Archive for March, 2016

Here Ya Go

March 09, 2016 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized

Look, if Alfredo and I say it’s Christmas, you better go buy some little twinkling lights because we have a helluva crystal ball.

Last August, August the 1st mind you, we told you how weird it was that Ted Cruz’s SuperPAC gave Carly Fiorina’s campaign half a damn million dollars.

 

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The New York Times, two months later, catches it.  I joked at the time:

The head of Ted’s SuperPAC says it’s “nothing.” Yeah well, that’s not an answer.

He said the Cruz committee had given the money to the Fiorina group in June when “it was still considering its options.”

Wait a minute, the Ted Cruz SuperPAC wasn’t all that sure it was supporting Ted Cruz?

Well, well, well.  Now we know it was an investment.

Carly-Fiorina-1Carly Fiorina endorsed Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on Wednesday, supplying his campaign with a high-profile supporter and an eager critic of Donald J. Trump.

Mrs. Fiorina, the former presidential candidate and Hewlett-Packard chief executive, took to the role quickly, appearing as a surprise guest at Mr. Cruz’s morning rally in Florida.

Yeah, surprise, surprise, surprise.

Madam Swami Juanita and her crystal ball are spending the morning over at the Dairy Queen with Alfredo, saying, “I’ll have my hamburger with a little cynicism on the side.”

 

Maybe I Spoke Too Soon

March 09, 2016 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized

I know I told you that Molly White, the Muslim-hating State Rep in Texas, was defeated in the primary.

I may have been wrong.  Yesterday, Molly asked for a recount.

White, who lost by 118 votes out of the 19,060 cast in the Bell County district to former state Rep. Hugh Shine, must deposit $2,900 toward the recount and will ultimately be billed for its costs by the state Republican Party, according to county election officials.

So, I can’t tell you who to root for.  A Republican who embarrasses us but is totally ineffective or a Republican who doesn’t embarrass us but might be effective.

I’m pulling for Molly.  Texas has a high embarrassment threshold.

 

A Lesser Known Bush

March 09, 2016 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized

Neil Bush is a Bush Baby who never ran for President.  He used his father’s and brother’s connections to make more money than landing on Boardwalk with five hotels.

UnknownI guess he is the smart one, right?  No, not really.  He’s the sleazy one.  He made millions by being a “consultant” to businesses where he knew nothing about the business or the product.

Anyway, in 2003, Neil was in a messy divorce with the mother of his three children.  Depositions in that case caused Neil to admit, or maybe brag, about sexual encounters in Thailand and Hong Kong.

The Bush divorce, completed in April after 23 years of marriage, was prompted in part by Bush’s relationship with another woman. He admitted in the deposition that he previously had sex with several other women while on trips to Thailand and Hong Kong at least five years ago.

The women, he said, simply knocked on the door of his hotel room, entered and had sex with him. He said he did not know if they were prostitutes because they never asked for money and he did not pay them.

“Mr. Bush, you have to admit it’s a pretty remarkable thing for a man just to go to a hotel room door and open it and have a woman standing there and have sex with her,” Brown said.

“It was very unusual,” Bush said.

Apparently, not if you’re a Bush.

Before the ink was dry on the divorce, he got married again very quickly.  The new wife claimed that her two year old son was Bush’s baby which really hacked-off her husband who sued her.

I guess what Neil is best at is giving depositions.

Next, he got all into Rev. Sun Ayung Moon, after Moon bought the rightwing Washington Times and started handing out speakers fees like condoms at Planned Parenthood.

Anyway, in news that almost slipped past you but was probably very predictable, he has joined the finance committee of none other than … Ted Cruz.

“We are seeing incredible momentum around our campaign,” Cruz said in a statement. “I am thrilled to welcome these new members to our outstanding team. This race is winnowing down between two candidates and this is further testament that conservatives are continuing to unite behind this campaign.”

I wonder if there’s hookers involved?

 

…and Death is NOT an Option?

March 08, 2016 By: Primo Encarnación Category: Uncategorized

van59 asks a scary question:

IMO, Cruz is far more dangerous as a Machiavellian machine – basically, amoral regarding methodology – to achieve his goal of top power. While Trump says outlandish things, being the money independent carnie he is, is he really more dangerous than Cruz as Prez?

Primo answers:

Each of them would be a disaster for this country, but for different reasons. Think of the Republican Party as a kind of Scream Team of evil mad scientists. Cruz is one of the evilest and maddest of them all, but he still fits a recognizable political pattern that everyone can pigeonhole. There is a logic to him, based on flawed premises, to be sure, but in the parlance of the old Dungeons & Dragons character alignments, Cruz would be lawful, evil.

Trump is the experiment that has escaped the lab at ScreamTeam, Inc. Corporate Person HQ. With his only motivation being The Admiration of All, Trump MAY or MAY NOT act in a way we would deem beneficial to mankind. And you never know what particular action Trump may choose to think is beneficial to himself, and whether or not he’s lying when he says so. Trump is chaotic, evil.

Put another way, the Republicans have been peering into the “Whites Only” men’s room mirror at Nietzsche’s Abyss & Bait Shop since Lee Atwater, and Trump is what finally leered back.

Recognizing that we on the Left want neither, and that we intend to defeat either, this becomes more of an existential question for the Republicans. They fear a Cruz nomination because it will fail; they fear a Trump nomination because it will fail spectacularly and rip apart the Party. Or, it might succeed – which the last few principled Republicans fear most – and rip apart the Party.

However, we Dems & Friends intend to SOUNDLY defeat Cruz because, with a GOP Congress, he can deliberately work unimaginable evil that would take us another 20 years to claw back from – especially in the Supreme Court – for every issue of consequence to Americans and other human persons.

And we Dems & Friends intend to SOUNDLY defeat Trump because the same nightmare could occur, through error and neglect: he could sign every bill the GOP sends him, while stumbling around the levers of military power and maybe provoking some sort of WMD standoff, but certainly provoking our diplomatic corps overseas to seek political asylum.

So, pick your poison: Frankenstein? Or Frankenstein’s Drumpf?

Then think about this, and try to sleep: what if Trump actually has a plan?

Corny Cornyn

March 08, 2016 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized

Texas’ other senator, John Cornyn, is not as crazy as Ted Cruz, but he’s just as mean.

Cornyn has pledged that the senate will react to President Obama’s nomination to the Supreme Court by beating them like a piñata.

The No. 2 Senate Republican warned Monday that potential nominees to the Supreme Court should consider the battle they will be forced to endure if they are picked for the post, suggesting a high-stakes slugfest could damage their reputations in a fruitless pursuit of the top court.

“I think they will bear some resemblance to a piñata,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.

Good to know that, John.  We’ll nominate your mother.

Let me remind John that you’re blindfolded when you hit the piñata, and that it takes a bunch of people looking like fools before that sucker gets hit.

Bring it on, John.  Bring it on.

Thanks to Mary for the heads up.

What’s on Tonight

March 08, 2016 By: Primo Encarnación Category: Uncategorized

Democrats tonight are voting in Michigan (130 pledged delegates) and Mississippi (36). Right now, the only path Bernie has to the nomination is to win the pledged delegate count and then convince enough unpledged (super) delegates to change their vote so as not to thwart the will of the people. But first, he MUST demonstrate that nominating Bernie Sanders is indeed the will of the people.

It’s a tall ask. He managed to win a few small caucuses over the weekend, but like Hillary in ’08, where every winning day saw her fall further and further behind in delegates, he lost Louisiana by enough that he lost the weekend. Today should be even worse. Hillary has large leads in the polls, and even if we assign all the undecideds to Bernie, Hillary’s lead will increase by 35 or so delegates.

With the concomitant 166 decrease in pledged delegates available, Bernie is running out of runway. He needs to get this campaign off the ground, but he’s had weeks to do that and he hasn’t accomplished it yet. After we have tonight’s results, we can talk about his path forward. But if he doesn’t shake things up tonight, there won’t be a lot of tomorrows left for him

On the GOP side, OMG. Trump still maintains his lead, despite the Cruz surge over the weekend. Rubio is on his way out, apparently: he will meet his destiny next week in Florida, where he never dreamed that all the bridges he’s ever burnt there would also torch his campaign.

Tonight, they have a caucus in Hawaii and a primary in Idaho, both closed, which favors non-Trumps, for 51 total delegates. In Michigan and Mississippi, there are 99 delegates at stake. That’s a pretty big haul, 12% of the winning total. They are all being assigned proportionally, and Trump leads in recent polls, mostly.

But it’s hard to quantify yet how much being vetted – FINALLY – by the GOP, the other candidates and the media is blunting his momentum. Trump finds himself very much in the same position as Hillary: a large lead with diminishing runway for his opponents. But he’s still a “front-runner” who has yet to score over 50% in even one contest.

That having been said, Cruz has not gotten the memo about a brokered convention, and is campaigning as if he’s going to win every state, which is putting Kasich in Michigan at risk to blunt Trump, and is really hurting Rubio in Florida next week, the first winner-take-all primary, and I do mean, all.

The only big play to watch for tonight is a Michigan win for Kasich. Trump could lose Idaho, also. But unless Trump goes 0-for-4, then the only game changer left is Florida, next week.

~Primo