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The GQP: Trumpist Death Cult


Hugo Stiglitz

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34 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:

I’m sure all the Gary Johnson voters and Republicans here, that admit what an embarrassment to the country and GOP Trump is, will vote to oust Trump in the primaries......

I'm sure he will be slaughtered in the primary but I appreciate his futile attempt to derail Trump.

 

 

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Montana:  Where we will invent our own science, 'cause fuck the libs.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/montana-legislator-introduces-bills-to-give-his-state-its-own-science/

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But it recently came out that a legislator in Montana was attempting to have the state officially renounce the findings of the scientific community. And, if the federal government decides to believe the scientists and do something about emissions, he wants the Treasure State to somehow sit those efforts out.

 

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The legislator in question is Republican Joe Read [ed. note:  as if there were any doubt], who represents an area north of Missoula, home of many fine scientists at the University of Montana. Read has eight bills under consideration in the current session of the legislature, and two of those focus on climate change.

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One of them focuses on his state's role in any greenhouse gas regulatory program that would be instituted under a future president. Read is apparently unaware of past legal precedent indicating that the federal government has the legal ability to regulate pollutants. Instead, the preamble of the bill seemingly argues that Montana's emissions are all due to commerce that takes place within the state, and thus "any federal greenhouse gas regulatory program in the form of law or rule violates the 10th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States."

 

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As a result, the bill would prohibit state agencies, officials, and employees from doing anything to cooperate with federal efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions. If passed, the Montana government "may not implement or enforce in any way any federal regulation, rule, or policy implementing a federal greenhouse gas regulatory program."

 

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But if you thought Read's grasp of constitutional law was shaky, you should check out his reason for objecting to doing anything about climate change. That's laid out in his second bill, which targets both science education and in-state programs designed to reduce carbon emissions. And it doesn't mince words, suggesting that pretty much all the scientists have it wrong: "the [US] National Climate Assessment makes the same errors as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the National Academy of Sciences is also fundamentally wrong about climate change."

 

 

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Whole thread is worth a read.

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Our system has been hijacked by the rich and powerful to serve them. With wages at effectively the same level as more than 4 decades ago and the minimum wage at effectively the same level as 6 decades ago, while the 1 percent get richer, everyone else is left behind.
 
Increases in productivity no longer translate into higher wages for workers. Companies don't use tax breaks to create jobs they use them to buy back stock and enrich top management and shareholders. Regulations are rolled back. Tax cuts help only the wealthy.
 
The benefits of growth accrue primarily to the top 1 percent and hardly at all to the bottom 90 percent. Trump was elected because of people's outrage with the system that made this happen and disenfranchised them (HRC was seen as part of the establishment that made it happen.)
 
But he has proven to be the most corrupt president ever--self-dealing & working to empower the richest and to plunder the country's assets on their behalf. He has taken advantage of campaign finance laws (and rulings like Citizens United) that have further empowered the powerful.
 
The GOP will say that adjusting tax laws so that the super-rich pay their share is "socialism." It is not. It is capitalism as it was practiced in the US until just the last few decades. They will say measures to rein in the power of big corporations is socialism.
 
But it capitalism as practices as far back as the beginning of the last century with Teddy Roosevelt and the trust-busters. They will say that trying to provide a decent retirement or a secure pension for everyone is socialism. But it is New Deal era capitalism.
 
They might decry efforts to give shareholders more rights--but under the Marshall Plan the US demanded shareholders have board seats in German companies at the end of World War II. Effective unions are not socialism, they are vintage U.S. capitalism.
 
They will decry efforts to have the government step in where the market fails, but the U.S. politician who argued that was the role and responsibility of government was not a socialist, it was Abraham Lincoln.
 
Providing for good education, help ensuring all Americans can find a good job at a decent wage, providing good infrastructure, good health care, secure retirements, and regulations that preserve our environment and stop the exploitation of the many by the few are not socialism.
 
They are the foundations of American capitalism. We have been waging a war on them since the Reagan era--attacking regulations, changing campaign finance laws, institutionalizing the power of the richest Americans, of Wall Street and of big companies while chipping away...
 
...at the rights of average Americans. Reagan and Bush and Bush and Trump have done it. So too, it must be acknowledged did Bill Clinton (see for one example the repeal of Glass Steagall or our active work...in which I participated...for largely unfettered free trade).
 
So too did Barack Obama who raised more money for his campaigns and more from Wall Street than any other candidate and who enabled big industries to cut sweetheart deals in key legislation. But Clinton and Obama also fought for the average citizen in ways the GOP did not.
 
And it is undeniably now the Democratic Party upon whom the responsibility of representing Main Street vs. Wall St. must fall. The GOP has embraced unprecedented,shocking corruption. The "small government" message is designed to give more power to the most powerful outside gov't.
 
The GOP is the party of wild excess deficit spending. It is the party dismantling the education department, the environmental agencies, the regulators. It is the party of tax cuts for the few. It is the party of political self-dealing.
 
In fact, the GOP is not promoting capitalism, it is promoting oligarchy, crushing the ideals of real opportunity, embracing crowding most Americans out of the market and the money...of government programs that enable the rich to get richer. Call it pluto-socialism.
 
They are practicing a form of socialism where the community being served is just the richest in the society, where the cooperatives are among the mega wealthy and super corporations. What the Democrats want is the anti-dote to the GOP rigged system.
 
The policies the Dems advocate are hardly radical and in fact draw on the thinking of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Eisenhower. Of president's who presided over America's rise to greatness and ultimately eras like the 50s and 60s in which the economy...
 
...worked better for the middle class. The activism of Democrats today is for restoring the ideals and energy and opportunity and fairness that were the goals of prior eras and fixing what is broken in our system to ensure that it is not only more equitable in the future...
 
...more inclusive, but that it also is adjusted and adapted so the country can grow in the decades ahead...the entire country...that everyone can benefit...and that the economic anxiety that burdens the lives of most Americans today can be eradicated.
 
That's not socialism. That's American capitalism. Ethical capitalism. Moral capitalism. Compassionate capitalism. Capitalism that is not an end in itself but a means to serve the ideal of more prosperous, more just, more stable, stronger society.

 

Edited by tucker
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For every one of you idiots who don't think states like Texas, Georgia, etc try to cleverly discriminate against PoC with various forms of voter suppression, here is one of the Georgia House reps pointing this works literally in a hearing about election security. Any misspelling causes registration problems that can get you flagged if you DL doesn't match. This kind of shit happened as the acting SoS ran in his own Gubernatorial race.

 

 

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15 minutes ago, GSU&UT said:

For every one of you idiots who don't think states like Texas, Georgia, etc try to cleverly discriminate against PoC with various forms of voter suppression, here is one of the Georgia House reps pointing this works literally in a hearing about election security. Any misspelling causes registration problems that can get you flagged if you DL doesn't match. This kind of shit happened as the acting SoS ran in his own Gubernatorial race.

 

 

For people with names of any level of "complexity" -- which many "ethnic" names are -- this is incredibly common.

My last name is REGULARLY misspelled by government agencies.  And Texas DPS, on its own initiative, CHANGED my middle name to the anglo version (think changing "Juan" to "John" on my TDL).  When I went in to renew last time, I asked them to correct it.  They said they could....if I brought in a jillion notarized documents and such (seriously, I can't even remember what all they wanted -- it was absurd).  I said "but that's not my name, I never told you that was my name, YOU messed it up."  Doesn't matter.  So, the name on my TDL (which is incorrect) doesn't match my voter registration or passport or any other official document (because, you know, I follow the law and use my actual name for such matters).

And yep, I watch like a hawk for them to try to cancel my voter registration, based on THEIR mistake.  It's an "objective" policy that is unquestionably targeted at "ethnic" folks.  "Darlene Taylor" isn't getting stricken.  "Bee Nguyen" is.  "Esteban Juan de Rojas" is.

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30 minutes ago, tucker said:

Whole thread is worth a read.

 

The Economist -- and Elizabeth Warren, for what that's worth -- have taken a similar position.  Reforms like they have proposed are needed to SAVE capitalism.  It's not about espousing socialism, it's about reforming capitalism so that it WORKS, creates a stable and prosperous society, and isn't rigged.  But any such efforts -- seriously, ANYTHING that would reform capitalism -- is condemned as SOCIALISM! by Fox News, Rush, and it's DOA.

They defend crony socialism by labeling it with the false title of "capitalism," and as a result, they are going to be the instrument of capitalism's eventual demise.  Because you can fix capitalism.....and if that doesn't work, then eventually, the people will decide to kill it.

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3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

For people with names of any level of "complexity" -- which many "ethnic" names are -- this is incredibly common.

My last name is REGULARLY misspelled by government agencies.  And Texas DPS, on its own initiative, CHANGED my middle name to the anglo version (think changing "Juan" to "John" on my TDL).  When I went in to renew last time, I asked them to correct it.  They said they could....if I brought in a jillion notarized documents and such (seriously, I can't even remember what all they wanted -- it was absurd).  I said "but that's not my name, I never told you that was my name, YOU messed it up."  Doesn't matter.  So, the name on my TDL (which is incorrect) doesn't match my voter registration or passport or any other official document (because, you know, I follow the law and use my actual name for such matters).

And yep, I watch like a hawk for them to try to cancel my voter registration, based on THEIR mistake.  It's an "objective" policy that is unquestionably targeted at "ethnic" folks.  "Darlene Taylor" isn't getting stricken.  "Bee Nguyen" is.  "Esteban Juan de Rojas" is.

The good news is the next generation of KayleighAnne, Catylynne, and Jaxkson are disenfranchising themselves.

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9 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

The Economist -- and Elizabeth Warren, for what that's worth -- have taken a similar position.  Reforms like they have proposed are needed to SAVE capitalism.  It's not about espousing socialism, it's about reforming capitalism so that it WORKS, creates a stable and prosperous society, and isn't rigged.  But any such efforts -- seriously, ANYTHING that would reform capitalism -- is condemned as SOCIALISM! by Fox News, Rush, and it's DOA.

They defend crony socialism by labeling it with the false title of "capitalism," and as a result, they are going to be the instrument of capitalism's eventual demise.  Because you can fix capitalism.....and if that doesn't work, then eventually, the people will decide to kill it.

This needs to get shared again

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32 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

They defend crony socialism by labeling it with the false title of "capitalism," and as a result, they are going to be the instrument of capitalism's eventual demise.  Because you can fix capitalism.....and if that doesn't work, then eventually, the people will decide to kill it.

Reminds of the timeline of ACA. They demonized it from the get go. Yet it helped many get healthcare. It has flaws, and those probably could be fixed by tweaking the law instead of RaR'ing it.

Rs campaigned for years on RaR and then had no damn idea what to do when they had a chance to pass their own healthcare law.

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3 minutes ago, retread said:

Reminds of the timeline of ACA. They demonized it from the get go. Yet it helped many get healthcare. It has flaws, and those probably could be fixed by tweaking the law instead of RaR'ing it.

Rs campaigned for years on RaR and then had no damn idea what to do when they had a chance to pass their own healthcare law.

We should never forget that the two most popular government programs in the history of the United States, Social Security and Medicare, were labeled as socialist from the very beginning by conservatives. We tend to forget that now because they are so popular no one thinks of them as being socialist anymore.

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13 hours ago, F250 said:


Thank you. I meant to post this article but instead posted another link to Republican fuckery.  George Will just EVISCERATED Lindsay Graham. 

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1 hour ago, tucker said:

Capitalism that is not an end in itself but a means to serve the ideal of more prosperous, more just, more stable, stronger society. 

GOP has completely lost sight of this.  we're not here to serve the economy.  the economy is here to serve us.  if people are no longer satisfied with the job it is doing it is their right to change it.

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50 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

For people with names of any level of "complexity" -- which many "ethnic" names are -- this is incredibly common.

My last name is REGULARLY misspelled by government agencies.  And Texas DPS, on its own initiative, CHANGED my middle name to the anglo version (think changing "Juan" to "John" on my TDL).  When I went in to renew last time, I asked them to correct it.  They said they could....if I brought in a jillion notarized documents and such (seriously, I can't even remember what all they wanted -- it was absurd).  I said "but that's not my name, I never told you that was my name, YOU messed it up."  Doesn't matter.  So, the name on my TDL (which is incorrect) doesn't match my voter registration or passport or any other official document (because, you know, I follow the law and use my actual name for such matters).

And yep, I watch like a hawk for them to try to cancel my voter registration, based on THEIR mistake.  It's an "objective" policy that is unquestionably targeted at "ethnic" folks.  "Darlene Taylor" isn't getting stricken.  "Bee Nguyen" is.  "Esteban Juan de Rojas" is.

Image result for king of the hill hank is a woman driver's license

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3 minutes ago, elfenix said:

GOP has completely lost sight of this.  we're not here to serve the economy.  the economy is here to serve us.  if people are no longer satisfied with the job it is doing it is their right to change it.

Indeed.

" . . . Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government . . ."

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Just now, David Dennison said:

Indeed.

" . . . Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government . . ."

Sounds like pussy socialist libtard talk to me.  Damn commie who hates America wrote that, fer sure.

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For people with names of any level of "complexity" -- which many "ethnic" names are -- this is incredibly common.
My last name is REGULARLY misspelled by government agencies.  And Texas DPS, on its own initiative, CHANGED my middle name to the anglo version (think changing "Juan" to "John" on my TDL).  When I went in to renew last time, I asked them to correct it.  They said they could....if I brought in a jillion notarized documents and such (seriously, I can't even remember what all they wanted -- it was absurd).  I said "but that's not my name, I never told you that was my name, YOU messed it up."  Doesn't matter.  So, the name on my TDL (which is incorrect) doesn't match my voter registration or passport or any other official document (because, you know, I follow the law and use my actual name for such matters).
And yep, I watch like a hawk for them to try to cancel my voter registration, based on THEIR mistake.  It's an "objective" policy that is unquestionably targeted at "ethnic" folks.  "Darlene Taylor" isn't getting stricken.  "Bee Nguyen" is.  "Esteban Juan de Rojas" is.

We have more in common than you think.
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We should never forget that the two most popular government programs in the history of the United States, Social Security and Medicare, were labeled as socialist from the very beginning by conservatives. We tend to forget that now because they are so popular no one thinks of them as being socialist anymore.

And at the beginning of their passage they were flawed programs that needed revision to be made better. ACA is the same.
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The ACA helped those most vulnerable but it did very little to solve the underlying problem of the astronomical cost of healthcare.

Right and so instead of fixing it with version 2.0 the Rs wanted to eliminate it. SS and MC were similar and needed revisions to make better.
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On 2/20/2019 at 9:33 PM, Brisketexan said:


Goddamit...read the piece, but trusted the byline in the post and didn’t double check the author.
What, do I need to verify shit I read on Surly now? That’s gonna suck...

no one will notice outside of el fenix and a few other literate types with the attention span greater than a squirrel.   

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1 hour ago, Bama Chick said:

Hey guys - y’all got Cornyn out here quoting Mussolini with no context and for no reason.

One of y’all may want to ask him about that. As a constituent.

Not a great look, John.
 

The replies are great tho...

“My grandparents didn’t fight in WWII so we could have elected officials quote Mussolini...”

”Have you lost your fucking mind?!?”

”On brand”

“Tweeting fascists to own the libs”

”Am I forgetting or is there some reason people usually don't quote Mussolini anymore”

”Oh good. We’re past the pretending part of the program.”

"These Texas Republicans are such fools, they would vote for me if Fox News told them to" --Adolf Hitler

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


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