2016 Republican Presidential Clown Car Begins!

That about sums up the choices for POTUS from both parties so far . . . .
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That's the snake oil the Rep strategists sold in 2000, and 2004, and 2008, and 2012.

The Dems are an ordinary political Party, and they offer the possibility of minimal competence in managing government agencies, decent Supreme Court nominations, etc, in all of their candidates. This time they even offer a slightly Left of center candidate, Sanders, who may attempt to not only halt the loss of New Deal reforms but actually restore some of the mislaid basis of American prosperity.

The Reps are a pack of orcs, wingnuts, dominionists, misogynistic feebs, vicious bigots, closet cases, Confederacy mourners, Ayn Rand acolytes, and batshit theocracy purveyors. Because they are hostile to principles, integrity, reason, and any reminders of what happened yesterday, their candidates cannot run on personal merit or program and have to sell their ass to the nearest billionaire and their soul to Roger Ailes; unless they are the nearest billionaire and have no soul.

So you get campaign loyalists without ability put in charge of managing crucial government agencies, you get Douglas J Feith and Paul Wolfowitz taking the US Army to a war that will be over in six months and pay for itself, you get Harriet Meiers and Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia and the like nominated for your Supreme Court, and you get a Vice President with a large private safe in his office declaring that his dealings with big oil companies and major defense contractors are none of the public's business.

That's what happened yesterday, anyhoo.

But meh, eh?
 
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Christie Administration Corruption Rattles UAL

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It seems like a thesis cut specficially for election season, but to the one this is the Republican Party and, to the other, this is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Did Christie administration corruption just topple the CEO of United Airlines? The answer would appear to be yes.

Steve Benen↱ offers an overview, which works out great on this occasion since his boss covered the story last night; the video for the segment is included with his blog post.

Anytime one of the largest airlines in the world loses suddenly its CEO, it's a fairly big deal, but in this case, United's shake-up is tied to the investigation into Christie's pal David Samson. From Rachel's report last night:​

"David Samson apparently has a vacation home near Columbia, South Carolina, and one of the things unearthed is that United Airlines, allegedly, created a new route, a nonstop flight route between Newark Airport and Columbia, South Carolina, specifically at the request of David Samson, specifically to make his trips to his vacation home easier for him and his wife.​

"The allegation is that he requested that United establish that convenient flight path for him, and in exchange, he would hook United up with some of the projects they wanted to do and some of the treatment that they wanted as an airline at Newark Airport."​

Making matters slightly worse, just a few days after Samson resigned from the Port Authority, United scrapped the nonstop flight between Newark and Columbia – a route that came to be known as the "Chairman's Flight."​

And remember, this all started with the "Bridgegate" investigation. And, yes, there comes a point that this really does sound unbelievable, just like the part about yesterday being when Gov. Christie decided to blame President Obama for street crime.

Yeah. He really did. I know, right? Effin' amazing.
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Notes:

Benen, Steve. "Christie picks the wrong day to complain about 'lawlessness'". msnbc. 9 September 2015. msnbc.com. 9 September 2015. http://on.msnbc.com/1OcFhTl
 
Clown Car: Indicted Clown Falls Out

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Ladies and gentlemen, the first campaign casualty of the 2016 presidential season:

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry announced Friday he is ending his presidential campaign.

Perry announced the end of his campaign at the Eagle Forum -- an event founded by conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly -- in St. Louis, Missouri.

"We have a tremendous field – the best in a generation – so I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, and as long as we listen to the grassroots, the cause of conservatism will be too," Perry said, according to his prepared remarks.

(Lavender↱)​

Who's next? I mean, really, even folks in South Carolina are polling an overwhelming majority that their hometown candidate, Sen. Lindsey Graham, should drop out.

Sen. Rand Paul (KY) might also want to think whether his scandal-plagued, inept campaign sees any path forward.
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Notes:

Lavender, Paige. "Rick Perry Ends His 2016 Presidential Campaign". The Huffington Post. 11 September 2015. HuffingtonPost.com. 11 September 2015. http://huff.to/1MhkG0A
 
My gay friends here refer to Perry as "that old queen?" Indictments are another thing... :D
 
Tiassa said:
Clown Car: Indicted Clown Falls Out

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Ladies and gentlemen, the first campaign casualty of the 2016 presidential season:

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry announced Friday he is ending his presidential campaign.

Perry announced the end of his campaign at the Eagle Forum -- an event founded by conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly -- in St. Louis, Missouri.

"We have a tremendous field – the best in a generation – so I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, and as long as we listen to the grassroots, the cause of conservatism will be too," Perry said, according to his prepared remarks.

(Lavender↱)​

Who's next? I mean, really, even folks in South Carolina are polling an overwhelming majority that their hometown candidate, Sen. Lindsey Graham, should drop out.

Sen. Rand Paul (KY) might also want to think whether his scandal-plagued, inept campaign sees any path forward.
____________________

Notes:

Lavender, Paige. "Rick Perry Ends His 2016 Presidential Campaign". The Huffington Post. 11 September 2015. HuffingtonPost.com. 11 September 2015. http://huff.to/1MhkG0A
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I guess those black horned rimmed glasses didn't convince enough Republicans. :) Actually, I'm a bit surprised. The Republican base isn't usually that sharp. They should have fallen for the black horned rimmed glasses. Maybe it wasn't the glasses but the fact he screwed up so badly last time and Republicans have scores of candidates to choose from.
 
That and the indictment. I mean, in a way it seems almost as if the unspoken thing here is that he's guilty. And I think the same thing is hurting Christie, and also Rand Paul by proxy of Jesse Benton. The donors have no need to engage that sort of scandal risk when, as you note, the Republican garden is fecund to say the least.

I guess I just wonder which of the cellar dwellers are stubborn enough to hold in. Jeb Bush has the money and is well positioned to re-emerge as a frontrunner when some degree of sanity returns to the show; he has every reason to try to ride out the Trump Effect. Scott Walker is reduced to hoping to pick off Trump supporters when the farce finally collapses on itself.

Gilmore isn't dropping out at all; Pataki hasn't yet, so why would he? But these highly anticipated, broadly pitched, big budget campaigns, the alleged marquee names. And they've been picked off by Donald Trump and Ben freakin' Carson.

Kasich can ride through. Fiorina can ride through. Cruz might be about to crash, because his latest Tortilla Coast Junta seems more frustrating to his Senate Republican colleagues than anything else. Oh, and yeah, Josh Earnest finally gave it the name. Tortilla Coast Gambit. Damn straight, and about time.

But Lindsey Graham, man. Now there's a sad panda. I mean, damn.
 
bdti-2015-rickperry2016campaignend.png

I don't know, how's this?
 
Awww.. Shucks Hucks..


High from his “freedom rally” with Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis, Republican Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee weighed in on the Dred Scott decision—because when you’re wrong, be wrong about everything.

During a radio interview on Wednesday with host Michael Medved, Huckabee took it upon himself to give his listeners an entirely inaccurate history lesson, saying the 1857 Supreme Court ruling, where blacks were declared as not whole humans, is still a law even though no one upholds it. From BuzzFeed:

“I’ve been just drilled by TV hosts over the past week, ‘How dare you say that it’s not the law of the land?’” Huckabee said. “Because that’s their phrase, ‘it’s the law of the land.’ Michael, the Dred Scott decision of 1857 still remains to this day the law of the land which says that black people aren’t fully human. Does anybody still follow the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision?”
​

Let that sink in for a moment.

A Presidential candidate still believes that the law does not recognise African Americans as being "fully human" and that this is the 'law of the land' which is just ignored, because you know, gays can marry and it cannot be legal because he and his merry band of bigots are homophobic.

The Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court was overturned by the Civil War; the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery; and the 14th Amendment, which gave citizenship to African Americans. The Dred Scott decision is clearly no longer the law of this land. I should add though that the prevalence of police violence against people of color, high incarceration rates and the need for movements like Black Lives Matter is proving Huckabee, dumb as he is, a bit right, though on paper he is still totally incorrect.

And then Huckabee said some more dumb stuff about whether he’d try to overturn gay marriage, which is also legal in these here United States of America, according to the Supreme Court’s ruling in June.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Huckabee replied. “Because, in the case of this decision, it goes back to what Jefferson said that if a decision is rendered that is not borne out by the will of the people either through their elected people and gone through the process, if you just say it’s the law of the land because the court decided, then Jefferson said, ‘You now have surrendered to judicial tyranny.’ The Supreme Court in the same-sex marriage decision made a law and they made it up out of thin air.​

Thin air? Oh, he’s not done.

Therefore, until Congress decides to codify that and give it a statute it’s really not an operative law and that’s why what Kim Davis did was operate under not only the Kentucky Constitution which was the law under which she was elected but she’s operating under the fact that there’s no statute in her state nor at the federal level that authorizes her,” Huckabee said before Medved cut him off for a break.
​

Then again, this should not be surprising for a candidate that believes he and his merry band of bigots should have the right to simply ignore the actual law and do as they please based on their religious doctrines.
 
Huckster ❤ Hatred


¡Content Warning! Clicking on this man may endanger your job and/or children.
(Detail of photo by Charlie Niebergall/Associated Press)​

Bells said:
A Presidential candidate still believes that the law does not recognise African Americans as being "fully human" and that this is the 'law of the land' which is just ignored, because you know, gays can marry and it cannot be legal because he and his merry band of bigots are homophobic.
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This is one of those weird things that comes up, one of those rabbit holes we can chase someone down, and then find ourselves at a dead end because of a weird escape hatch in which one points out how much effort the other is putitng into it. That is, if we could chase Huckabee into a corner for his astounding ignorance, he could still escape by pretending offense that we've made such a big deal out of it.

To the other, Mr. Huckabee's nearly pornographic bollocking of the U.S. Constitution is a regular, well-known phenomenon↱.

Which in no subtle manner brings us back to juxtapositions of politics and history↗; Mr. Huckabee is demonstrative of the difference.
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Notes:

Farias, Cristian. "Mike Huckabee Thinks He Knows The Constitution Better Than The Supreme Court". The Huffington Post. 8 September 2015. HuffingtonPost.com. 12 September 2015. http://huff.to/1OzEWrZ
 
It will be interesting to see if Perry stops wearing the black horned rimmed glasses now. Though, I suppose he still considers himself to be a viable VP candidate. So my guess is the glasses stay until the nominating process is over and a VP candidate has been named. I think it's pretty obvious or it should be obvious Perry's chance of becoming the Republican Party VP nominee is close to zero, being under indictment and all.
 
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Here's an almost fun one: If/then, something about the polling, and Donald Trump, in the end, actually needs a veep candidate.

What would be the impeachment standard, the trigger sensitivity, against a Trump administration? Because I can imagine Trump going far enough to get himself impeached under any normal standard if something gets under his skin. Like, say, Congress.

Or a court.

(Have you been following the Brownback saga with the state courts? Do they still even have state courts? And for how long? Yes. Really.)

But who will Mr. Trump eventually be handing his presidency to? If he secures the nomination, this will be one of the most consequential veep selections ever. And, you know, I can see his market wisdom going with Joni Ernst.

This could be awesome.

Don't get me wrong, it would be a flaming disaster, but at least it would get good ratings.

It's kind of like that line in the Belle & Sebastian song↱ about being on television, as if we are approaching a threshold beyond which infamy is good enough, because at least one has their footnote in history that they can text all their friends about.

I think it happens, at the latest, at caucus time. It is very difficult to imagine how this works if Mr. Trump can actually carry this thing to the nomination.
 
Measure of Moderation

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It is in many ways difficult to describe Ohio Governor John Kasich as anything of a moderate. Still, the Republican presidential condender knows the need for a pivot point, and, frankly, chooses wisely:

In an interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto Tuesday, Kasich worried that the Davis episode may actually weaken religion by alienating people.

"We have a lot of young people that have walked away from, or are confused or uncertain about personal faith. And one of the things that I know that's so great about it -- being a flawed man -- is that, thank God we have grace," Kasich said.

"In this case, when young people, or people who are looking at what is religion all about, what is faith all about -- when they see dust-ups like this, my concern is they would go the other way and say, 'Look, I don't want anything to do with that,'" he added.

Kasich also said that while he supports so-called "traditional marriage" and understands Davis' concerns, "we have bigger fish to fry in terms of the whole issue of faith."

"For me, it means I can forgive ... It means I am supposed to live a life bigger than myself. It means I have to be aware of those who are the downtrodden and the widows, the orphans," Kasich added.

He reiterated that marriage equality is now the law of the land, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, and that government officials need to abide by that ruling.

(Terkel↱)​

In the long run Mr. Kasich is simply giving his fellow conservatives sound advice. It's not going to win him any votes; it doesn't help him with women, doesn't impress the conservative wing of his party that would be wise to listen to him right about now, and it isn't going to be much in the face of other issues when he needs to burnish his centrism for the general.

As a measure of moderation, though, John Kasich could certainly have chosen worse.

And, furthermore, as his point echoes much akin to something I've said in the past about how potential converts perceive evangelists, it seems only fair to note such occasions as I might agree with Mr. Kasich. (It happens; I just found myself nodding along with Sen. Rand Paul↱, too.)
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Notes:

Terkel, Amanda. "John Kasich Worries Kim Davis Spectacle Will Turn People Away From Religion". The Huffington Post. 8 September 2015. HuffingtonPost.com. 12 September 2015. http://huff.to/1O4gwJX
 
In all this Republican comedy Christie's desire to track all legal aliens like Fed Ex packages seems to have gone largely unnoticed.

Apparently he wants to bar code them...put a little tattoo on them at the airport when they enter the country or inject some tracking device.
 
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Joepistole said:
In all this Republican comedy Christie's desire to track all legal aliens like Fed Ex packages seems to have gone largely unnoticed.

Apparently he wants to bar code them...put a little tattoo on them at the airport when they enter the country or inject some tracking device.
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The one-time wonderwall wasn't exactly specific, but, to the other, won't someone please think of the bureaucracy? After all, Gov. Christie is a Republican and Republicans disdain "big" government.

And just like TRAP laws, such as the abortibudget↗ signed by Gov. Kasich of Ohio, we also must remember that all this betrayal of conservative principle occurs in the name of the party that tells us government cannot and does not work; at what point do we simply accept that they are trying to prove the thesis?

Additionally―

"I don't mean people are packages, so let's not be ridiculous," the New Jersey governor told an interviewer on Fox News Sunday who pointed out that foreigners do not have labels on their wrists.

"This is once again a situation where the private sector laps us in the government with the use of technology," Christie said. "We should bring in the folks from FedEx to use the technology to be able to do it. There's nothing wrong with that."

Christie said on Saturday that if he wins the November 2016 presidential election, he would use a FedEx-like system to make sure visitors who enter the United States legally on visas depart the country when their time is up. He said that 40 percent of illegal immigrants with visas overstay their visits.

Package delivery companies like FedEx and United Parcel Service Inc use bar-coded labels to record the movements of parcels through sorting facilities to delivery. Christie did not explain how his approach would work, but said he wants visa holders to be tracked from the moment they enter the United States and then notified when it is time for them to leave. Experts say visa overstays pose a growing problem, with some research showing that over half of recent illegal immigrants entered the United States legally.

(Morgan↱)​

―it is worth recalling that once upon a time, the idea of the Mark of the Beast was a really big deal. In fact, it remains a big deal even into the twenty-first century↱.

Over the years, I also picked up on the apocalyptic fantasies of various Sabbatarian Christians, who believe they will be persecuted for attending church on Sunday; don't ask, it doesn't make any sense, and it's hilarious until one realizes some of these people experience palpable fear over such beliefs. Still, though, just like the "National Sunday Law"↱ conspiracy theory, I find myself wondering why all these delusional fears of unchecked evil that was supposed to come about from women having rights and liberals getting their way with governments always seem to manifest in the conservative range of the political spectrum.

Good heavens, just go down to your local Seventh Day Adventist community and drop the word that Chris Christie wants to backdoor barcodes by starting with the immigrants. Oh, don't worry about causing a ruckus; they'll just blame Barack Obama.
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Notes:

Morgan, Steve. "Christie defends plan to monitor immigrants like FedEx tracks parcels". Reuters. 30 August 2015. Reuters.com. 13 September 2015. http://reut.rs/1Qbbskv
 
Tiassa said:
The one-time wonderwall wasn't exactly specific, but, to the other, won't someone please think of the bureaucracy? After all, Gov. Christie is a Republican and Republicans disdain "big" government.
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Indeed, the party of “small government” is proposing a lot of big government ventures. FedEx and UPS have a significant infrastructure built around tracking packages. An even larger infrastructure would be required to track living human beings every minute of the day for days, weeks and months and in some cases years.

And then there is Trump with his plan to find and deport some 11+ million illegal aliens. It would be a boom for law enforcement and lawyers. Can you imagine how many law enforcement officers and lawyers would be required to do that? The cost boggles the mind. The estimates I have read are upwards of a trillion dollars…so much for small government principals.
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/17/
 
You want to watch a horror show...? Then watch the Republican debate. These guys are a scary group of clowns!
 
Bigotry Loves Company

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To the one, it's not like this wasn't predictable.

CHUCK TODD: Let me wrap this up by finally dealing with what's been going on, Donald Trump, and a deal with a questioner that claimed that the president was Muslim. Let me ask you the question this way: Should a President's faith matter? Should your faith matter to voters?

DR. BEN CARSON: Well, I guess it depends on what that faith is. If it's inconsistent with the values and principles of America, then of course it should matter. But if it fits within the realm of America and consistent with the constitution, no problem.

CHUCK TODD: So do you believe that Islam is consistent with the constitution?

DR. BEN CARSON: No, I don't, I do not.

CHUCK TODD: So you--

DR. BEN CARSON: I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.

(Meet the Press↱)​

To the other, this is supremacism. This is bigotry.

This is your Republican Party.

This is your GOP Clown Car.
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Notes:

Todd, Chuck. Interview with Ben Carson. Meet the Press. NBC, New York. 20 September 2015. Transcript. 20 September 2015. http://nbcnews.to/1QRhOGK
 
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