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The GQP: Trumpist Death Cult


Hugo Stiglitz

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The income tax is a problem. It’s a barrier that works to prevent most of the lower class from actually becoming wealthy. 

You want real change tax wealth itself. Interestingly enough trump himself actually advocated for that when he ran for president as a reform party candidate. But good luck with that given who really owns this county. 

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4 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

The income tax is a problem. It’s a barrier that works to prevent most of the lower class from actually becoming wealthy. 

You want real change tax wealth itself. Interestingly enough trump himself actually advocated for that when he ran for president as a reform party candidate. But good luck with that given who really owns this county. 

Wut.

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16 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Wut.

I’m talking about income from labor. Look at the different treatment of income from labor versus income from capital gains. 40 percent versus 15 percent or less with the ability to realize whenever you damn well feel like it. 

If the true goal is to tax the rich then tax wealth, not income. 

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7 minutes ago, JimmyJames said:

I’m talking about income from labor. Look at the different treatment of income from labor versus income from capital gains. 40 percent versus 15 percent or less with the ability to realize whenever you damn well feel like it. 

If the true goal is to tax the rich then tax wealth, not income. 

The highest federal income tax bracket of 37% only applies to every dollar earned over $500,000.

The income tax is not preventing people from accumulating wealth.

 

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3 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

The highest federal income tax bracket of 37% only applies to every dollar earned over $500,000.

The income tax is not preventing people from accumulating wealth.

 

Well if those figures are accurate I guess we have trump and the republicans to thank for the reductions. 

The income tax may or may not be preventing people from accumulating wealth. But I’m sure we can both agree it doesn’t help. 

If you want to tax the rich then tax wealth. Otherwise what is it you really want? 

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1 hour ago, Js1 said:

 

 

Hell, that's nothing new.  Pretty much any mainstream religion that has sold out to Team R since, oh, the mid 90's have the same thoughts.

And it's not new that from time to time, a proud card carrying member of Team R utters something similar.  It's always the "left is gonna destroy everything we know and cherish as a country".  

 

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Hell, that's nothing new.  Pretty much any mainstream religion that has sold out to Team R since, oh, the mid 90's have the same thoughts.
And it's not new that from time to time, a proud card carrying member of Team R utters something similar.  It's always the "left is gonna destroy everything we know and cherish as a country".  
 

Which are just white nationalist dog whistles. They aren’t even original dog whistles: check a newspaper from 1890 about the Irish and Italians. Check rhetoric from racist leaders in the 50s reacting to integrated schools and mixed race marriage. Here’s a hint: when you are repeating, word for word, the exact rhetoric that racist pieces of shit have been using for well over a century....you too are a racist piece of shit.
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1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:


Which are just white nationalist dog whistles. They aren’t even original dog whistles: check a newspaper from 1890 about the Irish and Italians. Check rhetoric from racist leaders in the 50s reacting to integrated schools and mixed race marriage. Here’s a hint: when you are repeating, word for word, the exact rhetoric that racist pieces of shit have been using for well over a century....you too are a racist piece of shit.

It's largely been normalized by conservative talk radio, and I guess FoxNews to an extent. Manufactured hysteria over immigrants who are supposedly going to bring disease, gangs, violence, etc. And they'll insist on speaking Mexican instead of learning our language.

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A wall paid by Mexico? Climate change, a conspiracy among scientists to get rich? We'll raise more revenue by cutting trillions in taxes? Trade wars are easy to win? Our most oppressed minority is white Christians? Impossible, but if you believe it, then I'll believe it too. 

It wasn't always like this. GOP leadership once understood that such things were nonsense, that you might say them but never act upon them, and it governed accordingly. But over time, those who knew such things to be basic nonsense were RINO'd out by those who do not.

That's how they've ended up in the grasp of Trump, a man unrivaled in his ability to pitch the impossible. He has zero interest in whether the product he's selling can actually work; his sole concern is whether he can get you to buy it.  So a perfect match of conman and mark

The GOP has also created a formidable media machine to enforce that belief in the impossible, to ensure no doubt or skepticism can creep in. Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh, etc., act as powerful thought police, much as political commissars in the old Soviet Union once did. 

Tenaciously, ferociously, they police each other's thoughts and statements, because again, it is their mutual willingness to keep believing the nonsensical that binds them together, that gives their movement meaning. If that falters, it all collapses. 

And today, it is faltering. The responsibilities of actual governance have proved to be incompatible with continued belief in the nonsensical, putting the country in danger. And we find the perfect embodiment of that conflict sitting in the Oval Office. 

Republicans have agreed among each other to believe that Trump is a mighty leader literally ordained by God to rebuke the libs and lead them out of the wilderness. That belief has become central to the GOP identity, and none dare publicly question it. 

Yet every day, and practically every waking hour of every day, we see proof that Trump is morally & intellectually incapable of even the basics of governance. Most Republicans who admit that to themselves are not yet willing to admit it to each other, because ... what then? 

Well, when the responsibilities of governance have proved to be incompatible with continued belief in the nonsensical, isn't it possible -- difficult, but possible -- to drop that belief in the nonsensical and look again with clear eyes? Isn't that the start?

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17 hours ago, Message Board User said:

So the Dems chances of taking the 2020 Senate seat and flipping the state blue in the general election just went up by about 300%.

The Trumpian strategy in running off any moderate Republican with an ounce of character and the ability to think critically  is working perfectly.   If nothing else, the 2018 election told us that the country is thirsting for  candidates who associate with white supremacists and nutters, and whose Grand Plan is to week out the RINOs is a brilliant tactical move.   

Well done. 

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On 1/26/2019 at 12:31 PM, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

Hell, that's nothing new.  Pretty much any mainstream religion that has sold out to Team R since, oh, the mid 90's have the same thoughts.

And it's not new that from time to time, a proud card carrying member of Team R utters something similar.  It's always the "left is gonna destroy everything we know and cherish as a country".  

 

Which is shitting on gays and brown people.  She's right, you know. 

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2 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

The Trumpian strategy in running off any moderate Republican with an ounce of character and the ability to think critically  is working perfectly.   If nothing else, the 2018 election told us that the country is thirsting for  candidates who associate with white supremacists and nutters, and whose Grand Plan is to week out the RINOs is a brilliant tactical move.   

Well done. 

If I was George Soros, I don’t think I could have done a better job of torpedoing the GOP for many years to come, than the people who are currently splitting the party and driving out moderates (RINOs in their view).  If Soros is putting money into pushing the GOP to completely become the party of a trump, then he’s getting a good investment.  

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2 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

If I was George Soros, I don’t think I could have done a better job of torpedoing the GOP for many years to come, than the people who are currently splitting the party and driving out moderates (RINOs in their view).  If Soros is putting money into pushing the GOP to completely become the party of a trump, then he’s getting a good investment.  

The sad part is Soros isn’t even really anti-GOP...he’s just so pro-free and open society that it conflicts with the GOP agenda.

Pretty sure Putin wins hands down when it comes to ROI on the Trump experiment.

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5 minutes ago, relapse98 said:

I was coming to post about that.

Harris County GOP draws fire for post blaming "leftism" for the Holocaust

How stupid does one have to be to post something like that? We are talking TexasHammer levels of dumb.

How stupid does one have to be vote for Dan Patrick? Ted Cruz? Greg Abbott?

Careful, you're gonna wind up insulting a majority of this state.

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21 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

A wall paid by Mexico? Climate change, a conspiracy among scientists to get rich? We'll raise more revenue by cutting trillions in taxes? Trade wars are easy to win? Our most oppressed minority is white Christians? Impossible, but if you believe it, then I'll believe it too

 

I might have told this story on here before, but I've used an anecdote I saw as opening my eyes to exactly this.

 

When I was 30ish, I spent the weekend with my folks and on Sunday morning we were headed to mass.  It's a tiny farming town.  They like to go to this little diner beforehand and meet up with others.  The old men sit with the old men and talk shop.  The old women sit with the old women and gossip.  It's a pretty cute Norman Rockwell scene.  I sit with my dad and some farmers.  My dad is an incredibly brilliant man and has a PhD in the sort of field where you know to be impressed when you hear it.  And everyone starts talking about climate change being a conspiracy of scientists.  They're all paid to put out these studies, you see, [etc etc].  I basically sat there dumbfounded wondering about my dad believing this nonsense and actually participating. 

It later occurred to me that it was just "the willingness to eagerly believe all those impossible things has become the glue that holds a crumbling party together."  It wasn't really about believing what they said, but rather willingness to signal to others that they were willing to pretend to believe too.  Because it was that willingness, that signal, that meant so much.  It was almost just a recognition that 'we all all on one side', and how you prove it is to sort of expose a little vulnerability by saying the most outlandish stuff and watch the other people not take the opportunity to correct you.

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5 hours ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

I might have told this story on here before, but I've used an anecdote I saw as opening my eyes to exactly this.

 

When I was 30ish, I spent the weekend with my folks and on Sunday morning we were headed to mass.  It's a tiny farming town.  They like to go to this little diner beforehand and meet up with others.  The old men sit with the old men and talk shop.  The old women sit with the old women and gossip.  It's a pretty cute Norman Rockwell scene.  I sit with my dad and some farmers.  My dad is an incredibly brilliant man and has a PhD in the sort of field where you know to be impressed when you hear it.  And everyone starts talking about climate change being a conspiracy of scientists.  They're all paid to put out these studies, you see, [etc etc].  I basically sat there dumbfounded wondering about my dad believing this nonsense and actually participating. 

It later occurred to me that it was just "the willingness to eagerly believe all those impossible things has become the glue that holds a crumbling party together."  It wasn't really about believing what they said, but rather willingness to signal to others that they were willing to pretend to believe too.  Because it was that willingness, that signal, that meant so much.  It was almost just a recognition that 'we all all on one side', and how you prove it is to sort of expose a little vulnerability by saying the most outlandish stuff and watch the other people not take the opportunity to correct you.

I don't get how we got to the point where it's not even party over country, but party over REALITY.  

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19 hours ago, gmr548 said:

Doubling down on the idiocy that got them absolutely obliterated in elections over the past four years. Bold strategy. I guess all the sane ones got voted out.

That's the thing about the GOP, it's going to get worse before it totally burns to the ground. The sane/moderate Republicans like Joe Straus are being pushed out for the Dan Patrick's of the world. Their base will keep shrinking but those that remain will be more loyal than ever so the elected officials will keep doubling down until they eventually run out of enough sheep to win enough elections to have any meaningful power. 

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On 1/27/2019 at 10:50 AM, Hugo Stiglitz said:

 

Let’s be honest, no one wants this job right now. No one.  It’s also telling that they double down with Rowdy Ronna after getting their asses handed to them in the midterms.

I'm pretty sure she sent that tweet

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HR 1 - support voting rights for everyone, shine a light on billionaire donors, crack down on lobbyists' influence and protect our elections from foreign interference - "Rewriting the rules to benefit Democrats"

Voter ID laws and voter roll purges - make it harder for not-white people to vote - "protecting our democracy and the sanctity of your vote"

Edited by Js1
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  • Hugo Stiglitz changed the title to The GQP: Trumpist Death Cult


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