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Category Archives: Political Theatre

What in the hell is Bernie Sanders doing?

11 Feb

So, Bernie Sanders, who still isn’t really a Democrat, tweeted this today:

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This is bad strategy. Like, in the not-successful, really sucky, we don’t get House back, Trump gets re-elected way. Do we need to dig through tweets from Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan and other prominent Republicans during the Obama years? They never did this.

Sure, Ted Cruz went after other Republicans, but he was loathed as a result, which is his own party couldn’t rally behind him against an unhinged reality TV host. And Cruz at least focused most of his ire on Democrats and the left. He also constantly harkened back to the Reagan “Golden Years.” Sanders would be hard pressed to name one Democratic president he likes.

This is just bad messaging. Republicans control all branches of government. They aren’t going to attack themselves. Nor are they going to blame themselves for the inevitable disasters resulting from their “unified government.” So, can we expect the next four years to consist of both the right and left saying how much Democrats suck? How does that lead to victory of any kind?

This isn’t to suggest that the Democratic party shouldn’t change into a non-having-its-ass-kicked party. I’m all in favor of that. But focus on the positives of the party. I know Sanders believes Trump’s only in office because he didn’t win the nomination but this is petty and pointless.

Oh, and this was the first response to his tweet.

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This is the platform for the Justice Democrats, the folks who are working to ensure a second Trump term. It’s not even really a political platform. It’s more like something scribbled onto the rolling paper of a joint. It’s so stupid and fantastical, it makes you want to french kiss Ayn Rand’s corpse.

 

 

 
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Posted by on February 11, 2017 in Political Theatre, Uncategorized

 

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Context…

10 Feb

Some historical context for the new Attorney General:

A year or so ago, when Republicans were vocal in their distaste and contempt for Trump, Jeff Sessions became the first member of the Senate to endorse Trump and the only Senator to do so during the primaries.

Sessions also enthusiastically endorsed Trump at a time when he was under scrutiny for not disavowing David Duke’s support. Republican might now lament how Elizabeth Warren hurt Sessions’s feelings by discussing his history of racist actions, but a year ago, they were all dogpiling on Trump for his “disqualifying” and “unelectable” racism: This includes Marco Rubio…

 

Ted Cruz…

 

Nikki Haley…

 

And Paul Ryan…

 

So, even during the distant past of last year when Republicans pretended to care about racism and thought that condemning someone’s even tacit support of racists was worthwhile and not a “character attack,” Jeff Sessions chose to endorse Donald Trump. The weekend before Super Tuesday, Sessions could’ve backed fellow Southerner Ted Cruz — who I’m sure was begging for his endorsement, but he instead happily put on a Make America Great Again cap and again demonstrated how outside even the GOP mainstream he was — well at the time, God knows what the GOP is now.

We should never forget how craven the Republican party has been regarding Donald Trump — openly trading any pretense of dignity and honor for total power.

 
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Posted by on February 10, 2017 in Political Theatre

 

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B.S. on Parade…

08 Feb


Fortunately, for lady-putting-in-their-placer Mitch McConnell, the Sessions hearng is not an actual trial, because that is the sort of obviously impeachable statement any first year law student would know not to make if they want to prevent Coretta Scott King’s letter being admitted as rebuttal.
Coretta Scott King thinks you suck is sort of a deal breaker for any attempt to present yourself as a champion of equal protection under the law. Her mild tolerance of you is the lowest hurdle you need to clear.

Like DeVos, Sessions is not someone Rubio or even Cruz would have chosen for this very reason. That’s not to be naive enough to think they’d have selected defenders of public education and civil rights respectively but they would have bothered to pick relatively non-controversial choices with as little baggage as possible. You know, like sane politicians do.

But Trump’s picks have all demonstrated a degree of contempt for consensus and a tendency toward cronyism. Like his hero Andrew Jackson, Trump believes that to the “victor goes the spoils,” so Sessions, as an early and key supporter, gets the nod. Haley gets shipped out of state so a Trump supporter can become governor, and DeVos gets a Cabinet position as if she’d had it on her Amazon Wish List.

 
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Posted by on February 8, 2017 in Political Theatre

 

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One point..

07 Feb
My liberal friends are disappointed that Republicans narrowly confirmed the incompetent billionaire Amway (no, really) heiress Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education in what appears to be an appalling and obvious example of cronyism. I don’t blame them, but look: You can tweet, call, email, tap dance all you like, but if you want elected officials to not behave like Republicans, then you should vote for and contribute to the campaigns of Democrats. Lobbying the cannibals sprinkling paprika over you to give tofu a chance is not the most effective strategy.
 
Democrats let Marco Rubio — who showed up at work every once in a while when not having dollars stuffed into his speedos — win re-election in a Senate race the DNC mostly ignored. How does a political party let a guy who lost his own state’s presidential primary to Trump and then later endorsed Trump after describing him as a “madman” and “con artist” beat their candidate? Rubio isn’t McCain. It’s not like he had some honorable record and history in Florida that you couldn’t overcome if you at least tried.
 
They also let Toomey and Johnson win in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, states that Democrats used to win nationally. Toomey’s narrow victory was especially galling. McGinty was polling ahead of Toomey for weeks prior to the election and then lost by a little more than a percentage point.
 
This is why I will slap upside the head the next person who talks to me about Hillary Clinton winning the goddamn popular vote or Trump not having a “mandate.” It doesn’t matter. What matters is that if she’d carried Florida, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, it’s possible the Democrats could have taken the Senate. And if you can get two ignoramuses, a Russian stooge, and a white supremacist confirmed in the Senate, that seems pretty “mandate-like.”
But for those of you who stayed home because Hillary didn’t “inspire” you enough, just consider that one percentage point in Pennsylvania is why Betty DeVos is set to dismantle public education as we knew it.

devos

 
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Posted by on February 7, 2017 in Political Theatre

 

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Fake Views…

26 Jan

59 percent of Trump supporters also agree that the second image is an actual current photo of the president. (The dishonest media likes to take shots of him from unflattering angles.)

 

 
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Posted by on January 26, 2017 in Political Theatre

 

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Rigging the Vote…

24 Jan

During a meeting with congressional leaders who, if actually honorable people, have the obligation to immediately remove him from office for obvious signs of insanity, Donald Trump repeated the lie that “millions” of people “voted illegally” in the election… the one he won.

I know many Sanders supporters believed Hillary Clinton “rigged” the Democratic primary, but she actually won that race. I’m not sure what’s the point of perpetuating wide-scale voter fraud that results in the tearful concession of your candidacy to a known madman you’re certain will destroy everything you’ve spent your life fighting for. But, hey, who knows how women’s minds work, right? Up top!

Or, maybe, like Catwoman on the 1960s BATMAN series, she just hired really dumb goons.

GOON: So, uh, Mrs. C, we totally rigged that election for ya real good, like, with all those illegal votes in California.

CLINTON: Wait… you rigged California? But I was always going to win California.

GOON: Yeah, but now you’ll easily win the popular vote by, like, four million votes or some such.

CLINTON: You do understand that the popular vote doesn’t affect the outcome of the presidential election, which according to Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution is determined by the Electoral College.

GOON: Uh, so what’s the purpose, Mrs. C?

CLINTON: Why can’t I get good help!

 
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Posted by on January 24, 2017 in Political Theatre

 

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Trump Begins…

11 May

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If you’re casting a vote  using a similar line of logic as Batman villain Ra’s al Ghul, you might want to reconsider.

 
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Posted by on May 11, 2016 in Political Theatre, Uncategorized

 

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The FOX debate…

04 Aug

FOX has announced the 10 candidates for the GOP nomination who will appear in the first primetime debate.

The first primetime debate of the Republican primary race on Thursday will include ten candidates, according to FOX News: Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie and John Kasich. 

FOX, which is hosting the debate in Cleveland, Ohio, announced the list of the top 10 candidates based on recent national polling on air at 6pm ET Tuesday. 

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who earlier last week was at risk of missing the cut for the primetime debate in his home state, made the cut at the 10th spot, edging out former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. 

Candidates that did not make the cut will participate in a separate debate earlier on Thursday. Those Republicans are: Perry, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Jim Gilmore and George Pataki. 

First off, I think it’s somewhat ridiculous for FOX to enforce an arbitrary cut-off for the debate. This isn’t American Idol. No one has voted yet, and they’ve already set a distinction between major league and minor league candidates, which I think effectively ends the campaigns of everyone in Tier 2. Yeah, they’ll have a “separate debate” earlier in the day, which about as many people will watch as will participate. It’s almost like the singles table at a wedding: “Bobby, I think you and Lindsey will get along smashingly. Yes, you just met a half hour ago but you’re both polling poorly, so you have that in common.”

Let’s also take a moment to consider that four governors (Gilmore, Jindal, Pataki, and Perry), and two senators (Graham and Santorum), who despite what you might think of their politics have some practical experience, won’t be on the same stage in a primetime debate for the GOP presidential nomination with the former star of The Apprentice. That is Trump’s occupation, by the way. That’s why most voters even know his name. It’s not like Steve Jobs is still alive and is running. No one sits down to watch Hulu on their “Trump Tablets.”

And Trump is arguably still the most appealing of the “major league” candidates. I suppose Bush is supposed to get credit for being the only closeted asshole of the bunch.

 
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Posted by on August 4, 2015 in Political Theatre

 

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More on Trump…

03 Aug

From Politico:

A new Monmouth University poll has Trump at 26 percent, easily topping his competitors. The next-closest candidates — former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — are at 12 percent and 11 percent, respectively. 

Both the new Monmouth survey and an average of the five most recent live-caller polls — Fox News’ criteria for whittling the list of Republicans down to 10 candidates for Thursday night’s debate — reinforce the tiers that have developed since Trump upended the race by surging to the top.

Beneath Trump, Bush and Walker are five more candidates who are hovering around 6 percent in the poll average (and scored between 4 percent and 6 percent in the Monmouth poll): pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

I suppose the theory (or at least the hope from the Bush campaign) is that majority of GOP primary voters will eventually unite behind Jeb. But the folks supporting Cruz, Huckabee, Paul, even Carson and Christie seem more likely to back Trump. He is more similar to all of them in temperament and rhetoric. I wonder if the GOP establishment will at some point pressure Walker or Rubio to withdraw as their supporters seem likely Bush voters.

I know it’s almost a year until the GOP convention but gee, Jeb, your dad and your brother were both president. You were governor of a state for a while and now you’re losing to Donald Trump by 14 points? That’s only acceptable if the poll was conducted by Trump himself.

 
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Posted by on August 3, 2015 in Political Theatre

 

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Trump Voters…

02 Aug

Some of my favorite comments from Donald Trump supporters via Facebook:

“I’ve been wrong but as of right now this man has my VOTE UNLESS I FIND OUT HE ISNT A CHRISTIAN OR HE DOESNT BELIEVE IN GOD. What else is there ? We have to have someone who can’t be bought if there is a future. I can be utterly negative and say Lord come quickly but doesn’t the word teach us to live as though we are going to live forever and live as though our Lord could come anytime?”

“Not saying I agree with everything this guy says but FINALLY a guy running for office that isn’t pussified and PC. I think at the very least the country will lean towards him to show the other politicians to grow a pair!”

“THIS is why I’m voting for this cornhole, He’s not ANYONE’S puppet and he says what he’s thinking. GOOD or BAD All I keep hearing him say over and over is “Let’s make America Great again!” got my vote.”

“That’s the way things should be in politics, no compromise with anybody but with the country.”

“Untouchable like Elliot Ness”

‘We all remember Obama using the word CHANGE and Lord knows he sure did CHANGE things to being worse than ever. If u want real, positive CHANGE in this country vote for Trump. He really doesn’t need anybody’s special interest money and he won’t owe anything to anybody and he definitely will create jobs and secure our borders.”

“This is why The Donald is dangerous to the republicans, democrats, and every lobbyist in Washington, the money can’t influence him!! I dunno, everybody thought it was crazy for an actor to be governor of California and then president. Is the Donald the next Ronald? Anything dangerous to the establishment in Washington is more than likely good for the American people. Donald J. Trump is a very real threat to the establishment!!!”

 
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Posted by on August 2, 2015 in Political Theatre

 

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