Your Place Is In The Resistance

Repubs in Disarray! Open Thread: Liz Cheney Has Calculated Her Options

by Anne Laurie| May 5, 20219:14 pm| 92 Comments

This post is in: GOP Death Cult, NANCY SMASH!, Your Place Is In The Resistance, Schadenfreude

https://t.co/yLqbECSk6T pic.twitter.com/iA0cgeRUQ1

— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) May 4, 2021

Donald Trump is an old man, not in the best of health, facing considerable legal jeopardy compounded by his failing business enterprises. Some (noisy) portion of the Republican party’s voters have pledged fealty to him, regardless of what Trump’s wavering attentions might mean for other, less prominent GOP members and their districts. Most of the national GOP leadership, elevated by the same Wingnut Wurlitzer tropes that crowned Trump, have publicly announced their loyalty to the Man over the Party (or our mutual commonwealth).

Liz Cheney is still young, by political standards — a full generation younger than TFG, or for that matter Mitch McConnell. She’s already volutarily unpersoned herself in the current Republican Party; the attention-seekers and sycophants who crowd Fox News’ greenrooms will never let her ‘disloyalty’ be forgotten, nor will the hardcore MAGAts forgive her for spotlighting their god-emperor’s nakedness. So she’s nothing to lose, and potentially much to gain, by assuming the mantle of Sensible Republican Anti-Trump Spokeswoman.

Worst that happens is she spends the next couple of decades giving I told you so statements from the security of conservative think tanks & corporate boards. But assuming that the current uneasy Republican balance collapses — that the contradictions between the permanent-party ‘conservatives’ and the manic Trumpistas fails — well, who better to lead the inevitable Not-Democrats party that survives, or arises, in a country where no less and no more than two national parties can thrive?

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The GOP is at a turning point. History is watching us, @RepLizCheney writes in an op-ed: https://t.co/f6XTfJnzm7 pic.twitter.com/XmpVz9NrKq

— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) May 5, 2021

This is the most perverse take. Donald Trump, the man who, according to practically every elected Republican, still speaks for the party, continues to swear up and down that the 2020 election was stolen. But no, it's CHENEY who's causing problems and rocking the boat. https://t.co/UrXRPMGeFg

— Andrew Egger (@EggerDC) May 4, 2021

Captain Obvious Has Joined the Chat –

If the House GOP ultimately takes stronger action against Liz Cheney than it did against Marjorie Taylor Greene, then one has to wonder if it's time to make tough choices about the continued unity of the party. https://t.co/5g9rd6nMqw

— David French (@DavidAFrench) May 4, 2021

the election results, rather than go along with the rest of the cult-like 'up is actually down' litmus test, then they all turned on her, just like that. It has nothing to do with 'rejecting interventionism' or w/e & everything to do with the GOP becoming a personality cult.

— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) May 4, 2021

The irony of far right House Republicans losing their minds over Liz Cheney:

She stole their playbook.

The caucus can’t afford to lose even a small bloc of Representatives.

The terrorists are now the hostages to someone willing to go full reverse-Tea-Party.

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) May 3, 2021

Jon Chait, at NYMag:

… The rationale for Cheney’s defenestration is that she has violated decorum. Her forceful denunciation of Trump’s lies “suggested that Cheney was not looking to persuade but to bludgeon. Rhetorical devices like putting THE BIG LIE in all caps gave the tweet a feeling of something one might hear on CNN or MSNBC,” explains Byron York. “The question is, how to address those Republicans and their beliefs.” National Review’s Dan McLaughlin adds, “If she can’t move off this topic as Mitch [McConnell] has, she needs to do that from the back benches.”

The catch, of course, is that Trump and his minions have neither modulated their tone nor moved off the topic. Nor, for that matter, has the rest of the party. The Republican establishment has made a display of affirming the defeated president’s status as its leader. Republicans leaders have made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring of their president-in-exile. Aspiring candidates — including not just Trump sycophants like Josh Hawley, but even candidates who have maintained some distance from him, like Nikki Haley — have announced that they will defer to Trump rather than run against him….

The demand that Cheney stop forcefully refuting Trump’s lies about the election is designed to force his enemies into unilateral disarmament. Republican leaders are free to flatter and placate him, but they are not free to call out his lies or return his attacks in kind. Trump’s critics can stay in the party, for now, but they must act like guests in somebody else’s home.

What’s astonishing about Cheney’s dissent is not only that she is such an unlikely figure to mount a doomed and lonely stand. She was born to the party and the conservative movement; she hasn’t got a moderate bone in her body. What’s more unusual still is that she has no obvious rationale other than sheer principle. Elected officials, faced with an unwinnable fight, nearly always yield to realism. Cheney apparently believes that respect for the rule of law is a nonnegotiable principle of conservatism…

Hard to find a lawmaker with a more conservative voting record than Cheney. The GOP is now living in Jonestown. https://t.co/QAprZj5ikm

— Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) May 5, 2021

Frankly he’s right. And it’s damning. The message is Trump and the Big Lie, and pretending the insurrection didn’t happen. There’s no other message to deliver. Any policy issues don’t hold a candle to that. https://t.co/0vC7lUy7gt

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 4, 2021

New via CNBC: House Republican Liz Cheney’s top donors are standing by her despite the effort to oust her from the GOP leadership — and some say they will withhold contributions to anyone who opposes Cheney.

— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) May 5, 2021

REPORTER: Mr. President, do you have any comments on efforts to oust Liz Cheney from the House Reublican leadership post?

BIDEN: I don't understand the Republicans.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 5, 2021

<em>Repubs in Disarray!</em> Open Thread: Liz Cheney Has Calculated Her OptionsPost + Comments (92)

Cheap Snark Open Thread: Being Mean to MAGAt Morons

by Anne Laurie| February 12, 20201:18 am| 46 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Immigration, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Right to Vote, Your Place Is In The Resistance

I actually love the idea of a mandatory citizenship test for everyone. Birth rights are dumb. It’s not an achievement to be born and nobody should be rewarded for it.
I also find it hilarious that Republicans think this will play to THEIR advantage. https://t.co/PDhvKKPzKj

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 4, 2020

Citizenship tests, @benshapiro? Citizenship tests for everyone? Bring them the fuck on, Benny boy! The GOP will have zero seats in the Senate. None! Fucking Montana will be stone cold blue as the only people with voting rights will be university students.
Bring. Them. On!

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

I try not to encourage being mean to people (yeah, you should read me when the filters are *off*), but when people waltz into someone else’s online conversation attempting to ‘slay’ them, well — don’t start none, won’t *be* none, fellas. Since Ben Shapiro is well-compensated for being a professional Guy Who Never Learns, only fitting he lead this clown parade…

It’s like they live in their own reality. The US Constitution is completely invalid there, save for the 2nd Amendment, and facts are literally anything they like them to be.
It’s not even a cult. It’s an asylum. https://t.co/295bS4rSm1

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

The bio says “American through and through.”
I mean, not enough to read the Constitution, but definitely enough to show immigrants what’s what.
Sad, sad dumbasses. https://t.co/3T7PfwTSB2

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

English is hard, too. https://t.co/2g8wDXjIug

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

And now I have to explain to them that Mitt won’t need to face the voters until 2024… It’s almost like being born here doesn’t ACTUALLY make you a real American or something. https://t.co/X76T5oX45j

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

A supporter of Trump is telling me that my party is perfectly illustrated by bashing people who disagree with me on the internet.
Someone, please, check 5th Avenue for a body of a shooting victim named “Irony.” https://t.co/fiIA8qE7lG

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 5, 2020

When you are a Trump cultist, reading the US Constitution is extremely hard. Reading newspaper articles is no easier. Hell, even reading the entire headline of the very article you try to shame me with is too damn exhausting. pic.twitter.com/Q57VUbtpSK

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 6, 2020

Cheap Snark Open Thread: Being Mean to MAGAt MoronsPost + Comments (46)

Open Thread: Due Respect for Senator Romney

by Anne Laurie| February 5, 20206:31 pm| 227 Comments

This post is in: Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Your Place Is In The Resistance

George Romney would have been proud

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 5, 2020

This, right here. It hasn’t changed how I feel about Mitt Romney, and if he still lived in Massachusetts I might not be able to bring myself to say this, but he did the right thing by voting to impeach Trump.

And if that’s because he finally got to behave in a way that would make his old man proud… well, I’ve never heard a harsh word about George Romney from the Michiganders who lived through his governorship there. Which among others would include my Spousal Unit, along with political professional Dana Houle.

Props to Romney. And props to Mormons, many of whom have demonstrated integrity in rejecting Trumpism. But I have to wonder if part of the psychology at play is thinking about what would have happened if instread of the eventually impeached Nixon his dad had been the 1968 nominee

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 5, 2020

Also worth noting one’s father was born in a refugee camp, the other’s father was born in a Mormon colony in Mexico and fled during the Mexican Revolution, losing their home and most of the property.

Romney & Amash don’t come from the same tribal background of 95% of DC Repubs https://t.co/HjN2qxbrKu

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 5, 2020

And he’s just made himself all the right enemies…

So you’re saying that @SenatorRomney prioritized his oath of office and fidelity to the Constitution over partisan considerations. https://t.co/mF4U4eMtj6

— Robert Schlesinger (@rschles) February 5, 2020

Look, this is the absolute lowest of bars, but this Romney vote is probably the most politically courageous thing a Republican has done since Trump has been elected. Again, the lowest of bars, but it's definitely something given how badly he's about to be pilloried.

— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) February 5, 2020

this isn't a knock on romney or a diminution of his decision, which is good and right. i just don't think mitt romney gives much of a shit about what charlie kirk thinks about him, which makes him sane.

— Very Calm Sporting Enthusiast (@CalmSporting) February 5, 2020

gotta admire Romney for saving this till the moment it would absolutely ruin what had been a great news cycle for Trump too. both morally *and* politically on point. good work.

— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) February 5, 2020

Honestly, I think he's just an old man who's tired of this shit. https://t.co/An7A3xEeJY

— Starfish Annoyed With The Corn-Eating Incompetents (@IRHotTakes) February 5, 2020

No, Mitt ain't a saint. Trump's rise is in no small part due to Mitt helping raise his national profile.

But at the end of the day, he had a limit, which is frankly more than you can say for most people these days. That, if nothing else, is worth respect.

— Starfish Annoyed With The Corn-Eating Incompetents (@IRHotTakes) February 5, 2020

And he’s changed the top line in his obituary from that dinner with Trump:

History will mark that the vote to convict Donald Trump was bipartisan. The vote for acquittal had no Democrats. The narrative of the Iowa Caucus and the State of the Union suddenly seems a long time ago.

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) February 5, 2020

Take your victories where you find them!

Open Thread: Due Respect for Senator RomneyPost + Comments (227)

Amateurs Take Down Disinformation Network

by Cheryl Rofer| December 27, 201911:27 am| 45 Comments

This post is in: Information Warfare, Your Place Is In The Resistance

On Twitter, one of the people I follow and interact with is Steffan Watkins, who follows ships and airplanes. Many sites follow ships and airplanes, and Steffan follows those sites to make sense out of who and what are going where. For example, Steffan knew a government plane was on its way long before we were told that President Trump was in Afghanistan.

He has recently been debunking stories about Russian ships and submarines off the east coast of the United States. This is a perennial story and is sometimes even true! Just as American ships and submarines do, Russian ships travel in many places in international waters. What they don’t do is dock at Mar-a-Lago.

Some of those stories come from real reporters who don’t understand what’s going on and repeat a version of something that is true but trivial. Sometimes their stories are based on dodgy websites that deliver deliberate disinformation, laundered through repetition and rumor.

Steffan doggedly checks out those news stories and sets them straight. That usually means that he debunks them, but occasionally he says yes, that Russian ship is off the coast in international waters on a normal patrol. Not once has he found the more sensational stories to be supported.

That’s what he was doing a couple of weeks ago and found a website that consistently was producing junk news stories and stealing stuff from other sites. They also advertised Trump merchandise.

Another news aggregator has popped up (#LibertyFocus) stripping the by-lines and dates from the writing they steal. The public risk is, they can post completely fictional content, among the true content they stole from other news orgs.#disinformation https://t.co/OEXCuUlJTh
— Steffan Watkins (@steffanwatkins) December 1, 2019

That intrigued a couple of Israeli hackers, Noam Rotem and Ran Locar, who decided to check the website out. That link has all the detail for the more computer-savvy among us. Here’s their bottom line:

We found a network of dozens of websites operated by an affiliate marketer. Some of the websites pushed pro-Trump/anti-Clinton fake-news meant to use patriotism in order to sell unofficial Trump merch to Trump supporters. The technical aspects of the operation allowed us full visibility into not only the operators, but also the unwitting customers.

Many of the web addresses were registered by the same person, identified as Jackson Lin, through a company called Extreme Wisdom. Another company linked to some of the sites is Alabama company Click Wu LLC. They have been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for advertising on Facebook. The pages have been taken down from Facebook.

Although Rotem and Locar say the motivation is money, it could be that or disinformation or both. It’s part of the stream of junk that flows through social media. It’s particularly encouraging that a bunch of amateurs exposed it. Now I’d like to see a bigger news operation take it up.

For the rest of us? Be careful what you share or retweet. Know your sources.

Watergirl is doing some diagnostics. Between them and the problems currently infecting the site, I may not be able to comment. I’ll stick around for a bit.

Amateurs Take Down Disinformation NetworkPost + Comments (45)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Think Diagonally

by Anne Laurie| December 17, 20194:45 am| 124 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Your Place Is In The Resistance

This is a public service announcement 🎄 📚 🤓pic.twitter.com/vCYELqyVQa

— Waterstones (@Waterstones) December 16, 2019

Tomorrow night, America is going to show up for democracy by rallying in 500+ cities and towns across America.

Join us and tell the GOP that they can’t sweep this under the rug without a fight.

RT. Let’s do this. #DemCast https://t.co/X9RznfBBoR

— Nick Knudsen 🇺🇸 #DemCast (@DemWrite) December 17, 2019

We have flipped 435 state legislative seats and 10 state houses red to blue since 2016 and we are coming for more in 2020. https://t.co/ex5Gav334D

— Jessica Post (@JessicaPost) December 16, 2019

Good news everyone, we’re at Nixon a week before he resigned! pic.twitter.com/y3BOr0P5Tn

— Schooley (@Rschooley) December 16, 2019

(That’s Dan Scavino, Trump’s former golf caddy and reputed twitter-ghostwriter.)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Think DiagonallyPost + Comments (124)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Don’t Just Protest, Do It Fabulously!

by Anne Laurie| October 12, 20195:30 am| 120 Comments

This post is in: Food, Something Good Open Thread, Your Place Is In The Resistance, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

Climate protesters in Melbourne, Australia have come up with a new term:

Civil Disco-bedience

pic.twitter.com/C8Yi2oqH3g

— Joshua Potash ?? (@JoshuaPotash) October 11, 2019

From the Washington Post, “A spice company spent more money on impeachment ads on Facebook than anyone not named Trump”:

… On Wednesday, Axios published a list of the entities spending the most money on Facebook ads on both sides of the impeachment debate. They included the usual suspects of the political war roll call, including Trump himself (he was top of the list, of course, at $718,000), Democratic presidential candidates Tom Steyer and Elizabeth Warren, and both the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

But one name jumped off the screen for its sheer one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other factor: Penzeys Spices, the nation’s largest spice retailer, had dropped $92,000 from Sept. 29 to Oct. 5 on ads championing impeachment. That was more than self-funding millionaire Steyer, more than hard-charging Warren — more than anyone else other than Trump…

For many Penzeys fans, it comes as no surprise. The company has a history of unabashed liberal activism. Its founder, Bill Penzey, greeted Trump’s election with an email calling the president an “openly racist candidate.” As Helen Rosner noted in a New Yorker story last year, that set him far apart from the rest of the business-leader pack. He was “quite possibly the first to publicly call Trump’s election an ‘embrace of racism,’” she wrote. “And he was definitely the first to do so while hawking a free bottle of Quebec Seasonings with any five-dollar purchase.”…

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Don’t Just Protest, Do It Fabulously!Post + Comments (120)

Friday Morning Open Thread: There’s Still Time!…

by Anne Laurie| August 23, 20194:53 am| 161 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, Cat Blogging, Dolt 45, Nature & Respite, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Repubs in Disarray!, Your Place Is In The Resistance

WEBSITE CRASHES: Philadelphia animal shelter’s website crashes after excitement over 26-pound cat ‘BeeJay’ https://t.co/L0RDdikcde

— Action News on 6abc (@6abc) August 22, 2019

Nobody tell Cole about this, he’s got enough on his ~~plate~~ ottoman already. But if you’re curious, ActionNews suggests checking the shelter’s Facebook page.

Elsewhere… The Repubs have already decided that Trump is gonna lose in 2020, because we all know deficits only matter when there’s a Democrat in the Oval Office:

Republican lawmakers say they’re hopeful Trump will pivot to deficit reduction in a second term. @ESCochrane https://t.co/6bn2eDPJTI pic.twitter.com/xUaPvUmlxI

— Jim Tankersley (@jimtankersley) August 21, 2019

Further proof:

GOP internal polls must be showing that the Senate likely also to be lost in 2020 https://t.co/J0Sw7gwed7

— David Frum (@davidfrum) August 22, 2019

McConnell: If Democrats eliminate the filibuster they will regret it when, because they got past our nihilistic, nullifying obstruction to pass climate change legislation, the Earth remains habitable for humans. https://t.co/Ffg3xNcM7J

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) August 22, 2019

So — while we must still do our best to Dump Trump — here’s to the success of Amy McGrath!

Mitch McConnell’s 34-year residence in Washington has been a masterclass in dismantling the institution of the Senate for partisan gain and destroying the trust that we once had in government.

To defend democracy, we need to defeat Mitch. Join my team: https://t.co/BJnihsC4KH

— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) August 22, 2019

Friday Morning Open Thread: <em>There’s Still Time!… </em>Post + Comments (161)

I really should read my own blog.

Just a few bad apples.

Nevertheless, she persisted.

Militantly superior in their own minds…

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

The revolution will be supervised.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

I did not have this on my fuck 2020 bingo card.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Good luck with your asparagus.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Reality always wins in the end.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Too inconsequential to be sued

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Consistently wrong since 2002

No one could have predicted…

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

This blog will pay for itself.