Good Riddance To Paul Ryan

With the retirement of the Koch brothers' spineless, coin- operated Ayn Rand acolyte Squeaker of the House Paul "Lyin'" Ryan come next January, most thoughtful opinion is rightly focused on the shams ("fiscal conservative policy wonk") and the shame (the last 18 months in particular) that will define his cruel, threadbare "legacy."

Jonathan Cohn and Andrew Delaney discuss Ryan "[t]ethering his party to an extreme, deeply conservative agenda that the public rejects," as well as his unwarranted media image as a serious and principled policy wonk:

... Ryan turned out to be as committed to fiscal responsibility as his Republican predecessors were ― which is to say, he wasn’t very committed at all, as a handful of critics had long warned. (One of them was New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who in 2010 called Ryan a “flimflam man.”) Although he didn’t like to advertise it, he too had voted for those deficit-busting proposals of the Bush era.  

And once Ryan was in charge of writing GOP budgets, starting in 2011, he relied heavily on generous assumptions about economic growth and unspecified spending cuts that nobody seriously believed Congress would make. 

E.J. Dionne, Jr., on the deal with the orange devil Ryan made in order to advance his Republican Social Darwinism:

...[H]is policies suggested he never abandoned his core faith: If the wealthy did best when given positive incentives in the form of more money, the less fortunate needed to be prodded by less generous social policies into taking responsibility for their own fate. 

Given where Ryan’s passions lie, it is unsurprising that he would prop Trump up as long as the president was willing to embrace a modern-day social Darwinism that married efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act with reductions in government’s impositions on the managers and owners of capital. The retiring speaker really does believe that this is the path to the good society. To pursue it, he’ll take help wherever he can get it.

Dana Milbank on Ryan as an unreconstructed Trump enabler:

... The free-market, limited-government conservatism he championed has been destroyed. And yet he still binds himself to the man who destroyed it all. 

Fox News’s Mike Emanuel asked whether Ryan was “sending a signal that the House is lost for Republicans.” 

Ryan, incredibly, answered by praising Trump. “I’m grateful for the president to give us this chance to actually get this stuff done,” he said. 

Was his retirement influenced by the way Trump changed the party? 

“Not at all,” Ryan maintained. “. . . I’m grateful to the president for giving us this opportunity to do big things to get this country on the right track.” 

The right track.

NARAL puts it bluntly:

This is the first positive thing for women Paul Ryan has done in his 19 years in office. https://t.co/mMYwnb5nrN

— NARAL (@NARAL) April 11, 2018

As does Nate Silver, who points out the media's shallow, lazy glorification of Ryan:

Paul Ryan's a bit like John Kelly in that the media started out with a caricature of him—in Ryan's case, as a wonkish, reasonable, deficit hawk and fiscal conservative—that was pretty impervious to contrary evidence.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 11, 2018

Not to worry;  the media will still refer to him as a "policy wonk," rather than the partisan phony that he is.

For more choice reactions, check out the smart Paul's -- that would be Paul Krugman's -- twitter feed; he was on to Ryan long, long ago.

Finally, Jimmy Kimmel last night on where Ryan will be missed:

BONUS:  Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice has more on the "heavyweight fake."

BONUS II:  Nemesis Paul Krugman ("the smart Paul") bids a long- form good riddance as well.

What's On The Agenda Today In Trump's America?

What are the evil bastards up to now?

Rolling back protections for transgender students:

President Donald Trump’s administration announced on Wednesday that it will no longer bar schools from discriminating against transgender students, rescinding a policy put in place by the previous administration. [snip]

[Trump Press Secretary "Spicy" Sean] Spicer said Tuesday that the president considered transgender rights to be “a states’ rights issue and not one for the federal government.”  

“I find it obscene that Mr. Spicer would characterize the well-being, the health and the very safety of transgender young people as an issue of states’ rights,” responded Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. “The fact is that no child in America should have their rights subject to their zip code.”  

Providing the "freedom" of living without affordable health insurance:

As with their "socialized medicine" scary blabber when Medicare/ Medicaid was introduced 50 years ago, the far right has the same talking point:

Freedom is the ability to buy what you want to fit what you need. Obamacare is Washington telling you what to buy regardless of your needs.

— Paul Ryan (@PRyan) February 21, 2017

Fortunately, we have things called "facts" and "history":

More than half a century later, Medicare hasn’t created a totalitarian dystopia. Instead, it has allowed generations of seniors to access the medical care they need, while sparing them the hardship and indignity of financial ruin. That’s arguably a huge increase in freedom, much like the Affordable Care Act seeks to deliver now.

Or, what she said:

Don't pretend ACA is like making everyone buy a car with a sunroof. It makes sure dealers can't sell you a car without brakes. https://t.co/K6rNwKJsUZ

— Deborah Roseman (@roseperson) February 22, 2017

Sending out the Trump Deportation Squad to terrorize immigrants:

The Department of Homeland Security Tuesday laid out the Trump administration's plans for aggressive enforcement of immigration laws, including a potentially massive expansion of the number of people detained and deported. [snip] 

The fundamental shift in US policy will likely continue to provoke fear in immigrant communities of a vast expansion of the government's use of its enforcement powers to potentially deport undocumented immigrants who have lived in their communities for years, and may have family members who are legal US residents or citizens.

Some of these "aggressive enforcement" actions sound more like the actions of sadists with axes to grind.

Remember, these are the same hypocrites who believe in "family values" and the "sanctity of life," at least before birth and only if you're of the Christian Caucasian persuasion.

Letting the fox "guard" the environmental chicken coop:

As Oklahoma’s attorney general, Scott Pruitt, now the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, closely coordinated with major oil and gas producers, electric utilities and political groups with ties to the libertarian billionaire brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch to roll back environmental regulations, according to over 6,000 pages of emails made public on Wednesday. 

The publication of the correspondence comes just days after Mr. Pruitt was sworn in to run the E.P.A., which is charged with reining in pollution and regulating public health. Senate Democrats tried last week to postpone a final vote until the emails could be made public, but Republicans beat back the delay and approved his confirmation on Friday largely along party lines.

Nice touch that the party- before- country Senate Republicans rushed ahead to confirm Pruitt before the emails could be introduced at his confirmation hearing, not that it would've changed the outcome.

All of this is churning while we wait for the truth to come out on the Rump- Putin connection (stay tuned for our next post). No wonder they're moving so fast.

BONUS:  Seth Meyers on Rump's wall and immigration policies --

A CLOSER LOOK at Trump's wall and immigration policies https://t.co/u2x7wp4gpW

— Seth Meyers (@sethmeyers) February 23, 2017

Trump's "Campaign Of Destabilization"

(click on image to enlarge)

(Darrin Bell, via gocomics.com)

As we've noted below and here, the evermore destructive shampaign of neo- fascist demagogue and venomous charlatan Donald "Rump" Trump has recently taken a more sinister turn (if that was possible), in constructing an elaborate "conspiracy" to explain Rump's troubles and the looming disaster at the polls for Republicans.  The Washington Post warns about the ramifications of this in an editorial this morning.  Here are a few highlights (but please read it all at the link):

... Follow the logic here, if you can: The country is under the control of a conspiracy, involving not just his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, and the media, but also the entire political “establishment,” Republicans included, in league with unnamed international banks, whose goal is to enrich themselves by controlling “the central base of world political power . . . right here in America” and imposing “radical globalization and the disenfranchisement of working people.” Mr. Trump, and the “movement” he heads, are all that stand in the way of this evil cabal. This election, therefore, is no ordinary political contest but “a crossroads in the history of our civilization that will determine whether or not we the people reclaim control over our government.” Ergo, the cabal will destroy Mr. Trump by “slander” — unless the people stand up and resist “a small handful of global special interests rigging the system.” 

This language — which he read from a prepared text fed into a teleprompter — is inflammatory beyond any demagoguery Mr. Trump had offered previously. Coupled with his repeated warnings, echoed by his followers, that the Democrats may be cooking up Election Day fraud, the speech seems to prepare the ground for resistance in the increasingly likely event that things don’t go his way Nov. 8. Indeed, anyone who agrees that the alternative to a Trump victory is civilizational disaster, the fruit of a “sinister deal,” as Mr. Trump put it in another Florida speech, would feel obligated to deny the legitimacy of a Clinton victory, should it occur. Trump-for-President is not a campaign to redeem American democracy or even to “take it back,” as Mr. Trump puts it; it has morphed into a campaign of destabilization.  (our emphasis)

The Post then admonishes Republican politicians --

They should at least find the decency, and the patriotism, to declare that everyone must respect the results on Nov. 8 — and pursue any protests or disputes through legal channels, not in the streets. Even if Republicans can’t bring themselves to part ways politically with Mr. Trump, they can refuse to cooperate in the trashing of our public discourse and essential civic traditions. Surely that is not too much to ask.  

It's just over 3 weeks to the election, and we think it's way too much to expect of the craven, amoral, party- over- country Republicans to even commit this one act of good citizenship.  Why?  Because all they'll have left in their  arsenal in the smoking ruins of the election will be more rear guard delegitimatizing of another Democratic president. More obstruction, more outrageous apocalyptic politics. Want proof? Here's sleazy coward Rep. Paul "Lyin'" Ryan yesterday in Wisconsin urging a vote for Rump:

“If we do not act, we will not just lose our quality of life, our standard of living — we will lose the spirit that makes America exceptional in the first place,” Ryan said. “If Hillary Clinton wins and she is given control of Washington, if she is given control of Congress, it will not be long before we come to that precipice.”

That doesn't sound to us like someone willing to accept the results of the election and work constructively with the winner.

Finally, the Boston Globe gives us just one recent example of how this destabilizing message is being internalized by Rump's loyal goons supporters:

At a time when trust in government is at a low point, Trump is actively stoking fears that a core tenet of American democracy is also in peril: that you can trust what happens at the ballot box. 

His supporters here said they plan to go to their local precincts to look for illegal immigrants who may attempt to vote. They are worried that Democrats will load up buses of minorities and take them to vote several times in different areas of the city. 

They’ve heard rumors that boxes of Clinton votes are already waiting somewhere.
And if Trump doesn’t win, some are even openly talking about violent rebellion and assassination, as fantastical and unhinged as that may seem.  (our emphasis)

Reading the frankly treasonous comments that follow are, while no longer surprising to us, still shocking in their brutality and lawlessness.  Please go read and see for yourself (hazmat suit may be required).

The only way we see for an outcome like this to be ameliorated in any way is for this to be an electoral landslide of such historic proportions that questions of legitimacy are swept away for all but the most deluded.  Every vote counts, more than ever.

Paul Ryan: Still A Soulless Shill

Sleazer of the House Paul "Lyin'" Ryan (R- Galt's Gulch) took to the pages of the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle this morning to offer what has to be one of the most egregious deflection maneuvers in recent American politics. This is from someone who supports the election of neo- fascist loose bullshit- cannon Donald "Rump" Trump, a man whose own lack of "discretion and judgment" in both his public and private life is utterly disqualifying:

"...[G]iven Clinton's record of extraordinary lack of discretion and judgment, the risk [of receiving classified intelligence briefings] is just too great."

Meanwhile, this moral midget was confronted by a young Republican student at a town hall yesterday and asked how he could justify supporting Rump. Here's what "Lyin'" Ryan said:

“You’re going to help elect Hillary Clinton,” he said. “And I don’t think Hillary Clinton is support any of the things you stand for if you’re a Republican,” calling a potential Clinton presidency “a third Obama term.” 

The Republican leader told CNN host Jake Tapper that he justifies his support for Trump because “it is a binary choice.” 

“It is either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. You don’t get a third option.”

This is yet another stain (tattoo?) that will and should remain on "Lyin'" Ryan, the corporate media's idea of a Republican "intellect," who is in fact a charlatan of the first order.  His career- long willingness to put party over country, now manifested in working to elect an unfit, unstable authoritarian demagogue, should never be forgotten -- by the voters or by history.

(Photo:  You know where you can stick those thumbs, right?)

Bigot Trump Doubles Down On Criticism Of "Mexican" Judge (UPDATED)

Because, of course he does (WSJ, via Steve Benen):

Donald Trump on Thursday escalated his attacks on the federal judge presiding over civil fraud lawsuits against Trump University, amid criticism from legal observers who say the presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s comments are an unusual affront on an independent judiciary.

In an interview, Mr. Trump said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel had “an absolute conflict” in presiding over the litigation given that he was “of Mexican heritage” and a member of a Latino lawyers’ association. Mr. Trump said the background of the judge, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants, was relevant because of his campaign stance against illegal immigration and his pledge to seal the southern U.S. border. “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest,” Mr. Trump said.

Please proceed, Rump.

UPDATE:  Freshly- minted Rump supporter Rep. Paul "Lyin'" Ryan begins his tap dance:

Trump comments on Judge Curiel "out of left field .. i completely disagree w/the thinking behind that." - Paul Ryan on radio just now

— Jon Ward (@jonward11) June 3, 2016

Actually, more like "right field."

Prescient:

Paul Ryan was clearly waiting for the critical "call a federal judge an untrustworthy Mexican" threshold for unity

— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) June 2, 2016

UPDATE II:  Rump has now tripled down on his racist attack;  he's out of control.  Sad!

Paul Ryan, Quietly Loving The Poor

Mirroring the cynical "heartfelt interest" our local football team owner, Li'l Danny Snyder, is suddenly showing toward Native Americans (see post below), we're also being informed (again and again) that Beltway media scrum fave Rep. Paul "Lyin'" Ryan (R- Galt's Gulch) has a quiet "heartfelt interest" in another forgotten segment of the population:

Ryan’s rebranding effort — sorry, his heartfelt interest — is inevitably described as “quiet.” Ryan “has spent the past year quietly touring impoverished communities across the country,” reports Coppins. A similar reported piece in National Review last June detailed “Ryan’s quiet pitch to the poor.” As did a Washington Post story last month(“Ryan … has been quietly visiting inner-city neighborhoods”). Coppin’s story quotes a skeptic, but adopts an almost perfect credulous tone.

It might seem odd that Ryan’s determination to keep his love of the poor quiet would nevertheless leak out in the media, over and over again. “Ryan has deliberately left the cameras behind during his excursions to poor neighborhoods this year in places like Indiana and New Jersey,” reports Coppins, “but the stories of his interactions with the poor somehow find a way of leaking into public view.” Somehow. The stories find a way. Because stories, far from being inanimate human creations, as you might think, actually have minds of their own and a willpower so fierce they can defy even the most secrecy-minded spinmeister.

Is there any politician who gets more undeserved attention than the "zombie-eyed granny-starver" from Wisconsin (o.k., but Grampypants McCain is at a whole different level of media obsequiousness)?  Is there any other politician who can get away with supporting cuts to the food stamp program and cutting off unemployment insurance and still be portrayed as having concern for the poor?  Is there more credulous a person than a reporter dutifully "exposing" the cynical "heartfelt interest" of an Ayn Rand acolyte in the plight of the poor?

(Photo:  Ryan washing already-washed soup kitchen dishes in a photo-op during the 2012 campaign.)

Ryan Was For Stimulus Before He Was Against It

Rep. Paul "Lyin'" Ryan is turning out to be as big a hypocritical flip-flopper as his running mate, Willard "Romney Hood" Romney. Here's Chris Hayes with a blast from Ryan's past, where he declares "Stimulus good" (as long as it's a Rethuglican President asking for it -- he wouldn't want to help a recovery under a Democratic President, of course), after the unavoidable ad:

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