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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Also, a child was stillborn recently to a woman being detained.

But I'm sure the apologists will rush in to defend the Trump administration all over again.

Oh, by the way....

Trump Administration Refuses To Admit It Had No System To Reunite Separated Families

Why DOESN'T that surprise me?

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Michael Cohen Plans Withering Testimony: Trump A ‘Racist,’ ‘Conman,’ ‘Cheat’

“I have fixed things, but I am no longer your ‘fixer,’ Mr. Trump.” the president’s former attorney reportedly will tell lawmakers. Grab your popcorn, folks! This testimony figures to be plenty interesting.

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The 10 Most Jaw-Dropping Lines From Michael Cohen’s Leaked Testimony

Veterans who slurp Trump and sing his praises should take particular interest in this tidbit:

How Trump dodged service in Vietnam

“Mr. Trump claimed it was because of a bone spur, but when I asked for medical records, he gave me none and said there was no surgery. He told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters but rather offer simply the fact that he received a medical deferment.

He finished the conversation with the following comment. ‘You think I’m stupid, I wasn’t going to Vietnam.’”

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Former Bush Ethics Chief: Rep. Matt Gaetz ‘Should Be Arrested Tonight’ For Tampering

Richard Painter calls for the GOP lawmaker’s arrest, saying he was trying to intimidate lawyer Michael Cohen on the eve of his congressional testimony. I'm all for that, and then some!

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House Votes To Overturn Trump’s National Emergency At The Border

Republicans spent years screaming about executive overreach. Only 13 voted against Trump’s national emergency declaration. No surprise there. To Republicans, executive overreach only exists when a Democrat is in the Oval Office, otherwise, these hypocrites just look the other way.

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Maryland Lawmaker Apologizes For Calling Majority-Black County A ‘N****r District’

Del. Mary Ann Lisanti (D-Harford), who is white, reportedly said “everyone has used” the slur. Get rid of that bitch! End of story!

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Harry Accornero, a former member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives whose greatest passions were trying to pass laws to force schoolchildren to have to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance, and a strong conspiracy theory fetish. In the latter case, Accornero was working hard on trying to push the Birther conspiracy theory with Orly Taitz in New Hampshire, freaking out about Barack Obama being allowed on the 2012 ballot so badly that other legislators locked themselves in their offices rather than let him burst in to start screaming about it. He began campaigning for Congress to call a "commission of treason" against the president, which isn't a thing (he probably was thinking of drafting articles of impeachment), and was summarily booted from office. Since, Accornero has spent his time imagining other Obama conspiracy theories, including that he never went to college at Harvard because "no one remembers him there", which is amazing considering there are recorded speeches by him on campus, tons of photographic evidence, and people who actually do remember him.



In 2016, 2017, as well as in 2018, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published its profiles of Indiana State Senator Jim Tomes, who after being elected in 2010, did not face a primary opponent or a Democratic challenger in the general election for his first eight years in office. Jim Tomes started making more of a name for himself in 2016 by being the sponsor of Indiana's SB 35, one of those transphobic bathroom cop bills that the Republican Party is pushing to make sure that nobody relieves themselves in a bathroom outside of the gender they were born as. He even frames the need for his bill as being necessary with the gem of a quote that, "Shouldn’t we also ask about…what about the other sector of society of people that who have all through the decades women been using women’s restrooms and men been using men’s restrooms and kind of like that and kind of expect that level of privacy?" It should come as little surprise that he would do such a thing, though, considering he also co-sponsored and voted for Indiana's "religious freedom" law, SB 101, back in early 2015, that he voted against SB 220, which would classify assaults motivated by the victim's gender identity as a hate crime, and in 2014, he voted for an amendment to be added to the Indiana state constitution to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. If he were any more homophobic, he would have been caught digging up Liberace’s grave to put a stake through his heart. Perhaps the only thing Jim Tomes seems to enjoy more in his role as a legislator than legislating to restrict the rights of the LGBT community is to go out of his way to let gun owners have ridiculous amounts of leeway, including trying to legalize school teachers having guns in public school classrooms, as well as trying to legalize guns in the state capitol itself. Since Tomes is arming everyone and their uncle in Indiana, you might be worried that gun violence would end up out of control in Indiana. Well, don’t worry, Jim Tomes has a plan to make sure everyone is a fine, upstanding citizen... to force schoolchildren to have to recite the Lord's prayer at the start of their school day. Because as we all know, there's not any sort of constitutional precedent for a separation of church and state, or mandatory prayer in schools, right? I mean, unless you count Engel v. Vitale. Add in the fact that Jim Tomes has supported legislation to regulate abortion so stringently in Indiana that it would have effectively closed down every clinic in the state, and that he supports the perpetually failing conservative policy of drug testing welfare recipients (when laws of this type are always overturned as violations of the 4th Amendment, and they even fail to find enough drug use among the poor to justify having the testing in the first place), and you realize how much of an extremist he really is, in terms of his policy stance. In 2017, he submitted a bill that had it passed, would have tested the limits of the right to protest, since it was written that police would be allowed to disperse protests by “any means necessary”.

In 2018, Jim Tomes finally got a challenger for his seat in the form of Democrat Edie Hardcastle, who he still defeated with 64% of the vote. That, in spite of Tomes ditching out on the debate for his Indiana Senate seat because the newspaper that hosted it had run a few opinion editorials that he felt “weren’t nice” and “hurt his feelings”. Seriously. And now, this cowardly putz will coast around Hoosier state politics, doing more damage to society legislatively until 2022.

[Mister Mets]

I would figure you'd give the benefit of the doubt to any republican even if they are standing in front of a dead body with a smoking gun in their hands. Given the freedoms of brown people, those who need affordable healthcare, LGBT, mothers who seek abortion, children of parents seeking asylum, and more that he's already restricted I will not give him the benefit of the doubt when his party is still in power and STILL restricting the rights of more individuals.

Maybe if he'd posted it with context or something there could be an argument that he didn't agree with the words, but if he's voicing his 'disagreements' then why is he still restricting the rights of others?

I'm still a bit perplexed about how anyone reasonably knowledgeable about current events and history would conclude that the likely explanation of a member of Senate leadership quoting Mussolini on twitter is that they agree with him, rather than they're critical of a powerful, central government. A Republican quoting “We were the first to assert that the more complicated the forms assumed by civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become” would be supporting a the small-government argument.

I kinda get an activist being primed to think that way when they first hear someone say this, although it suggests something's wrong with the left in terms of their imagination and understanding if so many come to such an outrageous conclusion.

Incidentally, Cornyn has explicitly said that criticism of a central government was the point.

You nailed it, Bud. Since so-called Democratic Socialists have forgotten or never learned the lessons of history, and how their ideology is incompatible with freedom, I guess we have to remind or teach them. https://t.co/ftzal1DMED

Did I over estimate the intelligence of some in the twitter sphere? https://t.co/Cf8nUY3NUO

FYI. This is a quote from F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4...ussolini-tweet

[PwrdOn]

I'm still a bit perplexed about how anyone reasonably knowledgeable about current events and history would conclude that the likely explanation of a member of Senate leadership quoting Mussolini on twitter is that they agree with him, rather than they're critical of a powerful, central government. A Republican quoting “We were the first to assert that the more complicated the forms assumed by civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become” would be supporting a the small-government argument.

I kinda get an activist being primed to think that way when they first hear someone say this, although it suggests something's wrong with the left in terms of their imagination and understanding if so many come to such an outrageous conclusion.

Regardless of what Cornyn's intended message was, it's hard to really see him or anyone else in the Republican party as some kind of freedom-loving patriot when they just fall in line behind Trump unconditionally. Oh sure, in Trump's America people won't be able to control their own bodies, have their votes counted, or even show their faces in public without fear of deportation, but sure, the side trying to raise taxes on billionaires, they're the real monsters here.

[ed2962]

People have talked about lowering the voting age to 16 for a long time.

I don't know how popular the idea is, but I've run into it a number of times.

There's a semi-infamous B-movie from the late 60's where this happens. It started out as kinda of a political satire but went off the rails with kids putting LSD in the water and putting folks over 30 into concentration camps!

[ed2962]

There's going to be a mayoral run off in Chicago in a couple of months between Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle. No matter who wins, it'll be the first time a black woman has held the office

[Tendrin]

Regardless of what Cornyn's intended message was, it's hard to really see him or anyone else in the Republican party as some kind of freedom-loving patriot when they just fall in line behind Trump unconditionally. Oh sure, in Trump's America people won't be able to control their own bodies, have their votes counted, or even show their faces in public without fear of deportation, but sure, the side trying to raise taxes on billionaires, they're the real monsters here.

In other words, when you quote fascists while empowering a fascist, don't be surprised when people think you're approving.

[aja_christopher]

Republicans will back policies that they think will increase their chances of winning because they think when they win they'll make things better.

What some see as voter suppression often has some rationale in the instance.

So, in other words, you clearly see the Republican "rationale" behind denying "brown people" the right to vote -- you're not even denying it; in fact, you're claiming that it's "rational" behavior.

All you're doing is trying to "rationalize" the racist behavior of your party in claiming that it's "rational" to repeatedly attempt to suppress or deny the votes of American citizens based on their skin color.

You're openly making excuses for your party's racism -- claiming that they do things like stealing elections and profiling people of color it because it makes things "better".

On that basis alone it's easy to see why you're a Republican: apparently in your view, it's not "racist" to attack the rights of "brown people" -- it's just rational.

[ZombieHavoc]

No matter the outcome of the Cohen testimony and the proof he has already brought to the table of...questionable stuff, it would be way better for no one to try and impeach Trump. I have to assume that apart from the die hard cult base, any clearcut proof of criminal activity, especially while in office, would help to sway the reasonable people out there in 2020.

It seems way better in today's political climate to have the American people vote for someone else than to have a small group of people that are largely not trusted or approved of vote to impeach him.

America needs to be avble to prove in 2020 that we are not Trump. Also, even if it were not on some grand civil war scale, I am positive there are groups of people who would get really violent if he were impeached.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

No matter the outcome of the Cohen testimony and the proof he has already brought to the table of...questionable stuff, it would be way better for no one to try and impeach Trump. I have to assume that apart from the die hard cult base, any clearcut proof of criminal activity, especially while in office, would help to sway the reasonable people out there in 2020.

It seems way better in today's political climate to have the American people vote for someone else than to have a small group of people that are largely not trusted or approved of vote to impeach him.

America needs to be avble to prove in 2020 that we are not Trump. Also, even if it were not on some grand civil war scale, I am positive there are groups of people who would get really violent if he were impeached.

Impeachment would be a mistake at this point and Pence isn’t a win for Democrats.

[jetengine]

Pence is a bad move because he may actually be competent.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Anyone else looking forward to Cohen's testimony today? Should be interesting.

[Tendrin]

Impeachment would be a mistake at this point and Pence isn’t a win for Democrats.

Hard disagree. It's not about whether or not Pence is a 'win' for Democrats or not.

[Kusanagi]

I worried about Pence when Republicans controlled the House and Senate, without the House it really limits the damage he can do.

Now that doesn't mean I think Impeachment is the right political move (even if I think it's the moral move), it's just I don't hold Pence up as the reason not to do it.

[ZombieHavoc]

Hard disagree. It's not about whether or not Pence is a 'win' for Democrats or not.

I agree that it's not about Pence. But I'm not sure the viiolence that would follow impeachment from his supporters is worth it. The election is next year, and if the information that comes out of all this was damaging and severe enough to bring up impeachment seriously, it should be damaging and severe enough to hopefully point towards a better outcome next year.