pic.twitter.com/wqtmN9SwhT

— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) August 13, 2018

Enjoying the current state of Republican party politics? Read the rest

Todd Kincannon was found "bloodied and covered in dog hair" by police officers after killing and mutilating his mother's 10-year-old beagle.

Kincannon reportedly told Simpsonville police officers that he killed the dog because, "I'm the second coming of Christ and I got a command from God to do it." ... Kincannon said "that every 1,000 years there needs to be a sacrifice and blood must be spilt."

An incident report noted that Kincannon held up injuries to his arm and wrist - which an officer said were likely from a dog bite - and said, "I have a sign. I'm about to get crucified in the media."

Todd was last in the news for sending racist tweets during the 2013 Super Bowl and for being charged with criminal domestic violence after threatening family members. Read the rest

Arthur Jones is a former Nazi, he insists, having not been a member of any official Nazi group since the 1980s. But he is still a holocaust denier, a proud racist, and the Republican Party candidate for Illinois' 3rd congressional district. The Chicago Tribune interviewed him and it went exactly as you would expect.

Today in conservatives hastily adjusting masks:

"Out of self-respect– be Republican," the original post read. "Democrats love poor people because they think that poor people will vote Democrat. Republicans hate poor people because they think the dignity of man is above being poor."

In the apology, the group called the post "inappropriate and offensive."

As of Monday, though, the tweet is still up:

Out of self-respect--be Republican. Democrats love poor people because they think that poor people will vote Democrat. Republicans hate poor people because they think the dignity of man is above being poor.

— Alamosa Republicans (@alamosagop) March 30, 2018

Republicans admitting they hate the poor is going to be an increasingly common slip. The party (and conservatives in general) are accomodating themselves to being more honest about their animus toward certain groups, now they no longer have plans to woo them at the ballot box. But they still need poor folk on-side, so being nasty to them in public will remain a serious faux pas.

Becoming the party of Christian nationalism is hard work when you hate working class white people almost as much as everyone else! Especially when all your young activists are rich kids and seething, smirking trumpkins. Read the rest

Mitt Romney, former Republican presidential candidate and Trump "critic", is to run for the Utah senate seat vacated by Orrin Hatch's retirement.

Romney's run has already faced some resistance: the head of the state's Republican Party criticized him for not having deep enough ties to the state. Jenny Wilson, a Democratic candidate running for Senate in Utah, said this week that "Utah families deserve another Utahn as their senator, not a Massachusetts governor who thinks of our state as his vacation home."

If elected, the former governor would bring strong name recognition and influence as a first-term senator. While former aides expect Romney to push for conservative policies in the Senate, they also believe he will rebuke the president when necessary and potentially clash with him on some policies.

What ... what if he only votes with Trump 85% of time, like GOP rebel Jeff Flake? This could be revolutionary. Read the rest

Nebraska State Senator Paul Schumacher [R-22] [(402) 471-2715] has proposed an amendment to the state constitution that would create 36-square-mile regions in the state where corporations would enjoy up to 99 years of sovereignty, with "no city or state taxes and no local or state regulations." Read the rest

Saturday's front page headline of the Alabama's Times Daily story about alleged sex offender Roy Moore -- the state's Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat -- reported an amusing error.

It proclaimed the Republican political party was divided over "sex clams," instead of "sex claims."

The headline was completely reworked in the online edition of the paper.

Naturally, folks on Twitter are having a field day over the mistake (check out the responses below):

Pay your copy editors. pic.twitter.com/QiwFSszE0f

— Benjamin Freed (@brfreed) November 11, 2017

Previously: Headline fail: Kansas students get 'first hand job experience'

image via uncyclopedia

Thanks, Mark B.! Read the rest

Edmund Burke wrote that "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing," but these are not good men. They're silent because they're too close to the catch. Read the rest

Roy Moore's judicial career died not on a hill but a tacky Christian cut of the 10 commandments inside the courthouse and hatin' on the gays. But he's back in style, thrashing incumbent Alabama Republican Sen. Luther Strange to take his party into the next election.

He's shamelessly racist, thinks parts of Illinois are under Sharia, wants homosexual behavior punished, and will look just fabulous in President-select Mike Pence's first cabinet.

Congratulations Roy Moore! We are thrilled you ran on the #MAGA agenda & we are for you!

— Mike Pence (@mike_pence) September 27, 2017

President Donald Trump, who supported Luther Strange, spent election night deleting his Tweets supporting Luther Strange.

Here's an excerpt from one of Moore's poems.

America the Beautiful, or so you used to be, Land of the Pilgrims’ pride, I’m glad they’re not here to see, Babies piled in dumpsters, abortion on demand, Oh, sweet land of liberty, your house is on the sand.

Pennsylvania State Rep. Aaron Bernstine, a Republican, wrote on Twitter that he would drive through protestors who got in his way. Linking to an article about protests in St. Louis, where a white police officer was acquitted of murder after killing a black man, Bernstine called the protestors "thugs" and made clear his willingness to do likewise.

The remarks come barely a month after a white supremacist killed Heather Heyer, and hurt twenty others, by driving through a crowd of protestors with his car.

Saturday afternoon, Pennsylvania Democratic Party spokesperson Brandon Cwalina issued the following statement demanding an apology from Bernstine:

“Representative Bernstine should not have to be reminded that the right to peaceably assemble is so fundamental to our democracy that it is enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Funny how it's always protestors who inspire angry fantasies about killing black people with cars (previously: Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds), rather than all the other things that involve pedestrians shutting streets down, such as sports. Read the rest

The North Carolina Republican Party has rebuked one of its mayoral candidates, Kimberley Paige Barnette, after she wrote “VOTE FOR ME! REPUBLICAN & SMART, WHITE, TRADITIONAL.” on her Facebook page.

Barnette, a former magistrate, has since removed and apologized for her remark, reports Jim Morrill with The Charlotte Observer. However, she then defended herself with this gem:

"There is a group called Congressional Black Caucus. I'm sorry if I described myself as white and it offended others."

If you're a person of color and you ever wondered why things didn't go your way in Mecklenburg County magistrate court, well, now you know why. Read the rest

Louisiana Republican congressman Clay Higgins shot video of himself talking about the need for invincible U.S. power—while wandering the gas chamber at Auschwitz.

In his five-minute ramble, Higgins explains the horrors that took place at the camp, where some 1.1m people, mostly Jews, where murdered by the Nazis during World War II. And that "this is why Homeland Security must be squared away, why our military must be invincible."

People keep talking about President Trump's behavior eroding international respect and trust for America. But he does get a lot of help from his friends.

Officials at the museum and memorial denounced him for using it as a stage for his politics, pointing out that there are signs asking for silence throughout the former death camp.

Everyone has the right to personal reflections. However, inside a former gas chamber, there should be mournful silence. It's not a stage. https://t.co/AN5aA1bYEU

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) July 4, 2017

Higgins' politics have two sides, and so does his message, here. On one side, he's posing America—and its military power—as the force that overcame Nazi atrocity.

On the other, here's what he wants done to radical Muslims.

“Hunt them, identify them, and kill them,” declared US Rep. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican. “Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all.”

Rep Jeb Hensarling [R-TX/+1 202 225-3484/@RepHensarling] is the sponsor of HR 10, the Financial CHOICE Act of 2017, which will ban investors from putting petitions to the shareholders and board of publicly traded companies, except when investors own more than 1% of the company for at least three years. Read the rest

Lauralot points out that the Jesus of the Bible doesn't have much in common with the right-wing, evangelical Christ -- canon Jesus was "a brown Jew in the Middle East, conceived out of wedlock in an arguably interracial if not interspecies (deity and human) relationship, raised by his mother and stepfather in place of his absent father. He may not have had a Y chromosome. He spent his early youth as a refugee in Egypt, where his family no doubt survived initially on handouts from the wealthy." Read the rest

After physically attacking a reporter and allowing his spokesman to lie about it in an official statement, Republican congressman-elect Greg Gianforte has formally apologized to his victim. He is also donating $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"My physical response to your legitimate question was unprofessional, unacceptable, and unlawful. As both a candidate for Office and a public official, I should be held to a high standard in my interactions with the press and the public. My treatment of you did not meet that standard."

"I made a mistake and humbly ask for your forgiveness," the letter stated.

Jacobs accepted the apology.

Gianforte still faces assault charges over the attack. Read the rest

Under The American Health Care Act -- presently the subject of a full-court press by House Republicans -- insurance companies will be allowed to discriminate against customers who have "pre-existing conditions," refusing to pay for problems stemming from them. Read the rest

In a party-line split, the U.S. Senate today voted to allow internet service providers to retain personal data without permission and sell it to whomever might pay for it.

The Senate voted 50:48 in favor of S.J. 34, which would remove the rules and, under the authority of the Congressional Review Act, prevent similar rules from being enacted. It now heads to the House for approval.

“If signed by the President, this law would repeal the FCC’s widely-supported broadband privacy framework, and eliminate the requirement that cable and broadband providers offer customers a choice before selling their sensitive, personal information,” said FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny in a joint statement.