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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Was just on my way to post this. I think we can all take joy in the downfall of the NRA.

Damn straight, homeslice! I'm elated!

[Theleviathan]

Maggie Habermann is extremely problematic. She practices an extreme form of access journalism, meaning she will write puff pieces normalizing Trump's fascist regime in exchange for information. She has done tremendous damage to this country since Trump took office.

FFS...you cannot be serious right?

[BeastieRunner]

Was just on my way to post this. I think we can all take joy in the downfall of the NRA.

IRS already has a NRA investigation on going.

Time for another one.

[Michael Watkins]

Me Too. But with Warren, I can see Trump drumming up the old "Pochantas" stuff. You never know what effect that kind of thing can have.

for life of me, i don't understand why people are bothered by her thinking that she was part native american but not by someone using 'pocahontas' as a slur. a lot of gullible people have taken ancestry.com's word on their 1% cherokee-ness. it's not like she went full Rachel Dolezal and wore a headdress to the senate. Trump claimed his father was from Germany.

[Sacred Knight]

I care far less about Warren exaggerating the level of of a tribe in her blood than about Trump's constant use of the Pocahontas insult. And he does it all the time and people just laugh it up. If he wants to bring it up as a talking point with her fine I guess, its pointless but whatever, but the insult pisses me off.

Some 20-odd percent Apache if that makes my opinion hold any more weight but I don't really think it does, its more just a common decency thing.

[Tami]

Net support for impeachment rose 13% just since last weekend. It's now at 43% for, 43% against. And it's unlikely to trend back in support of Trump as the evidence of multiple actors in the White House being implicated, evidence of a deliberate attempt at a coverup, and, y'know, cable news covering the impeachment inquiry, particularly when the whistleblower testifies and we learn of other phone calls like that one.

I knew once an investigation actually started that approval for it would increase.

[Robotman]

for life of me, i don't understand why people are bothered by her thinking that she was part native american but not by someone using 'pocahontas' as a slur. a lot of gullible people have taken ancestry.com's word on their 1% cherokee-ness. it's not like she went full Rachel Dolezal and wore a headdress to the senate. Trump claimed his father was from Germany.

I agree that the whole thing was completely overblown. I grew up around a few white friends who claimed that their great grandparent was Cherokee. But the last election showed just how easy it is to drill a falsehood into the heads of the average Americans even though there is no evidence of a crime. I recall talking to my neighbor (nice guy but not the brightest bulb) about Hillary. He said he wasn’t going to vote for her because she is a criminal. I asked him what crime did he think she committed. He replied “didn’t she do something illegal with her emails?”. So yeah I can definitely see the whole Pocahontas thing being used as a legitimate weapon against Warren. We’re seeing the right wing mouthpieces already trying to use the Hunter Biden situation in their favor.

[SquirrelMan]

FFS...you cannot be serious right?

Point out any inaccuracies you detect in my statement.

Edit:

Here is a twitter thread about how Hanberman has spent years propping up Trump with her puff pieces:

https://twitter.com/care2much18/stat...088576?lang=en

[Theleviathan]

Point out any inaccuracies you detect in my statement.

Edit:

Here is a twitter thread about how Hanberman has spent years propping up Trump with her puff pieces:

https://twitter.com/care2much18/stat...088576?lang=en

Many of the things Trump has done wrong are also public knowledge in part because of her.

Your entire premise is an example of the left's biggest problem: Making the perfect the enemy of the good and then losing all perspective.

[Dalak]

Many of the things Trump has done wrong are also public knowledge in part because of her.

Your entire premise is an example of the left's biggest problem: Making the perfect the enemy of the good and then losing all perspective.

Since I don't know this reporter, could you provide some context for this? I'm not expecting something as lengthy as the Twitter thread but it'd help for us who are ignorant.

[Theleviathan]

Since I don't know this reporter, could you provide some context for this? I'm not expecting something as lengthy as the Twitter thread but it'd help for us who are ignorant.

https://www.nytimes.com/by/maggie-haberman

She, and the other reporters at the NYT (though I think most would call her the lead reporter) won the 2018 Pulitzer for their work.

Among a host of other awards she won in 2018 for her work on Trump.

She's no saint or beyond criticism, but the other poster's earlier characterization was equally as problematic. Apparently, as I've done some looking, it's a whole left-wing social media vibe to make her the enemy. Swell.

[worstblogever]

Sec. of State Mike Pompeo has been his with subpoenas by 3 different House Committees today. The committees are asking him to produce documents regarding Ukraine, and Rudy Giuliani's communications with them. Pompeo missed a Thursday deadline to just turn them over politely, and now, the subpoenas.

[SquirrelMan]

https://www.nytimes.com/by/maggie-haberman

She, and the other reporters at the NYT (though I think most would call her the lead reporter) won the 2018 Pulitzer for their work.

Among a host of other awards she won in 2018 for her work on Trump.

She's no saint or beyond criticism, but the other poster's earlier characterization was equally as problematic. Apparently, as I've done some looking, it's a whole left-wing social media vibe to make her the enemy. Swell.

She maliciously attacked Michelle Wolf for something she never did, attacking Huckabee on her looks with the line "But she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye." She never apologized for that, she never explains what about that line is about the heifer's looks. She is deeply problematic, and you still have not given a single example of a story that she (not a team) wrote that really revealed new, damaging information on Trump. Even if there are a few, they won't balance the dozen of positive spin puff pieces documented in the twitter thread I posted.

[Theleviathan]

She maliciously attacked Michelle Wolf for something she never did, attacking Huckabee on her looks with the line "But she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye." She never apologized for that, she never explains what about that line is about the heifer's looks. She is deeply problematic, and you still have not given a single example of a story that she (not a team) wrote that really revealed new, damaging information on Trump. Even if there are a few, they won't balance the dozen of positive spin puff pieces documented in the twitter thread I posted.

Trying to separate her from the NYT reporting team represents a significant lack of understanding of their work.

But you make evident your mind is made up and this post illustrates my perfect/good point well. Seems there isnt room forward but this is deeply problematic purity thinking. I hope you reconsider.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, as well as 2016, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Phyllis Schlafly, based on her inclusion on the 2012 Republican National Committee, helping write the GOP Party Platform, and several other platform committee slots in the decades prior to that. Schlafly, the founder of the Eagle Forum who ran for Congress way back in 1952, has been considered a radical conservative conspiracy nut since the Eisenhower Administration. Schlafly’s also been a proud anti-feminist for decades, having served as the opposite number to Gloria Steinem to prevent the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and not only believes women’s place is in the home (even though Schafly had a nanny raise her kids while she was politically active), but has given speeches where she argues there’s not even such a thing as marital rape. She’s also passionate about conspiracy theories like the secret Bilderberg Group, buys into the John Birch Society’s theories about fluoridated water, and the threat of a North American Union. Schafly argued against the GOP’s 2012 “autopsy” that suggested they find a way to attract minority voters, scoffing and saying that they should “focus on whites”. Phyllis also has been a staunch opponent of LGBT rights through the years, which is a shame considering one of her six children is gay. Another of her six children is Andrew Schlafly, the fanatically wacky creator of Conservapedia, the version of Wikipedia that exists for conservatives who reject facts and sources and instead have rewritten a version of reality on it that supports their agenda. Schlafly passed away in 2016 at the age of 92, and was eulogized by Donald Trump in the midst of his presidential campaign, whose nicest thought about Phyllis was that she liked HIM, which is kind of what her family should have expected when they asked an egomaniac to eulogize her. Schlafly remains dead, barring any sort of breakthroughs in necromancy conservatives might make to curtail womens’ rights.



On this date in 2017, as well as 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted its original profile of Bill Schuette, Michigan's Attorney General from 2010-2018, who was twice elected now with just 52% of the vote, and believe it or not, back in 1984, he won office to represent Michigan's 10th Congressional District in Congress, winning three terms before getting beat in attempt to unseat legendary U.S. Senator Carl Levin. In those six years in office, Bill Schuette managed to sponsor 11 bills, and exactly zero of them passed. That's actually understating how ineffective his time was a legislator... he even never got a bill out of committee in six years. After serving a few years as Michigan's Agricultural Commissioner, Schuette had an eight year run as a Michigan State Senator from 1994-2002. Schuette was appointed to serve as a judge frim 2002-2009, bringing us to his time as Michigan AG.

Schuette is known to be a fierce opponent of marijuana legalization, even for medical use, but his record as Michigan Attorney General on LGBT rights is perhaps his most disappointing crusade. He not only fought against marriage equality up until the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, but Schuette has even been the target of lawsuits by the ACLU in gay adoption cases as well. And if you think Schuette would be any better on women's rights, guess again, as he sued two abortion clinics over what he claimed were improper medical records disposal that opted to just close rather than go to court... and celebrated their closure.

Schuette ran for Governor of Michigan in 2018 to replace utter failure, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder's legacy as the Governor who orchestrated the poisoning of the water supply of Flint, Michigan due to his sheer incompetence and desire to "save money" will, of course, be linked to Schuette, since Schuette was nice enough to not press charges against anyone in the administration, and just appointed a special prosecutor... who just so happens to be one of the biggest donors to Rick Snyder's political campaigns.

Schuette’s campaign was already going fabulously, with Schuette receiving an endorsement from future disgraced president and current disgrace Donald Trump, where wouldn't you know it, Trump misspelled Schuette's name. Schuette also could not escape the GOP Primary for his seat without his opponent in it, Brian Calley getting the FBI to follow through with a criminal investigation into whether or not Schuette had actually been having a “blind trust” oversee his businesses, and may have been using resources from his office to personally enrich his portfolio. While that accusation did not bring about a grand jury investigation, it has only further damaged Schuette, an already flawed candidate. He was defeated by Gretchen Whitmer, who didn’t even break a sweat in doing so, and will now likely fade into political irrelevance. And to that, we say, “Good riddance.”