Cruz is asked about Fox News:
"Everyone who was responsible for the rise of Donald Trump, they will bear that responsibility going forward"
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) May 12, 2016
"I like Donald Trump. I think he’s terrific. I think he’s brash. I think he speaks the truth." — Ted Cruz, 6/30/15 https://t.co/qI5I6UIqvu
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) May 12, 2016
If #Failgunner Ted is currently refudiating the Short-Fingered Vulgarian, it means he thinks it’s better to wait for Deadbeat Donald to crash’n’burn in November, by which time the “Cruz 2020: He TOLD You So” campaign will be ramping up. Because it’s not like it’s so hard to win favor with his fellow Repubs…
Each GOP senator that met Trump got a one on one photo with him doing a thumbs up per @seungminkim https://t.co/qCl3M7tksh
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) May 12, 2016
… unless you’re Ted Cruz, because nobody likes Ted Cruz. For good reason.
.@SenTedCruz arrives back in the Capitol for the 1st time since suspending his presidential bid pic.twitter.com/ZoUhElScv9
— Bill Clark (@billclarkphotos) May 10, 2016
…and essentially filibusters the parking lot. https://t.co/BFiwgCrppf
— Matt Viser (@mviser) May 10, 2016
SiubhanDuinne
Even beautiful leafy trees and badly-parked SUVs can’t make him attractive.
The Dangerman
In LA, that gets your car keyed (if you’re lucky); no idea about Texas.
SiubhanDuinne
Seriously, who drove that? I’m almost 74 years old, with ripening cataracts, and even I can park better than that. Sad!!
Anne Laurie
@SiubhanDuinne:
His ‘security’, I’m guessing, which may or may not still be Secret Service.
Assume that the idea is to allow a quick getaway if an assassin is lurking, but I couldn’t resist sharing the ‘filibustered the parking lot’ joke!
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie: For security, one drops the passenger at the door and then parks the vehicle nose out.
eric
@Omnes Omnibus: unless of course you REALLY want off this detail and…….
Omnes Omnibus
@eric: Interesting take.
Wag
@eric:
Yep
rikyrah
Like folks are just gonna get out of the way for Rafael in 2020?
Bwa ha ha ha ha?
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman:
To be fair, with this guy, I expect all of the above. Freaky, scary dude.
amk
asshole’s parking gonna be asshole.
Mai.naem.mobile
Ted doesn’t have a chance in 2020. By 2020 you will have Btian Sandoval,Doug Doucey,Nikki Haley,Tom Cotton, Ryan,Rand and Charlie Baker. Probably Rubio.Cruz will be sooo 2016.
Prescott Cactus
@efgoldman: or choked to death because he forgot the safeword.
Omnes Omnibus
@Prescott Cactus: Okay, that has my vote.
Dadadadadadada
I sincerely hope he loses his primary in 2018. And that the primary challenger goes on to lose to Wendy Davis.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mai.naem.mobile: interesting (assuming you’re right, and I think you might be) that’ll make two cycles in a row when the R’s split from their tradition of nominating the guy whose “turn” it’s supposed to be, after Santorum could never make a Big People’s Debate circle
Omnes Omnibus
@Dadadadadadada: That’s not bad, but the safeword thing still wins.
Prescott Cactus
@Omnes Omnibus: Gonna be a high turnout election.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@efgoldman:
Yup. Charlie Baker is this century’s Bill Weld, and to the left of Scott Brown who was beaten twice, both times by girls.
BillinGlendaleCA
On last night’s show, Colbert said that he went to high school with the photographer, Bill Clark. In fact he and Bill engaged in an activity that’s legal in CO(WA and DC).
feebog
By the time the campaign ramps up in 2019 his face will have melted into something resembling a hammerhead shark. Not that he was any prize this go round….
BillinGlendaleCA
@feebog:
We are talking about the Republican primary, I’m not sure that’s a disqualifying trait.
magurakurin
Probably not the time to be speculating about who the GOP is going to run in 2020. I get that all’s fair in love and a political blog…but…hello the Republicans are falling in line behind Trump quite nicely and Bernie is still prattling on about “taking it to the convention.” Pretty sure the Bernster is gonna come around in the end but…
Shit’s getting real.
Prescott Cactus
@magurakurin:
I’d rather be in our shoes than their clown shoes.
The Dangerman
@magurakurin:
Hillary will surely win…
…but it’s starting to feel like it might be close enough that we will all (excluding Cole and similar Folks, I mean) need to be well lubed well before the Polls close. Now, actually, might be a fine time to start.
BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: Worked for Jeb!…Oh wait.
smith
@magurakurin:
Yeah, we all knew they’d fall in line behind the new supreme leader. And, at the risk of sounding like our departed but unlamented troll, there’s evidence of some sort of reverse Bradley effect with Trump, with people not wanting to admit they’d vote for him because they know it’s not a socially desirable behavior, so it’s possible he has some stealth support we aren’t seeing in many polls. Trump would be such a catastrophe as president it will be hard to rest easy no matter what the polls say.
magurakurin
@Prescott Cactus: Agreed, but as the infamous Winston Wolfe said, “well, let’s not start sucking each other’s dicks quite yet.”
Omnes Omnibus
@The Dangerman: Calm the fuck down. Nothing really matters until after the conventions.
Mnemosyne
@smith:
Unless there are hidden groups of African-American, Latino, and Asian-American voters who are going to vote for Trump, he’s toast. As demonstrated by Obama in both 2008 and 2012, you can lose a majority of the white vote and still win the presidency.
62 percent of white men voted for Romney, and he still got creamed.
slag
Seeing all these idiots in their douchemobiles reminds me, yet again, that meritocracy is a lie.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: But…But…PANIC!
Gin & Tonic
Graffiti in Vilnius.
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: Exactly.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: Not enough tongue action.
Gin & Tonic
@BillinGlendaleCA: Ew.
The Dangerman
Calm? Of course.
Panic? Not even.
I just choose not to ignore the Quinnipiac polls, whether that be May or not (Quinnipriac ain’t Rasmussen).
Mike J
Amir Khalid
I’m not quite sure what this story is saying. Was Commander Rasch actually thrown out of the US Navy (which is what I understand by getting “cashiered”/”fired”); or merely removed from a command posting, possibly pending additional disciplinary action?
Villago Delenda Est
@The Dangerman: I think the danger of complacency is pretty much limited to people concern trolling sites like BJ.
Hillary’s got a Obamaesque GOTV effort planned. No one is taking anything for granted.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike J: Maddow reported that Sanders is not advertising in CA and his ground-game guy quit. She speculated he might be running out of money
amk
@Amir Khalid:
bbc sez ap sez he has been reassigned. I always suspected it as a ratfucking attempt to derail the Iran agreement.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
Looks like a miscue by the reporter to say “fired.” Lower down the story says:
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid: The writer is obviously unfamiliar with how these things work in the US military. Rasch was relieved of his present assignment. This is usually a career-ending event if you’re that far up in the heirarchy, but he is still a Commander (O-5) in the Navy, is still drawing a paycheck every month, has been reassigned to other duties, and now will probably retire as an O-5, unless there is further disciplinary action taken, as was the case in the sad story of Former BG (O-7)now LTC (O-5) (Ret) Jeffrey Sinclair.
Mike J
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: berniepb.com closed the day at half their phone banking target. That reflects a lack of enthusiasm that will spill over into donations.
I did some tinderbanking for a while, but had to stop when I felt the burn.
Steeplejack
I’ve got to raise a question about the veracity of that Cruz parking photo, if only because of the vanity plate. “ZODIAC”? Srsly?
Mike J
@Steeplejack: “relieved of his command duties and reassigned” is fired. He may still be in the military for now, but he’ll never be promoted.
Prescott Cactus
@magurakurin: ah. . . yeah. . .ok. . .I understand
Villago Delenda Est
Arrgh…can’t edit my post now, pushed wrong button. Anyways, he probably will not advance in rank again (call it a near certainty) after this incident, so the logical thing to do is retire in the near future, because being relieved at that level (as I alluded to before) usually ends a career. He might hang on for some time in staff roles, but command is right out.
Steeplejack
@Mike J:
True, but “fired” usually means out the door and out of the organization. That’s not how it’s done in the military. He has been reassigned but is still on active duty.
If your incompetent V.P. is reassigned to manage paper clips and copier paper, do you say he’s been fired? If he’s still showing up for work every day?
At best it’s an own goal of bad phrasing by the reporter.
MattF
Worth noting, again, that the Rs ended up with the two worst possibilities. And ‘worst’ is an understatement– ‘Ted’ is not a political safe word.
Mike J
@amk:
Nah. Get your troops captured in peacetime, that will cost you. No ulterior motive needed. The boat’s engine died (bad maint), while they were out of contact with friendlies (shouldn’t happen) and drifted into unfriendly territory (bad) where it embarrassed the navy (career over).
Amir Khalid
@Steeplejack:
I always thought the practice was to blur out registration numbers to protect people’s privacy.
amk
@Steeplejack: It doesn’t say that.
Mike J
@Amir Khalid: Why? Everybody in the world can see them when they drive down the street, relatively few people have the power to run plates. There’s no good reason to blur plates, but networks often do it because their lawyers are paid to be cowards. Blurring is free, answering a complaint might waste half an hour.
Prescott Cactus
@BillinGlendaleCA:
After a second and third look at that, I’d say that it might be photoshopped. That suit coat placed over the arm / hand is to cover up the Heil Hitler salute. That guy in front of him has that “Should I answer my Glock look”. Driver side guy is making a puddle under the front tire and has the “I’m shaking the bush, boss” face.
This has the odor of CO all over it.
MattF
@Mike J: On the other hand, blurring Cruz’s face would be a public service.
pseudonymous in nc
@Mnemosyne:
All the Republicans need is a mid-term turnout demographic. A combination of voter ID laws and Trump Voter Integrity Brigades posted at polling stations — the kind of people he’d hire for his ‘deportation squad’ if elected — could get us there. Don’t assume anything about purple states run by GOP governors and legislators who don’t really believe in free and fair elections.
amk
@Mike J:
Too many co-‘incidences’ there for a supposedly shipshape navy, don’t you think?
Mike J
@Steeplejack:
If you can’t be promoted, you can’t reënlist. He’s gone when this tour is over.
Ruckus
@Prescott Cactus:
I’d lay better odds that the other person(s) will be going LALALALALLA so loud that they can’t hear the safe word.
Mike J
@amk: What navy are you thinking of? In every job in the world people fuck up. Next time it’s fleet week in your town, ask an enlisted about the funniest thing that happened last time they went to sea. It will almost certainly be about a 2nd Lt doing something that would have civvies howling for his head, and was probably just an everyday fuckup.
Prescott Cactus
Bertrand Piccard just landed in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
I wouldn’t stop there unless it was bad weather.
ETA: Really bad. Like grocery stores running out of milk and bread bad.
@Ruckus: and turning the stereo up real loud.
Matt McIrvin
@smith: The thing I wonder about the supposed shy-Trumpster effect is why Trump didn’t massively overperform his primary polls if that’s the case. (He actually did overperform in some of the late ones… but his numbers were rising rapidly in them, and it could have just been the effect of slightly stale numbers. In the early primaries, the big overperfomer was Cruz.)
I also notice that in state polls, there’s less of an extreme spread between Internet, automated-phone and live-phone polls. It may be that the demographics are just easier to weight within a state than they are nationally.
Also, if the difference between poll methods is all shy Trumpsters, why is there such a huge difference between Internet and automated-phone polls? Neither has the talking-to-a-human problem, but Clinton is about 6 points ahead of Trump in the one type of poll and completely tied in the other.
There’s a huge spread in systematic house effects between different individual pollsters, too, so the whole average can shift if one of them starts polling much more frequently. Among the Internet pollsters alone, there are ones that persistently get Clinton +10 and others where there’s hardly any lead.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
I’m wondering if it is a Photoshop job.
Steeplejack
@amk:
It did a while ago. If you scroll down Bill Clark’s Twitter feed from the link posted at the top, you’ll see that there is a notice “This tweet is unavailable,” and if you scroll further down to Joel Luther’s tweet you’ll see the ZODIAC version of the picture. Maybe Clark got trolled.
amk
@Steeplejack: I can still see the original clark’s tweet with the vanity plate vgs7392. Colbert says he has been an official DC photo journalist. I doubt he would troll. Later versions may have been ps’ed.
Prescott Cactus
@Prescott Cactus: My bad on this. Oklahoma just had some deadly storms and more are on the way. My sincere apologies.
Steeplejack
@Mike J:
Which is not the same as being fired.
And officers don’t reënlist (or enlist). They “accept a commission,” and their commission is not for a specific length of time—except in the case where the service paid for their education and they “owe” a certain number of years. As a commander (equivalent to a lieutenant colonel), this guy is way beyond that point.
I’m not saying his career isn’t effectively over, but it’s ambiguous at best to say he got “fired.” He’s still working and drawing a paycheck.
Steeplejack
@amk:
Jesus, I said maybe he got trolled.
Prescott Cactus
@Steeplejack:
Kinda like Marco Rubio. I get it.
Anne Laurie
@efgoldman:
Yeah, I don’t think Chickensh*t Charlie exactly has a bright future within the Republican Party. But I think he’s positioning himself nicely to be a fresher, less obvious Paul Ryan: the ‘Sensible Republican’ who ‘works across the aisle,’ carefully hiding his lust to cut social services behind a furrowed brow of earnest concern. He’ll be among the first Repubs to congratulate President HRC, while talking out of both sides of his mouth about bipartisanship and the vital need to reign in out-of-control entitlements. He could even reasonably hope for a cabinet appointment, just for the look of the thing!
Speaking of toilets, I get the feeling that much of the MA Lege’s rush to pass its own Freedom to Pee law is aimed at North Carolina poaching “our” biotech start-ups and film-making contracts. Sure, those guys have cheaper labor & better weather, but do you want to spend your artisan dollars and waste your beautiful minds in the company of a bunch of retrograd bible-bangers with potty-training fixations?
Mnemosyne
@pseudonymous in nc:
The only thing I’m assuming is that minority voters are planning to vote. Shenanigans at the polls are a given, which is why we’re all donating to Vote Riders and similar organizations. What are you planning to do other than wring your hands?
ETA: To be totally clear, I think fears that minority voters will stay home are totally bogus. Voter suppression tactics =/= people staying home.
Prescott Cactus
@amk:
That plate probably is the phone number of a hooker. Ingenious. You don’t even have to have her name in your lil’ black address book or phone. Stumble to the rear of the car and Bingo, it’s there. Burner phone and the next thing you know you got a rubber ball in your mouth and somebody is beating the crap out of you Texas style (from behind).
Steeplejack
@Anne Laurie:
“Rein in,” goddamn it!
The pedants are surly tonight. Don’t fuck with us.
Mike J
@Steeplejack: Meh, next review he’s gone. They don’t keep people who can not be promoted.
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid: Other people have already weighed in on the specifics of how the Navy handles assignments. Since one of the very first grown-up novels I read was Mister Roberts (I was six or seven, it’s all short chapters & simple sentences!), I’ve assumed since the incident that it was one of those things that happen at sea. This official response, on the other hand, has my inner conspiracist torn between two possibilities:
(a) It was a genuine accident, but somebody has to pay a price to appease face, and Commander Rasch was at the fulcrum where sh*t stops running downhill before the ascent to higher authorities;
(b) Somebody got a little too clever “accidentally” shaving boundaries, and whether that was among the briefly-captured sailors or higher up the command tree matters less than establishing that such cleverness will be squelched.
The teacher doesn’t alway punish the student who throws the first spitball, but one or more students will be punished. The hope is that at least it’ll be one of the spitball-shooters, not just some poor schlimazel who got caught in the crossfire.
Steeplejack
@Anne Laurie:
The other (non-conspiracy) possibility is that a (mini-)crisis shines a light on a previously ignored or unnoticed sloppy situation and leads to a cleanup.
magurakurin
A very positive sign.
Bernie Sanders Supporters Propose ‘Mobilizing Voters’ to Beat Donald Trump
It would seem that many of the Senator’s supporters have moved to the acceptance stage. The campaign released a boilerplate statement showing it officially to be in the denial stage, but one must assume that many inside the campaign as well are at or near the acceptance stage.
How I imagine it probably breaks out:
Weaver is deep in the bunker and will never come out. I won’t be surprised if he ends up working for Jill Stein’s campaign when all is said and done.
Devine is a hired gun doing the job he was paid for. I’m guessing he is making sure the checks are clearing and has one eye on the exits and the other on his Rolodex of potential clients.
Bernie seems to walk and back from the cliff edge and I suspect it is Jane who is whispering in his ear to push him back to the edge. She will be the last to finally throw in the towel.
I am very confident now that Bernie will step up like a mensch and do all he can to help Hillary. And if so, bygones. Politics is a dirty game, afterall.
Steeplejack
@Mike J:
Okay, now that that’s sorted, I have a much more important question to ask you.
I have long wanted to learn how to sail, and I have been looking at possibilities here in the NoVA area, particularly at Washington Sailing Marina. My question is whether you think it would be better (as a novice) to take a class of three-hour sessions over four days (12 hours total) or a more intensive class of six-hour sessions over two or three days (12 or 18 hours).
Note: I realize that this barely scratches the surface of a sailing “career.” How best to get started?
Ian
@Steeplejack:
Where do you see that?
Steeplejack
@Ian:
See here.
opiejeanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: A guy I follow on Twitter and his other followers have noticed a marked drop-off of trolling by Bernie fans this past week. One guy who had been getting a lot of attention said it felt like 10% of what he’d been getting for weeks and now, next to nothing.
Bernie’s money dries up and the trolling drops off.
akryan
@Mnemosyne: I tend to agree for presidential elections. People will stand for hours in line to vote. It’s disgusting that they have to, but voter turnout is always pretty high when the presidential election rolls around.
Mike J
@Steeplejack: Sorry, didn’t read it until I was in bed. got up and went to the computer.
Hours on the water will make you a good sailor. Hours of instruction? Meh. I had maybe three? five? Something small. Learned how to rig the boat. The points of sail. Close to the wind, sails in, downwind sails out. Then practice.
The single most important thing you can learn is where the wind is coming from and which way you are headed. Say the wind is coming from 0′. You need to know when you are heading 45′ or or 315′, and when the wind shifts to 20′, you need to know if you should bear off to 65′ or tack to 325′. You need to look at the water at instantly recognize where the wind is coming from, and look a half mile upwind and see if it is shifting. All of this is stuff you won’t even notice that you are doing when you have a few hundred hours in. Like driving down a curving road. You’ll turn left and right and won’t even notice at the end of it.
Of course that’s just me. Different people need different things. I need to be told things once, read it twice, and do it a hundred times.Some people need different ratios. Everyone is going to fuck up. Last summer I had two different students sail over a log boom separating our lagoon from the lake proper, mainly because I sat back and watched to see if they’d get out of it. They didn’t, but nobody died, (the first thing we teach is how to right a capsized boat). As long as you don’t die, anything that happens to you while sailing is a learning experience.
NR
@opiejeanne: I guess only Hillary has the money to pay online trolls these days.
Amir Khalid
@NR:
Is that really the same as actual trolling?
Mary G
I got a robocall from Bernie’s campaign this evening. First one ever for a primary since we vote last here in California.
Steeplejack
@Mike J:
Thanks for the input.
BruceFromOhio
@Mike J: This is the best description I’ve seen in awhile. Especially the “don’t die” part.
NorthLeft12
What I find interesting and also terrifying, is that somehow, someway Ted Cruz was treated like a candidate who would be a competent President. Cruz was considered a man who would represent the US well, would keep the government running, and might change things a bit, but basically keep the US on the path it was headed.
I got this from the media, discussions with people [over the internet and face to face]. Frankly, I am dumbfounded by the ignorance of them all. Cruz is frankly batshit crazy, and in my view would transform the US back into a state it has not seen since the 1830s. Not sure why this is not understood by more people, especially in the media. Fortunately, Cruz radiates so much creepiness that I just don’t think he is electable across the US. Although for the life of me, I can’t figure out how he was elected as a Senator….even of Texas.
Applejinx
@opiejeanne: People who care about Bernie’s platform will seek to continue it: including, with the help of Hillary Clinton, who’s already responded to a great deal of it (2020 ain’t 1990, and Hillary is not a politician to be stuck as yesterday’s news)
People who were only in it to blow shit up will continue to be that way but some of them are faced with the choice: really seriously ruin everything and back Trump, or put down the toy trumpets and tinfoil-covered cardboard sabers and sulkily pull the lever for Mom after all, and the revolution will not be nearly as exciting as advertised.
I’m not surprised trolling is down. There’s a ‘you mean I have to eat my broccoli first?’ aspect that’s a real buzz-kill.
The funny thing is, Bernie always did want people to do their civic duty and get involved, so he always DID prefer the people who are now looking to block Trump and get the most out of the Dems we got.
And the people who needed dessert for breakfast and revolution with giant puppets and LOTS of hashtags and meme pictures, are the same fucking people who don’t show up for you and when they do show up, they’re standing around talking about how radical they are and not helping. I saw those people (male AND female) working for Bernie in NH. The blessing is, they probably ain’t gonna help Trump either.
If you’ve worked a convention at a dealers’ den table (or something like it) you recognize these folks as Booth Barnacles.
We can win this and we can represent both wings of the Democratic party. It’s the ‘revolutionaries’ worth keeping whom you see adjusting and looking to build an independent anti-Trump organization. The thing you’ve got to remember is that maintaining a distinct identity is necessary, otherwise you run the risk of getting assimilated to the point that you have no identity: that would be a mistake the way the demographics are shaping up.
Ben Cisco
@Amir Khalid: It’s the latter, although it will probably almost certainly result in the former in effect if not intent.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
It looks like he was so far just relieved of command, but that often means he will not be promoted or given actual command ever again. For a line officer, that spells the end of that kind of work, perhaps allowed to continue as a staff officer until eligible for retirement at that relatively low grade.
My ship’s Captain mishandled the ship, was relieved of command and put in charge of a Naval Hospital, where shiphandling was not such a priority. He was allowed to continue as a Captain in rank, as opposed to skipper of a ship, in order to retire as such. He didn’t get his sailors captured by a non-friendly nation, either, tho…
rikyrah
@NorthLeft12:
His primary was in JULY. – only way he won.