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Busy day

The New Neo Posted on by

I have an unusually busy day today, so here’s an open thread.

You can even take your mind[s] off politics, if you like. Or not.

Comments

Busy day — 55 Comments

  1. Thinking ahead… Ds and Rs will nominate presidential candidates. Who to pick for VP? It’s a very important question. What say?

  2. I like Trump because he is a barracuda and I believe will eat up the liberals and re-establish the conservatives. I would like to see Ted Cruz as V.P., and then have him run again for president after eight years of a successful Trump presidency, giving our side 16 years to re-set our nation. 2nd Chronicles 7:14.

  3. I just have a hard time imagining a debate between Trump and Hillary. I feel that he never answers a single question. He zonks off into “you’ll love me as president, America will be great, she’s a horrible liar …” Hillary will actually be able to sound like she knows what she is talking about even if we know she is misrepresenting the truth.

  4. I think Megyn Kelly has a town hall on Thursday and Trump won’t appear. If Cruz wants to win he needs to go after Trump with both barrels. Rubio said he won’t.

  5. Trump has registered with a significant portion of the electorate and perhaps even more significantly among those who had long ago decided not to attend the melodrama known as voting for the obvious reason of knowing the outcome beforehand.

    Trump has done so without the house organs (FOX, NatRev, Weekly Stan, AmSpec, Limbaugh, and… and the positively apoplectic Beck), trumpeting him. He has done so with both liberals and conservatives hurling epithets… at him. He has done so with the utter derision of all the right thinkers/tres bien pensants here and abroad. One would have to conclude that his message, unequivocally stated, without PoCo kowtowing, has made an impression — such as has not been made in national politics since… Reagan. After having been witness to the epithets hurled against Reagan (stupid, impolitic, militaristic, jingoistic, sentimental, actor, etc.) one would think the litany of gibes targeting Trump would be all the recommendation he would need. It’s all quite simple. If the Establishment hates him, vote for him. It frees up a lot of time — passing up the silly debates, stump speeches, position papers — to attend to the wonders of living life.

  6. Hmm. A fascist loose cannon vs. a progressive career criminal?

    OTOH, Sanders is old, decrepit, incompetent and the Republican congress might actually take a stand against him. Socialist or not, he would probably do less damage to us than either Trump or Hillary.

  7. Janetoo makes a fine and thoughtful point regarding the only candidate who could make our felonious former First Lady look somewhat informed, substantive and coherent by comparison. As our beloved Neo has pointed out, read a transcript of what Trump has said so far in the campaign and you find a lot of incomplete sentences, assertive rhetoric and mighty little of substance. But we should all have learned by now not to underestimate Mr. Trump. He’s smart, yes, but he’s also intelligent, and one can presume that he will be receiving more and better briefings and even taking some advice in coming weeks and months about how to handle himself. In any case, as JurassiCon Rex has astutely pointed out above, Trump is a true force unto himself and a lot of forgotten ordinary people have been waiting for such a force to confound an Establishment that either ignores or sneers at them. What enormity! What marvelous disruption! He comes on like a combination Chauncey Gardner, George Patton, Troy McClure, Al Smith and (Jackie Gleason’s) Loudmouth. For a public used to a steady, dreary blah, blah, blah, blah, BLAH from politicians, whatever Trump says sounds good. Maybe he has “bad breath,” but to a lot of people it seems fresh air.

  9. This hasn’t been mentioned by anyone I’ve read, but why doesn’t Rubio agree to appoint Cruz to the Supreme Court? That would get him (Cruz) out of the Senate, where he’s disliked and put him on the Supreme Court where Scalia types ought to love him.

  11. Oh, and Neo, thank you very much for taking a moment from your busy day to provide a vent so that we could all let the wind out of our bags.

  14. K-E

    A class action for fraud is no small deal.

    Trump said he personally selected the “teachers” and lots of high pressure sales tactics.

  15. Mitt Romney asked why haven’t we seen Trump’s tax returns?

    Should be released before March 1.

    Mitt thinks lots of stuff in the returns.

  18. recent American novels worth reading:

    GOLD FAME CITRUS-Claire Vaye Watkins
    PURITY-Jonathan Franzen (and I’m not that crazy about his other work)
    A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD-Jennifer Egan (also by same author: LOOK AT ME)

    music I like (which shouldn’t strike anyone here as too annoying or offensive):

    John Talabot-DJ Kicks

  20. I have a man-crush on Orion Weiss this week. Saw him play Beethoven’s 4th & 5th concerti the other day, in the same afternoon. I was worried he’d get tired, but he did well throughout.

  22. Just purchased the Fischer-Dieskau / Moore Deutsche Grammophon 21 CD Complete Schubert Lieder set on iTunes. And it was cheap as chips.

    Truly we live in the best of times and the heading towards worst-ish of times.

  23. Cornhead, thanks for the tip. The Plague of Dreamlessness is now on its way to me.

    Anyone who likes an intelligently written, non-clichéd crime novel might want to check out Woman with Birthmark, by Hakan Nesser, another of the Swedes. A Summer With Kim Novak, by the same author, is also very good.

    In America, most of the best writing by young males is now found in the genres, as that is where male authors are now pushed. 75% of all hardcover books are purchased by females — and 80% of the editors at New York publishing houses are female as well. As agent Nat Sobel said a few years ago: “The young male coming-of-age novel is dead.”

    But there are plenty of female coming-of-age novels — some of them quite good. Also, plenty of the crime novels written by males will feature a female protagonist — and often these are reasonably good as well. They do in fact reflect the reality of affirmative action hiring and promotion in police departments the last 20, 25 years.

  25. I too still enjoy classical music, particularly the piano, and have found great pleasure in the trend of young pianists to rediscover or uncover lost, unheard pieces — particularly by Russian composers who were buried after the Bolsheviks took over and soon subverted all art to the test of: Does this work serve the state, or not?

    We still see this this tendency everywhere, as manifest in females who only listen to or read works by other females, or all those whose main criteria for art is “Does it advance the struggle?

    Which means, in practice: Does it tell me what I already know?

  26. It’s interesting that as I get older, I find more satisfaction in piano than orchestral works and am more drawn to monochrome photography. Compositional form and tonality with fewer ‘distractions.’

    I guess another “best of times” thing is the increased availability and searchability of archival music scores. I don’t know anything about musical copyright, but much must now be in the public domain.

  27. Watched Megyn K. host Carson, Cruz, Kasich, and Rubio tonight on a two hour special. Each candidate got about thirty minutes to answer questions from Kelly and audience members. It was held in Houston Texas. A great format. More substantive information discussed than in any of the debates. This is the way the debates should be done.

    Cruz was better than usual because he was actually on the stage (The other three were by closed circuit TV.) and the local Texans were his peeps. The man can orate and he sticks to conservative principals. He seemed more likable than usual. He’s a very smart man and would make a good President. Can he win?

    Kasich was his usual self. He talked about all of his experience in government and the private sector. He denied that he has no chance at the nomination. (He is the Man From La Mancha pursuing the “impossible dream.”) I have always liked Kasich, but the crowd was not very responsive and I even saw many of them shaking their heads at some of his points. He is very earnest, but it just doesn’t appeal to many in this political season. His time has passed he should take his spear and shield (Man From La Mancha 🙂 )home and keep doing good things in Indiana.

    Rubio took some tough questions and handled them pretty well. He was very tough on Obama’s prisoner release program. He is against letting violent criminals out of prison. He has some good ideas to deal with student loan debt and the cost of higher education – all nongovernmental ideas. His best answer was about closing Gitmo. He said that under his administration there would be more illegal combatants going there because he would start prosecuting the war on terror vigorously again. Asked about interrogations he said that we should never discuss how we interrogate because it tips the terrorists on how to resist. Does he have the gravitas and inner courage to be the C-in-C? I’m not totally convinced yet.

    Dr. Carson was his usual modest, sensible, wise self. IMO, he had all the right answers to his questions, but he isn’t getting any traction because people don’t see the charisma and fire they want. I love the man, but believe he should pack it in.

    I would like to have seen Trump in this format. Could he have skated by with his usual sketchy, inch-deep answers? I would hope not. He wasn’t there because he “had another engagement.” I don’t think he will ever do a show of any type with Kelly. She raised his ire and he isn’t about to forget or forgive. Not much gravitas there.

  28. J.J.

    I watched the Megyn Kelly special too. Came away really liking Carson, and thinking he would be a good president and a very good antidote to Obama. Cruz was ok. I still support him, but I think the MSM will tear him apart if he is the GOP nominee. Kasich? Meh. Time to fold his tent and leave.

    Rubio was good but just a little too earnest and imploring. I’d like to know more about his billionaire auto dealer financial backer, too. I can’t see him as the future of the GOP. He reminds me of Bob Dole, only younger.

  31. JJ:
    “I would like to have seen Trump in this format. Could he have skated by with his usual sketchy, inch-deep answers?”

    You and JurassiCon Rex are a contrast.

    You saw compelling depth on the issues by the GOP candidates that’s important insight for choosing the nation’s leader that JurassiCon Rex waves away as GOPe blah, blah, blah. Dismissed as noise. Disqualified out of hand in the Left activist style.

    Yet your votes, and the votes of the people who share your respective approaches to citizenship, are worth the same.

    The progress made by the Trump campaign is interesting to me because it goes to answering the question raised by the Obama campaign – is it more the man or the activist movement?

    Obama at least has offered a holographic presentation of a traditional politician (even while observers like Neo have seen through the illusion) to serve as an avatar cover for the Democrat-front Left activist movement.

    As you point out, Trump hasn’t even bothered to offer that much cover. Trump’s success is clearly due to the Left-mimicking alt-Right activist movement that serves as the creative engine for the Trump phenomenon.

    Question answered – it’s more the activist movement than the man. Adjust accordingly in order to matter. Or not, in order to not matter.

  32. Eric Says:

    “You saw compelling depth on the issues by the GOP candidates that’s important insight for choosing the nation’s leader that JurassiCon Rex waves away…”

    And I continue to wave them away, dismiss them out of hand, deride them mercilessly. Compelling depth on the issue smacks of political rigmarole — long and hot on words — of which there has been no shortage. And time after time after bloody time the actions never measure up to compelling — nor even direct action. Promise me anything you like, secure borders, State’s rights, an annual balanced budget, war no more, a permanent halt exporting freedom and democracy — that (promises) is the currency of political folderol. But don’t try to impress me with compelling depth. In the words of Eliza Doolittle:
    Words, words, words, I’m so sick of words…show me.

  33. If Cruz wants to win, this is what he should say tonight:

    Donald Trump is a coward. He was too much of a coward to take questions twice from the mighty Megyn Kelly. He also dodged the Vietnam war draft. Not only would he not volunteer to serve the country that has given him so much, he received a series of deferrements. During this time he had his own personal Vietnam. His Vietnam was not fighting communists in jungles but unprotected sex in the jungles of New York.

    The coward Donald Trump also won’t release his tax returns. Why? Because they will expose all of his lies and hypocrisy. The fact that he made tiny charitable contributions to veterans’ groups.

    Trump is also a bully. He’s threatened the mother of the Governor of Nebraska. Why? Because she supports someone other than Trump.

    Trump is a defendant in a class action fraud case that is pending now. He’s sued hundreds of people. The Trump University case involves serious allegations of lying and fraud.

    Trump also repeatedly reminds us how smart he is. He filled bankruptcy four times. A smart person would have only filed once. Trump goes on to claim that it was no big deal. Just business. Tell that to the shareholders and creditors who got stiffed.

    The American people must realize that while Trump may be rich, he has a very poor character. Coward. Liar. Bully. Cheater. Deadbeat. Promiscuous. He’s no Lincoln. And I submit that voters will realize that too late if he is the nominee. Result? Obama’s third term with President Hillary Clinton.

    Donald Trump does not have the character and intelligence to be President.

  35. Cornhead,
    I woud vote for you. It is so nice to hear some logical clear thinking. Neo could run too.

  36. In all seriousness, if something like the above doesn’t come out real soon then Trump might win the nomination.

    Rubio, Carson and Kasich won’t do it and the MSM won’t do it until the general election.

    President Hillary Clinton would be a disaster.

  37. Should add that the phrase “my own personal Vietnam” were Trump’s own words in an interview with Howard Stern. According to Trump, Stern is a great guy.

  38. I also like Carson. I think he is getting better as time goes on, but it may be too late. However, I don’t want him dropping out just yet. He is another outsider candidate. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a race between 3 outsiders: Trump, Cruz and Carson?

    I know I’m dreaming, but still…

    I did find it interesting this morning on Fox News that a spokesman from the RNC said all of the remaining candidates would win in a general election and that they were all fine ‘conservatives.’ It was nice to hear the RNC finally acknowledging Trump as a positive, rather than a negative.

    BTW, many many entrepreneurs and businesses have had failure. Including bankruptcies. So this part about Trump does not bother me. Considering how many average people in 2008 probably had to file bankruptcy and lost their homes, this won’t have the impact you think.

    The Trump University thing? Still small potatoes when you are sitting it next to Clinton with a possible federal case against her for her illegal server and classified emails.

  39. Carson was taken by his own campaign people! He just stated they “didn’t understand finances.” They understood money perfectly. He was an attractive but naive candidate. They cut great contracts that enriched them and barely got out his message. They made big money on commissions!

    Carson is clueless.

  40. Cornhead, Mark Stein linked to an article that stated Mike Murphy (I’ve despised him since the McCain campaign) made 14 million running Jeb!’s campaign. What a racket!

  43. I just read a Guy Benson piece at Townhall where he reports that a Rubio staffer said Rubio will release his tax returns this weekend. Maybe we will be getting some pushback against Trump. It almost sounds like their is an anti-Trump strategy out there. I hope Cruz is in on it.

  45. Powerline just reported that Sandoval does not want to be considered for the Supreme Court. Obama’s game didn’t work.

  46. Donald is not a coward. Releasing tax returns is a power play. Releasing info when someone off to the side like Romney is asking for it? Why would he? Romney is not in the race. What power does he wield? Practically none.

  47. JurassiCon Rex:

    A Republican Congress can’t pass legislation and make it stick without a Republican president. And a Republican Congress can’t pass conservative legislation and make it stick without more conservatives in Congress AND a Republican president, preferably a conservative one.

    We have not had that situation in this country since Coolidge, except for a few years during the George Bush administration, and at that time the Congress GOP was less conservative than now, and George Bush was not a conservative. Plus he was focused on Iraq and foreign policy.

    Right now we have the opportunity for the most conservative Congress in years plus the first conservative president since Reagan (Cruz may even be more conservative than Reagan). And yet the voters in the GOP primaries seem poised to throw it away in their rage at the GOP.

    In contrast, the Democrats have had both overwhelming majorities in Congress and Democratic (liberal) presidents many many times since Roosevelt, and it’s been during those times that they’ve moved their agendas forward.

  48. Hillary stepped in it again..
    when the Suny women claimed they were beaten by whites on a bus for no reason, hillary stepped forwards
    not it looks like the ladies are going to be prosecuted for filing false reports as the busses have video cameras.

    the funny thing about hte left.

    they are so backwards and following such an old 1930 playbook

    they cant avoid cameras, open mike, cell phone, etc. because the old play book does not caution them about that, or tell them.

    from their language, names of organzztions, tactics, etc.
    all 1930…

  49. neo-neocon Says: We have not had that situation in this country since Coolidge, except for a few years during the George Bush administration

    really? then i guess you never looked at the chart i put up nearly a half dozen times..

    United States Presidents and control of Congress
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Presidents_and_control_of_Congress#/media/File:Combined–Control_of_the_U.S._House_of_Representatives_-_Control_of_the_U.S._Senate.png

    coolidge presidency ended 1929

    1955-1957 we have republicans in control of congress, senate and presidency – Dwight D. Eisenhower

  50. I just read a sentence or two at Commentary about Hugh Hewitt’s possible question for Trump tonight. Hewitt asked him about his tax returns last year, and Trump replied that he would release them when he declared his candidacy. Hewitt is the perfect person to open that discussion tonight.
    Trump’s wealth is one reason his supporters like him. If others can show it is and was a lie, this is a good, understandable way to cause LIV supporters to lose some faith in him.

  51. In contrast, the Democrats have had both overwhelming majorities in Congress and Democratic (liberal) presidents many many times since Roosevelt, and it’s been during those times that they’ve moved their agendas forward.

    That is because the Left is an alliance. The Republican coalition in 1862, developed for defeating slavery of blacks or whites, failed in accomplishing several primary objectives.

    Civil War II, is inevitably going to be a result of the failures of Civil War I.

  52. At the same time picked up a Schwarzkopf Four Last Songs. Nasty piece of work, but what a voice!

    For the sake of those who are not familiar with Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs, and their indescribably surpassing beauty, I hope to point out my belief that Kinch is here with “nasty” describing Elizabeth Schwarzkopf’s personal politics during the Nazi Regime; by that, I assume, he is in no way ascribing “nasty” to the Four Last Songs themselves. As it happens, those “Songs” in some goodly part represent a reaction to — an appalled reaction to — the waste Nazism made of German high art, which high art Strauss thought himself to represent as a participant.

  53. Artfldgr:

    I’m well aware of the history, and I’ve looked at many charts and I’ve written many comments on the subject.

    When I wrote today that we hadn’t had that situation since Coolidge, “that” was referring back to this (which had immediately preceded it):

    “And a Republican Congress can’t pass conservative legislation and make it stick without more conservatives in Congress AND a Republican president, preferably a conservative one.”

    When I discussed the Bush administration, I made it clear that did not conform to the “conservative president” qualification. Same for Eisenhower, of course.

    Somewhere I have a post on the whole thing; don’t have time to find it now.

    In summary, though, to make it more clear:

    Since Coolidge we have not had (a) a Congress controlled by the GOP and with a significant conservative presences in it; plus (b) a conservative president. We have a chance for that now and would be throwing it away with Trump.

    With Bush and Eisenhower, neither were conservative.

    I allude to this situation here, here, and here (at that latter link I discuss Eisenhower).

    In fact, I’ll repeat some of what I said in that last link—

    The GOP was in control of Congress and the Presidency during Bush’s first term. And Bush, unfortunately, although he was socially conservative and mostly (not totally) conservative in foreign policy, was really not fiscally conservative.

    That’s it. No other Republican president has had a Republican Congress (sometimes one body or the other, but never both at once) since Eisenhower. And he only had both houses of Congress with him for 2 years of the 8 he was in office.

    You have to go back to before FDR to find a Republican president and Congress except for those exceptions. Take a look at the charts. They are very edifying. You’ll see, also, that from FDR to the early part of the Clinton years the Democrats had smooth sailing during their presidencies, with both houses controlled by Democrats as well.

  54. K-E:

    Romney asked all the candidates to release their tax returns. He then also made those remarks about Trump in particular. Then he repeated the call for all to release their returns. Transcript is here.

  55. sdferr: Correct. My bad for not being more explicit. Richard Strauss and his music: good. Elizabeth Schwarzkopf: personal behaviour atrocious, singing voice divine.

    Joining the Nazi Party when it was the thing to do, shacking up with an American officer immediately after the surrender, and then fast-tracking her ‘rehabilitation’ by marrying Walter Legge (two for the price of one here!) — She made the Vicar of Bray look like Amateur Hour.

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