[worry]

The psychology of hating Ted Cruz's face: https://www.psycholo...makes-me-uneasy

[Terez]

Cornel West has always been kind of eccentric and wacky, not all that different from Bernie himself. There are varying opinions on him since (as I mentioned earlier) he turned against Obama. The frustration feedback loop has been hard on him, but I don't see him as being much different as a person than he was before.

[Terez]

Watching the GOP debate. Had to take a break to post.

First, when the candidates were walking out, for some reason Ben Carson wouldn't walk out onto the stage when he was called. He stayed in the little hallway, for some reason no one could figure out. Someone (Christie?) walked pasted him. Then Trump joined him and stood with him, and when someone on the production team tried to get Carson to go out, and he shook his head. It was weird. Then Jeb had to pass them. He clapped Trump on the shoulder with a smile, and when his head turned toward the camera, he rolled his eyes as he walked out and left them standing there. It was beyond weird. They finally managed to get Carson and Trump to come out, and then they acted like they were done calling for candidates, while Kasich was still backstage waiting to be called! I think Carson and Trump were planning some kind of protest, or something, and they chickened out? I have no idea.

Also, Chris Christie just slaughtered Marco Rubio in a way that will almost certainly hurt him on Tuesday. When the clips come online, that exchange is a must-watch.

Edit: here's a Vine, which is not the full thing, but good enough for now.

http://vine.co/v/i1AnvX0D0Zd

This post has been edited by Terez: 07 February 2016 - 01:46 AM

[worry]

http://www.huffingto...4b04f9b57d9e69c

It's all there (if folks can handle HuffPost's awful video interface). That is pretty nutty. The protest thing, or at least making a point, is no doubt aimed at Cruz. Still waiting on the Christie/Rubio thing.

[worry]

I do hope the entire NH primary hinges on Eminent Domain.

[Terez]

Recommended: following Cruz's freshman year roommate from Princeton on Twitter during the GOP debates.

[Tsundoku]

Terez, on 07 February 2016 - 02:53 AM, said:

Recommended: following Cruz's freshman year roommate from Princeton on Twitter during the GOP debates.

Is that the guy who said he was an asshole?

[Terez]

Everyone says he's an asshole. Literally everyone. This poor guy was stuck with him in a 12x9 room for a year.

[worry]

One of, yes. Craig Mazin, screenwriter. Twitter here: https://twitter.com/clmazin but I'm sure by now blogs have probably collected the tweets.

Time for a Rubio debate supercut:


And the Rubio/Christie back and forth. This the right one?

This post has been edited by Dumbledude: 07 February 2016 - 07:37 AM

[EmperorMagus]

I just watched the videoclip of Trump fucking Jeb Bush in the ass over eminent domain. Trump is an asshole and a bully, but fuck me if that wasn't one of the most beautiful putdowns I've ever seen. I wonder though, how did Jeb become a governor when people just walk over him like that ...

@Terez: I guess Alaskans are lucky people ...
I personally would prefer a polar bear/cat to most politicians.

This post has been edited by EmperorMagus: 07 February 2016 - 09:06 AM

[EmperorMagus]

Also Cruz's roommate Craig Mazin is awesome.

Tweet

[Terez]

worry - the moment I loved most was the one that inspired the sig update. Two election-breaking moments IMO, though Christie also assisted in Romney's demise, which makes him extra-worthy of a sig quote even if he's an asshole.

EmperorMagus, on 07 February 2016 - 09:05 AM, said:

I just watched the videoclip of Trump fucking Jeb Bush in the ass over eminent domain. Trump is an asshole and a bully, but fuck me if that wasn't one of the most beautiful putdowns I've ever seen. I wonder though, how did Jeb become a governor when people just walk over him like that ...

I don't think he generally does. Trump is a strange phenomenon; he himself noted earlier in the debate that his opponents are scared to take him on. It's true; the public support for him is so irrational that there's nothing his opponents can do. Like Trump himself said, he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and he wouldn't lose any voters.

EmperorMagus, on 07 February 2016 - 09:05 AM, said:

@Terez: I guess Alaskans are lucky people ...
I personally would prefer a polar bear/cat to most politicians.

You live in an oil-rich country; you could be a socialist utopia if you wanted. (Sarah Palin loves socialism so long as it's funded by oil.)

[EmperorMagus]

Terez, on 07 February 2016 - 09:11 AM, said:

I don't think he generally does. Trump is a strange phenomenon; he himself noted earlier in the debate that his opponents are scared to take him on. It's true; the public support for him is so irrational that there's nothing his opponents can do. Like Trump himself said, he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and he wouldn't lose any voters.

You live in an oil-rich country; you could be a socialist utopia if you wanted. (Sarah Palin loves socialism so long as it's funded by oil.)

This was one example of Jeb (I hate calling the guy by his first name, but "Bush" is confusing ...) being a pushover. He has been walked on by virtually everyone every time he has said something remotely combative. The only time when he gets to talk properly is when he is saying all that nonesense feel good stuff.

[Terez]

EmperorMagus, on 07 February 2016 - 09:22 AM, said:

Jeb (I hate calling the guy by his first name, but "Bush" is confusing ...)

It's the same problem with Hillary. In the Dem race it's usually Hillary and Bernie; in 2008 it was Hillary and Obama. I don't know if there's any rhyme or reason to it, but it's not anything new: see "I Like Ike" re: Dwight D. Eisenhower and teddy bears re: Theodore Roosevelt.

EmperorMagus, on 07 February 2016 - 09:22 AM, said:

He has been walked on by virtually everyone every time he has said something remotely combative. The only time when he gets to talk properly is when he is saying all that nonesense feel good stuff.

I think he's just trying to be the anti-Trump. It's not something he or anyone else expected to have to do; none of the opponents are very good at it.

[Primateus]

EmperorMagus, on 07 February 2016 - 09:22 AM, said:

Terez, on 07 February 2016 - 09:11 AM, said:

I don't think he generally does. Trump is a strange phenomenon; he himself noted earlier in the debate that his opponents are scared to take him on. It's true; the public support for him is so irrational that there's nothing his opponents can do. Like Trump himself said, he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and he wouldn't lose any voters.

You live in an oil-rich country; you could be a socialist utopia if you wanted. (Sarah Palin loves socialism so long as it's funded by oil.)

This was one example of Jeb (I hate calling the guy by his first name, but "Bush" is confusing ...) being a pushover. He has been walked on by virtually everyone every time he has said something remotely combative. The only time when he gets to talk properly is when he is saying all that nonesense feel good stuff.

Then call him "El Jebbe"

[Terez]

By the way, Jeb is not even his first name. That's why I sometimes call him JEB; it's his initials—John Ellis Bush. And his father and brother are distinguishable by HW and W respectively.

[worry]

I can't believe Rubio choked like that though. Like it wasn't just a stock answer, or a political answer, or avoiding the subject; it was literally rote memorization pouring out of his mouth because his brain had shut down. Like, a lot of inarticulate or otherwise flubbed political speech gets jokingly compared to the Miss Teen South Carolina "US Americans/the Iraq", but this was the real deal. And Christie nailed him. Rubio's voice got higher and higher with panic, and by the time he finally remembered his own kill line (Christie's "mop" comment during the big storm) it was totally lost in the noise. There's political dog-whistling, and then there's Rubio's voice getting so high pitched that literally nobody could hear it anymore.

And yah, Trump didn't get the crowd's support (and his rebuffing of them was something of a return to form), but he was actually quite right about Eminent Domain, in particular the Keystone Pipeline being a private application. I thought it was a surprisingly sharp rebuttal to Jeb's attempt at an attack.

[Terez]

The audience tonight was very Establishment-friendly; that was clear from their reactions, and that's why Trump didn't hesitate to tell them to shut up. (Not literally; he said "excuse me" in a somewhat-rude voice; it was actually kind of polite for him.) That kind of thing plays well to the people who are inclined to vote for him.

Clearly, Rubio has maps, but that's all he has. I don't think he will survive this for long, and he'll certainly never recover from it. It's too terrible. Christie saw his weakness and he's been hammering that very weakness all week long. The fact that Rubio wasn't prepared for it speaks volumes quite aside from what was evident on the surface: he's an amateur, and Christie exposed him with the skill of a master politician.

[Cause]

I just want to ask a question in regards to American politics. Dont mean to derail the thread just curious. I Understand that their are often negative add campaigns and the like, do they focus on bad politics or are the attacks very personnel?. How often do Politicians attack each other in the Senate for example (Verbally). What kind of attacks are made? Insults? Swearing etc?

I was just thinking today that its sad that in our over 20 years of democracy my country has not had one political debate. The best we get is one politician accusing another of being drunk or smoking Dagga when they propose an idea that another politician disagrees with. Or we have white politicians and sometimes Black politicians calling other black politicians monkeys. They slander each other in press statements and the like but never really engage each other directly. I find it quite sad. I was just wondering if maybe as a foreigner I am not exposed to the like from American politicians or any other politicians or perhaps its uniquely south Africa. I just find it hard to imagine a senetator accusing another of being on drugs because he is pro life or something.

[Gnaw]

Terez, on 07 February 2016 - 09:11 AM, said:

worry - the moment I loved most was the one that inspired the sig update. Two election-breaking moments IMO, though Christie also assisted in Romney's demise, which makes him extra-worthy of a sig quote even if he's an asshole.

Damn. That was one of those moments that couldn't be written as fiction - nobody would believe it.