Can We Please Stop Pretending that Republicans Have Any Principles Whatsoever?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration will announce as early as Wednesday it is revoking California’s authority to set its own greenhouse gas and vehicle fuel efficiency standards and barring all states from setting such rules, two auto industry officials said on Tuesday.

The move is sure to spark legal challenges over issues including states’ rights and climate change that administration officials say could ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump met with senior officials last Thursday and agreed to greenlight the plan to bar California from setting tailpipe emission standards or requiring zero emission vehicles, Reuters reported last week. The White House declined to comment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-emissions/trump-to-bar-california-from-setting-vehicle-emissions-rules-sources-idUSKBN1W224L

State's rights!, but not California ...

... Free markets!, but trade wars ...

... Support the troops!, but appropriate their priorities for pet projects ...

... America first!, but first let's see what the Saudi's want ...

... Family values!, but Trump.

I stopped pretending that as soon as I was old enough to look up data for myself. Nothing conservative stands up to actual objective checking of data. It falls apart like wet Kleenex.

Whatever slight ideals they may have once had, back when William F. Buckley was still a thing, have all disappeared since FOX News and talk radio dumbed them down and exploited their religion to bring 'em into a political cult. Now all they stand for is "pissing off the libs" and trying to undo anything Democrats do, whether it was a good idea or not.

I mean, we see how that's going with Iran now, right? That ought to be proof enough. We had an Iran deal that was working and could have been built on, but Trump was so butthurt that Obama (who was b-l-a-c-k) was globally popular (except with the TEA Party freaks, who totally weren't racist but believed all sorts of ridiculous horseshit and then disappeared without a trace as soon as the b-l-a-c-k guy was gone) and respected, fixed the economy so well that Trump's sole "accomplishment" is taking credit for all the trends Obama left him, and -- oh yeah, Obama made it publicly clear that he didn't like Trump, which hurts Trump's fee-fee's to a pathological degree). Anyway, all that, so... Trump has to undo everything Obama did, good idea or not (he's even undoing his economy now), and so we scrapped the Iran deal and now we've got aggression from 'em and not even John Bolton around to deal with it, because he got sick of competing with Vladimir Putin (who flatters Trump and is therefore good!) to do his job as National Security Advisor.


Aaaaaaaaaand Republicans (and Libertarians!) back aaaaaaalllllll this shit because they are fucking jokes who haven't actually stood for anything since Limbaugh showed up. Now they just suck in propaganda and regurge it, and take orders like "good Germans" and defend things they'd scream to the high heavens about if anybody but someone on "their team" was doin' 'em.

And, by the way, they're also proving that their god is some horseshit they don't even believe in, either. They'd never dare to keep those kids in cages if they actually believed anything in the Bible. It's all just mind-control cult claptrap to keep them insular. Nothing more, nothing less, and it hasn't been otherwise since they married politics to their religion for expediency.

Not pretending Republicans have principles? Not a problem! It's if you ask me to do the converse where I'd have some trouble. After living my whole life surrounded by the idiots, I really don't think I could manage that...

Of course, there is so much corruption and lying going on every hour that it is easy to forget many things djt has done since he took over, but this action on his part keeps coming to mind as we see more and more pressure to reform gun safety laws. Surprisingly, I don't see any politicians reminding us of it.


Within his first two months as president, Donald Trump repealed without public display an Obama administration gun regulation that prevented certain individuals with mental health conditions from buying firearms. Prior to Trump's overturning the rule on February 28, four Democratic senators and an independent who are up for re-election in 2018 had sided with their Republican colleagues by voting to revoke it.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-set-overturn-guns-mental-health-regulation-557237

I so appreciate the good comments and posts by others (OS and zsomething) who continue to maintain a modicum of rational thought. I won't bore anyone saying things we all agree on . . . the horizon looks difficult but not impossible. The only thing I have to keep my sanity is the upcoming election. It is our only sane method of righting the ship of state so we have the numbers so folks must go to the polls and send this national nightmare back to Manhattan or wherever he came from.

I stopped pretending years ago because I became tired of the taste of vomit in my mouth and the smell of bull feces every time I did pretend that republicans did have any principles.

This is the state that elected a Democratic governor. Shortly after the election, the Republican legislators started stripping the governor of powers. Actions like this are only possible if people have no shame. They are apparently bald-faced power hungry people who do not fear or give a tinker's damn about the opinion of the voters. It must work for them on some level.

When North Carolina’s Republican-led legislature passed laws curbing incoming Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s authority last year, critics said the move created a partisan blueprint for other states around the country.

North Carolina’s GOP-controlled General Assembly stunned political observers last December with its decision to target Cooper after he beat Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in an unusually rancorous election that ended in a recount.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/north-carolinas-legislature-tried-strip-power-new-governor-will-states

Then, there's this:

North Carolina House Democrats are calling foul on their Republican colleagues for voting to override the governor's budget veto on Wednesday while most Democrats were not present.

The uproar began after GOP Rep. Jason Saine made a motion early Wednesday morning to reconsider the budget that was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper earlier this year, according to The Raleigh News & Observer.

Democrats excoriated Republicans on social media and the few who were present in the House at the time of the vote furiously protested the decision. Only 12 Democrats were in the House, but they did not all have an opportunity to vote and their microphones were cut off, the paper reported. The vote passed 55-9. The issue now moves to the state's GOP-controlled Senate.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/shame-you-north-carolina-gop-votes-override-veto-while-democrats-n1052466

I love this:



I'm always seeing conservatives screaming that "the left hates free speech," and that's bullshit. Beau pretty well spells out what a scam that is.

The thing I've noticed from dealing with tons of right-wingers online is... they're trained. They all say pretty much the same thing and make the same bullshit arguments. Very few of them are actually thinking -- they're just reading certain websites and watching certain YouTubers and then repeating what they say. That's why wrong-headed ideas seem to flourish on the right so much, and why they'll continue to hit on "scandals" that have already been debunked.

There's a lot about the left that's annoying, too, but the level of group-think on the right, and sheer absurdity, is off the charts. There's nothing but herd conformity. It comforts 'em.