What happens to the Republican Party now? (5 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?

 

[Optimus Prime]

Political activists in Florida have condemned the “hypocrisy” of large corporations that use Black History Month to denounce racism while donating hundreds of thousands dollars to the state’s rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis.

Amazon, AT&T, Comcast, Disney and Walmart are among the companies that publicly proclaim their commitment to anti-racist values, especially after the 2020 police murder of George Floyd, an African American man in Minneapolis.

But research by the Center for Political Accountability, a non-profit organisation that tracks corporate political spending, shows that these same businesses donated directly and indirectly to the 2022 re-election campaign of DeSantis, who has imposed limits on how race and racism can be taught in Florida schools.

“These corporations can say that they stand with the Black community but then also fund the governor and his work around dismantling Black history,” said Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of Equal Ground, a progressive group based in Orlando, Florida. “It’s a huge level of hypocrisy.”

Corporations have increasingly taken a stand on social and racial justice issues in recent years and often see Black History Month as an ideal opportunity to promote themselves. Many express solidarity on social media or tout programs within the company to highlight the contributions of Black employees.

Amazon, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Comcast, DoorDash, General Motors and Walmart have all made public statements in celebration of Black History Month. Google posted online on 1 February: “Learn how Google is recognizing and celebrating Black voices, joy and success this Black History Month.”

But the Center for Political Accountability found that each of these companies donated significant sums of money to political groups that prominently supported DeSantis............

DeSantis’s corporate donors under fire for ‘hypocrisy’ over Black History Month

Companies such as Amazon, Disney and Walmart funded Florida governor who has imposed curbs on teaching about race in schools

www.theguardian.com

 

[GrandAdmiral]

who would have guessed

I guess they're buddies again.

I didn't watch the game last night. Did they sing "Lift Every Voice" or something?

 

[coldseat]

I guess they're buddies again.

I didn't watch the game last night. Did they sing "Lift Every Voice" or something?

Yep, so of course "they" had to complain. Just objectively speaking, that's a much better national anthem than our current one.

 

[Saintamaniac]

Just objectively speaking, that's a much better national anthem than our current one.

Subjectively maybe but objectively, I'm going to respectfully disagree with your assessment.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Newsmax host and serial plagiarist Benny Johnson was so mad that “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was performed at this year’s Super Bowl that he demanded the hymn—often referred to as the Black national anthem—be made “illegal.”

The right-wing edgelord was grateful, however, that other conservatives were just as upset as he was about the “woke culture” on display at the big game, specifically praising GOP gubernatorial loser Kari Lake for refusing to stand when the song was played.

Johnson, who also serves as chief creative officer for MAGA student group Turning Point USA, devoted a good portion of his Monday podcast to railing against the NFL’s decision to play the song, which was performed by actress Sheryl Lee Ralph. (Her performance preceded both “America the Beautiful” and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which was sung by country star Chris Stapleton.)

“Sports is woke culture, and it's really repugnant to me, and so I don't follow sports super closely,” Johnson exclaimed on The Benny Show, as first flagged by liberal media monitoring group Media Matters. “That being said, I do watch the Super Bowl for cultural moments like the Black national anthem being sung. How the hell is this even a thing?!”

He continued: “What a repugnant, degenerate thing to do, to split up a national anthem by race. That is antithetical, of course, to America. It should, quite frankly, be illegal. You shouldn't be able to do that. Is there a white national anthem? I'm not sure anyone would be very happy with that being sung.”

The right-wing culture warrior, meanwhile, brought up Lake performatively sitting down at State Farm Stadium while Ralph sang. “Kari Lake was in the event last night in the stadium. She refused to stand for the Black national anthem; good for her,” he proclaimed about the election-denying provocateur.

“Nobody should stand for the Black national—,” Johnson added before catching himself. “There shouldn't be a Black national anthem because America is a country that is founded upon all of us being created equal, regardless of the melanin amount in your skin or where your ancestors were raised.”..............

MSN

 

[cuddlemonkey]

Newsmax host and serial plagiarist Benny Johnson was so mad that “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was performed at this year’s Super Bowl that he demanded the hymn—often referred to as the Black national anthem—be made “illegal.”

The right-wing edgelord was grateful, however, that other conservatives were just as upset as he was about the “woke culture” on display at the big game, specifically praising GOP gubernatorial loser Kari Lake for refusing to stand when the song was played.

Johnson, who also serves as chief creative officer for MAGA student group Turning Point USA, devoted a good portion of his Monday podcast to railing against the NFL’s decision to play the song, which was performed by actress Sheryl Lee Ralph. (Her performance preceded both “America the Beautiful” and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which was sung by country star Chris Stapleton.)

“Sports is woke culture, and it's really repugnant to me, and so I don't follow sports super closely,” Johnson exclaimed on The Benny Show, as first flagged by liberal media monitoring group Media Matters. “That being said, I do watch the Super Bowl for cultural moments like the Black national anthem being sung. How the hell is this even a thing?!”

He continued: “What a repugnant, degenerate thing to do, to split up a national anthem by race. That is antithetical, of course, to America. It should, quite frankly, be illegal. You shouldn't be able to do that. Is there a white national anthem? I'm not sure anyone would be very happy with that being sung.”

The right-wing culture warrior, meanwhile, brought up Lake performatively sitting down at State Farm Stadium while Ralph sang. “Kari Lake was in the event last night in the stadium. She refused to stand for the Black national anthem; good for her,” he proclaimed about the election-denying provocateur.

“Nobody should stand for the Black national—,” Johnson added before catching himself. “There shouldn't be a Black national anthem because America is a country that is founded upon all of us being created equal, regardless of the melanin amount in your skin or where your ancestors were raised.”..............

MSN

Anyone who says this should have any and all degrees and diplomas revoked immediately.

 

[MT15]

Rs seem to think parent’s don’t have some rights after all:

 

[Optimus Prime]

A member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band is teaming up with a Maryland congressman who has faced toxic comments from his conservative foes after appearing on the House floor wearing a bandana to cover his hair loss from chemotherapy.

Rep Jamie Raskin posted a picture of himself wearing a bandana gifted to him by the rocker Steven Van Zandt, himself known for an iconic covered-head look brought on by a childhood accident.

Mr Raskin began treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in December.

“Look what I received from one of the greatest musicians on earth, a gift I will treasure almost as much as his song ‘I am a patriot,’” wrote Mr Raskin, adding: “You are about to see a step up in my chemo head-cover fashions for the next few months. Rock on Stevie, keep spreading the light.”……

Jamie Raskin gifted bandana by Steven Van Zandt as he fights cancer

Congressman’s bandanas have already elicited attempts by conservatives to ridicule his appearance

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

MAGA Republicans had a conniption fit on Sunday as they witnessed the Super Bowl pregame show include “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” sometimes called the Black national anthem, alongside the national anthem and “America the Beautiful.”


Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) howled on Twitter, “America only has ONE NATIONAL ANTHEM. Why is the NFL trying to divide us by playing multiple!? Do football, not wokeness.”

Similarly, the campaign for former Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake tweeted that she is “against the idea of a ‘black National Anthem’ for the same reason she’s against a ‘white National Anthem.’ She subscribes to the idea of ‘one Nation, under God.’”


This is ridiculous. The pregame show’s announcers referred to the song by its formal title, not as a national anthem.

And its words are deeply inspirational and patriotic:

Lift every voice and sing

Till earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the listening skies

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun

Let us march on till victory is won.



The song never even mentions race. And it’s not as if the song is new to NFL games.
The NFL has rightly been pilloried for its exclusion of Black people from head coaching jobs (even though roughly 70 percent of players are Black).

It was heavily criticized when, prompted by Colin Kaepernick’s taking a knee during the national anthem, it attempted to ban other players from doing the same…….

]
If the Super Bowl freakout sounds familiar, it’s because it is.

Like so many other issues, this is about control — control of U.S. history, of shared culture and of public spaces.

Why do MAGA Republicans become so enraged when some Americans choose to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”? Why do they go berserk when the College Board constructs an AP African American studies course?


Of course, no one is forcing anyone to say “Happy Holidays.” Nor is anyone forcing children to enroll in an Advanced Placement course on African American studies (though doing so might prevent the next generation from going into the world ignorant about basic facts such as when the Civil War was fought).


Similarly, no one is preventing anyone from missing the pregame show or — God forbid! — the Super Bowl itself. So why the level of visceral anger at “Lift Every Voice and Sing”?


This is a manifestation of the resentment among many Americans that the way they understood their country is being “taken” from them.

In their concept of the United States, America is a White and Christian country, and every other group is a footnote — peripheral to the majesty of the “real” American story…….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/13/black-national-anthem-super-bowl-republican-backlash/

 

[Maxp]

The answer is because MAGATS are overtly racist.

 

[UriUT]

So it turns out that Republicans are really bad with governing and wildly cost their states millions. All because of their "anti-woke" policies.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

If socialism means state control of production, distribution and exchange of goods and services, then Florida and Texas fit the description.

Companies committed to ESG favor protection of natural resources, human rights, health and safety, community engagement, transparency, compliance with regulatory policies, diversity, equity and inclusion.

No less than Larry Fink, chairman, chief executive officer and co-founder of BlackRock Inc., whose $10 trillion in assets makes it the largest money manager, is a believer. He told his shareholders that Wall Street's embrace of ESG is “capitalism, driven by mutually beneficial relationships between you and the employees, customers, suppliers and communities your company relies on to prosper.”

That’s not the case with California, whose embrace of ESG and free markets has allowed it to borrow more cheaply than Florida and Texas even though it has lower credit ratings.

In Texas alone, the state’s municipal borrowers are paying as much as $532 million more in borrowing costs because of Republican lawmakers’ war with Wall Street over ESG

Since it began its assault on ESG in 2022, Texas, with its perfect AAA credit rating, is paying 19 basis points more in yield (the equivalent of $1.9 million on every $1 billion of bonds sold) than AA rated California on routine borrowings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

For all his venom toward ESG, DeSantis is poisoning the market for AAA rated Florida debt. Shorn of the liquidity that comes from a robust group of underwriters, Florida now pays 43 basis points more in yield (or $4.3 million for every $1 billion of bonds sold) than California with an inferior credit rating, or 0.35% more than it did prior to 2022.

 

[UriUT]

Continuing with the theme that Republicans are just plain bad at economics: Trump and the China-US trade war lead American farmers into bankruptcy...is this why so many of our farmlands are now owned by Chinese entities?

"A spokesperson for the American Farm Bureau stated that “farmers have lost the vast majority of what was once a $24 billion market in China” as a result of Chinese retaliatory actions."

And China found other suppliers since.

More pain than gain: How the US-China trade war hurt America

The ultimate results of the phase one trade deal between China and the United States — and the trade war that preceded it — have significantly hurt the American economy without solving the underlying economic concerns that the trade war was meant to resolve, write Ryan Hass and Abraham Denmark.

www.brookings.edu

Despite Trump’s claim that “trade wars are good, and easy to win,” the ultimate results of the phase one trade deal between China and the United States — and the trade war that preceded it — have significantly hurt the American economy without solving the underlying economic concerns that the trade war was meant to resolve.

and the manufacturing and freight transportation sectors have hit lows not seen since the last recession. Trump’s actions amounted to one of the largest tax increases in years.”

A September 2019 study by Moody’s Analytics found that the trade war had already cost the U.S. economy nearly 300,000 jobs and an estimated 0.3% of real GDP. Other studies put the cost to U.S. GDP at about 0.7%.

And once a truce was signed, China signed a deal,

"essentially paid for the deal with a promise of a windfall in purchases of American goods. It appears that President Trump accepted an IOU as a declaration of victory."

The deal was basically what the Chinese offered at the beginning of that trade war. It still upset me that TPP could've been the leverage we had over them. Now China is giving out predatory loans in that China’s Belt and Road Initiative of theirs. Pakistan is currently in negotiation to relieve itself from those loans via the World Bank or was it the IMF?

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

Opinion | Nikki Haley Threw It All Away

No political figure better illustrates the tragic collapse of the modern Republican Party than the former governor of South Carolina.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

when you don't whether to laugh or facepalm
================================
Carlson discussed the idea on his Fox News show Monday night and took swipes at President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“What exactly were all three of these objects?” Carlson asked. “As of yesterday, nobody seemed to know. Listen to the commander of NORAD, Air Force General Glen Van Herck pointedly say that the U.S. government has not ruled out the possibility of extraterrestrials.”

He played a clip of a New York Times reporter asking Van Herck if the government had ruled out aliens.

“I haven’t ruled out anything at this point,” he said. “We continue to assess every threat, or potential threat – unknown – that approaches North America with the attempt to identify it.”

Carlson addressed the possibility of aliens:

Could be aliens. So here you have three unknown objects in three days. If these things are extraterrestrial, what we’re seeing is an alien invasion. That means at some point they’re probably gonna demand to be taken to our leader.
And what are we gonna say then? “This is Kamala Harris. She once dated Montel Williams, but now she runs our country because her boss is senile.” Pretty embarrassing.

The host claimed the additional three airborne objects were in all likelihood balloons.............

Tucker Carlson Worries Aliens Will Demand to See Our Leader and Be Sent to Kamala Harris Because Biden Is Too ‘Senile’

 

[Optimus Prime]

 

[Bigdaddysaints]

Thank god they didn;t invade when Trump was president.
Take me to your leader. what were we gonna tell them? This is Donald Trump, ex reality star and professional Bankruptcy artist..

 

[Optimus Prime]

A new skirmish in the climate culture war began last month when Republicans became outraged over an energy-saving feature on gaming devices that users can opt to use. “First gas stoves, then your coffee, now they’re gunning for your Xbox,” Texas senator Ted Cruz misleadingly tweeted.

This comes just a few weeks after Republicans expressed anger over the suggestion that gas stoves could be banned in favor of more efficient and safer electric and induction cooktops.

These reactions are part of a broader trend that has been growing in the Republican party for years: a strong disdain for energy efficiency. Now, programs and regulations designed to help make homes more comfortable and save homeowners and renters money have come under fire. By going after these policies, Republicans are also quietly enacting a tax on the poor.

Republicans have actively rolled back or blocked energy-efficient measures at the federal and state levels in recent years. The Trump administration undid regulations that would have made everything from furnaces to shower heads to light bulbs more efficient. (The Biden administration has since rolled back many of the Trump rollbacks.) Former president Donald Trump himself infamously stoked outrage on the subject of flushing toilets and the hue of LED lightbulbs.

Republicans have also taken similar measures at the state level. After some municipalities in Florida banned gas hookups for new construction, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill in 2021 that banned banning gas hookups. (Yes, it’s a tongue twister.) Last month, DeSantis also said he is backing a permanent sales tax exemption for gas stoves.

All this, despite the fact that induction stoves – an increasingly popular electric option – are more efficient than their gas counterparts. This assault on efficiency imposes a heavy burden on the poorest households in the US. Research shows that poor households spend four times as much of their income on energy as households that are well-off. The research also found disparities held true across race, with minority households spending more than white ones. That’s in part because those homes are old and inefficient, with issues such as poor insulation or subpar furnaces, stoves and water heaters.

Racist zoning practices like redlining mean many of these homes are located in neighborhoods that are hotter, which can increase the need to use energy to stay cool as well. These conditions lead to higher bills, in areas where households have less income to put toward them……..

From Xboxes to ovens, Republicans’ war on energy efficiency is a tax on the poor

Low-income households spend four times as much on energy as well-off ones, which means attacking efficiency regulations burdens them

www.theguardian.com

 

[MT15]

So far, JD Vance has not been exactly impressive. First he joined the unserious Rs during the balloon flight who posed with their assault rifles looking up at the sky. Super cringy. Next, he appears to tell a fib about what he is doing about the derailment in Ohio. I think this tweet means DeWine hasn’t requested federal help from Biden, it’s inartfully worded, but I think the point is valid.