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

[JCAll]

How gullible can you get?

A group raised over $20 million to ‘build the wall.’ Now its supporters want answers.

What answers? They got robbed. Everyone told them they were getting robbed, and they didn't want to hear it. They'll get robbed again when this exact same stunt gets pulled off in a few years.

[numberthirty]

Trump backers applaud Warren in heart of MAGA country

KERMIT, W. Va. — It was a startling spectacle in the heart of Trump country: At least a dozen supporters of the president — some wearing MAGA stickers — nodding their heads, at times even clapping, for liberal firebrand Elizabeth Warren.

The sighting alone of a Democratic presidential candidate in this town of fewer than 400 people — in a county where more than four in five voters cast their ballot for Trump in 2016 — was unusual. Warren’s team was apprehensive about how she’d be received.

About 150 people gathered at the Kermit Fire & Rescue Headquarters Station to hear the Massachusetts senator and former Harvard professor talk about what she wants to do to fight the opioid epidemic. Trump-supporting college students in baggy t-shirts, housewives in pearls, and the fire chief dressed in uniform joined liberal retirees wearing rainbow “Persist” shirts and teachers with six-figure student loan debt.

Honestly, I'm always glad to see this sort of getting out to the voters happening. Biggie Kudos to Warren. Not saying that no one else is doing it, but this is what I would hope to see each and every one of them doing.

[Mister Mets]

Tug-of-Love: Immigrant Mom Loses Effort to Regain Son Given to US Parents

This is sad, but at that point, the decision was in the best interests of the child.

A 5-6 year old will have bonded with the adoptive parents.

I'm curious how you came across the story as it is from 2012, as it covers the situation during Obama's first term in office, rather than as it is now.

[numberthirty]

Just to piggyback something off of what Tami posted about that Warren stop, it is honestly sort of disheartening not to see more candidates at least mention the possibility that medicinal use marijuana(more to the point, potential future possibilities) should be getting a more serious look when it comes to alternatives to opioid issues.

While I don't doubt that it is part of some of their platforms, it would be worthwhile for it to at least be a part of the discussion.

That said, sounds like medicinal use is now an option in South Carolina and North Dakota has decriminalized.

[Tendrin]

This is sad, but at that point, the decision was in the best interests of the child.

A 5-6 year old will have bonded with the adoptive parents.

I'm curious how you came across the story as it is from 2012, as it covers the situation during Obama's first term in office, rather than as it is now.

Don't worry, Mets. As plenty of children have been taken from their families and disappeared into the adoption system, I am sure we'll see plenty more cases like it.

[worstblogever]

In 2015, as well as 2016, and 2017, that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of former Minnesota State Senator Sean Nienow, a man who prior to running for office, was a key ally of legendary CSGOPOTD Michelle Bachmann who during his tenure, was sued by the Small Business Association for failing to pay off $613,000 in loans. The company in question folded in less than a year, and taxpayers would thus have to pay for its bankruptcy. Nienow has repeatedly shown himself to support bans on same sex marriage, stricter Voter ID measures that disenfranchise voters in order to combat the statistically non-existent problem of “in-person voter fraud”, and has voted against equal pay for women. Nienow’s must discouraging political alliance, however, would be how one of his own legislative assistants, Michelle Lentz, was a member of the Minnesota Child Protection League, which is classified as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Nienow was mercifully defeated in the 2016 GOP Primary for his seat in the Minnesota State Senate, so we'll move on and start profiling a different wacky Republican on this date instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 674-30, since this was established in July 2014.)


Joey Hensley

It was on this date one year ago today that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Tennessee State Senator Joey Hensley, who served ten years in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 2003-2012 before making the jump to the upper chamber to serve District 38 starting in the 2012 elections. Now, Hensley fancies himself a “Family Values” Republican, who has a history as a legislator to back that up, sponsoring harsh anti-choice legislation, the fact that he was the sponsor of a bill that would have prohibited public school teachers in sex education classes from daring to even breath a word about the existence of homosexuality in April of 2012, and that he also sponsored a bill to allow Christian counselors at public schools and universities to use their “religious freedom” to refuse to help LGBTQ students, whatsoever.

Maybe if he was really all about family values, Joey Hensley would not have ended up being married and divorced four times, and his last wife accused him during their divorce of hitting her twice with his car during a domestic dispute. She later withdrew the allegations, but not before Hensley filed a bill concerning how judges could divide marital assets during a divorce, a bill he admitted was based on his own life circumstances. Also, perhaps Joey Hensley wouldn’t have seem his name come up during the divorce proceedings of his second cousin. Why would that happen? Well, Joey’s a doctor, she’s his nurse, and he’s apparently been having an affair with one of his relatives. Who he also illegally prescribed opioids to. And the affair happened in hotels believed to have been paid for with taxpayer money.

We’ll repeat that. Joey Hensley is a cousin-f***ing hypocrite who also violates medical ethics by dating his nurse/patient/cousin, and expecting taxpayers to foot the bill for whatever place they choose for their incestuous love shack.

At this point, looking at the rest of Hensley’s voting record is just overkill as to why he deserves a profile, including how he voted for HB 368, to limit teachers’ ability to challenge students who give “opposing viewpoints” on scientific theories in public school classrooms (In other words, deny the existence of evolution, or the age of the Earth.), and co-sponsored HJR 587, a resolution against the United Nations Agenda 21 treaty, for fears from hard-right conspiracy theorists that it’s a plot to establish global domination. He also supported HB 3808, a bill that would “require the publication of abortion statistics” that also included the addresses of the people performing, and receiving the procedure. Because the radical anti-choice movement wouldn’t then harass or attack those people at their own homes, like they already do, and is so “pro-life” that he also voted for SB 2580, to allow the return of the electric chair as a means of execution in the state of Tennessee., and sponsored HB 1023, a bill inspired by the John Birch Society’s paranoia about fluoridated water, and restrict the amount of fluoridation in the drinking water in Tennessee. He also voted for HSR 467, to plead with the Attorney General of the state to file a lawsuit over Syrian refugees being allowed to resettle Tennessee. Oh, and he voted for the highly unconstitutional HB 615, a bill created by Tennessee Republicans to try and make the King James Bible the state book.

We know that we’ve had our fair share of radical lunatics that we’ve profiled in the Tennessee state legislature, but a state senator who’s banging his cousin is a new low, even for the Republican Party. We’ll note that in spite of the scandal, and in spite of the ethical violations that were dug up as a result… Joey Hensley has not resigned from office, and is not up for re-election again until 2020. He’s trying currently to rally support to overlook the whole incestuous love affair thing by submitting legislation that would place fees on money transfers in between the citizens of the United States and those of Mexico that would have that cash set aside to fund Donald Trump’s stupid f***ing border wall, and he also sponsored legislation to outlaw same sex couples being able to adopt children into loving homes.

Frankly, we’d rather Hensley just f***ed off into the backwoods like most extras from Deliverance would.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump Trade War Just Raised Taxes On Consumers By Tens Of Billions of Dollars

The president keeps falsely claiming that China is paying his higher tariffs, but economists point out that Americans, not China, pay those costs. But hey, trade wars are easy to win. Dollar Don said so!

**********

Leaked NRA Documents Reveal Gun Group Drowning In Legal Fees

Before his departure, NRA President Oliver North warned officials that $24 million and counting in legal fees could strangle the group. Reading that article warmed the very cockles of my heart.

**********

‘Heartbeat’ Laws Could Ban Most Abortions Across Deep South

Like Mississippi and Georgia, Louisiana may soon pass a law that will ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Oh, yes, let's worry more over the unborn instead of kids who are sick, poor and starving. Like the late, great George Carlin once said, "If you're pre-born, you're fine. If you're preschool, you're fucked." See below:

CzYNbTGmG7jqSdsfWRCjTYEH6a5ZRl-Ggi_3VPhS04A.jpg

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Video Shows Joe Biden Once Railed Against ‘Illegals,’ Called For 700-Mile Border Fence

In 2006, the then-senator demanded American employers be punished for hiring illegal immigrants. I wonder if he still holds onto those views 13 years later?

**********

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ‘Astonished’ By Trump Supporter Who Backs Her, Too

The progressive Democrat said that a Trump backer and his son said they were supporting her because of the Green New Deal. Well, that was certainly interesting.

[Tami]

Watch: He was shot while standing in line at Publix. But how? Here’s how Pasco deputies figured it out.

LAND O' LAKES — Vernon Messier fell to the floor, yelling as he saw blood.

A bullet had gone clean through his right leg. But as he looked around the Publix check-out lane on Sunday, there was no assailant to be seen — and no gun.

Nobody else in the store saw what happened, either.

It would take deputies a while to figure it out who did it, and how.

Sheriff’s documents obtained by the Tampa Bay Times reveal new details about the bizarre shooting that unfolded at the Publix at 2121 Collier Parkway. It was one of several recent incidents in which guns were inadvertently fired in public across the bay area, including an instance where a construction worker fatally shot a coworker in Riverview.

It's worse than the wild west down in Florida. 'oh, I got shot, it's no big deal.' That's the attitude.

[aja_christopher]

Now that many of these formerly colonized people have arrived in Europe trying to claim their share of the pie, Europeans are faced with the uncomfortable dilemma of having to choose between their high-minded liberal values and their standard of living, because ideas of equality that may have sounded good when they were the oppressed underclass don't seem too appealing when you are cast as the greedy exploiter.

Higher corporate tax rates could help alleviate a lot of these issues -- unfortunately, in America the majority of the Republican party seems to value money more than (non-white) people to the point where they will even vote against their own interests just to keep the "minorities" in line.

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"Trump's Base In Panic Over 25% Tariffs On China Goods"

"Tonight's the night. And in Trump's baseland -- the farm belt and the small to mid-sized business owner -- everything is not all right.

Suffice it to say, they are in panic mode. Tariffs of 10% on some $200 billion worth of Made in China goods will go to 25% at midnight tonight. The only way tariffs do not go up is if Liu He, China's chief trade negotiator, delivers a deal Trump cannot refuse.

Clearly, no one is betting on it. The Dow is down nearly 400 points and China's A-shares, as represented by the CSI-300 Index, is down over 3%.

"I don't think people really understand what is at stake," says Alex Camera, CEO of Audio Control, a privately held, small business manufacturing audio sound equipment near Seattle, Washington. He imports electronic components from China and makes things like power amplifiers for cars. They design it and put it together in Washington. "Trump says China is paying these tariffs, but they are not. I am. U.S. companies are paying it at the port."

Tariffs are port taxes due at the time of delivery and paid to the U.S. government. At best, companies like Audio Control can renegotiate its contract with its China supplier in order to lower -- or in some cases -- zero out the impacts of the current 10% port duty. But the hike to 25% is the real game changer. To say the business community, long seen as one of the key voter bases of the Republican Party, are terrified of an escalating trade war would not be an understatement."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapo.../#7e91870640dd

http://fortune.com/2019/05/07/who-pa...s-china-trump/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...s-on-u-s-farms

[Tami]

This 86-Year-Old Radical May Save (or Sink) the Democrats

Frances Fox Piven has become the intellectual guru of activist progressives. But not everyone is ready to storm the barricades with her.

[aja_christopher]

[Malvolio]

Trump Trade War Just Raised Taxes On Consumers By Tens Of Billions of Dollars

The president keeps falsely claiming that China is paying his higher tariffs, but economists point out that Americans, not China, pay those costs. But hey, trade wars are easy to win. Dollar Don said so!

**********

Leaked NRA Documents Reveal Gun Group Drowning In Legal Fees

Before his departure, NRA President Oliver North warned officials that $24 million and counting in legal fees could strangle the group. Reading that article warmed the very cockles of my heart.

**********

‘Heartbeat’ Laws Could Ban Most Abortions Across Deep South

Like Mississippi and Georgia, Louisiana may soon pass a law that will ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Oh, yes, let's worry more over the unborn instead of kids who are sick, poor and starving. Like the late, great George Carlin once said, "If you're pre-born, you're fine. If you're preschool, you're fucked." See below:

CzYNbTGmG7jqSdsfWRCjTYEH6a5ZRl-Ggi_3VPhS04A.jpg

**********

Video Shows Joe Biden Once Railed Against ‘Illegals,’ Called For 700-Mile Border Fence

In 2006, the then-senator demanded American employers be punished for hiring illegal immigrants. I wonder if he still holds onto those views 13 years later?

**********

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ‘Astonished’ By Trump Supporter Who Backs Her, Too

The progressive Democrat said that a Trump backer and his son said they were supporting her because of the Green New Deal. Well, that was certainly interesting.

Punishing employers who hire undocumented immigrants would actually be a good idea. If the jobs aren't there, the undocumented immigrants won't come here. It just won't happen, though, because Republicans in Congress (and a few Democrats, too) won't do anything to piss off their corporate masters.

[Malvolio]

Tariff is a tax paid by American consumers.

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**********


Not anymore, Westphilly. I don't think he still holds on to them right now. Today, Mr. Biden backs health care for illegal immigrants, says 'we have an obligation' to provide it.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bid...gal-immigrants

But that's not the point. The point is that the incentive for immigrants to come here is, wait for it... jobs! Penalize employers for hiring undocumented immigrants, and you'll take away that incentive. But as I said, too many Senators and Congressional representatives are beholden to those employers for campaign contributions, so it will never happen.

[PwrdOn]

But that's not the point. The point is that the incentive for immigrants to come here is, wait for it... jobs! Penalize employers for hiring undocumented immigrants, and you'll take away that incentive. But as I said, too many Senators and Congressional representatives are beholden to those employers for campaign contributions, so it will never happen.

That's not really a solution either though, the economy is dependent on cheap immigrant labor and you could never pay most Americans enough to do the same work. The "solution" that many countries have adopted is to have a "guest worker" scheme where migrant workers can be brought in on the cheap and treated like **** with pretty much no legal recourse and absolutely no pathway to citizenship of any kind.

It's not just the greedy corporations at fault here, it's everyone who expects to have plentiful access to affordable goods of every kind, while at the same time demanding to be paid handsomely even for doing repetitive and pointless work, and still complaining that their lives are difficult and unfulfilling. For every person who lives like this, there are a dozen workers slaving away somewhere out there for meager pay to support them. Perhaps the global economy doesn't have to work this way, but we are not doing anything to make it any better.

[Tami]

She Stopped to Help Migrants on a Texas Highway. Moments Later, She Was Arrested.

MCALLEN, Tex. — Teresa L. Todd pulled over one recent night on a dark West Texas highway to help three young Central American migrants who had flagged her down. Ms. Todd — an elected official, government lawyer and single mother in a desert border region near Big Bend National Park — said she went into “total mom mode” when she saw the three siblings, one of whom appeared to be very ill.

Struggling to communicate using her broken Spanish, Ms. Todd told the three young people to get out of the cold and into her car. She was phoning and texting friends for help when a sheriff’s deputy drove up, followed soon by the Border Patrol. “They asked me to step behind my car, and the supervisor came and started Mirandizing me,” said Ms. Todd, referring to being read her Miranda rights. “And then he says that I could be found guilty of transporting illegal aliens, and I’m, like, ‘What are you talking about?”

Ms. Todd spent 45 minutes in a holding cell that night. Federal agents obtained a search warrant to examine her phone, and she became the focus of an investigation that could lead to federal criminal charges.