The Republican Party Has Flat Out Lost Its Mind

[LFC]

As much as I loathe Mitch McConnell, Jack Tapper is right.

[LFC]

The House Republican performative stupidity continues.

House Republicans this week rammed through an ill-constructed, self-aggrandizing “anti-censorship” bill supposedly aimed at preventing federal agents from pressuring tech companies to stifle conservatives. The bill, inspired in part by Republican outrage over Twitter’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story and other so-called Twitter Files revelations, passed 219-206 in a straight party-line vote. The bill’s almost guaranteed to die in the Democratically controlled Senate.

As written, the Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act would ban “federal employees from advocating for censorship of viewpoints in their official capacity.” That language appears directly inspired by recent Twitter Files documents, which suggest both Democrats and Republicans possessed the ability to report tweets believed to have violated company rules to Twitter and potentially have them removed. Republicans allege Democratic officials used this to disproportionately pressure allegedly left-leaning tech companies into censoring conservative viewpoints or topics. Ironically, a former Twitter safety policy team expert said former President Donald Trump used this same policy avenue to try and convince Twitter to remove a Chrissy Teigen post calling him a “pussy ass bitch.” Republicans clearly love free speech.

How would the new tech censorship bill work?

House Oversight and Accountability Chairman Rep. James Comer, who is also the bill’s lead author, says the proposal would expand the Hatch Act—1939 law preventing federal employees from engaging in political activities—to apply to feds allegedly advocating or promoting censorship. Officials found to have violated the wide-reaching restrictions could risk losing their jobs or facing civil penalties up to $10,000. The bill would also prevent officials from advocating for or promoting the “addition of any disclaimer, information, or other alert,” on a users’ posts. That provision appears to take direct aim at misinformation labels and other fact-checks put in place by social media companies in recent years, i.e. Twitter’s Community Notes feature.

“President Joe Biden and his administration have become the party of censorship,” Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Rep. McMorris Rodger said in a statement following the vote. “They’re actively silencing American voices in order to control the narrative to benefit their political agenda.”

Sounds like another ploy to intimidate federal employees and make them serve the Reichpublican Party.

[LFC]

Interesting correlations. (This is Canada, not the U.S., but the same dynamics are in play.)

[goldenvalley]

I think this belongs here.  It's from Lawyers, Guns, and Money.  

John Ganz applies his theory that fascism has two ideal types (the Italian Jock/Douche model and the Nazi Creep/Loser model) to the contemporary US, noting that within the Republican Party the types are essentially a complementary alliance

There is further refinement to the second type...online incel-tariat.

In the comments there is this:

When I was in high school, jocks beat up losers/creeps. That they've found common cause is a problem for the rest of us.

Response:

They discovered that both groups hate women.

[LFC]

Sums it up well.

[LFC]

Paul Gosar is clearly, and quite literally, mentally ill. The odd facial expressions and head tilts are just creepy.

Paul Gosar Gives Life To Whatever This Is

House Republicans have gone after General Milley in the past for unfounded things like making the military too “woke” and embracing whatever their amorphous definition of “critical race theory” is. But this one takes the cake:

[goldenvalley]

Mar 31, 2023 16:50:56 GMT LFC said:

Paul Gosar is clearly, and quite literally, mentally ill. The odd facial expressions and head tilts are just creepy.

Paul Gosar Gives Life To Whatever This Is

House Republicans have gone after General Milley in the past for unfounded things like making the military too “woke” and embracing whatever their amorphous definition of “critical race theory” is. But this one takes the cake:

Seems like he has a unusual case of Parkinson's disease.  There are a variety of syndromes that can come with it including one that involves early onset cognitive dysfunction, meaning earlier than the more standard depression and cognitive difficulties that come with having the condition for a long time.

[LFC]

Mar 31, 2023 18:39:16 GMT goldenvalley said:

Mar 31, 2023 16:50:56 GMT LFC said:

Paul Gosar is clearly, and quite literally, mentally ill. The odd facial expressions and head tilts are just creepy.

Seems like he has a unusual case of Parkinson's disease.  There are a variety of syndromes that can come with it including one that involves early onset cognitive dysfunction, meaning earlier than the more standard depression and cognitive difficulties that come with having the condition for a long time.

[pnwguy]

If you want to hear an enlightening podcast, I recommend this one.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-focus-group-podcast/id1586423406?i=1000605845546

Tom Nichols is one of my favorite authors (and a brilliant student of history and foreign policy).  Sara Longwell of The Bulwark is a great host. What this particular focus group reveals is truly alarming.

[indy]

I have listened to it and I was pretty encouraged at first because they initially seem to want to discuss the evolution of the Republican voter from 'shining city on the hill' hopeful, optimistic voter in the 80s to the current alienated, 'burn the house down' Republican voter. Then they proceed directly to blaming the media, the current batch of spineless politicians, and voters for it... blah, blah.

Not once do they discuss what part the Republican party had in this evolution. Not once do they discuss their active strategy to recruit and encourage the religious nutjobs, the demented AK47 military wannabees, the racists, and to otherwise foment a hatred of all things any Democrat says or does. Not once do they discuss how Fox does exactly what they did...they are just better at it. Nowhere do they bother to discuss what a successful Republican party going forward might look like, nor how it is to be achieved.

So from 1980 to 2008 we have all Republican presidents, more or less, which results in...the election of a (perhaps Muslim? perhaps foreign born?) black Democrat. Not once but twice. All the fears the GOP has repeatedly reinforced, covertly or overtly, has come to pass. Tucker Carlson did not get Trump elected. THEY DID. They did by supporting politicians who were making the unrealistic and implicit promise to make America great again (i.e., white and Christian or some mythological version of a shining city on a hill that that never really existed without any need for government, or taxes!) but failing. The Republican voters correctly identified these covert ops as a failure.  And Republican voters actually correctly figured out who to blame, the Republican establishment.

Unfortunately the well was so poisoned at this point that the voters didn't have an alternative in the party and of course Democrats were out of the question. Donald Trump was an alternative. Makes me shake my head and wonder if it's the voters who are the dumb ones in this podcast? Republicans like them filled the voter's heads with fantasies---both economic and cultural---but now that it didn't work out it's all the voters fault for being angry about it?

[AnBr]

Apr 3, 2023 11:54:36 GMT indy said:

Tucker Carlson did not get Trump elected. THEY DID. They did by supporting politicians who were making the unrealistic and implicit promise to make America great again (i.e., white and Christian or some mythological version of a shining city on a hill that that never really existed without any need for government, or taxes!) but failing. The Republican voters correctly identified these covert ops as a failure.  And Republican voters actually correctly figured out who to blame, the Republican establishment.

Certainly they did, but that ground was made fertile by reich-wing disinformation. I do not give them a pass and I do not see this ending until that noise machine is taken out of the equation. Till then there will always be more of these kind of voters.

[indy]

I agree with basically everything they said. It's what they didn't say I find annoying. Voters are in fact idiots and that's what makes it so important to send the right signals so when you spend decades sending the wrong signals, you should at least own up to it.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 3, 2023 15:36:57 GMT indy said:

I agree with basically everything they said. It's what they didn't say I find annoying. Voters are in fact idiots and that's what makes it so important to send the right signals so when you spend decades sending the wrong signals, you should at least own up to it.

That's what pundits do.  They're into the horse race and they don't look at the grain that feeds the horses.  Yes, the media primed the grain here over many years of disinformation plus the whole party if uninterested in letting the people know just how things actually work in a functioning government.  They all are happy to allow bar stool talk stand in for actual knowledge.  So they hear stupid, completely untrue crap and people don't have the intellectual curiosity to wonder if they are being told the truth.

[Traveler]

Apr 3, 2023 11:54:36 GMT indy said:

"I have listened to it and I was pretty encouraged at first because they initially seem to want to discuss the evolution of the Republican voter from 'shining city on the hill' hopeful, optimistic voter in the 80s to the current alienated, 'burn the house down' Republican voter. Then they proceed directly to blaming the media, the current batch of spineless politicians, and voters for it... blah, blah.

Not once do they discuss what part the Republican party had in this evolution. Not once do they discuss their active strategy to recruit and encourage the religious nutjobs, the demented AK47 military wannabees, the racists, and to otherwise foment a hatred of all things any Democrat says or does. Not once do they discuss how Fox does exactly what they did...they are just better at it. Nowhere do they bother to discuss what a successful Republican party going forward might look like, nor how it is to be achieved."

Indy, Great stuff.  Cannot figure out to reply, so edit will do. 

It sure is good to see you guys still keeping this thread going. Gonna be an interesting day tomorrow, no? I am waiting for the cascading indictments. My money is on the tax and bank fraud stuff, in addition to Stormy.  And latest revelations from MYL are making the documents case look really dodgy.  Bottom line, we now know who our POG candidate will be. God bless the turd.  Just hope we don't have too much collateral damage as the POG augers in.  

[indy]

Traveler, good to see you. Keeping busy with work I assume?

Yep, just waiting to see what the indictment reveals today. Hopefully, it is reasonably substantial.

[LFC]

Apr 4, 2023 0:49:01 GMT Traveler said:

Just hope we don't have too much collateral damage as the POG augers in.  

Agreed, but we already know the price of letting them have their way. If it's going to be Civil War Lite we might as well get to it rather than allowing the MAGAt Minority quietly swamp our democracy.

And welcome back!

[LFC]

How abused was this old little boy? It sounds like he had the humanity beaten right out of him.

[andydp]

I would love to think this is the beginning of a purge of nutjob GOP reps.  Unfortunately for every one they throw out a new one appears.  (Think mythical Hydra.)  We can see a parallel between this and the deposing of Cawthorne: the accusations were also against GOP.  Obviously, you can't do that,

Arizona House expels GOP lawmaker over unproven claims

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona House of Representatives on Wednesday expelled a Republican lawmaker who organized a presentation making unsubstantiated accusations that a wide range of politicians, judges and public officials of both parties took bribes from a Mexican drug cartel.

Rep. Liz Harris, a prominent supporter of discredited election conspiracies, was kicked out of the Legislature in a bipartisan vote after the presentation by an Arizona insurance agent. The lawmaker's ouster came a day after the House Ethics Committee determined Harris had engaged in “disorderly behavior” in violation of the chamber's rules.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/arizona-house-expels-gop-lawmaker-over-unproven-claims/ar-AA19N3CQ?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=73513ae47e7a49178ad581ffac0e5f18&ei=7

[LFC]

Apr 13, 2023 10:57:31 GMT andydp said:

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona House of Representatives on Wednesday expelled a Republican lawmaker who organized a presentation making unsubstantiated accusations that a wide range of politicians, judges and public officials of both parties took bribes from a Mexican drug cartel.

This only happens when a politician commits the grave crime of badmouthing a colleague in their party. Basically they were Cawthorned only in a much swifter manner. If this person had the common decency to only make accusations about Democrats then it wouldn't have been a problem, especially if the accusations included something about being pedophiles.

[LFC]

A triggered man-baby went into a Walmart and destroyed all the Busch Lite. "Busch", you ask? Yep, he destroyed the wrong beer.

[LFC]

Dennis Prager has always been a bit loopy but now he's really swirling down the toilet into the cesspool of crazy. I suspect this has been who he was all along. He's just not as adept at wrapping his beliefs in fig leaves as he's gotten older. Here he tries to soften the history of American slavery.

DENNIS PRAGER (HOST): It's a very distressing thing what is being done here. The hatred of America and of capitalism is what animates the entire slave narrative in your kid's college. Yes, Corey glossed over that the US ended slavery for the rest of the world. While Britain started it, then we continued it. That is correct. Yep. By the way, if you talk about Islamic slavery which was considerably more barbaric – and, believe me, there was barbarity in our slavery. But most slaves could actually have children, for example. And on more than a few occasions, they were separated from their parents. Horrible, truly horrible. But the Black slave population increased tremendously because they could have families in so many cases. Under Islam, that was not possible, the men were castrated. And they weren't castrated with an anesthetic.

...

The left hates America because they have nothing going on in their lives that gives them meaning. The inferior always hates the superior. The left is morally inferior to the United States and its founders and the Judeo-Christian system. The inferior morally hate the morally superior. The left has always been morally inferior from Lenin to today.

JMG has covered Prager for a while. He covered this story but at the end explains who Prager really is through examples. The actual text is filled with links if you want to dig into any of these.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Dennis Prager claims “many slaveholders were nice people.” Prager declares he’d tell grieving parents that that they’re “wrong” to oppose gun control. Prager claims Trump “has never made any bigoted remarks.” Prager says most gay people “cannot think as a person.” Prager claims that if the US were to split, “the Christian side would prosper.” Prager declares the Capitol riot to be a “Reichstag fire.” Prager defends anti-vaxxers by claiming that gay men were not “pariahs” during the 80s height of the AIDS epidemic. Prager declares that doctors “know nothing” about COVID and that everybody should stock up on horse paste. Prager declares that President Obama has “zero masculinity.” Prager rages that if the left really cared about black people, they’d tell them to “elevate their moral standards.” Prager laments that nobody says “Negro” anymore and that he can’t use the N-word.

[LFC]

Democrats in disarray!

An alleged assault on the eve of a Michigan Republican Party leadership meeting stemmed from an escalating proxy battle between new state GOP Chair Kristina Karamo and former ally Matthew DePerno, party insiders say.

Authorities say local police were called to a patio bar at the Doherty Hotel in Clare on Friday night, where members of the Michigan GOP’s new state central committee gathered for their first formal meeting the following day.

A video recording obtained by Bridge Michigan shows a confrontation between Kalamazoo Republican Party Chair Kelly Sackett and Macomb County GOP Secretary Melissa Pehlis. After they exchanged words, Sackett appeared to knock a cigarette and phone from the hand of Pehlis, who responded by thrusting an open hand at Sackett's head.

Sackett told Bridge she filed a police complaint over the incident but declined further comment. Bridge was unable to reach Pehlis, and the Macomb County Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

The women, who represent competing factions of the Michigan GOP, appeared to be arguing over an alleged move by Sackett to purge Karamo loyalists from the Kalamazoo GOP.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 20, 2023 20:51:52 GMT LFC said:

Democrats in disarray!

An alleged assault on the eve of a Michigan Republican Party leadership meeting stemmed from an escalating proxy battle between new state GOP Chair Kristina Karamo and former ally Matthew DePerno, party insiders say.

Authorities say local police were called to a patio bar at the Doherty Hotel in Clare on Friday night, where members of the Michigan GOP’s new state central committee gathered for their first formal meeting the following day.

A video recording obtained by Bridge Michigan shows a confrontation between Kalamazoo Republican Party Chair Kelly Sackett and Macomb County GOP Secretary Melissa Pehlis. After they exchanged words, Sackett appeared to knock a cigarette and phone from the hand of Pehlis, who responded by thrusting an open hand at Sackett's head.

Sackett told Bridge she filed a police complaint over the incident but declined further comment. Bridge was unable to reach Pehlis, and the Macomb County Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

The women, who represent competing factions of the Michigan GOP, appeared to be arguing over an alleged move by Sackett to purge Karamo loyalists from the Kalamazoo GOP.

I saw the video...I continue to be amazed that adults behave this way.  I guess everyone should be glad that no one was packing heat at that event.  

[LFC]

Coo-coo!

Ron Filipkowski
@ronfilipkowski
Update from the alternate reality world.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 24, 2023 20:58:32 GMT LFC said:

Coo-coo!

Ron Filipkowski
@ronfilipkowski
Update from the alternate reality world.

Obviously Benny hasn't been in a BBB in the last 5 or 6 years.  Four years ago my daughter registered there...had some nice stuff.  This spring my son is getting married...the store has nothing worth registering for.