Archive for 2016
March 4, 2016
AS SAUL ALINSKY ONCE WROTE, RIDICULE IS MAN’S MOST POTENT WEAPON. And Ted Cruz knows his Alinsky: He’s offering personalized “Trump University Certificates of Deception” at his campaign Website.
On paper (pardon the pun), it’s a brilliant bit of Alinsky-style pushback, but I’m not sure about this stunt’s execution; a personalized “Certificate of Deception” sounds a bit as if it’s granting an award for someone to then go on deceiving others, not a recognition that you’ve been played.
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE AT CNN:
● “CNN Host D. L. Hughley: Republicans ‘Literally Look Like Nazi Germany.'”
—NewsBusters, March 2nd, 2009.
● “Comedian/CNN Host: The KKK is ‘The Core’ of the Republican Party.”
—NewsBusters, yesterday.
Woodrow Wilson and Robert Byrd, call your office.
MAKE TOKYO GREAT AGAIN! The Republican Debates as Japanese Theatre, with your host and compère, Roger Simon.
INTERESTINGLY, I’M REREADING THAT BOOK NOW: Donald Trump is the beta test of a cure for The Revolt of the Elites. In fact, here’s a passage I flagged:
Simultaneously arrogant and insecure, the new elites, the professional classes in particular, regard the masses with mingled scorn and apprehension. In the United States, “Middle America” — a term that has both geographical and social implications — has some to symbolize everything that stands in the way of progress: “family values,” mindless patriotism, religious fundamentalism, racism, homophobia, retr0grade views of women. Middle Americans, as they appear to the makers of educated opinion, are hopelessly shabby, unfashionable, and provincial, ill informed about chan ges in taste or intellectual trends . . . . They are at once absurd and vaguely menacing — not because they wish to overthrow the old order but precisely because their defense of it appears so deeply irrational.
Christopher Lasch wrote it 20+ years ago, and now we’re living the endgame.
LION TED: Cruz Crushes the Detroit Debate; here are his five best moments.
But is it too little, too late?
WHILE FOLLOWING THE PRIMARIES, DON’T FORGET THE WORLD: And I’m not drinking… (Link fixed. Sorry. For some reason the only part of the link copied over were the last two words. ODD. And I didn’t notice because it was getting a bit late.)
YEAH BUT THEY’RE USED TO IT: Brazil on course for worst recession in century.
DIVE, DIVE, DIVE! Number of Troubled Companies Nears 2009 Peak.
IF ANYONE DESERVES IT, HE DOES: Agile Aero CEO Jeff Greason to Receive the National Space Society’s 2016 Space Pioneer Award for Entrepreneurial Business.
NOT THAT LOG CABIN:Log-Cabin Candidates.
THEIR TERRIFYING UTOPIAS: The 1980’s We Did NOT GET(And That’s A GOOD Thing).
DONALD TRUMP’S NEGATIVE COATTAILS: It is important to remember Trump’s appeal is not precisely to the republicans. He’s doing well by attracting enough democrats to put him over the top. Chris Christie…
THE TRULY HORRIBLE THING ABOUT THIS IS NOT THE HEADLINE: Donald Trump defends size of his penis. The truly bizarre thing is the picture. What is Kasich doing on that stage?
DAYDREAM BELIEVER: Pretending to be Something You’re Not.
I’VE BEEN AWAY PLAYING WITH SCIENTISTS: I’m not Steven Green and I’m trying not to drink myself to death this election season. So I have to do something. The something I did was attend the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop. Where my work group decided we shouldn’t give flippers to grandma. Da Boss wrote about it. Glenn Reynolds: Stars closer than you think.
March 3, 2016
STEVE GREEN’S DEBATE WRAP-UP:
I must repeat that I do not believe that Donald Trump is a fascist or a national socialist or a white supremacist or any of that.
But when it comes to pleasing the crowd, he proved himself tonight willing to play by the Führerprinzip when it comes to (ahem) enhanced interrogation.
I could try to explain to you why I thought Rubio did a good job, or maybe how Cruz seemed to downplay at least some of his more unlikeable tendencies…
But I keep coming back to that one thing: Trump and the Führerprinzip — bending the military to his will, rather than to each member’s oath to the Constitution.
I’ll repeat what I said earlier: Trump is no Hitler, but he really ought to read a history book or two.
Maybe I’m making too much of this one thing…
But shouldn’t somebody?
Wow, I had no idea how spot-on the Dr. Strangelove Photoshop was going to be tonight. Be right back while I send the recall code to the Pentagon. Have you got a quarter for the phone?
GOPe SPOKESMAN MARCO RUBIO IMPLIES BOTH TRUMP AND CRUZ ARE UNAMERICAN!
OK, not in so many words during tonight’s debate, while Cruz tells Trump to “Breath” and let him get a word in edge-wise, Rubio jokes he’d like to speak as well when the two “are done with the yoga.”
Last month, when asked if he does yoga himself, Rubio immediately said, “No — I am American!”
How dare Rubio slur the patriotism of his fellow Republicans tonight! Didn’t he know we’d check his earlier transcripts?!
(I keed, I keed — but we’re not the only ones to spot this tonight.)
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
If the four Republicans left really want to make the Democrats look bad at this debate tomorrow night they ought to leave their podiums, put on some Go-Pros and walk around Detroit for a couple of hours.
—Dennis Miller on Facebook. Found via Adam Baldwin.
UPDATE:
Video: .@TedCruz: Detroit has “been utterly decimated by 60 years of failed left-wing policy” #GOPDebate #TTT16 pic.twitter.com/5tavx5WEJZ
— Brent Baker (@BrentHBaker) March 4, 2016
THEY’RE CALLING IT “REPORTED SCIENCE FICTION,” BUT I THINK BILL QUICK COULD HAVE DONE IT BETTER: Vice: After The Big One.
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: The IRS Is Using A System That Was Hacked To Protect Victims Of A Hack—And It Was Just Hacked.