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Washington Post: “Indonesia’s Mount Ruang has erupted at least three times this week, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people. On Wednesday evening local time, the volcano’s eruption shot ash nearly 70,000 feet high, possibly spewing aerosols into the stratosphere, the atmosphere’s second layer.” Includes spectacular imagery.
Public Service Announcement
The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
"Countless studies have shown that people who spend less time in nature die younger and suffer higher rates of mental and physical ailments." So this Washington Post page allows you to check your own area to see how good your access to nature is.
Marie: If you don't like birthing stories, don't watch this video. But I thought it was pretty sweet -- and funny:
If you like Larry David, you may find this interview enjoyable:
Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Allison Hopecomments in a CNN opinion piece:
~~~ Here's Chapman singing "Fast Car" at the Oakland Coliseum in December 1988. ~~~
~~~ Here's the full 2024 Grammy winner's list, via CBS.
He Shot the Messenger. Washington Post: “The Messenger is shutting down immediately, the news site’s founder told employees in an email Wednesday, marking the abrupt demise of one of the stranger and more expensive recent experiments in digital media. In his email, Jimmy Finkelstein said he was 'personally devastated' to announce that he had failed in a last-ditch effort to raise more money for the site, saying that he had been fundraising as recently as the night before. Finkelstein said the site, which launched last year with outsize ambitions and a mammoth $50 million budget, would close 'effective immediately.' The New York Times first reported the site’s closure late Wednesday afternoon, appearing to catch many staffers off-guard, including editor in chief Dan Wakeford. As employees read the news story, the internal work chat service Slack erupted in what one employee called 'pandemonium.'... Minutes later, as staffers read Finkelstein’s email, its message was underscored as they were forcibly logged out of their Slack accounts. Former Messenger reporter Jim LaPorta posted on social media that employees would not receive health care or severance.”
Washington Post: “The last known locationof 'Portrait of Fräulein Lieser' by world-renowned Austrianartist Gustav Klimtwas in Vienna in the mid-1920s. The vivid painting featuring a young woman was listed as property of a 'Mrs Lieser' — believed to be Henriette Lieser, who was deported and killed by the Nazis. The only remaining record of the work was a black and white photograph from 1925, around the time it was last exhibited, which was kept in the archives of the Austrian National Library. Now, almost 100 years later, this painting by one of the world’s most famous modernist artists is on display and up for sale — having been rediscovered in what the auction house has hailed as a sensational find.... It is unclear which member of the Lieser family is depicted in the piece[.]”
~~~ Marie: I don't know if this podcast will update automatically, or if I have to do it manually. In any event, both you and I can find the latest update of the published episodes here. The episodes begin with ads, but you can fast-forward through them.
Julian Borger & Mairav Zonszein of the Guardian: "The US has accused Israel of spying on international negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme and using the intelligence gathered to persuade Congress to undermine the talks, according to a report on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal cited [cited] senior administration officials as saying the Israeli espionage operation began soon after the US opened up a secret channel of communications with Tehran in 2012, aimed at resolving the decade-long stand-off over Iran's nuclear aspirations." ...
... According to the WSJ report, "The espionage didn't upset the White House as much as Israel's sharing of inside information with U.S. lawmakers and others to drain support from a high-stakes deal intended to limit Iran's nuclear program, current and former officials said."
I know the things I said a few days ago hurt some citizens in Israel, the Israeli Arab citizens. This was not my intention and I am sorry. -- Benjamin Netanyahu, Monday
His expression of regret is nothing more than an empty gesture intended to enable his and his government's continued racist governance. -- Joint List, Israel's Arab parties coalition, via a spokesperson
Jodi Rudoren & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel apologized on Monday for making what were widely condemned as racist comments last week in saying that Arab citizens were voting in 'droves.' But even as he spoke with a group of Israeli Arabs gathered at his Jerusalem residence, the White House issued a new signal that it remained furious with Mr. Netanyahu for campaign comments that also appeared to close the door on a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict." ...
... ** Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "Blasting 'diplomatic missteps and political gamesmanship,' former Secretary of State James Baker [Bush I ]laid in hard to the Israeli prime minister on Monday evening, criticizing him for an insufficient commitment to peace and an absolutist opposition to the Iran nuclear talks.... Baker ... is now advising Jeb Bush on his presidential campaign." ...
... CW: Will some enterprising reporter now asks Jebbie if he agrees with his advisor's opinion of Netanyahu?
Kathleen Miller of Bloomberg Politics: "U.S. attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch probably won't get a Senate confirmation vote until at least mid-April, five months after she was nominated, because the chamber plans to spend this week debating its budget proposal."
Old Senators Just Say No. Burgess Everett of Politico: "A high-wattage trio of junior senators -- Democrats Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand plus GOP presidential contender Rand Paul -- is mounting an ambitious effort to have the federal government bless the use of marijuana in the 24 jurisdictions (23 states and the District of Columbia) that have voted to legalize the drug for medical purposes. Their legislation would also allow banks to handle transactions involving marijuana and force the federal government to recognize that marijuana has a medical use, rather than lumping it in with heroin and LSD.... But the Senate Judiciary Committee is emerging as a serious buzz kill for the pro-reform set. The powerful panel is stacked with some of the most senior lawmakers in Congress, many of whom came to power during a tough-on-crime era of the drug wars...."
Presidential Race
Disturbed.Nick Corasaniti & Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Senator Ted Cruz of Texas announced on Monday morning that he would run for president in 2016, becoming the first Republican candidate to declare himself officially in the race."
"I Can't Breathe, Cruz Version." Kendall Breitman of Politico: Ted Cruz "blitzes" the morning shows today, says, "I'll tell you, the energy and the exhilaration there yesterday and we're seeing on the trail takes your breath away."
Here's the transcript of Ted's Excellent Speech, complete with (APPLAUSE) & (LAUGHTER) indicators. He seemed to expend a lot of effort trying to get the kids to imagine Imaginary President Cruz. ...
... New York TimesEditors: "Of course, if you know Mr. Cruz, or are familiar with how government is supposed to work, or with reality in general, you'll find some of his imaginaries problematic, like abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, sealing the border, or 'repealing every word of Obamacare.'... Mr. Cruz's speech was an exercise in crowd-pleasing dissonance; the contradictions slip by if you're not paying attention. America is great but needs to be made great again. Privacy is sacrosanct, and government should not get between you and your doctor, unless you're a woman who wants to avoid or end a pregnancy.... His federalist views are incoherent: he wants states to be free to experiment with marijuana legalization, but attacked Mr. Obama for not cracking down on states that do so.... Mr. Cruz, whose oratory captures so many Republican paradoxes and idiocies, especially on immigration and health care, has set a solid baseline for the messy job ahead."
Ed Kilgore: "All this imagining gets very labored and tedious -- particularly since Cruz takes a detour between his biographical and ideological sections into the late eighteenth century and the Holy Founders charged by God with forever limiting government (a staple of Con-Con revisionist history). But in a way it's appropriate, too, since Cruz is the self-designated champion for those who really don't like America as it is and prefer an imagined version where the Calvin Coolidge administration is the wave of the future."
"President Cruz" Will Always Be Imaginary. Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "The most interesting question about Mr. Cruz’s candidacy is whether he has a very small chance to win or no chance at all.... Mr. Cruz is not an outsider, grass-roots version of President Obama in 2008. He is unacceptable to many conservative officials, operatives, interest group leaders and pundits. If they don't take him seriously, voters won't either. The elites would rally to defeat such a candidate if he ever seemed poised to win."
Manu Raju of Politico: John "Cornyn [R-Texas], the Senate majority whip, said in an interview Monday that he would stay neutral in the Republican primary, declining to endorse Cruz just hours after he became the first candidate to officially declare his presidential run.... 'You know, we've got a lot of Texans who are running for president, so I'm going to watch from the sidelines,' Cornyn said when asked if he would back Cruz. (Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is considering a run as well.) Cornyn denied his position was retribution for Cruz's refusal to back him during his Senate primary last year."
Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz says he wants to get rid of the Internal Revenue Service. This is a phenomenally bad idea, one so obviously wrongheaded it's hard to believe he really means it.... Someone has to collect the money that keeps our government up and running.... The IRS is a cash-flow-positive agency, collecting an estimated $255 for every $1 appropriated to it.... Yet the view that the IRS's budget should be minimized, and perhaps zeroed out entirely, is peculiarly popular on the right.... As Cruz likes to point out, we 'have more words in the IRS code than there are in the Bible.'... This is Congress's fault, for it is Congress that writes the Internal Revenue Code and clutters it with myriad carve-outs, loopholes, preferences, deductions and complicated categories...."
Danny Vinik of the New Republic: "... above all, one particular position should disqualify Cruz -- or anyone else who holds it -- from the presidency: using the debt ceiling as a hostage device.... Beyond his policy positions, Cruz has demonstrated himself to be particularly un-presidential.... Throughout his time in the Senate, Cruz has shown a distinct lack of interest in policymaking or governing. Instead, he has calculated every move to prepare for a 2016 run. [He's been a senator only since 2013.] Cruz's role in the Republican primary will likely benefit Democrats. He'll pull the rest of the party to the right on immigration, taxes and health care.... The Senator who would hold the government hostage has become the candidate doing the same to his party."
Dave Weigel: "Announcing his presidential bid at Liberty University is giving Ted Cruz something that some candidates dream of: A massive crowd that has to be there. The Texas senator is speaking at the Christian university's convocation, a mandatory event for the school's students, held in the made-for-TV Vines center. Not everyone enrolled at Liberty University ... is thrilled by this.... Young Americans for Liberty ... took the Cruz visit as an opportunity to start promoting [Rand Paul] and signing up their peers." ...
... A. J. Feather of ABC News: "Several students wearing 'Stand With Rand' shirts made their way into seats directly behindCruz on stage this morning. The students' shirts were blurry yet visible in many of the shots during Cruz's speech." ...
Those red shirts to the right of the picture are Rand Paul shirts. In much of the televised speech, they surrounded Cruz.
Steve M.: "Ted Cruz announced today that he's a candidate for president -- and because (according to a campaign spokesperson) he spoke without reading from a prepared text, 'Teleprompter' is now trending on Twitter."
Malice Is of the Essence of the Scheme. Jonathan Chait: "In his announcement speech, Cruz ticked through his plans for America: repealing Obamacare, a flat tax, securing the border, banning abortion, preserving traditional marriage, opposing Common Core, and unyielding support for Israel and opposition to terrorism.... The substance is unremarkable standard-issue Republicanism.... Because he agrees with the policy goals of figures like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, all he can do to distinguish himself from them is stoke the suspicions of the base that those goals have been undermined from within.... He is the one Republican too brave and pure to submit to the Obama agenda. If his tactics fall short, it merely serves to dramatize his colleague's fecklessness.... This is why so many Republicans despise Cruz, and it will make it difficult for him to win the nomination. But the loathing between Cruz and his party is not some failing of etiquette. It is his entire plan."
Trump Goes Birther on Cruz. David Knowles of Bloomberg Politics: "In an interview with MyFoxNY, [Donald] Trump said that Cruz's birthplace, Canada, could be a problem for the Texan's presidential bid. 'Well he's got, you know, a hurdle that nobody else seems to have at this moment," said Trump, who was born in Queens [CW: to a Scottish mother]. 'It's a hurdle and somebody could certainly look at it very seriously. He was born in Canada ... if you know ... and when we all studied our history lessons ... you're supposed to be born in this country, so I just don't know how the courts would rule on it. But it's an additional hurdle that he has that no one else seems to have.'" ...
... CBS News: "The Constitution says that only 'natural-born citizens' can be president, but it does not clearly define the term. Most legal scholars argue that a natural-born citizen is one who does not have to be naturalized.... Still, it's a legal question that has never been answered because the Supreme Court has never ruled on the issue.... Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona..., was born in Panama, while his father was serving in the U.S. Navy. But he was born on a U.S. military base, and both of his parents were U.S. citizens. That didn't stop the lawsuits -- there were, the Washington Post noted at the time, three cases against McCain's candidacy based on questions about his status as a natural-born citizen. In order to settle the matter..., Mr. Obama and Hillary Clinton, who were both senators at the time, co-sponsored a resolution which stated, 'John Sidney McCain, III, is a "natural born Citizen" under Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution of the United States.'"
Ted Practices Kissing Wife. Michael Falcone of ABC News: On Sunday, "An Associated Press photographer captured a series of shots of a would-be First Family in training. They show Cruz ... during a walk-through at Virginia's Liberty University, a Christian college in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he will make his White House bid official Monday morning. In some of the photos, Cruz walks hand-in-hand with his wife, Heidi, and the couple's two daughters -- apparently practicing everything from their wave to a kiss." ...
... The kiss, BTW, violates Liberty U.'s code of conduct, & the kiss was "a four-reprimand offense." Since the Cruzes kissed twice, once in rehearsal & once after Ted's Excellent Speech, I guess that would be eight reprimands.
A CW Warning to All Readers Inclined to Donate to Ted's Campaign: according to his Website, Tedsometimes self-identifies as nigerian-prince.com. (I thought Ted was born in Calgary, Canada, not Nigeria. Something for the Donald to investigate.) So that credit card donation you make (and the number on the card) might be headed for Nigeria. In fact, Ted's crack tech team has since removed his Nigerian prince alter-ego. Also, had I known those e-mails telling me about my multi-mlllion-dollar Nigerian bank account were coming from Ted, I would have taken them less seriously. ...
... Mike Masnick of Tech Dirt: "A few hours after this was first noticed, the Cruz campaign appears to have removed nigerian-prince.com from its certificate, but it still raises some questions about just who he has hired to build his websites. I guess that's what happens when even the technologists in your own party openly mock Ted Cruz's ignorance when it comes to technology issues like net neutrality." ...
... FINALLY, if you're in the mood to support Ted, you might want to go to tedcruz.com . It doesn't say much: just "Support President Obama. Immigration Reform Now!"
Marco Gets Everything Wrong
... [the White House] will comment on the elections of an ally [Israel], calling the rhetoric of the election divisive, but when Iran has a fraudulent election and kills people that protest against it, we can't comment. -- Marco Rubio, Senate speech, March 19
Rubio appears to have created a cartoon version of the White House reaction to the Green Revolution. While the administration did cite a need to respect Iran's sovereignty, the president did more than simply decline to comment. He deplored the violence and eventually condemned the regime's reaction to the protests. -- Glenn Kessler, Washington Post
Dan Merica of CNN: "When [Hillary Clinton] was asked to headline an event with hundreds of political reporters, editors and executives, she recounted thinking, 'What could possibly go wrong?' 'I am all about new beginnings,' Clinton said at the Toner Prize event in Washington. 'A new grandchild, another new hair style, a new email account, why not a new relationship with the press? So here goes, no more secrecy, no more zone of privacy. After all, what good did that do me?'"
Charles Pierce thinks libruls should quit beggingElizabeth Warren to run for president. CW: I'm with him till he wraps it up with a conspiracy-theory-lite. I do think that whoever wins the nomination should beg Warren to share the ticket.
News Ledes
Burlington Free Press: "Robert Durst, the real estate millionaire who has been charged with murder and weapons offenses following an HBO documentary, has been linked to the 1971 disappearance of a Middlebury College female student, town police say. 'We are aware of the connection between Robert Durst and the disappearance of Lynne Schulze,' Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley said in a statement."
Washington Post: "An Airbus plane flying from Barcelona to Duesseldorf has crashed in southern France in a rugged mountain region. French President François Hollande said he did not expect survivors among the 148 people on board the flight operated by Germanwings, the budget airline run by Lufthansa. Le Monde reported that 142 passengers were aboard the A320, along with six crew members." ...
New York Times: "Just over six weeks before seeking a second term in May's general election, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain has ruled out serving a third, in a declaration that provoked surprise as well as criticism and put his Conservative Party on the defensive."
Ted Cruz: “Instead of a federal government that seek to dictate school curriculum through Common Core. Imagine repealing every word of common core. Imagine embracing school choice as the civil rights issue of the next generation. That every single child, regardless of race, ethnicity, wealth or zip code, every child in america has the right to a quality education."
A Quality Education. The one he says all children should have. Common Core and other educators impose their misguided will on the hapless children. He will bestow upon them the truth and the light. And they will be grateful. And Ted saw that it was good.
Cruz is definitely an American in all ways including the constitution. The proof is that there is no other place on earth where as asshole like Cruz would able to run for leader. In Canada he would likely be in a mental institution. Yes we are truly exceptional.
CW: I'm bringing forward this commentary by Elizabeth, made late yesterday:
Yes, there is still ice and snow in New Hampshire. At 8 this morning, the wind chill was 1 degree. Enough already. But I think I preferred snowbanks that towered over me to the influx of Republicans from away who, once they announce their intention to run for the highest office in the land, will practically be summer residents. I used to enjoy the primary season in New Hampshire. Meeting Senator Paul Simon in a bar, fresh from his appearance on Saturday Night Live (yes, I'm going back a few years). John McCain, before he went nuts, speaking at the local community center in my town. Not meeting a friend at a cafe in Portsmouth because Michelle Obama was in there and there wasn't room to squeeze one more person in. Shaking Bill Clinton's hand on the street in Exeter and being amazed at the sensation of all that energy being turned directly on me for just a few seconds. Now, my Democratic friends and I look at each other in misery. All these nuts wandering around and no Democratic candidates for us to go listen to, assess, cheer. We (talking about my friends, not the state as a whole) all looked over Obama and Hillary very thoroughly in 2008; most of us went with Obama. I haven't spoken with anyone yet who is enthusiastic about Hillary. Resigned would be a better description. We're all so sick of being housebound and so tired already of the Republicans sucking all the air out of the room, I imagine viable Democratic candidates would get a hearty welcome.
As for global warming, send some up here, please. I've had enough of climate change for now.
CW: Also, here's Victoria D.'s response to Elizabeth:
@Elizabeth: what a great job recounting your experiences with primaries in N.H. I never got to shake Bill Clinton's hand, but I can tell you that even from my vantage point sitting in the front at a fundraising luncheon the man was electrifying. And I can entirely relate to your reaction to Hilary, unfortunately.
Poor Wisconsinites have been voting themselves long bridges to nowhere as of late and shrewd politicians have managed to take the comparably high standard of living and give it some gut punches for personal ambitions.
According to Pew research, Wisconsin has seen the largest contraction of any state of its "middle class" since 2000, as their median income has dropped and belt-tightening has set in. The Conservative dream of "boot strapping" seems to be on the horizon.
Clearly not all of this can be blamed on Scooty Walker since he's only been directing the downfall since 2011 but time will tell whether "Freedom to Work" should have been accompanied with a little asterisk "*more for less"
Above on RC I see (at this writing) approximately 23 links to stories about Ted Cruz. Bad press! Lousy press! Terrible reviews! ...and every Web site that I visit is covering Ted. He's a creep! He's an egoist! He's a ________(fill in more negatives here___! But...
HE MUST BE ABSOLUTELY LOVING THE FRONT PAGE ATTENTION!
His type thrives on being a lighting rod.
I'm at the point that I reached with someone from Alaska whose initials are SP where I refused to click on the stories. Clicks tell online media how a story plays, grabs attention. Supposedly shows viewer/reader interest.
My thinking, my hope is —maybe if we don't 'click'...he'll go away.
@MAG: I share your views, up to a point. Ted is not going to get a sad if a few liberals fail to click on stories about him, & the media who cover him won't lose much, either. As long as he's news -- & that will be for a long time because he's a Senator with a big mouth -- I'll link to stories about him.
I do think he may play an important role in the GOP primary, not so much in "driving the other candidates to the right," which is the punditry's go-to phrase, but in creating embarrassing moment during debates. If the RNC-approved winger moderators try to give him little chance to do that, Ted will find another way. As Chait points out, Ted likes to be disruptive.
It's true, as you suggest, that negative press doesn't hurt Ted at all. His supporters believe that every story that even slightly disses Ted is the product of liberal-media bias. A negative story only makes them love him more. And it enhances that persecution complex he's been wearing on his sleeve forevah.
I quit linking to stories about Palin, unless they were particularly outrageous or amusing, like that family-brawl thing, when she ceased to make actual news & the "news" was What Sarah Said. I suspect Ted Cruz Gnuzmaker will outlive me.
@ Safari: Please pardon if I posted these earlier - memory is what it is. Digby had a couple of recent posts that summarize both the Wisconsin slide and the perception that California has regulated business out of existence:
I've been thinking for a while that Cruz is not the guy to drag everyone further to the right. He floats along on his own special tributary of crazy. Besides, dragging the rest of the potential candidates to the right? Is that even possible? Santorum? Perry? Fuckabee? Walker? These guys already have their noses pressed so far in to the wall on the far right that they're breathing through their eyelids.
Paul may not look as far right as those guys but that's only if you don't pay too much attention. For right-wing dementia he substitutes whacko conspiracy theories and inchoate crackpotism. Like Cruz, he lives in his own Uncanny Valley (a term used in computer CG for created beings who look and act somewhat like real humans but aren't close enough. The resulting effect is usually described as creepy or disquieting--check out Marie's picture of Cruz and tell me that ain't a disturbing image. The adjective "uncanny" comes from Freud's use of the term to describe something or someone that can be both familiar and disturbing at the same time). They both somewhat resemble actual human beings but are often so disturbing that they can easily trigger revulsion.
Both Cruz and Paul harbor beliefs with so many internal inconsistencies and paradoxical dead ends that no one but those whose belief systems are equally wanting in logic could see them in the White House. This includes any reporter who still looks at either of them as realistic candidates for the office of president.
I'm leaving out a few idiots: Rubio, Ryan, Christie, Trump, Graham, Carson, et al, all of whom share many of the same problems, which brings us to Bush III, the "mainstream", "moderate" choice. Jeb Bush is moderate only in the same way cholera could be considered moderate compared to the Black Death.
So I don't see Ted Cruz dragging any of these candidates further to the right. I do see his demagoguery promoting wilder and more demagogic claims by his opponents, which will not tend to endear them to voters who aren't already delusional. But Cruz's real danger will be, I think, helping to cancel out some of the support for people like Perry and Paul. This means that little Jebbie may be the last man standing and he could potentially be much more of a challenge than Paul, who, despite being considered a "serious" candidate, has demonstrated the kind of thin-skinned, humorless rudeness that doesn't bode well for a long election season.
So let the Cruz ledes fly. His exercise in nihilistic narcissism, in any sane universe, would be cause for any journalist or commentator who is not already in the bag to sit up and finally start talking about the stupefying state of the Republican Party, a dysfunctional, off the chain sideshow that has foisted clowns like Cruz on the nation when we're in need of true leaders, not simple-minded navel gazing wankers.
One more thought about Cruz's choice for the location of his announcement.
No candidate wants to throw down the gauntlet in front of an indifferent or even hostile crowd. If I were running for president, I'd want supporters and friendly faces in the crowd (which means I probably wouldn't be opening the ball at Liberty University). But now that his campaign is off and running, does anyone really believe he'll be coming to Harlem or Ferguson or cities with a predominantly immigrant population to talk to them and find out their needs and desires?
Don't be silly.
George W. Bush pioneered the bubble presidential campaign, using campaign stops as shows of fealty from the great unwashed masses who had to sign loyalty oaths, not to the United States, but to George Bush personally, before being allowed in to hear him speak. He never subjected himself to the potential of differing opinions, and neither will Cruz nor any other Republican candidate. Hecklers in GOP campaigns are dragged out and kicked around.
Because not a single one of these people pretend that they're running to be president of all Americans.
They only care about those on their side. Everyone else is an enemy.
Just look at Bibi's campaign. This is the Right Wing Way.
In other news, the Supreme Court has allowed the vote suppression law in Kochistan (formerly Wisconsin) to stand without challenge. Anyone with even a smattering of tea leaf reading could reasonably surmise that this decline offers a pretty good look into the thinking of the court, which is to say, that the tighter the voting restrictions, the better for their party. After all, isn't that their job? Protect confederate pols from the rigors of actual democracy?
Toward the end of the Post article linked above, we read of the all the sadness in Texas 'cuz not enough poison to kill death row prisoners. Don't you hate it when that happens? But wingnuts, especially those trained in Biblical vengeance (what matters if the prisoner is actually innocent? Too fucking bad, as "Justice" Scalia has often said. Determining innocence is not his job, man) are nothing if not resourceful.
Should the state of Utah not be able to get the right drugs to croak a guy, and should the gas chamber be on the fritz, or should the electric chair develop a short, they'll be ready to make sure those crim'nals get what for. The answer? Bring back the firing squad, dammit. Don't know why we got rid of it in the first place, ya know? It bein' such a fun social event. Git all your friends and tell 'em all to bring their shootin' irons and meet at the jail. We'll drag that piece-o-shit out and blast him to kingdom come.
Justice, dammit. For Freedom! And guns!
And if the firing squad idea peters out, why, there's always hangin' and stompin' and flayin' alive, and burnin' at the stake, and we can get us some horses and do some drawin' and quarterin'. The younguns would love to see some good old fashioned disemboweling. Fox might love it too!
Those wingnuts. Always ready with better and more fun ways to execute people. Even the innocent ones.
God'll sort 'em all out later. Praise Jesus and line up for the firing squad.
@Akhilleus: Thanks for covering the Supremes' news re: Wisconsin voter ID, which I plumb forgot about in my excitement over Ted's Big Day. That the Supremes denied hearing the case means that they couldn't get four justices to agree to hear it, so at least one so-called liberal justice (Stephen Breyer) said "no."
@Akhilleus: Re: the snap of Ted. As I mentioned, I had plenty to choose from. The guy just looks insane. According to one of those biographical stories I linked, Ted had wanted to be an actor. If he had pursued that career, I'm sure he would have been cast in roles as psychopathic killers & other villainous characters; that is to say, playing to type.
Ohhhh yeah. I can easily see Cruz as a movie bad guy.
But he'd only get parts in B movies (maybe internet movies) because he lacks any sense of nuance or complexity necessary for a truly interesting multi-dimensional malefactor, sort of what we were saying about the GOP lineup not having anyone even up to the standards of a third rate Shakespearean brute.
No Iagos in this lot, and certainly not Cruz.
He'd be better off playing a mustache twirling CEO type on the verge of turning a city park into a toxic waste dump for his environment killing company. "Bwah-ha-ha, you little brats! No more swing sets or monkey bars for you! And you liberal jogger types, you'll be wading through my nuclear waste products to buy your granola bars! Bwah-ha-ha-ha!"
Cruz's villains would make the Hamburglar in those old McDonald's TV commercials look like Satan from Paradise Lost.
Jeb Lund in the Guardian: “Senator Ted Cruz’s announcement at Liberty University of his campaign for President of the United States on Monday was breathlessly overwrought and preposterously vague, in the classic Ted Cruz style of seeming on the verge of weeping at its own vacuity.”
In a typical week, in the Newark Star Ledger about 6 of 7 editorials are complaints about our governor. Today was special. "Ted Cruz: the man who makes Christie look like a champ". And that comes with a note that our governor is 'terrible'. P.S. They note that that Foreign Policy magazine described Cruz as 'the human equivalent of one of those flower squirters that clowns wear on their lapels".
Julian Borger & Mairav Zonszein of the Guardian: "The US has accused Israel of spying on international negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme and using the intelligence gathered to persuade Congress to undermine the talks, according to a report on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal cited [cited] senior administration officials as saying the Israeli espionage operation began soon after the US opened up a secret channel of communications with Tehran in 2012, aimed at resolving the decade-long stand-off over Iran's nuclear aspirations." ...
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Ted Cruz: “Instead of a federal government that seek to dictate school curriculum through Common Core. Imagine repealing every word of common core. Imagine embracing school choice as the civil rights issue of the next generation. That every single child, regardless of race, ethnicity, wealth or zip code, every child in america has the right to a quality education."
A Quality Education. The one he says all children should have. Common Core and other educators impose their misguided will on the hapless children. He will bestow upon them the truth and the light. And they will be grateful. And Ted saw that it was good.
Cruz is definitely an American in all ways including the constitution.
The proof is that there is no other place on earth where as asshole like Cruz would able to run for leader. In Canada he would likely be in a mental institution. Yes we are truly exceptional.
And let's be fair, he is not alone.
CW: I'm bringing forward this commentary by Elizabeth, made late yesterday:
Yes, there is still ice and snow in New Hampshire. At 8 this morning, the wind chill was 1 degree. Enough already. But I think I preferred snowbanks that towered over me to the influx of Republicans from away who, once they announce their intention to run for the highest office in the land, will practically be summer residents. I used to enjoy the primary season in New Hampshire. Meeting Senator Paul Simon in a bar, fresh from his appearance on Saturday Night Live (yes, I'm going back a few years). John McCain, before he went nuts, speaking at the local community center in my town. Not meeting a friend at a cafe in Portsmouth because Michelle Obama was in there and there wasn't room to squeeze one more person in. Shaking Bill Clinton's hand on the street in Exeter and being amazed at the sensation of all that energy being turned directly on me for just a few seconds. Now, my Democratic friends and I look at each other in misery. All these nuts wandering around and no Democratic candidates for us to go listen to, assess, cheer. We (talking about my friends, not the state as a whole) all looked over Obama and Hillary very thoroughly in 2008; most of us went with Obama. I haven't spoken with anyone yet who is enthusiastic about Hillary. Resigned would be a better description. We're all so sick of being housebound and so tired already of the Republicans sucking all the air out of the room, I imagine viable Democratic candidates would get a hearty welcome.
As for global warming, send some up here, please. I've had enough of climate change for now.
Elizabeth
CW: Also, here's Victoria D.'s response to Elizabeth:
@Elizabeth: what a great job recounting your experiences with primaries in N.H. I never got to shake Bill Clinton's hand, but I can tell you that even from my vantage point sitting in the front at a fundraising luncheon the man was electrifying. And I can entirely relate to your reaction to Hilary, unfortunately.
Victoria D.
Poor Wisconsinites have been voting themselves long bridges to nowhere as of late and shrewd politicians have managed to take the comparably high standard of living and give it some gut punches for personal ambitions.
According to Pew research, Wisconsin has seen the largest contraction of any state of its "middle class" since 2000, as their median income has dropped and belt-tightening has set in. The Conservative dream of "boot strapping" seems to be on the horizon.
Clearly not all of this can be blamed on Scooty Walker since he's only been directing the downfall since 2011 but time will tell whether "Freedom to Work" should have been accompanied with a little asterisk "*more for less"
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/mike_ivey/report-wisconsin-worst-in-nation-on-shrinking-middle-class/article_f802788b-2405-5e5f-9fe3-522939779911.html
Above on RC I see (at this writing) approximately 23 links to stories about Ted Cruz. Bad press! Lousy press! Terrible reviews! ...and every Web site that I visit is covering Ted. He's a creep! He's an egoist! He's a ________(fill in more negatives here___! But...
HE MUST BE ABSOLUTELY LOVING THE FRONT PAGE ATTENTION!
His type thrives on being a lighting rod.
I'm at the point that I reached with someone from Alaska whose initials are SP where I refused to click on the stories.
Clicks tell online media how a story plays, grabs attention.
Supposedly shows viewer/reader interest.
My thinking, my hope is —maybe if we don't 'click'...he'll go away.
@MAG: I share your views, up to a point. Ted is not going to get a sad if a few liberals fail to click on stories about him, & the media who cover him won't lose much, either. As long as he's news -- & that will be for a long time because he's a Senator with a big mouth -- I'll link to stories about him.
I do think he may play an important role in the GOP primary, not so much in "driving the other candidates to the right," which is the punditry's go-to phrase, but in creating embarrassing moment during debates. If the RNC-approved winger moderators try to give him little chance to do that, Ted will find another way. As Chait points out, Ted likes to be disruptive.
It's true, as you suggest, that negative press doesn't hurt Ted at all. His supporters believe that every story that even slightly disses Ted is the product of liberal-media bias. A negative story only makes them love him more. And it enhances that persecution complex he's been wearing on his sleeve forevah.
I quit linking to stories about Palin, unless they were particularly outrageous or amusing, like that family-brawl thing, when she ceased to make actual news & the "news" was What Sarah Said. I suspect Ted Cruz Gnuzmaker will outlive me.
Marie
For an antidote to Cruz and all the other bullshit out there, yesterday's Radio Times (WHYY) had an interview with Barney Frank; pure gold:
http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2015/03/23/31190/
@ Safari: Please pardon if I posted these earlier - memory is what it is. Digby had a couple of recent posts that summarize both the Wisconsin slide and the perception that California has regulated business out of existence:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/dispatch-from-great-lakes-which-one-did.html
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/oranges-vs-oranges.html
Re: Tailgunner ledes.
I've been thinking for a while that Cruz is not the guy to drag everyone further to the right. He floats along on his own special tributary of crazy. Besides, dragging the rest of the potential candidates to the right? Is that even possible? Santorum? Perry? Fuckabee? Walker? These guys already have their noses pressed so far in to the wall on the far right that they're breathing through their eyelids.
Paul may not look as far right as those guys but that's only if you don't pay too much attention. For right-wing dementia he substitutes whacko conspiracy theories and inchoate crackpotism. Like Cruz, he lives in his own Uncanny Valley (a term used in computer CG for created beings who look and act somewhat like real humans but aren't close enough. The resulting effect is usually described as creepy or disquieting--check out Marie's picture of Cruz and tell me that ain't a disturbing image. The adjective "uncanny" comes from Freud's use of the term to describe something or someone that can be both familiar and disturbing at the same time). They both somewhat resemble actual human beings but are often so disturbing that they can easily trigger revulsion.
Both Cruz and Paul harbor beliefs with so many internal inconsistencies and paradoxical dead ends that no one but those whose belief systems are equally wanting in logic could see them in the White House. This includes any reporter who still looks at either of them as realistic candidates for the office of president.
I'm leaving out a few idiots: Rubio, Ryan, Christie, Trump, Graham, Carson, et al, all of whom share many of the same problems, which brings us to Bush III, the "mainstream", "moderate" choice. Jeb Bush is moderate only in the same way cholera could be considered moderate compared to the Black Death.
So I don't see Ted Cruz dragging any of these candidates further to the right. I do see his demagoguery promoting wilder and more demagogic claims by his opponents, which will not tend to endear them to voters who aren't already delusional. But Cruz's real danger will be, I think, helping to cancel out some of the support for people like Perry and Paul. This means that little Jebbie may be the last man standing and he could potentially be much more of a challenge than Paul, who, despite being considered a "serious" candidate, has demonstrated the kind of thin-skinned, humorless rudeness that doesn't bode well for a long election season.
So let the Cruz ledes fly. His exercise in nihilistic narcissism, in any sane universe, would be cause for any journalist or commentator who is not already in the bag to sit up and finally start talking about the stupefying state of the Republican Party, a dysfunctional, off the chain sideshow that has foisted clowns like Cruz on the nation when we're in need of true leaders, not simple-minded navel gazing wankers.
One more thought about Cruz's choice for the location of his announcement.
No candidate wants to throw down the gauntlet in front of an indifferent or even hostile crowd. If I were running for president, I'd want supporters and friendly faces in the crowd (which means I probably wouldn't be opening the ball at Liberty University). But now that his campaign is off and running, does anyone really believe he'll be coming to Harlem or Ferguson or cities with a predominantly immigrant population to talk to them and find out their needs and desires?
Don't be silly.
George W. Bush pioneered the bubble presidential campaign, using campaign stops as shows of fealty from the great unwashed masses who had to sign loyalty oaths, not to the United States, but to George Bush personally, before being allowed in to hear him speak. He never subjected himself to the potential of differing opinions, and neither will Cruz nor any other Republican candidate. Hecklers in GOP campaigns are dragged out and kicked around.
Because not a single one of these people pretend that they're running to be president of all Americans.
They only care about those on their side. Everyone else is an enemy.
Just look at Bibi's campaign. This is the Right Wing Way.
In other news, the Supreme Court has allowed the vote suppression law in Kochistan (formerly Wisconsin) to stand without challenge. Anyone with even a smattering of tea leaf reading could reasonably surmise that this decline offers a pretty good look into the thinking of the court, which is to say, that the tighter the voting restrictions, the better for their party. After all, isn't that their job? Protect confederate pols from the rigors of actual democracy?
Toward the end of the Post article linked above, we read of the all the sadness in Texas 'cuz not enough poison to kill death row prisoners. Don't you hate it when that happens? But wingnuts, especially those trained in Biblical vengeance (what matters if the prisoner is actually innocent? Too fucking bad, as "Justice" Scalia has often said. Determining innocence is not his job, man) are nothing if not resourceful.
Should the state of Utah not be able to get the right drugs to croak a guy, and should the gas chamber be on the fritz, or should the electric chair develop a short, they'll be ready to make sure those crim'nals get what for. The answer? Bring back the firing squad, dammit. Don't know why we got rid of it in the first place, ya know? It bein' such a fun social event. Git all your friends and tell 'em all to bring their shootin' irons and meet at the jail. We'll drag that piece-o-shit out and blast him to kingdom come.
Justice, dammit. For Freedom! And guns!
And if the firing squad idea peters out, why, there's always hangin' and stompin' and flayin' alive, and burnin' at the stake, and we can get us some horses and do some drawin' and quarterin'. The younguns would love to see some good old fashioned disemboweling. Fox might love it too!
Those wingnuts. Always ready with better and more fun ways to execute people. Even the innocent ones.
God'll sort 'em all out later. Praise Jesus and line up for the firing squad.
@Akhilleus: Thanks for covering the Supremes' news re: Wisconsin voter ID, which I plumb forgot about in my excitement over Ted's Big Day. That the Supremes denied hearing the case means that they couldn't get four justices to agree to hear it, so at least one so-called liberal justice (Stephen Breyer) said "no."
Marie
@Akhilleus: Re: the snap of Ted. As I mentioned, I had plenty to choose from. The guy just looks insane. According to one of those biographical stories I linked, Ted had wanted to be an actor. If he had pursued that career, I'm sure he would have been cast in roles as psychopathic killers & other villainous characters; that is to say, playing to type.
Marie
Marie,
Ohhhh yeah. I can easily see Cruz as a movie bad guy.
But he'd only get parts in B movies (maybe internet movies) because he lacks any sense of nuance or complexity necessary for a truly interesting multi-dimensional malefactor, sort of what we were saying about the GOP lineup not having anyone even up to the standards of a third rate Shakespearean brute.
No Iagos in this lot, and certainly not Cruz.
He'd be better off playing a mustache twirling CEO type on the verge of turning a city park into a toxic waste dump for his environment killing company. "Bwah-ha-ha, you little brats! No more swing sets or monkey bars for you! And you liberal jogger types, you'll be wading through my nuclear waste products to buy your granola bars! Bwah-ha-ha-ha!"
Cruz's villains would make the Hamburglar in those old McDonald's TV commercials look like Satan from Paradise Lost.
Jeb Lund in the Guardian: “Senator Ted Cruz’s announcement at Liberty University of his campaign for President of the United States on Monday was breathlessly overwrought and preposterously vague, in the classic Ted Cruz style of seeming on the verge of weeping at its own vacuity.”
In a typical week, in the Newark Star Ledger about 6 of 7 editorials are complaints about our governor. Today was special. "Ted Cruz: the man who makes Christie look like a champ". And that comes with a note that our governor is 'terrible'.
P.S. They note that that Foreign Policy magazine described Cruz as
'the human equivalent of one of those flower squirters that clowns wear on their lapels".