Michael Bloomberg May Run As An Independent

Billionaire former Republican mayor of New York City, and man no one is clamoring for, Michael Bloomberg has reportedly told aides to draw up plans for a presidential run as an independent, and he has $1 billion to spend.  The decision point would be early March and is dependent in large part whether Sen. Bernie Sanders looks like he has an inside track to the Democratic nomination.  This, of course, would likely throw the election to the Republican candidate =cough= Rump =cough=.  We're already spoken for:

Because billionaire Michael Bloomberg can't stand possibility of Bernie Sanders as president, he's willing to throw race to Trump

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) January 23, 2016

A billionaire who made his money off Wall Street rushing in to try to blunt Sanders' momentum isn't TOO oligarchical.

— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) January 23, 2016

As Heer noted in another tweet, Bloomberg is essentially putting a gun to the head of American democracy.   That sounds about right.

BONUS:  Here's a good read on why a Bloomberg run would spell trouble and why he'd be an awful President.

BONUS II:  Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog has a lot more on the various implications.

Corrupt, Deluded "Establishment" Republicans Learning To Love Trump

As we noted the other day, there's a recent phenomenon of so- called "establishment" Republicans who are apparently in the Fifth Stage of Grief ("acceptance") over the increasingly likely prospect of neo- fascist fartbag Donald "Rump" Trump being their standard bearer in November.  Needless to say others have taken note also.  Prepare for some extended excerpts!

The once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle editorial board sees corrupt Republican insiders caving to Rump:

JUST WHEN you thought the presidential campaign couldn’t get any more bizarre — just when you thought American politics might finally have exhausted the possibilities for cynicism and irresponsibility — certain Republican Party insiders have begun developing strange new respect for the candidate whose meteoric rise only yesterday made him the bane of “the establishment”: Donald Trump.  [snip]

To be sure, we do not envy Republicans the Hobson’s choice they seem to face between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz. No doubt the latter could do lasting damage to the party brand, as the establishment fears. But Mr. Trump wouldn’t? “Concerns” about him do not stem from conventional political controversy — say, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s handling of “Bridgegate.” Rather, the erstwhile casino magnate owes his rise in U.S. politics to a demagogic assault on ethnic and religious minorities, of the sort that, like previous such demagoguery in our history, has won him support — but also disqualifies him to lead a decent republic. [snip] 

... Not only is Mr. Trump manifestly temperamentally unfit, but also he has not remotely fulfilled the first duty of an aspirant to the White House, which is to offer a plausible, specific set of policy proposals. Rather, he has issued platitudes — “make America great again” — and threats — “bomb the sh-- out of them” — that please crowds but offer no sense of what he might do with power, except, possibly, abuse it.  [snip]

Some in the GOP establishment now spin Mr. Trump’s policy emptiness as a feature, not a bug. When they describe him as someone who will “cut deals,” or turn to D.C. elder statesmen for advice, they sound like people who imagine themselves filling the void in Mr. Trump’s head with the agendas of their own lobbying clients.

In other words, the insiders’ upbeat new take on Mr. Trump is a bet on his corruptibility — and a confession of their own.  (our emphasis)

Frequent blind squirrel Dana Milbank voices similar opinions:

That soft flapping sound you hear is the Grand Old Party waving the flag of surrender to Trump. Party elites — what’s left of the now-derided “establishment” — are acquiescing to the once inconceivable: that a xenophobic and bigoted showman is now the face of the Republican Party and of American conservatism.

In recent days, influential Republicans including Bob Dole, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Rupert Murdoch and, as my Post colleagues reported, Rudy Giuliani and Rep. Peter King (N.Y.) have made noises about being able to stomach Trump. Republican donors are trying to insinuate themselves in the billionaire’s orbit. Trump himself said Thursday: “I have received so many phone calls from people that you would call ‘establishment,’ from people — generally speaking, conservatives, Republicans — that want to come onto our team.”  (our emphasis)

Even- blinder squirrel Kathleen Parker chimes in, in the belief the problem started in 2008 (!) with the ascension of snowbilly grifter Sarah "Winky" Palin to the Republican ticket:

... Meanwhile, it looks as though Republicans may get what they deserve — a bombastic, bellicose, self-aggrandizing, mean-streaked, golf-cheating, bullying narcissist without plans or policies beyond his own, no doubt fickle, fantasies.

Once Republicans forced the party to take the governor of Alaska seriously as a vice presidential candidate, they opened a populist door that they’ll not easily shut. But the GOP really owes its thanks for current circumstances to John McCain, who, you’ll recall, spent a little over an hour with an otherwise unvetted candidate and, over coffee under a sycamore tree, decided to make her second-in-command should he win the election.

And now we have Trump, who has Palin, who has cemented the anti-intellectual, anti-“elitist” fervor of the Republican base. William F. Buckley’s conservatism seems headed for the door, and National Review deserves plenty of blame. There is, alas, no one left to stand athwart history and yell, stop! (our emphasis)

Ms. Parker, the time to have stood "athwart history" and yelled "stop!" was at least 40 years ago, and as the party was relentlessly taken over by professional nihilists and grifters like Lyn Nofziger, Lee "Southern Strategy" Atwater, St. Ronnie of Hollywood, Newt Gingrich, Karl "Turdblossom" Rove, and the entire swamp of right- wing "bombastic, bellicose, self- aggrandizing, mean- streaked, golf- cheating, bullying narcissist" media whose only aim was to empty the pockets of rubes who were looking for someone to hate. Now it's time to pay for those choices.

Today's Cartoon - Cognitive Dissonance

(click on image to enlarge)



(Matt Wuerker, Politic-ho)

Weekend Going On Song

"Velvet Underground," the third album from the iconic band The Velvet Underground, released in early 1969, was a musically "gentler" effort than the harder- edged experimental sound of their previous two albums.  This song, "What Goes On" is from that album and, to our ears, bears a bit of a resemblance to folk- space music from another great band of the era, The Grateful Dead. It was written by Lou Reed and features Sterling Morrison's jangly lead guitar and Doug Yule (replacing John Cale) on keyboards.  Interesting extended instrumental coda. (h/t Silver Spring Bureau Chief Brian - TCIITM)

Tweet Of The Day - Trump Retweets Neo- Nazi Website

Here's neo- fascist Republican fartbag Donald "Rump" Trump re- tweeting a message from a white supremacist/ neo- Nazi site, @WhiteGenocideTM:

"@WhiteGenocideTM: @realDonaldTrump Poor Jeb. I could've sworn I saw him outside Trump Tower the other day! pic.twitter.com/e5uLRubqla"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2016

Rump's been laying down with dogs for so long he no longer notices when he gets fleas.

"Winterstorm Jonas" Socking Eastern U.S.

Winterstorm Jonas is expected to bring record snow, damaging wind and strong storm surges to much of the east coast of the United States from the Carolinas to New York.  Since we're right in the bulls eye of the storm, we've been advised of the probability of widespread power outages over the next 48- 72 hours.

As long as we have power, we'll be posting!

Today's Cartoon - A Lead Pipe Cinch

(click on image to enlarge)



(Tom Toles, once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle)

Dave Dayen has a great article about how the water crisis in Flint, MI, brought on by a bridge collapsin', plant explodin' right- wing Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, illustrates a larger problem. He launches from a comment by Sen. Marco "Glug Glug" Rubio (R-MIAmi), whose affinity for water is well known, saying he (Glug Glug) hadn't focused on or been briefed about the crisis.  It's worth an extended excerpt:

Let me give Senator Rubio a refresher course. Michigan officials, who commandeered control of Flint’s local government through a disenfranchising emergency-manager process that suspiciously lines up with the main concentrations of African-Americans in the state, decided to temporarily use water from the Flint River for residential consumption while awaiting a new pipeline to Lake Huron. This was done to save money—to balance Flint’s budget, much like the persistent calls from Rubio and his Republican allies with respect to the federal budget.

The water from the Flint River was dirty, unfit for drinking or washing, and it corroded the lead-based service lines distributing water to 99,000 citizens. Residents immediately complained about the foul-smelling, bad-tasting water. It turned out the entire city suffered lead poisoning, as research demonstrated, for well over a year, with toxicity levels 13,000 times above a safe reading. The emergency manager in Flint, state environmental officials (who failed to properly treat the water), and Governor Snyder ignored this as long as they could, even withholding information from the public.

None of this is worth knowing about, according to Marco Rubio. He can’t be bothered with the mass contamination of an American city—not when the public is potentially, hypothetically unsafe from ISIS! Never mind the fact that you’re more likely to be hit by lightning or crushed by furniture than killed in a terrorist attack.  [snip]

Indeed, as the Flint crisis shows, you are far more likely to be killed as a result of conservative austerity and deregulatory policies. Not only are they self-defeating when it comes to infrastructure—Michigan has already paid far more for the Flint disaster than it ever saved from temporarily re-routing the city’s water supply—but basing policy priorities on cost-cutting rather than human need inevitably leads to choosing winners and losers, and not in a benign way.  (our emphasis)

Of course, as Dayen points out, Glug Glug is right in the mainstream of his party's attachment to laissez faire (except when it comes to deregulation and tax cuts for corporations and plutocrats, and control over ladyparts) government.  It's in the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ Shooter's Party DNA.

"Establishment" Republicans Continue Piling On Ted Cruz (UPDATED)

The phenomenon we noted the other day of "establishment" Republicans beginning to enter the Fifth Stage of Grief ("acceptance") over the potential of neo- fascist fartbag Donald "Rump" Trump gaining the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ Shooter's Party nomination is currently manifesting itself in an effort to take down the universally loathed Sen. "Tailgunner Ted" Cruz.  Here's what some of those "establishment" Republicans are saying about Cruz (h/t TPM):

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT): 

"I think we'll lose if he's our nominee."

Gov. Terry Branstad (R-IA):

"He’s heavily financed by Big Oil. So we think once Iowans realize that fact, they might find other things attractive, but he could be very damaging to our state. I think it would be a big mistake for Iowa to support him."

Rep. Peter King (R-NY):

"He would definitely be a negative," said GOP Rep. Pete King of New York, who represents an evenly divided Long Island district. King dismissed Cruz as a "fraud" and said, "I don't know of anyone else in Washington, certainly, who gets this opposition from his own people. ... I'm talking about people as conservative as he is who just can't stand him." 

From the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle --

Rudy "Noun, Verb, 9/11" Giuliani:

“If it came down to Trump or Cruz, there is no question I’d vote for Trump,” said former New York mayor and 2008 presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has not endorsed a candidate.

What might be the "thinking" behind the mini-surge of some "establishment" Republicans toward Rump?  Try this:  if the "establishment" candidates are going nowhere, and the nomination is destined to go to an "outsider" this year, their preferred outsider is Rump, because the party power brokers think they can make deals with him, whereas Cruz is an uncontrollable destructive force.  (It also helps that narcissist Rump has no particular ideology except promoting Rump.)  If that's the case, you might have to agree with some the hair- on- fire ideologues on the right (think Glenn "Boo Hoo" Beck and Rush Limpballs) that these "establishment" Republicans have no allegiance to their concept of take- no- prisoners "conservatism."

For our money, the reaction of Sen. Lindsey "Huckleberry Butchmeup*" Graham (R-SC) sums up our analysis:

"If you nominate Trump and Cruz, I think you get the same outcome," Graham told reporters, according to the New York Times. "Whether it’s death by being shot or poisoning doesn’t really matter. I don’t think the outcome will be substantially different."  (our emphasis)

The "establishment's" growing acceptance of Rump as the likely Republican standard bearer serves as a measure for how awful this election is going to be for them, and for their future prospects.  If that holds true, what a wonderfully deserved outcome that would be.

BONUS:  Not all are giving up the fight to stop Rump:

Thursday night, the National Review unveiled a special issue: "Against Trump," featuring essays by 22 prominent conservative thinkers from various ideological factions opposing Trump's candidacy.

In a press conference, Trump brushed off the National Review's criticisms, calling the magazine a failing, irrelevant publication.

"Conservative thinkers."  Isn't that an oxymoron?  We prefer the more accurate "Douchebag Who's Who."

BONUS II:  Here's Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog exposing the hypocrisy of the National Review's critique of Rump.  Laura Clawson, too.  And, most definitely, Jeet Heer.

* h/t Charles Pierce

The Loathsome Carly Fiorina

Since her drop in the polls has relegated her to the single-digits, serial liar and she-with-the-cold-smile "Snarly" Carly Fiorina has resorted to any tactic or statement that she believes will peel off rabidly angry base Rethuglican voters from the frontrunners.  Lies about a non-existent Planned Parenthood video, vicious innuendo about the Clintons' family life, puffing up an encounter years ago in a green room with Russian authoritarian Vladimir Putin as a serious "meeting":  all intended to shift attention away from her ugly business record and failing campaign.

However, yesterday Snarly may have topped herself in a nasty, cynical move involving small children.  A group of pre-schoolers were on a field trip to the Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens to learn about plants and nature when Snarly diverted them to act as props for a "rally" that prominently featured a photo of a fetus, while she delivered her false, toxic speech about Planned Parenthood "harvesting organs." Here's a pic of Snarly using the innocent children as props in her sad "event" that bordered on child abuse:

AP photo/Charlie Neibergall

Is there a more loathsome person than Snarly, who thinks nothing of involving someone else's children as unwitting props in her ongoing smears?  Can't think of one.

Bernie Sanders' "America"

Since we've been in the habit of posting ads by the Clinton campaign, it's fair play to post this brand new one from Sen. Bernie Sanders.  It's an un-narrated montage of scenes, mostly from daily life and campaign events, with Simon and Garfunkel's "America" playing throughout.  Inspirational. Nice. (h/t Crooks & Liars)



Meanwhile, the polling in Iowa continues to fluctuate, with Clinton 9 points ahead according to a recent poll.

Also, if we may be so bold, Planned Parenthood is not the "establishment," and it's not the enemy.

Bad Karma Cartoons of the Day

(click to enlarge)

Laws of the Grifter: Grifters are loyal to themselves only. When it's time to pack up and move on to fleece another audience, they'll drop a partner if they think it benefits them.

BONUS:  Grifters have no problem using their family as props in their scam, and when a family member is caught committing a crime, the grifter  naturally blames someone else. (h/t to SSBC)

(cartoons: top, Steve Benson, bottom,  Tom Toles, via Gocomics.com)

The Gathering Doom: Republican Poo-Bahs Resigned To Trump?

The narrative of the week is shaping up to be, "The Republican establishment is resigning itself to Trump."  With neo-fascist fartbag Donald "Rump" Trump pulling in nearly 40 percent of Republican primary voters, several writers are seeing unmistakable signs that the Republican hierarchy and donor class, that recently was said to be planning an all- out effort to take down Trump, has meekly come to the conclusion that he very well may be their party's nominee.  Here's a sampling of that opinion:

Steve Benen

...[T]here’s no denying the fact that the tenor and direction of the Republican conversation is fundamentally different than it was just a couple of months ago. It’s tempting to think, at this stage, the GOP donor class and its allies would be scrambling, in hair-on-fire desperation, to bolster a rival like Ted Cruz in order to prevent Trump’s success.
There’s nothing to suggest anything close to this is actually happening.

Jonathan Chait

The party may actually be deciding that Trump is a man it can do business with. The Republican nomination has resembled Heath Ledger’s Joker meeting with the Gotham underworld, moving from revulsion and anger to fear and then resignation and even intrigue.

E.J. Dionne, Jr.

Today’s Republican crisis was thus engineered by the party leadership’s step-by-step capitulation to a politics of unreason, a policy of silence toward the most extreme and wild charges against Obama, and a lifting up of resentment and anger over policy and ideas as the party’s lodestars.

Many Republicans are now alarmed that their choice may come down to Trump, the candidate of a reality-show populism that tries to look like the real thing, and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), an ideologue whom they fear would lead their cause to a devastating defeat. 

While we're still seven months from the conventions and and 10 from the election, and a vote has yet to be cast, the idea that a narcissistic authoritarian buffoon like Rump has a very legitimate chance to lead the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ Shooter's Party in November is, shall we say, intriguing.   Progressives and Democrats need to be careful, as always, not to assume an easy path to victory ahead.  So many variables -- the world and national economy ("are you better off now") terrorism, and the usual plutocrat/ Republican voter suppression and mega- spending -- could make this a much closer election than it has any right to be.

"I'm With Stupid!", The Remix

(h/t Balloon Juice)

Mama Grizzly arglebargle word salad with a beat you can dance to. These two deserve each other, don't they?!

"I'm With Stupid!"

The New York Daily News nails it again:



Also, as we noted yesterday, that line at the bottom of the page refers to Palin's son Trek Tribe Transit Turd Track, who was arrested on assault (domestic violence) and weapons charges hours before America's Mom made her endorsement.

BONUS:  Andy Borowitz has more on the impact of Palin's endorsement.

Mid-Week Tribute Songs

The Eagles' lead vocalist, guitarist and composer Glenn Frey left behind a legacy of iconic country rock/country pop songs when he passed away at age 67 on Monday. As a founding member of The Eagles, Frey saw his band sell over 120 million albums over a 30-plus year time span, making them the most successful American band of their era. The song that kicked off their success, "Take It Easy," was released in 1972, co-written by Frey and Jackson Browne, sung by Frey, and containing these memorable lyrics:

Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona
Such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford
Slowin' down to take a look at me

"Peaceful Easy Feeling" was another hit of theirs released in 1972, again with Frey on vocals, and with a more laid back tune and very lovely lyrics, like:

I like the way your sparkling earrings lay,
Against your skin, it's so brown.
And I wanna sleep with you in the desert tonight
With a billion stars all around.

'Cause I got a peaceful easy feeling,
And I know you won't let me down
'cause I'm already standing on the ground.

RIP.