Conservatism News and Discussions

[caltrek]

Lindsey Graham says Trump Calling Putin Genius was 'a Mistake'
by Ali Zaslav and Ellie Kaufman
March 3, 2022

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/02/politics ... index.html

Introduction:

(CNN)Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said on Wednesday that he thinks it "was a mistake" for former President Donald Trump to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a genius.

"I think that was a mistake. I think I know what he was trying to say, you know, going into the Donbas. But, no. Let's just make it clear, Putin's not a genius, he's a war criminal," said Graham, a close Trump ally.

On Wednesday, Graham introduced a nonbinding Senate resolution that calls for Putin to be held accountable for numerous acts of war, aggression and human rights abuses. The resolution supports a complaint filed by the Ukrainian government against Putin in the International Criminal Court that alleges war crimes in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Graham said he hopes if the US backs the complaint, more nations will follow.

Russia has been hitting civilian targets and residential areas in recent days, according to open source information and US officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of targeting civilians, including children, and called for an international investigation into the conflict on Sunday.

[caltrek]

Conservative Never Trumper Takes on ‘Putin apologists’ in a Scathing Video
by Alex Henderson
March 11, 2022

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/putin-2656925077/

Introduction:

(Alternet) The Bulwark, a conservative website known for prominent Never Trumpers such as Bill Kristol, Charlie Sykes, Amanda Carpenter and Mona Charen, hasn’t hesitated to call out MAGA apologists for Russian President Vladimir Putin. And Never Trumper Tim Miller, in a biting but humorous video posted by The Bulwark on March 10, slams pundits and politicians who have been apologists for Putin’s vicious invasion of Ukraine — which has cost thousands of people their lives.

Miller, a former GOP activist and scathing critic of former President Donald Trump, tells viewers, “To all the Putin apologists out there, here’s my love letter to you…. I want to take on arguments made by influencers on the anti-war left and the populist right…. It’s everyone from the DSA to Candace Owens who argue it’s really the U.S. that’s at fault here.”

Miller slams former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard — who has recently been echoing a lot of MAGA talking points — for saying that Russia had “legitimate security concerns” about Ukraine because of NATO.

“Number one, Russia has nukes,” Miller explains. “So, what exactly is their ‘legitimate security concern?’ Ukraine is no threat to them militarily. Number two, Ukraine isn’t in NATO. In 2008, when they tried to join, other European countries rejected them. So, what exactly was the imminent danger to Russia in 2022?”

Miller continues, “Number three, if Russia is butthurt that Ukraine has increased ties with Europe over them, well that’s too bad. It’s what Ukrainians repeatedly voted for. If the Ukrainian people decide that they want to join NATO, Russia doesn’t get to bomb, terrorize, and invade them. That makes Russia the imperialist aggressor.”

caltrek's comments: After years of successfully fostering division with the United States, Putin has now done something to unite the center right and the center left. In the meantime, and despite The Bulwark's observations, the far left for the most part is not exactly embracing the invasion. It is so sad that Ukrainians have to pay a price for actions that are breaking down the partisan divide in this country.

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

GOP Pollster Reveals Trump Slowly Became a Laughing-Stock of the Political Party
by Meaghan Ellis
April 13, 2022

https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/gop-po ... cal-party/

Introduction:

(Alternet) A veteran Republican pundit is revealing how he believes Republicans really feel about former President Donald Trump and, apparently, they aren't as fond of him as they once were.

During a discussion with The Daily Beast, pollster Frank Luntz referenced a recent joke New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) made about Trump while at the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington.

“He’s fucking crazy,” Sununu said of the former president. “I don’t think he’s so crazy that you could put him in a mental institution. But I think if he were in one, he ain’t getting out.”

Although it's common for roasting to take place at the event, Luntz believes the remarks are indicative of a bigger problem as he noted how Republicans may feel about Sununu's remarks.

“I don’t know a single Republican who was surprised by what Sununu said. He said what they were thinking,” Luntz told The Daily Beast. “They won’t say it [in public], but behind his back, they think he’s a child. They’re laughing at him. That’s what made it significant.”

caltrek's comment: I will believe it when comments like Sununu's become more common.

[wjfox]

Rightwing populist parties blight climate policy, study finds

Thu 14 Apr 2022 12.51 BST

Rightwing populist parties have a detrimental impact on climate policy, researchers have found for the first time, amid growing fears of a similar movement in the UK.

The study, by the universities of Sussex and Warwick, looked at the policy of more than 25 countries over a period of more than a decade. Researchers created a climate policy index and compared it with a baseline of a centre-right government. They found the combined effect of the presence of a rightwing populist party in parliament and in government was associated with a reduction in the index of about 25% on average.

But while rightwing populist parties had a negative impact on climate policy across the board, EU membership and proportional representation voting systems lessened the effect.

The study’s authors, brothers Dr Matthew Lockwood and Dr Ben Lockwood, wrote: “These findings are consistent with our hypothesis that in countries with proportional representation, where rightwing populist parties enter government they will do so as typically junior coalition partners with limited numbers of cabinet seats and a tendency not to prioritise portfolios relevant to climate policy.

“By contrast, in countries with majoritarian electoral systems, when rightwing populist parties get into government, our finding is that they have a much greater influence on climate policy.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... tudy-finds

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Ron Johnson Takes Heat for Linking School Shootings to 'Wokeness'

BY XANDER LANDEN ON 5/28/22 AT 10:39 AM EDT

Senator Ron Johnson is facing criticism online after he linked "wokeness" and critical race theory (CRT) to school shootings on Thursday.

During an interview on Fox News, host Neil Cavuto noted that the suspected gunman in the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, this week that killed 21 people, including 19 students, legally bought his two guns.

"Do you think that that would require maybe stiffer background checks?" Cavuto asked Johnson, who is a Wisconsin Republican.

"No matter what you do, people fall through the cracks," Johnson responded. "You can't identify all these problems, you can't arrest somebody for a crime they haven't commit yet. These are difficult issues, but again the solution lies in stronger families, more supportive communities, I would argue renewed faith. We've lost that."

The senator added: "We've stopped teaching values in so many of our schools. Now we're teaching wokeness. We're indoctrinating our children with things like [critical race theory], telling some children they're not equal to others and they're the cause of other peoples' problems. "

https://www.newsweek.com/ron-johnson-ta ... ss-1711136

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Hahahahaha.

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Major blow for One America News as Verizon Fios drops far-right network

Mon 25 Jul 2022 14.33 BST

Verizon Fios will no longer carry One America News (OAN) at the end of this month, dealing a major blow to the far-right television network that has become a hotbed of misinformation.

Verizon was the largest pay-TV provider still carrying the OAN, according to the Daily Beast, which first reported the network was getting dropped. Verizon and OAN were unable to reach an agreement to continue providing the network and customers will not be able to access the service after 30 July.

The development means that OAN in effect will not have a major television platform in the US. DirecTV, a major revenue provider for OAN, announced that it was dropping the network in April.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... fios-drops

[caltrek]

These Non-MAGA Conservatives Believe Their Third Party Can Help Prevent 'the Demise of Our Democracy'
by Alex Henderson
July 28, 2022

Introduction:

(Alternet) On Wednesday, July 27, a new political alliance was formed in the United States when the Renew America Movement, founded in 2017, merged with the Forward Party (founded by tech entrepreneur and former Democrat Andrew Yang) as the Serve America Movement.

Typically, third parties struggle in the U.S. when it comes to statewide races; members of the progressive Green Party and the right-wing Libertarian Party who win elections usually hold city or county positions rather than becoming governors or U.S. senators. In deep blue Philadelphia, progressive Councilwoman Kendra Brooks is a member of the Working Families Party, closely allying herself with the left wing of the Democratic Party. But in an op-ed published by the Washington Post on July 28, three key players in Serve America —Yang, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and former Rep. David Jolly — lay out some reasons why they believe their third party can succeed.

While Yang is an ex-Democrat who ran in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Whitman and Jolly held office as Republicans. Whitman and Jolly are fiscally conservative but aren’t far-right culture warriors, and both of them have been scathing critics of former President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement — which they view as dangerously authoritarian. Whitman endorsed now-President Joe Biden in 2020’s election.

“Political extremism is ripping our nation apart, and the two major parties have failed to remedy the crisis,” Whitman, Jolly and Yang warn in their op-ed. “Last week, the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack at the Capitol led us to relive one of the darkest days in U.S. history. The chilling culmination of an attempted electoral coup in the United States was the strongest evidence yet that we are facing the potential demise of our democracy. Polarization is fueling a spike in political intimidation. In the past two years, we’ve seen death threats and assassination plots against members of Congress, governors, Supreme Court justices and even the vice president of the United States.”

Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/these ... emocracy/

[caltrek]

I am giving some folks a benefit of a doubt by placing this story here instead of the Fascism Watch thread. Cubias gives some evidence (not included in my citation) to support the idea that this is essentially fascist inspired in nature:

Republicans' Next Big Play is to Push for a Convention to Rewrite the Constitution
by Daniel Cubias
August 18, 2022


Conclusion:

(Mano) In theory, this constitutional convention would overhaul the document that Republicans claim to revere, creating “sweeping changes” that would fundamentally alter the American government.

So much for originalism and the founders’ intent.

If they succeed in organizing a constitutional convention, right-wingers will cement their ideas into irrevocable law, ensuring that America becomes the repressive theocracy of their dreams.

And then CPAC wouldn’t be an annual assembly of deranged hucksters, conspiracy nuts, and virulent bigots.

It would be the United States itself.

Read more here: https://manomagazine.com/benefitsofextremism/

Cited in the article by Cubias and giving critical background information is this Business Insider article: https://www.businessinsider.com/cons ... urt-2022-7

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

On economic matters, I do not consider myself to be a libertarian. I am more like a liberal (in the American sense of the word) or a Democratic Socialist (which is not tremendously different from being liberal, at least on economic issues). Still, out of the conviction that it does no harm to understand things from a libertarian perspective, I recommend the article below as I found it to be an interesting read.

The Rise and Fall of Trussonomics
by Kevin Dowd
November 14, 2022

Introduction:

(Eurasia Review) On July 8 this year, UK prime minister Boris Johnson resigned as Conservative Party leader after a Cabinet revolt over a series of ethics scandals had made his position untenable. A leadership election was then set in motion to allow party members to elect the next party leader who would succeed Johnson as PM. The result was announced on September 5: the winner was would-be Margaret Thatcher, Liz Truss.

The queen invited Truss to become PM on September 6. Truss immediately announced a “bold plan to grow the economy through tax cuts and reform” and “action [i.e., a price cap] this week to deal with energy bills.” The same day, she appointed Kwasi Kwarteng, a free marketeer with a Cambridge PhD on the Great Recoinage of 1696, as her new chancellor of the exchequer.

Government business then came to a stop after Queen Elizabeth suddenly died two days later. The country went into a period of national mourning that ended on September 20. It was then announced that there would be an emergency “mini-budget” to set out the new government’s economic program.

What followed can best be described as a case study in how not to promote a free-market agenda, and it deserves close study lest policy makers elsewhere repeat the mistakes that Truss and Kwarteng made, which ultimately brought them both down. Their fundamental failure was a simple one. Yes, tax cuts were reasonable, but those needed to be more than matched by large cuts in government spending to reduce the fiscal deficit and establish that the new government would be fiscally responsible.

Granted, the notion of fiscal responsibility had long been honored in the breach by successive UK governments, but even so, it was reckless to ignore the issue—especially for a government that promoted free markets. And so the gods of the copybook headings had their revenge on a government that ran off a fiscal cliff that it should have but didn’t realize was right in front of them.

Read more here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/14112022 ... analysis/

[weatheriscool]

I am a early to mid 20th century economic progressive. I believe in anti-trust and punishing the fucking rich for abusing the workers. The problem with open borders and insourcing is corporations break every labor law ever created to protect the American worker.

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Lauren Boebert Rants Against "Unhinged" Marjorie Taylor Greene
by Sky Palma
January 9, 2023

Introduction:

(Raw Story) Stemming from the internal fight amongst Republicans over who would be the next Speaker of the House, the growing rift between Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., is showing no signs of slowing down.

As LGBTQ Nation points out, the rift between the two was exposed when Boebert joined her colleagues Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Bob Good, R-Va., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., in voting against Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for speaker of the House, while Greene was in favor of McCarthy. Speaking to the Associated Press this weekend, Boebert mentioned some of Greene's past conspiratorial rhetoric.

"I have been asked to explain MTG's beliefs on Jewish space lasers, on why she showed up to a white supremacist conference. ... I'm just not going to go there. She wants to say all these things and seem unhinged on Twitter, so be it," Boebert told the Associated Press, referring to Greene's comments where she suggested that the Rothschilds, a Jewish banking family, were connected to the wildfires in California in 2018.

Boebert also referenced news reports that said Greene spoke at a conference hosted by white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes earlier this year.

"In the minority, all I had was my voice, the only thing I could do was be loud about the things I'm passionate about. We have to lead right now, we have to show Americans that we deserve to be in the majority," Boebert said.

Read more here: https://www.salon.com/2023/01/09/laure ... partner/

[wjfox]

Outrageous!

/s



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Microsoft's Changes to Xbox Console Leave Republicans Outraged

1/24/23 at 8:32 AM EST

Microsoft has announced changes to its Xbox console settings that is to allow users to save more energy and reduce the carbon impact of their gaming. But this has been read (or misread) by Republican representatives and organizations as the "woke brigade" wanting to "take your Xbox."

In a bid to reach its goal of being carbon negative and a "zero waste" company by 2030, Microsoft outlined two new changes to Xbox settings on January 11.

The company included a feature that allows the console to pick a time of the night for maintenance and updates to use the most renewable energy from the electrical grid, and a "shutdown" setting that can replace the sleep mode, which it says saves 20 times the energy.

[...]

"First gas stoves, then your coffee, now they're gunning for your Xbox," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tweeted on Monday, citing a previous furore over remarks made by an official from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission about the health harms of gas stoves. The CPSC chair stated emphatically at the time that it was not looking to ban gas stoves.

"A default setting does not mean they are 'forcing' anyone to do anything," one user responded. "As an Xbox owner, this has been a choice for a while now. I appreciate that they offer it."

https://www.newsweek.com/microsoft-chan ... uz-1776054

[caltrek]

The Word That Makes Brutal Budgets Sound “Truly Evil”
by Ruqaiyah Zarook
March April Issue, 2023

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) The cuts have come even for the word itself. “Austerity” is a cornerstone of conservatism—a catch-all term for limiting government spending to promote capitalist growth—and yet the expression seems to have disappeared from deficit hawks’ speeches. “I call it balancing the budget,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2013. “Everyone else is using this term ‘austerity.’ That makes it sound like something truly evil.”

Yes. That aura of “evil” is perhaps why writers, especially on the left, return to it again and again. As economists Clara Mattei and Sam Salour argue, “austerity” is a helpful word to describe what the failed policies of neoliberalism have done since the 1970s across the world: subdued the working class by driving up unemployment, keeping wages stagnant, and reducing welfare spending. The word connects everyday issues to structural decay caused by a fiscal playbook. Austerity is, as economic journalist Doug Henwood has argued, “causing America to rot.”

Historically, the word gave market cruelties a whiff of moralism. Drawing on the ancient Greek austeros (“what makes the tongue dry”), it offered a religious ring to financial asceticism. It was how one could argue that cutting social spending was a path to self-¬reliance. But over the last decade, there has been a shift. Too many people have lived under the actual policies. Austerity has moved from being a rationale for slashing government budgets to a damning critique of the consequences. In the reversal, you can see what many think of living under this anti–social spending project: It sucks.

The moral project of austerity has its beginnings in John Locke’s Second Treatise. Written in 17th-century England, it was a time when, as economist Mark Blyth notes, “public debt [was] the debt of kings” and rulers invoked God as a justification for appropriating wealth as they pleased. Locke found this arbitrary. He argued, in his now-famous philosophical framework, that governments should primarily safeguard private property. To undermine the monarchy’s influence, Locke preached limited government. Freedom, he explained, through austerity.
But this Lockean card is regularly overplayed. The modern rhetoric of austerity politics has firmer roots in the Confederate resistance to Reconstruction.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... uly-evil/

caltrek's comment: Too often it is a matter of you must suffer the consequences of austerity so that I can benefit from the luxuries that society can offer. Why?

Because I have the power to impose that upon you. Taken to an extreme, this results in huge inequalities of wealth and income. Thus, the evil at the heart of the system.

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

Indiana Lawmakers Back Defunding Kinsey Sex Institute - HuffingtonPost

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Republican lawmakers voted Wednesday to prohibit Indiana University from using any state money to support its sexual research institution after a far-right legislator unleashed disputed allegations of child exploitation by its founder and famed mid-20th century researcher Alfred Kinsey.

The Indiana House voted 53-34 to block state funding toward the Kinsey Institute that has long faced criticism from conservatives for its ongoing research and the legacy of Kinsey’s work that they blame for contributing to liberalized sexual morals, including more acceptance of homosexuality and pornography.

Alfred Kinsey, who died in 1956, produced groundbreaking sex-behavior studies in 1948 and 1953 and was portrayed by Liam Neeson in the 2004 film “Kinsey.”

Republican Rep. Lorissa Sweet claimed that some of Kinsey’s research was child exploitation as she argued for an amendment to the state budget bill against funding for the institute. “By limiting the funding to Kinsey Institute through Indiana University’s tax dollars, we can be assured that we are not funding ongoing research committed by crimes.” Sweet said.

Link: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kinsey-i ... f5b487d7f4