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

[worstblogever]

In both 2015, as well as 2016, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Justin Harris, a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives who we covered not so much for his radically socially conservative record or that he was a theocrat who wanted Bible studies to be an actual elective course in Arkansas schools, but for the fact that he was involved in a scandal where he adopted two girls, then decided they were afflicted by demons, tried performing exorcisms on them, and then "rehomed" them with a former employee who he had fired who then started molesting the girls (all the while, collecting subsidies on his adopted children, who he no longer had in his home). Revoltingly, nobody registered on the ballot against Harris, and this story broke almost literally at the deadline to file for the 2014 elections... so he won another term in office unopposed. Because "rehoming" adopted children was legal at the time in Arkansas, he was not found to have committed a crime, but ignored calls to resign from office during the scandal. In fact, the self-righteous tool got on social media to quote scripture about being unfairly accused, and the Lord would "laugh at the wicked", showing us all that he felt HE was the real victim. Republicans and conservatives in Arkansas seem way too comfortable with his sordid history, as somehow, don't ask me how, he was given the “Power Of Courage” award by “The Family Council Action Committee” for how he “demonstrated courage by standing strong in faith when situations were tough at the State Capitol and they did so with grace" and was "consistently a model of Christian values in his home, community, and church.” Unless the FCAC was giving this award out ironically, I think they need their heads checked. Let's just be glad that Harris will no longer be a fixture in government, at least.

On this date in 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published its profile of Wendy Long, a two-time loser in attempts to be elected to the U.S. Senate in New York. In 2012, she allowed Sen. Kristen Gillibrand to win her Senate seat by the largest margin in New York history. In 2016… well, given how Sen. Chuck Schumer was one of the more popular senators in his home state, there weren’t a lot of GOP candidates looking to line up to take a crack at him… he was thought to be more formidable than even Gillibrand four years earlier. But, some New York pundits started trying to chip away at Schumer’s support with the Jewish community after the Obama administration and Democrats managed to approve a treaty to curb Iran’s nuclear program that they felt was too lenient. That opened the window that maybe someone could give Schumer a run or his money… and unfortunately for Republicans, the only candidate that came through that window was Wendy Long. After all, Wendy Long has been a friend to lunatic conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza for a quarter century now, going all the way back to when both were in college together and while working on the school newspaper “accidentally” published an excerpt from Hitler’s Mein Kampf about how “warding off the Jews was doing the Lord’s work”, on Yom Kippur of all days. D’Souza actually managed to try and act like he was the victim after the two were forced to apologize for the actions of an “unnamed staffer”. Anyhow, D’Souza was convicted of election fraud, believed to have been in his attempts to get his old pal Wendy elected by making illegal straw donations to her campaign. Well, Long was already established as wanting to govern as a Catholic, outlawing abortion, gay marriage, and wanting to even push back against birth control. She eventually couldn’t pretend to be sane any longer herself, and got on Twitter to post about how a neighborhood had become crime infested after a “mosque displaced a church”, earning her the criticism of her own party. She was only warming up. Wendy Long started speaking in front of the Oath Keepers, the infamous anti-government militia group that will support anyone who lets them still have easy access to guns, and not be treated like the paranoid domestic terrorists that they are. Again, Wendy was keeping some interesting company. Finally, she hyperbolically referred to Chuck Schumer as an “enemy of the Constitution”, at an event that declared him one of the Oath Keepers’ “dirty dozen Marxist traitors in America”. Wendy Long only got 27% of the vote against Schumer. Considering she had yet to pay off over a quarter of a million dollars in debt from her FIRST attempt to be elected to office, she probably should have probably sat out her second one or spent the money on a good therapist.

On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile about Gary Emineth, who was a 2018 candidate for U.S. Senate in North Dakota, and please do note the past tense we used in that introduction. Eminith is by no means a political outsider, though, having served several years as a member of the Republican National Committee and as the Chairman of the North Dakota GOP. He last ran for a seat in the North Dakota state legislature back in 1984, and 34 years later, he decided to take a crack at U.S. Senate. The main problem with Emineth’s candidacy was that he apparently forgot all the horrible things he had posted on Facebook over the past several years that were collected by CNN’s K-File, and got reminded of them, one after another, in a live interview back home. Perhaps the most inflammatory post was Emineth submitting a poll question to his followers as to whether or not there should be a government ban on mosques. (For those who paid attention in basic civics courses, such a ban would be a violation of the First Amendment on the grounds of violating someone’s freedom of religion.) Anyway, a stammering Emineth could only defend that by saying he “only retweeted it”. But that wasn’t the only thing that was found on his Facebook page. There was also a post where Eminith complained about “a bunch of Arabs” during a protest by Palestinians against Israelis (hint: not Arabs) and another where he referred to President Obama as a “POS”, and he gave several explanations for what the abbreviation was supposed to mean, before settling on it being a typo and he meant to type “POTUS”. There was then a third post that compared people on welfare to wild animals that shouldn’t be fed, which Emineth didn’t deny that meaning of, and that he actually was making a valid point. Needless to say, it wasn’t long thereafter that Emineth realized he wasn’t going to help his party win a seat in the Senate, and Emineth’s candidacy literally only lasted about a week and a half. Instead, Emineth submitted himself as a candidate for the North Dakota State Senate, choosing instead to challenge Democratic State Senator Erin Oban in District 35 of the State Senate, and still lost in that race by about 9% of the vote. We’re going to 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 764-40, since this was established in July 2014.)

[worstblogever]

Jazmina Saavedra

Welcome to the 764th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be discussing Jazmina Saavedra, who ran for Congress to try and be the U.S. House Representative for California’s 44th Congressional District. Saavedra, a dedicated Trump supporter who is already out of her gourd enough to be one of the few “Latinos for Trump” (she’s an immigrant from Nicaragua… and… apparently doesn’t seem to realize she’s not Trump’s kind of person…) and her top priority in Congress was to see to getting the border wall built. If there’s not already enough hypocrisy to make you sit down, Saavedra seemed to think embracing the very worst kinds of bigotry that Republicans can muster would be a great way to fundraise, and decided to stalk a transgender woman around town, then post a live video to Facebook where she did her best to gather a mob of customers from around a Denny’s restaurant when that woman used the restroom to storm in to harass her.

Saavedra “There is a man here claiming that he is a lady.”

Transgender woman: “You’re invading my privacy.”

Saavedra: “You’re invading my privacy because I’m a woman and I deserve to use the woman, the ladies’ room!”

Transgender woman: “How am I invading your privacy? I’m in the toilet!”

Saavedra: “So, that guy is violating my right to use the ladies’ room here, and he’s saying he’s a lady! Stupid guy.”

Transgender woman: “Excuse me, I was using the toilet. ... Why are you singling me out, lady? And I see you yesterday following me.”

Saavedra: “Next time use the men’s room! I was with my pepper spray ready and I called the manager so he helped me. How can I be with a man inside of the ladies’ room just because he thinks he’s a lady? This is unbelievable. Only in California this happens.”

Now, Denny’s has never had a reputation as a chain restaurant of having the best example of tolerance… but they were quick to apologize after the video dropped. Facebook did one better, and banned Saavedra from their platform for violation of terms. Suffice to say, this did not prove to be a winning strategy in a blue-leaning district in a year where Republicans got shellacked in California, and Saavedra was under criminal investigation for her actions.

Jazmina Saavedra somehow was still the top Republican candidate for this seat at the polls, finishing with a whopping 10% of the vote in the primary, and failing to qualify for the general election. She manages to get kicked out of bars and restaurants and play the victim, even in red states. We can only guess that if she continues her bathroom crusade it will eventually result in her getting jail time for harassment, or at the very least, someone throwing something out of a stall at her mid-use. We’d be fine with either result.

[Tami]

Seth Abramson had quite the thread on Twitter:



Abramson did omit that Epstein's plea deal to keep him out of jail was organized by Trump Labor Secretary Alexander Ocasta. Or the fact that A.G. Barr's father hired Epstein back in the 1970s.

But PIZZAGATE!

He left out Trump's bizarre relationship with his daughters, especially Ivanka.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

He left out Trump's bizarre relationship with his daughters, especially Ivanka.

I beg to differ. You don't hear much, if anything about Tiffany (not even from Trump) who, as far as I know, has stayed as far away from the family circus in Washington without leaving the country. Is she the black sheep of the brood, a la Billy Carter; does she not get along with Don Junior, Eric and Ivanka; or did she choose to avoid being around that despicable bunch to live her own life?

[PwrdOn]

I beg to differ. You don't hear much, if anything about Tiffany (not even from Trump) who, as far as I know, has stayed as far away from the family circus in Washington without leaving the country. Is she the black sheep of the brood, a la Billy Carter; does she not get along with Don Junior, Eric and Ivanka; or did she choose to avoid being around that despicable bunch to live her own life?

To hell with the whole lot of them, what have any of the Trump children ever actually accomplished in their lives and what qualifications do any of them have to justify the positions they've been given, even if they likely wield little actual power? I just take solace in the fact that they are probably too dumb not to be committing some kind of crime right now, and that with any luck there will be enough there to throw them in jail for a time at least.

[Gray Lensman]

I beg to differ. You don't hear much, if anything about Tiffany (not even from Trump) who, as far as I know, has stayed as far away from the family circus in Washington without leaving the country. Is she the black sheep of the brood, a la Billy Carter; does she not get along with Don Junior, Eric and Ivanka; or did she choose to avoid being around that despicable bunch to live her own life?

Considering what we have seem about the Trump family, wouldn't it be more appropriate to call her the white sheep of the family? Either that or just the smart one.

[Tami]

Considering what we have seem about the Trump family, wouldn't it be more appropriate to call her the white sheep of the family? Either that or just the smart one.

I think it was her mother that was smart enough to keep her away. If Tiffany really was smart, she'd stay as far away as possible.

[Gray Lensman]

I think it was her mother that was smart enough to keep her away. If Tiffany really was smart, she'd stay as far away as possible.

Marla probably wanted to keep her daughter away during the formative years. I remember reading that Donald sprung the pre-nup on her moments before she was due to walk down the aisle, which should have encouraged her to call the whole thing off, but at least she learned after the divorce.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Considering what we have seem about the Trump family, wouldn't it be more appropriate to call her the white sheep of the family? Either that or just the smart one.

Hmm! Quite right. Yeah, Tiffany is indeed the white sheep of that wretched family.

I think it was her mother that was smart enough to keep her away. If Tiffany really was smart, she'd stay as far away as possible.

No kidding. If Trump loses next year and goes on trial from the stuff in the Mueller Report, chances are he won't go alone. Don Junior, Eric and Ivanka are all up to their eyeballs in varying degrees of shady shit their father's in and could well do time right along with him.

[Mister Mets]

I’m not sure.

It doesn’t strike me as beyond possibility that some other Republican President might actually be more competent than the Donald.

As a matter of interest, if a sitting first term President isn’t indicted, and wants to stand for a second term, is it just about certain that he is allowed to stand again? Or it there a mechanism whereby Republicans (or Democrats) could say: “Sorry we are going to run another candidate”.?

The mechanism to prevent a sitting President from winning his party's nomination is the primary process.

Does anyone know how well Andrew Yang fairs against Trump percentage-wise? I can't seem to find anything.

I'd assume his name recognition is so low as to make any poll meaningless. Would enough voters know what distinguishes him from a generic Democrat?

The economy is teetering. If it collapses, Trump's approval rating collapses as well.

Top 10 Economic Predictions for the Next 10 Years

U.S. Economy Will Slow in 2019, May Enter Recession in 2020, Economists Forecast. Trump Administration Disagrees

Economy at ‘very real risk’ of falling into recession in late 2020, UCLA forecast says

Pessimists are predicting a global crash in 2020. You can see why

Why 2020 could be a dangerous year for the US economy

Obviously, if the economy tanks, it's bad for an already weak President.

But we don't yet know what'll happen.

"okay"

When an incumbent president is only tied with or trails ALL potential challengers polled, you call that "okay"?

What would you classify this poll?
https://www.langerresearch.com/wp-co...20Election.pdf

Given the way the electoral vote is allocated, according to the Washington Post/ ABC News poll, he can end up reelected in the matchups against Harris, Warren, Sanders or Buttigieg.

Registered Voters measures the people who can currently participate in elections. Anyone who got so pissed off at Trump they registered for the midterms (which generally went well for Democrats) is going to count as a registered voter.

Interesting enough, surveys of registered voters (as opposed to likely voters, which is a smaller selection) tend to overrepresent Democrats.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...ate-democrats/

[Iron Maiden]

Fox News was covering the USNWT's victory in the World Cup, which Trump had to be pissed about because Megan Rapinoe told him to pound sand on the team visiting the White House. Well, that and their live coverage went to a French pub where the LIVE broadcast sent across the French crowd chanting, "F*** TRUMP, F*** TRUMP, F*** TRUMP!"

LOL.

Just how many teams have turned down that White House visit? Maybe it would be easier to find out which ones actually went. I know Clemson went there because it was during the government shutdown and Trump ordered a lot of cheap fast food for the gathering.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Just how many teams have turned down that White House visit? Maybe it would be easier to find out which ones actually went. I know Clemson went there because it was during the government shutdown and Trump ordered a lot of cheap fast food for the gathering.

I do believe the 2018 South Carolina women's hoops champion went, ditto for the Washington Capitals, the 2018 NHL champs. Of course the New England Patriots went, given how chummy Bob Kraft is with Trump.

[Gray Lensman]

I do believe the 2018 South Carolina women's hoops champion went, ditto for the Washington Capitals, the 2018 NHL champs. Of course the New England Patriots went, given how chummy Bob Kraft is with Trump.

And even the ones that did go had a lot of no shows for the team. Only half of the invited players made it last time, and the most recent team hasn't even scheduled the visit yet, but at least 3 players have refused to go and have cited Trump as the reason why (both McCourtys and Duron Harmon - the 3rd safety from the 'big nickel' package).


And that really is only half the invited players - 68 were invited - the entire active roster, the practice squad, and many who ended the season on IR but were still under contract at the time of the game. 34 actually showed up.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

I do believe the 2018 South Carolina women's hoops champion went, ditto for the Washington Capitals, the 2018 NHL champs. Of course the New England Patriots went, given how chummy Bob Kraft is with Trump.

Actually...... the Patriots didn’t go this year yet and training camp is starting soon so it’s doubtful the trip happens. It’s just been very quiet on that front.

Not that it matters anymore. Brady hasn’t went since at least 2004. He skipped Obama in 2014, Trump in 2016, and likely won’t go this year.

[worstblogever]

I do believe the 2018 South Carolina women's hoops champion went, ditto for the Washington Capitals, the 2018 NHL champs. Of course the New England Patriots went, given how chummy Bob Kraft is with Trump.

Which reminds me, Bob Kraft's another Trump friend who got busted in a sex trafficking sting.