JEB! = John Ellis Not-Bush 2016

Open Thread: The “Smarter Bush Brother” Strikes Again!

by Anne Laurie| July 23, 20156:02 pm| 118 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, JEB! = John Ellis Not-Bush 2016, Open Threads, Post-racial America, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own

It would help organize their vast numbers if the GOP primary candidates were arranged along a spectrum from calculated stupid to real stupid

— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) July 23, 2015

Jeb! on O’Malley: “If he believes that white lives matter, which I hope he does, then he shouldn't have apologized.” http://t.co/9I0UZCyZ20

— daveweigel (@daveweigel) July 23, 2015

From the Washington Post article:

After an event in Gorham, N.H. today, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush rolled his eyes at the mention of protesters who heckled the phrase “black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter” at a progressive conference…

“We’re so uptight and so politically correct now that we apologize for saying ‘lives matter?'” asked Bush. “Life is precious. It’s a gift from God. I frankly think that it’s one of the most important values that we have. I know in the political context it’s a slogan, I guess. Should he have apologized? No. If he believes that white lives matter, which I hope he does, then he shouldn’t have apologized to a group that seemed to disagree with it. Gosh.”…

In his Florida political career, Bush sometimes stumbled over racial questions. During his unsuccessful 1994 campaign for governor, when asked what he would do for black people, Bush said “nothing.” He intended that to be a comment about higher standards and economic growth benefiting everyone, but it came off as a gaffe. Then, as now, Bush felt burned by the language of “political correctness.”

My emphases, because I suspect JEB! got his lazy tongue tangled over the memorized “pro life” mottoes he’s been feeding the fetus fetishists for his entire career, and the inborn Bush Clan contempt for all those puling humanoids who are Not Bushes — with a side order of blatant racism, of course. Catholic convert or not, all the anti-abortion pandering is just the highly-processed junk food demanded by “voters”, ugh, in return for their temporary allegiance.

Video and a pretty good #BlackLivesMatter analogy at the link.
***********
Apart from giving our enemies as much rope as they need to hang themselves, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Open Thread: The “Smarter Bush Brother” Strikes Again!Post + Comments (118)

Late Night Horrowshow Open Thread: Jeb Means Other “People Need to Work Longer Hours”

by Anne Laurie| July 9, 20151:05 am| 134 Comments

This post is in: Don't Mourn, Organize, Election 2016, JEB! = John Ellis Not-Bush 2016, Open Threads, Assholes

It's a real populist message Jeb is selling. I hope he sticks with it. pic.twitter.com/e2FJuk7vcd

— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) July 9, 2015

Demonstrating, yet again, the aristocratic Bush Crime Family disdain for us little people, as per ABC:

Today, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who as of-late has gone relatively gaffe-free, uttered a phrase that may not go over too well with the constituency he seeks to reach. During an interview that was live-streamed on the app Periscope, Bush told New Hampshire’s The Union Leader that to grow the economy, “people should work longer hours.”…

He was answering a question about his plans for tax reform and responded:

“My aspiration for the country and I believe we can achieve it, is 4 percent growth as far as the eye can see. Which means we have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That’s the only way we’re going to get out of this rut that we’re in.” …

In a statement, a Bush aide clarified that he was referring to the underemployed and part-time workers: “Under President Obama, we have the lowest workforce participation rate since 1977, and too many Americans are falling behind. Only Washington Democrats could be out-of-touch enough to criticize giving more Americans the ability to work, earn a paycheck, and make ends meet.”…

A 2014 Gallup poll found that already many Americans employed full-time report working, on average, 47 hours a week, while nearly 4 in 10 say they work at least 50 hours a week.

US workers work more hours than workers in any other large, industrialized country, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development….

No word whether Jeb! finished, “Now watch this drive…” But I’m sure the paleoconservatives at the Union Leader found his speech highly satisfactory.

Late Night Horrowshow Open Thread: Jeb Means <em>Other</em> “People Need to Work Longer Hours”Post + Comments (134)

Open Thread: TBH, I’d Charge Him At Least Twice That Much…

by Anne Laurie| July 3, 20156:09 am| 134 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2016, IOKIYAR, JEB! = John Ellis Not-Bush 2016, Open Threads, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?, Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.

Jeb Bush's firm paid wife $220,000 but duties unclear other than being a "true partner in work and life.” http://t.co/5MNpeER74x

— Rosalind Helderman (@PostRoz) July 3, 2015

… and then I’d do my (considerable) best to undercut him at every opportunity. Looking forward (not) to seeing how the GooGoos who shook their fingers at Hillary Clinton for her unfeminine attention to earning money defend Jeb!’s financial dealings, as described by the Washington Post:

Shortly after Jeb Bush left the Florida governor’s office in 2007, he established his own firm, Jeb Bush & Associates, designed to maximize his earning potential as one of the country’s more prominent politicians.

Tax returns disclosed this week by the Republican’s presidential campaign revealed that the business not only made him rich but also provided a steady income for his wife and one of his sons…

The returns show that the company set up a generous and well-funded pension plan now rare in corporate America, allowing Bush to take large tax deductions while he and his wife built up their retirement portfolio.

They also illustrate how Bush — who has touted his business experience on the campaign trail — relied on his public persona and political connections to rapidly increase his net worth.

More than a third of the firm’s $33 million in proceeds from 2007 to 2013 came from banking giants Lehman Bros. and Barclays, which paid Bush a combined total of about $12 million for his work as a senior adviser, according to the tax filings and campaign officials. An additional $8.1 million during that period came from speaking fees.

Although Bush presented the release of 33 years of tax returns this week as evidence of his transparency, a review of the filings shows that more than a third of his company’s income was from sources that his campaign has largely declined to disclose…

The NYTimes sticks to the impersonal — “Business Ties Made by Jeb Bush as Florida Governor Turned Lucrative When He Left Office“:

In his final year as governor, Jeb Bush led a campaign to persuade an Italian military contractor and its partners to build a plant in Florida, meeting with the company’s chief executive, offering financial incentives and appearing at an event celebrating the project.

Soon after Mr. Bush left government for the private sector, the contractor, Alenia North America, provided him with a warm welcome of its own: It paid him $64,000 to deliver a speech, his campaign disclosed.

As Mr. Bush sought to create a personal fortune for himself and his family after eight years in public office, he found a ready source of income: speeches sponsored by corporations and industry trade groups, including some that benefited from his administration’s policies.

Since 2007, Mr. Bush has delivered about 260 paid speeches, earning around $10 million in the process, according to records provided this week by his presidential campaign. The speeches, combined with his consulting and investment businesses, rapidly transformed his finances: His and his wife’s net worth soared to at least $19 million from $1.3 million over the past eight years…

That parvenu Romney didn’t have the patrician brio to release his tax returns — he retained some residual shame, or at least sensed that the details of his prosperity might be viewed as unseemly by the striving voter. Jeb!, true scion of the Bush Crime Family, cares not what the peons whinge about at their grubby little “electoral gatherings”…

Open Thread: TBH, I’d Charge Him At Least Twice That Much…Post + Comments (134)

Jeb Bush, “Dogged”

by Anne Laurie| June 30, 20156:06 pm| 79 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2016, Excellent Links, JEB! = John Ellis Not-Bush 2016, Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.

(Joel Pett via GoComics.com)
.

In the Washington Post, Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Tom Hamburger, “Jeb Bush dogged by decades of questions about business deals“:

…. Today, as he works toward his run at the White House, Bush touts his business experience as a strength that gives him the skills and savvy to serve as the nation’s chief executive. He has said he “worked my tail off” to succeed. As an announced candidate, Bush soon will be making financial disclosures that will reveal recent business successes and show a substantial increase in his wealth since he left office as Florida governor in 2007, individuals close to the candidate told The Post.

But records, lawsuits, interviews and newspaper accounts stretching back more than three decades present a picture of a man who, before he was elected Florida governor in 1998, often benefited from his family connections and repeatedly put himself in situations that raised questions about his judgment and exposed him to reputational risk…

Five of his business associates have been convicted of crimes; one remains an international fugitive on fraud charges. In each case, Bush said he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing and said some of the people he met as a businessman in Florida took advantage of his naiveté.

He has been involved in myriad business ventures dating back to the early 1980s, taking time out to run for governor three times, winning the first of two terms in 1998. He has brokered real estate deals in Florida, arranged bank loans in Venezuela, marketed industrial pumps in Thailand, wholesaled shoes in Panama, promoted a building-materials company to Mexican interests and advised transnational financial services firms. He sat on more than a half dozen corporate boards. Since leaving office in 2007, Bush’s income has soared from speeches, service on corporate boards, consulting and managing investments for others…

At first glance, Jeb Bush’s dual biography as a businessman-politician can be hard to reconcile. Bush the politician presents the image of a man who is appealing, well-disciplined, intelligent and moderate. Bush the businessman has sometimes lent his name and credibility to money-making ventures that involved dubious characters.

He and his friends have explained this seeming incongruity by saying that he has been the victim of people who took advantage of his good nature…

Bush’s business activities and missteps have been widely covered over the years, by the Miami Herald, the St. Petersburg (now Tampa Bay) Times, the Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones magazine and other publications, along with books by political scientists and journalists…

It’s the time-tested Bush Crime Family defense: Is it our fault that something about us makes people want to thrust wads of cash into our pockets? Can you blame us just because we’re too patrician to investigate why that nice man in the tailored mask asked us to hold the door of the public vault open? Isn’t it vaguely un-American to demand that Very Important People such as ourselves account for every grubby little cash transaction, as though we were peasants on an allowance from our betters?…

Or, as Paul Waldman says:

…[H]e did make his money the Bush way: by trading on his family name and the perception that because of who his father was (or later, because of who his brother was), he would have far-reaching influence that could help other people make money…

I’d be interested to hear the conservatives who are outraged by Hillary Clinton making millions in speaking fees explain how this kind of thing is completely different…

And “It’s OK if you’re a Republican” is not a defensible argument.

Jeb Bush, “Dogged”Post + Comments (79)

Get ready for a summer of Crazy

by David Anderson| June 29, 20159:57 am| 47 Comments

This post is in: Crazification Factor, Election 2016, JEB! = John Ellis Not-Bush 2016, Kochsuckers, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Clown Shoes, Fools! Overton Window!

The incentive structure of the Republican primary debate cut-off is to promote the crazy even if the goal of the cut-off is to minimize the crazy talk.

The debate will be on August 6th, and it is split into two parts. The main event will have ten candidates who have filed with the FEC and are in a blended average of the top ten positions in live respondant telephone polls within a given time frame. The second part is the kiddy table event which will have every other filed candidate whose campaigns had sufficient funds to pay for gas to get the candidate to the studio.

It is structured this way for two reasons. First, it is purely a logistical move, as fifteen to twenty people on stage would mean no one gets to talk for more than fifteen seconds at a time. Now that is not a great loss as the information to time level is fairly low, but it is a reasonable concern. Secondly, the top-ten feature is a public culling method as the invisible primary becomes slightly more visible. Debates are often one of the easiest ways for a low polling candidate to make up ground quickly and cheaply. This is especially true in any primary process where the ideological universe is narrower than in a general election as a voter is not making significant ideological re-evalatuations when they switch their support between primary opponents. This point is esepcially true in the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary as the issue space ranges from who will cut some taxes to who will cut all taxes, who will bluster first and then bomb compared to who will just bomb, and how much everyone hates seeing working class people get private market health insurance. The ideological space is fairly narrow. So a good debate that rubs a voter’s button the right way will get a very throaty response to a particular candidate.

A candidate who is not in the first debate will have a very hard time getting into any future debate, and thus will have a very hard time raising their polling.

Working with that assumption, five groups of candidates shake out of the crowded Republican field. The first group are candidates who are definately in the debate and project that they will be in all debates until the primaries/caucuses start. These candidates just have to not fuck things up in the debates and start to knock out candidates whose supporters are most inclined to choose them as their second choice. Jeb Bush and Scott Walker are in this bucket.

The second group are candidates who have to hold serve, but can safely assume they’ll be in good enough shape for the next couple of rounds. It splits into two groups, the hucksters/self-promoters (Trump and Carson) and actual candidates (Rubio, Paul, Huckabee). (Yes there is overlap here, especially with Huckabee and Paul). The hucksters will throw bombs as that is what they do, while the actual candidates will try not to fuck up while tearing down a front-runner who is closest to them.

These groups are fairly condifident that they’ll be invited back to another debate. Their incentives are to minimize variance if they are actually running for office as a statement in 2015 can be used against them in 2016. Trump and Carson don’t have this constraint, so they’ll embrace the id.

show full post on front page

Get ready for a summer of CrazyPost + Comments (47)

Late Night Open Thread: Among the Whited Sepulchers

by Anne Laurie| June 24, 201512:16 am| 42 Comments

This post is in: Cruz-ifiction, Election 2016, JEB! = John Ellis Not-Bush 2016, Open Threads, Religious Nuts 2, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Assholes

This week, the convention of Latino leaders got one GOP 2016er. The meeting of religious conservatives is getting 13. http://t.co/FFngbSwNdd

— Rebecca Sinderbrand (@sinderbrand) June 17, 2015

While the normal people were busy with more important matters last weekend, the GOP candidates did some high-decibel pandering at Ralph Reed’s annual “Faith & Freedom Conference” — not the Klan version, the one described by professional faith hustler/GOP careerist Reed as “a bridge between the Tea Party movement and evangelical voters”. Some notes, so we’ll remember which Repub said which horrible thing come 2016…

Most Republican candidates at #FFC has mentioned Charleston, but so far zero mentions of any need to improve race relations in the South.

— Martin Gelin (@M_Gelin) June 19, 2015

JEB!, throwing aside his usual general-election-friendly reticence on the topic, humped the corpse of Terri Schiavo to general applause. As Mr. Charles P. Pierce reminds us:

… Not to appear cold but, at the time Jeb (!) stepped in and made a bad situation immeasurably worse, Terri Schiavo’s brain had atrophied to the point where “speaking” was far down the list of things she couldn’t do for herself… At the time Jeb (!) stepped in, the people in Ms. Schiavo’s hospice were already under constant siege. A nearby elementary school had been vacated for almost a month due to bomb scares. An $10,000 bounty had been placed on the head of Michael Schiavo, and one guy already had been busted by the FBI for allegedly trying to collect it. Judges had been terrorized. Jeb (!) didn’t care about any of this. (This is not to mention the fact that almost the entire country was begging people like Jeb -!- to butt out.) His dim sibling was president and he was governor of Florida and they believed there was political hay to be made out of keeping a brain-dead woman alive, and that was all that ever mattered…

Demagogue successfully excites crowd: http://t.co/HziS4Iii8R

— Daniel Larison (@DanielLarison) June 22, 2015

Politico hacks, very excited!:

… Cruz flat-out owned this event, firing up the crowd like no other candidate did — attendees were still talking about him two days after he spoke. The Texas senator delivered a rousing call to action aimed at the evangelical community, saying that 50 million of them sat home in 2012 but could make the difference in 2016. “If people of faith show up, if we stand for our faith and our liberty and the Constitution, we will win and turn the country around,” he said. To a rapt crowd, Cruz did his best Reagan impression when he promised “Morning is coming. Morning is coming.” And he tore into what he framed as the Obama administration’s assault on religious liberty — a prominent theme at the conference. When Cruz finished, the crowd mobbed him…

show full post on front page

Ted Cruz, on stage at FFC, claps his hands to applaud his own applause line.

— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) June 18, 2015

If these 2 @Politico hacks bought any more of the RW "religious liberty" BS, they'd be adopted by the Duggar family: http://t.co/nmqdOyM7S5

— Billmon (@billmon1) June 22, 2015

But Politico liked Scott Walker’s performance, too also:

… The Wisconsin governor, the son of a preacher, met an enthusiastic crowd as he keynoted the closing session on Saturday night. The audience greeted him with a standing ovation after the president of Concerned Women for America introduced him by ticking through his record of opposition to abortion rights, and the speech itself was punctuated by attendees standing up to applaud. He reiterated his support for religious liberty, and his recitation of his confrontation with unions was well-received. But the biggest and most sustained applause of the night came as the governor offered a hawkish riff on foreign policy, tearing into the Obama administration for its approach to ISIS, Syria and Iran. Walker, who has been seeking to burnish his national security credentials ahead of an all-but-certain presidential run, appeared most energized during that portion of the speech — and the audience responded…

Conservatives comparing the reception Scott Walker got last night in DC to Goldwater ahead of 1964? (!!) https://t.co/8WQYGf80RZ

— Niels Lesniewski (@nielslesniewski) June 21, 2015

I do believe that the “tell” is how hard Newsmax‘s correspondent was tonguebathing Walker:

Gov. Walker clearly in same front-runner's seat as Gov. Roosevelt in '31 & Gov. Reagan in '79. He has luxury of waiting to announce.

— John Gizzi (@johngizzi) June 21, 2015

Catch clip of Gov. Walker's virtuoso speech on int'l. terrorism at Faith & Freedom dinner Sat.& learn why he's called "the American Sarkozy"

— John Gizzi (@johngizzi) June 22, 2015

Looks like the Koch brothers have succeeded in convincing the professional GOP God-botherers that Walker is the “solidarity” candidate, the Apple to Jeb!’s Mac.

Among the also-rans:

Chris Christie, giving robust defense of Patriot Act at FFC, not talking about faith and indeed proposing less freedom.

— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) June 19, 2015

Things Rubio didnt mention at FFC: Charleston shooting, Pope/climate, abortion, gay marriage

— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) June 18, 2015

Rubio, at FFC, on the 2016 GOP nominee: "Every night I say a small prayer that it is me."

— Reid J. Epstein (@reidepstein) June 18, 2015

7 in 10 white evangelicals say discrimination against Christians is now "as big a problem" as it is w/other groups: http://t.co/DlnV7Cy9E7

— Rebecca Sinderbrand (@sinderbrand) June 23, 2015

Late Night Open Thread: Among the Whited SepulchersPost + Comments (42)

Open Thread: Good News for John McCain the Klown Kar Kavalcade!

by Anne Laurie| June 17, 201510:09 pm| 94 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2016, Grifters Gonna Grift, JEB! = John Ellis Not-Bush 2016, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Our Failed Media Experiment

Donald Trump: Actors Offered $50 to Cheer for Him at Campaign Announcement http://t.co/xaGwjXDoAK pic.twitter.com/zY2xecPCqW

— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 17, 2015

$50 more than the bogus crowd for Ted Cruz's announcement got. https://t.co/rkHTZoIwqz

— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) June 17, 2015

FREE MARKET, LIBTARDS!!!

Daniel Drezner, tongue so firmly in cheek as to protrude from the vulgar bodily orifice, #slatepitches to the Washington Post as to “Why Donald Trump will be good for the Republicans in 2016“:

… The bipartisan take on Trump’s announcement is that his candidacy will not be good for the GOP. Conservative outlet after conservative outlet has already gone after Trump for bringing his next-level buffoonery to the GOP stage…

Trump can only crowd out one of these candidates (unless Trump’s ego and hair are filing separately with the FEC). Also, it’s hard to see how Trump is any less experienced at politics than, say, Ben Carson, who will also be displacing one of those more experienced candidates. So let’s not exaggerate Trump’s displacement effect…

Trump makes real politicians look better by comparison — even Ted Cruz is an actual seasoned politician compared to Trump. Politics is a skill, and on a debate stage with people who have done this for a living, Trump will likely do about as well as Ross Perot did debating NAFTA. And the people watching these debates will think to themselves, “I’m not sure how I feel about Bush/Rubio/Walker/Paul, but I feel a damn sight better about them than Trump.”…

… And since Trump is so widely disliked by so many GOP voters, other more viable candidates will have a real incentive to lay waste to him. Indeed, eviscerating Trump on the debate stage could be a way for a Cruz or a Paul or Christie or a Perry to stand out. This will be much more interesting and than watching everyone argue over who is the true conservative in the race.

Would the GOP be better off if Donald Trump decided to become apolitical? Sure, probably. But since he has decided to be a political actor, it’s better for the Republicans that he be inside the tent — and get destroyed — than act like a kingmaker looking in from outside the tent.

Could be tough to ask donors for $ after announcing your campaign by declaring "I’m really rich". #Trump2016 http://t.co/HUu5DdD1A6

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) June 16, 2015

Of course, there’s at least one Repub candidate who’s not real happy about The Donald’s timing…

trump: I'll say China.. you're FIRED!! [debate crowd cheers] jeb, trying to yell over crowd: that doesn't make sense [crowd cheers louder]
— raandy (@randygdub) June 16, 2015

Actor paid to cheer for doofus presidential candidate. pic.twitter.com/hzlaqxrZzN

— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) June 17, 2015

And another public figure, predictably irked:

The reason Neil Young doesn't want his music used by Trump? "Mr. Young is a longtime supporter of @BernieSanders." http://t.co/KBX5lfozbe

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) June 17, 2015

Open Thread: Good News for <del>John McCain</del> the Klown Kar Kavalcade!Post + Comments (94)

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

So many bastards, so little time.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

The lights are all blinking red.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.