This is an open thread for Trump’s speech tonight. Discuss as you see fit, but keep it civil.
Tag: politics
The cucks concur
Lion Ted Cruz wowed America and all but secured the 2020 nomination with his amazing non-endorsement speech at the RNC:
Erick Erickson @EWErickson
LION TED CRUZDavid Frum @davidfrum
Ted Cruz earned the most honorable boos at a GOP convention since those for Nelson Rockefeller for condemning the John Birch Society.Erick Erickson @EWErickson
Ted Cruz is the only one in Cleveland not willing to whore himself to Cheeto Jesus. History will favor him.Matthew Continetti @continetti
The nationalists may very well take over the GOP for years to come. That doesn’t mean conservatives should be quiet. @tedcruz won’t be.Jonah Goldberg@JonahNRO
I choose Ted.Robert P. George @McCormickProf
Ted has never been afraid to enter a hostile environment and speak his mind. He was like that even as an undergrad. He can’t be intimidated.Erick Erickson @EWErickson
Trump supporters have so much butt hurt over Cruz, who said to go vote in November and congratulated Trump.Meghan McCain @MeghanMcCain
Ted Cruz. Mic drop. Thank god someone still cares about the soul of the party of Lincoln and Reagan.Erick Erickson @EWErickson
Of note, Ted Cruz is getting praised from both the left and right of the GOP, but not from the establishment. Perfect set up for 2020.Jim Treacher @jtLOL
Ted Cruz Had His Vito Corleone Moment; Trump And The RNC Hate It Didn’t Backfire
Now, my thought is that you might want to look at those names and consider: if your opinion of of Ted Cruz’s self-immolation on the national stage is even remotely in line with theirs, you just might want to reconsider it.
Ted Cruz 2020
Even Apollo 1 had a better launch than Ted Cruz’s 2020 presidential campaign last night.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz was denied entry into billionaire GOP donor Sheldon Adleson’s suite following his speech at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night, Independent Journal Review has confirmed.
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 sh*t,” the Senator said.
Cruz was stopped at the door because several attendees inside the suite were furious with his decision to not endorse Trump. An aide to Adelson then confirmed that Cruz was turned away.
UPDATE: “Ted Cruz’s campaign chair Richard Black says that it’s doubtful he’d ever support Cruz again.”
UPDATE 2: Hear Ted Cruz attempting to rationalize his self-immolation on the national stage. Video at the link:
A delegate was upset that Ted Cruz didn’t honor his pledge and support Trump, telling Cruz that his word is his bond and that he should have honored his pledge.
Here’s how Cruz responded and it was awesome!
Cruz explained to the person why the pledge he made supporting the nominee was abrogated, pointing out that happened when Trump attacked his wife and his father and made this personal.
The delegate responded that this is politics and he needed to get over it.
But Cruz hit back hard, saying this is NOT politics and it’s not a game, that there is right and wrong and we must stand for what is right!
So noble! Of course, Cruz didn’t make this clear to the public at any time before standing at the podium, in fact, he didn’t even make it clear during his speech, which is why some of his foolish defenders are trying to claim that he did not, in fact, do what he obviously did. That’s what happens when you side with a snake.
Gamma self-destruction on stage
There was a fair amount of talk about the socio-sexual rank of the candidates early during the campaign at Alpha Game. One of my readers concluded the following about Ted Cruz:
Ted Cruz: Beta, with a bit of Sigma. Seems to be instinctively serving as a lieutenant to Trump in some aspects, by cornering certain voters who won’t warm up to Trump, such as the evangelicals. Has a Sigma streak with his willingness to offend the Democrats and cuckservatives running the Senate, and which seems to have inoculated him against being an Establishment sellout, or at least less than Rubio or Rand Paul. Indeed, he seems to be rising above the less-“offensive” Rubio and Paul, despite Rubio’s backers having spent far more money than Cruz’s.
I was never confident about that, particularly when Cruz refused to accept the role that could very well have led to being Trump’s Vice-President, but instead very stupidly began attacking Trump through a series of legalistic maneuvers that couldn’t possibly influence the ultimate outcome. Some people saw that as Sigma behavior, but I most certainly did not. It struck me more as a delusional Gamma inflicted with the usual Gamma Alpha-hate.
And last night, we got our confirmation when Ted Cruz sperged out in front of the entire nation, struck a classic Noble Sir pose, and revealed himself to be the Gamma of all Gammas, sabotaging himself in a belated and futile, attempt to dethrone the Republican Alpha.
Republicans from all corners of the party scorned Ted Cruz Wednesday night after the Texas senator delivered a speech before the Republican National Convention that not only failed to endorse nominee Donald Trump, but encouraged audience members to not do so if it would violate their “conscience.”
“I think it was awful,” echoed New Jersey governor and Trump-supporter Chris Christie after Cruz’s speech. “And quite frankly, I think it was selfish.”
“For the life of me, I don’t know why he is doing this,” Fox News Channel and conservative talk-radio host Sean Hannity said. “I think there is going to be long-term damage for the party and for him.”
“Trump trusted Ted and was rewarded with a betrayal,” piled on former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Before his speech, some Republicans held out hope that Cruz would succumb to the pressure and endorse Trump. But, when it became clear that he would decline to express support for the GOP nominee, audience members rebelled, loudly booing the once-beloved conservative star until he exited the stage.
“The best unity I saw was everyone booing him off the stage,” Donald Trump Jr. said of the moment during an appearance on Fox News.
And Republicans were apparently not shy about expressing their frustration to Cruz’s face.
CNN reported that some donors were so furious at Cruz they called him a “disgrace” as he tried to enter a suite following his speech. An unnamed state party chair was so angry with the Texas senator that he had to be restrained, the news outlet reported.
Sheldon Adelson, a major Republican Party donor, even denied Cruz entry to his personal suite after his speech, according to CNN and BuzzFeed.
Cruz’s wife, Heidi, also came under verbal assault on the convention floor, with delegates heckling her. She had to be escorted outside by security, according to reports.
Trump, for his part, said Cruz’s speech did not bother him. “Wow, Ted Cruz got booed off the stage, didn’t honor the pledge! I saw his speech two hours early but let him speak anyway,” he tweeted. “No big deal!”
Unbelievable. You can hide your true sociosexual nature, but it is always going to come out sooner or later. As one Twitter wag put it: “I saw a video of a Buddhist monk self-immolate, and Ted Cruz still did it better.”
Trump shows loyalty again
This is one reason why Trump is laying waste to the US political scene. Disloyal, treacherous politicians have never encountered anyone like him.
In other words, a friend and employee screwed up, created a problem, and yet neither of the Trumps threw her under the bus. They had to know from the beginning whose mistake it was, but they refused to identify her. And then they wouldn’t permit her to fall on her sword in her attempt to take full responsibility for her error.
That is more than a leader, that is a teacher.
That being said, I would still look hard into whoever wrote the rick-rolling into the speech. That tends to smack of intentional mischief, perhaps even malice.
They are finally starting to get it
David Frum @davidfrum
Big message of last night: the GOP has decisively turned its back on Bush-Clinton dynastic politics to embrace a Trump dynasty instead
And about time too. Pat Buchanan explains further:
Free-trade globalism was a crucial component of the New World Order, whose creation George H. W. Bush called the new great goal of U.S. foreign policy at the United Nations in October of 1991.
Bush II and Jeb are also free-trade zealots.
But when the American people discovered that the export of their factories and jobs to low-wage countries, and sinking salaries, were the going price of globalism, they rebelled, turned to Trump, and voted for him to put America first again.
Does anyone think that if Trump loses, we are going back to Davos-Dubai ideology, and Barack Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership is our future? Even Hillary Clinton has gotten the message and dumped TPP.
Economic nationalism is the future.
The only remaining question is how many trade deficits shall America endure, and how many defeats shall the Republican Party suffer, before it formally renounces the free-trade fanaticism that has held it in thrall.
The Bush idea of remaking America into a more ethnically, culturally, diverse nation through mass immigration, rooted in an egalitarian ideology, also appears to be yesterday’s enthusiasm.
Diversity is dead. Multiculturalism is dead. Globocop is dead. Globalism and free trade are terminal. Mass migration is on its last legs. Most importantly, nationalism is on the rise and hasn’t even begun to crescendo.
Stay angry, friends. Stand firm. Give them no quarter or respite, for they will give you none.
RNC: Iowa and Colorado leave in huff
I’m not even going to pretend to be following this, but apparently Ted Cruz’s gang is still butthurt or something.
Iowa and Colorado delegations have left RNC convention. Will not return
Of course, the Colorado “delegation” is the one that wasn’t elected, so it’s a little ironic they’re upset about Trump’s team running a rules game on them. Strategic geniuses, those guys.
This is an open thread to discuss the Republican National Convention.
Cantoring Paul Ryan
The most dishonest politician in America faces being upset in his home district:
Following a new primary election poll showing that House Speaker Paul Ryan has plummeted to well below 50 percent in his home district, Ryan is out with new mailers assuring Wisconsin voters of his desire to secure the border, and urging them to support him in his contentious August 9th primary election.
The new mailers touting Ryan’s support for border security is interesting given that just last year, Ryan championed a spending bill that fully funded President Obama’s open borders agenda– including funding sanctuary cities, executive amnesty, and the release of criminal aliens. The mailers also come amid new reports indicating that, one month after his election, Ryan plans to bring up “criminal sentencing” measures that could release thousands of criminal illegal aliens from prison onto the streets.
“Keeping America safe is a big job. And it’s the most important one there is,” the Ryan mailer reads. “Protect our Homeland— that means securing the border, confronting Islamic Terrorism, and tackling new threats by stopping them from reaching our shores… Paul Ryan for U.S. Congress… Vote Tuesday, August 9th”
However, new reports indicate that immediately following his primary election, Speaker Ryan plans to bring up legislation that could release thousands of criminal illegal aliens from prison and into American communities.
As Roll Call reports, “The House will take up legislation to overhaul the criminal justice system in September, Speaker Paul D. Ryan said.”
I’ll be very disappointed in the people of Wisconsin if they fall for this cuckservative charlatan’s faux change-of-direction on immigration. Paul Ryan is the most dishonest politician in America since Bill Clinton hung up his quivering lower lip.
A terrible candidate
Even the mainstream media is beginning to admit that Hillary Clinton is an almost exceptionally horrible candidate:
With a toxic cloud hanging over Clinton’s makeshift campaign office at the Radisson hotel in Manchester, Clinton’s chief speechwriter, Dan Schwerin, and her top policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, decamped for Sullivan’s mother-in-law’s house in the Seacoast town of New Castle to rethink the entire campaign’s approach.
There, huddled together in the February snow, they scrapped her spaghetti-on-the-wall policy approach and came up with a sturdy slogan that aimed to capture the historic nature of her candidacy while making a pitch to African-American and Hispanic voters: “Breaking Down Barriers.”
There was just one problem: Their candidate hated it.
“This is useless,” a frustrated Clinton vented when Schwerin and Sullivan — two of her longest-serving aides — presented the new plan to her that glum Tuesday morning of Feb. 9 in her Manchester hotel suite.
The feeling was mutual. Her staff admired her attention to detail, but knew she was often her own worst enemy. Clinton is known for taking a draft of a speech and changing it some indelible way to make it more literal and less readable. (The joke at her Brooklyn campaign headquarters is that she would take the public safety slogan “If You See Something, Say Something,” and, in her literal-minded way, change it to say, “If You See Something, Alert the Proper Authorities.”)
The entire episode illustrated Clinton’s paradox: On the one hand, she’s a deeply involved candidate who trusts her own instincts. But on the other, she still struggles, after all these years, when it comes to messaging — and remains almost hostile to the idea of a narrative that Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and even Donald Trump seem to craft so naturally.
Her best campaign strategy is to go into hiding until November and hope that the Democratic demographics do the job for her. It’s not a good sign when even your campaign staff are joking about how clueless and inept you are.
Interviews with more than half a dozen Clinton allies inside and outside her campaign reveal a candidate who remains deeply insecure when trying to commit to a message about her campaign, and reluctant to indulge in the rhetorical flourishes that make for the rousing poetry of campaigns.
Of course she’s deeply insecure. She’s never achieved one single damn thing on her own. She couldn’t even manage to keep her husband faithful.
Reality bites Democrats
Democrats are starting to realize that they’ve lined up behind a terrible candidate:
Nervous Senate Democrats raised concerns with Hillary Clinton during a private meeting in the Capitol Thursday over a recent poll showing Donald Trump leading or tied in several battleground states.
“Some people were freaked out, they were looking down at the polls on Real Clear Politics and asking why it was so close,” said a Democratic senator who attended the meeting, referring to a website lawmakers were checking out on their personal devices.
Clinton’s response? “She said there are other issues. People are unhappy and they don’t trust institutions,” the senator explained.
A second Democratic source in the meeting confirmed there was “a mention of the Florida poll.”
A Quinnipiac University poll released this week showed the presumptive GOP presidential nominee up 42 percent to 39 percent in swing-state Florida. Clinton had an 8-point lead in Quinnipiac’s poll of the state last month.
The same survey showed Trump ahead 2 points in Pennsylvania, another big swing state, and tied in Ohio. The three states have been pivotal in the last four presidential elections.
The source emphasized that no one suggested that Clinton wasn’t running a strong race or questioned her performance.
Instead, it was an acknowledgement that the presidential race will be very close even though many Washington-based strategists and pundits across the ideological spectrum question Trump’s seriousness as a candidate.
“There was concern raised about the race because we know it’s going to be a close race,” said the source.
I’ve predicted a Trumpslide rather than a close race. The predictions here have varied tremendously, with expert number-cruncher dh seeing an easy Clinton win, and virtually everything else in between.
- SciVo: Trump 352
- dh: Clinton 307, Trump 231
- EscapeVelocity: Trump 270 to 280
What will happen will happen, regardless of what any of us think. But here is my explanation for why the analysis of the usual numbers don’t matter. One, it is too early for them to be relevant. At this stage, Leave was far behind Remain in the #Brexit referendum. At this stage, Dukakis was 17 points ahead of Bush. So, the number crunchers will almost surely change their tune as the numbers change.
Two, the candidates’ actions and world events will affect the numbers. Both these trends favor Trump. What is Hillary going to do to Trump that will reduce his appeal, versus what Trump is going to do to her? And what events are going to take place around the world that will enhance Hillary’s appeal versus Trump’s, especially when Hillary is going around saying things like this as entire families are being wiped out in France by Muslims.
All Trump has to do is relentlessly quote Hillary on about a dozen different subjects and he’ll win. As for those who say my political predictions are uniformly bad or that I am out of the US political prediction business, let me point out four things.
- I make my predictions very early. I don’t wait until it is obvious. Where is the fun in that?
- I called #Brexit correctly
- I called Trump being the Republican nominee correctly
- The US presidential election is not about US politics this year.


