2016 Republican Presidential Clown Car Begins!

Petulant Malice, or, What Bobby Jindal Calls Leadership

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The punch line is that this is the third decision in, what, like, a week, making the point:

But while Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration previously had said it was waiting on that 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling before recognizing same-sex marriages, top state officials dug in their heels Wednesday and said they wouldn't change course until a district court orders them to do so.

That only widens the gap between the administration and the reality on the ground across the state. Clerks or other officials in nearly all parishes have now said they will issue licenses to same-sex couples, even as Jindal administration officials continue to tell state agencies to hold off on accepting them as valid.

The administration's delay in accepting the Supreme Court's ruling may be behind another point of conflict that cropped up on Wednesday as members of newly married same-sex couples seeking to change the name on their driver's licenses to reflect their union found their efforts thwarted by the Office of Motor Vehicles.

The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit appeared to address the administration's stalling.

The Supreme Court's ruling is “the law of the land and, consequently, the law of this circuit and should not be taken lightly by actors within the jurisdiction of this court,” the ruling said.

“We express no view on how controversies involving the intersection of these rights should be resolved but instead leave that to the robust operation of our system of laws and the good faith of those who are impacted by them.”

The panel then ordered district judges who have overseen cases involving same-sex marriage, including U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans, to issue final judgments in their cases legalizing and recognizing same-sex marriage by July 17.

Normally that ruling, and any judgments that come from the lower courts, would be largely procedural measures now that the Supreme Court has decided the issue. And, indeed, that's how they have been treated in most of the country, where clerks began issuing licenses immediately after Friday's ruling.

But Jindal administration officials have said they won't comply until forced to do so. While they initially pointed to the 5th Circuit's decision as the event that would fully grant gay marriage rights in Louisiana, they changed course after the ruling was handed down and said they would continue to follow the state constitution's ban on same-sex marriages until forced to do so by a lower court.

(Adelson and Shuler↱)​

And this guy is preparing to launch a presidential bid.

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In September, I found myself cheering for a judge in Lafayette County, Louisiana; the Rubin Pathway↱ realized the most basic course through the Gay Fray. Before the Sixth Circuit decided to send Obergefell v. Hodges and three other cases to the United States Supreme Court, there was Costanza v. Brewer, a simple intrafamily adoption.

But the backstory is fascinating. As it happened, some weeks before a federal court in New Orleans had upheld Louisiana's gay marriage ban. Judge Martin L.C. Feldman wrote an astoundning ruling, basing the state's interest in "linking children with intact families formed by their biological parents". You know? What a fucking prig, going after adopting families in order to find a reason to be mean to gay people. Robicheaux v. Caldwell was a disaster.

Shortly after, it also happened that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in Minnesota, hanging out with law students, and someone asked her the obvious question about the Supreme Court and gay marriage; her response was that the federal courts had the situation well in hand, and she didn't foresee getting involved unless someone screwed up.

That, of course, would be the Sixth Circuit, which needed to effectively recriminalize homosexuality in order to justify itself.

But there was this lower federal court ruling, from Judge Feldman. The irony of Costanza being an intrafamily adoption case? Oh, the Rubin Pathway is a marvel. I mean, just seeing a judge finally write it down? And then, of course, while Feldman tried to say the marriage ban was okay by federal standards, a Louisiana judge cleared his throat and pointed out it didn't even meet state standards.

The panel then ordered district judges who have overseen cases involving same-sex marriage, including U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans, to issue final judgments in their cases legalizing and recognizing same-sex marriage by July 17.​

Yeah. I enjoyed that paragraph.

Robicheaux was an embarrassing decision.
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Notes:

Adelson, Jeff and Marsha Shuler. "5th Circuit Court tells Louisiana to recognize same-sex marriages; Jindal administration still balks". The Advocate. 2 July 2015. TheAdvocate.com. 3 July 2015. http://bit.ly/1Kw4xDl

 

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Good to see that the "intellectually diverse" can manage no more than their own echo chamber.

Reminds me of fish farming.

 

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And what is that suppose to mean exactly?

 

The Donald is leading in Republican polls. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump wins the Republican Primary. The guy is coming on strong. He definitely appeals to grass roots Republicans. The guy who really wasn't supposed to even run is winning. I guess we will know how serious Trump is when he does or doesn't file the required disclosures. But I'm thinking Trump is the likely nominee if he doesn't screw it up. He's attracting the Tea Partiers which dominate the Republican Party. And he seems to have the full support of Republican talk radio.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/01/politics/donald-trump-poll-hillary-clinton-jeb-bush/

 

Maybe we'll see a "Bernie v Donald" matchup.

 

Maybe, I hear Trump is disturbing the Republican old guard. He is openly saying things Republicans believe. But those things are apparently causing great embarrassment in Republican leadership ranks. I say go Donald, given them some Birther Hell.

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It kinds of reminds me of that old Forrest Gump idiom, "stupid is as stupid does".

 

You live an intellectual diversity prejudice.

And a penchant for spelling/typing/punctuation/proof reading/error correction inadequacy.

 

LOL, is that right? LOL...
And where is the evidence to support those assertions? What the hell is an "intellectual diversity prejudice" and where is your evidence to support that assertion? If you hold differing opinions or feel something posted here is in error, please do make it known and make a rational case for your beliefs. My guess is you can’t make a rational case for your beliefs. That is why you sit on the periphery injecting ad hominem rather than engaging in rational discourse.

 

Potsherd Problems b/w Conspiracy Clowns

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The right wing is known for some pretty odd conspiracy theories, and in truth, Trump As A Plant is hardly creative. Indeed, the question has been on everybody's mind at least since Trump announced his presidential bid. AFP photographer Kate Betancur↱ noted that Trump, in announcing his run, "did not say explicitly if he was running for the [Republican] party's nomination or as an independent".

Mr. Trump's FEC Form 2 (Statement of Candidacy)↱ declares he is running as a Republican.

All of this leads to a somewhat obvious punch line.

Steve Benen↱ of msnbc explains:

If the DNC had scripted the last month or so, the party probably would have come up with a scenario that looks quite a bit like the one we’ve seen. A Republican carnival barker would use racially charged, xenophobic rhetoric, which would propel him into the GOP’s top tier, pushing minority communities even further from the Republican Party. All the while, the GOP would find itself on the defensive, and more serious candidates would struggle to gain traction.

Some have joked that Trump might secretly be a liberal Democrat, engaging in ugly antics in order to make Republicans appear ridiculous.

But for some, it’s actually not a joke ....

.... [Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL26)]published a tweet the other day – which has not been deleted – in which Curbelo noted his “theory” is that Trump is “a phantom candidate.”

In a radio interview, the Republican lawmaker added, “I think there’s a small possibility that this gentleman is a phantom candidate. Mr. Trump has a close friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton. They were at his last wedding. He has contributed to the Clintons’ foundation. He has contributed to Mrs. Clinton’s Senate campaigns. All of this is very suspicious.”​

There are two points we might raise in consideration of the merits:

(1) It is the obvious conspiracy theory. In a way, Mr. Curbelo is performing a tribute to juvenilia, being the one kid in class to make the fart joke everybody else passes over because it is so obvious and easy and trivial. That is to say, we might call it childish except for the fact of insulting children by doing so.

(2) Given the number of Republicans who have tacked to line up behind Donald Trump, it seems a difficult conspiracy theory to accept. Sen. Ted Cruz? Gov. Scott Walker? Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and how about a professional conservative propagandist like Rich Lowry, editor of National Review? Watching them back Mr. Trump, one can reasonably wonder if Mr. Curbelo has thought his assertion through. Really? A Clintonian conspiracy including Cruz, Walker, Carson, Fiorina, and Lowry, among others, as participants?​

We might also tack on a third, but just because:

(3) This is Florida. Between Gov. Rick Scott, Sen. Marco Rubio, and Rep. Curt Clawson (R-FL19)↱, just to name a few, spectacular stupidity loses something of its spectacle. Mr. Curbelo, in the end, sounds like just another Florida conservative. If he wishes to distinguish himself, he should aim for something better than being just another bleating voice amid a dangerously clueless herd.​

But this is what it comes to. Mr. Trump is running third in polling averages; there would also seem to be a lot of Republican voters who are also taking part in the Clintonian conspiracy to destroy the Grand Ol' Party.

There is no way to blame this on other people. This is between Mr. Trump and the Republican Party.
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Notes:

Benen, Steve. "Miami congressman sees Trump as a Democratic plant". msnbc. 14 July 2015. msnbc.com. 15 July 2015. http://on.msnbc.com/1I05cwE

 

Clown Friday

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It really is a charming war of words:

Republican presidential hopefuls Rick Perry and Donald Trump traded barbs yesterday, with the former governor arguing, "What Mr. Trump is offering is not conservatism, it is Trump-ism – a toxic mix of demagoguery and nonsense." The former reality-show host responded that Perry "should be forced to take an IQ test before being allowed to enter the GOP debate."​

Nor, as Steve Benen↱ notes, is that the end of the Trumpish tempest:

Trump is also apparently feuding with John McCain, following the senator's critical comments this week. Trump called for McCain to be defeated in a primary, adding that the senator is a "dummy" because he graduated "last in his class" at the Naval Academy ....​

What a show.
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Notes:

Benen, Steve. "Friday's Campaign Round-Up, 7.17.15". msnbc. 17 July 2015. msnbc.com. 18 July 2015. http://on.msnbc.com/1JnciWG

 

Indeed what a show and Trump is leading in the polling. It's funny to see other Republican candidates accuse Trump of demagoguery. It's like the pot calling the kettle black.

 

I don't know if I'd use the word funny. Appalling, like a sad old clown that just scares children at the backyard birthday party.

Kinda like DT. I didn't mean the clown "candidate" of course, I meant the vomitous hallucinations from the main-stream right. Those who "live by faith, not by reason"?

Faith that they'll get paid in this world, and faithless to pretend faith, so frauds like Mike Huckabee can commute your sentence for rape and murder, because you now know Jesus?

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Jesus H. Christ in a fucking sidecar. America is doomed because "we" have nurtured idiocy as an ideal for too damned long.

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Remember to wipe the drool off your chin before your next vote.

 

Well I think a lot that is the result of the dumbing down of the American public which began with the termination of the Fairness Doctrine and the rise of Republican entertainment. In study after study, consumers of Republican entertainment have been found to be less informed than folks who consume no news at all, now that is bad.

 

Republican leaders are all upset with Trump's latest comments. Trump had the audacity to intimate that McCain might not be a war hero because he was captured. Oh, the disgust, the outrage. It's not like Republicans haven't slandered the war records of military heroes before. Remember John Kerry? John Kerry was the Democratic presidential nominee a few years back. Reverence for military service didn't stop Republicans from slandering and smearing Kerry's service with lies.

So this latest round of hostility towards Trump seems more than a little hypocritical. But then as always with Republicans, hypocrite is thy name. The Republican Party should be renamed. Hypocrites R Us would be more apropos.

Is this the big mistake Trumps competitors have been praying for? I don’t know, I guess we will have to wait for Monday and the real Republican leader to weigh in (i.e. Rush Limbaugh). If the Limbaugh still supports Trump, then his ditto heads will follow suit as they always do and no matter what nominal Republican leaders do or say, Trump will be safe.

 

What if what The Donald asserts has some basis in fact?

By his own admission, then, McCain failed to follow instructions in combat. He did not try to evade the missile. Moreover, the pilots who were flying near him, one of them with a handheld camera, said he was not hit by a SAM. He had flown too low and was brought down by a barrage of antiaircraft fire. Since a SAM exploded in a bright orange fireball visible for miles around, it was unlikely that they had called it wrong. And since official navy records listed John McCain as downed by AAA fire, they were puzzled by why he later insisted in his political campaigns that it was a SAM.

As other pilots saw it, John McCain, quite simply, had got himself shot down.

http://www.pythiapress.com/wartales/McCain-Shootdown.htm

If this depiction of McCain’s conduct is credible, republicans would have to decide whether to defy the truth in defense of a well respected member, or accept it and risk the promotion a heretical clown.

 

the fact that john mccain should have been grounded and not even allowed the fly the mission he was downed in nor his fuck ups during that mission negate the horrors he endured at the Hanoi Hilton. the fact that trump attacked someone who endured things his fat soft ass would break in seconds from means trump should be reviled.

 

Except that really isn't the point, the point is Trump's statement has caused disruption within the Republican Party. Many Republicans including the RNC have criticized Trump's comments hinting that McCain wasn't a hero and his actions were not heroic. Whither McCain is really a hero or not is immaterial. The anti Trump camp has long held a veteran's military record inviolate, unless of course said veteran was or is a Democrat (e.g. the swiftboating of Kerry). These same Republicans who are now critical of Trump's comments with respect to McCain are the very same Republicans who smeared and slandered Kerry's military service and John Kerry was a real life military hero and he had the evidence to back him up. But that didn't stop Republicans from lying about Kerry's military record. That is very hypocritical.

With respect to McCain, McCain was a reckless kid. I don't think that is in doubt. But I think it is difficult to describe McCain's actions while he was a prisoner of war as anything less than heroic and honorable. I find I sad McCain hasn't displayed similar bravery, integrity and honor in recent years while serving as a senator and as the Republican presidential nominee in 2008.

 

When I first heard of Trump’s comment about McCain’s military service I had the same reaction. But after listening to the actual interview and reading the account of McCain’s service record, I found myself somewhat agreeing with Trump’s assertion. In the interview Trump actually concedes McCain’s hero status, but qualifies it as due to his capture.

Luntz: “He’s war hero.”

Trump: “He is a war hero . . . ”

Luntz: “Five and half years in a Vietnamese prison camp . . . ”

Trump: “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured. So he’s a war hero . . . ”

Luntz: “Do you agree with that?”

Trump: “He’s a war hero, because he was captured, okay? I believe, perhaps, he’s a war hero. But right now he said some very bad things about a lot of people. So what I said is John McCain, I disagree with him that these people aren’t crazy.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/421375/transparent-spin-donald-trump-rich-lowry

Contrast McCain’s case with that of Bowe Bergdahl who also endured five years of torture and captivity. It could be argued that both McCain and Bergdahl facilitated their capture through dereliction of duty, only McCain seems to have caught a break because his error in judgment wasn’t as publically obvious as Bergdahl’s. If the Navy had pushed the narrative that McCain’s deviation from prescribed flight rules had led to his capture, he likely wouldn’t have gotten the political capital from his service record that he’s enjoyed for so many years.

Whether Kerry or MacCain, if the accusation if factual, then to deny its legitimacy regardless of one’s political stance would seem to be more hypocritical.

What I’ve read of McCain’s performance as a Navy pilot suggests that was he was aggressive, possibly to a degree that bordered on negligence. Many citizens through their own acts of negligence become captives of the state in the guise of penitentiary inmates, and they too could arguably be said to act nobly in the harsh environment of prison life, yet we don’t commonly view them as heroes.

 

I am not a fan of McCain because he is too hawkish for me, but MAN, do I agree with your post!