2016 Republican Presidential Clown Car Begins!

[joepistole]

One of the takeaways from the last Republican debate was really nothing new, but it was very transparent Republicans don't like answering tough questions. In essence they want to turn the Republican debates into a 2 hour or so ad for their candidacies without being asked difficult questions. Instead of honest questions asked by journalists, Republican candidates want Republican entertainers like Limbaugh, Hannity, and Levin feeding them softballs, questions that make them look better at the expense of veracity.

As President Obama pointed out these are the guys who have accused him of not being able to stand toe to toe with the likes of Putin and Iraq, while as evidenced by the last debate, they cannot stand toe to toe with journalists. Yeah, it just doesn't add up. But unfortunately, that is what the Republican Party has become with the rise of Republican entertainment. It's just another very clear demonstration of the dumbing down of the Republican Party. Thank you Ronald Reagan, Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin, and Rupert Murdoch.

 

[zgmc]

I don't understand why these, so-called, negotiations are allowed in the first place. If you want to run for president, but don't want to be challenged on the issues, then maybe it's not the job for you.

 

[joepistole]

I don't understand why these, so-called, negotiations are allowed in the first place. If you want to run for president, but don't want to be challenged on the issues, then maybe it's not the job for you.

Agreed. At some point these clowns will be asked some difficult questions.

 

[joepistole]

Rubio, and to some, the Great Hispanic Hope of the Republican Party has some very big problems. Rubio, the guy who would be POTUS, the guy who wants to run the nation's finances, cannot manage his own much less those a the federal government. But Rubio's problems are far deeper than his credit card problems and personal financial woes.


"Improper use of party credit cards: From 2005 until when he left the state Legislature in 2009, Rubio had access to an American Express credit card paid for by the Republican Party of Florida. During his time as speaker, from 2007 to 2009, Rubio often used this card to pay for personal expenses—and some of those expenses ended up paid by the state GOP. In early 2010, when Florida newspapers began to dig into these credit card records, Rubio said he had done nothing wrong and had paid American Express around $16,000 between 2007 and 2008 to cover personal expenses that he had charged, such as $181.56 at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. Rubio also put a $10,000 charge on a party card for a family vacation at a resort in Georgia before ultimately gathering money from family members and paying American Express directly, according to The New Republic.

In 2012, when he was on the list of possible running mates for Mitt Romney, Rubio sat down for an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier and tried to dispense with the credit card issue. Every month, Rubio explained, he would get a statement from American Express and directly pay off any personal expenses. Rubio insisted that "the Republican Party of Florida never paid my personal expenses" and that the issue was "totally resolved years ago."

But after the interview, Beth Reinhard, one of the reporters who exposed the Rubio credit card story noted, "[Q]uestions remain about the more than $100,000 in charges from Nov. 2006 to Nov. 2008." And she presented what she called the "obvious" question: "Why would such a savvy politician continually use a state party credit card for non-party business, requiring him to reimburse the credit card company after the bill had been paid?"

Double-billing flights: In February 2010, as he ran for the US Senate, Rubio admitted to double-billing Florida taxpayers and the Republican Party of Florida for eight flights during his time as House speaker. Rubio said the billing was a mistake and repaid $3,000 to the state GOP.

How could this have happened? Rubio blamed the snafu on his travel agency, which charged his state GOP card instead of his personal card. Then, Rubio explained, his staffers sought reimbursement from the state for those same flights.

In this case as in all others, whenever Rubio or his staff fended off questions about his finances during these times, they would chalk the issue up to "clerical errors," according to a 2012 biography of Rubio by Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia. This became a "stock narrative" from Rubio's supporters, Roig-Franzia wrote, "Rubio was simply sloppy, but not corrupt."

Political committees: During his stint in the state House, Rubio started two political committees that together took in about $600,000 over a period of less than three years and often made questionable payments. One of these was $14,000 for "couriers" that included three relatives of Rubio who were doing political work around the state.

Rubio established one of these committees, Floridians for Conservative Leadership, in December 2002, to "support state and local candidates." But an investigation by the Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times revealed that in 2010, the committee spent "nearly $150,000 on administrative and operating costs and $2,000 in candidate contributions." Credit card expenses as high as $50,000 had little information about how the money was spent. The newspapers noted that this was in "contrast with the more detailed disclosures of other legislators' political committees." Other politicians' committees generally gave more to candidates and had lower administrative costs.

"The bookkeeping in (that) committee was not always perfect,'' Rubio's campaign manager told told the Herald and the Times in 2010 after they discovered as part of their investigation that $34,000 in expenses, including a $7,000 reimbursement to Rubio himself, had not been disclosed, as required by state law.

The "Taj Mahal" courthouse: Among Tallahassee's many scandals during the Rubio years was an elaborate new courthouse for the 1st District Court of Appeal located in the state's capital. At a time when the Republicans running the state were preaching fiscal austerity, the Legislature appropriated a whopping $48 million for the new facility, which included plans for each judge to get a 60-inch flat-screen TV, mahogany-paneled chambers, and granite countertops for a private bathroom and kitchen, according to the St. Petersburg Times. Funding for the new courthouse snuck through the Legislature as an amendment to a transportation bill on the last day of the legislative session in 2007.

Rubio was among those who were "especially helpful" in appropriating money for the project. "The outrage may be that it was a legal waste of public money, and that powerful legislators like Marco Rubio quietly conspired to make it happen," charged a St. Petersburg Times editorial, arguing that the odds the funding for the courthouse passed the Legislature without Rubio's blessing were "slim to none."

His friendship with David Rivera: For over two decades, Rubio has been close friends with David Rivera, state representative who became a member of the US Congress. They both served in the Florida state Legislature in the early 2000s, and Rubio and Rivera jointly bought a house in Tallahassee and lived there together when the Legislature was in session. The two were known as a team there, and when Rubio campaigned to become speaker of the state House—a job that takes years to secure—Rivera acted as his top strategist. Their shared house and five months of missed mortgage payments came to haunt Rubio during his Senate run in 2010 when their bank tried to foreclose on the property. Rubio and Rivera made the missing payments and kept the house.

 

[joepistole]

Rubio Part II

For the past several years, Rivera has been under investigation from state and federal officials for an exhaustive list of alleged misuses of political money. For example, investigators suspected that Rivera had accepted more than $500,000 in payments from the owner of a Miami dog track for Rivera's help on a local initiative to allow slot machines at gambling sites. State investigators, though, let Rivera off the hook in 2012 after an 18-month investigation, citing the statute of limitations and Florida's lax campaign finance laws.

But Rivera remains under federal investigation for an elaborate campaign finance scheme and cover-up that reads like an over-the-top Hollywood script. Running for reelection to Congress in 2012, Rivera was likely to face Democratic challenger Joe Garcia, whom he had beat two years before. Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Rivera propped up a Democratic candidate running against Garcia in the primary. Rivera allegedly used his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Ana Alliegro, as a go-between to funnel more than $80,000 in cash to the other Democratic candidate, Justin Lamar Sternad. Garcia beat Sternad in the primary, and then defeated Rivera in the general election in 2012. When the feds began to look into the campaign finance scheme, Rivera helped Alliegro to escape to Nicaragua to avoid federal investigators.

Alliegro was arrested in Nicaragua nearly a year ago at the US government's request and sent back to the United States, where she ultimately plead guilty. She has testified in depth about the entire scheme to a federal grand jury. Sternad also plead guilty for his part in the scheme in 2013. Rivera has yet to be indicted, according to the Miami Herald. Attorneys familiar with the case told the Herald that the US attorney might be waiting until his case is "iron-clad." Or perhaps Rivera is giving testimony to implicate others. It's anyone's guess.

Rubio has repeatedly defended his friendship with Rivera, refusing to distance himself from his embattled chum. "He's a friend, and I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt," Rubio told Fox's Baier in 2012. If Rubio runs for president, he may get plenty of opportunities to continue this defense" http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/scandals-marco-rubio-has-escaped

 

[Tiassa]

Ben Carson, Sucking

​

Much like the spectacular televion host before him, emerging Republican frontrunner Dr. Ben Carson seems to have a certain talent for sucking the air out of the room. Sam Levine↱ of Huffington Post attempted on Friday to round up "the bizarre things Ben Carson said this week", and perhaps the most significant thing about that is the idea that it should be possible to write such a column. But after hopping on an anti-transgender bandwagon, Dr. Carson found himself explaining his previous explanation of the story about stabbing someone, and then how he managed to botch up the West Point story. That is to say, the values candidate who has built a new career peddling books to Christian congregations turns out to bear false witness. And, you know, let us hand him credit for honesty on one count; he ducked immigration questions, admitting he did not understand dryfoot or residency policies for Cuban immigrants. And then came the thing about the pyramids. And then the insanely awful radio spot targeting "urban radio" markets in the south with patronizing, hideously awful rap.

But then there is Tom McCarthy↱, for The Guardian:

Numerous profiles of Trump in the last four months have noted his “me-wall”, his in-office shrine to himself. In Carson's Maryland home, the “me-wall” was a “me-basement”, the walls covered with plaques. Upstairs, Carson's Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, had pride of place near the front door. A painting of Carson in a surgeon's coat hung over a mantle where a misspelled Bible verse was engraved. On another wall was a painting of Carson with Jesus Christ – his hand on Carson's shoulder.​

You know, it wasn't so long ago Republicans in Virignia ran a convention slate of hardliners; as Governor Bob McDonnell's paradise collapsed around him, and a powerful Clinton-era name leading the Democrats to the 2013 election, the GOP somehow thought it a good idea to send the Attorney General who tried to help the corrupt current governor to run as his replacement, the legislator who wanted women to report menstrual irregularities to authorities to replace the Attorney General, and they found a crazy preacher to run for Lieutenant Governor. And one of the fun bits of trivia about E. W. Jackson was that the front cover for his book about the Ten Commandments spelled the word "commandments" wrong.

And then there is Ben Carson.

Spoiler

​

It's also worth noting that Anne Helen Peterson↱ of BuzzFeed calls the painting, "Ben Carson and Klingon Jesus".

Let us then consider the unfortunate Mr. McCarthy, then, whose job for The Guardian on this occasion involves trying to explain Dr. Ben Carson to the British.

He is more than an American success story, brilliant brain surgeon and bestselling author of 10 Christian-themed books. He has also coined some of the most outlandish statements ever uttered on the national stage, a purveyor of bizarre conspiracy theories and a provocateur who compares abortion to slavery and same-sex marriage to pedophilia.

This week, Carson restated his belief that the pyramids were built by the biblical Joseph to store grain, and not by Egyptians to entomb their kings. He believes that Vladimir Putin, Ali Khamenei and Mahmoud Abbas attended school together in Moscow in 1968. He believes that Jews with firearms might have been able to stop the Holocaust, that he personally could stop a mass shooting, that the Earth was created in six days and that Osama bin Laden enjoyed Saudi protection after 9/11 ....

.... The Carson conundrum is not fully captured by a list of his eccentric beliefs, however. He also confounds the traditional demographics of US politics, in which national African American political figures are meant to be Democrats. Not only is Carson a Republican – he is a strong conservative on both social and economic issues, opposing abortion including in cases of rape and incest, and framing welfare programs as a scheme to breed dependence and win votes.

He has visited the riot zones of Ferguson and Baltimore but offered little compassion for black urban poor populations who feel oppressed by mostly white police forces.

Even Carson's core appeal as a Christian evangelical is complicated by the fact that he is a lifelong adherent to a relatively small sect, the Seventh-Day Adventist church, whose celebration of the sabbath on Saturday instead of Sunday and denial of the doctrine of hell have drawn accusations of heresy from other mainstream Christian groups.​

Dr. Carson really is making it too easy, and sometimes we might wonder if perhaps he is playing "no such thing as bad news" without understanding how it works.

It almost feels cruel, the breathless pace of trying to keep up with the Show. If it's not Donald Trump, then it's the House of Representatives. And now it's Ben Carson.

I get the idea of trying to occupy the news cycle, and it's true Rubio, Bush, and Fiorina have all snatched after failed scraps of Mitt Romney, but at some point the GOP is going to have to face up to the reality of bad news. At the very least, their presidential candidate will face a general election, and my anti-prophet is stirring, and suddenly it feels very dangerous to suggest, There's no way they're really going to try to pull off the Etch-a-Sketch.

Because while it didn't seem to work for Dr. Carson last time↱, neither did it hurt him. But, you know, it worked just fine for Matt Bevin↱, so keep an eye out.

For the moment, Ben Carson is doing a pretty good job of occupying the news cycle. But Republicans have to know he can't actually win the general, and the thing about blowing off steam by telling us what they really think before the voting begins is only going to hurt conservatives upticket, downticket, and crossticket from the crazy.
____________________

Notes:

Levine, Sam. "Here Are The Bizarre Things Ben Carson Said This Week". The Huffington Post. 6 November 2015. HuffingtonPost.com. 8 November 2015. http://huff.to/1ld0h1D

Makela, Mark. "Ben Carson's house: a homage to himself―in pictures". The Guardian. 7 November 2015. TheGuardian.com. 8 November 2015. http://bit.ly/1GQoGnl

McCarthy, Tom. "Ben Carson: inside the worldview of a political conundrum". The Guardian. 7 November 2015. TheGuardian.com. 8 November 2015. http://bit.ly/1GQoGnl

Petersen, Anne Helen. "Ben Carson and Klingon Jesus". Twitter. 7 November 2015. Twitter.com. http://bit.ly/1QbEOTq

Youngman, Sam. "When it comes to Matt Bevin, what's a reporter to do?" The Herald-Leader. 30 October 2015. Kentucky.com. 8 November 2015. http://bit.ly/1Mtyuj4

 

[joepistole]

Plans, Plans, Carly doesn't need any stinking plans or so she says. Well, I guess that explains why Carly was an overwhelming business failure. The foundation of every business is a very detailed business plan. You cannot run one, especially a big one as Carly did, without them. So I guess that explains her failure astounding business failures. But guess what, she wants to do the same thing for all Americans just not her former colleagues at HP.

http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/carly-fiorina-anybody-can-write-plan-n459441

 

[Tiassa]

Oh, God ....

​

Dr. Ben Carson found a new way to push the bounds of believability; the retired neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate whose appeal is humble, Christian honesty, boldly fired back this weekend against criticism that he fabricated parts of the inspiring life story he pitches as the basis for his political fame.

The good doctor recounts a story of being at Yale, when he won a ten-dollar prize from a psychology professor. Questions swirled when nobody else could remember the time the professor claimed to have accidentally burned up all the exams. Dr. Carson's recollection described a class that didn't exist.

Nonetheless, Dr. Carson has grown weary of the criticism, and this weekend responded via Facebook↱, posting a clipping from the Yale newspaper and demanding an apology:

On Saturday a reporter with the Wall Street Journal published a story that my account of being the victim of a hoax at Yale where students were led to believe the exams they had just taken were destroyed and we needed to retake the exam was false. The reporter claimed that no evidence existed to back up my story. Even went so far as to say the class didn't exist.

Well here is the student newspaper account of the incident that occurred on January 14, 1970.

Will an apology be coming. I doubt it.​

And with that setup?

Ladies and gentlemen, Kevin Drum↱:

You remember Doc Carson's story about the psychology test hoax that proved he was the most honest man at Yale? Well, Carson says it really happened, and the proof is on the right. It's a piece from the Yale Daily News about a parody issue of the News published by the Yale Record. Apparently the parody issue announced that some psychology exams had been destroyed and a retest would be held in the evening. Hilarious!

This makes the whole story even more fascinating. It's clear that Carson's account is substantially different from the parody. He says the class was Perceptions 301. He says 150 students showed up. He says everyone eventually walked out. He says the professor showed up at the beginning, and then again at the end. He says the professor gave him ten dollars. None of that seems to have happened.

And yet―it certainly seems likely that this is where Carson got the idea for his story. He remembered the hoax, and then embellished it considerably to turn it into a testimony to the power of God. This even makes sense. It seemed like a strange story for Carson to invent, and it turns out he didn't. He took a story he recalled from his Yale days and then added a bunch of bells and whistles to make it into a proper testimonial.​

Did you catch that?

Here's the clipping Carson posted:

​

You know, the article clearly labeled "Parody". Explaining how a practical joke worked.

The best telling for Dr. Carson, at this point, is that he is one of several students who missed a joke, and ended up feeling kind of stupid. By any measure trying to transform that episode as he has into a self-aggrandizing tale is problematic, but in addition to being a politician, Dr. Carson has cast himself as "not a politician", and his inspiring life story has become a centerpiece of his campaign.

A fabricated inspiring life story, as it seems to be turning out.

And, you know, that is what it is among politicians. But Dr. Carson's pious, Christian honesty is a driving part of his pitch, and one wonders if it really matters to those supporters if he made it all up.
____________________

Notes:

Carson, Ben. "On Saturday a reporter with the Wall Street Journal published a story that my account of being the victim of a hoax at Yale where students were led to believe the exams they had just taken were destroyed and we needed to retake the exam was false". Facebook. 8 November 2015. Facebook.com. 9 November 2015. http://on.fb.me/20Hc0G7

Drum, Kevin. "Ben Carson's Psychology Test Story Gets Even Weirder". Mother Jones. 8 November 2015. MotherJones.com. 9 November 2015. http://bit.ly/1M2amqO

 

[Tiassa]

The Spectacle

​

I will try to add some real commentary later, but oh, dear Goddess, the Fox Business Network Republican Presidential Debate is nigh unwatchable.

Cavuto's question to Carson about biographies was nearly fellatio.

And Kasich, picking a fight with Trump, actually said, "Think of the children!"

Not a single one of them can make sense from start to finish when they speak.

What the hell is this? It's like a pageant of who can be the least not subtle while pitching the GOP and bashing Democrats in general, and everything in between is pretty much popcorn.

‡​

19:26 PST: So, Trump is recycling other people's material, a good TV move. And Jeb Bush really ought to have ended his candidacy when he couldn't think of the word "Muslim".

‡​

20:12 PST: It's starting to be impossible to not notice the advertising. This is a strange market. I mean, between the movies and the special interests, it's hard to tell which is writing wilder fiction.

 

[joepistole]

The Spectacle

​

I will try to add some real commentary later, but oh, dear Goddess, the Fox Business Network Republican Presidential Debate is nigh unwatchable.

Cavuto's question to Carson about biographies was nearly fellatio.

And Kasich, picking a fight with Trump, actually said, "Think of the children!"

Not a single one of them can make sense from start to finish when they speak.

What the hell is this? It's like a pageant of who can be the least not subtle while pitching the GOP and bashing Democrats in general, and everything in between is pretty much popcorn.

Well, I didn't expect much. This is Fox News.

 

[Tiassa]

Well, I didn't expect much. This is Fox News.

It will be an interesting reflection of the press. According to more generic notions of production, presentation, and, well, reality, this is a disaster.

Nonetheless, there will be a winner, and that winner probably won't pay much of a price for having essentially won a junior prize. You know, like when you wrote a paper for Composition and every fact in it might be wrong but you still got an A because you followed all the rules.

 

[joepistole]

I watched the "debate" this morning. I hate to use the word debate to describe it, because like Fox New's "Fair and Balanced", it certainly wasn't a debate. It was a 2 hour long campaign ad for the Republican candidates. It was a brain dead 2 hour waste of time. Some of their "moderators" needed their own fact checkers. You normally expect candidates to lie and spin, but moderators? Well, that's just how Fox News rolls.

And what is it with Texans? They want to get rid of high level major government departments, but they just can't remember the departments they want to eliminate. Last night Cruz said he would eliminate 5 major departments. But he couldn't remember them all, so he double counted. . It must be something in the water.

 

[Tiassa]

Where to Begin?

​

Dr. Carson, to you. You recently railed against the double-standard in the media, sir, that seems obsessed with inconsistencies and potential exaggerations in your life story, but looked the other way when it came to then-Senator Barack Obama's. Still, as a candidate whose brand has always been trust, are you worried your campaign―which you've always said, sir, is bigger than you―is now being hurt by you?

―Neil Cavuto↱​

What part of the Milwaukee debate wasn't a disaster? Let us start with that general proposition, because I'm so tempted to make a fellatio joke, here. No, really, could Neil Cavuto have been any more friendly to Ben Carson with that question?

And then Maria Bartiromo topped him, pitching Marco Rubio such a softball―

BARTIROMO: Welcome back to the fourth Republican presidential debate.

Senator Rubio, Hillary Clinton is the clear front runner for the Democratic nomination. If she is indeed the nominee, you will be facing a candidate with an impressive resume.

She was the first lady of the United States, a U.S. senator from New York, and secretary of state under Barack Obama. She has arguably more experience, certainly more time in government than almost all of you on stage tonight.

Why should the American people trust you to lead this country, even though she has been so much closer to the office?

RUBIO: Well, that's a great question, and let me begin by answering it.​

―that even the junior senator from Florida couldn't help but notice. James Hohmann↱ of the Washington Post noted, "Marco Rubio got lobbed softballs so soft that he could not help but LAUGH at one of them. Literally!" At the New York Times, Jonathan Martin and Patrick Healy↱ described Rubio's night:

Mr. Rubio was not only able to avoid being drawn into the contentious immigration debate, but also repeatedly received questions that allowed him to answer with versions of his stump speech. Even he seemed unable to believe his good fortune when he was asked to make his case against Mrs. Clinton. He chuckled for a moment before unspooling a well-rehearsed argument: why he can prosecute a "generational" case against her.​

Dave Weigel↱ tweeted, "You couldn't have written that Rubio Q to be any nicer if you were introducing him at a fundraiser."

Steve Benen↱ of msnbc was only mildly less not subtle:

Perhaps there's something to be said for grading candidates on a curve. It's a bit like college football, when the strength of the schedule is taken into consideration.

Sure, the senator effortlessly recites canned, carefully scripted mini-speeches, without any real regard for their connection to the question, which invariably earns overly enthusiastic praise. But it probably helps when the questions―which were so tilted in Rubio's favor that he couldn't help but laugh―practically invite him to recite portions of the stump speech he delivers literally every day.​

There is no question the Republican Party wants the audience to see its candidates at their best, but even as such the Wall Street Journal/Fox Business News event was by any fair measure a catastrophe. Tessa Stuart↱ of Rolling Stone cataloged "23 WTF Moments" from the debate, which isn't quite like doing Christmas dog sweaters during wartime, but we're talking such low-hanging fruit one only wonders why she stopped at twenty-three. Then again, Benen↱ required three paragraphs to explain Carly Fiorina's most brazenly bizarre moment.

At another point last night, Gerard Baker, the editor in chief of the Wall Street Journal, reminded Carly Fiorina, “In seven years under President Obama, the U.S. has added an average of 107,000 jobs a month. Under President Clinton, the economy added about 240,000 jobs a month. Under George W. Bush, it was only 13,000 a month. If you win the nomination, you’ll probably be facing a Democrat named Clinton. How are you going to respond to the claim that Democratic presidents are better at creating jobs than Republicans?”

If anything, Baker’s numbers were tilted in the GOP’s favor, since Obama’s totals are dragged down by including the early months of his presidency, when the economy was in free fall. Nevertheless, the point is accurate – since World War II, more jobs are created under Democratic presidents than Republicans – prompting Fiorina to reply, “Yes, problems have gotten much worse under Democrats.”

She’d just been reminded of the opposite, which made the exchange a little unnerving. I kept waiting for one of the candidates to drop the pretense and declare, “I reject this version of reality and replace it with one I like better.”​

And what can anyone say about Ben Carson? Cavuto deliberately gave Carson cover↱, and the good doctor's answer was to pretty much use it to accuse people of lying by not promoting his lies. Yet as stupid as that moment was, Dr. Carson achieved impressive incoherence discussing the Middle East; Igor Bobic↱ and Steve Benen↱ alike used the phrase, "word salad", which really is unfair to words and salads alike.

No, seriously, what was that? I mean, that whole show. Seriously, this is just the start. And the thing is it's like some manner of deliberate cruelty. To some degree I owe it to myself and my society―you, know, as a voter, or whatever―to pay at least some attention to these Republican candidates, but damn it, why the hell do Republicans have to make it such an agonizing experience? Could any one of them please start making sense?

I mean, hell, did you catch the part where Trump started randomly folding in other people's material?

Well, first of all, it's not only Russia. We have problems with North Korea where they actually have nuclear weapons. You know, nobody talks about it, we talk about Iran, and that's one of the worst deals ever made. One of the worst contracts ever signed, ever, in anything, and it's a disgrace. But, we have somebody over there, a madman, who already has nuclear weapons we don't talk about that. That's a problem.

China is a problem, both economically in what they're doing in the South China Sea, I mean, they are becoming a very, very major force. So, we have more than just Russia. But, as far as the Ukraine is concerned, and you could Syria -- as far as Syria, I like -- if Putin wants to go in, and I got to know him very well because we were both on 60 Minutes, we were stablemates, and we did very well that night.

But, you know that.

But, if Putin wants to go and knocked the hell out of ISIS, I am all for it, 100%, and I can't understand how anybody would be against it...​

Rubio makes a pale mention of the South China Sea, Kasich one-ups him on the point, and then Trump did this, just sort of sticking it into the middle of trying to dodge a question about how he would deal with Russia. And it's actually a pretty good move because if you look at how vapid the answer is, and how excrementally overstuffed a poseur Trump actually is―look, the phrase is dicking them around, and the fucking Republicans are letting him.

What the hell?

Talk about a clown car, laughing and screaming all the way over the cliff and straight to Hell.
____________________

Notes:

Benen, Steve. "Ben Carson’s unawareness keeps catching up with him". msnbc. 11 November 2015. msnbc.com. 11 November 2015. http://on.msnbc.com/1PoTVbU

—————. "Like hitting a ball off a tee", msnbc. 11 November 2015. msnbc.com. 11 November 2015. http://on.msnbc.com/1Pp49ck

—————. "Reality takes a beating in latest Republican debate". msnbc. 11 November 2015. msnbc.com. 11 November 2015. http://on.msnbc.com/1PoC30J

—————. "Why Carson’s complaints about scrutiny are wrong". msnbc. 10 November 2015. msnbc.com. 11 November 2015. http://on.msnbc.com/1Pmswau

Bobic, Igor. "Watch Ben Carson Deliver A Bunch Of Word Salad On The Middle East". THe Huffington Post. 11 November 2015. HuffingtonPost.com. 11 November 2015. http://huff.to/1QwN4fO

Hohmann, James. "The Daily 202: Carson unscathed, Bush stops bleeding, Kasich bombs and seven other takeaways from the Republican debate". The Washington Post. 11 November 2015. WashingtonPost.com. 11 November 2015. http://wapo.st/1M8mHtu

Martin, Jonathan and Patrick Healy. "In Republican Debate, Candidates Battle Sharply on Immigration". The New York Times. 10 November 2015. NYTimes.com. 11 November 2015. http://nyti.ms/1M8mPJz

Stuart, Tessa. "23 WTF Moments From the Fox Business GOP Debate". Rolling Stone. 10 November 2015. RollingStone.com. 11 November 2015. http://rol.st/1MLFEPZ

Team Fix. "Who said what and what it meant: The 4th GOP debate, annotated". The Washington Post. 10 November 2015. WashingtonPost.com. 11 November 2015. http://wapo.st/1WSUrOz

Weigel, Dave. "You couldn't have written that Rubio Q to be any nicer if you were introducing him at a fundraiser". Twitter. 10 November 2015. Twitter.com. 11 November 2015. http://bit.ly/1ll3f4b

 

[douwd20]

I watched the "debate" this morning. I hate to use the word debate to describe it, because like Fox New's "Fair and Balanced", it certainly wasn't a debate. It was a 2 hour long campaign ad for the Republican candidates. It was a brain dead 2 hour waste of time. Some of their "moderators" needed their own fact checkers. You normally expect candidates to lie and spin, but moderators? Well, that's just how Fox News rolls.

And what is it with Texans? They want to get rid of high level major government departments, but they just can't remember the departments they want to eliminate. Last night Cruz said he would eliminate 5 major departments. But he couldn't remember them all, so he double counted. . It must be something in the water.

I lived in Texas many years ago and since they have gone absolutely off the rails.

Texas has become epicenter of conservative movement.
Texas GOP rejects ‘critical thinking’ skills. Really.

And do we even need to discuss Texas school textbooks?

How Textbooks Can Teach Different Versions Of History
How Texas Inflicts Bad Textbooks on Us

 

[joepistole]

Carson, for a guy who is supposed to be very smart, he says a lot of very dumb stuff (e.g. China is in Syria, Egyptian pyramids were granaries and not mausoleums, etc).

 

[Tiassa]

American Existential

​

Carson, for a guy who is supposed to very smart, he says a lot of very dumb stuff (e.g. China is in Syria, Egyptian pyramids were granaries and not mausoleums, etc).

We can say what we want about anonymity granted for sake of speaking candidly, but when Phillip Rucker and Robert Costa↱ do so, on this occasion―

The apprehension among some party elites goes beyond electability, according to one Republican strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the worries.

"We're potentially careening down this road of nominating somebody who frankly isn't fit to be president in terms of the basic ability and temperament to do the job," this strategist said. "It's not just that it could be somebody Hillary could destroy electorally, but what if Hillary hits a banana peel and this person becomes president?"​

―it seems worth reminding that the latter of those Washington Post reporters came up from National Review.

So let's try that again:

"It's not just that it could be somebody Hillary could destroy electorally, but what if Hillary hits a banana peel and this person becomes president?"​

To what degree is it significant if the Republican establishment is starting to view the anti-institutional insurgency as an American existential question?
____________________

Notes:

Rucker, Phillip and Robert Costa. "Time for GOP panic? Establishment worried Carson or Trump might win." The Washington Post. 13 November 2015. WashingtonPost.com. 13 November 2015. http://wapo.st/1N2kIe3

 

[joepistole]

American Existential

​

We can say what we want about anonymity granted for sake of speaking candidly, but when Phillip Rucker and Robert Costa↱ do so, on this occasion―

The apprehension among some party elites goes beyond electability, according to one Republican strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the worries.

"We're potentially careening down this road of nominating somebody who frankly isn't fit to be president in terms of the basic ability and temperament to do the job," this strategist said. "It's not just that it could be somebody Hillary could destroy electorally, but what if Hillary hits a banana peel and this person becomes president?"​

―it seems worth reminding that the latter of those Washington Post reporters came up from National Review.

So let's try that again:

"It's not just that it could be somebody Hillary could destroy electorally, but what if Hillary hits a banana peel and this person becomes president?"​

To what degree is it significant if the Republican establishment is starting to view the anti-institutional insurgency as an American existential question?
____________________

Notes:

Rucker, Phillip and Robert Costa. "Time for GOP panic? Establishment worried Carson or Trump might win." The Washington Post. 13 November 2015. WashingtonPost.com. 13 November 2015. http://wapo.st/1N2kIe3

And rightly so, by their embrace of right wing entertainment where facts and reason are not needed or wanted, they have lost control and placed the nation at great risk.

It wasn't always that way.

 

[Tiassa]

Would Somebody Please Explain Just One Little Thing?

​

So ... what, exactly, went wrong, here?

Seriously ... how did this happen?

Happy Geography Awareness Week! Recognizing that "too many young Americans are unable to make effective decisions, understand geo-spatial issues, or even recognize their impacts as global citizens," National Geographic created this annual observance to "raise awareness to this dangerous deficiency in American education."

Ben Carson's presidential campaign inadvertently underscored this point Tuesday night, when it took to social media to share a map of the United States in which five New England states were placed in the wrong location. The campaign deleted the Twitter and Facebook posts Wednesday morning after media outlets and social media users pointed out the error.

(Ingraham↱)​

No, really.

How?

To the one, Dr. Carson doesn’t help his assertion of Christian virtue with bigotry and cruelty toward war refugees. To the other, few are the things that can wreck an assertion of presidential competence like losing track of New England.
____________________

Notes:

Ingraham, Christopher. "Ben Carson’s campaign made a U.S. map and put a bunch of states in the wrong place". The Washington Post. 18 November 2015. WashingtonPost.com. 18 November 2015. http://wapo.st/1H8NTd3

 

[joepistole]

John Kasich, one of the more reasonable Republican clowns running for POTUS, is now advocating for a new federal government agency to proselytize Judeo-Christian values. That's interesting on two fronts. One, Republicans claim to want more limited government. This new agency expands government. So that would be another exception to this limited government which is central to Republican ideology. Two, it very clearly violates the separation of church and state provisions in the US Constitution which Republicans claim to value. And it just keeps getting more and more crazy and more and more entertaining. What's next?


http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/201...agency-promote-judeo-christian-values-n465101

 

[Randwolf]

I'm sure he would do it in the name of Jesus though...

WASHINGTON -- Famed neurosurgeon and Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson wouldn't rule out torturing terrorism suspects on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" Sunday.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ben-carson-waterboarding_5651df1ae4b0879a5b0b5c7c