Republicans: continued

[Brian Peacock]

It's ok, the space lasers will take her out before that happens.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Just the possibility of avoiding paying to help the less fortunate survive is sufficient to throw some fat donations to a politician with (presently) negligible prospects.

'Billionaires bet big on Nikki Haley: The stunning motive behind her sudden surge in wealthy donors'

The question is why in the world are these rich Republican donors suddenly backing Haley so strongly when they are very unlikely to get much of anything out of it? As Pucks' Schleifer observed:

[P]lenty of the people donating six or seven figures to Haley or DeSantis at this point don’t reasonably expect their candidate to win, a phenomenon I’ve never experienced before. The dominant feeling among major donors is a sense of apathy—that this is Trump’s race to lose, to say the least.

What is she doing that has them so enthralled that they are throwing away their money on her doomed campaign? The easy answer is that these people all have too much money, so these millions are just pocket change to them anyway and can take a flyer. If there's ever been a better reason to raise their taxes to better fund the government, I've never seen it. And that may hold the real answer to the question of why they are now looking at Nikki Haley.

As you'll recall, in the last debate Haley broke dramatically with Donald Trump by declaring that "any candidate that tells you they’re not going to go after Social Security and Medicare is not being serious." She didn't sugar coat it with the usual euphemisms like "we need to reform entitlements" and she's made it clear that she not only wants to raise the retirement age, she also wants to reduce benefits for current beneficiaries by changing the cost of living formula. None of that is new for the pre-Trump GOP, but it's been off the table since he took office.

...

Joe Biden and the Democrats have made it clear that if they get the majority they plan to raise the caps on Social Security and Medicare taxes to shore up the program. Rich Republicans are adamantly opposed to that and will do anything to prevent it. Throwing away money on Nikki Haley is one thing. Paying to keep old people from having to eat cat food is a bridge too far.

As CNN reported, the Kochs' Americans for Prosperity Action made it clear in their endorsement why they are backing Haley:

Emily Seidel – a top official in the influential political network associated with billionaire Charles Koch – praised the former UN ambassador’s “courage” for advocating changes to “an entitlement system that makes promises it can’t keep.”

And they aren't the only ones:

“We need a complete reevaluation of entitlements,” Ken Langone, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot who is weighing backing Haley

In fact, I think we can assume that Haley's eagerness to cut these programs is a primary motive behind the surge in big donor interest in her campaign. They may realize on some level that she is not going to win this time but they are signaling that this is the way to a billionaire's heart. If you're willing to force poor elderly people into even worse penury than they already are, you are their kind of gal. They're investing in a future when Donald Trump is no longer telling his followers what they want to hear.

It will be interesting to see how Trump handles this. Although he's vaguely indicated that he thinks cuts could be offset by growth for some reason, for the most part he's held fast to his promise that the two vital programs cannot be cut and he's kept the party with him. But as we can see, that's a very tenuous promise. The real owners of the Republican Party are preparing to reassert themselves and this one little populist promise will die the day that Trump is finally out of politics. Haley is savvy enough to see that coming out strong on this issue tells the billionaires everything they need to know about who she really serves.

[Tero]

[Tero]

[rasetsu]

In a video posted on McCarthy's X page in September, he can be heard telling reporters: "I never quit." He added: "I'm not working for some member sitting in our conference. I'm working for this country and I am never going to give up on the American people. I'm going to work every day and you know what? If I come up short today I'm going to work harder tomorrow. That's what I do."

Now, a community note appears under the tweet, which reads: "On December 6th, Congressman McCarthy announced his resignation from his congressional seat contradicting his statement he never quits."

https://www.newsweek.com/kevin-mccarthy ... te-1850342

[Tero]

This guy was also never going to surrender

[Tero]

Poor trumpsters in Louisiana mad at...Biden
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/12/08/poli ... index.html
they vote Republican to minimize federal aid to their state.

[Tero]

"What is the minimum wage in Louisiana? The Louisiana minimum wage remains unchanged from the last few years at $7.25. Louisiana mirrors the federal minimum wage."

Yet Trump will lead them out of poverty!

[Tero]

Oil rigs in Central California....the middle down to areas North of LA, not concerned about Kevin McCarthy retiring. Shithole of CA carries on.

With McCarthy now on his way out, Bakersfield’s political profile is likely to dwindle even further. The city has other, mostly dubious claims to fame – as one of the most dangerous places in America for pedestrians, and as an area with one of the highest incidences of police shootings.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... california

[Tero]

Turdley, who was involved with defending Trump in his impeachment, will be involved in impeaching Hunter Biden.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Turley

Turley declined to represent President Trump[85] but did speak to Republican senators before both the first Trump trial[86] and the second Trump trial.

[rasetsu]

Oil rigs in Central California....the middle down to areas North of LA, not concerned about Kevin McCarthy retiring. Shithole of CA carries on.

With McCarthy now on his way out, Bakersfield’s political profile is likely to dwindle even further. The city has other, mostly dubious claims to fame – as one of the most dangerous places in America for pedestrians, and as an area with one of the highest incidences of police shootings.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... california

The article says that there's no song immortalizing Bakersfield, which I knew without checking was wrong. Dwight Yoakam had his biggest hit as a duo with Buck Owens and a recording of the Streets of Bakersfield. It's a small thing, but it annoys me.

[Tero]

Oh yeah, the Bakerfield cowboy. My dad had this record. He was not much of a record buyer, but it lasted some 2 years.

[Tero]

[Tero]

Who knew? Mike Johnson is just another Tucker Carlson.
Wiki:
He has said that he is the product of an unplanned pregnancy and that his parents were teenagers when they had him.[3] They later divorced.

Liberals/working class having sex produced him!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_John ... olitician)

[Tero]

On Threads

craigruby
5m
Jim Jordan might be the biggest clown in the country. But then Comer speaks and you realize it’s a close race for the title