Vote Supid Home

From divegirl at Wonkette:

Andy Barr is the one who needs to apologize

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has done nothing to hurt Kentucky or Kentuckians.

Candy Barr, however, has done nothing in Congress BUT hurt Kentucky and Kentuckians with every suck-up vote supporting the Pumpkin Traitor and his efforts to impoverish, imprison and immiserate every non-male, non-white, non-christian, non-straight, non-rich resident of the Commonwealth.

Not to mention Barr and every repug lying non-stop about everything progressive Democrats say and do.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is fighting for economic, environmental and healthcare legislation that will lift Kentucky out of its repug-created morass of lethal dependence on coal, poverty and corruption.

Shame on you, Candy.  If AOC deigns to notice your stupidity, she might tweet a response that will make you look even more foolish than you are.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, you are welcome in Kentucky any time.  Come for Derby!  And bring your friends Reps. Pressley, Tlaib, Haaland and Omar with you.

There are lots of progressives in Kentucky.  We'll show you horse country and have fun pointing and laughing at the silly repugs.

From the Herald:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is welcome to come to Kentucky and tour a coal mine, but first she needs to apologize, says Rep. Andy Barr.

Barr, a Kentucky Republican, wants Ocasio-Cortez to offer a mea culpa to “our colleague and patriot to our country” Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, before she accepts Barr’s invitation to tour a Kentucky coal mine. 

In a letter Friday to the New York Democrat, Barr said her recent comments about Crenshaw “demonstrate a lack of civility that is becoming far too common in the U.S. House of Representatives.”

An apology won’t be forthcoming, a spokesman for the congresswoman said Friday.

SNIP

“We’re very proud and thankful for (Crenshaw’s) service, but what we are talking about is his fanning the flames of hate,” said Corbin Trent, a spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez.

He added, “Luckily, we still have open borders with Kentucky. We don’t need Congressman Barr to meet with coal miners and have a town hall, though we’d love his participation if we do.”

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article229191679.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article229191679.html#storylink=cpy

And My Repug Congressman is a Putin-fellating Traitor

Speaking of I Got Mine Fuck You billionaires, Thomas Massie is far worse than just a selfish, piece of shit libertarian.

He's playing treason with the trumpies.

From Think Progress:

For most of the last decade, former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) held the title of the most Kremlin-friendly member of the House of Representatives. But with Rohrabacher’s loss in his reelection bid last year, a new contender has laid claim to the crown.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), first elected to represent Kentucky’s 4th District in 2012, may not be as bombastic as Rohrabacher or have as many colorful anecdotes about drunkenly arm-wrestling Russian President Vladimir Putin as the former California congressman. But he’s distinguished himself in the House for pushing and voting for Russia-friendly measures, time and again.

Massie did not respond to ThinkProgress’ request for an interview.

Widely considered one of the most prominent libertarian members of Congress, the Kentucky congressman made news last month as one of the few Republicans to vote against President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration, describing Trump’s national emergency plans as “overreach.” 

But despite his recent vote against the president’s pet project, Massie has taken plenty of opportunities to lavish praise on Trump, from backing the president’s abrupt foreign policy decisions — including when Trump unexpectedly announced American troops would be leaving Syria — to claiming that Trump “probably saved the GOP from itself” when the president signed the 2017 tax bill.

Most notably, Massie has taken steps to slow criticism of Russia, as well as deflect questions about the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia, along the way.

Massie has regurgitated many of the conspiracy theories Trump has pushed to discredit the ongoing Mueller investigation. He has repeated the baseless claim that the FBI secretly spied on Trump’s 2016 campaign, playing up the evidence-free notion that the campaign’s attempts at Russian collusion were, in reality, traps laid by the Obama administration.

There’s no evidence the Obama administration attempted to trick the Trump campaign into colluding with Russian agents, but it’s a line Trump routinely pushes to distract from questions about his own ties with Russia. In an editorial following Massie’s statement, the Lexington Herald Leader wrote that Massie’s “feverish parroting of Trump’s unsubstantiated claims” was “disturbing.”

It’s unclear whether Massie believes Russia interfered in the 2016 election, even though America’s own intelligence community, along with any number of journalists and academics, has thoroughly established those interference efforts.

In a 2017 survey of Cincinnati-area politicians, The Cincinnati Enquirer asked whether they accepted the intelligence community’s assessment that Russian hackers stole Democratic emails in order to aid Trump’s election. According to the Enquirer, Massie “did not directly answer,” but later in the interview claimed the investigation into Russia’s hacking was “a political effort to de-legitimize the incoming administration,” a line often peddled by the president himself.

Read the whole disgusting thing.

Repug Policy

Down with Tyranny:

A Meme For Your Repug ... Aquaintences

From Down with Tyranny:

Make Karma a Real Bitch for Repugs

We tried "going high," and it got us a Supreme Court that is going to reverse not just the 20th century, but the entire Enlightenment.

This time, no "looking forward" until we have tracked down every motherfucking traitor and thrown them in Guantanamo.

This time, no more "working across the aisle" until we have eliminated every illegal path to power for the GOP. 

This time, no more pretending voters will vote Democratic if we just act repug enough.

David Atkins:

Bipartisanship is dead.

Susan Collins dealt the coup de grace, armed with a dishonest and partisan speech capping a norm-destroying extremist far-right conquest of the Supreme Court. And upon regaining power in Washington, Democrats will need to behave accordingly.

SNIP

Despite a recent upsurge for Republicans, Democrats are still likely to win the House in November 2018. And it’s a good bet that Democrats will ride a wave of electoral fury compounded by the investigative findings of Mueller’s probe and likely House investigations into a White House victory and a solid majority in the Senate.

If and when that happens, there will be a temptation to attempt to restore a sense of bipartisan normalcy. But that would be a mistake. Republicans, having made their bed as an anti-normative, anti-democratic party of wealthy white male privilege enforced by anti-majoritarian structural advantage seeking, will not become responsible minority governing partners. And Democrats should not treat them as such.

Instead, Democrats will need to embrace their own inner Mitch McConnell. Their leaders will be tempted to immediately move to tackle the enormous legislative priorities their Republican opponents sabotaged or neglected, from climate change to healthcare to economic policy. But it will be just as important to secure structural initiatives that will make it difficult for Republicans to continue thwarting the will of an increasingly progressive majority. That is precisely what McConnell would do if a man of his instincts and temperament were serving the public welfare and society’s marginalized, rather than corporations, the wealthy and the privileged.

SNIP

It is the instinct of many liberals to shy away from such moves as overly partisan or process-focused. But they are essential if democracy is to survive in the face of an opposition determined to hold onto anti-majoritarian power at all costs through illegitimate and socially destructive means.

We start by voting the mother fuckers OUT.  29 Days.  VOTE.

Make Every Repug Candidate Pay For Kavanaugh

Rapey McLiarFace is now the raping, lying face of the republican party.  His despicable performance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the screaming hysteria of repug fanatics spouting ludicrous conspiracies have laid bare the true nature of their party: despising and degrading women in order to promote and protect privileged, rich, straight, conservative, freakazoid white men.

 

To repugs, either you are one of them, or you are scum to be assaulted and kicked into the trash.

 

Which side are you on?

 

29 Days.

VOTE

Rape Our Daughters

Make every repug candidate everywhere answer to this.

Down With Tyranny:

37 Days

Dok Zoom at Wonkette:

Remember that the good guys can win. We're them. We have to make it happen.

Remember Molly Ivins, who would tell you to have a good cry and then GET MAD AND PUT YOUR ANGER TO WORK:

So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.

November 6 is 37 days away. Let's get to work.

Don't assume everyone you know is registered or plans to vote.  Next Friday is Kentucky's deadline to register. Ask, and if they say no, drag them down to the County Clerk and register them.  Make sure they know where their polling place is, and they have a ride if they need one.

And fight repug/russian voting fuckery!  Check with your county clerk and make sure you are still registered and that your polling place is still where you think it is.

Repug Trumpies Trying to Swift Boat Amy McGrath

C/mon, Herald: Don't fall for this shit.  Just because these critics are "veterans" doesn't mean they are not partisan shills doing the bidding of Cheeto Twitler.

Not to mention the extreme hostility of old white male veterans toward any vagina-haver who dares to  tread on "their" turf

From the Herald:

It’s where Democratic candidate Amy McGrath, a former Marine Corps fighter pilot, was inducted into the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame two years ago. It’s near where she filmed campaign ads that drew national attention last year. And it’s where a group of veterans who support U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican, rallied for more than two hours Wednesday night to say she shouldn’t be elected in November. 
 
“McGrath’s commercials accuse Andy Barr of being scared,” said Travis Cassidy, a retired Marine Corps sergeant. “I am here to tell you Andy Barr has no reason to be scared. U.S. Marines know war is won on the ground, not by the air.”

Um, Sergeant? You do know that Candy Barr has not spent a single minute in the uniform of his country, right?  You do know that Candy's response to 9-11 was to suck up to Kentucky repugs even harder, right?  You do know that Candy has yet to say a word against the "president" who has publicly confessed treason, right?

McGrath, a retired lieutenant colonel, has made her military service the bedrock of her candidacy. She calls her campaign her 90th combat mission and has featured fighter jets in each of her ads. In her stump speech, she often talks about how her experience in the military will help her cross party lines to fix the nation’s problems.

SNIP

Mostly, the event served as a way to diminish the importance of McGrath’s military experience, her largest strength as a candidate.

Precisely.  These are the same mindless repugs who libeled genuine war hero John Kerry  to promote a Vietnam War draft dodger who deserted his post in wartime.

The same blind partisans who cheered the Pumpkin Traitor - another Vietnam draft dodger - when he slandered John McCain as a "loser" for getting captured and surviving 5 years of torture.

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article217570495.html#storylink=cpy

Veterans can support any political candidate they choose.  But when they use their veteran status to lie about another candidate, it is the duty of reporters and editors to call them out for it.

Candy Barr and Cheeto Twitler don't give a flying fuck about you, veterans. Stop doing their dirty work.

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article217570495.html#storylink=cpy

GOP Tax Cuts Are Worse Than We Thought

Yep, the repugs just snatched the wallets of every working person in the country and handed them directly to corporate shareholders.  Do not invest in new factories, do not create jobs, do not pass go.  Just steal the savings of everyone who's not obscenely rich.

Political Animal

Corporations aren’t just spending their tax cuts on stock buybacks. They’re investing at almost record levels on mergers and acquisitions, which increases what they’re making on buybacks. Isn’t that special?

Let’s take all this one step further though. Mergers and acquisitions are the building blocks of monopolies, something the Washington Monthly has been warning about for years as perhaps the single biggest contributor to stagnant wages and income inequality.

We can all complain that Democrats didn’t do enough to tackle the monopolization of our economy when they had majorities in Congress and a president in the White House. But now we see what the Republican position is. They aren’t just ignoring the issue, they’re feeding it with their corporate tax cuts and expect the rest of us to be happy with an extra buck fifty a week.

Noah at Down with Tyranny has it in meme form:

Take a look at that $6 Billion for workers. Chances are that is you, the reader of this post. If you are one of the approximately 300 Million Americans (I'm rounding it off just in the interest of simplicity), your average share of that $6 Billion would be $20.00. How's that $20.00 changing your life? Oh, you say your share is well above the average? OK. Great for you! You say your share is what $100? $1,000? $1,500? Wow! I bet that's life changing for you! That money can buy you a lot of healthcare, no?

Comer's Going Down; Which Democrat Will Replace Him?

Maybe Marine veteran Samuel "Sam" K. Gaskins, who filed way back on Nov. 15. His website is up, though minimal. He's on Facebook, too.

Seriously, if Kentucky Democrats can't take advantage of this they deserve to keep losing.

Joe Gerth at the Courier:

U.S. Rep. Jamie Comer, who lost the 2015 GOP primary for governor by just 83 votes after a former girlfriend said he had hit her when they dated in college, is a bully.

Want proof?

In October — as rumors were swirling and just before a legislative staffer complained that she had been sexually harassed by Comer’s good buddy, House Speaker Jeff Hoover — a bizarre, vulgar, threatening, grammatically incorrect Twitter message was sent, targeting the chief clerk of the state House of Representatives. 

“Hey Brad, when the House finally fires your dumbass, (which will be very soon) for being a lazy dumb sh--, David Williams can help you find a job cleaning sh-- stains off the commodes in the Corner Pool Room in Burkesville. But I’m sure you won’t last long there because everyone hates you and you are dumb and lazy.”

SNIP

You have to wonder what would cause a United States congressman to fire off a message like that. 

It was sent as a direct message to a Twitter account that goes by the name @kyblindside. The account posted a screenshot of the message that day.

Courier Journal was able to establish that the message came from Comer’s verified account when the operator of the @kyblindside account provided us the password for the @kyblindside account on Jan. 3. We were then able to view the original message and were able to click through to Comer’s verified account.

The operator of the @kyblindside account hasn’t revealed their identity to us.

I asked U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan to respond to Comer’s outburst. Haven’t heard back from him either.

Reading that message, three words come to mind.

Petty. Abusive. Vulgar.

You Have 17 Days Left to Save the Nation from Repug Tyranny: State Senate and Congress Edition

Filing deadline for local, state and national races in Kentucky is January 26.

There are 38 Kentucky State Senators, serving four-year terms.  Half are up for election in even-numbered years.  This year, even-numbered districts are up: 19 of the 38.  Those without Democratic candidates are the 2nd, 6th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 20th, 24th, 30th, 36th, 38th.

Congressional races in Kentucky might be interesting. The single Democratic representative and the strongest repug are without challengers:  John Congressman Awesome Yarmuth in the Third and Hal Rogers in the Fifth, although Rogers has a repug challenger for the primary.

In the First District, Jamie Comer, who is in a world of trouble for being an all-around asshole, has one Democratic challenger already.

The Second District's Brett Guthrie appears to have some problems; he has three Democratic challengers.

Thomas Massie in the Fourth has not filed yet, but already has two Democratic challengers.

Candy Barr is hurtin' in the Sixth: he has three Democratic challengers, even though retired Marine Colonel Amy McGrath hasn't filed yet.  Also, the SoS site has Candy withdrawing from the race on the same date it shows him filing.  Calling Alison's webmaster!

Is there no Louisville repug brave enough to challenge Congressman Awesome in the Third?  C'mon, guys: give us a chance to ruin some up-and-coming wingnut's political career by crushing him right out of the gate.

The Enemy is the Money Power

Everything that's wrong with the nation and the world comes down to plutocracy: rule by the rich.

Noah at Down with Tyranny:

Remember That Repugs Destroyed the Economy

The only way to stop this catastrophe is to vote in a Democratic Congress is 2018.  That means you should be out right now knocking on doors and getting Democratic voters off their asses.

TPM:

As Republicans in the House and Senate hash out their tax bill differences in a conference committee behind closed doors, with the goal of producing a final bill before the holiday break, conservative economists tell TPM that the policies likely to become law will wreak havoc on the country for many years to come. Though Republicans insisted repeatedly over the past few weeks that the $1.4 trillion in tax cuts, most of them geared toward wealthy individuals and corporations, would pay for themselves by stimulating economic growth, they presented no evidence to support their claims.

Instead, the economists and former government officials predicted, the bill will drive up the federal deficit, shrink and destabilize the health care market, exacerbate already historic income inequality, and pressure Congress to make deep cuts to the social safety net and government programs.

When you're cleaning a millionaire's toilets with your tongue for 50 cents an hour, remember that repugs voted this motherfucker in while every Democrat voted against it.

Typical Repug Tax Bill on Steroids

If it didn't fuck the middle class and poor to pour more billions in billionaire's pockets, repugs wouldn't vote for it.

Kevin Drum:

I’ve sort of given up on the latest batch of estimates about the effect of the tax bill. They all say the same thing: It gives big cuts to the rich; big cuts to corporations; big cuts to hedge fund zillionaires; and a few crumbs for the middle class that disappear over time. And none of this has the slightest effect. Republicans just don’t care. It doesn’t matter that the economy is strong and doesn’t need a tax cut. It doesn’t matter that CBO hasn’t had time to produce an official estimate of the bill. It doesn’t matter that American corporations are already among the lowest-taxed in the world. It doesn’t matter that the bill will have virtually no effect on growth. It doesn’t matter that the rich have done so well over the past few decades that they hardly need another windfall.

Republicans are just going to do it, and that’s all there is to it. So why not turn off your brain and go read about Prince Harry instead? He’s also rich, but at least he doesn’t spend his time whining about how meager his allowance is.

Only Massive, Unprecedented Democratic Turnout Can Win 2018

Digby:

I'm not sure people have fully grokked just how fully the GOP has been able to tilt the playing field in their favor. They need to. Just blaming "bad messaging" and "bad candidates" is lazy and simplistic. There's something much more fundamental going on here.

It's going to be very difficult for Democrats to win in 2018 because of these structural impediments.  And just becoming more aggressively progressive is unlikely to be the panacea that many people erroneously assume it will be. Maybe in the past that wasn't such a dangerous assumption. We had time to learn and experiment and figure out through trial and error how to progress.
There are a lot of extremist, right wing Republicans in this country and they are spread all over in places where they have an electoral advantage despite the fact that they are fewer in numbers.

Trump and the Republicans have to be stopped. Maybe the Resistance will be enough to do that. But it would be nice if every left of center American recognized just what it's going to take to get that accomplished, however, and we all put our shoulders to the wheel.

On the other hand, I suppose it's always comforting to watch Republicans win and then stand around blaming the Democrats for being embarrassing losers.  It's so familiar.

trumpcare Failed Because It Didn't Kill Enough Poor People

Kevin Drum nails it:

Remember: this bill failed because even though it took away health coverage from 22 million low-income people, it wasn’t harsh enough toward the poor. This is what the modern Republican Party has become.

But don't let up on the pressure.  This is exactly what happened in the House:  everybody relaxed and celebrated when the bill died, then woke up the next morning to a revived and passed trumpcare bill.

Mitch McConnell is a devious, cunning motherfucker who still has a slush fund with which to bribe wavering senators.

It's not dead yet.

No Compromising on Health Care

 Like I keep sayin', there is no compromising with people who want you dead.

 

Josh Marshall:

Pretending that both parties just have very different approaches to solving a commonly agreed upon problem is really just a lie. It’s not true. One side is looking for ways to increase the number of people who have real health insurance and thus reasonable access to health care and the other is trying to get the government out of the health care provision business with the inevitable result that the opposite will be the case.

If you’re not clear on this fundamentally point, the whole thing does get really confusing. How can it be that both sides flatly refuse to work together at all? As Bash puts it, “Why can’t these parties work together on something that is such a huge part of the economy, that is something that is so vital to everybody’s lives, all of their constituents’ lives, [it’s] mind boggling.”

If you had an old building and one group wanted to refurbish and preserve it and the other wanted to tear it down, it wouldn’t surprise you that the two groups couldn’t work together on a solution. It’s an either/or. You’re trying to do two fundamentally opposite things, diametrically opposed. There’s no basis for cooperation or compromise because the fundamental goal is different. This entire health care debate has essentially been the same. Only the coverage has rarely captured that. That’s a big failure. It also explains why people get confused and even fed up.

RepugNoCare in Pictures

Kevin Drum has the graphs in all their fuck-workers glory. Here's one with the guy who is sacrificing 22 million Americans to give a trillion-dollar windfall to the already obscenely rich.

 

Need words?  Kevin's got 'em.  He concludes:

Reading the CBO report in its entirety, it’s hard to see that BCRA offers any improvements over Obamacare aside from cutting taxes for the rich. Net premiums go up for most people—quite massively in the case of older consumers; deductibles go up; out-of-pocket expenses go up; the working poor are virtually shut out of the insurance market; the quality of coverage gets worse; and 22 million people lose insurance.

The only plausible path for any improvement is the increased flexibility states would have to run their own health care progams. Historically, this has accomplished little except to allow conservative states to cut back on health services to the poor, so you’d need to be mighty starry-eyed to think that it will produce amazing innovations this time around. But that’s about it: believing in the power of states to innovate because they have less money is the only path for defenders of BCRA.

It's making liberals puke and scream and cry, and it cancels the primary achievement of That Ni**er in the White House, so in the eyes of trump voters, it's perfect.

They'd rather watch their children die in agony from lack of health insurance than let Those People win.