O'Reilly Calls George Will A 'Hack'; Will Calls O'Reilly A 'Liar'. Video Gold.

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Saturday November 07, 2015 · 11:55 PM PST

2015/11/07 · 23:55

I'm a simple sort of fellow with simple tastes--the feel of sable next to my skin; the crackle of old banknotes in an open fire; the taste of 200 year-old cognac--you know, earthy, down-home pleasures.

But perhaps my greatest pleasure is watching the GOP self-destruct.

The latest delightful aspect of the Republican Götterdämmerung is the sight of Bill 'Bozo' O'Reilly, the blustering, bullying, flatulent habitual liar and mainstay of Fox News and George 'Dumbo' Will, the synthetic-haired, potato-faced so-called 'intellectual' of the Right, tearing chunks off each other over the 'legacy' of St. Ronnie of Irangate.

It is a thing of rare beauty. Enjoy!

YouTube Video

The GOP's Progress: Klown Kar To Klown Bus To Klown Kruiser To...

Retroactive Genius

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Sunday October 11, 2015 · 3:50 AM PDT

2015/10/11 · 03:50

If they weren't such a contemptible gang of shills, grifters, crackpots and assholes, one might have felt a twinge of pity for the GOP as they abandoned The Klown Kar back in 2008. They stifled a manly tear as they bade a sad adieu to what was once the most suitable mode of transport for post-war Republicans. But that was then...

And now? How they must yearn for the days when they could fit all of their most spittle-flecked, deranged candidates into a single Kar.

Of course, in 2012, after four years of the Obama presidency, the Party was twitching like a herd of meerkats on crack, picking invisible insects off their skin and generally behaving as if they were in the throes of dementia praecox.

A bus was called for. Enter, The Klown Bus. Inevitably, like The Klown Kar, the nincompoops of the GOP drove it into a ditch.

They got it back on the road but 2015 has rolled around and the Klown Bus is standing room only. Time to launch the GOP Klown Kruiser. Think a 68 ft Bertram, only filled to the gunwales with fever-dreams, spittle and bile.

However, striving for derp-supremacy means never standing still and with the GOP's latest fiasco, a whole new gaggle of dimwits, no-hopers, bottom-feeders and chicken-chokers are being inflicted on the long-suffering American people.

I give you the 'candidates' for House Speaker.

The Klown Kruiser ain't gonna cut it any more and this much is obvious:

It's time to launch the GOP Klown Kargo Vessel...the Moronic Mothership, if you will.

Ideally, given the GOP's talent for disaster, they could raise the Titanic and use that.

Mind you, back in 1980, when they made a film entitled Raise The Titanic, it went to the bottom almost as fast as its namesake.

Producer Lew Grade acerbically remarked: "it would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic".

But the symmetry would be perfect: a ship that's synonymous with disaster and a catastrophic crew of stumblebums and dimwits aboard. If the GOP muttonheads don't sail her onto an iceberg, I'll eat my laptop.

Hey...just trying to help, fellas; God knows, you need it.

The World Will End On Oct. 7th...No, You Probably Don't Need To Pack

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Tuesday October 06, 2015 · 9:02 AM PDT

2015/10/06 · 09:02

You've got to hand it to apocalyptic Christians. Despite having been wrong Every. Single. Time. since history began to be recorded, they still pretend that they have a hotline to God.

So, what's the latest Word from God? Doom, pretty much:

While our planet may have survived September’s “blood moon”, it will be permanently destroyed on Wednesday, 7 October, a Christian organization has warned.
The eBible Fellowship, an online affiliation headquartered near Philadelphia, has based its prediction of an October obliteration on a previous claim that the world would end on 21 May 2011. While that claim proved to be false, the organization is confident it has the correct date this time.

“According to what the Bible is presenting it does appear that 7 October will be the day that God has spoken of: in which, the world will pass away,” said Chris McCann, the leader and founder of the fellowship, an online gathering of Christians headquartered in Philadelphia.

“It’ll be gone forever. Annihilated.”

McCann said that, according to his interpretation of the Bible, the world will be obliterated “with fire”.

So, what brings on this latest prediction?

The expectation of the world ending this fall stems from an earlier prediction by Harold Camping, a Christian radio host who was based in California. In 2011 Camping used his radio station, Family Radio, to notify people that the world would end on 21 May of that year. When that turned out to be incorrect, Camping revised his prediction to October 2011. That also turned out to be incorrect, and Camping retired from public life soon after. He died in 2013, at age 93.

Uh-huh...maybe I'm missing something. What's the lesson here? Two wrongs definitely make a right?

McCann believes that Camping’s 21 May 2011 prediction did have some truth, however. That day was declared to be “judgment day” because it was actually the day God stopped the process of selecting which churchgoers will survive Wednesday’s massacre, McCann said.

Oh...OK. The 'selection process' is over. I'm guessing that I didn't make the cut.

Shoot. Well...I guess I'll be seeing you guys on the other side or something. It's been great. Happy trails and be well.

Trump Is Your Worst Nightmare: An Angry Cretin With A Gun

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Sunday October 04, 2015 · 2:40 AM PDT

2015/10/04 · 02:40

If you had asked me, I would have guessed that Donald 'Read My Hat' Trump had let his subscription to Guns & Ammo lapse many, many moons ago.

He just never struck me as a guy who cared much for firearms, despite his combat record 'in country' in the free-fire zone that men call The Now Bankrupt Military-Type Academy For Rich White Assholes.

Trump must be going to heaven, 'cause he spent his time in Hell...well, Cornwall-on-Hudson, actually. But let's not nitpick.

We recently learned that--in an act of clear political calculus--Trump had gone from a man who backed the ban on assault weapons and longer waiting times for gun purchases, to:

“I’m a very, very big second amendment person”.

OK, so far, so predictably cynical.

Now comes the really scary news: Trump is packing heat. Yeah...I thought that might get your attention.

As he told a Nashville crowd yesterday:

Trump said in a rally in suburban Nashville that he has a handgun carry permit in New York. He added that any attacker would be “shocked” if he tried to assault him, because he would emulate (Charles) Bronson in the vigilante film Death Wish.

Trump as vigilante Charles Bronson? Oh, brother...

Like this, I guess:

...

So, let me get this straight: Trump, a corpulent, multi-chinned, billionaire douchebag with a dead raccoon on his head; a guy who doesn't get up out of a chair without a gaggle of flunkies on hand, ready to wipe his nose for him; a guy whose idea of 'sport' is golf; a guy who would probably drop dead of a massive coronary if anyone discharged a firearm in his vicinity, that guy is Mister Rough Justice?

Oh sure...that seems plausible.

If you needed any further evidence of Trump's essentially vapid, adolescent mindset, this will do.

It's the 'revenge' fantasy of most kids: all of sudden, you have super powers and now you'll show...whoever. You saw it on the back of comic books and matchbook covers advertising Charles Atlas and his courses.

Many of you (of a certain vintage) will remember the classic 'The Insult That Made a Man Out of Mac'. It ran for decades.

In it, Mac, a 97 lb. weakling, has sand kicked in his face at the beach. A swim-suited girl sneers at him, ineffectual wimp that he is. Mac sends away for the Charles Atlas course, returns to the beach newly enmuscled and gives the bully a drubbing.

The punch line, delivered by the same swim-suited lovely: "Oh, Mac, you are a real man after all!"

Death Wish--the ugly, violent revenge fantasy from the late British schlock-meister Michael Winner--was basically 'Mac gets a handgun and a taste for slaughter'.

It is an exceptionally repulsive film and, predictably, it was hugely popular. Let's face it--a lot of men never really grow up. The ones that do grow up understand that vigilante 'justice' is always a bad idea.

And then there's Donald Trump:

Trump reminisced about Bronson’s Death Wish and got people in the crowd to shout out the title of the 1974 film in unison. In the movie, an affluent, liberal architect embarks on a vigilante mission after his life is shattered by thugs who kill his wife and rape his daughter.
“Today you can’t make that movie because it’s not politically correct,” Trump said.

Say what? Has Trump been to the movies at any point in the last 40 years?

Because if he had, he might have noticed that film after film is essentially about vigilante 'justice'. A 'good' guy is forced to take extreme measures to...well, fill in the blanks.

The premise is always the same: the state has failed; a man is on his own and he will have 'justice'. The list of such films is too long to enumerate, but here's one off the top of my head:

...

Perhaps even more telling is the fact that a remake of Death Wish is on the cards.

If this country ran on 'political correctness', Donny, you and your fat, entitled, whining ass would be in San Quentin. But it doesn't and you're not...more's the pity.

Saturday marked the second time Trump had spoken in the Nashville area in five weeks. Tennessee is among the states holding their primaries on 1 March, also called Super Tuesday, and he noted that his comments brought a strong response from the overflow crowd in gun-friendly Tennessee.
“As soon as I mentioned it the place went absolutely wild,” he said.

It's a crowd...in Nashville...who've come out especially to see a dimwitted blowhard like you.

Who were you expecting? The Algonquin Round Table? Of course they 'went wild'...they're imbeciles. Your base.

I don't know...can I really stand another 12 months of this mishegas before I begin to reconsider my views on vigilante 'justice'?

Or should I just resign myself to hoping that Trump becomes so delusional that even the goobers sit-up and take notice.

What's next, Donny?
...

...

You talkin' to me, Donny?

We Needed This: Walter Sobchak To Donald Trump, "Shut The F**k Up, Donny!"

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Friday October 02, 2015 · 7:23 PM PDT

2015/10/02 · 19:23

Really, what could I possibly add to this? Thanks, salon:

"Donny, you're out of your element...".

You said it, Walter.

Donors Tell Jeb! To Kick! It! Up! A! Notch!...Or The Money-Pump Shuts Down.

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Monday September 28, 2015 · 8:59 AM PDT

2015/09/28 · 08:59

If he weren't such a slippery, spineless sack of nothing-burgers, one might feel a twinge of pity for Jeb! He entered the GOP race with what he thought was a lock on the nomination and why wouldn't he? He had, it seemed, it all:

Name recognition? Check. Money up the wazoo? Double check. Unthreatening, 'reasonable guy' demeanor? Check. Married to a Mexican? Seguro!

So what went wrong? Gary Legum over at Salon thinks he knows:

One of the most entertaining spectacles of this election cycle is watching Jeb! Bush try to marry his genial, moderate patrician demeanor to the kind of sneering, condescending Tea Party dialogue that, having incubated for years in right-wing media, has now burst out of the host Republican Party’s abdominal cavity to spray acid in the eyes of anyone who dares get near it. It’s the same awkward fusion Mitt Romney attempted four years ago, though no one really noticed until the general. Jeb has the decency to do it during the primaries so we’ll all have more time to enjoy watching him flail.

Jeb! is now polling at 7% and his donors are not happy. Rich assholes may not know much, but they do know that when they pay for stuff, they expect to get that stuff.

In the case of Jeb!, they've paid to put him in The White House so he can cut their taxes, provide more government ass-kissing and get the Navy to tow all pencil-necked federal regulators out to sea and sink them with gunfire.

It's not a lot to ask.

But it's starting to look like Jeb! isn't going to The White House. At the rate he's going, he'll be lucky to get to House of Pancakes. So the rich asshole donors have turned their 'asshole' dials up to '11':

Jeb Bush is entering a critical phase of his Republican presidential campaign, with top donors warning that the former Florida governor needs to demonstrate growth in the polls over the next month or face serious defections among supporters. The warnings, expressed by numerous senior GOP fundraisers in recent days, come as Bush and an allied super PAC are in the early stages of an aggressive television ad campaign they say will help erase doubts about his viability.
But Bush continues to battle against a steady decline in the polls, sinking to fifth place at just 7 percent in a national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday and similarly languishing in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

All together now...awwwwwwwwww.

Even Jeb!'s 'enthusiasts' are sounding a little squirrelly:

Given those developments, Bush “needs to get his favorables up,” said a senior GOP bundler who is backing him and requested anonymity to speak candidly. “People are looking at the stage and saying: ‘Jeb and Marco? I’m going with the new,’ ” said a top party fundraiser not aligned with a campaign. “You’re seeing people really gravitate to [Rubio] and saying, ‘Okay, we’ll buck the Bush machine.’
“What I hear everywhere when you say Jeb’s name is, ‘If you want to lose the general election, nominate Jeb,’ ” the fundraiser added.

It's tragic, is what it is. I mean, what more does Jeb! have to do? He got born and, erm...did I mention that he's married to a Mexican?

In an effort to staunch the bleeding, Jeb! has come up with something so supernaturally gruesome that I'm having trouble processing it:

There is a big prize being dangled to motivate fundraisers: Those who help bring in at least $50,000 by Wednesday will be invited to a “Jeb Celebration” retreat in Houston in late October that is to be attended by three generations of the Bush family, including both former presidents.

Uh-huh...The Night of The Living Dead. Sounds swell.

Before the Sept. 16 Republican candidates’ debate at the Reagan Presidential Library, senior Bush strategists believed that he needed to improve his performance to stop a precipitous drop in polling that began shortly after Donald Trump entered the race. A more pugnacious performance — including an off-the-cuff defense of his brother prompted by an attack by Trump — was cheered by some supporters as a sign of much-needed passion.

You mean his ludicrous claim that his idiot brother 'kept us safe'? So, Jeb! is a passionate idiot. Fabulous. Let me grab my checkbook.

But don't get me wrong: I'm not complaining. Watching Jeb! and the rest of the GOP Klown Kar drive themselves off a cliff is entertaining as hell. Please proceed, Governor; let the demolition derby continue.

Jennifer 'Kiss of Death' Rubin Gives Marco Rubio The Thumbs-Up...The Poor Bastard

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Sunday September 27, 2015 · 5:47 AM PDT

2015/09/27 · 05:47

'O tempora, o mores!' Said Marcus Tullius Cicero, senator and Consul of Rome, in about 60 B.C.

'Oh the times, Oh the customs!'.

It is a plaint often repeated down the ages, when confronted by the stupidity, the vulgarity and the corruption of an age. Cicero continued (in his First Oration of Marcus Tullius Cicero Against Lucius Catalina):

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia?

When will you cease abusing our patience, Catiline? How long, in your madness, wll you mock us? When will there be an end to your boastful and unbridled audacity?

Much the same has been said, albeit far less elegantly, over the last month or so by the quacking derp-meisters that make up the conservative gasbag-a-tariat. The fulminations against Donald Trump--from Charles Cabbage-Hammer to Michael Gerson, from David Brooks to Ross Douthat--have been impressive in both their acrimony and their failure to grasp the Trump phenomenon.

While the gasbags plead with some mythical and occulted GOP--presumably biding its time and keeping its powder dry--to 'rid us of this turbulent pest' ( to paraphrase Henry II), Trump merrily connects with the actual GOP.

You know, the goobers, clucks and knuckleheads who wouldn't know George Will from George of The Jungle.

Meanwhile, George Will tears out his synthetic hair in frustration and Charles Cabbage-Hammer (who has never been mistaken for a little ray of sunshine) melts into a puddle of bile and broken dreams.

Is all hope for the GOP lost, then?

Not according to deranged 'entertainment lawyer' Jennifer Rubin, who is busily vying with William Kristol for the 'Full-Spectrum Wrongness' crown. In Rubin's latest yawn-fest, her fatal eye has fallen on Sen. Marco Rubio, poor fellow. His doom must shortly follow, as night follows day.

Consider Rubin's record of lethal support. When Sen. Grandpa Comb-Over and The Snowshoe Grifter hove into view, Rubin could barely contain her excitement:

Palin has taken the GOP faithful by storm, captured the attention of the largest audience ever to watch a VP acceptance speech, and potentially created an entirely new presidential race. If the Obama camp seems flummoxed and floundering, alternating between horrid insults and praise for the new Republican VP nominee, it is easy to see why: she has completely shaken up the race.
...the Republican base is now energized and enthusiastic like never before in this race. If the Obama team was betting on a "turnout race" and a depressed conservative turnout, they may need to reconsider...

...Palin has helped revived McCain's maverick, outside the Beltway message. Get ready to hear more about her record of taking on GOP corruption and her disdain for the old boy network.

...Palin will help McCain keep the energy issue front and center and pound home the message that the GOP is in favor of an all-out, multi-front effort to develop domestic sources of energy including oil and natural gas. She is an expert on the issue...

...and so, tediously, on Rubin drooled, smitten by the Tundra Twit's moose-killing talent:

She and McCain now present a pro-gun, pro-property rights, pro-drilling duo of westerners in contrast to the urban duo of Obama-Biden. I don't imagine the Democrats will even try the ritual hunting expedition which has become a mainstay in presidential races. (Better not to compete against a gal who slays moose.)

Their fate was sealed: Rubin's endorsement ensured that Angry Grandpa and Moose-alini would be handed their asses in a bag.

RIP John McCain/Sarah Palin

Next up, the MittBot 2.0. Once again, The Fatal Eye of Rubin alighted, and once alighted, all became desolation and ashes.

First, Rubin assured the world that Romney would not be the GOP nominee. Inevitably, he was.

Then Rubin saw the light and The Mittbot and his vapid bag-carrier Ryan were dead men walking:

...now time and momentum are on Romney’s side. He appears to a plurality of voters to be not just an alternative to Obama but a good one. Unless that changes and changes fast (remember early voting is ongoing), Romney will win.

RIP Romney/Ryan.

More recently, Rubin's Eye of Campaign Death fell on Gov. Rick Perry and those of us in-the-know started measuring him for a wooden-box. And so it proved.

RIP Gov. Rick Perry.

Then it was Gov. Scott Walker's turn. He could run but he couldn't hide from The Rubin Gaze of Grief. Rubin chooses, the candidate loses. There's no escape.

RIP Gov. Scott Walker.

And now, desperate to find a savior, a candidate who can make the GOP seem--oh, I don't know...marginally sane?--The Lethal Eye of Rubin has fallen on Sen. Marco Rubio--The Thirsty Anchor Baby, as some cruel wit labeled him.

So, it's over for Rubio. The Death Watch Beetle has taken up residence in his campaign and Rubio now has one foot in the grave and the other foot on a banana skin.

If Rubin really wants to help the GOP, she should immediately announce her support for Donald Trump. It wouldn't be as quick as shooting him in the head but by God, it would be just as certain.

After 'Weepy' Boehner Exit, Chronically Shifty Eric Cantor Has Amnesia Attack

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Saturday September 26, 2015 · 3:45 AM PDT

2015/09/26 · 03:45

As uncomfortable as it makes me to admit it, once in a blue moon, Donald Trump is right on the money:

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump suggested Thursday he was happy to not get the endorsement of former House Majority Leader Eric Canter (R-Va.).
Shortly after news emerged that Cantor would endorse GOP presidential rival Jeb Bush and join the former Florida governor's campaign as a Virginia co-chairman, Trump tweeted:

Who wants the endorsement of a guy (@EricCantor) who lost in perhaps the greatest upset in the history of Congress?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2015

Who can argue with that? Cantor is an odious man--a spineless lick-spittle, a career hypocrite and a shill for the worst elements in Israeli politics.

Amongst the ghastly Cantor's many Hall of Shame moments, his close relationship with the vile Tom DeLay and with the crooked Jack Abramoff stands out:

When Cantor wasn’t whipping votes, he was spearheading Tom DeLay’s defense against an ethics complaint—or, as Cantor called it at the time, “trumped-up charges” that were “an attack on the conservative movement.” “It’s the final phase that Democrats are coming to grips that Republicans are a permanent majority,” he told one reporter. He was also connected to the now disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In 2003, Cantor—along with Blunt, DeLay, and House speaker Dennis Hastert—signed a letter to the Interior Department written at the behest of a Louisiana Indian tribe, an Abramoff client that was seeking to protect its gaming interests. That same year, Abramoff’s D.C. deli hosted a $500-a-plate fund-raiser for Cantor during which a tuna sandwich was named in honor of the Virginia congressman.

"Gimme a tuna-salad on rye, onions and extra mayo". "You mean The Cantor?". "Forget it. Instead, I'll have chicken livers on pumpernickel, extra schmaltz." "One Boehner coming right up...". "You know what? Forget it...I've lost my appetite."

So why is a jerk like Cantor worthy of notice at this point? Well, because Cantor has decided, via the New York Times opinion pages, to castigate the GOP for, you guessed it: doing the same shit that he did:

...somewhere along the road, a number of voices on the right began demanding that the Republican Congress not only block Mr. Obama’s agenda but enact a reversal of his policies. They took to the airwaves and the Internet and pronounced that congressional Republicans could undo the president’s agenda — with him still in office, mind you — and enact into law a conservative vision for government, without compromise.
Strangely, according to these voices, the only reason that was not occurring had nothing to do with the fact that the president was unlikely to repeal his own laws, or that under the Constitution, absent the assent of the president or two-thirds of both houses of Congress, you cannot make law. The problem was a lack of will on the part of congressional Republican leaders.

Now we see that these same voices have turned to the threat of a government shutdown or a default on the debt as the means by which we can force President Obama to agree to their demands. I wonder what they would have said, if during the last two years of President Bush’s term, the Democratic congressional majority had tried something similar.

This is breathtaking dishonesty, even from a shifty creep like Cantor.

Why wonder, Eric? We know what happened when the GOP shut down the US government in 2013, with you, Eric, in the vanguard. Wikipedia explains:

As House Majority Leader, Cantor was named in House Resolution 368, which was passed by the House Rules Committee on the night of September 30, 2013, the night before the October 2013 government shutdown began, as the only member of the House with the power to bring forth bills and resolutions for a vote if both chambers of Congress disagree on that bill or resolution. Prior to the resolution's passing in committee, it was within the power of every member of the House under House Rule XXII, Clause 4 to be granted privilege to call for a vote.
This amendment to the House rules was blamed for causing the partial government shutdown and for prolonging it since Cantor refused to allow the Senate's continuing resolution to be voted on in the House. Journalists and commentators noted during the shutdown that if the Senate's version of the continuing resolution were to be voted on, it would have passed the House with a majority vote since enough Democrats and Republicans supported it, effectively ending the government shutdown.

Are you bone-stupid, Eric, or do you think that we are?

As New York Magazine wrote in 2011:

...Cantor, with his finely tuned political radar, then picked up on—and, in turn, helped initiate—what has become the Republican Party’s most profound cultural shift: its belligerent intransigence....“Cantor comes from the more contemporary [Republican] school that says cooperation is a dirty word and compromise is an unpardonable sin,” says Obama adviser David Axelrod. “I think he’s a very ambitious guy who’s reading the direction of the Republican Party, and he’s trying to ride that wave.”
...

Since the 2010 election, of course, Cantor has had a much more lethal weapon at his disposal, one that he played a major role in creating: the 87 freshmen who make up more than a third of the Republican’s House majority. In the run-up to the midterms, Cantor, along with McCarthy and Ryan, used their “Young Guns” candidate-recruitment program to find Republicans who could capitalize on the growing tea-party backlash against Obama and Washington. “We wanted to bring ‘cause’ people to Congress,” says Ryan, “not people who were looking for political careers.”

In other words, Cantor not only cultivated the bomb-throwing Tea Bagger crazies, he encouraged them.

And now, he has the unmitigated gall to come out with guff like this:

The tragedy here is that these voices have not been honest with our fellow conservatives. They have not been honest about what can be accomplished when your party controls Congress, but not the White House. As a result we missed chances to achieve important policies for the good of the country.

No, Eric, the 'tragedy here' is a political system that allowed slimeballs like you to get into positions of power. Happily, you got your shifty, lying ass kicked by an unknown.

So much for trying to be Machiavellian without the intelligence to carry it off.

Crawl back into your merchant bank hole, you mendacious twerp, and trouble us no more.

Trump Gets Booed By Staunchly Conservative Crowd

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Friday September 25, 2015 · 11:51 AM PDT

2015/09/25 · 11:51

The tide had to start turning at some point: you can only be a colossal jerk for so long before people start to tire of the obnoxiousness:

For the first time since running for president, Donald Trump got booed on Friday among a crowd of staunch conservatives. At the Values Voter Summit, a gathering of social conservatives in Washington DC, Trump received an angry response after calling his fellow Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio “a clown”.
Trump later told reporters, “those weren’t boos, those were cheers.”

Of course they were, Donny...and that warm, yellow liquid that I'm depositing on your head isn't piss, it's liquid sunshine. See if you can tell the difference between 'jeers' and 'cheers'.

The boos marked the first time Trump has met such a hostile reaction on the campaign trail. The Republican frontrunner, who told reporters that Rubio was “a baby” before speaking, also attacked the Florida senator’s past support for immigration reform. Trump said of Rubio: “Really, talk about weak on immigration – nobody’s weaker.”
The GOP frontrunner also said that fellow Republicans, including Rubio, criticized him solely to get attention. Trump said of the Florida senator: “And he hits me, sometimes the Republicans do it more than anybody because they want to get into the publicity side and all your doing is hurting yourself. It’s a bad thing. All you’re doing is hurting yourselves.” The boos weren’t the only negative reaction that Trump got from the audience. When the Republican frontrunner claimed that he won the most recent GOP debate based on polls, an audience member shouted: “No, you didn’t.”

After speaking, Trump left quickly without taking questions from reporters.

Trump, A Profile In Coura...erm, Running Away. The perfect GOP nominee.

Dead Man Walkering: Jennifer Rubin Pretends She Saw It Coming. Mrs. George F. Will Now Unemployed

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Tuesday September 22, 2015 · 4:27 AM PDT

2015/09/22 · 04:27

Scott Walker's exit from the Klown Kar has inspired The Washington Post's hair-on-fire correspondent, Jennifer Rubin, to jump on the I-told-you-so bandwagon:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker reportedly will announce imminently he is suspending his campaign. Readers of Right Turn know this comes as no surprise to me.

Oh, that is priceless. 'No surprise'?

Poor, clueless Jennifer Rubin; amongst the myriad things that she doesn't understand is this new-fangled 'interweb' thingy. Does Ms. Rubin imagine that her previous columns all vanished down the memory-hole, beyond recall, and that all her readers have amnesia...or a very poor internet connection?

Or is this 'unsurprised' Rubin a different Rubin from the one who wrote the following less than six-months ago?

Candidates over the course of a campaign, or multiple campaigns, can either stagnate — recycling talking points, never reflecting on or refining their own views — or grow...No one has done this more than former Texas governor Rick Perry...Now Perry makes an effective case: This is a conservative who has done a lot and is prepared to be commander in chief.
...
A month or so ago, there were legitimate questions as to whether Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was up to speed on foreign policy and could project the gravitas we expect of presidential nominees...He, too, made a persuasive argument as to why his background prepares him for the presidency...

So there you have two candidates, different in age and life experience but serious men, thoughtful on foreign policy and credible as the next chief executive and commander in chief. They did not emerge as presidential-ready candidates overnight, but they are showing respect for the office and the voters and displaying self-discipline and tenacity in making sure they are ready to serve. The GOP could do a lot worse than these two. Other candidates should see how they are impressing voters and making the argument for mature, proven leaders.

But that, evidently, was Ms. Rubin's clueless doppelgänger, writing in the pre-internet age. The new, shiny Ms. Rubin has a very different take:

His (Walker's) failure to master policy issues beyond his state, his uninspiring speaking style, his frequent flip-flops (likely born of indecision about policies he did not know well), his mistaken effort to race to the right to catch up to Donald Trump, and his failure to win Iowa contributed to a flop comparable to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s 2008 effort.

Or, indeed, 'a flop comparable' to Gov. Rick Perry's 2015 effort. But wait! Can this be the Perry who, in Rubin's words:

'...makes an effective case: This is a conservative who has done a lot and is prepared to be commander in chief'

And can this be the same Scott Walker that doppelgänger Rubin said was:

..impressing voters and making the argument for mature, proven leaders..

It most certainly can.

So, what happened to all those 'impressed' voters? I guess they went the same way as all those voters who (Rubin assured us) would never make Romney the GOP nominee:

However, if there is one point of consensus among plugged-in Republicans on the 2012 field, it is that Romney can't win unless he does a mea culpa on RomneyCare. Since he didn't and he won't do that, he's not going to be the nominee. Other than Romney admirers (and even some of them!) it's hard to find serious Republican players who disagree with that.

They went the same way as that 'Romney landslide' Rubin predicted in 2012. Of course, the day after Romney tanked, Rubin was busily trying to pretend that she'd seen that coming too.

The rest of the GOP field must live in terror of Rubin's endorsement, AKA The Kiss of Rapid-Onset Candidacy Cessation Syndrome.

You know, The Washington Post could save itself considerable pain, embarrassment and money.

Instead of soliciting the views of a simpleton like Jennifer Rubin, just send a stenographer out to the nearest bar and take down the opinions of the soberest person there. I mean, what the hell, Fred Hiatt: when you've hit bottom, the only way is up.

But spare a thought for Mrs. George F. Will; she deserves our sympathy. In addition to being married to George F. Will--a hard row to hoe in anyone's book--Mrs. Will was employed by the Walker campaign. She will now have to find another GOP no-hoper to, remora-like, attach herself to.

She could try her luck with Donald Trump; but he's waiting for Gen. Douglas MacArthur to turn up.

Still, good luck ma'am. At least that's one job the GOP have created.

Koch-Funded Shills To Pope Francis: You're Not Pope-ing Correctly

Retroactive Genius

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday September 20, 2015 · 5:12 AM PDT

2015/09/20 · 05:12

Imagine that you're the Pope, successor to Saint Peter (to whom Jesus gave the keys of Heaven), head of the Roman Catholic church and spiritual leader of over 1.25 billion Catholics. What could help to improve your skill-set?

Why, 'Pope-ing' advice from one Gene Koprowski.

'Who?' you might respond if you are the Pope...or even if you aren't the Pope, as indeed, many of us are...I mean, aren't.

Mr. Koprowski is the director of marketing at the Chicago-based Heartland Institute, a body of climate change deniers funded by the ubiquitous Koch brothers.

And what qualifies Gene Koprowski to advise the Pope?

He previously held several positions in the administration of Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee. He also served as director of grassroots development for the presidential campaigns of Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich in 2012.

Whoa! 'Nuff said. Associate of felons, sex-pests and crackpots. His Holiness will want to pay close attention, for sure.

So, what's on Gene's mind?

I'll let Gene explain:

Gene was "...shocked that the Pope was buying into this left-wing political craze that is global warming."

By 'left-wing political craze', I assume Gene means 'science'; like the 'left-wing political craze' that is 'gravity'.

But what can be behind the Pontiff's bizarre taste for the 'left-wing political craze' that is science? Gene thinks he knows:

"When the Vatican leapt into the controversy on climate science, we were initially under the impression that His Holiness was a victim of bad advice from bad advisers," Koprowski said Thursday. "There were people from the UN who were population control advocates. There were people from other left-wing groups who were advising the pontiff."
But Koprowski said that after the pope released his landmark encyclical calling for action on climate change, he began to suspect that "something more may be afoot." Koprowski then invoked pagan rituals and "nature worship" that he said were "seeping into the Church" during the Middle Ages, adding: "I'm wondering, as a scholar, if pagan forms are returning to the Church this day."

Koprowski concluded: "I would say, contrary to some of the criticism, that this is not communism that has entered the church. It's, rather, paganism."

And there you have it: according to right-wing crackpots and Koch flunkies, the correct answer to the age-old question 'Is the Pope Catholic?' is 'No. We thought he was a commie but it turns out, he's a pagan'.

Thanks for the update, Gene. By the way, Ayn Rand is still dead.

Next week, the Heartland institute reveals: bears use regular toilets, just like everybody else. What did you think they did?

WaPo Pearl-Clutcher Michael Gerson: The GOP Must Defeat Trump

Retroactive Genius

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday September 18, 2015 · 5:00 AM PDT

2015/09/18 · 05:00

So, it's come to this: forget defeating Democrats; the GOP must defeat Trump.

Trump’s defeat is now a matter of Republican survival. The candidate himself, as the debate demonstrated once again, is small, petulant and out of his depth on policy. And Trumpism apparently regards the speaking of Spanish as un-American, contemplates one of the largest forced migrations in human history and spreads destructive, unscientific nonsense about childhood vaccines. The summer of Trump has been a season of toxicity, ugliness and racially charged resentment.

It would take a heart of stone not to laugh. GOP 'intellectuals' like Gerson are in panic-mode. And the solution?

...Republicans now require not just a serious, policy-oriented reformer, but someone with the exceptional political skills to remove Trump’s new layer of political damage. Any successful GOP candidate will need to be the anti-Trump, rejecting the language and philosophy of Trumpism as offensive and fundamentally at odds with the ideals of the party they represent.
In 2016, the GOP’s greatest challenge may not be overcoming the Democratic nominee, who is likely (as of now) to be weak and wounded, but overcoming the worst ideas and tendencies that have emerged in their own party.

And where, pray tell, does Gerson think that this savior, this 'anti-Trump', is going to emerge from? Today's GOP? Here's a nickel, bud: buy yourself a clue.

The irony (clearly lost on Gerson) is so thick, you can spoon it up like peanut-butter.

Gerson is addressing the Republican Party he wishes existed; Trump is addressing the Republican Party that actually exists. A party that has reached this stage of abject degeneracy and nihilism thanks, in part, to the unstinting efforts/shameful silence of mopes like Gerson.

For years, clucks like Gerson have been pandering to the worst instincts of the Republican base--the xenophobes, the racists, the crackpots, the anti-science bible-bashers, the 'birthers' and the all-purpose illiterate goobers.

For years, the Republicans have been putting their spurs to their 'base' -- on abortion, on immigration, on gay rights, on women and on race. In the mean time, the GOP focused on what really concerned them: tax-cuts for the rich, corporate welfare and military follies overseas.

I guess they thought that the goobers would never catch on. But they have (sort of).

And now guys like Gerson are shocked, shocked that the 'base' turn out to be suckers for Trump's brand of demagoguery. The goobers know that they've been played for mugs, and now they want some payback. Trump promises them everything ('unbelievable, fantastic, great, the best') while promising them nothing ('we'll be looking at that').

What are Jeb! and co. offering? More tax-cuts for the rich? Even the goobers have worked out that 'trickle down' means they're being pissed on.

Gerson is like a man who fills his house with dynamite, gasoline, kitchen matches and whiskey, invites The Three Stooges round for a party and is then astonished when the whole place goes up like the Fourth of fucking July.

Cry me a river, asshole; your tears are exquisitely delicious.

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