Our newly minted “independent” Kyrsten Sinema making friends. The good news is that she’s no longer attending any Democratic strategy meetings. It’s pretty clear that she doesn’t have the party’s best interests at heart.
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A script read out at the start of every Proud Boys gathering reveals the paradoxes of being a woman in the far-right, and the misogyny inherent in nationalism. Sian Norris reports
Sure, this is fine: A federal law that prohibits people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from possessing firearms is unconstitutional, a conservative-leaning appeals court ruled Thursday. The ruling is the latest significant decision dismantling a gun restriction in the wake of the Supreme Court’s expansion of Second Amendment rights last year in the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen decision. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals said that the federal law targeting those believed to pose a domestic violence threat could not stand under the Bruen test, which requires that gun laws have a historical analogy to the firearm regulations in place at the time of the Constitution’s framing. “Through that lens, we conclude that (the law’s) ban on possession of firearms is an ‘outlier’ that our ancestors would never have accepted,” the 5th Circuit said. The court’s opinion was written by Judge Cory Todd Wilson, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump.
S-Q-U-I-S-H It’s hard enough to know what conservatives mean by socialism or woke. It may be harder still to know these days what they mean by conservative. Charlie Sykes takes a swag at The Bulwark. He’s not sure anymore, beacuse “what passes for ‘conservatism’ now, in right-wing media and MAGA circles, is not really what Edmund Burke (or J.S. Mill, Milton Friedman, Bill Buckley, George Will, or Charles Krauthammer) had in mind, is it?” What conservatism is and is not in his estimation (abbreviated here, see post for details): MAGA “Conservativism” is for a strong national defense… …except, of course, when it is not. MAGA “Conservatives” believe in fiscal restraint… …except when they are in the White House. “Conservatives” are devoted to the constitution, which must be strictly observed… … except when it needs to be scrapped in order to hold onto power.
How nice of Axios to show such compassion for conservative parents who are being brainwashed by lies and propaganda. The fractious Republican Party is consolidating around a “Protect the children” platform for 2024 that aggressively targets school policies on gender identity and how racial issues are taught. A year before presidential primaries begin, Republicans see this as a winning formula that can fire up their base and attract some independents, pointing to the recent electoral success of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Much of the battle is being fought at the state and local levels, giving an edge to GOP officials such as DeSantis and Youngkin — both potential presidential candidates who recognized the potency of educational issues early on. Driving the news: Former President Trump is now leaning hard into this strategy, unveiling sweeping proposals in the past week to ban gender-affirming care for minors nationwide and cut off federal funding for schools that teach “critical race theory” and “gender ideology” — without defining what exactly those terms mean.
I know I’m probably paying way to much attention to Tucker Carlson lately but he’s an especially dangerous force in our politics and half the time he’s an Orbanesque white nationalist and the rest of the time he’s just nuts. I don’t know quite what to make of it but I feel instinctively that we shouldn’t look away. There’s something going on here and it’s not good. Philip Bump looked at the numbers and it’s worth taking note: In the right-wing media universe, the 500-pound gorilla is now and has long been Fox News. There have been challengers, certainly, including some robust ones. Breitbart’s effectiveness in pulling rhetoric from the fringe into the mainstream conversation about a decade ago, for example, and cable news start-ups like One America and Newsmax more recently. But Fox News has weathered such challenges through co-option, heft, institutional support and combinations of the three. So, when Republicans are asked where they get their news, they are most likely to say Fox. And within the Fox News universe, the 500-pound gorilla is Tucker Carlson.
Governing is for losers GOP gotcha exercises this week in Congress are for pre-positioning ammunition for blaring 2024 TV ads (with fine-print footers) against Democrats for being un-American. The party of arrested development de-prioritizes governing. The MAGA-led House is on a tear. In the judiciary committee Wednesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) proposed that committee members recite the pledge of allegiance before meetings. Never mind that members do that at the opening of every session. He wants Democrats on record voting not to a second time. An hour-long debate ensued with Democrats snidely pushing back on whether “insurrectionists” on the committee could lead the pledge. Ultimately, Democrats voted with Republicans for supplemental performative patriotism. HORRORS! The U.S. House voted Wednesday on a resolution “denouncing the horrors of socialism.” That’s it. The rest is boilerplate. On the floor, Republicans railed against socialism’s evils that they did not enumerate in H. Res. 83. The conservative base programmed for a century or more to view the nine-letter word as a four-letter word, Republicans did not need to.
Orange Julius Caesar sez: In other words:
It’s all right here in this commentary from the man who tried to kill Nancy Pelosi’s husband: “Liberty isn’t dying, it’s being killed systematically and deliberately.” The “people killing it have names and addresses, so I got their names and addresses so I could pay them a little visit … have a heart-to-heart chat about their bad behavior.” “I want to apologize to everyone. I messed up. What I did was really bad. I’m so sorry I didn’t get more of them. It’s my own fault. No one else is to blame. I should have come better prepared.” It’s all right out of the wingnut playbook whether it’s Fox, Breitbart, Truth Social, 8-Chan, Newsmax, or OAN. And yes, Facebook and twitter too. It’s what compelled all those rioters to storm the Capitol and go hunting for Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence. It’s why they were screaming incoherently “this is MY house!”, telling the cops and anyone else to leave. It isn’t just this nut. He happened to take action and he isn’t the only one. But they all believe it …
This is the highest rated show on cable news and the most influential right wing media figure in America. Just a sample of his latest because I think you need to know what the right is seeing and believing so I’ll post excerpts from time to time. Don’t look away. This is what’s frying the brains of Fox “News” voters and they are one election away from running the country: As I said the other day, I think he might be losing his mind. Those short barks of inappropriate laughter are just weird. But interspersed with his crazy little segments about M&Ms and Don Lemon’s hoodie are ideas that are penetrating into the collective lizard brains of the right. And those ideas are straight up patriarchal, white, nationalism.