Dumb shit Senate absentee Marco Rubio doesn't realize decades-old oil export ban was already rescinded last December

Noted here:

Rubio told supporters he would lift the ban as president at a private fundraiser in Texas Friday, and his campaign website has an entire page devoted to the need to lift the ban. “I would also allow American oil producers to be able to export,” Rubio said, when asked what he would do about poor oil prices as president. “Right now we’re not allowed to export.”

Congress lifted the ban in December as part of the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill it passed. “Oil companies rush to exploit end of U.S. crude export ban,” reported Reuters in the wake of the vote that ended a 40-year ban on crude oil exports. ...

Rubio missed the omnibus vote, opting to campaign for president instead. He later chalked up his absence to a vote against a bill full of “garbage.” “The outcome is already predetermined,” he told Greta Van Susteren on Fox News in December.

-----------------------------------------------

Rubio is so out of touch he doesn't even realize Republicans gave away the store just to get the export ban lifted.

Laugh of the Day: With Jeff Sessions Trump now has more Senate support than both Cruz and Sanders!

Whites outperformed for Obama in 2012 despite 2009 Porkulus and 2010 Obamacare, stiffing Romney by 18%

Romney received 59% of the white vote nationally in 2012 according to CNN Politics exit polling figures (which do not exist for 19 states), but underperformed that with whites in 21 states, losing the white vote outright in 8 of them:

California 53%

Colorado 54%

Connecticut 48%

Illinois 52%

Iowa 47%

Maine 40%

Maryland 55%

Massachusetts 42%

Michigan 55%

Minnesota 49%

Nevada 56%

New Hampshire 47%

New Jersey 56%

New Mexico 56%

New York 49%

Ohio 57%

Oregon 44%

Pennsylvania 57%

Vermont 33%

Washington 46%

Wisconsin 51%.

On an average percentage basis, Romney garnered just under 50% of the white vote in these states, losing them all to Obama, underperforming his own national showing among whites by 18% on average.

The white vote is especially interesting in the four states in the east which Romney lost by just 429,522 votes in the aggregate (2.3% of the total votes cast), which together with his 206 electoral college votes would have given him the 270 necessary to win the election:

Florida, lost by 74,309 votes (0.87% of the total vote cast there in 2012)
Virginia, lost by 149,298 (3.87%)
New Hampshire, lost by 39,643 (5.57%)
Ohio, lost by 166,272 (2.97%).

In Florida Romney outperformed himself with whites, getting 61% of the white vote (67%), but needed 62.4% of it to win. In Florida Romney needed to do 2.3% better with whites to win than he did.

In Virginia Romney also outperformed himself with whites, getting 61% of the white vote (70%), but needed 66.53% of whites to win. That meant doing 9.1% better with whites in Virginia than he did.

In New Hampshire Romney severely underperformed himself with whites, getting just 47% of the white vote (93%). He needed to increase that to 53% to win it. In other words, Romney needed to do 13% better with whites in New Hampshire than he did.

And in Ohio Romney also underperformed himself with whites, getting 57% of the white vote in 2012 (79%). To win it he needed 60.8%. In other words, Romney needed to do 6.7% better among whites in Ohio to win than he did.

So on average Romney needed to do about 8% better with whites than he did in order to win these four states and with them the election. But overall it was Romney's severe underperformance with whites from California to Vermont which meant that even that was highly unlikely to happen in the end.

Marco Rubio and his drug-dealing brother-in-law spotted taunting Trump

Hannity and Limbaugh deserve the beating administered in re Marco Rubio @AnnCoulter

Both care more about their brands than they do about the country.

@Mickey Kaus: Marco Rubio didn't lie just to Rush Limbaugh but to all of Rush's listeners

@AnnCoulter: Except for Laura Ingraham

Why Marco Rubio sweats: The New York Times details how he tried to convince conservative talk radio to accept the Gang of Eight bill

Here.

It's worth remembering the full court press Rubio made on behalf of his bill, especially now that he's running away from it as fast as he can.

Maybe that's why he sweats so much.

Rush Limbaugh comes off looking like a total dupe, but the truth is Limbaugh remained skeptical of yet another promise to secure the border first. As I remember it Rush had to have Rubio on a second time to clarify that.

More generally, the only conservative talk radio show to oppose the Gang of Eight bill consistently and forthrightly was Laura Ingraham's. Nobody on radio has done more to prepare the way for Trump's message on the issue, and to kill the terrible reform efforts of Bush in 2007 and Rubio's in 2013.

Elite conservative opinion about Hillary Clinton translated into working class

From Conrad Black, here:

Clinton carries the baggage of the Obama administration and has scarcely uttered a sentence of unchallengeable truthfulness since she was first noticed in the crucifixion party that bustled Richard Nixon to his Golgotha more than 40 years ago.

Translation:

That cunt Hillary Clinton has been a liar for 40 fucking years.

Coulter in July 2015: Trump's enormously popular with the working class, people who need the jobs being given to illegal immigrants

Here:

"He’s enormously popular with the working class. He’s quite popular with black people who want those jobs.”

Trump in August 2013: The people I resonate best with, my base, are poor people and blue collar people, working class people

Here, with Greta Van Susteren during one of Obama's sumptuous, too long vacations in August 2013.

Trump is winning today because he has long understood who is his base, what to say to it, and how to keep it.

The histrionic invectives against Trump by elites in the political parties, government,  the media, entertainment, the academy and the church are really invectives against the people who still work, who make this country work.

If elites want to stop Trump, the only way they can do it is to co-opt the support of the working class, and unfortunately for the elites, they've erected an entire system over decades designed explicitly to screw the working class.

The chickens . . . have come home . . . to roost.

Marco Rubio's new instructions to his robot army

In Marco Rubio's bubble world he only imagines that he unmasked Donald Trump in the Houston debate Thursday night. Just because he says so, it must be true.

Here:

I said it last night, if he had not inherited $200 million, right now he would be selling watches in Times Square or doing a Saturday morning infomercial where he teaches you how to flip properties. So we unmasked him last night. It's time for you to unmask him as well. You all have friends, you all have friends thinking about voting for Donald Trump. Friends do not let friends vote for con artists.

So repeat after me Rubio Robot Army:

"Donald Trump inherited $200 million".

"Donald Trump inherited $200 million".

"Donald Trump inherited $200 million".

"Donald Trump inherited $200 million".

"Donald Trump inherited $200 million".

"Donald Trump inherited $200 million".

"Donald Trump inherited $200 million".

"Donald . . .  

John O'Sullivan: Rubio is the poster boy for the liberal immigration policies which Trump launched his campaign to oppose

Green card holder John O'Sullivan at National Review prefers Trump to the ever mendacious Marco Rubio, here:

[N]one of the three leading Republicans have been exactly models of truth-telling in this campaign. So the relevant question then becomes “Compared with whom?” Let’s compare Trump’s boastful and evasive untruths with the very different lies of Marco Rubio on various immigration bills he has tried to sell to conservatives (as detailed by John Fonte on NRO on Wednesday.) These amounted to a long campaign of deliberate mendacity intended to deceive allies on a matter of the greatest public interest so that they would unknowingly support what they really oppose.

O'Sullivan correctly acknowledges that Trump's is a non-ideological conservatism which is widely shared among Americans:

Conservatives in practice accept that their realism about human nature shouldn’t (or can’t) stop at the door of the voting booth. What there is of Trump’s conservatism seems to be of that kind. And that seems also to be true of “ordinary” conservatives outside Washington, as several writers such as Rod Dreher have pointed out. They tend not to have highly consistent ideologies but to tolerate contradictions within a broadly conservative outlook. One very likely effect of a GOP conservatism influenced by Trumpery, therefore, is that it will remain conservative but in a less consistently ideological way. It is likely to be more spasmodically interventionist in economic policy, more concerned with directly protecting the interests of Americans (and especially the voting groups who have surged up to back Trump), more anxious about how to solve the problems identified by Charles Murray in Fishtown without spending too much more on them, more protective of entitlements, and more loudly patriotic in general. As a fully paid-up Thatcherite, I will find a lot of this irksome and mistaken. It will remind me of the pre-Thatcher Tory party and its bumbling resistance to economic rationality. And I’m beginning to feel grouchily that I want to hear a little less about American exceptionalism until the U.S. manages not to lose a war. 

Gov. Chris Christie's endorsement of Donald Trump pisses off fake conservative Jennifer Rubin, impresses Newt Gingrich

From the story here:

The decision drew a sharply worded critique from Washington Post conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin, who quickly penned a rebuke of “Christie’s despicable endorsement.”

Other GOP figures described the endorsement as a big move coming ahead of Super Tuesday next week, when Trump seems poised to increase his delegate lead.

“This is a huge step for Trump and will impact Super Tuesday [big] time,” 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said on Twitter. 

“This Chris Christie endorsement of Trump is real signal to GOP establishment that they had better begin thinking about Trump as the future.”

During a commercial break in the Houston debate, Cassius and Brutus met to conspire behind Caesar's back

The video is here.

For a two-faced lying phony, you can't beat badly aging Michael Medved and his smear job of Trump

From the story here:

In 2012, Medved called Sen. Harry Reid a scumbag the worst man in politics for using Romney's tax returns as an attack on the candidate. Medved said Reid was using the tax return attack as a "distraction" from President Obama's failed administration. 

"This attempt to smear and distract, and what is this all about?" Medved rhetorically asked.

1993 World Trade Center bomber got illegal immigrant amnesty from Ronald Reagan in 1986

Germany denied [Mahmud Abouhalima] political asylum and he quickly married Renate Soika, a troubled German woman, which guaranteed he could remain in the country. He divorced Soika three years later, but shortly after he married another woman named Marianne Weber in a Muslim ceremony. He flew to Brooklyn with his new wife and after his American tourist visa expired, applied for amnesty claiming to be an agricultural worker and was accepted as a permanent resident under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

Endorsements matter: Communist dictator Hugo Chavez endorsed Obama in 2012

Ted Cruz is still for legalizing illegals as non-citizens

In other words, make them the equivalent of Metics.

Why The Donald got wet: Best take on Marco Rubio's performance in the Houston debate

Chutzpah: Trump one ups Carson's answer for IRS tax audits

Ben Carson implied in the Republican debate last night that he was politically targeted for an IRS audit after speaking out publicly against Obamacare.

Donald Trump seemed to like the answer so much he decided to go for it for himself.

In remarks made to Chris Cuomo on CNN immediately after the debate, Trump blamed his long history of tax audits on the fact that he was being targeted for being a Christian.

Yeah, like the whole world thinks that's the reason.

Ann Coulter skewers my congressman, Justin Amash, the biggest do-nothing in Washington, good and hard

Thanks, Ann!

Ted Cruz telegraphs his megalomania before the debate even begins, playing Napoleon Bonaparte during the National Anthem

FBI Director James Comey threw traditional marriage under the bus, so why not Apple?

Read about it here and here.

Mitt Romney's just jealous his tax return isn't this big

Elites in both parties are so over the top against Trump because if he gets into the White House . . .

. . .  he's likely to acquire information he'll get access to which proves their self-serving betrayal of their country. Information is power. Don't forget Filegate.

Can't wait.

P.O.S. Mitt Romney does a Dirty Harry Reid on Donald Trump . . .

. . . says there may be something hiding in Trump's tax returns.

Must be payback for eventually saying Romney was a lousy candidate even though at the time Trump supported Romney and even defended him against Reid.

Story here.

Marco Rubio, the very intelligent imbecile: "You don't win the nomination by how many states you win"

No, obviously you win the nomination by losing all the states!

You Republicans who are promoting this moron better find a new candidate because this one is umbday in any language.

Video available here.

John McCain's writer Mark Salter says don't vote for Trump even if that means Hillary becomes president

Here:

Trump is not trying to make great America great. He’s trying to make us the worst we can be to satisfy his own vainglory. There’s no dealing with him, no trying to encourage him to behave like a grown-up, much less a statesman. If you can see him plainly and you love our country, you must vote against him. Even if that means electing Hillary Clinton.

P.O.S.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher: Russia should be our natural ally, but instead Obama is being belligerent

Here in The National Interest:

Today, we have . . . a waning military capacity coupled with petulant policies towards Russia, a country that could be an ally against such mutual enemies as radical Islam and, potentially, an expanding China.

It represents a stunning and total failure of vision, moral and strategic. We must cast aside such absurd, costly, unachievable and un-American ambitions that would have us policing and garrisoning the planet, intervening in every conflict. We must favor a policy that cultivates mutually beneficial relations with nations of like culture and values, negotiating smartly in the national interest—all, of course, while maintaining a defensive military posture second to none. 

That's it, folks: Rush Limbaugh just called him "Donaldus Magnus"

Just now on the show.

Mr. Money Mustache: Obsessive compulsive, and a bunch of other enthusiasms

From the story in The New Yorker, here:

The blog, which he started five years ago, is really an attack on consumerism and waste—a theology of conservation—disguised as a personal-finance advice column. The prospect of retirement is in some respects just a lure—the carrot, as opposed to the stick of his relentless polemical thrashing of anyone who thinks it’s O.K. to buy lattes at Starbucks or drive “a gigantic piece of shit that can barely navigate a parking lot.” He told me, “I’m really just trying to get rich people to stop destroying the planet.” ... [A]t one point I realized that he was almost angry at me for my half-witting participation in the destruction of the world. ... When you play devil’s advocate—for instance, if you suggest that if everyone lived the way he does the economy would shrivel up—he can get riled . . .. [Peter] Adeney has the behavioral-economics view that we should set our policies to encourage sensible behavior—the obvious example being a carbon tax. “It’s libertarian paternalism, or maybe it’s paternalistic libertarianism,” he said. “I am trying to improve the commons.” On his blog, he dispenses deep thoughts, product recommendations (credit cards, brokerages, laser printers), and D.I.Y. work-arounds (“How to Carry Major Appliances on Your Bike”—“It is absolutely ridiculous to buy even your first bottle of wine or restaurant meal if you do not yet have a good bicycle and a bike trailer”).

Trump is outpolling both Mitt Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008

The Weekly Standard reports here:

All told, Trump has now won approximately 420,000 votes. After the first four states had voted in 2012, Mitt Romney had won about 387,000 votes. Back in 2008, meanwhile, eventual nominee John McCain had won a little more than 250,000 votes after Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada had voted.

Trump crushes it in Nevada beating Rubio 1.9:1, Cruz 2.1:1

Everyone seems to agree: Ted Cruz is now the monkey in the middle

Trump unfurls frugal $24 million slingshot, fells $157 million giant named Bush

WaPo reports here:

[Y]ou have to give Trump a lot of credit for grasping early on that he didn't need to blanket the Iowa or New Hampshire airwaves with costly ads. Instead, he just sent tweets. Or called into "Morning Joe." Like it or not, Trump has redefined what money -- or, more specifically, fundraising -- means in the context of political campaigns.

Donald Trump is reminding voters today that Ted Cruz favors amnesty for illegal aliens

ICE officer Chris Crane challenges Marco Rubio to meeting after Rubio lies about his status on FOX

Reported here:

“You recently lied to the American public on FOX news regarding my current status and career as both an ICE Agent and Officer,” Crane writes in his email to Rubio. “I challenge you to make yourself available, as a United States Senator and Presidential Candidate, so that I may present my badge and credentials to you as proof that your comments on FOX news are false.”

Ex-Bush Establishment Republicans swarm to Marco Rubio like flies to a rotting corpse

Lavishly reported here about the candidate who so far is nothing but a loser:

Throughout Monday, a string of ex-Bush backers from across the country gravitated to the Florida senator, including former Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). In South Florida, Republican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Curbelo and former congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart — all of whom had backed Bush — also announced their support.

Rubio also picked up supporters who previously stood in the sidelines of the race, like former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).

On the donor side, in addition to Kilberg, former ambassador Francis Rooney, who gave more than $2 million to a pro-Bush super PAC through his holding company, is now with Rubio. So is financial industry executive Muneer Satter, who also made a big investment on behalf of Bush.

New York attorney Phil Rosen, a major Republican fundraiser, said he has spent the last two days on the phone with former Bush donors now eager to join the Rubio effort.

“They have a lot of disappointment about Jeb, but they are ready to put full steam ahead for Marco,” said Rosen, who said he has gotten commitments from 15 top Bush bundlers. ...

Rubio’s backers concede that a loss in his home state to Trump would likely be a fatal blow.

So Donald Trump is on his third wife: The very definition of experience

Local sheriffs rise in support of ICE officer Chris Crane who was dismissed and discredited by Marco Rubio

From the story here:

Sheriff Tom Hodgson of Bristol County, Massachusetts similarly defended Crane against Rubio’s attacks.

“I’m not sure what Sen. Rubio is talking about,” the Massachusetts Sheriff said. “I don’t understand why Sen. Rubio would say that about Chris Crane. Anyone who has worked on the immigration issue knows that Crane is a federal ICE agent who is fighting for law enforcement to be able to do its job and protect our borders, so that the people we’re sworn to protect are not victimized financially or criminally.

“I’m really surprised by Rubio’s comment,” Sheriff Hodgson continued. “He knows very well who Chris Crane is. He met with law enforcement at some point [during the Gang of Eight push] when we were telling him that he had the wrong position on this issue.”

Laugh of the Day: 80% of Republicans reject Marco Rubio!

Mark Halperin clip, played just now on The Laura Ingraham Program.

Larry Kudlow made the right call NOT to run for the US Senate

Noted here:

A day earlier, Kudlow had announced that he would not run for the Senate from Connecticut. He had been toying with the notion for some time, and while there are many reasons not to go to Washington — he says he loves what he is doing now — he realized as he was touring the state that he had missed some AA meetings. “It’s not a good thing for me,” he told the New York Post.

Steady as she goes, Larry.

South Carolina primary turnout up 21.1% over 2012

Reported here.

730,000 in 2016 v 603,000 in 2012.

Trump received 44.6% more votes than second place finisher Rubio, or 1.45 votes to every vote for Rubio despite Gov. Nikki Haley's endorsement.

The daughter of anti-Trump billionaire Marlene Ricketts is a gay activist and bundler for Barack Obama

Seen here:

Laura M. Ricketts is co-owner of the Chicago Cubs. Ricketts is also a board member of Lambda Legal and the Housing Opportunities for Women organization. Ricketts' ownership stake in the Cubs is uniquely noteworthy because it makes her the first openly gay owner of a major-league sports franchise. ... Laura Ricketts is a former corporate lawyer. She lives with her partner on the North Side of Chicago. Ricketts received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1994, and her Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1998. Laura talks of her own struggle to come out; "I came out to my family I would say early to mid 90s. I think for a long time I wasn't really out to myself growing up in Omaha, Neb., to a Catholic conservative family. It took me a while to come out to myself and not long after that I came out to them. I think that it really couldn't have been a better experience. They were all immediately supportive. ... I have been really really fortunate in that regard."

The Washington Post reported in 2012 that Laura Ricketts raised about half a million dollars for Obama, here:

[Joe] Ricketts has an unusual profile for a rising political player, with little in his résumé to suggest that he favors controversial or attention-getting tactics.

A former Democrat who became a Republican, he later renounced all party affiliation to become an independent. His daughter, Laura, is a lesbian activist and prominent bundler for Obama; she raised about half a million dollars for the president.

Joe Ricketts, Pete, Todd, Laura, wife Marlene, and Tom

Marlene Ricketts, whose family bought the always-losing Chicago Cubs in 2009, is bankrolling the anti-Trump effort

The New York Times reports here:

The wife of Joe Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade and a major Republican donor, wrote a $3 million check to a group focused on halting the rise of Donald J. Trump, an adviser to the family confirmed on Saturday evening.

Marlene Ricketts, who had previously donated several million dollars to a “super PAC” supporting Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin before he exited the presidential race, wrote the check to Our Principles PAC, which was founded by Katie Packer, a former adviser to Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.

Separately The Hill reports here that the super PAC has spent more than $4 million trying to stop Trump just in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina:

The super-PAC has spent more than $4 million running attack ads against the GOP front-runner in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. It is the only serious anti-Trump group to date, in a campaign cycle where Republicans have been reluctant to take on their front-runner. ... Ricketts' family had previously given $5 million to a super-PAC supporting the failed presidential bid of Scott Walker. The family is yet to swing its full weight behind another presidential candidate, but clearly likes both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. In June last year, Marlene Ricketts gave $10,000 to super-PACs supporting Rubio and Cruz.

Let's see. Cubs? Losers. Scott Walker? Loser. Mitt Romney? Loser.

Go Trump! Go White Sox!