Donald Trump and the Long and Winding Road of Republican Stupidity

by Nomad

Republican Party's stupidity didn't begin with Donald Trump. The only question is: how did the GOP become the party of the half-wits?

In a  recent column, Bob Burnett, writing for The Berkeley Daily Planet, tackles the question a lot of people have been asking.

How exactly did the Republican Party get to be so darned stupid?

Even though the word "stupid" is both a highly-charged and subjective word, Burnett presumably isn't merely trying to insult anybody. However, if a political party can find a way to rationalize nominating a person like Donald Trump, somebody should be asking a lot of difficult questions like that.

Burnett notes that according to a Public Policy Polling survey, a majority of Trump supporters (66%) think that Obama is a Muslim. More than half believe the president wasn't born in the US. Never mind the birth certificates and the birth announcements, Damn the evidence, say the birthers.

One could write that off easily enough as some kind of particular mental deficiency of a particular group. However, there was more astounding news. 

It wasn't just Trump supporters. More than half of all Republicans (54%) also think Obama- despite all of the evidence to the contrary- is a Muslim.

The Ignorance of Donald Trump and the Shameless Capitulation of the Republican Party

by Nomad

When Trump revealed the details of his long-anticipated economic program, economists shuddered. It was suddenly clear that Trump hadn't the faintest grasp of fiscal realities. Tea Party voters and Reagan Conservatives also had their own reasons to tremble in disbelief at their own politicians' endorsements.

With Ignorance and Confidence

The sardonic Mark Twain once wrote:

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.

Had he been privileged enough to meet Mr. Trump, Twain might have added a few other more requirements to his epigram: "an angry and ignorant electorate, a compliant or timid press and lots of ready cash."  
Apparently armed only with those five qualities, any fool can rise to the top of the Republican Party and, with a little luck, become president of the United States.

In this election, there's been a shortage of policy discussion from Donald Trump. We know he intends to build a wall and force Mexico to pay for it. He plans to stop all Muslims from entering the country.
We have been assured his plans were going to be "great" and they were going to be "huge." Other than that not much else to report. a surprising number of voters didn't seem curious so long as they were entertained.

It was assumed that he would share his wisdom at some point. sooner or later, people were bound to get tired of the Trump's schtick and start asking for a few specifics.

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?: Speaker Ryan's Hopeless Dream of GOP Solidarity

by Nomad

Newly-crowned Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan has his work cut out for him. The real question is how long the  ultra-conservative minority will give him before the daggers come out of their togas. 

A few days ago, Paul Ryan became the 62nd Speaker of the House of Representatives, following behind weepy John Boehner. The 45-year-old Wisconsin Republican Ryan seemed less than enthusiastic about taking the position and even laid down certain conditions before considering it.

If Ryan wasn't dancing a jig, then that's not much of a surprise. His predecessor was repeatedly left dangling in the wind by the fringe Tea Party who took every opportunity to undermine his authority and scuttle whatever hard-won legislative deal he arranged with the president.

Compromise was an anathema to the ultra-conservatives and that made any kind of deal, regardless of who gave up what and what was gained, utterly hopeless.

Nothing has changed on that front and Ryan is fooling himself if he thinks his charm will calm the roaring beast in the den. In the vote for the Speaker post, Ryan received 200 out of 247 votes, dissent coming mainly from the radical right wing subminority, the House Freedom Caucus.

Unitary Executive Theory: How the GOP in Congress is Destroying Cheney's Life Work

 by Nomad

Former vice president Cheney must be watching in dismay as the Republicans in Congress are tearing apart a doctrine that he has spent his whole life promoting.

The now-infamous letter of the 47 Senators  may not be treasonous although some on the Left may think so. The  unsolicited advice to the Iranians may not be a violation of the Logan Act and some lawyers might disagreed.

Nevertheless, in one aspect, there is something distinctly peculiar about what Congress did and has been doing since President Obama took office.

This new activism is a reversal of policy that has been the long standing hallmark of conservative principles. That principle is known as the Unitary Executive Theory and one of its chief promoters has always been former Vice president Dick Cheney.

According to this doctrine, all executive authority must be in the President’s hands, "without exception." The President and other members of the executive branch have special rights and privileges that come with the office. And the legislative branch, according to the proponents, has no authority to question presidential power. The president as the head of state and  that preeminence required Congress to recognize its lesser position.

William Jennings Bryan vs. Tea Party Anarchists

by Nomad

Why Palin's Incoherent Iowa Speech is Just the Beginning of Republican Humiliation

by Nomad

After Palin appearance in Iowa, many Republicans snapped awake from their hypnotic trance and asked "Who is this character?" It's a little late in the day, of course. As one columnist points out, looking at the next wave coming out of Texas, the fun has only just begun.

There's no denying it. Sarah Palin's speech in Des Moines had a lot of conservatives shaking their heads in dismay. Could it be possible that they have finally awaken from their "long infatuation" with that woman from Wasilla? 

Jim Schutze, writing for the Dallas Observer, has an interesting op-ed piece on that very subject. It seems that when it comes to Palin, the thrill is definitely gone.
Schutze quotes conservative Matt Lewis in The Daily Beast :

"It's worth considering that maybe her early critics saw some fundamental character flaw -- some harbinger of things to come -- that escaped me."

Harbinger, shmarbinger!
It might have escaped you, Matt, but the truth about Palin and her character flaws was pretty damned obvious to the rest of us. 

Here's What the GOP Should Expect If They Dare Cut Social Security Benefits

by Nomad

When it comes to cutting Social Security, the Republicans are playing with fire. As usual, the GOP appears to be heading towards a showdown it cannot win. 

As Reagan famously said,"There you go again." And the Tea Party Republicans are at it again, trying to find a way to cut Social Security. Another crusade bound to end in tears. 

From opposition to same-sex marriage to the rapprochement to Cuba, from criminalizing abortion to immigration, it's staggering how many unpopular positions the Republicans have decided to take up.
Now they are itching to get their hands on Social Security despite the fact that seventy-six percent of all Americans think Social Security is worth the costs to taxpayers, according to a poll in 2012. 

Attempting to slice and dice Social Security by labeling it a “big-ticket entitlement program” is surely going to blow up in the conservative faces. It's practically guaranteed.

How Boehner's Phony Search for Common Ground has Led the GOP Absolutely Nowhere

by Nomad

Since Obama took office, Speaker of the House, John Boehner has been searching for "common ground." Through crisis after crisis, the same phrase has emerged from his lips. Meanwhile the President has single-handedly pulled the economy out of its swamp.

No wonder his approval ratings are climbing and Congress remains at all time lows.

 Still struggling with his own narrative, Speaker John Boehner this week made some astonishing statements. The remarks probably won't sit well with Tea Party Republicans either. 

In a Wednesday interview on Fox News (where else?) when he was asked if he could hold the GOP together, Speaker of the House John Boehner said "I was the Tea Party before there was a Tea Party."

Seriously?

He sympathized with them to a degree... but not much.

“I understand their concerns, I understand their frustrations. But we have a Constitution that we abide by and we’re going to live by it. And that means we have separate, equal branches of government. And whether people like it or not, Barack Obama is going to be the president for the next two years.”

In other words, Boehner was telling the Tea Party Congress that he was their master and to "suck it up." Get used to it.
He also added that he had no plans to leave his position anytime soon. This wasn't going to be his last term. He said 

“No, no, no. I'll be here for a while,"

The Tea Party have very little choice but to endure Boehner's arrogance, having lost any opportunity to replace him.

Shocking: Utah Republicans Discover the Existence of Poverty and Social Inequality

by Nomad

According to a Salt Lake City article, Utah Republicans have made an astounding discovery. The poor! Furthermore, the conservatives say, with a few relatively cheap government programs, the cycle of poverty could be stopped in its tracks.

Unfortunately this is the same message that liberal Democrats have been saying for more than 50 years.

An op-ed piece in the Salt Lake City Tribune entitled "Utah Republicans Starting to Take on Poverty" should have a lot of voters scratching their heads in disbelief.

A Conservative  Epiphany on Poverty?

The article regales Utah Republicans for suddenly discovering the poor. Those sharp eyed conservatives never miss a trick, do they? 

The Republican legislators are, according to the article, 

"starting to realize that the poor have always been with us. And that that’s not a good thing. And that the rich and powerful should be doing something about it."

No kidding? Well, I declare.

This remarkable discovery was announced by Republican state Sen. Stuart Reid, who has been representing District 18 since January 1, 2011 .Reid has also detected something called intergenerational poverty.
Poverty, the Republicans have learned, can be passed down like an unfortunate inheritance. Who could have imagined it?

Hypocrites in the Spotlight- Dr. Ben Carson

by Nomad

I admit that I cannot verify everything on this meme, but there are plenty of good links out there (and here) that confirm enough of his background to rate him as a first-class hypocrite. 

That's not to say he is not an excellent doctor but as a public figure, he is way-way-way out of his depth. This is a man who with a straight face compared Obamacare to slavery. (That's right, the whipping and chaining institution that considered men with black skin to be little better than animals or a commodity to be exploited.)

Carson also equated homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality. and declared white liberals to be “the most racist people there are”. (That was, no doubt, a crowd pleaser for his conservatives audiences.)

Tea Party's Ted Cruz Is Confident He Will Be The Answer

by Nomad

Apologies for the deceptive headline. I couldn't resist the temptation. In fact, this quote by Ted Cruz is probably more accurate than he intended it to be.

Out of all the silly things that Senator Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz has said, this is perhaps the only thing I can agree with him on. I sincerely hope that we all won't have to wait twenty years to make this forecast a reality.

I think it will be the hardest trivial pursuit question to answer because absolutely will recall who the hell Ted Cruz was. 

Arkansas, the Ebola Virus, and the License to Lie

by Nomad

When the town of Harrison, Arkansas decided to cancel a planned visit by a delegation from Ghana, was it just ignorance about Ebola or old-fashioned racism?

Lately a lot of people from the Far Right have been making some pretty irresponsible and ignorant remarks about Ebola. It's not just hysteria. Actually, it's a symptom of something worse- an outright betrayal of the public trust. 

Africa and Ebola in Perspective
Sarah Palin might not realize it but Africa is not a country. It is a continent and a mighty large one at that. Africa covers a full six percent of the Earth's total surface area and over 20  percent of the total land area. But then geography - along with any other subject you wish to name- isn't really Palin's forte.  

As the second most populated continent, Africa has a population of around 1 billion people. Depending on who you ask, there are 47 countries on the African continent, (53 if you count some of the islands off the coast.)  Of those 47 nations, only five of them have had reports of the much-discussed, much-feared disease known as Ebola.

As scary as it is, the deaths and the infection rates from the Ebola virus are not very impressive. The disease has up to now claimed more than 1,400 lives and infected over a thousand more across West Africa. 

Dreadful, terrible. And yes, it is better to do something before the situation gets any worse. Now is the time to act.

Tea Party Debris: How Michele Bachmann has Made the GOP America's Spoof Party

by Nomad

If the Republicans have lost credibility among voters, they have only themselves to blame. Republicans should start asking why the Tea Party leaders like Michele Bachmann were allowed to make such a joke of their party? Where was the leadership?

We have all seen them and some of us have been fooled by them. Nowadays spoof news sites are everywhere on the Net, parodying the news. And these joke pieces can often sound quite convincing. I have seen endless rolls of roaring comments on FaceBook pages about news stories that were in fact completely imaginary.

As a blog writer who attempts to verify sources, it can be dangerous. I have very nearly used spoofed news as a source in the past before asking myself. "Does that even sound plausible?" Frankly, given the present state of politics in America at the moment, it's hard to know sometimes.

The Spoof that Wasn't

That's why when I saw this news story about Michelle Bachmann the other day, I hesitated and double-checked the source.  The title read:

Michele Bachmann Claims President Obama Wants To Use Unaccompanied Children For Medical Experiments

Reading and re-reading that headline, I was a little confused. After all, Right Wing Watch is most certainly not a news spoof site. The introduction seemed straight faced.

Rep. Michele Bachmann has a new theory about the unaccompanied minors fleeing violence in Central America who have come in large numbers to the southern U.S. border: they are future victims of a liberal plot to use unwilling children for medical experiments..

Finally I decided- against my better judgment- that this was not a joke. Bachmann had actually said this. 

(For the sake of my readership, I've decided not to reproduce her claims. Why? Simply because I am not qualified to explore the minds of lunatics. If you are interested in an analysis of her delusions and how she came up with this particular fixation, then go to the link above.)

  

From Laughing-Stock...

Fortunately, the number of people who take Bachmann totally seriously has probably always been small. However, like The Incredible Shrinking Man, Bachmann's audience may be microscopic but it never quite vanishes entirely. 

In the past, Michele Bachmann has shown that no allegation against Obama is too foul or insulting or outrageous to pass up. Her refusal to just say "No" to the addiction of nuttiness has made her a regular guest on the Fox News Network. Because of that, throughout the Obama administration, Bachmann has unintentionally made a laughing stock of the Republican party. 

Has GOP Vitriol Against President Obama Undermined Diplomacy and Emboldened Putin?

by Nomad

If Putin doesn't seem very worried about President Obama's warnings against Russian new expansionist policies, it shouldn't come as a shock. 

With the Republicans launching attack after attack on the President, attempting to undermine his authority, it's only natural that Putin wouldn't take the American president seriously.

Kent Schäfer, Outreach Program Director for Progressive Centralists, asks a important question in the op-ed piece below. By constantly painting the president as a weak leader, Schafer asks, have Obama's right wing critics and Putin admirers simply emboldened the Russian leader?

First, I believe that Sarah Palin's praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in concert with other harshly worded conservative statements, crafted to paint Barack Obama as weak  -- have played a significant role in the Russian proxy-invasion of the Crimean Peninsula, eastern Ukraine, and in the death of those killed in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight-17. 

Do my thoughts come easily? Am I just lambasting my opponents with empty rhetoric? No. 

It hurts my patriotic soul to think that Americans, in an unabashed quest for fame and voter support, would undermine our country and our president and risk much to further their self serving "free speech" condemnation of our foreign policy. We (the U.S.) represent a chief obstacle to Putin's unlawful expansion by force throughout Europe —and not for a second should any American believe that Russian leaders and their Oligarchy would not continue to invade (by proxy) countries at will if unopposed; 

—the Kremlin is just waiting with 'baited breath' for the opportunity to protract their crescive regional power and exploit the natural and human resources of each fallen state as they go.

Tea Party Accuses Catholic Charities of Conspiracy with Obama over Immigrant Children Issue

  by Nomad

With ignorance on full display, a Tea Party Leader in Texas has accused Catholic Charities for conspiring with the Obama Administration. How? By sheltering and caring for the flood of immigrant children.

What does this say about our self-image as a nation, as a "City on the Hill"? What does the reaction by some in the Tea Party about their Christian credentials ?

Bud Kennedy, columnist for the Ft.Worth Star-Telegram, has recently called out an East Texas Tea Party leader for jumping on the  bandwagon and promoting nationwide yet another baseless conspiracy.  Their suspicions have targeted  Catholic Charities for trying to help with the influx of immigrant children.

Misguided Suspicions

One right-wing website, LibertyNews.com, broke the story that the Obama administration had advanced knowledge of, as its writer put it, the planned invasion. This conspiracy, it seems, was based solely on what Kennedy calls, one East Texas Republican’s "misguided suspicions."

So what is she basing this allegation on? The Longview Republican Terri Harris Hill points to federal records that show that the local Catholic Charities received $350,000 last year for immigration services.

LibertyNews also noted that:

Between Dec 2010 and Nov 2013, the Catholic Charities Diocese of Galveston received $15,549,078 in federal grants from Health & Human Services for “Unaccompanied Alien Children Project” with a program description of “Refugee and Entry Assistance.

Based solely on this information, LibertyNews has accused Catholic Charities in Texas of conspiring in “the invasion currently underway.”

Kennedy quotes Hill telling a phone interviewer:

“I think there is something suspicious because the government started awarding grants before the surge. I mean, how did they know?”

How indeed? 

The answer is remarkably easy to explain, according to the columnist.

Tens of thousands of foreign children each year come to the United States without a parent or legal permission. Under a quirk in a 2008 law, children from Mexico are returned, but Central American children stay in shelters or with families until a court rules if they are refugees or trafficking victims. 

The GOP and Reparative Therapy: Why the Tea Party in Texas Just Opened a New Can of Worms for 2016

by Nomad

Thanks to a Supreme Court's decision, the idea of Reparative or Conversion therapy- attempting to convert gay people, including young adults, to happy heterosexuals, has been dealt a devastating blow. That's not a surprise.

The medical community has largely rejected the pseudo-science and warned of its psychological hazards.

So why did the Texas GOP 2014 platform come out strongly in support of it?

When No Comment is a Relief
So is this how far the Supreme Court has sunk?

A recent headline in ThinkProgress proclaims  the Supreme Court's decision not to rule on a controversial case involving a gay rights issue as a victory- a good thing. That says a lot about how much public trust remains with the High Court when the best news of the day comes when the Supreme Court stops making decisions. 

In this case, we can all breath a sigh of relief that the Court refused to intervene in the case, challenging California’s ban on ex-gay therapy for minors. That leaves the ban in place. And some conservatives were naturally peeved.

The case stems from a conservative challenge by the Pacific Justice Institute and ex-gay group NARTH and the Liberty Counsel to a California law banning such therapy. The lower courts had dismissed the conservative groups' claim that- wait for this- a ban violated the free speech of therapists.
As the article notes:

California was the first state to pass a law protecting minors from being subjected to therapies that attempt to de-gay their sexual orientations in 2012. Conservative groups promptly sued on behalf of ex-gay therapists who felt the ban infringed on their freedom of speech with clients. After two conflicting lower court rulings, the Ninth Circuit ruled last summer that the ban is constitutional. The conservative groups appealed to the Supreme Court, but its decision not to hear it means that the cases are over and the ban remains in place.

 For example, here is an excerpt from an article on the California law

It bans a form of medical treatment for minors; it does nothing to prevent licensed therapists from discussing the pros and cons of SOCE [sexual orientation change efforts ] with their patients....

 Treatment is not a form of free speech, the court decided and, therefore, deserves no protection.  

Because SB 1172 regulates only treatment, while leaving mental health providers free to discuss and recommend, or recommend against, SOCE, we conclude that any effect it may have on free speech interests is merely incidental.

What a relief: No therapist's free speech was injured in the making of that ruling. 

Radio Talk Show Host Ingraham Says Cantor Lost Because He had No Sense of Humor

by Nomad

Right wing talk show commentator, Ms. Laura Ingraham, has been blamed for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's stunning defeat in the Virginia GOP primary. She resented the charge and explained that there was a much more logical reason for his defeat. 

Conservative radio hotshot Laura Ingraham thinks she knows precisely why Eric Cantor lost his primary last week. It had nothing to do with the overall weakness of his party which has been running counter to American voter opinion on issues like immigration, same-sex marriage and marijuana law reform.

Nor the fact that he constantly undermined the Speaker of the House Boehner's attempts to work out any kind of deal with the president on a host of issues.

One conservative site offers this insight into the minds of some in the Republican party: 

Republican insiders — fed up with the scorched-earth tactics of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor — privately fear the fiery Virginia right-winger could destroy the party’s majority in the House of Representatives with his constant undermining of Speaker John Boehner’s attempts to reach a debt deal with President Barack Obama.

 The article adds:

“Whether Eric Cantor likes it or not, John Boehner is the leader of our party in the House of Representatives,” one frustrated GOP consultant said Tuesday. “If Cantor continues his infantile actions, there won’t be a Republican majority in the House after 2012.”

And it wasn't even that. Despite appearing to press the right buttons, Cantor simply did not abide by the wishes of his ultra-conservative voters in his state. Could that have been the reason?

In Honor of Eric Cantor's Loss..

by Nomad

I made this meme in special honor of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's unexpected loss in the Virginia primary to Tea Party challenger, Dave Brat. (If you look closely you can actually see the head.) 

The Importance of Impeachment: How the Tea Party is Abusing Constitutional Procedure

by Nomad

Since the first presidential impeachment in 1868,  the procedure has proved to be a terribly imperfect tool. However, even when not applied, its existence is essential for the Republic. 

David Stewart's book, Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy is a fascinating study of a constitutional crisis. The book is set against the period immediately after the war of rebellion when the nation was attempting somehow to put the country back together. Just to show you how easily things can go terribly wrong, Lincoln's best intentions turned out to be a colossal misjudgment.

Not many historians have pointed out that Lincoln was, in fact, neither Republican nor Democrat in this second term. He was the candidate for the National Unity Party and he chose as his vice-president, Andrew Johnson, was a Southern Democrat. (Imagine that? A single ticket made of both parties?) 

Had Lincoln not been murdered, the constitutional crisis of presidential impeachment would have been avoided. However, the new president's suspected loyalty to the defeated South, his position that states had the right to their sovereignty- even after what most saw as outright sedition- were too much for some in Congress to bear. When faced with an unyielding Republican minority (every bit as querulous and uncompromising as today's Tea Party) determined to unseat the president by hook or crook, the 17th President's arrogance and stubbornness made impeachment unavoidable. 

It's a good read. And the story of how and why the Radical Republicans attempted to use the process of impeachment to remove President Johnson gives a lot of insight into the ways elected representative under partisan stress can lose track of their primary mission.

Conscience and Priorities: A Ray of Light for the Homeless in Arizona

by Nomad

Arizona has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately. From legislative attempts to tear down national educational standards or bills targeting gays under the shield of protecting religious freedom, Arizona seems like a real mess. However, it's important to recall that there is another side to report. 

Due to a few Tea Party radicals, Arizona has received a lot of bad press lately. However, as Kennedy once said that "no government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue." This wise reminder holds true for the people of the "Grand Canyon State".

Here's one small example of the pang of conscience leading to action.

Parker Olson for Arizona Public Radio, reports how a group of students at Northern Arizona University came up with one way to reduce waste while feeding the homeless. According to sources, university meal plans offer flexibility to students when it comes to when and how much they eat. This flexibility however comes at a cost. Every week, thousands of meal vouchers at colleges across the country go unused. This means a lot of prepared food is wasted.

NAU's voucher plan allows students to buy a certain number of meals each week. If they don't use them all by Saturday night, the vouchers expire.

One freshman student, Caitlin Fagan decided to put the wasted food to good use. With the help of like-minded friends, his group collects the food on campus and redistributes to people in need around Flagstaff. Some volunteers head out along Route 66 looking for the homeless and the hungry.  

The article explains one case:

That's where they meet Clark Reber, who's down on his luck and staying at a local shelter. "It's awesome," Reber tells the students. "You guys are doing great work here. You're uplifting to people that are down and out and bringing food which everyone needs."

Admittedly it's a small project but it could easily be expanded and combined with similar waste-reduction efforts.

In the month since the student-run program started, organizers estimate they've fed about 100 people. If there's any food left after their Saturday night runs, they donate it to a local rescue mission. The group hopes to keep growing and become another reliable source for feeding Flagstaff's hungry and homeless.

Certainly the down and out need all the help they can get. It all boils down to priorities and responsibilities to help without judgement.