Trump, DeSantis, Santos, when honesty simply doesn't matter - Ruthlessness and absolute disregard rules our gods

Politics and Social Issues
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Jan. 11, 2023, Marisa Kabas,

Voters might owe George Santos a ‘thank you’ — for airing local GOP dirty laundry

Santos’ election has provided a valuable service for his district by exposing something deeper than a fraudulent résumé: the dirty laundry of a local GOP.

Jan. 11, 2023, Marisa Kabas,

By Marisa Kabas, MSNBC Opinion Columnist

George Santos won his election on Nov. 3 against Democrat Robert Zimmerman in New York’s wealthiest district, and one of the wealthiest in the country. But as we know now, the person for whom the majority of voters cast their ballots was an imposter created to appeal to the district’s Wall Street types with big checkbooks and politics that have reddened in the Trump years. Suddenly this Brazilian, Jewish, immigrant, gay, CUNY Baruch graduate and Goldman Sachs alum was possibly none of those things.
Still, Santos’ election has provided a valuable service for his district by exposing something deeper than a fraudulent résumé: the dirty laundry of a local Republican Party with big ambitions but a weak leadership pipeline. And ultimately, that’s a good thing — for Democrats, as well as for the Republicans whom Santos deceived during his campaign.

It’s been equal parts fascinating and horrifying to see the area of Long Island where I grew up making national headlines. …

… Santos had run in 2020 with little money or fanfare and lost handily to Suozzi. But he’d hitched his wagon to Trump, having attended the Mar-a-Lago New Year’s party last year, and suddenly his star in the local party was rising. And come Election Day 2022, the district was crawling with Santos signs, with barely a trace of his opponent, Zimmerman.

Now, as much as Long Island Republicans try to say Santos isn’t representative of who they are, if they’re really honest with themselves, he is the very embodiment of their values. And the more people who know that, the better off everyone is. …

It feels to me like politics has imploded, facade was always important, but now days its become all most people care about. The most unqualified are trusted with tasks that require knowledge, training, pride in job, concern for those we are responsible for. But nothing professional about many Republicans these days, one sociopathic wing nut after another. People without the slightest shred self-double let alone introspection, utterly incapable of facing up to mistakes, accepting consequences, learning from experience. Opportunism and denial is all they know.

I know it’s not everyone, there are decent politicans, the biggest problem is so few citizens care to take the on the responsibility to do the things needed to make government Of the People, By the People, For the People function. You know, Democracy requires an Informed and Engaged electorate and all that. Strong grassroots that believes in their leaders - leaders that understand the point of their job is to also doing the people’s bidding. People should believe but verify, push your representatives to do the right thing, etc., etc…

No grand secrets, just people who care, who believe in community, this in turn makes some moral demands such as doing your part when and how you can. Yada, yada, yada.

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The irony is that the Republicans are planning to investigate Biden on Trump’s Big Lie that the Democrats are cheats and liars and they will be using the biggest cheats and liars to do the investigation.

This country has been turned upside down and The Democrats are better preparing for the dirtiest, meanest, dishonest, lying basket of despicables trying every dirty trick to destroy one of the greatest presidents who has presided over this nation, while the true liars will be strutting around and spouting their vile accusations without attending to the health and prosperity of the people.

Such a shame. The grifters have found a foothold and they are going to bankrupt this country while walking off with all the taxpayers money, just like Trump taught them .

Let’s hope that this time Big Business will realize the financial harm this gang can bring down on the US and take strong action to preserve the democracy that has been so profitable for them.

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Well they have had decades worth of, unmolested time, to refine the tactics. Leftie Democratic Party types were simply too busy enjoying our party to take notice, let alone think to confront it with well reasoned arguments and pleas.

It is a shame,

UCSD Guestbook: The Republican War on Science

University of California Television (UCTV)

Naomi Oreskes & Erik Conway — APL
Authors of
The Magic of the Marketplace: The True History of a False Idea (Bloomsbury, 2021)
The Collapse of Western Civilization (Columbia University Press, 2014)
Merchants of Doubt (Bloomsbury Press, 2010)

Naomi Oreskes is a Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. Her study “Beyond the Ivory Tower,” published in Science, was a milestone in the fight against global warming denial and was cited by Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth. Erik Conway is the resident historian at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues From Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming tells the troubling story of how a cadre of influential science policymakers have clouded public understanding of scientific facts to advance a political and economic agenda

The U.S. scientific community has long led the world in research on such areas as public health, environmental science, and issues affecting quality of life. Our scientists have produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain and global warming. But at the same time, a small yet potent subset of this community leads the world in vehement denial of these dangers.

Merchants of Doubt tells the story of how a loose–knit group of high-level scientists and scientific advisors, with deep connections in politics and industry, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge over four decades. Remarkably, the same individuals surface repeatedly; some of the same figures who have claimed the science of global warming is “not settled” denied the truth of studies linking smoking to lung cancer, coal smoke to acid rain, and CFCs to the ozone hole. “Doubt is our product,” wrote one tobacco executive. These “experts” supplied it.

Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, historians of science, roll back the rug on this dark corner of the American scientific community, showing how ideology and corporate interests, aided by a too-compliant media, have skewed public understanding of some of the most pressing issues of our era.

It started little, but then moved up Gingrich, Tea Party, Trump and all the rest.

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You’re kidding right? Well reasoned arguments and pleas go nowhere. We need a “good” Trump, someone who has the balls to go after these clowns. The Dems always go for the polite smart people (think Clinton, Obama, Carter). We need to go for a young rabble rouser, like Bernie but way younger and way sharper. Pete B maybe, but even he’s sometimes too “PC”.

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No, I’m not kidding?

(yes that’s an invitation to link)

That said, damned straight we need to go for a young rabble rouser, but that dude, or dudette, better have some razor share arguments and facts, cause if we aren’t changing minds, we’re still losing.

:+1:t2:

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Delusionals make for sore losers as they become ever more unhinged. For example, take the loser of a New Mexico state House race, MAGAman Solomon Peña.

MeidasTouch - Jan 21, 2023

Failed MAGA candidate Solomon Peña was arrested last week after being accused of leading a shooting spree on top Democratic officials across New Mexico after losing his election by a blowout.
Now, new connections are being revealed between Peña, drug money, Republican donors and more. Gabe Sanchez breaks it all down on the latest episode of ‘What Was That?’

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He looks like a psychopath.

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How can you tell? He looks human to me.

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Yes, that may seem prejudicial, but I am very empathic and this guy “feels” wrong.
image!imageimageimage

They’re all human, human monsters.

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And the difference is? How can you tell just by looks?

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I know, it seems prejudicial.

But note that our brilliant artists tend to have a certain freedom of expression, whereas the psychopaths tend to be obsessively neat a precise and will berate anyone who does not “respect” his space.

Psychopathic Characteristics of Behavior

One of the most obvious differences between psychopaths and sociopaths is that psychopaths tend to be very organized. Their need for organization is reflected in every part of their lives from the way their home or personal space is kept to the way they establish and execute plans. For many psychopaths, the need for an organization can almost seem like an obsession.

A psychopath’s excessive attention to detail and the need for constant organization often make it difficult to catch them if they commit a crime. Many psychopaths plan their acts of lawlessness so carefully that they may go for years breaking the law undetected. If, and when, a psychopath is caught breaking the law, they will try to spin the story to blame someone else and appear innocent.

People with antisocial personality disorder are known as rule-breakers. A lack of respect for authority or societal rules often results in these people breaking the law.

This does not necessarily make all sociopaths criminals. Artists are notorious rule-breakers, but do so from observation and in protest to existing conditions of pain and hardship, rather than as an exercise in controlling his/her environment.

Psychopaths are often referred to as “cold-blooded” or “cold-hearted.” Their behavior is typically very calculated, and they may use aggressive tactics to get what they want. For example, if a psychopath wants to earn a promotion at work, he may have no problem using whatever means necessary to accomplish that goal. This may include being willing to destroy a co-worker’s reputation or status on the job to help cause himself to be promoted.

Please note that I do not just come to any prejudicial cautionary conclusions until I have observed the individual interact with others. But body language is a great telltale sign,

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That’s because I thought you were going by looks alone. Now we have something to work with. However, how do you know they are sociopaths just by looking at them, like I assume you did with the first picture you said, “He looks like a psychopath.”. Was looks all you went by and if so, how can you tell, just by looks? John Lennon and Elton John wore/wear wire frame glasses and glasses in general, so it can’t be that.

Your last post has lots of info, which is great, but I refer again, to the comment, “He looks like a psychopath.” I don’t comprehend how one can judge by looks alone.

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[quote=“mriana, post:12, topic:10096”]
John Lennon and Elton John wore/wear wire frame glasses and glasses in general, so it can’t be that.

True, but a psychopath would never look as “hippie” as John Lennon or wear “pink” glasses like Elton John
Seems to me that is contrary to the psychopath profile.

Your last post has lots of info, which is great, but I refer again, to the comment, “He looks like a psychopath.” I don’t comprehend how one can judge by looks alone.

It was just a first impression, an intuitive “fight ot flight” response. And I’m sure I was also influenced by their known life-stories.
I’m not perfect, you know… :confounded:

Empaths are very sensitive to first impressions. It’s those mirror neurons that recognize certain behaviors at a very primitive level.

As much as they trigger “love at first sight”… :heart_eyes:

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Bringing it back to this threads’ topic of considering politics and society when honesty simply doesn’t matter any more - or when delusional thinking becomes king.

Character is destiny, I’ve heard. Which makes this evolution in GOP leadership attitudes towards trump as interesting as a car wreck on the other side of the median.

The only solution to their trump problem is for the big man, with the astronomical ego/insecurity complex, and the tiny hands, to die.

So this is what the GOP’s PLAN for America has been reduced to: wait and see, then jump on the most opportunistic clown to take over the bandwagon.

It’s all they have. It’s no wonder, considering how they’ve sold their collective e souls to the delusionalist’s way thinking and dealing with life’s realities.

Jan 30, 2023
A new report from The Atlantic reveals that many Republicans are quietly hoping Donald Trump will fade from public life. McKay Coppins, the reporter from the Atlantic who wrote the story, joins CNN’s Erin Burnett with more details.

Republicans’ 2024 Magical Thinking

Lots of Republicans want Donald Trump to disappear from politics. Their main strategy is hope.

By McKay Coppins

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If only Chuck Todd would let all all go with “what a waste of million dollar missile on a weather balloon! A manufacturered crisis”

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Yes, by the Chinese!

What if the balloon carried a vial with a deadly virus? Would you want that little tidbit to land in your town square? Would you want to know about anything that is in that balloon aside from weather instruments?
We are now talking about National Security. As president could you afford to take any chances with a potential existential threat?

One Pearl Harbor outside the US and one 9/11 inside the US is plenty of reason for taking extreme cautionary responses to any unusual situation created by a foreign adversary.

p.s. The payload of that 200 ft tall balloon was several thousand pounds of “stuff”, enough for a nuclear device.
Just check out the specs that will be coming out . This was no kid’s balloon!

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Here Are All the Ways Republicans Plan to Investigate Biden

House Republicans are preparing a cascade of investigations, some overlapping, into the Biden administration and its policies. Right-wing lawmakers have said the ultimate goal is to impeach the president.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/us/politics/house-republicans-investigations.html

It seems that the Republican House is under the impression that in addition to making law, they also get to execute and enforce their own laws , but that won’t fly.

As long as there is a Constitution, there are still 3 distinct and separate branches of government ; the Legislative branch, the Judiciary branch, and the Executive branch .

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notice how the americans have dropped the spy balloon commentary and now referring to this as a surveillance balloon? One wonders if more information regarding the true nature of this balloon will be
forthcoming in the public domain given the hype and hysteria it has generated ?
Or will it be like the sabotage of the Nordstream pipelines … no further information
about whodunnit ?

Facts are often hijacked by political machinations !

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Yes, by the Republican disinformation mill.
Apparently you missed the part that balloons are much closer to earth than satellites and have the ability to hoover over a small area for extended times.

How would you like a drone (maybe with a small missile) hoovering over your backyard, looking at everything you do.

A President has the obligation to treat any foreign object launched without warning from an adverserial nation as a potential existential threat.

This is why the balloon was shot down with deliberate intent and speed, to avoid potential harm to ANY individual.

It is the Republican cabal that is trying to poke sticks in the nations wheels every possible opportunity. They don’t want all Americans to thrive.
They want only White European American males to thrive.

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write4u you’re close as to what their concerns were.

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