Amanda Marcotte
Raw Story
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Past articles by Amanda:
The strange reason so many Republicans now dress like cartoon supervillains
After President Joe Biden's State of the Union address on Tuesday, it was generally agreed across the media that Joe from Scranton had won the evening by masterfully baiting Republicans into showing their asses. The second star of the night, however, was also indisputable: The brillantly white wool ... → Read More
Kevin McCarthy's face-plant: The new GOP speaker is not the negotiation ninja he thinks he is
After being forced into submission by people like Donald Trump and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., one would think Speaker Kevin McCarthy would have downgraded his own self-assessment as a master negotiator. But no, ever since he finally secured his seat after 15 humiliating rounds of his own caucus voting... → Read More
Kevin McCarthy's Medicare faceplant
After being forced into submission by people like Donald Trump and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., one would think Speaker Kevin McCarthy would have downgraded his own self-assessment as a master negotiator. But no, ever since he finally secured his seat after 15 humiliating rounds of his own caucus voting... → Read More
China just tricked Republicans into humiliating themselves
It's a truth that should be self-evident: If you are emasculated by a balloon, you weren't so tough to begin with. Last week, a balloon that U.S. officials believe to be a Chinese surveillance device was spotted floating over Montana, likely to take pictures of military assets. In the grown-up world... → Read More
George Santos is the superstar MAGA deserves
The political media fascination with Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican who appears to have faked approximately 95% of his life, is such that it was inevitable that it would draw a "savvy" backlash piece scolding the press about their priorities. The wannabe party pooper finally emerged... → Read More
Pelosi's attacker is proud of himself. The GOP emboldened him
David DePape seems proud of himself. On Friday, a judge ordered the release of video footage that appears to show DePape beating Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, with a hammer after refusing to listen to police orders to drop the weapon. The video is hard to watch,... → Read More
The fight over Big Con: Ben Shapiro's beef with Stephen Crowder shows male insecurity is profitable
The great Achilles heel of the far-right is that fascists and other stripes of authoritarians are cantankerous people. It often takes very little to get them into ugly fights with each other over stupid stuff. So perhaps it's no surprise that two of the biggest grifters in the right-wing media ecosy... → Read More
Rejected Republicans now seek revenge
News coverage of failed GOP candidate Solomon Peña's arrest for allegedly orchestrating a plot to shoot up the homes of various elected Democrats has consistently highlighted one key detail: His claims to be the "real" winner of the race for New Mexico House District 14 are so ridiculous that it's h... → Read More
'The apocalyptic mindset is Republican orthodoxy at this point': How paranoia consumed the GOP
The idea that history is recurrent is one of the most powerful in Western society, from the halls of Harvard to characters on "Battlestar Galactica" reciting, "All this has happened before. All of this will happen again." It can feel like we're living in unprecedented times in the United States, wit... → Read More
It's not just Trump: A sobering new report chronicles the extensive GOP war on democracy
In the days after the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021, there was widespread hope across Beltway media that the violence of that day would cool the Donald Trump-fueled Republican hostility towards democracy. Not only had the insurrection itself failed but so had all the other efforts Trump had made t... → Read More
Welcome to the creepiest Congress ever
Well, Ol' Ironbutt finally did it: After 14 humiliating votes, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. sucked all the humor out of the Capitol and squeaked into the Speakership on the 15th try, in the dead of night, the proper hour for all shameful moments. Just to make this denouement even more depressing, R... → Read More
How Trump and Elon build their cults
It was too laughable not to share it: On his Twitter knockoff site Truth Social, Donald Trump posted on Wednesday about a "MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT tomorrow," which included a video of him dressed as a superhero shooting lasers out of his eyes. This article first appeared on Salon. It's what the k... → Read More
Attacks on Brittney Griner reveal a disturbing truth about the GOP
Tuesday is supposed to be a good day. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the Respect for Marriage Act into law, making it illegal for any state to invalidate, repeal or negate the legal marriages of same-sex or interracial couples. No doubt the ceremony itself will all be smiles and hugs. Still... → Read More
MAGA Republicans are obsessed with harassing drag shows — here's why
"I woke up like this." So sayeth the 2013 Beyoncé anthem "Flawless," a song that also features a speech by feminist writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. When it was released, the lyric caused some grumbling among feminists who took it literally, but in my experience, fans understand it how Beyoncé almos... → Read More
The disturbing truth about phony conservative victimhood
How on earth did Anderson Lee Aldrich have a gun? That's one of the biggest questions lingering in the aftermath of the shooting at Club Q on November 19. On December 6, Aldrich was formally charged on 305 separate criminal counts after a shooting left five people dead and 22 injured, all staff and ... → Read More
Kari Lake goes out with a whimper: She couldn't galvanize Trump's Jan. 6 army
In the end, the Big Lie 2.0 went out with a whimper, instead of the bang Donald Trump and his acolytes were clearly anticipating. For months, Trump-loyal Republican candidates for state and local offices — often those hand-picked by Trump himself — recycled his false claims that a secret cabal of De... → Read More
Kanye West's road to Trump's dinner table was paved by GOP and Fox News hype
In the immediate aftermath of reports that Donald Trump had dinner with two notable antisemitic political figures — Nick Fuentes of America First and Ye (formerly Kanye West) — a simple excuse was floated to mitigate the backlash: It wasn't Trump's fault — he was sandbagged! "Our dinner meeting was ... → Read More
New seditious conspiracy convictions offer roadmap for Donald Trump's trial
On Tuesday afternoon, when word came down that the jury in the Oath Keepers trial in Washington, D.C., had already come to a decision, the speed suggested that the defendants were doomed. So far, this has been the most complicated of all the criminal proceedings stemming from the insurrection that D... → Read More
Is America's infatuation with billionaires finally coming to an end?
It has long been evident that Elon Musk is a moron, at least to those willing to see it. Well before the Tesla CEO overpaid for Twitter in the throes of a tantrum, there was a chorus of mostly-ignored people pointing out, repeatedly, that Musk's mental maturity appeared to have stagnated around the ... → Read More
A plan to stop Elon Musk
At this point, the conspiracy theory that Elon Musk bought Twitter to destroy it is starting to feel a teeny bit persuasive. The billionaire troll originally bought the social media company on a whim with a bid that was literally a '90s-era joke about marijuana and has proceeded to run it into the g... → Read More