After mucking about yesterday with a doctor's appointment (just a quick check in), a Costco run for Perrier water (I like the bubbles), and then some chores, I started my post but was tired. So I decided to relax for half an hour. I fell asleep not waking until this morning. Off to the races again with physio, chiropractor, and a wonderful relaxing lunch with a friend. Ah, a day in the life of a retired person!
Short Takes
Foreign Policy — Of our candidates, who do you think would be most popular in Russia?
Feldman: On the surface, Trump is, of course, terribly similar to Putin.
Because in Russia, the elections are more like a choice between different aesthetics. That is, you have no chance to have an effect on actual policy. You can vote for the Communists if you’re nostalgic, for the screaming [Vladimir] Zhirinovsky if you want to bang your fist on the table, for [the ruling party] United Russia if you want to show your loyalty, and for A Just Russia if you’re loyal, but not very.
So in Russia, elections look different. It’s a ritual, a cult. You vote and it doesn’t change anything. Here it’s not like that — but in that way, on the surface, Trump is, of course, very similar to Putin. He’s the closest to this kind of Russian politics.
FP: In that, by voting for him, you’re more showing who you are than voting for a policy?
Feldman: Yes. I was actually at a Trump rally in Cedar Falls, and I had this feeling that I had returned to the Motherland. …
TC has often referred to Vladimir Putin as Pooty-R(Ru). In this piece, the author interviews Russian photojournalist Evgeny Feldman who is in the US observing the Iowa caucuses, among other things. He seems to think that Trump is very much like Putin.
Right Wing Watch — “I believe that they are positioning themselves so that someday they could invade Israel to be able to take over the vast stores of oil and natural gas that Israel is controlling,” she said, adding that “this very unique new partnership between Iran and Russia in Syria” with the support of China “lines up with scripture.” All of these powers, she said, are seeking “a global world order to keep their game going into the future and to support them if they would invade against Israel.”
And who will lead this global world order? Why, none other than Obama.
NUT JOB ALERT!!!!! BARF BAG ALERT!!!!! NUT JOB ALERT!!!!! BARF BAG ALERT!!!!!
Oh my! I thought Guano Girl could not get any more batshit crazy than she already was! I stand corrected. She out did herself, or maybe it's just been so delightfully quiet without her daily rants and shenanigans that I feel assaulted by her guanoness!
Huffington Post — Real estate mogul Donald Trump accused Ted Cruz of fraud on Wednesday, claiming the Texas senator "stole" the Iowa caucuses and arguing that "either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified." …
Trump posed with a bald eagle, named Uncle Sam, for a TIME magazine shoot when he was in the running for person of the year. Nothing is more satisfyingly ironic and metaphorical as this bald eagle-the symbol of American freedom and might-attacking Trump, who only wants to "Make America Great Again." It is about time that Uncle Sam took Trump to task!
Trump is a master at sucking the oxygen out of the race by drawing attention to himself with new controversies. The Twitter rant is just one more example of this media strategy, particularly at a time when Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) are basking in the glow of their performances in Iowa.
Cruz responded Wednesday afternoon, mocking the businessman for throwing a "Trumpertantrum."
Trump sure doesn't like losing! . . . and if there was any doubt about that, his Twitter rant should allay all doubts. I wonder if he'll threaten to hold his breath if he doesn't get his way? I can hope can't I? As much as I dislike Cruz, his response was cool — Trumpertantrum. LOL!!!
NBC — Rick Santorum on Wednesday announced he is suspending his presidential campaign and endorsing Marco Rubio.
"He is the new generation and someone that can bring this country together — not just moderates and conservatives but young and old," Santorum said of the Florida senator during an appearance on the Fox News program "On the Record With Greta Van Susteren."
Santorum called Rubio a "born leader" best able to help the struggling middle class, support families and combat the terror group ISIS.
In Open Thread–2/3/2016, TC posted about the Rand Paul, Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after Idiot, withdrawal from the Republican presidential race. Now Rick Santorum has also withdrawn which doesn't surprise me at all. Thankfully, the Clown Car is getting lighter and lighter. To date, Rick Perry, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum have departed the Streetcar Named Desire, aka the Clown Car. Seven ejected from the Clown Car, 10 to go.
Politico — Donald Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
The billionaire presidential candidate, whose controversial comments and hard-edged policy proposals have upset many, was nominated for: "his vigorous peace through strength ideology, used as a threat weapon of deterrence against radical Islam, ISIS, nuclear Iran and Communist China,” according to a copy of the nomination letter obtained by the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway. According to PRIO, Trump was nominated by an American.
From the "OMG, it can't be true!" files, Donald Trump was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Whomever nominated the misogynistic hater is demented, even more than Trump himself. Somebody please tell me that a snowball has a better chance in hell than Trump has as a successful Nobel candidate.When he does not get it, we'll be able to call him "Strike Three" . . . no to Time person of the year, no in Iowa, and no to the Nobel Prize.
My Universe —
7 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 03/02/2016”
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FP: Interesting article, to read how other reporters from other countries view our system. And yes, we're making decisions for our future by voting. Passing this one on too.
RWW: Good Lord, she's nuts. Gone, completely gone.
HP: If the polls showed that Trump had won, then he wouldn't have had a problem with those numbers. But now…he's having a meltdown, he's such a cad. Trumpertantrum!! LOL.
Politico: I read this yesterday, and was completely flummoxed by this news.Unreal !!! Absolutely NOT!
My Universe: I can relate to this, as my Corgi used to do this when I would leave the house. Now that she's elderly, she looks for a comfortable pillow and blanket to nap on.
I sure do like being retired, though there are days that I feel I'm still working. But I have learned the word 'no', and that helps me with my schedule. Enjoy your day, Thanks, Lynn.
There is still 6-8" of snow on the ground here. The sun has peeked out this morning but I am far from expecting it to melt much today. So I am still not going anywhere.
Foreign Policy – I would have thought Putin was not as flampoyant as Trump, but I don't live there, so I bow to Gene's (if I may call Evgeny "Gene") analysis. I would think Trump supporters would be very much like Putin supporters, though, so I may have gotten that part right.
Right Wing Watch – Aw, she'a just channeling tha author of Revelation. Whoever that was, and whatever he was smoking. (Although I must say if people in our time hadn't completely forgotten what allegory is, we might not have all these cockamamie ideas bruited about. Allegory is not prophecy, people.)
HuffPo – "Drawing attention to himself" is a bit of an understatement. I read somewhere that in the 24 hours following the caucuses he got 9 times as much press as Cruz did. I cannot and do not believe Cruz came up with Trumpertantrum. Someone must have used it in the hearing of one of his staffers, who then passed it on.
NBC – Add Rick to the Ted-haters.
Politico – Oddly, I can see Trump as a uniter, in that he unted the entire Republican establishment against him. On the other hand, Ted Cruz seems to be doing the same. Alas, there are too many possibilities to speculate about the letter's author.
Universe – Gotta watch those exploding pillows.
Thanks Squatch! Swamped today!
That's a complaint often heard from retired people, Lynn: "I've never been so busy". Fortunately now there's no boss to complain about your little catnap turning into a full night's sleep, only a body you should cherish and obey when it tells you to relax.
Foreign Policy: After reading the whole article I was rather amused to notice that Evgeny Feldman really looked at the process of an American election free of prior knowledge and bias, something I can no longer do myself. He could go to a Ted Cruz rally and admire him as an excellent speaker, not really hearing the content of the speech, I think, and describing the way the couple he had joined had come to decide to vote for Cruz because he proposed term limits as "cool" and very un-Russian. He also thought that Putin and Trump were very much alike superficially, again the view of an onlooker, someone who earns his bread with observing as a photojournalist. His perspective is very different to most of us and his opinion very interesting.
Right Wing Watch: The radio talk show host must have been really hard up for a guest if he invited Michelle Bachman. Her Armageddon ideas are old hat, she just blend in some rumors about oil in Israel she picked up on the way to make it sound new. Why can't she and Palin take the hundreds of hints from their own party and leave politics to the male nut-jobs. They are such an embarrassment to women.
HuPo: Oh please, did anyone really expect Trump to react any differently? Of course he's a sore loser, his ego won't allow him to lose. But Trump is also very vindictive indeed, so we can expect more very nasty actions directed at Cruz personally soon.
NBC: Santorum is really sucking up to Rubio there; is he auditioning for the role of vice president in the next clowns show?
Politico: How much would it have cost the Donald to pay some right wing think-tank head, who had a spot of financial trouble, to nominate him? His campaign hasn't cost him very much up to now with all the free publicity he generates, so money is no problem. The Donald probably writes this of as an tax deductible investment anyhow.
My Universe: That's one thing I've never seen any of my cats do. They only bring exploding mice inside.
I'm told the sun might actually have warmth again in a few days…in the meantime I stay warm from internal fuel of response to the irrationality and immorality like presented here. Thanks Lynn
You certainly had a full day!
Foreign Policy: I am not surprised that someone thinks Trump is like Putin.
Right Wing Watch: Bachman needs to be in an institution for the deranged, on heavy meds.
Huffington Post: Cruz scares me, but I liked Trumpertantrum, too.
My Universe: Cute.
Politico: This nomination shows they don't have to do much to get one.
FP: No surprise there!
RWW: Bachman is sooo fucking crazed and delusinal it is amazing that she can avoid spontaneously combusting!
Oh, maybe SHE is the fool that nominated the Hary Rump for the Nobel! "Strike Three" will be joyous to proclaim. The video of the eagle on the attack is marvelous! Yes, "Trumpertantrum" is good, perhaps the only valid thing to come from Cruz' mouth this entire election season!