What Do Mainstream Republican Careerists Think Of The #CocaineConvention So Far?

Before the #CocaineConvention began yesterday, I passed a TV and noticed that Trump was doing a press gaggle of some kind. Briefly interested in the way you might be attracted to a pile-up on the inter-state shown on TV, I was soon wondering why the TV network didn't just label it "And now an uninterrupted hour of lies from your president." And that was just a precursor of what was coming-- Apocalypse Now, 2020.

CNN, which was thanked by Señor T, for covering his shit-show, noted this morning that it "started off with a parade of dishonesty, in stark contrast with last week's Democratic convention. While CNN also watched and fact-checked the Democrats, those four nights combined didn't have the number of misleading and false claims made on the first night of the Republicans' convention." CNN listed over a dozen of the most blatant and pre-approved lies that, in sum, are the substitute for a party platform.

Speaking of which, at The Atlantic this morning, David Frum ran down the unspoken GOP platform, which the party has decided not to publish. "This omission," he noted, "has led some to conclude that the GOP lacks ideas, that it stands for nothing, that it has shriveled to little more than a Trump cult. This conclusion is wrong. The Republican Party of 2020 has lots of ideas. He listed 13 ideas that "command almost universal assent within the Trump administration, within the Republican caucuses of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, among governors and state legislators, on Fox News, and among rank-and-file Republicans. Once you read the list, I think you’ll agree that these are authentic ideas with meaningful policy consequences, and that they are broadly shared. The question is not why Republicans lack a coherent platform; it’s why they’re so reluctant to publish the one on which they’re running." I'll summarize, using Frum's words:

• Adjusting the burden of taxation down on society’s richest citizens.
• Coronavirus is a much-overhyped problem. It’s not that dangerous and will soon burn itself out. States should reopen their economies as rapidly as possible, and accept the ensuing casualties as a cost worth paying-- and certainly a better trade-off than saving every last life by shutting down state economies. Masking is useless and theatrical, if not outright counterproductive.
• Climate change is a much-overhyped problem. It’s probably not happening. If it is happening, it’s not worth worrying about.
• China has become an economic and geopolitical adversary of the United States. Military spending should be invested with an eye to defeating China on the seas, in space, and in the cyber-realm.
• The trade and alliance structures built after World War II are outdated. America still needs partners of course, especially Israel and maybe Russia.
• Health care is a purchase like any other. Individuals should make their own best deals in the insurance market with minimal government supervision. Those who pay more should get more. Those who cannot pay must either rely on Medicaid, accept charity, or go without.
• Voting is a privilege. States should have wide latitude to regulate that privilege in such a way as to minimize voting fraud, which is rife among African Americans and new immigrant communities. The federal role in voting oversight should be limited to preventing Democrats from abusing the U.S. Postal Service to enable fraud by their voters.
• Anti-black racism has ceased to be an important problem in American life. At this point, the people most likely to be targets of adverse discrimination are whites, Christians, and Asian university applicants.
• The courts should move gradually and carefully toward eliminating the mistake made in 1965 when women’s sexual privacy was elevated into a constitutional right.
• The post-Watergate ethics reforms overreached. We should welcome the trend toward unrestricted and secret campaign donations. Overly strict conflict-of-interest rules will only bar wealthy and successful businesspeople from public service.
• Trump’s border wall is the right policy to slow illegal immigration; the task of enforcing immigration rules should not fall on business operators.
• The country is currently gripped by a surge of crime and lawlessness as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement and its criticism of police.
• Civility and respect are cherished ideals. But in the face of the overwhelming and unfair onslaught against President Trump by the media and the Deep State, his occasional excesses on Twitter and at his rallies should be understood as pardonable reactions to much more severe misconduct by others.

"So, concluded Frum, "there’s the platform right there. Why not publish it? There are two answers to that question, one simple, one more complicated. The simple answer is that President Trump’s impulsive management style has cast his convention into chaos. The location, the speaking program, the arrangements-- all were decided at the last minute. Managing the rollout of a platform, as well, was just one task too many. The more complicated answer is that the platform I’ve just described, like so much of the Trump-Republican program, commands support only among a minority of the American people. The platform works (to the extent it does work) by exciting enthusiastic support among Trump supporters; but stated too explicitly, it invites a backlash among the American majority. This is a platform for a party that talks to itself, not to the rest of the country. And for those purposes, it will succeed most to the extent it is communicated only implicitly, to those receptive to its message. The challenge for Republicans in the week ahead is to hope that President Trump can remember, night after night, to speak only the things he’s supposed to speak-- not to blurt the things his party wants its supporters to absorb unspoken."

Frum just neglected to mention one big and rapidly growing part of the unwritten Republican Party Platform-- Q-Anon, the new Republican Party Religion, which is disrupting the GOP and the already crackpot religious right churches. "Once the fascination of far-right commentators and their followers, QAnon is no longer fringe," wrote Katelyn Beaty for ReligionNews. "With support from Trump and other elected officials, it has gained credibility both on the web and in the offline world: In Georgia, a candidate for Congress has praised Q as “a mythical hero,” and at least five other congressional hopefuls from Illinois to Oregon have voiced support. One scholar found a 71% increase in QAnon content on Twitter and a 651% increase on Facebook since March." 

Jon Thorngate is the pastor at LifeBridge, a nondenominational church of about 300 in a Milwaukee suburb. In recent months, he said, his members have shared “Plandemic,” a half-hour film that presents COVID-19 as a moneymaking scheme by government officials and others, on Facebook. Members have also passed around a now-banned Breitbart video that promotes hydroxychloroquine as a cure for the virus.

Thorngate, one of the few pastors who would go on the record among those who called QAnon a real problem in their churches, said that only five to 10 members are actually posting the videos online. But in conversations with other members, he’s realized many more are open to conspiracy theories than those who post.

  Thorngate attributes the phenomenon in part to the “death of expertise”-- a distrust of authority figures that leads some Americans to undervalue long-established measures of competency and wisdom. Among some church members, he said, the attitude is, “I’m going to use church for the things I like, ignore it for the things I don’t and find my own truth.

“That part for us is concerning, that nothing feels authoritative right now.”

For years in the 1980s and ’90s, U.S. evangelicals, above nearly any other group, warned what will happen when people abandon absolute truth (which they located in the Bible), saying the idea of relative truth would lead to people believing whatever confirms their own inward hunches. But suspicion of big government, questioning of scientific consensus (on evolution, for example) and a rejection of the morals of Hollywood and liberal elites took hold among millennial Christians, many of whom feel politically alienated and beat up by mainstream media. They are natural targets for QAnon.

Trump Wants To Break Up The Big Banks? Republicans In Congress Are Laughing

click on the image to understand who really wants to protect us from Wall Street

Yesterday, one of the Trump campaign murky higher-ups, Paul Manafort, claimed that the Republican platform will advocate bringing back Glass-Steagall, which will, he said, "create barriers between what the big banks can do and try and avoid some of the crisis that led to 2008." Although corrupt corporate Democrats-- primarily Bill Clinton and the New Dems-- have been complicit in repealing Glass-Steagall and preventing it from being re-introduced, killing it has always been and remains much more a Republican priority, a scheme first put forward by reactionary Texas Senator Phil Gramm (currently Washington's sleaziest and most corrupt bank lobbyist). Trump is going up against another Republican policy long supported by the party leadership including both Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan.

Trying to sound like a Berniecrat, Manafort told the media that the Trumpists "believe that the Obama-Clinton years have passed legislation that has been favorable to big banks, which is why you see all of the Wall Street money going to her. They know she’s their champion, and they’re supporting her fully. We are supporting small banks and Main Street."

I suspect most voters couldn't tell you what "Glass-Steagall" means but reinstating it has been one of the principles on which Bernie's campaign was based and on which the Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic Party is based. The law was repealed with a big bipartisan majority of Wall Street whores in 1999 to help pave the way for the formation of Citigroup Inc. by the $46 billion merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group. It tore down the wall that separated investment and consumer banking functions. In 1999 when progressives began demanding it be reinstated, even Steny Hoyer realized a colossal error has been made. The corrupt Maryland conservative told his colleagues that "as someone who voted to repeal Glass-Steagall, maybe that was a mistake." Among those voting against repeal back in 1999 were unwavering progressives in the House like Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), John Conyers (D-MI), John Lewis (D-GA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Maxine Waters (D-CA). Among today's luminaries who backed repeal are John Kasich (R-OH), Paul Ryan (R-WI), Fred Upton (R-MI), as well as then-House members whose Senate careers have been largely financed by Wall Street:

• Rob Portman (R-OH)- $8,499,386
• Robert Menendez (D-NJ)- $7,292,595
• Pat Toomey (R-PA)- $7,248,042
• Roy Blunt (R-MO)- $6,561,751
• John Thune (R-SD)- $5,788,111
• Richard Burr (R-NC)- $5,303,890
• Lindsey Graham (R-SC)- $5,101,404
• Susan Collins (R-ME)- $3,488,981
• Roger Wicker (R-MS)- $2,135,238

The House Financial Services Committee is chaired by corrupt Texas Wall Street puppet Jeb Hensarling. He wasn't a member of Congress in 1999 but he has been an unwavering supporter of the bankster agenda since getting elected in 2002. His overarching goal is to repeal Dodd-Frank and he is a top foe of reinstating Glass-Steagall. Wall Street has rewarded him with $7,006,460 in bribes/contributes since 2002. Aside from Hensarling the top 10 crooks on his committee in terms of bribes accepted from Wall Street are all opponents of reinstating Glass Steagall:

• Ed Royce (R-CA)- $6,435,648
• Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)- $5,284,230
• Jim Himes (New Dem-CT)- $5,179,427
• Scott Garrett (R-NJ)- $4,746,141
• Steve Stivers (R-OH)- $3,843,387
• Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)- $3,466,470
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC)- $3,443,436
• Patrick Murphy (New Dem-FL)- $3,443,436
• Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY)- $2,928,688
• Peter King (R-NY)- $2,610,824

Thanks to Bernie and Elizabeth Warren, New Dem objections-- from Wall Street suck ups like Jim Himes (CT) and Ron Kind (WI)-- were overridden and Clinton finally agreed to a newer and even broader version of Glass-Steagall and her adoption of that is reflected in the Democratic Party platform. Interestingly, McConnell, Ryan, Hensarling and the rest of Wall Street's top congressional allies are all backing Trump and have figured out that it doesn't matter what he says because nothing he's ever said publicly was reflected in what he's then done; he'll say anything at all to accomplish his ends. None of them think Trump really wants to or intends to try to break up the big banks, which is exactly what Glass-Steagall would do. One Republican congressional staffer told me yesterday that no one on this side of the aisle thinks Trump even understands that simple concept and that he's just trolling for simple-minded Bernie supporters. Eric Levitz, reporting for New York, may have talked to the same guy I did:

It’s hard not to see the Trump campaign’s latest gesture to Sandersism as anything but a wholly cynical political ploy. The chances of a new Glass-Steagall passing a GOP Congress are exceptionally slim. And any legislation that broke up the big banks-- while repealing all of Dodd-Frank’s regulations-- would probably be a net win for Wall Street. Trump isn’t embracing Glass-Steagall out of ideological principle, but rather because the Democratic rank and file support it-- while Bill and Hillary Clinton do not.

Regardless, the fact that the Republican standard-bearer sees a political benefit in pretending to be to the left of Clinton on financial reform is noteworthy. In so many ways, this ain’t Mitt Romney’s party anymore.

UPDATE: Trump And The Banksters Would Do Just Fine Together

Trump is reportedly telling campaign donors that he's leaning toward appointing hedge fund criminal Steve Mnuchin, his campaign’s finance chairman, to be Treasury Secretary. For nearly 2 decades Mnuchin was a Goldman Sachs executive.

With The Selection Of Mike Pence For VP, Republicans Have Now Checked All The Hate Boxes

- by Noah

I knew this was coming. As the speculation as to which wackjob of the vast, seemingly infinite list of possible Republican running mates Herr Trumpf would consider for a running mate grew, the choice of Indiana Governor Mike Pence was all too obvious. Why? The answer is simple. Traditionally, candidates for president pick either a running mate from a state where that pick can help win that state, or, if not that, they pick a candidate who has a strong reputation in an area where the presidential candidate is a little lacking.

In this case, Trump was demonstrably week in the area of homophobia. Republican voters hate that. In their eyes, homophobia is the one weakness in Trump’s background of extensive bigotry. He has all the other hate boxes checked off, but not that one. So, that made Pence the natural choice. Christie had the bigotry and bully factor. Newtie had the nasty and the crazy. David Duke had the KKK thing but Trump needed a running mate who complements him, not a mate who just covers the same bases. But, Pence! Ah, Pence! No possible choice can top the extreme hate bonafides when it comes to LGBT citizens that Pence brings to the ticket.

With the selection of Pence, Republicans everywhere can breath easy. They now have a ticket that encompasses hate for everyone other than psychotically angry, old, hetero white men. Pence fits the party platform perfectly. To Trump, who has been endorsed by every white supremacy group in the land, the fact that Pence hails from a state that has a long history of KKK politics, is just an appealing bonus. Hell, back in 1925, when the KKK types across the country were mostly Democrats, literally half of Indiana’s General Assembly, and Republican Governor Edward L. Jackson, were openly KKK members. Both parties were severely infected.

Back then, you needed a KKK endorsement if you wanted to win office in Indiana, regardless of party. Lest you think this is just a thing from 90 years ago, KKK attitudes persist in Indiana in the form of the Tea Party, especially when it comes to immigrant, worker, and gay issues. To this day, Indiana is often called “the south’s most northern state”. According to the Indianapolis Star, even now, KKK leafleting goes on and recruiting is open and active.

Before Mike Pence became the extremist Governor of Indiana, he was an extremist U.S. Congressman representing Indiana’s 6th District. He has a 100% approval rating from the NRA and a 0% rating from Naral Pro-Choice. Pence’s amendment designed to eliminate federal funds for Planned Parenthood was one of the very first proposals approved by the 2011 Congress. Shortly after that, the 2011 Congress passed another Pence bill; one to end tax breaks for insurance companies that cover abortions. Pence’s misogyny continued once he became his state’s governor. Just as one example: he oversaw the cutting of $1.8 million from the state domestic violence budget.

Clearly, Mike Pence is a fanatic, a religious fanatic who says he is “A Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.” So much for the separation of church and state. He talks like a Taliban.

But, it’s with LGBT issues where Mike Pence has made his name and became a hero to Republicans. He’s a “marriage is between one man and one woman guy”. He became famous, or shall we say, infamous, for championing and then signing Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act that was designed to permit discrimination of all kinds against LGBT people. He’s even tried to tie funding for HIV research to a personal favorite of his- gay conversion “therapy.” He surrounded himself with the type of Christians who actually believe, in 2016, that homosexuality is a treatable disease and leads to sex with animals and children, etc. Most likely, Pence’s people also include the types of Christians that regard homosexuality as a capital offense.

Pence’s new law was so extreme that even conservatives criticized him for it. His in your face extremism on the issue brought very serious threats of economic boycotts of Indiana and lowered his popularity in the state to the point where his reelection as Governor was very much in doubt. So, he might as well look for another job, and that’s when Herr Trumpf came calling. Pence has what Trump needs. For both, it’s a lifeline. Back in December of last year, I ended a year in review post on the matter by saying

By the way, until the hell broke loose over the Indiana law, Mike Pence was so sure that he had a good chance to be the Vice Presidential nominee of his party next year. Maybe he does, in Republican World. After all, he’sgot the bigot box checked.

Then Trump happened.

Pence matches up perfectly with the Christian jihadist platform that the Republican Party has just put forward for their big 2016 Kook-Fest in Cleveland. Poor Cleveland, just when the get an NBA championship, they slide back into being the butt of jokes from all over the world. Hopefully, the joke won’t end up being on America. Right now, it’s merely embarrassing and scary. It can get worse, a lot worse.

Let’s take a look at that platform and see why a far right extremist like Pence works so well in the eyes of the Repug Party. The platform features, among other things:

1. Build the Big Giant Wall: Of course you knew this would be #A-1 on Herr Trump’s party platform. Being anti-Mexican is how he announced his fetid presence. It’s his signature move, unless being anti-women is, which brings us to #2.

2. Overturn Roe vs. Wade: An all-time Repug classic! On to #3!

3. End public funding of Planned Parenthood: Hey, never mind that most women depend on Planned Parenthood for uterine and breast cancer screening. The party is pro-cancer. Hell, look at all the carcinogens they allow corporations to dump anywhere they feel like it.

4. Teach the Bible in public schools: Now, we’re getting like our Taliban role models! Jihad!

5. Lawmakers must use religion to make legislative decisions: If the Republican Party keeps this up, we will see them demanding that their legislators grow long beards.

6. Use Gay Conversion Therapy on homosexuals: Aside from being evil and cruel (which Republicans seem to love), Gay Conversion has been completely debunked by the medical world. It even frequently causes its victims to commit suicide, but, of course, for Republicans, that makes the cruelty of Gay Conversion a win-win. (#PartyOfLife)

7. Oppose transgender rights: This one is about the Republican pee police and obsession with all things urination as much as anything. Pence proudly considers himself to be at the vanguard of such things.

8. Repeal Marriage Equality: Hey, why not just repeal anything to do with any kind of equality! Now, that’s what I call Republican!

9. Treat pornography as a public menace: Why are Republicans always so unbelievably obsessed with sex? Especially other peoples’ sex.

So, as you can see, Mike Pence is a perfect fit for Trump and the Republican Party. They're even both crooked as hell, but that's a future post. Everything here in the Republican platform is negative just like every single thing you ever hear from the Republican Party. Everything here is authoritarian in nature, just like every single thing you ever hear from the Republican Party. It’s who they are.

As a contrast, here are the highlights of the 2016 Democratic Party platform:

1. A healthcare Public Option: Screw you, Max Baucus!

2. Expand Social Security: Screw you, Paul “Crazy Eyes” Ryan!

3. A $15 minimum wage: Screw you, entire Republican Party!

4. Promote the legalization of marijuana: If Republicans really wanted to do something about the mess in Mexico, they would support this, for obvious reasons.

5. End the death penalty: I don’t see the party of cruelty and death ever getting behind this.

6. A new Glass-Steagall Act: This helped protect American citizens from their banks for over 80 years. When it was repealed, look what happened. You would think that any moral person would be behind a new Glass-Steagall, but there’s that ‘moral’ thing again. Damn!

The new Democratic Party Platform is the most forward-looking, progressive platform that the party has ever created and we should hold them to it. Now, speaking of progressive, let’s look at the highlights of the Republican Party Platform of 1956, 60 years ago, when that notorious socialist, Dwight David Eisenhower was president.

1. Extend protection of federal minimum wage laws as much as practicable.

2. Strengthen the federal and state employment service and the effectiveness of the unemployment system.

3. Extend and strengthen Social Security.

4. Protect The Right Of Workers To Organize Into Unions And Bargain collectively.

5. Provide Assistance To Improve The Economic Conditions Of Areas faced with persistent and substantial unemployment.

It’s truly shocking to look at this and realize just how much the Republican Party of my parents’ era has moved to the right. They have gone from the above platform of Eisenhower to the overt and blatant fascism of Trump and Pence. It began with Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon and it has slid down into the depths of hell from there. As Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell famously said-

This country is going so far to the right, you won’t recognize it.

Had enough? Mad as hell? The nomination of Trump & Pence should be a wake up call. How much longer will America sleep?

Marco Rubio In Kansas: "Conservatism Is About Ideas"

In Kansas tonight Little Marco came in a distant third (16.7%) behind Cruz (48.2%) and Herr Trumpf (23.3%). He won 6 delegates to Cruz's 24 and Herr Trumpf's 9. Trumpf called on him to drop out of the race. Early in the day, Rubio was in Overland, Kansas with spectacularly failed Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback Friday, campaigning against Herr. Watch the video above and listen to him explain how, exactly, Republican governance works. But people in Kansas-- just like people in Louisiana and Michigan-- know first hand how Republican governance works. The kind of Republican Party economic orthodoxy espoused by Rubio and Cruz-- and implemented by Gov. Brownback-- has destroyed Kansas' economy, just as Bobby Jindal's crackpot approach to Louisiana governance has wrecked his state's economy. What Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has done to implement the "principles" of Republican governance has done even worse to his state, actually destroying the very lives of its citizens! Friday, Rachel Maddow addressed Rick Snyder's implementation of doctrinaire Republican governance and how that has impacted his state. The segment is somewhat long but worth watching all the way through because it isn't just about Michigan and not even just about Little Marco... it's about Republican governance in general:



Last night Little Marco also came in third in Louisiana, but didn't win any delegates. He was at 11.2% to Trumpf's 41.5% and Cruz's 37.8%. Friday, writing for the Washington Post, Chico Harlan reported that Bobby Jindal's application of Republican precepts to government in Louisiana forced the state to gut spending for it's university and deplete its rainy-day funds. "It had cut 30,000 employees and furloughed others. It had slashed the number of child services staffers, including those devoted to foster family recruitment, and young abuse victims for the first time were spending nights at government offices. And then, the state’s new governor, John Bel Edwards (D), came on TV and said the worst was yet to come."

Edwards talked about "the extent of the state’s budget shortfall and said that Louisiana was plunging into a 'historic fiscal crisis.' Despite all the cuts of the previous years, the nation’s second-poorest state still needed nearly $3 billion-- almost $650 per person-- just to maintain its regular services over the next 16 months. Edwards  gave the state’s lawmakers three weeks to figure out a solution, a period that expires March 9 with no clear answer in reach."

Louisiana stands at the brink of economic disaster. Without sharp and painful tax increases in the coming weeks, the government will cease to offer many of its vital services, including education opportunities and certain programs for the needy. A few universities will shut down and declare bankruptcy. Graduations will be canceled. Students will lose scholarships. Select hospitals will close. Patients will lose funding for treatment of disabilities. Some reports of child abuse will go uninvestigated.

...Many of the state’s economic analysts say a structural budget deficit emerged and then grew under former governor Bobby Jindal, who, during his eight years in office, reduced the state’s revenue by offering tax breaks to the middle class and wealthy. He also created new subsidies aimed at luring and keeping businesses. Those policies, state data show, didn’t deliver the desired economic growth. This year, Louisiana has doled out $210 million more to corporations in the form of credits and subsidies than it has collected from them in taxes.

...“This was years of mismanagement by a governor who was more concerned about satisfying a national audience in a presidential race,” said Jay Dardenne (R), the lieutenant governor under Jindal and now the state’s commissioner of administration. Dardenne said Jindal had helped the state put off its day of reckoning in a way that mirrored a “Ponzi scheme.”

Kansas is not just what Republican governance creates but what Koch brothers-controlled Republican governance creates. It's a one-party state, with no Democrats in federal office or in statewide office. The state Senate has 31 Republicans and 9 Democrats and the state House has 97 Republicans and 28 Democrats. Sam Brownback's Kansas, which was supposed to be the GOP's tax-cut paradise can no longer pay its bills-- which is, after all, what happens when you cut taxes for the rich the way Ayn Rand told the GOP to. In 2012 Brownback signed a massive tax cut into law, arguing that it would boost the state's economy. Eventually, he hoped to eliminate individual income taxes entirely. "Our place, Kansas, will show the path, the difficult path, for America to go in these troubled times."

Kansas is now hundreds of millions of dollars short in revenue collection, its job growth has lagged the rest of the nation, and Moody's has cut the state's bond rating. "Governor Brownback came in here with an agenda to reduce the size of government, reduce taxes, and create a great economic boom," says University of Kansas professor Burdett Loomis. "Now there's been a dramatic decline in revenues, no great increase in economic activity, and we've got red ink until the cows come home."

…Brownback's tax cut proposal came as Kansas's revenues were on an upswing. Spending cuts and a one-cent sales tax passed by Brownback's Democratic predecessor had combined with economic growth to give Kansas a surplus. Now, Brownback argued, his tax cuts would lead to even more success. "I firmly believe these reforms will set the stage for strong economic growth in Kansas," he said.

The governor proposed to cut income taxes on the state's highest earners from 6.45 percent to 4.9 percent, to simplify tax brackets, and to eliminate state income taxes on most small business income entirely. In a nod to fiscal responsibility, though, he proposed to end several tax deductions and exemptions, including the well-liked home mortgage interest deduction. This would help pay for the cuts.

Yet as the bill went through the state Senate, these deductions proved too popular, and legislators voted to keep them all. The bill's estimated price tag rose from about $105 million to $800 million, but Brownback kept supporting it anyway. "I'm gonna sign this bill, I'm excited about the prospects for it, and I'm very thankful for how God has blessed our state," he said.

Democrats, and some Republicans, weren't buying it. "It bankrupts the state within two years," said Rochelle Chronister, a former state GOP chair who helped organize moderate Republicans against Brownback's agenda. And the House Democratic leader, Paul Davis, laid down a marker. "There is no feasible way that private-sector growth can accommodate the price tag of this tax cut," he said. "Our $600 million surplus will become a $2.5 billion deficit within just five years." In return, Brownback's administration claimed the bill would create 23,000 jobs by 2020, and would lead 35,000 more people to move to Kansas.

After the cuts became law, it was undisputed that Kansas's revenue collections would fall. But some supply-side analysts, like economist Arthur Laffer, argued that increased economic growth would deliver more revenue that would help cushion this impact.

Yet it's now clear that the revenue shortfalls are much worse than expected. "State general fund revenue is down over $700 million from last year," Duane Goossen, a former state budget director, told me. "That's a bigger drop than the state had in the whole three years of the recession," he said-- and it's a huge chunk of the state's $6 billion budget. Goossen added that the Kansas's surplus, which had been replenished since the recession, "is now being spent at an alarming, amazing rate."

Kansas has to balance its budget every year, so when that surplus runs out, further spending cuts will be necessary. The declining revenues have necessitated extensive cuts in state education funding, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Moody's cut of the state's bond rating this May was another embarrassment. And the economic benefits Brownback promised haven't materialized either. Chris Ingraham wrote at Wonkblog that Kansas's job growth has lagged behind the rest of the country, "especially in the years following the first round of Brownback tax cuts."

…Brownback's approval rating has plummeted-- in a recent poll by PPP, his 33 percent was actually lower than Barack Obama's 34 percent approval.

This is what Little Marco was proposing to bring to the whole country-- which is also what Ted Cruz is proposing to bring to the whole country and what Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are pushing on the whole country from their perches as the leaders if the House and Senate. Want to help save the country? Tap the thermometer below:

How Important Is Disavowing Herr Trumpf

Pete'n'Fred-- Trumpf enablers

As funny as it sounds to Democrats that Mitch McConnell is encouraging vulnerable Republican senators to make ads to save their own necks by running ads against Trumpf during the general election, Democratic candidates for Republican-held House seats are already reminding voters that the incumbents are, at the minimum, implicitly backing Trumpf by refusing to distance themselves from him and his hateful, divisive, anti-American rhetoric.

Yesterday, Paul Clements, who's running against hereditary multimillionaire and job-outsourcer Fred Upton, a guy very much like Trumpf in several ways, asked media in southwest Michigan if Upton will be supporting Herr Trumpf if he's the Republican nominee for President. "The question," he wrote, "must be raised in advance of Michigan's March 8th primary. Will he support his Party if the platform is:

•      A complete denial of climate science?
•      Not disavowing hate groups, like the KKK?
•      Opposing raising the minimum wage?
•      Flagrantly disrespectful to women?
•      Advocating for appointment of Supreme Court justices who will overturn the LGBT marriage equality decision of Obergefell v. Hodges and promote a law allowing LGBT discrimination, like the controversial Indiana law?
•      Rounding up and deporting 11 million people, including people brought here as infants?
•      Ending birthright citizenship?
•      A foreign policy that includes carpet-bombing civilians and other war crimes, like murdering the families of terrorists?
•      Bring back waterboarding as an instrument of interrogation?

Clements called on Upton to openly reject Herr Trumpf’s policies and to stop hiding under his bed and shaking and to be man enough to urge Michiganders to vote against him in the upcoming Republican primary. He wants him to join other mainstream Republicans, like Sen Ben Sasse (R-NE), Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA) and former Gov. Christie Todd Whitman (R-NJ) to pledge not to vote for him in the General Election if he's the Republican nominee.

Clements: "With Donald Trump emerging as the clear front-runner in the GOP race, it’s time for Congressman Upton to be up-front with people of Michigan’s Sixth District. It’s time for him to go on the record and state whether he will vote for Donald Trump in the General Election if he is the Republican nominee for President. Donald Trump embodies many of the worst qualities present in American politics today. His xenophobic views stand contrary to the principles that this great country was founded on, and the disrespectful statements on women, minorities, and the LGBT community need to be repudiated outright."

The South Bend Tribune tried to get an answer out of Upton. He had a spokesperson tell them that "Fred is staying out of the day-to-day dramatics of the presidential race. Fred’s focus right now is on the work right in front of him, of which there is plenty." But that was a lie. Tuesday Upton was on WHTC Morning News yacking away about the state of the presidential race, carefully keeping away from saying whether or not he'd back Herr Trumpf in the general election or try to help the establishment stop him before that.

DuWayne Gregory, who's taking on Trump-ambivalent Long Island Congressman Peter King this year, couldn't agree more. He also sent out a statement to the media, although his was calling on King to retract his promise to support Herr Trumpf should he receive the Republican nomination for president. "Donald Trump’s failure to disavow the KKK is further proof that he is completely unfit to be president, but Peter King has repeatedly promised to support him should he become the Republican nominee,” said Gregory. "I call on Peter King to retract his promise to support a Trump ticket and unequivocally disavow Donald Trump. The White House has no room for Trump’s misogyny and racism, and neither should Peter King."

On Sunday, King criticized Trump for his remarks on the KKK, saying that if Trump were telling the truth, "then he’s dumb. If it’s not true, then he’s lying about a real moral issue." However, following King’s endorsement last week of Marco Rubio, the congressman promised to support Herr Trumpf were he to receive the nomination, saying, "I will support the nominee of the party... If Donald Trump is the nominee of the party, you know, that’s the choice."



The growing list of Republicans who have publicly repudiated Herr Trumpf as of this morning-- who say they will not vote for him in November against Bernie or Hillary-- includes these elected officials and former elected officials:

• Gov. Charlie Baker (MA)
• Rep. Carlos Curbelo (FL)
• Former Senator Mel Martínez (FL)
• Former Gov, Mitt Romney (MA)
• Former Gov. George Pataki (NY)
• Former Rep. Ron Paul (TX)
• Rep. Reid Ribble (WI)
• Former Gov. Tom Ridge (PA)
• Rep. Scott Rigell (VA)
• Rep. Mark Sanford (SC)
• Sen. Ben Sasse (NE)
• Former Rep. J.C. Watts (OK)
• Former Gov. Christine Todd (NJ)

Upton and King are both cowards. They need to grow a pair, the way Christie Todd Whitman has when she said on national television she'd vote for Hillary before voting for Herr Trumpf. Don't these guys remember something about putting the country first, not their crackpot political party? Help release Upton and King with Clements and Gregory. How? Follow the magic thermometer:

UPDATE: More GOP Electeds Say No Trumpf Ever

The list is continuing to grown. Newest "No, not ever Republicans now include Justin Amash (R-MI) and Robert Dold (R-IL). Amash, who first endorsed Rand Paul and then Ted Cruz, told Reason TV that he thinks "Trump presents a kind of threat to our system that is maybe in some ways bigger than what the Democrats present because he’s attacking from the right, or what’s perceived as the right. I think actually what he’s pushing is basically a leftist philosophy but he’s coming at it from the Republican party side of things. So if he undermines the concept of liberty on our side of the aisle and you already have the Democrats weakened where they’ve basically given up on the concept of following the Constitution, I don’t know who’s left. So in some ways, it could be more dangerous."

Romney's Going To Need Some Mighty Tall Platform Shoes To Get Through This Tampa Mess

I love this ad. I first saw it as part of a TV news story. It was made by an outfit called Patriot Majority USA and I think I had dinner a few months ago with the executive director of it before it had a name. They have a cool website, StopTheGreedAgenda, which goes a long way towards explaining how the Republican attack against economic justice is wrecking America. They say their aim is to "expose the efforts of the Koch Brothers and other special interests who have threatened to spend more than $1 billion to advance what Patriot Majority calls a 'Greed Agenda.' The Koch Brothers and other mega-billionaires have advocated for more tax breaks for mega-billionaires, while cutting needed protections and programs for middle class Americans." They're all about using their vast wealth to supplant our democracy with a plutocracy.

Patriot Majority lays out the Greed Agenda being shoved down our throats by the "too wealthy" very specifically:

•       Give More Tax Breaks to the Super Rich
•       Privatize Social Security and Medicare
•       Suppress Voting Rights for Working and Middle Class Families
•       Cut Funding for Public Schools In Favor of For-Profit Education
•       Roll Back Consumer Protections and Important Regulations On Wall Street and Big Banks
•       Lower Wages for Middle Class Families
•       Eliminate Workers’ Rights
•      Block Pay Equity and Health Care Equity For Women.
•       Continue Special Giveaways to Super-Rich Oil Companies
•    Privatize Firefighting and Important Public Services
•    Cut Funding for Veterans’ Services
•    Protect Special Interest Polluters From Common Sense Regulations, Even If It Increases the Risk of Cancer and Other Fatal Illnesses

You might even say that the above dozen points is the real Republican agenda, rather than the silliness being drafted in Tampa. That document is so bizarre and extreme and so out of the mainstream outside the Old Confederacy that even right-wing ideologue and culture warrior Reince Priebus went out of his way to tell the media that the crackpot platform drawn up by off-the-chart religionist extremists like David Barton and Tony Perkins doesn't represent Mitt Romney. Oddly, though, some of the most hateful and weird parts of the platform exactly represent not just lunatic fringe Republicans like Todd Akin, Steve King, Michele Bachmann and Virginia Foxx, but also Romney's running-mate, Paul Ryan.

"I think as far as the details of some of these things, like an exception for rape or life of the mother, these are not uncommon differences that candidates have and don't share some of the detail on some of those exceptions," Priebus said on MSNBC. "This is the platform of the Republican Party; it's not the platform of Mitt Romney."

The party adopted identical language in its 2004 and 2008 platforms, which doesn't talk about exceptions or granular details, but also doesn't specifically stipulate an exception to bans on abortion in cases of rape, incest, or the health of the mother.

The RNC platform has invited renewed scrutiny because of an uproar this week over comments made by Rep. Todd Akin, the GOP candidate for Senate in Missouri, in defense of his opposition to abortion in instances of rape. He said that "legitimate rape" rarely results in pregnancy, a statement for which he's since apologized and said was factually incorrect.

(The Romney campaign said in its statement Sunday disagreeing with Akin that the former Massachusetts governor would not oppose abortion in instances of rape.)

Republicans are especially sensitive, though, to the revived debate over abortion in part due to the fact that President Barack Obama holds a healthy lead over Romney among women voters.

"Although these particular comments have led Gov. Romney and other Republicans to distance themselves," Obama said of Akin's comments during a press conference on Monday, "I think the underlying notion that we should be making decisions on behalf of women for their health care decisions-- or qualifying forcible rape versus non-forcible rape-- I think those are broader issues, and that is a significant difference in approach between me and the other party."

The Obama campaign also launched a TV ad making issue of presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's voting record in Congress, which called for stripping funding for Planned Parenthood, and other efforts to curb abortion rights.

As Sally Kohn said in her perceptive post at Salon yesterday, "Akin is not an aberration. He is merely the latest canary in a coalmine of crazy." Her point: Akin is just like all the rest of them; he just stupidly said it out loud and on camera where normal people-- particularly women-- could hear it. And they heard it so loud and so clear, that Republicans who supported Akin's insane approach (like letting an imprisoned rapist sue his victim to stop her from going through with an abortion) demanded he give up his hard-fought nomination. Among the most glaring of the right-wing misogynists were, co-sponsor of that bill, Paul Ryan, as well as a pack of garden variety women haters from Miss McConnell, Rick Berg and Denny Rehberg to the bastions of Missouri's GOP Establishment, like Roy Blunt, Jim Talent, John Ashcroft, Kit Bond and John Danforth and, of course, struggling to stay relevant in this snake pit, Willard Mitt Romney. Mitt's Sistah Souljah moment: "As I said yesterday, Todd Akin's comments were offensive and wrong and he should very seriously consider what course would be in the best interest of our country.  Today, his fellow Missourians urged him to step aside, and I think he should accept their counsel and exit the Senate race." 

As Kohn reminds us in her Salon post, "Republicans are rushing to paint a Republican candidate for the United States Senate as a fringe outsider from the party mainstream. If only we could be so lucky. While Akin and others were making increasingly extremist statements about rape and proposing crackdowns on women’s reproductive freedoms, Republican leaders wading into whack-a-doodle territory with other far-right, extreme positions."

And that's where the GOP's bigoted Bronze Age patriarchal lunacy meets the agenda of the would-be oligarchs:

Paul Ryan has advocated handing over Social Security to Wall Street. Before Social Security, one in three elder Americans lived in poverty. Now, instead of preserving our sacred pact to help seniors age with dignity, Paul Ryan wants to give the money we all pay in Social Security taxes over to Wall Street. Had Ryan’s plan been enacted before the financial crash of 2007-2008, Social Security would be thoroughly bankrupt and today’s seniors thrust back into poverty. Ryan’s plan is so extreme even President George W. Bush distanced himself from it. But while the rightward lean of the GOP was shocking enough four years ago, the party has rapidly shifted even further to the right-- to the point where extremist Paul Ryan is now its star.

By the same token, a plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system and cut non-defense discretionary government spending by a severe 91 percent-- all for the purpose of giving even more tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires above and beyond the historically enormous Bush tax cuts for the rich-- might have once seemed like a secret fantasy document locked in a dark cabinet of the Heritage Foundation. But this is the substance of Paul Ryan’s budget plan, voted for by all but 10 Republican members of the House of Representatives. Of the once-extremist anti-government, anti-tax advocate, President George H. W. Bush recently asked, “Who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?” Today, Paul Ryan’s radical, scorched earth budget against the vast majority of government spending is better than Norquist could have dreamed.

I suppose kudos is owed to the Tea Party and its far right forbearers for achieving this shift while simultaneously distracting the public by labeling President Obama’s milquetoast moderate policies as evidence of wanton socialism. The right wing sure knows how to infiltrate and infect the political mainstream while pointing fingers elsewhere. But for crying out loud, what the hell is happening to our country? We now have a party with elected leaders who think child labor laws are unconstitutional (Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah), who would repeal the Civil Rights Act (Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky), who think climate change is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” (Republican Senator James Inhofe). The rightward tilt of the Republican Party has been so swift and so extreme that, today, not only do both Bushes and Ronald Reagan look to liberal, but frankly so do John McCain and Mitt Romney (which is why Mitt Romney pandered to the extreme conservative base by picking Paul Ryan as his running mate).

...The increasingly extremist Republican Party wants to make economic inequality worse and consolidate money and power in the hands of the elite (most of whom are wealthy, white men) while rolling back liberties for women, gay people and people of color. The increasingly extremist Republican Party believes that public programs which care for the poor and elderly, prevent corporations from polluting our air and water, and ensure equal opportunity in education are “shackling” big business-- regardless of how much they help ordinary Americans. The increasingly extremist Republican Party doesn’t believe in the overwhelming scientific evidence of climate change, but upwards of two-thirds of Republicans do believe that President Obama was not born in the United States. Not only is the modern Republican Party fairly unconcerned with poor people and women and gay folks, but the modern Republican Party is unconcerned with basic facts. It is a purely ideological agenda, rationalized by whatever means necessary, including false “medicine” about women’s bodies and the atrocities of rape.

The Obama campaign put out a statement after the new platform was finished yesterday: “Today, Republican leaders passed the Akin amendment as part of their party platform, banning abortion for all women even in the case of rape. Several Romney supporters and advisers were present and stood silently while this vote took place. This should come as no surprise, as Mitt Romney supported this exact language in the 2004 and 2008 Republican platforms and Paul Ryan fought to ban abortion even in cases of rape. Women across this country should take note of the Republican Party’s position, and not trust any of the false promises made by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on the campaign trail.” How many women voters would have been aware-- as they now will be, thanks to Akin-- that the Republican platform calls for a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest? As they do every year, they're insisting that the fertilized egg "has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.” No one would have noticed... if not for Akin. And few would have known that Paul Ryan co-sponsored a bill demanding just that. Ryan unmasked! Yesterday Robert Reich unmasked him in the economic justice department. GOP/Wall Street propaganda is very careful to refer to him as "an entitlement reformer," rather than as the destroyer of society's social fabric that he is.

Ryan “reforms” Medicaid by destroying it-- cutting the federal contribution by some $800 billion and then continuing the cuts after the first ten years until federal spending is a small fraction of what it is today, and handing it over to the states, which can’t possibly keep the program going.  

Ryan “reforms” food stamps by slashing them-- reducing the federal contribution by around $125 billion and then, beyond the first decade, essentially ending the program altogether.

He “reforms” Medicare by substituting vouchers that can’t possibly keep up with the rising costs of health care.

Originally he wanted to “reform” Social Security by turning it into private savings accounts whose value would rise or fall at the whim of the Wall Street casino. (Now he doesn’t suggest any reform of Social Security. )

You want real entitlement reform? President Obama has begun it. Rational people would make sure he gets a second term to:

Use the government’s huge bargaining clout in Medicare and Medicaid to push down drug costs and the costs of medical providers, and to shift from a fee-for-services system to a payments-for-healthy-outcomes system.

Then allow anyone of any age to join Medicare so all Americans can get affordable health care.
Fold food stamps and other programs for the poor into a single enlarged Earned Income Tax Credit-- a monthly cash grant that’s inversely related to income.

Save Social Security by eliminating the ceiling on income subject to it. (Now, income over $110,100 isn’t touched.)

These are real reforms. Ryan isn’t an entitlement reformer. He’s an entitlement destroyer. And in an era of rampant economic insecurity, Ryan’s destruction would cause American families even greater hardship.

Republican Party Propaganda Writer Andrew Ferguson Dissects McCain's Platform

Officially Andrew Ferguson is a senior editor of the neo-fascist Weekly Standard, but he's been a notorious shill for the Bush Regime for many years. Yesterday the NY Times published an Op-Ed by him that examines the McCain Party platform. He starts with an unpleasant dose of reality about what it was like for the platform writers: "This one must have been no fun at all. Republicans this year faced a special difficulty, of course. Every American who’s not a Republican can’t stand them, a complication that robbed the platform writers of several traditional techniques." He then follows with why the platform writers were up that special creek without any paddles. "If your party holds the White House but not Congress, you blame Congress for the country’s precarious position. If you hold Congress you blame the White House. But what if, for most of the previous eight years, you’ve held both the White House and Congress, and things are still a mess?" The solution? Join the parade and do what everyone else is already doing: blame Republicans.

The writers distinguish between the grossly incompetent and corrupt Republican officeholders in Washington who created the mess and the terrifically thoughtful and luminous “grassroots Republicans” who sent the corrupt Republican officeholders to Washington in the first place. (We are to assume, needless to say, that John McCain and Sarah Palin are as grassrooted as Republicans can be.)

“The American people believe Washington is broken... and for good reason,” the draft concedes, without conceding too much. Special interests rule, expediency triumphs, congressmen are indicted. No need to mention any names.

Instead, the platform goes on, “As grassroots Republicans, we demand a return to our party’s core principles.” Such a revival, the platform implies, will fix just about everything.

OMG! No wonder John Boehner, House GOP Leader couldn't wait to go running to the media and announce that tomorrow's convention sessions are being called off! Bush and Cheney, who might expect to not feel too much love, had already joined scores of Republican senators and congressman declaring they're staying as far away from the "festivities" (which many see as a wake for the GOP) as possible. Boehner added that "It is doubtful there will be any kind of program tomorrow night." So aside from Bush and Cheney, what will the TV-viewing American people be missing out on? I think two of their biggest stars, Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger (CA) and Rick Perry (TX) had already backed out, one to make believe he's handling a budget crisis and the other to make believe he's keeping Gustav at bay. And the ones who were to speak-- basically the far right ideological lunatics who have brought so many problems to our nation in the past seven and a half years-- freaks like Mitch McConnell (KY), Richard Burr (NC), Norm Coleman (MN, who has told everyone who would listen that he wouldn't even be going if it was in any other state but his own), John Ensign (NV), Joe Lieberman (CT), Boehner himself (although I think he is scheduled for Tuesday, along with Howdy Doody and Marsha Blackburn as well), Michele Bachmann (MN), Tom Cole (OK), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (FL, who fancies himself, by dint of birth, the next president of Cuba), Thelma Drake (VA), Mark Kirk (IL), Kevin McCarthy (CA), and a pathetic gaggle of wanna-be candidates like Chris Hackett (likely to be the only GOP challenger to win this year, since he is going up against a Democrat, Chris Carney, who votes like a Republican), Erik Paulsen (MN), Cynthia Lummis (WY), and Jay Love (AL).

One Republican incumbent pointedly not invited to speak or get anywhere near the platform is radical right maniac, Scott Garrett of New Jersey, one of only 11 members of Congress who voted against giving aid to Katrina-ravaged New Orleans on September 8, 2005. All 11 were far right Republican ideologues, of course, and this brings us right back to Fergusons' Times Op-Ed, claiming the platform, like McCain's choice of Sarah Palin, has a kind of "devil-may-care flavor."

“Republicans,” the platform says, “will attack wasteful Washington spending immediately,” even though they can’t. They can’t impose anything on anybody, either, but nevertheless “we will impose an immediate moratorium on the earmarking system.”

Powerlessness opens up a limitless future. It has the fierce urgency of not right now.

As for the core principles, they’re the same ones you’ll remember from back when the Washington Republicans were violating them: less regulation, smaller government, an end to bureaucratic “social engineering.”

But the urge to stick their fingers into other people’s business is too much for even Republicans to resist, as the Bush years have shown. The draft platform condemns the current tax code for its endless complications, for example, and then proposes several ways to make it more complicated: a tax-free Lost Earnings Buffer Account and a Farm Savings Account, more elaborate tax-free accounts for education and medical expenses, credits for people who don’t get health insurance at work and enough alternative-fuel tax incentives to make T. Boone Pickens hop up and down in anticipation.

It has something for everyone, the way platforms do, leaving the impression of a government that is not so small, not very limited, and busy, busy, busy.

The platform is also comprehensively solicitous, specializing in the political equivalent of narrowcasting-- “narrowpandering” might be the term-- which hits a bull’s-eye with a tiny constituency and leaves the rest of us puzzled. “We support the Native American Samoans’ efforts to preserve their... land tenure system.” Make fun if you want, but somewhere in Samoa at least one Republican is very happy.

One passage nicely summarizes the Republican approach to government, at the dawn of its long exile from power-- bold and feckless, all at once. In a section on “Technology and Innovation,” the platform’s authors look to the heavens. They write, “As a symbol of that commitment, we share the vision of returning Americans to the Moon as a step toward a mission to Mars.”