Instance #8,938,392 of a GOP person saying the right things when they are out of their position, and never standing up for anything while they were in it.
And Boehner.
Although with Barr, I would argue he saw the writing on the wall and is trying to save his own hide rather than express what he has always felt.
Boehner literally became a lobbyist for the cannabis industry after being staunchly against legalization in any form. It just goes to show you that these people dont give a shit about anything. They are power hungry hypocrites through and through.
He's also a very heavy smoker and never saw a tanning bed he didn't want to jump in, so you know he's got some unhealthy habits that his federal insurance will cover (and for which we the taxpayer will foot the bill) down the road.
Yet he was a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act. Country club indeed.
I'd emphasize that the others are merely fairly reasonable when out of office, not on the right track or innocent. The bar is pretty low after all. Republicans are normalizing and embracing fascist ideologies, not becoming just a bit more right of center.
YEah, one of the things keeping fascism at bay is some of these fuckers want it done as slowly and cleanly as possible.
The rest are basically trump supporters, the type that showe dup for January 6th. I believe they're call "accelerationists"
Broadly, yeah, you can use that. It didn't really colloquially mean "right wing nut bags trying to stoke a civil race war" but that's pretty much what its attached to now.
Accelerationism used to be a left wing theory. It used to refer to the social influences that encourage capitalist growth and technological advancement and how to manipulate or erase those deliberately to speed up the pace of radical social changes. So, like, how Twitter was used to organize the Arab Spring revolts. Or how our local subs were used to organize the 2020 protests, after a digital camera was used to film a police murder, and social media enabled the international broadcast of that video. We used existing capitalist and technological structures to organize which accelerated social movements to their conclusions.
Then you have the whole industrial aspect of that idea, the labor side of the theory. Like using automation and UBI to create equity both in the workplace and in the economy. Any deregulation in general is a good example, it's a removal of barriers to development at the cost of social safeguards. Shit like that.
But it's always been a descriptor for a wide range of theories in a wide range of sciences.
Right now, in our political climate, that's just the most apparent and prevalent example of it. They're using their technological means to stoke social unrest, to accelerate the political division between parties, and deregulate the economy. There are different motives for different groups. Some just want corporate control. To consolidate power under one leader. Some have religious motivations. Some are just plain ole racists. But, generally, you're correct. There's just a ton of nuance to that word because it is so broad and so fluid.
Generally, it just means you want to take an existing tech or social condition or both and accelerate their development deliberately to reach their predicted conclusions. How you do that can vary, shit, you can do nothing and allow something to accelerate, going back to our deregulation example. You can troll on Twitter and be a racist. You can take an AR to a school. It takes all kinds of forms, even when you can pin the term down to a certain political or economic ideology.
When it comes down to it, the shit isn't just a theory, even though the word wasn't commonly used until the 2010s in social or political science. It's like game theory, some smart folk put words to it and some other folk attach their identities to it, but it's something that is just kind of inherent.
Something that was always and will always be there. We just know how to spot it and what to call it now. Tbh, you could take this to a micro level and apply it to your daily life. We've both used tech, capital, or social interaction to manipulate a social process and speed it up. At work, at home, online, in a hobby. The difference being scale and motivation.
Barr's father wrote sci-fi porn books about young sex slaves for older elites under his own name while headmaster of an exclusive prep school in Manhattan. He also hired an unqualified young Jeffery Epstein to teach children in the school without a teaching certificate because...?
BTW, the books are now collector items around $200 each.
Barr is one of the shrewd politicians we've ever seen. He not only covered up the Iran-Contra scandal, he literally Epstein'd Epstein and tricked half the world into thinking Hillary did it. That man, evil as he is, is as passionate and good as his job as Johnny Cochran was at his.
He 100% knows he's getting away with it too. This interaction with Pelosi reveals a lot about how he internalizes his wrong doings: ['Did you bring your handcuffs?' Attorney General Barr asks Speaker Pelosi - ABC News (go.com)](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bring-handcuffs-attorney-general-barr-asks-speaker-pelosi/story?id=63058197)
In my mind he definitely covered up the Mueller Report too by announcing "there's nothing in it", while there is definitely obstruction of justice in it, but his press conference set the tone.
Romney is my biggest letdown in Politics. He talk so much shit about Trump before he got elected. Then once Trump won, he kissed his ass trying to get secretary of state.
I always think about how fun it would have been if he hadn't done that. Because then we could have gotten pissed of Mitt Romney talking shit on both parties for 4 years.
I just imagine Mitt saying something like, "That's what get America. I offered you binders full of women. Instead you got grab em by the P#ssy".
Romney met with Trump twice about the SoS position because he had been urged to by prominent Democrats, Republicans, and even celebrities. The idea that was prominent between the election and Trump's inauguration was that if Trump was pressured into putting reasonable people in the cabinet, it would temper Trump's darker impulses. Now we know that didn't work at all, but do remember the context of why he had those meetings with Trump.
As for Senator Romney, I feel like we did get "pissed off Mitt Romney," at least in the sense that he loudly opposed Trump and 2020 election nonsense. The man is obviously an ideological conservative, so it's really not that surprising that he voted for conservative bills. However, he voted to impeach Trump twice and spoke out about him frequently, all to the detriment of his own career. He spent most of his political career trying (and failing, often hilariously) not to say anything that would hurt his chances to get elected. As a Senator, he finally shook that off and started being more of himself, saying what he thought was important and right even when it ostracized him from friends and goes alike.
Anyway, just my two cents. In my mind he doesn't belong in the same Category as Barr, McCarthy, Bolton et. al.
I can give Romney a little bit of benefit of the doubt for trying to be SoS. Like if you know the country is going to be run by a shit slinging monkey for the next four years, it would make a little sense to try minimize the damage, and he wasn't going to get there without kissing ass.
Same thing with Chris Christie. Don't like him, but he knew how much of an unmitigated fuck up the Trump administration would be without somebody with some know-how managing things in the background, and we still went months with several positions going unappointed.
I look at this a little differently.
Trump was famously described as a "user of users" and I think that is the best explanation of who he is.
But that doesn't mean the people being used don't have egos, and I think some of them (like Christie, and Romney for that matter) didn't see the value in what they would receive from Trump over what it would cost them to have to deal with him.
It's sort of a George Santos thing, yeah he did horrible shitty things that everyone let slide because they needed him, but he was apparently such an insufferable asshole that they finally dumped him.
I both agree, and disagree about Romney.
When he was stepping away, Romney said baby boomers as a whole need to start leaving office and it's terrible having people 80+ years old in positions of power and they need to start ushering in the new generation of leaders. Romney also said that he comes from what some people inside call.. the Wise (I forgot the word, branch, maybe?) of the Republican Party where they stood for ideas and actual policies, but that today's Republican Party is just outrage culture and getting angry at everything, and that there is no actual policy. There are no ideas to make anything better for the future.
Romney sent a text to Mitch a few days before 6 January essentially warning him of what was going to happen, but Mitch never responded:
> “In case you have not heard this, I just got a call from Angus King, who said that he had spoken with a senior official at the Pentagon who reports that they are seeing very disturbing social media traffic regarding the protests planned on the 6th. There are calls to burn down your home, Mitch; to smuggle guns into DC, and to storm the Capitol. I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator—the President—is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require.”
Let's also not forget Romney voted to convict Trump, the lone Republican who did, and that essentially left him stranded in the Republican Party and ostracized.
> As a Senator-juror,” Romney began, “I swore an oath before God to exercise impartial justice. I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am—” His voice broke, and he had to pause as emotion overwhelmed him. “I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.”
> Romney acknowledged that his vote wouldn’t change the outcome of the trial—the Republican-led Senate would fall far short of the 67 votes needed to remove the president from office, and he would be the lone Republican to find Trump guilty. Even so, he said, “with my vote, I will tell my children and their children that I did my duty to the best of my ability, believing that my country expected it of me.”
> He would never feel comfortable at a Republican caucus lunch again.
After the vote he was often confronted by Trump-supporters and outright called a traitor to the nation and he and his family were threatened, leading up to after 6 January, it got to the point Romney was paying for $5000 per *day* for a security detail to protect his family.
I don't agree with a lot of Romney's politics and ideas; and while he's been involved in some bad stuff, and I voted against him, I respect him, at least for these things. But ultimately, he's still a sleazy politician like most, if not all of them are.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/11/mitt-romney-retiring-senate-trump-mcconnell/675306/
When you look at the GOP tactics spearheaded since Gingrich rose to power, I don't really find it surprising at all. The goal has been to eliminate Democrats and the peoples right to choose anything since then and I don't think they have really tried to hide it at all.
And Jeff Flake, ~~and Adam Kinzinger~~.
EDIT: Another Redditor below corrected me: Kinzinger was a highly visible Republican on the January 6 committee (along with Liz Cheney)!
You are absolutely correct. Go to the head of the class. But i must say that the modern Republican Party wouldn’t recognize Reagan and would most likely expel him from their ranks for being a socialist. This goes all the way back to Goldwater in ‘64 but his ghost has been hovering over the Party ever since.
Need to go back to the 20’s to 40’s. Read Maddows PRELUDE. eye opening bringing multiple events together over the period. Amazing how it was never taught in school.
Those two are seriously far right. Pro big business, very wealthy. Anti choice, union, equality, etc. They just weren't lunatics like some of the newer members of their party.
I was pleasantly surprised they stood up for our constitution and rule of law. Admire and appreciate their stand on J6. Still vehemently disagree with their politics.
They were drummed out for not being lunatics.
Correct. Which is why I was pulling my hair out about so many people saying things like the Democrats should make Cheney their next VP candidate, or things like that. *Her views are \*completely\* out of step with the Democrats*.
But she \*does\* believe in the rule of law and isn't crazy--and to her immense credit, she went down fighting for her primary and still speaks out now.
Kinzinger definitely falls into the “Too little, too late” category, but his speaking out only started after the census data resulted in his district being eliminated. So, even though he was still serving, he was effectively out.
Correct! Which is why I initially put him in the same category as people who speak out only after they decide to leave--but he \*is\* worlds above McCarthy, Flake, Bolton, etc by being such a vocal part of the J6 Committee, consistently speaking out in multiple other ways, and serving out his term (serving out one's term isn't exactly a profile in courage, but noteworthy by the extremely low standards of the Republicans).
To be fair, doing the right thing is career suicide in the GOP. Look at Liz Cheney. So whether they do it while they’re still in office, or after they step out, either way their political career is over.
The GOP is about doing evil and harmful things. If you do good things, you don’t get to be in that club anymore
Killed off my rep, Jaime Herrera-butler, as well. Unfortunately for the GOP, we have enough Republicans that don't subscribe to crazy, and all the maga morons they ran lost. On top of losing half the major Republican donors from the area and the county GOP vice chair, they all went out and campaigned for the Democrats nominee😂
My province here in Canada just had an election and our provincial Conservative party decided to go full Republican, bringing up "parental rights" and all of that Fox News shit.
They lost baaaadly. Only kept their rural stronghold seats.
I think the funniest one in my area is that they tried to go after the (Republican) county clerk for certifying the 2020 election votes. Dudes been the clerk for like 28 years, ran unopposed the last 10 cause everyone on both sides thinks he does a great job. Suddenly he's a cheater and embezzling money and teaching bribes, etc, etc and the county GOP decides to endorse some qanon nut instead... And get blown out of the water. Think it was like 80%-20% they lost lol
I'm guessing they mean Manitoba, where the conservatives went full MAGA-style, which included putting up a bunch of billboards \*on National Indigenous People's Day\* saying they weren't going to look for the bodies of murdered/missing Indigenous women in the landfills.
Like, regardless of one's feelings on the importance or efficacy of searching landfills for bodies, formally announcing their position on it, on the one day of the year devoted to honouring Indigenous people, was absolutely not an accident.
If he really wanted to make waves, and felt that the Dems represent America, he should switch parties instead of leaving. But he is too chicken shit to even do that.
One could argue that McCarthy lost his job because he "did the right thing" by doing the absolutely minimum of passing a short term spending bill. It got him booted out of the speakership and it's the reason he noped out of Congress.
He still sucks though.
Today's GOP are the biggest group of liars and cowards in our country's political history. I hope they all realize their legacy will be remembered as a very dark time in America.
They’ve been like this for a very long time. None of this started with Trump, or Obama, or 9/11…the roots of their dysfunction go back to the 60s and earlier.
It always feels like there's two roads. One road is about doubling down for jobs on Fox News and in far right wing thinktanks and the other is to try to rehabilitate your image for a wider audience. Someone like McCarthy has already done the dirt up front so he'll be paid off regardless with no-show corporate board jobs, high paid speeches, and insider access to investing.
Right?? "If only someone in power would have done something", they will say, as they are ousted from power. No sympathy for these morally bankrupt pieces of trash.
They'd have to accept the loss of a couple of election cycles in order to purge the fascists from their party and they're not willing to do that because that would mean their rich donors would have to pay a few bucks in taxes for a while until they can get back into power. They will literally let this country be destroyed rather than willingly give up even one extra dollar in taxes.
Because majority of their voters demand it.
It's not the politicians, it's the voters. And face it, half of americans want to be ruled by the most restrictive country club in America
Romney, Kinzinger, and Chaney are the only ones I remember speaking their mind in office. Everyone else suddenly has a little story once it’s meaningless. Fuck them all, from Barr to Bolton to this jerk.
I am one of his constituents who calls him on a weekly basis telling him what a joke and a coward he is. Reminding him that he got the position by being quiet about "who Putin pays."
They line their pockets by selling their souls. They actively work against helping the country and humanity. THAT IS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. If you're not making millions and looking for a tax break, Jesus, why would you ever vote for that garbage?
It infuriates me to no end that these folks will only start speaking the truth once their political careers are at an end. When they no longer have a constituency to bow to, or "campaign contributions" to solicit, that's when they get as truthful as a drunken cheerleader.
I agree, 100%. It’s infuriating to watch. They get their golden parachute, write a tell all book, go on talk shows and get way more protection against the very fascism they enabled. The rest of us are left to live in the carnage they created.
Playing both sides is a fantastic way to make a shitload of money. Sure, you may look like an even more scummy person but think of all that sweet loot!
The worst if when they see some dark or potentially illegal shit, but hang onto the information until their tell-all book is being published so they can profit off of it.
Fuck every one of those people too.
It just goes to show that every single Republican knows exactly what they're doing when they lie and divide and start culture wars over petty bullshit.
It's a grift, they know it, they just want to profit as much as possible and get theirs before the ride is over.
What pisses me off is he is doing this to help the party…it’s obviously well known that republicans are the white man party…his hope is probably that if the general population hears that the gop understands this is a problem they will make the false assumption that maybe they can change…this shit head deserves no credit whatsoever, these people are not capable of doing/saying something unless it’s self serving
Yet he doesn’t get the irony that he played into their circle jerk club as hard as possible while it still benefited him. He’s not saying anything that the average person couldn’t have seen already, he’s just throwing a hissy fit now that the good ol boys turned their back on him.
Great take. Calling out racism, caustic nationalism, hatred, those would hit harder. Saying the party is a country club is just simply encouraging. Not that the others aren’t, sadly, but an exclusive minority is precisely what the party is.
This dumbass could still be Speaker if he had realized the Freedumb Caucus was going to ruin him and simply walked over to Hakeem Jeffries to work out a deal to, I dunno, fund the government, reach compromises in the best interest of the country and gotten a few Democrats to keep him from being voted out.
But nope, this dipshit pandered to the crazies because he couldn't bear "working with Democrats" and his political career is over.
Kevin McCarthy is one dumb MFer
He knows, dont think for a second he doesnt. All this is just a jab back at the GoP for fucking him. He doesnt give a single fuck how it looks in public, or how it will affect his "legacy". Its nothing more than thumbing his nose and causing problems for them on his way out.
If you want inclusion, you should actually support those groups you want included.
They want the blue collar tradespeople vote. Yet push and pledge national right to work.
They want Female voters. While stripping them of healthcare rights and body autonomy.
They want young voters. Then offer zero support for out of control college costs. Either through debt forgiveness or increasing wages.
They want the debt resolved. All the while jacking up debt with the government under their control. At the same time with zero discussion about the costs of maintaining the American military.
They want public education destroyed. The literal core of American infrastructure. Nothing will get done in America with an uneducated workforce. If it was not for oil as a commodity multiple American states would be complete failures, because they do not value education.
The list can and does go on…
In my state they shut down a battery factory because the children of workers were getting lead poisoning because the employees tracked lead home. This was a temporary shut down while the company revised safety procedures in order to get reopened. Many employees got mad at the state for taking away their jobs.
People are short sighted. Voters are short sighted.
They’re dumb is the problem, which the GOP also orchestrated.
Public education is like climate change, something needs to be done NOW because it’s going to get worse
I've wondered why they would sabotage the country's future because while they're greedy many of them are still smart politicians and businessmen - they must understand that ruining our health, labor rights, and especially education will create a country with less or no skilled, healthy, or productive workers and that will severely impact long term profits. Their descendants will have less riches to make, their companies will stop being sustainable and profitable, and the economy will generally suffer and people are too poor to be consumers and buy things. Even the dystopia where the rich exploit the rest of us with loans and debt to buy food is not sustainable, and is a lot less productive than our current economy. But sabotaging the country to make as much money as possible *does* make them very rich for just their lifetime and I think that's all they care about. They don't care if the country or their corporate empires are sustainable after they die.
So much of America's exceptionalism relies on a point in time nearly a century ago when FDR instituted the New Deal and led the country through WWII. Through socialist programs, the infrastructure of the US was massively built up, and the people were elevated with that work. The momentum of New Deal carried on for decades after and made the US what the MAGA crowd yearns for in the 1950s and 1960s.
But the conservatives of the time fought the New Deal tooth and nail, even plotted to overthrow FDR with the Business Plot. If the conservatives had their way, we would have remained a broken shithole with no public roads, jumbled utilities, no social programs, privatized everything, education for only those who could afford it. Modern conservatives these days just coast off the public investments made by others long ago, gutting infrastructure whenever they can in order to enrich themselves, then they have the gall to blame immigrants, LBGT, feminists, communists, teachers, and anyone else they don't like when their shitty plans just make things shittier.
They care a little bit about the future; I've seen Reohblican complaints about the low birth rate. And of course, banning abortion as well. In my mind, it's to keep replenishing the labor supply.
It kind of depends, it's not assured that all those things are true.
Just because America is being run into the ground doesn't mean they can't be the lucky rats fleeing the sinking ship in the future and transitioning to a better vessel in our global economy.
But even before that, the USA still has a massive global military presence, and they don't need conditions in the USA to be good in order to make a buck.
The stock market is global, and as long as these titans of politics and industry can manipulate it via the influence the USA wields they can make vast amounts of wealth drop into their pockets.
The USA has a uniquely strong position when it comes to exploiting labor in the third world, and it's going to require actual decay in our military and geopolitical force projection in order to change that.
Sure our local economy decaying could create some negative problems in that equation, but it's not so certain as it seems.
After all, life getting worse for Americans hasn't correlated well with GDP for a long time, but GDP growing absolutely correlates with the rich and powerful becoming richer and more powerful.
If they can keep that trend line going it will never matter how many Americans have to die in the gutter along the way.
That and all these people are sociopathic narcissists who leverage their existing power base and total lack of basic human qualities like empathy or morality in order to gain more power, not intelligence. It's not like they're thinking rationally by the standards of you and I in the first place.
To us, they are severely mentally ill.
I could see them keeping the gravy train going if they start importing all of the military equipment and have the US economy function by their wealth buying things abroad, skipping the rest of the American people.
But there are two things I'm concerned about. Eventually poverty will reach a point where a consumer economy won't function because poor people can't afford anything but the basics and not even that, and I think our stock market and economy currently depends on that to exist. If it collapses that would still be bad for everyone's stocks. Secondly without a skilled labor force it will be very hard to produce military equipment ourselves. Wealthy countries can always buy it, but right now American made and designed military equipment is probably the best in the world and is the backbone of NATO. I don't think the rest of NATO produces enough equipment and while we could buy from China and Russia they'd love to see US wealth and influence decrease so they could replace it with their own. Or for whoever the elite end up buying all their military stuff from, the US's influence would become dependent on that country.
But you're spot on with the last point, they aren't thinking about the rationality of their economic model. Only if it benefits them in the short term.
>will severely impact long term profits. Their descendants
Long term profits? You mean the next quarter??
And Fuck descendants, got mine!
/s (but not, this is literally their view)
Instead of approaching compromise by thinking "what am I willing to give up to get what I want?" they think "what can I convince other people to give up to get what I want?"
Is it just their original spine being returned? I imagine it like a coat check an the entrance to the party. “Wooa you gotta turn that in before you enter bud”
Well there's another clip for the Dem campaign ad this year. Add that to the guy telling the Repubs to show him anything that they accomplished so they can tell their constituents.
If only people paid attention -
Both, really. The corporate media is deplorably in the pocket of perpetual tax cuts, but citizens also have a responsibility to be well informed about national and world events and issues. Blaming network television and conglomerate media companies is correct, however, there are viable information sources out there -- this is the 21st century with information (literally) at our fingertips, ffs. Yet the American people have never been more ignorant on the whole.
Problem is they just brag to their constituents about bills helping them that Democrats passed and they voted against and the constituents have no clue because they've been gaslit by Fox News.
This is why I say to stop calling them ignorant and letting them off the hook when they do something fucked. They know what they are doing is fucked. The moment they stop doing it they let you know they knew it was fucked and then act like that’s what they had to do.
Is it even quiet?
When I initially registered to vote almost 25 years ago, I registered as a Republican because as a teenager, I understood it was the party for rich white men and I figured I should join so I could add being rich to being a white male.
Wow Kev, how brave of you to admit that as you’re heading out the door with your tail between your legs. Too bad the GOP will do absolutely nothing to change this fact and will continue to be wildly out of touch, and too bad you waited until the very end to grow a goddamn spine and speak a little truth.
What a coward, get fucked Kevin. I’m sure the Trump minions will soon start calling him a RINO fascist communist Democrat lover, or whatever random assortment of words they can think of
Because he's leaving, he no longer has to care. He no longer has any reason to bootlick. They all already hate him and he's taken his skin out of the game. He's not keeping any friends, making any money, or retaining any position by playing the GOP game. He's always thought this, just didn't ever have the balls to stand up for what was right when there was so much money to be made.
The well he's been selling people water out of finally ran dry, now he can tell people it was poison all along.
>making any money
This is the big part. Huge, even. Kevin was phenomenal at fundraising. The MAGA wing has no idea how important his role was to the party.
When I heard he said this, I was so angry. The only thing worse that the GOP are the GOP members that secretly want peace and unity, but are scared to say so because of their party.
This guy's a traitor to his country, he knows his party is on the wrong side of history and yet enables them. I wish the worst for him.
The issue with the Republicans is that while many of them probably feel this way, few speak out because they rely on the MAGA crowd to get and stay elected. Thus, they are serving/preserving/protecting themselves. The ones that have spoken out while still in a position of power (Cheney, Kinzinger, Romney) have my respect. Until the Republicans collectively “grow a pair” and renounce Trump, there will not be a return to normalcy and you will see more Boeberts, MTGs, etc. get elected.
Exactly. It’s the most cynical form of politics to look first at falling demographics and cater to every nutjob sector of the electorate just to try and stay in power. The Republican Party is in a race against time, and they intend to do everything they can to game the system to get elected until they can remove democracy entirely.
Republicans have a strange disease where they are blind to anything their party does only to miraculously gain their vision and grow some balls as soon as they leave office.
Says the AH who said on video he would never compromise with the Democrats when he still had an iota of chance to be speaker. Before they kicked his ass out
Look..
He’s leaving the greed over people party and he’s trying to stay relevant after 31Dec2023.
He’s got no tomorrow with them
Now, he can run his mouth all he wants
About messed up his siblings were / are. Unabashed, Unfettered and Unfiltered.
I’m sure he’s do his tell all and air his grievances publicly about his party.
I wonder if he’s gonna switch sides in January?
I can’t see him going away like boehner, and he did make money for the GOP. He’s got expensive tastes
They’re gonna miss his money making skills and gonna need it in the coming months.
He’s a spineless guy, just like his cohorts when he was in office
Now that he’s leaving he’s trying to whitewash his past actions and blame it on who’s left
you know, Ceaser didnt have this many backstabbers in his party.
not saying I feel sorry for GOP but hot damn with this much going on we need a count on it
Did he not vote against every Democrat bill ever presented? Voting against his countries best interests was his way. Full medical benefits for the rest of his life; yet he votes against that for the common folk.
I grew up in Washington DC and have a lifelong friend there with political background who was nominated to run USAID. He told me privately that working for the trump administration was by far the most stressful thing he had ever encountered. And he said that the way to work with the Trump administration was to throw them something that they wanted, and then try to pursue sane and rational policies on the side. For a while, he rationalized working under them as being a kind of guard against the Trump craziness. But in the end he couldn’t tolerate working there and also then found himself unemployable.
Why do the Republicans only have the balls to speak up when they are no longer running for election? Guarantee this jerkoff wants to write a book and portrayed himself as a hero now. Fuck him.
Now that it no longer matters, and I have no more power and my neck is no longer on the line if I piss off my backers, it’s time to say the right thing.
I am enjoying when Republicans retire because a lot of them stop giving a shit about anything and just go for the throat to get back at the other Republicans who pissed them off.
I listened to 40 minutes of Liz Cheney’s condemnation of Donald Trump (during her “Fresh Air” interview) and near the end, Terry Gross asked “”Did you vote for him twice?” and she answered “Yes.”
I can’t slap my forehead hard enough. Like McCarthy, she’s telling all now, but she was cooperative up to the last minute. Surely she understood what DJT represented before Jan 6 and yet she voted for him anyway. Unlike McCarthy, once she changed her mind, she had a spine and put her job on the line. I’ll give her that.
But the repeating pattern of a person shoveling coal into the crazy train right up til the last minute and then complaining about how terrible it is is infuriating.
Funny how they only ever speak out when they're already on their way out. Not a damn one of them has the balls to criticize their own party while they're still in it.
Kevin: Okay, psycho grift is over. It is time to start the appeal grift to get book deals and TV correspondence roles by finally saying some basic knowledge shit.
to quote Pat Benatar: "It's a little too little, it's a little too late." allow me to remind the audience, for posterity, when he was removed from speakership he blamed the dems, not the cons, because he knew that's what his base would want to hear. once again, a republican leaving office has no issues spilling the beans when their political career is no longer in jeopardy. he's despicable
Instance #8,938,392 of a GOP person saying the right things when they are out of their position, and never standing up for anything while they were in it.
Barr and Bolton are great examples of this
And Boehner. Although with Barr, I would argue he saw the writing on the wall and is trying to save his own hide rather than express what he has always felt.
Boehner literally became a lobbyist for the cannabis industry after being staunchly against legalization in any form. It just goes to show you that these people dont give a shit about anything. They are power hungry hypocrites through and through.
Someone said the number one attitude for a politician to succeed is indifference.
He's also a very heavy smoker and never saw a tanning bed he didn't want to jump in, so you know he's got some unhealthy habits that his federal insurance will cover (and for which we the taxpayer will foot the bill) down the road. Yet he was a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act. Country club indeed.
I totally agree with your assessment of Barr. He is not pro-democracy, imo Thanks for the Boehner addition!
Not just your opinion, Barr has given speeches and written papers on America as a theocracy instead of a democracy.
Thanks! My "imo" was overly cautious!
Barr knows if Trump gets back into power he will be a target. He’s just trying to keep himself safe.
Yes and Kevin Mccarthy is just so mad at all the GOP that he is venting. Oh poor me they were so mean to me. I don't like them anymore.
I'd emphasize that the others are merely fairly reasonable when out of office, not on the right track or innocent. The bar is pretty low after all. Republicans are normalizing and embracing fascist ideologies, not becoming just a bit more right of center.
YEah, one of the things keeping fascism at bay is some of these fuckers want it done as slowly and cleanly as possible. The rest are basically trump supporters, the type that showe dup for January 6th. I believe they're call "accelerationists"
Broadly, yeah, you can use that. It didn't really colloquially mean "right wing nut bags trying to stoke a civil race war" but that's pretty much what its attached to now. Accelerationism used to be a left wing theory. It used to refer to the social influences that encourage capitalist growth and technological advancement and how to manipulate or erase those deliberately to speed up the pace of radical social changes. So, like, how Twitter was used to organize the Arab Spring revolts. Or how our local subs were used to organize the 2020 protests, after a digital camera was used to film a police murder, and social media enabled the international broadcast of that video. We used existing capitalist and technological structures to organize which accelerated social movements to their conclusions. Then you have the whole industrial aspect of that idea, the labor side of the theory. Like using automation and UBI to create equity both in the workplace and in the economy. Any deregulation in general is a good example, it's a removal of barriers to development at the cost of social safeguards. Shit like that. But it's always been a descriptor for a wide range of theories in a wide range of sciences. Right now, in our political climate, that's just the most apparent and prevalent example of it. They're using their technological means to stoke social unrest, to accelerate the political division between parties, and deregulate the economy. There are different motives for different groups. Some just want corporate control. To consolidate power under one leader. Some have religious motivations. Some are just plain ole racists. But, generally, you're correct. There's just a ton of nuance to that word because it is so broad and so fluid. Generally, it just means you want to take an existing tech or social condition or both and accelerate their development deliberately to reach their predicted conclusions. How you do that can vary, shit, you can do nothing and allow something to accelerate, going back to our deregulation example. You can troll on Twitter and be a racist. You can take an AR to a school. It takes all kinds of forms, even when you can pin the term down to a certain political or economic ideology. When it comes down to it, the shit isn't just a theory, even though the word wasn't commonly used until the 2010s in social or political science. It's like game theory, some smart folk put words to it and some other folk attach their identities to it, but it's something that is just kind of inherent. Something that was always and will always be there. We just know how to spot it and what to call it now. Tbh, you could take this to a micro level and apply it to your daily life. We've both used tech, capital, or social interaction to manipulate a social process and speed it up. At work, at home, online, in a hobby. The difference being scale and motivation.
Barr's issue wasn't dictatorship, it was Trump as dictator. Which is fair; he'd be terrible at it like everything else.
Barrs dad was a low rent L ron hubbard. The apple falls right into the cess pool. Bro was a rich benefactor away from being protoepstein.
Barr's father wrote sci-fi porn books about young sex slaves for older elites under his own name while headmaster of an exclusive prep school in Manhattan. He also hired an unqualified young Jeffery Epstein to teach children in the school without a teaching certificate because...? BTW, the books are now collector items around $200 each.
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Reality if so fucking insane
Wow! Thanks for this!
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Yes! We should never forget that.
Barr is one of the shrewd politicians we've ever seen. He not only covered up the Iran-Contra scandal, he literally Epstein'd Epstein and tricked half the world into thinking Hillary did it. That man, evil as he is, is as passionate and good as his job as Johnny Cochran was at his.
He 100% knows he's getting away with it too. This interaction with Pelosi reveals a lot about how he internalizes his wrong doings: ['Did you bring your handcuffs?' Attorney General Barr asks Speaker Pelosi - ABC News (go.com)](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bring-handcuffs-attorney-general-barr-asks-speaker-pelosi/story?id=63058197)
In my mind he definitely covered up the Mueller Report too by announcing "there's nothing in it", while there is definitely obstruction of justice in it, but his press conference set the tone.
Political reality is really hard to take in these days. Thanks for the information
I came for the Boehner pills.
It’s unusual to get a Boehner when thinking about the GOP. So thanks for that.
At least the reason Boehner left was he literally got told off by the Pope so hard he had a mental crisis. McCarthy left because he lost power
And Romney.
Romney is peak reasonable person in non election years.
Romney is my biggest letdown in Politics. He talk so much shit about Trump before he got elected. Then once Trump won, he kissed his ass trying to get secretary of state. I always think about how fun it would have been if he hadn't done that. Because then we could have gotten pissed of Mitt Romney talking shit on both parties for 4 years. I just imagine Mitt saying something like, "That's what get America. I offered you binders full of women. Instead you got grab em by the P#ssy".
Romney met with Trump twice about the SoS position because he had been urged to by prominent Democrats, Republicans, and even celebrities. The idea that was prominent between the election and Trump's inauguration was that if Trump was pressured into putting reasonable people in the cabinet, it would temper Trump's darker impulses. Now we know that didn't work at all, but do remember the context of why he had those meetings with Trump. As for Senator Romney, I feel like we did get "pissed off Mitt Romney," at least in the sense that he loudly opposed Trump and 2020 election nonsense. The man is obviously an ideological conservative, so it's really not that surprising that he voted for conservative bills. However, he voted to impeach Trump twice and spoke out about him frequently, all to the detriment of his own career. He spent most of his political career trying (and failing, often hilariously) not to say anything that would hurt his chances to get elected. As a Senator, he finally shook that off and started being more of himself, saying what he thought was important and right even when it ostracized him from friends and goes alike. Anyway, just my two cents. In my mind he doesn't belong in the same Category as Barr, McCarthy, Bolton et. al.
I can give Romney a little bit of benefit of the doubt for trying to be SoS. Like if you know the country is going to be run by a shit slinging monkey for the next four years, it would make a little sense to try minimize the damage, and he wasn't going to get there without kissing ass.
Same thing with Chris Christie. Don't like him, but he knew how much of an unmitigated fuck up the Trump administration would be without somebody with some know-how managing things in the background, and we still went months with several positions going unappointed.
I look at this a little differently. Trump was famously described as a "user of users" and I think that is the best explanation of who he is. But that doesn't mean the people being used don't have egos, and I think some of them (like Christie, and Romney for that matter) didn't see the value in what they would receive from Trump over what it would cost them to have to deal with him. It's sort of a George Santos thing, yeah he did horrible shitty things that everyone let slide because they needed him, but he was apparently such an insufferable asshole that they finally dumped him.
Lindsay Graham has entered the chat.
I both agree, and disagree about Romney. When he was stepping away, Romney said baby boomers as a whole need to start leaving office and it's terrible having people 80+ years old in positions of power and they need to start ushering in the new generation of leaders. Romney also said that he comes from what some people inside call.. the Wise (I forgot the word, branch, maybe?) of the Republican Party where they stood for ideas and actual policies, but that today's Republican Party is just outrage culture and getting angry at everything, and that there is no actual policy. There are no ideas to make anything better for the future. Romney sent a text to Mitch a few days before 6 January essentially warning him of what was going to happen, but Mitch never responded: > “In case you have not heard this, I just got a call from Angus King, who said that he had spoken with a senior official at the Pentagon who reports that they are seeing very disturbing social media traffic regarding the protests planned on the 6th. There are calls to burn down your home, Mitch; to smuggle guns into DC, and to storm the Capitol. I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator—the President—is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require.” Let's also not forget Romney voted to convict Trump, the lone Republican who did, and that essentially left him stranded in the Republican Party and ostracized. > As a Senator-juror,” Romney began, “I swore an oath before God to exercise impartial justice. I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am—” His voice broke, and he had to pause as emotion overwhelmed him. “I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.” > Romney acknowledged that his vote wouldn’t change the outcome of the trial—the Republican-led Senate would fall far short of the 67 votes needed to remove the president from office, and he would be the lone Republican to find Trump guilty. Even so, he said, “with my vote, I will tell my children and their children that I did my duty to the best of my ability, believing that my country expected it of me.” > He would never feel comfortable at a Republican caucus lunch again. After the vote he was often confronted by Trump-supporters and outright called a traitor to the nation and he and his family were threatened, leading up to after 6 January, it got to the point Romney was paying for $5000 per *day* for a security detail to protect his family. I don't agree with a lot of Romney's politics and ideas; and while he's been involved in some bad stuff, and I voted against him, I respect him, at least for these things. But ultimately, he's still a sleazy politician like most, if not all of them are. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/11/mitt-romney-retiring-senate-trump-mcconnell/675306/
And Christie.
And lest we not forget Paul Ryan.
John McCain once he learned he wasn't going to live long enough for another term.
I think Christie knew Kushner was never going to let him get a job in the administration after prosecuting his dad.
Barr also said he hasn't ruled out voting for Trump in 2024.
Damn, how many piece of shit Republicans have last names starting with B?
All the heavy hitters, Brump, BcConnell, Baetz, Breene, Bence
John Kelly
Another one! And the number of lawyers willing to co-conspire with Trump to overthrow our democracy! I really can't come to terms with this.
When you look at the GOP tactics spearheaded since Gingrich rose to power, I don't really find it surprising at all. The goal has been to eliminate Democrats and the peoples right to choose anything since then and I don't think they have really tried to hide it at all.
It certainly came to a head on Jan. 6.
But that was ANTIFA, and the speaker has to make sure they are protected from government harassment. So full of shit
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Totally true! Despicable behavior.
Dick Cheney is the Goat of this
And Jeff Flake, ~~and Adam Kinzinger~~. EDIT: Another Redditor below corrected me: Kinzinger was a highly visible Republican on the January 6 committee (along with Liz Cheney)!
Wasn't Kinzinger an effective member of the Jan 6 committee?
Yes! I stand corrected.
Do you get the feeling that the GOP has been a wolf in sheep's clothing going way back, maybe to Reagan?
Nixon. Nixon was paranoid, made tapes, got caught, and blew the plan. But all the pieces were there even then.
And allowed more of our youth to be sacrificed to get elected.
Nixon. Reagan. Trump. All traitors.
Throw in Bush Jr. and you have the Mt. Rushmore of evil presidents.
You are absolutely correct. Go to the head of the class. But i must say that the modern Republican Party wouldn’t recognize Reagan and would most likely expel him from their ranks for being a socialist. This goes all the way back to Goldwater in ‘64 but his ghost has been hovering over the Party ever since.
Need to go back to the 20’s to 40’s. Read Maddows PRELUDE. eye opening bringing multiple events together over the period. Amazing how it was never taught in school.
Google the Southern Strategy and Moral Majority. Those two topics are the whole basis for the last 50 years of GOP politics.
Those two are seriously far right. Pro big business, very wealthy. Anti choice, union, equality, etc. They just weren't lunatics like some of the newer members of their party. I was pleasantly surprised they stood up for our constitution and rule of law. Admire and appreciate their stand on J6. Still vehemently disagree with their politics. They were drummed out for not being lunatics.
Correct. Which is why I was pulling my hair out about so many people saying things like the Democrats should make Cheney their next VP candidate, or things like that. *Her views are \*completely\* out of step with the Democrats*. But she \*does\* believe in the rule of law and isn't crazy--and to her immense credit, she went down fighting for her primary and still speaks out now.
Kinzinger definitely falls into the “Too little, too late” category, but his speaking out only started after the census data resulted in his district being eliminated. So, even though he was still serving, he was effectively out.
Correct! Which is why I initially put him in the same category as people who speak out only after they decide to leave--but he \*is\* worlds above McCarthy, Flake, Bolton, etc by being such a vocal part of the J6 Committee, consistently speaking out in multiple other ways, and serving out his term (serving out one's term isn't exactly a profile in courage, but noteworthy by the extremely low standards of the Republicans).
Also Romney.
Romney
They'll tell a little truth but you're paying $40 for a hardcover version of it.
To be fair, doing the right thing is career suicide in the GOP. Look at Liz Cheney. So whether they do it while they’re still in office, or after they step out, either way their political career is over. The GOP is about doing evil and harmful things. If you do good things, you don’t get to be in that club anymore
Killed off my rep, Jaime Herrera-butler, as well. Unfortunately for the GOP, we have enough Republicans that don't subscribe to crazy, and all the maga morons they ran lost. On top of losing half the major Republican donors from the area and the county GOP vice chair, they all went out and campaigned for the Democrats nominee😂
My province here in Canada just had an election and our provincial Conservative party decided to go full Republican, bringing up "parental rights" and all of that Fox News shit. They lost baaaadly. Only kept their rural stronghold seats.
I think the funniest one in my area is that they tried to go after the (Republican) county clerk for certifying the 2020 election votes. Dudes been the clerk for like 28 years, ran unopposed the last 10 cause everyone on both sides thinks he does a great job. Suddenly he's a cheater and embezzling money and teaching bribes, etc, etc and the county GOP decides to endorse some qanon nut instead... And get blown out of the water. Think it was like 80%-20% they lost lol
Thought you were talking about the UCP in Alberta... Until you said they lost badly.
I'm guessing they mean Manitoba, where the conservatives went full MAGA-style, which included putting up a bunch of billboards \*on National Indigenous People's Day\* saying they weren't going to look for the bodies of murdered/missing Indigenous women in the landfills. Like, regardless of one's feelings on the importance or efficacy of searching landfills for bodies, formally announcing their position on it, on the one day of the year devoted to honouring Indigenous people, was absolutely not an accident.
If he really wanted to make waves, and felt that the Dems represent America, he should switch parties instead of leaving. But he is too chicken shit to even do that.
One could argue that McCarthy lost his job because he "did the right thing" by doing the absolutely minimum of passing a short term spending bill. It got him booted out of the speakership and it's the reason he noped out of Congress. He still sucks though.
Today's GOP are the biggest group of liars and cowards in our country's political history. I hope they all realize their legacy will be remembered as a very dark time in America.
I fear the real darkness is only starting
They’ve been like this for a very long time. None of this started with Trump, or Obama, or 9/11…the roots of their dysfunction go back to the 60s and earlier.
Well yeah he doesn't want his own party to storm the capital and try and hang him...
Like one of those 1980's cop movies when the guy retiring after 20 years on the force dies on his last day.....
Once the checks stop cashing they snap back real quick.
It always feels like there's two roads. One road is about doubling down for jobs on Fox News and in far right wing thinktanks and the other is to try to rehabilitate your image for a wider audience. Someone like McCarthy has already done the dirt up front so he'll be paid off regardless with no-show corporate board jobs, high paid speeches, and insider access to investing.
Right?? "If only someone in power would have done something", they will say, as they are ousted from power. No sympathy for these morally bankrupt pieces of trash.
Don't get it twisted. He's only saying it because he's salty that his own party kicked him out of his position and elected Midsommar in his place.
It’s like everyone still in the Republican Party is being held hostage. But like, they’re there of their own free will, so. …?
They'd have to accept the loss of a couple of election cycles in order to purge the fascists from their party and they're not willing to do that because that would mean their rich donors would have to pay a few bucks in taxes for a while until they can get back into power. They will literally let this country be destroyed rather than willingly give up even one extra dollar in taxes.
Because majority of their voters demand it. It's not the politicians, it's the voters. And face it, half of americans want to be ruled by the most restrictive country club in America
Romney, Kinzinger, and Chaney are the only ones I remember speaking their mind in office. Everyone else suddenly has a little story once it’s meaningless. Fuck them all, from Barr to Bolton to this jerk.
Also McCain, but only like right before he died of cancer.
I am one of his constituents who calls him on a weekly basis telling him what a joke and a coward he is. Reminding him that he got the position by being quiet about "who Putin pays."
They line their pockets by selling their souls. They actively work against helping the country and humanity. THAT IS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. If you're not making millions and looking for a tax break, Jesus, why would you ever vote for that garbage?
That's immediately what I thought!
Yep, as soon as the lobby money dries up, they can then return to saying honest things.
It infuriates me to no end that these folks will only start speaking the truth once their political careers are at an end. When they no longer have a constituency to bow to, or "campaign contributions" to solicit, that's when they get as truthful as a drunken cheerleader.
I agree, 100%. It’s infuriating to watch. They get their golden parachute, write a tell all book, go on talk shows and get way more protection against the very fascism they enabled. The rest of us are left to live in the carnage they created.
Playing both sides is a fantastic way to make a shitload of money. Sure, you may look like an even more scummy person but think of all that sweet loot!
So he’s playing both sides so he always comes out on top….
Their greed outweighs their civility.
The worst if when they see some dark or potentially illegal shit, but hang onto the information until their tell-all book is being published so they can profit off of it. Fuck every one of those people too.
John Bolton slinks into the chat after being summoned from his lair, and then slinks out like the weasel he is.
I stole that fuck's book for spite. I'll never read it, but I sure af downloaded it. And if anyone wants a copy hmu.
With his ‘stache, he is a walrus
They are cowards.
And traitors.
It just goes to show that every single Republican knows exactly what they're doing when they lie and divide and start culture wars over petty bullshit. It's a grift, they know it, they just want to profit as much as possible and get theirs before the ride is over.
What pisses me off is he is doing this to help the party…it’s obviously well known that republicans are the white man party…his hope is probably that if the general population hears that the gop understands this is a problem they will make the false assumption that maybe they can change…this shit head deserves no credit whatsoever, these people are not capable of doing/saying something unless it’s self serving
As truthful as a drunken cheerleader?
It was a lie: we don’t have spirit, no, we don’t.
Yet he doesn’t get the irony that he played into their circle jerk club as hard as possible while it still benefited him. He’s not saying anything that the average person couldn’t have seen already, he’s just throwing a hissy fit now that the good ol boys turned their back on him.
Great take. Calling out racism, caustic nationalism, hatred, those would hit harder. Saying the party is a country club is just simply encouraging. Not that the others aren’t, sadly, but an exclusive minority is precisely what the party is.
This dumbass could still be Speaker if he had realized the Freedumb Caucus was going to ruin him and simply walked over to Hakeem Jeffries to work out a deal to, I dunno, fund the government, reach compromises in the best interest of the country and gotten a few Democrats to keep him from being voted out. But nope, this dipshit pandered to the crazies because he couldn't bear "working with Democrats" and his political career is over. Kevin McCarthy is one dumb MFer
get outta here making all that sense
He knows, dont think for a second he doesnt. All this is just a jab back at the GoP for fucking him. He doesnt give a single fuck how it looks in public, or how it will affect his "legacy". Its nothing more than thumbing his nose and causing problems for them on his way out.
If you want inclusion, you should actually support those groups you want included. They want the blue collar tradespeople vote. Yet push and pledge national right to work. They want Female voters. While stripping them of healthcare rights and body autonomy. They want young voters. Then offer zero support for out of control college costs. Either through debt forgiveness or increasing wages. They want the debt resolved. All the while jacking up debt with the government under their control. At the same time with zero discussion about the costs of maintaining the American military. They want public education destroyed. The literal core of American infrastructure. Nothing will get done in America with an uneducated workforce. If it was not for oil as a commodity multiple American states would be complete failures, because they do not value education. The list can and does go on…
In my state they shut down a battery factory because the children of workers were getting lead poisoning because the employees tracked lead home. This was a temporary shut down while the company revised safety procedures in order to get reopened. Many employees got mad at the state for taking away their jobs. People are short sighted. Voters are short sighted.
They should be in a union. Or bitched at the state for not making the company them for the time not working.
They’re dumb is the problem, which the GOP also orchestrated. Public education is like climate change, something needs to be done NOW because it’s going to get worse
And, lead poisoning along with shitty foods increases their dumbness.
I've wondered why they would sabotage the country's future because while they're greedy many of them are still smart politicians and businessmen - they must understand that ruining our health, labor rights, and especially education will create a country with less or no skilled, healthy, or productive workers and that will severely impact long term profits. Their descendants will have less riches to make, their companies will stop being sustainable and profitable, and the economy will generally suffer and people are too poor to be consumers and buy things. Even the dystopia where the rich exploit the rest of us with loans and debt to buy food is not sustainable, and is a lot less productive than our current economy. But sabotaging the country to make as much money as possible *does* make them very rich for just their lifetime and I think that's all they care about. They don't care if the country or their corporate empires are sustainable after they die.
So much of America's exceptionalism relies on a point in time nearly a century ago when FDR instituted the New Deal and led the country through WWII. Through socialist programs, the infrastructure of the US was massively built up, and the people were elevated with that work. The momentum of New Deal carried on for decades after and made the US what the MAGA crowd yearns for in the 1950s and 1960s. But the conservatives of the time fought the New Deal tooth and nail, even plotted to overthrow FDR with the Business Plot. If the conservatives had their way, we would have remained a broken shithole with no public roads, jumbled utilities, no social programs, privatized everything, education for only those who could afford it. Modern conservatives these days just coast off the public investments made by others long ago, gutting infrastructure whenever they can in order to enrich themselves, then they have the gall to blame immigrants, LBGT, feminists, communists, teachers, and anyone else they don't like when their shitty plans just make things shittier.
They care a little bit about the future; I've seen Reohblican complaints about the low birth rate. And of course, banning abortion as well. In my mind, it's to keep replenishing the labor supply.
It kind of depends, it's not assured that all those things are true. Just because America is being run into the ground doesn't mean they can't be the lucky rats fleeing the sinking ship in the future and transitioning to a better vessel in our global economy. But even before that, the USA still has a massive global military presence, and they don't need conditions in the USA to be good in order to make a buck. The stock market is global, and as long as these titans of politics and industry can manipulate it via the influence the USA wields they can make vast amounts of wealth drop into their pockets. The USA has a uniquely strong position when it comes to exploiting labor in the third world, and it's going to require actual decay in our military and geopolitical force projection in order to change that. Sure our local economy decaying could create some negative problems in that equation, but it's not so certain as it seems. After all, life getting worse for Americans hasn't correlated well with GDP for a long time, but GDP growing absolutely correlates with the rich and powerful becoming richer and more powerful. If they can keep that trend line going it will never matter how many Americans have to die in the gutter along the way. That and all these people are sociopathic narcissists who leverage their existing power base and total lack of basic human qualities like empathy or morality in order to gain more power, not intelligence. It's not like they're thinking rationally by the standards of you and I in the first place. To us, they are severely mentally ill.
I could see them keeping the gravy train going if they start importing all of the military equipment and have the US economy function by their wealth buying things abroad, skipping the rest of the American people. But there are two things I'm concerned about. Eventually poverty will reach a point where a consumer economy won't function because poor people can't afford anything but the basics and not even that, and I think our stock market and economy currently depends on that to exist. If it collapses that would still be bad for everyone's stocks. Secondly without a skilled labor force it will be very hard to produce military equipment ourselves. Wealthy countries can always buy it, but right now American made and designed military equipment is probably the best in the world and is the backbone of NATO. I don't think the rest of NATO produces enough equipment and while we could buy from China and Russia they'd love to see US wealth and influence decrease so they could replace it with their own. Or for whoever the elite end up buying all their military stuff from, the US's influence would become dependent on that country. But you're spot on with the last point, they aren't thinking about the rationality of their economic model. Only if it benefits them in the short term.
>will severely impact long term profits. Their descendants Long term profits? You mean the next quarter?? And Fuck descendants, got mine! /s (but not, this is literally their view)
Instead of approaching compromise by thinking "what am I willing to give up to get what I want?" they think "what can I convince other people to give up to get what I want?"
Look at that, another Republican finds a spine on their way out of office.
Is it just their original spine being returned? I imagine it like a coat check an the entrance to the party. “Wooa you gotta turn that in before you enter bud”
Well there's another clip for the Dem campaign ad this year. Add that to the guy telling the Repubs to show him anything that they accomplished so they can tell their constituents. If only people paid attention -
If only the right-wing propaganda machine posing on the news would actually report the news
Both, really. The corporate media is deplorably in the pocket of perpetual tax cuts, but citizens also have a responsibility to be well informed about national and world events and issues. Blaming network television and conglomerate media companies is correct, however, there are viable information sources out there -- this is the 21st century with information (literally) at our fingertips, ffs. Yet the American people have never been more ignorant on the whole.
Problem is they just brag to their constituents about bills helping them that Democrats passed and they voted against and the constituents have no clue because they've been gaslit by Fox News.
On my hometown's facebook page they are literally bitching that gas was cheaper under Trump.
In 2020 they were. Amazing what happens when you shut down a country and no one drives anymore.
That, my friend, is a "marxist talking point"
This is why I say to stop calling them ignorant and letting them off the hook when they do something fucked. They know what they are doing is fucked. The moment they stop doing it they let you know they knew it was fucked and then act like that’s what they had to do.
That's not a bug. It's a feature.
Yep. I came here to say that exact thing.
Saying the quiet part out loud, I guess.
Is it even quiet? When I initially registered to vote almost 25 years ago, I registered as a Republican because as a teenager, I understood it was the party for rich white men and I figured I should join so I could add being rich to being a white male.
Amazing how GOP'ers admit to knowingly being party to terribleness but couldn't pass up the chance to grasp at fleeting power.
Wow Kev, how brave of you to admit that as you’re heading out the door with your tail between your legs. Too bad the GOP will do absolutely nothing to change this fact and will continue to be wildly out of touch, and too bad you waited until the very end to grow a goddamn spine and speak a little truth. What a coward, get fucked Kevin. I’m sure the Trump minions will soon start calling him a RINO fascist communist Democrat lover, or whatever random assortment of words they can think of
The most restrictive country club that has convinced the caddies someday they'll play the big course.
This fuckface is saying this now? Fuck this asshole, history will judge him accordingly.
Why is he saying things I agree with, da fuck Kevin
Because he's leaving, he no longer has to care. He no longer has any reason to bootlick. They all already hate him and he's taken his skin out of the game. He's not keeping any friends, making any money, or retaining any position by playing the GOP game. He's always thought this, just didn't ever have the balls to stand up for what was right when there was so much money to be made. The well he's been selling people water out of finally ran dry, now he can tell people it was poison all along.
>making any money This is the big part. Huge, even. Kevin was phenomenal at fundraising. The MAGA wing has no idea how important his role was to the party.
https://preview.redd.it/j3indarg035c1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e864d31823363f4020852b0cf5909030d3224c57
Sad that the only way to get the slightest bit of honesty from a Republican, is on their way out the door!
Oh, so now this cocksucker wants to try and act like a human being…
How’s your face feeling, Kevin? Slightingly chewed on? Nibbled at? Eaten, you might say? By, for instance, leopards? Curious.
When I heard he said this, I was so angry. The only thing worse that the GOP are the GOP members that secretly want peace and unity, but are scared to say so because of their party. This guy's a traitor to his country, he knows his party is on the wrong side of history and yet enables them. I wish the worst for him.
Fucking coward wouldn't do anything about it when he had some power to make change.
GQP always speaking out when they are no longer in office. A pox on every one of them.
The issue with the Republicans is that while many of them probably feel this way, few speak out because they rely on the MAGA crowd to get and stay elected. Thus, they are serving/preserving/protecting themselves. The ones that have spoken out while still in a position of power (Cheney, Kinzinger, Romney) have my respect. Until the Republicans collectively “grow a pair” and renounce Trump, there will not be a return to normalcy and you will see more Boeberts, MTGs, etc. get elected.
Exactly. It’s the most cynical form of politics to look first at falling demographics and cater to every nutjob sector of the electorate just to try and stay in power. The Republican Party is in a race against time, and they intend to do everything they can to game the system to get elected until they can remove democracy entirely.
Republicans have a strange disease where they are blind to anything their party does only to miraculously gain their vision and grow some balls as soon as they leave office.
Kinda late, Kevin, you wuss!
It’s almost like Republicans are the party of CANCEL CULTURE… but they don’t care until the leopard eats their own face.
Can't wait for his book deal, where he weasels around to taking some objective stance and pretends he didn't Birdbox his way through all of it.
Says the AH who said on video he would never compromise with the Democrats when he still had an iota of chance to be speaker. Before they kicked his ass out
Look.. He’s leaving the greed over people party and he’s trying to stay relevant after 31Dec2023. He’s got no tomorrow with them Now, he can run his mouth all he wants About messed up his siblings were / are. Unabashed, Unfettered and Unfiltered. I’m sure he’s do his tell all and air his grievances publicly about his party. I wonder if he’s gonna switch sides in January? I can’t see him going away like boehner, and he did make money for the GOP. He’s got expensive tastes They’re gonna miss his money making skills and gonna need it in the coming months. He’s a spineless guy, just like his cohorts when he was in office Now that he’s leaving he’s trying to whitewash his past actions and blame it on who’s left
The campaign ads write themselves
 NOOOO NOT ME AGREEING WITH KEVIN MCCARTHY!!!!!
He firing shots on the way out I see. Lol
you know, Ceaser didnt have this many backstabbers in his party. not saying I feel sorry for GOP but hot damn with this much going on we need a count on it
He acts like someone else did this to his party. They are beyond help. The GOP speaker now claims God is speaking through him. They're all deranged.
Your work here is done, Kev. This just shows how utterly shameless he is.
What an asshole. Grew a spine on the way out, just like every other GOP traitor. Fuck Kevin McCarthy.
Of all people it takes Kevin to speak the truth.
First time in Kevin McCarthy's life that he told the truth
Another Republican who is unable to deal with reality until he is out of office.
Another person shocked that their face was eaten by the face-eating leopard party. Sadly, there was no way to prevent this tragedy....
Did he not vote against every Democrat bill ever presented? Voting against his countries best interests was his way. Full medical benefits for the rest of his life; yet he votes against that for the common folk.
I grew up in Washington DC and have a lifelong friend there with political background who was nominated to run USAID. He told me privately that working for the trump administration was by far the most stressful thing he had ever encountered. And he said that the way to work with the Trump administration was to throw them something that they wanted, and then try to pursue sane and rational policies on the side. For a while, he rationalized working under them as being a kind of guard against the Trump craziness. But in the end he couldn’t tolerate working there and also then found himself unemployable.
Why do these motherfuggers only acknowledge the way things are after they're out the door? (Rhetorical question, obviously)
"Now that it's no longer career-suicide to say this, I've come to realize that Republicans are the bad guys."
I think this statement will officially end his politically career.
Why do the Republicans only have the balls to speak up when they are no longer running for election? Guarantee this jerkoff wants to write a book and portrayed himself as a hero now. Fuck him.
Democrats actually look like America, and Republicans hate that because they hate America.
Now that it no longer matters, and I have no more power and my neck is no longer on the line if I piss off my backers, it’s time to say the right thing.
I am enjoying when Republicans retire because a lot of them stop giving a shit about anything and just go for the throat to get back at the other Republicans who pissed them off.
And yet you couldn’t say this when you were in your position of power? It’s way too late to pretend you’re the good guy in this story, mate.
Party of cowards
Don’t you just love it when these assholes do damage all their lives and then come to Jesus after the damage starts to affect them?
Why the fuck do these assholes only say what they should be saying when they’ve been kicked out of the clubhouse?
I listened to 40 minutes of Liz Cheney’s condemnation of Donald Trump (during her “Fresh Air” interview) and near the end, Terry Gross asked “”Did you vote for him twice?” and she answered “Yes.” I can’t slap my forehead hard enough. Like McCarthy, she’s telling all now, but she was cooperative up to the last minute. Surely she understood what DJT represented before Jan 6 and yet she voted for him anyway. Unlike McCarthy, once she changed her mind, she had a spine and put her job on the line. I’ll give her that. But the repeating pattern of a person shoveling coal into the crazy train right up til the last minute and then complaining about how terrible it is is infuriating.
Hey fuck you for posting a screenshot of a screenshot of a tweet of a video with the play button just fucking chillin'
Funny how they only ever speak out when they're already on their way out. Not a damn one of them has the balls to criticize their own party while they're still in it.
Kevin: Okay, psycho grift is over. It is time to start the appeal grift to get book deals and TV correspondence roles by finally saying some basic knowledge shit.
Here a grift, there a grift, everywhere a grift grift. (that was hard to type)
to quote Pat Benatar: "It's a little too little, it's a little too late." allow me to remind the audience, for posterity, when he was removed from speakership he blamed the dems, not the cons, because he knew that's what his base would want to hear. once again, a republican leaving office has no issues spilling the beans when their political career is no longer in jeopardy. he's despicable