Conservatism

[UKMikey]

Judging by the Conservative subreddit, they're surprisingly consistent at blaming their fellow voter base for being "too stupid" to read the disclaimers.

Those RINO cucks. It's like they want the demonrats to steal the election from Trump again. Check the damn box dammit. Or we'll shoot this puppy.

 

[TexRex]

So, people have been calling it a cult and I've thus far dithered somewhat, but when I think of cults, this is exactly the sort of thing I imagine.



I had to make sure, so I went to the NRCC website myself...

https://www.nrcc.org/

...and started scrolling. There's not much to the front page, and certainly not what's pictured above, so I began clicking through. "Get Involved" allows you to sign up for a recurring text message program. "Donate" seemed pretty obvious, and sure enough, it led to a secure (well, the word is in the URL, anyway) donation page...

https://secure.winred.com/nrcc/reta...62.621334365.1617826538-1568230042.1617826538

...and here's a screenshot:


Insane.

By the way, $36,5000 is the maximum amount established by the FEC for individual contributions to national party committees.

Facebook Reviewing Scammy Fundraising Tactic Used By Trump, NRCC, Others

Facebook is reviewing company policies surrounding a kind of deceptive fundraising practices employed by former President Trump’s 2020 campaign, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and others, according to a statement provided to The Bulwark.

The New York Times reported last weekend that the Trump campaign had to return over $100 million in donations from supporters who were duped by bunco fundraising language that, among other things, made recurring donations the default setting for supporters lured by the campaign’s conspiracy-laden pitches. And, as we outlined earlier this week, the NRCC continues to use similar practices—the most outlandish of which is the threat “to tell Trump” that anyone who unchecks a box committing to monthly donations in perpetuity is “a DEFECTOR & sided with the Dems.”

This fundraising tactic is used by the NRCC in emails, text messages, and paid advertisements on such digital platforms as Facebook.

Now comes word that Facebook, which bans pre-checked boxes for advertisers promoting subscription services, is evaluating the policy as it relates to political campaigns.

“We’re taking a close look at how this fundraising practice is used on our platform to ensure our policies are in the right place,” said Facebook spokesman Andy Stone.

Facebook noted that it was not just the NRCC that uses the pre-checked box for recurring donations on their landing page, but that other party committees and nonprofits do so as well. This comparison echoed the everybody-does-it defense put forth by WinRed, the vendor that the Trump campaign and the NRCC use for digital fundraising:



Let’s take a closer look at this comparison between NRCC’s tactics and those of the “Democrats and ActBlue.” In a superficial sense, yes, both send users to sites with pre-checked boxes for recurring donations. But any objective observer would come to the conclusion that the Trump campaign and the NRCC are pushing the tactic to a grifty extent that far exceeds their peers.

As the Times pointed out, the Trump campaign issued a staggering number—more than 530,000—of refunds to donors who had been duped by their recurring-donation scheme in the final two and a half months of 2020. By comparison, the Biden campaign issued just 37,000 refunds during the same time period, just 7 percent of the GOP total.

The disparity in the language on the two parties’ fundraising landing pages could not be more stark.

After clicking on an NRCC Facebook ad, you are taken to a page with two boxes that a donor needs to uncheck to not be billed. The first uses the threat of tattling to Mr. Trump that the donor is a DEFECTOR in big bold letters, with the words “make this a monthly donation” in smaller font, disconnected from the uncheck language. Then a second pre-checked box which offers Republican agitprop in big bold letters followed by a notice in smaller, unbolded font that their donation would be doubled.

Meanwhile, the DCCC lands you on a page that has “Make It Monthly!” plainly written with two boxes underneath it. The first, pre-checked, is “Yes, count me in.” The second is “No, donate once.”

Look for yourself—here are the two pages:

If you are not actively on the take from WinRed or a trolling partisan, it’s quite clear that the NRCC is going out of its way to be deceptive and manipulative while its Democratic counterpart is not.

This is apparently the nature of the norm-busting Trump GOP: It will take every possible advantage, no matter how scummy, even if it means hurting its own supporters—even the credulous elderly, living on fixed incomes.

So it will be up to others to create rules that limit the GOP’s ability to inflict damage in this way.

The ball is in Facebook’s court to do just that.

Edit:

Or we'll shoot this puppy.

Oh, God!

 

[mustafur]

Conserve what?

 

[Keef]

Conserve what?

White Jesus hegemony. The moment anybody suggests he even had as much as a tan, off with their leftist heads.

 

[mustafur]

White Jesus hegemony. The moment anybody suggests he even had as much as a tan, off with their leftist heads.

A Middle eastern with a tan? No way...

 

[Imari]

White Jesus hegemony. The moment anybody suggests he even had as much as a tan, off with their leftist heads.

Jesus was as white as the driven snow, that's why he's always depicted as glowing. A pasty white boi in the desert sun would be practically blinding.

 

[DK]

Perhaps his greatest miracle was avoiding sunburn.

 

[Keef]

If only they'd had polarized sunnies they would've realized his aura was merely the glare off a heavy layer of Banana Boat SPF 100.

 

[Danoff]

Jesus was as white as the driven snow, that's why he's always depicted as glowing. A pasty white boi in the desert sun would be practically blinding.

Perhaps his greatest miracle was avoiding sunburn.

If only they'd had polarized sunnies they would've realized his aura was merely the glare off a heavy layer of Banana Boat SPF 100.

White and delightsome.
2 Nephi 30:6

 

[Populuxe]

A Dwindling Republican Party May Be Doomed to Shrink More.

“From Gallup comes news that its regular polling on party affiliation shows the largest quarterly gap in major party affiliation since 2012, with 49 percent of U.S. adults identifying themselves as either Democrats (30 percent) or as Democratic-leaning independents (19 percent), while 40 percent call themselves Republicans (25 percent) or Republican-leaning independents (15 percent).”

Basically the lie of a stolen election is backfiring on the GOP. Swing voters who used to identify as Republican are now identifying as Independents, leaving the MAGA base. For the GOP to expand, they need to reach out and broaden their appeal. But to the base, that means reaching out to the very people they think stole the election from them. It’s lose-lose. Try to broaden your appeal and you lose the base. Don’t broaden your appeal and you keep your base but remain a minority party.

Trump needs that base to remain loyal to him to satisfy his pathetically damaged ego. Even more importantly to him, the MAGA base remains a rich source of money for him to grift. He doesn’t care about the GOP at all. The Republican Party could completely collapse and he would just start a new MAGA party so he can play-act at running for president and keep the grift going. This is the reality the Republican Party is completely unwilling to acknowledge.

 

[Dotini]

We have touched on Jesus and Mormon as part of the conservative story. So let's not forget Catholicism, with its reverence for Mary.

But the traditional conservative (and libertarian?) movement in America I think is shrinking, as religious affiliation of all kinds decline.

 

[Keef]

We have touched on Jesus and Mormon as part of the conservative story. So let's not forget Catholicism, with its reverence for Mary.

But the traditional conservative (and libertarian?) movement in America I think is shrinking, as religious affiliation of all kinds decline.

Is Mary the the wench who started the whole "convert everybody and kill them if they refuse" thing? She sounds like a nice lady.

Pretty sure most libertarians eschew religion on moral grounds. That's kind of the point of libertarianism.

 

[Dotini]

Is Mary the the wench who started the whole "convert everybody and kill them if they refuse" thing? She sounds like a nice lady.

Pretty sure most libertarians eschew religion on moral grounds. That's kind of the point of libertarianism.

I thought the point of libertarianism is to be liberal on social issues and conservative on financial and economic issues. But put 100 libertarians in a room, and they'll come up with 105 explanations of libertarianism.

 

[Keef]

I thought the point of libertarianism is to be liberal on social issues and conservative on financial and economic issues. But put 100 libertarians in a room, and they'll come up with 105 explanations of libertarianism.

Your description is accurate and notice there was nothing in it about religion. American conservatism is at its core Christian religious conservatism. Libertarianism implies no religious connections at all so I'm not sure why you associated it with traditional American religious conservatism.

 

[Dotini]

Your description is accurate and notice there was nothing in it about religion. American conservatism is at its core Christian religious conservatism. Libertarianism implies no religious connections at all so I'm not sure why you associated it with traditional American religious conservatism.

Ron Paul.

 

[Danoff]

Ron Paul.

D) Not enough information

 

[TexRex]

Goldfish.

 

[Danoff]

Goldfish.

I've got relatives that are so worked up over critical race theory they're sending me Sean Hannity clips and crying warning that the country is going to communism (yea, I don't see how that works either). From my vantage point, CRT has some conservatives boiling over (this month).

 

[Duke]

I've got relatives that are so worked up over critical race theory they're sending me Sean Hannity clips and crying warning that the country is going to communism (yea, I don't see how that works either). From my vantage point, CRT has some conservatives boiling over (this month).

I can't seem to get a coherent answer about what Critical Race Theory even is.

 

[Danoff]

I can't seem to get a coherent answer about what Critical Race Theory even is.

Depending on who you ask it ranges from a discussion of laws and government actions designed to have a disproportionate affect on minority groups (while not being overtly race based) to a communist takeover from China - and pretty much everything in between.

 

[Duke]

Depending on who you ask it ranges... [snip]

And therein lies the problem.

 

[Danoff]

And therein lies the problem.

To be fair, I think the word "democracy" has the same range these days.

 

[UKMikey]

I wonder whether there was a peak for political correctness as well.

 

[TexRex]

I can't seem to get a coherent answer about what Critical Race Theory even is.

Conservative political commentator (one of the good ones, fighting the good fight to pull rational conservatism back from extremists who have abandoned it all in favor of culture war) Charlie Sykes of The Bulwark did this piece not too long ago. One of the outlet's "Morning Shots" pieces, it covers an array of subjects, but among those is the right's disinformation campaign against Critical Race Theory.

Scenes from the Culture War

Yoga, the 1619 project, and Critical Race Theory

morningshots.thebulwark.com

Read it or don't, it's not really necessary, but in it is this Twitter screenshot that highlights this effort, from an individual at the forefront of it:

It's far from a new tactic. Take the thing that you want people to perceive as bad and associate with it that which is generally accepted as being bad.

To be fair, I think the word "democracy" has the same range these days.

Free speech.

 

[Danoff]

It's far from a new tactic. Take the thing that you want people to perceive as bad and associate with it that which is generally accepted as being bad.

You mean like communism? Because that's what's getting shouted at me - it's communism. I don't even know how, and as far as I can tell, neither do the people shouting at me.

 

[TexRex]

You mean like communism? Because that's what's getting shouted at me - it's communism. I don't even know how, and as far as I can tell, neither do the people shouting at me.

Yes.

"Everything I don't like is..."

 

[TexRex]

 

[Keef]

You mean like communism? Because that's what's getting shouted at me - it's communism. I don't even know how, and as far as I can tell, neither do the people shouting at me.

Yes.

"Everything I don't like is..."

This seems to be precisely what has happened to a large portion of the Cuban American population. Obviously many of these people actually lived real communism, many still have family there, and many still visit regularly, so they would be easy targets for confusing rhetoric. And I've been there and met the people and experienced the daily life outside of the tourist areas so I can confirm that the real 180-proof communism is a pretty terrible thing that robs people of property and agency. They experienced "public education" - it was terrible and regime-centric. They experienced "public healthcare" and it was terrible with poor service and poor results (yet another wrench is that college-aged socialists in America tend to mistakenly praise the Cuban healthcare system which is a ridiculous misunderstanding). They've experienced what happens when the government decides they need you to move out of the house they've been renting to your family for the past 20 years. Somehow, conservatives have wrapped that experience up with Democrats-are-communists rhetoric and honestly had mixed results until Trump came along. At that point, all the anti-communist-but-pro-democracy Cuban Americans took the bait and never turned back. Oddly enough, Cubans in Cuba were excited for normalized relations with the US because they love our ideals, but Cuban Americans hate the Cuban regime so much that they support punishing Cuba even thought doing that directly punishes Cubans, some of whom are family and friends. Cuban Americans absolutely do not have a community-centric culture like black Americans and instead are totally willing to leave other Cubans behind if they don't make every effort to damn communism and the regime. And as you'd expect of other modern conservatives, they really don't like being called out on it.

 

[Dotini]

Below is a good example of the dangerous thinking that is on the minds of libertarians and conservatives:

“Joe Biden’s 2020 voters say the country is headed in the right direction 79% to 16%, but Trump 2020 voters say that the US is on the wrong track 84% to 13%.

The same is true by party and ideology.

Democrats and liberals say that we’re headed in the right direction 80%-15% and 75%-20%, respectively.

In contrast, Republicans and conservatives say that we’re on the wrong track 78%-20% and 79%-19%, respectively.

But, in the middle, pessimism may be helping Republicans as the undecided voters for Congress say that the US is on the wrong track 47%-33%; independents 55%-39% and suburban voters 53%-44% also say wrong track.

the political divide is unprecedented and expanding.”

California adds 5 states to list of places where state-funded travel is banned

“Make no mistake: We’re in the midst of an unprecedented wave of bigotry and discrimination in this country — and the State of California is not going to support it,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said after announcing the restriction.”

The woke agenda stampedes on and in their sights are Arkansas, Florida, Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia, who have now been added to the naughty list of what are now 17 states. Perhaps we can just call them the dog box states or the bigot states.

Here’s the list (including the above-mentioned states), if you’re looking to run probabilities on how the United States divides in the coming civil war. Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

Their crime? These states have GOP-backed measures prohibiting what California and other Democrat-run states have sanctioned. Specifically in the sporting arena prohibiting women with penises from competing against women without, and prohibiting men with vaginas competing against men without. Your head spinning yet?

California legislation states: California must take action to avoid supporting or financing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

The only thing we can be sure of other than the USA shortly becoming the DUSA (D for disunited) is that the establishment, in order to attempt to distract the hoi polloi, may start an international war. Russia seems like a good target.

We could always ask sleepy Joe for his opinion, though it’s unclear whether his handlers have prepared some cards and placed them in his pocket. “I’ll tell you what they sent me.” At least we get some level of honesty — we know what his handlers want him to say.

In any event, the dividing lines are being drawn, and there comes a battle ahead. Meanwhile, over in the EU the pointy shoes in Brussels just cut off Belarusian supply of fertilizer:

EU sanctions damage lifeline transit of Belarus potash via Lithuania

“An EU decision to ban potash from Belarus jeopardizes the lifeline export route for the world’s top producer of the crop nutrient, a restriction that will tighten when an exemption for previously signed contracts runs out, analysts said.”

The European Union banned imports or the transfer of potash by the bloc from Belarus as part of its wide-ranging economic sanctions on Belarus, a month after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land.

Belarus will now need to find other countries and ports to ship its top export via the Baltic Sea.

“The Baltic port of Klaipeda in Lithuania handles 97% of Belarusian potash exports – about 9.7 million tonnes a year. The potash exports are the main source of U.S. dollar revenue for Minsk’s budget.”

As you are well aware by now we have been saying that new alliances will be formed out of economic necessity and an absolute need to strengthen and bolster political stability. This is going to be taking place more and more. Both the cutting off of trade and movement of people as well as the consequent forming of alliances. Expect it. Volatility will increase, uncertainty already at highs will increase, and shortages will result. What cannot be ruled out, of course, is war. The old adage “when goods don’t cross borders, bullets do” is true.

What we can expect is that as this plays out some nations will weaken and others will strengthen. And conflict is now inevitable. For example, consider this. Belarus is an ardent supporter of Russia as is Russia of Belarus. Russia is also the country that Europe relies most heavily upon to keep its lights on. The EU has now deliberately sabotaged the Belarusian economy. I’m not saying it’s going to happen but you see how fun this can all be?

Sticking with Europe, but heading south:

Slovenian PM says EU’s ‘imaginary values’ could trigger ‘collapse’ of bloc, amid Hungary LGBT row

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa has condemned the EU’s Western states for imposing “imaginary European values” without respecting local cultures. Jansa supports Hungary in its fight against LGBT content in schools and TV. By the way, this is the same law that Russia passed, which the Western MSM immediately began calling Russia’s “anti-gay law”.

It is nothing of the sort if you took the time to read it, but MSM news is no longer about reporting the facts but now solely about promoting agendas.

The Russian law, as well as that implemented in Hungary, makes it quite clear that gays can do as they please, and if Joey wants to lop his diddle off, don a frock, and call himself Sally, he’s free to do so but banned is feeding children LGBT propaganda in schools and the media. It reminds me of Pink Floyd’s “Hey teacher, leave those kids alone.”

Jansa puts it this way:

“The European Union brings together countries with different traditions, with different cultures… there are differences that need to be taken into account and respected,”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen openly disagreed with Jansa during the press briefing, saying that “freedom of expression, diversity, and equality” are fundamental “European values” that need to be upheld.

Jansa also proclaimed that Slovenia is not “a colony” of the EU to be dictated to, much like Orban last week decried the Dutch “colonial” mentality after Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte declared earlier that Hungary “has no business being in the European Union any more” if it doesn’t submit to the bloc’s position on LGBT rights.”

Binary. It’s all becoming binary. The EU is absolutely headed for disintegration, and we are watching these dividing lines being drawn and the new alliances being formed. Please pay attention to this as it absolutely, 100% WILL impact capital flows. And this time around the outcomes are likely to be as or even more dramatic than when Germany took the Rhineland.

We don’t want to be behind the curve on this because there is an enormous amount of wealth in Western Europe. When it panics and goes looking for refuge, the implications run deep.

While all of this is taking place we are also in a monetary crisis. It is easy to see that we’re in for a currency crisis when you recognize that of the top four major currencies in the world, three of them are in for massive social upheaval. The USD, the euro, the yen, and the GBP. Of those only Japan doesn’t have the same probability for domestic civil strife, being arguably the most homogenous and some would say xenophobic culture on earth.

So what does this mean on the currency side of things? Well, there really are no escape valves of sufficient liquidity. No other currency has the depth of markets to take these capital flows.

It is I think one reason NOT to be short equity markets even at what are silly valuations. And so it is within the equity markets that we think the capital will stay, simply because there are few other places to hide.

Right now we are experiencing the convergence of, and I hate to use this word, unprecedented forces.

We have both monetary and now a fiscal policy of butt-clenching extremes, destruction of and impediments to global supply chains — again unprecedented in scope and breadth outside of world war 2 and at least three generations that have never experienced hardship or inflation.

“Stuff” is about to get much much more expensive.

 

[UKMikey]

The woke agenda stampedes on and in their sights are Arkansas, Florida, Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia, who have now been added to the naughty list of what are now 17 states. Perhaps we can just call them the dog box states or the bigot states.

Here’s the list (including the above-mentioned states), if you’re looking to run probabilities on how the United States divides in the coming civil war. Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

Their crime? These states have GOP-backed measures prohibiting what California and other Democrat-run states have sanctioned. Specifically in the sporting arena prohibiting women with penises from competing against women without, and prohibiting men with vaginas competing against men without. Your head spinning yet?

Have you a source for this block of reactionary propaganda?