All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!(Part II)

[zinderel]

What boy hasn't done this? Did he...he SERIOUSLY asked that?!

I don't know a SINGLE man or boy who has done, or thought of doing this. I know more than one woman, however, who has had what Professor Ford had done to her - and worse - done to them.

I only know of two types of men, two VERY SPECIFIC TYPES of men who do this sort of thing or think it is at ALL acceptable: religious social conservatives and sociopaths.

Neither respects women as ACTUAL human beings.
Both types of men tend to view women as broodmares, slaves, sexual objects, or display pieces to be collected and owned. Or they are seen as villains, 'bitches', 'Jezebels', 'whores' to be defiled or destroyed.
Both types of men often see women as naturally subservient or otherwise less than men. Religious conservatives have their holy books backing up THEIR beliefs on the matter, and sociopaths just...don't care.
Both, clearly, are drawn to politics.
For proof, look at anything from the Quiverfull movement, Father-daughter 'purity balls', militant Islam (the actual, real kind, like the guys that took over Iran in the 70's, or who organized 9/11, for example. Not the made up boogeyman version that the Right seems convinced is ALL Muslims...), the 'Christian' warlords like Kony (remember him?), or pretty much ANY ultra-conservative member of an Abrahamic faith with a book or TV show. Compare the words of conservative rabbis, priests, pastors and imams about women to those of serial killers and rapists, and then try to sleep well again.

Now, I'm not saying that all conservative religious men are sociopaths, of course. I'm quite sure 'some are good people', if I may ape a well known quote by a...stable genius...who is absolutely NOT a sociopath or someone who bragged about committing sexual assault...*clears throat* Nor am I saying that religion causes men to legitimize or commit rape. Either claim would be ridiculous. Most of the men I know - the ones who would never dream of this sort of thing, much less commit the act - hold to one variety or another of the Abrahamic faiths, so of course, I know that the vast majority of religious men are perfectly good, decent people. I also am quite clear on the reality that many very bad men claim 'God told me to' as an excuse for their actions. However, I am also aware that when someone who has claimed piety gets caught in some horrible sex scandal, religious outlets are SILENT about it, at best, and actively work to keep it quiet, at worst. The silence of many of those good, decent religious men in the face of the absolute atrocities being committed, or excused, justified and/or covered up by prominent members of their faiths is disgusting and damning in and of itself, but it doesn't make the silent ones as bad as the monsters.

Correlation is not causation, I am well aware, but...I am ABSOLUTELY saying that there is a VERY troubling amount of overlap on this issue. Overlap that we absolutely HAVE to discuss, if anything is going to change.

[ed2962]

What boy hasn't done this? Did he...he SERIOUSLY asked that?!

I don't know a SINGLE man or boy who has done, or thought of doing this. I know more than one woman, however, who has had what Professor Ford had done to her - and worse - done to them.

I only know of two types of men, two VERY SPECIFIC TYPES of men who do this sort of thing or think it is at ALL acceptable: religious social conservatives and sociopaths.

Neither respects women as ACTUAL human beings.
Both types of men tend to view women as broodmares, slaves, sexual objects, or display pieces to be collected and owned. Or they are seen as villains, 'bitches', 'Jezebels', 'whores' to be defiled or destroyed.
Both types of men often see women as naturally subservient or otherwise less than men. Religious conservatives have their holy books backing up THEIR beliefs on the matter, and sociopaths just...don't care.
Both, clearly, are drawn to politics.
For proof, look at anything from the Quiverfull movement, Father-daughter 'purity balls', militant Islam (the actual, real kind, like the guys that took over Iran in the 70's, or who organized 9/11, for example. Not the made up boogeyman version that the Right seems convinced is ALL Muslims...), the 'Christian' warlords like Kony (remember him?), or pretty much ANY ultra-conservative member of an Abrahamic faith with a book or TV show. Compare the words of conservative rabbis, priests, pastors and imams about women to those of serial killers and rapists, and then try to sleep well again.

Now, I'm not saying that all conservative religious men are sociopaths, of course. I'm quite sure 'some are good people', if I may ape a well known quote by a...stable genius...who is absolutely NOT a sociopath or someone who bragged about committing sexual assault...*clears throat* Nor am I saying that religion causes men to legitimize or commit rape. Either claim would be ridiculous. Most of the men I know - the ones who would never dream of this sort of thing, much less commit the act - hold to one variety or another of the Abrahamic faiths, so of course, I know that the vast majority of religious men are perfectly good, decent people. I also am quite clear on the reality that many very bad men claim 'God told me to' as an excuse for their actions. However, I am also aware that when someone who has claimed piety gets caught in some horrible sex scandal, religious outlets are SILENT about it, at best, and actively work to keep it quiet, at worst. The silence of many of those good, decent religious men in the face of the absolute atrocities being committed, or excused, justified and/or covered up by prominent members of their faiths is disgusting and damning in and of itself, but it doesn't make the silent ones as bad as the monsters.

Correlation is not causation, I am well aware, but...I am ABSOLUTELY saying that there is a VERY troubling amount of overlap on this issue. Overlap that we absolutely HAVE to discuss, if anything is going to change.

He didn't say it. A female republican said it.

[Tami]

He didn't say it. A female republican said it.

Which actually makes it worse.

[worstblogever]

Three years ago on this date, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published a profile about Steve Lonegan, the former mayor of Bogota, New Jersey who twice lost in the GOP Primary while running to be the governor of the Garden State, and failed candidate for U.S. Senate in the 2013 special election to replace the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Lonegan gets offended by Spanish language advertising on billboards, and claimed he had handicap for running for office in New Jersey… he’s WHITE. He also touted himself as trustworthy on healthcare issues because he’s “callous and uncaring” and was opposed to the Affordable Care Act, saying, “I’d hate to see you get cancer, but that’s your problem, not mine.” He’s serious about his lack of concern for his fellow man… even going as far as to admit he wouldn’t request federal disaster aid for New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. Lonegan also referred to Social Security as “a Ponzi Scheme”, claimed Mitt Romney was right about his comments about the 47 percent, and claimed that his opponent, Corey Booker, who was serving as mayor of Newark at the time, had done a bad enough job as mayor that the Passaic River was overflowing from corpses from shootings in the city. This levelheaded individual has not run for office since, however, he still made some headlines as a leader of New Jersey Republicans’ attempt to boot Donald Trump and avoid giving the GOP nomination. Like all political battles Lonegan seems to fight these days, he lost. We have no further updates on him at this time.

On this date in both 2015, and 2016, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" featured a profiles of the former U.S. Senator from Illinois, Mark Kirk, who as a member of the House, voted for the Terry Schiavo Incapacitated Persons Bill, voted to fight in the “War on Christmas” by passing legislation to recognize the importance of Christianity, and voted against equal pay measures like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Kirk was widely criticized during his campaign for U.S. Senate, after being caught on more than one occasion exaggerating or misrepresenting his military service record to score more points with voters, including touting winning an award he never received, and that he was the only member of Congress to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom when he was never deployed outside the United States. After returning from a long recuperation for a stroke, Kirk’s number of gaffes has skyrocketed, including his calls for the migrant children fleeing gang violence in Central America being held in the United States to be forced to undergo criminal background checks, sending out fund-raising letters warning that he neededhelp because First Lady Michelle Obama could be running against him in 2016 (she didn’t), and participating in the sabotage of nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran as one of the "47 traitors". In March of 2015, Sen. Kirk was discussing Congressional Democrats’ unwillingness to vote for an anti-human trafficking bill because it had harsh anti-abortion language in it (women would be forced to provide the burden of proof that they were raped while victims of human trafficking to receive any aid towards the cost of an abortion), in quite a hyperbolic way, comparing it to some members of Congress being unwilling to abolish slavery in the 1850s. He also was asked about fellow Senator Lindsay Graham’s presidential run, and gave his thoughts about how Graham, a rare bachelor running for president, was “a bro with no ho”. Mark Kirk had several thoughts on the Iran Nuclear Treaty, including that President Obama wanted “to get nukes to Iran” (quite the opposite, actually), while invoking Godwin’s Law by comparing the president to Neville Chamberlain, and Iran to Hitler’s Germany and that the Obama administration paid a $400 million “ransom” to Iran (which was actually the U.S.giving Iran access to bank assets they had in U.S. banks in 1979 that had been frozen for decades, and were returned without interest, thanks to shrewd negotiating), and in his hysterics, Sen. Kirk called President Obama the “drug dealer in chief”. Kirk ended up losing his Senate seat, Rep. Tammy Duckworth, who he stupidly accused of “not standing up for our veterans” even though her voting record actually shows that she stands up for our veterans more than most in Congress, if not one of the best supporters of veterans in the House and that she herself is a veteran who if she doesn’t “stand” for veterans it’s because she literally because she lost two legs during her service in the Iraq War (the one Mark Kirk voted for as a member of the House) in a helicopter crash. So… yeah, he lost, and has already faded from relevance.

It was on this date in 2017 that we profiled Brian McDowell, a candidate for New Jersey State Assembly in 2016 who wanted to represent that state’s 1st District. His qualifications for office? He was a former contestant on Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice”. Less than a month after McDowell filed paperwork to run for office, video of him emerged shamelessly hitting on a woman, telling her, “Let me tell you right now. You should f*** me. It would really be good. Listen, you never know.” Republican Party officials in New Jersey were immediately looking to push back and get McDowell off the ballot before he embarrassed them any further (and this was without knowing that Donald Trump’s “Access Hollywood” tape would be dropping in a few months). McDowell wasn’t about to just surrender, but he never exactly gave an apology, instead making a statement that could best be classified as “making things worse”, saying, “There are human errors and even Jesus dropped the cross three times. I’m not running to be the pope. I’m running to make New Jersey more affordable.” Without any support from the New Jersey GOP, Brian McDowell finished third in the GOP Primary for the seat in the state assembly, getting only 1750 votes for 16% of the vote and returned to working in real estate with Island Realty Group. It doesn’t seem like he’ll be getting into politics anywhere soon, seeing he’ll always be immediately linked to the insane presidency of Donald Trump no matter what he does. As such, we'll set aside his profile to go ahead and take a look at a different kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 692-30, since this was established in July 2014.)

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

What boy hasn't done this? Did he...he SERIOUSLY asked that?!

I don't know a SINGLE man or boy who has done, or thought of doing this. I know more than one woman, however, who has had what Professor Ford had done to her - and worse - done to them.

I only know of two types of men, two VERY SPECIFIC TYPES of men who do this sort of thing or think it is at ALL acceptable: religious social conservatives and sociopaths.

Neither respects women as ACTUAL human beings.
Both types of men tend to view women as broodmares, slaves, sexual objects, or display pieces to be collected and owned. Or they are seen as villains, 'bitches', 'Jezebels', 'whores' to be defiled or destroyed.
Both types of men often see women as naturally subservient or otherwise less than men. Religious conservatives have their holy books backing up THEIR beliefs on the matter, and sociopaths just...don't care.
Both, clearly, are drawn to politics.
For proof, look at anything from the Quiverfull movement, Father-daughter 'purity balls', militant Islam (the actual, real kind, like the guys that took over Iran in the 70's, or who organized 9/11, for example. Not the made up boogeyman version that the Right seems convinced is ALL Muslims...), the 'Christian' warlords like Kony (remember him?), or pretty much ANY ultra-conservative member of an Abrahamic faith with a book or TV show. Compare the words of conservative rabbis, priests, pastors and imams about women to those of serial killers and rapists, and then try to sleep well again.

Now, I'm not saying that all conservative religious men are sociopaths, of course. I'm quite sure 'some are good people', if I may ape a well known quote by a...stable genius...who is absolutely NOT a sociopath or someone who bragged about committing sexual assault...*clears throat* Nor am I saying that religion causes men to legitimize or commit rape. Either claim would be ridiculous. Most of the men I know - the ones who would never dream of this sort of thing, much less commit the act - hold to one variety or another of the Abrahamic faiths, so of course, I know that the vast majority of religious men are perfectly good, decent people. I also am quite clear on the reality that many very bad men claim 'God told me to' as an excuse for their actions. However, I am also aware that when someone who has claimed piety gets caught in some horrible sex scandal, religious outlets are SILENT about it, at best, and actively work to keep it quiet, at worst. The silence of many of those good, decent religious men in the face of the absolute atrocities being committed, or excused, justified and/or covered up by prominent members of their faiths is disgusting and damning in and of itself, but it doesn't make the silent ones as bad as the monsters.

Correlation is not causation, I am well aware, but...I am ABSOLUTELY saying that there is a VERY troubling amount of overlap on this issue. Overlap that we absolutely HAVE to discuss, if anything is going to change.

I saw someone say this and it's worth pointing out. This isn't something like a drunk kid getting two handsy at a party or trying to sneak a kiss in and getting rebuffed. This is a person pinning someone down and trying to force an interaction with them while their friend watched (if this is true). It's a different level.

[worstblogever]

Leah Vukmir

Welcome to the 692nd original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’ll be profiling Leak Vukmir, who is challenging Sen. Tammy Baldwin for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin in 2018 (more on that race in a bit) who has served in the Wisconsin State Assembly since 2002, taking over for now Gov. Scott Walker’s seat in the Wisconsin House of Representatives when he ran in the special election for Milwaukee County Executive, and then using the momentum of the Tea Party Wave in 2010 to jump over to the Wisconsin State Senate. Over that time, Vukmir has also finagled her way onto the goddamn Board of Directors of ALEC itself, because why funnel money to legislators to push your garbage legislation around the country when you can just buy elections and put your own people in their place, right?

And you can see the mindset of a die-hard from ALEC in her voting record:

• February 29th, 2006: Leah Vukmir votes for SJR 53, an attempt to pass a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman.
• February 15th, 2007: Vukmir co-sponsors AJR 17, the first of many attempts by Wisconsin Republicans to suppress the vote in Wisconsin through stricter Voter ID laws.
• December 11th, 2007: Leah Vukmir votes against ASA 1, which would have provided access to emergency contraception to victims of rape and sexual assault.
• January 18th, 2008: Vukmir sponsors AB 710, an attempt at passing a ban on late-term abortions without exception (like say, if a mother’s life is at risk).
• January 23rd, 2008: Vukmir votes against AB 377, another attempt at passing legislation to provide access to emergency contraception to victims of rape and sexual assault.
• April 14th, 2009: Leah Vukmir co-sponsors SB 167, a bill aimed at reducing the legal age of those who can carry firearms to 10. If that doesn’t seem extreme, just wait, Vukmir isn’t done on the issue of the age of firearms owners.
• April 10th, 2010: Vukmir votes against Amndt 1, a measure create to expel her Republican colleague Jeffrey Wood, from the legislature, even after Wood’s FIVE arrests for DUI.
• January 27th, 2011: Leah Vukmir co-sponsors AB 7, to suppress the vote in Wisconsin with unnecessary, stricter Voter ID laws.
• February 21st, 2012: Vukmir votes for SB 386, to ban the practice of having voter registration booths at Wisconsin high schools.
• June 4th, 2013: Leah Vukmir sponsors SB 206, an anti-choice law requiring any woman seeking an abortion to first undergo a medically unnecessary ultrasound.
• May 22nd, 2015: Vukmir sponsors SB 179, an attempt at passing a ban on abortion at 20 weeks.
• November 7th, 2017: Vukmir votes for AB 455, a bill to allow children of any age to hunt with adult supervision. Yes, if some yahoo wants to give a pistol to a toddler on a deer hunt, that would be legal, and still a VERY insane and deliberate thing the NRA-funded Vukmir voted for.

Over the course of her very partisan career in the Wisconsin State Assembly, Vukmir has actually been booed by the collective gallery at times, most famously back in 2009 when she tried accusing two colleagues who were proponents of medical marijuana of “using dying cancer patients to further a secret agenda of legalization”. Which, frankly, deserves all the boos.

More recently, however, Vukmir’s name has come up during the investigation into corruption by Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans in the Wisconsin State Assembly because she has tried reframing the investigation of potential bribery as something in which she is the victim. That’s right, Vukmir has handled the investigation into her own potential corruption by demanding the investigators be jailed. Truly, a creature of the Trump era, isn’t she?

We’ll add that just this past Christmas, Vukmir posted an op-ed in the Wisconsin Capitol Times where she expressed her desire to win the non-existent “War on Christmas”, but also added that she “sincerely doubts those celebrating Hanukkah would take offense to being wished Merry Christmas.” in it, which is… kind of presumptuous to speak for a whole religious minority that you’re not a part of, y’know?

Well, this brings us to Leah Vukmir’s campaign to run for U.S. Senate this year, and boy howdy, has she been f***-bonkers koo-koo in campaign ads from the jump. She opened up by airing a heartwarming ad portraying herself as supporting families… haha, just kidding, her first ad was Vukmir sitting in a poorly lit room with a gun sitting on the table, talking directly to the viewer as if she might shoot them if they didn’t vote for her. Why it was on the table… who knows?

But okay, okay. Botching your first ad isn’t a sign you’re not ready for the big stage, she assuredly did better in take two, right? HA! No. Vukmir aired an ad where she portrayed herself on “Team America” (apologies to the film), and claimed that Sen. Tammy Baldwin was on “Team Terrorist”, showing an image of Baldwin superimposed to be standing next to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Seriously, that’s the sort of gutless campaign tactic you usually only see in movie parodies or on episodes of Family Guy.

We’re not going to comment on polling out of Wisconsin on this race, because we’re still kind of triggered by how Sen. Ron Johnson could defy polling that had Russ Feingold coasting to victory over him, and yet win without any kind of recount when he’s widely considered to be “America’s dumbest Senator”. When we hear “polls out of Wisconsin on the Senate race”, we can’t even listen anymore, because people like Scott Walker and Leah Vukmir have suppressed democracy in Wisconsin elections badly enough that the will of the people you hear in polls doesn’t seem to be accurately measured at the voting booth.

Anyway, we’re hoping that Sen. Baldwin does win a second term, because seeing a corporate bought-and-sold extremist like Vukmir in Washington would make us permanently lose all faith in Wisconsin.

[ed2962]

Which actually makes it worse.

Yeah and she added something like, "Even if this happened, there wasn't any intercourse so what's the big deal?"

[Iron Maiden]

Yeah and she added something like, "Even if this happened, there wasn't any intercourse so what's the big deal?"

that's just a short jump to saying because someone survived from a beating and didn't go to the hospital "what's the big deal"?

[Malvolio]

And, sooner or later, that'll include the one percenters after Trump's tariffs eat into their profit margins.

====================

Senators And Christine Blasey Ford Tentatively Agree On Thursday Hearing

Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser has been embroiled in an intense negotiation with the Senate Judiciary Committee over her testimony. Grab your popcorn, folks!

**********

I don't know about grabbing my popcorn. Hearing this particular testimony may make me lose my appetite.

[Mister Mets]

A lifelong friend of Ms. Ford who was identified as being at the party does not recall ever meeting Brett Kavanaugh.

As the Senate Judiciary Committee staff negotiates with attorneys for Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of a past sexual assault, over a potential hearing on Thursday, Republican staffers are working to interview those who may have information about the alleged incident.

CNN has learned that the committee has reached out to a longtime friend of Ford named Leland Ingham Keyser.
"I understand that you have been identified as an individual who was in attendance at a party that occurred circa 1982 described in a recent Washington Post article," a committee staffer wrote Keyser earlier this week.
On Saturday night, her lawyer, Howard Walsh, released a statement to CNN and the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"Simply put," Walsh said, "Ms. Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with, or without, Dr. Ford."
The lawyer acknowledged to CNN that Keyser is a lifelong friend of Ford's.
Ford's lawyer Debra Katz said in response to Keyser's attorney's statement that it makes sense that Keyser wouldn't remember, because Ford has said she did not share her allegations "publicly or with anyone for years."
"It's not surprising that Ms Keyser has no recollection of the evening as they did not discuss it," Katz said in a statement. "It's also unremarkable that Ms. Keyser does not remember attending a specific gathering 30 years ago at which nothing of consequence happened to her. Dr. Ford of course will never forget this gathering because of what happened to her there."
Keyser is the latest person alleged to be at the party to say she has no recollection of it.

Senator Mazie Horono of Hawaii suggests that she doesn't believe Brett Kavanaugh is entitled to a presumption of innocence because of his conservative voting record.

CNN’s Jake Tapper: “Doesn’t Kavanaugh have the same presumption of innocence as anyone else in America?”

Sen. Mazie Hirono: “I put his denial in the context of everything that I know about him in terms of how he approaches his cases”

She suggests several of her fellow Democrats on the Judiciary Committee agree with her.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Which actually makes it worse.

But predictable. Like I’ve said here many times before, Republicans put party before everything, and GOP women have zero trouble selling out their gender if it’ll help the party’s agenda.

[PaulBullion]

They got him:

TAIPEI/AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A Texan running a 3-D printed guns company who flew to Taiwan as police investigated an accusation he had sex with an underage girl was deported back to the United States on Saturday after his U.S. passport was annulled, a Taiwanese official said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-t...source=twitter

[Gray Lensman]

But predictable. Like I’ve said here many times before, Republicans put party before everything, and GOP women have zero trouble selling out their gender if it’ll help the party’s agenda.

It helps that they also believe such a thing could never happen to them personally. Although everyone else seems to get hurt by the mentality, so 'helps' may have been the wrong word....

[InformationGeek]

Steve King, never passing up an opportunity to be a jackass, weighs in on the Kavaungh accusations.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) on Saturday went after Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault accusation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, calling her story an attempt at “character assassination.”

The Republican lawmaker said Blasey’s allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers wasn’t credible because she couldn’t remember all the details 35 years later, the Des Moines Register reported.

“I’m thinking, is there any man in this room that wouldn’t be subjected to such an allegation? A false allegation?” King said at an Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition event on Saturday. “How can you disprove something like that? Which means, if that’s the new standard, no man will ever qualify for the Supreme Court again.”

...Stevie, what woman did you assault?

[BeastieRunner]

I've been in the middle of nowhere for the last 4 days with no cell or internet and came home today to my feed filled with a Fox News poll saying a record number of registered voters oppose Kavanaugh.

... am I in Bizzaro World now?