Michael Brendan Dougherty considers Rubio’s chances after South Carolina:
The Florida senator will have a chance to put together the anti-Trump coalition. Many powerful people in the conservative movement and the Republican establishment desperately want him as their nominee [bold mine-DL]. That counts for a lot.
"We have reached a provisional agreement in principle on the terms of a cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days,” John Kerry said on Sunday, at a news conference in Amman with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.
Kerry was in contact with Sergei Lavrov today and the two diplomats reportedly agreed on “the modalities” for a ceasefire - whatever that means.
The photo above is of a reader of this blog, “celebrating” Trump’s South Carolina victory (though I’m pretty sure he did so tongue-in-cheek, because he cannot get over how insane this campaign is). I can’t stop thinking about the semiotics of that image. That’s expensive French Champagne the dude is drinking. The reference on the t-shirt is to this Key & Peele skit. America!
So, what do you think? I think if I were a Republican Party official, I would have to be kept away from sharp objects, and have my belt and shoelaces confiscated for my own safety.
Trump won South Carolina, and was actually running a little bit ahead of his position in the polling average after almost all of votes had been tallied. With 94% of the vote counted, Trump almost had 33%. Cruz and Rubio were jostling for second place, but they are so close to each other that either of them can present the result as a tie. Being passed by Rubio isn’t good for Cruz, but Cruz can take some consolation from the fact that Rubio trails him in almost every contest over the next two weeks. Kasich and Bush did worse than I thought they would, and tied each other at around 8%.
Authored by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, originally posted at The Week,
Venezuela's economy is collapsing. The country has topped Bloomberg's "Economic Misery Index," which takes into account several economic measures, for two years. Runaway inflation and high unemployment are plaguing the country.
The country's government is taking emergency measures, including increasing the price of gas (which is still among the cheapest in the world) and devaluing the currency to tackle runaway inflation.