Via Mr. Pierce, here’s the Dallas Morning News:
Facing revolt from tea partiers egged on by Sen. Ted Cruz, House Republicans gave up suddenly Thursday on a bill that would have provided hundreds of millions to address the border crisis.
It was the latest in a string of embarrassments handed to Speaker John Boehner by Cruz, and the biggest since last fall, when the Texas freshman prodded House tea partiers to defy Boehner on efforts to avert a government shutdown…
Cruz hosted a pizza-fueled strategy session Wednesday night with some House conservatives – a reunion of the so-called Tortilla Coast Caucus, named for the Capitol Hill restaurant where Cruz and House allies huddled during the shutdown fight….
But House Republicans such as Rep. Pete King of New York have been scathing, too, when it comes to Cruz.
“The Obama White House should put Ted Cruz on the payroll,” King told the Washington Post. “We have a chance to pass a good bill, not a perfect bill. Boehner is working hard to get to 218 votes and yet there is Ted Cruz, telling us to do nothing. If he wants to come over and run for Speaker, that’s fine, but otherwise he should stay over there in the Senate.”…
Of course, the horse-race touts at Politico are very impressed by Mr. King of the College Debate Team:
An unapologetic Ted Cruz dismissed GOP criticism Thursday that he helped sink an emergency aid package for the Southwest border…
“The premise of your question is false,” Cruz, a potential 2016 presidential hopeful, said when asked about GOP concerns that he was lobbying House conservatives to reject the Republican plan. “My position on this crisis has not changed for many weeks. I have said publicly and privately the exact same thing, which is we cannot solve the crisis at the border without stopping President Obama’s amnesty.”…
I keep wondering — is there any point, some kind of goal, behind Senator Cruz’s antics? Or is it just a variation on the old Stanley Baldwin/Rudyard Kipling quip: “What [he] is aiming at is power, and power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.”
"My name is Ted Cruz, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" https://t.co/F47DFEDjCL
— billmon (@billmon1) July 31, 2014
Ted Cruz buried below the break because he was autoplaying.
Ted Cruz screams as he tries to impersonate Winston Churchill https://t.co/S5pqfX4lOC (via @BuzzFeedAndrew)
— HuffPost Politics (@HuffPostPol) March 24, 2014
KG
Getting on TV? Becoming a meme? Donations for his Super PAC? Donations for his reelection campaign? Donations for his presidential campaign? Grift? Book deal?
I mean, if you’re looking like actual policy goals and shit? Nah, nothing.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
He is a true believer. It is a beautiful thing. He won’t, can’t, compromise on anything. He also is oily and 1950s-ish. He is dead as a national candidate.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Tweety’s been comparing him to Tailgunner Joe.
MattF
Pushing people around gives Cruz a thrill, and he’s plainly in it for the thrill– ‘Let It Go’ and all that. Has to be noted that the woeful incompetence and unattractiveness of Boehner and his crew is making it easy.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@BillinGlendaleCA: So? When did McCarthy get elected president? I went to college in the town where he is buried. Pissing on his grave is a tradition.
bago
The emotions a human feels after dropping a hefty load of poo are literally gut wrenching. Often satisfactory.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Last time I checked, there is not a President Cruz. Pissing on ol’ Tailgunner’s grave sounds like a honorable pastime. If I was still a drinkin’ man, I might wander over to Forest Lawn and water Howard Jarvis’ final resting place.
danah gaz
So I’m like, completely conflicted. I recently left my position at a local shelter for homeless teens, and am looking at getting involved in another direct advocacy and/or community oriented position, and immigration is one that’s important to me, and to this community due to our sizeable immigrant population.
So there’s an immigration office where they help with immigration things like applying for greencards and filling out visa applications, etc.
There’s a position where I can help with that, and I’d like to, however – it’s run by Catholic Community Services.
Apparently there are no Catholics on staff, and it doesn’t make money for the RCC – in fact it’s a cost sink as far as I know.
But. I have intractable moral problems with the Catholic Church due to their aiding and abetting of child sexual abuse And being trans, they are trying to destroy my access to medical care, and would probably like to see me dead. In fact, most every major serious institutional harm done to trans people in the US was orchestrated by Catholics – from cutting off our access to care for 33 years (Janice Raymond, former nun), to pushing junk science theories about autogynephilia and mental illness that lead to stigmatization and lack of appropriate healthcare and shutting down the gender clinic at Johns Hopkins (Ray Blanchard, Paul McHugh).
I really hate them. But I really love immigrants.
Any thoughts?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@BillinGlendaleCA: My point is that the comparisons to McCarthy don’t really make me think that he has national potential .
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@danah gaz: You need to decide what is your priority. No one else can do it. There are, as you know, arguments on each side. Make your decision and work with the results. It is what everyone does.
Steeplejack
@danah gaz:
Don’t take the job. It would eat you up inside every day. They can’t be the only game in town.
How about teaching ESL? That’s a big (and useful) thing wherever there’s a “sizable immigrant population.”
Betty Cracker
It’s amusing to watch intra-party pie fights from the sidelines.
@danah gaz: That is a thorny dilemma. It sounds like, on balance, your work there would do far more to assist immigrants than promote the church.
gwangung
But do try to find an outfit that knows it’s actually GOOD to teach about homophones, and that it has nothing to do with the gay community.
danah gaz
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I do plan on making that decision on my own, but I am interested in picking people’s brains – because it could be that one of you will probably end up with an angle that hadn’t occurred to me. I’m told I’m smart-ish, but I’m not so smart as to pretend I’ve thought of everything.
danah gaz
@gwangung: LOL.
But to anyone that suggests ESL – I don’t have enough of the necessary skills to do that, and there are a ton of ESL teachers here already.
And for doing the visa stuff and legal help, CCS is pretty much the only game in town. =(
Betty Cracker
I’m taking my newly 16-year-old to get her solo license today. Probably explains why I can’t sleep.
NotMax
One more time:
Ted Cruz: all exclamation, no point.
Steeplejack
@danah gaz:
Is your Spanish good enough to act as an interpreter? Also (regardless of language), in my experience, immigrants need help with Internet/computer-related stuff, e.g., applying for jobs and social services, etc., and just finding where stuff is or how various bureaucratic processes work. A lot of that stuff is done on line now, or is done much more efficiently on line. I have helped people with that, also with getting their résumés shaped up and on line. There must be organizations that have to cope with that and need help.
Also, there might be an LGBT advocacy organization in your area that could use someone who “specializes” in immigrant issues.
NotMax
For those of you sitting on tenterhooks (as if!) regarding my soliciting the other night for suggestions about a new car for Mom when we go shopping for one in September, have taken the comments under consideration, done additional research .and am now leaning very strongly to steering her towards a Mazda 3 sedan.
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: I heard a lot of good things about the Mazda when I was embroiled in my own used car hunt awhile back. Best of luck to you and your ma.
OzarkHillbilly
@danah gaz: Speaking as one who hates the Catholic Church with a blood red violence that compares favorably with Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili Stalin (depending upon how one looks at these things), has it occurred to you that the vast majority of the people you would be helping are Catholic? I would think of the Catholic Community Services in the same vein. It is related to the church, but not the church. Or to think of it another way, CCS is like an abused spouse that sticks around because she really doesn’t have any other options.
Hope that helps.
tybee
@Betty Cracker:
and there is an opportunity to subtly undermine the church as well…
Frankensteinbeck
It is Boehner’s motivations I do not grasp. Unless he is monumentally stupid he had to see this coming. There have been enough reports of him getting angry about being outmaneuvered by Obama to suggest he is proud. Why is he letting himself be humiliated by his own caucus again and again? This isn’t visibly getting him money or helping his reelection, and it’s hurting his pride.
For Cruz, all roads lead to the same place. It’s often easy to align money, power, ego, and zealotry.
raven
@tybee: Ever fished Hunting Island?
Mustang Bobby
@BillinGlendaleCA: He’s Joe McCarthy without the charm.
Amir Khalid
Someone should work that into a work of hippety-hop music.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mustang Bobby: Maybe Ted needs to start drinking heavily.
ETA: Having been through alcohol abuse issues, I’m kidding.
Mustang Bobby
@danah gaz: I don’t know what town you’re in, but check with the local public school district and see if you can work with their Title I or Title III grant programs. Title III has an immigrant program component as a part of their bilingual ed program.
Mustang Bobby
@BillinGlendaleCA: Ditto on the booze issues; I get the reference and no offense taken.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Why? After driving so many others to drink, doesn’t he deserve the same?
Schlemizel
@Mustang Bobby:
Like Joe, he will hurt a lot of people, damage the government and leave the nation worse off than before. Years later people will look back and wonder how American’s could have been fooled by the clown and his impossibly stupid performance.
gogol's wife
@danah gaz:
So in this case the Catholic church, or at least people working in their name, are doing something good. You can help with that. The United States does a lot of things I hate, but I’m not leaving — I’m staying here and trying to promote the good things it does and stands for. Just my two cents. Can you talk to one of the other people who works there? They could give you some insight.
gogol's wife
NewsMax headline — “Dick Morris: I Wouldn’t Be Surprised if Obama Resigned.”
As I said yesterday, I couldn’t make it through the article on Cruz in The New Yorker. It was all about how brilliant he is. I’m just not buying it.
gogol's wife
So is this Churchill scream going to have the impact of the Howard Dean scream? I doubt it. What a tinny voice, though.
Mustang Bobby
@Schlemizel:
And years later, Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham, from deep within the bowels of some institution where they’ve been relegated to making macrame Obama effigies, will say that Cruz, like McCarthy, was right all along but was destroyed by the DFH’s.
debbie
That’s a genius tweet. “Ozymandias” is the perfect description of Ted Cruz.
Randy P
@danah gaz: Talk to a nun?
Many of the nuns seem to be good-hearted people making an effort to do genuine good for society while trying as best as they can to live within the Catholic hierarchy. They seem to see pretty clearly and are able to distinguish between What Jesus Wanted and What The Archbishop Wants.
Bystander
So, why does a Cuban-Canadian hold such sway over the Confederacy?
Betty Cracker
@Bystander: Same way the arctic circle moose lady and that braying ninny from Minnesota did: by calculating every utterance to be as offensive to liberals as possible.
WereBear
I had not known that.
But go for an interview and see if your love of helping people can overcome your understandable loathing of the Catholic Church. If they are doing a bit of good (it’s all about who runs it) then maybe it won’t be much of a factor.
You aren’t helping THEM, after all.
PaulW
Isn’t it an ethics violation for a Senator to be meddling in the legislative process of the House?
If I were Boehner, I’d be slapping Cruz with so many ethics violations even Newt Gingrich would be saying, “whoa, worse than what I got.”
Then again, if I were Boehner, shit would actually be getting done in the House instead of these month-long recesses, and we’d have a national jobs stimulus package, and all the corporate tax loopholes that are costing this nation BILLIONS in revenue would be closed, and…
PaulW
@Bystander:
Because the Confederacy will blindly follow any banner-carrier that will stroke their egos and sabotage the federal government.
OzarkHillbilly
@Randy P: That is just what the nun who beat me for 2 years straight said: “I KNOW WHAT JESUS WANTS! HE WANTS YOU TO GO TO HELL!!”**
** A loose translation based on her actions. I actually don’t remember anything she said, My ears were ringing from getting boxed.
WereBear
@PaulW: They also don’t seem to have any Cognitive Dissonance.
For years now the movement has had a large number of assertive professional women running things while insisting that the proper place for the ladies is barefoot and pregnant.
Structural consistency is for liberals!
Iowa Old Lady
@PaulW: Against my will, I feel sorry for Boehner. Of course, if he were willing to negotiate with Ds and actually govern, he could isolate his right wing. He could also punish them. I doubt if Pelosi would put up with this crap.
satby
@Iowa Old Lady: I don’t. Orangeman put himself in this position and keeps himself there. Anytime he wanted he could work with Pelosi and get stuff done, but he’s all in on sabotaging Obama and the country to further his corrupt party. Fuck him.
OzarkHillbilly
@PaulW:
When one becomes a Senator, one does not give up ones constitutional rights:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
danielx
Ted Cruz wants to be president.
All else stems from that – his undisguised lust for the office and the power it affords. He doesn’t give a shit about policy, or legislation, or governance. He wants to rule/reign, not govern. That being said, Cruz is a smart man – but smart people are just as capable of self-deception as stupid ones and possibly more so. Case in point being the neocon assholes who guided W’s steps down the primrose path into middle eastern hell. Many, maybe most of them, were smart people who thought that if they just believed hard enough (clap louder!) that events would prove them right. When things didn’t work out right it was of course the fault of lesser men who didn’t share their grand vision. So with my man Ted, who sees presidential timber staring him in the face every time he looks in a mirror. Cruz may well get nominated in 2016, but he’ll never win a national election. Given the tea partiers’ lock on Republican primary contests, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to believe that they’ll ever win a presidential election again* what with the motley collection of frauds, idiots and religious fanatics that comprises their presidential bench. Those are the only people the Republicans have left who can get nominated, since that squish RINO the Marquis du Mittens got his ass handed to him by the Kenyan imposter. Ted Cruz’s personality and general fuck-you attitude (but I repeat myself) are just what teahadists love, and they value ideological purity more than they value actually winning elections.
*Barring massive election fraud with a stamp of approval from the Roberts Court, which wouldn’t require a lot of heavy lifting to obtain.
Kay
He’s running for President – so are Rand Paul and Rick Perry.
The GOP primary has already begun.
Waynski
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Pissing on tailgunner Joe’s grave is a tradition? My what a fine tradition it is.
Kay
Here’s my come-from-behind favorite for the money/corporate wing of the GOP in 2016 -replacement for Jeb or Mitt if they don’t run: Paul Ryan.
He satisfies “next in line” and he’s wholly-owned.
Bobby Thomson
Lots of them. His goals aren’t yours. Boehner’s goals aren’t yours. They measure success differently. Here are two:
1. Denying every success they can to the first black president so that in future years, they can argue to their racist base that the president failed because of his race (“In over his head!” “A risky experiment that failed!”) and not because of intransigent opposition.
2. Making sure the government doesn’t work because they don’t like government and don’t like most of the people it serves (including their own constituents). Not passing a bill isn’t a bug. It’s a feature.
OzarkHillbilly
Probably already been seen but I have to mention these maps of Kentucky pre ACA and post ACA.
via RBC
MomSense
I just can’t stand to look at Cruz. To me he seems like someone Voldemort would install at the Ministry of Magic to do his evil bidding on the down low.
Baud
@MomSense:
Ha! Cruz is a male Dolores Umbridge.
gogol's wife
@OzarkHillbilly:
That is beautiful. My husband and I marvel every day at what Obama has accomplished, even with the vicious opposition of the Republicans. Think what he could have achieved if the Republicans had acted the way Democrats do when a Republican is in the White House.
gogol's wife
@Waynski:
I went to the same college as Omnes several years earlier, and I can confirm the tradition (although I never participated in it myself, being a woman).
Baud
@gogol’s wife:
Or if we kept Democrats in control of Congress.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Agreed. He’s the most electable out of a very crappy line-up, IMO, and our dumber pundits have a ready-made narrative about how serious and wonky he is.
Cassidy
@danah gaz: They’ve spent money to make you a second class citizen. Now, you can spend their money to help people become citizens.
MomSense
@Baud:
Minus the pink suit and the cat plates. Now that I think about it, the facial expressions Dolores and Ted use are really similar.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
The open thread appears dead, so I thought I’d drop this here.
Arclite reported in that thread that he got redirected to an adverstitial ad from the front page. I’ve sent Mistermix an email with some background on that redirect; it’s associated with sitemeter.
OzarkHillbilly
@gogol’s wife: Heh. I have a good friend of the feminine persuasion who was the inspiration for a song: Pissing for Distance I got the Blue Ball Blues. The story goes that she and this band were up on a roof in Soulard after the bars closed down drinking beer when the inevitable pissing contest ensued. Red was persuaded to compete (I doubt they had to try real hard, Red is always willing to show up any man who dares her), so she hiked up her skirt, and a leg, and put them all to shame.
danielx
@Iowa Old Lady:
I don’t feel a bit sorry for Boehner. He traded in his balls and his principles (such as they are) in exchange for keeping the Speakership. It’s an important position if the majority party caucus has the slightest interest in legislation, policy or governance, which the current majority ost assuredly does not. House Republicans’ primary interest at this point is in flinging shit at the walls, which occasionally forms interesting patterns even if it doesn’t have any particular weight. That being the case, the Speakership is pretty much a meaningless position. No matter what Republican policy position is held by Orange Julius at the behest of the corporate wing of the Republicans, there is always going to be some asshole from a safe district, or some asshole worried about being primaried, who will be or is willing to proclaim that said position isn’t conservative enough and who can and is willing to mobilize legions of wingnuts to scream into the phone at Boehner’s staffers. Indeed, it’s a wonder to me why Boehner wants to hold onto his position at all given the collection of idiots and mountebanks with which he has to deal every day, particularly after the downfall of his closest House ally Cantor. Boehner is an old line pol familiar with the deal/sausage-making process and the compromises necessary to get anything at all accomplished in Sodom on the Potomac. However, the likes of Steve King and Louie Gohmert aren’t interested in accomplishing anything at all other than the downfall of the Islamofascistsoshulist currently squatting in the White House, so Boehner’s major “accomplishment” as Speaker may yet be (reluctantly) presiding over yet another impeachment travesty.
Note: this whole impeachment deal is getting tiresome, as it increasingly seems to be the Republican position that no president other than a Republican can really be regarded as legitimate no matter what his (or her) margin of victory may be. Further, that any election which does not produce a Republican president must have been due to electoral fraud or voting by people whose votes really shouldn’t be regarded as legitimate. You know, votes by Those People – and women, and hippies, and people who don’t believe it’s not only the god-given right but obligation of every good American to keep and bear heavy weaponry in defense of….something. (Fuck rifles, they want antitank missiles.) Therefore any attempt by a Democratic president to actually put into effect the policy proposals which produced that electoral victory constitutes grounds for impeachment. Pro tip, fellas – if you don’t like the other guy’s policies, try winning some fucking elections based upon policy proposals the majority of voters support. Oh wait….
Jeebus but I’m cranky this morning and I haven’t even looked to see the latest drivel vomited up by Bobo’s meme-processing software.
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): That’s a good thing, comparing him to McCarthy!
Paul in KY
@NotMax: I’d go with a Toyota.
Paul in KY
@danielx: There’s no way in Hell that Ted Cruz will ever be President. Aqua Buddha has a better shot than him.
Paul in KY
@Bobby Thomson: Good summary of their motivations. The fucking bastards!
Elizabelle
Iago bows out early.
Eric Cantor to leave Congress entirely on August 18.
“They’re all yours, John.”
low-tech cyclist
@danielx: I think the main reason Boehner doesn’t resign as Speaker is that it’s gotta have a much nicer office than a regular Congresscritter gets.
Under Section 3 of Article II, the President “may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them…”
I think it would be hilarious if Obama called the House of Representatives back into session, and told them that they would remain in session until they passed a bill addressing the border crisis. No vacation for you, parliament of crazies!
Frankensteinbeck
@WereBear:
The Catholic Church was the major anti-abortion pusher until the fundies flipped their wig over desegregation, and all censorship practices in the entertainment industry go back to a boycott drive by the Catholic Church in the 30s. They do have a big history as a culturally repressive force in US politics.
danielx
@Paul in KY:
Hey, I totally agree. The point is not whether you or I think that, but what Ted Cruz thinks – and in Cruzworld it’s all Ted all the time. Dude’s got an ego the size of the Hindenburg, and in my observation people like that have at best a nodding acquaintance with reality. Reality is just another obstacle to be overcome in their march towards their eventual goal. Cruz is about as deluded as Ralph Nader, the major difference (delusion-wise) being that he has a lot more heavily armed followers hanging on his every proclamation.
Lolis
It was fun to see Cruz’s spokesperson try to slam Obama but end up dissing a bunch of Special Olympians last night.
danielx
@low-tech cyclist:
I can well believe it’s a nicer office, but what’s a nice office if you have a gang of hostile howler monkeys visiting your nice office to shit on your desk every day you’re in it?
Newdealfarmgrrrlll
@danah gaz: a number of years ago at a gathering, I met a vivacious little blond woman in a chic black pantsuit & heels – turns out she was a nun. An anti-war, women’s rights, social justice issues activist nun. (She had some amazing stories!) Someone asked her how she could stand staying in the Catholic Church and she replied with a big grin that she and her fellow Sisters considered themselves the worm in the apple eating out the rotten core of the church.
Also, if they’re paying you, that’s less money for them to direct to causes you abhor.
danielx
And while I’m thinking of Bobo, his latest effort (titled The Character Factory) is tots awesome, as the kids say. It is a discussion – nay, a diatribe – on antipoverty programs and their effect, or lack thereof. Paras three and four:
As usual when my man Dave comes out with one of these pronouncements, my reaction tends towards “Wha..? Has Brooks, like, looked at the Republican Party lately?” In regard to poverty and inequality, those fuckweasels do nothing but blaming and scolding poor people for being poor and for failing to lift themselves up by their nonexistent bootstraps, and the wingnut audience eats that shit up with a large spoon. If people are poor it’s their own fault and assisting in any way them does them a disservice, even if they’re lacking bootstraps because they’ve eaten those selfsame bootstraps to stay alive.
Master Brooks somehow seems to have missed this phenomenon.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
@MomSense:
You might be thinking of Pius Thicknesse rather than Dolores Umbridge.
1s
@danielx: 110% agree, every word. Cruz is running on the Modern Republican Policy Platform: stridently opposing any and everything that the Democrats (and one Dem in particular) are for. No ideas of their own, just opposition for opposition’s sake.
It’ll be interesting in 2016, watching the entire Republican field run against Obama…wonder if the Dems’ 2016 candidate will point this out?
1s
@Paul in KY: I don’t think he was saying Cruz will be president, just that a) he wants to be and b) could win the GOP nomination. I think Cruz vs. Perry should be interesting in the end – how do they out-conservatism each other?? Bring popcorn.
Paul in KY
@danielx: Cruz is not quite as deluded as Ralph is/was (IMO).
Jebediah, RBG
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Absolutely true. I don’t think this country wants to elect Maj. Frank Burns as President.
Paul in KY
@1s: I guess I should have directed my comment to Sen. Rafael Cruz, ay?
danielx
@1s:
Which one is willing to bite the head off a live bat (named Libtard) onstage during a Republican primary debate, a la Ozzy Osborne? Getcher tickets now!
Jebediah, RBG
@gogol’s wife:
Maybe gogol can do a proxy pee for you?
Amir Khalid
I just saw this at TPM. It was bad enough when the Cigarette-Smoking Man had it in for the Bills.
Paul in KY
@danielx: I think Perry is hoping those glasses do the trick this time.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: I think the other owners have to do a vote on the new owner for it to go thru. I would doubt if The Donald could amass the needed votes (unless he lavishly bribes them).
Jebediah, RBG
@Paul in KY:
I would be interested in seeing he ways in which a man who can go broke operating a casino can fuck up owning a sports franchise. Maybe the position of head coach will be the prize for one of his dumb-ass “Apprentice’ shows.
Frankensteinbeck
@danielx:
He hasn’t missed it, exactly. This is the domestic abuser thought process. It is not just that the victim deserves to suffer, but the abuser must also be lauded for providing the abuse. Helping people is by definition the action of the weak and immature who doesn’t understand that only tough love works. The more weak and immature people there are, the more brave and noble the abuser is. So it can be taken as assumed that anyone who publicly hurts others to help them is a hero standing up against the hordes who think only with their wishy-washy gut sentiment. All of this must, must be true, or everything they themselves have suffered and everything they’ve done to make themselves feel good about it is a shameful lie.
Jebediah, RBG
@Paul in KY:
I would be interested in seeing the ways in which a man who can go broke operating a k ass ino can fuck up owning a sports franchise. Maybe the position of head coach will be the prize for one of his dumb-ass “Apprentice’ shows.
ETA: Re-did cuz I forgot and used a bad word.
Francis
@danah gaz: is there a law firm that wants to expand its pro bono practice?
catclub
@Paul in KY: Indeed. Ralph thought he had 10% of the country behind him, and had maybe 1%. Cruz thinks he has 51% of the country and probably does have 27%.
Ruckus
@satby:
Yes.
Why do people make excuses for the bone? He is a republican, he did get elected by them to be speaker and they sure weren’t going to do that for someone that would work with dems. I keep hearing about good conservatives, but I never see any evidence that they exist. I see hateful and incompetent and then the teatards, only about half a step to the right.
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud: AKA “That Umbridge Woman”
Villago Delenda Est
@Jebediah, RBG: Old Ferret Face?
shelley
So I guess that’s a more polite way of calling him a flat-out whore.
Oh, and I am completely stealing that quote from Billmom. Will make a great cartoon.
danah gaz
@Steeplejack: No, because interpreting requires a higher level of spanish than anything else, as far as I know.
Plus I’d be competing with the many interpreters already here.
Villago Delenda Est
@Paul in KY: Yeah, that is one of the most ridiculous affectations around…wearing glasses to seem “smart”. Sarah Palin’s had lasik surgery, and doesn’t need glasses, but wears them anyway because she thinks it makes her look “smart”. It really is too bad the effect is shattered when she opens her pie hole to speak.
Perry has the same basic problem.
Belafon
Gotta love the Newsmax headline: Will Cruz defeat Boehner?
catclub
Catastrophically Wrong Forecaster Dick Morris Is Reinventing Himself as a Financial Expert (Media Matters)
Wow. Just wow.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid: Not going to happen. Trump single handedly destroyed the USFL back in the 80’s. The NFL owners know this, and will prevent him from getting a foothold in their league.
It’s typical of Trump’s ego larger than the Andromeda galaxy, however, that he thinks he has a shot at it.
gene108
@Frankensteinbeck:
He has an excuse to do nothing.
He really wants to work with President Obama and pass
immigration reform,deal with the current refuge issue,pass a budget, etc., but now he has a good out for doing nothing: Mean old Ted Cruz has gotten the newbs in the House to pressure him, the powerless Speaker, into a state of inaction.It’s a sophisticated version of “the dog ate my homework” excuse.
Jebediah, RBG
@Villago Delenda Est:
Exactly!
Smug, smirking, smarmy, nothing-is-ever-my-fault Ferret Face.
ETA: The first time I saw Cruz, he reminded me of him. That can’t be an asset for someone with ambitions of winning elections outside of Texas.
Davis X. Machina
@catclub: That 27% is all he needs if 60% of us don’t show up at the polls….
One way to achieve that end is to make politics as frightful as possible.
Elizabelle
@danah gaz:
What are your views on Pope Francis? I suspect he hates what the institutional Catholic Church has become even more than you do. Yes, he’ll be more traditional in many of his views, but he believes in love and service as well.
If you decide to pursue the Catholic Services job, think of yourself as the anti-Nino Scalia, upsetting the apple cart and helping to serve those who need serving and a kind, non-judging ear.
Wonder if there are lapsed Catholics who’ve faced the same issues you consider. Can you talk with someone already on staff? They’ve made their peace with the organization.
Good luck with whatever you pursue.
Paul in KY
@Jebediah, RBG: Hopefully the other owners would be thinking that & would blackball him.
Paul in KY
@Villago Delenda Est: When I saw Perry’s glasses, I wondered if they even had glass in them. Looked like prop glasses.
Thor Heyerdahl
Ted “Calgary” Cruz = A Latino Bob Rumson
shelley
@catclub:
Get ready for another financial crash. Love his latest NewsMax headline:
“Obama could resign.’ Yes, and a flying pig could land on your head. What’s your point?
Thor Heyerdahl
Ted “Calgary” Cruz = A Latino Bob Rumson?
FYWP – said this was a duplicate comment…but can I find it on the page even after a refresh? Watch the duplicate show up right now.
JGabriel
Charles Pierce:
Seriously? They’re calling themselves the Tortilla Coast Caucus while fighting to keep out people from the cultures that invented tortillas?
Jackasses.
MattF
@catclub: Morris should be cautious– lying and stealing in the personal finance world will get you a jail term.According to the article, he’s been touting various penny stocks in his newsletter– and this is supposed to be reliable advice… The nicest thing one can say is that sort of advice isn’t always fraudulent.
Thor Heyerdahl
@shelley: Or “Newsmax wins Pulitzer Prize”
Villago Delenda Est
@Thor Heyerdahl: The ways of FYWP are mysterious and subtle.
BTW, nice The American President reference.
shelley
Wasn’t that the scammy ploy featured in ‘Wolf of Wall Street.’?
danah gaz
@Elizabelle: I’m definitely talking to people on staff.
Pope Francis seems like a better person than the last pope, but he still heads up a very evil organization with evil beliefs, and I’ll never trust him. I also consider him complicit in those child sexual abuse scandals until he makes sure that every one of the victims who have a valid claim against the RCC are compensated.
lorimakesquilts
@danah gaz
Disclaimer: I hate the institution of the Catholic Church and it’s leadership. While I don’t hate individuals associated with it I cannot understand their continued association with that criminal organization. Still I get the power of childhood indoctrination … sigh, always conflicted.
While you will be doing good work for people who need it you will also be supporting the RCC. They will take credit for your work and use it to counter the horrible things they do. My line is pretty far away from the RCC, ymmv. That said the population you are working with is probably largely Catholic. It is likely that the RCC is the best conduit to immigrants.
Someone else mentioned pro bono work for a local attorney, there also might be a legal aid organization in your town. Your local attorney organization be able to helpful in hooking you up with interested lawyers.
Frankensteinbeck
@Paul in KY:
What’s important is how he takes them off at dramatic moments!
James E. Powell
@Davis X. Machina:
That 27% is all he needs if 60% of us don’t show up at the polls….
There is also that tendency of uninvolved or low information voters to be attracted to a dedicated and passionate minority. Cf. New Coke focus groups.
Democrats really need an emotionally charge narrative for November.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Frankensteinbeck: Clark Kent does that too.
Eric U.
@Paul in KY: I would never underestimate the stupidity of NFL owners. Then again, if Trump managed to buy a team, it might be the first one to go bankrupt.
Just One More Canuck
@MomSense: “Minus rhe pink suit and cat plates”.
Do you know that for sure?
danah gaz
@Francis: There are no immigration lawyers here. I know this because my foster son is an immigrant and we had to use a firm 60 miles away.
The *only* pro-bono legal aid here, in this town, is run by Catholic Community Services.
Botsplainer
@danielx:
In a better world, David Brooks would have to hire food tasters, car starters, somebody to have a car undercarriage mirror, a four compass point set of bodyguards and an armored limo just to go to the corner store for a gallon of milk.
TR
@low-tech cyclist:
That’s what Truman did in ’48 to great effect. Told them to put up or shut up.
maya
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
They’ve posted MPs [McCarthy Police] since.
Cervantes
@Iowa Old Lady:
If further evidence were needed that you are a much better human being than I am, well, there you have it.
Cervantes
@OzarkHillbilly: The way I heard the old joke, a woman won when contestants were told they couldn’t use their hands.
Paul in KY
@Frankensteinbeck: Good point. I bet he has a coach, plus he probably practices in front of a mirror. Good to get that half turn in there while you are doing it.
Cervantes
@OzarkHillbilly: Had not seen those. Thanks.
Elie
@satby:
Actually, his ploys are so obvious and pathetic, Boehner helps us more than hurts… I would argue that he could be on Obama’s payroll — Ted Cruz also… They are amazingly able to screw up their own potential successes by saying and doing what they do..
What worries me more are the subtle back door relationships and influence of the Koch brothers.. and their relationship, for example, with the Jewish lobby here in the US. Why is BiBi like he is and disrespectful to this administration? Besides being an arrogant asshole on his own, he is safely empowered to be that way through this relationship with the Kochs and the American christianists..
Cervantes
@danah gaz:
1. The Church may not be a hospitable place for you personally, but if this outfit is willing to hire you (regardless?), this is a good thing.
2. You want to help people? This is a way to reach and help people sorely in need of help — never mind what credit the Church may take, being paid to be true to yourself is a good gig.
3. Nothing is permanent. You may take this job. It may lead somewhere else.
Good luck.
Paul in KY
@Eric U.: In a twisted way, they might think they owe him one for his helping destroy the USFL!
Egypt Steve
Why does he sound like John F. Kennedy doing a Churchill impersonation???
The Raven on the Hill
Cruz, I think, is building relationships with the House radical right. If he becomes President, or Senate Majority Leader, watch out.