Republican Hypocrisy category archive
The Rockets’ Red Glare 0
The Spoils 0
Balloon-Juice’s Anne Laurie explains.
Bachmann Spurner Overdrive 0
Farron Cousins notes a classic example of psychological projection.
Words fail me.
(Errant “div” tag fixed.)
Theft of Labor 0
Thom discusses Donald Trump’s recent executive order nullifying President Obama’s workplace safety initiative and how it facilitates theft of labor.
Migratory Marco 0
Daniel Ruth pleads for someone to help Little Marco find a new office. A snippet:
All Rubio had to do was his job in the first place by making himself available to listen to the public instead of cooking up phony excuses as too busy to perform the most elementary part of his job — constituent service. The reason his Kennedy Boulevard office became such a focal and vocal point of attention was simply because a sitting United States senator did not have the common courtesy, nor courage of his own convictions, to meet face-to-face with people who might disagree with him.
The senator whined he wasn’t interested in subjecting himself to the possible jeers and boos from the public although being called an idiot is an inherent part of the job description. And if you are going to be this thin-skinned about criticism, perhaps Rubio might consider an alternative career as a hermit.
Both Sides Not 0
Continuing the theme from the previous post, David Leonhardt points out that the media can’t handle the truth. A snippet:
. . . journalists are good at producing “both sides do it” stories.
But when reality falls somewhere in between, the media often fails to get the story right. Journalists know how to do 50-50 stories and all-or-nothing stories. More nuanced situations create problems.
The 2016 campaign was a classic example. Hillary Clinton deserved scrutiny for her buckraking (sic) speeches and inappropriate email use. Yet her sins paled compared with Donald Trump’s lies, secrecy, bigotry, conflicts of interest, Russian ties and sexual molestation. The collective media coverage failed to make this distinction . . . .
If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0
Atrios considers the reporting on the possible end of the filibuster:
Frankly, I think Historiann is onto something here. The filibuster has been used for evil far more often than for good. Just look back on its usage during President Obama’s term.
In Like Flynn 0
The New York Times reports that General Michael Flynn wants immunity before he testifies to Congress (as I write this, the request is reported to have been denied).
Listen to him explain precisely what his request means:
H/T Juanita Jean.
If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0
TPM notes that IOKIYAR:
A mass amnesia has fallen upon Republican senators.
They seem to have forgotten about that time they refused to give President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court an up-or-down vote–or even a hearing–last year. Now they are claiming that Democrats are the norm-breakers for threatening to filibuster President Trump’s own Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch.
More at the link.
Stop the Pressers! 0
In The Roanoke Times, history professor Robert A. Strong recounts examples of lies from various Presidential administrations from Eisenhower (denying spy flights over Russia) through Kennedy (denying having Addison’s disease) through Carter (denying planning military action to rescue the hostages in Iran) through Reagan through Clinton and so on. He points out that the lies have generally ranged from national security issues to campaign promises to personal issues, but that they stopped short of denying objective reality that was in public view.
He maintains that Trump’s lies are different in both degree and kind (emphasis added).
In a piece that eerily covers the same ground, Der Spiegel suggests that Trump is more interested in freedom of propaganda than in freedom of the press.
McCurry believes that Trump would like to curtail press freedom. “If he could issue an order that the only coverage allowed of him was positive, he would do so without delay.”
History 0
I’m a Southern Boy. I grew up under Jim Crow and went to segregated schools, as I have mentioned from time to time in these electrons. I had ancestors who owned slaves. My degree is in history with a concentration in U. S. Southern.
As I’ve added experience to my studies, I have more and more concluded that race and racism are constant undercurrents (and sometimes overcurrents) in American politics, however energetically white Americans try to pretend otherwise.
A half century ago, Richard Nixon’s odious Southern strategy caused the Republican Party to morph into the party of racism and bigotry.
Nixon thought that he could use Southern bigots and racists to cement his power (that worked out very nicely, did it not?); now, half a century later, his strategy had come full circle and the powers that he invited into his party have consumed it. Bigotry and racism are fundamental elements underlying Republican polices and positions, central elements to their campaign strategies.
This week, the results of Nixon’s decision to open Republican doors wide to racists played out quite publicly in Republicans’ failed attempt to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, the health care law that Republicans chose to refer to as “Obamacare,” for reasons that Atrios summed up brilliantly yesterday so I don’t have to.
Buck Hunting 0
Noz goes looking for where the buck stops.
