Ongoing US GOP Debacle Thread: Seditious Republicans march toward authoritarianism
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WakeForestRanger
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deactherunner
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Old news, but I don't remember seeibg it on here.
Revenge Porn Operator Craig Brittain Running for Jeff Flake's Senate Seat
Revenge Porn Operator Craig Brittain Running for Jeff Flake's Senate Seat
ConnorEl
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Budgets, Bad Faith and ‘Balance’
Quote
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Over the past couple of months Republicans have passed or proposed three big budget initiatives. First, they enacted a springtime-for-plutocrats tax cut that will shower huge benefits on the wealthy while offering a few crumbs for ordinary families — crumbs that will be snatched away after a few years, so that it ends up becoming a middle-class tax hike. Then they signed on to a what-me-worry budget deal that will blow up the budget deficit to levels never before seen except during wars or severe recessions. Finally, the Trump administration released a surpassingly vicious budget proposal that would punish not just the vulnerable but also most working families.
Looking at all of this should make you very angry; it certainly infuriates me. But my anger isn’t mostly directed at Republicans; it’s directed at their enablers, the professional centrists, both-sides pundits, and news organizations that spent years refusing to acknowledge that the modern G.O.P. is what it so clearly is.
Which is not to say that Republicans should be let off the hook.
To be sure, American history is full of politicians and parties that pursued what we would now call nefarious ends. After all, the pre-Civil War Democratic Party — which shares nothing but a name with today’s Democrats — was largely devoted to the cause of preserving slavery. But I can’t think of a previous example of a party that so consistently acted in bad faith — pretending to care about things it didn’t, pretending to serve goals that were the opposite of its actual intentions.
You may recall, for example, the grim warnings from leading Republicans about the dangers of budget deficits, with Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, declaring that our “crushing burden of debt” would create an economic crisis. Then came the opportunity to pass a $1.5 trillion tax cut targeted on the rich, and suddenly all worries about the deficit temporarily disappeared.
Now that the tax cut is law, of course, deficit-hawk rhetoric is back — not as a reason to reconsider those tax breaks, but as a reason to cut food stamps and Medicaid. You knew this was going to happen, although even I expected the fake deficit hawks to wait a little longer before resuming their act.
You may also recall how Republicans posed as defenders of Medicare, accusing the Obama administration of planning to cut $500 billion from the program to pay for the Affordable Care Act. The legislation did in fact seek substantial savings in Medicare, for example by ending overpayments to insurance companies. But so did Republican proposals. And Donald Trump, who promised during the campaign not to cut Medicare or Medicaid, is now proposing hundreds of billions more in Medicare cuts and truly draconian cuts in Medicaid.
Why have Republicans become so overwhelmingly the party of bad faith? (And not just about budgets, of course; remember when Republicans cared deeply about a president’s sexual morality?) The main answer is probably that the party’s true agenda, dictated by the interests of a handful of super-wealthy donors, would be very unpopular if the public understood it. So the party must consistently lie about its priorities and intentions.
Whatever the reasons for G.O.P. bad faith, however, its reality has been apparent for a long time.
Yet the gatekeepers of our public discourse spent years being willfully blind to this reality. Take, for example, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank that, to be fair, can be a useful resource for budget analysis. Still, I can’t forget that back in 2010 the committee gave Paul Ryan — whose fraudulence was obvious from the beginning to anyone who actually read his proposals — an award for fiscal responsibility.
And even now the committee is busy pontificating about the need to reform the “budget process.” Let’s get real, O.K.? The problem isn’t the process, it’s the Republicans.
Meanwhile, many news organizations — which, by the way, gave Ryan years of adoring coverage — treat recent G.O.P. actions as if they are some kind of aberration, a departure from previous principles. They aren’t. Republicans are what they always were: They never cared about deficits; they always wanted to dismantle Medicare, not defend it. They just happen not to be who they pretended to be.
Now, there’s no mystery about why many people won’t face up to the reality of Republican bad faith. Washington is full of professional centrists, whose public personas are built around a carefully cultivated image of standing above the partisan fray, which means that they can’t admit that while there are dishonest politicians everywhere, one party basically lies about everything. News organizations are intimidated by accusations of liberal bias, which means that they try desperately to show “balance” by blaming both parties equally for all problems.
But our job, whether we’re policy analysts or journalists, isn’t to be “balanced”; it’s to tell the truth. And while Democrats are hardly angels, at this point in American history, the truth has a well-known liberal bias.
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Quote
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Over the past couple of months Republicans have passed or proposed three big budget initiatives. First, they enacted a springtime-for-plutocrats tax cut that will shower huge benefits on the wealthy while offering a few crumbs for ordinary families — crumbs that will be snatched away after a few years, so that it ends up becoming a middle-class tax hike. Then they signed on to a what-me-worry budget deal that will blow up the budget deficit to levels never before seen except during wars or severe recessions. Finally, the Trump administration released a surpassingly vicious budget proposal that would punish not just the vulnerable but also most working families.
Looking at all of this should make you very angry; it certainly infuriates me. But my anger isn’t mostly directed at Republicans; it’s directed at their enablers, the professional centrists, both-sides pundits, and news organizations that spent years refusing to acknowledge that the modern G.O.P. is what it so clearly is.
Which is not to say that Republicans should be let off the hook.
To be sure, American history is full of politicians and parties that pursued what we would now call nefarious ends. After all, the pre-Civil War Democratic Party — which shares nothing but a name with today’s Democrats — was largely devoted to the cause of preserving slavery. But I can’t think of a previous example of a party that so consistently acted in bad faith — pretending to care about things it didn’t, pretending to serve goals that were the opposite of its actual intentions.
You may recall, for example, the grim warnings from leading Republicans about the dangers of budget deficits, with Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, declaring that our “crushing burden of debt” would create an economic crisis. Then came the opportunity to pass a $1.5 trillion tax cut targeted on the rich, and suddenly all worries about the deficit temporarily disappeared.
Now that the tax cut is law, of course, deficit-hawk rhetoric is back — not as a reason to reconsider those tax breaks, but as a reason to cut food stamps and Medicaid. You knew this was going to happen, although even I expected the fake deficit hawks to wait a little longer before resuming their act.
You may also recall how Republicans posed as defenders of Medicare, accusing the Obama administration of planning to cut $500 billion from the program to pay for the Affordable Care Act. The legislation did in fact seek substantial savings in Medicare, for example by ending overpayments to insurance companies. But so did Republican proposals. And Donald Trump, who promised during the campaign not to cut Medicare or Medicaid, is now proposing hundreds of billions more in Medicare cuts and truly draconian cuts in Medicaid.
Why have Republicans become so overwhelmingly the party of bad faith? (And not just about budgets, of course; remember when Republicans cared deeply about a president’s sexual morality?) The main answer is probably that the party’s true agenda, dictated by the interests of a handful of super-wealthy donors, would be very unpopular if the public understood it. So the party must consistently lie about its priorities and intentions.
Whatever the reasons for G.O.P. bad faith, however, its reality has been apparent for a long time.
Yet the gatekeepers of our public discourse spent years being willfully blind to this reality. Take, for example, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank that, to be fair, can be a useful resource for budget analysis. Still, I can’t forget that back in 2010 the committee gave Paul Ryan — whose fraudulence was obvious from the beginning to anyone who actually read his proposals — an award for fiscal responsibility.
And even now the committee is busy pontificating about the need to reform the “budget process.” Let’s get real, O.K.? The problem isn’t the process, it’s the Republicans.
Meanwhile, many news organizations — which, by the way, gave Ryan years of adoring coverage — treat recent G.O.P. actions as if they are some kind of aberration, a departure from previous principles. They aren’t. Republicans are what they always were: They never cared about deficits; they always wanted to dismantle Medicare, not defend it. They just happen not to be who they pretended to be.
Now, there’s no mystery about why many people won’t face up to the reality of Republican bad faith. Washington is full of professional centrists, whose public personas are built around a carefully cultivated image of standing above the partisan fray, which means that they can’t admit that while there are dishonest politicians everywhere, one party basically lies about everything. News organizations are intimidated by accusations of liberal bias, which means that they try desperately to show “balance” by blaming both parties equally for all problems.
But our job, whether we’re policy analysts or journalists, isn’t to be “balanced”; it’s to tell the truth. And while Democrats are hardly angels, at this point in American history, the truth has a well-known liberal bias.
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PhDeac
PM a mod to cement your internet status forever
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Stay classy, pervs, I mean, Pubs.
[h=1]State Sen. Nicholas Kettle charged with video voyeurism, extortion[/h]
http://www.golocalprov.com/news/gop-state-senator-kettle-charged-by-state-police
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – State Sen. Nicholas Kettle, R-Coventry, has been arrested by the state police and charged with one count of video voyeurism and two counts of extortion.
The 27-year-old was arrested by state police on Friday. The extortion counts were through a grand jury indictment, according to Lt. Col. Joseph Philbin. He did not immediately provide more details on the charges.
[h=1]State Sen. Nicholas Kettle charged with video voyeurism, extortion[/h]
http://www.golocalprov.com/news/gop-state-senator-kettle-charged-by-state-police
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – State Sen. Nicholas Kettle, R-Coventry, has been arrested by the state police and charged with one count of video voyeurism and two counts of extortion.
The 27-year-old was arrested by state police on Friday. The extortion counts were through a grand jury indictment, according to Lt. Col. Joseph Philbin. He did not immediately provide more details on the charges.
WakeForestRanger
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Newenglanddeac
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WakeandBake
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Newenglanddeac
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Newenglanddeac
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Away from the glare of television cameras, many European diplomats and policymakers echoed the same concerns. One diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid provoking Trump, asked whether policymakers like McMaster who adhere largely to traditional U.S. foreign policy positions were falling into the same trap as Germany’s elite during Hitler’s rise, when they continued to serve in government in the name of protecting their nation.
The answer, the diplomat said, might be found after a “nuclear war,” which he feared could be provoked by the Trump administration’s hawkish approach to North Korea.
Newenglanddeac
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Outgoing GOP rep: Republican Party 'heading into trouble' in election
Outgoing Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.) said in an interview broadcast Sunday that it would be “foolish” for the GOP not to realize that it’s “heading into trouble” in the next election.
“When you look at the future of the Republican Party, I think that we would be foolish to not see that we’re heading into trouble,” Ros-Lehtinen told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Speaking on a panel of other GOP lawmakers leaving Congress, Ros-Lehtinen noted that “few women” are running for office as Republicans.
“Far greater numbers of women are identifying themselves as being in the Democratic party,” she said
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/3...blican-party-heading-into-trouble-electorally
Outgoing Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.) said in an interview broadcast Sunday that it would be “foolish” for the GOP not to realize that it’s “heading into trouble” in the next election.
“When you look at the future of the Republican Party, I think that we would be foolish to not see that we’re heading into trouble,” Ros-Lehtinen told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Speaking on a panel of other GOP lawmakers leaving Congress, Ros-Lehtinen noted that “few women” are running for office as Republicans.
“Far greater numbers of women are identifying themselves as being in the Democratic party,” she said
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/3...blican-party-heading-into-trouble-electorally
Deacfreak07
Ain't played nobody, PAWL!
#ADifferentTime
Newenglanddeac
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Trump’s conduct is inexplicable, unless he’s in Putin’s pocket
Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Bloomberg reports:
U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is the latest top official to sound the alarm that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, but there’s no sign that Donald Trump is listening yet.
The president’s silence has some experts worried that Trump and his administration aren’t taking the threat from Russia to this year’s elections, with Republican control of Congress at stake, seriously enough. . . . The lack of top White House leadership means companies like Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., as well as lower-level officials in the administration and state governments, are on the front lines of trying to ensure that Russia has a harder time interfering in the November 2018 midterm elections.
Even when they are approached by state officials for help, Trump administration officials seems uninterested in acting. The president surely is. There has been no reported directive from him, no interagency plan to get on top of the issue.
The lack of concern — the refusal to defend our country — is not going unnoticed among Democrats. The Democratic National Committee blasted out an email today, which read, in part:
In the four days since we learned chilling details about the full scale of Russia’s attack on our democracy, Donald Trump has issued a stream of unhinged and dishonest tweets attacking everyone and everything from Oprah [Winfrey] to Pennsylvania’s redistricting map. What he hasn’t done is condemn the Kremlin’s attack on our democracy or vow to defend our elections against future attacks. … This is a president who has taken [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s side over his own intelligence agencies, consistently puts his own interests ahead of U.S. national security and is all but inviting Russia to attack us again by refusing to implement sanctions designed to deter future assaults on our elections. It’s hard to imagine that Russia could have gotten a better return on its substantial investment in Donald Trump’s candidacy.
Republicans should be worried about the developing impression that President Trump does not care to defend the country, or worse, knows that the Kremlin would weigh in on his side as it did last time — and is happy to take the help. (That’s, after all, what the Trump campaign did in meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer in hopes of getting “dirt” on Hillary Clinton and what Trump did in hyping the emails hacked by WikiLeaks, a Russian helpmate.) Republicans now face the prospect, fairly or not, that their party will be seen as a Russian asset.
What is even more remarkable than Trump’s unwillingness to put America first is Congress’s failure to do anything, either. Where are the hearings? Where is the legislation to pay for paper voting-system backups if states request it? Charitably one can say that the GOP majorities in the House and Senate suffer from sloth and lack of leadership. The more disturbing theory is that they won’t move to protect our election system out of fear of enraging Trump.
If Republicans won’t do anything, Democrats should. Governors and secretaries of state should write an open letter to the president and GOP Senate and House leadership demanding assistance in fortifying their election systems.
Democrats on Capitol Hill have already put forward a package aimed at election security. Last week, House Democrats put out a request for “over $1 billion in grants to upgrade and secure the country’s voting infrastructure. The request came in the form of a 56-page report and legislation that aims to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to states grappling with aging voting machines and insufficient IT budgets.” (Given the horrendous events of last week, this did not get the attention it deserves.) If the Republicans do not move on this, Democrats should make it a top campaign issue: Why won’t the GOP defend the United States?
When Trump behaves like a Kremlin lackey, it is only natural to assume the Kremlin “has something” on him. Surely he could seek to protect our electoral system with no reference to Russia. China — and that 400-pound hacker he has talked about — shouldn’t break into our systems, either. Facebook and Twitter should be cajoled to identify foreign accounts and to put out a generic warning about unsubstantiated reports pertaining to the election.
Whatever Trump’s screwy rationale for not taking reasonable measures to insulate our election system and not calling out Russia (or even disclaiming any “help”), he leaves himself open to the charge that he is violating his oath of office. That’s one more log to throw on the impeachment fire if Democrats win back the House. And it is becoming a serious political problem for Republicans up and down the ticket. They really do need to make a choice: Curry favor with Trump, or live up to their own oaths. Increasingly, it’s hard to do both.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...-hes-in-putins-pocket/?utm_term=.422cc818bfb5
Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Bloomberg reports:
U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is the latest top official to sound the alarm that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, but there’s no sign that Donald Trump is listening yet.
The president’s silence has some experts worried that Trump and his administration aren’t taking the threat from Russia to this year’s elections, with Republican control of Congress at stake, seriously enough. . . . The lack of top White House leadership means companies like Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., as well as lower-level officials in the administration and state governments, are on the front lines of trying to ensure that Russia has a harder time interfering in the November 2018 midterm elections.
Even when they are approached by state officials for help, Trump administration officials seems uninterested in acting. The president surely is. There has been no reported directive from him, no interagency plan to get on top of the issue.
The lack of concern — the refusal to defend our country — is not going unnoticed among Democrats. The Democratic National Committee blasted out an email today, which read, in part:
In the four days since we learned chilling details about the full scale of Russia’s attack on our democracy, Donald Trump has issued a stream of unhinged and dishonest tweets attacking everyone and everything from Oprah [Winfrey] to Pennsylvania’s redistricting map. What he hasn’t done is condemn the Kremlin’s attack on our democracy or vow to defend our elections against future attacks. … This is a president who has taken [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s side over his own intelligence agencies, consistently puts his own interests ahead of U.S. national security and is all but inviting Russia to attack us again by refusing to implement sanctions designed to deter future assaults on our elections. It’s hard to imagine that Russia could have gotten a better return on its substantial investment in Donald Trump’s candidacy.
Republicans should be worried about the developing impression that President Trump does not care to defend the country, or worse, knows that the Kremlin would weigh in on his side as it did last time — and is happy to take the help. (That’s, after all, what the Trump campaign did in meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer in hopes of getting “dirt” on Hillary Clinton and what Trump did in hyping the emails hacked by WikiLeaks, a Russian helpmate.) Republicans now face the prospect, fairly or not, that their party will be seen as a Russian asset.
What is even more remarkable than Trump’s unwillingness to put America first is Congress’s failure to do anything, either. Where are the hearings? Where is the legislation to pay for paper voting-system backups if states request it? Charitably one can say that the GOP majorities in the House and Senate suffer from sloth and lack of leadership. The more disturbing theory is that they won’t move to protect our election system out of fear of enraging Trump.
If Republicans won’t do anything, Democrats should. Governors and secretaries of state should write an open letter to the president and GOP Senate and House leadership demanding assistance in fortifying their election systems.
Democrats on Capitol Hill have already put forward a package aimed at election security. Last week, House Democrats put out a request for “over $1 billion in grants to upgrade and secure the country’s voting infrastructure. The request came in the form of a 56-page report and legislation that aims to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to states grappling with aging voting machines and insufficient IT budgets.” (Given the horrendous events of last week, this did not get the attention it deserves.) If the Republicans do not move on this, Democrats should make it a top campaign issue: Why won’t the GOP defend the United States?
When Trump behaves like a Kremlin lackey, it is only natural to assume the Kremlin “has something” on him. Surely he could seek to protect our electoral system with no reference to Russia. China — and that 400-pound hacker he has talked about — shouldn’t break into our systems, either. Facebook and Twitter should be cajoled to identify foreign accounts and to put out a generic warning about unsubstantiated reports pertaining to the election.
Whatever Trump’s screwy rationale for not taking reasonable measures to insulate our election system and not calling out Russia (or even disclaiming any “help”), he leaves himself open to the charge that he is violating his oath of office. That’s one more log to throw on the impeachment fire if Democrats win back the House. And it is becoming a serious political problem for Republicans up and down the ticket. They really do need to make a choice: Curry favor with Trump, or live up to their own oaths. Increasingly, it’s hard to do both.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...-hes-in-putins-pocket/?utm_term=.422cc818bfb5
WakeForestRanger
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wakephan09
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Trump doesn't care because election interference only helps him and his party.
Newenglanddeac
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avalon
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GOP congresswoman claims ‘so many’ mass murderers ‘end up being Democrats’
It takes some kind of nerve to claim that mass shooters are Democrats then complain that the liberals are politicizing tragedies.
Tenney won in 2016 with 47% of the vote. Her opponent:
https://brindisiforcongress.com/
It takes some kind of nerve to claim that mass shooters are Democrats then complain that the liberals are politicizing tragedies.
Tenney won in 2016 with 47% of the vote. Her opponent:
https://brindisiforcongress.com/