The Trump juggernaut moves on

So Donald Trump has handily won the Nevada caucuses, surpassing all expectations with 45.9% of the vote, exceeding even the combined total of Marco Rubio (23.9%) and Ted Cruz (21.4%). Trump currently has 81 delegates out of the 1,237 required to win on the first ballot at the convention, while Cruz and Rubio have just 17 each. Note that he handily won both South Carolina and Nevada after saying that George W. Bush did not ‘keep us safe’ because 9/11 happened on his watch, and that the war in Iraq was a mistake and that GWB lied the nation into that disaster, all unspeakable heresies that pundits felt might finally, finally, doom his candidacy.
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Don’t be fooled by the patrician gentility of the Bushes

One can be tempted to feel sorry for Jeb Bush, especially given his ignominious exit from the Republican race. During the campaign he seemed affable and even reasonable. He seemed to be personally a nice guy who, through an unfortunate series of events, failed in his pursuit of the presidency. Using a high school metaphor, he gave the impression of being an earnest type whose run for class president was upended by the relentless taunting he received from the uncouth school bully Donald Trump.
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John Oliver on the abortion debate

I have written before about how anti-choice people have been making it harder and harder for women to obtain safe, legal abortions, something they are perfectly entitled to, by shutting down clinics that provide such services using the spurious argument that they are trying to protect women’s health. In his latest episode of Last Week Tonight John Oliver explains what is going on.
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The ebb of Jeb

Jeb Bush has finally faced up to the fact that he is not going to be president of the US and has ended his campaign for the Republican nomination. It must be a particularly bitter pill for him to swallow given that he was the son, not his brother George W, who was always thought to be the one who would be president and was groomed for it by his parents,
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Customizing the US constitution

One of the features in the news stories surrounding militia groups like the ones led by Cliven Bundy’s brood is that the members all seem to carry in their pockets copies of the US constitution and quote from it, presumably to give more credence to their claims that they are the true followers of that founding document and that everyone who challenges them is acting illegally. In articles, you will frequently read passages like the following by Christopher Ketcham of his account of meeting with Cliven Bundy last year.(Harper’s Magazine, February 2015)
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The arrival of oligarchy in the political lexicon

Conservative David Frum, who was George W. Bush’s speechwriter, fingers anger against the oligarchic control of US politics as a major driver in the US election.

The tight grip of oligarchy upon the American political system slipped a little last night in New Hampshire.

On the Democratic side, voters cast their ballots for one of the most implausible candidates in modern presidential history—less because his rhetoric was so mesmerizing or his program so inspiring than as a protest against an expected winner perceived as a lavishly compensated servitor of organized wealth.
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