The Republican Party Has Flat Out Lost Its Mind

[LFC]

His influence may be waning a bit but the Banana Republicans still love themselves some Trump.

Just hours after former President Trump called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) a “dumb son of a bitch” Trump was … awarded for it?

In an email on Monday morning, the National Republican Senatorial Committee announced that its chairman, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), presented Trump with its first-ever “Champion for Freedom Award.” The NRSC said that the award is given to conservative leaders who work “tirelessly” to “stop the Democrats’ socialist agenda.”

Scott also issued a glowing review of the former president in a statement included in the NRSC’s press release, saying that the NRSC is “grateful for his service” after supposedly proving that he is a “champion for all Americans.”

[Bact PhD]

This should be no surprise; Scott was one of the Trump prototypes when he was Governor of Flori-DUH. Birds of a feather, and all that.

[LFC]

Apr 12, 2021 21:36:28 GMT Bact PhD said:

This should be no surprise; Scott was one of the Trump prototypes when he was Governor of Flori-DUH. Birds of a feather, and all that.

On behalf of all birds everywhere I'm offended by that saying being used in this context.

[LFC]

Liz F***ing Cheney, lead apologist for her daddy's war crimes, is again one of the few voices of sanity in the GOP. How f***ed up is that?

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) on Monday argued that the Republican Party can “turn a corner” from former President Trump by outright condemning symbols of extremism that were on full display during the deadly Capitol insurrection that Trump incited.

In a discussion with Georgetown’s Institute of Politics and Public Service on Monday, the third-ranking Republican was asked about how the GOP could possibly “turn a corner” from the Trump years, especially when the party appears to have embraced the former president. Fundraising emails from the National Republican Congressional Committee that threatened to out “defectors” to Trump, which they indicated was anyone who refused to make monthly donations to the GOP fundraising arm, was cited as an example.

After stressing that policy should be the main focus of the GOP, and acknowledging that she voted in favor of a significant amount of policies under the Trump administration, Cheney said that the party can only move forward by “very clearly rejecting” symbols of extremism that were evident on Jan. 6.

But then she just had to be Liz.

Cheney then said that both parties have to do their part to condemn extremism.

And she just can't bring herself to state the obvious which is contrary to Republican dogma.

Cheney replied that the Republican Party needs to be “willing to speak the truth” by debunking unfounded claims of a “stolen” election.

“It does not mean that there was not fraud. It does not mean that there are not improvements that can be made,” Cheney said. “But we are a nation governed by the rule of law.”

Hey, Liz. THERE WAS VIRTUALLY NO FRAUD! And while improvements can be made they're almost all being proposed by Democrats. Republicans are married to the very opposite.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 13, 2021 15:57:41 GMT LFC said:

Liz F***ing Cheney, lead apologist for her daddy's war crimes, is again one of the few voices of sanity in the GOP. How f***ed up is that?

But then she just had to be Liz.

And she just can't bring herself to state the obvious which is contrary to Republican dogma.

Hey, Liz. THERE WAS VIRTUALLY NO FRAUD! And while improvements can be made they're almost all being proposed by Democrats. Republicans are married to the very opposite.

Eh people are complicated.  If she said what you wanted her to say she would no longer be a Republican at all. I'm guessing that she believes she is reassuring the Republicans that she's still part of their club on issues other than stolen elections. But she wants to be a voice of reason and knows she can't persuade anyone to join her if she doesn't suggest there is at least a little fraud somewhere.

[LFC]

Nikki Haley is a miserable, opportunistic, ass kissing, little puke. Once again somebody who was at one time pushed as a "serious Republican" ends up being a complete nothing. The list is long but probably done for a while since the right wing views even a fig leaf of seriousness as a character flaw.

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley signaled on Monday that she would back former President Donald Trump, if he decides to run for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination again in 2024.

The remark is a flip-flop. Earlier this year Haley said Trump had “fallen so far” that she couldn’t imagine him in the political picture going forward.

“I would not run if President Trump ran, and I would talk to him about it,” Haley said in response to a question from The Associated Press during a news conference at South Carolina State University when asked if she would support another White House bid from Trump.

“That’s something that we will have a conversation about, at some point,” she added.

The former President has previously, privately floated the possibility of a 2024 presidential run.

The comments from Haley on Monday come as Republicans continue to fawn over the former president and slather him with accolades.

[LFC]

Boehner proves he's still a world-class tool.

Former House speaker John Boehner (R-OH) was condemned as a hypocrite after revealing that he voted to re-elect Donald Trump.

The Ohio Republican has been promoting his newly released memoir, where he repeatedly criticizes the former president, but he admitted to Time that he still voted to give Trump another four-year term.

"I voted for Donald Trump," he said. "I thought that his policies, by and large, mirrored the policies that I believed in. I thought the choices for the Supreme Court were top notch. At the end of the day, who gets nominated to the federal courts is really the most important thing a president does."

[LFC]

What a great title at TPM: GOP Senators Take Their Performative Feud With The MLB To A New, Legislative Level. The 3 GOPers leading up the battle are the same grandstanding, legislatively useless douchenozzles you'd expect.

Batter up!

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) are taking another swing at Major League Baseball for its decision to move its All-Star game out of Georgia in response to the state’s restrictive voting law.

On Tuesday, the group of Republican senators announced legislation that they said would put an end to the MLB’s special immunity from antitrust laws — retribution for the league’s decision to pull out of Georgia.

“Monopolies and liberty are not compatible,” Hawley told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight the night before the introduction of the legislation. “No corporation should be so big or so powerful that it can control the political process, that it can override the will of the voters.”

The legislation stands no chance in the Senate, which is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.

The MLB’s antitrust exemption dates back to a 1922 Supreme Court and has been repeatedly upheld. The exemption primarily allows the MLB to prevent franchise moves without owner approval.

Republican lawmakers first floated the idea of removing the MLB’s federal antitrust exception soon after the MLB announced its Georgia decision, with Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) instructing his staff to draft legislation.

[LFC]

Trump still yanks the Republicans' chain. From TPM we have Where Things Stand: An Old Man With A Grudge Still Runs The Show (paywalled).

And Senate Republicans know it.

All hope of retaking the majority in the Senate lies with the former president’s ability to put aside his personal grievances for the sake of the Party.

Key Republicans are expressing this sentiment to the media, perhaps hoping it’ll give Trump pause next time he’s tempted to drag the Senate minority leader through the mud.

“Hopefully there will be some sort of truce,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune told Politico in a piece published last night. “It’s in everybody’s best interest — including the former president, if he wants to continue to stay viable politically — to help us win the majority in 2022. And that means working with Senate Republicans, and not against them.”

Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) echoed Thune’s sentiment to Politico, arguing the flareup does little to help a Party already lacking in cultural steam.

“We’ve got issues as a party, with the demographic trends going against us, and we don’t have a lot of margin for error,” he said.

Their attempts will likely have little sway. After spending the weekend calling Mitch McConnell a “dumb son of a bitch,” Trump put out a statement Monday night griping that the Supreme Court and McConnell foiled his plan to steal the election.

As much as many on all sides might want the grudge monster to slip into irrelevance in Mar-a-Lago, it’s been clear for some time that he — and the faux populism he’s inspired — aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

But post-insurrection, the Trump problem is more dangerous. Trump has never been one to share the spotlight, and the Capitol attack demonstrated that the inability of the GOP to control the rhetoric of the outspoken (now-former) president can have dire consequences.

[LFC]

Thoughts and prayers. This is what happens when you belong to an organization of utter nutters. These are your people and you remained with them by choice.

A top official in the Michigan Republican Party has been left fuming after being forced to attend a near-maskless meeting inside a restaurant—then ending up in a hospital with a severe case of COVID-19. Jason Watts, the treasurer of his local GOP committee, told Michigan Live that he was required to go to the March 31 party meeting because officials were mulling whether to fire him after he criticized Donald Trump in the pages of The New York Times. He recounted entering the meeting, seeing just two people out of around 70 wearing masks, and commented: “I felt like I was going into a den of virus.” After the meeting, he tested positive for the virus, and is still recovering in a hospital two weeks later. “A mask shouldn’t have a political party,” Watts said. “A vaccine shouldn’t have a political party, but we’ve conjured these things to have these connotations.” Watts said at least six people who attended the meeting have fallen sick.

[pnwguy]

"Nothing in this bill prevents the abduction of US citizens by space aliens"

www.cnn.com/2021/04/16/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-lauren-boebert-vote-against-bill-for-leukemia-patients

Next up: "My opponent refuses to address the denial of constitutional rights of toddlers to concealed carry. FREEDOM!!!!"

[goldenvalley]

Apr 17, 2021 16:58:36 GMT pnwguy said:

"Nothing in this bill prevents the abduction of US citizens by space aliens"

www.cnn.com/2021/04/16/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-lauren-boebert-vote-against-bill-for-leukemia-patients

Next up: "My opponent refuses to address the denial of constitutional rights of toddlers to concealed carry. FREEDOM!!!!"

Just ownin' the libs.  That's what they're elected to do, that and spout talking points that are irrelevant to the subject matter.  

Lucky for us that most of the House recognized what a good program Be the Match is.

[andydp]

Apr 17, 2021 16:58:36 GMT pnwguy said:

"Nothing in this bill prevents the abduction of US citizens by space aliens"

www.cnn.com/2021/04/16/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-lauren-boebert-vote-against-bill-for-leukemia-patients

Next up: "My opponent refuses to address the denial of constitutional rights of toddlers to concealed carry. FREEDOM!!!!"

Did they mention the color of the sky on the Planet Zarcon ?

[goldenvalley]

Apr 17, 2021 17:26:14 GMT andydp said:

Apr 17, 2021 16:58:36 GMT pnwguy said:

"Nothing in this bill prevents the abduction of US citizens by space aliens"

www.cnn.com/2021/04/16/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-lauren-boebert-vote-against-bill-for-leukemia-patients

Next up: "My opponent refuses to address the denial of constitutional rights of toddlers to concealed carry. FREEDOM!!!!"

Did they mention the color of the sky on the Planet Zarcon ?

No.  Borowitz says she's calling for the development of an Anglo-Saxon space laser.  So that's something positive.

[LFC]

County level Republican Party organizations are descending further into Trumpian madness. They've just lost it to the point that MTG really isn't that much of an anomaly, just a normal Republican who was elected to higher office than most. Republicans in multiple other states are similarly more and more unhinged and aggressive at punishing those who don't pass their purity tests.

Over the weekend, a spate of county Republican parties in Georgia showed their devotion to former President Donald Trump by punishing officials deemed insufficiently loyal to him.

Republican delegates in a handful of counties passed resolutions condemning Governor Brian Kemp (R) for not doing enough to help Trump overturn the 2020 election, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Kemp has vociferously defended his state’s recently passed restrictive voter laws, a seeming attempt to make up ground with his right-wing constituents ahead of the 2022 gubernatorial election — a potential rematch with voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams. Kemp will also face Democrat-turned-Trump-supporter Vernon Jones in the Republican primary, a devoted disciple of Trump’s election fraud lie.

But the parties’ anger rippled out even beyond Kemp, to other stalwart Republicans who hadn’t incurred Trump’s wrath.

After some of the biggest county parties — Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett —elected hardcore pro-Trump officials to leadership roles, Fulton took it a step further and denied delegate spots to such dependable Republicans as former Rep. Karen Handel (R-GA) and Trump’s own former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. They were denied the slots ostensibly because they weren’t at the meeting, per the AJC.

[LFC]

Dear Leader (well, former) all but says he's going for it in 2024.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday night again teased about another run for president in 2024, suggesting that he was “beyond” serious in his considerations about a potential bid.

“I am looking at it very seriously, beyond seriously,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity during an interview on Monday night. “From a legal standpoint, I don’t want to really talk about it yet, it’s a little too soon.”

The Monday comments suggesting he was serious in his deliberations about a bid, were not the first time Trump has discussed the possibility of running again. Other potential presidential candidates have recently said they would likely not run if Trump seeks the Republican nomination in 2024.

[pnwguy]

Apr 20, 2021 21:19:42 GMT LFC said:

Dear Leader (well, former) all but says he's going for it in 2024.

“From a legal standpoint, I don’t want to really talk about it yet, it’s a little too soon.”

Once you declare candidacy, the scrutiny on funds goes way up, and it will be Biden's FEC doing the watching.  With a PAC, the Fleece-O-Matic can grift on for 2 more years at least, to fund what ever golf tournaments or beauty pageants will Make America Great Again.  

[LFC]

One Democratic Representative is pushing the Republicans to openly own or disown racist utter nutter Marjorie Taylor Greene. I suspect she's going to be in ads all over the nation in 2022. The Republican Party has sunk so low that a she now has a perfectly comfortable position there. Of course former Rep. Steve King was no prize either and he had to go over the top for them to smack him. I wonder if they'd do the same today. Probably not.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) responded to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) calling Black Lives Matter “the most powerful domestic terrorists [sic] organization in our county” by demanding that the NRCC return her donation.

“In her brief time as a Republican star, she has peddled QAnon inspired conspiracies, promoted rhetoric that egged on the insurrection at the United States Capitol, planned a white supremacist caucus in Congress, and tweeted a racist statement in the wake of the Derek Chauvin verdict,” the DCCC chair told Politico. “While Democrats are fighting for racial justice, Republicans continue to let Taylor Greene’s disgraceful actions go unpunished.”

Greene also tweeted that D.C. was “completely dead” Tuesday night due to “fear of riots.” Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer, was found guilty on all charges related to his May 2020 killing of George Floyd, which sparked protests in D.C. and throughout the country last summer. In reality, D.C. had beefed up security in anticipation of a potential acquittal in the Chauvin case, which may have touched off furious demonstrations.

Maloney homed in on Greene’s $175,000 pledged donation to the NRCC, though it’s not the first time he demanded the sum be returned. On Tuesday, he berated the NRCC for keeping the money after Greene was linked to a draft proposal for an “America First Caucus,” which called for the preservation of “Anglo-Saxon political traditions.”

“While they continue to dodge questions about Greene’s racist platform, the NRCC has refused to return the $175,000 in campaign cash Greene funneled into their coffers,” a DCCC press release said.

The proposal for the caucus engendered backlash from both Democrats and Republicans, and Greene has since distanced herself, saying it was “a staff level draft proposal from an outside group that I hadn’t read.”

Attacking Greene is a key part of the DCCC’s 2022 midterms strategy, which it launched advertisements for unusually early, back in February.

The DCCC plans to yoke the party to the QAnon conspiracy theory, a wide-ranging and bizarre group of beliefs which center on the idea that a shadowy cabal of elites is pulling the strings of the government, formerly working to undermine President Trump’s presidency. Now, believers wait for Trump to be ushered back into the Oval Office and Democrats to face their comeuppance via jail or execution.

[LFC]

This TDB article is paywalled but the teaser is exquisite.The dentist turned pol who might’ve helped plan the insurrection is loathed by fellow dentists and his own family, so of course Rep. Paul Gosar is a Republican in good standing.

The dentist turned pol who might’ve helped plan the insurrection is loathed by fellow dentists and his own family, so of course Rep. Paul Gosar is a Republican in good standing.

Among the Republican members of Congress who used their inherent loathsomeness to shoot to fame, who never turn down a Fox News hit or a chance to tweet something racist or inflammatory, there is one who stands out as the shittiest among the shitty.

This MAGA Mutt may be dumber than Jim Jordan, crazier than Marjorie Taylor Greene and fouler than Louie Gohmert, yet he has somehow flown beneath the radar of the national press.

That’s Paul Gosar (D, for dentist) of Arizona, though the American Dental Association has published numerous letters from dentists disavowing him. Dentists think Gosar is bad for their brand.

[LFC]

Roughly 4,500 MAGAts oozed into Tulsa for the Health and Freedom Conference. It was headlined by utterest of nutters and packed with a plethora of pinheads. Think it's just a group of kooks that nobody takes seriously? The chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party was there. To the GOP these people are part of the base, not off on some fringe.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, this past weekend, thousands gathered at the Health and Freedom Conference—maskless, of course—to bask in the glow of Trumpworld luminaries and scheduled speakers such as pillow magnate Mike Lindell, MAGA attorney Lin Wood, and the actor who played Jesus Christ in the Mel Gibson movie. The crowd was there to reaffirm their fealty to twice-impeached former President Donald Trump, the QAnon conspiracy theory, coronavirus denialism, their religious faith, and the belief that their high-profile political enemies deserve to be executed.

And Fever Dreams co-host Will Sommer was on the ground in Tulsa to take it all in.

“[It was] sort of a confluence of COVID denialism, QAnon, evangelical Christianity, all this kind of stuff, gathering outside of Tulsa, 4,500 people,” Sommer told co-host Asawin Suebsaeng on this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast. “They were ready to throw down and talk about how much they love both Trump and QAnon, no masks, [of course]… I didn’t see a single mask... I, too, had to go sans mask to fit in.”

There were, naturally, “a lot of people who are big deals in Trumpism. I mean, it was Lin Wood, and Michael Flynn, and Sidney Powell. Jim Caviezel, who you may remember from The Passion of the Christ,” Sommer said. “These were people who were fringe in a way, but who still have a lot of sway in the Republican Party… Look, the chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party was at this thing.”

According to Sommer, one of Wood’s addresses to the audience included a moment when he blathered on about “people [who] are torturing children,” and how “the punishment for treason is a firing squad”—at which point the crowd of roughly “5,000 people just explode, like standing ovation, all this stuff. So, I mean, it was really something to see.”

[jackd]

Trump owns the party so strange gatherings are likely to occur.

[andydp]

The only thing we can hope for, is they start backstabbing each other because they may not be "pure"enough.

Not to mention letting Darwin handle the virus part.

[LFC]

I just listened to the first 8 minutes of the podcast with the guy who went to the Oklahoma event (and the first 1:30 is mostly intros). It's ... insane. I learned about "adrenachroming" where children are tortured to create adrenachrome which the "world elites drink to stay young." Good ... f***ing ... lord.

[LFC]

TPM is running a member's only series of posts called Making Sense of the Post-Trump Era. Here are two of them that I thought were interesting and a bit divergent. The first is more optimistic.

I always wanted to believe Trump was a last desperate charge of Old White Men in a losing a 50 year (or 150 year) war to retain their monopoly on power. Demographics are against them. Young people lean against them. Women lean against them. Black and Brown people lean against them. Cities against. Coasts against. The educated against. They know it. They fear it. They hate it. Voting for Trump was supposed to be a giant fuck you on their way out — half curse, half joke. But he won, it went to their heads, and they tried to end the game before losing it.

So we doubted. The thesis, and the system, shuddered. But we were right all along. The dam held. The system is still vulnerable —7 million vote win and we were still just 25,000 switched votes from catastrophe—but it held. A closer electoral college and it would have gone to the SC and God Knows … but we won and the obvious analysis was right: Trump is an bookend to the long fight for Democracy that runs from the Civil War through women’s suffrage and Civil Rights movement through to a majority Democratic coalition that is no longer half Blue Dog. Now it’s half Ossof and half Warnock. In Georgia! … and in four years in North Carolina and one day in Texas.

So as Trump fades in the rear view mirror, his rise and fall looks more and more like the Battle of the Bulge than Tet. A terrifying and dangerous last thrust by a losing army whose days of dominance are numbered. Old White Males will still be around, but their hegemony in the US will continue to erode. In short, Trump was Saruman in the Shire after all!

Asking the question about how we’re all coping with the post-Trump era helped clarify for me the continuing unease I feel.

The best analogy i can come up with to describe this are the Wiley Coyote/Roadrunner cartoons. Like Wiley, we devised all sorts of complex schemes (Mueller, for example) to catch Roadrunner/Trump. And, as in the cartoons, they didn’t work. Meanwhile, Roadrunner has run us off the cliff. We’ve now noticed there’s nothing underneath us: a corrupt Supreme Court, the insurrection, a tentative (at best) one vote majority in the Senate, a Republican Party wedded to the insurrection and continuing to deny science. As a society, we’re trying to scramble through the air, trying to get back to the cliff, trying to get back to solid ground.

Are we going to make it back? Gravity – the dark forces of white supremacy and authoritarianism – is strong and the only thing keeping us afloat is the hope that this time will be different.

That’s how I’m dealing with the post-Trump era – that it has the potential to be the post Trump ear, but we damned well better get back to the cliff before gravity inevitably wins.

[jackd]

It wasn't all Trump. There was this guy, McConnell, who ran the Senate.