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The GQP: Trumpist Death Cult

Hugo Stiglitz

By Hugo Stiglitz
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aggie08
aggie08

This is such unbridled horseshit. I live in fucking California, and I'm not sure if I've ever seen a Fuck Trump shirt/flag/bumper sticker/whatever in person. I can't go a day without seeing Let's Go B

Jive Turkey
Jive Turkey

Did not have former Skid Row lead singer Sebastian Bach talking shit to MAGA cult members on my bingo card. But here we are.  

Ghost of LL
Ghost of LL

Yep. I was a George Will/Ronald Reagan/Al Laffer conservative.  I genuinely thought that if you cut taxes for the upper classes, then they would spend and invest and the economic result of that w

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Neonmoon

Neonmoon 38129

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Great article

https://thebulwark.com/the-gop-is-a-propaganda-party/

Quote

The GOP Is a Propaganda Party

Media parasites have taken control of the host.
 
NOVEMBER 30, 2020 5:30 AM
 

Cymothoa exigua is a terrifying creature.

The parasite enters a fish through its gills, attaches to its tongue, consumes the tongue, and then becomes a sort of new tongue. For the rest of the fish’s life, it swims around with the “tongue-eating louse,” as the isopod is known, operating its mouth.

At first, seeing a photo of it made me recoil. Then, I realized it seemed oddly familiar: It reminds me of the relationship between what’s loosely defined as “conservative media” and the GOP.

For a long time, most influential right-leaning media figures were content to swim alongside the GOP, flowing along in the same general direction. Until Donald Trump came along. Then they saw an opportunity to burrow deep inside the GOP and wield real power.

It worked. So well that the GOP, as an institution, no longer controls its tongue and its craven media parasites are the only thing keeping it alive.

It’s not whoever the Republican National Committee will nominate as its next chairman. It’s not Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell or House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, for God’s sake. It’s the Fox News primetime lineup, the large galaxy of radio and digital outlets clamoring to place their personalities and stories on Fox News, and their vast array of fringy lower-tier knockoffs.

All day, every day, these talkers, writers, producers, and editors set the party agenda. They act as the Republican party’s “war room.” They give favored politicians airtime to solicit donations from their viewers. They go negative on their political enemies. Their stars even headline campaign events to rev up the base and get out the vote.

The ones who are good at it get paid far more by the likes of the Murdoch and the Mercer families to carry out the political agenda than any mere senator or congressman. These talkers, not the elected officials stuck grubbing around shaking hands and campaigning in the streets, are the party’s real leaders.

Donald Trump is almost an afterthought in this context. After all, where is Trump without the glow of the TV camera and his Twitter handle? Nowhere. Long before he announced his candidacy in 2015, Fox primed the GOP base for a candidate like him; the network gave him more airtime than other candidates, including a longstanding call-in segment on Fox & Friends; no one blinked an eye when Fox head Roger Ailes, who had a quarter-century friendship with Trump, began advising the Trump campaign soon after Ailes’s ouster from the network. And beyond and before Fox, the media—news, talk, and entertainment—always have been and always will be Trump’s source of political strength. That will only become more true after he leaves office. He will continue to seek out ratings, somewhere, as sustenance for relevance and survival.

The only question is what channel and whether he appears on the network, owns it, or licenses his name.

Knowing this dynamic within the GOP, it’s no wonder that (to name just one ambitious pol) Sen. Ted Cruz has adopted the posture of an online Twitter troll instead of the constitutional scholar-turned-statesman of the biggest, most Republican state in the union. One doesn’t amass a rabid grassroots following by passing bipartisan legislation, delivering on constituent services, or even acting to protect the homeland during a pandemic. The demands of leading and governing in the public interest have never meshed well with the demands of winning and keeping office, but they have never before been so contradictory.

Propaganda Party rules dictate that “owning the libz” and generating likes, retweets, and reactions online are the key to success. In the absence of any policy platform, a new party operating philosophy has emerged among politicians and media figures alike: present Trump-friendly figures in the best light possible and depict anyone who stands in their way as some variation of a socialist, child-eating, Satan worshipper.

Plenty of deep-pocketed investors are down for it; they’re looking to fund more media that will do exactly this. In a piece published last night, New York Times media reporter Ben Smith found a healthy appetite among media investors eager to “convert Mr. Trump’s political profile into cash”:

“There are a lot of well-capitalized people circling,” said Michael Clemente, a former executive at ABC News and Fox News and former chief executive of Newsmax, who has been part of conversations as a potential leader of a new venture. . . . The noisiest effort is led by Hicks Equity Partners, the family business of a Republican National Committee co-chairman and friend of Donald Trump Jr., Thomas Hicks Jr. The Hicks group has sought to lead buyouts of both Newsmax and its smaller and stranger rival, the One America News Network. . . .

Other possibilities for the president to cash in on his stature include creating a new Trump TV network from scratch, either as a television broadcast channel, a package of online video or even a way to direct cash into the Trump family political operation.

Dollar-for-dollar it’s a much better bang for their buck than funding candidates or ads. It sure beats abiding by pesky campaign finance rules, too.

The only problem is, people outside of the GOP bubble are starting to think that publishing and promoting disinformation shouldn’t be so easy. Hence, the GOP obsession with “Big Tech”—or what Tucker Carlson dubbed the “censorship cartel.” This is practically the only policy discussion that universally animates a major sect of top 2024 GOP presidential candidates, among whom, at least according to one poll, Carlson could be a plausible contender.

Makes sense. The prospect that Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram might enforce rules to bar politicians from dumping disinformation online is probably the biggest threat to their political model.

What happens next?

It is said that when the host fish dies, Cymothoa exigua will release itself from the oral cavity and can be seen clinging to the fish’s head or body. But, no one wants to be seen clinging to the husk of Trump’s dead Republican party.

Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo did her best to heave life into Trump’s dead 2020 prospects in his first post-election interview on Sunday. The Trump campaign has lost dozens of court cases contesting the election, yet she told Trump, “The facts are on your side.” Without any evidence she claimed, “This is disgusting, and we cannot allow America’s election to be corrupted.” In the age of Trump, the former Money Honey has turned into a propaganda princess.

Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy straight-up says that Trump’s baseless election lies are working out well for Ruddy. He told the New Yorker, “The news cycle is red-hot, and Newsmax is getting one million people per minute, according to Nielsen, tuning into Newsmax TV. I think it’s good.”

He added, “We have an editorial policy of being supportive of the President and his policies.” Whatever those may be. It doesn’t really matter. He’ll swallow it.

Because people like Ruddy and the talk radio personalities and the Fox primetime hosts have only one primary function now: Keep Trump’s GOP alive, no matter what. They feed themselves and feed the political machine at once. And, without them, the GOP in its current form will wither and die.

The propaganda is the party and the party is propaganda. Sink or swim.

 

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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45673

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

Propaganda Party rules dictate that “owning the libz” and generating likes, retweets, and reactions online are the key to success. In the absence of any policy platform, a new party operating philosophy has emerged among politicians and media figures alike: present Trump-friendly figures in the best light possible and depict anyone who stands in their way as some variation of a socialist, child-eating, Satan worshipper.

If I hadn't lived the past 4 years, I would take this as way over the top hyperbole from an author just reaching to make a point.  Sadly, this is the ACTUAL FUCKING TRUTH.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Posted

I'm gonna give Trump a break this morning and use the pre-pandemic budget numbers.  
His deficits will be:

2017:  $665b

2018:  $780b

2019:  $985b

2020:  $1.1t

I know it doesn't work out this cleanly, but let's just average those out for his term and then round up to the nearest $5b=====$885b/year.  Makes him one of the top 3 repeat offenders in U.S. History.  He'll get some reprieve for what those deficits were as a percentage of GDP, but I think you also need to marry that against what revenues were a percentage of GDP were as well.  There'll be no shortage of ways to spin his fiscal policy genius for the next four years against whatever hand Biden is dealt.  

I think we could get stinking drunk and try this wild plan I've been having for quite awhile:  Stimulate the economy through prudent monetary policy, regulatory consistency, and tactical federal discretionary spending.  Cut spending by low 9-figures, the first step of which is just for our nation to publicly admit to itself 70% of our budget cannot be cut under current constructs.  We're not gonna eliminate some antiquated weapons programs at DoD and somehow balance the budget.  60% is promissary with no reasonable solution.  10% is interest payments.  I get we have to service our debt.  But far less of that than America realizes is going to China, Japan, et. al.  It's going from our Treasury to our Central Bank who use those payments to buy more paper.  It kinda works for awhile, until it doesn't.  And then we'll move on to the tax code.  

It'll be simple gridlock for the next two years, which is fine by me.  But I think there's a chance for some effective change in 2023 & 2024.  

If Biden flies off the handle and racks up a trillion in debt in 2022, yeah, I'll have a big problem with that.  And his criticisms from the right will be justified.  But otherwise, Graham and others have no place from which to lecture.  /rant

 

 

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105093

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Posted
54 minutes ago, Lobo said:

If Biden flies off the handle and racks up a trillion in debt in 2022, yeah, I'll have a big problem with that.  And his criticisms from the right will be justified.  But otherwise, Graham and others have no place from which to lecture.  /rant

Actually, to kickstart a moribund economy suffering from a crisis is one of the times it's most accepted and important to utilize deficit spending.  That's one of the reasons there was so much criticism of the massive Trump tax cuts -- it was deficit spending to inject fuel directly into the economic engine....but was stupid to do at that time of relative prosperity, because we might need that tool later.

Turns out, we DID need that tool later.  And we need it now.

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Js1

Js1 85307

Posted
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3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Actually, to kickstart a moribund economy suffering from a crisis is one of the times it's most accepted and important to utilize deficit spending.  That's one of the reasons there was so much criticism of the massive Trump tax cuts -- it was deficit spending to inject fuel directly into the economic engine....but was stupid to do at that time of relative prosperity, because we might need that tool later.

Turns out, we DID need that tool later.  And we need it now.

That is what voters usually put Democrats in charge of.  Then they get skewered by Republicans for deficit spending our way out of their mess. 

1932

1992

2008

2020

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wildcat09

wildcat09 29349

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1 hour ago, Lobo said:

I'm gonna give Trump a break this morning and use the pre-pandemic budget numbers.  
His deficits will be:

2017:  $665b

2018:  $780b

2019:  $985b

2020:  $1.1t

I know it doesn't work out this cleanly, but let's just average those out for his term and then round up to the nearest $5b=====$885b/year.  Makes him one of the top 3 repeat offenders in U.S. History.  He'll get some reprieve for what those deficits were as a percentage of GDP, but I think you also need to marry that against what revenues were a percentage of GDP were as well.  There'll be no shortage of ways to spin his fiscal policy genius for the next four years against whatever hand Biden is dealt.  

I think we could get stinking drunk and try this wild plan I've been having for quite awhile:  Stimulate the economy through prudent monetary policy, regulatory consistency, and tactical federal discretionary spending.  Cut spending by low 9-figures, the first step of which is just for our nation to publicly admit to itself 70% of our budget cannot be cut under current constructs.  We're not gonna eliminate some antiquated weapons programs at DoD and somehow balance the budget.  60% is promissary with no reasonable solution.  10% is interest payments.  I get we have to service our debt.  But far less of that than America realizes is going to China, Japan, et. al.  It's going from our Treasury to our Central Bank who use those payments to buy more paper.  It kinda works for awhile, until it doesn't.  And then we'll move on to the tax code.  

It'll be simple gridlock for the next two years, which is fine by me.  But I think there's a chance for some effective change in 2023 & 2024.  

If Biden flies off the handle and racks up a trillion in debt in 2022, yeah, I'll have a big problem with that.  And his criticisms from the right will be justified.  But otherwise, Graham and others have no place from which to lecture.  /rant

 

 

Like fuck it will.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Posted

Don't get me wrong, I'm for another round of stimulus money, aka deficit spending.  Mainly to small businesses.  And yeah, Trump burned a big portion of that toolbox earlier in his administration with the justification that it was a relatively low % of GDP.  But it revenues were also dropping relative to GDP due not just to tax cuts but to further QE/monetizing of our debt.  Collecting dollars from people and businesses is revenue, printing dollars is not revenue.  As such, Trump supporters in Congress' favorite stat (Deficit as % of GDP) is wildly skewed by the actions of our Treasury Dept. and our Central Bank, not our Congress and our Oval Office.  

We've got maybe one more generation as the world's reserve currency.  As such, the typical higher taxes/higher spending/higher deficits jumpstart theory of Keynesian subscribers has already fallen out of favor, began under Bush-Obama and continues today.  For the very simple reason, nobody seemed to mind when our own Public Trusts (SS, et. al.) and Central Bank/Fed tripled their ownership of Treasury paper in the last 20 years.  China isn't the boogeyman anymore, it's us.  Our quarter-to-quarter G&A deficit spending is largely either financed internally or printed internally, and then capped off with insanely low interest rates for banks to borrow money with which to buy more treasuries.  

We're not running deficits under wild-spending Presidents like Obama and Trump because it's the Keynesian thing to do.  We're doing because it's so fucking easy.  QE, MMP, Bretton-Woods 2.0, underwater Public Pensions buying trillions of dollars in treasuries thinking that low yield will somehow keep up with Cost-of-Living 20 years from now, and the ability to control inflation despite monetization of that debt via by keeping much of that cash on the sidelines.  

Anyway, curious to see what the next administration does on this front.  Or does not do.  

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Js1

Js1 85307

Posted
Posted
Just now, Biff Tannen said:

Explain this to me like I'm 5 because I refuse to answer their survey in order to read the article.

No primary. They’ll choose at a convention instead. Aka, circumventing the voters so the least crazy gets the nomination. 

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Js1

Js1 85307

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

oh, so it's a good thing?

For the Democrats. Because GOP state senator Amanda Chase (R - Trump) said she’s going to run as an independent if they do this. 

Split the vote and Dems keep the governorship 

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High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter 11035

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

You hate to see it: Virginia GOP picking stateside candidates by convention this time.

Because they figure this will create unity

 

I think its because they will avoid some q nut winning the nomination with 30% of the primary vote, then getting destroyed in the general by a sane, rational democrat.

edit: what js1 said.

 

Edited by High Plains Drifter
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Mdhorn

Mdhorn 5947

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Posted
On 11/30/2020 at 9:13 AM, Neonmoon said:

Great article

https://thebulwark.com/the-gop-is-a-propaganda-party/

 

It explains why they don't debate or talk about policy.  All they do is hurl insults and lies.  Doesn't matter if the lies have been disproven or aren't rationale, just say it and smile for the camera--empty optics.  The retort is second and gets lost in the next phony statement.  Stack the lies and create their own reality.  It's a problem only if the public calls them out and make them pay for it with election losses.  They haven't. 

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13509

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I know every president has their weird followers that have a stronger faith in that leader even more than the leader has in themselves.  But the level of some trump supporters seems to be at a new low. I disagree with but I can understand a Trump voter that liked many of his policies but didn’t necessarily like him. But that doesn’t explain the reality disassociation that we are seeing with perhaps millions of Americans right now.

what I fear is that all republicans, even who agree that Trump lost, will think back on the 2020 election as one that had widespread fraud. In states that Trump lost. This is a low point America 

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105093

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So these are the jackbooted thugs I’ve heard so much about?

No, see, they’re only jackbooted gestapo when they’re doing things like not allowing armed militias to kidnap governors. When they’re doing DeSantis’s bidding, they’re heroes and we should back the blue. I’m sure you understand.
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