Showing posts with label Republican National Convention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Republican National Convention. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

QOTD -- Revisionism


At the Republican National Convention on Monday, Trump was hailed as a bold and lifesaving leader who “was right” on the novel coronavirus while Democrats, doctors and pundits were wrong from the beginning. One campaign-style video that aired during the convention hailed Trump as the “one leader” who stood up to the virus while quoting Democratic figures who played down the severity of the virus in its early stages.

It’s a revisionist version of recent history belied by hours of videotape in which the president minimized the threat of the virus for months, falsely predicted that it would “disappear” with warmer weather, promoted several unproven miracle cures, pushed states to reopen before meeting federal government benchmarks, equivocated on mask-wearing, defied social distancing guidelines and repeatedly told Americans that everything was under control. -- Toluse Olorunnipa, on the front page of the Washington Post today (for the most part, the Post, unlike other media, is doing a decent job of accurately reporting the lies and depredations of the Trump regime).
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Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Tweets Of The Day -- Republican National Circus Edition





  







 

  




 


Finally, a sobering thought --




So, that's why we take nothing for granted this time.  And we vote like our lives depend on it, because they do.  Or, put another way,

 


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Republican National Circus -- Day 1


 Stephen Colbert brilliantly summarizes the first day of the Republican National Convention circus, with all its clowns, freaks, misfits, gargoyles and scary acts:




BONUS:  Sara Benincasa joins Stephen for a must- see preview of Melon Trump's speech tonight --




BONUS II:  On a serious note, here's some fact checking and discussion about the "parade of dishonesty" last night --




BONUS III:  A "Land of Promise" it was not --
President Trump and his political allies mounted a fierce and misleading defense of his political record on the first night of the Republican convention on Monday, while unleashing a barrage of attacks on Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Democratic Party that were unrelenting in their bleakness.
Hours after Republican delegates formally nominated Mr. Trump for a second term, the president and his party made plain that they intended to engage in sweeping revisionism about Mr. Trump’s management of the coronavirus pandemic, his record on race relations and much else. And they laid out a dystopian picture of what the United States would look like under a Biden administration, warning of a “vengeful mob” that would lay waste to suburban communities and turn quiet neighborhoods into war zones.
At times, the speakers and prerecorded videos appeared to be describing an alternate reality: one in which the nation was not nearing 180,000 deaths from the coronavirus; in which Mr. Trump had not consistently ignored serious warnings about the disease; in which the president had not spent much of his term appealing openly to xenophobia and racial animus; and in which someone other than Mr. Trump had presided over an economy that began crumbling in the spring.
It's the Trump Party, down to every last empty, soullesss shell.
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Monday, August 24, 2020

Monday Reading


As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

As you are doubtless aware, the Republican National Convention circus starts tonight.  There'll be plenty of freaks and oddities, clowns piling out of clown cars, prestidigitation designed to distract, and lots to clean up after the elephant parade.  The carnival barker will dominate the show because it's his show, his circus.

Better late than never:
Two dozen former Republican lawmakers on Monday came out to endorse Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on the first day of the 2020 Republican National Convention.
Fox News reports that the list of former GOP lawmakers is headlined by Jeff Flake, the former Arizona senator who frequently clashed with the president before retiring in 2018.
The other Republicans endorsing Biden are former Sens. John Warner of Virginia, Gordon Humphrey of New Hampshire, and former Reps. Steve Bartlett of Texas, Bill Clinger of Pennsylvania, Tom Coleman of Missouri, Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Charles Djou of Hawaii, Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma, Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland, Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania, Bob Inglis of South Carolina, Jim Kolbe of Arizona, Steve Kuykendall of California, Ray LaHood of Illinois, Jim Leach of Iowa, Connie Morella of Maryland, Mike Parker of Mississippi, Jack Quinn of New York, Claudine Schneider of Rhode Island, Chris Shays of Connecticut, Peter Smith of Vermont, Alan Steelman of Texas, Bill Whitehurst of Virginia, Dick Zimmer of New Jersey, and Jim Walsh of New York.
No Bushes, Corker, Romney, etc.  Integrity and principles were never a strong suit with Republicans. Just influence and power.

E.J. Dionne, Jr., tells us why the list above and the one of over 70 Republican national security officials published last week matters:
...[O]utside of his political base — you can expect it will be well attended-to on immigration, guns and abortion — Trump is not looking for love this week.
His primary goal is one Kentucky politics watchers have long ascribed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: The president wants to be the second most loathed person on the ballot come November. He will try to efface Biden’s image of empathy and decency with a ghoulish cartoon sketch of a man under the control of radical forces.
By highlighting support for Biden from prominent Republicans, Biden’s lieutenants made Trump’s job more difficult. The Democratic convention was also relentless in portraying the pain and suffering the nation has endured because of Trump’s mishandling of covid-19. And it was just as determined to turn Biden, by virtue of his own trials, generous spirit and thoughtful calm, into the ideal healer.
The party of no ideas:
The Republican Party will not adopt a new platform at its convention beginning Monday night and will instead maintain the party’s 2016 platform and broad support for President Donald Trump’s agenda, the Republican National Committee announced Sunday. In a resolution, the party stated that it would “continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda” and would not issue a new party platform until 2024, citing the scaled-back convention and inability for the Convention Committee on Platform to meet. It remains unclear what Trump’s second-term agenda is, as he has repeatedly failed to describe policies he plans to enact... 
  
 
Good trouble:
Postal workers in Washington State have reinstalled high-speed mail sorting machines—dismantled after controversial orders from the U.S. Postal Service— despite USPS orders not to put machines back in use.  [snip]
Only two facilities, Seattle-Tacoma and one in Dallas, seem to be ignoring the Postal Service’s directive to leave decommissioned sorting machines out of use.
The postal unions need to get behind this and give these employees and others around the country cover for acting in the best interests of the Postal Service and the American people.

It seems oily oligarch/ foreclosure king and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin had a significant role to play in getting Postmaster General DeJoy into his position:
In early February, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin invited two Republican members of the Postal Service’s board of governors to his office to update him on a matter in which he had taken a particular interest — the search for a new postmaster general.
Mr. Mnuchin had made clear before the meeting that he wanted the governors to find someone who would push through the kind of cost-cutting and price increases that President Trump had publicly called for and that Treasury had recommended in a December 2018 report as a way to stem years of multibillion-dollar losses.
It was an unusual meeting at an unusual moment.
Since 1970, the Postal Service had been an independent agency, walled off from political influence. The postmaster general is not appointed by the president and is not a cabinet member. Instead, the postal chief is picked by a board of governors, with seats reserved for members of both parties, who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for seven-year terms.
Now, not only was the Trump administration, through Mr. Mnuchin, involving itself in the process for selecting the next postmaster general, but the two Democratic governors who were then serving on the board were not invited to the Treasury meeting. Since the meeting did not include a quorum of board members, it was not subject to sunshine laws that apply to official board meetings and there is no formal Postal Service record or minutes of what was discussed.
Nearly six months later, that meeting, along with other interactions between Mr. Mnuchin and the postal board, has taken on heightened significance as the Trump administration confronts allegations it sought to politicize the Postal Service and hinder its ability to handle a surge in mail-in ballots in November’s election. In interviews, documents and congressional testimony, Mr. Mnuchin emerges as a key player in selecting the board members who hired the Trump megadonor now leading the Postal Service and in pushing the agenda that he has pursued.
Of course, Mnuchin has been involved in sabotaging USPS funding, blocking access to Trump's tax returns, and so many other egregious acts in service to the Orange Shitstain that he deserves a special place in the Trump regime's pantheon of evildoers.

We close by recommending you get a fuller picture of life around the Internet with Infidel 753's excellent link round- up.  Hopefully by now you've bookmarked his blog like a good citizen!

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Sunday, August 23, 2020

Tweets Of The Day -- The Circus Is Coming



 

 

 

 

 

 




And, finally --

 

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Republican National Convention Preview -- The Speakers




The Republican National Convention has its speakers all lined up ready to provide wall- to- wall white grievance, "radical socialists!", "Russia hoax!", more white grievance, god 'n' guns, crackpots, We Are Qanon, still more white grievance, more nuttery, all stitched together with nonstop lies -- repeat ad nauseam.  Oh, and above all, All Praise and Glory to Dear Leader, who has insisted on appearing on all four nights of the convention!

Here are some of the fine people on their side that will be speaking:

-- Protectors of their castle from BLM hordes and definitely- not- racist Missouri man and wife Mark and Patricia McCloskey (who may or may not be packing);

-- Smirk, the privileged teenage MAGA hat twit who got his jollies blocking an elderly Native American man's protest in D.C., in January 2019, and who subsequently sued the Washington Post and CNN for basically pointing out that he was a privileged teenage MAGA hat twit;

-- Covidiot South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who once provided Trump with a 4- foot scale model of Mt. Rushmore with Trump's puss on it;

-- Andrew Pollack, father of Parkland H.S. shooting victim Meadow Pollack and, counterintuitively, now a gun fondling nut;

-- If we're lucky, COVID Donnie's pencil- necked senior advisor Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner, who perhaps will provide an uplifting speech about how well the economy has done for him, how meritocracy is overrated, and what life is like in "Bone Saw" Bin Salman's pocket;  and

-- Animatronic Rudolph Hess, who will introduce Dear Leader with a vein- bulging "Trump is America, America is Trump!" salute (ok, we made that one up... or did we?).

Finally, what are the odds any of these fine people will step up and provide their true thoughts about Dear Leader:



(Photo illustration by Slate)
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Saturday, August 22, 2020

Republican National Convention Preview -- The Roll Call Of States


After watching the roll call of states at the Democratic National Convention, historian Kevin Kruse offered up his vision of a roll call at the upcoming Republican National Convention.  It's worth posting in toto:


 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




 

 

 

       
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Friday, August 21, 2020

Here's Your Republican National Convention Preview





We'll have more on this theme in the coming days.
 
(h/t Silver Spring Bureau Chief Brian)
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Sunday, July 24, 2016

Sunday Cartoon - Has Trump Got A Deal For You!


(click on image to enlarge)



(David Fitzsimmons, (Tucson) Arizona Daily, via Crooks and Liars)

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Saturday, July 23, 2016

Today's Cartoons - Scenes From Last Week At The Cleveland Asylum


(click on images to enlarge)

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)
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Thursday, July 21, 2016

Today's Cartoon Threefer - The Republican National Sh*tshow


(click on images to enlarge)



(Darrin Bell, via gocomics.com)



(Matt Davies, via gocomics.com)



(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

If you've been looking for "ideas" or "policies" from the podium of the Republican National Convention Sh*tshow, you've been disappointed (?).  What you  have seen are a lot of fever dreams, some plagiarism, a little backstabbing, but mostly you'll get rage-gasms and more rage-gasms,  directed at Hillary Clinton.  They have nothing, zero, nada to offer except their uninformed hatred, conspiracy theories, lies and an unfit, dangerous demagogue as their nominee.

BONUS:  John Avlon echoes the mood at the sh*tshow:
And the illusion of being a party built on policies and principles, rather than cultural and economic resentments, seems lost to the latest generation of Know-Nothings. Free trade has been all but abandoned but the anti-gay platform has been enhanced. 
Hating Hillary, a time-honored pastime in conservative circles, has become the glue that holds this motley crew together. But even that partisan emotional outlet has crossed the line from typical team-ism to something darker and more surreal. A recurring theme in the convention hall is the chant to “Lock Her Up” while wearing T-shirts that say “Hillary for Prison.” There are countries where political opponents are threatened with imprisonment. America hasn’t traditionally been one of them. 
But this time it feels different. America is on the knife-edge of something dangerous. 
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Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Another Rage-gasm At The Republican Sh*tshow


Clearly, after first night bug- eyed rants by the likes of despicable Rudy "Noun, Verb, 9-11" Giuliani, speakers on the second night of the Republican National Convention Sh*tshow also forgot to take their thorazine.  Just two examples should suffice.

Ben "On Meds?" Carson:
“One of the things I have learned about Hillary Clinton is that one of her heroes is Saul Alinsky,” Carson said.  
Alinsky has been a popular target for the right and his ideas have been tied to President Obama and Clinton. Carson said Alinsky acknowledged Lucifer in one of his books.
That's Ben "On Meds?" version of six degrees of Kevin Bacon, except he cut out four degrees.

Then, Donald "Rump" Trump's personal valet and Big Mac fetcher Gov. Chris "Krispykreme" Christie:
Christie said “every region of the world has been infected with her flawed judgment,” citing Clinton’s resistance to adding Boko Haram to the terrorist watch list. 
“What happened because of this reckless action by the candidate who is the self-proclaimed champion of women around the world? These terrorists abducted hundreds of innocent young girls two years ago,” Christie said. “These schoolgirls are still missing today.
Debunked!

Krispykreme also led the frothing mob in call- and- response chants of "Guilty or not guilty" over delusional examples of Hillary Clinton's ethics.  That's from Mr. Bridgegate.  Or, as Hillary herself puts it:
 BONUS:  As usual, Charles Pierce nails "Big Chicken."

BONUS II: To quote Big Chicken, "We are about to be led by not only a strong leader but by a caring, genuine and decent person". But enough about Hillary Clinton. Bada boom.

BONUS III:  Rude Pundit reviews Big Chicken and Il Douche, Jr. (salty but appropriate to the occasion).
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Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Cartoon And Read Of The Day - Trump's Sh*tshow


(click on image to enlarge)



(Brian McFadden, via gocomics.com)

Frequent blind squirrel and Reagan/ Thatcher Tory Andrew Sullivan had some thoughts in his live blogging of the sh*tshow last night:
Just mulling over the events tonight, there’s one obvious stand-out. I didn’t hear any specific policy proposals to tackle clearly stated public problems. It is almost as if governing, for the Republican right, is fundamentally about an attitude, rather than about experience or practicality or reasoning. The degeneracy of conservatism – its descent into literally mindless appeals to tribalism and fear and hatred – was on full display. You might also say the same about the religious right, the members of whom have eagerly embraced a racist, a nativist, a believer in war crimes, and a lover of the tyrants that conservatism once defined itself against. Their movement long lost any claim to a serious Christian conscience. But that they would so readily embrace such an unreconstructed pagan is indeed a revelation. 
If you think of the conservative movement as beginning in 1964 and climaxing in the 1990s, then the era we are now in is suffering from a cancer of the mind and the soul. That the GOP has finally found a creature that can personify these urges to purge, a man for whom the word “shameless” could have been invented, a bully and a creep, a liar and cheat, a con man and wannabe tyrant, a dedicated loather of individual liberty, and an opponent of the pricelessly important conventions of liberal democracy is perhaps a fitting end. 
This is the gutter, ladies and gentlemen, and it runs into a sewer. May what’s left of conservatism be carried out to sea.
First of all, cheers to that last graph.

To be specific though, the "conservative movement" Sullivan says began in 1964 with Barry Goldwater was undeniably founded on "mindless appeals to tribalism and fear and hatred."  It has always been a white nativist movement, exclusionary in its "patriotism," authoritarian at heart, comforting the comfortable.  To imagine there wasn't a "cancer" at its heart when it ejected Rockefeller Republicans in San Francisco in 1964; when it opted for the racist "Southern Strategy" in 1968; when Reagan kicked off his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1980; when Poppy Bush ran the Willie Horton ads in 1988;  with the 7- year- long campaign to delegitimize President Obama and cast him as somehow not American;  to imagine ALL THAT just happened to spring up personified in the form of Donald "Rump" Trump is to be in profound denial and profoundly ahistorical.

But, hey, welcome to reality anyway.
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Day One At The Republican Hunger Games: Sad!


The New York Daily News cover says it all.

(click on image to enlarge)



How bad was it?  Well, beyond Melania Trump's plagiarized speech, there's all this:
People inside the hall streamed for the exits as Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn droned on, and NBC wrapped up its hour, after some banter between its anchors, with a shot of a shockingly empty arena. 
It was a rough end to a day that began with Trump’s campaign feuding with the popular Republican governor of Ohio, and that featured shouting and jostling on the convention floor as the party tried to stamp out the last embers of the Never Trump campaign. All day, cable news chyrons spoke of disunity and chaos. 
On stage, there was a red-meat buffet of raw emotion for an angry Republican electorate, with little talk of ideology or policy. Indeed, there were more mentions of fallen American soldiers than of conservatism.
There's a lot more to read at the link and elsewhere, including hair- on- fire "oratory" making it sound like a Tea Party rally, Republican messages getting stepped on by (who else?) narcissist Donald "Rump" Trump, and the understandable exodus of delegates well before the end of the night.

As for one of the clowns pictured above, the despicable Rudy "Noun, Verb, 9-11" Giuliani, Charles Pierce had it right:
... Rudy Giuliani bellowed like a man in search of a balcony, or a man in search of a Thorazine the size of a manhole cover. This was the real stuff, the strong medicine that this crowd had gathered to hear. His national ambitions snuffed out in gales of laughter back in the day, Giuliani did everything Monday night except guarantee that the trains would run on time. 
"There's no next election. This is it. There's no time left for us to revive our great country!" 
And I beheld a pale horse's ass and the name that sat upon him was Death, and hell followed after him.
Hell, indeed.  (LOL - Andy Borowitz on Rudy "Noun, Verb, 9/11"'s rant.)
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Monday, July 18, 2016

Tweets Of The Day - And So It Begins (UPDATED)


The Republican National Convention Sh*tshow, that is.



UPDATE:  Oh, it's a sh*tshow!  And the Stormtrumpers have been weighing in with some good old fashioned anti- Semitism.
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