https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/charges-dropped-against-another-man-swept-up-in-desantiss-voter-fraud-stunt?

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1590807551150796800

They’re just the nasty “cool kids,” those Republicans. Tell me again why Democrats make such a thing about “reaching across the aisle” to work with them?

Also, to those who make political commercials: Get a new theme. No one is buying your fear-mongering that every politicians is “Too extreme for (state.)”

Once again Robert Reich nails the sheer nastiness that is at the top of Republican, sure earning the alternative of Repuglican, politics. Note the real nastiness of Trump Jr.

…two contrasting parties continue to emerge in America – one, pro-democracy; the other, anti-democracy.

The hallmarks of the anti-democracy party are its cruel nastiness and unwillingness to abide by election results. In other words: Trumpism.

Both were on full display election night as Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake assailed the “cheaters and crooks” whom she claimed were running elections, “BS and garbage”, “incompetent people”, “propagandists” and “fake media”.

And Representative Andy Biggs joked that Nancy Pelosi was “losing the gavel but finding the hammer”, a crude reference to the attack on Pelosi’s husband that left him with a fractured skull.

Other Republican candidates and flacks hurled similar insults – “Merrick Garland needs some new pantyhose,” “Beto [O’Rourke] is a furry,” Senator Mark Kelly is a “little man” whose “ears don’t match”, President Biden is a “lost child” with a “very dirty diaper”, Democrats are “lunatics”.

…

Or with John Fetterman’s humble remarks after the Senate race in Pennsylvania was called for him – when, wiping away tears, he told cheering supporters: “I’m not really sure what to say right now, my goodness. I am so humbled, thank you so much … This campaign has always been about fighting for anyone that ever got knocked down that got back up.”

Fetterman had been knocked down last May with a near-fatal stroke – which invited ridicule from Trumpists such as Trump Jr, who told a Sunday-night crowd at a rally in Miami that “if you’re going to be in the United States senator, you should have basic cognitive function. It doesn’t seem that unreasonable to have a working brain … We’re up against a Democrat party today that doesn’t believe that a United States senator should not have mush for brain.”

Indeed, ‘still on the brink’.

America is still on the brink of Trumpism fueling hate, paranoia and violence

The problem in Minnesota for Jensen-Birk was that they criticized, and claimed that they could do better on issues such as inflation, pandemics, and crime. They also wanted people to think that the cities are still burning and being destroyed by roving gangs of BLM thugs, and that it was all Keith Ellison’s fault.

When reality doesn’t match your rhetoric, it’s hard to win elections and even the last-minute endorsement by Herr Trumper didn’t get enough people out to vote against their own interests.

Also, to those who make political commercials: Get a new theme. No one is buying your fear-mongering that every politicians is “Too extreme for (state.)” One-trick ponies lose their appeal after 10 shows.

Considering Whitmer was running against a walking potato who believed the 2020 election was stolen and that the covid vaccines were tools to inject microchips into people to control them, it’s scary that anyone voted for the right’s candidate. The fact that people did speaks volumes about the intelligence and integrity of people who back republicans.

The same is true about our contest for Secretary of State and Attorney General: the republican sec state candidate believes in demons and that premarital sex spreads them. The Attorney General candidate was fired from his job at a law firm for overcharging clients (“padding” their bills) and was investigated for physically assaulting a client. However, both of those clowns were good little trump humpers and pushed the “stolen election” and “voting procedures aren’t safe” crap that gullible republicans love: lack of ethics and intelligence be damned, they got votes.

It’s lucky for us that sanity prevailed. It wasn’t at all clear that it would.

Congratulations on the blue wave in Michigan yesterday! I had hoped Gretchen Whitmer would lose – but she won.

Congratulations on the blue wave in Minnesota yesterday! I had hoped the republicans would do better in Minnesota – but victory is yours.

” This presents a very real danger to democracy,”

Yes, modern republican leaders and the folks who blindly support then and swallow every lie they spout (as does rickA) are huge dangers to democracy. Small example: this afternoon trump started lying about “serious problems with absentee ballots in Detroit” and “many people showing up to vote and being told they’d already voted — huge problems”. Voting sites and personnel now need protection from the dirtbags who listen to him.

reagan started the country down the “facts don’t matter if you repeat lies enough” strategy, bolstered by racism and bigotry. We’re just seeing the culmination of that philosophy.

It’s going to be a dark, dangerous few years in this country for anyone who isn’t a well-off white guy when the scum running republican party take power: it won’t be at all good for minorities, women, or the poor. That means, of course, it’ll suck for anyone that has a shred of decency — so the republicans won’t care at all.

The rise of socio-path like personalities who both strut their stuff whilst displaying a clinical coldness, empty of empathy or higher moral values is described here:

It has been a long 10 days since Musk bought Twitter.

But this has been his MO all along.

Taunting opponents. Treating employees like dung. Bullying adversaries. Demeaning critics. Craving attention. Refusing to be held accountable. Attracting millions of followers and gaining cult status. Spreading misleading information. Making gobs of money.

Impetuous. Unpredictable. Ruthless. Autocratic. Vindictive.

Remind you of anyone?

Musk is not exactly Donald Trump. They’re different generations, possess different skills, occupy different roles in the bizarre firmament of modern America. And Trump is far more dangerous to democracy – so far.

But both represent the emergence of a particularly American personality in the early decades of the 21st century: the wildly disruptive narcissist.

Both wield sledgehammers to protect their fragile egos. Both are utterly lacking in empathy. Both push baseless conspiracy theories (such as the one cooked up about Paul Pelosi).

Both are indefatigable self-promoters.

Both are billionaires, but they are not motivated primarily by money. Nor are they fueled by any larger purpose, principle or ideology.

Their singular goal is to imprint their giant egos on everyone else – to exercise raw power over people. To make others grovel.

Their politics is neither conservative nor liberal. Call it megalomaniacal authoritarian. (It seems likely Musk will give Trump back the giant Twitter megaphone Trump lost when he incited the attack on the US Capitol.)

If wrong headed Republicans manage to gain more power and traction in the US leading to a Trump re-run then I am afraid the US will be lost to the ideologues and wilfully ignorant. The religious right seem set to take the USA back to the stone age being just another variant of the Taliban.

So many guns, so many hot headed idiots willing to use them and worse.

Trump and Elon Musk are dangerous narcissists tailored to 2022 America