Tag Archives: Republican Crazy

Donald Trump Speaks On Abortion – And It’s Just As Bad As You Imagine

Via The Daily Beast:

There must be “some form of punishment” for women who have abortions, Donald Trump said Wednesday afternoon

Adding…

“you go back to a position like they had where they would perhaps go to illegal places, but we have to ban it.” and the exact punishment would “have to be determined.”

And the finishing touch…

Asked whether men would be held responsible for abortions under the law as well, Trump replied, “I would say no.”

This hardly surprises me. It is right in line with the Republican platform and would be the easiest (and first) law passed during a Trump/Cruz/Kasich Presidency. These are not side issues.

 

Does Anyone Really Believe Reince Priebus Is In Control Of The Clown Car

No way. No how.

Via TPM:

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Monday morning said that the committee still has control over the Republican presidential debate process despite reports that the Republican campaigns want to reduce the RNC’s role.[…]

Stephanopoulos asked if the RNC expects candidates to propose changes other than demands for opening and closing statements, equal number of questions for candidates, and approval of graphics.

In response, Priebus said that the RNC won’t make changes to the debate contracts or schedules going forward.

“The ability to sanction or de-sanction a debate is with the RNC. And the candidates want that to be with the RNC because we’ve got the leverage to make that happen,” he said.

He said that he will communicate with the campaigns and “fight for what the candidates want” when they reach a consensus.

“When we started this process, we only wanted to do a few things: One, we wanted to set a reasonable calendar. We didn’t want 23 debates,” Priebus added. “We wanted some say over who the moderators were. And we did all that.”

Which is it? The RNC won’t make changes to the debate contracts or schedules, or the RNC will “fight for what the candidates want” for the debates? Or is he saying that the RNC won’t make any more changes once these yet unknown candidate conditions are implemented?

Good luck with that. This appears to be the shiny new thing in GOPland. Contest everything and whine about how everything is a plot to make you look bad. Remember the skewed polls. This is the skewed debates. And if Republican candidates can’t succeed in an environment outside of their complete control then they have proven they are incapable of holding the Office of President. Can you imagine their memo of conditions to Putin? Stop picking on us! You’re breaking the rules! We’ll only meet with you if you agree to be nice to us and not make us look bad.

Now imagine the debate between whoever they pick as their nominee and Hillary Clinton. Sheesh, you’d think they’d want practice (all of them desperately need it). You’d think they’d want to get to hone their arguments and policies. And while I wasn’t thrilled with the CNBC moderators (Hardly surprising. Hello, it was CNBC – the birth place of the Tea Party) the idea that the questions asked weren’t policy driven was nonsense.

Don’t believe me? Read this from Vox:

 “The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media,” Ted Cruz said with considerable disgust. “This is not a cage match.”

Cruz ticked off the insults the CNBC moderators had lobbed Wednesday night at the assembled Republicans. “Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen? How about talking about the substantive issues?”

[…]

Cruz’s attack on the moderators was smart politics — but it was almost precisely backwards. The questions in the CNBC debate, though relentlessly tough, were easily the most substantive of the debates so far. And the problem for Republicans is that substantive questions about their policy proposals end up sounding like hostile attacks — but that’s because the policy proposals are ridiculous, not because the questions are actually unfair.

Let’s look at the questions that led to Cruz’s rant:

Take the question to Trump. He wasn’t asked if he was a comic book villain. He was asked why his policies sound like “a comic book version of a presidential campaign.” And the question was specific. Moderator John Harwood asked, “Mr. Trump, you have done very well in this campaign so far by promising to build another wall and make another country pay for it. Send 11 million people out of the country. Cut taxes $10 trillion without increasing the deficit.”

Trump declined to explain how he could cut taxes by $10 trillion without increasing the deficit. Instead, he appealed to another CNBC personality for support. “Larry Kudlow, who sits on your panel, who’s a great guy, came out the other day and said, ‘I love Trump’s tax plan.'”

As for the wall, Trump didn’t get very specific there, either. “A politician cannot get them to pay. I can.” That is … not an answer.

It most certainly wasn’t an answer. Not even close. And what about the claim that the moderator implied that Ben Carson couldn’t do math? Here’s the exchange:

“You have a flat tax plan of 10 percent flat taxes,” said moderator Becky Quick. “This is something that is very appealing to a lot of voters, but I’ve had a really tough time trying to make the math work on this. If you were to take a 10 percent tax, with the numbers right now in total personal income, you’re gonna bring in $1.5 trillion. That is less than half of what we bring in right now. And by the way, it’s gonna leave us in a $2 trillion hole. So what analysis got you to the point where you think this will work?”

The ensuing exchange is worth quoting at length:

CARSON: The rate — the rate — the rate is gonna be much closer to 15 percent.

QUICK: 15 percent still leaves you with a $1.1 trillion hole.

CARSON: You also have to get rid of all the deductions and all the loopholes. You also have to some strategically cutting in several places.

Remember, we have 645 federal agencies and sub-agencies. Anybody who tells me that we need every penny and every one of those is in a fantasy world.

So, also, we can stimulate the economy. That’s gonna be the real growth engine. Stimulating the economy — because it’s tethered down right now with so many regulations…

QUICK: You’d have to cut — you’d have to cut government about 40 percent to make it work with a $1.1 trillion hole.

CARSON: That’s not true.

QUICK: That is true, I looked at the numbers.

CARSON: When — when we put all the facts down, you’ll be able to see that it’s not true, it works out very well.

The question was extremely substantive. Carson’s answer was laughably vague. The problem here isn’t that Carson was asked whether he can do math, but that he couldn’t show that his tax plan was based on sound math. And that’s because it isn’t.

Can anyone make sense of Carson’s answer? If you can, please show your work.

Moving on…

Meanwhile, Cruz himself was also asked a substantive question. The moderators asked why he was opposing a bipartisan budget deal that would avert a debt ceiling crisis, a Medicare crisis, and a Social Security Disability Insurance crisis. Rather than answer that question, he attacked the moderators for refusing to ask substantive questions, during which he pretended a slew of unusually substantive questions were trivial political attacks.

Cruz’s strategy was smart, and he was arguably the debate’s big winner. But it bespoke a deeper weakness. Republicans have boxed themselves into some truly bizarre policies — including a set of tax cuts that give so much money to the rich, and blow such huge holes in the deficit, that simply asking about them in any serious way seems like a vicious attack. Assailing the media is a good way to try to dodge those questions for a little while, but it won’t work over the course of a long campaign.

Can someone explain how the eventual Republican nominee plans to survive the Presidential debate where their whining will be shown as the weakness it is? Do they (the nominee and The RNC) actually think they’ll be able to pull this nonsense against the Dem nominee? Are they really this clueless?

 

The Benghazi Hearing Scorecard: Republicans – 0, Hillary – Gazillion

11 hours. That’s how long the Republicans took to question Hillary Clinton on Benghazi. And what did they walk away with? Let’s let Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), the chair of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, tell us:

“I think some of Jimmy Jordan’s questioning — well, when you say new today, we knew some of that already. We knew about the emails,” Gowdy said in response. “In terms of her testimony? I don’t know that she testified that much differently today than she has the previous time she testified.”

Shorter answer: They got nothing.

But Hillary Clinton got something. In fact, she got a lot. I watched the last three hours of the hearings last night. Talk about keeping your cool and looking Presidential. In the end, Republicans basically gave Hillary 11 hours of free press. Their hope was to bring her down, instead they strengthened her.

This letter from a TPM reader sums up my thoughts:

Re: “It helps her”, I think I would add that it’s hard for me to imagine any of the Democrats running against Hillary pulling this off as well.As an active Democrat who has remained, thus far, undecided, her performance here and at the debate have gone a long way toward convincing me to support Clinton instead of Sanders; even though, politically, my ideals line up more closely with Sanders’ democratic socialism than Clinton’s quasi-third way centrism.

If a Democrat wins the 2016 election, her or his main job as I see it will be defending the achievements of the Obama adminsitration, which will surely be under even more sustained attack once he leaves office. Any major expansion to that legacy will need to be incremental given a hostile, partisan Congress that, at least in the House, is pretty much “locked in” by gerrymandering until the next redistricting cycle.In that light, I’m increasingly leaning toward Hillary, not so much based on what she believes but on her competence, both as a public official and as a politician who knows how to punch back.

That’s where I’m at. Good lord, the woman has stamina. Bet she wouldn’t whine about a 3 hour debate being too much! And she kept her cool under the GOP idiocy – Me? I was yelling at the TV. So much of the Republican questioning was unacceptable – and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings shamed them beautifully. (Go watch the video. Not kidding, go watch it.) And that was the entire point behind the 11 hours. It was a form of torture. It also was the Republican’s entire strategy: Wear her down and hope she cracks, then use the footage for their guy’s campaign. She didn’t give them that – and, let’s be honest, that was all yesterday was about. Don’t believe me? Reread Trey Gowdy’s statement. They got nothing. Because if they had something they would have been screaming it from the rooftops.

I was always going to support the Dem nominee, but I wasn’t that excited this time around. Her performance definitely pumped me up. The Benghazi issue is over. Hillary put it to bed.

 

The New York Daily News Calls McConnell, Cotton, Cruz and Paul Traitors

Sounds about right.

As the Daily News reported, the four lawmakers were among 47 Senate Republicans who argued in an open letter to Iranian leaders that any agreement they may strike would not last beyond President Barack Obama’s administration.

“We will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement,” the letter stated.

The Daily Banter and other outlets noted that the letter could be considered a violation of the Logan Act, which prohibits U.S. Citizens from starting or engaging in “any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof” for the purpose of interfering with a foreign policy negotiation.

“This letter is neither advice, nor consent,” The Banter’s Tommy Christopher wrote. “It’s directly addressed to leaders of a foreign government presently involved in talks with the U.S., and it is designed to thwart those talks. Unless the senators were authorized by the president to address Iran’s leaders in this letter, a case can be made that 47 U.S. senators just violated a federal law that carries a prison term of up to three years.”

Remember when you weren’t allowed to put forth the mildest criticism of a Republican President when he was on foreign soil lest your patriotism be questioned? Oh, the good old days. Personally, I think it’s time to throw these traitors in jail, or, at the very least, kick them out of congress. They are unfit to serve. Republicans go on and on about the Constitution and American Exceptionalism and then prove they believe in neither. Their loyalty towards their country is conditional.

I’ll say that again, their loyalty towards their country is conditional. Let that sink in. They are only patriots when they get their way, and if they don’t they’ll burn the country down. These toddlers are in desperate need of a time out. Actually, toddlers behave better. Republicans are a complete disgrace.

Here’s the front page of the New York Daily News:

traitors

Yep, that about sums this group up.

Republicans Cut Urban Kids Out Of Food Program

I keep thinking this can’t be true.

And in a surprising twist, the bill language specifies that only rural areas are to benefit in the future from funding requested by the administration this year to continue a modest summer demonstration program to help children from low-income households — both urban and rural — during those months when school meals are not available.

Since 2010, the program has operated from an initial appropriation of $85 million, and the goal has been to test alternative approaches to distribute aid when schools are not in session. The White House asked for an additional $30 million to continue the effort, but the House bill provides $27 million for what’s described as an entirely new pilot program focused on rural areas only.

Democrats were surprised to see urban children were excluded. And the GOP had some trouble explaining the history itself. But a spokeswoman confirmed that the intent of the bill is a pilot project in “rural areas” only.

Have they really reached the point where making war on children is acceptable?  And cutting out urban children is such a deliberate act.  I’d be less surprised if they just cut the entire program, but to purposefully exclude certain children is what makes someone a monster.

This Week In Republican Outreach And Re-Branding

Let’s see how things are going with the Republican wooing of gays, minorities and women.

First up, the LGTB Republican love letter – that the Arizona legislature has passed (and sealed with a kiss) and the only thing that may stop Jan Brewer from signing it into law is the threat of losing the super bowl.  Priorities, people.  Anderson Cooper delivered the ultimate smack-down to Arizona state Sen. and gubernatorial candidate Al Melvin.  Seriously, watch the video.  Melvin isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but it seems Arizona is full of tools.

Delaware Dem covered the Arizona nonsense here.  And Arizona Republicans aren’t the only ones playing footsie with these types of laws.

Second, how’s the Republican courtship of minorities going?  Well, not to be left out, the Arizona “religious freedom” law would include discriminating against them as well, but we’ll focus on why they can’t stop lying about the Civil War and their love of the Confederate flag, aka the symbol of treasonous losers and of slavery.  (That link takes you to a must see Daily Show video.  Yep, I’m on a video kick today)  Seems like certain people need to display their “heritage” on license plates and they don’t understand why people are upset.

Nine states – Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia – offer Sons of Confederate license plates featuring a version of the Confederate flag. Proposed plates in Florida, Kentucky and Texas have been rejected. In 2011, the board of the Texas DMV unanimously rejected a Confederate plate after hearing hours of testimony from opponents who believe the flag perpetuates racism. The Sons of Confederate veterans sued over the decision and the case remains in the courts.

If your symbol of pride and heritage is this flag then your heritage has a big problem.
And not to leave women out of the GOP love fest… I give Virginia State Senator Steve Martin:
You can count on me to never get in the way of you “preventing” an unintentional pregnancy.” I’m not actually sure what that means, because if it’s “unintentional” you must have been trying to prevent it. And, I don’t expect to be in the room or will I do anything to prevent you from obtaining a contraceptive. However, once a child does exist in your womb, I’m not going to assume a right to kill it just because the child’s host (some refer to them as mothers) doesn’t want it to remain alive.
Host?  Like a sci-fi movie?
Told ya they couldn’t shut up… and I didn’t even mention vile Ted Nugent or looney tune Victoria Jackson.  Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Republican Party of today.  They don’t even know how to play coy.  They also are not one bit serious about changing their ways.  Feel free to add your own GOP outreach fail in the comments.

Oh Look! Conservative Freak Out Over Coca-Cola Ad!

I’m sure Reince Priebus will be demanding apologies any minute!

When I saw the Coca-Cola commercial last night I knew what was coming.  (#BoycottCoke was even trending on Twitter)  And I was correct:

Former tea party congressman Allen West even took time to write a blog post during the game to voice his displeasure. For West, the ad started out strong enough.

“Then the words went from English to languages I didn’t recognize,” a troubled West wrote, calling it “a truly disturbing commercial.”

Michael Patrick Leahy over at Breitbart was offended, too.

Not only did Coke use “a deeply Christian patriotic anthem whose theme is unity – in several foreign languages,” but Leahy noted that the “ad also prominently features a gay couple.”

Fox News commentator Todd Starnes tweeted his heart out!

So was Coca-Cola saying America is beautiful because new immigrants don’t learn to speak English?

Coca Cola is the official soft drink of illegals crossing the border.

I swear, you could set your watch by these guys.

 

In Case You Were Wondering If Republicans Got Their Act Together And United…

They haven’t.

Here’s who the GOP has responding to the President’s State Of The Union address:

1. The official GOP response is to be delivered immediately after the SOTU by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)

2. Americans will also get a rebuttal from Tea Party Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)

3. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) will give a pre-recorded address (because he’s psychic?)

4. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) announced Monday she will deliver her own State of the Union response in Spanish

That’s four – count ’em, FOUR! – different Republican responses.

Just sayin’

 

Republicans Become Dumber – Is That Possible?

Yep, it’s possible.

Belief in evolution among Republicans has dropped more than 10 percentage points since 2009, according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center.

Pew found that 43 percent of Republicans said they believed humans and other living beings had evolved over time, down from 54 percent in 2009. More (48 percent) said they believed all living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.

Oh my, that’s embarrassing.  Guess all this talk of the importance of STEM classes doesn’t resonate with the GOP.  Science, technology, engineering and math are obviously not Jesus approved.  Good luck with that.

Republicans Are No Longer the Party of Business

That is the remarkable title from an article in BloomburgBusinessweek:
No Longer the Party of Business10-4-2013

Larger businesses, which often tilt more heavily toward the GOP, are no less frustrated. It’s hard to find any organization more closely affiliated with the Republican Party than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In 2012 the business trade group spent $35,657,029 on federal elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Of that, $305,044 was spent on behalf of Democratic candidates. Last year the Chamber went further to help Republicans than it ever had by running ads directly against candidates: It spent $27,912,717 against Democrats and only $346,298 against Republicans.

All that money ensures a careful hearing when the Chamber wants something from Republicans—but it doesn’t guarantee they’ll listen. On Oct. 1, House Republicans ignored the Chamber’s pleas to keep the government running. The shutdown is costing the U.S. economy $300 million a day, according to IHS (IHS), a global market-research firm, and it’s only the latest sign suggesting that the old adage, “Republicans are the party of business,” no longer holds true. From the austerity imposed by sequestration to the refusal to reform immigration laws to the shutdown and now, as appears likely, another debt-ceiling showdown when U.S. borrowing authority expires on Oct. 17, the GOP’s actions have put a strain on one of its most valuable partners: the business community.

Probably the biggest thing that got missed in the Fed’s decision to not cut back on it’s QE activities is their determination that the biggest risk left to this economy was the dysfunction in Washington. This dysfunction doesn’t seem to stop the Chamber and business groups from buying up all of the politicians (both sides do it for real this time!) they can get. I really thought that in the last Debt Ceiling fight that the business community would be an influential voice in getting the GOP to do the right thing. And I was wrong.

The rising antigovernment sentiment within the GOP does not always conflict with the desires of the business community, especially on issues such as regulation. But the shutdown and debt ceiling are both matters where they do—and the unwillingness of Republican lawmakers to shift course underscores the diminished clout of their traditional business allies, despite the financial largesse. Asked by the Associated Press if he had heard business groups express alarm about the economic impact of a shutdown, Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California replied, “No. And it wouldn’t make any difference if I did.”

There you go. A party hell-bent on damaging all of us — even the people who are their best allies. So what happens next? Is there some line — which crossed — will get the business community to push back on these teajhadis in some serious way?

Welcome to the GOP Government Shutdown

As of today, the great government of the United States is shut down, but guess what? You can buy health insurance on the exchanges today, because it is the law today. This bit of stupidity is courtesy of the teajhadis in the House. The NYDN gives this just the right cover today:
NY_DN House of Turds

Right? And since our media seem to have forgotten how we got here with their breathless coverage of the last minute conference deal, pay attention to Senator Patty Murray:

After blocking Senate Democrats’ attempts to start a budget conference 18 times over the past six months, Republicans are now scrambling to start a conference committee with mere minutes to go before a government shutdown. This is just the latest absurd and desperate attempt by Speaker Boehner to delay the inevitable–bringing a clean continuing resolution to the floor for Democrats and Republicans to vote on–and to continue pushing the country toward a completely unnecessary government shutdown. If Republicans were truly serious about avoiding a crisis they would pass the Senate’s short-term funding bill to remove the threat of a government shutdown immediately. We won’t negotiate while Republicans are threatening families and the economy with a crisis.

Got that? In the past 6 months the GOP-controlled House has reused to appoint anyone to a conference committee to has out a budget. SIX MONTHS. But last night all they could come up with was a conference committee for the CR. I’m calling bullshit on the GOP and I’m calling bullshit on the media types who still can’t get the context of this thing right.