37 thoughts on “GOP Midterm Death Star”

  2. Biden Accuses Russia of Already Interfering in 2022 Election | Voice of America – English (voanews.com)

    WHITE HOUSE – Russia is already interfering in next year’s midterm U.S. elections, President Joe Biden said Tuesday in a speech at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).  
    Referencing the day’s classified briefing prepared by the intelligence community for him, Biden said: “Look at what Russia’s doing already about the 2022 election and misinformation.” 
    Such actions by Moscow are a “pure violation of our sovereignty,” the president said, without elaborating, in remarks to about 120 representatives of the U.S. intelligence community who gathered in northern Virginia at the ODNI headquarters.  
    Biden’s public reference to something contained in that day’s top secret Presidential Daily Brief is certain to raise some eyebrows.
    “He’s the president. He can declassify anything he wants to whenever he wants to,” said Emily Harding, deputy director and senior fellow with the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 
    “And I’m not sure it’s going to be a shock to anybody that Russia is looking at disinformation for the 2022 election. I think it is a really good reminder, though, that Russia continues to do this and that nothing has dissuaded them yet,” she said. 
    The president also had an ominous prediction about the escalating cyberattacks targeting the United States that his administration has blamed on state-backed hackers in China and those operating with impunity in Russia.    
    Biden said he believes it is growing more likely the United States could “end up in a real shooting war with a major power,” as the consequence of a cyber breach.  
    […]
    Biden made several cryptic references to hypersonic weapons of adversaries. But he stopped himself once in midsentence after saying, “I don’t know, we probably have some people who aren’t totally cleared” in the room. In fact, a group of White House reporters was present, and a television camera was recording the speech on behalf of the media.  

    The president also appealed to his intelligence team, which is composed of elements from 17 different agencies, “to give it to me straight. I’m not looking for pablum … and when you’re not sure, say you’re not sure.”  

    Biden said he “can’t make the decisions I need to make if I’m not getting the best unvarnished, unbiased judgments you can give. I’m not looking to hear nice things. I’m looking to hear what you think to be the truth.”  
    Those words are “a big deal. That’s the thing that he probably most needed to say” to this particular audience, according to Harding.  
    [continues]

  3. preview of things to come?

    the hill:

    Jake Ellzey defeated fellow Republican Susan Wright in a special runoff in Texas’s 6th Congressional District on Tuesday night, dealing a blow to both her and former President Trump, who had backed Wright in the race.
    […]
    Susan Wright ran with endorsements from Trump and his conservative allies, including the anti-tax Club for Growth. Trump also did a telerally with Wright the day before the runoff.
    “Big election tomorrow in the Great State of Texas! Susan Wright supports America First policies, our Military and our Veterans, is strong on Borders, tough on Crime, Pro-Life, and will always protect our Second Amendment. She will serve the people in the 6th Congressional District of Texas, and our Country, very well. Susan has my Complete and Total Endorsement,” Trump said in a statement Monday.
    Conservatives had also sought to downplay Ellzey’s Republican bona fides by highlighting a past donation he received from Bill Kristol, a prominent GOP critic of Trump.
    [continues]

  5. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/27/texas-masks-cdc-covid-19/

    “Texas Republican state leaders held their ground against allowing local schools and governments to require masks.“

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/28/politics/mask-wars-are-back/index.html

    It seems that Orange Adolf, Kevin-January-6th-McCarthy, and other Republicans now want to use the CDC’s mask guidelines to create more division…and distract from their part in trying to overthrow our government last January.

    https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/covid-19-fort-worth-cook-childrens-hospital/287-a73f42e0-2bcd-4af5-88ec-27a93104fc5c

    Children in ICU with covid.

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/28/us/florida-anti-mask-protesters-school-board-meeting/index.html

    “The protester can be heard saying in the video, “It is time to cast off this symbol of tyranny, this symbol of child abuse — we will not stand for it anymore.”

    Republicans are to blame for putting children in harm’s way. Republicans are to blame for this weird, proxy war of the masks. Republicans are to blame for misinformation about the vaccine. Republicans are to blame.

    Someone should call CPS on these horrible parents, too.

  7.   the pro-death party killing americans with covid is not enough for them, they’re hell bent on making sure the crumbling bridges don’t get fixed and climate change causes not addressed

     

     

  8. During an argument on The Five that attempted to paint anti-vaxxers as freedom fighters and the CDC as reactionary fascists, Geraldo Rivera burst the Fox News bubble by decrying Americans who refuse to get vaccinated as “arrogant, selfish SOB’s”—daily beasts

  9. patd – This is not the first time that the voters did not follow what sfb and his cult wanted.  There could be a growing gap between Mcconnell-Mccarthy in the Congress and what people want in the districts.  When the final numbers show up it could be a smaller number of anti-America cultists than just anti-everythings.  From what I have seen the new representative is only a couple steps away from being in the cult so the victory is nothing to celebrate, other than a poke in the eye of the orange idiot.

  10. Ah, I await the day when Republicans tell Orange Adolf they don’t want his endorsement.   He will be an anchor around their party’s neck for quite some time.

    The longer the knuckle-draggers drag their feet on masks and vaccines, the longer it will be with us.

  11. BiD, however, many of those UN-vaccinated knuckle-draggers won’t be with us long even if the virus is. they’re killing themselves, their buddies, family & their own voters.

  12. The Matt Gaetzs and MTG tour ain’t doing so well.  SFGate:

    The internet prankster Walter Masterson looks almost too happy to be there.
    Dressed in a shirt, shorts and bucket hat all printed in the American flag, he’s standing next to GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, two of the more contentious figures in the House of Representatives. He’s at what appears to be an “America First” rally staged by the two politicians at a beach in Southern California.
    Three separate venues in Southern California canceled scheduled events with Gaetz and Greene, resulting in the two holding a protest outside city hall in Riverside — a city an hour away from Los Angeles.
    “Oh my God, I’m so excited! I’m so excited!” Masterson tells the two of them during what appears to be a photo opportunity. Both Greene and Gaetz are grinning, holding up a thumbs-up.
    “I mean, everyone thinks you’re crazy, I don’t think you’re crazy. People think you’re a pedophile, I don’t think you’re a pedophile at all. I don’t think he’s a pedophile at all.”
       * * *
    “Just trolled these 2 losers,” he said in a separate post.
    Masterson and attorney Ben Meiselas — who co-founded Meidas Touch  — did not immediately respond to a request for comment from SFGATE.

    Masterson was supposedly escorted out of the loser protest event, but his video has gotten 2.8 million views.  
    Oh, and the fundraising tour ain’t going so great financially, either.  Salon:

    Matt Gaetz and MTG’s new fundraising committee is losing money — big time
    They’re in the hole by more than $225,000 — after spending more than four times what the venture has raised
    By ALEX HENDERSON
    PUBLISHED JULY 23, 2021 4:30AM (EDT)
    At a time when Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida is facing a federal sex trafficking investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has jumped to his defense and joined forces with him for a fundraising tour. The far-right MAGA Republicans are both aggressive fundraisers, repeatedly stressing their unwavering devotion to former President Donald Trump. But according to Daily Beast reporter Roger Sollenberger, the Gaetz/Greene tour has “spent four times as much as” it has raised.
    Sollenberger explains, “Since Gaetz and Greene kicked off their joint fundraising committee with a May 7 event at The Villages in Central Florida, their campaigns and joint fundraising committee have posted a combined loss of $342,000. And according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission, that joint fundraising effort, ‘Put America First,’ reported only $59,345.54 in contributions. That sort of meager haul would be fine for a dinner or one-time event, but Gaetz and Greene have repeatedly held high-profile events and spent a whopping $287,036.19 to hold them — meaning they’re in the hole by more than $225,000.”
    […]

    And to add insult to injury the press conference by congressional losers Green, Gaetz, Gohmert and Gosar to protest the 1/6 Committee meeting was shut down while Greene was speaking as reported by Rolling Stone:

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has made a career out of publicly harassing her imagined enemies. She got a dose of her own medicine on Tuesday when her joint press conference with Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) was broken up by protesters, one of which was armed with a very loud, very shrill whistle.
    The presser outside the Department of Justice was primed to offer some counter-factual counter-programming to the January 6th hearing down the road at the Capitol, during which Capitol Police officers detailed the horror of what they experienced defending the building from rioters who beat them with batons, hurled racial slurs, and threatened to kill them with their own guns. The four G’s of the disinformation apocalypse were out to advocate for the rioters, arguing that they have been mistreated by the DOJ.
    But the lawmakers were met by a large group of protesters. One toted a large, inflatable particular ex-president holding a signed that read “Pedophiles for Trump,” a reference to the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into whether Gaetz sex-trafficked a 17-year-old girl (Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing). Another held a board that read “Traitors + Rapists Sit Down.” Another would not stop blowing a whistle through his Covid mask. “First of all, to the guy who’s blowing the whistle, we are not deterred,” Greene said upon taking the podium.
    Thirty seconds later, protesters crowded behind the podium and the press conference was called off. The whistle did not stop blowing.
      * * *

    There’s great video at that RS site in the article.  (Hehe, the 4 Gs of the disinformation apocalypse – I’m definitely stealing that.)

  13. I haven’t been able to watch any cable news shows for a month…  just sick of being manipulated to be depressed and upset…  and way too busy with my new role of leadership in my craftsmen guild with the big fair starting Aug. 7th.  
     
    I did however, watch the hearing with those Capital policemen yesterday.  Very powerful stuff.

  16. Jennifer Rubin today at WaPo.

    In addition to mandating vaccines for federal workers, Biden should use the bully pulpit of the White House and the Education Department to expand this lifesaving measure for children. High schools — where students, faculty and staff are already age-eligible should insist everyone be vaccinated. Roughly 90 percent of teachers have already been vaccinated; the rest should be required.
     
    Meanwhile, for sports and entertainment venues to remain open, colleges and universities to return to normal and businesses to keep operating, we need a simple rule: If you are old enough, you will need to get vaccinated to continue normal life. Want to keep going to the gym or to work? Get vaccinated. Want to attend a football game or Broadway show? Get vaccinated. We cannot allow reckless people to put others at risk.

    Exactly.  Wise words, Jennifer, but those who really need to listen to them will not.

  17. Cap Hill pool report: In response to a question about Kevin McCarthy saying a mask mandate is against the science, Pelosi responded, “He’s such a moron.”

  18. From WaPo commenter stevesattic in response to Jennifer Rubin’s piece above.

    NEVER FORGET . . . Trump’s 2020 response to the coronavirus
    Jan 21: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.”
    Jan 28: Rally in NJ
    Jan 30: “We think we have it very much under control.” Rally in Iowa
    Feb 01: Golfed
    Feb 02: “We pretty much shut it down, coming from China.” Golfed
    Feb 10: Rally in NH
    Feb 14: “We have a very small number of people in the country, right now, with it. It’s like around 12… Some are fully recovered already. So we’re in very good shape.”
    Feb 15: Golfed
    Feb 19: Rally in AZ
    Feb 20: Rally in CO
    Feb 21: Rally in NV
    Feb 25: “People are getting better, they’re all getting better.”
    Feb 26: “And the 15 in a couple of days is gonna be down to close to zero.”
    Feb 28: “Coronavirus. This is the new hoax… You’ll be fine.” Rally in SC
    Mar 02: “They’re going to have vaccines very soon.” Rally in NC
    Mar 03: “Not only the vaccines, but the therapies. Therapies is sort of another word for cure.”
    Mar 04: “We’re talking about very small numbers in the United States.”
    Mar 06: “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault… I like the numbers where they are.”
    Mar 06: “Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect…”
    Mar 07: “It came out of China, and we heard about it. And made a good move: We closed it down. We stopped it.” Golfed
    Mar 08: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House.” Golfed
    Mar 10: “It’s really working out, and a lot of good things are gonna happen. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
    Mar 12: “It’s gonna go away.”
    Mar 13: “No, I don’t take responsibility at all.”
    Mar 16: “I’d rate it a 10. I think we’ve done a great job.”
    Mar 17: “This is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”

    I’ve thanked him for his work compiling this.

  19. Nancy, calling balls and strikes. And he’d be the next Speaker of the House if the Repugs flip 6 seats next year?  Let’s hope that the old saying is true (it’s not if you’re an atheist – like me) God helps drunkards, fools and the good old USofA.

  22. 80 million unvaccinated Americans who qualify are criminals

    i think that’s a tad hyperbolic, but they sure ain’t team-players

  24. i’d also venture that certain people shouldn’t have much say in the administration of a society in which they have no interest participating or preserving

  27. Here’s the science the moron claims doesn’t support CDC’s new guidance: (from Wapo’s virus tracker)

    New daily reported cases rose 63.3% 
    New daily reported deaths rose 11% 
    Covid-related hospitalizations rose 41.5% 
    Among reported tests, the positivity rate was 7.4%.
    The number of tests reported rose 3.7%  

    Nancy is right.  CDC is right.  McCarthy is … a moron.

  30. i’m willing to meet conservatives half-way:
     
    Mail-in and Absentee voting ONLY for unvaccinated voters.  There’s no reason they should endanger civil volunteers, plus, it’s more convenient for them.😉

  31. It’s hard to imagine someone in kevin’s position NOT knowing that they are a moron.   How on earth could that happen?  Are there really people that stupid?
     
    Dusty Hill RIP

  32. “And THAT,” said Lt. Columbo, “leads me to the only possible conclusion—Blackmail.”

    Very strong blackmail.

    ALL of them.

  33. Cause NOBODY’S that stupid.  
    No bod eeee.
    Except maybe Gohmert and the two gun-munchkinettes. 

  34. Hey guys……whaddya say we get a bunch of us together and go to Russia for THE FOURTH OF JULY!

  35. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/07/27/louie-gohmert-news-conference-advocating-for-rights-of-jailed-jan-6-rioters-disrupted-by-protesters/

    Louie Gohmert is, indeed, that stupid.

    MGT, Matt-Likes-Em-Young-Gaetz and Gohmert are a trifecta of awful.

    “We got to make sure that people who are acting disorderly get treated fairly when they are in jail,” Gohmert said…”

    He was referring to those who stormed the Capitol and beat police officers on January 6th. This is a non-issue meant to distract from the committee hearing and paint the domestic terrorists as victims. He would never make a peep about peaceful, BLM protesters who were arrested.

  36. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/28/texas-voting-rights-march/

    “…a group of about 100 people, the number capped because of pandemic precautions, spaced out in rows of threes and fours on the first leg of a four-day, 27-mile march to the state Capitol building in Austin. The purpose behind the trek, organized by the Poor People’s Campaign, which Barber co-chairs, is to build pressure on Congress, particularly the U.S. Senate, to pass sweeping federal legislation that would boost or safeguard access to voting — and preempt much of the contentious voting bill that the Texas Legislature is expected to pass.“

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