The Absurd GOP

[Paraselene]

What an apocalyptic French novel about a migrant invasion reveals about the worldview of nationalist conservatives

Not long ago, a book party like this would have been unthinkable: a Washington celebration of one of the most notorious French novels ever written. But on a frigid December night, some 50 people crammed into Butterworth’s, a Capitol Hill restaurant favored by the MAGA elite, to celebrate the rerelease of The Camp of the Saints, which had gone out of print in English decades ago. The dystopian novel by the French author Jean Raspail depicts the destruction of European civilization by barbaric migrant hordes that arrive, uninvited, by boat. It has been mostly reviled since its publication, in 1973. But prominent figures of the French right have hailed it as prophetic, including Marine Le Pen, who first read it at 18 and keeps a signed first edition in her office. The novel has also influenced two architects of Donald Trump’s immigration policies: Stephen Miller, the current deputy chief of staff, recommended it in emails to Breitbart News reporters, and Steve Bannon, the president’s former consigliere, makes frequent reference to it.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...il/685213/

[Thumpalumpacus]

The US Navy has seized an oil tanker near Venezuela.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...-seized-us

Like Somalia, but with better tech and armament.

I think the seizure is legal. As I understand it, the ship in question has been sanctioned since 2016 or so for being used to help Iran and Russia both get around the sanctions imposed on those countries. I don't think this is piracy, though I do think it's unwise to do at this time. It also shows that propaganda aside, this confrontation with Venezuela has nothing to do with drugs, as @BrianSoddingBoru4 has noted elsewhere.

[Thumpalumpacus]

And on a different subject:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Wednesday called President Trump’s positive grade for the state of the U.S. economy “insulting” and a “poor reflection” on the commander in chief.

“Look, electric bills have gone up,” Greene told CBS News. “Everyone’s bills have either stayed the same or are going higher. Grocery prices have not gone down. Everybody suffered from inflation that happened during the Biden administration, and I think the president needs to be aware that he’s a billionaire president of the United States.”

“You can’t gaslight people and tell them that their bills are affordable, and you can’t tell them that the economy is in A-plus-plus-plus-plus,” she continued. “You just can’t do that, and I think it’s insulting to people’s intelligence and I don’t care how many charts he wants to throw up.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/56438...ic-agenda/

The Broken Clock Theory in action.

[Deesse23]

Turning around 180 so quickly, why didnt MTGs neck snap?

Post 1989 we have/had a word for people like this : Wendehals (wryneck [bird], turncoat). It referred to people who staunchly defended the Eastern German system until....realizing its immediate collapse, turned around 180 and started to publicly support opposing positions, becoming members of center to tight parties. 

Behavior like this shows that the according people have no principles, which ironically is also true for the person MTG just abandoned. I am confident she wont be able to taste the bitterness of this irony, mainly because she is a moron without principles.

[Fireball]

Like Somalia, but with better tech and armament.

I think the seizure is legal. As I understand it, the ship in question has been sanctioned since 2016 or so for being used to help Iran and Russia both get around the sanctions imposed on those countries. I don't think this is piracy, though I do think it's unwise to do at this time. It also shows that propaganda aside, this confrontation with Venezuela has nothing to do with drugs, as @BrianSoddingBoru4 has noted elsewhere.

OK, then. And I agree about the oil; even if it's harder to refine than light sweet crude, there is a LOT of it there.

[Paraselene]

Texas state troopers have reportedly been enforcing ID checks outside women’s toilets in the wake of the state’s trans bathroom ban.

https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/12/15/t...oilet-ban/

[Mister Agenda]

Pretty sure the Supreme Court made a decison decades ago that American citizens are not required to have 'their papers' on their person at all times.

[The Grand Nudger]

The gun toting panty sniffers say we’re the weird ones.

[Thumpalumpacus]

"Package check on Stall #3" ... because there's nothing criminal going on in Texas that could use more attention.

[Angrboda]

The far right is claiming that Ahmed Al Ahmed, the bystander who intervened in the deadly, antisemitic mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Bondi Beach, Australia, this weekend was a Christian—and not a Muslim—to justify its Islamophobia.

“The media keeps saying the man who disarmed the Muslim terrorist in Australia today is also a Muslim who owns a fruit stand,” far-right commentator Laura Loomer wrote Sunday on X. “Credible reports suggest the man is actually a Lebanese or Coptic Christian. Don’t fall for the propaganda.”

https://newrepublic.com/post/204423/maga...snt-muslim