#gop debacle

[tomorrowusa]

Republicans Turn Eating Their Own Into A Spectator Sport

It’s another spectacle for the sake of spectacle, and we are not even the audience.

Trump hasn't been sworn in and the 119th Congress won't be seated until January. But Republicans are already proving that they can't govern competently.

An almost routine continuing resolution (CR) has been botched with an assist by Elon Putz. Now there could be a government shutdown by Christmas.

With a government shutdown deadline looming tomorrow, Trump blew up the bipartisan deal for a continuing resolution to fund the government through mid-March via an unhinged social media post late Wednesday afternoon. The details of the CR itself barely matter because this isn’t about legislation or compromise or striking a deal. It’s about creating a public spectacle, and nothing made that more clear than Trump’s last-minute demand that Congress raise the debt ceiling before he even takes office. Those are the facts of what happened, but after years of GOP brinksmanship, chronic self-ownage, disarray, and dysfunction, it is hard to credibly muster the same kind of alarm or dismay in the face of these facts. Republicans created this debacle on purpose. They own it. They are the only ones who can stop it. Elected Democrats can’t save Republicans from themselves, aren’t to blame for this folly, and are merely bystanders like the rest of us to performative hijinks that are divorced from the reality of governance. Real people will be hurt or will have to endure another round of living under the threat of harm. It’s a colossal waste of public resources and private emotional energy. It’s another spectacle for the sake of spectacle, and we are not even the audience.

Elon Musk is somehow a citizen of three countries: the US, Canada, and South Africa. Yet this semi-foreigner is allowed to meddle with the US government.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a typical obsequious MAGA weenie. But that didn't stop Trump from siding with Elon against him. Now Johnson's speakership may be in danger.

Donald Trump Sides With Elon Musk Against Mike Johnson Over Spending Bill

Be sure to put popcorn on your list for last minute shopping.

[tomorrowusa]

20 years on, most Americans say Iraq invasion was the wrong decision

The war has shaped a generation of U.S. foreign policy.

20 years ago, President George W. Bush launched one of the most idiotic wars in US history.

On the surface, Bush invaded Iraq because he claimed its leader Saddam Hussein was about to launch “weapons of mass destruction” against the West. No such weapons were ever found by occupying US forces.

After 9/11, Bush blamed Saddam for the terror attacks of September 2001. There was never evidence of that and that’s what the official 9/11 Commission said in its final report.

Bush was just another evidence-free Republican who got the US involved in a pointless war which did the US no good. One negative concrete result of the Iraq War was that ISIS was founded during the Bush administration’s misadventure in Iraq.

On the whole, the Iraq War harmed US national security more than helped it.

Two decades after the U.S. invaded Iraq, 61% of Americans do not believe the U.S. made the right decision by invading Iraq, according to a new Axios/Ipsos poll.

Why it matters: The chaos and destruction that followed the invasion have made a generation of Americans and their leaders more skeptical of the use of military force overseas, in particular in the Middle East. The invasion toppled a brutal dictator but sparked 20 years of instability in Iraq, and damaged America's standing in the world.

[ ... ]

State of play: Just 31% of Americans think the Iraq War made America safer, while 36% think the U.S. was right to invade, according to the Axios/Ipsos poll published this week.

• There is a clear partisan divide, however, with 58% of Republicans believing the U.S. was right to invade compared to 26% of Democrats.

• Younger Americans, in particular, do not think the U.S. was right to invade Iraq, though majorities in every age group hold that view.

There is lingering suspicion that this war was about oil. Bush, a former Texas governor, was certainly friendly with fossil fuel producers. Grabbing Iraqi oil was the closest thing Bush had to a coherent energy policy.

Bush conducted the Iraq War while already fighting a war in Afghanistan. And Bush kept the Afghan War going long after most of the leaders of al-Qaeda had been captured or killed and the Taliban had been driven from power.

Running two wars on a credit card while giving two rounds of tax breaks to the filthy rich contributed to the financial collapse of 2008 and the subsequent Great Recession.

By contrast, President Joe Biden has, on the cheap, helped to wipe out about half of the Russian Army without the loss of any US service personnel. In non-authoritarian countries US prestige has soared over the past year – rather than sunk under the two awful GOP administrations of the 21st century.

Wingnuts like to say, “libs can’t meme”. Well, a far more important factor this century has been that Republicans can’t war. Vladimir Putin is clearly taking after his GOP pals in this regard.

Related

[orangememesicle]

oh my goosh the moderators of the debate are taking less and less shit

[orangememesicle]

apparently hillary clinton is a radical liberal

[orangememesicle]

Donald Trump seems to think that if he blames everything on a nebulous "them", he can gain support. The worst part is that it's working

[orangememesicle]

Blacklist #election blogging if you don't want to read my bitching and kvetching and snarling at the GOP debate

[whiskey-lovin-twenty-nothings]

I made this. For the Parks and Rec fans, and for the politically minded.

[orangememesicle]

Republicans always, without fail, end up talking about three things 1. Abortion 2. Illegal Immigration 3. Islamic terrorism