They that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind

A rather revealing admission by the winner of the Nevada GOP caucus. At first glance, Trump appears to be denigrating the very people who are propelling him to victory, and that is how a number of news outlets are spinning his words today. This would seem to reinforce an already existing narrative about Trump, one that is best illustrated by an internet meme that has been floating around for months:

As much as Trump's opponents would love to believe that he actually called Republican voters the "dumbest group of voters in the country", there is absolutely no evidence that he ever said it. The quote has been thoroughly debunked by now, but continues making the rounds on social media. But even if it were an accurate quote, I seriously doubt that it would make the slightest difference to the people who are supporting Donald Trump. They appear to be completely impervious to any of the arguments being made against their candidate. In fact, I suspect that they will embrace the status of having been "poorly educated" as a badge of honor. And why shouldn't they? After all, they have clearly backed a winner in Donald Trump.

The Republican Party has been courting a disaster like this for decades now, and it has finally come to fruition. I don't know if Trump actually holds his supporters in contempt, because of their ignorance, but I know for damn sure that the GOP establishment certainly does. They have courted those poorly educated voters by appealing to their emotions, rather than their intellect. GOP candidates play to their anger and fear by invoking things like abortion, gay rights, and immigration. They get them all fired up, and collect their votes on election day, but then proceed to do absolutely nothing about any of the issues they campaigned on. What they do instead is pass regressive legislation that disproportionately impacts the very people who voted them into office. The author Thomas Frank did an excellent job of explaining this dynamic in his book titled What's the Matter with Kansas. I read it 10 years ago, when it was first published, and suspect that it only become more relevant with the passing of a decade.

English Only

I came across an interesting bit of presidential trivia earlier this evening. If Donald J. Trump becomes our next president, his wife will have the distinction of being only the second First Lady that was born outside of the United States. Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, wife of President John Quincy Adams, was born in London on February 12, 1775. She was the daughter of an Englishwoman and an American merchant. John Quincy's father, John Adams, was the American consul general in London during the 1790s, and that is how his son made the acquaintance of Louisa Catherine. Interestingly enough, John Adams initially objected to his son marrying a woman born outside the United States but eventually relented and welcomed her into the family.

Melania Knauss Trump was born on April 26, 1970 in the town of Sevnica in what was then Yugoslavia. At the age of 16, Melania began working as a model and would move to the United States in 1997 to continue pursuing what was already a very successful career. She met Donald Trump in 1998, and the couple would marry on January 22, 2005. They have a 10-year old son named Barron William Trump. Melania Trump is fluent in no fewer than five languages: English, French, Slovenian, Serbian, and German. And Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of Secretary of State John Kerry, can also boast of fluency in five languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian.

However, I highly doubt that Trump will be trumpeting his wife's remarkable linguistic abilities on the campaign trail. His presidential campaign contains very distinct strains of both nativism and xenophobia, and Trump has loudly championed an "English only" policy for this country. He actually scolded rival Jeb Bush for having the temerity to answer a reporter's question in Spanish. And I distinctly recall Teresa Heinz Kerry being viewed with suspicion, rather than admired, for her very exotic background. She was born in Mozambique, in 1938, when the country was still a Portuguese colony. During the 2004 presidential general election, President George W. Bush, and his wife Laura, were presented as the "true Americans" by virtue of the fact that they rarely traveled abroad and only spoke English. Bush's rival John Kerry spoke French, and was widely mocked because of it. A commonly heard joke among Bush supporters was that Kerry even "looked French". But, so far as I'm aware, Donald Trump is himself untainted by any contamination with other languages. And you can be damn sure that the only language we will hear coming out of Melania's lovely mouth will be her heavily accented English.

The Debateful Eight

Blabbermouth

Jeb Zimmerman

Jeb Bush might have grown up in Texas, and served as the governor of the gun-crazy State of Florida, but he is never going to convince anyone that he is an authentic gun guy. Earlier today, he tweeted out the word "America" with this photograph of a semi-automatic handgun. The social media response has been brutal, and it is by no means only coming from the left. The first thing that came to my mind was that world famous varmint hunter, Willard Mitt Romney, who at least had the good sense not to attempt anything this pathetic and desperate. Any residual respect that I had for Jeb Bush evaporated the moment I saw the tweet. His campaign is long on dollars, and short on just about everything else. The people managing this train wreck are getting rewarded handsomely for running what will surely stand as one of the very worst presidential campaigns in American political history. They just better make sure that gun isn't anywhere within Jeb's reach when the South Carolina primary returns come in. Because, at this point, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he comes in behind Ben Carson, and maybe a few candidate who aren't even in the race anymore.

¡Ay, caramba!

For me anyway, this remarkable exchange between Cruz and Rubio was one of the most revealing moments of last night's debate. But, in order to fully appreciate just how meaningful this was, it helps to know the background. Both men are the sons of Cuban immigrants, and presumably know how to speak Spanish, but neither one really identifies with being Hispanic at least not in the context of this presidential contest they are both competing in. Cruz was born Rafael Edward Cruz, but dropped the Rafael in favor of Ted when he was a teenager. He married an Anglo woman named Heidi Suzanne Nelson, and the couple's two daughters are named Caroline and Catherine respectively. Unlike Cruz, Rubio saw no need to change his first name to something less overtly ethnic. His wife Jeanette is the daughter of Colombian immigrants. She also worked as a Miami Dolphins cheerleader, which is something I wasn't previously aware of. The couple have four children: Daniella, Amanda, Dominick, and Anthony. And, like the name Marco, those names all have a distinctly Italian flavor.

None of the first three states in the GOP primary process have significant number of Hispanic voters, but that will not be the case moving forward. So it stands to reason that all of the campaigns, with the likely exception of the Trump campaign, will be trying to appeal to Hispanics in states where they are heavily represented. Jeb Bush is married to a Mexican-American woman, and is fluent in her native language. And when he launched his campaign, Bush did so in English and Spanish, and seemed poised to make his command of the language a centerpiece of his campaign. Only to find himself mocked by front-runner Donald Trump, someone who has relentlessly demonized Hispanics in his own campaign. Jeb got the message loud and clear. Both Cruz and Rubio would seem to be uniquely qualified to appeal to Hispanic voters, given that they can communicate in Spanish, but it isn't quite that simple.

Ted Cruz has been quoted as saying that his Spanish is "lousy", and when a Spanish-speaking opponent challenged him to a debate in Spanish during the 2012 Texas Senate race, Cruz wouldn't take the bait. And last night was probably the first time that Cruz has spoken Spanish during this campaign. Without a doubt, Rubio was attacking his rival's credentials as a legitimate Latino and Cruz got so rattled that he actually started speaking Spanish. And, as you watch the video, you can almost see the wheels turning in Rubio's head as Cruz accuses him of speaking Spanish on Univision. A wide smile spreads across his face as Marco realizes that his opponent has just handed him an early Valentine's Day gift.

Hillary is Palling around with War Criminals

“The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.” - Henry Kissinger

“I was very flattered when Henry Kissinger said I ran the State Department better than anybody had run it in a long time." - Hillary Clinton

"I am proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend. I will not take advice from Henry Kissinger" - Bernie Sanders

Who would have guessed that the 92-year old Kissinger would suddenly become a hot topic of debate in the Democratic primary contest? I certainly didn't see it coming, and I doubt Hillary Clinton did either. She wouldn't have invoked Henry Kissinger, during the fifth Democratic debate, if she weren't confident in the belief that it would be a safe position for her to stake out. After all, Kissinger is a respected elder statesman today, basking in the glory of such accomplishments as the role he played in opening up relations with the People's Republic of China, and the Nobel Peace Prize he won in 1973 for "ending" the Vietnam War. The inconvenient fact that the war didn't actually end until 1975 doesn't seem to have troubled Kissinger in the least, but it did inspire this classic SNL skit.

Since leaving office in January of 1977, the former National Security Adviser and Secretary of State has written books, served on a number of boards, and founded Kissinger Associates. He has continued to advise presidents on foreign policy, and briefly served as the chair of the 9/11 Commission, until stepping down in December of 2002 rather than release his client list. His appointment by President George W. Bush had stirred up no small amount of controversy, and Kissinger gladly took the opportunity to bow out gracefully. No one is more aware than Henry Kissinger of just how vulnerable his carefully-crafted public image is to attacks, such as the one Sanders launched during the last Democratic debate, and I have to believe he is "feeling the Bern" right now.

Southern Discomfort

I must confess that the very last GOP presidential candidate that I expected to be linked to a sex scandal would be Ted Cruz. This doesn't really qualify as one, but it will suffice in a pinch. When the Cruz campaign discovered that an actress that they had cast to appear in one of their ads had done some porn, they immediately pulled it down. The actress, Amy Lindsay, could hardly be described as a hardcore porn star. In fact, she has a fairly respectable career history, one that includes a few television appearances.

Lindsay graduated from the University of Texas Austin with a degree in journalism and a minor in Drama. After working in public relations and marketing, she moved to LA to pursue an acting career. And, along with the conventional work, Lindsay also starred in films with titles such as “Kinky Sex Club,” “Milf,” “Carnal Wishes” and “Sex Sent Me to the ER”. The films are all described as being softcore porn, which presumably means that they aren't much more graphic than what you see in the typical movie carrying an "R" rating. 

I was unable to find either a current age, or date-of-birth, for Lindsay which is hardly surprising when you consider that she is an actress. But, considering that she graduated from college in 1995, it is probably safe to assume that she is somewhere north of thirty-five and her days of working in porn are over. And she does claim to be a pro-gun and pro-life Republican, albeit one who supports gay marriage. What is it with these retired porn stars who support Republican presidential candidates anyway? In 2012, Jenna Jameson publicly endorsed Mitt Romney saying that "When you're rich, you want a Republican in office." Here is the pulled campaign ad starring Lindsay:

Requiem for a Heavyweight

I come to bury Christie, not to praise him.

He could have been a serious contender in the 2016 race, but Chris Christie couldn't quite manage to transcend the grubby politics of his home state. The Fort Lee lane closure scandal, or Bridgegate, was as tawdry as it was unnecessary. There was never any doubt that Christie would win his reelection bid in November of 2013, and he did in fact defeat his Democratic opponent by a large margin on election day. The decision to plunge the town of Fort Lee into traffic chaos, by closing two of the three lanes normally open to access the George Washington Bridge, was made out of political spite, pure and simple. And whether Christie ordered it, or even knew about it in advance, is basically irrelevant. It defies logic to believe that his aides would have done something like that without believing that their boss would have approved of it. Which can only mean that Christie fostered a ruthless, and borderline criminal, political culture within his administration.

Many of the postmortems being written for the failed Christie campaign lay a lot of the blame on that infamous hug, that really wasn't a hug. In the immediate aftermath of the devastating Superstorm Sandy that ravaged the Northeast, President Barack Obama flew into New Jersey and was warmly greeted by Governor Christie. A number of pictures were taken of the two men together viewing the destruction that was wrought by the hurricane. One in particular shows the two men shaking hands, and the president has his hand on Christie's shoulder. All of that unfolded right before the 2012 presidential election, and the conventional wisdom is that Christie gave Obama a huge boost by appearing with him. And, by the same token, Christie badly hurt Republican Mitt Romney's chances of defeating the incumbent president. Personally, I'm not all that sure what else Christie could have done at that point and his approval ratings shot-up after those photos began circulating. In fact, one could plausibly argue that his handling of Hurricane Sandy was the high point of Christ Christie's tenure as New Jersey governor.

True to form, Christie went down swinging in New Hampshire, the state on which he had staked everything. His hard work in the Granite State had appeared to be paying off, but then a barrage of attack ads paid for by Super Pacs supporting Bush, Rubio, and Kasich started hitting the airwaves in New Hampshire. Christie's poll numbers nosedived, and he became increasingly bitter towards Marco Rubio who was coming off a strong third-place finish in Iowa. That bitterness culminated in the almost savage take-down of Rubio by Christie that we saw during the last GOP debate. He wounded Rubio deeply, maybe even fatally, but it turns out to have been a murder-suicide. He finished a distant sixth in the primary, and the writing was on the wall. Chris Christie's presidential aspirations are shattered, and all that is left for him is to slink back home and finish out his term as governor. And I don't expect that the homecoming is going to be a very warm one.

None of my best friends are Jews

From what I have been able to gather, Nugent's supporters are about evenly divided between those who profess not to see anything anti-Semitic here, and those who love the fact that the graphic is wildly anti-Semitic. Not surprisingly, the latter category includes former Klan leader David Duke. The graphic originally was posted on the web site Stormfront, which is described as a "white nationalist, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi Internet forum" on the Wiki page. Stormfront began life in 1990 as an online bulletin board for Duke's campaign for U.S. Senator from Louisiana, and eventually grew into the web's significant first racist hate site. Duke had previously endorsed Donald Trump for president saying that "He's the best of the lot". And Nugent also weighed in with his support for Trump, in an earlier Facebook post, calling him "the hellraiser America has needed for a very longtime".

Whether this latest outrage prompts Republican politicians, or the NRA, to reconsider their ties with Nugent remains to be seen. The man has a very long history of saying some incredibly vile and offensive things ranging from calling Hillary Clinton a "toxic cunt" to calling presidential candidate Barack Obama a "piece of shit" who "should suck on my machine gun". But those revelations didn't effect his standing as an NRA board member and unofficial spokesman, nor did they keep Texas Republican Greg Abbott from embracing Nugent during his campaign for Texas governor. Nugent joined Abbott on the campaign trail until reports surfaced that the rocker had called President Obama a "subhuman mongrel". Under fire from both sides, Nugent offered a tepid apology of sorts and Abbott distanced himself from him.

One of the things that I find particularly striking about all of this is the fact that Donald Trump is talking like Ted Nugent, and he is getting away with it. The Republican front runner has been freely mouthing vulgarities during his speeches to the rapturous delight of the crowds. Just yesterday, he called Ted Cruz a "pussy" during a speech in New Hampshire. Trump's supporters say they love the fact that he is unfiltered, and that he is willing to say things like that. And, in contrast to his rivals, Trump does indeed come off as refreshingly honest. We are so accustomed to political speech that is vapid, insipid, mendacious and robotic (think Marco Rubio) that Donald Trump almost seems like a breath of fresh air. And that is a damning indictment of our contemporary political culture.

Pussy Riot