POTUS 45.65: I'm Just Here For The Lincoln Project Ads

[BassAle]

Trump has motivated folks to run for really random positions and that is why you see so much of that nonsense.

The Maine GOP was discussing censuring Collins tonight as well. I would be surprised if they actually followed through.

Why would you be surprised? The GOP is a cult.

 

[BassAle]

I've been suspended twice on Facebook for calling MAGAts morons. Once for one day and once for three. Apparently the truth hurts...

I got a 12 hour ban from Twitter for saying “they counted the redneck votes first” when someone asked why everyone assumed most of the remaining Georgia votes to be counted would trend democrat.

 

[dxmnkd316]

If they take the house, it's because of gerrymandering. Texas is gonna gain 3 seats, Florida 2, and the GOP controls those states.

Meanwhile Cali, Illinois, and new York are all losing seats.

Yeah, how they get there isn’t important. It’s problematic if they get there.

 

[rufus]

Another state censure!

https://mobile.twitter.com/jjabbott/status/1361479188994273281

Drew and Wally's beloved Suzie is next.

 

[rufus]

I honestly think they are riding or dying for Trump because so many Republican voters are. If they lose them...they lose their jobs. They'd rather win and stay than stand up knowing they'd lose.

But......but.....they could be making so much more in the private sector!!!!!

 

[Drew S.]

Why would you be surprised? The GOP is a cult.

You’re not wrong. There are some serious wackos involved in running Maine GOP. It’s weird where Maine has four of the most moderate elected politicians in the country in Mills, Collins, Golden, and King.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

If they excise the Kinzinger/Cheney/Romney faction of the Party 1 of 2 things will happen...

1) They become totally irrelevant in the near term

2) It gets really, really, really bad for the country

I think 1 is more realistic based on the math of it...but 2 is the scary outcome and the odds aren't as long as they should be.

What scares me is so many people are primed to believe that if their candidate doesn't win, either the vote was rigged or the rules will be changed after the fact. Good lord even I fall into the latter territory because had the republicans in Wisconsin succeeded for some idiotic reason to invalidate mailed ballots my reaction would probably not have been as peaceful as one might hope.

We can't have 40% or more of the people in this country -- on either side -- believing elections are rigged in any fashion. We may survive a nation where 40% (or even more) of the voters believe in the latest Qanon theories as long as people mostly believed in the sanctity of their ballots. Up until now I think that is what most people DID believe. As Kep loves to point out, there have ALWAYS been wackos out there who believe in some pretty unbelievable crap. The danger is when they don't feel there is a free and fair way for them to persuade the rest of us.

Because of all that, we need political parties of competing, various ideas that appeal to to the vast majority of us, and we have to find a way to make 90% or more us believe the elections will be fair. Frankly I don't think the second part will happen anytime soon, and I don't see the information infrastructure existing to allow it. What has been happening for the last 30-40 years (and has been in overdrive for the last 10-12 years) is going to continue, and I believe accelerate. I frankly think there isn't much hope, and all any of can do now is the societal equivalent of hospice care. This patient is terminal, and we may as well concentrate on making her as comfortable as possible.

 

[Kepler]

What scares me is so many people are primed to believe that if their candidate doesn't win, either the vote was rigged or the rules will be changed after the fact.

Conservatives are far scarier than that. They would rather live in a dictatorship in which their person is in charge than a democracy in which their guy loses half the time. The American Right has rejected the whole idea of democratic, representative government. They want their theocracy where there is no election, there is divine appointment.

They don't have any democratic values. They are Prussian authoritarians obsessed with God, punishment (of others), militarism, law and order.

We've seen this before.

It doesn't end well.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Conservatives are far scarier than that. They would rather live in a dictatorship in which their person is in charge than a democracy in which their guy loses half the time. The American Right has rejected the whole idea of democratic, representative government. They want their theocracy where there is no election, there is divine appointment.

They don't have any democratic values. They are Prussian authoritarians obsessed with God, punishment (of others), militarism, law and order.

We've seen this before.

It doesn't end well.

We have seen it before, and I believe it is going to happen here. For too long, people of good will and intentions have not believed just how fvcked up a good portion of our populace is. Many of my relatives, progressives one and all and some far to the left of me, still think Biden is right to believe he can "work" with the other side. And conservatives of the ilk of George Will or David Brooks all believed that our institutions would save us, because that is where the strength of the nation lies. They are all wrong.

We have faced these problems before. Yes, in the 1800s congressmen brought guns to the capitol floor and beatings were not unheard of. Yes, disinformation is not just a 21st century phenomenon. The problem today is the level and speed at which the disinformation makes its way to every corner of the nation.

It is going to get worse before it gets better. IF it gets better. Frankly I was surprised Obama made it through 8 years of the presidency without a public, credible threat made on his life. I believe Biden's term will not end without political assassinations somewhere in this country, and right now that seems to be all we're missing. Somehow without them the current turmoil still seems more pronounced than even what we faced in the 1960s.

If during his 4 years the ONLY thing Biden accomplishes is actually turning down the temperature I might still consider him a successful president, because right now that seems far more difficult than coming up with a highly effective response to covid or making actual progress on climate change.

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Early poll has Trump crushing his R boot lickers


https://mobile.twitter.com/RyanLizza/status/1361677723576500233

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Kinzinger received letter from family members saying he’s not only upsetting them, but also god, by voting to impeach trump.

I hope he never sees that family again.

 

[Kepler]

Kinzinger received letter from family members saying he’s not only upsetting them, but also god, by voting to impeach trump.

I hope he never sees that family again.

There are a huge number of hateful dumbsh-ts in this country. The best we can do with toxic people is delete them from our lives. They are not worth pleasing, bargaining with, arguing with, or reforming. They are our species' roadkill. Just speed up and put distance between yourself and them.

We need to restore shunning as a social skill. The fact that these people are entitled to equal protection under the law implies nothing about how we deal with them in our day to day social interactions. I recommend we simply boycott them. Erase them from our lives.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

I wish I had some faith that lawsuits or criminal proceedings against trump would go somewhere or amount to something. Sadly I do not believe this at all. trump will not live long enough more than likely even if he was forced to go under oath and answer either civilly or criminally, so that is a bit of a silver lining.

 

[Handyman]

Kinzinger received letter from family members saying he’s not only upsetting them, but also god, by voting to impeach trump.

I hope he never sees that family again.

He told that story on Maher and kind of laughed it off. Everyone has a crackpot in the family.

He and I might not agree much on politics but I love that dude's attitude.

 

[Kepler]

He told that story on Maher and kind of laughed it off.

Here is the letter. It is as charming as one would think:

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

There are a huge number of hateful dumbsh-ts in this country. The best we can do with toxic people is delete them from our lives. They are not worth pleasing, bargaining with, arguing with, or reforming. They are our species' roadkill. Just speed up and put distance between yourself and them.

We need to restore shunning as a social skill. The fact that these people are entitled to equal protection under the law implies nothing about how we deal with them in our day to day social interactions. I recommend we simply boycott them. Erase them from our lives.

I’ve done it- even to extended family- and it’s the right thing, in my mind.

every family may have a crack pot but sometimes those crack pots are neverending sources of toxic negativity and it’s not something I’ll laugh off

 

[Kepler]

every family may have a crack pot but sometimes those crack pots are neverending sources of toxic negativity and it’s not something I’ll laugh off

I am lucky not to have close family members like this (we all went to college) but I do have some cousins and some work friends I have had to excise after repeated horrors. They aren't worth the anger and disgust.

Dr. Mrs. has one entire half of her family who are rabid Republican goons. They could have written the Kinzinger letter. Her strategy has been to keep FB friends with them and simply counter their false statements with sourced facts, without emotion. They are scared AF of her because she is the only person from that side of the family who has ever amounted to anything, so they don't attack her personally, but their replies are the spew the Echo Chamber fills their dupes with -- the same mindless lies our conservatives here regurgitate.

She feels like we should never give up on people. She is a lot more kind than I. Or maybe she just has more invested in extended family than I (which would not be difficult).

 

[Handyman]

I can't remember if this was posted before...but the numbers are scary:

Oh Boy

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Oh everyone I’ve cut off is a cousin so no immediate family members.

Catholic families all having several kids means some of your cousins are crackpots. Or crack heads

 

[Handyman]

I am lucky not to have close family members like this (we all went to college) but I do have some cousins and some work friends I have had to excise after repeated horrors. They aren't worth the anger and disgust.

Dr. Mrs. has one entire half of her family who are rabid Republican goons. They could have written the Kinzinger letter. Her strategy has been to keep FB friends with them and simply counter their false statements with sourced facts, without emotion. They are scared AF of her because she is the only person from that side of the family who has ever amounted to anything, so they don't attack her personally, but their replies are the spew the Echo Chamber fills their dupes with -- the same mindless lies our conservatives here regurgitate.

She feels like we should never give up on people. She is a lot more kind than I. Or maybe she just has more invested in extended family than I (which would not be difficult).

That is how my gf's family is (well part of it) and she does the same thing. It stresses her out. I try to get her to stop because it won't change anything but she won't out of some misguided belief that family matters even when it is psychos.

Kinzinger is different. He is an Evangelical. He is Right Wing. To him they are only 2 degrees of separation away at best. That is why the letter didn't bug him, he gets it he just thinks they are nimrods like your cousins that annoy the hell out of you for normal reasons like Grandma left you her car and not them. For us it is polar opposites so the negativity isn't just family squabbling it is ideological.