A prominent activist in the Stop the Steal movement who spoke at a rally held by backers of President Donald Trump in Washington the day before the storming of the Capitol was arrested on Monday on charges that he took part in the riot.
Brandon Straka, 44, was arrested on a felony charge of interfering with police during civil disorder. The self-described founder of a movement to “walk away” from liberalism was also charged with unlawful entry into a restricted building and disorderly conduct.
Meanwhile, Marjorie Greene (QAnon-GA) has confirmed that the GOP is no longer a political party. It is a cult of personality:
Here’s the warning the GOP needs to hear.
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) January 20, 2021
The vast majority of Republican voters, volunteers, and donors are no longer loyal to the GOP, Republican Party, and candidates just because they have an R by their name.
Their loyalty now lies with Donald J Trump.
And that started...
Republicans seem to have decided that, for them, it is Trump über alles. Fuck their party, fuck the Constitution, fuck the law, the only thing that matters is Trump.
As it sinks in that the GOP is now in thrall to Trump, expect more and more Republican voters to bail. They will be a regional party, electing hucksters and liars, but that's it.[1] It may take time, but they've set firmluy on the path to irrelevancy.
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1. Sarah Huckabee Sanders's motto: "I lied for Trump, I'll lie to you."
It seems the state and local GOP has very much stayed hard Trumpite, with actual religious fervor and veering harder and shriller right wing nut job. It seems trump was just a symptom. Our jolly hateful nazi neighbors are the plague. My three local idiot neighbor Trumpites still proudly fly banners and perverted US flags. These people cannot be reached.
ReplyDeleteSucks the rest of us have to get burnt, but sometimes ya' gotta' let the kid touch the stove.
ReplyDeleteBack when I started blogging I did a little screed I can't find now, something to the effect ~ just let have their damned little apocalypse, when their precious* lord and master doesn't float down out the sky and carry them all away to paradise I'll still be here, just as if not angrier. We will then discuss the differences between pray, and prey. ~
We have about ten years to start turning this little problem with our disruption of the atmosphere around, if we don't stop bickering over whose imaginary dog has the bigger dick, we won't. We won't turn it around, and we won't make it. End of the road, way of the dinosaur.
Yeah, I get angry about that, anger bordering on the irrationally emotional.
Twelve Bears (grandkids) and a Cub (g-grandson) just doesn't roll off the tongue ...
Ten Bears, I fear that you're being optimistic. The effects of pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere were understood sixty years ago; the oil industry knew what the consequences were as far back as 1985.
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is that if humanity had acted in the 1980s, the correction would not have been anywhere near painful as it is going to be. And when we finally start taking serious actions, it may be all for naught. I see mothers with little babies and I know that they are owed an apology.
Probably what pisses me off the most about all this: we just don't have the time for the fawk around. In the grand scheme of things, for lack of a better term, all this trump-shit, the trolls, the bots, the whatabout and bothsidesims, the lying, the insurrection, are a waste of time we don't have. And it's not just that we're wasting time we're pumping more carbon into the atmosphere than ever before. And plastics! Christ-on-a-popcyclestick. Just a year ago most of us banned single use plastics, but with the trump-plague we're using more than ever! Even the Volkswagons are gas-guzzlers! Twenty years ago we were building - for the time - some of the most advanced, most fuel-efficient across the board vehicles in the world. Now the Subaru's look like Hummers.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have time for this. If these people can't get on board, if they continue to play all their chicken-shit little word games, they're wasting air all of our grandchildren need to survive and need be eliminated. I don't care how.
Caveat - we have a Smart car. Gas-job because of it's greater range; forty miles to the gallon (mpg), fits in the back of my pickup - 10 mpg. Given the Massholes, I don't drive it - for the trump-plague Donna literally has not been out of the house on a year - all that much... couple of miles to CVS or S$S... quick errands, ten, twelve miles to MGH. I won't take it out on the freeways or the Pike. Self-preservation. Anything that involves any kind of travel I take my pickup.
Ten Bears, I recommend the original ALH-engined VW (dirty) diesel, built from '99.5 to '05. I have an '03 Jetta I've put 260K miles on and it's still going strong and getting between 38-55MPG depending on how hard I drive/hypermile it. You can buy them used for between $2-5K on Craiglist. The one downside (true of any zero clearance angine) is timing belt replacement: $1K every 100K miles. 1.9 liters that feels like a V6 and a decently sized car. I had an original mini, like the Smart Car;, coffin handles were an optional accessory were it too difficult to extract you from from the bent wreckage....just bury the whole mess.
ReplyDeleteActually, with the newest technological improvements, weaning ourselves of fossil fuels is not only doable right now, but surprisingly cheap.
ReplyDeleteIt's the obstruction from the fossil fuel industry and the politicians they own that stands in the way, not the affordability.
We're gonna have to do it, and it doesn't get any better as time goes on, with the exception of those technological improvements.
Or we can try to live with the consequences of not doing it a few more decades, but boy howdy, if you liked the disruptions from the pandemic, you'll really dig the disruptions the climate is getting ready to serve up.
-Doug in Sugar Pine, four ridges west of the largest wildfire in California history
While I've noted over the many decades its going wrong and we
ReplyDeleteare getting to there with yesterdays solutions and avoiding pain.
Regarding power and transportation...
While the tech is cheap or can be changing over can really suck hard
on the bank account.
So for example you decide to go electric car to replace the current fuel suck.
What's a current electric car go for in $$$, one with commute range.
How will you charge it if you power is not from fossils?
What do you do with the old one?
If you go solar for that, you need a lot of it to charge a car
and run the house. You also need some form of battery storage
for the dark. So 20 Kilowatt/hours of battery storage is impressive
when its in your basement as in physically large, costly and has
required maintenance plus a finite lifetime. You need more as
the average electric car you need to charge is 16 KW of battery
or more.
FYI if you capture the usual 30% of the energy in a gallon of
gas/diesel you get way more than all that. If you recover
the waste heat that's like easy 10% more. Its why we do that!
Petro fuels have the highest bang for the buck, important if
those bucks are few. Also why we are stuck in the morass.
Thern there is heating and cooking, fossil or electric? Solar here in
the N.E. is currently useful for generation about 3-4 hours a day if the
trees aren't in the way. With today being warm at overcast and 35F peak,
hot water via solar is very doable, if we had sun. Typical is 2-3 days
a week average are less than sunny in the winter season here. I know
as I run my ham station solely off solar and a big battery
(160 pounds of it) and it has to be big to assure that I can run for
three days without useful sun. Usually that means I'm in conservation
mode. Doing a whole house would be about ten times the current scale
if it included heating likely more. Everything takes energy to do.
Then there is water and waste water, processing and all. High energy
use just to pump it [move it as needed].
While we need to do it the whole everyone's gotta do it really means about
maybe 25% of the people can (financially and structurally). For the rest it means new centralized housing (apartment buildings) With all that energy stuff included.
It can be done but its a process and weaning. Right now a cross country
trip via electric car is barely doable, charging stations and all. Less
so if the path is more remote.
Things you need that require plastics.... Syringes, processing containers,
distribution containers, a few drugs are petro based or the process needs
the energy to heat, cool and extract.
Burning forests is not good either even if its in a wood stove. The
carbon released was accumulated over time (tree 40 years lets say) but
released in a few days to make the house warm and cook. Unbalanced
budget, producing faster than absorption. There are many false
statements of carbon footprint and its reality.
Then there is the reality that if we all move to warmer climates we
need less heat and cooling, saves energy but then building is a
consumer too. plus you need the tech and a reason to be there
like jobs.
Its all about the number of humans. What's the sustainable number verses
population growth. Tipping point for essential resources like
food/water/energy?
While "we" [the royal] need to address our stewardship of the planets
resources there are a lot of interacting elements not noticed and
part of the big picture. Its as the old saw goes, not as easy as
it looks.
Eck!
Anything Rep Greene says is suspect on face value. Her output has been
ReplyDeleteprolific and carries a high noise to signal. Also the signal has been
all over the map.
Eck!