The GOP: Not What It Used to Be

[fraurosena]

Whelp, I guess I shouldn't be projecting what works in my country onto another political system. 

 

[CTRLZero]

24 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Whelp, I guess I shouldn't be projecting what works in my country onto another political system. 

 

It’s okay.  I am in a constant state of wishful thinking where our politics are concerned. 

[GreyhoundFan]

35 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Whelp, I guess I shouldn't be projecting what works in my country onto another political system. 

 

I wish it could be like it is there. I'd love a functional multi-party system.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[Xan]

Are there any normal people left in the Republican Party?

[fraurosena]

18 hours ago, Xan said:

Are there any normal people left in the Republican Party?

Anyone who calls themselves a Republican under the current circumstances cannot by any definition of the word be called normal.

[GreyhoundFan]

Geez, the GQP is a cluster of dumbasses. They don’t even know the correct flag  

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Hawley is such an idiot 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

By the way, this is the fake Patrick Henry quote the nimrod tweeted. 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Now they're mad at Barbie.

 

The Lincoln Project's response:

[47of74]

Now not even the weather people are safe from harassment

Quote

The harassment started to intensify as TV meteorologist Chris Gloninger did more reporting on climate change during local newscasts — outraged emails and even a threat to show up at his house.

Gloninger said he had been recruited, in part, to “shake things up” at the Iowa station where he worked, but backlash was building. The man who sent him a series of threatening emails was charged with third-degree harassment. The Des Moines station asked him to dial back his coverage, facing what he called an understandable pressure to maintain ratings.

So, on June 21, the 38-year-old announced that he was leaving KCCI-TV — and his 18-year career in broadcast journalism altogether.

Gloninger's experience is all too common among meteorologists across the country who are encountering reactions from viewers as they tie climate change to extreme temperatures, blizzards, tornadoes and floods in their local weather reports. For on-air meteorologists, the anti-science trend that has emerged in recent years compounds a deepening skepticism of the news media.

 

[Ozlsn]

12 hours ago, 47of74 said:

The Des Moines station asked him to dial back his coverage, facing what he called an understandable pressure to maintain ratings.

Seriously here... maybe they should just stop reporting on extreme events altogether. Or mention it in brief after the forecast:

" Sunny and hot tomorrow, with a late change. Similar through the week but a cold front due to arrive on Friday with cooler temperatures over the weekend. And a freak tornado wiped out half of Townsburg, early for the year. Over to you John!"

"Sounds like a good week Greg, maybe not for those in Townsburg, or in Cityville after last week's unseasonable flash flooding. Those headlines again, local politician denies road maintenance budget hole due to 'luxury' furniture purchases in office; school library down to three books after parent concerns; long heat wave causes widespread brownouts. Don't look up!"

[GreyhoundFan]

I hope she does face criminal charges. It would serve her right.

 

[47of74]

The crazies gathered in Des Moines

Quote

With its first-in-the-nation Republican caucuses, and new law restricting abortion in the state, all eyes are on Iowa.

Over 2,000 people attended the FAMiLY Leadership Summit in Des Moines, where they heard from six Republican presidential hopefuls. At that same event, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the abortion bill passed by the legislature during a one-day special session on Tuesday.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

These people are insane:

 

[fraurosena]

She's only just noticed this? Newsflash, dear, your party is not becoming known as a "group of extremist, populist over the top [people] where no one is taking us seriously anymore", it already is, and has been for quite some time.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"The GOP’s lengthy impeachment and censure lists"

Quote

Five GOP senators who served during Donald Trump’s presidency have since been censured by their state party for not toeing the party line.

Republicans have censured so many of their GOP colleagues that they have done it to both Rep. Tony Gonzales (Tex.) and Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio). They’ve also now made a Democratic colleague, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the first member in modern history to be censured by the House on a purely party-line vote.

And the party during President Biden’s two-plus years in office has invoked impeachment so often that it has cited at least five different justifications for mounting an effort against him, while threatening separate impeachments against a quarter of his Cabinet. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is leaning into the idea more than ever, floating impeachment inquiries for both Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland in the last month alone.

Welcome to a new era of politics, in which the Republican Party has wielded impeachment, censure and other tools of sanction with a startling degree of regularity. Democrats increased their use during a Trump administration that was besieged by scandals, but Republicans have ratcheted things up even more — and in some historic ways.

So far this year, Republicans have introduced impeachment articles 13 times and censure resolutions — formal reprimands — six times, according to data from Quorum, which tracks legislative action. That combined total of 19 is more than any party has introduced in any year since at least the 1980s, and the year is just half over.

The previous highs for each party came in 2021, when Democrats impeached Trump for the second time and sought to censure eight House Republicans after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Even that year, though, the total numbers for Democrats (14) and Republicans (13) were similar, with Republicans filing 11 attempts to impeach the newly elected Biden and members of his Cabinet.

These numbers are bills filed, rather than efforts that came to votes. Democrats actually did impeach Trump, something we have yet to see from Republicans in the case of Biden.

But the true measure of the GOP’s embrace of the impeachment threat is that these measures have been lodged against eight different top administration officials, including Biden. During Trump’s presidency, he was the only subject of any official Democratic impeachment efforts.

Nor do they tell the full story of such punitive threats, including censure, which the GOP has used extensively outside the halls of Congress — mostly against fellow Republicans who did not show loyalty to the party in general or Trump in particular. Since 2021, those being censured by state parties or the Republican National Committee have included five current or former GOP senators, a sitting GOP governor, five GOP House members and a smattering of state legislators.

But the thrust of the efforts is largely the same: increasingly using for political leverage tools that are supposed to be reserved for the most serious circumstances.

Last month provided a striking example. Schiff was just the third member of Congress in 40 years to be censured. In addition to the historically partisan nature of the vote, Schiff’s alleged offense — overstating the evidence to impeach Trump — placed him alongside members who in all cases since 1921 either allegedly broke the law or promoted the idea of violence against lawmakers. (Arizona GOP Rep. Paul A. Gosar was censured in 2021 for the latter offense; the others were censured for alleged and proven violations of law.)

At the state level, Tennessee Republicans spearheaded the unprecedented expulsions of two Black Democratic state lawmakers for joining a gun-control protest on the state House floor. Montana Republicans banned a transgender lawmaker from the state House floor for saying GOP colleagues had “blood on your hands.” And Oklahoma Republicans censured a nonbinary lawmaker after state troopers said the lawmaker temporarily blocked the troopers from questioning a suspect.

McCarthy’s move toward impeachment inquiries of Biden and Garland is also a remarkable escalation. Trump was impeached twice — but in each case for conduct that even many Republicans objected to. Trump’s second impeachment also drew a historic number of crossover votes, with 10 House Republicans voting to impeach and seven Senate Republicans voting to convict.

With these tactics increasing in regularity, we thought it worth recapping all the times the GOP has censured a lawmaker or threatened impeachment since 2021. The lists are long — and likely to get longer.

Impeachment threats

• Administration officials are listed alongside the alleged reasons for impeachment and, in parenthesis, some of the lawmakers pressing for it.
• President Biden: Afghanistan withdrawal (Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, others)
• Biden: border security (Greene, Reps. Bob Gibbs, Bill Posey and Andrew Ogles)
• Biden: Hunter Biden’s business dealings (Greene, Ogles, Reps. Jim Banks, Claudia Tenney, others)
• Biden: covid-19 eviction moratorium (Greene, Gibbs)
• Biden: selling oil from strategic reserve to foreign nations (Greene)
• Vice President Harris: Afghanistan (Boebert, Rep. Ralph Norman)
• Garland: supposed politicization of the Justice Department (Greene)
• FBI Director Christopher A. Wray: supposed politicization of the FBI (Greene)
• Secretary of State Antony Blinken: Afghanistan (Norman and Rep. Andy Harris)
• Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas: border security (Greene, Reps. Clay Higgins, Andy Biggs and Pat Fallon)
• Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio (Reps. Warren Davidson and Mike Collins)
• Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin: Afghanistan (Rep. Cory Mills)

Censures

Lawmakers are listed alongside their alleged offenses and, in parenthesis, the body censuring them. Censures by various county parties are not included.

• Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.): Trump criticisms (state party)
• Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.): gun rights, LGBT rights, immigration (state party)
• Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.): vote to convict Trump at impeachment (state party)
• Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.): vote to convict Trump at impeachment (state party)
• Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska): vote to convict Trump at impeachment, confirmation vote, abortion rights support (state party)
• Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R): pandemic emergency orders (state party)
• Rep. Liz Cheney (R- Wyo.): Trump criticisms, vote to impeach (RNC, state party)
• Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.): Trump criticisms, vote to impeach (RNC)
• Gonzales (R-Tex.): guns, same-sex marriage (state party)
• Gonzalez (R-Ohio): vote to impeach Trump (state party)
• Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.): vote to impeach Trump (state party)
• Arizona state House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R): Jan. 6 committee testimony (state party)
• 22 Ohio state House members: voting with Democrats to elect an alternative GOP speaker (state party)
• Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers: speaking at a white-nationalist conference, violent language and political threats (state party)
• Schiff: allegedly overstating evidence to impeach Trump (Congress)
• Oklahoma state Rep. Mauree Turner (D): temporarily blocking questioning of a suspect in their office (state legislature)

The list above does not include the Tennessee expulsions or the Montana lawmaker who was banned from the state House floor, which technically weren’t censures.

At least one Democrat has also been censured by her state party in recent years, with the Arizona Democratic Party censuring then-Sen. Kyrsten Sinema last year for not supporting changes to the Senate filibuster rules. Sinema has since left the party to become an independent.

 

[47of74]

Yeah the GQP is trying to turn the Iowa State Fair into a giant bund meeting

Quote

The Iowa State Fair is a mainstay during caucus season. Candidates flock to the fair and give soapbox speeches, shake hands with supporters, and even take in some fair food.

Iowa Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kaufmann says it’s important to do that due to the number of people that come every year, and with that, the fair is a direct connection to the voters.

“They’re tapping into something that is deeply rural, deeply small town, and deeply Iowa,” Kaufmann said.

At the fair, Republican candidates are being interviewed by Governor Kim Reynolds in what she calls “Fair Side Chats.” Candidates are also taking part in the longstanding Des Moines Register Political Soapbox.

Fuck.  I wish these people would stay fucking away from fairs and let them be about getting the community or the state together than this bullshit.

[GreyhoundFan]

Why is this not a surprise?

 

[Audrey2]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Why is this not a surprise?

 

But Hillary... But RFK....

[47of74]

6 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

But Hillary... But RFK....

That's been a long time concern for me for either party.  There should be a residency requirement that says a person needs to live in a state for a certain number of years before running for state or Federal office and maintain residence in that state.  I'm not surprised these Republican fuck sticks are doing shit like this.

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

Gym has a dumb take. At least he’s consistent.

[GreyhoundFan]

You couldn't make this up: "Virginia GOP Official Displays 16 Foot Penis Sign at Youth Baseball Game to Protest Woke"

Quote

Ron Hedlund displayed a massive penis sign with the words, "Biden Sucks" written across it at a youth baseball game at RF&P Park in Henrico County, Virginia. In a video captured at the event, Hedlund, who is listed as a Virginia GOP Central Committee Representative defended his sign after a community member said it was inappropriate because there were children present.

In the video, you can see a pan of the field. The man also had a "Fuck Biden" inflatable "air dancer" sign in the back of his pick up truck parked near the field. Hedlund celebrated and posted videos of teenage boys taking selfies with his massive penis sign at the park.

On social media, one user wrote that police came and made Hedlund put away his massive penis sign displayed directly across from children playing baseball at the park. However, Hedlund then reportedly displayed "fuck Biden" signs and the police refused to come back out.

Ron Hedlund posted video to YouTube describing the sign as 16 feet long and a caricature and linked it to his personal protests against school boards offering sex education and affirming transgender students. Hedlund said he only had "Fuck Biden" signs on Thursday at the park, but because people complained he would be deploying his penis sign on Friday during another youth baseball game. 

On Friday, Hedlund celebrated as teenage boys held his penis sign for selfies.

Ron Hedlund is a self described supporter of Donald Trump after initially supporting Ted Cruz in the 2016 primary.

Such a class act. /s

 

You can't unsee it:

Spoiler

 

Edited August 19, 2023 by GreyhoundFan

[Audrey2]

3 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

You couldn't make this up: "Virginia GOP Official Displays 16 Foot Penis Sign at Youth Baseball Game to Protest Woke"

Such a class act. /s

 

You can't unsee it:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? For all of their talk about groomers, Republicans are the groomers. I don't see any Democrats freeing willies in public, and now within the last month we've had one in Congress and one in Virginia.

I don't have children, but if I did I would much rather them run into a trans person, a drag queen, or someone who identifies as LGBTQ rather than see a willie at the ballpark during a youth baseball game or while landing on C-Span while flipping through the channels.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Audrey2