Posted on 01/20/2016 2:21:12 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Donald Trump says Ted Cruz is a "nasty guy." The Texan's Senate colleagues agree. Yet here's the surprise from watching Cruz on the campaign trail: Ideology aside, he comes off as ... rather likable....
I knew before seeing Cruz on the stump that he is smart - dangerously so from my ideological perspective. I knew from watching him operate in Washington that he is ruthlessly ambitious. Seeing him in action, it's clear he's adept at retail politics as well.
Cruz knows how to connect with an audience; to soften people up with laugh lines and a smattering of scripture; to deliver his message with digestible details and a warning that aims at Trump without, for the most part, explicitly naming him: Judge candidates based on what they've actually done, not what they promise.
In one telling moment in Washington, N.H., a young mother of four challenged Cruz about whether he would provide paid family leave. His eventual answer boiled down to nothing: "Politicians love to campaign on giving away free stuff," but, as with the minimum wage, market forces mean such intervention would hurt workers, not help them.
But he leavened this response with personal questions (How old? Boys or girls?) and, believe it or not, empathy: He knows about being the "baby brother with two older sisters"; he understands the "hard challenge" of juggling work and family. The woman may have left unconvinced, but Cruz's deft response revealed a politician both skillful and relatable. The crowd applauded.
Because Trump and Cruz seem to be competing for the angry-outsider lane, I expected voters at Cruz events here to be torn between the two. Instead, I was struck by the still-undecided voters I met who had rejected Trump, using words like "antics" and "volatile" to describe him...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Nooooooo, not that!!! ;)
Didn't work.
I like Cruz' response of empathizing, but promising nothing.
Heh — didn’t see this response before I responded. First thing that came to my mind as well.
Why has Cruz sealed his birth records?
Thank you both for my morning laugh !
“Donald Trump says Ted Cruz is a “nasty guy.””
That’s like Obama saying President Reagan was a communist.
You should be thrown out of here and your coat confiscated! ;~)
Meanwhile...
TRUMP: Vladimir Putin's praise is 'a great honor'
Business Insider ^ | December 17, 2015 | By Maxwell Tani
Republican US presidential front-runner Donald Trump is apparently "honored" that Russian President Vladimir Putin considers the real-estate magnate a "flamboyant" and "very talented" man.
"It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond," Trump said in a statement, according to Politico.
He continued: "I have always felt that Russia and the United States should be able to work well with each other towards defeating terrorism and restoring world peace, not to mention trade and all of the other benefits derived from mutual respect."
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
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"I think that I would probably get along with him [Putin] very well."
--Donald Trump, CBS' Face The Nation, Oct 2015
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Russia's push into Ukraine has put many on edge. But less known is that Russia is also strengthening its military links south of the Rio Grande and re-establishing itself as a power in the region.
Vladimir Putin has been strengthening military links here, and Russia is now the largest arms dealer to governments in Latin America, surpassing the United States.
Russia has even floated the possibility of building new military bases in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, and putting its warships permanently in the Caribbean.
In the midst of the Ukraine crisis, Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov recently visited Cuba, Peru, Chile, and Nicaragua, where he announced that Russia would also pour money into the new Central American canal project. ..."
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/140508/russian-arms-military-trade-latin-america
_______________________________________________________________________
BY: Bill Gertz
February 20, 2015
Russia agreed to provide military training for three leftist regimes in Latin America and increase military visits and exercises following a visit last week to the region by Moscow's Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu, Pentagon officials said.
Shoygu met with defense and military leaders in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua and signed several agreements on warship visits and military training during the visit, which ran from Feb. 11 to 14. It is not clear whether any new arms deals were completed during the visit.
Defense officials said the Russian leader is seeking bases in the region for strategic bomber flights that Shoygu recently promised would include flights over the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russia-boosts-arms-training-for-leftist-latin-militaries/
A Better Deal with Cuba, says Donald Trump
Humberto Fontova | Jan 16, 2016:
At some point, he will produce something known as a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, or CRBA (also known as an FS-240). This document is, as a matter of law, evidence that Cruz was made a citizen at birth, solely by the operation of an Act of Congress. In short, it is evidence he is viewed as "naturalized" under the law, even though we don't make infants participate in a naturalization ceremony. For good reasons, I suppose.
Cruz will probably pawn this off on a gullible public as his US Birth Certificate.
At any rate, other than a CRBA, his record have been produced. He's open about being born in Canada - except most people didn't know until last week that he was born in Canada.
Birth records are not public records, so the fact that this material is "sealed" is it's natural state. The records can be used to perpetrate identity theft, so it's good they are usually "sealed."
Donald Trump: "He's a smart guy that knows what's going on really big league and I think he is not going to want to destroy New York."
Voice Over: That was Donald Trump a little over two years ago, endorsing PC Socialist Bill de Blasio for New York Mayor.
Donald Trump: "I think pretty strongly that he'll end up being a good mayor, maybe a very good mayor."
Voice Over: De Blasio ran on class warfare, sanctuary cities and ending stop and frisk. De Blasio's sided with looters and cop killers against the police, with teachers unions against schoolchildren and with PC liberals to let the homeless run wild on city streets.
Donald Trump: "I think he is going to want to make New York great. ..."
http://www.redstate.com/2016/01/19/trump-endorsed-bill-de-blasio/
_______________________________________
Described by CNN as the "unabashed liberal," de Blasio is actually to the left of Barack Obama, in the sense that de Blasio didn't disavow his communist background once it came to light. At least Obama tried to cover up his ties to communist Frank Marshall Davis.
De Blasio had scrubbed the Marxist connections from his campaign website, an omission that momentarily captured the attention of The New York Times. But once these connections and controversies came to light, he embraced his sordid history. He still embraces [communist] liberation theology and his work for the communist Sandinistas in Nicaragua.
Nobody believed the purpose of his "honeymoon" to Cuba was actually a honeymoon, but the media didn't even bother to check into how he made the illegal trip and whether the FBI had developed a file on the candidate.
De Blasio was so open about his Marxism that on Sunday, he campaigned with Harry Belafonte, who during the Cold War sang at a "Concert for Peace" in communist East Germany, where he attacked President Reagan's anti-communist foreign policy. A long-time supporter of the Castro dictatorship, Belafonte was also an ally of the late Venezuelan Marxist ruler Hugo Chavez. ..."
-snip-
De Blasio can be expected to side with Soros and his "progressive base," rather than the police.
De Blasio can also do a lot of damage in the area of surveillance of potential Muslim terrorists. He made a campaign promise to a Muslim group that he would stop the practice of sending informants into mosques and Muslim student organizations.
Going further, if he moves to dismantle the NYPD's counter-terrorism programs, the city and nation could suffer through another 9/11.
Pamela Geller, a New Yorker, comments that the kind of journalism that we saw in the mayoral contest "is not just irresponsible; it endangers us all."
more at:
http://www.aim.org/aim-column/americas-first-openly-marxist-big-city-mayor/
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I’m with you.
The contortions people are using around here are quite something to behold. Dad was a citizen of Cuba, then Canada. Mom was a US citizen (we think). But she/they would have had to file that form with the consulate to register him as a US citizen (We think they did that but we do not know that!) Ignore the fact that when you have to file a form for citizenship that that act, in and of itself, makes your citizenship naturalized, but not Natural Born. Canada has birthright citizenship; they did not have duel citizenship until the mid 1970’s. And not one person around here finds a problem with this? No one finds an issue with him “learning” he had a Canadian birth certificate or was a Canadian citizen until he was in his 40’s? How did he get through life prior to that without displaying a birth certificate to someone, somewhere? This is absurd.
What I’d like to know is what papers he used to file in order to run for the Senate. I am insulted by the number of otherwise sensible FReepers who are making excuses for this jazz.
I’m nonplussed by the number of FReepers who seem to dismiss, out of hand, the notion that the Democrat cabal — so desperate to hang on to the White house in order to cement the Obama revolution, are going to ignore this issue. You guys much be must younger than I am; I know how diabolical the Democrats are. They will yank the fillings out of Grandma’s teeth on her deathbed if it gives them a win. I remember what they did to Bork, C. Thomas, and so many others.
Sen Cruz is a citizen, but not a natural born citizen, no matter how you stretch the dough of citizenship.
Don’t pee on my head and tell me it’s raining.
" Trump's relationship with Russia goes far back. In 1987, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was meeting with Soviet officials and negotiating the building of "luxury hotels" in Moscow and Leningrad .
A story at the time said Trump had met Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin, who mentioned how much his daughter had admired the "opulent" Trump Tower in New York City. This led to an invitation to Trump to visit the USSR. The story said Dubinin wrote a letter to Trump, who hosted a meeting with Soviet officials in New York.
The invitation to Moscow was issued by Intourist, the giant Soviet in-country travel organization which operated all the hotels for foreigners in the Soviet Union.
Intourist was created in 1929 by Joseph Stalin and run by KGB officials. Intourist hotels were designed for wealthy foreigners, and virtually all the Intourist guides were KGB informers. In fact, one aspect of their jobs was the recruitment of foreigners. ..."
"...we are left thinking [whether] Trump understands the aggressive intentions of Vladimir Putin.
"...when Trump was asked about the nuclear balance with Russia during the most recent Republican presidential debate, he displayed ignorance of the decaying nature of the U.S. nuclear triad, which constitutes our ability to deter and survive a Russian nuclear first strike.
"Putin has just presided over a ceremony honoring the KGB's successor agencies, and the Russia Today (RT) propaganda channel has announced the grand opening of a "cultural center" dedicated to mass murderer Joseph Stalin.
It looks like Putin has outmaneuvered Obama and Trump. It is an opening for Trump's opponents, especially Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL). But do they have the courage to "follow the money" and hold Trump accountable for doing business with a criminal regime that threatens the survival of the United States? At the end of this money trail, they may find an explanation of why Trump is so reluctant to hold Putin responsible for his crimes.
Follow Trump's Money to Moscow
Renew America ^ | December 25, 2015 | Cliff Kincaid
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/kincaid/151225
Don’t know about you, but much of what I read indicates Washington had a pretty significant temper and showed anger/frustration and was known to have a pretty elaborate vocabulary... not advocating it, but....
His letters and notebooks show that he viewed his temper as a weakness in a leader and endeavored to control it.
He was also a famously graceful dancer.
So do I. Even better, as someone mentioned above, would be pointing out that such matters are the subject of legislation, not Presidential fiat.
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