US Politics: Speaking to Insanity

[LongRider]

Boo fuckin' hoo!  Pass the popcorn!

 

[Mindwalker]

I don't know what's funnier, the Bobo/ Marge high school fights or the FoxNoose hacks meltdowns.

[Zorral]

35 minutes ago, LongRider said:

Boo fuckin' hoo!  Pass the popcorn!

 

As she well helped institute the rules of the game known as Every Person For Himself -- and These guys also hate women just in general, and all the women hate other women -- why in the world would she even bother to mention They negotiated nothing for her?  Does she not recall the See Me Run Away Look Look Look Josh Hawley Runs Away Every Man For Himself video?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

It's the infighting for sure. We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg. And it's especially funny when juxtaposed to the Dems being pretty unified. 

[mormont]

I've got to admit that the part of my brain that deals with good democratic governance (quite a bit) is appalled by this, but as the saying goes, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh.

[Ormond]

1 minute ago, Tywin et al. said:

It's the infighting for sure. We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg. And it's especially funny when juxtaposed to the Dems being pretty unified. 

Yes, a big historical change, that. Will Rogers' famous quip "I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat." looks really out of date about now.

[LongRider]

7 minutes ago, Zorral said:

why in the world would she even bother to mention They negotiated nothing for her? 

She wants everyone to know what meanies they are and not sit with them at lunch.

6 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

I certainly hope so.  First no red wave, now adrift on an iceberg.  Too funny.

6 minutes ago, mormont said:

it would take a heart of stone not to laugh.

Go ahead and laff, just don't insult America's chocolate. 

j/k

 

[JGP]

8 minutes ago, mormont said:

I've got to admit that the part of my brain that deals with good democratic governance (quite a bit) is appalled by this, but as the saying goes, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh.

To me, I feel maybe a little silly how heartening it is. I mean, yeah of course I'm laughing at the Pubs not digging the turnaround, but it's also further indication that in the time remaining before the next election, Biden and the Dems are going to post a lot of wins. Good prospects.     

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Ah, got another one

McCarthy's Nightmare

vote, adjourn, vote, adjourn, vote

Still just a squatter

 

 

[Zorral]

Josh Marshall explains the inevitablility of 'this' is happening.  Sub Only

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-real-gop-steps-forward

Quote

 

.... Today’s and yesterday’s events were predictable, unbelievable and hilarious all at once. One increasingly common refrain from analysts and reporters is that the issue between Kevin McCarthy and his now-20-plus rebels is really personal. They don’t trust him, will never trust him. Perhaps. But this personalizing analysis ignores the larger dynamic that has been unfolding in the Republican Party for more than a decade. We might trace the roots of the present moment to Barry Goldwater, to Newt Gingrich, to the Tea Party, or to Donald Trump. But the key turning point here is 2008 and 2009 when the GOP ceased to function as a center-right party of government and became something more like the sectarian revanchist parties that have long existed on the margins of European parliamentary politics. 

But the U.S. isn’t a parliamentary democracy. Its constitutional structure makes it all but inevitable that two coalitional parties will trade power back and forth. This shift in the GOP happened along with a deep fracture, and an inevitable one in an American context. The House Freedom Caucus was nominally formed in 2015. But it was an institutionalization of the Tea Party radicalism that had its roots in the shift from Republican to Democratic rule in 2008 and 2009. 

From 2011 onward the factions of the GOP were in a tacit alliance. The party’s mainstream wing remained in nominal control through leaders including John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy. But, in fact, the conference was run by what became the Freedom Caucus. It was a functional equilibrium. The Freedom Caucus couldn’t govern in its own name. And the Boehner types couldn’t run the House without accepting the Freedom Caucus’s dictates. This is often described as the origins of a Republican civil war. But that’s not quite right. It was a functional if acrimonious division of labor. Rather than a “civil war” a better metaphor came from Will Saletan, who called the GOP a failed state which found its warlord in Donald Trump.

Trump’s great insight — certainly instinctive more than analytic — was that double act and subterfuge were unnecessary. You simply tear off the scab and run the GOP — openly — from the Freedom Caucus. That is what the Trump presidency was. It’s no accident that his top allies on the Hill and numerous key members of his administration came from the House Freedom Caucus. 

Donald Trump revealed more than he changed. During the Obama years, most D.C. conventional wisdom treated the House radicals as crazies who were loud but basically marginal to the GOP. That wasn’t real politics. That was grandstanding and performative nonsense. But, in fact, that was the Republican Party. That was who ran it. And when a presidential candidate emerged ready to run openly on their platform, he won hands down.

It’s not the case that every Republican member of Congress is the same as Jim Jordan or Matt Gaetz. But virtually all of them rely on a coalition of voters that wants to support Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz. That’s really all that matters. The GOP is a balkanized party made up of elected officials who either are Jim Jordan or aren’t willing to cross Jim Jordan.

So, as Saletan famously put it, the GOP is a failed state and Donald Trump is its warlord. Now Trump is at least partly pushed off the stage. Trumpism — which is really Freedom Caucusism — gave Republicans their dismal result. What is really happening with the 20 rebels is that the Freedom Caucus, the Trump caucus, is saying again that they rule the GOP, which they do. The narrowness of the GOP majority, which they are responsible for, has brought the fracture into the open in a way that is as yet unbridgeable. ....

 

 

[JGP]

 

 

" ...and in contrast, to their  authoritarian regimes.' --emphasis his lol

 

 

[Mlle. Zabzie]

49 minutes ago, Ormond said:

Yes, a big historical change, that. Will Rogers' famous quip "I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat." looks really out of date about now.

I read an interesting piece in either the New Yorker or the Atlantic arguing that Republicans are unified in power, and dis unified in opposition (I.e., this case) and Democrats are the opposite.  I actually think that is probably not descriptive of what is currently going on with the GOP and the Democrats today, but thought it was interesting.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

50 minutes ago, Ormond said:

Yes, a big historical change, that. Will Rogers' famous quip "I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat." looks really out of date about now.

Sad thing is after the fun of mocking these shitheads ends, they will be in control and their chances of seriously fucking up people's lives is pretty high. And it will come with a level of vindictiveness that's probably worse than what Trump would do.

 

[JGP]

1 minute ago, Tywin et al. said:

Sad thing is after the fun of mocking these shitheads ends, they will be in control and their chances of seriously fucking up people's lives is pretty high. And it will come with a level of vindictiveness that's probably worse than what Trump would do.

 

I don't know. Will they have a chance at veto proof majority? If this internecine shit continues, Wade's idea of Uncle Joe might become reality. Very interested in how it's going to unfold.    

[DMC]

8 hours ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

maybe the "Silver Singles" one.  

My beard is alarmingly quickly making me eligible for this.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

9 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

I read an interesting piece in either the New Yorker or the Atlantic arguing that Republicans are unified in power, and dis unified in opposition (I.e., this case)

Traditionally this is true, i.e. the line that they fall in line while Dems fall in love, but that's not the case anymore. Republicans have proven post rise of the Tea Party that they can't coordinate anything. They had unified power for two years and all they could do is pass tax cuts, mostly for the wealthy and corporations, which is the equivalent of a layup drill. The only other thing they achieved was packing the courts which Mitch gets most of the credit for. It's a struggle to find much more they did outside of the fringes.

I've argued since I was a kid in the late 90's that Republicans are idiots, but by comparison this new batch is something else. I'm not sure if they're even that dangerous because they're so incompetent, but I guess that's how people stumble into a disaster when things are generally okay.

8 minutes ago, JGP said:

I don't know. Will they have a chance at veto proof majority? If this internecine shit continues, Wade's idea of Uncle Joe might become reality. Very interested in how it's going to unfold.    

They may not do anything positive purely out of spite while spending all their time "investigating" Hunter Biden, HRC and DMC's porn search history. 

[DMC]

16 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Sad thing is after the fun of mocking these shitheads ends, they will be in control and their chances of seriously fucking up people's lives is pretty high. And it will come with a level of vindictiveness that's probably worse than what Trump would do.

I mean, yes, but this was always going to be the case even if they elected a Speaker no muss no fuss.  I suppose this emphasizes how worrisome the debt ceiling battle will be, but I don't think it moves the needle much on that eventuality.

3 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

DMC's porn search history. 

I'm very prepared to testify to Congress that I don't know why porn sites think I even have a step-sister, let alone why I'd ever want to have sex with her.

[JGP]

2 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

They may not do anything positive purely out of spite while spending all their time "investigating" Hunter Biden, HRC and DMC's porn search history. 

I understand that. Where you and I differ is on how on effective that will be amongst the electorate. The Republicans state and national alike should be slowing their roll. Nope. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 minutes ago, DMC said:

I mean, yes, but this was always going to be the case even if they elected a Speaker no muss no fuss.  I suppose this emphasizes how worrisome the debt ceiling battle will be, but I don't think it moves the needle much on that eventuality.

It just magnifies how unqualified they are and the likeliness that all they're going to do is fuck everything up. It's kind of amazing of the dysfunctional party from a decade ago is this much worse now. 

Quote

I'm very prepared to testify to Congress that I don't know why porn sites think I even have a step-sister, let alone why I'd ever want to have sex with her.

I was literally going to make a step-sister joke when you responded. 

20 minutes ago, JGP said:

I understand that. Where you and I differ is on how on effective that will be amongst the electorate. The Republicans state and national alike should be slowing their roll. Nope. 

Not sure effectiveness matters. Republicans are a minority party that mainly listens to the minority of the minority. Not sure how they haven't crashed and burned with that strategy. The lack of proportional representation has been saving them for a long time. 

[JGP]

2 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Not sure effectiveness matters. Republicans are a minority party that mainly listens to the minority of the minority. Not sure how they haven't crashed and burned with that strategy. The lack of proportional representation has been saving them for a long time. 

Sure, but it's progressive turnout for reasons and middle sway that's that currently de rigueur.

Insofar as investigations, if it was only FOX broadcasting live footage while majority of media does its utmost not to make them look too bad. Failing because well yeah, it is that bad.