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

[Malvolio]

He's getting worse and worse.

Remember, there is no in between with the guy. Everything has to be the best ever or the worst ever.

[JCAll]

Remember, there is no in between with the guy. Everything has to be the best ever or the worst ever.

Also, he probably just can't count to 5.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Remember, there is no in between with the guy. Everything has to be the best ever or the worst ever.

Or perhaps he’s incapable of retaining information if it isn’t about him.

[Iron Maiden]

Or perhaps he’s incapable of retaining information if it isn’t about him.

I agree with that, and the tweeting about Debra Messing points it out. He remembers meeting her briefly at some Hollywood function and her thanking him "profusely" about how the Apprentice show was saving the network....on second thought, that's probably a fake memory.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Florida’s Fate In Hurricane Dorian May Be A Matter Of Miles

The National Hurricane Center forecasts Dorian to be 40 to 50 miles off the Florida coast on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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Evangelical Leader Claims Teaching Kids Basic Science Causes Mass Shootings

Tony Perkins said children need to be taught about God so they don’t turn into murderers. Oh, sure, keep kids stupid and dependent on a pretend deity, just like the GOP needs to adults to be equally ignorant so they don't wise up and leave the party.

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AFL-CIO Chief Lashes Trump Administration For Hurting American Workers

“Our members are still waiting for the supposed greatness of this economy to reach their kitchen tables,” Richard Trumka tells Chris Wallace on Fox News. I hope those workers won't hold their collective breath waiting for that greatness, because it AIN'T coming!

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London Mayor Calls Trump ‘Global Poster Boy For White Nationalism’

A wave of extremist far-right movements with chilling echoes of the Nazis is being “fueled” by Donald Trump, writes Sadiq Khan on 80th anniversary of World War II. Whoa! Mayor Khan certainly pulled no punches. Good for him!

**********

The Boston Straight Pride Parade Actually Happened And People Were Not Happy

“Seems more like a ‘I-Struggle-With-Masculinity Parade to me’” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. An apt, and highly accurate burn from AOC.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Troy King, the former Attorney General of Alabama who led unsuccessful witch hunts to root out voter fraud, and was a vocal opponent against pornography and sexual deviancy, including an attempt to outlaw sex toys in his state. Amongst his definition of sexual deviancy was homosexuality, and King, who argued against gay rights, was apparently caught in bed with a young male intern he hired out of Troy University and gave a $60,000 salary by his wife, and was quietly swept under the rug by the Alabama GOP, who highly funded a primary opponent against him in the next election cycle.

It was on this date in 2015 that we published our original "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profile of Chris Lee, the former New York Congressman who was trolling for sexual encounters on Craigslist one day, until an uninterested woman recognized him as her Congressman and outed him to Gawker.com (RIP). Gawker then dug a little deeper and found out not just that Rep. Lee was running around on his wife online, he was also frequently attempting to solicit sex from transgendered or cross-dressing prostitutes. Not a good look for a guy who consistently voted against LGBT rights, y’know? Chris Lee (who is still not related to the legendary actor) has been out of office for years now, and probably won’t be back.

On this date this date in 2016 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile about Mike Pryor, a candidate to serve District 16 in the Iowa State Senate. Where things get interesting, is in Pryor’s biography and introduction to the world of politics. Mike Pryor is a rarity… he’s a GOP candidate who openly identifies as gay. However, it would be perhaps misleading to say he’s “out and proud”, based on his own description of himself as a candidate, where he admitted to also having gone to jail for disturbing the peace, and been through personal bankruptcy. But, in spite of himself being gay, Mike Pryor is decidedly anti-gay when he can say things like, ”That issue is an intersection of civil rights, r-i-g-h-t-s, and religious rites, r-i-t-e. It’s the unhappy intersection of both. For the community, I certainly believe everybody needs to be equal. Has gay marriage necessarily benefited our community? It certainly has benefited some folks. Others, not so much. We joke that the only people making any money off of gay marriage are divorce lawyers.” Mike Pryor is also admirably, a longtime foster parent who in spite of having a child he formerly cared for killed in 2009 in a drive-by shooting still is an advocate of interpreting the Second Amendment right to bear arms in absolute terms. Pryor lost his bid for office in 2016 by 25 points.

On this date in 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Missouri state legislator Bob Dixon, a Missouri state legislator who served 8 years in the Missouri House and moved up to the Missouri State Senate in the 2010 Tea Party wave who at one point during the 2016 elections, had designs on trying to win the GOP Primary to become the next Governor of Missouri. Now, while at first, hearing someone was running as a Republican with the platform of supporting smaller government and “traditional marriage” while opposing abortion might sound pretty par for the course, Bob Dixon turned a lot of heads when he claimed that he had been sexually abused as a teenager, and that it made him have “teenage confusion” that made him question his sexuality so he was gay for a years until a religious experience in 1988 convinced him he should be straight and marry a woman and live out his days as such. Alright, there’s a lot to unpack here. First off, being gay isn’t a choice. (Dixon’s by all demonstrated history, bisexual, and just hasn’t had any sex with any men in awhile.) Second, can’t say we’re thrilled about Dixon implying that being molested is a gateway to experimenting with a gay lifestyle. Perhaps the real cause for the disclosure was that a newspaper article from over a quarter century ago turned up where Bob Dixon’s mother, former state legislature Jean Dixon, outed him. By 1992, as far as the Dixon’s were concerned, Bob had just decided he was straight, and that was that. He popped into the Missouri House of Representatives in 2002 without anyone really thinking much about it, because by that point, he had a wife and a couple kids. Well, needless to say, Republican primary voters didn’t exactly rally around the idea of an ex-gay candidate, and four months into Bob Dixon’s bid to win Missouri’s Governor’s mansion in 2016, he bailed on his campaign, opting to stay in the State Senate. And even if that story weren’t to be an obstacle for him, Dixon had quite the quote during a bill discussing prescription drug monitoring in 2016, saying, “Liberty, schmiberty… I’ve heard enough about people’s liberty being taken away… I am tired of hearing these arguments over and over again, they just don’t hold any water for me.” Bob Dixon was term-limited in 2018, and his admissions about his sexual orientation would likely divide GOP voters, half of whom would not vote for him for admitting he was gay at any point in his life, and even if he made it out of a primary, he would have trouble being elected against a Democrat, even in Missouri for his belief that gay conversion therapy somehow “corrected” him. Dixon is running for Greene County Commissioner in 2018, which seems to indicate that his upward mobility in Missouri politics is coming to a screeching halt, all right.

On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled about former Ohio state legislator Wesley Goodman, a staunch social conservative who was first elected to office back in 2014. In the tradition of hypocritial Republicans who are secretly gay with anti gay voting records… Goodman was outed when he chose to go about sexin’ in his office in the state legislature with another dude and someone walked in on him. If there were any sympathy that might have been had for a man forced to live a lie in his politics… it sure went out the door even faster when over 30 people came forward admitting that Goodman had sent them unsolicited dick pics or sexually harassed them, including gents as young as 17, or, y’know, half Goodman’s age. And wouldn’t you know it, while in Washington, D.C., prior to becoming a state legislator, Goodman was a Congressional aide for Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan. The same Jim Jordan who is currently being accused of participating in a cover-up of young men being sexually assaulted by a trainer while working as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University. If this all didn’t seem to be a nexus of anti-gay hatemongers being secret sexual predators, well, it gets even crazier. Back in 2015, Wesley Goodman was hanging around the anti-gay hate group, the Family Research Council, when at one of their retreats, he let himself into the hotel room of an 18 year old boy and sexually assaulted him while he was sleeping, and THAT sexual assault was covered up by CSGOPOTD alum Tony Perkins. So… yes, Wesley Goodman resigned, his wife left him, and he’s almost certainly not going to turn up in the news again, assuming he doesn’t try to prey on an underaged male again. We’ll retire his profile at this time and go ahead and take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 778-40, since this was established in July 2014.)


Mike Yenni

Welcome to the 778th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be discussing Mike Yenni, who was the Mayor of Kenner, Louisiana from 2010-2016, and was elected President of Jefferson Parish in the 2015 election. As a Republican touting his family values and his marriage to his wife and being the father of two children, it should come as little surprise that in his first year on the job, he was caught sexting a 17 year-old boy. Yenni tried assuring everyone of the fact that he “wasn’t gay” (well, he's not wrong, it would seem he's bisexual...), but didn’t make any explanation for the fact that the boy he exchanged sexts with was, y’know, a boy, and not 18. That meant the FBI also opened an investigation, but for whatever reason, Yenni wasn’t charged with a crime.

This wasn’t the first time Yenni was busted for sexting, either, as he did so as the chief administrative officer in Kenner, back before he was mayor, with both male and female members of his staff. We’re going to go ahead and cite Mike Yenni our annual “hypocritically anti-gay Republican caught with another guy” for September 2019 and proudly announce that he isn’t running for re-election, because he doesn’t think his marriage would do well with it coming up as a topic while campaigning. (To say nothing about how it might do with it just being a thing that happened.)

[4saken1]

Remember, there is no in between with the guy. Everything has to be the best ever or the worst ever.

He'll probably lobby the NHC to add a Category 6 rating for next hurricane season.

[4saken1]

He's getting worse and worse.

We should name the next Category 5 Hurricane Donald so that he'll remember!

[Tami]

‘Bahamas is presently at war’: Slow-moving Dorian wreaks devastation across island nation

In sharp contrast with fast-moving storms that pass within an hour or two, some parts of the Bahamas, including the Abaco Islands and Dorian’s current target, Grand Bahama Island, were witnessing nearly 24 hours of punishing conditions.

“The Bahamas is presently at war and being attacked by Hurricane Dorian,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said in an interview. “And yet, it has no weapon at its disposal to defend itself during such an assault by this enemy.”

Dorian hit the Bahamas with the highest intensity, Category 5. It has since weakened slightly to a 155-mph Category 4, though it made little difference in terms of the severe storm surge and wind damage it was inflicting.

Some people are trapped in their homes.

[Tami]

Faced With Criticism, Trump Administration Reverses Abrupt End to Humanitarian Relief

LOS ANGELES — The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would reconsider its decision to force immigrants facing life-threatening health crises to return to their home countries, an abrupt move last month that generated public outrage and was roundly condemned by the medical establishment.

On Aug. 7, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, without public notice, eliminated a “deferred action” program that had allowed immigrants to avoid deportation while they or their relatives were undergoing lifesaving medical treatment.

The agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, had sent letters informing those who had asked for a renewal, which the immigrants must make every two years, that it was no longer entertaining such requests. The letters said that the immigrants must leave the country within 33 days, or face deportation.

On Monday, the agency said in a statement that while limiting the program was “appropriate,” officials would “complete the caseload that was pending on August 7.”

[SquirrelMan]

Don't disagree.

That said, the idea that we should even be entertaining "What about the good guy with a gun stopping the shooter before the police showed up?" in an instance where a police stop started the entire thing is just foolish.

I know most cops are rubbish, but do you mean to say there aren't any good guys left among the police?

[Tami]

Revealed: Georgia Republicans use power of state to suppress minority vote

Top Georgia Republicans continue to use the power of the state to investigate political rivals, executing a strategy that voting rights activists say is designed to intimidate voting rights organizations and activists serving minority communities.

Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state, and David Emadi, executive secretary of the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, are investigating and issuing subpoenas to political opponents, without publicly showing evidence there was wrongdoing by those parties.

Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, pioneered the tactic as secretary of state, where he used his authority to investigate political opponents, liberal political groups and get out the vote (GOTV) organizers working in racial minority communities.

To date, none of the investigations, subpoenas, arrests or prosecutions against political opponents and minority GOTV organizers have led to convictions, meaning that Kemp’s – and now Raffensperger and Emadi’s – political rivals remain innocent of charges brought against them.

But voting rights activists say there is a trend in Georgia of Republicans using the power of an elected office to investigate political opponents as a voter intimidation tactic.

[Iron Maiden]

I know most cops are rubbish, but do you mean to say there aren't any good guys left among the police?

I know that's the current atmosphere but I used to talk to some of the police who would moonlight as security in the hospital where I used to work. Gary, Indiana can be a pretty rough town. I'm sure you would agree that there are some beats that you wouldn't want to be assigned to for all the gold in Fort Knox. It's one of those jobs where you may not be alive at the end of your shift. The cop I was talking to told us how the police force would be spread real thin on the night shifts. At this time, there was a notorious local gang called the Family and they were pretty ruthless in wiping out rivals, etc. They would start out by shooting the victim in both knees, then in both arms and then finish them off with a shot to the head. That's how they knew when the victim was brought in that it was a hit by the Family. Well, anyway....they cop told us that if they got a call on a crime in progress, the would wait to hear if there was someone coming for backup. If no one came, then he said he wouldn't answer the call right away unless someone was free. The force was pretty shorthanded and they weren't riding in pairs on the night shift. This stuff you wouldn't read in the papers though, just stuff they would tell you.

Two police men were killed in our county about two years ago. One of them was just one of a pair of police that were assigned to assist a landlord with a tenant that wasn't paying rent and refused to move. The landlord unlocked the door and the guy killed the first cop who walked in the door. Like I said, this was for what should have been a routine eviction. No one knew he was going to be armed.

I know there are some bad apples in the barrel but I don't think the percentage is as high as the popular perception.

[Iron Maiden]

WestPhillyPunisher your Caligula comparison is really popular with Trump

Read this the other day in the Chicago Tribune If Elizabeth Warren is "Pochantas" then Trump is Caligula

[InformationGeek]

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

Trump's response to the Odessa mass shooting during a media availability on Sunday was to thank law enforcement and say "it could've been worse." He didn't say a word about the victims or about guns. He quickly moved on to other topics.

REPORTER: Do you have a message for Poland on the 80th anniversary of World War 2?

TRUMP: "I do have a great message for Poland & we have Mike Pence, our vice president, is just about landing right now...I just want to congratulate Poland"

[Poland was smashed by Nazis in 1939]