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Putting the Ex-Con in Conservatism
By Paul Krugman
March 26, 2018
In 2010 an explosion at a coal mine operated by Massey Energy killed 29 men. In 2015 Don Blankenship, the company’s former C.E.O., was sent to prison for conspiring to violate mine safety standards. In 2018, Blankenship appears to have a real chance at becoming the Republican candidate for senator from West Virginia.
Blankenship is one of four Republicans with criminal convictions running for office this year, several of whom may well win their party’s nominations. And there is a much broader list of Republican politicians facing credible accusations of huge ethical lapses who nonetheless emerged victorious in G.O.P. primaries, ranging from Roy Moore to, well, Donald Trump.
To be sure, there have been plenty of crooked Democrats. But usually the revelation of their crookedness ended their political careers. What’s striking about today’s Republican landscape is that people who are obvious crooks, con men or worse continue to attract strong support from the party’s base. Moore narrowly lost in Alabama’s special election, but he received 91 percent of the votes of self-identified Republicans.
And Trump, although unprecedentedly unpopular for a president at this stage of his term, continues to receive overwhelming support from the G.O.P. base. Some Republican politicians have openly admitted that this makes the party’s congressional wing unwilling to hold Trump accountable for even the most spectacular malfeasance, up to and including possible collusion with a hostile foreign power.
What’s going on here? I don’t think it’s an accident that the modern G.O.P. contains so many crooks and that these crooks seem to thrive in intraparty politics. On the contrary, the success of people like Blankenship — or Trump — was an inevitable consequence of the political strategy Republicans have followed for decades. For the simple truth is that ever since Reagan, Republicans have basically played a con game on American voters.
Their sustained, invariant agenda has been upward redistribution of income: cutting taxes on the rich while weakening the social safety net. This agenda is unpopular: Only a small minority of Americans wants to see tax cuts for the wealthy, and an even smaller minority wants cuts to major social programs. Yet Republicans have won elections partly by denying the reality of their policy agenda, but mainly by posing as defenders of traditional social values — above all, that greatest of American traditions, racism.
And this sustained reliance on the big con has, over time, exerted a strong selection effect both on the party’s leadership and on its base. G.O.P. politicians tend disproportionately to be con men (and in some cases, con women), because playing the party’s political game requires both a willingness to and a talent for saying one thing while doing another. And the party’s base consists disproportionately of the easily conned — those who are easily fooled by claims that Those People are the problem and don’t notice how much the true Republican agenda hurts them.
The point is that Trumpism was more or less fated to happen. Trump’s crude racism and blatant dishonesty are only exaggerated versions of what his party has been selling for decades, while his substantive policy agenda — slashing taxes on corporations and the wealthy, taking health care away from lower-income families — is utterly orthodox.
Even his protectionism is less of a departure from Republican norms than people imagine. George W. Bush put tariffs on steel, while Reagan limited imports of Japanese autos. Cutting taxes on the rich is a fundamental G.O.P. principle; free trade isn’t.
More at www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/opinion/conservatism-honesty-crime-gop.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:Crooks like despicable Murderer Tedward Kennedy (Chappaquiddick film out next month), serial rapist Perpetrator-in-Chief Clinton? Golly, those revelations must have ended their political aspirations!!
Originally posted by second:
Putting the Ex-Con in Conservatism
By Paul Krugman
March 26, 2018
In 2010 an explosion at a coal mine operated by Massey Energy killed 29 men. In 2015 Don Blankenship, the company’s former C.E.O., was sent to prison for conspiring to violate mine safety standards. In 2018, Blankenship appears to have a real chance at becoming the Republican candidate for senator from West Virginia.
Blankenship is one of four Republicans with criminal convictions running for office this year, several of whom may well win their party’s nominations. And there is a much broader list of Republican politicians facing credible accusations of huge ethical lapses who nonetheless emerged victorious in G.O.P. primaries, ranging from Roy Moore to, well, Donald Trump.
To be sure, there have been plenty of crooked Democrats. But usually the revelation of their crookedness ended their political careers. What’s striking about today’s Republican landscape is that people who are obvious crooks, con men or worse continue to attract strong support from the party’s base. Moore narrowly lost in Alabama’s special election, but he received 91 percent of the votes of self-identified Republicans.
And Trump, although unprecedentedly unpopular for a president at this stage of his term, continues to receive overwhelming support from the G.O.P. base. Some Republican politicians have openly admitted that this makes the party’s congressional wing unwilling to hold Trump accountable for even the most spectacular malfeasance, up to and including possible collusion with a hostile foreign power.
What’s going on here? I don’t think it’s an accident that the modern G.O.P. contains so many crooks and that these crooks seem to thrive in intraparty politics. On the contrary, the success of people like Blankenship — or Trump — was an inevitable consequence of the political strategy Republicans have followed for decades. For the simple truth is that ever since Reagan, Republicans have basically played a con game on American voters.
Their sustained, invariant agenda has been upward redistribution of income: cutting taxes on the rich while weakening the social safety net. This agenda is unpopular: Only a small minority of Americans wants to see tax cuts for the wealthy, and an even smaller minority wants cuts to major social programs. Yet Republicans have won elections partly by denying the reality of their policy agenda, but mainly by posing as defenders of traditional social values — above all, that greatest of American traditions, racism.
And this sustained reliance on the big con has, over time, exerted a strong selection effect both on the party’s leadership and on its base. G.O.P. politicians tend disproportionately to be con men (and in some cases, con women), because playing the party’s political game requires both a willingness to and a talent for saying one thing while doing another. And the party’s base consists disproportionately of the easily conned — those who are easily fooled by claims that Those People are the problem and don’t notice how much the true Republican agenda hurts them.
The point is that Trumpism was more or less fated to happen. Trump’s crude racism and blatant dishonesty are only exaggerated versions of what his party has been selling for decades, while his substantive policy agenda — slashing taxes on corporations and the wealthy, taking health care away from lower-income families — is utterly orthodox.
Even his protectionism is less of a departure from Republican norms than people imagine. George W. Bush put tariffs on steel, while Reagan limited imports of Japanese autos. Cutting taxes on the rich is a fundamental G.O.P. principle; free trade isn’t.
More at www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/opinion/conservatism-honesty-crime-gop.html
Nytimes. This is where you fail.
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:You've turned into a regular little philosopher, haven't you? So careful and precise, now using big words. I will give you something to philosophize about, something you can complain about not meeting your rigorous standards. I can not say what is really happening with Trump because that fucker won't tell the truth about anything and Robert Mueller is in no hurry to inform us of what the truth is, since Trump will fire Mueller on the day the truth is even partially revealed:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
All I was commenting on here was the disingenuous way that Second presented the story as if this guy were being interviewed about Trump when he wasn't. Also the conjecture that Trump did everything short of murdering women to hide it when there was no evidence provided for that claim.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Sorry not sorry that I made you go to dictionary.com to understand my reply.
Quote:
What happens when fearful Trump absolutely must bribe another woman, maybe a hundred women, but she or they won’t take the bribe, unlike Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels?
What if Trump needs to threaten the mystery woman or women to keep her or them silent, but he can’t because she or they are secretly working for the Russians? It sounds like the movie Red Sparrow with Jennifer Lawrence working for the Russians.
For all we know, foolish old Trump, with complete disregard for any of the guidelines his cabinet members must follow about maintaining national security, has stumbled into a real life version of a Jennifer Lawrence movie. He might be living in a Hollywood script with a screenwriting credit going to Vladimir Putin. Except there won’t be a happy ending to Trump’s movie. Just because a President does not need a Security Clearance, Trump can still be a Security Risk to America. And he is not helping by lying about everything, constantly.
A review of Red Sparrow: “Trying to split the difference between trashy and classy, Red Sparrow is a sleek, juiced-up espionage thriller that overdoes everything: its brutal violence, its dramatic flourishes, its hairpin plot twists, and most certainly its sexpot shamelessness.”
www.metacritic.com/movie/red-sparrow
Trump’s real life story is more like a TV soap opera than a two hour movie. He has entertained us by taking America to strange and dramatic places, one or more new episodes every day, since 2016.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
What if, what if, what if....
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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The Wall Street Journal reports today that IRS audits of rich people (yearly income over $1,000,000) declined by 25 percent in 2017. Kevin Drum helpfully extrapolated the trendline since 2011 (when the GOP gained control of Congress and the budget the IRS can spend on audits) so that rich people know when the IRS is likely to simply stop auditing them at all. It’s only four years away! Happy days are here again if only the GOP can keep those damn liberals out of power long enough.
www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/03/more-good-news-for-rich-people/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:If Trump keeps threatening to destroy women he had sex with, he is the one who will be destroyed, assuming that Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal aren't the only ones he paid off. Trump can't keep pulling this stunt over and over without consequences for himself. He will end up like Harvey Weinstein. Even though Daniels isn’t accusing him of sexual misconduct, her story offers yet more evidence that Trump’s #MeToo moment may be long overdue. If some of those women are Natasha Fatale, Trump will be in more trouble than Weinstein.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
What if, what if, what if....
Do Right, Be Right. :)
www.vox.com/2018/3/26/17162718/stormy-daniels-60-minutes-trump-porn-st
ar-affair-consent
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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What if, what if, what if...
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:It is not all "what if". Trump’s Lawyer’s Lawyer Now Says Trump’s Lawyer Wasn’t Actually Trump’s Lawyer. Reading the article makes me think, "How can these guys get this Stormy Daniels lawsuit so tangled and confused? There is no way this is their best legal strategy. It must be them reacting to Trump's confused thinking."
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
What if, what if, what if...
Do Right, Be Right. :)
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/michael-cohens-lawyer-sugg
ests-that-michael-cohen-is-not-trumps-lawyer.html
Then there are simplifying tweets, complete with video of Trump's lawyer's lawyer, that make it less abstract:
https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/979356845394546689
https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/979355634599645184
The comments in the tweets clarify that Trump and his lawyers were bluffing with legalese, hoping the contract would never see light of day... Now they got called on the carpet and don’t know what to do.
I know what Trump needs to do: Every single one of Trump's non-disclosure agreements must now be disclosed to the public. But Trump has refused, as he refused to disclose to Robert Mueller any year of his last 50 years of income tax returns. If you can believe Trump, all 50 years are being audited by the IRS. "Believe me." -- Donald J Trump
It would be very Presidential and dignified of Trump, the loudmouth who keeps shouting that he is innocent, if he would behave innocently. But I don't think he can do it. He keeps acting too guilty to believably fake innocence. Give Trump a few more years under steady pressure and he will crackup. His screaming nervous breakdown should be entertaining and newsworthy.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:Did Sessions recuse himself from Tax filings prior to 2015?
Originally posted by second:Quote:It is not all "what if". Trump’s Lawyer’s Lawyer Now Says Trump’s Lawyer Wasn’t Actually Trump’s Lawyer. Reading the article makes me think, "How can these guys get this Stormy Daniels lawsuit so tangled and confused? There is no way this is their best legal strategy. It must be them reacting to Trump's confused thinking."
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
What if, what if, what if...
Do Right, Be Right. :)
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/michael-cohens-lawyer-sugg
ests-that-michael-cohen-is-not-trumps-lawyer.html
Then there are simplifying tweets, complete with video of Trump's lawyer's lawyer, that make it less abstract:
https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/979356845394546689
https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/979355634599645184
The comments in the tweets clarify that Trump and his lawyers were bluffing with legalese, hoping the contract would never see light of day... Now they got called on the carpet and don’t know what to do.
I know what Trump needs to do: Every single one of Trump's non-disclosure agreements must now be disclosed to the public. But Trump has refused, as he refused to disclose to Robert Mueller any year of his last 50 years of income tax returns. If you can believe Trump, all 50 years are being audited by the IRS. "Believe me." -- Donald J Trump
It would be very Presidential and dignified of Trump, the loudmouth who keeps shouting that he is innocent, if he would behave innocently. But I don't think he can do it. He keeps acting too guilty to believably fake innocence. Give Trump a few more years under steady pressure and he will crackup. His screaming nervous breakdown should be entertaining and newsworthy.
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Hey SECOND, how is it people still don't understand that Trumps financial ties to anything Russia, which may be revealed in Trumps taxes, is important because it may show if Putin has his hooks in Trump.
Hey jack, if you don't have any trusted reputable sources of information, than you are ignorant and need to realize your thoughts and concerns are groundless, or not based on any good reason or reality.
T 
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