GOP’s “I See “Secret Societies” Meme
The line in the movie The Sixth Sense, “I see dead people. They don’t know they’re dead.” Repubs; “I see Secret Societies, others do not know they exist. They are everywhere.”
Daily Beast’s Rick Wilson; “The story was falling apart even before the Moron Caucus beclowned themselves with the ‘Secret Society’ meme (my addition), because the memo obviously hadn’t done enough to reduce the Republicans in stature and seriousness. Seizing on a single, obviously joking text message, Sen. Ron Johnson took to the microphones to describe the FBI’s alleged ‘Secret Society’ as if he had watched Eyes Wide Shut enough times to memorize it. Fidelio, Ron. Fidelio.
When confronted with the risible absurdity of his claim, Johnson said ‘informants’ had told them about the dark, satanic orgies of the FBI. Within hours, he denied all of it in an embarrassingly clumsy walk back. From the Trump-right obsession with ‘Q-Anon’ as a source of Deep State gibberish to the uncritical acceptance of even the most outrageously absurd rumors, the GOP is becoming defined as a party of conspiracy. It’s is a bad look for a governing party, and it’s getting worse by the day.”
This is what the Koch Bros poured $millions into Wisconsin in support of Ron Johnson and Wisconsin Republicans, a cultural divide to hide behind and defend one’s self no matter how ridiculous. Hopefully, the adults in the room can maintain . . .
Yes, but Dan,
The GOP base loves this shit ’cause they just “know” deep down in their little heart of heats its all true. And how else can you keep your based revved up? I mean their god Reagan told them so — gov’ts the problem, not the solution.
LT:
“In your heart, you know he is right.” That should spark a memory or two.
While I do not think it reaches the compelling nature of your typical Ancient Aliens episode, maybe we should take seriously the words of Strozk and Page. They were communicating in a media in which they felt they could be open without having to consider what it sounded like. They turned out to be wrong, but is the country really supposed to shrug its shoulders and pretend there is nothing to see here? FBI discussing the advisability of some kind of insurance in the unlikely event that a major party candidate gets elected. Sure, that Johnson is a total nutjob.
I guess you aren’t familiar with Ed Markey’s claim on CNN that a grand jury was impaneled in New York to investigate Trump. Within hours he denied all of it in an embarrassingly clumsy walk back.
Do you really live in that big of a bubble?
LJ:
Ed Markey or his office did not apologize?
There is nothing more pathetic than supposed liberals who defend the FBI.
Karl:
What happened to the Uranium Deal HRC supposedly approved by herself (no, the committee did) . What happened to the supposed witness who was to testified about HRC and the Uranium deal with the Russians?
William Campbell was an important Repub witness in the attack on HRC in proving she was corrupt and critical in supporting Repub allegations of impropriety with the Uranium deal. Do you think Grassley calling for a special council to investigate Uranium one will come to pass now? Not likely as Campbell was a flawed and unreliable fake witness.
I guess the DOJ (you know Trump’s hand-picked people) provided the House with a briefing contradicting Repubs allegations absed upon Campbell. William Campbell’s testimony to the DOJ was too unreliable and inconsistent for him to be a witness corroborating Republican allegations.
c’est la vie
There is nothing more pathetic than Karl Kolchak’s trolling on AB.
Joel,
Eric comes really close to him.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin may be the most screwed up state in the country in terms of oppression. And that ain’t easy.
” Take Wisconsin. Under Gov. Scott Walker, Republicans have worked hard to insulate themselves from electoral accountability, with aggressive redistricting to protect incumbent Republican lawmakers, an attack on the state’s independent ethics and elections agency, and a draconian voter identification law that depressed black turnout in the 2016 election and helped Donald Trump win the state—and the presidency with it.
Unfortunately for Walker, these moves weren’t enough to keep Democrats from overcoming a strong Republican advantage to win a vacant seat in the state Senate last month. And with additional vacancies in the legislature after two Republican lawmakers left to join his administration, Walker risks further losses to the state GOP’s position. Instead of taking that chance, the governor has simply refused to call the elections, postponing them until next year and ignoring a statute that calls for vacancies to be filled “as promptly as possible.” Walker’s decision has left tens of thousands of Wisconsinites without direct representation in the statehouse. There’s little doubt Walker would call the elections were he confident of Republican victory. He’s not, and so he’s opted for a power grab. ”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/02/the-republican-corruption-in-washington-has-trickled-down-to-the-states.html
EM:
Michigan is just as radical as Texas having sent more Republican US Representatives to The House than what the national vote reflects and in voting in The House. Nine of 13 representatives are Republican and the state has voted 50+ percent Democrat in national elections (with a “slight” exception in 2016). The only way to pull that off is gerrymandering and packing districts. At the worst it should be 6 Dems and 7 Repub. Flip flop it to reflect the idea scenario. Today, the Representatives do not reflect the population of the state of Michigan.
In a political move, Snyder has delayed a special election to replace Conyers till this Summer.
Repubs are moving PAC headquarters to the 8th District where Mike Bishop is. They are afraid he will lose because:
– He does not meet with his constituents.
– He misrepresents his constituents.
– And he backs Trump and follows the Repub line.
Fred Upton, the Rep who upended the Risk Corridor – Reissuance Programs, helped passed the 21st Century Cure act which cuts testing of pharma and does nothing for cost control of pharma, and has taken $600,000 from pharma since 2014 is under stress too.
Just maybe, we can change Michigan to real representation.
Karl K.,
For something more pathetic than libs defending the FBI against unwarranted attacks, how about a president who escaped the draft during the Vietnam War via nonexistent bone spurs supposedly on his feet, but who demands a wasteful and pointless military parade so he can feel like a real commander-in-chief?
Vietnam war is mine and ilsm’s line . . . It works though.
EM
“…the governor has simply refused to call the elections, postponing them until next year and ignoring a statute that calls for vacancies to be filled “as promptly as possible.”
You gloss over the very clear and objectively defined condition “as promptly as possible”…. which is enforced by the executive branch and however they want to define the terms of what “possible” means
I only point this out because it’s another of the myriads of terms of law that have no definition other than by the courts arbitrary definitions themselves — which depend only on Judge’s own belief systems.
To the general voter such terms of law sound great, but they have no meaning in fact.. Politicians who write and pass these laws know this full well,.. it’s just another of the means by which “compromise” ends up b ignoring the entire issue while “sounding like” it didn’t… serving both sides of the isle pulling the wool over the general public.
The other fact you bring up is self evident and standard operating procedure:
“There’s little doubt Walker would call the elections were he confident of Republican victory. He’s not, and so he’s opted for a power grab. ”
“opting for a power grab” is what every politician would do (does in fact) under the circumstance so this is neither here nor there.
The problem here isn’t Walker, it’s a system of gov’t we have collectively decided to operate under. Your admonition (and Slate’s) is misplaced, a misdirection in fact. If we want “flexibility” in the law, then the law, then perhaps we should decide on how much “flexibility” we want first and see where that brings us.
Unfortunately we don’t do this, by choice, so we have no reason to castigate Walker at all. Progressives may not like it but so what? If the tables were turned Conservatives wouldn’t like it either.
I put this under the category of “shit or get off the pot”. We chose to sit on the pot… it’s our own fault.
Barkley,
I wonder how many GI’s that weren’t born with silver spoons did duty behind desks and other support roles State-side with real bone spurs and other “disqualifying” medical conditions (like mine for example which was “missed” during the quickie physical exams even though it was more than visually obvious)?
Just one more example of economic inequality extending far beyond economics.
LT:
I was no Senator’s son LT and I enlisted as the geeky tall skinny kid at 19. I knew a few who evaded the draft by skipping town or leaving the country or protested by burning their draft card. It was hard for me to get down on them as they had the courage to defy, which I would not have done, and they paid the consequences similar to students who are not paying student loans and are now indentured for life to the gov.
My mom always said the service changed me. It did. Trump was scared sh*tless, felt entitled, and had no courage to do anything other than get someone else to do it for him.
Vietnam!
I did ROTC, and got on to the nuclear war team. We would destroy the world if we lost at dominoes……..
I had a friend/frat bro who refused to step forward at the induction center (he did not do an Arlo Guthrie!), he ended up doing two years in the public health service.
As to liberals defending FBI infringement on the Bill of Rights, they mostly voted for the so called patriot act (Orwellian, you need to prove your obeisance to the pigs’ invading those you hate’s privacy, or be a traitor) and they love war these days.
Why don’t some one argue with Karl and not change the subject?
Karl,
Liberals are about the same as the extremist progeny of Barry Goldwater assaulting those they hates’ liberty.
ilsm:
The subject is as it is. I did not change it. Furthermore, Karl did get an answer. The Repub charges are baloney and a deflection.
Parallel might require “I see secret societies; they don’t know they are secret.”
As to what that might mean….
I think the thing about the Big Lie is that if you keep on saying it, eventually everyone believes it. This might be because when people hear something that doesn’t make sense, they reconstruct it in their mind until it agrees with what they already believe and that is close enough. I don’t know if there is ONE Big Lie, or if the Big Lie is just a constant stream of little lies that tend to one big purpose.
LT: as for saying what everyone already knows, you should know about that. But sometimes it helps to say it again. And again.
Speaking of Big Lies, I know a very smart person (astrophysicist by trade) who thinks Social Security is a ponzi scheme. This is sadly fairly typical of very smart people: they are so smart they don’t have to actually think about what they hear and say outside their own field.
Of course there are secret societies that control everything.
But, if you actually learned about one, they would kill you.
Remember, the Bourne Identity is a non-fiction work.
Dave:
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