1. #29971
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    Donald Trump famously (or infamously) said that he could shoot someone on 5th ave and no one would care. Well, that someone was himself and the shot was to his foot.

    Republicans who follow his example are making the same mistakes. Everything that they are doing will only end up crippling them and empowering everyone else.

    That doesn't mean what they are doing isn't dangerous, it's still very dangerous.
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  2. #29972

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    The GQP is going to become actively that, as Q-groups have made it a concentrated effort to put as many members of their cult on the 2022 ballot as they can get.

    The death of the RepubliQan Party is going to be by a self-inflicted wound, and not a one of them even had or has the courage to try and stand up to what was the fringe, and now is the base as a result.
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  3. #29973
    Mighty Member Zauriel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
    Not with the way vote suppression bills are being signed. You are aware that the vote suppression bills enacted by the GOP are also going to make it harder for minority conservatives to vote as well, right?
    I think that Allen West, Burgess Owens, Candace Owens, David Clarke, and Vernon Jones probably support GOP-enacted voter suppression bills.

    Rural voters have several names such as rednecks, hicks or hillbillies. The country is held hostage by a bunch of hillbillies in the middle of nowhere.

  4. #29974
    Invincible Member numberthirty's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zauriel View Post
    I think that Allen West, Burgess Owens, Candace Owens, David Clarke, and Vernon Jones probably support GOP-enacted voter suppression bills.

    Rural voters have several names such as rednecks, hicks or hillbillies. The country is held hostage by a bunch of hillbillies in the middle of nowhere.
    Yeah...

    A bunch of hillbillies in the middle of nowhere are keeping Amazon's workforce non-union.

  5. #29975
    Invincible Member numberthirty's Avatar
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    Never mind all of the literal hostages of the drug war that neither of the big two seem like they are in any big hurry to throw a rope to.

  6. #29976
    Old school comic book fan WestPhillyPunisher's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by worstblogever View Post
    The GQP is going to become actively that, as Q-groups have made it a concentrated effort to put as many members of their cult on the 2022 ballot as they can get.

    The death of the RepubliQan Party is going to be by a self-inflicted wound, and not a one of them even had or has the courage to try and stand up to what was the fringe, and now is the base as a result.
    These QAnon nutbags would be comical with their outrageous conspiracy theories if they also weren't so damn dangerous. But hey, Qpublicans willingly got in bed with those crackpots, hope they like all the fleas and the feces they're rolling around in.
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  7. #29977

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    Quote Originally Posted by Zauriel View Post
    I think that Allen West, Burgess Owens, Candace Owens, David Clarke, and Vernon Jones probably support GOP-enacted voter suppression bills.

    Rural voters have several names such as rednecks, hicks or hillbillies. The country is held hostage by a bunch of hillbillies in the middle of nowhere.
    Close. Held hostage by a couple of billionaires who own media sources that radicalize the hillbillies to their agenda.

    Oddly, the hillbillies think they're going to war with "the elites" when they're pushing for every toxic policy that's keeping them down.

    I used to think they just were missing that point, but after seeing Qanon people rave about "pedophile sex trafficking rings" and then not blink about Trump's ties to Epstein or everything Matt Gaetz is gonna go to jail for... I guess there is just an absolute disconnect from reality they won't wake up from without some time with qualified therapists.
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  8. #29978

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    It was on this date in 2015 that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled a two-time loser in attempts to get into the U.S. Senate, World Wrestling Entertainment CEO and now former Cabinet Secretary of the Small Business Association, Linda McMahon, whose background as a recurring character within the WWE Universe (including storyline angles where she was cheated on, in a catatonic state, and “turning heel” by kicking announcers with medical ailments in the groin). Some of the shady business practices her company has made within the industry of professional wrestling over the past few decades include not just a widespread misuse of steroids distributed by company doctors in the 1980s, not just hiring wrestlers who had allegedly murdered their girlfriends, not just pressuring wrestlers to perform with concussions and likely exacerbating their progressive brain tissue’s destruction via CTE, not just permeated a culture of sexual harassment of female employees, but even allegedly covering up a sexual assault of a female wrestler on an overseas tour of Kuwait in 2007. Linda was a hopeless cause in multiple elections as she burned through millions of dollars of her own family’s fortune to try and win a Senate seat. After losses in both 2012 and 2014, both Linda and her outspoken husband, Vince McMahon seemed content to give up politics, but when WWE Hall of Fame member Donald Trump managed to win the White House, they called their old pal, and Linda was set up to run the Small Business Association, because he’s that insane and terrible at picking people for federal appointments. In any event, Linda McMahon was openly describing how chaotic and terrible it is working in the Trump administration and announced she would resign in May of 2019 from that position to run a Trump political PAC.


    In 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented its original profile of the current U.S. House Representative from North Carolina’s 7thCongressional District, David Rouzer, whose resemblance to Saturday Night Live cast member Jon Lovitz still haunts us to this day. Rouzer had already established himself as a staunch conservative while he served in the North Carolina State Senate, aligning himself as a climate change denier who tried blocking studies of sea level change, showing he was downright archaic when it came to education, what with his support of corporal punishment without parental exemption in schools, and his homophobic streak was proven by both his opposition to anti-bullying measures that would protect LGBTQ students and his support for a state constitutional ban on same sex marriage. He hasn't mellowed out much since heading to Washington, D.C., like how he was willing to state his desire to have another government shutdown over the fact that the GOP was unable to defund Planned Parenthood, due to his viewing of the fraudulent video produced by the Center for Medical Progress (whose leaders were since been indicted for their deception). This was only two years after the last time Republicans shut the government down, and got nothing but costing millions upon million dollars for our country, and threatening government workers with being furloughed, Rouzer was ready to repeat that over a shoddy hoax.

    Rouzer was trying to earn big points points as a freshman lawmaker for introducing his own written legislation, but then again, when you consider his bill was to drug test welfare recipients nationally, it becomes a lot less impressive. After all, when states have passed such laws and adopted them, they have lost a fortune on the cost of drug testing, and found statistically less drug use by those on government assistance, without any "savings" of throwing people off welfare. Even worse, the states have lost money on court cases when the same Republicans supporting these bills see their legislation challenged by ACLU lawsuits, and they get overturned as being violations of the 4th Amendment. But that's David Rouzer for you... take a failed, s*** idea at the state level and try to do it across the country.

    In June of 2015: Rep. Rouzer released a statement after the Supreme Court rules in the Obergefell v. Hodges case in favor of marriage equality, saying it would be against the will of our Founding Fathers, and that it created a "slippery slope of shifting sand". Perhaps this would be a good time to point out to Rouzer that George Washington was cool with awarding a house to Continental Army General Baron von Steuben and his fella after the war, mmhm? When a guy with wooden teeth is more tolerant of gays than you are… you have problems.
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  9. #29979

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    North Carolina’s 7th Congressional District has a +9 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, which was enough to help him get 60% of the vote in the 2020 elections. Rouzer returned to Washington, D.C., and his long legislative pattern of being a partisan wanker:



    David Rouzer has always been a vocal defender of Donald Trump, regardless of the blatant corruption of the administration, and whined about “the abuses of the FBI” and claiming “the truth has been trampled” as Republicans’ efforts to end the impeachment inquiry into the Ukraine scandal closed in around Trump in Congressional hearings. And, in the days after the attack on the Capitol, Rouzer was willing to admit the election wasn’t “stolen” but continued on to claim, without any proof, that there was widespread “fraud” that needed investigating, defending his decision to contest the results in the hours after the attack.

    We’re hoping that his district opts to go with a less seditious choice for a Congressman in 2022.
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  10. #29980
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    Quote Originally Posted by worstblogever View Post
    Close. Held hostage by a couple of billionaires who own media sources that radicalize the hillbillies to their agenda.

    Oddly, the hillbillies think they're going to war with "the elites" when they're pushing for every toxic policy that's keeping them down.

    I used to think they just were missing that point, but after seeing Qanon people rave about "pedophile sex trafficking rings" and then not blink about Trump's ties to Epstein or everything Matt Gaetz is gonna go to jail for... I guess there is just an absolute disconnect from reality they won't wake up from without some time with qualified therapists.
    You know that old LBJ quote about why racism was so pernicious and intrinsic to the power structure he’d spent years defending before attacking? The one about “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you”?

    LBJ was one of the most ruthlessly effective politicians in 20th century America, regardless of his actual quality as a President or person, and I think that quote is very accurate for the psychology of racism, but that the second part is what we’re dealing with even more here.

    The narrative of the GOP right now is all about giving its base people to look down on, for whatever reason can be manufactured: racism, sexism, infantilization, ageism, xenophobia, toxic masculinity, whatever can construct that reaction. It’s all about finding a way to judge and mock someone else - whether in a straight-laced and sanctimonious “Pharisee” way that many politically-evangelical people use, to the just plain perplexingly “comedic” toddler-like taunts and jokes from others.

    The thing about it, though? Some of those narratives are more fragile than others… and denial about their application to oneself is part and parcel of all of them. Racism and sexism have a long history of their advocates losing their minds and throwing hissy fits when someone proves them wrong (like how the only thing I know about Cap Ansen is that he was a fragile as hell racist, instead of anything about his baseball skills.) But other narratives are even more dangerous because of how they can easily apply to the GOP without any “cover.”

    No one who accuses Democrats of being weak-willed cowards when the chips are down wants to face up to Trump’s own tendency to grovel and pimp himself out for Putin. No one who wants to judge others for their sexual behavior wants to acknowledge tacitly accepting that behavior on the part of multiple GOPers. No one who wants to claim “superior patriotism” wants to see the fallacy of flying the flag of not just traitors, but sore losers as well. No one who wants to be seen as a cop supporter wants to face the consequences of admitting they would accept riots and cops being beaten if it fit their story.

    That denial is viciously strong, and leads to greater craziness.
    Like action, adventure, rogues, and outlaws? Like anti-heroes, femme fatales, mysteries and thrillers?

    I wrote a book with them. Outlaw’s Shadow: A Sherwood Noir. Robin Hood’s evil counterpart, Guy of Gisbourne, is the main character. Feel free to give it a look: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asi...E2PKBNJFH76GQP

  11. #29981
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zauriel View Post
    Rural voters have several names such as rednecks, hicks or hillbillies. The country is held hostage by a bunch of hillbillies in the middle of nowhere.
    I am not sure "hillbillies" is anthropologically correct.

    I mean the Capitol rioters were led by a motley collection featuring several high income earners, including one Texas realtor who came and left on a Private Jet, several others who stayed at a nearby fancy hotel before and afterwards.

    Amanda Marcotte pointed out that people on the left who use words like "hillbillies" or characterize Qanon and others as being uneducated types commit major category error. Marjorie Taylor Greene whose affect is very much redneck and so on is in fact the daughter of a millionaire who went to a good school.
    https://www.salon.com/2021/02/04/don...eir-minds-too/

    The core of Trump's support isn't really white working class or rural poor, it's those who have experienced social mobility in a low-income era who feel hostile to the idea of social mobility being more widely distributed and shared.

    I think people have committed too much to Hanlon's Razor (i.e. don't attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity). I think the core of Trump's supporters are in fact more malicious than stupid.

  12. #29982
    Ultimate Member Mister Mets's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
    Not with the way vote suppression bills are being signed. You are aware that the vote suppression bills enacted by the GOP are also going to make it harder for minority conservatives to vote as well, right?
    I disagree you with on multiple levels here, regarding whether it is bad as you suggest and whether if it were as bad as you believe it would, whether it would be ineffective.

    If it were as bad as you think, is there any reason to assume that Republican-leaning minority voters would have a tougher time voting than Democratic-leaning minority voters who outnumber them?

    One wrinkle is that conservative minority voters may be more pissed off by Republicans if they get the impression Republicans are trying to suppress their vote, although I'm not sure that's likely. Voter ID consistently polls well.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tendrin View Post
    It's also very likely that a non-Trump candidate will be able to activate white voters as well as he did.

    As has been pointed out, the GOP traded high propensity voting suburban voters for low-propensity rural voters that don't turn out as much when Trump isn't on the ballot. It remains to be seen how much of that loss the GOP can claw back.
    I think you've got a typo here.

    Quote Originally Posted by shooshoomanjoe View Post
    The US Capitol website says, to today, that it's closed for tours due to COVID. So why were GOP Congressional members giving tours when it was shut down?
    Members of congress have some flexibility.

    There were rumors about Boebert giving a large tour. She says that the only people included were members of her family. This hasn't been disputed.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5...ead-of-capitol

    Quote Originally Posted by Tendrin View Post
    It also is letting a catholic foster care organization deny adoptions to same sex couples and continue to operate. It is, fortunately, a very 'narrow ruling' apparently.

    https://twitter.com/SCOTUSblog?ref_s...Ctwgr%5Eauthor
    It was a 9-0 decision, so it does seem anyone who wanted the court to rule differently, including the Philadelphia officials rebuked by the court, has a flawed understanding of the law.
    Sincerely,
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  13. #29983
    Ultimate Member Tendrin's Avatar
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    Ammon Bundy has announced a bid for the Governorship of Idaho as a Republican.

    WBE, I'm, so so, *so* sorry.

    https://www.motherjones.com/politics...aign=Hootsuite

    In fairness to the Idaho GOP ( a sentence I never thought I'd write) they've denounced him.
    Even so, when Ammon first submitted papers to run for office in Idaho, they were rejected because he wasn’t registered to vote in the state. The Republican Party of Idaho has also denounced him and is refusing to support him. “Republicans are the party of law and order, and Ammon Bundy is not suited to call himself an Idaho Republican let alone run for Governor of our great state,” Tom Luna, the state GOP chair, said in a statement earlier this month.
    And he is, of course, Ammon 'one joke' Bundy right away.

    Bundy joked that his running for governor had never been a surprise, given that the minute he filed the paperwork to run it was international news. So he explained that he’d come to the park to make a bigger announcement: “From here on out I’m going to identify as a man, an American man, using he/him pronouns—a married man, married to a beautiful woman,” he said, making an anti-trans joke that would play well on Fox News. “Of course I’m kidding. But, man, who would have ever thought America would have become so ridiculous.”
    Last edited by Tendrin; 06-19-2021 at 06:43 PM.

  14. #29984
    Ultimate Member Tendrin's Avatar
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    Removed for now to check on something.
    Last edited by Tendrin; 06-19-2021 at 08:20 PM.

  15. #29985
    Old school comic book fan WestPhillyPunisher's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tendrin View Post
    Ammon Bundy has announced a bid for the Governorship of Idaho as a Republican.

    WBE, I'm, so so, *so* sorry.

    https://www.motherjones.com/politics...aign=Hootsuite

    In fairness to the Idaho GOP ( a sentence I never thought I'd write) they've denounced him.


    And he is, of course, Ammon 'one joke' Bundy right away.
    After reading that, methinks Bundy might have a particular skeleton in his closet.
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