The GQP: Trumpist Death Cult

[cactusflinthead 27594]

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/08/republican-party-trump-conservative-movement-burn-it-down.html

In place of the usual gloating, the right has been engaged in a furious intramural debate over whether to burn down the Republican Party in the wake of Trump’s expected (but hardly assured) defeat. Advocates for burning it down include Max Boot, George Will, Stuart Stevens, Charlie Sykes, Mona Charen, and Jonathan V. Last. Critics include David French, Rich Lowry, and Peggy Noonan. Somewhat in the middle lie Ross Douthat, David Brooks,  Jonah Goldberg, Ramesh Ponnuru, and Kevin D. Williamson. In yesterday’s New York Times, former George W. Bush adviser Peter Wehner treats the burning as a (metaphorical) given and urges, “Any attempt to rescue conservatism from the ashes, then, has to begin with the defeat of Donald Trump in November.”

 

 

[NameAlreadyInUse 5106]

13 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

Sorry, but I don't agree.  It was short-sighted and lazy of the federal government to abandon the freed slaves in the South to their fate.  Aside from their moral obligation, they had a strategic imperative to dismantle the plantation economy, break down the culture of white supremacy, and thoroughly de-Confederatize the South.  And in the same way that de-Nazification required hanging some goddamned war criminals (including Keitel and Jodl), de-Confederatization should've including some hangings (including Lee and Pickett).

Actually, what I was trying to argue, apparently poorly, is exactly this. This is what should have happened at the end of the civil war. It was the only way for us to potentially avoid where we are today.

[Jive Turkey 12568]

Being an asshat in the GOP = career advancement 

 

[Bama Chick 28596]

Dude needs to spend some of that settlement money on orthodontia.

[TwiceHorn 31265]

Maybe he should pay some money to WaPo and the others, because the defamation photos were definitely more flattering.

He looks like a powertool nerd.

And he should learn how to tie a tie.

And he's a student at Transylvania U.  You can't make this shit up.

Also, "Team Mitch," commonly pronounced "Team Itch."

Edited August 29, 2020 by TwiceHorn

[JimmyJames 12271]

In today’s Republican Party it’s all about the  grift. So good for him, he’s cashing in. 

[Post Oak 20184]

2 hours ago, Jive Turkey said:

Being an asshat in the GOP = career advancement 

 

Looks like an aggy to me

Edited August 29, 2020 by Post Oak

[Rougarou 594]

9 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Maybe he should pay some money to WaPo and the others, because the defamation photos were definitely more flattering.

He looks like a powertool nerd.

And he should learn how to tie a tie.

And he's a student at Transylvania U.  You can't make this shit up.

Also, "Team Mitch," commonly pronounced "Team Itch."

What's so wrong with the tie, out of curiosity more than than anything?

[DDD Dad 14251]

Multiple dimples for starters. Not even sure what knot he was going with, either

[heso 2748]

3 hours ago, DDD Dad said:

Multiple dimples for starters. Not even sure what knot he was going with, either

Poorly tied half windsor 

[Kyrie Eleison 9312]

Multiple dimples for starters. Not even sure what knot he was going with, either

fancy ass corporate M & A lawyer i see...

[Jive Turkey 12568]

The grift continues. 

 

[troph 24562]

fancy ass corporate M & A lawyer i see...

He’d never make it out of proof reading my deals.

[Pancho 44455]

 

[Mrs Whiggins 13049]

Since we are on tie talk, Mulvaney's is crooked, just like he is.

I've noticed that for folks that seem to admire very posh things like fancy boats (Bannon), country club lifestyle, and all that, the Republicans as a group are lacking in the art of haberdashery and their sartorial workmanship is sloppy. Like a lot of everything they do, it's very slapdash but not in a studied way. Instead it is as if they just exited the back door after the police entered the front.

[TheStoicPaisano 9904]

1 hour ago, Pancho said:

 

Fuck that arctic blonde prick. He should take a permanent vaca to RUS.

[Biff Tannen 45491]

3 hours ago, Jive Turkey said:

The grift continues. 

 

This is fine. 

[High Plains Drifter 10970]

On 8/29/2020 at 12:34 PM, Jive Turkey said:

Being an asshat in the GOP = career advancement 

 

Sandmann will work as a grassroots director for McConnell’s reelection bid and that he started in the new role this month. His job will entail assisting in field operations and building coalitions.

lol

[JimmyJames 12271]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

This is fine. 

Swamp draining. 

[cactusflinthead 27594]

 

[Mdhorn 5911]

Quick read:    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/31/confessions-of-a-trump-troll

Gist--Trolling (and cyber bullying) is what Republican followers are good at: 
For years, the lawyer, who asked not to be identified, worked in Washington, D.C., for the Republican Party. He moved his family south a few years ago, having realized, he said, that “D.C. is just Hollywood for ugly people.” He found that he had time on his hands. “I’d never been interested in social media,” he said. “I can’t stand Facebook.” But he became intrigued by the power of Twitter. “Really repulsive meme-ing, the stuff that makes you laugh, makes you remember,” he said. The right, he went on, “is great at it instinctively. Whether it’s a 4chan board or basement neckbeards, they nail it. They can distill a huge talking paragraph into a cat picture.” He considers Trump’s digital facility “absolutely genius,” and believes that his frequent Twitter misspellings (“Barrack Obama,” “covfefe”) are intentional. In 2015, while the lawyer’s young children napped, he began trolling. “I’d have a glass of wine, talk to my wife, watch Netflix, and see what kinds of things we could do,” he said. He would sometimes pass four or five hours a day this way.

The lawyer is not a mainstream Republican; he likes Bill Clinton and Bernie Sanders. He was also unbothered by the recent Senate report on Russia’s election meddling. (“If you’re not interfering with elections,” he said, “you’re not doing it right.”) Out of curiosity, he attended a far-right gathering, where he found the younger attendees to be “maybe a little misguided, but well intended.” He began creating fake Twitter accounts, he said, to see “whether I could get more interactions, more retweets, by being a little more radical.” The Confederate flag was often his avatar, or the Bonnie Blue, a lesser-known Confederate banner. For his handles, he made up acronyms with a nationalistic tinge, such as FFK: Faith Folk and Kin. He fashioned the accounts’ ersatz users as boomers or gun-rights activists. The latter, he said, were easy: “Just follow Dana Loesch and interact with those crazy girls who stay up all night tweeting Second Amendment stuff.” He added, “I’d get them to retweet me and then my following would blow up.” By the time the 2016 race was under way, he had about twenty accounts, each with a few thousand followers. His fake alt-right accounts amplified Trump’s messaging and distorted Hillary Clinton’s. (“Something about her makes me nervous,” he said.) His fake Antifa ones spread what he called “disinformation and false stories” to benefit Trump.

He pulled up an old account with the handle Ruthless Lessruth. “This was supposed to be a girl who was married to an alt-right guy,” he said. He explained how he’d used the account to trick an Antifa group into protesting an alt-right rally that didn’t exist: “I P.M.’d the head of the Atlanta Antifa and told him that my ‘husband’ was alt-right and that I was repulsed by it.” Then, in the guise of the wife, he directed the Atlanta Antifa group to a would-be rally at a Marriott Marquis. A bunch of people showed up. “That was hard to do, to pose as a girl with political views that I’m not familiar with.” Some of his Antifa accounts also pushed veganism. “You have to find some community to exploit,” he said. “I’d find an approved vegan account with Antifa leanings and interact with them a bit. It was really tedious. But I’m a lawyer—I get into the minutiae.” Manning accounts on both sides of the political spectrum had its risks. “There was always the fear of tweeting something out of the wrong account,” he said. “Like praising immigration to my alt-right followers or something.”

 

[Bozo_Casanova 26277]

3 hours ago, Pancho said:

 

[bolverk 29397]

 

[Mdhorn 5911]

On 8/24/2020 at 10:44 PM, UpperWestside said:

Their platform:

Punish the black and brown people as much as possible as often as possible. That’s the entirety of it. Anything they say or any idea put forward is based on that.

When they weaken healthcare, pollution regulations, consumer protections, push to privatize education, federal lands, social security, medicare, and straight up grift our tax dollars, they punish most of the population, if not everybody.   This isn't good for anybody except the Trump syndicate.  

 

 

 

 

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

There is no policy platform.

Quote

Among the many different things about this election year is that the Republican National Committee, for the first time since 1856, did not bother to come up with a policy platform. Instead, according to the New York Times, they passed "a resolution renewing what delegates enacted in 2016, bashing the news media and offering wholehearted support for Mr. Trump." The Washington Post editorialized that the move was an implicit announcement by the Republicans "that they stand for nothing."

 

[UpperWestside 6134]

10 hours ago, Mdhorn said:

When they weaken healthcare, pollution regulations, consumer protections, push to privatize education, federal lands, social security, medicare, and straight up grift our tax dollars, they punish most of the population, if not everybody.   This isn't good for anybody except the Trump syndicate.  

 

 

 

 

I don’t disagree that it punishes all of us. You are correct in saying that. What I do believe is that all of that will have far harsher effects on black and brown communities and neighborhoods. It is disheartening to see what is going on. We just have to keep pushing back against this. When you completely give up hope and the desire to stand up to what is happening you implicitly say you are okay with this. I believe the majority of this country is not okay with this.

[Biff Tannen 45491]

Salon.com piece, but it's basically a transcript of an interview with one of the people who helped shape the R party for decades.

https://www.salon.com/2020/08/31/longtime-gop-consultant-this-election-is-the-most-dangerous-period-since-the-civil-war/

 

To sum up:

Quote

I believe that we are in for a period of center-left government for a good while. Eventually it will go too far, and then some coherent, moral center-right argument backed by policy will develop. At present, I do not know anyone on the right who can articulate a credible theory of conservative government.

I worked for more than 30 years at the highest levels in the Republican Party and even I cannot tell you what being a conservative means right now. Right now, all the Republican Party cares about is power. The Republican Party exists to elect Republicans. That's it. In that way, it is like a cartel. There is no higher moral good. All they exist to do is beat Democrats.

 

ETA this little nugget of terrifying prediction:

Quote

Should Trump win? Of course he should win. Will he win? I hope not. I wake up every day to fight against that outcome. In terms of the law and Trump delaying the election or doing other things? He is not going to ask permission. He will just do it. I have challenged Republicans with the following scenario. I have not found one who can sensibly respond.

In November there are reports of voting irregularities in Dade County, Florida. There usually are. They usually do not mean anything. Donald Trump orders Chad Wolf to send those camo-wearing paramilitaries who were deployed in D.C. and Portland into the Dade County Courthouse and they seize the boxes of votes. The courts go crazy. They order the boxes returned. But let's say some of those boxes are opened. Now there is a problem with the chain of custody.

What happens then? Are the votes in Dade County thrown out? How do you have a national election without Dade County? Who would stop this? Security guards at the Dade County courthouse aren't going to stop guys in camouflage with automatic weapons. Trump would give those orders to seize the boxes and interfere with the 2020 election. Trump is testing whether the Republicans will stand up to him. Bill Barr won't stop him. That is for sure.

Moreover, why do all these people around Donald Trump keep getting arrested? It is because they are crooks. It's not as if they didn't want to work in presidential politics before. It was just that no one would hire them. The campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, the foreign policy adviser, the national security adviser, the chief political adviser — all those guys are felons. Now Steve Bannon's been arrested, and he'll probably be a felon too. Donald Trump is a wannabe gangster. Gangsters hire other gangsters.

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by Biff Tannen

[Anastasis 23393]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

At present, I do not know anyone on the right who can articulate a credible theory of conservative government.

I worked for more than 30 years at the highest levels in the Republican Party

Nobody should be shocked that someone operating at the highest levels of the GOP for the last 30 years can't articulate a credible theory of conservative government.

[Francisco 2.0 32318]

On cue for a Team GOP rep:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/rep-mike-garcia-bragged-about-postal-service-rescue-didnt-support-it?ref=home

 

Quote

Like nearly every member of Congress, Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) has received a deluge of calls, emails, and letters from his constituents over the past month asking about recent delays and service cuts at the U.S. Postal Service.

In his mailed responses to constituents’ concerns, two of which were reviewed by The Daily Beast, Garcia touts a pair of bills: the HEROES Act and the Moving Forward Act, both of which passed the U.S. House this summer. 

 

Quote

Garcia’s prominent reference to the postal legislation’s generous funding of the USPS, and their provisions for “modernizing” the agency, leave the reasonable impression that he is offering the bills up to constituents as a possible solution to the issues facing the Postal Service—or, even, that he supported them. The only problem: he did not. That fact is omitted from his letters.

A former U.S. Navy fighter pilot, Garcia is among the newest members of Congress. On May 13, he won a hotly contested special election to represent California’s 25th District, a battleground seat that encompasses the suburbs to the north of Los Angeles. Two days later, the House voted to approve the HEROES Act, a sweeping, $3 trillion stimulus bill to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, which also included $25 billion in emergency funding for the USPS. 

 

Quote

Garcia did not have the chance to vote on the HEROES Act—he would be sworn into office on May 19—but all of his fellow GOP colleagues to-be, save for one, voted against the legislation. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the House GOP leader, routinely described the bill as a bloated vehicle for Democrats’ alleged push to “enforce their socialism.” 

Then, in July, the House voted to approve the Moving Forward Act, a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill that appropriated another $25 billion for USPS investments in “modernizing postal infrastructure and operations, processing equipment, and other goods,” as Garcia describes it. He noted to constituents that the legislation passed the House and awaits consideration in the U.S. Senate.

 

Spoiler

But on July 1, only three House Republicans voted with Democrats to pass the bill; Garcia was not one of them. A press release from Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, of which Garcia is a member, argued that the bill “disguises a heavy-handed and unworkable Green New Deal regime of new requirements as an ‘infrastructure bill.’”

A spokesperson for Garcia did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast about why the congressman was referencing bills he did not support in response to constituent concerns about the USPS, or if the congressman now supported either of those bills.

The freshman Republican’s muddled messaging on the Postal Service is reflective of the political bind facing some in the GOP. But while Garcia floats solutions he actually did not himself back, other House Republicans have responded to the public outcry over mail delays by breaking with their party’s official line that USPS concerns amount to a Democratic “conspiracy theory.”

On Aug. 22, the House convened in a rare, late-summer Saturday session to consider a bill that would roll back recent service changes implemented at the USPS by the new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy. Most Republicans denounced the bill in strong terms as a political ploy from Democrats. “Like the Russia hoax and impeachment sham, the Democrats have manufactured another scandal for political purposes,” said Rep. James Comer (R-KY) during debate on the House floor.

But the legislation passed with the support of 26 House Republicans—an unusually high number in the House on such charged bills—who joined all Democrats in voting yes. Garcia was not one of them. 

The operational reforms, made by USPS leadership in the name of efficiency and fiscal viability, led to delays in medication, food, and other supplies that were felt by residents in Garcia’s district as much as anywhere in the country. On Aug. 19, the local radio station KHTS reported that eight mail sorting machines—a target of recent USPS initiatives—were dismantled over the summer in the Santa Clarita Valley, which comprises the central part of the 25th District. The area accounted for nearly 9 percent of the total number of sorting machines that were taken offline in the entire state of California. 

In a statement to the Ventura County Star ahead of the Aug. 22 vote, Garcia said that providing an additional $25 billion to the USPS—the very sum he mentioned in his previous letters to constituents—would be unnecessary.  

“I believe that we, as elected representatives of the people, have an obligation and a responsibility to safeguard taxpayer dollars," Garcia said. "While I cannot support this superfluous legislation, I continue to support and stand with the men and women of the USPS who are entrusted with our nation’s mail."

 

 

 

[StassneyHorn 6536]

Well, there is at least one job opening in the AG’s office now for those who may be interested 

Assistant Texas attorney general loses job after report surfaces racist tweets

 

Nick Moutos threatened Black Lives Matter protesters and has regularly referred to the organizers as “terrorists.” He called Islam a “virus” and trans people an “abomination.”

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/03/nick-moutos-texas-attorney-general/

[bolverk 29397]

Facebook removed two posts from a Republican member of Congress representing Louisiana on Tuesday in which he threatened demonstrators against police violence, suggesting he would shoot and "drop any 10 of you where you stand" if they took to the street armed.

"If this shows up, we'll consider the armed presence a real threat," Rep. Clay Higgins, a former law enforcement officer, posted Tuesday on his personal, verified Captain Clay Higgins Facebook page along with a picture of an armed Black militia group that has protested the police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. "We don't care what color you are. We don't care if you're left or right. If you show up like this, if We recognize threat... you won't walk away."

Higgins, a vocal advocate for gun rights who was elected to Congress in 2016 and who has been featured in NRA promotional videos, made no reference to protesters turning violent, but instead suggested their mere armed presence would be considered a threat.

“I wouldn’t even spill my beer. ... We are SWAT. Nothing personal. We just eliminate the threat. ... That’s not a challenge, fellas. It’s a promise," he wrote Tuesday.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/republican-clay-higgins-facebook-post-threat-armed

[Bama Chick 28596]

Clay Higgins is actual TRASH.

Go give his opponent a follow and a few dollars of you can. He’s a really funny guy and he’s on the spectrum and really open about that and very interesting.


https://twitter.com/robanderson2018?s=21

[crash_davis 23083]

what a fucking bitch of a coward.

[Francisco 2.0 32318]

Trump thinks he's a loser because he lost a eye during service to the country.

 

[Bozo_Casanova 26277]

4 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

what a fucking bitch of a coward.

 

[StassneyHorn 6536]

Hollywood Hegar Crenshaw

[SydneyCarton 47847]

This seems like a wonderful use of his time as opposed to covid response, or governing in general. 

[Chuckie Finster 22598]

[4th&Five 41457]

 

[Biff Tannen 45491]

20 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

 

While this is a nice burn, I would bet that Jordan has convinced himself that never really happened and he's not a piece of shit.  That's what the cult does.  Repeat the lie in their heads over and over until they convince themselves they are the righteous ones.

[Bookman 4610]

18 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

While this is a nice burn, I would bet that Jordan has convinced himself that never really happened and he's not a piece of shit. 

Assuming he has a conscience.

[Mdhorn 5911]

NM--wrong thread.

 

Edited September 6, 2020 by Mdhorn

[StassneyHorn 6536]

They know...

 

[Biff Tannen 45491]

2 minutes ago, StassneyHorn said:

They know...

 

Can’t win without cheating. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26277]

The jokes write themselves:

 

[F250 28680]

2 hours ago, StassneyHorn said:

They know...

 

 

2 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Can’t win without cheating. 

The Dems are doing the same thing with some Green Party candidates in Texas. This isn't unique to the Republicans.

[Huckleberry 32694]

55 minutes ago, F250 said:

 

The Dems are doing the same thing with some Green Party candidates in Texas. This isn't unique to the Republicans.

Right, it's weak sauce but the issue with the Republican attempt is they were past the deadline and they knew it, they were just hoping that Republicans on the Supreme Court would look the other way with a wink.

[atomheartbevo 89409]

27 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

Right, it's weak sauce but the issue with the Republican attempt is they were past the deadline and they knew it, they were just hoping that Republicans on the Supreme Court would look the other way with a wink.

They were also going after Libertarians that were nominated at the convention, which is different.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13410]

Not sure where else to post this funny, random story. Apparently the Right’s top celebrities (James Wood, Travis Tritt, Scott Bain) spend their time banning twitter accounts from strangers on the Left. And not even people that engage with them but pre-emptively ban people that may never know Tritt exists. 

Which of course starts people posting waiting for Travis. It’s also funny in that I assume #Resist must be some Left slogan so these people are telling Twitter they like searching Left slogans so twitter algorithms must think theyre liberal.

 

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by Nice Guy Eddie

[Post Oak 20184]

1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Not sure where else to post this funny, random story. Apparently the Right’s top celebrities (James Wood, Travis Tritt, Scott Bain) spend their time banning twitter accounts from strangers on the Left. And not even people that engage with them but pre-emptively ban people that may never know Tritt exists. 

Which of course starts people posting waiting for Travis. It’s also funny in that I assume #Resist must be some Left slogan so these people are telling Twitter they like searching Left slogans so twitter algorithms must think theyre liberal.

 

 

Here's a quarter.  Call someone who cares