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Watch the Republicans’ language vs. President Biden’s

The Republicans’ 2021 political strategy

The Republicans’ Culture War is in high gear. That means Republicans attacking their favorite bogeymen. Here are some of the things Republicans have been saying lately, instead of helping to govern our country:

“Antifa” (to the extent that’s even a real thing) and Black Lives Matter were responsible for the January 6, 2021 domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capital, even though the FBI keeps rounding up one right wing extremist after another for the attack, many of whom were caught red-handed on video. Not surprisingly, Republicans are now attacking the FBI.

–Companies and others are destroying the country by acting “woke,” a substitute for the older “politically incorrect,” and meant to be a disparagement of perceived liberalism.

–Similarly, according to Republicans, liberals (especially in the media) are guilty of “cancel culture,” which seems to mean doing things like suspending Donald Trump from Twitter and Facebook for inciting violence in the January 6 attacks. Apparently, however, Republicans have no problem canceling things and people they don’t like, such as stripping Congresswoman Liz Cheney of her House leadership post for criticizing Trump, defunding ACORN and Planned Parenthood, or, as Trump recently suggested, banning Twitter and Facebook altogether.

The January 6 Commission Democratic pivot

The January 6 terrorist attack instigated by you know who

News headlines right now are proclaiming what has been obvious all along: that Congressional Republicans are desperately trying to block the creation of a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the deadly January 6, 2021 domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol. Given that the proposed commission would be created by legislation, and the Republican U.S. Senate minority can therefore filibuster such legislation, the commission is probably not going to happen. But who says there has to be a “bipartisan” commission regarding the January 6 attacks? The Democratic majorities of both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives have a perfectly good alternative:

Today’s Snark: Another Giuliani Embarrassment

Andrew Giuliani, son of Rudolph Giuliani of head-dripping, fed-raiding, Four Seasons Total Landscaping fame, announced yesterday that he is running for Governor of New York State as a Republican. Giuliani does have campaign experience, as this 1994 video demonstrates:

Liz Cheney ousted, Republican Civil War splits party

The current Republican Party

The Republican Party Civil War, which we have been talking about for many years, hit a critical point yesterday, as U.S. House members kicked Congresswoman Liz Cheney out of her number three House leadership post as House Republican Conference Chair. Cheney’s crime was simply to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election and declare that Joe Biden is America’s legitimately accepted president, as every U.S. state formally has done, thus rejecting the “Big Lie” promoted by Donald Trump that his 7 million popular vote, 74 electoral vote loss to Biden in the 2020 election was somehow the result of a massive fraud. Trump even fomented an unprecedented, deadly terrorist attack on our U.S. Capitol to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election results based on his Big Lie. Not coincidentally, this week, more than 100 Republican former office holders, including cabinet members, national security officials, ambassadors, state governors and others, are threatening to leave the GOP and form a third party. According to this group, “forces of conspiracy, division, and despotism” are threatening to take over the Republican Party, putting our country’s freedoms at risk. Therefore, it’s fair to say that the Republican Party has moved well beyond “disarray” (a favorite word that the mainstream media frequently and incorrectly apply to the Democrats) and into full-blown crisis.

Democrats create achievements, Republicans create acrimony

Democrats getting things done while Republicans do each other in

Right now, there is a massive split between what is going on in the Democratic Party versus the Republican Party.

The Democrats, led by President Joe Biden, have had a tremendous 100 days. First and foremost, Biden has succeeded in getting over 200 million COVID vaccinations into Americans’ arms (double his original stated goal), and taking steps to beat the pandemic using real science and competence. Next, Biden pushed through and signed the American Rescue Plan, including stimulus checks for millions of Americans, all while rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change and undoing many of Trump’s damaging executive orders. Biden is now being compared to progressive activist President Franklin Roosevelt, who also had a very successful first 100 days (as well as being re-elected president three more times).

Meanwhile, as if to quash another Republican myth, the U.S. stock market has had the best performance during a president’s first 100 days since the beginning of John F. Kennedy‘s presidency in 1961. Biden’s popularity is substantially high (and way higher than Trump’s), especially given our polarized politics today. Biden and Congressional Democrats have also continued on offense with a positive policy agenda that includes rebuilding America’s infrastructure, creating jobs, battling climate change, support for American families, and more. While they may not get all of it passed in its current proposed form (after all, Washington is about compromise and the art of the possible), they are poised to pass a great deal more.

Giuliani raided, internet howls with laughter

Apparently, mockery of Rudolph Giuliani is not new

Federal agents raided former Donald Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani‘s home and office on Wednesday, executing a search warrant and seizing electronic devices. The raid was reportedly in connection with a criminal investigation into Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine (trying to generate false disparaging information on Joe Biden‘s son Hunter) on behalf of Trump’s presidential campaigns. But just as noteworthy as the news itself regarding the Giuliani raid was the explosion of mockery that has taken place on social media as a result. Apparently, the pent-up demand to express schadenfreude and karma regarding Giuliani is massive. Many of these social media reactions recall Giuliani “highlights,” including his melting face, his disastrous blunder renting the parking lot of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping Company instead of the Four Seasons Hotel for a press conference (or worse, possibly picking such an irrelevant and pathetic-looking backdrop, located between a sex shop and a crematorium, on purpose), his being caught on film with his pants down in a hotel room with a young woman in the most recent Borat movie, and more. Follow us after the jump for some of the best Twitter reactions, including a couple of our own:

On police violence, the “re-” words are better than the “de-” words

“Black Lives Matter” response to police racism and violence

The United States is experiencing the latest chapters of the continuing tragedy of police violence against people of color. Just as Derek Chauvin is being tried for the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, protests have broken out another incident occurred just about 10 miles away in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center, where a police officer killed Daunte Wright in a traffic stop over a hanging air freshener last weekend.

These latest police attacks on our citizens of color caused some liberals to repeat the call to “defund the police” that was in heavy rotation over the last couple of years. For example, U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib expressed this view on Monday, going even further to write “no more policing”:

However, defunding the police is an unpopular idea which hurt Democrats in the 2020 elections. Furthermore, defunding the police to reduce racism and violence is counterproductive, since even a hollowed-out, nearly bankrupt police department could be just as racist and trigger-happy as always, and some proposals to reduce citizen murders by police, such as stricter training and recruiting, might require more, not less, funding.

Perhaps that’s why former President Barack Obama released a different kind of statement yesterday on behalf of himself and former First Lady Michelle Obama, regarding the killing of Daunte Wright:

Note the term “reimagine policing” that Obama used, and how different that is from “defund the police.” President Obama realizes that, when it comes to police violence, the “re-” words are better than the “de-” words.

President Biden delivers powerful message, executive orders on gun violence

March For Our Lives rally, Columbus, Ohio, 2018

President Joe Biden took several significant executive actions yesterday to combat gun violence. In a White House Rose Garden ceremony, Biden, along with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, announced that he is:

    • Directing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to propose regulations to stop the proliferation of deadly, untraceable “ghost guns”;
    • Modifying federal grant programs to increase available funding for community violence intervention programs;
    • Publishing a model state “red flag” law (which would permit families or law enforcement to petition courts to remove guns from someone who poses a threat to themself or others);
    • Directing DOJ to issue a new, annual comprehensive report on firearms trafficking;
    • Directing DOJ to propose a regulation ensuring the stabilizing arm braces that circumvent the law on dangerous short-barrel rifles are subject to the National Firearms Act;
    • Nominating David Chipman, a former special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and longtime gun owner and gun safety expert, to be the director of the ATF.

In Matt Gaetz sex scandal, Twitter leads the way

Rep. Matt Gaetz (right) on Fox News, protesting a bit too much.

Unless you have been in a cave with no media whatsoever, you are no doubt aware that U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida is in a heap of potential trouble. The U.S. Justice Department, beginning with the Trump administration last year, reportedly has been investigating Gaetz over allegations that he engaged in a sexual relationship with one or more 17 year-old girls (which, for Gaetz, would be a felony in Florida) and that he engaged in illegal interstate sex trafficking of these girls. Much of this news has been received this week via Twitter, for example, from sources such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Yesterday, a video of Gaetz quickly spread on Twitter in which he talks about casting the sole “No” vote in the entire U.S. Congress on the 2017 Combating Human Trafficking in Commercial Vehicles Act:

Twitter is also the place where readers have been reminded that Gaetz has a boy, “Nestor,” living with him, whom Gaetz claims is his “son,” although there is no legal status that declares Nestor to be Gaetz’s son.

https://twitter.com/richardhine/status/1377070860473864195

Perhaps not coincidentally, it has also been reported this week, and widely distributed on Twitter, that Gaetz is thinking of resigning from Congress, or at least not running for reelection, to go work for right wing media outlet Newsmax.

https://twitter.com/darinself/status/1377016224987676677

While these charges against Rep. Gaetz are very serious and sad, many Twitter users have also been able to create some of the most brutal and often hilarious mockery against him. Check out some of the best examples after the jump:

Republicans about to fall into next political trap on infrastructure

Better roads and more jobs: a win-win for America

On the heels of  President Joe Biden‘s policy and political victory on the American Rescue Plan (ARP), and with the COVID vaccination rate well exceeding his 100-day goal, Biden and Congressional Democrats are now adding infrastructure to their agenda. That is the dry term for the crucial task of rebuilding America’s crumbling roads and bridges. And once again, just as happened with the ARP, Republicans are in danger of ending up on the wrong side of a very popular issue.

First, recall that Donald Trump, touting himself as a “builder,” had talked about rebuilding America’s infrastructure since at least 2015. After arriving at the White House, Trump even promised up to $1.5 trillion in infrastructure spending. Of course, Trump’s big plan never happened, just like Trump’s promised healthcare plan, nor anything else other than a tax cut for the wealthy and the near-destruction of our democracy.

But now the Democrats, with the White House and control of both houses of Congress, have the opportunity to deliver on rebuilding America, or what President Biden and the Democrats might call “Build Back Better.” And here’s where the Republicans may again fall into a trap of their own making: