Monday, December 23, 2024

Iraq snapshot

Monday, December 23, 2024.  Chump and Musk suffer a very public failure to achieve erection,  JD Vance and Musk get their Nazi on, apologists for Rashida Tlaib don't seem to know history or grasp that it's over for Rashida, and much more.


Donald Chump and Elon Musk tried to bring the government to a shutdown. As Edith Olmsted (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes,  they didn't get their way.  Yes, there are evil geniuses but, as Chump and Musk prove, there are also evil dunces.

Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) notes:


As part of a discussion on MSNBC on Saturday morning, the former head of the Republican National Committee suggested that Donald Trump is letting billionaire adviser Elon Musk call the shots because he's not the man he used to be.

During a spirited debate over Musk leaning on GOP lawmakers to pass a budget bill to his and Trump's liking –– while also noting they had some disagreements about the debt limit –– MSNBC "The Weekend" co-host Michael Steele pointed out that Musk was the most prominent critic of Republicans who had agreed to a compromise deal with Democrats.

With co-host Symone Sanders Townsend admitted she was surprising herself by defending the president-elect, she insisted that the billionaire Musk needs Trump more than Trump needs him.


He is old and he is aging.  Old Man Chump is 78 years old, grossly obese and one clogged artery after another. He'll be lucky to make it through four years in the White House without a stroke or a heart attack.   So last week, he and Elon tried to impose a government showdown on the American people -- something that would have cost the country millions and millions of dollars.  Chump was going to show the country how important he and his domestic partner were but instead?  They both came up short -- and stubby.  Micro.  The two princes tiny meat. 





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— Morgan J Freeman (@mjfree.bsky.social) December 22, 2024 at 6:52 PM



Olivia Rosane (COMMON DREAMS) quotes US House Rep Pramila Jayapal (Democrat) stating, "We forced President-elect Trump and Shadow President Elon Musk to back down from the 11th-hour demand to pass a suspension of the debt ceiling, a move that would have paved the way for a Trump Tax Scam 2.0 that would once again send trillions of dollars to the billionaires and giant corporations while cutting Social Security and Medicare for working people and poor people to pay for those tax cuts to the wealthiest.  Democrats forced Republicans to back down and, when we enter a Republican trifecta, it will be on Republicans to deliver all the votes for such a scam. Democrats won’t bail them out—on that or any of their policies that cater to the wealthiest in America at the expense of working people and struggling Americans."  







AP notes:

The president-elect successfully pushed House Republicans to jettison some spending, but he failed to achieve his central goal of raising the debt limit. It demonstrated that despite his decisive election victory and frequent promises of retribution, many members of his party are still willing to openly defy him.

Trump’s decision to inject himself into the budget debate a month before his inauguration also showed that he remains more adept at blowing up deals than making them, and it foreshadowed that his second term will likely be marked by the same infighting, chaos and brinksmanship that characterized his first.

“Stay tuned. Buckle up. Strap in,” said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., a senior appropriator.

 

Be interesting to see Chump and all of his stupidity and all of his incompetence exposed.  Over and over.  For four years.  If his heart doesn't give out or if his stooges don't run him out of the White House with pitchforks when they realize just how badly he conned them.  


Carl Gibson notes:


 In a Saturday interview on MSNBC, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) reminded host Ali Velshi and his viewers that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) needed Democratic support in order to prevent a shutdown. She added that "every single [continuing resolution] has had to have Democrats provide the votes" as dozens of members of Johnson's own conference routinely go against him due to government spending concerns.

However, Crockett said one of the more shocking moments of the past week for her was an ultimately unsuccessful effort for Republicans to cut $190 million worth of funds appropriated for pediatric cancer research. While senators ended up unanimously re-inserting language into the final funding measure that secured passage of the Gabriela Miller Kids First Reearch Act 2.0, Crockett observed that Republicans were the ones to recommend axing it – while keeping other money set aside for Trump's inauguration.


In other news . . . 


My latest. I wanted to take today off but I think more Americans need to know this before it's forgotten by tomorrow. "Elon Musk and JD Vance's Support of Germany's Nazi-Loving AfD Party Should Be Much Bigger News" thelefthook.substack.com/p/elon-musk-...

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— Wajahat Ali (@wajali.bsky.social) December 21, 2024 at 4:09 PM


From his article:


Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth and the current daddy of the GOP, tweeted an endorsement of the racist, anti-immigrant, pro-Nazi Alternative for Germany (Afd) party.

The timing could’ve been better.

A few hours after his tweet, a terrorist plowed his car into a Christmas market and killed five people in Germany. The suspect is a Saudi Arabian refugee and atheist, who is an anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant supporter of the AfD, and a fan of Elon Musk. The suspect also supports Tommy Robinson, the racist hooligan who incited violent riots with his hateful lies and was actively promoted by, wait for it, Elon Musk.

Earlier today, Vice President JD Vance emerged from hiding to tweet what appears to be a defense of Musk and the AfD.

[. . .]

JD Vance has forgotten or doesn’t care he’s married to an Indian American woman and has bi-racial children who are seen as “invaders” seeking to “replace” Western, white civilization according to the AfD and their right-wing supporters, which now includes a man who gave $250 million to elect Donald Trump and feels emboldened to target Republicans and torpedo a bipartisan spending deal.

This is the modern Faustian bargain all Republicans must make to ascend to political power and protect themselves from an increasingly violent, belligerent base that lives on Earth 3 due to a 24-7 IV drip of conspiracy theories fueled by cultural grievances and racism. Please remember it was Vance who once referred to Trump as America’s Hitler. I think Trump took it as a compliment. After all, Trump repeatedly quotes Hitler’s attacks on Jews and immigrants and said he “did some good things” according to his former Chief of Staff, Gen. John Kelly. Both Vance and Trump aggressively promoted a Nazi conspiracy of Haitian immigrants eating pets even after they were told it was a lie. Trump said there were “very fine people” on “both sides” during the white nationalist march in Charlottesville where people chanted Nazi talking points.


Chris Walker (TRUTHOUT) explains the hate group:


AfD is vehemently anti-immigration, particularly with regard to Muslims, calling for a “net zero” number of immigrants entering Germany in the coming years. Leaders of the party have repeatedly made racist and antisemitic statements, emphasizing a need to return to a German “identity” and pushing other white nationalist views; AfD leader Alexander Gauland, for example, has described immigration to the country as an “invasion of foreigners” that he and his party intend to fight off.

The party has also called for changes to how Nazi Germany is depicted in historical settings, such as monuments, schools and museums, with Gauland once minimizing the country’s Nazi history as being no more than “just a speck of bird’s muck.” Other AfD members have denied Nazi wrongdoing, including by describing the Holocaust as a “myth.”

Musk’s public support for AfD is just the latest example of the billionaire sharing reactionary viewpoints on X. Musk has, for example, called for the deportation of protesters utilizing the First Amendment to express views he disagrees with. He has also promoted antisemitic, anti-Muslim, transphobic and other bigoted content on his profile, and has shared content denying the Holocaust.

Novelist and political commentator Patrick S. Tomlinson has said that Musk’s support for AfD is illuminating.

“The AfD is Germany’s neo-Nazi party,” Tomlinson wrote on Bluesky. “They are anti-immigration, anti-EU, and unapologetically pro-Putin. The German courts have labeled the entire party extremist. Elon Musk has gone fully mask off.”



Now let's deal with some stupidity from the left or 'left': 


Liberals* using straight up far right rhetoric telling Rashida Tlaib to f**k off out of America. *Given their avatar seems to be an AI image I'm open to this being an op.

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— Lamentably Awake (@lamentablyawake.bsky.social) December 22, 2024 at 11:49 AM


An AI image?  Oh, I love crap-ass lying Socialists because they make their stupidity so very obvious from the very start.  Lamentably Awake isn't using a photo either.  He was apparently some Twitter god for Elon Musk's social media once upon a time.  And I'll stick with he because he writes like either a "he" or a "man identifying woman."  And that latter term has nothing to do with a trans person.  It has everything to do with a queen bee who disowns her sisters to be the sole woman in the room (see Gloria Steinem's REVOLUTION FROM WITHIN if you're new to the queen bee).  

La-La really needs to find a lane and stay there.  Veronica McDonald is a Democrat.  She's talking about a Democrat.  And she's holding a Democrat accountable.


Now, I get it, since US SOCIALIST WORKER went down in flames and accusations and charges, it's been hard for the JACOBIN left and 'left' to educate their followers but there's nothing right-wing about what Veronica Tweeted.  Or are we unaware of the Spanish Loyalist War?   How damn stupid is La-La?


I don't have time to educate the intentionally stupid.


Rashida Tlaib is Zell Miller -- a Democrat who betrayed the party in a presidential election.  She made the decision to work to take down the party's presidential nominee.  In terms of party politics, she's a Benedict Arnold.  B-b-b-but Palestinians!!!


Palestinians didn't elect her to the Palestine Congress. 


She was elected to the US Congress and took an oath to uphold the Constitution-- an oath she abandoned when she worked to support Chump's campaign. With her sister, she worked to destroy Joe Biden and, when Joe dropped out, she worked to destroy Kamala.


Gaza was important to her than the Democratic Party or the American people or immigrants in this country or addressing climate change.  Suggesting that she take her protected ass to Palestine and fight for the last thing she supposedly believe in isn't a right-wing talking point.  On the left, it was often deployed against those in the US who favored the military uprising in Spain -- the left suggested that right-wingers take their safe little asses to Spain and fight for the fascism that they rooted for.


Veronica Tweeted nothing that was offensive unless you're a whiny ass cry baby outside the Democratic Party who thinks you have a say in this.  Because you really don't.  This is a party matter and we don't need nor do we want your input.  She took money from the DNC and would not have been re-elected without it.  She then turned and s**t on the Democratic Party.  That was her choice.  


She has to live with that choice now.  We're not going to ignore her betrayal.  We will laugh at her hypocrisy.  Such as this:


In the crucial last month before President Joe Biden leaves office, immigrants and allies on Tuesday urged the president to offer protections for immigrant communities before Donald Trump is inaugurated.

The president-elect has promised the largest deportation in U.S. history, stoking fear and uncertainty among undocumented immigrants and immigration advocates over a sweeping platform that marked the core of Trump’s GOP presidential campaign.

Speaking near the U.S. Capitol, the “Home is Here” campaign featured immigrant youth, allies and advocates demanding Biden take executive action.

[. . .] 

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib also voiced her concerns Tuesday over the president-elect’s immigration plans.

“We cannot underestimate, as you all know, what will unfold the moment Trump takes office in January, and we need as many people as possible working to resist this hateful agenda,” the Michigan Democrat said.

Tlaib noted that Biden “still has power to take immediate executive action to protect our immigrant communities.”

She also said “we must continue to work incredibly hard, not only to outwork the hate, but to really promote love and justice within our communities.”


Shut your lying mouth, just shut it.  You don't care about immigrants.  No one who does would have ever voted for Donald Chump.  No one who cares for immigrants would have worked to defeat Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.  


You made your decision and you'll have to live with it.  And Home Is Here and other organizations are going to have to learn that she's not going to pull people over to the cause.  No, she's as toxic now as, for example, Cynthia McKinney was when they ran her out of Congress the first time.  That's not me endorsing the running out of Cynthia.  That's me noting reality that others try to ignore.  Rashida's done.  Her actions in 2024 have doomed many people in this country and no one's going to paper over that to make it pretty.  She has to be held accountable for her part in putting Chump back in the White House.  She has to be held accountable for all that follows.


And her fan base of uneducated Socialist -- not all Socialist are uneducated -- most are highly educated -- though many DSA-ers are come off as home schooled -- can glom to her and try to protect her but that's not going to work.  It never has historically.  She's done.  Fork in her ass time.  It's over.  Whatever national platform she once had is over.  So much so that I'm sure even Chump considers her more of a joke than a threat and she won't make his enemies list.


If it helps any, I don't think she was motivated just by her desire to put Chump back in the White House.  I also think Rashida was motivated by her hatred of Black women.  

And, one more thing, when you've actively done your part to destroy the Democratic Party's presidential ticked in 2024 the way Rashida did, you're a f**king hypocrite to think you can then make demands on Joe Biden in the final days of his presidency.  You're gall is appalling.


The following sites updated: