I Didn't Say It

Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas GOP governor,, saying Thing #45 is bad for the party:

“Whenever we do not have the president in power from our party, you have divided leadership—you have many different voices. And [the twice-impeached, one-term loser] is dividing our party, and so it’s important that we not unite with someone who is dividing our party. I believe that we need to concentrate on more things that bring us together than to separate us, and going down and seeing former [the twice-impeached, one-term loser], to me, causes more division than anything else.”

How nice to see a Republican stand up against the GQP of today until you realize that Hutchinson is being term-limited out of office, so he’s no Liz Cheney, he just has nothing to lose so he’s pretending to have a spine.

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Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Democrat governor, daring MAGAts to get the vaccine:

“My message to folks is there’s a lot of good reasons to get vaccinated, but for some of them, you know, if you need another one, go get vaccinated so you’re alive to vote against me in the next election. I don’t care. I just want to get it done. It’s not assuming these people are hesitant, they’re ideologically opposed. It’s trying to understand where they’re at, what are the differences.”

I wonder how many MAGAts will do this. Oh hell, probably none, because they only follow the advice of the twice-impeached, one-term loser.

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Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican Senator, and the only woman in Senate Republicans’ elected leadership team, on the GQP efforts to oust Liz Cheney:

“I feel it’s OK to go ahead and express what you feel is right to express and, you know, cancel culture is cancel culture no matter how you look at it. Unfortunately, I think there are those that are trying to silence others in the party.”

Those? It’s practically the entire party, Joni, and you’re one of the ones who always sided with Thing #45, so don’t straddle the fence, dear. Stay on the wrong side where you’ve been all along.

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Paul Boyer, Arizona state GOP Senator, on his party’s continued audit of the 2020election:

“Looking back, I didn’t think it would be this ridiculous. It’s embarrassing to be a state senator at this point. It makes us look stupid.”

What was his breaking point? The search for bamboo ballots or the use of UV lights to find Thing #45’s secret watermarks?

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Adam Kinzinger, Illinois GOP Congressman,  comparing the Republican Party to the Titanic over the push to oust Liz Cheney from her leadership position:

“Right now, it's basically the Titanic. We're like, you know, in the middle of this slow sink. We have a band playing on the deck telling everybody it's fine. And meanwhile, as I've said, you know, [the twice-impeached, one-term loser’s] running around trying to find women's clothing and get on the first lifeboat. And I think there's a few of us that are just saying, ‘Guys, this is not good,’ not just for the future of the party, but this is not good for the future of this country. Liz Cheney is saying exactly what Kevin McCarthy said the day of the insurrection. She's just consistently been saying it. And a few weeks later, Kevin McCarthy changed to attacking other people.”

He added that the Republican Party needs to have “an internal look and a full accounting as to what led to Jan. 6.”

But they won’t do that because their Fearless Leader told them not to … from the golf course.

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Ken Buck, Republican Congressman from Colorado, saying Liz Cheney was  “cancelled” for expressing her opinions of Thing #45:

“Liz Cheney was cancelled today for speaking her mind and disagreeing with the narrative that [the twice-impeached, one-term loser] was putting forward.”

Buck’s support of Cheney is notable due to the fact that Buck is generally viewed as an ally to the former president.

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Liz Cheney, after being ousted from her Congressional leadership role for her refusal to believe the Big Lie:

“I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office. The nation needs a party that is based upon fundamental principles of conservatism, and I am committed and dedicated to ensuring that that’s how this party goes forward, and I plan to lead the fight to do that.”

This is gonna get good.

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Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, on GQPers trying to downplay the Capitol attack as normal:

“Really? Well, I don’t know a normal day around here where people are threatening to hang the vice president of the United States, or shoot the speaker, or disrupt and injure so many police officers. I don’t consider that normal. It was beyond denial, it fell into the range of sick.”

They’re so terrified of Thing #45 that they’ll lie without batting an eye.

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Michael Fanone, Washington DC police officer who was clubbed with a flagpole, repeatedly tased, and suffered a brain injury at the hands of insurrectionists:

“I’m not a politician. I’m not an elected official. I don’t expect anybody to give two shits about my opinions. But I will say this. Those are lies, and peddling that bullshit is an assault on every officer that fought to defend the Capitol. It’s disgraceful.”

It’s The Big Lie, Part II.

The election was stolen and nothing happened on January 6, 2021.

That’s the GOP as of today.

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Indiana or Arkansas: It's All The Same Hate ... But Now With An UPDATE

I’m flummoxed by Arkansas. I mean, were their TV sets turned off for the last week or so? Did they not get a newspaper even once? Is their internet down? Have they never heard of Indiana?

How else do we explain how the Arkansas legislature has just passed a ‘Religious Freedom restoration Act’ [RFRA] that is nearly identical to the one passed last week in Indiana; the one that sparked protests, petition drives, and may well end Mike Pence’s political career forever?

Mike Pence. I giggle at his foolishness. He signs hate into law, then says maybe it needs clarification then says he won’t change the law, while saying Hoosiers don’t discriminate, and now, after costing the state millions and millions of dollars and making him the well-deserved butt of all jokes, as well as the poster boy for LGBT discrimination, he’s saying maybe the bill needs to be fixed, and maybe the discrimination parts need to be removed.

But then we have Arkansas …where Republican lawmakers, of course, passed HB 1228, a bill that the Human Rights Campaign describes as "virtually identical" to the controversial law in Indiana.

And, like Indiana, Arkansas Republican, of course, Governor, Asa Hutchinson, has promised to sign it. Hutchinson, with an apparent straight face — pun intended — says the bill is meant to strike a balance between religious freedom and equal protection of the law, but, um, yeah, sexual orientation is not covered by anti-discrimination laws in Arkansas, so the hate is legal.

Cue protests; cue boycotts; cue the end of a political career. 

Apple, Yelp and Little Rock-based Acxiom have all called on Hutchinson to veto the bill, and Wal-Mart has also come out against the bill, and urged the governor to veto it:

"Today's passage of HB1228 threatens to undermine the spirit of inclusion present throughout the state of Arkansas and does not reflect the values we proudly uphold." — Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon

In addition, the governors of New York, Connecticut and Washington have suspended some government travel from their states to Indiana, and are expected to do the same with Arkansas.

“They knew what they were doing. They were going to make it legal to refuse to serve gay men and women. Somebody has to call them on it." —  Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy

Special ISBL Asshat status to Arkansas state Representative, and Republican of course, Bob Ballinger who authored the bill and said its language was staying put, and that it would be too confusing to try to define what constitutes discrimination."

"If that means that you can force somebody who has deeply held religious beliefs to engage in some activity that violates their deeply held religious beliefs, and that the state has the right to force them into doing it, I can't say that I do agree with that."

But you can say that denying someone services because they’re gay or a woman or a minorities is just dandy.

Pardon my French, but Fuck off. Hate is hate, no matter how you try to hide it with a Bible, and no matter how you try to spin it, no one’s God ever spoke up about hate.

UPDATE:

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson — hoping he doesn’t get penced … yes, it’s a verb now, too — has asked the Arkansas legislature to make changes to the state’s "religious freedom" bill, HB 1228, to make it more like the Federal version, and less like the Indiana’s Hate Version.

As it stands, the Arkansas RFRA still becomes law in seven days unless Hutchinson vetoes it, which he did not do today.

sources:

NBC News
NCRM
MSNBC
HRC
#HateOutbreak

photo sources:
BlueNationReview
Arkansas Online
ArkTimes