Republicans: continued

[L'Emmerdeur]

It's only natural. The Republican Party has become enamoured of the idea of a clueless autocrat in the White House, so why not plump for a dynasty of clueless autocrats?

'2024 lookahead poll: GOP voters eye Trump dynasty'

Data: Online SurveyMonkey poll (Margin of error: ±2.5 percentage points). Chart: Axios Visuals

Ready to skip 2020 and go straight to 2024? In a new SurveyMonkey poll, Republican voters chose children of President Trump — Don Jr. and Ivanka — as two of the top four picks for president in four years.

Why it matters: An early poll like this is largely a measure of name ID. But it's also a vivid illustration of just how strong Trump's brand is with the GOP.

• Ivanka and Don Jr. find themselves near the top of a long list of politicians who have held elected office, many of them vocal supporters of the president.
• The big picture: Don Jr. has emerged as one of the most prominent defenders of his dad, frequently going after the left on Twitter, where he has 4.2 million followers, and serving as a popular warm-up act for presidential rallies.

The big picture: Don Jr. has emerged as one of the most prominent defenders of his dad, frequently going after the left on Twitter, where he has 4.2 million followers, and serving as a popular warm-up act for presidential rallies.

• His book — "Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us," released in November — reached No. 1 on the N.Y. Times nonfiction bestseller list.
• In October, at a rally in San Antonio for president Trump's re-election, the crowd chanted "2024!" as Don Jr. spoke.

Ivanka Trump's work within the administration would be a selling point if she wanted to carry on the Trump legacy.

• Her title is "Advisor to the President," with a portfolio that includes education and economic empowerment of women and families, plus job creation and economic growth through workforce development, skills training and entrepreneurship.
• She has championed paid family leave, which she says is "grounded in conservative values of work and of family," and said on the edition of CBS News' "Face the Nation" aired on Dec. 29: "[W]e have made more progress on paid family leave than in the 25 years since the Family and Medical Leave Act was passed."
• Ivanka Trump often represents the president on the world stage, including championing his Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative. She danced with women entrepreneurs in Paraguay, held hands with women farmers in Morocco, and often visits American workplaces, including a Walmart store and a Toyota plant.

By the numbers: According to the SurveyMonkey survey of 1,854 adults who lean Republican, Vice President Mike Pence tops the 2024 list, and Don Jr. is second.

• Between the lines: Don Jr. was the top choice among young voters, while Pence was the clear preference for older voters.

For what it's worth, the survey was conducted right before Trump was impeached.

Axios didn't mention that DonSpawn's book got onto the bestseller list on the shoulders of several bulk buys by the RNC and other Republican organisations.

[Scot Dutchy]

The Trump dynasty.

[Seabass]

Imagine looking at Don Jr and thinking, "yeah, he'd make a great president". What kind of fucked up environment and upbringing leads to that?

[Scot Dutchy]

It is what America believes it wants and so do the Russians.

[Tero]

A lovely gerrymandering manual available now
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/05/78567220 ... Im2d20APj0

[L'Emmerdeur]

Nikki Haley, enhancing her shitbird cred, clearly wants to solidify her place in the hearts of the idiot jingoist rube Trump supporters.

'Nikki Haley Says Democratic Presidential Candidates and Leadership Are Only People in the World "Mourning the Loss of Soleimani"'

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, accused Democrats of "mourning" the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani as she defended President Donald Trump's decision to target the Quds Force commander.

The board member of arms manufacturer Boeing argued in a Fox News interview Monday night that Democratic Party leaders and presidential candidates were the "only ones" upset by the killing of Soleimani, claiming nobody else was "standing up for Iran."

She also said President Trump "showed great decisiveness" by killing Soleimani with a drone strike in Baghdad last Friday, suggesting the assassination was "a long time coming."

Haley launched her attack on Democrats over the Soleimani killing after senior party representatives criticised the Trump administration's decision to strike the general, warning that the move could cause tensions in the Middle East to escalate.

[Tero]

A 1970s witch hunt by the FBI

The year was 1973, and Spiro T. Agnew, the former governor of Maryland, was Richard Nixon’s second-in-command. Long on firebrand rhetoric and short on political experience, Agnew had carried out a bribery and extortion ring in office for years, when—at the height of Watergate—three young federal prosecutors discovered his crimes and launched a mission to take him down before it was too late, before Nixon’s impending downfall elevated Agnew to the presidency. The self-described “counterpuncher” vice president did everything he could to bury their investigation: dismissing it as a “witch hunt,” riling up his partisan base, making the press the enemy, and, with a crumbling circle of loyalists, scheming to obstruct justice in order to survive.

In this blockbuster account, Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz detail the investigation that exposed Agnew’s crimes, the attempts at a cover-up—which involved future president George H. W. Bush—and the backroom bargain that forced Agnew’s resignation but also spared him years in federal prison.

https://www.amazon.com/Bag-Man-Audaciou ... AS2NS3KPYY

[Joe]

Ah, good old Ted Agnew. I learned the term nolo contendere as a result of his escapades.

[L'Emmerdeur]

The dirty rotten Deep State/Enemies of the People are besmirching Saint Reagan's good name.

'Ronald Reagan’s “October Surprise” Plot Was Real After All'

A batch of quietly released documents confirms what many have long suspected: Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign worked behind the scenes to delay the release of US hostages in Iran, for the benefit of Reagan’s election campaign. It raises the question: When was the last time a Republican won a presidential election without the help of dirty tricks?

The 2020s began with such a hair-raising blitz of Iran-related news that you probably missed the bombshell revelation about US-Iranian relations that came with the end of the 2010s. Rather than a potential US-Iran war today, this particular story transports us back to a more innocent time, when politics was about principles and Republican presidents were decent men: the beginning of the Reagan era.

At question is the 1980 presidential election between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, specifically the “October Surprise” that is alleged to have handed Reagan the election, long dismissed as a conspiracy theory. The whole saga is lengthy and convoluted, but the core allegation is this: that in the middle of the Iran hostage crisis, the Reagan campaign made a secret deal with the new rulers of Iran to delay the release of the hostages until after the election, dooming Carter’s chances of victory.

The allegation, doggedly pursued by the late investigative journalist Robert Parry, spawned books and even a 1992 congressional investigation, which determined there was “no credible evidence supporting any attempt or proposal to attempt by the Reagan Presidential campaign . . . to delay the release of the American hostages in Iran.” Parry and others looking into the case were attacked in the media, with much of the issue revolving around whether or not Reagan’s campaign manager and (later) free press–hating CIA director William Casey had traveled to Madrid on a particular date to meet with Iranian government representatives.

Well, nearly seventeen years after the House October Surprise Task Force concluded that the whole idea was bunk, an outlet no less venerable than the New York Times has turned that conclusion on its head. Just three days out from a new decade, the Times published what in any other era would have been a bombshell story based on documents donated to Yale from the offices of David Rockefeller, the former chairman of Chase Manhattan Corporation.

Ostensibly a story about how Rockefeller and Chase worked behind the scenes to win their client, the repressive Shah of Iran, safe haven in the United States, this nugget appears about halfway through:

[T]he team around Mr. Rockefeller, a lifelong Republican with a dim view of Mr. Carter’s dovish foreign policy, collaborated closely with the Reagan campaign in its efforts to pre-empt and discourage what it derisively labeled an “October surprise” — a pre-election release of the American hostages, the papers show.

The Chase team helped the Reagan campaign gather and spread rumors about possible payoffs to win the release, a propaganda effort that Carter administration officials have said impeded talks to free the captives.

“I had given my all” to thwarting any effort by the Carter officials “to pull off the long-suspected ‘October surprise,’” Mr. Reed wrote in a letter to his family after the election, apparently referring to the Chase effort to track and discourage a hostage release deal. He was later named Mr. Reagan’s ambassador to Morocco.

“Mr. Reed” was Joseph Reed Jr, Rockefeller’s chief of staff, who mandated that the documents should stay sealed until Rockefeller’s death, which came in 2017. It’s not hard to see why.

Critics will quibble that these documents don’t prove the actual specifics of the long-alleged “October Surprise.” This is true. According to the Times, they don’t show Reagan striking a deal with the Iranians to delay the release of the American hostages until after the election, but simply working behind the scenes to thwart negotiations to free them. Perhaps someone out there exists who thinks this is better.

[Svartalf]

Ah, good old Ted Agnew. I learned the term nolo contendere as a result of his escapades.

Ted Agnew? any relationship to old Spiro?

[Tero]

Imagine looking at Don Jr and thinking, "yeah, he'd make a great president". What kind of fucked up environment and upbringing leads to that?

Being who they are, I think we are best using astrology to explain them

Don, Sr. placed his children into a financial and intellectual bubble, and Eric is the sort who does beautifully in a terrarium. Eric isn’t the one out there shooting elephants, that’s Don. Eric’s Pluto in Scorpio (where admittedly it’s meaner and sneakier) conjuncts his Mars in Libra (where it’s passive-aggressive). So he’s okay with the he-man stuff of his father and brother generally, but I don’t see the literal blood lust. And besides, he doesn’t need the ego stroke. When his dad sues people and makes them shut up, all is right with the world. He just doesn’t care that much. Eric mostly stays in the golden terrarium where he was born, with some beautiful blonde, not giving a single fuck as long as he wins, every day.

https://artnunymiss.wordpress.com/2017/ ... osplained/

[Joe]

Ah, good old Ted Agnew. I learned the term nolo contendere as a result of his escapades.

Ted Agnew? any relationship to old Spiro?

Yep, he went by Ted. His middle name was Theodore.

[Tero]

Right-winger Katie Hopkins gets a major award

[Scot Dutchy]

So gullible.



Josh Pieters is well known here.

[Sean Hayden]

So how do the Republicans move on after Trump? We can't work with this party if they keep going down this path, surely? So what's the plan? Are these guys even thinking about that?