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

[Tendrin]

I posted this when I saw it a while back when it was originally written. It's been making the rounds again.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...ushpmg00000067

I was filling out the work orders and emailing my supervisor to give him a heads-up on a possible call from a member of every cable tech’s favorite rage cult, when his wife knocked on my van window. She stepped back and called me “ma’am.” Which was nice. Her husband with the tucked-in polo shirt had asked my name and I told him Lauren. He heard Lawrence because it fit what he saw and asked if he could call me Larry. Guys like that use your name as a weapon. “Larry, explain to me why I had to sit around here from 1 to 3 waiting on you and you show up at 3:17. Does that seem like good customer service to you, Larry? And now you’re telling 7 to 10 days? Larry, I’m getting really tired of hearing this shit.” Guys like that, it was safer to just let them think I was a man.
She said she was sorry about him. I said, “It’s fine.” I said there really wasn’t anything I could do. She blinked back the flood of tears she’d been holding since God knows when. She said, “It’s just, when he has Fox, he has Obama to hate. If he doesn’t have that ...” She kept looking over her shoulder. She was terrified of him. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I just need him to have Fox.” I got out of my van.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Scott Walker has to say one last assholeish thing before he leaves office.

Walker is just another in a long line of Republican turds who rant and rave about demanding that government stay out of the lives of the people....EXCEPT when it comes to a woman’s right to choose. Then they can’t have government get involved enough. Hypocrites? You betcha!

[Tendrin]

OH WBE-Eeeee....

Though, I am figuring you're well aware of this fruitcake:

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brief...block-teachers

An Arizona state lawmaker recently introduced a bill that would bar teachers from introducing "controversial issues" or engaging in any “political, ideological or religious” advocacy in their classroom.
State Rep. Mark Finchem (R) introduced House Bill 2002 in the Arizona State Legislature earlier this month, according to The Arizona Daily Star. The newspaper notes that if the bill were to pass, teachers could potentially lose their jobs for engaging in political or ideological discussions with their students.

[Tendrin]

I like Jerry Brown a lot but he's already 80.

[PaulBullion]

I like Jerry Brown a lot but he's already 80.

I'd be fine with that as long as his Veep is someone like Kamala Harris, Tammy Duckworth, or Hillary Clinton.

[Tendrin]

I'd be fine with that as long as his Veep is someone like Kamala Harris, Tammy Duckworth, or Hillary Clinton.

I'm just not super comfortable with an eighty year old president.

[PaulBullion]

I'm just not super comfortable with an eighty year old president.

Konrad Adenauer was chancellor of Germany until he was 87, and that was before toothbrushes were invented.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Federal Employee Union Sues Government Over Shutdown, Alleging Wage Violations

The union said employees can’t be forced to work without pay. I have no idea if that lawsuit will go anywhere, but it figures to make for lively discussion in political circles and around water coolers.

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Trump Guilt Trips America In Self-Pitying ‘Happy New Year’ Video

“While I’m at the White House working, you’re out there partying tonight. But I don’t blame you,” the president tweeted. Oh, WAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Shut the fuck up, Donald! You have no one to blame for the shutdown but yourself! As for why he's whining like a five year old denied candy before dinner, see below....

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Trump To Skip Mar-a-Lago Party With Guests Who Paid $1,000 Each To See Him

Trump profits personally from memberships and tickets at the Palm Beach resort, despite his campaign promise to remove himself from his private business. Poor widdle Donnie couldn't do any grifting. Boo fucking hoo!

**********

Black Harassment Went Viral In 2018. Here’s What It’s Like To Be The Story’s Main Character.

In May, the arrests of Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson in a Philadelphia Starbucks may have marked 2018’s most highly publicized incident of black people being harassed in spaces where white people, for one reason or another, thought they didn’t belong.

Since then, a host of others have been engrained in our memory and history — many with clever descriptors: “BBQ Becky,” “Permit Patty,” “Golfcart Gail.” The cute names given them exemplify the very common black experience of documenting trauma through humor. But their acts — in these cases, eagerly calling the police on black people ― were not victimless. And despite the levity we use to classify and mock them, the encounters they spurred between black people and law enforcement were serious matters.

These stories can occur in such rapid succession that it becomes easy to forget those who are subjected to this kind of harassment. It also becomes easy to understate just how bizarre it can be for them to relive that trauma along with millions of other people analyzing it on the internet.

**********

George Conway Zings President Trump After New York Times Report

The husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway has a history of taking shots at the president. I'm sure this makes his wife, Sewer Rat Barbie a happy camper. Good!

[PaulBullion]

Happy new year!

Laura Ingraham's Radio Show Cancelled Due To Advertiser Boycott

[ed2962]

Happy new year!

Laura Ingraham's Radio Show Cancelled Due To Advertiser Boycott

At first I was going say something like I wonder if Sam Harris will rush to her defense. But then I thought, unlike Sargon of Arkard, Sam's fans don't overlap much with Fox New's, so he probably won't stick his neck out for her ( not that cancelling a Patreon account is sticking your neck out).

[Tami]

Germany's third gender law is celebrated as a revolution. But some say it's just the first step

Berlin (CNN)By the time Lynn D. turned 2, he had already undergone seven surgeries. His childhood memories -- in the German states of Bavaria and Hesse -- were shaped by monthly visits to the doctor, where he says up to 50 researchers would observe examinations of his naked body.

When he reached puberty, Lynn was given growth blockers and high doses of hormones; as a teenager, he started self-harming, developed post-traumatic stress disorder and became suicidal.

Lynn, 34 -- who has asked CNN to identify him by his preferred name -- was born with both male and female sex organs. His doctors and parents decided shortly after he was born that his sex would be female, so his penis and testicles were surgically removed. His ovaries were also removed.

Doctors had told Lynn's parents the surgeries were preventative, citing concerns that he could develop cancer, but Lynn says there was no medical reason for him to be operated on and that the surgeries were carried out with a "dubious motivation."

"The doctors advised my parents not to tell me about my sex and simply raise me as a girl," Lynn told CNN. "And of course, it didn't work -- because I'm not a girl."

Lynn is intersex, an umbrella term used to describe a variety of conditions in which a person is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not fit into binary definitions of female or male.

A change to the German constitution could be the first step toward that recognition.

On January 1, Germany will become the first country in the European Union to offer a "third gender" option on birth certificates.

Intersex people -- and parents of intersex babies -- will be able to register as "divers," or miscellaneous, on birth certificates, instead of having to choose between male or female.

[Tendrin]

OH WBE-Eeeee....

Though, I am figuring you're well aware of this fruitcake:

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brief...block-teachers

Just want to poiint out that this is even worse than it first appears:

“Among other things, the bill also would prevent teachers from placing blame on one racial group of students for the ‘suffering and inequities’ experienced by another group.”

[Tami]

Detained US citizen Paul Whelan was in Moscow for a wedding, his brother says

(CNN)A US citizen detained in Russia on accusations of spying is a retired Marine who was in Moscow for a wedding, and his detention has his family concerned about his welfare, his twin brother said Tuesday.

American Paul Whelan was arrested Friday in Moscow on suspicion of carrying out an act of espionage, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has said. His family rejects the accusation.

"Paul is a retired Marine and was visiting Moscow to attend a wedding ... We are deeply concerned for his safety and well-being. His innocence is undoubted and we trust that his rights will be respected," Whelan's brother, David Whelan, said in a statement released Tuesday to CNN.

[SquirrelMan]

The new year started with an act of terror in Germany:

Man intentionally drove into crowd, injuring 4

The 50-year-old driver of a silver Mercedes first attempted to hit a group of people in the western city of Bottrop shortly after midnight, but the pedestrians were able to jump out of the way, Muenster police said.

The man, who wasn't named, then drove into the center of Bottrop where he slammed into a crowd. Police said those hit by the car included Syrian and Afghan citizens, and some were seriously injured.

The driver then sped off toward the nearby city of Essen, where he tried and failed to hit people waiting at a bus stop before being arrested by police on suspicion of attempted homicide.

Authorities said the driver made anti-foreigner comments during his arrest.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Lori Klein, who served one term after sweeping into office as part of the Tea Party Wave, and quickly established herself to be one of the more racist and insane members of the Arizona state legislature. And THAT is saying something. Where to begin? Well, Klein introduced legislation that would deny giving birth certificates to children of immigrants born in the United States (which is obviously a gross unconstitutional violation of the 14th Amendment), doing so not just once, but twice. She also personally approached a crowd of people protesting Arizona's SB1070 and told them to "go back to Mexico", and when they pointed out they were of Mexican descent, but American citizens, she instead chose to call them "thugs" and demanded to know "who was paying them" to be there. She also read a racist letter on the floor of the Arizona State Senate, purportedly from a constituent who said they were a teacher, and that the "black and Hispanic children refuse to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance because America is stealing Mexican land, and they refuse to speak English because they want to be gang members." If you're not already mortified by Klein's rhetoric, there's also her defense of Herman Cain's sexual harassment allegations, where she said he never hit on her and she is "not an Augtried throwing a 2nd Amendment tantrum" when the governor's security detail stopped her trying to do so. She was outraged enough to do an interview with a reporter for some public sympathy afterwards, but that backfired when she pointed the gun directly at the reporter in the interview. A gun without a safety.

On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of former Maryland Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, a 7th Day Adventist who supported every anti-gay and pro-life piece of legislation he ever saw cross his path in the House. Bartlett started to make people think he’d gone senile toward the end of his career, like how in September 2012, Bartlett told a crowd that federal student loans were unconstitutional, and could lead down a slippery slope to the Holocaust, warned people to “not live in cities” in a documentary about a potential smallpox outbreak, and fought to have hearings held on the United States' readiness for an attack from an outside entity using an electromagnetic pulse (which is not a viable technology right now outside of any sci-fi movie). Bartlett was so convinced that this threat was imminent that since retiring from politics, he has moved himself and his wife into a cabin "off the grid" without telephone service in the middle of the mountains of West Virginia with his wife.

On this date in 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Charlie Janssen, a former Nebraska State Senator who made a run at the governor’s mansion in Lincoln back in 2014. Janssen was first elected to the Nebraska State Senate back in 2009, and his career has shown him with a tendency to vote against LGBT protections, and for things like 20 week abortion bans. After six years of establishing a bright red streak of conservative votes, Janssen felt he was ready to take a crack at becoming Governor. Like a lot of politicians during the 2014 mid-term elections, Janssen was looking to ride a surge in anti-immigrant paranoia into office. While most Republicans were content to ignorantly fear-monger about people bringing Ebola virus across the U.S./Mexico border (amazing because it was coming from Africa, like it always does)… Charlie Janssen decided to take a different tack in stirring up fears about immigrants. He once submitted a bill inspired by Arizona’s SB 1070 to try to let law enforcement racially profile people, and likes to talk at length about how he feels that immigrants are “a drain on public resources”. So, when Janssen began trying to exploit the rape and murder of a 93-year-old woman by a drunk 19-year old, which he blamed on our illegal immigration system. Most criticized Janssen for this, because illegal immigrants actually commit fewer crimes, especially violent crimes statistically far less than other citizens. Shortly after facing criticism for being such a xenophobic bigot, Janssen non-coincidentally dropped out of the governor’s race, saying that he “didn’t see a path to victory”. He’s still on the younger side at only 45 years old, so it bears watching if he makes a run at an officer higher than State Auditor, which he settled on (and barely won office for in 2014). It’s not uncommon for Nebraska State Auditors to try to make that jump, either. This guy is unlikely to stay quiet.


It was one year ago today that, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the day profiled Utah State Senator Todd Weiler, who first took office in 2012 when his predecessor, Dan Liljequist resigned his seat to try to unseat the methuselah who represents Utah in the U.S. Senate, Orrin Hatch.While Weiler got through his first years as a legislator without stirring up too much drama in Utah, it was in his second term that Weiler declared pornography a public health crisis and tried writing a bill that would let porn addicts sue internet pornography companies. Now, the obvious counter-argument to Weiler’s bill would be that it’s a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Well, he’d like to let all his critics know that online pornography actually violates HIS First Amendment rights, saying, “Someone may have the First Amendment right, according to the U.S. Supreme Court, to view pornography,” Weiler told Tony Perkins, host of “Washington Watch” radio show. “But what about my First Amendment right not to view it?” Of course, the “research” Weiler did on any of this was also not based in reality and as level-headed as Claude Frollo’s research into gypsies. And when you have to release a statement later to try to mitigate the damage where you compare porn to tobacco (Since it causes cancer, right?) and claim “I’m not trying to ban masturbation”, maybe you know you’ve taken your quest way too far. Guess what sorts of impropriety Todd Weiler doesn’t have a problem with? BIGAMY. Yeah, when Utah put a bill out to make bigamy a third degree felony in 2017, and he voted against it. Among the other things that Weiler doesn’t consider a public health crisis include bringing back public executions by firing squad, sex education being taught in public school.

Since we last checked in with Todd Weiler… he’s been accused of extortion by a wealthy GOP donor, who even provided audio of the suggestion to offer her $1 million to make a false accusation against him. We tend to believe accusers here at CSGOPOTD, but we’re just noting in this story that it seems Weiler has made an enemy of a top political donor in the state. More than one, in fact, because Weiler’s not even up for election for another year and change, but the Koch Brothers are also targeting him to be defeated in the GOP primary in 2020, sending out fliers deriding him well in advance.

We’ll have to see what happens to this schmuck as we get closer to 2020.