Tag: GOP

Why Republicans win…

The plan is to lose a few battles but possibly win the war: let the bill be struck down in district and circuit courts as unconstitutional but give the Supreme Court the final word, and hope five justices are interested in taking an opportunity to overturn Roe v Wade.

Iowa passes one of the harshest abortion bills in America

… they are smart, they are focussed, they are patient.

They plan their moves and execute them with patience over years, if not decades. While their opponents, specially the twitterati sort, react to what’s happening. Reactivity isn’t always bad. But it does usually mean that you aren’t setting the terms, or the direction. You’re just responding to the other’s terms, in/against their direction. And, over time, you are losing.

Continue reading Why Republicans win…

Political correctness of the other kind

The farmers know something is happening to the weather, but the words “climate change” have become politically charged in a place where, like much of rural America, conservative politics dominate.

Climate change threatens Montana’s barley farmers – and possibly your beer – Food and Environment Reporting Network

In the field, looking at his withering crop, Somerfeld was unequivocal about the cause of his damaged crop – “climate change.” But back at the bar, with his friends, his language changed. He dropped those taboo words in favour of “erratic weather” and “drier, hotter summers” – a not-uncommon conversational tactic in farm country these days.

Omerta: Drumpf, Ryan, GOP, Russia.

The GOP top brass, on how Russia screwed the Dems, and helped Drumpf:

That’s when McCarthy brought the conversation about Russian meddling around to the DNC hack, Trump and Rohrabacher.

“I’ll guarantee you that’s what it is…The Russians hacked the DNC and got the opp [opposition] research that they had on Trump,” McCarthy said with a laugh.

Ryan asked who the Russians “delivered” the opposition research to.

“There’s… there’s two people, I think, Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy said, drawing some laughter. “Swear to God,” McCarthy added.

House majority leader to colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays’ Trump, May 18, 2017 at 12:46AM

The same GOP top brass swearing to Omerta:

“This is an off the record,” Ryan said.

Some lawmakers laughed at that.

“No leaks, alright?,” Ryan said, adding: “This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

“That’s how you know that we’re tight,” Scalise said.

“What’s said in the family stays in the family,” Ryan added.

GOP’s America #2

Zendrive studied actual device use among 3.1 million drivers over 5.6 billion miles of driving and found that in 88 percent of trips, drivers made at least some use of their phones. On average, drivers spent 3.5 minutes per hour on their device.

The number of traffic deaths has been increasing since 2015 after a 40-year decline, with more than 40,000 people dying on the roads last year for the first time in a decade.

Study confirms we all use our phones while driving, April 19, 2017, at 10:01 AM

I found it interesting that the map above, of top ‘driving time spent on phone’ states, overlaps quite well with a map of strongly GOP-voting states1.

Continue reading GOP’s America #2

GOP’s America!

… a handful of drug distributors, allegedly knowingly turned a blind eye to the opioid epidemic that is ravaging the state by delivering and selling mass quantities of pain medications.

… those companies collectively sold 40 million doses of hydrocodone and oxycodone to Cabell County pharmacies between 2007 and 2012. The county’s population is less than 100,000.

… drug distributors, including many of the defendants in the lawsuit, flooded the state with prescription opioids, equal to “433 pain pills for every man, woman and child in West Virginia…

West Virginia county sues drug distributors over opioid crisis, April 18, 2017, at 05:43 PM

The drug companies will continue to lobby and fund the GOP.
The GOP will continue to defend the drug companies from ‘govt interference in their freedom to do business.’
The voters of this opioid addicted state will continue to vote GOP.

Yet another example of how easy it is to rile up people with slogans of guns, god, and freedom, to make them vote against their own clear good.

Target voter for all nativist/hativist political parties…

… trusting retirees, with a bit of disposable income, and a natural inclination to hate modernity and change—an inclination that could be heightened, radicalized, and exploited.

The Long, Lucrative Right-wing Grift Is Blowing Up in the World’s Face, April 10, 2017, at 06:51 PM

The sentence may be written for the voters in the west – the ones who elected Trump, and voted for Brexit. However, from my conversations on visits back home, it’s the same voters who also support Modi & BJP in India – heightened, radicalised, and exploited.

Continue reading Target voter for all nativist/hativist political parties…

Team Trump vs GOP

The true believers share views that run counter to the Paul Ryan-wing of the GOP on everything from immigration and infrastructure spending, to bullying corporations. They are anti-“corporatists” who want to methodically destroy conventional conservatism.

Trump 101: What he means by “America first”, January 23, 2017 at 03:44PM

… it isn’t over yet.