The modern Republican Party has always exploited and encouraged extremism.
A history of Republican extremism.
The Psychiatrist Who Warned Us That Donald Trump Would Unleash Violence Was Absolutely Right
Trump has a psychological profile that is common among violent offenders. “There is typically a developmental arrest caused by early trauma or abandonment,” Lee says. “As adults, they still act like children in the playground; convinced that might makes right, they often can’t stop bullying others. “Trump’s mother, Lee points out, became chronically ill when he turned two, and his father was cruel and emotionally unavailable, repeatedly urging his son to be “a killer.”
“Most Americans do not have direct experience dealing with people who commit violent crimes. But we do. And we could tell that someone who boasts about sexually assaulting women and says that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it was likely to evolve into a president who would severely damage the nation’s public health.”
GOP under fire for rhetoric over IRS
Republicans are coming under fire for their rhetoric over $80 billion in funding for the IRS included a massive climate, tax and health care bill that Democrats in Congress are sending to the White House.
Republicans, who have nursed grievances over the IRS going back to the Obama administration that were inflamed further by fights over former President Trump’s tax returns, have taken aim at the funding, arguing it amounts to creating a new army of IRS agents to go after taxpayers.
But the IRS, Democrats and outside experts all say the new enforcement money will mostly allow the IRS to focus on audits of the wealthy.
Related:
Yellen tells IRS not to use new funding to increase middle-class audits
The Beer Hall Project – Never Forget Jan. 6
Jan. 6, 2021, provided the fuel for a new project. The insurrection, an attempted coup by Trump and his supporters, seeking to overturn the election he lost to President Joe Biden, marked the sort of scary turn to authoritarianism that so many people like Wellman feared during Trump’s first run for office.
Now a year later, Wellman and co-founder Cyrus Shick introduced the world last week to The Beer Hall Project, a new super PAC with a goal of battling those in the Trump orbit who are trying to erase the devastation of what Jan. 6 really was: an attack on American democracy.
Some Veterans Say Republicans are Blocking Their Ability to Vote
While Republicans give lip service to respecting our veterans, they prove the validity of the axiom “talk is cheap”.
Senators this week left Washington for a month-long summer break after Republicans blocked consideration of a Democratic bill to expand voting access across the nation, arguing that it would give the federal government too much power in local elections that should be controlled by the states.
But some veterans argued that refusing to move the bill forward is actually an attack on those who served in uniform and risked their lives to defend the right to vote.
Republicans Creating Inflation Fear: Fuhgeddaboudit
Slight increases in the rate of inflation in the United States and Europe have triggered financial-market anxieties. Has US President Joe Biden’s administration risked overheating the economy with its $1.9 trillion rescue package and plans for additional spending to invest in infrastructure, job creation, and bolstering American families?
Such concerns are premature, considering the deep uncertainty we still face. We have never before experienced a pandemic-induced downturn featuring a disproportionately steep service-sector recession, unprecedented increases in inequality, and soaring savings rates.
Veterans, McDonalds, and Low Wages
This puts doubt on Republicans’ assertions that if you force people into poverty, they’ll find decent jobs:
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – McDonald’s workers in West Virginia, many of whom are military veterans, are rallying today in Charleston to demand a $15 minimum wage, after the company announced it would boost wages for 3,600 hourly workers by an average of 10% over the next few months. The average McDonald’s worker currently earns around $8 an hour.
Republicans’ “Economic Miracle”: Tax Cuts. Don’t believe it.
I live and work in the Midwest, which remains locked in a half-century doldrum of population stagnation, locally concentrated job losses and decay. In many ways, the Rust Belt is emblematic of the lack of focus on value to residents. Indiana is the perfect example, since no state in the Rust Belt has cut taxes as aggressively as this one. A decade ago, local property tax caps were added to the Constitution, limiting local spending. Then corporate taxes were cut, and income taxes cut. All of this was done with the hopes of boosting population and economic growth.
That didn’t happen. Indiana’s economic recovery from the Great Recession was no more than lackluster, and the clearest result of the rush to cut taxes was to make Indiana a magnet for low-wage employers. The state’s per-capita income dropped to 86% of that of the nation as a whole, down from near 90% in 2012. Half of all job growth went to adult workers without a high school diploma.
The lesson here is that selling your state on price instead of value is likely to draw bargain shoppers. These businesses will view the workforce as a commodity. That is a poor harbinger for the future.
How the #GOPTaxScam Dramatically Reduced Corporate Taxes
The data from Wyden, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, places the corporate tax status quo in a larger context. This status quo, importantly, was created in part by the 2017 GOP tax cut, so it shows what Republicans want to maintain, and what Democrats want to change.
Documented: Republicans Stirring the Insurrection Pot. Social Media Comments Documented
Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren has quietly posted a nearly 2,000-page report documenting social media posts by her Republican colleagues who voted against certifying results of the presidential election on January 6.
The report chronicles the social media activity of members on public forums immediately before the November election and right after the January 6 riot.
View the report here, compiled with a state-by-state listing.