13044
13046

Actually, it’s shooting the Pro-Life icon ;)

13047

I got that reference.

13048

Guess Devin Nunes didn’t do his due diligence:

13049

… or they were too lazy to bother & don’t give a shit anyways (since they’ve long since proven that they are thugs and thieves).

Diego

13050

Laws don’t apply to them and copyright and trademark are just laws.

13051

This screed from Rick Scott and the Republican Senate committee is worth reading to see what they plan for this country. There’s a lot here, not all of it surprising, but all of it bad. It’s funny to see him now claiming that it doesn’t call for a federal income tax increase on half of all American households, because it absolutely does.

https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017f-1cf5-d281-a7ff-3ffd5f4a0000

13052

It’s in the bible. That’s science! (Point 9.)

(It’s a challenge to pick the best point.)

13053

It’s an excellent piece of work, really. So much is made to sound reasonable, and then you think about the actual call to action. So “we should be a colorblind society” becomes “let’s make it impossible to detect or prevent racial discrimination!”

13054

Make no mistake the end goal of the GOP is to roll back America to pre-1965. That means the eventual elimination of all Great Society programs like food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid. Eliminate the capital gains tax. Yea, there’s some quickie lines in that plan that are fun like “All Americans have to pay income tax” and “prohibit debt ceiling increases” and “sell off all non-essential government assets, buildings and land to pay off the national debt” and “cut IRS employees by half” and “force Congress to issue a report telling Americans what they’re going to do when Social Security and Medicare go bankrupt” and “no federal program or tax law to reward people for being unmarried” and fun ones like “Remember - the Second Amendment was established in order to protect the freedoms of the First Amendment” (in the context of re-establishing a state religion).

It’s super annoying that the GOP takes the Handmaid’s Tale as a goal and not a warning. But there’s something there about the incompatibility with any religion and a modern secular society.

13055

There’s also the weird internal contradictions of America is a unique beacon of democracy in the world but fuck it we’re through with helping other countries be more democratic and other countries can go fuck themselves we aren’t fighting their battles but we stand by our allies especially Israel.

Almost like they don’t have any notion of a coherent foreign policy at all. It’s a kind of international solipsism: there is only us, everything else exists for our amusement, and we will engage or not when and how the mood strikes us. I guess that fits well with the isolationist economic agenda they’re espousing. They invoke the Monroe Doctrine!

13056

It’s like governing through political memes.

Like I’ve been saying a fundamental error in our political constitutions is our inability to resolve political tensions. Instead the system seems almost designed to nurture them and create the conditions in which they’ll fester and grow. Those 11 points above are something like 75 years of festering conservative resentment that goes unresolved and is unresolvable by our political institutions, that the grandchildren plant flags and are willing to sacrifice the body politic on.

I’m becoming convinced that the “miracle” of US Democracy lasting so long more or less unchanged compared to the rest of the world is a function of its intractable barely functioning capacity.

13058

Krugman makes some other good points.

13059

The reason the poor don’t have skin in the game is because the wealthy overseers have flayed it all off.

13060

Also this.

13061

I totally think that the poor should pay income taxes, but only because it would mean that the poor are earning enough to pay income tax.

The US should stop subsidizing poverty wages and force companies to pay a living wage.

13062

SPOILER_20220223_105851
SPOILER_20220223_1058511378×1708 252 KB

This happened in Texas today. The governor just called helping children who are trans as child abuse.

13063

See, that’s a compromise I’m sure the GOP can live with! Right? Right??? :)

That would be nice.

13064

Also remember that the poor, who currently pay little to no federal tax? They actually do have skin in the game and pay quite a bit in taxes, often more as a percent of income than higher earners.

Remember things like sales tax, license fees, etc are all still taxes.

image
image624×642 84.4 KB

13065

Yep, but that doesn’t stop the middle/upper class conservatives I know gripe about it every single chance they get.

I swear US conservatism is nothing more than people utterly consumed with resentment that someone somewhere might get something they didn’t deserve. Which of course doesn’t include them, because they totally deserve whatever government service or subsidy comes their way.

I have sat through countless tirades from comfortably middle class people about how hard they have it compared to the poor, who get everything handed to them. I always point out to them that it’s super easy to be poor in this country, so if they think they have it so good why not just give it a shot? Give away your money, quit your job and work part time!