Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / GOP Debate Open Thread Part II: The Attackening!

Reader Interactions

165Comments

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    Q: Mr. Trump, shouldn’t we have walls both on the north and the south?

    A: I will build a very tall and big wall. But Canada’s border is too big to build a wall, even for me.

  4. 4.

    beltane

    I was only able to watch the debate sporadically. Did Trump say he would nominate Judge Judy to the SCOTUS?

  18. 18.

    dmsilev

    @beltane: On the flip side, we need to do something to protect ourselves from the vicious hordes of Quebecois from streaming across the border and reconquering New England.

  19. 19.

    Trentrunner

    From the vision-impaired narrating service just now during the debate:

    The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

  21. 21.

    Aleta

    The difference between the candidates is clear. Cruz gives me a headache. Trump gives me a nosebleed. Rubio makes my teeth hurt.

  26. 26.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @beltane: Can’t we just try all the SC cases on Mock Trial with J. Reinhold? It can’t make less sense than what he’s suggesting.

  27. 27.

    Gin & Tonic

    I’m kind of ashamed that Adam’s first instinct here was to put up a picture of the Verkhovna Rada.

  28. 28.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: yeah, what the hell? and in the Li’l Jesus movie, he’s apparently a marvel hero “Hide your powers, Yosh-el”

  29. 29.

    Felonius Monk

    @Baud:

    There seem to be a bunch of Jesus movies coming out.

    I guess after watching a few of these Klown debates, He decided they were beyond redemption and gave up on the Savior business to became a movie star.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: I googled debate fight and it was the first one that came up that wasn’t brown people. I figured that was an optic we didn’t want. I have nothing but sympathy and empathy for what Ukrainians are going through.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    It consistently amazes me that Christians in the US genuinely believe they are persecuted. It’s so weird to have a fantasy grudge. There are so many real grudges to hold.

  40. 40.

    Texas Dem

    Maybe I missed something, but is there any way after tonight that Trump doesn’t roll over Super Tuesday like a German blitzkrieg?

  41. 41.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Joe Scarborough ‏@JoeNBC 18m18 minutes ago

    This is a disgrace.
    418 retweets 865 likes

    You built this, motherfucker.

  43. 43.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    also, I’m not on twitter, so just let me say here: You know nothing, John Cole

    John Cole ‏@ Johngcole 3m3 minutes ago
    I’m in season two of the Americans and I find the Martha character so annoying I just want her killed off.

  46. 46.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Kay: Of course US Christians are persecuted, they don’t have the freedom to impose their religious beliefs on others.

  48. 48.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Frank Thorp V Verified account
    ‏@frankthorpNBC

    Sen Graham at the #WPCFDinner: “If you kill Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial is at the Senate, no one will convict you.”

    No Fucks Left To Give Lindsay.

  50. 50.

    Nate Dawg

    Donald Trump explained the “choke artist” quote. Rubio chokes when under pressure. Sweating like he had come out of a pool. We can’t have someone who chokes. Pretty powerful argument, tbh.

  51. 51.

    Nate Dawg

    OMG, hilarious. “HE was pouring sweat. I’ve never seen anything like it.” He keeps repeating this.

  52. 52.

    Felonius Monk

    @Kay:

    It consistently amazes me that Christians in the US genuinely believe they are persecuted.

    Only because a bunch of smarmy politicians and psuedo-religious grifters like Franklin Graham, Robertson, etc. keep telling them so.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    I wondered what Trump would name Rubio and it’s “choke artist”. Cruz is liar and Rubio is choke artist.

  62. 62.

    beltane

    @Nate Dawg: I actually agree with Trump there. Rubio seems to experience some kind of weird neurological reaction to any kind of stressful situation. This is not something you really want to see in a president.

  67. 67.

    SFAW

    @beltane:

    Ted Cruz is a man devoid of even a single redeeming quality.

    Oh, bullshit. He’s the go-to guy when some ad exec yells down to a colleague “Hey, Fred, I got this dynamite ad campaign that really needs some ultra-creepy, self-important asshole as the central character. Got anybody in mind?”

    So there’s that.

  74. 74.

    SFAW

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    Sen Graham at the #WPCFDinner: “If you kill Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial is at the Senate, no one will convict you.”

    Of course, ALL of his “colleagues” will show up at the funeral — mainly to ensure that the sick fucker is really most sincerely dead.

  76. 76.

    jl

    Wasn’t going to watch another one of these, But during the melees, i forgot one of those horrible creeps will be in the general election, and it was so funny I couldn’t stop laughing.

    I think Trump holds the other contestants, and the GOP, in complete deep seated and sincere contempt, and that is why his insults are convincing and why won’t get hurt too much, even if the other creeps landed some blows. One theory I have about Trump is that he just got into the GOP race because he is smart enough to see any half-way decent grifter could slice through that like a not knife through butter, and he doesn’t really give a shit about the ideology. He couldn’t jump to the top quickly with Dems, and Obama pissed him off and Trump made a fool of himself over it, so hell, why not take the easy shot at the top?

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I wish the debates brought out the differences between the parties more.

    I noticed that a lot tonight. They’re so angry, all of them. They’re just seething all the time.

  80. 80.

    SFAW

    @Arm The Homeless:

    he should just cover himself in vaseline to hide the sweating.

    Yeah, but then he’ll start jonesing for his latex-and-diaper getup (which he loaned to Vitter), and that would not be a pretty sight.

  81. 81.

    James E Powell

    @beltane:

    That comment just gave me another sad reminder that the coolest president evah! has less than a year to go and then everybody after that will be less cool.

  83. 83.

    Mnemosyne

    I ate way too much bad food today, so now I need to eat dinner but can’t think of anything that won’t make me feel worse. It may be a cereal night.

    (“Bad food” meaning a ton of sugary crap, followed by barbeque, which was delicious, but fatty, followed by even more sugary crap.)

  84. 84.

    Origuy

    Brian Kilmeade, the guy on Fox and Friends who isn’t Steve Doucy, tweeted:

    #GOPDebate How can any Dem watch this debate and not admit the talent is on the right?? @foxandfriends

    #delusional

  87. 87.

    Kay

    Ted Cruz is just such a sleaze. He’s complimenting Rubio in order to slither back around and attack him. Just appalling.

  88. 88.

    Mnemosyne

    @SFAW:

    I don’t remember which old-school Hollywood mogul it was (maybe Jack Warner), but the quip after someone noted the huge turnout at his funeral was, “Well, when you give the people what they want …”

  90. 90.

    Elizabelle

    CNN interviewer to Ted Cruz:

    “To be fair to the other candidates, there’s an elephants’ grave yard if you take [Trump] on … Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham….”

    Elephants’ grave yard. My favorite term of the evening ….

  91. 91.

    seaboogie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Proving that there are definitely some jobs, such as having to sleep with Donald Trump, that only immigrants will do.

    @Arm The Homeless: @Arm The Homeless

    :I love that Cruz really is despised by everyone except those folks with vaginas who Ted has come out if, or gone into. And that might even be a stretch (pardon the pun).

    As a Vagina-American, I approve these comments.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I’m angry that CNN forced me to listen to a Ben Carson lecture. It’s just snippets of the speeches he’s been making for 10 years. He’s a franchise on the Right.

  93. 93.

    SFAW

    @NonyNony:

    And to piss in the casket.

    I was going to write “After they set fire to it.”

    But then I decided that Ted “Opus Dei-hole” Cruz is the prototypical “If he were on fire, I wouldn’t piss on him to put it out” kind of guy.

  95. 95.

    NonyNony

    @Origuy: Kilmeade must have been playing a drinking game. He’s either hammered or he’s high or he’s a moron.

    Oh. Wait. Kilmeade. Yeah, he’s a moron.

  101. 101.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Republican analyst is convincing herself they waited to attack Trump “strategically”. Yeah, right. People love to lose. They do it all the time for “strategic” reasons.

  102. 102.

    SFAW

    @NonyNony:

    Oh. Wait. Kilmeade. Yeah, he’s a moron.

    Well, it’s not as if substituting the name of any other Foxtard will decrease the Truth Value of that statement

  106. 106.

    Elizabelle

    Caught a little of the debate.

    Were they Second Amendment fluffing tonight? Because there was another mass workplace shooting earlier in the evening. At least four dead in Kansas. Riding mower factory.

    Refreshing to hear that we still manufacture something besides bullet-riddled bodies.

    AND this shooter also did some shooting out of his car on the way to the factory. Our shooters are multitasking too.

    NY Times: Three people were killed at a manufacturing plant in Kansas on Thursday by a man who drove through at least two towns shooting a gun out his car window, the police said.

    T. Walton, the sheriff of Harvey County, told reporters that the shootings occurred at a factory owned by Excel Industries, a company that makes riding mowers and other lawn care equipment, in Hesston, and on the roads between Hesston and Newton, Kan., where the gunman lived.

    He said that four people, including the gunman, had been killed at the factory and 15 more were injured. The gunman shot three more people as he drove to the factory, including a man whose car he stole on the way there.

  108. 108.

    Arm The Homeless

    @dmsilev: Don Lemon needs to be sent on assignment to an island inhabited by canibals, or Republicans. But I repeat myself.

    Let us dispense with the notion that Don Lemon has a clue. Don Lemon is clueless, and he knows it.

  110. 110.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Elizabelle: Not that I heard.

    Here’s the live stream from KWCH in KC:
    http://www.kwch.com/

    Also, its now been updated: 4 dead and 14 wounded. And the now deceases shooter/murderers roommate will not allow police to enter and search their home. It is unclear if he’s demanded a warrant or if the cops have one and he’s still refusing them. They are reporting several loud ops and a ramming noise – so the cops may have flashbanged the house and taken the door down on a forced entry.

  115. 115.

    Archon

    There’s a universe where Donald Trump in late October suspends his campaign and endorses Hillary Clinton right?

  116. 116.

    Nate Dawg

    @mclaren: I heard the pastor at the First Baptist Church Dallas (big church) shilling for Trump on NPR, of all places.

    They have so little relationship to the historical Jesus, they don’t even know how to pretend anymore.

    Millennials will kill the evangelical movement. Its days are numbered.

  119. 119.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @mclaren: Dude, after the Cook/Cooke lying thing shouldn’t you keep a bit of a low profile? You could have just admitted the error and moved on. You didn’t.

  122. 122.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Elizabelle: Given that the shooter had a lengthy set of convictions, my guess is that these were either the roommates guns or that the roommate had been straw purchasing for the shooter.

  125. 125.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Matt Duss ‏@ mattduss 18m18 minutes ago
    I’m still laughing so hard at Trump’s “I’m being audited because I’m a strong Christian” that I just woke one of my kids up.

    Render unto Caesar, etc. Mark the 12th, two dots, 17

  126. 126.

    Mary G

    I was struck by how much better Trump is at body language than the other candidates. He pulls attention away from the speaker with his hand waving and making faces.

  132. 132.

    Mnemosyne

    @Elizabelle:

    It can’t be deja vu, because the San Bernardino killers were Scary Mooslims and this guy is a Nice White American, so clearly the two workplace shootings were completely different.

  133. 133.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: And does the right hand coming up and his pinching the index finger and thumb together, followed by a couple of downward chopping motions remind you of anyone?

  135. 135.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Simon Maloy ‏@ SimonMaloy 11m11 minutes ago
    you guys realize nobody is still watching CNN except people on Twitter watching CNN, right?

  136. 136.

    Mike J

    Laura Barron-Lopez ‏@lbarronlopez 1h1 hour ago
    “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, no one would convict you.” — Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

  138. 138.

    Mnemosyne

    @Nate Dawg:

    Ah, okay — I hadn’t seen any of the pictures from today’s murders, so I made an assumption based on past history. Clearly we need to start looking into his ISIS connections, then.

    ETA: To be clear, I do not mean to imply in any way that this is what Elizabelle was saying. I’m going off in a totally different direction than she was.

  141. 141.

    dmsilev

    @Mike J: This is going to be like a remake of Murder on the Orient Express, right? 100 Senators, snowed in and trapped in the Capitol, and Ted Cruz ends up dead? Can Hercule Poirot figure out which of the 99 remaining Senators killed Ted?

    The answer, of course, is ‘all of them, Katie’.

  145. 145.

    hilts

    “Not sure if Don Lemon is doing the post debate again”

    Chris Matthews is doing the post debate analysis on MSNBC. I’d take Don Lemon any day of the week over that raving drooling jackass Chris Matthews.

  146. 146.

    Mike J

    @dmsilev: I honestly wouldn’t suspect any of the Dems. They don’t hate Cruz enough to single him out. If he were murdered in the Senate, I’d guess 95% chance it was a Republican who did it.

  151. 151.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    I don’t want to re-start that Hamilton vs. Adams feud, that’s for sure. What the hell happened there, anyway? Did Hamilton pinch Abigail on the ass or something?

  153. 153.

    Goblue72

    @Kay: I love it. Would be fantastic if Trump gets the nom and calls off the convention. Show the country the Emperor that is the national parties has no clothes and the farce of the Presidential convention in the 21st century has nothing to do with democracy and is just one long boring 3 day political TV ad, that the major networks have to be strong armed into even covering for an hour these days.

  157. 157.

    Adam L Silverman

    @dmsilev: Really its only the 53 other GOP Senators that are suspects. And their aides. So figure three to five aides per senator, so conservatively speaking, about 300 or so suspects.

  158. 158.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mnemosyne:

    I don’t want to re-start that Hamilton vs. Adams feud, that’s for sure. What the hell happened there, anyway? Did Hamilton pinch Abigail on the ass or something?

    The Gold Triangle of the American revolution: Hamilton for the NY businessmen, Adams for the Boston intellectuals, Jefferson for the Virgina planters.

    Revolution almost certainly would’ve failed if any one of them hadn’t been there, but the “working relationship” was never going to be other than… complicated.

  160. 160.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mnemosyne: You (& the Ham-site) have it backwards. Adams and Jefferson started as friends, came to a parting of ways, and sorta-kinda made up with each other afterwards. Hamilton never considered either of them as anything but old farts to be cheated when they couldn’t be conned. Jefferson had quite a bit of that in his own makeup, so he didn’t mind it so much; Adams resented to the end, because he thought Alex should at least be ashamed of being so good a con artist.

    That’s why “everybody” made fun of poor old John; he was like the Dukakis of the Founding Fathers.

  162. 162.

    Mnemosyne

    @Anne Laurie:

    I think the play is correct that there was also some anti-immigrant and class-based animosity towards Hamilton from both Jefferson and Adams. Jefferson was landed gentry and Adams was a descendant (on his mother’s side) from the original Pilgrims. Who was this upstart bastard who thought they should treat him as their social equal? Adams liked Burr more, since Burr was from the right kind of family, being Jonathan Edwards’ grandson.

  163. 163.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mnemosyne: If you (& Miranda) like. But Hamilton was quite proud of his considerable “animal magnetism,” and had no shame about using it to manipulate (otherwise) intelligent people of both sexes. He didn’t treat the smart, educated women in his life very well, to put it gently, although of course no smart woman of that era should’ve had any illusions about a young man with his way to make using his charms to steal her ideas and/or ‘virtue’. And it wasn’t just Adams that was scandalized by the way General Washington “doted upon” the young hustler who alternately flattered & threatened him.

    Jefferson didn’t treat the women in his life any better — if you don’t believe Virginia Scharff, read the letters he wrote to his “legitimate” daughters — but Thom had the resources, social as well as economic, to be a little less crude about his patriarchal claims.

    Adams actually loved his wife Abigail, her mind as much as her body and her personality. He never got over the way his fellow founders treated others as objects, not people. The “tragedy” of John Adams is that he never could “overcome” his parochial little parsons’ concerns with the state of his soul and that of the people around him, in an age when most individuals (women, people of color, poor / uneducated men) didn’t even qualify as fully human to the Very Serious Men in charge. But then, as consolation, he had that lifelong romance… and the considerable satisfaction of having changed the world for the better while never neglecting his personal responsibilities. I personally suspect that was enough for him.

  164. 164.

    Mnemosyne

    @Anne Laurie:

    It helps to read the Chernow book, because he has a fair amount of Hamilton’s letters to his wife (though she burned her own letters at some point, no one knows when or how). He certainly was not the best husband in multiple ways, but his last written words to her were, “Adieu, best of wives and best of women.” And she never remarried, even though it might have been easier for her to support their 7 surviving children if she had.

  165. 165.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mnemosyne:

    And she never remarried, even though it might have been easier for her to support their 7 surviving children if she had.

    Yes, many women who live with a promiscuous, neglectful, emotionally abusive husband never remarry after his death… even when it would be economically convenient to do so. :)

    Hamilton was a Great Man, but such men are seldom easy to live with.

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