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Ted Cruz “debates” pro-Trump equivalent of Code Pinkers

Ted Cruz “debates” pro-Trump equivalent of Code Pinkers

Abusive Trump cultist embodies everything wrong with this electoral season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqYbpIIwEDQ

The video below is meaningful at so many levels.

At one level, it’s for me another Ted Cruz moment, similar to when he confronted with facts and logic Code Pink protesters. A Ted Cruz moment for me:

Cruz could have reacted many ways. He could have shouted down the people shouting him down. He could have insulted them. He could have had security push them away.

But instead, he engaged. That’s what was important to me. The confidence to engage rather than avoid. Standing face to face with hostile protesters was very Andrew Breitbart-like.

The video below is of Cruz “debating” a Trump supporter. Was this person a real supporter or, as Allahpundit puts it, a parody of a Trump supporter.

The Trump supporter is rude and verbally abusive — spewing the one-liners and insults he hears from Trump. Listen to the guy. Is there anything he or the crowd says that you couldn’t image Trump saying himself and in the same manner?

This guy is the pro-Trump equivalent of Code Pink – full of insults but lacking in understanding or the willingness to understand. A sucker who thinks he is part of a great movement, but is simply being played by a master player. And unfortunately, he embodies everything that has gone wrong this electoral season.

Cruz doesn’t get angry at the insults, though. Instead, he confronts the Trump supporter with facts that show that much of what Trump supporters use to attack Cruz actually more accurately reflects Trump.

It’s another Ted Cruz moment for me.

But the Trump supporter is having none of it, he just becomes more insulting as does the crowd. I think this tweet accurately sums up the debate:

Facts don’t matter in this election; they never do when cults of personality take hold as happened in 2008 with Obama.

I don’t know if Cruz will be able to get to a contested convention, but I certainly hope he does.

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Comments

practicalconservative | May 3, 2016 at 7:18 am

I fail to see how Cruz garnered a single new vote with that encounter. Changed a single mind.

    The Trump cult is strong and deep: Multiple comments here in response to a video demonstrate that the cultists won’t even believe their own lying eyes.

      Rick in reply to Rick. | May 3, 2016 at 9:55 am

      For example: See tom swift below at 9:45. Apparently Prof Jacobson was there and picked this one Trump supporter out of the crowd.

    Because you are only looking at the Republican field. IF Cruz is able to get the nomination, then everything that has been said on the primary trail will be used in the general election.

    The other funny thing is that you seem to very confident that no new votes will be had. The guy in the video started having some serious doubts. I can’t be the only one that saw that. Because you haven’t changed your vote doesn’t mean that you speak for everyone else, and just because people say they are voting Trump doesn’t make it so. That is why we vote in booths, and our votes are private.

      practicalconservative in reply to Shane. | May 3, 2016 at 12:45 pm

      People mostly look at the pictures (the overall image). The pictures were not faltering to Cruz.

        LOL indeed, Cruz isn’t a very pretty person, I will definitely agree with that 🙂

        Problem with people voting for the pretty one, is that we get populists that are much like our current president.

This guy, in a follow up interview said that the “climbed poles” he was not a parody, just a lineman. https://youtu.be/AUqo7wCXDgo He seemed believable to me, if not a great and experienced debater.

    inspectorudy in reply to amwick. | May 3, 2016 at 10:05 am

    So this guy, “Seemed believable to me”, who could not carry on a simple conversation with Cruz seemed believable? How. In the middle of it, he yells out “Lyin Ted”. Now where have we heard that before?
    Do you remember the attack on Romney about he doesn’t care about half of the country? Well, that is the same crap we are hearing from Trump and his thugs. Did you notice how Cruz was trying to answer this idiot’s questions? The guy didn’t even have a question until Cruz pressed him to ask one. Just like Trump, this guy didn’t want a debate. He wanted to make insults and threats. Unfortunately there are a lot of voters who see what you see.

      spartan in reply to inspectorudy. | May 3, 2016 at 11:03 am

      When the organ grinder no longer wants to debate, you are left debating his monkeys.

        PhillyGuy in reply to spartan. | May 3, 2016 at 11:27 am

        Or put another way when a runner is lapping the field, there is no reason to stop and talk to the pitiful runnerup.

      amwick in reply to inspectorudy. | May 3, 2016 at 4:50 pm

      All that I meant was that he wasn’t a plant or anything like that. If he had fired back quick replies, then it would not have been believable.

    Shane in reply to amwick. | May 3, 2016 at 12:43 pm

    He was believable. Was he representative? Maybe, in that he didn’t understand Donald Trump’s background nor any of the pro’s and con’s of the candidate that he was supporting. He also didn’t seem to get that the wall was a pipe dream, nor could he conceive that the odds of building such a wall were near zero and would cost a lot of money that would come out of the economy and would hurt job creation.

    You don’t need to be a great debater, you just need to think for yourself, and in that respect this guy failed miserably.

buckeyeminuteman | May 3, 2016 at 7:39 am

Trumpeters take a page right out of the Democrat’s playbook? What do you expect from fans of someone who has been a lifelong Democrat?

    buckeyeminuteman in reply to buckeyeminuteman. | May 3, 2016 at 12:53 pm

    All these thumbs down is proof that Trumpeters refuse to give the truth it’s day. It stares them right in the face and yet they deny it, kind of like their overlord.

That bridge runs both ways professor. I generally have tried responding in either of 2 ways on this site. When I’ve attempted the path of reason & laid out a coherent alternative view it invariably brings on a deluge of deliberate misinterpretation by your pack of support jackals who read what they want to see. They make no attempt to respond to the points I’ve made. They’ve threatened me over actions I’ve never said I would take. They’ve used words that would raise red flags on other sites. It all passes because it is in support of Cruz or the integrity of the totally discredited republican party.
So I more & more take the other path & outdo them at their own tactics. The truth is this site has become increasingly immersed with the hatred of loser’s.
I note others have commented on this also.
I haven’t seen a comment from Voting Female in weeks.
With that, have at it losers.

    RodFC in reply to secondwind. | May 3, 2016 at 8:14 am

    setting the record straight VF did not leave. He banned her about a week ago. Shame because while many if her posts may have not been the best, I found her “retweets” of statistical information to be more informative then much of the content here.

      amwick in reply to RodFC. | May 3, 2016 at 9:50 am

      I signed up for twitter because of those re tweets. I didn’t understand much of the twitterverse at all, it has been something of an education.

    amwick in reply to secondwind. | May 3, 2016 at 9:48 am

    Voting female was blocked. She got mad and personally insulted Prof. Jacobson, after he had been pretty tolerant for a long time.

    inspectorudy in reply to secondwind. | May 3, 2016 at 10:13 am

    Wow! If you want to see vitriol go to Drudge, Breitbart, Daily Crawler and many more that are so unreadable and crude that this site looks like a Bible. I have been reading this forum for almost as long as it has been around and until Trump and his thugs arrived I have never seen anything like the language we now see daily. There are so many Trump friendly sites it makes one wonder why you would come here and throw out BS that you and we know is not true about Trump. Not one single Trump supporter knows how this man will handle any issue he has broached. He has no record and has no plan for anything. There is no defense of him or his policies because he has none. So how is it you state comprehensive and intelligent comments about Trump only to be insulted by us Neanderthals?

    Shane in reply to secondwind. | May 3, 2016 at 1:56 pm

    So when you can’t convince someone the rightness of your arguments then you resort to … dare I say violence?

    Trolls exist in both parties and in all camps if you are so thin skinned as to be scared off by those that attack you for no reason that you will now attack others because you were attacked, then maybe you should reconsider even posting here or any other place for that matter.

So low information TedHeads take one person and turn him into a representation of the entire movement? That is desperate. Go to a rally itself. Most fun I’ve ever had at a rally. You will meet some normal, rational, sane people. But if you want to just slice out one person then you are intentionally trying to deceive.

    inspectorudy in reply to PhillyGuy. | May 3, 2016 at 10:17 am

    Are you deaf? The man was a clone of Trump himself! He insulted instead of answering. He had no position except hyperbole. He couldn’t even manifest one single question until prodded to do so. He had not one single answer to any question posed by Cruz. My God! Can’t you people see that he is just like Trump?

      PhillyGuy in reply to inspectorudy. | May 3, 2016 at 11:29 am

      boy are you projecting or what…you TedHeads are going off the rails.

        Shane in reply to PhillyGuy. | May 3, 2016 at 12:46 pm

        So if someone doesn’t respond angrily to you then you goad them until they do, and then point out how angry they are. Hmmmmm … is there are pattern here? Do you think that maybe, just maybe you are the angry one?

          PhillyGuy in reply to Shane. | May 3, 2016 at 1:02 pm

          No that’s just silly. He said the guy was just like Trump which is a complete projection.

          Shane in reply to Shane. | May 3, 2016 at 1:49 pm

          I will agree with you that both are not the same the guy is not like Trump. One is the master, the other is the puppet.

          But I will NOT agree with you in that both are the same they are both looking for the same thing … power. Both seek power through the group, one by manipulating the other by belonging.

        inspectorudy in reply to PhillyGuy. | May 3, 2016 at 5:42 pm

        Projecting? Do you have any clue what that means? Apparently not since no one on any other side has acted or acts like Trump and his pal trying to debate Cruz. I didn’t see much difference between him and the way Trump acted during the debates. Insults. No answers. That stupid look when he didn’t have a clue what the rest of the stage was talking about. You remember the nuclear triad? Trump thought it was a three-legged stool!

The media all agreed it was a desperation ploy by Cruz and that it was a huge fail.

Cruz tried his litany of lies he regularly uses on the campaign trail and it wasn’t persuassive to a Trump supporter. Notcreally a surprise.

Cruz was also rude to the Trump guy when he basically insulted him as a chump being played by Trump. Cruz’s support f o r such an insult is nothing but his litany of Trump lies.

Cruz’s standard list of lies about Trump include:

1. Trump told New York times he wasn’t going to build wall or deport anybody, which is a lie.

2. Trump is going to raise taxes 40%.

3. Trump supports Obamacare.

4. Trump supports abortion.

There are many others. To repond to these out and out lies with no he didn’t or that is a lie Lyin Ted are perfectly accurate.

Cruz also tells many lies about himself and his policies. Such as:

1. He claims his tax plan is a flat tax net income tax when in fact it is a modified gross sales tax commonly known as a VAT tax.

2. Claims he wants to bring jobs back when in fact he supports Obamatrade and other stupid trade deals just like the ones that have destroyed middle class over last 35 years. Note for Cruz all his talk about jobs is just parroting Trump when he doesn’t have the slightest clue about how to do it. And he continues to support shipping jobs overseas and increased h1b visa abuse.

3. He lies about being an outsider.

Of these exchanges Michael Goodwin described it like this: Cruz starts by stating an allegation of fact which is false/lie and then spends his time defending that lie. He said that tactic might work in debating societies but fails miserably in real life and politics.

    inspectorudy in reply to Gary Britt. | May 3, 2016 at 10:19 am

    Every single “Lie” that Cruz said is supportable by facts. You are simply a living breathing liar! You act as if you write it, then it is so. Use the site called Google and enter any one of your lies to see what is out there.

      Absolutely lies. Taking a single misstatement, slip of the tongue, or hearsay on hearsay about a non-public conversation and twisting it into something it wasn’t is a lie. Cruz masters all of these.

      Everyone of the lies I cite are LIES. You are either too big a liar yourself or just too much up Cruz’s arse to admit it.

        Shane in reply to Gary Britt. | May 3, 2016 at 12:51 pm

        So court documents are lies, and what a person says that is recorded in public is a lie? I am shocked at the length that you are willing to go to to have your guy win. You are going to get buyers remorse just like all the chumps who voted for Barack Obama.

          PhillyGuy in reply to Shane. | May 3, 2016 at 1:07 pm

          No Shane you need to be specific here. But what Cruz does is he takes statements out of context or ignores the clarifying followups or misrepresents them. He should know better. That is why more and more people believe the Lyin’ Ted handle and why his support is cratering.

          Shane in reply to Shane. | May 3, 2016 at 1:44 pm

          I have seen the “clarifying” comments. Hillary has a lot of those too. I am not buying them. I will trust what the jurors see, and what I see. Also clarifying comments are a smoke screen for BS, Cruz has had some of those on his immigration votes, and I see them the same way that I see Trump’s clarifying comments … BS.

          I watch the source of the things that were taken from, because losers will often scream … they took me out of context. I watch or read in context so I can make my own decision.

    Milwaukee in reply to Gary Britt. | May 3, 2016 at 11:10 am

    “Cruz’s standard list of lies about Trump include:

    1. Trump told New York times he wasn’t going to build wall or deport anybody, which is a lie.

    2. Trump is going to raise taxes 40%.

    3. Trump supports Obamacare.

    4. Trump supports abortion.”

    Considering how quickly Trump spins on any position, proving Trump a liar is very difficult. For example, he recently had, according to one headline, 5 positions on abortion in 3 days. So much of what he says requires checking the date stamp.

    I would agree that Trump doesn’t support Obamacare. Trump wants something more like universal health care, which would be worse. The history of Trump’s past support seems to suggest he supports abortion rights. More than likely, since it doesn’t involve him, he doesn’t really care what anybody does in the way of abortions.

    How about a Trump debate? We get a group who have collected trump statements on different issues over time, and have them debate each other? 1995 Trump says this. 2011 trump says that. 2015 evolved trump says something else. Heck, Trump lies about what trump has said.

    Trump has said the wall thing was just the first step in negotiations. His suggestion to tax money going to Mexico is ludicrous. We could do that like be tax Mexican marijuana coming into this country.

      Completely wrong on Trump Milwaukee:

      On health care Trump wants free market solutions except for the very poorest among us. What Trump wants is an improved version of what existed before Obamacare. Before Obamacare 85% of people were happy with their insurance. Trump wants an improved version of that. Before insurance companies didn’t compete with each other for customers across state lines. Trump wants to change that. Trump wants bigger and better HSA options with catastrophic insurance backups than existed before.

      For the poorest among us he wants a system that provides them health care not necessarily health insurance. Among other things he considers negotiating with clinics and public hospitals on a county by county basis for certain ones of those to provide health care to those who can not afford to buy insurance.

      None of this is universal health care.

      Trump has described this many times.

      On abortion Trump has been very consistent as to his base belief. He follows the Reagan position on abortion. He is against it with exceptions for life of the mother, rape and incest.

      inspectorudy in reply to Milwaukee. | May 3, 2016 at 5:46 pm

      A person who was at the NYT meeting said that Trump said building the wall crap was just that.
      Trump believes in abortion with three exceptions.
      Trump said that he wanted to keep the “Good” part of obamacare and replace the rest. Maybe you can tell us the good parts?

I was very disappointed that Prof. Jacobson took an average working guy and called him a cultist. Yes, he was indeed a real person. This is a real person that doesn’t spend every minute of every day practicing sound bytes, he probably has never spoken into a mic, but he stood his ground, polished or not. Being a lineman is a difficult and dangerous job, they tend to have a certain degree of bravado. FWIW, I believe that the good Profession has been played by an x Canadian.

    Sanddog in reply to amwick. | May 3, 2016 at 9:41 am

    The guy is a typical low information voter. Yeah, he’s an “average American” but that’s no excuse for ignorance.

    Knowledge isn’t elitist.

      amwick in reply to Sanddog. | May 3, 2016 at 9:55 am

      That may well be true, but calling someone a cultist, because they support Donald Trump? The whole article sounded elitist to me. I did try and find out some background on the person in question, because I wanted to know if he was some kind of plant. Nope, just a lineman, a pole climber, the kind of people I worked with for 25 years, so I kinda get them.

        He’s not a cultist because he supports DT. He’s a cultist because he is fact-free in your face follower of a conman.

        Shane in reply to amwick. | May 3, 2016 at 12:54 pm

        WOW don’t you get it? He is not calling him a cultist for whom he supports he is calling him a cultist because he has no idea of whom he supports. I would be willing to bet that if someone showed the same ignorance in their support for Ted Cruz, Prof. Jacobson would call them a cultist too.

    inspectorudy in reply to amwick. | May 3, 2016 at 10:25 am

    “Yes, he was indeed a real person. This is a real person that doesn’t spend every minute of every day practicing sound bytes, he probably has never spoken into a mic, but he stood his ground, polished or not.”

    “Sound bytes”? Are you deaf? “Lyin Ted” over and over again! “Stood his ground”? He couldn’t answer one single question Cruz mentioned about the lies Trump was spreading. “Stood his ground”? If you were there and representing Trump and any candidate came up to you and asked why you supported Trump and after being prodded over and over you finally came up with the word “Wall”, would you not at least listen to the candidates answer? And then in the middle of his answer yell “Lyin Ted”? There was nothing civil or normal about this hired thug.

I would add further that it is not surprising that a Trump supporter becomes a bit overheated when confronted by a guy standing in h8s face and telling one lie after another while being called a chump bycsaid Lyin Ted.

    Ragspierre in reply to Gary Britt. | May 3, 2016 at 8:59 am

    The guy was a chump, and an aggressive, combative chump.

    You are much worse. You are a practiced, dedicated lying liar who lies every day here, and does it in the face of knowing better.

    The truth is that Ted Cruz is a fine conservative who would make a great president. Der Donald is none of those things, but IS a pathological Collectivist fraud who is quite good at what he does.

      The prophet from Salt Lake City does not have the requisite character to be a good president. He is a dogmatic purist unable to modify his economic beliefs despite overwhelming evidence of bad outcomes therefrom. He lies and resorts to deception too easily to be a good president. He knows nothing about the economy or how private companies and small businesses create jobs and wealth.

        Ragspierre in reply to Gary Britt. | May 3, 2016 at 9:35 am

        There’s the religious…and totally self-contradictory…bigotry that you stupidly seem to think is effective. The Southern Baptists don’t have their headquarters in Salt Lake City, you moron. But that’s the way of bigots.

        The rest is just your generic lies. Cruz understands economics BETTER than does T-rump.

        He also LIVES according to market principles, which are based in individual choice. That isn’t just great economics…that’s the morality of liberty.

        T-rump is a lover of fascist economics, where “the best people” will tell you and I what to do, who to trade with, and on what basis. There’s no difference between his trade policy and Bernie Sanders’.

        And you know all this and approve.

        clintack in reply to Gary Britt. | May 3, 2016 at 10:11 am

        “The prophet from Salt Lake City…”

        WTF?

        Even if he were Mormon — which he’s not — that would be an obnoxious way to put it. And I thought your point was to criticize lies and insults.

          Glenn Beck, Cruz’s surrogate says Cruz is the fulfillment of a mormon prophecy. Cruz doesn’t deny it or ask Beck to quit making that claim. Cruz’s father says Cruz is anointed by god to be president. Cruz’s wife wants the country to see the face of god in Cruz’s face.

          Hence, the prophet from Salt Lake City.

A disciplined thinker, Ted Cruz engages people in the market place of ideas…

But the main characteristic of Trump supporters is their desire to not have to think, hence the monosyllabic mantras, the canned TwitterTrash responses and the lust for poll numbers to provide a sugar rush.

The same dullard characteristics can be applied to Hillary supporters. Both groups of supporters deem themselves wise in the eyes of the world. And both groups are sadly shortsighted and deluded by marketed mindless awe of a personality brand.

Imagine telling your son or daughter or grandchildren that one day they can be president like Trump or Hillary. I can’t.

    PhillyGuy in reply to jennifer a johnson. | May 3, 2016 at 8:31 am

    The whining is getting louder for the TedHeads. They must sense the outcome.

    CloseTheFed in reply to jennifer a johnson. | May 3, 2016 at 9:24 am

    To Jennifer A. Johnson:

    How dare you. “But the main characteristic of Trump supporters is their desire to not have to think, hence the monosyllabic mantras…”

    I’m not posting much anymore because of this stunningly arrogant condescension.

    I support Trump. I watched his show the first season, that apprentice thing, and haven’t watched it since. I don’t like it. But last summer, he brought out the families of those killed by illegal aliens. And he’s discussed a dozen things that need saying.

    I’m 58 years old. I’m an Army veteran. I’m female. I attended Emory in Atlanta and U.G.A. law school. I’ve run for public office myself. I read constantly. I support various candidates for local office.

    Your arrogance is breathtaking. How dare you. How dare you.

      herm2416 in reply to CloseTheFed. | May 3, 2016 at 9:37 am

      Outstanding, CTF! I couldn’t have said it better myself. Well done.

      And?

      Now tell us what you think.

        clintack in reply to jennifer a johnson. | May 3, 2016 at 9:55 am

        As a conservative, has it never occurred to you that the Trump supporters who appear in the media (or at this blog) might not be representative of the large swath of the GOP that support Trump?

          Your statement unknowingly and indirectly gives foundation to my premise above.

          Yes, it has occurred to me. I am still waiting to be shown different.

          Shane in reply to clintack. | May 3, 2016 at 1:39 pm

          But because Trump supporters are the loudest then they represent the entirety of the GOP … Hmmmm where have I heard something like that before? Could it be Hillary?

      “Your arrogance is breathtaking”

      Yeah, you are right.

      I should be like Ted Cruz and not like Trump.

      CloseTheFed, thank you for your service to this country.

      I too, think we should close the fed.

      inspectorudy in reply to CloseTheFed. | May 3, 2016 at 10:31 am

      You are going broke feeding that high horse! Look at the things Trump has promised and said. The wall that Mexico is going to build. Do you really believe that? Continuing to fund the “Good” that Planned Parenthood does? Do you know what the good is? Keeping the good parts of obamacare and getting rid of the rest. Do you know what the good parts of obamacare are? Slapping an import tax on Chinese goods. Do you have any idea what damage to our economy this will cause? Stopping Ford from moving their plant to Mexico. Do you as a politician have any idea how he would do this? His supporters are prone to one-liners like “Lyin Ted” and “Losers”.

        Yes Trump will build the wall and do it quickly during his first year in office. And yes Mexico will pay for it one way or another. The fact that YOU don’t see how this can happen doesn’t equal Trump can’t/won’t do it. It merely reflects your own personal lack of vision and lack of determination.

        Ragspierre in reply to inspectorudy. | May 3, 2016 at 1:13 pm

        Mindless articles of blind faith aped by a T-rump cultist.

        Andy McCarthy, a CONSERVATIVE, has detailed WHY the boob bait of the “wall” will NEVER happen.

        It will NEVER happen because it is ILLEGAL, LOGISTICALLY IMPRACTICAL, POLITICALLY UNPOPULAR, and STUPID in the extreme.

        McCarthy…and people with brains…knows that the whole “wall” deal is a lie…boob bait for boobs.

        Just like the idea of “bringing back” jobs snapping the face-plates on iPhones.

          Who made Andy McCarthy god. Being labeled a conservative doesn’t make one clairvoyant or a precognitive genius. In fact there are many very stupid people labeled conservative just like Andy McCarthy and all the morons at National Review.

          There are many ways for Trump to build the wall. Only one of which would be to declare the country under invasion from a foreign enemy and utilize his commander in chief powers to have the army corps of engineers build the wall starting immediately. Repelling a foreign invasion is an express constitutional power of the President as commander in chief and he doesn’t need congressional approval to send the military to repel a foreign invasion of the homeland.

    CloseTheFed in reply to jennifer a johnson. | May 3, 2016 at 9:29 am

    To Jennifer A. Johnson:

    Also, F.Y.I., I’ve read two of Trump’s books:

    “Art of the Deal”
    “Time to Get Tough” (2011).

    “monosyllabic.”

    Unbelievable. Just disgusting.

Cruz image and favorability among republicans crashes going -6% during April. People are getting tired of his lying and his schtick is wearing thin. People are ready for the primaries to be over. Everyone knows Trump has won.

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/05/02/gallup-cruz-image-among-republicans-crashes/

The author appears to think this is a ‘debate” and not a Primary election. By constantly showcasing his “debate” prowess Ted Cruz has helped turn the word “elite” into a pejorative. It doesn’t help discourse when the term “chump”,”cultist” etc, are so easily used in a knee-jerk reaction to opposing views. I suspect the author would choose to use “enlightened, and “sophisticated” to describe his views.

Definition “elite” :a select part of a group that is superior to the rest in terms of ability or qualities.

Enough said….

    inspectorudy in reply to Walter. | May 3, 2016 at 10:33 am

    The only thing that you said that was correct was “Enough said”. You didn’t say anything that was of any interest or intelligence.

I can’t wait until this nomination fight is over so I can stop losing respect for Ted Cruz and Legal Insurrection.

    herm2416 in reply to DaMav. | May 3, 2016 at 9:41 am

    Yes, this site has become a real disappointment to me. It has been first morning visit for me for the past five years, surpassing Drudge. Five or six times a day, easily. Now, if I visit it once or twice a week…I glance at the headlines…Cruz, Cruz, Cruz….tiresome. I used to come to read thoughtful writing and thoughtful commentary.
    Those days are gone. It is a shame. This used to be a great site.

    Milwaukee in reply to DaMav. | May 3, 2016 at 11:03 am

    “I can’t wait until this nomination fight is over so I can stop losing respect for Ted Cruz and Legal Insurrection.”

    DaMav: what we used to say to socialist-communist-progressive-Democrats who complained about talk radio hosts being conservative: If you don’t like what you are listening to, turn the station or turn it off. If you don’t like what you are reading here, you don’t have to go here.

Tonight the story will be about the “Cruz Collapse.” How could he lose a state he was comfortably leading in not 2 months ago. One misstep after another and the voting public has peeled away from Cruzifer.

    It was only a month or so ago that Cruz was up 20% over Trump in Indiana. Then came the collapse as he became nothing but a stooge for the anti-Trump GOPe. Then came the mistakes of desperation. Kasich-Cruz deal and then Fiorina VP pick. Polls show Fiorina hurts Cruz more than helps.

Ragspierre | May 3, 2016 at 9:25 am

https://youtu.be/yX5dBzxKNOw

Here’s that Ben Shapiro guy who was supposed to have faded away by now…

T-rump is a liar. He lies to you. If you buy his lies, you are his chump.

Simple as that.

He has cultivated a cult of personality. If you are enthralled beyond the ability to think rationally, you are a cultist.

Simple as that.

Enough said…

One of Ted’s largest donors appears to be holding money back because he doesn’t like the direction the campaign has taken. He also acknowledges he will support Trump if he is the nominee. This is Randy Neugebauer (who actually lives in Puerto Rico) – one of Cruz’s top funders along with Robert Mercer and Farris Wilks.

Quote “There have been a lot of opportunities to waste money this political cycle,” he said in an email.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-cruz-donors-20160502-snap-story.html

    Milhouse in reply to PhillyGuy. | May 3, 2016 at 6:29 pm

    If you actually read the story you linked to you’d see that he’s not a donor to the campaign, but a supporter who has planned to spend his own money when and where he thinks it will be effective, without any coordination with the campaign. The campaign is not allowed to tell him when or where it would like him to spend that money.

Is there anything he or the crowd says that you couldn’t image Trump saying himself and in the same manner?

Well, we all know what you are imagining. But that’s all it is—imagination.

This is actually quite interesting. Jacobson has constructed the ultimate live straw man; pick a nobody from the crowd, pin a sign on him saying “Trump”, then turn Cruz loose on him and pretend that what he does to the surrogate straw man has, in some mystical manner, anything at all to do with Trump. “Sympathetic magic” at its finest.

(Now, if you could just finagle some of Trump’s toenail clippings, or—ooh! ooh! even better—a couple of strands of that notorious hair, and secrete those relics in a little clay doll … you could stick pins in the doll, and watch Trump squirm! Ideally, while he’s doing an appearance on FOX. That’s sympathetic magic, too.)

The obvious problems with this little straw man switcheroo game are that;

1. It tells us nothing at all about Trump;

2. It doesn’t indicate in any way that Cruz isn’t the scum-sucking fake that so many believe him to be;

3. It tells us nothing at all about Trump supporters. I certainly don’t recall voting for this poor straw man to represent me, or anybody else either. (Sorry, correction; it tells us about one Trump supporter … just one. Which makes it irrelevant—one guy isn’t where the votes are.)

If one of my competitors grabbed an hourly employee from a factory which uses one of the industrial machines I’ve invented and patented, stuck him in front of a video camera, and grilled him about the math, the structural and kinematic analysis vital to these machines, he wouldn’t be able to answer. All he’d be able to say is that the things work f’in awesome—which, by itself, isn’t terribly informative or reassuring. Would this prove that, as a professional machine designer, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing? If my stuff works, it’s purely by accident? Yeah, suuuuurre it would, just as what Mr Straw Man can’t articulate means that Trump couldn’t articulate it, either.

A picture of Trump on a dart board would be about as useful as all this silliness. That is, if Cruzers can be trusted with pointed objects. (Token cheap shot there; thanks for the opportunity.)

Video: Ted Cruz vs. Low-IQ Trumpkin
Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:38 pm

It’s a perfect metaphor for the whole primary season. Facts, logic, and reason vs. . . . a totally uninformed voter. You know those yutzes who Jimmy Kimmel talks to on Hollywood Boulevard — the ones who know who Snooki is, but can’t name the vice-president, or any two of the three branches of government? This Trumpkin makes those people look like a cross between Stephen Hawking and that guy who can solve the Rubik’s Cube in 12 seconds while holding it above his head.

It’s a long clip, but I’ll summarize and paraphrase it:

TRUMPKIN: What you gonna do about our Second Amendment!

CRUZ: I have fought for the Second Amendment and other constitutional rights my whole life, while Trump says he hates guns and will put a leftist on the Supreme Court.

TRUMPKIN: Lyin’ Ted! He has a mistress! Trump gonna build a wall!

Do not accuse me of exaggerating until you have seen the whole thing.
____________________________________________________

As demonstrated here, some people can watch this and actually condemn Cruz.

Which shows how deluded they are. You can’t fix stupid, especially when its voluntary and obdurate.

    amwick in reply to Ragspierre. | May 3, 2016 at 10:14 am

    Ironically, Rafael is such a good speaker (delivery, confidence, not content) that just about everything he says sounds canned and rehearsed. That in itself can turn people off, it isn’t something that you can quantify. It must be a skill that some lawyers train for, so they will do well in court. Maybe this is why when people see the video, they just condemn Cruz. Sincerity is a big plus, but it is also very subjective.

I do like the main photo of the story. It certainly looks like Ted is holding up a Trump – Make America Great sign. That is priceless.

The whole situation smells bad. Within 24 hours Cruz had a confrontation with a “Trump supporter” and scolded a rude “Trump supporter child” both with cameras running. I find it hard to believe that working class Trump supporters took off work to go protest at a Cruz rally. Seriously? I think they have better things to do. And I have never seen a sign like that at any Trump rally. I think Cruz’s attempt at some free publicity backfired.

The entire media both left and right none of which are Trump supporters viewed these events and ALL of them concluded yuuge fail for Cruz and Cruz looked bad and LOST the exchange. All said it was Cruz desperation and didn’t work at all.

Naturally, the cruzbots view the same events and see a brilliant exposition by the prophet from Salt Lake City that confirms all their fantasies about Trump and his supporters.

Then they conclude by talking about how Trump supporters are not reality based !!! LOL.

Irony thy name is cruzbot.

    Ragspierre in reply to Gary Britt. | May 3, 2016 at 10:46 am

    “The entire media both left and right…”

    1. a breathtaking lie in exaggeration, AND

    2. a self-condemnation among people who regard “the media” as the root of the problem in America.

    But consistent with Brittian lies and contradictions.

Tomorrow Trump could declare there to be 57 states, or address vets as Corpse-men or tell his legions to bring a gun to a knife fight — and none of his supporters would find him clueless, half-educated, or incendiary. If Trump brought one of his wheeler-dealer Manhattan real-estate cronies to a rally and the man’s court-ordered ankle bracelet went off, no one would bat an eye. In other words, Trump is a postmodern creation, for whom traditional and time-tested rules do not apply. He is neither brilliant nor unhinged, neither ecumenical nor just a polarizer, not a wrecker and not a savior of the Republican party, but something else altogether. He does not defy conventional wisdom. There simply is no convention and no wisdom applicable to Donald J. Trump. For years postmodernists have lectured us that there is no truth, no absolutes, no timeless protocols worthy of reverence; Trump is their Nemesis, who reifies their theories that truth is simply a narrative whose veracity is established by the degree of power and persuasion behind it.

-snip-

His supporters want a reckoning with a system that has not so much failed as infuriated them. What drives their loyalty to Trump — if not the person, at least the idea of Trump — is a sort of nihilism. As a close friend put it to me this week, “I don’t care whether Trump wins or not, I just want him to f— things up as long as he can.”

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/434807/donald-trump-his-supporters

Now, according to a few of the commenters here, VD Hanson is an “elitist”, though he’s a working farmer from the depressed central core of Kulhifornia, while also being a brilliant guy and a trained classiest.

But he uses terms like “post-modern” and “nihilist”, and he knows what he’s talking about.

Therefore…burn him.

    Mac45 in reply to Ragspierre. | May 3, 2016 at 11:19 am

    Nihilism drives Trump supporters? No more than it did the Founding Fathers of this nation. The Trump, and to a lesser extent the Sanders, phenomenon is a political revolution. It is people fed up with being denied representation by the “establishment” politicians in this country. And, vast numbers of them are stating, loudly, that they are not going to take it anymore. This is the same force that Cruz attempted to tap into, by playing the anti-establishment insider for the last three years. His biggest problem is that he IS an INSIDER, not an outsider.

    All the political pundits, analysts and politicians are invested in political “rules”. These rules are all in place to benefit the leadership of the political party, not the rank and file. And, the Trump organization simply refused to play by those “rules”. Just as it works out well for the Germans, at the start of WWII, JEB Stuart in the Civil War and many other commanders throughout history, it has world well for Trump.

    The Trump revolution could just as easily been the Herman Lupinsky revolution, if Herman was rich enough to run.

    As to the “confrontations” with Trump supporters, there are a number of valid questions as to the veracity of these filmed incidents. We may never know what the truth is, with regard to these. But, it doesn’t really matter, because nobody really cares.

      Nihilism drives Trump supporters?…[in the end] it doesn’t really matter, because nobody really cares.”

      Thank you.

      And yeah, the rules of the road have been out there for a while. It’s the Republican Party with Republican Party rules.

      Trump joined the wrong party.

        Jen, if you are going to quote me, please do not cherry pick two totally unrelated parts of my post and paste them together, with your own addition to make it sound as though I said something that I did not. I might have been nice if you had left in the meat of my first statement, where I explained that, if the trump supporters were nihilists, then so to were the Founding Fathers. And the second part of my statement is part of this passage:

        “As to the “confrontations” with Trump supporters, there are a number of valid questions as to the veracity of these filmed incidents. We may never know what the truth is, with regard to these. But, it doesn’t really matter, because nobody really cares.”

        This referred to the confrontation between Cruz and the “heckler”. What IO meant by that is that because Cruz is no longer a popularly viable candidate, the public doesn’t really care about how weel he speaks to a guy holding a Trump sign.

        Now, what everybody has to understand, is that both candidates are playing by the rules, as written. Pointing out the inequalities allowed under the GOP rules, is not a violation of those rules, anymore than appointing Cruz supporters as Trump delegates is. But. pointing these things out is a violation of the “unwritten” rules. And, trump can not win if he simply accepts anything that another candidate does yo him.

        What really steams the Cruz supporters is that Trump “stole” the Cruz campaign, pumped it up on steroids and came out like Rambo. That is what really hurts.

    murkyv in reply to Ragspierre. | May 3, 2016 at 4:09 pm

    Maybe if we had 57 states Ted might be able to overcome the delegate count.

    But, we only have 50 and Ted is on track to lose at least 40 of them.

As of tonight, we may know if Donald Trump will be the Republican presidential candidate. And, barring unforeseeable events, it is certain that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee. Those are two reasons — of many, unfortunately — why, other than the first years of the Civil War, when the survival of the United States as one country was in jeopardy, there has never been a darker time in American history.

-snip- [This is where Prager…that damned elitist…provides facts and figures. You can read it.]

And now there’s Clinton and Trump. Nothing more clearly exemplifies the dark time in which we are living than this political version of Sophie’s choice.

I will not end on a happy note because there isn’t one; but neither will I despair.

One doesn’t fight only when one is optimistic. One fights because it is the right thing to do, and because America remains, as Lincoln said, “the last best hope of earth.”
http://rightwingnews.com/column-2/dark-time-america/

The cynicism that marks so much of American “thought” won’t get any better when the T-rumpian lies are revealed, as they must be, to even the most deluded.

    Well there is a picture of what appears to be Rafael Cruz passing out leaflets with Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans about 4 months before Kennedy assassination. And then there is the fact that Rafael Cruz suddenly fled to Canada in 1964 not long after the Kennedy assassination.

      Milhouse in reply to Gary Britt. | May 3, 2016 at 6:41 pm

      You lie as easily as you breathe.
      1. The person in the picture could be absolutely any white man in his 20s. It could be your father or mine. It could be Trump’s brother Fred Jr.
      2. Cruz did not flee anywhere. He and his wife moved for their work, just as millions of people routinely do all the time.
      3. They did so in 1967.

    Mac45 in reply to Ragspierre. | May 3, 2016 at 11:48 am

    These remarks by Trump were in reference to a National Enquirer story about a photograph taken in New Orleans 1963 of Lee Harvey Oswald preparing to distribute leaflets for Fair Play for Cuba. analysis of the photo suggests that the man standing next to him, with leaflets in his hand, is Raphael Cruz. This may, or may not, be true. Trump’s point was that, with the exception of the Miami Herald, no MSM source has addressed this story at all. It has been totally ignored. But, when Raphael Cruz interjected himself into his son’s campaign, his past becomes fair game as well.

    Is it possible that Cruz was in NO handing out leaflets with Oswald? As far as we know, it is. We have seen no evidence that Cruz could not have been in NO at the time. If the man in the picture is Raphael Cruz, this does not mean that he was in any way involved in the JFK assassination. And, as the anti-Castro movements, in the US in that time frame, regularly infiltrated pro-Cuban groups, it is also possible that Cruz was there as an infiltrator, not a supporter. [This also opens up a whole potential can of worms with regard to possible links between Raphael Cruz and the CIA, if he was a member of any anti-Castro groups at the time.] Without additional information, it is impossible to say, with any certainly, that the man in the picture was Raphael Cruz, that Cruz was in NO, or not, at the time, and, most emphatically that he had any connection with the Kennedy assassination.

    Interestingly, reports have surfaced, over the years, that G.H.W. Bush was in Dallas on the day of JFK’s assassination. If he was, this does not mean that he, or the CIA for whom he worked at the time, was involved in the assassination, either.

      Hey now! Wasn’t Gary Britt in Dallas on that day?

        Don’t know. The point here is that the National Enquirer, not the most highly regarded source of information to be sure, but, remember Gary Hart. The MSM jumped on the “anonymous” reports of his behavior as a womanizer. Then there was the Bill Clinton “Bimbo Eruption” team. You would think that the MSM would at least take a look at a claim that photographic evidenced existed that Raphael Cruz was involved in handing out pamphlets for Fair Play For Cuba in company with Lee Harvey Oswald. But, for whatever reason, they are apparently no more interested in that then they were in the claim of marital infidelity by Ted Cruz or Bill Clinton.

          While people are gagging on the memory of Gary Hart, don’t forget Trump’s National Enquirer CEO friend David Pecker.

          I’m sure there is no collusion going on. Everything at the NE is on the up and up.

      Milhouse in reply to Mac45. | May 3, 2016 at 6:56 pm

      No MSM source has addressed the story because there is no story. There is no more reason to suppose the person in the photo is Cruz than there is to suppose it’s Fred Trump Jr, or my father, or any of millions of other light-skinned males in their 20s. The idea that it’s Cruz has no foundation at all, and only a crazy person like Trump or Britt would take it at all seriously.

      Nor is there any evidence or reason to believe that Bush was working for the CIA at the time. That, too, is an invention of delusional conspiracy theorists like Trump and Britt, and, apparently, you.

“Abusive Trump cultist embodies everything wrong with this electoral season.”

Sorry professor, but this post is the actual embodiment of what is wrong in this country and why Trump is winning. You just cannot believe that a Harvard educated lawyer can be treated so unseemly by such low life’s as mechanics or factory workers, burger flippers even.

Cruz sought this out. I’ll stand with those guys any day of the week. And they’ll stand behind you. To anyone but the blind, Cruz is all about Cruz.

The fact is, they see Cruz for what he is, and respond accordingly.

    PhillyGuy in reply to Barry. | May 3, 2016 at 11:18 am

    It’s the middle America common everyday folks that the TedHeads are so disdainful of. They think they know better.

      Ragspierre in reply to PhillyGuy. | May 3, 2016 at 12:30 pm

      Some of us warned everyone about Obama WAAAAAAAAAAY back before he won the nomination.

      I won’t apologize for rational analysis of the facts. I won’t be shamed for understanding what I understand.

      Der Donald is a dangerous, pathological, lying Collectivist thug.

        PhillyGuy in reply to Ragspierre. | May 3, 2016 at 1:12 pm

        you’re a legend in your own mind

        Barry in reply to Ragspierre. | May 3, 2016 at 11:06 pm

        “Some of us warned everyone about Obama WAAAAAAAAAAY back before he won the nomination.”

        Wow, you must be like super intelligent or sumpin. That was a really hard call to make wasn’t it?

Summation of entire line of Cruz supporters beginning with the professor.
“Lineman stupid, all Trump supporters stupid & brain dead parrots of Trump talking points.”
This is the problem with you smartest people in any room elites. I don’t see you out in blizzards, rainstorms, shortly after other natural disasters hanging off poles or up in cherry pickers restoring power for a community.
These people for the most part spend years in apprenticeship. A part of that apprenticeship is on the job training at the same time. When they become journeymen & women they are as qualified as anyone else holding a journeyman license.
You spend your lives in the confines of a college campus or exclusive law firm & hang out with people that see the world the same way you do.
Cruz is just like you either are or would like to be. Coming out of the D.C. elite world. You judge him as superior because he is everything you admire.
Trump understands the lineman & the lineman understands Trump. They work in the same world.
None of you auto-disparagers’ understand a dammed thing. Not one dammed thing!

    “Trump understands the lineman & the lineman understands Trump. They work in the same world.”

    Huh?!? Maybe you mean, metaphorically, the same world as ground faults and short circuits? Trump would do all kinds of damage with high voltage power.

    Stop feeling sorry for yourself, please. I’ve been a blue collar worker most of my life, mostly as an electrician. I did this to support myself and my family.

    I also took the effort to learn more and better myself. I became an electrical designer who has worked for many years now on substation designs for utilities across the country. I also work with our transmission line design group and the outage support team. I am not allowed to go into more detail.

    Except for this: Trump, the Elitist, does NOT represent me or my efforts.

    Shane in reply to secondwind. | May 3, 2016 at 1:27 pm

    For a Trump supporter that doesn’t want to be painted with a broad brush you certainly wield have a very large paint brush in your hand. As for Trump being one of “you” maybe you should do some basic research on where Trump came from and where you fit in, in that scheme.

Ps ; Linemen & women also build the Power plants, substations, Transmission % feeder lines & hang the transformers & other necessary accoutrements to bring electricity to you parasites. They are supported by equipment operator’s, grounds men & women & others necessary to make it all happen.
Of course none of that matters to any of you. You can merely flip a switch & bring forth light!

    Shane in reply to secondwind. | May 3, 2016 at 1:09 pm

    LOL I love it when the commie comes out. It is the workers and ONLY the workers who do anything, everyone else is “the man”. You are Karl Marx’s dream.

J. J.
You take one sentence & run with it. You ignore the rest. You can deny none of the rest. Selective response.
I made a comment way back at the beginning of this thread that you validate in full. Unlike yourself I don’t find it necessary to sprinkle my “superior” intelligence throughout a thread to validate my conception of myself.

This is worse than Obamabots. At least O’s followers got something real out of their man, like free cell phones.

Shane ; you made 14 comments in this thread.

Continues:
J. J. You made 11 ;
I made 5.
Both of your sanctimonious condescension is overwhelming which yet again validates my ongoing point.

Polls show 62% of republicans now believe Cruz is part of the GOP establishment. Cruz has lost his credibility with voters as he embraced the help of GOPe in Wisconsin and in stealing delegates.

Let’s all ignore the fact that the protesters were staying across the road and Ted went over to confront THEM.

Ragspierre | May 3, 2016 at 4:18 pm

https://pjmedia.com/andrewmccarthy/2016/05/02/where-would-trump-be-if-he-had-run-as-what-he-is-the-amnesty-candidate/?singlepage=true

Well, not so polular, for sure. He would have had the virtue of being honest.

But “virtue” is not a idea with any appeal to the lying Collectivist fraudster.

    These Cruz lies have been pushed for months and they have never caught on.

      Ragspierre in reply to Gary Britt. | May 3, 2016 at 5:56 pm

      You lying about T-rump lying has NEVER “caught on”.

      You have been lying about the T-rump touch-back amnesty for nearly a year. You knew you were lying every time you posted that lie, and you just were proven a lying SOS last week by your little yellow god.

      Again.

      Another time.

      Some more.

JimMtnViewCaUSA | May 3, 2016 at 7:11 pm

To be fair, the Trump guys were not there to engage in debate. They were there to demonstrate and shout slogans. It was classy of Sen Cruz to go talk to them but a tea and cookies debate was never in the cards.

Keep in mind, too, that those Trumpers are gearing up for the Fall. Hillary and her minions won’t be playing with cream puffs. These guys are working and practicing for the street battles ahead.

JimMtnViewCaUSA | May 3, 2016 at 7:28 pm

Seems pretty clear that Trump has won IN and that he will be the GOP nominee.
This unbiased article by a Cruz PAC guy provides a lot of insights for those ready to resume rational thought. (If you are still up to your eyes with emotion…we’ll wait)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/what-trump-saw-and-cruz-did-not/article/2002126

    Ragspierre in reply to JimMtnViewCaUSA. | May 3, 2016 at 7:54 pm

    Jim, big revelation!

    Most of us read that WAY before you did.

    Second BIG revelation…

    There is NOTHING more formulaic…and PREDICTABLE…than some “bright” insider kid coming up with a “gee-whiz” piece on what their guy got wrong.

    It’s all hind-sight from a resume-polisher. Please, just stop flacking that crap. You’re almost two weeks out of date.

      JimMtnViewCaUSA in reply to Ragspierre. | May 4, 2016 at 1:24 am

      Hey, I posted this link three times over the past couple of weeks myself- I know it’s old.
      Amazed at the cascade of down votes it gets and curious who could possibly object to calm, reasoned commentary and analysis.