I have been saying for years that the GOP is pure EVIL. And I’ve been told that this is too harsh an assessment. Every word of this excellent essay supports my claim. Powerful people motivated by a cruel, sadistic, vicious pleasure in hurting poor people ARE evil! There really is no better or more accurate word for these monsters.
All of this evil is being done under the cloak of Christianity. If Jesus showed up today, the Rethuglicans would have murdered him all over again. Come on Karma!
I am so done with these fidiots yammering on about that word. Most of them do not understand what the word means. My RWNJ brother-in-law thinks “woke” means that you are gay or a transvestite.
Sure, but we can distinguish between well-earned contempt and hatred simpliciter, correct? And distinguish between a simple smear, a slanderous or defamatory comment, as opposed to a vociferous denunciation of this or that person or act, which person or act is fairly described as vicious and hateful, correct?
The problem, or at least one problem, with your formulation is that it lacks specific content. It fails to designate, through any relevant examples, to what it is you are referring.
Certainly viewing a morally obtuse, soulless neofascist rat like Trump as such, is nothing that should trouble anyone, correct? Or do you disagree?
While I can't claim the high ground as any kind of moral philosopher, I have come up with what I consider a pretty clear metric for recognizing evil: the doing of deliberate harm to a child.
An excellent metric, and I would add Elder people, and those who are developmentally disabled. like the journalist He Who Shall not be Named mocked at one of his wannabe Nuremburg Rallies.
yes, but then they go from that inarguably evil place to an exponentially more evil place by projecting that gratuitous harm to children onto their political opponents.
the only time I've ever not voted for a Democrat in a presidential election was 1996 because I couldn't, in good conscience, vote for Clinton again after his triple whammy of supporting a crime bill that was guaranteed to inordinately affect people of color, his Reaganesque shtick about "ending welfare as we know it" and his pathetic embrace of that miserable "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
I voted for him and have explained it ever since as "Clinton was the first and only Republican I ever voted for." Which isn't entirely true, because the longtime clerk of courts in my county was a Republican and I voted for him more than once before he retired, but still . . . I regret that I held Bill against Hillary until 2015, though I probably would have voted for Obama in 2008 anyway.
Still haven't figured out the disease of perception caused by tribalist thinking? One day it will occur to you that anything everything an opposing tribe does or says is presented to the conscious mind as evil. This has nothing to do with reality, it's delusion occuring in anyone who's chosen to outsource their identity to a collective. It's the #1 threat to the country.
Many of them suffer from the same illness. It affects both the same. If you were to remove it , suddenly both parties would have no problem with each other. The "they're bad, we're good" is what every party member thinks. Both sides have the same feelings toward each other , the same accusations , the same aversion to understanding each other. Therefore none of it is rational, it's just instinct taking everyone for a destructive unpleasant ride of lies. If it were authentic, there would be vast differences in sentiment and otherwise intelligent people wouldn't be engaging in self-destructive anger and contempt of others.
The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant. Karl Popper described it as the seemingly self-contradictory idea that in order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must retain the right to be intolerant of intolerance. From Wikipedia
There's nothing to tolerate when you realize that the presumed malfaesant intentions were simply delusions of perception , an evolutionary dynamic of tribal identification. That aside , intolerance does not require anger or hatred. Intolerance should be expressed firmly from a sound and controlled mind. Such emotion only clouds judgment and leads to consequences.
It's amazing how many people who claim to be in favor of peace and wellfare of others will reach into the absurd to rationalize why they don't apply in this particular context. That's how you know some other forces are at play.
The Rethuglican party has no conscience, and its moral compass is Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, and Bigotry, accessorized with unmitigated greed. These people are malignant misanthropes.
I have asked this question on many platforms and still don't know the answer: Is George Santos a US citizen and has he been one for at least seven years? If not, then Qevin doesn't have enough votes to be Speaker.
Character & integrity are no longer a requirement for employment on the @GOP corporation, neither is honesty. If it were Trump would never have been elected & still supported by many in this organization. With the far right element in control now further moral decline is certain.
and what's with that "white power" sign that People say Santos was flashing? I'm out of it enough not to know exactly what a "white power sign" looks like, but friends of mine assure me that it was pretty obvious. to most all-American bigots is Santos even what they'd consider "white?"
if the Repugs had any vestige of a shame gene, Santos would be on the way out.
Exactly, David. I don't know what the white powder sign is either but the guy is a real po piece of work. I haven't seen any more in the media but there was an article that a the Russiangateds gave him money and that he'd been posting pro Russian anti Ukraine messages on social media. If so shouldn't he register as a foreign agent? He is being investigated for financial shenanigans. "...The materials filed in New York show that Rise NY PAC paid around $25,000 to the Santos sibling, who he says lives with him in Long Island. Rise NY PAC also paid about $50,000 to a man named Harry Brar—the head of Nassau County Asian Affairs, who was arrested in September for allegedly choking a 10-year-old boy and assaulting his mother.
Rise NY PAC poured cash into the Zeldin- and Santos-boosting Nassau County Republican Party, as well as into a town GOP committee that in turn gave heavily to the county organization. The PAC also counted among its contributors the financier Andrew Intrater, cousin and money-manager to the sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who contributed a combined $80,000 to the PAC, per state records. Intrater and his wife were also two of the largest donors to both Zeldin and Santos.
Santos has come under increasing pressure and scrutiny since the Times reported earlier this month that he had fabricated many details of his career, including his supposed possession of a college degree and stints at prominent financial institutions. This story followed an article by The Daily Beast this past April, which uncovered his work for an alleged multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme. Several of his coworkers from the accused investment scam, none of whom have been charged with a crime, formed a political consulting group with the Devolder Organization after the scandal broke.
The Daily Beast subsequently discovered that Santos, who has made his gay identity a central part of his political brand, had been married to a woman for several years—almost right up to the launch of his first congressional campaign in 2019. The Forward also found that Santos’ claims of Jewish roots were also without basis, something the politician later confessed, even as he bizarrely claimed that family lore allowed him to identify as “Jew-ish.”
He has also insisted he will be seated in the next Congress, despite calls for him to resign.
David, they are devoid of shame on any level. They care only about having enough votes to enact whatever the hell they think will pass. They don't care if Santos is from Outer Mongolia, they just want his vote.
I fully expect that one of the 6 Holdouts who finally Voted "Present" to call for a Vote of Confidence before the first Month, or even 1st week of the Term has expired. And under no circumstances do I expect McCarthy to celebrate Christmas 2023 as Speaker of the House.
If Liz Truss could do her job that well in a short time (Queen dead...check...Parliament in shambles...check) I do believe that McCarthy could do his and be gone in a flash. I do hope, however, that the Democracy survives the Reign of the Ridiculous.
"I have asked this question on many platforms and still don't know the answer: Is George Santos a US citizen and has he been one for at least seven years?" —Mary Hall
I had ignored this question, asked repeatedly in Substack forums, assuming that some authority must verify eligibility before representatives are sworn in. After a search, it looks to me like Vice News is the only publisher that has chased the story:
'Congress Has No Idea if George Santos Can Legally Serve in Congress.
No one in authority seems sure who checks to see if members of Congress meet constitutional requirements, but everyone's sure it's not them.'
"Of the many questions surrounding serial fabulist George Santos as he joins the new Congress, one of the most basic is also one of the hardest to answer conclusively: Has he been a U.S. citizen for seven years, one of the three requirements for the job specifically listed in the Constitution? No one in a position of authority, it appears, has asked this question. Nor is anyone exactly responsible for doing so." [ … ] —Tim Marchman 4 January 2023
And going after food for poor people, elderly and disabled people and single mothers is going to help Americans exactly how? Shutting down Obamacare benefitted who?Yesterday the dear Governor of my resident state of Ohio signed into law a Draconian voter suppression act that places only one drop box for ballots in each county and he has eliminated curbside voting.The only ID that can be used is a picture ID and he has shortened voting times.I am a polling official and we have several disabled and elderly voters that have used curbside voting for years.Other than mean-spiritedness, what could be the reason for doing away with this procedure?The only thing that I can think of that may remedy this is our Dear Governor DeWine may be alienating a big part of the voting base here as the elderly come out to vote in droves.Already alienated here are women and girls struck down with his infamous Heartbeat bill.Yes,I agree.Maybe the Fuck’em party will get their just deserts.I frankly can’t wait.
It's obvious they are afraid of voters as they darn well should be. As more and more people realize who the gop works for the republicans are going to be in big trouble in future elections
Given the chaos of the last week, and the Seditionist Caucus gaining Committee Chair spots, as well as large numbers on very powerful committees, it's entirely possible there won't be any more elections. We have literally joined the ranks of the Banana Republics.
Victoria—Under a comment, at far right is a tricon the writer can press to reveal an edit option. (Also below a comment: a delete option to remove an unnecessary correction reply. ;-) )
And the still-unanswered question is how do Americans vote to send these GQP miscreants back into office when everything they do is designed to hurt the voters' interests? The voters in those districts are consistently voting against their own interests, against their very health and lives, by re-electing such scum into office. WAKE UP!
I hope Americans, all of them, are watching closely. The sad fact is the poorest among the Republicans want the Republicans to hurt the poorest among Democrats.
Wow, that is truly insightful. I had never seen the evil in that way. I think you are absolutely right. If you're down just hurt someone lower than you. Kick the dog. Slam the toddler against a wall. Murder the wife. Feel better yet?
I've heard it applied to race a long time ago, that being white trash is the bottom rung so they needed to lord it over minorities so they'd feel superior. Really sad and sick.
I was thinking the same thing, there must be Republicans on social security and medicare too, they are not all rich, so why do they vote for these guys? But yes, those with the most want to take away what little the poor and elderly have. They are not just mean spirited but downright cruel. They don't just stick the knife in their victim they twist it so they will really feel the pain.
Unfortunately the voters focus on such issues as abortion, gun access, etc and are so motivated they ignore the issues that really matter for their health, etc. Also, the Trump core is made up of people who by and large seem to view conservative/radical politics as a religious belief system for them. (need to say more there but not now.)
I'm afraid the question answers itself, Charles. there are a lot of miscreants walking around who don't necessarily announce themselves every time they buy toilet paper. and with the media cocoons available to them, they don't ever have to deal with the inconvenient facts they lack.
spend a little time watching one of those call-in shows on C-Span. assuming, that is, that you have a strong stomach.
Republicans love to make our blood boil. And yes, they love hurting people on the bottom rung of society, whether it be poverty, or skin color or any other number of profound disadvantages. I now have another person to add to my list of change-the-channel when they appear, and I couldn't stand him before but McCarthy and his upcoming humiliations and his pathetic words, i.e., "I've shown I will never give up." Funny, that wasn't anywhere close to what I thought about him during this. How about a guy who literally would do anything to be Speaker, right down to stripping the Speakership pf all its important powers. His humiliation is assured to continue. But I won't watch. There's something tragic about this, that someone would so thoroughly debase himself before this lot of miscreants. Cruelty is indeed the purpose with this bunch.
in the old-fashioned definition of "tragedy" I still embrace, McCarthy lacks the stature ever to rise to anything close to tragedy. schmuckdom, certainly.
From The Mayo Clinic: “Antisocial personality disorder, sometimes called sociopathy, is a mental disorder in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. People with antisocial personality disorder tend to antagonize, manipulate or treat others harshly or with callous indifference. They show no guilt or remorse for their behavior.” When I hear about policies proposed by the Right Wingers, my first thought is that they should not be part of civilized society. That a significant number of voters think this way is an absolute tragedy.
Dehumanizing is a process by which institutional indifference is normalized- it works every time! The Willing Executioners of the 3rd Reich had no problem legalizing mass murder and instilling a rationale of scapegoats which included political opponents, Outsiders (Jews, Roma, physically and mentally challenged and homosexuals ), were marked for extermination.
Hitler was “democratically elected “, and spent years getting “the nails”ready for millions of coffins. Ultimately he economized by making mass graves, dug by slave labor.
I have been studying this for a long time (on my own). The conclusion that I have drawn is this: when a person suffers significant trauma in childhood or the early adult years, the maturation process stops at that point of trauma. They may appear to be a mature adult in many ways but until that trauma is addressed, they cannot fully mature. For example, any parent knows that a toddler or young child is very self-absorbed and has a very narrow focus. But as the child matures, they are able to expand their focus and take other people’s wants and needs into account. I have witnessed many people healing their trauma and then more able to live a fulfilling life. How sad it must be for those people with such a narrow mind. Pity.
Here’s the really interesting thing, one person can make all the difference in that traumatized person’s life. Most people bury their trauma - because it hurts. But there is gold in that pain. It could be a parent, a teacher, or a friend that is a lifeline out of that traumatic event. Sometimes it is a stranger in a chance encounter. Don’t ever think that one person cannot make a difference and change the world.
That absolutely rings true if the intervention happens early enough. (A single gratuitous act of kindness can have a transformative impact on anyone's life, not just traumatized people.
I believe the younger the traumatized person is able to address and deal with the trauma, the better the outcome. I have seen transformations later but very very few and not without a lot of side effects that linger sometimes forever.
I do know of a few who have seen the light. Joe Walsh former Congressman from Illinois was one of the worst. He was part of the Tea Party of 2010. I could not stand him. He did so many destructive and offensive things. Until 2019. He refused to support the Orange One and the party shut him out. He also had a radio show at that time, and said the people who called in to his show made him realize the insanity of Orange. He voted for Biden, which would have been unheard of a few years before considering he spent his time in Congress attacking Obama.
I haven't studied it but I've certainly thought about it a lot because I had that in my immediate family with a tragic ending and I couldn't agree with you more. Plus I've seen it in my friends' children, a couple. And it is devastating. Whatever doesn't get addressed that was traumatic is a wound that will not and cannot be healed without serious addressing.
I have read quite a lot about what the events of the last few days portend, but this piece, more than any other I have read, lays out what is at stake.
Except I think Thomas Malthus did not endorse that kind of result, just predicted it or thought he had deduced it as a consequences of natural economic forces.
To which politicians and philosophers and religious leaders have always responded, in effect, "Ok, so we will consciously intervene to mitigate the damages from unbridled nature."
Lucian, we may never learn the extent of the depravity McCarthy and his soon to be Anarchy Caucus engaged in to help him achieve his position.
And as you infer we are in store for a cavalcade of grievances being disguised as “reform” from the far right .
This nation experienced post Civil War a period in the South which became known as “the Lost Cause.” The next two years we are going to see another period of political performance art which will be known as The Lost Causes.
What happens tomorrow if the rules package fails to garner a majority because the Republicans who have now become very endangered in 2024 join with the Democrats to issue a loud FUCK YOU to the treason caucus?
Right now, while their Pyrrhic victory is still giving them all a heady rush, I doubt the Rules Committee Repubs will break ranks. Give it a month and we'll get to see more than we want of just how little power the new speaker wields.
Oh, sorry...I thought you were referring to stuff the Rules Committee had power over. Yes, you are correct about the full House having to vote on what is brought to the floor. If anything does actually make it out of the committees what with all the republican fuckwits populating the plum committee assignments.
No, I am mistaken. I thought that even the new House rules had to be agreed by the whole House, not just the Rules Committee. If that is not the case, I expect that this reign of terror will only last until the GQP loses its majority...which I expect will happen before 2024 after several insurrectionists, and George Santos, are forced to resign after being convicted of crimes.
What an optimist you are— thinking any of these people will ever be convicted of crimes! Pedophile braggart Gaetz is still strutting around, free as a bird, while his less-powerful friend Greenberg is now behind bars.
I have to believe that with Jack Smith on the case hiring more prosecutors that there will be justice. As for Pedo Gaetz, the one thing we know about sexual predators is that they never stop. He will continue to act badly and it will eventually burn him. Heck, he's only skated for this long because Daddy bribes the authorities to let him off the hook. And don't be surprised if it's one of his colleagues who rats him out. He made a lot of enemies last week.
Well, we shall see. This will play out in its own time which is agonizing for those of us who see the whole picture and just wish it would end.... now.
The miserable uncomfortableness of Santos and who and what he is or isn't. Wow. We got the poor man's version of Trump in him. I know this is probably creepy of me but all I think when he "performs" is he'd probably come up with a great drag show routine.
I thought so too and McCarthy did bring exactly that up in talking to another group he was wrecking things with, "it's not going to give them anything."
One can only hope and pray this horrified the vast majority of the country I understand there's a whole cluster of angry people out there who want blood, but surely at some point they will have a Eureka moment and say we're not getting anything and this can't go on any longer.
About all of the archaic rules and conventions that our government is so verklempt about right now? Those were always there. The system worked, then, in spite of manifold defects, because the majority of men and women in government wanted government to work, then.
Sure, there were abusers - remember the Dixiecrat filibusters? Balding old men with Southern accents talking nonstop while wearing depends to avoid having to yield the floor? But we got through it and after many decades we finally did get the Civil Rights Act.
Today feels different. Today's insurrectionists are nihilists. They want to burn the place down, but they do not offer us any idea what they will do after that. Anarchy rather than revolution.
The Museum of African-American History and Culture is in part a catalog of cruelty. Amid all the stories of perseverance, tragedy, and unlikely triumph are the artifacts of inhumanity and barbarism: the child-size slave shackles, the bright red robes of the wizards of the Ku Klux Klan, the recordings of civil-rights protesters being brutalized by police.
The artifacts that persist in my memory, the way a bright flash does when you close your eyes, are the photographs of lynchings. But it’s not the burned, mutilated bodies that stick with me. It’s the faces of the white men in the crowd. There’s the photo of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Indiana in 1930, in which a white man can be seen grinning at the camera as he tenderly holds the hand of his wife or girlfriend. There’s the undated photo from Duluth, Minnesota, in which grinning white men stand next to the mutilated, half-naked bodies of two men lashed to a post in the street—one of the white men is straining to get into the picture, his smile cutting from ear to ear. There’s the photo of a crowd of white men huddled behind the smoldering corpse of a man burned to death; one of them is wearing a smart suit, a fedora hat, and a bright smile.
Their names have mostly been lost to time. But these grinning men were someone’s brother, son, husband, father. They were human beings, people who took immense pleasure in the utter cruelty of torturing others to death—and were so proud of doing so that they posed for photographs with their handiwork, jostling to ensure they caught the eye of the lens, so that the world would know they’d been there. Their cruelty made them feel good, it made them feel proud, it made them feel happy. And it made them feel closer to one another. The Trump era is such a whirlwind of cruelty that it can be hard to keep track.
This week alone, the news broke that the Trump administration was seeking to ethnically cleanse more than 193,000 American children of immigrants whose temporary protected status had been revoked by the administration, that the Department of Homeland Security had lied about creating a database of children that would make it possible to unite them with the families the Trump administration had arbitrarily destroyed, that the White House was considering a blanket ban on visas for Chinese students, and that it would deny visas to the same-sex partners of foreign officials.
At a rally in Mississippi, a crowd of Trump supporters cheered as the president mocked Christine Blasey Ford, the psychology professor who has said that Brett Kavanaugh, whom Trump has nominated to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, attempted to rape her when she was a teenager. “Lock her up!” they shouted.
During the whole tiresome week of Speaker votes, it was obvious. Maybe the politics was theater, but the fascism was real.
Yes fascism , what with all the tyranny, eugenics and paranoid executions.
I have been saying for years that the GOP is pure EVIL. And I’ve been told that this is too harsh an assessment. Every word of this excellent essay supports my claim. Powerful people motivated by a cruel, sadistic, vicious pleasure in hurting poor people ARE evil! There really is no better or more accurate word for these monsters.
All of this evil is being done under the cloak of Christianity. If Jesus showed up today, the Rethuglicans would have murdered him all over again. Come on Karma!
They’d acuse him of wokeness.
I am so done with these fidiots yammering on about that word. Most of them do not understand what the word means. My RWNJ brother-in-law thinks “woke” means that you are gay or a transvestite.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ARDj0NYolo
^^^^
The Ballad of Jesus Christ --- Woody Guthrie, The Asch Recordings, Volume 1
I don't recall that I ever heard this Woody Guthrie song before. Thank you for the link, very appropriate!
I think the lyrics are still enough to cause major backlash from the fundamentalists, including death threats and harassment in other forms.
I’ve heard this song. I have that album.
Those engaging in hatred and slander are punished by karma in real-time through discontent and perpetually unsatisfied ill-wishes.
Sure, but we can distinguish between well-earned contempt and hatred simpliciter, correct? And distinguish between a simple smear, a slanderous or defamatory comment, as opposed to a vociferous denunciation of this or that person or act, which person or act is fairly described as vicious and hateful, correct?
The problem, or at least one problem, with your formulation is that it lacks specific content. It fails to designate, through any relevant examples, to what it is you are referring.
Certainly viewing a morally obtuse, soulless neofascist rat like Trump as such, is nothing that should trouble anyone, correct? Or do you disagree?
WTF.
Yeah, WTF, thinking hurts, and we all sympathize, maybe.
While I can't claim the high ground as any kind of moral philosopher, I have come up with what I consider a pretty clear metric for recognizing evil: the doing of deliberate harm to a child.
The GOP meets that standard.
An excellent metric, and I would add Elder people, and those who are developmentally disabled. like the journalist He Who Shall not be Named mocked at one of his wannabe Nuremburg Rallies.
yes, but then they go from that inarguably evil place to an exponentially more evil place by projecting that gratuitous harm to children onto their political opponents.
the only time I've ever not voted for a Democrat in a presidential election was 1996 because I couldn't, in good conscience, vote for Clinton again after his triple whammy of supporting a crime bill that was guaranteed to inordinately affect people of color, his Reaganesque shtick about "ending welfare as we know it" and his pathetic embrace of that miserable "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
I voted for him and have explained it ever since as "Clinton was the first and only Republican I ever voted for." Which isn't entirely true, because the longtime clerk of courts in my county was a Republican and I voted for him more than once before he retired, but still . . . I regret that I held Bill against Hillary until 2015, though I probably would have voted for Obama in 2008 anyway.
It’s too kind an assessment.
All too true, Judith, all too true.
Thanks!
Still haven't figured out the disease of perception caused by tribalist thinking? One day it will occur to you that anything everything an opposing tribe does or says is presented to the conscious mind as evil. This has nothing to do with reality, it's delusion occuring in anyone who's chosen to outsource their identity to a collective. It's the #1 threat to the country.
Couldn’t agree with you less. The number one threat to this country is the GQP.
I like you extra much because you have guts!
Many of them suffer from the same illness. It affects both the same. If you were to remove it , suddenly both parties would have no problem with each other. The "they're bad, we're good" is what every party member thinks. Both sides have the same feelings toward each other , the same accusations , the same aversion to understanding each other. Therefore none of it is rational, it's just instinct taking everyone for a destructive unpleasant ride of lies. If it were authentic, there would be vast differences in sentiment and otherwise intelligent people wouldn't be engaging in self-destructive anger and contempt of others.
The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant. Karl Popper described it as the seemingly self-contradictory idea that in order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must retain the right to be intolerant of intolerance. From Wikipedia
There's nothing to tolerate when you realize that the presumed malfaesant intentions were simply delusions of perception , an evolutionary dynamic of tribal identification. That aside , intolerance does not require anger or hatred. Intolerance should be expressed firmly from a sound and controlled mind. Such emotion only clouds judgment and leads to consequences.
It's amazing how many people who claim to be in favor of peace and wellfare of others will reach into the absurd to rationalize why they don't apply in this particular context. That's how you know some other forces are at play.
The Rethuglican party has no conscience, and its moral compass is Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, and Bigotry, accessorized with unmitigated greed. These people are malignant misanthropes.
I have asked this question on many platforms and still don't know the answer: Is George Santos a US citizen and has he been one for at least seven years? If not, then Qevin doesn't have enough votes to be Speaker.
Preach it! I too have been asking this question about Santos, and have not yet heard a definitive answer.
So the party debases itself further with their silence on this guy.
He is small fry in the Gaetz, MTG, Boebert, et al, pool of scum.
Of course he is but they are the ones debased. He's just thin air.
Character & integrity are no longer a requirement for employment on the @GOP corporation, neither is honesty. If it were Trump would never have been elected & still supported by many in this organization. With the far right element in control now further moral decline is certain.
and what's with that "white power" sign that People say Santos was flashing? I'm out of it enough not to know exactly what a "white power sign" looks like, but friends of mine assure me that it was pretty obvious. to most all-American bigots is Santos even what they'd consider "white?"
if the Repugs had any vestige of a shame gene, Santos would be on the way out.
Exactly, David. I don't know what the white powder sign is either but the guy is a real po piece of work. I haven't seen any more in the media but there was an article that a the Russiangateds gave him money and that he'd been posting pro Russian anti Ukraine messages on social media. If so shouldn't he register as a foreign agent? He is being investigated for financial shenanigans. "...The materials filed in New York show that Rise NY PAC paid around $25,000 to the Santos sibling, who he says lives with him in Long Island. Rise NY PAC also paid about $50,000 to a man named Harry Brar—the head of Nassau County Asian Affairs, who was arrested in September for allegedly choking a 10-year-old boy and assaulting his mother.
Rise NY PAC poured cash into the Zeldin- and Santos-boosting Nassau County Republican Party, as well as into a town GOP committee that in turn gave heavily to the county organization. The PAC also counted among its contributors the financier Andrew Intrater, cousin and money-manager to the sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who contributed a combined $80,000 to the PAC, per state records. Intrater and his wife were also two of the largest donors to both Zeldin and Santos.
Santos has come under increasing pressure and scrutiny since the Times reported earlier this month that he had fabricated many details of his career, including his supposed possession of a college degree and stints at prominent financial institutions. This story followed an article by The Daily Beast this past April, which uncovered his work for an alleged multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme. Several of his coworkers from the accused investment scam, none of whom have been charged with a crime, formed a political consulting group with the Devolder Organization after the scandal broke.
The Daily Beast subsequently discovered that Santos, who has made his gay identity a central part of his political brand, had been married to a woman for several years—almost right up to the launch of his first congressional campaign in 2019. The Forward also found that Santos’ claims of Jewish roots were also without basis, something the politician later confessed, even as he bizarrely claimed that family lore allowed him to identify as “Jew-ish.”
He has also insisted he will be seated in the next Congress, despite calls for him to resign.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
Does it seem more than coincidence that Brazil goes nuts the same time this guy is seated in congress? Or am I becoming that lady?
It looks like the "okay" sign, but it's also the ASL way to say "asshole." Srsly!
David, they are devoid of shame on any level. They care only about having enough votes to enact whatever the hell they think will pass. They don't care if Santos is from Outer Mongolia, they just want his vote.
In Brazil it means “Fuck you!”
When it comes to Santos, do we think that there is any such thing as a "definitive answer"? Boggled minds are intensely curious.
Exactly! Then McCarthy won’t last as long as the proverbial head of lettuce.
I fully expect that one of the 6 Holdouts who finally Voted "Present" to call for a Vote of Confidence before the first Month, or even 1st week of the Term has expired. And under no circumstances do I expect McCarthy to celebrate Christmas 2023 as Speaker of the House.
I’m betting on Gaetz, but it could be any of them.
If Liz Truss could do her job that well in a short time (Queen dead...check...Parliament in shambles...check) I do believe that McCarthy could do his and be gone in a flash. I do hope, however, that the Democracy survives the Reign of the Ridiculous.
Article One, Section 2 of the Constitution ! And you're spot on, it's a question I haven't even seen asked, much less answered.
"I have asked this question on many platforms and still don't know the answer: Is George Santos a US citizen and has he been one for at least seven years?" —Mary Hall
I had ignored this question, asked repeatedly in Substack forums, assuming that some authority must verify eligibility before representatives are sworn in. After a search, it looks to me like Vice News is the only publisher that has chased the story:
'Congress Has No Idea if George Santos Can Legally Serve in Congress.
No one in authority seems sure who checks to see if members of Congress meet constitutional requirements, but everyone's sure it's not them.'
"Of the many questions surrounding serial fabulist George Santos as he joins the new Congress, one of the most basic is also one of the hardest to answer conclusively: Has he been a U.S. citizen for seven years, one of the three requirements for the job specifically listed in the Constitution? No one in a position of authority, it appears, has asked this question. Nor is anyone exactly responsible for doing so." [ … ] —Tim Marchman 4 January 2023
https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvm4kd/can-george-santos-serve-in-congress
bonus dirt [ image photoshopped? —df ] :
https://nypost.com/2023/01/06/george-santos-appears-to-flash-white-power-symbol-in-capitol/
image: white power gesture
https://nypost.com/2023/01/06/george-santos-appears-to-flash-white-power-symbol-in-capitol/
And going after food for poor people, elderly and disabled people and single mothers is going to help Americans exactly how? Shutting down Obamacare benefitted who?Yesterday the dear Governor of my resident state of Ohio signed into law a Draconian voter suppression act that places only one drop box for ballots in each county and he has eliminated curbside voting.The only ID that can be used is a picture ID and he has shortened voting times.I am a polling official and we have several disabled and elderly voters that have used curbside voting for years.Other than mean-spiritedness, what could be the reason for doing away with this procedure?The only thing that I can think of that may remedy this is our Dear Governor DeWine may be alienating a big part of the voting base here as the elderly come out to vote in droves.Already alienated here are women and girls struck down with his infamous Heartbeat bill.Yes,I agree.Maybe the Fuck’em party will get their just deserts.I frankly can’t wait.
It's obvious they are afraid of voters as they darn well should be. As more and more people realize who the gop works for the republicans are going to be in big trouble in future elections
Given the chaos of the last week, and the Seditionist Caucus gaining Committee Chair spots, as well as large numbers on very powerful committees, it's entirely possible there won't be any more elections. We have literally joined the ranks of the Banana Republics.
We can hope, but so many will be harmed before it happens.
Victoria—Under a comment, at far right is a tricon the writer can press to reveal an edit option. (Also below a comment: a delete option to remove an unnecessary correction reply. ;-) )
Thanks!
Nicely done! Thank <i>you</i>.
And the still-unanswered question is how do Americans vote to send these GQP miscreants back into office when everything they do is designed to hurt the voters' interests? The voters in those districts are consistently voting against their own interests, against their very health and lives, by re-electing such scum into office. WAKE UP!
I hope Americans, all of them, are watching closely. The sad fact is the poorest among the Republicans want the Republicans to hurt the poorest among Democrats.
Wow, that is truly insightful. I had never seen the evil in that way. I think you are absolutely right. If you're down just hurt someone lower than you. Kick the dog. Slam the toddler against a wall. Murder the wife. Feel better yet?
I've heard it applied to race a long time ago, that being white trash is the bottom rung so they needed to lord it over minorities so they'd feel superior. Really sad and sick.
I was thinking the same thing, there must be Republicans on social security and medicare too, they are not all rich, so why do they vote for these guys? But yes, those with the most want to take away what little the poor and elderly have. They are not just mean spirited but downright cruel. They don't just stick the knife in their victim they twist it so they will really feel the pain.
I bet the Gravy Seals are benefit consumers...BIGLY!
Unfortunately the voters focus on such issues as abortion, gun access, etc and are so motivated they ignore the issues that really matter for their health, etc. Also, the Trump core is made up of people who by and large seem to view conservative/radical politics as a religious belief system for them. (need to say more there but not now.)
I'm afraid the question answers itself, Charles. there are a lot of miscreants walking around who don't necessarily announce themselves every time they buy toilet paper. and with the media cocoons available to them, they don't ever have to deal with the inconvenient facts they lack.
spend a little time watching one of those call-in shows on C-Span. assuming, that is, that you have a strong stomach.
I don't disagree, and I tend to think that Mary Virginia Hughes' comment above is more and more likely what is happening.
Republicans love to make our blood boil. And yes, they love hurting people on the bottom rung of society, whether it be poverty, or skin color or any other number of profound disadvantages. I now have another person to add to my list of change-the-channel when they appear, and I couldn't stand him before but McCarthy and his upcoming humiliations and his pathetic words, i.e., "I've shown I will never give up." Funny, that wasn't anywhere close to what I thought about him during this. How about a guy who literally would do anything to be Speaker, right down to stripping the Speakership pf all its important powers. His humiliation is assured to continue. But I won't watch. There's something tragic about this, that someone would so thoroughly debase himself before this lot of miscreants. Cruelty is indeed the purpose with this bunch.
in the old-fashioned definition of "tragedy" I still embrace, McCarthy lacks the stature ever to rise to anything close to tragedy. schmuckdom, certainly.
Yes!!
He Who Will Not Be Named is the leader of They Who Cannot Be Shamed.
The only thing standing between freedom and fascism is the Democratic Party. That’s some scary shit.
From The Mayo Clinic: “Antisocial personality disorder, sometimes called sociopathy, is a mental disorder in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. People with antisocial personality disorder tend to antagonize, manipulate or treat others harshly or with callous indifference. They show no guilt or remorse for their behavior.” When I hear about policies proposed by the Right Wingers, my first thought is that they should not be part of civilized society. That a significant number of voters think this way is an absolute tragedy.
Dehumanizing is a process by which institutional indifference is normalized- it works every time! The Willing Executioners of the 3rd Reich had no problem legalizing mass murder and instilling a rationale of scapegoats which included political opponents, Outsiders (Jews, Roma, physically and mentally challenged and homosexuals ), were marked for extermination.
Hitler was “democratically elected “, and spent years getting “the nails”ready for millions of coffins. Ultimately he economized by making mass graves, dug by slave labor.
How did so many get to be that way, Gail? Is every dominantly "Christian" country similarly afflicted?
I have been studying this for a long time (on my own). The conclusion that I have drawn is this: when a person suffers significant trauma in childhood or the early adult years, the maturation process stops at that point of trauma. They may appear to be a mature adult in many ways but until that trauma is addressed, they cannot fully mature. For example, any parent knows that a toddler or young child is very self-absorbed and has a very narrow focus. But as the child matures, they are able to expand their focus and take other people’s wants and needs into account. I have witnessed many people healing their trauma and then more able to live a fulfilling life. How sad it must be for those people with such a narrow mind. Pity.
Narrow mind, narrow spirit.
That's a really useful take, Gail. I'm going to start thinking on it when considering various people. I feel lucky not to have any in my own life.
Here’s the really interesting thing, one person can make all the difference in that traumatized person’s life. Most people bury their trauma - because it hurts. But there is gold in that pain. It could be a parent, a teacher, or a friend that is a lifeline out of that traumatic event. Sometimes it is a stranger in a chance encounter. Don’t ever think that one person cannot make a difference and change the world.
That absolutely rings true if the intervention happens early enough. (A single gratuitous act of kindness can have a transformative impact on anyone's life, not just traumatized people.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1612106767453888516
) But I can't imagine any of these GOP operators responding. Can you?
I believe the younger the traumatized person is able to address and deal with the trauma, the better the outcome. I have seen transformations later but very very few and not without a lot of side effects that linger sometimes forever.
I do know of a few who have seen the light. Joe Walsh former Congressman from Illinois was one of the worst. He was part of the Tea Party of 2010. I could not stand him. He did so many destructive and offensive things. Until 2019. He refused to support the Orange One and the party shut him out. He also had a radio show at that time, and said the people who called in to his show made him realize the insanity of Orange. He voted for Biden, which would have been unheard of a few years before considering he spent his time in Congress attacking Obama.
I haven't studied it but I've certainly thought about it a lot because I had that in my immediate family with a tragic ending and I couldn't agree with you more. Plus I've seen it in my friends' children, a couple. And it is devastating. Whatever doesn't get addressed that was traumatic is a wound that will not and cannot be healed without serious addressing.
I have read quite a lot about what the events of the last few days portend, but this piece, more than any other I have read, lays out what is at stake.
“…they had better (die), and reduce the surplus population.” E. Scrooge.
Quite Malthusian, actually.
Except I think Thomas Malthus did not endorse that kind of result, just predicted it or thought he had deduced it as a consequences of natural economic forces.
To which politicians and philosophers and religious leaders have always responded, in effect, "Ok, so we will consciously intervene to mitigate the damages from unbridled nature."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus
Lucian, we may never learn the extent of the depravity McCarthy and his soon to be Anarchy Caucus engaged in to help him achieve his position.
And as you infer we are in store for a cavalcade of grievances being disguised as “reform” from the far right .
This nation experienced post Civil War a period in the South which became known as “the Lost Cause.” The next two years we are going to see another period of political performance art which will be known as The Lost Causes.
What happens tomorrow if the rules package fails to garner a majority because the Republicans who have now become very endangered in 2024 join with the Democrats to issue a loud FUCK YOU to the treason caucus?
A consummation devoutly to be wished!
Actually, they're the same Republicans who voted 2 years ago to overthrow the 2020 election. Treason caucus? The whole party is a treason caucus.
And Gaetz is a thing unto himself, a particularly vile and arrogant piece of human waste.
Who should be in prison for child sex trafficking.
For way too long. They keep saying they're still lookng at it. His friend who pointed the finger at him is now in prison. Where he should be.
Right now, while their Pyrrhic victory is still giving them all a heady rush, I doubt the Rules Committee Repubs will break ranks. Give it a month and we'll get to see more than we want of just how little power the new speaker wields.
I thought it had to be voted by the full House once the Rules Committee finishes. Not the case?
Oh, sorry...I thought you were referring to stuff the Rules Committee had power over. Yes, you are correct about the full House having to vote on what is brought to the floor. If anything does actually make it out of the committees what with all the republican fuckwits populating the plum committee assignments.
No, I am mistaken. I thought that even the new House rules had to be agreed by the whole House, not just the Rules Committee. If that is not the case, I expect that this reign of terror will only last until the GQP loses its majority...which I expect will happen before 2024 after several insurrectionists, and George Santos, are forced to resign after being convicted of crimes.
What an optimist you are— thinking any of these people will ever be convicted of crimes! Pedophile braggart Gaetz is still strutting around, free as a bird, while his less-powerful friend Greenberg is now behind bars.
I have to believe that with Jack Smith on the case hiring more prosecutors that there will be justice. As for Pedo Gaetz, the one thing we know about sexual predators is that they never stop. He will continue to act badly and it will eventually burn him. Heck, he's only skated for this long because Daddy bribes the authorities to let him off the hook. And don't be surprised if it's one of his colleagues who rats him out. He made a lot of enemies last week.
Well, we shall see. This will play out in its own time which is agonizing for those of us who see the whole picture and just wish it would end.... now.
The miserable uncomfortableness of Santos and who and what he is or isn't. Wow. We got the poor man's version of Trump in him. I know this is probably creepy of me but all I think when he "performs" is he'd probably come up with a great drag show routine.
I thought so too and McCarthy did bring exactly that up in talking to another group he was wrecking things with, "it's not going to give them anything."
One can only hope and pray this horrified the vast majority of the country I understand there's a whole cluster of angry people out there who want blood, but surely at some point they will have a Eureka moment and say we're not getting anything and this can't go on any longer.
About all of the archaic rules and conventions that our government is so verklempt about right now? Those were always there. The system worked, then, in spite of manifold defects, because the majority of men and women in government wanted government to work, then.
Sure, there were abusers - remember the Dixiecrat filibusters? Balding old men with Southern accents talking nonstop while wearing depends to avoid having to yield the floor? But we got through it and after many decades we finally did get the Civil Rights Act.
Today feels different. Today's insurrectionists are nihilists. They want to burn the place down, but they do not offer us any idea what they will do after that. Anarchy rather than revolution.
Stellar take on the latest calamity to overtake us. It is jarring to think 20 (is it 20?) flies in the ointment
can fuck up the business of the country. Sadder, still, is that that’s their idea of a good time.
Adam Serwer in The Atlantic, OCTOBER 3, 2018:
The Museum of African-American History and Culture is in part a catalog of cruelty. Amid all the stories of perseverance, tragedy, and unlikely triumph are the artifacts of inhumanity and barbarism: the child-size slave shackles, the bright red robes of the wizards of the Ku Klux Klan, the recordings of civil-rights protesters being brutalized by police.
The artifacts that persist in my memory, the way a bright flash does when you close your eyes, are the photographs of lynchings. But it’s not the burned, mutilated bodies that stick with me. It’s the faces of the white men in the crowd. There’s the photo of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Indiana in 1930, in which a white man can be seen grinning at the camera as he tenderly holds the hand of his wife or girlfriend. There’s the undated photo from Duluth, Minnesota, in which grinning white men stand next to the mutilated, half-naked bodies of two men lashed to a post in the street—one of the white men is straining to get into the picture, his smile cutting from ear to ear. There’s the photo of a crowd of white men huddled behind the smoldering corpse of a man burned to death; one of them is wearing a smart suit, a fedora hat, and a bright smile.
Their names have mostly been lost to time. But these grinning men were someone’s brother, son, husband, father. They were human beings, people who took immense pleasure in the utter cruelty of torturing others to death—and were so proud of doing so that they posed for photographs with their handiwork, jostling to ensure they caught the eye of the lens, so that the world would know they’d been there. Their cruelty made them feel good, it made them feel proud, it made them feel happy. And it made them feel closer to one another. The Trump era is such a whirlwind of cruelty that it can be hard to keep track.
This week alone, the news broke that the Trump administration was seeking to ethnically cleanse more than 193,000 American children of immigrants whose temporary protected status had been revoked by the administration, that the Department of Homeland Security had lied about creating a database of children that would make it possible to unite them with the families the Trump administration had arbitrarily destroyed, that the White House was considering a blanket ban on visas for Chinese students, and that it would deny visas to the same-sex partners of foreign officials.
At a rally in Mississippi, a crowd of Trump supporters cheered as the president mocked Christine Blasey Ford, the psychology professor who has said that Brett Kavanaugh, whom Trump has nominated to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, attempted to rape her when she was a teenager. “Lock her up!” they shouted.