U.S. Politics

[Rick Plant]

'Dumber than a sack of Matt Gaetzes': Florida columnist destroys Ron DeSantis over gas tax scheme

A veteran journalist laid into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for abusing his power -- and costing taxpayers money -- to aid his re-election campaign.

The Florida Republican, who's widely believed to be eying a 2024 presidential run, has picked fights with COVID-19 experts, Disney World, the Special Olympics and many others in his political rise, but Tampa Bay Times guest columnist Daniel Ruth said DeSantis had reached a new low by pausing a 25-cent reduction in gas taxes.

"It seems a factotum on the governor’s crack staff suggested it might be a swell idea to delay the 25-cent tax break until October, which by amazing coincidence is the month before the November election," Ruth wrote. "Whew! No political mischief at work. Nothing to see here. Of course, the governor could have said, 'Not on my watch! I’m not going to use the fine people of Florida as mere political pawns to advance my electoral prospects.''"

"Instead, he went along with the scam, which only proves we all have a price; it’s only a matter of negotiation," Ruth added. "And Ron DeSantis can be had at 25 cents. Such a deal."

Florida Republicans insisted the tax cut was delayed until tourism season was over, but Ruth said that's obviously ridiculous and not even backed by the state's own tourism data.

"DeSantis is assuming the people of Florida are stupid, that they are dumber than a sack of Matt Gaetzes," Ruth wrote. "It’s not entirely a bad bet. Cynical, yes, but in DeSantis world, the people can’t be hurt by what they don’t know."

Read more here:

https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2022/06/16/did-politics-influence-the-timing-of-floridas-25-cent-gas-tax-holiday-editorial/

[Rick Plant]

Former RNC chair blasts GOP for backing Trump after he showed he 'didn't give a damn' about America

On Friday's edition of MSNBC's "The ReidOut," former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele outlined how former President Donald Trump has been a graver threat to democracy than Richard Nixon ever was.

This comes amid the 50th anniversary of the Watergate complex break-in — and as the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack lays bare the scheme of Trump's allies to overturn the election.

"Say what you want about, you know, how [Nixon] performed in office," said Steele. "He had a connection to the country, and he knew where the bright lines were. Trump didn't give a damn about the connection to the country. Had no clue where the lines were. In fact, didn't want to know where the lines were because that was just an unnecessary burden that he'd have to carry around to know that, okay, I've got to pretend like, you know, I really care here."

Steele took aim at his longtime party for furthering Trump's assault on democratic order.

"So there's a big difference, and what's stark about that in my view is how much the party, how much the party just acquiesced to obliterating the lines, no longer caring about the country, which is what the stand was for me personally in 2020, the country matters more than the party. And I think a lot of people see that now starkly as these hearings on the Hill have shown."

The committee hearings have revealed new details about the plot, including the fact that one of Trump's top lawyers, John Eastman, knew the whole thing was illegal.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

15 states hit all time record lows on unemployment in Friday's BLS new report thanks to President Biden's historic job growth and record economy.

How it started, when President Biden inherited the Trump economic disaster with record high unemployment.

To 

How it’s going now, with record job growth and record low unemployment. 

Here's unemployment state by state, when Biden took office vs. now after a year and a half of the Biden presidency.

Dark blue is above 5%, and the lighter the better. Shocking contrast all around America and a truly historic turnaround in less than 2 years. 

[Rick Plant]

Rick Wilson names GOP senators who worked to undermine the election results before Jan 6th

Appearing on MSNBC early on Sunday morning with host Ayman Mohyeldin, former Republican campaign consultant Rick Wilson suggested that not enough attention is being paid to Republican members in the Senate who were working to undermine the 2020 presidential election results before the Jan 6th election riot.

According to Wilson, the insurrection encouraged by Donald Trump might have been successful if it had been run by competent people instead of a "clod" like attorney John Eastman.

Having said that, he pointed the finger at high-profile members of the Senate for being complicit in paving the way for the attack on democracy.

"Donald Trump has people around him who would throw a school bus full of toddlers into a volcano to stay in office. There is no upper boundary," he began. "We've got very very lucky that [John] Eastman was, in fact, somewhat of a clod in putting this together."

"He was not a [election lawyer] Ben Ginsberg, or not a more sophisticated attorney. He's an ideologue before he's a legal thinker and scholar," he continued. "That's the only reason that we escaped from this, without somebody with a more sophisticated style and presentation, who could've worked McConnell's people and could have worked the Senate process differently and could've somehow juiced it into a situation where he didn't look like a mob or a horde was coming in."

"Remember this, there were a lot of senators that day, before the mob attacked, who were trying to undermine the process of the electoral vote count," he added. "Rick Scott, Tommy Tuberville, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley, the whole package of these guys; they were all trying to burn down the process before the mob arrived. They had a legal strategy in their minds that was underpinning this."

"In a lot of ways, the mob reflected Trump's id, and so they went to the Capitol and attacked it but they almost got away with this," he told the host. "We were very close to losing the country that day. They almost got away with this."

[Rick Plant]

Weak Faux Propaganda clown Tucker Carlson, a right wing hack who never served his country, mocked Republican congressman Dan Crenshaw calling him "Eyepatch McCain" for losing his eye in combat as a Navy Seal. Crenshaw is about as far right as you can get, but Carlson had a problem with Crenshaw supporting Ukraine, debunking Trump's election fraud conspiracies, and calling out QAnon cult conspiracy theorist GOP congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for pushing Russia Propaganda in support of Putin. Carlson is another Putin apologist and a friend of Greene's, so he attacked Crenshaw on air disparaging him and another war Veteran, the late John McCain.

So, these Republicans who claim "they love the military", but never served themselves, are always attacking, disparaging, and mocking our veterans who served our country and sustained war injuries.

So, the MAGA cult that watched Carlson on television verbally attack Crenshaw, decided to publicly harass Crenshaw this weekend at the Texas Republican Party convention. They said Crenshaw should be "hung for treason" all because he supports our ally Ukraine and didn't push "election fraud" conspiracies.

Ukraine is our ally and the war in Ukraine has direct implications to our national security, but the radical MAGA fascists are supporters of Putin like Carlson is, so in their deranged minds they believe it's "treason" to oppose Putin who is a murderer. And this is the radical right wing element that wants to take over our government. They support Putin's interests over our own country. That's why these right wing radicals need to be defeated in November.

Crenshaw is about as far right you can get, but if you don't go 100% along with the MAGA rabid cult, they will turn on you and come after you. We saw what these people did on Jan 6th as they beat Capitol police officers and were attempting to hang Mike Pence and Democratic members of Congress. MAGA is a violent radical cult. Crenshaw has found out what they are truly capable of as he was part of this cult but now they have turned on him.     


Right-wingers harass Rep. Dan Crenshaw at Texas Republican convention: ‘Eyepatch McCain’



They were itching for a ballroom brawl.

Right-wing internet personalities attempted to confront Rep. Dan Crenshaw at Texas’ Republican Party convention SaPersonay, calling him “eyepatch McCain” and saying he should be “hung for treason.”

Videos posted by the combative conservatives showed Crenshaw walking through a convention center while they hurled insults at him. Crenshaw’s security team manhandled the hecklers to keep them from reaching the congressman.

“Dan Crenshaw is a traitor!” shouted a man in a pro-Donald Trump hat. “He needs to be hung for treason!”

Crenshaw was quiet at the convention center but responded on Twitter with a schoolyard taunt.

“This is what happens when angry little boys like @alexstein99 don’t grow up and can’t get girlfriends,” he tweeted.

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson was the one who came up with the “eyepatch McCain” joke while criticizing Crenshaw for supporting a bill to send money and weapons to Ukraine. Crenshaw lost his right eye to an improvised explosive device while serving as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan.

Crenshaw is a staunch conservative but has angered some Republicans by calling them grifters and charlatans not interested in actual conservative politics. Last August, he told some election deniers to get over themselves and admit that Trump lost the 2020 election.

“Don’t kid yourself into believing that’s why we lost,” Crenshaw said. “It’s not.”

Also at the Texas Republican convention on SaPersonay, the party made anti-LGBTQ bigotry an official part of the Republican platform in the state.

© New York Daily News

[Rick Plant]

New Mexico county shows that ‘Republican election sabotage’ is well underway: legal experts



Defenders of U.S. democracy, from liberals and progressives to Never Trump conservatives, have been warning that if “Stop the Steal” MAGA Republicans and promoters of the Big Lie are able to take control of the administration of elections, they will simply throw out any election results they don’t like — which is what they brazenly attempted after the 2020 presidential election. And sure enough, MAGA Republicans in a rural county in New Mexico recently tried to do exactly that.

The county is Otero County, where MAGA Republicans on the country commission refused to certify recent election results — saying that they don’t trust the Dominion voting machines in their area. Legal experts Laurence Tribe and Dennis Aftergut, in an op-ed published by CNN’s website on January 20, warn that this is the type of power grab and attack on democracy to expect from MAGA Republicans in the months ahead.

“The commissioners had evidently fallen hook, line and sinker for the completely debunked 2020 election conspiracy theory spread by Trump and his acolyte, lawyer Sidney Powell, that Dominion Voting Systems' machines secretly switched votes from Trump to Joe Biden,” Tribe and Aftergut explain. “On Wednesday, (June 15), the New Mexico Supreme Court ordered the commission to reverse course and certify the June 7 election results.”

Tribe and Aftergut add, “That's the good news. Courts — at least those below the U.S. Supreme Court — continue to be reliable institutions affirming truth and the rule of law. The bad news is that judges are unlikely to be able to sustain the heavy burden required to extinguish the disinformation wildfires that have now spread to the election certification process. Republican election sabotage, in which GOP officials refuse to certify the winners, has started.”

The legal experts point to Otero County as proof that “Republican election sabotage in which GOP officials refuse to certify the winners has started.”

Tribe and Aftergut point to Jim Marchant, who won the GOP primary for Nevada secretary of state on June 14, as an example of the type of Republican who would refuse to honor election results he didn’t like.

“Marchant says he would not have certified Joe Biden's 2020 Nevada victory,” Tribe and Aftergut observe. “And he has said he is open to sending to Congress a slate of electors in 2024 who would not vote for Nevada's popular vote winner.”

To make matters worse, they observe, some right-wing justices on the U.S. Supreme Court are open to hearing a case involving the Independent State Legislature Theory.

“The anti-democracy premise of ISL is that state legislatures can do whatever they want in federal elections, including ignoring the winner of the state's popular vote,” Tribe and Aftergut note. “The ISL theory is pockmarked with legal holes, as law professors Vikram David Amar and Akhil Amar have ably demonstrated in multiple articles. But if you think that will stop the Court majority from favoring legislatures' ability to destroy majority rule, think again. Over the last decade, the conservative majority has given Republican-controlled legislatures carte blanche to adopt measures suppressing the voting rights of Blacks and other large blocs of voters.”

Tribe and Aftergut conclude their op-ed by warning that Otero County won’t be MAGA Republicans’ last attempt to throw out democratic election results.

“We just saw in New Mexico how broadly the disinformation fueling the conspiracy has spread,” they write. “Only We The People can stop it.”

https://www.rawstory.com/new-mexico-county-shows-that-republican-election-sabotage-is-well-underway-legal-experts/

[Rick Plant]

Republican Adam Kinzinger: ‘My party has utterly failed the American people’

Discussing bomb threats recently called into his home, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) — one of two Republicans in the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack — told ABC’s “This Week” that “My party has utterly failed the American people at truth.”

“It makes me sad, but it’s a fact,” he added.

Kinzinger’s comment came as “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos asked Kinzinger why, in a recent poll, only 20 percent of Republicans said that former President Donald Trump should be prosecuted for his role in inciting the Capitol riots and trying to overturn the 2020 election. The same poll found that 90 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of American voters felt that Trump should be prosecuted.

“It is leadership, lack of leadership in the Republican Party,” Kinzinger explained. “If you have people that don’t trust what they hear on the media, and they don’t trust what they hear from certain leaders…. Everybody has people they trust and where they get their information, that whole segment of leaders that Republican voters trust… If you’re going to stand up to those people and lie to him and tell him Donald Trump’s right, the election was stolen… We could have no doubt that 80 percent of the country is going to believe what their leaders are saying.”

Kinzinger added that he is not personally worried about the bomb and death threats that were recently mailed to his house. The threats promised violence against his wife and their five-month-old child.

“I’ve never seen or had anything like that,” he said, adding, “It was sent from the local area.”

He also said he expects threats of violence to increase leading into the 2024 presidential election as Trump’s supporters have also gained control of political positions that will enable them to contest or sabotage the next election’s results.

[Rick Plant]

'They are nuts': Conservative slams Texas GOP's 'mess' of a party platform

The Texas Republican Party over the weekend voted in favor of a platform that refused to recognize the legitimacy of President Joe Biden's 2020 victory, while also declaring that homosexuality was an "abnormal lifestyle."

Appearing on CNN Monday, conservative commentator Margaret Hoover acknowledged that the Texas GOP platform was a significant problem for the party, although she tried to distance it from the views of run-of-the-mill GOP voters.

"The activist base of the Republican Party in Texas is a mob mentality and it has taken over the apparatus that is the GOP infrastructure," she said. "The activist base of the party is different than primary voters in Texas, self-identified GOP primary voters. You see this because Dan Crenshaw just survived a Republican primary contest by 35,000 votes, I mean it wasn't even close."

All that said, Hoover argued Republican leaders needed to do more to steer their party in a more sensible direction.

"They are nuts," she said of Texas GOP activists. "This isn't a five-alarm fire, this is like an asteroid is coming for Earth if you're in the GOP party in Texas. It's a mess. You really have to take it very, very seriously."

CNN host John Berman then noted that when some establishment members of the Texas GOP showed up to the party convention this weekend, "They were booed."

"They need to stand up against it," Hoover said. "Where is the leadership, the calmer, saner voices that can cool the passions of the masses?"

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