Monday, March 21, 2016

Most Ridiculous Moment – March 20, 2016

"Demagogue"

It was quite a day on the Sunday talk shows, with conservatives working through their various stages of grief over the Presidential race; a candidate with one win insisting he will be the nominee; the Senate leader twisting himself into a pretzel to justify ignoring the President's Supreme Court nominee; and the leading Presidential candidate justifying an assault because 
of bad language and wait times.

Linsdey Graham was on Face The Nation, where he called Donald Trump “an interloper and a demagogue of the greatest proportion," and said he would be “an absolute, utter disaster for the Republican Party, and 
destroy conservatism as we know it." 

He called for Governor Jon Kasich to drop out and support the much disliked Ted Cruz to stop Trump, and commented, “Mideast politics to me seem to be less of a mess 
right now than the Republican Party.”

The two conservative panelists on Meet The Press, Rich Lowry and Sarah Fagen, blasted the leading Republican candidate for President, while Lowry went after one of 
the two remaining Trump opponents, calling 
Jon Kasich “selfish and delusional.”

The beleagured head of the RNC, Reice Priebus, showed up to concede an open convention is possible, and the nominee may not be the initial leader in delegates. 
On violence at Trump rallies, he said, 
“look, it's obviously not completely in my control what happens at these rallies and what people say and do.”

Jon Kasich appeared on Meet The Press to respond to calls for him to drop out and back Ted Cruz to prevent Donald Trump from getting the Republican nomination. Kasich said “Well, maybe Ted ought to get out, because he can't win in the fall.”

Kasich, who still has fewer delegates 
than Marco Rubio, insisted no one will win the nomination with delegates, and that he will be given the nomination 
at the convention.

He argued, “do you know why I'll get picked? Because I can win in the fall. And secondly, because I have the experience and the record to lead this country.” He then persuasively pointed out, “You know, Chuck, if I didn't
think that, I wouldn't be running.”

Kasich also said when he's President he would consider appointing Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Chuck Todd was then forced to inform viewers that “following that interview with John Kasich, he walked back his comments on Merrick Garland.”

Also on NBC, Senate leader Mitch McConnell came on to say it's a matter of great principle to reject any nominee by the President to Supreme Court because it's been a long time since “the last time a Presidential appointment was confirmed by a Senate of the opposite party when the vacancy occurred in a Presidential year.” 

He also said despite the process clearly laid out in the Constitution for appointing a justice, there are higher authorities, like 
Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer.

He also complained, “you've got a nominee that MoveOn.org is extremely enthusiastic about,” and said “I don't think it's a good idea to move the court to the left. But that's not really the issue here. It's not the person.
It's the principle.”

But the most disturbing moments came on ABC's This Week, in George Stephanopoulos' interview with Donald Trump.

With a second incident of a Trump supporter sucker-punching a protester, George asked him what he will do to stop his supporters from committing assaults. Trump responded by by proudly pointing out Sheriff Joe arrested the protesters.

When Stephanopoulos asked again, Trump complained that protesters made some supporters wait before they could get into his rally. George asked if this justifies punching and kicking a protester. Trump said, “Well, you know, he or his partner was wearing a 
Ku Klux Klan outfit,” which was 
“very, very insensitive.”

Stephanopoulos observed, “You appear to be excusing the kicking and punching.” Trump replied, “Frankly, you know, it was a tough thing to watch. And I watched that. But why would a protester walk into a room with a 
Ku Klux Klan outfit on?”

Stephanopoulos pointed out the protester was wearing wearing an American flag right, and asked again, incredulously, “So, you're not going to condemn the protester who kicked and punched that person?”

Trump did not condemn the protester, saying only “We don't condone violence,” and adding some supporters “were delayed for an hour because of these protesters,” and complained that protesters had signs with profanity.

Stephanopoulos asked him why his campaign manager is physically fighting with protesters. Trump explained, “the police were a little bit lax,” and “they had signs up in that area that were horrendous,” and said, “I give him credit for having spirit. He wanted them to take down those horrible profanity-laced signs.”

So, Trump is a demagogue, Kasich is delusional and the GOP is pinning its hopes on the most hated man in the U.S. Senate; the man currently in fourth place in delegates thinks he should be given the nomination because, well, he thinks he's great; Constitutional Bidenist Mitch McConnell says it's a matter of principle that the Senate ignore respect centrist Merrick Garland because he might be different from Antonin Scalia; and grabbing, punching and kicking protesters deserves credit because the 
police are lazy, there was bad language and people had to wait to get into an event.

And that's the most ridiculous thing that happened this Sunday.

Link to Audio

Monday, March 07, 2016

Most Ridiculous Moment – March 6, 2016


Civil War”

It was quite a day on the Sunday talk shows. We had several Nazi references, another argument for torture, and a conspiracy theorist who warned of an impending domestic war.

Failed 2012 candidate Mitt Romney appeared on Meet The Press, to say Donald Trump can't be President because he's a narcissist who only thinks about himself.

Also on Meet the Press, Stephen Henderson said Republicans have long sent coded messages on race, citing Ronald Reagan's speech in Mississippi. This prompted Mary Matalin to insist that this election is not 
about race, and conservatives do not 
consider themselves bigots or homophobes, but also that “Trump is expanding the electorate by getting people who are sick of being called bigots,” and to joke that when Henderson said that, “it just makes me 
want to choke you.”

David Brooks observed, “If we're going to get Trump, we might as well get the Nuremberg rallies to go with it,” and said democracy depends not on authoritarianism but compromise, to which Matalin said, 
“you can't be compromising on the 
Supreme Court. You can't do that.”

Lindsay Graham came to say out the current GOP leading candidate is running on xenophobia, race baiting, and religious bigotry, and said “I'd rather risk losing without Donald Trump than try to win with him because it will do more damage over time.” While he appeared to waver on Ted Cruz, he did say “whether you nominate Trump or Cruz, I think you get the same outcome. 
You know, whether it's death by being 
shot or poisoning?”

Kevin Spacey was also the show. Todd asked him if House of Cards goes too far in portraying politicians as nasty? Spacey said perhaps, but “then I turn on the news and 
I go, well actually we probably haven't 
gone far enough.”

Jon Kasich appeared to say he's closing fast in Michigan and insisted “Our strategy was always to survive and get to the north. And now we're getting to the north.” Also, the man who was in Congress for 18 years and worked at Lehman Brothers said, “we can't let a bunch of Washington insiders pick the nominee... because they don't like me.”

Then there's Donald Trump. Trump was on CBS' Face the Nation, insisting “I get along with people. I'm a unifier. I'm very much a unifier. And maybe people don't see that, 
but they will see that.”

Trump also argued strongly in favor of torture, saying “It's very tough to beat enemies that don't have any restrictions, all right? We have these massive restrictions.” and “we have become very weak and ineffective. I think that's why we're not beating ISIS.” and “I think we're weak. We cannot beat ISIS.” When host Jon Dickerson asked, “Isn't that separates us from the savages, rules?”

Trump said “We have beat the savages.” Dickerson asked, “by being savages?” Trump replied, “well, look, you have to play the game the way they're playing the game.”

But the most absurd moments cam on ABC's This Week. George Stephanopoulos had on Glenn Beck to discuss the election. Once on CNN, Beck now peddles conspiracy theories, involving Google, the Department of Education, the Boston Marathon bombing, martial law, and most recently, that Donald Trump's candidacy is a secret plot by big business to destroy the Tea Party.

Beck warned the Republican party ignored the people and created Trump, saying “The people are speaking clearly. And there's two ways to go: anger and nationalism, which has been done before in history.” Beck then said Trump is “playing to the lowest common denominator and to the anger in us” and compared him to Adolf Hitler in 1929.

However, he then warned that the Republican party should not deny Trump the nomination, saying, “I won't vote for Donald Trump ever, but I will stand with his right, because the people have spoken.”

He said it wouldn't be fair to deny Trump the nomination and while he might vote a third option, but “not the options of the party playing politics to break us apart at the convention. That leads to civil war on 
the floor and quite honestly it could lead 
to civil war in the country.”

So, this election is not about race, but the front runner is attracting who are sick of being called bigots; Kasich is an outsider and Trump is a unifier; ISIS are terrible savages so we should be just like them; and the media is seeking political wisdom from a conspiracy theorist who thinks Donald Trump is Adolf Hitler, but if the party doesn't let him take control of the party it will cause another American civil war.

And that's the most ridiculous thing that happened this Sunday.

Link to audio version