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

[worstblogever]

Jan Morgan

Welcome to the 694th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’ll be profiling Jan Morgan, a 2018 candidate for Governor of Arkansas who tried challenging Gov. Asa Hutchinson in the GOP Primary by running to his right primarily on the basis that she loves guns and hates Muslims more than he does. Really, that’s the long and the short of it. Morgan, an NRA activist now 54 years old, entered the race with the support of Donald Trump and based on her own viral fame in 2014 when she declared her own gun range to be a “Muslim free zone”, presumably because she felt she was getting too long in the tooth to continue her advertising for the range by running ads where she posed as its “gun babe”. After facing criticism for that incident, she claimed:

“Agents with the Counter-Terrorism unit of the FBI met with me last year to alert me that ISIS is in Arkansas… The agency feared I was going to be a target of opportunity, and I was directed to take EVERY SECURITY PRE-CAUTION necessary to protect my life and the lives of all people in my presence at all times.”

She also wrote on her own website in 2014 in a now deleted post:

“Why would I want to rent or sell a gun and hand ammunition to someone who aligns himself with a religion that commands him to kill me or other innocent people simply because we refuse to submit to Islamic authority.”

By January 2015, this revolutionary business practice of open bigotry expanded to skin color, when Morgan denied service to two men who were Hindu, who argue with her they “weren’t Muslim, just brown”.

She stated her belief that the 2nd Amendment should be unbridled, as well as her concerns that “Sharia Law” is taking over the United States (Hint: IT ISN’T), and tried gaining points politically against Asa Hutchinson for not signing a patently unconstitutional anti-Sharia Law that passed in the Arkansas state legislature. Mind you, she has also reflexively attacked Sen. Marco Rubio for defending the rights of Muslims to be at gun ranges by accusing him of “like a mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood front organization CAIR.” We’re going to point out that that’s not just hyperbolic, it’s conspiracy-theory insane, because there is no link between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council for American-Islamic Relations. CAIR, however, is often the target of anti-Islamic hatemongers for trying to improve relations between the United States and Muslims around the globe… so yeah, seems to make sense that Jan Morgan would weigh in that way.

It's not just the bigotry, it’s the level of “gun crazy” that is intertwined with it with Morgan, though, as she not only believes there should be no limits to the 2nd Amendment, but she actually had the backwards-ass idea that the solution to an increase in school shootings was to declare laws that school zones are “gun-free zones” to be unconstitutional.

She was also proud enough to meet Trump Administration advisor and European Neo-Nazi member Sebastian Gorka that she took a photograph of the two of them together to post to her Twitter profile in September of 2018.

Anyway, in the end, Jan Morgan still got a surprisingly good 30% of the vote in the GOP Primary against Asa Hutchinson, which makes us honestly wonder if this isn’t the last time we’ll see her run for office. We can only hope so.

[numberthirty]

No, I wasn't making a case about that. I was pointing out that we have a guy running who pretty much has screwed up our state for four years worse than Blago did, and probably is allowing us to be poisoned with his company, is complaining about a guy that didn't pay property taxes with toilets that he pulled out. Rauner is hitting on the toilet thing, and...So now what? He's paid it back, he'd be living in the Gov. Mansion in Springfield. Is Rauner suddenly scared that JB will yank out all the toilets there? I mean, really. This is the lowest thing in the world right now, compared to other more important situations, everything from the gang violence in Chicago (And let's be honest here, most of that is Gangs in power struggles, not some random shootings) to Teacher's pensions and Rauner in the past year holding up state funding causing issues for our schools and education because he's pissed at various Democrats. To the massive amount of other issues that are plaguing us right now, among them our lake that we should be taking care of.

Instead we're squabbling over property tax over toilets. Yes, I get that he should pay for such things. But I mean, come on man. Can we actually discuss issues and not about this. This is more a distraction right now. He paid, it's done, let's move on. Honestly I would have preferred Kennedy or Bliss over him, but Bliss had issues that Rauner would have preyed on with the Kochs, so we have who we have...and that's that. I'll take JB over Rauner any day of the week.

Look, Rauner is useless. That's not even something that anyone is going to seriously try to argue at this point.

That said, there is always more than enough "Are You Kidding Me?" to go around. The guy who is talking about how the tax system is favoring the wealthy shouldn't be paying the money back after it is about to bite him on the butt. He should have done it months ago. That's money that could be going towards funding pensions that are underfunded.

Also, "I'll take him over Rauner..." It's getting to where you might as well be saying "I'll take him over pneumonia." It's a hurdle that most folks grandmother could make it over.

[JackDaw]

‘Women For Trump’ Cheer As President Mocks Christine Blasey Ford

The president ridicules his Supreme Court nominee’s accuser at a Mississippi rally while women laugh and applaud. I like to think those women were paid shills for Trump. If not, then the fairer sex are just as stupid as us males (excluding Tami and Iron Maiden). Reminds me of this:

I just read about this a few minutes ago on BBC website, and my first reaction was to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

But given the "eccentricity" of the Donald's behaviour even I begin to see why it's massively important to get somebody on Supreme Court who believes a sitting President cannot be impeached.

What is Kavenaugh's view on simply making the Presidency a job for life?

[Mister Mets]

Dude.
He laughed... laughed AT you ... because you never, ever brought up how terrible it is to hold people accountable for what they did as teens when it was about, say, black men being locked up for life under "three strikes" while white frat boys go free after raping unconscious girls behind dumpsters. Your white privileged brain didn't even go there until it was a white, privileged guy being held accountable (possibly) for being a serial sexual assaulter in his youth and lying about it as an adult. NOW you're clutching your pearls, and that opens you to ridicule.

Sorry if this post sounds cruel, but if you'd gotten the other posts, you wouldn't need this tough love explanation.

I was responding to the logic of an argument, which was not explicitly stated the way you did. It's got nothing to do with pearl clutching.

That's a double edged sword though. Because most people on our side get outraged when a black youth has dirt dug up on his past to justify something bad happening to him. So it just creates a circular argument of double hypocrisy when you hold a conservative to it. And vice versa when a conservative holds a black youth to their past and not a Brett Kavanaugh or some white prep student it shows their hypocrisy. But at that point it comes down to "I get mad when the people I'm most sympathetic to are held to their past mideeds but not when it's people I disagree with". And nobody is going to win that argument once somebody make it.

These are also different arguments, since the allegations about Kavanaugh are about things that occurred a long time ago, and were not adjudicated by authorities.

There also some unstated assumptions about how someone who had been caught doing what Kavanaugh was accused of should have been treated at the time, either legally or by someone acting in self-defense/ defense of a third person.

Another needless Kavanaugh evasion: Brett is Bart

Someone gave the NYT a copy of a letter Brett Kavanaugh wrote to one of his friends that details their Beach Week party plans. And he signs the letter "Bart" . Kavanaugh got the nickname because one of his professors at prep school mispronounced his name as "Bart". During questioning by Senator Leahy, he was asked directly if the character of "Bart" mentioned in Mark Judge's memoir is Kavanaugh. It just mentions the character Bart O'Kavanugh getting drunk and throwing up and passing out after a party. Judge writes in the book how he would black out during one of their binges while at school


If the FBI is about to wrap this up, it means that they will not talk to Mark Judge's gf from college, Elizabeth Rasor. Since she has heard nothing from the FBI, she had a sworn affidavit drawn up:

Rasnor's affidavit doesn't match Ford's testimony.

It could match Swetnick's allegations, but those seem to have fallen apart, since she has changed her initial claims, and no longer accuses Kavanaugh of being one of the men who abused her.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I just read about this a few minutes ago on BBC website, and my first reaction was to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

But given the "eccentricity" of the Donald's behaviour even I begin to see why it's massively important to get somebody on Supreme Court who believes a sitting President cannot be impeached.

What is Kavenaugh's view on simply making the Presidency a job for life?

I don't think Bob 'n' Weave Brett has ever expressed such an opinion which is against our constitutional mandate that a president can only serve two consecutive terms. He probably knows better than to expose such a belief, even if it would make him more chummy with Trump.

[ed2962]

And when some cop kills you in your own home you can be damn sure they'll find that mistake you made as a youth to justify it.

All they need to say is, "I thought he had a gun" or "I felt threatened." And afterwards the public will say, "It's a shame but he should had done what the cops told him." They bring up your past record if there's any protests after it makes the news.

[PaulBullion]

I was responding to the logic of an argument, which was not explicitly stated the way you did. It's got nothing to do with pearl clutching.

What part of "laughs in African American" looked like an argument to you?

[worstblogever]

Michael Avenatti has proven, yet again, that he isn't bluffing. After coming forward with the supposed "outlandish claims" (as Republican Senators and our one confirmed CBR party member view them) from Swetnick...

There's now a sworn affidavit from a second woman that confirms she attended 20 house parties where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present, and they were spiking drinks to get women too inebriated to consent to sexual encounters. This witness not only places Kavanaugh & Judge as there... she knows both Swetnick AND Christine Blasey Ford. If that's not enough... the affidavit also indicates she will not be the only witness coming forward to say that Brett & his pals were drugging and raping women. More to come, but this looks to bolster both Ford AND Swetnick's stories.

[Tendrin]

Michael Avenatti has proven, yet again, that he isn't bluffing. After coming forward with the supposed "outlandish claims" (as Republican Senators and our one confirmed CBR party member view them) from Swetnick...

There's now a sworn affidavit from a second woman that confirms she attended 20 house parties where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present, and they were spiking drinks to get women too inebriated to consent to sexual encounters. This witness not only places Kavanaugh & Judge as there... she knows both Swetnick AND Christine Blasey Ford. If that's not enough... the affidavit also indicates she will not be the only witness coming forward to say that Brett & his pals were drugging and raping women. More to come, but this looks to bolster both Ford AND Swetnick's stories.

But he's being punished by not getting a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court for viewing women as less than fully human.

This is the /real/ concern we should all share, evidently.

*eyeroll*

[worstblogever]

But he's being punished by not getting a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court for viewing women as less than fully human. This is the /real/ concern we should all share, evidently.

*eyeroll*

A letter from 1983 has also been found where Kavanaugh, who doesn't want to say he has/had a drinking problem refers to himself and his friends as "loud, obnoxious drunks".

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Michael Avenatti has proven, yet again, that he isn't bluffing. After coming forward with the supposed "outlandish claims" (as Republican Senators and our one confirmed CBR party member view them) from Swetnick...

There's now a sworn affidavit from a second woman that confirms she attended 20 house parties where Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present, and they were spiking drinks to get women too inebriated to consent to sexual encounters. This witness not only places Kavanaugh & Judge as there... she knows both Swetnick AND Christine Blasey Ford. If that's not enough... the affidavit also indicates she will not be the only witness coming forward to say that Brett & his pals were drugging and raping women. More to come, but this looks to bolster both Ford AND Swetnick's stories.

Not just a smoking gun, but a smoking HOWITZER. Unfortunately, I worry that it won't be nearly enough, that it won't stop Republicans hellbent on confirming Kavanaugh, their rationale being: Better to sacrifice the 2018 midterms and risk some short term anger from voters for the far greater reward of giving SCOTUS a conservative edge for the next several decades, not to mention keeping Trump safe from impeachment proceedings.

[Kirby101]

Not just a smoking gun, but a smoking HOWITZER. Unfortunately, I worry that it won't be nearly enough, that it won't stop Republicans hellbent on confirming Kavanaugh, their rationale being: Better to sacrifice the 2018 midterms and risk some short term anger from voters for the far greater reward of giving SCOTUS a conservative edge for the next several decades, not to mention keeping Trump safe from impeachment proceedings.

Remember, with Kavanaugh on the Court, they can keep stealing elections like they did in 2000. And it was the Roberts Voting Rights Act decision that lead to new voter suppression laws, that lead to Trump. Kavanaugh completes the coup.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Remember, with Kavanaugh on the Court, they can keep stealing elections like they did in 2000. And it was the Roberts Voting Rights Act decision that lead to new voter suppression laws, that lead to Trump. Kavanaugh completes the coup.

Should that happen, you can bet the mortgage, your 401k and the kid's college fund that the next step will be to find a way to sidestep or possibly eliminate that pesky constitutional mandate that says a president can only serve two terms. Hell, chances are Trump already has legal experts working on that problem at this very moment. Bottom line: Trump will NEVER be more powerful than he is right now, anyone who thinks he'll simply give it all that up and walk away should he lose next year are kidding themselves. I have ZERO doubt Trump wants to be president for life like his BFF Bad Vlad and will do anything to achieve that goal. What's even more worrisome is that Republicans would be more than willing to let Trump set fire to the Constitution rather than risk losing the Oval Office to a Democrat.

[ed2962]

To the surprise of no one Candace Owen is now going around telling people that Kwanye West is one of the bravest people she's ever met. Oh, and because Chris Ewans had the nerve to criticize Ye, she wants to debate Chris ( knowing full well he's not going to PolitiCon just to talk to her of all people). What happened to Candace who used to do tirades on, "Hey celebreties, no one cares what you think?"

[Iron Maiden]

Rasnor's affidavit doesn't match Ford's testimony.

It could match Swetnick's allegations, but those seem to have fallen apart, since she has changed her initial claims, and no longer accuses Kavanaugh of being one of the men who abused her.

Swetnick can't say for certain who abused her because IIRC she says she had her drink spiked.

Rasnor's isn't supposed to match Ford's statements specifically. She is talking about a confession Mark Judge made at the time they were seeing each other. The quote is there in my post. He doesn't specify incidents....he said this is modus operandi (my words) that his buddies did. But they essentially are the same. More than one guy trying to take advantage of a girl.