This TrumpWorld GrabBag Isn't New To Politics

As you may know, I am not today or any day a Trump fan, and I owe a lot of this to having been from the cradle acutely aware of politics. I basically greeted my kindergarten mates "Greetings comrade." I diagnosed my elementary school's promotion of certain people into the "gifted program" and others into the "remedial" program along racial lines as distinctly problematic while I was attending, which did nothing for my own self assessment (I understood my privileges) and launched a baby dialectics. I was the subject of a schoolyard opinion that I was weird, but I understood my set-apartness as being of my own making, and that made all the difference. My thrift store clothes and BBC vocab became my brand. I cared not for following a multitude to do evil (a Biblicism that eventually undid any interest I ever had to be a part of organized faith). 

Needless to say, I am not new to politics. I consider my premature birth in September 1972 as "coming out early for McGovern". I am, in full, the SJW for life. It is no slur to me--why wouldn't I rather be a social justice warrior, like my suffragette and civil rights heroes, than an anti-social injustice do nothing, which is the natural polar opposite, I would presume: the basement-dwelling unfuckable  racism-curious b/tard who thinks Trump politics are a good laugh because his incompetence somehow "owns libs".

How different we are! Because looking over the landscape of the Trumpist Morlocks, I am aware I would not really want to own, rent, or lease them , and could not be paid to haul them for rubbish. Which is why I am not sorry to see Paul Manafort get dinged for trying it with Bob Mueller, and reveal that he had no business trying it, among a bevy of trying-hards. 

This bish was in a plea agreement with Robert Mueller, staring down the entirety of his not even young life in prison, and was visited with an option: Just tell all the truth, and maybe you will feel sun on your face in your vast old age. And then he felt safe enough to lie. 

The reason why that makes the most sense to me is that old joint defense thingy he still had with Trump. which let Trump sort of know what he thought Mueller knew. And Manafort sort of thought being loyal enough to be a backchannel regarding what he could reconnoiter from his Mueller grilling would maybe earn him a pardon, eventually? Even if he'd still be in a sort of prison regarding shit he knew about Russian Mafiosi that would probably earn him a shafting. But anyways, he thought the lying to Mueller about Trump stuff was just pro forma for staying made. But because he's truly busted, that makes no sense. Mueller can go to the court and just provide all the deets about what he is lying about. As in, Manafort stays having giving up Trump as his really best thing.  Because this ham-faced git is not probably going to pardon him, because it would definitely be another obstruction of justice charge, and he would like to not be in prison his whole senility. 

Anyways, there still is some drama about Corsi and Stone, because of course there is. Corsi, of course, is the guy who was behind swiftboating and birtherism, and chimed in first about whether former SOS Clinton sort of looked a little ill. He's scum. And Stone is a known rat fucker, which takes a very tiny...conscience (why wouldn't the answer be "conscience"?)

Not being new to politics, I wish so many of these people at the minimum: injuries. Maybe prison. Gladly, the ability to not influence politics again. 

This Looks Crooked from Every Angle

The thing that bothers me about Michael Cohen's statement that he is the guy who paid Stormy Daniels for no particular reason whatsoever is that the fact that he paid her at all is really amazingly coincidental with his client, one Donald J. Trump, having been implicated in an affair with this woman, and in the throes of an election where the most recent scuttlebutt alleged that he was a womanizer, when this pay-off happened. He can try to pretend-separate this from the campaign, but there is no more obvious reason for this payoff than that the Trump campaign would prefer to not have another woman talk about his extra-marital sex bidness.

I think this right there is stupid, because we know now, after the election, that Trump's philandering was never a problem for his voters. He was accused of sexual harassment and rape during the election. I'm not sure how Stormy Daniels' story was going to be some kind of "too much". Coming on the heels of the several kinds of harassment and assault allegations happening just then, which Trump had no problem denying, I don't know why her story would have represented a damaging bit of pile-on that needed to be monetarily hushed.

Cohen alleges that his financial facilitation of a payment (through the creation of an LLC to sort of, shall we say, launder that monetary "gift") was done entirely without any coordination with the Trump Campaign or the Trump Foundation.

Yah right--and he isn't also suing Buzzfeed because of the Steele Dossier.  Cohen is a fixer, and he does shit for Trump whether it is really good shit to do or not. I kind of wonder whether he has significantly fuxxored himself by admitting he has paid for Stormy Daniels in lots of ways--he should not be offering his financial assistance to some client who is not indigent to influence any potential case--and Trump should seriously be staking his own bribes, right?  This is basic lack of lawyering ethics.

Also, this is either a bribe or a material boost to the Trump campaign because it pretend-refutes damaging info for the Trump Campaign.  Totally an in-kind donation, you might think?

I don't even know. Cohen strikes me as a bad actor anyway. I definitely don't give credence to his story.

Carl Paladino is Gross

My opinion that Carl Paladino of NY is not a well person isn't really related to his aberrant behavior fairly recently as a Trump campaign persona.  Oh heck no, I was following his very weird self back in 2010 when he was running for NY Governor as the GOP candidate.  He was quite obviously loathsome six years ago, so I don't find his current outburst all that astonishing.

Of course he still thinks using racist or sexist invective amusing and doesn't care who hears him use it. He didn't win as NY Governor in 2010, but he was a trusted campaign official in Trump's rise, right? That is a kind of validation, isn't it?

But his recent comments are really quite something else:

Mr. Paladino’s comments were published in Artvoice, a weekly Buffalo newspaper. They came in response to an open-ended feature in which local figures were asked about their hopes for 2017.

“Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford,” said Mr. Paladino, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2010, making an apparent reference to the Hereford cattle breed. He said he hoped the disease killed the president.

Asked what he most wanted to see “go away” in the new year, Mr. Paladino — who has a reputation in New York political and business circles for speaking in an unfiltered manner reminiscent of Mr. Trump’s — answered, “Michelle Obama.”

“I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla,” he said.

That is appalling and distinctively bigoted. I understand not all Trump followers might recognize it as being quite the disgusting hate speech it is.  But it is flagrantly bigoted. It isn't really my business to suggest the Trump near and dear remove him from their circle--oh hell no! But I think they should explain why he was in their inner circle for a wee while. This guy. This obvious and assholish actual guy. Whose opinions would not have ever been unknown to them.

This Makes Me More "With Her", You Know.

The funny old thing about Comey's tripping over Weiner's dick to potentially cover Trump's ass is that I am so already over the email scandal and all of that that I could not care less what shakes out. Fuck it. Trump wants to be a whiny little bitch about what he calls "rigging", but the fix against Clinton having a smooth glide-path to a White House landing was for real and no one expected anyone would make it easy for her. The fix against Hillary Clinton started at birth when her birth certificate was marked female and you know what?

She isn't a liar (not for her line of work and especially not compared to Trump she isn't)  and she isn't corrupt. She's human, and not- perfect, and she sometimes doesn't do things 100% right--but at the end of the day, she gives a shit. She always has. She has always seemed to know that her business on this planet is give-a-shitting.  She cares about war and she cares about women's right to decide our health outcomes and the rights of gay and trans people and tries to talk social justice into the public discourse whenever she can. So she had a little fuck-up with her emails--sorry? I didn't know that ephemeral details were supposed to impress me into not liking a candidate who shares my values. And has done so as her life-long practice.

And she does.

I despise and show all due contempt at the effort to smear this woman, the capable  and trustworthy woman I have long-endorsed, because I know the detractions against her are expressed in air or water, not stone.

I remain with her, and think many right-minded people will.

Musket a Better Idea About How Civics Works

So there is a possibility that "grabbing his musket" is Joe's euphemism for slapping the captain or bopping the bishop, but I think that maybe Walsh--who was voted out of his office because he is really only good for being a bad example--might have a point.  Why wouldn't the results of the election hew to what Joe Walsh has personally observed? Why would his own personal sampling of the potential electorate seem so radically different from the one touted by the "lamestream media"?

It's a question that I think is pretty interesting: take me, personally, as your specifically "not Joe Walsh" example. I live in Philadelphia, work in Trenton, am personally culturally Catholic but confessedly agnostic, and queer in theory if not very lately in practice.  My individual sampling is going to represent a more dense population and a more diverse demographics than the people Joe Walsh is meeting. My personal reflections based on my in-group skews very highly Clinton. There is little Trump-support in my in-person or work-related or broader familial/Facebook-y cohort--and to the extent that there was one relative who just posted some slop from conspiracy sites regarding why the Trump accusers were specifically and aggregately BS, I just needed to not have that in my face for all the reasons. (Sorry cuz!)

My sample has more diversity and my media choices are somewhat more reality-centered. I think former Rep,. Walsh probably is relying on FOX, having whittled down his notion of what acceptable journalism looks like. So a Clinton win to him, might conceivably look very wrong. Maybe even musket grabbingly so. While I am relatively certain the deal with Clinton is down, and we are just negotiating how awesome her WH sauce will be, I wonder.

But "grabbing the musket"? That is not how we settle our scores in a free and fair democracy.

Pay to Play the Trump Way

It seems like the media is loathe to report the ongoing issues surrounding Donald Trump's fraud case, even though his dismissal of said case because the judge is a Mexican-American is sort of a meaningful glimpse into his outlook, you might think?  Oh well. Maybe the mainstream media has been too distracted by the allegation (debunked) of CGI pay to play to recognize the actual Trump pay to play that was even documented at this humble blog a couple months ago. See, it looks like FL AG Pam Bondi did discuss with Donald Trump his donating $25K to her campaign, even if we don't know (but we do) what for. (Former TX AG, now Governor Greg Abbott got $35K--71 cents on the dollar tells me the gender bribe gap is a real thing you guys!)

Are we going to pretend this isn't something Trump has even boasted about previously? Funny old thing, that. He's has a funny old quid pro quo-looking arrangement with Rudy Giuliani in days gone by too, looks like.  Can't even rule out that there's some favors going on with NJ Gov. Christie.

It's sort of like Trump expects that how politics is done is predicated by grift.  The media could possibly make this a bigger deal.

Trump's Very Busy and Partially Mexican Day

There is a grain of truth in what the wag who coined this sudden trip to Mexico by the Trump Team as "a Hail Maria pass" is implying. This is the sort of "can't get worse" reasoning that leads to big splashy plays, which Trump, as a reality TV guy, completely understands. You do big things and get ratings. It makes sense. What gets ratings? Something to look at. What would people want to look at? Things to do with the issue he ran hard on in the primaries where all he did was win, of course--immigration and the big beautiful wall! Why wouldn't that be where he went? That was the most successful thing that worked for him. You build the great big beautiful wall with the nice door in it, and Mexico pays. Mexico pays and this is how the US wins--

Except this is incredibly dumb, and Trump could not possibly expect Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to actually play along. See, this whole thing where Peña Nieto invited him so they could have a nice confab where Trump scored foreign policy bonus points as if he was not running against possibly the most travelled and foreign-policy-experiencing human of all time, where Trump looks like a God condescending to visit Mexico who he will so demand a payment for the building of a wall from, was always a dream.  As a candidate for office, not an office-holder, there's the Logan Act standing between him and crafting foreign policy--which doesn't preclude the actual host government official, Peña Nieto, letting him know what diplomatically isn't possible--Mexico will not pay for building that stupid wall. The Mexican President has a very low favorability, but not as low as damn Trump has in Mexico. Saying "Hell no!" to Trump should have got him a bump, but he squandered it  by not doing it at the presser, but after the fact. So he said "Mexico won't build that wall" and Trump has shit to say, because he isn't actually in charge of anything at the mo'.

So far, just reasonable. The news of Mexicans protesting this whole thing is hardly a concern. People can pretend he was being presidential, except for the lying about whether he discussed the wall and the paying thereof of with Peña Nieto--even though he says it was totally suggested and rejected. SO what went on from this?

He doubled-down on everything from the primaries. No amnesty. More deportations, He did not soften a damn thing, and left some watchers thinking maybe this here pivot is just not even a thing.

And once again, this pivot thing never did happen. Nope, not ever. His base would be too mad. He is anti-immigration guy forevs. So white, far-right and uptight, you guys.

View From Night Three at the RNC 2

Senator Ted Cruz gave a barnburner of a speech in favor of the Republican Party and the conservatism for which it stands (although I do not agree with the way he tied the GOP to civil rights as if the switchover never really did take place after 1964 with the nomination of segregation supporter Goldwater for the presidential nod and Nixon's "southern strategy"). He did not endorse Trump. He advised that conservatives vote their conscience.

I think he did exactly the thing he needed to do to be viable in 2020. I'm not saying I have a new respect for the man, but I think he's savvy as all hell. He threaded the goddamn needle.

I mean, they booed his ass. But he might get a little satisfaction down the road, is all I'm saying.

RNC 2016: Was This a Bridge Too Far?

Even though this was supposed to be "Jobs night", NJ Governor Chris Christie took the time in his speech to try Hillary Clinton for the horrible things he thinks she ever did, like being a Democrat and running for president.

She also negotiated with Russia (which we call diplomacy) and which any anti-proliferation foreign policy person would think was right to do. Reagan even did. He says Clinton never fights for "us". Does Christie feel, for some reason, particularly unfought for? And does he happen to have a mouse in his pocket?

Seriously, this is they guy so enamored of the Trump deal he tried to math away Melania's plagiarism, saying it was only 7% of her speech. Well, if a sandwich was 93% cheesesteak and 7% mothballs, would you even eat it? (Or spend an unbelievable amount of time picking out mothballs.)

Former McCain Advisor Steve Schmidt called this Banana Republican. I call this a "bridge too far".

This Is Not a Normal Campaign

So, before I get into any of the things the RNC produced this evening, let's just get out of the way the fact that the entire day's news cycle was centered on the Trump campaign giving increasingly weirder and less-persuasive reasons why the wife of the GOP candidate happened to have said several sentences that were apparently poached from Michelle Obama's 2008 DNC speech.

The whole damn day, letting it upstage any other thing that was going on. This isn't exactly in "no, but it's a common shape, like a sheriff's star" territory, but yes! this is exactly where we are!  No competent political adults would let something shitty dominate a news cycle like this. They wouldn't just toss blame back and forth hoping it would land on the carpet for someone else to sweep away. It wouldn't be that hard for a campaign to simply say "Yes, this speech had some obvious borrowings and the speechwriters have been dealt with" instead of actually throwing the candidate's wife under the bus by basically giving away that like the not really ready for political go-time person she was, she tried to emulate someone who seemed pretty competent at the First Lady role--Michelle Obama.

(My other, darker, speculation is that the step kids helped sexy stepmom out by way of a little prank to get her ass thrown under a bus. No competent campaign would let that speculation even look like a possibility for the whole damn day.)

We had Hillary Clinton blamed for the furore (her campaign stayed mum, according to the ancient dictum, that when your opponent is hitting himself in the nuts, one does not intervene). My Little Pony was actually invoked.  Absurdist Trumplestiltskin Katrina Pierson spun bullshit into strawmen by claiming that Michelle Obama did not invent the English language. (Is Pierson a paid spokesperson for the Trump campaign--like, on purpose? She is appalling. Absolutely appalling.)

The Trump campaign seemed to go out of its way to self-immerde. Are there any adults at all in charge there? Should you possibly consider putting Charles in Charge?

But of course not.  Delete your campaign.

Donald Trump's Campaign in One Image

You could ask yourself, looking at the above image, "Why is the label 'Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!' placed in a six-pointed red star?" and possibly come up with a reasonable design explanation--the contrast of the red with the pale green of money, perhaps, or the thickness of the six-pointed star, sometimes referred to as the Star of David, itself being broad enough to fit the message. Except--except! Art choices don't just exist as design but within context.

This is disturbing, and in a way that I can't find accidental--not against the backdrop of Trump's history of insinuation. such as the thoroughly deceitful "Birther" dabbling. 

I wanted to write a nice, dense, links-laden piece about the continuing dumpster fire that is Trump's inept campaign--the apparent collusion of his campaign with its lil' baby SuperPAC with the vicious name (after his book) Crippled America PAC. And how this was because of his campaign's lack of even basic fundraising savvy, and how both trickle down to a paucity of ground game. Take the difficulty of maintaining a professional staff: would you want to try coordinating surrogates on messaging when your own candidate has such poor discipline as to joke, in a paranoid tone, that Mexican planes are coming for him and he doesn't know if a Turkish reporter is "friend or foe"?

But see--it looks inept if you think of the racist bits as gaffes. The problem is there's too many of them for it to be plausible to any thoughtful person. This type of messaging has been excused by too many for too long.

Just when he thought he was out...

UPDATE: Rubio confirms: I am running for reelection https://t.co/S4TvXC2uMm pic.twitter.com/0w2KQAiUGo

— The Hill (@thehill) June 22, 2016

They pull him back in!

I thought he was saying that the US Senate was no fun and he never got to do cool stuff and really meant it, you guys.

But is certainly is a job. His website offers why he's running. I hope he loses.

Hillary Clinton Sends up Deadbeat Don

There's a certain fortuitousness about Hillary Clinton getting to deliver a speech against Donald Trump's economic proposals against the backdrop of all and sundry discovering that Trump is so broke.  She spilled all the tea about how Trump's economic proposals sucked a lot.  She was actually awesome and brought knowledge. Trump is somehow a businessman who is scarily supposed to be successful, but never actually is. She called him out.

She has been hitting him hard lately, and this strikes me as so "not wrong" I don't even think I have  comment.

The Trump Problem 6: Dan Hominy

Trump source in room tells me Trump made a gen elex map pitch to the group. Mentioned NJ ("right, Chris?!"), CA, PA, MD as in play.

— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) June 9, 2016

I think the Republicans have an interesting problem with Donald Trump in that they want him to be someone he pretty much isn't. They think he is growing and learning.  He will stop being a textbook racist asshat any day now.  Basically, they believe that they can decry the things said by Donald Trump, and still support "Dan Hominy".

"Dan Hominy" is my private name for "The Nominee"--a salt-of the earth independent small government businessman who pleases the evangelical contingent while being strictly acceptable to the Chamber of Commerce folks, and who, when he's up for it, shows a solid grasp of national defense priorities. You know, a "Generic Republican", who, if things were anything but what they are right now, would be just the three-legged-stool sitting SOB to eke out an electoral college win over Hillary Clinton. A guy with no major negatives, a reputation for honesty, and a basic general competence.  I think, despite Donald Trump actually being the person who won the GOP primaries, a lot of Republicans want to mainstream their guy as being this "Dan Hominy"--slogan? "He's got grits!"

Put on Your Clown Shoes and dance the Blues

If Trump wants you to run, you'll run to him, and if he says hide, well. Per an earlier report, Lindsey Graham was privately asking other conservatives to support Trump.  But he says he isn't doing any such a thing.

And I actually don't know which report I like better.

The Trump Problem 3: Did I Mention He'll Say Anything?

The meeting that took place with Donald Trump and a handful of Republican lawmakers was partially billed as a meeting between Trump and Paul Ryan--part of the process I've been calling "getting Ryan to 'yes'". While Speaker Ryan didn't endorse Trump (yet) I'm pretty sure I heard the strains of the traditional wedding march "Momma Brought a Shotgun and Daddy Brought a Jug" composed in G minor for the world's smallest fiddle playing in the background.

It was a positive meeting. They are very convinced that Trump is so conservative enough for the likes of the GOP establishment. Which comes just in time for the revelation that Trump's former butler is a racist conspiracy theorist who called for President Obama's lynching.

Now, I'd would say a man can't be blamed for what an employee does with his private social media, but it certainly is an uncomfortable reminder that the main objection a lot of people would have regarding Trump isn't his conservative resume. He's not being protested everywhere he goes because he's an acceptable conservative to the establishment--it's because he's a racist conspiracy theorist.  And he fully intends to continue using being a bottom-scraper in his campaign.

So while it's very nice that Trump can sometimes put on big-boy manners, I think it's appalling that his "charm offensive" is being read as anything other than offensive, period. But it certainly tells me something I already know that the GOP establishment is willing to work with it if it's all they've got.

The Trump Problem 2: What the Elites Don't Know, but the Base Understands

This morning, the Oracle of Wasilla Sarah Palin made a curse against Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and all his doin's, to the effect of her being in support of Rep. Ryan's being primaried and cast in the place of darkness, there to wail and gnash his teeth, like Eric Cantor was. 

This is not an absurd thing to say. There is a Republican challenger for Ryan's seat, and if I know anything about the good folks of Wisconsin, it's that they voted for Walker three times and produced a Glenn Grothman, so? Maybe the pride of Janesville should feel a little discomfort. (Or maybe, if freed from having to appeal to everybody as the guy both begged to become Speaker of the House and arm-twisted until he had to deny wanting to make a run at the convention for president in the event it was contested, the sigh of relief.) But how vast this former VP candidate's (Ryan, I mean, not Palin) heresy is depends on your POV.

After all, when I derided Paul Ryan's response to Trump's nomination as he was "just not ready" as being willing to be brought to "yes",  I considered that he was going to get there, eventually, but it was just possible that he was aware of a certain ticket with a flashy, but under-informed VP candidate with great right-wing bona fides, but which, nonetheless, lost to a celebrity-quality POC with a funny foreign name and a gaffe-prone 70's vintage Democrat Congresscritter.  And even Sarah Palin knows the weaknesses of that particular ticket. In other words--Ryan is just being cagey about whether the entire country is ready to swallow what the GOP base drinks in every day.

I remember when that very question was very much on the minds of a handful of high-profile names in the GOP circa 2009. Rep. Eric Cantor, former Gov. Mitt Romney, and former Gov. Jeb Bush were all keen to take what they learned from the post-mortems of the 2008 election and try to reconcile it with a listening tour of the Republican base.

There's a pretty impressive "Where are they now?" Romney lost in 2012, Rep. Cantor lost in a primary, and Jeb Bush's 2016 Presidential Primary bid was a subject of pity and awe. Whatever they were listening to--it could not help them.

Former Governor Rick Perry--He's With Stupid.

JUST IN: Rick Perry will support Trump https://t.co/bVeebf34NF pic.twitter.com/PId4aFiHFf

— The Hill (@thehill) May 5, 2016

You know who was anti-Trump in the Summer of 2015? Rick Perry was.

You know who's gonna support Donald Trump now? Rick Perry is.

Oops.

Remember that old saying about how Democrats want to fall in love and Republicans fall in line? Well--here's the falling in line. How do you get from "He's a cancer!" to "I can live with cancer"?

He's also open to being his running mate so...

Ted Cruz and the 2020 Vision?

Ted Cruz bows out of 2016 race, accidentally elbows wife after speech https://t.co/IL10tXQjo1

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 4, 2016

It is sort of fitting that a candidate who seemed a little less than adept at being perfectly home in a human skin (c'mon, Ted, even a dog can shake hands, as the man said!), who disturbed small children (even his own!)and seemed a little more like an alien who lived on human misery and tinned soup, clocks his wife in the jibs as he ended his awkward campaign on an awkward note. It seems to be who he is--just an awkward, awkward guy who misnames sportsball equipment and strings movie quotes together when he can't make regular talk happen.

There's probably a way to sell this as being humanizing, if Cruz starts now. And I think he did, just a little, when he finally responded to the damn silliness of Cruz, Sr. being a part of the JFK assassination conspiracy by blasting Trump for his unserious repetition of crazy tabloid bullshit. I'm not saying I'd buy Cruz becoming likable--but what the hell--he's probably already had his eye on whether his chances are better in 2020. After all, I've already figured that Cruz is thinking long-range. Why wouldn't he--being I should certainly hope more wrapped up in his political future than your humble blogger is?

After all, although Cruz has bowed out, there's something about having been a figure for #NeverTrump people that I think should encourage him to refrain from coming around to endorsing Trump--after things Trump has said, I'd certainly respect him less if he did. I don't think there's any reason Cruz should a) expect a place for himself in a possible Trump cabinet or even b) put any eggs in the "Trump wins the 2016 race" basket at all.

Frankly, a 2016 win for Hillary Clinton becomes Cruz's best shot--having already proven a capable bomb-thrower with his previous government shutdown hijinks, it's clear that he can sustain a high profile as the face of opposition to Hillary Clinton's velvet-gloved tyranny from his position in the Senate. That, plus a softening of Clinton's image after a regular four-year RW media bombardment gives him a lot to work with. And with Trump having lost to Clinton in 2016 (because this is likely, unless you believe Rasmussen math, and I think they must have hired that Dean Chambers cat...)any hard feelings over his failure to give in for the sake of party unity to Team "Never Say Never" will be forgiven because, as you know, Trump was a loser.

And he never was a real conservative, anyway.

Now, part of me wants to think that calculation will be cancelled out by demographics, and that Cruz might not even win re-election for the Senate. It would count on a really rugged time for a potential President Clinton and a gathering social conservative backlash that is partially presaged by the "religious freedom" and trans bathroom discrimination bills we've been seeing in this cycle. But I can't say it doesn't make a weird kind of sense.

This is not the last we see of Ted Cruz's presidential hopes, folks.

Donald Trump Has a Funny Idea

.@realDonald Trump accuses Cruz's father of helping JFK's assassin pic.twitter.com/qJjz8QyuIf

— POLITICO (@politico) May 3, 2016

You know, there are a lot of things you can say about Ted Cruz--after all, when your wife has to explain you are not the Zodiac Killer and the former Speaker of the House calls you "Lucifer" , it's a sign your reputation is in trouble. But saying that someone's dad helped assassinate JFK is kinda cuckoo bananas.

But this is Trump. He mainstreams tabloid conspiracy theory all the time. Anyone else, we would wonder whether the person throwing this out there was in his right mind, or maybe was actually too gullible or deranged to be presidential. With Trump? Normal! What an election year!