The Absurd GOP

[Angrboda]

If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the last nine years, it’s that when reality proves inconvenient for MAGA, MAGA simply creates its own reality. This was certainly true of Tuesday’s “Make America Safe Once Again” night at the Republican National Convention, at which the speaker’s podium was the rhetorical equivalent of a wrench-opened fire hydrant, as one speaker after another recklessly sprayed lies, fear and demagoguery in every direction.

Sen. Ted Cruz’s undiluted rage was particularly dishonest, and because it was Ted Cruz, it was as awkward as it was angry. His clumsy attempt to coax the crowd into a refrain of “every damn day” — a reference to how often he claimed that “teenagers, girls and boys” are raped, murdered and “sold into a life of sex slavery” because of “our open border” — mostly fell flat.

There are, of course, some documented examples of horrific crimes committed by undocumented people, as there are with any demographic group that numbers in the millions. But on the whole, immigrants both legal and undocumented commit crimes (violent crimes, in particular) at rates lower — often much lower — than the native-born population.

The much-maligned “sanctuary cities” have lower crime rates than other cities. Cities that have been hospitable to migrants seeking asylum have seen less crime than other cities. Crime in most of those cities has dropped since they began receiving migrants from the most recent wave of immigration, including the cities where Republican governors have been shipping migrants.

If such gruesome crimes were really happening “every damn day,” you’d think Cruz, R-Texas, could find more a recent horror story than, for example, the death of Kate Steinle, who died, as Cruz put it, after a man who “had been deported five times” fired a bullet that “ripped through her heart.”

If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Donald Trump also mentioned Steinle in his acceptance speech at the 2016 RNC. Steinle died nine years ago, after a man named José Inez García Zárate found a gun wrapped in cloth under a bench on a pier in San Francisco.

It’s true that Zárate had been deported five times. He was also a felon, though for nonviolent drug crimes. The gun had been stolen from an agent with the Bureau of Land Management, who left it unsecured in his car. Zárate testified at his trial that the gun went off when he picked it up. Ballistics reports confirmed that the bullet ricocheted off a concrete block and struck and killed Steinle, who was 90 feet away. There is no evidence that he intentionally fired the gun, much less that he intended to kill Steinle. A jury acquitted him on all charges but one (being a felon in possession of a firearm), and that charge was later thrown out by a judge. He pleaded guilty to related federal charges in 2022 and was deported this year.

Steinle’s family has repeatedly asked politicians to stop politicizing her death. For politicians like Cruz, a family’s grief is legitimate only when it can be harnessed to hoover up votes.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opin...rcna162400

I'm reminded of Katie Britt's citing of the trafficking of Karla Jacinto Romero, which occurred under the Bush administration, as one of the dire cases resulting from Biden's border policies when she gave her awkward rebuttal to the president's State of the Union address. Despite having occurred quite some time ago, Britt has yet to own her misleading the public in this way..

[Fake Messiah]

Seems like Guilfoyle has the beaver fever

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[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Seems like Guilfoyle has the beaver fever

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Why it that a problem? Scratching one’s balls is pretty common.

Boru

[Fake Messiah]

It just shows how "professional" the RNC broadcast was that someone can scratch their balls "into" presidential candidate's face.

[arewethereyet]

At least DJT isn't the one doing the scratching.

Lack of class seems to be a requirement.

[Nanny]

That was probably the most honest moment of the whole spectacle.

[h4ym4n]

Seems like Guilfoyle has the beaver fever

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Trump must of had hot wings before checking her oil

[Fake Messiah]

Republicans blocked the new student loan repayment plan. This plan was just intended to make it easier to pay loans back. Once again, they block everything that makes people's lives easier, while rubber-stamping trillions in tax cuts for the top 0.01% of Americans

In a ruling Thursday, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a motion for an administrative stay filed by a group of Republican-led states seeking to invalidate the administration’s entire student loan forgiveness program. The court’s order prohibits the administration from implementing the parts of the SAVE plan that were not already blocked by lower court rulings.

The ruling comes the same day that the Biden administration announced another round of student loan forgiveness, this time totaling $1.2 billion in forgiveness for roughly 35,000 borrowers who are eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

The PSLF program, which provides relief for teachers, nurses, firefighters and other public servants who make 120 qualifying monthly payments, was originally passed in 2007. But for years, borrowers ran into strict rules and servicer errors that prevented them from having their debt cancelled. The Biden administration adjusted some of the programs rules and retroactively gave many borrowers credits towards their required payments.

http://apnews.com/article/student-loans-...eef83a9158

[Thumpalumpacus]

Ohio state Sen. George Lang ® said at a Trump-Vance 2024 rally on Monday that he’s “afraid” a civil war might be necessary if Republicans lose the election.

“I believe wholeheartedly Donald Trump and Butler County’s JD Vance are the last chance to save our country, politically,” Lang said at a rally in Middletown, Ohio, the hometown of the first-term senator and GOP vice presidential nominee.

“I’m afraid if we lose this one, it’s going to take a civil war to save the country, and it will be saved. It’s the greatest experiment in the history of mankind, and if we come down to a civil war, I’m glad we got people like … Bikers for Trump on our side,” he continued.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/47...civil-war/

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Ohio state Sen. George Lang ® said at a Trump-Vance 2024 rally on Monday that he’s “afraid” a civil war might be necessary if Republicans lose the election.

“I believe wholeheartedly Donald Trump and Butler County’s JD Vance are the last chance to save our country, politically,” Lang said at a rally in Middletown, Ohio, the hometown of the first-term senator and GOP vice presidential nominee.

“I’m afraid if we lose this one, it’s going to take a civil war to save the country, and it will be saved. It’s the greatest experiment in the history of mankind, and if we come down to a civil war, I’m glad we got people like … Bikers for Trump on our side,” he continued.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/47...civil-war/

He’s said he ‘regrets the remarks’, which I don’t believe for a short second.

Boru