Tagged: Ted Cruz

Tedageddon

stay-puft-armageddon-jack-irons

(Stay Puft Armageddon, Larry Irons)

Mr Cruz walked on to “American Idiot” and walked off to a Bronx cheer.

The GOP died in 2009 when the Tea Party coup happened. The stench is just now reaching around the world from the bowels of Mr Trump.

1. He considers the US’s NATO obligations to be optional.

During a 45-minute conversation, [Trump] explicitly raised new questions about his commitment to automatically defend NATO allies if they are attacked, saying he would first look at their contributions to the alliance.

As one might expect, this view contradicts reality … in the form of the acceptance speech of his Vice Presidential pick, Mike Pence:

We cannot have four more years of apologizing to our enemies and abandoning our friends. America needs to be strong for the world to be safe. On the world stage, Donald Trump will lead from strength. He will rebuild the arsenal of democracy, stand with our allies and hunt down and destroy our enemies of freedom.

2. He’s also down with Mr Erdoğan’s new Caliphate.

Donald J. Trump, on the eve of accepting the Republican nomination for president, said Wednesday that if he were elected, he would not pressure Turkey or other authoritarian allies about conducting purges of their political adversaries or cracking down on civil liberties. The United States, he said, has to “fix our own mess” before trying to alter the behavior of other nations.”

It will need luxury hotels and casinos. And golf courses.

Republican convention, Act 3

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Running commentary:

Sith lords make way for the orcs.

A former astronaut is speaking about space exploration to people who are anti-science.

I remember when Scott Walker quit the primary campaign, he urged the other candidates to unite against Trump.

Little Marco endorses Trump!

There’s Lucifer in the flesh. Canada’s Ted Cruz.

Weird. Cruz criticizes “government decrees,” yet praises GITMO, which was established by a government decree.

Cruz: Freedom means the religious freedom to enact bigoted laws.

This convention does put the theory of evolution into question.

The odor of sulfur is filling the arena at the moment.

Old “Country First” signs from the McCain/Palin era have come out.

No endorsement. Booing! Perfect!!!

Fox News is trashing Cruz for failing to endorse Trump.

Newt is good at bringing the fear.

Poor Newt was rushed to end his speech because Pence has now been pushed into irrelevance as 11pm EST approaches.

Mike Pence introduces himself: Christian. Conservative. Republican.

But not American.

The contrast of the Trump and Pence families is striking. Thrift store versus Fifth Avenue.

God can heal our land. Elect Trump. Makes sense.

Donald couldn’t help himself, he had to rise up out of his pit and step on Pence’s one moment in the sun.

It’s over!

Nowhere men

Bernie Sanders has explained the lack of success of his class-centric campaign on the fact that “poor people don’t vote.” Mr Sanders assumes poor people would vote for him.

When Mr Sanders complained that closed primaries were anti-democratic and a conspiracy to hurt his campaign, he failed to note that Ms Clinton has so far won 11 of the 18 open primaries.

When Mr Sanders says poor people don’t vote, he fails to account for his resounding losses across the south (the poorest region of the US).

The propensity to make excuses for electoral failure is not particular to Mr Sanders. When politicians are losing and their campaigns are in the final stages of viability, they tend to blame the process, blame the media, blame voters, blame anything and anyone, except themselves. Mr Sanders’ campaign has shifted from Romance (after the NH primary) to Tragedy (after Ohio and Florida), and now to Comedy (after New York).

Based on his campaign rallies, Mr Sanders knows that his core voting constituency is the comfortably well-off post-Occupy set, people more likely to be seen blogging on a MacBook Pro in Starbucks than waiting in long lines for unemployment insurance or WIC relief.

However, based on the results to date, his political revolution won’t be instagrammed after all.

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Mssrs Kasich and Cruz have agreed to work together to “Stop Trump.”

Imagine an episode of The Three Stooges in which Larry and Curly team up against Moe.

The Republican Convention will be like a scene from the Kingsman film.

Rocky mountain low

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Running thoughts on Republican Debate #3

Skipped the kid’s table debate in favor of an elective root canal.

The circus music has started up.

Everyone is running for a government position. Everyone hates the government. Contradiction?

Chris Christie promises to create another traffic jam to prevent Ms Clinton from reaching her inauguration.

Rand Paul promises to make more irrelevant speeches in the Senate.

Kasich has had a lot of coffee. He’s en fuego, targeting Trump.

Donald Trump says Kasich was on the board of Lehman Brothers when it tanked. Lehman Brothers is the third rail of Republican economics.

The Canadian Senator (Ted Cruz) says he has hard numbers.

Carly Fiorina says she got a lot done at HP. So much that she was fired.

Hearing Marco Rubio dodge the question about his absentee rate in the Senate makes me thirsty.

Jeb! just destroyed Rubio. OMG he called him French!

Ted Cruz is choked up. He’s talking about Mensheviks and Bolsheviks.

Cruz cut off! The moderators are living dangerously.

In response to Christie’s comments about “entitlement programs,” Huckabee just called Christie a 400 pound man eating Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

Republican Huckabee mentions Republican Bernie Madoff. Odd.

Pistols might spice up the debate.

Jeb! just said he would kiss a man. Did Jeb! just come out?

Rubio says liar liar Hillary’s pant suit is on fire!

Mr Trump says “Down with Super Pacs, up with Tupac!”

Mr Cruz would downsize the IRS by putting tax forms on postcards. Sounds like a Canadian idea.

Jeb! says he wants radical change. He wants radical change in his poll numbers.

Trump just got fact checked, from his own website. This might be a first.

Trump says Guns Guns Guns! More Guns! Stop the sickos!

Jeb! hates the federal government. He’s running to be the Executive of the Federal Government.

Christie from New Jersey is fine with dodgy gambling. Hello Sopranos vote!

The moderators could save time if a graphic “Hates Federal Government” were flashed over each candidate. Most of their answers circle back to this sentiment.

The big finish:

Rand Paul promises to talk for hours and hours on CSPAN tomorrow.
Chris Christie is fed up (obviously).
Canadian Cruz wants to destroy government.
Fired CEO Fiorina fantasizes about beating Clinton.
Surgeon Carson wants America to be great again.
Trump wants to win. He won a shorter debate. He’ll be a great President.
Rubio has a thirst for the American dream.
Jeb! has a proven record of success, except in this campaign.
Huckabee turns to apocalyptic imagery. As President, he’ll delay The Rapture.
Kasich wants stronger families, better neighbors. What this has to do with being President is unclear.

Winner: BMW. That was a nice looking Beamer in one of the commercials.

Losers: Everyone else.

Melody Nelson

Another atrocity from the NYPD.

One clown down. Rick Perry has dropped out of the race. Mr Trump soaked up Perry voters, which is why Perry went after him. He’s also swiped the voters of the Canadian Senator Cruz.

Republicans are nihilists.

Mr Trump’s reality show is primarily destroying right-wing clowns like Perry (gone), Jindal (non-existent), Huckabee (reduced to trolling for a religiously deranged public official in Kentucky), Paul (reduced to booking 60 hours on the Senate floor to filibuster every and any bill in order to gain attention), Cruz (reduced to reclaiming Canadian citizenship), Santorum (barely frothing), Walker (non-existent), and the alleged moderate Christie (who couldn’t find a bridge to blockade now if his life depended on it).

Carly Fiorina’s tepid reply won’t diminish Mr Trump’s popularity in the Republican base, which loves his unapologetic misogyny. As far as Tea Party Republicans are concerned, the more “unpresidential” a candidate is, the better.

Mr Trump understands the #1 rule of American conservative fight club: never apologise.

Apparently, Kentucky’s Kim Davis will issue marriage licenses for same sex couples. Her jailing was just a publicity stunt to raise money for right-wing causes. I had looked forward to her crucifixion along with two common criminals. Hopes dashed.

Lucky ones

Description of Mike Huckabee found online: “The hyperbole of a demagogue and the ethics of a grifter.”

Message to Bobby Jindal: one can’t pray the Second Amendment away.

The elder Senate Republicans have found Ted Cruz useful on occasion. Now the chickens have come home to roost.

I lost several pommes frites to marauding seagulls at Liam’s on Cape Cod’s Nauset Beach. They have been my sworn enemy ever since. No egrets.

Politics aside

Ted Cruz’s political beliefs represent the far right fringe of an already right-wing Republican Party. He’ll never attract the middle of the political spectrum, which is where political struggles are won and lost in a two party system.

I can’t wait for the Birthers Inc. to come out and eat one of their own.

It has begun:

Real estate tycoon Donald Trump cast doubt Monday on whether Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) can run for president, because Cruz was born in Canada.
“It’s a hurdle; somebody could certainly look at it very seriously,” Trump said during a phone interview Monday on My Fox New York.
“He was born in Canada. If you know and when we all studied our history lessons, you are supposed to be born in this country, so I just don’t know how the courts will rule on this.”

Crisis theory has been around since at least 1848 and is now the staple of the far left and far right. Which is fine, because the sky is always falling. On them.

Meanwhile, life goes on in the metropole pretty much as it has since there was a metropole: endless shopping, expensive meals, and, in more bohemian locales, free wifi and artisanally poured lattes made from Fair Trade beans.

The coffee house was the engine of the Enlightenment; the Republic of Letters was nurtured over strong brew.

Politicians who can’t handle a charivari probably should leave the political arena.