OMG

Beto O'Rourke, Ballsy and Punk

So one of 2018's rock stars, Beto O'Rourke, has pulled even to Ted Cruz in polling for the Texas Senate race. Pulled even. He had proposed six debates to Ted Cruz, and Cruz countered with five and demanded the first one be this coming Friday at a place of Cruz's choosing and with a moderator of Cruz's choosing, and Beto said, "Whoa, Big Boy," and refused to jump to Cruz's tune:

O’Rourke said Monday that Cruz’s campaign has “attempted to dictate” different aspects of the debate schedule, such as the time, the moderators and which subjects the candidates could speak about.

“We’re working through those differences, and we’re trying to introduce more of a collaborative style to the negotiations than he [Cruz] may be used to,” O’Rourke said .... “And so we’re confident that out of that, we’re going to come to something good.”

That took balls.

So what did those miffed boys over in Cruz-land do? They dug up an old photo of Beto when he was

Beto O'Rourke, rock star.
He's on the left in goatee
and ponytail

in college and in a punk rock band, and they tweeted it out with the sarcastic suggestion that Beto couldn't debate this Friday because of a previous engagement [wink wink], because they thought that photo would embarrass him and hurt him with Texas Marlboro men.

Well that backfired. 

It's fascinating to watch misfire after misfire by the Trumpian troops, miscalculations that can be deadly. Remember the video ad in favor of Jonathan Jordan that attacked weatherman Ray Russell as the "nutty professor." That one also backfired in a big way. People so mad they're contributing to Russell's campaign.

May the gods of tone-deafness continue to smile on this bunch and continue to inspire their dreams.

Could a Democrat Beat Texas Senator Ted Cruz?

Yes. Yes he could, especially if he is Beto O'Rourke.




O'Rourke will probably end up in a Democratic primary, but he's been energizing Texas voters since he announced 10 months ago and he's probably way ahead in any primary race.

If he ends up facing Ted Cruz in November, better watch out.

The Cruz-Lee Amendment

The "revised" Senate Obamacare repeal/replace bill will apparently contain new language insisted on by the most conservative Republicans. The Cruz-Lee amendment will allow insurers to sell unregulated plans – which would be cheaper (in every sense of the word) and could discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions – so long as they also sell an Obamacare-compliant policy.

Poorer people will go for cheap and get screwed.

Who's Worse on Women's Issues?

If you watch the video of Donald Trump's deer-in-the-headlights moment last night with Chris Matthews (video embedded here), you see a candidate first trying to tap dance away from the question of whether women should be punished for having abortions -- you can actually see those rusty little wheels turning beneath the skin stretched across his skull -- until finally logic kicks in, so "Yes," sez he, if abortion is capital murder, then women must be punished for having one.

He hadn't thought it through yo. But, yes, this man's first instinct, when cornered, is to blame and punish women. There might be a pattern here, relevant in evaluating the character of a man who wants to be president.

John Kasich and Ted Cruz became instantly pious. Kasich said, “Of course women shouldn’t be punished.” Cruz said, “Of course we shouldn’t be talking about punishing women; we should affirm their dignity and the incredible gift they have to bring life into the world.”

But what, pray tell, were women saying, at least those with at least two simultaneously firing synapses? Here's one response, taken from Facebook:

WTF? What's all this faux outrage by Cruz and Kasich that Trump wants to punish women for having abortions? The very policies that Cruz and Kasich and the GOP have passed already punish women for even seeking one. How can you argue on one hand that you don't want to punish women but it's ok to punish (sometimes kill) doctors who perform abortions, require women to undergo unnecessary medical procedures to get an abortion, and send over 100,000 women in Texas either over the border or to back alleys by shutting down clinics? What a crock. Trump was just telling the truth: Of course they are willing to punish women. They already are.

WTF, indeed!

Thanks to Donald Trump, and to his interrogator last night, for bringing the treatment of women fully and blindingly back into the spotlight for 2016.

Primary Results

Some takeaways from yesterday's primary:

1. Ted Cruz outpolled Donald Trump in Watauga.

2. The total Democratic ballots cast yesterday in Watauga = 1,181 more individual ballots than the total Republican ballots case for all 13 presidential candidates (including "No Preference").

3. Bernie Sanders buried Hillary Clinton in Watauga. The interest in that race obviously explains # 2 above.

4. Incumbent NC House Rep. Jonathan Jordan easily beat challenger Lew Hendricks, which is too bad.

5. Second-time Democratic candidate Sue Counts easily beat challenger Ronnie Marsh.

6. Franklin Graham's tool Deanna Ballard edged the vastly more qualified Ken Boham in the Dist. 45 NC Senate Republican primary, 52.96% to 47.04%. Boham should have won it.

7. Former Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker won his Secretary of Labor primary and is well set up to take on and beat incumbent disgrace Cherie Berry, "the elevator lady."

8. Ron Elmer, the more qualified candidate in the Democratic primary for Treasurer, took Watauga County but lost the state to Dan Blue III, who can still win the general election on the strength of his name alone.

9. Linda Coleman won the Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor. Watauga County went for  her opponent Holly Jones, a Buncombe County Commissioner.

Hail, Mary!

NC Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger has just endorsed Ted Cruz in tomorrow's North Carolina presidential primary:

"Of the two candidates with a realistic chance to win the Republican nomination for president, only Ted Cruz can defeat Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders in the general election this November. Ted Cruz is a principled outsider with a proven track record on fiscal and social issues that conservatives can count on. I hope you’ll consider joining me in supporting and voting for Ted Cruz tomorrow."

Time out now while I lean against this filing cabinet and howl with laughter.

Thom Tillis Signs on to the Donald Trump/Franklin Graham Brand of Racist Poison

Yesterday afternoon in the U.S. Senate, Senator Patrick Leahy offered a "sense of the Senate" amendment to a nuclear terrorism bill being considered in the Judiciary Committee: “It is the sense of the Senate that the United States must not bar individuals from entering into the United States based on their religion, as such action would be contrary to the fundamental principles on which this nation was founded.”

All the Democrats and seven of the Republicans on the committee voted for the amendment, which after all just reasserts a founding principle of "no religious tests" in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution.

Sen. Ted Cruz voted against it, even though he wasn't present. Also voting against the amendment -- Thom Tillis, that towering monument of statesmanship which is crumbling like chalk under the pressure of un-American "Trumpism."

Tillis reads the polls, and although he has another five years before he faces the voters in North Carolina again, he evidently decided that he'd just go ahead and proclaim his far right credentials now to all those extreme elements in his own party who are currently gung-ho for Trump's brand of racism.

It was an easy call, probably. What North Carolina politician has ever gone wrong parroting the latest in racial fear?

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: The 4th Republican Presidential Debate

9:10 p.m.

Trump, Carson, and Rubio are hitting the first question outta the Republican ballpark: Should we raise the minimum wage? No, they say, but in this ballpark, it's a display of pure charity. Trump actually allowed as how wages are "too high" now and that "people have to go out, they have to work really hard and have to get into that upper stratum." I'm doing you a favor to keep you at $7.25 an hour. (Or you could borrow a million dollars from your daddy!)

Carson, always ready with a line that can be demonstrably disproven: "Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases." Fact checkers, go! (And, indeed, that statement isn't true.)

Rubio danced. My parents made minimum wage, and look at me. Ain't I purty?

9:20 p.m.

Bush would repeal every law that Obama even breathed on during the last seven years. Internet. Clean Power. Water. Repeal 'em all. Bush is Mr. Strong Man this evening!

9:23 p.m.

Someone pushed "play" on the Fiorina machine! When she starts, she doesn't stop. Most rehearsed candidate by far, except for Cruz, who has his zingers queued up and ready to go.

9:26 p.m.

Rand Paul: "I think that we ought to look where income inequality seems to be the worst. It seems to be worst in cities run by Democrats, governors of... [APPLAUSE]. States run by Democrats and countries currently run by Democrats." Well, now. North Carolina is completely run by Republicans, and how do we stack up? Higher unemployment, a new tax system that favors the rich.... How about Kansas, that model of Republican management?

9:38 p.m.

Scuffle has broken out over immigration. Kasich starts a fight with Trump after Trump reaffirms that he's going to ship 5 million people out of the country. Kasich says, "Come on, people. It's a silly argument." Trump disses Ohio. Kasich defends Ohio's honor. Trump: I'm rich. I don't have to talk to Kasich. Boos.

9:42 p.m.

Cruz is ready with one of his rehearsed lines: "If Republicans join Democrats as the party of amnesty, we will lose." Then, because attacking the media got him the biggest applause in the last debate, Cruz goes after the press in a clever way: "I will say the politics of immigration will be very, very different if a bunch of lawyers or bankers were crossing the Rio Grande. Or if a bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down the wages in the press." Best line of the night.

9:45 p.m.

Fiorina: "We need free-market health care!" The mind develops an instant absess.

10:00 p.m.

The Cruz polish gets a scuff mark: He sez he would cut five agencies: IRS, Commerce, Energy, Commerce, and HUD. Paging Rick Perry!

10:05 p.m.

Paul and Rubio in a fight over Rubio's child tax credit proposal, which Paul calls an entitlement and which therefore means Rubio is not a conservative. Rubio: Family values, family, fam'bly! Rubio fights back, implying Paul is a big wimp because he doesn't want to pour more money into the military. Everybody else begins to pipe up like hungry sea gulls that they want a big military too, goddamn it! Fiorina is positively gonna stomp all over this globe with her armed forces!

10:11 p.m.

Trump says the TPP trade deal is the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals because it advantages China, which is burying us. Paul calmly zings back: China isn't a part of the TPP deal. Trump falls silent.

10:18 p.m.

Carson's plan for ISIS: We have to make them "look like losers." We do that by taking their oil fields and then destroying them. "We could do this, I believe, fairly easily." Carson says he learned that from "several generals." Come on, folks! ISIS is just like 8th grade nerds. Take their lunch money, pants them, and shove 'em in a locker!

10:28 p.m.

Fiorina says she's met Putin not in a green room, like Trump, but in a private meeting. Fiorina is like the president of the most exclusive sorority on campus, putting a rival sorority in its place. "There's that Vladimir Putin. Let's not talk to him!"

10:31 p.m.

Trump comes mighty close to saying STFU to Fiorina. "Why do you keep interrupting everyone? Terrible!"

10:37 p.m.

Kasich, who's barged into other candidates' statements several times and is the real interrupter, is now whining about not getting enough time in this debate.

10:57 p.m.

Fiorina sez for at least the third time: "We have got to take our country back." But did anybody keep the receipt?

Donald Trump said that no debate should go more than two hours, so we break away now to watch Trevor Noah.