Steve M has a good post comparing the (relatively sudden) Republican conversion to anti-vax to a story Kurtz tells in Apocalypse Now about the Vietcong cutting off kids’ arms as payback for them participating in a vaccination program. Is it an overly harsh comparison? I’ll leave that for you to decide, but I certainly agree with his basic point that Republicans approach politics like war, and Democrats are the enemy. I think most of the readers and writers here understand that, but a good number of elected Democrats do not, and in this environment, that’s really dangerous. Being a step or two behind your opponent in old-school politics or board games may lead to a loss and a rematch, but with this bunch of fascists in the war we’re in, being a step behind will lead to death. Look at Florida or South Dakota if you don’t believe me. And don’t forget that the recent Tennessee decision to cease vaccine outreach includes other vaccinations, including measles, polio and of course HPV, which is another conservative target because everyone knows that girls will slut around if they aren’t afraid of getting genital warts and cervical cancer.
Anyway, while we’re on happy topics and Steve M, he also understood early on that part of the clamor for the name of the hero who shot the traitor Ashli Babbit was based on race. The Capitol Policeman who engaged in the most justified police shooting in recent US history is, apparently, black. He had the temerity to kill a white woman, so, you know what happens next, and it ain’t Blue Lives Matter.
The thing about the two paragraphs I just wrote is that nobody in the mass media can write a few simple declarative sentences that state the facts contained therein. Fact one: More children will die or experience significant, life-altering issues if Republicans are in power. Fact two: Republicans are gearing up to make a traitor into a martyr, and ruin the life of a black cop. Frankly, I doubt that constant repetition of those two facts by the media would make much difference for the 40% of the population who are on Trump’s dick until death do they part, but perhaps it might sway a few others who haven’t being paying attention. Of course, it would offend people who spend a hundred words explaining why they can’t write “asshole” and spell fuck “f**k”, so it will never happen.
Cheryl Rofer
From what I’ve read, we don’t know that the cop who shot Ashli Babbit is black. The Republicans believe that that is the case, and Trump is telling them to lynch him.
Sloegin
I used to say that the GOP is a death cult. I was wrong. They’re a murder cult.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Cheryl Rofer: Unfortunately for that policeman, we’ll find out. I hope once he’s outed, he’s awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on an almost straight party-line vote.
WereBear
I don’t know if we’ve ever discussed the Packed Snowball Effect of belief systems. It’s not in the mainstream, but it’s a great metaphor I ran across (unable to trace the link back.)
It declares that as cults come under pressure from the greater society, the snowball gets packed tighter and tighter. Those capable of being lukewarm — those with some ties to the sane world — fall away as they warm up to sanity and leave.
But the ones who stay get packed into a frozen ice ball. Smaller, but denser and more dangerous. In every sense of the word.
Baud
@WereBear:
See also, cornered wild animal.
rikyrah
It’s absolutely disgusting.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@WereBear: Unfortunately, this snowball is rolling down a hill.
Nina
Even though the shooting took place in the House chamber they’re claiming that the defender worked for Chuck Schumer, so that they can sneak in some anti-semitism with their racism.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Why we are never going to get out of this pandemic – yesterday AM, I received this text from a vaccine-refusing client (“but blood clots, ooga-booga”) about her prison guard ex (referred to hereinafter as “Asshole Number 1”) and his prison-office employee current wife (referred to hereafter as “Asshole Number 2”). Seems that “Asshole Number 2” tested positive for COVID not long ago, and “Asshole Number 1” still insisted on picking up my client’s 10 yo child (hereinafter referred to as “Child of Morons”) for his allocation of parenting time. Only after he’d had her a couple of days did he bother revealing it to my vaccine refusenik client. She did get the child at that point.
Anyway, what I’ve learned is that the entire exurban community where they live consists of vaccine-resistant and mask-resistant Trumpist morons, with zero sense of self-awareness or civic mindedness.
Enjoy this mildly-edited piece of my life:
I reiterated my encouragement that she get her own vaccine. I also called my local health department (it covers that Walmart and about three correctional complexes, including the one where they work). I figured that the folks at corrections would be more impressed with the report of a health department than one from me – as it turned out, the infectious disease director chuckled, recognized my dilemma over going “through channels” and said “don’t worry – I’m working directly with all the wardens and am in regular contact – I can bypass all the underneath stuff’.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Cheryl Rofer: we all know it was actually vince foster’s ghost who did it.
ever since hillarykilledhim in 1994, he travels the world avenging his death by taking out as many blonde middleaged women as he can.
A Ghost to Most
“Always a tone of surprise.”
Once you brainwash em with religion, they’ll believe, and do, anything.
evap
On the morning walk with spousal unit today, we were wringing our hands over the latest awful stuff the GOP is doing/planning. It occurred to me that maybe the best thing that could happen to this country is for Trump to drop dead of a stroke or heart attack. Something where there would be no doubt that he died of natural causes.
Jerzy Russian
How long will it be before some red state government accidentally (or intentionally) bans breathing? One could imagine a breathing ban being a consequence of some poorly written paragraph in a bill that outlaws masks or something similar.
MrSnrub
@evap: conspiracy theorists would disagree: there’s always doubt.
Matt McIrvin
@WereBear: Cults deliberately push their members into confrontational situations designed to get them pushback or derision from the general public, in order to produce this effect. The point is to make them hate and fear the outside.
I think that when right-wing pundits make racist provocations on TV, part of the intent is to do the same thing. They’ll say something that sounds incredibly racist to an outsider but that their fans can insist technically wasn’t racist, so that the outraged reaction can further convince conservatives that crazy liberals are seeing phantom racism everywhere.
sab
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: First Covid case in my family was similar: ex who was supposed to be quaranting instead used it as a vacation, had his kid visit for the week, then sent him asymptomatic but infected back to his mom, who ended up hospitalized. Fortunately, she survived.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: I’ve assumed that racists seek to provoke a racists response to their racism so that they can use that to recruit more white people into their racism (as opposed to simply cementing the loyalty of their current flock).
hueyplong
@evap: I used to think that.
“Something where there would be no doubt that he died of natural causes.”
There is no death — none — that would be free from recharacterization as a lib-conspiracy-murder. He could choke on a hamberder on live TV and it would be a murder that had to be avenged by Patriots.
evap
@hueyplong: That’s true, but I can’t see any reason for the Fox news hosts and GOP politicians to play along with that.
Brachiator
Sometimes, a cult becomes the new religion, displacing the old time religion.
The GOP has now largely become a bunch of political fundamentalists.
For decades, they have been selling the idea that they are the only legitimate political party for the United States and now a fervent core of politicians and voters believe this so intensely that they are willing to die and to sacrifice others in support of this belief.
They have internalized the idea that anything that Democrats propose must be bad, wrong, and unpatriotic, even if it is something that can objectively be shown to be helpful. This of course includes vaccines.
And the old conservative mythology of the divine wisdom of the Invisible Hand has been augmented by Trumpism, the belief that only by the restoration of Citizen Trump into the heavenly realm of the White House can peace and prosperity be restored unto the land.
And, no joke, I believe that in the future a hard core of Republicans will assert that Trump will rise from the dead in order to lead the country again.
Antonius
Don’t forget Steve M’s other recommendations:
“Republicans want to examine your child’s genitals before allowing them to play school sports.”
“Republicans want cameras in the classroom to watch your children all day long.”
rp
You buried the lede. Apart from Sinema and Manchin, elected democrats are not the problem. The media is the problem.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@evap:
I like how you think but Trumpism is fully embedded in the R party so they’d just be fighting over who was the most Trumpy of the possible replacements.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@sab:
Yeah, I think Asshole Number 2 was completely asymptomatic, so clearly there was no problem, no big deal.
I’ve been having this horrible feeling that HIPAA is working absolutely counter to good public health messaging, as in “we can’t let cameras run in this facility to show the misery, nor can we talk about the specifics of any of the hospitalized cases or the extent of contacts that led to major community outbreaks”.
In order to deal with one problem (the constant brokering of minor bits of health data for commercial purposes), we created multiples more.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
This is also what one would expect from a failing political movement giving into paranoia to explain the setback. Jacobin Reign of Terror kind of stuff.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
You are not thinking big enough; bans dying.
rp
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: Agreed, although it will be difficult for anyone to create the same level of enthusiasm. Trump has a unique charm and style — like a dog whistle that only true assholes can hear — that others can’t match, so I don’t know how potent the movement will be without him.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@rp:
I have a post that I’m thinking about writing to explain further, but a lot of the Democrats (including my safe-seat rep, Joe Morelle) are very hesitant to baldly state facts about the Republican party. Now, there are smart political reasons for calibrating rhetoric but not to the extent that I see in the current Democratic party response. Joe Morelle, as just one example, does not think he’s at war.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Uppity. Good white North Carolinians know what to do about uppity.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: I think you’re right about that, but with the possible exception of DeSantis, I don’t know if any of them really hit that sweet spot with the non-college white guy with the $50K pick-up and above-ground pool who thinks he’s oppressed because his sister-in-law the snooty English teacher rolls her eyes at almost everything he says at family parties.
lollipopguild
@rp: Desantis seems to understand how to play the game while not being a flaming asshole 24 hours a day. He seems more competent and less interested in building a cult around himself which makes him MUCH more dangerous than trump.
germy
via LGM:
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2021/07/the-exxonmobil-networks
rikyrah
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
good article. thanks for the link.
Marci Kiser
I’m so sick of the deification of Ashli Babbitt. She was a garbage soldier (our USAF careers overlapped, though I don’t believe we ever actually worked together) who somehow never made it past an E-4, which is im-bleeping-possible given her length of service unless her commanders were actively advising against her being moved up. Her pattern of Active -> Reserve -> Guard is exactly the trajectory of a problem soldier who’s being shifted to be someone else’s problem.
terraformer
Isn’t that the truth. The press just can’t call this what it is: the Rs are anti-democratic, full stop. You can’t “both sides” that shit, yet they continue to do it.
I don’t know how much of that is because of some combination of increased corporate ownership of local news (most local news has the same boilerplate website design) – thus, control over what does/does not get printed and the apparent desire on the part of established journalists to keep their “lines of communication/back channels” open, but it’s there for anyone to see if they want to.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Modern conservatism is embodied in people who hold the following contradictory positions:
Believe that Confederate monuments, the battle flag and expressions of honor toward Confederate heroes are sacred expressions of history, but Critical Race Theory is marxist oppression; and
That COVID is a Chinese war crime and hoax and no big deal and that masks impose on critical freedoms and that vaccines are controlling tools of Satan while still demanding that economies open completely unimpeded; and
That God will protect you from COVID even though you keep guns in your car, every room in your home and on your person “just in case”; and
That businesses should have the liberty to exclude homersechuls, uppity coloreds, sodomites and libruls, while being prohibited from assuring the safety of employees and patrons by requiring vaccination proof; and
That only Evangelicals or people who are more Catholic than Pope Francis are appropriate to serve in government; and
That scandals can’t be held against religious conservatives because they’re preforgiven, but if someone isn’t a religious conservative, the scandal lasts forever.
sdhays
@germy: Are there ANY liberal think tanks that aren’t compromised?
germy
@sdhays:
I don’t know.
cmorenc
@Sloegin:
These are not mutually exclusive. Consider how often someone goes on a homicical spree, with his or her own self as the final self-inflicted victim.
Hildebrand
The Republican anti-vax campaign is self-defeating. If Republicans don’t vaccinate, they will be the ones dying from the virus. How is this suppose to help the Republicans electorally? Seems that killing off your own voters to own the libs is catastrophically short-term thinking.
The Moar You Know
@Antonius: that ship sailed. My community here, one that went for Obama, Clinton and Biden, would pass that with at least 80% of the vote. All for it. The teachers union here is considering backing it so long as the footage can also be used in disciplinary proceedings against students. They might as well get something out of it if it’s going to pass anyway.
Soprano2
Boy, I wish I could laugh at that, but I can’t. They get upset when you tell them they act like they are in a cult, but they do! I’m trying to warn you, I want to tell them.
Ksmiami
Fuck the GOP- and it’s adherents. The party is a treasonous, murderous cabal that must be put down…
Lyrebird
@Nina:
These racist death cult followers… and you know they’d have a fit of vapors if anyone looked crosswise at a white veteran on their side. But the folks, many of them veterans like the amazing Mr. Goodman, who saved the lives of our representatives – D *and* R – are treated like this???
I don’t have words.
I have been calling my Rep regularly to say we have to recognize the Capitol Police more. Guess I have to re up that.
Lyrebird
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks Adam for always bringing some truth to counter the lies!
Betty
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: And we are the enemy, and all is fair in love and war. I mean all.
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard was convinced that the virus was a Dummycrat hoax made to make him look bad, and now the delta virus is raging in 42 states because his imbecile worshippers refuse to get jabbed. The GQP needs to die one way or another.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Adam L Silverman: Hey Adam, you going to do a post on today’s Kremlin leak on them supporting Trump? I am interested in reading your take on it.
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
It’s wild that some teachers unions support this. Not too long ago, the Los Angeles teachers union went nuts over students using their smartphones to record teachers sleeping on the job and verbally abusing students.
germy
@Adam L Silverman:
I’m curious what you think of the recent Guardian article on Putin’s efforts to help trump 2016
EDIT: as Advanced Voting Techniques said above…
Freemark
@Adam L Silverman: From the video I would say that is not where Babbit was shot. She was shot at a set of hallway doors
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/national-international/video-shows-fatal-shooting-of-ashli-babbitt-at-u-s-capitol/2276430/
Brachiator
@Hildebrand:
It won’t just affect Republicans. And in absolute terms, the number of deaths will be too small to affect most election outcomes.
Immanentize
@evap: If Trump does in fact succumb to the inevitable reality of mortality before the next election, I hope he does it after clearing the field. Also, should such an event happen, I am definitely running a “Vote for Trump — Now More Than Ever” campaign.
The constitution is clear about what happens if the President-to-be dies before being sworn in; but is oddly silent on what happens if s/he is dead before election day. It would be so much fun and the merch sales would let me retire.
Soprano2
@Freemark: In watching that video, you get a glimpse of the shooter, who is wearing a face mask. It’s hard to tell the skin color – maybe he’s bi-racial? It would take someone who could look frame by frame, and even then I’m not sure they could tell. Whoever it was appears to be wearing a suit jacket, which tells me it’s not Capitol Police but instead some other security, maybe Secret Service?
Almost Retired
All Babbit had to do was comply with the policeman’s order, right? All she had to do is comply, and everyone would be safe…..Isn’t that what we’re always told? Just comply.
I hate these people.
Hildebrand
@Brachiator: I understand – but I just can’t wrap my head around constantly telling your own people to do something that is so clearly detrimental to their health (and everyone’s around them). It is utterly monstrous.
Kathleen
@Jerzy Russian: The Rethug cult will naturally legalize shooting of air. “I was in fear that air would kill me.”
Adam L Silverman
@Lyrebird: I just front paged that. This isn’t MisterMix’s fault. All he did was transcribed what Steve M. posted.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
But that would put their own supporters in jail; the brain dead!
Adam L Silverman
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Later this evening if I have the time. Short take is: this is certainly disinformation agitprop, in that what leaked is accurate in its contents, but not the real thing. Which allows Putin to both finally take credit for the op he’s been running informally since 2014 and formally since 2016 and also further that operations objectives of sowing socio-political discord in the US.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
You’re right. I remember watching the video showing Babbit climbing into the chamber through the broken window and immediately getting shot. The officer who shot her is clearly plainclothes and white
Brachiator
@Immanentize:
When you say “before election day,” are you talking about an incumbent president running for re-election or just any presidential candidates?
If it is just the candidates there is no constitutional issue. Political parties pick a contender however they wish. Probably would be much the same issue if an incumbent is involved.
Adam L Silverman
@Freemark: I’ve pulled the post and I’ll pull the comment.
Kathleen
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
Elected Dems know their voters and constituents don’t like them to be negative. They want reps to be focused on solutions. I’m tired of Dems being accused of being spineless or out of touch with the existential crisis we’re facing.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
How does it further it? I haven’t read the leaks, but they sure sound like they’re confirming what we’ve all known since like 2016
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@evap: The best thing that could happen for this country is for Trump’s malign influence to lose the next set of races for the GOP and for the conservative media universe to be discredited among most current believers. What I hope for every day is that more of those folks get brought back to reality. At this point, all I can do is hope.
Adam L Silverman
@Freemark: Here’s the still from the video. The plainclothes officer appears to be black. I stand corrected.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/01/08/ashli-babbitt-shooting-video-capitol/
Kay
I’m so glad my youngest graduated high school. I don’t think I could stand another year of Right wingers whining incessantly about masks and vaccinations.
My heart goes out to younger parents. Just the endless stream of hysterical bullshit these people produce. None of it is productive or positive, all of it whiny and aggrieved.
germy
During her interview with Trump, Maria Bartiromo described it as “Babbit was killed as she was climbing out a window”
Which makes it sound like the woman was shot in the back as she was trying to escape or something.
These people are shameless liars and they want to get more people killed.
I’m not sure where this particular felon gets his information, though:
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Brachiator: I can see some unions supporting this. Most teachers are trying their best and its tough to convince parents that little Johnny IS a monster unless they see it themselves.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Because it reopens the discussion, which is now a purely partisan affair. Trump and his supporters will spend several news cycles complaining this is more of the greatest witch hunt in history. GG, Taibbi, Tracey, et al will be going on and on and on about this is more Intel Community attempts to subvert liberty and divert attention from something.
Adam L Silverman
@germy: From a variety of right wing crank sites. They’re claiming it is this officer who was inside the barricaded House chamber, not the officer in the video at the doors to the Speaker’s lobby posted above:
https://i1.wp.com/looserounds.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021-07-08_10-03-25.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kathleen:
Thank you. The Dem base/s is/are just different from the Rs. They don’t respond to the same kind of angry, red-meat rhetoric. I get so tired of the “Dems just need to have the spine…” “Biden just needs to tell people…”
There’s a lot to dislike about Manchin and Sinema (and the anonymous rest), but neither of them are doing what they’re doing out of cowardice.
Lyrebird
@Adam L Silverman:
Hi Adam! I didn’t think Mistermix was at any fault, I’m glad he boosted Steve M’s signal. I meant the lies from the conspiracy theorists. The photo you shared goes right to the heart of it.
Hey if anyone is near Cleveland Ohio and needs something positive to think about here are some events put on by the Cleveland Foundation. That is who to give money to if you want to support Tamir Rice’s memorial art center, among other causes.
Adam L Silverman
@Lyrebird: I was in error. I had confused the pictures from the House chamber breaching to the Speaker’s lobby breaching. So I pulled both my comment and the post based on it.
Kathleen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thank you! I get tired of biting my keyboard. I realize MM did not say Dems were cowards in his comment but I added that in to make my point.
germy
These guys use lots of words to say what Trump said in two words: “Fake news!”
The Thin Black Duke
@cmorenc: Suicide bombers never die alone.
rp
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: I think those issues are closely related. Dems can’t speak as plainly as they should because the media is so terrible.
Matt McIrvin
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Don’t forget the Dinesh D’Souza maneuver: because the old Confederates and segregationists were Democrats, it must be that modern liberalism is the true heir of Confederate racism, which makes it bad… but waving a Confederate flag around is also OK.
Immanentize
@Brachiator: Yes, but….
Depending on the timing, ballots may have been printed, sent out to early voters and military people, etc. The party can maybe change the candidate, but if Trump had been nominated, it would not be logistically possible to change ballots.
Matt McIrvin
@germy: I actually smell a rat with this story. It’s too on-the-nose which makes me suspect a Dan Rather trap: one plants a fake confirmation of the story in order to discredit it when the fake is exposed.
Adam L Silverman
@germy: My comment at #71 come to life.
Kathleen
@rp: Thank you. I neglected to include that salient fact in my comment.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Matt McIrvin:
That kind of mental gymnastics reminds me of the fascist contradiction of “the enemy is simultaneously weak and strong” depending on the moment
germy
@Adam L Silverman:
They know which side their bread is buttered on.
Brachiator
@germy:
It is strange how the violence of the protestors is being erased and replaced by the Big Lie of rogue Capitol police officers.
Also, once again, white people, whether a cop or a right wing protester, can do no wrong.
But a black cop. “Why is he even allowed to carry a gun in the first place? Especially if there is a chance that he might shoot a white woman.”
Uncle Cosmo
You really think so? Silly rabbit! True believers will always believe that the Deep State had their Dear Leader murdered. Even if he fell over dead in an open space where no one had come near him for an hour, they’d ascribe it to some CIA super-poison delivered by a mosquito-size drone. (And after an autopsy reveals nothing of the sort, they will scream at 190 dB that the records were falsified and the coroner was either in on the plot, or persuaded by Deep Staters to go along to keep her/his family alive.)
Soprano2
@Immanentize: When this happened in MO – Mel Carnahan was running for Senate and was killed in a small plane crash (damn small planes to hell) – it was too late to remove his name from the ballot, so people were told to vote for him and they would appoint his wife, which is what happened. John Ashcroft was beaten by a dead man!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Point taken. Thanks
Brachiator
@Immanentize:
Again, not necessarily a constitutional issue. And there have been articles about this. For example from Vox.
Freemark
@Soprano2: Wasn’t trying to determine skin color. Just letting Adam know that the pictures he was using weren’t useable as evidence to determine who did what in that shooting.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Uncle Cosmo:
Someone oughta ask these people if they’re capable of being wrong ever
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
Amazing, isn’t it? I always knew “Blue Lives Matter” was always “White Lives Matter”. I become so furious whenever I see a “Thin Blue Line” flag. It’s always been a symbol of bootlicking, racist authoritarians
Baud
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
What’s the context? When the US is involved in actual a foreign conflict, US leaders often say “Our fight is not with the XX people.” It’s good propaganda.
Just Chuck
Seems the most rampant and deadly form of Cancel Culture comes from …
fuck it, it’s not even interesting pointing out the hypocrisy of Republicans anymore. I guess it was always their goal to make lies and hypocrisy a boring everyday thing to just be expected,
CaseyL
Not only do I not care if the GQP winds up killing off its own voters, I am actively in favor of the GQP killing off its own voters. Since we can’t nuke them from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.
Mai Naem mobile
@evap: I think Donnie would end up being a martyr to the MAGgot crowd and all kinds of RW conspiracies would sprout up about a Dem knocking him off. Doesn’t matter if a MAGgot cardiologist/medical examiner was part of the autopsy and said it was natural causes.
sdhays
@germy: Dinesh D’Souza is a walking counter-argument against criminal sentence reform.
Just Chuck
@Nina: Schumer ought to get in front of a camera (as he loves to do) and say “No, the officer didn’t work for me, but I’d still like pin a medal on him or her regardless.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Someone ought to ask Baud the same question. I think you would find the result illuminating.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Adam L Silverman: Yes, i figured that much, but it seems like there is more to that like right now than just troll the US. Like perhaps Trump tried to screw the Russians so Russians did leak to set an example to their other stooges. Or make Trump toxic to clear the way for the next Russian stooge.
SFAW
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Up here in the People’s Republic of Taxachusetts, lawn signs reading “Free Speech Has a Home Here” have been popping up. Since some of them were paired with signs like “We Support Our Law Enforcement Officers,” I guessed the signs were a RWMF thing. Google tells me that the MA Party of Traitors issued them in response to them pore Real ‘Murican Patriots being censored by “Big Tech.”
I have not stopped to ask if they’re OK with their fascist brethren in TN, TX, FL, NC, etc. censoring liberal voices, and pro-vacc voices, and pro-BLM voices. I’m sure they’d have some well-thought-out response along the lines of a Bronx cheer or “Suck it, libtard!”
Christ, I hate these people.
Mai Naem mobile
@CaseyL: that’s fine and all but if you have enough Trumpers getting sick you have an issue,again, with hospitals providing services for non covid medical issues. On top of that, if they’re on Medicare/Medicaid you are spending a ton of money on the care for these people. If they don’t have insurance the rest of us pick up the bill indirectly.
Baud
@SFAW:
You should walk into their homes and start criticizing Republicans.
artem1s
don’t forget the “uppity” officer who led the insurrectionists on a merry chase while Senators escaped thru a nearby hallway. They were always going to cherry pick who they would ‘blame’ for their insurrectionist bad behavior.
And if you look at the entire NYT video piece, you can tell the still frame shot of the officer at the window is NOT the frame when the traitor is shot. Everyone retreats to a nearby hallway and the officer who shot her does so from around the corner further up the hall. AFTER she starts to crawl thru the glass she just broke. She and the rest of the mob were given ample warnings to not come any further.
It’s very difficult to tell which of the security people who retreated to that hallway made the shot. You have to watch the whole video taken from that perspective to see the retreat. The first video I saw of the shooting was taken by a different camera phone that was further behind that mob and you couldn’t see the shooter at all or past the traitor crawling thru the doorway.
It’s pretty clear Q or whoever, is cherry picking still frames from that day to paint an entirely different picture of what happened. They won’t stop. I’m not going to use her name or refer to her as anything except a traitor and won’t use her name anymore than I will TFG.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’ve never denied being capable of being wrong.
brantl
What could that be, an asteroid strike, witnessed by Jesus?
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: That should send people scrambling through the archives.
Martin
I suspect the TN freakout isn’t quite antivaxx. I suspect it’s a freakout over consent, and that a public health official reminded the legislature that 18 isn’t a hard and fast consent line, that kids under 18 aren’t mere chattel to their parents. It’s not just that kids from 14-17 can get a Covid shot, they can also get birth control. If she quoted the statute, that’s plain in the text.
I suspect vaccines are collateral damage in the ‘how can a teenager be a good Christian if dad can’t prevent them from getting an HPV shot and some birth control’.
Elizabelle
In good news (so far): that fired Rocky Mount VA police officer who kept a heck of a lot of weapons in his home after his release on earlier bail has been back in jail since Friday. There’s another virtual hearing on bond revocation today.
Thomas Robertson. He and fellow officer Jacob Fracker (his subordinate, also fired) claim they were merely sashaying around the in the Capitol. Of interest to me: in initial reports, one or both said they had been “invited in.” That bears checking out. These geniuses came to light through posting their adventures on Facebook.
Richmond Times Dispatch: Ex-Rocky Mount police officer charged in Capitol riot seeks release from jail
sdhays
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I wonder if the Russians are seeing Dump as a spent vehicle to some degree and have decided to harden the cult (snowball, as mentioned earlier) by confirming what we all know. The GQP is completely in thrall to Dumpism and that will continue, but I see Dump himself as a balloon with a small hole in it, ever since he was deplatformed. He’s slowly deflating before our eyes.
He can still win the Qepublican nomination in 2024 (because no one will dare to run against him), but unless he gets his Twitter feed back, he won’t have nearly the capability to dominate the news cycles that he used to. And that was at least 90% of his unique power. I’m not even sure he’ll personally have much of an impact on the Q primary races for 2022. He can endorse A, but if B and C and D all love them some Dump, I’m skeptical that even his fans will actually take his advice.
CaseyL
@Mai Naem mobile: As I understand it (and I could be wrong) those wastes of protoplasm don’t even go to the hospital until they’re at death’s door. They need a lot of expensive care – but not for very long.
Caphilldcne
@sdhays: brookings is not liberal.
rikyrah
@Brachiator:
They were phucking domestic terrorists.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
The Great and Powerful Baud can never be wrong, silly. Baud is love, Baud is life : p
Martin
@evap: Heh. They think JFK Jr. is still alive.
The only way they believe that Trump is even dead is if you pass his severed head around for them to personally fondle. And even then there will be holdouts.
sdhays
@Elizabelle: That’s scary! Hope he stays in jail until his trial, and then gets put away for a good amount of time.
sdhays
@Caphilldcne: It was long considered “center-left”, wasn’t it?
Roger Moore
@Immanentize:
This is because candidacy for the presidency is barely covered in the Constitution at all. The Constitution only discusses the process of deciding the process in the electoral college. It says very little about how electors are chosen, and the only thing it says about candidates is their minimum qualifications for office (at least 35 years old, born a citizen, and resided in the US for at least 14 years) that an elector can’t choose a president and vice president who are both from his own state. From a constitutional standpoint, the only candidates are the ones named on electoral college ballots. It’s up to the states to decide what to do if a candidate dies between when the ballots are finalized and election day.
Gvg
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I have anti Trump relatives that are unable to admit police brutality. I don’t think they know much about the blue line flag, but they always defend the police. With them it is because their son is a cop. I don’t even think the son encourages it or knows, because he is semi estranged and not around much, but the mother especially has become really stubborn on that issue.
They are racist blind, that is they still can’t see what is going on around them. I think they think small and shallow. Trump revolts and frightens them. Mixed Republican and Democratic voting family. Uncle is rabid gun rights mostly votes Republican but picked Kerry over Bush because of thinking Iraq was similar to Vietnam. He is a Vietnam vet proud of his service, who still thought Iraq was a screw up and bad. People can be complicated and families not quite identical. That group I know don’t all vote like each other, except against Trump.
Elizabelle
@sdhays: Me too.
I will be amazed if he is granted bail. (1) former police officer — and a trainer, at that, who presumably knows the law (2) who has not complied in any way with the likely terms of his release.
4 silencers? 37 guns waiting to be picked up?? Why is he even allowed to purchase those, while out on bail for an offense that got him fired??
His lawyer told the court earlier that the pipe bomb was a training device for a class Robertson was teaching, and the M4 belonged to his son. Maybe, maybe not. Having them violates the terms of his release, one would think.
Haydnseek
@Freemark: Possibly from the grassy knoll…….
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
If it was wrong for an officer to shoot Ashli Babbitt, we should completely disarm the police. If that shooting wasn’t justified, what shooting ever would be? It’s hard to imagine a counter-argument that isn’t explicitly racist and/or sexist.
hueyplong
@Martin: Well, think about it. It wasn’t effite, multiple degree-holding libs who kept seeing Elvis post-1977, was it?
I’d bet my retirement that waves of people will say they’ve seen Trump since [fill in date of actual death here].
Adam L Silverman
@Freemark: You did good. No worries here.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
The racism is the entire point. Why else would any right wing idiot be asking about the race of the officer, or concocting conspiracies about why his ethnicity is not being revealed?
This may be turning into neo-Confederate racist insanity. The flower of white womanhood defiled by a black cop.
Just Chuck
@sdhays: Honestly, I think there’s a vast enough reservoir of cray-cray on the right that the Russians don’t even need to get involved anymore. The troll farms I’m sure are still at work stoking up whatever’s already out there, but they don’t really need to expend much more effort than that.
cain
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I stopped shopping at Buckle because they had some patriot brand that had blue lives matter stuff, and blue line flags apparel. It’s bullshit.
Just Chuck
@Roger Moore: Ironically it’s the EC that becomes the saving grace here: the electors could elect a ham sandwich if they wanted, provided it was born here at least 35 years ago (might be a bit past the sell-by date but whatevs). Practically speaking, it means they cast their vote for the VP candidate rather than the top of the ticket.
Barbara
@germy: I could note that since D’Souza is using the name freely it’s not like there is a conspiracy to keep it silent, but mostly I grieve that there are so many people like D’Souza, using their barely veiled racism to make a living. One reason I don’t venture onto Twitter much anymore.
germy
This cat’s got nine lives!
germy
@Barbara:
And D’Souza would be the first to be stomped to death if he ever found himself in a crowd of white supremacists.
One thing I noticed about various “Blacks for Trump” types who showed up at rallies (the ones who weren’t actually white) is that they wore a ton of pro-Trump merch on themselves, for protection. I think deep down inside they know they’re really not on the team.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
This is the exact reason for the tradition of lying in state. It started as a way of letting the people who mattered personally witness the decedent was actually dead. False claims that someone was still alive were common, and this was a practical way of heading them off. It only turned into a way of honoring people afterward.
different-church-lady
More accurate to say they approach politics like cult leaders, and anyone who they can’t mind control is the enemy. That, of course, includes democrats, but also includes non-democrats who aren’t totally open to their manipulation. At this point their most primary concern is that noboy in the cult is allowed to leave.
Kay
I wonder what executive actions could be taken or put in to address some of the profound weaknesses that were exposed by the attempted coup.
Seems like we could close some of the openings they exploited. I’d start with putting in rules that don’t allow the former President’s low quality hires to hold up transition funding.
Put some of the “norms” into the regulations and assign specific enforcement duties to the DOJ, if this, then THIS, so we’re never again slapping some secret emergency coup-stopping planning together on the fly. It’s a shame it has to be done but if you can’t rely on individual ethics or better quality people in powerful positions you need a lot of rules. If we don’t need them, fine, but if we do we’ll have them.
Uncle Cosmo
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Their answer is No, of course not!
Uncle Cosmo
@sdhays: Does D’Sleaza walk? From my brief exposure to his cray-cray, I always assumed he slithered.
Matt McIrvin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Doublethink! It’s the greatest sign of loyalty.
Matt McIrvin
@Adam L Silverman:
So my rat-smelling was justified?
Kent
Or maybe descend into some sort of Terry Schiavo vegetative state such that the MAGA faithful splits between those waiting for Trump’s resurrection and those trying to pull the plug and move on. Meanwhile the rest of the GOP is stuck in holding pattern. Heh…
Roger Moore
@Kent:
I don’t think that would work. His handlers would cover it up and keep putting out statements in his name. We know he never had complete control over his social media accounts, and various people in his circle would tweet in his name*. They would just continue doing the same general kind of thing, but without the worry he might turn around and contradict them later.
*This is one reason I thought we shouldn’t accept tweets as an official communication. It would let anyone given access to his account- or capable of hacking it- take actions with the full power of the office.
Gravenstone
@Kent: The ones most fervently in support of pulling the plug would likely be Melania. With maybe the sprogs three close behind – depending on how the will was structured.
geg6
@Mai Naem mobile: On top of that, if they’re on Medicare/Medicaid you are spending a ton of money on the care for these people. If they don’t have insurance the rest of us pick up the bill indirectly.
I would consider that money well spent as long as the majority of them actually die.
Baud
@Gravenstone:
I was sure a divorce action would have been filed by now. Maybe it actually is true love.
Ruckus
@Hildebrand:
catastrophically short-term NON thinking.
FIXITFY
They don’t think, they follow. They feel that’s unity and therefore strong and smart.
Ruckus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Why bother to ask a question you already know the answer to?
The republican party has become a cult. It didn’t just spring up one day last week, they’ve been working on the premise a long time. Those at the top know that most people don’t like to walk backwards through life, so they have to form a cult to get done what they desire. They have been successful to a noticeable degree.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Baud:
Melania is locked in a dank tower at the back end of Mar-a-Lago.
SWMBO
@Soprano2:
And the better man won!
Vhh
evodevo
@Adam L Silverman:
Sort of like the Dan Rather/Bush National Guard kerfluffle…the document detailed all the facts, but was not THE document…
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
“Criticizing COVID vaccine and mask deniers is literally fascism. I are Glenn Greenwald.”
Matt McIrvin
@evodevo: The Dan Rather/National Guard incident was the first thing I thought of. Plant a fake document with the real story, so that the story will be discredited when the document is.
debbie
Haven’t read comments yet, but has anyone figured out how many of these GQPers condemning vaccinations received vaccinations? And if they have, has this been publicized at all?
Matt McIrvin
@debbie: I don’t think anyone can figure it out, if they’re not volunteering the information. Everyone with half a brain believes Tucker Carlson was vaccinated but he’s not saying.
brantl
What could that be, an asteroid strike, witnessed by Jesus?
@lollipopguild: He sleeps 8 hours a day, are those the exceptions, because I doubt there’s another hour he isn’t a flaming asshole.
debbie
@Matt McIrvin:
Did they end the mask requirement in the House? I don’t remember hearing anything.
I’d bet most of them are vaccinated.
Ramona
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That is my recollection as well… White and plainclothes…