A “Party of losers”? Dysfunction in Michigan, broke in Arizona, alienated in Georgia, the GOP is plagued by MAGA incompetence, infighting and a feckless national party leadership who don’t know how or won’t rebuke Nazi rhetoric by their Dear Leader.
Yup.https://t.co/st3IALhosA— Michael Steele (@MichaelSteele) November 14, 2023
Y’all remember Michael Steele, ‘Chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) from 2009 until 2011’ ?
Per the Washington Post, ‘National Republicans fear the cash crunch could hamper field operations in key swing states come 2024’ [unpaywalled gift link]:
In Arizona, the state GOP chairman has been begging the Republican National Committee for a financial bailout. Michigan party officials have gotten into physical fights as their finances have dipped into the red. And in Georgia, the state party is in a standoff with the Republican governor and saddled with legal fees for alternate electors put forward in 2020.
In each of these 2024 battlegrounds, election denial and grass-roots fervor for former president Donald Trump have rocked the Republican apparatus. Now, the state parties are plagued by infighting, struggling to raise money and sometimes to cover legal costs stemming from Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat — threatening to hamper GOP organizing capabilities in next year’s presidential election.
“There has been an emphasis on ideological cleansing instead of electioneering,” said John Watson, the Georgia GOP chairman from 2017 to 2019. “If those new entrants to the party want to argue the earth is flat and the election is stolen, those are counterproductive to winning elections.”
State parties are typically critical in election years for mobilizing volunteers and running get-out-the-vote efforts, and they can collect larger checks or buy cheaper airtime than other groups. Those functions are now in doubt as the fissures fuel finger-pointing and competition for donor dollars. Even as more experienced leaders have taken the reins in some cases, they are struggling to undo some of the damage from MAGA-aligned predecessors and deal with continued pressure from the movement.
The transformation in these key states is the result of a coordinated movement, sometimes called the “Precinct Strategy.” Former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon and other MAGA influencers have promoted the effort in the past three years to slot election deniers into local party positions and demand new leadership. In local and state parties across the country, operatives and local officials say the makeup of state party leadership has changed…
As one senior Republican who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid put it, for anyone seen as out of step with the MAGA movement, “they will not work with you; you’re the devil.”…
Arizona: ‘We desperately need to keep the lights on’
In January, Jeff DeWit was elected Arizona state GOP chairman as a consensus choice who could bridge the party’s internal divisions between pro-Trump, election-denying activists and more-traditional conservatives, given his record of winning a statewide race in 2014 for treasurer and his early support of Trump’s first presidential run. He inherited a party in disarray from the previous chair, Kelli Ward, a MAGA firebrand who led efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss in the state and has since decamped to a boat in the Caribbean.DeWit has repeatedly asked national Republican groups for financial support that largely has not come. His appeals to the RNC began in February and have extended through mid-September, including to national and regional staffers and directly to RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, according to people familiar with the discussions, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations…
Michigan: ‘Amateur hour’
In Michigan, infighting within the state GOP has twice broken out into physical altercations. The fights played out as Republicans there have disputed who controls some county parties, with competing factions claiming to be in charge.The state chair, Kristina Karamo, was elected in February in a MAGA groundswell, besting Trump’s own pick of failed attorney general candidate Matt DePerno. Both he and Karamo, who ran unsuccessfully for secretary of state, came to prominence for baselessly claiming fraud in the 2020 election…
But many Michigan Republicans have already lost patience with Karamo’s leadership over concerns about the party’s finances. Some of her past supporters are already calling for her ouster…
Karamo blamed past party leaders who she accused of trying to sabotage her, making her task of raising money and recruiting volunteers harder, and acknowledged her insularity.
“One of the big problems in our party is a constant betrayal by a lot of our Republican elected officials, so that many people quit the party,” she told the group, according to a recording of the meeting. “I get stabbed in the back by a lot of opportunists.”…
Georgia: ‘A severe uphill climb’
At a bucolic wedding barn in rural Gillsville, halfway between Atlanta and the South Carolina border, a few hundred Republicans came dressed up for a barbecue dinner and an auction to raise money for legal fees of some of the people who served as alternate electors falsely claiming Trump won the 2020 election here.The state party is stuck paying legal bills for the alternate electors after the executive committee voted in January 2022 to indemnify them, and followed up with another similar vote after former state GOP chair David Shafer’s successor, Josh McKoon, became chair in June, according to a person with knowledge of the state GOP’s internal deliberations. Shafer was charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, in a case that centers on efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 defeat. Willis has alleged the elector scheme is part of a criminal conspiracy that includes Trump.
At the fundraiser, second vice chair David Cross said the state party needed help and had been abandoned by Kemp. “I know I’m going to get in trouble for this, but our general has not lifted a finger to help the Georgia GOP,” Cross said to cheers.
Kemp fell out with the state party over the alternate-elector plan, the party’s claims of a stolen election and Shafer’s support for Trump even as he slashed Kemp and other Georgia Republicans. Kemp’s allies in the state legislature created a new type of political committee with no contribution limits, effectively empowering Kemp to bypass the official state party in fundraising and election spending.
A Kemp adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be candid, said the move was necessary because the formal party leadership had been taken over by extremists, and that other candidates in the state were now supported by Kemp’s group. The adviser said his political operation had little contact with the state party in recent years…
No more room in the lifeboat, says Kemp… More delicious detail at the link.
Could not happen to a more deserving bunch!
Rathskeller
It seems like there are two levels of hope here. The low information street fighters are all paranoid now: they’ve seen what is happened to the J6 defendants. They have explicitly skipped chances to demonstrate in favor of Trump.
But these stories, combined with what’s happening in Georgia will create caution among the more educated and affluent Trump supporters. They can easily see how their fellow travelers have been bankrupt it by these lawsuits, after following their glorious leader into battle. They can see the disbarments and professional reputations ruined.
Martin
This is a political party split taking place. Whether it forms a 3rd party, or a sizable chunk simply get expelled, it’s hard to say, but the GOP is definitely fragmenting.
Anne Laurie
@Martin: Insert ‘Let.Them.Fight’ gif here…
Tony Jay
Happening over here too.
The Tories have always had a Hard Right element, but they reacted to the Brexit Referendum and it’s aftermath by swallowing up as much of the UKIP and Brexit Party fashy fringe as they could, which when added to Flobalob’s purge of ‘moderates’ in 2019 led to their current collapse into factional infighting and ideological incoherence. Do they try to firm up their hold on the Right by moving even further in that direction and going All Kulturkampf All The Time? Or do they try to compete with Starmer’s Nu New-Labour for the centre-right/CREAM ground by pretending they’re back to being the Party of Big Business and Austerity?
They’ve no idea. It’s all falling apart and they hate each other. Tiny violins and all that.
sab
I remember Michael Steele, a moderate Republican leader who as head of RNC actually won a lot of races, but got deposed because the big huge donors suddenly noticed he was Black.
ETA my Republican Mom would have loved him, but unfortunately she had already died.
sab
@Tony Jay: Yikes and jeez. I fell in love with the UK in my junior year abroad in 1975-1976. I am so glad I didn’t manage to follow through on my hopes to emigrate.
Villago Delenda Est
You just hate to see these racist assholes tearing themselves apart. Pass the popcorn.
Brachiator
Once a group deeply embraces conspiracies, lies and fabrications, it becomes increasingly difficult to get back to reality.
I hope the chaos and confusion continues for the Republicans. And did I hear somewhere that Trump might ask for help paying his legal bills? If the party and the base bail him out, that might mean even less money for political operations. Fine by me.
Tony Jay
@sab:
We’re not so much ‘living in interesting times’ as grimly wading eyebrow deep through an eternity of shit, while being prodded to sing the praises of pricks in yachts.
Jay
@Tony Jay:
I watched a bit of “the news” today, and to decompress, and de-stress, I watched a gory serial killer documentary on You Tube.
Baud
I wonder how much of it is Trump hovering up all the money.
NotMax
@Baud
I see what you did there.
;)
piratedan
@Baud: well…. I would imagine that since the GOP has essentially become a political crime family, I would imagine that for every dollar donated, everyone up the political food chain is getting a cut. So who knows how much of that dollar gets to the bank? For all we know, it may just be a slip of paper that says IOU.
I know that the AZ GOP is broke, after multiple election challenges (Finchem, Lake X 3, etc) there’s nothing left in the coffers. Now that the MAGA crowd is in charge, they now demand that the Country Club and Chamber of Commerce types write out the checks and this hasn’t been happening. So it’s quite possible that until the dark money moves, its going to be tough sledding and there’s no stop to the idiotic rhetoric and “law making” that continues to get challenged, making it more difficult to “show results”. The only ones getting paid are the lawyers and the advertising agencies.
NotMax
@piratedan
Not necessarily in that order.
//
satby
Got into it with a cultist yesterday at the market. There weren’t any customers (she was filling in for my neighbor), I was bored, and she got argumentative with me. Bad combination for her.
I’m not intimidated by conflicts. At the end she said we could agree to disagree. I said simply “he’s a traitor, with 91 indictments for crimes in three places brought by citizens like us on grand juries; and people who continue to support him are failures morally. That’s not a disagreement, that’s a huge difference in basic values.”
I may have made her cry. And that’s fine because they believe, according to what they’ve been told, that 70% of the country wanted tfg elected. I’ve been done for a long time with giving cover to the idea that decent people can just “agree to disagree”. I’m letting them know they aren’t decent people. At all.
Baud
@satby:
👍
Manyakitty
@satby: good. I will save this righteous statement of facts to my phone and use it. Glad she cried.
satby
@Baud: Thinking if making myself a T-shirt that says “TEAM VERMIN” on it. Too subtle?
Jay
@satby:
good on you.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
If I weren’t worried about the collateral damage, watching this would be a lot more fun.
satby
@Manyakitty: 😻
NotMax
@satby
Soap lady’s in a lather!
:)
satby
@Jay: good for the soul, probably bad for the blood pressure. But my field of fucks is barren.
@NotMax not bad!
Baud
@satby:
Like.
Geminid
I saw some striking poll results in the Times of Israel:
satby
Legal fees and grift are eating the Republican party alive, and it’s a joy to behold. Now, quoting Hitler almost word for word may be starting to wake our useless infotainment news media up. Not just El Nino will be heating things up next year.
Tony Jay
@Jay:
Yeah, I have to walk away more and more often in these bleak times.
Frex, today in Parliament the Scottish Nationalists are bringing a motion forward that the UK should add its official voice to the UN’s calls for an immediate ceasefire. Now, while the slapdicks in Nu-New Labour are busily rowing back on their cellophane leader’s initial ill-thought out support for Israeli war-crimes, they are still firmly (re)committed to the Bain Principle (if the SNP are for it, Labour is against it) and simply cannot resist the opportunity to stamp gleefully on the ghost of Corbyn by threatening to fire from the Shadow Cabinet any front-benchers who follow their consciences and support the motion.
I can only stomach so much of centre-right spitefunnels tut-tutting anyone to the left of Jacob Rees-Mogg as ‘mischief makers who deserve to be booted out’ when the same ugly souls spent 2015-2019 cheerleading Shadow Cabinet miscreants making as much ‘mischief’ as they could for Corbyn and labelling any attempt to rein them in as Stalinism.
Bleaugh. Yack.
Shalimar
@sab: IIRC, the official reason for ousting Steele as party chair was a stripclub fundraiser by subordinates that he had nothing to do with. He got blamed because it was expensed to the organization. So yeah, most likely ousted for the same reason they gave him the job in the first place: because he’s black.
Matt McIrvin
@satby: Yeah, but the thought will be “gee, I better switch to openly working toward the Fuhrer or it’ll go badly for me.”
lowtechcyclist
@satby:
“Episode 5: THE VERMIN STRIKE BACK”
Ramona
@satby: I am so proud of you for making the Trumpie cry ! I also love your saying that people backing Trump are moral failures and this was not simply a disagreement but a difference in values.
lowtechcyclist
Anyone read C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength? What’s happening to the GQP feels very much like what happens to the Belbury crowd at the end of the book. They’ve lost their bearings, can’t tell what’s real, and ultimately lose the power of speech.
And this GQP is lost in conspiracy theories, can’t tell fact from fiction, their legislators don’t even try to learn how to legislate, and are fighting each other over crazy shit. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch of people, of course.
satby
@Ramona: well, to be honest I wasn’t trying to make her cry and am not positive she did. I just wanted to puncture the bubble that she was in the majority.
mrmoshpotato
Yes. The guy who answered the GOP’s Help Wanted ad for “We need a Black guy too!”
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@satby: I have started to do similar things at work. One person at a time and I have no idea if it works to convince anyone that we need to get involved and we need to vote. But I am retiring next summer and I really have no more fucks to give. I want my grand kid to grow up in a functional democracy. Not President Ivanka’s America…
which for some reason calls to mind people screaming at Chelsea Clinton on Twitter to pinky swear she would never run for any office…. People just amaze me And not in a good way
Baud
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
THE THREAT IS REAL!!!
mrmoshpotato
@satby:
Bravo! Cry harder, Trump trash!
Baud
Now I want to make someone cry.
RevRick
@Martin: I doubt the party will split even if there’s a long-simmering civil war, but I do see a significant chunk of the more moderate (and female) Republican voters migrating away. The votes in the November elections indicate that MAGA is exerting a repulsive force on a slice of the former Republican coalition. The billionaires will, of course, remain, because the “populist “ mutterings of Hawley and Vance notwithstanding, and despite various conspiracy theories erupting in the hive mind, their checks will ensure that the tax cuts and deregulation will keep coming. And they can always exempt themselves from the cruelest aspects.
No, I foresee a continued slow bleed of voters near the middle that will eventually reduce the GOP to a rump party of Dixie and bitter rurals.
artem1s
@sab:
same thing happened to Bobby Jindal. remember when he opined that the GOP needed to stop being the ‘party of stupid?’
and the big huge donors also noticed their
donationsbribes weren’t going to hire their upwardly failing white sons and daughters. the worse thing you can do in the GOP these days is horn in on someone else’s grift.Chris Johnson
@Geminid: Holy shit. How do you get that far below the crazification factor?
satby
Me, IRL.
To be clear, I doubt I can (and don’t really intend) to change a dedicated cultist’s mind. Studies have shown that they double down on the beliefs when confronted. They can believe whatever they want, it’s a free country. But espousing it and acting on it is going to cost them socially at least around me. And they can’t just blow me off as a bitch because I’m the only one who helps them when it’s crowded or they need to step away. I confuse them 😆
Baud
@satby:
I, on the other hand, admire you for being a bitch.
Geminid
President Biden will meet with Chinese President Xi this afternoon at 2pm EST. Mr. Xi is attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the San Francisco Bay area.
White House officials are downplaying expectations for any major agreements, saying the intent is to get relations on a more stable footing after a stressful year. Biden will give a solo news conference at 7:30pm.
Manyakitty
@Baud: bitches get shit done
p.a.
The guy who believed in exorcism telling the GOP to be less stupid is 😘
Baud
@Geminid:
“Spy balloon? C’mon, man.”
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: I cried tears of joy when you returned from your hiatus. Does that count? ;)
BTW, I never got around to saying: Welcome back!
Frankensteinbeck
At least since 2009, the crazier candidate in any contest was likely to win a primary. Crazies are mostly incompetent. In particular, they were chosen for a total war, no compromise attitude, because compromise allowed a black man to become president. They’ve been on course for this train wreck and now it’s here.
Oh, and it accelerated the problem of grifters leeching money from the system.
@RevRick:
Also, the biggest and most politically active billionaire donors are culture war extremists who push nutballs over smart plutocratic candidates.
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
Thanks, Chief. I should leave more often.
Frankensteinbeck
@Baud:
If you stop using the internet entirely you’ll be elected president, and you won’t even know!
LiminalOwl
@satby: Oh, nice work. And I’m with the “glad she cried” folks.
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck:
Good point. Polling shows that the more people are exposed to me, the less likely they are to vote for me. The pollsters call it DeSantitis.
MagdaInBlack
@satby: You are my hero today.
Princess
@satby: Good for you. She’s probably never been challenged by someone outside her own ecosystem .
Geminid
@Chris Johnson: From what I’ve read over the past couple of years, every Israeli politician- even the Prime Minister’s allies- knows that Netanyahu was a self-interested liar. The events of October 7 were a huge shock to the Israeli public, and now they are looking at him in a different light. Netanyahu’s subsequent attempts to offload responsibility for that disaster have cost him respect across the political spectrum.
Netanyahu’s power was curtailed October 12 when he reluctantly agreed to the terms National Unity Party chief Benny Gantz imposed as conditions for joining the government. The new coalition agreement was ratified by the Knesset, and creates a War Cabinet composed of Netanyahu, Gantz and Defense Minister Gallant. Those three are empowered to make major war decisions, while Netanyahu ally Ron Dermer and Gantz ally Gadi Eisenkot have status as Observers.
I think the Observers are there primarily to keep the PM from lying in public about War Cabinet decisions. They may also have an advisory function; Dermer used to be Ambassador to the US and like Gantz, Eisenkot a former IDF Chief of Staff.
RevRick
@Frankensteinbeck: Yes! The most extreme white supremacists ever in our country were the Antebellum slaveholders. They were, as a group, the wealthiest Americans.
satby
@Baud: @Manyakitty: @LiminalOwl: more team vermin members!
Princess
Meanwhile, the Georgia story is interesting. It’s clear the “normal” (in big scare quotes) GOP are purging out the MAGAts by squeezing them into the state party then suffocating it, while they have a separate way to collect funds. It would be the right way to do it, if it could go national. Kemp is smart and therefore scary.
LiminalOwl
@lowtechcyclist: oh, yes! Though I’ve been thinking of Musk and the techbros as the N.I.C.E. lately.
WereBear
Just FYI, I’m on TikTok. Like a Ted Talk, only it’s video production that I have the spoons for!
Cool Aunt Pammy
Way of Cats videos. So far, only co-starring Rhiannon. She’s got Tortitude. I think she could be a star!
satby
Yeah, unlikely. And that’s a huge problem for our country that so many absolutely refuse to believe anything outside their own news sources.
Ken
Rupert Murdoch will undoubtedly be dead before the Republican and Tory parties lie in wreckage, but perhaps his son will take credit and reveal the family was working deep-undercover toward that goal for decades.
mrmoshpotato
@satby:
Plays into absolutely abhorrent Nazi shit. I’m against it. (The “Jewish space lasers” shit pisses me off too, for the record.)
LiminalOwl
@satby: I have a Trumper client. If I were to confront him on the issues, I’d be acting unethically. (Is it unethical not to challenge a client’s delusions? I ask myself that too, of course.) Fortunately, since the one discussion where he brought it up, we have been able to agree to keep politics out of our conversation. And we do have a surprisingly good working relationship.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken:
Oh the destruction the bastards will still have to answer for…
LiminalOwl
@satby: Yes! Anyone want to create andsell T-shirts?
Baud
@satby:
Yeah, I’ve dumped liberal sources that have lied to me. It’s something right wingers cannot do.
Ken
@mrmoshpotato: As the old adage says, you can’t make an omelet without building a fascist police state and stripping millions of people of their civil rights.
TS
And look who isn’t giving away 1 cent to cover those legal bills related to trying to overturn the 2020 election. How long does it take for someone to realise they are part of a cult existing for the benefit of one person.
Baud
@Ken:
Mastering the Art of Nazi Cooking.
WereBear
@satby: I have been told, by people who study such things, that they usually know this. It’s the calling out they can’t stand.
Let’s call them out, by all means.
That’s how they start lying to themselves and wind up in MAGA-Land.
Geminid
@Princess: Last year, when the Kemp-Abrams race was coming down to the wire, Georgia Jackals spoke of a “Kemp Machine.” Abrams was a strong candidate, and Kemp’s 5 point win convinced me that he and his allies have effectively organized Georgia’s Republican voters.
Earlier, Kemp faced David Perdue in the primary. Perdue had Trump’s endorsement and was an ex-Senator; Kemp crushed him 2 to 1, more evidence that Kemp could keep the MAGA radicals at bay.
mrmoshpotato
@LiminalOwl: No.
WereBear
The ancient writers had a lot of warnings about losing oneself in a dream world. Our imagination is a two-edged sword. We can built great things with it.
Or have it serve up fantasies of such fast-food scrumptiousness we take in what does not nourish us.
WereBear
@satby: Sounds like a classic case of “No one I know…”
WereBear
@mrmoshpotato: He reminded me of that spy on Get Smart, Simon the Likable. Who was a cold blooded killer, but he had such a charming smile. With a musical sting, if I remember correctly.
Here’s a guy so likeable he ran stuff for the RNC for a long time before somebody noticed!
Betty Cracker
@Frankensteinbeck:
Truth. These folks are among the group Kay calls “low quality hires.” They don’t improve, and when left in place, they drag the entire organization down with them.
Kemp was savvy enough to detach his political operation from the Georgia GOP clown car and build his own supporting infrastructure. I don’t know if that can be replicated elsewhere.
The schism affects state parties just about everywhere, I guess. As an organization, the FL GOP is a big fat dysfunctional mess right now, even though they should be flying high since they have all the money and power. We’ll see if FL Dems can take advantage.
stacib
@satby: Standing and clapping loudly. Good for you.
AM in NC
@satby: Good; these purposefully ignorant people need to know that the majority of us sees them for who they are, and DO think they are morally deficient for supporting a traitor, criminal and major NatSec threat. You can love and support American ideals, or you can love and support Trump/ism. I pick team USA.
WereBear
@Betty Cracker: I have hopes for the state but the way it tilts retirees has always led to lopsided budgets, from what I remember.
Kay
Ooof. Not good. Biden’s polling would increase dramatically if he can increase support just within his own party. If he had 90% of Democrats right now he’d beat Trump easily. This isnt helping. Going in the wrong direction.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: I’m impressed both by your willingness to enter conflict and by your wonderful summation of the implications of supporting TFG.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: I like it. I’ll bet you could sell them.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@satby: They can blow me off if they want and the hard core Trumpers absolutely will, but who I am trying to influence, even just a little is the Gen Z and Millennials in the building, too many of whom, even after Roe was killed, still think all politicians are the same and that what we need is “change” when what we need is to stop the fascists’ from taking control of the Presidency and the House and Senate, and every State house, governorship and local school board.
My kid is a late Millennial (1994) and both she and her husband were way too “all politicians are the same” in the run up to 2015/2016 election (then my daughter called me at 2 in the morning when it became clear Trump was winning, she was in a complete panic). They also bought in to Bernie’s “the primaries are rigged against me”, things will change if we just “believe” for way too long. I am sick if people wanting a charismatic leader who “excites” them…I would like someone mostly ethical, and boring who is good at the job and knows what the hell they are doing. I am fine voting for the smartest person in the room, especially if they are a bitch. Bitches get shit done. Ask me how I know… ok rambling rant over!
catclub
@Betty Cracker:
Mitt Romney in 2012 is a huge exception.
Geminid
@WereBear: There seems to be important differences between Florida’s economy and that of Georgia. I see this when I follow stories about the clean energy transition. The IRA has spurred development of a number of large plants to produce batteries, EVs etc. across the Southeast. Georgia is getting a lot of them, Florida hardly any.
Florida’s engine for economic development still seems to be residential real estate development. That must have an impact on the state’s politics.
Economic development agencies in Southside Virginia recently competed for a new Hyundai plant, but Hyundai picked a location near Savanna, Georgia instead. Dogwood Review covers Southside, and they asked economic development experts about the reasons. The biggest was that the median age in Southside Virginia was in the mid-40s, whereas the median age in the Savanna metropolitan area was in the mid-thirties.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I’ve been working on a post (that I may never finish) about how Netanyahu’s self-interested prosecution of the war is an existential problem for Israel and a massive political problem for the U.S., or at least the portion of the U.S. that regards Palestinian civilians as humans, i.e., Democrats.
It’s unclear whether a less corrupt and rightwing Israeli government would have responded differently to the 10/7 massacres. But Netanyahu and the zealots who are trying to create a hard right theocracy are an obstacle to any lasting resolution.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@WereBear: Oh cool! I keep telling myself I should be on the BookTok part of TikTok, but I don’t necessarily want to show my aged face to potential YA readers. I’m still thinking I’ll stop writing instead.
BTW, Amazon has a couple of my books on deep markdown, which I think is a sign of poor sales. Boo!
Betty Cracker
@catclub: Agree. The Chamber of Commerce Repubs still had enough juice then to hold off the tea party loons and theocrats, but now the crazies are firmly in control.
AWOL
@WereBear: Played by Jack Gilford. Did the old Lays commercials, too, if I recall.
Dorothy A. Winsor
What is with Rs making their arguments physical? Normal people don’t do this. They’d be fired, or banned from the grocery store, or kicked out of the bar.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
The sort of conventional wisdom in the Democratic Party is that they market to Independents at this point in the cycle with the assumption that Ds will “come home’ later. But Biden’s polling is so low that I think he needs to shore up Democrats. He gets to 90% Democrats and this thing is over- Trump loses. I was hoping that would happen during this period but with almost a 20% drop among Democrats he’s going in the wrong direction. The “nonwhite” polling drop off should concern him the most because that’s not the dreaded Oberlin student council members at elite universities- that’s the meat of the D base.
For me the Netanyahu effect is this – I think he will screw Joe Biden and the United States so therefore cannot be trusted as a partner. It’s even worse now that he’s desperate. He’s a fucking criminal and so are his entire family. His son is hiding out in Florida right now from some kind of legal judgment. His wife is a crook. He’s a crook. I’m sorry voters in Israel didn’t get rid of their Donald Trump when they had the chance but I don’t want to be punished for their error.
Geminid
@Kay: The Israeli/Palestinian conflict has always been a potential wedge issue among Democrats, and now it’s a real one. I don’t neccesarily think the damage will be permanent, but that could depend a lot on the duration of the Gaza war.
I think the Biden administration basically agrees with Israel’s basic war aims, maybe not so much as to ways and means. But we are now pressing the Israelis hard on the question of governance of Gaza after this war ends, and in another 10 days I think Boden and his people will be leaning on them hard to wrap it up. One reason- besides the obvious harm being done to people in Gaza- is that the longer this war goes on the greater the chance of it spreading to Lebanon and the larger region. Domestic politics will be another reason.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
The Israel/Palestinian conflict is one of the most emotional and polarizing around. It will also be utterly forgotten in America a year from now. Thank goodness.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: A less corrupt and rightwing Israeli government might have avoided Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7; I think they would have at least adequately prepared for it. Someone on Einat Wilf’s Twitter feed pointed out that nations cannot always avoid surprises. One response was that nations can at least prepare for them. Therein lies the Netanyahu government’s greatest culpability.
Glidwrith
@RevRick: Um, you just described a party split.
Billionaires can cut checks, but it’s just capital, not labor. They can’t do the actual work of boots on the ground in sufficient time to organize for elections. It feels similar to the state of the thugs here in California.
Freemark
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: The primaries were ‘rigged’ against Sanders, as they should have been. I liked Sanders and even voted for him, but Hilary put in a ton of ground work preparing for her run Sanders didn’t. That ‘rigging’ is also called hard work and ‘good politics’.
Hoodie
@Geminid: Drove by that construction site a few weeks ago on the way to Atlanta from Savannah. It’s kind of a ways from Savannah, which is several miles to the east on the other side of I-95. There is also a gigantic new SK battery plant in the outer burbs of Atlanta. Maybe Kemp sees these exurban areas as potentially replacing the GOP block that used to dominate the ring counties of Atlanta, which are much more urbanized and diverse now (I visited my nephew in Duluth recently and was surprised by the number of Korean churches – that area used to be pretty much rural and small town white when I was growing up nearby). He has billboards around the state that explicitly tout his championing of rural Georgia, but more directed to economic development than culture war. In that sense, he’s far smarter than, say, DeSantis, who just pedals culture war stuff. That may make him more dangerous, but that’s tempered by the fact that he actually is competent and is helping bring some needed stuff to the state and not taking jackass stands against EVs as some sort of stupid culture war signifier.
Josie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Maybe you could do an interview or conversation about the book with a young person the age of your target audience.
Geminid
@Frankensteinbeck: This war will not be utterly forgotten a year from now. It will certanly be less salient an issue, but I think the effects this time will be not be transitory as was the case for the Gaza War of May, 2021. A lot will depend on the future course of this war: how long it goes on, and whether it gets worse before it gets better.
Freemark
@Geminid: Certainly if Israel hadn’t been committing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank Hamas would have been unable to do the damage they did. That ethnic cleansing has helped shore up Netanyahu’s right wing support at the cost of Israel’s security. His hard work strengthening Hamas also certainly didn’t help that security. But it did help him hold on to power.
Kay
@Frankensteinbeck:
I’m not so sure. It goes against Biden’s image – how people think of him. That’s what worries me. He can’t be kindly Uncle Joe the humanitarian amid those photos of dead children. I think pols run into real problems when they go against the image they have created.
I think they could make an effort to seem more even handed – as interested in humanitarian aid as they are with military aid.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Josie: That’s possible. Or just show book covers, not me. I’ll have to think about it.
SFAW
@Baud:
As NotMadMax might say: Obligatory
SFAW
@Freemark:
That’s ridiculous. Next you’ll be trying to tell us that Trump helped strengthen Russia/Putin.
Baud
@Kay:
Could be our undoing. Not sure there’s a way around it. If people have decided they want to hurt America because of Gaza, electing Trump would be a good way to do it.
Geminid
@Hoodie: I think that Kemp sees these new industrial developments augmenting Republican strength in and around Atlanta. Kemp was a real estate developer before he entered politics, and I think he learned first hand about how created economic development can have a symbiotic with Georgia’s Republican Party. In ways, Kemp is a throwback to successful Southeastern Governors of the last part of the 20th century such as Richard Riley of South Carolina.
Denali5
@‘Satby,
I loved your response. I want it on a t-shirt. That is all.
All far as the war in the Israel goes, it is terrible for Biden. It is a wedge issue for Democrats and Democrats don’t need that right now. The United States has been trying to solve the Middle East for years and years, and its too complicated and intractable.
eclare
@Hoodie:
I was amazed that Youngkin stopped a battery plant that was going to be built in SW VA.
Geminid
@Freemark: After last November’s election, Netanyahu partnered with political arsonists Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, and their 14-MK party. Coalition negotiations were protracted. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir knew they had Netanyahu over a barrel, and extracted from him the Cabinet posts needed to empower violent West Bank settlers.
The danger was obvious, but Netanyahu had a bribery case that would finally culminate this year. The center parties would not have helped him neutralize the prosecution, so Netanyahu decided to put his own personal interests over that of the nation.
Geminid
@Geminid: Well, I scrambled that one up. I meant to say that Brian Kemp learned about the symbiotic relationship between economic development and the Georgia Republican Party.
Citizen Alan
@mrmoshpotato: Michael Steele fascinates me because he was hired for his job out of sheer, blatant tokenism. but he went on to be the most capable and successful RNC chairman of this century. And his success so angered the base that they fired him for contrived reasons. And now he seems to spend all his time on TV playing the part of a loyal Republican who nevertheless constantly mocks the party for its incompetence and mendacity. There is a part of me that likes to believe that michael steele secretly votes democrat, but he still presents himself as a republican because he knows he can do more damage to the party from inside the tent.
Citizen Alan
@Frankensteinbeck:
I wish there was a concerted effort to study the lives and politics of every single American worth more than a billion dollars so we can prove my deeply held belief that wealth at that level literally drives people insane and evil, and they must be kept from political influence by any means necessary. I support the idea of literally taxing billionaires out of existence.
Geminid
@eclare: Regarding the battery plant: Youngkin was building his credentials as a China hawk. Spurning a large factory in an economically depressed area of Virginia can’t hurt Youngkin’s reelection chances because he’s not allowed to run for reelection. That’s one problem with Youngkin; he started running for President as soon as he got elected, with 2028 in mind.
Citizen Alan
@mrmoshpotato: I am conflicted about the whole vermin thing. I feel like I should be horribly defended and disgusted by it and scream about what an overtly fascist thing it is. But I also feel it will be slightly hypocritical of me since I routinely refer to MAGAs as “soulless garbage humans who all belong to a Satan worshipping death cult.”
RaflW
Republican officials have deluded themselves that they can threaten businesses like Disney & RonD, or American Air & Abbot in TX, and the donations will just keep rolling because tax cuts.
No, these corporate overlords aren’t going to suddenly open the taps for Democrats, but they can do the money equivalent of staying home on election day. Starve the beast is not the worst business strategy.
Kathleen
@satby: LOVE Team Vermin!
Kathleen
@Baud: EVEN IF CHELSEA VOWS NOT TO WHAT ABOUT HER CHILDREN!!! HUH?????
RaflW
@Tony Jay: “It’s all falling apart and they hate each other.” I was reflecting on this exact thing a couple days ago when I reflected on how much bitterness and animocity it seems Haley and Ramaswamy have for each other.
Saint Ronaldus (himself now tarnished and maybe even seen as a RINO) famously called on all Republicans to focus their fight outward and never amongst. But — surprise! — a party built from the very foundations up on anger, resentiment, appeals to violence and racial superiority will eventually come to eat their own.
I just hope they get on with the devouring and don’t gain the WH in 2024, in which case the hunger will be met by much more catastrophic means.
Ruckus
@Tony Jay:
Conservatives have been on the decline for a few decades, more in some areas than others but still, they are there. And in a modern world, intended suffering and hate of everyone else – which I believe are their main concepts of politics and life, really do not gain them much ground, because they are looking for a world that maybe, possibly existed a couple hundred years ago, and many people aren’t having it.
They want to turn back time to a world that hurts their enemies, except that’s everyone but them. And there is a lot more of everyone else.
Denali5
@Citzen Alan,
The use of the word vermin in a political speech is especially alarming because Hitler did use it in reference to the Jewish population and it is tied to the idea of extermination. I still cannot believe that the NYT did not hold TFG accountable for it.
Saint Ronald somehow never paid a political price for the loss of over 200 military in the Middle East. In light of how Biden has been held accountable for the painful exit from Afghanistan, it is amazing.
Ruckus
@Tony Jay:
Nice summation. Not a nice situation mind you but then we usually like to flush shit, not have to listen to it, and the politics of the hard right these days has gone full on craptastic.
RaflW
@Geminid: “Biden will give a solo news conference at 7:30pm.”
But we have it on reliable* sources that he’s too old, doddering and sleepy to give solo news conferences.
Ruckus
@satby:
Good for you!
All this crap is their own making. Their desire to go backwards in time a couple hundred (or more!) years so that their despicable politics of racism and every other type of hate might gain power. Hopefully we are over that and moving on to a better world, instead of a far worse one.
gvg
@Geminid: Kay talks about how great the economy is. Its OK in Florida I guess, but we have some serious problems too. The Citrus industry is dying due to citrus greening. this has been happening for 20 years but the last 3 have been a disaster. DeSantis has barely mentioned it and doesn’t seem to know how important agriculture still is here. Also oranges underlay our tourism and sunshine lifestyle image. Its billions not rippling through our economy anymore. Then the housing insurance issue he has not done anything about, nor the legislature. We don’t really have manufacturing. I wish we did, we have ports, seems like we could have some. We let the railroads die and dug up the tracks and turned them into hiking trails which I always felt was a mistake even though I like hiking. We have not built enough roads or done enough planning. When I was a kid our roads were a lot better than Georgia’s, now that isn’t the case.
We could do a lot with solar if we got the idiots out of control, possibly also with tidal and wind power, but we really need a bunch of roads and more rail.
Tarragon
@Baud:
Are you reconsidered your pants policy in order to expose yourself less?
louc
@Geminid:
This seems to be a thing in conservative circles. A small rural community just ousted five Republican officials for approving a Chinese battery plant.
BruceFromOhio
Democrats, throw anvils at these drowning rats! Big! Heavy! Many!
A N V I L S
lowtechcyclist
@gvg:
Dead thread, but I can’t help but mention that Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill had all sorts of money for high-speed rail, and Republican governors and legislatures turned it into an ideological issue and turned down the money.
Specifically, there was funding for a high-speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando, which wouldn’t have been connected to anything else at first, but would have been a proof of concept, and the starting point for a larger HSR system in Florida and up into Georgia. But whoever was the GOP governor at the time (Rick Scott, I guess) killed it.
There was also funding for a HSR line from the northeast corridor out to Chicago and Milwaukee, and again, the GOP governors in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, etc. said they didn’t want the money. And not HSR, but there was the money for a desperately needed new tunnel between NJ and Manhattan, which Chris Christie infamously turned down the money for.
This sort of thing has become commonplace on their part now, but it sure seemed crazy then. Hell, it was crazy then, and still is now.