Fresh out of federal prison, coal baron Don Blankenship runs for Senate - Polidicks

This is the new normal.

Bumping because the primary was last night and Blankenship was handily defeated, landing in third place with just 20% of the vote. This comes days after Trump urged voters to reject him. Mitch McConnell, who he had repeatedly attacked and branded "Cocaine Mitch", tweeted a Narcos meme in response to his loss https://twitter.com/Team_Mitch/status/994036999387537409

In all seriousness, both McConnell and Blankenship are utter scum. How did the GOP get so fucked up?

(already) LOCK(ed) HIM UP

First, the Tea Party staged a hostile takeover attempt at the Republican Party. When Obama won, and then won re-election, the racist end of the party went out of its fucking mind and hating Obama and everything he stood for became the new purity test standard for being a Republican, and repealing Obamacare became an article of faith that must be adopted. It was into this ground, fertile with willing believers of propaganda (Fox News), that a reality TV presidential candidate blew all the dog whistles he could to get elected with some help from Russian-controlled social media jamming that drove the conversation to extremes on both sides. And it wouldn't have happened if Republicans didn't sell their soul out to lobbyists and develop a tribalistic fetish to cutting taxes and triggering the "leftists". Republicans wouldn't have been able to efficiently and so thoroughly sell out their every value if Citizens United hadn't legalized effectively unlimited legal bribery, and it shows. The Republican Party of the last ten years, after Citizens United, is qualitatively different than the way it acted before Citizens United: it has become even more craven, more extreme, and most concerningly more fascist and the old guard of "establishment" Republicans is retiring instead of trying to take back control of their (former) Party. The Republican Party is Trump's to control, now; he's taken control of the GOP away from itself. If they try and naysay Trump he'll split off from them and take most of their voting base away with him, and the split in the right-wing vote will ensure Democrat domination, thanks to neither side being willing to replace FPTP with a more representative voting system. Republicans are riding the anchor straight down to the sea bed because they can't afford to let go. They've embraced winning at all costs, and that's why in the past year the GOP has seen literal Nazis, Roy Moore, and now Blankenship, run for the primary or even the actual Congressional seat under their banner. It's why the Republican Party refused to take a vow to not use any contents of hacked emails/etc. in the 2018 midterms while the Democrats took the pledge. The 2018 midterms are the final battle for control of the GOP's fate; it either reels at the edge and gets pulled back by an establishment that has a close brush with death and realizes it needs to reign in the fringe before the fringe becomes the new normal from coast to coast, or that fringe does indeed take over and it becomes the party of outright anti-democratic fascists and we can expect the GOP to try and rig the 2020 elections as the natural evolution of the "win at all costs" mentality and purity tests pushing the party further right. Almost getting that post-Weimar feeling...

Tell the truth, the fringe feels like it *is* the new normal. They certainly call the shots. GOP party whips all seem to employ the Tea Party mentality. May be too late to pull the US back from a spiral into fascism. Ignoring the title of this video, Olbermann actually predicted all this shit immediately after Citizens United vs. FEC. Whatever your views on the man, his penchant for sensationalism and the quality of his discourse, watch this video and you'll be spooked by how right he was. https://youtu.be/gPayKb39Kao

Oh also, the primary election happened on the last day of Blankenship's probation https://twitter.com/ericbradner/status/994064668980318208?s=19

I'm sure that was a total coincidence. heh

"I want an honest crook" god you are a total fucking moron dude

Carlin said it best, America is the first row seats to the freak show.

Watched this through and it seems that we are about 50% through to the logical conclusion he presents Next step would the abandonment of the Tea-Partyesque by Fox and Friends and the possible outlawing of the political extremes. Though to be fair, I also don't see anyone that wishes to bring this situation to its end as being far-sighted or clever enough to actually do it since most people involved with government appear to be semi-competent morons at best nowadays.

it's so awesome that this is real and isn't from an episode of Tim and Eric

Baron? this guy isn't a Baron of anything Massey energy has a yearly revenue of only 2.6 billies in a nearly dead market compared to companies like NRG which is 4 times that and investing in way more energy alternatives, or koch at a estimated 110 billies annually. In the world of energy production this man is a footnote.

I especially love those two little girls that spontaneously materialize in his arms near the end.

exactly why he's a baron and not a count, duke or king!