All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[numberthirty]

There were some legal decisions in the 90s to protect the autonomy of the elderly and put them in the least restrictive environment rather than nursing homes, although this may have failed to take into account increased life expectancies, which mean that people who can't take care of themselves are living longer at greater cost.

On that...

Out in actual reality, insurance companies have absolutely changed the marketplace for the folks who actually can swing buying a "Long-Term Care" policy. It's not like consumers are even in something like the same position they wee back in the nineties.

[PwrdOn]

No, Tribes should get their own, separate.

And I realize I'm in the minority in this viewpoint, even among other Tribes.

I would love to see a US Congress similar to New Zealand in terms of inclusion of indigenous US people.

If and when we do finally get that sweeping constitutional amendment that lays out firm rules for redistricting that stamps out gerrymandering for good, there should be some sort of provision that every state with an Indian reservation of appreciable size must set aside at least one seat for native representation. Since these are largely located in sparsely populated western states, the GOP should welcome this additional representation for flyover country as better serving the interests of the "real" America, though somehow I doubt that they will.

[Tami]

If and when we do finally get that sweeping constitutional amendment that lays out firm rules for redistricting that stamps out gerrymandering for good, there should be some sort of provision that every state with an Indian reservation of appreciable size must set aside at least one seat for native representation. Since these are largely located in sparsely populated western states, the GOP should welcome this additional representation for flyover country as better serving the interests of the "real" America, though somehow I doubt that they will.

One thing, if each of these requested representations, there might not be enough room in the House for all of them.

Federal and State Recognized Tribes

I'm not saying that they shouldn't, only that there are a lot of them on this list.

[Mister Mets]

One thing, if each of these requested representations, there might not be enough room in the House for all of them.

Federal and State Recognized Tribes

I'm not saying that they shouldn't, only that there are a lot of them on this list.

PWrdOn did clarify "tribes of appreciable size" which allows some limits, although it is still about one percent of the population.

They would currently trade the ability to vote for actual members of Congress, some of whom are native American like Tom Cole (R-OK) and Sharice Davids (D-KS) for non-voting delegates.

There may be some alternative plans to offer congressional representation, although we'd have to keep in mind that Native Americans are about one percent of the population. Still, that would be enough for about four members of the House and two Senators.

On that...

Out in actual reality, insurance companies have absolutely changed the marketplace for the folks who actually can swing buying a "Long-Term Care" policy. It's not like consumers are even in something like the same position they wee back in the nineties.

That's one potential solution. It still has some problems, since people now have more insurance to get (after standard health insurance, life insurance, auto insurance, home insurance, etc) and the total cost of insurance would need to exceed expenses in order to be financially feasible.

[Tendrin]

Not shocked or surprised. Maybe this will inspire someone like, say, Lindsay Graham to come to terms with his reality.

The folks who got shocked were the ones signed up for his 'therapy'.

[PwrdOn]

One thing, if each of these requested representations, there might not be enough room in the House for all of them.

Federal and State Recognized Tribes

I'm not saying that they shouldn't, only that there are a lot of them on this list.

Giving each tribe its own representative would be a bit excessive, all the ones that live in a single state would have to share one, unless the Indian population as a proportion of the state population warranted more, which I doubt is the case anywhere at the moment. The tribal land would simply be a separate congressional district that the state governments would have no power to alter, given the principle that tribal sovereignty should take precedence over that of the states. For the sake of consistency with the rest of the country though, the ability to vote for one of these seats would be based on whether you lived within the reservation, not whether you belonged to a tribe's rolls.

[numberthirty]

That's one potential solution. It still has some problems, since people now have more insurance to get (after standard health insurance, life insurance, auto insurance, home insurance, etc) and the total cost of insurance would need to exceed expenses in order to be financially feasible.

Seems like you might have assumed there was a "Zig" where there's actually been a "Zag".

Lots of insurance companies have phased out selling "Long-Term Care" policies. If anything, trying to cover that possibility has become less likely for the folks who can manage to afford trying to buy that sort of coverage.

Never mind that lots of folks are nowhere near being able to afford that coverage even if they can luck into a company that is still selling one.

[Tendrin]

In a true free market, the home care aides would get even less money, since there wouldn't be the current level of subsidies.

Thank you for conceding to my point.

[Iron Maiden]

Well, I guess we know why Trump will probably keep Mike Pence as his running mate. The VP is in Dublin, Ireland this week on an official visit to attend a series of meetings. One would think it would be logical for Pence to stay in Dublin for the week. But Trump "suggested" that he stay at his hotel in the Doonberg golf resort .....which is 181 miles away. The trip requires him to take a twice daily one hour drive and then take a plane 40 minute flight back and forth to Dublin. And the expense for all this travel and the hotel stay is paying paid by the taxpayers.

Not that this is the first time that Pence has helped his boss profit even more from his presidency. Pence's political team has spent nearly $250,000 at Trump properties This gets paid for by Pence's PAC called The Great America. And that's not all. Trump's brother freshman congressman Greg Pence has spent $45,000 at Trump properties.

But the GOP were sure on Jimmy Carter's case about that peanut farm!

Pence’s brother, freshman Rep. Greg Pence (R-IN), has also dropped considerable sums at the Trump hotel. In fact, Rep. Pence’s campaign amended a number of FEC filings this year after USA Today noted that the campaign appeared to be illegally paying for the congressman to live at the Trump hotel. The Pence campaign said those expenses were reported incorrectly, and amended FEC filings accordingly.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Walmart Says It Will Stop Selling Handgun Ammunition

The announcement follows a string of mass shootings in the last month, one of which occurred at a Walmart store. I'm sure the NRA won't like that. GOOD!

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Boris Johnson Suffers Major Defeat As Conservative MPs Stall No-Deal Brexit

Conservative members of Parliament on Tuesday risked their careers to form a “rebel alliance” and take the Brexit timetable out of the party leader’s hands. Boorish Boris was bushwhacked, including by some in his only party. And the Brexit mess just got messier.

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Trump Defends His Golf Habit In Angry Tweets At London Mayor

Mayor Sadiq Khan quipped that the U.S. president was “clearly busy dealing with a hurricane out on the golf course.” Remember when Trump said on the campaign trail that if elected president, he'd be too busy to play golf? Yep, a lie, perhaps his biggest. Why the media doesn't press him on that, I have no idea. Meanwhile....

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Trump’s Inaccurate Hurricane Dorian Comments Show His Obsession With Size

The president’s love of big crowd sizes, poll numbers and TV ratings extends to big storms, as well. I wonder if Dolt45 obsesses over size in the bedroom?

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Mitch McConnell Rails Against ‘Moscow Mitch’ Nickname: It’s ‘Over The Top’

The Senate majority leader voiced frustration over the moniker, given him for blocking two election security bills. My response? WOMP WOMP!

[worstblogever]

On this date, in both 2014, as well as in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Philip Hinkle, a former member of the Indiana state legislature who was caught trying to solicit gay sex from an 18 year old on Craigslist, and then after assaulting the young man after the tried to leave without consenting to sex, attempted to offer him bribes to cover up the fact that he was a legislator. The saga would mark the end of Hinkle’s career.

In both 2016, 2017, and 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiles of Darryl Glenn, the former U.S. Senate candidate from Colorado who was never even supposed to win the GOP Primary to advance, but the GOP’s favored son, Jon Keyser, got caught forging signatures to be on the ballot and got himself disqualified and charged with a crime. So it was that the rabid and radical Glenn was launched into the spotlight, where he embarrassed the GOP while facing off with Senator Bob Bennet. The GOP was going to make sure that Darryl Glenn had the best chance possible to knock off the incumbent, giving him a speech in prime time of the 2016 Republican National Convention (aka the Trumpster Fire Clusterf***ed Total S***Show). Glenn spoke for six minutes... which the major networks chose not to air. In fact, all of the cable news networks chose to skip it, as well, instead having pundits recap events from throughout the day (including Donald Trump appearing on FOX News for a live interview and upstage the other Republicans from Day One), and hype Melania Trump coming out later in the night (which was it's own disaster because of the plagiarism). But maybe the lack of media attention was for the best, considering the content of Glenn's uninspiring six minutes in the spotlight. In the little time he took, Glenn took time to lay blame for racial tension in the United States on President Obama, deliver his hackneyed one-liner about Hillary Clinton needing to trade in her pantsuits for a prison jumpsuit, and then take time to address the Black Lives Matter movement by saying, "Frankly somebody with a nice tan needs to say this, all lives matter. Blue lives matter, that’s right, ladies and gentlemen.” Anyhow… after Glenn’s speech, the fact-checkers moved in and pointed out that Glenn's remarks in it about neighborhoods being more crime ridden were patently false by any crime statistic available. And, the very next day, Senator Bennet wisely decided it was time to drop an ad-blitz on Glenn, before he could build any momentum... Bennet's ad featured the speech from Colorado's own GOP convention in April, where he talked openly about a wide variety of topics like accusing Planned Parenthood of “dismembering babies”, defunding sanctuary cities, and asserting that working across the aisle was something he’d outright refuse to do, saying he cuold not name any elected Democrats he could get along with, because he was “running against Democrats. I’m running against evil.” And then, things just got strange. About a week after Darryl Glenn's slot at the RNC, the Denver Post did a little digging into Glenn's background, and found out that he previously had been charged with assault against his father in 1983. Rather than own up to the fact that he had attacked his father, Darryl Glenn tried lying... badly. He claimed that the Darryl Glenn in the police report could have actually been another person with the same name as him, or perhaps his half-brother Cedric, who would be a convenient fall-guy to lay blame on, as he died in 1992 and his father wouldn't be setting the record straight, as he died in 2006. Eventually, Glenn was confronted with the truth and copped to it, saying that he had to maintain the lie or he would have been kicked out of the Air Force Academy because their honor code forbids them from accepting candidates with criminal pasts. But the gaffes still kept surfacing. An interview with a conservative radio station from back in June surfaced on August 10th, where Darryl Glenn claimed that prior to Omar Mateen killing fifty people at the Orlando Pulse Nightclub, President Obama specifically directed the FBI to stop investigating Mateen. It was a bald-faced lie, but precisely the sort of thing you'd expect from the GOP narrative that President Obama secretly is helping Islamic terrorists (even the ones that aren't actually Islamic terrorists and just bitter closeted homosexuals like Mateen). With the errors from Glenn piling up all within a three week span, national Republicans stopped aiding him financially, and left him for a lost cause. Now, don’t ask us how, but even though Darryl Glenn trailed Bob Bennet by double digits in the polls, on election day, he still managed to get 44% of the vote in spite of being an uncompromising, chronically lying twit who beat up his father. We thought we would be reporting on the last time you’ll ever hear about Daryll Glenn, but to our chagrin, he re-emerged to appear as a GOP Primary challenger for the U.S. House of Representatives for Colorado’s 5th District in 2018, trying to get to Congress by unseating multiple-time CSGOPOTD Doug Lamborn. In that Republican primary back in late June, Darryl Glenn lost, getting just 20% of the vote. The whole campaign may have just been an end-around for Glenn as a grifter, as it was discovered he used campaign funds to pay himself a salary as a campaign staffer to effectively get himself tens of thousands of dollars in additional revenue using an obscure campaign finance rule. In any event, we’ll retire his profile at this time and go ahead and take a look at a different kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 779-40, since this was established in July 2014.)


Joey Gibson
Welcome to the 779th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be discussing Joey Gibson, who was a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Washington in 2018, but you probably know him as the fascist group Patriot Prayer, that Gibson insists is just “alt-right” and not “white supremacist”, even though white supremacists like Idenity Evropa and the Proud Boys seem to be regular attendees of Patriot Prayer events, and his security is often provided by the 3% militia group. He has responded to complaints about white supremacists hanging out with him all the time by claiming IF such a person was in attendance that he "would say the same thing to them that I would say to any black nationalist or Mexican nationalists group, we have to drop the identity of politics and focus on what is on the inside."

Because there are so many Mexican and black nationalists around. And white nationalism is just “identity politics”.

Among Gibson’s pseudo-libertarian thoughts are the need to abolish the IRS, and to institute a national sales tax instead. He is more famous for being in the vicinity of riots breaking out in Portland, Oregon in 2018 and folks were wondering how long it would take before he might be charged with a crime for inciting them.

Gibson only got 2% of the vote in the primary for that U.S. Senate seat, and as of a few weeks ago, was charged with inciting a riot in Portland on May Day 2019 and arrested by authorities in Oregon. It’s more amazing that it took so long for this to happen.

Anyway, it seems unlikely that Joey Gibson could ever be elected to state-wide office, and it seems more likely that he’ll only be speaking before crowds in a federal prison before too long here.

Underline this as a prime example of our thesis about how "both parties are just as bad" is bulls***, please.

[Tami]

Catalog this under WT_?

US woman held in Philippines after airport staff find baby in her bag

(CNN)An American woman is in custody in the Philippines after she allegedly tried to fly out of the country with a baby in her hand luggage, local authorities said.

Philippines Immigration Bureau spokesman Melvin Mabulac said they received a report around 6.20 a.m. Wednesday that a 43-year-old woman had been caught with a child in her bag at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.

CNN Philippines said the baby was just six days old.

According to Mabulac, the woman appeared to be traveling alone and only presented her personal passport. But when staff inspected an oversized carry-on suitcase, they found the child inside.

"She did not have any travel documents for the infant," the spokesman said.

The woman had claimed to be the child's aunt, but had not provided any evidence that they were related, CNN Philippines reported.

The case has been handed over to the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation's Anti-Human Trafficking Division.

[Tami]

Meghan McCain, after saying there will be "violence" in America if the AR-15 is banned because it's "the most popular gun" in the country, then declares that she's "not living without guns."

[Tami]

Mississippi wedding venue cites 'Christian belief' in rejecting interracial couple, then apologizes

he woman at the venue in the video is not identified. During the under-30-second clip recorded Saturday, the woman tells Welch, “First of all, we don’t do gay weddings or mixed race."

Welch responds: "OK. So why not?"

"Because of our Christian race — I mean, our Christian belief,” the woman says.

"OK. We're Christians as well, so what in the Bible tells you that," Welch responds, before she is interrupted by the woman, who tells her, "Well, I don't want to argue my faith."

Welch then says, "That's fine" and the woman replies: "We just don't participate. We just choose not to."

Welch asks her: "So that's your Christian belief, right?" The woman responds, "Yes."

On Tuesday, Welch told NBC News that after leaving the venue, she was "a bit upset, as to be expected, but to be honest," knew deep down what the owner meant by her "beliefs."

[Tami]

San Francisco Board of Supervisors Declares NRA a Domestic Terrorist Organization, Urges Other Cities, States and the Federal Government to Do Same

San Francisco's legislative body has challenged other American cities and states to follow its lead and formally condemn the National Rifle Association (NRA).

The Californian city's board of supervisors passed a resolution on Tuesday officially labeling the gun rights' group a domestic terrorist organization.

District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani, whose district includes the Marina and Presidio, wrote the declaration stating that the NRA "spreads propaganda that misinforms and aims to deceive the public about the dangers of gun violence."

It said the NRA "musters its considerable wealth and organizational strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence."

"All countries have violent and hateful people, but only in America do we give them ready access to assault weapons and large-capacity magazines thanks, in large part, to the National Rifle Association's influence," the declaration read.