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

[BeastieRunner]

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein resigns!. What the hell took him so long to make his decision?

It was planned out in February. The exit was planned.

[JCAll]

Disneyland has a Donald who never sexually assaulted anyone.

Too soon?

After debating with myself whether or not to turn this into a discussion on the mating habits of ducks, I decided to crawl into bed and weep instead.

[Tami]

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein resigns!. What the hell took him so long to make his decision?

Now he can testify to Congress as a private citizen, away from Barr and Trump.

[Tendrin]

How the crap is Jacob Wohl not in prison?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/far-ri...-assault-claim

A pair of right-wing provocateurs are being accused of attempting to recruit young Republican men to level false allegations of sexual assault against Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.
The details of the operatives’ attempt emerged as one man suddenly surfaced with a vague and uncorroborated allegation that Buttigieg had assaulted him. The claim was retracted hours later on a Facebook page appearing to belong to the man.
A Republican source told The Daily Beast that lobbyist Jack Burkman and internet troll Jacob Wohl approached him last week to try to convince him to falsely accuse Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, of engaging him sexually while he was too drunk to consent.

[Mister Mets]

A Morning Consult poll of Democratic primary voters shows Biden with 36 percent, up 6 from their earlier poll. Sanders is in second place with 22 percent. No one else is in double-digits, although Warren is in third place with nine percent.

https://twitter.com/SteveKornacki/st...51642184773633

Candidates typically get a bump from announcements, but Biden's Thursday declaration means that a good chunk of the poll had already been conducted.

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/st...60418304512000

We might go from one of the most wide-open primaries ever to a frontrunner steamrolling the competition.

[4saken1]

How the crap is Jacob Wohl not in prison?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/far-ri...-assault-claim

Seriously! It seems the scumbags on the right will try just about anything they can get away with. It's sad that things like this will make it harder for the public to believe victims of sexual assault. Double win for Republicans, I guess!

[InformationGeek]

What the everlasting fuck?!???!

A judge handed down 10 years' probation last week to a former New York school bus driver after he admitted to raping a 14-year-old girl.

Shane Piche, 26, will be registered as a Level 1 sex offender, according to the Waterford Daily Times. The judge reportedly said because he had no prior arrests and there was one victim, the sentence was appropriate.

Level 1 is considered the lowest risk level out of three, and Piche will not be included in online sex offender databases.

He pleaded guilty in February to raping a 14-year-old girl who he met through his job as a bus driver with the city's school district, the newspaper reports.

Piche also was charged with unlawfully dealing with a child and endangering the welfare of a child after he allegedly gave the girl alcohol.

The Times reports Piche is required to pay $375 in court fees and surcharges, plus a $1,000 special sex offender registration fee.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Joel Kleefisch, a former member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, and the husband of former Wisconsin GovernorRebecca Kleefisch, who had over a decade long history of writing extreme anti-abortion legislation in Wisconsin, as well as his attempt to amend the Wisconsin state constitution to include a ban on same sex marriage. Kleefisch’s ugliest legislative efforts, however, seem to be when he has supported bills to change child support payment rules on behalf of a wealthy campaign donor of his, and the specific change to the law that Kleefisch was asking for would have allowed a specific deadbeat dad and donor to get off scot free. But the most hypocritically frustrating thing in Joel Kleefisch’s voting record would have to be his fervent support for Wisconsin’s strict new Voter ID laws, because he insisted the statistically non-existent problem of in-person voter fraud is widespread, and we need to put a stop of it. There is, however, actual video of Joel Kleefisch pushing buttons on the desks of absent legislators in the Wisconsin Assembly to vote on their behalf as he sees fit, which IS actual in person Voter Fraud but Kleefisch has zero problem with that kind. He also wanted to eliminate the age restriction on hunting so that parents can take their two or three-year olds out to bag a buck (really). Oh, and did we mention that on a local conservative talk radio show, Joel Kleefisch defended his belief that Jesus co-existed at the same time as the dinosaurs? Because yes, that also really happened. Kleefisch also failed in his efforts to find a back-door around the 4th Amendment to allow Gov. Scott Walker to drug test welfare recipients, in the form of a bill he filed that would have required all high school students who participate in an extracurricular activity or park a car on a school campus to undergo random drug testing. And mercifully, after 2018, Kleefisch called it a career after seven years of stupidity in office. We’ll set aside his CSGOPOTD profile at this time and go ahead and take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 748-40, since this was established in July 2014.)


Matt Manweller
Welcome to the 748th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be taking a look at Matt Manweller, a former schoolteacher and former member of the Washington House of Representatives from 2012-2018. And sure, legislatively, he might not have been the wildest extremist we’ve seen, with the harshest things we could find in his voting record being his minority party votes in a blue state against things like minimum wage increases, a ban on bump stocks, or any bill that would try to make it easier to register to vote in the state.

No, the real reason we’re profiling Manweller is the wave of accusations of sexual assault and misconduct that plagued him during his tenure at Central Washington University and forced him to resign in disgrace in September of 2018. How bad were they? Well, one of his accusers mentioned that he had an improper sexual relationship with her when she was still his 17 year old underage student (and she had a diary from the time proving it). Adding to the scumbag factor is as a legislator, Manweller’s voting record also showed he voted against a bill to allow victims of sexual assault to receive permanent orders of protection against their attackers, instead of just temporary ones, and that he considered how he was pressured to leave office “McCarthyism”.

Matt Manweller can get launched into orbit for all we care, because just out of office doesn’t seem like a safe enough distance.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

What the everlasting fuck?!???!

It's called white privilege. Had that scumbag been black, he would've been thrown in prison for life. That's not hyperbole, people, that's truth!

====================

Trump, Family Sue To Block Banks From Releasing Private Financial Documents

House lawmakers slammed the effort, saying it was “designed to put off meaningful accountability as long as possible.” More proof Mango Mussolini has something to hide, and everyone knows it.

**********

Poll: 30% Of Conservatives, 15% Of GOP Say They Won’t Vote For Trump

Republican critics of the president say the numbers spell big trouble for his reelection bid. I'm sure that will annoy Dolt45, and then he'll bitch about that article being fake news.

**********

Fox News Legal Analyst Hits Back After Trump’s Attacks: ‘Classic Obstruction’

Andrew Napolitano says the Mueller report shows a pattern of obstruction attempts by the president. I'm surprised Trump hasn't called for Napolitano to be fired from his personal propaganda network.

**********

FBI Arrests Suspect In Plot To Bomb Planned White Nationalist Rally In California

The alleged plot comes just days after a deadly shooting at a San Diego synagogue. Look for Trump to scream bloody murder about this after he had to be forced to give the usual meaningless "thoughts and prayers" following the San Diego shooting. I mean, we're talking about his people (white surpremacists) who had been threatened.

**********

Trump Likely Approved $2 Million Deal For Otto Warmbier’s Release: Former U.S. Official

Joseph Yun said he signed the agreement in June 2017 when he was the U.S. State Department’s special representative to North Korea. Uh-huh. Not surprised at all.

[Mister Mets]

A CNN poll of potential Democratic primary voters gives Biden an even bigger bounce. He's at 39 percent, well above second-place Sanders at 15 percent. Elizabeth Warren's in a distant third at 8 percent.

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1123169529515917312

The announcement seems to have gone over well. Sanders might have lost some support with his "Let the Boston Marathon bomber vote" position, as well as his poorly received appearance at the She the people women of color forum.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

On my way to work this morning, I heard a report on my local all-news radio station that Trump is scheduled to meet today with Democratic leaders to discuss infrastructure and ways to pay for repairing the nation's roads, bridges and utility systems, something that's important to both parties. How much you wanna bet Trump screws the pooch by trying to shoehorn funding for his precious wall into the conversation?

[InformationGeek]

He did it again.

Fast-food on the menu again at the White House as the Baylor Lady Bears visit

[WestPhillyPunisher]

He did it again.

Big surprise, right? Meanwhile, I heard Virginia, the men's champ declined their invitation, citing scheduling conflicts and players preparing for NBA pre-draft camps. But, that won't stop Trump from raising a stink for being turned down.

[Xheight]

A CNN poll of potential Democratic primary voters gives Biden an even bigger bounce. He's at 39 percent, well above second-place Sanders at 15 percent. Elizabeth Warren's in a distant third at 8 percent.

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1123169529515917312

The announcement seems to have gone over well. Sanders might have lost some support with his "Let the Boston Marathon bomber vote" position, as well as his poorly received appearance at the She the people women of color forum.

The "electablity" issue is coming to haunt Bernie again on the thread title here. Is the Center still the majority of this country?

[The Overlord]

The "electablity" issue is coming to haunt Bernie again on the thread title here. Is the Center still the majority of this country?

We will see, the problem is Clinton ran as a pragmatic centrist against Trump and lost. Clinton was supposed to be the safe bet and she lost. ''Centerism'' is not always a safe bet. I think Biden's policy record is bad enough, that could be a liability for him and Bernie being ''too old'' argument falls away given how old Biden is and all those arguments about Sanders being ''insensitive'' or ''clumsy with words'', falls away when Biden is far worse on that score. If people are complaining I using ''What aboutism'' too bad, those are the 2 front runners. This why I think these attacks against Bernie were made in bad faith, it's being pushed by people who maintain the same failed status quo.

I think centerism has failed, if it had succeeded, then Clinton would have been President. It seems like people want to still pretend its 1992 or something.