Ted and Friends
Ted Cruz is threatening to shut down the government of the United Damn States of America because he can.
No other reason.
Under Rule 22, even one senator can force two “cloture” votes and up to 30 hours of debate on any bill simply by objecting to a quick up-or-down vote.
There are two candidates for a potential filibuster that could force this scenario: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Both have been screaming bloody murder over the fact that the House GOP bill fails to block Obama’s executive actions which would allow more than 4 million undocumented immigrants to gain three-year work permits.
Ted knows that he cannot stop an executive order but that’s not the point. Actually doing something is never the point with Ted. Putting on a show and forcing everyone to look at him is the point. He’s standing at the center of the government yelling, “Look at me. Look at me. Look. At. Me.”
Now Ted sees this differently than I do. He says he’s not shutting down the government; Barack Obama is. Barack Obama is forcing Ted to shut down the government so it’s Barack Obama’s fault. Which sounds like every wife beater on the planet. He’s saying, “Obama is forcing me to hit him.”
Look, I’m not saying that Ted Cruz is a juvenile narcissistic bully … wait … oh hell, that’s exactly what Im saying.
JJ, show a little respect! Ted Cruz is supposed to be the ruler of America–his daddy told him so every day. And Cruz Sr. got the word direct from You Know Who–that deity who apparently is a member of the Republican Party.
1I TOLD my nephew that Cruz has been pretty quiet and that always makes me nervous. Or maybe I invite the wrong folks over for dinner. Now why, exactly, do we LET Cruz shut down things? Just because some civilized people passed laws a long time ago saying that if there’s about to be a wreck, some other civilized people could say “Whoa, wait up.” Isn’t there anything we can DO about it?
2Huh. I can see God right now (metaphorically speaking, I ain’t havin’ visions) sittin’ there saying “Sigh. I went and gave ’em free will and THIS is what they do with it?”
3Speaking of narcistic twits, I hope y’all watch Colbert’s show hosting our Prez….
And that leads me to my comment, Obama is the guy I voted for and respect. There is no way I will EVER respect a McCarthy wanna be, even if he is Canadian. Sadly, I suspect Cruz does have more than 2 brain cells to rub together, and that makes his actions all the more heinous. He’s put personal prestige before the plight of MILLIONS of people that are the duct tape holding so many important parts of our country together.
We need to patch things, not stand by for photo ops while the misery of millions drag on.
4I think Ted’s Mommy must have told him at least once a day that he was so adorable and that everyone thought he was cute. What a self-centered twit he is. And dangerous.
5Doing something constructive or positive is never the point with Ted Cruz. Being a self-obsessed rightwing clown is always the point.
6Never mind constructive. Google Ted Cruz and Dominionism.
7I read one red site–most days just one article–and the hatred of “liburals” and the President the racist and “true believer” comments really make me fear for my country. They seem to love Ted Cruz…he reflects, complete with spittle, their craziness and hatred.
8I know that it’s either love or fear, one cannot have both, but what they are afraid of is beyond me.
When I was very young, I went to LA for Easter. It was a very mixed crowd and when I asked if I could go for a walk (it was unknown to me Watts, right after the riots) the oldest son in the house I was staying in asked, “what are you going to do if someone comes at you like this?” He puffed himself up ( he was a big guy played football for UCLA) and came at me. Scared me so completely, I instinctively did what I had been taught in a self defense class I had taken 3 years before, and he was then looking up at me from the floor, saying, “Sweetheart, you can go anywhere you want!” I apologized profusely, he was trying to make a point, but fear trumps reason every time, and even as I understood it logically, FEAR had me in action, to save me from attack.
Cruz is a ball of fear. Being told how he is supposed to be emperor (not Barack) his entire life by his sicko parents, he must feel terribly inadequate, so he is vicious out of that. I can understand that, but I feel more like the king in “Becket” –“Will no one rid me of this man?” Because he is not reasonable…so a perfect candidate for our fear ridden brethren. Sigh. Reason and logic are beat by fear and hatred every day. We need to get meaner, more vicious, instead of appealing to goodness, we need to, “Cry havoc! Let loose the dogs of war!”, which is tough for decent people to do.
On Saturday TCM played John Ford’s “documentary” on Pearl Harbor. I had never seen it before, except for the dramatized air attack that so many believe is the real thing.
9What totally struck me in the face was the treatment of the Japanese. The Uncle Sam character continually defended the American Japanese population as loyal Americans. But the character he was talking to, while giving lip service to the fact there were those, kept emphasizing how terrible they really were. How they spied, how they said they were Americans, sending kids to American schools and speaking English, but also sending them to Japanese schools to -horrors!- teach them their traditional language. And the point was made that Hawai`i is made up of minority populations, but that the Japanese were the largest. Still true today. But the worst was the way they practiced Shintoism. I won’t describe the “bad” things brought out, but it was so similar to how Islam is talked about today that I was amazed. The parallels were astounding.
I realize this film was wartime propaganda, but it made me see that the US, made up of multiple immigrant populations, has long been xenophobic. If you haven’t seen this film, it’s worth watching sometime, and seeing the similarities to today’s politics.
Thanks for that, Jan. Recently I saw an interview with George Takei ( Sulu on the original Star Trek). Takei was in grammar school during WW II in an internment camp. Every morning the children would recite the pledge to the flag.
Takei said that while speaking the words, “With liberty and justice for all” he could look out the window and see the barbed wire and a guard tower.
10Canadian Cuban Ted. Media whore. Addict. Can’t help himself. Not excusing him, just splainin’ him. This urge to perform takes him over and in two shakes of a lamb’s tail, it’s “Me. Me. Me.” He’s a sad little boy-man.
11I figure that deep down in deep dark crevices of her heart, Ted Cruz’s Mommy knew she had a homely son. Look at the gene pool…. waking up to Rafael’s ugly face every morning would scare me to death. A well known son of a friend of mine debated Cruz in undergrad school. He rigged the judges at Princeton…. typical Ted.
12I don’t see that Ted Cruz is threatening to shut down the government. Sounds as though he is threatening to shut down the Senate. And since the Repubs have already done that, what difference will we see? Executive actions can continue.
As for the House, the Repubs have not only shut that down, they then put it into reverse.
13Cruz’s old man is his “Achilles Heel!”
14By continually pounding away about his old man, on he he got here and why it took over 50 years to become a citizen, might just make Cruz flip out!
Make him defend his old man’s action’s every time that he, Cruz and his greasy face show up in front of a mic, might push him over the edge!
I’ve never had to toilet-train a kid, but I have a feeling that Cruz’s parents overdid the “Oh, isn’t what you produced just wonderful!” bit.
15This guy thinks like a professional wife beater. Its all her fault! She made me beat her brains out!
16Legend has it that Teddy graduated from Harvard Law School and was a law clerk for Chief Justice Rehnquist for a time, which sort of implies some level of intelligence. But lately, Teddy has not shown much of the requisite intelligence, has he? Being a Republican appears to be a threat to a person’s mental health.
17This Ted Crazy Cruz is as arrogant and insane as nobody else, except his daddy!!! Wow! One word: NUTS!
18I hope Teddy tosses his hat in the ring for president. Really. I want to see him romp around Northwest Iowa with Steve King and actually score in the Iowa Republican Caucus. But then … but then … I want to see him take his road show over to New Hampshire in televised debates with the rest of the Republican herd. Let him talk early and often in all those parts of the country that haven’t been taken in by his shtick. The more Ted Cruz talks and the more he puts himself up against the other members of the Republican herd, the more dislikable the general public will find him.
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