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

[numberthirty]

That only works when the legislature has some honest intentions. Which it doesn't in North Carolina.

Yep. That's one of the best reasons to separate powers.

[worstblogever]

On this date, in both 2014, as well as in 2015,"Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled former Minnesota Congresswoman and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann, who was one of CSGOPOTD’s top three craziest Republicans year in and out. She is a founder of the Tea Party Caucus, argues that the United States was founded as a Christian theocracy, and should return to such a status. Her husband is the proprietor of several psychiatric clinics which attempt gay conversion therapy (the “pray-the-gay away” kind). Of course, Marcus Bachmann has denied they promote such a thing, in spite of employees of his clinics having been filmed doing exactly such a thing on hidden camera before. Bachmann actually gave the Tea Party’s first rebuttal to a State of the Union speech in 2011, where she failed to even center her eyes on the camera, and not the teleprompter off to the side. A mere sampling of Bachmann’s most insane moments includes the time she expressed anger over Terry Schiavo’s breathing tube being removed, and that she was taken off life support, describing her vegetative state as “good health”, The time she claimed that she griped about the Pledge of Allegiance not being mandatory in school, but “you must learn that homosexuality is normal and you should try it.", the speeches where she claimed vaccines cause autism, or that “there isn’t one study that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas”. She actually tried linking flu outbreaks to Democratic presidents, claimed the Founding Fathers “worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States”, pitched Glenn Beck as an idea man to help solve the national debt, started telling Tea Party crowds that “having a revolution now and then is a good thing” and attributed an earthquake and a hurricane as proof that God was unhappy with America’s politicians for spending too much on too many things. She is, however, most famous for being the originator of one of the greatest political lies of the century so far, that the Affordable Care Act would create “death panels” where a judge decided objectively if someone was a medical lost cause or worth investing in (it is probably only second to lies from 2002 about Iraq having an active program to create weapons of mass destruction). Bachmann retired with a cloud of ethics violations surrounding her due to shady campaign financing and has been relegated to appearing more on the fringe of GOP politics these days behind the scenes.

On this date in 2016. “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Matthew Erickson, a failed candidate in the 2016 elections to be the U.S. House Representative for Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District who was the owner/founder of a "snow management service" (aka "guy who owns a snowblower and snow shovel"). He was perhaps a bit too creative and eccentric for most, what with being a shameless supporter of Donald Trump and all his policies with several bizarre quirks of his own. While Erickson's hero, Trump, tends to limit his social media self-appreciation to 140 characters or less on Twitter, Matthew Erickson, however, is not constrained by character limits. He often would write extensive posts on Facebook where he fantasized about himself as characters from Clint Eastwood movies, or share quaint memes where Donald Trump had his way with Heidi Cruz, or Marco Rubio was branded as a homosexual. You know, lighthearted fun stuff. There was also the time he decided to paraphrase the famous quote from Martin Niemoller about the Nazis' tactics... except in his new version, it seemed Erickson was comparing himself to the Nazis, and Democrats to Jews. Even Erickson's announcement that he was running for office seemed to indicate his only idea of leadership was to emulate people he looked up to. Erickson eventually did get on Twitter, where the public was surprised to see him flirting with underage girls who were "cute", and lament that they weren't old enough to vote for him. And as far as his policy positions? Erickson’s website covered them all in a mere 21 words. And a lot of them are borrowed from Donald Trump, at that. In the GOP Primary, Matthew Erickson finished fourth in a field of four candidates, getting 6.8% of the total vote. He has, for the moment, vanished from view.

[worstblogever]

Paul Nehlen

It was one year ago today that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Paul Nehlen, an executive at a water filtration company who got outraged that Paul Ryan supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership and decided to challenge the sitting Speaker of the House for his Congressional seat representing Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District in the 2016 elections. Yes, we’re talking about THAT Paul Ryan.

And from the start, it was pretty clear that Nehlen was not your typical candidate from the point where he released his first campaign ad, “Truth Resurrection” on Youtube, where he’s riding around on a motorcycle, showing off tattoos in a sleeveless T-shirt through rural Wisconsin. But in his second ad, he began exhibiting some of the xenophobia you’d expect from someone with flirtations to the Alt-Right, as he complained about “Mexican heroin” that Paul Ryan had failed to stop coming into the country during his time in Congress, illustrating this with the not-so-subtle visual of a storage bin with “DRUGS” spelled out on the side of it in Duct tape floating in a river. Now, you may be wondering why someone in Wisconsin is fretting about things coming across the U.S/Mexico border, since his state lies on the U.S./Canada border. Stay tuned, because this might be a sign he’s an Alt-Right racist. Like how he met up with a Breitbart editor, and went down to our Southern border to further demonize Mexicans. The next thing you know, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, and Sarah Palin were all coming running to try and make Paul Nehlen into the next Dave Brat, and unseat a member of the Republican leadership in Congress, or at least scare them into being extremists for life. The point where Nehlen really became interesting was on August 1st, 2016, where Donald Trump complimented him on Twitter, a shout-out that many interpreted as a shot directed at Paul Ryan for not doing enough to support the Trump campaign.

Later that same afternoon, Nehlen’s praise from Trump made even more sense, when in a radio interview, he talked about deporting all of the Muslims in the United States, during a rant against Paul Ryan for not backing Donald Trump enough in his feud with the Gold Star Parents in the Khan family, and adding that “Islam is the only religion that endorses lying.” Donald Trump’s mini-feud with Paul Ryan was settled by RNC insiders, and he came out to give a lukewarm endorsement of Paul Ryan in Green Bay. Nehlen tried entering the event as a spectator to personally stir up s***, but was turned away at the gate.

Paul Nehlen ended up still getting crushed by Paul Ryan, getting only 16% of the vote in spite of Donald Trump repeatedly complimenting his campaign on Twitter late in the campaign. He was actually scheduled as speaker at the Deplora-Ball on Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C., where he felt he was among his “brothers-in-arms” among all the White Nationalists an Mens’ Rights Activists present. Nehlen began to issues threats that he would attempt to unseat Paul Ryan again in 2018 as early as June of 2017, he wouldn’t get a chance at a rematch with Ryan, as he announced he was leaving Washington, D.C. after the current term of Congress.

Nehlen’s trending towards White Nationalism became more and more apparent since the 2016 election, as by December 2016 he was calling for the end of Birthright Citizenship, stating that he believes in the insane Pizzagate conspiracy theory in a Reddit AMA he hosted, and that he Re-tweeted and praised photos of tiki-torch wielding Neo-Nazis and Klansmen in Charlottesville, Virginia in August of 2017.

By December of 2017, Nehlen was appearing on the white nationalist podcast “Fash the Nation”, praising its hosts (who spend most of their time talking about creating a white ethnostate), and proudly telling the story of the time he told a Jewish magazine editor to “self-deport” and “eat a bullet.” After New Year’s, Nehlen was making no mistake about being scum, because he went on David Duke’s podcast. Yes, THAT David Duke.

By the end of January, Nehlen managed to get himself suspended from Twitter for spreading Neo-Nazi propaganda and posting a racist meme about Meghan Markle as the royal wedding approached. By February 2018, Nehlen started to lag in the polls, like you would expect would happen if you start going full Neo-Nazi on your campaign. But with zero self-awareness, Nehlen blamed his struggles on his campaign manager, pointing out that he was Jewish, saying “They are never to be trusted” and thus returning to that whole “Neo-Nazi” vibe.

Alas, Paul Nehlen lost the 2018 Primary to represent Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District to Bryan Steil, whose winning strategy was, “Don’t sound like an insane Neo-Nazi”. We truly hope Nehlen f***s off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

[Tami]

Meanwhile, a 20 year congressman was ousted by a black woman in Massachusetts

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/demo...ry?id=57586476



This is how you actually build.

It's one of those mixed feelings moments. Two good people in a race against each other. John Kerry said in his interview with Rachel Maddow that he supported both candidates. Still, Capuano conceded gracefully and Pressley will do very well in the House.

[InformationGeek]

And the second day has begun...

Feinstein is grilling Kavanaugh about his stand on guns, past rulings, the Heller case, and such. Seems to be dodging whether or not semi-automatics are in common use, saying that ownership and storage are the same thing as being used.

[InformationGeek]

Feinstein asks Kavanaugh to define "settle law" with Roe V. Wade. Basically, he says the court has reaffirmed it over and over again and there's a precedent to it. He basically says the law has spoken on it... but he refuses to really say whether he would go against past decisions.



Also, I like this amusing defense Hatch is throwing at Kavanaugh. He can't be all bad. His female colleagues liked him and are supporting him!

[SuperiorIronman]

So what happens when someones little girl has a kid they can't care for? You can't guarantee the now grandparents can take care of it. The Government wont do that with 500 children still missing. So whatever you gonna do? You can't guarantee the father and or his family will take care of it either. Spawn of rape? You're gonna do the same thing you've always done and go down to the abortion clinic and you're gonna make the whole thing disappear should you get the chance.

Tell me I'm wrong. Because I'm not, and the Religious right is full of shit.

Not everyone is a god-dammed christian in this country let alone catholic and this shit needs to stay out of politics because you all are fucking full of it. If God gives people a choice then let them make the fucking choice. Let people live their lives, you don't know what you're talking about and Republican religious nut-fucks keep spewing shit.

I promise this will go poorly for those who support this.

[Iron Maiden]

I think that the Religious Right has to realize that Roe v Wade has a lot of other issues tied to it. Recently Senator Tammy Duckworth brought up IVF fertility treatments...this could even be denied to couples. The anti - abortion crowd could start looking into that since some of the embryos are not used and their fate is still under debate. For example, one extreme is that the woman would have to be implanted with all of them or they would have to be given away for adoption.

Some conservatives have radical beliefs like life begins at fertilization and that birth control pills are a form of abortion. They want to limit or ban them.

[InformationGeek]

Dayum, Rubio must be feelin' hydrated today, because that's a big boast he's making.

Wow, this video. Alex JONES calls RUBIO a "frat boy" and touches Rubio on the shoulder. Rubio tells Jones not to touch him and that he won't be arrested because I'll "take care of you myself."

I'm no fan of Rubio, but I would be interested in seeing how this played out.

[Tami]

Transcript: Phone call between President Trump and journalist Bob Woodward

Bob Woodward, an associate editor at The Washington Post, sought an interview with President Trump as he was writing “Fear,” a book about Trump’s presidency. Trump called Woodward in early August, after the manuscript had been completed, to say he wanted to participate.

Over the course of 11-plus minutes, Trump repeatedly claimed his White House staff hadn’t informed him of Woodward’s interview request — despite also admitting Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had told him Woodward wanted to talk. He also started the phone call by saying Woodward had “always been fair” to him, but by the end he said the book would be “inaccurate.”

This is a transcript of that call, with key sections highlighted and annotated. To see an annotation, click on the yellow, highlighted text.

[InformationGeek]

Here's other small notes that came up throughout the hearing today...


Here's curious one...

FEINSTEIN: Can a sitting president be subpoenaed?

KAVANAUGH, DODGING: That's a hypothetical question.

FEINSTEIN: You can't tell me if you think the president is subject to the courts?

KAVANAUGH: No.

Snubbing that father of a shooting victim... it comes back!

@LindseyGrahamSC asks Judge Kavanaugh “what, if anything would you like to say” to Fred Guttenberg, “the father of a Parkland student who was killed.” TEN MINUTES LATER: Kavanugh quits yapping about his virtue. Not a word about Mr. Guttenberg, whom he snubbed yesterday.

And then there's this...

@SenatorLeahy says that there are “Committee Confidential” documents that will show that Kavanaugh received emails stolen from Leahy in 2002 regarding judicial nominees. That designation means Leahy cannot ask Kavanaugh abt them at this hearing. #KavanaughHearings

Also, Kavanaugh is currently dodging the question whether an underaged immigrant girl should be allowed to get an abortion if she follows all the rules of the state she enters, going around and around.

[MindofShadow]

She's Latino, Jewish, married to a US Attorney, and clerked for Kavanagh.

J.D. Vance immediately defended her.



Chris Hayes thinks the idea is ridiculous.



The twitter panic is a gift for conservatives trying to argue there are crazies on both sides.

There is too much real white supremacy in politics to make up bulslhit like this.

Claiming a white power symbol off of a screen shot is just loony toons

[Mister Mets]

I don' think the courts have any business doing that sort of thing. That seems purely a legislative matter.

This is messy, in that redistricting is legally and traditionally the responsibility of elected officials, but they have a clear conflict of interest in trying to protect incumbents as well as their own party.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Here's other small notes that came up throughout the hearing today...


Here's curious one...



Snubbing that father of a shooting victim... it comes back!




And then there's this...





Also, Kavanaugh is currently dodging the question whether an underaged immigrant girl should be allowed to get an abortion if she follows all the rules of the state she enters, going around and around.

From what I've heard and read, Kavanaugh is doing more dancing than Fred Astaire, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines put together. Talk about a farce!

[BeastieRunner]

Jerome Corsi, the progenitor of the birther conspiracy, has been subpoenaed by Team Mueller.