(Jim Morin via GoComics.com)
We finally have a Surgeon General again, despite the NRA’s best efforts. Per the NYTimes:
… In a vote early in the evening, Vivek Murthy, a doctor specializing in internal medicine, was approved by 51 to 43.
The confirmation was one of the last acts of business for the Democratic-controlled Senate. Had it not occurred, the nomination would have died, leaving the president without a permanent top doctor, possibly even for the remainder of his two years in office.”..
And the person being held most responsible, by his fellow Repubs, for this #ammosexualfail? None other than Tailgunner Ted…
Schumer: "Cruz, in one fell swoop has taken all the hard work of Mitch McConnell & John Boehner trying to show that they can govern away."
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorpNBC) December 13, 2014
Warning, Politico — “Ted Cruz Does It Again“:
… Cruz, along with Utah Sen. Mike Lee, took to the floor Friday night to demand Republicans stop President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration and scuttled a bipartisan agreement to push back votes until Monday, effectively forcing the Senate to return for a rare weekend session and cast a marathon series of procedural votes…
On Saturday, GOP senator after GOP senator teed off on Cruz, arguing that his strategy had blindsided the caucus, forced them to return to Washington and even strengthened Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s ability to exploit the Senate rules and push through 24 of Obama’s stalled nominees. Several senators had to abruptly change plans, including Ayotte, who had to race back to Washington and missed the ballet with her daughter, and Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who had to cancel his official trip to Iraq and Turkey this weekend.
On the floor, angry GOP senators pressed Cruz over whether he was fundraising off of his tactics, sources said, and Maine Sen. Susan Collins ripped him in a private conversation. Several Republicans were discussing whether to mount a protest vote against Cruz: Unite in opposition to his point-of-order challenging the constitutionality of the spending bill’s funding of Obama’s immigration move.
And 20 Republicans, including incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, ultimately opposed the Texas Republican. Cruz and Lee won the backing of 22 GOP senators total, including potential 2016 rivals Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky…
“I don’t see how conservative ends are achieved,” said Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a fiscal hardliner. “I think it’s counterproductive. Some of the nominations that we had issues with, like the surgeon general, were not going to move forward. Now they’re going to move forward.”…
I know our Blogmaster thinks it’s all kabuki for the “base”, but Daniel Larison is one of the few not-stupid, not-(totally)-insane conservative writers at the moment…
Daniel Larison gets to the problem with Cruz 2016: He’s a jackass and no one likes him. http://t.co/AJD9u5TevE
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) December 11, 2014
Larison writes:
… Cruz might give “establishment” candidates a bit more of a headache than most of them expect, but the trouble he is going to have in running for president is that he has a special knack of making enemies of all kinds of Republicans by dint of his obnoxious style and scorched earth tactics. It isn’t just that he endorses long-shot, losing tactics, but he goes out of his way for whatever reason to antagonize and insult other Republicans and conservatives that happen to disagree with him about tactics or rhetoric. Whether he is mocking critics of his shutdown antics as the “surrender caucus” or needlessly imposing wildly inappropriate litmus tests on Near Eastern Christians, he makes a point of picking fights with other Republicans and conservatives for no reason. It would be one thing if he were perceived to be doing this for principled reasons, but he also gives everyone the impression that his grandstanding is mostly opportunistic.
Then there is the fact that he is an unscrupulous demagogue. He proudly makes obviously false claims, and when he is shown that they are false his first instinct is usually to impugn the motives of the people calling him out. Because he has tried to position himself between different factions of the party on foreign policy, he has also managed to annoy all sides of the intra-party debate. Instead of establishing himself as an acceptable compromise candidate occupying the space in between, say, Rubio and Paul, Cruz has given every faction a reason to distrust and dislike his foreign policy views. Beyond that, his dealings with many other people in his party have been poisoned by his off-putting and arrogant behavior. That extends from the vast majority of his Republican colleagues in the Senate to the WSJ editors, most of whom Cruz should be able to count as allies…
I’m sure Ted Cruz is going to run for president in 2016, and for as many presidential elections thereafter as he can find one rich-enough donor and some off-brand media to support him. And under the right circumstances, he could be the Elmer Gantry I suspect he sees in the mirror, “wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross”. He’s the worst of Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, and Sarah Palin, in one ready-for-his-closeup package. But then again, none of those three ever made it to the Oval Office… and barring total social breakdown, I sincerely doubt Cruz will either. (Especially with Rick Sanctorum on his right flank and Scott Walker on his left; they’re all playing for the same audience, but Santorum is better at stroking the Bases’ tender inflamed egos and Walker has the wonk money.)
And if we have to put up with his irritating jackass ways, it’ll be nice if he at least continues to annoy the other Repubs even more than he does us.
Pogonip
I wonder why he was elected? Was his opponent an even bigger asshole?
Emma
He’s the Fidel Castro of the right. He’s freaking dangerous, if only because he has an instinct for breaking things.
mai naem
What will bring down lil ole Teddy Cruz is going to be a major super embarrassing personal scandal. Like nekkid pictures with a live boy or double wetsuit sex fetish pics.
Howard Beale IV
My fellow Americans, here’s the candidate that deserves to be on the top of the list of primary candidates for 2016. He’s the most ratfuckable of them all-and the rest of the GOP (except the Koch’s) will spend millions to try to keep him away.
MikeBoyScout
Ted Cruz on Sept 1, 2014 “Back in Washington there’s a diet that is now very, very popular,” Cruz quipped. “It’s called the Obama Diet. Works very, very well. You simply let Putin eat your lunch every day.”
December 15, 2014 – Russia raises rates in emergency move as rouble collapses
“MOSCOW, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Russia’s central bank raised its key interest rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent early Tuesday in an emergency move to halt a collapse in the rouble as oil prices decline and the country’s sanctions-hit economy slides toward recession”
Cruz is showing himself to be dumber than GWB.
Randy P
The reason they are having trouble showing they can govern is that they can’t govern.
Botsplainer
@mai naem:
Texans would simply re-elect him in a landslide, would pat themselves on the back for being good, forgiving Christians and would accuse those who criticize him of persecuting Christians for their goodwill.
If I had a time machine good for one trip only, I’d learn Aramaic, would set it for Bethlehem, zero BC, and would hand Joseph a big rock while laughing at him and telling him “are you stupid enough to buy this shit she’s spewing?”
Redshift
@MikeBoyScout:
Which history shows is not a barrier to becoming president, unfortunately.
Baud
@MikeBoyScout:
Cruz is the Nelson Muntz of U.S. politics.
Howard Beale IV
@MikeBoyScout:
A lot of these Ivy League grads are dumber than a box of rocks-Cruz, Ben Shapiro, etc. etc.
Same as the folks who teach/taught there (Niall Ferguson, Alan Dershowitz)
Gin & Tonic
@MikeBoyScout: The Russian central bank was essentially shoveling money into a bottomless hole today, and to no avail. This graph is fascinating.
El Caganer
@mai naem: Didn’t seem to hurt Huggies Vitter. Of course, that was Louisiana, but still….
MikeBoyScout
@Baud: LMFAO!
JPL
@Emma: Well that’s an okay analogy but his father actually supported Fidel. Ted’s dad escaped to America from Batista.
geg6
@Botsplainer:
Nah, I’d kill all the apostles. Jesus was mostly a cool dude. It’s the assholes he attracted, and still attracts ( Exhibit A: Ted Cruz), who should have been culled from the herd. It’s not too late to correct that, though.
JPL
@MikeBoyScout: Unlike Gruber who openly admitted that some of our society are dumb, Cruz is just assuming that the dumb ones will believe him.
dubo
What do Cruz’s antics have to do with the upcoming nominee votes this week? Is the GOP leadership just scapegoating him because with nothing to lose anymore Reid decided to call their filibuster bluff and they don’t want to admit they blinked?
Baud
OT. Why is Newsmax reporting good news?
Howard Beale IV
@efgoldman:
He’s not-he’s running for Governor, to replace term-limited Jindhal (who may run for President….)
Redshift
@Randy P: Also, “in one fell swoop?” The shenanigans in the House should have reminded anyone with half a brain that they can’t govern. Unfortunately, our political media routinely fail that standard.
I mean, how thick headed do you have to be to buy into a “we’re showing we can govern” push, while they’re cobbling together catch-up bill to pass at the last minute before the government shuts down?
JPL
@Baud: Did they ask whether or not freezing to death is torture?
MikeBoyScout
@Gin & Tonic: we’ll see what happens, but history shows that when a central bank increases interest rates 650 basis points in the middle of the night to instill confidence and stem a panic, the result is quite predictable.
Baud
@JPL:
I dont know. I don’t click on Newsmax links.
Howard Beale IV
@MikeBoyScout: The question will be whether or not there will be a capital flight or not-a recession in Russia is a given and they want to try to stop a further slide in the currency. But the knock-on effect in Europe will be felt pretty quick, too.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
@MikeBoyScout:
At least they have Crimea.
Tree With Water
“Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who had to cancel his official trip to Iraq and Turkey this weekend”.
Yeah, his “official” trip, as opposed to the vacation time he spent in each country last summer with his family. I hear they’re thinking of buying a cabin.
Emma
@JPL: doesn’t matter. I’m talking about character. Bright, talented men with delusions of grandeur and an instinct for kicking at the weak spots without quite looking at what’s beyond.
Regnad Kcin
We’ll always have Crimea.
Hill O’ Beans, and all that.
http://8tracks.imgix.net/i/000/767/786/Coolidge_after_signing_indian_treaty-8281.jpg?fm=jpg&q=65&w=1024&h=1024&fit=max
trollhattan
@Baud:
To them CBS is “lamestream media” even it it may be the only network with a demo older than Fox. Guess they’re just hoisting an obvious librul lie up the flagpole.
Stoopid libruls, waterboarding is like waterskiing for free.
Gin & Tonic
@Howard Beale IV: The central bank is estimating over $130Bn in outflows in 2014.
MikeBoyScout
@Baud: AND South Ossetia and Abkhazia and they’re working on eastern Ukraine. A collapsed economy is a small price to pay for such territorial gems!
/snark
Omnes Omnibus
People have remarked on his resemblance to the late, unlamented Joe McCarthy.
coin operated
My wingnut buddies were busy rubbing one out every time Putin was in the news earlier this year. The right loves them some bitch-slap politics and it was almost embarrassing watching them fawn over him every time he took a rhetorical swipe at Obama.
Of course…mention today how the rouble is falling on it’s ass and you won’t hear a peep. Same for Cruz…I’m having so much fun pointing out that it was Cruz’s idiocy that got the Surgeon General confirmed. I got the usual comments from the usual suspects. Man…they hates it when you point out their foibles.
MikeBoyScout
@Howard Beale IV: Capital flight is on pace to be more than double that of 2013.
When your currency depreciates 50% in year, a 17% rate of return won’t keep your ruble in the bank.
Redshift
@dubo:
As I understand it:
Reid and McConnell had worked out a deal to pass the appropriations bill by unanimous consent, which made it possible to proceed quickly, procedurally. Nominations could have been introduced afterward, but they would have to wait a requisite amount of time before a vote, and there would have been pressure to allow members to go home, apparently. (I’m hoping this means a quorum issue with keeping GOPers in town, not that Dems wouldn’t want to stay and get as much done as they could while in the majority.)
Cruz refused to give consent, so there had to be a Saturday session for procedural votes, and the bill couldn’t be voted on until today (I think), leaving open time in the schedule for nominations to be introduced and “ripen” so they could be voted on today.
So yes, it really does seem to be Cruz’ fault.
Schlemazel
@Pogonip: Its Texas, the majority of voters are inflamed assholes.
Keith P
Cruz ran on being a jackass and sticking it to party leadership, and he was overwhelmingly elected for it. They get what they asked for.
Gin & Tonic
@coin operated: My wingnut buddies were busy rubbing one out every time Putin was in the news earlier this year.
The love affair between the European far-right and Putin is reciprocal. One of the things our friend in Portland is always oddly silent on.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
Because a majority of Americans are OK with torture as long as it is the “fuggen towel head camel jockeys that gets it”
HR Progressive
Ted Cruz, and all the asshole acolytes that follow him, are all selfish pricks who care only about what they want at any given moment, and fuck everybody else.
When even your own caucus – which is full of preening narcissists – calls you out for your assholery, then you know you’re a really special brand of dickwad.
srv
@Howard Beale IV: Putin needs a war, and Obama may just give him one.
So many people have this expectation that Russians are rational actors. Putin’s only option may be to go big a scare teh bejeezus out of NATO.
Schlemazel
Teddy is in the catbird seat. In the Senate one lone asshole can fuck up the works & no party can stop him. He will always have the teabag money so he may not need the RSCC dough. In one way I sorta hope he does it too. Nothing good is going to come out of this bullshit COngress so maybe the shit show will be entertaining and there is always the slim chance that it will speed the rift between the baggers and the corporate whores.
A Humble Lurker
@Botsplainer:
O_O
srv
@Botsplainer:
I never thought I’d support infantcide, but you’re making me wobbly.
o_O
Major Major Major Major
@A Humble Lurker: I’d kill Hitler, hop a train a few miles over and kill Stalin, and then see if I couldn’t take out Mao while giving Chiang Kai-shek a few million dollars that I no doubt had with me due to the cost of the time machine and investors…
but to each his own.
Omnes Omnibus
@A Humble Lurker: One doubts that Mithraic traditions would have worked out better.
Comrade Luke
While it’s great to hear about Cruz fucking things up, forgive me if I don’t shed a tear for politicians who have to work a weekend, or miss a ballet recital. Poor babies.
Tree With Water
@HR Progressive: That’s true. What is also true is that Cruz does not care. If his best laid plans succeed, those same barbarian narcissists will be forced to rally to his standard, that is, once the nomination dust settles. And the GOP being the GOP, that’s exactly what they will do.
srv
@Major Major Major Major: Then the US would still be flopping around with half-Keynesian methods and still be in a depression.
Oh wait.
Schlemazel
@Botsplainer:
Too early. The biblical Jesus was the invention of Greeks and the stories were retelling of ancient tribal stories from many cultures filtered through the bullshit of the time. You would want to go back & bash Paul with that rock.
Major Major Major Major
@srv: 100 million saved lives later, of course.
A Humble Lurker
@Omnes Omnibus:
None of y’all see the irony inherent in preemptively subverting problems caused by religion by stoning a woman to death? That’s hilariously ironic to me, and proves the reason for the act in the first place useless, because apparently even without the religious incentive to stone people, it’s still a thing.
jl
What treats should right thinking people leave out for Santa Cruz the night before Shutdown?
Howard Beale IV
@srv: More typical CATO claptrap from Bandow. We’ll see what happens. Remember, the only country to have used atomic weapons in any military skirmish – in anger – is the United States.
jl
@A Humble Lurker: Fundamentalist extremism is fundamentalist extremism, whether for a certain religious sect or against all of them.
Gin & Tonic
Sorta OT, but shocking, to me at any rate. A guy I know, let’s just say a retired (very) high-ranking US military officer, whom I’ve known as pretty much a reflexive wingnut, put up an FB post that my wife noticed, saying that Cheney “has done more to undermine America’s position of leadership and any moral high ground than anyone.” Basically calling for him to be tried for war crimes (but recognizing the impossibility of that.) I’m still trying to get my jaw up from off the floor.
burnspbesq
@MikeBoyScout:
I’m guessing that the separatists didn’t enjoy the Champions League round of 16 draw earlier today. Shaktar Donetsk, which made it out of the group stage for the first time ever, can’t play any home matches because the separatists shelled the stadium early this year, causing major structural damage. So of course Shaktar gets what would have been a dream matchup for their fans: Bayern Munich. And like all Shaktar matches this year, it will be played in Lviv, which is quite a bit closer to Munich than it is to Donetsk.
Schlemazel
@jl:
broken glass & digitalis with a side of belladonna and a sulfuric acid chaser.
Omnes Omnibus
@A Humble Lurker: My point was that Rome was ready for a new religion when Christianity came to the fore. If it had been the cult of Mithras that had captured Paul, the end result would have still been a mess. The Jesus stuff from the Bible isn’t all that bad. What Rome did with it? Not so good.
Gin & Tonic
@burnspbesq: But the Donetsk fans don’t need a visa to travel to L’viv, and can pay their travel expenses in hryvni as opposed to Euros.
burnspbesq
@Gin & Tonic:
You don’t get to be a high-ranking officer in the US military without at least a handful of functioning brain cells. And he did swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: It actually doesn’t surprise me at all.
KS in MA
@Gin & Tonic:
Good for the guy you know, Let’s see a bunch of high-ranking military officers (retired OK) in T-shirts saying Cheney “has done more to undermine America’s position of leadership and any moral high ground than anyone.”
srv
@Major Major Major Major: Or you could save even more by offing Wilhelm II before he ascended.
feebog
One must conclude that Ted Cruz is either (a) blatantly ignorant of Senate rules, or (b) is acting in his own self interest with an eye towards the Republican nomination for President. I’ll take (b) for a thousand dollars Alex. This is all about him trying to position himself as the “great opposer” to Obama’s executive order on deportation. Problem is that no one is going to give a shit a year from now except the hard core rubes, and that is not going to give him the nomination.
Omnes Omnibus
@KS in MA: It’s not how that group of people function. It does not meant that people have not been active and outraged. It just means you haven’t seen it.
Major Major Major Major
@srv: Too many already-existing monetary issues at that point. Something like WWI had to happen…
burnspbesq
@Gin & Tonic:
IF they can get out of Donetsk. Shaktar’s average attendance for its “home” group stage matches dropped from almost 49K in 13-14 to around 31K this year (in part because the capacity of Arena Lviv is only about 33K). No way of knowing for sure how much of that was actual traveling support vs. curious locals. But it’s 1,200 km each way, and the matches are played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
GregB
@Gin & Tonic:
That fucking ghoul Cheney has opened the door for everyone on the planet to claim that the most barbaric tactics are not torture.
Needless to say it isn’t his flaccid, pasty ass on the frontlines of the US war on terra.
He really has put a huge target on the rank and file.
Omnes Omnibus
@feebog: Cruz was a very good high level appellate lawyer. The characteristics of a good high level appellate lawyer are rather similar to the characteristics of a good high school debater. Narrow focus, attention to detail, and the ability to parse the fuck out of wording. This does not translate to a great political career reaching out to the masses.
N.B. I was a very good high school debater. My appellate record isn’t bad. I would be a terrible political candidate.
jl
@GregB: Cheney’s underlings and flunkies have produced an amazing set of variations on ‘we were just following orders’. I guess that is a contribution of sorts.
jl
@Omnes Omnibus: Gosh! You seem nice…
KG
@Omnes Omnibus: seems like Constantine would be the guy to take out
Frankensteinbeck
@Major Major Major Major:
Mao killed more innocents than all the others combined. Admittedly, more through stupidity than malice. What a truly fucking awful world leader. Poor China, and poor Chinese who had to live and frequently die under his rule.
Gin & Tonic
@burnspbesq: Yeah, it’s pretty far, but the train service is manageable and really cheap. You can make the trip in 14-16 hours. Traveling in 3rd class on a train in Ukraine, let’s say is somewhat lacking in the creature comforts, but people make the best of it and are not sober (nor hungry) for very long.
burnspbesq
@GregB:
And he couldn’t care less.
Omnes Omnibus
@jl: I preferred the comparison I got to Satan the other night. My point, though, is that the things that can make one a very good appellate lawyer are different than the things that make one a good trial lawyer. The Lawyers who are good politicians tend to be good trial lawyers.
KG
Stephen Colbert debating himself on torture, is fucking genius.
Mike in NC
Joe McCarthy was later found to be a drunk and a wife-beater. Wonder what Cruz has to hide?
John Revolta
@Gin & Tonic: Hell, if Bill Cosby can fall from grace, I figure anything can happen.
@efgoldman: What’s a tape recorder?
Omnes Omnibus
@KG: From my reading of history, Constantine wanted to win. If Mithras or Omnes Omnibus had been the dominant cult at the time, he would have claimed to buy in. As Francis IV said years later, Paris is worth a Mass.
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: No idea why I capitalized lawyers in the last sentence. Let’s call it a typo.
KG
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m just saying if he loses at Milvian Bridge, Christianity probably doesn’t rise as high in the Roman empire
A Humble Lurker
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah. Religion’s just the excuse or vehicle people use. If not for one, people’d just use or come up with another, as it has ever been so. I just thought that specific argument was odd coming from someone who was against religion.
burnspbesq
So the Ain’ts, at 6-8 after tonight’s win over the Bears, are now the one-eyed man in the land of the blind. This is too much excitement for me.
KG
By the way, if I had a time machine, I don’t think I’d be able to do something that makes a major change. If Castro doesn’t take power in Cuba, I’m not born, since my mom’s side of the family came over after the revolution.
Nah, I’d just go back, find some gold, buy some stocks, set up a trust, and come back to a fortune
g
@Pogonip: Never mind, Jake. It’s Texas.
Omnes Omnibus
@KG: Sure. But I am saying that if he wins and credits something else…. I doubt that Constantine gave a flying fuck about anything but winning. The fact that Christianity was the dominant cult when he won was the factor. If Mithras had been the dominant cult, Constantine would have made that work as well. I read Machiavelli early.
Comrade Carter
“Walker has the wonk money.”
There must be very little money in the wonk caucus if the only one you can mention DOESN’T have a college degree. I mean, even W. Bush had that much.
Linnaeus
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think you mean Henry IV.
Omnes Omnibus
@A Humble Lurker: IIRC, and if I am wrong, please correct me, Botsplainer is a practicing Eastern Orthodox Christian. He just has rage things.
Omnes Omnibus
@Linnaeus: Yes, I knew as I was typing that I was making a mistake somewhere. Henry IV, it is. Shit, fuck, ass-munch. Damn it.
GregB
@burnspbesq:
I’m sure he sleeps like Count Orlock in a box of native soil.
He is a monster.
SatanicPanic
@Redshift: well no, we know that someone as dumb as GWB can be president, we still haven’t established if someone dumber could win. There’s a chance we haven’t reached the floor.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
The thing I notice most about Ted Cruz (after his 1970s IBM sales rep look) is his talent for alienating people. It seems to me only a matter of time before his reckless approach to “principle” pisses off even his base.
Anne Laurie
@Schlemazel:
I am anti-bashing-people-with-rocks, on principle. Nevertheless, it has always seemed to me that the historical Paul must’ve been very like Ted Cruz: A self-righteous book-smart, people-stupid narcissist with a bent for violence and a yen to be King of Turd Mountain.
Given Cruz is all about the Christianist imagery, if anybody assassinates Sarah Palin (Mike Huckabee? Cliven Bundy?), the police better ask Tailgunner Ted for his alibi before he gets, in the best Confederate tradition, to literally wave the bloody shirt…
Amir Khalid
@Amir Khalid:
I seem to have stopped short of my own conclusion. I ought to add that it appears there’ll be a self-imposed limit on the damage Cruz can do, just as there was for his role (and style) model Joe McCarthy.
priscianus jr
@Pogonip:
It’s the TX voters who elected him that are the assholes.
priscianus jr
@Gin & Tonic: The love affair between the European far-right and Putin is reciprocal. One of the things our friend in Portland is always oddly silent on.
I’ve made that very point myself.
priscianus jr
@Major Major Major Major: and then see if I couldn’t take out Mao while giving Chiang Kai-shek a few million dollars
Not worth your effort, a few million would hardly have been noticed. Chiang was getting so much more than that from us. Didn’t work out too well … for us.
The Korean War and the whole modern American far-right grew out of the paranoia around “Who lost China?” … when the obvious answer was the last thing the American right wanted to admit.
priscianus jr
@Amir Khalid: only a matter of time before his reckless approach to “principle” pisses off even his base.
The only way that will ever happen is if he STOPS pissing off his colleagues. You have to understand the TX electorate. The love nothing more than to see Texans in Washington pissing off their colleagues. Even other Texans (since that only proves they’re not Texan enough). To these people, being Texan is something way beyond being merely American.
Little Boots
no monkees?
Little Boots
fine, monkees, but only for omnes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfuBREMXxts
Little Boots
and cause, damn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-aK6JnyFmk&index=4&list=RDuOQwdRMTKEk
Amir Khalid
@priscianus jr:
Gee, I don’t know. Even if his constituents want him to disrupt things, which I don’t doubt, I think Cruz can still find a way to piss off both them and his party’s Washington establishment. Let’s not misunderestimate his creativity in this regard.
mikej
Re Ascension on SciFi: I imagine the entire pitch meeting was the phrase “Mad Men in space”. I just want 30 seconds in the room to sell my concept, Dowton Abbey vs Godzilla.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Botsplainer:
Okay, I guess I’ll be the pedantic asshole here: There was no year zero, BC or AD.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Apologies in the case that this was discussed earlier in the day:
“Witness 40”: Exposing A Fraud In Ferguson
Amir Khalid
@Little Boots:
For you, some French music.
mdblanche
@Gin & Tonic: Between the drop in oil prices and the collapse of the ruble, there are a bunch of far right parties in Europe who are probably seeing a drop in fundraising lately.
mdblanche
@Amir Khalid: I agree, because the only principle Ted Cruz truly believes in is Ted Cruz.
srv
I guess we have MADD to blame for this, the cops never got a shot off.
srv
Tomorrow’s news today:
Probably staffed by underwear gnomes, burning through ~$600K a day.
tamiasmin
@efgoldman: He wasn’t attorney general. He was solicitor general.
SRW1
@priscianus jr:
I get that ‘being more Texan than a Texan’ bit. What I have a harder time envisioning is the pivot required to broaden that to a national support that might propel a journey to the White House. There would appear to be a hump somewhere along the journey from humoring the Texas boyz and girlz to picking up the prerogative of being allowed to captain the ship with the elephant symol in its sails and the cargo of 45+ percent of the vote in its belly up the Potomac.
NonyNony
@Botsplainer:
You’d come back to discover that some other syncretic Greek/Jewish/Persian religion with heavily Roman political overtones was still here in place of Christianity. Hell you might even discover that Christianity was still here – the actual teachings of a historical Jesus seemed to have left almost no impact of the religion that uses him as a mascot.
As folks above say – you’d have better luck taking out Paul with that rock. Or, I suspect, getting him a bit of lithium, a job and a wife. Even then, though, the syncretic merging of Jewish, Greek and Persian thought that gave rise to Christianity was going to create a religion much like Christianity eventually – Paul was just the guy who popularized it first. Get rid of him and some slightly different version of the same thing will emerge within a hundred or so years.
Tokyokie
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Seems to me that McCulloch’s use of perjured testimony during the grand jury inquiry into a possible homicide makes him an accessory after the fact to capital murder.
chopper
@KG:
i’d say saul of tarsus. fuck that guy.
kindness
While we are pretty much all in agreement on Cruz…
Why would anyone defend Larison on any level? That man is just as bad as Cruz because he’s willfully an apologist for bush43, Cheney and the whole of what is wrong with today’s conservative Republicans.
West of the Cascades
@kindness:
Do you even read Larison? You evidently don’t if you can call him an apologist for the last administration — check out the “Eunomia” link to the left of the comments — two recent articles Larison posted were titled “Torture is Wrong and Useless” (http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/torture-is-wrong-and-useless/) and “Torture and ‘Seriousness'” (http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/torture-and-seriousness/) which includes this conclusion:
“Likewise, believing that a government should ever be allowed to torture people is the opposite of what comes from serious moral reflection. These so-called “serious” policies are driven by passions and knee-jerk responses and lead to horrible crimes and abuses of power, and that is why they should be condemned and rejected from the start.”
pluky
@Howard Beale IV: Don’t forget Bobby Jindal (Brown ’91)!
jayjaybear
@chopper:
Not if he can help it…