Curb Your Authoritarianism? The 2016 Conventional Wisdom Thread (Elections, Part 6)

Rating just a hair below the whole government shutdown move, Cruz getting finger-flicked by his daughter was a defining moment of his career for me.

interesting facts/thoughts abt who knew what when http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/okay-it-got-much-weirder

trump team def had the speech in advance whether they read or understood it tho

my guess is they didn't read it. more charitably, maybe they did read it, but thought cruz's tone would be more conciliatory. Like the lack of a formal endorsement would come across as just saving face, not an "aggressive" non-endorsement.

Are Trump's team good at reading speeches before they get delivered?

Or Cruz will be found dead some time in the next 24 hours.

Probably they read it and didn't get it

Let's not forget this guy is a yuge creep and probably a more dangerous potential president than Trump

please note this is the 3rd 'prosperity gospel' preacher at mic & no evangelicals in 3 nights

how much of a difference is there? and to whom does it matter?

― mookieproof

x1000p: not all christians are cargo cultists.

all this talk on cruz's political future is contingent on the republican party having a political future. this is a party that literally agrees on nothing except that hillary clinton is a criminal and needs to be locked up. they'll clean up on the 2018 midterms with that, especially since most of america agrees with them, but i don't see any way this total divide on basic political principles does not become a permanent rift.

Dick tom:

Richard M. Nixon ‏@dick_nixon 9h9 hours ago
Cruz isn't Rockefeller '64 because this confirms what everybody hates Cruz for already.

Alan Cole
‏@AlanMCole
"Widmerpool, once so derided by all of us, had in some mysterious manner become a person of authority. Now... it was he that derided us".

how could trump win with his own party so divided

By getting more votes than his opponent.

cruz may have evil degenerate principles but unlike most of the other assholes in his party at least he has them

xp um thx? pretty sure that was implied as the result of having a divided party. i am aware of how elections work.

was this ever solved?

https://twitter.com/radiatoryang/status/755970044174139392

^ it's more fun (?) in gif

how much of a difference is there? and to whom does it matter?

a huge segment of the evangelicals are very uncomfortable with/genuinely against prosperity gospel types. like, they publish pamphlets about how prosperity gospel is heresy. I know because I buy these pamphlets, because I can't help myself.

http://so4j.com/images/false-teachers-and-false-prophets.jpg

this is a party that literally agrees on nothing except that hillary clinton is a criminal and needs to be locked up.

you're forgetting those who want her shot

and i doubt that "most of america agrees with" the wingnut fringe that wants hillary locked up

...and/or shot

Right but the Party is not a plurality of the vote, or anything near it - you win by getting people whom aren't members of your party to win, and there is evidence that such people are even less interested in intraparty matters than ever before.

xxp there

Also what is there to solve about the salute? It's not a complicated gesture, it's not designed for competitions where people mark you a 6 a 7 and a 9 for how well you managed the intricacies. It is what it is, and that's one there.

trump may bring in some independents but he is not going to replace the GOP base w/ trump democrats or new voters. he needs the party behind him.

I hope you're right, but it's eh, far from clear.

this was nice of him

Donald Trump says the United States under his leadership might not come to the defense of some NATO members if Russia were to attack them.
Trump tells The New York Times he would decide whether to protect the Baltic republics against Russian aggression based on whether those countries "have fulfilled their obligations to us"

so is this like paying the mob for protection?

trump does seem to be bringing in a bunch of new single-issue voters. that issue being trump.

needs to start using "cult of personality" as his entrance theme

so is this like paying the mob for protection?

NATO countries are expected to spend 2% of GDP on the military. Estonia (which in the fantasy world geo-political analysts live in is the most likely to be attacked) is one of five countries that actually does. Lithuania and Latvia spend less than 1%. It looks more like an effort to show a domestic audience that America expects other countries to pay their fair share than any significant change of policy on what would happen if war broke out.

a huge segment of the evangelicals are very uncomfortable with/genuinely against prosperity gospel types. like, they publish pamphlets about how prosperity gospel is heresy. I know because I buy these pamphlets, because I can't help myself.

― The bald Phil Collins impersonator cash grab (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi)

feel like we should take this to the christianity thread but there's so much fascinating about evangelicals beyond their bad photoshop skills. like the argument against Bwana Jesus should not be a difficult one to make and somehow they can't help themselves and start saying that john the baptist was against "visions". oh also they do a great job at conveying the message that christianity is centered around the teachings of john the baptist, who looks suspiciously similar to charles manson?

The US Secret Service is investigating an informal adviser to Donald Trump's presidential campaign after he called for Hillary Clinton's execution.

Al Baldasaro, a New Hampshire state representative, told radio host Jeff Kuhner Tuesday that Clinton "should be put in the firing line and shot for treason."
"The U.S. Secret Service is aware of this matter and will conduct the appropriate investigation," said Shawn L. Holtzclaw, a spokesman for the Secret Service.

Let's not forget this guy is a yuge creep and probably a more dangerous potential president than Trump

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Thursday, July 21, 2016 5:15 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nope

CNN reports that a man in a donor suite had to be restrained from assaulting Ted Cruz after he entered it after his speech.

— Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) July 21, 2016

lol

crazy thing abt the cruz speech is it wldnt have come off so pointed w/out all the booing delegates... that the trump camp organized my lord

Man, that Times interview:

Mr. Trump said he was convinced that he could persuade Mr. Erdogan to put more effort into fighting the Islamic State. But the Obama administration has run up, daily, against the reality that the Kurds — among the most effective forces the United States is supporting against the Islamic State — are being attacked by Turkey, which fears they will create a breakaway nation.

Asked how he would solve that problem, Mr. Trump paused, then said: “Meetings.”

lol trump tired

Cruz boos = WWE style stunt fomented by Trump (manafort reportedly was on the floor whipping up boos from the NY delegation). Cruz is the WWE villain, Trump is the hero - Trump team knew what qas in Cruz's speech and used it to create a moment promoting their standard narrative of Trump as savior/Cruz as apostate. Bigger news is that so many delegates *cheered* the "vote your conscience" line.

that manages to be both the most hilarious and disturbing utterance of the lone word "meetings" in the history of the world

Cruz is only less dangerous than Trump because most human beings find Chthuloid entities repellent and dread-inducing on a cellular level, whereas a much lower percentage of people are scared of over-bronzed fascist clowns.

no thats not the reason why

Trump team knew what qas in Cruz's speech and used it to create a moment promoting their standard narrative of Trump as savior/Cruz as apostate.

― Οὖτις, Thursday, July 21, 2016 10:45 AM (38 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the whole point of having the second place finisher speak is to demonstrate party unity, obvs they shdnt have let him speak if he wasnt gonna endorse, but to then highlight the party disunity through cheap stagecraft is beyond stupid

xxxpost Totally WWE. I was listening to coverage and when someone said that Trump was in the audience I pictured the camera cutting to Vince McMahon entering the building with an expression of exaggerated rage.

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Other than a small group of people who have suffered massive and embarrassing losses, the party is VERY united. Great love in the arena!

Asked how he would solve that problem, Mr. Trump paused, then said: “Meetings.”

The best meetings, the yugest meetings. You won't believe these meetings, how meetingy they will be.

this is the greatest

A former U.S. Senator inside the Adelson’s luxury box at the Quicken Loans arena told Independent Journal Review that Cruz approached the suite after he finished his speech that fell short of endorsing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Cruz was not welcome in the suite “because he’s a piece of shit,” the Senator said.

Can't bring myself to C&P it but the lead story on NRO some dipshit actually fucking compares Ted Cruz to Fredrick Douglas

it's basically a jackoff fest over their "Lion Ted" stood up for real conservatism!

I didn't say it was a smart idea lagoon, but what else is new.

Xp

Cruz was not welcome in the suite “because he’s a piece of shit,” the Senator said.

― The bald Phil Collins impersonator cash grab (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Thursday, July 21, 2016 10:54 AM (20 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol hes got the touch

lol at Cruz taking his brave stand and then immediately running up to a billionaire donor's suite