It's my belief that the GOP is hiding something big. This isn't just about Trump loyalty.

[Progressive Jones]

All of this distraction and obstruction being thrown out there by the right wing
has to involve something bigger than "Trump Loyalty", or simple party loyalty.

What are your thoughts on what they are trying to prevent exposure on?

[DBoon]

1. They have all been bought by Russian money

and they know if the truth came out they would all end up in a federal prison

[Jarqui]

7. It was the thing that broke Watergate: "follow the money" but

Mueller and his people never seemed to do that.

And nobody has done so since. There have been separate efforts on the Trump inauguration, Trump Foundation & Trump emoluments for example.

We've been stymied with Trumps tax returns and financial docs and the redactions to the Mueller report along with it's supporting evidence.

But nobody seems to chase down the "Putin pays Trump" discussion between Paul Ryan, McCarthy, etc
https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/national/read-the-transcript-of-the-conversation-among-gop-leaders-obtained-by-the-post/2209/
and the Russian money through the NRA, etc

We now have a bit more with Rudy Giuliani and his two thugs ...

There seem to be some investigative black holes where we hear things and then they kind of disappear.

There is something missing. Maybe Nancy Pelosi knows what it is and is waiting for the right time .. who knows?

[CrispyQ]

54. That should have been a bigger story.

Investigative black holes - good term.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

62. +1

And can we ask about how Brett Kavanaugh's debts got paid off shortly before he was confirmed? I'm sure that there's an interesting story behind that.

[ananda]

38. Agree

There are so many dirty, compromised Reeps right now
it's unreal!

[uponit7771]

41. +1, McCarthy took Russian money from Rudy's goons

[Andy823]

42. Exactly

Russia invested a lot of money in trump, and republican in the House and Senate. It was funneled in through the NRA, and other secret sources. They afraid trump will turn on them so they do whatever he wants.

Ironically they think he will protect him, when the fact is he will most likely toss them all under the bus if he can make some kind of a deal to save himself.

[CanonRay]

56. DBoon you nailed it

[Amaryllis]

68. Exactly. Thought that for ages. Moscow Mitch has known history with that.

[donkeypoofed]

2. I think it's because every one of them is being blackmailed

When ya think about it, it wouldn't have been hard for GRU hackers to glean blackmailable info on ALL of the GOP members. This is the only reasonable explanation for me - over other reasons like they're all worried about being primaried and losing funding and blah blah blah. I can't reconcile all that they've done with any other explanation, other than they're all asswipes,which is totally believable. Lol

[calimary]

22. Well, shit, there were Russians climbing all over the GOP convention in 2016.

From what I’ve read, there were Russians all over the place, to the point where some people were noticing and starting to wonder about it.

[dalton99a]

37. Yep. Kislyak met with Sessions (and Carter Page and J.D. Gordon) at the GOP convention

Kislyak also sat in the front row when Trump made his foreign-policy speech on April 27, 2016

[dalton99a]

3. Putin vacuumed up all their files and messages

Notice they never mentioned that their servers were hacked

[dchill]

17. Yep. Nobody else mentions it, either.

[pandr32]

51. Good point!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. Russiapublicans can't stay in power without ratfuckery

[zaj]

5. It doesn't have to be that...

It might be that they just embrace authoritarian Russia.

Link to tweet

[KT2000]

10. Oligarchs belong to a small club

All those repubs believe they will be one of them when this coup is over. Sort of like believing they will be one of those taken to heaven when the end comes. They think so highly of themselves they are sure they will be part of the ruling class (trump probably told them that much) and having taken their money they are already obeying orders. They even likely believe Putin will share power.



Today I saw where a representative R used a prop calling the Democrats Soviets. We should probably stop saying "Russia" and use the word "Soviet" instead. Like, we need to investigate the "Soviet" contributions to the republicans.

[Grasswire2]

13. and to evangelicals and dominionists

Geopolitical realignment.

[Funtatlaguy]

34. The Dominionists will serve as the minions of the Oligarchs.

[Eyeball_Kid]

15. So it's supposed to be a growing alliance among nations...

... of white-skinned people as the true inheritors of the earth. Putin has a lot of anti-immigrant, racist sympathizers in western Europe whose unifying points of interest includes the idea that brown and black people are mucking up the (economic) power structure by competing with white folks for (wait for it) JOBS.

[ancianita]

23. +1

[hatrack]

36. So, yeah, Russia - in demographic free-fall, with an economy smaller than Italy's . . . .

. . . run by a handful of corrupt clowns and incompetent apparatchiks with the Eastern Orthodox Church providing the benediction.

It just shouts "long-term aspirational strategic partnership", doesn't it?

[KT2000]

6. Afraid they will be found out

taking Russia connected money.

[C_U_L8R]

8. Something's clearly amiss

Their rapid morph from commie-hating reaganites into Putin-loving trumpstains will make your head spin. People just don't change like that. They are compromised and probably conspiring.

[roamer65]

19. It's a lot like the movie Alien.

Inside of every Repuke is a fascist scumbag just waiting to “pop out”.

[moondust]

9. Russia?

Maybe they know they can't win without Putin's help: hacking, social media propaganda, rubles via the NRA, etc. Maybe they have more history of help from Putin than we know. Turtle may have been counting on it when he denied Merrick Garland. Why did GOP go to Moscow over July 4, 2018?

From 2014: Rudy Giuliani: Unlike Obama, Putin is “what you call a leader”

I think there were others around that time expressing the same kind of admiration for strongman Putin.

[Eyeball_Kid]

16. "Why did GOP go to Moscow over July 4, 2018?"

To prove their loyalty to Putin. And that would presume that they could understand the metaphorical content of their actions. It's worse of they couldn't understand it. They'd be worse than useful idiots.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

63. That was extremely weird/bizarre

and they were all Republicans I believe.

[uponit7771]

40. +1

[RockRaven]

11. Russia didn't just hack the DNC in '16, they hacked the RNC too

They just didn't release the RNC stuff to Wikileaks or other media outlets. Why?

Well, that is the question, isn't it? The better to blackmail them with, probably. One must imagine there is good kompromat against the party as a whole and all the Congressional Reps/Senators who have been around long enough. Probably really, really dirty money and/or what they really think about GOP base voters like evangelical Xians, rural whites, and the like.

[AJT]

12. I think by their very nature republicans are authoritarians. They want no regulation on business an

want to regulate personal behavior. Trump is giving them everything they want and they believe they will not be defeated, and the way they lie cheat and steal they may be right.

[Captain Zero]

31. They may see the US Constitution as the root of all regulations, which it is...

The logical extension of that is that in order to de-regulate everything, they need to de-regulate or destroy the current constitution.

I was thinking about that today. The constitution is the ultimate set of regulations that they hate.

[Hortensis]

33. Yes. And they've been using fascistic tactics successfully for too long

to have any interest in not continuing them. I'm guessing none of the leaders could even if they wanted, in part for much the same reason the auto executives all rode their gravy train to the end -- anyone trying to stop it was thrown off. They will either hang together or hang separately.

But why on earth would they want to stop when they've come so far, too far to turn back? Their self images depend on continued victories that validate their tactics and goals in their own minds. And of course both their safety from consequences and the rewards of the power and wealth they seek depend on winning.

And that depends on continuing their fascistic smashing of laws and norms until they do. As you suggest, I believe for those in today's Republican leadership it's their nature, and that only partially unleashed so far.

[roamer65]

14. Russia and Epstein.

I am sure the two are tied.

Remember these are the same ilk who swept the Franklin scandal from the late 1980’s under the rug.

99.9 pct of all political scandals are about money and/or sex.

[shanti]

18. Nary a peep about Epstein anymore

Funny that.

[roamer65]

28. Yeah. How could that be?

[Nasruddin]

29. Dead men tell no tales

[GoCubsGo]

59. Yep.

Most, if not all of them are compromised by Russian money. I don't think all of them are tied to Epstein, but it's just a matter of how many are. I'm betting the number is fairly substantial. The only thing that is certain is that the entire GOP is comprised of criminals.

[C Moon]

20. Most of the GOP is involved in illegal activity that would put most of the party in prison--or worse.

[brush]

21. IMO it's about trump and the rest of them are Putin assets. As Nancy Pelosi told trump to...

his face, everything with him leads back to Putin—see his actions recently with Syria and the Ukraine. All of trumps moves favor the Russians.

[gordianot]

24. I agree Mayor 9-11 and his Russian Mob goon bank accounts.

[belpejic]

30. I wonder how much Rudy was worth...

...to the Russian mob when he was busy taking down the Italian one.

[Captain Zero]

32. Yes. And I always wondered why the Feds never went after Trump full bore in the 80's

Then a couple months ago realized it was because Rudy was running the SDNY at the time.
They BOTH have been all mobbed up with the Russians since the 1980's !!
When he was first mayor, there was all that PR about Rudy coming from an Italian family with no mafia ties, they clearly overlooked the possibility of Russian Mafia ties.

[crickets]

46. Nature abhors a vacuum

By getting rid of one mob, he made room for the other. It was no happy accident. It's becoming obvious Rudy outright orchestrated that.

[proud patriot]

25. 1)they are opposed to everything the US Constitution says

they are only loyal to $$$$$

2) they know exactly how fast climate change
is going to take effect and are grabbing all the
$$$ they can.

3)ELE ...

[Botany]

26. Russia is huge no doubt but the other "thing" is that our voting system is dirty.

According to exit polls HRC won.

[Kablooie]

27. Sounds like conspiracy theory stuff to me.

But I'd bet that it's true with at least a few Republidan politicians.

[duforsure]

35. I think trump and putin

Are actively corrupting our government to serve them , not anyone else. When things are exposed they'll have many crimes to answer for, including money laundering, election fraud, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, lying under oath, conspiracy against this country, not registering as working for a foreign government, and much much more. trumps holding this over their heads now with putin.

[uponit7771]

39. ***McCarthy Took Russian Money !!! *** That's what's big

[dalton99a]

52. +1. So did Moscow Mitch. I believe the entire GOP Congressional leadership owes Putin

[uponit7771]

53. Yep, I wish democrats would just come out with it. They know Russiapublican pols are dirty

[tavernier]

43. Remember the movie "The Untouchables"?

They couldn’t get Capone or any of his bunch because the entire judicial system of Chicago was compromised.

I think we are seeing the same thing here on a much larger scale.

[Johonny]

44. They're scared of their FOX watching brain dead base

They used to control them, now they must bow down to them. They don't control their party. The makers of GOP mass media do.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

49. This

[Johnny2X2X]

45. How organized crime works

These are forces of organized crime that have taken over. They are doing it in order to raid the treasury. We will never know how much they stole.

But here's how the mob works that people discount. The mob gets their hooks into people or businesses and they do it by sharing risk. They bought the entire GOP and now control them this way. They funneled illegal Russian money into scores of GOP campaigns, and they gave sweet heart business deals to family and friends of all key Republicans. And now that they're in power, they are incriminating every single one of them with illegal cash and illegal contracts. Once you're in, there is no way out because the way out goes through jail. That's how it all works, they are all at risk of jail now, so they will be loyal.

[crickets]

47. +1

[Buckeye_Democrat]

48. They don't want to lose elections, simple as that.

They hopped onto the right-wing media crazy train, even more willingly after Trump was elected.

Have you not met several non-politicians who are Trump loyalists? Republican politicians who turn their backs on them will probably not get re-elected.

[malaise]

50. I suspect those two Rudy goons were sharing out Russian money

to several ReTHUGs.
I do wonder if they will ever face a trial.

[Frustratedlady]

55. I have to agree with a lot of what has been said, but...

let us not forget Ryan. He got out early because he could see the writing on the wall. Don't let him get away with it.

[Mopar151]

57. Fealty to Grover Norquist?

His shark-toothed "Kill the government, abolish taxes" standard for GOP candidates (Play, or be primaried!) has a lot to do with Republican Unity.

[dawnie51]

58. I remember right after the election in 2016......

when all those members came out of the meeting where facts and findings were first brought out, and several of them were pale as ghosts and looked sick and shaky. And I think it was Auntie Maxine who made a terse comment that if and when all was exposed to the American public, they would be shaken to their very core. I have thought about that often over these last years, and especially now that things ARE coming to light at last. I have always believed that GOP was up to their eyeballs in the whole mess, from the lowliest congresscritter to Turtle, from Anthony Kennedy to "I like beer"man. When the depth and breadth of GOP malevolence is fully exposed, it will shake the country. But we have to know, the sunlight must be shown on them all. They've gotten away with too much for too long.

[Kitchari]

67. I remember that, too

Quite dramatic

[bluestarone]

60. KICK

You are so right!!

[Proud Liberal Dem]

61. My theory:

is that a lot of them are mired in the same issues that Trump is, which is to say, some kind of entanglement with Russia, what happened in 2016, taking Russian money through the NRA and the deeper down the rabbit hole everybody goes, the more likely they're all going to be exposed. Russia seems to have gotten its meathooks in the Republican Party and nearly all of them are compromised one way or another. Just about everything else that has happened during the Trump Presidency has flowed from this.

[Pluvious]

64. Don't forget the GOPer 4th of July pilgrimage to Moscow

...to affirm their allegiance to their new owner.

So shameful.

We'll be stained by this for generations.

[bamagal62]

65. I'm going with blackmail

And threats that involve their families. I think many are owned by the Russian mob. They got greedy and now they don’t have a way out. They’re scared. That’s my take in it.

[blm]

66. Agree. My guess is they had Wisconsin rigged via Walker and Priebus.

And that’s just for starters.