I’ve been vacationing and the holidays and yada yada, so there’s been light blogging lately. The big news that I missed was a terrorist attack here on the United States, although whether to call it a “terrorist attack” seems to be arguable. I’m talking of course about the shooter at Planned Parenthood. On Saturday, November 27, a shooting and five-hour … Read More
Trump: Annoy Your Local Police With Your Paranoia
Well, what he said was this today (emphases are mine): We can’t let it happen anymore. We have to be strong, we have to smart. We have to be fair, we have to be fair to all side. And it’s tough. You know, if you’re Muslim — and there are so many, they’re so great, they’re such good people — … Read More
Trump Lies A Lot
Here are some links just from the past few days. PolitiFact has compiled 52 rulings that land on the false side of the organization’s truth spectrum. Washington Post: “Donald Trump is constantly lying.” Washington Post: “Trump’s outrageous claim that ‘thousands’ of New Jersey Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attacks“ Business Insider: “Fact-checkers are shredding Donald Trump’s claims he saw people ‘cheering’ … Read More
Clown Car Slightly Smaller
Jindel drops out of GOP presidential race. He realized it was “not his time”. He JUST realized that.
GOP Frontrunner on Terrorism: I’m A Psychic
Donald Trump has magic feels and can tell when terrorism will hit: “I predicted Osama bin Laden,” Mr. Trump declared in Knoxville, adding, “In my book, I predicted terrorism. Because I can feel it, like I feel a good location, O.K.?” “In real estate — my father always used to tell people, ‘You know, he may be my son, but everything … Read More
Dissecting The GOP
There’s a new book coming out by Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and in it, he divides the Republicans into four camps: They are: (1) moderate or liberal voters; (2) somewhat conservative voters; (3) very conservative, evangelical voters; and (4) very conservative, secular voters. Each of these groups supports extremely different types of candidates. … Read More
GOP Debate #4 Wrap-up
Well, you can just read my Tweet below. As Nate Silver says, not every debate is a game-changer, and this one wasn’t. Here are the 538 website grades, Nate Silver’s grades, and my grades: CANDIDATE AVERAGE GRADE NATE’S GRADE MY GRADE Marco Rubio B+ B+ B Rand Paul B- B- B+ Ted Cruz B- B+ B+ Jeb Bush C+ C+ … Read More
Is Carson Being Picked On?
If Carson is engaging in a blame-the-media strategy — well, that’s one thing. It’s a tried and true right wing go-to. But his complaint about being the recipient of “unprecedented” media scrutiny strikes me as the whining of political neophyte… ironically, the very things that Carson is. In any event, it is not true. Taking Carson’s challenge (his scrutiny is … Read More
Carson Now Actually Has A Problem: Dishonesty (Or Perhaps, Stolen Valor)
It is one thing to think that Joseph of biblical fame built the Pyramids to store grain; it is another to lie about your resume. GOP candidate has owned up to a pretty big lie: Ben Carson’s campaign on Friday admitted, in a response to an inquiry from POLITICO, that a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated: … Read More
NC-GOP Poll: Carson Over Trump By Double Digits
GOP Presidential Primary – Respondent’s First Choice Registered voters who were self-identified Republicans or Independents who lean Republican were asked who they planned to vote for if the presidential primary were held today. Fourteen candidate names were read to respondents, with names randomly rotated to prevent primacy and recency effects. The survey found Carson in the lead with 31 percent. … Read More
This Is What We Can Expect From A Carson Presidency
i.e., something almost entirely fact-free. You see, it seems that Ben Carson is doubling down on his theory that the Egyptian pyramids were not built as funerary monuments but in fact were built by the biblical Joseph, when serving as Pharoah’s Prime Minister, to store grain. “It’s still my belief, yes,” Carson told CBS News today in Naples, Florida. That’s what … Read More
Election Day 2015
An off election year, which means that nobody went to the polls, practically. But there were two local results that caught my eye: My friend Dawn Morgan was re-elected mayor of Kernersville for the 300th time (it seems) — she won 95.8% of the vote. It helped, I suppose, that she ran unopposed. And in Walnut Cove, they passed a … Read More
Draft Of GOP Candidates Debate Demands
Via Dave Weigel and Robert Costa at the Washington Post, here’s the complete draft — second draft, actually — of the letter Republican candidates are considering sending to TV networks, with their questions/demands about the upcoming debates. None of the candidates have actually signed this yet, so it still could change. And note that it isn’t a “demand” so much … Read More
Ted Cruz: “Climate Change Isn’t Science; It’s Religion”
OMG. Sen. Ted Cruz, candidate for the highest office in the land, thinks that climate change — a phenomenon widely accepted by the scientists who study it — is a religious belief. “Climate change is not science. It’s religion” That is what he told Glenn Beck yesterday. To back up his claim, Cruz pointed to the way we talk about climate … Read More
Debate Questions: A Primer
There continues to be a lot of criticism of the moderators of the CNBC debate held Wednesday night. And some of the criticism is legitimate. The first question to Donald Trump, for example, was “Are you a comic book candidate?” is so absurdly dumb that it staggers the mind. It is a question designed solely for the purpose of soliciting … Read More