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

[worstblogever]

Truly sad about the collapse of the Notre Dame Cathedral, but remember, it's just a building. they can always build a new cathedral. As a few have said, and the Pope probably will, as well, thank God there was no loss of life.

Is there any better topic to be covered in an Easter mass sermon about a God with a resurrection story than to talk about a church rising again?

Also the God who was resurrected is a carpenter, no less.

[Tendrin]

Notre Dame is badly damaged but the interior seems to have survived quite well, so reports of its complete collapse are premature.

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...gx4-story.html

Here's a good thread on some other things relating to Notre Dame:

https://twitter.com/maggiekb1/status...74743711948800

Also, the Al-Aqsa Mosque /also/ caught on fire today. I'm an Atheist but were I a believed, I'd think the simultaneous burning of two out of three of the Abrahamic faiths having a venerable site burning on the same day is a message that somebody is unhappy :P

[Darkspellmaster]

Some other good news about the Notre Dame situation, they do have blueprints from back when they did an earlier restoration so on the plus side they have the means to fix things. Also the Rosetta stain glass windows were replaced in the 19 century so, while they are gone they are not as old as some of the other aspects of the church. On top of that the marble alter and other peices were un touched.

Al-Aqsa Mosque burned too? Damn how bad was the damage there?

Edit: Just read no interior damage to the Mosque, and may have been an accident set by kids playing there.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump On Notre Dame Fire: ‘Perhaps Flying Water Tankers Could Be Used To Put It Out’

By they way, it should be noted that Trump hadn't said so much as one goddamn word about THREE black churches in Louisiana that had been torched by a WHITE scumbag supremacist. Meanwhile....

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Within Minutes Of Notre Dame Cathedral Fire, Conspiracies Reigned

Fox News, Infowars and other outlets amplified conspiratorial theories about the blaze’s cause, which has yet to be determined. Talk about pathetic!

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GOP Tax Day Tweet About Benefits For ‘Hardworking Americans’ Doesn’t Go Well

“Billionaires aren’t that hardworking,” one critic argued on Twitter. Clearly Republicans either didn't get it, or didn't give a damn. My money's on the latter.

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House Committees Subpoena Deutsche Bank Records On Trump Loans

The demand is part of an “authorized investigation into allegations of potential foreign influence on the U.S. political process,” said Rep. Adam Schiff. When all else fails....follow the money!

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Hey, Democrats: Stop Being Polite

Freshmen Democrats want the party to exercise power. House leadership is still focused on good manners. To that, I say----**** manners! Republicans are gutting this country like the fire that gutted the Notre Dame cathedral yesterday. It's well past time for Dems to take off the kid gloves, get down in the mudpit and kick the bejesus out of the GOP.

[Tendrin]

Some other good news about the Notre Dame situation, they do have blueprints from back when they did an earlier restoration so on the plus side they have the means to fix things. Also the Rosetta stain glass windows were replaced in the 19 century so, while they are gone they are not as old as some of the other aspects of the church. On top of that the marble alter and other peices were un touched.

Al-Aqsa Mosque burned too? Damn how bad was the damage there?

Edit: Just read no interior damage to the Mosque, and may have been an accident set by kids playing there.

https://twitter.com/_theek_/status/1117895531563372544

Good thread here too.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Stella Tremblay, a former member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives who resigned in 2013, but not after she spent one term and change in the state legislature wasting the people’s time and tax dollars on her salary to rave and actually try and pass legislation to investigate whatever the last conspiracy theory she heard was. Whether she wanted investigations into Agenda 21, Barack Obama’s Birth Certificate, and the “lost secret” 13th Amendment of the Constitution that denies office to anyone holding a title of nobility. She also claimed that former President Woodrow Wilson was sympathetic towards Hitler, which is pretty amazing considering he died in 1924, long before Hitler ever came to power. The New Hampshire GOP finally got sick of Tremblay’s antics in April 2013 after she started claiming that the Boston Marathon bombing was a “false flag” attack, and that “amputee actors” were set in place to make it look like people lost limbs, and the pain victims were feeling was just the work of those actors, linking to Alex Jones’ InfoWars website as “proof”. Since Tremblay has faded from view over the past four years, and that’s probably for the best.

On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Janet Adkins, a former member of the Florida House of Representatives from 2008-2016, who had designs on winning the seat in Congress held by Rep. Corrine Brown when she was term-limited, but tried like hell with the Florida GOP to gerrymander Florida’s Congressional map so she could have a chance to do so, to the extent that a Florida Court overruled the map because it was blatantly unconstitutional. Janet Adkins was not satisfied, and unveiled her master plan to a gathering of a Northern Florida Republican Caucus after first asking, “Are there any reporters in here?” Any reporters? OK. So, inside ball game.” When no reporter outed themselves, she then proceeded to talk a particularly devious gerrymander that would statistically leave the number of African Americans in Florida’s 5th Congressional District only slightly less, but assure that the numbers lie and several of the new minorities wouldn’t be able to vote, because they would be part of the population of a local prison. While there were no reporters in the room AT THE TIME, her comments were recorded, and the audio eventually found its way into the hands at reporters at Politico, who gladly informed the public of Adkins’ nefarious idea to purposely leave Corrine Brown with African American citizens with their right to vote already stripped as a means to flip her already ridiculously gerrymandered district. Adkins was forced to give a half-hearted apology, where she admitted to no intent to do wrong, but said she was sorry “if she offended anyone”. Y’know, just people who respect democracy, primarily. Adkins voting record featured support for mandatory ultrasounds where the woman was required to observe the fetus prior to getting an abortion, attempts to redefine “fetal viability”, the ability for adoption agencies to refuse services to people based on their own “deeply held religious beliefs” as well as officials to use the same justification for denying same-sex couples marriage services, and the failed policy of drug testing welfare recipients. She also co-sponsored HB 1209, another one of those bills to prevent the implementation of “foreign laws” like say, Sharia Law. Between hitting term limits in the Florida state legislature and her embarrassing “caught on tape” moment, she’s pretty much done in politics.

On this date in 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Dan Bongino, a former member of the NYPD and Secret Service as well as a carpet-bagger extraordinaire who has, in each of the past three elections, lost in an effort to get elected to office. In his first back in 2012, he failed to get into the U.S. Senate in Maryland. In his second in 2014, he failed to get elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Maryland’s 6th Congressional District. And in 2016, Bongino decided to try his luck at running for U.S. House of Representatives again, but this time, way down in Florida’s 19th Congressional District. Now, it was pretty clear that Bongino was pretty hard to the right from the jump. After all, his campaign website through the years had his stance on abortion being that he defined life from “conception until natural death”, and he actually advocated for a “flat tax” that most economic experts would take one quick look at and know it would wreck the American economy as well as the budget deficit. I mean, those are extreme policies, it’s not like Bongino gave any other sign that he was off-kilter, right? I mean, other than him actually campaigning at the Heritage Foundation on wondering where President Obama was on the night of Benghazi (which Obama’s whereabouts are totally verifiable and all). Well, there how he responded to a story in the Naples Daily News as being “propaganda” and when he had Marc Caputo, a reporter from Politico contact him for a follow-up on that statement, Bongino decided to go ahead and level an extended, profanity-laced tirade while he was being recorded. All Caputo did so set him off was point out the fact that most of Bongino’s campaign donations were coming in from donors outside of his proposed district in Florida’s 19th, and the next thing you know, Bongino started raving like a maniac for over seventeen minutes, where Bongino berates Caputo non-stop, including telling him “you were the guy that got beat up a lot in high school, huh?” or “The Secret Service would fire people like you, because you were so pathetic and you’d have to go into journalism”, or “You’re a real disgusting piece of s***.” Towards the end of the phone call, Bongino realized that maybe this audio getting to the public would be a bad thing, and threatened to sue Caputo for recording him without his consent. Unfortunately for Bongino, Caputo has a message dialogue where he told him the call would be recorded, and Bongino agreeing… so Bongino was pretty boned on the PR front on this. At the 15:44 mark, it gets really real, and you get Bongino screaming, “SHUT THE F*** UP! GO F*** YOURSELF YOU PIECE OF S***! YOU DON’T KNOW WHY I MOVED TO FLORIDA YOU MOTHERF***ER! WAIT UNTIL I SHRED YOUR F***ING *** ON THE RADIO! LISTEN TO ME YOU PR***, I’M GOING TO EXPOSE YOU NOW. AND WHEN I TELL YOU THE REAL REASON I’M DOWN HERE? I’M GOING TO EXPOSE YOUR F***ING *** EVEN MORE.” As you might expect, the good people of Florida’s 19th District did not think having Capt. Sweary McSaltypants as their next Congressman was a good idea, and Bongino was defeated in his attempt to reach office, this time not even advancing out of the primary, finishing a distant third with only 15.7% of the vote. Perhaps after three straight election losses, Bongino and his supporters have run out of cash, and he might not resurface to run for any office in 2018, if ever again. In the meantime, he’s been a regular guest on InfoWars and the Alt-Right media to predict things like that Hillary Clinton will be indicted, and trying to back up Donald Trump’s claims that President Obama did the “wire-tapps” to Trump. Bongino continues to be invited on to conservative news media as an analyst, with emphasis on the “anal” part of the word, because his head is ALL the way up his arse.

[worstblogever]

Terry Lee Weaver

It was one year ago today that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Terry Lee Weaver, who has served the Tennessee House of Representatives for District 40 since first being elected back in 2008. Now, CSGOPOTD has definitely seen its fair share of right-wing nut jobs from the Volunteer State, but Weaver managed to raise herself above the pack in February of 2017, when she submitted a bizarre bill that would declare any child born through any form of artificial insemination with the help of a fertility clinic would be “illegitimate”.

Now, chances are you’re asking yourself, “Why the hell would a party renowned for being pro-life go out of their way to try and argue some children aren’t legitimate?”

Great question. The answer is, “To f*** with same sex married couples, of course.” Terry Lynn Weaver was one of 53 members of the Tennessee GOP beside themselves and who got involved in September of 2016 in a same-sex marriage divorce that dealt with the custody of a child born through artificial insemination. Weaver and the other lawmakers asserted that the lesbian wife of the child’s mother should not be considered a “legitimate” parent under the current statute. Now, Weaver doesn’t seem to care about the implications of what might happen if both women in a lesbian relationship had a baby, and both wanted custody… or she does and just wants to make sure same-sex couples can’t have custody of children, whatsoever. There are efforts to be cruel to LGBT couples, and then there’s what Weaver did.

Now, maybe Weaver is getting some really extreme and twisted views on Christianity, that she’d go out of her way to hate gay people that much. Then again, her pastor is such a pillar of sensitivity that there’s a photo of him with Weaver where he’s wearing blackface and pretending to be Aunt Jemima. We can’t believe we just typed that sentence, either, but there it is. Oh, and Weaver defended her pastor for it, to boot.

But anyway, it seems more that Terry Lynn Weaver is just obsessed with babies and pregnant mothers in general, even outside of your standard anti-abortion fanatical fervor. In 2014, she was the Tennessee state legislator behind a controversial bill to jail pregnant mothers found to be on drugs during their pregnancy. Critics pointed out there wasn’t accurate testing to determine of a baby was born “addicted” to a drug, and that even if it was easily diagnosed, the law would do little to prevent the problem, and might instead cause pregnant drug addicts to do even more desperate things to avoid getting caught, that they might not be more forthcoming with their doctors about being pregnant in the first place, or that it could lead to a lot of children being raised away from their birth mothers if so many were being thrown in jail for it.

Again, Terry Lynn Weaver seems indifferent about the details. That’s probably why her voting record features her support for some of the Tennessee GOP’s worst bills, including stricter Voter ID law aimed at suppressing the vote using the pretense of in-person voter fraud that is statistically non-existent, a bill written to gather “abortion statistics” that would help anti-choice extremists identify women going to clinics to seek abortions, a bill aimed at naming the Bible the state book, and attempts to nullify federal gun laws. She also was a co-sponsor if HJR 587, a resolution against the United Nations Agenda 21 treaty, for fears from hard-right conspiracy theorists that it’s a plot to establish global domination as well as HB 553, a bill aimed at preventing Civil War monuments from being renamed..

While Terry Lynn Weaver’s district is solidly Republican, what with her winning office by 45 points in 2016, and after getting out of the GOP Primary in 2018, faced no Democratic challenger in November. She immediately went to work trying to handle the most important issues for the people of Tennessee… like protecting the statue commemorating the military career of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the KKK. When confronted with protesters at the state capitol for telling her how it’s racist to keep honoring the founder of a hate group, Terri Lynn Weaver literally defended herself by assuring the protesters that some of “her best friends are black”. The Republican Party is a parody of itself, at this point.

[SuperiorIronman]

Trump On Notre Dame Fire: ‘Perhaps Flying Water Tankers Could Be Used To Put It Out’

By they way, it should be noted that Trump hadn't said so much as one goddamn word about THREE black churches in Louisiana that had been torched by a WHITE scumbag supremacist. Meanwhile....

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Within Minutes Of Notre Dame Cathedral Fire, Conspiracies Reigned

Fox News, Infowars and other outlets amplified conspiratorial theories about the blaze’s cause, which has yet to be determined. Talk about pathetic!

Within minutes of getting home from work last night I was treated to the family telling me;
1. It's a curse
2. "Muslims set fire to it"
3. "Well France has had problems with Muslims"
4. "Isn't it coincidental that this happened shortly before Easter?" to which I responded, yeah that is coincidental. To which they responded "well then it has to be Muslims".

Isn't it just more likely that it's an electrical fire or that during renovations something hit that wasn't supposed to? Not everything is a grand conspiracy and that the first thing to look at isn't a rival church but to make sure that nobody left an electrical item on or if there was a short. It would be like forgetting to leave the oven on and saying those rowdy kids down the block set fire to the house. Maybe they did, but its a bit premature to be throwing blame out just yet.

[Kusanagi]

Got to say it looks like Bernie kicked ass last night. Going on to Fox News and getting their audience to vocally support Medicare For All is a damn good visual.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...test-news-live

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Within minutes of getting home from work last night I was treated to the family telling me;
1. It's a curse
2. "Muslims set fire to it"
3. "Well France has had problems with Muslims"
4. "Isn't it coincidental that this happened shortly before Easter?" to which I responded, yeah that is coincidental. To which they responded "well then it has to be Muslims".

Isn't it just more likely that it's an electrical fire or that during renovations something hit that wasn't supposed to? Not everything is a grand conspiracy and that the first thing to look at isn't a rival church but to make sure that nobody left an electrical item on or if there was a short. It would be like forgetting to leave the oven on and saying those rowdy kids down the block set fire to the house. Maybe they did, but its a bit premature to be throwing blame out just yet.

Can't say I'm surprised conspiracy nuts have already pounced on what happened yesterday with both feet when, in truth, it probably was a construction accident. Meanwhile, upon further review, I'm now of the suspicion Trump really didn't give a rat's ass about the Notre Dame cathedral disaster (hell, it wouldn't shock me if he first thought all the fuss was happening in Indiana, as in the university), that would've required a strong sense of empathy, and, as we all know, he has none, but I'm guessing Trump figured he had to say SOMETHING about the calamity to make it look like he was concerned. But, like with everything else he does, it turned out wrong because he's such a colossal knucklehead. And now, he's probably pouting in the Oval Office like a five year old after he was publicly called out on his stupidity. How's that old saying go: It's better to remain silent and be thought of as a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Sadly, Trump removes that doubt daily.

[BeastieRunner]

Got to say it looks like Bernie kicked ass last night. Going on to Fox News and getting their audience to vocally support Medicare For All is a damn good visual.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...test-news-live

Except Fox News has spent the last 24 hours trying to undo all that.

[Iron Maiden]

Say what you will about Obama’s politics, the man possessed honor, empathy and compassion, things Trump lacks in abundance.

And eloquence. Trump would have trouble pronouncing some of the words Obama uses in plain every day speaking.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

And eloquence. Trump would have trouble pronouncing some of the words Obama uses in plain every day speaking.

Indeed. You'll never catch Obama saying he takes his covfefe black with his hamberder.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Except Fox News has spent the last 24 hours trying to undo all that.

It also got Trump's attention, and it sounds like he wasn't too terribly pleased with what he saw:

Trump chides Fox News after Sanders town hall

From Dolt45's Twitter account:

So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @FoxNews. Not surprisingly, @BretBaier and the “audience” was so smiley and nice. Very strange, and now we have @donnabrazile?

I'm guessing Trump expected the right leaning audience to tear Bernie a new one and was disappointed when that didn't happen.

[Malvolio]

Within minutes of getting home from work last night I was treated to the family telling me;
1. It's a curse
2. "Muslims set fire to it"
3. "Well France has had problems with Muslims"
4. "Isn't it coincidental that this happened shortly before Easter?" to which I responded, yeah that is coincidental. To which they responded "well then it has to be Muslims".

Isn't it just more likely that it's an electrical fire or that during renovations something hit that wasn't supposed to? Not everything is a grand conspiracy and that the first thing to look at isn't a rival church but to make sure that nobody left an electrical item on or if there was a short. It would be like forgetting to leave the oven on and saying those rowdy kids down the block set fire to the house. Maybe they did, but its a bit premature to be throwing blame out just yet.

As I've said before, most conspiracy theories are long on motive, short on evidence. I prefer to use Occam's Razor: the simplest answer is usually the correct one.