Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

The words do not have to be perfect.

The willow is too close to the house.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Come on, man.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

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A Cynical Game

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These people are just despicable:

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is the latest presidential candidate trying to downplay the role anti-abortion rhetoric may have played in motivating the Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado Springs Friday afternoon. When a reporter asked him at an Iowa campaign stop Sunday evening about suspect Robert Lewis Dear saying he was motivated by “no more baby parts,” Cruz countered that he’s also been reported to be a “transgendered [sic] leftist activist.”

Cruz explained, “We know that he was a man registered to vote as a woman.” This discrepancy on Dear’s voter registration was first reported by The Gateway Pundit, a self-described “right-of-center news website,” under the claim that he “identifies as [a] woman.” Conservatives have since run with the claim that Dear is transgender.

There is actually no evidence to suggest that he is transgender, nor a “leftist,” nor any kind of activist. In fact, all of the available information suggests he was none of those things.

It doesn’t matter if this is true or not. Not one bit. What matters is Cruz said it, that the idiots in the GOP base will repeat it, and in the minds of wingnuttia, it will just become the received view. See also “Liberal Fascism.”

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  3. 3.

    cokane

    Could have just been a bureaucratic error, much more likely than being transgendered. But of course ‘nuts gonna nut.

  6. 6.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    I think this is what’s known as “grasping at straws.” And yet we’re going to have to listen to it for months — probably years — to come, because conservatives will believe any bullshit that absolves them of blame for their actions and rhetoric. See also the idiots who think Sandy Hook was faked.

  7. 7.

    dmsilev

    This just in: Reports suggest that Ted Cruz might actually be a Reptiloid from Zeta Reticuli. The candidate has yet to deny that he was sent to Earth to scout humanity’s potential utility as a food source.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    @dmsilev:

    Cruz is being careful here. He’s not endorsing the rumor. He’s saying that because right-wing media makes up lies, no media can be trusted. So when media reports on Dear’s motives, that information is inherently untrustworthy.

  9. 9.

    TaMara (BHF)

    Isn’t there a flaw in Cruz logic? Big, burly, baby parts savior is alive and probably anxious to receive his accolades for a job well done. Once he starts talking, all bets are off.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    @JPL: I go back and forth on which one is worse. As much as I hate to admit it, Trump is entertaining in ways that Cruz is not. That could add to Trump’s appeal with voters, but it also makes the big shots take him less seriously. Cruz, however, appeals to the fundie set, which is also a double-edged sword.

  13. 13.

    Ruckus

    @JPL:
    Doesn’t appear to be much of a rumor. Too much evidence.

    And you should be scared of not just him but all of them. None of them has a grasp of a hint of sanity. They all want to destroy rather than build. The fact that people believe that destroying pretty much everything except that which can be used to destroy should scare you. Hopefully it will scare enough people to vote to stop them.

  16. 16.

    Debbie

    @Baud:

    I think so. Trump’s a big mouth, but Cruz is a man who believes in his own divine destiny. Probably sees himself at the right arm of Christ. He frightens me.

  18. 18.

    David Koch

    Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) said Wednesday in a radio interview that he would file a lawsuit challenging Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) presidential candidacy if he won the Republican nomination because Cruz was born in Canada.

    Grayson made the comment while discussing Cruz’s rise in recent polls during an interview with Fox News’ Alan Colmes. Grayson said Cruz was “technically not an American,” according to a transcript, to which Colmes noted that “like Obama” Cruz’s mother was born in the United States.

    ***

    “I don’t know, the Constitution says natural born Americans, so now we’re counting Canadians as natural born Americans? How does that work?” Grayson responded. “I’m waiting for the moment that he gets the nomination and then I will file that beautiful lawsuit saying that he’s unqualified for the job because he’s in eligible [sic].”

  20. 20.

    David Koch

    Now, I’m not questioning the patriotism of my foreign born Canadian colleague, that would be wrong, but people are wondering who would he side with in a conflict with between America and his native born country Canada.

  22. 22.

    srv

    Cruz is finally getting competitive, wondering who is really advising him now.

    Onward, Christian soldiers:

    Two senior senators called on Sunday for Washington to nearly triple military force levels in Iraq to 10,000 and send an equal number of troops to Syria as part of a multinational ground force to counter Islamic State in both countries.

    Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham criticised Barack Obama’s incremental Islamic State strategy, which relies on airstrikes and modest support to local ground forces in Iraq and Syria, and said the need for greater US involvement was underlined by this month’s Paris attacks.

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    Also, as I mentioned in another thread, the real purpose of throwing up all this dust is to allow Republicans to continue to pretend that the abortion issue is a religious issue and not a political one so they can escape responsibility for turning it into a Republican voter turnout strategy.

  28. 28.

    Princess

    And the University of Chicago is going to be completely shut down for all of tomorrow because FBI counterterrorism has identified a plausible threat of gun violence on the campus quads tomorrow morning.

    Thank you, gun-humpers. This is your world now, and the rest of us just live in it.

  32. 32.

    TheMightyTrowel

    @mai naem mobile:

    What’s this assumption about a transgender automatically being a Dem? Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner is a Republican.

    FTFY. Let us not sink to the levels of our enemies. deadnaming trans people is real asshole move.

  34. 34.

    mainmata

    As others have noted, Cruz is setting himself to inherit the Trump/Carson it’s-all-about-me mantle as the front runner. Of course, being the obnoxious Xtianist candidate and the egotist everyone in the Senate hates is not a real big seller and so being a “great debater” with nothing to propose or defend but stupid reactionary cant will not go far with the general electorate.

  39. 39.

    Rome Again

    @David Koch:

    Grayson doesn’t understand that “Natural Born Citizen” is not an actual legal term. It has come to mean someone who was born as an American, and since Ted Cruz’s mother was born in the United States (Wilmington, DE) that makes him an American through his mother’s United States Citizenship.

    Several people also make the mistake of thinking that his mother may have become a Canadian citizen, but they cite no actual proof either that she did, or prove she renounced her American citizenship. There is a set of case law that affirms Ted Cruz’s American citizenship at birth and Grayson would do well to study the issue before he actually follows through with this thread and ends up looking like a fool.

    For more on this, see: http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2015/11/democratic-congressman-threatens-cruz-eligibility-lawsuit/#comments

  40. 40.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    We’re at the point in this country where when an “open carry” advocate goes to a Planned Parenthood clinic to murder people muttering “no more baby parts”, the reaction “Who knows what he was angry about? It could be anything!” is not only not laughed off the stage and anyone daring to utter it ostracized and shamed forever, but is in fact the viewpoint most preferred by the wise and serious punditry and press.

    Just making a note of that.

  44. 44.

    Corner Stone

    “Shades of Blue”
    Has there been any TV series in modern history with more dedicated over-actors in the cast? Are Nick Cage and James Woods coming in guest spots?

  50. 50.

    Another Holocene Human

    @mai naem mobile: Because trans is now in the bucket of “people we hate now” for RW believers and the fact that some of their numbers have gone ahead, come out, and transitioned, and are still clinging to the same RWNJ beliefs cannot and will not penetrate their thick skulls. As for the transwomen who are still gun grabbin’, GOP-votin’, dominant-gender-paradigm-reifyin’, churchified, country fried, xenophobic nitwits, one hopes that they’ll wake up and come around in time. Might take ’em a bit more time than CJ Pearson–he’s a clever lad–but reality will be coming around to bite them in the ass.

  55. 55.

    Corner Stone

    @Another Holocene Human:

    Might take ’em a bit more time than CJ Pearson–he’s a clever lad–but reality will be coming around to bite them in the ass

    He’s not a clever lad. Have you listened to his disavowment speech?
    No, you obviously have not.

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @Rome Again:

    AFAICT, Grayson is totally wrong on the law, but I understand the impulse to try and make Republicans come up with a logical explanation of why Obama is not a natural-born citizen but Cruz totally is. I’m pretty sure their complete explanation will be, Because shut up, that’s why! but I admit to being curious to see if anyone on the Republican side even attempts it.

  57. 57.

    Corner Stone

    @Mnemosyne (tablet):

    AFAICT, Grayson is totally wrong on the law, but I understand the impulse to try and make Republicans come up with a logical explanation of why Obama is not a natural-born citizen but Cruz totally is.

    He is trolling them, dumbass.
    That is a straight up troll. Make them GOPsplain it.

  58. 58.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Rome Again: The next level of the argument is to say that there are residency requirements for passing citizenship onto one’s child, over and above being an American citizen.

    (That’s probably why the argument for Barack Obama’s natural-born citizenship rests on his having been born in the US: his mother was slightly too young to satisfy the residency requirements that were in effect at the time he was born. It’s moot in his case because he was born in Hawaii, but if he really had been born in Kenya it would at the very least have been an arguable point against his eligibility.)

    Anyway, I’ve seen people argue that Ted Cruz hasn’t proven his mother satisfied the residency requirements.

    But it’s still ridiculous. Ted Cruz’s mother was born and raised in the US, went to college in the US, and was easily old enough, which makes it exceedingly likely she satisfied the residency requirements for passing on US citizenship to her child. And, more importantly, there’s no legal history whatsoever of putting the burden of proof of this sort of thing on presidential candidates. I loathe Ted Cruz, but it would set a bad precedent if we started doing this at this point. It serves no purpose other than a sauce-for-the-gander poke at Obama birthers.

  60. 60.

    Brutusettu

    We know he was transgender per the voting registration
    We also know he thinks he’s a four hoofed deer per some typo of his name somewhere.

  61. 61.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Corner Stone: Yep, they need to either try to explain arcane changes in immigration/naturalization law over time or admit that Obama was born in the US. Or babble stupidly.

  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I understand the concept and I think that by now people know who Caitlyn Jenner is and who she was. However, I don’t know that giving both names for a certain amount of time (as long as one prioritizes the correct current name) is a bad thing if one is trying to communicate to people who might not necessarily be aware of the change. I don’t follow celeb gossip, so a reference to Caitlyn Jenner in the first weeks of the brouhaha might have slipped past me.

  68. 68.

    Rome Again

    @Matt McIrvin: “I loathe Ted Cruz, but it would set a bad precedent if we started doing this at this point. It serves no purpose other than a sauce-for-the-gander poke at Obama birthers.”

    My sentiments exactly.

  69. 69.

    max

    @Matt McIrvin: Ted Cruz’s mother was born and raised in the US, went to college in the US, and was easily old enough, which makes it exceedingly likely she satisfied the residency requirements for passing on US citizenship to her child. And, more importantly, there’s no legal history whatsoever of putting the burden of proof of this sort of thing on presidential candidates.

    More importantly, the particular residency requirements were *repealed*. A child like Obama born with an American parent is still an American citizen. If Cruz’s mother was an American citizen then he is, too. Full stop.

    He’s still a pretend Texan.

    Cole: It doesn’t matter if this is true or not. Not one bit.

    I still recall 1986, when a dude, who a member of the military, who concocted a plan to overthrow the United States, was hailed as a hero.

    Me, I always thought the basic punishment for that particular act was to take the guy out and shoot him, but hey. Merciful leniency and shit.

    max
    [‘Strangely enough, afterwards, a large number of black men wound up in prison for crimes they did not commit, not to mention all the folks gunned down in the streets by the cops.’]

  70. 70.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I don’t know that giving both names for a certain amount of time (as long as one prioritizes the correct current name) is a bad thing if one is trying to communicate to people who might not necessarily be aware of the change.

    I think that’s a legitimate concern (and courtesy) when discussing public figures. As you point out, by now, certainly Caitlyn Jenner should suffice to identify her.

    As for non-public figures, I believe the polite thing is to refer to them by their chosen name and let them explain the difference. Or simply something like telling a mutual acquaintance “I talked to Felicia Green yesterday” and if met with confusion, respond “you may remember her as Phil Green.”

    I think deadnaming is often a gesture of disrespect and hostility, akin to calling for example, Kareem “Lew Alcindor, ” or Bobby Jindal “Piyush.”

  71. 71.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Rome Again: Here’s the completely legit argument we can make: the situation is only even as simple as it is because we can say that Ted Cruz’s mother was a citizen by her place of birth.

    A rule that Ted Cruz wants to eliminate. Can you imagine how sticky this would get if we had to trace legitimacy back multiple generations to determine whether someone was a “natural-born citizen”? I liked it better when Republicans were campaigning to amend the Constitution to lift the “natural-born” rule entirely so that Arnold Schwarzenegger could run.

  72. 72.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    I think deadnaming is often a gesture of disrespect and hostility, akin to calling for example, Kareem “Lew Alcindor, ” or Bobby Jindal “Piyush.”

    I agree with you. My only caveat is that a well-meaning person could easily offer both names in a effort to be clear – and least for an undefined, but short, period of time.

  73. 73.

    Matt McIrvin

    @max: I don’t think the repeal was made retroactive in that particular case, but, definitely, sniffing around these issues forever is contrary to the spirit of the law. Which is also part of the reason that the case against McCain’s eligibility never went anywhere.

  74. 74.

    max

    @Matt McIrvin: I don’t think the repeal was made retroactive in that particular case, but, definitely, sniffing around these issues forever is contrary to the spirit of the law. Which is also part of the reason that the case against McCain’s eligibility never went anywhere.

    It wasn’t made retroactive, but for the purposes of constitutional qualification, it is the law NOW, when the guy is running. (As it was when Obama was running.)

    As for McCain, he had two American citizens for parents AND he was born on an American base (I believe), which is American territory under American sovereignty (for most purposes). You’d have to be smoking something to make him disqualified under the American law at the time, or now.

    max
    [‘I hate that shit.’]

  75. 75.

    rikyrah

    Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is the latest presidential candidate trying to downplay the role anti-abortion rhetoric may have played in motivating the Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado Springs Friday afternoon.

    lowlife, rotten , no-good muthaphuckas.

  76. 76.

    MattF

    Cruz may be a Texan, but is he human? How do you know? You can’t trust news reports– he could be a human-fungus hybrid. Has anyone done the sauté test?

  77. 77.

    RFGold

    Ted Cruz… despicable? Surely. But above all, this whole affair is totally consistent with the fact that Republicans cannot take responsibility for anything. If fault is to be assigned, and even when it’s not, it’s always somebody else’s fault.

  78. 78.

    Matt McIrvin

    @max: The case against McCain’s eligibility was truly heroic hair-splitting, having to do with the old Panama Canal Zone somehow having a special status that made it neither American territory nor not-American territory, and therefore not covered by the collection of statutes that were supposed to cover domestic and foreign births (under either of those cases he’d have been obviously in the clear). It was like a Gilbert and Sullivan plot twist.

    And there was an explicitly retroactive law that cleared the whole mess up, but it was passed two years after McCain was born, so some people thought he couldn’t be a natural-born citizen because of the timing, which got into whether you had to be a citizen chronologically at birth or just by birth.

    Somebody sued over all this during the 2008 cycle and it got laughed out of court pretty quickly. But sometimes you hear that the theory was never tested in court, which is more or less untrue.

    I have to admit that I have a morbid fascination with this stuff.

  79. 79.

    Matt McIrvin

    …and, by the way, Arnold Schwarzenegger? Would be a damn sight better presidential candidate than any Republican running this year.

  80. 80.

    Villago Delenda Est

    It’s a darn good thing for Rafael Cruz’ sake that there is no God, because he’d be fried to a crackly crisp for telling so many lies.

  81. 81.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Corner Stone: Clever means quick witted, also consider that modifies “lad”, so not by adult standards. That hardly implies that anything that comes out of his mouth is … sensical. Plenty of clever people are ignorant as fuck.

  82. 82.

    Jay C

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The laughable “case” against John McCain’s citizenship status was never anything more than, well, laughable: mainly because, as you point out, of its ridiculous hair-splitting nature; buut mainly because, unlike Barack Obama’s situation, there was no hate-fueled “3M” * campaign to push the issue 24/7/365. How large of a percentage of self-described Republicans still don’t believe President Obama was “born in the US”? 35%? 40%?

    * Massive Mendacious Media

  83. 83.

    Sad_Dem

    @Matt McIrvin: Arnold fell from Republican favor when he said aloud that maybe California’s budget problems could be solved not just by reducing spending but also by raising taxes. In California, the Republicans have one job: to keep the legislature from raising taxes, especially property taxes. Anyone who breaks the rule gets primaried.

  85. 85.

    Paul in KY

    @Omnes Omnibus: If I feel that Piyush Jindal only changed his name so the whackjobs he wanted on his side would not think that he was a darker hued person of Indian extraction, can I call him ‘Piyush’ just as a helpful reminder to them?

  86. 86.

    Paul in KY

    @MattF: Which I guess is that we sauté him & if he smells like a mushroom, he is in fact a fungus/human hybrid & if he smells like pork, then he is unfortunately a human.

    Could get behind that…

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