Showing posts with label Mitch McConnell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mitch McConnell. Show all posts
Saturday, May 8, 2021
It's the Republican Party vs the United States and Democracy
What I've thought and said for some time. It's either the Republican Party or our United States of America, no overstatement.
Understand, Americans, the Republicans and their political party are attacking our vote, our votes, our elections and our democracy. Doanld Trump, his followers and Mitch McConnell and their political party cannot win.
Americans Need to Know and Understand and Fight What the Republicans Are Doing
From Heather Cox Richardson, once more. No one evaluates what's going on politically in America currently any better and informs, instructs us all.
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo articulated today what many have been reluctant to say: What is at stake in the Big Lie and all the Republican efforts to keep it in play—the shenanigans in the secret Maricopa County, Arizona, recount; the censuring of Republicans who voted to impeach the former president; the expected removal of Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney from a leadership role in the party; and so on—is not the past election of 2020, but the upcoming election of 2024.
The Republican Party has demonstrated that it intends to control the government in the future, no matter what most Americans want. Iowa, Georgia, Montana, and Florida have already passed voter suppression laws, while other states are considering them. (Governor Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s bill yesterday live on the Fox News Channel.)
As Marshall points out, though, making sure that states return only Republicans to Congress is also about controlling the White House. Republican lawmakers are purging from state election machinery members of their own party who refused to change the outcome of the 2020 election and give a victory to Trump. The former president has fed speculation that he still hopes to overturn the 2020 election, but Marshall looks forward: Is it really possible to think that in 2024, members of the new Trump party will protect the sanctity of any election that gives a victory to a Democratic candidate? If Republicans capture the House in 2022, will they agree to certify electoral votes for a Democrat? In 2020, even before the current remaking of the party in Trump’s image, 139 House Republicans contested them.
Trump is systematically going after leading members of the Republican Party, determined to remake it into his own organization. Several former senior White House officials told Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post that “[t]he defeated ex-president is propelled primarily by a thirst for retribution, an insatiable quest for the spotlight and a desire to establish and maintain total dominance and control over the Republican base.” Republican strategist Brendan Buck noted that Trump seems to relish fighting, rather than victory to achieve an end. “Usually,” Buck said, “a fight is the means to an end, but in this case fighting is the end.”
The Republicans are consolidating their control over the machinery of government in a way that indicates they intend to control the country regardless of what Americans actually want, putting Trump and his organization back in charge. Democrats have proposed the For the People Act (H.R. 1 and S. 1), which would start to restore a level playing field between the parties. The For the People Act would sideline the new voter suppression bills and make it easier to vote. It would end partisan gerrymandering and stop the flow of big money into elections permitted after the 2010 Citizens United decision.
But Republicans are determined to stop this measure. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is especially engaged in its obstruction. He has called it a “partisan takeover” that would “give Washington Democrats unprecedented control over 50 states’ election laws.” He recognizes that restoring a level electoral playing field would hamstring the Republicans’ ability to win elections. Defeating the act is McConnell’s top priority.
The story of how Republican leaders embraced voter suppression and gerrymandering starts back in the 1980s, though the mechanics of overturning a presidential election are new to 2020. Still, their undermining of our democratic system begs the question: Why are leading Republicans surrendering their party, and our nation, to a budding autocrat?
Two days ago, when asked if he is concerned about the direction of his party, McConnell told reporters that he is not paying attention to it because the Democrats are trying “to turn American into a socialist country,” and that “[o]ne-hundred percent of our focus is on stopping this new administration.”
Monday, April 12, 2021
Difficult to Believe What Comes Out of Republicans' Mouths
Herewith, a short, short list, very short, of some of the deeply ignorant, ugly, negative things that come out of too many Republicans minds and mouths. As always, click on picture for larger picture and easier viewing/reading
Let's vote them out, America. Let's vote them all out.
Quote of the Day -- Crazy Political Party Edition
"The GOP is now the party of grifters and kooks" --Juan Williams. Keeping in mind, too, Mr. Williams is a journalist and political commentator from very Right Wing, Republican Party supporting Fox.
Sadly so very true. Think of it. Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell. Ted Cruz. Missouri's own insurrectionist Senator Josh Hawley. Matt Gaetz, Jim "Gym" Jordan. Marilyn Taylor/Traitor Greene. More. Sadly, still more.
#VoteThemAllOut
http://hill.cm/cdta1Qh
Sunday, February 28, 2021
More Americans Need to See and Hear This
If you don't already follow Matthew Cooke on YouTube, I can't recommend it or him enough. Time and again, as here, he addresses national situations and issues extremely clearly and spot on, both with our problems as well as with solutions. Enjoy.
I think this video and his logic and intelligence is especially poignant now, with CPAC meeting this weekend and none other than Donald Trump set to speak today.
Let's get to this, America.
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
GOP Platform
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Republican Party platform.
God help us with these people.
Friday, February 5, 2021
More Good to Great News on Trump and the Republicans
From? Who else? Not only good to great news but Missouri's own Josh Hawley is in here, too. Oh, happy day.
Heather Cox Richardson
Today Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) proposed giving at least $3000 annually per child to American families. This suggestion is coming from a man who, when he ran as the Republican candidate for president in 2012, famously echoed what was then Republican orthodoxy. He was caught on tape saying that “there are 47 percent of the people who… are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.”
Romney’s proposal indicates the political tide has turned away from the Republicans. Since the 1980s, they have insisted that the government must be starved, dismissing as “socialism” Democrats’ conviction that the government has a role to play in stabilizing the economy and society.
And yet, that idea, which is in line with traditional conservatism, was part of the founding ideology of the Republican Party in the 1850s. It was also the governing ideology of Romney’s father, George Romney, who served as governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969, where he oversaw the state’s first income tax, and as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Richard Nixon, where he tried to increase housing for the poor and desegregate the suburbs. It was also at the heart of Romney’s own record in Massachusetts, where as governor from 2003 to 2007, he ushered in the near-universal health care system on which the Affordable Care Act was based.
But in the 1990s, Republican leadership purged from the party any lawmakers who embraced traditional Republicanism, demanding absolute loyalty to the idea of cutting taxes and government to free up individual enterprise. By 2012, Romney had to run from his record, including his major health care victory in Massachusetts. Now, just a decade later, he has returned to the ideas behind it.
Why?
First, and most important, President Joe Biden has hit the ground running, establishing a momentum that looks much like that of Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933. Roosevelt had behind him stronger majorities than Biden’s, but both took office facing economic crises—and, in Biden’s case, a pandemic as well, along with the climate crisis--and set out immediately to address them.
Like FDR, Biden has established the direction of his administration through executive actions: he is just behind FDR’s cracking pace. Biden arrived in the Oval Office with a sheaf of carefully crafted executive actions that put in place policies that voters wanted: spurring job creation, feeding children, rejoining the World Health Organization, pursuing tax cheats, ending the transgender ban in the military, and reestablishing ties to the nation’s traditional allies. Once Biden had a Democratic Senate as well as a House—those two Georgia Senate seats were huge—he was free to ask for a big relief package for those suffering in the pandemic, and now even Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), who had expressed concern about the package, seems to be on board.
FDR’s momentum increased in part because the Republicans were discredited after the collapse of the economy and as Republican leaders turned up as corrupt. Biden’s momentum, too, is likely gathering steam as the Republicans are increasingly tainted by their association with the January 6 insurrection and the attack on the Capitol, along with the behavior of those who continue to support the former president.
The former president’s own behavior is not helping to polish his image. In their response to the House impeachment brief, Trump’s lawyers made the mistake of focusing not on whether the Senate can try a former president but on what Trump did and did not do. That, of course, makes Trump a witness, and today Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the lead impeachment manager, asked him to testify.
Trumps’ lawyers promptly refused but, evidently anticipating his refusal, Raskin had noted in the invitation that “[i]f you decline this invitation, we reserve any and all rights, including the right to establish at trial that your refusal to testify supports a strong adverse inference regarding your actions (and inaction) on January 6, 2021.” In other words: “Despite his lawyers’ rhetoric, any official accused of inciting armed violence against the government of the United States should welcome the chance to testify openly and honestly—that is, if the official had a defense."
The lack of defense seems to be mounting. This morning, Jason Stanley of Just Security called attention to the film shown at the January 6 rally just after Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani spoke. Stanley explained how it was an explicitly fascist film, designed to show the former president as a strong fascist leader promising to protect Americans against those who are undermining the country: the Jews. Stanley also pointed out that, according to the New York Times, the rally was “a White House production” and that Trump was deeply involved with the details.
Trump’s supporters are not cutting a good figure, either. Today, by a vote of 230-199, the House of Representatives voted to strip new Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) of her assignments to the Budget Committee and the Education and Labor Committee. It did so after reviewing social media posts in which she embraced political violence and conspiracy theories. This leaves Greene with little to do but to continue to try to gin up media attention and to raise money.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had declined to take action against Greene—although in 2019 he stripped assignments from Steve King (R-IA) for racist comments-- and only eleven Republicans joined the majority. The Republican Party is increasingly associated with the Trump wing, and that association will undoubtedly grow as Democrats press it in advertisements, as they have already begun to do.
McConnell has called for the party’s extremists to be purged out of concern that voters are turning away from the party. Still, the struggle between the two factions might be hard to keep out of the news as the Senate turns to confirmation hearings for Biden’s nominee to head the Department of Justice, Merrick Garland.
Going forward, the attorney general will be responsible for overseeing any prosecutions that come from the attempt to overturn the election, and the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will question Garland, has on it three Republican senators involved in that attempt. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been accused by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of calling before Trump did to get him to alter the state’s vote count. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) both joined in challenging the counting of the electoral votes.
It is hard to imagine the other senators at the hearing will not bring the three compromised senators into the discussion. The Republicans have so far refused to schedule Garland’s hearing, although now that the Senate is organized under the Democrats, it will happen soon.
Trump Republicans are betting the former president’s endorsement will win them office in the future. But with social media platforms cracking down on his disinformation, his ability to reach voters is not at all what it used to be, making it easier for members of the other faction to jump ship.
In addition, those echoing Trump’s lies are getting hit in their wallets. Today, the voting systems company Smartmatic sued the Fox News Channel and its personalities Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, and Jeanine Pirro, along with Giuliani and Trump’s legal advisor Sidney Powell, for at least $2.7 billion in damages for lying about Smartmatic machines in their attempt to overturn the election results.
Republicans rejecting the Trump takeover of the party are increasingly outspoken. Not only has Romney called for a measure that echoes Biden’s emphasis on supporting children and families, but also Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) today released a video attacking the leaders of his state’s Republican Party after hearing that they planned to censure him for speaking out against the former president.
“If that president were a Democrat, we both know how you’d respond. But, because he had ‘Republican’ behind his name, you’re defending him,” Sasse said. “Something has definitely changed over the last four years … but it’s not me.”
Not done there, there's this beauty from yesterday. Yahoo.
Not done there.
It's a bee--YOU--tee-full day, campers! RED FRIDAY!! Think happy thoughts. GO CHIEFS!!!
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
The Insane, Bizarre, Ugly and Now Dangerous World Into Which This President and HIs Political Party Have Brought Us
I can honestly still not believe the things this Republican Party President keeps saying and doing. Now we're here:
2020 is the deadliest year in US history, with deaths expected to top 3 million for the first time
What the sorry excuse for "leadership" from this Republican Party President Trump and his political party has gotten us all, gotten the nation. Is it any wonder we wanted to vote him out and so badly? Thanks, Republicans. Thanks so very much. This man Trump and all he has wrought this last 4 years is on you, all on you---forever. This last fact and statistic is the worst, of course, but it's followed by this beauty, too.
For the 40th consecutive week, Americans file more than a million claims for jobless benefits
Then this happened.
Trump Demands $2,000 Stimulus Checks, Imperiling Covid-19
Forget that these negotiations have been going on in Congress for months and that Americans are hurting. Millions of us are going hungry, millions more are already facing possible eviction from their homes and consequential homelessness. Oh, yeah, forget all that. Republicans and Democrats finally hammered out a deal to get assistance out to us all and this President, at the last minute, decides the checks--at $600 to us schmoes out here--aren't large enough and the threatens to veto the whole thing. Things you can be sure of just now because of this move by the Trumpster:
- Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are rightly overjoyed and loving this President's insanity
- Mitch McConnell and the Republicans are about to pull their hair out because of their own President's wildly contradicting excuse for "leadership" on COVID assistance issue and
- No one, no one still knows what goes on in Donald Trump's mind
Minutes ago, he, Trump, did this.
Forget that we voted. Forget that more than 50 different judges and their courts found zero proof of vote fraud. Forget that all those lawsuits by this President Trump and his attorneys were all thrown out. Forget all that. They want to overturn our vote, our votes, our election.
Naturally, it's Donald Trump so it gets worse.
Of course, they won't think of it as "dictatorship." They'll say they're just trying to reseat the current President because he won this election. Which of course he didn't.
At this stage, we are 27 days from Joe Biden's inauguration.
It can't happen soon enough.
I so hope this doesn't get crazier.
Or uglier.
Imagine for a Moment You're Donald Trump Just Now
- New York State is investigating your taxes in at least 2 different cases, for possible fraud
- Ireland is also investigating your for your taxes so that's international problems, too
- He likely, apparently owes, reportedly, nearly, if not actually 1 billion dollars to who knows who,and then finally,
- There's anything and everything he may be investigated for and possibly found guilty while he was President.
He's reportedly now turning on his Vice President and virtually, if not actually, everyone.
A bit from the article:
“President Trump, in his final days, is turning bitterly on virtually every person around him, griping about anyone who refuses to indulge conspiracy theories or hopeless bids to overturn the election,” Axios reports.
“Targets of his outrage include Vice President Pence, chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Secretary of State Pompeo and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.”
“Trump thinks everyone around him is weak, stupid or disloyal — and increasingly seeks comfort only in people who egg him on to overturn the election results. We cannot stress enough how unnerved Trump officials are by the conversations unfolding inside the White House.”
There's a vaccine on the way and this Presidency and 2020 are both nearly over.
Saturday, November 28, 2020
A Great Question Today
And here it is, that great question coming as it does from none other than the Wall Street Journal in Friday's edition.
The economy can’t wait until January for more help for states, businesses and the unemployed.
Except...will Trump deliver?
I'd have to say, from the looks of it, Mr. Trump is far too self-absorbed---yeah, imagine that--with fighting his having been rejected by us, the electorate. He seems to be fighting his loss in the ballot box, no way doing what's right or what's needed for the nation and people.
After that, after questioning wither Trump, will Mitch McConnell deliver? Will the Republicans in the Senate deliver?
Again, but this time nearly inexplicably, Senator Moscow Mitch and the Republicans seem to be missing in action. Or, rather, missing in inaction. I guess they're what? on one of their "recesses." Sure, they'll tell you they're concerned about business and businesses and business leaders and business people but when it comes down to it, just now? Gone. Doing nothing. Nothing whatever. I don't get it.
We'd love to know. Heck, we'd like to see the aid so people, Americans, citizens, have enough to eat and don't get evicted from their homes.
I'll never forget this from Senator McConnell.
Mitch McConnell showed his true colors in a Kentucky Senate debate against Amy McGrath
So happy Thanksgiving, Mr. President. Happy Thanksgiving, Senator McConnell and all Republican Party Senators and Congress members. Thanks so very much for your hard work. And support.
We'd love to see some.
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Quote of the Day -- On Packing the Courts
Know this, ladies and gentlemen.
George Takei @GeorgeTakei·From 2015 to 2017, Mitch McConnell refused to seat any of Obama’s 100+ federal judges. Then he raced to fill them after Trump was elected. They did the same with Merrick Garland’s seat.
Don’t @ me with your “court packing.”
Let’s talk about court UNPACKING.
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