America - The Official Thread

[Touring Mars]

I figured the news article I quoted in full covered everything. It's clear from his comments that he doesn't blame himself or care why she died. Horrendous optics.

You also just know that he and people who voted for him would likely condemn someone else for any of these things but when it comes to them, everything suddenly becomes 'understandable'.

 

[TexRex]

You also just know that he and people who voted for him would likely condemn someone else for any of these things but when it comes to them, everything suddenly becomes 'understandable'.

With Gaetz, 17 was okay. 14 is fine now with Bouchard. You might think it's the goalposts moving, but it's actually the team.

One wonders if this is why their position on abortion is anti-choice.

 

[Blitz24]

I think I heard that he compared his past with "A Real Life Romeo and Juliet". Well, except for the part that the "Romeo" DIDN'T also commit suicide....

 

[McLaren]

So much for "cancel culture is erasing our history". It seems like everything these conservatives accuse the left of, they end up doing themselves.

Gaslight. Obstruct. Project.

Fun little acronym I've seen shared around Twitter and Reddit.

Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire - here's the law-and-order, family values candidate you've been waiting for. Girlfriend pregnant at 14, commits suicide at 20, son in prison on violent rape charges... it's going to be hard for grand old partygoers to what-about-Hunter their way outta this one.

Cheney primary challenger impregnated 14-year-old when he was 18

What in the f....

 

[Biggles]

All todays GOP had to do was find a challenger to Liz Cheney who didn't commit statutory rape. Realized they set the bar too high & had to go with the rapist.

 

[TenEightyOne]

With Gaetz, 17 was okay. 14 is fine now with Bouchard.

It's like "Romeo and Juliet", he assures us. I guess he means medieval.

 

[TexRex]

@Dan I'm responding to this in what I think is the more appropriate thread.

I'm also presenting the article in its entirety (sans internal and external links for which I can't vouch, but they can still be discovered on The Atlantic's article page) for anyone else, because it really is a fantastic read. Consider giving the article a click even if you've read it here, but be warned that the outlet has a monthly cap of three free article views.

Do you happen to have a link? I’m interested.

The Republican Party Is Now In Its End Stages

We are living in a time of bad metaphors. Everything is fascism, or socialism; Hitler’s Germany, or Stalin’s Soviet Union. Republicans, especially, want their followers to believe that America is on the verge of a dramatic time, a moment of great conflict such as 1968—or perhaps, even worse, 1860. (The drama is the point, of course. No one ever says, “We’re living through 1955.”)

No one thinks much about the Soviet Union in the late 1970s, and no one really should. This was a time referred to by the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, as the vremia zastoia—“the era of stagnation.” By that point, the Soviet Communist Party was a spent force, and ideological conviction was mostly for chumps and fanatics. A handful of party ideologues and the senior officers of the Soviet military might still have believed in “Marxism-Leninism”—the melding of aspirational communism to one-party dictatorship—but by and large, Soviet citizens knew that the party’s formulations about the rights of all people were just window dressing for rule by a small circle of old men in the Kremlin.

“The party” itself was not a party in any Western sense, but a vehicle for a cabal of elites, with a cult of personality at its center. The Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was an utterly mediocre man, but by the late 1970s he had cemented his grip on the Communist Party by elevating opportunists and cronies around him who insisted, publicly and privately, that Brezhnev was a heroic genius. Factories and streets and even a city were named for him, and he promoted himself to the top military rank of “Marshal of the Soviet Union.” He awarded himself so many honors and medals that, in a common Soviet joke of the time, a small earthquake in Moscow was said to have been caused by Brezhnev’s medal-festooned military overcoat falling off its hanger.

The elite leaders of this supposedly classless society were corrupt plutocrats, a mafia dressed in Marxism. The party was infested by careerists, and its grip on power was defended by propagandists who used rote phrases such as “real socialism” and “Western imperialism” so often that almost anyone could write an editorial in Pravda or Red Star merely by playing a kind of Soviet version of Mad Libs. News was tightly controlled. Soviet radio, television, and newspaper figures plowed on through stories that were utterly detached from reality, regularly extolling the successes of Soviet agriculture even as the country was forced to buy food from the capitalists (including the hated Americans).

Members of the Communist Party who questioned anything, or expressed any sign of unorthodoxy, could be denounced by name, or more likely, simply fired. They would not be executed—this was not Stalinism, after all—but some were left to rot in obscurity in some make-work exile job, eventually retiring as a forgotten “Comrade Pensioner.” The deal was clear: Pump the party’s nonsense and enjoy the good life, or squawk and be sent to manage a library in Kazakhstan.

This should all sound familiar.

The Republican Party has, for years, ignored the ideas and principles it once espoused, to the point where the 2020 GOP convention simply dispensed with the fiction of a platform and instead declared the party to be whatever Comrade—excuse me, President—Donald Trump said it was.

Like Brezhnev, Trump has grown in status to become a heroic figure among his supporters. If the Republicans could create the rank of “Marshal of the American Republic” and strike a medal for a “Hero of American Culture,” Trump would have them both by now.

A GOP that once prided itself on its intellectual debates is now ruled by the turgid formulations of what the Soviets would have called their “leading cadres,” including ideological watchdogs such as Tucker Carlson and Mark Levin. Like their Soviet predecessors, a host of dull and dogmatic cable outlets, screechy radio talkers, and poorly written magazines crank out the same kind of fill-in-the-blanks screeds full of delusional accusations, replacing “NATO” and “revanchism” with “antifa” and “radicalism.”

Falling in line, just as in the old Communist Party, is rewarded, and independence is punished. The anger directed at Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger makes the stilted ideological criticisms of last century’s Soviet propagandists seem almost genteel by comparison. (At least Soviet families under Brezhnev didn’t add three-page handwritten denouncements to official party reprimands.)

This comparison is more than a metaphor; it is a warning. A dying party can still be a dangerous party. The Communist leaders in those last years of political sclerosis arrayed a new generation of nuclear missiles against NATO, invaded Afghanistan, tightened the screws on Jews and other dissidents, lied about why they shot down a civilian 747 airliner, and, near the end, came close to starting World War III out of sheer paranoia.

The Republican Party is, for now, more of a danger to the United States than to the world. But like the last Soviet-era holdouts in the Kremlin, its cadres are growing more aggressive and paranoid. They blame spies and provocateurs for the Capitol riot, and they are obsessed with last summer’s protests (indeed, they are fixated on all criminals and rioters other than their own) to a point that now echoes the old Soviet lingo about “antisocial elements” and “hooligans.” They blame their failures at the ballot box not on their own shortcomings, but on fraud and sabotage as the justification for a redoubled crackdown on democracy.

Another lesson from all this history is that the Republicans have no path to reform. Like their Soviet counterparts, their party is too far gone. Gorbachev tried to reform the Soviet Communist Party, and he remains reviled among the Soviet faithful to this day. Similar efforts by the remaining handful of reasonable Republicans are unlikely to fare any better. The Republican Party, to take a phrase from the early Soviet leader Leon Trotsky, should now be deposited where it belongs: in the “dustbin of history.”

 

[Jezza819]

The traitor that represents our district in North Alabama, Mo Brooks is running for the seat of the soon to be retiring US Senator Richard Shelby in 2022. One of his equally despicable Republican challengers is Montgomery business woman Lynda Blanchard. She has issued the following statement aimed at Brooks.

“A 40-year career politician like Mo Brooks can easily snap his fingers and make the lobbyists come running with campaign cash, but how committed can you be to the conservative cause if you’re accepting money from companies that support illegal immigration, gun control, and the hoax of transgenderism,” Blanchard said. “Mo Brooks should be ashamed for courting campaign dollars from RINO Republicans and hardcore progressives promoting the woke, cancel culture movement.”

First, how dare she question the standard Republican operating procedure of yelling loudly at these companies but having open pockets when it comes to receiving donations from them.

And second, "hoax of transgenderism"? Wonder what fellow Republican Caitlyn Jenner thinks about that?

 

[Blitz24]

The traitor that represents our district in North Alabama, Mo Brooks is running for the seat of the soon to be retiring US Senator Richard Shelby in 2022. One of his equally despicable Republican challengers is Montgomery business woman Lynda Blanchard. She has issued the following statement aimed at Brooks.

“A 40-year career politician like Mo Brooks can easily snap his fingers and make the lobbyists come running with campaign cash, but how committed can you be to the conservative cause if you’re accepting money from companies that support illegal immigration, gun control, and the hoax of transgenderism,” Blanchard said. “Mo Brooks should be ashamed for courting campaign dollars from RINO Republicans and hardcore progressives promoting the woke, cancel culture movement.”

First, how dare she question the standard Republican operating procedure of yelling loudly at these companies but having open pockets when it comes to receiving donations from them.

And second, "hoax of transgenderism"? Wonder what fellow Republican Caitlyn Jenner thinks about that?

Easy answer to the first. She hasn't yet seen an offer she couldn't refuse. But she will eventually succumb and turn into a hypocrite.

 

[GranTurNismo]

All todays GOP had to do was find a challenger to Liz Cheney who didn't commit statutory rape. Realized they set the bar too high & had to go with the rapist.

It really is mind boggling how to these Republicans, sodomy and homosexuality is degeneracy, yet doing it with someone who is not even a high schooler can be justified.

 

[Danoff]

It really is mind boggling how to these Republicans, sodomy and homosexuality is degeneracy, yet doing it with someone who is not even a high schooler can be justified.

You're looking directly at the perfection of the biblical supernatural moral code, which is where mankind gets its perfect morals from. If it were up to godless heathens to decide morality, we might end up allowing gay sex to go unpunished, and get in the way of god-approved relationships with underage girls.

 

[TenEightyOne]

You're looking directly at the perfection of the biblical supernatural moral code

I was going to post this in Funny/Strange News but it kind of fits here: Florida high school alters 80 'immodest' yearbook photos of students. It's the kind of mad puritanical hypocrisy that seems at the heart of anti-Liberal America, for the want of a better way of describing the divide. Of course, if it was Sharia Law then the pickups would be rollin' coal before you could say 'armed uprising'.

 

[UKMikey]

The traitor that represents our district in North Alabama, Mo Brooks is running for the seat of the soon to be retiring US Senator Richard Shelby in 2022. One of his equally despicable Republican challengers is Montgomery business woman Lynda Blanchard. She has issued the following statement aimed at Brooks.

“A 40-year career politician like Mo Brooks can easily snap his fingers and make the lobbyists come running with campaign cash, but how committed can you be to the conservative cause if you’re accepting money from companies that support illegal immigration, gun control, and the hoax of transgenderism,” Blanchard said. “Mo Brooks should be ashamed for courting campaign dollars from RINO Republicans and hardcore progressives promoting the woke, cancel culture movement.”

First, how dare she question the standard Republican operating procedure of yelling loudly at these companies but having open pockets when it comes to receiving donations from them.

And second, "hoax of transgenderism"? Wonder what fellow Republican Caitlyn Jenner thinks about that?

You mean this Lynda Blanchard who is declaring war on transsexuals?

Make no mistake that our nation is currently engaged in a massive culture war that will determine the direction of our society for generations to come. While the culture war is being fought on multiple fronts – which includes issues like immigration, multiculturalism, religious freedoms, and gun rights – I believe that the transgender agenda is the battlefield upon which it will ultimately be won or lost.

We must not leave the fighting to what Thomas Paine termed as the “summer soldier and sunshine patriot,” and, instead, allow only determined conservative warriors to lead the charge.

As a Christian, conservative, Trump Republican who is one hundred percent committed to the MAGA agenda and America First initiative, I will fight hard in the U.S. Senate to give Washington a strong dose of our commonsense Alabama values.

Lynda Blanchard is a Republican candidate for Alabama’s U.S. Senate and was selected by President Donald Trump to serve as ambassador to Slovenia, the home country of First Lady Melania Trump.

Sounds like she looked over at Boebert and the Jewish space lasers lady and thought to herself "I want a piece of that".

 

[McLaren]

I was going to post this in Funny/Strange News but it kind of fits here: Florida high school alters 80 'immodest' yearbook photos of students. It's the kind of mad puritanical hypocrisy that seems at the heart of anti-Liberal America, for the want of a better way of describing the divide. Of course, if it was Sharia Law then the pickups would be rollin' coal before you could say 'armed uprising'.

Thank goodness for the high school editors. As a man, nothing gets my red-blooded male hormones raging like seeing a female's shoulders.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Thank goodness for the high school editors. As a man, nothing gets my red-blooded male hormones raging like seeing a female's shoulders.

It's filth. Absolute filth.

The only thing I can see "wrong" with the outfit is that it could be easily pulled down in a way that most other tops couldn't. Is that the kind of secondary temptation they're unconsciously speaking to?

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Holy terrible MS Paint work

 

[Biggles]

Y

As a Christian, conservative, Trump Republican who is one hundred percent committed to the MAGA agenda and America First initiative, I will fight hard in the U.S. Senate to give Washington a strong dose of our commonsense Alabama values.

I guess those "commonsense Alabama values" are what has led Alabama to rank 50th in the US for its public education system ... & rank as the 49th "best state to live" in the US.

MONTGOMERY — Alabama’s public education system was ranked number 50 in the United States in a new report published Tuesday, the same day the State Senate’s Committee on Education Policy is set to hear SB 397, a constitutional amendment proposed by Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh (R-Anniston) that would overhaul Alabama’s public K-12 governance.

The annual U.S. News and World Report‘s ranking of the best and worst states to live placed Alabama at number 49 for 2019, representing a three-spot slide from the previous year. The main reason for the decline was Alabama’s education system, which dropped from number 47 to dead last over that time span.

https://yellowhammernews.com/carl-woke-leftism-is-a-threat-to-our-military-strength/

 

[TexRex]

As a man, nothing gets my red-blooded male hormones raging like seeing a female's shoulders.

Aaaayyyyyyyyyy, another shoulder guy! Are you into kneepits as well?

...

What?

 

[Darla Starch]

Aaaayyyyyyyyyy, another shoulder guy! Are you into kneepits as well?

...

What?

Although I'm more of a "webbing between the pointer and middle finger" kinda guy, I'm listening.

 

[TexRex]

"webbing between the pointer and middle finger"

 

[NotThePrez]

Aaaayyyyyyyyyy, another shoulder guy! Are you into kneepits as well?

...

What?

I just want you to know that I've had an absolutely God-awful day, and this helped a bit. 👍

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Man...that's some pretty bad photoshop work.

 

[Tornado]

Sure am sick of CNN trotting out formerly disgraced Bush administration officials in order to blindly parrot that, yes, Trump is indeed bad.

People watching CNN likely are already aware of that fact and have been told that by people on CNN for months already, and don't need to hear it from asshole NeoCons cynically using their public railing against Trump as the basis of their 2021 redemption tour.

 

[Jezza819]

You mean this Lynda Blanchard who is declaring war on transsexuals?



Sounds like she looked over at Boebert and the Jewish space lasers lady and thought to herself "I want a piece of that".

Yes that's her.

I never knew that website existed and scanning through it, I'm kind of glad I didn't know.

I guess those "commonsense Alabama values" are what has led Alabama to rank 50th in the US for its public education system ... & rank as the 49th "best state to live" in the US.

MONTGOMERY — Alabama’s public education system was ranked number 50 in the United States in a new report published Tuesday, the same day the State Senate’s Committee on Education Policy is set to hear SB 397, a constitutional amendment proposed by Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh (R-Anniston) that would overhaul Alabama’s public K-12 governance.

The annual U.S. News and World Report‘s ranking of the best and worst states to live placed Alabama at number 49 for 2019, representing a three-spot slide from the previous year. The main reason for the decline was Alabama’s education system, which dropped from number 47 to dead last over that time span.

https://yellowhammernews.com/carl-woke-leftism-is-a-threat-to-our-military-strength/

I've said it many times before, Alabama should change it's state motto to "Alabama, first alphabetically, dead last in everything else".

 

[UKMikey]

I never knew that website existed and scanning through it, I'm kind of glad I didn't know.

Trumpies *shrug*. Whaddyagonna do...?

Founded in 2011, Yellowhammer News is a conservative news site covering politics and culture in the state of Alabama. The website was founded and owned by Alabama native Cliff Sims who left in January 2017 to work in President Donald Trump’s administration as assistant communications director for White House messaging, as well as a special assistant to Trump himself. In 2017, he sold the website to Tim Howe and John Ross, both former directors of the Alabama Republican Party.

 

[GranTurNismo]

Sure am sick of CNN trotting out formerly disgraced Bush administration officials in order to blindly parrot that, yes, Trump is indeed bad.

People watching CNN likely are already aware of that fact and have been told that by people on CNN for months already, and don't need to hear it from asshole NeoCons cynically using their public railing against Trump as the basis of their 2021 redemption tour.

At this point anyone who is against Trump no matter how right-wing their opinions on other issues may be will be accepted with open arms by CNN, because they are now a part of "the resistance" too. For christ sake, John "I never met a war I didn't like" Bolton, was embraced by the so-called "leftist" MSM stations like CNN and MSNBC because he resigned from the Trump admin. and wrote a book about it. And it's really no secret that the main reason why he resigned is because even Trump isn't foolish enough to start a full-scale war against Iran.

 

[Biggles]

Trumpies *shrug*. Whaddyagonna do...?

Ok, but what's fascinating to me is that quote about how Alabama is the worst in public education rankings & the second-to-worst in best places to live (Mississippi, I assume) is from the Yellowhammer News. They seem to be solidly in the "acceptance" phase. It puts me in mind of the thesis of Heather McGee's book

"The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together"

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525509569/?tag=gtplanet-20

in which she describes how municipalities in the 1960's drained public swimming pools & filled them with concrete to avoid racial integration. This received the official blessing of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971. The city council in Jackson, Mississippi, had responded to desegregation demands by closing four public pools and leasing the fifth to the YMCA, which operated it for whites only. Black citizens sued, but the Supreme Court, in Palmer v. Thompson, held that a city could choose not to provide a public facility rather than maintain an integrated one, because by robbing the entire public, the white leaders were spreading equal harm.

This pretty much describes the position of many blue collar Trump supporters in the US. They would rather suffer themselves than see any consideration given to the needs of poor people of color.

 

[Blitz24]

This pretty much describes the position of many blue collar Trump supporters in the US. They would rather suffer themselves than see any consideration given to the needs of poor people of color.

AKA We'd rather be poor to make sure POC are poor than let POC (and us) be rich.

 

[TexRex]

The legislation would ban vaccine requirements on customers, employees or students from businesses, hospitals, nursing homes, K-12 schools, colleges, daycares, or others. It would also prevent governments, insurers, or businesses from offering incentives for people to get vaccinated, or even requesting that people get vaccinated.

In interviews, public health experts warned the legislation would hold the door open for infectious diseases to spread among Ohioans.

Under the bill, a small business owned by asthmatics or cancer survivors — both of whom are at higher risk of serious COVID-19 complications — would have no legal right to require or even request that employees or customers who come inside be vaccinated. That’s according to Dorit Reiss, a professor with a focus on vaccine policy from the UC Hastings College of Law.

“It’s against business rights, it’s against the individual rights of private businesses, it’s against safety, and it’s in support of the virus,” she said.

Lost. The. Plot.

 

[UKMikey]

Prosecutor in Trump criminal probe convenes grand jury to hear evidence, weigh potential charges

Washington Post, archived here