Murdoch’s Model of SOTU America is presented by his GOP anchor
Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivers the rebuttal to the State of the Union Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Tuesday night rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address shows that Republican politicians seem completely unable to deliver a message aimed at audiences beyond the party’s Fox News base.
Murdoch seems to have a greater grip on American than he does Australia with 36% subscriptions to cable TV. Foxtel and Sky News seem more of a joke here than in America. Only 8% watch the ABC so why is he so ineffective an influencer here?
a golden age of conspiracy theory — Republicans have endorsed all kinds of dubious, far-fetched or provably false theories, most based either in denying the validity of election results or embracing the all-encompassing online cult movement QAnon, which is now pretty much the conservative mainstream.
The problem isn’t some highfalutin moral issue, such as Republican lawmakers putting their party over their country. It’s something far more prosaic. They want to keep their jobs.
Which means the GOP continues to rot as a political party, as a governing institution, and as a moral entity. That may be good for Democrats in 2024, but in the larger sense it’s bad for us all.
Source: When Will the GOP Reach the Anti-Trump Tipping Point? | The Smirking Chimp
The three hundred anti-gay pieces of proposed legislation and the rhetoric against gay people have largely come from Republican lawmakers, therefore bear some of the blame for whipping up this kind of hate.
Source: Top 6 Ways Republicans have Spread Hatred of Gays — Background to Club Q Mass Shooting
The problem for young voters ― and plenty of not-so-young voters ― isn’t that Trump is part of the Republican Party. The problem is that he belongs there.
Source: The GOP Has A Problem And It’s Not Just Donald Trump | HuffPost Latest News
Republicans simply think they can Fool America
House Republican leaders unveiled their “Commitment to America” plan for 2023, which contained, unsurprisingly, an inspirational video full of scenes presented as imagery of America that was stock footage from Russia and Ukraine. The video narrator says that America is “exceptional,” and then shows quite a few photos that were not taken in America.
Source: Surprise! GOP’s ‘Commitment To America’ Video Features Images Of Russia | Crooks and Liars
It’s a great day for politics but hell of a day for the Republican Party that got what they wished for but lost voting women in the base by doing it. Even Trump is denying he had any part in this decision but was “doing gods will”. What coward the man in fact is.
After today, young women will come of age with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers had. The majority accomplishes that result without so much as considering how women have relied on the right to choose or what it means to take that right away. The majority’s refusal even to consider the life-altering consequences of reversing Roe and Casey is a stunning indictment of its decision.
Trump’s Republicans are now voting for Putin and against the Ukraine
A poisoned well: 63 Republicans just voted against even expressing support for democracy
It was the third time in recent months Putin has blasted the so-called “cancel culture”. Which is exactly what Trump, Tucker Carlson, and the Republican party have blasted for several years.
What would Senator Joe McCarthy and J E Hoover have said and done with a Putin loving Trump?
Trump’s fawning admiration of Vladimir Putin is well known, but it has often been brushed off as a quirk. We should have known how dangerous Putin was when he praised Trump as “impressive.” Trump is impressive the way spoiled butter left out too long is, rancid and foul-smelling. Now Trump is calling Putin “smart” and “savvy” and a “genius” for his brutal invasion of Ukraine.
both GOP’s de facto leader, Donald Trump, and their de facto party agenda-setter, Tucker Carlson, have been out there making their love and support of Putin known. As with every internal conflict in the GOP, the smart bet is the Trumpian wing will win over the traditional conservatives, even though it once again means that Republicans will be siding against America and democracy in favor of the forces of authoritarianism.
Trump couldn’t wait to respond. To respond to what he thought of Putin and how terrific and clever a leader he was.
“I think he has a great way. He’s a leader. He’s sharp. He’s at the top of his game.” Trump said with love in his eyes.
He continued, “Our guy was never at the top of his game. You could go back 30 years ago, he wasn’t at the top of his game.”
Now, more than a year after the attack on the Capitol, there is a mountain of evidence that confirms what was obvious at the time, and even before: Trump’s coup attempt was a highly coordinated nationwide effort, whose ultimate goal was to overthrow multiracial democracy and install Trump as de facto dictator. Ultimately, the Republican Party’s embrace of fascism as a now-indispensable part of its identity should not be a surprise. This devolution was years in the making. In a recent essay for the New Republic, Michael Tomasky summarizes this:
Source: Republicans have dropped the mask — they openly support fascism. What do we do about it? | Salon.com
The peaceful Washington protests according to Trump weren’t “legitimate”. he had them violently closed down. The generals who accompanied him on his walk to the Baptist Church for his photo op were shamed.
“January 6th was not ‘legitimate political discourse’—it was a violent insurrection on our Capitol,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal retorted. “I didn’t know if I’d make it out alive. Some didn’t. We cannot let the GOP whitewash what happened.”
Source: GOP Declares Deadly Capitol Attack ‘Legitimate Political Discourse’
Steve Bannon Trump’s adviser is a Leninist and simply wants to tear the system down
the GOP is mob rule arising from the right. It seeks to maintain, to the point of open warfare, the hierarchies of power by which rugged white individuals stand on top. Lenin and his revolutionaries were mob rule arising from the left. They sought to flatten Russian society to the point of wholesale murder. That it takes, however, an international media outlet that sees American politics from a European perspective to point out the similarities between them is instructive. The right’s rhetoric of slander has such a hold on Americans, most can’t see what’s in front of them.
All signs now point to a full-court press by the GOP to rig state election rules in a bid to stay in power permanently. So far, Democrats have barely put up a fight.
Source: Is Wisconsin Still a Democracy?
Today’s Republican politicians are misusing government to advance a narrow and restrictive set of values — intruding on the most intimate acts, exploiting fear and hate for political gain, and banning what’s necessary for people to exercise their most basic freedoms. This is not mere hypocrisy. The Republican Party now poses a clear and present threat even to the values it once espoused. That’s my view. What do you think?
Source: Whatever Happened to the Party of Limited Government? | The Smirking Chimp
From the debacle in Afghanistan to the ongoing devastation of COVID-19 to the unhinged cruelty of the Republican Party, Noam Chomsky notes, there is plenty of room for despair in America right now. But he insists that, despite it all, we have ample reason for hope.
Trump gave Republicans permission to be themselves. It “worked” for a time at the expense of the country, and it couldallow them to dominate politics for decades to come. But the party may face a high price for allowing the cruelest and most vicious elements of American society to run rampant. It might take some time, but the Trump effect could very well backfire on them in surprising ways.
Source: Donald Trump May Still Destroy the GOP, After All | Washington Monthly
Republicans override Trump’s plan to “get out” and reek havoc on the Taliban not on ISIS-K
Republicans are pushing President Joe Biden to take actions that would amount to re-invading Afghanistan by either requiring the U.S. military to retake an abandoned air base or staying in the country long enough to restart the dormant war with the Taliban.
Source: Republicans Push Biden To Re-Invade Afghanistan | HuffPost
On Thursday, a Trump administration official called the Republican Party the nation’s “No. 1 national security threat,” suggesting that the party surpasses that of ISIS, al Qaeda and Russia. “I’ve spent my whole career not as a political operative. I’ve never worked on a campaign in my life other than campaigning against Trump. I’m a national security guy,” said former DHS official Miles Taylor in a Thursday interview on MSNBC. “I’ve worked in national security against ISIS, al Qaeda and Russia.” He added: “And the No. 1 national security threat I’ve ever seen in my life to this country’s democracy is the party that I’m in: the Republican Party. It is the No. 1 national security threat to the United States of America.”
So what does it mean that the most influential voice in Republican politics trafficks in white nationalism, conspiracy theories, and outright falsehoods while at the same time wielding the power to shape public and legislative opinion? The GOP now largely has to deal with issues on Fox’s terms, and Carlson’s bad-faith hysterics over critical race theory, transgender people, the coronavirus pandemic, Black Lives Matter, anti-fascism, immigration, and myriad other issues have created a climate in which legislative priorities do not match the tangible needs of the American people. Instead, conservative politics has been consumed by a feverish race to the far-right on issues that appear in Fox News’ prime time — with Tucker Carlson setting the agenda and enforcing the new party orthodoxy.
The greatest danger to American democracy right now is not coming from Russia, China, or North Korea. It is coming from the Republican Party. Only 25 percent of voters self-identify as Republican, the GOP’s worst showing against Democrats since 2012 and sharply down since last November. But those who remain in the Party are far angrier, more ideological, more truth-denying, and more racist than Republicans who preceded them. And so are the lawmakers who represent them. Today’s Republican Party increasingly is defined not by its shared beliefs but by its shared delusions. Last Friday, 54 U.S. senators voted in favor of proceeding to debate a House-passed bill to establish a commission to investigate the causes and events of the January 6th insurrection. This was 6 votes short of the number of votes needed for “cloture,” or stopping debate – meaning any further consideration of the bill would have been filibustered by Republicans indefinitely. So there will be no investigation.
Source: The Greatest Danger to American Democracy | The Smirking Chimp
A new ABC News/ Ipsos poll finds that 64% of Americans are optimistic about the next twelve months. It is the first time we have felt that way about ourselves since before George W. Bush crashed the economy by deregulating everything.
“While it’s great that these executives and their companies oppose the Jim Crow-style laws that GOP lawmakers are pushing across the country, this kind of talk is cheap without action.”
Democrats are seeing the largest advantage over Republicans in nearly a decade according to a recent Gallup poll.
Source: Republican affiliation in US at lowest level since after Mitt Romney’s 2012 loss | Salon.com
Ron Johnson: If Trump’s Mob Were BLM Then I’d Be Concerned – Rolling Stone
Republican Senator Ron Johnson, a staunch Trump sycophant, let his racist flag fly high when he said that he was unafraid of the insurrectionists on January 6 because they were not members of Black Lives Matter or antifa.
Ron Johnson: If Trump’s Mob Were BLM Then I’d Be Concerned – Rolling Stone
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The Trump record Let’s examine the Trump record.
Donald Trump is a loser. Why is the Republican Party sticking with him? – NZ Herald
As the Trump Party takes over the GOP, anti-Trump Republicans are abandoning the party in droves – thereby weakening it for general elections while simultaneously strengthening Trump’s hand inside it. It’s great news for Democrats and Joe Biden.
Why Trump’s Takeover of the GOP is Great for Biden and the Democrats (but a Potential Disaster for America) | The Smirking Chimp
Donald Trump has urged Republican senators to dump Mitch McConnell as their leader in the Senate following his withering criticism of the former US president after his impeachment trial.
Donald Trump urges US Senate Republicans to dump ‘unsmiling political hack’ Mitch McConnell as leader
But instead of looking for a man wearing a hat and glasses among a sea of other images, the media has desperately tried to find “good,” “decent,” “reasonable” and “responsible” Republicans who will “save” their party from Donald Trump. Such a quest will prove fruitless, as there are very few such Republicans left.
Desperately seeking honorable Republicans: Media’s snipe hunt comes up empty again | Salon.com
Next week Republicans in Washington have one more chance to turn their backs on fascism. They could reject the laughable claims from Trump’s lawyers that he was merely exercising his free speech rights by telling his mob to march on Congress and fight like hell. Apparently such conduct does not constitute incitement to riot, because the word “incitement” has lost all relationship to reality. Nobody expects Republican senators to vote in enough numbers to convict Trump of the obvious charges that played out on television. Nobody expects enough of them to reject the violent overthrow of the democracy that put them in the Senate. They represent, to use Bush’s language, a hostile regime inside the nation’s capital. Until Republicans split with the insurrectionists – by ejecting them from their party or forming their own – democracy itself is unsafe.
Democracy or the white supremacist mob: which side is the Republican party on? | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Donald Trump incited this riot and his supporters carried out his orders. That is a fact, in spite of all the denials floating around Trumpworld and Republicans in denial. Anyone who doubts it as a fact should spend the 10 minutes to watch the video above, compiled by Just Security.
This Video Should Convict Trump And End The GOP | Crooks and Liars
Trump can diminish both the GOP and himself. The question is by how much?
Yes, there is a deep schism in the GOP between the traditional budget-conscious, business-friendly old guard and the nativist culture warriors still loyal to Donald Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, having exploited the useful idiot in the White House for conservative judges and a tax cut, now wants nothing to do with him or his ilk. (McConnell, according to a revealing New Yorker piece, is particularly terrified of the GOP losing corporate donors in the wake of the Trump-stoked putsch on Jan. 6.)
Larry Hackett: Republicans and Trump loyalists go head to head
In 2018, Democrats swept every statewide race in Wisconsin, ending nearly a decade of Republican rule. “The voters spoke,” Democrat Tony Evers said after defeating incumbent Gov. Scott Walker. “A change is coming, Wisconsin!” Not so fast. A month later, the GOP-controlled legislature convened an unprecedented lame-duck session to strip the incoming governor of key administrative and appointment powers and shorten the early voting period to dampen future Democratic turnout. Though their opponents had won more votes, Republicans believed only they were entitled to exercise power.
The Insurrection Was Put Down. The GOP Plan for Minority Rule Marches On. – Mother Jones
“When Republicans controlled the Senate they used the reconciliation process to provide huge tax breaks for the rich and large corporations,” said Sanders on Saturday. “We’re going to use reconciliation to protect working families, the sick and the poor.”
From Paul Ryan to Nikki Haley: GOP Nightmare of Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders About to Come True | Common Dreams News
Invade Canada and simply call it the Americas the politics are much the same. The Republican Cartel is determined to take over (ODT)
“Among Republican voters, 45% approve of the storming of Capitol, 30% think the perpetrators are ‘patriots’, 52% think Biden is at least partly to blame for it, and 85% think it would be inappropriate to remove Trump from office after this.”
Poll Shows Nearly Half of GOP Voters—Lied to by Right-Wing Media—Approve of US Capitol Ransacking | Common Dreams News
That’s the death spiral McConnell seems to be egging on. A destroyed economy will hurt Joe Biden’s presidency. It might help Republican prospects in 2022 and 2024. That’s all that matters to the Grim Reaper.
McConnell Is Doing a Really Good Job of Completely Wrecking the Economy for Biden Presidency | The Smirking Chimp
Of course, not all of them are silent. A group of House Republicans, led by Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mo Brooks of Alabama, are publicly calling on Trump to continue fighting even after the Electoral College legally certifies the election for Biden next week. There has been no rebuke from the Republican leadership to these extremists, not even from leaders who hail from the states where Trump is trying to have legal votes thrown out. The Republican stance, on both the state and federal level, is clear: They wish they could help Trump overturn the election, but they just don’t see a path forward. They were prepared to abuse their power as far as they could to help him, and have hit the wall Unfortunately for Trump, time has run out. Tuesday is the deadline for states to certify their results, and next Monday the Electoral College will finally make Biden’s win official. The results are clear, not because Republican leaders have any integrity, but because voters showed up in large enough numbers to render all these shenanigans effectively moot. Trump will leave office on Jan. 20, and the only people who deserve credit for that are Democratic voters and organizers, who made sure Biden’s win was big enough that it couldn’t be stolen away.
Republicans want to steal this election for Trump — they just don’t know how | Salon.com
The only squealing we hear from elected Republicans are those non-congressional types who’ve been targeted by Trump’s vile tactics, such as Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger. “He voted for Trump but didn’t like it when Trumpism collided directly into his life,” trenchantly observes Amanda Carpenter (no relation) of the Bulwark. “I remember Trump calling lots of other Americans ‘an enemy of the people’ and putting them in danger before he attached the label” to Raffensperger. Only then did he protest the ugliness. Self-centered, gutless bastards all.
THE Most Gutless Party in U.S. Political History | The Smirking Chimp
Biden is right to recognize that we cannot see our political opponents as enemies. Republicans like Romney understand this truth — a truth that is a necessary pre-condition for a constitutional republic. What happens next will depend in large part on whether Romney stands virtually alone or if more Republicans join him to remake the Republican Party as one committed to constitutional democracy, rather than the personal desires of a single man.
Republicans must break with Trump and reach out to Biden so that Americans can heal and democracy can thrive – MarketWatch
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