117 thoughts on “Crazy Train”

  1. Howdy Blue. Not entirely sure but it looked like Trump kept his eyes open during Scalia moment of silence

  2. Rubio must’ve had some of Ted’s cake…and it was dry.  Get that man some water.

    What else would Rubio have been the father of except children?

  3. I will let you all watch that one. , too bad christie isn’t there to do his jersey swagger on Rubio

     

    Jack

  4. Moderator so far not asking candidates to respond to stuff they have said about each other. Bush had to attack Trump without a question

  5. Renee

    I’m glad you enjoyed the article . It was one of the best examinations I’ve read about the current primary race and nailed  why I believe as I do.

     

    Jack

  6. Trump attacking W for letting world trade ctr happen.  Even Dems shy away from that argument, but he has a point

  7. I’ll have to catch a rerun of the pugn boys.  Iron Man 3 is on and I’ve not seen it. I can monitor the nuttiness parts here.

  8. I love that Trump tells the TV viewers that the folks in the auditorium are plants.  True or not?

    I’m starting to really dislike Jeb!.

  9. Craig,

    Trump not only has a point, its the truth! You got to give Trump credit, the Democrats never did anything about it, they never had a spine. Bush should have been impeached. Both Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld, Rice should have gone to jail.  And they didn’t protect New York when they had data stating that something was going to happen.

  10. God, I just turned over to CBS during a commercial and who’s on there? Cruz. I just threw up a little in my mouth.

  11. Makes me crazy when the candidates are finally actually debating moderator tries to stop it to ask dumb questions

  12. Bud Light shooting commercial at Lincoln Memorial, that’s just wrong. Ameriprise ad has nice music

  13. Jesus…   Watching this debate compared to the Democratic one last Thursday, I feel like I’m on a different planet.

  14. Large ears are the sign of a liar.  So is someone who displays excessive thirst.

    Trump, the populist.  My company moved manufacturing to Mexico.  It was really sad, but the company couldn’t survive otherwise…because other companies outsourced manufacturing.   That just kills the local economy when you move jobs out; all of the other business that folks spent their paychecks on also suffer.

  15. Now I want to take a Repug ballot to vote for Trump in the primary, just to try to keep the ass-hat-ier candidates out.

  16. Hillary is winning the debate tonight!

    The Democratic candidates look like Einstein compared to this clown car.

  17. Oh, god, god, god says john.

    Poor ben, oh please oh please vote for me.

    Jeb! the steady hand.

    You’re right,  Rubio’s ears are big. And his words are well memorized.

    Cruz…proven conservative.  Fear and loathing.

    And finally Trump.  I’ll make us losers winners…again.

     

  18. Queens and Brooklyn aren’t so far apart; a shared sign language.

     

    Craig – Thank you for hosting another night of Mystery Political-Science Theatre 2016.  G’nite.

  19. SEGUI TO THE REAL WORLD SORTA
    The Prez could nominate himself, putting Biden at the head of the line in November :
    Fini Bernie and Hillary.
    Actually, the Prez should nominate a 28 year old black woman from mcconnell’s home town in Kentucky, who served with distinction in Iraq and went to school at UK on the “socialist marxist” “LIBRULL” government tab. All we have to do is find her.

  20. MORE SEGUI TO THE REAL WORLD
    All I needed to quit was a heart attack and bypass surgery. Two weeks and $125 k later I was smoke free.
    However, my cancer was related to way too much coffee for way too long.
    Good luck, and get well soon, Craig !
     

     

  21. As Mr. Day, father of six, said when his daughter Tamara was born, “Tamara is another day !”

  22. poohbah! must say I did a double — no triple– take at that.  one re noxious weed, two re noxious company and three in wonderment of your control re balcony.

    tell all, please… what was antonin’s demeanor that night,  the delightful humorous friend of ruth or the disgusting humorless bigot?

  23. if not Loretta Lynch how about

    Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson black woman jurist appointed by Obama in 2010 “(born August 8, 1951) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and a former Rhode Island Superior Court justice.”

    beyond that it’s fitting to have another woman on the bench, another minority (whether aa, hispanic, native American or Asian) would put the goper senators in a bind this election year if they argue against or delayconfirmation…. think of the sound bites they’ll provide for the campaigns.

  24. Holy Sublimation!! There was blood coming out of that CBS eye!   Seeing red and Trump bled perfectly into the background.

    Rubio looks pre-diabetic.  His skin color is all wrong and the sweating and the excessive thirst?  I am curious about his blood sugar…need to see that blood sugar level from your doc letter.  Rubio had his Obama ears on last night.

  25. Ha! PatD – The color is perfect.  Who does Trump’s make-up? If that was his actual skin tone, maybe he should have Dr. Carson  check his blood pressure.

  26. Excessive thirst is also the sign of a liar.  Cruz called out Rubio on that; either he was lying then or he’s lying now.  That used to be called flip-flopping, but the gloves are off.

    Lack of thirst while lying, points to a sociopathic personality, perhaps.

     

  27. Rick just said to me…  “if Saturday Night Live wanted to do a spoof on that Republican debate, they wouldn’t have to…  it was perfect just the way it was.”  I agree with him.

  28. RR – Rick was right.

    I don’t know who won last night, but it wasn’t anybody on that stage.  I guess Carson seemed the most congenial. Kaisch seemed the most adult, although he makes me cringe when his true agenda seeps out. Cruz and Rubio beat each other up; Rubio got the worst of it.  Trump was pretty good at shutting down (or shouting down) his detractors.  Jeb! should go home.

  29. meanwhile back to the real world

    “It appears that some of my Republican colleagues in the Senate have a very interesting view of the Constitution of the United States,” Sanders said. “Apparently they believe that the Constitution does not allow a Democratic president to bring forth a nominee to replace Justice Scalia. I strongly disagree with that.”

    Clinton, too, argued Republican lawmakers who want to hold off on an appointment are meddling with the Constitution, calling their efforts “outrageous,” “disappointing,” and “totally out of step with our history and constitutional process.”

    “Let me just make on point,” Clinton said, “Barack Obama is the president of the United States until January 20, 2017.”

  30.  

    Sunday Serendipity.

    Something for Valentine’s day. Wish the quality of the clip were a bit better, but very special just the same.

    Enjoy the music and dance and enjoy the day!

  31. good morning! here’s a morbid question however germain… it has beenpointed out many times that the next potus will appoint a minimum of 3 justices.  a few times i have seen 4.  who would those 3 be and was scalia one of them?  craig- how did you find his company? ginsberg said that he was so charming she was able to look beyond his philosophies.

  32. OldSea, he was out and about in DC a lot, at parties large and small. It was hard not to run into him, and always approachable.

  33. Crazy train to crazy town which I believe is located in a church to the right of The RNC  you’d recognize it

    big fence around it and Joe Scarborough is mayor

  34. Will the G.O.P. Response to Antonin Scalia’s Death Hand the Election to the Democrats?
     
    BY John Cassidy

    If the Republicans block the nomination without properly considering it, which also seems likely, a huge political row will ensue, enveloping the Presidential race. (In fact, it has already done that, as the Republican debate proved.) Come summer and fall, the Democratic candidate, be it Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, will be able to go the country and appeal for support in preventing the Republicans from humiliating President Obama and making a mockery of democracy.”

    http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/will-the-g-o-p-response-to-antonin-scalias-death-hand-the-election-to-the-democrats?intcid=mod-most-popular

  35. Tony! That’s a great find on Mitch McTurtle!   Every time they invoke the ghost of Ronald Reagan, bring that up.

    MTP this morning & Cruz is repeating the words, “We have a long tradition, in the country, of not nominating Supreme Coury Justices in an election year.”

    Well, Turd, we have a long history, in this country, of not electing a Canadian as POTUS.

    Last night, Jeb! actually uttered the words “stay the course.”   What is it with those people?

  36. Trump was all over Cruz for supporting John Roberts.   Cruz says he was just supporting Bush because, hey, the nomination had already been made. What was he supposed to do?

  37. Once again I live a day without electronic interface to the rapidly revolving world and stunning news awaits my first firing of the computer this morning.  Scalia dead.  Well.  Ain’t that a piece of Boston Cream Pie for breakfast (a favorite of mine).  Speak no ill of the dead during the mourning time.  That was a fast mourning time.  He devoted his life to making my life miserable if not illegal.  That I shed no tears is a just goodbye.

    Other news is less interesting.  The clowns went at it again, eh.  The Mitch stating he would not allow that Black Man in the White House the pleasure of following how the Constitution works seems about normal.  Jim Crow lives on.

    Something else must be going on, but I care little.  This weekend, instead of going out in the cold, or wasting precious electrons on running the television, I am reading.  Michner’s Chesapeake.  Fascinating.  One side of my family came from Delmarva, starting in the late 1500’s or early 1600’s, settling in the area of his novel as the first English colonists.  Too bad he did not use any one of my ancestors “colorful” histories. But he does cover the mix of Catholic, Protestant, Church of England, Quaker ancestry common in the 1600’s along the Virginia and Maryland colonies on the Delmarva.

     

  38. When the music starts and Dame Margot walks to the balcony, I so much wish that this were an opera rather than a ballet. Wasn’t she approaching retirement when Rudolph got his exit visa from the Kremlin’s clutches? I don’t think the print detracted at all–they were the best of the best. Thanks, Jace.
    Flatus

  39. Is there truly a “long tradition” of no supreme court appointments in the last 1 year a presidential term or is this gop bs?

  40. BlueB – Perhaps we are distant cousins.  My ancestors arrived in the early 1600s, as well.  Even worse than being related to me, you could be cousins with the Bush clan, as am I.   As a follow-up, I suggest a book called The King Phillip War.

  41. BinD – cousins with the Bush clan

    Definitely not the Bush’s.  In the 1600’s – 1700’s there were the Evans’, White’s, Powell’s, Wharton’s, Berry’s, along with women without last names (sisters, cousins, slave or Indian) all living somewhere along the Virginia-Maryland border; Maryland colony after the 1661 declaration by the Governor of Maryland that all religions (Catholic, Protestent and Quaker) could live here.  There were a few who lingered in the Gloucester Point, Jamestown, Williamsburg area for a year or two, but most raised sail to Delmarva as fast as possible.  Which leads one to think of indentured servants, save they had patented lands to tend to.

    It is a blast to visit the homelands of the 1600’s, being able to see where they lived, although more modern homes with central heat and indoor plumbing occupy the soil now.  When I am out in the Bay, much shoreline would look similar to what they saw when they were on the Bay.

     

  42. Clinton needs to get others to raise these issues – I have noticed a little more coverage of the Bernie issues and sme criticism or shock at learning the Sanders campaign maybe be overstating voter turnout — which on the Dem side so far is less than 2008 a lot less

  43. Donald Trump finally went too far for Republicans
    By Matthew Yglesious

    When Trump contradicted the Republican Party’s most cherished form of up-is-downism, the party establishment finally got its groove back and handed him arguably his worst evening of the entire campaign. But they also proved to everyone else that pointing out that Bush was in office on 9/11 is a red line for the GOP establishment in a way that concocting a story about Jersey City Muslims celebrating the attacks wasn’t.” http://www.vox.com/2016/2/14/10988380/donald-trump-9-11

  44. bb and bid, any relation to my delmarva relation mary daughter of chief kittamaquund, tayak of the piscataway?

  45. BlueB – Yes, I was looking at the time-frame, not the area.  My people were in Massachusetts, moving on to RI, CT and NY.  As a consolation to the Bush clan (sort of), Prez/Chf Justice Taft is also hanging on a branch of the Davenport tree.

    It would be interesting to find out how closely those of us in the trail may be related.  At some point, we are probably all cousins.

    Someone should trace Obama to McConnell, Graham, etc.   a They would be in denial.

  46. cnn’s state of the union show

    Leahy reacts to Sen. McConnell’s announcement the Senate will not confirm Scalia’s replacement during Obama’s presidency: “Well, I think he’s making a terrible mistake.  And he’s certainly ignoring the Constitution and ignoring responsibilities. President Obama is doing the same thing that President Reagan did.  At the end of his term, he nominated a Supreme Court justice.  The confirmation was in the last year of President Reagan’s term.  The Democrats controlled the Senate.  None of us intended to play politics with something as important as a Supreme Court nomination. And the Democratic-controlled Senate voted 97-0 in favor of President Reagan’s nominee in the last year of his presidency.”

     

    from crooksandliars

    Wallace reminded Rubio that President Ronald Reagan appointed Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court in his final year in office.

    “It doesn’t really matter what Reagan did back in ’87,” Rubio opined.

  47. My favorite tweet of the day so far:

    Friend: “I think @HillaryClinton will do a better job-I just can’t warm to her.” Me: “You’re hiring a President, not a freakin’ nanny.”

  48. Jamie, hillary would be a lot more fun to have a beer with than either bernie or barry.  as far as the gopers go, I wouldn’t even want to be in the same bar.

  49. Fried, Whining Baloney.

    The victim card isn’t going to play with Hillary;  wealth and status trumps gender.

    Additionally, voice and looks have always and will always impact all human interactions.

    All candidates gain some traction by their charisma/looks/demeanor (good or bad).

    Trump and Bernie yell, folks hate it.  Half-baked Alaska yells, folks love it.  Rubio is the youngest/best looking candidate.  Kasich has a face and demeanor like a boiled potato.  Cruz has an irritating, nasal whine and perpetual sneer. Bernie always manages to look like he just rolled out of bed, yet he isn’t showing up at a debate in sweatpants. The men all wear dark suits to look more powerful.  (And if anyone looks glum at all times, it’s Angela Mirkel, but that hasn’t held her back.) Human beings are judgmental about the serious and the superficial.

  50. Quite a few originally Marylanders on the trail.  Mine were with founders Howard, McCubbins, and Carroll with the McCubbins branch moving into Virginia, Kentucky, and finally Tennessee.  Somewhere along that line some  Cherokee entered into the mix with branches splitting into Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.  (Mama’s family were a friendly bunch).  Dad’s OTOH pretty exclusive:  All Scotland all the time for the past at least 800 years.

     

  51. Republican candidates to the media:  The facts about 4th-year nominations don’t matter unless we want them to matter…which we don’t want to matter anymore.  Slime.

  52. from wapo

    The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia casts a cloud of uncertainty over a Supreme Court term filled with some of the most controversial issues facing the nation: abortion, affirmative action, the rights of religious objectors to the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act, and the president’s powers on immigration and deportation.

    An eight-member court could split on all of those issues. If the court ties in deciding a case, the decision of the appeals court remains in place, without setting a nationwide precedent.

  53. I went on social media & asked both Democratic Presidential candidates to consider asking supporters to contribute $ to local charities in lieu of campaign contributions for one day. Positive Politics.

  54. “Trump finally went too far”

    So says another pundit, heard that one before.

    He is talking about the audience response last night, One that was packed by the SC party with people for Bush.

    For some reason I think Donald can make hay with that fact.

    Jack

  55. sjwny,

    Today I received an e-mail from Hillary campaign requesting donations to the Flint Child a Health & Development Fund.

  56. patd, waiting for DNA sample to be finished to rule out Nanticoke and African slave possibilities.  A possibility arose during my latest research, which again is to be ruled out by DNA, is Puerto Rico, the time period for that possibility is also in the late 1600’s early 1700’s.  I do know that if one or more of these twigs are real branches someone is going to have to dump another load of cement over my grandfather’s grave to keep him from spinning out.

  57. Oregon Democrat,

    Good Afternoon. Thank You for mentioning the email. Someone once said it takes a village…. I like that message, because it really does.

  58. liar, liar, pants on fire — or was that mentiroso  mentiroso pantalones en el fuego?
    “On this campaign, he is saying things that are not true, and he’s saying it repeatedly, and he knows they’re not true,” Rubio said.
    Rubio unloaded on Cruz just days ahead of South Carolina’s Republican primary, a key battle that could winnow the field of six GOP presidential contenders.
    His verbal assault came the morning after the two had one of the most memorable exchanges of Saturday night’s debate hosted by CBS, when Cruz attacked comments Rubio had made on Univision in Spanish about immigration.

    Rubio shot back that Cruz doesn’t even speak Spanish — and Cruz responded in Spanish, challenging Rubio to continue their exchange in the language.

    Asked if Rubio was calling Cruz’s Latino status into question, Rubio responded: “No, I was calling into question whether he even knows what I’m saying … He has no idea. He’s just going off what other people are telling him, and it’s false. It’s just not true.”

  59. Pat

    that Rubio , Cruz exchange has to be one of the most bizzare exchanges of the debate, (and there were many) @ Republicans in SC going after the redneck Christian vote , challenging each other over who was the real Cubano. No wonder the picture of the exchange has Trump with a smug smile on his face.

     

    Jack

  60. A Republican opinion of last night.

    CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER:

    If the previous Republican debates have been World War I or II this is is thermonuclear. I have is not seen as many personal attacks or high temperature attacks as we saw in this debate. I am not sure that you can judge the debate on who won or lost on the actual sound bites of who won this exchange or, that that, it was the tone. I think that if you counted up the number of times that the word ‘lie’ and ‘liar’ was employed, it would exceed the number of times it has been used in all previous debates. ………………..

    We went here from WWE to the UFC. This was a cage fight of the sort that I don’t think we have seen at the presidential level before.

     

    .

  61. Jeb spent 44 mil in NH and came in last.

    –trump

    george bush II didn’t keep us safe on 9-11

    –trump

     

    haha knock the bushes out  then deal with the other clowns

  62. Most of the time I like Chris Hayes, but the MSNBC hate Hillary and lie about it is getting really out of hand when even other liberal news sites catch you doing it and the GOP sites pick it up to damn the Clintons.

    MSNBC Butchers Clinton Quote

  63. 21st Century Question from an older person  transferred into the year 2016:

    I’ve burned all my firewood today. Who do I call for more wood to be brought into my house and placed next to the fireplace?
    Grandpa Ohlfahrt

    Not really, but what about when these silly millennials come of age?

  64. I just ran across this

     

    On September 7, 1956, Sherman Minton announced his intent to retire in a letter to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and he served until October 15, 1956.  With the Senate already adjourned, Eisenhower made a recess appointment of William J. Brennan to the Court shortly thereafter; Brennan was formally nominated to the Court and confirmed in 1957.  The fact that Eisenhower put Brennan on the Court is inconsistent with any tradition of leaving a seat vacant.

     

    For a complete run down of presidential election year appointments check out Scotus blog

     

    something else, Scalia himself was approved in the middle of the congressional election In September/

    Jack

     

  65. Jamie

    That one demands a retraction and an apology. Who ever is responsible should be fired. IMNSHO.

     

    Jack

  66. dallas-  “wealth and status trumps gender.”  that is one of biggest piles of bs bs I’ve heard since uh  last night.  i’m not even going to bother debating with you as you are unable to accept the facts of sexism- another aspect of it.  i will tell you that i am tiring of you and will donate more money to hillary as soon as i finish this comment- and will continue with each one of your small minded comments.  laugh it up fuzzball!

  67. Not really, but what about when these silly millennials come of age?

    A few presidential elections ago my youngest son expressed interest in voting for Ralph Nader.  Why?  He and his website were full of similar if not the same things as Sanders spouts today.  Hey.  I would have fallen for it forty-five plus years ago.  It all sounds so good.  But, fairy tales end with the princess getting screwed by the prince.

    I do not know how he votes today.  I know he carries much of the law and order in him (courtesy me) but, he has also seen other sides to life.

  68. All I can say is that unless ‘assley & myrtle grow a sense of responsibility to the country I hope they (and we) like the the decisions of the circuit courts of appeals in the cases before SCOTUS this term.

  69. BB, I’m convinced beyond any doubt that by the time we finished 6th grade we were competent in the 3Rs, knew our American History, Civics, I had done one year of French at Summer School 4-hrs a day, had done another summer session of typing, etc. And I wasn’t the only kid in my class doing this kind of stuff. Public schools in Cleveland Hts, Ohio. My cursive was crappy and still is. Don’t blame Mrs Vogue, Miss Carter and the other fine teachers; I had decided to emulate my grandfather’s hand.

  70. I have thought often about how our Democracy arrived at this point of great dissonance.  My conclusion is that both parties dutifully ignore the concerns of the other. Both sides seem to have a great intolerance of any opposing and divergent views. 

    Yours is undoubtably a left-leaning forum; but, in my opinion, progressives are much more apt to charitably recognize politically divergent views. That is why I safely park myself here, on this side of this battle landscape.

    Thank you Craig, I have followed your posts since about 2005. I am always pleased to be located somewhere in that cover that you have provided.

    Keep up the noble cause, buddy!

  71. mad, I wouldn’t go so far as to say “charitably”….

    you must have skipped over some of the more recent comments of trail brothers and sisters.

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