Republicans: continued

[Sean Hayden]

--christ

So this is the GOP now. MTG space lasers?

[Sean Hayden]

I thought she was supposed to be an evil AOC clone...

[Joe]

Well, like Big Daddy said, "money is the mother's milk of politics."

Fleecing the rubes is an old political tradition.

[Tero]

Ted Cruz approval below Biden's, at 39%. Strangely, 18% do not know.

[Svartalf]

I thought she was supposed to be an evil AOC clone...

Young, beautiful and smart? If she were the latter, she'd not be a repugnant

[Sean Hayden]

Nah, a clone of the media presence leaders are happy to use to their advantage when they can, but not somebody whose views they actually share or even trust.

[Tero]

Had not seen that one before.

[L'Emmerdeur]

To some extent I agree with Hermit regarding the unimpressive quality of perspective and writing at Salon. The article below suffers from these deficits. It does cite a couple of interesting sources, so I'll post a link.

The term 'cognitive sophistication' is used in the article and in one of its main sources (a paper by Darren Sherkat titled 'Cognitive Sophistication, Religion, and the Trump Vote') but not defined in a succinct way in either of them. I did some looking and found a 2012 paper on the topic, which referred to the Cognitive Reflection Test. I'll venture that 'cognitive sophistication' is a combination of reasoning ability, a tendency to an analytic approach rather than 'going with your gut' and some willingness to at least attempt to overcome bias. Very likely my formulation is lacking, and perhaps even inaccurate.

Despite the preponderance of the 'cognitively unsophisticated' on the right described here, there are plenty of articulate and cognitively sophisticated mountebanks feeding their paranoia and bile.

'New research on Trump voters: They're not the sharpest tools in the box'

The United States is experiencing an existential democracy crisis, with leading Republicans and millions of their voters and supporters either tacitly or explicitly embracing authoritarianism or fascism. Democrats, for the most part, have not responded with the urgency required to save America's democracy from the rising neofascist tide.

American society was founded on white settler colonialism, genocide and slavery. This unresolved birth defect at the foundation of the American democratic experiment meant that the country was racially exclusionary by design, from the founding well into the 20th century. At present, American politics is contoured by asymmetrical political polarization, in which Republicans have moved so far to the right that the party's most "moderate" members are far more extreme than the most "conservative" Democrats. This makes substantive compromise and bipartisanship in the interests of the common good and the American people almost impossible.

...

[P]ublic opinion research shows that white right-wing evangelical Christians have increasingly embraced authoritarian views, conspiracy theories and other anti-democratic and antisocial values.

As the new Faith in America survey by Deseret News & Marist College highlights, the basic understanding of the role of religion in a secular democracy has become so polarized that 70% of Republicans believe that religion should influence a person's political values, where as only 28% of Democrats and 45% of independents share that view.

...

America's struggle for democracy and freedom against authoritarianism is taking place on a biological level as well. Social psychologists and other researchers have shown that the brain structures of conservative-authoritarians are different than those of more liberal and progressive thinkers. The former are more fear-centered, emphasizing threats and dangers (negativity bias), intolerant of ambiguity and inclined to simple, binary solutions. Conservative-authoritarians are also strongly attracted to moral hierarchy and social dominance behavior.

...

Low levels of cognitive sophistication may lead people to embrace simple cognitive shortcuts, like stereotypes and prejudices that were amplified by the Trump campaign. Additionally, the simple linguistic style presented by Trump may have appealed to voters with limited education and cognitive sophistication. Beginning with [T.W.] Adorno's classic study of the authoritarian personality, empirical works have linked low levels of cognitive sophistication with right-wing orientations....

Trump's campaign may also have been more attractive to people with low cognitive sophistication and a preference for low-effort information processing because compared to other candidates Trump's speeches were given at a much lower reading level…. While much of the Trump campaign's rhetoric and orientation may have resonated with the poorly educated and cognitively unsophisticated, those overlapping groups are less likely to register to vote or to turn out in an election.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Back in the US Congress, all but 12 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against a price cap on insulin. Not a great bill by any means (note the last sentence quoted below) though it might be a step in the right direction. It needs at least 10 Republican senators to become law. Seems an unlikely prospect.

'House passes $35-a-month insulin cap as Dems seek wider bill'

The House on Thursday passed a bill capping the monthly cost of insulin at $35 for insured patients, part of an election-year push by Democrats for price curbs on prescription drugs at a time of rising inflation.

Experts say the legislation, which passed 232-193, would provide significant relief for privately insured patients with skimpier plans and for Medicare enrollees facing rising out-of-pocket costs for their insulin. Some could save hundreds of dollars annually, and all insured patients would get the benefit of predictable monthly costs for insulin. The bill would not help the uninsured.

[Tero]

[Tero]

They are freaking out because illegals now need to be recorded:
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Title 42 restrictions, which allow government authority to expel migrants under a public health emergency, could be dissolved by the end of May.

The Department of Homeland Security is expected to take steps toward lifting the Trump-era restrictions, which were originally issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, later this week.

[Woodbutcher]

This is my take on the republican politicians and their Trump worship: Trump got them to invest in Russian oligarchs' holdings which paid off nicely as time passed. Putin paid off Trump with hints where to put his money to maximise his profits. This was done by Putin to gather support among the republicans, with the understanding that if they went against Trump or Putin they would suffer heavy financial losses. When the republicans would be in power again, Trump would rule the US in the same way as Putin would, with lucrative investments to his ardent supporters. They would control the media and the commerce, with police acting as their enforcement arm. The US would be. in effect, like Russia, where people would not have any choice in their everyday life. 1984 all over again.

[Tero]

I think both Trump and Putin riches are mostly imaginary. And what will Putin do with it anyway? He can never leaver Russia. He does not even ride the horse anymore after he fell off in 2012 and broke his leg. He limped for a while and it was all hidden from cameras.

[Joe]

On his latest show, Bill Maher introduced one of the new faces of the GOP. Tina Forte is running in the GOP primary to face AOC. Here's the clip he played.

[JimC]

Someone, somewhere is bound to suggest naked mud wrestling...