March 31, 2017

Trumps failing presidency has the GOP in a free fall

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-failing-presidency-has-the-gop-in-a-free-fall/2017/03/30/e0882d62-1581-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html

By Michael Gerson Opinion writer March 30 at 8:01 PM

In the aftermath of the GOP health-care debacle came a revealing act of candor. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan admitted that his party, which controls the House, Senate and White House, is not yet a “governing party” because it could not “get 216 people to agree with each other on how we do things.”

Since the rise of the tea party, there have been perhaps 30 members of the House — the Freedom Caucus — who have been consistently unwilling to vote for center-right policy because their anti-government convictions are unappeasable. Incited and abetted by conservative media, they made then-Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) life a living hell, and have greeted Ryan (Wis.) with sharpened pitchforks.

So a party at the peak of its political fortunes is utterly paralyzed. A caucus in control of everything is itself uncontrollable.

Heading into last year’s election, Republicans knew that this problem — the tea party predicament, the Freedom Caucus conundrum, the Boehner bog — had to be dealt with. The GOP needed a large and capable leader who could either unite the whole party (at least temporarily) with a bold, conservative vision, or peel off some centrist Democratic support with innovative policy. They needed an above-average president.

What they got is unimaginably distant from any of these goals. They got a leader who is empty — devoid of even moderately detailed preferences and incapable of using policy details in the course of political persuasion.
...

This is a pretty bad combination: empty, easily distracted, vindictive, shallow, impatient, incompetent and morally small. This is not the profile of a governing party.

...

It is now dawning on Republicans what they have done to themselves. They thought they could somehow get away with Trump. That he could be contained. That the adults could provide guidance. That the economy might come to the rescue. That the damage could be limited.

Instead, they are seeing a downward spiral of incompetence and public contempt — a collapse that is yet to reach a floor. A presidency is failing. A party unable to govern is becoming unfit to govern.

And what, in the short term, can be done about it? Nothing. Nothing at all.

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/847802209009934336

March 31, 2017

Joy Ann Reid Retweeted my tweet!

I'm happy about it, and I thought I'd share. Gimmee some DU love!


https://twitter.com/christoq/status/847588848976539648

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/847592223763869696

March 26, 2017

Great thread by Peter Daou. #TrumpRussia is ALREADY the biggest political scandal in US history.

https://twitter.com/peterdaou/status/845997564033994752

March 26, 2017

White Americans Are Biggest Terror Threat in U.S.: Study

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/white-americans-are-biggest-terror-threat-u-s-study-n380931

https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-06-24/white-americans-are-biggest-terror-threat-united-states

White Americans are the biggest terror threat in the United States, according to a study by the New America Foundation. The Washington-based research organization did a review of “terror” attacks on US soil since Sept. 11, 2001 and found that most of them were carried out by radical anti-government groups or white supremacists.

Almost twice as many people have died in attacks by right-wing groups in America than have died in attacks by Muslim extremists. Of the 26 attacks since 9/11 that the group defined as terror, 19 were carried out by non-Muslims. Yet there are no white Americans languishing inside the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. And there are no drones dropping bombs on gatherings of military-age males in the country's lawless border regions.

Attacks by right-wing groups get comparatively little coverage in the news media. Most people will struggle to remember the shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that killed six people in 2012. A man who associated with neo-Nazi groups carried out that shooting. There was also the married couple in Las Vegas who walked into a pizza shop and murdered two police officers. They left a swastika on one of the bodies before killing a third person in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Such attacks are not limited to one part of the country. In 2011, two white supremacists went on a shooting spree in the Pacific Northwest, killing four people.

More from GlobalPost: Turns out people get angry when you say white Americans are terrorists, too

Terrorism is hard to define. But here is its basic meaning: ideological violence. In its study, the New America Foundation took a narrow view of what could be considered a terror attack. Most mass shootings, for instance, like Sandy Hook or the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting — both in 2012 — weren't included. Also not included was the killing of three Muslim students in North Carolina earlier this year. The shooter was a neighbor and had strong opinions about religion. But he also had strong opinions about parking spaces and a history of anger issues. So that shooting was left off the list.

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Radical Christian terrorism. Someone needs to call this exactly what it is, since language seems so important to some. These are mostly radical Christian terrorists.

March 22, 2017

So basically, if you spread pro-Trump memes last year, you were promoting Russian propaganda

So basically, the way I see it, if you spread pro-Trump memes last year, or fought for him online, you were willfully, ignorantly promoting Russian propaganda that was intended to divide us as a nation.

You helped Russia make our democracy less workable, and you were complicit in subverting our democratic process. The Trump Trolls were unknowingly used as operatives to disseminate fake news and bs memes created by Russians that were intended to undercut Hillary's campaign.

If you were duped, you are no less culpable. The stench of treason is in the air, and it will cling to you. Trump supporters are all trolls and bots, or worse, willing agents working for a foreign adversary. That is how I see it. Trump supporters were duped into working as agents for another country's interests. They are quislings. Collaborators. Benedict Arnolds, the lot of them. Ignorance is no excuse.

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/844355990212399104

March 22, 2017

Schumer and Warren both came out today against moving forward with SC nominee Gorsuch

THAT IS NOT HiS SEAT! The Rethuglicans brazenly subverted our Constitution by not allowing President appoint to SC last year
#GorsuchHearing

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/844337459198492672

March 21, 2017

Tweet: Has Ivanka Trump suddenly become a foreign policy expert? I thought she designed hand bags.

Has Ivanka Trump suddenly become a foreign policy expert?
I thought she designed hand bags.

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/844016292440883200

March 20, 2017

Best Twitter graphic meme on the budget

I want my PBS. I want art. I want investments in science & green energy. I cannot support a draconian austerity budget that hurts the people.

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/843650995724869637

March 18, 2017

World leaders' reactions to meeting with the White House resident

World leaders' reactions to meeting with the White House resident
#Merkel #RESIST #FightOn #SecretService #DonTheCon #TrumpcareIsWorseThan

Merkel, Abe and Trudeau
Their expressions say it all.

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/842877349498568704


What a joke this guy is.

March 16, 2017

Comparison of *45's crowd vs protest crowd size in Nashville, TN today

Size matters

https://twitter.com/christoq/status/842214399284785153