, his audience was estimated at 2 million listeners. (I didn’t take the time to find more current figures.) He runs a website that gets a monthly audience of about 5 million unique visitors. There are 350,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. He earns about $2 million per year.
Bob Cesca of Salon wrote about how Jones has turned conspiracy theories into a religion.
“Bob Cesca of Salon wrote about how Jones has turned conspiracy theories into a religion.”
Sounds more like a money machine.
Ted Cruz and the Rethugs being an assholes: Change the name of the street where the Chinese Embassy is:
What loony tunes ideologues.
Nerd @255, That’s also a big waste of time. Senators already have more vacation days than work days on their calendar. They already claim they don’t have time to do some of the business they are supposed to do, like confirm lower-court appointees from Obama. So what do they do? They waste time trying to insult the people in the Chinese Embassy.
tomh @254, I agree. Alex Jones is running a scam.
John McCain has changed his mind when it comes to confirming a replacement for Justice Scalia. What McCain used to think: he “voted for both Justice Breyer and Justice Ginsburg, because I believed that President Clinton won the election,” and “elections have consequences. The American voter was very well aware of what kind of judge the president of the United States was going to appoint and they decided to re-elect him. Maybe that wasn’t the reason, but they knew that came with the deal.”
Now McCain is lining up with his fellow obstructionist Republican Senators. His office issued a written statement blaming the “nuclear option” for destroying “any semblance of cooperation.” Bullshit.
Here’s some of the back story on the so-called “nuclear option” for getting bills passed and appointees confirmed in the Senate:
Link.
The result was that a simple majority vote (51 votes) could carry the day. This is also sometimes called “regular order.” Without it, a super majority of 60 votes would be required to even get past a filibuster and bring a bill or confirmation vote to the floor. The return to regular order did not include confirmation votes for Supreme Court Justices. So that’s why we are in a difficult position when it comes to replacing Scalia.
Some days I just want to spray sriracha sauce directly into the sinuses of obstructive lawmakers.
This is how being left or right-handed influences your politics
“It seems so obvious when you hear it, yet it could have shaped society for centuries without our knowing. According to research presented by Dr Daniel Casasanto to the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Washington DC, people just prefer things that are in front of their favourite hand. It could be products on a shelf, or applicants for a job.”
“Righties would on average choose the person or product on the right; lefties, on average, the person or product on the left,” Dr Casasanto explained. And, from his research conducted at the University of Chicago, it is easy to see how this could have serious political implications. “We found in a large simulated election, that compared to lefties, righties will choose the candidate they see on the right of the ballot paper about 15% more,” Dr Casasanto said. His theory, in simple terms, is that because people go through life with a “fluent side” and a “clumsy side”, they develop a kind of unconscious favouritism, even for things that don’t require them to use their hands.
Oops. The link from #259 isn’t working Sorry. Here it is-
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/02/this-is-how-being-left-or-right-handed-influences-your-politics/
This might be good news. In recent years, several large corporations have withdrawn their support of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). I tend to think these withdrawals are more a response to increasing scrutiny of ALEC than a sudden turn toward responsible and logical policy agendas.
ALEC used to be able to hide the ways in which the organization fostered questionable relationships between corporations and legislators. Those relationships were used to affect so-called “model legislation” that was distributed to state and federal legislators.
Still, any withdrawal of support is good. Today we find that Ford Motor Company is joining other corporations in a mass defection from ALEC. I think that some of the more intelligent CEOs are finding ALEC’s climate change denial and other goofy ideological stances too much to stomach. Google said earlier that ALEC was “literally lying about climate change.”
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/02/13043/ford-becomes-latest-major-corporation-dump-alec
Republicans harbor as much irrational hatred of Hillary Clinton as they do for President Obama.
The quoted text comes from a Washington Post article.
Here are a few of the ways in which rightwing hatred of Hillary Clinton showed up in the past:
– they claimed she had murdered people, or ordered them murdered
– she was trafficking cocaine
– she was too outspoken to be a First Lady
– she was selling arms to terrorists
– etc.
There’s an interesting article in the Grauniad on two historical attempts to delay the process for replacing a dead Supreme Court justice, Republicans beware: blocking supreme court nominations can backfire:
Here are few quotes from Ted Cruz … just in case we need a reminder of his level of assholery:
The extrajudicial execution-by-drone under Cheney / Bush ][ and Obama comes to mind…
Oliver North, is that you?
She speaks / reads Latin? Clearly unfit for office…
South Carolina’s governor, Nikki Haley, has endorsed Marco Rubio.
Ted Cruz is now daring Donald Trump to file a lawsuit against him.
And the circus continues.
Here is a convenient debunking of all the arguments against President Obama nominating the next Supreme Court justice.
It’s silly to have to do this, but it looks like we need to debunk the conspiracy theory that Justice Scalia was suffocated with a pillow. Donald Trump repeated the “pillow over his face” lie.
Mother Jones link.
“Above his head” might have been better than the “over his head.”
Conspiracy theories have now expanded: not only did President Obama kill Scalia, so did Hillary Clinton. Glenn Beck blamed God. Clinton killed Scalia so that, after she wins the presidency, she can appoint Barack Obama to the Supreme Court. Since other conspiracy theories have Obama running the UN, he is going to be a busy guy.
Oh good, more conspiracy theories. What would we do for entertainment if the whackos on the right didn’t keep coming up with this drivel?
Scott Lively thinks that President Obama arranged the coup in Ukraine to prevent Lively’s much-beloved anti-gay laws from taking hold there, like they had done in Russia.
Right Wing Watch link.
More details are being added to the conspiracy theory that claims President Obama killed Scalia. He did it as a human sacrifice to Satan.
Link.
In the same radio interview, the host proffered the pseudo-fact that Donald Trump sent a private letter to Vladimir Putin to warn Putin that “this administration is resorting to murder.”
That’s Republican candidate Mary Lou Bruner speaking. She is running for a spot on the 15-member Texas Board of Education.
More words of wisdom (/sarcasm) from Mary Lou:
Mary Lou is not alone. The Salon article goes on to provide details about several other Texas politicians.
As an aside, Alex Jone’s “Infowars” promoted the Obama-is-a-homosexual theory for awhile.
I was wondering whether the John Poindexter of Iran-Contra infamy and the ranch-owner/businessman John Poindexter are the same person, but some quick googling sugggests that they aren’t.
Oh, FFS. This is bad news. Misogyny raises its ugly head again. But don’t blame Bernie Sanders for this. Blame some of his supporters. (I am hoping Bernie has enough influence with Killer Mike to put a stop to this.)
Salon link.
More people who do not understand the concept of free speech, Parents complain at Illinois high school choir singing Glory from the film Selma:
The article does not explain why the line was omitted. It’s apparent omission makes the complaints amusing, in addition to pathetic.
And police intimidation !
blf @273, What are the students learning from that disagreement?
Another learning experience for high school students took place in Beaufort SC today. About a dozen kids politely protested at a Trump rally. They were outside the venue, causing no trouble until a bunch of Trumps supporters started harassing them. Link. Scroll down to watch the video.
In other news, in 2012 eighteen percent of Latinos viewed the GOP as “hostile” to them. Now, thanks to Donald Trump, 45% of Latinos view the GOP as hostile. Way to go Trumpster. You did accomplish something.
Bundy militia update: A federal grand jury has handed down sixteen felony charges against Cliven Bundy and other militiamen involved in the Nevada standoff in April 2014. Cliven Bundy, Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Pete Santilli and Ryan Payne, have been indicted.
We waited a long time for this.
United States Attorney’s Office, District of Nevada link.
Penalties for each charge range from 5 to 20 years in prison; and the fine is $250,000 for each charge.
Republican senators are getting more pressure from rightwing organizations to toe the line when it comes to obstructing an Obama nominee to replace Scalia.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/outside-groups-scotus-nom-fight
A teenager who was roughed up at a Trump rally tells his story:
Link
Wisconsin is one of those states with new voter ID laws. Things are not going well. Both students and veterans were turned away at the polls during an local election.
Governor Scott Walker ignored the problems and said everything was fine:
Local media reported that turnout was low, even down to single digits in some counties. And lots of people who are not Scott Walker complained about the ID requirements.
Link
It must loonie’s heads ‘xploding season, White House announces that Obama will visit Cuba in March:
Hey you, yeah, you, teh crud: It’s call diplomacy. Which does not mean carpet-bombing or staying home with your hands over yer ears, your head up yer arse, and shouting .
And a few readers’s comments:
●
In reply: “You failed to include Muslim in your rantings.”
● “It is my contention that the American embargo has done more harm to the Cuban people that any harm the actions of their government has done to them!”
I think I shall have to buy a big bag of nuts — the edible kind — to munch on watching the nutters — the rarely-edible kind — going bugfecking nuttier.
The SPLC is to go-to group for information about hate groups and exceptionally nasty people. Even the FBI uses them as a reference. They are not impressed with wazzock trum-prat, Southern Poverty Law Center affixes Trump as face of ‘year in hate’ report:
blf @279, President Obama actually made some diplomatic progress in/with Cuba. If there’s one thing the rightwing cannot stand, it is Obama racking up impressive achievements during his presidency. They are also frustrated because they cannot condemn him for killing civilians with drone strikes. Head asplode indeed.
blf @280, speaking of hate speech, Ben Carson made another stupid remark about Muslims:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/02/16/3750119/ben-carson-schizophrenic/
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (Republican/Tea Party doofus) said something stupid … again:
Link
There is no “ziki fly.”
What do former interrogators think about Trump’s and Cruz’s plans to waterboard (and worse) prisoners?
Link
Ben Carson said some more stupid stuff. (I’ll be glad when this guy drops out of the race. I’m tired of reading his goofy pronouncements.)
Right Wing Watch link.
I suppose everyone has heard by now that Apple is defying a court order to aid the FBI by breaking into a phone used by the criminals who committed the San Bernardino massacre.
Ben Carson has a solution: elect him president and everyone will find him so trustworthy that they will be glad to defeat encryption or other privacy protection measures on their devices.
Link.
Donald Trump picked two more fights: one with the Pope and one with Rupert Murdoch.
The Pope commented that people who just want to build walls instead of building bridges are not christians. Trump took umbrage and claimed that Mexico had encouraged the Pope to show him some disrespect.
As far as Rupert Murdoch goes:
Link
Note to “Morning Joe” hosts, please stop showering love, hugs and softball questions on Donald Trump. Joe Scarborough is a disgrace.
This is a followup to comment 286.
Other people also think Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” is behaving like a Trump fan-boy.
Media Matters link.
This is a followup to my comment about Trump picking a fight with the Pope. I just wanted to add one more detail.
About the Pope’s comments, Trump said (without a hint of irony), “No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith.”
Trump has questioned the legitimacy of Carson’s Seventh-day Adventist faith; about Ted Cruz he said, “to the best of my knowledge, not too many evangelicals come out of Cuba.” And Trump is the guy who wants to ban all Muslims.
The Latino Victory Fund endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.
In other news: Donald Trump continues his fight with the Pope by pointing out that the Vatican is surrounded by massive walls. Trump also said if the Islamic State were ever to attack the Vatican, the Pope “would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President.”
What Trump said about the Pope in December: “The new Pope is a humble man, very much like me, which probably explains why I like him so much!”
What the Pope said about Trump:
Link.
Governor Scott Walker (Republican doofus of Wisconsin) restricted funding for Planned Parenthood today.
Crisis pregnancy centers are those places that falsely advertise help they do not offer. They are fronts for religiously-based shaming of women. They are nodes in the anti-abortion network. CPCs are definitely not an alternative to Planned Parenthood.
Mother Jones link.
Walker’s actions will hurt all of the Planned Parenthood clinics in Wisconsin. There are 22 Planned Parenthood clinics in the state, and 3 of them provide abortion services. The clinics serve 60,000 patients in Wisconsin per year.
And [weary sigh] Walker is hurting poor and low-income women the most.
The rightwing organization True the Vote is pushing the conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton is going to “steal” the election. They have some bonkers ideas, including that “ballot security efforts” are being undermined. I think they might be referring to rules that prevent True the Vote doofuses from harassing voters and polling place workers.
Link.
@ #286
Made the mistake of listening to a bit of what the Donald had to say about the Pontiff on As it Happens last night (and I am paraphrasing here, but only a little) – ” When the ISIS hordes are at the gates of St. Peter’s Basilica – because this is, everybody knows, their number one goal – don’t come crying to me!”
I can’t do it anymore, I can’t listen to the news about this man, I have only so many brain cells left….
No-show Robot Rubio is running into more trouble about his career-long habit of not showing up for work. The Washington Post looked into his work record in Florida and found some disturbing facts:
Rubio really wanted a spot on the Select Committee on Security, but apparently he only wanted it so it would look good on his resumé, and not so that he could actually work on security issues in Florida. Rubio “skipped nearly half of the meetings over the first five months of the panel’s existence, more than any of his colleagues. He missed hours of expert testimony and was absent for more than 20 votes.”
Right after 9/11, Rubio did not have running a presidential campaign as an excuse for missing briefings and votes. He was a state-level legislator. He didn’t show up for work. You would think that the right-wingers who throw a hissy fit every time President Obama plays a round of golf would not go for this Absentee in Chief routine.
What about Rubio’s current job in U.S. Senate? The Tampa Bay Times reported:
quotetheunquote @292, I’m sorry Donald Trump made you suffer again. I saw a repeat of that “when ISIS comes to get the Vatican, you’ll wish I was there” (paraphrase) on two different news programs last night. That was followed by interviews with Trump supporters who all said they agreed, that their Trumpster had done and said the right thing, and that Trump understands the issue of the border with Mexico and the Pope does not. Their favorite trope was that “the Vatican has walls, so there!”
I throw up my hands in despair.
Here’s the latest polling, which contains the very slightly cheery news that Trump has slipped by all of 8 points. (He still has a lead.)
1. Donald Trump: 28% (down from 36% in January)
2. Ted Cruz: 23% (up from 20%)
3. Marco Rubio: 15% (up from 14%)
4. Jeb Bush: 13% (up from 9%)
5. Ben Carson: 9% (up from 8%)
5. John Kasich: 9% (up from 1%)
That’s the NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll. Other polls show Trump down by as few as 3 points.
For months, Donald Trump has been bragging that “I’m the one from 2002, 2003 who said we shouldn’t be” invading Iraq.
That brag was always based on shaky ground since he really barely mentioned Iraq until July 2004, and before that he talked about Iraq in a way that you could parse his statements and come up with several meanings. In July of 2004, anyone could see that things were going badly.
Now BuzzFeed has Trump in a vice made of facts:
BuzzFeed link.
That’s not a full-throated endorsement of the war, but it is also not what Trump claimed, that he was definitely against the war from 2002 on.
In a recent followup interview with Anderson Cooper, the story changed:
RawStory link.
The point is that Trump continually fudges the facts and he thinks that’s okay. He uses the fudged facts to make some of his major “vote for me” points during his campaign.
Utah Senator Orrin Hatch is in contact with dead Justice Scalia:
Hatch has other specious arguments for not replacing Justice Scalia at this time:
Link.
The Nevada caucus vote looks very close on the Democratic side. Clinton and Sanders appear to be running neck and neck, though Nevada is a hard state to poll, no one is sure what’s going on there. Caucus day is tomorrow.
South Carolina is a different story, with Clinton in the lead and, according to some polls, increasing her lead over Sanders. Representative James E. Clyburn, one of the top black leaders in Congress and a prominent Democrat in South Carolina, endorsed Hillary Clinton for president today.
In the lead-up to the primary vote in South Carolina, Bernie Sanders has received support from some prominent black leaders including Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and former NAACP chairman Ben Jealous.
Oh, FFS. Ted Cruz is the Cliven Bundy of Republican presidential candidates. Cruz released a new TV ad in which he says he will sell of give away all of Nevada’s national park, national forest, national monument, and BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lands.
“I will fight day and night to return full control of Nevada’s lands to its rightful owners, its citizens.”
This ad comes on the heels of Cliven Bundy and his sons Ryan and Ammon having been indicted by a grand jury. I guess Cruz doesn’t care if the company he keeps includes indicted criminals.
Think Progress link.
Mother Jones posted an article sharply critical of the domestic spending proposals from the Sanders campaign.
In other news, a racist newsletter in South Carolina has endorsed Donald Trump:
Link
Ted Cruz has promised that if he is elected president he will not support gluten-free meals for military personnel. WTF?
Link
“That’s why the last thing any commander should need to worry about is the grades he is getting from some plush-bottomed Pentagon bureaucrat for political correctness or social experiments — or providing gluten-free MREs,” Cruz said.
Stephen Colbert offered to referee the fight between the Pope and Donald trump. Scroll down for video.
Chicago used water department employees’ homes to test for lead (my boldfacing):
At the present time, there aren’t very many readers’s comments, but there are several similar to this one, “I have lived in Chicago for over 20+ years, reading the Tribune, the Sun-Times, and all the local news sites. I thank the gods I have found the Guardian so I can know what the hell is happening in this town.”
Interesting analysis in the Grauniad, How the Bush dynasty’s tactics birthed the President Trump nightmare:
Some readers’s comments:
● “[… T]o paraphrase a joke heard recently: ‘If Trump is going to become captain of your ship, I think you would do better off sitting in the lifeboat’.”
● “The story goes a bit deeper. Lee Atwater came to national political attention when he was the mastermind of Ronald Reagan’s campaign strategy in South Carolina and later in the South as a whole. Before that he worked from Strom Thurmond and a number of other southern candidates. In 1982, Reagan appointed Atwater to the position of Deputy Assistant to the President for Political Affairs. Lee was also Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Bush the First followed Reagan’s lead and the story continues to this day. Today’s Republicans are reaping what their idol Reagan sewed — a bitter legacy indeed.”
● “Here is a quote from Bush senior: ” [I have no idea if that is a genuine Bush I quote or not –blf]
● “A good review of what the Bush family actually has done over the decades, as opposed to the fairy tale they like to pass off as their historical “contribution” to our current situation. They were not the only politicians who ruined the potential of the 60s and early 70s, but they were eager participants.”
blf, thanks for comments 304 and 305. Lots of good information and analysis in there.
It is funny/sad that residents of Chicago have to turn to The Guardian to get accurate news about the water quality in their city.
The story of how the Republicans nurtured venality and lying is interesting and horrible. Of course, they are all christians.
Karl Rove just got the IRS to recognize his money-raising machine (Super PAC) as a “social welfare” organization. Alternate reality indeed.
More weirdness from the Nevada caucus/vote procedures:
https://www.ralstonreports.com/blog/gop-voters-could-participate-democratic-caucus
Link
Oh, dear. Republicans in Idaho want to use the Bible more thoroughly than they already do in public education:
That’s text from Idaho Senate Bill No. 1232.
Journalist Walter Einenkel suggested the following passages for biology classes, but they seem more suitable for sex miseducation to me:
She lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. —Ezekiel 23:20
When a woman has a discharge, if her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. Everything also on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean. —Leviticus 15: 19-20
Goofy calendar for voting in Nevada and South Carolina:
– Democratic caucus in Nevada, Saturday, February 20.
– Republican primary in South Carolina, Saturday, February 20.
– Republican caucus in Nevada, Tuesday, February 23.
– Democratic primary in South Carolina, Saturday, February 27.
South Carolina Republican Representative Mark Sanford endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz for president.
In other news, a bunch of college students protested in Washington D.C. against the unfair practices of for-profit colleges.
Link.
Sneaky and awful on all levels, Trump is, not surprisingly, deceptive when it comes to his charitable giving:
Here’s a recap of the Town Hall meeting in Nevada yesterday, the one in which Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders took questions from the audience.
NBC link to post with both text and video.
Another one for teh wazzock trum-prat “fail to vet sources” and “tell lies” and “endorse torture” and “war crimes” and “extrajudicial actions” files , Trump recounts Pershing urban legend, seemingly endorsing mass executions:
Plus the “exceptionally odious bigotry” file.
Teh wazzock trum-prat demonstrates his clewlessness, Trump calls for Apple boycott amid FBI feud — then sends tweets from iPhone:
That is highly sophisticated thinking for you, wazzock. It shows a complete level of not-understanding and obliviousness which would do Scalia proud. Let’s start with : There is no such thing. And it isn’t known to Apple.
You probably mean the suspect’s passphrase(or similar), which — BY DESIGN — is neither known to Apple, nor recoverable, nor deducible. That is one reason the court order is for Apple to, in effect, provide a means for the FBI to brute-force guess the passphrase (that is, try possibilities until they either succeed or, possibly more likely, the heat death of the universe). One problem the FBI has here is Apple has, very sensibly and in common with other security-aware products (including those I work on), DESIGNED it so that “too many” consecutive bad attempts deliberately cause the erasure of the encrypted data.
And then:
(I laughed lout loud…)
Some readers’s comments:
● “They protect your data! Boycott them!”
● “How do you like that? I just thought of that!
“It’s almost quaint, almost, that he thinks he has to announce that he “thinks.” If the stakes weren’t so high, it would be hilarious. As it is, one would hope voters pause and consider what that says about how very low the bar has been set.
“Spontaneous blats and burps from Planet Trump do not a mindful, deliberative, considered policy make. On anything.”
● “How do you like that? I just thought of that! — This pretty much sums up Trumps campaign.”
● “If brains were dynamite, he couldn’t blow his nose.”
● “Great idea! Let’s boycott Apple until they make their devices so unsafe that no sane person would want to own one.”
● “Boycott Trump until we can snoop through his phone.”
In reply: “Would you really want to read the drivel on it?”
● “Give the security number? Does he think that no one will call him out on his total ignorance?
“What part of ‘not even Apple can break it’ does he not understand?”
● “How do you like that? I just thought of that! — And once again surprises himself that he had a thought. I’m sure that will go into every speech ad nauseum for weeks.”
In reply: “I think he speaks before thinking for the most part. It sounds like he’s often surprised about what just left his own mouth.”
In reply: “what just left his own mouth — It actually comes from another part of his anatomy.”
● “And so the question arises of whether Trump or any of his cronies shorted Apple stock.” [Good point! –blf]
blf, Trump admitted that he criticized the Pope without having ever read the actual statement the Pope had made about building walls and building bridges. Having finally read that and deciding that it wasn’t aimed directly at him, or at least not only at him, Trump had a change of heart. He’s now back to saying the Pope is a good guy.
Trump said the ignorant stuff about Apple without researching the issue. He made the anti-Muslim comments that included General Pershing without reading the facts. That’s how he would be as a president. The horror, the horror.
Most of the news coverage today is all Scalia all the time, including coverage of the funeral that featured Scalia’s son, who is a priest, saying that Jesus himself was at the funeral today.
Meanwhile, Ted Cruz continued to say stupid stuff:
The quote is from an argument Cruz made on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Here are some facts for Ted Cruz and his conservative cronies, courtesy of Rob Boston, a spokesperson for Americans United for Separation of Church and State:
This is a followup to comment 307. Rachel Maddow covered the possibility of Republicans voting in the Democratic caucus in Nevada.
MSNBC was supposed to have all-day live coverage of the Nevada Democratic caucuses today, but the coverage was bumped for Scalia’s funeral. We’ll hear about the caucuses later.
Meanwhile, Cruz is up to dirty tricks in South Carolina. Republicans are going to the polls there, but first they got a robocall from the Cruz campaign telling them that Donald Trump supports gay rights and would force “people to bake cakes and photograph gay weddings.” What Trump actually said was “That’s your thing, and other people have their thing. We have to bring all people together.” Of course, one never knows what Trump will really do.
Here’s what Cruz’s robocall says Trump will do:
Link.
The robocall goes on to tell voters to support Cruz “before it is too late.”
Cruz claimed he had nothing to do with the robocalls.
Think Progress journalists asked Trump supporters who should be the next Supreme Court justice. Scary stuff:
Rightwing legislators in New York want to play Big Brother, or Mommy and Daddy, to all poor people. This is insulting.
Link.
President Obama and Michele Obama paid their respects to Justice Scalia at the Supreme Court. They also met privately with the justice’s immediate family. So what does Donald Trump have to say about this?
The family of Justice Scalia had agreed that the President and First Lady should not attend the memorial services that were held today. Such a visit does create a distraction from the person being memorialized. V.P. Joe Biden did attend.
Yep, the first family takes up a lot of space, and their motorcade creates an even bigger traffic jam.
This is a followup to blf’s comment 313.
Some Muslim civil rights groups have responded to Trump’s repetition of a debunked story about General Pershing killing Muslims.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/cair-trump-pigs-blood-incite-violence-muslims
So, a few Nevada caucus sites are such a clusterfuck that a a new hashtag, #KillTheCaucus is getting a lot online play.
We have a few provisional results, to be taken with several grains of salt:
Clinton’s lead has widened a bit: 52-48 with 32% reporting, per NYT. The Times seems to be getting results faster than the official Nevada Democrat’s website, which keeps crashing.
Talking Points Memo has a live blog of Nevada caucus results. It shows Clinton with 51.36% and Sanders with 48.53%, and that with 38.6% reporting.
Trump’s latest bigoted idiocy is making the rounds. He applauds the use of torture and approvingly tells a horrifying (and untrue) story about the execution of Muslims with bullets dipped in pig’s blood in the early 20th century. Watch the video at your peril – warning; contains toxic levels of prejudice and stupidity.
It gives you some of idea of how extreme Trump’s position is when even the infamously racist Daily Mail is uncomfortable with his xenophobic ranting.
Hillary Clinton won in Nevada. There are still a few votes coming in, but it looks like 52% for Hillary, and 48% for Sanders.
We don’t yet have results from the Republican primary in South Carolina.
Gregory @324, Trump has not made enough people in the Republican Party uncomfortable. They are still voting for him.
Trump is the projected winner of the South Carolina primary, with about 34% of the vote. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are battling it out for second place with about 22% of the vote. We don’t have all the results in yet.
Some white evangelical christians voted for Trump instead of Cruz, which is just mind boggling.
Lynna, #326
You think the pig blood bullet comment tipped the scale for them?
Cruz should have mentioned alcohol filled hand grenades.
Jeb Bush dropped out of the race for president. He was in fourth place in South Carolina.
Donald Trump tweeted one last insult to Jeb (something about running out of energy), and then he gave an acceptance speech.
Second place is still too close to call. It will be either Cruz or Rubio.
With 74% of the votes counted in South Carolina, here are the results:
Trump 33.1%
Rubio 22.3% (He’ll call that a win.)
Cruz 21.7%
Bush 8.1%
Kasich 8.0%
Carson 6.9%
Rachel Maddow talked about Donald Trump being the new Republican Party standard.
Saad, evangelical christians do get a kick out of being afraid of Muslims. Fearing terrorism, and the joys of hating Muslims, are pillars of the evangelical christian world view in South Carolina. That was born out by the exit polls.
I don’t know if the pig blood tipped the scale.
What I think is happening is that they just want a strong man. No matter what, they want a bully, and they don’t care how offensive that bully is. They actually believe Trump when he talks, and they believe in him as a if he were a religion. One thing is for sure, they do not see the weaknesses at the base of Trump’s sand castle.
With 84% reporting, the results look pretty much the same:
Trump 33.0%
Rubio 22.3%
Cruz 21.7%
etc.
Rubio is now giving his “I won because I came in second” speech. He is pretending to be Ronald Reagan (name drops too many to count). “Morning in America” mentioned to many times to mention. Rubio has Nikki Haley and others onstage with him so that he can present his “new face of the Republican Party.”
Jeb! was as gracious in defeat as Trump was vindictive and petty in victory. Husband is watching wall-to-wall caucus and primary coverage and chortling gleefully at the prospect of a brokered convention. It’s going to be a long year…
Lynna, #331
I think that’s it in a nutshell.
This is like the Gamergate pushback to people trying to improve games. The few precious progressive advances made in the past two terms have created this horrible reaction. Maddow’s observation seems right: this is the mainstream GOP attitude now.
Some more on the Gen Pershing made-up “fact” (see @313 and @321) vomited forth by teh wazzock, Memo to Trump: pork isn’t Kryptonite to Muslims. But bigotry might be yours [sic]:
Some readers’s comments:
● “Trump takes most of his ‘facts’ from The Boys’ Big Book of Barmy Bigotry, published by Bullshit Productions.”
● “Trump has factcheck teflon. Its not entirely clear how it works, but apparently, nothing he says needs to be fact checked, and calling him out on mistruths deliberate or accidental matters not one bit to him, or his support base. they just don’t care. They may even love him because he says a pack of horseshit. They all want to believe it.”
● “Trump’s invented a new kind of political campaigning strategy, rather than just throwing a dead cat on the table to distract voters from what would normally turn into a shitstorm, he has relentlessly thrown one dead cat after another, the whole table is covered in dead cats, yet he is still popular. […]”
Lynna@314, on teh trum-prat’s alleged admission of not reading the head of the child-raptist’s comments before rejecting the chief rapist’s point: There seems to be a mistake here of believing something teh wazzock claimed.
That is a serious goof. As I’ve said previously (paraphrasing), teh wazzock could claim he is a wazzock, and whilst seemingly true, I wouldn’t believe him. He would have to, at the least, convincingly shows he understands what a “wazzock” is. (The same concept holds true for the child-rapists’s-in-chief: Also not to be believed without convincing evidence.)
As is to so happens, the Grauniad makes a similar point, I don’t like fighting with the pope, said Donald Trump. And we believe him (emphasis in the original):
First Dog on the Moon (also in the Grauniad) weighs in on the child-rapist-in-chief’s vs wazzock penis-waving contest, Donald Trump: ‘Pope Francis can’t promise Americans any of this amazing stuff but I can!’ (cartoon): “A spokesperson for Pope Francis said that for Donald Trump to call the pope a prawn is a bit much and it doesn’t even make sense — we call them shrimp in this country”.
Despite the mention of both trebuchets and cheese, the mildly deranged penguin has no recollection of being involved with the production of this cartoon. Also, the cartoon’s Obama-Scalia conspiracy theory is entirely wrong, as the mildly deranged penguin recently proved.
blf @335:
Quite true. I should have thought of that
In other news, with almost all Nevada precincts reporting, Clinton’s victory is clearer, with the tally being 53% to Sanders’ 47%. Clinton will pick up 19 delegates, and Sanders 15 delegates. In his speech, Sanders noted how far they had come (from practically nothing to being a viable contender), about which he is right. Another thing to note about Nevada, turnout was lower than it was in 2008.
Clinton’s victory speech in Nevada:
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/hillary-clinton-gets-her-victory-speech-road-nomination-clears-n522906
Sanders’ concession speech in Nevada:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bernie-sanders-concession-speech-nevada
Donald Trump’s victory speech in South Carolina:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/20/politics/melania-trump-south-carolina-trump/
Jeb Bush’s leaving-the-race speech in South Carolina:
http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/02/21/south-carolina-gop-primary-jeb-bush-entire-speech-sot.cnn/video/playlists/south-carolina-gop-primary/
With 100% reporting, we have final results from South Carolina:
Trump 32.5%
Rubio 22.5%
Cruz 22.3%
Bush 7.8%
Kasich 7.6%
Carson 7.2%
Lynna, OM @ 326;
I know – it’s hard to credit isn’t it? Every time I think the Repubs can’t do anything to further worsen my opinion of them, they always find a way to surprise me.
It seems that reactionary bigotry and hatred actually can substitute for nauseating public piety for Evangelical voters, so long as you hate the ‘right’ people with sufficient vitriol. As you say @ 331;
In some ways, Trump is your standard issue rightwing tough guy – he talks about war and bringing down the wrath of the imaginary sky fairy on the heads of the ‘bad guys’ in the full knowledge that he will never be asked to put his own worthless
hair piecehide on the line. He is a blowhard as you say, and some Evangelicals are so desperate to hear that empty posturing that they will vote for him even though he doesn’t share their religious beliefs.Saad also makes a good point @ 333 – this does feel a lot like the Gamergate push back. Even mild and limited progressive advances result in testerical flailing from the religious right, and they will back anyone who promises to roll back that progress and cement their unearned privilege that they feel was being threatened.
A collection of quite extreme slimely kleptomaniacs in the UK has been pushing the idea of a so-called “Brexit” — the UK leaving the EU — for some decades now. Until recently, they’ve been told to go stuff their heads back up their arses. However, the current UK Prime Minister (PM) is as throughly dishonest and incompetent as teh trum-prat, and even more useless than most politicians, and has wound up ordering a referendum (albeit rigged) in June this year on whether or not the UK should stay in the EU. The vote is rigged in multiple ways, the one which affects me personally is that UK citizens (insultingly called “subjects”) who have not lived in the UK for something like more than two years are not eligible to vote in the June referendum. Which is a not-so-neat way of denying expatriates (like me) any say in our livelihoods or legal status. (This is not the only rigging which has been going on.)
One of the many racists in the UK’s nasty party (the equivalent of the States’s thug party), who also form the current UK “government”, has now openly shown some of the exceptionally dubious claims “supporting” a “Brexit”, Iain Duncan Smith: UK risks Paris-style attacks by staying in the EU:
The UK has basically accepted no refugees. (The UK “government” of course claims otherwise.) The handful that have been admitted were supposedly required to apply from, and stay in, Syria. I have no idea how actually followed that Assad-friendly rule, but given the corruption of both governments and the desperation of most refugees, presume it isn’t very many.
Islamphobia, hello! Baseless rumourmongering, hello!! Factfree claims, hello!!! Teh trum-prat, hello!!!!
Sighs… This “my streets are safer than your streets” penis-waving is largely missing any useful points. Far more useful is “who is not racist?” and similar, such as “who treats everyone fairly? …equally? …with the rule of law?”, et al.
Amusingly, Trump’s own Christian denomination defies him on immigration policy:
blf @341, I hadn’t realized how closely some UK politicians hewed to the Trum-Prat’s islamophobia. I mean, I knew it was there, and that it was ugly, but I hadn’t realized the extent of it, nor how deeply it was embedded in politics there.
BTW, it is definitely not right that they want to exclude expatriates from voting.
Ted Cruz said some more stupid stuff about adding to the already bloated military budget:
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-02-16/ted-cruz-calls-for-return-to-bush-era-military-spending
Link
Cruz proposes to pay for the increases in the military budget by getting rid of the Internal Revenue Service; and the following departments: Education, Housing and Urban Development, Energy, and Commerce.
Four-star Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replied to Cruz’s proposal: “I won’t be argumentative but I will take umbrage with the notion that our military has been gutted … I stand here today a person that’s worn this uniform for 35 years. At no time in my career have I been more confident than this instant in saying we have the most powerful military on the face of the planet.”
Trump pretends to be innocent:
Link
blf@341, Lynna, OM@343,
I agree with blf’s main point – those leading the push for an “Out” vote in the EU referendum on 23rd June are for the most part a collection of odious xenophobes and racists. But it’s still tempting (I am resisting the temptation) to wish for an “Out” vote, as it would certainly lead to an interesting political situation, and the political downfall of a number of repulsive individuals. At the least, Cameron would have to resign as Prime Minister (that’s a political “have to”, not a constitutional one); but beyond that, the majority of the ruling party’s MP, and of the cabinet, would have spent the past 4 months backing an outcome the voters have now rejected. Could they credibly continue to run the country? In the event of an “Out” vote, there would still have to be negotiations with the rest of the EU on the divorce terms, and the Tory party could well still be split between the “Ins” (trying to save as much as possible from the wreck) and the “Outs” (trying to show Johnny Foreigner what for). Beyond that again, the great majority of the political and economic establishment are “Ins” – but the right-wing press, including Murdoch, is heavily “Out”. Opportunities for the left can be envisaged, but the most likely outcome would be an economic crash as financial capital fled the uncertainties of London, followed by a hard right “little England”* government. And the implications for the rest of the EU could be dire: the UK has been a constant pain in the nether regions, but its decision to leave, coupled with the other crises the EU is enmeshed in, might be enough to shake it to pieces. In which case, we’ll perhaps find out what role the EU has had in preventing wars between its members.
Even more interesting would be an overall “Out” vote despite “In” votes from some of the constituent parts of the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland). The most plausible case is Scotland voting “In”, but being outvoted – that could reignite the campaign for a second Independence referendum. The next most plausible is England voting narrowly “Out”, while Scotland and Northern Ireland vote heavily “In”, giving the latter a tiny overall majority.
*England, not Britain or the UK. The other constituents of the UK would be likely to lose what autonomy they now have.
@246
should be:
I’m going to keep my eye on that “Out” vote in the UK. Looks like a bag of worms to me.
In other news, let’s put a stake through the heart of idea that it is “common practice” or “tradition” for the Senate to forego considering lifetime appointments during the last year of a President’s term. We all already know that is hogwash, but it is now being repeated and repeated—not only on rightwing media outlets, but (FFS) has now gotten a firm toehold in mainstream media.
WTF? Does no one check the facts anymore? Multiple sources anyone?
I snipped a long section giving examples of Republican senators taking supposedly “moderate” positions; namely that they might consider a nominee who agreed with Scalia’s “constitutional position,” but who was not “nominated for political purposes.” That’s not moderate. That’s cognitive dissonance combined with obstructionism and stupidity.
Link.
Donald Trump has now started some Birther nonsense about Marco Rubio. That’s Trump’s favorite thing. He begins by saying it is not him that’s asking the question, but other people are. Then he gets more into it. He did that with President Obama. He did it with Ted Cruz. Now he’s doing it with Rubio.
All of the Birther theories from Trump rest on bigotry, racism and reliance on questionable sources. Sleazy.
John Kasich, the governor of Ohio and the occasionally reasonable Republican candidate for president, just showed his rightwing side again. He signed another law attacking Planned Parenthood.
Link
Just for fun, and for a break from nasty political news, here’s a video of a 106 year old woman dancing into the White House to celebrate Black History Month.
This article is a summary of all the tactics Republicans have used to delegitimize the first black president.
Well, this is a first. The Ted Cruz campaign finally apologized for one of its many dirty tricks.
Seems they concocted an ad which showed Rubio saying that there are “not many answers” in the Bible, but what Rubio actually said was “All the answers are in there.”
I think Cruz is concerned about losing a segment of the evangelical christian vote to both Rubio and Trump. And that’s the voting bloc to which Cruz pandered so thoroughly that he even appeared on stage with guys shouting about killing gay people.
This is good news. Workers in Las Vegas have won a battle with Trump. I hope this news takes a few points off Trump’s lead in Nevada.
Oh, how I wish we could overturn all of Trump’s labor/political policies in their entirety. Unfortunately, I don’t think Trump is done fighting. We know how much he hates to lose:
Well, that sounds like Trump all right. He had his lawyers bully the workers.
Link.
Trump continues to make treating workers right a major part of his stump speech. His actions are the opposite of the words that come out of his mouth.
Ted Cruz’s father is pushing harder for the evangelical christian community to vote for his son. Rafael Cruz said:
Yuck. More “Ted Cruz is the face of God” assholery.
Heidi was probably just getting damned tired of kneeling for two hours.
Just for fun, here is a Game of Thrones mashup that inserts Donald Trump into the script. Salon link.
Trump looks so gloriously stupid and incompetent in this mashup.
Scroll down for video.
@ #355
Imagine that being the face of the US Presidency. That’s the kind of thing I think of every time I see a Sanders supporter say, “I’ll never vote for Hillary.”
Some news hosts have flagged the “Hillary Clinton is not trustworthy” meme as a rightwing tactic that’s been used for a couple of decades. Now that meme sticks, even in Democratic circles. There are plenty of issues on which to question Clinton, but the overall, generalized “not trustworthy” meme is one the rightwing is pushing.
Here’s just one example of a news program pushing back, however ineffectively:
That last sentence is Kohn referencing the fact that the program she is on is also painting a generalized “untrustworthy” picture of Clinton without providing details.
Link.
Trump has been pushing the “dishonest” and “liar” and “not to be trusted” line against Hillary Clinton, and he has been pushing it hard.
I think that’s different from critics of Clinton picking a particular example of her actions or words and saying that they disagree, or that they think Clinton didn’t tell the whole truth.
Apparently there is no such thing as pandering too much to the religious rightwing.
There’s been a lot of discussion about not blaming Bernie Sanders for comments made by “Bernie Bros.” Yeah, I agree. The difference is that Sanders is not attending a convention hosted by Bernie Bros. Cruz and Carson willing associate with and support organizations and individuals that are violently anti-gay and anti-Muslim.
Sanders does not associate with nor support anti-feminist voters.
In Utah control of money mixes with the mormon religion to create an “unelected governor” in Zions Bank President and CEO Scott Anderson.
Not buying that last bit. It reminds me very much of mormon leaders saying they were “speaking as men and not as prophets” when they want to dabble in politics.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/3519389-155/utahs-unelected-governor-the-political-clout
Public toilets — the key battleground for bigots wanting to legislate trans people out of existence:
The Catholic Archbishop in St. Louis is warning all Catholics to stay away from the Girl Scouts.
What, exactly, does Archbishop Carlson dislike about the Girl Scouts?
– the organization advocates for sex education
– their commitment to reproductive rights, including contraception
Archdiocese of St. Louis link. PDF.
On the “brexit” nonsense, there’s a rather good letter in today’s Grauniad, which I quote almost entirely in full, What’s the EU ever done for us? This lot…:
Some interesting news from a few weeks ago about atheism being less stigmatized politically now:
Faith and the 2016 Campaign – (Pew)
Not much movement lately as compared from 2011 to 2014, but there’s still a bit. Perhaps by 2020 a majority may not care about whether someone is an atheist or not.
Good news regarding one vaccination program:
The quoted text is from USA Today.
The NY Times covered the story and noted that the vaccine “has already reduced the virus’s prevalence in teenage girls by almost two-thirds.”
The CDC notes that, “We would see greater impact with greater vaccine coverage.”
We don’t have greater vaccine coverage thanks in large part to far right members of the Republican Party. Their approach has been to claim that getting the vaccine encourages minors to have sex. Or worse.
Michele Bachmann even once claimed that the HPV vaccine causes mental retardation. Rick Perry used to back the use of the common-sense vaccine in Texas, until he was excoriated by rightwing religious doofuses. Perry backed down. Nikki Haley vetoed an HPV vaccine bill passed by the South Carolina legislature.
This is current political news in Nevada where Representative Joe Heck, who is running for the Senate, said the HPV vaccine was like “coddling smokers who contract lung cancer.”
Maddow Blog link.
Blackmail in South Carolina: it’s between the governor’s office and the City Council of Charlotte. The goal: to make sure LGBT nondiscrimination laws do not pass.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/02/22/3751987/north-carolina-charlotte-lgbt-mccrory/
This sounds like a much-needed documentary. I wonder if Republican politicians will watch it as closely as they watched the deceptive videos from the Center for Medical Progress?
Link.
Scroll down to watch the video excerpt.
There’s additional text at the link, including an interview with Dawn Porter.
Kweisi Mfume, former president and CEO of the NAACP, endorsed Hillary Clinton.
Uh, yeah. So this kind of whacko attitude is why a lot of Trump’s supporters were not bothered when Trump criticized the Pope:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/susan-delemus-pope-antichrist
At first, a lot of rightwing media did not even cover the random shootings in Kalamazoo, Michigan that took place over the weekend. I’m sure they would have covered the events if the shooter had been black. But white guy Jason Brian Dalton made them uncomfortable.
Well, it looks like rightwing media has now found a comfortable way to cover the white Uber driver who killed six people: they are calling him a “progressive.” Why? Dalton used to work for Progressive Insurance.
Another glimpse into a thuggian future (yes, Poland again!), Poland’s leading daily feels full force of Jarosław Kaczyński’s anger:
Mr Wyborcza notes that’s it not impossible for the lunatics’s supporters to try a hostile takeover of Gazeta Wyborcza’s owners. I myself presume the loonies will eventually try a seemingly-simpler route and find some reason to close the paper, and/or arrest / detain its staff, and/or deny the paper supplies (e.g., paper). However, the EU(at least) is currently glaring quite hard at the loonies and reminding them of such basic concepts as the “rule of law”.
Anyone want to have the opportunity to use the word “schadenfreude” in a sentence? Pegida is costing Dresden tourists. It seems that people don’t want to visit a place full of right wing nuts who hate everyone who is even slightly different from them. Who would have thought it?
Part of the argument against the Polish newspaper Gazeta reminds me of the Texas Board of Education. Same reasons for whitewashing history.
As for the reduction in tourist travel to Dresden, if it is about the money maybe the right-wingers will change their tune.
One thing I notice about the Sanders and Clinton campaigns is that both want to improve healthcare in the USA, while all the Republicans will devastate the healthcare plan we already have, (except for Trump who will wave a wand and give us the most beautiful healthcare in the world, at lower costs, and after throwing Obamacare in the trash).
Hillary Clinton’s campaign has mentioned the “public option” before, but in a low-key way. I am glad to see them come back to it, glad to see the highlight on this issue.
Some background on the “public option” from Steve Benen:
Brian Beutler of The New Republic made the case for public option in January.
https://newrepublic.com/article/127573/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-can-unite-health-care
To me, the sudden flow of money and supporters to Marco Rubio looks like rats jumping on a sinking ship. The man sinking that ship is Donald Trump.
This bears repeating: Rubio lost in South Carolina. He lost by double digits. Everybody panic.
Check out the FiveThirtyEight chart to see the clear trend in endorsements:
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-endorsement-primary/
Sorry, I just realized that in @370 I paraphrased some comments I attributed to a “Mr Wyborcza”. The paper’s name is Gazeta Wyborcza. I meant the author of the excerpted article, Mr Leszczyński.
John Kasich’s campaign has another billionaire backer, hedge fund rich guy, Julian H. Robertson Jr. of Tiger Management.
Katich finished fifth in South Carolina. It looks to me like he will do well in Ohio, but be stomped by Trump and Rubio elsewhere.
Teh crud manages to make himself even worse, Ted Cruz ad aligns him with anti federal land control cause defended by Bundys:
The Grauniad isn’t quite correct here. Whilst the fruitcakes have indeed claimed a core issue is ownership of federal lands (with large doses of racism, gun-nuttery, “sovereign citizenship”, and a basket of oranges every morning), it mostly just
I’ve redacted a long discussion of support from some Nevada state
politicianscrooks.There aren’t very many comments yet. Some of the better readers’s comments:
● “Ted Cruz proves again and again that he is the dangerous candidate in the whole bunch.”
In reply: “Ted Cruz is dangerous like Goldfinger in the movie, Trump more like Donald Duck, which doesn’t mean that the outcome under Cruz would be worse than under Trump.”
● “Cruz definitely has the entitled white freeloader vote — that’s for sure!”
The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to set a good example. He says he will march in Toronto’s Pride Parade on July 3.
Donald Trump continues to set a bad example. In reference to a protestor at a rally last night, Trump said:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/23/politics/donald-trump-nevada-rally-punch/index.html
@ #377
Along these lines, this week the House is considering the SPORTSMEN’S HERITAGE AND RECREATIONAL ENHANCEMENT (“SHARE”) ACT.
“H.R. 2406 would amend existing laws and establish new laws related to the management of federal lands. It would authorize the sale of certain federal land and permit the receipts from those sales to be spent.”
Included in the ways the money would be spent; “exempting components of firearms and ammunition and sport fishing equipment from regulations of chemical substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act” (this has to do with lead bullets); “increasing the proportion of funding that states may use for acquiring land for public target ranges”; ” Prohibits the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from banning firearms possession in public areas of a water resources development project.”; “Revises standards for determining a “baited area” for purposes of the prohibition on taking migratory game birds.”
And, in a bill supposedly designed to enhance sport hunting in the US, it prevents the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from adopting a rule to restrict the illegal ivory trade in the United States. There are other provisions, (trapping is redefined as hunting), that have led the Humane Society to label it the “poaching” bill. For all this, we should sell off millions of acres of public land.
For anyone who thinks there is little difference between the parties, I am certain that this bill would be signed by any Republican president, and vetoed by any/i> Democratic president.
Republican senators have decided to double down on their obstructionism when it comes to replacing Justice Scalia. In doing so, they are still calling President Obama a “lame duck president,” which is a term that usually only applies when a new president has been elected but not yet sworn in … not a term used for the current president’s entire last year in office.
Talking Points Memo link.
That’s the thing, at least in the US they DON’T. Obamacare is unquestionably saving the states that took the Medicaid expansion money. It’s even saving a little money for the other states. But the Republicans still want to repeal it. They are not in any way fiscal conservatives any more.
Okay, yeah, obstructionism and disrespect. We get it Senator Pat Roberts:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/pat-roberts-guantanamo-trash
Smug and all, aren’t you.
Something of a follow-up to @374 on teh robot, Marco Rubio: the winningest candidate who just can’t seem to win:
Ouch! That’s gotta hurt.
Some readers’s comments (it’s basically pile on teh robot time, I don’t recall seeing a single comment which was pro-robot):
● “Rubio is made of plastic. He is made up of pieces of vested interest pieces stuck together with cheap glue that cracks when light is shone on him.”
● “The mark of Rubio’s candidacy is his sincerity about zealously professing Mormonism (in Nevada), Catholicism (in Catholic states) and Evangelicalism (everywhere else) simultaneously. He is all things to all people (and nothing to any of them.) Deep down, he’s shallow.” [I have no idea if teh robot does this or not, but it sounds plausible… –blf]
● “[…] Rubio is a completely empty suit, a less-than-one trick pony. […]”
● “Marco Rubio: the winningest candidate who just can’t seem to win — What has Rubio ever won besides the support of dipshit donors?
● “he lacks a raison d’être — wanting to live in the White House because Cuba isn’t a raison d’être”.
● “Rubio is a soulless, plutocat-fellating, right-wing talking-point wind-up doll, and, as such, a truly contemptible sub-human.
“But I don’t have such kind words for Ted Cruz.”
● “As an Latino in Miami who knows the truth behind the Rubio farse, he doesn’t deserve to win, even at marbles as they say in Spanish.It’s a shame that the two Latinos in the race are as repellent as maggots in a dead corpse. Hopefully, Latino’s will not vote on the merits of race, but on the issues that demand substance, tolerance, solvency and justice.”
● “Rubio has a secret weapon the Donald doesn’t. Because he is so Robotic, and his personality is so paper thin, he can photocopy himself and campaign in multiple states at once.”
● “The puppet with sawdust in his head.”
● “He’s a joke candidate, a 2D cardboard cutout sprung from the pages of a badly written satire.”
● “To borrow from the immortal bard, Rubio is but ‘a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage. And then is heard no more’. As for his speeches, they are ‘a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’.”
An insurance agency in Georgia is requiring all of its employees to carry guns at work.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/lance-toland-employee-gun-mandate
blf @383, I will give one plaudit to Marco Rubio: he has inspired a lot of creativity when it comes to describing him.
In other news, a former employee has hit the nail on the head when it comes to identifying a cause for the disastrous policies of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder:
Yes! That is such a Republican/conservative trait. Not every public service or office can be run like a business. (Donald Trump is wrong.)
I snipped details of some of the stupid stuff that Snyder’s venture capital and lawyer friends did when he placed them in positions of power.
Think Progress link.
Ben Carson said something stupid:
Well, this is a stupid move. Lawmakers in Brazil are making it harder for women to get abortions, and this is in the face of the spread of the Zika virus.
Think Progress link.
Those damned feminists! /sarcasm
I have to admit I don’t know what the underlying story is about (other than the “Nauru” mentioned refers to a concentration camp for asylum seekers run(? under contract with a private firm?) by Ozland on one of Nauru’s islands), but First Dog on the Moon seems to have nailed it again, Brenda the Civil Disobedience Penguin on Baby Asha: this is the Australia we love! (cartoon): “Despite the pressure from government bullies and Serco’s hired thugs, the doctors at Lady Cilento hospital have held firm and behaved like— well, doctors. Job well done, Australia”.
Here is a recent BBC report, Australia asylum baby ‘will be sent back to Nauru’:
It’s not known if the minister had on his toothbrush mustache and brownshirt at the time of his pronouncement.
David Horowitz, conservative pundit, friend of Trump, and general dunderhead, says that Democrats are racist.
Right Wing Watch link.
Mitch McConnell and other Republicans are claiming that Joe Biden called for rejecting all Supreme Court nominees during election years. To make the claim, they are showing deceptively-edited video from 1992.
Link
I have seen the false claim about Biden on every rightwing media outlet. Widest and fastest distribution of pseudo-facts in some time.
Feminists are common mosquitoes?
Hum… well, it could explain why it’s so easy to catch cooties, and — worse! — why its so hard to git rid of the annoying pests…
</snark>A Ted Cruz supporter has threatened to “eunuch” himself. That’s how sad he is over the third place finish of Cruz in South Carolina.
Media Matters link.
Samantha Bee took a look at the current state of the Republican presidential race, especially “moderate” John Kasich. Media Matters link.
The video is 4:53 minutes long. Bee really nails Kasich.
I sense a new variation on the Darwin Award.
Hmm, thorougholy screwed that up. Apologies, here it is again:
Just occasionally, it strikes me once again when reading one of your Mormon posts, how utterly bizarre it is that this corrupt and ridiculous cult effectively runs one of the 50 states as an autonomous fief.
Nick @397, Yes, that’s the situation.
Polygamous church leaders were recently arrested for food stamp fraud in Utah, but my feeling is that fraud that “bleeds the beast” (bleeds the federal government) is largely ignored by most mormons. It’s a way of life.
Salt Lake Tribune link
Mormon leaders don’t just perpetrate frauds on outsiders, they also defraud their own church members.
Condemning the obstructionists in the senate:
The Hill link
Apparently, there’s a doctor assigned to the Supreme Court. Who knew?
That doctor has issued a statement that summarizes Justice Scalia’s health problems:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/scalia-health-problems-scotus-doctor
Something of a follow-up to @398, Leaders of Utah polygamous sect arrested and accused of fraud:
In addition to fraud, discrimination, and child slavery there is also the phenomenon known as “lost boys“:
Teh Pantastic Planet of Penis Power!™
blf 241: regarding the “lost boys,” boys are sometimes transported to other polygamous colonies (in Canada, for example) and forced to work in the lumber industry.
In the polygamist colonies on the Utah/Arizona border, boys start working at about the age of 14 in the construction industry. There have also been some cases of boys from polygamist families forced to work in businesses in southern Idaho.
Republicans in the Senate continue to demonstrate disrespect for President Obama:
Des Moines Register link.
Trump won in Nevada. There are still a few caucus ballots to count, but most of the Nevada results are in. Trump wins with a 22-point lead over Rubio, who came in second.
Trump 45.9%
Rubio 23.9%
Cruz 21.4%
Kasich, somewhere in the single digits
Donald Trump gave a victory speech in Nevada: “I love the poorly educated,” and “I like to grab the money, I grab it, grab it,” etc.
Some discussion of the victory speech (Rachel Maddow and Brian Williams).
What Bernie Sanders had to say about the obstructionism from the U.S. Senate:
https://www.yahoo.com/politics/sanders-calls-senate-obstruction-a-racist-effort-024556291.html
President Obama wrote an essay about his responsibility to appoint a judge to the Supreme Court, and about the qualities he looks for in selecting a nominee. The essay/blog was published on SCOTUSblog.
Here are some excerpts:
The Drudge Report has declared Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee.
Lynna@402, Interesting, I’ve never(?) heard of “lost boys” being transported to “the colonies” as slave labour. (As an aside, some quick searches have not been able to confirm this happens — do you have a source / reference at-hand?) I was under the general impression they were usually just kicked out of their homes / hometowns, frequently on trumped-up “delinquency” charges — making me wonder (mostly tongue-in-cheek) if places like Hildale (Utah) and Colorado City (Arizona) are the leaders in “teenage male delinquency”…
Which means the nearby towns of Hurricane and St George (both in Utah) really do have a problem, with the “lost boys” who wind up there frequently committing petty (and some not-so-petty) crimes, and to some extent being treated as outcasts. There are a number of individuals and organizations which try to help, but my impression is they are overloaded, sometimes intimidated, and perhaps not supported by the local authorities or the LDS cult. (As it so happens, I know some individuals in the Hurricane / St George area, and none of them has ever mentioned the issue at all (but I also haven’t asked); none belong to the cult and all loathe the cult.)
Steven W Thrasher (from his quick bio: “[a] writer-at-large for Guardian US. He was named Journalist of the Year 2012 by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association”) has a provocative but interesting opinion article in the Grauniad, Black thinkers like Bernie Sanders. They’ve studied the Clintons’ true cost:
Mr Thrasher also takes a good swipe at Secetrary Clinton’s endorsement by “the corporate-funded Super Pac of the Congressional Black Caucus (not by the CBC itself or by its members)”: “[T]he only reason seemed to be political expediency. The black members of congress seemed intent on maintaining their relationship within the Clinton power structure, no matter how deeply invested it may be in white supremacy.” The dubious-seeming CBC Super Pac endorsement has been discussed previously in this thread.
The turnout of Republican voters in Nevada set a record. Once again, Republican turnout is seen to go up, while Democratic turnout has been trending downward. This is the fourth Republican primary or caucus in which the turnout has set records.
I’ll add one note of caution here: Trump and rightwing media are reporting that he won the Latino vote in Nevada. Yes, he got more Latino votes than his fellow Republicans, but very few Latino’s attended the Republican caucus. The numbers are meaningless if you look at the overall picture. About 75,000 Republicans caucused in Nevada, and about 9% of those were Latino. Some reports say 8%. About 30% of the state’s population is Latino. There are about 430,000 registered Republicans in Nevada, so the turnout may look low to us, but it is still a big jump from the 33,000 in 2012.
Trump’s spin on this: “You know what I really am happy about? Forty-six percent with the Hispanics. Forty-six percent! No. 1 with Hispanics. I’m really happy about that.”
The U.S. House of Representatives is infected by a group of Republicans who call themselves the Freedom Caucus. This group also has a “board” … okay, don’t know why you need a board, but it does provide a smaller group of concentrated dunderheadedness to which Senator Mitch McConnell can pander.
Politico link
@ #412
It also underscores the importance of having a Democratic president, any Democrat, with a ready veto pen.
blf @409, those mormon doofuses also ship young girls back and forth between polygamist colonies: Link
http://culteducation.com/group/1099-polygamist-groups/16830-bountifuls-troubling-tradition.html
Lost boys connected to both Canadian and Utah polygamist colonies:
http://www.filmwest.com/Catalogue/itemdetail/3330/
Mormon polygamists using children in dangerous jobs:
http://www.childbrides.org/canada_VS_children_around_dangerous_work_have_tragedies.html
Boys from the Kingston polygamist clan:
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/inside-the-order-one-mormon-cults-secret-empire-20110615
Boys working for Winton Blackmore in Canada:
Link.
The lost boys of Colorado City: Link
Mormon boys sent from Utah to Idaho for “repentance”: Link
I have more references, and will post those later.
blf, it looks like my previous reply included too many links. The comment ended up in moderation.
I will try again, splitting the comment into parts so there are fewer links per comment.
blf @409, those mormon doofuses also ship young girls back and forth between polygamist colonies: Link
http://culteducation.com/group/1099-polygamist-groups/16830-bountifuls-troubling-tradition.html
Mormon polygamists using children in dangerous jobs:
http://www.childbrides.org/canada_VS_children_around_dangerous_work_have_tragedies.html
Boys working for Winton Blackmore in Canada:
Link.
Mormon boys sent from Utah to Idaho for “repentance”: Link
I have more references, and will post those later.
Harry Reid just endorsed Hillary Clinton:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/harry-reid-endorses-hillary-clinton
Frothing fermenting fruitcakes fail fundamentals, Oregon militia standoff: Ammon Bundy and 15 others plead not guilty (just a jaw-dropping snippet):
More links to Mormon Moments of Madness, for blf. (The old link-heavy comment is still in moderation, so if we end up with duplications, I apologize.)
Lost boys connected to both Canadian and Utah polygamist colonies:
http://www.filmwest.com/Catalogue/itemdetail/3330/
Boys from the Kingston polygamist clan: Rolling Stone link.
[…] Boys work its coal mine and stack boxes at Standard Restaurant Supply, a massive discount store. They are paid not in cash but in scrip, an arcane form of credit used by the Mormon pioneers that can only be redeemed at company stores. […]
It is not uncommon for boys from polygamist colonies to be sent to other polygamist outposts to “repent” for supposed sins, especially if men in the other outpost can use the boys as slave labor:
The Globe and Mail link.
Interesting take on Trump’s success: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/24/donald-trump-victory-nevada-caucus-voter-anger and perfectly explains why the overlap between Trump and Sanders voters.
A poll on Sanders’ “medicare for everyone” shows that the RW propaganda machine has poisoned the well.
The poisoned well shows up here:
Reality from that bastion of progressivism Forbes magazine:
The US paid $8500 per capita, compared to <$5700 for the second most expensive care. The 10 lowest cost countries all have socialized medicine.
Nerd @420, I had to laugh at “that bastion of progressivism Forbes magazine.” It is true that right-wingers have been pushing the meme that universal healthcare in the UK, Switzerland, etc. is bad healthcare. They eagerly promote all “had to wait for months to get an appointment” stories. The numbers don’t lie. Republicans do lie.
F.O. @419, Trump is really good at stoking the “gnawing resentment.” Not surprisingly, some Trump supporters really do not believe he is going to build a wall on the U.S./Mexico border, but they don’t care. They want someone to poke a finger in everyone’s eye, and that someone is Trump. Chris Hayes talks with a few caucus-goers supporting Trump in Las Vegas. The video is 8:01 minutes long. It’s enlightening.
One of Trump’s weaknesses that has not been hit hard enough is this fiction that he is a good businessman. He is ruthless in some ways that may work well for making money, but more than one person has made his success possible and/or bailed him out of financial trouble (his daddy and a Saudi prince for example). Then there are the four bankruptcies, coupled with his insistence (repeated today) that he will not release his IRS tax returns for the past few years.
Rubio has chosen the wrong weakness to hit: he is repeating that Trump is insufficiently hostile to Obamacare. I don’t think that’s going to work.
Voting in South Carolina begins in two days for Democrats. Polls show Clinton with a commanding lead there. Wisely, Sanders is focusing on Massachusetts, Virginia, Missouri and Oklahoma. At least, that’s what his campaign schedule reveals.
Trump can trumpet the fact that he won more Hispanic votes than his Republican competitors in Nevada (still a tiny percentage of the Latino population), but he can’t hide from the fact that the latest polling shows that 8 in 10 Hispanic voters nationwide have an unfavorable opinion of the Trumpster.
Washington Post link.
Lynna@422, Teh robot is campaigning against Obama and the policies teh robot attributes to Obama. Teh robot is not campaigning against anyone else, and also not campaigning for anything, other than not being Obama and undoing everything teh robot attributes to Obama.
That is, broadly speaking, what earned him the nickname “teh robot”: His current campaign plan is to let the other thugs beat each other up. He’ll avoid the fighting, attacking instead the , Obama, and as a result not be attacked — how can you attack attacking Obama? — and hence “obviously” be the “best”, albeit perhaps compromise, thug candidate at the convention, as the only one not beaten into a pulp by the other thug candidates.
Of course that idiotic has all come a bit unglued, but it seems to me quite telling he is still robotically following teh Robothug attacks Obama script.
Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James M. Inhofe (Republican doofus from Oklahoma who once brought a snowball into the Senate chamber to disprove global warming) said some alarmingly stupid stuff:
U.S. Senate Committee link.
Hey dunderhead, it is possible to address global warming and the poisoning of Flint, Michigan’s water at the same time.
Hey dunderhead, it was the Republican administration in Michigan that ignored expert opinions and chose a different water source for Flint. The reason: to save money. (Other reason: they are stupid and/or blindly focused on money issues to the detriment of public health issues.)
Hey dunderhead, President Obama has pushed for infrastructure investments repeatedly. You were one of the dunderheads that said “no.”
NPR reported 10 States Where Millennials Could Sway The Election
The ten states listed: Nevada, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Iowa.
Rubio is losing by double digits in his home state of Florida, according to the most recent polls. Rubio used to live in Nevada and he lost there. A lot of Republican donors and politicians are jumping on the Rubio-can-win bandwagon, but I don’t see that happening. Wishful thinking, just like Robot Rubio’s idea that being anti-Obama is enough.
In other news, Trump does not follow his own advice when it comes to immigrants. The New York Times took a look at Trump’s hiring practices at Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach:
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/02/24/tara-houska-ojibwe-named-native-american-advisor-bernie-sanders-163531
The article is about Sanders adding a Native American woman to his advisory team.
Prominent Mexicans are giving Trump the finger (figuratively):
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/vincente-fox-to-trump-not-paying-for-wall
Republicans are trying, once again, to save a little money while ignoring the health and welfare of children. They are also ignoring the fact that saving a little money now will result in them having to spend a lot more later. Stupid.
Think Progress link.
Hmm, I wonder what could possibly go wrong with this plan? Utah state senators are overwhelmingly Republican and mormon. How does that make them the right group of people to select who gets to be a U.S. senator to represent the state in Washington? Such a move would certainly consolidate their already considerable power.
Ha. How very patriarchal of you. How very mormon-church-hierarchy of you.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/3576711-155/utah-senate-votes-to-repeal-17th
That’s what Republicans want to do. They want to take power away from voters, and they’re always looking for another way to do that.
From the readers’ comments:
Holy crap!
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/missouri-lawyer-bill
That way Missouri would be able to put untrained Tea Partiers and religious whackos on the bench as judges … more than they already have.
One of the funnier comments on this plan was a suggestion that after two years members of the general assembly would also be certified as airline pilots.
Republicans had another debate tonight. Donald Trump and Marco Rubio yelled at each other. Trump tried to interrupt everyone all the time. Rubio finally brought up some real weak points in Trump’s resumé, including his fake university, hiring undocumented immigrants, the bankruptcies, etc. Trump brought up the fact that Rubio sweats a lot and that in poll numbers he beats Rubio in Florida … in other words, Trump did not reply to real criticism with any substantial rebuttal.
In the spin room after the debate, Trump claimed that he won.
Katich looked like the only adult in the room.
Carson said something stupid about fruit salad.
Chris Matthews hosted an hour long event with Bernie Sanders as part of the Hardball College Tour. Sanders made the point that he intends to change the way politics in the United States is conducted.
Here’s an excerpt, with analysis from Rachel Maddow:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/sanders-wants-to-change-the-face-of-politics-631623235780
Oh, yeah, one more thing from the Republican debate and the spin room afterward: Ted Cruz implied that Trump was committing tax fraud and/or an ethics violation by not releasing any tax returns from any year. Trump’s excuse for not releasing his most current tax return is that he is being audited. Trump said he would give reporters a list of charitable contributions he has made, but he has said that before and not followed through.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/rubio-cruz-trump-debate
A summary of the debate, with an emphasis on the punches thrown at Trump.
Carson said, “Can someone attack me please?”
Trump called Rubio a “choke artist” and called Cruz a “liar.”
Lynna@432, Automatically certifying
politicianscrooks after two years does make sense — if they are automatically certified as insane, that is.I’d add an amendment to the bill: The state’s capitol building shall prominently display a large and legible sign saying whenever the legislature is in session.
Regarding that fake university that Marco Rubio mentioned when he attacked Trump during the Republican debate:
Yahoo News link.
In comment 437 I forgot to mention that Ted Cruz also brought up the court case pending against “Trump University.”
I think this is a legitimate criticism of the Republican strategy to take Trump down:
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ted-cruz-and-marco-rubio-attack-donald-trump-houston-debate
They’re desperate. All they can think of is to throw as much mud as possible and hope something sticks. I don’t like their chances.
Lindsey Graham has been out of the presidential race long enough that he can say what he really thinks:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/lindsey-graham-republicans-crazy
Donald Trump is upset and he is obsessing over attacks made during last night’s debate. He took to Twitter to vent his spleen. He made so many spelling errors in the tweets that Rubio joked,
Trump deleted the tweets that misspelled “choker,” “lightweight” and “honor.” Then he reposted them with corrected spelling. A lot of people saved screen grabs of the tweet in which the Trumpster wrote, “Wow, every poll said I won the debate last night. Great honer!”
In other debate news, during the breaks the Trumpster requested a full-length mirror. The better to view his full glory, I guess.
BTW, a lot of the debate coverage indicates that Trump did not win the debate last night. I think his toadies must have dug up at least focus group that said he did.
Atlantic link.
The mass shooting in Heston, Kansas yesterday did not get a single mention in the Republican debate. Daily Kos link.
Four people are dead, if you include the gunman, and 16 are wounded, some critically.
There was also no mention of the earlier shooting in Kalamazoo, Michigan by an Uber driver. Jason Dalton’s friends said he was a gun enthusiast and a staunch Second Amendment supporter. He also, according to some reports, believed rightwing/Republican conspiracy theories that claim President Obama is going to take away everyone’s guns and ammo. Link.
The story behind Trump’s use of undocumented workers to build Trump tower:
Daily Beast link.
@ #440
I liked it when Graham said, about the Republicans nominating Trump, “So I am like on the team that bought a ticket on the Titanic, after we saw the movie.”
Chris Christie just endorsed Donald Trump. Christie’s endorsement seemed to be based on the fact that he thinks Trump is less of a criminal than Hillary Clinton. Christie repeated rightwing myths about Clinton as if they were true. He noted that Trump’s troubles in court were all civil cases, money issues. And we all know that money issues can’t be criminal. /sarcasm
In other news, the Trumpster floated the theory that he is being targeted by the IRS “maybe because of the fact that I’m a strong Christian.”
Link.
I needed a good laugh.
Way to go Mississippi Republicans, you proved yourself to be worse than your neighbors.
Talking Points Memo link.
Merriam-Webster had some fun with Donald Trump’s misspelled words:
Link.
This is a followup to comment 442. The shooter in Kansas has a history of domestic abuse.
Think Progress link.
So, why did the guy still have a gun?
The story of malfeasance (or negligence?) and general stupidity on the part of Republican officials in Flint, Michigan just continues to worsen:
Link.
A federal lawsuit has been filed against Walmart for filling parmesan cheese with wood pulp. Link.
I don’t think “filling” is the right word here. The cheese does contain fillers, such as wood pulp, and that’s not good, but I haven’t found a source yet for the percentage of filler that was used.
Trump is harassing Mitt Romney with insults. Most of his insults have no real substance, but some of them are novel, like the “penguin” insult:
Donald Trump has decided to take his fight with the media one step further. He says that if he is elected president he will make it easier to sue the media for libel. Sounds like a really bad idea to me.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-libel-sue-media
What is South Carolina’s voter ID law all about? It’s about race.
http://www.thenation.com/article/63756-reasons-why-racism-is-still-alive-in-south-carolina/
The article in The Nation opens with the story of Larrie Butler, an African American man who tried really hard to follow the new voter ID law. He encountered obstruction and ridiculous demands at every step along the way.
Good analysis of Trump from Charles Murray, a political scientist who wrote the book, “Coming Apart.”
New Yorker link.
Some shadowy conservative/reactionary groups are funding advocate campaigns in state judicial elections. First up Arkansas.
All of the stupidest bullies are lining up behind Trump. That includes former KKK leader, David Duke. Now Maine’s governor Paul LePage has joined them.
The scorecard for current, sitting GOP governors who have endorsed a candidate shows that 9 out of 31 have made public endorsements:
4 governors back Rubio
2 governors back Trump
2 governors back Kasich
1 backs Cruz
Update on Lynna’s #442 Kansas shooting. A woman has been charged with providing guns to the shooter, a convicted felon.
No facepalm/headdesk/bodyfloor is sufficient to describe that idiocy.
The numbers, the probability figures … they all show that without some unforeseen event, Trump will get the GOP nomination.
Yes, the Republican Party will tear itself to pieces if that happens. Mitch McConnell announced that he would run the other way as fast as he could, or something like that. What he actually said:
Raw Story link.
Rachel Maddow covered the state of the Republican race for president.
Doug Heye, former communications director for the RNC, talks with Rachel Maddow about why he won’t support Donald Trump if he is the Republican nominee, and his frustration at the lack of resistance to Trump from within the party.
Politico posted an article that discusses why GOP insiders think Donald Trump is the likely nominee.
This is a followup to comment 429.
Former Mexican President Vincente Fox already said that Mexicans are not going to pay for Trump’s “fucking wall.” Yesterday, he continued to criticize Trump by telling a CNN host that Trump reminds him of Hitler.
Link
Trump’s response to the comment about the “fucking wall” was predictable. Trump said he will build a higher wall. (That wall has just gone up by ten feet, paraphrased.) Trump, who has been called out several times for swearing during his campaign speeches, also wants Vincente Fox to apologize for cursing.
@ #458
I agree that Trump is almost certain to be the nominee. But I’m not buying all these naysayers that claim they won’t support him. They’re trying their best to derail the nomination, but when push comes to shove, they’ll get behind him, just because they know the value of having a Republican president, any Republican, to rubber-stamp a Republican Congress. There will be no vetoes, as there would be with a Democrat in the White House, and every regressive bill passed will become law. All this primary crap will be forgiven and forgotten.
Nerd @457, I was shocked to hear that an ex-girlfriend gave the shooter two guns. It makes me wonder if Ford (the shooter) threatened her. As an aside, what was she doing with a Zastava Serbia (AK-47-type semi-automatic rifle) and a Glock Model 22 40-caliber handgun?
Another shooting occurred just a few hours later in Washington State. A man killed four people in his home. Police saved one person, a 12-year-old girl.
tomh@461, good point. It is also likely that Republicans hate Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton more than they hate Donald Trump. And there is the inescapable fact that some Republicans love Donald Trump.
Still, there would be some level of upheaval if Trump is nominated, and that might help the Dems take back the Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives is a lost cause at this point, with gerrymandered voting districts and voter ID laws helping to keep even the most hapless Republicans in office.
Yikes! Racist memorabilia is worse than I thought.
Mother Jones link.
Some people are turning the “contemptible collectibles” into a learning experience.
The ugly truth behind Trump’s supporters:
Salon link.
Chris Hayes explains how Donald Trump uses Fox News’ tactics to attack the media. The video is 5:50 minutes long.
There’s also text at the link. Excerpts:
This backs up tomh’s point in comment 461:
Huff Po link
But, the doofus goes on to say:
Governor Jan Brewer (Arizona) just endorsed Donald Trump for president.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jan-brewer-endorses-donald-trump
Actually, a lot of people have scrutinized Donald Trump’s business practices in the past. Two years ago, Chris Hayes produced a piece on the fraudulent Trump University. In July of last year David Cay Johnston published “21 Questions for Donald Trump,” and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. But, it wasn’t until the most recent Republican debate that Trump’s GOP rivals finally decided to take a closer look at the negatives in Trump’s past. Trump can consider himself lucky that it took that long.
A recent New Yorker article examined Trump’s business career.
I snipped text describing the hiring of undocumented Polish workers to build Trump tower, and the current issue with Trump properties in Florida, as we had already discussed those up-thread.
It’s only nonsense if you aren’t obscenely wealthy enough to have your wealth hidden away in various other countries to keep it from the IRS. Trumps supporters might be the uneducated, but they aren’t so stupid as to not notice that they paid their taxes, but Trump has paid zero despite huge income differences.
Dang, I was hoping for a quiet democratic primary for congress, but it even made the national news.
Schneider also voted against parts of ACA while in congress. Time for a new, more progressive candidate. The ballots will be mailed next week for the 3/15 primary.
The NRA is up to their usual mischief. The Iowa House just passed a bill, The Youth Safety & Parental Rights Act (House File 2281), which would allow people under the age of 14 to handle “a pistol, revolver or the ammunition” in the presence of an adult. Current law prohibits handguns for anyone under the age of 14. This must be a pressing issue in Iowa, since this line is included in the bill. “This Act, being deemed of immediate importance, takes effect upon enactment.”
Votes in the South Carolina Democratic primary are still being counted, but the winner has been declared. Hillary Clinton is winning with somewhere north of 75% of the vote. In a few counties, she even took more of the black vote than Barack Obama did in 2012. Her campaign will be happy to see that she is even winning the white vote (53% so far).
I’ll check the results again tomorrow.
Clinton used her victory speech to take a few swipes at Donald Trump, and she referenced Black Lives Matter issues. She mentioned Flint, Michigan; Trayvon Martin’s mother; the mother of Eric Garner; and others. She had appreciative words for Bernie Sanders.
I listened to Bernie Sanders’ concession speech, but I don’t see a source yet on the internet. We’ll get that tomorrow. He was very gracious.
Slate link to video of the Clinton speech.
With 100% reporting, the South Carolina voting results are:
Clinton, 73.5%
Sanders, 26.0%
O’Malley, 0.2%
Representative Tulsi Gabbard was the Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee. Today, she announced she is resigning the vice chair positions because she does not want to remain neutral in the presidential campaign. She endorses Sen. Bernie Sanders for President.
Link.
Now that Chris Christie has endorsed Donald Trump, the Trumpster has rewritten recent political history in Christies’s favor:
Back when Christie was not a Trump supporter, he sounded more realistic to me:
How Donald Trump refuses to disavow former KKK leader, David Duke:
Regarding the lawsuit he is facing over his fake university, Trump said some stupid stuff:
Politico link.
Some people who used to work for Chris Christie see his about-face to support Trump as just political opportunism. Here’s what Meg Whitman, national finance co-chair for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie presidential campaign before Christie quit the race:
NBC News link.
Really, Donald? The Trumpster retweeted a quote from Italian fascist Benito Mussolini. “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.”
The quote came for the account ilduce2016, which has an avatar that is an image of Mussolini with Trump’s hair added.
Trump continues to make noises about leaving the Republican Party if they don’t treat him right. He has added a new twist, the claim that the Republican Party “is not being run properly.”
Sounds to me like a man looking for a way out of a brokered convention. Or it may be one of Trump’s knee-jerk moments during which he threatens everyone, including the GOP. If Trump takes all his marbles and leaves the Republican game, that will be … interesting.
Talking Points Memo link.
The Bernie Sanders’ concession statement can be read here:
http://www.bustle.com/articles/144609-bernie-sanders-south-carolina-concession-speech-shows-a-candidate-still-firmly-committed-to-his-campaign
@Lynna 466
I’m fascinated and sometimes horrified by things like this. Any social tool created by any group can’t reliably be guaranteed to be kept to just that group.
When conservative reactionary types organizing online included telling employers about the supposedly terrible characteristics of the people they were harassing to employers it was bound to be picked up by the public at large and used in more reasonable ways by people like Clementine Ford. If shaming via employer is the best some people can do and the behavior is shameful I’m not going to judge it in a socially inconvenient manner if I can help it.
In this case their seems to be little benefit outside of political cannibalism and schadenfreude as the behavior being adopted and role-modeled is toxic to getting at the nature of the reality of things. But hopefully some of these newly fox news-paranoid types will adopt some reasoning and logic skills. I hope we get better at defining the limits of specific tactics in specific contexts as a species.
This article covers some familiar ground, but it presents a new emphasis on the racist foundations of conservatism. Here is an excerpt:
This is a followup to comment 477, in which we see Trump tap dancing around about the endorsement from David Duke. Trump claims he doesn’t know Duke, and knows nothing about him. Trump lied.
Here are some quotes from 2000, when Trump was considering a run for president:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/02/28/3754583/trump-david-duke/
Another Donald Trump quote from 2000:
Yes, he knew David Duke was a KKK leader.
Slate link.
The truth (or perhaps The Truth) is whatever Trump decides it should be.
Far rightwing Tea Party doofus, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions has endorsed Donald Trump.
Link.
Donald Trump thanked another white supremacist in a tweet on Saturday. The man, @NeilTurner claims that “white genocide is real.” The Trump retweet included a “thank you.”
Looking at the turnout numbers in South Carolina:
– about 370,000 for the Democrats, compared to 532,000 in 2008
– about 743,000 for the Republicans (a record turnout)
Republican turnout has broken records in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
Marco Rubio is rolling out dick jokes against Donald Trump:
Trump has been making fun of Rubio for sweating, so now Rubio added a sweat joke to his schtick:
Trump continues to dismiss Rubio with comments on his size: “Little Rubio,” “Little Marco,” etc.
Is this really the Republican presidential primary?
Another school shooting:
Journal News link.
West Virginia’s latest anti-science legislation:
Think Progress link.
“Climate change is real, it is happening right now, it is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.
[The actor went on to ask for the support of] “leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters or the big corporations, but who speak for all of humanity — for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people who will be most affected by this, for our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed.” [excerpts are from Leonardo DiCaprio’s speech at the Oscars].
More background on DiCaprio’s support for actions to address climate change:
Think Progress link.
More Oscar news with a political policy stance, and social justice message:
Think Progress link.
In addition to that focus on women’s rights, the Best Documentary Short prize went to “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness,” a film that focuses on honor killings in Pakistan.
Donald Trump compared himself to Gandhi, and he did it by quoting socialist leader Nicholas Klein, but falsely attributed the quote to Gandhi. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Rightwing doofus Jeffrey Lord defended Trump’s refusal to disavow the KKK by saying that David Duke is a leftist:
I agree with the last sentence. More details on the Media Matters site.
And, regarding the KKK and the Democratic Party, see a previous discussion up-thread.
Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse sent an open letter to his fellow Republican Senators last night:
That’s the first Republican Senator to jump off the Trump train, to essentially defect from the party if Trump is the nominee.
@ #498
I wonder where he’ll go when Trump is the actual nominee (which is looking inevitable). I can’t imagine he’ll support Clinton, let alone Sanders. I don’t think this is going to go well for him, either with his constituents or the party leaders.
tomh @499, Senator Sasse says he would prefer a third party alternative to Trump.
In other news, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas broke a decade-long streak of never asking a question during oral arguments to ask several questions. The issue: taking gun ownership rights away from people convicted of domestic abuse. So, yeah, Justice Thomas seems to want to make sure that perpetrators of domestic violence can still have their guns.
Huff Po linkM/a>