What happens to the Republican Party now? (4 Viewers)

[MT15]

This election nonsense by Trump may end up splitting up the Republican Party. I just don’t see how the one third (?) who are principled conservatives can stay in the same party with Trump sycophants who are willing to sign onto the TX Supreme Court case.

We also saw the alt right types chanting “destroy the GOP” in Washington today because they didn’t keep Trump in power. I think the Q types will also hold the same ill will toward the traditional Republican Party. In fact its quite possible that all the voters who are really in a Trump personality cult will also blame the GOP for his loss. It’s only a matter of time IMO before Trump himself gets around to blaming the GOP.

There is some discussion of this on Twitter. What do you all think?

 

[Saintamaniac]

Disagree.

It's still you right to disagree. However, the facts and recent history support my opinion.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Indeed, I do think states are trying to bend the rules to suit their needs, which if violates federal regulations, they shouldn't be doing. I'm not sure how different that is for specific companies or agencies compared to state governments.

It's the same really. It's the reason why New Orleans is trying its damnest to get an extension on the FEMA money from Katrina that has yet to be spent. There were projects they couldn't use the funds for and the projects that were approved have been slow to come to fruition. They have to get an extension (again) or the feds are taking that money back.

 

[DaveXA]

It's the same really. It's the reason why New Orleans is trying its damnest to get an extension on the FEMA money from Katrina that has yet to be spent. There were projects they couldn't use the funds for and the projects that were approved have been slow to come to fruition. They have to get an extension (again) or the feds are taking that money back.

I thought that might be the case. I'm not familiar with the nuts and bolts of some of the regulations but for large amount of funds going to states, there's supposed to be accountability for funds being spent on their intended purpose.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I do wonder how many are just pretending

I don’t remember who she was talking about (some GOP politician) it was a few years ago, but said, “He’s no fool. He may play a fool on TV, but he’s no fool”
================================
The mainstream media insist on treating the Republican Party as a normal party, routinely declining to press them on their party’s embrace of violence, lies and conspiracy theories.

President Biden only gingerly dubs GOP proposals “ultra MAGA,” as if the problem were merely some absurdist policy ideas (e.g., taxing poor people).

Neither Biden nor the media get to the nub of the problem.


Let’s be blunt: A great many Republican candidates are bonkers. Or they are pretending to be.


This includes an assortment of primary challengers to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Her main challenger, Harriet Hageman, cited in their recent debate the debunked film “2000 mules” to question drop boxes and insisted the Jan. 6 insurrectionists were punished for “exercising their First Amendment rights.” The other Republican contenders echoed her lies.

The Wyoming candidates are not alone. GOP candidates for Arizona governor must have taken one look at their Wyoming colleagues and concluded, “You want crazy? We’ll give you crazy.”

They, too, spewed irrational theories at their recent debate, with Republican favorite Kari Lake also repeating the lie about “mules” trafficking ballots.

Those outside the cult of former president Donald Trump may find it unimaginable that Arizonans would entrust these people with a public office, let alone the governorship.


Meanwhile, in an appearance on CNN on Sunday, Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem refused to say that Trump, who sent an armed mob up to the Capitol, had any responsibility for the Jan. 6 insurrection……

No doubt some GOP voters don’t believe the lies either, but they like tax cuts or forced birth laws or just hate Democrats so much they would entrust nuclear codes to an unstable person such as Trump. The true believers may be beyond reach, but the voters who went along with Trump and the MAGA GOP for these reasons might reconsider the choices before them…….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/05/gop-bonkers-2022-wyoming-arizona-debate-dump-the-kooks/

 

[MT15]

Bravo! This is how it’s done:

 

[MT15]

Striking similarities

 

[MT15]

Fascism has a real place in the current GOP

 

[MT15]

This doesn’t deserve its own thread, so we will used this one. This past administration was so corrupt, they made the Nixon Administration look like choirboys. And still, nobody in R leadership had the guts to pull the plug on Trump. Nobody.

 

[wardorican]

This doesn’t deserve its own thread, so we will used this one. This past administration was so corrupt, they made the Nixon Administration look like choirboys. And still, nobody in R leadership had the guts to pull the plug on Trump. Nobody.

I was going to post this. I can't read the article. It would be interesting to know if the IRS was told to do this.

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

I was going to post this. I can't read the article. It would be interesting to know if the IRS was told to do this.

That's the $64,000 question.

"The minuscule chances of the two highest-ranking F.B.I. officials — who made some of the most politically consequential law enforcement decisions in a generation — being randomly subjected to a detailed scrub of their tax returns a few years after leaving their posts presents extraordinary questions.

Was it sheer coincidence that two close associates would randomly come under the scrutiny of the same audit program within two years of each other? Did something in their returns increase the chances of their being selected? Could the audits have been connected to criminal investigations pursued by the Trump Justice Department against both men, neither of whom was ever charged?

Or did someone in the federal government or at the I.R.S. — an agency that at times, like under the Nixon administration, was used for political purposes but says it has imposed a range of internal controls intended to thwart anyone from improperly using its powers — corrupt the process?

“Lightning strikes, and that’s unusual, and that’s what it’s like being picked for one of these audits,” said John A. Koskinen, the I.R.S. commissioner from 2013 to 2017. “The question is: Does lightning then strike again in the same area? Does it happen? Some people may see that in their lives, but most will not — so you don’t need to be an anti-Trumper to look at this and think it’s suspicious.”

How taxpayers get selected for the program of intensive audits — known as the National Research Program — is closely held. The I.R.S. is prohibited by law from discussing specific cases, further walling off from scrutiny the type of audit Mr. Comey and Mr. McCabe faced."

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/...-irs-audits.html?referringSource=articleShare

 

[MT15]

I was going to post this. I can't read the article. It would be interesting to know if the IRS was told to do this.

They don’t know - it would be illegal for anyone to have done so, but we all know Trump doesn’t think laws apply to him.

The McCabe audit was actually done after Trump left office - but the head of the IRS is still the same Trump appointee who seems pretty Trumpy. The odds of being selected for this type of audit are pretty slim, and in both these guys cases Trump publicly alleged they had financial misdeeds so it could have been done by overly zealous Trumpy IRS agents without Trump actually telling them to do so. Which is just how Trump gets away with this shirt.

 

[Saintamaniac]

This doesn’t deserve its own thread, so we will used this one. This past administration was so corrupt, they made the Nixon Administration look like choirboys. And still, nobody in R leadership had the guts to pull the plug on Trump. Nobody.

That's because they were complicit. This is the Republican party. Republicans are a threat to democracy.

 

[MT15]

They don’t know - it would be illegal for anyone to have done so, but we all know Trump doesn’t think laws apply to him.

The McCabe audit was actually done after Trump left office - but the head of the IRS is still the same Trump appointee who seems pretty Trumpy. The odds of being selected for this type of audit are pretty slim, and in both these guys cases Trump publicly alleged they had financial misdeeds so it could have been done by overly zealous Trumpy IRS agents without Trump actually telling them to do so. Which is just how Trump gets away with this shirt.

It should be noted that Comey was actually found to have overpaid his taxes by $300 some dollars, but the audit cost him $5k in accountant fees. McCabe had to pay what is described as a modest amount of money after his audit. So Trump’s allegations were lies, basically, to the surprise of nobody with half a brain.

 

[MT15]

This remark about DeSantis is spot on:

 

[Optimus Prime]

another gun ad this time with "Democrats in Klan hoods"

I don't know what percentage of the KKK and other such groups are democrats today, but I'm pretty sure it's a small number

GOP Candidate Scares Off Liberal KKK With Rifles in New Campaign Ad

 

[Optimus Prime]

guess this can here
===============
A conservative group called the America Project that boasts Donald Trump loyalists and “big lie” pushers Roger Stone and Michael Flynn as key advisers, has begun a self-styled “election integrity” drive to train activists in election canvassing and poll-watching, sparking fears from voting rights watchdogs about voter intimidation.

Patrick Byrne, the multimillionaire co-founder of the America Project, has said he has donated almost $3m to launch the drive, dubbed “Operation Eagles Wings”, with a focus on eight states including Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which Trump lost, plus Texas and Florida, which he won.

The drive was unveiled in late February at a press event where Byrne touted plans to educate “election reform activists” to handle election canvassing, grassroots work and fundraising “to expose shenanigans at the ballot box” in what has echoes of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, and could become a sequel to those charges.

Byrne, for instance, has said the operation’s mission is to “make sure that there are no repeats of the errors that happened in the 2020 election”, and stressed the “need to protect the voting process from election meddlers who care only about serving crooked special interest groups that neither respect nor value the rule of law”.

But voting rights advocates have voiced sharp criticism of Operation Eagles Wings, calling it a “sham”, given the roles of Stone, Flynn, Byrne and others, and warning that it could lead to voter harassment at the polls and suppress legitimate votes.

To lead the fledgling operation, the America Project recruited Tim Meisburger, an ex-Trump official in the US Agency for International Development: Meisburger left the agency abruptly under a cloud in mid-January 2021 after a video surfaced of him falsely informing staffers that the Capitol attack was mostly peaceful except for “a few violent people”, and that “ several million” people were demonstrating peacefully for election reforms...............

‘It’s a sham’: fears over Trump loyalists’ ‘election integrity’ drive

 

[SteveSBrickNJ]

That's because they were complicit. This is the Republican party. Republicans are a threat to democracy.

Republicans for decades have been trying to stick to the constitution. A Democracy that also includes capitalism.
Democrats have been trying to change our country into a Socialist State.

 

[Taurus]

Republicans for decades have been trying to stick to the constitution. A Democracy that also includes capitalism.
Democrats have been trying to change our country into a Socialist State.

"Socialist"

You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

I could be wrong, so I'll ask. What's Socialism to you?