What happens to the Republican Party now? (2 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?

 

[superchuck500]

 

[DaveXA]

 

[MT15]

Oh, Chuck, you’re so wrong for this, lol.

 

[UriUT]

My disdain for the aggies has no bottom. Yet, I respect that aggie there.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz slams 'curse' narrative after Longhorns lose Sugar Bowl

The story of the "Ted Cruz Curse" gained steam on Monday after Cruz was spotted in burnt orange at the Sugar Bowl game between UT and Washington.

www.fox4news.com

I hope he never shows up to another UT game. Stay with the aggies. Hopefully, he will disappear to cancun after november.

 

[Maxp]

I guess this is what you get when real artists keep filing lawsuits against your campaign for using their music. This is beyond weird.

 

[LA - L.A.]

Pretty bad when even autotuning can't make your voice sound good.

 

[LA - L.A.]

I guess this is what you get when real artists keep filing lawsuits against your campaign for using their music. This is beyond weird.

Politicians are the new metaphorical rock stars and some of them seem to be tragically taking it literally.

 

[superchuck500]

I guess this is what you get when real artists keep filing lawsuits against your campaign for using their music. This is beyond weird.

I think it what you get when you empower a world led by a game show host. The whole value system (for being a political movement) is so warped.

They don’t want to make policy - they want to be pop stars.

 

[Huntn]

I think it what you get when you empower a world led by a game show host. The whole value system (for being a political movement) is so warped.

They don’t want to make policy - they want to be pop stars.

When the collective “we” empowers a loser to trash the USA, and destabilize the world, especially if it happens again- This is a hardcore inditement of humans as a species heading in the wrong direction and I’m not even including the state of the Environment.

DJT is just the symptom of the cancer in millions of our hearts. What’s wrong with us? I mean look at this broken mess of a human being, and he’s running neck and neck with a strong, competent, smart and most importantly, a sane, responsible leader?

One other thing, The Electoral College could be the end of us.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Republicans are racing to plug a massive money hole — before it’s too late.

The leader of House Republicans’ biggest super PAC told donors last month he needed $35 million more to compete with Democrats in the fall. Senate GOP campaign chair Steve Daines used his primetime speaking slot at the Republican convention to lament that massive spending from Democrats was keeping him awake at night. And his House GOP counterpart warned that their party's challengers trailed Democratic incumbents by a collective $37 million at the end of June.

Republicans were already worried about a glaring financial gap even before Kamala Harris’ rise. Now, with the election just two months away, they found themselves in an even more dire position: Democrats have seen a flood of enthusiasm in recent weeks, they’re far outspending Republicans on air and their donors are more energized than ever — with campaign finance data showing a surge in grassroots fundraising in late July after President Joe Biden dropped out.

Panic is starting to set in.

“The only thing preventing us from having a great night in November is the massive financial disparity our party currently faces,” said Jason Thielman, the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “We are on a trajectory to win the majority, but unless something changes drastically in the next six weeks, we will lose winnable seats.”

In some ways it’s a familiar place for the party, which has found itself facing a version of this quandary every two years since former President Donald Trump turbocharged Democrats’ small-dollar fundraising. And Republicans are sounding the alarm now because they believe there is still time to fix it.

They know they won’t be able to match Democrats dollar-for-dollar, but they need to narrow the deficit to stay in the game.

But Democrats are reaching new heights, pounding the airwaves with multimillion-dollar ad blitzes while their GOP opponents are still scrambling for funds. In some key Senate battlegrounds, Democrats are so flush with cash that they are outspending Republicans by tens of millions on the air. That’s forced the GOP to lean heavily on super PACs, which can raise unlimited amounts of money but must pay higher rates for the same ad slots...........

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www.politico.com

 

[bird]

When the collective “we” empowers a loser to trash the USA, and destabilize the world, especially if it happens again- This is a hardcore inditement of humans as a species heading in the wrong direction and I’m not even including the state of the Environment.

DJT is just the symptom of the cancer in millions of our hearts. What’s wrong with us? I mean look at this broken mess of a human being, and he’s running neck and neck with a strong, competent, smart and most importantly, a sane, responsible leader?

One other thing, The Electoral College could be the end of us.

The electoral college needs to be gone. A national election process also needs to be implemented. Too often the so-called laboratories of democracy become laboratories of minority rule as well as autocracy.

 

[MT15]

I think it what you get when you empower a world led by a game show host. The whole value system (for being a political movement) is so warped.

They don’t want to make policy - they want to be pop stars.

Problem is that there are a whole lot of people who want to slide into place and make policy while they are forking around. Some real Machiavellian types.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Interesting read
==========

From the presidential election to the insurrection at the Capitol, Donald Trump and the MAGA movement are usually portrayed as a national news story. But the impact it's had on local politics is just as serious — and often quite devastating. Taking advantage of the low turnout at local elections, QAnoners, election deniers, and anti-vaccination extremists have been able to gain power on city councils and school boards, where they often proceed to wreak havoc on the local community.

In "Chaos Comes Calling: The Battle Against the Far-Right Takeover of Small-Town America," journalist Sasha Abramsky documents how two rural communities in the Pacific Northwest were overwhelmed by far-right radicals. It's a sobering story, but also one that offers hope. Concerned citizens in Clallam County, Washington, beat back the MAGA menace, offering a model for others looking to protect their communities, whether their immediate town or the nation. Abramsky spoke with Salon about his work and why it matters for the future.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

What communities did you decide to follow for this book, and why?

The book is focused mainly on two communities in the Northwest. One is in the far north of California, called Shasta County. The other one is on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington and the county is Clallam, where I focused on a small town called Sequim. They both had an extraordinary lurch rightward that gathered pace during the pandemic. Shasta County had long been right-wing, with a militia presence and the idea of seceding from the rest of California.

Then the pandemic debates over social distancing and school closures and then the vaccines turbocharged everything. There was this purge, where moderate Republicans who had been in charge of the county beforehand lost out to the hard-right: Republicans who were aligned with the militia movement, who were spouting QAnon theories and who were very involved in the MAGA movement.

Sequim was historically a fairly liberal place but had low voter participation for local elections. So an organized hard-right seized power, simply because people weren't paying attention. In the pandemic era, the city government was taken over by somebody who was using city time and city resources to promote QAnon. It triggered a good governance backlash, where locals organized and pushed back successfully against QAnon and MAGA.

If you look at what happened in Shasta and you look at what happened in Clallam County, they provide a study of contrast, which has huge implications for our national story. A we going to be able to organize nationally, to push back against the MAGA movement? Or is the MAGA movement ascendant? It was a window into a much bigger story that was occurring nationally...........

A lot of us experience Trumpism and the MAGA movement as a national story. In these particular communities, it was felt on this granular local level. Why has this national story become such a localized phenomenon in some places?

Pragmatism used to define local politics: getting roads built, filling in potholes, making sure kids had safe spaces on the way to school. All of that local pragmatic politics got swamped by the sheer rage of the national discourse. But it goes the other way, too. The more local politics came to be defined by these increasingly angry battles, the more it played into a national narrative. A local story would be picked up by someone like Tucker Carlson, who would use it to whip up rage. Not just nationally, but because of social media, it would be picked up internationally.

One of the public health doctors that I focus on is a young woman named Alison Berry who was the public health officer for Clallam County. She was effective and smart. She came to grips with the local pandemic. When the state reopened for business, she noticed that there were these huge spikes in infections and that the spikes in infections were concentrated around bars and restaurants. And so she came up with this idea to impose a temporary vaccine mandate to sit indoors at a restaurant or a bar. Very rapidly the infection rates went down. It was a public health success, but it aroused a tremendous local backlash.

Because of social media, the opponents were able to coordinate with people all over the world. And so Alison Berry, this anonymous, local public health official, suddenly was getting death threats from 10,000 miles away. You had the local anger. And then you had it amplified on bigger channels like Fox News. And then you had it amplified even more on social media. This is a toxic environment. Unless we get a handle on these technologies, unless we learn to use social media more responsibly, we're heading into a dark period where rumor replaces fact and that makes democracy extremely hard to function.............

MAGA wreaks chaos on local communities, but folks can fight back

In "Chaos Comes Calling," Sasha Abramsky shows how ugly national politics hurt local communities — and how to heal

www.salon.com

 

[LA - L.A.]

Republicans are racing to plug a massive money hole — before it’s too late.

The leader of House Republicans’ biggest super PAC told donors last month he needed $35 million more to compete with Democrats in the fall. Senate GOP campaign chair Steve Daines used his primetime speaking slot at the Republican convention to lament that massive spending from Democrats was keeping him awake at night. And his House GOP counterpart warned that their party's challengers trailed Democratic incumbents by a collective $37 million at the end of June.

Republicans were already worried about a glaring financial gap even before Kamala Harris’ rise. Now, with the election just two months away, they found themselves in an even more dire position: Democrats have seen a flood of enthusiasm in recent weeks, they’re far outspending Republicans on air and their donors are more energized than ever — with campaign finance data showing a surge in grassroots fundraising in late July after President Joe Biden dropped out.

Panic is starting to set in.

“The only thing preventing us from having a great night in November is the massive financial disparity our party currently faces,” said Jason Thielman, the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “We are on a trajectory to win the majority, but unless something changes drastically in the next six weeks, we will lose winnable seats.”

In some ways it’s a familiar place for the party, which has found itself facing a version of this quandary every two years since former President Donald Trump turbocharged Democrats’ small-dollar fundraising. And Republicans are sounding the alarm now because they believe there is still time to fix it.

They know they won’t be able to match Democrats dollar-for-dollar, but they need to narrow the deficit to stay in the game.

But Democrats are reaching new heights, pounding the airwaves with multimillion-dollar ad blitzes while their GOP opponents are still scrambling for funds. In some key Senate battlegrounds, Democrats are so flush with cash that they are outspending Republicans by tens of millions on the air. That’s forced the GOP to lean heavily on super PACs, which can raise unlimited amounts of money but must pay higher rates for the same ad slots...........

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www.politico.com

Trump the Bankruptor strikes again. When he was told he couldn't top bankrupting a casino, he scoffed, "hold my burger and coke."

 

[Optimus Prime]

Trump-backed Senate candidate Tim Sheehy has been caught on tape making offensive comments about Native Americans, according to reports.

Audio recordings, first reported by Char-Koosta News last week, revealed that the MontanaRepublican made racially-charged remarks about the Crow Tribe, who have land in the southcentral part of the state. At one point, Sheehy accused tribal members of being drunk in the morning.

“I rope and brand with them every year… A great way to bond with all the Indians while they’re drunk at 8am….” Sheehy is heard saying with a laugh in a clip from a fundraiser on November 6, 2023. The remark came after Sheehy said that one of his ranching partners is a Crow member.

The Independent has not independently verified the tapes but has contacted Sheehy for comment.

Sheehy is Trump’s pick for Montana’s Senate seat and will face Democratic Senator Jon Tester in November.…….

Trump-backed candidate caught making offensive remarks about Native American tribe

Sheehy is Trump’s pick for Montana’s Senate seat and will face Democratic Senator Jon Tester in November

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

Trump-backed Senate candidate Tim Sheehy has been caught on tape making offensive comments about Native Americans, according to reports.

Audio recordings, first reported by Char-Koosta News last week, revealed that the MontanaRepublican made racially-charged remarks about the Crow Tribe, who have land in the southcentral part of the state. At one point, Sheehy accused tribal members of being drunk in the morning.

“I rope and brand with them every year… A great way to bond with all the Indians while they’re drunk at 8am….” Sheehy is heard saying with a laugh in a clip from a fundraiser on November 6, 2023. The remark came after Sheehy said that one of his ranching partners is a Crow member.

The Independent has not independently verified the tapes but has contacted Sheehy for comment.

Sheehy is Trump’s pick for Montana’s Senate seat and will face Democratic Senator Jon Tester in November.…….

Trump-backed candidate caught making offensive remarks about Native American tribe

Sheehy is Trump’s pick for Montana’s Senate seat and will face Democratic Senator Jon Tester in November

www.independent.co.uk

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Tribal leaders in Montana urged Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy to apologize over remarks he made to supporters about Native Americans being “drunk at 8 a.m.” and throwing beer cans at him on the Crow Reservation

Audio recordings of Sheehy's racial comments were obtained and published by Char-Koosta News, the official publication of the Flathead Indian Reservation.

A Sheehy campaign spokesperson did not dispute the authenticity of the recordings, which the tribal newspaper said came from fundraising events held in Montana last November..........

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Miami-based visual artist T. Eliott Mansa is known in the city’s art scene for assembling found materials, including stuffed toys, into abstract sculptures evoking barnacles and sea life.


Like many artists, Mansa earned money working odd jobs and as a college and high school art teacher. After he was laid off, he turned to blood plasma donation, he said, about twice a week for five months.


It was around this time in June that Mansa, 46, heard that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) had used his veto to cut a key segment of the state arts budget from $32 million down to $0.

Soon afterward, Mansa started hearing from the various arts organizations he’s worked with about how the funding would affect them.

For Mansa, who has long supported his artistic career through work with the nonprofits and museums that had now lost state funding, the cuts threaten further economic instability.

As the school year begins, several of the more than 600 organizations that lost state funding told The Washington Post that their educational programming is the first thing they will have to cut if they cannot make up the money elsewhere.

Some organizations lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and smaller groups lost big percentages of their operating budget.

Because these losses come just before the new fiscal year for many groups, they are already disrupting hiring and programming……..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/art/2024/09/04/desantis-florida-art-funding-cuts/

 

[Optimus Prime]

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Tribal leaders in Montana urged Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy to apologize over remarks he made to supporters about Native Americans being “drunk at 8 a.m.” and throwing beer cans at him on the Crow Reservation

Audio recordings of Sheehy's racial comments were obtained and published by Char-Koosta News, the official publication of the Flathead Indian Reservation.

A Sheehy campaign spokesperson did not dispute the authenticity of the recordings, which the tribal newspaper said came from fundraising events held in Montana last November..........

MSN

www.msn.com

For five days, Republican Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy has kept silent as a growing number of Montana tribal leaders have come forward to condemn the racist remarks he made about members of the Crow Tribe and demand an apology.

But Levi Black Eagle, secretary of the Crow Tribe, one of largest Native American tribes in Montana, told HuffPost that an apology would do little good at this point.

“I think the time for an apology may have passed,” Black Eagle said in an interview Thursday. “Any apology now from him, I don’t think it would be sincere. I think it would just be optics, mainly, and a lot of lip service. I don’t think it would justify what he said. It’d help, but would it fix it? No. He perpetuated old racist stereotypes. There’s really no excuse or room for that.”

Sheehy, a multimillionaire businessman and ex-Navy SEAL who is polling ahead of three-term Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, peddled a longstanding racist trope about Native Americans and alcoholism during two private fundraising events in November 2023. Audio recordings of the events were first obtained by Char-Koosta News, the official publication of the Flathead Indian Reservation.

Among other things, Sheehy, who owns a ranch and cattle operation, said that roping and branding cattle on the Crow Reservation was a “great way to bond with all the Indians out there, while they’re drunk at 8 a.m.” and that “every heel shot you miss you get a Coors Light can upside the head.”............

MSN