OT-Civil war

One thing to say in favor of Trump is that he is only *acting* crazy. Cruz is completely off his rocker.

What do you get when you bury a politician up to his neck in concrete?


Not enough concrete

Boos for Cruz.

" I would not want to be in Cruz's shoes when he returns to his Senate duties."
------------------------------------------
Pretty close election, but Trump will probably lose. After that Cruz, and others who distanced themselves from Trump, will look good going forward; others like Cristie and Rubio will look like weak little girls. Cruz is nuts, but still an extremely smart guy.

Senators and congressmen spend 80% of their time raising money, so I don't think the state of Texas missed him much anyway. All Cruz did in the Senate is vote against Obamacare 80 times.

Yes, RandomMember that may indeed come to pass, but at the moment, Cruz has stabbed himself in the back in front of his former friends in the Senate.

Cruz has friends in the Senate??

I agree with what Cruz said. In his shoes, I would have done the same thing. This was the Republican National Convention, not the Trump National Convention. Like Cruz said, we have to vote for the person who we believe best suited to lead the country, uphold and defend the constitution, etc. I would no more support Trump than Cruz did; but if he only does half of what he's promised he'll be a better president than Hillary

LOL, Trump would like to believe it's his convention, but you are right, gammanu95.

Ok Jabberwock, do you feel the same way about Jindal, Sanders, Obama, Hillary '08, McCain, Palin, Biden, Christie, Perry '08, Kasich, Kerry, Rubio, et al. The list goes on for ages. What about Trump? His stockholders expect him to make money, his tenants expect him to manage the buildings they lease. By your rationale, only the retired and unemployed should run for president.

Cruz has exposed himself for what he is, which is a slimy opportunistic scumbag. The dirty tactics that his campaigners used during the primaries are well documented, from posting the picture of Trump's wife online to telling voters that their candidates had already dropped out. But of course the coup de gras for his campaign was when he collaborated with another candidate not to win in his own right, but simply to try to prevent someone else from doing so and then hoping that delegates would do for him what voters would not. His unwillingness to keep his word and support the nominee just further highlights Cruz's lack of character and is icing on the whole shit cake.

@ gammanu95: I actually think the country would be better off if we didn't have professional politicians, which is how the founding fathers envisioned it as they were all businessmen first. So lets make a Constitutional amendment that ONLY the retired and unemployed are eligible to run. Plus, they are not allowed to spend any money on the campaign Until November 1st.

Guys, that's just dumb. Had you said that they should have finished their elected term and then run for a contested or open position, I would have agreed.
Surprisingly, I also disagree with the notion of doing away with professional politicians. Term limits, yes, but in a world so large and interconnected, I believe that we need to be able to look upon a candidate's past legislative, executive, and diplomatic successes as a gauge for their viability as leader of the free world. To say that the founding fathers never envisioned politicians as president is plain wrong.

Republicans prove time and time again that while they may all look alike, t hey are diverse, whereas Democrats all look different and have zero diversity of thought.

If we really wanted to revamp presidential elections, no money except from private donors and a government fund to pay for elections. Maybe then someone from the middle class might stand a shot at getting elected. The government would need to pay certain fees to run a minimum campaign for middle class people who didn't have a boatload of money to be put on the ballot in every state and run some ads. I think if we had some sensible people from the middle class, we would have less of the Trumps and Clintons making a mess of politics, unless a majority of the people really do like all these politics. I don't like any of it. I'm not sure who I will vote for.

Damn, Rick. That's a great comment. +1.

Cruz smells the inevitable. As despicable as Hillary is, most people will hold their nose and vote for her over that waste of cells Trump. Then, for the 2020 election, people will be seriously hating Hillary, and any Republican candidate who is not completely tainted by Trump can just waltz into the white house. Let's just hope that candidate is Kasich and not Cruz.

And let's hope Republican primary voters aren't so retarded that they'll actually learn the lesson of this election: it's worth voting towards the center if it will get you the white house. As it is, they have handed the Democrats the white house for 4 years and the Supreme Court for the next 5-10.

"As it is, they have handed the Democrats the white house for 4 years and the Supreme Court for the next 5-10."
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That's what I'm hoping, but the election is surprisingly close, with Ohio and Florida neck-and-neck as I write this.

Subraman --> "let's hope Republican primary voters aren't so retarded that they'll actually learn the lesson of this election: it's worth voting towards the center if it will get you the white house." -> end quote Subraman

^ As a registered GOP member for the last 20 years, I'd keep trying to drill this statement into the party. I'd wish they'd listen. If it takes Trump to get them to listen to this advice, so be it.

^what RM said, except that is what I'm fearing

Spread love and peace.

vm: Placing Ted Cruz and friends in the same sentence is about the worst bastardization of the English language around. As "interesting" as the presidential candidates are, it will be just as, if not more, interesting to see how much the House, Senate, and Supreme Court shift in the next several years.

Oh minnow, I think we should agree to disagree. Cruz, by no means is a favorite of mine. Surely a politician that made it to the Federal level must have friends. I agree, we are heading into an experimental time.

Frankly, our whole political system - all three branches- have shifted so far from what the founding fathers intended, I don't know know where i'm going with this. A rewrite? Revocation of several amendments? Addition of several amendments? Whatever we have now, it's not working well anymore. I blame Reality TV and CNN.

Cruz has just flushed his career. By not supporting the candidate chosen in the primaries he has said to the voters that voted in the primary that despite the fact that I pledged in writing at the beginning to support the nominee I am going to whine and pout breaking my written word. While I am not a huge Trump guy I liked Cruz less and less during the primaries. He has just shown his true inside the beltway colors and betrayed his supporters.
All most all politicos who have fed at the public trough their entire lives (Clintons, Bushs, Romney, Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Boxer, Lugar, and the rest) are just two side of the same turd. They all are out for themselves and do not give a shit about the citizens.
Always remember the NAZI stand for National Socialist Party where all major dustiness are owned by friends of the State...Sound familiar- GM, Solindra, Tesla, GoldmanSachs, GE, Chrysler, ...all of these companies and many more could not survive without the crony patronage of the government

Prediction:

The Republican Party will never win another national election (i.e, the Presidency) with a candidate that is staunchly fiscally AND socially conservative. The far right has had undue influence on the Primary outcome since BHO so as to kill their chances to retake the White House (perhaps until this year). As long as Trump doesn't allow Pence to push him toward the right, he has a chance -- an outsiders chance.

If the GOP would simply leave the social issues to state's determination and focus on a fiscally conservative, pro-defense national platform, they could win in a walk-off. Legislating morality at the national level is an election-killer.

Oh yeah -- and Cruz is a scary turd. (Mic drop)

Distancing one self from Trump is not only smart, its a necessity. I am surprised that Christie and Rubio are proving themselves to be so stupid.

Cruz is nuts, but people don't seem to see that.

SJG

Lady Gaga, standing on piano bench
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R_OHpMb…

Bob Dylan, Like A Rolling Stone, live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F0ytNzH…

Los Angeles Swingers Club Joi , look really hot!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EavcYWi…

http://www.clubjoi.com/albums/4196/media…

http://thelemapedia.org/index.php/Scarle…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdj-z9Ax…
this footage seems to be from the Temple, in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance

Coffee Girls
http://hyphenmagazine.com/sites/default/…

http://images.onset.freedom.com/ocregist…

http://www.vietnamesecoffeeshops.com/wp-…

http://i.usatoday.net/news/_photos/2009/…

http://s3-media4.fl.yelpcdn.com/ephoto/B…

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3638/3692…

http://www.vietnamesecoffeeshops.com/wp-…

"All most all politicos who have fed at the public trough their entire lives (Clintons, Bushs, Romney, Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Boxer, Lugar, and the rest)"

Do you mean former Indiana Senator Richard Lugar?

He lost his way towards the end -- he voted to confirm Elena Kagan. He supported TARP and the DREAM Act -- but just for what he accomplished as mayor of Indianapolis 60's and 70's, I'll always be a fan.

I don't know old you are Tired Traveller, but he really cleaned up Indianapolis on the early 70's. I didn't live in Indy, but my sister was ill and for 2 years we made weekly trips to Riley Children's Hospital. I was just a kid, but to this day I can remember how bad the ghetto and the slums were from Meridian Street to the Medical Center on Michigan Street. It was horrible.

Lugar cleaned it up. And he was the force behind UNIGOV that began Indy's booming economic expansion.

He bailed out on speaking at my high school graduation at the last minute, so I hold that against him (lol) but I wouldn't group him with Obama and Clinton. Sorry for the rant.

I was just a kid, but I saw results. And that's what matters

to Motor-Don't forget the quasi public-private partnerships formed by Trump, to try and leverage NYC's west side railyards, also the bonds that were guaranteed by the New Jersey Gaming commission at his behest,(why do you think he's so chummy with Chris Christy) he certainly is not the only businessman feeding at the public trough, just look at all of the sports arenas built with taxpayer money that are enriching private entities. The list goes on and on and its not only politicians but their benefactors as well, get the money out of our politics and you will see a major improvement in the quality of candidates that run for political office, this latest group is the worst and greediest ever. What a bunch of money grubbing thieves. (this was aimed at both the donkeys and the elephants)

Friend of mine said, "There's nothing wrong with Capitalism, only with Crony Capitalism."

So I told him, "There is no other kind but Crony Capitalism. Never has been, never will be. Capitalists need labor, land, natural resources, and markets. They way it gets these is by getting control of the government. Think British East India Company. And the first flag for the United States was one snatched off of a British East India ship. Not changed that much either."

And what Gandhi said was, "You say you want everyone to be rich. Well being rich means getting control of the land and the labor supply. So you say you want to make people rich, but you would do this by making other people poor."

SJG

It's not too surprising that the same guy who thought he could shutdown the government to end ObamaCare in 2013 would think this, too, was also a good move. His perma-sneer while he tries to pull it all off doesn't help matters much either.

I do hope he is gone for good this time, but I thought 2013 was the end of him as well. Go figure!

Sure.
Gandhi = Nobel prize winning economist

What Gandhi said was that you can't focus on ends, because they are too far out, and just too many variables. But what you can focus in is right means.

Because of this I think Gandhi should be considered something comparable to a Nobel Prize winning economist.

SJG

AC / DShe, they were just in San Jose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQWmpNPZ…