i think the real breaking point in american politics may come if or when we learn the fine-point details of what the republican party has been up to for *at least* the last five or six years. https://t.co/d8RHwC470g
— cobras for alligators scheme machine (@golikehellmachi) February 8, 2021
Don’t look in that closet… don’t go in the basement… please not under the bed…
is anyone else reading all of this stuff as sweaty, desperate pleading not to reveal what the republican party has covered up over the past four years without fully knowing what it was they were covering up https://t.co/MkKu0jOLiT
— rental gunblade (@Theophite) February 8, 2021
Wait till you hear what happened to Lincoln after that; crazy story https://t.co/rHBbJvdGDv
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) February 9, 2021
If Jason Miller worked for the White Star Line he’d be saying that the Titanic is in “great shape” and the damage from the iceberg will be easily repaired but concede “there are a few things we need to tighten up” when it comes to ship safety. https://t.co/MngikMTG6p
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) February 10, 2021
If he didn't want visits from the Mafia, he shouldn't have opened a shop. https://t.co/YnLKaKwzMY
— Benn Steil (@BennSteil) February 9, 2021
I know it’s a complicated contest but I think Jason Miller has a good claim at being the champion poster boy for the death of shame.
— Jacob T. Levy (@jtlevy) February 9, 2021
Ali Alexander (not always under that name) has been grifting from easily agitated right-wing conspiracy theorists for at least the last decade…
Jan 6 organizer, now in hiding, vows to create a “MAGA mega-city” plus a back up city in South America https://t.co/kgxk8LKCbD
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) February 11, 2021
Wealth of entertaining replies to this tweet:
Traditionally, “back up dream city in South America” doesn’t tend to end well. https://t.co/QhlU8UdvpA
— Jane Coaston (@janecoaston) February 11, 2021
But the Flavor-Aid is free!
— Much Love (@mwobbe) February 11, 2021
CONTACT ME AT NEWMAGACITY AT FBI DOT GOV TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR BIG TRUMPY METROPOLIS PLANS
— kilgore trout, back in some form (@KT_So_It_Goes) February 11, 2021
RaflW
My current not-gonna-happen wish is that Mitt, now that he knows a) how close the horde came to seizing him, and b) that not one Republican “colleague” or “good friend” would have lifted a finger to save him, that he is this week letting his caucus know there have to be 17 GOP votes to convict, or he goes Independent immediately, caucuses with the Dems, and they push through a replacement organizing resolution that makes it clear the old 50-50 plus Kamala deal is dead.
Pure fanfic, I know. But what a moment it would be. And how much pressure would it put on Murkowski! Oh, well.
In the real world, the best we can hope for is that Mitt still votes to convict, and then who knows? Does the Mike Lee wing of the UT GOP exact revenge?
Shalimar
I do not think Ali Alexander is going to find 10 million Republicans willing to live in the same city as Ali Alexander.
C Stars
I definitely get the feeling there’s some terrible shit that could come out about what the GOP has been up to lately. On the other hand, the American electorate and especially Trump supporters seem pretty much completely inured to terrible shit. Like, the violent insurrection was just slightly not OK to most Republicans. No biggie though. And remember when the extent of Trump’s dealings with Putin started coming to light, all the Repubs started making the case that Russia was in fact a pretty great place and quite well governed?
All of the last four years have felt like a psyops exercise in getting us used to just terrible, vile, heinous shit being perpetrated by politicians as a matter of course. Is there such a thing anymore as political dishonor or disgrace (particularly if you are a Republican)? I don’t think so.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Shalimar: Hell, he’d be lucky to find 10 million Republicans who’d live in a city, period. They don’t like cities, cities are frightening places with lots of different people.
C Stars
@RaflW: Yeah, I doubt it’s going to happen. They need to lose a few more elections because of raving lunatic Trumpists. Then maybe the worm will turn.
C Stars
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Ha! They can model it after Grafton, NH, the ultimate anti-government success story.
Anne Laurie
Don’t be silly — someone has to mow the lawns and mop the floors!
When Repubs think about ‘a city of ten million PATRIOTS!!!’, what they envision is approximately one million White people, with nine million serfs to cater to their every whim.
Ali Alexander, in this scenario, is the guy on the Home Owners Association board — excuse me, city council — who’s never given a chance to make any decisions, but he’s in all the publicity shots to prove that We’re Not Racist, We Honor Diversity Here.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@C Stars: Just put up a sign, “Bears Welcome”.
different-church-lady
@RaflW: You’re not the only one who has received a visit from that fantasy.
different-church-lady
From what we’ve been told, a dispropotionate percentage of these creeps can’t manage their own finances correctly and are complely anti-tax, so how they’re gonna have an entire city that has any kind of functional funding is pretty far-fetched.
Mallard Filmore
@RaflW:
That’s being generous. Any Republicans captured with Mitt would point him out.
West of the Rockies
@Shalimar:
So he is now pushing MSAGA? Make South America Great Again?
prostratedragon
Chick Corea plays:
[Edited for spelling]
Redshift
@different-church-lady: Oh, speaking of which, we have a new entry in the Republican primary for governor of Virginia, some
“think tank”wingnut welfare guy who’s never held public office.His big idea is to cut the state income tax to zero, and “the state could wind up with more revenue without the tax because the change would fuel business and population growth.”
The Republican War on Arithmetic continues…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@different-church-lady: Why would the city need funding? Anything a city would do, would be provided by private enterprise. It’ll be so efficient!
Starboard Tack
Brian Kilmeade by way of Crooks & Liars.
“I think we have to, as a country, stop protesting every election result.”
My post COVID fantasy after all teh TeeVee is back to normal; leopards loose on the Fox & Friends set. Who do you bet would squeal the loudest? My money’d be on Steve Doocy. Ahhh, I can dream, can’t I?
mdblanche
They wouldn’t be the first insurrectionists to have a back-up city in South America.
Starboard Tack
@mdblanche:
There’s maybe even some actual Nazis left to hang out with. Not sure they’d get along with Ali, though. They only like Aryan grifters.
Kent
Honestly. I’m not sure what secret shit people expect to find. Nothing about the GOP over the past 4 years has been secret. They have been overt racist sociopaths for a long time.
On the other hand, I expect the other shoe to eventually drop with respect to Trump and the Russians. And probably some other GOPers as well. Biden needs to root all that shit out and push it pubic. With all the proof.
Joe Falco
@RaflW: It’s a nice fantasy. Easily West Wing episode material complete with inspirational music at the end. You could almost imagine the actor playing Mitt snarling to the Republican senators behind closed doors that either they find their sense of duty to convict or find themselves locked out of power for the next decade.
Mai Naem mobile
OT, I got one of those fund raising emails disguised as a survey from the DNC today. Normally I never even open this stuff but this one sounded very local and wasn’t obvious it was the DNC. Anyhoo, it had a list of priorities you wanted the Biden folks to focus on(COVID, economy,race,guns,climate, education etc.) No voting rights stuff. None. WTF. I hope this was just some fundraising come on and not the real list. They didn’t have judges either . Anyhow I added it in under ‘other.’
Luciamia
And South America says , Dear God, no. Please go away!
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
What in the cotton-candy colored hell is going on with the Lincoln Project? There seem to be explosions and strange lights and noises.
tokyokie
South America isn’t far enough south. I encourage them to build a city in Antarctica.
Steeplejack
@prostratedragon:
RIP, Chick.
Comrade Colette
@a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio: True colors showing at last?
I dunno, I’ve enjoyed the hell out of “The New Abnormal” podcast and some of their anti-Trump ads without ever deluding myself that they’re not, ya know, Republicans. Worse yet, “Republican political operatives” – in other words, scorpions. It would have been more surprising if there had not been some kind of post-election melting of their Mission Impossible-style fake-face masks.
Steeplejack
Chick Corea and Return to Forever, “Spain.”
Geoduck
@a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio: Heh. The Lincoln Project’s current travails are the top story on Foxnews.com. Nothing more important going on right now!
DMcK
@Kent: Adam’s recent posts have convinced me that we’re well beyond “probables” and “perhapses”; that the GOP, in collusion with hostile foreign states and for quite some time, has been actively involved in the funding, arming, and propagandizing on behalf of a domestic terrorist body with the intent of establishing a white nationalist authoritarian state. That’s what they’re afraid of being brought to light. Even if that extreme state of affairs is not exactly accurate, it’s pretty clear that the GOP is not a political party in any way that involves actual policy within the confines of constitutional government. They are the political wing of a domestic terrorist movement, and likely have been for years.
Marcion
Still wanna know who got blackmailed off that RNC email hack from back in the day…
ColoradoGuy
I would go a little further. In addition to attempting to set up a white nationalist authoritarian state (with aid from authoritarian foreign powers), the GOP is engaged in covert warfare against the American people. How else can the COVID denialism and vigorous anti-masking campaigns be explained? That wasn’t incompetence, that was malice, and it resulted in a stupendous death toll, social disorder, and profound damage to the economy. If the GOP has one common principle, it’s nihilism and contempt for the people of the USA.
HumboldtBlue
@Steeplejack:
That’ll work.
scott (the other one)
@RaflW: The thing that’s so frustrating is that, you’re right, he could absolutely do that…without even running any risk to his political future.
He’s never going to get primaried out in Utah and he’s never going to lose the general. The mainstream media would swoon over how terribly John McCain statesman-like it is of him. And until the current defendant, he’s truly rich, so it’s not like losing wingnut welfare is going to hurt him. It’s almost nothing but upside for him.
And yet.
Anya
@a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio: I was about the ask the same question. They seem to be imploding. There is the sexual predator co-founder and then the infighting. And whoever has access to their Twitter account (probably Rick Wilson) got them in legal trouble.
Steeplejack
@Anya:
And there are questions about where the money went. (AP story.)
sab
Lincoln Project trying to reform things, but at their heart(s) they are still Reagan and post-Reagan Republicans. They are so utterly corrupt that they don’t even know how to run a clean operation. They have never been there or done that.
sab
Democrats for the last generation have been funded in the old ways. Periodic minor corruption scandals where local malfactors go to jail.
Republicans for the last generation have been funded through the NRA (Russia) and personality disordered billionaire oligarchs with no transparency at all. What could possibly go wrong?
prostratedragon
“Anna’s Tango,” Chick Corea & The Vigil, live
“Armando’s Rhumba,” Chick Corea Trio, live
They’re his mom and dad.
Matt McIrvin
@Redshift: “How will you turn a profit if you make a loss on every sale?”
“Volume!!”
Ken
How do you make money when you have no source of revenue? The answer is simple: volume.
Ken
Not allowed, by international treaties. It would also be an ecological disaster, with all those tons of rotting flesh the first time the power goes out and they realize no one in Galt’s Gulch knows how to fix it.
Maybe they can try seasteading. I suggest 47°9′S 123°43′W; although it’s unlikely they’ll be eaten by Cthulhu, it is near the Pacific pole of inaccessiblity so they’ll be as far as way from the rest of us as possible.
Ken
@Matt McIrvin: Dammit. I shouldn’t have wasted time getting the link.
SFAW
Back when I was working for a small tech company, lo these many years ago, I saw that we were reselling some controller modules with — in many cases — very small margins, but in some cases, negative margins. [Meaning we sold them for less than our cost.] I mentioned to one of the draftsmen that we would make it up in volume. “But … what?”
ETA: I seem to recall Milo Minderbinder operating in a similar fashion, but maybe he had a different grift. [Hey, it’s been 50 years since I read it.]
SFAW
@Ken:
First time I’ve heard of that location, thanks for the pro tip.
I think they should complete the experience by living in these luxurious accommodations, air-dropped onto the site, with the Rethugs already in them. [Don’t worry, there will be parachutes to cushion the landing into the water, so that they can swim to shore without incident.]
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
While I’d feel bad for South America, even if only 100,000 MAGAts from swing districts deported themselves to NEWMAGACITY, it would be a great thing for this country.
Soprano2
Planet Money did a podcast about a very small town that was run by Libertarians. They had no taxes at all – none. Their bright idea for how to finance city government was to get Wal-Mart to build a store near the local interstate, then have a sales tax for that area. Unfortunately, their “brilliant plan” fell through because they refused to asses any fees or taxes on themselves to pay the nearby larger town to extend the sewer main to the location where they wanted the WalMart, so WalMart said they wouldn’t build there. It was an interesting study in how having absolutely no taxes actually cannot work.
Kristine
@different-church-lady: I’m envisioning Fyre Festival writ large. The grift possibilities are endless. Ali could travel from city to city with the designs and beg for donations. I’m betting he could take in a few years’ income before the penny dropped.
Kristine
@Redshift: it has never worked, we have the receipts to prove it, and yet they never quit pushing it. It isn’t that they don’t learn, it’s that they refuse to.
Peale
@Redshift: Because if its one thing the rural GOP base loves, its the idea of hordes of new people moving into the area.
Peale
@Kristine: I’m envisioning the “mega city” failing miserably and then scores of thousands of MAGA refugees trying to get to the back up city, only to be turned away as undesirables. Maybe the Guatemalans will lock their children up in chicken coops to discourage them from coming.
Honus
@Redshift: Reminds me of George Allen’s big idea when he ran for governor of eliminating the car tax. It was very popular with the rednecks and was elected. The result was that people in prosperous populated areas like Northern Virginia, which had lots of new cars, benefited greatly, while small localities that had been subsidized by the car tax from the wealthy areas got hurt and had to raise property taxes. The guys with nice pickups got a break though so everything was good.
Uncle Cosmo
Sure he is. As long as his permanent address is “MAGA City Penitentiary, Cell Block X (Solitary).” Or maybe “MAGA City Cemetery, Informants’ Wall (mass grave, unmarked).”
Ksmiami
@different-church-lady: interesting- a big reason among many why the Confederacy lost was an unwillingness on the part of wealthy plantation owners and Southern businessmen to adequately fund their war effort…
Just Chuck
When you get 10 million people together in a city, that city tends to overwhelmingly vote Democratic. So hey, if he wants to deprogram 10 million MAGATs, awesome. But not only will he he fail to reach even double digits, I predict even he’s not even considering moving himself. Fantasyland is the only world these people know.
Honus
@C Stars: I’m old enough to remember when a dozen or so republican senators went to s meeting in Russia. On the Fourth of July no less. I can only imagine if a group of democratic lawmakers went to Russia to celebrate Independence Day.
Ksmiami
@ColoradoGuy: and if they’re fixing for a fight, we are going to have to face it so I say sooner than later. We need to crush the GOP and then run a full scale denazification education program nationwide
Just Chuck
@Ksmiami: Wouldn’t have mattered if they poured every cent they had into it. The North had an industrial capacity that utterly dwarfed the South. To say nothing of the South relying on exporting cotton which was piling up and rotting on the docks because it was embargoed or boycotted everywhere.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@Redshift: They tried that a few years ago, in that paradise called Kansas. It didn’t live up to expectations.
Minstrel Michael
@mdblanche: Thanks! I didn’t know about that one!
I did once ride a bus due west from the Brazilian city of Vitoria, and passed through several towns where the second language on the signs was German or Italian. One even had a Disney-fied Bavarian castle! The people who got off at that stop looked like a family of entertainers, wearing gypsy costumes and carrying guitars and other instruments. I hope they got well paid.
Some day I hope to do an On the Road about stuff like this, but I seem to have misplaced the photos :-(
Uncle Cosmo
@Luciamia:
The (Proud) Boys from Brazil. Will they name the settlement Trumpville or MAGAton?
Another Scott
@Honus: I remember the hated (annual) car tax. Of course, they didn’t really get rid of it, they just did some shuffling of things around (there’s a listed payment by the state that covers ~ 90% of it, but the tax still exists). They did similar trickery with the gasoline tax. It’s not listed in the pump taxes any more, because it’s paid higher-up the chain (by the wholesaler/distributor).
So, the GOP got to campaign on getting rid of taxes, but really didn’t, and made things more complicated, and usually ended up hurting some people who thought they were going to get a big benefit. Plus, probably by design, it makes it more difficult to actually have real conversations about having tax revenue match needed expenditures.
Possibly relatedly, I’m reminded that when I was growing up in Georgia in the ’60s and ’70s they had an “ad valorum” tax on cars. I don’t know if it was a one-time sales tax or an annual thing. Another word for it is a VAT.
Maybe Democrats should always use the Latin equivalent when talking about taxes…
Cheers,
Scott.
Uncle Cosmo
IMO the real gold at the end of the all-white rainbow would be incontrovertible evidence of coordination and collusion among Putin’s kleptocracy and the PGOs (Putative Global Oligarchs), i.e, the Kochs (now singular), Mercers, Adelsons (now dirtnapping), etc., to funnel $$$$ to the Global Oligarchy Party and do the dirty work of voter suppression and hornswoggling the MAGAt faithful.
It has long been my contention that the only reason the PGOs didn’t push back on Daddy Vladdy was that (like the USA, UK and USSR during World War 2.0) their immediate aims were much the same: the destruction of liberal democracy around the world. Not entirely the same – Putin wants to provoke the USA into civil war, partly for revenge, partly to give him & his Mafiyosi a free hand subjugating the states of the former Soviet Union. The PGOs want to displace every liberal democracy for a locked-in authoritarian regime that allows them complete freedom of movement and does not tax them but instead allows them to loot national treasuries at will for the monies collected from the peasants. Their Earthly Paradise is a world where capital moves everywhere at the speed of light, the rich move as fast as their pricey vehicles (limos, private planes, even rockets) can carry them, & everybody else is nailed in place to be abused. (ETA: And Orangecandyass just wants to hear the roar of the crowds as he exercises his hatreds and grifts off the rubes.)
I think the current situation is (at least for the moment) favorable to the good guys for a few reasons.
Now all that said (whew!) I think there is a very good chance that the PGOs have concluded that the time to make their move on the planet is not quite yet – not while there’s so much to be set right (including the sociopathic depredations of Trumplthinskin). Better to let Uncle Joe straighten things out & come back in ’24 or (more likely) ’28 with a more easily controllable catspaw as candidate. Meanwhile it’s the Democrats’ challenge to make the case that letting us run things really is better for the American people as a whole and individually. Let’s not fuck this up.
No One You Know
@tokyokie: On an ice shelf, facing the sea. For that fantastic view.