#the gop is a mess

[daddysakic]

It’s weird it’s happened 10 times right?

[thashining]

GOP Gets BAD NEWS in House…Member QUITS CAUCUS

[yadivagirl]

Good job on your Governor, North Carolina! Woohoo!

[chipster-321]

Never mess with Disney’s legal department. Ever.

Disney just pulled the ULTIMATE POWER MOVE on DeSantis in response to him trying to bully them for being “Woke”. Basically they used Rules against perpetuities to include a clause that granted them free creative land and management over all of their land aside from road management until, and I quote, “21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, king of England,”. So, essentially days before DeSantis signed the law and installed his hand picked board to “Oversee and manage” Disney, Disney, in quietly and in plain sight, kneecapped Desantis’ board and stripped it of all power. So it means that DeSantis signed a law that gave him NO power and means the government now has to foot the bill until at the very least 2044. Granted, it will be longer since the youngest current living descendant, Lilibet, is only 1.

This is all completely legal and legit. DeSantis can complain and whine all he wants but it’s on him for not keeping a closer eye on what the ol’ House of Mouse was up to. Guess that’s why they’ve been so quiet about this thing.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Steve Brodner :: What's a Military for, Anywayzz??

* * * *

[THE REPUBLICAN ROAD TO CRAZYTOWN]

Wednesday was one of the wildest days on Capitol Hill, as FBI Director Chris Wray faced a conspiracy-addled House Judiciary Committee in a hearing that really did go “off the rails.”

Can you make sense of this:

Chair Jordan appeared on Fox News’s Hannity after the FBI oversight hearing that went off of the rails, where he said:

“A federal judge disagreed with what Christopher Wray testified to today and he did that decision on July 4th just eight days ago for goodness sake that's exactly what happened with uh with the decision the the uh when it came to the uh the the decision with um uh I drew a blank there so I apologize I got a huge echo in my ear and I can't I can't even hear.

“But but yeah that's exactly what what happened they uh they pre-bunked this story and Facebook specifically asked the FBI is the Hunter Biden story Russia misinformation and the FBI said no comment this is after they had the laptop for an entire year after they've been telling all the big tech companies get ready for a hack and dump operation it's coming and it's going to involve Hunter Biden and then it happens and they get that fundamental question no comment and this is from the foreign influence task force director the lead on that that foreign influence task force that Christopher Wray created.”

Can anyone who isn’t an avid viewer of Faux Snooze or a consumer of other conservative media understand what Jungle Gym was talking about?

Jordan speaks almost entirely now in the language of conspiracy theories; only the “extremely online” members of MAGA can make sense of the word salad that was tossed around.

The hearing, and Jordan’s appearance on Hannity, demonstrate that there is a bigger issue here:

The Republican Party is now running on insanity.

Jordan is pushing the issue of “FBI censorship” to legitimize the Hunter Biden laptop - which was mentioned so many times that Eric Swallwell used his five minutes to wonder if the GOP had another subject. According to witnesses, the Biden laptop has had its data manipulated so that Russian misinformation could be inserted into it. But all the tracks the GOP Crazy Train rolls on lead here, because the lies and falsehoods created and told by MAGA about Hunter Biden is the centerpiece of Trump’s 2024 campaign.

While the MAGA Republicans have spent nearly four years attempting so far unsuccessfully to legitimize The Hunter Biden Laptop and get their fantasies into corporate media, all the non-conservative media that have investigated the laptop have found the tale dubious and not credible.

Jordan and the rest of MAGA know they are running out of time. The 2024 campaign season begins this fall, and Congress always has an even shorter schedule than normally during election years. If Jordan and his co-conspirators can’t make anything stick to Joe Biden before January, their mission to restore Trump to the White House will have failed.

This is why hillbilly moron James Comer (R-Klueless) is now depending on fugitive Chinese spies to provide evidence against President Biden. The fact he does so is proof of their desperation born of their continuing failure to slime the president since taking control of the House this year.

Trump’s lies about having the 2020 election stolen from him has accelerated the slow decline of conservatism within the Republican Party over the past 40 years since the arrival of what became the Gingrich Revolution. Trump’s insanity has now turned the collective crazy of the Republican “kook’ fringe into the GOP’s DNA.

That we have one of our two political parties in such a collective psychosis is a dangerous spot for the nation to be in. The House Republicans know no bill on any topic that they pass will come out of the Democratic-majority Senate, so what they are passing are “messaging” bills to show the MAGA base that they are “fighting the good fight.” To much of the base, the fact that the antics the MAGA House Republicans are engaging in get a negative response from the Democrats is a plus - their representatives are “owning the libs.”

And so many of the far right “stars” have their own political and financial base, which means the GOP leadership in the House holds little to no sway over them. Thus, when Marjorie Traitor Goon’s amendment to strip all funds for support of Ukraine out of the “must-pass” NDAA was tossed by an overwhelming majority against her pro-Putin nuttiness, she blithely announced to Quiverin’ Qevin that this meant she would be unable to vote in favor of the amended NDAA. McCarthy can only afford to lose three more Republicans before he loses his majority to pass that bill (which will never come back from the Senate with any of the Kulturkampf amendments still in it), since Democrats have announced they will not vote in favor of the bill due to the amendment stripping the Pentagon of the ability to grant leave and travel assistance to service members who require abortion services in another state if they are unlucky enough to be stationed in one of the Republican-run states that have now abolished the right to an abortion in that state.

Regarding the NDAA, the Republicans managed to hang 70 far right amendments on the legislation in voting on Thursday, with every “moderate” “Biden district” “moderate” voting in lockstep with the nutballs the “moderates” claim to dislike.

Democrat Jim McGovern had this to say about today’s votes:

“This process has shown us the priorities of the Republican majority. Protecting the reputation of confederate leaders. Banning books because they want to rewrite history. Controlling women's bodies, overturning Roe vs. Wade wasn't enough. They want to ban abortion nationwide. They want to restrict a service members' ability to get travel expenses covered. Attacking LGBTQ+ service members. Cutting off aid to Ukraine in the middle of their fight against Putin. Stifling diversity and equity in the military. And shrugging off climate change which the Department of Defense says poses a direct threat to our national security. You can't make this stuff up, Mr. Speaker...

“The Speaker of the House needs to grow a spine. Not for his own reputation but the good of his country. This is a terrible, terrible process. These amendments are pathetic that have been made in order. They are offensive. It disrespects and diminishes this institution. It is sad to see this small group of extremists calling the shots here, but that is what is happening right now.

“Let me again remind everybody. In this rule, 70 Republican amendments, six bipartisan amendments, and four Democratic amendments. On what planet is that even considered reasonably fit? This is outrageous. A big chunk of the Democratic amendments, you may not agree with them, but we ought to have 10 minutes of debate and vote up or down. They say that this is about getting woke out of the military. They blocked my amendment to help homeless vets get rides to medical appointments. What the hell is woke about that? They blocked it because it was woke. I don't even know what they are thinking.”

Following the votes on amendments Thursday night, the three top House Democrats - Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar - issued a blistering statement outlining their opposition to the revised NDAA bill:

“House Republicans have turned what should be a meaningful investment in our men and women in uniform into an extreme and reckless legislative joyride. The bill undermines a woman’s freedom to seek abortion care, targets the rights of LGBTQ+ servicemembers and bans books that should otherwise be available to military families.”

Adam Smith, top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, and other subcommittee ranking members also released their own lengthy statement criticizing the legislation. These Democrats would normally be vocal supporters of any defense-related bill, but they’re not doing that now.

“The bill we passed out of committee sent a clear message to our allies and partners, global competitors, and the American people that democracy still works, and Congress can still function….

“That bill no longer exists. What was once an example of compromise and functioning government has become an ode to bigotry and ignorance.”

What clearly demonstrates where the Krazies are really at is the report that one of them lobbied a Republican “moderate” to vote for the Jackson anti-abortion amendment on the grounds that it would be stripped from the bill when it came back from the Senate. Performance is everything with these mendacious morons! All they wanted these amendment votes for was to get on Faux with their bullshit, and to con the morons who vote for them in their fundraising. Their cynicism and malicious acts are truly stunning.

The NDAA passed the House by a 219-210 vote Friday morning, but, with all the amendments, it is DOA on arrival in a Democratic-majority Senate.

House Republicans have shown this week what happens when the post-2020 election MAGA GOP is elevated into power.

It doesn't matter whether the politicians are driving the Republican base or the base is driving the behavior of elected Republicans. The result must be defeated and kept away from power. As many times as necessary until the radicalism is beaten out of the party or it ceases to exist in its contemporary form.

[TCinLA ::: Thats Another Fine Mess]

[sbrown82]

It’s like America is watching season 5 of “Love and Politics DC”!!! 🤦🏾‍♀️😩

[cyarsk52-20]

Tennessee Republicans right now

[lukadarkwater]

On one hand, this is horrible for our country. On the other hand, watching Gaetz get punched in the face by an older, whiter Republican would be amazing.

[commodorebuzzkill]

Well, it's literally impossible to make them care about gun deaths or assault weapons proliferation. Sad truth of it is, I don't think we could get an assault weapons ban passed anymore even if Kamala Harris were president elect and the Dems controlled both houses of congress.

Smith and Wesson, Colt, Remington etc. are too busy making bank off of the sale of AR-15s for any restriction to be put in place, and their customers are insanely loyal.

Wanna know something super fucked up? Every mass shooting effectively serves as an advertisement for assault weapons. Generally, you will see a spike in sales of AR-15s and the like in the days and following a mass shooting because customers fear a ban on the sale of the weapons, so they go out and grab more.

We're so far beyond broken when it comes to gun legislation in this country that there's essentially no prospect of fixing it for decades at this point. The left has effectively lost the argument at this point, and the more militant the right gets, the more folks on the left go out and buy their own guns because they are rightly scared of right wing lunatics shooting them and being acquitted in court. So enough of the left doesn't want to bother gun reform that we can't really build a large enough coalition to do anything about having the highest rate of gun deaths of any country on earth.

[sleepyandconfused]

You know, our last shreds of democracy were stripped today, and yet there are still fucking idiots out there who will defend this decision. Hope the GOP's asshole boots taste good to you fuckers.

[daddysakic]

It’s FINALLY over

[woodox-earthtaurus]

Nashville school shooting families removed by state troopers at gun law hearing

This is heinous. Wtf is wrong with TN right now? I wouldn't visit Nashville if you paid me.

[hully-gully-gee]

Get it??

I wanted this to look like the 1984 Reagan/Bush sticker, and it's mostly there. The placement & kerning isn't the best, but it's done, I mostly like it, and it's out of my brain and on paper, so to speak.

[damnitiloveyou]

Wisconsin 🎉

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

voters vs. GOP

* * * *

CREATING THE NEW CONFEDERACY

TCinLA

The news this past week, that the Idaho legislature and passed and the governor had signed a bill forbidding interstate travel to obtain an abortion, followed by the decision of a rogue right wing lunatic Trump judge in Amarillo making overturning the FDA approval 20 years ago of Mifepristone, effectively attempting to end medication abortion nationwide,brings into sharp focus a process that has been going on for several years. This is approaching the point where, if Trump returns to office in 2024 with Republican control of the Senate (a strong possibility, given the Senate map and the fact Democrats are the majority of those up for re-election) andthe House, the plan can be brought to fruition.

It is no less than a recreation of The Confederacy, without an armed conflict, and with reactionary control extended nation-wide.

Look at the following:

Back last July, 2022, in response to a lawsuit brought by the Republican state attorneys general in Texas and Louisiana, the Supreme Court blocked the Biden Administration from changing a key element of federal immigration policy. What makes the case interesting is it was just the latest victory for red states, supported by Trump-appointed judges, successfully engaging in a multi-front attack to seize control of national policy even though a Democrat was in the White House and at the time controlled the House and Senate.

Since then, with Republicans having again taken the majority in the House of Representatives, the red states are moving social policy sharply to the right on issues ranging from abortion to LGBTQ rights and classroom censorship. At the same time, using the power of redistricting and overwhelming majorities in the state legislatures they they control, they are working to hobble the ability of their own largest metro areas to set a different course as they have destroyed representation by Democrats of those large cities by slicing them up into parts of surrounding districts controlled by Republicans, effectively disfranchising the progressive urban populations in their states.

Increasingly, using the federal courts and the state legislatures they control, the MAGA Republican right are creating a nation inside a nation, a Red America that operates on rules and policies that radically diverge from the rest of the country more than almost any previous era since the post-Civil War period when the South began defining their ultimate victory despite having lost the civil war, using the “separate but equal doctrine” that became known as “Jim Crow” to defeat the 13th, 14th and 15th Constitutional amendments passed nationally to ensure equality for the freed slaves.

As well as working to create a separate Red America, the MAGA Republicans also seek to bend the blue states to their political will. The Dobbs decision that overtuned Roe v. Wade was the result of a case built around a Mississippi law created specifically to challenge Roe and provide the Supreme Court that is now controlled by a radical right supermajority with the opportunity to overturn the decision. Late Friday, a Trump-appointed judge issued a decision overturning the power of the FDA to approve drugs, with a decision in a case brought by anti-abortion legal activists specifically in Amarillo because they knew this radical anti-abortion judge would deal with the case. Judge Kacsmaryk’s nationwide injunction rescinds FDAs approval of Mifepristone nationwide, including in states where abortion is still legal and without exception for the mother’s health, rape, or incest.

The decision is an attempt to impose a national ban on abortion despite the fact that the Supreme Court in the Dobbs decision said that abortion policy was a state matter to be decided in individual states. Kacsmaryk even brought back in full force the 1873 Comstock Law that prohibits advertising or mailing anything, including information, that prevents conception or produces an abortion. Using this law gets around the milestone decision of Griswold v. Connecticut rendered by the Warren Court in 1965, which overturned Connecticut’s “little Comstock law,” while leaving the federal law in place though unenforced for the past 58 years

These events are the result of a long-term movement to recreate a modern Confederacy within the borders of the United States, and then to make the cultural priorities of the GOP’s predominantly White Christian electoral base the controlling law in the non-Confederate states.

The goal is to win a new civil war without resorting to armed conflict, and to insure the political dominance of the rebel Confederacy.

While this appears to be culturally-driven, its financing comes from extremely wealthy individuals whose wealth is founded on the older economy based on resource extraction. Thus red state legislatures act against climate change proposals, promote further use of fossil fuels, and oppose environmental regulations such as emissions standards.

Blue states are more heavily exposed to the big demographic, cultural and economic forces that are reshaping American life; red states are less exposed, and where they are, those changes are occurring overwhelmingly on their large metropolitan areas, which have become “blue jewels” in a sea of surrounding red. These changes are seen by the GOP and their primarily-white voter base as threatening their declining political power. Thus the Democratic cities like Austin, Houston or Atlanta are a target for Republicans who control the state government to pass “pre-emption” laws; not only are the Republican legislatures redistricting the cities to deny them political representation at all, there are moves like what is happening in Texas and Tennessee to limit the size of local government and limit the policy choices over which those governments have control. The Texas state legislature has passed a law allowing the state to intervene in local political decisions in Houston - the largest and bluest city in the state.

GOP state legislatures are resorting to increasingly overbearing and indefensible power plays to hold off the rising tides of opposition resulting from their descent into reactionary rule.

On every issue from gun ownership and religious affiliation to participation - or lack thereof - in the 21st century information economy, most red states are diverging more sharply from the experience in blue states while becoming more similar between themselves.

The difference between the 25 red states that voted for Donald Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 elections, compared to the rest of the company shows the diffrence of the two Americas in sharp terms.. At a time when the immigrant share of the total US population is nearing its all-time high, 19 of the Trump states rank at the bottom 25 states in share of population composed of immigrants. While the overall share of the population that are college graduates is rising, 20 of these states are in the bottom 25 for the share of population holding at least a four-year college degree. The 25 Trump states, by contrast, fall into the top half when states are ranked by the share of population that are White Evangelical Christians or who own guns.

In economic structure as well, the red states are rooted in the powerhouse industries of the 20th century than their blue counterparts, and have less of their economy involved in the information-age industries that generate the greatest economic output. 23 states Trump won rank in the top 26 states emitting the most carbon from their energy sector per dollar of economic output. In contrast, 18 Trump states rank in the bottom half for share of the workforce employed in technology jobs.

Housing costs and taxes are generally lower in the red states, but with high-wage, high-value information-age jobs concentrating more in blue states, nnly three red states with large energy extraction industries - Alaska, North Dakota and Wyoming - have median wages that equal the average of all the blue states. The gross domestic product per person and the median household income are now both 25% greater in blue states than in red.

Blue and Red states are divided as regards where people live. Three-fifths of residents in blue states live in core urban counties and inner suburbs, with less than one-third in the least urban areas. Red states are almost the mirror image: almost three-fifths of residents live in the least urban regions with less than one-third in core urban counties and inner suburbs.

The most urban counties are the most Democratic-leaning parts of red states; the least urban places are the most Republican-leaning parts of blue states. If ythe most urban places are removed from the red total and the most rural places from the blue. the gap in total economic output widens further: the blue state contribution to total US GNP is 75% bigger than the red.

The real threat in the red state effort to set their own course and impose their values nationwide is a challenge to underlying national cohesion. Red states are testing how much divergence the fundamental national cohesion can take before it unravels.

To a far greater extent than earlier, control of state government now aligns with a states’ preferences in presidential elections. Republicans control all the state legislature in all of the 25 states that voted twice for Trump. Republicans also control the governorship in 21 of the Trump states, with only Louisiana, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina dividing executive from legislative power.

Of the 25 Trump states, 21 have already moved to restrict abortion access since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. The same 21 Trump states have passed laws denying rights to the transgender community. The same 21 have passed laws since 2021 restricting how public school teachers can discuss issues of race, gender or sexual orientation, while making it easier for critics to ban books from school libraries. These same states are also the majority of states that have passed legislation making it more difficult to vote following Trump’s Big Lie.

Seen as a whole, red states’ drive to set their own rules represents the broadest effort to carve out a separate sphere of influence since the fierce resistance to reconstruction after the Civil War that led to Jim Crow segregation; these states are displaying a greater separatist impulse today than the South did then.

Blue states have moved forcefully to defend and expand many liberties now under siege in red states. But congressional Republicans have already introduced proposals that would apply the red state rules across the entire nation; while they have little chance of becoming law so long as Democrats control the Senate, the new social order red states are now creating offers the best preview of what Republicans will try to impose on all states the next time they achieve unified control of the White House and Congress in Washington.

Vote like your life depends on it.

Because it does.

[Thats Another Fine Mess]

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Trumpism’s healthcare fracture-lines

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/20/clinical-trial-by-ordeal/#spoiled-his-brand-new-rattle

There was never any question as to whether Trump would implement Project 2025, the 900-page brick of terrifying and unhinged policy prescriptions edited by the Heritage Foundation. He would not implement it, because he could not implement it. No one could. It's impossible.

This isn't a statement about constitutional limits on executive authority or the realpolitik of getting bizarre and stupid policies past judges or through a hair-thin Congressional majority. This is a statement about the incoherence of Project 2025 itself. You probably haven't read it. Few have. Realistically, few people are going to read a 900-page group work of neofeudalist fanfic shit out by the most esoteric Fedsoc weirdos the world has ever seen.

But one person who did read Project 2025 was the leftist historian Rick Perlstein, who was the first person to really dig into what a fucking mess that thing is:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/14/fracture-lines/#disassembly-manual

Perlstein's excellent analysis doesn't claim that Project 2025's authors aren't sincere in their intentions to wreak great harm upon the nation and its people; rather, his point is that Project 2025 is filled with contradictory, mutually exclusive proposals written by people who fundamentally disagree with one another, and who each have enough power within the Trump coalition that all of thier proposals have to be included in a document like this:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-07-10-project-2025-republican-presidencies-tradition/

Project 2025 isn't just a guide to the masturbatory fantasies of the worst people in American politics – far more importantly, it is a detailed map of the fracture lines in the GOP coalition, the places where it is liable to split and shatter. This is an important point if you want to do more about Trumpism than run around feeling miserable and scared. If you want to fight, Project 2025 is a guide to the weak spots where an attack will do the most damage.

Perlstein's insight continues to be borne out as the Trump regime makes ready to take power. In a new story for KFF News, Stephanie Armour and Julie Rovner describe the irreconcilable differences among Trump's picks for the country's top public health authorities:

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/trump-rfk-kennedy-health-hhs-fda-cdc-vaccines-covid-weldon/

The brain-worm-infected-elephant in the room is, of course, RFK Jr, who has been announced as Trump's head of Health and Human Services. RFK Jr is a notorious antivaxer, chairman of Children’s Health Defense, a notorious anti-vaccine group. Kennedy's view is shared by Trump's chosen CDC boss, Dave Weldon, a physician who has repeated the dangerous lie that vaccinations cause autism. Mehmet "Dr Oz" Oz, the TV "physician" Trump wants to put in charge of Medicare/Medicaid, calls vaccines "oversold" and advocates for treating covid with hydroxychloroquine, another thoroughly debunked hoax:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/12/17/hydroxychloroquine-study-covid-19-retracted-trump/77051671007/

However, other top Trump public health picks emphatically support vaccines. Marty Makary is Trump's choice for FDA commissioner; he's a Johns Hopkins trained surgeon who says vaccines "save lives" (but he peddles the lethal, unscientific hoax that childhood vaccines should be "spread out"). Jay Bhattacharya, the economist/MD whom Trump wants to put in charge of the NIH, supports vaccines (he is also one of the country's leading proponents of the eugenicist idea of accepting the mass death of elderly, sick and disabled people rather than imposing quarantines during epidemics). Then there's Janette Nesheiwat, whom Trump has asked to serve as the nation's surgeon general; she calls vaccines "a gift from God."

Like "Bidenism," Trumpism is a fragile coalition of people who thoroughly and irreconcilably disagree with one another. During the Biden administration, this resulted in self-inflicted injuries like appointing the brilliant trustbuster Lina Khan to run the FTC, but also appointing the pro-monopoly corporate lawyer Jacqueline Scott Corley to a lifetime seat as a federal judge, from which perch she ruled against Khan's no-brainer suit to block the Microsoft-Activision merger:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/judge-rules-for-microsoft-mergers

The Trump coalition is even broader than the Biden coalition. That's how he won the 2024 election. But that also means that Trumpism is more fractious and off-balance, and hence will be easier to disrupt, because it is riven by people in senior positions who hate one another and are actively working for each others' political demise.

The Trump coalition is a coalition of *cranks*. I'm using "crank" here in a technical, non-pejorative sense. I am a crank, after all. A crank is someone who is overwhelmingly passionate about a single issue, whose uncrossable bright lines are not broadly shared. Cranks can be right or they can be wrong, but we're hard to be in coalition with, because we are uncompromisingly passionate about things that other people largely don't even notice, let alone care about. You can be a crank whose single issue is eliminating water fluoridation, even though this is very, very stupid and dangerous:

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/the-fluoride-debate

Or you can be a crank about digital rights, a subject that, for decades, was viewed as by turns either unserious or as a sneaky way of shilling for Big Tech (thankfully, that's changing):

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/18/greetings-fellow-pirates/#arrrrrrrrrr

Cranks make hard coalition partners. Trump's cranks are cranked up about different things - vaccines, culture war trans panics, eugenics - and are total normies about other things. The eugenicist MD/economist who wants to "let 'er rip" rather than engage in nonpharmaceutical pandemic interventions is gonna be horrified by total abortion bans and antivax. These cranks are on a collision course with one another.

This is on prominent display in these public health appointments, and we're very likely about to get a test of the cohesiveness and capability of the second Trump administration, thanks to bird flu. Now that bird flu has infected humans in multiple US states, there is every chance that we will have to confront a public health emergency in the coming weeks. If that happens, the Trump public health divisions over masking, quarantine and (especially) vaccines (Kennedy called the covid vaccine the "deadliest" ever made, without any evidence) will become the most important issue in the country, under constant and pitiless scrutiny, and criticism.

Trump's public health shambles is by no means unique. The lesson of Project 2025 is that the entire Trump project is one factional squabble away from collapse at all times.