2024

[jfish26]

I think McConnell is/was a mixed bag.

On the negative side, his resistance to anything that could, theoretically, have threatened the power he and his clique had accumulated -- both from the Left of the GOP (McCain) and from the Right (Cruz) -- did much to radicalize the base over the last 20 years. Someone more attuned to GOP voters' frustrations might have defused some of the MAGA fury.

Also, you're not gonna get a Hawley or a Vance as the leader, so I think the risk of drastic MAGAfication is probably overblown.

I haven't bothered looking at betting markets, but - Cotton's got to have a great shot, right? I do not consider that to be, in substance, non-MAGAfied.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune is the #2 behind McConnell followed by Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso. Both hold leadership roles now. Texas Sen. John Cornyn is also mentioned in most lists of those most likely to replace McConnell. Cotton is full blown MAGA so I doubt he could garner enough support.

Ok. But when - and this is a genuine question - is the last time the "establishment" GOP won out over MAGA?

Because:

For months, Senate Republicans have operated on the assumption that McConnell’s successor would be one of the “three Johns” close with the current leader: Minority Whip JOHN THUNE (R-S.D.), former Whip JOHN CORNYN (R-Texas) or Conference Chair JOHN BARRASSO (R-Wyo.).

But Trump allies are itching for a dark-horse candidate to shake things up, quietly complaining that any of those three would lead to more of the same. Multiple GOP senators and aides tell Playbook that a group of about a dozen McConnell antagonists in the Senate might band together and use their numbers — along with public pressure — to install a leader more to their liking.

“The idea that it’s just between the ‘Three Johns’ is an outdated narrative from a year ago,” said one Republican ally of the rebels. “There will be somebody else — and possibly a scenario where none of the ‘Johns’ can get consensus, so it takes another candidate to step in.”

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/pl ... r-00144064

We have seen this movie before. The normies tie their dicks in knots and, before you know it, Trump (having expertly sniffed out a power vacuum) gets a lackey into place.

[DCHawk1]

Nah

There is a crisis in America. There is only one man who can stop the Biden Crime Family from destroying our country and stop the persecution of conservatives. You know it, I know it and Lara trump nose it.

DC, You Must Act Now If We Are To Save Our Country! I ask this most humbly.

Please send $50,000 or $100,000 or $100,000,000; whatever your can afford to the RNC. Lara will be a good and faithful custodian of the money. She will make sure that it is spent where it is most needed and can do the most good for the Grand Old Rube Party. No one holds conservative values more closely to their cold dark heart than Lara. Her kids say the pledge of allegiance every night before bed for fucks sake.

Oh.....and fuck Mitt Romney.

I pledge allegiance to the Fraud of the United States of Merica
and to the Rubepublic for which it stands
one nation ruled by Don
divisible, with impunity and vengeance for the pure of blood

Mittens Romney?

The guy who murdered his dog, tortured gay kids, gave Kansas City women cancer, and was gonna put black people back in chains?

He sounds exactly like the kinda guy who would end democracy.

I wonder what bored we were using back then. You s'pose Vega has the archives?

[japhy]

I pledge allegiance to the Fraud of the United States of Merica
and to the Rubepublic for which it stands
one nation ruled by Don
divisible, with impunity and vengeance for the pure of blood

Mittens Romney?

The guy who murdered his dog, tortured gay kids, gave Kansas City women cancer, and was gonna put black people back in chains?

He sounds exactly like the kinda guy who would end democracy.

I wonder what bored we were using back then. You s'pose Vega has the archives?

It's quaintly amusing looking back.....as trumpty dumpy and his winged monkeys continue building the Eye of Sauron.

But seriously, brother can you spare a few $100M for a fellow Merican in need?

[jfish26]

I pledge allegiance to the Fraud of the United States of Merica
and to the Rubepublic for which it stands
one nation ruled by Don
divisible, with impunity and vengeance for the pure of blood

Mittens Romney?

The guy who murdered his dog, tortured gay kids, gave Kansas City women cancer, and was gonna put black people back in chains?

He sounds exactly like the kinda guy who would end democracy.

I wonder what bored we were using back then. You s'pose Vega has the archives?

It's quaintly amusing looking back.....as trumpty dumpy and his winged monkeys continue building the Eye of Sauron.

But seriously, brother can you spare a few $100M for a fellow Merican in need?

It’s the saddest straight-to-VHS sequel to The Butterfly Effect.

Would all of this have happened but for Obama’s tan suit? Or his Correspondents Dinner joke?

On one hand, this project goes back decades, and there is no reason 2016 HAD to be go-time. So in that light this was an inevitability.

On the other hand, as much as nobody “serious” wants to say it out loud, it sure seems as if - and there are a lot of fun echoes to this! - this project required as its avatar and vessel someone as uniquely psychologically and emotionally disfigured, and perhaps as kompromised, as King Grift-a-Lot. So in that light maybe this was not such an inevitability.

[japhy]

The visual representation of the new Rubepublican Party.....a visible orangish brown spray tan line around a puffy face.

Oh for the days of an undignified tan suit. Now we are saddle with a President that eats ice cream cones in public! Jesse Watters is aghast!

How UNMANLY! The new version of Josh Hawley's much acclaimed philosophical tome on Manlymanness will have an entire chapter dedicated to how to eat ice cream in a manly way for the glory of god (with a little "g").

[jfish26]

It is extremely depressing to consider that ALL of this might have been prevented or at least delayed/softened/etc. if the Ds had recognized the Garland fuckery for what it really was.

[twocoach]

Cornyn has officially thrown his hat in the ring to replace McConnell. It will be interesting to see if a MAGA throws in as well and just how many MAGA senators there are in the Senate Republican Conference. No clue if they have anything resembling a "majority" or if they just have enough to drag the process out through a dozen votes.

[jfish26]

Cornyn has officially thrown his hat in the ring to replace McConnell. It will be interesting to see if a MAGA throws in as well and just how many MAGA senators there are in the Senate Republican Conference. No clue if they have anything resembling a "majority" or if they just have enough to drag the process out through a dozen votes.

Well, the (MAGA) House Freedom Caucus tweeted:

Our thoughts are with our Democrat colleagues in the Senate on the retirement of their Co-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (D-Ukraine). No need to wait till November…Senate Republicans should IMMEDIATELY elect a *Republican* Minority Leader.

Again, I think all signs are pointing to this being a writ-small version of what happened to our politics generally: the milquetoast "establishment" part is structurally incapable of avoiding the MAGA bulldozer.

[ousdahl]

Ratchet effect

[Sparko]

It is the stunned inaction which hurts. It does things like prevent Biden from unilaterally using powers he has to say save Ukraine. We are too image conscious politically. People actually appreciate just getting stuff done. It doesn't always work, but take action. Inertia loves a vacuum with no moving parts. Newton's third law of Nabisco.

[jfish26]

It is the stunned inaction which hurts. It does things like prevent Biden from unilaterally using powers he has to say save Ukraine. We are too image conscious politically. People actually appreciate just getting stuff done. It doesn't always work, but take action. Inertia loves a vacuum with no moving parts. Newton's third law of Nabisco.

The macro failure is one of imagination. Rule-followers have a very hard time considering that their opponents will not follow the rules.

[twocoach]

It is the stunned inaction which hurts. It does things like prevent Biden from unilaterally using powers he has to say save Ukraine. We are too image conscious politically. People actually appreciate just getting stuff done. It doesn't always work, but take action. Inertia loves a vacuum with no moving parts. Newton's third law of Nabisco.

The macro failure is one of imagination. Rule-followers have a very hard time considering that their opponents will not follow the rules.

And the opposite is true. Rule breakers just assume that everyone else is breaking the rules because "why wouldn't they?"

[jfish26]

It is the stunned inaction which hurts. It does things like prevent Biden from unilaterally using powers he has to say save Ukraine. We are too image conscious politically. People actually appreciate just getting stuff done. It doesn't always work, but take action. Inertia loves a vacuum with no moving parts. Newton's third law of Nabisco.

The macro failure is one of imagination. Rule-followers have a very hard time considering that their opponents will not follow the rules.

And the opposite is true. Rule breakers just assume that everyone else is breaking the rules because "why wouldn't they?"

That, AND - even where rule-breakers know that the other side isn't breaking rules, rule-breakers have an interest in making people think the other side is breaking rules.

The inverse is not true; rule-followers have nothing to gain (and in fact a lot to lose) by rule-breakers being perceived as following rules.

[twocoach]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/police ... 024-03-01/

Quite the shit show in Michigan for Republicans.

[DeletedUser]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3_ZI0pM ... c1bWwyNnFo

Yikes.

She's completely serious.

[twocoach]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3_ZI0pM ... c1bWwyNnFo

Yikes.

She's completely serious.

Hopelessly brainwashed. And that's probably just someone's grandma saying that shit.

[KUTradition]

cult

In last summer’s CBS News-YouGov survey, Trump supporters – astonishingly – tend to trust him more than they trust their family and friends, conservative media, or even their own religious leaders.

https://www.salon.com/2024/03/02/better ... the-of-go/

[Sparko]

They are buying Macedonian sponsored Trump debit cards. And getting fleeced. So yeah, they are trusting folks who want to hear about gold and not from the old line republicans who created a stable financial system.

[Shirley]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3_ZI0pM ... c1bWwyNnFo

Yikes.

She's completely serious.

Hopelessly brainwashed. And that's probably just someone's grandma saying that shit.

I've been following this from afar through one of the podcasts I listen to. It's hard to believe what's happened to the Republican party in Michigan, except, not. Pigeons>>>meet>>>roost.

Dare we think that blindly acting on your wishes and emotions, i.e., what you want to be true rather than doing the hard work of confronting and dealing with reality, extracts a cost?

We can only hope.

[DCHawk1]