The Republican Party Has Flat Out Lost Its Mind

[pnwguy]

Aug 26, 2021 18:57:15 GMT goldenvalley said:

An opinion piece in the Atlantic suggests that Trump has become too mainstream for many Republican Party members, leaving it with the likes of MTG and company. Remember Trump heard scattered boos when he suggested that getting the vaccine was a good idea in a rally in Alabama last weekend.  

Two days later Alex Jones, the far-right radio host and conspiracy theorist Trump courted in 2016, rebuked Trump. After playing a clip of Trump declaring that the vaccines are working, Jones responded, “BS. Trump, that’s a lie. You’re not stupid.” Jones added, “Shame on you, Trump. Seriously. Hey, if you don’t have the good sense to save yourself and your political career, that’s okay. At least you’re gonna get some good Republicans elected, and you know, we like ya. But my God. Maybe you’re not that bright. Maybe Trump’s actually a dumbass.”

These incidents are just a few of the straws in the turbulent wind, signs that something ominous is happening to the Republican Party. The GOP base may be identifying less and less with Trump personally—that was inevitable after he left the presidency—but it is not identifying any less with the conspiracist and antidemocratic impulses that defined him over the past five years.

Why is this?

The dark, destructive place the GOP has found itself in isn’t shocking. For more than half a decade, the Republican base—MAGA world—has been fed a constant diet of outrageous lies and conspiracy theories, not just by Trump but also by his allies in the party and the right-wing media ecosystem. Negative emotions such as fear, rage, and resentment have been constantly stirred up. Over time, transgressive behaviors became chic; “owning the libs” became the name of the game. What mattered was hating the right people.

The MAGA brain was rewired. The psychologist Daniel Goleman refers to “amygdala hijack,” an intense emotional reaction that’s dramatically disproportionate to the situation. When a person has been triggered, their emotions take over, and they see the world through a distorted lens.

Republicans who assumed that the party would return to sanity after Trump left office never understood how deforming the effects of his presidency would be. For many, Trump’s behaviors were initially a bug; eventually, they became a feature. Republicans ignored his corruptions and reveled in his cruelty. They entered Trump’s hall of mirrors, and they rather enjoyed it.

To better understand what’s happening in the GOP, think of a person with addiction who over time develops a tolerance; as a result, they need more potent and more frequent doses of the drug to get their desired high. And sometimes even that isn’t enough. They might turn to a more potent drug, which offers a more intense experience and a longer-lasting high, but at the price of considerably more danger.

What was seen as shocking in 2017 is now anodyne. The ethical lines that existed then turned out to have been drawn in sand. When you cross into territory devoid of moral axioms or epistemic standards—the kind of world you would find in a Turgenev novel—things can get very ugly, very quickly. Even Trump—whose derangement now includes turning a violent Capitol Hill rioter who was shot and killed by a police officer into a martyr, falsely accusing the police officer of murder, and issuing yet another barely concealed incitement to violence—can begin to look like a mainstream figure within the party. At some point in the future, the same may be said of Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Cheery thought, isn't it?

I can buy this.  Look at Germany.

How did some of the world's most brilliant engineers, physicists, medical researchers, etc. evolve into pushing Jews into gas chambers and crematoriums (or at least giving tacit approval)?  At some level, their brains were hijacked in the mass hysteria.  

[LFC]

The cruelty continues to be the point. Yes, it's a red area. Even ensuring poor children get something to eat is too much socialism for these folks, all undoubtedly good, God(tm) fearin', church goin', Bible thumpin' Christians.

Wisconsin’s Waukesha School District Board shocked parents earlier this year when it decided to opt out of a federally funded, universal free food program for student lunches because families could “become spoiled” or develop a “slow addiction” to the service. But after the cruel decision made national headlines and sparked local protests, the board voted 5-4 Monday night to reverse the decision. It will rejoin the program it had signed up for during the pandemic that provides meals for all students, regardless of economic background.

In a heated meeting, Superintendent James Sebert said the program would help those “experiencing situational poverty due to the pandemic” who might not qualify for meals under the old rules. But one board member, Kelly Piacsek, whined that giving the government control over feeding “all students at all times regardless of need” was akin to implementing vaccine mandates or teaching critical race theory. Another board member, Anthony Zenobia, said: “If it’s food and free lunch today, it will be forced masking, forced whatever-we-want-to-do in schools because the mob will have the power to tell us what to do.”

[goldenvalley]

Aug 31, 2021 17:59:31 GMT LFC said:

The cruelty continues to be the point. Yes, it's a red area. Even ensuring poor children get something to eat is too much socialism for these folks, all undoubtedly good, God(tm) fearin', church goin', Bible thumpin' Christians.

Wisconsin’s Waukesha School District Board shocked parents earlier this year when it decided to opt out of a federally funded, universal free food program for student lunches because families could “become spoiled” or develop a “slow addiction” to the service. But after the cruel decision made national headlines and sparked local protests, the board voted 5-4 Monday night to reverse the decision. It will rejoin the program it had signed up for during the pandemic that provides meals for all students, regardless of economic background.

In a heated meeting, Superintendent James Sebert said the program would help those “experiencing situational poverty due to the pandemic” who might not qualify for meals under the old rules. But one board member, Kelly Piacsek, whined that giving the government control over feeding “all students at all times regardless of need” was akin to implementing vaccine mandates or teaching critical race theory. Another board member, Anthony Zenobia, said: “If it’s food and free lunch today, it will be forced masking, forced whatever-we-want-to-do in schools because the mob will have the power to tell us what to do.”

Don't you want to create future taxpayers Mr School Board member?  Healthy people are better earners.

[andydp]

Aug 31, 2021 18:28:43 GMT goldenvalley said:

Aug 31, 2021 17:59:31 GMT LFC said:

The cruelty continues to be the point. Yes, it's a red area. Even ensuring poor children get something to eat is too much socialism for these folks, all undoubtedly good, God(tm) fearin', church goin', Bible thumpin' Christians.

Don't you want to create future taxpayers Mr School Board member?  Healthy people are better earners.

You know the objective of this was to "own the libs", hugry kids should know better than be born into households that can't take care of them.

[LFC]

Aug 31, 2021 18:30:12 GMT andydp said:

Aug 31, 2021 18:28:43 GMT goldenvalley said:

Don't you want to create future taxpayers Mr School Board member?  Healthy people are better earners.

You know the objective of this was to "own the libs", hugry kids should know better than be born into households that can't take care of them.

If you don't feed their children then the poor people will just stop having them. We've seen how well this works throughout history. Hungry people NEVER have kids.

[AnBr]

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Attachments:

[LFC]

You call them angry, ignorant, and capable of violence. Republicans call them their base.

There have been thousands of reports of unruly behavior from passengers on U.S. flights this year—but this may be one of the most chaotic of them all. A 61-year-old man was arrested on a flight into Salt Lake City International Airport on Monday after yelling at staff, growling like a dog, and inexplicably screaming “Joe Biden!” before he was forcibly removed from the plane by law-enforcement officials. Fellow passenger Dennis Busch shared videos of the incident aboard American Airlines flight 1802, and wrote in his caption: “After asking him to calm down the man went into a complete meltdown of racist, sexist and belligerent comments, culminating in his arrest at the gate... We were lucky to have such a well trained crew who kept their cool throughout the flight!” Salt Lake City Police reportedly named the man as Timothy Armstrong of Las Vegas and, according to 2News, Armstrong was cited for public intoxication and disorderly conduct.

[LFC]

Kristi Noem created a new method of Trumpsucking. Little Lindsey must be licking his lips in envy.

The sculptor Gutzon Borglum put George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem added Donald Trump—to a replica of the massive granite monument that she commissioned and then presented when he delivered a speech at a controversial Mount Rushmore celebration on July 3, 2020.

The piece has never been publicly seen and little was known about it beyond a disclosure filing with the Office of Government Ethics that indicated it cost $1,100, which Noem’s office said was paid for by private donors.

But the Daily Beast has obtained a photo of the replica, which as The New York Times first reported, does indeed depict Trump carved into the Lakota people’s sacred Black Hills, right next to Lincoln’s face.

[goldenvalley]

If she was such a fan why didn't she just throw her underwear at him like girls did at music stars back in the day? Can't help but laugh about this.

[LFC]

Sept 7, 2021 16:48:15 GMT goldenvalley said:

If she was such a fan why didn't she just throw her underwear at him like girls did at music stars back in the day? Can't help but laugh about this.

Are you sure she didn't? I don't know that it's true but people are saying, and all I'm doing is asking the question. What's wrong with asking the question? If this isn't being investigated then what is it they're afraid we'll learn?

[LFC]

DeSatanist refused money to help feed low income children. WTF? I know "the cruelty is the point" but seriously, W...T...F???

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, already under intense scrutiny for his COVID-19 policies, is facing a fresh barrage of criticism over an "incomprehensible" decision to reject federal pandemic food aid that would benefit 2.1 million low-income children in the Sunshine State.

Democrats say Florida is the only state in the nation that has rejected the aid, which began under former president Donald Trump as part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, to help children who had received free or discounted lunches at school to obtain meals while studying remotely, according to a report from Florida Politics.

"Through his inaction, (Democrats) said, DeSantis is blocking Florida's neediest families from getting about $820 million in child food aid, which they could spend at local grocery stores and markets at a time when many families are suffering," the site reported Friday. "The result has been a $375 shortfall per eligible child over the summer, with kids losing $2.26 for breakfast, $3.60 for lunch, and $1 for a snack daily."

DeSantis, who once lauded the program, has yet to explain his decision to reject the aid this year, although last month his office suggested "that kids don't need the program because they're back in school," Florida Politics reported.

[LFC]

Another Republican proves that they are in desperate need of a basic civics course. The stupidity and ignorance is bottomless. At least Texass AG Ken Paxton heaps plenty of lies along with his ignorance.

After the Dept. of Justice sued the State of Texas over its abortion ban on Thursday, Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton tried to attack U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland by saying his job is not to "worry about" Texas but to worry about "what's going on in Afghanistan," along with the southern border, energy prices, inflation, the economy, and "the world."

The nation's top law enforcement official has little to do with the now-ended war in Afghanistan, the U.S. economy, and even the southern border, not to mention the rest of the world.

"His job is not to worry about Texas," Paxton told Steve Bannon, a former Trump senior White House advisor who now hosts a streaming far right wing talk show. "His job is to worry about, you know, the world, what's going on in Afghanistan, what's going on on the border, what's going on with the United States economy, and energy prices, inflation. He doesn't need to be regulating Texas laws."

Attorneys General for decades have done exactly what Garland did Thursday: sue states for violating federal law or the U.S. Constitution.

But Paxton, who has been under indictment since 2015 for securities fraud, went even further down the false history road, claiming, "I've never seen a president or administration so interested in in regulating individual states and what they do this is a, is almost, I think it's unheard of."

That's false, and Paxton only has to look as far as the Obama administration to see the federal government sue states for violating federal law. But perhaps even more importantly, Paxton's predecessor, now Texas Governor Greg Abbott, infamously bragged when he was the state attorney general, "I go into the office, I sue the federal government and I go home." Abbott sued the federal government more than two dozen times.

"None of it makes any sense," Paxton added, which is also false.

[LFC]

Joni Ernst (R-IAmAnAsshole) doesn't want people to forget that she's an ignorant, stupid, lying fool too. That's now a requirement to run as a Republican just about anywhere in this country.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) on Friday accused President Joe Biden of trying to make Americans forget about the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by pushing out new rules intended to get more Americans vaccinated against COVID-19.

While appearing on Fox News, Ernst accused the Biden administration of "leading by coercion" when it comes to vaccines, and she then added that "this is a diversion away from 9/11, away from the 20th anniversary, and away from the debacle that was his Afghanistan withdrawal."

According to data compiled by the Financial Times, America is currently losing an average of more than 1,500 people every day to COVID-19, which is the equivalent of having a 9/11 attack on America occur every two days.

Ernst recently was called out by CNN's Jake Tapper after she falsely claimed that Biden had never thanked American servicemembers who have risked their lives in the war against terrorism, when in reality Biden has thanked those servicemembers explicitly on multiple occasions.

Lies, lies, and more lies. And the MAGAts don't care. They believe it all. Hell, they punish people who DON'T lie to them.

[LFC]

I posted today that the lying liar Rep. Crenshaw of Texass whined that Biden shouldn't have COVID mandates but instead should explain and convince while the Republican Party is, of course, pulling out all stops to lie and enrage. Yeah, good luck with that when you're facing MAGAts like this. This hurt my head to read. I couldn't bear to watch/listen to the video.

On Thursday, CNN's Donie O'Sullivan spoke with Trump supporter Mary Quintanilla for her views on Facebook fact-checking — and she flatly rejected the concept of it.

"I have had notifications with regard to maybe some of the COVID issues," said Quintanilla. "They will say that's fact-checked and may not be accurate. I just say, okay. Then I still post it."

"There's a video that Eric Trump retweeted a few days after the election that showed Trump ballots being set on fire," said O'Sullivan.

"I seen that," cut in Quintanilla.

"That's false," said O'Sullivan. "The election officials in Virginia who control those ballots said they are not real ballots. Is that not a good service that something like that gets — when it's shown false?"

"No," said Quintanilla. "Aren't we smart enough to say, whose video is that?"

"That video played into the idea on election week that there was this mass fraud. It played into the idea," said O'Sullivan, shortly adding, "There's so much information. Are you cherry-picking your facts?"

"You could," said Quintanilla. "Whose reality is important but your own reality?"

"Shouldn't we have a shared understanding?" countered O'Sullivan.

"It's impossible," said Quintanilla. "It's impossible because of the bias."

[pnwguy]

Sept 7, 2021 15:30:58 GMT LFC said:

Kristi Noem created a new method of Trumpsucking. Little Lindsey must be licking his lips in envy.

The sculptor Gutzon Borglum put George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem added Donald Trump—to a replica of the massive granite monument that she commissioned and then presented when he delivered a speech at a controversial Mount Rushmore celebration on July 3, 2020.

The piece has never been publicly seen and little was known about it beyond a disclosure filing with the Office of Government Ethics that indicated it cost $1,100, which Noem’s office said was paid for by private donors.

But the Daily Beast has obtained a photo of the replica, which as The New York Times first reported, does indeed depict Trump carved into the Lakota people’s sacred Black Hills, right next to Lincoln’s face.

How long can it be that the sculptors start mass producing these for MAGAstan and hawk them on QVC?  They might as well get in on the grift too.  They probably just have to give the Orangutan a piece of the action, to prevent lawsuits. Like any Mafia don, he has to have a taste.

[LFC]

The headline sums it up.

Republicans ‘raised the cost on stupid’ by rejecting basic common sense: MSNBC’s Heilemann

[LFC]

This guy is so dumb, dishonest, and/or batshit nuts that they should take away his wallet, keys, phone, belt, and shoelaces.

While questioning Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) suddenly felt compelled to grill Blinken on whether or not anyone in the White House has been deputized to “push the button” and cut President Joe Biden’s mic if he goes off-topic. “Senator, I really don’t know what you’re referring to,” Blinken replied, while trying to keep a straight face. Risch was talking about a non-event the day before, which was reported by right-wing media as evidence of some sort of Democratic conspiracy. “This isn’t the first time the White House intervened in blocking Biden from being heard by the general public,” Fox News howled.

In fact, the livestream cut off when the public portion of the event ended and Biden began speaking one-on-one with a Washington State forestry official.

“Look, we’ve all seen this,” Risch demanded. “We saw it as recently as yesterday. Somebody in the White House has authority to press the button, and stop the president, cut off the President’s speaking ability and sound. Who is that person?” When Blinken again said Biden speaks for himself, Risch insisted that it has “been widely reported” to the contrary: “Are you telling this committee that this does not happen, that there’s no one in the White House who pushes the button and cuts him off in mid-sentence?”

“That’s correct,” said Blinken.

[goldenvalley]

Sept 14, 2021 19:59:52 GMT LFC said:

This guy is so dumb, dishonest, and/or batshit nuts that they should take away his wallet, keys, phone, belt, and shoelaces.

While questioning Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) suddenly felt compelled to grill Blinken on whether or not anyone in the White House has been deputized to “push the button” and cut President Joe Biden’s mic if he goes off-topic. “Senator, I really don’t know what you’re referring to,” Blinken replied, while trying to keep a straight face. Risch was talking about a non-event the day before, which was reported by right-wing media as evidence of some sort of Democratic conspiracy. “This isn’t the first time the White House intervened in blocking Biden from being heard by the general public,” Fox News howled.

In fact, the livestream cut off when the public portion of the event ended and Biden began speaking one-on-one with a Washington State forestry official.

“Look, we’ve all seen this,” Risch demanded. “We saw it as recently as yesterday. Somebody in the White House has authority to press the button, and stop the president, cut off the President’s speaking ability and sound. Who is that person?” When Blinken again said Biden speaks for himself, Risch insisted that it has “been widely reported” to the contrary: “Are you telling this committee that this does not happen, that there’s no one in the White House who pushes the button and cuts him off in mid-sentence?”

“That’s correct,” said Blinken.

Just once I'd like to see someone answer one of these stupid questions with "you're correct.  there is someone who has authority to press the button and cut off the speaking ability.  It is Zenon from the planet M32."

[LFC]

This article at TDB is paywalled (I don't have a subscription) but the subtitle could have been "Well, Duh!" Here's what they show:

Mental Illness Runs Rampant in QAnon Crowd
One in five Americans have a mental health diagnosis. The rate is three times that among Capitol rioters.

QAnon is often viewed as a group associated with conspiracy, terrorism and radical action, such as the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. But radical extremism and terror may not be the real concern from this group.

QAnon followers, who may number in the millions, appear to believe a baseless and debunked conspiracy theory claiming that a satanic cabal of pedophiles and cannibals controls world governments and the media. They also subscribe to many other outlandish and improbable ideas, such as that the Earth is flat, that the coronavirus is a biological weapon used to gain control over the world’s population, that Bill Gates is somehow trying to use coronavirus vaccinations to implant microchips into people and more.

As a social psychologist, I normally study terrorists. During research for Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon, a forthcoming book I co-authored with security scholar Mia Bloom, I noticed that QAnon followers are different from the radicals I usually study in one key way: They are far more likely to have serious mental illnesses.

[LFC]

Sept 14, 2021 19:59:52 GMT LFC said:

This guy is so dumb, dishonest, and/or batshit nuts that they should take away his wallet, keys, phone, belt, and shoelaces.

Aaaaahhhh, it's projection! He's clearly suffering from some level of dementia.

U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-ID) says it's a "fact" President Joe Biden is mentally "disadvantaged" and a puppet of someone in the White House. Risch, who is 78 and infamously fell sleep during the the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, is the Ranking Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"What do you think we need to get to the bottom to who's responsible for this, who made the decisions?" Senator Risch asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken during Tuesday's hearing on Afghanistan.

"There's real questions right now as to who's making the decisions," he claimed, feeding in to far right wing conspiracy theories.

"We know for a fact that the President of the United States is, uh, somewhat disadvantaged here in that someone's calling the shots," Risch lied.

"He can't even speak without someone in the White House censoring it or for signing off on it. As recently as yesterday in mid-sentence he was cut off by someone in the White House who makes the decision that the President United States is not speaking correctly. So I'd like to know who this person is.

"This is a puppeteer act if you would and we need to know who's in charge and who's making these decisions."

"Somebody in the White House has the authority to stop the President's speaking ability," Risch later in the hearing claimed.

"Who is that person?" he demanded Blinken tell him.

Secretary Blinken chuckled and replied, "There is no such person."

[LFC]

George Will says there is no room anymore in the Republican party for conservatives. Then he cuts the legs right out from his own dais of conservative piety.

George Will lamented that the Republican Party no longer had room for conservatives like himself, and he offered a disturbing explanation for that dynamic.

The Washington Post columnist appeared Tuesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," where he lamented the rightward drift of the party he once called home but no longer feels any affinity toward after Donald Trump took it over.

"Whatever populism is conservatism isn't," Will said. "Populism believes that everything is clear, known to the public and should be directed into the policy and not be refined in the Constitution. That is the antithesis of conservatism."

The veteran columnist explained that Republican elected officials didn't necessarily agree with their party's direction, but they were afraid to push back against their increasingly radicalized right-wing base.

"There is no place for conservatism in the Republican Party right now because we have an absolutely unique situation," Will said. "We have a Republican Party who are -- they won't say this -- are frightened of their voters, and because they're frightened of them, they don't much like them. Because they don't like them, they don't respect them. It's a very tension-ridden relationship between the Republican's elected officials and the Republican base. Until the Republican Party gets back to something like the principles that made it a vibrant force in the '80s and '90s, conservatives are, as I say, orphans."

The 80s? The decade of an out of his depth and quickly going senile actor as head of the party? The decade of tinkle down economics, exploding deficits, Iran-Contra? Or the 90s? The decade of endless bogus partisan "investigations" of Bill Clinton and the ascendancy of Newt Gingrich? Those principles?

The more I've heard from Will the less I respect him. The stubborn refusal to stop telling global warming lies was the start but he's said multiple other things that prove that he's not a serious person.

[andydp]

I wasn't sure where to put this.  Losing their minds (and money) seems appropriate.  Note that some InfoWars people are involved and they have raised $130K+.  

Please Help Us Figure Out What the Hell This 'Cucks' Device for MAGA-Lovers Actually Is

A former InfoWars reporter and a right-wing filmmaker have joined forces to successfully raise nearly $172,000 on crowdfunding site Indiegogo for a device named after cuckolding and that does... something indiscernible no one can figure out.



As flagged by the Daily Beast, the device, dubbed “Qux”, is the brainchild of former Infowars contributor Millie Weaver and Gavin Wince. It is some kind of thing that at first glance appears to be a kind of streaming box, but one that will liberate its God-fearing buyers from the eternal tyranny of Big Tech liberals. Beyond that, it all gets fuzzy.

Qux is pronounced “quix” in a promotional trailer, but its founders have embraced the pronunciation “cucks,”... This is deliberate. The term “cuckservative” caught on during the 2016 elections as an insult among Donald Trump supporters, white supremacists, and the far-right, who used it to describe other conservatives they viewed as insufficiently hard-line on issues like immigration.

gizmodo.com/please-help-us-figure-out-what-the-hell-this-cucks-devi-1847684244

[LFC]

One actual patriotic Republican Representative hit his breaking point and is leaving.

Bye!

Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) announced that he won’t seek another term in 2022, marking the first departure from Congress among the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for sparking the Jan. 6 insurrection.

• Gonzales cited the “toxic dynamics” of his party as a “significant factor” in his decision.
• Gonzales called Trump “a cancer for the country” in an interview with the New York Times on the day of his announcement.
• The GOP lawmaker insisted to the Times that he wasn’t leaving because of the threats he’s received in wake of his impeachment vote, but he also noted he was receiving messages like, “We’re coming to your house.”
• Gonzalez also blasted his colleagues for fueling Trump’s lie about the 2020 election, calling their enablement “horribly irresponsible and destructive for the country.”
• Gonzalez was facing a primary challenge from Trump-endorsed formed White House aide Max Miller.

[goldenvalley]

Sept 17, 2021 12:59:10 GMT andydp said:

I wasn't sure where to put this.  Losing their minds (and money) seems appropriate.  Note that some InfoWars people are involved and they have raised $130K+.  

Please Help Us Figure Out What the Hell This 'Cucks' Device for MAGA-Lovers Actually Is

A former InfoWars reporter and a right-wing filmmaker have joined forces to successfully raise nearly $172,000 on crowdfunding site Indiegogo for a device named after cuckolding and that does... something indiscernible no one can figure out.



As flagged by the Daily Beast, the device, dubbed “Qux”, is the brainchild of former Infowars contributor Millie Weaver and Gavin Wince. It is some kind of thing that at first glance appears to be a kind of streaming box, but one that will liberate its God-fearing buyers from the eternal tyranny of Big Tech liberals. Beyond that, it all gets fuzzy.

Qux is pronounced “quix” in a promotional trailer, but its founders have embraced the pronunciation “cucks,”... This is deliberate. The term “cuckservative” caught on during the 2016 elections as an insult among Donald Trump supporters, white supremacists, and the far-right, who used it to describe other conservatives they viewed as insufficiently hard-line on issues like immigration.

gizmodo.com/please-help-us-figure-out-what-the-hell-this-cucks-devi-1847684244

Pure grift.  Send us money because you're angry!

[goldenvalley]

Here we go again, showdown on debt limit.  The Republicans ended up looking bad each time they forced this, but McConnell is still threatening.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has insisted Republicans will not cooperate with pleas from the Biden administration to increase or suspend the debt ceiling — the legal limit for what the federal government can borrow to avoid defaulting on its obligations.

Meanwhile, the White House has ruled out offering policy concessions to Republican lawmakers to lure GOP votes, according to three senior administration officials familiar with the matter. McConnell has not communicated any requests to the administration of what he wants in exchange for support for the suspension, the people said. Even if McConnell does outline a proposal, the White House has no intention of rewarding the GOP for trying to use the debt ceiling as leverage in other negotiations, the officials said, with one describing the position as “a matter of principle.

To refresh our memory, the debt limit ceiling was no big deal, nor was the deficit, during the years that the immediate past president was president.