Trumpageddon: Cruz and Rubio Unveil Plan to Mock and Dismantle Frontrunner

The Weekly Standard ^ | February 25, 2016 | JONATHAN V. LAST

[House Atreides]

TRUMP = POLICY LIGHTWEIGHT WITH ZERO ACTUAL PLANS.

[kik5150]

Trump kept repeating his simplistic generalities, which actually endeares him to his simplistic followers.

[onyx]

GOPe Announce Plans To Go "Full Mississippi"
on Donald Trump To Destroy Him

When little known Chris McDaniel beat entrenched RINO U.S. Senator Thad Cochran in the first Mississippi primary of 2014 it triggered a series of events that became known simply as
"Mississippi 14"

The entrenched DC republican elite developed a plan to destroy McDaniel before the run-off primary. They decided to call McDaniel a racist, pay for print and broadcast attack ads, request help from black Mississippi pastors, and pay Democrats, preachers and voters to vote in the run-off election. Republicans in DC attacking a republican outsider.

Their Machiavellian plan worked.

In the run-off Chris McDaniel again beat Thad Cochran with Republican voters, but the paid-to-vote Democrats lifted Cochran back onto the throne in the elite Republican Chamber.

Against the desperation of a South Carolina victory for Donald Trump, and now a Nevada victory for Donald Trump, the DC Republican team have re-enlisted the exact same players to roll out a similar nuclear attack approach against the outsider Republican.

Appearing on Bloomberg News the former Mississippi architect, Stuart Stevens, and Mississippi financier/bag-man, Henry Barbour, who carried out the Mississippi Strategy , openly admit their intent to use the same level of vitriol to remove Donald Trump.

(L-R) Stuart Stevens – Mark Halprin – Henry Barbour

See the Video Here (at 23:10) as Stuart Stevens and Henry Barbour are assembled again to discuss the process of “taking down Trump”. Stevens fully admits to the Mississippi 2014 strategy and how it will work in 2016 against Donald Trump.

So how do they do it? Simple, it's war. A thermonuclear political war. There are no boundaries, there are no rules, there is nothing too far, there is nothing held back.

They run attack ads, they'll shout names and make up malicious smears; they'll follow the candidate around to make noise at rallies; they lie about anything and everything; they'll pay anyone and everyone to assist, and they don't care if the high-information voter knows what they are doing; it's all part of the overall scorched earth plan.

They'll pay people to do and say anything, ANYTHING. Winning is all that counts. Destroying the opponent is all that matters. Every means justifies that end. Period.

The GOPe have already hired actresses and actors to appear in the attack ads and to make personal appearances, as actors, during Trump events. The hiring agency is Talent Direct Agency (TDA). The actors and production teams are working out the script details right now.

More than likely the construct begins tomorrow with the CNN debate. Expect a full media assist from an ideological corporate media empire who also has skin in the game and corporate ownership who also see candidate Donald Trump as a risk.

A thrilled attendee for the bloodbath, NRO's Charles Cooke, puts it this way:

[…] Tomorrow night, as they stand on either side of Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz must find their resolve and all-but-machine-gun the man to the floor.

Without breaks for water or silence for applause, they must explain that Trump is an entitled mess whose business record is so questionable that he managed to bankrupt a casino; that he is an unashamed fraud who didn't even wait to be elected president before folding on Planned Parenthood and Obamacare, exactly like the feckless Congress he is running against; that he is feigning religiosity to appeal to people he believes are rubes; and, above all, that whatever he may be pretending now, he has spent a lifetime screwing the little guy.

They must repeat verbatim his previous words on amnesty; they must outline in detail how his policies will make life worse for everyone; and they must point out that a Trump nomination designed to "mix things up" will result, eventually, in more of the same.

In the meantime, conservatives who are not running for president must ensure that every spare dollar is spent attacking Trump. Melt down the fences if you have to; we need long-range bombers here.

If Donald Trump can flood the airwaves with his nonsense, his opponents can counter it incessantly. And while they are at it, they can tie him up in court, just as he's trying to do to Cruz. There are a good number of "just asking" questions ready to be put to them, among them "Trump's mother was Scottish, can he really be president?" and "Trump ran a host of scams designed to rip off the poor; surely one of them would like to sue him?"

Thus far, part of Trump's media strategy has been to say something outrageous and then to move on before it can be rebutted or fact-checked. Why are his rivals not doing the same thing to him? Why, moreover, are the men in charge of the big guns all but flirting with the snipers on the other side? (read more)

Perhaps now you can better appreciate why Mitt Romney is joining the effort and throwing anything against the wall to see if it will stick:

On Wednesday's "Your World" on FOX News, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney told Neil Cavuto that Donald Trump's tax returns may prove he hasn't been honest about his money.

Romney suggests the bombshell could include him lying about his wealth or that he has not made all those charity donations he claims to have made.

(link)

You see, it doesn't actually matter if there's any truth to the claim, the goal is to create an absurd hurricane wind of inbound attacks driven with increasing ferocity by the corporate media who will demand the candidate to respond.

In Mississippi 2014 Chris McDaniel was not racist, nor was there anything remotely linking him to anything racist; the goal is to push the candidate away from their campaigning, the truth is irrelevant.

Once the GOPe force the candidate away from campaigning, then they begin selling the false story and using the actors/actresses, or preachers, to deliver an outcome.

By the time the next debate on Fox comes around, well, it'll be peak DEFCON-5 thermonuclear political button pushing because, quite simply, they have nothing to lose.

Henry Barbour endorses Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) Henry Barbour endorses Rubio via @GeoffPender
Henry Barbour ... LOL ... Shares that Vacant Jeb look.

February 23, 2016

[ObamahatesPACoal]

Weekly Standard & Rubio & Cruz are are worse than Trump on Libya, foreign lawful workers & his personal financial situation.

Trump has hired people and is rich so he has complex returns.

Weekly Standard wanted to be ISIS airforce.

[onyx]

The Truth Behind Donald Trump Hiring "Temp H-2B Visa Workers" in Florida

Posted on February 25, 2016, by sundance

In what they call a “Reuters Exclusive” the news agency tries to undermine Donald Trump’s candidacy because Trump businesses have used H-2B Visa applications to hire workers. This is an absolute joke, we’ll explain why.

Reuters Screenshot

Why this is a nothingburger – Those unfamiliar with the South Florida general labor market are most likely unfamiliar with the extreme swings in “seasonal need” workers.

Does the word “Snowbird” ring a bell? Florida has a “tourist season” which runs from (generally speaking) just after Thanksgiving to Easter annually. January, February and March are the peak. The first Monday in February is the absolute peak as almost every time-share and hotel unit flips that week.

The volume of work within the service and hospitality industry doubles during the tourist season, and those businesses who hire within the general labor market struggle to increase their labor in relationship to the increase in business. In addition, local workers looking for employment are reluctant to take temporary or “seasonal” jobs, and prefer longer term -more stable- employment.

Many businesses need to double, or in some cases triple, their workforce in order to meet the business demand. [In 2014 97,300,000 tourists visited Florida].

As a consequence many companies, including Trump owned resorts, have used H-2B visa workers to fill the gap between large fluctuations in business and the needed staffing shortfalls. From my own experience, many of the workers are students from South America (Argentina, Brazil, etc) who take the seasonal jobs Nov/Dec – March/April between their college seasons – and then return home.

In addition you’ll note the dates of the Reuters data:

Trump owns companies that have sought to import at least 1,100 foreign workers on temporary visas since 2000, according to U.S. Department of Labor data reviewed by Reuters. Most of the applications were approved, the data show. (link)

“2000 through 2015” Another factor – During the timeframe of 2000 to 2007 the seasonal hiring problem was compounded by the boom in the housing market and overall thriving U.S. economy. Any generally healthy worker, who could swing a hammer, could triple their income switching to the housing or building sector.

Bartenders, waiters/waitresses, housekeepers, maintenance and general workers left the hospitality industry to make $25-$40hr in low skill construction jobs. The H-2B visa use increased at the same rate to help fill the worker void. Actually, the H-2B visa use initially started gaining wide-scale acceptance exactly for this reason. The economy was good, workers were scarce and demand for workers greater than the labor market.

[…] The Labor Department records don’t specify the nationality of the foreign workers sought by companies. But Trump could be bringing many Mexican workers into the United States.

Reuters examined records of applications for three categories of temporary work visas – the H-2A, H-2B and H-1B programs – submitted by employers to the Labor Department.

The temporary work visa program through which Trump’s companies have sought the greatest numbers of workers, H-2B, brings in mostly workers from Mexico. Mexicans made up more than 80 percent of the 104,993 admissions to the United States on H-2B visas in 2013. The Trump companies have sought at least 850 H-2B visa workers.

The H-2B program, which receives little government oversight, is used by companies in sectors ranging from hospitality to forestry to hire foreign workers for temporary jobs. Companies must prove that the jobs are seasonal – and that they tried and failed to hire Americans.

U.S. government watchdogs have criticized the H-2B and H-2A programs over the years for failing to protect foreign and American workers alike.

[…] The Mar-a-Lago, a luxury resort in Palm Beach, Florida, has sought the most foreign workers of the nine Trump businesses: 787 workers since 2006, according to the data.

This month, the resort filed paperwork seeking to bring in 70 foreign workers later this year on H-2B visas to serve as maids, cooks and wait staff, according to paperwork known as “job orders” published on the Labor Department’s web site. (read more)

See?

The entire article is a nothingburger once you understand the issue at hand. Palm Beach, Florida tourism season doubles, and at times triples, the business not only for Donald Trump resorts, but for every business in/around the host and hospitality sector.

Palm Beach, like many South Florida areas even have celebrations when the “snowbirds”, “frog heads”, and “tourons” go home at season’s end.

Reuters is trying to make a regional common practice seem like something rather controversial. The FAIL is strong on this one.

 

The Truth Behind Donald Trump Hiring "Temp H-2B Visa Workers" in Florida

Posted on February 25, 2016, by sundance

In what they call a “Reuters Exclusive” the news agency tries to undermine Donald Trump’s candidacy because Trump businesses have used H-2B Visa applications to hire workers. This is an absolute joke, we’ll explain why.

Reuters Screenshot

Why this is a nothingburger – Those unfamiliar with the South Florida general labor market are most likely unfamiliar with the extreme swings in “seasonal need” workers.

Does the word “Snowbird” ring a bell? Florida has a “tourist season” which runs from (generally speaking) just after Thanksgiving to Easter annually. January, February and March are the peak. The first Monday in February is the absolute peak as almost every time-share and hotel unit flips that week.

The volume of work within the service and hospitality industry doubles during the tourist season, and those businesses who hire within the general labor market struggle to increase their labor in relationship to the increase in business. In addition, local workers looking for employment are reluctant to take temporary or “seasonal” jobs, and prefer longer term -more stable- employment.

Many businesses need to double, or in some cases triple, their workforce in order to meet the business demand. [In 2014 97,300,000 tourists visited Florida].

As a consequence many companies, including Trump owned resorts, have used H-2B visa workers to fill the gap between large fluctuations in business and the needed staffing shortfalls. From my own experience, many of the workers are students from South America (Argentina, Brazil, etc) who take the seasonal jobs Nov/Dec – March/April between their college seasons – and then return home.

In addition you’ll note the dates of the Reuters data:

Trump owns companies that have sought to import at least 1,100 foreign workers on temporary visas since 2000, according to U.S. Department of Labor data reviewed by Reuters. Most of the applications were approved, the data show. (link)

“2000 through 2015” Another factor – During the timeframe of 2000 to 2007 the seasonal hiring problem was compounded by the boom in the housing market and overall thriving U.S. economy. Any generally healthy worker, who could swing a hammer, could triple their income switching to the housing or building sector.

Bartenders, waiters/waitresses, housekeepers, maintenance and general workers left the hospitality industry to make $25-$40hr in low skill construction jobs. The H-2B visa use increased at the same rate to help fill the worker void. Actually, the H-2B visa use initially started gaining wide-scale acceptance exactly for this reason. The economy was good, workers were scarce and demand for workers greater than the labor market.

[…] The Labor Department records don’t specify the nationality of the foreign workers sought by companies. But Trump could be bringing many Mexican workers into the United States.

Reuters examined records of applications for three categories of temporary work visas – the H-2A, H-2B and H-1B programs – submitted by employers to the Labor Department.

The temporary work visa program through which Trump’s companies have sought the greatest numbers of workers, H-2B, brings in mostly workers from Mexico. Mexicans made up more than 80 percent of the 104,993 admissions to the United States on H-2B visas in 2013. The Trump companies have sought at least 850 H-2B visa workers.

The H-2B program, which receives little government oversight, is used by companies in sectors ranging from hospitality to forestry to hire foreign workers for temporary jobs. Companies must prove that the jobs are seasonal – and that they tried and failed to hire Americans.

U.S. government watchdogs have criticized the H-2B and H-2A programs over the years for failing to protect foreign and American workers alike.

[…] The Mar-a-Lago, a luxury resort in Palm Beach, Florida, has sought the most foreign workers of the nine Trump businesses: 787 workers since 2006, according to the data.

This month, the resort filed paperwork seeking to bring in 70 foreign workers later this year on H-2B visas to serve as maids, cooks and wait staff, according to paperwork known as “job orders” published on the Labor Department’s web site. (read more)

See?

The entire article is a nothingburger once you understand the issue at hand. Palm Beach, Florida tourism season doubles, and at times triples, the business not only for Donald Trump resorts, but for every business in/around the host and hospitality sector.

Palm Beach, like many South Florida areas even have celebrations when the “snowbirds”, “frog heads”, and “tourons” go home at season’s end.

Reuters is trying to make a regional common practice seem like something rather controversial. The FAIL is strong on this one.

 

[mbrfl]

More of the kind of simplistic analysis I’ve come to expect from kik5050.

[orangeTank]

Without Trump, the presidential race focus would be on Obamacare, economy, foreign policy, and (now) the Supreme Court. Even if Cruz were to have brought immigration/amnesty up as a topic, it wouldn’t be his cornerstone issue. Plus, because of the way Cruz has been selling himself in the race, he’d be seeking only the evangelist vote. Immigration would never be presented to the general electorate.

[onyx]

<

[Redleg Duke]

Trump played your boy and Rubio like cheap fiddles last night.

You should be embarrassed.

[Dagnabitt]

Generalities and some vagueness at this stage of the campaign would be OK if Trump had identifiable conservative core beliefs to guide future decisions, particularly appointments - a la Reagan.

Unfortunately Trump doesn't have that.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

http://www.kitv.com/story/31321637/republican-debate-cnns-reality-check-team-inspects-the-claims

Reality Check: Trump on American taxes

...Looking at whether American citizens face the highest taxes, we rate Trump’s claim as false....

U.S. corporate tax collection totaled 2.6% of GDP in 2011, according to the OECD. That was the 11th lowest in a ranking of 27 wealthy nations.

So when it comes to American corporations, we rate Trump’s statement as true, but misleading. The United States has the highest official corporate tax rate, but that’s not what many companies actually pay.

Reality Check: Trump has a dirty mouth

We rate Trump’s outrage as %$*#.

Reality Check: Trump on paying for the wall with Mexico

We rate Trump’s claim that building the wall would cost between $10 billion and $12 billion as false.

Reality Check: Trump accidentally calls himself out

Trump said, “I don’t repeat myself. I don’t repeat myself.”

But by our count, he repeated himself at least 20 times during the debate...

We rate his claim false. False.

Reality Check: Trump on “Israeli Day Parade”

Trump touted his bona fides as a supporter of Israel during the debate, sparring with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz over which one of them is a more devoted booster of America’s close ally. Trump said, “I was the grand marshal, (walking) down Fifth Avenue a number of years ago for the Israeli Day Parade.”

...A number of Jewish organizations have honored Trump over the years for his philanthropy, but the government of Israel has not yet given him a prize as he claimed Thursday.

Verdict: True, but misleading.

*******************************

Reality Check: Cruz on Wall Street Journal article on Arizona immigration

In a heated debate about illegal immigration, Cruz noted that undocumented workers fled Arizona after the state cracked down on them. He cited a Wall Street Journal story that outlined the impact on state and business spending.

“What the state of Arizona has seen is the dollars they’re spending on welfare, on prisons, on education, all of those have dropped by hundreds of millions of dollars, and the Americans, and for that matter, the legal immigrants, who are in Arizona, are seeing unemployment drop, are seeing wages rise,” Cruz said...

It’s true that the Journal story said that spending on education dropped by hundreds of millions of dollars.

But Cruz exaggerates the other claims, so we rate them as false.

Reality Check: Cruz on everyone’s illegal immigration records

“I really find it amazing that Donald believes he is the one who discovered the issue of illegal immigration. I can tell you that when I ran for Senate here in the state of Texas, I ran promising to lead the fight against amnesty, promising to fight to build a wall,” Cruz said.

During the race for his Senate race in 2012, Cruz said he opposed amnesty — which to him means no pathway to citizenship or legal status for undocumented immigrants — multiple times......

We rate Cruz’s claim that he campaigned on a promise to fight amnesty and build a wall as true.

Reality Check: Cruz says Trump is for ‘socialized medicine’

..While specific details are hard to come by regarding Trump’s health care policies, he has made clear his support of universal health care, but not socialized medicine as Cruz claims.

Verdict: False.

Reality Check: Cruz and Trump on Libya intervention

In a discussion about the 2011 military intervention in Libya by the United States and its international allies, Cruz and Trump engaged in a vigorous debate about Trump’s stance on the issue and the question of whether Libya was better off without Moammar Gadhafi in power. Trump said the following about Cruz: “He’s saying I was in favor of Libya? I never discussed that subject. I was in favor of Libya? We would be so much better off if Gadhafi were in charge right now.”....

In his remarks at the debate, Cruz said the following: “He stated that in an interview that will be on our website, TedCruz.org, and you can see and hear the exact words from Donald’s mouth. And I assume when he sees that interview, maybe he forgot about it, that I assume Donald will apologize where he sees that he said exactly that.”

Cruz’s website does indeed link to the same 2011 video, so we rate his remarks as true.

[elhombrelibre]

He has a loyal core of supporters. He has great respect for their loyalty to him over truth and justice. As he noted, he could shoot someone (no doubt for no good reason) in New York, and he would not have to worry about losing their support. Loyalty to law, truth, conservatism, and decency are less important to these supporters than loyalty to the Great Man. The leader is always right. The leader is never wrong.

[jazminerose]

After living a number of years in Palm Springs, I totally get it about seasonality. Some businesses rely so heavily on tourism that they just shut down entirely during the summer.

Once the Snowbirds return for the winter, everything gets crowded again & naturally, the demand for employees goes up. And don’t forget to throw Thanksgiving & Christmas into the mix.

[goldstategop]

Rich Lowry wants the Democrats to do the conservative NRO impostors and GOP establishment’s dirty work for them.

They might or they might not.

We’re forgetting the Democrats are engaged in a long and nasty slog for their party’s nomination.

Its possible before its over Trump will have knee-capped them first.

The GOP hasn’t lifted a glove against Trump, not because they don’t know the skeletons in his closet but because they can’t dent Trump’s appeal.

And in a year when people are angry like hell at Washington, Trump’s normal vulnerabilities pale into insignificance in the face of his being a champion of people’s outrage at the establishment.

It may be impossible to pull down Teflon Don by usual negative political attacks. If Lowry is right, we’ll find out if they work.

If not, every one may have to get used to the unthinkable: President Trump.

[elhombrelibre]

Everything Trump knows he learned from the “Shows.” It’s prepared him to be President of the USA on day one.

[toddausauras]

Reality check I refer you to the delegate counts and the polls of states to come in Tuesday.

[goldstategop]

So Americans may be poised to elect their first Reality Star President.

He can’t be worse than Obama.

[RginTN]

trump lost it in this debate. all trump has are slogans. hitlery will slice and dice him.
Cruz and rubio did an awesome job showing how lacking trump is

remember when trump praised hitlery???? she’ll ram that praise down on trump like a hammer. trump’s judgement will be put into play. a year ago he praised hitlery other dems now he says they’re bad. guess he didn’t know what was in his head then or is it now....

[elhombrelibre]

While that (”HE CAN’T BE WORST THAN OBAMA”) could be his slogan, there are still serious questions which this guy won’t address. Assurances of trust me from a lifelong liberal who poured money in to their coffers should give us pause. I also prefer to think of him as potentially our first orange-colored president to match all of the other phoniness of this mountebank fraud.

[ripnbang]

With more % of the vote, more delegates with more to come on Tuesday!