Lies, money and videotape

Most of the Republican candidates for president have discovered that despite the ease of checking falsehoods on the internet, it is even easier to deny the truth by questioning the motives of the media.  Such was Ben Carson's ploy when asked about his connection with the bogus health claims of an internet marketer.  Virtually everyone outside of the Republican bubble knows the supplement marketer Mannatech  is a cornucopia of false health claims and they actively sought and received Carson's endorsement and paid him handsomely.  However, instead of admitting this, he lied outright and the audience booed the questioner who tried to follow up with more pointed inquiries.  This hearkens back to the Shrub's administration's boast that it was creating reality on a daily basis and the media should get used to it.  Well, as has been demonstrated, facts are stubborn things and have a definite liberal bias.  The 65-70% of the electorate who still believe there is an objective reality must find this whole Trump-Carson phenomenon somewhat alarming.  I know I do.

Diminished expectations

Aside from The Donalds promises to build a bigger, better America, most of the candidates at last night's debate basically told their fellow  countrymen to expect a diminished America, except for the military industrial complex.  As Chris Christie patiently explained to seniors and those on the cusp of retirement the Social Security trust fund was looted long ago and we all better get used to a life of genteel or at least silent poverty.  It is amazing to me we can spend trillions of dollars on unauthorized wars and a half trillion each year to sustain the American empire around the world, but we can't live up to the promises made to those who worked all their lives and contributed to the system.   For this, Christie was lauded by the pundits for "telling it like it is".  The other meme which worked for candidates like Cruz and Rubio was attacks on the "liberal media".  By deflecting the admittedly stupid questions some of the moderators asked with questions as to their political agenda, Cruz drew applause from the base.  Ben Carson sleepwalked through the proceedings, so he will probably take some fire, and Trump continues to lie outright and expect to be believed.  All in all, the so-called debate did little to winnow the field and I'm sure there will be yet another crowded stage next month.  The fact that anyone on that stage could be the eventual candidate of a major political party reduces me to open mouthed stupefaction.

More Republican Follies

The Clown Car stops in Boulder, Col. tonight and a full complement of crazy can be expected.  With Ben Carson leading the polls, expect The Donald and the rest to hammer some of Carson's crazier ideas, such as ending Medicare and Medicaid and his various slavery metaphors, but as long as the good doctor keeps his cool, he will remain the Flavor of the Month among the base.   The paradox of Carson's candidacy is his typical supporter benefits from most of the programs he has vowed to cut.  Indeed, most of the base of the party are unabashed socialists, many collecting government pensions and social security.   The other thing about Carson's popularity which puzzles me is his support from otherwise racist and misogonyst elements of the base.   I guess his rants against his fellow African-Americans cause otherwise racists to overlook his skin color.   Herman Cain in 2012 followed much the same script.  It remains to be seen if Carson can improve on Cain's performance.  The rest of the candidates can be counted on to do anything possible to drag him down.  Get out the popcorn and settle in for a laugher.

Convention post mortems

I must say, the more often I go to conventions; in my case, produce oriented, the less able I am to justify the time and expense they entail.  It seems to me that most of the energy we expend is to "show the flag" to our existing customers and look for the unlikely newbie.   The average company display and personnel cost at the recent PMA convention in Atlanta probably cost in excess of 25,000 dollars, not to mention the dinners, receptions and other networking expenses.  Multiply that by the numerous other confabs offered around the country by regional organizations and the expenses become mind boggling.  Many brokers and even large produce companies are scaling back their participation, but the stigma attached to non attendance at these affairs is harsh.  The implication is the person or organization not displaying is in a straitened economic situation.  I have a feeling after this latest extravaganza there will be some soul-searching, especially if a strict cost-benefit analysis is done.

Republicans' Benghazi fetish

I truly doubt 1 in 10 Americans could find Libya on a map, let alone the city of Benghazi.  That won't stop Republicans from trying to tie Hillary Clinton's Presidential bid to this dusty outpost in a country of chaos.  They grilled the former Secretary of State for 8 hours yesterday and only succeeded in making her look more Presidential than anyone in the Clown Car on the other side.  In boxing parlance, they landed a few glancing blows, but they never bloodied a calm, unruffled Ms. Clinton.  What the Benghazi committee will do next is anyone's guess.  Having spent more time and money on investigating the deaths of 4 Americans than Congress spent on the 9/11 investigation,  and branded by one of their own as a partisan operation, one would hope Trey Gowdy and his merry men will slink back to their burrows.  Unfortunately for them, this travesty will probably continue to play out and instead of damaging Clinton, it will become fodder for Democratic fundraising and commercials leading up to the 2016 elections.

Biden's decision and its consequences

It has been quite a week for political junkies.  The bitter infighting among House Republicans, Paul Ryan's imitation of Hamlet, the looming Benghazi confrontation between Trey Gowdy's transparently political agenda and Hillary and finally, Joe Biden's decision not to get pummeled by another losing Presidential campaign.  Among the pundits and insiders in D.C., Joe Biden is universally well liked, mostly because he plays the inside political game as well as anyone ever has.  Outside the beltway, he is mostly known as a gaffe prone politician with wandering hands.  Fortunately for him, someone with common sense convinced him even with a first class organization he was going nowhere unless he  was willing to become an attack dog.  That doesn't fit with his image and would have been a stretch.  On policy questions there is little or no daylight between him and Hillary and he could not credibly gone after Bernie's fans without denying his own legacy.   A Biden presidency would have been a disaster for Democrats as he would have either cheerfully given away the store to the opposition in the name of bipartisanship, or he would retreat into a fetal position because of his hurt when the Republicans inevitably made a mockery of his attempts at comity.  So now the field is clear.  If Hillary handles 8 hours of testimony today, she will have basically tied up the nomination.  If she stumbles, all bets are off.

Paul Ryan and the Speakership

After an affecting little speech aimed at his recalcitrant brethren in the House, Paul Ryan will sit back for the rest of the week and see if he has tamed the "Freedom Caucus" enough to make his reluctant bid for the Speakership a reality.   Why anyone would want this pseudowonk whose aspirations are more for the other House in D.C. than for wrangling the near hopeless Republican majority is beyond me.   The pundits praise his grasp of the federal budgetary process, but as Paul Krugman points out ad nauseum, Ryan's budgets have always been shot through with magic asterisks which presume all manner of budget cuts and revenue increases without spelling them out or putting in place the actual mechanisms to accomplish his miracles.  That's why they have been DOA throughout his career.  May the Flying Spaghetti Monster help us if he is Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee if a Republican President is ever again elected.  Nicknamed the "Granny Starver" because of his advocacy for cutting the very same programs which raised him from the lower middle class to his present eminence, he stands in stark contrast to the newly elected Premier of Canada.  Justin Trudeau was raised in a privileged political family, but seemingly has far more empathy than Ryan.   I almost hope the 40 crazies on the far right of the Republican caucus vote Ryan down.  Let the Republicans elect one of the new breed of  confrontational idiots and we'll finally see the monster the GOP  has been breeding for 40 years.