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

[Kal-El Summers]

He tried to do some damage control later on and said that he misspoke, too. It's always interesting when the soulless ghouls of the GOP let the masks slip for a second.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Even better, a GOP rep in the Missouri House began claiming that women totally know they're pregnant at 8 weeks, he knows from his time as a cop and seeing cases of "date rapes or consensual rapes".

A Democratic counterpart quickly went to the floor to point out WTF there's no such thing as "consensual rape".

The shadow of Todd Akin still looms over the loons in the anti-choice movement.

Yeah, women sure know how to shut that **** down. Yesiree, Bob!

[GindyPosts]

I'd say I'd be surprised about this comic from Gary Varvel supporting Alabama and its extremist abortion law:



But Varvel has always made comics where he's supported strong-arm anti-abortion laws and condemned anything that allowed a woman's right to choose be considered by depicting it as guilt tripping by depicting hundreds of dead babies (not gruesomely, but you get the picture). It's a good thing the Indianapolis Star got rid of him. Then the Indianapolis Business Journal hired him and I stopped having interest in reading that newspaper that kept tabs on the business end of central Indiana because when I want to read the IBJ, I don't want to read cartoons from the guy who helped convince Trump to call Pete Buttigieg "Alfred E. Newman".

[Tendrin]

T

I believe I just profiled him on May the 4th...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/201...-David-Eastman

This happens so often. You profile a dude and THEN they do something stupid or crazy and it winds up just missing this years update, like this abortion bill. Sheesh.

[SquirrelMan]

I’m saying it doesn’t matter to the people who believe it and you’re a fool if you think there is any viability in convincing them otherwise. You’re just spinning your wheels and wasting cycles on a fruitless task

Why do they believe life starts at conception in a woman's body, but not in a petridish though?

And please don't make assumptions over my foolishness. My foolishness if for myself to prove.

[SquirrelMan]

The birth land of Adolf Hitler is going through a major crisis, as one of Hitler's ideological heirs, leader of the extreme right party FPO and vice chancellor Strache, was caught on tape selling policy to Russian oligarchs.

Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/_FelixSimon_/sta...29214481006592

That's gotta be putin the chancellor in an awkward position.

The video shows Strache talking to the alleged niece of a Russian oligarch close to Putin. She indicates several times that she would invest several hundred million euros (in return for favours) to help Strache win, Russian money of unclear origin. The clou: she is a decoy.

In the secretly filmed video, Strache also speaks of his desire to re-design the Austrian media system in Hungarian fashion – which would mean the end of a free press and an independent public broadcaster.



According to the SZ, one can also hear how Strache describes how the Russian could illegally and clandestinely donate money to the FPÖ. He also claims that several Austrian billionaires have used this option in the past to donate to his party.

Over the course of the meeting, which lasted about seven hours, several potential cooperations were discussed. If they had been implemented, some of them would presumably have been illegal, says the SZ.

[SquirrelMan]

Just looked more into it, and apparently Stache in a high government position is a bit like replacing Mike Pence with Richard Spencer:

All you need to know about Heinz-Christian Strache - the Far Right Austrian Vice-Chancellor busted talking illegal access to government with a purported Russian multi-millionaire - you can find in this bizarre entrance to one of his rallies.

Had no idea Hitlerland had slipped back to the right so harshly.

[Tendrin]

"No collusion!"

[SquirrelMan]

"No collusion!"

In his defense, if she was just an undercover journalist or activist, he wasn't really colluding.

He just wanted to really, really badly.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: GOP Doesn’t Care About Brown, Black Or Poor Babies

“What angers me about the GOP’s attempts to turn the United States into a far-right Christian theocracy is how dishonest they are about it.” Not to mention how hypocritical as well.

**********

Trump’s New Immigration Plan Doesn’t Make Any Sense

If the White House believes migrants depress wages, why does it want to recruit them specifically for high-paying jobs? Anyone expecting sense to come out of this White House is flat out delusional.

**********

Trump Administration Is Transporting More Migrants From Border To Other U.S. Cities

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said he’d have to “talk to the president” about plans to send more immigrants to South Florida. Meanwhile....

Florida Mayor Suggests Putting Immigrants Up At Trump Hotels


**********

Brazil Subsidiary Hoovers Up $62 Million In Trump Trade War Aid Intended For Farmers

“Why is the USDA bailing out plants operated by the biggest meatpacker in the world?” asks an activist. Because they can? Nothing about this makes a lick of sense.

**********

Republican Senator Calls Equality Act For LGBTQ Rights ‘Counterproductive’

Sen. Mike Lee, who has been accused of discrimination, said we’re already “becoming more tolerant.” Coming from a dirtbag like Lee, I find that claim dubious at best.

[worstblogever]

He tried to do some damage control later on and said that he misspoke, too. It's always interesting when the soulless ghouls of the GOP let the masks slip for a second.

A lot of them seem to keep "misspeaking" about how rape works over the past seven years and so. And that's after Reince Priebus sent out e-mails to every Republican asking, "Ixnay on the Egitimatelay ApeRay."

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had a profile of [B]Randy Rives[B], a former candidate for the Texas House of Representatives who has gained infamy more as the board president of the Ector County School Board, doing his best to turn public school lessons into Fundamentalist indoctrination. Among his more heinous works in that role include making sex education abstinence-only, getting the school district sued for trying to make Bible study a part of the course curriculum, and throwing a tantrum because textbooks had recognized Christians’ role in committing some atrocities during the Crusades, but in his mind, giving Muslims a free pass for far greater ones. Being a Texas Republican, of course, means he’s also opposed to gay marriage and LGBT rights, as well as a big proponent of the death penalty. In any event, it seems like he’s never going to win any office higher than the school board (one would hope).



On this date in 2016, 2017, and 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented profiles of Arkansas State Senator Bart Hester, who represents District 1 in the state, was first elected in 2012 with a lot of help from funding from the Koch Brothers and their Americans for Prosperity SUPERPAC. But that, ironically, is not the alliance Hester maintains that draws our attention to him. You see, since he arrived on the political scene, Bart Hester has been a staunch ally of anti-LGBT groups in Arkansas, particularly the Duggar Family, and by extension, the Family Research Council. Back in November of 2014, the duo appeared together at an event in Little Rock scheduled to “protect same sex marriage” from those pesky gays, and protest a judge’s decision to overturn Arkansas’ same sex marriage ban. If you’re curious what Hester said, exactly, feel free to take a look at his rant against “homosexual marriage” on Youtube.


Now, here’s where things get a bit hypocritical for Bart Hester… his boy, Josh Duggar, was protesting same sex marriage while cheating on his wife, which he in no way finds problematic. And in fact, when news broke that Josh Duggar had been investigated by Arkansas police back in 2006 for molesting five girls, the majority of whom were his own sisters… Bart Hester had an interesting reaction… he called for the police chief of Rock Springs to be fired for releasing the report. Never mind that the chief and his staff were simply complying with freedom of information laws and no laws were broken, Hester still thought that records release was a greater crime than the actual child molestation by his homophobic brother in arms. Which is pretty disgusting, really.

But that’s not where Bart Hester’s revolting ideas end, by a long shot. In February of 2015, he sponsored a bill to try and prevent any individual municipality in Arkansas from passing civil rights protections unless the federal government already had them. While he named it the “Intrastate Commerce Improvement Act”, critics were quick to appropriately nicknamed it the “Right to Discriminate Bill”, and the big one that Bart Hester talked about, of course, was LGBT protections. As he put it, to have protections for sexual identity or sexual orientation would grant gays “special rights” that he doesn’t have, and he tried explaining that HE is the actual true victim of discrimination, claiming that HE is “singled out for being married to one woman”. It was only a few weeks later that Hester sponsored Arkansas’ “Religious Freedom Restoration Act”, which yes, was one of those “religious freedom” laws that Republicans were pushing for at the state level around the country so that they could discriminate against LGBT citizens, and claim that preventing them from doing so was infringing upon their “deeply held faith” (which some will recall was also the argument used by some Southerners to argue why they should be able to discriminate against African Americans, once upon a time).

Well, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson refused to sign the bill, afraid Arkansas would face similar repercussions like Indiana did after signing one into place, and Bart Hester was invited to go on CNN to be interviewed by Jake Tapper about it. During a four-minute interview, Hester did not seem smart enough to understand that his bill even allowed discrimination to take place, and Tapper didn’t let up on him… for four whole minutes of glorious journalism.

Regrettably, Hester’s fanaticism is not limited to one issue. He’s also dedicated to stripping women of their right to choose, because it is his personal belief that life begins at conception. This would mean he not only believes all abortion is murder, but so are the majority of forms of birth control. And it’s not just talk, either, as Hester has sponsored fetal heartbeat bills that would effectively ban all abortion at 6 weeks.

Now, surely, such a pious Christian man such as Bart Hester would apply his Christian values to aiding the poor, right? HA! Of course not. Since he’s taken office, he’s gone out of his way to sponsor or co-sponsor legislation to reduce unemployment benefits, pushed for the failed conservative policy of drug-testing welfare recipients not just once but twice, and even tried to raise taxes on food. Hester has argued against them having the private option for health insurance by claiming families of four make an average of $96,000 a year, live comfortably, and don’t need the help (which is amazing considering the actual number is $36,000. Hester was talking casually about being “in a game of chicken” in a funding shutdown in Arkansas that would leave funding for over 100,000 elderly citizens in nursing homes, over a thousand blind citizens, hundreds of thousands of underprivileged children, and tens of thousands of the disabled without financial support to just survive. I mean, the least egregious things we have to say about Bart Hester include his support of strict Voter ID registration to combat the statistically non-existent problem of in-person voter fraud.

Our update on Bart Hester includes his fetish for firearms got really out of control in the past few months. Without realizing it, Hester voted for HB 1429 along with a lot of Arkansas Republicans, which would allow the concealed carry of firearms at bars, schools, and public universities. At some point, Hester and his fellow conservatives forgot that their wording of the bill would make it legal for people to bring guns into University of Arkansas football games with around 70,000 people present for potential mass shootings. Which, y'know, is a big security risk, and ironic because the stadium won't let people bring in umbrellas or blankets. Gov. Asa Hutchison had to send them back to the drawing board to write a second bill to exempt the stadium, after the fact.

Bart Hester managed to embarrass himself with a post on Twitter that led to a former Miss America from Arkansas turning up in his feed to serve him his own ass. It all started in February of 2018, when Hester was driving around town, and saw a billboard advertising for for University of Arkansas at Little Rock that featured a dancer on it, and promoting the university’s school of dance, in particular. Hester was suddenly possessed with the fury of the preacher played by John Lithgow in Footloose, and enraged by dancing, he got on Twitter and wrote:

“Why higher ed does NOT need increase funding. They lease a sign to encourage computer science degrees or math teachers? No they push for dance majors. Lots of hardworking Arkansans subsidizing this! Not ok @UALR"

Former Miss America Savvy Shields came along to talk some sense, responding, “I disagree with this on so many levels. As an artist and a dancer, I have seen the arts influence, inspire, challenge, and transform society. Art education is crucial in the advancement of Arkansas.” Then the University of Arkansas Little Rock responded that this was an entire ad campaign, and various billboards were up with each one depicting a different major the school offers. And then Microsoft executives came along to point out that as much focus should be placed on the arts as math and science in education, and that they not only hold that opinion, but their chief competitor at Apple, Steve Jobs, used to say the same prior to his passing.

So… yeah, that backfired.

In the past year, Bart Hester has been one of several Arkansas Republicans to co-sponsor extremist anti-choice legislation, including A bill that is literally a conservative contingency plan, that pledges to “ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned”.

We're sad to report no one bothered to raise a challenge to Bart Hester in the 2016 elections, in the primary, or in the general election. He’ll be hanging around until at least 2020, trying to promote his twisted concept of “religious freedom” until somebody sends him packing, provided no one bothers with a recall election.

[SquirrelMan]

Seems to be a bad day for right wingers in both Austria and Australia:

After two decades, former prime minister Tony Abbott’s run as a politician appears to have been called to an end after independent Zali Steggall has clinched the seat of Warringah.

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop said climate change was a significant issue in Warringah.

"Tony Abbott is a climate change denier," she told the Nine Network.

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese described the results as a "slaughter".

"This is unprecedented for a sitting member who has been a minister and a prime minister.

"The absurdity of his campaign showing he was so out of touch ... like he was sabotaging his own campaign."

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/after-25...-zali-steggall

[shooshoomanjoe]

Oh, hey, Missouri's in the news. I wonder what we did this time.
Guess. Just @#$%ing guess.
That's right, we pulled an Alabama.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/u...rtion-law.html

Georgia, Alabama and now Missouri. WTF is going on?

[Ragged Maw]

Georgia, Alabama and now Missouri. WTF is going on?

Emboldened Southern-state government creeps think that now's the time to move in and "save women from themselves" or however they tell themselves.