(Some Of The Reasons) Republicans Are Delusional
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.â€
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.â€
It’s one thing to play politics. Â 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.
Â
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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The Trump administration reportedly has plans to scrape your private medical data from sources like your doctor, your pharmacy, your insurance company, the lab that processes your bloodwork, your smartwatch, and your fitness apps—to create a “registry” of people with autism.
“The National Institutes of Health is amassing private medical records from a number of federal and commercial databases to give to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new effort to study autism,” CBS News reported. “The new data will allow external researchers picked for Kennedy’s autism studies to study ‘comprehensive’ patient data with ‘broad coverage’ of the U.S. population for the first time, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said.”
CBS also adds that “a new disease registry is being launched to track Americans with autism, which will be integrated into the data. Advocacy groups and experts have called out Kennedy for describing autism as a ‘preventable disease,’ which they say is stigmatizing and unfounded.”
“By bringing the data into one place,” Bhattacharya “said it could give health agencies a window into ‘real-time health monitoring’ on Americans for studying other health problems too.”
“What we’re proposing is a transformative real-world data initiative, which aims to provide a robust and secure computational data platform for chronic disease and autism research,” he said.
READ MORE: Trump’s SignalGate Sit-Down Mocked as a ‘Him in a Nutshell’ Moment
Critics warn that a registry of people with autism poses great privacy and health risks, while others wonder about HIPAA violations—especially in light of what some say is Secretary Kennedy’s apparent bias against autism and people on the spectrum.
Last week, Secretary Kennedy’s remarks about children with autism drew intense fire.
“This is an individual tragedy,” Kennedy declared (video below). “Autism destroys families. And more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which our children. These are children who should not be, who should not be suffering like this. These are kids who, many of them, were fully functional, and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism when they’re two years old.”
“And these are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted. And we have to recognize we are doing this to our children,” he alleged, to widespread criticism.
“How are they going to collect all this data without violating HIPAA laws and privacy protection?” Dr. Joel Shulkin asked, as The Daily Dot reported. “How are they going to de-identify all the data so that it cannot be misused against people who are involved in it? And what are they planning to do with that data once they finish their so-called study?”
ASAN, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, warned: “There is no indication that autistic people whose data is being taken would be afforded any say in whether their data is used or what it is used for. This raises significant moral, legal, and practical concerns. People have a right to decide what is done with data about their health. Unethical science is bad science.”
“Medical data can also easily be manipulated by unscrupulous researchers to create the appearance of causation where it does not exist,” ASAN added. “This has already happened this year with an anti-vaccine ‘study’ about autism that RFK Jr. approvingly cited during his confirmation hearing. The study, which was not published in a reputable scientific journal and did not go through peer review, used Medicaid data from Florida to show that children who had doctors visits to receive vaccinations were statistically more likely to also have doctors visits to receive care for autism.”
And the National Consumers League warns that “RFK Jr.’s autism study will pull private medical records, pharmacy data, insurance claims—even data from your fitness tracker—all under the banner of a flawed and stigmatizing narrative that autism is a ‘preventable disease.’ This kind of data grab raises serious questions about privacy, consent, and how personal health info could be misused in the name of speculative science.”
“RFK Jr.’s proposed national autism registry is straight-up dystopian,” declared Democratic strategist Chris D. Jackson. “Centralizing private medical data—from pharmacies, labs, fitness trackers, even veterans—and handing it to third parties? That’s not research. That’s surveillance. Let’s be clear: this echoes the darkest chapters of history, when regimes like Nazi Germany used medical registries to target and dehumanize vulnerable populations.”
READ MORE: ‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution
“And calling autism a ‘preventable tragedy’? That’s not science—it’s dangerous, ableist propaganda. Autistic people deserve respect, not to be tracked, labeled, or erased.”
Dr. Kristin Lyerly, who hosts The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show, wrote: “I am very concerned about this effort for so many reasons, including health privacy and respect for people and families living with autism. This reeks of eugenics.”
“First RFK Jr says that people on the autism spectrum are useless eaters,” noted Yale Professor of History Timothy Snyder, an expert on authoritarianism. “And then he announces that the government is going to make a list of them, a ‘registry.'”
Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali, like many social media users, wrote: “Nazis did registries by the way.”
Fred Wellman, a West Point and the Harvard Kennedy School graduate, an Army veteran of 22 years who served four combat tours, and now a political consultant and the host of the podcast “On Democracy,” blasted the Trump administration:
“RFK Jr. wants to create a national registry of people with autism. The Admin wants to increase baby supply with a motherhood medal. Trump wants to deport US citizens to a third world gulag. They formed an Anti-Christian Bias Task Force to prosecute people for their speech. A White House advisor is floating arresting Americans for speaking in support of immigrants as terror supporters. Does this all sound familiar?”
Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic Instructor Alejandra Caraballo warned: “This won’t be limited to just autism. They’re building the panopticon to track anyone with any ‘undesirable’ illness. This is eugenics, full stop.”
Fred Guttenberg, an anti-gun violence activist who lost his daughter in the Parkland mass school shooting, wrote: “Help me understand how these lunatics who spent years fighting me on gun safety & used the idea of a government registry to create fear, now believe in a government registry to track people with autism. Everything they say is a lie, & everything they do is designed to hurt people.”
A user on the social media platform X posted this response:
“I’m autistic And when I heard RFK Jr. wants a government registry to track people like me using private medical records I didn’t think ‘safety’ I thought Nazi Germany A roundup’s of disabled people Because I know history And I know exactly what comes after the list is made This isn’t about health This is about control It’s about fear It’s about marking people People like me Neurodivergent people Different people Don’t dress it up as policy This is how roundups begin You want to stop autism discrimination? Start by not creating a fucking list.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
RFK JR: And these are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted pic.twitter.com/8T3hcYYn9O
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 16, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House
Image via Shutterstock
President Donald Trump announced he will be sitting for an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic who was erroneously included in a group chat about military strikes in Yemen and subsequently broke the SignalGate story.
Trump suggested he agreed to the interview with Goldberg and two other reporters because of the supposed title of the proposed article: “The Most Consequential President of this Century.” And while there have only been four presidents this century, including himself, Trump appeared happy to indulge the reporters in exchange for the compliment.
“Later today I will be meeting with, of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor of The Atlantic, and the person responsible for many fictional stories about me, including the made-up HOAX on ‘Suckers and Losers’ and, SignalGate, something he was somewhat more ‘successful’ with,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
READ MORE: ‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution
“Jeffrey is bringing with him Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker, not exactly pro-Trump writers, either, to put it mildly! The story they are writing, they have told my representatives, will be entitled, ‘The Most Consequential President of this Century.’ I am doing this interview out of curiosity, and as a competition with myself, just to see if it’s possible for The Atlantic to be ‘truthful.’ Are they capable of writing a fair story on ‘TRUMP’? The way I look at it, what can be so bad – I WON!”
Despite Trump’s dismissals, the “suckers and losers” stories were well-documented, fact-based reporting, as was the SignalGate story.
Finance journalist James Surowiecki of Fast Company and The Atlantic, writes, “This may be my favorite Trump tweet ever – it’s him in a nutshell. He attacks Jeff Goldberg, and complains about The Atlantic. But of course he’s going to do the interview, because he can’t resist being the focus of attention, and being labeled ‘The Most Consequential President.'”
READ MORE: Trump Doubles Down Calling Egg Prices ‘Too Low’ as Costs Soar to Record Highs
Yahoo Finance’s Jordan Weissmann adds, “Trump grudgingly admitting Goldberg was ‘somewhat more successful’ with SignalGate is one of the funniest ‘OK, you got us there’ moments I’ve ever seen.”
Earlier this month Goldberg, speaking about his SignalGate article and Trump, said: “I’m not going to be bullied, because there’s no end to the bullying if you agree to be bullied in the first place. If there are consequences to not bending, fine.”
“It beats selling your soul.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
“If the president of the United States says we’re lying, and I have the truth, I’m going to publish the truth”: Jeffrey Goldberg on The Atlantic’s decision to publish the Signal chats following the Trump administration’s initial response to the leak. https://t.co/YZ5mSWNKr8 pic.twitter.com/kPtAIJhOao
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) April 3, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House
Image via Reuters
With seemingly near-daily revelations about U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s alleged—and potentially unlawful—leaks of classified or sensitive information, concerns over his leadership, judgment, and efforts to reshape the Department of Defense, pressure for his resignation or removal and even prosecution is rapidly intensifying.
Hegseth, confirmed by the narrowest of margins (51-50), is one of the youngest (44) Defense Secretaries, and had already been one of the most controversial. His Senate hearings were flooded with allegations and questions about sexual assault, use of alcohol, infidelities, position on women in combat, previous alleged poor leadership and financial mismanagement at several small nonprofits, and general lack of experience—sans his weekend gig as a Fox News host.
Hegseth’s repeated use of the insecure messaging app Signal on his cellphone, from which he reportedly shared sensitive and classified military strike secrets—in at least two separate instances, including one with his wife, brother, and personal attorney—alone, some say, should have led to his firing and prosecution.
“If a ‘regular’ clearance holder did this, almost assuredly they would lose their security clearance,” remarked national security attorney Mark Zaid, pointing to this NBC News report. “Given it is literally imminent military strike planning, not inconceivable prosecution would be on the table. In normal times. This ain’t that.”
READ MORE: Trump Doubles Down Calling Egg Prices ‘Too Low’ as Costs Soar to Record Highs
More recent news that he directed to have Signal installed on his Defense Department computer, that he spent thousands in Pentagon funds to construct a “makeup room” for TV spots, that his security credentials, including personal cell phone number, email address and password, and WhatsApp account were posted on the dark web, and the “disarray” in his inner circle, have served to strengthen the calls for his firing, resignation, or prosecution—and continued downplaying by the Trump administration.
“President Donald Trump is unlikely to dismiss Hegseth and has spoken to him twice since The New York Times and CNN reported on the second Signal group on Sunday night,” CNN reported Wednesday. “In their first call, Trump said he had Hegseth’s back and voiced frustration at ‘leakers’ he said were trying to damage his administration, according to a person familiar with the conversation.”
CNN also reports that “Hegseth’s most trusted advisers are now his wife, his lawyer and his junior military aide, who may soon be appointed his new chief of staff, multiple people familiar with the matter said.” Hegseth’s wife is a former Fox News producer who is not a Pentagon employee. It is “unclear,” the news network reported separately, if she has a security clearance.
“The Pentagon is in ‘total chaos’ and Hegseth is unlikely to remain in his role, according to its former top spokesperson, who painted a scene of dysfunction, backstabbing and continuous missteps at the highest levels of DOD,” Politico Deputy Managing Editor of Global Security Dave Brown reported Sunday evening.
READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House
“Chaos in the world’s most lethal fighting force is an open invitation to our enemies,” responded U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a, Iraq War veteran who served in the Marines for over a decade. “Amateur hour with Hegseth. Time to resign.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s denouncement of classified inform action leaking on Wednesday also served to invite anger, upset, and concern over Hegseth’s actions.
“Politicization of our intelligence and leaking classified information puts our nation’s security at risk and must end,” Gabbard, Trump controversial DNI wrote. “Those who leak classified information will be found and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Today, I referred two intelligence community LEAKS to the Department of Justice for criminal referral, with a third criminal referral on its way, which includes the recent illegal leak to the Washington Post. These deep-state criminals leaked classified information for partisan political purposes to undermine POTUS’ agenda. I look forward to working with @TheJusticeDept and @FBI to investigate, terminate and prosecute these criminals.”
The Atlantic’s Dr. Norman Ornstein, the renowned political scientist, commented to Gabbard: “I am looking forward to the time when you refer Pete Hegseth for criminal prosecution.”
Calls for Hegseth’s ouster—one way or another—have flooded social media this week.
“When the Secretary of Defense screws up,” commented U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-VA), servicemembers’ lives are on the line. Pete Hegseth has shown time and time again he screws up way too much to do this job. He must resign or be fired.”
“The first thing they make you do before going into a classified meeting is to remove your phone,” noted U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), an awarded former U.S. Air Force Colonel in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. “Why? Because phones can be hacked. (Eg look up Pegasus spyware). Hegseth using his personal phone multiple times to reveal combat operations is a dereliction of duty. He must resign.”
“Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent,” wrote U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH). “For our national security and the safety of our troops, Pete Hegseth must resign or be removed from his position.”
“Being the Secretary of Defense is serious business and it’s clear he’s not up to it. Hegseth needs to resign or be fired,” observed U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who served for 25 years in the U.S.Navy, including as a NASA astronaut who spent 54 days in space.
Awarded Iraq War veteran U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), a West Point graduate who served as an Army Captain in the Military Intelligence Corps, urged President Trump to fire Hegseth.
“Will Donald Trump, who made his reputation for quote unquote firing people, actually fire this guy and make our country safe again and really support our troops?” Congressman Ryan asked. “That’s what every American should be asking.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
Want to “Make America Safe Again” @realDonaldTrump?
FIRE Pete Hegseth. pic.twitter.com/YGUvCFRBz6
— Pat Ryan 🇺🇸 (@PatRyanUC) April 24, 2025
READ MORE: Trump’s Latest Target: The Watchdog That Keeps Suing Him
Image via Reuters
Trump’s SignalGate Sit-Down Mocked as a ‘Him in a Nutshell’ Moment
‘Reeks of Eugenics’: RFK Jr.’s Autism ‘Registry’ Draws Nazi Germany Comparisons
‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution
‘Reeks of Eugenics’: RFK Jr.’s Autism ‘Registry’ Draws Nazi Germany Comparisons
Trump’s SignalGate Sit-Down Mocked as a ‘Him in a Nutshell’ Moment
‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution
Trump Doubles Down Calling Egg Prices ‘Too Low’ as Costs Soar to Record Highs
