Republicans Are The Lannisters Of American Politics
It's your very 'Game Of Thrones' Sunday show rundown.
The HBO series "Game Of Thrones" dominated television until it ended with mixed feelings in 2019. Despite the sword and sorcery elements, the series managed to engage a wide audience through its political intrigue as the ruling houses schemed to win everything.
One of those houses, the Lannisters, was rich, incestuous and ruthless — similar to the Republican Party except Republicans have few if any of the Lannisters' positive traits.
The Lannisters, Unlike The Republicans, "Always Pay Their Debts"
The Lannisters' unofficial motto of "A Lannister always pay his debts" is a fine financial position but also a warning to enemies that they will always settle the score. While Republicans certainly settle their political scores, keeping a promise for repayment is more tenuous, which Republican Rep. Byron Donalds from Florida demonstrated on NBC's "Meet The Press."
Donalds decried the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party for not just blankly giving in to the Republicans' every demand as they hold the world's financial stability hostage. But all the talking points collapsed after Chuck Todd played a clip of then-President Trump discussing the debt ceiling.
Donalds comes from the same political cesspool as Matt Gaetz and Ron DeSantis, so he gave the game away with zero shame.
DONALDS: Well, first of all, he also said the other day on a rival network that he said that when he was president, and when they asked why he wasn't saying it now, he said because he's not president. Listen, Donald Trump is always negotiating —
TODD: Do you realize how absurd that sounds?
DONALDS: That is not absurd. He's always negotiating, Chuck.
TODD: How is that not absurd? It's absurd.
DONALDS: Chuck, he's always negotiating. That's what he does. And it's actually one of the reasons why so many deals for our country worked out to our benefit, as compared to his predecessors, both Republican and Democrat, because he's always negotiating.
TODD: But do you realize how partisan that sounds?
DONALDS: That is not a partisan statement.
TODD: "What is – what is good for me is not for thee." He's basically saying, "When I'm president, –
DONALDS: Right.
You know how stupid and nakedly partisan you have to be for anyone in mainstream political media to call it out, much less Chuck "Both Sides" Todd?!
Donalds then tried a little whataboutism that was so provenly false that Chuck Fucking Todd corrected him (again).
TODD: – there's no negotiating on this. But, hey, when somebody else is president, screw them."
DONALDS: Well, no, here's the thing. Let's be – let’s be realistic now. When Donald Trump was negotiating debt ceiling with Nancy Pelosi, mind you, they negotiated that.
TODD: No, they didn't.
DONALDS: When they were –
TODD: They raised it without any restrictions.
Losing an argument to Chuck Todd should be an everlasting political wound, like Jamie Lannister's right hand.
The Republicans' Lannister-Like Cruelty And Greed
Republicans, like the fictional Lannisters, think they can somehow "shit gold" by just doing cuts that hurt everyone but the rich. Republicans said as much when a reporter asked about raising revenue to "solve" their manufactured debt crisis last week.
\u201cRepublicans groan when a reporter asks McCarthy if he's open to considering a tax increase on the wealthy\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1684338839
When Republicans claim small businesses and family finances are like the federal government's budget (they aren't), they conveniently ignore that real world small businesses and families would have to also bring in more revenue to get out of debt. You either raise prices (businesses) or get a raise/second job (families).
The House Budget Committee Chair, Rep Jodey Arrington of Texas, was happy to show his unseriousness on ABC's "This Week."
RADDATZ: Well, the President said he’s willing to cut spending by more than a trillion dollars. [...] But he also wants Republicans to consider raising revenue. That has been a non-starter for Republicans. But will you reconsider?
ARRINGTON: No, because you couldn’t get tax policies and tax revenues in the Senate bill. We certainly weren’t going to put it in the House bill. So [...] it’s not on the table for discussion.
Then there's full-time podcaster/part-time Republican Sen. Ted Cruz on "Fox News Sunday" spitting out all kinds of bullshit, unchallenged by host Shannon Bream.
\u201cDemocrats want an army of IRS agents to harass the American people. \n\nI've yet to find someone in Texas who wants 87,000 new IRS agents!\u201d— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1684711380
It's not a surprise that this lie was long debunked. But Cruz continued trying to scaremonger to protect the wealthy with some stats on revenue and spending.
CRUZ: In 2017, total government spending was about $4 trillion dollars, tax revenues were about $3.3 trillion dollars. So, we had about a $700 billion dollar deficit. Fast forward to today, total government spending has gone from $4 trillion dollars all the way up to nearly $7 trillion dollars. We nearly doubled government spending since 2017. What has tax revenue done? They've gone from $3.3 trillion dollars to right about $5 trillion dollars.
Lyin' Ted Cruz "conveniently" skipped the $4.9 trillion Trump added, $1.9 of it being tax cuts for the rich by fast-forwarding from 2017 to today, as if the Trump administration never existed.
Cruz's hate for IRS agents is also to shield his rich sugar daddies, as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made clear on "Meet The Press."
YELLEN: We have an enormous gap between the taxes we're collecting and what we should be collecting, if everyone paid the taxes that they really owe. And that's really a reflection of tax fraud. It amounts to an estimated $7 trillion over the next decade. [...] equipping the IRS with the funding they need to audit high-income individuals and corporations, that's something that doesn't cost money. It nets money substantially [...]
For Republicans, protecting tax fraud by the rich and corporations is better when you can also be cruel to poor people and marginalized groups.
And there's no sign that a single Tyrion Lannister resides within the Republican Party.
Have a week.
WonkTV: Why Are Republicans Such Joyless Creeps?
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Right-wingers are freaking out over Martha Stewart, Dylan Mulvaney, and Kim Petras for a barrage of stupid reasons. What the hell is wrong with these people? Let’s discuss.
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Kayleigh McEnany Not Asshole About Martha Stewart Looking Fine As Hell On Softcore Mag Cover
Ted Cruz Investigating Bud Light For Felony Nice To Trans Lady
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What? Fox's 'Chicago' (Naperville) Diner Segment Was A Set Up?
They really just can't stop themselves from lying about Chicago.
Last week, Fox and Friends sent reporter Gianno Caldwell to a totally random Chicago diner to see how some totally random customers there were feeling about the recently inaugurated Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Except it wasn't a Chicago diner, it was a Naperville diner an hour outside of the City of Chicago. I am but a transplant here, but one thing I can tell you is that Chicagoans are very particular about who gets to say they are from Chicago and it is not people who live in the Chicago suburbs. It's not like Massachusetts where everyone in Massachusetts and sometimes the surrounding states just says they're from Boston when talking to people outside of New England.
This time, however, the outrage was totally valid, because Naperville is literally an hour away. They had to go an hour outside of the city of Chicago to find a diner where they could talk to people, despite the fact that the city of Chicago is in fact replete with diners.
By sheer coincidence, Gianno Caldwell found some diners from actual Chicago!
\u201cBreakfast with \u2018Friends\u2019: Gianno Caldwell talks new Chicago mayor with diners\nGianno Caldwell asks diners their reaction to Brandon Johnson being sworn in as Chicago Mayor. Segment: https://t.co/SdXTNtrDfj\u201d— Gianno Caldwell (@Gianno Caldwell) 1684269319
Also by sheer coincidence, the person he spoke to was Lavondale “Big Dale” Glass, the assistant director of violence prevention for Project H.O.O.D., a non-profit that endorsed Johnson's opponent, Paul Vallas, in the last election. The other man sitting with him was Andre Smith, the C.E.O of Chicago Against Violence. Smith had been involved directly with the Vallas campaign, but Glass had not.
When asked what he thought of Johnson, Glass said "I think it’s a fluke, I don’t think he’s gonna do any better than Lori Lightfoot, I have no confidence in him, he’s already coming in the gate saying the wrong thing. Like uh, we had to leave the South Side to go to the North Side, thinking that my son would be safe there and he still was murdered. So I don’t see anything turning better from Brandon Johnson."
The clip, unsurprisingly, lit up more than a few Chicagoans, who are all very sick and tired of Fox News trying to drag our city as some den of violence when there are 19 other cities with higher crime rates than ours, many of them in red states. No one was too happy either about the visit to a Naperville diner when people in Naperville do not vote in Chicago elections and in fact have their own damn mayor.
Caldwell defended this online by saying that people from Chicago who voted in the last election were in the diner with him. Because who wouldn't go to a random Naperville diner and just assume that several people from Chicago had driven an hour outside of the city just to get breakfast at Rosies' Home Cooking and would be there that morning? Surely this was just as good of a plan as going to one of the many, many diners in the city — about 9 in my own neighborhood that I can think of off the top of my head.
\u201cPeople from Chicago, who voted in the last Chicago election, were in the restaurant and on air with me.\u201d— Gianno Caldwell (@Gianno Caldwell) 1684271684
Except it wasn't by sheer coincidence. Not even remotely. The men have since told Chicago-based news site The TRiiBEthat they were asked to be there and were not told they were going to be asked about Mayor Johnson, but rather that they were going to be discussing the problem of violence and the murder of Glass's son Keion in a shooting in the neighborhood of Avondale. The questions about Johnson came as a complete surprise.
In interviews with The TRiiBE, both Glass and Smith said they were surprised by Caldwell’s question about Johnson. “I was upset that he asked me that question,” Glass told The TRiiBE. “And it kind of caught me off guard, because I’m still upset about my son.” He added, “I don’t think anything will change, about any of the politicians, him or Vallas.”
Glass repeatedly emphasized that he didn’t oppose Johnson, but was skeptical of elected officials’ ability to solve violence at the street level.
“Don’t take me up to be like I’m against Brandon Johnson,” Glass told The TRiiBE. “He’s a Black man; I hope he does well. Make sure you put that in” this story. “We’re gonna wait and give him a chance.” He reiterated that he doesn’t have faith in politicians.
I also tend to find it better to err on the side of not having faith in politicians and then being pleasantly surprised when they do something good. I'm also very happy that Brandon Johnson is our mayor. Two things can be true!
It's very clear what Caldwell was trying to do here. He was trying to make it look as though Black people from the South Side had wanted Vallas and felt like Brandon Johnson was going to make things worse. Of course, if they really believed that, they would have gone to a diner in Bronzeville or somewhere. They didn't.
This is not the first time in recent history that Fox has lied about Chicago in order to further their weird anti-Chicago agenda. They do it all the time. Just recently, they ran a whole segment claiming that a "luxury hotel" was turning away "American citizens" in order to house refugees, when in fact the city had just placed several refugees at a hotel that has been closed for two years and won't open for another month.
If you are so inclined, some pretty cool Chicago folks were so inspired by the segment that they designed some pretty cool "Shut The Fuck Up About Chicago" t-shirts and you can buy them here and here if you like.
Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons.
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Wonkette Movie Night: My Man Godfrey
'Prosperity is just around the corner.' ' Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.'
Hi Movie Night fans!
Tonight we are watching My Man Godfrey from 1936. Starring Carole Lombard and William Powell, directed by Gregory La Cava. It was the first movie to be nominated in all four Academy Award acting categories(the first year supporting roles were included) and not be nominated for Best Picture.
Available for free w/ads on YouTube(colorized), Tubi, Pluto TV, Sling TV, The Roku Channel(colorized), Prime(colorized) and The Internet Archives.
Got your popcorn? Enjoy!
Movie info can always be found here.