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

[numberthirty]

You don't think Jeff Bezos isn't worried about someone like Warren or Sanders taking the White House?

Wealthy Liberals aren't as paranoid or greedy about their cash as are Wealthy Conservatives.

That's like saying "A Doberman is safer in a neighborhood with kids than a Pit Bull..."

How about the kids get to live in a neighborhood that doesn't have a Doberman or a Pit Bull in it?

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Bernie Sanders Again Attacks Amazon — This Time Pulling In The Washington Post



Hmmmm.....

Bernie Sanders tones down criticism of Washington Post

And he’s correct on both counts

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Wealthy Liberals aren't as paranoid or greedy about their cash as are Wealthy Conservatives.

Yes the wealthy liberal whose massive company paid no federal taxes and just recently had a bidding war trying to extort cities for a sweetheart deal to the point where it had to pull out of NY because of opposition isn’t “greedy”

[JCAll]

That's like saying "A Doberman is safer in a neighborhood with kids than a Pit Bull..."

How about the kids get to live in a neighborhood that doesn't have a Doberman or a Pit Bull in it?

Just gonna point out that Pitbulls and Dobermans aren't dangerous, no more than any other dog. You're attaching a stigma to perfectly decent animals based on the action of some terrible owners, something that has gotten many innocent animals hurt. Please don't.

[numberthirty]

Just gonna point out that Pitbulls and Dobermans aren't dangerous, no more than any other dog. You're attaching a stigma to perfectly decent animals based on the action of some terrible owners, something that has gotten many innocent animals hurt. Please don't.

While I don't believe it is as cleanly cut as you seem to, fair enough.

"Potentially Dangerous..." it is.

[Tendrin]

While I don't believe it is as cleanly cut as you seem to, fair enough.

"Potentially Dangerous..." it is.

It's pretty clear cut.

[numberthirty]

It's pretty clear cut.

Without getting too in depth, a friend was almost killed by a pit bull when they were a kid. The dog's owners were good owners and seemingly neighbors of my friend's family. My friend was even friendly with the dog right up until the attack.

So, I'm not seeing "Pretty Clear Cut..."

If other folks do, I can just politely agree to disagree.

Edit:

Just to clarify, I read in what is in blue to be the case. Don't believe that I know enough of the story to say for absolutely certain.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Jeffrey Epstein’s Guards Reportedly Fell Asleep And Didn’t Check On Him For 3 Hours

The two guards also allegedly falsified log entries to show they had regularly checked on inmates — though they hadn’t actually done so. Just a plain old clusterfuck all around. Meanwhile....

**********

Trump Defends Retweet Of Baseless Conspiracy Theory Implicating Clintons In Epstein’s Death

The president said he thought it was “fine” to retweet the conspiracy because it came from a person with lots of Twitter followers. The Clintons should sue Trump out his orange ass for slander since the person in question is a freaking actor which doesn't make him an expert in such matters.

**********

Beto O’Rourke: Fox News Plants ‘Seeds Of Terror,’ Inspiring Attacks Like In El Paso

The Democratic presidential hopeful called on Republicans to stop ignoring hateful rhetoric from President Trump and right-wing media outlets. Yeah, and especially Trump's personal propaganda network.

**********

Emma Lazarus Historian Responds To Ken Cuccinelli’s ‘Distortion Of History’

The Trump official defended new immigration restrictions by suggesting a rephrasing of Lazarus’ Statue of Liberty poem “The New Colossus.” If Caccanelli had his way, that plaque would simply say "WHITE FOLKS ONLY. ALL OTHER RACES STAY OUT!"

**********

Over 80,000 Sign Petition To Have Street Outside Trump Tower Named After Obama

If successful, Trump Tower’s new Manhattan address will be 725 President Barack H. Obama Ave. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That would drive Trump batshit insane! Therefore, I approve!

[worstblogever]

So this happened today, Trump promoting this person:

So, who is that? Welllllllll...


If he is considering a run, beware WBE!

Schilling was famously described as, and I paraphrase: “A horse on the day he pitched, and a horse’s ass the other four days”. I’m sure WBE must have stories about the guy since he pitched for Arizona.

He's the thematic heir to Jim Bunning. Great pitcher. Hall of Fame pitcher. Real dick of a human being.

Oh, I am VERY aware of Curt Schilling, and while around 2001, he was far more liked...

Even the local sportstalk folks discuss him in "coo-coo for cocoa puffs" terms. And their whole listening demographic is middle-aged white guys.

So if that's how he's treated by them, he might not get too much traction overall. Schilling just promoted a guy to challenge Ann Kirkpatrick last week, and the guesses are that he might try and challenge Rep. Tom O'Hallerann, if anyone.

At this point, he's just making an empty promise.

[Malvolio]

Welp, the GOP’s racism is finally out there for the world to see. There’s no denying or hiding it now.

You'd think that, but you'd be wrong. Trust me, they'll keep denying it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a certain conservative deny it on these very boards by the end of the day.

[Tendrin]

Without getting too in depth, a friend was almost killed by a pit bull when they were a kid. The dog's owners were good owners and seemingly neighbors of my friend's family. My friend was even friendly with the dog right up until the attack.

So, I'm not seeing "Pretty Clear Cut..."

If other folks do, I can just politely agree to disagree.

Edit:

Just to clarify, I read in what is in blue to be the case. Don't believe that I know enough of the story to say for absolutely certain.

Whether or not that is true it has 0 to do with breed.

[worstblogever]

You'd think that, but you'd be wrong. Trust me, they'll keep denying it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a certain conservative deny it on these very boards by the end of the day.

I've yet to see them acknowledge there are, at the very least, white nationalists working in the current Republican White House, and that would be a bad thing.

Because is it really hard to go, "Stephen Miller is a hateful little turd, and should get flushed out as such?" Really, is that a reach?

You wouldn't think so. However...

[worstblogever]

On this date, in both 2014, as well as in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who was trying to force any woman seeking to get an abortion to undergo a mandatory medically-unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound, re-interpret the 14th Amendment so that the children of immigrants were not guaranteed citizenship, and an obsession with upholding anti-sodomy laws that would have outlawed any kind of sexual penetration not of the P-into-V variety, which kind of already was a moot point after several previous Supreme Court hearings. "The Cooch" was unsuccessful in his 2013 run for Governor of Virginia, and considering he was being investigated in scandals for accepting gifts illegally while AG, similar to the scandals that ended the career of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, it seems like Cuccinelli has opted to move out of the political arena, after his hard-right social conservative agenda has been rejected repeatedly by the American people. Instead, Cuccinelli is trying to get by as an oyster farmer (really). Since the only real notes we have to update on Cuccinelli are that he was a delegate on the floor of the Republican National Convention and working as a part of the “Never Trump” movement to try and prevent The Donald becoming The Nominee and doing untold damage to the GOP (and failed). Donald Trump has now promoted Ken Cuccinelli to be the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services, where he’s pushing some of the anti-immigrant positions we saw from him as an Attorney General nationally with the blessing of the Trump administration, including his recent admission that he would like to re-write the poem on the feet of the Statue of Liberty.


On this day in both 2016, 2017, and 2018, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented a profile of the sitting U.S. House Representative from Texas’ 31st Congressional District, John Carter, now in his eighth term in Washington, coming into office back in 2002 after spending two decades as a district court judge in the Lone Star state. Carter almost always coasts to victory when his seat comes up for re-election, with his worst showing being a still-impressive 58% of the vote back in the “blue wave” election year of 2006. Due to the extensive bounty of Texas Republicans out there exhibiting obvious signs of mental deficiency or psychological imbalance out there, you might not have heard much about Rep. Carter. Well, that and when you do a Google search of "John Carter" you either get news about a movie that completely tanked at the box office, or art inspired from the book it’s based on featuring a shirtless guy posing with a scantily clad Martian woman wrapped demurely around his leg. I'll wait a moment while everyone tests that fact to ogle some cheesecake and/or beefcake.

Okay, back to Congressman Carter, now. Our main objection to John Carter being in Congress is not just that he opposes climate change, but to the extent that he does. He actually thinks a phenomenon proven by the great majority of scientific studies is just the result of some massive campaign to trick the populace into supporting it:

“Global warming is simply a chicken-little scheme to use mass media and government propaganda to convince the world that destruction of individual liberties and national sovereignty is necessary to save mankind, and that the unwashed masses would destroy themselves without the enlightened global dictatorship of these frauds."

And that's right off his campaign website. If that quote alone doesn't show you how deep he's into the cause of climate change denial, feel free to read some of his other comments from the Congressional record on January 24th, 2011.

John Carter was also a huge proponent of the 2013 Government Shutdown, and he was in full spin mode in the build up to it, trying to convince the American people that his cause was noble, and if he didn’t bring the federal government to a screeching halt, and the Affordable Care Act was allowed to go forward, that all would be lost:

“We must postpone this overreaching and damaging law that I believe will bankrupt the hard-working every day American.”

One of the things about John Carter that we find unsettling, though, is that he is the Chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, and one of his responsibilities is preventing cyberterrorism. It's quite troublesome that Rep. Carter cannot even pronounce the word "cyber", admits "I don't know anything about this stuff", and then proceeds to try and conduct a hearing to discuss encryption where he would demonstrate how much of an understatement that really was. Now in his mid-seventies, John Carter doesn’t “get” technology, and doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to figure it out, with our national security hanging in the balance.

While the rest of Carter's opinion on national security past that, of course, is to keep out all immigrants and refugees, and his voting record since hitting office has been highly partisan, supporting a resolution towards creating a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, voted against equal pay, a woman’s right to choose, against Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, for the 2013 Government Shutdown and against reopening the government after it was over.

As his voting record goes on…

• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Carter voted against HR 648, because he was gleeully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: John Carter votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Carter 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.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Carter votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: John Carter is one of 187 Republicans who vote against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.

John Carter got 58% of the vote in the 2016 elections, winning by over twenty points over a Democratic challenger, Mike Clark and Libertarian Scott Ballard. He’s now 78 years old, and should he run for re-election in 2020, it would be for his tenth term in office… however he might join the list of Texas Republican House members opting out, considering he barely won in 2018 against M.J. Hegar when he only pulled down 50.6% of the vote. Texas is trending bluer every day now, and it seems to have started a "Texodus" of retiring Texas GOP Congressman. With voter registration numbers showing Texas trending blue and in a big way… if he does choose to run, he might have voters choose “retirement” for him whether he likes it or not.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

You'd think that, but you'd be wrong. Trust me, they'll keep denying it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a certain conservative deny it on these very boards by the end of the day.

And that brings up the following question: How would the GOP be hurt if they publicly admit that they're racists? It's not like such an admission would damage their efforts to woo voters of different races, because they don't bother with that anyway; the Republican base wouldn't give a **** as long as Trump and the party continue "owning the libs"; the legions of white supremacists/Neo-Nazis would cheer because they'd officially have a home; and Faux News could officially go all bigotry, all the time without fear of repercussion. To paraphrase a question Trump himself had posed: what does the GOP have to lose?

[numberthirty]

And that brings up the following question: How would the GOP be hurt if they publicly admit that they're racists? It's not like such an admission would damage their efforts to woo voters of different races, because they don't bother with that anyway; the Republican base wouldn't give a **** as long as Trump and the party continue "owning the libs"; the legions of white supremacists/Neo-Nazis would cheer because they'd officially have a home; and Faux News could officially go all bigotry, all the time without fear of repercussion. To paraphrase a question Trump himself had posed: what does the GOP have to lose?

The obvious?

These days, national elections usually stay fairly close. I don't feel like any party in a national general has the support to burn on, maybe, losing votes over being up front about whatever.