Defining the 21st Century Republican Party?

[LawBeefaroni]

OK, I've missed something.

So there is now a rift in the extreme GOP position to the point where one of them is capable of saying that blindly following Kevin McCarthy is on the same level as Jewish Space Lasers?

Starving, angry and cannibalistic: America's rats are getting desperate amid coronavirus pandemic

[Holman]

Return fire:

MTG is supporting McCarthy because (from all accounts) he has promised her significant committee appointments if she backs him.

I guess Boebert (perhaps in pursuit of the same appointments) is playing the anti-Kevin side?

[Kasey Chang]

Journey band member Neal Schon has served fellow Journey bandmate Jonathan Cain with a cease-and-desist for his performance of the classic Journey song "Don't Stop Believin'" at Mar-a-Lago for Trump with MTG, Kimberley Guilfoyle, and Kari Lake singing along.

Here's something I didn't know: Cain's wife is Trump's "Spiritual Advisor" and a televangelist.

Cain's spokesperson replied that "Schon is just frustrated that he keeps losing in court and is now falsely claiming the song has been used at political rallies." Apparently Cain's been accused of abusing the band's credit card.

On the other hand, there's no denying that the song was definitely performed at Mar-a-Lago with MAGA folks attending.

[Unagi]

The band has a credit card?

[Carpet_pissr]

The band has a credit card?

The Journey Discover card. Nice ring to it. Maybe reverse it.

[LordMortis]

The spiritual adviser (married to Journey member) thing has been a known ever since whateverhername is and her believe in wealth and God will give it you grift became common knowledge.

"Schon is just frustrated that he keeps losing in court and is now falsely claiming the song has been used at political rallies."

What? How is that false? Or is it just grift rallies and not overtly "political". If dude has rights to the song, nothing you can do, except snub him, though, right?

[Isgrimnur]

The band has a credit card?

The Journey Discover card. Nice ring to it. Maybe reverse it.

I better get travel miles.

[LawBeefaroni]

The band has a credit card?

Sure. The band is a business entity and has expenses.

[Unagi]

The band has a credit card?

Sure. The band is a business entity and has expenses.

I guess I just thought they stopped touring a few years ago, but I guess that was wrong.

[Isgrimnur]

The band has a credit card?

Sure. The band is a business entity and has expenses.

I guess I just thought they stopped touring a few years ago, but I guess that was wrong.

The road goes on forever and the Journey never ends.

[LordMortis]

The band has a credit card?

Sure. The band is a business entity and has expenses.

I guess I just thought they stopped touring a few years ago, but I guess that was wrong.

/runs to wiki

Wait. These two tour together and have an ongoing pattern of suing each other? Crazy. I can't even begin to comprehend this.

[Unagi]

The band has a credit card?

Sure. The band is a business entity and has expenses.

I guess I just thought they stopped touring a few years ago, but I guess that was wrong.

/runs to wiki

Wait. These two tour together and have an ongoing pattern of suing each other? Crazy. I can't even begin to comprehend this.

Exactly.

[coopasonic]

Wait. These two tour together and have an ongoing pattern of suing each other? Crazy. I can't even begin to comprehend this.

$$$

[Pyperkub]

The spiritual adviser (married to Journey member) thing has been a known ever since whateverhername is and her believe in wealth and God will give it you grift became common knowledge.

"Schon is just frustrated that he keeps losing in court and is now falsely claiming the song has been used at political rallies."

What? How is that false? Or is it just grift rallies and not overtly "political". If dude has rights to the song, nothing you can do, except snub him, though, right?

The Band Elwood! The Band!

[Alefroth]

The spirit of Christmas.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/24/politics ... index.html

Several busloads of migrants were dropped off in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington, DC, on Christmas Eve in 18 degree weather late Saturday.

[Smoove_B]

Saw that last night. It's beyond shameful and the idea that anyone officially celebrating Christmas would support it is so gross. I get that he was re-elected so voters support his nonsense, but good grief.

[Zarathud]

Whoever is misleading immigrants to board those buses should be charged with fraud, kidnapping and human trafficking. They are despicable people who trade in human suffering for political points. Very unchristian and immoral.

[Alefroth]

I initially captioned it WWJD but then saw churches were taking in the refugees and decided that was too broad.

[Pyperkub]

Might be wrong, but I'm going to leave this here (because I can't find the North Carolina power attack thread on my phone today and both the Washington and Oregon areas are a bit known for their extremism. I might be wrong to about the perps tho.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/th ... -rcna63214



Sent from my SM-S908U1 using Tapatalk

[Alefroth]

I'm guessing the perps are right-leaning since they are calling it vandalism. If they were left, it'd be terrorism.

They also seem rather inept given that they breached the properties but couldn't cause more lasting damage.

[Holman]

I'd put this under "Domestic Violent Extremism."

They probably vote Republican, but their strategy is this:

1) Damage electricity infrastructure
2) Inconvenience average Americans
3) ???
4) RACE WAR

[Blackhawk]

I'd put this under "Domestic Violent Extremism."

They probably vote Republican, but their strategy is this:

1) Damage electricity infrastructure
2) Inconvenience average Americans
3) ???
4) RACE WAR

Where does "Feel like effing RAMBO!" fit? It seems to be a big part of the motivation.

[Formix]

I read the same article and said to my wife "Vandalism means they sprayed some graffiti on it, maybe broke a window. This is NOT vandalism." I think it means maybe the local cops know who did it, and are either sympathetic or related.

[malchior]

Buried deep at the end of the article we have this. We're very reluctant in this country to treat the white extremism in this country in the same fashion as the "terrorism" we have spent this entire century laser focused on externally.

I roll my eyes because when I speak with actual electrical execs about this - like I did weeks ago - they believe it is a low-level terrorism campaign but feel like they are on their own. Still at some level the FBI has people on this - at least the Carolina attacks - but we have no real indicators that they are treating this as seriously as we'd like. Hopefully they are.

Early this year, three men pleaded guilty in connection with a plot to disrupt the electricity grid, sow civil unrest and economic uncertainty, and ultimately trigger a race war, federal prosecutors said at the time.

There's no indication the Washington, Oregon and Carolinas attacks shared similar motives. Sunday's Tacoma-area attacks remained under investigation.

Edit: BTW I just saw an ex-FBI agent interview about this and they showed some archive footage from the NC attack and recovery. The footage indicates to me that they trucked in what appeared to be a step down transformer in bulk. It looked like a smaller one but still that's a $600-750K piece of equipment with a 9 month to a year lead time. Below - at 1:50. Also a good explainer about the risks, challenges, etc.

[Carpet_pissr]

Carolinas? It happened in more than one?

[naednek]

I keep reading the title of this thread as "Defending the 21st Century Republican Party" and I answer YOU CAN'T

[malchior]

Carolinas? It happened in more than one?

[Brian]

I keep reading the title of this thread as "Defending the 21st Century Republican Party"

Same.

[Unagi]

Me too.

[Kraken]

The Mass. Republican Party is on life support. The Boston Globe says it's time to fix it.

It can’t be fun being a Massachusetts Republican these days. The party experienced not only a disappointing midterm season on the national level but also an absolute blowout in state elections. The Grand Old Party of Massachusetts is not just impotent. It has flatlined.

The numbers have been counted, but let’s count them again. Come January, there will be zero Republican statewide officials; zero Republicans in the 11-member congressional delegation; and the Democratic supermajorities in both the state House and Senate will have actually grown larger. Today the party has its lowest percentage of registered voters in Massachusetts since World War II and perhaps since its founding: under 9 percent.

No wonder Republican state Representative Shawn Dooley told the Globe earlier this month that “there is either real change on the horizon or there is no Republican Party in Massachusetts.” Or that Ed Dombroski, who lost a state Senate race last month, wrote in CommonWealth magazine: “No, we’re not tired of winning. We’re tired of losing.”

That this is coming from an unabashedly liberal paper shows you just how dead the GOP is here.

It will strike some as disingenuous for a proudly liberal editorial page to lament the bad fortunes of the state’s Republican Party. But this page has consistently stood behind the idea that a vibrant two-party system is crucial for a healthy body politic. Without a strong minority party to provide some checks and balances, one-party rule can too easily lead to hubris and overreach.

But in Massachusetts today, politics consist mainly of the center-left talking with the far-left. With the departure of Governor Charlie Baker in January, the last center-right force in state policy making will be gone, and reasonable conservatism will be reduced to less than a whimper.

Their Rx is simple enough -- replace the leadership that turned the party full MAGA. 'Course, the people who have to do that are primary voters, who are the worst extremists. That won't happen while the lich named trump still haunts the party. If they can somehow purge the MAGAts anyway, they will then have to woo back the reasonable Republicans who've abandoned the party.

[Alefroth]

Maybe an ultra liberal party could be the minority party.

[LordMortis]

CNBC has a pundit for the GOP (former senator and governor of NH) advocating that McCarthy will censure Santos and ask for his resignation because the GOP is the party of moral compass and strong ethics. LOL

Does Santos have his own thread yet?

Edit: In closing, he actually attacked gerrymandering. So, you know he legit believes what he's saying, but it's still LOL after seeing the last 10 years of federal governance (and longer at my state level)

[hepcat]

I’m waiting on the revelation that he falsely added another S to his last name.

[Grifman]

The new “Freedom” Party:

[Jaymann]

The new “Freedom” Party:

Freedom, Musk style.

[LordMortis]

Tweet unavailable.

[Jaymann]

Tweet unavailable.

That's the Way of the Musk.

[malchior]

In this case, the account appears to have deleted it themselves.

[Grifman]

Today’s Republican Party:

[Carpet_pissr]

Sooooo…’winning!’?