As expected, this morning the House Republicans removed Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney from her position as conference chair after she refused to stop speaking out against the former president for instigating the January 6 attack on our Capitol and the counting of electoral votes for President Joe Biden. The Republicans ousted her by voice vote, which meant that no one had to go on the record for or against Cheney, and the Republicans kept the split in the party from being measurable. It also ensured that she would lose; she has survived a secret ballot vote before.
McCarthy, McConnell and all the Trumpublicans are batshit crazy. I’m done being polite about it. They should be paying the $30 million damage bill and the hospital expenses plus wages lost for all injured Capitol Police.
The surest way to deal with the gaslighting is to starve/suffocate it, and carry on with the business of governance— including building airtight legal cases against the perpetrators while our laws are still in place, so they can be dealt with swiftly, decisively, and permanently— and leave them to all rot away without any personal attention whatsoever, while we work to rebuild our democracy so that it’s stronger than it was before, by including all the voices they wished to silence.. Anything that addresses them directly will only give them the attention they crave and invite them to engage in more of the same wretched behavior. I thought this kind of shit was horrible on a personal scale—but at a national level, it’s absolutely reprehensible. I’m not religious, but I pray we have it in us to weather this crazy storm until it finally passes.
"Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said that calling the attack on the Capitol an insurrection is a “bald-faced lie” and that “if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit….""
These ... people.... astounding with their gaslighting. I watched the replay of Clyde's comments that Jan. 6th was not an insurrection in disbelief... words fail me.
We must do our best to counter the lies, the BIG LIE and many smaller ones, because we can't let the liars take over our country and destroy our democracy.
tired-er. I’m no longer willing or able to read all the minutiae of the daily political scrambles which in a different era of my life fascinated me. I thank you with whole hearted joyous compassion for your also older and wiser being, that continues to listen, read and no doubt engage a group of friends and students and academics to clarify and often simplify the day’s outpouring of political verbiage. And game playing.
I again feel hopeful. Democracy may still be a viable, humane form of government.
My personal experience of ‘a living democracy’ is in my Alcoholics Anonymous affiliation of over 36 years. Everything is accomplished throughout the international and down to the smallest local groups by consensus. Talk, more talk, especially inviting dissenting opinions, study groups and time to contemplate and return to have a final vote. It’s always amazing to be on board for final votes that have been contentious. Inevitably after everyone is heard we go away feeling connected to each other even when we’ve heard opinions that were not easy to listen to. The group consensus keeps us safe in our clean & sober world wide community. Amazing. And uplifting. And really working in the best interest of keeping sobriety available to anyone wishing to make a healthy change in their lives.
I pray our current living United States’ democracy will weather the storms and grow stronger for the effort from all of us.
Sometimes it’s so difficult to listen to all those who lie, cheat and steal their way to power, all the while covering their actions with “poor me” and “we’re the ones being discriminated against!” Ugh.
It’s refreshing to watch parodies like the ones Randy Rainbow 🌈 produces. We all need to laugh to release the frustration...I apologize for any offensive language Randy infuses in his creative songs.
If you need some giggles, here’s Randy Rainbow’s latest.
Good morning everyone! I think this is such an interesting letter. When I heard that McCarthy had decided on a "voice" vote--which is always suspicious--I knew it was because he wanted to guarantee that there would be no reproducible record, because y'know, deniability is his watchword. The letter from over 100 Republican officials stating that they were determined to form a third party should have scared the Kevster and Malignant Mitch but apparently they think they can corral all the money despite this break, and that all of their corporate sponsors--and the Koch and Walton families--will fall into line again.
The issue exercising me this morning is the trend--including Missouri's appalling governor, Mike Parson--for Ghastly Old Pols to cancel the supplemental unemployment payments for the most vulnerable people in their states--usually BIPOC and (I suspect they have forgotten this point in their desire to damage communities of color) the rural poor on the basis that, as the utterly ignorant freshman senator from Kansas, Roger Marshall, said this morning without any evidence whatsoever, enhanced unemployment benefits are encouraging people not to look for work. This rhetoric by the Repugnicans is statistically false, and could be countered as soon as these privileged white men and women parrot it. But the return of the Reagan propaganda about people on public assistance is apparently unassailable except on NPR, where few Ghastly Ones agree to be interviewed because the reporters instantly refute their baseless claims.
My mayor just spent two days in DC trying to lobby the Repugnicans he is forced to work with in order to impress upon them how the Biden infrastructure bill will bring jobs, jobs, jobs to western Missouri and eastern Kansas. They were perfectly happy to have their photo ops with a charismatic Black mayor but then immediately turned around and returned to their idiocies and lies. Meanwhile, Mayor Lucas was posting on Twitter and FB the following: If employers are having trouble hiring people because their unemployment benefits pay them more than the job, the employers need to raise the wages they are paying for the job. True 'dat.
Republicans are hoping a majority of Americans are as exceptionally ignorant and moron stupid as I generally think half of them usually are. I hope I am proven wrong, but as of last count, we only outnumber the morons by 8 million in a population of 330 million.
But with luck, their shit-eating grins as they say "Nobody here but us chickens, boss!" may remind people that the surest way to tell if a Republican office holder is lying is to look and see if his lips are moving.
“Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said that calling the attack on the Capitol an insurrection is a ‘bald-faced lie’ and that ‘if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit….’ “
It’s beyond comprehension and credibility that a U.S. congressman could say such a thing. Normal tourist visit? That’s tragically funny. Was it a normal tourist visit when Buffalo-Man trashed Pelosi’s office, then sat in her chair and propped his legs up on her desk? Or when people were killed on both sides? If that’s the new normal for tourism, Washington can count on a radical drop in their tourist business.
So, as expected, Liz Cheney was voted out of her leadership position in the House. She had said what needed saying and - to her credit - didn't give an inch to her delusional GOP colleagues.
So, that card having been played, what comes next? It seems safe to say that we should not hold our breaths waiting for the GOP to change course or collapse or even see the error they are committing. No, they have decided to double down on the Big Lie, in part because they know there is no going back, but largely - I fear - because most of them actually believe it. They are caught up in mass hysteria and out of control, having accepted their Faustian deal. Uh huh, Donald J. Mephistopheles now controls a large horde of political demons and he intends to unleash them on the rest of us at every opportunity.
Hearing from HCR that "President Biden is refusing to get sucked into the Republican drama" does not reassure me in the least, nor do his polite consultations with his old buddy McConnell. Yes, of course the President is trying to get his important bills passed, and yes, the Attorney General is hard at work trying to bring White supremacists to justice, and all this will convince Americans to vote for Democrats in 2022 - well, so we hope - but when you have nearly half the electorate either believing the Big Lie wholeheartedly or even entertaining the outside chance that it isn't really a lie, the situation is gravely, seriously, imminently dangerous for our democracy and even our lives. Joe Biden is a man of many talents, but there is not a chance in hell that he will be able to change the tenor of our national "conversation" anytime soon.
I'm about ready for President to come down into the street - into the gutter if he has to - and start fighting. This goes for the rest of our Paladins in Congress, including Schumer and Pelosi. et al.
Liz Cheney's courage and firmness in telling truth to power is heartening. Even if I don't agree with her very conservative positions, I respect what she is doing so much that I made a donation to her Wyoming campaign for re-election. I'd encourage others - independents and party affiliated alike - to do the same. Thursday, March 13, over 100 influential Republicans including former high level elected officials will declare they will form a third party if the Republicans do not pull away from DT. This is encouraging news for democracy and gives me hope. For Liz Cheney to be a leader of the anti-DT movement she needs supporters and followers. The 100 will be a great start. I hope it starts a flood of followers and creates a strong movement toward democracy.
This recap of Cheney's removal was copied from Fox News:
"American Conservative Union chair Matt Schlapp said Wednesday that Liz Cheney was ousted from her committee because she was distracting people from the Republican Party's message for 2022.
MATT SCHLAPP: I’ve been talking to a lot of members one on one and I think the overwhelming belief of these members, including a lot of women members—Republican women members of Congress—is they felt like Liz Cheney was distracted by Trump derangement syndrome.
She was so transfixed on taking every reporter to question about her belief that Trump incited a riot or her belief that Trump should have been impeached or whatever fantasy of the day that was focused on the never-Trump crowd that it was getting them off-topic.
When you’re Chairman of the House Republican Conference your number one job is the message. All the Republicans that want to pick up the majorities in the House and Senate know that we have a singular message. Push back on the socialism and the radical policies coming out of the Biden White House with Nancy Pelosi’s leadership in the house. Focus on these policies. We have gas lines in northern Virginia and across the country. Focus on the Republican policies that would fix these problems in society. Stop talking about how you—what your feelings are about the Donald Trump presidency."
- - - Liz Cheney was distracted by "trump derangement syndrome" (!!?!) which according to Fox, it appears, is the "fantasy" that trump incited the riot or should have been impeached. It's really time to begin teaching critical thinking in schools. Without that, and courses on civics, history and the Constitution, this country will just continue to spiral downwards.
Well my thought is if the Republican party splits and then there are 3 parties, that if the dems can stick together... they will stay in power. 3 parties notoriously split the vote and hurt the corresponding closest in ideology party, i.e, the Green party takes votes from the Democrats. I'm all for it, let the Rep burn. I think the "normal Republicans" like Cheney, are fine with the more liberal party taking over for a while as long as the Trumpers are crushed. What a crazy dystopian era we are living in.
Trump will have personal input on all Republican candidates for office come midterms.
My hope is that his choices will hold such extreme points of view as to cause most Independents to vote Democratic and moderate Republicans to either vote Democratic, of if they can’t stomach that idea, to stay home on Election Day.
By midterms, the mess at the border will be under control, unemployment will be down, inflation, hopefully, will be at an acceptable level and most Americans will see the benefits of the Biden administration.
Who knows, with any luck the former guy will be defending himself in court.
To answer your question, “Will today’s gesture be enough to make swing voters forget the party’s wholehearted embrace of the former president?” I would point to the fact that he chose to have his first Oval Office visit with Republican leaders, which revealed a lot about where President Biden’s priorities lie. It showed he wants to work with them. If you remember, it was almost four years ago today, that Trump had his first office visit with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. That’s who Trump wanted to work with. In hindsight, we could surmise that visit definitely went a long way in getting his base to embrace Russian disinformation. Whether it was “enough for swing voters”, I don’t know, but it was significant for Biden’s base and in sharp contrast to the treason we witnessed four years ago.
McCarthy, McConnell and all the Trumpublicans are batshit crazy. I’m done being polite about it. They should be paying the $30 million damage bill and the hospital expenses plus wages lost for all injured Capitol Police.
The surest way to deal with the gaslighting is to starve/suffocate it, and carry on with the business of governance— including building airtight legal cases against the perpetrators while our laws are still in place, so they can be dealt with swiftly, decisively, and permanently— and leave them to all rot away without any personal attention whatsoever, while we work to rebuild our democracy so that it’s stronger than it was before, by including all the voices they wished to silence.. Anything that addresses them directly will only give them the attention they crave and invite them to engage in more of the same wretched behavior. I thought this kind of shit was horrible on a personal scale—but at a national level, it’s absolutely reprehensible. I’m not religious, but I pray we have it in us to weather this crazy storm until it finally passes.
:wutcat:
"Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said that calling the attack on the Capitol an insurrection is a “bald-faced lie” and that “if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit….""
These ... people.... astounding with their gaslighting. I watched the replay of Clyde's comments that Jan. 6th was not an insurrection in disbelief... words fail me.
We must do our best to counter the lies, the BIG LIE and many smaller ones, because we can't let the liars take over our country and destroy our democracy.
Dear Heather,
I so appreciate your doing all
the work for me. I am older and
tired-er. I’m no longer willing or able to read all the minutiae of the daily political scrambles which in a different era of my life fascinated me. I thank you with whole hearted joyous compassion for your also older and wiser being, that continues to listen, read and no doubt engage a group of friends and students and academics to clarify and often simplify the day’s outpouring of political verbiage. And game playing.
I again feel hopeful. Democracy may still be a viable, humane form of government.
My personal experience of ‘a living democracy’ is in my Alcoholics Anonymous affiliation of over 36 years. Everything is accomplished throughout the international and down to the smallest local groups by consensus. Talk, more talk, especially inviting dissenting opinions, study groups and time to contemplate and return to have a final vote. It’s always amazing to be on board for final votes that have been contentious. Inevitably after everyone is heard we go away feeling connected to each other even when we’ve heard opinions that were not easy to listen to. The group consensus keeps us safe in our clean & sober world wide community. Amazing. And uplifting. And really working in the best interest of keeping sobriety available to anyone wishing to make a healthy change in their lives.
I pray our current living United States’ democracy will weather the storms and grow stronger for the effort from all of us.
Sometimes it’s so difficult to listen to all those who lie, cheat and steal their way to power, all the while covering their actions with “poor me” and “we’re the ones being discriminated against!” Ugh.
It’s refreshing to watch parodies like the ones Randy Rainbow 🌈 produces. We all need to laugh to release the frustration...I apologize for any offensive language Randy infuses in his creative songs.
If you need some giggles, here’s Randy Rainbow’s latest.
https://youtu.be/07II_EJlcYg
Good morning everyone! I think this is such an interesting letter. When I heard that McCarthy had decided on a "voice" vote--which is always suspicious--I knew it was because he wanted to guarantee that there would be no reproducible record, because y'know, deniability is his watchword. The letter from over 100 Republican officials stating that they were determined to form a third party should have scared the Kevster and Malignant Mitch but apparently they think they can corral all the money despite this break, and that all of their corporate sponsors--and the Koch and Walton families--will fall into line again.
The issue exercising me this morning is the trend--including Missouri's appalling governor, Mike Parson--for Ghastly Old Pols to cancel the supplemental unemployment payments for the most vulnerable people in their states--usually BIPOC and (I suspect they have forgotten this point in their desire to damage communities of color) the rural poor on the basis that, as the utterly ignorant freshman senator from Kansas, Roger Marshall, said this morning without any evidence whatsoever, enhanced unemployment benefits are encouraging people not to look for work. This rhetoric by the Repugnicans is statistically false, and could be countered as soon as these privileged white men and women parrot it. But the return of the Reagan propaganda about people on public assistance is apparently unassailable except on NPR, where few Ghastly Ones agree to be interviewed because the reporters instantly refute their baseless claims.
My mayor just spent two days in DC trying to lobby the Repugnicans he is forced to work with in order to impress upon them how the Biden infrastructure bill will bring jobs, jobs, jobs to western Missouri and eastern Kansas. They were perfectly happy to have their photo ops with a charismatic Black mayor but then immediately turned around and returned to their idiocies and lies. Meanwhile, Mayor Lucas was posting on Twitter and FB the following: If employers are having trouble hiring people because their unemployment benefits pay them more than the job, the employers need to raise the wages they are paying for the job. True 'dat.
Republicans are hoping a majority of Americans are as exceptionally ignorant and moron stupid as I generally think half of them usually are. I hope I am proven wrong, but as of last count, we only outnumber the morons by 8 million in a population of 330 million.
But with luck, their shit-eating grins as they say "Nobody here but us chickens, boss!" may remind people that the surest way to tell if a Republican office holder is lying is to look and see if his lips are moving.
“Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said that calling the attack on the Capitol an insurrection is a ‘bald-faced lie’ and that ‘if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit….’ “
It’s beyond comprehension and credibility that a U.S. congressman could say such a thing. Normal tourist visit? That’s tragically funny. Was it a normal tourist visit when Buffalo-Man trashed Pelosi’s office, then sat in her chair and propped his legs up on her desk? Or when people were killed on both sides? If that’s the new normal for tourism, Washington can count on a radical drop in their tourist business.
GOP = Gaslighting Old Plutocrats.
Every congressional hearing should begin with the playing of this McConnell admission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlyQdWyU2Rw
So, as expected, Liz Cheney was voted out of her leadership position in the House. She had said what needed saying and - to her credit - didn't give an inch to her delusional GOP colleagues.
So, that card having been played, what comes next? It seems safe to say that we should not hold our breaths waiting for the GOP to change course or collapse or even see the error they are committing. No, they have decided to double down on the Big Lie, in part because they know there is no going back, but largely - I fear - because most of them actually believe it. They are caught up in mass hysteria and out of control, having accepted their Faustian deal. Uh huh, Donald J. Mephistopheles now controls a large horde of political demons and he intends to unleash them on the rest of us at every opportunity.
Hearing from HCR that "President Biden is refusing to get sucked into the Republican drama" does not reassure me in the least, nor do his polite consultations with his old buddy McConnell. Yes, of course the President is trying to get his important bills passed, and yes, the Attorney General is hard at work trying to bring White supremacists to justice, and all this will convince Americans to vote for Democrats in 2022 - well, so we hope - but when you have nearly half the electorate either believing the Big Lie wholeheartedly or even entertaining the outside chance that it isn't really a lie, the situation is gravely, seriously, imminently dangerous for our democracy and even our lives. Joe Biden is a man of many talents, but there is not a chance in hell that he will be able to change the tenor of our national "conversation" anytime soon.
I'm about ready for President to come down into the street - into the gutter if he has to - and start fighting. This goes for the rest of our Paladins in Congress, including Schumer and Pelosi. et al.
Liz Cheney's courage and firmness in telling truth to power is heartening. Even if I don't agree with her very conservative positions, I respect what she is doing so much that I made a donation to her Wyoming campaign for re-election. I'd encourage others - independents and party affiliated alike - to do the same. Thursday, March 13, over 100 influential Republicans including former high level elected officials will declare they will form a third party if the Republicans do not pull away from DT. This is encouraging news for democracy and gives me hope. For Liz Cheney to be a leader of the anti-DT movement she needs supporters and followers. The 100 will be a great start. I hope it starts a flood of followers and creates a strong movement toward democracy.
This recap of Cheney's removal was copied from Fox News:
"American Conservative Union chair Matt Schlapp said Wednesday that Liz Cheney was ousted from her committee because she was distracting people from the Republican Party's message for 2022.
MATT SCHLAPP: I’ve been talking to a lot of members one on one and I think the overwhelming belief of these members, including a lot of women members—Republican women members of Congress—is they felt like Liz Cheney was distracted by Trump derangement syndrome.
She was so transfixed on taking every reporter to question about her belief that Trump incited a riot or her belief that Trump should have been impeached or whatever fantasy of the day that was focused on the never-Trump crowd that it was getting them off-topic.
When you’re Chairman of the House Republican Conference your number one job is the message. All the Republicans that want to pick up the majorities in the House and Senate know that we have a singular message. Push back on the socialism and the radical policies coming out of the Biden White House with Nancy Pelosi’s leadership in the house. Focus on these policies. We have gas lines in northern Virginia and across the country. Focus on the Republican policies that would fix these problems in society. Stop talking about how you—what your feelings are about the Donald Trump presidency."
- - - Liz Cheney was distracted by "trump derangement syndrome" (!!?!) which according to Fox, it appears, is the "fantasy" that trump incited the riot or should have been impeached. It's really time to begin teaching critical thinking in schools. Without that, and courses on civics, history and the Constitution, this country will just continue to spiral downwards.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/liz-cheney-removed-from-leadership-for-distracting-from-partys-message-for-2022-schlapp
“you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit…." WHAT???
Well my thought is if the Republican party splits and then there are 3 parties, that if the dems can stick together... they will stay in power. 3 parties notoriously split the vote and hurt the corresponding closest in ideology party, i.e, the Green party takes votes from the Democrats. I'm all for it, let the Rep burn. I think the "normal Republicans" like Cheney, are fine with the more liberal party taking over for a while as long as the Trumpers are crushed. What a crazy dystopian era we are living in.
Trump will have personal input on all Republican candidates for office come midterms.
My hope is that his choices will hold such extreme points of view as to cause most Independents to vote Democratic and moderate Republicans to either vote Democratic, of if they can’t stomach that idea, to stay home on Election Day.
By midterms, the mess at the border will be under control, unemployment will be down, inflation, hopefully, will be at an acceptable level and most Americans will see the benefits of the Biden administration.
Who knows, with any luck the former guy will be defending himself in court.
To answer your question, “Will today’s gesture be enough to make swing voters forget the party’s wholehearted embrace of the former president?” I would point to the fact that he chose to have his first Oval Office visit with Republican leaders, which revealed a lot about where President Biden’s priorities lie. It showed he wants to work with them. If you remember, it was almost four years ago today, that Trump had his first office visit with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. That’s who Trump wanted to work with. In hindsight, we could surmise that visit definitely went a long way in getting his base to embrace Russian disinformation. Whether it was “enough for swing voters”, I don’t know, but it was significant for Biden’s base and in sharp contrast to the treason we witnessed four years ago.