Il Douché and His Discontents: The 2016 Primary Voting Thread, Part 4

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/L1R5WwcOve8/hqdefault.jpg

(re: Christie's face)

Trump has had SecService protection since November... the legal details of ejecting BLM protestors from a DT rally by the police in GA on Monday is illuminating:

As journalist Dahlia Lithwick and First Amendment lawyer Raymond Vasvari observed in 2012, when the federal law on trespass was quietly amended by H.R. 347 — to make it a crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, “to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions” in locations guarded by the Secret Service, including places where individuals under Secret Service protection are temporarily located — the new statute made it “easier for the government to criminalize protest.”

What that means in practice is that campaign rallies for Donald Trump, who was granted Secret Service protection in November, and Hillary Clinton, who will be guarded for life as a former first lady, are the very opposite of free speech zones under federal law. (The restrictions also apply to all appearances by former presidents and first ladies, as well as those of two other candidates, Bernie Sanders and Ben Carson, who are currently protected by the service.)

Another problem, as Gabe Rottman, a policy adviser for the ACLU, explained in 2012, is that the amended law “could be misused as part of a larger move by the Secret Service and others to suppress lawful protest by relegating it to particular locations at a public event.”

https://theintercept.com/2016/03/01/now-hes-guarded-secret-service-federal-law-criminalizes-protesting-trump/

One thing thats interesting about christie is that he seems like enough of a human being that you can imagine him feeling shame or disgrace. I don't think that's true of everyone in the republican field.

Christie is positively stuffed chockfull of shame and disgrace

it's his creamy filling

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/jamesfallows/IsaacChristie.png

xpost welp I wasn't gonna finish that tuna salad anyway

lol

lol @ Ben Stein "Economist"

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, March 2, 2016 5:47 PM (17 minutes ago)

i was just going to post this. does having an undergraduate degree in econ really make one an "economist"?

he had a TV show about money! must know what he's talking about

DJP otm way upthread; Treeship also otm. Sanders has been pretty classy all the way and I wish more Clinton supporters would notice and say so. I certainly have.

this is otm:

Cruz’s strategy of activating movement conservatives, on the other hand, has failed in states across the South, where Trump peeled away evangelicals. Trump is winning on Cruz’s turf. Instead of proving that there is a wave of ideologically motivated far-right conservatives ready to wash across the country, Cruz’s campaign seems to have proven that much of the GOP base is shallow, motivated not so much by ideology as petty identity politics, rhetoric and personality.

lol @ Rubio getting absolutely zero mileage out of winning MN. I haven't seen a single piece doing more than acknowledge it in passing. Still don't get why he won there, of all places.

he had a TV show about money! must know what he's talking about

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, March 2, 2016 6:06 PM

Guys, Reagan had a degree in economics.

xpost cos his name sounds the funniest when native Sotans say it

Sotos too

lol @ Rubio getting absolutely zero mileage out of winning MN. I haven't seen a single piece doing more than acknowledge it in passing. Still don't get why he won there, of all places.

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, March 2, 2016 5:16 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

people up here across the political spectrum are sticklers for uprightness and have a preference for calm and good order

rubio haters on the right are already joking about the "mondale map" which is a frustratingly wrong comparison but eh

people up here across the political spectrum are sticklers for uprightness and have a preference for calm and good order

Yeah I saw people baffling about Rubio winning MN on TV last night and it made perfect sense to me - in my experience northern midwestern folk have a low tolerance for loudmouth assholes and ostentatious public displays.

so why then do they turn to Rubio?

It was him or Carson...

Look who's defending Trump: http://m.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-not-long-killed-trump-rally-article-1.2549868?cid=bitly

Whatever you do politically this year, please help keep this guy away from the White House.

Christie's shame is he knows Springsteen is watching and he let him down again

It was him or Carson...

― nickn, Wednesday, March 2, 2016

I mean, no way I can look at Rubio and see the sober, thoughtful, English-speaking nominee these people did.

Here's what the NYT wrote in their first encounter with Hitler in 1922, and it is very familiar:

https://mobile.twitter.com/jonostrower/status/705171149022433280/photo/1

agreed wrt Rubio. can't believe he's become the"sober" choice. he is a fucking goofball.

royaume des aveugles

chris christie has a li'l of this going on

https://nesncom.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/caldwell.jpg

xpost well you go with what you have - the only way for this generation of Republicans to churn out a warm, well-spoken, cordial candidate is if they turned to exhumation

u.m.s.: I think Springsteen is a pretty forgiving dude. I predict he and Christie will hug it out when this is all over.

Springsteen understands regret, cf. all his songs I can think of rn

uh oh, looks like Rubio made dad mad:

Fox News’ top brass has given up hope on the presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), according to a Wednesday New York Magazine report.

The report cites three anonymous Fox sources who said network chairman Roger Ailes told people he's lost faith in Rubio’s ability to secure the Republican nomination after disappointing returns in early primaries and caucuses.

Rubio secured his first win in Minnesota on Super Tuesday, while top rivals Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Donald Trump so far have won four and 10 contests, respectively.

“We’re finished with Rubio,” Ailes allegedly told an unnamed Fox host, according to the report. "We can't do the Rubio thing anymore."

Lose Miley Cyrus, pick up Herman Cain--it's all good.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/herman-cain-republicans-who-dont-back-nominee-trump-are-absolutely-insane/

how long til fox turns pro-trump? just in a business sense i figure they'd follow the crowds/ratings

Christie's shame is he knows Springsteen is watching and he let him down again

Springsteen understands regret, cf. all his songs I can think of rn

fox news is going to go all in on trump, they know where (or how) their bread is buttered

it's not as if they haven't promoted equally authoritarian and batshit people over the last few decades

sorry if this has been linked already, thought it ws interesting:
http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism

Christie is an angry, sad and damaged man, I have always seen that and I really don't get why this particular endorsement makes people think he's "selling his soul."

Cant sell what you dont have!

He's actually done his share of trump-lite demagoguing and hate-spewing over the years too.

maybe what's surprised folks is that while they mostly understand that he's a swollen asshole, he's not exactly in the same realm as a Palin or LePage or even a Jan Brewer? like you would be surprised if those nitwits DIDN'T support Trump

xposts- Mordy thanks for that article, it ties so much together.

i think the key factor is that Christie got his best press for making a full-throated defense of Muslims' religious freedom a couple years ago.

Clinton's deathless thesis statement is even more trying by the way she says "AMERICA NEEDS TO BE MADE HO-ELLL"

sorry if this has been linked already, thought it ws interesting:
http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism

that was fantastic, thank you.

amazing that they predicted that people would be drawn to one of America's most famous celebrities. what will this niche group of political scientists unearth next?

"alternative energy"

the gist of the article is that there are more Trumps coming, presumably with better "people skills"

I've been thinking back to a discussion we had in the wake of Ferguson, in which we talked about the rise of "gear culture" (see Bass Pro Shops) and with it a certain re-scripting of American masculinity, a movement away from self-discipline, inner strength, courage, and coolness-under-pressure, and toward sheer ability to project power, and on the equipment with which one repels or destroys external threats. This culture also devalues rational thought and, in a certain sense, a realist epistemology. If you have enough gear, and you're scared (or pissed off) enough, rational inquiry is a hindrance. (The expansion of the Stand your Ground laws seem to me of a piece with all this. Fuck the duty to retreat. It's not just my home that's my castle: if I'm scared enough of you, and you so much as raise your hands, I have a right to shoot you).

In this way, Trump is the ultimate piece of gear, he's the monster truck of candidates: self-propelled, turbocharged, loud, shiny, and willing to wreak havoc left and right. The prospect of his Presidency, from this point of view, must feel irresistible.