None Dare Call It Sedition

 In some lame attempt to shore up Trump's base, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Calgary) has put forward a "demand" there be a commission set up with presumably Trump flunkies in order to overturn a legitimate election.

Craven Cruz

Cruz is rumored to be a highly intelligent person, with Ivy League credentials all over the place.  Of course, being a Harvard grad especially denotes superior intellect.  Not everybody is proud of how Ted turned out.  More important than his legendary intellect, such as it is, Cruz is known for his naked ambition.  Once a sworn enemy of Trump's and vice versa, now Cruz is a major butt kisser.  Of course, this is all showboating or grandstanding to appease the Trump cultists, but really the correct course of action is not to subvert the Constitution and set a precedent for future elections but instead just let the Trump cultists go through the process of grief.

Hell, we Democrats put up with a lot from the GOP when Al Gore, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton had elections stolen from them.  But we didn't pull the shit the current GOP pols are doing.

Even former House speaker Paul Ryan says these idiots need to knock it off.

Of course, all of this makes great copy for the media.   That was what their pushing Donald Trump for president was all about in the first place.  Just ask CNN's Jeff Zucker.

Meanwhile, Trump is acting like a mob boss at the same much of the GOP is acting like a crime syndicate:

President Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to ‘find’ enough votes to overturn his defeat to Joe Biden in the state, according to audio of a Saturday phone call obtained by the Washington Post https://t.co/Bq11goyumy

— Reuters (@Reuters) January 3, 2021

More is here. 

Keith Olbermann on this latest scandal:

In a sane world, Trump would have been removed a long time ago, but this GOP is little more than a criminal syndicate and allows him to get away with anything.

The call in question highlights from the Washington Post.  It was something like an hour long:

The reaction wasn't too favorable even among members of Trump's own party.

I will believe the end of the GOP when I see it:

The die is cast for the Republican Party. It will be destroyed on January 6th in much the same way the Whig party was destroyed by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The act unraveled the Missouri compromise and allowed for the westward expansion of slavery. 1/

— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) January 3, 2021

I will also believe a resignation when I see it, Carl. 

Unfortunately, Millions of Women Still Support the GOP

I would like to think this article is true, but there are millions upon millions of women who will still blindly support the Republican Party.  It all has to do with abortion and their feeling abortion is a threat to their very self-worth.  This "self-worth" translates into women's inferiority.  They aren't good for anything except being fucked, popping kids out, and being a domestic servant.  The 1950s bullshit dies very, very hard in this society, and fundamentalist religious sects buttress the sex stereotypes as it keeps white men in charge.

Furthermore, the Democratic Party has been held hostage by the likes of the queer theory crowd, with their embrace of porn, prostitution, and transgenderism, and despite the sneers from many on the so-called "left," they are every bit as sexist as the right.  I would argue even worse.

The problem is sexism.  Sexism infects people of all political persuasions.

Women have already demonstrated that they will vote in large numbers to rid the judiciary of members who fail to take sexual violence seriously. In June, 62 percent of voters in Santa Clara County voted to recall Judge Aaron Persky. Persky sentenced Stanford swimmer Brock Turner to just six months in jail after a jury convicted Turner of three felonies for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster at a frat party. Women across the country reacted with visceral outrage to this injustice. In fact, Christine Blasey Ford reportedly told a friend in 2016 that Persky’s sentence of Turner, a privileged athlete like Kavanaugh, had prompted her to disclose her own assault to him. Although there were no exit polls, polling in advance of the recall reflected a gender gap big enough to drive a recall through.

The federal bench is not set up for populist movements like the recall. But there are avenues. Kavanaugh, like Persky, can be unbenched. Women are simply not going to accept this monumentally unfit man remaining on the Court regardless of what the Republicans manage to ram through this week. Sooner or later, as Chicago newspaperman Finley Peter Dunne predicted, the Supreme Court follows the election returns.

D.O.A.

Trump and Ryan decided to pull the plug on repealing the Affordable Care Act.

I have had my criticisms of it because of how expensive insurance is, but it appears all that is needed is to put in cost controls so that the premiums and the deductibles can actually be affordable.

Even many GOPers decided not to support the mess Trump and Ryan were pushing. It was dead for all intents and purposes.

From the article:

As Ryan and his allies scrambled to convince wary colleagues to back their health care plan, they watched as conservative and moderates in their caucus began to declare their opposition. As defections mounted, Ryan traveled to the White House to reveal to Trump his faltering whip count – and to discuss whether to pull the bill. But the administration seemed intent on proceeding as planned.

“We want the vote," a senior administration official said as Ryan made his way up Pennsylvania Avenue. "If they want to go against the president, they should do it on live TV."

Ultimately, though, Ryan prevailed. Moderate Republicans such as Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock and Ohio Rep. David Joyce disclosed their opposition even as Ryan was meeting with Trump. It became clear early Friday afternoon that the bill was poised for defeat, as members on the fence broke against it.

Most Republican officials know they are toast if they had repealed it.

You Can't Make This Shit Up

The GOP is so worried about a massive drubbing in the fall, rumor has it that Mitt Romney is trying to get Kasich and Sasse to run on a third-party GOP ticket.

This is truly bizarre. However, there are problems with deadlines and such.

More:

A band of exasperated Republicans — including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a handful of veteran consultants and members of the conservative intelligentsia — is actively plotting to draft an independent presidential candidate who could keep Donald Trump from the White House.

These GOP figures are commissioning private polling, lining up major funding sources and courting potential contenders, according to interviews with more than a dozen Republicans involved in the discussions. The effort has been sporadic all spring but has intensified significantly in the 10 days since Trump effectively locked up the Republican nomination.

Those involved concede that an independent campaign at this late stage is probably futile, and they think they have only a couple of weeks to launch a credible bid. But these Republicans — including commentators William Kristol and Erick Erickson and strategists Mike Murphy, Stuart Stevens and Rick Wilson — are so repulsed by the prospect of Trump as commander in chief that they are desperate to take action.

Why not just throw in the towel and declare Hillary Clinton the winner? She will be elected anyway.

Personally, I think the GOP has written the fall election off.

Falling Apart at the Seams

The GOP is coming unraveled thanks to Trump winning the nomination for president in all but name.

The GOP has nobody but themselves to blame for this situation. They thought they could play the race card and continue their con of playing the division card in order for they and their elite backers to pick their pockets for generations. However, demographic changes are working against the future of the party. They simply can't play fair to "win" presidential elections anymore. In time, this will filter down to the congressional and state races, where they are stronger, especially on the state level.

I cannot see any possible way the GOP can win against Hillary Clinton this fall, at least fairly. They play the sexism card, and women of all political persuasions will take a hike and vote for her.

In the meantime, pass the popcorn:

By seizing the Republican presidential nomination for Donald J. Trump on Tuesday night, he and his millions of supporters completed what had seemed unimaginable: a hostile takeover of one of America’s two major political parties.

Just as stunning was how quickly the host tried to reject them. The party’s two living former presidents spurned Mr. Trump, a number of sitting governors and senators expressed opposition or ambivalence toward him, and he drew a forceful rebuke from the single most powerful and popular rival left on the Republican landscape: the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan.

Rarely if ever has a party seemed to come apart so visibly. Rarely, too, has the nation been so on edge about its politics.

It is called payback. Trump is there to ensure a Clinton victory in the fall. The GOP knows it, and they are cooked.

Of course I could be wrong here. But I doubt it.

So What Is Going to Happen With the GOP?

Are they going to deny Trump the nomination?

Interesting take with Ben Ginsberg, one of the sleazeballs responsible for the horrible Bush v. Gore:

Will Trump Bring the GOP Down?

According to this article, GOP party regulars and other insiders are terrified they cannot stop Donald Trump from being the nominee. They believe he will simply not be able to win against likely Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton in the fall.

Trump has pissed off so many people, even if he did get elected, he would not be able to get any of the things he says he will do come to pass.

My contention all along is Trump is running to shit all over the GOP.

The biggest--and sole reason--for Trump's rise is the 24/7 free coverage by media outlets like CNN. I don't know if the CEO of the network is a Trump friend or supporter, but one wonders given the mostly uncritical coverage of Trump contrasted with the constant negative coverage of Hillary Clinton.

There is a term for this--it is called propaganda, and it has no business taking place in major media outlets.

The best hope for the GOP is to have a deadlocked convention, and Trump is bounced from the ticket.

Advisers to Mr. Kasich, the Ohio governor, have told potential supporters that his strategy boils down to a convention battle. Judd Gregg, a former New Hampshire senator who had endorsed Jeb Bush, said Mr. Kasich’s emissaries had sketched an outcome in which Mr. Kasich “probably ends up with the second-highest delegate count going into the convention” and digs in there to compete with Mr. Trump.

However, this most assuredly means Trump will run third party, even suing states that say he would be ineligible on the ballot, which will for the GOP will have the same result.


On a similar note, the Washington Post the other day ran a near-hysterical piece about the danger of Donald Trump.

If and when he loses, the GOP will have nobody to blame but itself. Trump represents the end game of nearly 50 years of GOP extremism when the Birchers took over the party.

Now it is faced with a front-runner who, in the interval between the two Priebus comments cited above, said of a protester, “I’d like to punch him in the face.” This is a front-runner with no credible agenda and no suitable experience. He wants the United States to commit war crimes, including torture and the murder of innocent relatives of suspected terrorists. He admires Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and sees no difference between Mr. Putin’s victims and people killed in the defense of the United States. He would round up and deport 11 million people, a forced movement on a scale not attempted since Stalin or perhaps Pol Pot. He has, during the course of his campaign, denigrated women, Jews, Muslims, Mexicans, people with disabilities and many more. He routinely trades in wild falsehoods and doubles down when his lies are exposed.

Sums Up Idiot GOP Senators

Everybody Hates Somebody Sometime

Trump isn't well liked by the establishment Republicans, but he isn't hated the way Canadian-born U.S. presidential candidate Ted Cruz is:

GOP Debate

Televised by CNN from the addlebrained Adelson-owned Venetian in Las Vegas, the city of broken dreams.

This is the so-called "undercard":



This is the main event:



When you have a situation where a libertarian crank--Rand Paul--is the only person on stage who makes sense on foreign policy, you KNOW you have a political party on the wane despite still being strong at the state level and worthless as a majority party in Congress.

Trump only came alive when he sparred with the equally dull Jeb Bush. The audience seemed to be full of Bush plants--pun intended--for Trump was widely jeered during those spars.

Ted Cruz is one dangerous mofo. He is unelectable, but he is still dangerous.

Kasich may not survive at this rate although he is the best one the GOP has this time around.

Carson and Fiorina weren't much and probably will be out the door before too long.

Ditto for Christie.

Ditto for those on the "undercard"--Graham, Santorum, Pataki, and Huckabee--despite the fact they were the better debaters.

Rubio is still an empty suit. I doubt he actually knows what he is talking about. He is vulnerable to attacks from Ted Cruz.

Former senator and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole is not particularly impressed with the current crop of GOP candidates. He endorsed Jeb last month, but he is still is unimpressed with the lot of them. He was particularly appalled at Ted Cruz, who he termed an extremist.

That was probably being kind.

Cruz comes across as a cross between Joseph McCarthy and a televangelist. His speech patterns do not reveal somebody who was Ivy League-educated (Princeton, Hahvahd Law) but sounds all the world like somebody who could have taken his place with the likes of Jimmy Swaggart. Supposedly Alan Dershowitz said that Cruz was one of the smartest students he ever had, which is probably more a reflection on the caliber of students who attend Harvard Law than it is about Cruz's intellect. He may have intended it as a compliment to Cruz, but I see it quite differently.

4th Republican Debate Video

Main Event:



Do not see any video of the first event, which actually had the better--if just as wrongheaded--debaters.

The GOP Presidential Debates

Live streaming of the Fox Business debate can be found here.

The "undercard" or the first debate starts at 4 p.m. PST or 7 p.m. EST.

We will see if Ben Carson can hold his own or whether he goes into obscurity after tonight.

Thoughts:

Christie scored some points in the undercard.

Kasich easily won the main event.

Paul tried to paint himself as the true conservative.

Trump came to life only in the second half of the debate.

Cruz was blah.

Carson was more blah and still sounds out of it.

Fiorina was crazy.

Rubio is an empty suit, just like fellow Floridian Jeb. Rubio looks good, but he is still an empty suit. If Kasich is the nominee, Rubio will probably be the VP pick.

Oops

This should be a scandal, and the senators named should be forced to resign for being associated with hate groups, but stuff that would have been unthinkable a few years ago is now mainstream GOP.

The four senators are Tillis of NC, Coats of IN, Cornyn of TX, and Isakson of GA.

However, denials are now rampant over these allegations.

At least a couple of the people named are Democratic politicians.

The whole thing sounds like a hoax to me unless there is hard proof.

Republican Debates: October 28

Early debate:




Main debate (this is only the first part, the rest can be found on the person's YouTube channel):






In any case, the debate was one crashing bore. The novelty candidates are wearing very thin. I believe Kasich was the big winner in this debate, and I have maintained he will be on the GOP ticket. However, he may wind up being the presidential nominee when the GOP once again decides to throw the presidential election to the Democrats.

I cannot understand why an admitted slacker like Marco Rubio can even be considered presidential caliber. He is one arrogant, lazy shit.

Republican Presidential Debate

CNBC live stream is here.

The Inmates Have Taken Over the Asylum

With John Boehner throwing in the towel and ditching his federal job, and with pressure by the crazies to dump Senate leader Mitch McConnell, the GOP has now officially traveled to the point of no return.

These lunatics want to shut down the government supposedly because of Planned Parenthood funding based upon a totally fraudulent video of something that never even happened. I think it is just an excuse for these lunatics to destroy the federal government.

These people should be locked up as traitors.

I’d love to hear a good explanation from jubilant liberals about why it’s such great news that John Boehner plans to not only step down as speaker of the House, but to entirely resign from Congress. I’ll offer one very remote option presently, but on the surface, it seems like horrendously bad news more than anything else. Sure, Boehner’s hardly been a ally of the Democratic Party during his tenure. Given who’s waiting in the on-deck circle, however, it might be smart to jam the corks back in the champagne bottles and hold off on the onslaught of celebratory Facebook memes.

The irony of Boehner’s ouster, following pressure from Tea Party extremists in his caucus, is that he’s done their bidding at just about every turn, obstructing the president’s agenda while, for example, presiding over 50 successful-yet-pointless votes to repeal Obamacare. He presided over the de-funding of ACORN, based on fraudulent videos, and, most recently, he presided over yet another vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood, coincidentally based on an entire series of provably deceptive videos.

Like I said, I think the PPH deal is just an excuse for them to want to destroy the government.

You can't negotiate with terrorists, including those who wear expensive blue suits and are paid by taxpayers.

The GOP's First 2016 Presidential Debate--Prime Time and Earlier Debate

Here is the first part with the "bottom" seven candidates:



The main event in two parts:

Part One:



Part Two:







Yes, I did sit through the main debate. Here is the summary of the main debate:

Trump refused to rule out a third-party run. He was under severe attack from the Fox moderators and by the others, but it's hard to sling shit and make it stick on a Teflon candidate.

Christie and Paul nearly came to blows.

Huckabee, Cruz, and Carson sounded batshit crazy. None have a shot at the nomination.

Bush was dull.

Walker, the Koch puppet, is a dangerous s.o.b. Has no shot at the nomination or, if he does, at the presidency.

Rubio did fine even if he is a bit too extreme. He is a bit too young to be elected. He may get the running mate slot.

Kasich is the best of all of the presidential candidates in the GOP. He easily won the debate. He sounded the way the GOP used to sound decades ago before the old Birchers took over and the party went terminally insane. It helped him the debate was held in Kasich's state of Ohio.

Kasich, a veteran Washington pol before becoming governor of Ohio, COULD get elected president. So could Pataki, but I didn't see his performance yet. Because of their electability and their relative honesty compared to somebody like Jeb Bush, they won't get nominated.

What struck me is the very real possibility Trump is a stalking horse for the Democrats to guarantee the GOP doesn't win the White House. It would be a perfect revenge by the Democrats, especially the Clintons, for what Jeb Bush's antics did to Al Gore in 2000. It is also an equal possibility that Trump may be a stalking horse for the GOP for the same reason, to deny Bush the presidency.

I don't believe they want to win the White House next year and then have to be held accountable to their insane supporters to actually carry out the rhetoric they have been spewing for years. That is because the party already has control of the House and the Senate.

They don't WANT the White House.

Yes, I Missed the Debates

The one person who did well in the first round of the debates tonight--the also-rans--was the sole woman, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina. She is articulate in interviews, but she is not qualified to be president. Of course her political beliefs are mostly on the wrong side.

Because most of the rest of the candidates are idiots, and she is not, she came across as halfway intelligent.

More about her performance:

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina landed the evening’s first real blow, responding to Martha MacCallum’s question about “the huge disparity between the poll numbers that [Donald Trump] has and the numbers you have” by insisting that Trump’s not “getting the better of her.”

“I don’t know,” she said, “I didn’t get a phone call from Bill Clinton before I jumped in the race. Did any of you guys get a phone call from Bill Clinton? I didn’t.”

In other words, is Donald Trump a stalking horse for Hillary Clinton?

Don't You Love a Mud Fight?

I should be paying more attention to the 2016 presidential race if I weren't so cynical anymore. I probably will post a lot more about the campaign as time goes by, but I just feel whoever gets in the White House will be beholden to the same neoliberal/billionaire/Wall Street interests who are raping this country economically.

Perhaps it is because I am getting older and am less and less tolerant of bullshit.

Anyway, the Hair Apparent, aka Donald Trump, is still making an ass of himself, but somehow he is ahead of his opponents in the polls of GOP candidates. He will flame out, of course, because of his big mouth.

If he knocked Jeb Bush out of the way, I would be happy as hell because Bush is the only one I can see of the GOP who can steal the election for the party. It is my belief the Republicans really don't want the White House; they would have to make good on all of the bullshit they have spewed to their supporters for decades if all three branches of government were GOP. They don't have anybody else who could beat Hillary Clinton, who I still believe, despite some real or fabricated recent controversies, will be elected president. Bush is a crook, and he is not beyond thievery.

Getting back to Trump. Fellow candidate Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was being critical of Trump over Trump's remarks about John McCain, and Trump turned around and gave out Graham's phone number publicly. Trump is a loose cannon, to say the least:

The reason? A feud between the two White House hopefuls that’s been kicked into a higher gear.


Speaking at a rally Tuesday in Graham’s home state of South Carolina, Trump began criticizing Graham, calling him a “lightweight” and an “idiot.” Trump hurled the insults after Graham on Monday called Trump a “jackass” and said Trump’s recent comments about Sen. John McCain not being a war hero were the beginning of the end of the billionaire’s candidacy.

Trump later read out the phone number and said “Give it a shot.”

The Disgrace of the United States Senate

You know how far the once Grand Old Party has fallen when they completely disregard old standard bearers like Bob Dole and John McCain in favor of some batshit crazy nobody's paranoid ideas about something. I totally agree with this opinion:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Perhaps the next Congress can put this up to a vote again.

The GOP's antics prove to all of the world what in the hell is wrong with Washington.

There should not have been a single vote in opposition to such an uncontroversial treaty.