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(Some Of The Reasons) Republicans Are Delusional

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Republicans are delusional. Show them a picture, or say the sky is blue, and they’ll do backflips trying to claim something totally different. It’s always been bad, but over the past few months, they’ve gotten apoplectic.

Take the polls — state or nationwide — almost all of which over the past week show President Barack Obama with a healthy lead over Mitt Romney. Of course, the GOP and their supporters staunchly denounce the polls — oversampling of Democrats! they are claiming — ignorant of the obvious fact that there simply are more Democrats than Republicans, and Independents are leaning toward President Obama because the GOP has totally lost their grip on reality.

“On TV, talk radio and especially the Internet is a place where the swing-state polls that show Romney losing are not just inaccurate but part of an intentional plot by the heretofore unknown media-pollster axis to depress Republican voters, Politico reports. “In this other world, Romney not only isn’t losing — he’s on the verge of a convincing victory.”

“I believe if the election were held today, Romney would win by 4 or 5 points,” trumpeted Dick Morris on Fox News last week, predicting a win for the GOP ticket in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Nevada and Pennsylvania. In public polls right now, Romney is losing in each of those states. But, Morris said, that’s because the data are all wrong.

So, it is rather surprising that, in an embarrassingly ludicrous op-ed that Politico actually published, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, actually claims “I am confident about our Republican prospects for this November,” in a piece titled, “GOP bid to retake Senate looks good in homestretch.”

The president and the Democratic leadership want to evade responsibility, but there is no place for them to hide. Voters’ everyday lives are simply harder than they were before, and Democrats are directly to blame for that.

The high tax, high spend economy is a Democrat construct, and this has hurt their election chances — even in historically safe Democratic areas. And senators like Jon Tester, Bill Nelson and Sherrod Brown have not stayed true to their 2006 campaign promises to act as bipartisan representatives and put people first. These men, along with their Democratic colleagues and candidates, have continually sided with President Barack Obama and backed his failed policies.

One of the largest stains on the Senate Democrats’ voting record is the $800-plus billion stimulus package that failed to create American jobs or assist the economy in its recovery. While Senate Democrats led their constituencies to believe such a large waste of taxpayer money was crucial to the future of the economy, the results show this was a critical miscalculation. Voters will remember their words of reassurance — and their votes.

Never mind that the Congressional Budget Office and a gazillion reputable economists have debunked that totally bogus claim of “the $800-plus billion stimulus package that failed to create American jobs or assist the economy in its recovery.” Hey, whatever gets you through the day, Senator, but you’re just flat out lying.

“Did the stimulus work?,” the Washington Post asked, back in June:

Certainly not according to Republicans, who regularly blast President Obama’s “failed” economic policies on the campaign trail. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has called the $787 billion package of temporary tax cuts and spending hikes “the largest one-time careless expenditure of government money in American history.”

But on Wednesday, under questioning from skeptical Republicans, the director of the nonpartisan (and widely respected) Congressional Budget Office was emphatic about the value of the 2009 stimulus. And, he said, the vast majority of economists agree.

In a survey conducted by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, 80 percent of economic experts agreed that, because of the stimulus, the U.S. unemployment rate was lower at the end of 2010 than it would have been otherwise.

“Only 4 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed,” CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf told the House Budget Committee. “That,” he added, “is a distinct minority.”

It’s one thing to play politics.  While we shouldn’t accept politicians twisting the truth, it’s become an art form for them, and many people — except for so-called “low-information voters” — expect that what they hear may be more wishful thinking than fact thse days.

But this isn’t wishful thinking. This is pure delusion.

The Republicans didn’t like the idea of a Black president, so they made up a way to make him illegitimate. Thus, “birtherism” was born.”

When that didn’t work, they made him gay.

When they don’t like the fact that their candidate is losing, and badly, they claim the polls are all wrong — even their own.

So, back to the polls.

In “Who’s Delusional?,” Andrew Sullivan today points to a Pew poll (image, right,) that shows exactly this.

“In our polarized culture, actual experience of the economy doesn’t seem to matter as much as whether you are on Team Red or Team Blue,” Sullivan writes:

The Pew graph shows Democratic optimism about the economy – and such a sudden switch in September, you just have to credit one obvious thing: the Democratic Convention and Bill Clinton’s speech especially. He told the real story of the past few years, as opposed to the ludicrous narrative of a desperate opposition. And Democrats believed him. But just as remarkable is the sharp rise since March of Republicans saying they are hearing mostly bad things about the economy. I know the recovery remains sluggish – even if it’s a joy ride compared with Europe right now. But it’s twice as bad now as it was in March? Shurely shome mishtake.

And so when I read or hear Republicans talking about this failed presidency in apocalyptic terms, I feel rather like Mark Lilla. It’s not that I disagree. I cannot even begin to see how a conversation can begin. We have different experiences of reality. But that’s why, I think, this election is so fascinating. It will, by default, offer us a direct take on the majority’s perception of reality.

 

Ultimately, if you haven’t been able to figure out how all this could happen, allow me to suggest this.

Image via Wikipedia

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Project 2025 Is the Trump Agenda, Republicans Are Gleefully Declaring

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Donald Trump and his presidential campaign have repeatedly denied any connection to Project 2025, a radical blueprint created by the far-right Heritage Foundation to entirely rebuild the executive branch of the federal government on a Christian nationalist foundation. But now that the election is over and Trump has won the White House, several far-right influencers allege that Project 2025 is Trump’s agenda.

Project 2025 is so toxic its creator, Paul Dans, was eliminated from the project. Public opinion gives Project 2025 a single-digit approval rating, according to NBC News:

“It was the least popular of all the subjects tested in the September NBC News poll — a battery that included socialism, capitalism, both presidential and vice presidential candidates, the Republican and Democratic parties, Taylor Swift and Elon Musk.”

The Project 2025 blueprint, a 900-page “manifesto,” according to The Guardian, “describes an America poisoned by ‘wokeness’ and overtaken by lawlessness and chaos, where conservatives need to seize power immediately – and for as long as possible – to right a sinking ship.”

READ MORE: Day One: Trump Planning ‘Largest Mass Deportation Operation’

Project 2025 would effectively make abortion and contraception extremely difficult to obtain, would make pornography illegal, and elevate Christian nationalism throughout the government. It would eliminate the Dept. of Education. It would create a massive forced deportation program, removing possibly millions of undocumented immigrants from the U.S. And it would reduce efforts to improve diversity, while restricting and reducing LGBTQ rights and protections.

“Republicans are now comfortable openly admitting that Project 2025 was the plan all along,” Rolling Stone reports after Trump won the election. “Sure enough, less than 24 hours after the election was called for Trump, his allies, advisers, and prominent supporters were celebrating the now-open road to Project 2025’s implementation.”

Mother Jones notes that after Trump won the White House, some of his “favorite fans finally felt comfortable joking about what the next president has long denied: Project 2025 has always been the plan for a second Trump term.”

READ MORE: The List of Who Donald Trump Has ‘Pledged to Punish,’ According to One of His Targets

Matt Walsh, the far-right podcaster with millions of followers on several platforms, wrote: “Now that the election is over I think we can finally say that yeah actually Project 2025 is the agenda. Lol.”

The New Republic reports, “Project 2025 has begun. And Donald Trump’s allies are now openly celebrating it.”

“Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who was recently released from prison, responded on his live War Room podcast with one word: ‘Fabulous,'” TNR added. “Later during the livestream, Bannon could be seen holding a hard copy of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 ‘Mandate For Leadership’ up to the camera in celebration. On election night, Bannon had vowed to eliminate Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, MSNBC, and the Justice Department in an unhinged rant.”

“Now, you’re going to pay the price,” Bannon said.

READ MORE: ‘Be the Guardrails of Democracy’: Liz Cheney and Other Never-Trumpers Suggest Path Forward

 

 

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Day One: Trump Planning ‘Largest Mass Deportation Operation’

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Donald Trump has called immigrants “animals,” “monsters,” and “murderers,” and said they are “poisoning the blood of our country.” He falsely claimed they are responsible for a “surge in crime,” because “it’s in their genes,” and claimed they’re “eating the pets.”

Trump, now the president-elect, reportedly plans to conduct a massive deportation operation of undocumented immigrants on his first day in office.

“The American people delivered a resounding victory for President Trump, and it gives him a mandate to govern as he campaigned, to deliver on the promises that he made,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary, told Fox News Wednesday, Newsweek reports. “Which include, on Day 1, launching the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrants that Kamala Harris has allowed into this country.”

Axios reports Leavitt says that “mass deportation operation” includes “millions of undocumented immigrants.”

READ MORE: The List of Who Donald Trump Has ‘Pledged to Punish,’ According to One of His Targets

Back in September, Trump infamously had attacked President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and immigrants.

“What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country,” Trump said. “And look at what’s happening to the towns all over the United States. And a lot of towns don’t want to talk — not going to be Aurora or Springfield. A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame.”

That same month Trump called for “remigration,” the forceful deportation of immigrants, including those in the U.S. under lawful and unlawful circumstances. He vowed to “end the migrant invasion of America,” and falsely characterized some programs that allow legal entry to the U.S. under law.

READ MORE: ‘Be the Guardrails of Democracy’: Liz Cheney and Other Never-Trumpers Suggest Path Forward

“We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, terminate the Kamala phone app for smuggling illegals (CBP One App), revoke deportation immunity, suspend refugee resettlement, and return Kamala’s illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration).”

Remigration, as NCRM reported at the time, is advocated by some in the European far-right, nationalist, and fascist movements.

Marine Le Pen, the French far-right nationalist who promotes anti-immigration and anti-Islam positions, viewed remigration as so extreme she broke with her allies over it. Earlier this year Politico Europe reported Le Pen said “that she was in ‘total disagreement’ with the reported discussions on ‘remigration.’” Those discussions included the forced deportation of some French citizens, who were described as “unassimilated citizens.”

The Washington Post reports Trump “has made 41 distinct promises for his first day in office, including mass deportations and banning transgender women from sports.”

READ MORE: Trump Closes Campaign With Misogynistic Slur, Violent Rhetoric Against Women

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The List of Who Donald Trump Has ‘Pledged to Punish,’ According to One of His Targets

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Vice President Kamala Harris, now the former Democratic presidential nominee, frequently said on the campaign trail: “On day one if elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemy’s list. When elected, I will walk in with a to do list.”

Donald Trump is now President-elect and, according to Politico, he has “a lengthy inventory of people he’s pledged to punish.”

“For years, Trump has peppered his speeches and social media posts with vengeful calls for his political opponents, his critics and members of the media to be prosecuted, locked up, deported and even executed. In the waning weeks of the 2024 campaign, he escalated those promises of retaliation to a fever pitch,” Politico reports Wednesday. “Now that he’s won, he has both a popular mandate — and the power — to begin implementing his platform of punishment.”

Trump “will be emboldened by a Supreme Court ruling that grants presidents broad immunity from criminal accountability after they leave office. And he is expected to be surrounded by aides more willing to dispense with norms to carry out his wishes.”

READ MORE: ‘Be the Guardrails of Democracy’: Liz Cheney and Other Never-Trumpers Suggest Path Forward

Back in March of 2023, Trump declared, “I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.”

Who’s on his list? According to Politico, nearly two dozen individuals, largely in the legal and political spectrum, along with dozens of intelligence specialists, and unnamed journalists:

President Joe Biden
Vice President Kamala Harris
Former President Barack Obama
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi
New York Attorney General Letitia James
Manhattan Justice Arthur Engoron
Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney
Special Counsel Jack Smith
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg
Former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley
Former FBI Director James Comey
Hunter Biden and the rest of the Biden family
Former FBI special agent Peter Strzok
Former FBI attorney Lisa Page
Rep. Adam Schiff (Now Senator-elect Schiff)
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
Former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen
U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd
Rep. Jamaal Bowman
51 intelligence professionals who signed letter about Hunter Biden laptop
Members of the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack
Unspecified people engaged in election fraud
POLITICO reporters, editors and publisher

It’s not just Politico.

Trump has often called the mainstream media, the “enemy of the people.”

In his victory speech early Wednesday morning, Trump referred to the press as, “the enemy camp,” according to The Guardian.

“Introducing his running mate, the Ohio senator JD Vance, Trump said: “I told JD to go into the enemy camp. He just goes: OK. Which one? CNN? MSNBC? He’s like the only guy who looks forward to going on, and then just absolutely obliterates them.”

READ MORE: Trump Closes Campaign With Misogynistic Slur, Violent Rhetoric Against Women

 

 

 

 

 

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