The Republican Party Has Flat Out Lost Its Mind

[AnBr]

May 14, 2021 14:21:00 GMT LFC said:

May 14, 2021 14:06:42 GMT goldenvalley said:

Where were these 100 people before the election?  Sitting back and hoping that a Trump loss would break the radicals.  How wrong they were.  

David Frum was late to the game. Bill Kristol after that. Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt, and the rest of the Lincoln Project folks were later to the game. Liz Cheney was later even yet. Now we have 100 more who required not just a literal insurrection but near unanimous fealty of the Republican Party apparatus and officials to the insurrectionist in chief. For too many even that's not enough to budge them. These people are all cowards, simultaneously responsible for pushing the GOP to where it is today while ignoring what they wrought. Then there are those who are truly all in. They're just traitors and are not real Americans in my book.

I believe the word I'm looking to describe all of these people is "complicit." Sure there are different levels of being complicit but all that really matters now is how hard they'll fight to atone for their sins. "I once said I didn't agree with everything Donald Trump said" ain't gonna' cut it.

And Frum knew better. Remember how for many election cycles now Frum would bemoan about the kinds of people in the Republican party came to the fore, but by election time election he fell in line. Every. Single. Time. This in spite of the fact that he admitted that it would take several consecutive losses to break the knuckle draggers. I guess for him party loyalty meant following the marching morons over the cliff rather than doing the only thing that would save the party. To start voting the knuckle draggers out, even if that meant voting for the Ds.

[goldenvalley]

May 14, 2021 14:50:03 GMT AnBr said:

May 14, 2021 14:21:00 GMT LFC said:

David Frum was late to the game. Bill Kristol after that. Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt, and the rest of the Lincoln Project folks were later to the game. Liz Cheney was later even yet. Now we have 100 more who required not just a literal insurrection but near unanimous fealty of the Republican Party apparatus and officials to the insurrectionist in chief. For too many even that's not enough to budge them. These people are all cowards, simultaneously responsible for pushing the GOP to where it is today while ignoring what they wrought. Then there are those who are truly all in. They're just traitors and are not real Americans in my book.

I believe the word I'm looking to describe all of these people is "complicit." Sure there are different levels of being complicit but all that really matters now is how hard they'll fight to atone for their sins. "I once said I didn't agree with everything Donald Trump said" ain't gonna' cut it.

And Frum knew better. Remember how for many election cycles now Frum would bemoan about the kinds of people in the Republican party came to the fore, but by election time election he fell in line. Every. Single. Time. This in spite of the fact that he admitted that it would take several consecutive losses to break the knuckle draggers. I guess for him party loyalty meant following the marching morons over the cliff rather than doing the only thing that would save the party. To start voting the knuckle draggers out, even if that meant voting for the Ds.

Frum did publish Trumpocracy in 2018, so he was aware of the problems.  But Frum lost influence with the world he once was a part of so it didn't make much impact.  Just before the 2016 election he wrote that he supported Clinton.  I doubt anyone noticed.

[LFC]

May 14, 2021 15:29:45 GMT goldenvalley said:

Frum did publish Trumpocracy in 2018, so he was aware of the problems.  But Frum lost influence with the world he once was a part of so it didn't make much impact.  Just before the 2016 election he wrote that he supported Clinton.  I doubt anyone noticed.

Frum lost his last shred of credibility when he said "Vote Romney! He doesn't mean what he says!"

[LFC]

Marjorie Taylor Greene has been pulling nutty stunts since well before she was elected by the MAGAt mouth breathers in her district. I remember a time when a person like this would have been politically ostracized (or at least kept at arm's length) as being insane. Not anymore.

During a February 2019 visit to congressional offices at the US Capitol with associates who include a man who would later enter the Capitol during the January 6 insurrection, Greene -- then a conservative activist -- can be seen taunting Ocasio-Cortez's staff outside the congresswoman's locked office by talking through a mailbox slot urging her to come out.
In the video, from a since-deleted Facebook Live of Greene's that was saved by CNN's KFile, Greene tells Ocasio-Cortez to "get rid of your diaper," referring to the congresswoman's office as a "day care." Greene repeatedly indicates throughout her stream that security has been called on them.

"We're going to go see, we're going to visit, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Crazy eyes. Crazy eyes. Nutty. Cortez," Greene says to the camera on the way to the congresswoman's office, mispronouncing "Ocasio."

When Greene and her companions arrive at the office, Ocasio-Cortez's office door is locked. Standing outside of the office, Greene and her associates taunt Ocasio-Cortez's staff through the mailbox, mocking the staff for keeping the door locked.

Then Greene talks through the slot to the staff, urging them to unlock the door and let her and her cohorts inside.

"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I'm an American citizen. I pay your salary through the taxes that you collect for me through the IRS because I'm a taxpaying citizen of the United States," Greene says, noting elsewhere in the video that members of Congress are "employees" who "work for us."

"So you need to stop being a baby and stop locking your door and come out and face the American citizens that you serve," she says. "If you want to be a big girl, you need to get rid of your diaper and come out and be able to talk to the American citizens. Instead of having to use a flap, a little flap. Sad."

CNN has reached out to the offices of Greene and Ocasio-Cortez for comment.

In the video, Greene and her companions continue to goad the staff while chuckling from outside the door. "You can't stay in there forever. Come out and play," taunts one Greene ally through the mailbox slot.

The video is from February 22, 2019 -- the same day that Greene visited the Capitol and brought to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office a petition to impeach the California Democrat for treason, and suggested she should be executed or imprisoned for her "crimes." On social media in 2018 and 2019, Greene repeatedly indicated support for executing other Democratic politicians, including former President Barack Obama, former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, and FBI agents.

Greene also visited Rep. Maxine Waters' office that day, where she said the California Democrat was "just as guilty" of treason as Pelosi. She also went on to visit the offices of then-freshman Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, during which she falsely claimed the first two Muslim women elected to Congress weren't "official" because they had been sworn in on the Quran. Greene stopped by the offices of Reps. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, and Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, and suggested visiting then-Sen. Kamala Harris that day.

With Greene at the Capitol that day was her close ally Anthony Aguero, a former El Paso congressional candidate and conservative livestreamer who was captured on camera inside the Capitol during the January 6 insurrection.

As they leave Ocasio-Cortez's office, Greene says, "Bye. Bye. Bye, AOC. Ocasio-Cortez. Bye, bye, baby. Bye-bye, baby. Bye-bye, little baby girl. Ocasio-Cortez-- she went and hid. She couldn't take it," said Greene, mispronouncing Ocasio-Cortez's name again.

She and her companions then rearranged the sticky notes placed on Ocasio-Cortez's office wall and signed the guest book outside the office by drawing a picture of a border wall before leaving to go to another member's office.

Spoiled, angry, nasty, stupid little children.

[goldenvalley]

May 14, 2021 15:49:16 GMT LFC said:

Marjorie Taylor Greene has been pulling nutty stunts since well before she was elected by the MAGAt mouth breathers in her district. I remember a time when a person like this would have been politically ostracized (or at least kept at arm's length) as being insane. Not anymore.

 
clip

Spoiled, angry, nasty, stupid little children.

She did the chase someone down routine for video a couple of years ago...the target was one of the Parkland High School students David Hogg.  It's just twisted and sick.  

ETA And attention grabbing and exactly what she enjoys providing to her loyal fans, just like the resident of Mar A Lago.

[LFC]

From TDB: The GOP’s New Heroes Are All Killers, Kooks, and Creeps. You might even say "deplorables."

All but one of Cheney’s Republican colleagues cleared the House when she gave her defiant speech against Trump this week, a day before she was stripped of her leadership role. Over half the GOP House gave a standing ovation and applause to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene when she gave a speech before Democrats stripped her of her committee assignments. Greene actively endorsed the violent insurrection, promotes the QAnon conspiracy—which is a domestic terror threat according to the FBI—supports the white supremacist “replacement theory,” and is an antisemite who believes Jews control space lasers.

She’s currently on a “America First” revival tour with Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican in good standing even as his associate is facing a 33-count indictment that includes sex-trafficking a minor.

You can tell a lot about people from their heroes. Students for Trump founder John Lambert was just sentenced to 13 months for posing as a lawyer, by a judge who called him a “cold-blooded fraudster.” At least he isn’t a killer—one of Trump’s favorite terms of praise, incidentally— like Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year old who illegally carried a firearm to a Black Lives Matter protest in another state and fatally shot two unarmed people. The McCloskeys, who illegally brandished firearms at a peaceful BLM protest in front of their house, were given prime real estate at the 2020 RNC to warn about the dangers of Black and brown people “invading” the suburbs. War criminal Eddie Gallagher, who was pardoned by Trump, now openly admits “we killed that guy,” and alleges his fellow Navy SEALS intended for his 12-year-old unarmed detainee to die, and that “nobody at that time had a problem with it.” There’s no protest, shock, disgust or condemnation from the GOP and right-wing media. They love it, because this is who they are.

This process is nothing new. It began with white colonizers coming to this country and claiming it as their own, annihilating indigenous people, enslaving Black Americans, and spending the next four hundred years promoting the big lie echoed by Rick Santorum that, “We came here and created a blank slate.” That was the larvae stage.

[AnBr]

May 14, 2021 15:44:58 GMT LFC said:

May 14, 2021 15:29:45 GMT goldenvalley said:

Frum did publish Trumpocracy in 2018, so he was aware of the problems.  But Frum lost influence with the world he once was a part of so it didn't make much impact.  Just before the 2016 election he wrote that he supported Clinton.  I doubt anyone noticed.

Frum lost his last shred of credibility when he said "Vote Romney! He doesn't mean what he says!"

So much this. He had been doing this for far longer than tRump. In fact, it took tRump to make him say, "now wait a minute." You can lay the orange mango at the feet of Frum and all of the rest in "conservative" media for not calling out the insanity and corruption before it took root. And that includes some of those that formed the Lincoln Project. The main difference is at least the Lincoln Project people are trying to undo the damage they helped sow. Whether it is too little and too late remains to be seen, but they at least helped oust the MAGAts' great orange god. History will not be kind to them.

[AnBr]

McCarthy: Biden sleeps too much

[Deleted]

May 17, 2021 14:39:34 GMT AnBr said:

McCarthy: Biden sleeps too much

At long last, so does do most Americans! After all, the deficit of past few years needs to filled.

[pnwguy]

May 17, 2021 14:50:48 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

May 17, 2021 14:39:34 GMT AnBr said:

McCarthy: Biden sleeps too much

At long last, so does most Americans! After all, the deficit of past few years needs to filled.

Rage Toilet Tweets at 3 am are what a True American President does to protect the nation!

Next up on Fox:  Biden has less diarrhea than Trump, so he can't be healthy.  "He'll die in office and leave us with Marxist Kamala to enslave us!"

[LFC]

From Vox: The Big Lie is the GOP’s One and Only Truth. Joe Biden had more faith in the GOP than we did. He was wrong.

Rep. Liz Cheney (WY), the third-ranking Republican in the House, has officially been removed from her leadership post. Her crime? Voting to impeach Donald Trump and then, subsequently, continuing to rebuke his “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was somehow stolen.

In this, Cheney is hardly alone. At the national and state level, Republicans who challenged Trump’s Big Lie — ranging from Sen. Mitt Romney (UT) all the way down to a member of the Michigan State Board of Canvassers — have been either formally punished or publicly rebuked. The party may not agree on much internally nowadays, but on this point, they march in lockstep: Trump’s falsehoods about the election must not be challenged.

This is not what Joe Biden seemed to think would happen. During the campaign, he predicted that “you will see an epiphany occur among many of my Republican friends” if Trump were defeated. In December, long after it was clear Trump was standing by his false claims of a stolen election, Biden told supporters that “you’re going to be surprised” by how reasonable Republicans could be — though he added that “I may eat these words” eventually.

The events of the past few months have confirmed that Biden’s public optimism was indeed misplaced. Republicans cannot tell the truth about the 2020 election, nor treat him as a fully legitimate president. Trump’s hold over the party is too powerful, his Big Lie widely believed among Republican voters and activists alike.

This state of affairs — the culmination of years of Republican attacks on both the Democratic Party and the legitimacy of the electoral system itself — is dangerous. And it raises a disturbing question: Is the Republican Party even capable of treating a Democratic president as legitimate? And if, not, are we heading for future electoral crises dwarfing even the disaster in 2020?

[pnwguy]

May 18, 2021 17:58:16 GMT LFC said:

From Vox: The Big Lie is the GOP’s One and Only Truth. Joe Biden had more faith in the GOP than we did. He was wrong.

The difference is accountable to the lockstep efforts of Conservative Media, Inc. to stoke outrage 24x7, because their business profits depend on it.  The Gospel of Trump is the easiest and best way to do that, so it's preached non-stop.  The people in the pews are hoodwinked, so the choir has to sing those hymns or face a mass exodus.  And it provides a feed back loop, as bad as climate change. 

[RichTBikkies]

May 17, 2021 17:34:29 GMT pnwguy said:

Rage Toilet Tweets at 3 am are what a True American President does to protect the nation!

Next up on Fox:  Biden has less diarrhea than Trump, so he can't be healthy.  "He'll die in office and leave us with Marxist Kamala to enslave us!"

pnwguy , this is all Political-satire Gold, but I fear you are stealing LFC's thunder.

[FYI, "thunderbox" is old British military slang for a portable commode.]

[LFC]

May 18, 2021 19:36:58 GMT RichTBikkies said:

pnwguy , this is all Political-satire Gold, but I fear you are stealing LFC's thunder.

"Thunder! Thunder! Thundercats, HO!"

When it comes to humor and satire I'm one of those who believe in "the more the merrier."

[HockeyDon]

May 18, 2021 19:52:32 GMT LFC said:

When it comes to humor and satire I'm one of those who believe in "the more the merrier."

Quantity over quality?

[Deleted]

May 19, 2021 12:22:30 GMT HockeyDon said:

May 18, 2021 19:52:32 GMT LFC said:

When it comes to humor and satire I'm one of those who believe in "the more the merrier."

Quantity over quality?

It's a great strategy for folks on the tenure track... voluminous output, and by output I mean... How else does one shoot out to be Asst. Prof.? 

I'm just joshing. Admiration for LFC's tenacity...

[LFC]

May 19, 2021 12:22:30 GMT HockeyDon said:

May 18, 2021 19:52:32 GMT LFC said:

When it comes to humor and satire I'm one of those who believe in "the more the merrier."

Quantity over quality?

[HockeyDon]

Why not both for humor and satire?

Combined? I eagerly await this.

[LFC]

Missouri Republicans thought that creating Rush Limbaugh Day was a great idea.

In Missouri, right-wing admirers of the late talk radio host Rush Limbaugh were hoping that January 12, his birthday, would be named Rush Limbaugh Day in the midwestern state. But the proposal to honor Limbaugh, according to St. Louis Today reporter Jack Suntrup, ended up being dropped from a bill when Democrats in the Missouri State Legislature vehemently objected.

Suntrup reports, "The push to create 'Rush Limbaugh Day' in Missouri died quietly on the last day of the recent legislative session when lawmakers gave final approval to a bill that leaves out mention of the late conservative radio host…. Democrats, frequently targets of Limbaugh's commentary, strongly opposed honoring the Cape Girardeau native, citing what they said was his long record of racist, misogynistic and homophobic comments."

[Bact PhD]

May 19, 2021 12:41:50 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

It's a great strategy for folks on the tenure track... voluminous output, and by output I mean... How else does one shoot out to be Asst. Prof.? 

I'm just joshing. Admiration for LFC's tenacity...

Welllll...you all know what "P h D" stands for.

[AnBr]

Piling higher and deeper?

[Bact PhD]

May 22, 2021 1:46:30 GMT AnBr said:

Piling higher and deeper?

You got it!

[AnBr]

Then there is Bull Shit and More Shit.

[Bact PhD]

May 22, 2021 14:40:15 GMT AnBr said:

Then there is Bull Shit and More Shit.

Of course!

[Traveler]

I just found out Researchgate says I have as many citations as my colleague who just got full prof. For only 10 papers. But one was a ringer (450 alone) back in 95, when I was only one of many coauthors. Its not how much you publish, it's how good your papers are.