“Socialist” is the new Republican dog whistle for “people who believe in racial equality”

You might wonder how a Senator who was once called the “Senator from Chase-Manhattan” because he was so friendly to big banks and big business in general could be called a “socialist” by Republicans once he started running for President.

The word “socialism” as used by Republicans doesn’t mean “a system where all economic assets are owned by the government”. Rather, it’s a dog whistle for “I don’t want none of them thare n-words to get the same advantages as me.” It’s coded racism. The word “socialist” as used by Republicans is a dog whistle for “people who oppose white supremacy.”

This is why poor whites consistently are voting against Democrats these days. They still have not forgiven Democrats for passing the Civil Rights Act of 1965. LBJ muttered that he’d lost poor whites for the Democratic Party for a generation because poor whites wouldn’t vote for a “n-word lover”. He was off by a couple of generations. And this is also why poor whites consistently label Democrats as “socialist”. It’s not because Democrats want all businesses to be owned by the government. It’s because Democrats are against white supremacy. And that makes them evil because taking white supremacy away from white trash Americans… what do white trash Americans have left after that? Other than seething resentment and hatred of everybody who isn’t white, I mean?

White supremacy is a hella drug. As lethal as meth, in the end. These white trash Americans will literally vote to kill themselves rather than allow black people to have the same rights that they have. And I doubt there’s a damned thing we can do about it other than to ignore their racism while making sure they have access to health care, education, and other necessities of life, which we Democrats will do because we’re good people, not because there’s any hope of us converting people who think it’s okay to rip babies out of their mothers’ arms and put them into cages to anything resembling human decency. There’s no way to reach out to hate-filled people and make them *not* be hate-filled people. All we can do is treat them with kindness while making sure they’re as far the fuck away from the reins of power as we can manage.

– Badtux the Dog-whistle-recognizing Penguin

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Right wing nutcases (and Donald Trump and the GOP) lose the plot over a new California law requiring full financial disclosure by candidates for President

That new California law is, of course, a law requiring all candidates for President and Governor to provide 5 years of tax returns in order to appear on the ballot. And they’re screaming, “This adds qualifications for president beyond what’s in the Constitution!”

No. Donald Trump can still run for President. Nothing bars him from running for President. He just has to file all the required paperwork. Which has been expanded a bit, but there’s nothing physically preventing him from filing it, it’s not as if the state passed a law saying that no person who is orange can run for President in the state of California. Furthermore, the Constitution gives the states the right to set how electors for President shall be selected, via Article II, Section 1, Clause 3.

The biggest argument is going to be that the State of California cannot tell the Republican Party how they will select their candidate. That is true. Freedom of association says that the Republican Party can select their candidate any way they wish. If they want to select a candidate via party delegates meeting in a smoky room, or via holding party-sponsored caucuses, or any other method they determine, they can do so — as long as they don’t use state money to do it. But if they want to participate in the state-funded primaries they have to abide by the rules the state lays down. The candidate has to pay a filing fee, provide the signatures of X number of registered voters, provide the name and address of his campaign organization, and otherwise provide information that — oh yeah — now includes 5 years of income tax forms too.

And if the Republican Party doesn’t want to abide by those rules, nobody is forcing them to do so. They can hold their own party-funded caucuses like Nevada does. But if you’re going to accept the state’s money, you abide by the state’s rules. That’s just how it is.

– Badtux the Law Penguin

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John McCain, 1936-2018

John McCain dead at age 81, the day after his family announced they were ceasing medical treatment.

Senator John McCain was a bridge back to the Republican Party of Barry Goldwater, a bridge back to a Republican Party comprised of men of principle who differed from the Democrats insofar as methods went, not about the overall goal of a more prosperous nation and a more prosperous populace. In his later years he pandered to the extremists in his party far too much in an attempt to maintain his relevance, but he still had that core of decency missing from far too many Republicans today.

I can’t say I agreed with McCain about much of anything, but I respected him. That’s something that’s not true of most of today’s Republican clown posse.

– Badtux the Obituaries Penguin

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So Comey said the expected and …

And nothing is going to happen, folks. Not until after mid-terms.

So yeah, Trump tried to shut down the Russia investigation. Yeah, that was obstruction of justice. Yeah, that’s illegal. No, nobody’s going to impeach Trump over it. Not yet, anyhow.

Here’s the deal: The Republicans in Congress are scared of the MAGAts, the hard-core red-MAGA-cap wearing Trump partisans. They’re scared for their physical safety, and they’re scared that the MAGAts will primary them if they oppose the MAGAts’ Great Orange Savior. The only thing — the *only* thing — that could make them ever go against the MAGAts would be if they felt their entire career was on the line if they didn’t. As in, fear of getting voted out of office.

And the only way *that* fear is happening is if the Republicans lose a lot of seats in 2018, especially if the seats lost are in supposedly “safe” Republican districts. At that point they’ll impeach Trump, using the ammunition that Comey gave them, and put Pence into office. Pence is an evil theocrat, far more evil than Trump in the big picture of things, but Pence is Republican-friendly. He doesn’t make blustering bumbling blundering statements in inappropriate venues. He is careful to observe the proprieties. He simply doesn’t cause the kinds of issues that Trump causes for Republicans. He does his evil quietly, behind closed doors, and throws bones to the pro-business wing of the Republican Party in the process.

And the reason for the timing? There has to be sufficient time for Pence to put together his campaign for 2020. So figure that, if Trump is going to be impeached, it is going to happen no earlier than January 2019 and no later than June 2019.

But my prediction? Trump isn’t going to be impeached. The reason? It’s because his blustering bumbling has, thus far, had no real impact on the political fortunes or prosperity of Republicans. Having Trump in office is like life insurance for Republican officials, they can blame Trump, not the Republican orthodoxy, for anything bad that happens, while all the while getting their own agenda through Congress and signed by a surprisingly pliant Trump, who seems to sign everything that is plopped in front of him regardless of how ill-considered. It’s “hold my beer and watch *this*!” taken to YUUGE proportions. And the result, as I’m sure you know, is usually a crash… but as long as the crash can be blamed on anybody-but-orthodox-Republicans, they don’t seem to care.

– Badtux the Car Crash Penguin

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Hey, GOP: You bought it, you own it.

There are idiots doing stupid and violent things on all sides of the political spectrum. They are morons and to be despised regardless of their political views or party affiliation.

However, when the leader of a political party specifically *encourages* violent acts, it is fair game to say, “That political party encourages violence.”

There are a lot of racists out there. They are despicable and to be decried regardless of their political views or party affiliation.

However, when the leader of a political party regularly makes racist statements about entire groups of people, it is fair game to say, “That political party is racist.”

Republicans, you voted for Donald Trump. You made him your leader. You voted him into office. You own him. You don’t get to send him back for a refund. He’s yours, for the next four years. If you don’t want to be called the Party of Violence, if you don’t want to be called the Party of Racism… well, that chance went out the door when you elected a man who regularly encourages violence and makes racist statements to be your party’s leader. You bought it. Like a used car that turns out to be a clunker, you own it. No returns. No refunds. You are the Party of Violence. You are the Party of Racism. Have fun with your shiny new leader.

– Badtux the Mercantile Penguin

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No pogroms. Yet.

But we’re building up to them. In this particular plot, three men plotted to bomb an apartment complex and mosque in Garden City, Kansas. In a previous one, a man plotted to blow up a BLM building. And now, we have a supposed lawman in Milwaukee, Sheriff David Clarke, threatening riots if Hillary wins.

The past eight years of being ruled by a black man have driven the 27% of Americans who are deplorable racists utterly insane. The fires of insanity have been fed by the Republican Party commissars at every level because they viewed this as, when combined with traditional conservatives, being able to get Republicans elected. They didn’t expect the racists to reject their own hand-picked candidates and instead choose Donald Trump as the Republican candidate, but they will work with that as best they can, because having this 27% be utterly driven into a frenzy gives them another trump card (pun intended): the threat of violence if policies are implemented that the Republicans are opposed to. Because 27% of the population being driven into an utter frenzy is enough to make it really, really hard to govern.

The problem is that once you get the mob riled up like that, sometimes the mob reacts in ways you didn’t expect… and sometimes the people fanning the flames are the ones who are burned first. The Party commissars have stoked the mob. But can they deal with the fire that results?

We’ll see. We’ll see.

– Badtux the Fire-gazin’ Penguin

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The GOP establishment didn’t even wait for Monday

Donald Trump’s non-apology apology — “it was just locker room talk” — apparently didn’t convince anybody other than himself. Reaction from Republicans was swift. Pretty much everybody who’d endorsed Trump reversed their endorsement, with the exception of a couple of jerks like Rep. Paul Ryan (go figure). But worst yet for Trump, the Republican National Committee a) asked Trump to step down as candidate, and b) when Trump refused to quit, the RNC then “shut down its entire ground game that had been planned to get out the vote for Trump.

But the most stinging words were these:

“As a husband and father, I was offended by the words and actions described by Donald Trump in the eleven-year-old video released yesterday. I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them.” — Mike Pence.

Of course, Pence then backed off and said well it was 10 years ago and Trump apologized (which he didn’t, BTW) and so forth. But still. If your own running mate can’t defend your sexual harassment of other women, who can?

The next question is whether we’ll see yet *another* “October Surprise”. We’ve seen two thus far — the income tax thing, and now this sexual harassment issue. What else is lurking out there? I guess we’ll see within the next week or so. This is turning out to be a rather entertaining October!

– Badtux the Amused Penguin

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Build Up That Wall

Once upon a time, Republican politicians painted a picture of rainbows and apple pie and morning in America. Today, it’s a wall.

A wall. How appropriate, for a party that seems intent upon dividing Americans into them and us, those on the right side of the wall, those on the wrong side of the wall.

Walls are never positive. Walls say that you’re embattled. That you’re under siege. Walls are about paranoia, fear, and hate. Walls say there is us, there is them, and we’re human, and they’re not. Walls are what happens when a nation has run out of ideas and is content to settle back and fade away.

“It’s Morning in America!” on the other hand, said we were going to a better, brighter day. It was a message of hope. Of optimism. And it got Ronald Reagan re-elected by one of the biggest landslides in American history despite the controversies that were enveloping his Presidency.

Hope over fear. It is the only way forward. It is sad that a party that once stood for hope, now seems to stand only for fear. Even sadder, that the main policy proposal of a party whose President once said, “Tear down that wall!”, now has as its principal policy proposal the building of a wall.

— Badtux the Fear Penguin

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GOP convention full of shit

I mean, that’s no surprise to anybody who’s followed the Republican nomination process this year, and today’s offer of the nomination to Donald Trump — and his acceptance — would qualify the convention as full of shit if nothing else had happened. But… now the GOP convention is literally full of shit, due to an outbreak of Norovirus.

Plagues of locusts and toads tomorrow?

– Badtux the Head-shakin’ Penguin

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So, Donald Trump is the GOP nominee. Time to mock his supporters!

Ted Cruz dropped out, meaning Trump will get the 200 electors he needs to win the nomination without a contest. So time to mock! “But wait,” cries the so-called “moderates”. “This will just make his supporters support Trump *even more*!”

Really? Look. That’s utter bullshit. There isn’t a goddamn thing I say that’s ever going to affect a Trump supporter’s vote. The people who support Trump wouldn’t vote for a Democrat if their party was running a hamster in a tuxedo suit for President, so it doesn’t matter what we say about them. They’ve been told so many times that anybody who is a Democrat is automatically an evil baby killer who wants to round up Republicans and put them into FEMA camps while stealing all their money to give to illegal Messicans and force them to mandatory gay marry their dog and yada yada yada that a Democrat saying nasty things about them is no more going to change their vote than a message from God above booming, “Thou shalt vote for the Democrat!” out of a nearby burning bush. They’d just look at that burning bush, look at each other, and decide that the burning bush was just an outlet for MSNBC and probably gay besides. Even golden tablets falling from the heavens to their feet wouldn’t change their mind. They’d just claim Democrats were flying overhead in invisible silent helicopters dropping these tablets trying to brain them.

Let’s face it, when you have half of the USA that believes batshit crazy stupidity like all Democrats are evil baby killers who want to round up all Republicans into FEMA camps yada yada, there isn’t anything Democrats or God himself say that’s *ever* going to affect their vote in any way. That’s just how it is.

– Badtux the Mocking Penguin

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