(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . 6/6 GNR: Fear and Loathing in the Swing States [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-06 I have set myself to document for you what disasters the Rs have cued up for themselves in this election. What will happen in the swing states, and which other states might start to swing? We looked at Michigan and Indiana last week, so that leaves Pennsyltucky, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Wisconsin as the generally recognized top tier, with Ohio, Florida, and Texas as the tougher next level prizes. I am adding in Virginia just because of Gov. Youngkin, and Colorado, which is especially hilarious. There will also be sentencing, debates (so to speak), conventions, SCOTUS, Israel/Gaza, Ukraine, and more along the way. Election season has been well and truly joined, now that the first BLOAT trial is over. The first poll, from Morning Consult, asking about the impact of the trial on Republicans and Independents, shows 15% of Rs say Trump should drop out. We have to wait and see how that number will hold up, and how it will translate to actual voting. There will be much more data and bloviation to come on these questions. Remember, now, that this campaign will contrast trying to do maximum good for everybody, including those who can’t stand it, with trying to do maximum harm. The Rs have declared most of the country to be existential threats to Truth 🤦, Justice 🤦🤦, and the American Way 🤦🤦🤦, and have been turning in increasing force on each other as RINOs or even (perish forbid) DEMON-RATs. Meanwhile, they have lost a third of their Gen Z children, whom pollsters find exceedingly difficult to account for and to reach. We just have to tell the truth, loudly and forcefully, and GOTV, while they have set themselves to tell nothing but lies, and to suppress voting by every means they can think of, no matter how much that tells their own supporters to stay home, while it motivates us. I’m doing a quick survey of GQP party news and a sprinkling of indictments this week, with deeper dives taking shape for the rest of the season. Cue Disasters and Screaming National Even Fox News has admitted it. Burning down the House: February has been an unmitigated disaster for Republicans Democrat Representative Mike Quigley of Illinois laments, 'We can’t get anything done' House Republican Infighting Turns Annual Retreat Into a Total Bust House Republicans are in total disarray. Internal conflicts and power struggles have become hallmarks of the modern GOP After Ohio Republicans bolstered their statehouse majority last year due to their dominating showing in the midterm elections, they split into rival camps over who should lead the lower chamber. The division between younger, more impatient conservatives and more traditional ones was only settled when Democrats crossed party lines to end a standoff over who would become speaker of the Ohio House. In Michigan, the chair of one county party told police he was “kicked in the crotch” by a rival during a party meeting. In Arizona, Democrats last year swept four statewide races In Texas, the Republican attorney general, after successfully fighting off removal from office following his impeachment by the GOP-controlled state House, this week suggested he could request criminal charges against some in his own party Most dramatically, in Arizona, insurgent Republicans who castigated the more moderate members of their own party — who had once supported the late Sen. John McCain It’s not just the House speakership that’s pitted Republican against Republican. After the [Ohio] state supreme court rejected seven rounds of new legislative and congressional maps as illegally favoring the GOP, some legislative Republicans threatened to impeach then-Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a member of their own party who had cast key swing votes in the cases. When the state redistricting commission reconvened last month to fix the maps, business was stymied for days by Republican infighting over who should be the panel’s co-chair. “This is a civil war that has been happening since 2015,” said David B. Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Akron’s Bliss Institute of Applied Politics. “It began in earnest when Donald Trump entered the fray and when he became the party’s nominee. Then, when he became president, there was a transformation that took hold across the country and a lot of old-school Republicans were forced out.” Pennsylvania Tomasetti to challenge McCormick for GOP nomination for Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat I can defeat career politician and RINO Republican Dave McCormick who is unlikely to succeed in a purple state she said in a video posted to social media. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Frank DeVito: Why Republicans lose in Pennsylvania: They make bad choices. First, conservatives need to take a serious look at purple districts and apply the William F. Buckley Rule: in any election, conservatives should support the “rightwardmost viable candidate.” Who is the most conservative candidate who can actually win the election? Replacing a moderate Republican officeholder with a more conservative Republican challenger who loses the general election is not a win. Ousting a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only) only to wind up with a Democrat is a bad deal. Consider the wide variety of congressmen that make up the U.S. House Freedom Caucus. The group consists of both shrewd, savvy, effective legislators [😂😂😂😂😂😂] and bomb-throwers who don’t seem to have a plan to implement conservative policies. All have very conservative views, but they get very different results, for reasons other than ideological purity. Frank DeVito serves as Counsel at Napa Legal Institute. Napa Legal is a network of attorneys and faith-based nonprofits committed to faith and freedom. For non-standard values of “faith and freedom”. Republicans are now trying to sell voters on voting methods that the party has demonized for years. It won’t be easy. Republican leaders in Pennsylvania have pledged to spend millions of dollars this year to promote voting by mail despite claiming for years — without evidence — that mailed votes are riddled with fraud. The national party is also pressing a pro-mail publicity campaign called “Bank Your Vote,” apparently after concluding that staking its candidates’ fates on a hefty Election Day turnout was not an optimal strategy. Take George E. Bierman, an investment executive and registered Republican in Williamsport, a deeply red city about 170 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Mr. Bierman said he might consider casting a mail ballot “if I thought it would do any good.” But did he believe others would? “Honestly, no, I don’t,” he said. “With everything that has transpired, I don’t trust the government in any way, shape or form.” For Republicans, such wariness is a self-inflicted wound, particularly in key swing states like Pennsylvania. Virginia Embittered Republicans plot to knock off House GOP’s hard-right leader in Virginia primary feud Rep. Derrick Van Orden is done with Rep. Bob Good. Good, the leader of the House Freedom Caucus and one of eight Republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speakership, has been at the center of internal GOP infighting that has left their party’s agenda in tatters and their conference embroiled in a bitter civil war. Now Van Orden has joined hands with a band of House Republicans angling to knock Good off in his June primary by propping up his primary opponent, John McGuire – a tactic long viewed as a serious breach of protocol but one that underscores the bad blood within the House GOP. Arizona Kari Lake and Jeff DeWit set the Arizona GOP on self-destruct mode Opinion: Lake releases a secret recording she sat on for 10 months and takes down state GOP chair Jeff DeWit. So much for the party righting itself. x Kari Lake in 2022: “We drove a stake through the heart of the McCain Machine" Today she claimed she was just joking. Yeah, right pic.twitter.com/qFLlmUjzPe — Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) February 21, 2024 Judge threatens to mute Giuliani during arraignment in Arizona fake electors case Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, several allies of former President Donald Trump and alleged fake electors pleaded not guilty in Maricopa County court Tuesday for their alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona. Former Trump lawyer Christina Bobb, Arizona state Sen. Anthony Kern, former Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward, and her husband Michael Ward were also among those arraigned today. Georgia MTG. ‘nuff said. Nobody hates the GOP as much as Republicans hate the GOP. Just ask Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Republican Party's own lawmakers are so down on themselves they might soon start wearing all black and penning mournful Goth poetry. [Sigh] Yes, we will go there, too. Nevada Confusion Reigns as Nevada Readies for GOP Presidential Primary – and Caucuses Nevada Republicans will caucus to decide how to apportion their delegates for president. But their caucus comes two days after a primary. And that’s only the start of the confusion. "It makes the party look stupid, and the decision to do this was absolutely stupid," says Chuck Muth, former chairman of the Clark County Republican Party. “Where they really screwed up was in not allowing candidates to file in both the primary and the caucuses. The whole thing has been rigged for Trump anyway," adds Muth, who plans to vote for Trump but who was initially a supporter of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who dropped out of the primary race last month Nevada attorney general announces charges against 6 Trump 'alternate electors' Among those charged are some of the top officials from the Nevada Republican Party, including Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald Nevada Republican Party National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid Clark County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Law Storey County Clerk Jim Hindle Republican operatives Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice. Wisconsin Republican lawmakers propose dissolving Wisconsin Elections Commission A group of Republican lawmakers have released a proposal to dissolve the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) and shift the administration of the state’s elections to the secretary of state. Under the proposed legislation, the secretary would need approval from the elections committees of both the Assembly and Senate before taking any action on election rules. Critics say the proposal is an attempt to “mollify” the most extreme members of the Republican caucus in the Legislature and a subset of Republican voters who have become hostile to the WEC in the more than three years since the 2020 election due to baseless conspiracy theories that the commission helped steal the election from former President Donald Trump. Wisconsin GOP convention endorses Hovde. But what about the other Republican Senate contenders? Over the weekend, the Wisconsin Republican Party convention took the expected step of endorsing wealthy business executive Eric Hovde in his bid for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Tammy Baldwin (D). But that move was still controversial. There are several Republican Senate candidates, most of whom are not well known, and the GOP decided that Hovde was the only one who met party criteria and was allowed to speak at the convention. A key requirement was raising at least $1 million from donors by March 31. x Andrew Hitt, the former chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin says we need to move on from Trump: “This country needs to move forward... We need faith in our institutions again. And the next president of the US needs to do that.” pic.twitter.com/0Qj1ycNeYj — Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) June 3, 2024 Wisconsin AG charges Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro and others in fake elector case Three Trump associates allegedly tied to the former president's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election have been charged with forgery in Wisconsin. Attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and James Troupis and former Trump staff member Michael Roman have been charged in connection with the alleged efforts. The three men are due to appear in court in September. Ohio Analysis: How GOP infighting is causing messy primaries, but the speaker could keep the gavel Just a few seat losses in the bitter battle between Ohio House incumbents and candidates vying to kick them out of their jobs could make the state significantly more conservative, a News 5 analysis found. Despite being Republican-controlled now, the state could move much further right under a new speaker. Florida Angry infighting: Florida Republicans are a hot mess right now, yet may still win | Commentary The governor is feuding with former allies like Randy Fine. Fine says DeSantis emboldens neo-Nazis. DeSantis says Fine is a joke of a petty politician. (Democrats say both men are finally making sense.) In Seminole County, the GOP elections supervisor says his fellow Republicans are a bunch of racists while Republican party leaders suggest their party’s supervisor is unfit to hold office. (Again,Democrats are like: Wait, let’s hear them all out.) Even the party’s top trollers are in such a meltdown mode that they’re sniping at each other instead of Democrats. At last weekend’s Republican gathering in Orlando, DeSantis’ chief troller, Christina Pushaw, got into a clash with right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer that culminated with Pushaw telling Loomer that she was such a loser, she’ll never even find a “devoted husband.” (Imagine a Springer episode where both cringey guests happen to be trusted advisors to a governor and former U.S. president.) Texas Infighting threatens to overshadow Texas Republican Party at this year's state GOP convention A notable absence at the convention will be Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, who is in the crosshairs of his party’s far-right flank after detractors accused him of not being conservative enough for Texas. Though Phelan has championed Republican priorities, including extreme limits on abortion access in Texas, limiting access to books in public schools and controversial - and possibly unconstitutional - border security measures, Phelan voted with the majority of the Texas House to impeach state Attorney General Ken Paxton. Phelan’s chamber also failed to pass legislation last year that would allow taxpayer dollars to be spent on private school tuition, and he’s been criticized for appointing Democrats as chairs to powerful House committees. He was also formally censured by the party in February for “for lack of fidelity to Republican principles and priorities.” At Texas GOP convention, Republicans call for spiritual warfare At the three-day convention, delegates moved the needle further to the right, preaching Christian nationalism and approving rules that would give them unprecedented control of elections. Delegates approved rules that ban Republican candidates — as well as judges — who are censured by the party from appearing on primary ballots for two years, a move that would give a small group of Republicans the ability to block people from running for office, should it survive expected legal challenges. The party’s proposed platform also included planks that would effectively lock Democrats out of statewide office by requiring candidates to win a majority of Texas’ 254 counties, many of which are dark-red but sparsely populated, and called for laws requiring the Bible to be taught in public schools. It was the first Texas GOP convention set against the backdrop of a civil war that was sparked by the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton and inflamed by scandals over white supremacists and antisemites working for the party’s top funders, West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. This year’s convention was also sparsely attended compared to past years, which some longtime party members said helped the Dunn and Wilks faction further consolidate their power and elect their candidate, Abraham George, for party chair. Colorado May 21st, 2024: The Day The Colorado Republican Party Died The Colorado Republican Party is issuing a call to its members to pull their children from public school, saying Democrats are using schools to “turn more kids trans.” The message was delivered in an email blast to Republicans statewide Tuesday. “All Colorado parents should be aiming to remove their kids from public education,” [Pols emphasis] read the directive from Darcy Schoening, director of special initiatives for the Colorado GOP. If you haven’t been paying attention over the past year, Colorado Republicans under the party’s far-right bomb-throwing chairman Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams have heavily invested in scare tactics about transgender people as an election turnout issue, which resulted in some of the most acrimonious debates in the state legislature this year and an incipient anti-trans ballot initiative campaign. It’s a continuation of the message from 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, who became obsessed in the late days of her losing campaign with “furries” supposedly taking over the hallways of Colorado public schools. But Wait! There’s More! x #DemVoice1 Hard to believe the Republican Party has fallen so far that their candidate for Governor of NC is Mark Robinson. . 🆘 a Holocaust denier 🆘 thinks moon landing a fake 🆘 thinks lizard people are real 🆘 called 911 an inside job 🆘 believes mass shootings are karma… pic.twitter.com/36mZ5WUCbn — Brenda💙46 - Build Back Better 🚗🚕🚙 (@kinley_brenda) March 6, 2024 x BREAKING: Conservative Karl Rove announced today he believes all Jan. 6th Insurrectionists need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent. Rove saying this shows a deep fracture inside the Republican Party. It’s another sign Trump’s coalition is breaking. pic.twitter.com/El7o9TktIy — Biden’s Wins (@BidensWins) April 4, 2024 OK, back to Earth 1 now. Science! Lifeforms! Weirdness! The newly discovered galaxy, named JADES-GS-z14-0, is the most distant galaxy ever confirmed. To put this into perspective, imagine the universe's entire history compressed into a single year. This galaxy would have formed in early January! Redshift z = 14.32. It’s a great achievement, but hardly a bombshell. Some think that the very first potentially observable stars formed at what is today redshift z = 65. Maybe. Or maybe it was only z =20. What we know for sure is that we still need bigger telescopes. Which means that we still need lots more telescope technology. Watch this spacetime. x 🤯 A stunningly bright galaxy from just 300 million years after the Big Bang?! The James Webb Space Telescope just dropped a bombshell discovery that challenges our understanding of the early universe. #space #astronomy #JWST https://t.co/DPAp7kCfu4 — Pixelated Pulse (@Pixelated_Pulse) June 1, 2024 x ‘More profitable than farming’: how Ecuador’s birding boom is benefiting wildlife https://t.co/kwBB77V0Z2 — Guardian Environment (@guardianeco) June 1, 2024 x Happy Pride Month to everyone and especially those that get triggered by rainbows 🌈 pic.twitter.com/meV0jKomC6 — Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) June 1, 2024 x From our archives: Restoring just 20 large mammals — bison, horses, jaguars, and others — to areas where they were lost could help heal nature and fight climate change.https://t.co/ybpew5j1eu — Yale Environment 360 (@YaleE360) June 1, 2024 x How Uranus has changed in 1 Year - JWST Space Telescope Download & more info: https://t.co/808OoYfATc Credit: Raw Data: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI Processing: AndreaLuck CC BY 3 Frames 2023-02-06 2023-09-04 2024-02-06 Images below in this thread pic.twitter.com/wZgzoOeptu — Andrea Luck (@andrluck) June 1, 2024 You need to click through above get get the complete set of views. x Humboldt martens just won 1.2 million acres of critical habitat designation in Oregon and California! 🎉🎉 More info on these threatened, little carnivores ➡️ https://t.co/SMKJKgDA2o 📷 by Charlotte Eriksson, Oregon State University pic.twitter.com/sZXv7CvvPo — Center for Biological Diversity (@CenterForBioDiv) May 31, 2024 Tiniest ‘starquake’ ever detected – new study An orange dwarf star has yielded the tiniest ‘starquakes’ ever recorded, measured by an international team of scientists. The quakes were detected using a technique dubbed asteroseismology, which measures oscillations in stars. Using the ESPRESSO spectrograph, mounted at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), the team was able to record the oscillations with unprecedented precision. x Wolf 907, the current leader of the Junction Butte pack in Yellowstone National Park and oldest wolf in the park, has lived almost four times longer than the average wolf. She gave birth to another litter of pups this year. Congrats to this wolf super mom! https://t.co/yS7FjrBndx — Mexican Wolves (@MexicanWolves) May 31, 2024 x Mississippi teen Demi Johnson receives National Geographic award for plan to save Mississippi’s oyster reef population The ninth grader has produced 1,100 oysters that will in turn spawn millions of larvae into the ecosystem, a huge ecological impact https://t.co/lftE8nPnQk — philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) June 1, 2024 x Across the nation, houses of worship are going solar: https://t.co/ttxyUZTwc7 RT if you think more buildings should get a solar upgrade.#ActOnClimate #climate #energy #renewables pic.twitter.com/UAIxkYZOJl — Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) June 1, 2024 x Saturn has 146 moons. Some moons are confirmed and named, but many others are awaiting confirmation of discovery and official naming. This is their dynamic visualization while they travel with Saturn through space [📹 Cosmoknowledge]pic.twitter.com/aH9GPuHQJV — Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 2, 2024 x This is Joy the elephant and it’s likely the first time she is having chains removed in 31 years She is going to a sanctuary where she can roam freely 📹 Aaron Jackson / Planting_Peace pic.twitter.com/FYyPCrG5Nj — Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) June 2, 2024 x Great news: Thanks to @EPA rebates, more electric school buses will be rolling out in over a dozen school districts around Oregon! This is a win for the health of our students and for the health of our planet.https://t.co/L13qmd3oRB — Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) June 2, 2024 x Tortoise vs cat.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/YolYlsuY64 — Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) June 2, 2024 Look, I like bigger and more powerful launch vehicles, but zenith talk is the nadir of bloviation. x 🚨🔔 Breaking News: SpaceX Starship & Super Heavy 🚀- The Most Powerful Spaceship duo ever built, The possible Zenith of Mankind in Space Exploration- the 4th Starship Test Flight, possibly on the June 6th. #SpaceX #Starship #NASA Starship Salient Features, Specs and Some… pic.twitter.com/NLawQaLWu1 — Masroor H. Bukhari (@MasroorBukhari) June 4, 2024 x Garvan’s Cancer Plasticity and Dormancy program aims to solve one of cancer’s biggest challenges - eradicating dormant cancer cells before they can awaken and cause relapse. Garvan is comitted to moving beyond 5 year survival rates. Find out more: https://t.co/yHw3smyBX6 pic.twitter.com/w1c1lrIvI5 — Garvan Institute of Medical Research (@GarvanInstitute) June 4, 2024 x An orangutan driving a golf cart, checking the rear-view mirror, being cautious, and slowing down 🦧 pic.twitter.com/iYnXtINukD — Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) June 1, 2024 x From 1977-1993, women of child-bearing age were barred from participating in clinical trials in America — excluding them from medical research. On #JSAH with @jmpalmieri, @aftonvechery gives a much-needed lesson on how medicine failed women. Watch more: https://t.co/3ZKgGUpHyX pic.twitter.com/9AA3MGGAlO — The Recount (@therecount) August 1, 2021 x This is 100% the cutest thing I've ever seen pic.twitter.com/Nlw0DmXObD — Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) May 31, 2024 x Every year, more than 8 million people die from tobacco use. 🚭On #WorldNoTobaccoDay, let's remember: nicotine in tobacco is highly addictive, It's use causes cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, over 20 types/subtypes of cancer, and many other serious health issues. pic.twitter.com/TSHQP7XycT — Kenya Medical Research Institute (@KEMRI_Kenya) May 30, 2024 x two of the cutest friends you will see all day!! pic.twitter.com/qwLwPRlxis — Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) June 2, 2024 x One of NASA's favourite space projects is a plan to fit a 1 km radio telescope inside a crater on the far side of the Moon, which would be the largest radio telescope in the Solar System. [read more: https://t.co/3NEsqpwWup] pic.twitter.com/Z6FbeI2ozC — Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 4, 2024 We propose to deploy a 1km-diameter wire-mesh using wallclimbing DuAxel robots. I, for one, welcome our new robot servitors, which make living in the future so amazing and joyful, along with much more that is described above. Funny or Fuggedaboudit Ignore ayden, please. I couldn’t copy the cartoon without the meshugas. x It must be difficult knowing you are losing and going down the tube. Your army suffered over 500K casualties, your economy is tanking and the generals are plotting against Putin. You have, after two years lost ground! And now look at how the world views you!!! pic.twitter.com/ZdlZIxVHgr — The Pro from Dover (@ProFromDover23) June 1, 2024 No sense of irony. x Talking to MAGA during Pride Month. pic.twitter.com/0C9X9z8ApU — Walter Masterson (@waltermasterson) June 1, 2024 x SENATE GOP MEETING: "Before we discuss raising taxes on the poor & middle class, adding $1 trillion to the deficit, taking health insurance away from 13 million, raising premiums by 10%, defending treason and swearing in a pedophile, let's begin with a prayer." ~Jack Ziegler, TNY pic.twitter.com/sm8ZBOPZZU — Santa Claus (@TheRadicalSanta) February 27, 2024 P. D. Q. Bach P.D.Q. Bach - Fanfare for Fred (S. 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