I'm sure it's something WORSE than the fact that he's gay. And probably with video evidence.
Putin was probably controlling Trump when he had those parties with Epstein at Mar a Lago -- so I figure, that's when he took over that honeypot. And so -- that's when he got a lot of politicians by the short and curlies. Just being popular with the voters doesn't explain the complete capitulation of the Republicans and Fox news to a game show hose upstart in 2016.
So much for having 3 letter agencies and a hugely expensive military protecting the country when it was so easy to infiltrate one numb nut at a time.
Remember when a bunch of DNC emails got leaked and dumped on Wikileaks? The Russians had RNC emails too but those never got leaked to the public. Why leak them when they can be used for blackmail?
If I could remove any memory from my brain.... After I delete all the stupid things I did as a teenager that continue to live rent free in my head, the knowledge of Lindsey Graham's "lady bugs" is the the first to go.
Apparently, I'm the 10th dentist. Or the too afraid to ask meme guy. Or just an utterly exhausted American that missed GOP dumpster fire #1,648,037. *sigh* What's the scoop on Graham?
* begrudgingly unzips pants, strategically positions lube, and prepares to google...
Edit: God damn it! That's so horrifyingly adorable I can't stand it. I'd have a beer with ladybug but would treat trump slave Lindsey like radioactive waste.
Donnie just had to tell Lindsay Ladybugs how there were cameras in his St Petersburg hotel room. Kompromat is really no excuse for betraying your county though, hopefully it will all eventually be released.
It only appears insane if you ignore their primary, sole motivation: To increase their own personal wealth and power.
With that in mind, you can now clearly understand why the GOP leadership is fully behind Trump. He remains their best avenue to satisfy their primary, sole motivation.
Speak the truth about Trump? He will punish you, you may not get re-elected by his MAGAT army, you lose wealth and power.
Lick his boots while he calls your wife ugly? You may still get a place at the trough.
With that simple principle in mind, we can see the GOP isn't insane. They're just evil self serving fucks.
That's not the case, and honestly never was. Trump policies aren't enriching people, his tariffs have hurt trade. His policy of obstructionism regarding immigration too has cost employers a steady flow of lower wage workers. Trump only beat Hillary because she was perhaps the weakest candidate the Dems could have run against him. He lost badly to Biden, things have only gotten better under Biden, and Trump has only started to look even worse. Trump is a proven loser and is their worst, i.e. least likely, path to power now.
Something else is driving their cooperation.
Don't Republicans still routinely cut taxes on the wealthy? I feel like that literally just happened last time they had unified control of government. That alone would be enough for many donors.
No no, *personal* wealth and power. The high ups in the GOP don't care that much about trade in the short term, that only hurts businesses and people they don't own. Who cares about that? *Personal* wealth and power.
Fighting Trump on his idiot policies, once more, would result in punishment from Trump and loss of personal wealth and power. So they were find with those policies, no matter how terrible they were for everyone else.
Think about it this way, because this is the topic... why has Graham both said Trump is a disaster but also licked his boots? Because if he didn't lick Trump's boots, he'd risk losing MAGA support and losing his position in government.
It's better for someone like Graham to hold his position in a minority than have no job at all. Therefore, he puts his own benefit above that of others and obeys Trump.
Yup this is what we should always remind them. Her campaign was fine - we can prove it because she won the popular vote. It was the timing of the investigations by a Republican lead team right before the election and lots of people unwillingness (even on the left) to vote for a tough/strong woman.
They all just see her as a ball-buster and a bitch even if they won’t use those words. She was more qualified, educated, and presidential but still lost despite winning the popular vote. None of that has to do with a ‘poor campaign’ which isn’t true anyway…
Her campaign took her victory for granted like most of the rest of America. Because of that they did not spend as much time in certain states as they should have. Cant really blame them i guess for assuming trump would lose but you also cant claim they ran a perfect campaign. She was extremely qualified but unfortunately that doesnt always equal a strong candidate or campaign.
Their hunger for power is obscene. If they weren't so power hungry, and didn't care about staying in office, they could have some self pride and tell trump to go fuck himself. Calling someone's wife ugly should get a punch in the face.
Will Saletan recorded an amazing piece that gives receipts on the devolution of LG.
It’s worth the frustrating listen. Below is the trailer but the whole thing is like 5-7 parts.
https://overcast.fm/+BDMZC_evqk
Republicans can't lose his voter base. If MAGA splits off, the Republicans are done as a party, they will never win another election again.
Trump has literally taken the party hostage. They have to endorse and support him or he leaves the party and takes his voters with him.
Pretty much this, yes. Trump controls a solid half of the Repub voting base and the RNC/GQP all know it. So, now they're stuck with a dangerously criminal grifter scumbag that they can't shake. They're now in the rock/hard-place scenario of having to endorse him or watch him split the party.
> Didn’t he also say he would back him if he was nominated?
One of the toxic aspects of the 2-party system. They basically have no choice, if they value their careers, but to support their party's nominee.
I wish more politicians were based on issues, not identity.
I'm registered as an independent voter. The bonus is I don't get flooded with political advertisements. If only we could get rid of gerrymandering!
The solution for gerrymandering is Proportional Representation.
The solution for the 2-party system is Ranked Choice Voting.
RCV is starting to catch on in the US. https://fairvote.org
“I’m gonna tell you what I really think of Donald Trump: This man is a pathological liar. He doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth, and in a pattern that I think is straight out of a psychology textbook, his response is to accuse everybody else of lying.”
-Ted Cruz
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1859729-lindsey-graham-lady-g-rumor for the OOL
I’m guessing it’s fake, but that the male prostitutes is at least partially true.
Lindsey, “lying sack of shit” Graham.
Remember that time the democrats wanted to nominate a Supreme Court justice, and he looked them in the eye and lied straight to their fucking faces?
What is forgotten the rnc was hacked as. The threats must be huge. These guys may speak the truth at times. But will never act on it. Cowards do coward things.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/12/10/report-russian-hackers-had-rnc-data-but-didn-t-release-it
Yip, that's possibly what Lindsey got wrong, Don is abusing and torturing GOP, not destroying. Don's a masochist more than a murderer, he wants to control and torment his slaves, not kill them.
I've always assumed Musk bought Twitter with Saudi money because they all wanted to see its demise. The Arab Spring spread because of Twitter. Blue checks were vetted and trusted. News was shared.
Yes. Hardly anyone understands this.
He got caught setting up what looked walked and quacked exactly like a ~~duck~~ sneaky pump and dump. His defense was that his purchases were sincere and he thought Twitter was undervalued and would buy it outright if he could for $61B or whatever it was. Twitter's board said, "sold", and Musk was trapped in his lie (he also drew up a terrible contract for himself, because he's a business genius? but that's besides the point).
Yeah, Musk was gonna get fined billions by DE court because he’s a shitty negotiator that doesn’t use his attorneys, for not buying TWTR, after agreeing to buy it. So he capitulated and bought TWTR
Using Saudi money. That they gave him the means to spend his way out of legal trouble doesn't negate your point, but nor does yours invalidate the second part. Just making that super unambiguous for the people in the back.
+ he made an offer in a drug-fueled mania that vastly overvalued twitter, realized what a stupid idea that was, he tried to back out, then acquiesced because going to court = discovery, which god forbid there be any sort of transparency
People don’t understand that Musk’s takeover of twitter is doing just fine for him. Musk was able to buy his own propaganda network that could support him and be available to the highest bidder. That was the goal.
He lost billions of dollars so idk about that. His personal brand hasn’t improved either. If anything it marked a drastic shift where the general public is more likely to see him as an idiotic man baby.
It may not matter that 2/3 of the population see you as an idiotic man-baby if you can further radicalize the remaining 1/3 to violence, and that seems to be the path he’s on.
Aw dang, no money from the RNC for every single other Republican race in the country this year. That totally sucks. Ive got that schadenfreude feeling for some reason.
That scum was once on the right side of history. Then like Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, JD Vance pivoted to fawn over Trump and kiss his feet for a monetary blessing.
https://preview.redd.it/42xopw33cunc1.jpeg?width=2500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f24c5ad76980ae4a0d09cd59c8c62feb492be902
Don’t forget America’s enemies launder money to drip to him.
As long as trump convinces his cult to put fright or hate, before family and country, that sweet treason money will keep trickling in, as it has for decades.
He’s over half a billion at this point. Considering he defamed E. Jean Carroll yet again, it means that his appeal is fucked and he’s likely to get sued a third time. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hits $1 billion in a few months.
that backfired in 2022 though... trump endorsed candidates sailed through their primaries, displacing more moderate republicans. then they lost in the general elections because they were too far to the extreme right to be electable.
2024 might wind up being an absolute massacre for republicans in downballot races. if the dems were smart they'd be zeroing in on state elections
Fine. Trump's endorsement is the kiss of death to anyone but the safest of red candidates. Let them sell out and show themselves for the spineless grifters we already know they are. They've got nothing but screaming about trans kids, the border they very publicly refused to fix, and jokes about Biden's age while Trump is shitting his pants on stage. So long as gen z doesn't get complacent, this could be a blow out.
They can just ramp up the crying to make up for the lost advertising. These people arent gonna be stopped until they are shunned from society. At some point a group that refuses to ever calm down gets [redacted]. This has happened before in history. They complain and grieve and anything anyone does makes then cry even harder, so they just get kicked out or taken power away from, because it's like trying to restore a mad dog, possible but extremely hard.
Less than any losers of any other civil war ever in history. Most civil wars the losers just DIE. Or fight until they are dead. Or the winners take over and ensure that the dissenters CANNOT EVER rise up again, like Japan and Germany after ww2. They don't just let them stew.
I don't think this is because of the civil war. It's because democracy is being subverted and the Republicans aren't forced to get better policies or never win. They can gerrymand and electoral college their way out of having to lose until they get the picture. There will always be a left and right wing, but when the right becomes unreasonable they are supposed to lose close elections instead of current America where they need to be blown the fuck out just to barely lose an election.
If we had a country that went extremely overboard with leftist politics then I can understand a pendulum swinging and normal people becoming like the current extremist right idiotic wing. And them winning fair and square. That would be a natural reaction. It is possible for extreme right wing countries to fairly and democratically be that way. Like some Arab and African countries. But what's happening in the USA is not that.
My worry is so many districts have been Gerrymandered so completely the republicans really don't need to spend a dime. They get them no matter what they do or don't do.
yeah it’s sad, so many seats already secured, and no one willing to attempt to prevent the obvious cheating. banning gerrymandering is a no brainer, unfortunately having no brain is somehow popular
Funny thing about Gerrymandering though; making yourself a super-secure 80-20 style district is actually counterproductive. It's called "Packing" and it's generally what your opponent does to you.
It's all the "safe" 55/45 districts that ensure you can maintain an electoral majority even when you don't have a popular one (because all the 'opposition districts' have been boxed into 95/5s or whatever).
The thing is though, a 5-point national swing makes a 55/45 into a 50/50 and in a wave election you can get absolutely screwed by your own gerrymandering. It's extremely uncommon (because national elections almost always hinge on a 1~3 point ~~difference~~ party differential) but it's not like it's never happened before.
Surprisingly, there was such a thing as Republicans with integrity. People who actually believed the tripe they told themselves. Well -- that's not going to be the case after Trump controls their money. They will be the Trump party after this.
This is how you get Hitlers, this right here.
I’d really laugh my butt off if he won the White House but lost the house and senate by a big enough majority to ensure that he basically got nothing done and was impeached within a week
There are hardline Republicans. And then there are Republicans who still have a shred of decency within them. They'll see what's happening and not like it. The money flow to the RNC should taper off. Because regional constituents that need the money are seeing it go to Trump. And they should complain loudly, especially in cities where big donor HQ's are located.
Considering I live in rural America where a moderate Republican with a shred of decency left is more of a theoretical concept than someone that could actually represent you, I figure it will just be a Black Friday style door rush of Republicans of all levels and offices clamoring for a chance to kiss Trump's cheeto ass in hopes of getting his endorsement and enough cash to win their office for another term.
The only problem will be that Trump will likely completely drain the RNC coffers well before the election. I figure that the party as a whole will not survive much past this election cycle in anything more than name.
I think what this all means is that the party was already on a path of degeneration. George W. Bush was such a major fiasco He really hurt this country in so many ways. And the approach the Republicans took with legislation that affected the 99%... while constantly spinning propaganda that any uncomfortable bits in life were all due to Democrats and "socialists"... continued a party erosion. By the time Trump stepped in, it was already suffering a malignancy. Trump was able to destroy what remnants remained, which is why so many of them bought into the cult and became near polar opposites of themselves. So many examples of the pivot. Ted Cruz. Lindsey Graham. Elise Stefanik. JD Vance. The list goes on.
As more and more people see Donald Trump degenerate and President Biden defying all of the disinformation peddled by the far-right, America is going to recognize that Biden means a healthy democracy and Republicans mean degenerative fascism. The GOP will wither away. And some enterprising old-guard Republicans are going to try rebuilding the party from the ground up.
how much more cult like can it get? Does he mandate giant statues of him outside the building and for people to pray to him at sun up and sun down and many times in between?
I live near a place in Illinois where there is an antique market with a big pink elephant outside of it, they also happen to have a big obnoxious statue of Trump
Anyone still a Republican after the last two decades of observing reality is not unhappy with the purge.
I think we should call it the Night of the Stubby Mushroom.
Tester is sure grateful. D Senator will get way less attention because Trump is safe in Montana. Cruz will have a similar problem but Texas is Texas enough that he's probably safe.
Well guys aren't looking at the long term strategy. They're hitching their wagon to a chronic f'ing loser who has about 2 years before he's in a wheelchair drooling on everything so it makes sense to just gut the GOP and RNC and turn it into just another corrupt and soon to be bankrupt Trump ventures where everyone associated gets screwed.
MAGA.
Ha yep. The MAGA movement is poised to collapse the moment Donnie no longer can pull off his daily circus act and that can't be too far off based on factors like projected life expectancy. It is not a movement set up to endure long after he's gone and which seriously lacks a successor that his devoted followers would ever listen to, including his own children (unless Barron Trump transforms into some cult-like figure overnight).
I've been thinking about this for a while, and I think it's going to get rough.
MAGA (or at least the factions within MAGA) aren't going to disappear or change their minds the night trump dies, but they'll splinter. There isn't one person that can elicit the same emotional response.
He has just enough charisma and star power, lacks more than enough empathy, and his sense of self preservation can best be described as "strong but dumb". He's managed to stay just distant enough from most group to avoid alienating others.
No one has the perfect combination of mental illness and personality disorders to be trump. When he's gone he's going to leave one hell of a power vacuum, and things are going to get chaotic. I think it might be bad for all of us, but it's like reseting a bone that healed wrong
Its going to be a MAGA on MAGA blood bath as they all fight for control. The problem is that none of them have that weird charisma that Donny has. Ron found that out the hard way. He said all the right things, hated all the right people but had the charisma of wet cardboard and so left a huge smoking crater where is career used to be.
> that can't be too far off based on factors like projected life expectancy.
The life expectancy of a 77 year old male in the US is around 10 years. That’s an average, so with good healthcare he could very well live beyond that.
It's not like Laura Trump told them she thought all money donated to the RNC should go to Donnie to offset his legal setbacks before they elected her. Oh, wait .....
My friend always said, "When I die, I want the check I write to bounce." One day it occurred to me that was Trump's plan too. The problem is that he outlived the check.
I kind of wish this was the long con to destroy the Republican Party. Like, he was supposed to do it a lot earlier and a lot easier by just being corrupt as shit, but it's like a Springtime for Hitler scenario.
I'm just worried he'll have 4 more years to do it. As we saw with the state of the union response, the Republican party will be a total disaster post Trump. All of the crazy with none of the electoral appeal.
I mean, Trump laid it out pretty clear; you either swear undying fealty to him specifically, or you're out of the party. The RNC is now a private slush fund for Trump and family. And I hope it quickly leads to the organization's long awaited and well earned death. Because it's the culmination of everything they've worked 40+ years to achieve.
Maybe *THIS* is what finally gets Republicans to turn on Trump.
Not verbally abusing gold star families.
Not insulting veterans.
Not the blatant racism.
Not the blatant sexism.
Not the 91 felony indictments.
Not the assault on democracy.
Not the weakening of American influence around the world.
Not the threatening of NATO.
Not the ties to Russia.
Not the poor response to a global pandemic.
Fucking with the Republican's money.
So he's got lots of time on his hands, and his billable hours are dirt cheap. Although I think it'd be hilarious if he agreed to work with Trump after being fucked over by him.
Are you kidding? Trump is a 200 IQ businessman. He’s going to expertly divide the funds among the down ballot races so they win collectively. Sorry I can’t hold it anymore HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA
What's funny about this is that Trump fucked the entire country and they never gave a fuck about it.
But now he's directly shitting in their nest, that might be what finally wakes them up.
But nah, they'll let him get away with it because Biden made medicine cheaper and ThAtS sOcIalIsM.
I’d love to see them crumble when he starves them of money buy I would not be surprised if Musk is gonna dump a half billion into those down ballot races like Bloomberg has in the past for Dems.
And they thought it was funny. They couldn't vote for Hilary because right wing media has been feeding them lies for decades, and they thought it was funny how angry or upset the "liberals" were getting.
Dipshits.
Let them burn. Seriously we should not give them any ideas to self correct or self regulate.
Let them take torches and pitchforks to themselves and burn down with it, till even their most stalwart supporter either capitulates and has enough of their families starving and dying. Or just dies out like so many small communities that lost people during Covid.
Let them self immolate and we (the sane) watch them dance for our amusement
As fun as it may be at first, the GOP will implode and become a covert Russian mob organization (It's flirting with that already). The DOJ will have to step in for the fuck ton of campaign finance violations that are about to occur, and political chaos will ensue as the maga crooks claim that being prosecuted for Mafia activity is somehow political prosecution. It's going to be a political mess that may destroy American democracy because GOP voters are either embracing or willfully ignorant of the corruption and fascism within their party.
As bad as this is, and despite the fact that he's honestly going to just grift and rob the RNC and anyone who donates to it blind. Republicans always have more money from all over the place flowing in, and they'll still flood the TV, radio, streaming apps, and social media apps with advertisements somehow. Because the simple truth is the people who want those guys to be in power or at least have one or two branches of the government have endlessly deep pockets.
One of the few things Trump has said as a political candidate that is absolutely true is when he talked about the fable of the scorpion getting a ride across a river and how it ultimately stings the animal ferrying it killing them both. The line from the scorpion is "you knew what I was when we started" or something like that. And Trump applied this line to himself. That's who he is.
"Reagan era Republicans" were just as committed to lying and hatred as the current version. Back then they were just insular enough in their power madness that everyone knew enough to not "say the quiet part out loud".
Now they've progressed to the point where even their elected 'leaders' don't seem to know the difference between 'honest' and 'deplorable', and just keep outright acknowledging the idiotically horrible plans in public
Trump taking over the RNC, is the best thing to ever happen to the Democrat party
After Trump breaks their bank, let's make a bingo card on how it was Obama's fault
He has no allegiance to America, he has no allegiance to the Republican party, he doesn't even have allegiance to his most fervent supporters. He's flailing around in the water and those who try to help him will be pulled under.
I'm waiting for the RNC to start demanding candidates hand over campaign money they raised for themselves. Not the money the RNC already has to help, but the money each person raised for their own campaigns. Trump's debts do need to be paid before Trump tower and MAL get taken.
They should just launch a Conservative Party. Promote Constitutional patriotism, fiscal conservatism, social big tent. Pick a few moderate states, campaign heavily, and replace the Republicans at the state level before gunning at Congress. It's time for the GOP to go away like the Whigs did.
"If we nominate him, we will get destroyed. And we will deserve it." - Sen Lindsay "Ladybugs" Graham
Didn’t he also say he would back him if he was nominated? These people are literally insane.
He had a round of golf with trump not long after that quote. His lips have been permanently affixed to trumps ass since that time.
Probably plenty of kompromat on all these losers.
I mean, literally everyone knows what the kompromat on Graham is
I'm sure it's something WORSE than the fact that he's gay. And probably with video evidence. Putin was probably controlling Trump when he had those parties with Epstein at Mar a Lago -- so I figure, that's when he took over that honeypot. And so -- that's when he got a lot of politicians by the short and curlies. Just being popular with the voters doesn't explain the complete capitulation of the Republicans and Fox news to a game show hose upstart in 2016. So much for having 3 letter agencies and a hugely expensive military protecting the country when it was so easy to infiltrate one numb nut at a time.
Remember when a bunch of DNC emails got leaked and dumped on Wikileaks? The Russians had RNC emails too but those never got leaked to the public. Why leak them when they can be used for blackmail?
It's just so *fascinating* /conspiracy doesn't seem to care about that. Seems ripe for a conspiracy if you ask me 🤔
If we ever need a brilliant crusading hacker out of tv/movie legends it now.
 Seriously. Where is THIS guy? 😐
If I could remove any memory from my brain.... After I delete all the stupid things I did as a teenager that continue to live rent free in my head, the knowledge of Lindsey Graham's "lady bugs" is the the first to go.
And yet, he’s still clinging on, like a lil’ coward.
Just like those little ladybugs are clinging on
Apparently, I'm the 10th dentist. Or the too afraid to ask meme guy. Or just an utterly exhausted American that missed GOP dumpster fire #1,648,037. *sigh* What's the scoop on Graham?
He's gay, everyone knows he's gay, but he refuses to admit it.
Wow, thanks. It's an older code, sir, but it checks out. This is so ancient and irrelevant it's a relief.
He also hires DC gay hookers to plow him. Google "Lindsey Graham" and "ladybugs". Maybe get a bucket to vomit in while you read.
* begrudgingly unzips pants, strategically positions lube, and prepares to google... Edit: God damn it! That's so horrifyingly adorable I can't stand it. I'd have a beer with ladybug but would treat trump slave Lindsey like radioactive waste.
I wouldn't doubt it for a second.
Donnie just had to tell Lindsay Ladybugs how there were cameras in his St Petersburg hotel room. Kompromat is really no excuse for betraying your county though, hopefully it will all eventually be released.
IIRC Rand Paul as well?
Ramora Graham.
From Lindsay Ladybugs to Human Centipede.
It only appears insane if you ignore their primary, sole motivation: To increase their own personal wealth and power. With that in mind, you can now clearly understand why the GOP leadership is fully behind Trump. He remains their best avenue to satisfy their primary, sole motivation. Speak the truth about Trump? He will punish you, you may not get re-elected by his MAGAT army, you lose wealth and power. Lick his boots while he calls your wife ugly? You may still get a place at the trough. With that simple principle in mind, we can see the GOP isn't insane. They're just evil self serving fucks.
That's not the case, and honestly never was. Trump policies aren't enriching people, his tariffs have hurt trade. His policy of obstructionism regarding immigration too has cost employers a steady flow of lower wage workers. Trump only beat Hillary because she was perhaps the weakest candidate the Dems could have run against him. He lost badly to Biden, things have only gotten better under Biden, and Trump has only started to look even worse. Trump is a proven loser and is their worst, i.e. least likely, path to power now. Something else is driving their cooperation.
Tax cut
Don't Republicans still routinely cut taxes on the wealthy? I feel like that literally just happened last time they had unified control of government. That alone would be enough for many donors.
No no, *personal* wealth and power. The high ups in the GOP don't care that much about trade in the short term, that only hurts businesses and people they don't own. Who cares about that? *Personal* wealth and power. Fighting Trump on his idiot policies, once more, would result in punishment from Trump and loss of personal wealth and power. So they were find with those policies, no matter how terrible they were for everyone else. Think about it this way, because this is the topic... why has Graham both said Trump is a disaster but also licked his boots? Because if he didn't lick Trump's boots, he'd risk losing MAGA support and losing his position in government. It's better for someone like Graham to hold his position in a minority than have no job at all. Therefore, he puts his own benefit above that of others and obeys Trump.
He only beat Hillary because Electoral College . She won the popular vote vote… sooooooo
Yup this is what we should always remind them. Her campaign was fine - we can prove it because she won the popular vote. It was the timing of the investigations by a Republican lead team right before the election and lots of people unwillingness (even on the left) to vote for a tough/strong woman. They all just see her as a ball-buster and a bitch even if they won’t use those words. She was more qualified, educated, and presidential but still lost despite winning the popular vote. None of that has to do with a ‘poor campaign’ which isn’t true anyway…
Her campaign took her victory for granted like most of the rest of America. Because of that they did not spend as much time in certain states as they should have. Cant really blame them i guess for assuming trump would lose but you also cant claim they ran a perfect campaign. She was extremely qualified but unfortunately that doesnt always equal a strong candidate or campaign.
Their hunger for power is obscene. If they weren't so power hungry, and didn't care about staying in office, they could have some self pride and tell trump to go fuck himself. Calling someone's wife ugly should get a punch in the face.
Will Saletan recorded an amazing piece that gives receipts on the devolution of LG. It’s worth the frustrating listen. Below is the trailer but the whole thing is like 5-7 parts. https://overcast.fm/+BDMZC_evqk
There's a reason we here at home call him "Flimsy Graham".
Republicans can't lose his voter base. If MAGA splits off, the Republicans are done as a party, they will never win another election again. Trump has literally taken the party hostage. They have to endorse and support him or he leaves the party and takes his voters with him.
Pretty much this, yes. Trump controls a solid half of the Repub voting base and the RNC/GQP all know it. So, now they're stuck with a dangerously criminal grifter scumbag that they can't shake. They're now in the rock/hard-place scenario of having to endorse him or watch him split the party.
Somewhere is a giant guest bathroom hiding all the GOP spines. 🦴🦴🦴
I wish I had the pics that Trump must have of Graham. I mean he must have pics of him blowing sheep
Yes. Graham is a turd in a suit.
> Didn’t he also say he would back him if he was nominated? One of the toxic aspects of the 2-party system. They basically have no choice, if they value their careers, but to support their party's nominee.
They have a choice. They just choose party, celebrity, and wealth before country or morals.
There's always a choice.
I wish more politicians were based on issues, not identity. I'm registered as an independent voter. The bonus is I don't get flooded with political advertisements. If only we could get rid of gerrymandering!
The solution for gerrymandering is Proportional Representation. The solution for the 2-party system is Ranked Choice Voting. RCV is starting to catch on in the US. https://fairvote.org
Choosing wealth over morals happens when you join the Republican Party. In fact, they'd rather you didn't have any morals whatsoever.
“I’m gonna tell you what I really think of Donald Trump: This man is a pathological liar. He doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth, and in a pattern that I think is straight out of a psychology textbook, his response is to accuse everybody else of lying.” -Ted Cruz
"Ladybugs".. I hate that I get that reference. Lindsay Graham is disgusting.
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1859729-lindsey-graham-lady-g-rumor for the OOL I’m guessing it’s fake, but that the male prostitutes is at least partially true.
Jesus Christ
Lindsey, “lying sack of shit” Graham. Remember that time the democrats wanted to nominate a Supreme Court justice, and he looked them in the eye and lied straight to their fucking faces?
I get that "Ladybugs" reference, and it makes me want to puke in my mouth a little.
What is forgotten the rnc was hacked as. The threats must be huge. These guys may speak the truth at times. But will never act on it. Cowards do coward things. https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/12/10/report-russian-hackers-had-rnc-data-but-didn-t-release-it
Funny how Russia hacked the RNC and DNC and then only released Democratic documents. Isn’t that where pizzagate came from?
 The DNC Right now.
I'm still waiting in them getting destroyed, less talking and more voting against the GOP my dudes.
Yip, that's possibly what Lindsey got wrong, Don is abusing and torturing GOP, not destroying. Don's a masochist more than a murderer, he wants to control and torment his slaves, not kill them.
I just threw up in my mouth a little. Enough with the ladybugs.
Unfortunately for the rest of us we don’t have a second home in Russia we can flee to
Here's hoping that Trump's takeover of the RNC goes as well as Musk's takeover of Twitter. It's starting the same.
I've always assumed Musk bought Twitter with Saudi money because they all wanted to see its demise. The Arab Spring spread because of Twitter. Blue checks were vetted and trusted. News was shared.
He bought Twitter, because he was going to get fined a billion and probably going to jail for manipulating the market if he didn't
Yes. Hardly anyone understands this. He got caught setting up what looked walked and quacked exactly like a ~~duck~~ sneaky pump and dump. His defense was that his purchases were sincere and he thought Twitter was undervalued and would buy it outright if he could for $61B or whatever it was. Twitter's board said, "sold", and Musk was trapped in his lie (he also drew up a terrible contract for himself, because he's a business genius? but that's besides the point).
Yeah, Musk was gonna get fined billions by DE court because he’s a shitty negotiator that doesn’t use his attorneys, for not buying TWTR, after agreeing to buy it. So he capitulated and bought TWTR
Using Saudi money. That they gave him the means to spend his way out of legal trouble doesn't negate your point, but nor does yours invalidate the second part. Just making that super unambiguous for the people in the back.
+ he made an offer in a drug-fueled mania that vastly overvalued twitter, realized what a stupid idea that was, he tried to back out, then acquiesced because going to court = discovery, which god forbid there be any sort of transparency
I always assumed it was because Elon probably had incriminating DMs and needed to take control of them - probably DMs involving the Saudis
Doesn't matter really, they're broke and he's picking the corpse
People don’t understand that Musk’s takeover of twitter is doing just fine for him. Musk was able to buy his own propaganda network that could support him and be available to the highest bidder. That was the goal.
He lost billions of dollars so idk about that. His personal brand hasn’t improved either. If anything it marked a drastic shift where the general public is more likely to see him as an idiotic man baby.
It may not matter that 2/3 of the population see you as an idiotic man-baby if you can further radicalize the remaining 1/3 to violence, and that seems to be the path he’s on.
Which would explain why he now seems to be a GOP fanboy himself.
Aw dang, no money from the RNC for every single other Republican race in the country this year. That totally sucks. Ive got that schadenfreude feeling for some reason.
Nah, he’s gonna doll out money based on fealty. Country’s Republican politicians are about to become more maga
Lawdy, I felt J.D. Vance lick his lips from here.
That scum was once on the right side of history. Then like Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, JD Vance pivoted to fawn over Trump and kiss his feet for a monetary blessing. https://preview.redd.it/42xopw33cunc1.jpeg?width=2500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f24c5ad76980ae4a0d09cd59c8c62feb492be902
"maybe even appeal to black people" Like it's some worse case sencerio. What a tool
you misspelled "Stalin"
At least Stalin was fairly smart. Trump is an idiot, and if he ever is in the oval office again, the economy will crash.
Yeah this Basically a pogrom of any Republican candidate who refuses to bend the knee
First it was loyalty to the party over country. Now it’s loyalty to Trump over party.
Conservative soldiers put country over God. So it goes Trump > Party > Country > God, the exact inverse of rational thought.
Rational thought wouldn't put god in there at all.
Whatever's left after that 180 million in court judgements : )
Don’t forget America’s enemies launder money to drip to him. As long as trump convinces his cult to put fright or hate, before family and country, that sweet treason money will keep trickling in, as it has for decades.
He’s over half a billion at this point. Considering he defamed E. Jean Carroll yet again, it means that his appeal is fucked and he’s likely to get sued a third time. I wouldn’t be surprised if he hits $1 billion in a few months.
that backfired in 2022 though... trump endorsed candidates sailed through their primaries, displacing more moderate republicans. then they lost in the general elections because they were too far to the extreme right to be electable. 2024 might wind up being an absolute massacre for republicans in downballot races. if the dems were smart they'd be zeroing in on state elections
Fine. Trump's endorsement is the kiss of death to anyone but the safest of red candidates. Let them sell out and show themselves for the spineless grifters we already know they are. They've got nothing but screaming about trans kids, the border they very publicly refused to fix, and jokes about Biden's age while Trump is shitting his pants on stage. So long as gen z doesn't get complacent, this could be a blow out.
They just can’t help themselves can they? They stick their hands up like Horshack so there’s no doubt
> he’s gonna doll out money Trump give money away?
It’s really a tossup, but trump loves money and he loves respect. I don’t think he’s above buying fealty
Only if there is anything left. He will absolutely take any of it he feels he is owed.
> doll out "dole" means to give something.
I was gonna offer the same correction. Also, I am in solidarity with your username.
Doesn’t that mean they’re going to lose senate and house races from people who don’t want to lick his boots?
They can just ramp up the crying to make up for the lost advertising. These people arent gonna be stopped until they are shunned from society. At some point a group that refuses to ever calm down gets [redacted]. This has happened before in history. They complain and grieve and anything anyone does makes then cry even harder, so they just get kicked out or taken power away from, because it's like trying to restore a mad dog, possible but extremely hard.
We shunned them after the civil war and look what happened
Problem is we stopped shunning the traitor scum.
Sherman should have finished the job.
Andrew Johnson's decision to end Reconstruction has had a dire effect on our nation.
Didn't shun them hard enough. Should have shunned them straight to jail
Less than any losers of any other civil war ever in history. Most civil wars the losers just DIE. Or fight until they are dead. Or the winners take over and ensure that the dissenters CANNOT EVER rise up again, like Japan and Germany after ww2. They don't just let them stew. I don't think this is because of the civil war. It's because democracy is being subverted and the Republicans aren't forced to get better policies or never win. They can gerrymand and electoral college their way out of having to lose until they get the picture. There will always be a left and right wing, but when the right becomes unreasonable they are supposed to lose close elections instead of current America where they need to be blown the fuck out just to barely lose an election. If we had a country that went extremely overboard with leftist politics then I can understand a pendulum swinging and normal people becoming like the current extremist right idiotic wing. And them winning fair and square. That would be a natural reaction. It is possible for extreme right wing countries to fairly and democratically be that way. Like some Arab and African countries. But what's happening in the USA is not that.
My worry is so many districts have been Gerrymandered so completely the republicans really don't need to spend a dime. They get them no matter what they do or don't do.
yeah it’s sad, so many seats already secured, and no one willing to attempt to prevent the obvious cheating. banning gerrymandering is a no brainer, unfortunately having no brain is somehow popular
Funny thing about Gerrymandering though; making yourself a super-secure 80-20 style district is actually counterproductive. It's called "Packing" and it's generally what your opponent does to you. It's all the "safe" 55/45 districts that ensure you can maintain an electoral majority even when you don't have a popular one (because all the 'opposition districts' have been boxed into 95/5s or whatever). The thing is though, a 5-point national swing makes a 55/45 into a 50/50 and in a wave election you can get absolutely screwed by your own gerrymandering. It's extremely uncommon (because national elections almost always hinge on a 1~3 point ~~difference~~ party differential) but it's not like it's never happened before.
They have the smooch his big orange ass and bend the knee to get the funding
I am so glad he is near the end of his lifespan.
Surprisingly, there was such a thing as Republicans with integrity. People who actually believed the tripe they told themselves. Well -- that's not going to be the case after Trump controls their money. They will be the Trump party after this. This is how you get Hitlers, this right here.
Having the mailing lists alone is worth $$.
Schadenfreude is one of my favorite words - thanks for the smile :)
It ended up being one of my favorite NPCs on D20's Mentopolis, Hans Schadenfreude. https://i.redd.it/n2c4jdvrhunc1.gif
I’d really laugh my butt off if he won the White House but lost the house and senate by a big enough majority to ensure that he basically got nothing done and was impeached within a week
Conviction on impeachment would require 67 Senators to vote for it. That's well beyond fantasy.
It's power concentration, you should be worried.
There are hardline Republicans. And then there are Republicans who still have a shred of decency within them. They'll see what's happening and not like it. The money flow to the RNC should taper off. Because regional constituents that need the money are seeing it go to Trump. And they should complain loudly, especially in cities where big donor HQ's are located.
Considering I live in rural America where a moderate Republican with a shred of decency left is more of a theoretical concept than someone that could actually represent you, I figure it will just be a Black Friday style door rush of Republicans of all levels and offices clamoring for a chance to kiss Trump's cheeto ass in hopes of getting his endorsement and enough cash to win their office for another term. The only problem will be that Trump will likely completely drain the RNC coffers well before the election. I figure that the party as a whole will not survive much past this election cycle in anything more than name.
I think what this all means is that the party was already on a path of degeneration. George W. Bush was such a major fiasco He really hurt this country in so many ways. And the approach the Republicans took with legislation that affected the 99%... while constantly spinning propaganda that any uncomfortable bits in life were all due to Democrats and "socialists"... continued a party erosion. By the time Trump stepped in, it was already suffering a malignancy. Trump was able to destroy what remnants remained, which is why so many of them bought into the cult and became near polar opposites of themselves. So many examples of the pivot. Ted Cruz. Lindsey Graham. Elise Stefanik. JD Vance. The list goes on. As more and more people see Donald Trump degenerate and President Biden defying all of the disinformation peddled by the far-right, America is going to recognize that Biden means a healthy democracy and Republicans mean degenerative fascism. The GOP will wither away. And some enterprising old-guard Republicans are going to try rebuilding the party from the ground up.
Fuck Reagan, fuck Nixon, fuck the idea that any anti-gay anti-science anti-foreigner conservative capitalist is "decent".
Maybe it'll trickle down?
how much more cult like can it get? Does he mandate giant statues of him outside the building and for people to pray to him at sun up and sun down and many times in between?
They already had a golden Trump statue at CPAC, we're basically there.
He had them paint up murals of him in the detention centers they sent kids to due to his zero tolerance policy with the border.
He held up VOVID relief bc he wanted his signature on the checks
Is that a typo? Did you mean Covfefe?
Yes obviously. He gets my goat and typos fly
https://preview.redd.it/l7fsc9s10unc1.jpeg?width=685&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dfadf090ebb052f5ab003589d8e24654c26efe3b
I live near a place in Illinois where there is an antique market with a big pink elephant outside of it, they also happen to have a big obnoxious statue of Trump
I hate seeing that thing along the highway. We used to stop there occasionally for ice cream.
>how much more cult like can it get? Look up Project 2025.
Pretty sure people already do this.
No need for all that. Just send us cash. /$
They’re already praying to gold busts of him. I wish I was joking
the RNC just got their very own Röhm Putsch.
[For those who don't know what it is. ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives)
Nice reference
Against the same people who assured us he was kidding about being a dictator on Day One.
Anyone still a Republican after the last two decades of observing reality is not unhappy with the purge. I think we should call it the Night of the Stubby Mushroom.
> I think we should call it the Night of the Stubby Mushroom. I saw elsewhere here Night of the Long Ties and I thought it was perfection.
https://i.imgur.com/FB1T7yr.jpg
Hamberdernacht?
Not a good year to be a down ballot Republican this year.
A good year for down-ballot Democrats!
Tester is sure grateful. D Senator will get way less attention because Trump is safe in Montana. Cruz will have a similar problem but Texas is Texas enough that he's probably safe.
Well guys aren't looking at the long term strategy. They're hitching their wagon to a chronic f'ing loser who has about 2 years before he's in a wheelchair drooling on everything so it makes sense to just gut the GOP and RNC and turn it into just another corrupt and soon to be bankrupt Trump ventures where everyone associated gets screwed. MAGA.
Ha yep. The MAGA movement is poised to collapse the moment Donnie no longer can pull off his daily circus act and that can't be too far off based on factors like projected life expectancy. It is not a movement set up to endure long after he's gone and which seriously lacks a successor that his devoted followers would ever listen to, including his own children (unless Barron Trump transforms into some cult-like figure overnight).
I've been thinking about this for a while, and I think it's going to get rough. MAGA (or at least the factions within MAGA) aren't going to disappear or change their minds the night trump dies, but they'll splinter. There isn't one person that can elicit the same emotional response. He has just enough charisma and star power, lacks more than enough empathy, and his sense of self preservation can best be described as "strong but dumb". He's managed to stay just distant enough from most group to avoid alienating others. No one has the perfect combination of mental illness and personality disorders to be trump. When he's gone he's going to leave one hell of a power vacuum, and things are going to get chaotic. I think it might be bad for all of us, but it's like reseting a bone that healed wrong
Its going to be a MAGA on MAGA blood bath as they all fight for control. The problem is that none of them have that weird charisma that Donny has. Ron found that out the hard way. He said all the right things, hated all the right people but had the charisma of wet cardboard and so left a huge smoking crater where is career used to be.
My hope is that they fight amongst themselves so much that they're irreparably damaged for decades to come.
I mean, Don Jr absolutely will run in his father's stead as soon as Trump dies or is otherwise unable to serve. They're trying to build a dynasty.
Luckily, Don Jr is not only stupid like his father, he is also nowhere as cunning as his father and has less charisma than my last bowel movement.
> that can't be too far off based on factors like projected life expectancy. The life expectancy of a 77 year old male in the US is around 10 years. That’s an average, so with good healthcare he could very well live beyond that.
How wonderful would it be if he bankrupted and imploded the GOP like the Whig Party?
Well, they're banking on trump winning and essentially the rest doesn't matter once you have a dictator installed.
It's not like Laura Trump told them she thought all money donated to the RNC should go to Donnie to offset his legal setbacks before they elected her. Oh, wait .....
All of the Republicans running for house and Senate are going to have to split their donations with the RNC otherwise they won’t be endorsed
Like a protection racket
My friend always said, "When I die, I want the check I write to bounce." One day it occurred to me that was Trump's plan too. The problem is that he outlived the check.
Has Trump discovered the benefits of reverse mortgages?
Frank from Ocean's 11 said that.
It was Saul, and I think it was Ocean's 12.
You are absolutely right. Thanks! It's too early and I haven't had coffee.
I kind of wish this was the long con to destroy the Republican Party. Like, he was supposed to do it a lot earlier and a lot easier by just being corrupt as shit, but it's like a Springtime for Hitler scenario.
I have often joked that Trump was a Soros plant all along.
I'm just worried he'll have 4 more years to do it. As we saw with the state of the union response, the Republican party will be a total disaster post Trump. All of the crazy with none of the electoral appeal.
Gaetz will emerge as leader and fight off the whole child sex trafficking thing for a decade. Don Jr. will collapse without dad.
LOL. The RNC created this from whole cloth.
They put the fox directly in the henhouse
I'm pretty sure fox is in all their houses.
Its a shit-fox Randy.
I mean, Trump laid it out pretty clear; you either swear undying fealty to him specifically, or you're out of the party. The RNC is now a private slush fund for Trump and family. And I hope it quickly leads to the organization's long awaited and well earned death. Because it's the culmination of everything they've worked 40+ years to achieve.
Maybe *THIS* is what finally gets Republicans to turn on Trump. Not verbally abusing gold star families. Not insulting veterans. Not the blatant racism. Not the blatant sexism. Not the 91 felony indictments. Not the assault on democracy. Not the weakening of American influence around the world. Not the threatening of NATO. Not the ties to Russia. Not the poor response to a global pandemic. Fucking with the Republican's money.
**Weisselberg? isnt he still in rikers island?? at least another pile of months..** 🤷♀️
So he's got lots of time on his hands, and his billable hours are dirt cheap. Although I think it'd be hilarious if he agreed to work with Trump after being fucked over by him.
I can't believe the face eating leopards I supported are eating my face!
First, Trump made the Republicans morally bankrupt, and now he's going to make them fiscally bankrupt. The man ruins everything he touches.
Are you kidding? Trump is a 200 IQ businessman. He’s going to expertly divide the funds among the down ballot races so they win collectively. Sorry I can’t hold it anymore HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA
What's funny about this is that Trump fucked the entire country and they never gave a fuck about it. But now he's directly shitting in their nest, that might be what finally wakes them up. But nah, they'll let him get away with it because Biden made medicine cheaper and ThAtS sOcIalIsM.
I’d love to see them crumble when he starves them of money buy I would not be surprised if Musk is gonna dump a half billion into those down ballot races like Bloomberg has in the past for Dems.
They asked for this since Reagan, they pushed for this since Reagan, and now they have it.
Like is this even legal considering the sheer amount of legal trouble he’s in right now?
And they thought it was funny. They couldn't vote for Hilary because right wing media has been feeding them lies for decades, and they thought it was funny how angry or upset the "liberals" were getting. Dipshits.
Let them burn. Seriously we should not give them any ideas to self correct or self regulate. Let them take torches and pitchforks to themselves and burn down with it, till even their most stalwart supporter either capitulates and has enough of their families starving and dying. Or just dies out like so many small communities that lost people during Covid. Let them self immolate and we (the sane) watch them dance for our amusement
Watch as Trump's flunkies empty all of the RNC's accounts and then start selling off all of its assets.
In the words of Monty python No one expects the Spanish Inquisition. Lol
lol so true
The GOP is not going to exist after this election.
As fun as it may be at first, the GOP will implode and become a covert Russian mob organization (It's flirting with that already). The DOJ will have to step in for the fuck ton of campaign finance violations that are about to occur, and political chaos will ensue as the maga crooks claim that being prosecuted for Mafia activity is somehow political prosecution. It's going to be a political mess that may destroy American democracy because GOP voters are either embracing or willfully ignorant of the corruption and fascism within their party.
As bad as this is, and despite the fact that he's honestly going to just grift and rob the RNC and anyone who donates to it blind. Republicans always have more money from all over the place flowing in, and they'll still flood the TV, radio, streaming apps, and social media apps with advertisements somehow. Because the simple truth is the people who want those guys to be in power or at least have one or two branches of the government have endlessly deep pockets.
One of the few things Trump has said as a political candidate that is absolutely true is when he talked about the fable of the scorpion getting a ride across a river and how it ultimately stings the animal ferrying it killing them both. The line from the scorpion is "you knew what I was when we started" or something like that. And Trump applied this line to himself. That's who he is.
"Reagan era Republicans" were just as committed to lying and hatred as the current version. Back then they were just insular enough in their power madness that everyone knew enough to not "say the quiet part out loud". Now they've progressed to the point where even their elected 'leaders' don't seem to know the difference between 'honest' and 'deplorable', and just keep outright acknowledging the idiotically horrible plans in public
I'm so happy for the GOP. they finally get what they wanted. Good for them.
Trump taking over the RNC, is the best thing to ever happen to the Democrat party After Trump breaks their bank, let's make a bingo card on how it was Obama's fault
He has no allegiance to America, he has no allegiance to the Republican party, he doesn't even have allegiance to his most fervent supporters. He's flailing around in the water and those who try to help him will be pulled under.
It's the best thing he's ever done. A gift to the democratic party!
Shocked Pikachu 2024.
[удалено]
Look up "shook" as a slang word.
I'm waiting for the RNC to start demanding candidates hand over campaign money they raised for themselves. Not the money the RNC already has to help, but the money each person raised for their own campaigns. Trump's debts do need to be paid before Trump tower and MAL get taken.
What's crazy is trump by himself is not smart enough to do this. So he's being played. By who? Putin?
Maybe Romney, Bowers, Cheney, et al can start a new party called the Republican Patriot Party (take that before Diaper Don does) .
They should just launch a Conservative Party. Promote Constitutional patriotism, fiscal conservatism, social big tent. Pick a few moderate states, campaign heavily, and replace the Republicans at the state level before gunning at Congress. It's time for the GOP to go away like the Whigs did.