Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Thursday, July 21, 2016

Day 3 at the Republican National Dumpster Fire -- Ted Cruz Throws A Stink Bomb...



and refuses to endorse Trump.  

All hell breaks loose as Cruz is booed and jeered off the stage. (That's JEERED, not cheered.)

The Cruz stink bomb came before v.p. nominee Mike Pence's big moment and diminished his impact. All anyone is talking about is what Cruz did NOT do --endorse Trump.

I've never seen anything like what happened on Wednesday night.  

Weird.

This is the continuation of a hot mess of a horrendously chaotic and ugly convention. It shows the American people, once again, that Trump is incapable of running a smooth, cohesive convention, and that's an insight on how he'd govern if this country goes completely mad and sends him to Washington.

Ted Cruz just humiliated Donald Trump by refusing to endorse him during his convention speech



What a disaster. Everyone watching this prime time just saw a speaker at Trump's convention refuse to endorse him and luxuriate in it.
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) July 21, 2016


Master dealmaker Trump couldn't extract an explicit endorsement from Cruz in exchange for a primetime speaking slot.
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 21, 2016


 If the point of a convention is to unify the party and reach out to broader electorate, it's been an unmitigated disaster so far. — Philip Klein (@philipaklein) July 21, 2016


 Finally, this from Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo: 

"... the GOP is a failed state and Trump is its warlord. 

On his own Trump is simply a bracing case study in abnormal psychology. But he didn't shoot to within reach of the most powerful office in the world by happenstance. He is the product of a political and cultural breakdown on the American right, a swaggering reductio ad absurdum of every breach and breakdown and violation of extra-statutory norms we've seen over the last two or three decades."

14 comments:

Shaw Kenawe said...

PM Carpenter:

"This week [Trump has] had four days to manage — the four most critical days yet of his life — and he has botched every minute of every one of them.

Last night, Frank Bruni resurveyed Trump's unspeakable mess of a convention: It has shown "how far short he has fallen in making these four days in Cleveland as dazzling and exciting as he’d long promised they would be.

They were a bust already before Wednesday night, as The Times’s Adam Nagourney and Jeremy W. Peters chronicled, pointing to the nonsensical order of speakers, the shaky adherence to themes, the unintended disruptions, the self-inflicted distractions, the empty seats in the arena, the hollow emotion on the stage." It chills to imagine 52 weeks X 4 of such pronounced incompetence."


No matter what Trump says tonight, it will never erase the wretched wreck of a convention he and his campaign delivered to the U.S. as an example of his competence.

With Trump in charge of things, "The Art of the Deal" becomes "The Wreckage of the Deal. His convention stands as living proof of his YUUUUUUUGE incompetence.

Bluebull said...

Yes, it's been an awful convention filled with the usual right wing hatred, nastiness and total lack of intelligence but it's been fun knowing how badly we'll beat these fools come November.

Anonymous said...



The Republican Party under Donald Trum: Bringing America one shit storm after another.

Mark S. said...

I was no fan of George the Younger or Ronald Reagan but their conventions generated genuine excitement. And they were well organized, had full seats, and speakers people actually cared about. Mitt Romney got Clint Eastwood , Trump got Scott Baio. He can't even get the people scheduled to speak to endorse him. It is the most unprofessional, badly organized, salute to one man's ego I have ever seen. The most exciting thing at the entire convention was Trump's embarrassing. WWE entrance. Using music the artists asked him not to use. This is was just totally unprofessional.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Bob T., friend of a friend asks:

"Why would Trump's people agree to give Cruz a prime time speaking slot without knowing what he was going to say? With Rubio, they got a 90 second taped "speech" and had time to decide whether or not it should be aired during their convention. They had to know Cruz was still bitter about Trump's insults throughout the primaries... Again, it's amateur hour management by a guy who's supposed to surround himself with the best advisers? Is this the sort of miscalculation we would want in the Oval Office? One more piece of evidence that Trump's not ready for prime time."

I'm just saying said...

Would you call Obama's entrance into a mess of Greek Colums ( Professional)?

Shaw Kenawe said...

Driftglass is funny -- if you can be funny while looking into the abyss that is the GOP:

"Donald Trump's Republican National Convention Calendar:

Monday: Six hours of Two-Minutes Hate. Fuck up the schedule. Humiliate wife in front of 35 million witnesses by brazenly plagiarizing speech from the Kenyan Usurper's wife.

Tuesday: Unbroken hysterical Hillary Hate on "Jobs" Night". D-Listers. Continue humiliating wife by brazenly lying about plagiarizing the speech from Michelle Obama. Blmae the Liberal media, Hillary Clinton and My Little Pony.

Wednesday: Try to finally kill the Melania plagiarism story by more Three Stooges cover-up nonsense and finding a patsy. Let Ted Crux frag the campaign in prime time. Fuck up Mike Pence's VP roll out a second time.

Thursday: File for political bankruptcy.

Kevin Robbins said...

Please don't make me feel the slightest approval for Ted Cruz.

Les Carpenter said...

It appears the tendency to despise (hate) those whose political views are contrary to ones on is almost universal. And, certain people supply a never ending stream of material for the "other" side.

Sadly the political atmosphere has grown so poisonous it is beyond anyone's ability to control the outrage, even over the smallest and most inconsequential things.

I'm more outraged over the MA. AG slapping a ban on the sale of semi automatic rifles in the state without providing even so much as a days advance notice to retailers. Probably a court challenge and maybe all the way to the Supremes. If Clinton wins and appoints the next 2 or 3 Justices we will then know for sure the true agenda of the left on firearms and the 2'nd amendment. My guess is this will help Trump as things tend to grow from the seeds planted during infancy.

Shaw Kenawe said...


RN, not all people despise those whose political views are contrary to their own. Despise is a strong word. Disagree is more what it should be.

But we did see a representation of what you said over the last few days during the RNC national convention. The calls for jailing one's opponent or, as Trump said, have his AG throw her in jail, are a first for me and my family -- we've been watching political conventions every four years, and when we saw the GOPers screaming about threatening an opponent with physical harm or jail time (without trial!) was actually reminiscent of a totalitarian regime slavering to take the reins of power and round up all its enemies for execution. Jeebus. I had to remind myself that I was watching an American political convention and not some third world country's.

I don't think (and I desperately hope) the Dems will not engage in this "red in tooth and claw" style of a convention. It is frightening to witness. The Dems are more unified, and they actually will have a message that's more compatible with American ideals -- not with murderous regimes.

As for your comment on the Mass. AG and the assault-style weapons ban. I thought this was interesting:

"Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday that Attorney General Maura Healey 'has the authority and the jurisdiction' to clarify the definition of assault-style weapons to ban the sale of certain guns in Massachusetts.

'If there are people that are selling weapons that violate the assault weapons ban in Massachusetts, it's important to them to get clarified,' said Baker, a Republican.

Massachusetts bans the sale of assault weapons and copies or duplicates of assault weapons. But, according to Healey, some gun manufacturers make guns that are very similar to assault weapons but with small changes. They then market those guns as 'state compliant,' even though there is no difference in the deadliness of the weapons."


Personally, I couldn't care less. I have no problem whatsoever with what she's doing. Ronald Reagan himself, the idol of the GOP, agrees with Attorney General Healey.

"Reagan received extended applause when answering a question about over-the-counter military weapons, such as the AK-47 assault rifle used to gun down five Stockton schoolchildren last month.

"I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense," he said. "But I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home."

Reagan erred in his use of terminology: The type of weapon used by Patrick Purdy, and referenced by Reagan in his comment, was actually a semi-automatic version of the AK-47, not a "machine gun." In 1994 Reagan was a co-signatory (along with former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter) to a letter urging the U.S. House of Representatives to support a ban on the domestic manufacture of "assault weapons" such as semi-automatic AK-47s."

Ducky's here said...

What did the RNC expect from Cruz?

Seems they needed a hired gun to do their dirty business.

Anyone making book on how many people he insults during his acceptance speech?

Shaw Kenawe said...



Donald will be reading off of a teleprompter (gasp!), and he's been rehearsing a speech someone else wrote since Sunday, so it'll probably be boring, unless he goes off script, then all bets are off and his inner narcissist will emerge like the chest-buster from "Alien."

No matter how much lipstick the put on this pig, they'll never be able to make it look "presidential." He'll still be seen by normal people as a bloviating horse's ass.

Les Carpenter said...

No matter how much lipstick the put on this pig, they'll never be able to make it look "presidential.

That is likely true.

However, it does appear that lipstick won't help either candidate (pig) all that much. While HRC is up in most she does not have over 50% in any.

We have two very uninspiring and to varying degrees less than honest candidates. I note Trump is without a doubt the most dishonest of the two.

Bluebull said...

My arguments with Hillary have never been about her 'honesty', as she's been the constant target of bitter right wingers for 30 years and, to date, they've yet to be able to stick anything to her other than the perception that she's 'dishonest'. They attack anyone who is left of Mussolini though, so I just do what most folks do, these days, and ignore their constant whining and bitching. Not a one of them have had a new idea, that didn't violate the Constitution and public decency, in 40 or more years. It's always the same tried and failed nonsense and attacking minorities with the right wingnuts. My arguments with her have been about her hawkishness and her ties to wall street and corporate pirates. Her recent turn towards progressiveness is great and I hope it's heartfelt. Either way, she's light years better than the lying cheeto-colored dumpster fire the kooks on the right are backing.