Tag Archives: Republican Convention 2016

Trump’s GOP rules of order

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At the GOP Convention hall last night Senator Ted Cruz gave a speech and failed to endorse Donald Trump, as he was hoped to do. Cruz was booed more lustily during his own speech than Hillary Clinton was during Mike Pence’s. From the floor,  just in front of the booing crowd, it felt anarchic, as if anything could happen.

cruztrumpThe ferocity of Trump’s followers’ reaction caused security guards to bundle Heidi Cruz offstage to safety

“People behind her were getting very ugly and physically approaching her and [Cruz’s father] Rafael,” he said. “It was not a pretty situation, and the decision was instantly made to not talk to media and get immediately out of the arena.”  Ken Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general and a close Cruz confidant who was sitting with Heidi as her husband spoke, told reporters he saw Trump supporters accosting her.

Let’s review then: Monday night’s GOP Convention theme was Make America Safe, Tuesday’s underlying theme ( I think ) was “Lock up and/or Shoot Hillary Clinton” night. And Wednesday’s theme seems to have been “Let’s Throw Ted Cruz’s Wife from the Stage.”

What on earth could the Trumpsters do for Donald’s  finale tonight, no doubt played out to the theme from Rocky ?

Trump struts upon stage and the GOP frets

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The Republicans are still digesting the news of Donald J. Trump’s latest primary wins. And for now they seem to be in disarray — and it’s ugly. How ugly is it? Well, former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R, Orangeland) must be smelling sulphur, as he thinks fellow Republican  candidate Senator Ted Cruz  is the devil in red or “Lucifer in the flesh”  as he claims.

On a less metaphysical level, a recent Roll Call’s Capitol Insiders Survey shows rising Republican pessimism about election prospects:

A majority of the GOP staffers who responded to the April survey now expect either Donald Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to win the party’s nomination and nearly half of them —  a solid plurality —  think the Republican nominee will lose.trumpdigest

And with Trump likely the one at the top of the ticket, fears that the GOP will suffer losses in Senate races and that their majority in the House may shrink are growing rapidly.

GOP fretting about the Senate majority has grown throughout the year. When CQ Roll Call asked aides in January, only 28 percent of Republican respondents were worried. That rose to 45 percent in March, and now it’s nearly half. By contrast, this month only 37 percent of the Republicans said they expected their side to maintain control.

Any hopes that incumbent Congressional Republicans have for passing major legislation to aid their coming campaigns before the election are apparently slim.

They [congressional staff] gave the best shot to pending legislation that would revamp criminal sentencing rules. And even on that they are not hopeful. Only a quarter of the aides said they expected Congress to act. That compares to nearly 4 in 10 when CQ Roll Call asked about the issue in December.

Now, as Trump struts on stage and the GOP frets, it could it spell tragedy not comedy on a dramatic scale. You know, err… with the GOP lead by a poor player, an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

Do Trump and the Republicans have a Coke problem?

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Coca Cola, the maker of America’s most well known sugary obesogenic drink, isn’t donating to the Republican convention as much as it has in the past. Coke and other major brands that were once-reliable contributors are facing criticism and increasingly worried about associating with Donald J. Trump and the Republican convention.Coca-Cola Co. Products Ahead Of Earnings Figures

Kent Landers, a Coca-Cola spokesman, declined to explain the reduction in support. But officials at the company are trying to quietly defuse a campaign organized by the civil rights advocacy group Color of Change, which says it has collected more than 100,000 signatures on a petition demanding that Coca-Cola and other companies decline to sponsor the convention. Donating to the event, the petition states, is akin to endorsing Mr. Trump’s “hateful and racist rhetoric.”

And Trump’s lose talk suggesting that if he doesn’t get the nomination, “I think you’d have riots, I’m representing a tremendous many, many millions of people,” did nothing to calm nervous corporate sponsors worried about their brand on display at the Cleveland convention. The largely sugar-free corporations of Apple, Google and Wal-Mart are also rethinking sponsorship and may join Coke by capping their donations.

“These companies have a choice right now, a history-making choice,” said Rashad Robinson, the executive director of Color of Change. “Do they want riots brought to us by Coca-Cola?”

Coca-Cola’s 2016 donation of $75,000 will fall far short of the $660,000 they coughed up for the 2012 Republican convention. Coke’s puny $75,000 is hardly enough to cover the additional 2,000 sets of riot control suits, (including the robo-cob-style Elite Defender riot suits) the city of Cleveland wants to have on hand for the July convention. Maybe Donald J. will chip in ?trumpriotwater

Reports are that Cleveland city water has been tested and is okay to drink. But maybe they will have some Trump brand bottled water on hand this summer for thirsty Elite Defenders because Coca Cola is making itself scarce to Republicans.