Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) has said so many crazy things and enough really disgusting things that at this point he almost gets a pass from people since it’s just expected. But, man, some of the things aren’t just ‘Yeah, that’s terrible. Let’s definitely write that up‘ but ‘Good Lord, I can’t believe the governor of a state said something like that’. Here’s the actual words: “These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty… these types of guys… they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we have to deal with down the road.”
Watch the video here.
During the daily punishment of listening to Fox News everyday, I just heard a segment on the Republican primary. The gist was that people in the know are saying that this year “a great ground game” is more important than its even been before. And it may count for a lot more than great poll numbers this time around.
Back in September 2013 we got an email from a TPM Reader with a subscription to Ancestry.com who’d decided to poke around to see about Ted Cruz. TPM Reader JR had come up with a 1974 voter list that appeared to show that not only Ted Cruz’s father Rafael was a Canadian citizen (that’s part of the public record) but that his mother Eleanor was too. This was during the lead-up to the Cruz-inspired 2013 government shutdown. So I assume JR was inspired by Cruz’s mounting prominence. But that’s purely my speculation. In any case, JR sent us an email with a link to the document on Ancestry.com.
As we first heard from two TPM readers early this afternoon, a White Nationalist Super PAC (yes, that’s now a thing) is now blanketing Iowa with Robocalls on behalf of Donald Trump. And for bonus awful, the leader of the organization is the man Charleston Massacre shooter Dylann Roof cited as inspiration for his killings in his manifesto. As the audio puts it, “We don’t need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people who will assimilate to our culture. Vote Trump.” Details and audio here.
Spokesman for the group that inspired the Charleston Church Massacre is the head of a White Nationalist SuperPAC now blanketing Iowa with Robocalls backing Donald Trump.
You don’t go to campaign operatives for impartial opinions. You don’t even really expect them to tell the truth. But sometimes when one says something that is not only clearly false but demonstrably false, it merits correcting the record. So let’s return to the point about this document which lists Ted Cruz’s mom, Eleanor, as a Canadian citizen and eligible voter in 1974. As I noted on Friday, the existence of the document does not prove that Cruz was a Canadian citizen (human error is always possible). Nor does it necessarily negate her son’s eligibility to run for President. But I was struck that the Cruz campaign felt compelled to respond to the document’s existence by making claims that are simply demonstrably false. I’m talking specifically here about the statement Cruz chief campaign strategist provided to Breitbart.com.
Johnson said that “the document itself does not purport to be a list of ‘registered Canadian voters … All this might conceivably establish is that this list of individuals (maybe) lived at the given addresses. It says nothing about who was a citizen eligible to vote.”
Well, this is clearly, clearly not true. The Breitbart.com article appeared to be worked out with the campaign to assure people that the document had no significance. So they made no effort to rebut the statement. But in the interests of helping everyone know the details. This statement is clearly and demonstrably false. And here’s why.
If you know anything about the history of the New Hampshire primary and the Manchester Union-Leader, you’ll be amused to know that ABC apparently ended its debate partnership with the UL because it was afraid the paper might be too liberal.
Nope. This isn’t a joke. A White Nationalist SuperPAC is now blanketing Iowa with Robocalls on behalf of Donald Trump. And for bonus awful, the leader of the organization is also the spokesman for the group which Charleston Massacre shooter Dylann Roof cited as inspiration for his killings in his manifesto. As the audio puts it, “We don’t need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people who will assimilate to our culture. Vote Trump.” Details and audio here.
Probably fewer words rather than more are better. But I’m inordinately affected by the unexpected death of David Bowie. I haven’t really listened to anything new from Bowie in years. But as a teenager, in early 80s – ironically in one of his fallow periods – I was obsessed with the whole 70s oeuvre. If you don’t know Bowie other than as a name from a guy who was big in your parents’ day, set aside some time and listen to The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. A certain measure of pure critical acclaim always just eluded Bowie. But for influence, on the full terrain of Anglophone pop music, there are very, very few who even come close. It’s not a measure of some abstract greatness – just an intuitive, personal response: but other than Dylan, Jagger, Richards and maybe McCartney I can’t think of anyone else from this era whose passing would shake me up quite as much. And somehow, Bowie, although certainly not a young man at 69, continued to strike me as much younger than his years. Bowie dead? Really? For now just this …
What you need to know about the perils facing public employee unions in this morning’s case before the Supreme Court.