Marco Rubio is a boring, incurious, unprincipled hack who first gained state-level political office in South Florida by telling big fat lies about his family history. He slithered into the U.S. Senate only because of some epically dumb fuckery from opponents. Once in office, he hoovered up millions in NRA money and then cynically used the tragedy at the Pulse Nightclub to renege on his promise not to run for reelection after Trump curb-stomped his ass in the 2016 GOP presidential primary.
His conversion from snarly Trump critic to obsequious Trump boot-licker is perhaps second only to Lindsey Graham’s for spit-take inducing shamelessness, and that’s in a very crowded field. Rubio is an empty suit, a phony Christian and completely useless in every sense except maybe one: he’s a flaccid windsock who reliably reveals which way the wind is blowing in mainstream Republican Party politics. And he recently confirmed it’s blowing in a dangerous direction. From Florida Politics:
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio has largely expressed faith in America’s electoral system, but recent comments he’s made — and declined to make — indicate he might be thinking of adopting rhetoric similar to that of former President Donald Trump if things go poorly for Republicans this November.
Rubio, Florida’s senior U.S. Senator, is facing his stiffest test in years in Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Demings. Polling shows the two candidates are in a statistical tie.
When asked Sunday by the Washington Post if he’d accept the outcome of the Nov. 8 election, Rubio joined 11 other GOP candidates — including Gov. Ron DeSantis — declining to answer the question.
As we discussed in a thread downstairs, Trump seems to be fading as a political force, which is perhaps why he’s openly embracing the loony cult he inspired. That’s dangerous because according to a 2021 PRRI survey, approximately 17% of Americans are in the Qanon cult. That’s more than 50 million people!
The survey says a quarter of Republicans are in the cult, which is a problem in a country with just two viable political parties. We all hope this lunacy redounds to the benefit of the one party that isn’t living in a delusional fascist cuckoo world, i.e., Democrats. But if milquetoast Republican nonentities like Rubio are now embracing lies about stolen elections in the year of some people’s lord 2022, it’s hard to see how the country continues to function as a going concern.
Joe Biden knows this, which is why he’s trying to divide Republicans into MAGA and non-MAGA factions to see if the latter can prevail over the former. Nancy Pelosi knows this, which is why she underscored the need for a strong opposition party in much-misinterpreted remarks and urged Republicans to “take back your party from this cult.” Rubio’s slide tells me only another consecutive whupping will do the trick.
Open thread.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
Baud
Val Demings will make him accept the outcome.
Glad to hear they are in a statistical tie.
Kropacetic
So then no.
Only Republican wins are legitimate, after all…
The Pale Scot
Little Marco comes from a family of cocaine dealers. As a teenager he lived in a stash house. And when the Feds closed in 27 million dollars that had been IDed as narcotic profits it disappeared before it could be seized
Marco Rubio cocaine dealer
SFAW
TPM tells me that TFG’s “reasoning” presented to the 11CA re: the classified docs at Mar-a-Lardo is that “they’re MINE MINE MINE!!!!” Someone should ask Little Marco how he feels about that.
With a different SCOTUS, I’d be semi-laughing. In a rational world, I’d be laughing a lot.
different-church-lady
Merrick Garland appears to have gotten up to speed:
WereBear
I am willing to administer as many as needed.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, but going by the fall of The Klan in the 1920s it won’t be because of an election. Something that the base isn’t expecting and doesn’t and hasn’t been conditioned to ignore like the do with sex scandals and election loses.
ian
Something in the math is wrong. Either there are massive numbers of Qanon people who don’t even bother to vote, or the Republicans number around 200 million Americans.
Other surveys have found higher % of Republicans believe in Q shit. This is from fulcrum
lowtechcyclist
I really think we’d have to kick their asses in 2022, 2024, and 2026, minimum, before they might get a clue.
Maximum? They might not get a clue before the heat death of the Universe.
And I’d tell Pelosi that we don’t need a strong opposition party. We need a sane one.
Baud
@ian:
Nominated.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I just skimmed on past a John Cole tweet that started “Vibrating anal beads.” No need for more information on that one.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
The denial of Democratic wins is where the GOP, now the GQP, has been headed since Bill Clinton* was elected. This denial of reality by their fiery belief** that democrats cheat massively was enriched with oxygen by Newt and Rush and their ilk.
*Maybe even since Richard Nixon’s loss to JFK and Blaming Mayor Daley for it.
**Whether or not N and R really believed, they pushed that article of faith to their acolytes and followers and now here we are looking at people who want to dismantle and crush American Democracy for their own power.
FelonyGovt
Amazing. They do every single thing they can to make it difficult for us to vote, then STILL won’t accept the results of any election they lose.
WereBear
@ian: That was the spookiest part of the article. How so many conservative had no idea something they believe is a conspiracy theory, even though they would answer the poll as being negative about Qanon.
Too late. The more irrational things, the more the sky is apparently the limit.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
That’s why you don’t let the willow get too close to the house.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dorothy A. Winsor: so you missed his ALL CAPS RANT about vegetables?
He’s clearly trolling about asparagus, btw
trollhattan
Can I add Ted Cruz to a Trifecta of Trump Targets who have been converted to obsequious lapdogs?
Nobodies who stand for nothing and yet, wield power far beyond their personal capabilities.
feebog
Let’s assume Rubio loses his election. How does he claim it’s rigged when the state is run top to bottom by Republicans? Or will it only be rigged in heavily democratic counties?
Hoodie
That PRRI survey is scary. “Qanon doubters” mostly disagree that the country is run by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global sex trafficking ring. What the hell part of that is even remotely believable? 42 percent of these supposed doubters also support Trump. Tells me that many of those doubters are like Roy Edroso’s “just the tip” Trumpers, and the problem is bigger than the 17%.
danielx
@Kropacetic:
Now you’re getting it.
ian
@feebog:
See also- Georgia 2020. I heard an NPR report on the radio that Ohio county election boards are paying thousands and thousands of dollars in FOI requests from conservative activists to verify their results, even though TFG won Ohio. The fraud must be everywhere, even in places they control and won.
UncleEbeneezer
“Joe Biden knows this, which is why he’s trying to divide Republicans into MAGA and non-MAGA factions to see if the latter can prevail over the former. Nancy Pelosi knows this, which is why she underscored the need for a strong opposition party in much-misinterpreted remarks and urged Republicans to “take back your party from this cult.” Rubio’s slide tells me only another consecutive whupping will do the trick.”
This is why I really hate, the very common, reflexive response by our side to bash Biden, Pelosi etc., because they won’t come out and shout that ALL REPUBLICANS ARE BAD!!1! at the top of their lungs. I have no love for even moderate Republicans, as they still support a bunch of shit that I find abhorrent. But I would much rather have the opposing party consist of *Cheney/Kinzinger-style Republicans rather than the absolute psychopaths that are currently controlling the GOP.
*Assume that yes, I’m fully aware of all the awful aspects of both Cheney and Kinzinger and don’t need anyone chiming in with Yeah-But-They… factoids
Kelly
Oregon elections officials are dealing with an avalanche of conspiracy theory public records requests.
https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/09/19/flood-foia-record-requests-hamper-oregon-election-officials-election-deniers-big-lie-donald-trump/69505114007/
UncleEbeneezer
JoyceH
@FelonyGovt:
Butbutbut… how can I LOSE the election that I FIXED?! Answer: they simply cannot believe that there are so many more of us than there are of them.
On a somewhat related note – I’ve been watching Rick Steves’ Europe on Amazon Prime, just watching the eps in order, so seeing a lot of interesting things about places it never occurred to me to visit. Other day I learned that Nurnberg has a museum/education center about the rise of Naziism. It doesn’t cover the war or any of that, just Naziism itself, how it started and how it grew and took over. They do a lot of training sessions for schools and organizations, police forces, etc – know the signs, how it develops. Germans really take that stuff seriously!
We’re going to need something like that.
different-church-lady
@Baud: The Math is too close to the house.
The Moar You Know
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: it’s not gonna go like that this time. The GOP has been conditioned to accept rape, crime, theft and murder by its leaders as normal.
I don’t know what’s going to do it this time. They’ve insulated themselves pretty well from consequences.
jimmiraybob
Or to use Trump’s description of JD Vance at the most recent Nuremberg … I mean MAGA Rally, a Trump ass kisser. (Frankly I’m surprised this clip hasn’t gotten more traction.)
Betty Cracker
@feebog: You guessed it. The 2018 Democratic wave didn’t make it to Florida, but the elections were extremely close. When Rick Scott thought he was losing, he started screeching about fraud in Broward County.* When he squeaked out a win, he shut up about it.
*To be fair even to a hostile alien from Planet Reptar who doesn’t deserve the benefit of any doubt, Broward County’s elections office was shambolic for many years and may be yet. (I’m hundreds of miles away, so I don’t follow it closely.) But I don’t think organized cheating was ever an issue, just rank incompetence and corruption.
jimmiraybob
Also too, RINOs = Democrats = Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global sex trafficking ring.
Tenar Arha
@UncleEbeneezer: Thanks for linking that review thread. I like reviews bc sometimes I’m just not interested enough to give a Tim Miller my time or my money, but I was interested in hearing about his book. 👍👍 🧵
Geminid
@jimmiraybob: I think Ohioans are going to hear a lot of trump saying Vance “is kissing my ass,” especially over the last three weeks of the campaign. It’s too good to pass up.
Lapassionara
@UncleEbeneezer: I’ve been dredging up memories of the Republican cheating in presidential elections, beginning with Nixon’s Pre-election interference in the Vietnam peace process in 1968, to Reagan’s pre-election interference in the Iran hostage release in 1980, to the Brooks Brothers riot in Miami during the 2000 Florida recount, to the “Russia, if you’re listening” brazenness of 2016. Everything they accuse Dems of doing, they have done, and worse.
Soprano2
They never think elections in conservative counties are rigged, only liberal ones. The nasty truth is that many of them seem to believe that black people in cities voting is inherently fraudulent. They’ll never say that out loud, but their actions and the places where they challenge the votes make it crystal clear.
rikyrah
@Kelly:
Not just Oregon
LiminalOwl
@ian:
@Kelly: Massachusetts too. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/18/metro/i-have-no-idea-what-any-these-even-mean-massachusetts-clerks-are-getting-bombarded-with-conspiracy-fueled-records-requests-about-2020-election/
RaflW
I’m just starting to catch up on the latest election in Sweden. When, alas, the loony & semi-fascist far right there just garnered it’s biggest vote share at about 21%. They may be invited to form a coalition government with the Moderates and some others (shades of Borgen here, but without the tactical sense of P.M. Nyborg to say no?).
I’m headed over soon to visit cousins. One of my generation who I’m close to has a working class young adult son who, by FB translate, sounds like he’s becoming influenced by the far right. He hasn’t posted anti-immigrant or anti-gay stuff, but he’s rabidly anti-Greens and very angry at the just ended Social Democrats’ government. It’s sad, but what can I do half a globe away for a kid in a long-depressed small industrial town in Sweden?
jimmiraybob
@Geminid: I sure hope so.
Cameron
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Better than casting it.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@The Moar You Know:
Well then I guess we’re doomed, right?
Cameron
I liked Val Demings from the start. If she beats Scooter, I would be very happy. Very, very happy.
CaseyL
Trusty stands by position that they don’t want right now to detail what may have been declassified or when. ‘We’re not in a position nor should we be in a position at this juncture to fully disclose a substantive defense’
Trusty: ‘…It’s not gamesmanship. It’s about not having seen the documents.’
Trusty: It’s premature…it’s going a little beyond what Judge Cannon contemplated in the 1st instance.
Dearie: I was taken aback by your comment that I’m going beyond what Judge Cannon instructed me to do…I think I’m doing what I told.
Geminid
@LiminalOwl: I see the Boston Globe has another good story, this one about the mysterious “Perla” who conned migrants in San Antonio into taking air flights. I read it far enough to see that she paid four nights lodging and meals for some of them (presumably as she rustled up the rest of a plane load). One man who stayed behind said “Perla” paid him $200 for recruiting others into the scam. I think it won’t take much longer for this woman to be ID’d, and her employer too.
This makes me wonder if that flight scheduled today from San San Antonio to Delaware will come off, or if organizers decide it would be better to “regroup.”
hells littlest angel
Is there a reason to give credence to this survey?
CaseyL
Hearing continued:
Trusty: ‘We should not be in a position to have to disclose declarations, witness statements.’
Dearie: ‘My view us you can’t have your cake and eat it too.’
ETA: I am copying these directly from Gerstein’s twitter feed; so the typos are not mine!
CaseyL
Hearing, continued:
Trusty now railing against NARA, calls it ‘highly politicized,’ talks about trigger warning disclaimer on NARA website, also refs late Sandy Berger’s docs in the socks/pants. Dearie calls that ‘broad brush’ but says he will give notice before consulting NARA.
Now Trusty is asking about getting security clearance process started. Judge says he thought of that earlier but adds: ‘It’s not just a matter of having clearance. It’s a matter of need to know…if you need to know you, will know.’
Wileybud
According to Howie Klein of Down With Tyranny, Little Marco was a male prostitute working in Miami’s notorious Coconut Grove gay pick-up area. If Little Marco debates Val Demings she should bring that up & when he denies it she should say as a former law enforcement officer she’s seen his record. Hopefully he would lose it and shriek that record is supposed to be sealed. Which could be his political doom.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@CaseyL:
Kinda sounds like it’s not going very well for Team Trump atm
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@The Moar You Know:
I apologize for being a bit snippy at 41
VOR
@Soprano2: My favorite was the person who lost the Republican primary in Georgia, getting roughly 3% of the vote while the incumbent Kemp got 73%. She literally lost by 70% and then claimed the vote had to be false.
leeleeFL
@lowtechcyclist: That’s what she meant, she was just speaking in the vernacular!
leeleeFL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: and CHESS! Come on, my Friend! How could you pass that by?
leeleeFL
@feebog: Ladies and germs, I give you Georgia and Arizona, 2020!
MisterDancer
@UncleEbeneezer: This book’s approach rings close to truest, to me, of all the “tell-alls” from the GOP NeverTrump camp.
There’s a lot of disconnect between the people who claim the “honorable” GOP of old, and the long, horrific history of racist, sexist, and anti-gay among MANY issues) assholes who accreted(sp?) onto the GOP like barnacles, as the 20th Century moved along.
The many admissions in these excerpts that the GOP “honorable” class basically bent over backwards to play into the assholes, is one of the most important statements I think anyone has made about how we got here. I think Teri’s analysis that they “knew” they were being racist — and thus, criticism of the book’s approach — plays true as well, though.
Racism is hard to spot, and easy to elide and disclaim. The GOP esp. are prone to “labels mean everything” thinking, and that kind of tribalism means they are OK with being racist as fuck, I think, so long as they aren’t actually KKK or the like. That lack of “real racist” affiliation masks a horrid indulgence of sins. And the racists among them, those barnacles I spoke of above? Played the “honorable” GOPers link fiddles, until they were converted to racists, or driven out of the damned Party, by and large.
Not really got a closer, save this is something to chew on.
Geminid
@MisterDancer:
First establishment Republican:
“What if we’ve gone too far?”
Second establishment Republican:
“What if it works?”
Betty Cracker
@hells littlest angel: No one should take surveys as gospel, but the outfit that conducted it is generally reliable (they’re often cited as an authority on religion in the U.S.), and the link in the OP takes you to an analysis that provides details on how they arrived at that number so you can draw your own conclusions. I hope it’s wrong because it’s scary to think there are that many deranged people in the U.S., but it wouldn’t surprise me if there were.
J R in WV
Betty,
Don’t hold back, dear!
What do you really think about Lil Marco???
J R
janesays
Ted Cruz might have some thoughts on that. I don’t recall Trump referring to Rubio’s wife as ugly or accusing Rubio’s father of being involved in the assassination of JFK.
Bill Arnold
@feebog:
It’s actually projection; fear that Republican election rigging in certain heavily Republican counties will fail to deliver sufficient additional votes for him, unlike what they did for Scott/DeSantis.
(Why there is no Team Lunatic Democrats that pushes such (plausible! :-) conspiracy theories is an interesting question.)
Brachiator
@RaflW:
It would be interesting to get your impression of people’s views there. Sounds like you will be there during some tumultuous times as they try to form a government.
Brachiator
@hells littlest angel:
This seems kinda high. I think of a cult as a tiny fringe group.
17% is a sect.
RaflW
@Brachiator: Three of my four cousins from my generation are pretty liberal, as are their spouses/partners. The fourth is conservative – and can be weirdly distant, which I think has to do with him being a con and that I’m gay, but I’ve not confirmed that.
He’s the only one who has not responded to my plan-making (but I can see on FB that his little icon has been moving along with the convo, so he knows I’d suggested stopping in his town for lunch.) He seems more blue blazer, capitalist snob (ie he has a summer Porsche he flashily drives) than far-right yobbo. But I suspect I won’t see him?
I’ll see if I can engage any of the younger generation in political conversation. They’ve tended to be shy about their English (regrettably I can only perform a few self deprecating short routines in Swedish). The 50-somethings have no trouble shaking their heads at a) Trump, b) America’s shameful underinvestment in education, health access, etc. and dissecting social issues in both countries in mostly excellent English.
karen marie
Dear Betty:
Can you point to something where this is discussed? I’d love to know more.
karen marie
@Geminid: I don’t know – you don’t think she was hustled out of town as soon as the con was discovered?
My bet is that she’s been taken to somewhere in Florida, away from prying eyes.
karen marie
@Wileybud: She’s not stupid. Why would you suggest she lie?
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/marco-rubio-got-arrested-in-miami-in-1990-but-it-was-for-some-bullshit-8196538
eachother
@Hoodie:
”…pedophiles who run a global sex trafficking ring.”
Two for two. The former guy patronizing bosom boyfriend Epstein’s degeneracy.
Did the pilots know what they were doing delivering trafficked minor girls to pedophile island?
Drivers of patients having their reproductive health checked threatened with jail.
Doctors treating patients with deadly pregnancy emergencies threatened with jail.
Beauty contest voyeur, grab them by the…, frequenter at Jeffrey the Disgusting’s island, sharing many appearances in public leering contests with him, elected president.
Betty Cracker
@karen marie: I hesitate to describe it because it involves Charlie Crist, who is the only person standing between Floridians and 2-4 more years of autocratic governance under DeSantis. But long story short, Rubio beat Crist in the Republican primary by pretending to be a tea partier, and Crist ran as an independent, which ensured Rubio’s victory over the Democrat in the race, who wasn’t a super-strong candidate but might have been able to edge out Rubio if Crist hadn’t interfered.
Wileybud
@karen marie: Karen, no suggestion that she should lie. Reality based minds change with new info. Thanks for the link.
That said, the “good Senator” puts the “W” in Worm.