US Election: 2016

[CougarKing]

Canadian Press

Donald Trump wins again in Nevada, builds momentum
[The Canadian Press]
Steven R. Hurst, The Associated Press

February 24, 2016

WASHINGTON - Donald Trump's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is building a momentum that may sweep away challenges by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, with his crushing win in the Nevada caucuses marking a third straight victory in state contests.

Rubio captured second place with fewer than 2,000 more votes than Cruz as final vote totals were reported Wednesday morning.

(...SNIPPED)

 

[CougarKing]

More on the Chicago Cubs vs Donald Trump:

Yahoo Sports/Big League Stew

Cubs owner to Donald Trump: ‘We stand up for what we believe in’
Mark Townsend By Mark Townsend
1 hour ago
Big League Stew
(AP)

Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts isn't backing down one bit after presidential hopeful Donald Trump took direct aim at his family this week.

In a Tweet posted on Monday, Trump bluntly warned the Ricketts family that they “better be careful, they have a lot to hide,” while noting that the family has been "secretly" spending money against his presidential campaign.

It was a stern, almost cryptic message seemingly designed to intimidate the Ricketts into backing down from their position. But it didn't work. Instead, Tom Ricketts reaffirmed his family's position on Wednesday, stating that "we stand up for what we believe in."

(...SNIPPED)

 

[cupper]

We may have the backdoor in to crack the Trump insurgency. If it were anyone else I'd say it was just speculation, but Romney had been through the process, and probably has a good idea of how and where the skeletons are hidden.  :nod:

Mitt Romney believes ‘there’s a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/24/mitt-romney-believes-theres-a-bombshell-in-donald-trumps-taxes/?hpid=hp_regional-hp-cards_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fcard

Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney  assailed billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump on  Wednesday afternoon for failing to disclose back taxes, repeatedly suggesting that the billionaire’s financial records may contain “a bombshell” that could damage his White House bid.

“I think we have good reason to believe that there’s a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes. I think there is something there,” Romney said on Fox News’ “Your World” with Neil Cavuto. “The reason I think there is a bombshell in there is because every time he is asked about his taxes, he dodges and delays.”

Romney said that he could see any number of things becoming an issue for the billionaire, from the possibility that he is not as wealthy as he says he is to controversy over the amount he has paid on his income. Romney added that Trump has failed to release his tax information despite assuring that his team would do so in short order.

“I think in Donald Trump’s case it is likely to be a bombshell,”  Romney said. “There are things that could be issues, and when people decide they don’t want to give you their taxes, it’s usually because there’s something they don’t want you to see.”

Romney’s own tax record became a controversial issue during his 2012 White House campaign after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) falsely claimed that Romney had not paid  taxes in 10 years. Romney finally relented after months of speculation about his personal finances and released his 2011 tax returns. President Obama’s reelection campaign used the issue to characterize the millionaire as untrustworthy and out of touch with the average American voter.

“[Trump] likes to tell people how well he’s done, why isn’t he willing to let us look at the tax return? It was an issue in my campaign. That’s why I’m so sensitive to it,” Romney said. “We’re going to select our nominee – we really ought to see from all three of these fellows what their taxes look like to see if there is an issue there."

The former Massachusetts governor said that Trump has the clearest path toward the nomination of any GOP contender still in the race. Many political strategists believe that Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) could emerge as a viable alternative to the billionaire, but for now they remain locked in a bitter fight for second place. Romney said the window of opportunity for those candidates is closing.

On Tuesday  night, Trump won his third consecutive primary.

“I think for the other people still in the race, their path is becoming a slimmer and slimmer opening and they’re having a difficult time communicating to their supporters just how they could become the nominee,” Romney said, but added that “it’s not impossible.”

“That doesn’t seem to be happening other than Jeb Bush, who I really think put country first by saying, look, I’m going to step aside and let my supporters go to someone else who they feel is representative of the kind of views that the country needs,” Romney said.

Trump fired back on Twitter Wednesday evening, mocking the former candidate's loss to Obama.

"Mitt Romney, who totally blew an election that should have been won and whose tax returns made him look like a fool, is now playing tough guy," Trump tweeted.

"When Mitt Romney asked me for my endorsement last time around, he was so awkward and goofy that we all should have known he could not win!" he

 

[opcougar]

I wouldn't lose sleep over it unless of course you an American / the US election really is going to impact your life in some way, shape or form??????

Excellent piece on how a Clinton/Trump election will end disastrously for the Democrats. It should be pretty obvious, but Clinton is not a real progressive, and she will destroy her party's chances. Gawd how I despise the Clintons.

http://static.currentaffairs.org/2016/02/unless-the-democrats-nominate-sanders-a-trump-nomination-means-a-trump-presidency

 

[cupper]

The establishment thinks that they can control Trump with access to party resources should he become the nominee.

Hey Reince, Let me know how that works out for you.  :facepalm:

RNC sees leverage over Trump
The GOP has resources to dangle in exchange for some message discipline from its presumptive nominee.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/rnc-sees-leverage-over-trump-219759

Donald Trump has steamrolled toward the Republican nomination by lambasting all things political establishment, and now that establishment thinks it can convince their insult-wielding front-runner he needs them.

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus has begun stating in private meetings that the party has sway over its at times unwelcome front-runner because it has tools Trump will need to use to win a general election — voter data and field, digital and media operations that a nominee typically inherits from the party infrastructure.

Dangling access to these resources, Priebus thinks he can help steer Trump toward partywide policy goals and away from the inflammatory rhetoric that Republican officials see as divisive and dangerous, especially outside of the primary, according to two Republican sources who have spoken with the RNC chairman.

“It’s a relationship,” said RNC chief strategist and communications director Sean Spicer. “Every nominee — it doesn’t matter this cycle or last cycle — understands now that the role of parties is critical in terms of the manpower, the data, the press operation, the research. The bottom line is no nominee can win without the party.”

But the very idea that the party can somehow control or even influence Trump strikes some Republicans as laughable given a primary season marked by the front-runner’s deliberate and aggressive disregard for political norms and party goals.

“Does anybody have leverage over Donald Trump? Nope,” a former top official at the RNC said. “His own staff doesn’t. No one can control him.”

Ohio Republican Party chairman Matt Borges, who supports 2016 candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, said the party should have been speaking out against Trump early if it wanted to move him away from incendiary comments that many in the party see as hurting their efforts to attract Hispanics and young Americans.

“If we were gonna put a stop to the Trump phenomenon, we should have done it last summer. We should have spoken out as a party,” Borges said. “I met with him one-on-one in Columbus so I could tell him, ‘This isn’t going to help you win here. It’s just not.’”
“He won’t win a general election,” Borges asserted. “So what would the point in that time be if he was our nominee to say, ‘Hey, cool it?’”

But Republican officials in Washington aren’t willing to concede the general before even holding their convention. After Trump’s decisive win in Nevada on Tuesday night that considerably narrowed the paths for Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and handed the New York billionaire the mantle of presumptive nominee, the party is eager to show its support.

“We are committed to making sure the nominee starts off Day One with the ability to win,” Spicer said, adding that it’s not about being able to have a tight leash on the candidate.

On CNN Thursday afternoon Priebus said the idea that he was gearing up to "discipline" Trump or any other nominee was "ridiculous."

"I think it's important to realize what's happening here. These folks are competing to join our party. We have a nomination contest for the Republican Party. And our party is going to choose someone to join our party. We're not joining a candidate. They're competing to join us and that's what happens in a nomination process," Priebus continued. "So they're joining a party that's built up the resources, the mechanics, the ground game, that they're going to need in order to win in November. So it's a team effort, ultimately, when it's all done."

The RNC generally plays a critical role for any nominee in a general election cycle, providing that candidate with voter files, additional press operation help and manpower in states across the country.

The national parties also traditionally spend heavily in support of their presidential nominees. They’re permitted to spend $24 million in direct coordination with their respective standard-bearers, and an unlimited amount independently supporting them.
A GOP candidate bucking those resources would be hamstrung, especially against an opponent as well organized and financed nationally as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

After Mitt Romney’s stunning technology collapse on Election Day 2012, the RNC sought to reinvest in its efforts by pouring $100 million into a total makeover that included hiring about 50 staffers working on everything from data collection to analyzing social media trends. They bragged of a 2014 midterm effort that included figuring out the likely voting preferences of 200 million Americans, as well as online fundraising efforts that were the party’s best since 2008.

RNC officials have recently boasted that headed into the 2016 general election they will be able to deploy a much more sophisticated data-driven get out the vote effort compared with the Romney debacle. Speaking last month to Radio Iowa, Priebus promised the party would have a ground operation in Iowa that would be “3-to-5 times bigger” than it was in 2012, with more than 100 paid field staffers specifically for voter turnout.

“One of the things that’s different from this year as opposed to four years ago is that we’ve got a national party now that has its act together when it comes to the ground game and the data operation that I think people were disappointed in, in 2012,” Priebus said in the Radio Iowa interview.

Trump is already cooperating. He signed a list-sharing agreement with the RNC last year. And Spicer stressed the RNC’s discussions with Trump are not about leveling threats about withholding party resources in the general. By the time an indisputable delegate leader appears, Spicer said all Republicans will share the same goal — winning the White House.

“You just can’t start it off — especially with a guy like Trump — if you went in hot, I don’t think that would be a smart move,” Spicer said.

 

[cupper]

And with endorsements like this, how could he possibly lose the nomination? :dunno:

David Duke: Voting against Trump is 'treason to your heritage'
The white nationalist and former KKK grand wizard encouraged his listeners to volunteer for Trump.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/david-duke-trump-219777

David Duke, a white nationalist and former Klu Klux Klan grand wizard, told his audience Wednesday that voting for anyone besides Donald Trump “is really treason to your heritage.”

“Voting for these people, voting against Donald Trump at this point, is really treason to your heritage,” Duke said on the David Duke Radio Program. BuzzFeed News first reported the comments.

"I’m not saying I endorse everything about Trump. In fact, I haven’t formally endorsed him. But I do support his candidacy, and I support voting for him as a strategic action. I hope he does everything we hope he will do.”

The former Louisiana representative told listeners to start volunteering for Trump.

“And I am telling you that it is your job now to get active. Get off your duff. Get off your rear end that’s getting fatter and fatter for many of you everyday on your chairs. When this show’s over, go out, call the Republican Party, but call Donald Trump’s headquarters, volunteer,” he said. “They’re screaming for volunteers. Go in there, you’re gonna meet people who are going to have the same kind of mind-set that you have.”

In December, Duke told POLITICO that Trump’s candidacy allows Americans to be more open about their racial animus.

“He’s made it OK to talk about these incredible concerns of European Americans today, because I think European Americans know they are the only group that can’t defend their own essential interests and their point of view,” Duke said. “He’s meant a lot for the human rights of European Americans.”

So… I guess that European American is what we are calling white people these days? I can never keep that straight.

 

[opcougar]

Makes sense...I n keeping with the whole African American reference. Anyone with half a brain knows that all of Europe is not equal, with Western Europeans way well off than Europeans, both have different cultures, languages, etc

Same goes with African and those from the Caribbean

And with endorsements like this, how could he possibly lose the nomination? :dunno:

David Duke: Voting against Trump is 'treason to your heritage'
The white nationalist and former KKK grand wizard encouraged his listeners to volunteer for Trump.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/david-duke-trump-219777

So… I guess that European American is what we are calling white people these days? I can never keep that straight.

 

[CougarKing]

So, no wall then?

Apparently Trump's position differs from Scott Walker's from last year:

CBC via Yahoo News

Donald Trump has no interest in wall between Canada, U.S.

February 25, 2016

Donald Trump said during the latest Republican debate that he sees no contradiction in wanting to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, but not along the Canadian border.

Trump doubled down on his desire if elected president to build a wall along the Mexico border at the CNN-Telemundo debate taking place at the University of Houston on Thursday night. Because Mexico officials had derided the idea in recent days, Trump said, "the wall just got 10 feet taller."

Maria Celeste Arraras, a Telemundo journalist, challenged Trump on whether he was focused on the right border, given that ISIS has called upon its supporters to launch terrorist attacks in Canada

(...SNIPPED)

 

[Rocky Mountains]

The Canadian population doesn't want to move en masse to the US unlike the Mexican population.  I have visited the US a bit and despite the fact that under NAFTA I am free to move there, have never considered it.  To say that Canada has a bigger terrorism problem than Mexico ignores the tens of thousands of casualties of the drug war in Mexico.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Almost as bad as having a choice between a avowed Socialist and a millionaire, former part time drama teacher, snow boarder air head (although not blond).

I don't know - is that better or worse than a professional politician, whose only jobs outside politics were as a mailroom clerk in an oil company and a professional activist/lobbyist? 

 

[Journeyman]

.... despite the fact that under NAFTA I am free to move there .....

Are you sure?  NAFTA aims to allow free (well, less restrictive) movement of goods and services, but says virtually nothing about movement of labour.  That was all part of Ross Perot's campaign -- jobs being sucked down to Mexico and Mexicans flooding into the States.

 

[cupper]

Under NAFTA certain professionals can work in the US for up to a year at a time under a TN visa, and it is indefinately renewable. Dependants are allowed to accompany you, but are not permitted to work unless they can qualify under the TN program.

I worked at my current job for the first 5 years living in the US, and renewed the visa every year. The company I work for applied for a green card for another employee who left in the middle of the process because it was taking too long. They switched the application over to me and 5 years later I got my green card.

 

[CougarKing]

This US election continues to get weirder and weirder:

Yahoo News

Donald Trump Claimed He ‘Could Have’ Slept With Princess Diana In 1997 Interview

Yahoo News
February 26, 2016


The down side of running for President is that all the daft things you said and did years ago come back to haunt you.

This is what Donald Trump is currently experiencing, after BuzzFeed unearthed his 1997 claim that he could have “nailed” Princess Diana.

Shortly after Diana’s death in a Paris car crash, shock jock and Trump pal, Howard Stern, asked in a radio interview: "Why do people think it’s egotistical of you to say you could’ve gotten with Lady Di? You could’ve gotten her, right? You could’ve nailed her.“

(...SNIPPED)

 

[cupper]

And there seems to be plenty of blame to go around…

How the US Went Fascist: Mass Media Make Excuses for Trump Voters
Trump's racism and xenophobia violates America's core beliefs — yet the media and many Americans are okay with it.

http://billmoyers.com/story/how-the-us-went-fascist-mass-media-makes-excuses-for-trump-voters/#.VtA6pAN_OAs.facebook

The rise of Donald Trump to the presumptive Republican standard bearer for president in 2016 is an indictment of, and a profound danger to, the American republic.

The Founding Fathers were afraid of the excitability of the voters and their vulnerability to the appeal of demagogues. That is the reason for a Senate (which was originally appointed), intended to check those notorious hotheads in Congress, who are elected from districts every two years.

But it isn’t only the checks and balances in government that are necessary to keep the republic. It is the Fourth Estate, i.e. the press, it is the country’s leaders and it is the general public who stand between the republic and the rise of a Mussolini.

The notables have been shown to be useless. Donald Trump should have been kicked out of the Republican Party the moment he began talking about violating the Constitution. The first time he hinted about assaulting the journalists covering his rallies, he should have been shown the door. When he openly advocated torture (“worse than waterboarding”), he should have been ushered away. When he began speaking of closing houses of worship, he should have been expelled. He has solemnly pledged to violate the First, Fourth and Eighth Amendments of the Constitution, at the least. If someone’s platform is unconstitutional, it boggles the mind that a major American party would put him or her up for president. How can he take the oath of office with a straight face? The party leaders were afraid he’d mount a third-party campaign. But who knows how that would have turned out? Someone with power needs to say that Trump is unacceptable and to define him out of respectable politics, the same way David Duke is treated (Trump routinely retweets Duke fellow-travellers).

Then there is the mass media. As Amy Goodman has pointed out, corporate television has routinely pumped Trump into our living rooms. They have virtually blacked out Bernie Sanders. Trump seems to have connived to have 10 or 15 minutes at 7:20 every evening on the magazine shows. Chris Matthews of Hardball obligingly cut away to Il Duce II’s rants and gave away his show to him on a nightly basis.

Not long ago, extremely powerful television personalities and sportscasters were abruptly fired for saying things less offensive than Trump’s bromides. Don Imus was history for abusive language toward women basketball players. But Trump’s strident attack on Megyn Kelly as a menstruating harridan was just allowed to pass. Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder was fired by CBS for saying African-Americans were ‘bred’ to be better athletes. But Trump issued a blanket characterization of undocumented Mexican labor migrants as rapists, thieves and drug dealers. Of course this allegation is untrue.

I watched the Nevada caucus coverage on MSNBC and was appalled at the discourse. One reporter tried to assure us that Trump voters were not actually voting for racism and bullying politics, they were just upset. But polling in South Carolina demonstrated that Trump voters were significantly to the right of most Republicans on some issues. In South Carolina, 38 percent of Trump voters wished the South had won the Civil War, presumably suggesting that they regretted the end of slavery.

Another MSNBC reporter helpfully explained that Trump voters feel that “political correctness” has gone too far. But what does Trump mean by “political correctness”? He means sexism and racism. So what is really being said is that Trump supporters resent that sexist and racist discourse and policies have been banned from the public sphere. There is ample proof that Trump’s use of “political correctness” identifies it with sexist and racist remarks and actions.

Yet another asserted that “some of” Trump’s positions “are not that extreme.” Exhibit A was his praise for Planned Parenthood. But he wants to outlaw abortion, i.e. overturn the current law of the land, which is extreme. (A majority of Americans support the right to choose, so he is in a minority).

Chris Matthews explained to us that people hoped he would do something for the country rather than for the government.

But Trump has made it very clear that he is not interested in a significant proportion of the people in the country. He is a white nationalist, and his message is that he will stand up for white Christian people against the Chinese, the Mexicans and the Muslims. Just as Adolph Hitler hoped for an alliance with Anglo-Saxon Britain on racial grounds (much preferring it to the less white Italy), the only foreign leader Trump likes is the “white” Vladimir Putin. That he won the evangelical vote again in Nevada is helpful for us in seeing that American evangelicalism itself is in some part a form of white male chauvinist nationalism and only secondarily about religion.

By the way, the idea that Trump won the Latino vote in Nevada is nonsense. In one of a number of fine interventions at MSNBC, Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out that something on the order of 1,800 Latinos voted in the Nevada GOP caucuses, of whom perhaps 800 voted for Trump, i.e. 44 percent of this tiny group. Trump lost the vote of even this small group of hard right Latinos, since 56 percent of them voted for someone else.

There are 800,000 Latinos in the state of Nevada (pop. 2.8 million). In 2012, 70 percent of Latinos voted for Barack Obama, while Mitt Romney got 25 percent. My guess is that Trump can’t do as well among them as Romney did.

It has been a dreadful performance by the press and by party leaders. They are speaking in such a way as to naturalize the creepy, weird and completely un-American positions Trump has taken.

This is how the dictators came to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Good people remained silent or acquiesced. People expressed hope that something good would come of it. Mussolini would wring the laziness out of Italy and make the trains run on time.

When Benjamin Franklin was asked by a lady after the Constitutional Convention what sort of government the US had, he said, “A Republic, Madame, if you can keep it.”

You have to wonder if we can keep it.

The views expressed in this post are the author’s alone, and presented here to offer a variety of perspectives to our readers.

Juan Cole is a public intellectual, blogger and the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan.

 

[cupper]

Heard a very interesting comment by the former Director of the NSA and CIA, General Mike Hayden. He was the first guest on Real Time with Bill Maher last night.

In response to a question about Trump's desire to bring back waterboarding "and worse", and bombing terrorists families and other nonsense, Hayden pointed out that it would most likely never happen, as these would be illegal acts under many international laws, and it is the responsibility of the military member to refuse to carry out an unlawful order, if it ever got that far. More likely Trump would be politely advised that this course of action cannot be carried out and other more legal options would be presented.

Here is the full interview.  https://youtu.be/RFA6lsX9S8Q

 

[cupper]

Looks like the GOP political money class may be looking at using the gift of Citizens United to advance a third party push to correct the error of letting Trump run unfettered for so long. But the path will be difficult and the door is closing.

Donors ask GOP consulting firm to research independent presidential bid
A group of Republicans is moving quickly to research ballot-access requirements for independent candidates in case Trump wraps up the GOP nomination next month.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/doors-gop-consulting-independent-219859

Conservative donors have engaged a major GOP consulting firm in Florida to research the feasibility of mounting a late, independent run for president amid growing fears that Donald Trump could win the Republican nomination.

A memo prepared for the group zeroes in on ballot access as a looming obstacle for any independent candidate, along with actually identifying a viable, widely known contender and coalescing financial support for that person. The two states with the earliest deadlines for independent candidates, Texas and North Carolina, also have some of the highest hurdles for independents to get on the ballot, according to the research.

“All this research has to happen before March 16, when inevitably Trump is the nominee, so that we have a plan in place," a source familiar with the discussions said. March 16 is the day after the GOP primary in Florida, a winner-take-all contest that Marco Rubio supporters have identified as a must-win to stop Trump's early momentum.

“It’s critical some serious attention is given to this,” the source said.
The document, stamped “confidential,” was authored by staff at Data Targeting, a Republican firm based in Gainesville, Fla. The memo notes that “it is possible to mount an independent candidacy but [it] will require immediate action on the part of this core of key funding and strategic players.”

Data Targeting did not respond to a request for comment on the memo.

The research points to Texas and North Carolina as early tests for running an independent, conservative candidate against Trump and the Democratic nominee. The candidate would need to gather over 79,900 valid petition signatures in Texas by May 9 and over 89,000 in North Carolina by June 9.

Only two other states have thresholds that high, and gathering petitions can be an expensive and time-consuming process. What’s more, the Texas signatures would have to come entirely from voters who did not vote in this year’s Democratic and Republican primaries.

But “with 38 electoral votes in play in Texas and North Carolina’s true swing state status, failing to qualify in either or both states would render any independent candidate non-viable,” the report's authors wrote. “This is logistically possible but will require immediate action.”

By July 15, the independent candidate would need more than 460,000 voter signatures to make the ballot in 11 states. Assuming an April 1 start date, the campaign would have to gather 4,345 valid signatures per day to maintain a steady pace.

 

[cupper]

This may also explain the Trump Phenomenon. Could the Zombie Apocalypse be far behind?

Scientists: Earth endangered by new strain of fact resistant humans

http://www.archaeologyhub.info/scientists-earth-endangered-by-new-strain-of-fact-resistant-humans/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.

The research, conducted by the University of Minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them.

“These humans appear to have all the faculties necessary to receive and process information,” Davis Logsdon, one of the scientists who contributed to the study, said. “And yet, somehow, they have developed defenses that, for all intents and purposes, have rendered those faculties totally inactive.”
More worryingly, Logsdon said, “As facts have multiplied, their defenses against those facts have only grown more powerful.”

While scientists have no clear understanding of the mechanisms that prevent the fact-resistant humans from absorbing data, they theorize that the strain may have developed the ability to intercept and discard information en route from the auditory nerve to the brain. “The normal functions of human consciousness have been completely nullified,” Logsdon said.

While reaffirming the gloomy assessments of the study, Logsdon held out hope that the threat of fact-resistant humans could be mitigated in the future. “Our research is very preliminary, but it’s possible that they will become more receptive to facts once they are in an environment without food, water, or oxygen,” he said.

 

[cupper]

Personally, I think that he's the reincarnation of Joseph McCarthy. Same temperament, same political tactics.

#MemeOfTheWeek: Ted Cruz And The Zodiac Killer

http://www.npr.org/2016/02/26/468153952/-memeoftheweek-ted-cruz-and-the-zodiac-killer

If you start typing "Is Ted Cruz..." into Google, before you can even get to the C, Google attempts to auto-complete the sentence. And usually, at least these days, one of the first auto-complete options is a very strange question: "Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac killer?"

Ted Cruz is, of course, not the Zodiac killer. Really, he's not. (And we will make that point several times during this story.) In fact, there's no chance he could have been the Zodiac killer. No chance at all.

The FBI describes the Zodiac murders like this: "seemingly random brutal murders of five people in California's Bay Area in 1968 and 1969 and a series of taunting cryptic notes sent by their killer terrorized Northern California for years."

But here's the thing. Ted Cruz wasn't born until 1970. And, people floating the Ted Cruz/Zodiac Killer conspiracy theory actually point that out.

It's all really absurd. And increasingly, it's trending.

It seems to have started with one tweet, sent in 2013, from an account called @RedPillAmerica.

After that, a few enterprising Twitter comedians kept the conspiracy theory alive. Keep in mind, during this time, seemingly everyone keeping the Cruz/Zodiac joke alive on social media knew that it wasn't true, at all. And again, we should point out here, once more: Ted Cruz is not the Zodiac Killer.

The story lived in the crevices of the Internet and social media for a while, but it really peaked in the last few weeks.

There's one big reason, it seems. During a recent GOP presidential debate on CBS, comedians behind the Cruz/Zodiac meme were determined to make it trend. "I didn't really engage with it too much up until the CBS GOP debate, the most recent one," Nathan LaMagna, one person who helped make that happen, told NPR. "I noticed ... the Google Trends ticker along the bottom of the screen, kind of a way to make things more interactive. What are people Googling about the candidates? It was stuff like 'How tall is Jeb Bush?' Stuff like that. It was fluff, it was nonsense."

"It wasn't going to help anybody get informed," LaMagna, who is an Independent supporting Bernie Sanders, said. "But while I'm watching this, I'm like well if it's showing what the Google Trends are, what's to stop somebody from making that trend. So I put out kind of a call to action. I just tweeted out: 'Hey everybody should Google 'Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac killer?' and see if we can hit the ticker on there.'"

He jokingly photoshopped the question onto CBS's debate ticker, as if it actually happened:

Now there are t-shirts for sale, declaring that Cruz is the Zodiac killer. Proceeds from those sales have been going to a network of Texas clinics that provide abortions. (Ted Cruz opposes abortion.)

There's a Ted Cruz/Zodiac killer romance book as well, for sale on Amazon. And most recently, Public Policy Polling asked in a survey whether it's possible that Ted Cruz was the Zodiac killer.

NPR spoke with several people involved with the Cruz/Zodiac meme, and they all said pretty much the same thing. They know Cruz is not the Zodiac killer. But they say it's all about a feeling they have about Cruz: they think he's creepy. And they want to point that out, as clearly as they can.

"Once something catches on for whatever reason it just kind of builds on itself and becomes you know, kind of a short hand thing, you don't have to explain it," said comedian Patrick Monahan, who identifies as a Democrat. He felt that a general feeling that Cruz is creepy had been building for a while.

Monahan cited a column that went viral last month in which a professor of neurology attempted to explain why "Ted Cruz's Facial Expression Makes Me Uneasy."

"There was something about the fact that there was a neurologist that went on the air or did an interview that said there's a neurological reason why Ted Cruz's face seems strange," Monahan said.

It's important to point out that was one person's take in one column, and not accepted science. The column never pointed to any scientific reason and its author concluded he was "at a loss to verbalize what unsettles me."

Monahan added, "and then there was a protester in one of the Iowa rallies that stood in the back and yelled 'Ted Cruz looks weird' a bunch of times. I think it just sort of crystallized for me that there's something about this guy that really kind of is off-putting to people."

Monahan said that Cruz has a likeability problem. "It seems to be something that has always been true of presidential candidates, people say 'I wanna have a beer with this guy.' ... and there's none of that with him at all. To me that's strange."

"It's weird to see somebody in politics, which is essentially a popularity contest, in a lot of ways especially on a national level, who seems very unpopular," he said.

Twitter comedian Lindsey Martin, one of the users at the center of the Cruz/Zodiac conversation, said part of the reason she feels comfortable participating the meme is that she doesn't believe it. "Yeah I think it's all a joke," said Martin, who told NPR she disagrees with Cruz's policies. "I know the killings started in 1968. And Ted Cruz was born in 1970. I think that's part of the reason that I've been comfortable keeping the joke going; because it's so obviously untrue. And if there was any way that it could possibly be true I would be scared to joke about it just because of the repercussions."


For LaMagna, who led the charge to get Cruz/Zodiac trending during the CBS GOP debate, it was all about the worlds of politics and social media colliding. "I think this is just one iteration of a phenomenon that's going to continue," he said. "You know, the more and more with the CBS Google Trends ticker, as you get the media and politicians trying to plug into this still new territory of social media, you're only going to see more and more times when that kind of old-school thinking clashes with all sorts of new media. And all the different absurdists and satirists out there. ... this is their domain that you've plugged into. And with it comes some sort of unintended consequences."

NPR reached out to the Cruz campaign, not to ask if he's the Zodiac killer, but for a response to the lingering meme. We have not heard back yet. But we should point out again, just once more: Ted Cruz is not the Zodiac killer. Really. He's not.

Seriously though, Cruz does have an odd air about him. His speaking mannerisms remind of the Televangelist, which is not surprising considering that his father is an evangelical pastor.

 

[FJAG]

Heard a very interesting comment by the former Director of the NSA and CIA, General Mike Hayden. He was the first guest on Real Time with Bill Maher last night.

In response to a question about Trump's desire to bring back waterboarding "and worse", and bombing terrorists families and other nonsense, Hayden pointed out that it would most likely never happen, as these would be illegal acts under many international laws, and it is the responsibility of the military member to refuse to carry out an unlawful order, if it ever got that far. More likely Trump would be politely advised that this course of action cannot be carried out and other more legal options would be presented.

Here is the full interview.  https://youtu.be/RFA6lsX9S8Q

Yeah. That really worked well the last time didn't it.

Honestly. Do you think in a country that has a sufficient number of voters to actually elect someone like Trump that there wouldn't be enough people in the legal and military chain of command to support and find the justification for such actions and carry them into effect.

:brickwall:
:cheers:

 

[CougarKing]

Gov. Christie endorses Trump:

New York Times

Christie Splits With His Past in Backing Trump


(...SNIPPED)
On Sunday, Mr. Christie found himself besieged by his own past inclinations toward expanding the Republican tent. His presidential hopes extinguished, he was forced to defend himself on national television, torn between making the case for Donald J. Trump and distancing himself from Mr. Trump’s proposals to ban Muslims from entering America and make Mexico pay for a border.

Even for a polished performer such as Mr. Christie, the interview on ABC’s “This Week” was an awkward balancing act, as he was repeatedly confronted with videos from the campaign trail in which he excoriated and mocked Mr. Trump. It was a wince-inducing spectacle for some of Mr. Christie’s supporters to witness, and the aftermath was made worse when Mr. Trump, on CNN, repeatedly declined to condemn the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke, its former grand wizard. (Mr. Trump later posted a video on Twitter in which he disavowed Mr. Duke.)

(...SNIPPED)