If there is one takeaway from Trump’s CPAC speech, it’s that he owns the GOP.
There is no one else who can do what he does to incite their base, and they know it.
He attacked “RINOs” by name - and he pledged to primary them.
With each new candidate the GOP radicalizes further.
He also strongly reaffirmed the party’s commitment to harsh counter-majoritarian tactics, attacking Dems’ voting integrity bill, HR1, and openly & explicitly embraced voter suppression tactics:
Limit Election Day to “1 day”
Voter ID
Custody chains for ballots
Citizenship tests
Aside from those points, his speech was largely a litany of historical revisionism, claiming credit for the economy and Covid vaccines, claiming “the greatest” accomplishments, and continuing to try to tie Dems to the hyped specter of “communism.”
He also repeated the Big Lie about the election, of course, which is the ostensible justification for all of the nasty voter suppression tactics that the GOP’s army of lawyers is rolling out in states across the country.
IMHO, as long as Dems in Congress actually unite behind Biden and enacts his agenda, the country & economy will improve, and Trump/GOP numbers will shrink.
Manchin & Sinema are our hurdles there.
And we have to stop their vote suppression strategies in the state legislatures.
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Why does this Ian Miles Cheong article that Jack Posobiec is tweeting (and Federalist Benny is retweeting) have a screenshot that was captured in GMT +8?
That’s Irkutsk time, in Russia. Or China Central Time.
Original tweet, on the left, is Pacific time (GMT -8):
Correction: Benny Johnson is Chief Creative Officer at Turning Point USA, not the Federalist.
Should have double checked that versus relying on my memory; I sometimes get individual groups in the archipelago of right wing organizations confused.
Aleksandr Torshin [who had long standing ties to the FSB] was picked by Putin to be the head of the Russian investigation into the Beslan school siege.
He cleared the Kremlin, blaming “local officials of incompetence and negligence.”
Mitch McConnell admitted that Dems proved their case - that Trump is guilty.
They acquitted based on a sham constitutional argument, because that’s what they were going to do.
Blaming Dems for not calling witnesses is wrongheaded.
It wouldn’t have changed *anything.*
The only thing it would have accomplished is providing Republicans more air time to “flood the zone with sh*t” (in Bannon’s words), and delay the Senate confirmations that we need to move forward.
I didn’t like the witnesses call at first either, but this is the reality.
Don’t take my word for it - listen to Stacey Plaskett.
In that context, it makes sense to get this over with, get Merrick Garland confirmed, and allow criminal investigations to proceed. (And Biden can move forward with the agenda he needs to be working on).
Republicans will vote to acquit will be tied to it.
Best move for 2022.
Lindsey Graham voted in favor of calling witnesses.
Think about that - imagine all the ways they could have wrecked the trial.
We got Beutler’s statement about McCarthy on the record - which is damning - and the GOP didn’t get to play any more games.
There are many people on social media who, if their narratives are regularly consumed, will teach you a sort of learned pessimism - the art of despair.
There are others who will intrinsically teach you a learned optimism - the art of hope.
Learn how to tell the difference.
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Martin Seligman discusses this in his book Authentic Happiness
The book covers other things as well - like the benefit of virtues and strengths, and of pursuing gratification (long term & fulfilling), over fleeting pleasures.
But, a couple of notes on optimism and pessimism:
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There are two dimensions to optimism/pessimism:
Permanence - related to time
Pervasiveness - related to space
Do we see bad events as having permanent, pervasive causes?
Or do bad events have temporary, specific causes, while good events have permanent, pervasive causes?
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