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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Apparently, he's being offered a job on the Trump re-election team.

Well, that doesn't surprise me either.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile on Richard Mourdock, the candidate for U.S. Senate from Indiana back in 2012 who famously said, “Children conceived through rape are part of God’s plan”, and then, for whatever reason, convinced himself that this statement HELPED his chances of winning office. In 2014, Mourdock resurfaced one last time to say the United States under the Obama administratiob was about to become just like Nazi Germany.

It was on this date in 2015 that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled former perennial Kristia Cavere, a former Tea Party Congressional candidate for New York's 19th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Cavere, a Fundamentalist, loathed the idea of same-sex marriage and is an anti-Feminist, who claims that there is a “War on Boyhood”. Most of those views come from her online blog writings, which include her claim that in 2009, the Chicago Hilton Hotel hosted an “Islamic terror conference”. Cavere also often tried giving credit for anything positive that has ever happened in the United States to the Republican Party, and her most staggering historical rewrite is that “The Republicans are the ones who liberated Europe in World War II” which apparently neglects that the two presidents during the war were Democrats, or, y'know, that the boys fighting were probably from both parties. Ironically, Cavere thinks the real problem for Republicans in elections is that they are just "bad communicators", as if she's the pinnacle of messaging. Cavere's most ridiculous claim was that the Obama administration put diplomats in danger in Baghdad in 2009 by having a costume party at the embassy with drag queens in attendance, which was only a slightly less terrible lie than the ones she told her own party about her fundraising. Cavere claimed she had raised $400,000 to use in the election, but as her campaign staff would sheepishly admit, it was more like $5000, and she soon dropped out of the race and soon disappeared completely from politics.

On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile about Rick Green, a two-time candidate for the Texas Supreme Court, failing to reach office in both 2010 and 2016. Even with the endorsements of Chuck Norris, Mat Staver (another theocratic fanatic), and another CSGOPOTD alum, Warren Chisum. Green's got it in his head that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, which has a lot to do with the fact that he's best pals with former legendary CSGOPOTD David Barton, a man long since exposed by a fraud with a theocratic agenda by actual historians who Green still bills on their radio show as "America's premier historian" even though he's a laughingstock. But Green has got Barton's back from the naysayers, whom he accuses of being involved in a massive communist conspiracy that would "disenfranchise Christians", and compares those criticisms of Barton to the Holocaust, and his critics to Hitler. Now, one of the key principles of the 1st Amendment of our Constitution is that there should be a separation of church and state, but if you ask Rick Green, having one (which he insists we don't) leads to "communism and crime". However, he would rather invoke its existence for his own ideology when convenient, like say, when he tries to apply it to same sex marriage and claim that the government allowing gays and lesbians to be married is a violation of separation of church and state. Green, of course, did not take the Obergefell v Hodges ruling by the Supreme Court very well, instead trying to defeat the "#lovewins" movement by arguing that "love and sex aren't the same thing", citing "prostitution" as an example. Rick Green also has an interesting theory behind a rise of school shootings in America... no, not that it's terribly easy for a kid to get access to a gun lying around, but instead the cause is an absence of forced religious education and of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. Because no god-fearing Christian would ever purposefully or accidentally shoot anybody, you see. While Rick Green might again take a crack at getting on the Texas Supreme Court in 2022, we’ll keep an eye out for him.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2017, as well as 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had its first profile of the U.S. House Representative from Texas’ 11th Congressional District, Mike Conaway, a former accountant and longtime toady of the Bush family who first won office way back in the 2004 elections, who honestly has done his damnedest to not be noticed while the rest of the Texas House Congressional Caucus do all the stupid things. But as mostly anonymous as Conaway has been compared to some of his compatriots, of late he’s drawing a lot of attention, due to the fact that after California Congressman Devin Nunes went and f***ed up meddling in the Trump/Russia investigation by running to the White House to warn them about how the FBI had picked up their conversations with Russian agents during the 2016 elections… while they were monitoring the Russian agents. That’s obviously as partisan of an act as you’re going to see from someone overseeing an investigation, to warn the person being investigated that they were, in fact, the subject of an investigation, and what evidence has been gathered against them. The GOP had to abruptly find someone else to take over trying to quash the inquiries into whether or not the Trump campaign was doing all the treason and colluding with a foreign power to get their help in winning the presidency in the 2016 election, and picked Rep. Conaway to be the guy, although for Nunes’ supposed “recusal”, he’s still been repeatedly caught with his thumb on the scales a handful of times.

Anyway, yeah, Rep. Conaway’s dozen years of anonymity went out the window, because he was overseeing the House’s Trump/Russia investigation until Democrats took back control of the House. Conaway expressed doubt in hearings with James Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers as to whether or not Russia even interfered in the 2016 election (meanwhile all the U.S. intelligence agencies agree, they totally did). Instead, Rep. Conaway would rather spend time scoring points in hearings that should be serving as a way to preserve the integrity of American elections from a foreign power by instead, talking about the rivalry between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Texas Longhorns (Look, we love college football as much as the next guy, but F***ING PRIORITIES, MIKE. JESUS.) and declare the whole fact that a presidential candidate colluded with a foreign power to sway an election in his favor a case of “move along, nothing to see here”.

It would be a shame if there were some sort of evidence within Mike Conaway’s voting record to indicate that he’s fine with elections being stacked in the favor of the Republican Party, regardless of the cost… OH WAIT, THERE IS. Back in 2006, when the Voting Rights Act was up for renewal in the House, Mike Conaway was one of 33 members of the GOP who shamed themselves by voting against it (and seriously, the short list of names features several former CSGOPOTD like Roscoe Bartlett, Steve King, Virginia Foxx, Dana Rohrabacher, and Trent Franks).

Even though the perception is that Conaway is somehow the most trustworthy member of the Republican House they could have placed to oversee the House’s version of the Trump/Russia investigation, we’re still talking about a guy who’s posed for photos in a “MAGA” hat who as late as January of 2017 was comparing the hacking done by Russian hackers during the 2017 election as much of a severe and unprecedented manipulation upon the outcome to the fact that Hillary Clinton hired a Mariachi band to appear at one of her campaign events:

“Harry Reid and the Democrats brought in Mexican soap opera stars, singers and entertainers who had immense influence in those communities into Las Vegas, to entertain, get out the vote and so forth. Those are foreign actors, foreign people, influencing the vote in Nevada. You don’t hear the Democrats screaming and saying one word about that.”

And that is some “bothsidesdoit” bulls***.

And we’re also talking about a guy who has blocked inquiries into finding out how much all of Donald Trump’s weekly trips down to Mar-A-Lago on Air Force One, to stay at his own resort and charge the Secret Service for room nights there actually are costing taxpayers. His actual defense into blocking the inquiry was hardly inspiring:

"This is the House Armed Services Committee. We don't oversee the federal bureau of ethics."

So he can acknowledge there’s a reason for there to be some sort of ethical violation there, but THAT’S NOT THIS COMMITTEE’S JOB, SO SHOVE OFF. Although, maybe Rep. Conaway’s lack of concern about ethics might explain why he and his wife have chosen to ignore the rules set in place by the Stock Act, and started purchasing shares in health insurance companies while knowing they would profit from those shares even more if the GOP successfully repeal the Affordable Care Act. Which yes, has led to investigations into him possibly committing insider trading.

Outside of Conaway trying to half-ass the Trump/Russia inquiry and pretend he’s fully engaged, well, there’s a long, long voting record for us to dive into, featuring the fact that co-sponsored and voted for a resolution towards creating a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage back in 2006, has on several occasions votes for bans on abortion at 20 weeks twice voted to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, votes against equal pay for women and minimum wage increases, votes against any and all legislation that would increase LGBTQ rights including ENDA and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, the fact that he voted against the DREAM Act, voted against the Zadroga Bill, to provide healthcare for first responders from 9/11, and in 2011, even voted against raising the Debt Ceiling limit, which if not lifted, economists warned could have led to the collapse of not just the American economy, but the global economy. Mike Conaway voted against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy, but last year was more than content to vote for Hurricane Harvey disaster relief, but only because he isn’t stupid enough to turn down funding to his own district.

In this session of Congress, Mike Conaway has continued to be a partisan ***hole, not just by calling for the resignation of new House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff for actually doing ANYTHING in the same role that Conaway ahd, but was content to sit on his thumbs, but also in terms of his voting record:

• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Conaway voted against HR 648, because he was gleeully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Mike Conaway votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 7th, 2019: Conaway votes against HR 183, a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism as a hateful extension of intolerance.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Conaway votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• April 4th, 2019: Mike Conaway is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• June 4th, 2019: Conaway votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.

Unless he gets a serious primary challenger in 2020, don’t expect Mike Conaway to be going anywhere unless he chooses to go himself. After all, Texas’ 11th Congressional District only has a +32 Republican lean, only the second most conservative partisan lean for any Congressional District in the Cook Partisan Voting Index. It’s part of why the Republicans wanted Conaway in charge of the Trump/Russia investigation, when you think about it… no matter how much partisan interference he provides… there’s a statistically a slim chance that district flips blue.

[Iron Maiden]

Apparently, he's being offered a job on the Trump re-election team.

Yeah, I expected something like this. Trump was too chummy with him when Acosta announced his retirement and they appeared on the WH driveway together. Usually he just fires them by Twitter or has someone else do it.

Meanwhile, I guess Trump sends out the flying monkeys this weekend (artist: Gary Siers with the Charlotte Observer)

[numberthirty]

While I know that almost all of the coverage was rightly Acosta/Epstein today, the local ABC affiliate ran a story on R. Kelly and his former business manager being arrested on new charges.

[Tami]

Trump says he isn't "Backing Down" but that he's "Backing Up"

Backing up is basically the same as saying he's backing down, in both he's moving away from doing something.

Trump says getting citizenship information through government data will be "actually more accurate than a Census." Asked if he backed down, he said not only did he not back down, "I backed UP."

Twitter Thread

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump says he isn't "Backing Down" but that he's "Backing Up"

Backing up is basically the same as saying he's backing down, in both he's moving away from doing something.

Twitter Thread

What do Trump and toilets have in common? They back up.

Thank you. I’m here all week. Try the veal.

[Tami]

What do Trump and toilets have in common? They back up.

Thank you. I’m here all week. Try the veal.

I forgot about the toilet analogy. Very apropos.

[Spike-X]

What the heck. Normally I wouldn't add this since it's just an un-provable assertion about my past actions, but you asked, so I'll pick up the slack and answer: I absolutely DID speak out about this under the Obama administration. The same way I spoke out against his continuations of Bush-era policies, wars, escalation of drone strikes, his unforgivable domestic surveillance programs, and persecution of whistle-blowers. During the Bush years I was consistently against the war in Iraq (really anti-war in general) and I continued to be when Obama was elected and the anti-war left went into hibernation for 8 years. I spoke out against all of those things, including the detention of children at the border, as did many others, but nobody listened. None of my formerly anti-war left friends seemed to care because Obama was being treated like a saint when in reality he was just another establishment politician.

I spoke about these things and was met with a palpable wall of willful ignorance and silence.

Now I get to read a diatribe about how people like me never spoke up, written by the type of person who never LISTENED when others WERE speaking up and it's infuriating.

I mean, you know, since you asked.

Ok, cool.

Probably not you I'm talking about then, is it?

[Tami]

'I can't bring her back': parents of girl killed by California police speak out

Benson Williams clutched the bright pink shirt in his hands. It helped him feel close to his daughter as he struggled to process the reality that he would never hold her again.

The 46-year-old sat beside his wife in their Anaheim living room on Thursday afternoon, trying to make sense of how their bubbly and energetic 17-year-old girl had left the house on Friday with a smile on her face, and wound up shot dead by a police officer on a busy southern California freeway.

The authorities so far have told the parents very little. Why she was fatally shot remains a mystery to them.

“It’s unbearable,” the father said, holding the shirt that she wore the day before her death and still smelled of her perfume. “We don’t have any answers.”

Hannah Williams was shot and killed on the evening of 5 July in Anaheim, a city 25 miles south of Los Angeles. Police have offered few details of what happened before the shooting or why the officer opened fire, and are still investigating the incident.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

'I can't bring her back': parents of girl killed by California police speak out

The circumstances behind the shooting stink like day old diapers. Something else I smell, a police coverup.

[Spike-X]

Remind me to remain on the same side of the argument as Spike-X. Just... wow. Well said.

Aww shucks, thanks everyone.

I actually came up with that while I was *checks notes* at work with my head down, just trying to keep my sanity as I trudge back and forth every day.

[Spike-X]

'I can't bring her back': parents of girl killed by California police speak out

Police have offered few details of what happened before the shooting or why the officer opened fire, and are still desperately trying to invent a story that makes it sound like she was asking for it.

Fixed it for them.

[GindyPosts]

Britt McHenry was sent illicit texts by Fox Nation co-host

Again, Britt is a terrible person, but all this stuff is just plain nasty. The (not) surprising part is that Tyrus (real name George Murdoch) still is with Fox News and has his own show on the Fox Nation streaming service now. Really says a lot about the network's standards.

EDIT: I know this was talked about yesterday, but I didn't see it.

[GindyPosts]

The left doesn't think Obama was a saint, to a lot of the left Obama was a failure and a constant disappointment. From not holding the Bush administration to task for the disasters they caused, backing down on promises to close Gitmo, his damnable drones, and more. He was always a center-right Democrat.

Personally, I say that Obama will rank somewhere in the middle historically, with being the first African-American elected being his saving grace. I'm not saying he was awful, but for all the right-wing cranks and assholes acting like we gushed about how he was the greatest ever, it's not as if he pleased his contingency or accomplished everything he set out. Heck, the border situation was something that was not discussed enough. The problem is that the situation, while bad, wasn't amplified as it is during the Trump administration, which seems to be done primarily to make a statement or out of fears that one of those people arranged just happens to be MS-13 affiliated.