Something of an Update (Crackpottery Wrapped in Tinfoil Wrapped in a Bad Suit)

#trumpfoil | #WhatTheyVotedFor

If it feels somehow familiar, yes, there really is a reason.

The Justice Department confirmed in a court filing late Friday that neither it nor the FBI has evidence that Trump Tower was the target of surveillance efforts by the Obama administration during the 2016 presidential election.

(Greenwood)

Six months. How strange it feels to look back to March as if the upcoming six-month mark should feel like some chapter from ancient history. What should have been breathtaking in its time might well have been, but how far down the #trumphole have we fallen, since? 

Not Exactly Encouraging

Ladies and gentlemen, Dana Milbank:

Kevin McCarthy is about to ascend to the highest office in the House of Representatives and become second in line to the presidency.

But there is a problem: The speaker-apparent apparently still can’t speak.

You know, you might think it a cheap setup, and, well, maybe it is, but the Washington Post column has something of a Be Sharps ring about it: This one writes itself. No, really. It does.

I have been tracking the California Republican’s valiant but often unsuccessful struggles with the English language for some time now, and I was alarmed to watch him lose another round on Monday during a foreign-policy speech to the John Hay Initiative, a new outfit of the neo-conservative bent.

“If I look at history of where we are it seems a lot like 1979,” McCarthy informed his audience in the ballroom of Washington’s St. Regis hotel.

“We must engage this war of radical Islam if our life depended on it because it does,” he opined.

And, yes, like a rock on a heap of two-bit proverbs, it only goes downhill from there.

Almost indescribably. The column could easily be just a string of quotes, but at some point Milbank is obliged to cut away for some commentary:

The Ted Cruz Show (Twitmix)

Cruelty is an American virtue, and nowhere is it more exhaustively celebrated than in our political discourse; which, in turn, kind of makes sense and explains why we not only tolerate such vice but encourage and even demand it. Oh, hell, let’s just run with the explanation from DeadState:

Just before Ted Cruz’s announcement today that he’s running for president, he sent out a cryptic message on Twitter that seemed to forebode the event.

Almost immediately, the folks on Twitter cobbled together the hashtag #TedCruzCampaignSlogans, and it was all downhill from there. Mocking Cruz with everything from suggested campaign slogans to referencing his birthplace in Canada, the onslaught was relentless.

And, of course, the thrashing ranged from policy to stupidity and even on to aesthetics:

• “The wisdom of Bush, the fearmongering of Cheney, the ideology of Rand Paul, and the face of the drama mask.”

• “Like Sarah Palin’s annoying younger brother.”

• “An ocean in every house and a probe in every woman.”

• “Just in case Rand Paul wasn’t crazy enough for you.”

• “Because Joseph McCarthy deserves a second chance.”

Right. Pick your favorites. Grimace at the tasteless ones. Let it be.

That is to say, yeah, sure, it’s kind of fun to make these jokes, but there is no alternate campaign slogan we might invent that will surpass the sublimely vicious humor inherent in the idea that Ted Cruz thinks he can be president.

____________________

(h/t to D.P.)

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, speaks at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Cruz was scheduled to speak on the scope of treaty power in the U.S. Constitution. Photographer: Pete Marovich/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Palma, Sky. “Ted Cruz jumps in for 2016, Twitter destroys him accordingly with #TedCruzCampaignSlogans”. DeadState.org. 23 March 2015.