Defining the 21st Century Republican Party?

[Skinypupy]

A 13-year-old in Idaho is considered mature enough by the state to be forced to carry her rapist’s baby to term, but as of July 1, is NOT mature enough to…enter a public library.

Someone make it make sense please.

[Smoove_B]

As if that story wasn't horrific enough, let's also focus on hunger:

Summer EBT, or electronic benefits transfer, is the first new federal food assistance program in nearly half a century. The SUN Bucks program grants $120 per eligible child to be used during the summer months, leveraging existing programs including pandemic-era funding. Kids are eligible if they qualify for free or reduced meals during the school year. Families can use the money in addition to other government food benefits.

The governors of a dozen states – Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming – opted out of the program, leaving about 9.5 million students without the aid this summer, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. All of these states are led by Republicans, who have said they oppose welfare, the administrative burden of overseeing food benefits and what they call overreach by the federal government. All but two of the six states with the highest rates of food insecurity opted out of the benefits. The two exceptions, whose Republican governors accepted EBT, are Arkansas and Louisiana.

[YellowKing]

That breaks my heart. I know you guys have heard my stories before about the kids my wife sees come to school every day hungry. It's literally the only place they get a proper meal all day. And again, she works in a predominantly middle class school district. And through their abortion policies, they're only encouraging the problem.

[LawBeefaroni]

Another example of ideology trumping logic.

Bang for buck, feeding hungry kids is one of the best uses of funds. Opposing welfare as a blanket policy is typical of the ideological inflexibility inherent in modern politics.

Those states are screwing themselves.

[Smoove_B]

That breaks my heart. I know you guys have heard my stories before about the kids my wife sees come to school every day hungry.

When meals were provided to everyone during the earliest days of the pandemic, I spoke with a few teachers and administrators that were so happy. Not only because of the obvious need, but by just providing the food for everyone (not selected kids that applied) the administrative paperwork was gone.

It's mind boggling to me that we don't do this and when you ask Republicans if this is the kind of program they'd support when they claim all our "foreign aid money should stay here!" they just stare at you.

Those stares are screwing themselves.

Let's check back in early November and see how this affects voting, eh?

[YellowKing]

I mean it's one thing to oppose welfare for adults because you think people are freeloaders or whatever. I don't agree with that at all, but if you want to ignore privilege and believe everyone is equally capable of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, fine. But don't take it out on the kids. No child chose to be born into poverty, or to neglectful parents. Even if you believe every parent of a hungry child "should be able to do better," why would you make the kids suffer?

I've heard the counter-argument that offering free lunches produces a hardship on grocery stores due to lost revenue or some such nonsense. I highly doubt that grocery stores are just barely staying afloat because of Lunchables sales.

[Pyperkub]

The other factor is that if AI ends up being all that (it won't, but let's hypothesize), there will be very few jobs where you can earn a good living. Note that I said "earn", because the monopolist class will just be taking rents from everyone.

[Holman]

I don't agree with that at all, but if you want to ignore privilege and believe everyone is equally capable of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, fine.

I'm not dumping on you, YK, but I'm fascinated by the whole "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps" idea.

The original meaning of the phrase is a joke: it's clearly impossible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and it's silly to think that you can. But the persistence of "self-made" ideology is such that we now use the phrase as if it *is* possible.

[hepcat]

It’s hardly the only phrase in the English language that has changed in meaning over time. It’s now used the way YK used it. And has been for as long as I…and yourself, I think it’s safe to say…remember. Consistency trumps history when it comes to language. In a few generations it may mean that these pretzels are making me thirsty.

[Holman]

Oh, I love language change. This is just an interesting case where the false has come to be taken for true.

[hepcat]

Yeah, so do I. I was recently watching a movie and one of the characters used the phrase “blood is thicker than water” to say family should come before any other bonds. The character they were talking to told her that the phrase originally meant that bonds created in battle (blood) are stronger than those created in the womb (water).

[Kraken]

Oh, I love language change. This is just an interesting case where the false has come to be taken for true.

Like the carrot and the stick, derived from "carrot on a stick." Nowadays the stick just stands for punishment, plain and simple. Originally, it was understood to be that which keeps the carrot out of reach -- a challenge or obstacle.

[Skinypupy]

I've seen it floated around several times from fairly respectable journalists that this is the GOP 2024 platform that has passed party leadership.

I mean...this has to be a joke, right? Like, a bullet point list of Trump rally grievances with no actual strategies behind them can't actually be an official party platform, can it? "End inflation". "Rebuild our cities". "Stop crime". Okay...how, exactly, do you propose to do that?



Also, very interesting that there's nothing about reproductive rights in here at all. Although it does warm my heart to hear evil harpy Gayle Ruzicka whining about it.

[Isgrimnur]

With just one mention of abortion, Republican Party lays out its 2024 policy platform

16 pages embedded in the NPR article, 14 of which are actual content.

[Smoove_B]

Other social issues appear more frequently, including promises related to limiting federal funding for schools teaching so-called Critical Race Theory and keeping "men out of women's sports."

How are these people even remotely viable as a political party? They're absolute clowns. Clowns!

[Unagi]

I'm sure "no tax on tips" is just a prelude to "CEO's salaries will be done via automatic gratuity for companies of 8 or more"

[Kraken]

#14 is especially laughable. Glad they're going to defend SS and Medicare with no cuts (or, presumably, tax increases). Magic! And wait til you see their healthcare program!

[Carpet_pissr]

My favorite, and possibly the most absurd, is "Stop outsourcing".

OK!!! Let's see what your corporate overlords that provide you with all that campaign money think of that.

[Pyperkub]

Duh. The way it gets done is obvious.

Tax cuts. It's the magic solution for everything (and the only real thing they passed with control of all 3 branches).

[hepcat]

#14 is especially laughable. Glad they're going to defend SS and Medicare with no cuts (or, presumably, tax increases). Magic! And wait til you see their healthcare program!

The problem being that NUMEROUS GOP members have gone on record saying they want to cut entitlements.

[hepcat]

Whoops, double post.

[Holman]

I've seen it floated around several times from fairly respectable journalists that this is the GOP 2024 platform that has passed party leadership.

I mean...this has to be a joke, right? Like, a bullet point list of Trump rally grievances with no actual strategies behind them can't actually be an official party platform, can it? "End inflation". "Rebuild our cities". "Stop crime". Okay...how, exactly, do you propose to do that?

FWIW, this list really is the bullet-point summary of the platform.

However, the full platform is still only about five or six thousand words, so it really doesn't flesh out much detail beyond what's in this list.

[Jaymann]

Here is the dream scenario. DonOld loses to Kamala in 2024, but denies the loss and refuses to give up his death grip on the Banana Republicans. He serves probation or a token prison sentence and mounts another campaign in 2028 at age 82. No one in the GOP dares to challenge him for fear of losing the MAGA base. DonOld gets trounced unmercifully in 2028.

[LordMortis]

Here is the dream scenario. DonOld loses to Kamala in 2024, but denies the loss and refuses to give up his death grip on the Banana Republicans. He serves probation or a token prison sentence and mounts another campaign in 2028 at age 82. No one in the GOP dares to challenge him for fear of losing the MAGA base. DonOld gets trounced unmercifully in 2028.

The dream scenario is his health catches up to him October and he goes down for serious surgery or worse. Or maybe that's my dream scenario for him.

[Unagi]

Slightly better dream scenario:

lol - LM just beat me to it on preview.

[Unagi]

oh wait, I was goint to say: He loses in November and flat lines (heart health related) in December.

[LordMortis]

Also I hate that I think about that for people at a political level in the US but I do. I actually dream that somehow nature does a number on a number of people and I hate myself for having that fantasy. It's not a good way to be a person.

[Isgrimnur]

Calling him a politician is an insult to politicians.

[Jaymann]

My point is that he is better at dragging down the Banana Republicans while still alive. If he bites his last mouthful of KFC they may recover more quickly.

[Isgrimnur]

Also I hate that I think about that for people at a political level in the US but I do. I actually dream that somehow nature does a number on a number of people and I hate myself for having that fantasy. It's not a good way to be a person.

Good people fought the Nazis.

[Kraken]

My point is that he is better at dragging down the Banana Republicans while still alive. If he bites his last mouthful of KFC they may recover more quickly.

When he's finally out of the picture the infighting between his would-be successors and those who would return the party to sanity is going to be epic, and will likely last for at least a couple of election cycles. Trump is a destroyer who leaves ruins behind himself.

[GreenGoo]

As long as he's alive he will be a king maker and the GOP will kowtow to a single person.

He needs to do more than just lose the election.

[Dogstar]

Here is the dream scenario. DonOld loses to Kamala in 2024, but denies the loss and refuses to give up his death grip on the Banana Republicans. He serves probation or a token prison sentence and mounts another campaign in 2028 at age 82. No one in the GOP dares to challenge him for fear of losing the MAGA base. DonOld gets trounced unmercifully in 2028.

My dream scenario is that I wake up and it’s 2015 and DJT has decided he’s not actually running for President.

[Pyperkub]

Here is the dream scenario. DonOld loses to Kamala in 2024, but denies the loss and refuses to give up his death grip on the Banana Republicans. He serves probation or a token prison sentence and mounts another campaign in 2028 at age 82. No one in the GOP dares to challenge him for fear of losing the MAGA base. DonOld gets trounced unmercifully in 2028.

My dream scenario is that I wake up and it’s 2015 and DJT has decided he’s not actually running for President.

Honestly, I'm going back to 2000 and hanging chads, and how we ended up ignoring the Al Quaeda threats, and then had Dick Cheney, et all, lie their asses off to get us into a War for Oil in Iraq when the real enemy was in Afghanistan.

[dfs]

Y'all are young. I'm gonna wake up and it's 1980 and Carter trounced Reagan.

Can you imagine if our country had decided to go for clean energy independence in 1980 where we would be internationally w/out mideast entanglements over the last 44 years.

[Unagi]

I'm going back to convince that one chimp-like ape to put the femur down.

[waitingtoconnect]

I don't agree with that at all, but if you want to ignore privilege and believe everyone is equally capable of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, fine.

I'm not dumping on you, YK, but I'm fascinated by the whole "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps" idea.

The original meaning of the phrase is a joke: it's clearly impossible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and it's silly to think that you can. But the persistence of "self-made" ideology is such that we now use the phrase as if it *is* possible.

Thanks to globalisation the price of labor hasn’t shifted since 1980. Even in key industries wages haven’t shifted since 2000. However assets have grown massively in that time and ownership has shifted to the rich and super rich. So our middle class has been hollowed out and comparatively is worse off than the middle class in the 1970s.

For many businesses including ones like Macdonalds catering for richer customers is far more profitable. So they raise prices to increase profits but don’t raise wages and that means inflation.

[Punisher]

oh wait, I was goint to say: He loses in November and flat lines (heart health related) in December.

So tjis has me wondering especially with the Republicans screaming it's too late to change candidates. (And with the knowledge that they are more of a do as I say not as I do crowd)
What if he runs, then a week before the election he passes?
What if je wins and then dies of shock the same day?

Also as an aside. What if Biden gave in, ran anyway, then won in a landslide? I would find this one hilarious.

[Unagi]

The 20th Amendment says if the president-elect dies before beginning his term, then the vice president-elect assumes the spot.

The point at which they become "president-elect" is debatable. Certainly after Jan. the 6th, (the count)... But it could be said to occur immediately after the Electoral College vote.

[Grifman]

My state:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/09/politics ... index.html



She knows nothing about education whatsoever. Even ignoring her inflammatory comments, she's got no business being head of education in NC. Again, this is nothing about having a program, it's about owning the libs.

Of course, our Republican gubernatorial candidate is even worse He's a total hypocrite and nutjob.